Seabrookers Are Reading 2023

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If you’re reading this, it’s safe to guess you’re fond of books, reading, and being transported to different times, places, experiences, and viewpoints. We invite you to check out what others are reading and share your recommendations of favorite titles with us. To see the complete list of books from 2019 through 2022, go to the Tidelines website here and look for the Seabrookers Read tab.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
On February 22, 1862, two days after his death, Willie Lincoln was laid to rest in a marble crypt in a Georgetown cemetery. That very night, shattered by grief, Abraham Lincoln arrives at the cemetery under cover of darkness and visits the crypt, alone, to spend time with his son’s body. Set over the course of that one night and populated by ghosts of the recently passed and the long dead, this is a thrilling exploration of death, grief, the powers of good and evil, a novel – in its form and voice – completely unlike anything you have read before. It is also, in the end, an exploration of the deeper meaning and possibilities of life, written as only George Saunders can: with humor, pathos, and grace. (2017, Fiction)

Waterland by Graham Swift
Set in the bleak Fen Country of East Anglia, and spanning some 240 years in the lives of its haunted narrator and his ancestors, this is a book that takes in eels and incest, ale-making and madness, the heartless sweep of history and a family romance as tormented as any in Greek tragedy. (2013, Fiction)

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida–war photographer, gambler, and closet queen–has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to the photos that will rock Sri Lanka. (2023, Fiction)

Empire of Ice and Stone by Buddy Levy
In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame. Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again. Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone. Under Bartlett’s leadership they built make-shift shelters, surviving the freezing darkness of Polar night. Captain Bartlett now made a difficult and courageous decision. He would take one of the young Inuit hunters and attempt a 1000-mile journey to save the shipwrecked survivors. It was their only hope. (2022, Nonfiction)

Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder
When he graduated from Harvard Medical School, Jim O’Connell was asked by the medical school Dean to spend one year setting up a program to care for the homeless population in Boston. It became Jim O’Connell’s life calling, to help people known as “rough sleepers.” For the past three decades, Dr. O’Connell has run the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program, which he helped to create. Affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital, the program includes clinics and a van on which Dr. O’Connell and his staff ride through the Boston streets at night, offering outreach of medical care, socks, soup, and friendship to a marginalized community. (2023, Nonfiction)

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. (2022, Fiction)

We look forward to hearing about the books you or your book club recommend.

  • Include your name (although it will not be published), the title, and the author of the book you are recommending, and email this to Tidelines at seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. (You may be able to click on the email address to open a new message.)
  • For audiobooks, include the name of the narrator.
  • Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.
  • Publication is at the discretion of Tidelines editors.

Tidelines Editors

(Image and bibliographic credit: CMPL)

Charleston Literary Festival 2022 and 2023

Are you someone who loves books? Do you enjoy engaging in inspiring conversations about ideas? Then you want to save the date for the Charleston Literary Festival (CLF) November 3 – 12, 2023. Sign up for the newsletter of the CLF, and be the first to get information about tickets for the 2023 Festival.

In the meantime, CLF has released all recorded CLF 2022 sessions on their website and YouTube channel so you can relive CLF 2022 through your computer screen. Rewatch your favorite sessions, catch any that you missed and enter into the wonderful world of CLF 2022. They’re all free! If you were unable to get a ticket to one of the sold out sessions like Imani Perry, Geraldine Brooks, or Tina Brown and Betsy Prioleau, this is your opportunity.

Need a refresher on the CLF 2022 program? 
Find it here.

Tidelines Editors

(Image credit: Charleston Literary Festival)

Seabrookers Are Reading 2023

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If you’re reading this, it’s safe to guess you’re fond of books, reading, and being transported to different times, places, experiences, and viewpoints. We invite you to check out what others are reading and share your recommendations of favorite titles with us. To see the complete list of books from 2019 through 2022, go to the Tidelines website here and look for the Seabrookers Read tab.

