Is your book club looking for a book to read? Check out a Book Club Kit!
Libraries who want to request a kit via interlibrary loan should email the request to: bbarton@sjpl.lib.mo.us
Book Club Kits
Updated May 2025
A book club kit contains a handy tote bag with 10 copies of one book (unless marked otherwise) and a discussion guide to assist book club leaders.
The kit is checked out to one group member who is responsible for all the materials. The group may keep the kit for up to 6 weeks. Book club kits may not be renewed.
The book club kits are housed at the Washington Park Library, but you can pick up the kit at any St. Joseph Public Library branch. Just let the librarian know which kit you would like to check out and we will let you know when it is available. Kits must be returned during open hours since they cannot be returned in the book drop.
The Friends of the St. Joseph Public Library funded the purchase of the books.
This Book Club Kit List contains a short summary of each title for your convenience. If you are searching for more information about a specific title, here are some trusted websites to get more information about your next read. These websites include Goodreads, Amazon, and LibraryThing. Professional review websites include The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews.
Available Sets
After This by Alice McDermott, 277 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A portrait of an American family during the middle decades of the twentieth century evokes the social, spiritual, and political turmoil of the era as seen through the experiences of a middle-class couple and their children.
After You by JoJo Moyes, 352 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living? Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.
All Adults Here by Emma Straub, 354 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident anywhere of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she’d been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence?
All That Is Mine I Carry with Me by William Landay, 320 pages. 9 regular print copies, 1 large print copy. Three grown siblings confront their father’s role in their mother’s disappearance in this arresting novel. Jane Larkin disappeared without a trace in November 1976. When ten-year-old Miranda arrives home from school that autumn afternoon, finding her mother’s pocketbook in its usual spot in the front hall, she assumes her mother will be back any minute. But as the hours tick by, alone in the house, Miranda becomes filled with a steady certainty that her mother will never come home again. In the absence of other leads, detectives quickly turn their suspicions toward Jane’s husband, Daniel. Over the years, as the case grows colder, each makes their own uneasy peace with the situation. Until one day, when they are all grown-and a body is found. Suddenly, the investigation is reinvigorated, and everyone must choose a side in a confrontation they have long avoided. Once lines are drawn, there is no going back. Untangling a web of family secrets, compelling motives, and long-held grudges.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, 531 pages. 10 regular copies. A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney, 437 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. As girls growing up in Australia, Anna, Bett, and Carrie Quinlan were childhood singing stars known as The Alphabet Sisters. As adults, the women haven’t spoken in years – ever since Bett’s fiancé deserted her to marry the younger Carrie. Now their grandmother Lola is turning eighty and she is determined to reunite the girls for a blowout bash, and no one ever says no to Lola.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, 336 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A story about Roy and Celestial, a husband and wife torn apart by wrongful imprisonment. Their unique marriage is gripping from the beginning, but as things start to unfold over Roy’s time in prison and his release after his conviction is overturned. The story finds no easy answers.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, 256 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. When ten people are invited to an island by a mysterious character, U. N. Owen, the guests find themselves in a dangerous situation as they watch each other get picked off one by one according to an old nursery rhyme.
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, 341 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers discover their unexpected common traits. A heartwarming tale in Backman’s usual style.
Atonement by Ian McEwan, 371 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. On a hot day in 1935, 13-year-old Briony sees her older sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain at their house. Watching Cecilia is their housekeeper’s son Robbie Turner. By the end of that day the lives of all three are changed forever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had never dared and Briony will have made a dreadful mistake, the guilt for which will color her entire life.
The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy, 304 pages. 10 regular copies. In 1945, Elsie Schmidt was a naïve teenager, as eager for her first sip of champagne as she was for her first kiss. Elsie’s courtship by Josef Hub, a rising star in the Army of the Third Reich, has insulated her and her family from the terror and desperation overtaking her country. So, when an escaped Jewish boy arrives on Elsie’s doorstep in the dead of night on Christmas Eve, Elsie understands that opening the door puts all she loves in danger.
The Bartender’s Tale by Ivan Doig, 400 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Tom Harry has a bar called The Medicine Lodge, the chief watering hole and last refuge in the town of Gros Ventre, in northern Montana. Tom also has a son named Rusty, whose mother deserted them both years ago. The pair make an odd kind of family, with the bar their true home, but they manage just fine. The Bartender’s Tale wonderfully captures how the world becomes bigger, and the past becomes more complex in the last moments of childhood.
Beartown by Fredrik Backman, 432 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A novel about a hockey team in a small town. It’s part coming-of-age novel, part study of moral failure, and finally a chronicle of groupthink in which an unlikely hero steps forward to save more than one person from self-destruction. A thoroughly empathetic examination of the fragile human spirit.
