Fiction

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

 Published in 2000, 544 pages, Booker Prize winner  Literary fiction, character-driven, intricately plotted, leisurely paced  Summary: “Iris Chase Griffen, married at eighteen to a wealthy industrialist but now poor and eighty-two, recalls her far from exemplary life, and the events leading up to her sisters death, who drove a car off a bridge ten days after the war ended, gradually revealing the carefully guarded Chase family secrets.”

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

 Published in English (from French) in 2008, 325 pages  Literary fiction, multiple perspectives, character-driven, issue-oriented  Summary: “The lives of fifty-four-year-old concierge Rene Michel and extremely bright, suicidal twelve-year-old Paloma Josse are transformed by the arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu.”

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

 Published in 2011, 150 pages, Man Book Prize winner (2011)  Literary fiction, psychological fiction, introspective, intricately plotted  Summary: “Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is in middle age. He's had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He's certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer's letter is about to prove.”

Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett

 Published in 2016, shortlisted for 2016 International Dylan Thomas Prize  Literary fiction, introspective, unconventional, lyrical  Summary: “First published in Ireland, Bennett’s meditative debut—rigorous, poetic, and often very funny—captures the rich inner life of a young woman living a mostly solitary existence in a remote coastal town. An interior portrait in 20 fragments— some short-story length, others just a few sentences—this collection abandons conventional notions of plot altogether. Nothing much ‘happens’ here; there is essentially no ‘action’—at least, not by any traditional definition of the term. Instead, Bennett presents a series of exquisitely detailed, deeply subjective, frequently hilarious monologues on the business of being alive. Strange and lyrical with an acute sense of humor.”

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

 Published in 2007, 335 pages, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (2008)  Literary fiction, complex, unreliable narrator, character-driven  Summary: “Living with an old-world mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien and believes that a long- standing family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness.”

What Is the What by Dave Eggers

 Published in 2006, 475 pages, IPPY for Literary Fiction winner (2007)  Biographical fiction, first-person narrative, character-driven, fast-paced  Summary: “A biographical novel traces the story of Valentino Achak Deng, who as a boy of seven was separated from his family when his village in southern Sudan was attacked by government helicopters and became one of the estimated 17,000 ‘lost boys of Sudan’ before relocating from a Kenyan refugee camp to Atlanta in 2001.”

I Am No One by Patrick Flanery

 Published in 2016, 352 pages  Psychological suspense, thought-provoking  Summary: “After a decade living in England, Jeremy O'Keefe returns to New York, where he has been hired as a professor of German history at New York University. Though comfortable in his new life, and happy to be near his daughter once again, Jeremy continues to feel the quiet pangs of loneliness. Walking through the city at night, it's as though he could disappear and no one would even notice. But soon, Jeremy's life begins taking strange turns: boxes containing records of his online activity are delivered to his apartment, a young man seems to be following him, and his elderly mother receives anonymous phone calls slandering her son. As Jeremy takes stock of the entanglements that marked his years abroad, he wonders if he has unwittingly committed a crime so serious that he might soon be faced with his own denaturalization. Moving towards a shattering reassessment of what it means to be free in a time of ever more intrusive surveillance, Jeremy is forced to ask himself whether he is 'no one', as he believes, or a traitor not just to his country but to everyone around him.”

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

 Published in 2015, 390 pages  Literary fiction, domestic fiction, multiple perspectives, atmospheric  Summary: “Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years. At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed.”

Underground Airlines by Ben Winters

 Published in 2016, 336 pages  Alternative history, complex, fast-paced, thought-provoking  Summary: “A tale set in a modern America where the Civil War never happened and the country has forged a dubious agreement with four states that still enforce slavery follows the experiences of a talented black bounty hunter who makes discoveries about his mysterious past while infiltrating an abolitionist group to catch a high-profile runaway.”

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

 Published in 2016, 325 pages  Literary fiction, magical realism, character-driven, witty  Summary: “A collection of stories by the award-winning author of Boy, Snow, Bird features entries about literal and metaphorical keys that open or shut the fates of lovers, the heart of a puppeteering student and the doors of a house of locks that holds unobservable developments.”

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

 Published in 1980, 219 pages, PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award (1982)  Literary fiction, modern classic, first-person narrative, reflective  Summary: “Ruth, a young girl struggling to overcome haunting family memories in a town which will not ler her forget, gradually grows close to Sylvie, the sister of her dead mother.”

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota

 Published in 2015, 468 pages, Encore Award winner (2015)  Literary fiction, political fiction, authentic, thought-provoking  Summary: “Tarlochan, Avtar, Randeep, and Narinder who are four immigrants from India move to Sheffield, England. The story then focuses on their lives during the course of one year.”

