You can always do a Google search for more info for these books members are reading!
From the December Meeting:
Hung the Moon by Jeanette Walls
Naked by David Sedaris
Little Fires Everywhere
The Secrets of Crestwell Manor
Beauty of Dusk
Only Woman in the Room
No Plan B
From the October meeting:
(From MJ): AUDIO ( from CCL) The Purple Diaries: Mary Astor and the Most Sensational Hollywood Scandal of the 1930s - by Joseph Egan (2016) w/ Foreward by Mary’s great grandson. Bernadette Dunne narrates- GOOD. Nonfiction. About Custody Trial of 1936 between actress Mary Astor (age 31) and her bigamist husband, Franklin Thorpe- over their daughter, little Marylyn.
The House on Vesper Sands- by Paraic O'Donnell (2021). Fiction. Victorian era murder mystery / ghost story, set in very early 1900s London. Charles Armstrong narrates - VERY GOOD.
Pieces of Her - by Karin Slaughter (2018). Fiction. Like her other books- this one makes you feel (s)icky - for enduring so much overly graphic misogynistic violence combined with even more unbelievable violent action- all in one book. But there are some interesting characters and plot twists… Narrator - Kathleen Early- is extremely talented. I think that’s what caused me to continue with the book. I strongly disliked the K Slaughter book that we read a few years ago for Book Club. But this book has been made into a Netflix mini series with Toni Colette, so that’s what caused me to try again.
PAPERBACK Being Dead- by Jim Crace (1999), British writer. Fiction. GOOD! WELL WRITTEN. Won awards. About a couple who are murdered on a day trip to the dunes where they met as students. The novel explores themes of love, death, and the afterlife. It was adapted into a 2020 film.
From the September Meeting:
One Summer by David Baldachi - (not a thriller!)
Last Flight by Judith Clark
In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearn
House Maid by Freida McFaden
The Silent Patient by Alex Michalides
Thunderstruck by Erik Larsen
The Girl on the Train by Paul Hawkins
An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helen Tursen
The Waiting Room (set in Sanford)
West with Giraffes
Moonflower
A Girl Called Sam
From the August Meeting:
If the Legends Fade by Tom Hendrix (Lindy met author)
In Order to Live - Yeonine Park (about N Korea escape)
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (about the plague)
Go as a River by Shelley Read
Road to the Breaking by Chris Bennett
Undercover Secretary by Ellie Midwood
Never by Ken Follett
From the July meeting:
"The Women" by Kristin Hannah Vietnam War historical fiction book regarding Army nurses in Vietnam and after.
From the June meeting:
Margaret Maron book (NC author) entitled "High Country Fall." It was a Deborah Knot book.
From the May meeting:
I read two books that are good enough to recommend.
The first is Paris Daughter by Kirstin Harmel.
It
is about two women who meet in Bois de Boloughne just before WW2. One
is pregnant and the other has recently had a baby. They become good
friends and both have little girls who actually look a lot alike. One's
husband is in the resistance and tells the Nazis that his wife is one
of them even though she has no involvement. She must flee but can't take
her daughter because she would be too obvious. She leaves her with her
friend and escapes to the south. The part of Paris where the child is
left is boomed (by Americans! They were aiming for the Renault factory
that the Germans had taken over but some of the bombs went off course.)
When the mother who left her child returns they family was hit and is
dead except for the wife who escaped with her daughter. The story
centers around their life after the war and has a surprise ending.
The second is Watching You by Michael Robotham.
It
is murder mystery that features Joe O'Laughlin, a clinical Psychologist
who helps solve the mystery. It is part of a series 8 books featuring
him and a detective who work together. It is engaging and well written. I
couldn't put it down.
"Silver Alert" by Lee Smith (from Hillsborough, NC)
Flavia de Luce Series - books by Alan Bradley
1. The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie 2009
2. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag 2010
3. A Red Herring Without Mustard 2011
4. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows 2011
5. Speaking from Among the Bones 2013
6. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches 2014
From the February Meeting:
Night Flight to Paris by Cara Black (I may have listed this book the last go-around). It is a WWII historical fiction book regarding a young Oregon woman who is a sniper for the UK early in the war.
Supreme Justice by Phillip Margolin (a suspense novel)
The
Maid by Nita Prose (quirky young woman who is a maid in a swanky hotel
who finds a guest dead in his bed one day when she goes in to clean the
suite.)
From the January Meeting:
Happy Go Lucky by David Sedaris.
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children)
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson
"How to End a Love Story" by Yulin Kuang
"Mercury Rising? by Rebecca Zanetti
"Lore Olympus" Vol. 4 by Rachel Smythe
"Chasing Cezanne" by Peter Mayle
"Night Flight to Paris" by Cara Black (It takes place during WWII)
From the December Meeting:
A psychological thriller titled: The Ex: by Freida McFadden
Nine Total Strangers by Liane Moriarty
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
The After Dunkirk Series by Lee Jackson. I have read After Dunkirk, Eagles Over Britain, and Turning the Storm
From the October Meeting:
Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
The Midwives Secret by Emily Gunnis
The Stranger by Albert Camus
It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo
Murder at the Breakers by Alissa Maxwell
The Dance Teacher of Paris by Sazan Fortan
A Ghost in Throat by Doireann Ni Ghriofa
The Beauty of Dusk by Frank Brunni
Getting Lost by Annie Eraax
The Age of AI and Our Human Future by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, Daniel Huttenlocher
Outlive by Peter Attia, MD
From The September meeting:
Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde
My Notorious LIfe by Kate Manning
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (the story takes place in London)
The Shadow Sister by Lucenda Rile (this book is the first in a series of 7 about each of 7 sisers)
Private Paris by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan
From the August meeting:
Call the Canaries Home by Laura Barrow
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Rawl Kimmerer
Cold Snap by Toni Anderson (It is a romantic suspense story that also involves a FBI hostage rescue team)
You Can Hide by Rebecca Zanetti (also a romantic suspense story)
Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe (graphic novel)
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
From the July Meeting:
Shrinking Series
Sound of Freedom
A Fire Sparking
Whisper of the Moon Moth
Titanic Sisters
Last Flight
Spirit of the Horse by William Shatner
Souther Lady Code
Beach House by Patterson
Lost Friends
From the June Meeting:
An Ordinary Life by Amanda Prowse.
Two Old Women by Velma Wallis (an Alaska Legend of betrayal, courage & survival)
Lost & Found by Jacqueline Sheehan (takes place in Maine)
La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith (a WWII story in England)
The Beach House by James Patterson & Peter DeJonge
From the May Meeting:
Letters to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt Us -edited by Colleen Kinder (2022)
Somebody’s Daughter by Zara H. Philips (2018)
The Haunted Life of Lura by Donna Bunting Flake (2022)
The Key by Katherine Hughs
The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich by William Shirer
Fly Girls by Ruth OBrien
Faithful Place (not recommended!)
From the April Meeting:
Dead Woman Crossing - Jeneva Rose
Perfect Marriage - Jeneva Rose
The Newlyweds - Ann Richman
Who Do You Think You Are Maggie:Pink? - Janet Hoggarth
Between Earth and Sky (regarding American Indian boarding schools) - Amanda Skenandore
Foster - Claire Keegan
Fly Girls - Keith O'Brien
From the March Meeting:
Sound of Darkness by Heather Graham
From Sand & Ash by Amy Harmon
Road to Bittersweet by Donna Everhart
Getting Lost by Annie Ervaux
Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo
Colorless Tsukura Tazaki by Haraki Murakami
They Call Her Dirty Sally by Amy Matayo
Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls (inspirational stories)
From the February meeting:
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
All the Forgivenesses - Elizabeth Hardinger (takes place in Appalachia)
The Life She Was Given - Ellen Marie Wiseman
A Year at the French Farmhouse - Gillian Harvey
The Designer - Marius Gabriel (historical romance)
The Walking Wind - Tony Hillerman
From the January Meeting:
The Whiskey Sea by Ann Howard Creel
The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris by Daisy Wood
The Memory Box by Kathryn Hughes
Our Missing Heart by Celeste Ng
The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
Jerry Lee Lewis' Own Story by Rick Bragg
Scarlet Carnation by Laila Ibrahim
From the December Holiday Meeting:
The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose (there is a surprise ending)
Dead Woman Crossing by Jeneva Rose
Boy From the Woods by Harlan Coben (book 1 of the story regarding "The Match")
The Shop Girl by Steve Martin
American Short Stories for 2018
Duet by Julie Kriss
You Can Hide by Rebecca Zanetti (mystery)
Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan
Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey
The Undertaker's Assistant by Amanda Skenandore
We Don't Know Ourselves by Finn O'Toole
Dirtbag Massachusetts: A Confessional by Isaac Fitzgerald
Where the Sky Begins by Rhys Bowen (WWII, London)
Fox's Earth by Anne Rivers Siddons
Fortune & Glory (Stephanie Plum series) by Janet Evanovich
The Final Day by William Forstchen (follow up to "One Second After" 2 years later)
From the October Meeting:
7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Seamstress of New Orleans
Left on Tenth by Dilla Ephron
Crossing to Safety
Before She Dissappeared by Lisa Gardener
Venomous Lump Suckers
Prayers for the Stolen
Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin
Seabiscuit
Valley of Amazement
The Power
The Testaments
From the September Meeting:
The Innocent by David Baldacci (this is a Will Robie story)
The Molecule of More by Daniel Z. Lieberman MD
Sisters Behaving Badly by Maddy Please
From the July Meeting:
The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The Vineyard by Barbara Delinsky
The Family Across the Street by Nicole Trope
Take What You Need : Life Lessons After Losing Everything by Jen Crow
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Lost Family by Libby Copeland
Books we've read in June:
Wanted Man by Lee Child
A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Highlander series by Karen Marie Moning
Romanov Empress by C.W. Gortner
10 Days that Shook the World by John Reed
I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira
Her Name is Hazel by Sarah Forester Davis
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Hello Habits (Minimalist's Guide to a Better Life) by Fumio Sasaki
Life will be the Death of me...and you too! by Chelsea Handler
This is How it Always Was by Lauri Frankel
Forge of God by Greg Bear
Sleepover by Serena Bell
Tracy Flick Can't Win by Tom Perrotta
Books we've read in May:
The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage
Death On The Nile by Agatha Christie
Smoking Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
The Hex Witch of Seldom ny Nancy Springer
The Maid by Stephanie Land
1. Sharon - The best of friends
2. Bonnie - out of Africa
3. MJ - anywhere but here by Mona Simpson
4. Dolly - The museum at purgatory by nick Bantock
- The perfect crime of Maureen Hayes by kat Sebastian
Books we've read since March:
Auschwitz Lullaby
Unforgiven by Rebecca Zanetti
The Invitation by Vi Keeland
The Invisible Life of Addy Larue by V E Schwab
Business Not As Usual by Sharon C. Cooper
Spies in Warsaw by Alan Furst
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
Settling the Wind by Kaari August
Books we have read since December:
"My Dear Hamilton" (wife's story of Alexander Hamilton) by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie"
"Fall of the Dynasties" by Edmond Taylor
"Daphne" by Will Boast (about gods and goddesses)
"All the Ugly and Wonderful Things" by Bryn Greenwood
"Off Keck Road" by Mona Simpson
"Best of Friends" by Lucinda Barry
"These Tangled Vines" by Juliane MacClean
"Redemption" by David Baldacci
From the October meeting:
Not a book, but Dirty John podcast
Sweet Salt Air by Barbra Delinsky
Still Life by Louise Penny
From the September Meeting:
Highland Flying by Megan Quinn
Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland
Under Heaven's Shining Stars by Jean Grainger
Red Head at the Sied of the Road by Anne Tyler
Henrik Isben plays (collection)
Every Last Second by A.R. Torre
Four Winds by Kristan Hannah
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
From the August meeting:
When Never Comes by Barbara O’Neal;
Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
The Bakery on Beach Street by Ginny Colgan
Strange Weather by Joe Hill
Coming Clean - a memoir by Kimberly Rae Miller.
Before and After: The incredible real-life stories of adoptees who
survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society by Judy Christie and Lisa
Wingate.
Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed by Mark Blatt
Moon Child;
Under a Gilded Moon by Joy Jordan ?
The Story of Grenville King by Jean Grainger
I Alone Can Fix It by Carol Leonnig
Bad for Me by Helena Newberry
Just Not That Into Billionaires by Annika Martin
Not A Happy Family;
A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah Jane
From the July Meeting:
Fiction
Embers by Laura Bickle (urban fantasy)
The Power by Naomi Alderman (2016 science fiction novel)
The Serpent Mage - by Greg Bear
Non-fiction
American Baby by Gabriel Glaser
The Other Mother by Carol Schaefer
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Eternal Life by Dara Horn
The Quiet Girl by S. F. Kosa (a psychological thriller)
The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johns (deals with racism);
To S24ir With Love by Lauren Layne (romance novel)
From Cradle to Stage by Virginia Hanlon Grohl, the mother of a rock singer
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin (non-fiction)
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
From the June Meeting:
Tidelands: A Novel (1), by Phillipa Gregory
England 1648. A dangerous time for a woman to be different . . .
Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, and England is in the grip of civil war between
renegade King and rebellious Parliament. The struggle reaches every
corner of the kingdom, even to the remote Tidelands – the marshy
landscape of the south coast.
Alinor, a descendant of wise
women, crushed by poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under
the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive
husband. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him
the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is
leading disaster into the heart of her life.
Suspected of
possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and
determination mark her out from her neighbours. This is the time of
witch-mania, and Alinor, a woman without a husband, skilled with herbs,
suddenly enriched, arouses envy in her rivals and fear among the
villagers, who are ready to take lethal action into their own hands.
Dart Tides: A Novel (2) , by Phillipa Gregory
Midsummers Eve, 1670. A wealthy man waits outside a poor London
warehouse to meet with Alinor, the woman he failed twenty-one years
before. He has everything to offer, wealth, land, status, and he
believes she has the only thing he cannot buy: his son and heir. The
warehouse is failing, clinging on to poor business in Restoration
London—a city gone mad for pleasure. But will Alinor and her family
sell-out to Sir James? Meanwhile in New England, Alinor’s brother Ned,
who rebelled against the Crown, cannot find justice in the New World, as
the King’s revenge stretches across the Atlanic and turns the pioneers
against each other and against the native Americans.
A beautiful
widow, Livia, arrives from Venice, telling them Alinor’s son, Rob, has
drowned and that she needs the family’s help with a profitable new
trade. She will import beautiful statues of marble and bronze to fuel
the classical craze among the wealthy landowners. She enchants the
warehouse family with her son, their new heir; her sensual carefree
warmth; and promises of wealth to come. She captures Sir James and spins
them all into a mesh of deceit which only the brave little daughter of
the warehouse can break. Sarah searches for the truth about Livia in
Venice bringing home the stunning denouement to this, the second book in
the Fairmile series.
The Mirror & The Light, by Hilary Mantel – This is book 3 of her Wolf Hall trilogy
Wolf Hall (1) and Bring Up the Bodies (2) – a historical fiction set on Henry VIII’s court
New York Times bestselling author Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall Trilogy is the magnificent, riveting historical saga of the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII, featuring Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, Jane Seymour, and other political and royal players from Tudor England.
Man Booker Prize-winning novels among other honors, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies also served as the basis for the six-part BBC and PBS Masterpiece television series starring Academy Award-winner Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell and The Crown’s Emmy Award-winner Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn, as well as being adapted into award-winning and critically-acclaimed stage plays in London’s West End and on Broadway.
“Dazzling…Thomas Cromwell remains a controversial and mysterious figure. Mantel has filled in the blanks plausibly, brilliantly. Wolf Hall has epic scale but lyric texture. Its 500-plus pages turn quickly, winged and falcon-like…both spellbinding and believable.
The Guest List, Lucy Foley (it was ok)
A gripping, twisty murder mystery thriller from the No.1 bestselling author of The Hunting Party.
On
an island off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding
of the year – the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater.
Old friends.
Past grudges.
Happy families.
Hidden jealousies.
Thirteen guests.
One body.
The
wedding cake has barely been cut when one of the guests is found dead.
And as a storm unleashes its fury on the island, everyone is trapped.
The Spell Breaker by Charlie Holmberg
The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.
Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his mastership when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spellbooks their bodies leave behind.
For a rogue spellbreaker like Elsie, there’s so much to learn about her powers, her family, the intriguing Bacchus, and the untold dangers shadowing every step of a journey she’s destined to complete. But will she uncover the mystery before it’s too late to save everything she loves?
Choose Me by Tess Gerritsen
Taryn Moore is young, beautiful, and brilliant…so why would she kill herself? When Detective Frankie Loomis arrives on the scene to investigate the girl’s fatal plunge from her apartment balcony, she knows in her gut there’s more to the story. Her instincts are confirmed when surprise information is revealed that could have been reason enough for Taryn’s suicide—or a motive for her murder.
To English professor Jack Dorian, Taryn was the ultimate fantasy: intelligent, adoring, and completely off limits. But there was also a dark side to Taryn, a dangerous streak that threatened those she turned her affections to—including Jack. And now that she’s dead, his problems are just beginning.
After Frankie uncovers a trove of sordid secrets, it becomes clear that Jack may know the truth. He is guilty of deception, but is he capable of cold-blooded murder?
Her Last Breath by Hilary Davidson
When her beloved sister Caroline dies suddenly, Deirdre is heartbroken. However, her sorrow turns to bone-chilling confusion when she receives a message Caroline sent days earlier warning that her death would be no accident. Long used to being a pariah to her family, Deirdre covers her tattoos and heads to Manhattan for her sister’s funeral.
The message claimed Caroline’s husband, Theo, killed his first wife and got away with it. Reeling from the news, Deirdre confronts Theo on the way to the cemetery, and he reveals both his temper and his suspicion that Deirdre’s “perfect” sister was having an affair.
Paranoid and armed with just enough information to make her dangerous, Deirdre digs into the disturbing secrets buried with Caroline. But as she gets closer to the truth, she realizes that her own life may be at risk…and that there may be more than one killer in the family.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
From New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Jordan Peele and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
Crime of Privilege by Walter Walker
A murder on Cape Cod. A rape in Palm Beach.
All they have in
common is the presence of one of America’s most beloved and influential
families. But nobody is asking questions. Not the police. Not the
prosecutors. And certainly not George Becket, a young lawyer toiling
away in the basement of the Cape & Islands district attorney’s
office. George has always lived at the edge of power. He wasn’t born to
privilege, but he understands how it works and has benefitted from it in
ways he doesn’t like to admit. Now, an investigation brings him deep
inside the world of the truly wealthy—and shows him what a perilous
place it is.
Years have passed since a young woman was found
brutally slain at an exclusive Cape Cod golf club, and no one has ever
been charged. Cornered by the victim’s father, George can’t explain why
certain leads were never explored—leads that point in the direction of a
single family—and he agrees to look into it.
What begins as a
search through the highly stratified layers of Cape Cod society, soon
has George racing from Idaho to Hawaii, Costa Rica to France to New York
City. But everywhere he goes he discovers people like himself: people
with more secrets than answers, people haunted by a decision years past
to trade silence for protection from life’s sharp edges. George finds
his friends are not necessarily still friends and a spouse can be
unfaithful in more ways than one. And despite threats at every turn, he
is driven to reconstruct the victim’s last hours while searching not
only for a killer but for his own redemption.
The Lying Game by Ruth ware
From the instant New York Times bestselling author of blockbuster thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 comes a chilling new novel of friendship, secrets, and the dangerous games teenaged girls play.
On
a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal
village of Salten, along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she
can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first
appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be
something much more sinister.
The next morning, three women in
and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isa—receive the text they had always
hoped would never come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable
clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”
The four girls were
best friends at Salten, a second-rate boarding school set near the
cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four
became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game,
telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty. But
their little game had consequences, and as the four converge in
present-day Salten, they realize their shared past was not as safely
buried as they had once hoped.
Atmospheric, twisty, and with just the right amount of chill to keep you wrong-footed, The Lying Game
is told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, lending itself to
becoming another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our
time.
The Wild Queen by Carolyn Myer (Mary Queen of Scotts)
Mary Stuart was just five years old when she was sent to France to
be raised alongside her future husband. But when the frail young king
dies, eighteen-year-old Mary is stripped of her title as Queen of France
and set adrift in the harsh world, alone.Determined to reign over what
is rightfully hers, Mary returns to Scotland. Hoping that a husband will
help her secure the coveted English throne, she marries again, but the
love and security she longs for elude her. Instead, the fiery young
queen finds herself embroiled in a murder scandal that could cost her
the crown. And her attempts to bargain with her formidable “sister
queen,” Elizabeth I of England, could cost her her very life.
Lions of 5th Aveneue by Fiona Davis
It's 1913, and on the surface, Laura Lyons couldn't ask for more out of
life—her husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library,
allowing their family to live in an apartment within the grand building,
and they are blessed with two children. But headstrong, passionate
Laura wants more, and when she takes a leap of faith and applies to the
Columbia Journalism School, her world is cracked wide open. As her
studies take her all over the city, she is drawn to Greenwich Village's
new bohemia, where she discovers the Heterodoxy Club—a radical,
all-female group in which women are encouraged to loudly share their
opinions on suffrage, birth control, and women's rights. Soon, Laura
finds herself questioning her traditional role as wife and mother. And
when valuable books are stolen back at the library, threatening the home
and institution she loves, she's forced to confront her shifting
priorities head on . . . and may just lose everything in the process.
Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie Donovan struggles with the legacy of
her grandmother, the famous essayist Laura Lyons, especially after
she's wrangled her dream job as a curator at the New York Public
Library. But the job quickly becomes a nightmare when rare manuscripts,
notes, and books for the exhibit Sadie's running begin disappearing from
the library's famous Berg Collection. Determined to save both the
exhibit and her career, the typically risk-averse Sadie teams up with a
private security expert to uncover the culprit. However, things
unexpectedly become personal when the investigation leads Sadie to some
unwelcome truths about her own family heritage—truths that shed new
light on the biggest tragedy in the library's history.
Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris
2 CHILDREN FOR SALE
The sign is a last resort.
It sits on a farmhouse porch in 1931, but could be found anywhere in an
era of breadlines, bank runs and broken dreams. It could have been
written by any mother facing impossible choices.
For struggling
reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his
family’s dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for
publication. But when it leads to his big break, the consequences are
more devastating than he ever imagined.
Inspired by an actual newspaper photograph that stunned the nation, Sold on a Monday is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and the unexpected paths that bring us home.
The Civil War is the greatest trauma ever experienced by the American
nation, a four-year paroxysm of violence that left in its wake more than
600,000 dead, more than 2 million refugees, and the destruction (in
modern dollars) of more than $700 billion in property. The war also
sparked some of the most heroic moments in American history and
enshrined a galaxy of American heroes. Above all, it permanently ended
the practice of slavery and proved, in an age of resurgent monarchies,
that a liberal democracy could survive the most frightful of challenges.
In Fateful Lightning,
two-time Lincoln Prize-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo offers a
marvelous portrait of the Civil War and its era, covering not only the
major figures and epic battles, but also politics, religion, gender,
race, diplomacy, and technology. And unlike other surveys of the Civil
War era, it extends the reader's vista to include the postwar
Reconstruction period and discusses the modern-day legacy of the Civil
War in American literature and popular culture. Guelzo also puts the
conflict in a global perspective, underscoring Americans' acute sense of
the vulnerability of their republic in a world of monarchies. He
examines the strategy, the tactics, and especially the logistics of the
Civil War and brings the most recent historical thinking to bear on
emancipation, the presidency and the war powers, the blockade and
international law, and the role of intellectuals, North and South.
What She Left Behind: A Haunting and Heartbreaking Story of 1920s Historical Fiction
The breakout novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Collector, What She Left Behind weaves
together riveting stories of past and present, exploring the strength
of women in two different times as they face adversity in two very
different ways. Go inside the horrifying walls of a 1920s New York
asylum as a wrongly imprisoned woman fights for what is most important
to her—and meet the young woman confronting the pain and mystery of her
own family’s mental illness two generations later.