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter, 368 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A sumptuous epic about the real people who make art, spinning illusion for fun, profit and meaning. There are screen actors, a novelist and Pasquale, an innkeeper, who keeps his patrons fed and watered on homemade wine and dreams. And just as Jess Walter introduces us to the characters, he follows them for fifty years.
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell, 336 pages. 10 regular copies. Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan’s worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he’d prefer to keep hidden. Whether it’s a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive.
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson, 360 pages. 10 regular copies. Every day Christine wakes up not knowing where she is. Her memories disappear every time she falls asleep. Her husband Ben is a stranger who must explain their life on a daily basis. She starts a journal with the encouragement of her doctor. She opens it one day and reads “Don’t Trust Ben.” Suddenly everything her husband has told her falls under suspicion.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, 272 pages. 9 regular print copies, 1 large print copy. “In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee — the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel is not so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold. Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious, and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?”
Bent Road by Lori Roy, 368 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. For twenty years, Celia Scott has watched her husband, Arthur, hide from the secrets surrounding his sister Eve’s death. But when the 1967 Detroit riots frighten him even more than his Kansas past, he convinces Celia to pack up their family and return to the road he grew up on, Bent Road, and the same small town where Eve mysteriously died. And then a local girl disappears, catapulting the family headlong into a dead man’s curve.
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, 492 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for a nanny. These three women are at different crossroads, but they all wind up in the same shocking place.
Blue Heaven by C.J. Box, 344 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother go on the run in the woods of North Idaho, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder. Retired cops from Los Angeles, the touchi am the messenger easily persuade the inexperienced sheriff to let them lead the search for the missing children. William and Annie’s unexpected savior comes in the form of an old-school rancher teetering on the brink of foreclosure
Blue Nude by Elizabeth Rosner, 200 pages. 10 regular copies. An artist who teaches others but who has lost his own inspiration, German-born painter Danzig finds a muse in the person of a new model named Merav, the Israeli-born granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, but before they can create a new future for themselves, both artist and model must come to terms with the past.
The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult, 413 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein when she is involved in a plane crash. As the plane goes down, she contemplates the life she could have lived, not with her husband but with an old flame. As the story unfolds, Dawn’s two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them.
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah (Non-Fiction – Memoir), 285 pages. 10 regular copies. Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in Apartheid-era South Africa. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, 390 pages. 10 regular copies. (Non-Fiction). Kimmerer is a botanist and professor of plant ecology, as well as a Potawatomi woman. She explores humans’ relationship with plants and the need for both to take care of each other in order to live in harmony and improve life on earth.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s and three stories by Truman Capote, 178 pages. 10 regular copies. The title story chronicles the poignancy, wit, and naïveté of Holly Golightly, an amoral playgirl living in New York City. The volume also includes three of Capote’s best known short stories.
Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo, 336 pages. 10 regular copies. When his sister tricks him into taking her guru on a trip to their childhood home, Otto Ringling, a confirmed skeptic, is not amused. Six days on the road with an enigmatic holy man who answers every question with a riddle is not what he’d planned.
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout, 352 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home.
Chinese Nail Murders by Robert Van Gulik, 256 pages. 10 regular copies. In the 4th book of Robert Van Gulik’s ancient Chinese mystery series based on historical court records, detective Judge Dee is appointed to the magistrate of a frontier district in the barren north of the ancient Chinese Empire. He is faced with three strange and disturbing crimes, and even more curious, the crimes seem to be linked together by clues from a popular game of the period, the Seven Board.
The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont, 373 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. In 1925, Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie went missing for several days afterward and this is a fictionalized account of what happened during that time.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 80 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Abridged version. Relates Ebenezer Scrooge’s eerie encounters with a series of spectral visitors. Journeying with them through Christmases past, present, and future, he is ultimately transformed from an arrogant, obstinate, and insensitive miser to a generous, warmhearted, and caring human being. A Christmas Carol has come to epitomize the true meaning of Christmas.
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laura Viera Rigler, 304 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. After nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up to find herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Not only is Courtney stuck inside another woman’s life, she is forced to pretend she actually is that woman; and despite knowing nothing about her, she manages to fool even the most astute observer.
The Confidant by Helene Gremillion, 256 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. An award-winning international sensation, part historical drama and part suspense novel. It’s Paris, 1975, and Camille sifts through letter of condolence after her mother’s death when a strange, handwritten missive stops her short. When new letters keep arriving each week, Camille begins to realize that her own life may be the next chapter in the sender’s tragic story.
Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick, 331 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple life. But on the one-year anniversary of his wife, Miriam’s death, something changes. Sorting through Miriam’s possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he’s never seen before. What follows is an odyssey that takes Arthur on a journey that leads him to find hope, healing and self-discovery in the most unexpected places.
Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman, 96 pages. 10 regular copies. A father and a son are seeing each other after years and the father has a story to share before it’s too late. On a cold winter’s night, the father has been given an unexpected chance to do something remarkable that could change the destiny of a little girl he hardly knows. But before he can make the deal of a lifetime, he must find out what his own life has actually been worth, and only his son can reveal that answer.
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James, 304 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. P.D. James, a popular mystery writer, draws the characters of Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem. Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, James recreates that world, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story.
The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell, 311 pages. 10 regular copies. A riveting, brilliantly written debut novel, The Death of Bees is a coming-of-age story in which two young sisters attempt to hold the world at bay after the mysterious death of their parents. It is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.
Deceptive Homecoming by Anna Loan-Wilsey, 289 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. When her good friend Virginia Hayward’s father passes away, Hattie Davish rushes to her hometown of St. Joseph, Missouri. Her visit takes her from the town cemetery to the home of an infamous outlaw, to the dungeon-like tunnels beneath the State Lunatic Asylum
Defending Jacob by William Landay, 432 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney for more than twenty years. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him.
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson, 447 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. (Non-Fiction) Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair’s construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor.
Die for Me by Amy Plum, 344 pages. 10 regular copies. After their parents are killed in a car accident, Kate Mercier and her older sister Georgia move to Paris to live with their grandparents and Kate finds herself drawn to Vincent who seems to harbor a mysterious and dangerous secret.
The Dinner by Herman Koch, 320 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A summer’s evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the delicate scraping of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of politeness. But the empty words hide a terrible conflict, and, with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.
Educated: a memoir by Tara Westover, 334 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. (Non-Fiction – Memoir). A young woman kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, 325 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Eleanor struggles with appropriate social skills and has suffered from a traumatic childhood. This is the story of an out of the ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes the only way to survive is to open your heart.
An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Thurston, 171 pages. 10 regular copies. Short stories. Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and no qualms about a little murder.
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin, 273 pages. 10 regular print copies. Four mismatched women respond to an advertisement in a newspaper offering a beautiful medieval castle to rent on the Italian Riviera. Bashful Mrs. Wilkins, cheerless Mrs. Arbuthnot, widowed Mrs. Fisher, and socialite Lady Caroline Dester are each enchanted by the promise of ‘wisteria and sunshine’, and they arrive on the tranquil Mediterranean shores full of hope for a heavenly escape. Tensions mount between the group at first, but, as the idyllic spring days tick by, each is slowly transformed by the warm sunshine and unexpected company.
Euphoria by Lily King, 261 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Three young, gifted anthropologists of the 1930’s are caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives. Inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, 297 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, 256 pages. 10 regular copies. Lyrical and beautifully tender, this is a slim novel with unimaginable depths. It can be read as an allegory for the current immigration crisis worldwide, a depiction of life in a country on the brink of war, a story about the bond between parent and child, and a love story between two people lost in the same world.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 250 pages. 10 regular copies. In a dystopian future, books are banned and destroyed by the government. A fireman in charge of burning books meets a schoolteacher who dares to read and a girl who tells him of a past when people did not live in fear.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, 378 pages. 10 regular copies. Hugo Award winning science-fiction book, which is first in a series. At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this novel of power, oppression, and revolution.
Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley, 345 pages. (Non-Fiction) 10 regular copies. In this groundbreaking account of the marriage, acclaimed biographer Hazel Rowley describes the remarkable courage and lack of convention that kept FDR and Eleanor together.
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, 290 pages. 10 regular copies. Claire Waverly is a successful caterer who has always remained tied to the legacy of her family. The Waverleys are a curious family; even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Things get complicated when a love interest and Claire’s sister both arrive, and Claire’s simple life isn’t so simple any longer.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, 480 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Set in the Metropol, the Moscow hotel where the famous hobnob, Bolsheviks plot revolutions and intellectuals discuss the merits of contemporary Russian writers. It’s also where wealthy Count Alexander Rostov lives under house arrest for a poem deemed incendiary by the Bolsheviks. Towles magnificently conjures the grandeur of the Russian hotel and the vibrancy of the characters that call it home.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson, 563 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Third book in the trilogy by Larsson. Lisbeth Salander is in the intensive care unit of a hospital, fighting for her life in more ways than one: when she’s well enough, she’ll stand trial for a triple murder. While journalist Mikael Blomkvist helps to prove her innocence, Lisbeth plots her revenge against the man who tried to kill her, and the government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, 590 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Mikael Blomkvist has hit hard times. He is offered the chance to resurrect his name, but he must research a mysterious disappearance that has remained unsolved for nearly 40 years. He accepts the offer and enlists the help of investigator Lisbeth Salander, a misunderstood genius. Little is as it seems in this popular thriller that is the first book in a trilogy.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, 545 pages. 10 regular copies. A desperate family seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the erratic behavior found in human nature.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 290 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation.
