Noah Hawley

For decades, Judge Margot Burr-Nadir has worked tirelessly, case by case, to administer justice from the federal bench of the Eastern District of the United States. Her position already seems like the highest possible honor. So she is surprised when a call comes from the President of the United States inviting her to accept his nomination to the Supreme Court—not least because in choosing her, in an unprecedented attempt to heal a divided nation, the President has reached across party lines.

For Margot, this should be among the brightest spots of an already charmed existence. But the call comes on a family trip to visit their oldest daughter, Story, who has, without warning, vanished as if spirited away in the middle of the night by forces unseen. Margot soon finds herself thrust onto the national stage in the middle of every parent’s worst nightmare.

The desperate search for Story’s whereabouts soon intersects with the mission of teenagers Simon Oliver, Louise Conklin, and a young man known only as the Prophet. Together, they have escaped from the Float Anxiety Abatement Center in Chicago on the trail of man known as The Wizard: an unimaginably wealthy, almost mythical figure of unspeakable evil who has for years been taking whatever he wants without reaping the consequences. Stopping him, this band of young people hopes to accomplish what their elders can’t or won’t do: fix a broken world.

Noah Hawley’s new novel is an adventure that finds unquenchable lights in dark corners. Unforgettably vivid characters and a plot as fast and bright as pop cinema blend in a Vonnegutian story that is as timeless as a Grimm’s fairy tale. It is a leap into the idiosyncratic pulse of the American heart, written with the bravado, literary power, and feverish foresight that have made Hawley one of our most essential writers.

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Indiana

What does it take to change the world? The "epic adventure" (Booklist) of a band of unlikely heroes on a quest to save one innocent life who may end up saving us all.

For decades, Judge Margot Burr-Nadir has worked tirelessly, case by case, to administer justice from the federal bench of the Eastern District of the United States. Her position already seems like the highest possible honor. So she is surprised when a call comes from the President of the United States inviting her to accept his nomination to the Supreme Court--not least because in choosing her, in an unprecedented attempt to heal a divided nation, the President has reached across party lines.

For Margot, this should be among the brightest spots of an already charmed existence. But the call comes on a family trip to visit their oldest daughter, Story, who has, without warning, vanished as if spirited away in the middle of the night by forces unseen. Margot soon finds herself thrust onto the national stage in the middle of every parent's worst nightmare.

The desperate search for Story's whereabouts soon intersects with the mission of teenagers Simon Oliver, Louise Conklin, and a young man known only as the Prophet. Together, they have escaped from the Float Anxiety Abatement Center in Chicago on the trail of man known as The Wizard: an unimaginably wealthy, almost mythical figure of unspeakable evil who has for years been taking whatever he wants without reaping the consequences. Stopping him, this band of young people hopes to accomplish what their elders can't or won't do: fix a broken world.

Noah Hawley's new novel is an adventure that finds unquenchable lights in dark corners. Unforgettably vivid characters and a plot as fast and bright as pop cinema blend in a Vonnegutian story that is as timeless as a Grimm's fairy tale. It is a leap into the idiosyncratic pulse of the American heart, written with the bravado, literary power, and feverish foresight that have made Hawley one of our most essential writers.

Anthem

46214a15-9d5b-493e-9bc6-df748bf925b8-1

New York

How Women Unlock Their Collective Power

CNN news anchor Brooke Baldwin explores the phenomenon of women "huddling"--in politics, Hollywood, activism, the arts, sports, and everyday friendships--to make changes, solve problems, and to inspire, amplify, and support one another. What happens when women stop "leaning in" and start leaning on each other instead? After reporting on the 2017 Women's March, CNN news anchor Brooke Baldwin set out on a journey across America to investigate the power of the "huddle" -- a space (in the workplace and beyond) where women lean on each other for support, friendship, empowerment, and the strength to enact meaningful change. Beyond the headline-making huddles of recent years such as the #MeToo movement, the Times Up initiative, and the 2018 midterm elections when women won a historic number of seats across the country, Baldwin tells the stories of women of all ages, races, religions and socio-economic backgrounds who are huddling in all segments of society. A mix of journalism and personal narrative, Huddle explores the benefits of all-girls learning environments, such as Karlie Kloss's Kode with Klossy and Reese Witherspoon's Filmmaker Lab for Girls in which young women are given the freedom to make mistakes and find their confidence. The book also looks at the tactics employed by huddles of women who work in male-dominated industries including a group of Democratic Congresswomen, a huddle of African American judges in Harris County, Texas, and an all-female writers room in Hollywood. Baldwin speaks to trusted pioneers such as Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright as well as contemporary trailblazers like Stacey Abrams and Ava DuVernay. Baldwin shines a light on professionals such as Chef Dominique Crenn and sports agent Lindsay Colas who use their success to amplify other women in their fields. Baldwin also explores huddles dedicated to making seismic change, including indigenous women saving the planet, mothers fighting for sensible gun laws, America's favorite female athletes (Megan Rapinoe, Hilary Knight, and Sue Bird to name a few) agitating for equal pay, and female teachers rallying to improve their working conditions. By examining female friendships as well as the bond between women who practice self-care together, Baldwin reveals how women are becoming more intentional about the healing power of friendship and solidarity in their personal spheres as well. Along the way, Baldwin takes readers on her own personal journey of growing up in the South and climbing the ladder in a male-dominated industry during a nationwide "huddle drought." Her story is one of learning to lean on female friends and colleagues and eventually transforming from a journalist to a champion for women. She also shares her personal story of coronavirus and how it underscored for her the importance of connection.

Huddle

7976145e-1751-431b-8096-502b9190679f-1

#goodreads #bookish #bookclub #thriller #adventure #bestbooks #fiction #hardcover 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Florida

Selected by NPR's Maureen Corrigan as her favorite mystery of 2013 and one of the top ten mysteries of the year by The Wall Street Journal's Tom Nolan, S.J. Gazan's debut novel The Dinosaur Feather is a classic of Scandinavian noir. With keenly observed and deeply flawed characters, this scintillating thriller uniquely employs one of the most controversial and fascinating areas of contemporary dinosaur and avian research in its diabolical twists. The Dinosaur Feather has been published in more than a dozen countries and won the Danish Crime Novel of the Decade Award. The Financial Times called it "a top-flight thriller--smart and outrageously entertaining. Biology postgraduate, PhD hopeful, and single mom Anna Bella Nor is just two weeks away from defending her thesis on the saurian origin of birds when her academic supervisor, the highly respected yet widely despised Dr. Lars Helland, is found dead in his office chair at the University of Copenhagen. The police discover a copy of Anna's thesis in the dead man's bloody lap. When the autopsy suggests that Helland was murdered in a fiendishly ingenious way, brilliant but tormented young Police Superintendent Soren Marhauge begins the daunting task of unraveling the knotted skeins of interpersonal and intellectual intrigue among the scientists at the university. Everyone involved with the investigation--from Anna Bella Nor to Helland's numerous rivals to Marhauge's own ex-wife, who is pregnant with her current husband's child--has something to hide, complicating the investigation and presenting the detective with the greatest professional and personal challenge of his career.

The Dinosaur Feather 

761a7f19-6dec-4aca-8ca0-c43a9a6defe3

#hardcover #love #romance #life #adventure #bookclub

The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher❤️

Becky Thatcher wants to set the record straight. She was never the weeping ninny Mark Twain made her out to be in his famous novel. She knew Samuel Clemens before he was "Mark Twain," when he was a wide-eyed dreamer who never could get his facts straight. Yes, she was Tom's childhood sweetheart, but the true story of their love, and the dark secret that tore it apart, never made it into Twain's novel.

Now married to Tom's cousin Sid Hopkins, Becky has children of her own to protect while the men of Missouri are off fighting their "un-Civil" War. But when tragedy strikes at home, Becky embarks on a phenomenal quest to find her husband and save her family---a life journey that takes her from the Mississippi River's steamboats to Ozark rebel camps, from Nevada's silver mines to the gilded streets of San Francisco.

Time and again, stubborn but levelheaded Becky must reconcile her independent spirit and thirst for adventure with the era's narrow notions of marriage and motherhood. As she seeks to find a compromise between fulfillment and security, she also grapples with ghosts of her past. Can she forgive herself, or be forgiven, for the lies she's told to the men she's loved? Will she ever forget the maddening, sweet-talking, irresponsible Tom Sawyer, the boy who stole her heart as a little girl? And when she is old, and Huck and Tom and Twain only memories, whose shadow will still lie beside her?

Becky

5378284c-877e-4c56-ab39-fa0b736efc79-1

Nancy Thayer

Texas

A Novel

A woman's second act on the beautiful island of Nantucket delivers much more than she expected in this hopeful novel by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer.

Heather Willette has a good life in Concord, Massachusetts-complete with a husband who runs his own business and a son to take up his mantle one day. But now that her marriage has fizzled out and Ross, her only child, is graduating from college and getting serious with his girlfriend, Heather wonders if that life is the one, she really wants. Ready to seek out her own happiness and discover herself again, Heather decides to leave her husband and rent a cottage on Nantucket. And her plan is going perfectly-until Ross announces he's moving to Nantucket to work at his girlfriend's family's construction business instead of going back home to work with his own father, like he'd promised. Worst of all for Heather, this means having to get along with her.

Kailee Essex is thrilled that Ross is willing to move to her hometown. She has big hopes for their happily ever after, especially now that her parents are finally showing interest in her career. She's less thrilled, however, about his mother living nearby. Kailee has clashed with Heather since the day they met. But anything is possible in the summer sun and sea breezes of Nantucket-even reconciliation. And when change comes sooner than either Heather or Kailee expect, they must learn to overcome their differences to fight for the future they want.

With All the Days of Summer, beloved storyteller Nancy Thayer delivers a moving novel that explores the complexity of family, and the unexpected ways fate can guide you forward.

All the Days of Summer

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#hardcover #fiction #contemporary #freedom 

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Tennessee

Freedom

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Arizona

#hardcover #ya #historical #bookclub #botm #pioneer #fiction #youngadult #love #america


Washington

Spanning several decades in seventeenth century Great Britain and America, this “impressive piece of work, rich in historical detail and human insight” (The Sunday Times) is an unforgettable love story exploring the power of nature versus man and man versus woman. I am an engineer and a measured man of the world. I prefer to weigh everything in the balance, to calculate and to plan. Yet my own heart is going faster than I can now count. In 1649, Jan Brunt arrives in Great Britain from the Netherlands to work on draining and developing an expanse of marshy wetlands known as the Great Level. It is here in this wild country that he meets Eliza, a local woman whose love overturns his ordered vision. Determined to help her strive beyond her situation, Jan is heedless of her devotion to her home and way of life. When she uses the education Jan has given her to sabotage his work, Eliza is brutally punished, and Jan flees to the New World. In the American colonies, profiteers on Manatus Eyland are hungry for viable land to develop, and Jan’s skills as an engineer are highly prized. His prosperous new life is rattled, however, on a spring morning when a boy delivers a note that prompts him to remember the Great Level, and confront all that was lost there. Eliza has made it to the New World and is once again using the education Jan gave her to bend the landscape—this time to find her own place of freedom. A “story of passion, possession, and a painful education in love” (Sarah Dunant, author of In the Name of the Family), Call Upon the Water is an adventure, an unusual and intelligent love story, and a powerful comment on the relationship between humans and the environment. “Richly involving…rousing and heroic” (The Guardian), this unforgettable historical novel is perfect for fans of Hilary Mantel, Geraldine Brooks, and Philippa Gregory. *Note: This book was published in the UK under the title The Great Level.

Call upon the Water

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#hardcover #love #memoir #grief #cancer #mourning #nonfiction #marriage #bookclub #healing




A Memoir

An inspiring memoir of life, love, loss, and new beginnings by the widower of bestselling children's author and filmmaker Amy Krouse Rosenthal, whose last of act of love before her death was setting the stage for her husband's life without her in a column in the New York Times. On March 3, 2017, Amy Krouse Rosenthal penned an op-ed piece for the New York Times' "Modern Love" column --"You May Want to Marry My Husband." It appeared ten days before her death from ovarian cancer. A heartbreaking, wry, brutally honest, and creative play on a personal ad--in which a dying wife encouraged her husband to go on and find happiness after her demise--the column quickly went viral, reaching more than five million people worldwide. In My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me, Jason describes what came next: his commitment to respecting Amy's wish, even as he struggled with her loss. Surveying his life before, with, and after Amy, Jason ruminates on love, the pain of watching a loved one suffer, and what it means to heal--how he and their three children, despite their profound sorrow, went on. Jason's emotional journey offers insights on dying and death and the excruciating pain of losing a soulmate, and illuminates the lessons he learned. As he reflects on Amy's gift to him--a fresh start to fill his empty space with a new story--Jason describes how he continues to honor Amy's life and her last wish, and how he seeks to appreciate every day and live in the moment while trying to help others coping with loss. My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me is the poignant, unreserved, and inspiring story of a great love, the aftermath of a marriage ended too soon, and how a surviving partner eventually found a new perspective on life's joys in the wake of tremendous loss.

My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me

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Judy Blume

Connecticut

A novel inspired by a series of passenger airplane crashes that occurred in 1951 and 1952 New Jersey reimagines the impact of the tragedies on three generations of families, friends and strangers. Reading-group guide available. By the author ofSummer Sisters .

In the Unlikely Event

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Abigail Dean

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A stunning debut.” —Washington Post “Haunting [and] powerful.” —The New York Times “A modern-day classic.” —Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Collector “Fantastic, I loved it.” —Paula Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train She thought she had escaped her past. But there are some things you can’t outrun. Lex Gracie doesn't want to think about her family. She doesn't want to think about growing up in her parents' House of Horrors. And she doesn't want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It's been easy enough to avoid her parents--her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can't run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the home into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings--and with the childhood they shared. What begins as a propulsive tale of escape and survival becomes a gripping psychological family story about the shifting alliances and betrayals of sibling relationships--about the secrets our siblings keep, from themselves and each other. Who have each of these siblings become? How do their memories defy or galvanize Lex's own? As Lex pins each sibling down to agree to her family's final act, she discovers how potent the spell of their shared family mythology is, and who among them remains in its thrall and who has truly broken free. For readers of Room and Sharp Objects, an absorbing and psychologically immersive novel about a young girl who escapes captivity–but not the secrets that shadow the rest of her life.

Girl A

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#hardcover #bookclub #Africa #love #compassion #autobiography #stories #colonialism #struggle #courage

A Daughter's Quest

"Praised as ""a shining example of what autobiography can be: harrowing, illuminating and thoughtful"" (USA Today), Aminatta Forna's intensely personal history is a passionate and vivid account of an idyllic childhood that became the stuff of nightmare. As a child she witnessed the upheavals of postcolonial Africa, danger, flight, the bitterness of exile in Britain, and the terrible consequences of her dissident father's stand against tyranny. Mohamed Forna was a man of unimpeachable integrity and enchanting charisma. As Sierra Leone faced its future as a fledgling democracy, he was a new star in the political firmament, a man who had been one of the first black students to come to Britain after the war. He stole the heart of Aminatta's mother, to the dismay of her Presbyterian parents, and returned with her to Sierra Leone. But as Aminatta Forna shows with compelling clarity, the old Africa was torn apart by new ways of Western parliamentary democracy, which gave birth only to dictatorships and corruption of hitherto undreamed-of magnitude. It was not long before Mohamed Forna languished in jail as a prisoner of conscience, and worse was to follow. Aminatta's search for the truth that shaped both her childhood and the nation's destiny began among the country's elite and took her into the heart of rebel territory. Determined to break the silence surrounding her father's fate, she ultimately uncovered a conspiracy that penetrated the highest reaches of government and forced the nation's politicians and judiciary to confront their guilt. The Devil That Danced on the Water is a book of pain and anger and sorrow, written with tremendous dignity and beautiful precision: a remarkable, and important story of Africa."

The Devil That Danced on the Water

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A longtime Nantucket resident is trying to make the best of a lonely summer. Her spirited granddaughter is learning what she wants out of life. Unforgettable surprises await them both in this magical, multigenerational novel from New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer. "Readers come to Nancy Thayer novels for the idyllic Nantucket beaches and lifestyle, but they stay for the characters."--New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe Eleanor Sunderland loves living on Nantucket, in a gorgeous cliffside home that has been in her family for decades. Yet this year she can't help but feel a bit isolated, even as the island begins to come alive with summer tourists and travelers. Her best friend has skipped town on a last-minute cruise, leaving Eleanor feeling lonely and nostalgic about her family's weekend trips to the island, made less frequently in the years since her husband's passing. Now, her money-driven children contact her mostly to complain and to beg her to sell her beloved home for a steep payout. Hoping to kick the season off on a good note, Eleanor decides her seventieth birthday may be the perfect occasion for a much-needed reunion. Fresh off the heels of her college graduation, Eleanor's dear granddaughter, Ari, has just ended an engagement that felt less like true love and more like a chore. She longs for a change of scenery and to venture far from her parents' snobbish expectations. Taking advantage of her newfound freedom, she heads to Nantucket to clear her head before graduate school, moving in with her grandmother and taking a job at the local beach camp. As she watches Eleanor begin to form a bond with an old acquaintance, Ari herself becomes completely smitten with a friend's charming older brother. But just as grandmother and granddaughter fall into a carefree routine, a few shocking discoveries throw them off course, and their ideas of the future seem suddenly uncertain. Eleanor and Ari make exciting connections, old and new, over the course of an unpredictable, life-changing few months, and learn to lean on each other through every new challenge they face in life and love, in this tale filled with Nancy Thayer's signature Nantucket magic.

Family Reunion

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"First published in Great Britain by Bloomsbury Circus, August 2020"--Title page verso.

Here Is the Beehive

a2793468-863e-4da0-8736-67e0eb833ca5-1

Erika Carter

Pennsylvania

Lucky You

e9bb55ae-1b8b-4b79-8864-dcc3cc8a758d-1

#thomasKinkade #bestselling-author #Christmas #CapeLight #bookclubedition #bookclub

Maryland

A Cape light novel

The New York Timesbestselling authors take a journey into the Cape Light of Christmas past. As the citizens of Cape Light deck the halls for a Christmas to remember, the curmudgeonly Lillian Warwick has been confined to her bed with pneumonia. Cared for by her daughters, Emily and Jessica, she lets her thoughts drift back to the holiday season of 1955, to the magical time when she first met Oliver Warwick-the dashing man who would become her husband. Back then, Lillian was beautiful, spirited, and idealistic, and Oliver was a wonderful man who took a real joy in living. As she recounts those romantic early days to her daughters and faces the mistakes she's made, she is reminded of a time when she had much to be grateful for-and of all the special gifts Christmas can bring. And, to cap off this special, life-altering holiday season, there just might be a winter wedding on the horizon...

A Christmas to Remember

739bc23f-9759-425a-a33e-d8ac93c5eb5c-1

Illinois

Ann Pearlman

Minnesota

This riveting debut novel follows the rich and complicated friendships among thirteen women who meet for a cookie exchange every year on the first Monday of December. Everyone has to bring a dish, a bottle of wine, and their stories. This year, the stories are especially important.

The Christmas Cookie Club

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#fiction #hardcover #contemporary #family #bookclub #novel #adult 

Clock Dance

Jonathan Franzen

Louisiana

Sue Monk Kidd

The #1 New York Times bestseller of hope, daring, and the quest for freedom taken on by two unforgettable American women, from the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees. “A remarkable novel that heightened my sense of what it meant to be a woman – slave or free . . a conversation changer.” – Oprah Winfrey, O, The Oprah Magazine “Powerful…furthers our essential understanding of what has happened among us as Americans – and why it still matters.” –The Washington Post Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection. Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love. As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements. Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better. This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

The Invention of Wings

2539dea0-18a2-49b8-bf80-a7ddbcbab6de-1

Karen Kingsbury

Small red dot at top of book, otherwise in brand new reading condition!

Vowing to meet eleven years after sealing letters they wrote to each other in an old metal box, best friends Ellie and Nolan both have reservations about seeing each other again as loneliness, personal tragedies, and a lack of faith haunt both of them.

The Chance

0763ffba-219e-43de-9770-e48ca397485e-1

Ohio

The Female Persuasion 

Ayana Mathis

Colorado

Traces the story of Great Migration-era mother Hattie Shepherd, who in spite of poverty and a dysfunctional husband uses love and Southern remedies to raise nine children and prepare them for the realities of a harsh world. A first novel.

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Save this search

Noah Hawley

Anthem

Brooke Baldwin

Huddle

S. J. Gazan; Charlotte Barslund (Translator)

The Dinosaur Feather

Lenore Hart

Becky

Nancy Thayer

All the Days of Summer

Jonathan Franzen

Freedom

Jonathan Franzen

Freedom

Stella Tillyard

Call upon the Water

Jason B. Rosenthal

My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me

Judy Blume

In the Unlikely Event

Abigail Dean

Girl A

Aminatta Forna

The Devil That Danced on the Water

Nancy Thayer

Family Reunion

Sarah Crossan

Here Is the Beehive

Erika Carter

Lucky You

Thomas Kinkade; Katherine Spencer

A Christmas to Remember

Erika Carter

Lucky You

Ann Pearlman

The Christmas Cookie Club

ANNE TYLER

Clock Dance

Jonathan Franzen

Freedom

Sue Monk Kidd

The Invention of Wings

Karen Kingsbury

The Chance

Meg Wolitzer

The Female Persuasion

Ayana Mathis

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie