McNaughton Collection and Popular Reading Guide   Tags: best sellers, book reviews, fiction, fun reading, mcnaughton, new york state, reading clubs  

What place does a golem or a jinni have in 1899 New York? A golem, made of clay, finds herself lost when her commissioner vanishes. Meanwhile, a jinni named Ahmed escapes from a flask. Follow their stories as they form reluctant relationships with those around them in this tale that combines Jewish and Arab mythologies.

A riddle yanks Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon into hidden passageways and the world of classic art, with a little cutting-edge science thrown in, as Langdon takes on the mystery behind Dante's 'Inferno.'

Salvation seems tough to come by when a musician is shot following a Salvation Army concert. With no lead to go on, police investigator Harry Hole gives chase when the culprit realizes he shot the wrong man and seeks the one for whom the bullet was meant. Hole journeys to the dark corners of former Yugoslavia, returning to discover the deepest darkness is among Oslo's junkies and Salvationists.

A history of electric light's fledgling decades, Freeberg's insightful work restores a range of primal social reactions to the new form of illumination. These are easily forgotten in the present, when power companies and sources of electrical generation are politically contentious. In the 1880s, banishing night with a light switch astounded multitudes, who thronged civic events and spectacular exhibitions to marvel at artificial day. Acknowledging Edison's contemporary and continuing association with the electrical revolution, Freeberg at the outset corrects the impression, noting that arc lighting initially competed with Edison's incandescent bulb but declined in popularity because of the comparative harshness of its glare. Recounting local incidents and accidents of various American cities' introduction to electricity, Freeberg tracks its rapid departure from Edison's workshop toward becoming a professional and corporate industry. Progressive critics arose who proposed its nationalization, while commentators catering to the consumer dwelt on refining the aesthetics of lighting in the home and in entertainment venues. Fans of the history of technology will revel in Freeberg's discussion of the profound social effects of the humble light bulb. -Booklist Review

The circus arrived in town unannounced. Even so, people flocked to the big top. They don't know that two of the acts--young magicians, Celia and Marco--have been trained since childhood by their instructors for a competition between them that will leave only one standing. Even when the two fall in love, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone hang in the balance.

Her world upended by the death of a beloved artist uncle who was the only person who understood her, fourteen-year-old June is mailed a teapot by her uncle's grieving friend, with whom June forges a poignant relationship.

The inspiring story of a son and his dying mother, who form a "book club" that brings them together as her life comes to a close. - from Amazon.com

Two couples meet for dinner at a fashionable restaurant in Amsterdam. Behind their polite conversation, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened. Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

A poet and a fiction writer cross paths and write a at-times tortured love story as the writers-turned-lovers travel the rough waters of faith, art, and love through a series of letters. This novel in letters was somewhat inspired by Robert Lowell and Flannery O'Connor.

Follows a young Italian innkeeper and his almost-love affair with a beautiful American starlet, which draws him into a glittering world filled with unforgettable characters.

She sees the nine body bags in the snow everywhere she looks: windows, television screens, even on billboards. The horrific vision that shows her a truck crashing into a building that then explodes hits closer to home when Jules suddenly recognizes one of the body bag people's faces. It belongs to the only person she's ever loved. And Jules is running out of time to solve her vision's clues.

Hazel is fighting cancer and things are going well and she meets Augustus Waters who is gorgeous and interested in Hazel which makes her reexamine her illness and her life.