did you love "Gone GIrl"?

Try some of these if you're looking for more stories like Gone Girl...

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP by S.J. Watson

Without her husband's knowledge, Christine, whose memory is damaged by a long-ago accident, is treated by a neurologist who helps her to remember her former self through journal entries until inconsistencies begin to emerge, raising disturbing questions.

THE BREAKER by Minette Walters

A three-year-old girl is found wandering the streets and hours later, her mother's body is washed up on the beach. The prime suspects are her husband and a young actor.

DELORES CLAIBORNE by Stephen King

Forced by overwhelming evidence to confess her life of crime, Dolores Claiborne, a foul-tempered New Englander, describes how her disintegrating marriage years before caused her heart to turn murderous.

DIE FOR YOU by Lisa Unger

When successful novelist Isabel Raines learns that everyone that her husband worked with is dead--and that her missing husband has been legally dead for some time--she will not rest until she finds the truth about him. Who he was, where he's gone, and how he was able to deceive her so completely.

HIDING IN THE SHADOWS by Kay Hooper

Awaking after a lengthy coma, accident victim Faith Parker has no memory of her near-fatal crash, of her previous life, or of her friend, journalist Dinah Leighton, who mysteriously vanished after visiting her in the hospital, but as she recovers, she begins to experience intimate dreams of a man she does not recognize and horrifying visions of deadly violence. Original.

KEEPER OF THE KEYS by Perri O'Shaughnessy

The disappearance of his wife, Leigh, sends obsessive and brilliant architect Ray Jackson on a quest to discover the truth about the incident, while Leigh's best friend launches an investigation into Ray that hints at dark secrets from his past.

PLACES IN THE DARK by Thomas H Cook

Cal Chase watches his younger brother William follow his wandering soul, never expecting him to find true love, but when a stunning woman walks into William's life, Cal begins to worry about his safety as well as his heart.

 

SWIMSUIT by James Patterson      

Investigating the disappearance of a supermodel during a Hawaii photo shoot, reporter Ben Hawkins hopes to help the victim and gather material for his next best-seller but receives a shocking visit that compels him to make a dangerous deal.

best debut books of 2012

 Alif the Unseen. By G. Willow Wilson

Graphic-novelist and memoirist Wilson’s first prose novel combines urban fantasy with the Arab Spring while unleashing jinn into the digital age to tell the story of Alif, a young Middle Eastern hacker-for-hire.

The Dog Stars. By Peter Heller

Heller’s debut novel is a harrowing yet charming postapocalyptic tale narrated by tough yet sensitive Hig, a fly fisherman, hunter, pilot, and poet who is holed up in an otherwise abandoned Colorado airport with gruff old Bangley.

Forgotten Country. By Catherine Chung

Chung’s superb debut examines the complex relationship between Korean immigrant and grad student Janie and her younger sister, Hannah, who abruptly disappears, raising haunting memories of their grandmother’s story about a family curse.

The Infinite Tides. By Christian Kiefer

Astronaut Keith Corcoran plunges into a sea of confusion back on Earth after shocking losses, slowly finding his way forward in first-time novelist Kiefer’s cosmic, darkly comic tale.

 The Light between Oceans. By M. L. Stedman

In Stedman’s stunning debut, a WWI veteran and his wife serving as lighthouse keepers on a remote island off the Australian coast discover a dinghy carrying a dead man and a baby.

Mountains of the Moon. By I. J. Kay

In Kay’s searing and soulful affirmation of the human spirit, Louise Adler survives a life of horrific abuse and deprivation, emerging, finally, from prison willing and able to change her life during a trip to Africa.

Tell the Wolves I’m Home. By Carol Rifka Brunt

Brunt explores the unlikely friendship between shy, 14-year-old June Elbus—who is reeling from the death of her beloved Uncle Finn, who succumbed to AIDS—and Finn’s lover, Toby. A bittersweet debut of heartbreak and hope.

That’s Not a Feeling. By Dan Josefson

Josefson’s first novel is set in the cultish Roaring Orchards School for Troubled Teens, in upstate New York, where Benjamin and Tidbit become friends amid strange circumstances that make for a tale of dark humor and deep feeling.