Ten years ago, Izzy Stone’s mother fatally shot her father while he
slept. Devastated by her mother’s apparent insanity, Izzy, now
seventeen, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents,
employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy’s help in cataloging
items at a long-shuttered state asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned
belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of unopened letters, a decades-old
journal, and a window into her own past.
Young flapper and
suffragette Clara Cartwright is caught between her overbearing parents
and her desire to be a modern woman. Furious when she rejects an
arranged marriage, instead finding love with an Italian Immigrant,
Clara’s father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But
when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash of 1929, he can no
longer afford her care—and Clara is committed to the public asylum.
Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning,
Clara’s story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really
mentally ill, could something else explain her own mother’s violent
act? Piecing together Clara’s fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own
choices—with shocking and unexpected results.
From the May meeting:
Orphan X by Greg Horowitz
Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt
Book of the Dead - NY Times - famous people through the ages
Ready, Player Two by Ernest Cline
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Thick as Thieves by Sandra Brown
In the Tall Grass by Stephen King
Plain Truth by Jodie Picoult
Girls in the Attic by Marius Gabriel
The Doll House by Malcolm Gladwell
Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Signatures of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Serpent Mage by Greg Bear
Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony Horwitz
Fire Rose by MercedesLackey
Bregdon Chronicles by Ginnie Dye
From the Ocotber Meeting:
The Body by Bill Bryson
The Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See
Almost Everything, Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott
Witches are Coming by Lindy West
Beaneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sulivan
Woodrow's Trumpet
From the September Meeting:
Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler
In 1941 a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a vast intelligence organization—the only woman to serve as a chef de résistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country’s conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Her group’s name was Alliance, but the Gestapo dubbed it Noah’s Ark because its agents used the names of animals as their aliases. The name Marie-Madeleine chose for herself was Hedgehog: a tough little animal, unthreatening in appearance, that, as a colleague of hers put it, “even a lion would hesitate to bite.”
Ladder of Years by Anne Taylor
"BALTIMORE WOMAN DISAPPEARS DURING FAMILY VACATION." The headlines are
all the same: Beloved mother and wife Delia Grinstead was last seen
strolling down the Delaware shore, wearing only a bathing suit and
carrying a beach tote with five hundred dollars tucked inside. To the
best of her family's knowledge, she has disappeared without a trace.
But Delia didn't disappear. She ran.
Open House by Elizabeth Berg
Samantha's husband has left her, and after a spree of overcharging at Tiffany's, she settles down to reconstruct a life for herself and her eleven-year-old son. Her eccentric mother tries to help by fixing her up with dates, but a more pressing problem is money. To meet her mortgage payments, Sam decides to take in boarders. The first is an older woman who offers sage advice and sorely needed comfort; the second, a maladjusted student, is not quite so helpful. A new friend, King, an untraditional man, suggests that Samantha get out, get going, get work. But her real work is this: In order to emerge from grief and the past, she has to learn how to make her own happiness. In order to really see people, she has to look within her heart. And in order to know who she is, she has to remember—and reclaim—the person she used to be, long before she became someone else in an effort to save her marriage.
From the August meeting:
Windmills of War by Diane Moody
Beyond the Shadow of a War and From the Ashes of the War both by the Diane Moody.
Envy by Sandra Brown, Superstition by Karen Robards and Flashpoint by Susan Brockman
Elixir, the History of Water by Brian Fagan
Virus’, Plagues and History by Michael Oldstone
The Golden Thread by Kassia St. Clair
The Women’s War by Jenna Glass
The Book of Joy by the Dalai Llama and Desmond Tutu
The Wedding by Dorothy Parker
On Folly Beach by Karen White
The Boy From the Woods by Harlan Coben
Nevermore by Neil Gaimon
From the July meeting:
Dutch Girl Audrey Hepburn and World War II by Robert Matzen Luca Dotti
Twenty-five years after her passing, Audrey Hepburn remains the most beloved of all Hollywood stars, known as much for her role as UNICEF ambassador as for films like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Several biographies have chronicled her stardom, but none has covered her intense experiences through five years of Nazi occupation in the NetherlandsCult of Glory — The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers”, by Doug Swanson
“Elixir — A History of Water and Humankind”, by Brian Fagan
“Floods, Famines and Emperors — El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations”, by Brian Fagan
“The Culture of Fear — Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things”, by Barry Glassner
This originally came out in ‘99, but it’s been republished, with a chapter added to encompass Trump times.
"The American Duchess: The Real Wallis Simpson" by Anna Pasternak - very interesting perspective - learned some historical facts.
"Seeing Read" by Sandra Brown
"Love Lettering" by Kate Clayborn
"The Story of Arthur Truluv" by Elizabeth Berg - it was sweet
"Tidelands" by Phillip Gregory
"The Other Bennet Sister by
Janice Hadlow - it is the story of Mary Bennet - the ugly duckling of
Pride and Prejudice's five sisters.
The Giver of Stars byJojo Moyes From the author of Me Before You, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond.
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle Where do you see yourself in five years?
When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.
But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.
The Dutch House by
At the end of the
Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny
investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his
family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is
to buy the Dutch House, a lavish
The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.
Inland by
In the lawless,
drought-ridden lands of the Arizona Territory in 1893, two extraordinary
lives unfold. Nora is an unflinching frontierswoman awaiting the return
of the men in her life--her husband, who has gone in search of water
for the parched household, and her elder sons, who have vanished after
an explosive argument. Nora is biding her time with her youngest son,
who is convinced that a mysterious beast is stalking the land around
their home.
Meanwhile, Lurie is a former outlaw and a man haunted by ghosts. He sees lost souls who want something from him, and he finds reprieve from their longing in an unexpected relationship that inspires a momentous expedition across the West. The way in which Lurie's death-defying trek at last intersects with Nora's plight is the surprise and suspense of this brilliant novel.
Meanwhile, Lurie is a former outlaw and a man haunted by ghosts. He sees lost souls who want something from him, and he finds reprieve from their longing in an unexpected relationship that inspires a momentous expedition across the West. The way in which Lurie's death-defying trek at last intersects with Nora's plight is the surprise and suspense of this brilliant novel.
Find Me by
A bone-chilling family history is unearthed in a heart-stopping thriller by New York Times bestselling author Anne Frasier.
Convicted serial killer Benjamin Fisher has finally offered to lead San Bernardino detective Daniel Ellis to the isolated graves of his victims. One catch: he’ll only do it if FBI profiler Reni Fisher, his estranged daughter, accompanies them. As hard as it is to exhume her traumatic childhood, Reni can’t say no. She still feels complicit in her father’s crimes.
Perfect to play a lost little girl, Reni was the bait to lure unsuspecting women to their deaths. It’s time for closure. For her. For the families. And for Daniel. He shares Reni’s obsession with the past. Ever since he was a boy, he’s been convinced that his mother was one of Fisher’s victims.
Convicted serial killer Benjamin Fisher has finally offered to lead San Bernardino detective Daniel Ellis to the isolated graves of his victims. One catch: he’ll only do it if FBI profiler Reni Fisher, his estranged daughter, accompanies them. As hard as it is to exhume her traumatic childhood, Reni can’t say no. She still feels complicit in her father’s crimes.
Perfect to play a lost little girl, Reni was the bait to lure unsuspecting women to their deaths. It’s time for closure. For her. For the families. And for Daniel. He shares Reni’s obsession with the past. Ever since he was a boy, he’s been convinced that his mother was one of Fisher’s victims.
Redhead by the Side of the Road by
Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit. A self-employed tech expert, superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building, cautious to a fault behind the steering wheel, he seems content leading a steady, circumscribed life. But one day his routines are blown apart when his woman friend (he refuses to call anyone in her late thirties a "girlfriend") tells him she's facing eviction, and a teenager shows up at Micah's door claiming to be his son. These surprises, and the ways they throw Micah's meticulously organized life off-kilter, risk changing him forever. An intimate look into the heart and mind of a man who finds those around him just out of reach, and a funny, joyful, deeply compassionate story about seeing the world through new eyes, Redhead by the Side of the Road is a triumph, filled with Anne Tyler's signature wit and gimlet-eyed observation.
The Safe Man: A Ghost Story by
Like his father before him, Brian Holloway is a safe man. That is, his specialty is opening safes. Every job is a little mystery, and he has yet to encounter a lock he can't break or a box he can't crack. But the day Holloway gets called in to open a rare, antique safe in a famous author's library, his skills open a door that should have remained closed.
In this haunting and singular story, previously published anonymously, Michael Connelly proves once again that he is "superb at building suspense.... the reader can never be sure what sudden turns the plot may take"
Then She Was Gone by
She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.NOW
It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter.
And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet.
Before too long she’s staying the night at this house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter.
Poppy is precocious and pretty - and meeting her completely takes Laurel's breath away.
The Namesake by
Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies
established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her
generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works -- and only a
handful of collections -- to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Among the many other awards and honors it received were the New Yorker
Debut of the Year award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the highest
critical praise for its grace, acuity, and compassion in detailing lives
transported from India to America.
In The Namesake, Lahiri enriches the themes that made her collection an international bestseller: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations. Here again Lahiri displays her deft touch for the perfect detail — the fleeting moment, the turn of phrase — that opens whole worlds of emotion.
The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name.
Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing
Person Memoir by
From Aspen Matis, author of the acclaimed true story Girl in the Woods, comes a bold and atmospheric memoir of a woman who—in searching for her vanished husband—discovers deeper purpose.
Aspen’s and Justin’s paths serendipitously aligned on the Pacific Crest Trail when both were walking from Mexico to Canada, separately and alone—both using thru-hiking in hopes of escaping their pasts. Both sought to redefine themselves beneath the stars. By the time they made it to the snowy Cascade Range of British Columbia—the trail’s end—Aspen and Justin were in love.
Embarking on a new pilgrimage the next summer, they returned to those same mossy mountains where they’d met, and they married. They built a world together, three years of a happy marriage. Until a cold November morning, when, after kissing Aspen goodbye, Justin left to attend the funeral of a close friend.
He never came back. As days became weeks, her husband’s inexplicable absence left Aspen unmoored. Shock, grief, fear, and anger battled for control—but nothing prepared her for the disarming truth. A revelation that would lead Aspen to reassess not only her own life but that of the disappeared as well.
Aspen’s and Justin’s paths serendipitously aligned on the Pacific Crest Trail when both were walking from Mexico to Canada, separately and alone—both using thru-hiking in hopes of escaping their pasts. Both sought to redefine themselves beneath the stars. By the time they made it to the snowy Cascade Range of British Columbia—the trail’s end—Aspen and Justin were in love.
Embarking on a new pilgrimage the next summer, they returned to those same mossy mountains where they’d met, and they married. They built a world together, three years of a happy marriage. Until a cold November morning, when, after kissing Aspen goodbye, Justin left to attend the funeral of a close friend.
He never came back. As days became weeks, her husband’s inexplicable absence left Aspen unmoored. Shock, grief, fear, and anger battled for control—but nothing prepared her for the disarming truth. A revelation that would lead Aspen to reassess not only her own life but that of the disappeared as well.
Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of
questions about death. The best questions come from kids. What would
happen to an astronaut’s body if it were pushed out of a space shuttle?
Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral?
In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death? Readers will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend’s skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane.
In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, Doughty blends her mortician’s knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to thirty-five distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death? Readers will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend’s skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane.
A Night Divided by
With the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can't help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city.
Yellow Crocus
(Yellow Crocus #1) by
Moments after Lisbeth is born, she’s taken from her mother and handed over to an enslaved wet nurse, Mattie, a young mother separated from her own infant son in order to care for her tiny charge. Thus begins an intense relationship that will shape both of their lives for decades to come. Though Lisbeth leads a life of privilege, she finds nothing but loneliness in the company of her overwhelmed mother and her distant, slave-owning father. As she grows older, Mattie becomes more like family to Lisbeth than her own kin and the girl’s visits to the slaves’ quarters—and their lively and loving community—bring them closer together than ever. But can two women in such disparate circumstances form a bond like theirs without consequence? This deeply moving tale of unlikely love traces the journey of these very different women as each searches for freedom and dignity.
Mustard Seed (Yellow Crocus #2) by
The bestselling author of Yellow Crocus returns with a haunting and tender story of three women returning to the plantation they once called home.
Oberlin,
Ohio, 1868. Lisbeth Johnson was born into privilege in the antebellum
South. Jordan Freedman was born a slave to Mattie, Lisbeth’s beloved
nurse. The women have an unlikely bond deeper than friendship. Three
years after the Civil War, Lisbeth and Mattie are tending their homes
and families while Jordan, an aspiring suffragette, teaches at an
integrated school.
Oberlin, Ohio, 1868. Lisbeth Johnson was born into privilege in the antebellum South. Jordan Freedman was born a slave to Mattie, Lisbeth’s beloved nurse. The women have an unlikely bond deeper than friendship. Three years after the Civil War, Lisbeth and Mattie are tending their homes and families while Jordan, an aspiring suffragette, teaches at an integrated school.
Golden Poppies (Yellow Crocus #3) by
It’s 1894. Jordan Wallace and Sadie Wagoner appear to have little in common. Jordan, a middle-aged black teacher, lives in segregated Chicago. Two thousand miles away, Sadie, the white wife of an ambitious German businessman, lives in more tolerant Oakland, California. But years ago, their families intertwined on a plantation in Virginia. There, Jordan’s and Sadie’s mothers developed a bond stronger than blood, despite the fact that one was enslaved and the other was the privileged daughter of the plantation’s owner.
White Plague (Joe Rush #1) by
“The pleas for help stopped coming just after five in the morning, Washington time. The Pentagon staffers cleared for handling sensitive messages sat in horror for a moment and then tried other ways to reach the victims. Nothing worked so they called the Director, who phoned me.”
In the remote, frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean, the high-powered and technically advanced submarine U.S.S. Montana is in peril. Adrift and in flames, the boat—and the entire crew—could be lost. The only team close enough to get to them in time is led by Marine doctor and bio-terror expert Joe Rush.
What Once Was True (Robinswood #1) by
Jean Grainger
The once grand Irish house is home to two very different families.
Despite
delusions of grandeur, Lord and Lady Kenefick and their adult children,
live a life of decayed opulence as the money needed to keep such a
large house and grounds ever dwindles.
Meanwhile, the Murphy
family, Dermot, Isabella and their three almost grown up girls, live and
work on the estate and do their best to keep everything running
smoothly.
Social structure is vital. Everyone knows their place,
but as war looms, both families find themselves drawn into the conflict
and begin questioning everything that once was true.
The once grand Irish house is home to two very different families.
Despite delusions of grandeur, Lord and Lady Kenefick and their adult children, live a life of decayed opulence as the money needed to keep such a large house and grounds ever dwindles.
Meanwhile, the Murphy family, Dermot, Isabella and their three almost grown up girls, live and work on the estate and do their best to keep everything running smoothly.
Social structure is vital. Everyone knows their place, but as war looms, both families find themselves drawn into the conflict and begin questioning everything that once was true.
A novel of love, courage, and danger unfolds as World War II’s brightest heroines—the best of friends—take on the front lines.
1944: Fiona Denning has her entire future planned out. She’ll work in city hall, marry her fiancé when he returns from the war, and settle down in the Boston suburbs. But when her fiancé is reported missing after being shot down in Germany, Fiona’s long-held plans are shattered.
Determined to learn her fiancé’s fate, Fiona leaves Boston to volunteer overseas as a Red Cross Clubmobile girl, recruiting her two best friends to come along. There’s the outspoken Viviana, who is more than happy to quit her secretarial job for a taste of adventure. Then there’s Dottie, a shy music teacher whose melodious talents are sure to bring heart and hope to the boys on the front lines.
In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.
1944: Fiona Denning has her entire future planned out. She’ll work in city hall, marry her fiancé when he returns from the war, and settle down in the Boston suburbs. But when her fiancé is reported missing after being shot down in Germany, Fiona’s long-held plans are shattered.
Determined to learn her fiancé’s fate, Fiona leaves Boston to volunteer overseas as a Red Cross Clubmobile girl, recruiting her two best friends to come along. There’s the outspoken Viviana, who is more than happy to quit her secretarial job for a taste of adventure. Then there’s Dottie, a shy music teacher whose melodious talents are sure to bring heart and hope to the boys on the front lines.
Shanghai Girls (Shanghai Girls #1) by
Pearl and May are sisters, living carefree lives in Shanghai, the Paris of Asia. But when Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, they set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America.In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides.
Nine Perfect Strangers by
These nine perfect strangers are about to find out...
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.
The Dressmaker's Gift by
A Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller.From the bestselling author of The Beekeeper’s Promise comes a gripping story of three young women faced with impossible choices. How will history – and their families – judge them?
Paris, 1940. With the city occupied by the Nazis, three young seamstresses go about their normal lives as best they can. But all three are hiding secrets. War-scarred Mireille is fighting with the Resistance; Claire has been seduced by a German officer; and Vivienne’s involvement is something she can’t reveal to either of them.
Two generations later, Claire’s English granddaughter Harriet arrives in Paris, rootless and adrift, desperate to find a connection with her past. Living and working in the same building on the Rue Cardinale, she learns the truth about her grandmother – and herself – and unravels a family history that is darker and more painful than she ever imagined.'
The Winner by
The DreamShe is twenty, beautiful, dirt-poor, and hoping for a better life for her infant daughter when LuAnn Tyler is offered the gift of a lifetime, a $100 million lottery jackpot. All she has to do is change her identity and leave the U.S. forever.
The Killer
It's an offer she dares to refuse...until violence forces her hand and thrusts her into a harrowing game of high-stakes, big-money subterfuge. It's a price she won't fully pay...until she does the unthinkable and breaks the promise that made her rich.
The Winner
For if LuAnn Tyler comes home, she will be pitted against the deadliest contestant of all: the chameleonlike financial mastermind who changed her life. And who can take it away at will...
Above the Bay of Angels by
A single twist of fate puts a servant girl to work in Queen Victoria’s royal kitchen, setting off a suspenseful, historical mystery by the New York Times bestselling author of The Tuscan Child and The Victory Garden.Isabella Waverly only means to comfort the woman felled on a London street. In her final dying moments, she thrusts a letter into Bella’s hand. It’s an offer of employment in the kitchens of Buckingham Palace, and everything the budding young chef desperately wants: an escape from the constrictions of her life as a lowly servant. In the stranger’s stead, Bella can spread her wings.
The Murmur of Bees by
From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel—her first to be translated into English—about a mysterious child with the power to change a family’s history in a country on the verge of revolution.From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can—visions of all that’s yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats—both human and those of nature—Simonopio’s purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.
The Water Dancer by
Young Hiram Walker was
born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of
all memory of her — but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later,
when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life.
This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to
escape from the only home he’s ever known.
So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures
So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures
500 Miles from You (Scottish Bookshop #3) by
New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan returns to the beloved Scottish Highland town of Kirrinfief, which readers first met in The Bookshop on the Shore, and adds a dash of London’s bustling urban landscape.
Lissie, is a nurse in a gritty, hectic London neighborhood. Always terribly competent and good at keeping it all together, she’s been suffering quietly with PTSD after helping to save the victim of a shocking crime. Her supervisor quietly arranges for Lissie to spend a few months doing a much less demanding job in the little town of Kirrinfeif in the Scottish Highlands, hoping that the change of scenery will help her heal. Lissie will be swapping places with Cormack, an Army veteran who’s Kirrinfeif’s easygoing nurse/paramedic/all-purpose medical man. Lissie’s never experienced small-town life, and Cormack’s never spent more than a day in a big city, but it seems like a swap that would do them both some good.
Lissie, is a nurse in a gritty, hectic London neighborhood. Always terribly competent and good at keeping it all together, she’s been suffering quietly with PTSD after helping to save the victim of a shocking crime. Her supervisor quietly arranges for Lissie to spend a few months doing a much less demanding job in the little town of Kirrinfeif in the Scottish Highlands, hoping that the change of scenery will help her heal. Lissie will be swapping places with Cormack, an Army veteran who’s Kirrinfeif’s easygoing nurse/paramedic/all-purpose medical man. Lissie’s never experienced small-town life, and Cormack’s never spent more than a day in a big city, but it seems like a swap that would do them both some good.
Cold Wicked Lies (Cold Justice: Crossfire #3)by
In an effort to halt an armed standoff, FBI negotiator Charlotte Blood tries to unravel the mystery of a young woman’s death on a remote mountainside. Pity she has to fight her stubborn, sexy, Hostage Rescue Team counterpart every step of the way.As a highly skilled operative, HRT leader Payne Novak doesn’t have time to play detective or make nice with killers who flout the law. His focus is getting inside the compound and ending the siege as quickly as possible.
Forced to work together, the battle-hardened HRT team leader and the quietly determined negotiator figure out they might have more in common than they anticipated. As the clock ticks, Charlotte discovers there are some dangers she can’t talk her way out of, and the race to unearth long-buried lies becomes a matter of survival for everyone on the mountain
Tainted Evidence (Evidence #10) by
Some family secrets are deadly…
Inventorying human remains can be difficult at the best of times without a creepy security guard hovering over Maddie Foster’s shoulder. Nervous about being stuck in the crypt with the strange man, Maddie asks a friend of a friend to drop by and pretend to be her boyfriend to force the guy to back off.
Raptor operative Josh Warner recently moved to Oregon to take over as guardian to his troubled niece and open a new private security branch in the Pacific Northwest. Josh doesn’t hesitate to help Maddie and is intrigued by the brainy museologist. His protective nature kicks into high gear as he discovers she may be in very real danger.
Inventorying human remains can be difficult at the best of times without a creepy security guard hovering over Maddie Foster’s shoulder. Nervous about being stuck in the crypt with the strange man, Maddie asks a friend of a friend to drop by and pretend to be her boyfriend to force the guy to back off.
Raptor operative Josh Warner recently moved to Oregon to take over as guardian to his troubled niece and open a new private security branch in the Pacific Northwest. Josh doesn’t hesitate to help Maddie and is intrigued by the brainy museologist. His protective nature kicks into high gear as he discovers she may be in very real danger.
The Shipping News by
When Quoyle's
two-timing wife meets her just deserts, he retreats with his two
daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland
coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play
a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts
his private demons--and the unpredictable forces of nature and
society--he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or
misery. A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the
contemporary North American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
The Wedding by
An Oprah Winfrey Presents Mini-Series on ABC Network Television Starring Halle Berry
In her last novel, Dorothy West, an iconic member of the Harlem Renaissance, offers an intimate glimpse into African American middle class. Set on bucolic Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s, The Wedding tells the story of life in the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast's black bourgeoisie. Within this inner circle of "blue-vein society," we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from "a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions." Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.
In her last novel, Dorothy West, an iconic member of the Harlem Renaissance, offers an intimate glimpse into African American middle class. Set on bucolic Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s, The Wedding tells the story of life in the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast's black bourgeoisie. Within this inner circle of "blue-vein society," we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from "a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions." Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.
Devolution: A Firsthand Account of
the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by
The #1 bestselling author of World War Z
takes on the Bigfoot legend with a tale that blurs the lines between
human and beast--and asks what we are capable of in the face of the
unimaginable.
As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier's eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now.
But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town's bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing--and too earth-shattering in its implications--to be forgotten.
In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate's extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it.
Kate's is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity's defiance in the face of a terrible predator's gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.
Yet it is also far more than that.
As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier's eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now.
But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town's bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing--and too earth-shattering in its implications--to be forgotten.
In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate's extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it.
Kate's is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity's defiance in the face of a terrible predator's gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.
Yet it is also far more than that.
