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Robert J. Wiersema has been a bookseller for more than fifteen years. A journalist and reviewer who contributes regularly to many major Canadian publications, he lives in Victoria, British Columbia, with his family.

Before I Wake
July, 2008
0-312-38105-0

 




LOUISE PENNY is an award-winning journalist who worked for many years for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She lives in a small village south of Montréal where she writes, skis, and volunteers. Her bestselling first mystery, Still Life, was the winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards; and her second, A Fatal Grace, won the 2007 Agatha Award for Best Novel. Visit her website at www.louisepenny.com.
The Cruelest Month
March, 2008
0-312-35257-3
A Fatal Grace
February, 2008
0-312-94713-5
Still Life
May, 2007
0-312-94855-7

 


Alan Brennert is a novelist (Time and Chance) as well as an Emmy Award-winning screenwriter (L.A. Law). He lives in Southern California, but his heart is in Hawai'i. Visit Alan on the Web at www.alanbrennert.com or email alan@alanbrennert.com for a chance to have him call in to your reading group!
Moloka'i
October, 2004
0-312-30435-8

 


Michelle Yu, a sports reporter, and lawyer Blossom Kan are cousins who both live in New York City. Please visit their Web site at www.chinadollsnovel.com.

China Dolls
February, 2008
0-312-37801-7

 


O. Z. Livaneli, one of Turkey’s most prominent authors, is also an accomplished composer, and previously served as an elected member of the Turkish Parliament. For more information about his background and books, visit his website at www.livaneli.net.
Bliss
September, 2007
0-312-36054-1

 


This author is available for reading group discussion call-ins! E-mail Janice at mail@janicegraham.com to request an appointment.
 
Janice Graham began her career as a screenwriter in Los Angeles. Her first novel, Firebird, became a New York Times bestseller and was translated into eighteen languages. Visit her Web site at www.janicegraham.com.
The Tailor's Daughter
September, 2007
0-312-37438-0

 







Gail Tsukiyama is the bestselling author of five previous novels, including Women of the Silk and The Samurai’s Garden, as well as a recipient of the Academy of American Poets Award and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. She divides her time between El Cerrito and Napa Valley, California.
The Street of a Thousand Blossoms
September, 2007
0-312-27482-3
Dreaming Water
April, 2003
0-312-31608-9
The Language of Threads
September, 2000
0-312-26756-8
Night of Many Dreams
January, 1999
0-312-19940-6
The Samurai's Garden
May, 1996
0-312-14407-5
Women of the Silk
October, 1993
0-312-09943-6

 




Tom Perrotta is the author of five previous works of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestsellers Joe College and Little Children.  He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.
The Abstinence Teacher
October, 2007
0-312-35833-4
Little Children
September, 2006
0-312-36282-X
Little Children
January, 2005
0-312-31573-2

 


Debra Galant
Set in the fictional subdivision of Galapagoes Estates,” Rattled is a very funny look at what happens when soccer moms, animal rights activists, dishonest real estate developers and, of course, rattlesnakes get together and fight for ascendancy in the rapidly developing New Jersey exurbs. Heather Peters is anxious to move to the newly minted development.

All she wants there is a nice house. Well, a nice house and a nice piece of land.  And of course a basement gym, a master bath with radiant heat, Jacuzzi and his-and-her toilets. She could make do without a media room if she had to. After all, the pioneers hadn’t had plasma TV, and they’d survived. Heather is not your average suburban housewife—or maybe she is. Her fortuitous meeting with a endangered  species of rattlesnake sets this first novel in motion. You may find yourself feeling sorry for the snake.
Rattled
April, 2007
0-312-36658-2

 



JEANNE KALOGRIDIS lives with her partner in California, where they share a house with two dogs. She is the author of The Borgia Bride, and numerous other dark fantasy and historical novels.
I, Mona Lisa
October, 2006
0-312-34139-3
The Borgia Bride
May, 2005
0-312-34138-5

 



Donna VanLiere

Each Christmas we are given a promise from heaven. And each year on earth we make promises to each other. This is a story about how a promise from one person to another shows us the true meaning of faith, remembrance, and love.

