The Accidental Patriot
by Joseph Bauer
After the government’s first choice to design a secret installation is discovered and murdered by foreign agents, the president turns to a lonely widower from Pittsburgh to take her place. Stanley Bigelow’s unusual engineering skills and solitary life make him suitable for the work, but Captain Tyler Brew, the Navy SEAL overseeing the project worries that the man’s age, weight, and lack of physical fitness will make him vulnerable to his predecessor’s fate. Despite round-the-clock protection by female FBI agent, L.T. Kitt, and a specially trained German shepherd from the witness protection program (Augie), the SEAL’s fears prove warranted. All while a terrorist offensive takes shape. (2020, 341 pgs; Fiction)
Did You Ever Have a Family?
by Bill Clegg
On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s life is devastated when a disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend–her entire family, gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor. Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak. (2015, 293 pgs; Fiction)
Walk the Wire
by David Baldacci
Amos Decker, the FBI consultant with a perfect memory, and Alex Jamison return to solve a gruesome murder of a young woman named Irene Cramer, in a booming North Dakota oil fracking town. The promise of a second gold rush has attracted an onslaught of newcomers all hoping for a windfall, bringing with them problems, including drugs, property crimes, prostitution and now murder. (2020, 422 pgs; Fiction)
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
by Walter Isaacson
The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a gripping account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies. (2021, 560 pgs; Nonfiction)
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story
by Bess Kalb
A funny, warm, original memoir in which a grandmother speaks to her granddaughter from beyond the grave, telling, with candor and humor, stories from both their lives–of kinship, loyalty, tenacity, and love. (2020, 206 pgs; Nonfiction)
Plastic: An Autobiography
by Allison Cobb
In this elegiac missive from the frontlines of our plastic-filled world, Cobb uses a variety of narrative forms to convey her deep despair over how plastic has overwhelmed our planet, including a horrifying list of trash found on a Hawaiian beach. (2021, 196 pgs; Nonfiction)
When Harry Met Minnie: A True Story of Love and Friendship
by Martha Teichner
A memoir of love and loss, of being in the right place at the right time, and of the mysterious ways a beloved pet can bring people together from CBS Sunday Morning News correspondent Martha Teichner. A chance encounter with an old acquaintance changed Martha Teichner’s world. (2021, 246 pgs; Nonfiction)
What She Left Behind
by Ellen Marie Wiseman
The acclaimed author of The Plum Tree merges the past and present into a haunting story about the nature of love and loyalty–and the lengths we will go to protect those who need us most. (2014, 328 pgs; Fiction)
Eye of the Needle
by Ken Follett
One enemy spy knows the secret to the Allies’ greatest deception, a brilliant aristocrat and ruthless assassin — code name: “The Needle” — who holds the key to ultimate Nazi victory. Only one person stands in his way: a lonely Englishwoman on an isolated island, who is beginning to love the killer who has mysteriously entered her life. All will come to a terrifying conclusion in Ken Follett’s unsurpassed and unforgettable masterwork of suspense, intrigue, and the dangerous machinations of the human heart. (1978, 320 pgs; Fiction)
Robert E. Lee and Me
by Ty Seidule
In a forceful but humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history department Ty Seidule challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy- and explores why some of this country’s oldest wounds have never healed. (2020, 291 pgs; Nonfiction)
The Exiles
by Christina Baker Kline
In this gorgeous novel, Kline brilliantly recreates the beginnings of a new society in a beautiful and challenging land, telling the story of Australia from a fresh perspective, through the experiences of Evangeline, Hazel, and Mathinna. While life in Australia is punishing and often brutally unfair, it is also, for some, an opportunity: for redemption, for a new way of life, for unimagined freedom. (2020, 371 pgs; Fiction)
The Girl from Widow Hills
by Megan Miranda
Arden Maynor was just six years old when she was swept away while sleepwalking in a rainstorm. Fame as the survivor of Widow Hills undid her life, until she moved far away and changes her name. She begins to feel like she’s being watched and, soon, her past comes back to haunt her. (2020, 320 pgs; Fiction)
Black Bottom Saints
by Alice Randall
From the Great Depression through the post-World War II years, Ziggy had been the pulse of Detroit’s famous Black Bottom. A celebrated gossip columnist for the city’s African-American newspaper, he was also the emcee of one of the hottest night clubs, where he rubbed elbows with the legendary black artists of the era. From his hospital bed, Ziggy curates his own list of Black Bottom’s venerable ’52 Saints,’ local heroes whose unstoppable ambition, love of style, and faith in community made this black Midwestern neighborhood the rival of New York City’s Harlem. (2020, 361 pgs; Fiction)
Bootlegger’s Daughter
by Margaret Maron
Deborah Knott, an attorney attempting to infiltrate the old boy network of tobacco country by running for district judge, is distracted from the race, and almost eliminated, when she finds new evidence to an old small-town murder. Thus begins North Carolina native Maron’s long-running series about this character. (1992, 261 pgs; Fiction)
West with Giraffes
by Lynda Rutledge
Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, recalls his journey to deliver South California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo in 1938. (2021, 356 pgs; Fiction)
Folly Beach Mystery Series
by Bill Noel
