“The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship” by James Scott

The full story of the attack by Israel on the U.S.S. Liberty in 1967, based on newly declassified documents and interviews with survivors.

James Scott is an investigative reporter for The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, with an extensive background in covering the military, including assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has won numerous awards, including the McClatchy Co. President's Award and the Judson Chapman Award for Community Service in Journalism, and was named Journalist of the Year in 2003 by the South Carolina Press Association.

“The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War” by James Bradley

In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. Roosevelt's glamorous twenty-one year old daughter Alice served as mistress of the cruise, which included senators and congressmen. On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's

name.

In 2005, a century later, James Bradley traveled in the wake of Roosevelt's mission and discovered what had transpired in Honolulu, Tokyo, Manila, Beijing and Seoul.

In 1905, Roosevelt was bully-confident and made secret agreements that he though would secure America's westward push into the Pacific. Instead, he lit the long fuse on the Asian firecrackers that would singe America's hands for a century.

The Friendship of Women: The Hidden Tradition of the Bible” By: Joan Chittister

Looking deeply into biblical stories of female friendships in order to extract greater truths, this compelling work explores the sacred dimension of friendship through the lenses of faith, tradition, and scripture, revealing the often overlooked voices and experiences of women in the Old and New Testaments. Recovering and reclaiming the witness and wisdom of such women as Lydia, Prisca, Phoebe, Martha, Deborah, Esther, Rachel, Ruth, Veronica, Elizabeth, Anne, and Mary Magdalene, and drawing a highly inspiring message from each of these women's lives, the book embraces friendship as it is embodied by women, between God and all of creation, and between all human beings.

“Don't Say I Didn't Warn You: Kids, Carbs, and the Coming Hormonal Apocalypse” by Anita Renfroe

When I first learned that I was pregnant, I thought this was going to be the most blessed, beautiful, rose-petals-at-my-feet-and-bluebirds-lighting-upon-my-forearm time of my life. Then I went for my first prenatal visit. Which starts with a weigh-in.

From comedian Anita Renfroe, already beloved by women's groups and YouTube viewers across America, comes this hilarious and brazenly honest look at motherhood and middle age. Famous for her live performance of the "Mom Song," which barrels through everything a mom says to her kids in a single day to the tune of the "William Tell Overture" (just two minutes and fifty-five seconds), in Don't Say I Didn't Warn You, Renfroe now turns her irreverent and daringly accurate comic eye to other female conditions.

In chapters with names like "Brother, Can You Spare an Epidural?" and "Playing Favorites (Or, As a Matter of Fact, I Do Love Your Brother More)," she dares to speak what other women are thinking-but don't say out...

Fiction:

“A Christmas Blizzard” by Garrison Keillor

A short comic novel about a Hawaii-bound holiday traveler who ends up stranded in his North Dakota hometown during a blizzard.

A wealthy and depressed man (thanks to the economy he’s not quite rich enough to expand his cache of paintings by Vincent Van Guy, the famed Dutch realist) bound for Christmas in the tropics is abruptly summoned home to North Dakota to visit an ailing aunt. He arrives just in time to be trapped there by a blizzard. The electricity goes out, and when it does, figures from his childhood appear, and historical figures too, for a festive candlelit holiday. In his reverie, our man reaches an epiphany worthy of the season—he hears the harkening angels sing, he is awed by the silence of the night (dead quiet: not even TV) and when he is finally rescued, leaves North Dakota resolved to simplify his life.

“Pilgrims” by Garrison Keillor

All Margie Kresbach wants to do is get her husband Carl to Rome, thinking a romantic locale (and the fact that he won’t then be able to sleep across the hall, like at home) will rekindle their relationship.
Instead she finds herself in the unwanted role of tour organizer to a motley crew of Wobegonians who believe they are on a pilgrimage to tend the gravesite of a Lake Wobegon son, fallen during WWII and buried, purportedly, near the Coliseum. But she and they unexpectedly find that distance from Lake Wobegon quickens their sense of community and awakens their memories. Soon they find themselves sharing stories of astonishing frankness and self-revelation.

“A Thread of Truth” by Marie Bostwick

Come home to Marie Bostwick's poignant novel of new beginnings, old friends, and the rich, varied tapestry of lives fully lived...

At twenty-seven, having fled an abusive marriage with little more than her kids and the clothes on her back, Ivy Peterman figures she has nowhere to go but up. Quaint, historic New Bern, Connecticut, seems as good a place as any to start fresh. With a part-time job at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop and budding friendships, Ivy feels hopeful for the first time in ages. But when a popular quilting TV show is taped at the quilt shop, Ivy's unwitting appearance in an on-air promo alerts her ex-husband to her whereabouts. Suddenly, Ivy is facing the fight of her life—

one that forces her to face her deepest fears as a woman and a mother. This time, however, she's got a sisterhood behind her: companions as complex, strong, and lasting as the quilts they stitch...

“Healing Sands, Sullivan Crisp Series #3” By: Nancy Rue, Stephen Arterburn

In the struggle for healing, when do you fight and when do you surrender? Ryan Alexander-Coe is a talented photojournalist who has been on assignment all over the world. But when her two sons choose to live with their father after her divorce, Ryan must give her career up for a small-town newspaper job in order to be near them.

Life spirals out of control when her fifteen-year-old son is arrested. Desperation--both over the fact that she cannot believe her son committed this crime and that he refuses to talk to her--sends her anger level soaring . . . and eventually sends her storming into Dr. Sullivan Crisp's office in search of ways to cope with her anger. Sully is in town assisting at one of his clinics and continuing his search for Belinda Cox, the woman whose guilt-inducing counseling caused the death of his wife and daughter. When Sully's search ends in disaster, both he and Ryan will have to fully rely on God--rather than themselves--to survive these storms.

While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky

Molly and Robin Snow are sisters in the prime of their lives. So when Molly receives the news that Robin has suffered a massive heart attack, the news couldn’t be more shocking. At the hospital, the Snow family receives a grim prognosis: Robin may never regain consciousness again. Feelings of guilt and jealousy flare up as Robin’s family struggles to cope. It’s up to Molly to make the tough decisions, and she soon discovers that her sister was not quite the woman she thought she was.

Barbara Delinsky brings us a masterful family portrait about the unique and emotionally complex world of siblings, how emotions affect the decisions we make and how letting go can be the hardest thing to do.