"Hold Tight" by Harlan Coben. Coben continues to dominate the thriller genre in this latest examination of suburbia. Mike and Tia Baye's son Adam delivers typically teen angst to his befuddled family. As a precaution, Mike and Tia invest in a spyware program that will report every keystroke on Adam's personal computer so they can track his movements. The results terrify them, and then Adam disappears. Life moves forward, and the questions become complex: How far would you go to protect your family? How well do you know your children? Coben tackles the troubles not only of the Bayes but also of other families, creating a strikingly realistic X-ray of an entire neighborhood. A fast and exhilarating roller-coaster ride that you don't want to end, but hold on tight. Then take the time to hug your kids.

"Wit's End" by Karen Joy Fowler. In a change of pace from her best-selling "The Jane Austen Book Club," Fowler has written a mystery that's barely a mystery but is every bit an absorbing and funny novel. Rima, a woman who has mastered the art of losing (including her mother, brother, and father) arrives in Santa Cruz to stay with her godmother, the famous and reclusive mystery writer Addison Early, whose book titles and plots provide chuckles throughout. Rima wants to learn the truth of the nature of the relationship between Addison and Rima's father, who might have been complicit in an old murder, as implied in one of Addison's novels. Yet the greater mystery turns out to be Addison, who seeks to protect her privacy and her works from her increasingly intrusive fans. This inventive novel is one that ensnares readers in cunning deceptions, challenging them to separate the truth from fiction.

"The River: History and Hiking Trails of the South Fork of the Yuba" by Hank Meals. "The River" introduces readers to a wide range of hikes within the watershed of the South Yuba that range from 9,000 feet to 500 feet in elevation. This informative and entertaining guide contains 67 hikes and 16 maps. In addition to trails and side trips there are chapters on safety and the indigenous people, and a glossary. There are also observations, opinions, anecdotes, insights and experiences of the author on the trail. Hank Heals is an avid hiker who finds the Yuba River region an inexhaustible source of pleasure, inspiration and knowledge.

"Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog" by Ted Kerasote. While on a camping trip, Ted Kerasote met a dog, a Labrador mix, who was living on his own in the wild. They became attached to each other, and Kerasote decided to name the dog Merle and bring him home. There, he realized that living exclusively in the human world would diminish Merle's native intelligence. He put a dog door in his house so Merle could live both outside and in. A deeply touching portrait of a remarkable dog and his relationship with the author, Merle's Door explores the issues that all animals and their human companions face as their lives intertwine, bringing to bear the latest research into animal consciousness and behavior. Merle showed Kerasote how dogs might live if they were allowed to make more of their own decisions. Merle is a true character, yet Merle is also Everydog. An absolute treasure of a book. (New in trade paper)

"The Sum of Our Days A Memoir" by Isabel Allende. In this heartfelt memoir, Isabel Allende reconstructs the painful reality of her own life in the wake of tragic loss, the death of her daughter, Paula. Recalling the past thirteen years from the daily letters the author and her mother, who lives in Chile, wrote to each other, Allende bares her soul in a book that is as exuberant and full of life as its creator. She recounts the stories of the wildly eccentric, strong-minded, and eclectic tribe she gathers around her that becomes a new kind of family. Throughout, Allende shares her thoughts on love, marriage, motherhood, spirituality and religion, infidelity, addiction, and memory. Here, too, are the amazing stories behind Allende's books, the superstitions that guide her writing process, and her adventurous travels. Ultimately, "The Sum of Our Days" offers a unique tour of this gifted writer's inner world and of the relationships that have become essential to her life and work.

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Compiled by manager Susan Beck at The Book Seller, 107 Mill Street, Grass Valley, 272-2131. Hours are Mon. through Fri. 9:30 a.m. Ð 7 p.m., Sat. 9:30 a.m. Ð 5:30 p.m., and 11 a.m. Ð 4 p.m. Sunday.