 The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. By Rachel Joyce

In Joyce’s poignant and wise examination of love and devotion, retiree Harold Fry abruptly decides to walk 600 miles across England to save a dying woman he’s been out of touch with for 20 years.

When Captain Flint Was Still a Good Man. By Nick Dybek

Young Cal, the Treasure Island–besotted son of a fishing-boat captain, faces life-or-death moral dilemmas in Dybek’s imaginative and suspenseful tale of fathers and sons.

(This list was compiled by BOOKLIST)

National Book Awards * 2012

1950 National Book Award Winners:

William Carlos William (left),

 Nelson Algren (second from right), 

and Ralph L. Rusk (far right),

 with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt 

at the first National Book Awards Ceremony.

The mission of the National Book Foundation and the National Book Awards is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.  For more about the history of this award, visit the National Book Award.

And this year's winners are:

• THE ROUND HOUSE by Louise Erdrich (Fiction)... When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, fourteen-year old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family

• BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS by Katherine Boo (Non-Fiction)... The dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the twenty-first century's great, unequal cities. In this fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human. Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees fortune in the recyclable garbage of richer people. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a rural childhood, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to good times. But then, as the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths,the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. 

• GOBLIN SECRETS by William Alexander (Young People's Literature)... Hoping to find his lost brother, Rownie escapes the home of the witch Graba and joins a troupe of goblins who perform in Zombay, a city where humans are forbidden to wear masks and act in plays.

• BEWILDERMENT: NEW POEMS AND TRANSLATIONS by David Ferry (Poetry)

Women Writers of the West

The award is names in honor of Pulitzer Prize winner Willa Cather, one of the country's foremost novelists.  The WILLA Literary Award is awarded annually for outstanding literature featuring women's stories set in the West.

Winners for 2012:

CONTEMPORARY FICTION

WINNER: Raising Wrecker by Summer Wood -- Wrecker is born in 1965 in flower-powered San Francisco. By his third birthday, his mother has landed in prison and he's been taken by the state. So when an uncle claims the boy and brings him to a place called Bow Farm, Wrecker is scared and angry and quick to cause chaos. Here among the California redwoods, a clan of eccentrics will come together to raise one remarkable child, and feel themselves transformed. Charting two decades of an unconventional family.

FINALIST: Fracture by Susan Cummins Miller

FINALIST: Séance in Sepia by Michelle Black

CREATIVE NONFICTION

WINNER: Rightful Place by Amy Hale Auker  -- Thirty essays on land and life in the American West; poetic prose describing the author's experiences as a wife, mother, cook, ranch hand, and writer living the cowboy life

FINALIST: Light on the Devils: Coming of Age on the Klamath by Louise Wagenknecht

FINALIST: Bull Canyon: A Boat Builder, A Writer, and Other Wildlife by Lin Pardey

HISTORICAL FICTION

WINNER: The Bride's House by Sandra Dallas -- In 1880's Georgetown, Colorado, seventeen-year-old Nealie Bent deals with lies, secrets, and heartache before choosing the man who will give her the Bride's House. Years later, Nealie's daughter, Pearl, grows up in the Bride's House. When the enterprising young Frank Curry comes along and asks for Pearl's hand in marriage, Pearl's father sabotages the union. But Pearl has inherited her mother's tenacity of heart, and her father underestimates the lengths to whichthe women in the Bride's House will go for love.

FINALIST: Mercury's Rise by Ann Parker

FINALIST: A Race to Splendor by Ciji Ware

 

POETRY

WINNER: Married Into It by Patricia Frolander -- This poetry book provides a revealing glimpse into the life of a female rancher, in Wyoming. It shows the hardships and joys involved into the demanding occupation. The book provides poetic views on family, community and the land itself.

FINALIST: The Singing Bowl by Joan Logghe

FINALIST: Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet by Linda M. Hasselstrom and Twyla M. Hansen

ORIGINAL SOFTCOVER FICTION (TRADE OR MASS MARKET)

WINNER: The American Cafe by Sara Sue Hoklotubbe -- Thirty-six-year-old Sadie Walela's hopes of making a fresh start in her native Cherokee county are not going well when on the opening day of her restaurant, American Cafâe, she is threatened by an old woman with a sawed-off shotgun and learns that the restaurant's previous owner has been shot to death.

