ADULT FICTION
” Bad Actors” by Mick Herron — “An outstanding mix of arch humor, superb characterizations, and trenchant political observations.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Book Lovers” by Emily Henry — “[Book Lovers] is multilayered and the characters’ familial challenges are complex. By both playing to and overtly subverting romance tropes and archetypes like the high-powered big city woman who neglects her family and the life-affirming power of small-town life, this novel delivers an insightful comedic meditation on love, family and going your own way.”—NPR
“Five Tuesdays in Winter” by Lily King — “Lily King isn’t afraid of big emotional subjects: desire and grief, longing and love, growth and self-acceptance. But she eschews high drama for the immersive quiet of the everyday… Here we inhabit the worlds of authors and mothers, children and friends; we experience their lives in clear, graceful prose that swells with generous possibility. This is a book for writers and lovers, a book about storytelling itself, a book for all of us.”—Washington Post
“Girl in Ice” by Erica Ferencik — “Girl in Ice is a lot of things: a psychological suspense novel, a linguistic thriller and a scientific puzzle . . . Ferencik describes the Arctic topography with a poet’s awe, and some of her set-pieces—the procession of a huge herd of caribou, an Arctic dive gone badly awry—are breathtaking… A singular sensation.” —Wall Street Journal
“Harsh Times” by Mario Vargas Llosa — “[A] vivid story centered on the U.S.-backed 1954 coup in Guatemala . . . History here gets a compelling human face through an artist’s dramatic brilliance.” ―Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
“Honor” by Thrity Umrigar — “Umrigar excels in her juxtaposition of the contrasts between the tech hub image of contemporary India and the deep religious divisions that continue to wrack rural regions . . . This is a thought-provoking portrait of an India that ‘felt inexpressibly large—as well as small and provincial enough to choke.’” —Booklist
“Horse” by Geraldine Brooks — “With exceptional characterizations, Pulitzer Prize–winner Brooks tells an emotionally impactful tale . . . [The] settings are pitch-perfect, and the story brings to life the important roles filled by Black horsemen in America’s past. Brooks also showcases the magnificent beauty and competitive spirit of Lexington himself.” — Booklist (starred review)
“Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus — “In Garmus’s debut novel, a frustrated chemist finds herself at the helm of a cooking show that sparks a revolution. Welcome to the 1960s, where a woman’s arsenal of tools was often limited to the kitchen—and where Elizabeth Zott is hellbent on overturning the status quo one meal at a time.” —New York Times
“Minus Me” by Mameve Medwed — “Medwed’s lovely novel of marriage, motherhood, love and loss is so…A timely reminder that in the worst of times, we sometimes rediscover the very best of ourselves.”
—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of A Spark of Light
“Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt — “Remarkably Bright Creatures [is] an ultimately feel-good but deceptively sensitive debut about what it feels like to have love taken from you, only to find it again in the most unexpected places. . . . Memorable and tender.” — Washington Post
“Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John Mandel — “A time-travel puzzle… Mandel’s prose is beautiful but unfussy; some chapters are compressed into a few poetic lines. The story moves quickly… In the end, the novel’s interlocking plot resolves beautifully, making for a humane and moving time-travel story, as well as a meditation on loneliness and love.” —BookPage, starred
“Seven Steeples” by Sara Baume — “Seven Steeples is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read….Baume’s descriptions of landscape are lovelier than I can express; you simply have to read them yourself.” — New York Times Book Review
“Sparring Partners” by John Grisham — “Jake Brigance is called upon to help his old friend, disgraced former attorney Mack Stafford, make his return; young death row inmate Cody Wallace has one final request just several hours before execution; two young attorney brothers, Kirk and Rusty Malloy, look to Diantha Bradshaw to help save their once prosperous firm which they inherited from their father.” — Baker & Taylor
“Suspects” by Danielle Steel — “Theodora Morgan, fashion royalty and one of the most successful businesswomen in the world, forms an instant connection with a man who, unbeknownst to her, is a CIA agent sent to protect her from the very same people involved in the kidnapping of her husband and son, which ended in tragedy.” — Baker & Taylor
“Take My Hand” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez — “Perhaps the most notable of this book’s gifts are its deft packaging of history and its quiet nod—in the juxtaposition of timelines—to the reproductive oppression haunting Black women to this day. Like the most effective education, though, it feels that the information is streaming through the heart, awakening it and inspiring it to action.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon” by Linda MacKillop –“[A] touching debut. . . . MacKillop takes the pain of aging and regret and infuses it with soul and a touch of humor. This auspicious first outing tugs at the heartstrings.” ― Publishers Weekly
“The Island” by Adrian McKinty — “One of this summer’s best standalone thrillers.” ―The Boston Globe
“The Lioness” by Chris Bohjalian — “[A] devastatingly cunning suspense novel… Bohjalian does a superb job of judiciously rolling out information of how past transgressions may have led to the heart-stopping episodes of chaos and carnage as the shocking, twist-filled plot builds up to the revelation of ‘the real reasons for the safari nightmare.’ This brilliant whydunit is not to be missed.” —Publishers Weekly, starred
“The Lunar Housewife” by Caroline Woods — “An elegant novel of political and cultural suspense. . . the Cold War intrigue it conjures is gripping, and Louise’s dilemmas and adventures will hold sympathetic readers in thrall.”
