Book Nook Cafe discussion

Here are lists of book suggestions that I get from various libraries and around the net.

Feel free to share any book lists your library creates.

----- Glory Be
by Danielle Arceneaux

Elderly Glory Brussard spends her time at church and running her bookie business. But when her nun best friend dies and the local Louisiana cops call it a suicide, Glory works with her lawyer daughter, who's come home from New York City, to uncover the truth in this "delightful debut" (Publishers Weekly). Read-alikes: Ellen Byron's Cajun Country mysteries; De'Shawn Charles Winslow's Decent People.



----- Murder Most Royal
by SJ Bennett

At Sandringham estate for Christmas in 2016, Queen Elizabeth II and her private secretary, Rozie Oshodi, investigate when a severed hand washes ashore on a nearby Norfolk beach in this "marvelous" (Library Journal) 3rd in a fun series. Read-alikes: A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair; Rhys Bowen's Royal Spyness historical mysteries.



----- Dangerous Women
by Mark De Castrique

Ethel Crestwater, a 75-year-old retired FBI agent now running a D.C.-area boardinghouse, investigates with help from a 20-something relative when an apparent mugging of two Supreme Court law clerks leaves one dead and the other (who's one of Ethel's boarders) comatose, in this entertaining follow-up to Secret Lives. Read-alikes: Tess Gerritsen's The Spy Coast; Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club novels.



------ Deus X
by Stephen Mack Jones

Detroit ex-cop August Snow, who won a multi-million dollar settlement for wrongful dismissal, investigates the suspicious suicide of a local priest, the unexpected retirement of a close priest friend, and the arrival of a menacing Vatican representative. Though this is the gritty 4th in the August Snow series, new readers can start here. Read-alike: Joe Ide's IQ series.



------ The Frozen River
by Ariel Lawhon

In 1789 Maine, a man accused of rape is found frozen in the river while his partner, a judge, has disappeared. Midwife Martha Ballard (who's based on a real person) investigates it all in this intricate tale that combines history, mystery, and courtroom suspense. Read-alikes: Sam Thomas' Midwife mysteries; Eleanor Kuhns' Will Rees mysteries; Eliot Pattison's Bone Rattler mysteries.



------- Home at Night
by Paula Munier

When Grackle Tree Farm goes up for sale, Mercy Carr wants it, even though it's supposed to be haunted. But the body she finds in the library is all too real in this atmospheric page turner that finds Mercy and her dog Elvis looking for a ruthless killer. This "superb" (Library Journal) 5th outing for Mercy and Elvis works well as a standalone.



------ Murder in Drury Lane
by Vanessa Riley

Enjoying an evening at a Drury Lane theater, Lady Abigail Worthing, a young biracial woman in 1806 London whose older husband is always away exploring, teams up with her naval hero neighbor to investigate when a playwright is murdered in this 2nd in a charming series. For fans of: Netflix's Bridgerton; Katharine Schellman's Lily Adler mysteries.



------ Sweet Thing
by David Swinson

It's late 1999, Y2K looms, and Washington D.C. homicide detective Alex Blum links a new murder to one of his old informants, who's just gone missing. Now, the informant's beautiful, troubled girlfriend needs help, which Blum willingly provides...but at what cost? Read-alikes: George Pelecanos; The Force by Don Winslow.

~~~~Cold Enough for Snow
Au, Jessica
A mother and daughter travel from abroad to meet in Tokyo: they walk along the canals through the autumn evenings, escape the typhoon rains, share meals in small cafes and restaurants, and visit galleries to see some of the city's most radical modern art. All the while, they talk: about the weather, horoscopes, clothes, and objects, about family, distance, and memory. But uncertainties abound. Who is really speaking here? And what is the real reason behind this elliptical, perhaps even spectral journey?


------Epic Snow Adventures of the World : Experience the World’s Most Thrilling Winter Adventures
Canning, Amanda
Explore the world's most thrilling snow adventures with the latest instalment in Lonely Planet's Epic series. From skiing British Columbia's Coast Mountains to ice-caving in Iceland and splitboarding the mountains of Hokkaido in Japan, this book contains 50 first-person stories plus a further 150 route ideas.


------Dead and Gondola : A Christie Bookshop Mystery
Claire, Ann
Ellie Christie is thrilled to begin a new chapter. She's recently returned to her tiny Colorado hometown to run her family's historic bookshop with her elder sister Meg and their beloved cat Agatha. Perched in a Swiss-style hamlet accessible by ski gondola and a twisty mountain road, the Book Chalet is a famed bibliophile destination known for its maze of shelves and relaxing reading lounge. At least, until trouble blows in with a wintry whiteout: a man is found dead on the gondola and a rockslide throws the town into lockdown--no one in, no one out.


------Kiss Her Once for Me
Cochrun, Alison
One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money. Finding work at a local coffee shop, she's just getting through the days-until Andrew, the shop's landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie's financial woes and isolation.


-----The Joy of Winter Hiking : Inspiration and Guidance for Cold Weather Adventures
Dellinger, Derek
Your daily dose of nature doesn't have to retreat with the warm weather. The Joy of Winter Hiking is your ultimate guide to getting outdoors in the most underrated season. In fact, author Derek Dellinger believes you should be seeking outdoor adventure in colder months, not just in spite of snow and cloudy days, but because of these factors! From unmatched snow-capped views to the mental and physical health benefits of nature to precious wildlife sightings, the winter holds endless hiking opportunities.


------A Winter's Rime
Dunbar, Carol
Mallory Moe is a twenty-five-year-old veteran Army mechanic, living with her girlfriend, Andrea, and working overnights at a gas station store while figuring out what's next. Andrea's off-grid cabin provides a perfect sanctuary for Mallory, a synesthete with a hypersensitivity to sound that can trigger flashbacks from her childhood. The getaway that's largely abandoned during the off season starts out idyllic, until Andrea's once-loving behavior turns controlling and abusive, and Mallory once again finds herself not wanting to go home.


------The Hunting Party
Foley, Lucy
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they've chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands--the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves. The trip began innocently enough but after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group's tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year's Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

-------Season of Love
Greer, Helena
Artist Miriam Blum has her decoupaged glitter ducks perfectly lined up. Only for one phone call to bring her whole life all crashing down. Her beloved and eccentric great-aunt has just died-leaving her part-owner of the only Jewish-owned Christmas tree farm in the country. Facing the family Miriam abandoned terrifies her. But facing the farm's unbelievably sexy zaftig manager is another complication entirely.

-----Empire of Ice and Stone : The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk
Levy, Buddy
In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world's greatest living ice navigator. The expedition's visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame. Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again. Twenty-two men and an Inuit woman with two small daughters now stood on a mile-square ice floe, their ship and their original leader gone.


-----Winter Pasture : One Woman’s Journey With China’s Kazakh Herders
Li, Juan
Li Juan and her mother own a small convenience store in the Altai Mountains in Northwestern China, where she writes about her life among grasslands and snowy peaks. To her neighbors' surprise, Li decides to join a family of Kazakh herders as they take their 30 boisterous camels, 500 sheep and over 100 cattle and horses to pasture for the winter. As she journeys across the vast, seemingly endless sand dunes, she helps herd sheep, rides horses, chases after camels, builds an underground home using manure, gathers snow for water, and more.


------Seeing Silence : The Beauty of the World’s Most Quiet Places
McBride, Peter
We tend to think of silence as the absence of sound, but it is actually the void where we can hear the sublime notes of nature. In Seeing Silence, McBride reveals the wonders of these hushed places in spectacular imagery. Often showing beauty from vantages where no photographer has ever stood, this seven-continent visual tour of global quietude will both inspire and calm.


-----Lean Fall Stand
McGregor, Jon
Robert 'Doc' Wright, a veteran of Antarctic surveying, was there on the ice when the worst happened. He holds within him the complete story of that night--but depleted by the disaster, Wright is no longer able to communicate the truth. Instead, in the wake of the catastrophic expedition, he faces the most daunting adventure of his life: learning a whole new way to be in the world. Meanwhile Anna, his wife, must suddenly scramble to navigate the sharp and unexpected contours of life as a caregiver.


-----Still Life
Penny, Louise.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.


------Into the Great Emptiness : Peril and Survival on the Greenland Ice Cap
Roberts, David
In August 1930, Henry George Watkins (nicknamed Gino), a 23-year-old explorer, led thirteen scientists and explorers on an ambitious journey to the east coast of Greenland and its vast and forbidding interior. Their mission: chart and survey the region and establish a permanent meteorological base 8,000 feet high on the ice cap. That plan turned into an epic survival ordeal when August Courtauld, manning the station solo through the winter, became entombed by drifting snow.


------Snow Fairy
Serizawa, Tomo
When famous wildlife photographer Narumi comes to Hokkaido to take photos of the elusive "snow fairies," he ends up stranded in a snow storm. After being rescued, he takes up residence in local farmer Haruki's house for the winter. As polar opposites, sophisticated and outgoing city slicker Narumi and country boy Haruki have a lot to learn from one another. After Haruki shows an interest, Narumi teaches him about photography and before he realizes it, he finds himself the sole subject of Haruki's new hobby. After a winter spent so close together, what will the spring thaw bring?


------The Winter Garden : Celebrating the Forgotten Season
Slade, Naomi
The Winter Garden is a celebration of the coldest season, with stunning photography that captures the very best that winter has to offer. Discover the bulbs that will bloom and the ornamental grasses that will dance in the winter breeze; create unique winter flower arrangements with cut stems and dried flowers; and learn how to design a garden with winter beauty at its heart. With tips on supporting wildlife over winter, the best cold-weather crops, and "recipes" for creating winter container displays, this essential book will make you see your winter garden in a whole new light.


------Wonderland
Stage, Zoje
After years of city life, Orla and Shaw Bennett are ready for the quiet of New York's Adirondack mountains--or at least, they think they are. Settling into the perfect farmhouse with their two children, they are both charmed and unsettled by the expanse of their land, the privacy of their individual bedrooms, and the isolation of life a mile from any neighbor. But none of the Bennetts could expect what lies waiting in the woods, where secrets run dark and deep.


------Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
Stevenson, Benjamin
In this fiendishly clever blend of classic and modern murder mystery. Ernie Cunningham, crime fiction aficionado, is a reluctant guest at his family reunion. Family reunions aren't for everyone, of course. But Ern's part of a notorious crime family--and three years ago, he witnessed his brother kill a man and immediately turned him in to the police. Now Ern's brother is being released from prison and the family is gathering to welcome him home. As if that weren't bad enough, the reunion is taking place at a remote mountain resort. The day before Ern's brother is set to arrive, a man's body is found frozen on the slopes.


-------With Love, From Cold World
Thompson, Alicia
Lauren Fox is the bookkeeper for Cold World, a tourist destination that's always a winter wonderland despite being located in humid Orlando, Florida. Sure, it's ranked way below any of the trademarked amusement parks and maybe foot traffic could be better. But it's a fun place to work, even if "fun" isn't exactly Lauren's middle name.

-----The Drift
Tudor, C. J.
Three ordinary people risk everything for a chance at redemption in this audacious, utterly gripping novel of catastrophe and survival at the end of the world. The imminent dangers faced by Hannah, Meg, and Carter are each one part of the puzzle. Lurking in their shadows is an even greater threat- one that threatens to consume all of humanity.

------The Loneliest Polar Bear
Williams, Kale
Six days after giving birth, a polar bear named Aurora got up and walked away from her den at the Columbus Zoo, leaving her tiny squealing cub to fend for herself. Hours later, Aurora still hadn't returned. The cub was furless and blind, and with her temperature dropping dangerously, the zookeepers entrusted with her care felt they had no choice: They would have to raise one of the most dangerous predators in the world by hand.

-------- The Intern
by Michele Campbell

In this richly detailed legal thriller Harvard law student Madison Rivera gets the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to clerk for her idol Judge Kathryn Conroy. Things sour quickly after Madison learns Judge Conroy presided over a flawed case that ripped her family apart, and while digging for more she uncovers a web of corruption that could put her life in imminent danger.


-------- The Fiction Writer
by Jillian Cantor

Olivia Fitzgerald's debut novel was a huge success, but now she's in a sophomore slump. To turn things around her agent gets her a ghostwriting gig for a famous billionaire who believes that Daphne DuMaurier stole Rebecca from his grandmother, and the more time Olivia spends with him the more her life becomes stranger than fiction. Read-alike: The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz.


---------- The Other Mothers
by Katherine Faulkner

Freelance journalist and stay-at-home mother Natasha Carpenter becomes an unlikely friend to a clique of well-heeled mothers shortly before a nanny is found murdered in their neighborhood. As Natasha's journalistic instincts lead her to start looking into the case, the behavior of her new "friends" grows increasingly suspicious, leaving her to ask troubling questions about who is watching who.


-------- Five Bad Deeds
by Caz Frear

Harried wife and mother Ellen Walsh is just managing to juggle her family, social commitments, and thriving tutoring business, but only just. Then she starts to receive menacing anonymous messages, followed by the spread of reputation-ruining rumors that could destroy the comfortable life she worked so hard to create for herself. Read-alike: Keep Your Friends Close by Lucinda Berry.


--------- Distant Sons
by Tim Johnston

In a small Wisconsin town in the 1970s, three boys disappeared, and the case remains unsolved to this day. At least until the arrival of a young drifter, whose decision to stay in town after his truck breaks down will set off an explosive chain of events that will drag the truth out into the open with unexpected, fatal consequences.


-------- The Engagement Party
by Darby Kane

Part psychological suspense and part locked room mystery, The Engagement Party follows a group of college friends gathered for the titular event in rural Maine. Will, Alex, Mitch, Jake, and Cassie are still haunted by the death (allegedly by suicide) of Emily, a fellow student at their college, and their doubts about what happened -- and each other -- will push them all to their breaking point before the weekend is over.


--------- What We Kept to Ourselves
by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

The Kims, a Korean American family in Los Angeles, are still reeling after the mysterious disappearance of Sunny, their matriarch, a year ago. Then a stranger's body is discovered buried in their backyard carrying a letter to Sunny, raising even more questions about what happened to her and if she was even the wife and mother they thought they knew.


--------- The Fourth Rule
by Jeff Lindsay

This action-packed 4th entry in the series of novels starring the likeable thief Riley Wolfe follows his most audacious heist yet -- to steal the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum before another, much more dangerous thief gets to it first. Read-alike: Don't Look for Me by Mason Cross.


-------- The Death of Us
by Lori Rader-Day

Fifteen years ago, a woman showed up on Liss Kehoe's doorstep, handed her a newborn baby, and promptly disappeared without a trace. But when the missing woman's car turns up in a suspicious place, the world as Liss knows it gets turned upside down and she'll have to fight tooth and nail to protect her family, her reputation, and her relationship with her son.


--------- There Should Have Been Eight
by Nalini Singh

New Zealand paranormal romance author Nalini Singh dips her toe into psychological suspense in this atmospheric tale of friends gathering for a somber weekend together. Strange happenings, blizzard conditions, and, and long-buried secrets combine to create a locked room thriller filled with menace. Read-alike: One by One by Ruth Ware.

------- The Atlas Maneuver
by Steve Berry

When he unwittingly becomes caught in a war between the world's oldest bank and the CIA, one that directly involves the Black Eagle Trust and a legendary treasure worth billions, retired Justice Department operative Cotton Malone, must stop cryptocurrency from being weaponized to attack the world's financial systems.



--------- Three-inch Teeth
by C. J. Box

When the outlaw he locked up years ago is released from prison, determined to exact revenge on the six people who sent him away, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, with a grizzly bear on a rampage, soon discovers he's one of those six people.



------ Maktub : An Inspirational Companion to the Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho

An essential companion to the inspirational classic The Alchemist, filled with timeless stories of reflection and rediscovery.



------ Murder at la Villette
by Cara Black

Parisian private investigator Aimâee Leduc has been framed for the murder of her daughter's father-now she's on the lam, and must find the real killer to clear her name in this thrilling 21st installment of Cara Black's New York Times bestselling mystery series.



------- Murder in the Tea Leaves
by Laura Childs

It’s Lights, Action, Murder as tea maven Theodosia Browning scrambles for clues in this latest installment of the New York Times bestselling series.



------- Never Too Late
by Danielle Steel

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel, a stirring novel about a woman striking out on her own after loss as her adult daughters try to find their own independent paths in life.



------- The Hunter
by Tana French

It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.



------ The New Couple in 5b
by Lisa Unger

A couple inherits an apartment with a spine-tingling past in this unputdownable thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six.



------ After Annie
by Anna Quindlen

When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her children, and her closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the lynchpin of all their lives.



------ Still see you everywhere
by Lisa Gardner

Frankie Pierson uses the help of a serial killer to follow a lead on the kidnapping of her sister, ten years ago.


------ The #1 Lawyer
by James Patterson

Biloxi’s best criminal defense attorney has never lost a case. Then his wife is murdered, and he becomes the nation’s #1 suspect.


-------- The Princess of Las Vegas
by Chris Bohjalian

A Princess Diana impersonator and her estranged sister find themselves drawn into a dangerous game of money and murder in this twisting tale of organized crime, cryptocurrency, and family secrets on the Las Vegas strip.



--------- The Truth About the Devlins
by Lisa Scottoline

Lisa Scottoline, the #1 bestselling author of What Happened to the Bennetts, presents another pulse-pounding domestic thriller about family, justice, and the lies that tear us apart.



---------- The Wild Side
by Fern Michaels

A seemingly ordinary guidance counselor goes undercover as a high-class escort to bring down a dangerous network of ruthless and powerful men in the gripping new standalone page-turner from legendary, #1 international bestseller Fern Michaels.



--------- Toxic prey
by John Sandford

"Lucas Davenport takes on another challenging case in this thrilling new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author"


--------- A calamity of souls
by David Baldacci

"When two wealthy white landowners are found dead, the whole country immediately thinks it must be Jerome Washington, the hired help, who killed them. He was standing over the bodies when the police responded. As far as the state is concerned, it's an open and shut case. Jack Lee knows that every man deserves a solid defense and agrees to be Jerome's lawyer, against everyone's better judgement.


---------- The Murder Inn
by James Patterson

The doors of the Inn at Gloucester are always open to anyone running from trouble or hiding from life. Its owner, former Boston police detective Bill Robinson, welcomes them with no questions asked. Until two strangers arrive for a temporary stay and a longtime resident starts looking over his shoulders.

What a good list of mysteries, Alias. Thanks for this!

These descriptions led me to want to read the following first books in their series:
Dangerous Women--Mark de Castrique, the first being Secret Lives.

Deus X--Stephen Mack Jones, the first being August Snow.

And while i like that The Frozen River--Ariel Lawhon features a historical character i know, Martha Ballard, i don't know that i'll read it. Still, i like the idea.

AND i was intrigued by Home at Night--Paula Munier series about a retired MP & her military dog.

I'm glad you found some that you may add to your TBR.

Alias Reader wrote: "~~~~Cold Enough for Snow
..."

Alias, this is just plain cruel of you. And what a wonderful idea--books about snow & cold! I added 8 to my TBR.

Lonely Planet Epic Snow Adventures of the World 1, but the "author" is Lonely Planet, not Amanda Canning, although i believe she wrote it. I mention this in case others search books by authors. The cover looks great, too. --i like that sort of illustration.

Dead and Gondola--Ann Claire. This is the debut of a new series.
The Joy of Winter Hiking: Inspiration and Guidance for Cold Weather Adventures--Derek Dellinger. What a concept!

Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk--Buddy Levy. Brrr!

Winter Pasture: One Woman's Journey with China's Kazakh Herders--Li Juan, sounds so good and quite remote. Another lovely cover, too.

Seeing Silence: The Beauty of the World’s Most Quiet Places--Pete McBride. Two years ago we visited the site of an ancient village in what is now northern Arizona. The silence was sacred and it's haunted me since then, leading me to learn about more such spaces.

Into the Great Emptiness: Peril and Survival on the Greenland Ice Cap--David Roberts. Another scientific adventure which goes amiss.

The Winter Garden: Celebrate the Forgotten Season--Naomi Slade. This is another attributed oddly, with D.K. Publishing being labeled the author. Fortunately there was another link/copy crediting Slade only. I like the idea of fashioning gardens for the winter season, not holidays, just for winter.

Waaay too many, Alias! Love it!

Fortunately, i didn't take notes of any books from the final two posts. What a relief! Still, it was informative to read about them. Thanks for all of these, Alias.

madrano wrote:
Alias, this is just plain cruel of you. And what a wonderful idea--books about snow & cold! I added 8 to my TBR...."

------ The Book of James: The Power and Passion of LeBron
by Valerie Babb

Emory University African American Studies professor Valerie Babb offers a thought-provoking examination of how the intersection of race, athletics, and activism has impacted public perceptions of NBA star LeBron James. For fans of: The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World by Dave Zirin.



------ November 1942: An Intimate History of the Turning Point of World War II
by Peter Englund

In his well-researched latest, historian Peter Englund (The Beauty and the Sorrow) argues that November 1942 was the pivotal moment of World War II, utilizing diaries, letters, and memoirs with a sense of you-are-there urgency that captures everyday life during wartime. Try this next: Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich by Walter Kempowski.



------- Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the...
by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll, Jr.

NCIS actor Mark Harmon and retired NCIS agent Leon Carroll, Jr. debut with a fast-paced and dramatic true crime account chronicling the wartime exploits of Japanese American counterintelligence agent Douglas Wada and Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa, whose fates became intertwined following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Further reading: Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack by Steve Twomey.



------ Starkweather: The Untold Story of the Killing Spree That Changed America
by Harry N. MacLean

In this bleak and atmospheric true crime tale, Edgar Award-winning author and Nebraska native Harry N. MacLean chronicles the 1958 murders committed by Nebraska teenager Charles Starkweather, whose girlfriend (and possible accomplice) Caril Ann Fugate accompanied him during the spree. The pair's story later served as the inspiration for the 1994 film Natural Born Killers. For fans of: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.



------- Gator Country: Deception, Danger, and Alligators in the Everglades
by Rebecca Renner

National Geographic contributor Rebecca Renner follows U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer Jeff Babauta as he becomes Florida gator farmer "Curtis Blackledge" during an undercover operation to infiltrate the world of alligator egg poaching. Read-alikes: The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean; Tree Thieves by Lyndsie Bourgon.



------- The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and...
by Daniel Schulman

Mother Jones deputy Washington, D.C. bureau chief Daniel Schulman's engaging and richly detailed history explores how German Jewish immigrants (among them the Lehman, Goldman, and Sachs families) created the modern American banking system. Try this next: The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman.



------- To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul
by Tracy K. Smith

Pulitzer Prize winner and former United States Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith blends history and memoir in this moving and incisive look at anti-Black racism that was named one of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2023. For fans of: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.



--------- Sailing the Graveyard Sea: The Deathly Voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's Only Mutiny...
by Richard Snow

Historian Richard Snow's richly detailed latest chronicles the alleged mutiny aboard the USS Somers in 1842, which led to the hanging of three young crew members and the highly publicized court martial of the ship's tyrannical captain, commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie. Try this next: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann.

Thanks for this list, Alias. To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul, a prose book written by poet Tracy K. Smith sounds very good. I've appreciated her poetry in the past and look forward to this examination.

Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor will probably sell well, given Mark Harmon is coauthor with Leon Carroll and the book is apparently based on some Real NCIS history.

Thanks for the NF list, Alias.

You're welcome.

--------The Other Princess
by Denny S. Bryce

Real-life historical figure Sarah Forbes Bonetta was born Aina, the daughter of a Yoruba king, and enslaved by her father's rival. After a British navy commander rescues her, she is sent to be raised at the court of Queen Victoria, where she navigates the complexities of life as a well-educated, relatively well-treated outsider in search of a real home.



--------- Edith Holler
by Edward Carey

In Edwardian Norfolk, 12-year-old Edith Holler relies on her vivid imagination, insatiable curiosity, and found family of actors to cope with the strange, sad life she lives confined to her father's crumbling theater. Then her father's plans to marry a sinister woman with ties to a local unsolved mystery leave Edith with only one choice -- to run for her life.



------- The General and Julia
by Jon Clinch

This candid and compelling biographical novel follows President Ulysses S. Grant during his final days as he frantically tries to finish his memoirs before cancer kills him. As he writes, hoping his memoirs will provide financial security for his wife Julia, Grant reckons with highs and lows of his legacy and the regrets that still haunt him.



----------The Madstone
by Elizabeth Crook

Set in Texas a few years after the Civil War, this gritty and atmospheric novel is told through letters from 19-year-old woodworker Benjamin Shreve, detailing the events that brought together his motley crew of companions as they try to help a young mother escape her traumatic past and catch a steamer to New Orleans.

------- Iwo, 26 Charlie
by P.T. Deutermann

This richly detailed follow-up to The Last Paladin is the 10th entry in Deutermann's series of World War II novels and follows naval gunnery officer Lee Bishop during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Sent to land to report Japanese movements, he's completely unprepared for the bloody events about to unfold and the fight for survival that awaits him.



--------- We Must Not Think of Ourselves
by Lauren Grodstein

It's 1940 and inside the Warsaw Ghetto, Adam Paskow teaches English to children and tries to stay optimistic despite the dire circumstances. His language skills get him noticed by real-life social worker Emanuel Ringelblum, who tasks Adam with interviewing ghetto residents to create a priceless archive of historical documents about their lives.



---------A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself
by Katherine Howe

Hannah Masury is an indentured servant in 1720s Boston until she seizes an opportunity to escape by disguising herself as a cabin boy on a pirate ship. In a parallel narrative, 1930s Radcliffe professor Marian Beresford encounters Hannah's journal and sets off on a journey to verify the authenticity of the journal and of a treasure it mentions.



----------The Wildest Sun
by Asha Lemmie

Fleeing postwar Paris after an act of violence, 17-year-old Delphine Auber sets out to meet Ernest Hemingway, who her alcoholic mother always claimed was her father. As she travels to him by way of Harlem and Havana, Delphine learns more about herself, her "father" and the world than she could ever have imagined in her old life.



---------- The Roaring Days of Zora Lily
by Noelle Salazar

After a modern-day curator discovers an unknown name on a hidden label attached to a famous dress, the story of forgotten Jazz Age seamstress and designer Zora Lily Hough begins to unfold, from her life of poverty in Seattle to the glamorous heights of Hollywood fashion.

Enjoy these books about the power of mementos, heirlooms, and keepsakes.


----------Between two moons
Abdel Gawad, Aisha
It's the holy month of Ramadan, and twin sisters Amira and Lina are about to graduate high school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. On the precipice of adulthood, they plan to embark on a summer of teenage revelry, trying on new identities and testing the limits of what they can get away with while still under their parents' roof. But the twins' expectations of a summer of freedom collide with their older brother's return from prison, whose mysterious behavior threatens to undo the delicate family balance.




-------------The Girl With Braided Hair
Adly, Rasha
Art historian, Yasmine, is restoring an unsigned portrait of a strikingly beautiful girl from the Napoleonic Era, when she discovers that the artist has embedded a lock of hair into the painting, something highly unusual. The mysterious painting came into the museum's possession without record, and Yasmine becomes consumed by the secret concealed within this captivating work.


------------Heirloom
Ajani, Ashia S.
