By Anthony Everitt
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

A reconstruction of the life of the ancient Greek conqueror highlights his contradictory depictions throughout history, placing his achievements against a backdrop of his own historical time to discuss his growing empire, respect for regional traditions and mysterious death.

By Anne Frank
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services

Tuesday, March 10, 2020. 7:30 PM.

Commemorating the 75th anniversary of Anne Frank's death

Teens Welcome

The autobiographical reminiscences of a young Jewish girl coming of age during World War II describes her life in hiding from the Nazis and offers a poignant study of the tragedy of the Holocaust.

By Noah Hawley
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian, Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

The stories of ten wealthy victims of a plane crash intertwine with those of a down–on–his luck painter and a four-year-old boy, the tragedy's only survivors, as odd coincidences surrounding the crash point to a possible conspiracy.

By Heather Morris

A novel based on a true story follows a Russian woman who is forced by a concentration-camp commandant to become his lover and is subsequently sent to Siberia after being found guilty of collaborating with the enemy.

By Mary Higgins Clark

A divorced New York mother of two is swept off to a life of luxury and love with a wealthy artist on his Minnesota farm until a terrifying past threatens her marriage, her children, and her life.

By Ann Napolitano
Recommended By Donna Burger, Readers' Services Librarian, Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian, Amy B., Children's Librarian

12–year–old lone survivor of a plane crash investigates the stories of his less-fortunate fellow passengers before making a profound discovery about his life purpose in the face of transcendent losses.

By Donna Tartt
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Taken in by a wealthy friend after surviving an accident that killed his mother, 13 year-old Theo Decker tries to adjust to life on Park Avenue.

By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Recommended By Josephine Amoia, Children's Librarian
With Jean Simpson, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, September 26, 2017. 1:30 PM.

A classic novel portrays the Jazz Age and all its decadence and excess as it follows the life of Jay Gatsby, a newly rich man obsessed with money, power, and glamour.

Became the movie: The Great Gatsby.

By John Grisham

In the small north Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues behind. There were no witnesses, no real suspects, no one with a motive. The police soon settled on Quincy Miller, a young black man who was once a client of Russo's.

By Thomas Cahill

Revealing the pivotal role played by St. Patrick and Ireland in the development of Western culture and history, a narrative describes Europe's evolution from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era.

By Emily Belden
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Hiding the fact that she is a widow from those around her, 29–year–old Charlotte Rosen searches for answers and forgiveness when her late husband’s ashes land on her doorstep five years after his death.

By Bryan Stevenson

The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.

By Jane Austen

These three short works show Jane Austen experimenting with a variety of different literary styles, from melodrama to satire, and exploring a range of social classes and settings.

By Axton Betz-Hamilton
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

Describes the impact of identity theft on the author’s family at a time when banks and authorities were unwilling to help, revealing how her parents and she endured nightmarish victimization at the hands of a loved one.

By Libby Page
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

Tuesday, February 11, 2020. 7:30 PM.

An anxiety–riddled cub reporter for a small London paper is assigned to cover the closing of a local rec center and bonds with an 86–year–old widow who has swum in the community pool every day since childhood.

By Erika Swyler

Decades after her grieving father, a laid–off NASA scientist, triggers chaotic changes in his pursuit of life–extending technology, an astronaut confronts dangerous family secrets to stop a world–threatening crisis.

By Liz Moore
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

A policewoman races to find her missing sister, a homeless addict, amid a vicious killing spree in a Philadelphia neighborhood, in a story that alternates between the investigation and memories of their shared childhood.

By Mary Higgins Clark

When Robin probes the disappearance of her close friend, Marcy, a young woman who answers an ad in a magazine "personals" section, she finds herself the prey of a serial killer with a special fetish.

By Jennifer Weiner
Recommended By Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian, Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

Tuesday, February 25, 2020. 1 PM.

Two sisters struggle to find their place, be true to themselves and adapt to rapid changes happening throughout the latter half of 20th–century America.

By Anna Pitoniak
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

A novel of psychological suspense follows Stella and Violet, best friends in college who compete for success and recognition at a cable news network, changing their friendship to a destructive rivalry.

