The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Angie Thomas's searing debut about an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances addresses issues of racism and police violence with intelligence, heart, and unflinching honesty.
 
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does - or does not - say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

444 pages. (February 2017)

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Title Read-alikes: I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina; Slay by Brittney Morris; Light It Up by Kekla Magoon; All American Boys by Jason Reynolds; The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed; Dear Martin by Nic Stone; The Truth of Right Now by Kara Lee Corthron; I'm Not Dying With You Tonight by Kimberly Jones; Amelia Westlake Was Never Here by Erin Gough; Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon; The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie; American Street by Ibi Zoboi; All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven; and Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson.

Just Mercy : a story of justice and redemption by Bryan Stevenson

A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.

336 pages (October 2014)

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Title Read-alikes: Beneath a Ruthless Sun by Gilbert King; Convicting the Innocent by Stanley Cohen; What the Eyes Don't See by Mona Hanna-Attisha; Confessions of an Innocent Man by David R. Dow; The Work by Wes Moore; On the Run by Alice Goffman; A Knock at Midnight by Brittany K. Barnett; Deep Delta Justice by Matthew Van Meter; The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander; Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates; Actual Innocence by Barry Scheck; Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance; and Anatomy of Injustice by Ramond Bonner.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

In this bestselling and delightfully quirky debut novel from Sweden, a grumpy yet lovable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

A feel-good story in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Fredrik Backman’s novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful and charming exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others.

337 pages (July 2014)

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Title Read-alikes: Elling by Ingvar Ambjørnsen; Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam; The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune; The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 ¼ Years Old by Hendrik Groen; The Big Finish by Brooke Fossey; The Red Address Book by Sofia Lundberg; There Must Be Some Mistake by Frederick Barthelme; The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons; Elevation by Stephen King; Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior; Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson; Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman; and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose.

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

369 pages (December 2012)

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Title Read-alikes: The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves; How to Walk Away by Katherine Center; Photos of You by Tammy Robinson; My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan; You're Not You by Michelle Wildgen; We Are All Made of Stars by Rowan Coleman; The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison; Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg; Every Note Played by Lisa Genova; The Things We Keep by Sally Hepworth; All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews; The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty; and The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously-and at great risk-documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart

344 Pages. (March 2011)

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Title Read-alikes: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein; The Boy on the Bridge by Natlie Standiford; Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian; Someday We Will Fly by Rachel DeWoskin; Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath; Torn Thread by Anne Isaacs; Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz; Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin; The Winter Horses by Philip Kerr; The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig; Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly; Memories of My Future by Ammar Habib; and A Night Divided by Jennifer A Nielsen.

Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe-and built her back up again.

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than "an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise." But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.

Strayed faces down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.

315 pages (March 2012)

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Title Read-alikes: Turning by Jessica J. Lee; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert; Braver Than You Think by Maggie Downs; Alone Time by Stephanie Rosenbloom; Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Ben Montgomery; Claiming Ground by Laura Bell; Blue Plate Special by Kate Christensen; Pomegranate Season by Carolyn Polizzotto; A Blistered Kind of Love by Angela Ballard; Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls; Dances with Marmots by George C. Spearing; and I Promise Not to Suffer by Gail Storey.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Marriage can be a real killer.

One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

419 pages (June 2012)

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Gone Girl: Gillian Flynn explains that ending from Entertainment Weekly  (⚠ SPOILERS ABOUND...)

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Title Read-alikes: Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre; Watching Edie by Camilia Way; In the Blood by Lisa Unger; The Silent Wife by A. S. A. Harrison; After Anna by Alex Lake; Beside Myself by Ann Morgan;; The Good Girl by Mary Kubica; Monday's Lie by Jamie Mason; Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney; The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen; The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins; The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold; and Let the Dark Flower Blossom by Narah Labiner.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.

 

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

 

552 pages (January 2005)

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Title Read-alikes: Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys; Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit; Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli; Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang; All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton; Lovely War by Julie Berry; Ashes by Kathryn Lasky; Malka by Mirjam Pressler; The Love That I Have by James Moloney; The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel; They Went Left by Monica Hesse; All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr; and The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb....

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

278 pages (July 2008)

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Title Read-alikes: The Storied Life of A. J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin; La's Orchestra Saves the World by Alexander McCall Smith; Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson; Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay; The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner; Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole; I'll Be Seeing You by Suzanne Hayes; 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff; The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit; Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey; All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr; The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah; and The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.