Phillips tells the harrowing story of how Forsyth County, where the author grew up, became a whites-only community for much of the 20th century in this absorbing work. In 1912, when a white woman, Mae Crow was nearly beaten to death, three black…
If you look at any "edgy" art student's portrait portfolio, Diane Arbus probably did it first. Originally a fashion photographer, she took her camera to places that few ventured during her time. Her subjects were outcasts, the disabled, the sick,…
Amor Towles's engaging and charming book opens shortly after the Russian Revolution. Count Alexander Rostov, an aristocrat leading a life of leisure, is deemed a "former person" and sentenced to house arrest in Moscow's luxurious Hotel Metropol by…
Set in the Irish city of Cork, McInerney’s debut novel centers on the lives of five of its least upstanding citizens. When the elderly Maureen Phelan murders an intruder while living in her son Jimmy’s building, she sets in motion a chain of events…
In this word-of-mouth hit, Vance relates his troubled upbringing, bouncing from home to home but ultimately saved by his tough-as-nails (and foul-mouthed) grandmother who provided some stability and stressed the value of education, a factor in his…
This novel tells the story of two half-sisters born to the same mother in eighteenth-century Ghana and how their lineage is impacted by slavery between then and now. Effia, despised by her stepmom, lives a privileged life after marrying a white man,…
Many have heard of the Mayan civilization and the ancient pyramids that were constructed in Mexico. Few, however, have heard of the men who “discovered” them and in doing so changed the way Western civilization viewed the ancient cultures of the…
Be prepared to laugh and cry during this light-hearted telling of the sad journey 42-year-old Ted Flask takes with his lovable, rambunctious 12-year-old dachshund while recovering from a break-up with his longtime partner. Even after Ted discovers a…
Bennett's outstanding debut novel is a thoughtful, moving story about mothers and mothering, featuring relatable characters and written with uncommon maturity and wisdom. Nadia is a gifted senior in high school, bound for a big university, who gets…
Investigative reporter Ethan Brown spent two years looking into the murders of eight women known as the Jeff Davis 8 in Jennings, Louisiana, a community of ten thousand. Law enforcement has suggested that a serial killer may be responsible for the…
Mrs. Laetitia Rodd, widow of an archdeacon, lives a quiet life in the village of Hampstead, doing charitable works and enjoying the company of her landlady Mrs. Bentley. She also sometimes solves "domestic mysteries" for her brother, a criminal…
An instant classic of domestic suspense, Jung Yun’s debut novel is a battle of nerves that fans of Gillian Flynn or Patricia Highsmith are sure to relish. Set after the housing crisis in 2008, Korean-American Kyung Cho is swimming in debt, the…
The author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is back with an excellent new novel set in the days leading up to WWI. Beatrice Nash, a young woman who lost her father, must earn her own living. Even though she is bright and well-educated, the small town…
This excellent historical fiction explores the phenomenon of the fasting girls, children who miraculously claimed not to eat. A skeptical English nurse who trained under Florence Nightingale is hired to keep watch over an Irish girl who claims not…
