Category: Books

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.

Suspect by Scott Turow
For as long as Lucia Gomez has been the police chief in the city of Highland Isle, near Kindle County, she has known that any woman in law enforcement must walk a precarious line between authority and camaraderie to gain respect. She has maintained a spotless reputation-until now. (2022, Fiction)

The Last Word by Taylor Adams
After posting a one-star review for a poorly written–but gruesome–horror novel, Emma Carpenter is dragged into an online argument with the author himself, but when disturbing incidents start happening at night, Emma digs into his life and work, discovering a sadistic man who is capable of anything. (2023, Fiction)

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Passage comes a riveting novel about a group of survivors on a hidden island utopia-where the truth isn’t what it seems. Founded by the mysterious genius known as the Designer, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. In this island paradise, Prospera’s lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, fall below 10 percent. (2023, Fiction)

The Trackers by Charles Frazier
While on assignment to create a mural for the Dawes, Wyoming Post Office, painter Val Welch finds himself entranced by his hosts, John and Eve Long, but when Eve flees with a valuable painting, John recruits Val to track her down. (2023, Fiction)

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal This novel is the story of Mariel and Ned, a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota, and the legacy of love and tragedy, of hardship and hope, that unites and divides them. (2023, Fiction)

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia
Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health. (2023, Nonfiction)

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. (2023, 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)

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.

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
In this moving debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother’s death and her hidden past- a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake. (2022, Fiction)

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
A modern love story about two childhood friends, Sam, raised by an actress mother in LA’s Koreatown, and Sadie, from the wealthy Jewish enclave of Beverly Hills, who reunite as adults to create video games, finding an intimacy in digital worlds that eludes them in their real lives. From the author of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. (2022, Fiction)

Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins
Vibrant characters, multiple storylines, and a visceral sense of time and place coalesce in this engrossing novel set in the early 20th century from Pulitzer finalist Wiggins, author of Evidence of Things Unseen. (2022, Fiction)

Adrift by Bill Noel
This is the latest in the Folly Beach Mystery Series written about a retiree and his friends who are prone to stumbling, fumbling and bumbling into trouble on one of our neighbor islands, and they end with an unexpected twist. You soon feel as if you are friends with the characters who become more familiar with each read and many local readers will recognize some of the landmarks mentioned. (2023, Fiction)

We Should Not Be Friends by Will Schwalbe
Author Will Schwalbe describes his friendship with unlikely college-buddy Maxey through marriage, divorce, and career changes up until the present day, noting what makes their bond so special and enduring. (2022, 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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)