By Elizabeth Strout
Recommended By Jean Buchholtz, Library Clerk

A collection of thirteen linked short stories recounting the experiences of Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who witnesses the changes in her town and the world at large.

By Elizabeth Strout
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

A sequel to Olive Kitteridge finds Olive struggling to understand herself while bonding with a teen suffering from loss, a woman who gives birth unexpectedly, a nurse harboring a longtime crush and a lawyer who resists an unwanted inheritance.

By Gene Weingarten

One Day asks and answers the question of whether there is even such a thing as "ordinary" when we are talking about how we all lurch and stumble our way through the daily, daunting challenge of being human.

By Margarita Montimore
Recommended By Sharon Long, Assistant Library Director

A young woman destined to wake up on her birthday to a random year in her life struggles through an out-of-order existence to reconcile her inner youth with the realities of shifting external identities, appearances and period norms.

By William Kent Krueger
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk
With Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, March 24, 2020. 1PM.

Looking back at a tragic event that occurred during his thirteenth year, Frank Drum explores how a complicated web of secrets, adultery, and betrayal shattered his Methodist family and their small 1961 Minnesota community.

By Susan Wiggs

Forced by scandal and tragedy to return to her Pacific coast childhood home, Caroline assumes guardianship over two orphans and bonds with a circle of fellow seamstresses before an unexpected challenge tests her courage and heart.

By Helen Prejean

An activist nun known for campaigning to end the death penalty describes her spiritual journey from a person who prayed for God to solve the problems of the world to someone who works to transform social injustices herself.

By Mary Higgins Clark

Four people whose lives have been shattered by a murder find themselves in continuing conflict as the hour of the convicted murderer's execution approaches.

By Kiley Reid
Recommended By Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian

Seeking justice for a young black babysitter who was wrongly accused of kidnapping by a racist security guard, a successful blogger finds her efforts complicated by a video that reveals unexpected connections.

By Anthony Ray Hinton
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services, Donna Burger, Readers' Services Librarian
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services

Tuesday, April 9, 2019. 7:30 PM.

A man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he did not commit describes how he became a victim of a flawed legal system, recounting the years he shared with fellow inmates who were eventually executed before his exoneration.

By Heather Morris
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services

Tuesday, January 28, 2020. 1 PM.

A novel based on the true story of an Auschwitz–Birkenau survivor traces the experiences of a Jewish Slovakian who uses his position as a concentration–camp tattooist to secure food for his fellow prisoners.

By William Kent Krueger
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Fleeing the Depression–era school for Native American children who have been taken from their parents, four orphans share a life–changing journey marked by struggling farmers, faith healers, and lost souls.

By Colleen Hoover

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

By Anonymous
An unprecedented behind–the–scenes portrait of the Trump presidency from the anonymous senior official whose first words of warning about the president rocked the nation's capital.

By Mary Higgins Clark

Nancy Eldredge leads a quiet life on Cape Cod until a newspaper article and her children's disappearance bring to light her trial for murder in California.

By Maria Semple
Recommended By Jessikah Chautin, Community Engagement Specialist, Sue Ann R., Head of Children's Services, Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian, Jessikah Chautin, Community Engagement Specialist, Sue Ann R., Head of Children's Services, Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian
With Stacey Mencher, Readers' Services Librarian

Monday, March 20, 2020. 2 PM.

2013 Alex Award Winner

When her notorious, hilarious, volatile, talented, troubled, and agoraphobic mother goes missing, teenage Bee begins a trip that takes her to the ends of the earth to find her.

By Etah Rum
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian, Jackie, Head of Readers' Services, Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian, Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions, Donna Burger, Readers' Services Librarian
With Lisa Hollander, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, May 12, 2020. 7:30 PM.

Three generations of Palestinian-American women in contemporary Brooklyn are torn by individual desire, educational ambitions, a devastating tragedy, and the strict mores of traditional Arab culture.

By Kate Murphy

Exposes why the ultra–connected modern world leaves so many people feeling alone and suicidal, blaming it on a worldwide epidemic of not listening, and describes how to re–learn this important skill.