Noel started writing at 59 and published Folly in 2007. He has since published 18 more titles- the most recent Tipping Point in 2021. Others include The Pier, Washout, The Edge, The Marsh, Ghosts, Missing, Final Cut, First Light, Boneyard Beach, Silent Night, Dead Center, Discord, Dark Horse, Joy, No Joke, Relic, and Faith. (2007 – 2021, various; Fiction)
Hamnet
by Maggie O’Farrell
A thrilling departure: a short, piercing, deeply moving novel about the death of Shakespeare’s 11-year-old son Hamnet–a name interchangeable with Hamlet in 15th century Britain–and the years leading up to the production of his great play. (2020, 305 pgs; Fiction)
Klara and the Sun
by Kazuo Ishiguro
From her place in the store that sells artificial friends, Klara–an artificial friend with outstanding observational qualities–watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. (2021, 303 pgs; Fiction)
The Women of Chateau Lafayette
by Stephanie Dray
This epic generational saga from New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray is based on the true story of an extraordinary castle in the heart of France and the remarkable women bound by its legacy in some of humanity’s darkest hours. (2021, 376 pgs; Fiction)
Keep Sharp
by Sanjay Gupta
Neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta offers insights from top scientists all over the world whose cutting-edge research can help you heighten and protect brain function and maintain cognitive health at any age. (2021, 318 pgs; Nonfiction)
Much Abides
by Charles H. Edwards, II
A survival guide for aging lives. If valued and approached creatively, this late phase has the potential to provide the most satisfaction and joy for the longest period of time. (2020, 129 pgs; Nonfiction)
The Four Winds
by Kristin Hannah
From the author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone, comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America’s most defining eras-the Great Depression. Texas, 1934. (2021, 454 pgs; Fiction)
Anxious People
by Fredrik Bachman
Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers–including a redemption-seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages, and a plucky octogenarian–discover their unexpected common traits. (2020, 341 pgs; Fiction)
The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead
In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning The Underground Railroad, Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. (2019, 213 pgs; Fiction)
The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Arik Kershenbaum
Might there be an alien planet with supersonic animals? A moon where creatures have a language composed of smells? Will aliens scream with fear, act honestly, or have technology? Kershenbaum answers these questions using the latest science to tell the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space. (2021, 356pgs; Nonfiction)
The Paris Library
by Janet Skeslien Charles
Young, ambitious, and tempestuous, Odile Souchet has it all: Paul, her handsome police officer beau; Margaret, her best friend from England; her adored twin brother Remy; and a dream job at the American Library in Paris, working alongside the library’s legendary director, Dorothy Reeder. But when World War II breaks out, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear – including her beloved library. Charles explores the geography of resentment, the consequences of terrible choices made, and how extraordinary heroism can be found in the quietest of places. (2021, 353 pgs; Fiction)
House on Endless Waters
by Emunah Elon
A lyrical and exquisitely moving novel about a writer who embarks on a transformative journey in Amsterdam, where he discovers the shocking truth about his mother’s wartime experience-unearthing a remarkable story that becomes the subject of his magnum opus. (2020, 309 pgs; Fiction)
Halfway Home
by Reuben Jonathan Miller
A Chicago Cook County Jail chaplain and mass-incarceration sociologist examines the lifelong realities of a criminal record, demonstrating how America’s justice system is less about rehabilitation and more about structured disenfranchisement. (2021, 341 pgs; Nonfiction)
When the Stars Go Dark
by Paula McLain
From The New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife comes an atmospheric novel of intertwined fate and heart-wrenching suspense: a detective hiding away from the world; a series of disappearances that reach into her past. Can solving them help her heal? (2021, 370 pgs; Fiction)
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
by Mark T. Sullivan
In 1940s Italy, teenager Pino Lella joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps and falls for a beautiful widow, he also becomes the personal driver of one of the Third Reich’s most powerful commanders. (2017, 518 pgs; Fiction)
Digging Up Armageddon: The Search for the Lost City of Solomon
by Eric H. Cline
A vivid portrait of the early years of biblical archaeology from the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. (2020, 424 pgs; Nonfiction)
The Last Flight
by Julie Clark
Two women meet in an airport bar, both alone, both scared, and both urgently needing an escape from their lives. Together they hatch a plan to switch tickets – Claire taking Eva’s flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. But then one plane crashes. (2020, 311 pgs; Fiction)
The Silent Patient
by Alex Michaelides
Alicia Berenson shoots her husband in the head five times, and then never speaks again. Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber must find a way to get Alicia Berenson to talk if he wants to treat her. Only then can he unravel the shocking events of that night five years before. (2019, 325 pgs; Fiction)
The Plot
by Jean Hanff Korelitz
This is a psychologically suspenseful novel about a story too good not to steal, and the writer who steals it. (2021, 336 pgs; Fiction)
Hour of the Witch
by Chris Bohjalian
A young Puritan woman- faithful, resourceful, but afraid of the demons that dog her soul- plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive novel of historical suspense from The New York Times bestselling author. (2021, 405 pgs; Ficiton)