The Displacements
by Bruce W. Holsinger
An adrenaline-fueled story of lives upended and transformed by an unprecedented catastrophe when a Category 6 hurricane hits Miami. (2022, Fiction)Remarkably Bright Creaures

Remarkably Bright Creatures
by Shelby Van Pelt
For fans of A Man Called Ove, a luminous debut novel about a widow’s unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium-and the truths she finally uncovers about her son’s disappearance 30 years ago. (2022, Fiction)

Bewilderment
by Richard Powers
From the best-selling author of The Overstory, Powers tells the story of the astrobiologist Theo Byrne who searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. (2022, Fiction)

The Grimkes
by Kerri K. Greenridge
Sarah and Angelina Grimke–the Grimke sisters–are revered figures in American history, famous for rejecting their privileged lives on a plantation in South Carolina to become firebrand activists in the North. Greenridge delivers a revelatory study of the Grimke family and their complicated involvement in the fight for racial equality. (2022, Nonfiction)

The Lindbergh Nanny
by Mariah Fredericks
Betty Gow, a 26-year-old Scottish immigrant and Lindbergh family nanny, narrates this poignant crime novel from Fredericks (the Jane Prescott series) which fictionalizes the 1932 kidnapping of 20-month-old Charles Lindbergh, Jr. from the family’s New Jersey home. (2022, Fiction)


The Henna Artist
by Alka Joski
A talented henna artist for wealthy confidantes finds her efforts to control her own destiny in 1950s Jaipur threatened by the abusive husband she fled as a teenage girl.


The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
by Allison Pataki
The author specializes in reimagining the lives of prominent women, and now she takes on heiress, hostess, and all-’round mover and shaker Marjorie Merriweather Post. (2022, Fiction)

The Palace Papers
by Tina Brown
The author of The Diana Chronicles takes readers inside the British royal family since the death of Princess Diana, showing the Queen’s stoic resolve as family drama raged around her. (2022, Nonfiction)


Where I Come From
by Rick Bragg
A Pulitzer Prize-winning author of eight books, including Ava’s Man and All Over but the Shoutin‘, Southern Living columnist Bragg here offers a collection of 73 previously published vignettes and stories featuring “the South’s gentler, easier nature. (2020, Nonfiction)

Girl in the Blue Coat
by Monica Hesse
In 1943 Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, teenage Hanneke–a ‘finder’ of black market goods–is tasked with finding a Jewish girl who has seemingly vanished into thin air, and is pulled into a web of resistance activities and secrets as she attempts to solve the mystery and save the missing girl. Although classed as YA (young adult), Hesse’s book will prove interesting reading for adults as well. (2016, Fiction)

We look forward to hearing about the books you or your book club recommend.

  • Include your name (although it will not be published), the title, and the author of the book you are recommending, and email this to Tidelines at seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. (You may be able to click on the email address to open a new message.)
  • For audiobooks, include the name of the narrator.
  • Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.
  • Publication is at the discretion of Tidelines editors.

Tidelines Editors

(Image and bibliographic credit: CMPL)

Seabrookers Are Reading

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If you’re reading this, it’s safe to guess you’re fond of books, reading, and being transported to different times, places, experiences, and viewpoints. We invite you to check out what others are reading by looking at the last books submitted in 2022. To see the complete list of books from 2019-2022, go to the Tidelines website here.

The 6:20 Man
by David Baldacci
A cryptic murder pulls a former soldier turned financial analyst deep into the corruption and menace that prowl beneath the opulent world of finance, in this new thriller from David Baldacci. (2022, 432 pgs; Fiction)

The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times
by Michelle Obama
In an inspiring follow-up to her critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir Becoming, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world. (2022, 318 pgs; Nonfiction)

Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus
Set in 1960s California, this debut is the hilarious, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is constantly derailed by the idea that a woman’s place is in the home, only to find herself starring as the host of America’s most beloved TV cooking show. (2022, 390 pgs; Fiction)

Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies
by J.B. West
For twenty-eight years, first as assistant to the chief usher, then as chief usher, West witnessed national crises and triumphs, and interacted daily with six consecutive presidents and first ladies, their parents, children and grandchildren, and houseguests-including friends, relatives, and heads of state. In this engaging memoir, West offers an absorbing and novel glimpse at America’s first families, from the Roosevelts to the Kennedys and the Nixons. (1973, 380 pgs; Nonfiction)

