Your Lake Forest librarians did a whole lot of reading this year, and these are their favorites! Interested in any of these? Put them on hold online or give us a call and we will place the books in the Foyer for you to pick up! What were your favorite books this year?
FICTION
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi A heartbreaking but beautifully told story of an Ghanian immigrant family and the struggles they endure with addiction, depression and more.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett Twin sisters from a small southern Black town run away at age 16. Their paths take dramatically different turns years later with one sister moving back to that town with her black daughter, and the other moving to California and passing as white, with neither her white husband or daughter knowing the truth.
The Exiles by Christine Baker Kline This carefully researched novel tells the story of 3 woman making their way to Australia in the 19th Century. Uprooted from Great Britain, exiled for minor offences these women must forge a new life for themselves. Told with empathy, Kline brings these characters to life and takes us on their journey to this strange new land.
Sea Wife by Amity Gaige This is the story of a marriage and of a family who goes to sea to try to save it, or maybe themselves. Michael is a dreamer, a sailor who convinces his wife to leave their suburban life behind and sail the world with their two small children. Juliet is a frustrated poet and a PH, no D candidate who is feeling restless and depressed so is talked into this sea adventure. What could go wrong?
Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie When young Nori is abandoned by her mother in 1948 Japan, she quickly learns she will lead a solitary life hidden away in her grandparents' estate. As the child of an out-of-wedlock birth, her stigma threatens her family's prominence in Kyoto. When Nori meets her half-brother, though, the two form an unbreakable bond.
Writers & Lovers by Lily King A former child golf prodigy, Casey Peabody now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years. Mourning her mother, at thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto her dream of writing the great American novel. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, she is forced to look at where she is, where she wants to be and figure out how to get there. After finishing this book, I immediately sought out the author’s other titles and they did not disappoint, especially Euphoria.
Anxious People by Fredrick Backmann A bank robbery goes wrong and the robber flees to a nearby apartment, currently being shown to 8 strangers, and takes them hostage. Police are negotiating for their release as the strangers get to know one another. A sweet and comedic mystery.
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue It is the height of the 1918 Flu pandemic, and Dublin is in the midst of a terrible World War, and illness and death is all around. Nurse Julia Power works in a maternity ward for Flu patients in an understaffed hospital where she must help women survive both their pregnancies and the new Flu. Over the course of three days, she meets several women, both staff and patients, whose stories change her life and her perception of the world around her.
ROMANCE
Beach Read by Emily Henry A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane After Laurie’s boyfriend of 10 years abruptly dumps her, she is forced to see him at their shared workplace everyday. A chance encounter in the elevator with the office playboy gives her an idea of how the two of them can work together to make her ex jealous and help his career, but do their feelings start to become real?
FANTASY
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.
An enchanting love story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea from Lambda Literary Award-winning author TJ Klune is a breakout contemporary fantasy novel about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five. But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city, and Five New Yorkers must come together in order to defend their city in the first book of a stunning new series by Hugo award-winning and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin.
HORROR
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia In glamorous 1950s Mexico, Noemí Taboada receives a frantic letter from her cousin asking her to come save her from a mysterious doom. Noemí travels to an isolated, decrepit mansion where her cousin lives with her husband, a chillingly charismatic aristocrat. She soon discovers that her cousin’s new in-laws have many dark, treacherous secrets. A refreshing twist on Gothic Horror.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
MYSTERY/THRILLER
He Started It by Samantha Downing Siblings…Can’t live with them, can’t live without them, or can you? In order to inherit their grandfather’s estate, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance. How does that work when you're all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory—a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won't stop following your car—and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there's a body in the trunk
The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda This fascinating book unfolds in a series of press clippings, diary entries and half remembered memories. Arden has a secret and a past and as much as she tries to avoid it the past is creeping closer, trying to catch up to her. This is the book to spend the day with because once you start it, you will need to finish it.
Long Bright River by Liz Moore This is a great book to keep you company this winter, the story is both riveting and complicated. Mickey is a dedicated police officer, a single mother to a young son and a guilt-ridden older sister to the missing Kasey. This is a mystery, and it is also a tale of the opioid crisis, in cities like Philadelphia where families are struggling with poverty and the effects that these issues have on families, neighborhoods and cities. So compelling that you cannot put it down while also wanting to make it last and savor the story.