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

 Published in 2016, 208 pages  Domestic fiction, complex, introspective, character-driven  Summary: “Set in the mid-1980s, Lucy Barton, hospitalized for nine weeks, is surprised when her estranged mother shows up at her bedside. Her mother talks of local gossip, but underneath the banalities, Lucy senses the love that cannot be expressed. This is the story that Lucy must write about, the one story that has shaped her entire life. A beautiful lyrical story of a mother and daughter and the love they share.”

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

 Published in 2009, 262 pages  Psychological fiction, leisurely paced, lyrical, richly detailed  Summary: “Leaving her home in post-World War II Ireland to work as a bookkeeper in Brooklyn, Eilis Lacey discovers a new romance in America with a charming blond Italian man before devastating news threatens her happiness.”

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

 Published in 2016, 237 pages  Adaptation, domestic fiction, character-driven, engaging  Summary: “The newest entry in the Hogarth Shakespeare series brings The Taming of the Shrew into the modern world. Kate is stuck in a life taking care of her absent minded professor father and her sister, Bunny. When her father suggests a marriage of convenience in order to secure a green card for his lab assistant Pyotr, Kate is shocked. This is a sweet and humorous story about two people, who don’t quite fit in, finding each other. Tyler’s wonderful writing updates and improves on the original.”

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

 Published in 1945, 351 pages  Literary fiction, modern classic, intricately plotted, atmospheric  Summary: “Set in 1920's England, the story examines the wealthy Flyte family through the eyes of Sebastian Flyte's less wealthy school friend Charles Ryder, who is eventually tempted into an extramarital affair with Sebastian's sister, Lady Julia. The novel is a story of faith and disillusionment in a glamorous upper-class world.”

Non-Fiction

The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander

 Published in 2015, 224 pages  Autobiographies and memoirs, family and relationships, life stories, reflective  Summary: “In THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, Elizabeth Alexander—poet, mother, and wife—finds herself at an existential crossroads after the sudden death of her husband, who was just 49. She examines the journey we take in life through the lens of her own emotional and intellectual evolution, taking stock of herself at the midcentury mark. This book is for anyone who has loved and lost. It's about being strong when you want to collapse, about being grateful when someone has been stolen from you--it's discovering the truth in your life's journey: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's Elizabeth Alexander's story but it is all of our stories because it is about discovering what matters.”

The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty Year Voyager Mission by Jim Bell

 Published in 2015, 336 pages  Science writing, engaging  Summary: “The story of the men and women who drove the Voyager spacecraft mission told by a scientist who was there from the beginning.”

In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi

 Published in 2016, 432 pages  Autobiography/memoir, life story, thought-provoking, candid  Summary: “The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author of Backlash presents an astonishing confrontation with the enigma of her father and the larger riddle of identity consuming our age.”

No Good Men Among the Living by Anand Gopal

 Published in 2014, 272 pages  Collective biographies, history writing, life stories, richly detailed  Summary: “Following three Afghans - a Taliban commander, a US-backed warlord and a housewife trapped in the middle of the fighting - through years of US missteps, this dramatic narrative reveals the workings of America's longest war and the truth behind its prolonged agony.”

Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock by David Margolick

 Published in 2011, 321 pages  History writing, compelling, thoughtful, descriptive  Summary: “Looks at the lives of the two women at the center of a famous historic photograph taken during the Little Rock school desegregation crisis in 1957, in a book that discusses how each dealt with the fallout from that day.”

Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War by Susan Southard

 Published in 2015, 416 pages  History writing, richly detailed  Summary: “Published to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, a riveting narrative of human resilience, told through first-hand experiences of five survivors, reveals the physical, emotional and social challenges of post-atomic life.”

Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors from Antiquity to the Present by Erin Thompson

 Published in 2016, 232 pages  History writing, art and artwork, sweeping, engaging  “Whether it's the discovery of $1.6 billion in Nazi-looted art or the news that Syrian rebels are looting UNESCO archaeological sites to buy arms, art crime commands headlines. Erin Thompson, America's only professor of art crime, explores the dark history of looting, smuggling, and forgery that lies at the heart of many private art collections and many of the world's most renowned museums. Enlivened by fascinating personalities and scandalous events, Possession shows how collecting antiquities has been a way of creating identity, informed by a desire to annex the past while providing an illicit thrill along the way. Thompson's accounts of history's most infamous collectors—from the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who stole a life-sized nude Greek statue for his bedroom, to Queen Christina of Sweden, who habitually pilfered small antiquities from her fellow aristocrats, to Sir William Hamilton, who forced his mistress to enact poses from his collection of Greek vases—are as mesmerizing as they are revealing.”

To the Secretary: Leaked Embassy Cables and America’s Foreign Policy Disconnect by Mary Thompson-Jones

 Published in 2016, 384 pages  Politics and global affairs, current affairs  Summary: “A former American diplomat assesses what she identifies as a disconnect between Washington policymakers and representatives in U.S. embassies, exploring the day-to-day work of U.S. diplomats and how American foreign policy plays out in countries around the world.”