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CURRENT READ
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UPCOMING SELECTIONS
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PAST SELECTIONS
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CLUBS, CHALLENGES & TRACKERS
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Current Read
Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century
by Jessica Bruder | May 2024 Synopsis: Author Jessica Bruder spent several years traveling with older Americans who have become itinerant workers in order to make ends meet. In Nomadland, she describes how they assume a "wheel estate" existence as they travel from one seasonal job to the next, exchanging information on safe camping sites and enjoying the camaraderie of the road. Genre: Page to screen; Society and culture; Book club best bets; Non-fiction Author bio, discussion questions, and more... |
Upcoming Selections
Dumplin' by Julie Murphy | June 2024
Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Willowdean wants to prove to everyone in her small Texas town that she is more than just a fat girl, so, while grappling with her feelings for a co-worker who is clearly attracted to her, Will and some other misfits prepare to compete in the beauty pageant her mother runs.
Genre: Realistic fiction; Page to screen; Books for reluctant readers
The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season by Molly Fader | July 2024
Synopsis:
Hope arrives at the Orchard House family estate in Michigan with her daughter and a secret, and she's not sure if she will be accepted by the aunt she has never met. Her aunt agrees to take Hope in if Hope will help out with the cherry harvest. Hope starts a new life as she works the orchard with her aunt, daughter, and a nice man, but the mistakes of the past are never far behind.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Gentle reads; Michigan fiction
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal | August 2024
Synopsis:
In the aftermath of a devastating tragedy, a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota, Mariel Prager and her husband Ned, who's having an identity crisis, lose almost everything they hold dear and unexpectedly find salvation in their failing business -- the Lakeside Supper Club.
Genre: Relationship fiction
Where Coyotes Howl by Sandra Dallas | September 2024
Synopsis:
In 1916 Wallace, Wyoming, schoolteacher Ellen Webster finds purpose in her work as a rancher's wife and in her bonds with other women settled on the prairie as they look out for each other, share their secrets and help one another in times of need.
Genre: Westerns
Barracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo' by Zora Neale Hurston | October 2024
Synopsis:
Presents a never-before-published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God that illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade--abducted from Africa on the last “Black Cargo” ship to arrive in the United States.
Genre: History writing; Antiracist literature; Book club best bets; Non-fiction
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz | November 2024
Synopsis:
Wildly successful author Jacob Finch Bonner, who had stolen the plot of his book from a late student, fights to hide the truth from his fans and publishers, while trying to figure out who wants to destroy him.
Genre: Psychological Suspense
The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane | December 2024
Synopsis:
Longtime bartender Malcolm Gephardt realizes his dream of owning a bar, while his wife Jess, a lawyer struggling with fertility issues, wonders how to reshape her life, in a novel told over the course of one tumultuous week, laying bare the complexities of marriage, family, longing and desire.
Genre: Mainstream fiction; Multiple perspectives
Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Willowdean wants to prove to everyone in her small Texas town that she is more than just a fat girl, so, while grappling with her feelings for a co-worker who is clearly attracted to her, Will and some other misfits prepare to compete in the beauty pageant her mother runs.
Genre: Realistic fiction; Page to screen; Books for reluctant readers
The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season by Molly Fader | July 2024
Synopsis:
Hope arrives at the Orchard House family estate in Michigan with her daughter and a secret, and she's not sure if she will be accepted by the aunt she has never met. Her aunt agrees to take Hope in if Hope will help out with the cherry harvest. Hope starts a new life as she works the orchard with her aunt, daughter, and a nice man, but the mistakes of the past are never far behind.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Gentle reads; Michigan fiction
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal | August 2024
Synopsis:
In the aftermath of a devastating tragedy, a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota, Mariel Prager and her husband Ned, who's having an identity crisis, lose almost everything they hold dear and unexpectedly find salvation in their failing business -- the Lakeside Supper Club.
Genre: Relationship fiction
Where Coyotes Howl by Sandra Dallas | September 2024
Synopsis:
In 1916 Wallace, Wyoming, schoolteacher Ellen Webster finds purpose in her work as a rancher's wife and in her bonds with other women settled on the prairie as they look out for each other, share their secrets and help one another in times of need.
Genre: Westerns
Barracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo' by Zora Neale Hurston | October 2024
Synopsis:
Presents a never-before-published work from the author of the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God that illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade--abducted from Africa on the last “Black Cargo” ship to arrive in the United States.
