THE STORY HOUR by Thrity Umrigar

 A psychologist is treating a young woman from India who recently attempted suicide;  the line between treatment and friendship blurs, with unexpected results. 

DESPERATE by Daniel Palmer

 

A couple, wishing to adopt, meets a young woman who is pregnant and alone.  Coincidence?  Good luck?  Or really, really terrible luck for someone?

PETER PAN MUST DIE by John Verdon

The fourth entry in this riveting suspense series starring retired NYPD detective Dave Gurney and guest-starring brilliant serial killers.  Great fun.

FOURTH OF JULY CREEK by Smith Henderson

A troubled social worker, a disturbed survivalist, and several damaged children.  A dark story with beautiful descriptions of rural Montana.

THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKRY by Gabrielle Zevin

Fikry owns a bookstore on a Martha's Vineyard-like island.  Widowed, lonely, and grumpy, he is transformed by a baby left in the shop.  An enchanting story about love - and love of books.

THE GHOST OF THE MARY CELESTE by Valerie Martin

 

The Mary Celeste, a real ship, was found adrift in the Atlantic in 1872:  no damage, no cargo theft, no captain or crew.  Martin has

cleverly combined fact and fiction in this gripping historical novel.

973 Carroll, Andrew: HERE IS WHERE: Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

Join this fascinating tour of our country's overlooked but significant historical sites.  The breezy writing style adds to the fun.

THE DARING LADIES OF LOWELL by Kate Alcott

In the nineteenth century, New England farm girls sought independence by laboring in

cotton mills.  This atmospheric story is built around a real-life murder and the sensational trial that followed.

BURIAL RITES by Hannah Kent

 

Iceland, 1878:  a woman convicted of murder is sent to live with a farm family while awaiting execution.  A pageturner, and it's a true story.

FROG MUSIC by Emma Donoghue

 

In 1876 San Francisco, the unlikely friendship of a burlesque dancer and a cross-dressing frog catcher anchors

this earthy, colorful, wildly entertaining historical fiction.

RUSTICATION by Charles Palliser

England, 1863:  young Richard has been sent down - expelled - "rusticated" - from Cambridge.  But why?  He returns to the dank, moldy home shared by his less than welcoming mother and sister.  As a narrator, he is wildly unreliable.  As a novel, this is pure delight.

THE WOMAN UPSTAIRS by Claire Messud

 

Nora, her dreams all broken, lives an unobtrusive life until an irresistible family befriends and betrays her.  A story of rage told with wit and insight.

TRANSATLANTIC by Colum McCann

 

 

Three historic crossings between Ireland and the United States, at different times, are connected by generations of fictional women whose lives were changed as a result.

BIO WARD: Ward, Jesmyn: MEN WE REAPED

 

The award-winning author of SALVAGE THE BONES describes the violent deaths of five young men in this searing

memoir about race and rural American poverty.

THE LAST SUMMER OF THE CAMPERDOWNS by Elizabeth Kelly

An affluent Cape Cod family, 1972.  Twelve-year-old Riddle encounters something mysterious and terrible;  she is too frightened to speak up.  Her silence has tragic results.  Clever, intense, absorbing.

ENON by Paul Harding

Harding's Pulitzer-winning debut, TINKERS, chronicled the interior life of George Crosby.  ENON is his grandson's story:  a devastating loss makes chaos of his life.  Literary fiction to be savored.

SONGS OF WILLOW FROST by Jamie Ford

William runs away from a Seattle orphanage in search of the movie star he believes is his mother.  Another touching story from Ford, author of the much-admired HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET.

RETURN TO OAKPINE by Ron Carlson

In the sixties they were a garage band.  Now they reunite,

in this meditation on time and change.

UNTIL SHE COMES HOME by Lori Roy

A fragile young woman's disappearance from a 1950's Detroit neighborhood in transition sparks a variety of responses from her neighbors.  Excellent writing.

RAGE AGAINST THE DYING by Becky Masterman

Arizona's Brigid Quinn becomes involved in a case related to the one that forced her out of the FBI.  A debut novel with an unusual protagonist (Brigid, 59, is a tough woman newly married to a former priest).  A series is born?

954.7 Boo, Katherine: BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS

Unforgettable characters fight for survival in a notorious slum adjacent to the world-class Mumbai airport.  The author is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist;  the book is a National Book Award winner.

THE DINNER by Herman Koch

Two couples dine in an Amsterdam restaurant.  As the discussion turns to an incident involving their sons, the moral questions pile up.  Clever and chilling.

TELLING THE BEES by Peggy Hesketh

What Albert, age 80, does is tend his bees.  What he does not do is speak to his neighbor and her sister.  Then the women are murdered, and a lifetime of secrets and regrets begins to be revealed.

WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES by Karen Joy Fowler

Fern, a chimpanzee raised in a human family, is gone.  Her human sister, wondering what is left for her to believe, narrates this original and heartbreaking story.

THE PERFECT GHOST by Linda Barnes

When the dynamic half of a biography-writing team dies, the mousy half takes over.  Secrets abound.  Great twist at the end. Great fun.

BEAR IS BROKEN by Lachlan Smith

Brand-new San Francisco attorney Leo Maxwell begins his career by trying to find out who shot his big brother.  If you like this mystery, try the sequel:  LION PLAYS ROUGH.

A PAIR OF PUZZLES: mysteries by Eleanor Kuhns

Here are two mysteries featuring an interesting protagonist:  Will Rees is an itinerant weaver and a veteran of the American Revolution.  Good stories, great character.

HEADING OUT TO WONDERFUL by Robert Goolrick

A small American town, after World War II:  Charlie Beale arrives with a set of butcher knives and a suitcase full of cash.  When he sees the young wife of the town's richest man, things start to go very wrong.  Dark and fascinating.

GILLESPIE AND I by Jane Harris

Harriet Baxter, spinster, is the unreliable narrator of the story of her relationship with artist Ned Gillespie and his family.  She met them at the 1888 Glasgow Exhibition. ( Harris also wrote THE OBSERVATIONS, another pageturner set in Victorian Scotland.)

MARY COIN by Marisa Silver

Silver reimagines photographer Dorothea Lange and her iconic subject (“Migrant Mother”) in this harrowing tale of Depression-era America.