GRAPHIC NOVEL
Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed by Laurie Halse Anderson (Author) and Leila del Duca (Illustrator) Princess Diana believes that her 16th birthday will be one of new beginnings--namely acceptance into the warrior tribe of Amazons. The celebrations are cut short, however, when rafts of refugees break through the Themysciran barrier. Diana tries to help them, but she is swept away by the sea--and from her home--thus becoming a refugee herself. Now Diana must survive in the world outside of Themyscira for the first time; the world that is filled with danger and injustice. She must redefine what it means to belong, to be an Amazon, and to make a difference.
NONFICTION
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the quest to understand the disease.
Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe by Brian Greene An exploration of the cosmos and our quest to understand it. Greene takes us on a journey across time, from our most refined understanding of the universe's beginning, to the closest science can take us to the very end. He explores how life and mind emerged from the initial chaos, and how our minds, in coming to understand their own impermanence, seek in different ways to give meaning to experience: in story, myth, religion, creative expression, science, the quest for truth, and our longing for the timeless, or eternal.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents Isabel Wilkerson The Pulitzer Prize—winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
MEMOIRS
Untamed by Glennon Doyle There is a voice of longing inside every woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good mothers, daughters, partners, employees, citizens, and friends. We believe all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives, relationships, and world, and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this?
Eat a Peach by David Chang with Gabe Ulla Chef and star of "Ugly Delicious" on Netflix, David Chang has achieved success and fame in a very competitive industry. This memoir details his struggles growing up, feeling out of place as a Korean American and his battle with mental illness. We learn how he reconciles these issues in the kitchen, and we gain insight into the highly volatile restaurant industry.
The Great Blue Hills of God by Kreis Beall Brought up by perfectionist parents where appearance is everything, she married the founder of the very successful Ruby Tuesday chain of restaurants. Kreis excelled a perfection: beautiful homes, successful children and the creative force behind Blackberry Farm, Tennessee's award-winning farm-to-table resort. Her homes were often featured on the glossy pages of popular home and design magazines. But beautiful exteriors and glowing accolades papered over deep inner pain. At the pinnacle of her success, a brain injury left her with devastating hearing loss. That was followed by the collapse of her thirty-six-year marriage to her best friend and business partner, Sandy Beall--and a few years later, the tragic death of her son Sam, the proprietor of Blackberry Farm, at age thirty-nine. This introspective memoir reveals how she found herself only after losing everything.
ART & ARCHITECTURE
The Architecture of Stanley D. Anderson by Paul Bergmann Beginning his career with Howard Van Doren Shaw in 1918 and then opening his own firm in 1924, Stanley Anderson designed over 200 residences in Lake Forest. He also built Lake Forest High School, Lake Forest Bank, Temple Farms, and many other local buildings. When a Stanley Anderson home comes on the market, the architect is always noted in the real estate listing. Filled with photos and commentary this is the quintessential gift for fans of not only architecture but of the history of Lake Forest.
Biblio-Style: How we Live at Home with Books by Nina Freudenberger Oh, to curl up by a fire with this book, the photos are fabulous and the chapters delightful: The Sentimentalists, The Arrangers, The Collectors. Interior designer Nina Freudenberger, New Yorker writer Sadie Stein, and Architectural Digest photographer Shade Degges give readers a peek at the private libraries and bookshelves of passionate readers all over the world, including Larry McMurtry, Silvia Whitman of Shakespeare and Co., Gay and Nan Talese, and Emma Straub. Gorgeous photographs of rooms with rare collections, floor-to-ceiling shelves, and stacks upon stacks of books are so inspiring.
Accidentally Wes Anderson by Wally Koval Whimsical and outrageous this book is fun for browsing, displaying, and dreaming. Wes Anderson shows us unusual structures and interiors that are too fantastic to be true, yet they are. After reading his forward you may want to follow his Instagram account @accidentallywesanderson.
COOKBOOKS
East: 120 Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes from Bangalore to Beijing by Meera Sodha Drawing from her 'New Vegan' Guardian column, Meera Sodha's stunning new collection features plenty of brand-new recipes inspired by a wide range of Asian cuisines. There are warming noodles, curries, rice dishes, tofu, salads, sides and sweets, all surprisingly easy to make and bursting with exciting flavors. For vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores who want to try meat-free recipes.
Skinnytaste Meal Prep by Gina Homolka Gina utilizes a number of brilliant time-saving strategies, including recipes to prep ahead so they can go straight from the freezer to the Instant Pot, slow cooker, or oven to finish cooking, along with dishes that are completely made ahead and easily reheated.