A Blade So Black (The Nightmare-Verse #1) by
The first time the Nightmares came, it nearly cost Alice her life. Now she's trained to battle monstrous creatures in the dark dream realm known as Wonderland with magic weapons and hardcore fighting skills. Yet even warriors have a curfew.Life in real-world Atlanta isn't always so simple, as Alice juggles an overprotective mom, a high-maintenance best friend, and a slipping GPA. Keeping the Nightmares at bay is turning into a full-time job. But when Alice's handsome and mysterious mentor is poisoned, she has to find the antidote by venturing deeper into Wonderland than she’s ever gone before. And she'll need to use everything she's learned in both worlds to keep from losing her head . . . literally
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From the Covid 19 Zoom Meeting May 7th, 2020:
• The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
Five years. That's how long Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have lived on the road in an old school bus, crisscrossing the nation. It's also how long ago Coyote lost her mom and two sisters in a car crash.
Coyote hasn’t been home in all that time, but when she learns the park in her old neighborhood is being demolished - the very same park where she, her mom, and her sisters buried a treasured memory box - she devises an elaborate plan to get her dad to drive 3,600 miles back to Washington state in four days...without him realizing it.
• Ghostly: A Collection of Ghost Stories edited and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger
Collected and introduced by the bestselling author of The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry--including Audrey Niffenegger's own fabulous new illustrations for each piece, and a new story by her--this is a unique and haunting anthology of some of the best ghost stories of all time.
From Edgar Allan Poe to Kelly Link, M.R. James to Neil Gaiman, H.H. Munro to Audrey Niffenegger herself, Ghostly reveals the evolution of the ghost story genre with tales going back to the eighteenth century and into the modern era, ranging across styles from Gothic Horror to Victorian, stories about haunting--haunted children, animals, houses. Every story is introduced by Audrey Niffenegger, an acclaimed master of the craft, with some words on its background and why she chose to include it. Audrey's own story is "A Secret Life With Cats."
• All Over But the Shoutin' - a memoir by Rick Bragg,
a Pulitzer Prize winner for Journalism in 1996.
He’s a good speaker too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The story of a violent, war-haunted, alcoholic father and a strong-willed, loving mother who struggled to protect her three sons from the effects of poverty and ignorance that had tainted her own life.
The extraordinary gifts for evocation and insight and the stunning talent for storytelling that earned Rick Bragg a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 1996 are here brought to bear on the wrenching story of his own family's life. It is the story of a violent, war-haunted, alcoholic father and a strong-willed, loving mother who struggled to protect her three sons from the effects of poverty and ignorance that had tainted her own life. It is the story of the life Bragg was able to carve out for himself on the strength of his mother's encouragement and belief
Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh
A homicide detective’s violent family history repeats itself in #1 Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh’s novel of murder, secrets, and retribution.
For more than twenty-five years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents’ murder-suicide…Until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished.
A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones
Sheriff Sunshine Vicram finds her cup o’ joe more than half full when the small village of Del Sol, New Mexico, becomes the center of national attention for a kidnapper on the loose.
Del Sol, New Mexico is known for three things: its fry-an-egg-on-the-cement summers, its strong cups of coffee—and a nationwide manhunt? Del Sol native Sunshine Vicram has returned to town as the elected sheriff--an election her adorably meddlesome parents entered her in--and she expects her biggest crime wave to involve an elderly flasher named Doug. But a teenage girl is missing, a kidnapper is on the loose, and all of it's reminding Sunny why she left Del Sol in the first place. Add to that trouble at her daughter’s new school and a kidnapped prized rooster named Puff Daddy, and Sunshine has her hands full.
Reborn Yesterday by Tessa Bailey
A timeless love story with bite.
It was a night like any other for funeral home director Ginny Lynn, until the exceptionally handsome—and unfortunately deceased—young man on her embalming table sat up, opened his emerald eyes and changed the course of her life forever, making her feel quite fluttery while he was at it.
Humans aren't supposed to know Jonas Cantrell, or any vampire, exists. It's kind of a major rule. Despite his instantaneous bond with perfectly peculiar Ginny, he has no choice but to erase her memories of their one and only meeting.
The Shanghai Free Taxi by Frank Langfitt
As any traveler knows, some of the best and most honest conversations take place during car rides. So, when a long-time NPR correspondent wanted to learn more about the real China, he started driving a cab--and discovered a country amid seismic political and economic change.
China--America's most important competitor--is at a turning point. With economic growth slowing, Chinese people face inequality and uncertainty as their leaders tighten control at home and project power abroad.
In this adventurous, original book, NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt describes how he created a free taxi service--offering rides in exchange for illuminating conversation--to go beyond the headlines and get to know a wide range of colorful, compelling characters representative of the new China. They include folks like "Beer," a slippery salesman who tries to sell Langfitt a used car; Rocky, a farm boy turned Shanghai lawyer; and Chen, who runs an underground Christian church and moves his family to America in search of a better, freer life.
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
The Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out, but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.
The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
This is a stunning collection of short stories by acclaimed fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. His distinctive genius has been championed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King. With The Sandman Neil Gaiman created one of the most sophisticated, intelligent, and influential graphic novel series of our time. Now after the recent success of his latest novel Anansi Boys, Gaiman has produced Fragile Things, his second collection of short fiction. These stories will dazzle your senses, haunt your imagination, and move you to the very depths of your soul. This extraordinary compilation reveals one of the world's most gifted storytellers at the height of his powers
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end.
In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.”
Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys - It’s 1939 and
some young women from the UK are on a cruise ship heading for Australia
to work as maids and such. The story is what occurs on board ship in
the few weeks they are on the sea.
Need You Dead by Peter James (one of Richard’s detective books that takes place in England.)
The
Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin (this story touches on reincarnation,
especially in young children, ages 2-5, and what they recall from a past
life. As they age, they forget the past life.)
Song of the Lion by Anne Hillerman (daughter of Tony
Hillerman) It is a Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito novel that takes place
in the “4 corners” area of the USA. This is Navaho and Hopi land.
Olive, Again (sequel to Olive Kitteridge) by Elizabeth Strout
The iconic Olive
struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but also the
lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a
teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman
about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who
confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an
inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will
continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire moments of
transcendent grace.
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
One morning, Deming
Guo’s mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her
job at the nail salon and never comes home. No one can find any trace
of her.
With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an “all-American boy.” But far away from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother’s disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind.
Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging.
With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an “all-American boy.” But far away from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother’s disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind.
Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging.
The Institute by Steven King
n the middle of the
night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders
silently murder Luke Ellis's parents and load him into a black SUV. The
operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The
Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no
window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other
kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this
place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and
ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke
learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says.
“You check in, but you don’t check out.”
The Outsider by Steven King
An unspeakable crime. A
confounding investigation. At a time when the King brand has never been
stronger, he has delivered one of his most unsettling and compulsively
readable stories.
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.
As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.
As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can
Ruth Galloway Mystery Series - The Crossing Places, The Janis Stone, A Dying Fall, A Room Full of Bones, The House at Sea's End
Forensic archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway is in her late thirties and lives happily alone with her two cats in a bleak, remote area near Norfolk, land that was sacred to its Iron Age inhabitants—not quite earth, not quite sea. But her routine days of digging up bones and other ancient objects are harshly upended when a child’s bones are found on a desolate beach. Detective Chief Inspector Nelson calls Galloway for help, believing they are the remains of Lucy Downey, a little girl who went missing a decade ago and whose abductor continues to taunt him with bizarre letters containing references to ritual sacrifice, Shakespeare, and the Bible. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson receives a new letter—exactly like the ones about Lucy. Is it the same killer or a copycat murderer, linked in some way to the site near Ruth’s remote home?
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn
Meg Mackworth’s
hand-lettering skill has made her famous as the Planner of Park Slope,
designing beautiful custom journals for New York City’s elite. She has
another skill too: reading signs that other people miss. Like the time
she sat across from Reid Sutherland and his gorgeous fiancée, and knew
their upcoming marriage was doomed to fail. Weaving a secret word into
their wedding program was a little unprofessional, but she was sure no
one else would spot it. She hadn’t counted on sharp-eyed,
pattern-obsessed Reid.
The Girl Beneath the Sea by Andrew Mayne
Coming from scandalous
Florida treasure hunters and drug smugglers, Sloan McPherson is forging
her own path, for herself and for her daughter, out from under her
family’s shadow. An auxiliary officer for Lauderdale Shores PD, she’s
the go-to diver for evidence recovery. Then Sloan finds a fresh kill
floating in a canal—a woman whose murky history collides with Sloan’s.
Their troubling ties are making Sloan less a potential witness than a
suspect. And her colleagues aren’t the only ones following every move
she makes. So is the killer.
The Flight Attendent by Chris Bohjalian
Cassandra Bowden is no
stranger to hungover mornings. She's a binge drinker, her job with the
airline making it easy to find adventure, and the occasional blackouts
seem to be inevitable. She lives with them, and the accompanying
self-loathing. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece
the previous night back together, already counting the minutes until
she has to catch her crew shuttle to the airport. She quietly slides out
of bed, careful not to aggravate her already pounding head, and looks
at the man she spent the night with. She sees his dark hair. His utter
stillness. And blood, a slick, still wet pool on the crisp white sheets.
Afraid to call the police—she's a single woman alone in a hotel room
far from home—Cassie begins to lie. She lies as she joins the other
flight attendants and pilots in the van. She lies on the way to Paris as
she works the first class cabin. She lies to the FBI agents in New York
who meet her at the gate. Soon it's too late to come clean—or face the
truth about what really happened back in Dubai. Could she have killed
him? If not, who did?
Need to Know by Karen Cleveland
Vivian Miller is a
dedicated CIA counterintelligence analyst assigned to uncover the
leaders of Russian sleeper cells in the United States. On track for a
much-needed promotion, she’s developed a system for identifying Russian
agents, seemingly normal people living in plain sight.
After accessing the computer of a potential Russian operative, Vivian stumbles on a secret dossier of deep-cover agents within America’s borders. A few clicks later, everything that matters to her—her job, her husband, even her four children—are threatened.
Vivian has vowed to defend her country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. But now she’s facing impossible choices. Torn between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, love and suspicion, who can she trust?
After accessing the computer of a potential Russian operative, Vivian stumbles on a secret dossier of deep-cover agents within America’s borders. A few clicks later, everything that matters to her—her job, her husband, even her four children—are threatened.
Vivian has vowed to defend her country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. But now she’s facing impossible choices. Torn between loyalty and betrayal, allegiance and treason, love and suspicion, who can she trust?
Seeing Red by Sandra Brown
Kerra Bailey is a television journalist on the rise, and she's hot on the trail of a story guaranteed to skyrocket her career to even greater heights: an interview with the legendary Major Trapper. Twenty-five years ago, The Major emerged a hero from the bombing of the Pegasus Hotel in downtown Dallas when he was photographed leading a handful of survivors out of the collapsing building. The iconic picture transformed him into a beloved national icon, in constant demand for speeches and interviews--until he suddenly dropped out of the public eye, shunning all members of the media. However, Kerra is willing to use any means necessary to get to The Major--even if she has to wrangle an introduction from his estranged son, former ATF agent John Trapper.
From the February meeting:
Hunter’s Green by Phyllis Whitney
1984 by George Orwell
Night Awakening by Rebecca Vanetti (part of a trilogy)
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimon
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Sometimes Sisters by Carolyn Brown
The Guardians by John Grisham
19th Christmas by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (a Womens Murder Club story)
A Bridge Apart by Joey Jones (she hated it)
Me Before You, After You and Still Me all by Jojo Moyes (a trilogy)
A Castle in Wartime by Catherine Bailey (non-fiction)
Talking With Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott (historical fiction)
From the January Meeting:
The Dutch House by Ann Pachett
The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani
When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neill
Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks
Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
A Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Queen Anne’s Lace by Susan Wettig Albert
Last Chance Olive Branch by Susan Wettig Albert
Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
The 4th Hand by John Irving
The History of Ireland In 100 Objects by Fintan O’Toole
The Borga’s, The Hidden History by G. J. Meyer
The Lost Man by Jane Harper
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The
Tale Teller by Anne Hillerman, daughter of Tony Hillerman (she has
carried on the stories of Chee, Leaphorn and Manuelito that take place
in the “Four Corners.”)
The 6th Target by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Womens Murder Club)
The Juke Joint King of the Mississippi Hills: The Raucous Reign of Tillman Branch by Janice Tracy
From the December Meeting:
Trembling Hills by Phyllis Whitney (historical fiction)
The Right Time by Danielle Steele
The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley (takes place in 1300’s during Martin Luther’s time)
The Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Will
the Cat Eat My Eyeballs by Kaitlin Doughty (author who wrote Smoke Gets
in Your Eyes and Other Stories From the Crematorium)
What The Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
The Women’s War by Jenna Glass
18th Abduction by James Patterson
The Reckoning by John Grisham
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Becoming Athena by Martha Mayhood Mertz
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the October Meeting:
The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper
The
Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie King (it is the first in a series
related to Sherlock Holmes
Cholesterol Down; Ten Simple Ways to Lower Your Cholesterol
The Dinner by Herman Koch
The Couple Next Door: A Novel by Shari Lapena
Second Mountain by David Brooks (a self-help book)
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Red Alert (Red Series) by James Patterson/Marshall Karp
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith (No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana series)
From the September Meeting:
Song of Achilles
Women's war
The seamstress of Ourfu
Cold,Cold Heart by Tammy Hoag
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
From the August Meeting:
Beach Rental - by Grace Greene
The Parisians - by Marius Gabrial
Collumns of Fire by Ken Follet
Cross Country by James Patterson
Shattered Mirror by Iris Johansen
Dark Tribute by Iris Johansen
The American Princess
The It Girls by Karen Harper
An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
Dont Let Go by Harlan Coben
Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Crossing Ebenezer Creek by Tonya Bolden
Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman
From the July Meeting:
Mary Chestnut's Civil War (her diary) by Mary Chestnut
Paris 1919 (Paris Peace conference after WWI
Series by Mary Burton, Bonnie read "Cut and Run"
Rachel Caine detective series, "Stillhouse Lake"
All You Can Ever Know: Memoir of a Korean Adoptee by Nicole Chung
Giving Away Simone by Jan L. Waldron
The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd (historical fiction)
The Dressmaker's War by Mary Chamberlain (WW2 historical fiction)
Broken by Karin Slaughter
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
The Shack by William P. Young
From the April Meeting:
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Sea of Memories by Fiona Valpy
The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
From the March Meeting:
In the Garden of the Beasts by Erik Larsen
It All Comes Back to You by Beth Duke
Winter in Paradise by Elin Hildebrand
Past Tense by Lee Child (a Jack Reacher saga)
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
The American Duchess (story of marriage of Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan to the Duke of Marlborough in Britain)
From the February Meeting:
The X Fiance by Alafair Burke
Becoming by Michelle Obama
What Have You Done by Matthew Farrell
From
Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty (author of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
and other stories from the crematorium)
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
From the January Meeting:
Inheritance by Dani shapiro
Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks
thrillers by Tim Tignor - "Betrayal" & "Flash"
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly, based on a true story
The Guests on South Battery by Karen White (involves ghosts)
Divorce Islamic Style by Amara Lakhous (Algerian) story takes place in "Little Egypt" section of Rome, Italy.
Angel's Tip by Alafair Burke, detective story that takes place in NYC
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
Upstream - Essays by Mary Oliver
The Narcissist Next Door by Jeffrey Kluger
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
Best American Short Stories of 2010
From the December Meeting:
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Let the Dead Keep Their Secrets by Rosemary Simpson
The Ragged Edge of Night by Olivia Hawker (a WWII saga in Germany)
The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent & Reverse Cognitive Decline by Dale Bredesen
Missing by James Patterson/Kathryn Fox
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Silver Star by Janette Walls
From the October Meeting:
Infidel
In this profoundly affecting memoir from the internationally renowned author of The Caged Virgin and Nomad, Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells her astonishing life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya, to her intellectual awakening and activism in the Netherlands, and her current life under armed guard in the West.
W is for Wasted
(Kinsey Millhone #23)
by
Two dead men changed the course of my life that fall. One of them I knew and the other I’d never laid eyes on until I saw him in the morgue.
The first was a local PI of suspect reputation. He’d been gunned down near the beach at Santa Teresa. It looked like a robbery gone bad. The other was on the beach six weeks later. He’d been sleeping rough. Probably homeless. No identification. A slip of paper with Millhone’s name and number was in his pants pocket. The coroner asked her to come to the morgue to see if she could ID him.
Two seemingly unrelated deaths, one a murder, the other apparently of natural causes.
Up Close and Dangerous
by
Bailey Wingate's
scheming adult stepchildren are surprised when their father's will
leaves Bailey in control of their fortune, and war ensues. A year later,
while flying from Seattle to Denver in a small plane, Bailey nearly
dies herself when the engine sputters --- and then fails.Cam Justice, her sexy Texan pilot, manages to crash-land the aircraft. Stranded in the wilderness, and struggling to douse her feelings for the ruggedly handsome man by her side, Bailey begins to wonder whether this was a mere accident. Who tampered with their plane? Who's trying to reunite Bailey and her husband in the afterlife? Cut off from the world, and with little hope of rescue, Bailey must trust her life --- and heart --- to Cam, as they battle the harsh elements to find a way out of the unforgiving wilds and back to civilization ... where a killer may be waiting to finish the job
Loyalty
(Fina Ludlow #1)
by
The Ludlows are a
hard-charging family, and patriarch Carl Ludlow treats his offspring
like employees—which they are. But his daughter, Fina, is a bit of a
black sheep. A law school dropout, her father keeps her in the fold as
the firm’s private investigator, working alongside her brothers.Juggling her family of high-powered (and highly dysfunctional) attorneys, the cops and Boston’s criminal element is usually something Fina does without breaking a sweat. But when her sister-in-law disappears, she’s caught up in a case unlike any she’s encountered before.
The Tuscan Child
by
From New York Times bestselling author Rhys Bowen comes a haunting novel about a woman who braves her father’s hidden past to discover his secrets…In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal.
Cut & Run
(Cut & Run #1)
by
A series of murders in
New York City has stymied the police and FBI alike, and they suspect
the culprit is a single killer sending an indecipherable message. But
when the two federal agents assigned to the investigation are taken out,
the FBI takes a more personal interest in the case.Special Agent Ty Grady is pulled out of undercover work after his case blows up in his face. He's cocky, abrasive, and indisputably the best at what he does. But when he's paired with Special Agent Zane Garrett, it's hate at first sight. Garrett is the perfect image of an agent: serious, sober, and focused, which makes their partnership a classic cliche: total opposites, good cop-bad cop, the odd couple. They both know immediately that their partnership will pose more of an obstacle than the lack of evidence left by the murderer.
Practically before their special assignment starts, the murderer strikes again this time at them. Now on the run, trying to track down a man who has focused on killing his pursuers, Grady and Garrett will have to figure out how to work together before they become two more notches in the murderer's knife.
Crazy Rich Asians
(Crazy Rich Asians #1)
by
Crazy Rich Asians
is the outrageously funny debut novel about three super-rich, pedigreed
Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting, and scheming that occurs
when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home
his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season.
When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn't know is that Nick's family home happens to look like a palace, that she'll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia's most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back. Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick's formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should--and should not--marry. Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider's look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.
When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn't know is that Nick's family home happens to look like a palace, that she'll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia's most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back. Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick's formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should--and should not--marry. Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider's look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.
The Shipping News
by
When Quoyle's
two-timing wife meets her just deserts, he retreats with his two
daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland
coast, where a rich cast of local characters and family members all play
a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As Quoyle confronts
his private demons--and the unpredictable forces of nature and
society--he begins to see the possibility of love without pain or
misery. A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the
contemporary North American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America todayNight Fall
(John Corey #3)
by
On a Long Island
beach at dusk, Bob Mitchell and Janet Whitney conduct their illicit love
affair in front of a video camera, set to record each steamy moment.
Suddenly a terrible explosion lights up the sky. Grabbing the camera,
the couple flees as approaching police cars speed toward the scene. Five
years later, the crash of TWA Flight 800 has been attributed to a
mechanical malfunction. But for John Corey and Kate Mayfield, both
members of the elite Anti-terrorist Task Force, the case is not closed.
Suspecting a cover-up at the highest levels and disobeying orders, they
set out to find the one piece of evidence that will prove the truth
about what really happened to Flight 800 - the videotape that shows a
couple making love on the beach and the last moments of the doomed
airliner.Educated: A Memoir
by
An unforgettable memoir in the tradition of The Glass Castle about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge UniversityTara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard.
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.
Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.
The Storyteller
by
Some stories live forever . . .Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t, and they become companions.
Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret—one that nobody else in town would ever suspect—and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With her own identity suddenly challenged, and the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. When does a moral choice become a moral imperative? And where does one draw the line between punishment and justice, forgiveness and mercy?
Artemis
by
Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.
Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.
The Great Alone
by
Alaska, 1974.Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.
Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown
At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.
But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.
From the September Meeting:
The President is Missing by Patterson & Clinton
Lake Success by Gary Sandusky (Matt's submission)
Andy Barowitz (check spelling with MJ) nonfiction essays
The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
Infidel by Ayaam Hirsi Ali (autobiography)
From the August Meeting:
The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
by
Afghan-American Nadia Hashimi's literary debut novel, The Pearl that Broke Its Shell
is a searing tale of powerlessness, fate, and the freedom to control
one's own fate that combines the cultural flavor and emotional resonance
of the works of Khaled Hosseini, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Lisa See.In Kabul, 2007, with a drug-addicted father and no brothers, Rahima and her sisters can only sporadically attend school, and can rarely leave the house. Their only hope lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows young Rahima to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a son, she can attend school, go to the market, and chaperone her older sisters.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
(Sisterhood #1)
by
Carmen got the jeans
at a thrift shop. They didn’t look all that great: they were worn,
dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends
part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them. But Tibby says they’re great. She'd love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they’re fabulous. Lena decides that they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them.
Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything) thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye.
And then the journey of the pants — and the most memorable summer of their lives — begins.
The Secret Language of Flowers
by
Flowers are one of
the most popular and well-received gifts, given to express love and
affection. But did you know the type of flowers you give can speak
volumes? The Secret Language of Flowers is a fascinating insight into
the Victorian tradition of using flowers to convey secret messages, in a
society where feelings often had to be suppressed. In this beautifully
illustrated book - the perfect gift itself - Samantha Gray reveals how
flowers came by their meanings in folklore and how flowers became the
language of courtship, love, friendship, beauty and more. Discover the
meanings behind over 50 flowers - such as how lily of the valley
symbolises the return of happiness, how bluebells stand for constancy
and everlasting love, and how daffodils represent high regard and
chivalry. With stunning illustrations by artist Sarah Perkins that
capture all of the beauty of flowers, this is an exceptionally lovely
and fascinating gift book.The Woman in the Window
by
Anna Fox lives alone—a
recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She
spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies,
recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.
What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.
The Secret Wife
by
A Russian grand duchess and an English journalist. Linked by one of the world’s greatest mysteries...Love. Guilt. Heartbreak.
1914: Russia is on the brink of collapse, and the Romanov family faces a terrifyingly uncertain future. Grand Duchess Tatiana has fallen in love with cavalry officer Dmitri, but events take a catastrophic turn, placing their romance—and their lives—in danger...
2016: Kitty Fisher escapes to her great-grandfather’s remote cabin in America, after a devastating revelation makes her flee London. There, on the shores of Lake Akanabee, she discovers the spectacular jewelled pendant that will lead her to a long-buried family secret...
Haunting, moving and beautifully written, The Secret Wife effortlessly crosses centuries, as past merges with present in an unforgettable story of love, loss and resilience.
Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Dinah Jefferies.
