By Stephen King
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Receiving a horrific essay from a GED student with a traumatic past, high-school English teacher Jake Epping is enlisted by a friend to travel back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a mission for which he must reacclimate to 1960s culture.

By David Ebershoff

Intertwining tale of a 20th–century murder mystery in Utah and a women 18th century attempts to rid America of polygamy.

By Amanda Hodgkinson

“Leaving Poland for England at the end of World War II, Silvana is accompanied by eight-year-old, near-feral Aurek, with whom she shares traumatic wartime memories that set them apart from her husband, who has remade himself as an Englishman to forget the past (From the Publisher).”

By Khaled Hosseini

Presents a story inspired by human love, how people take care of one another, and how choices resonate through subsequent generations.

By Jan-Philipp Sendker
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services

Tuesday, April 28, 2015. 1:30 PM.

"When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter has any idea where he might be—until they find a love letter he wrote many years before, to a Burmese woman who is unknown to them (From the Publisher)."

By Hilma Wolitzer
With Ed Goldberg, Head of Reference, Lisa Jones, Readers' Services Librarian, Sonia Grgas, Health Reference Librarian, Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

The Afternoon and Evening Book Clubs unite for a special evening to celebrate a year of great books and discussions.

Tuesday, December 18. 7:30 PM.

“Inadvertently attracting several single women while mourning the death of his adored wife, Edward Schuyler is profiled in a singles ad by his stepchildren... (From the Publisher).”

By Elle Feldman

Peter Van Pels hid in the attic with Anne Frank and died in the camps just before liberation. This novel attempts to answer the question: What if he survived, forged a new identity, and came to the U.S. after the war?

By Elizabeth Strout
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk, Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk, Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

A pair of brothers confront painful psychological issues surrounding the freak accident that killed their father when they were boys, a loss linked to a heartbreaking deception that shaped their personal and professional lives.

By Richard Ford
Recommended By Ed Goldberg, Head of Reference, Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk

After his parents are arrested and imprisoned for robbing a bank, 15-year-old Dell Parsons is taken in by Arthur Remlinger who, unbeknownst to Dell, is hiding a dark and violent nature that interferes with Dell's quest to find grace and peace on the prairie of Saskatchewan.

By Jennifer DuBois
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

American student Lily Hayes is implicated in the brutal murder of her roommate while spending a semester studying in Buenos Aires, leading to a case that reveals deceptions, secrets, and suspicious DNA.

By Laura Moriarty
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Accompanying a future famous actress from her Wichita home to New York, chaperone Cora Carlisle shares a life-changing five-week period with her ambitious teenage charge during which she discovers the promise of the twentieth century and her own purpose in life.

By Ka Hancock

Deciding to marry in spite of respective health challenges, Mickey, a man with bipolar disorder, and Lucy, a woman with a ravaging family history of breast cancer, struggle through difficult challenges for 11 years before receiving a surprise that forces them to redefine everything they believe about love.

By Andre Dubus III

A collection of novellas examining the lives of suburbanites seeking solace and gratification in food, sex, work, and love.

By Philip Roth
Series Zuckerman Novels
With Sonia Grgas, Health Reference Librarian

Tuesday, October 22, 2013. 1:30 PM.

“A young writer in search of a spiritual father, Nathan Zuckerman views E. I. Lonoff, who lives with his wife and his student-mistress in rural Massachusetts, as an embodiment of the ideal of artistic integrity and independence (From the Publisher).”

By Bill Bryson
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

“...A book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended, if at times bemused, love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away (From the Publisher).”

By Meg Wolitzer
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Forging a powerful bond in the mid-1970s that lasts throughout subsequent decades, six individuals pursue respective challenges into their midlife years, including an aspiring actress who harbors jealousy toward friends who achieve successful creative careers.

By Deborah Lawrenson
Recommended By Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

“Embarking on an affair with Dom, a wealthy older man she barely knows, and beginning a new life with him in Provence, Eve becomes obsessed with finding out why Dom refuses to talk about his previous marriage--and what happened to his beautiful ex-wife (From the Publisher).”

By Chris Bohjalian
Recommended By Sue Ann R., Head of Children's Services, Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

Hoping to safeguard themselves from the ravages of World War II within the walls of their ancient villa in Florence, the noble Rosati family become prisoners in their home when 18-year-old Cristina's courtship by a German lieutenant prompts the Nazis to take over the estate, a situation that leads to a serial murder investigation years later.

By Maeve Binchy

A collection of twenty-two short stories follows the adventures of a woman who reaches a turning point during an affair with a married man, a dress designer who's had a god-awful day, and more.

By Ishmael Beah
Recommended By Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian, Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

Ishmael Beah described his experiences after he was driven from his home by war in Sierra Leone and picked up by the government army at the age of thirteen, serving as a solider for three years before being removed from fighting by UNICEF and eventually moving to the United States.

