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Access our Top 20
Books of 2024!
Dear BookBrowsers,
It's a booklover's midsummer dream: to spend a whole day at the beach or in your backyard hammock, reading. Summer's necessary indulgences include chugging through a fast-paced novel or two, so we have included an entire lineup of gripping books that you simply won't be able to put down. Even better, they make for great discussion and come with reading guides, so you can be confident recommending them to your book club as well. Make sure to pack a couple of these in your beach bag. After all, every lazy day deserves page-turning action!
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I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh Paperback Nov 2016. 384 pages. Published by Berkley Books. Jacob's mother let her five-year-old son's hand go for just a fraction of a second. But it was enough to have him dart out onto a busy street and die from a hit-and-run accident. This devastating tragedy propels this pulse-pounding thriller that rattles our familiar assumptions about right and wrong and will test the sleuthing skills of even the most experienced mystery readers as twists and turns keep the action going to the very last page. Review, article, excerpt & reading guide |
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Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets Paperback Feb 2017. 336 pages. Published by Berkley Books. Looking for a well-plotted thriller with emotionally rich and complex characters? Look no further than this debut which alternates between the stories of two women, one presumed lost in the Colorado woods, and the other, the park ranger who is out on a search-and-rescue mission to save her. As the deep winter adds to the unpredictable circumstances, and the women's backstories slowly come into focus, this fast-paced novel brings the reader along on a wild guessing game. Review, article, excerpt & reading guide |
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Complicit by Stephanie Kuehn Paperback Mar 2016. 256 pages. Published by St. Martin's Griffin. Seventeen-year-old Jamie Henry has a fraught relationship with his older sister, Cat, who is now being released from the juvenile detention center for a devastating accident she caused. Jamie is worried about his sister upending his finally "normal" life but Cat has other plans. She is determined to prove that she is not who everyone else thinks she is. A powerful young adult story with an unreliable narrator who will keep you guessing. Review, article, excerpt & reading guide |
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A Small Indiscretion: A Novel by Jan Ellison Paperback Feb 2016. 352 pages. Published by Random House. Is it true what they say about youth being wasted on the young? Annie Black is a lighting designer and a mother of three now making a living in San Francisco but in her early twenties she was much more reckless and spent a winter in London acting on her impulses. Now, years later, a memory from that indiscretion, rears its head and threatens to derail all that Annie has carefully constructed. Excerpt, reading guide & online discussion |
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The Unquiet Dead: A Rachel Getty and Esa Khattak Novel by Ausma Zehanat Khan Paperback Dec 2015. 352 pages. Published by St. Martin's Griffin. What does the mysterious death of a white art collector in the suburbs of Toronto have to do with the war in the Balkans decades ago? What identity has the victim, Christopher Drayton, been hiding? Detective Essa Khattak, a Canadian Muslim who is in charge of community policing is determined to find out. The author's thorough knowledge of war crimes shows in this engaging and well-paced mystery. Review, article, excerpt & reading guide |
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The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley Paperback Jul 2015. 336 pages. Published by Bloomsbury USA. Take a journey through Victorian England in this delightful multi-faceted novel which starts off with a bomb and takes unexpected twists and turns through time and place. Among the many characters in this fascinating novel are a Japanese watchmaker who is accused of espionage and Grace, a physics student at Oxford. An ethereal air saturates this novel that will transport readers to a magical and faraway place. Review, article, excerpt & reading guide |
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The Painter by Peter Heller Paperback Mar 2015. 384 pages. Published by Vintage. Can a man truly run away from his past? Jim Stegner is an artist who once shot a man in Santa Fe and is trying to start afresh in the valleys of Colorado. But ingrained impulses die hard. When a brutal incident rekindles Stegner's memories and worse, drives his actions, things get messy very quickly. Narrated with brilliant splashes of color and an incisive look into the nature of violence, this is one compelling work of literary fiction. Review, article, excerpt & reading guide |
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Night Film by Marisha Pessl Paperback Jul 2014. 624 pages. Published by Random House. An elusive film director's daughter is found dead in a New York City park of an apparent suicide but one reporter wonders if there's more there than the eye can see. Chasing after the story, Scott McGrath goes down the rabbit hole of missed clues and weird goings-on at the director's estate. This brilliantly cinematic novel is full of the kind of magic that makes for stay-up-late-into-the-night reading. Review, article, excerpt & reading guide |
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The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair: A Novel by Joel Dicker Paperback May 2014. 656 pages. Published by Penguin Books. Many years ago a girl mysteriously disappears in the New Hampshire woods. Decades later, Marcus Goldman visits his mentor in the Granite State only to find out that he has been implicated in a scandal related to this same girl. Convinced there is more to the mystery, Goldman, a fledgling author, comes to the rescue the only way he knows how: through his writing. The story within the story nature of the novel leads to many complex layers that unravel as the book keeps readers hooked to the very end. Review, article, excerpt & reading guide |
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Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel Paperback Apr 2014. 352 pages. Published by Graywolf Press. This stunning novel is a two-fer: you get a gripping and complex story and great writing in one. The Helix is a cult dedicated to getting rid of loneliness but what connections does it have to North Korea? One government operative, who has her own intriguing connection to The Helix, is determined to find out. Filled with myriad plot twists and surprises and packed with brilliant metaphors, this novel gets high points for imaginative story and brilliant writing.. Review, article, excerpt & reading guide |
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