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 Paul Auster
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

A single child born in 1947 experiences four parallel lifetimes poignantly marked by shifting family fortunes, athletic pursuits, friendships, sex, intellectual passions, and the same intriguing woman.

By Dara Horn

Jacob Rappaport, a Jewish soldier in the Union army, struggles with difficult moral questions when he is ordered to murder his own uncle, who has been plotting an assassination attempt against President Lincoln.

By Michael Chabon

In 1939 New York City, Joe Kavalier, a refugee from Hitler's Prague, joins forces with his Brooklyn-born cousin, Sammy Clay, to create comic-book superheroes inspired by their own fantasies, fears, and dreams.

By Jonathan Rabb

After surviving the Holocaust, Yitzhak Goldah arrives in Savannah, Georgia, to live with his only remaining relatives, Abe and Pearl Jesler, but discovers a fractured world where Reform and Conservative Jews live separately.

By Karen Kingsbury
Series Angels Walking

When former national baseball star Tyler Ames suffers a career-ending injury, all he can think about is putting his life back together the way it was before. A series of small miracles leads Tyler to a maintenance job at a retirement home and a friendship with Virginia Hutcheson, an old woman with Alzheimer’s who strangely might have the answers he so desperately seeks.

By Elizabeth Poliner
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

Enjoying summertime weeks of freedom at a popular Jewish beach with their children, beautiful Ada thrives when away from her strict husband, while chef Vivie develops diplomatic skills and unmarried Bec is forced to choose between family beliefs and her passion for a married man.

By Robert Sharenow

German soldiers take Peter from a Warsaw orphanage, and soon he is adopted by Professor Kaltenbach, a prominent Nazi, but Peter forms his own ideas about what he sees and hears and decides to take a risk that is most dangerous in 1942 Berlin.

By Meghan MacLean Weir
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

The seventeen-year-old daughter of an evangelical preacher, star of the family's hit reality show, has a secret pregnancy that threatens to blow their entire world apart.

By Tariq Ali
Series Islam Quintet

“…Ali's earthy, lusty saga about the fall of Jerusalem to Muslim forces in 1187 rewrites Eurocentric history by focusing on the historical figure Salah al-Din (better known as Saladin), the Kurdish upstart who used his position as sultan of Egypt and Syria to retake the Holy City from Crusaders (Publishers Weekly).”

By Paulo Coelho

Follows the journey of Brida, a beautiful young Irish girl, on a quest for knowledge and understanding as she encounters a wise man who teaches her how to overcome her fears and a woman who introduces her to the hidden music of the world.

By Thorton Wilder

After Brother Juniper witnesses the death of five people when a rope suspension bridge collapses, he goes about seeking some sort of cosmic answer to the question of why each had to die.

By Jose Saramago

In a reimagining of the Old Testament, Cain, condemned to wander forever for murdering his brother, journeys though time and space to witness key biblical events that impress upon him the unjust nature of God’s edicts.

By Richard Paul Evans
Recommended By Nancy Lowenstein, Library Page

“The Carousel is about what happens when life doesn't turn out the way that we planned. Beyond a love story, it is about faith, loyalty, and sacrifice (From the Publisher).”

By Ian McEwan

A highly respected London judge hides her decision to separate from a husband who wants an open marriage, a loss that challenges her beliefs throughout a case involving parents whose faith forbids a life-saving transfusion for their son.

By Melody Carlson
Recommended By Nancy Lowenstein, Library Page

“Christmas is approaching, and Lena Markham finds herself penniless, friendless, and nearly hopeless … When a secondhand red coat unexpectedly lands her a job as Mrs. Santa at a department store, Lena finally thinks her luck is changing. But can she keep her past a secret (From the Publisher).”

By Melody Carlson
Recommended By Nancy Lowenstein, Library Page

“When an abandoned dog finds its way to Betty Kowalski's house during the Christmas season, she reluctantly takes it in and learns that Christmas is truly the season of giving (From the Publisher).”

By Melody Carlson

It is 1937, and Lucy knows better than to wish for a pony this Christmas. Her mother has assured her in no uncertain terms that asking for a pony is the same as asking for the moon. Then an interesting pair of strangers comes to town, and Lucy's world changes forever. 

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 David Liss
Series Benjamin Weaver Mysteries
Recommended By Ed Goldberg, Head of Reference

When a merchant suffering reverses kills himself and a day later a Jewish stock–jobber is run down by a carriage. Benjamin Weaver, son of the stock–jobber, is asked by the merchant's son, to look into the deaths. The fatalities begin to look related and deliberate, pulling Weaver into a web of mystery and finance, a la London in 1719. An intriguing look at 18th century European finance.

By Anita Diamant

Four young women haunted by unspeakable memories and losses, afraid to begin to hope, find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience even as they confront the challenge of re–creating themselves in a strange new country.

By Willa Cather
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

“In 1851 Father Jean Marie Latour becomes the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico, and over the next forty years he faces the lawlessness and loneliness of the frontier as he tries to spread his faith (From the Publisher).”

By Roland Merullo

Meeting during a highly publicized official visit at the Vatican, the Pope and the Dalai Lama embark on an unsanctioned, undercover vacation through the Italian countryside to rediscover the everyday joys of life.

By Brenda Janowitz

After Sylvia Gold discovers that her daughter has invited the very wealthy parents of her boyfriend for Seder, she agonizes over making the right impression, but when old memories and grievances surface, she learns the importance of acceptance.

By Frank Herbert
Series Dune Saga
Recommended By Megan Kass, Systems Manager

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family - and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

Became the movie: Dune and Mini-Series: Dune.

