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)
To see the 2019 list of books, click here.
To see the 2020 list of books, click here.
