Suzanne Toren

When Germany invaded Poland, Stuka bombers devastated Warsaw--and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed...

A Washington Post Best Children's Book
This book for young readers explores in riveting detail the false panic created by the famous War of the Worlds radio broadcast from 1938—as well as the repercussions of "fake news" today.

On the night of October 30, 1938, thousands of Americans panicked when they believed that Martians had invaded Earth. What appeared to be breaking news about an alien invasion was in fact a radio...

A “wondrous” novel of fear, desire, loss, and discovery on Martha’s Vineyard by the New York Times–bestselling author of Practical Magic and Seventh Heaven (Chicago Tribune).
Elizabeth Renny has only made two decisions of consequence in her seventy-plus years. While the first, marrying her husband, had adequate results, the second—deciding she could fly...

A look at the lives of the real nurses depicted in the PBS show Mercy Street.
Heroines of Mercy Street tells the true stories of the nurses at Mansion House, the Alexandria, Virginia, mansion turned war-time hospital and setting for the PBS drama Mercy Street. Among the Union soldiers, doctors, wounded men from both sides, freed slaves, politicians, speculators, and spies who passed through the hospital in the crossroads...

"Former policeman Frank Malloy is frustrated when a woman requests his private detective services to implicate her wealthy husband in adultery, the only legal grounds for divorce in New York state. Although Mrs. Bing seems genuinely distressed about her marriage and desperate to end it, she refuses to tell Frank the reason she absolutely must divorce her husband and admits she has no legal grounds. Frank explains he won't manufacture evidence for...

"Nobody could accuse Frank Malloy of being a snob. As a former Irish Catholic policeman, he was, in fact, the kind of person snobs usually looked down on. He might be a millionaire now, but lots of people still looked down on him because he'd always be Irish no matter how much money he had. This was why he felt a little guilty about feeling snobbish about the prospective client who had just been escorted into his office. Hugh Breedlove, according...

"Midwife Sarah Malloy and her private investigator husband, Frank, must shine a light on the truth and catch the fiend who killed a young reporter in this new entry in the USA Today bestselling Gaslight Mystery series. Louisa Rodgers is working as a magazine reporter and is hoping midwife Sarah Malloy can help her. New Century Magazine, like Colliers and McClure's, is branching out into investigative articles on pressing social issues. Louisa explains...

Fifty-one-year-old Myra Lipinsky is the classic "old maid". Her job as a home-care nurse brings her into contact with many different people and gives her a sense of strength and importance. When Myra's high school crush Chip Reardon is assigned as her new patient, she longs for him as she did years ago. Chip is dying from a brain tumor and has chosen not to seek further treatment, letting nature take its course. Chip and Myra become lovers at a...

"There are over thirty thousand kinds of spiders in the world--small and large, colorful or gray--and they live, hunt, and adapt in different ways. A number of different species and spider behaviors are highlighted in this book, accompanied by clear, labeled illustrations and important vocabulary."--Publisher's description.

"The internationally bestselling author of the Guido Brunetti mysteries tells her own adventurous life story as she enters her eighties. In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony, and good humor, Donna Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned. From a childhood in the company of her New Jersey family, with frequent visits to her grandfather's farm and its beloved animals, and summers spent...