The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane, 296 pages. 9 regular print copies, 1 large print copy. This unforgettable novel is about a couple in a small town and the complexities of marriage, family, longing, and desire. Malcom Gephardt is a local bartender, aspiring to own his own bar someday. After years of trying to have a baby, Jess, Malcom’s wife, is struggling to accept the idea that motherhood may not be in the cards for her. Like Malcolm, she feels her youth beginning to slip away and wonders how to reshape her future. Award-winning author Mary Beth Keane’s novel takes place over the course of a week when Malcolm, learns shocking news about Jess, a patron of the bar, goes missing, and a blizzard hits the town, trapping everyone in place. With a deft eye and generous spirit, Keane explores the disappointments and unexpected consolations of midlife, the many forms forgiveness can take, and what it means to be a family.
Handmaid’s Tale by Renee Nault, unpaged, graphic novel. 10 regular print copies. The Handmaid’s Tale is everywhere–and it is primed for a stunning new graphic novel adaptation. The story is iconic: In the Republic of Gilead, a Handmaid named Offred lives in the home of the Commander, to the purpose that she become pregnant with his child. Stripped of her most basic freedoms, (work, property, her own name), Offred remembers a different time, not so long ago, when she was valuable for more than her viable ovaries, when she was mother to a daughter she could keep, and when she and her husband lived and loved as equals. Darkly prescient, scathingly sarcastic, and eminently frightening.
Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst, 288 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Everything seems to be going just fine in the Hammond family until it becomes clear that the oldest daughter, Tilly, is developing abnormally–a mix of off-the-charts genius and social incompetence. The family turns to Camp Harmony and the wisdom of child behavior guru Scott Bean for a solution. Told from the alternating perspectives of both Alexandra and her younger daughter Iris, this is a story about the strength of love, the bonds of family, and how you survive the unthinkable.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett, 451 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and often unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project.
Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance, 272 pages. 10 regular copies. (Non-Fiction). The Vance family story begins in postwar America. J. D.’s grandparents were, “dirt poor and in love,” and moved north from Kentucky’s Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels, and it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.
The Homesman by Glendon Swarthout, 256 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A finely crafted novel told with smooth economy. It is in the Western genre and recreates a seamless and accurate depiction of territorial Nebraska and with characters so real the reader resents it when one dies.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, 398 pages. 10 regular copies. Linus Baker spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages and is given a highly classified assignment: travel to an orphanage, where six dangerous children reside. An enchanting story about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place.
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, 180 pages. 10 regular copies. A strange relationship blossoms between a brilliant math professor suffering from short-term memory problems and the young housekeeper, the mother of a ten-year-old son, hired to care for him. An enchanting novel that explores what it means to live in the present and to be part of a family.
I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak, 357 pages. 10 regular copies. Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first ace arrives in the mail. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission?
I Feel Bad About My Neck: and Other Thoughts About Being a Woman by Nora Ephron, 137 pages. 7 regular copies, 1 large print copy. (Non-Fiction – Memoir) A candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself. (Set donated by “The World’s Greatest Book Group.)
I Found You by Lisa Jewell, 352 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Three lonely people meet when their lives are in upheaval and learn they are also connected by a haunting 20-year-old mystery. A man is missing, and his new wife is worried. Miles away, a man is found alone and confused on a beach, and his new friend is concerned. Are the two in any way connected, and what events have occurred, in the past and in the present, to lead us all here?
Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer, 304 pages. 10 regular copies. A woman finds herself transported to the other lives she might have lived. After the death of her beloved twin brother and the abandonment of her long-time lover, Greta Wells undergoes electroshock therapy. Over the course of the treatment, Greta finds herself repeatedly sent to 1918, 1941, and back to the present.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by Victoria Schwab, 444 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Making a Faustian bargain to live forever but never be remembered, a woman from early 18th-century France endures unacknowledged centuries before meeting a man who remembers her name.
Jackie: Public, Private, Secret by Randy Taraborrelli, (Non-Fiction), 510 pages. 10 regular print copies. From the New York Times bestselling author of Jackie, Janet & Lee comes a fresh and often startling look at the life of the legendary former first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family, and lovers over a thirty-year period–as well as previously unreleased material from the JFK Library–Kennedy historian J. Randy Taraborrelli paints an unforgettable new portrait of a woman whose flaws and contradictions only serve to make her even more iconic. “I have three lives,” Jackie told a former lover, “public, private and secret.” In this revealing biography, readers will become intimately familiar with all three. Twenty-nine years after her death and sixty years after the assassination of President Kennedy, Jackie delivers the last word on one of the most famous women in the world.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, 350 pages. 10 regular copies. A poor governess, Jane Eyre, captures the heart of her enigmatic employer, Edward Rochester. Jane discovers that he has a secret that could jeopardize any hope of happiness between them.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann, (Non-Fiction), 400 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma after oil was discovered beneath their land. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. As the death toll climbed to more than 24, the FBI took up the case. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola, 480 pages. 10 regular copies. The story recounts the rise of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family: it is emblematic of changes in consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century.
The Lake House by Kate Morton, 495 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Living on her family’s lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is an inquisitive 16-year-old who loves to write stories. One midsummer’s eve, after a party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, 390 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. It is the 1960s and chemist Elizabeth Zott finds herself out of a job when she becomes pregnant. She is not only a single mother but also the reluctant star of cooking show. Her unusual approach to cooking proves revolutionary. It turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.
Let Me Die in His Footsteps by Lori Roy, 325 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. On a dark Kentucky night in 1952 exactly halfway between her fifteenth and sixteenth birthdays, Annie Holleran crosses into forbidden territory. Everyone knows Hollerans don’t go near Baines, not since Joseph Carl was buried two decades before, but Annie runs toward the well on the Baines’ place. At the stroke of midnight, she gazes into the water in search of her future.
Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project by Jack Mayer, (Non-Fiction), 396 pages. 10 regular copies. During WWII, Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker, organized a rescue network to save 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto. After the war her heroism, like that of others, was suppressed by communist Poland and remained virtually unknown for 60 years until three high school girls from a rural school district in southeast Kansas stumbled upon a tantalizing reference to Sendler’s rescues, which they fashioned into a history project.
The Light Between the Oceans by M.L. Stedman, 352 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Tom Sherbourne is a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, a tiny island a half’s day journey for the coast of Western Australia. When a baby washes up in a rowboat, he and his young wife Isabel decide to raise the child as their own. The baby seems a gift from God, and the couple’s reasoning for keeping her seduces the reader into entering the waters of treacherous morality.
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley, 336 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Rowley’s sensitive, hilarious, and emotionally rewarding debut novel explores the effect that pets can have on human lives. Teddy is unhappily single in L.A. In between sessions with his therapist and dates with men he meets online, it is his beloved 12-year-old dachshund, Lily, who occupies his heart. This is a poignant and touchingly relatable tale that readers (particularly animal lovers) will love.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, 352 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Each character in the town of Shaker Heights has their unique viewpoint and comes to the story with their own pride and pain. No one is entirely right or wrong, and everyone gets thrown into chaos. The novel explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.
The Maid by Nita Prose, 304 pages. 9 regular print copies, 1 large print copy. A dead body is one mess Molly Dun cannot clean up on her own. But no matter–she still throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid at the five-star Regency Grand. Her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette makes her an ideal fit for the job. But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find Mr. Black dead–very dead–in his bed. Perplexed by Molly’s unusual behavior, the police immediately suspect her of murder. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had, join her in a search for clues about what really happened to Mr. Black–but will they be able to find the real killer before is it too late?
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, 217 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A murder investigation requires private detective Sam Spade–a man of few words who displays little emotion–to become involved in a dangerous search for a valuable statue.
A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman, 337 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Ove is a curmudgeon. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. One November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.
The Measure by Nikki Erlick, 353 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Adults all over the world wake up one day to find a wooden box containing a piece of string on their front porch. The length of the string correlates with the length of the recipient’s life. The book provides a compelling story of what happens next.
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, 400 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend, Patrick. What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane.
Mind of Winter by Laura Kasischke, 304 pages. 10 regular copies. Holly Judge wakes up on Christmas morning knowing “Something had followed them home from Russia.” Trapped at home with her teenage daughter during a blizzard, Holly’s thoughts drift back to the trips she and her husband took to Siberia’s Pokrovka Orphanage #2 to adopt baby Tatiana. Versions of those visits change as the day progresses.
Moloka’i by Alan Brennert, 384 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Rachel, a 7-year–old Hawaiian girl contracts leprosy and is sent to Kalaupap, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka’i. Here her life is supposed to end, but instead she discovers it is just the beginning.
The Moth Presents All these Wonders: True Stories About Facing the Unknown by Catherine Burns, 330 pages. 10 regular print copies. The Moth: a collection about risk, courage, and facing the unknown, drawn from the best stories ever told on their stages. All These Wonders features voices both familiar and new. Storytellers include Louis C.K., Tig Notaro, John Turturro, and Meg Wolitzer, as well as a hip hop “one hit wonder,” an astronomer gazing at the surface of Pluto for the first time, and a young female spy risking everything as part of Churchill’s “secret army” during World War II. They share their ventures into uncharted territory–and how their lives were changed forever by what they found there. These true stories have been carefully selected and adapted to the page by the inventive minds at The Moth and will encompass the absolute best of the 17,000+ stories performed in live Moth shows around the world.
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, 256 pages. 10 regular copies. Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway’s most enduring works. This special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published. The book also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-published Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son, Jack, and his first wife Hadley.
Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva, 271 pages. 10 regular copies. A fictionalized account of the inspiration for and writing of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, 240 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life.
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, 226 pages.9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. When Korede’s dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what’s expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. She knows she should go to the police, especially since this is the third occurrence, but she loves her sister. However, things start to change when Ayoola sets her sights on Korede’s own love interest.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, 512 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Fantasy genre. Waging a fierce magical competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah 608 pages. 10 regular copies. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France―a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women.
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty, 450 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, 103 pages. 10 regular copies. Classic fiction story of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, and callousness. Through their friendship they share a dream that helps them endure.
Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callaghan Henry, 292 pages. 10 regular print copies. Megs Devonshire is brilliant with numbers and equations, on a scholarship at Oxford, and dreams of solving the greatest mysteries of physics. The younger brother she loves with all her heart does not have long to live. When George becomes captivated by a book called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and begs her to find out where Narnia came from, there is no way she can refuse. Megs soon finds herself taking tea with the Oxford don and his own brother, imploring them for answers. What she receives instead are more stories, stories of Jack Lewis’s life, which she takes home to George. Why won’t Mr. Lewis just tell her plainly what George wants to know?
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus, 434 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. The novel is written as a series of journals chronicling the fictitious adventures of May Dodd, a participant in an imagined “Brides for Indians” program of the United States government.
The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline, 278 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen, 290 pages. 10 regular print copies. An enchanting tale filled with magical realism and moments of pure love that will not let you go. Between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways. Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits-a stunning cobblestone building shaped like a horseshoe and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment on Mallow Island, she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors, including a girl on the run, two estranged middle-aged sisters, a lonely chef, a legendary writer, and three ghosts. Each with their own story.
The Other Side of Everything by Lauren Doyle Owens, 10 regular copies, 257 pages. A literary thriller that explores the connections between strangers, the past and the present, and the power of tragedy to spark renewal, The Other Side of Everything marks a vibrant and fresh new voice in the genre that will spark comparisons to Laura Lippman and Megan Abbott.
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins, 384 pages. 10 regular copies. Ireland, 1959: Young Christy Hurley is a gypsy, traveling with his father and extended family from town to town, carrying all their worldly possessions in their wagons. When his grandfather dies, everything changes. His father decides to settle down temporarily in a town where Christy and his cousin can attend mass and receive proper schooling.
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, 336 pages. 10 regular copies. Hadley Richardson is a quiet 28-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group. Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking, fast-living, and free-loving life of Jazz Age Paris.
The Passenger by Lisa Lutz, 304 pages. 10 regular copies. A fast-read thriller where a woman who creates and sheds new identities as she crisscrosses the country to escape her past.
The Past by Tessa Hadley, 362 pages. 10 regular copies. Three adult sisters and their brother meet up at their grandparents’ country home for their annual family holiday–three long, summer weeks. The beloved but crumbling house is full of memories of their childhood–of when their mother took them to stay with her parents when she left their father–but this could be their last summer in the house, now they may have to sell it. And under the idyllic pastoral surface, there are tensions.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind and John E. Woods, 255 pages. 9 regular copies. In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an absolute sense of smell. He becomes obsessed with capturing smells. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin.
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, 341 pages. 10 regular print copies. In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. Pierpont Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating. But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go-for the protection of her family and her legacy-to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.
Pilate’s Cross by J. Alexander Greenwood (Kansas City author), 224 pages. 10 regular copies. Inspired by a true story, Pilate’s Cross follows John Pilate, his sardonic imaginary pal Simon and lovely new friend Kate as they investigate the cold case mystery of a murdered college president. Pilate risks his life to uncover the truth of what happened in 1963 and why it’s just as deadly today. This is the first in the “John Pilate” series.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf, 301 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Kent Haruf reveals a whole community as he interweaves the stories of a pregnant high school girl, a lonely teacher, a pair of boys abandoned by their mother, and a couple of crusty bachelor farmers. From simple elements, Haruf achieves a novel of wisdom and grace. First of a trilogy.
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham, 314 pages. 10 regular copies. Larry Darrell is a young American on a spiritual odyssey that involves him with some of Maugham’s most brilliant characters – his fiancée Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob.
A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg, 207 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. When Oswald moves to the sleepy little town of Lost River, he’s not expecting to make friends, but one by one the eccentric inhabitants win his heart.
The Reivers by William Faulkner, 305 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. This grand misadventure is the story of three unlikely thieves, or reivers: 11-year-old Lucius Priest and two of his family’s retainers. In 1905, these three set out from Mississippi for Memphis in a stolen motorcar. The astonishing and complicated results reveal Faulkner as a master storyteller.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, 360 pages. 9 regular print copies, 1 large print copy. A novel about a widow’s unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium-and the truths she finally uncovers about her son’s disappearance 30 years ago become known.