Ashia Ajani is the product of migration. From Bentonia, Mississippi to Detroit, Michigan to Denver, Colorado, Ajani's family has carved out small sanctuaries for themselves among roses, concrete and urban gardens. Built of resilience, Ajani's family persisted, grew, fragmented, expanded, came back together. All the while, as members found themselves marred by history and placelessness, we passed down our stories, recipes, love of plants, old school wisdom. This story is one of how nature and humans are inextricably tied to one another and in fact, need each other to survive.


---------The Wind at My Back : Resilience, Grace, and Other Gifts From My Mentor, Raven Wilkinson
Copeland, Misty
Misty Copeland made history as the first African-American principal ballerina at the American Ballet Theatre. Her talent, passion, and perseverance enabled her to make strides no one had accomplished before. But as she will tell you, achievement never happens in a void. Behind her, supporting her rise was her mentor, Raven Wilkinson, who had been virtually alone in her quest to breach the all-white ballet world when she fought to be taken seriously as a black ballerina in the 1950s and 60s.


--------A Heart That Works
Delaney, Rob
In 2016, Rob Delaney's one-year-old son, Henry, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The family had moved from Los Angeles to London with their two young boys when Rob's wife was pregnant with Henry, their third. The move was an adventure that would bind them even more tightly together as they navigated the novelty of London, the culture clashes, and the funhouse experience of Rob's fame. Henry's illness was a cataclysm that changed everything about their lives.


---------The Family That Carried Their House on Their Backs
Downing, Sammie
Young Miriam is born into a world where women carry houses stitched to their backs, while men carry keys with the power to unlock them. Miriam's nomadic family moves from clearing to clearing within a dark wood, but no matter how deep into the forest they travel, the haunted calls of Wild Things follow. As precious family heirlooms disappear and Father roams through the woods later and later into the night, Mother slowly loses her memory and Miriam begins to understand that her family might not be as human as it appears.


----------Seasons Between Us : Tales of Identities and Memories
Forest, Susan & Lucas K. Law
Though some elements of our identities may persist, they are not static. None of us is the same person today that we were yesterday or will be tomorrow. Some of us leap into a hopeful future, some cling to our former selves, some wander obliviously through the minefields and poppies of change. For all that is gained, something is lost. Moments, mementos, relationships are discovered or rediscovered, left behind or let go. Things remembered, things forgotten. Journey with twenty-three speculative fiction authors through the seasons of life to capture the memories and examine the power of self-identity as they encounter the undiscovered country of their own journeys.


--------Unearthed : A Lost Actress, a Forbidden Book, and a Search for Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust
Frank, Meryl
As a child, Meryl Frank was the chosen inheritor of family remembrance. Her aunt Mollie, a formidable and cultured woman, insisted that Meryl never forget who they were, where they came from, and the hate that nearly destroyed them. Over long afternoons, Mollie told her about the city, the theater, and, above all else, Meryl’s cousin, the radiant Franya Winter. Franya was the leading light of Vilna’s Yiddish theater, a remarkable and precocious woman who cast off the restrictions of her Hasidic family and community to play roles as prostitutes and bellhops, lovers and nuns. Yet there was one thing her aunt Mollie would never tell Meryl: how Franya died. Before Mollie passed away, she gave Meryl a Yiddish book containing the answer, but forbade her to read it. And for years, Meryl obeyed.


----------Heirloom Kitchen : Heritage Recipes and Family Stories From the Tables of Immigrant Women
Gass, Anna Francese
Born in Italy, Anna Francese Gass came to the United States as a young child and grew up eating her mother's Italian cooking. But when this professional cook realized she did not know how to make her family's beloved meatballs--a recipe that existed only in her mother's memory--Anna embarked on a project to record and preserve her mother's recipes for generations to come.

In Heirloom Kitchen, Anna brings together the stories and dishes of forty strong, exceptional women, all immigrants to the United States, whose heirloom recipes have helped shape the landscape of American food.


------Listening Still
Griffin, Anne
Jeanie Masterson has a gift: she can hear the recently dead and give voice to their final wishes and revelations. Inherited from her father, this gift has enabled the family undertakers to flourish in their small Irish town. Yet she has always been uneasy about censoring some of the dead's last messages to the living. Unsure, too, about the choice she made when she left school seventeen years ago: to stay or leave for a new life in London with her charismatic teenage sweetheart. So when Jeanie's parents unexpectedly announce their plan to retire, she is jolted out of her limbo.


------These Toxic Things
Hall, Rachel Howzell
Mickie Lambert creates "digital scrapbooks" for clients, ensuring that precious souvenirs aren't forgotten or lost. When her latest client Nadia Denham, a curio shop owner, dies from an apparent suicide, Mickie honors the old woman's last wish and begins curating her peculiar objets d'art. A music box, a hair clip, a keychain -- twelve mementos in all that must have meant so much to Nadia who collected them on her flea market scavenges across the country. They mean a lot to someone else, too. Mickie has been getting threatening messages from a long-dormant serial killer to leave Nadia's past alone.


------The Keeper of Lost Things
Hogan, Ruth
Andrew Peardew collects things dropped or left behind by others and writing stories about them. He does this as a tribute to the fiancée who died the day he lost one of her keepsakes. When a dying Andrew bequeaths his estate to his assistant, Laura, she begins to bond with new neighbors while attempting to reunite the objects with their owners.


-------Go Ask Fannie
Hyde, Elisabeth
The Blaire children carry with them a host of issues, but perhaps the biggest one is that it has been more than 30 years since the accident that took their mother, Lillian, and brother, Daniel, from them. When a beloved keepsake of Lillian's, a Fannie Farmer cookbook, is discovered ruined, it is considered a travesty. As the Blaire family grapples with the present and the past, readers learn about the enigmatic Lillian, an aspiring writer, and the struggle she faced in reconciling who she wanted to be with who she needed to be.


------Love Chronicles of the Octopodes
Lee, Karen An-hwei
In a dystopic future of unregulated gene editing, a woman named Emily wakes up on the wrong side of the universe as an octopus thanks to rogue 'designer genes' run amok. One of thousands of clones generated from a genetic code sequenced from a lock of hair saved from the original Emily Dickinson, the ersatz Emily resembles an octopus but harbors the soul of a human poet and navigates her life in a lagoon as a bumbling 'rogue soul' enamored of black spice cake, botanical monographs, and gingerbread recipes, while romanced by personified moonlight.


------Eva and Eve : A Search for My Mother’s Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind
Metz, Julie
To Julie Metz, her mother, Eve, was the quintessential New Yorker. It was difficult to imagine her living anywhere else except the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In truth, Eve had endured a harrowing childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna, though she rarely spoke about it. Yet after her passing, Julie discovered a keepsake box filled with farewell notes from friends and relatives addressed to a ten-year-old girl named Eva, her mother.


------ll That She Carried : The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Miles, Tiya
In 1850s South Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother Rose gave her a sack filled with just a few things as a token of her love. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this history on the bag--including Rose's message that 'It be filled with my Love always.' Historian Tiya Miles carefully follows faint archival traces back to Charleston to find Rose in the kitchen where she may have packed the sack for Ashley.


--------Forgotten Bookmarks : A Bookseller’s Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages
Popek, Michael.
It's happened to all of us: we're reading a book, something interrupts us, and we grab the closest thing at hand to mark our spot. It could be a train ticket, a letter, an advertisement, a photograph, or a four-leaf clover. Eventually the book finds its way into the world - a library, a flea market, other people's bookshelves, or to a used bookstore. But what becomes of those forgotten bookmarks? What stories could they tell?


------A Matter of Happiness
Whitaker, Tori
When Melanie Barnett discovers an ancestor's journal, the cherished heirloom opens up a century of secrets, in this bittersweet story about family, the hard truths of womanhood, and self-discovery.

--------The Handmaid's Tale
Atwood, Margaret
A look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.


----- Years of Wonder: A Novel of the Plague
Brooks, Geraldine
This gripping historical novel is based on the true story of Eyam, the "Plague Village," in the rugged mountain spine of England. In 1666, a tainted bolt of cloth from London carries bubonic infection to this isolated settlement of shepherds and lead miners. A visionary young preacher convinces the villagers to seal themselves off in a deadly quarantine to prevent the spread of disease. The story is told through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Anna Frith, the vicar's maid, as she confronts the loss of her family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of a dangerous and illicit love. As the death toll rises and people turn from prayers and herbal cures to sorcery and murderous witch-hunting, Anna emerges as an unlikely and courageous heroine in the village's desperate fight to save itself.


-----The Master and Margarita
Bulgakov, Mikhail
One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of inexhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances emerge for the first time in Diana Burgin's and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version.


------Lawn Boy: A Novel
Evison, Jonathan
Mike Muñoz is a young Mexican American not too many years out of high school--and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew. Though he tries time and again to get his foot on the first rung of that ladder to success, he can't seem to get a break. But then things start to change for Mike, and after a raucous, jarring, and challenging trip, he finds he can finally see the future and his place in it.


------The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Haddon, Mark
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.


------ A Farewell to Arms
Hemingway, Ernest
A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield - the weary, demoralized men marching in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto; the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion—this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep. Ernest Hemingway famously said that he rewrote his ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right.


------The Book of Unknown Americans
Henríquez, Cristina
After their daughter Maribel suffers a near-fatal accident, the Riveras leave México and come to America. But upon settling at Redwood Apartments, a two-story cinderblock complex just off a highway in Delaware, they discover that Maribel's recovery--the piece of the American Dream on which they've pinned all their hopes--will not be easy. Every task seems to confront them with language, racial, and cultural obstacles.


-----The Kite Runner
Hosseini, Khaled
Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day.


------Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot
Kendall, Mikki
In this collection of essays, Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement. She argues that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?


------Gender Queer: A Memoir
Kobabe, Maia
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.


------In the Dream House: A Memoir
Machado, Carmen Maria
The author's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming.


-----1984
Orwell, George
Orwell's classic novel of one man's nightmare odyssey through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but individual thought and memory.


------My Sister's Keeper: A Novel
Picoult, Jodi
Conceived to provide a bone marrow match for her leukemia-stricken sister, teenage Kate begins to question her moral obligations in light of countless medical procedures and decides to fight for the right to make decisions about her own body. New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness. Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate -- a life and a role that she has never challenged -- until now. When their parents ask her to donate a kidney, Anna has had enough. She enlists the aid of a lawyer and announces her intention to sue for control of her own body. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister -- and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart, or let others lead you?


----------Maus : a survivor's tale
Spiegelman, Art.
Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek's harrowing story of survival is woven into the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits.


------Red at the Bone
Woodson, Jacqueline
Two families from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces. As the book opens in 2001, it is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody's mother, for her own ceremony -- a celebration that ultimately never took place.


------Everything You Love Will Burn: Inside the Rebirth of White Nationalism in America
Tenold, Vegas
Reveals how white supremacist and nationalist groups rose in influence to achieve political support at the highest levels of government, examining the transformation of once-small groups into threatening mainstream organizations.


---------Uncle Tom's Cabin
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
A devoutly Christian slave becomes separated from his wife and family when he is sold to the brutal planter, Simon Legree.


--------The Catcher in the Rye
Salinger, J. D.
Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

Alias Reader wrote: "Historical Fiction..."

The Madstone--Elizabeth Crook sounds appealing, given that the above blurb states it is an epistolary, a form i enjoy. The GR link doesn't mention that, per se, but states the story is told in his voice. It sounds a tad like the works of Paulette Jiles, whose books about post Civil War Texas i have enjoyed reading.

Knowing the story of Ulysses Grant's final days, i'm more inclined to read The General and Julia--Jon Clinch. I'd like to see how it's presented. Grant was in misery, suffering from cancer, but went off the morphine because he felt his writing was awful while using the drug. What a story.

Thanks for these leads, Alias.

Glad to help, deb.

