Hello, librarians.
We hope you are staying safe and cool in these blistering summer months. Please enjoy our staff suggestions for the September LibraryReads List. As a reminder, votes are due August 1st!
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When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash
For fans of: Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin
and The Risen by Ron Rash
The eagerly awaited novel from the New York Times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home, This Dark Road to Mercy, and The Last Ballad—a tender and haunting story of a father and daughter, crime and forgiveness, race and memory.
"In When Ghosts Come Home Wiley Cash reveals how family and history and the threads that connect us can contain such mystery. This is a masterful example of storytelling, told by one of the most open-hearted and clear-eyed writers I know."
—Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Watch Wiley Cash in conversation with his editor, David Highfill, on Door to Door!
Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen
For fans of: Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers
and Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
The first novel in a captivating three-book series about modern womanhood, in which a young Black woman must rely on courage, laughter, and love—and the support of her two longtime friends—to overcome an unexpected setback that threatens the most precious thing she’s ever wanted.
"Black Girls Must Die Exhausted is a smart, sophisticated portrait of three very different women, united in both their struggles and their joy. Allen seamlessly blends sharp social commentary with a heartwarming story of friendship between irresistibly complex characters. A fresh, punch-packing debut from an author to watch!"
—Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read
Click here to register to see Jayne Allen
on Door to Door on Tuesday, July 20th, at 2pm ET!
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Friends Like These by Kimberly McCreight
For fans of: The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
and Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
In this relentlessly twisty literary thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight, a desperate intervention brings together a group of college friends 10 years after graduation—a reunion marked by lies, betrayal, and murder.
"Years' worth of friendship, secrets, coverups and lies lead to one intensely satisfying, jaw-dropping conclusion in this expertly plotted novel by master of suspense, Kimberly McCreight's Friends Like These is sensational, and makes you wonder how well you can ever know even your closest friends."
—Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Local Woman Missing
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
City on Fire by Don Winslow
For fans of: The 20th Victim by James Patterson
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of the Cartel Trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, and The Border), The Force, and Broken comes the first novel in an epic crime saga about the Irish and Italian crime syndicates in America during the 1980s and 1990s.
Praise for Don Winslow:
"With the passing of Elmore Leonard a few years back, it’s now safe to proclaim Winslow America’s greatest living crime writer. His consistency is matched only by his creativity, his talent exceeded by his ability to surpass himself time and time again."
—Jon Land, Providence Journal
Click here to register to see Don Winslow
on Door to Door on Thursday, July 22nd, at 2pm ET!
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Fault Lines by Emily Itami
For fans of: Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth
and All Adults Here by Emma Straub
For fans of Sally Rooney and Helen Fielding, a witty, sharp, and moving debut novel exploring the frustrations of motherhood, the imbalance of a marriage, and the loss of self as a family builds around you.
"Mizuki is one of the most engaging adulteresses I’ve ever encountered, and a wonderfully witty guide to the morals and mores of contemporary Tokyo. I now know just how to behave while picking up children from school, or meeting strangers. Fault Lines is a moving and suspenseful novel full of the best kinds of incidental wisdom."
—Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria
For fans of: The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa
and Beach Read by Emily Henry
The national bestselling author of You Had Me at Hola returns with a seductive second-chance romance about a commitment-phobic Latina and her childhood best friend who has finally returned home.
"Daria’s sultry, standalone second Primas of Power rom-com offers a delightful take on the friends-to-lovers trope.... Daria keeps the emphasis on the protagonists' personal growth, capturing the intimacy between Michelle and Gabe as they come to better understand who they are as individuals—and who they could be together. The steamy love scenes, vibrant cast, deeply felt emotions, and sense of fun make this a surefire hit."
—Publishers Weekly ⭐ review
Click here to register to see Alexis Daria
on Door to Door on Thursday, July 15th, at 2pm ET!
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Nice Girls by Catherine Dang
For fans of: The Girl in the Mirror by Rose Carlyle
A pulse-pounding and deviously dark debut, written with the psychological acuity and emotional punch of Luckiest Girl Alive and All the Missing Girls, that explores the hungry, angry, dark side of girlhood and dares to ask what is most dangerous to a woman: showing the world what it wants to see, or who she really is?
"Catherine Dang's darkly delicious debut, Nice Girls, is about the girlhood we never really leave behind, and what happens when we dare to confront our past demons. A pulsating mystery with a narrator you won't soon forget."
