Books on Display at HPL

Humor month

Revenge of the Spellmans By Lutz, Lisa 2009-03 - Simon & Schuster 9781416593386 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title The author of the "New York Times" bestseller "The Spellman Files" and "Curse of the Spellmans" returns with the third installment in the series that features the zany, dysfunctional Spellman family. …More

Purses and Poison By Howell, Dorothy 2009-07 - Kensington Publishing Corporation 9780758223760 Check Our Catalog Haley Randolph, the twenty-something fashion sleuth who can spot a fake Louis Vuitton at 50 paces, is back for another murderous romp in this delightful mystery from the author of "Handbags and Homicide." …More

Royal Flush By Bowen, Rhys 2009-07 - Berkley Publishing Group 9780425227886 Check Our Catalog The latest in the Royal Spyness mystery series stars Lady Georgiana, who is 34th in line for the throne and the mystery world's favorite penniless heiress. …More

The Nanny Diaries By McLaughlin, Emma Author Kraus, Nicola Joint Author Kraus, Nicola 2002-03 - St. Martin's Press 0312278586 Check Our Catalog Based on real-life experiences, this novel is the inside story on the lives of the rich and privileged from the women who know all their secrets--the nannies. Excerpt to "Talk" magazine. …More

Never the Bride By Gutteridge, Rene Author McKay, Cheryl 2009-06 - Waterbrook Press 9780307444981 Check Our Catalog When God asks Jessie to let Him author her love story, can she turn over her pen? "Never the Bride" is a romantic comedy with a spiritual twist. …More

Metro Girl By Evanovich, Janet 2004-11 - HarperCollins 0060584009 Check Our Catalog Evanovich's spectacular new novel about a woman in search of her missing brother comes complete with high stakes, hot nights, murder, and graft--not to mention car chases, car races, car explosions, and much more. …More

The Last Noel By Malone, Michael 2002-01 - Sourcebooks Landmark 1402200129 Check Our Catalog The Last Noel is a love story of a long and deepening friendship between two very different people: Noni, a white woman, and Kaye, an African-American man, who were both born on Christmas Day of the same year, in a small Southern town. The story begins in 1963 when Kaye first meets Noni on the eve of their eighth birthday. In the middle of that night on Christmas Eve, he climbs through her bedroom window to invite her to come sledding with him in a rare southern snowfall. As they grow older, Noni and Kaye find that their lives continue to come together dramatically on that holiday, through four decades of great change in the world around them. Through these encounters, their friendship deepens, and their profound affection for each other shows a romantic tension that comes, for them, dangerously close to the surface. Set during the tumultuous decades between 1963 and 2002, The Last Noel touches on the great turning points in our shared American lives as they also profoundly affect Noni and Kaye. In the romantic tradition of the love affairs of Pip and Estella in Great Expectations and Heathcliff and Cathy in Wuthering Heights, Kaye and Noni share a lifelong relationship that shifts and evolves under the cultural and familial pressures they must face. On 12 different days of Christmas over the course of their lives, they come together until shortly before Noni's death, when Kaye fulfills her dying wish and takes her from her hospital bed home to sled again on Heaven's Hill. …More

Nature Girl By Hiaasen, Carl 2006-11 - Alfred A. Knopf 9780307262998 Check Our Catalog In his latest "New York Times" bestseller, Hiaasen introduces impassioned, possibly bipolar, self-proclaimed "queen of lost causes" Honey Santana, who schemes to help rid the world of irresponsibility, indifference, and dinnertime sales calls. …More

Straight Man By Russo, Richard 1997-06 - Random House 0679432469 Check Our Catalog The author of "The Risk Pool" and "Nobody's Fool" delivers a brilliant new novel about a professor whose sense of humor is tested by the cosmic joke. Hank Devereaux, Jr., failed novelist, creative writing teacher, and estranged son of one of academe's stars, is a hero whose cynicism must be mitigated by his love for family, friends and, ultimately, knowledge itself …More

Jitterbug Perfume By Robbins, Tom 1990-04 - Bantam Books 9780553348989 Check Our Catalog "Jitterbug Perfume is an epic. which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn't conclude until nine o'clock tonight [Paris time]. It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle is actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon becaused it is leaking and there is only a drop of two left. …More

Villa Incognito By Robbins, Tom 2004-04 - Bantam 0553382195 Check Our Catalog Imagine that there are American MIAs who chose to remain missing after the Vietnam War. Imagine that there is a family in which four generations of strong, alluring women have shared a mysterious connection to an outlandish figure from Japanese folklore. Imagine just those things (don't even try to imagine the love story) and you'll have a foretaste of Tom Robbins's eighth and perhaps most beautifully crafted novel--a work as timeless as myth yet as topical as the latest international threat. On one level, this is a book about identity, masquerade and disguise--about "the false mustache of the world"--but neither the mists of Laos nor the smog of Bangkok, neither the overcast of Seattle nor the fog of San Francisco, neither the murk of the intelligence community nor the mummery of the circus can obscure the linguistic phosphor that illuminates the pages of Villa Incognito. A female fan once wrote to Tom Robbins: "Your books make me think, they make me laugh, they make me horny and they make me aware of the wonder of everything in life." Villa Incognito will surely arouse a similar response in many readers, for in its lusty, amusing way it both celebrates existence and challenges our ideas about it. To say much more about a novel as fresh and surprising as Villa Incognito would run the risk of diluting the sheer fun of reading it. As his dedicated readers worldwide know full well, it's best to climb aboard the Tom Robbins tilt-a-whirl, kiss preconceptions and sacred cows goodbye and simply enjoy the ride. "From the Hardcover edition. …More

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh By Chabon, Michael 1989-04 - Harper Perennial 0060972122 Check Our Catalog Now reissued, Michael Chabon's "New York Times" bestselling first novel is a funny, tender coming-of-age novel that introduces readers to Art Bechstein, a Holden Caulfield for the post-Boomer/pre-Gen X-er generation. Chabon's first novel was universally lauded as the arrival of a rare and remarkable new literary talent who has proved to be one of our most profound and original writers. …More

Around the World with Auntie Mame By Dennis, Patrick 2003-09 - Broadway Books 9780767915854 Check Our Catalog Encore, Encore! The brilliant sequel to the smash bestseller "Auntie Mame is back and the reviews are in . . . …More