Seven years ago Gloria endured a family tragedy that almost shook her faith entirely. Each Christmas she places a card in an envelope on her tree, restating a promise she made to her husband before he died. Now, having moved from her small town and all the painful memories it held, she is building a life by caring for people in need. Whether it’s a young mother who can’t pay her electric bill or a family who needs some extra food, Gloria always finds a way.

Miriam is a thorn in Gloria’s side. Miriam is a constantly critical, disapproving neighbor who looks with suspicion at all the good things Gloria does. When a twist of fate makes them roommates instead of neighbors, it’s the ultimate test of patience and faith.

Chaz has a good job as head of security at Wilson’s Department Store, but each night he returns home to an empty apartment. He longs for a wife and family of his own but realizes that the life choices he’s made have alienated him. He befriends a young boy whose mother has fallen on hard times, giving him a chance to have a life he thought impossible.

In The Christmas Promise, the lives of these characters collide and we learn that even as we move ahead, the past is never far behind. And when we are forgiven much, we love much. In this warmly humorous and deeply poignant story, we are reminded that the Christmas Promise is the promise of second chances.

 

The Christmas Promise
October, 2007
0-312-36776-7
The Angels of Morgan Hill
October, 2006
0-312-33452-4

 



Julia Spencer-Fleming is the winner of the Malice Domestic, Dilys, Barry, Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards. She was born at Plattsburgh Air Force Base and spent most of her childhood on the move as an army brat. She studied acting and history at Ithaca College and received her J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law. She lives in a 185-year-old farmhouse outside of Portland, Maine, with three children, two dogs, and one husband.
All Mortal Flesh
October, 2006
0-312-31264-4
In the Bleak Midwinter
March, 2003
0-312-98676-9

 



Nancy E. Turner was born in Dallas, Texas, and currently lives with her husband, John, in Tucson, Arizona. She started college when her children were grown and completed a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the University of Arizona. The Star Garden is her third novel in the Sarah Agnes Prine series, which is based on family stories about Nancy’s own great-grandmother; previous titles include Sarah’s Quilt and the bestselling These Is My Words.
The Star Garden
September, 2007
0-312-36316-8
Sarah's Quilt
August, 2006
0-312-33263-7

 

David Chancellor

Julian Fellowes is a writer, actor, and film director who was educated at Ampleforth College, Cambridge University, and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. As an actor, his roles include Lord Kilwillie in the BBC Television series Monarch of Glen and the 2nd Duke of Richmond in Aristocrats, as well as appearances in the films Shadowlands, Damage, and Tomorrow Never Dies.

His debut as a screenwriter was Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman in 2001, which won awards for the best original screenplay from the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics, the Writers Guild of America, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Since then he has written the screenplay for Vanity Fair, starring Reese Witherspoon, and made his debut as a director with Separate Lives. He has also written the book for a Cameron Mackintosh stage musical of Mary Poppins. He and his wife, Emma, have a son, Peregrine; a dachshund, Humbug; and a border collie, Meg.
Snobs
January, 2006
0-312-33693-4

 

Don Vantrease


BRENDA RICKMAN VANTREASE is a former teacher and librarian who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Her debut novel, The Illuminator, was translated into 15 languages and chosen as a BookSense Reading Group Pick. 
The Mercy Seller
April, 2008
0-312-37785-1
The Illuminator
December, 2005
0-312-33192-4

 

Christopher Cox

Gregory David Roberts was born in Melbourne, Australia. Sentenced to nineteen years in prison for a series of armed robberies, he escaped and spent ten of his fugitive years in Bombay---where he established a free medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombay mafia. Recaptured, he served out his sentence, and established a successful multimedia company upon his release. Roberts is a now full-time writer and lives in Bombay.

Shantaram
October, 2005
0-312-33053-7

 




Carolly Erickson is the bestselling author of many distinguished works of nonfiction and a series of historical entertainments, blending fact and invention. She lives in Hawaii.
The Secret Life of Josephine
September, 2007
0-312-36735-X
The Last Wife of Henry VIII
October, 2006
0-312-35218-2
The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
August, 2006
0-312-36150-5

 

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