Deschutes Public Library

The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a- novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist. Told in a style that magnificently captures the colloquialisms and clichés of the 1930s and 1940s, The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience.

Addie Frenchs business card reads: The Chili Queen. Nalgitas, New Mexico. Men taken in and done for. Four boarders, first rate. Life has toughened Addie, but when she meets Emma Roby, her protective instincts emerge. Emma has been sent to Nalgitas to marry a man she has never met. And from the rude bearing of the brother sending her off, Addie knows Emma hasnt a friend in the world. Once Emma enters Addies life, secrets unfold, schemes are unhatched, and justice is sought, and they both question everything they thought they knew.

As Fred the Mermaid tries to fit in with her own kind, she finds herself hooked on both Artur, the High Prince of the undersea realm, and Thomas, a hunky marine biologist. She's also caught between two factions of merfolk: those happy with swimming under the radar-and those who want to bring their existence to the surface.

Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother's womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef. She shares special points of her favorite preparations with listeners throughout the story.

"If you build it, he will come." The mysterious words of an Iowa baseball announcer lead Ray Kinsella to carve a baseball diamond in his cornfield in honor of his hero, the baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson. A story not so much about baseball as it is about dreams, magic, life, and what is quintessentially American.

A young girl's astonishing, poignant first look into the turbulent heart of things "I had in my care that summer four dogs, three cats, the Moran kids, Daisy, my eight-year-old cousin, and Flora, the toddler child of a local artist. There was also, for a while, a litter of wild rabbits, three of them, that had been left under our back steps.... "

The Time Traveler's Wife is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian who is diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder. The book depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other, as the story unfolds from both points of view.

E. Annie Proulx focuses on a Newfoundland fishing town in a tale about a third-rate newspaperman and the women in his life-- his elderly aunt and two young daughters-- who decide to resettle in their ancestral seaside home. The transformation each of the character undergoes following move is profound.

Nell Channing arrives on Three Sisters Island hoping she has finally escaped her abusive husband, but her new life is threatened by a curse that was placed on the island more than two hundred years earlier.

When Mina's recent inheritence turns out to be a box with a mischevious but handsome puca inside, her wish for a normal, stable life may never be granted.

"Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered that she had turned into the wrong person." So Anne Tyler opens this irresistible new novel. The woman is Rebecca Davitch, a fifty-three-year-old grandmother. Is she an impostor in her own life? she asks herself. Is it indeed her own life? Or is it someone else’s?