—Laura Dave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
The Actual Star by Monica Byrne
For fans of: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas meets Octavia Butler’s Earthseed series, as acclaimed author Monica Byrne (The Girl in the Road) spins a brilliant multigenerational saga spanning two thousand years, from the collapse of the ancient Maya to a far-future utopia on the brink of civil war.
"Sweeping, mesmerizing, The Actual Star is a travelogue of souls, an epic that leaps lightly between the centuries.... Byrne draws her interconnected characters with compassion and depth, weaving their stories into a mystery with echoes in past, present, and future.... A magnificent achievement!"
—Helene Wecker, New York Times bestselling author of
The Golem and Jinni and The Hidden Palace
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adlington
For fans of: The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
A powerful chronicle of the women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust, stitching beautiful clothes at an extraordinary fashion workshop created within one of the most notorious WWII death camps.
"In The Dressmakers of Auschwitz, Lucy Adlington has unveiled not one but several long-hidden histories: the tale of a group of compassionate and audacious Jewish women who sewed for their lives; the story of clothes in the Holocaust; and the history of the fashion industry in World War II. Adlington has expertly interwoven these fascinating strands into an utterly absorbing, important and unique historical read."
—Judy Batalion, New York Times bestselling author of The Light of Days
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Talk to Me by T.C. Boyle
For fans of: Jack by Marilynne Robinson
From bestselling and award-winning author T.C. Boyle, a lively, thought-provoking novel that asks us what it would be like if we could really talk to the animals.
"Boyle eloquently lays out the philosophical and ethical debates of raising chimps in a human household.... Boyle poignantly exposes our anthropocentric biases while exploring the nature of consciousness and reminds us of the adage about the most dangerous species in the zoo being the humans.... Boyle's name sparks instant interest, and fans will reach his latest novel about humanity's dangerous confusion about our place in nature."
—Booklist
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
No Words by Meg Cabot
For fans of: The Endless Beach by Jenny Colgan
Meg Cabot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Princess Diaries, returns to Little Bridge Island with a new story about a children’s book author with a case of writer’s block and an arrogant novelist who have to set aside their differences as they get through a weekend-long book festival that just might change everything—including their feelings for each other.
Praise for Meg Cabot:
"There is a school of thought that says reading should be entertaining, and this is exactly what Meg Cabot produces for us: fun. She is the master of her genre; she is the George Bernard Shaw if not the George Eliot of [her genre]."
—Publishers Weekly
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
The Moon, the Stars, and Madame Burova
by Ruth Hogan
For fans of: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
From the wildly popular bestselling author of The Keeper of Lost Things—an uplifting, slightly magical story about how it’s never too late to find out who you really are.
"In Hogan’s engrossing latest...a middle-aged English woman searches for her biological parents.... Hogan does a great job expanding on themes of friendship, racism, loyalty and love. With its trappings of a modern fairy tale, this one should have wide appeal."
—Publishers Weekly
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Olga by Bernhard Schlink
For fans of: The Lost Diary of M by Paul Wolfe
A sweeping novel of love and passion from author of the international bestseller The Reader about a woman out of step with her time, whose life is witness to some of the most tumultuous events of modern age.
Registered for Library Journal's Day of Dialog? Watch the replay of Bernhard Schlink on the "Literary Fiction: Here & Abroad" panel!
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Mama Bear by Shirley Smith
For fans of: Early by Sarah DiGregorio
In this moving memoir, Shirley Smith, wife of NBA Champion and All-Star J. R. Smith, tells the story of giving birth to one of the youngest premature babies to survive—using her experience to heighten awareness of the crisis of Black maternal and infant health and pay tribute to Black women’s resilience.
"In Mama Bear, Shirley Smith draws the vital correlation between generational trauma and Black maternal health and along the way creates a desperately needed community. Brave. Compelling. Provocative. It’s healing for the soul, and a must read."
─Gabrielle Union, actress and New York Times bestselling author of We’re Going to Need More Wine and You Got Anything Stronger?
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Bourdain by Laurie Woolever
Also from the author: World Travel (co-written with Anthony Bourdain)
An unprecedented behind-the-scenes view into the life of Anthony Bourdain from the people who knew him best.
Praise for World Travel:
"There will never be anyone quite like Anthony Bourdain. But World Travel offers readers the potential to travel the world as he did." —Fortune
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Catch Us When We Fall by Juliette Fay
For fans of: More Than Words by Jill Santopolo
If you love the emotionally complex novels of JoJo Moyes and the dramatic books of Jodi Picoult, you won’t want to miss this newest book about second chances, redemption, and the power of hope from USA Today bestselling author of Shelter Me, Juliette Fay.
"Catch Us When We Fall is a beautiful story about life's darkest demons—grief, addiction, and broken promises—but Juliette Fay's characters are so lovable and emotionally complex it left me suffused with light and hope. I read this book in a gulp, alternately crying, laughing, and cheering."
—Ann Mah, bestselling author of The Lost Vintage
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
The Royal Correspondent by Alexandra Joel
For fans of: Meet Me in Monaco
by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
The author of The Paris Model captures the glamour, style, excitement, and romance of a bygone era in this sumptuous novel—set in the Sydney and London of the 1960s—about an up-and-coming young Australian reporter with a deadly secret.
"Joel does an expert job at portraying Blaise’s fortitude in her quest to achieve journalistic success in an era when women were often forced to choose between marriage and career. This will keep readers turning the pages."
—Publishers Weekly
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
The Stolen Lady by Laura Morelli
For fans of: The Ambassador's Daughter by Pam Jenoff
From the acclaimed author of The Night Portrait comes a stunning historical novel about two women, separated by five hundred years, who each hide Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa—with unintended consequences.
"Like the masterpiece she writes about, Laura Morelli has created a work of art that is impossible to forget. With beautifully rendered settings, expertly drawn characters and a storyline that immersed me from the very first page, The Stolen Lady is a wonderful homage to both art and the women in history who made art possible, but whose stories have been forgotten. A truly sublime novel."
—Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Secret
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
The Matter of Black Lives
edited by Jelani Cobb and David Remnick
For fans of: The Devil You Know by Charles M. Blow
A collection of The New Yorker‘s groundbreaking writing on race in America—including work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and more—with a foreword by Jelani Cobb.
"Immersive and engaging.... Reading three decades of essays on this important and urgent topic, one is appalled that we know so much and have repeatedly done so little with that knowledge, as well as simultaneously hopeful and skeptical that technological solutions can save us now."
—Library Journal
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Summer Light, and Then Comes the Night
by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
For fans of: Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken
From the "Icelandic Dickens (Irish Examiner)," a writer who "shares the elemental grandeur of Cormac McCarthy" (Times Literary Supplement), comes this profound and playful masterwork of literature that ponders the beauty and mystery of life and our deepest existential questions.
"Stefánsson (Fish Have No Feet) delivers a delightfully dishy look at a small Icelandic village in the 1990s.... There’s no overarching narrative, but it adds up to an immersive and funny portrait of a community whose members squabble and celebrate in equal measure. Readers will be hooked by the mishmash of neighborhood gossip."
—Publishers Weekly
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
Snowflake by Louise Nealon
For fans of: Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
An exquisitely talented young Irish writer makes her literary debut with this powerful and haunting novel—a tale of love and family, depression and joy, and coming of age in the twenty-first century that is a blend of Sally Rooney and Colm Tóibín.
"Can a young woman be innocent yet outrageous, longing to succeed at university yet close to failing, deeply embarrassed by her manic depressive mother yet devoted? Yes, yes, yes. Louise Nealon’s beguiling narrator Debbie is all these things, and much more. Snowflake is a wonderfully inventive, deeply felt novel full of the best kinds of surprises."
—Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
The Collector's Daughter by Gill Paul
For fans of: Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict
Bestselling author Gill Paul returns with a brilliant novel about Lady Evelyn Herbert, the woman who took the very first step into the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, and who lived in the real Downton Abbey, Highclere Castle, and the long after-effects of the Curse of Pharaohs.
"Consummate historical fiction writer Paul (Jackie and Maria) has crafted another binge-worthy novel that will enthrall readers."
—Library Journal
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal
For fans of: The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup
A missing girl, a hidden body, a decades-long cover-up, and old sins cast in new light: the classic procedural meets Scandinavian atmosphere in this rich, character-driven mystery, awarded Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, that heralds the American debut of a supremely skilled international writer.
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
I Was Never the First Lady by Wendy Guerra
For fans of: American Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
A lush, sensuous, and original tale of family, love, and history, set against the backdrop of the Cuban Revolution and its aftermath.
"Guerra’s novel is a grand if bittersweet valentine to Cuba."
—Kirkus Reviews
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LibraryReads Votes Due: August 1, 2021
The deadline to submit your votes is August 1!
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We hope you enjoy the books! For more information about LibraryReads, visit their website. Remember: Vote early! Vote often!
-Chris
