"You're a coward." Time and again, as the New Year approaches, that charge is leveled against Armand Gamache. While the residents of the Quebec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request. He's asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor...

Ms. Beatrice Hempel, teacher of seventh grade, is new-new to teaching, new to the school, newly engaged, and newly bereft of her idiosyncratic father. Grappling awkwardly with her newness, she struggles to figure out what is expected of her in life and at work. Is it acceptable to introduce swear words into the English curriculum, enlist students to write their own report cards, or bring up personal experiences while teaching a sex-education class? Sarah...

No longer certain of the woman she has become when her husband abandons her for another woman, Madrid college professor Blanca Perea heads to San Francisco and becomes enmeshed in a late Spanish writer's tumultuous life as Blanca learns how to reinvent herself. 384pp., 75K, Auth res: Murcia, Spain

A boy has an ordinary school day until a new teacher inspires him in a way that changes him forever.

"Stephen King's HOLLY marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly's gradual transformation from a shy and reclusive (but also brave and ethical) homebody in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges's partner in Finders Keepers and End of Watch to a full-fledged, smart and occasionally tough private detective on her own in The Outsider and If It Bleeds. In this new novel, Holly once again claims the spotlight,...

"A collection of essays on family, race, violence, celebrity, music, writing, and other topics"--

"First-grade teacher Holly Miller enjoys a quiet, low-profile life in Hope Harbor-but all of that changes when she must advocate for a cause dear to her heart and finds herself on the opposite side of the issue from a take-charge ex-Delta Force operator turned fisherman who complicates her mission-and threatens to steal her heart"--

"As a creative writing professor in a bucolic Vermont town, Gil's quiet life is indelibly changed when he receives shocking news: His sister, Sharon, and her husband have been killed in a car accident, and their only son, seventeen-year-old Matthew, is coming to live with Gil and his family. It's with apprehension that Gil and his wife, Molly, greet Matthew. Yes, he has just lost both his parents. But they haven't seen him in seven years, and the...

"After the death of her parents, Evangeline must succeed as a schoolteacher in a remote region of Northern England in order to claim her inheritance from her grandfather and be reunited with her younger sister, Lucy. When a local bricklayer, Dermot, offers his help, she finds herself falling in love with the Irishman"--Provided by publisher.