Library Book Club: October 2017

A LibraryReads PickAn Indie Next PickIn the tradition of The Paris Wife and Mrs. Poe, The Other Einstein offers a window into a brilliant, fascinating woman whose light was lost in an enormous shadow. It is the story of Einstein's wife, a brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the special theory of relativity is hotly debated and may have been inspired by her insight.

"Will remind historical fiction readers of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander and Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring...Lovers of meticulously researched historical fiction and time-travel narratives will be swept away by the spell of medieval Siena" (Library Journal, starred review). "Winawer's debut is a detailed historical novel, a multifaceted mystery, and a moving tale of improbable love...Winawer has created a prodigious, vibrant tale of past and present that transports readers and fills in the historical gaps. This is a marvelous work of research and invention" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) Equal parts transporting love story and gripping historical conspiracy, debut author Melodie Winawer takes readers deep into medieval Italy, where the past and present blur and a twenty-first century woman will discover a plot to destroy Siena...

So many colorful stories are lost to time. The last passenger pigeon on earth, Martha, died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. The deadliest maritime disaster in American history was the explosion of the steamboat Sultana, built in the Queen City. Just outside the city, a young Annie Oakley beat her future husband in a shooting contest. The nation's first train robbery occurred in the Cincinnati area, and some clever victims hid jewelry in their hair and bodices. From the Black Brigade's role in protecting the city against Confederate siege to the original 1937 Cincinnati Bengals, author Jeff Suess reveals the triumphs and tribulations of the first major American city founded after the American Revolution.

Laurie Gelman's clever debut novel about a year in the life of a kindergarten class mom--a brilliant send-up of the petty and surprisingly cutthroat terrain of parent politics.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The disappearance of a beautiful, charismatic mother leaves her family to piece together her secrets in this propulsive novel for fans of Big Little Lies--from the bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. "Watch Me Disappear is just as riveting as Gone Girl."--San Francisco Chronicle