A Merciful Silence
(Mercy Kilpatrick #4)
by
In the fourth book of the Wall Street Journal bestselling series, FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick must unlock the mystery of a mass murder, and the secrets of its silent witness…
For Mercy Kilpatrick, returning to rural Oregon has meant coming to terms with her roots. Raised as a prepper, Mercy is now relying on her survivalist instincts to defend her town from the people the law can’t reach. But this time, an investigation calling up a dark past for her and police chief Truman Daly may be hitting too close to home.
A rainstorm has uncovered the remains of five people—a reprise of the distinctive slaughter of two families twenty years ago. Except the convicted killer is in prison. Is this the case of a sick copycat, or is the wrong man behind bars? One person might have the answer. The lone survivor of the decades-old crimes has returned to town still claiming that she can’t remember a thing about the night she was left for dead. As the search for the truth becomes more dangerous, Mercy fears that the traumatized woman may not have buried her memories at all. She might be keeping them a secret. And there’s a price to be paid for revealing them.
The Kurdish Bike
by
This provocative and
heart-warming novel, based on a true story, follows an American teacher
whose values are challenged in an Iraqi village in 2010."Courageous teachers wanted to rebuild war-torn nation." With her marriage over and life gone flat, Theresa Turner responds to an online ad, and lands at a school in Kurdish Iraq. Befriended by a widow in a nearby village, Theresa is embroiled in the joys and agonies of traditional Kurds, especially the women who survived Saddam's genocide only to be crippled by age-old restrictions, brutality and honor killings. Theresa's greatest challenge will be balancing respect for cultural values while trying to introduce more enlightened attitudes toward women - at the same time seeking new spiritual dimensions within herself.
The Kurdish Bike is gripping, tender, wry and compassionate - an eye-opener into little-known customs in one of the world's most explosive regions - a novel of love, betrayal and redemption.
The Dark Lake
(Gemma Woodstock #1)
by
In a suspense
thriller to rival Paula Hawkins and Tana French, a detective with
secrets of her own hunts the killer of a woman who was the glamorous
star of their high school.Rose was lit by the sun, her beautiful face giving nothing away. Even back then, she was a mystery that I wanted to solve.
The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when a high school classmate is found strangled, her body floating in a lake. And not just any classmate, but Rosalind Ryan, whose beauty and inscrutability exerted a magnetic pull on Smithson High School, first during Rosalind's student years and then again when she returned to teach drama.
As much as Rosalind's life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town's richest men? And despite her many admirers, did anyone in the town truly know her?
Rosalind's enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets—an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past.
Ill Wind
(Anna Pigeon #3)
by
Lately, visitors to Mesa
Verde have been bringing home more than photos--they're also carrying a
strange, deadly disease. And once it strikes, park ranger Anna Pigeon
must find the very human source of the evil wind.
When Life Gives You Lululemons
(The Devil Wears Prada #3)
by
New York Times bestselling author Lauren Weisberger returns with a novel starring one of her favorite characters from The Devil Wears Prada—Emily
Charlton, first assistant to Miranda Priestly, now a highly successful
image consultant who’s just landed the client of a lifetime.Welcome to Greenwich, CT, where the lawns and the women are perfectly manicured, the Tito’s and sodas are extra strong, and everyone has something to say about the infamous new neighbor.
Let’s be clear: Emily Charlton, Miranda Priestly’s ex-assistant, does not do the suburbs. She’s working in Hollywood as an image consultant to the stars, but recently, Emily’s lost a few clients. She’s hopeless with social media. The new guard is nipping at her heels. She needs a big opportunity, and she needs it now.
Banana Cream Pie Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery Book 21)
After an extravagant honeymoon, Hannah’s eager to settle down in Lake Eden and turn domestic daydreams into reality. But when her mother’s neighbor is discovered murdered in the condo downstairs, reality becomes a nightmarish investigation. Victoria Bascomb, once a renowned stage actress, was active in the theater community during her brief appearance in town . . . and made throngs of enemies along the way. Did a random intruder murder the woman as police claim, or was a deadlier scheme at play? As Hannah peels through countless suspects and some new troubles of her own, solving this crime—and living to tell about it—might prove trickier than mixing up the ultimate banana cream pie . . .
Tell No One
by
For Dr. David Beck,
the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has
relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale
moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last
night he saw her alive.Everyone tells him it's time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible- that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.
Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn't. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope.
But already Beck is being hunted down. He's headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret- and someone intends to stop him before he gets there
The Green Mile
(The Green Mile #1-6)
by
When it first
appeared, one volume per month, Stephen King's THE GREEN MILE was an
unprecedented publishing triumph: all six volumes ended up on the New York Times bestseller lists—simultaneously—and delighted millions of fans the world over.Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold Mountain's electric chair. Prison guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working the Mile. But he's never seen anyone like John Coffey, a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its violence and shocking in its depravity. In this place of ultimate retribution, Edgecombe is about to discover the terrible, wondrous truth about Coffey, a truth that will challenge his most cherished beliefes... and yours.
Tailspin
by
#1 New York Times bestselling
author Sandra Brown returns with a potent fusion of tantalizing
suspense and romance, in a thriller about a reckless pilot caught in a
race against time.
Rye Mallett, a fearless "freight dog" pilot charged
with flying cargo to far-flung locations, is often rough-spoken, usually
unshaven, and he never gets the regulation eight hours of shut-eye
before a flight; but he does have a rock-solid reputation: he will fly
in the foulest weather, day or night, and deliver the goods safely to
their destination. So, when Rye is asked to fly into a completely
fogbound Northern Georgia town and deliver a mysterious black box to a
Dr. Lambert, he doesn't ask why--he just ups his price.
As Rye's plane nears the isolated landing strip, more trouble than inclement weather awaits him. He is greeted first by a sabotage attempt that causes him to crash land, and then by Dr. Brynn O'Neal, who claims she was sent for the box in Dr. Lambert's stead. Despite Rye's "no-involvement" policy when it comes other people's problems, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the intrigue surrounding his cargo...and to the mysterious and attractive Brynn O'Neal.
As Rye's plane nears the isolated landing strip, more trouble than inclement weather awaits him. He is greeted first by a sabotage attempt that causes him to crash land, and then by Dr. Brynn O'Neal, who claims she was sent for the box in Dr. Lambert's stead. Despite Rye's "no-involvement" policy when it comes other people's problems, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the intrigue surrounding his cargo...and to the mysterious and attractive Brynn O'Neal.
Circe
by
In the house of
Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born.
But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor
viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for
companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of
witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods
themselves.Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love
The Other
by
Entranced and terrified, the reader of The Other
is swept up in the life of a Connecticut country town in the
thirties—and in the fearful mysteries that slowly darken and overwhelm
it.Originally published in 1971, The Other is one of the most influential horror novels ever written. Its impeccable recreation of small-town life and its skillful handling of the theme of personality transference between thirteen-year-old twins led to widespread critical acclaim for the novel, which was successfully filmed from Thomas Tryon's own screenplay.
This edition features original artwork by surrealist artist Harry O. Morris.
Wonder Show
by
Ladies and gentlemen,
boys and girls, step inside Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show, a menagerie
of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to astound and amaze! But
perhaps the strangest act of Mosco’s display is Portia Remini, a normal
among the freaks, on the run from McGreavy’s Home for Wayward Girls,
where Mister watches and waits. He said he would always find Portia,
that she could never leave. Free at last, Portia begins a new life on
the bally, seeking answers about her father’s disappearance. Will she
find him before Mister finds her? It’s a story for the ages, and like
everyone who enters the Wonder Show, Portia will never be the same.Little Fires Everywhere
by
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
Raney
by
"This book is too good
to keep to yourself. Read it aloud with someone you love, then send it
to a friend. But be sure to keep a copy for yourself, because you'll
want to read it again and again."Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
Raney is a small-town Baptist. Charles is a liberal from Atlanta. And RANEY is the story of their marriage. Charming, wise, funny, and truthful, it is a novel for everyone to love.
"A real jewel."
Homegoing
by
A novel of
breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years
in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel.
Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its
soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape
families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.
Before We Were Yours
by
Two families, generations apart, are forever changed by a heartbreaking injustice in this poignant novel, inspired by a true story, for fans of Orphan Train and The Nightingale.
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility's cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.
True Grit
by
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 is smart enough to figure out she can't go alone after a desperado
who's holed up in Indian territory. With some fast-talking, she
convinces mean, one-eyed US Marshal "Rooster" Cogburn into going after
the despicable outlaw with herFrom the May Meeting:
Undertakers Daughter by Sara Baedel -
What if the place you called 'home' happened to be a funeral home? Kate Mayfield explores what it meant to be the daughter of a small-town undertaker in this fascinating memoir evocative of Six Feet Under and The Help, with a hint of Mary Roach's Stiff.
Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris -
David Sedaris's beloved holiday collection is new again with six more pieces, including a never before published story. Along with such favorites as the diaries of a Macy's elf and the annals of two very competitive families, are Sedaris's tales of tardy trick-or-treaters (Us and Them); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French (Jesus Shaves); what to do when you've been locked out in a snowstorm (Let It Snow); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations (Six to Eight Black Men); what Halloween at the medical examiner's looks like (The Monster Mash); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry (Cow and Turkey)
Crazy Rich Asians - by Kevin Kwan
Crazy Rich Asians is the outrageously funny debut novel about three super-rich, pedigreed Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting, and scheming that occurs when the heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season.
Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini
A story of food and love, injury and healing, Keeping the Feast is the triumphant memoir of one couple's nourishment and restoration in Italy after a period of tragedy, and the extraordinary sustaining powers of food, family, and friendship.
Paula and John met in Italy, fell in love, and four years later, married in Rome. But less than a month after the wedding, tragedy struck. They had transferred from their Italian paradise to Warsaw and while reporting on an uprising in Romania, John was shot and nearly killed by sniper fire. Although he recovered from his physical wounds in less than a year, the process of healing had just begun. Unable to regain his equilibrium, he sank into a deep sadness that reverberated throughout their relationship. It was the abrupt end of what they'd known together, and the beginning of a new phase of life neither had planned for. All of a sudden, Paula was forced to reexamine her marriage, her husband, and herself.
Life by Keith Richards -
As lead guitarist of the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics, and the songs that roused the world. A true and towering original, he has always walked his own path, spoken his mind, and done things his own way.
Now at last Richards pauses to tell his story in the most anticipated autobiography in decades. And what a story! Listening obsessively to Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters records in a coldwater flat with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, building a sound and a band out of music they loved. Finding fame and success as a bad-boy band, only to find themselves challenged by authorities everywhere. Dropping his guitar's sixth string to create a new sound that allowed him to create immortal riffs like those in "Honky Tonk Woman" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash." Falling in love with Anita Pallenberg, Brian Jones's girlfriend. Arrested and imprisoned for drug possession. Tax exile in France and recording Exile on Main Street. Ever-increasing fame, isolation, and addiction making life an ever faster frenzy. Through it all, Richards remained devoted to the music of the band, until even that was challenged by Mick Jagger's attempt at a solo career, leading to a decade of conflicts and ultimately the biggest reunion tour in history.
Calypso by David Sedaris -
If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong.
When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.
With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny--it's a book that can make you laugh 'til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris's powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.
This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris's darkest and warmest book yet--and it just might be his very best.
Louise Penny- Three Pines series - Still Life
A murder investigation disrupts the peace of a beautiful Quebec town.
When a beloved schoolteacher is found dead, the possibility of murder leaves the quaint town of Three Pines aghast in this crime drama based on the award-winning novel by Louise Penny.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (Nathaniel Parker, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries) arrives with Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir (Anthony Lemke, White House Down) to investigate the strange death. With the aid of the victim's best friend, Clara Morrow (Kate Hewlett, Republic of Doyle), they begin to unravel sordid secrets, upending life in the seemingly utopian village.
While Clara becomes increasingly involved in helping the inspectors, newcomer Agent Yvette Nichol (Susanna Fournier, Being Human) challenges Gamache with some unconventional theories of her own. Then Gamache faces an ethical dilemma that puts him in an uncomfortable spot with both his superiors and subordinates. Can he find the killer and restore the village to its idyllic state before another murder occurs?
Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives Kindle Edition
Full-tilt, hardcore, down-home,
and groundbreaking, the women of country music speak volumes with every
song. From Maybelle Carter to Dolly Parton, k.d. lang to Taylor
Swift—these artists provided pivot points, truths, and doses of courage
for women writers at every stage of their lives. Whether it's Rosanne
Cash eulogizing June Carter Cash or a seventeen-year-old Taylor Swift
considering the golden glimmer of another precocious superstar, Brenda
Lee, it's the humanity beneath the music that resonates.
Here are deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers. Acclaimed historian Holly George Warren captures the spark of the rockabilly sensation Wanda Jackson; Entertainment Weekly's Madison Vain considers Loretta Lynn's girl-power anthem "The Pill"; and rocker Grace Potter embraces Linda Ronstadt's unabashed visual and musical influence. Patty Griffin acts like a balm on a post-9/11 survivor on the run; Emmylou Harris offers a gateway through paralyzing grief; and Lucinda Williams proves that greatness is where you find it.
Part history, part confessional, and part celebration of country, Americana, and bluegrass and the women who make them, Woman Walk the Line is a very personal collection of essays from some of America's most intriguing women writers. It speaks to the ways in which artists mark our lives at different ages and in various states of grace and imperfection—and ultimately how music transforms not just the person making it, but also the listener.
Here are deeply personal essays from award-winning writers on femme fatales, feminists, groundbreakers, and truth tellers. Acclaimed historian Holly George Warren captures the spark of the rockabilly sensation Wanda Jackson; Entertainment Weekly's Madison Vain considers Loretta Lynn's girl-power anthem "The Pill"; and rocker Grace Potter embraces Linda Ronstadt's unabashed visual and musical influence. Patty Griffin acts like a balm on a post-9/11 survivor on the run; Emmylou Harris offers a gateway through paralyzing grief; and Lucinda Williams proves that greatness is where you find it.
Part history, part confessional, and part celebration of country, Americana, and bluegrass and the women who make them, Woman Walk the Line is a very personal collection of essays from some of America's most intriguing women writers. It speaks to the ways in which artists mark our lives at different ages and in various states of grace and imperfection—and ultimately how music transforms not just the person making it, but also the listener.
Wonder - by R. J. Palacio -
I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.
August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. WONDER, now a #1 New York Times bestseller and included on the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.
"Wonder is the best kids' book of the year," said Emily Bazelon, senior editor at Slate.com and author of Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. R.J. Palacio has called her debut novel “a meditation on kindness” —indeed, every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship. Auggie is a hero to root for, a diamond in the rough who proves that you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.
Shockwave by Clive Cussler -
The thirteenth adrenaline-filled Dirk Pitt classic from multi-million-copy king of the adventure novel, Clive Cussler.
A hundred and forty years after a British ship wrecks on the way to an Australian penal colony and the survivors discover diamonds on the tropical island where they wash up, Maeve Fletcher, one of their descendants, is stranded on an island in Antarctica with a party of passengers after their cruise ship seemingly abandons them.
Dirk Pitt, on an expedition to find the source of a deadly plague that is killing dolphins and seals in the Weddell Sea, finds Maeve and the passengers and rescues them from death. When Pitt later uncovers the cause of the plague, he discovers that Maeve's father, Arthur Dorsett, and her two sisters are responsible because of their diamond-mining technology. A deadly race develops to stop Dorsett from continuing his murderous mining operations and to head off a disaster that will kill millions. Pitt's struggle to foil Dorsett's ruthless plan to destroy the market for diamonds and thus gain a monopoly of his own takes him from harrowing adventures off the west coast of Canada to being cast adrift in the Tasman Sea.
A Piece of the World: A Novel by
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World."Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me: dragging myself across the field, fingers clutching dirt, my legs twisted behind. The arid moonscape of wheatgrass and timothy. That dilapidated house in the distance, looming up like a secret that won’t stay hidden."
To Christina Olson, the entire world was her family’s remote farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. Born in the home her family had lived in for generations, and increasingly incapacitated by illness, Christina seemed destined for a small life. Instead, for more than twenty years, she was host and inspiration for the artist Andrew Wyeth, and became the subject of one of the best known American paintings of the twentieth century.
As she did in her beloved smash bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction in a powerful novel that illuminates a little-known part of America’s history. Bringing into focus the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, she vividly imagines the life of a woman with a complicated relationship to her family and her past, and a special bond with one of our greatest modern artists.
Told in evocative and lucid prose, A Piece of the World is a story about the burdens and blessings of family history, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.
The Road to Character by David Brooks -
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST
With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times
column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consistently
illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives.
Looking to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders,
Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own
limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist
Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that
she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower
organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered
self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of
the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and
surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin
learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust
oneself even while waging a noble crusade.
Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Road to Character
provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to
build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth.
Books read by Karen on her Bahamas sailing trip:
Wanderer by
Sterling Hayden
Fair and Tender
Ladies by Lee Smith
Try Not to Breathe:
A Novel by Holly Seddon
Everything I Never
Told You: A Novel by Celeste Ng
I Know What You Did
Last Summer by Lois Duncan
The Last Time They
Met: A Novel by Anita Shreve
Boy's Life by
Robert R. McCammon
Still Summer by
Jacquelyn Mitchard
The Lying Game: A
Novel by Ruth Ware
The Other Daughter:
A Novel by Lisa Gardner
Me Before You: A
Novel by Jojo Moyes
After You: A Novel
by Jojo Moyes
The Stranger
(Vintage International) by Albert Camus
True Fiction (Ian
Ludlow Thrillers Book 1) by Lee Goldberg
Force of Nature: A
Novel by Jane Harper
Peony: A Novel of
China by Pearl S. Buck
Camino Island: A
Novel by John Grisham
The Big Both Ways by
John Straley
The Rooster Bar by
John Grisham
All Seeing Eye by
Rob Thurman
The Antagonist by
Lynn Coady
Never Let You Go: A
Novel by Chevy Stevens
Maestra by L.S.
Hilton
Going After Cacciato
by Tim O'Brien
Above the Waterfall:
A Novel by Ron Rash
The Cove: A Novel by
Ron Rash
Theft by Finding:
Diaries (1977-2002) by David Sedaris
The Mime Order (The
Bone Season Book 2) by Samantha Shannon
The Bone Season: A
Novel by Samantha Shannon
Lizzie Bright and
the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt
Cover of Snow: A
Novel by Jenny Milchman
Five Days in May:
Book One in The Unexplainable Collection by Ninie Hammon
Harry Potter and the
Cursed Child - Parts One and Two: The Official Playscript of the
Original West End Production: The Official Playscript of the Original
West End Production by J.K. Rowling
The Good Samaritan
by John Marrs
The Silent Wife: A
Novel by A. S. A. Harrison
Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story by Timothy B. Tyson
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Letters from Skye: A Novel by Jessica Brockmole
Black (Circle Book 1) and Red (Circle Book 2) by Ted Dekker
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
****************************************************
Adopted In Texas; The Story of Homestead by Janice Tracy
Book club member MJ was adopted from this institution in Texas, which destroyed all its adoption records in the 1970s. Through DNA and online research, plus repeated attempts to obtain an original birth record from TX DVS, MJ has located her birth origins and is in now in contact with her birth mother AND relatives of her birth father. Hooray and Thanks go to author and researcher: Janice Tracy. MJ is eternally grateful for her help!!
From the March Meeting:
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gainan
Downfall (Matt Foley), part of the Sarah Bradford series written by V. b. Tenery (female)
The Games by James Patterson with Mark Sullivan (concerns time between World Cup & 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro)
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett
Little Fires by Celeste Ng
The Night the Lights Went Out by Karen White
The Wedding Shop by Rachel Hauk
From the February Meeting:
Hit Man by Lawrence Block
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Behind the Palace Doors by Michael Farquhar
A Piece if the World by Christina Baker Kline (about Andrew (Wyeth)
The State Versus Alex Cross by James Patterson
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Perfect Life by Sophia Kinsella
Into The Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Tuscaloosa by G. W. Phillips
The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (about Bubonic Plague)
The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler
The Origin by Dan Brown
From the January Meeting:
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Y Is For Yesterday by Sue Grafton
Camino Island by John Grisham
Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand
Now That You Mention It by Kristan Higgins
Origin by Dan Brown
White Fire by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Adopted In Texas; The Story of Homestead by Janice Tracy
We learned last night that MJ was adopted from this institution in Texas. There are no records in existence indicating who her birth parents may have been. She is working on locating cousins thru the use of DNA.
Gratitude and Trust by Paul Williams
Driving Mr. Albert by Michael Paterniti (a trip across America with an addled octogenarian and Einstein's brains in a jar)
Into The Night by Suzanne Brockmann
Hit Man by Lawrence Block
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
From the December meeting:
The Barber's Wife by Tanya Nichols
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire by Kurt Andersen
2 books by Ruth Moose- "Doing It At the Dixie Dew" & "Wedding Bell Blues"
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler
Long Upon the Land by Margaret Maron
Leaving Tuscaloosa by Walter Bennett
Family Life by Akhil Sharma
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Diamond Caper by Peter Mayle
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Hunting Grounds by Katee Robert
The Appeal by John Grisham
For All The Tea in China . . . By Sarah Rose
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
From the Sept/October meeting:
Playing for Pizza
by John
Grisham
Rick Dockery is the
third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. In the AFC
Championship game, to the surprise and dismay of virtually everyone,
Rick actually gets into the game. With a seventeen-point lead and
just minutes to go, Rick provides what is arguably the worst single
performance in the history of the NFL. Overnight, he becomes a
national laughingstock—and is immediately cut by the Browns and
shunned by all other teams.
But all Rick knows is football, and he insists that his agent find a team that needs him. Against enormous odds, Rick finally gets a job—as the starting quarterback for the Mighty Panthers . . . of Parma, Italy. The Parma Panthers desperately want a former NFL player—any former NFL player—at their helm. And now they’ve got Rick, who knows nothing about Parma (not even where it is) and doesn’t speak a word of Italian. To say that Italy—the land of fine wines, extremely small cars, and football americano—holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement.
But all Rick knows is football, and he insists that his agent find a team that needs him. Against enormous odds, Rick finally gets a job—as the starting quarterback for the Mighty Panthers . . . of Parma, Italy. The Parma Panthers desperately want a former NFL player—any former NFL player—at their helm. And now they’ve got Rick, who knows nothing about Parma (not even where it is) and doesn’t speak a word of Italian. To say that Italy—the land of fine wines, extremely small cars, and football americano—holds a few surprises for Rick Dockery would be something of an understatement.
The Murder House
No. 7 Ocean Drive is a gorgeous, multi-million-dollar beachfront estate in the Hamptons, where money and privilege know no bounds. But its beautiful gothic exterior hides a horrific past: it was the scene of a series of depraved killings that have never been solved. Neglected, empty, and rumored to be cursed, it's known as the Murder House, and locals keep their distance.
16th Seduction (Women's Murder Club)
Lindsay
Boxer is learning to love again. After the picture-perfect world she
shared with her husband, Joe, and their beautiful young daughter
shattered under the weight of Joe's double life, Lindsay is
determined to put the pieces back together. But before she can
welcome Joe back with open arms, their beloved hometown of San
Francisco faces a threat unlike any the city--or the country--has
ever seen.
Murder at Hatteras (Outer Banks Murder Series Book 2)
by Joe
Ellis
Gabe
and Marla Easton move to Hatteras Island on North Carolina's Outer
Banks to escape from a stress-filled world in hope of conceiving
their first child. Shortly after their arrival, a brutal rape/murder
occurs on the island. As the investigation proceeds, the Eastons are
drawn into the search for the killer. Soon, everybody seems to
exhibit suspicious behavior. When Gabe is beaten and Marla is raped,
Marla can't identify their assailant and can't even reveal her plight
because the rapist has threatened to kill Gabe, who is alive but in a
coma. The plot comes to a head as Marla realizes she is now pregnant.
The story rushes to a climax as readers learn the identity of the
assailant as well as the father of Marla's unborn child.
