Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History
By Theodore C. Sorensen
Harper, $27.95
Recommended by Steve
“Theodore Sorensen was counselor and confidant to the late John F. Kennedy, the first member of his staff and one of the last surviving members, making Counselor a must read memoir. Sorensen reveals intimate details of his eleven years with JFK and tells what it was like to give hope to a nation while contributing to JFK’s policies during the tumultuous 60’s.  
In Counselor, Sorensen remains the gentleman. Although privy to conversations of a private nature, he remains loyal to the leader whose untimely death has left an ache in this country’s heart. With so much material on JFK, we might think we have heard it all. Surprisingly, we have not. Counselor includes new information: from Sorensen’s role with Khrushchev and the Cuban Missile Crisis, to the peace corps, the moon race, and a parody of the inaugural speech. Recently I joined a writing group and I particularly enjoyed reading Sorensen’s chapter on his speech writing techniques. People in Washington are still eager to be the next Sorensen, and after reading this memoir you will truly understand why.”

The Legend of Colton H. Bryant
by Alexandra Fuller
Penguin Group, $23.95
Recommended by Kathleen
“Writing about what she knows gives Alexandra Fuller the ability to develop an unparalleled truthfulness and depth to both her scenes and subjects. The unusual format (short chapters with a hint of playwright) makes the story even more riveting. Reading this book means slipping from chapter to chapter as seamlessly as it is written. I have never been to Wyoming or visited an oil rig, but I can see them both in my mind’s eye with crystal clarity. Her subjects are people you wish you’d meet, but never seem to find, not unrealistic, just painfully tied to a harsh landscape with the hardscrabble incumbent wisdom. Purposely skipping the chapter index, I was shocked and thrilled at the end, which I intentionally delayed, to find out that this larger-than-life cowboy walked this earth. So few authors hit again with a third book, but Ms. Fuller surely did. We can only look forward to her next masterpiece.”

Careless in Red
By Elizabeth George
HarperCollins, $27.95

In her most eagerly anticipated novel yet, Elizabeth George brings back Scotland Yard's Thomas Lynley to investigate a ruthless crime. After the senseless murder of his wife, Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley retreated to Cornwall, where he has spent six solitary weeks hiking the bleak and rugged coastline. But no matter how far he walks, no matter how exhausting his days, the painful memories of Helen's death do not diminish. On the forty-third day of his walk, at the base of a cliff, Lynley discovers the body of a young man who appears to have fallen to his death. The closest town, better known for its tourists and its surfing than its intrigue, seems an unlikely place for murder. However, it soon becomes apparent that a clever killer is indeed at work, and this time Lynley is not a detective but a witness and possibly a suspect.

Unaccustomed Earth
By Jhumpa Lahiri
Knopf, $25.00

From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories, longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written, that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers.
In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father, who carefully tends the earth of her garden, where he and his grandson form a special bond. But he's harboring a secret from his daughter, a love affair he's keeping all to himself. In "A Choice of Accommodations," a husband's attempt to turn an old friend's wedding into a romantic getaway weekend with his wife takes a dark, revealing turn as the party lasts deep into the night. In "Only Goodness," a sister eager to give her younger brother the perfect childhood she never had is overwhelmed by guilt, anguish, and anger when his alcoholism threatens her family. And in "Hema and Kaushik," a trio of linked stories, a luminous, intensely compelling elegy of life, death, love, and fate, we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one winter, share a house in Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until destiny brings them together again years later in Rome.
Unaccustomed Earth is rich with Jhumpa Lahiri's signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is a masterful, dazzling work of a writer at the peak of her powers.


Wit's End
By Karen Joy Fowler
Putnam Publishing Group, $24.95

"In a change of pace from her best-selling The Jane Austen Book Club, Fowler has written a mystery that's barely a mystery but is every bit an absorbing and funny novel. Rima, a woman who has mastered the art of losing (including her mother, brother, and father) arrives in Santa Cruz, CA, to stay with her godmother, the famous and reclusive mystery writer Addison Early, whose book titles and plots provide chuckles throughout. Rima wants to learn the truth of the nature of the relationship between Addison and Rima's father, Bim, who might have been complicit in an old murder, as implied in one of Addison's novels. Yet the greater mystery turns out to be Addison, who seeks to protect her privacy and her works from her increasingly intrusive fans. One of the most refreshing things about Fowler's witty novel is its currency. At one point, Addison remarks that today's novels are unreliable guides to daily life since no one in them watches television. Indeed, Fowler's own characters write blogs, read message boards, watch YouTube, and consult (and even edit) Wikipedia. This insightful and engaging book is recommended." - Library Journal