IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER by Julia Spencer-Fleming

FIC/MYS

Spencer-Fleming

Clare Fergusson, former army helicopter pilot, is the first Episcopal woman priest in small-town Miller's Kill, N.Y. Clare is having enough trouble with the cold weather and her conservative parishioners when she finds a baby abandoned in the church. This event brings police chief Russ Van Alstyne, a religious skeptic, to her door. Opposites are forced together when the baby's mother is found murdered. Since the policeman is married, both suppress the growing attraction between them. As this is the first in a series, their relationship is sure to be explored further.

THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant

FIC

DIAMANT

Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob, tells the story of her father, his relationships with her mother, Leah, and his three other wives, all Leah's sisters, Dinah herself, and her many brothers. Her tale, told from the viewpoint of the women involved, is a good deal more detailed and believable than that told long after by men in the Hebrew Bible. After her marriage to an Egyptian and his betrayal at the hands of her hateful brothers and treacherous father, Dinah's story takes her and her readers to Egypt, where she comes to happiness and , in full circle, to her brother Joseph, now a man of power.

While some more conservative readers might disapprove of Dinah's version of events, since it departs in points from the Biblical story, most women familiar with the original will find Dinah's recounting closer to real life and considerably more interesting. They will quickly understand why The Red Tent became a bestseller.