Alias Reader wrote: "

Enjoy these books about the power of mementos, heirlooms, and keepsakes...."

Rather than list books that called to me (& there were three!), i thought i'd mention a different three books from the list that i read.

The Keeper of Lost Things--Ruth Hogan is a sweet story about an old author who hired a woman to be his secretary. He collects lost things, carefully labeling them, in hopes of returning them but apparently never did. ''

Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller's Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages--Michael Popek was fun. Photos of the books & items he found as a bookseller are shared. Items include tickets, $2 bill, invitations, recipes, ration stamps, etc. My personal favorite was a clever bookmark with a person reading, “My eyes tired here”, compliments of your optometrist. I got a number of old titled books, some of which I located on Gutenberg.

Finally, one of my all-time favorite books ever. All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake--Tiya Miles. Miles wrote with a love obvious in much of the prose about items a soon-to-be-sold child received from her slave mother. The story is true and the sack is on display in D.C. Miles explores each item, suggesting various reasons the item might have been included. I learn more than i previously knew about slavery and felt enriched as a human being. It was one of my favorites in '22.

Alias Reader wrote: "

--------The Handmaid's Tale
Atwood, Margaret
A look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women ..."

Thanks for this list of some banned books, Alias. It should help many who are wondering what to read for our Challenge.

madrano wrote: "Alias Reader wrote: "

Enjoy these books about the power of mementos, heirlooms, and keepsakes...."

Rather than list books that called to me (& there were three!), i thought i'd mention a differen..."

Thanks, deb. I enjoyed reading your reviews. I this was a clever list. It's from the library.

madrano wrote: "Alias Reader wrote: "

-Thanks for this list of some banned books, Alias. It should help many who are wondering what to read for our Challenge.
."

Yes. That is what I also thought. A good list for the our BNC 2024 Reading Challenge.

By the way, it's not too late to join in the challenge !

However, seeing these books banned or challenged in U.S. schools just breaks my heart. 💔

Alias Reader wrote: "However, seeing these books banned or challenged in U.S. schools just breaks my heart. 💔...."

Banning books does that to me, too. I cannot understand living in the U.S. and not wanting choices, opportunities to let our minds and beliefs stretch.

madrano wrote: Banning books does that to me, too. I cannot understand living in the U.S. and not wanting choices, opportunities to let our minds and beliefs stretch..."

I think our focus should be getting people to read books, period !

Yes!

This is another reason i appreciate the time you, Alias, take to post these lists of books. If we are in a reading slump or looking for something fresh, we can read about the books here.

------ The Curse of Penryth Hall
by Jess Armstrong

In 1922 England, Ruby Vaughn, a modern-minded American, visits Penryth Hall to catch up with an old friend. But after a murder and talk of a local curse, Ruby works to keep her friend safe and unearth the truth. This award-winning, Gothic-tinged debut offers an "intriguing and altogether enchanting mystery" (Kirkus Reviews). Read-alike: Sarah Penner's The London Séance Society.



-------- Murder on Tour
by V.M. Burns

Michigan bookstore owner Samantha Washington has finally gotten her debut mystery published and has been added to an author panel at a local book festival. There, she quickly learns that two panelists have accused a third of plagiarism...and later, a murder occurs. Though this is the charming 9th in a fun series, newcomers can still enjoy it. For fans of: bookish cozies and books-within-books.



----- The Final Curtain
by Keigo Higashino; translated by Giles Murray

Tokyo detective Kyoichiro Kaga investigates two recent murders that are seemingly unrelated and discovers a link to the death of his own mother ten years earlier. This gripping, intricately plotted 4th Kyoichiro Kaga mystery works well as a standalone novel. For fans of: Golden Age mysteries; the Detective Kosuke Kindaichi novels by Seishi Yokomizo.



------ Blood Betrayal
by Ausma Zehanat Khan

This sequel to Blackwater Falls finds Colorado police detective Inaya Rahman, who's assigned to a Community Response Unit, working the fatal police shooting of a Black graffiti artist in Blackwater Falls and (unofficially) a Denver police shooting that's left a Latino bystander dead. If you like this "penetrating, of-the-moment police procedural" (Kirkus Reviews), try Attica Locke's Highway 59 books.

------ The Blue Bar
by Damyanti Biswas

In this evocative series starter, Mumbai's Inspector Arnav Singh Rajput hunts for a serial killer targeting young women. This has him dealing with the city's gritty underworld as well as police corruption in a case that seems to have links to the ten-years-missing bar dancer he once loved. For fans of: Deepti Kapoor's Age of Vice; Kwei Quartey's Emma Djan novels.



------ Death of a Dancing Queen
by Kimberly G. Giarratano

To help support her mom who has Alzheimer's, 24-year-old Billie Levine becomes a PI working out of a Jewish deli in Teaneck, New Jersey. But she's off to a rough start when a missing person's case turns into a murder investigation, complete with cops and the mob in this fun, fast-paced mystery. For fans of: Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels; Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan books.



------ The Nightingale Affair
by Tim Mason

After an odd murder occurs in 1867 London, former police detective turned PI Charles Field rethinks an old -- and he thought, solved -- case, where Florence Nightingale's young nurses were targeted in Crimea. Following The Darwin Affair, this is the 2nd novel featuring Charles Field, a real detective believed to be the inspiration for Charles Dickens' Inspector Bucket.


---- A Dangerous Business
by Jane Smiley

Young widow Eliza Ripple works at a well-run brothel in 1851 Monterey, California, where the women are protected and customers screened. Nevertheless, a killer is targeting sex workers in town, so Eliza and her friend Jean, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's Auguste Dupin, decide to investigate. Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres. Read-alikes: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue; Missy by Chris Hannan.

------- Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel
by Shahnaz Habib

Debut author Shahnaz Habib's witty and thought-provoking blend of memoir, travelogue, and cultural history explores the legacies of colonialism and capitalism in travel. Try this next: Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move by Nanjala Nyabola.



-------- A Republic of Scoundrels: The Schemers, Intriguers & Adventurers Who Created a New...
by David Head & Timothy C. Hemmis

In this engaging revisionist account, historians David Head and Timothy C. Hemmis chronicle the misdeeds of some of America's founders, whose eyebrow-raising exploits nonetheless helped shape the nation. For fans of: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth by Bryan Burrough.



--------- Black TV: Five Decades of Groundbreaking Television from Soul Train to Black-ish and...
by Bethonie Butler

Washington Post reporter Bethonie Butler's engaging debut profiles television shows from the 1960s to the present that center on Black performers and creatives. Further reading: Hollywood Black: The Stars, the Films, the Filmmakers by Donald Bogle.



--------- The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court
by Gareth Russell

Historian Gareth Russell's (The Ship of Dreams) lively latest surveys five centuries of royal goings-on at England's Hampton Court Palace, from its construction during Henry VIII's reign to its hosting of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation ball in 1953 and more. Try this next: Versailles by Colin Jones.



--------- The Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943
by James Holland

World War II historian James Holland (Brothers in Arms) chronicles the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Italy in his dramatic and compelling latest, featuring diary excerpts, letters, and other firsthand accounts. Further reading: The Force: The Legendary Special Ops Unit and WWII's Mission Impossible by Saul David.



************ Focus on: Black History Month ************


------ Carefree Black Girls: A Celebration of Black Women in Popular Culture
by Zeba Blay

Blending personal reflections with incisive analysis, culture critic Zeba Blay's engaging debut essay collection explores how Black women have influenced popular culture. For fans of: Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall.



----------- African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Freedom
by David Hackett Fischer

Brandeis University historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Hackett Fischer (Washington's Crossing) explores how enslaved Africans and their cultural practices shaped colonial America in this "comprehensive demographic history with a powerful and important corrective thesis" (Booklist). Try this next: Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War by Howard W. French.


---------- My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives
by Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Journalist and civil rights activist Charlayne Hunter-Gault shares 50 years of her reportage and essays in this affecting and non-chronological collection chronicling the Black American experience. For fans of: You Don't Know Us Negroes: And Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston.



------ Saying It Loud: 1966 -- The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement
by Mark Whitaker

In this "essential volume" (Kirkus Reviews), journalist Mark Whitaker chronicles how 1966 was a pivotal year for the civil rights movement, detailing how the rise of the Black Power movement clashed with the nonviolent resistance efforts of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Further reading: Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power Through One Family's Journey by Dan Berger.



---------- I Saw Death Coming: A History of Terror and Survival in the War Against Reconstruction
by Kidada E. Williams

Longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction, historian Kidada E. Williams' compelling and well-researched debut explores how formerly enslaved Black people strove to create their own communities and exercise their political rights amid the racist violence and white supremacy of the Reconstruction South. Try this next: By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners by Margaret A. Burnham.

---------- Her Own Happiness
by Eden Appiah-Kubi

This witty riff on Jane Austen's Emma by the author of The Bennet Women introduces struggling creative Maya Davis, who becomes the protégé of influencer Emme Vivant. But will her association with Emme turn Maya into someone she doesn't recognize? And what does this mean for her relationship with her BFF (and maybe more) Ant?



--------- Stars in Your Eyes
by Kacen Callender

Cast as love interests in a highly anticipated film, Hollywood bad boy Logan Gray and rising star Matthew "Mattie" Cole embark on a show-mance that soon turns into the real thing. Read-alikes: Kosoko Jackson's I'm So Not Over You; Ava Wilder's How to Fake It in Hollywood; Lucy Parker's Act Like It.



------ A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel
by KJ Charles

Major Rufus d'Aumesty, the new Earl of Oxney, must fend off rival claimants to his title with the help of his attractive secretary, Luke Doomsday, part of Romney Marsh's notorious smuggling clan. Set 13 years after the events of The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, this 2nd in the Doomsday series offers a "steamy Regency romance embedded with a twisty mystery" (Library Journal).



---------- The Queen and the Knave
by Sarah M. Eden

When members of the Dread Penny Society start disappearing, Móirín Donnelly and Detective Constable Fitzgerald "Fitz" Parkington investigate, setting the duo on a collision course with criminal mastermind the Tempest. Set in 1860s London, this chaste romance marks the 5th and final installment of the series that began with The Lady and the Highwayman.



--------- The Beginning of Everything
by Jackie Fraser

Temporarily unhoused after escaping a bad relationship, Jess Cavendish breaks into the seemingly empty home of Gethin Thomas, who offers her his guest room until she can get back on her feet. The strong friendship that forms between the 40-something, newly single misfits takes both by surprise, as do the burgeoning romantic feelings that could ruin everything.



------------ Thank You for Sharing
by Rachel Runya Katz

Aspiring museum curator Liyah Cohen-Jackson has despised marketing strategist Daniel Rosenberg ever since their teenage summer camp friendship ended badly. Following a less-than-joyous reunion, the pair learn that they must collaborate on a work project. Read-alikes: Jean Meltzer's The Matzah Ball; Xio Axelrod's Love on the Byline.



---------- Love of My Lives
by Yamile Saied Méndez

While visiting Puerto Rico to scatter her beloved abuela's ashes, suddenly single Madi Ramírez meets and feels an instant connection with tour guide Peter, which prompts Madi to wonder if she's finally met her soulmate. Read-alikes: Priscilla Oliveras' Island Affair; Mia Sosa's Love on Cue series.



--------- The Wake-Up Call
by Beth O'Leary

To save the struggling boutique hotel that employs them both, rival concierges Izzy and Lucas come up with a plan to raise money by selling items from the Lost Property room. The result? A quest to return five lost wedding rings to their rightful owners, leading Izzy and Lucas to reconsider their own relationship. Read-alikes: Alicia Thompson's With Love, From Cold World or Lauren Forsythe's Dealbreakers.



--------- The Duke Gets Desperate
by Diana Quincy

The suspicious death of his stepmother, Deena, puts Anthony Carey, the Duke of Strickland in a difficult position -- and that's before Deena's cousin, Arab American businesswoman Raya Darwish, inherits his family's estate, Castle Tremayne. This slow-burning Victorian romance kicks off the Sirens in Silk series.



---------- Cleat Cute
by Meryl Wilsner

Benched by an injury, veteran soccer player Grace Henderson, star of the US Women's National Team, must watch from the sidelines as her rival, rookie Phoebe Matthews, threatens to steal her spotlight. Worst of all, she's cute. Read-alikes: Chloe Liese's Everything For You; Elena Armas' The Long Game.

What a lovely posy of books, Alias. I'm very, very pleased to announce that i managed to find only one book i will add to my TBR, The Final Curtain. I have liked each mystery from Keigo Higashino that features Kyoichiro Kaga, a Tokyo police detective.

To be fair, i made a point of not fully reading the comments about them, only the title and author. My TBR is too long and i am too old for many more additions.

~~~American Negra: A Memoir
Alford, Natasha S.
When Alford goes from an underfunded public school system to Harvard University surrounded by privilege and pedigree, she wrestles with more than her own ethnic identity, as she is faced with imposter syndrome, a shocking medical diagnosis, and a struggle to define success on her own terms. A study abroad trip to the Dominican Republic changes her perspective on Afro-Latinidad and sets her on a path to better understand her own Latin roots.


----The Upcycled Self : A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are
Black Thought
In vivid vignettes, Black Thought, the platinum-selling, Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots, and one of the most exhilaratingly skillful and profound rappers the culture has ever produced, tells the dramatic stories of the four powerful relationships that shaped him-with community, friends, art, and family-each a complex weave of love, discovery, trauma, and loss.


-----Twice as Hard : The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, From the Civil War to the 21st Century
Brown, Jasmine
No real account of black women physicians in the US exists, and what little mention is made of these women in existing histories is often insubstantial or altogether incorrect. In this work of extensive research, Jasmine Brown offers a rich new perspective, penning the long-erased stories of nine pioneering black women physicians beginning in 1860, when a black woman first entered medical school.


-----A Living Remedy : A Memoir
Chung, Nicole
When Nicole Chung graduated from high school, she couldn't hightail it out of her overwhelmingly white Oregon hometown fast enough. As a scholarship student at a private university on the East Coast, no longer the only Korean she knew, she found a sense of community she had always craved as an Asian American adoptee - and a path to the life she'd long wanted. But the middle class world she begins to raise a family in - where there are big homes, college funds, nice vacations - looks very different from the middle class world she thought she grew up in, where paychecks have to stretch to the end of the week, health insurance is often lacking, and there are no safety nets.


-----ake the Lead : Hanging On, Letting Go, and Conquering Life’s Hardest Climbs
DiGiulian, Sasha
World champion climber Sasha DiGiulian tells her story-from coming of age under the scrutiny of social media, navigating a male-dominated sport, and tackling her most heart-stopping climbs-and shares the power of perseverance and positivity.


----Uphill : A Memoir
Hill, Jemele
An empowering, unabashedly bold memoir by the Atlantic journalist and former ESPN SportsCenter co-anchor about overcoming a legacy of pain and forging a new path, no matter how uphill life's battles might be.


----A Stone Is Most Precious Where It Belongs : A Memoir of Uyghur Exile, Hope, and Survival
Hoja, Gulchehra
An award-winning Uyghur journalist based in the United States, whose own family members disappeared into concentration camps, exposes the systematic destruction of culture and human rights by the Chinese government in the East Turkestan region.


---Unforgiving : Lessons From the Fall
Jacobellis, Lindsey
Unforgiving recounts Lindsey's journey from disappointment to triumph. It is an honest account of one life-altering misstep and its aftermath, and a reflection on what it means to come of age as an athlete in the spotlight, the weight of expectations, falling short, and ultimately fulfilling your dreams.


----Surviving Our Catastrophes : Resilience and Renewal From Hiroshima to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Lifton, Robert Jay
When the people of Hiroshima experienced the unspeakable horror of the atomic bombing, they responded by creating an activist “city of peace.” Survivors of the Nazi death camps took the lead in combating mass killing of any kind and converted their experience into art and literature that demonstrated the resilience of the human spirit. Drawing on the remarkably life-affirming responses of survivors of such atrocities, Lifton, “one of the world’s foremost thinkers on why we humans do such awful things to each other” (Bill Moyers), shows readers how we can carry on and live meaningful lives even in the face of the tragic and the absurd.


---Wisdom of Wildly Creative Women : Real Stories From Inspirational, Artistic, and Empowered Women
LoMenzo, Angela
Writer, makeup artist, and creative director Angela LoMenzo combines stunning photography and powerful real stories to shine a light on the wild and wondrous journeys of twenty-five extraordinary and deeply creative women.


---Starstruck : A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark
Nance, Sarafina
In a beautifully written, science-packed debut memoir, Egyptian-American astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance shares her personal story of resilience and liberation by grounding herself in her lifelong love of the stars. Starstruck sits at the intersection of the study of our cosmos - itself constantly changing - and the messy and transformative experience of pursuing one's passion through life's inevitable challenges.


---Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw : Reimagining Success as a Disabled Achiever
Ndopu, Eddie
Global humanitarian Eddie Ndopu's rousing memoir about being both profoundly disabled and profoundly successful without trading one for the other. Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw follows Eddie as he scales the mountain of success only to find exclusion, discrimination, and neglect still lying in wait on the other side. Written with his one good finger, Eddie's vibrant prose delivers a clarion call to underdogs everywhere to stop climbing mountains and start moving them instead.


---Slow Noodles : A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes
Nguon, Chantha
Chantha Nguon recounts her life as a Cambodia refugee who lost everything and everyone - her house her country, her parents, her siblings, her friends - everything but the memories of her mother's kitchen, the tastes and aromas of the foods her mother made before the dictator Pol Pot tore her country apart.


---Acceptance : A Memoir
Nietfeld, Emi
A brilliant, funny, generation-defining memoir about the double bind of crafting perfect adversity narratives for highly selective institutions, while fumbling through the far murkier reality of actual life in foster care and inpatient mental health treatment. Emi's story is a harsh illumination of the near-impossible challenge set by societal expectations of coming from nothing, the brokenness of our child welfare system, and the reality that congratulatory letters from top schools couldn't keep her safe. Her reflections on her unlikely history, and her journey in confronting trauma and injustice, hold powerful lessons.


---The Race to Be Myself : A Memoir
Semenya, Caster
Thrust into the spotlight at just eighteen years old after winning the Berlin World Championships in 2009, Semenya's win was quickly overshadowed by criticism and speculation about her body, and she became the center of a still-raging firestorm about how gender plays out in sports, our expectations of female athletes, and the right to compete as you are.


---inding Elevation : Fear and Courage on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain
Thompson, Lisa
More than a climbing memoir, Finding Elevation is a deeply personal examination of motivation and the human spirit. It is a story of what can happen when we finally stop letting others define our limits and instead trust that we are capable of more. In this inspiring book, Thompson reaches beyond the mountain to tell a story of heartbreak, resilience, and the discovery that we are responsible for defining our own boundaries, finding our own happiness, and facing our fears head-on.


---The Risk It Takes to Bloom : On Life and Liberation
Willis, Raquel
In The Risk It Takes to Bloom, Raquel Willis, a trailblazing Black transgender activist, recounts with passion and candor her experiences straddling the Obama and Trump eras, the possibility of transformation after tragedy, and how complex moments can push us all to take necessary risks and bloom toward collective liberation.


---A Place for Us : A Memoir
Wolf, Brandon J.
Growing up in rural Oregon, Brandon Wolf grappled with the devastating loss of his supportive mother and with the embedded racism and homophobia of a community that made him feel like an unwelcome stranger. After the lack of connection and role models led him down a spiral of risky behavior, Wolf escaped to survive. In this unforgettable coming-of-age memoir, Wolf shares his transformative journey from young outsider to galvanizing activist. Marshaling the compassion and strength of a community, Wolf explores how to get through the darkest times with healing, hope, and resistance.

Alias Reader wrote: "Writer, makeup artist, and creative director Angela LoMenzo combines stunning photography and powerful real stories to shine a light on the wild and wondrous journeys of twenty-five extraordinary and deeply creative women...."

Wow, what a wide variety of people and topics offered above, Alias. Thank you for sharing the list.

The above quote is from the blurb about Wisdom of Wildly Creative Women: Real Stories from Inspirational, Artistic, and Empowered Women. This sounds as though it could be quite inspirational for those who want to express themselves but are also daunted by the challenges of doing so.

Again, thank you for each listing.

You're welcome, Deb. It was, hopefully, a list to inspire and empower.

------Dissolved
by Sara Blædel

In the Danish village of Tommerup, a missing persons case becomes a string of daily kidnappings that seem at first to have religious overtones. Though verses from the Quran are left as evidence, it soon becomes clear that victims are being abducted for more complex reasons, especially once gruesome video footage emerges that complicates matters even further.


------The Couple in the Photo
by Helen Cooper

Teacher and amateur photographer Lucy is enjoying her colleague's honeymoon photos when she spots her best friend's husband in the background of one picture, with a woman who isn't his wife. Not long afterwards the unidentified woman turns up dead, and Lucy gets pulled into an investigation that will change her tight-knit circle of friends forever.


------The Weekend Retreat
by Tara Laskowski

Richard, Harper, and Zach Van Ness gather at their wealthy family's winery estate for an an extravagant party weekend, significant others in tow. Ambitious elder siblings Richard and Harper also bring along personal and professional secrets they'll do anything to keep hidden, while black sheep Zach's gossip blogger girlfriend could mine the weekend for the ultimate scoop -- if she manages to survive.


-------The Vacation
by John Marrs

Previously self-published as Welcome to Wherever You Are in 2015, this intricately plotted updated edition still features a well-developed ensemble cast of characters -- eight strangers staying at a California hostel whose lives begin to intersect despite the myriad reason they each have for keeping their pasts hidden from each other. For fans of: T.M. Logan.


------Midnight
by Amy McCulloch

Despite her own antipathy to sea travel, Olivia Campbell agrees to accompany her art dealer boyfriend Aaron on a cruise where he's set to hold an important auction, hoping some relaxation might help her recovery from a recent breakdown. But when Aaron fails to board the ship, Olivia is left trying to manage Aaron's art works while dealing with debilitating seasickness and a strange pattern of accidental deaths onboard.


------Two Dead Wives
by Adele Parks

This atmospheric sequel to Woman Last Seen picks up where the last story left off, during the most claustrophobic parts of the COVID lockdown in 2020. DCI Clements returns in a new chapter of the investigation into the disappearance of two seemingly unconnected women, only to discover a shocking secret that blows the case wide open.


--------What Waits in the Woods
by Terri Parlato

Readers first met Boston detective Rita Myers in All the Dark Places, where she unraveled the murder of a suburban psychologist by a guest at his 40th birthday party. This time, she investigates the seemingly random killing of a young woman who may have been mistaken for a friend she bore a striking resemblance to.


------ The Ascent
by Adam Plantinga

In this fast-paced debut novel, ex-cop Kurt Argento is mistakenly arrested during a cross-country drive and held at a maximum security prison during a catastrophic failure of the facility's automated security system. Kurt bands together with some of the staff and a group of visiting civilians, and together they must make a dangerous trek to the roof, their only hope for a safe escape.


------ Dead of Night
by Simon Scarrow

Dead of Night is the action-packed sequel to Blackout, which first introduced readers to police inspector Horst Schenke during his hunt for a serial killer in 1939 Berlin. This time, he investigates a the suspicious suicide of a doctor who hid in plain sight as a member of the Nazi Party while secretly helping Jews trapped in the city.


------- Here in the Dark
by Alexis Soloski

Known for her scathing reviews, actress-turned-theater-critic Vivian Parry reluctantly agrees when local grad student David Adler asks to interview her. She ends the interview early as David's questions grow increasingly invasive, but when he disappears shortly after their meeting, Vivian must become an amateur sleuth to uncover who he was, why he's missing, and why he had such an interest in her past.

Dead of Night--Simon Scarrow sounds like part of a curious series. Murder in Berlin, near the beginning of WWII? Intriguing.

Thank you for the variety of opportunities, Alias.

Thank you, Alias. A lot of interesting books to choose from.

I'm happy you enjoyed the list.

It's a mystery !


----------The Expectant Detectives
by Kat Ailes

In this fun debut, pregnant Alice, her partner, and her dog have just moved from pricy London to the charming Cotswolds. When a shopkeeper is murdered downstairs from Alice's prenatal class, she teams up with other mums-to-be/suspects to investigate. For fans of: modern-day cozies set in England, such as Simon Brett's Decluttering mysteries and Jenn McKinlay's Hat Shop mysteries.



-------Sniffing Out Murder
by Kallie E. Benjamin

Teacher and children's book author Priscilla "Pris" Cummings and her bloodhound Bailey must sniff out who killed Whitney Kelley, the mean-girl mother of one of Pris' students with whom Pris recently had words. This is the 1st in a new series by the author who also writes as V.M. Burns (the Mystery Bookshop series) and Valerie Burns (the Baker Street mysteries).



---------Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord
by Celeste Connally

In this banter-filled Regency-era series starter, independent-minded Lady Petra Forsyth announces she'll remain unmarried after the death of her fiancé. This shocks the ton but frees Petra to look into the disappearance of a friend (whose husband seems unconcerned) and, later, find a murderer. Read-alikes: Murder in Westminster by Vanessa Riley; The Body in the Garden by Katharine Schellman.



---------The Lace Widow
by Mollie Ann Cox

Alexander Hamilton is dead, killed days earlier in an 1804 duel. His widow Eliza sells lace for much-needed money -- and she also turns sleuth after one of the witnesses to the duel is killed and her 18-year-old son is accused of the crime. Read-alikes: Amanda Flower's Because I Could Not Stop for Death, which stars Emily Dickenson.



---------Gaslight
by Femi Kayode

After years in the United States, investigative psychologist Dr. Philip Taiwo is settling back in in Nigeria with his wife and teenage daughter (who's having trouble adjusting). Then his sister asks him to find the missing wife of her megachurch pastor and major trouble ensues in this 2nd in a series (which can be read as a standalone). Read-alike: Kwei Quartey's Emma Djan novels.



----------The Mayors of New York
by S.J. Rozan

The mayor of New York asks PI Bill Smith, who narrates, and his partner, Lydia Chin, to quietly find her 15-year-old son, whom she thinks has run away. As Bill and Lydia talk to the unofficial leaders of various neighborhoods, they realize there's more going on than just a missing rebellious teen. This evocative 15th entry in an award-winning series is a must-read for fans and a good place to start for newcomers.



----------Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect
by Benjamin Stevenson

The Mystery Writers' Society of Australia hosts a crime festival on a cross-country train trip -- and there's a murder. Festivalgoer and writer Ernest Cunningham delightfully spins the tale of what happened in this fast-paced sequel to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. Read-alikes: Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express; Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders mysteries or his Daniel Hawthorne series.



---------Daughter of Ashes
by Ilaria Tuti

Nearing retirement, Italian police superintendent Teresa Battaglia, who's hiding signs of dementia, agrees to speak with the serial killer she put away nearly 30 years ago...and he claims they are both in mortal danger. This 3rd series title following The Sleeping Nymph is "a standout entry in a superior series" (Publishers Weekly).

History and current events


----------The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave...
by Hannah Durkin

Historian Hannah Durkin's well-researched and richly detailed account chronicles the 1860 final voyage of the slave ship Clotilda to America, focusing on the survivors' experiences and eventual emancipation. Further reading: The Last Slave Ship by Ben Raines; Africatown by Nick Tabor.



----------Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America's Suburbs
by Benjamin Herold

Education journalist Benjamin Herold debuts with a thought-provoking exploration of the limitations of American suburbia, where the legacies of post-World War II racial segregation resonate in restrictive zoning laws and ever-changing school district boundaries. Try this next: Excluded: How Snob Zoning, NIMBYism, and Class Bias Build the Walls We Don't See by Richard D. Kahlenberg.


----------Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World...
by Ijeoma Oluo

The latest from New York Times bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo (So You Want to Talk About Race) offers inspiring portraits of antiracist activists in "an urgent plea for individual and collective action" (Kirkus Reviews). Further reading: I Won't Shut Up: Finding Your Voice When the World Tries to Silence You by Ally Henny.



----------The Showman: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr...
by Simon Shuster

Former Kyiv-based Time journalist Simon Shuster's richly detailed debut offers a glimpse into Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky's leadership during the Russia-Ukraine war. Try this next: Zelensky by Serhii Rudenko; War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine by Mikhail Zygar.



-----------The Holocaust: An Unfinished History
by Dan Stone

Historian and University of London professor Dan Stone explores the origins and ongoing aftermath of the Holocaust in this sweeping study that offers "an urgent new perspective on a much-studied calamity" (Publishers Weekly). Further reading: Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder; Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust Ends by Linda Kinstler.


****************Focus on: Women's History Month***************


---------The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free
by Paulina Bren

Historian Paulina Bren's engrossing social history of Manhattan's Barbizon reveals how the 700-room women-only residential hotel offered a safe haven for women creatives seeking work in 20th-century New York. Famous residents included Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford, Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, Liza Minelli, and more. Try this next: Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade.



---------No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History
by Gail Collins

New York Times columnist Gail Collins' upbeat and well-researched social history celebrates the achievements of older women in American history from the colonial era to the present. Try this next: Women Rowing North: Navigating Life's Currents and Flourishing as We Age by Mary Pipher.


----------The Story of Art Without Men
by Katy Hessel

Art historian and curator Katy Hessel spotlights overlooked women artists from the 14th to the 21st centuries in this accessible blend of history and collective biography. Further reading: Brushed Aside: The Untold Story of Women in Art by Noah Charney.



----------The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World
by Shelley Puhak

Poet Shelley Puhak's lively and evocative history examines the rivalry between Merovingian queen consorts and sisters-in-law Brunhild and Fredegund, each of whom played an active (and violent) role in securing their positions in 6th-century Francia. For fans of: the women-led politicking of HBO's House of the Dragon; Blood, Fire & Gold: The Story of Elizabeth I & Catherine de Medici by Estelle Paranque.



----------The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis
by Maria Smilios

Hidden Figures fans will enjoy this evocative debut history from essayist Maria Smilios that chronicles the work of the early 20th-century Black women nurses at Staten Island's Sea View Hospital, who worked tirelessly to eradicate tuberculosis despite systemic racism, poor working conditions, and understaffing. Further reading: Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians, from the Civil War to the 21st Century by Jasmine Brown.

---------- The Academy
by David Poyer

Appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Dan Lenson finds himself facing legal jeopardy for his actions during the war while fighting to rescue the Academy itself when a Category 5 hurricane threatens to overwhelm the coast.



------------Wages of Sin
by Harry Turtledove

A terrifying tale about HIV spreading in the early sixteenth century by an author, Publisher Weekly calls “The Master of Alternate History.”



----------------Easter Basket Murder
by Leslie Meier

A collection of Easter-themed mysteries set in coastal Maine features sleuths from three best-selling cozy mystery series: Lucy Stone, Hayley Powell and Julia Snowden, who investigate a deadly art theft and a body that mysteriously vanishes after being discovered.



-----------Private : Missing Persons
by James Patterson

When a desperate businessman asks him to find his daughter and grandchildren who have disappeared without a trace, Jack Morgan, the head of Private, finds this simple missing persons case turning into something much more deadly, forcing him to face the trauma of his past to save a family's future.



-------------The Road from Belhaven
by Margot Livesey

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel about a young woman whose gift of second sight complicates her coming of age in late-nineteenth-century Scotland


---------Owning Up : New Fiction
by George Pelecanos

Four blistering novellas, drawn together by themes of strife, violence, and humanity, from esteemed crime fiction writer George Pelecanos; "Like his hero Elmore Leonard, Pelecanos finds the humanity in the lowest of lowlifes."



-----------Burma Sahib
by Paul Theroux

From the acclaimed author of The Mosquito Coast and The Bad Angel Brothers comes a riveting new novel exploring one of English literature’s most beloved and controversial figures—George Orwell—and the early years as an officer in colonial Burma that transformed him from Eric Blair, the British Raj policeman, into Orwell the anticolonial writer.



----------Fourteen days : an unauthorized gathering
by Margaret Eleanor Atwood

At the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdown a group of New York city neighbors gather on the roof to tell stories in a collaborative tale in which each character is written by a different major literary voice. Original.



----------Crosshairs
by James Patterson

New York City detective Michael Bennett faces his most terrifying killer ever. It could be anyone. They could be anywhere.


----------Chasing endless summer
by V. C. Andrews

After the tragic death of her mother and a long period of isolation under the thumb of a cruel grandfather, young Caroline Brady has little to hope for in her life in the foreboding Southerland mansion. Her only companion, her enigmatic cousin, Simon, may be a wolf in sheep's clothing and is not to be trusted. But when Caroline's estranged father suddenly resurfaces with news of a new wife and stepchildren in Hawaii that she'll finally be allowed to visit, Caroline dares to hope for a new, normal life.



----------Death of a Spy
by M. C. Beaton

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth faces a string of mysterious robberies that are only the beginning of an international threat to his sleepy Scottish village of Lochudch in the latest mystery in M.C. Beaton’s beloved, New York Times bestselling series.



------------Lone wolf
by Gregg Hurwitz

Once a black book government assassin known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak left the program, went deep underground, and reinvented himself. Since then, Evan has fought international crime syndicates and drug cartels, faced down the most powerful people in the world and even brought down a President. Struggling with an unexpected personal crisis, Evan goes back to the very basics of his mission.



-----------The lantern's dance : a novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
by Laurie R. King

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, hoping for a respite in the French countryside, are instead caught up in a case that turns both bewildering and intensely personal



----------Simply the Best
by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips returns with the next book in her Chicago Stars series where a successful sports agent and the sister of his biggest client engage in a take-no-prisoners battle of the sexes.



---------------Last Night
by Luanne Rice

From the Amazon Charts and New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow Box and Last Day comes a breathtaking thriller about a family shaken by lies, vengeance, and a cold-blooded crime.

Romance

----------Girls with Bad Reputations
by Xio Axelrod

While on tour with up-and-coming band The Lillys, drummer Kayla Whitman falls for tour bus driver Ty Baldwin, a kilt-wearing book lover who's trying to get his life back on track following his wrongful incarceration. This moving, slow-burn romance unfolds against a well-drawn music industry backdrop in this 2nd book in the Lillys series, after The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes.



----------Her Adventures in Temptation
by Megan Frampton

The mutually beneficial fake engagement between mathematician Lady Myrtle Allen and society painter Simeon Jones soon turns into the real thing, much to the surprise of both parties. Bluestocking meets rake (with a heart of gold) in this 3rd School for Scoundrels novel. For fans of: Sarah MacLean's One Good Earl Deserves a Lover; Joanna Lowell's Artfully Yours.



-----------Say You'll Be Mine
by Naina Kumar

After Seth, her best friend and unrequited crush, announces his engagement, middle school teacher Meghna Raman allows her parents set her up with marriage-averse engineer Karthik Murthy, who agrees to be pose as her fiancé at Seth's wedding. Read-alikes: Sajni Patel's The Trouble with Hating You; Lillie Vale's The Shaadi Set-Up.



----------The (Fake) Dating Game
by Timothy Janovsky

An unexpected breakup threatens Holden James' chances of appearing on his favorite game show, Madcap Market, until he comes up with an audacious plan: ask hotel concierge Leo Min, a near-stranger, to pretend to be his boyfriend for the audition. For fans of: Alexis Hall's Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble; Alison Cochrun's The Charm Offensive.



-----------Never Blow A Kiss
by Lindsay Lovise

Recruited by a clandestine spy network, thief-turned-governess Emily Leverton goes undercover in an aristocratic household and gets involved with Detective Zach Denholm, who's on a mission of his own. Never Blow A Kiss kicks off the Secret Society of Governess Spies series. Read-alikes: Sarah MacLean's Hell's Belles series; Celeste Bradley's Royal Four books; Andrea Pickens' Merlin's Maidens trilogy.



----------Not Bad for a Girl
by Anastasia Ryan

Demoted, transferred to a remote team, and mistaken for a man by her new boss, outspoken tech worker Indiana Aaron -- with the help of colleague and confidant Shane Dalton -- takes advantage of the mix-up to show everyone what she's capable of. Read-alikes: Seressia Glass' Game On; Farrah Rochon's The Boyfriend Project; Julie Tieu's Circling Back to You.



-------------The Takeover
by Cara Tanamachi

On the eve of her 30th birthday, tech entrepreneur Nami Reid makes a wish to find her soulmate and instead gets Jae Lee, her high school nemesis, whose firm is planning a hostile takeover of her struggling startup. This witty rom-com by the author of The Second You’re Single offers a steamy enemies-to-lovers workplace romance with well-drawn leads. For fans of: Sally Thorne's The Hating Game; Lily Menon's Make Up, Break Up; Falon Ballard's Just My Type.



-------------To Woo and To Wed
by Martha Waters

Although Lady Sophie Bridewell has no desire to remarry, her widowed sister Alexandra insists that she won't wed until Sophie does. Thus, Sophie enlists old flame "West," The Marquess of Weston, to pose as her fiancé -- just until Alexandra finds a match. This "resplendently romantic tale" (Booklist) marks the conclusion of the Regency Vows series, which begins with To Have and To Hoax. Read-alike: Virginia Heath's Merriwell Sisters series.



------------Wild Life
by Opal Wei

Chinese Canadian medical student Zoey Fong's orderly life is upended by a series of mishaps that lead to her getting stranded on former pop star Davy Hsieh's private island in this zany romantic comedy that pays homage to Bringing Up Baby. You might also like: Livy Hart's Planes, Trains, and All the Feels; Trish Doller's Off the Map.



----------A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
by Tia Williams

Against her wealthy family's wishes, floral designer Ricki Wilde opens a flower shop in Harlem and befriends jazz musician Ezra "Breeze" Walker, a man who's fallen out of time. Light speculative elements and dual timelines add intrigue to this sweeping romance by the author of Seven Days in June. You might also like: Donna Hill's I Am Ayah: The Way Home; Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop.

Alias Reader wrote: "
It's a mystery !
DEB EDITED
Simon Brett's Decluttering mysteries..."

So, none of the mysteries called to me & i'm relieved. Yet, clever Alias, having shared our decluttering reading over the years, YOU add that Simon Brett note to the first book on the list. Yes, i have added the first in the series, The Clutter Corpse, to my TBR. You should be hanging your head in shame, Alias Reader!!!

LOL

Alias Reader wrote: "
History and current events The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade--Hannah Durkin..."

I thought this ship name sounded familiar. Indeed, it is the ship upon which Zora Neale Hurston's recently published (2 or 3 years ago) Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" is based. Well, really the book is about one of the last survivors of that ship/journey.

Whether i'll read it or not, i cannot say, but i am pleased to learn someone followed up on this important history.

Thank you for the entire list. I've had The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free--Paulina Bren on my TBR a long time. Maybe this will nudge it up the list?

Alias Reader wrote: "
Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering..."

Oh, this sounds wonderful. From the GR write up, i learned the following authors each contributed a character: Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Ishmael Reed, Meg Wolitzer, Luis Alberto Urrea, James Shapiro, Sylvia Day, Mary Pope Osborne, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, R. L. Stine, Scott Turow, Tommy Orange, and more!

Wow!

Thanks, Alias for this list, too.

Alias Reader wrote: "
Romance

----------Girls with Bad Reputations
by Xio Axelrod

While on tour with up-and-coming band The Lillys, drummer Kayla Whitman falls for tour bus driver Ty Baldwin, a kilt-wearing book love..."

As appealing as kilt wearing is, i am passing on ALL of these. But i can see there are many which would appeal to readers of the genre. You are generous in your list, Alias. :-)

madrano wrote:
"Yes, i have added the first in the series, The Clutter Corpse, to my TBR. You should be hanging your head in shame, Alias Reader!!!

LOL ..."

;) Happy to help your TBR grow, deb !

madrano wrote:
"Thank you for the entire list. I've had The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free--Paulina Bren on my TBR a long time. Maybe this will nudge it up the list?
.."

One of my friends IRL read it and enjoyed it quite a bit. She wasn't born in NYC but is a huge fan of the city and it's history.

madrano wrote:
I thought this ship name sounded familiar. Indeed, it is the ship upon which Zora Neale Hurston's recently published (2 or 3 years ago) Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" is based. Well, really the book is about one of the last survivors of that ship/journey.

Whether i'll read it or not, i cannot say, but i am pleased to learn someone followed up on this important history...."

Honestly, I would be thrilled just to remember enough to make that connection. I wish I had better recall. However, I guess that is why I make notes.

Glad you enjoyed perusing the book lists deb.

Personally, I'm on the hunt for a romance book for the book challenge. So I posted it also for myself ! ;)

Alias Reader wrote: ";) Happy to help your TBR grow, deb
;) Happy to help your TBR grow, deb !"

LOL!

Alias Reader wrote: ":"Thank you for the entire list. I've had The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free--Paulina Bren One of my friends IRL read it and enjoyed it quite a bit. She wasn't born in NYC but is a huge fan of the city and it's history..."

It's the history i was going for, as it seems a number of well known women stayed there. Of course, when places & streets are mentioned, i'll generally be lost, but that's ok.