By Balli Kaur Jaswal
Recommended By Sonia Grgas, Reference Librarian

Nikki has spent most of her life distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community. After her father's death she takes a job teaching a creative writing course in the heart of the Punjabi community. When one of the women students brings a book of erotica to class, Nicki use it as the basis for helping these modest women unleash creativity by telling their own stories.

By Rebecca Kanner

After becoming the Queen of Persia, Esther must find the strength within to violate the king’s law, risk her life, and save her Jewish people.

By Deeanne Gist
Recommended By Arlene Silverman, Library Clerk

“There is an immediate attraction when lady doctor Billy Jack Tate and a Texas Ranger Hunter Scott meet at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, but when the Fair is over, the conservative lawman and the progressive doctor face difficult choices (From the Publisher).”

By Allegra Goodman

Told through weddings, deaths, academic conferences, and dreams, the uniquely humorous story of three generations of Markowitzes is revealed, creating a familial world of conflict, confusion, and love.

By James Frey
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

Written from the perspective of his family, friends, and followers, in the same way the story of Jesus Christ was told in the New Testament, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible is the story of Ben Zion Avrohom, also known as Ben Jones, also known as the Messiah, also known as the Lord God.

By Nathan Englander

Rooted in Jewish history and the customs of Orthodox life, an irreverent anthology of ten stories includes The Twenty-Seventh Man about an unpublished writer who mistakenly lands in a Stalinist prison, and The Gilgul of Park Avenue about a Protestant who wakes up to discover he has become a Jew.

By Armando Lucas Correa
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk

Stripped of her family’s privileges by the Nazi party in 1939 Berlin, Hannah Rosenthal forges a pact that she will remain true to her best friend, Leo, before embarking on a refugee ship bound for Havana, where rumors of a deadly plot force her to make an impossible choice.

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 Adrian Plass

Mourning the death of his wife, David Herrick reluctantly accepts a reunion invitation by his former youth group members at a haunted house, at which the attendees share stories of lost faith, broken hearts, and compromised ideals.

By Richard Paul Evans
Recommended By Nancy Lowenstein, Library Page

"An uplifting tale of hope and faith celebrates the joy of the holiday season and follows a theme of the redemptive power of love (From the Publisher)."

By Marilynne Robinson
Recommended By Brenda Cherry, Reference Librarian

As the Reverend John Ames approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable family secrets.

By Mohja Kahf

“Beautifully written and featuring an exuberant cast of characters, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf charts the spiritual and social landscape of Muslims in middle America, from five daily prayers to the Indy 500 car race. It is a riveting debut from an important new voice (From the Publisher).”

By Joseph Heller

This deeply moving novel is the story of David – yes, King David – but as you’ve never seen him before, you already know David as the legendary warrior king of Israel, husband of Bathsheba, and father of Solomon; now meet David as he really was: the cocky Jewish kid, the plagiarized poet, and the Jewish father.

By Joshilyn Jackson

Arlene Fleet finds she still has not escaped her hometown when an old classmate turns up asking questions about her past.

By Helene Wecker
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

Chava, a golem brought to life by a disgraced rabbi, and Ahmad, a jinni made of fire, form an unlikely friendship on the streets of New York until a fateful choice changes everything.

By Neil Gaiman
Recommended By Stacey Mencher, Technology and Applications Manager

The world is going to end next Saturday, but there are a few problems--the Antichrist has been misplaced, the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles, and the representatives from heaven and hell decide that they like the human race.

By Robert Ferrigno
Series Assassin Trilogy
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian

“Set in a future American divided into two major regions, Edgar-finalist Ferrigno’s final entry in his Assassin trilogy nicely ties up the wildly diverse plot lines that have motivated his many characters (Publishers Weekly).”

By Francine Rivers
Series Marta's Legacy
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

“The first in an epic two-book saga, this sweeping story explores the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters over several generations… Each woman is forced to confront her faulty but well-meaning desire to help her daughter find her God-given place in the world (From the Publisher).”

By Helene Wecker

Pretending to be human, magical beings Chava, a golem, and Ahmad, a jinni, find their lives intertwined as they try to make sense of the world around them and the people whose lives they have unwittingly affected.

By Fern Michaels
Series Sisterhood
Recommended By Marie McLaughlin, Head of Circulation

The vigilantes of the Sisterhood reorganize as a secret group called the CIC and dedicated to serving their friend, and the president of the United States, Martine Connor.

By Dan Walsh
Recommended By Marie McLaughlin, Head of Circulation

“A reluctant war hero returns home and encounters a new chance at love….Dan Walsh does not disappoint in this tender story of family ties and the healing of a broken heart (From the Publisher).”  

By Frank Peretti

Two stranded couples find shelter in an inn but find themselves trapped in a game with rules setting up a life-or-death situation.

By Eishes Chayil
Recommended By Evelyn Hershkowitz, Readers' Services Librarian

“After remembering the cause of her best friend Devory’s suicide at age nine, Gittel is determined to raise awareness of sexual abuse in her Borough Park, New York, community, despite the rules of Chassidim that require her to be silent (From the Publisher).”

By Anouk Markovits

Spanning four generations - from pre-World War II Transylvania to contemporary New York - a religion-themed tale shows what happens when unwavering love and unyielding law clash, in a novel set inside the most insular Hasidic sect, the Satmar.

By Carol Matas

When German soldiers arrive in Zloczow during World War II, a young Jewish girl must decide whether or not to conceal her identity and work for a Nazi in Germany in order to survive.