By Jhumpa Lahiri
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk, Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions
With Lisa Jones, Readers' Services Librarian

Tuesday, May 27, 2014. 1:30 PM.

Frequently mistaken for one another in spite of very different natures, brothers Subhash and Udayan Mitra pursue respective lives in rebellion-torn 1960s Calcutta until a shattering tragedy compels Subhash to return to India, where he endeavors to heal family wounds.

By Jillian Cantor
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

In a reimagining of the life of Anne Frank's sister Margot, Margie Franklin, working as a secretary at a Jewish law firm in Philadelphia, finds her carefully constructed life falling apart when her sister becomes a global icon.

By Jennifer Chiaverini

Chosen as the personal modiste for Mary Todd Lincoln, freedwoman Elizabeth Keckley is drawn into the intimate life of the Lincoln family as she supports Mary in the loss of her husband from the assassination that stunned the nation and the world.

By Elena Ferrante
Series Neapolitan Novels
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian
With Sonia Grgas, Health Reference Librarian

Tuesday, November 22, 2016. 1:30 PM.

The story begins in the 1950s, in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow, as their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, Elena and Lila remain best friends whose respective destinies are reflected and refracted in the other.

By Diane Chamberlain
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

Caring for her family on their mid-twentieth-century tobacco farm after the loss of her parents, fifteen-year-old Ivy connects with Grace County social worker Jane Forrester, who strains her personal and professional relationships with her advocacy of Ivy's family.

By Bill Bryson
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

Recounts the story of a pivotal cultural year in the United States when mainstream pursuits and historical events were marked by contributions by such figures as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and Al Capone.

By Christina Baker Kline
Recommended By Pam Strudler, Programming & Arts Librarian, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian, Rosemarie Germaine, Senior Library Clerk

Close to aging out of the foster care system, Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer takes a community service position helping an elderly woman named Vivian clean out her home and discovers that they are more alike than different as she helps Vivian solve a mystery from her past

By Alan Brennert
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

Sharing a family life in the 1930s near the legendary Palisades Amusement Park, a family of dreamers explores ambitions and cultural boundaries that are challenged by the realities of the Great Depression, multiple wars, and the park's eventual closing in 1971.

By Charlotte Zeepvat

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, was the most intelligent of Queen Victoria’s four sons. He was the youngest, a strong-willed, likeable character with an immense thirst for life who faced two overwhelming handicaps. One was hemophilia, then barely understood, which might have killed him at any moment, and in any case subjected him to recurring pain and disability. The other was his mother’s determination to keep complete control over his life.

By Ishmael Beah
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager
With Jackie Ranaldo, Head of Readers' Services

Tuesday, October 13, 2015. 7:30 PM.

In a parable about postwar life in Sierra Leone, two long-time friends return to their ruined home village and struggle to rebuild in the face of violence, scarcity, and a corrupt foreign mining company.

By Jason Mott
Series The Returned
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

When their son Jacob, who died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966, arrives on their doorstep, still eight years old, Harold and Lucille Hargrave must navigate a strange new reality as chaos erupts around the world as people's loved ones are returned from beyond.

By Rob Lowe

The 1980s Brat Pack founder presents an account of his life in show business and politics, tracing his counter-culture youth in Malibu, his work on such productions as The Outsiders and The West Wing and his pursuits of family and sobriety.

By Lauren A. Rothman

The go-to manual on how to dress for every professional occasion and a valuable resource for understanding dress codes by industry, city, and gender so that your visual cues will make a strong impact. Make a commitment to being better dressed at work with Style Bible.

By Adriana Trigiani
Series Valentine Trilogy

When a secret about her business partner and lover is revealed during her family's celebration of “The Feast of the Seven Fishes”, Valentine Roncalli must make life-altering choices as she fights for everything she wants while sustaining her family's business and enjoying life to the fullest.

By John Grisham
Recommended By John Shea, Library Page, Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

When wealthy Seth Hubbard hangs himself from a sycamore tree and leaves his fortune to his black maid, Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a controversial trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history.

By Émile Zola

Trapped in a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille, Thérèse Raquin finds solace in a turbulent love affair with her husband's friend, Laurent, a passion that leads to a haunting crime, in a novel of adultery, murder, and madness.

By Melanie Gideon
Recommended By Jackie, Head of Readers' Services

Baring her soul in an anonymous survey for a marital happiness study, Alice catalogues her stale marriage, unsatisfying job and unfavorable prospects and begins to question virtually every aspect of her life.

By Rebecca Musser
Recommended By Neela Vass, Head of Acquisitions

A woman who escaped an abusive marriage to a polygamist leader in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints reveals the horrors of her daily life and how her court testimony helped many other women and children.