Category: Books

Here is the latest installment from our readers who want to share the joy of reading.

American Duchess
by Karen Harper
The author reimagines the life of American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt as the reluctant and bullied bride of the Duke of Marlborough before she finds the inner strength to fight for women’s equality. (2019, 350 pgs; Fiction)

The Boy Between Worlds
by Annajet van der Zijl
When they fell in love in 1928, Rika and Waldemar could not have been more different. She was a thirty-seven-year-old Dutch-born mother. He was her immigrant boarder and a wealthy Surinamese descendant of slaves. The child they have together brings the couple great joy yet raises some eyebrows… until the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands explodes their promising life. (2019, 272 pgs; Nonfiction)

A Well-Behaved Woman
by Therese Fowler
Marrying into the newly rich but socially scorned Vanderbilt clan, Alva navigates society snubs and dark undercurrents in the lives of her in-laws and friends while testing the limits of her ambitious rule-breaking. (2018, 392 pgs; Fiction)

Lady Clementine
by Marie Benedict
This historical tale inspired by the life of Clementine Churchill traces her unflinching role in protecting the life and wartime agendas of her husband, Winston Churchill. (2020, 322 pgs; Fiction)

The Dry
by Jane Harper
Federal Agent Aaron Falk returns to his old hometown to attend the funeral of his childhood best friend, Luke. Falk teams up with a local detective and tries to uncover the truth behind Luke’s sudden mysterious death, only to find more questions than answers. (2017, 328 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• Include your name (although it will not be published), the title and author of the book you are recommending and email this to Tidelines at seabrookislandblog@gmail.com.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

Here is the latest installment from our readers who want to share the joy of reading.  Let us hear about the books you or your book group have read or listened to that you recommend. Just send the title and author (and narrator for audiobooks) to seabrookislandblog@gmail.com.  Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image. Your name won’t be published but your recommendations will be appreciated.

Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany in World War II
by Thomas Childers
On April 21, 1945, the twelve-member crew of the Black Cat set off on one of the last air missions in the European theater of World War II. Ten never came back. This is the story of that crew—where they came from, how they trained, what it was like to fly a B-24 through enemy flak, and who was waiting for them to come home. (1995, 276 pgs; Nonfiction)

Night Boat to Tangier
by Kevin Barry
From the acclaimed author of the international sensations City of Bohane and Beatlebone, a striking and gorgeous new novel of two aging criminals at the butt ends of their damage-filled careers. (2019, 255 pgs; Fiction)

The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age
by David E. Sanger
This is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. Cheap to acquire, easy to deny, and usable for a variety of malicious purposes—from crippling infrastructure to sowing discord and doubt—cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists. (2018, 384 pgs; Nonfiction)

The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians
by David M. Rubenstein
Philanthropist and TV host Rubenstein debuts with a collection of 16 interviews he’s conducted as part of the Congressional Dialogues, a series of dinners held at the Library of Congress in which historians and biographers discuss their subjects in front of an audience of lawmakers. The interviews include such heavy hitters as Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton, Robert Caro on Lyndon B. Johnson, Doris Kearns Goodwin on Abraham Lincoln, and Taylor Branch on Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. (2019, 396 pgs; Nonfiction)

My Notorious Life
by Kate Manning
Inspired by the true history of an infamous female physician, this is a mystery, a family saga, a love story, and an exquisitely detailed portrait of nineteenth-century America. Axie Muldoon’s inimitable voice brings the past alive, and her story haunts and enlightens the present. (2013, 438 pgs; Fiction)

Share the joy of reading with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles! We look forward to your submissions. Click here for more information.

–Tidelines Editors

On September 15, 2019, Tidelines launched a new column inviting readers and book clubs to share what they are reading with other readers. By the end of the year, Seabrookers had recommended 58 titles. There are mysteries, nonfiction, bestsellers, old favorites, beach books and thought-provoking exposés. In January, we branched out to include audiobooks.

If you’d like to see a complete list of the books published on Tidelines in 2019, click here.

