October's New Books on the Block

At seventeen, Adam Rhodes is famous, living on his own, and in a downward spiral since he lost the girl he loved. Marybeth stage name Sunshine was his best friend from the days they were foster kids; then she was his girlfriend and his band mate. But since her accidental death, he's been drinking to deal with the memories. Until one day, an unexpected visitor, Dr. Elloran, presents Adam with a proposition that just might save him from himself. Using breakthrough cloning and memory-implantation techniques, Dr. Elloran and the scientists at Project Orpheus want to resurrect Marybeth, and they need Adam to "donate" intimate memories of his life with her. The memory retrieval process forces Adam to relive his life with Marybeth and the devastating path that brought them both to fame. Along the way, he must confront not only the circumstances of her death but also his growing relationship with the mysterious Genevieve, daughter of Project Orpheus's founder. As the process sweeps Adam and Marybeth ever closer to reliving the tragedy that destroyed them, Adam must decide how far he'll go to save her."

I Am the Ocean by Samita Sarkar

Samita Sarkar thought she was destined to spend her entire life running. Never giving herself a moment's rest, she studied hard and graduated from university with top grades, and then promptly began a tireless job search. But although she thought that she had done everything by the book, life still hadn't given her any answers. She knew that God had a plan, but what was it? Stricken with anxiety while facing midsummer heat and sizable life decisions, the thrifty twenty-something Canadian--who had never before travelled for travel's sake--purchased a discount bus ticket for what she thought would be a few weeks of reprieve in The United States. Embarking on her journey with nothing but a small suitcase, a broken handbag, a killer manicure and a copy of "The Bhagavad Gita," Samita would spend her days wandering streets and beaches, and her nights in jostling buses or on cramped couches. Marvelling at the beauty around her, Samita finally discovered what the world has to offer to those who stop running, while learning lessons that would set the course of the rest of her life.

Journey to Hawk's Peak by MK McClintock

One woman's desperation to escape would become the greatest journey of her life.

Amanda Warren arrived in Briarwood, Montana with one satchel and a dream. After death destroyed her happiness, she fled, unwillingly to believe that was the end, yet her weary spirit thought only of survival.

Then she met the Gallaghers.

They took a chance and gave her a home and a family, but is she strong enough to make a new start?

Ben Stuart has seen more of life than he wants to remember, but with the Gallaghers he had found a place where he could forget times gone by and live the life he always wanted. When Amanda arrived at Hawk's Peak, Ben saw a woman hiding from secrets and running from her past. Will he be able to convince her that the journey is over?

Silver Blood by Emma Hamm

A PROPHECY TO FULFILL

Two hundred years ago, our world changed forever. Two realms combined in an explosion of magic. One morning everything was normal and the next? Every human body was host to another magical creature who had thoughts and a mind of its own. However, with power comes darkness. Someone wants to wipe this earth clean and will stop at nothing to consume it.

SHE IS NOT A HERO

Or so she thought. Wren had grown up with another voice in her head but had never considered herself magical. She doesn't have the talents other people have. She certainly doesn't have the abilities anyone else has. But she is charming and manages her business quite well. She deals in emotions and makes people happy. It's a simple life, but it's hers.

HE THINKS SHE COULD BE

Burke was a bodyguard first and always. He had been sent to collect her and deliver her in person to the most powerful creatures in their world. But the moment he steps through the broken door of her shop, his world changes forever. She's strange. She's uncomfortable. And she's so damned beautiful. He is convinced she is part of a prophecy that can save their world.

But how to convince her?

Four Seasons of Loneliness by J.W. Freiberg

What happens when loneliness engulfs us? How do we manage life when the absence of adequate connections becomes an excruciating hunger?

During his extraordinary decades-long career as an attorney, J. W. Freiberg consulted on hundreds of cases involving clients affected by chronic and debilitating loneliness. Here, in four adapted stories from his practice, he reveals how loneliness can impact us in every season of our lives. A fascinating cast of characters emerges: the traumatized teenager forever branded as a sexual predator, the man who spends the prime of his life in solitary confinement in Mao-era China, the truck driver whose self-education isolates him from his community, and the professor at the end of his life who has vast knowledge about the history of love but none to call his own.

Told through Freiberg’s unique lens of a social psychologist turned lawyer, Four Seasons of Loneliness explores the fallout of losing the connections so fundamental to our survival and the ways in which we seek to find again the bonds that sustain us.