Will you be traveling this holiday season or staying close to home?
Be sure you have a good book or audiobook ready for those down times at the airport or in the car.
Staying home?
After the family football games, the feast and the pumpkin pie… after the dishes are done and the family collapses in front of the TV snoring, grab a good book and relax – you’ve earned it.
In addition to the books by the talented authors featured on our Author Page, we have some suggestions for you.
The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea – Last seen at a beach party, high school seniors, Megan and Nicole don’t come home and their small Noth Carolina town launches an exhaustive search. With hope running out, Megan escapes from a bunker deep in the woods and runs to safety. Nicole is never found. Megan’s story becomes a bestseller, and she becomes a celebrity. Nicole’s sister Livia who is studying forensic pathology, expects her sister’s body will one day be found. When the body of a young man who was friends with Megan and Nicole is found in the woods, Livia thinks it might be connected to her sister’s abduction. How much did Megan remember about her ordeal? Are there details that could help find Nicole? Could she still be alive?
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus – If you are enjoying the series on Apple TV, it should come as no surprise that the book is different from its adaptation. Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist in the 1950s is thwarted at every turn by sexism. When she’s forced to steal lab supplies to carry on her research, she meets an equally brilliant chemist. They begin collaborating and fall in love, but a tragedy ends their “happily ever after.” Unmarried and pregnant, Zott is no longer allowed to work in a lab in any capacity, She must find a creative and socially acceptable way to use her talents to pay the bills.
Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly is the latest book in the Lincoln Lawyer series about Mickey Haller. After getting an innocent man released from prison, Haller is inundated with requests to help others claiming to be wrongfully convicted. He enlists the help of his half-brother retired LAPD detective Harry Bosch to sift through the letters to find people who may actually be innocent. Bosch finds a letter from a women convicted of killing her husband, a deputy sheriff. When Bosch reviews the case the evidence doesn’t add up. Did the department rush to get justice for one of their own without getting all the facts? Haller is faced with an uphill battle to free his client and find justice for the victim, but with Bosch’s help anything is possible.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir by Matthew Perry – Released almost a year before his tragic death, Matthew Perry confronts his demons and cherishes his friends in an unflinching memoir about growing up and discovering the things you wished for weren’t really the things you needed and didn’t make you happy.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears – This much anticipated memoir by Spears tells what is was really like to be a child star turned celebrity superstar. She discusses her relationships with her family and peers and the breakdown which eventually led to her father being granted conservatorship over every aspect of her life and finances.
Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister – Jen is waiting up for her 18-year-old son Todd who missed his curfew on Halloween morning. When Jen finally sees him outside their home, she’s relieved, but when she witnesses him stabbing a stranger, her life is shattered. After Todd is taken into custody, Jen is exhausted and finally falls asleep. When she wakes up it’s the day before Halloween and the murder hasn’t happened yet. Can she find a way to prevent this tragedy and save her child?
The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Dana Marton writing as Marta Molnar– Inspired by the true story of Vincent Van Gogh’s sister-in-law, Johanna Bonger. When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson goes to New York to clear out her recently deceased grandmother’s brownstone, she finds a diary. The diary isn’t her grandmother’s it belongs to Johanna Bonger, Van Gogh’s sister-in-law. At the time of Van Gogh’s death, Johanna was a twenty-eight-year-old widow living in Paris with a baby in the 1800s with no way of supporting her family. Though the paintings were worthless at the time, Johanna found a way to introduce Van Gogh’s genius to the world and save her family.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride – When a body is found hidden in a well in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1972, police launch an investigation into the small community of Chicken Hill. Chicken Hill has long been a welcoming place for African Americans and Jewish immigrants who formed a close-knit community. Secrets are exposed as the investigation expands to the communities surrounding Chicken Hill and their so-called upstanding members.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Reid is the author of Daisy Jones and the Six. When Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo decides to tell her life story, she chooses an unknown magazine reporter, Monique Grant. Grant is surprised, but determined not to mess up her big chance. As Evelyn talks about her life and loves they form a bond, but it becomes clear their lives are connected in some way. Why was Monique chosen and what does Evelyn really want from her?
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson – From the historian and author of the daily newsletter, Letters from an American, comes an historical perspective of America’s struggles to live up to its ideals. Richardson chronicles how a small group of wealthy elites have maneuvered to gain control of our country by weaponizing language and promoting false narratives about minorities, immigrants, and historical events.