Let us hear about the books you recommend.

• Include your name (although it will not be published), the title and author of the book you are recommending and email this to Tidelines at seabrookislandblog@gmail.com.
• 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.

Share the joy of reading with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles.

–Tidelines Editors

Several of our readers have asked us to include audiobooks in our Seabrookers Are Reading… column. We think that’s a great idea and you’ll see the first few below. If you’ve listened to an especially good unabridged narration of a book, send your recommendation(s) along to seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. Since the skill of the narrator can be as important as the words, be sure to include the narrator’s name along with the title and author. Please include your name even though it will NOT be published. Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the audiobook image.

Becoming
written and narrated by Michelle Obama
This memoir of former First Lady Michelle Obama, published in 2018, is the very personal account of her life thus far. She talks about her childhood in South Side Chicago and how her upbringing molded her; her years at college and law school; her high-powered job in a top law firm in Chicago; her romance with Barack Obama; her role as a mother; and her time in the White House. It is not always a good thing for an author to narrate her book, but in this case, it’s perfect. We recognize her voice and it makes her story all the more compelling.

Creole Belle
written by James Lee Burke
narrated by Will Patton
Burke has written more than three dozen books and the Dave Robicheaux series is perhaps his most famous. Robicheaux is a detective, first as a member of the NOPD, then New Iberia PD and then as a PI. The Delta region of Louisiana is where most of the action takes place. Burke’s novels are gritty, dense, complex stories and place becomes a character. Will Patton’s narration adds tremendously to the story. You’ll feel like you’re sitting in the French Quarter hearing the trolley, the music, and the street people and smelling the sultry, damp environment. Burke’s books will never be described as a cozy mystery but readers and listeners who enjoy a good hard-boiled detective story will not be disappointed with any of Burke’s books. Look for those narrated by Will Patton.

The Dutch House
written by Ann Patchett
narrated by Tom Hanks
We’ve published this title before but we include it here because it’s narrated expertly by Tom Hanks. 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 estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

Little Women
written by Louisa May Alcott
narrated by Barbara Caruso
This beloved classic has received considerable interest with the opening of the new movie with a star-studded cast. Set in the 19th century, the story follows the lives of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March as they live, learn, love, grow and blossom into fine young women. There are several narrations of the book so be sure to look for the one by Barbara Caruso.

Share the joy of reading and listening with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles. We welcome your submissions.

–Tidelines Editors

 

 

 

Here is the next installment from our readers who want to share the joy of reading.  Let us hear about the books you recommend – just send the title and author to seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.

The Ship of Brides by JoJo Moyes
Sydney, Australia, 1946. Four women join 650 other war brides on a voyage to England aboard HMS Victoria, which still carries arms and aircraft as well as a thousand naval officers. Rules are strictly enforced, from the aircraft carrier’s captain down to the lowliest young deckhand. But the men and the brides will find their lives intertwined despite the Navy’s ironclad sanctions. (2014, 446 pgs; Fiction)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey–a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island. (2008, 277 pgs; Fiction)

Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption by Ben Mezrich
On November 26, 2017, the Winklevoss brothers became the first bitcoin billionaires. Here’s the story of how they got there. (2019, 276 pgs; Nonfiction)

Share the joy of reading with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles! We welcome your submissions. Click here for more information. Also, please donate any recently published books to the Lake House Library.

–Tidelines Editors

Here is the next installment from our readers who want to share the joy of reading.  Let us hear about the books you recommend – just send the title and author to seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.

