Sara Paretsky, known for her bestselling novels set in Chicago, has turned her focus to Kansas, her home state, for her latest novel. Bleeding Kansas tells the story of the Grelliers, a farming family whose Kansas roots extend back to the fight over slavery. Though times have changed many of the struggles they face, including clashes between neighbors over war and religion, are just as critical. Paretsky’s novel paints an intimate portrait of a family and community dealing with each other’s differences.

• Read a complete review of Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky

_{Cover Photo Courtesy Putnam}

In People of the Book, Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Geraldine Brooks presents a fictional history of the Sarajevo Haggadah -- an important Jewish book that originated in fifteenth-century Spain. People of the Book is a set of stories about the book's survival, woven together through the story of a conservationist who is trying to unlock the mysteries of the book in the mid-1990s.

• Read a complete review of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
• People of the Book - Book Club Discussion Questions

_{Cover Photo Courtesy Viking}

A Mercy by Toni Morrison is a short novel, and can be appreciated best when read in one or a couple sittings. Indeed, the the simple story is told in several voices, but reading these voices in succession weaves a tapestry that tells a larger story about America's history of slavery and the extermination of Native Americans. A Mercy is not plot or character driven -- it is about the voice of the past and what it means to be human.

• Read a complete review of A Mercy by Toni Morrison
• A Mercy Book Club Discussion Questions

_{Cover Photo Courtesy Knopf}

Sneaking onto the bestsellers list this week -- a financial guide and a diet book. It looks like people need a little help sticking to New Year's resolutions.