FINALIST: Captive Trail by Susan Page Davis

FINALIST: Unbridled by Tammy Hinton

CHILDREN’S/YOUNG ADULT FICTION & NONFICTION

WINNER: The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg -- Based on the true story of the author's great-aunt and great-grandmother, this is a fast-paced historical adventure set during the time of the suffragist movement, the 1896 presidential campaign, and the changing perception of "a woman's place" in society.

FINALIST: Forgiven by Janet Fox
FINALIST: A Book for Black-Eyed Susan by Judy Young

Man Booker Prize 2012

Hilary Mantel wins Man Booker Prize for 

"Bring Up the Bodies"

from NoveList: 

The sequel to Hilary Mantel's 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England.

                             

When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice. At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason.

Booker prize-winning novelist Hilary Mantel crafts monumental accounts of pivotal historical times; whether it's Revolutionary France or Henry VIII's court, Mantel delves into her protagonists' lives to show how their personalities were shaped, and how these personalities shaped their world. She's also just as comfortable in 1960s Botswana or a provincial English village full of nobodies-characterization is all, a characterization conveyed through sometimes complex but always witty prose; the end result is a world at once dark and amusing, with a variety of themes that keep readers riveted with each fresh new novel. Start with: The Giant, O'Brien.

Hilary Mantel read alikes include:

• Aravind Adiga 
• Philippa Gregory 
• Andrew Miller
• Steven Millhauser
• Orhan Pamuk
• Gore Vidal
• Robert Pen Warren

 
This year's short-listed novels include:

• The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
• Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
• Umbrella by Alison Moore and Will Self
• Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil

 

Pick up a Man Booker book today!

Do you read Banned Books?

You might not know it, but you might be reading a Banned Book... 

 

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) receives reports from libraries, schools, and the media on attempts to ban books in communities across the country. ALA compiles lists of challenged books in order to inform the public about censorship efforts that affect libraries and schools. The ALA condemns censorship and works to ensure free access to information. For more information on ALA's efforts to raise awareness of censorship and promote the freedom to read, please explore Banned Books Week.

According to the ALA, these are the top 100 Banned/Challenged books from 2000-2009 in the country: 

1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2. Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8. His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9. ttyl; ttfn; l8r g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
12. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16. Forever, by Judy Blume
17. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20. King and King, by Linda de Haan
21. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
23. The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24. In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
25. Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan
26. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
27. My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier
28. Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
29. The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
30. We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier
31. What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
32. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
33. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
34. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
35. Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison
36. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
37. It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris
38. Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles
39. Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane
40. Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank
41. Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
42. The Fighting Ground, by Avi
43. Blubber, by Judy Blume
44. Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher
45. Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly
46. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
47. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby: The First Graphic Novel by George Beard and Harold Hutchins, the creators of Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey
48. Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez
49. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
51. Daughters of Eve, by Lois Duncan
52. The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson
53. You Hear Me?, by Betsy Franco
54. The Facts Speak for Themselves, by Brock Cole
55. Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green
56. When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester
57. Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
58. Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
59. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
60. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
61. Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle
62. The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard
63. The Terrorist, by Caroline B. Cooney
64. Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park
65. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
66. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor
67. A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
68. Always Running, by Luis Rodriguez
69. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
70. Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen
71. Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
72. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
73. What’s Happening to My Body Book, by Lynda Madaras
74. The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
75. Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry
76. A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
77. Crazy: A Novel, by Benjamin Lebert
78. The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein
79. The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss
80. A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck
81. Black Boy, by Richard Wright
82. Deal With It!, by Esther Drill
83. Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds
84. So Far From the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Watkins
85. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher
86. Cut, by Patricia McCormick
87. Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
88. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
89. Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
90. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
91. Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George
92. The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Louis Sachar
93. Bumps in the Night, by Harry Allard
94. Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine
95. Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix
96. Grendel, by John Gardner
97. The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
98. I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte
99. Are You There, God?  It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
100. America: A Novel, by E.R. Frank