Created by Sandy Eichelberger - School Librarian, West Seneca East Senior High School
Favorite Recent Fiction Reads
(titles Sandy personally recommends, published 2011-2013)Defending Jacob – William Landay
When his 14-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student, assistant district attorney Andy Barber is torn between loyalty and justice as facts come to light that lead him to question how well he knows his own son.
Home Front – Kristin Hannah
Michael and Joleen Zarkades seem to have it all but after twelve years together, the couple has lost their way; they are unhappy and edging toward divorce when the Iraq war starts and unexpected deployment will tear their already fragile family apart, sending one of them deep into harm's way and leaving the other at home, waiting for news.
Sister – Rosamund Lupton
Bee is the only one unconvinced by the police report that declared her sister's death a suicide and moves into her apartment with the hope of piecing together the clues that will reveal the killer only to discover her sister had a stalker and was having an affair with a married man who got her pregnant.
Secret Keeper – Kate Mortonbr
Fifty years after she witnessed a shocking crime at her family's farm in the English countryside, Laurel, now a successful London actress, returns to the farm and is overwhelmed by family secrets she has not thought of in decades.
Summerland – Elin Hildebrand
What begins as a graduation night celebration ends in tragedy after a horrible car crash leaves the driver, Penny Alistair, dead, and her twin brother in a coma. This tragedy explores the power of community, family, and honesty, and proves that even from the ashes of sorrow new love can take flight.
Light Between Oceans – M. L. Stedman
A novel set on a remote Australian island, where a childless couple live quietly running a lighthouse, until a boat carrying a baby washes ashore.
Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
When Nick Dunne’s beautiful and clever wife, Amy, goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary, the media descend on the Dunnes’ Missouri McMansion with all the fury of a Dateline episode. What looks like a straightforward case of a husband killing his wife to free himself from a bad marriage morphs into something entirely different.
Casual Vacancy – J. K. Rowling
When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. The empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected revelations?
Midwife of Hope River – Patricia Harman
Patience Murphy, a midwife getting started in 1930s Appalachia, willingly takes on hard-luck cases even as she guards her own secrets. From the dangerous mines of West Virginia to the terrifying attentions of the Ku Klux Klan, Patience must strive to bring new light and life into an otherwise hard world.
Next to Love – Ellen Feldman
The lives of three childhood friends, Babe, Millie, and Grace are forever changed when their husbands and boyfriends are called away from their small town in Massachusetts to fight in World War II, but the women manage to maintain their friendship while they struggle to raise their children and find meaning in unexpected places.
Sandcastle Girls – Chris Bohjalian
Parallel stories of a woman who falls in love with an Armenian soldier during the Armenian Genocide of World War I and a modern-day New Yorker prompted to rediscover her Armenian past.
Round House – Louise Erdich
After Geraldine Coutts is attacked on the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota, her husband Bazil, a tribal judge, tries to find justice for his wife, and their teenage son.
Iron House – John Hart
Michael, an enforcer for a New York organized crime family who fled the Iron Mountain Home for Boys after taking the blame for the murder of another orphan, falls in love with Elena and wishes he can start a new life and build a family with her, but the past and brother he left behind, as well as the vengeful son of the mob boss for whom he works, threaten his chance at happiness and he must confront them in order to have a future with Elena.
The Snowman – Jo Nesbo
Police investigator Harry Hole searches for a connection between suspicious letters he is receiving and the disappearance of Jonas's mother, along with a dozen other women, on the day of the first snowfall in Oslo.
The Samaritan – Stephen Besecker
Kevin "Hatch" Easter, a half Seneca Indian working as a tracker for the Central Intelligence Agency, finds his life shattered when his wife Karen is killed by the mob, and soon after, someone starts hunting down and killing anyone who may have had a hand in her murder.
The Book of Jonas - Stephen Dau
An exceptional debut novel about a young Muslim war orphan whose family is killed in a military operation gone wrong, and the American soldier to whom his fate, and survival, is bound.
