From the Midwest Booksellers Association, three recent Midwest Connections Picks. Under this marketing program, the association and member stores promote booksellers' handselling favorites that have a strong Midwest regional appeal:
The Hearts of Men by Nickolas Butler (Ecco/HarperCollins, $26.99, 9780062469687). "An epic novel of intertwining friendships and families set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin at a beloved Boy Scout summer camp, The Hearts of Men is a sweeping, panoramic novel about the slippery definitions of good and evil, family and fidelity, the challenges and rewards of lifelong friendships, the bounds of morality and redemption. The backdrop is the beautiful landscape of rural and small-town Wisconsin, where Butler was raised and now lives with his wife and two children."
Setting Free the Kites by Alex George (Penguin Books, $27, 9780399162107). "Honest and heartfelt, with echoes of novels by Wally Lamb and John Irving, Setting Free the Kites is both a poignant coming-of-age story and a moving family drama that explores the terrible costs of misplaced hope."
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel (Crown, $25, 9781101906668). "Vowing to discover the fate of her missing cousin, a woman returns to her family's Kansas estate where she spent one haunting summer as a teen, and where she discovered the dark heart of the Roanoke clan that left her no choice but to run."