The Flight Attendant
by Chris Bohjalian
A powerful story about the ways an entire life can change in one night: A flight attendant wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man—and no idea what happened. (2018, 345 pgs; Fiction)
The Midnight Library
by Matt Haig
Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices… Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets? (2020, 288 pgs; Fiction)
Perestroika in Paris
by Jane Smiley
Smiley penned a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals–and a young boy–whose lives intersect in Paris. (2020, 265 pgs; Fiction)
Daughters of Yalta
by Catherine Katz
This is story of the fascinating and fateful “daughters diplomacy” of Anna Roosevelt, Sarah Churchill, and Kathleen Harriman, three glamorous, intelligent young women who accompanied their famous fathers to the Yalta Conference with Stalin in the waning days of World War II. (2020, 400 pgs; Nonfiction)
The Fortunate Ones
by Ed Tarkington
When young Charlie Boykin gains entry into the wealthy society of the most exclusive part of Nashville, he falls under its spell. But he soon learns what he’d have to give up in return in this novel that asks why we envy and worship a class of people that so often exhibits the worst excesses. (2021, 308 pgs; Fiction)
A Long Petal of the Sea
by Isabel Allende
In the late 1930s, civil war gripped Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life irreversibly intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them wants, and together are sponsored by poet Pablo Neruda to embark on the SS Winnipeg along with 2,200 other refugees in search of a new life. As unlikely partners, they embrace exile and emigrate to Chile. Starting over on a new continent, their trials are just beginning. Through it all, it is that hope of being reunited with their home that keeps them going. And in the end, they will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along. (2020, 318 pgs; Fiction)
Facing the Mountain
by Daniel James Brown
An unforgettable chronicle of wartime America and the battlefields of Europe, based on Brown’s extensive interviews with the families of the protagonists as well as deep archival research, it portrays the kaleidoscopic journey of four Japanese-American families and their sons, who volunteered for 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were deployed to France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible. But this is more than a war story. Brown also tells the story of these soldiers’ parents. (2021, 540 pgs; Nonfiction)
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
by Samin Nosrat
Whether you’ve never picked up a knife or you’re an accomplished chef, there are only four basic factors that determine how good your food will taste. Nosrat’s book will guide you as you choose which ingredients to use and how to cook them, and it will tell you why last-minute adjustments will ensure that food tastes exactly as it should. This book will change the way you think about cooking and eating, and help you find your bearings in any kitchen, with any ingredients, while cooking any meal. (2017, 462 pgs; Nonfiction)
Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Homes
by Paula McLain
Hailed as a memoir of unexpected beauty and arresting power, Like Family tells the story of three young sisters who are abandoned by their mother and father and raised as wards of the Fresno County, California, court. McLain’s unflinching recollection of being shuttled from foster home to foster home strikes a universal chord, capturing the loneliness, uncertainty, and odd pleasures that are the very nature of adolescence. (2013, 213 pgs; Nonfiction)
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
by Caitlin Doughty
The blogger behind the popular Web series Ask a Mortician describes her experiences working at a crematory, including how she sometimes got ashes on her clothes and how she cared for bodies of all shapes and sizes. (2014, 254 pgs; Nonfiction)
Bruno, Chief of Police
by Martin Walker
Meet Benoit Courréges, affectionately named Bruno, chief of police in a small village in the South of France. A former soldier, Bruno has embraced the slow rhythms of country life. But the murder of an elderly North African who fought in the French army galvanizes his attention. When a visiting scholar helps untangle the dead man’s past, Bruno’s suspicions turn toward a motive more complex than hate, back to a tortured period of French history.
The Innovators: How A Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
by Walter Isaacson
This revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. (2014, 542pgs; Nonfiction)
The Sweetness of Water
by Nathan Harris
In the waning days of the Civil War, two freed brothers, Prentiss and Landry, seek refuge on the homestead of George and Isabelle Walker whose only son perished in the war. The boys are saving money to try to reunite with their mother up north. Parallel to their interwoven story runs another of forbidden romance. When the secret is discovered, the resulting chaos unleashes convulsive repercussions on the entire community of Old Ox. (2021, 363 pgs; Fiction)
The Lost Apothecary
by Sarah Penner
Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientèle. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. Meanwhile, in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate, and not everyone will survive. (2021, 301 pgs; Fiction)
Putting It Together
by James Lapine
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the iconic Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George. (2021, 391pgs; Nonfiction)
The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict
This is the remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true. (2021, 341 pgs; Fiction)
To see the 2019 list of books, click here.
To see the 2020 list of books, click here.
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