Night School: A Jack Reacher Novel
by Lee
Child
It’s
1996, and Reacher is still in the army. In the morning they give him
a medal, and in the afternoon they send him back to school. That
night he’s off the grid. Out of sight, out of mind.
Two other men are in the classroom—an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there.
Then they find out: A Jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor—a Saudi courier, seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown. A CIA asset, undercover inside the cell, has overheard the courier whisper a chilling message: “The American wants a hundred million dollars.”
Two other men are in the classroom—an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there.
Then they find out: A Jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor—a Saudi courier, seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown. A CIA asset, undercover inside the cell, has overheard the courier whisper a chilling message: “The American wants a hundred million dollars.”
The Color of Our Sky: A Novel
by Amita
Trasi
India, 1986: Mukta, a ten-year-old village girl from the lower caste Yellama cult has come of age and must fulfill her destiny of becoming a temple prostitute, as her mother and grandmother did before her. In an attempt to escape her fate, Mukta is sent to be a house girl for an upper-middle class family in Mumbai. There she discovers a friend in the daughter of the family, high spirited eight-year-old Tara, who helps her recover from the wounds of her past. Tara introduces Mukta to an entirely different world—one of ice cream, reading, and a friendship that soon becomes a sisterhood.
Night Talk: A Novel
At
night, under the same roof, under the same moon, nothing divides the
girls, Evie and Janey Louise. Talking in their beds, they discuss
their strong mothers and their absent fathers, and they wonder about
the paths their lives will take. Yet during the day, Evie is blind to
their differences-that she is white and her best friend is black.
OUTLINE
by Rachel Cusk
A man and a woman
are seated next to each other on a plane. They get to talking—about
their destination, their careers, their families. Grievances are
aired, family tragedies discussed, marriages and divorces analyzed.
An intimacy is established as two strangers contrast their own
fictions about their lives.
Rachel Cusk's Outline is a novel in ten conversations
Rachel Cusk's Outline is a novel in ten conversations
Memory Man (Amos Decker #1) by David Baldacci
The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was
the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But
his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first
play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field
for good, and left him with an improbable side effect--he can never
forget anything.
The second time was at home nearly two decades later. Now a police detective, Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare--his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law had been murdered.
The second time was at home nearly two decades later. Now a police detective, Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare--his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law had been murdered.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The book begins with a focus on the relationship between two close friends, John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulous. The two are described as deaf-mutes who have lived together for several years. Antonapoulous becomes mentally ill, misbehaves, and despite attempts at intervention from Singer, is eventually put into an insane asylum away from town. Now alone, Singer moves into a new room.
The
Marriage of Opposites
by
Alice Hoffman
Growing up on idyllic St.
Thomas in the early 1800s, Rachel dreams of life in faraway Paris.
Rachel’s mother, a pillar of their small refugee community of Jews
who escaped the Inquisition, has never forgiven her daughter for
being a difficult girl who refuses to live by the rules. Growing up,
Rachel’s salvation is their maid Adelle’s belief in her
strengths, and her deep, life-long friendship with Jestine, Adelle’s
daughter. But Rachel’s life is not her own. She is married off to a
widower with three children to save her father’s business. When her
older husband dies suddenly and his handsome, much younger nephew,
Frédérick, arrives from France to settle the estate, Rachel seizes
her own life story, beginning a defiant, passionate love affair that
sparks a scandal that affects all of her family, including her
favorite son, who will become one of the greatest artists of France.
The Sugar Queen
Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring Della Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly expands. She even bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them—and who has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. Soon Josey is living in a world where the color red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that’s just for starters.
Seventh Heaven: A Novel
On Hemlock Street, the houses are identical, the lawns tidy, and the families traditional. A perfect slice of suburbia, this Long Island community shows no signs of change as the 1950s draw to a close—until the fateful August morning when Nora Silk arrives.
Recently divorced, Nora mows the lawn in slingback pumps and climbs her roof in the middle of the night to clean the gutters. She works three jobs, and when her casseroles don’t turn out, she feeds her two boys—eight-year-old Billy and his baby brother, James—Frosted Flakes for supper. She wears black stretch pants instead of Bermuda shorts, owns twenty-three shades of nail polish, and sings along to Elvis like a schoolgirl.
Truly Madly Guilty
Sam and Clementine have a wonderful, albeit, busy life: they have two little girls, Sam has just started a new dream job and Clementine, a cellist, is busy preparing for the audition of a lifetime. If there’s anything they can count on, it’s each other.Clementine and Erika are each other’s oldest friends. A single look between them can convey an entire conversation. But theirs is a complicated relationship, so when Erika mentions a last minute invitation to a barbecue with her neighbors, Tiffany and Vid, Clementine and Sam don’t hesitate. Having Tiffany and Vid’s larger than life personalities there will be a welcome respite.
Two months later, it won’t stop raining, and Clementine and Sam can’t stop asking themselves the question: What if we hadn’t gone?
Two from the Heart
Anne McWilliams has
lost everything. After her marriage falls apart and a hurricane
destroys her home she realizes that her life has fallen out of focus.
So she takes to the road to ask long lost friends and strangers a
simple question: "What's your best story?" Can the funny,
tragic, inspirational tales she hears on her journey help Anne see
what she's been missing?
Joyland (Hard Case Crime Book 112)
by Stephen
King
Set in a small-town
North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the
summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny
and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying
child, and the ways both will change his life forever.
The Prince of Beverly Hills (Rick Barron Novel Book 1)
by Stuart
Woods
Los Angeles,
1939. It’s Hollywood’s Golden Age, and Rick Barron is a suave
and sharp detective on the Beverly Hills force. After a run-in with
his captain, he finds himself demoted, but soon lands a job on the
security detail for Centurion Pictures, one of the hottest studios.
The white knight of such movie stars as Clete Barrow, the British
leading man with a penchant for parties, and Glenna Gleason, a peach
of a talent on the verge of superstardom, Rick is dubbed “the
Prince of Beverly Hills” by society columnists. But when he
unearths a murder cover-up and a blackmail scam, he finds himself up
against West Coast wise guys whose stakes are do-or-die...
The Kitchen House: A Novel
Orphaned during her
passage from Ireland, young, white Lavinia arrives on the steps of
the kitchen house and is placed, as an indentured servant, under the
care of Belle, the master’s illegitimate slave daughter. Lavinia
learns to cook, clean, and serve food, while guided by the quiet
strength and love of her new family.
In time, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, caring for the master’s opium-addicted wife and befriending his dangerous yet protective son. She attempts to straddle the worlds of the kitchen and big house, but her skin color will forever set her apart from Belle and the other slaves.
In time, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, caring for the master’s opium-addicted wife and befriending his dangerous yet protective son. She attempts to straddle the worlds of the kitchen and big house, but her skin color will forever set her apart from Belle and the other slaves.
From the August Meeting:
Pot Licker Papers - History of Cooking in the South
“The one food book you must read this year."
—Southern Living
A people’s history that reveals how Southerners shaped American culinary identity and how race relations impacted Southern food culture over six revolutionary decades
Like great provincial dishes around the world, potlikker is a salvage food. During the antebellum era, slave owners ate the greens from the pot and set aside the leftover potlikker broth for the enslaved, unaware that the broth, not the greens, was nutrient rich. After slavery, potlikker sustained the working poor, both black and white. In the South of today, potlikker has taken on new meanings as chefs have reclaimed it. Potlikker is a quintessential Southern dish, and The Potlikker Papers is a people’s history of the modern South, told through its food. Beginning with the pivotal role cooks and waiters played in the civil rights movement, noted authority John T. Edge narrates the South’s fitful journey from a hive of racism to a hotbed of American immigration. He shows why working-class Southern food has become a vital driver of contemporary American cuisine.
Land of Mango Sunsets - Dorothea Benton Frank
Her despicable husband left her for a lingerie model who's barely more than a teenager, and her kids are busy with their own lives. But before Miriam Elizabeth Swanson can work herself up into a true snit about it all, her newest tenant, Liz, arrives from Birmingham with plenty of troubles of her own. Then Miriam meets a man named Harrison, who makes her laugh, makes her cry, and makes her feel like a brand-new woman.
Theft by Finding by David Sedaris
For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences.
Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet.
Carolina Crimes: 21 Tales of Need, Greed and Dirty Deeds Kindle Edition
Carolina Crimes: 21 Tales of Need, Greed and Dirty Deeds is a collection of short stories by crime writers living in North and South Carolina, members of Sisters in Crime. The Triangle (Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, NC) Chapter of SinC issued the challenge to members to write stories about addiction or obsession and crime. Who knew that the responses would be so varied or that ice cream, a game of Solitaire, or silk fabric could provide motives to commit murder? Or that golf clubs, stiletto-heeled shoes, and microwave ovens could provide the means?
The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming
A fascinating true tale: When city girl Shreve Stockton set out to ride her Vespa from San Francisco to New York, she never imagined she’d end up staying in Wyoming, falling in love with a trapper, and working as a ranch hand. Nor could she have forseen meeting Charlie, the orphaned coyote pup who made Stockton’s log cabin his home. In a world where coyotes are hunted as killers, Stockton and Charlie faced challenges—as well as joys—throughout their first year, each of which came with revelations about life, love, and the bond between humans and nature. .
Nine Women, One Dress
Natalie is a Bloomingdale’s salesgirl mooning over her lawyer ex-boyfriend who’s engaged to someone else after just two months. Felicia has been quietly in love with her happily married boss for twenty years; now that he’s a lonely widower, she just needs the right situation to make him see her as more than the best executive assistant in Midtown Manhattan. Andrea is a private detective specializing in gathering evidence on cheating husbands—a skill she unfortunately learned from her own life—and can’t figure out why her intuition tells her the guy she’s tailing is one of the good ones when she hasn’t trusted a man in years. For these three women, as well as half a dozen others in sparkling supporting roles—a young model fresh from rural Georgia, a diva Hollywood star making her Broadway debut, an overachieving, unemployed Brown grad who starts faking a fabulous life on social media, to name just a few—everything is about to change, thanks to the dress of the season, the perfect little black number everyone wants to get their hands on…
The Nightingale
As the war progresses, the sisters' relationship and strength are tested. With life changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Vianne and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.
The Life She Wants
by
Robyn Carr#1 New York Times bestselling
author Robyn Carr creates an emotional and uplifting ensemble of
characters in this rags-to-riches-to-rags novel about women, friendship
and the complex path to happiness
In the aftermath of her financier husband's suicide, Emma Shay Compton's dream life is shattered. Richard Compton stole his clients' life savings to fund a lavish life in New York City and, although she was never involved in the business, Emma bears the burden of her husband's crimes. She is left with nothing.
Only one friend stands by her, a friend she's known since high school, who encourages her to come home to Sonoma County. But starting over isn't easy, and Sonoma is full of unhappy memories, too. And people she'd rather not face, especially Riley Kerrigan.
What We Find (Sullivan's Crossing #1)
by
Robyn Carr
Join Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Virgin River and Thunder Point
series, as she explores the healing powers of rural Colorado in a
brand-new story of fresh starts, budding relationships and one woman’s
journey to finding the happiness she’s long been missing
Between the urban bustle of Denver and the high-stress environment of a career in neurosurgery, Maggie Sullivan has hit a wall. When an emergency, high-risk procedure results in the death of a teenager, Maggie finds herself in the middle of a malpractice lawsuit—and experiencing levels of anxiety she’s never faced before. It’s in this desperate moment that Maggie’s boyfriend decides he can’t handle her emotional baggage, and she’s left alone, exhausted and unsure of what her future holds. One thing is certain, though: she needs to slow down before she burns out completely, and the best place she can think to do that is Sullivan’s Crossing.
Between the urban bustle of Denver and the high-stress environment of a career in neurosurgery, Maggie Sullivan has hit a wall. When an emergency, high-risk procedure results in the death of a teenager, Maggie finds herself in the middle of a malpractice lawsuit—and experiencing levels of anxiety she’s never faced before. It’s in this desperate moment that Maggie’s boyfriend decides he can’t handle her emotional baggage, and she’s left alone, exhausted and unsure of what her future holds. One thing is certain, though: she needs to slow down before she burns out completely, and the best place she can think to do that is Sullivan’s Crossing.
The Life She Wants
by
Robyn Carr
#1 New York Times bestselling
author Robyn Carr creates an emotional and uplifting ensemble of
characters in this rags-to-riches-to-rags novel about women, friendship
and the complex path to happiness
In the aftermath of her financier husband's suicide, Emma Shay Compton's dream life is shattered. Richard Compton stole his clients' life savings to fund a lavish life in New York City and, although she was never involved in the business, Emma bears the burden of her husband's crimes. She is left with nothing.
Only one friend stands by her, a friend she's known since high school, who encourages her to come home to Sonoma County. But starting over isn't easy, and Sonoma is full of unhappy memories, too. And people she'd rather not face, especially Riley Kerrigan.
Riley and Emma were like sisters—until Riley betrayed Emma, ending their friendship. Emma left town, planning to never look back. Now, trying to stand on her own two feet, Emma can't escape her husband's reputation and is forced to turn to the last person she thought she'd ever ask for help—her former best friend. It's an uneasy reunion as both women face the mistakes they've made over the years. Only if they find a way to forgive each other—and themselves—can each of them find the life she wants.
In the aftermath of her financier husband's suicide, Emma Shay Compton's dream life is shattered. Richard Compton stole his clients' life savings to fund a lavish life in New York City and, although she was never involved in the business, Emma bears the burden of her husband's crimes. She is left with nothing.
Only one friend stands by her, a friend she's known since high school, who encourages her to come home to Sonoma County. But starting over isn't easy, and Sonoma is full of unhappy memories, too. And people she'd rather not face, especially Riley Kerrigan.
Riley and Emma were like sisters—until Riley betrayed Emma, ending their friendship. Emma left town, planning to never look back. Now, trying to stand on her own two feet, Emma can't escape her husband's reputation and is forced to turn to the last person she thought she'd ever ask for help—her former best friend. It's an uneasy reunion as both women face the mistakes they've made over the years. Only if they find a way to forgive each other—and themselves—can each of them find the life she wants.
Half Broke Horses
Jeannette Walls's memoir The Glass Castle was "nothing short of spectacular" (Entertainment Weekly). Now, in Half Broke Horses, she brings us the story of her grandmother, told in a first-person voice that is authentic, irresistible, and triumphant."Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." So begins the story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls's no nonsense, resourceful, and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town -- riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car ("I loved cars even more than I loved horses. They didn't need to be fed if they weren't working, and they didn't leave big piles of manure all over the place") and fly a plane. And, with her husband Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one of whom is Jeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.
S-Town is an investigative journalism podcast hosted by Brian Reed and created by the producers of Serial and This American Life.[1] All seven chapters were released on March 28, 2017. The podcast was downloaded a record-breaking 10 million times in four days.
Crimetown is a serial documentary podcast about the ways organized crime has shaped particular American cities, hosted by Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier and produced by Gimlet Media. The first season, which started in 2016, focuses on the city of Providence, Rhode Island.
The Secret Keeper
by
Kate Morton
During a summer party
at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel
Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is happily dreaming
of the future. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm
and watches as her mother speaks to him. Before the afternoon is over,
Laurel will witness a shocking crime. A crime that challenges everything
she knows about her family and especially her mother, Dorothy—her
vivacious, loving, nearly perfect mother.
Now, fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress living in London. The family is gathering at Greenacres farm for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday. Realizing that this may be her last chance, Laurel searches for answers to the questions that still haunt her from that long-ago day, answers that can only be found in Dorothy’s past.
Dorothy’s story takes the reader from pre–WWII England through the blitz, to the ’60s and beyond. It is the secret history of three strangers from vastly different worlds—Dorothy, Vivien, and Jimmy—who meet by chance in wartime London and whose lives are forever entwined. The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams and the unexpected consequences they sometimes bring. It is an unforgettable story of lovers and friends, deception and passion that is told—in Morton’s signature style—against a backdrop of events that changed the world.
Now, fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress living in London. The family is gathering at Greenacres farm for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday. Realizing that this may be her last chance, Laurel searches for answers to the questions that still haunt her from that long-ago day, answers that can only be found in Dorothy’s past.
Dorothy’s story takes the reader from pre–WWII England through the blitz, to the ’60s and beyond. It is the secret history of three strangers from vastly different worlds—Dorothy, Vivien, and Jimmy—who meet by chance in wartime London and whose lives are forever entwined. The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams and the unexpected consequences they sometimes bring. It is an unforgettable story of lovers and friends, deception and passion that is told—in Morton’s signature style—against a backdrop of events that changed the world.
From the July Meeting:
Dixie Hemingway Series -
Blaize Clement is an American writer. She is best known for her witty, light-hearted series of "Dixie Hemingway" mystery novels published by St. Martin's Press, a division of Macmillan. The "Dixie Hemingway" books center around the life of a former policewoman turned pet-sitter, and are set in the beachside town of Sarasota, Florida, where Clement currently resides.
Hot Flash Club series by Nancy Thayer
From the bestselling author of Between Husbands and Friends and An Act of Love comes a wise, wonderful, and delightfully witty “coming of age” novel about four intrepid women who discover themselves as they were truly meant to be: passionate, alive, and ready to face the best years of their lives.
Meet Faye, Marilyn, Alice, and Shirley. Four women with skills, smarts, and secrets—all feeling over the hill and out of the race. But in a moment of delicious serendipity, they meet and realize they share more than raging hormones and lost dreams. Now as the Hot Flash Club, where the topics of motherhood, sex, and men are discussed with double servings of chocolate cake, they vow to help each other . . . and themselves.
Hell's Corner by Daivd Baldacci
Oliver Stone and the Camel Club return in #1 bestselling author David Baldacci's most stunning adventure yet.
An attack on the heart of power . . .
In sight of the White House . . .
At a place known as . . .
HELL'S CORNER
Chaos (Kay Scarpetta #24)
#1 New York Times
bestselling author Patricia Cornwell returns with the remarkable
twenty-fourth thriller in her popular high-stakes series starring
medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.
In the quiet of twilight, on an early autumn day, twenty-six-year-old Elisa Vandersteel is killed while riding her bicycle along the Charles River. It appears she was struck by lightning—except the weather is perfectly clear with not a cloud in sight. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the Cambridge Forensic Center’s director and chief, decides at the scene that this is no accidental Act of God.
Alexandra Fuller novels - for example
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
A story of survival and war, love and madness, loyalty and forgiveness, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is an intimate exploration of Fuller's parents, whom readers first met in Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, and of the price of being possessed by Africa's uncompromising, fertile, death-dealing land. We follow Tim and Nicola Fuller hopscotching the continent, restlessly trying to establish a home. War, hardship, and tragedy follow the family even as Nicola fights to hold on to her children, her land, her sanity. But just when it seems that Nicola has been broken by the continent she loves, it is the African earth that revives and nurtures her. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is Fuller at her very best.
Alexandra Fuller is also the author of the forthcoming novel, Quiet Until the Thaw.
Birdology: Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur
Meet the ladies: a flock of smart, affectionate, highly individualistic chickens who visit their favorite neighbors, devise different ways to hide from foxes, and mob the author like she’s a rock star. In these pages you’ll also meet Maya and Zuni, two orphaned baby hummingbirds who hatched from eggs the size of navy beans, and who are little more than air bubbles fringed with feathers. Their lives hang precariously in the balance—but with human help, they may one day conquer the sky.
Night
by Elie Wiesel
Night is Elie Wiesel's masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and
deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a
teenager in the Nazi death camps. This new translation by Marion
Wiesel, Elie's wife and frequent translator, presents this seminal
memoir in the language and spirit truest to the author's original
intent. And in a substantive new preface, Elie reflects on the
enduring importance of Night and his lifelong, passionate dedication
to ensuring that the world never forgets man's capacity for
inhumanity to man.Night offers much more than a litany of the daily terrors, everyday perversions, and rampant sadism at Auschwitz and Buchenwald; it also eloquently addresses many of the philosophical as well as personal questions implicit in any serious consideration of what the Holocaust was, what it meant, and what its legacy is and will be.
The Grownup
A canny young woman
is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly
harmless fraud. On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at
Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keen observer of human
behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful,
rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a
drama injection. However, when the "psychic" visits the
eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan's terror and
grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in
ghosts anymore. Miles, Susan's teenage stepson, doesn't help
matters with his disturbing manner and grisly imagination. The
three are soon locked in a chilling battle to discover where the
evil truly lurks and what, if anything, can be done to escape it.
The Informationist: A Vanessa Michael Munroe Novel (Vanessa Michael Munroe Series Book 1) Kindle Edition
Vanessa “Michael”
Munroe deals in information—expensive information—working for
corporations, heads of state, private clients, and anyone else who
can pay for her unique brand of expertise. Born to missionary parents
in lawless central Africa, Munroe took up with an infamous gunrunner
and his mercenary crew when she was just fourteen. As his protégé,
she earned the respect of the jungle's most dangerous men,
cultivating her own reputation for years until something sent her
running. After almost a decade building a new life and lucrative
career from her home base in Dallas, she's never looked back.
Until now.
A Texas oil billionaire has hired her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. It’s not her usual line of work, but she can’t resist the challenge. Pulled deep into the mystery of the missing girl, Munroe finds herself back in the lands of her childhood, betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead. If she has any hope of escaping the jungle and the demons that drive her, she must come face-to-face with the past that she’s tried for so long to forget.
Until now.
A Texas oil billionaire has hired her to find his daughter who vanished in Africa four years ago. It’s not her usual line of work, but she can’t resist the challenge. Pulled deep into the mystery of the missing girl, Munroe finds herself back in the lands of her childhood, betrayed, cut off from civilization, and left for dead. If she has any hope of escaping the jungle and the demons that drive her, she must come face-to-face with the past that she’s tried for so long to forget.
The Last Cherry Blossom
Following the seventieth anniversary of the atomic bombing
of Hiroshima, this is a new, very personal story to join Sadako
and the Thousand Paper Cranes.
Yuriko was happy growing up in Hiroshima when it was just her and Papa. But her aunt Kimiko and her cousin Genji are living with them now, and the family is only getting bigger with talk of a double marriage! And while things are changing at home, the world beyond their doors is even more unpredictable. World War II is coming to an end, and Japan's fate is not entirely clear, with any battle losses being hidden fom its people. Yuriko is used to the sirens and the air-raid drills, but things start to feel more real when the neighbors who have left to fight stop coming home. When the bomb hits Hiroshima, it’s through Yuriko’s twelve-year-old eyes that we witness the devastation and horror.
Yuriko was happy growing up in Hiroshima when it was just her and Papa. But her aunt Kimiko and her cousin Genji are living with them now, and the family is only getting bigger with talk of a double marriage! And while things are changing at home, the world beyond their doors is even more unpredictable. World War II is coming to an end, and Japan's fate is not entirely clear, with any battle losses being hidden fom its people. Yuriko is used to the sirens and the air-raid drills, but things start to feel more real when the neighbors who have left to fight stop coming home. When the bomb hits Hiroshima, it’s through Yuriko’s twelve-year-old eyes that we witness the devastation and horror.
From the June Meeting:
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account
of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing
look at the struggles of America’s white working class
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways: escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls; and endlessly tricking companions with multiple “sleights of hand” to get food.
Pawleys Island (Lowcountry Tales Book 5)
Catapulted from her home, her marriage and her children, artist Rebecca Simms has come to Pawleys Island, South Carolina, to hide herself from herself. Little does she know that on this “arrogantly shabby” family playground, she’ll encounter three people who will change her life: a wise and irresistible octogenarian who will pry her secrets from her, a gallery owner who caters to interior decorators and heaven save us, tourists, and a retired attorney from Columbia who’s complacent in her fat and sassy life until Rebecca’s stormy advent...
Wild (Oprah's Book Club 2.0 Digital Edition): From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, many with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer to safety.
Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people—adults and children alike—aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.