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation
by Cokie Roberts
Roberts offers an intimate look at the passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families and country proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it. (Audiobook 2004)

These Precious Days
by Ann Patchett
The beloved author reflects on home, family, friendships and writing in this deeply personal collection of essays. (2021, 322 pgs; Nonfiction)

Apples Never Fall
by Liane Moriarty
This psychological thriller looks at marriage, sibling rivalry, and the lies we tell others and ourselves. (2021, 467 pgs; Fiction)

Sooley
by John Grisham
After seventeen-year-old Samuel “Sooley” Sooleymon receives a college scholarship to play basketball for North Carolina Central, he moves to Durham from his native, war-torn South Sudan, enrolls in classes, joins the team, and prepares to sit out his freshman season, but Sooley has a fierce determination to succeed so he can bring his family to America, working tirelessly on his game until he dominates everyone in practice, and when Sooley is called off the bench, the legend begins. (2021, 355 pgs; Fiction)

We look forward to hearing about the books you or your book club recommend.

  • Include your name (although it will not be published), the title, and the author of the book you are recommending, and email this to Tidelines at seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. (You may be able to click on the email address to open a new message.)
  • For audiobooks, include the name of the narrator.
  • Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.
  • Publication is at the discretion of Tidelines editors.

Tidelines Editors

(Image and bibliographic credit: CMPL)

2022 National Book Award Winners Announced

In 1950, the National Book Awards were established to celebrate the best writing in America. Since 1989, they have been overseen by the National Book Foundation (NBF), a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.” The categories include Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature.

2022 Fiction Winner

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom.

2022 NONFiction Winner

South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life.

2022 Poetry winner

Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene

2022 Translated Literature Winner

Seven Empty Houses by Samantha Schweblin

2022 Young People’s literature

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

To see the Tidelines post in which the NBA shortlist was announced earlier this fall, click here.

Tidelines Editors

(Images and narratives from National Book Award)

SIGC to Host Local Author of Green Spaces and Wildlife

Friday, November 11
Presenter: Charles Moore

Location: Oyster Catcher Community Center

Greeting and refreshments: 9:30 am
Business meeting: 9:45
am
Presentation: 10:00 am with Q&A following

Join us for the Seabrook Island Garden Club’s November meeting, featuring guest speaker, Charles Moore, well known former Seabrook Island resident, as he delivers a presentation on the importance of green space on Seabrook Island.

The survival of all wild things depends on their ability to find suitable food and habitat. Seabrook Island is blessed with a healthy wildlife community of whitetail deer (including the uniquely colored piebald deer), bobcats, raccoons, alligators, opossums, foxes, turtles, dolphins and over 130 species of birds. The lush vegetation and natural beauty of our island are no accident, but are instead the result of the vision of the original developers, with the establishment of strong environmental covenants and continued environmental stewardship by its residents.

Traveling the South Carolina coastal area for twenty-eight years and living for fifteen years here in Seabrook Island, author Charles J. Moore came to understand the importance of green spaces for wildlife survival. He has used his lifelong love of photography to convey the natural beauty and abundance of wildlife of Seabrook Island. The mission of the Seabrook Island Green Space Conservancy is to preserve and enhance the natural environment on Seabrook Island through acquisition of land and land easements, through education on environmental topics, and through advocacy of conservation issues. Charles’s book will be available for purchase via cash, check or Venmo.

We look forward to welcoming you to the garden club! *Non-Garden Club members may attend for a $5 donation.

The 2022-23 Seabrook Island Garden Club: Let’s Talk Some Dirt!

-Submitted by Beth Wright, Seabrook Island Garden Club Publicity

Charleston Literary Festival Nov 4-13

The countdown has begun! On Friday, November 4, Charleston Literary Festival (CLF) will be kicking off CLF 2022. This will be a jam packed 10 days comprising 27 captivating sessions featuring multiple Pulitzer prize winners, countless New York Times bestselling authors, artists, historians, journalists, critics and more.

Find the complete CLS 2022 program here.