The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age by David E. Sanger
Moving from the White House Situation Room to the dens of Chinese government hackers to the boardrooms of Silicon Valley, New York Times national security correspondent David Sanger reveals a world coming face-to-face with the perils of technological revolution. (2018, 357 pgs; Nonfiction)

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Part memoir, part exhortation for much-needed reform to the American criminal justice system, this is a heartrending and inspirational call to arms written by the activist lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based organization responsible for freeing or reducing the sentences of scores of wrongfully convicted individuals. Stevenson’s memoir weaves together personal stories from his years as a lawyer into a strong statement against racial and legal injustice, drawing a clear line from slavery and its legacy to today’s still-prejudiced criminal justice system. (2014, 336 pgs; Nonfiction)

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray
Gray’s engrossing and moving debut novel considers secrets and lies and their effect on the families of three sisters. Alternating among each sister’s perspective, the story unfolds at a measured pace, deliciously feeding the reader surprises about the past and present. (2019, 294 pgs; Fiction)

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
Out of the depths of the Depression comes the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. (2013, 404 pgs; Nonfiction)

Share the joy of reading with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles! We welcome your submissions. Click here for more information. Also, please donate any recently published books to the Lake House Library.

–Tidelines Editors

Here is the next installment from our readers who want to share the joy of reading.  Let us hear about the books you recommend – just send the title and author to seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
See’s new novel explores the matrifocal society of the haenyeo, female divers of Jeju, an island off the coast of present-day South Korea. Readers experience events through the eyes of diver Young-sook as she learns her craft during the Japanese occupation of Korea, through World War II, and into the present era. Her friend Mi-ja, an orphan and child of a Japanese collaborator, is taken in by Young-Sook’s mother and taught to dive, but the friendship is sorely tested shortly after World War II during a time of mass murder. (2019, 374 pgs; Fiction)

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Evaluating his life on the eve of his death, atypical canine Enzo considers the sacrifices his master, Denny Swift, has made in his pursuit of becoming a professional race car driver, and the dog’s own efforts to preserve the Swift family. (2008, 321 pgs; Fiction)

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
In this beautifully written masterwork, Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. (2010, 622 pgs; Nonfiction)

Share the joy of reading with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles! We welcome your submissions. Click here for more information. Also, please donate any recently published books to the Lake House Library.

–Tidelines Editors

Here is the next installment from our readers who want to share the joy of reading.  Let us hear about the books you recommend – just send the title and author to seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein
Klein argues that climate change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It’s an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein … builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. (2014, 566 pgs; Nonfiction)

The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton
The author reaches into the troubled lives of the Third Reich’s civilian victims, drawing readers into one woman’s efforts to save children in this compelling novel based on actual events and the real-life Dutch Resistance fighter Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer. (2019, 451 pgs; Fiction).

The Theft of Memory: Losing My Father One Day at a Time by Jonathan Kozol
National Book Award winner Kozol’s memoir tells of his father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis at age 88 in 1994 and the aftermath. (2015, 302 pgs; Nonfiction)

Share the joy of reading with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles! We welcome your submissions. Click here for more information. Also, please donate any recently published books to the Lake House Library.

–Tidelines Editors

Here is the next installment from our readers who want to share the joy of reading.  Let us hear about the books you recommend – just send the title and author to seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Richardson family lives in Shaker Heights, Ohio—a place of wealth, comfort, and stability—and they are a clan that embodies those traits. But when Mia, a single mother, and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Pearl, rent a house in the area, their very different lives will merge with those of the Richardson family and begin to contort the carefully laid lattice that supports their views. (2017, 338 pgs; Fiction)

The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel
Alternating between the vineyards of war-torn 1940s France and the present, this novel follows the newlywed owners of the famed champagne house Maison Chauveau, and the head winemaker’s Jewish wife. The wine cellars beneath Chauveau conceal not only champagne from the Germans but also Resistance weapons, Jewish refugees, and forbidden love affairs. In the present, a woman questions her 99-year-old grandmother’s connection to Chauveau and Reims. (2019, 389 pgs; Fiction)

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker
At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. (2018, 304 pgs; Nonfiction)

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
In this thoughtful treatise spurred by the 2015 death of African-American academic Sandra Bland in jail after a traffic stop, Gladwell aims to figure out the strategies people use to assess strangers-to “analyze, critique them, figure out where they came from, figure out how to fix them,” in other words: to understand how to balance trust and safety. (2019, 386 pgs; Nonfiction)

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes the reader behind the scenes of a therapist’s world–where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she). (2019, 415 pgs; Nonfiction)

Share the joy of reading with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles! We welcome your submissions. Click here for more information. Also, please donate any recently published books to the Lake House Library.

