Category: Staff Picks

If you’ve read Lee Smith’s novels, or even if you haven’t, you’ll love her funny, compassionate voice and her story of growing up in the Appalachian south.
Judy Blume – B&B Staff

Don’t be fooled. This is not another self-help book…
Duhigg explores the neurology of how we form habits, using  stories from individuals, businesses & communities that have transformed themselves (from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Febreze!)
An extremely interesting and enjoyable read.
Emily Berg – B&B Staff

A fresh, funny take on Pride and Prejudice set in modern day Cincinnati. So entertaining you wont want to put it down. Perfect summer reading.
Judy Blume

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – Wonderfully tender and hilariously funny, Eligible tackles gender, class, courtship, and family as Curtis Sittenfeld reaffirms herself as one of the most dazzling authors writing today.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND THE TIMES (UK)

“At its heart this is a love story, but it’s so much more. And the writing is as smooth as silk.” Cynthia Crossen, B&B Key West

Judith Whitman always believed in the kind of love that “picks you up in Akron and sets you down in Rio.” Long ago, she once experienced that love. Willy Blunt was a carpenter with a dry wit and a steadfast sense of honor. Marrying him seemed like a natural thing to promise. But Willy Blunt was not a person you could pick up in Nebraska and transport to Stanford. When Judith left home, she didn’t look back.

Twenty years later, Judith’s marriage is hazy with secrets. In her hand is what may be the phone number for the man who believed she meant it when she said she loved him. If she called, what would he say?

TO BE SUNG UNDERWATER is the epic love story of a woman trying to remember, and the man who could not even begin to forget.

I love this book! Gary is a charmer – you will fall for this boy’s story and finish wishing for more. – Judy B

Foolishly, I over looked this book as just another comedian’s autobiography for far too long. Ansari teamed with sociologist Eric Klienberg to look how love, romance and couples have changed over generations. Extremely interesting… and of course, Ansari’s humor is always present.  -Emily B

For those reading about people on the spectrum, this is a fun and funny read. How to find a wife in a novel way – Pat B

Ever wonder how the witch from Hansel & Gretel became the way she did? Ot how Jack turned out after he chopped down the beanstalk? This wicked remix of modernized stories will take you to the dark side of Fairy Tales – Mia C

“You think it can’t happen here, but then it does. I don’t know how Philip Roth foresaw the events of 2016 when he wrote this book a decade ago — but he got it spot on. Not to be missed.” Judy Blume, B&B Key West

When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide in the 1940 presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh, in a nationwide radio address, publicly blamed the Jews for selfishly pushing America toward a pointless war with Nazi Germany, but upon taking office as the thirty-third president of the United States, he negotiated a cordial “understanding” with Adolf Hitler, whose conquest of Europe and virulent anti-Semitic policies he appeared to accept without difficulty. What then followed in America is the historical setting for this startling new book by Pulitzer Prize–winner Philip Roth, who recounts what it was like for his Newark family — and for a million such families all over the country — during the menacing years of the Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews had every reason to expect the worst.

Picked by Judy Blume

A New York Times Bestseller

Winner of the 2014 Kirkus Prize

Winner of the 2014 New England Book Award for Fiction

A Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award

A Best Book of the Year for:

New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, Vogue, New York Magazine, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Our Man in Boston, Oprah.com, Salon

Euphoria is Lily King’s nationally bestselling breakout novel of three young, gifted anthropologists of the ‘30’s caught in a passionate love triangle that threatens their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives. Inspired by events in the life of revolutionary anthropologist Margaret Mead, Euphoria is “dazzling … suspenseful … brilliant…an exhilarating novel.”-Boston Globe

Picked by Nan Klingener