The Persian Pickle Club, by Sandra Dallas
From Library Journal
Hard times in Depression-era Harveyville, Kansas, are softened by the conviviality of a weekly quilting circle called the Persian Pickle Club. Queenie Bean, the "talkingest" member of the group, narrates the novel with snappy style. Over the course of a year, during which the club experiences more sorrow than sewing, Queenie and her pals depend on one another more than ever. When Queenie forms a fast friendship with the newest "Pickle," a flashy, big-city gal named Rita, the equilibrium of the group changes, for Rita is a novice newspaper reporter intent on making a name for herself. The story Rita most wants to crack involves the mysterious death of one of the club ladies' husbands. Will secrets long stitched into the collective fabric of friendship hold? This and other suspenseful questions of small-town life will entertain readers who enjoyed Fannie Flag's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Random, 1987), Olive Ann Burns's Cold Sassy Tree (LJ 10/15/84), or Dallas's first novel, Buster Midnight's Cafe
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
From Publishers Weekly
Forget your image of an economist as a crusty professor worried about fluctuating interest rates: Levitt focuses his attention on more intimate real-world issues, like whether reading to your baby will make her a better student. Recognition by fellow economists as one of the best young minds in his field led to a profile in the New York Times, written by Dubner, and that original article serves as a broad outline for an expanded look at Levitt's search for the hidden incentives behind all sorts of behavior. There isn't really a grand theory of everything here, except perhaps the suggestion that self-styled experts have a vested interest in promoting conventional wisdom even when it's wrong. Instead, Dubner and Levitt deconstruct everything from the organizational structure of drug-dealing gangs to baby-naming patterns. While some chapters might seem frivolous, others touch on more serious issues, including a detailed look at Levitt's controversial linkage between the legalization of abortion and a reduced crime rate two decades later. Underlying all these research subjects is a belief that complex phenomena can be understood if we find the right perspective. Levitt has a knack for making that principle relevant to our daily lives, which could make this book a hit.
The Mercy Street Series (Mercy Street, Acts of Mercy, Cry Mercy), by Mariah Stewart
From Publishers Weekly
This intriguing first in a new romantic suspense series from bestseller Stewart (Last Breath) introduces two cool crime solvers, PI Mallory Russo, a former Conroy, Pa., cop, and Charlie Wanamaker, a former Philly detective who's returned to Conroy to help his alcoholic mother and his disabled sister. Despite bad experiences employing PIs, billionaire Robert Magellan, who's haunted by the disappearance of his wife and young son, hires Mallory to locate two missing teens, Courtney Bauer and Ryan Corcoran. The high school students vanished after a playground shooting that left two of their friends dead. The Conroy police suspect the pair were involved, but Mary Corcoran, Ryan's grandmother, and Linda Bauer, Courtney's mom, are sure of their innocence.
The Sisterhood Series, by Fern Michaels (15 books and counting in series)
From Booklist
As Nikki and her best friend, Barbara, are walking, a car comes out of nowhere and kills Barbara and her unborn child. Unfortunately, the driver, a Chinese diplomat, isn't subject to prosecution. Barbara's mother, the fabulously wealthy Myra Rutledge, who also raised Nikki, goes into a two-year depression, only snapping out of it when she sees television coverage of the mother of another murdered child taking the law into her own hands. Barbara and Myra recruit five female vigilantes, all victims of a legal system that, in their experiences, favored the criminal. The group's mission: to right the wrongs perpetrated against them and other women. The first woman to be vindicated is the one who was raped by three white-collar bikers while her disabled husband was forced to watch. Mission Impossible meets Lorena Bobbitt in prolific Michaels' latest, the first of the Sisterhood series. Readers who grow weary of seeing the bad guys get away with their crimes will enjoy seeing what happens when well-funded, very angry women take the law into their own hands.
The Day I ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation, by Elizabeth Berg
From Publishers Weekly
In this collection of mostly uplifting stories, Berg (Dream When You're Feeling Blue) explores the everyday challenges that women face. Whether teenaged or octogenarian, Berg's heroines brave the emotional landmines underlying domestic scenes (from holiday dinner parties to visiting family), navigate the slippery slope of constant dieting and address the process of aging. The title story features an unnamed, insouciant narrator who flees from a Weight Watchers meeting and allows herself to indulge her most fattening food cravings. In Full Count, an introspective army brat begins to decipher what she looks like to others. The wistful and nostalgic Rain features a woman reminiscing about a good friend who dropped his successful corporate life to live closer to nature. Berg's men are surprisingly supportive and well behaved; it is often the women in these stories who manipulate and mistreat their partners. The protagonist of Truth or Dare, for example, struggles to accept that her ex-husband moved on after she left him. Berg has a knack for sentimental but authentic stories about women who find affirmation in true-to-life situations, and if her endings are slightly predictable, it's in a good way, like comfort food that never disappoints.
William W. Johnstone, western/military/espionage author of over 250 books, including the Ashes series.
Harriet Truman/Loose Threads Mystery Series (Quilt as You Go, Quilter's Knot, Quilt as Desired), by Arlene Sachitano
When the dust settles after the Foggy Point Civil War re-enactment, one casualty turns out to be really dead, and his identity sends shockwaves through the community. Does a long-lost quilt that suddenly re-appears hold a clue? Harriet and the Loose Threads must unravel the mystery before the killer strikes again. And who is the mysterious young man with the military bearing who's drawn the admiration of Carla, the young woman the Threads have taken under their wing? Is he what he claims to be, or something much more sinister?
HAPPY READING!!