Between Shades of Gray
Arcadia
On the Road
by Jan Karon
'Mitford is the little town with the big heart. As this charming
mountain village works its magic, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll
quickly make friends who feel like family -- from Father Tim, the
Episcopal rector, to Esther Bolick, Mitford's Champion cake baker.
Mitford is good for the soul.'Keywords: FICTION CONTEMPORARY MITFORD
FATHER TIM
Finland shocked the world when its fifteen-year-olds scored highest on
the first Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a set
of tests touted for evaluating critical-thinking skills in math,
science, and reading. That was in 2001; but even today, this tiny Nordic
nation continues to amaze. How does Finnish education―with short school
days, light homework loads, and little standardized testing―produce
students who match the PISA scores of high-powered, stressed-out kids in
Asia?
The Third Twin by Ken Follett
Using a restricted FBI database, genetic researcher Jeanie Ferrami has located identical twins born to different mothers. Frightened by her bizarre discovery, she is determined to discover the truth at any cost—until she finds herself at the center of a scandal that could ruin her career.
The Target by David Baldacci
The President knows it's a perilous, high-risk assignment. If he gives the order, he has the opportunity to take down a global menace, once and for all. If the mission fails, he would face certain impeachment, and the threats against the nation would multiply. So the president turns to the one team that can pull off the impossible: Will Robie and his partner, Jessica Reel.
All the Little Liars by Charlene Harris
Aurora Teagarden is basking in the news of her pregnancy when disaster strikes her small Georgia town: four kids vanish from the school soccer field in an afternoon. Aurora’s 15-year-old brother Phillip is one of them. Also gone are two of his friends, and an 11-year-old girl who was just hoping to get a ride home from soccer practice. And then there’s an even worse discovery—at the kids’ last known destination, a dead body.
Summit by Harry Farthing
Even after eight successful summits, Mount Everest guide Neil Quinn can't handle anything the mountain throws his way. Disaster strikes steps from the top, leaving him with a very old swastika-embellished ice axe that should never have been so high on the mountain - not if Everest's meticulously documented history is accurate.
Danger doesn't stop at the descent.
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth (part of trilogy)
Viewers everywhere have fallen in love with this candid look at post-war London. In the 1950s, twenty-two-year-old Jenny Lee leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in London's East End slums. While delivering babies all over the city, Jenny encounters a colorful cast of women—from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives, to the woman with twenty-four children who can't speak English, to the prostitutes of the city's seedier side.
An unfortgettable story of motherhood, the bravery of a community, and the strength of remarkable and inspiring women, Call the Midwife is the true story behind the beloved PBS series, which will soon return for its sixth season.
Jungleland by Christopher Stewart
"I began to daydream about the jungle...."
On April 6, 1940, explorer and future World War II spy Theodore Morde (who would one day attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler), anxious about the perilous journey that lay ahead of him, struggled to fall asleep at the Paris Hotel in La Ceiba, Honduras.
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction finalistWinner of the 2014 National Book Award in nonfiction.
An Economist Best Book of 2014.
A vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformation
From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy-or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don't see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes.
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Who are the immensely wealthy right-wing ideologues shaping the fate of America today? From the bestselling author of The Dark Side, an electrifying work of investigative journalism that uncovers the agenda of this powerful group.In her new preface, Jane Mayer discusses the results of the most recent election and Donald Trump's victory, and how, despite much discussion to the contrary, this was a huge victory for the billionaires who have been pouring money in the American political system.
Two from the Heart by James Patterson
From the #1 bestselling author of Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas and Sundays at Tiffany's, two heartwarming tales about the power of a good story to open our eyes to life's possibilities.
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth ware
From New York Times bestselling author of the “twisty-mystery” (Vulture) novel In a Dark, Dark Wood, comes The Woman in Cabin 10, an equally suspenseful and haunting novel from Ruth Ware—this time, set at sea.
In
this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s
works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has
just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise
with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and
the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the
Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s
stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties
are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on,
frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she
can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being
thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and
so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate
attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly,
terribly wrong…
Wedding Cake Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery) by Joanne Fluke
Everyone in Lake Eden, Minnesota, may have had their doubts, but at long last, Hannah Swensen is getting married!
Hannah
is thrilled to be marrying Ross Barton, her college crush. And her
excitement only grows when she learns he’ll be able to join her on her
trip to New York City for the Food Channel’s dessert chef contest. They
get a taste of the Big Apple before Hannah wins the Hometown Challenge
and the producers bring all the contestants to Lake Eden to tape the
remainder of the show. It’s nerve-wracking enough being judged by Alain
Duquesne, a celebrity chef with a nasty reputation. But it’s even more
chilling to find him stabbed to death in the Lake Eden Inn’s walk-in
cooler—before he’s even had a chance to taste Hannah’s Butterscotch
Sugar Cookies! Now Hannah has not only lost her advantage, she’ll have
to solve a mystery with more layers than a five-tiered wedding cake…The Pursuit: A Fox and O'Hare Novel by Janet Evanovich
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Janet Evanovich, author of the blockbuster Stephanie Plum novels, and Lee Goldberg, writer for the Monk television show, team up once again in their New York Times bestselling Fox and O’Hare series!
Nicolas
Fox, international con man, thief, and one of the top ten fugitives on
the FBI’s most-wanted list, has been kidnapped from a beachfront retreat
in Hawaii. What the kidnapper doesn’t know is that Nick Fox has been
secretly working for the FBI. It isn’t long before Nick’s covert
partner, Special Agent Kate O’Hare, is in hot pursuit of the crook who
stole her con man.
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
In Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, Therese is working in a
department store during the Christmas shopping season. One day, a
beautiful older woman comes over to her counter and buys a doll. As the
purchase is a C.O.D. order, Therese makes a mental note of the
customer’s address. She is intrigued and drawn to the woman. Although
young, inexperienced and shy, she writes a note to the customer, Carol,
and is elated and surprised when Carol invites her to meet.
Rebecca by
The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet
by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of
marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe
her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that
she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their
lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy
their marriage from beyond the grave.
First published in 1938,
this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the
Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.
Everland by Wendy Spinale
London has been destroyed in a blitz of bombs and disease. The only ones
who have survived are children, among them Gwen Darling and her
siblings, Joanna and Mikey. They spend their nights scavenging and their
days avoiding the ruthless Marauders -- the German army led by Captain
Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer.
Unsure if the virus has spread past
England's borders but desperate to leave, Captain Hook hunts for a cure,
which he thinks can be found in one of the survivors. He and his
Marauders stalk the streets snatching children for experimentation. None
ever return. Until the day they grab Joanna. As Gwen sets out to save
her, she meets a daredevil boy named Pete. Pete offers the assistance of
his gang of Lost Boys and the fierce sharpshooter Bella, who have all
been living in a city hidden underground. But in a place where help has a
steep price and every promise is bound by blood, it will cost Gwen. And
are she, Pete, the Lost Boys, and Bella enough to outsmart Captain
Hook?
The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel by Gabrielle Zevin
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.
“This novel has humor, romance, a touch of
suspense, but most of all love--love of books and bookish people and,
really, all of humanity in its imperfect glory.”
From the April Meeting:
The Girls by Emma Cline
Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult
The Widow by Fiona Barton
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
Four Weddings and a Sixpence by Julia Quinn
Crosswalk - ?? - futuristic book recommended by Vilma
Orphan Train
The Heart Mender by Andy Andrews
Last Cherry Blossum by Kathleen Burkinshaw
The Misfists by by James Howe
What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
A Force for Good: The Dalai Lama's Vision for Our World
Book by 14th Dalai Lama and Daniel Goleman
And the Online list of 17 Un-Put-Down-Able books:
Series: Unputdownable Books
You Will Know Me
Abbott has a reputation for writing nail-biters but this is the first
of her work I read. In her newest release, she builds her domestic
suspense around an elite teen gymnast—an excellent backdrop for a creepy
mystery because in this high-stakes world people will stop at almost
nothing to get what they want. Abbott kept me guessing the whole way
through: just when I thought I had the mystery figured out, she pivoted
again. Recommended reading for fans of Mary Kubica and Gillian Flynn. More info
What Alice Forgot
Moriarty's works are compulsively readable: whenever I get my hands on a
new one I inhale it in two days. Alice is 29, expecting her first
child, and crazy in love with her husband—or at least she thinks she is,
but then she bumps her head and wakes up on the gym floor, to find that
she’s actually a 39-year-old mother of 3 who’s in the middle of
divorcing the man she’s come to hate. She doesn’t know what’s happened
to her these past 10 years, or who she’s become. She’s about to find
out. I spreed through this like it was the fluffiest chick lit, but
found myself mulling over its themes for weeks after I finished. More info →
Rules of Civility
This Gatsby-esque novel plunges you into the streets of Manhattan,
circa 1938. Young secretary Katey Kontent and her roommate Evelyn meet
handsome Tinker Gray by chance. The girls vie for his affection—until
one impulsive decision changes everything. A beautifully drawn story of
wealth and class, luck and fate, love and illusion. This novel pulls
several shocking plot twists, and I definitely didn’t see that ending
coming. More info →
The Thousand Dollar Tan Line: a Veronica Mars Mystery
The story starts ten years after Veronica's high school graduation, a
few months after the movie left off. Veronica is called in to
investigate when a girl disappears from a Spring Break party, but it
soon becomes apparent this is no ordinary missing persons case, and
Veronica is quickly pulled back into Neptune's seedy underworld. This
wasn't high literature or anything, but it was so much fun (and had such
good narrative drive) I didn't want to stop until I knew how it ended.
More info →
A Fall of Marigolds
I know a lot of Susan Meissner fans, and many of those readers cite
this one as their favorite. The action goes back and forth in time
between two women, a century apart, who are linked by a beautiful scarf
and by their unlikely survival in two devastating tragedies in New York
City. Meissner's tone makes this an easy, enjoyable read despite the
tough subject matter, making it easy to polish off in a day. More info →
Dark Matter
This fast-moving, cinematic thriller begins when the protagonist is
kidnapped on his way home from meeting a friend, and is asked a strange
question by his strangely familiar captor: "Are you happy with your
life?" What The Martian did for space exploration, Dark Matter does for physics, and it works. Imagine the zaniness of Ready Player One, minus the video games or nostalgia trip. More info →
Good as Gone
I devoured this in one sitting. Usually I don't think the premise sells
the book, but this one does: Julie was kidnapped from her own home when
she was thirteen, and eight years later, the mystery is unsolved. Her
family assumes the worst but can't be sure. Then one day, the doorbell
rings, and it's Julie. But as she settles in to her new, old family,
inconsistencies begin to emerge in her story. Why would she lie? Is it really her? I couldn't resist turning the pages until I found out for myself. More info →
Sleeping Giants
I never, and I mean never, would have picked this up on my own, and was
surprised to love it. It’s a sci fi novel whose premise is pretty out
there: it begins with a little girl falling through the earth and
landing in the palm of a gigantic metal hand. Flash forward a few
decades, and scientists begin to discover more body parts all over the
globe. That's wild, right? But with its interesting structure and strong
narrative drive, it works. I hear the full cast audio recording is
terrific. More info →
I Let You Go
It's trendy these days for every suspense novel to have a "shocking
plot twist!" but this tightly-crafted novel makes your jaw drop time and
again, without feeling gimmicky or manipulative. I was stunned as I
slowly came to see that the story wasn't about what I thought it was
about at all, and THAT is what you'll be burning to talk about. On a
dark, rainy night, a mother lets go of her son's hand for just an
instant. The devastating accident sets the plot in motion. Part police
procedural, part domestic suspense, with the ring of authenticity, no
doubt thanks to Mackintosh's own 12 years as a police officer. This is
an emotional roller coaster of a book. (Sensitive themes ahead, so mind
your triggers.) More info →
The Forgetting Time
This was a summer reading guide top 5 pick.
Janie knows her 4-year-old son Noah is not like other children. He's
terrified of water. He asks for his "other mother." And he always,
always wants to go home—even when he's in his very own bed. But one
night, thanks to a late-night bourbon-fueled internet session, Janie
stumbles upon the work of an eccentric scientist, and begins to confront
the possibility that her precious son not only lived a previous life,
he'd been murdered in it. You don't have to buy the premise to find this
a satisfying read. More info →
The Sea of Tranquility
I blew through this novel from my YA summer reading list, even though it's almost 400 pages. If you loved Eleanor & Park, it's not a read-alike, but the two stories have enough in common to make this a safe bet. More info →
The Likeness
This taut psychological thriller has great characters, F-bombs galore,
and kept me glued to the couch for two days. It's the second (and
perhaps the best) in French's Dublin Murder Squad series, which doesn't
need to be read in order. The premise might be a tiny-bit far-fetched
(although it's certainly interesting to think about), but if you go with
it, you'll be rewarded with a great read. More info →
What She Knew
In this contemporary psychological thriller, a British single mother
gives her 8-year-old son permission to run ahead a little on their
evening walk in the park ... and he disappears, without a trace.
MacMillan invites the reader to come along on the hunt for the boy,
alternately focusing on police procedure and family drama. The tight
writing and sharp execution made this hard to put down. I've seen a lot
of comparisons to The Girl on the Train, but instead I'd recommend this one for Tana French fans (although it's much tamer on gore and language.) More info →
Maybe in Another Life
Imagine a happier Sliding Doors, with less cheating and more
cinnamon rolls. When Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles,
she spends a night on the town with an old friend. The decision she
makes at the end of that night changes her life, and in alternating
chapters, we find out exactly how. Like many Taylor Jenkins Reid books,
this one is compulsively readable, but serious themes lay beneath the
surface. More info →
Jane Steele
Jane Eyre lovers, you can relax: while Faye—and her heroine,
Jane Steele—draw serious inspiration from Jane Eyre, it's not a
retelling. Instead, it's delightfully meta: our titular narrator tells
us the inspiration to write down her story came from "the most riveting
book titled Jane Eyre." This Jane is a wise-cracking,
whipsmart, unconventional young woman who rebels against Victorian
convention, but she has a heart of gold. Numerous winks to the original
make this tons of fun for Brontë fans: Jane becomes a governess, there's
a stand-in for Mr. Rochester, and of course, something important is
locked away in an attic. Perfect for readers who love plucky Victorian
heroines, like you'd find in Deanna Raybourn novels. More info →
Tell Me Three Things
I loved this book. A girl-next-door type suddenly finds herself in an
elite California prep school, and has to figure out how to navigate this
new privileged world while still grieving her mother's death. When she
gets an email from an unidentified boy who calls himself "Somebody
Nobody" offering to be her spirit guide to her new school, she doesn't
want to say yes—but she really needs his help. A sweet and fun teen
romance, but also a pitch-perfect portrayal of the grieving process. More info →
From the March Meeting:
"Thinking Fast and Slow", by Daniel Kahneman — about the two parts of our brain; the intuitive, unconscious part that thinks fast, and the rational, conscious part that is more deliberative.
"The Man Who Loved China", by Simon Winchester — about Joseph Needham, a master biologist at Cambridge in the '30s, who became an expert on China during the war, and ended up writing definitive, multiple volumes on every aspect of the history of science in China. He was also a Socialist, practicing Nudist, and was married for over 50 years, while also having a Chinese mistress (known to his wife) almost all that time, whom he married in his 80s when his wife died. Fascinating man.
"A Death in Florence", by Paul Strathern — about the Medicis and fundamentalist priest, Savonarola, in Florence in the late 15th Century.
The Unorthodox Arrival of Pumpkin Allan by Suzie Twine
Summit, A Novel by Harry Farthing (there are 2 stories taking place in this read according to Claire)
I See You Made An Effort; Stories on the Edge of 50 by ?
Dime Store by Lee Smith (a biography)
Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich (not a Stephani Plum novel)
The Fox O'Hare by Janet Evanovich
The Sixth Man by David Baldacci (Sean and Michelle series)
20 Answers on Islam-book from Catholic Church Press
The Guilty by David Baldacci (Will Robie series)
From the February Meeting:
Scout's Honor by Dori-Ann-Dupré
local author -
In Haddleboro, North Carolina, Scout Webb is a 14 year-old kind, spirited small town southern girl and a tomboy much like her namesake, the young narrator from her mother’s favorite book. With both her name and her Christian faith deeply woven into the fabric of her identity, Scout always felt like she had a lot to live up to - she was the kind of girl who made her parents proud.
It's August 1983, and Scout is playing on a summer baseball team with Charlie Porter, her best friend since Kindergarten. More than anything, she is looking forward to her last few weeks at Camp Judah, a Christian camp near the Catawba River. She can’t wait to see her big crush “Brother Doug,” the thirty-two year old camp lifeguard who has watched her grow up each summer since she was seven years old. But after afateful few days and one catastrophic event during her last day at the camp, Scout will be changed forever.
Written through multiple narrators over the course of twenty years, this story follows Scout’s personal struggles as a freshman away at college in Raleigh and later as an overworked single mother approaching middle age, where she is forced to confront the causes of her own quiet suffering, the consequences of her actions and why even the eternal love and devotion of just one true friend can’t save her.
A story of a self, lost…a self, loathed…and a self, rediscovered…it examines the harsh and cruel ways in which otherwise well-intentioned and decent people treat each other…even those they claim to love, but even more so…ultimately, how we treat our own selves.
The Whole Town's Talking by Fanny Flagg
Dimestore by Lee Smith
Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich
10th Circle by Jodi Picoult
Hall of Small Mammals: Stories by Thomas Pierce
The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory
Once In A Great City: A Detroit Story
by David MaranissExcellent reviews!!
The Drowning Game: A Novel Kindle Edition
They said she was armed.
They said she was dangerous.
They were right.
Petty Moshen spent eighteen years of her life as a prisoner in her own home, training with military precision for everything, ready for anything. She can disarm, dismember, and kill—and now, for the first time ever, she is free.
Her paranoid father is dead, his extreme dominance and rules a thing of the past, but his influence remains as strong as ever. When his final will reveals a future more terrible than her captive past, Petty knows she must escape—by whatever means necessary.
But when Petty learns the truth behind her father's madness—and her own family—the reality is worse than anything she could have imagined. On the road and in over her head, Petty's fight for her life has just begun.
Fans of female-powered thrillers will love debut author LS Hawker and her suspenseful tale of a young woman on the run for her future…and from the nightmares of her past.
They said she was dangerous.
They were right.
Petty Moshen spent eighteen years of her life as a prisoner in her own home, training with military precision for everything, ready for anything. She can disarm, dismember, and kill—and now, for the first time ever, she is free.
Her paranoid father is dead, his extreme dominance and rules a thing of the past, but his influence remains as strong as ever. When his final will reveals a future more terrible than her captive past, Petty knows she must escape—by whatever means necessary.
But when Petty learns the truth behind her father's madness—and her own family—the reality is worse than anything she could have imagined. On the road and in over her head, Petty's fight for her life has just begun.
Fans of female-powered thrillers will love debut author LS Hawker and her suspenseful tale of a young woman on the run for her future…and from the nightmares of her past.
Shariah: The Threat To America: An Exercise In Competitive Analysis (Report of Team B II)
Alter of Eden by James Rollins
Roses by Leila Meacham
Within the Bounds by
by Liane Moriarty
Lilac Girls - by Martha Hall Kelly
Hidden Figures - Claire says movie is better than the book!!
Domestic Secrets by Rosalind Noonan
Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Orphan #8 by Kim van Alkemade
Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Murderer's Daughter by Kellerman
Turbo 23 - Janet Evanovich
The Nest - by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
The Whistler by John Grisham
The Promise of Jesse Wood by Chris Fabry
From the January Meeting:
Sycamore Row by John Grisham
Destroyer Angel by Nevada Barr
Marie Antionette - 1700 pages Vilma finished it!!
Breakdown - Kellerman
2 x 2 by Nicholas Sparks
Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty
Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty
Movies to see - Lion
- Manchester by the Sea
- Hidden Figures
Try the Silver Spot theater in Chapel Hill
Leaving Time - Jodi Picoult
Ruby by Cyntia Bond
Legs are Last to Go by Diahann Carroll
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
_______________________________________________________
From the Christmas Meeting:
Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter - Book 1 Dixie Hemingway knows first-hand that many things in life are worse than a dirty litter box. Once happy as a Florida sheriff's deputy, she lost everything when senseless tragedy shattered her world. Now Dixie laces up her sneakers, grabs some kitty treats, and copes with one day at a time as a pet-sitter. Her investigations deal strictly with "crimes" such as who peed on the bed . . . until she finds a dead man face down in an Abyssinian's water bowl. With the local cops stymied—including a handsome detective who catches her eye—she decides to clip a leash on a lead or two and go sleuthing herself.
“Descartes’ Bones,” by Russell Shorto. It literally traces Descartes’ bones from when he died in Sweden, as they were brought back to France (minus the skull, which wasn’t actually discovered until 125 years later, when he was ceremonially reinterred for the third time), and all the changes in thinking and reason that happened throughout that timeline.
“To the Heart of the Nile,” by Pat Shipman, about Lady Florence Baker and the exploration of Central Africa.
“The Soul of an Octopus,” by Sy Montgomery
“The Seven Laws of Magical Thinking — How Irrational Beliefs keep us Happy Healthy and Sane” by Matthew Hutson
The Rumor by Ellen Hilderan
Nantucket writer Madeline King couldn't have picked a worse time to have writer's block. Her deadline is looming, her bills are piling up, and inspiration is in short supply. Madeline's best friend, Grace, is hard at work transforming her garden into the envy of the island with the held of a ruggedly handsome landscape architect. Before she realizes it, Grace is on the verge of a decision that will irrevocably change her life. Could Grace's crisis be Madeline's salvation? As the gossip escalates, and the summer's explosive events come to a head, Grace and Madeline try desperately to set the record straight--but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it.
The Diplomat's Wife (The Kommandant's Girl) Paperback – April 22, 2008
How have I been lucky enough to come here, to be alive, when so many others are not? I should have died.… But I am here.
1945. Surviving the brutality of a Nazi prison camp, Marta Nederman is lucky to have escaped with her life. Recovering from the horror, she meets Paul, an American soldier who gives her hope of a happier future. But their plans to meet in London are dashed when Paul's plane crashes.
Devastated and pregnant, Marta marries Simon, a caring British diplomat, and glimpses the joy that home and family can bring. But her happiness is threatened when she learns of a Communist spy in British intelligence, and that the one person who can expose the traitor is connected to her past.
Khayal – November 12, 2015
You Are My Sunshine: A Holocaust Novel. Book two of the All My Love Detrick
When Helga Haswell becomes pregnant by a married SS officer who abandons her, she finds herself alone and desperate. She is afraid to tell her parents that she is pregnant out of wedlock, so her doctor suggests that Helga check into Heinrich Himmler's home for the Lebensborn. This is a program, he explains, that has been instituted by the Nazi's to create perfect Aryan babies. Since Helga is of pure German blood and the child's father is an SS officer, she will be accepted, the doctor explains. Her child will have a good life because adoption is available only to the finest of Hitler's Elite. Not only this, the doctor says but during her pregnancy, Helga will have the finest food and medical care available. And, instead of a life of shame, she will be honored for her efforts in producing a perfect Aryan child for the new world that Hitler is in the process of creating. Then after the baby is born, the Lebensborn will take the child and assume all future responsibilities releasing Helga to live her life without the burden of a fatherless offspring. In her desperation, all of this sounded perfect to Helga, that was of course before she felt life stir within her womb. However, by the time this occurred it was already too late. She had already moved into Steinhoring, home for the Lebensorn, and there was no possibility of turning back. The papers were signed. She could not escape. Hitler owned her unborn child.
Rules and Secrets - by Ruth Moose (local writer)
Saging While Aging - Shirley MacLaine
Eckhart Tolle - New Heaven and New Earth
White Out by Ken Follett
Mary Antionette Queen - Biography
Good House - by Anne Leary
How do you prove you're not an alcoholic?
