Into the Beautiful North
Luis Urrea

When 19 year-old Nayeli realizes that most of the men in her Mexican village, including her father, have gone to the US for work, she decides to go north and find 7 men to protect her home town from the villains attempting to control it. Urrea's prose is luminous, filled with memorable characters, and he includes social commentary on immigrant life along the Mexican/US border. An enjoyable, humorous story.

Below Zero
C.J. Box

This recent addition to the Joe Pickett mystery series covers the issues of global warming...Game Warden Joe Pickett is forced to relive his foster daughter April's death (six years ago) when he learns that his daughter Sheridan is currently receiving text messages from someone claiming to be April. Added to his nightmarish horror is the suspicion that the texts are being sent by someone associated with environmental terrorists.

Homer's Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I learned About Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat
Gwen Cooper (636.8 COO)

A tender memoir about a young woman who adopts a blind cat at a time in her life when her lover, job and housing situation are challenging to say the least. Though reluctant to add a third cat to the two previously adopted ones, Cooper gives in when kitty # 3 purrs as soon as she is picked up. Throughout the next 12 years, Cooper finds herself growing into a mature, compassionate human being as she shares some difficult life experiences with an intrepid, wonderful cat. Warm, hopeful and entertaining.

What Is the What: The Autobiograhy of Valentino Achak Deng
Dave Eggers

Though a novel, Eggers's book is a true account of the adventures of Valentino Achak Deng, one of 3,800 Lost Boys from Sudan (Lost Boys because they were unaccompanied minors) who survived years in refugee camps of Kenya and Ethiopia. We learn of the unimaginable sufferings of these children as Achak narrates his frightening, sometimes wonderful experiences of escape, rescue and hardship ...even after settling in Atlanta. What Is the What carries the emotional impact of an epic with touches of humor, poignancy and wisdom. Dion Graham's narration pulls the listener into this harrowing reality, yet the warmth of Valentino's personality plus Eggers's gift as a writer makes one reluctant to leave this world when the book ends. An unforgettable witness to the beauty and power of one individual...not to be missed!

mc