–Tidelines Editors

Here is the next installment from our readers who want to share the joy of reading.  Let us hear about the books you recommend – just send the title and author to seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.

Chances Are by Richard Russo
Russo’s first standalone novel in a decade mixes his signature themes—father-and-son relationships, unrequited love, New England small-town living, and the hiccups of aging—with stealthy clue-dropping in a slow-to-build mystery . . . In the final stretch, surprising, long-kept secrets are revealed. (2019, 321 pgs; Fiction)

A Fire Sparkling by Julianne MacLean
A young woman’s quest to find the truth about her grandmother’s past reveals World War II intrigue, mistaken identity, and a labyrinth of romance, doubt, and lies. This is a satisfying and heartfelt page-turner that keeps readers guessing until the very last page.  (2019, 412 pgs; Fiction)

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
It is 1974 when Leni Allbright’s impulsive father Ernt decides the family is moving to Alaska. But the Alaskan winter is just as unforgiving as Ernt, and life quickly becomes a struggle for survival. (2018, 440 pgs; Fiction)

Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank
Bestseller Frank, recently deceased, shows off her formidable storytelling chops and her gift for creating memorable characters in this quirky and delightful Southern tale. Holly McNee Jensen, a teacher and beekeeper also caring for her demanding hypochondriac mother (whom she refers to as the Queen Bee), is marking time on tiny Sullivan’s Island. This laugh-out-loud-hilarious novel with a wistful edge will satisfy anyone who wants to see flawed people getting second chances. (2019, 414 pgs; Fiction)

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
Fink writes of those stranded inside New Orleans’ Memorial Medical Center in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and chronicles the chaotic evacuation of the hospital and the agonizing ethical, physical, and emotional quandaries facing Memorial nurses and doctors. (2013, 558 pgs; Nonfiction)

Share the joy of reading with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles! We welcome your submissions. Click here for more information. Also, please donate any recently published books to the Lake House Library.

–Tidelines Editors

Here is the next installment from our readers who want to share the joy of reading.  Let us hear about the books you recommend- just send the title and author to seabrookislandblog@gmail.com. Tidelines editors will provide a blurb to tell a little about the book and add the book jacket image.

The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes
Unwillingly rendered an object of obsession by the Kommandant occupying her small French town in World War I, Sophie risks everything to reunite with her husband a century before a widowed Liv tests her resolve to claim ownership of Sophie’s portrait. (2013, 369 pgs; Fiction)

The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by Hyeonseo Lee
In 1997 the author, aged 17, escaped North Korea for China. Her mother’s first words over the telephone to her lost daughter were “don’t come back”. The reprisals for all of them would have been lethal. Twelve years later she returned to the North Korean border in a daring mission to spirit her mother and brother to South Korea in a very costly and dangerous journey. (2015, 304 pgs; Biography)

The Delightful Horror of Family Birding: Sharing Nature with the Next Generation by Eli J. Knapp; illustrated by John Rhett
Whether traveling solo or with his students or children, Knapp levels his gaze on the birds that share our skies, showing that birds can be a portal to deeper relationships, ecological understanding, and newfound joy. (2018, 267 pgs; Nonfiction)

Theodor Geisel: A Portrait of the Man Who Became Dr. Seuss by Donald E. Pease
As Pease traces the full arc of Dr. Seuss’s prolific career, he combines close textual readings of many of Dr. Suess’s works with a unique look at their genesis to shed new light on the enduring legacy of one of America’s favorite children’s book author. (2010, 192 pgs; Biography)

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR, where no one dared publish it, and help Pasternak’s magnum opus make its way into print around the world. (2019, 349 pgs; Fiction)

Share the joy of reading with other Seabrookers and learn about some noteworthy titles! We welcome your submissions. Click here for more information. Also, please donate any recently published books to the Lake House Library.

–Tidelines Editors