An Opening Night Party on Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 8:00 pm will be an evening to celebrate a shared love of books mixed with a hefty dose of that famous Charleston hospitality!

Set against the backdrop of the Addlestone Library at the College of Charleston, we invite our literary friends to come together—eat, talk, and dance—under the stars accompanied by the swinging sound of Wycliffe Gordon & His International All Stars and chef Tonya Mitchell’s Lowcountry cuisine.

Get your Opening Night Party tickets here.

-Submitted by Charleston Literary Festival

(Image credit: charlestonliteraryfestival.com)

2022 National Book Award Shortlist Announced

Seabrookers are readers and it is likely many of you have read or at least heard of the books that made this year’s National Book Award shortlist. You can check the list below to see if any of your 2022 favorites made the cut.

In 1950, the National Book Awards were established to celebrate the best writing in America. Since 1989, they have been overseen by the National Book Foundation (NBF), a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.” The categories include Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature.

2022 Fiction Finalists

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom.

­­­­­The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai
Pen/Hemingway finalist Jamil Jan Kochai ​breathes life into his contemporary Afghan characters, moving between modern-day Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora in America. In these arresting stories verging on both comedy and tragedy, often starring young characters whose bravado is matched by their tenderness, Kochai once again captures “a singular, resonant voice, an American teenager raised by Old World Afghan storytellers.”

The Birdcatcher by Gayl Jones
A study in Black women’s creative expression, and the intensity of their relationships, this work from Jones shows off her range and insight into the vicissitudes of all human nature – rewarding longtime fans and bringing her talent to a new generation of readers.

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews
A beautiful and capacious novel rendered in singular, unforgettable prose, All This Could Be Different is a wise, tender, and riveting group portrait of young people forging love and community amidst struggle, and a moving story of one immigrant’s journey to make her home in the world.

The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela
Captivating and poignant; a modern coming-of-age story about the essential nature of community, The Town of Babylon is a page-turning novel about young love and a close examination of our social systems and the toll they take when they fail us.

2022 Nonfiction Finalists

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke
A landmark exploration of one of the most consequential and mysterious issues of our time: the rise of chronic illness and autoimmune diseases.


South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. She renders Southerners from all walks of life with sensitivity and honesty, sharing her thoughts about a troubling history and the ritual humiliations and joys that characterize so much of Southern life.

Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus by David Quammen
The story of the worldwide scientific quest to decipher the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, trace its source, and make possible the vaccines to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Breathless takes you inside the frantic international effort to understand and control SARS-CoV-2 as if we were peering over the shoulders of the brilliant scientists who led the chase.

The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Interweaving family stories more enchanting than those in any novel, resurrected Colombian history, and her own deeply personal reckonings with the bounds of reality, Rojas Contreras writes her way through the incomprehensible and into her inheritance. The result is a luminous testament to the power of storytelling as a healing art and an invitation to embrace the extraordinary.

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa
Drawing upon hundreds of interviews with Floyd’s closest friends and family, his elementary school teachers and varsity coaches, civil rights icons, and those in the highest seats of political power, Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa offer a poignant and moving exploration of George Floyd’s America, revealing how a man who simply wanted to breathe ended up touching the world.

2022 Poetry finalists

Look at This Blue by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Punks: New & Selected Poems by John Keene
Balladz by Sharon Olds
Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves
The Rupture Tense by Jenny Xie

2022 translated literature finalists

A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse
Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga
Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda
Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin
Scattered All Ove the Earth by Yoko Tawada

2022 Young People’s Literature

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
Victory Stand! by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, Dawud Anyabwile
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee

Each year, the Foundation assembles twenty-five distinguished writers, translators, critics, librarians, and booksellers to judge the National Book Awards. These judges select a Longlist of ten titles per category and the list is then narrowed to five Finalists, announced this year on October 4. A winner in each category will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on November 16, 2022.

Tidelines Editors

(Image credit: National Book Award)

Check Out the Library

Have you had a chance to visit the newly renovated Johns Island Library on Maybank Highway? If not, you might want to stop by and get acquainted with this beautiful new facility. September is Library Sign-Up Month and will find that a Charleston County Public Library (CCPL) Card is the key to unlocking a wide variety of resources.

