2020 Great Group Reads

Go west, young man. Isn’t that the advice every east coast boy has considered at least once in his life?

At nineteen, almost twenty, Ron Bancroft thinks those words sound pretty good. Newly out as transgender, Ron finds himself adrift: kicked out by his family, jilted by his girlfriend, and unable to afford to return to college in the fall. So he...

The Exiles

“I just read The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline (the author of Orphan Train) and loved it. We meet three unforgettable characters whose shocking and disquieting paths bring them together in nineteenth-century Australia. Matheinna, an orphaned aboriginal girl, is taken to live with a wealthy couple as an experiment in civilizing natives, which does not go well. Evangeline and Hazel are criminals sent to Australia to finish their sentences, and their trip across the ocean is frightening and unforgettable. The Exiles shows us the strength and power of female friendships, and the will to survive and find a life worth living. I can’t wait for The Exiles to be published this fall so I can recommend it to readers of historical fiction. This will be a novel that people across the world will want to read, or listen to, more than once. It’s that good.”

Sarah, Loganberry Books

In Five Years

“Sometimes a book comes along that is exactly what you need at the moment. That's what “In Five Years” was for me last week. Partly because it’s a love story with a bit of magic. Partly because I adored the friendship between the two very different main characters: pragmatic Dannie and whimsical Dannie. This book gave me all the feels, a few laughs and maybe a few tears. It is Me Before You by Jojo Moyes meets Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. Best paired with whitefish salad on a bagel. Seasoned Broadway veteran Megan Hilty (who also played Ivy Lynn in Smash on NBC) narrates the audiobook, and I loved her performance.”

Tara, Aesop's Fable

In this stunningly original debut novel that will appeal to readers of The Power or Never Let Me Go, a synthetic woman—created solely to serve her human “Husband”—slowly comes to the realization that her Husband is far less invested in her well-being than she is in his . . . sending her on a harrowing emotional journey of self-realization as she... Read more »

Miracle Creek

“Miracle Creek is a courtroom drama with impeccable pacing, an original plot, and stellar writing. It’s also a remarkably empathetic book, exploring the ripple effects of causality and the urgent need to do right by each other in big and small ways, recognizing that even the best of us will fail once in a while. It is a lovely reminder that even when doing the right thing feels like swimming upstream, we never know what harm may be prevented and what good might come from our actions. Agreat read that deserves broad success.”

Sara Hinckley, Hudson Booksellers

The Prettiest Star

“This beautiful, elegiac novel tells the story of the last homecoming to rural Ohio for Brian, who is dying of AIDS at the height of the 1980s epidemic. Told with empathy and heart, complemented by a pitch-perfect sense of time and place, The Prettiest Star is a deeply affecting story about what it means to understand each other and where we come from, even when our lives have taken us light years away.”

Ashley Warlick, M. Judson Booksellers & Storytellers

Ramiza Shamoun Koya reveals the devastating cost of anti-Muslim sentiment in The Royal Abduls, her debut novel about an Indian America family.

Evolutionary biologist Amina Abdul accepts a post-doc in Washington, DC, choosing her career studying hybrid zones over a faltering West Coast romance. Her brother and sister-in-law welcome her to the...

Father Paul, a gay priest, reflects on his life while his sister and niece grapple with the life choices they’ve made.

Set in Rome, Cape Cod, and Wisconsin over the course of the summer of 2009 and in Rome during the spring of 1970, The Wanting Life tells the intertwined story of three members of the Novak family: Father Paul, a closeted gay...