Vets Might Fly

      James Herriot
     Vets Might Fly

A few months of married bliss, a lovers' nest in Darrowby and the wonders of home cooking are rudely interrupted for James Herriot by the Second World War. James Herriot's fifth volume of memoirs relocates him to a training camp somewhere in England. And in between square pounding and digging for victory, he dreams of the people and livestock he left behind him. 'There are funny cases, sad cases, farm animals and pets, downright farmers, ladies of refinement, hard-bitten NCOs and of course, the immortal Siegfried and Tristan' The "Sunday Times" 'Another winner... as always hilariously funny' The "Sunday Telegraph" 'It is a pleasure to be in James Herriot's company' "Observer"

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    Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

      Fannie Flagg
     Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! is the funny, serious, and compelling new novel by Fannie Flagg, author of the beloved Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (and prize-winning co-writer of the classic movie). Once again, Flagg's humor and respect and affection for her characters shine forth. Many inhabit small-town or suburban America. But this time, her heroine is urban: a brainy, beautiful, and ambitious rising star of 1970s television. Dena Nordstrom, pride of the network, is a woman whose future is full of promise, her present rich with complications, and her past marked by mystery. Among the colorful cast of characters are: Sookie, of Selma, Alabama, Dena's exuberant college roommate, who is everything that Dena is not; she is thrilled by Dena's success and will do everything short of signing autographs for her; Sookie's a mom, a wife, and a Kappa forever Dena's cousins, the Warrens, and her aunt Elner, of Elmwood Springs, Missouri, endearing, loyal, talkative, ditsy, and, in their way, wise Neighbor Dorothy, whose spirit hovers over them all through the radio show that she broadcast from her home in the 1940s Sidney Capello, pioneer of modern sleaze journalism and privateer of privacy, and Ira Wallace, his partner in tabloid television Several doctors, all of them taken with--and almost taken in by-Dena There are others, captivated by a woman who tries to go home again, not knowing where home or love lie. From the Hardcover edition.

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    Tales From a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess

      Rachel Renée Russell
     Tales From a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess

In an all-new addition to the New York Times bestselling series that’s as popular as it is dorky, Nikki Maxwell is determined to help out her crush! Nikki Maxwell isn’t at all surprised to find out that her crush Brandon volunteers at a local animal shelter. He’s such a sweet guy—of course he wants to help those adorable puppies! Then Brandon tells her that the shelter is in danger of closing, and Nikki knows she can’t let that happen. Especially when she discovers a shocking secret about Brandon that makes keeping that shelter open more important than ever. So Nikki and her friends Chloe and Zoey enter an ice skating competition to help raise money for the shelter, but (big surprise) Mackenzie has to stick her nose in and cause trouble so that she can be the one to swoop in and save the day. No way will Nikki let that happen: She’ll just have to come up with some extra creative ideas this time! Book Details: Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 6/5/2012 Pages: 368 Reading Level: Age 9 and Up

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    Norwood

      Charles Portis
     Norwood

Out of the American Neon Desert of Roller Dromes, chili parlors, The Grand Ole Opry, and girls who want "to live in a trailer and play records all night" comes ex-marine and troubadour Norwood Pratt. Sent on a mission to New York by Grady Fring, the Kredit King, Norwood has visions of "speeding across the country in a late model car, seeing all the sights." Instead, he gets involved in a wild journey that takes him in and out of stolen cars, freight trains, and buses. By the time he returns home to Ralph, Texas, Norwood has met his true love, Rita Lee, on a Trailways bus; befriended Edmund B. Ratner, the second shortest midget in show business and "the world's smallest perfect fat man"; and helped Joann, "the chicken with a college education, " realize her true potential in life.

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    Attaboy, Sam!

      Lois Lowry
     Attaboy, Sam!

In this second book about Anastasia Krupnik's younger brother, Sam concocts a perfume made of his mother's favorite smells to honor her request for only homemade gifts for her birthday. "Warm, lively, true to children's real inner lives, and laugh-aloud funny all the way." -- Kirkus Reviews, pointer review

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    The Royal Mess

      MaryJanice Davidson
     The Royal Mess

Jeffrey Rodinov is descended from one of the oldest families in Alaska, and a Rodinov has been protecting a Baranov for generations. It's a job Jeffrey takes VERY seriously. Six feet four inches, 220 fatless lbs. , black hair, and blue eyes;weapon of choice: the 9 mm Beretta. In a pinch? His fists. IQ: 157. (Yes, crossword puzzle, in ink, just after taking out the guy behind you. No thanks necessary. ) No one ever sees Jeffrey Rodinov coming, and no one--not even a mouthy, illegitimate princess--is going to keep him from playing bodyguard when his king decrees it. Right. But no Rodinov ever had to protect Princess Nicole Krenski. Her credentials? Hunting guide in the Alaskan wilderness. Smart. Stubborn bordering on exasperating. Five-seven. Blue eyes. Very kissable mouth. Very kissable neck, back, legs, wrists, earlobes. The lady says she doesn't need a bodyguard, but that's where she's wrong. Someone needs to watch her and show her the royal ropes (and cuffs. . . and scarves. . . ). Someone who can make her feel like a queen--in and out of bed. And that's a job Jeffrey Rodinov takes very seriously as well. . .

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    The Bear Went Over the Mountain

      William Kotzwinkle
     The Bear Went Over the Mountain

Once upon a time in rural Maine, a big black bear found a briefcase under a tree. Hoping for food, he dragged it into the woods, only to find that all it held was the manuscript of a novel. He couldn’t eat it, but he did read it, and decided it wasn’t bad. Borrowing some clothes from a local store, and the name Hal Jam from the labels of his favorite foods he headed to New York to seek his fortune in the literary world. Then he took America by storm. The Bear Went Over the Mountain is a riotous, magical romp with the buoyant Hal Jam as he leaves the quiet, nurturing world of nature for the glittering, moneyed world of man. With a pitch-perfect comic voice and an eye for social satire to rival Swift or Wolfe, bestselling author William Kotzwinkle limns Hal’s hilarious journey to New York, Los Angeles, and the great sprawling country in between, where a bear makes good despite his animal instincts, and where money-hungry executives see not a hairy beast with a purloined novel, but a rough-hewn, soulful, media-perfect nature guy who just might be the next Hemingway. By turns sidesplittingly funny, stingingly ironic, and unexpectedly tender, The Bear Went Over the Mountain captures the zeitgeist of the 1990s dead-on, in a delicious bedtime story for grown-ups.

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    Ghost Children

      Sue Townsend
     Ghost Children

She hadn't the heart to tell him she had done away with his baby. She had not wanted to commit herself. He worked with his hands, on a bench instead of a desk. He was Mr. Wrong. And yet she loved him. Seventeen years later he reappears. It unnerves her. Does he love her still? Does he hate her? They are middle-aged, they've lost their looks (he has lost his job). But they remember vividly how rapturous it was between them.

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    Sunset at Blandings

      P. G. Wodehouse
     Sunset at Blandings

Wodehouse died before finishing this novel, which uses the Blandings formula: a pretty niece brought to the castle to separate her from a suitor; suitor infiltrated under an assumed name by Gally; Lord Emsworth innocently blowing the gaff to an angry sister. Wodehouse's notes complete the story.

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    Funny Girl

      Nick Hornby
     Funny Girl

Set in 1960's London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's Funny Girl does what he does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process.

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    Excellent Women

      Barbara Pym
     Excellent Women

Excellent Women is one of Barbara Pym's richest and most amusing high comedies. Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those "excellent women," the smart, supportive, repressed women who men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors--anthropologist Helena Napier and her handsome, dashing husband, Rocky, and Julian Malory, the vicar next door--the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived in a vanishing world of manners and repressed desires.

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    Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

      Tom Robbins
     Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

The whooping crane rustlers are girls. Young girls. Cowgirls, as a matter of fact, all “bursting with dimples and hormones”—and the FBI has never seen anything quite like them. Yet their rebellion at the Rubber Rose Ranch is almost overshadowed by the arrival of the legendary Sissy Hankshaw, a white-trash goddess literally born to hitchhike, and the freest female of them all. Freedom, its prizes and its prices, is a major theme of Tom Robbins’s classic tale of eccentric adventure. As his robust characters attempt to turn the tables on fate, the reader is drawn along on a tragicomic joyride across the badlands of sexuality, wild rivers of language, and the frontiers of the mind. From the Trade Paperback edition.

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    Aunts Aren't Gentlemen:

      P. G. Wodehouse
     Aunts Aren't Gentlemen:

A Jeeves and Wooster novel Bertie Wooster has been overdoing metropolitan life a bit, and the doctor orders fresh air in the depths of the country. But after moving with Jeeves to his cottage at Maiden Eggesford, Bertie soon finds himself surrounded by aunts - not only his redoubtable Aunt Dahlia but an aunt of Jeeves's too. Add a hyper-sensitive racehorse, a very important cat and a decidedly bossy fianc�e - and all the ingredients are present for a plot in which aunts can exert their terrible authority. But Jeeves, of course, can cope with everything - even aunts, and even the country. The final Jeeves and Wooster novel shows P.G. Wodehouse still able to delight, well into his nineties.

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    Ark on the Move

      Gerald Durrell
     Ark on the Move

‘Even the most cautious of travelers would, I think, be thrilled at the idea of visiting a remote tropical island. There seems to be something about tropical islands that stirs the blood of even the most unadventurous souls.’ Lying in the Indian Ocean, the islands of Mauritius and Madagascar – where millions of years of evolutionary isolation created a flora and fauna unique in the world - provide the exotic setting for Gerald Durrell’s expeditionary rescue work with animals. In his personal and delightful way he entertains, educates and makes a dramatic appeal to us all about the distressing state of these beautiful and endangered species around the world and shows us the serious consequences to life and its future on this earth. This exciting journey also inspired an international television series based on the author’s rescue and breeding operations.

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