The Bookshelf: Shaker Reads
• Fiction •
The Art Forger: A Novel by Barbara A.
Shapiro. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill,
2012. An artist with a tarnished reputation
discovers a piece of art that disappeared 25
years ago and agrees to forge it for a gallery
owner, until she realizes that the art she is
forging may itself be a forgery.
Canada by Richard Ford. Ecco Press,
2012. After his parents are imprisoned
for bank robbery, 15-year-old Dell
Parsons is taken in by Arthur Remlinger,
who hides a dark and violent nature in
this sweeping story of a boy’s life on the
Saskatchewan prairie and how it is shaped
by chance and circumstance. (The author
is both a Pulitzer Prize and Pen/Faulkner
Award winner.)
The Circle: A Novel by Dave Eggers.
Knopf, 2013. Mae Holland’s dream job
working for the most powerful Internet
company devolves into a nightmare in this
story that raises questions about memory,
history, privacy, democracy, and the limits
of human knowledge.
Hail to the Chef (A White House Chef
Mystery) by Julie A. Hyzy. Berkley
Prime Crime, 2008. White House executive
chef, Olivia (Ollie) Paras, finds things
ready to boil over when an electrician is
electrocuted and the First Lady’s nephew
dies of an apparent suicide after helping
Ollie in the kitchen.
The Intercept by Dick Wolf. William
Morrow, 2013. When the hijacking of a
commercial jet is thwarted, detective Jeremy
Fisk and his partner Krina Gersten match
wits with smart and agile opponents.
The Red Chamber by Pauline A. Chen. Vintage Books, 2013. This epic reimagining
of the Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber is set against the backdrop of
18th-century Beijing and follows the intersecting lives of three women, including the
orphaned Daiyu, who leaves her home in the provinces and becomes entangled in a web
of intrigue with ties to the Emperor’s Palace.
The Space Between Us by Thrity N. Umrigar. William Morrow, 2005. The local
author of Bombay Time vividly captures the delicate balance of class and gender in
contemporary India as seen through the eyes of two compelling women – Sera Dubash,
an upper middle-class Parsi housewife, and Bhima, an illiterate domestic hardened by a
life of loss and despair.
Touch & Go: A Novel by Lisa Gardner. Dutton, 2013. When Justin and Libby Denbe
and their 15-year-old daughter disappear, investigator Tessa Leone must race against
time to expose their dark secrets and discover
who would want to kidnap such a perfect
little family.
• Biography •
Catherine of Aragon: the Spanish
Queen of Henry VIII by Giles Tremlett.
Walker & Co., 2010. This is the story
of the youngest child of Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain, whose refusal to divorce
England’s Henry VIII places her in the center
of one history’s greatest power
struggles between the King and
the Catholic Church.
Inner City Miracle by
Greg Mathis and Blair
S. Walker. Ballantine
Books, 2012. In his
cautionary autobiography,
Judge Mathis writes of
his rise from the Detroit
projects out of gang
life and delinquency to
become the youngest
judge in Michigan
history.
Shaker readers shared their
favorite books of the past year at
the Library’s annual Book Bash.