Tracy Kidder

Michael French

Traces the efforts of Dr. Paul Farmer to transform healthcare on a global scale, documenting his visits to some of the world's most impoverished regions and the unconventional methods that enabled him to improve and save lives.

The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man who Would Cure the World

Mountains Beyond Mountains

In 2030, viruses, spy drones, terrorism, joblessness have eroded American optimism. People want something to believe in. As demonstrated in a Midwest high school election, politics have taken on the inflexibility and dogma of a new religion. Only true believers will survive and prosper. Or so they think.

Jump Before You Get Pushed

Cliffhanger

Life for five-year-old Will Ryder is defined by a face left horribly disfigured by fire. Though his English professor father and precocious sister comfort and support him, the mother who abandoned them all can never be forgotten.Growing up, Will believes that looking at him is what drove her away. When a psychologist urges him to explore his memory of the fire, he chooses instead to suppress its pain and trauma. Will takes up painting for both solace and a refuge from bullying at school, and finds a path that offers a different kind of struggle—to find his own identity as an artist and a man.His talent brings his mother, now a famous abstract expressionist, back into his life, and he discovers the real reason she fled from her family. Despite warnings from his father, he allows her role in his life to grow, leading to unexpected opportunity and a strange bond shaped by the artistic fires that drive them both.Struggling to develop his ability, he must choose between the philosophies and ideals of his two very different parents—the father who raised him with loving care and the mother who considers feelings and emotions only roadblocks on an artist's creative path.Will's talent grows as he acts out his anger. Struggling in the competitive art world of Chicago and New York, he desperately seeks his mother's love and acceptance but instead must live with the only help she is able to give: subsistence money and the harsh counsel that has painfully shaped her own life.An artist's true way, she insists, must be through adversity. A brutal physical attack that leaves his family in crisis, and an eccentric girl whose strange wildness he comes to love, help lead Will to a series of bold, cathartic, searingly honest self-portraits—embracing the face he's always run from.

A Novel

The Reconstruction of Wilson Ryder

Twelve-year-old Jaleel Robeson is on the run after the police in his tiny Texas town try to frame him for the death of his father. A world away, Alexandra "Alex" Baten is growing up amid all the material comforts a wealthy Los Angeles lawyer can provide. One day, a simple cup of lemonade unites their lives, leading to a maze of adultery and murder that shatters Alex's youthful innocence and Jaleel's struggle to reshape his life.While the forces of the law try to unravel the mysterious death--or at least find a scapegoat--the two youths see the trajectories of their lives entwine, unravel, and come together again. Justice, Alex learns, can be a strange and nebulous thing, easily enmeshed in webs of loyalty and betrayal. Justice, Jaleel finds, can be a powerful--but dangerous--rock on which to build a life of honor and courage. As their stories play out over the years in cities far apart, best-selling author Michael French fills the world of Alex and Jaleel with a cast of vivid characters both supporting and threatening their efforts to build a life that "works" amid the expectancies of others and their own conflicting drives.

Once Upon a Lie

Frank Howell

Examines the personal life and artistic development of Frank Howell, whose paintings often depict the spirituality and mythological aspects of Native American life.

The Art of Frank Howell

Addressing both men and women, novelist and nonfiction author French (Abingdon's) provides an insider's view of what drives men away from their partners and what both parties can do about it. Basing his insights on in-depth interviews with men from all socioeconomic groups who were asked why a previously wonderful relationship turned sour, he discovered that some "relationship busters" can be traced back to childhood issues of anger and loss, issues of masculine identity, popular culture's emphasis on happiness, and communication differences between men and women. Interestingly, women generally act to change their unhappiness, while men tend to live with it. Most articles on relationships are written from a woman's perspective, but French offers a look from the male perspective. Well done and helpful; recommended for all libraries.

Michael French

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