Lists and Suggestions
List: Big Books Worth the Investment
The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois
Jeffers, Honorée Fanonne, 1967- author.
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about what he called "Double Consciousness,&quo... More
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about what he called "Double Consciousness," a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that's made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma. To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family's past. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story and the song of America itself. Less
Americanah
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, 1977- author.
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beaut... More
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion for each other and for their homeland. Less
The Overstory
Powers, Richard, 1957- author.
A novel of activism and natural-world power presents interlocking fables about nine remarkable stran... More
A novel of activism and natural-world power presents interlocking fables about nine remarkable strangers who are summoned in different ways by trees for an ultimate, brutal stand to save the continent's few remaining acres of virgin forest. Less
A Brief History of Seven Killings
James, Marlon, 1970- author.
On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to... More
On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert to ease political tensions in Kingston, seven gunmen stormed the singer's house, machine guns blazing. The attack wounded Marley, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Little was officially released about the gunmen, but much has been whispered, gossiped and sung about in the streets of West Kingston. Rumors abound regarding the assassins' fates, and there are suspicions that the attack was politically motivated. Less
The Luminaries
Catton, Eleanor, 1985- author.
This novel is a murder mystery set in a remote gold-mining frontier town in 19th-century New Zealand... More
This novel is a murder mystery set in a remote gold-mining frontier town in 19th-century New Zealand. Arriving in New Zealand in 1866 a weary Englishman, Walter Moody, lands in a gold-mining frontier town on the coast of New Zealand to make his fortune and forever leave behind his family's shame. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have met in secret to investigate what links three crimes that occurred on a single day, events in which each man finds himself implicated in some way. Moody finds himself drawn into a series of unsolved crimes and complex mysteries. Less
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
Keefe, Patrick Radden, 1976- author.
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty presents a portrait of three generations o... More
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty presents a portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, who built their fortune on the sale of Valium and later sponsored the creation and marketing of one of the most commonly prescribed and addictive painkillers of the opioid crisis. Less
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Wilkerson, Isabel.
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronic... More
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Less
The Secret History
Tartt, Donna, author.
Richard Papen had never been to New England before his nineteenth year. Then he arrived at Hampeden ... More
Richard Papen had never been to New England before his nineteenth year. Then he arrived at Hampeden College and quickly became seduced by the sweet, dark rhythms of campus life, in particular by an elite group of five students. Less
The Other Bennet Sister
Hadlow, Janice, author.
What if Mary Bennet's life took a different path from that laid out for her in Pride and Prejud... More
What if Mary Bennet's life took a different path from that laid out for her in Pride and Prejudice? What if the frustrated intellectual of the Bennet family, the marginalized middle daughter, the plain girl who takes refuge in her books, eventually found the fulfillment enjoyed by her prettier, more confident sisters? Less
The Witch Elm
French, Tana, author.
Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends ... More
Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life, he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden - and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed. Less
Life After Life
Atkinson, Kate.
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies b... More
On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? Less
The Fifth Season
Jemisin, N. K.
It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash t... More
It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. Less
It
King, Stephen, 1947-
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they were grown-up men and w... More
They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they were grown-up men and women who had gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them could withstand the force that drew them back to Derry, Maine to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name. Less
A Little Life
Yanagihara, Hanya.
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they... More
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Less
Infinite Jest
Wallace, David Foster.
A spoof on our culture featuring a drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation house near Boston. The center bec... More
A spoof on our culture featuring a drug-and-alcohol rehabilitation house near Boston. The center becomes a hotbed of revolutionary activity by Quebec separatists in revolt against the Organization of North American Nations which now rules the continent. Less
Wolf Hall
Mantel, Hilary, 1952-
Assuming the power recently lost by the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell counsels a mercur... More
Assuming the power recently lost by the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell counsels a mercurial Henry VIII on the latter's efforts to marry Anne Boleyn against the wishes of Rome, a successful endeavor that comes with a dangerous price. Less