The Flamingo Rising by Larry Baker [FIC BAK] - In this touching, hilarious novel, Abe Lee comes of age in the 1960s, living with his unforgettable family at the Flamingo Drive-In Theatre. For Abe's father, there's nothing better than presenting larger-than-life Hollywood fantasies on his vast silver screen. Nothing, that is, except gleefully sparring with Turner West--a funeral home operator who doesn't much appreciate the noise and merriment from the drive-in next door. Then Abe falls for Turner's beautiful daughter Grace, and the things will never be the same.

The Night Inspector by Frederick Busch [FIC BUS] – Busch takes us to post-Civil-War Manhattan, where a disfigured veteran named William Bartholomew rages against the Gilded Age--even as he demands remuneration for his own losses. Bartholomew returns a hardened man, bent on reversing his fortunes. Much of the lower half of his face was torn apart when he was felled by enemy fire, and he is forced to wear a mask in his postwar life as a New York financial speculator. Despite the solitude of his past life, Bartholomew, once a deadly sniper, now lives among all manner of slum dwellers, thieves, and murderers. As he prowls the city, he befriends a deputy inspector of customs named Herman Melville--who, largely forgotten as a writer, is condemned to live in the wake of his vanished literary success and in the turmoil of his fractured family.

Where Trouble Sleeps by Clyde Edgerton [FIC EDG] - Edgerton skewers the hypocritical and sanctimonious with hilarious deftness, but beneath the comic flourishes lies a tender, bittersweet view of the world. Evil comes to sleepy Listre, North Carolina, circa 1950, in the form of a stranger with a pencil-thin mustache and a trunkful of dirty movies. Listre is the kind of place where it seems like nothing ever changes--until the fateful day when everything changes at once.

The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman [FIC HOL] - Holman's atmospheric, miasmic tale set in cholera-stricken Sunderland, England, circa 1831, is based on fact. By day 15-year-old Gustine is a potter's assistant, but, to earn enough to live, by night she walks the streets wearing an expensive, elegant blue gown supplied by her pimp/landlord as a ploy to attract higher-class tricks. Seeking medical help for her ailing child, Gustine strikes up an alliance with surgeon and anatomist Dr. Henry Chivers. The doctor needs corpses for dissection and, since Gustine stumbles upon plenty of dead bodies in her night work, she becomes a resource for the ambitious, depraved doctor.

A Conspiracy of Paper by David Liss [MYS LIS] – Benjamin Weaver, a Jew and an ex-boxer, is an outsider in eighteenth-century London, tracking down debtors and felons for aristocratic clients. The son of a wealthy stock trader, he lives estranged from his family--until he is asked to investigate his father's sudden death. Thus Weaver descends into the deceptive world of the English stock jobbers, gliding between coffee houses and gaming houses, drawing rooms and bordellos. The more Weaver uncovers, the darker the truth becomes, until he realizes that he is following too closely in his father's footsteps--and they just might lead him to his own grave.

Old Men at Midnight by Chaim Potok [FIC POT] – Ilana Davita Dinn is the listener to whom three men relate their pasts. As each story is witnessed, three men relate their pasts. As each story is witnessed, three very different lives will irrevocably change through the concerns of this one determined woman. This poignant trilogy of related novellas encompasses some of the most profound themes of the twentieth century. Potok is an amazing storyteller.

The Pearl Diver by Jeff Talarigo [FIC TAL] – This debut novel follows the harsh fate of a 19-year-old Japanese pearl diver who is diagnosed with leprosy in 1948. There are trial medications for her condition, but a weight of prejudice against her. Her name is erased from the family register, and she is rowed to a lifelong exile at the island leprosarium on Nagashima, where she is told to change her name and forget her past. Nagashima is its own kind of civilization, where the renamed "Miss Fuji" must care for the sicker patients. This is a lyrical, moving, elegantly told story.

Shadows on the Ivy by Lea Wait [MYS WAI] - Professor, antique print dealer, and part-time sleuth Maggie Summer gets embroiled in an on-campus murder. Somerset County College, thanks to wealthy benefactors Dorothy and Oliver Whitcomb, is experimenting with a new dormitory designed to house single parents and their children. During a party at the Whitcombs' house, one of the students is poisoned, and as student adviser for the dorm residents, Maggie takes great interest in the case. Wait's knowledge of antique prints and American culture will entertain and educate readers.