Genre: History writing; Antiracist literature; Book club best bets; Non-fiction
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz | November 2024
Synopsis:
Wildly successful author Jacob Finch Bonner, who had stolen the plot of his book from a late student, fights to hide the truth from his fans and publishers, while trying to figure out who wants to destroy him.
Genre: Psychological Suspense
The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane | December 2024
Synopsis:
Longtime bartender Malcolm Gephardt realizes his dream of owning a bar, while his wife Jess, a lawyer struggling with fertility issues, wonders how to reshape her life, in a novel told over the course of one tumultuous week, laying bare the complexities of marriage, family, longing and desire.
Genre: Mainstream fiction; Multiple perspectives
Past Selections
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George | April 2024
Synopsis:
When a new tenant in his apartment building sets in motion events that force Jean to re-evaluate his past, he finds himself floating off down the rivers of France in his bookshop boat in search of lost love, new love, and friends he didn't know he needed.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Translations
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes | March 2024
Synopsis:
Charlie Gordon, a youth with limited mental capabilities, along with a laboratory rat named Algernon become the joint objects of a scientific alteration to see if Charlie can become "normal."
Genre: Page to screen; Science fiction classics; Social science fiction
Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella | February 2024
Synopsis:
When they learn they will live another sixty-eight years together, Sylvie and Dan plan to create little surprises for each other to keep their relationship fresh, but a scandal from the past reveals how little they truly know about one another.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Humorous stories
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley | January 2024
Synopsis:
Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths.
Genre: 2023-2024 Great Michigan Read selection; Thrillers and suspense; Book club best bets; Debut title; Michigan fiction
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos| December 2023
Synopsis:
In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.
Genre: Newberry Medal Winner; Autobiographical fiction
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler | November 2023
Synopsis:
A tale inspired by the marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald follows their union in defiance of her father's opposition and her scandalous transformation into a Jazz Age celebrity in the literary party scenes of New York, Paris, and the French Riviera.
Genre: Biographical fiction; Historical fiction
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie | October 2023
Synopsis:
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Genre: Diary novels; Realistic fiction; Illustrated books; Book club best bets
Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman | September 2023
Synopsis:
Three generations of a boisterous Irish family are upended by a matriarch's shoplifting activities and an upbeat American home aide whose initial support catapults the family into the worst crisis they have ever faced.
Genre: Humorous stories
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion | August 2023
Synopsis:
A socially awkward genetics professor who has never been on a second date sets out to find the perfect wife, but instead finds Rosie Jarman, a fiercely independent barmaid who is on a quest to find her biological father.
Genre: Romantic comedies; Australian fiction; Adult books for young adults
These Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card | July 2023
Synopsis:
A man on his deathbed reveals that he stole another man’s identity decades earlier, traces the family’s history from colonial Jamaica to present-day Harlem and reconnects with the firstborn daughter he never knew.
Genre: Literary fiction; Family sagas; Book club best bets
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler | June 2023
Synopsis:
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given...
Genre: African American fiction; Social science fiction; Science fiction; Page to screen; Book club best bets
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede | May 2023
Synopsis:
When thirty-eight jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland, on September 11, 2001, due to the closing of United States airspace, the citizens of this small community were called upon to come to the aid of more than six thousand displaced travelers.
Genre: Non-fiction; History writing; Adult books for young adults
The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson | April 2023
Synopsis:
When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy.
Genre: Relationship fiction
The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict | March 2023
Synopsis:
She was beautiful. She was a genius. Could the world handle both? A novel about Hedy Lamarr.
Genre: Biographical fiction; Historical fiction
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert | February 2023
Synopsis:
A delightful novel about a talented chef and the food critic who brings down her restaurant—whose chance meeting turns into a delectable romance of mistaken identities.
Genre: Romantic comedies
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan | January 2023
Synopsis:
A young woman comes to understand her place in a Chinese family — and in the world — through visits with her aging aunts.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Historical fiction; Multiple perspectives; First person narratives; Page to screen; Book club best bets
Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony | December 2022
Synopsis:
To Violet Baumgartner, there is nothing more important than family. And hers is perfect. Or at least, that’s what she wants everyone else to believe, much to her daughter Cerise’s chagrin.
Genre: Relationship fiction
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin | November 2022
Synopsis:
A.J. Fikry's wife has died, his bookstore is in trouble, and now his prized rare edition of Poe poems has been stolen. However, when a mysterious package appears, its arrival gives him the chance to start his life over and see things anew.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Page to screen
Literary References List
Waiting for the Night Song by Julie Carrick Dalton | October 2022
Synopsis:
An urgent message from her long-estranged best friend Daniela Garcia brings Cadie, now a forestry researcher, back to her childhood home. There, Cadie and Daniela are forced to face a dark secret that ended both their idyllic childhood bond and the magical summer that takes up more space in Cadie's memory then all her other years combined.
Genre: Mainstream fiction
The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim | September 2022
Synopsis:
In 1987, Mina Lee flies from Seoul to Los Angeles to start a new life.Thirty years later, Margot Lee speaks to her mother for the last time.Between these two moments extends a lifetime of secrets.
Genre: Mainstream fiction; Book club best bets
Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar | August 2022
Synopsis:
An aspiring photographer follows her dreams and faces her fears in a poignant novel about finding beauty, promise, and love amid the chaos of war-torn Kurdistan.
Genre: Literary fiction
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya | July 2022
Synopsis:
Born in Kigali, Rwanda, displaced by conflict, Clemantine migrated throughout seven African countries as a child. At age twelve, she was granted refugee status in the United States. This memoir tells the story of her childhood experience as a refugee.
Genre: Non-Fiction; Autobiographies and memoirs; Adult books for young adults; Life stories; Nonfiction that reads like fiction
The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell | June 2022
Synopsis:
In July 1913, twenty-five-year-old Annie Clements has seen enough of the world to know that it’s unfair. On her fierce quest for justice, Annie will discover just how much she is willing to sacrifice for her own independence and the families of Calumet.
Genre: Great Michigan Read 2021-2022; Historical fiction; Biographical fiction
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett | May 2022
Synopsis:
Identical twins, the Vignes sisters, are inseparable throughout childhood, but their paths diverge after running away from home at sixteen. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape; the other secretly passes for white. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined.
Genre: Literary fiction; Historical fiction; African American fiction; Book club best bets
The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan | April 2022
Synopsis:
Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change.
Genre: Mainstream fiction; Magical realism
Half Broke by Ginger Gaffney | March 2022
Synopsis:
At the start of this remarkable story of recovery, healing, and redemption, Ginger Gaffney answers a call to help retrain the troubled horses at an alternative prison ranch in New Mexico, a facility run entirely by the prisoners. As her year-long odyssey in healing the group experiences triumphs and failures, brave recoveries and relapses, as well as betrayals and moving stories of trust and belonging.
Genre: Non-Fiction; Autobiographies and memoirs; Life stories; Nature Writing
The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves | February 2022
Synopsis:
Jonathan and Annika bring out the best in each other. What follows is a tumultuous yet tender love affair that withstands everything except the unforeseen tragedy that forces them apart, shattering their connection and leaving them to navigate their lives alone. Now, a decade later, fate reunites them.
Genre: Love stories; Multiple perspectives
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz | January 2022
Synopsis:
Junot Díaz tells the story of Oscar, a Dominican-American boy who is obsessed with science fiction, fantasy, and finding love, and whose family is haunted by a generational curse.
Genre: Pulitzer Winner in Fiction; Literary fiction; Adult books for young adults; Book club best bets
Mercy House by Alena Dillon | December 2021
Synopsis:
Gruff and indomitable on the surface, warm and wry underneath, Evelyn and her fellow sisters makes Mercy House a safe haven for the abused and abandoned. Evelyn will do anything to protect Mercy House and the vibrant, diverse women it serves. As she fights to defend all that she loves, she discovers the extraordinary power of mercy and the grace it grants, not just to those who receive it, but to those strong enough to bestow it.
Genre: Literary fiction; Mainstream fiction
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James | November 2021
Synopsis:
The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before.
Genre: Horror; Parallel narratives
Detroit Hustle: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Home by Amy Haimerl | October 2021
Synopsis:
Journalist Amy Haimerl and her husband had been priced out of their Brooklyn neighborhood. Seeing this as a great opportunity to start over again, they decide to cash in their savings and buy an abandoned house for 35,000 in Detroit, the largest city in the United States to declare bankruptcy.
Genre: Non-Fiction; Autobiographies and memoirs; Life stories
The Operator by Gretchen Berg | September 2021
Synopsis:
In a small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business . . .Nobody knows the people of Wooster, Ohio, better than switchboard operator Vivian Dalton. She calls it intuition. Her teenage daughter, Charlotte, calls it eavesdropping.
