I’ve never been a fan of short stories, but these are mythical and spooky. Each story will suck you in and send a chill down your spine.
Mia C.
Vampires in the Lemon Grove – Karen Russell
Category: Staff Picks
The Crooked Branch — Jeanine Cummins
Cummins introduces us to two very different mothers. Majella in present-day New York and Ginny in Ireland during the famine of 1840. Beautfully told. I could not put it down.
Janet V.
The Tennis Partner — Abraham Verghese
A very tender account of a deeply-moving friendship between two doctors, one struggling with addiction and isolation, and the other with a compassionate need to understand and save his life.
Vivian E.
The Liars’ Club — Mary Karr
Some books stay with you forever. That’s The Liars’ Club. Mary Karr is a brilliant writer and her family is one you will be thankful is not yours. But you will laugh as you give thanks!
Judy B.
Sisterland – Curtis Sittenfeld
I love this sometimes overlooked Sittenfeld novel about twin sisters with the gift — or is it a curse — of foretelling the future. One tries to hide it, the other exploits it. More great storytelling from a true modern master.
Cynthia C.
Telex From Cuba – Rachel Kushner
This beautiful novel is set in Cuba when it was a colonial outpost, and playground, for American companies. There’s drinking, philandering and violence, but also love and humor. A big, spirited book about a small world on the precipice of revolution. And Hemingway is there, too.
Cynthia C.
Dancer – Colum McCann
Vivienne says: “Swirl and twirl, float and free-fall through the tragic yet wild abandon of the heartbreaking life and death of Rudolf Nureyev. A full life, fully lived.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
Judy Blume says: The best book I read last year and the most original and surprising. Highly recommended. Delicious.
The Man Without a Shadow – Joyce Carol Oates
James Gleick says: “An extraordinary love story, and a meditation on memory, identity, and time.”