3 New Novels to Check Out

This week’s new books all possess many great qualities. We hope you will check one of them out from the soon. Happy reading! 

Leela’s Book By Alice Albinia, January 2012, 422 pages. 

Leela is moving from New York back to Delhi, where her return will unsettle precariously balanced lives. Twenty-five years earlier, her sister was seduced by the egotistical Vyasa. Now an eminent Sanskrit scholar, Vyasa is preparing for his son's marriage. But when Leela arrives, she disrupts the careful choreography of the wedding, with its myriad attendees and their conflicting desires.  This debut novel melds a modern Indian family saga with a timeless tale of gods and avatars set in Delhi.  Fans of Thrity Umrigar and Jhumpa Lahiri will want to check this out.

Julia’s Child By Sarah Pinneo, January 2012, 288 pages.

This new novel is a delectable comedy for every woman who's ever wondered if buying that six-dollar box of organic crackers makes her a hero or a sucker.  Julia Bailey is a mompreneur with too many principles and too little time. Her fledgling company, Julia's Child, makes organic toddler meals.  But turning a profit while saving the world proves tricky as Julia must face a ninety-two-pound TV diva, an ill-timed protest rally, and a room full of one hundred lactating breasts. Will she get her big break before her family reaches the breaking point? In the end, it is a story about motherhood's choices: organic versus local, paper versus plastic, staying at home versus risking it all.  A cookbook author's hilarious fiction debut, Julia's Child will have foodies and all-natural mamas alike laughing, cheering, and asking for more.

The Orphan Master’s Son By Adam Johnson, January 2012, 443 pages.

An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, this novel follows a young man's journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world's most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.  As the son of an influential father who runs an orphan work camp, Pak Jun Do rises to prominence using instinctive talents and eventually becomes a professional kidnapper and romantic rival to Kim Jong Il.  This is a breathless thriller and a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view.

Reviews brought to you each week by librarians Jennifer Niederhausen, Dona Stein and Heather Timko, Adult Services Division, Strongsville Branch Library.