Genre: Historical fiction
Synopsis:
When a new tenant in his apartment building sets in motion events that force Jean to re-evaluate his past, he finds himself floating off down the rivers of France in his bookshop boat in search of lost love, new love, and friends he didn't know he needed.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Translations
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes | March 2024
Synopsis:
Charlie Gordon, a youth with limited mental capabilities, along with a laboratory rat named Algernon become the joint objects of a scientific alteration to see if Charlie can become "normal."
Genre: Page to screen; Science fiction classics; Social science fiction
Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella | February 2024
Synopsis:
When they learn they will live another sixty-eight years together, Sylvie and Dan plan to create little surprises for each other to keep their relationship fresh, but a scandal from the past reveals how little they truly know about one another.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Humorous stories
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley | January 2024
Synopsis:
Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths.
Genre: 2023-2024 Great Michigan Read selection; Thrillers and suspense; Book club best bets; Debut title; Michigan fiction
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos| December 2023
Synopsis:
In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.
Genre: Newberry Medal Winner; Autobiographical fiction
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler | November 2023
Synopsis:
A tale inspired by the marriage of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald follows their union in defiance of her father's opposition and her scandalous transformation into a Jazz Age celebrity in the literary party scenes of New York, Paris, and the French Riviera.
Genre: Biographical fiction; Historical fiction
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie | October 2023
Synopsis:
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
Genre: Diary novels; Realistic fiction; Illustrated books; Book club best bets
Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman | September 2023
Synopsis:
Three generations of a boisterous Irish family are upended by a matriarch's shoplifting activities and an upbeat American home aide whose initial support catapults the family into the worst crisis they have ever faced.
Genre: Humorous stories
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion | August 2023
Synopsis:
A socially awkward genetics professor who has never been on a second date sets out to find the perfect wife, but instead finds Rosie Jarman, a fiercely independent barmaid who is on a quest to find her biological father.
Genre: Romantic comedies; Australian fiction; Adult books for young adults
These Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card | July 2023
Synopsis:
A man on his deathbed reveals that he stole another man’s identity decades earlier, traces the family’s history from colonial Jamaica to present-day Harlem and reconnects with the firstborn daughter he never knew.
Genre: Literary fiction; Family sagas; Book club best bets
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler | June 2023
Synopsis:
Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given...
Genre: African American fiction; Social science fiction; Science fiction; Page to screen; Book club best bets
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland by Jim DeFede | May 2023
Synopsis:
When thirty-eight jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland, on September 11, 2001, due to the closing of United States airspace, the citizens of this small community were called upon to come to the aid of more than six thousand displaced travelers.
Genre: Non-fiction; History writing; Adult books for young adults
The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson | April 2023
Synopsis:
When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy.
Genre: Relationship fiction
The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict | March 2023
Synopsis:
She was beautiful. She was a genius. Could the world handle both? A novel about Hedy Lamarr.
Genre: Biographical fiction; Historical fiction
The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert | February 2023
Synopsis:
A delightful novel about a talented chef and the food critic who brings down her restaurant—whose chance meeting turns into a delectable romance of mistaken identities.
Genre: Romantic comedies
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan | January 2023
Synopsis:
A young woman comes to understand her place in a Chinese family — and in the world — through visits with her aging aunts.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Historical fiction; Multiple perspectives; First person narratives; Page to screen; Book club best bets
Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony | December 2022
Synopsis:
To Violet Baumgartner, there is nothing more important than family. And hers is perfect. Or at least, that’s what she wants everyone else to believe, much to her daughter Cerise’s chagrin.
Genre: Relationship fiction
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin | November 2022
Synopsis:
A.J. Fikry's wife has died, his bookstore is in trouble, and now his prized rare edition of Poe poems has been stolen. However, when a mysterious package appears, its arrival gives him the chance to start his life over and see things anew.
Genre: Relationship fiction; Page to screen
Literary References List
Waiting for the Night Song by Julie Carrick Dalton | October 2022
Synopsis:
An urgent message from her long-estranged best friend Daniela Garcia brings Cadie, now a forestry researcher, back to her childhood home. There, Cadie and Daniela are forced to face a dark secret that ended both their idyllic childhood bond and the magical summer that takes up more space in Cadie's memory then all her other years combined.
Genre: Mainstream fiction
The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim | September 2022
Synopsis:
In 1987, Mina Lee flies from Seoul to Los Angeles to start a new life.Thirty years later, Margot Lee speaks to her mother for the last time.Between these two moments extends a lifetime of secrets.
Genre: Mainstream fiction; Book club best bets
Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar | August 2022
Synopsis:
An aspiring photographer follows her dreams and faces her fears in a poignant novel about finding beauty, promise, and love amid the chaos of war-torn Kurdistan.
Genre: Literary fiction
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya | July 2022
Synopsis:
Born in Kigali, Rwanda, displaced by conflict, Clemantine migrated throughout seven African countries as a child. At age twelve, she was granted refugee status in the United States. This memoir tells the story of her childhood experience as a refugee.
Genre: Non-Fiction; Autobiographies and memoirs; Adult books for young adults; Life stories; Nonfiction that reads like fiction
The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell | June 2022
Synopsis:
In July 1913, twenty-five-year-old Annie Clements has seen enough of the world to know that it’s unfair. On her fierce quest for justice, Annie will discover just how much she is willing to sacrifice for her own independence and the families of Calumet.
Genre: Great Michigan Read 2021-2022; Historical fiction; Biographical fiction
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett | May 2022
Synopsis:
Identical twins, the Vignes sisters, are inseparable throughout childhood, but their paths diverge after running away from home at sixteen. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape; the other secretly passes for white. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined.
Genre: Literary fiction; Historical fiction; African American fiction; Book club best bets
The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan | April 2022
Synopsis:
Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change.
Genre: Mainstream fiction; Magical realism
Half Broke by Ginger Gaffney | March 2022
Synopsis:
At the start of this remarkable story of recovery, healing, and redemption, Ginger Gaffney answers a call to help retrain the troubled horses at an alternative prison ranch in New Mexico, a facility run entirely by the prisoners. As her year-long odyssey in healing the group experiences triumphs and failures, brave recoveries and relapses, as well as betrayals and moving stories of trust and belonging.
Genre: Non-Fiction; Autobiographies and memoirs; Life stories; Nature Writing
The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves | February 2022
Synopsis:
Jonathan and Annika bring out the best in each other. What follows is a tumultuous yet tender love affair that withstands everything except the unforeseen tragedy that forces them apart, shattering their connection and leaving them to navigate their lives alone. Now, a decade later, fate reunites them.
Genre: Love stories; Multiple perspectives
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz | January 2022
Synopsis:
Junot Díaz tells the story of Oscar, a Dominican-American boy who is obsessed with science fiction, fantasy, and finding love, and whose family is haunted by a generational curse.
Genre: Pulitzer Winner in Fiction; Literary fiction; Adult books for young adults; Book club best bets
Mercy House by Alena Dillon | December 2021
Synopsis:
Gruff and indomitable on the surface, warm and wry underneath, Evelyn and her fellow sisters makes Mercy House a safe haven for the abused and abandoned. Evelyn will do anything to protect Mercy House and the vibrant, diverse women it serves. As she fights to defend all that she loves, she discovers the extraordinary power of mercy and the grace it grants, not just to those who receive it, but to those strong enough to bestow it.
Genre: Literary fiction; Mainstream fiction
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James | November 2021
Synopsis:
The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before.
Genre: Horror; Parallel narratives
Detroit Hustle: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Home by Amy Haimerl | October 2021
Synopsis:
Journalist Amy Haimerl and her husband had been priced out of their Brooklyn neighborhood. Seeing this as a great opportunity to start over again, they decide to cash in their savings and buy an abandoned house for 35,000 in Detroit, the largest city in the United States to declare bankruptcy.
Genre: Non-Fiction; Autobiographies and memoirs; Life stories
The Operator by Gretchen Berg | September 2021
Synopsis:
In a small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business . . .Nobody knows the people of Wooster, Ohio, better than switchboard operator Vivian Dalton. She calls it intuition. Her teenage daughter, Charlotte, calls it eavesdropping.
Genre: Historical fiction
Clubs
Belletrist with Emma Roberts Between Two Books with Florence Welch Fallon Book Club with Jimmy Fallon The Girlfriend Book Club GMA Book Club with Good Morning America Good Housekeeping Library Science with Kaia Gerber Natalie's Book Club with Natalie Portman Netflix Book Club with Uzo Aduba Oprah's Book Club Our Shared Shelf with Emma Watson Read with Jenna with Jenna Bush Hager Reese's Book Club with Reese Witherspoon Service95 with Dua Lipa TeaTime with Dakota Johnson |