Presentation from the Winnetka-Northfield Library to the Rotary Club of Winnetka-Northfield on good winter reads.

1. A five-year-old narrates a story about his life growing up in a single room where his mother aims to protect him from the man who has held her prisoner for seven years since she was a teenager. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Room by Emma Donoghue 2010

2. You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon 2011 Reminiscent of Raymond Carver and Tim O'Brien, an unforgettable collection of intercollected short stories. Annotation provided by Penguin Putnum.

3. Father of the Rain by Lily King 2010 Rendered a pawn in her parents' manipulative divorce, Daley embarks on an adolescence fraught by her mother's liberal social commitments and her conservative father's alcoholism, from which she flees in adulthood only to be drawn back when her father hits bottom. By the award-winning author of The English Teacher. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor.

4. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson 2010 Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor.

5. Former Bolshoi ballerina Nina Revskaya auctions off her jewelry collection and becomes overwhelmed by memories of her homeland, the friends she left behind amidst Stalinist aggression, and the dark secret that brought her to a new life in Boston. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay 2010

6. The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter 2009 Matt Prior is losing his job, his wife, and his house, and he's about to lose his mind--until he discovers a way that he might possibly be able to save it all. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor.

7. The lives of four strangers are thrown into chaos over an enormous, stolen desk, including an antique dealer in Jerusalem, a man in London and an American novelist who inherited it from a poet and victim of Pinochet's secret police. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Great House by Nicole Krauss 2010

8. Alzheimer's researcher Dr. Victor Aaron cherishes memories of his idyllic marriage to his late wife, but suffers doubts about his carefully organized life and beliefs about memory when he discovers his wife's contradictory notes. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. You Lost Me There by Rosecrans Baldwin 2010

9. Having obsessed about his beloved wife's possible death throughout the course of their relationship, video game designer David is charged with her eventual murder by three investigators who harbor their own experiences with marital problems and murder. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross 2010

10. Private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro revisit the case that troubled them the most when the missing girl they found twelve years earlier--only to see her returned to a neglectful mother and a broken home--goes missing again. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Moonlight Mile by Dennis LeHane 2010

11. African-American Constable Silas Jones must confront his white former friend Larry Ott, who has lived under suspicion for 20 years since a girl disappeared while on a date with him, after another girl disappears and Larry is blamed once again. By the Edgar Award-winning author of Hell at the Breech. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin 2010

12. Jack Reacher clashes with an organized crime family that is terrorizing Nebraska corn country in their efforts to supply dangerous international customers, a battle that is complicated by the unsolved case of a missing child. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Worth Dying For by Lee Child 2010

13. In the first complete and uncensored edition of his autobiography, one of America's foremost authors and humorists relates experiences lived, people encountered, places visited, and judgments rendered throughout his lifetime. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1 Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith and the Editors of the Mark Twain Project 2010

14. The lead guitarist for The Rolling Stones offers a no-holds-barred account of his life, from a youth obsessed with Chuck Berry to his formation of the Stones and their subsequent stardom, in a book where the author frankly discusses his problems with drugs, his relationships, his estrangement from Mick Jagger, bandmate Brian Jones' death and more. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Life by Keith Richards 2010

15. Separates fact from fiction to reconstruct the life of the most influential woman of her era, revealing Cleopatra as a complex woman and shrewd monarch whose life and death reshaped the ancient world. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff 2010

16. A linguist and author shares what she discovered about Mandarin, China's most common language, while living in Shanghai and Beijing, and describes how it provided a window into her understanding of the romance, protocol, humor and relationships within modern China. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love and Language by Deborah Fallows 2010

17. The award-winning author of A Short History of Nearly Everything explores the ways in which homes reflect history, from a bathroom's revelations about medicine and hygiene to a kitchen's exposure of the stories of trade and nutrition. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson 2010

18. The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificently written "biography" of cancer--from its origins to the epic battle to cure, control, and conquer it. Annotation provided by Simon and Schuster. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

19. Expanding on an article that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly , the best-selling author of The Big Switch discusses the intellectual and cultural consequences of the Internet, and how it may be transforming our neural pathways for the worse. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr 2010

20. Explores classic heroines--including Scarlett O'Hara, Jo March, Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennet--and their equally admirable authors, showing today's women how to tap into their inner strengths and live life with intelligence, grace and confidence. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. The Heroine’s Bookshelf: Life Lessons, From Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder by Erin Blakemore 2010

21. Interweaves the story of British explorer Percy Fawcett, who vanished during a 1925 expedition into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, with the author's own adventure-filled quest into the uncharted wilderness to uncover the mysteries surrounding Fawcett's final journey and the secrets of what really lies deep in the Amazon jungle. Annotation provided by Baker & Taylor. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann 2009