In Nichole Bernier's, The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D., summer vacation on Great Rock Island was supposed to be a restorative time for Kate, who'd lost her close friend Elizabeth in a sudden accident. But when she inherits a trunk of Elizabeth's journals, they reveal a woman far different than the cheerful wife and mother Kate thought she knew.

The more Kate reads, the more she learns the complicated truth of who Elizabeth really was, and rethinks her own choices as a wife, mother, and professional, and the legacy she herself would want to leave behind. When an unfamiliar man's name appears in the pages, Kate realizes the extent of what she didn't know about her friend, including where she was really going on the day she died.

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What would you sacrifice for the people you love? Echoing the adrenaline-fueled rush of a race around the Velodrome track, Gold is a triumph of superbly paced, heart-in-throat storytelling. With great humanity and glorious prose, Chris Cleave examines the values that lie at the heart of our most intimate relationships, and the choices we make when lives are at stake and everything is on the line. 

Kate and Zoe met at nineteen when they both made the cut for the national training program in track cycling-a sport that demands intense focus, blinding exertion, and unwavering commitment. They are built to exploit the barest physical and psychological edge over equally skilled rivals, all of whom are fighting for the last one tenth of a second that separates triumph from despair.

Now at thirty-two, the women are facing their last and biggest race...the 2012 Olympics. Each wants desperately to win gold, and each has more than a medal to lose.   

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For New Haven residents, Whalley and Goffe may be just the names of avenues and streets in this historic city. Now, uncover the heroic back story of Edward Whalley and William Goffe, as Madison high school teacher and Town of Essex historian, Chris Pagliuco, takes you on the run with  these iconic  English Civil War revolutionary fugitives. A fantastic history for lovers of liberty and the birth of constitutional monarchy.

Chris Pagliuco is a freelance writer who specializes in seventeenth-century colonial history. His interest in the regicides originated in his graduate studies in history at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is on the editorial team of Connecticut Explored, a quarterly history publication. He lives with his wife, two daughters and two dogs in Ivoryton, Connecticut. This is his first book.

Please call the store at 203-245-3959, or  click here to reserve your seat.    

Please call the store at 203-245-3959, or click here to reserve your seat.    

Please call the store at 203-245-3959, or click here to reserve your seat.    

Please call the store at 203-245-3959, or click here to reserve your seat.    

Please call the store at 203-245-3959, or click here to reserve your seat.    

Please call the store at 203-245-3959, or click here to reserve your seat.    

Enjoy a delightful waterfront luncheon at the newly renovated Madison Beach Hotel, and lose yourself as you listen to two of our favorite Summer Reads authors discuss their novels' inspirations and summertime settings.  

Elin Hilderbrand's, Summerland is set on a warm June evening, during a local tradition: the students of Nantucket High have gathered for a bonfire on the beach. What begins as a graduation night celebration ends in tragedy after a horrible car crash leaves the driver of the car, Penny Alistair, dead, and her twin brother in a coma. The other passengers, Penny's boyfriend Jake and her friend Demeter, are physically unhurt - but the emotional damage is overwhelming, and questions linger about what happened before Penny took the wheel.

Joshua Henkin's, The World Without You, set on the 4th of July, 2005, has the Frankel family descending upon their beloved summer home in the Berkshires. But this is no ordinary holiday. The family has gathered to memorialize Leo, the youngest of the four siblings, an intrepid journalist and adventurer who was killed on that day in 2004, while on assignment in Iraq. Set against the backdrop of Independence Day and the Iraq War, The World Without You is a novel about sibling rivalries and marital feuds, about volatile women and silent men, and, ultimately, about the true meaning of family.

Please call the store at 203-245-3959, or  click here to reserve your seat.