Hildy
Good has reached that dangerous time in a woman's life - middle-aged
and divorced, she is an oddity in her small but privileged town. But
Hildy isn't one for self-pity and instead meets the world with a wry
smile, a dark wit and a glass or two of Pinot Noir. When her two earnest
grown-up children stage 'an intervention' and pack Hildy off to an
addiction centre, she thinks all this fuss is ridiculous. After all, why
shouldn't Hildy enjoy a drink now and then?
But as the story
progresses, we start to see another side to Hildy Good, and to her
life's greatest passion - the lies and self deceptions needed to support
her drinking, and the damage she causes to those she loves. When a
cluster of secrets become dangerously entwined, the reckless behaviour
of one threatens to expose the other, with devastating consequences.
From the October Meeting:
Cross Justice by James Patterson;
X by Sue Grafton;
Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins;
Blink by Malcolm Glidewell;
The Epigenetics Revolution, How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease & Inheritance by Nessa Carey;
the Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery;
Blackbeard & Other True Tales from the Outer Banks (not sure of the author) (I think Carol submitted this one);
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury;
The Last Road Home by Danny Johnson (historical story of Chatham County);
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters;
One Summer by David Baldacci (not his usual government mystery);
1924: The Year That Made Hitler by Peter Ross Range;
Island Beneath the Sea by Isabelle Allende
From the September Meeting:
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
(was an alternate pick by Luan for next month's book)
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty - Donna didn't like too much!
The new novel from Liane Moriarty, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Husband’s Secret, Big Little Lies, and What Alice Forgot, about how sometimes we don’t appreciate how extraordinary our ordinary lives are until it’s too late.
Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One small dog. It’s just a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong?
In Truly Madly Guilty, Liane Moriarty turns her unique, razor-sharp eye towards three seemingly happy families.
Sam and Clementine have a wonderful, albeit, busy life: they have two little girls, Sam has just started a new dream job and Clementine, a cellist, is busy preparing for the audition of a lifetime. If there’s anything they can count on, it’s each other.
NYPD 4 - by James Patterson
NYPD Red chases a ruthless murderer with an uncontrollable lust for money--and blood.
It's another glamorous night in the heart of Manhattan: at a glitzy movie premiere, a gorgeous starlet, dressed to the nines and dripping in millions of dollars' worth of jewelry on loan, makes her way past a horde of fans and paparazzi. But then there's a sudden loud noise, an even louder scream, and a vicious crime with millions of witnesses and no suspect--and now NYPD Red has a new case on its hands.
The Weeping Woman: A Novel Kindle Edition
A writer resembling Zoé Valdés—a Cuban exile living in Paris with her husband and young daughter—is preparing a novel on the life of Dora Maar, one of the most promising artists in the Surrealist movement until she met Pablo Picasso. The middle-aged Picasso was already the god of the art world's avant-garde. Dora became his lover, muse, and ultimately, his victim. She became The Weeping Woman captured in his famous portrait, the mistress he betrayed with other mistress-muses, and their affair ended with her commitment to an asylum at the hands of Picasso's friends.
A Sister's Promise by Karen Lenfestey
Kate Hopper can list a million reasons why she doesn’t have kids. No, more like reasons why she shouldn’t have kids: genetics, a dysfunctional family, and ultimately, the fear that she wasn’t cut out to be June Cleaver or Carol Brady or Claire Huxtable. TV moms always made it look so easy, but Kate knows better.
Thought I Knew You by Kate Moretti
Claire Barnes is shattered when her husband, Greg, goes on a business trip and never returns.
Unwilling to just wait for the police to find him, Claire conducts her own investigation. Her best friend Drew helps her look for answers, but all she finds are troubling questions.
With every clue, she discovers that Greg may not be the man she thought she married.
While battling her growing feelings for Drew and raising her two young children, Claire must learn to live with the knowledge that the truth behind Greg’s disappearance may never be revealed.
Boys in Trees by Carly Simon (Memoir)
Thomas Jefferson- Art of Power by John Meacham
The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine (Ladies #1 Detective Agency)
Burn by Nevada Barr set in New Orleans
Postcards from a Dead Girl by Kirk Farber
A touching, almost cinematic, debut novel featuring the eccentric, slightly disturbed, and unique character Sid, who finds himself—among various other darkly comic scenarios—obsessed by the mysterious European postcards that arrive in the mail from his ex-girlfriend.
10 Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out In The Real World by Maria Shriver
We Are Water by Wally Lamb
I Know This Much To Be True by Wally Lamb
From the August Meeting:
She's Come Undone
by
Wally Lamb
In this extraordinary
coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a
journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical
heroine to come along in years.Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Stranded in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally orbits into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before she really goes under.
A Virtuous Woman
by
Kaye Gibbons
When Blinking Jack
Stokes met Ruby Pitt Woodrow, she was twenty and he was forty. She was
the carefully raised daughter of Carolina gentry and he was a skinny
tenant farmer who had never owned anything in his life. She was newly
widowed after a disastrous marriage to a brutal drifter. He had never
asked a woman to do more than help him hitch a mule. They didn't fall in
love so much as they simply found each other and held on for dear life.Kaye Gibbons's first novel, Ellen Foster, won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the praise of writers from Walker Percy to Eudora Welty. In A Virtuous Woman, Gibbons transcends her early promise, creating a multilayered and indelibly convincing portrait of two seemingly ill-matched people who somehow miraculously make a marriage.
Last Bus to Wisdom
by
Ivan Doig
The final novel from a great American storyteller.
Donal Cameron is being raised by his grandmother, the cook at the legendary Double W ranch in Ivan Doig’s beloved Two Medicine Country of the Montana Rockies, a landscape that gives full rein to an eleven-year-old’s imagination. But when Gram has to have surgery for “female trouble” in the summer of 1951, all she can think to do is to ship Donal off to her sister in faraway Manitowoc, Wisconsin. There Donal is in for a rude surprise: Aunt Kate–bossy, opinionated, argumentative, and tyrannical—is nothing like her sister. She henpecks her good-natured husband, Herman the German, and Donal can’t seem to get on her good side either. After one contretemps too many, Kate packs him back to the authorities in Montana on the next Greyhound. But as it turns out, Donal isn’t traveling solo: Herman the German has decided to fly the coop with him. In the immortal American tradition, the pair light out for the territory together, meeting a classic Doigian ensemble of characters and having rollicking misadventures along the way.
Charming, wise, and slyly funny, Last Bus to Wisdom is a last sweet gift from a writer whose books have bestowed untold pleasure on countless readers.
Before I Go to Sleep
by
S.J. Watson (Goodreads Author)
As I sleep, my mind
will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this
morning. Thinking I'm still a child, thinking I have a whole lifetime
of choice ahead of me... Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love--all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.
Welcome to Christine's life.
Octavia Butler Books
Octavia E. Butler
Born
in Pasadena, California, The United States
June 22, 1947
Died
February 24, 2006
Website
Genre
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
by
Mitch Albom (Goodreads Author)
Eddie is a wounded
war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life.
His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd
birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl
from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that
heaven is not a destination, but an answer. In heaven, five people explain your life to you. Some you knew, others may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his "meaningless" life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: "Why was I here?"
When the Wind Blows (When the Wind Blows #1)
by
James Patterson (Goodreads Author)
Frannie O'Neill is a
caring young veterinarian living in the Colorado Rockies, trying to
erase the memory of her beloved husband's mysterious murder. It is not
long before another neighbor suddenly dies, and FBI agent Kit Harrison
arrives at Frannie's doorstep. Kit is hell-bent on solving the heinous
case despite resounding protests from the FBI and the thrashing of his
own internal demons.Kit secretly pursues the investigation, yet
witnesses keep turning up dead. Then Frannie stumbles upon an
astonishing discovery in the nearby woods, and their lives are altered
in ways they could never have imagined. Simply knowing the secret of Max
-- the terrified 11-year-old girl with an amazing gift -- could mean
death.As more and more diabolical details are unearthed, the murderer's bloody trail ultimately leads the trio to an underground lab network, known as "the School." Here scientists conduct shockingly incomprehensible experiments involving children and genetic alteration.
One Plus One
by
Jojo Moyes (Goodreads Author)
One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before YouSuppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages... maybe ever
Blacklist (V.I. Warshawski #11)
by
Sara Paretsky (Goodreads Author)
Every new Sara
Paretsky novel is an event, the chance to re-encounter her beloved
heroine, V. I. Warshawski - ""a private eye with the sharpest tongue and
hardest head in Chicago"" (The New York Times Book Review) - a cause
for rejoicing. But Blacklist is something special. This is a story of
secrets and betrayals that stretch across four generations - secrets
political, social, sexual, financial: all of them with the power to
kill. A Lady in Defiance (Romance in the Rockies #1)
by
Heather Blanton (Goodreads Author)
…It’s his town and he dares God to step foot in it.Charles McIntyre owns everything and everyone in the lawless, godless mining town of Defiance. When three good, Christian sisters from his beloved South show up stranded, alone, and offering to open a “nice” hotel, he is intrigued enough to let them stay…especially since he sees feisty middle sister Naomi as a possible conquest. But Naomi, angry with God for widowing her, wants no part of Defiance or the saloon-owning, prostitute-keeping Mr. McIntyre. It would seem however, that God has gone to elaborate lengths to bring them together. The question is, “Why?” Does God really have a plan for each and every life?
For the rebellious residents of this remote mountain town, the answer will surely be astounding.
The Kommandant's Girl (The Kommandant's Girl #1)
by
Pam Jenoff (Goodreads Author)
Nineteen-year-old Emma
Bau has been married only three weeks when Nazi tanks thunder into her
native Poland. Within days Emma's husband, Jacob, is forced to disappear
underground, leaving her imprisoned within the city's decrepit,
moldering Jewish ghetto. But then, in the dead of night, the resistance
smuggles her out. Taken to Krakow to live with Jacob's Catholic aunt,
Krysia, Emma takes on a new identity as Anna Lipowski, a gentile. Emma's already precarious situation is complicated by her introduction to Kommandant Richwalder, a high-ranking Nazi official who hires her to work as his assistant. Urged by the resistance to use her position to access details of the Nazi occupation, Emma must compromise her safety—and her marriage vows—in order to help Jacob's cause. As the atrocities of war intensify, so does Emma's relationship with the Kommandant, building to a climax that will risk not only her double life, but also the lives of those she loves.
Flyboys: A True Story of Courage
The classic New York Times bestselling story of heroism and sacrifice--by the author of Flags of Our Fathers, The Imperial Cruise, and The China Mirage.This acclaimed bestseller brilliantly illuminates a hidden piece of World War II history as it tells the harrowing true story of nine American airmen shot down in the Pacific. One of them, George H. W. Bush, was miraculously rescued. What happened to the other eight remained a secret for almost 60 years.
After the war, the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth, and not even the families of the airmen were informed of what happened to their sons. Their fate remained a mystery--until now.
FLYBOYS is a tale of courage and daring, of war and death, of men and hope. It will make you proud and it will break your heart.
Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate
In this runaway #1 New York Times bestseller, former secret service officer Gary Byrne, who was posted directly outside President Clinton's oval office, reveals what he observed of Hillary Clinton's character and the culture inside the White House while protecting the First Family in CRISIS OF CHARACTER, the most anticipated book of the 2016 election.Can't Wait to Get to Heaven (Elmwood Springs #3)
by
Fannie Flagg
This novel takes
readers back to Elmwood Springs, Missouri, where the most unlikely and
surprising experiences of a high-spirited octogenarian inspire a town to
ponder the age-old question: why are we here?
Drowning Ruth
by
Christina Schwarz (Goodreads Author)
In the winter of 1919,
a young mother named Mathilda Neumann drowns beneath the ice of a rural
Wisconsin lake. The shock of her death dramatically changes the lives
of her daughter, troubled sister, and husband. . . . Told in the voices
of several of the main characters and skipping back and forth in time,
the narrative gradually and tantalizingly reveals the dark family
secrets and the unsettling discoveries that lead to the truth of what
actually happened the night of the drowning.Black Mountain Breakdown
by
Lee Smith
Crystal Spangler
lives in rural Appalachia. She's the apple of her mother's eye -- not
yet beautiful, but she will be. She's the most popular girl at Black
Rock High. She makes cheerleader, gets good grades, and is elected
beauty queen. Crystal discovers God, goes to college, and falls in love.
When she comes home, she's disheveled and confused. Crystal becomes a
wealthy politician's wife. But there's something calling her, drawing
her back to where it all began, in the shadow of Black Mountain . . . The Good Girl
by
Mary Kubica (Goodreads Author)
"I've been following
her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where
she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like
when she's scared. But I will." One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. At first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life.
When Colin decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota instead of delivering her to his employers, Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them. But no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter.
An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a propulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems.
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Daughter of Cambodia #1)
by
Loung Ung
Chronicles the brutality
of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, from the author's forced ''evacuation''
of Phnom Penh in 1975 to her family's subsequent movements from town to
town and eventual separation.
Brighten the Corner Where You Are
This story of a day in
the life of Joe Robert Kirkman, a North Carolina mountain schoolteacher,
sly prankster, country philosopher, and family man, won the hearts of
readers and reviewers across the country.
After Visiting Friends: A Son's Story
by
Michael Hainey (Goodreads Author)
Michael Hainey had
just turned six when his uncle knocked on his family’s back door one
morning with the tragic news: Bob Hainey, Michael’s father, was found
alone near his car on Chicago’s North Side, dead, of an apparent heart
attack. Thirty-five years old, a young assistant copy desk chief at the
Chicago Sun-Times, Bob was a bright and shining star in the competitive,
hard-living world of newspapers, one that involved booze-soaked nights
that bled into dawn. And then suddenly he was gone, leaving behind a
young widow, two sons, a fractured family—and questions surrounding the
mysterious nature of his death that would obsess Michael throughout
adolescence and long into adulthood. Finally, roughly his father’s age
when he died, and a seasoned reporter himself, Michael set out to learn
what happened that night. Died “after visiting friends,” the obituaries
said. But the details beyond that were inconsistent. What friends?
Where? At the heart of his quest is Michael’s all-too-silent, opaque
mother, a woman of great courage and tenacity—and a steely determination
not to look back. Prodding and cajoling his relatives, and working
through a network of his father’s buddies who abide by an honor code of
silence and secrecy, Michael sees beyond the long-held myths and
ultimately reconciles the father he’d imagined with the one he comes to
know—and in the journey discovers new truths about his mother.The Namesake
The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name. Lahiri brings great empathy to Gogol as he stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves. The New York Times has praised Lahiri as "a writer of uncommon elegance and poise." The Namesake is a fine-tuned, intimate, and deeply felt novel of identity.Curious - The Desire to Know and Why Your Furture Depends oon it by Ian Leslie
How We Got to Now - Six Innovations that Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson - the six things are glass, heat, sound, clean, time and light.
Empire of Cotton: A Global History
Book by Sven Beckert
The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant global struggle between slaves and planters, merchants and statesmen, workers and factory owners.
From the July Meeting:
Empire of Cotton: A Global History
Book by Sven Beckert
The empire of cotton was, from the beginning, a fulcrum of constant global struggle between slaves and planters, merchants and statesmen, workers and factory owners.
Jeff Shaara History book series
King hereafter
Novel by Dorothy Dunnett
"This compelling novel chronicles the life of this young and
brilliant king, who was killed before he was fifty, and his wife Groa,
who came to him as a war prize and remained by his side to the end
(Macbeth)
Make Me by Lee Child --- Lindy says this book was disturbing and does NOT recommend
Amy Lynn by Jack July
More an origin story than a traditional novel, Jack July's Amy Lynn follows the coming-of-age of a charming little Southern girl. Raised in a family of bootleggers and scoundrels, the motherless Amy is adopted by her Aunt Carla Jo, who teaches her everything about being a woman. A triumvirate of male Southern characters teach her other lessons: how to survive, how to live off the land, and how to be a winner. By the time Amy enlists in the United States Navy, she is the sort of heroic figure who commands respect - and over the course of her service in Afghanistan as a corpsmen attached to a Marine unit, she surprises everyone with her strength, skills, and heart.
The Nightingale
Novel by Kristin Hannah
The Nightingale is a historical fiction novel, written by Kristin
Hannah and published in 2015. It tells the story of two sisters, just
coming of age in France on the eve of World War II
The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War
Novel by Michael Shaara
The Killer Angels is a historical novel by Michael Shaara that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975
Last Bus to Wisdom
Novel by Ivan Doig
The final novel from a great American storyteller. Donal Cameron
is being raised by his grandmother, the cook at the legendary Double W
ranch in Ivan Doig's beloved Two Medicine Country of Montana.
Seizing Vengeance
From the June Meeting:
Match Maker - by Elin Hilderbrand
beach read
Rising Strong
by
Brené Brown (Goodreads Author)
The physics of vulnerability is simple: If we are brave enough often enough, we will fall. The author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection
tells us what it takes to get back up, and how owning our stories of
disappointment, failure, and heartbreak gives us the power to write a
daring new ending. Struggle, Brené Brown writes, can be our greatest
call to courage, and rising strong our clearest path to deeper meaning,
wisdom, and hope.A Wolf Called Romeo
by
Nick Jans
The unlikely
true story of a six-year friendship between a wild, oddly gentle black
wolf and the people and dogs of Juneau, Alaska No stranger to
wildlife, Nick Jans had lived in Alaska for nearly thirty years. But
when one evening at twilight a lone black wolf ambled into view not far
from his doorstep, Nick would finally come to know this mystical
species—up close as never before.Local author:
Seizing Vengeance
by
Candace Perry (Goodreads Author)
It has been seven
years since British expat Natasha Drake left her tragic past behind and
came to Raleigh, North Carolina, looking for a new life. As a homicide
detective with the Raleigh Police Department she spends her days hunting
down killers and seeking justice for those who have lost their lives.
When Natasha is called in to investigate the death of a prominent
neurologist it appears to be an open and shut case of anger turned into
murder. But, as more evidence comes to light it turns out this murder is
more complicated than she originally thought, and when a psychiatrist
is found dead in the same eerie way as the neurologist things start to
take a turn for the worse. The Oregon Trail
A New American Journey
The author took a 2000-mile trip
on the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way, in a covered wagon with a
team of mules. He discusses the rich history of the trail, the people
who made the migration and its significance to the United States.
From a Distance (Timber Ridge Reflections #1)
by
Tamera Alexander (Goodreads Author)
What happens when
the realization of a dream isn't what you imagined... and the secret
you've spent a lifetime guarding is finally laid bare? Determined to become one of the country's premier newspaper photographers, Elizabeth Westbrook travels to the Colorado Territory to capture the grandeur of the mountains surrounding the remote town of Timber Ridge. She hopes, too, that the cool, dry air of Colorado, and its renowned hot springs, will cure the mysterious illness that threatens her career, and her life.
Beyond This Moment (Timber Ridge Reflections #2)
by
Tamera Alexander (Goodreads Author)
Lives are made up
of tiny steps. Some are chosen for us; some we choose. All hold the
power to change who we become—but only if we let them. When Dr. Molly Whitcomb, Professor of Romance Languages, steps off the train in Colorado Territory, she makes a choice—one that goes against everything she stands for. Yet it’s the only choice that offers her a chance to regain a fraction of all she’s lost.
The Orchardist
Set in the untamed American West, a highly original and haunting debut novel about a makeshift family whose dramatic lives are shaped by violence, love, and an indelible connection to the land.You belong to the earth, and the earth is hard.
At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, a solitary orchardist named Talmadge carefully tends the grove of fruit trees he has cultivated for nearly half a century. A gentle, solitary man, he finds solace and purpose in the sweetness of the apples, apricots, and plums he grows, and in the quiet, beating heart of the land--the valley of yellow grass bordering a deep canyon that has been his home since he was nine years old. Everything he is and has known is tied to this patch of earth. It is where his widowed mother is buried, taken by illness when he was just thirteen, and where his only companion, his beloved teenaged sister Elsbeth, mysteriously disappeared. It is where the horse wranglers--native men, mostly Nez Perce--pass through each spring with their wild herds, setting up camp in the flowering meadows between the trees.
A Lawyer's Journey: The Morris Dees Story (ABA Biography Series)
This book dramatically chronicles the significant events that led Morris Dees to the front lines of the civil rights struggle and his ongoing crusade against hate groups.This is the story of the courageous and often lonely journey of a skilled and controversial trail lawyer whose career has paralleled a nation's struggle to ensure freedom and equality for all its citizens.Crooked Little Lies
by
Barbara Taylor Sissel (Goodreads Author)
On a cool October
morning, Lauren Wilder is shaken when she comes close to striking Bo
Laughlin with her car as he’s walking along the road’s edge. A young man
well known in their small town of Hardys Walk, Texas, Bo seems fine,
even if Lauren’s intuition says otherwise. Since the accident two years
ago that left her brain in a fragile state, she can’t trust her own
instincts—and neither can her family. Then Bo vanishes, and as the
search for him ensues, the police question whether she’s responsible.
Lauren is terrified, not of what she remembers but of what she doesn’t.Karma's Little Helper
Addiction to a
relationship can be every bit as difficult to overcome as addiction to a
drug. So discovers Mary Wiseman, a lonely small town girl, who falls in
love with Conti Galanos, the charismatic son of a ruthless Greek
tycoon. When their romance explodes, Mary's world implodes.
Dry Leaves of August
On a scorching day in August 1954, thirteen-year-old Jubie Watts leaves Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family for a Florida vacation. Crammed into the Packard along with Jubie are her three siblings, her mother, and the family's black maid, Mary Luther. For as long as Jubie can remember, Mary has been there--cooking, cleaning, compensating for her father's rages and her mother's benign neglect, and loving Jubie unconditionally.
Bright and curious, Jubie takes note of the anti-integration signs they pass, and of the racial tension that builds as they journey further south. But she could never have predicted the shocking turn their trip will take. Now, in the wake of tragedy, Jubie must confront her parents' failings and limitations, decide where her own convictions lie, and make the tumultuous leap to independence. . .
Feasting the Heart by Reynolds Price
In the fall of 1993, Alice Winkler of National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" asked Reynolds Price to write a short story for a Christmas morning broadcast. This assignment would result in NPR's inviting Price to join its varied group of commentators on "All Things Considered." The laws of radio require a concision that has become a welcome new discipline for Price; and here are all the personal essays which he has broadcast since July 25, 1995.
Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
Inside the church of a Benedictine monastery on Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.
When Jessie Sullivan is summoned home to the island to cope with her eccentric mother’s seemingly inexplicable behavior, she is living a conventional life with her husband, Hugh, a life “molded to the smallest space possible.” Jessie loves Hugh, but once on the island, she finds herself drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk about to take his final vows. Amid a rich community of unforgettable island women and the exotic beauty of marshlands, tidal creeks, and majestic egrets, Jessie grapples with the tension of desire and the struggle to deny it, with a freedom that feels overwhelmingly right and the immutable force of home and marriage.
Is the power of the mermaid chair only a myth?
OHenry Award Short Stories of 1996
For the past three decades, William Abrahams has selected the O. Henry Award winners. Building on a tradition that spans over three quarters of a century, The O. Henry Awards has been "widely regarded as the nation's most prestigious awards for short fiction" (The Atlantic Monthly). Every year, Abrahams has chosen a diverse group of stories and writers to creat a collection that includes perennial favorites as well as an increasing number of lesser known writers, many of whom have gone on to become seminal voices in current American fiction. Prize Stories 1996 is both William Abrahams's thirtieth anniversary as Editor of this landmark collection and his last, which gives this collection a special resonance. The twenty or more stories selected for this honor each yhear are culled from a broad range of American magazines both large and small, offering the reader the full sweep and variety of today's fiction.
Paris Wife
A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures the love affair between Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Europe, where they become swept up in the hard-drinking, fast-living, and free-loving life of Jazz Age Paris—hanging out with a volatile group that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. As Ernest struggles to find his literary voice and Hadley strives to hold on to her sense of self, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
Trip Wire by Lee Child
A stranger looking for ex-military cop Jack Reacher is murdered. Now Reacher follows the man's cold trail back to where he came from--and into Reacher's own haunted past.