–The Wall Street Journal
“The Murder of Mr. Wickham” by Claudia Gray — “Had Jane Austen sat down to write a country house murder mystery, this is exactly the book she would have written. Devotees of Austen’s timeless novels will get the greatest possible pleasure from this wonderful book. Immense fun and beautifully observed. Delicious!” —Alexander McCall Smith
“The Paris Apartment” by Lucy Foley — “But it’s not only the intelligent and riveting storyline or the carefully conceived and fully developed characters that elevates this book far above mundane thrillers. Foley’s precise prose rings with echoes of her British background and the elegance of her French setting. … With confidence and cunning, Foley provides pleasures that chill as they captivate.” — Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
“The Paris Bookseller” by Karri Maher — “Kerri Maher’s The Paris Bookseller is a worthy homage to Sylvia Beach and a love letter to all bookstores, libraries, and the passionate and committed women who run them.” —New York Journal of Books
“The Sweetness of Water” by Nathan Harris — “Deeply moving… Harris’s ambitious debut explores the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation in rural Georgia… Harris peoples the small community with well-developed characters… [He] writes in intelligent, down-to-earth prose and shows a keen understanding of his characters.”―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Twilight World” by Werner Herzog — “From the true story of a WWII soldier who kept up the fight until 1974, legendary filmmaker Herzog distills a brooding, poetic novella . . . Herzog, ever in pursuit of deeper truths, sees in Onoda’s predicament an all-too-ordinary tendency to subordinate facts to master narratives. —Booklist
“The Viscount Who Loved Me” by Julia Quinn — “Quinn is . . . a romance master. [She] has created a family so likable and attractive, a community so vibrant and engaging, that we want to crawl into the pages and know them.” — NPR Books
ADULT MYSTERY
“Dream Town” by David Baldacci — “Baldacci paints a vivid picture of the not-so-distant era . . . The 1950s weren’t the fabled good old days, but they’re fodder for gritty crime stories of high ideals and lowlifes, of longing and disappointment, and all the trouble a PI can handle. Well-done crime fiction. Baldacci nails the noir.”―Kirkus, Starred Review
“The Investigator” by John Sandford — “The Investigator is a procedural action thriller in which the technical sleuthing only heightens the tension. Letty is such a capable character, and Mr. Sandford such a fine tactician, it would seem incomprehensible and even cruel to deny readers a swift follow-up.”–Wall Street Journal
ADULT BIOGRAPHY
“Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses” by Sarah Fay — “A] fiery manifesto of a memoir.” — New York Times Book Review
“His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice” by Robert Samuels — “Writing with cogency and compassion, the authors free Floyd from the realm of iconography, restoring his humanity . . . A brilliant biography, history book, and searing indictment of this country’s ongoing failure to eradicate systemic racism.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Lost & Found: A Memoir” by Kathryn Schulz — “Deeply felt. More than a reflection on the loss of a parent. It is about the idea of loss in general and the passage of time. Fresh and evocative . . . a poignant, loving, wise, and comforting meditation on grief from both a personal and collective perspective.” —Booklist (starred review)
ADULT NON-FICTION
“Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II” by Alex Kershaw — “Against All Odds achieves a pitch-perfect balance between a ground view of combat and the seismic forces that drew men like [Maurice] Britt and [Audie] Murphy to the killing grounds of Europe. Its prose is sharp, efficient and entertaining, its characters thoroughly human.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connections & the Language of Human Experience” by Brene Brown — “…Brown takes us on a journey through eighty-seven of the emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. As she maps the necessary skills and an actionable framework for meaningful connection, she gives us the language and tools to access a universe of new choices and second chances—a universe where we can share and steward the stories of our bravest and most heartbreaking moments with one another in a way that builds connection.” — Random House, Inc.
“Embrace Fearlessly: The Burning World: Essays” by Barry Holstun Lopez — “Altogether, the pieces are honest and searching, engaging readers in the largest of questions: How do we live in the world? How do we see it? How do we protect it? . . . A sterling valediction. Lopez’s many followers will treasure this book.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We’re Going” by Vaclav Smil — “You can agree or disagree with Smil—accept or doubt his ‘just the facts’ posture—but you probably shouldn’t ignore him. . . In Smil’s provocative but perceptive view, unrealistic notions about carbon reduction are partly, and ironically, attributable to the very productivity that societies achieved by substituting machine work, powered by fossil fuels, for draft animals and human laborers.”—The Washington Post
“How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling From the Moth” by Meg Bowles — “Inspiring . . . This book . . . provides everything readers need to share their own personal narratives.”—Booklist
“Lakes: Their Birth, Life, and Death” by John Richard Saylor — “Saylor delivers science in a layperson’s language to detail their forms, how they’re created, how they’re miraculously sustained, and, yes, how they die. Revelations abound.”—Booklist
“Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War” by Deborah Cohen — “In her engrossing account of this era and the people who did more than simply report facts, Cohen successfully interweaves international events with personal histories, creating a narrative that is well-crafted and comprehensively researched. . . . The resulting history is both unique and memorable. —Library Journal (starred review)
“Makhno: Ukrainian Freedom Fighter” by Philippe Thirault — “In early 20th century Ukraine, anarchist Nestor Makhno, the son of peasants, was among the most heroic and colorful figures of the Russian Revolution, encouraging his people to find and embrace social and economic self-determination. This is his story, of a military strategist who tirelessly defied both the Bolsheviks and the Germans to protect his homeland.” — Amazon.com
“On Task: How Our Brains Get Things Done” by David Badre –“On Task is a stimulating, enjoyable read for anyone interested in brain function, particularly if you want to understand how researchers are attempting to unravel some of the biggest mysteries of them all: how humans think, how they are successful when confronted with new challenges and how prefrontal cortex might contribute to that success.”—Masud Husain, Brain
“River of the Gods” by Candace Millard — “Millard’s research and very readable storytelling are admirable. . . Ultimately, the identity of the person who first discovered the source of the White Nile may be a trivial matter. Ms. Millard conscientiously investigates the issue, of course, but River of the Gods is compelling because she does justice to the psyches and behavior of Burton and Speke—keenly flawed but enthralling, sometimes marvelous people.” — Wall Street Journal
“Sidelined: How Women Manage & Mismanage Their Health” by Susan Salenger — “A well-written and empowering work about the challenges facing female patients.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Somewhere We are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival and New Beginnings” edited by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guinansaca — “Wide-ranging yet consistently affecting, these pieces offer a crucial and inspired survey of the immigrant experience in America.” — Publishers Weekly
“The Complete Guide to Food Allergies in Adults and Children” by Scott H. Sicherer — “An outstanding, comprehensive, easily understandable, and up-to-date resource for people with food allergies, as well as their parents and caregivers.” — Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, MD, PhD, New York University Grossman School of Medicine
“The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at his Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened” by Bill McKibben — “Adept at factual storytelling and connecting the dots, earnest, caring, and funny, McKibben dovetails personal reckonings with an astute elucidation of our social justice and environmental crises, arguing wisely that facing the truth about our past is the only way forward to a more just and sustainable future.” ―Booklist, starred review
“The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time: The Arctic Mission to the Epicenter of Climate Change” by Markus Rex — “This marvelous book brings us aboard a unique 21st-century Arctic expedition—science-driven, multi-national, unprecedented—as it sails into the epicenter of the worsening climate crisis. For anyone concerned about global warming—and that should be all of us —this book is essential reading. A contemporary classic!”
—Ken McGoogan, author of Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, The Arctic Hero Time Forgot and Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage
“The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World” by Oliver Milman — “In this well-researched, engagingly written, and refreshingly measured book, Oliver Milman reveals the profound and complex implications of insect decline. A necessary and timely wake-up call full of fascinating and often unexpected detail.” ― Hugh Raffles, author of Insectopedia
“The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of the World” by Riley Black — “A real-life, natural history page-turning drama that is necessary reading for almost anyone interested in the history of life.” ―Library Journal, starred review
“The Savory Baker: 150 Creative Recipes, From Classic to Modern” by America’s Test Kitchen — “Baking is about a lot more than just desserts. This unique collection, one of the few to focus solely on the savory side of baking, explores a multitude of flavor possibilities. Get inspired by creative twists like gochujang-filled puff pastry pinwheels or feta-studded dill-zucchini bread. And sample traditional baked goods from around the world, from Chinese lop cheung bao to Brazilian pão de quejo.” — Annotation
“The Woodchuck Travels through the Garden Seasons” by Ron Krupp — “This seasoned Vermont gardener ….groups topics and plants through the seasons, interspersed with his brand of humor and art and quotes he has found relevant and inspiring. If you’re a gardener in the Green Mountain State, or similar climate, you’re bound to pick up some tips or different views on diverse topics from composting to climate change, from pesticides to poetry to publications to pollinators.” — Dr. Leonard Payne Perry – Horticulture Professor Emeritus, University of Vermont
“Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity” by Devon Price — “Price’s accessible and compassionate writing shines, and readers will feel encouraged to embrace a new understanding of themselves. Its potential to help masked autistic adults, especially those from systemically marginalized backgrounds, makes this book essential for most collections.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Vermont Heritage: Essays on the Green Mountain History, 1770-1920” by H. Nicholas Muller III and J. Kevin Graffagnino — “It includes essays on Vermont historiography, Ethan and Ira Allen, early Vermont printing, eighteenth-century Vermont politics, the War of 1812, Vermont’s reaction to the 1837–38 Patriote Rebellion, and aspects of Victorian Vermont. The authors offer reminiscences and reflections on their lengthy Vermont careers in a joint Introduction.” — Vermont Research Books
“Write for Your Life” by Anne Quindlen — The #1 New York Times best-selling novelist and author of A Short Guide to a Happy Life, using examples past, present and future, shows how writing connects us, to ourselves and those we cherish—and issues a clarion call to pick up the pen, and find yourself.” — Atlas Publishing
“You Don’t Know Us Negroes: And Other Essays” by Zora Neale Hurston — “This volume enables readers both steeped in and new to Hurston to discover her acerbic wit, her crisp prose, and the breadth of her artistic ability and interests …. an invaluable nonfiction companion to the collection of Hurston’s short stories.” — Booklist
PARENTING
“How to Raise an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi — “A readable and approachable guide . . . Because of its scope, nearly all readers will come away from Kendi’s message more aware and having found a point of resonance in their own lives. Best-selling Kendi is an antiracism trailblazer and parents, educators, and everyone else who cares for children will seek his guidance.”—Booklist (starred review)
PICTURE BOOK
“You’re in Good Paws” by Maureen Fergus
JUVENILE GRAPHIC NOVELS
“Whales: Diving Into the Unknown” by Casey Zakroff — “Zip, an enthusiastic beaked whale, is eager to share everything he can about whale pods by broadcasting his very own undersea podcast! He will travel across the global ocean interviewing a diverse assortment of whales and dolphins about their amazing behaviors and habitats, as well as their interactions with the human world. Can this one small whale tell the story of the whole ocean and the interconnectivity that affects us all?” — Baker & Taylor
YA FICTION
“We Contain Multitudes” by Sarah Henstra — “This is an absolutely extraordinary work of fiction that proves the epistolary novel is an art form. Kurl and Jo are characters to die for, emotionally compelling and empathetic. Their quotidian lives are riveting and their story unforgettable…not to be missed.”―Booklist, starred review