The River We Remember by Willian Kent Krueger, 421 pages. 9 regular print copies, 1 large print copy. On Memorial Day, 1958, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past. Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.
The Rocks by Peter Nichols, 419 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Set on the island of Mallorca, The Rocks is a double love story told in reverse. Opening in 2005 with a dramatic event that seems to seal the mystery of two lives, the story moves backwards in time, unravelling over sixty years. As one story is revealed, another, sweeter one, a love story of a couple from the younger generation, arises in the wake of their elders’ failures.
The Rosie Project (Don Tillman #1) by Graeme Simsion, 292 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. This feel-good novel is narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest: to find out if he is capable of true love. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. However, love is not always what looks good on paper.
The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister, 313 pages. 10 regular copies. Emmeline lives on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. He won’t explain the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin. As Emmeline grows up and must leave the island, she is faced with figuring out her past and how she can fit into the world.
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton, 496 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Early 1960’s England. Sixteen-year-old Laurel lives an idyllic life with her beloved mother, father, three sisters and brother in an isolated house in the countryside – until the day a stranger surprises their mother outside their home. Laurel, hidden in a treehouse, witnesses this meeting and its shocking outcome.
Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane, 400 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Rachel Childs, a former journalist lives as a virtual shut-in after an on-air mental breakdown. In other respects, she enjoys an ideal life with an ideal husband. A chance encounter on a rainy afternoon causes that ideal life to fray. Sucked into a conspiracy thick with deception, violence, and possibly madness, Rachel must find the strength within herself to conquer unimaginable fears and mind-altering truths.
Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman. 342 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Psychological thriller. Newlyweds Erin and Mark make a shocking discovery during their tropical island honeymoon. Their choices from then on lead them on a devastating chain of events.
The Stars are Fire by Anita Shreve, 320 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. In October 1947, Grace Holland is experiencing two simultaneous droughts. An unseasonably hot, dry summer has turned the state of Maine into a tinderbox, and Grace and her husband, Gene, have fallen out of love. One night she wakes up to find that wildfires are racing toward her house. By morning, her life is forever changed, and she is left to face an uncertain future in a town that no longer exists.
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson, 371 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Tracy Waterhouse leads a quiet life as a retired police detective – a life that takes a surprising turn when she encounters Kelly Cross, a habitual offender, dragging a young child through town. Suddenly burdened with a small child, Tracy soon learns her parental experience is actually the least of her problems.
Still Alice by Lisa Genova, 293 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a celebrated Harvard professor at the height of her career when she notices a forgetfulness creeping into her life. As confusion starts to cloud her thinking and her memory begins to fail her, she receives a devastating diagnosis: early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, 260 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over–and see everything anew.
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, 334 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. A profane and dizzying satire, a dystopic vision of the future. Also, a pointedly old-fashioned May-December love story. Mired in protracted adolescence, middle-aged Lenny Abramov is obsessed with living forever, and Eunice Park, a 20-something Korean American. A rich commentary on the obsessions and catastrophes of the information age and a heartbreaker worthy of its title.
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell, 389 pages. 10 regular copies. (Non-Fiction). Offers an intriguing examination of our interactions with strangers and why they often go wrong.
Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas, 305 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Her life turned upside-down when a Japanese internment camp is opened in their small Colorado town, Rennie witnesses the way her community places suspicion on the newcomers when a young girl is murdered.
Tell it Like Tupper by J. Mark Powell, 274 pages. 10 regular copies. A car breaks down on a snowy road in rural Iowa, a passerby offers a ride, and a friendship is formed that will launch one man on the path to political greatness while unwittingly driving the other into the national spotlight and pushing his family to the brink of disintegration. With this chance meeting, fate intertwines the lives of Glenn Tupper, a small engine repairman who lives a quiet life in tiny Creston, Iowa, with Senator Phil Granby, a presidential candidate.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, 219 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Widely acknowledged as a beloved classic of American literature. The novel tells the life story of Janie, an African American woman. There are powerful themes of female bonding, identity, and empowerment which bring an added dimension to this book.
There There by Tommy Orange, 292 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Follows 12 Native American characters living in and around Oakland, California. Each of these characters have their own conflicts and all of them are, in some way, dealing with their identity as a Native American. Eventually, all the characters and their storylines come together at the first Big Oakland Pow Wow.
This is Happiness by Niall Williams, 382 pages. 10 regular copies. Set in Ireland in the late 1950’s this is whimsical and lyrical look at country Irish life on the precipice of change from the perspective of seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe. Noel’s life is changed when an exciting stranger comes to bring electricity to the rural community.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, 309 pages. 9 regular print copies and 1 large print copy. In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.