Recommended Fiction Titles
(published in the past few years):Between the Lines - Jodi Picoult & Samantha van Leer (book with daughter)
Fifteen-year-old Delilah likes nothing better than to escape into a book when high school life gets too depressing. But after the hero of her favorite fairy tale comes to life before her eyes, she starts to wonder if she's been spending too much time with books and not enough time with real people.
Tell the Wolves I’m Home- Carol Ritka Brunt
Her world upended by the death of a beloved artist uncle who was the only person that understood her, fourteen-year-old June is mailed a teapot by her uncle's grieving friend, with whom she forges a poignant relationship.
22 Britannia Road – Amanda Hodgkinson
Silvana, married to Janusz only a few months before they are separated by World War II, spends over six years hiding out in the forests of Poland with their son, Aurek, while Janusz, the sole survivor of his military unit, retreats to France where he begins an affair with a local girl, and their experiences make it difficult for them to become a family when the hostilities finally end.
And the Mountains Echoed – Kahlad Hosseini
It begins powerfully in 1952. Saboor is a dirt-poor day laborer in a village two days walk from Kabul. His first wife died giving birth to their daughter Pari, who's now 4 and has been raised lovingly by her brother, 10-year-old Abdullah. This bittersweet family saga spans six decades and transports readers from Afghanistan to France, Greece, and the United States. Weaving a gorgeous tapestry of disparate characters joined by threads of blood and fate.
Benediction – Kent Haruf
A terminally ill cancer patient is attended throughout his final days by his wife and daughter while the trio contemplates their relationships with an estranged son, and a situation that stirs up painful memories for a new next-door neighbor who has recently lost her mother.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain
A satire set in Texas during America's war in Iraq that explores the gaping national disconnect between the war at home and the war abroad. Follows the surviving members of the heroic Bravo Squad through one exhausting stop in their media-intensive "Victory Tour" at Texas Stadium, football mecca of the Dallas Cowboys, their fans, promoters, and cheerleaders.
Sweet Tooth – Ian McEwan
Serena Frome, the beautiful daughter of an Anglican bishop, is being groomed for the intelligence services after a brief affair with an older man during her final year at Cambridge. She is sent on a secret mission and comes in contact with a promising young writer, Tom Haley, and while at first she loves his books, she then comes to love the man, and while trying to maintain her undercover life she breaks the first rule of espionage, trust no one.
Phantom – Jo Nesbo
When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong—fleeing the traumas of life as a cop—he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn't help deserting when he fled. Harry has come back to prove that Oleg is not a killer. Barred from rejoining the police force, he sets out on a solitary, increasingly dangerous investigation that takes him deep into the world of the most virulent drug to ever hit the streets of Oslo.
Burgess Boys – Elizabeth Strout
Catalyzed by a nephew's thoughtless prank, a pair of brothers confront painful psychological issues surrounding the freak accident that killed their father when they were boys, a loss linked to a heartbreaking deception that shaped their personal and professional lives.
Flight Behavior – Barbara Kingsolver
Tired of living on a failing farm and suffering oppressive poverty, bored housewife Dellarobia Turnbow, on the way to meet a potential lover, is detoured by a miraculous event on the Appalachian mountainside that ignites a media and religious firestorm that changes her life forever.
Mill River Recluse – Darcie Chan
Disfigured by the blow of an abusive husband, and suffering her entire life with severe social anxiety disorder, the widow Mary McAllister spends almost sixty years secluded in a white marble mansion overlooking the town of Mill River, Vermont
Save Me – Lisa Scottoline
Rose McKenna works as a volunteer at her daughter Melly's school, hoping to keep an eye on Amanda, the girl who has been bullying Melly, but when an explosion throws the school into chaos, Rose must chose between saving her daughter and saving Amanda, and her decision threatens to destroy all their lives.
Snow Child – Eowyn Ivey
Homesteaders Jack and Mabel struggle to survive in the harsh Alaskan wilderness, but the couple's quiet life of hard work and routine suddenly changes when a small girl named Faina magically appears on their doorstep.
Canada – Richard Ford
When his parents are arrested for robbing a bank, Dell Parson is sent to Canada under the care of Arthur Remlinger and tries to reconcile with his life, only to find himself at odds with Remlinger's violent ways.
Yellow Birds - Kevin Powers
In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy's platoon battles for the city; they do everything to protect each other from insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger.
Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson
Son of an influential father, Pak Jun Do rises through the ranks in North Korea to a life of espionage, kidnapping, and torture, and eventually falls for the dictator's favorite actress.
Age of Miracles – Karen Thompson Walker
Julia struggles as she comes of age when she learns, along with the rest of the world, that the Earth has begun to slow its rotation, drastically changing gravity and the environment.
Hologram for the King – Dave Eggars
This sad-funny-dreamlike story unfolds to become an allegory about the frustrations of middle-class America, about the woes unemployed workers and sidelined entrepreneurs have experienced in a newly globalized world in which jobs are being outsourced abroad.
Letters From Home – Kristina McMorris
Liz has little interest in mingling with servicemen at a USO club dance due to her engagement to her childhood sweetheart, but a brief encounter with Morgan McClain leaves a lasting impression on Liz, who reluctantly agrees to ghostwrite letters to him for her friend, Betty, but all the while she feels regret that Morgan does not know her true identity.
House I Loved – Tatiana de Rosnay
Rose Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home during Emperor Napoleon III's renovation of Paris and while she stakes her claim in the basement she begins to write letters to her dead husband and is forced to come to terms with a secret that has been buried for thirty years.
Art of Fielding – Chad Harbach
Henry Skirmshander, the star of a small college team found on the shore of Lake Michigan, is overcome with self-doubt, which threatens his future; meanwhile, four others--including Henry's best friend and teammate, who realizes he has sacrificed his own dreams for his friend's, Henry's gay roommate, college president Guert Affenlight, and Guert's daughter--also find themselves forced to confront their own secrets.
The Cove – Ron Rash
Living deep within a cove in the Appalachians of North Carolina during World War I, Laurel Shelton finally finds the happiness she deserves in Walter, a mysterious stranger who is mute, but their love cannot protect them from a devastating secret.
The Soldier’s Wife – Margaret Leroy
Vivienne de la Mare struggles to provide for her two young daughters and her mother-in-law while her husband is fighting in World War II, and when she falls in love with a German soldier living next door, she must decide if she is willing to risk her personal happiness, and her family's safety, for the life of a stranger.
A Land More Kind Than Home – Wiley Cash
The lives of nine-year-old Jess Hall, town midwife and church matriarch Adelaide Lyle, sheriff Clem Barefield, and the other residents of Marshall, North Carolina, are forever changed after Jess's autistic and mute brother, Stump, sneaks a look at something he is not supposed to see and mysteriously dies during a snake-handling religious service.
The Lifeboat – Charlotte Rogan
Forced into an overcrowded lifeboat after a mysterious explosion on their trans-Atlantic ocean liner, newly widowed Grace Winter battles the elements and her fellow survivors and remembers her husband Henry, who set his own safety aside to ensure Grace's.
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore – Robin Sloan
Clay Jannon, the new night clerk at Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore, notices the strange behavior of the customers and is determined to find out what is really going on.
The Fever Tree – Jennifer McVeigh
The Fever Tree is a compelling portrait of colonial South Africa, its raw beauty and deprivation alive in equal measure. But above all it is a love story about how—just when we need it most—fear can blind us to the truth.
White Dog Fell From the Sky – Eleanor Morse
Medical student, Isaac Muthethe, is forced to flee South Africa in 1976 when he is hired as a gardener by a young American woman, Alice Mendelssohn. When her husband goes missing, they go to Africa to search for him.
The Death of Bees – Lisa O’Donnell
Fifteen-year-old Marnie and her little sister, Nelly, are on their own after they bury their parents in the backyard and after a while the old man from next door, Lennie, takes them in but soon their friends, teachers and the police begin to ask too many questions about their parents and the lies begin to stack up.
The Last Runaway – Tracy Chevalier
Forced to leave England and struggling with illness in the wake of a family tragedy, Quaker Honor Bright is forced to rely on strangers in the harsh landscape of 1850 Ohio and is compelled to join the Underground Railroad network to help runaway slaves escape to freedom.
The History of Us – Leah Stewart
Three grown siblings return to their childhood home and face a family secret that forces them to reexamine their relationships to each other and the aunt that took them in.
Cover of Snow – Jenny Milchman
In the wake of her stalwart police officer husband's shattering suicide in their otherwise peaceful Adirondack village, house restorer Nora Hamilton notices strange inconsistencies in her husband's past and in the behaviors of his police force co-workers before stumbling on deadly local secrets.
HHhH – Laurent Binet
A fictional account of the escape of Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubs from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to England where they are recruited by the British secret service to assassinate Nazi Reinhard Heydrich.
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend – Dick Matthews
Max Delaney has Asperger's and an imaginary friend named Budo. Budo defends Max from bullies in school and fears the day when Max will stop believing in him.
Arcadia – Lauren Groff
The rise and fall of Arcadia, a hippy commune, and its lasting impact on Bit, a gifted young man.
Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walter
This story follows a young Italian innkeeper and his almost-love affair with a beautiful American starlet, which draws him into a glittering world filled with unforgettable characters.
Winter of the World – Ken Follett
A story of five interrelated families as they become entangled in events from the beginning of the twentieth century, from the rise of the Third Reich, through the Spanish Civil War and the great dramas of World War II, up to the explosions of the American and Soviet atomic bombs.
Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
Twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent, having met banker Tinker Grey while hanging out at a Greenwich Village jazz bar, finds her way into the upper echelons of New York society, and, as she makes new friends and waits for circumstances to bring Tinker back into her life, she begins to realize she regrets some of the choices she has made.
Silver Sparrow – Tayari Jones
In 1980s Atlanta fifteen-year-old Dana Lynn Yarboro, who is aware her father has another family and a daughter her age, crosses paths with Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon and the two begin a friendship which is complicated when Dana realizes Bunny is her half sister.
The Weird Sisters – Eleanor Brown
Three estranged sisters are surprised when they all show up at their childhood home, each hoping to spend time with and help care for their ailing mother while they escape their own troubles, and as the sisters struggle to find common ground they each come to realizations about their sisterhood and the small town they all sought to leave as children.
Paris Wife – Paula McLain
Portrays the love affair and marriage between Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Mowrer from their Chicago meeting in 1920 to their lives during the Jazz Age in Paris, but as Ernest struggles to find his literary voice, Hadley tries to define her role in their relationship as wife, friend, and muse.
Caleb’s Crossing – Geraldine Brooks
Bethia Mayfield befriends Caleb, the son of a Wampanoag chieftain, as she grows up near Martha's Vineyard in the mid-seventeenth century, and watches as her minister father attempts to convert the Native Americans, but the fates of the children are tied together as Bethia's father encourages the education of Caleb, a privilege Bethia has always wished for, and the two are reunited in Cambridge.
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves – Kristina McMorris
Violinist Maddie elopes with Lane Moritomo, the ambitious son of Japanese immigrants, but after Pearl Harbor is bombed, Lane is seen as the enemy and she must sacrifice her Juilliard ambitions when he is interned at a war relocation camp.
The Lost Wife - Alyson Richman
After the Nazi invasion of Prague, Josef is separated from his wife, Lenka, and, believing she has died, moves to America, where he becomes a successful doctor and tries to move on with his life, unaware that Lenka survived the Nazi ghetto of Terezin, relying on her artistic skills and the memories of her beloved Josef, until a chance encounter decades later reunites them and shows them the resilience of the human spirit.
Salvage the Bones : a novel – Jesmyn Ward
Pregnant fifteen-year-old Esch and her family live in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, which puts them in the path of Hurricane Katrina, and as they try to stock the small amount of food they have in preparation for the disaster, the family's love for each other will be their only hope for survival.
A Walk Across the Sun - Corban Addison
Seventeen-year-old Ahalya Ghai and her fifteen-year-old sister Sita are left orphaned after a tsunami destroys their town and they are abducted by human traffickers, halfway across the world attorney Thomas Clarke volunteers to help India with the prosecuting of human traffickers when he sees Ahalya and Sita he makes it his personal mission to save them.
Heading Out to Wonderful – Robert Goolrick
In 1948, a mysterious and charismatic man arrives in a small Virginia town carrying two suitcases; one contains his worldly possessions, the other is full of money, and he soon inserts himself into the town's daily life, taking a job in the local butcher shop and befriending the owner and his wife and their son, but the passion that develops between the man and the wife of the town's wealthiest citizen sets in motion a series of events that not only upset the quiet town but threaten to destroy both him and the woman.
Girlchild – Tupelo Hassman
Follows the struggles of Rory Hendrix as she searches for a way out of her life of poverty at the Calle, a run-down Reno trailer park where she lives with her mother Jo, a hard-luck bartender at the Truck Stop.
The Watch – Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya
Following a desperate night-long battle, a group of beleaguered soldiers in an isolated base in Kandahar are faced with a lone woman demanding the return of her brother’s body. Is she a spy, a black widow, a lunatic? Or is she what she claims to be: a grieving young sister intent on burying her brother according to local rites? Single-minded in her mission, she refuses to move from her spot on the field in full view of every soldier in the stark outpost. Her presence quickly proves dangerous as the camp’s tense, claustrophobic atmosphere comes to a boil when the men begin arguing about what to do next.
Family Pictures – Jane Green
As dark truths from the past reveal themselves, two middle-aged women must learn to forgive--for the sake of their children and themselves.
Touch and Go – Lisa Gardner
Tessa Leoni arrives at the Boston brownstone of the Denbes to investigate the disappearance of Justin, Libby, and their fifteen-year-old daughter, Ashlyn, and uncovers secrets about the seemingly perfect family.
What Happened to Hannah – Mary Kay McComas
As a teenager, Hannah Benson ran away from home in order to save herself. Twenty years later, this loner is called home by tragedy, finding herself the sole responsible party for a troubled teenage niece.
The Things We Cherished – Pam Jenoff
Attorneys Charlotte Gold and Jack Warrington find themselves falling in love while defending Roger Dykmans, a wealthy financier and the brother of a Holocaust hero, who has been accused of World War II-era crimes.
Aviator’s Wife – Melanie Benjamin
A fictional account of the relationship between famed pilot Charles Lindberg and his wife Anne.
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
Harold Fry is convinced that he must deliver a letter to an old love in order to save her, meeting various characters along the way and reminiscing about the events of his past and people he has known, as he tries to find peace and acceptance.
Ordinary Grace – William Kent Krueger
Thirteen-year-old Frank Drum is living with his family in New Bremen, Minnesota, in the summer 1961, when tragedy strikes hard and frequently and Frank is thrust into an adult world of secrets, lies, and betrayal.
Me Before You – JoJo Moyes
"They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose--Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life--steady boyfriend, close family--who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after a motorcycle accident.
Breakfast With Buddha – Roland Merullo
Otto Ringling is persuaded by his sister to give her guru Volya Rinpoche a ride from New York City to North Dakota as Otto prepares to return and settle his deceased parents' estate, and as he introduces the holy man to cultural landmarks, he receives an education in the art of living a peaceful, happy life.
Mudbound – Hillary Jordan
The shaky marriage between Henry McAllan and his city-bred wife Laura becomes even more unstable when his brother Jamie returns from World War II in 1946 to help work the family's miserable cotton farm in the Mississippi Delta, along with his comrade-in-arms Ronsel Jackson, the oldest son of local sharecroppers, who soon learns that his heroics in battle mean nothing in the Jim Crow south.
Life Among Giants – Bill Roorbach
When David "Lizard" Hochmeyer's parents are murdered he sets out on a path to recovery and finding his parents' killer as he finds himself surrounded by a wide variety of famous people.
The Art Forger – B.A. Shapiro
Young artist Clair Roth, who reproduces famous works of art for an online retailer, is drawn in to the world of art forgery when she is persuaded to forge a Degas masterpiece for the Gardner Museum to replace a stolen painting.
The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
A circus known as Le Cirque des Reves features two illusionists, Celia and Marco, who are unknowingly competing in a game to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters, and as the two fall deeply and passionately in love with each other, their masters intervene with dangerous consequences.
In Darkness – Nick Lake
In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, Shorty, a poor, fifteen-year-old gang member from the slums of Site Soleil, is trapped in the rubble of a hospital and as he grows weaker, he has visions and memories of his life of violence, his lost twin sister, and of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who liberated Haiti from French rule in 1804.
Sailor Twain, or, The Mermaid in the Hudson – Mark Siegel
Captain Elijah Twain rescues a mermaid from the Hudson River and nurses her back to health in the secrecy of his cabin, while the owner of the steamboat Twain captains, Lafayette, harbors secrets of his own. Meanwhile, reclusive author C.G. Beaverton publishes a new book that may hold answers for both men.
Killing Floor (and others in the Jack Reacher series) – Lee Child
Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He’s just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he’s arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Reacher knows is that he didn’t kill anybody. At least not here. Not lately. But he doesn’t stand a chance of convincing anyone. Not in Margrave, Georgia. Not a chance in hell.
The Black Echo (and others in the Harry Bosch series) – Michael Connelly
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal...because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him.
Left Neglected – Lisa Genova
Consulting firm vice president and mother of three Sarah Nickerson is forced to give up some control over her life when she is in a car accident and suffers a traumatic brain injury, and, as she tries to regain her independence, she also realizes that happiness and success may not be about having the perfect career and a lot of money.
Love, Anthony – Lisa Genova
Olivia, the mother of a severely autistic eight-year-old son who has recently died, and Beth, a separated mother of three, meet by accident on a Nantucket beach and are drawn into a friendship.
Life Among Giants – Bill Roorbach
When David "Lizard" Hochmeyer's parents are murdered he sets out on a path to recovery and finding his parents' killer as he finds himself surrounded by a wide variety of famous people.
The Storyteller – Jodi Picoult
Sage Singer must decide what to do after she begins a relationship with Joseph Weber and he makes a confession about his past to her.
Heading out to Wonderful – Robert Goolrick
In 1948, a mysterious and charismatic man arrives in a small Virginia town carrying two suitcases; one contains his worldly possessions, the other is full of money, and he soon inserts himself into the town's daily life, taking a job in the local butcher shop and befriending the owner and his wife and their son, but the passion that develops between the man and the wife of the town's wealthiest citizen sets in motion a series of events that not only upset the quiet town but threaten to destroy both him and the woman.
City of Women – David R. Gillham
It is 1943—the height of the Second World War. With the men away at the front, Berlin has become a city of women. On the surface, Sigrid Schröder is the model German soldier’s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman of passion who dreams of her former Jewish lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets—she soon finds herself caught between what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two . . .
The House Girl – Tara Conklin
Lina Sparrow, an ambitious lawyer working on a class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for the descendants of American slaves, learns that the art of revered painter Lu Anne Bell is suspected to be that of her house slave, Josephine, and seeks a descendant of Josephine to join the lawsuit.
The Walk (and others in The Walk series) – Paul Richard Evans
What would you do if you lost everything—your job, your home, and the love of your life—all at the same time? When it happens to Seattle ad executive Alan Christoffersen, he’s tempted by his darkest thoughts. Instead, he decides to take a walk. But not any ordinary walk. Taking with him only the barest of essentials, Alan leaves behind all that he’s known and heads for the farthest point on his map: Key West, Florida. The people he encounters along the way, and the lessons they share with him, will save his life—and inspire yours.
The Language of Flowers – Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Eighteen-year-old Victoria Jones, having been emancipated from the foster care system and planted a flower garden in the park in which she slept, is hired to work for a local florist, and, after meeting a mysterious vendor at the flower market, she is forced to confront her past and decide what she wants for her future.
Habibi – Craig Thompson
Dodola and Zam, child refugee slaves, become bound to one another in circumstance and in love as they navigate through a greed-driven world of deserts, harems, and industrial clutter in search of a place in the world to call their own. (Graphic Novel)
Are You My Mother – Alison Bechdel
Writer and cartoonist Alison Bechdel writes about her relationship with her mother. (Graphic Novel)
Kinsey and Me – Sue Grafton
Presents nine short stories featuring detective Kinsey Millhone and thirteen short stories inspired by the author's personal life and family.
Best of the Best
– Not to be MissedThe Help – Kathryn Stockett
Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan – Lisa See
Water For Elephants – Sarah Gruen
Plainsong – Kent Haruf
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
The Girls – Lori Lansens
Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
Dream When You’re Feeling Blue – Elizabeth Berg
Last Town on Earth – Tomas Mullen
1000 Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
The Host - Stephenie Meyer
Skeletons at the Feast – Chris Bohjalian
The Double Bind – Chris Bohjalian
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer
Crow Lake – Mary Lawson
Every Last One – Anna Quindlen
Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafron
Invisible Bridge – Julie Orringer
A Game of Thrones – George R.R. Martin (& sequels)
Secrets of Eden : a novel – Chris Bohjalian
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter – Tom Franklin
Night Road – Kristin Hannah
Girl in Translation – Jean Kwok
Faithful Place – Tana French
Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton
Cutting For Stone – Abraham Verghese
Still Alice – Lisa Genova
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand – Helen Simonson
The Lincoln Lawyer – Michael Connelly
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
The Lake of Dead Languages – Carol Goodman
Reliable Wife – Robert Goolrick
The Book Club – Mary Alice Monroe
Recommended Nonfiction Titles
(published in the last few years):End of Your Life Book Club – Will Schwalbe
Will Schwalbe shares his experiences with his mother, Mary Anne, when they formed a bond through reading and discussing the books they read during the two years she was being treated for terminal cancer.
Wild – Cheryl Strayed
A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.
Double Cross : The True Story of the D-Day Spies – Ben Macintyre
Recounts the story of the six double agents, Bronx, Brutus, Treasure, Tricycle, and Garbo, who would weave a web of deception so intricate that it ensnared Hitler's army and helped to carry thousands of troops across the Channel in safety on June 6, 1944, D-Day.
Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg
Looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale.
The Favored Daughter : One Woman's Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future – Fawzia Koofi
Afghanistan's first female parliament deputy speaker tells her dramatic life story and, through the letters she writes to her two daughters, shares her hopes for their future and the entire female population of Afghanistan.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in Mumbai Undercity – Katherine Boo
When Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking – Susan Cain
Explores the role introverts play in a world that is geared towards those who enjoy communicating with others and offers practical suggestions at how introverts can make sure their message is heard.
Yes, Chef – Marcus Samuelsson
It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmother’s house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. Chronicles Samuelsson’s journey, from his grandmother’s kitchen to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a New York Times three-star rating at the age of twenty-four.
Visit Sunny Chernobyl - Andrew Blackwell
Immersive first-person reporting with satire and analysis, making the case that it's time to start appreciating our planet as-is—not as we wish it to be. Equal parts travelogue, expose environmental memoir, and faux guidebook, Blackwell careens through a rogue's gallery of environmental disaster areas in search of the worst the world has to offer.
Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher – Timothy Egan
Chronicles the life and career of photographer Edward Curtis, who was determined to capture the life of Native Americans before they disappeared.
Until Tuesday: a wounded warrior and the golden retriever who saved him - Luis Montalvan
Iraq War veteran Luis Carlos Montalvan shares his experiences trying to recover from the physical and psychological effects of the war after he returned home and discusses how a service dog named Tuesday helped him cope with his experiences and move forward in his life.
Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
Charles Duhigg, business reporter for the "New York Times," discusses the science behind habits and explains how habits work, why they exist, and how a person can endeavor to change their nature.
Mortality – Christopher Hitchens
As he battles esophagal cancer, author Christopher Hitchens reflects on illness and mortality.
Brain on Fire – Susannah Cahalan
The author relates what she underwent during a month-long hospital stay during which she was diagnosed with encephalitis and discusses how the autoimmune disease affected her mental stability and her hospitalization influenced her life and family.
Her – Christa Parravani
A blazingly passionate memoir of identity and love: when a charismatic and troubled young woman dies tragically, her identical twin must struggle to survive.
Zeitoun – Dave Eggers
Details the experiences of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-American and New Orleans resident, and his family, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and describes how he was arrested and falsely imprisoned because of his ethnicity.
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates – Wes Moore
The author, a Rhodes scholar and combat veteran, analyzes the various sociocultural factors that influenced him as well as another man of the same name and from the same neighborhood who was drawn into a life of drugs and crime and ended up serving life in prison, focusing on the influence of relatives, mentors, and social expectations that could have led either of them on different paths.
Sum It Up – Pat Summit
Autobiography of Pat Summitt, covering her childhood in Tennessee, building and coaching the Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball team, and health struggles, especially early onset Alzheimer's disease.
Until I Say Goodbye – Susan Spencer-Wendel
Susan Spencer-Wendel's who makes the most of her final days after discovering she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Her unforgettable gift to her loved ones and to us: a record of their final experiences together and a reminder that every day is better when it is lived with joy.
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
Examines the experiences of the children and husband of Henrietta Lacks, who, twenty years after her death from cervical cancer in 1951, learned doctors and researchers took cells from her cervix without consent which were used to create the immortal cell line known as the HeLa cell; provides an overview of Henrietta's life; and explores issues of experimentation on African-Americans and bioethics.
In the Garden of the Beasts : Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin – Erik Larson
William E. Dodd becomes the American ambassador to Germany, where he witnesses first-hand the atrocities of Hitler's regime and watches his daughter fall in love with a Nazi officer.
Some Assembly Required – Anne Lamott
Stunned to learn that her son Sam is about to become a father at nineteen Anne Lamott begins a journal about the first year of her grandson Jax's life. In careful and often hilarious detail Lamott and Sam - about whom she first wrote so movingly in Operating Instructions - struggle to balance their changing roles with the demands of college and work as they both forge new relationships with Jax’s mother who has her own ideas about raising a child.
Killing Kennedy – Bill O’Reilly
Recounts in gripping detail the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and how a sequence of gunshots on a Dallas afternoon not only killed a beloved president but also sent the nation into the cataclysmic division of the Vietnam War and its culture-changing aftermath.
Killing Lincoln – Bill O’Reilly
Provides an account of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, discussing how actor John Wilkes Booth and his fellow Confederate sympathizers hatched their murderous plot, and following the ensuing manhunt, trials, and executions of the conspirators.
Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch – Sally Bedell Smith
Chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II, discussing her childhood, education, royal responsibilities, marriage, family challenges, and the tragedy and traditions of her life.
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake – Anna Quindlen
Bestselling author Anna Quindlen writes about her life and the lives of women today, looking back and ahead--and celebrating it all--as she considers marriage, girlfriends, mothers, faith, loss, all that stuff in closets, and more.
Mrs. Kennedy and Me – Clint Hill
An intimate and fascinating memoir by Clint Hill, who spent four years as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's Secret Service agent.
Far From the Tree: Parents,Children and the Search for Identity – Andrew Solomon
Examines the impact of diversity on families, focusing on parenting children with physical and mental disabilities, child prodigies, children conceived in rape, children who become criminals, and transgender children.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers – Katherine Boo
Examines and provides real-life accounts of urban poor families living in Bombay, India.
The Dirty Life – Kristin Kimball
Kristin Kimball presents a chronicle of her first year on Essex Farm near Lake Champlain after giving up her life as a writer in New York City to live with a dynamic young farmer--who eventually became her husband--and work with him to create an organic farm that would provide everything needed to feed a community.
Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe – J. Randy Tarborelli
Chronicles the life of Marilyn Monroe, and discusses the relationships she had with three women who had an impact on her life, which includes her mentally unstable mother--Gladys Baker--foster mother--Ida Bolender--and legal guardian--Grace McKee.
The Drunken Botanist – Amy Stewart
In The Drunken Botanist, Amy Stewart explores the dizzying array of herbs, flowers, trees, fruits, and fungi that humans have, through ingenuity, inspiration, and sheer desperation, contrived to transform into alcohol over the centuries. Of all the extraordinary and obscure plants that have been fermented and distilled, a few are dangerous, some are downright bizarre, and one is as ancient as dinosaurs—but each represents a unique cultural contribution to our global drinking traditions and our history.
Fooling Houdini – Alex Stone
An exploration of the world of magic that teaches the reader many tricks-- including how better to understand the real world.