The John’s Island Library closed in August 2020 to undergo renovations as part of the ongoing $108.5 million referendum-funded project passed by Charleston County voters in 2014 to build five new libraries and renovate all existing branches. It reopened in August 2021 and now the communities of John’s Island, Kiawah, Seabrook and Wadmalaw have access to a modern, state-of-the-art library, equipped with resources, services, and technology that extend well beyond books.

Updates at the library include:

  • new interior finishes 
  • replacement of shelving 
  • refreshed collection items (40,000 volumes, DVDs, audiobooks, music CDs, and a telescope) 
  • new furniture 
  • technology upgrades (approximately 40 computers and Chrome Books for public use, hotspots, and copy machines with mobile printing capability)
  • new designated children and teen areas.

While the Johns Island Library facility is impressive, you might prefer to access CCPL resources from the comfort of your computer or phone. All you need is a library card to get yourself started. There are several ways to access materials digitally using any of the following: 

  • The Libby app is a free app that allows you to borrow ebooks, digital audiobooks, and magazines from your public library. You can stream titles with Wi-Fi or mobile data, or download them for offline use and read anytime, anywhere. 
  • Flipster is a  next-generation magazine service that allows people to browse digital versions of the latest issues of magazines, courtesy of the library. With Flipster, patrons have the option of accessing the content at the library or remotely. Magazines can also be downloaded to phones and tablets, for offline reading anytime, anywhere. 
  • Hoopla is an online streaming service that offers free access to e-books,  comics, audiobooks, music, films & television.  To use hoopla, all you need is a valid CCPL library card and a web browser or mobile device.  Each user gets 10 downloads per calendar month for the available formats. 

In addition, with a CCPL library card, you gain digital access to current and past issues of The New Times, The Post and Courier, USA Today, and Consumer Reports.

Also, check out Explore with CCPL! A CCPL card gives you access to parks, museums, and devices that can help you explore the Lowcountry, the state, and even the Milky Way.  You can check out an Orion telescope and obtain free passes (when available) for local museums and parks.

Finally, the next time you go to Charleston, allow extra time to visit the main branch of CCPL at 86 Calhoun Street, which houses additional educational, cultural, and historical resources. For example, the Saul Alexander Gallery exhibits the works of artists on a monthly basis and the Holocaust Collection provides references on the persecution and destruction of European Jewry and other minorities. If you are interested in delving into South Carolina History, visit the South Carolina Room on the second floor, which houses a non-circulating collection of books, maps, microfilm and other research materials on the history and genealogy of South Carolina.

And remember…

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go!

Dr. Seuss

Tidelines Editors

(Image credit: Johns Island Library)

Library Book Sale August 12 and 13

Charleston Friends of the Library Book Sale
Johns Island Public Library
Thursday, August 11 from 4:00 – 7:00 pm Member Pre-Sale
Friday, August 12 from 10:00 am – 5:30 pm
Saturday, August 13 from 10 :00 am – 4:00 pm

Do you love your local library and want to show your support? Then come out to the John’s Island book sale hosted by the Charleston Friends of the Library. The Friends are a volunteer-run nonprofit and one of Charleston County Public Library’s (CCPL) biggest advocates. Proceeds from fundraising events like these are used by the Friends to fund and support many favorite CCPL programs, such as STEM activities for kids, computer classes, author talks, guest lectures, and more. Materials available at the book sale are donated by the community and sold at bargain prices. 

-Submitted by Johns Island Public Library

(Image credit: Johns Island Public Library)

Seabrookers Are Reading

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If you’re reading this, it’s safe to guess you’re fond of books, reading, and being transported to different times, places, experiences, and viewpoints. We invite you to check out what others are reading and share your recommendations of favorite titles with us. To see the complete list of books from 2019, 2020, and 2021, go to the Tidelines website here.

