Top 10
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“Geraldine Brooks uses the Sarajevo Haggadah as the centerpiece for another brilliant historical novel. The history of the beautifully illustrated book is the basis for a journey through multiple eras, portraying the trials and travails of European Jews through the centuries. A must for lovers of books and great fiction.”
— Bill Cusumano, Nicola's Books, Ann Arbor, MI
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“Balram Halwai, living in contemporary India, is a man with aspirations and dreams he fears will never be realized considering his current position as a chauffeur and servant of the wealthy in a society with an absurdly large gap between rich and poor. As he takes it upon himself to rise above the muck in a series of unethical and criminal actions, The White Tiger will challenge your concepts of right and wrong and make you feel guilty for laughing along the way.”
— Jon Stich, DIESEL, A Bookstore, Oakland, CA
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“By the third page of this wonderful epistolary novel of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, I was captivated by its characters, especially the charming, self-effacing author, Juliet Ashton, and her emerging friendship, conducted by post, with the recently liberated islanders. The whole novel is an homage to books and bibliophiles, and a moving reflection on the horrors of war.”
— Cheryl McKeon, Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, WA
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“The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a beautifully written novel, translated from the French, with unforgettable characters, Renee, a concierge with a rich inner life, and Paloma, a surprisingly talented young girl. Read it and get a reality check on who we are beneath our images of age, class, and occupation.”
— Jane Jacobs, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
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“Set in the Connecticut suburbs of 1955, Revolutionary Road portrays the essential, continuing, now exacerbated American dilemma: How a young person might well live in America without conforming to the tedium of upward mobility and suburban family life. Nothing I have ever been told could have prepared me for this book's brilliance.”
— Richard Howorth, Square Books, Oxford, MS
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“During the siege of Leningrad in WWII, two young men are sent on an improbable errand. The horror of war is only heightened by the lightness with which Benioff handles their evolving friendship and the grim task that evolves from their mission. Great characters and authentic historical background make this a surprisingly winning novel.”
— Russ Lawrence, Chapter One Book Store, Hamilton, MT
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“Sarah's Key is told from both the perspective of an 10-year-old girl whose family is rounded up during the Vel D'Hiv in France in 1942 and an American who presently lives in Paris. The heartbreak is real, the love is true, and the need to find out how their two lives are connected made this one of my absolute favorites!”
— Sarah Galvin, The Bookstore Plus, Lake Placid, NY
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“Twelve-year-old Ares Ramirez lives in a trailer on the desolate shores of California's Salton Sea, where he tries to take care of his handicapped brother. Silver is a gifted writer whose story of a young man struggling with the burden of responsibility takes us to places both in the landscape and in the heart that enrich us as readers and make us grateful for such storytellers.”
— Marian Nielsen, Orinda Books, Orinda, CA
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“This funny novel of furniture moving gone awry is a magical realism quest for modern times. Parzybok's touching story explores the aimlessness of our culture, a society of jobs instead of callings, replete with opportunities and choices but without the philosophies and vocations we need to make meaningful decisions.”
— Josh Cook, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA
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“Sometimes, if you are very lucky, fate gives you a special friend. Denny's friend Enzo will stand by him through some of the best and worst times of his life, his faith in Denny bone deep. Enzo is a dog, a dog with a very old soul. Denny is a race driver with natural talent, but sometimes life gets in the way of natural talent, and the road can have sharp bends. Suffused with humor, love, pain, and valor, this should be one of the year's best books!”
— Deon Stonehouse, Sunriver Books, Sunriver, OR
Outstanding Debuts
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“What a beautiful, fascinating book! This story of a resourceful seven-year-old growing up in an isolated home in Maine will leave you wondering what 'dysfunctional' actually means and will prove that there are many different shapes of love.”
— Natasha Hayden, Summer's Stories, Kendallville, IN
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“This novel, told in short stories, follows the lives of four medical students from college to private practice. Vincent Lam uses spare, honest language to craft a work that I would recommend to anyone who has known what it is like to feel alone.”
— Suzanna Hermans, Oblong Books & Music, Rhinebeck, NY
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“At midlife, historian Ben Ohara renews his effort to write the paper that will secure his academic reputation, 'Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire.' However, he discovers himself exploring the events behind the many secrets in his family -- including his parents' internment during World War II and his brother's disappearance. Book groups will find this a rich book for discussion.”
— Sally Wizik Wills, Sister Wolf Books, Park Rapids, MN
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“Hillary Jordan's assured first novel (recipient of the Bellwether Prize for Fiction) is set on a 1946 Mississippi farm, where Laura, a woman who once thought herself past the chance of marriage, finds herself living with her husband, two daughters, and a difficult father-in-law. The demands of the weather and the land, the life of the black sharecroppers, and the struggles of the returning soldiers, offer Jordan ample material to make her novel both complex and heartbreaking.”
— Leslie Reiner, Inkwood Books, Tampa, FL
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“Jetta Carleton's 1962 classic, now available in a new edition, is a lovely, captivating, and surprising story about a deceivingly simple farm family with four daughters. It deals with big push-and-pull family issues like betrayal, doubt, and rebellion, on the one hand, and loyalty, faith, and forgiveness, on the other. This book has it all and says it beautifully.”
— Margie Petersen White, The Bookstore, Glen Ellyn, IL
Visiting Other Worlds
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“Beneath a Marble Sky is set in 17th-century India and tells the story of the building of the Taj Mahal. This book has all the wonderful elements necessary to keep you turning the pages.”
— Suzanne Droppert, Liberty Bay Books, Poulsbo, WA
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“Sixty-seven-year-old Trond Sander wants to live in peace and quiet but finds himself confronted with a turbulent period of his youth. This award-winning and provocatively written novel loses nothing in translation from Norwegian, and, after reading Petterson's novel, the conversation in our book group was lively and inspired.”
— Cynthia Claridge, Paulina Springs Books, Sisters, OR
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“I love, love, love this book! In the spirit of Memoirs of a Geisha, this story of the only commoner to ever to marry into the Japanese royal family is a perfect reading group selection!”
— Linda Grana, Lafayette Book Store, Lafayette, CA
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“Amelie Nothomb, an utterly winning and charming young author, has given us a delightful clash of cultures in the dating world, a light, quick, good-hearted plunge into the heart of Japan, from the perspective of a young Belgian girl who takes up teaching French there.”
— Nick DiMartino, University Book Store, Seattle, WA
American Tales
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“A random group of men are assembled to work on a mysterious building project in Southern Idaho. As the reader gets inside the heads of these men and realizes how each has been damaged by events in his past, it becomes obvious that lives are being reconstructed as well. This is a very good reading group choice.”
— Sue Buschmann, Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, IL
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“Through sparse, evocative language, we experience the closing night at a Red Lobster restaurant in a rundown New England mall. The tension between his ordered and ethical business life, and his more complicated personal life, causes Manny DeLeon, the manager, great conflict. A superb novella that took me right back to the kitchens and tables of my waitress days.”
— Sally Landaal, Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh, NC
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“Leif Enger again explores the often transparent line between good and bad, focusing his story on characters who fall in the gray in-between. Failed novelist Monte Becket accompanies his friend, Glendon Hale, a former outlaw, to Mexico to find Hale's estranged wife. Their adventures along the way, and the surprising end of their journey, make for an exciting and thought-provoking read.”
— Erica Caldwell, Present Tense, Batavia, NY
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“Song Yet Song is a compelling story of slaves' struggle for freedom in pre-Civil War Dorchester County, Maryland, where enslaved blacks lived alongside free blacks. The unpredictable human behavior that continues through the novel reinforces the idea that slavery came -- and comes -- in many forms, to money, to power, to ideas of others more powerful. This is a wonderfully readable book that questions what freedom really is, and it's an outstanding book club pick!”
— Helen Markus, HearthFire Books of Evergreen, Evergreen, CO
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“It is 1916 in a tuberculosis sanatorium on an alpine lake in the Adirondacks, a world away from WWI. Into this quiet world walks a wealthy patient who introduces weekly discussions that take over the lives of the inhabitants. Barrett uses the disease of tuberculosis brilliantly. The sudden appearance of the bacillus in lungs, the coughing fits, and the blood all evoke war itself, while fear of the disease creates an atmosphere of burgeoning suspicion and the lawless vigilantism that always seems to accompany war. A magnificent novel.”
— Betsy Burton, The King's English, Salt Lake City, UT
By By Brock Clarke
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
“The Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England is the most original novel I've read in recent memory. Thought-provoking, insightful, and funny, this is an unusual, and irresistible, story -- a moving portrait of an everyman, who is at once ordinary and singular. An intelligent and satisfying read.”
— Tova Beiser, Brown University Bookstore, Providence, RI
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“Struggling with ghosts, past and present, the Davidsen family embarks on a journey of self-discovery when their father dies. The drama of this novel is not the stuff of soap operas but rather the revelation that what may seem extraordinary upon discovery becomes, in the end, an ordinary life.”
— Beth Golay, Watermark Books, Wichita, KS
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“In a daring story of three unpredictable characters navigating the treacherous waters of class and race, of forbidden love, and of patriotism in the years right after WWII, Andrew Sean Greer renders an imaginative, moving, and wholly satisfying tribute to the real complexities of the human heart.”
— Marie du Vaure, Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, CA
The Impact of War
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“Set in the closing months of World War II, Skeletons at the Feast is a tale of romance, of a desperate last roll of the dice, of a quest for revenge, and a battle for survival. Gripping, illuminating, and, doubtlessly, controversial, the novel considers the question of collective guilt for the Holocaust and vividly illustrates the human costs of war.”
— Rich Rennicks, Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe, Asheville, NC
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“Inspired by the Sarajevo musician who, risking sniper fire, played his cello for 22 afternoons in honor of the 22 killed while standing in a breadline, this slim but powerful novel explores aspects of war not often addressed. Scenes of sorrow and danger, sacrifice and compromise make this a novel I will never forget.”
— Leslie Reiner, Inkwood Books, Tampa, FL
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“This uncommonly affecting page-turner, set in postwar Germany, evokes equal depths of thought and feeling. Written in spare, keenly observed prose, it is a story of love, and of personal and historical responsibility, and the novel's wrenching moral questions still have me in their grip.”
— John Willson, Eagle Harbor Book Company, Bainbridge Island, WA
Memorable Women
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“Does the world really need another book about Austen? Yes! To say 'no' would only deprive readers of all of this book's fun -- a guest/scavenger hunt/romantic romp all rolled up into one. Enjoy!”
— beth reynolds, Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, VT
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“Molly Gloss tells a heartwarming story of a young woman who earns her way as a 'horse gentler' on the eastern Oregon frontier during the early 1900s.”
— Sandra Palmer, Wy'east Book Shoppe & Art Gallery, Welches, OR
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“Groff's engrossing first novel is wonderfully difficult to classify. Willie Upton returns to her ancestral home in Templeton (actually Cooperstown, NY) to recover from a personal crisis. She then decides to seek the identity of her father. This mystery unfolds through the tales of long-dead relatives and others from Willie's past, which is also Cooperstown's past. And then there's that dead sea-monster that's brought out of the lake....”
— Carol Dunn, Northwind Book & Fiber, Spooner, WI
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“Told partly in narrative and partly through well-researched historical diaries and letters, this story of cancer survivor Mia Landan's renewal in a North Carolina cabin is a very powerful novel of forgiveness, redemption, and new birth.”
— Jackie Blem, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, CO
Contemporary Masters
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“A Thousand Splendid Suns, from the author of The Kite Runner, is a revealing story of the plight of two Afghan women, brought together by loss and war, both of whom you will come to love.”
— Beth Carpenter, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
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“Henry James is one of the masters of American fiction, and in this wonderful new book Toibin works magic, conjuring images of the author in unforgettable prose, evoking not just the man, but his writing as well. The result is a brilliant, believable (fictional) portrait of a most remarkable man.”
— Kathy Ashton, The King's English, Salt Lake City, UT
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“Louise Erdrich's complex history of the families in a North Dakota, mixed-blood, reservation town reveals its secrets slowly through the unique voices of the community. These characters require us to pay attention and move from psychological and philosophical musing to delightful storytelling full of magic and intrigue. Thoroughly enjoyable.”
— Kathleen Costello, Maria's Bookshop, Durango, CO
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“What Alan Moore crafted in the late 1980s unarguably catapulted the graphic novel to the forefront of pop culture and contemporary literature. Employing a deconstructed superhero persona, a comic within a comic, and a brutally honest commentary on American optimism, Moore gave rise to something exceedingly greater than the sum of its parts.”
— Katie Capaldi, McLean & Eakin Booksellers, Petoskey, MI
Mystery Marvels
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“I've fallen in love with a charming rural village in Canada and with a most delightful man, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec. Excellent characterization and plotting and a wonderful sense of humor make this a treasure to be savored. Don't miss it!”
— Susan Wasson, Bookworks, Albuquerque, NM
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“Set in Laos in 1975, The Coroner's Lunch introduces a terrific new sleuth, Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old Paris-trained doctor, the new national coroner. He knows nothing about forensic medicine but he does know about truth and corruption in high places. This enthralling book is a keeper, with a fascinating setting and an absolutely lovable and intriguing sleuth.”
— Pat Kehde, The Raven Bookstore, Lawrence, KS
Intriguing Tales
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“Rarely can one say that a book is both rapturous and relevant, but Russell has done it. We meet the actual architects of the Middle East settlement at the Cairo Conference of 1921 -- T.E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Winston Churchill -- through the eyes of the surprising protagonist, a 40-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio. It is a wonderful story that brings to life a period of history that has remarkable parallels to our own time.”
— Barbara Tolliver, The Traveler, Bainbridge Island, WA
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“A cold-case murder of two children and a new murder of a young girl are intertwined in this debut mystery by Irish author French. The tension and suspense created by tangled cases, friendships, and work relationships will generate lively discussion for book clubs, especially ones that enjoy reading mysteries.”
— Karen Ore, Llama Llama Books, Bozeman, MT
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“Like a modern, urban Crime and Punishment, this brilliant book is an intimate study of the interior lives of everyone touched by a too-quick trigger. You will be haunted by Price's riveting portraits of all involved, from the disillusioned detective to the victim's family, as well as the New York neighborhood they share.”
— Carla Jimenez, Inkwood Books, Tampa, FL
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“This is a story of three adults who've been best friends from childhood -- with an edge. This is a beautifully written novel, with soul.”
— Lisa Stefanacci, The Book Works, Del Mar, CA
Thought-Provoking Nonfiction
By By Barbara Kingsolver; Richard A. Houser; Steven L. Hopp
Harper Perennial
“Barbara Kingsolver's account of buying only food raised in her own neighborhood speaks to us all about the urgency of living on, and in, our respective communities.”
— Betsy Goree, The Book Shelf, Tryon, NC
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“Drawn from the work of StoryCorps, these stories of real people transport us into the lives of others -- and offer a much-needed reality check in these tough times! A great book club read.”
— Mary McDonald, Learned Owl Book Shop, Hudson, OH
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“Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma -- an examination from source to table of our food -- is wonderfully written and gives a well-rounded view of being green.”
— Teri Den Herder, UCSD Bookstore, La Jolla, CA
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“The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Talibanas backyard
Anyone who despairs of the individualas power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistanas treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schoolsaespecially for girlsathat offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortensonas quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, "Three Cups of Tea" combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.
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More Indie Next Lists
- February 2024 Indie Next List
- January 2024 Indie Next List
- Winter 2024 Reading Group Indie Next List
- January/February 2024 Kids Indie Next List
- December 2023 Indie Next List
- November 2023 Indie Next List
- November/December 2023 Kids Indie Next List
- October 2023 Indie Next List
- Fall 2023 Reading Group Indie Next List
- September 2023 Indie Next List