Q1 2014 Details

Review comments and publishers' summaries are shown here.

Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, Jill Lepore
http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780307958341-2
From one of our most accomplished and widely admired historians, a revelatory portrait of Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister and a history of history itself. Like her brother, Jane Franklin was a passionate reader, a gifted writer, and an astonishingly shrewd political commentator. Unlike him, she was a mother of twelve. . . Making use of an amazing cache of little-studied material, including documents, objects, and portraits only just discovered, Jill Lepore brings Jane Franklin to life in a way that illuminates not only this one woman but an entire world—a world usually lost to history. Lepore’s life of Jane Franklin, with its strikingly original vantage on her remarkable brother, is at once a wholly different account of the founding of the United States and one of the great untold stories of American history and letters: a life unknown.

The Color of Water, James McBride
http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9781573220224-0
The New York Times bestselling story from the author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction.
Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. . . Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.

This Is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780525951278-14
Those who have already discovered Jonathan Tropper have called his novels "hilarious, but emotion-packed", "fantastically funny", "surprisingly moving", and "utterly magnificent". With his Dutton debut, Tropper has delivered a novel of true sophistication, at once light of touch and with a real sense of humor, without sacrificing a depth of character and raw emotion reminiscent of the early work of John Irving and Michael Chabon. This Is Where I Leave You opens with the death of Judd Foxman's father, an event that marks the first time in a decade that the entire Foxman family — including Judd's mother, brothers, and sister — have been together in the same house for an extended period. Conspicuously absent: Judd's wife, Jen, whose fourteen-month affair with Judd's radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public.

Making Masterpiece: 25 Years Behind the Scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS, Rebecca Eaton
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780670015351-4
The Emmy Award-winning producer of PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! reveals the secrets to Downton Abbey, Sherlock, and its other hit programs. . . She reveals what went on behind the scenes during such triumphs as Cranford and the multiple, highly-rated programs made from Jane Austen’s novels, as well as her aggressive campaign to attract younger viewers via social media and online streaming. Along the way she shares stories about actors and other luminaries such as Alistair Cooke, Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg, Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Radcliffe, whose first TV role was as the title character in David Copperfield.

The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780316055437-8
Donna Tartt delivers a beautifully rendered story about a young boy whose life takes a striking turn when an art museum explosion presents him the opportunity to "rescue" a priceless painting that will always hauntingly remind him of his mother.

The End Of Your Life Book Club, Will Schwalbe
http://www.powells.com/biblio/61-9780307594037-0
"What are you reading?" That's the question Will Schwalbe asks his mother, Mary Anne, as they sit in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2007, Mary Anne returned from a humanitarian trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan suffering from what her doctors believed was a rare type of hepatitis. Months later she was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal, often in six months or less. This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a "book club" that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on conversations that are both wide-ranging and deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading. Their list jumps from classic to popular, from poetry to mysteries, from fantastic to spiritual. The issues they discuss include questions of faith and courage as well as everyday topics such as expressing gratitude and learning to listen. Throughout, they are constantly reminded of the power of books to comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what we need to do with our lives and in the world. Reading isn't the opposite of doing; it's the opposite of dying.

The Visionist, Rachel Urquhart
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780316228114-1
Urquhart has written for Vogue and Allure, yet her debut historical novel features writing of a more restrained sort. Set in 1842 in a small enclave in Massachusetts called City of Hope, the slow-to-build narrative takes a jarring peek into the segregated Shaker way of life where the 'wicked ways of the World' are shunned. Told from three disparate but oddly similar-sounding points of view — teenage Polly, who burned down the family farm to escape her father's sexual abuse; Simon Pryor, a private investigator and 'expert in incendiaries' hired to get to the bottom of the crime by a wealthy entrepreneur interested in the land; and Sister Charity, a particularly prim and self-effacing member of the covenant who watches over Polly after she and her brother are dumped there by their fleeing mother — conventional cultlike behavior and the espousing of Shaker beliefs ('flesh bonds are forged in the fires of carnal sin') abounds. Though Polly's christening as a 'Visionist' soon brings notoriety to the community and Pryor's ardent quest to uncover the truth about who set the blaze barrels closer to resolution, the temperature of the increasingly intertwined plot fails to rise above a simmer despite some well-placed twists. Think a cadre of easily provoked characters held back by unquestioning faith — but in need of Waco's fireworks.

Flappers: Six Women Of A Dangerous Generation, Judith Mackrell
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780374156084-0
A new look at the movement that shattered the boundaries of conventional femininity
Glamorized, mythologized, and demonized, the women of the 1920s prefigured the 1960s in their determination to reinvent the way they lived. Judith Mackrells Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation explores the ethos of that restless generation, starting with its first fashionable acts of rebellion before World War I and continuing to the Wall Street crash of 1929, discovering what exemplified the range and daring of the flapper spirit.
We meet Lady Diana Cooper, whose coterie included some of the most influential intellectuals and aristocrats of the time; Nancy Cunard, the steamship heiress; Tallulah Bankhead, the politically outspoken actress; Zelda Fitzgerald, whose tumultuous relationship with F. Scott was often tabloid fodder; Josephine Baker, the African American dancer, singer, and actress who relinquished her citizenship and moved to France; and Tamara de Lempicka, the Polish-born art deco painter. These women were far from typical flappers—they made themselves prominent among the artists, icons, and heroines of their age. Talented, reckless, and willful, with personalities that transcended their class and background, they rewrote their destinies in remarkable, entertaining, and tragic ways.

Wave: A Memoir Of Life After The Tsunami, Sonali Deraniyagala
http://www.powells.com/biblio/66-9781844089284-0
[Reportedly recommended by Michael Ondaatje, also one of the Ten Best NYTimes Books.]