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Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths, by Bruce Feiler: At a moment when the world is asking "Can the religions get along?" Abraham stands as the shared ancestor of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. He holds the key to our deepest fears - and our possible reconciliation." Bruce Feiler set out on a personal quest to better understand our common patriarch. Traveling in war zones, climbing through caves and ancient shrines, and sitting down with the world's leading religious minds, Feiler discovers the untold story of the man who defines faith for half the world.

Cold Pursuit, by T. Jefferson Parker: Homicide cop Tom McMichael is on the rotation when an 84-year-old city patriarch named Pete Braga is found bludgeoned to death. Not good news, especially since the Irish McMichaels and the Portuguese Bragas share a violent family history dating back three generations. Years ago Braga shot McMichael's grandfather in a dispute over a paycheck; soon thereafter Braga's son was severely beaten behind a waterfront bar - legend has it that it was an act of revenge by McMichael's father. McMichael must put aside the old family blood feud and find the truth about Pete Braga's death. Braga's beautiful nurse is a suspect. She claims--conveniently--to have stepped out for firewood at the time of the murder, but key evidence suggests otherwise. The investigation soon expands to include Braga's business, his family, the Catholic diocese, a multimillion-dollar Indian casino, a prostitute, a cop, and, of course, the McMichael family. From the Edgar award-winning and best-selling author, a hard-hitting police procedural of family vengeance and a man's search to find a truth he's afraid to learn.

Heir to the Glimmering World, by Cynthia Ozick: In Heir to the Glimmering World, Cynthia Ozick pays homage to the most beloved writers of the nineteenth century—-Charles Dickens, the Brontës, George Eliot-—in a story set on the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s. Here lives the oversized Mitwisser clan, German refugees who survive at the whim of their vagabond benefactor, James A'bair. James is heir to the fortune amassed by his father, the author of a wildly popular series of children's books called The Bear Boy. Wayward, feckless, with money to burn, James has taken up the eccentric Mitwissers-—scholarly patriarch, invalid wife, and five scrappy children—-as his latest caprice. Into this chaotic household enters Rose Meadows, orphaned at age eighteen. Rosie quickly becomes indispensable as assistant to Professor Mitwisser in his research on an arcane Jewish sect and then, inevitably, as general nursemaid, nanny, and companion to the entire family. Her sole inheritance is a book: the first title in the Bear Boy series. When the actual Bear Boy appears on the Mitwisser doorstep, Rosie must resist the pull of his reckless orbit as she pursues her own desires. Heir to the Glimmering World is a delight to read, a novel of great character, wit, and style. It lovingly evokes Depression-era New York from the perspective of perpetual outsiders, brought together by coincidence and fate. The hard times they inherit still hold glimmers of past wonders and future dreams.

Northern Lights, by Nora Roberts: Lunacy was Nate Burke's last chance. As a Baltimore cop, he'd watched his partner die on the street-and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepts the job as Chief of Police in this tiny, remote Alaskan town. Aside from sorting out a run-in between a couple of motor vehicles and a moose, he finds his first weeks on the job are relatively quiet. But just as he wonders whether this has been all a big mistake, an unexpected kiss on New Year's Eve under the brilliant Northern Lights of the Alaska sky lifts his spirit and convinces him to stay just a little longer. Meg Galloway, born and raised in Lunacy, is used to being alone. She was a young girl when her father disappeared, and she has learned to be independent, flying her small plane, living on the outskirts of town with just her huskies for company. After her New Year's kiss with the Chief of Police, she allows herself to give in to passion-while remaining determined to keep things as simple as possible. But there's something about Nate's sad eyes that gets under her skin and warms her frozen heart. And now, things in Lunacy are heating up. Years ago, on one of the majestic mountains shadowing the town, a crime occurred that is unsolved to this day-and Nate suspects that a killer still walks the snowy streets. His investigation will unearth the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath the placid surface, as well as bring out the big-city survival instincts that made him a cop in the first place. And his discovery will threaten the new life--and the new love--that he has finally found for himself.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom: From the author of the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie, a novel that explores the unexpected connections of our lives, and the idea that heaven is more than a place; it's an answer. Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?"

The Kill Clause, by Gregg Hurwitz: Tim Rackley is a dangerous man of honor, a deputy U.S. marshal who is very good at his job--until everything he believes in is shattered by the brutal murder of his own daughter. Betrayed by an imperfect judicial system, Rackley watches helplessly as the killer walks free on a legal technicality. Devastated, furious, and burning with a righteous need for vengeance, he is suddenly forced to explore his own deadly options - a quest that leads him into a shadowy no-man's-land between justice and the law... and into the welcoming fold of "the Commission." A vigilante group made up of people like him - relentless streetwise operators who have each lost a loved one to violent crime - the Commission confronts the failings of a system that sets predators loose to hunt again, cleaning up society's "mistakes" covertly, efficiently, and permanently. But as he is dragged deeper into a deadly morass of hidden agendas and murderous justice, Tim Rackley discovers that playing God is an excruciating and fearsome task. When his new secret life starts coming unwound at an alarming speed, he is suddenly caught in the most terrifying struggle he has ever faced - a desperate battle to save his marriage, his career, his life, his soul... and everything left that's worth fighting for.

The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth: When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide in the 1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh, in a nationwide radio address, publicly blamed the Jews for selfishly pushing America toward a pointless war with Nazi Germany, but upon taking office as the thirty-third president of the United States, he negotiated a cordial "understanding" with Adolf Hitler, whose conquest of Europe and virulent anti-Semitic policies he appeared to accept without difficulty. What then followed in America is the historical setting for this startling new book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Philip Roth, who recounts what it was like for his Newark family-—and for a million such families all over the country—-during the menacing years of the Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews had every reason to expect the worst.

The Prince of Beverly Hills, by Stuart Woods: Rick Barron, a sharp, capable detective on the Beverly Hills force, finds himself demoted after a run-in with his captain, but soon lands a job on the security detail for Centurion Pictures, one of the hottest studios. As the protector of the studio's interests, Barron looks after the cream of the crop of filmdom's stars: Clete Barrow, the British leading man with a penchant for parties; and Glenna Gleason, a peach of a talent on the verge of superstardom. Rick's easy charm has society columnists dubbing him "the Prince of Beverly Hills," the white knight of movie stars, until he uncovers a murder cover-up and a blackmail scam that threatens the studio's business and may originate with the West Coast mob. When two suspicious deaths begin to look like double murder, and an attempt is made on Glenna Gleason's life, Barron knows he is up against wise guys whose stakes are do ordie. A dicey war of nerves is on.

Trace, by Patricia Cornwell: Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing from south Florida, returns to the city that turned its back on her five years ago. In Trace, Scarpetta travels to Richmond, Virginia, at the odd behest of the recently appointed Chief Medical Examiner, who claims that he needs her help to solve a perplexing crime. When she arrives, however, Scarpetta finds that nothing is as she expected: her former lab is in the final stages of demolition; the inept chief isn't the one who requested her after all; her old assistant chief has developed personal problems that he won't reveal; and a glamorous FBI agent, whom Marino dislikes instantly, meddles with the case. Deprived of assistance from colleagues Benton and Lucy, who are embroiled in what first appears to be an unrelated attempted rape by a stalker, Scarpetta is faced with investigating the death of a fourteen-year-old girl, working with the smallest pieces of evidence-traces that only the most thorough hunters can identify. She must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak-and to reveal the sad truth that may be more than even she can bear.

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