3 of 16

Rita:

Persuasion

by Jane Austen

27-seven-year-old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is "unworthy." The breakup produces in Anne a deep & long-lasting regret. When Wentworth later returns from sea a rich & successful captain, he finds Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin & his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. All the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Wiil Anne & Wentworth be reunited in their love? Austen once compared her writing to painting "on a little bit of ivory, 2 inches square." Readers will discover that neither her skill for delicate, ironic observations on social custom, love, & marriage nor her ability to apply a sharp-focus lens to English manners & morals has deserted her in her final finished work. On its most basic level, the book is a love story. On another level, it is a deft exploration of human foibles and social flux. 248p.

Rita says: We haven’t done a classic in a bit. This one has some really good satire in it.

Available everywhere and inexpensive.

4 of 16

Talya:

The Road to Tender Hearts

by Annie Hartnett

At 63 years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren't for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his eldest daughter and the way his marriage fell apart after that. But when PJ reads the obituary of his old romantic rival, he realizes his high school sweetheart is single again. PJ decides to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community to win Michelle back. Before PJ can hit the road, tragedy strikes, leaving PJ the guardian of his estranged brother's grandchildren. PJ figures the orphaned kids might benefit from getting out of town. PJ asks Sophie, his adult daughter who's adrift in her twenties, to come along to babysit. And there's one more addition to the roster: Pancakes, a former nursing home therapy cat with a knack of predicting death. This could be the second chance PJ has long hoped for--a fresh shot at love and parenting--but does he have the strength to do both those things again? It's very possible his heart can't take it.

369p.

WCLS 2 copies; FPL 3 copies; Multiple holds on ebook and audiobook copies; Amazon $15; Kindle $13

5 of 16

Trudy:

Kin

by Tayari Jones

An unforgettable novel about two lifelong friends whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of a devastating tragedy.

Vernice and Annie grow up as motherless neighbors and close friends in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, but their lives diverge as they reach adulthood. Vernice, raised by a protective aunt, leaves for Spelman College, where she becomes part of an influential community of Black women and confronts new experiences shaped by privilege, ambition, and social inequality. Annie, driven by the desire to find the mother who abandoned her, embarks on a journey marked by instability, risk, and emotional discovery, ultimately facing life-threatening circumstances. The novel explores themes of motherhood, friendship, identity, and the social complexities of womanhood in the American South.

343p.

Trudy says: It’s not a good idea to nominate a book I have not read, but based on the quality of An American Marriage, I nominate Kin by Tayari Jones.

WCLS 4 copies; FPL 7 copies; Amazon $19, Kindle $15

6 of 16

Sarah:

The Names

by Florence Knapp

This dazzling debut that asks : Can a name shape the course of a life? In the wake of an enormous, history-making storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying presence at home, intends for her to name the child after him. But when the registrar asks which name she wants to pick, Cora hesitates ... What follows are three alternate versions of both Cora's and her young son's life, shaped by her brave last-minute choice of name. Spanning 35 years, the novel draws us in from the first page, as we follow three unforgettable journeys of one young man, but also his mother, grandmother, and sister. In richly layered prose, The Names explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family, and the possibilities of autonomy and healing. With exceptional sensitivity and depth, Knapp draws us into the story of one family, told through a prism of what-ifs, and shows us what we each can do with the 'one precious life' we are given.

328p

Sarah: A “Sliding Doors” story with a bit more substance.

WCLS 3 copies; FPL 5 copies; multiple holds on ebook and audiobook versions; Amazon $15; Kindle $13

7 of 16

Christine and Ann:

Theo of Golden

by Allen Levi

One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from...or why... His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers. Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their 'rightful owners.' With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered. A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.

387p.

Christine says: It is a lovely book and well written.

WCLS 11 copies; FPL 12 copies; Ebook and audiobook have long wait list. $12 on Kindle. $15 at Amazon.

8 of 16

Leigh:

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

by Marina Lewycka

'Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.'

Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must put aside a lifetime of feuding to save their émigré engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth.

But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget . . .

294p.

FPL 1 copy. From $7.29 at Thriftbooks. $11 on Kindle.

9 of 16

Connie:

1984

by George Orwell

Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, Orwell’s narrative is timelier than ever. 1984 presents a startling and haunting vision of the world, so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the power of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions: a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.

Connie says: Just because we need to take another look at the book and the present state of our country.

Available everywhere and inexpensively.

10 of 16

De Ann:

Buckeye

By Patrick Ryan

In Bonhomie, Ohio, a stolen moment of passion, sparked in the exuberant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, binds Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, to Margaret Salt, a woman trying to obscure her past. Cal's wife Becky has a spiritual gift: she is a seer who can conjure the dead, helping families connect with those they've lost. Margaret's husband Felix is serving on a Navy cargo ship, out of harm's way--until a telegram suggests that the unthinkable might have happened. Later, as the country reconstructs in the postwar boom, a secret grows in Bonhomie--but nothing stays buried forever in a small town. Against the backdrop of some of the most transformative decades in modern America, the consequences of that long-ago encounter ripple through the next generation of both families, compelling them to reexamine who they thought they were and what the future might hold. 452p.

WCLS: 4 copies. FPL: 6 copies, ebook & audiobook have multiple holds. $17 at Amazon, $14 Kindle

11 of 16

Connie:

The Things We Never Say

by Elizabeth Strout

Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He goes about his days teaching American history to high schoolers, correcting their casual ignorance, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He spends his free time sailing the beautiful Massachusetts Bay, or with his adult son and his wife of more than three decades - and as Artie does these things, he plans the event that will forever change the world he inhabits. But when a startling accident awakens a new perspective in Artie, and he realizes that life has its own secret it's been keeping from him - along with a lot more to say on the weighty matters of fate and freedom in his home and his country - he charts another course full of grief, hilarity, and heart, to a place where the end marks the beginning. Elizabeth Strout, as we have come to expect, delivers a profound exploration of the human condition - one that brims with deep compassion for each and every one of her characters. With exquisite prose and gentle intimacy, Artie Dam takes one man's fears and loneliness and makes them universal. And in the same breath, captures the mysterious love that sustains and holds us through it all. 224p.

Connie says: I have not read it but it got great reviews on NPR.

WCLS 6 copies; FPL 2 copies; Multiple holds on ebook and audiobook; Amazon $25, Kindle $15

12 of 16

De Ann:

Valentine

by Elizabeth Wetmore

It's February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town's men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow. In the early hours of the morning after Valentine's Day, 14-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead's ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field--an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, the stage is set for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences. Valentine is a haunting exploration of the intersections of violence and race, class and region in a story that plumbs the depths of darkness and fear, yet offers a window into beauty and hope. Told through the alternating points of view of indelible characters who burrow deep in the reader's heart, this fierce, unflinching, and surprisingly tender novel illuminates women's strength and vulnerability, and reminds us that it is the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive.

308p.

WCLS, 2 copies; FPL, 2 copies. Ebook and audiobook available. Starts at $5.79 on Thriftbooks; Kindle, $15.

13 of 16

Nonfiction, Memoir, & Biography

14 of 16

Paula:

A Street Cat Named Bob and How He Changed My Life

by James Bowen

When street musician James Bowen found an injured cat curled up in the hallway of his apartment building, he had no idea how much his life was about to change. James was living hand to mouth on the streets of London, barely making enough money to feed himself, and the last thing he needed was a pet. Yet James couldn't resist helping the strikingly intelligent but very sick animal, whom he named Bob. He slowly nursed Bob back to health and then sent the cat on his way, imagining that he would never see him again. But Bob had other ideas.

An uplifting true story about a former drug addict. The book details how Bowen nursed the injured cat back to health, and Bob, in turn, helped Bowen overcome addiction and homelessness by accompanying him while he busked, bringing him attention and income, and giving him a new purpose. It's a heartwarming story about the bond between a man and an animal, which became an international sensation and was adapted into a major motion

279p.

WCLS 1 copy; FPL 1 copy. $6 up from Thriftbooks; $13 on Kindle

15 of 16

Leigh:

When Things Fall Apart

by Pema Chodron

The beautiful practicality of her teaching has made Pema Chödrön one of the most beloved of contemporary American spiritual authors among Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. A collection of talks she gave between 1987 and 1994, the book is a treasury of wisdom for going on living when we are overcome by pain and difficulties.

154p.

WCLS 1 copy; FPL 1 copy; Available on Libby as ebook and audiobook. $6.30 up from Thriftbooks; $16 on Kindle

16 of 16

Leigh:

The Serviceberry:

Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natrual World

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Robin Wall Kimmerer reflects on the practice of harvesting serviceberries and the concept of reciprocity central to Indigenous wisdom. She contrasts this with the dominant economic system rooted in scarcity, competition, and resource hoarding. Kimmerer highlights how the serviceberry tree, by sharing its abundance with its ecosystem, embodies a model of interdependence and mutual support. This ethic of reciprocity, she argues, shows us that true wealth arises from relationships, not self-sufficiency, and encourages us to reimagine our values in a way that nurtures both people and the planet.

128p.

WCLS 3 copies; FPL 6 copies; Available on Libby as ebook and audiobook. $11 from Amazon; $11 on Kindle