The Boys in the Boat: nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel Brown

For readers of Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit and Unbroken, the dramatic story of the American rowing team that stunned the world at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics

Daniel James Brown's robust book tells the story of the University of Washington's 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.

The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled  by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism.

Drawing on the boys' own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant. It will appeal to readers of Erik Larson, Timothy Egan, James Bradley, and David Halberstam's The Amateurs.

741 pages (June 2013)

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Title Read-alikes: Touch the Top of the World: a blind man's journey to climb farther than the eye can see by Erik Wehenmayer; Games of Deception: the true story of the first U.S. Olympic basketball team at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany by Andrew Maraniss; Outcasts United: the story of a refugee soccer team that changed a town by Warren St. John; Dust Bowl Girls: the inspiring story of the team that barnstormed its way to basketball glory by Lydia Reeder; The Three-Year Swim Club: the untold story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and their quest for Olympic glory by Julie Checkoway; Olympic Gold 1936: how the image of Jesse Owens crushed Hitler's evil myth by Michael Burgan; What a Kick by Emma Carlson Berne; 1776 by David McCullough; Into Thin Air: a personal account of the Mount Everest disaster by Jon Krakauer; Course Correction: a story of rowing and resilience in the wake of Title IX by Ginny Gilder; Bucking the Sun by Ivan Doig; The Last Amateurs: to hell and back with the Cambridge boat race crew by Mark de Rond; and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain

It is 1960 in North Carolina and the lives of Ivy Hart and Jane Forrester couldn’t be more different. Fifteen-year-old Ivy lives with her family as tenants on a small tobacco farm, but when her parents die, Ivy is left to care for her grandmother, older sister and nephew. As she struggles with her grandmother’s aging, her sister’s mental illness and her own epilepsy, she realizes they might need more than she can give.
 

When Jane Forrester takes a position as Grace County’s newest social worker, she is given the task of recommending which of her clients should be sterilized without their knowledge or consent. The state’s rationalization is that if her clients are poor, or ill, or deemed in some way "unfit," they should not be allowed to have children. But soon Jane becomes emotionally invested in her clients’ lives, causing tension with her new husband and her supervisors. No one understands why Jane would want to become a caseworker for the Department of Public Health when she could be a housewife and Junior League member. As Jane is drawn in by the Hart women, she begins to discover the secrets of the small farm --- secrets much darker than she would have guessed. Soon, she must decide whether to take drastic action to help them, or risk losing a life-changing battle.

Necessary Lies is the story of these two young women, seemingly worlds apart, but both haunted by tragedy. Jane and Ivy are thrown together and must ask themselves: How can you know what you believe is right, when everyone is telling you it’s wrong?

343 pages (September 2013)

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Title Read-alikes: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate; Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout; God Help the Child by Toni Morrison; The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips; The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin; Some Luck by Jane Smiley; The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray; Nightwoods by Charles Frazier; Betty by Tiffany McDaniel; Cold Rock River by J. L. Miles; Unfit by Lara Cleveland Torgeson; The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult;  and 28 Summers by Erin Hilderbrand.

The Seven Good Years: a memoir by Etgar Keret

A brilliant, life-affirming, and hilarious memoir from a “genius” (The New York Times) and master storyteller.

The seven years between the birth of Etgar Keret’s son and the death of his father were good years, though still full of reasons to worry. Lev is born in the midst of a terrorist attack. Etgar’s father gets cancer. The threat of constant war looms over their home and permeates daily life.

What emerges from this dark reality is a series of sublimely absurd ruminations on everything from Etgar’s three-year-old son’s impending military service to the terrorist mind-set behind Angry Birds. There’s Lev’s insistence that he is a cat, releasing him from any human responsibilities or rules. Etgar’s siblings, all very different people who have chosen radically divergent paths in life, come together after his father’s shivah to experience the grief and love that tie a family together forever. This wise, witty memoir—Etgar’s first nonfiction book published in America, and told in his inimitable style—is full of wonder and life and love, poignant insights, and irrepressible humor.
 

171 pages (June 2015)

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Title Read-alikes: Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast; Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen; The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan; The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper; The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion; Dimestore by Lee Smith; Reading My Father by Alexandra Styron; Riding with the Ghost by Justin Taylor; A Place of Exodus by David Biespiel; Second Person Singular by Sayed Kashua; A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz; A Table for One by Aharon Appelfeld; and The Hilltop by Assaf Gavron.

Root, Petal, Thorn by Ella Joy Olsen

"Provocative in the way it explodes and expands the category of historical fiction." —Salt Lake Tribune

 

In this beautifully written and powerful debut novel, Ella Joy Olsen traces the stories of five fascinating women who inhabit the same  historic home over the course of a century—braided stories of love, heartbreak and courage connect the women, even across generations.

Ivy Baygren has two great loves in her life: her husband, Adam, and the bungalow they buy together in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Salt Lake City, Utah. From the moment she and Adam lay eyes on the  home, Ivy is captivated by its quaint details—the old porch swing, ornate tiles, and especially  an heirloom rose bush bursting with snowy white blossoms.  Called the Emmeline Rose for the home’s original owner, it seems yet another sign that this place will be Ivy’s happily-ever-after…Until her dreams are shattered by Adam’s unexpected death.

Striving to be strong for her two children, Ivy decides to tackle the home-improvement projects she and Adam once planned. Day by day, as she attempts to rebuild her house and her resolve, she uncovers clues about previous inhabitants, from a half-embroidered sampler to buried wine bottles. And as Ivy learns about the women who came before her—the young Mormon torn between her heart and anti-polygamist beliefs, the Greek immigrant during World War II, a troubled single mother in the 1960s—she begins to uncover the lessons of her own journey. For every story has its sadness, but there is also the possibility of blooming again, even stronger and more resilient than before…

Ella Joy Olsen lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in a century old brick bungalow with her husband and three children. She has spent nearly a decade on the Board of Directors for the Salt Lake City Public Library system (and even more years browsing the stacks), and is a member of Women's Fiction Writers and the best book club ever, (SLC Bibliophiles).

294 pages (August 2016)

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Title Read-alikes: Nine Women, One Dress by Jane L. Rosen; Blessing in Disguise by Danielle Steel; Two from the Heart by James Patterson; A Girl's Guide to Moving On by Debbie Macomber; The Summer Cottage by Viola Shipman; The Friendship List by Susan Mallery; Someday Home by Lauraine Snelling; Fly Away by Kristin Hannah; The Scoop by Fern Michaels; Echoes of Family by Barbara Claypole White; The Language of Sisters by Cathy Lamb; The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall; and Letters from Skye by Jessica Blackmole.

Trust No One by Paul Cleave

In the exciting new psychological thriller by the Edgar-nominated author of Joe Victim, a famous crime writer struggles to differentiate between his own reality and the frightening plot lines he's created for the page.

Jerry Grey is known to most of the world by his crime writing pseudonym, Henry Cutter - a name that has been keeping readers at the edge of their seats for more than a decade. Recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at the age of forty-nine, Jerry's crime writing days are coming to an end. His twelve books tell stories of brutal murders committed by bad men, of a world out of balance, of victims finding the darkest forms of justice. As his dementia begins to break down the wall between his life and the lives of the characters he has created, Jerry confesses his worst secret: The stories are real. He knows this because he committed the crimes. Those close to him, including the nurses at the care home where he now lives, insist that it is all in his head, that his memory is being toyed with and manipulated by his unfortunate disease. But if that were true, then why are so many bad things happening? Why are people dying?

Hailed by critics as a "masterful" (Publishers Weekly) writer who consistently offers "ferocious storytelling that makes you think and feel" (The Listener) and whose fiction evokes "Breaking Bad reworked by the Coen Brothers" (Kirkus Reviews), Paul Cleave takes us down a cleverly twisted path to determine the fine line between an author and his characters, between fact and fiction.

345 pages (August 2015)

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Title Read-alikes: The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters; Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante; Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey; Still Alice by Lisa Genova; Engleby by Sebastian Faulks; Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson; The Good Son by Yu-jŏng Chŏng; Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin; Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney; The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon; Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon; Watching Edie by Camilla Way; and In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware.

Spare Parts : four undocumented teenagers, one ugly robot, and the battle for the American dream by Joshua Davis

Four undocumented Mexican American students, two great teachers, one robot-building contest...and a major motion picture.

In 2004, four Latino teenagers arrived at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. They were born in Mexico but raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where they attended an underfunded public high school. No one had ever suggested to Oscar, Cristian, Luis, or Lorenzo that they might amount to much - but two inspiring science teachers had convinced these impoverished, undocumented kids from the desert who had never even seen the ocean that they should try to build an underwater robot.

And build a robot they did. Their robot wasn't pretty, especially compared to those of the competition. They were going up against some of the best collegiate engineers in the country, including a team from MIT backed by a $10,000 grant from ExxonMobil. The Phoenix teenagers had scraped together less than $1,000 and built their robot out of scavenged parts. This was never a level competition - and yet, against all odds... they won!

But this is just the beginning for these four, whose story - which became a key inspiration to the DREAMers movement - will go on to include first-generation college graduations, deportation, bean-picking in Mexico, and service in Afghanistan.

Joshua Davis' Spare Parts is a story about overcoming insurmountable odds and four young men who proved they were among the most patriotic and talented Americans in this country - even as the country tried to kick them out.

224 pages (December 2014)

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Title Read-alikes:  The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe; 14 Miles by D. W. Gibson; Science Fair Season by Judy Dutton; The New Cool by Neal Bascomb; School of Dreams by Edward Humes;  The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe; The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley; The Book of Isaias by Daniel Connolly; Hold Fast to Dreams by Beth Zasloff; A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves by Jason DeParle; The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea; The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande; Some Assembly Required by Ann Andrews; and The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

A “cheerfully engaging” (Kirkus) novel for anyone who’s ever asked herself, “How did I get here?”

Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child.

So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over—she’s getting divorced, , she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over…

Liane Moriarty is the author of two other novels, Three Wishes and The Last Anniversary, both of which have been published around the world and translated into seven languages. She is also the author of the Nicola Berry series for children. Moriarty lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and two small, noisy children.

337 pages (June 2011)

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Title Read-alikes: Landline by Rainbow Rowell; Time of My Life by Alison Winn Scotch; How to Walk Away by Katherine Center; Where Love Lies by Julie Cohen; Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore; First Comes Love by Emily Giffin; The One That Got Away by Leigh Himes; In Five Years by Rebecca Serle; Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng; The Guest List by Lucy Foley; Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple; Me Before You by Jojo Moyes; and The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.

The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens

“Lori Lansens has created a heart-pounder of a book that is every bit as much of an emotional roller-coaster as an adventurous one” (New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult).

Four lost hikers are about to discover they’re capable of something extraordinary.

Nola has gone up the mountain to commemorate her wedding anniversary, the first since her beloved husband passed. Blonde, stick-thin Bridget is training for a triathalon. Vonn is working out her teenage rebellion at eight thousand feet, driven by family obligation and the urge to escape her mistakes. Still reeling from the tragic accident that robbed him of his best friend, Wolf Truly is the only experienced hiker among them, but he has come to the cliffs on his eighteenth birthday without food or supplies because he plans to take his own life.

When a series of missteps strands this unusual group together in the wilderness, they soon realize that their only defense against the brutality of nature is one another. As one day without rescue spirals dramatically into the next, and misadventure turns to nightmare, these four broken souls begin to form an inextricable bond, pushing themselves and one another further than they ever could have dreamed possible. The three who make it home alive will be forever changed by their harrowing days on the mountain.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls, The Mountain Story is a fast-paced, suspenseful adventure and a gorgeous tribute to the resilience of the human spirit. Braving a landscape both unforgivingly harsh and breathtakingly beautiful, Nola, Bridget, Vonn, and Wolf find themselves faced with an impossible question: How much will they sacrifice for a stranger?

312 pages (May 2015)

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Title Read-alikes: Wilderness by Lance Weller; Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets; Girl Underwater by Claire Kells; The Sea Runners by Ivan Doig; The Cage by Audrey Schulman; Road Ends by Mary Lawson; My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent; Sweetland by Michael Crummey; The River by Peter Heller; Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova; The River at Night by Erica Ferencik; The Orenda by Joseph Boyden; and The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin.