Blurbs are from www.goodreads.com

Fall 2012

Death of a Healing Woman by Allana Martin

It's the day of the dead in border country and Texana Jones has had enough of it. Six months ago two friends were murdered; today she found the local healer shot through the eye. The sheriff puts it all down to random violence by drug runners, but that's not enough for Texana. And once she starts digging into the latest victim's past, it turns out the three killings were deliberate, personal and connected.

The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water by Charles Fishman

The water coming out of your tap is four billion years old and might have been slurped by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. We will always have exactly as much water on Earth as we have ever had. Water cannot be destroyed, and it can always be made clean enough for drinking again. In fact, water can be made so clean that it actually becomes toxic. As Charles Fishman brings vibrantly to life in this delightful narrative excursion, water runs our world in a host of awe-inspiring ways, which is both the promise and the peril of our unexplored connections to it. Taking listeners from the wet moons of Saturn to the water-obsessed hotels of Las Vegas, and from a rice farm in the Australian outback to a glimpse into giant vats of soup at Campbell's largest factory, he reveals that our relationship to water is conflicted and irrational, neglected and mismanaged. Whether we will face a water scarcity crisis has little to do with water and everything to do with how we think about water-how we use it, connect with it, and understand it.Portraying and explaining both the dangers-in 2008, Atlanta came just ninety days from running completely out of drinking water-and the opportunities, such as advances in rainwater harvesting and businesses that are making huge breakthroughs in water productivity, The Big Thirst will forever change the way we think about water, our crucial relationship to it, and the creativity we can bring to ensuring we always have plenty of it.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

One of the great masterworks of science fiction, the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are unsurpassed for their unique blend of nonstop action, daring ideas, and extensive world-building. The story of our future begins with the history of Foundation and its greatest psychohistorian: Hari Seldon. For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. Only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation. But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. And mankind’s last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and live as slaves—or take a stand for freedom and risk total destruction.

Spring 2012

Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

NurtureShock is a groundbreaking collaboration between award-wining science journalists Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. They argue that when it comes to children, we've mistaken good intentions for good ideas. With impeccable storytelling and razor-sharp analysis, they demonstrate that many of modern society's strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring--because key twists in the science have been overlooked.

Bumped by Megan McCafferty

When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents are forced to pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society.

Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World by Sharon Waxman

For the past two centuries, the West has been plundering the treasures of the ancient world to fill its great museums, but in recent years the countries where ancient civilizations originated have begun to push back, taking museums to court, prosecuting curators, and threatening to force the return of these priceless objects. Where do these treasures rightly belong? Waxman, a former culture reporter for The New York Times and a longtime foreign correspondent, brings us inside this high-stakes conflict, examining the implications for the preservation of the objects themselves and for how we understand our shared cultural heritage.

Fall 2011

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The Social Animal by David Brooks

Spring 2011

Brain Rules: Twelve Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina

The God of Small Things: A Novel by Arundhati Roy

Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Underminded America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Fall 2010

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jepordizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30) by Mark Bauerlein

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Spring 2010

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

Harriet and Isabella: A Novel by Patricia O'Brien

The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David O. Relin

Fall 2009

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Spring 2009

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich