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Clock Dance: A novel by Anne Tyler. Willa Drake, uneasily drifting on the placid stream
of advancing age with her second husband, impulsively
leaves her comfortable home in Arizona
for the mean streets of Baltimore. While caring
for the child of her son’s former girlfriend, who
has been left alone after her mother was hospitalized
for a gunshot wound, Willa rediscovers the purpose that had
evaporated out of her own life. The author’s gift for making gentle,
beautifully understated observations about the tenacity and the
frailties of human connections is evident throughout. I always feel
a little wiser when I finish an Anne Tyler book. ~ Alden GravesNONFICTION
HARDCOVER
Not for Long: The Life and Career of the NFL Athlete by Robert W. Turner II. Of the millions of boys
playing youth football,
only a tiny fraction
reach the NFL and
half of them play less
than four years. Turner
chronicles the difficulties
players face transitioning away from
a game that has defined their characters,
altered their minds, and, often, permanently
damaged their bodies. ~ Mike Hare 
The Eye: An Insider's Memoir of Masterpieces, Money, and the Magnetism of Art by Philippe Costamagna. Part memoir,
part essay and wholly art history, specifically about
being an “Eye.” Considered anathema by some
within the discipline of art history, there is a rarer
breed of specialist called “Eyes.” These are people
who have attained the necessary knowledge, but also possess a
talent of discernment; being able to verify (often at glance) the
authenticity of art works. This book is a memoir of masterpieces,
forgeries, money, and the mystery of what comprises art. This
book is passionate and marvelous. ~ Maeve Noonan 
Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O'Brien. The
iconic Amelia Earhart
joined a cadre of
women determined
to challenge men in
wildly popular, but
often deadly airplane
races during the Great
Depression. Speed and spectacle fueled
airborne ambitions where pilots, female
and male, risked death for the rush to
triumphantly soar. ~ Mike Hare
The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump by Michiko Kakutani. The embedding of
postmodern theory into
contemporary society,
warped and degraded
by politics, has broken
and divided us into our own bubbles
and factions. The renowned importance
of personal truths is what is at the heart
of Kakutani’s well-researched analysis on
our modern crisis. Thoroughly absorbing
and important. ~ Alex Bell 
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. was gripped
by the conflicting emotions of this book. Westover
puts serenity and danger at odds, each one vying
to be the main focus of a chapter. Her parents
had a fierce love for their children, but also had
fiercely unconventional and harmful beliefs. Her
writing is impressive. For all the bad things that
were happening in this story, I couldn’t help but count down the
minutes until I could be back reading about Buck Peak and the
people who lived there. It is a story of triumph and self sufficiency
that will inspire you to learn. ~ Molly Halpin PAPERBACK
American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee. This is the story of Yellowstone’s most famous wolf, affectionately known as
06 for the year she was born. Her legendary reign as the granddaughter of one of the first Canadian wolves brought to
repopulate the park in 1995 is both fascinating and magical. Yet American Wolf is a much larger and critical story. It
illuminates the inherent tensions of contemporary life in the American West and begs a number of important questions:
What do we value? What are we willing to sacrifice to preserve our precious wild places? ~ Nancy Scheemaker
The Incest Diary by Anonymous. A shocking anonymous confessional by a father of his daughter’s
abuse, told decades later. Like knowing a car wreck is about to happen before your eyes – no good can come of
it, but you can’t bring yourself to look away, or in this case, stop reading. Explicit and not for the faint of heart, but
fascinating for anyone who can stomach it. ~ Hanna Yost
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay. An incredibly honest anthology involving the personal
stories of individuals affected by sexual assault. Many unique insights from the authors provide the
reader with the opportunity to understand the different ways sexual trauma can impact one’s life.
This novel should become required reading to help rid the stigma and skepticism surrounding rape
culture. ~ Laura Knapp 
We Are All Shipwrecks: A Memoir by Kelly Grey Carlisle. A somewhat shocking memoir of a girl
whose mother was murdered in the mid 1970s, possibly an early victim of the Hillside Stranglers.
She is raised by her grandfather and his wife. He is, in turns, benevolent and indulgent, but also
vulgar, demanding and selfish. An interesting voyage through somebody else’s normal. ~ Shirley Cagle 
Ranger Games: A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime by Ben Blum. On the night he was due to ship out to Iraq, U.S. Army Ranger Alex Blum instead robbed a
Tacoma bank. His cousin Ben investigates why in this compelling story. Part memoir, part true crime, the book
is ultimately a unique look at the complexities of family and the demands of our fighting forces. It will keep you
gripped until the last page. ~ Charles Bottomley FICTION
The Seas by Samantha Hunt. There
are some novels I don’t
want to speak too much
about; I don’t want to
dilute the thrall they
held me in. This book
was beautiful and
mournful and full of
raw wonder, and it lives inside me now. ~ Cathy Taylor 
The Garden Party: A Novel by Grace Dane Mazur. Two dozen people
from the families of the
bride and groom gather
for a rehearsal dinner in
summery Massachusetts.
A three-year-old
who refuses to talk, a
young woman fond of sitting on the
roof, a golf fanatic, unhappily married
couples, mischievous kids, and a gardener
decked out in a tuxedo come together as
nervousness and awkwardness yield to
familiarity, including newfound friendship
between two heretofore strangers,
both about 90 years old. ~ Mike Hare
European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss. In this sequel
to The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter,
the Athena Club,
along with Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson, race across
Europe to save Lucinda Van Helsing
from a grisly fate. As they close in on
their quarry, our heroines face an evil so
powerful it could destroy them and all
they hold dear. Highest Recommend!! ~ Sarah Donner
The Last Cruise: A Novel by Kate Christensen. A rickety, aging
cruise ship, owned
by a skinflint company,
staffed by an insolent
crew, and boarded by
unwary passengers,
chugs from California to
Hawaii. In the middle of the vast ocean,
things start to go very wrong, and people
start to get very desperate, wondering if
they’ll ever see landfall again. ~ Mike Hare
Some Trick: Thirteen Stories by Helen DeWitt. This
author’s curiosity is
bottomless. Linguistics,
statistics, the
commodification of
art and intellect – her
interests are matched
by writing so good it’ll knock around
your brain for weeks. Her stories are
lethally hilarious. Her characters are
absurd and true, searching for sanity in
a mad world. There may be no room for
pure genius in a humdrum, capitalist
world, but this book, like its author, is
defiantly brilliant. ~ Cathy Taylor
Florida by Lauren Groff. This second
collection of Groff ’s
short fiction contains
stories of lost children,
sinkholes opening up
in backyards, persistent
snakes, of French vacations,
Guy de Maupassant,
hurricanes, a parent’s immediate
fears for the safety of her children and
the long-term fears of what kind of
future they might have in a world of
worsening climate change. I’m not sure
if the Florida Commission on Tourism
will be very happy about this book. ~ Dafydd Wood 
How to Be Famous: A Novel by Caitlin Moran. The London
music scene of 1995 is
tantalizing for Dolly, a
19-year old journalist.
Shows, parties, drinks,
and drugs abound, with
fame the giddiest drug of all. Its pursuit,
complicated by sex and money, spawns
edgy relationships, harsh reversals, and
unexpected revelations. ~ Mike Hare 
A Terrible Country: A Novel by Keith Gessen. Andrei Kaplan, an
academic in Russian
studies living in New
York, reluctantly
agrees to care for his
aging grandmother in
Moscow for a short
time. The lonely old woman drifts in and
out of reality, recalling to her grandson
the turbulent history of his family and
the country where he was born. Andrei
is gradually drawn into a political
movement dedicated to change, a risky
endeavor in contemporary Russia. This is
a warmly moving story of family bonds
played out against a dark and dangerous
backdrop. ~ Alden Graves 
Spinning Silver: A Novel by Naomi Novik. This is the Jewish
feminist fairy tale that
I didn’t know I needed.
A beautifully lyrical
re-interpretation of
Rumpelstiltskin, this
novel is told in multiple
voices as characters in a mythical
eastern European land fight against the
strictures that control their lives and take
away their choices. Complex, beautifully
written, and completely absorbing, this
is a book I will return to over and over. ~ Rachel Person 
Meet Me at the Museum: A Novel by Anne Youngson. This
wonderful novel is for
anyone who loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Two people are drawn
to each other by their shared interest in
old bones, archaeology, and the mystery
of “Bog Bodies.” This is a book about
deep friendships and the grace of aging.
It is romantic, poignant, and truthful. ~ Maeve Noonan PAPERBACK
Less by Andrew Sean Greer. Arthur
Less has always lived in the shadow cast by his
relationship with a brilliant poet. His measure as
a writer has always been eclipsed by the stature
of his lover. He decides to accept invitations to a
series of minor literary events around the world,
because it provides a convenient excuse to avoid attending the
wedding of another lover. Intermingling with people from other
cultures, he regains a sense of his own value both as an individual
and an artist. A dryly funny and immersive novel with a protagonist
whose self-doubts will be very familiar to all of us. ~ Alden Graves
Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery by Andrew Shaffer. With plenty of references to the eight years they
spent in office together, this mystery draws you
in with the prospect of a madcap caper as Joe
Biden and Barack Obama, amateur detectives,
bumble their way around blue-collar America.
The meat of the book – estranged friendships, an
ever-deepening web of seemingly-disconnected
evidence, and a vibrant cast of characters – is what keeps you invested.
Recommended reading for anyone wanting to spend just a
few more hours with America’s favorite bromance. ~ Andrew Bugenis 
Nothing Is Okay by Rachel Wiley. Wiley does not hold back. She
punches you in the eye with each and every poem. Sometimes twice,
just to make sure you are paying attention. She can be intensely feminist
and militant in her thoughts, words, and phrasing. Most of what she
says, however, can be relatable to almost anyone. Mostly, she deals with being a “fat
girl” who has learned to love herself despite having to fight for it. Other themes
include love, loss, living as a biracial, lesbian woman, and so much more. ~ Jeanette 
