Elaine's Picks

San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy used to be a star in the District Attorney’s office, but now he practices criminal law and keeps secrets from his past locked away. When Dismas’ niece is raped, her father, Moses McGuire, makes it clear he’d be happy to kill the man who did it. In fact, he threatens the arrogant assistant of a powerful San Francisco politician. When this man is murdered, the evidence points to Moses. To make matters worse, Moses, an alcoholic, has fallen off the wagon and when he drinks, he talks too much. Moses knows dangerous secrets about several people, including Dismas. John Lescroart has written 17 terrific books, and The Ophilia Cut is his best yet. Some signed first editions.

Watch out, Darling is going to jump right into your life and not let go. As the story begins, Darling is a little girl in Zimbabwe where her family’s house has been destroyed, the teachers have abandoned the school, the men have left to find work in South Africa, and the children are hungry. Darling is certain that one day she will make it to Detroit, where she imagines her aunt is living the American Dream. We go with her. NoViolet Bulawayo’s writing is different from anything you’ve read before. I’m in awe of this author and her fabulous first novel. Some signed first editions.

Rosemary is a troubled college student who rarely speaks. Gradually, she talks of her childhood and the sister and brother who are no longer part of her family. For the first five years of their lives, Rosemary and her missing sister, Fern, were raised as twins. but they weren’t really twins. Where is Fern? Rosemary’s brother, now considered an animal rights terrorist, left the family as soon as he was 18 to search for Fern, and what he finds is shocking. Karen Joy Fowler, the author of The Jane Austin Book Club, leads us to think about what it is to be human as she sweeps us into the lives of this emotionally complicated family. Some signed first editions.

Meet the McCullough family. Eli is the first white male born in The Republic of Texas. At 13, he is kidnapped by Comanche warriors and on the way to becoming their chief. When the Indians become impoverished and ill, he returns to white society, but he never really belongs in either world. He ruthlessly amasses vast wealth and power. His son, Peter, shuns all that his father represents and falls in love with a Mexican neighbor. My favorite character is Jeannie, Eli McCullough’s great-greatgranddaughter who inherits and firmly runs the family estate. There are some horrific and gruesome scenes in this widereaching novel, but Philipp Meyer’s writing is so riveting that even this squeamish reader was fascinated by every page. Some signed first editions.

In her mesmerizing new novel, Jeannette Walls portrays two resilient girls whose narcissistic mother leaves them to fend for themselves with just enough money to last a few weeks. Mother may be “finding herself,” but it’s soon clear that the cops are about to find out that the girls are alone. They take a bus across the country to the tiny town in Virginia where their mother grew up to find their uncle still living in the family’s decaying mansion. Needing money, they agree to work for the bully who runs the mill. I fell in love with these adolescent girls and cheered for them as they navigated the 1970’s South. Some signed first editions.

We’ve loved and learned from Michael Pollan’s bestselling books, including The Omnivore’s Dilemna and Food Rules. In Cooked, Pollan goes into his own kitchen and learns to use the four elements: fire, water, air, and earth. As he writes of grilling, braising, baking, and fermentation, he explores the history of food and facts about nutrition today. For example, using commercially prepared food saves a family about 30 minutes a day at the cost of consuming unhealthy amounts of salt, sugar, and chemicals. Obesity goes down when the time spent preparing food goes up. There are four recipes and I’m sure they are all terrific, but it’s his wit and facts that hooked me. Some signed first editions.