The Help by Stockett, Kathryn The Help recreates a time -- Mississippi in 1962 -- that is totally engrossing and pitch-perfect. This story of women in the South, black and white, in the eye of a hurricane of monumental change is thoroughly satisfying and enjoyable.--Sheila Burns, Bloomsbury Books (Ashland, OR)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Kingsolver, Barbara, Kingsolver, Camille “Tracing the food year, Kingsolver—with her characteristic candor, poetry, and grace—brings us meditations on asparagus, turkeys, tomatoes, and mulch as she and her family try to eat locally as much as they can. This is a distinct hybrid of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Under the Tuscan Sun, and Walden.” —Matt Plies, Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland, OR