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
When her husband of a year disappears, Hannah quickly learns he is not who he said he was and is left to sort out the truth with just one ally- her husband’s teenage daughter, who hates her. (2021, 306 pgs; Fiction)

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
It is 1953. Thomas Wazhushk is the night watchman at the first factory to open near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a prominent Chippewa Council member, trying to understand a new bill that is soon to be put before Congress. The US Government calls it an ’emancipation’ bill, but it isn’t about freedom – it threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land, their very identity. How can he fight this betrayal? (202, 451 pgs; Fiction)

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Set in 1950s America In June 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction– to the City of New York. (2021, 576 pgs; Fiction)

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz
“You shouldn’t be here. It’s too late . . . ” These, heard over the phone, were the last recorded words of successful celebrity-divorce lawyer Richard Pryce, found bludgeoned to death in his bachelor pad with a bottle of wine – a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth 3,000, to be precise. Odd, considering he didn’t drink. Why this bottle? And why those words? And why was a three-digit number painted on the wall by the killer? And, most importantly, which of the man’s many, many enemies did the deed? (2019, 373 pgs; Fiction)

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú
A beautiful, fiercely honest, and nevertheless deeply empathetic look at those who police the border and the migrants who risk – and lose – their lives crossing it. In a time of often ill-informed or downright deceitful political rhetoric, this book is an invaluable corrective. (2018, 250 pgs; Nonfiction)

Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman
Joey Green has returned to Beaufort, South Carolina, with its palmettos and shrimp boats, to look after his ailing father, who is succumbing to dementia, while his overstressed mother takes a break. Marshall Green’s short-term memory has all but evaporated, but, as if in compensation, his oldest memories are more vivid than ever. His mind keeps slipping backward in time, retreating into long-ago yesterdays of growing up in Beaufort as a boy. At first, this seems like a blessing of sorts, with the past providing a refuge from a shrinking future, but Joey grows increasingly anxious as his father’s hallucinatory arguments with figures from his youth begin to hint at deadly secrets, scandals, and suspicions long buried and forgotten. (2022, 262 pgs; Fiction)

Horse by Geraldine Brooks
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history. (2022, 401pgs; Fiction)

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from an island off Vancouver in 1912 to a dark colony of the moon three hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and planets, (2022, 255 pgs; Fiction)

French Braid by Anne Tyler
Full of heartbreak and hilarity, French Braid is classic Anne Tyler: a stirring, uncannily insightful novel of tremendous warmth and humor that illuminates the kindnesses and cruelties of our daily lives, the impossibility of breaking free from those who love us, and how close–yet how unknowable–every family is to itself. (2022, 243 pgs; Fiction)

Water from My Heart by Charles Martin
Charlie Finn had to grow up fast, living alone by age sixteen. Highly intelligent, he earned a life-changing scholarship to Harvard, where he learned how to survive and thrive on the outskirts of privileged society. That skill served him well in the cutthroat business world, as it does in more lucrative but dangerous ventures he now operates off the coast of Miami. Charlie tries to separate relationships from work. But when his choices produce devastating consequences, he sets out to right wrongs, traveling to Central America where he will meet those who have paid for his actions, including a woman and her young daughter. Will their fated encounter present Charlie with a way to seek the redemption he thought was impossible–and free his heart to love one woman as he never knew he could? (2015, 363 pgs; Fiction)

Ancestors: The Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials by Alice Roberts
By using new advances in genetics and taking us through important archaeological discoveries, Professor Alice Roberts helps us better understand life today. ‘This is a terrific, timely and transporting book – taking us heart, body and mind beyond history, to the fascinating truth of the prehistoric past and the present’ Bettany Hughes We often think of Britain springing from nowhere with the arrival of the Romans. But in Ancestors, pre-eminent archaeologist, broadcaster and academic Professor Alice Roberts explores what we can learn about the very earliest Britons, from burial sites and by using new technology to analyze ancient DNA. (2021; Nonfiction)



We look forward to hearing about the books you or your book club recommend.

  • Include your name (although it will not be published), the title, and the author of the book you are recommending, and email this to Tidelines at seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. (You may be able to click on the email address to open a new message.)
  • For audiobooks, include the name of the narrator.
  • Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.
  • Publication is at the discretion of Tidelines editors.

Tidelines Editors

(Image and bibliographic credit: CMPL)