90 Minutes in Heaven
On the way home from a conference, Don Piper's car was crushed by a semitruck that crossed into his lane. Medical personnel said he died instantly. While his body lay lifeless inside the ruins of his car, Piper experienced the glories of heaven, awed by its beauty and music.
90 minutes after the wreck, while a minister prayed for him, Piper miraculously returned to life on earth with only the memory of inexpressible heavenly bliss. His faith in God was severely tested as he faced an uncertain and grueling recovery. Now he'd like to share his life-changing story with you.
Anonymous Sources by Mary Louise Kelly
A fast-paced international thriller in the vein of Janet Evanovich by former NPR anchor and correspondent Mary Louise Kelly, about a Pakistani terrorist's nuclear threat to blow up the White House.
You're a Bad Ass
Bestselling author, speaker and world-traveling success coach, Jen Sincero, cuts through the din of the self-help genre with her own verbal meat cleaver in You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. In this refreshingly blunt how-to guide, Sincero, serves up 27 bite-sized chapters full of hilariously inspiring stories, life-changing insights, easy exercises and the occasional swear word.
Veiled Freedom by JM Windle
Land of the Free . . . Home of the Brave
Kabul, 2001—American forces have freed Afghanistan from the Taliban. Kites have returned to the skies. Women have removed their burqas. There is dancing in the streets.
A decade later, Afghanistan is a far cry from those first images of a country freed from Taliban rule. When Special Forces veteran Steve Wilson returns to Kabul as security chief to the Minister of Interior, he is disillusioned with the corruption and violence that has overtaken the country he fought to free. Relief worker Amy Mallory arrives in Afghanistan ready to change the world. She soon discovers that as a Western woman, the challenges are monumental. Afghan native Jamil returns to his homeland seeking work, but a painful past continues to haunt him.
All three are searching for truth and freedom when a suicide bombing brings them together on Kabul's dusty streets. But what is the true source of freedom—and its cost?
The Boy by Betty Jane Hergert
In 1959 Ray and Daisy Cook and their five children were brutally slain in their modest home in the central Alberta town of Stettler. Robert Raymond Cook, Ray Cook's son from his first marriage, was convicted of the crime, and had the infamy of becoming the last man hanged in Alberta. Forty-six years later, a troublesome character named Louise in a story that Betty Jane Hegerat finds herself inexplicably reluctant to write, becomes entangled in the childhood memory of hearing about that gruesome mass murder. Through four years of obsessively tracking the demise of the Cook family, and dancing around the fate of the fictional family, the problem that will not go away is how to bring the story to the page. A work of non-fiction about the Cooks and their infamous son, or a novel about Louise and her problem stepson? Both stories keep coming back to the boy. Part memoir, part investigation, part novella, part writer's journal, The Boy, is the author's final capitulation to telling the story with all of the troublesome questions unanswered.
Me Before You
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 barely 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 an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.
Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.
A Love Story for this generation and perfect for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?
Nantucket
I couldn't find a reference to this book - can someone tell me the author?
Nightingale
In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.
FRANCE, 1939
In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.
Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.
With courage, grace and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of WWII and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. 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. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
Elmer Gantry
Today universally recognized as a landmark in American literature, Elmer Gantry scandalized readers when it was first published, causing Sinclair Lewis to be "invited" to a jail cell in New Hampshire and to his own lynching in Virginia. His portrait of a golden-tongued evangelist who rises to power within his church - a saver of souls who lives a life of hypocrisy, sensuality, and ruthless self-indulgence - is also the record of a period, a reign of grotesque vulgarity, which but for Lewis would have left no record of itself. Elmer Gantry has been called the greatest, most vital, and most penetrating study of hypocrisy that has been written since Voltaire.
From the April Meeting:
Barbara suggested books by Diane Chamberlain, Catherine McKenzie, Jojo Moyes (Me Before You), and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
Donna - won - The Unfinished Garden by Barbara Claypole White
Luan - won Everything We Keep by Kerry Longsdale
MJ - won Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor
Other books suggested:
When I'm Gone by Emily Bleaker
Wreckage by Emily Bleaker
When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
Feast by Reynolds Price
You are Happy (Poem)
Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
See Me by Nicholas Sparks
Smoke Gets in your Eyes and other lessons from the crematory
Heather Blanton (Christian books)
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
What She Knew by Gilly McMillian
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
From February Meeting:
Carol is reading "You Are A Bad Ass" by Jan Sincero
Bestselling author, speaker and world-traveling success coach, Jen Sincero, cuts through the din of the self-help genre with her own verbal meat cleaver in You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. In this refreshingly blunt how-to guide, Sincero, serves up 27 bite-sized chapters full of hilariously inspiring stories, life-changing insights, easy exercises and the occasional swear word.
Vilma - "What Alice Forgot" by Liane Moriarty (Aussie)
Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child.
So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over…
So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over…
"The Relic Master" (historical fiction) by Christopher Buckley
From New York Times bestselling author Christopher Buckley, “one
of the funniest writers in the English language” (Tom Wolfe), a
compelling and hilarious adventure featuring a sixteenth-century relic
hunter and his best friend, Albrecht Dürer, who conspire to forge the
Shroud of Turin.
Claire - "Calling Me Home" by Julie Kieler (takes place in 1960's)
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler is a soaring debut
interweaving the story of a heartbreaking, forbidden love in 1930s
Kentucky with an unlikely modern-day friendship.
Eighty-nine-year-old
Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis.
It's a big one. Isabelle wants Dorrie, a black single mom in her
thirties, to drop everything to drive her from her home in Arlington,
Texas, to a funeral in Cincinnati. With no clear explanation why.
Tomorrow.
"Leaving Time" by Jodie Picoult
For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about
her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic
accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her
mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old
journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote
mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the
entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts.
"Lone Wolf"
On an icy winter night, a terrible accident forces a family divided to
come together and make a fateful decision. Cara, once protected by her
father, Luke, is tormented by a secret that nobody knows. Her brother,
Edward, has secrets of his own. He has kept them hidden, but now they
may come to light, and if they do, Cara will be devastated. Their
mother, Georgie, was never able to compete with her ex-husband’s
obsessions, and now, his fate hangs in the balance and in the hands of
her children. With conflicting motivations and emotions, what will this
family decide? And will they be able to live with that decision, after
the truth has been revealed? What happens when the hope that should
sustain a family is the very thing tearing it apart?
"Above Us Only Sky" by Michelle Young-Stone
From the author of The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors, which Library Journal called, “ripe for Oprah or fans of Elizabeth Berg or Anne Tyler,” comes a magical novel about a family of women separated by oceans, generations, and war, but connected by something much greater—the gift of wings.
"A Prayer For Owen Meany" by John Irving
In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing
in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of
the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who
hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is
God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is
extraordinary.
MJ - "The Last Runaway" by Tracy Chevelier (about underground railroad)
Ohio 1850. For a modest English Quaker stranded far from home, life is a
trial. Untethered from the moment she leaves England, fleeing personal
disappointment, Honor Bright is forced by family tragedy to rely on
strangers in an alien, untamed landscape. Drawn into the clandestine
activities of the Underground Railroad, a network helping runaway slaves
escape to freedom, Honor befriends two exceptional people who embody
the startling power of defiance. Eventually she must decide if she too
can act on what she believes in, whatever the personal cost.
Donna - "Miracle in Augusta" by James Patterson
A year ago, Travis McKinley, an unknown golfing amateur, shocked the
world by winning the PGA Senior Open at Pebble Beach. Now he's famous,
he makes his living playing the game he loves, and everything should be
perfect. Still Travis can't shake the feeling that he's a fraud, an
imposter who doesn't deserve his success - and after a series of
disappointments and, to be honest, personal screw-ups, he might just
prove himself right.
Lindy - "I, Alex Cross" by James Patterson
You can't runDetective Alex Cross is pulled out
of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved
relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the
killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington's
wildest scenes. And she was not this killer's only victim.
Karen - Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom
Mitch Albom creates his most unforgettable fictional
character—Frankie Presto, the greatest guitarist to ever walk the
earth—in this magical novel about the bands we join in life and the
power of talent to change our lives.
In his most stunning novel yet, the voice of Music narrates the tale of its most beloved disciple, young Frankie Presto, a war orphan raised by a blind music teacher in a small Spanish town. At nine years old, Frankie is sent to America in the bottom of a boat. His only possession is an old guitar and six precious strings.
In his most stunning novel yet, the voice of Music narrates the tale of its most beloved disciple, young Frankie Presto, a war orphan raised by a blind music teacher in a small Spanish town. At nine years old, Frankie is sent to America in the bottom of a boat. His only possession is an old guitar and six precious strings.
On the right side of the law. Sort of.
Sebastian Rudd is not your typical street lawyer. He works out of a customized bulletproof van, complete with Wi-Fi, a bar, a small fridge, fine leather chairs, a hidden gun compartment, and a heavily armed driver. He has no firm, no partners, no associates, and only one employee, his driver, who’s also his bodyguard, law clerk, confidant, and golf caddy. He lives alone in a small but extremely safe penthouse apartment, and his primary piece of furniture is a vintage pool table. He drinks small-batch bourbon and carries a gun.
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From January Meeting:
Creatures of Habit : stories by Jill McCorkle
Jill McCorkle's new collection of twelve short stories is peopled with characters brilliantly like us-flawed, clueless, endearing. These stories are also animaled with all manner of mammal, bird, fish, reptile-also flawed and endearing. She asks, what don't humans share with the so-called lesser species? Looking for the answer, she takes us back to her fictional home town of Fulton, North Carolina, to meet a broad range of characters facing up to the double-edged sword life offers hominids.
Final Vinyl Days: stories by Jill McCorkle
When Jill McCorkle feels a short story coming on, she goes right ahead and "wastes" wonderful ideas instead of hoarding them for a novel. The result is another extraordinary collection of stories and characters. In "It's a Funeral! RSVP," the storyteller is a woman who takes up self-styled "careers" that suit her circumstances. Now she's stumbled onto one that's so successful that she just can't quit. It's planning funerals, what she calls Going Out Parties, in which the clients are the soon-to-be-deceased themselves
Life after Life : a novel by Kate Atkinson
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Juggling the demands of her yarn shop and single-handedly raising a teenage daughter has made Georgia Walker grateful for her Friday Night Knitting Club. Her friends are happy to escape their lives too, even for just a few hours. But when Georgia's ex suddenly reappears, demanding a role in their daughter's life, her whole world is shattered.
Guests on Earth by Lee Smith
It’s 1936 when orphaned thirteen-year-old Evalina Toussaint is admitted to Highland Hospital, a mental institution in Asheville, North Carolina, known for its innovative treatments for nervous disorders and addictions. Taken under the wing of the hospital’s most notable patient, Zelda Fitzgerald, Evalina witnesses cascading events that lead up to the tragic fire of 1948 that killed nine women in a locked ward, Zelda among them.
Bird in Hand by Christina Kline
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train, and the critically acclaimed author of The Way Life Should Be, comes
a novel about the choices we make, how they shape our lives, and how
they can change them forever—includes a special PS section featuring
insights, interviews, and more.
Four people, two marriages, one lifelong friendship: Everything is about to change.
It was dark. It was raining. It was just an accident. On the drive home from a rare evening out, Alison collides with another car running a stop sign, and—just like that—her life turns upside down.
When she calls her husband from the police station, his accusatory tone reveals cracks in their relationship she’d never noticed were there. Now she notices everything. And she begins to realize that the life she carefully constructed for herself is as tenuous as a house of cards. Exquisitely written, powerful, and thrilling, Bird in Hand is a novel about love and friendship and betrayal, and about the secrets we tell ourselves and each other.
Four people, two marriages, one lifelong friendship: Everything is about to change.
It was dark. It was raining. It was just an accident. On the drive home from a rare evening out, Alison collides with another car running a stop sign, and—just like that—her life turns upside down.
When she calls her husband from the police station, his accusatory tone reveals cracks in their relationship she’d never noticed were there. Now she notices everything. And she begins to realize that the life she carefully constructed for herself is as tenuous as a house of cards. Exquisitely written, powerful, and thrilling, Bird in Hand is a novel about love and friendship and betrayal, and about the secrets we tell ourselves and each other.
The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley
The man at Charles Blakey's door has a proposition almost too strange for words. He wants to spend the summer in Charles's basement, and Charles cannot even begin to guess why. The beautiful house has been in the Blakey family for generations, but Charles has just lost his job and is behind on his mortgage payments. The money would be welcome. But Charles Blakey is black and Anniston Bennet is white, and it is clear that the stranger wants more than a basement view. There is something deeper and darker about his request, and Charles does not need any more trouble. But financial necessity leaves him no choice. Once Anniston Bennet is installed in his basement, Charles is cast into a role he never dreamed of. Anniston has some very particular requests for his landlord, and try as he might, Charles cannot avoid being lured into Bennet's strange world. At first he resists, but soon he is tempted-tempted by the opportunity to understand the secret ways of white folks. Tempted to understand a set of codes that has always eluded him. Charles's summer with a man in his basement turns into an exploration of inconceivable worlds of power and manipulation, and unimagined realms of humanity. Walter Mosley pierces long-hidden veins of justice and morality with startling insight into the deepest mysteries of human nature.
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.
Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.
Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”
The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another... In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon—when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an "outlander"—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743. Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
Finders Keepers by Stephen King
A masterful, intensely suspenseful novel about a reader whose obsession with a reclusive writer goes far too far—a book about the power of storytelling, starring the same trio of unlikely and winning heroes King introduced in Mr. Mercedes.
“Wake up, genius.” So begins King’s instantly riveting story about a vengeful reader. The genius is John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t published a book for decades. Morris Bellamy is livid, not just because Rothstein has stopped providing books, but because the nonconformist Jimmy Gold has sold out for a career in advertising. Morris kills Rothstein and empties his safe of cash, yes, but the real treasure is a trove of notebooks containing at least one more Gold novel.
Morris hides the money and the notebooks, and then he is locked away for another crime. Decades later, a boy named Pete Saubers finds the treasure, and now it is Pete and his family that Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson must rescue from the ever-more deranged and vengeful Morris when he’s released from prison after thirty-five years.
The Grisha Book Series
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation
of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near
impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh.
Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.
A Death in Sweden by Kevin Wignall
Dan Hendricks is a man in need of a lifeline.
A former CIA operative, he is now an agent for hire by foreign powers
on the hunt for dangerous fugitives. It’s a lethal world at the best of
times, and Dan knows his number is almost up. His next job could be his
last—and his next job is his biggest yet.
The target sounds trackable enough: Jacques Fillon, who gave up his life trying to save a fellow passenger following a bus crash in northern Sweden. But the man was something of an enigma in this rural community, and his death exposes his greatest secret: Jacques Fillon never existed at all.
Dan is tasked with uncovering Fillon’s true identity—but can he do so before his own past catches up with him?
The target sounds trackable enough: Jacques Fillon, who gave up his life trying to save a fellow passenger following a bus crash in northern Sweden. But the man was something of an enigma in this rural community, and his death exposes his greatest secret: Jacques Fillon never existed at all.
Dan is tasked with uncovering Fillon’s true identity—but can he do so before his own past catches up with him?
Winter Garden - Kristen Hannah WWII
Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family business; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, these two estranged sisters will find themselves together again, standing alongside their disapproving mother, Anya, who even now offers no comfort to her daughters. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise: Anya will tell her daughters a story; it is one she began years ago and never finished.
Metford Series
Christian fiction. Mitford is the little town with the big heart. As this charming mountain village works its magic, you'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll quickly make friends who feel like family--from Father Tim, the Episcopal rector, to Esther Bolick, Mitford's Champion cake baker. Mitford is good for the soul.
Big Short
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine is a non-fiction book by Michael Lewis about the build-up of the housing and credit bubble during the 2000s
Love Languages
The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate is a 1995 book by Gary Chapman
Reconstructing Amelia - by Kimberly Mcreight (same author as our January Book
Do you really want to know what's going on inside your daughter's head? Single mother Kate Baron is in the meeting of her career when she is interrupted by a telephone call. Her daughter Amelia has just been suspended from her exclusive school. ...
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Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - (50 Shades has NOTHING on this weird but excellent book!)
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
Wonder by R.J. Palacio (young adult book)
61 Hours by Lee Child
Hour Game by David Baldacci
The Maze Runner series
Sharp Teeth of Love by Doris Betts
Between a Rock and a Hot Place
The Magician's Tale by David Hunt
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Wonder by RJ Pilacio
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
Chicken Soup for the Soul Find Your Inner Strength
Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Scarpetta 16 by Patricia Cornwell
Private Scandals by Nora Roberts
Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher) by Lee Child
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Nantucket Sisters by Nancy Thayer
Burn by James Patterson
South! The Story of Shackleton's Last Expedition 1914-1917 by Sir Ernest Shackleton
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Plain Truth By Jodie Picoult
Dance with Me by Luanne Rice
What Alice Forgot by alliance Moriarty
O'Malley Series by Dee Henderson
NYPD Red by James Patterson
The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Simplify Your Life
You Are Here by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Light in the Ruins - set in Tuscany - at the end of WWII - a young aristocratic Italian woman falls in love with a German officer. The effects on her life and her families is detailed.
The Secret History - reverse murder mystery. You know from the start who killed who. A group of 6 Classics students kill one of their own. The events leading up to the murder are detailed in the book.
The Unlikely Pilgramage of Harold Fry - - - about an English man who walks 600 miles to visit a dying friend from the past with the notion that as long as he's walking and sending her postcards that she will stay alive.
The Maze Runner series --- like the Hunger Games - very action packed
Girl On the Train (Donna and Vilma)
The Orphan Train (Donna)
The Villain Keeper (young adult fiction)
The Precious One by Melissa de los Santos
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Total Memory Makeover by Marylu Henner
Madonnas of Leningrad
Wear Your Life Well by Marilu Henner (non-fiction)
Nourishing Broth by Sally Fallon Morell (non-fiction)
Spooner by Pete Dexter (fiction)
The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman (fiction)
The Life of Objects by Susanna Moore
The House Girl by Tara Conklin
Fanny Flagg- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - (Donna says Excellent!)
Stay with Me by Alison Gaylin
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaska Wilderness by Robert Specht
Biography of Queen Victoria
"Garden Spells" by Sarah Addison Allen. She lives in Asheville, NC
A Night to Remember by by Walter Lord (Titanic Story!)
Modern Women by Ruth Harris
Embers by Sándor Márai
The Dance by Dan Walsh and Gary Smalley
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
The Dance of Anger - by Harriet Lerner
Beyond Anger - by Thomas Harbin
Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
Cowboys are My Weakness Stories by Pam Housten
Out of Joint - Short Stories by Belea T. Keeney
The all Girls Fillng Station (also Fanny Flagg)
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
The Gilly Salt Sisters
The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison
Wherever you go, that's where you are
All the Pretty Horses
Maude
The Cove
Dr. Phil's Diet
Big Little Lies
Three Wishes
Boyhood (movie)
Wild- A Journey from Lost to Found by Cheryl Strayedby
Worth Dying for by Lee Child
All the Light We Cannot See
The Girls from Ames
All He Ever Wanted by Anita WitShreeve
Five Love Languages
Blessings of a Skinned Knee
10% Happier
Cape Fear Murders Series by Wanda Canada
Witch With No Name
Run by Ann Patchet
Killing Jesus
Ready, Player One
Hurricane Sisters
Finding Angela Shelton
Percy Jackson Olympian Series
The Good Thief
South of Broad
The Assignment
Orphan Train
Pillars of Earth
Dead End Gene Pool
365 Days with the Rolling Stones
Pedal Pusher
Front Porch Prophet
Flight Behavior
Daughter of Fortune
Rescue (Anita Shreve)
All the light we cannot see
Art of Hearing Heartbeats
Invisible by James Patterson
Cat and Mouse by James Patterson
Edge of the Earth by Christina Schwarz
Memiors of a Geisha
Judge and Jury by James Patterson
4 Blind Mice by James Patterson
Green Gospel by L.C. Fiore
Killing Jesus
The Un-consoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Mine by John Heldt
All Roads Lead Home
Camino by Shirley MacLaine
The Cuckoos Calling by Robert Galbraith A.K.A J.K. Rowling
The Path between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough
Mistress by James Patterson
Unlucky 13
Still Alice
Rituals of Season
All the Light We Cannot See
Bitter Taste in the Mouth ---NC author
Morning Thunder
Run by ??? Whoever said this book please let me know who it's authored by....
China Dolls by Lisa See
Eighty Days - Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History Making Race around the World
The Last Girls by Lee Smith
Fault in our Stars
Top Secret 21 by Evanovich
J.M. Barrie Ladies Swimming Society
The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are Paperback by Brene Brown
Adrenaline (The Sam Capra series) Mass Market Paperback by Jeff Abbott
Four Friends by Robin Carr
A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
Coulson's Wife by Anna McIntyre
The Returned by Jason Mott
Beautiful Day by Elin Hildebrand
The March by by E.L. Doctorow
Guests on Earth by Lee Smith
The Summer Girls and The Summer Wind by Monroe
Tell Me by Lisa Jackson
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The Wanderers by NAOMI GLADISH SMITH
Pull of the Moon by Elizabeth Berg
The Last Original Wife
All Joy and No Fun
Twelve Years a Slave
Goldfinch
Gone Girl
Lost Lake - by Sarah Addison Allen
The Heist - Evanovich
The Chase - Evanovich
Roxanna Slade - Reynolds Price
Accidental Jihad - by Krista Bremer
Stoner (New York Review Books Classics) by John Williams
Lessons I learned from Nick Nack by Padgett Gerler
The Night Circus
First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom
The Book Thief
Watery Part of the World
The Gold Finch
House of Sand and Fog
How Full is Your Bucket
Wake for Me
Check out bookbub.com - cool site for free books
One 5th Avenue
Last Lessons of Summer
The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
The Banks of Certain Rivers
Leaving Time by Jody Picoult
Killing Kennedy and Killing Jesus
Bloody Murder
Pride and Prejudice
Destroyer Angel by Nevada Barr
Killer by Jonathon Kellerman
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"Big Data …A Revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think." by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger.Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
Discussed Sliding Doors - a movie...but is not a book
Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox
Your Life Calling: Reimagining the rest of your life by Jane Pauley
Middle Age by Joyce Carol Oates
When in Doubty, Just Add Butter by Beth Harbison
Long Way Home by Saroo Brierly
Big Data
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
U is for Undertow by Sue Grafton
Jack Reacher series by Lee Child
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and back by Todd Burpo and Lynn Burpo
The Book Thief
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kid
Here on Earth by Alice Hofman
The Confession by John Grisham
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver
1000 White Women
A Name of Her Own
Iris Johanson Series
Inconvenient Wife
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Life after Life
Divergent Series
The Last Time We Met by Anita Shreve
Twenty by Evanovich
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
All Gods Children Need Traveling Shoes
Hollow City - the Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children
The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope by Rhona Riley
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: life, death and hope in a Mumbai undercity by Katherine Boo (non-fiction)
Guests on Earth by Lee Smith
A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy
The Drop by Michael Connelly
Buried Prey by John Sandford
My Cross to Bear by Greg Allman
Beloved by Toni Morrison
2nd Honeymoon by James Patterson
The Sun literary magazine published in Chapel Hill
Alice in Wonderland:Through the Looking Glass
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins
Under the Mercy Trees
Amy Lynn by Jack July
The Last Time We Met by Anita Shreve
Christmas Bliss by Mary Kay Andrews (takes place around Savannah)
Christmas Wedding by James Patterson
Private Berlin
Old Man & the Sea - Hemmingway
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker
Eat, Drink & Be Weary (circa 1935)
Sophie's World
Empty Mansions
Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver
The Color War - Jodie Picoult
Hunger Games #2 - Catching Fire
Great website; thanks for doing it!
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