To the Stars Through Difficulties by Romalyn Tilghman, 306 pages. 10 regular copies. Andrew Carnegie funded fifty-nine public libraries in Kansas in the early 20th century, but it was frontier women who organized waffle suppers, minstrel shows, and women’s baseball games to buy books to fill them. Now, a century later, Angelina returns to her father’s hometown of New Hope to complete her dissertation on the Carnegie libraries.
Touch by Courtney Maum, 320 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Estranged from her family, trend forecaster Sloane Jacobsen is the perfect candidate to lead a tech giant’s conference for consumers who prefer virtual relationships to the real thing. But Sloane starts picking up on cues that physical intimacy is going to make a comeback. And if Sloane goes rogue against her powerful employer, will she be able to let in the love and connectedness she’s long been denying herself?
A Town Divided by Christmas by Orson Scott Card, 134 pages. 10 regular copies. A quarrel over which newborn should be the baby Jesus in the town’s Christmas pageant leads to two scientists arriving decades later to study small-town genetic patterns and running into a town split into two congregations. A lighthearted Christmas tale.
The Transatlantic Book Club by Felicity Hayes-McCoy, 359 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Residents of Ireland’s Finfarran Peninsula set up a Skype book club with the little US town of Resolve, where generations of Finfarran’s emigrants have settled. But when the club decides to read a detective novel, old conflicts on both sides of the ocean are exposed and hidden love affairs come to light.
True Grit by Charles Portis, 235 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. In the 1870s, young Mattie Ross learns that her beloved father was gunned down by his former handyman. But even though this gutsy 14-year-old is seeking vengeance, she knows she can’t go alone after a desperado, so she convinces mean, one-eyed US Marshal “Rooster” Cogburn into going after the despicable outlaw with her.
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty, 544 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One small dog. It’s just a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong? Liane Moriarty takes on the foundations of our lives: marriage, sex, parenthood, and friendship. She shows how guilt can expose the fault lines in the most seemingly strong relationships, how what we don’t say can be more powerful than what we do, and how sometimes it is the most innocent of moments that can do the greatest harm.
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi, 257 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Sarah and David are two performing art students coming from different socio-economic backgrounds: Sarah lives with her mother in a working-class milieu, while David’s family is financially comfortable. The two fall in love despite their contrasting circumstances, but their relationship ends in a bitter breakup.
The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows, 528 pages. 10 regular copies. In the summer of 1938, Layla Beck’s father cuts off her allowance and demands that she find employment on the Federal Writers’ Project. Within days, Layla finds herself far from her accustomed social whirl, assigned to cover the history of the remote mill town of Macedonia, WV. She secures a room in the home of the unconventional Romeyn family; she is drawn into their complex world and soon discovers that the truth of the town is entangled in the thorny past of the Romeyn dynasty.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, 343 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. After growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, the identical Vignes twin sisters begin to live separate lives. One lives as a white woman, the other returns to their hometown. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins, 279 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained. So, when Chess suggests a girl’s trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend. The villa was the location of a famous murder in 1974, and the novel is told both in the present and shares the story of the 1974 murder.
Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent, 225 pages. 10 regular copies. A mysterious visitor from Uzbekistan forms an unlikely friendship with a damaged young woman in retreat from life in rural Pennsylvania in this novel of suspense.
A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy, 407 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Gentle Fiction. Follows the efforts of a woman, Chicky, who turns a coastal Ireland mansion into a holiday resort and receives an assortment of first guests who, throughout the course of a week, share laughter and the heartache of respective challenges.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, 370 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Viewed with suspicion in the aftermath of a murder, Kya Clark, who has survived alone for years in a marsh near the North Carolina coast, becomes targeted by unthinkable forces.
White Houses by Amy Bloom, 218 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Historical fiction. After Lorena Hickok meets the future first lady while covering Franklin Roosevelt’s campaign, she and Eleanor discover a powerful passion between them.
The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff, 324 pages. 9 regular copies, 1 large print copy. Inspired by the true stories of those who hid from the Nazis in the sewers during World War II. The story follows Ella, an affluent Polish girl, as she helps Sadie, and her pregnant mother survive despite the worsening dangers of the war.
The Writing Class by Jincy Willett, 326 pages. 10 regular copies. Living for the writing class she teaches at the university extension, reclusive widow Amy Gallup senses something different about her latest group of students when she begins to receive scary phone calls and obscene threats that culminate in a murder.
Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa, 320 pages. 10 pages copies. Grief-stricken after his mother’s death and three years of wandering the world, Victor is longing for a family and a sense of purpose. He believes he’s found both when he returns home to Seattle only to be swept up in a massive protest. With young, biracial Victor on one side of the barricades and his estranged father–the white chief of police–on the opposite, the day descends into chaos.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler, 400 pages. 10 regular copies. When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old, and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the “ungettable” Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn’t wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame.