“The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is a powerful novel set in Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War. It follows two very different sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, who struggle to survive and resist the German occupation in their own ways.

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While Vianne tries to protect her family and keep a fragile sense of normal life, Isabelle joins the Resistance and risks everything to fight for freedom. Their courage, sacrifice and love for each other drive the story. It is a truly gripping and emotional book — once you start, it’s impossible to put down. The characters feel real, the story is deeply moving, and the themes of bravery and resilience stay with you long after you finish.”

“All the Light We Cannot See is a breathtaking masterpiece that beautifully balances the heartbreak of war with the resilience of the human spirit. Despite the horrors of war, the story glimmers with hope, kindness, and the idea that even in the darkest times, light—both literal and metaphorical—cannot be extinguished.

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It is a book that humbles you, breaks your heart, and then heals it again. A beautiful historical fiction novel – highly recommend.”

“The voice acting/reading was perfect! Now for the actual story: This book made me cry at three separate sections. Winn has written such an accurate account of what happens in times of war, especially when those fighting are yong people who are supposed to be at start of their lives.

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Interwoven is a story of love and stories of friendships each told with a mix of having been cut short or having endured. It truly was a great listen and I plan to buy a hardcopy for my physical shelf!”

“It is rare to find a book that is a retelling of a known story and wholly original, but Percival Everett is able to do that with James. By shifting the narrator from Huckleberry Finn to James (known previously only as ”Jim”), Everett doesn’t only refocus the point of view of the events, but he is able to refocus the reader’s attention away from the childhood adventure games to a story that is about the dire straights of a runaway enslaved individual…At the core of James is an exploration of how code switching takes its tolls even while allowing for independence in certain situations.

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Beyond the ’slave talk’ that is continually upended throughout the book, every character has some example of how they must code switch (internally or externally) in order to survive – be it deceiving oneself of their own participation with slavery or how fighting a war for a side that is ostensibly against slavery is, at its core, not about freeing enslaved people. Ultimately the question that Everett leaves his readers with is: is universal freedom possible?”

“I fell in love with James McBride’s narrative style reading Deacon King Kong. His most recent novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, has confirmed him as one of my all-time favorite authors. McBride creates an intricate tapestry for us, of people, of a community, of the many forms of struggle enveloping his cast of characters.

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Every thread has a point and as it all comes together, we behold life in its fullness. How will a community of flawed individuals, many with a difficult past, come together to overcome what seemingly invincible institutions and organizations have wrought? How can they help each other, as they struggle with the limitations of their own lives? What do they have to offer, in spite of their many shortcomings? What we find in McBride’s story is that even the most challenged among us have something to give, and sometimes what seems to be the smallest of gifts makes all the difference…McBride’s tells us that life is hard, that the struggle is real, but that we should not give up. Together, we may prevail.”

“Homegoing is an epic narrative that is sure to become a treasured staple. Two sisters in Ghana are marked by fiery tragedy: one is married off to an English slave trader, and the other is sold to be a slave in America.

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The story follows their descendants generation by generation. Homegoing will break your heart over and over, impress you with the resilience of the human spirit and the amazing power of forgiveness, and leave you optimistic and in awe.”

“This is the story of boys at a reform school in Florida in the 1960s. Based on the true story of the Dozier School for Boys, and the atrocities that took place there. This isn’t for the faint of heart; the cruelty and violence are terrible.

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However, Whitehead is a master novelist. The haunting beauty of his prose makes this a must-read. The narrator is split between 2 main characters, Elwood and Turner, and it is through their eyes that we meet the authorities at Nickel, like Spencer, Earl and Hennepin, all terrifying in their own way. And we meet the other boys, like Griff and Harper, each warped by the horrors they see. And each one has a story which Whitehead sometimes delves into, creating complex characters whose actions make sense for who they are. Whitehead elegantly moves the reader from Elwood’s early pre-Nickel days to events, past and present, at the school and into the future where archeologists and reporters have finally uncovered the truth. Beautifully written. Wonderfully read by JD Jackson. Highly recommended.”

“Ta-Nehisi Coates understands something big and he understands it better than anyone else right now. The Water Dancer led me on a journey up and down the landscape of American slavery with a narrative that feels like The Book of Exodus meets, well, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

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Over 400 pages I have cried, I have laughed, I have been educated, and I have been enlightened. Coates writes with an honesty that can only come from a sublime, even spiritual, understanding of the souls of the white man and the black man in America. Written with poignancy and humanity, The Water Dancer left me stunned but clear-headed, like I had just been woken up from a deep, dream-filled sleep.”

“THIS BOOK EXCEEDED ALL EXPECTATIONS! As a huge fan of A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility, The Lincoln Highway had a lot of pressure and holy cow did it surpass anything I could have hoped for.

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From the first page, I was immediately drawn into Towles’ magical writing and superb characters. This felt like a modern classic, the new and updated version of Huckleberry Finn that I actually wanted to read in high school. You cannot beat the quirkiness of Towles’ characters. You feel so deeply about every single one of them and it feels like they leap off the page with specificities with which they are written. Duchess and Woolly, the stowaways, felt like a modern day George and Lennie from Of Mice and Men with Woolly’s gentle giant innocence and Duchess’ take-the-lead wile. Emmett is the stoic, do-right midwesterner who always fixes the messes. And Billy is the smartest, sweetest kid who inspires those around him. You fall in love with them and are left with all the feels. A glorious five out of five stars for me, The Lincoln Highway will be my go-to recommendation this fall.”

“Like so many big, statement-making novels, Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle is an inviting, ambitious, and commodious work. But unlike so many of them, Great Circle makes the statement without dragging across its page count.

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It gallops, in fact, in its telling of Marian Graves’s triumphant and ill-fated trek across the globe and of the Hollywood starlet, decades later, charged with playing her on screen. And it does so with verve and an infectious volley of voice that I couldn’t get out of my head. It’s the kind of story you wish would never end. Great Circle is as heart-aching as it is profound in what it says about life’s great journeys, our shared histories, and freedom!”

“In the late 1930s, the Works Progress Administration developed a number of projects intended to provide employment opportunities for unemployed artists, writers, and craftsmen. One of those projects was the Pack Horse Library Initiative, in which mounted horsewomen picked their way along snowy hillsides and through muddy creeks with a simple goal: to deliver reading material to Kentucky’s isolated mountain communities.

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In The Giver of Stars, Moyes has brought to life the amazing, funny, adventurous stories of a few of these trailblazing women. Historical fiction lovers will devour this story of a little-known piece of U.S. history.”

“I tend to struggle a little with fiction on audio – I’m always afraid I’ll lose the characters or the story! But The Frozen River is an engaging listen that hooked me from the first hour. The story is interesting and a part of history I know little about. The narration is wonderful; I feel like I’m back in 1700s Maine and it’s been a great book to accompany me on winter walks in Michigan.”

“Through Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov’s ordinary encounters and activities within the bounds of the four walls of post-revolutionary Moscow’s Metropol Hotel, where he is under house arrest, Towles deftly guides readers across a century of Russian history, from the Bolshevik uprising to the dawn of the nuclear age under Krushchev.

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Grandiloquent language and drama reminiscent of Tolstoy gradually give way to action and tradecraft suggestive of le Carre in this lovely and entertaining tale of one man’s determination to maintain his dignity and passion for life, even after being stripped of his title, belongings, and freedom. Reading A Gentleman in Moscow is pure pleasure!”

“The Shadow of the Wind is set in Spain, specifically Barcelona, and Zafon’s beautiful and rich writing makes the city sound downright irresistible. And on top of THAT, it’s also a love letter to the world of books!

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I have many favorite quotes from this book, but here’s one that has stuck with me over the years: ’Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.’”

“This brilliant debut novel is by a Dutch author and set in 1961 rural Netherlands, focusing on a recluse woman, Isabel. Isabel, a loner, spends most of her days obsessing over her late mother’s things/house.

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Her life is uprooted when her brother brings home a new girlfriend, Eva and Isabel begins a relationship with her. While WWII was over a decade, it’s clear in the novel that the war and its repercussions are still very present. It was evident throughout the book that the country is still grappling with guilt and drama from the war. It’s mainly a historical fiction book, but also a psychological thriller and forbidden romance (this would be a wonderful book club choice!). The novel won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.”

“Off the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island is home to generations of haenyo—women who take their living from both land and sea and call the shots in their matriarchal society. Young-sook and Mi-ja are best friends in the 1930s, learning to dive with their all-female collective while their island suffers under Japanese colonialism.

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Lisa See follows them as they grow up under Japanese rule, into WWII, to the Korean War and its devastating aftermath, and into the 21st century. The Island of Sea Women is not only a story of friendship found, lost, and found again, but also a richly detailed picture of a unique culture of women in a world spinning out of control. Amazing detail and presence.”

“Saunders’ first novel has a steep entry curve. It’s not a novel that reveals itself quickly and easily, but if you give it your attention, if you burrow deep into the book, you’ll be eminently rewarded.

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There is a richness and depth of humanity here. There is the strange and wonderful. There is love and grief and mystery all brought together in the story of Abraham Lincoln’s dead son, the Civil War, and what may happen to us all after we leave the mortal coil. It’s a beautiful and moving book that will stay with you for a long, long while.”

“Highly imaginative and incredibly ambitious, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a story within a story that is about stories. Though the premise, like the title, sounds maddening, I found Anthony Doerr’s novel to be rich, intricate, and deeply profound.

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Like the thread that binds together a vibrant tapestry, the story within the story, also named Cloud Cuckoo Land, weaves the tales of Anna, Omeir, Zeno, Seymour, and Konstance as it defies time and space to ensure their stories endure. A love letter to the tales that have survived the cruel test of time and to the stories that take us away to magical realms above our own, those who’ve read Cloud Atlas and The Ten Thousand Doors of January will take pleasure and delight in Cloud Cuckoo Land. Marin Ireland and Simon Jones’ narrations were the cherry on the cake, making the story all the better for their lively and delightful voices.”