The Librarianist is a novel by Patrick De Witt, set in Portland, Oregon from 1950-present. Bob Comet, a retired librarian, lives his days in solitude and reflextion. He volunteers at a senior living centre and discovers a new side of himself. The Librarianist is a book that highlights the absurd as ordinary. Fresh, smart, delightful and absolutely marvelous. Finish out the year or start the new one with this book. – Lori Godbout

Turn of mind is a novel (debut) by Alice LaPlante, set in present day USA. A brilliant surgeon developed dementia after her retirement and is under investigation in the murder of her best friend. The author gives an accurate description of what dementia feels like from the patients’ perspective. Compelling yet heartbreaking. – Lori Godbout

Dinner Party is written by Sarah Gilmartin. This fiction book’s setting is in Carlow and Dublin, Ireland in present day. This debut novel spans decades of one Irish family’s life with its shattering tragedies and griefs and its fierce love for one another. Stark, unapologetic, moving … – Lori Godbout

Poverty, By America is written by Pulitzer-prize winning author Matthew Desmond. This non-fiction book, comprehensive in scale, exposes the truth of the “haves” and the “have-nots” in our country. The author lists viable solutions to reduce and then END poverty in the USA. A shocking, informative and tragic book. Recommend it to all your affluent friends and family. – Lori Godbout

Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry is a novel set in present day Ireland. Barry’s style of writing is luminous, and lyrical. His writing is the reason I read. – Lori Godbout

Ghosts of the Orphanage by Christine Kenneally is non-fiction, set in the USA, Canada, Australia and Ireland from late 1800s to the 1970s. It is an exposé of horrific abuse of children living in orphanages primarily run by the Catholic church, and focused on St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Burlington, VT. The author researched all aspects over the course of ten years. The reportage is chilling in this very important volume of work. – Lori Godbout

They May Not Mean To But They Do by Cathleen Schine is set in present day Manhattan and L. A. Schine has written a marvelous and often hilarious novel. It is a coming of age story – not of young people but of the journey into old age and learning how to live. I found a new favorite author. Did not want this book to end! – Lori Godbout

Inside the O’Brien’s by Lisa Genova is set in Boston Massachusetts. Joe is a 44 year old Boston police officer. He is a husband and father of four adult children. The family is Irish Catholic. Joe is diagnosed with Huntington’s disease, a neurological ailment affecting specific chromosomes and genes. it is an inherited disease that has no cure. The family is turned upside down by this diagnosis. Told with the most compassionate voice. Excellent! – Lori Godbout

They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency – nonfiction by Malcoom Nance. This is a chilling account of the events and activities leading up to and following the January 6th, 2021 insurrection. The author is a prominent expert on terrorism and extremism in our country as well as internationally. The book is researched and accurate. It should frighten every American, no matter their political affiliation or ideology. Emotionally difficult to read, but absolutely necessary. – Lori Godbout

Our America: A Photographic History by Ken Burns is a stunning collection of photographs by different artists. There is an extensive explaination of the images at the end of the book. This collection highlights America’s glory as well as its perniciousness. – Lori Godbout

We Carry Their Bones by Erin Kimmerle is set in Marianna, FL from 1900 to 2011. It is the true story of the Dozier School for Boys, a reform school. If you like archeology, crime-scene investigation, mystery and a case for justice, this is a book for you. – Lori Godbout

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka is stunning in its simplicity but knocked me sideways in its breathtaking complexity. The author’s description of the character afflicted with dementia and her stay in assisted living/nursing home is a tour de force. Don’t let this book get by you! – Lori Godbout

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka is stunning in its simplicity but knocked me sideways in its breathtaking complexity. The author’s description of the character afflicted with dementia and her stay in assisted living/nursing home is a tour de force. Don’t let this book get by you! – Lori Godbout

Happy Go Lucky by David Sedaris. He is a world-class humorist.  His wit and dry humor will make you laugh out loud.  Tremendously enjoyable! – Lori Godbout

Seasonal Work by Laura Lippman is a book of very clever short story mysteries. I enjoyed every one of them. – Lori Godbout

Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer is a collection of stories that are funny, compassionate and relatable…a gem of a book. – Lori Godbout

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart is set in present day Glasgow, Scotland. This author of the internationally acclaimed first novel Shuggie Bain has now written a book about two young men in a Scotland working class neighborhood who fall in love. Munho is a Protestand and James a Catholic. The narrative iw written for the most part is a Scottish dialect. Stuart is indeed brave in writing this powerhouse of a story about people rarely acknowledged in the literary world. Accolades for this brilliant book. – Lori Godbout

Men in My Situation, by Per Petterson is set in present day Oslo, Norway. This brilliant Norwegian writer is a master storyteller. His prose is lyrical. Thirty-eight year old Arvid loses his parents and two brothers in a tragic accident. A year later his wife Turid divorces him and keeps custody of their two young girls. A beautiful, finely crafted refuge of a novel. – Lori Godbout

Be Frank With Me by Julia Clairborne Johnson is about a precocious nine year old genius of a boy named Frank and his mother. It is positively charming. The characters are well developed with all their flaws and foibles as well as their endearments. I fell in love with Frank, a genius who hates school and who has an affinity for dressing in costumes, formal attire and top hats! The ending of this book came way too soon as I really wanted more of Frank, and I miss him already. What a delight! – Lori Godbout

Problems with People, these short stories by David Guterson, are set in America, Nepal and South Africa in the present day. They showcase voices from youth to old age exploring eternal questions of love, belonging and connection. The author’s prose is stunning. His character descriptions are so finely detailed that the reader feels he knows them intimately. David Guterson is a word master. I will read his every book. – Lori Godbout

Voices from the Pandemic: Americans Tell Their Stories of Crisis, Courage and Resilience by Eli Saslow, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Saslow interviews a cross section of Americans during the 2020 – 2021+ Covid-19 global pandemic. This book illustrates the best and the worst of humanity in a crisis. I read three books about the influneza of 1918 but this book was hands down the best of books about pandemics. Put this book on the top of your reading list. – Lori Godbout

When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash is set in present day North Carolina. The author is a marvel at developing characters that mimic small town America. Family, love, loss, racism and forgiveness are all wrapped up in a most enjoyably readable book. – Lori Godbout

Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin is set in NYC from 1976 to the present. This book is lovely. The characters are so well developed that the reader feels as though they know them. It is an exploration of a long marriage with all its joys, pains and sacrifices. I didn’t want the book to ed. – Lori Godbout

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward: Don’t let the “scary” sticker on the spine or the praise from Stephen King stop you from reading this book. It is more mystery than horror. After four chapters of hearing the characters’ voices, I just could not put it down. There are surprises right to the end and the story stays with you long after you finish it. – Jeanne Frank

The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters by Julie Klam is set in NYC, St. Louis and the country of Romania. The author explores, through genealogy, research and family lore, the part fiction, part myth and part truth of the four Morris sisters, who are cousins of her grandmother. Written with irony and wit, this book is a delight! – Lori Godbout

Send for Me by Lauren Fox is a historical novel set in Feldenheim, Germany and Milwaukee, from WWII Germany 1938 to the present. This is a beautifully-written book about love and loss, spanning decades and generations of a family. It is a book of substance. I read the first page and was immediately drawn into this story with its gorgeous prose. – Lori Godbout

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart is set in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1980s. This Booker Prize winner reads like a classic. Agnes is an alcoholic mother raising her three children while struggling with this insidious disease. The characters in the novel portray in aching beauty their hope, despair and love. The book is written in the vernacular of Scotland. I was reminded of Kennedy’s Ironweed as well as Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes. Shuggie Bain is a masterpiece! – Lori Godbout

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford is set in London and covers the six decades from 1944. Five characters show us the extraordinary in the ordinary, the sacred as well as the profane in everyday life. The prose is magnificent and the descriptions are luminous. If you only read one book this season, let this be the one. Loved this book! – Lori Godbout

Transit by Rachel Cusk is set in present day London. This stunning novel is about a woman (a writer and teacher of creative writing courses) and her two sons as they make a new life after a divorce. The author writes with precision and is extraordinary. I always enjoy reading a book in which I learn new words. This satisfied. – Lori Godbout

Margaret Atwood’s new poetry collection, Dearly, is every bit as good as her fiction. Her poems are in free verse, easy to read and understand. She writes of loss, time passing, even zombies and aliens. One section explores our impact on nature, with lines like “Oh Children, will you grow up in a world without birds?” The last poem, Blackberries, is my favorite, reminding me of picking them with my mother long ago. – EFH

Before She Was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney is set in Sun City, SC. The novel packs a punch. The mystery combines dual identities and separate crimes. The author is a very clever writer who thoroughly understands her heroine – a septuagenarian living in a retirement community. – Lori Godbout

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon is set in New Hampshire and Vermont, taking place from 1929/1930 to the present day. This suspenseful novel combines mystery and the supernatural surrounding drownings that occurred in the same mineral springs pool over a period of decades. The book reads like a combination of authors: Stephen King and Margaret Atwood. Positively gripping. – Lori Godbout

The Survivors by Jane Harper is set in Tasmania, Australia. This novel unwraps a mystery surrounding a sudden fierce storm at sea and subsequent drowning of two local residents of a small town. The tragedy is a puzzle that is positively engrossing and does not reveal its answers until the very end. This author is one masterful storyteller. – Lori Godbout

Landslide by Susan Conley is set in coastal Maine. This novel explores family bonds, love, tragedy, forgiveness and hope. It’s a story of well-developed characters who the reader feels they know or would like to know – the fisherman father, film-maker mother and two teenaged boys. The book was positively gripping. I read it in one fell swoop. – Lori Godbout

Anxious People by Frederik Backman is set in present day Stockholm, Sweden. This clever, farcical novel is about a bank robbery that wasn’t (a cashless bank) and a hostage situation at an apartment viewing. It involves characters that are loveable as they are anxious, and full of foibles. A very enjoyable adventure indeed. – Lori Godbout

My Summers with a Serial Killer; The Babysitter by Lisa Rodman and Jennifer Jordan is set i 1960s Cape Cod and Provincetown, MA. This non-fiction book is gripping and seductive. It is centered around two sisters and a neglectful and often abusive mother who unknowingly leaves her charges in the care of a serial killer. What makes this book so haunting it that it is a true story. Extensively researched. – Lori Godbout

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. This historical account of the Chicago,1893, World’s Fair captures with precision the vision and engineering of the first World’s Fair in this country. (The first World’s Fair actually took place in Paris, France in 1889) There was a ghastly serial killer in the area during the Fair. I learned about many firsts: the invention of the ferris wheel by George Ferris; shredded wheat cereala incandescent light bulbs; Juicy Fruit chewing gum; and the electric chair. This is a “WOW” of a book! – Lori Godbout

Sisters by Daisy Johnson –This disturbing psychological drama of two teenaged sisters named September and July will at once fascinate and horrify the reader. The sisters, so close in age, love, and envy, will have your attention at the introduction and it will not abate until the conclusion. The prose is stunning and the book is brilliantly written. Examples: “There is a creep of cold down the chimney. A finger.” — “…was living in a sadness the color of rust and leather.” — “Grief is a house with no windows or doors, and no way of telling the time.” — Lori Godbout

Valentine, by Elizabeth Wetmore, is her debut novel about a violent rape in1970s west Texas. It deals with race, rage, fear, violence – and hope and beauty and the strength of women as well. The vivid portrayal of the characters, even the most minor ones, makes you see these people and understand exactly why they behave the way they do.

A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion This literary debut novel combines suspense and a coming of age story with one rash act of an oddly fractured family.  This book is a page-turner and wholly believable. — Lori Godbout

Miss Benson’s Beetles by Rachel Joyce — Another book of quirky characters by the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey, two other great reads. Follow Miss Benson and her unlikely companion on a quest to find a rare beetle, as they encounter hardships and learn about themselves and the meaning of passion and friendship.

Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld — This book is a compilation of 45 years of comic material of the author. His first audition as a stand-up comedian was in 1975. This is his first book. It was written in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. The book is laugh out loud funny! — LG

Devotions by Mary Oliver (Pulitzer Prize winner of Poetry)This book explores the natural world and our relationship to it.  Even if you are not a fan of poetry, this exquisitely written book may change your mind.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman — Yes there are a couple of murder mysteries, and the plot concerns solving them, but mostly it’s a book full of quirky characters. It’s a little like Frederick Backman’s Anxious People, which concerns a hostage situation. In both books, the people are of far more interest than the plots, though those are intriguing too. You just meet some fascinating people and have fun watching their interactions.

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey — This stunning memoir is painfully haunting. It’s a daughter’s story of her mother’s murder by an abusive ex-husband. Set in the 1980’s in the American South, it is fraught with racial tensions. Beautifully written, and heart wrenching. I read it in one sitting…– Lori Godbout

Trial By Fire by Scott James — This is an account by an investigative journalist of the Rhode Island, February 20, 2003, devastating and horrific fire that killed over one hundred and scarred hundreds more in a nightclub during a rock concert. A frank look at the judicial system; politics; the media; truths and distortions surrounding this event. This account of the Station Nightclub inferno will leave the reader haunted.

Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts — This interesting historical fiction tells the life story of Maud Baum, and how events in her life affected her dreamer husband as he penned The Wizard of Oz. Seventeen years after Frank Baum’s death, Maud is determined to protect his vision and legacy as Hollywood creates the iconic film we all know and love. Along the way, the reader learns who the real Dorothy is.

The Searcher by Tara French — This riveting mystery is superb. Set in Ireland, a retired Chicago, NY, police officer is drawn into a mystery involving a missing teenager, a questionable family, and a different local culture and the ways of a small Irish town. Psychologically complex. — Lori Godbout

Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue — This is a novel set in Dublin, Ireland during WWI and the 1918 influenza pandemic.  The story covers three days and is written in the voice of a nurse working on a maternity ward of a hospital.  Finely developed characters.  A brilliant story. —  Lori Godbout 

The Escape Artist by Helen Fremont  — A luminous memoir written by one of two daughters of Holocaust survivors.  Family dynamics and dysfunctions stem from the parent’s obsessive secret-keeping, silence, and lies about their own past.  Extraordinary and powerful…. 

Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II by Svetlana Alexievich — Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
This masterpiece of a book is the account of living in the Nazi (German)-occupied Soviet Union during WW II. It is told in the children’s voices (now grown) – the last witnesses of the Holocaust. This intimate oral history tells of the children’s experiences, their memories, and the way those experiences forever shaped their lives.
— Lori Godbout

If you like reading fun mystery series, I recommend reading Cate Carlisle’s Fixer Upper series.  Currently there are 7 books in the series.  The books are about Shannon Hammer, a construction business owner, who stumbles upon mysteries to solve as she lives her life in scenic Northern California surrounded by friends and family.  The books are easy to read and have a sense of humor.  The books inspired a TV series on the Hallmark Channel. — Deb Flint

Before and After by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate – This non-fiction book follows the novel Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. After assiduous research the book Before and After traces the stories of the “orphans” who survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society (TCHS). Heartbreaking and yet resilient. The stories of children stolen and sold in and around Memphis, Tennessee from the 1920s through the 1950s and not only the effect on them but on generations thereafter….Shocking.

Know My Name by Chanel Miller – This memoir by a woman victim of sexual assault and the charge against the perpetrator and the trial that follows is disturbing. Highlights our unjust “justice” system in this country.

Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo – A book chosen by chance became a thoroughly enjoying tale I was sorry to see end so soon. The story centers around a brother and sister facing the task of wrapping up the family’s estate and the spiritual leader who the sister insists make the cross-country road trip with her brother in her stead. As the story unfolds, you laugh as these two very different men begin to appreciate the life lessons they learn from each other. Made me wish I was in the back seat during their journey. 

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah – While your heart breaks for the life Leni and her mother live with a father and husband suffering from post-war trauma, the story that unfolds presents the beauty and challenges of their life in remote Alaska and the life-saving relationships they develop among their neighbors. The story of self-reliance, survival, and courage is balanced with the need human beings have for the support and love of each other.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill is a gripping thriller with Christmas charm. If you enjoy horror novels like Stephen King’s you will definitely love this book. The story follows a girl who escapes from, and later on, tries to rescue her son from an interesting kind of vampire-like villain. Hard to put this book down.

Reading The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (author of The Night Circus) is an otherworldly experience, as most of it is set in a fantastical underground library. Don’t try to figure it all out, just enjoy the wonderful writing and let yourself be immersed in the whole atmosphere of the book.

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring) is not what you’d call a page turner. The main character embroiders, goes for a walk, and becomes enamored of Winchester Cathedral’s bells (and one of the ringers) but the slow, almost meditative pace of the writing is perfect for exploring the relationships she builds along the way

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, non-fiction. This heart-breaking and informative book follows eight families living in poverty in Milwaukee. The author’s research on the social and economic effects of eviction and the cycle of poverty is astounding. A true study of severe deprivation that could be any city in America.

Upstate Girls: Unraveling Collar City by Brenda Kenneally – Photographic and written documentation concerning the history of growing up poor on 6^th Avenue in Troy, NY (North Troy), about Troy history, industries, mills and the closure of said mills. The photographer becomes intimately familiar with a few generations of families living on the edge. Fabulous book of non-fiction.

Winter Loon by Susan Burnhard. Wonderful novel. Brutal and beautiful coming of age story.

In Pain: A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle with Opioids by Travis Rieder, non-fiction about opioid addiction in America and the pharmacological industries behind the crisis. It’s about families, addiction, big pharma, and profits. A must read.

The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy, short stories. Brilliant, exquisite writing.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys – This is fascinating historical fiction, set in 1945, which tells the stories of 4 refugees fleeing the Soviet advance on Germany by trying to board a ship to safety. Very short chapters keep the journey moving swiftly, and as the relationships among these very ordinary, very interesting people deepen, we learn their secrets, and sorrows, and loves.

This is How it Always Is – Laurie Frankel –  This was such a good book! Every character comes vividly alive, even minor ones. It’s about family, parenting, secrets vs. privacy, gender issues, the importance of story, etc. There’s so much to enjoy, and so much to think about.

In The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson a young woman inherits her uncle’s bookstore, and spends a summer following clues he’s left for her, which she finds in books and letters he’s delivered to various people who can lead her to the truth about his life. The clues are quotations from books, so it’s fun to see how she figures them out.