The Bluffton library is pre-stocking the holiday season's biggest titles

At this time of year, authors rush their books to publication in the hopes that their books will become holiday gifts. Luckily, the Bluffton library tries to stay ahead of demand by automatically purchasing titles published by popular authors -- and also by supplementing the library's permanent copies with additional copies from our lease plan. This enables the library to provide multiple copies of blockbuster titles during their peak demand periods and then exchange them for the next best-selling titles.

If you have plans to be out of town and don't want to miss your reserved copy when it becomes available, you can easily suspend your hold during the dates that you will be away and reactivate it when you return. Library cardholders can suspend/reactivate their books on hold by going towww.beaufortcountylibrary.org and logging in with their Beaufort County library card number and password. Library cardholders can contact the Library at 843-757-1519 if they do not know or cannot remember their password, or call the reference desk at 843-757-1537 for further assistance with using the Beaufort County Library System's online services.

The following pre-publication book summaries are provided by the McNaughton lease program. What follows is a tasty sampler of books offered up from some favorite authors for your reading pleasure:

Rainwater

By Sandra Brown

Ella Barron, mother of a 10-year-old son, runs her Texas boarding house with the efficiency of a ship's captain. But she finds herself pulled into an unusual series of events when she reluctantly rents one of her rooms to the handsome and dying Dr. David Rainwater. The winds of change are blowing all over Texas, just as they are in the life that Ella has painstakingly built for herself and her son ...

Breathless

By Dean Koontz

Grady Adams, 35, avoids the contemporary world and chooses instead to spend his time crafting furniture and wandering the forests and meadows surrounding his mountain home. One day, while on a walk, he glimpses two beautiful, furred animals unlike anything he's ever seen before. The sighting sets in motion a journey of mystery, menace, and wonder. Along for the ride is local veterinarian Camellia Rivers, who accompanies Grady as everything readers thought they knew about the natural world is challenged.

The Lacuna

By Barbara Kingsolver

Harrison William Shepherd is a man caught between two worlds. Although born in the U.S., he is raised in a series of provisional households in Mexico where his mother barely tolerates him while spending her time pursuing rich men. One fateful day, while mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, he casts his lot with art and revolution, and the gossip of public opinion.

The Gathering Storm

By Robert Jordan and

Brandon Sanderson

Jordan left this work partially completed when he passed away in 2007, and Sanderson was selected to bring to a close a journey that began almost 20 years ago, one that concludes the "Wheel of Time" series. Rand al'Thor -- the "Dragon Reborn" -- struggles to unite a network of kingdoms and alliances in preparation for the Last Battle. This is Book 12 in the "Wheel of Time" series.

I, Alex Cross

By James Patterson

Following the brutal murder of his niece, Alex has launched an all-out hunt for the killer. During his investigation he discovers that his niece was mixed up with some very important, dangerous people and is not the only one who may have been killed. The hunt leads him and his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, to Washington's most infamous club, where every fantasy is possible, and where a killer may lurk who wishes to keep his secrets buried at any cost.

Too Much Happiness: Stories

By Alice Munro

This group of stories shares difficult, complex, even harrowing emotions and events that people face and how they handle them. In one story, a young wife and mother of three children who were murdered by their father must find release from her emotional pain. In the title story, readers are taken into the journey of Russian immigrant Sonia Kovalevsky as she travels from the Riviera to Paris, Germany, the Danish Isles and finally Sweden.

Francesca Denton is the reference manager at the Bluffton library.