Hello Lighthouse

written and illustrated by Sophie Blackall

2019 WINNER!

Alma and How She Got Her Name

written and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

2019 Honor Book

A Big Mooncake for Little Star

written and illustrated by Grace Lin

2019 Honor Book

The Rough Patch

written and illustrated by Brian Lies

2019 Honor Book

Thank You, Omu!

written and illustrated by Oge Mora

2019 Honor Book

The Poet X

by Elizabeth Acevedo

2019 WINNER!

Damsel

by Elana K. Arnold

2019 Honor Book

A Heart in a Body in the World

by Deb Caletti

2019 Honor Book

I, Claudia

by Mary McCoy

2019 Honor Book

Merci Suárez Changes Gears

by Meg Medina

2019 WINNER!

The Night Diary

by Veera Hiranandani

2019 Honor Book

The Book of Boy

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

2019 Honor Book

The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science

by Joyce Sidman

2019 WINNER!

Camp Panda: Helping Cubs Return to the Wild

by Catherine Thimmesh

2019 Honor Book

Spooked! How a Radio Broadcast and The War of the Worlds Sparked the 1938 Invasion of America

by Gail Jarrow

2019 Honor Book

The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees

by Don Brown

2019 Honor Book

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga

by Traci Sorel; illustrated by Frané Lessac

2019 Honor Book

When Angels Sing: The Story of Rock Legend Carlos Santana

by Michael Mahin; art by Jose Ramirez

2019 Honor Book

Darius the Great Is Not Okay

by Adib Khorram

2019 WINNER!

Blood Water Paint

by Joy McCullough

2019 Finalist

Check, Please!: #Hockey

by Ngozi Ukazu

2019 Finalist

Children of Blood and Bone

by Tomi Adeyemi

2019 Finalist

What the Night Sings

by Vesper Stamper

2019 Finalist

The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees

by Don Brown

2019 WINNER!

The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor

by Sonia Sotomayor

2019 Finalist

Boots on the Ground: America’s War in Vietnam

by Elizabeth Partridge

2019 Finalist

The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler

by John Hendrix

2019 Finalist

Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction

by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

2019 Finalist

The Undefeated

by Kwame Alexander; illustrated by Kadir Nelson

2020 WINNER!

Bear Came Along

by Richard T. Morris; illustrated by LeUyen Pham

2020 Honor Book

Double Bass Blues

by Andrea J. Loney; illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez

2020 Honor Book

Going Down Home with Daddy

by Kelly Starling Lyons; illustrated by Daniel Minter

2020 Honor Book

Dig

by A. S. King

2020 WINNER!

Five teenagers’ disparate lives weave together, unveiling long-buried secrets within a complex shared history. King’s surrealistic narrative confronts themes of white privilege and its dark legacies.

The Beast Player

by Nahoko Uehashi; translated by Cathy Hirano

2020 Honor Book

Orphaned Elin learns to use her ability to communicate with animals as she navigates through political unrest. The beauty and power of the natural world are at the heart of this captivating, nimb...

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me

by Mariko Tamaki; illustrated by Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

2020 Honor Book

Freddy is enamored with the magnetic Laura Dean, but their on-again, off-again relationship is far from healthy. Through soft-hued illustrations and cinematic scope, this g...

Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir

by Nikki Grimes

2020 Honor Book

Grimes’ verse memoir traces her development through a tumultuous childhood as she finds her voice as a powerful storyteller. Themes of family, belonging, and identity combine to tell a story of faith and resilience....

Where the World Ends

by Geraldine McCaughrean

2020 Honor Book

In 1727, a group of men and boys from St. Kilda sail to a remote sea stack on a fowling trip, only to find themselves stranded. McCaughrean’s exceptional tale evokes the harsh beauty of its setting and the ...

New Kid

by Jerry Craft

2020 WINNER!

Scary Stories for Young Foxes

by Christian McKay Heidicker; illustrated by Junyi Wu

2020 Honor Book

The Undefeated

by Kwame Alexander; illustrated by Kadir Nelson

2020 Honor Book

Other Words for Home

by Jasmine Warga

2020 Honor Book

Genesis Begins Again

by Alicia D. Williams

2020 Honor Book

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story

by Kevin Noble Maillard; illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

2020 WINNER!

All in a Drop: How Antony van Leeuwenhoek Discovered an Invisible World

by Lori Alexander; illustrated by Vivien Mildenberger

2020 Honor Book

This Promise of Change: One Girl's Story in the Fight for School Equality

by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy

2020 Honor Book

Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir

by Nikki Grimes

2020 Honor Book

Hey, Water!

by Antoinette Portis

2020 Honor Book

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager

by Ben Philippe

2020 WINNER!

Norris Kaplan, a Black French-Canadian teen, moves to Austin, Texas and tries to survive American high school life by notating his observations, most of which are based on clichés from U.S. movies and television shows...

The Candle and the Flame

by Nafiza Azad

2020 Finalist

Orphaned in an ongoing war between djinn and humans, Fatima undergoes a magical transformation that can save her family and beloved city of Noor. A devout Muslim, she lives harmoniously in this southeast Asian community amongst ...

Frankly in Love

by David Yoon

2020 Finalist

Frank Li is a Korean-American high school student torn between two lives. At school, he’s part of a diverse group of smart friends. At home, he tries to be a model son — working in his parents’ store...

Genesis Begins Again

by Alicia D. Williams

2020 Finalist

Genesis has a list of reasons to hate about herself, started by girls in a Detroit school she attends, and she keeps adding to it. Born dark-skinned in a family that values light-skin black people, Genesis craves to feel ...

There Will Come a Darkness

by Katy Rose Pool

2020 Finalist

The Age of Darkness is upon us, so says a secret prophecy foretold generations ago by the Seven Prophets. Five lives — an exiled prince, a serial killer known as the Pale Hand, a terminally ill girl, a gambler on th...

Free Lunch

by Rex Ogle

2020 WINNER!

An honest and engrossing account of Ogle’s sixth-grade year and his family’s experience with poverty and its effect on their relationships. Ogle captures the voice and emotion of his sixth-grade self in this powe...

The Great Nijinsky: God of Dance

written and illustrated by Lynn Curlee

2020 Finalist

With striking portraits and bold prose, Curlee details the life of the prodigal dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, who, unencumbered by sexuality and gender norms, rapidly ascended to stardom before tragically succu...

A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust

by Albert Marrin

2020 Finalist

A heart-wrenching look at the history of the Warsaw Ghetto, told by comparing the philosophies of Doctor Janusz Korczak, a pediatrician-turned-orphanage-director who championed children’s rights, and Adolf Hitler, a ...

A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II

by Elizabeth Wein

2020 Finalist

A thrilling, richly detailed account of the regiments of female Russian aviators who fought in World War II as pilots, mechanics, and navigators. Through extensive research, descriptive personal stories, and examples of overc...

Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of “The Children's Ship"

by Deborah Heiligman

2020 Finalist

In 1940, the passenger ship City of Benares set sail from Britain, carrying 200 passengers, many of them children hoping to escape the ravages of war. Before they could reach safety, the ship was struck by a torpedo, and a...

Radiant Child : The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

by Javaka Steptoe

2017 WINNER!

Du Iz Tak?

by Carson Ellis

2017 Honor Book

Freedom in Congo Square

by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

2017 Honor Book

Leave Me Alone

by Vera Brosgol

2017 Honor Book

They All Saw a Cat

by Brendan Wenzel

2017 Honor Book

Wolf in the Snow

by Matthew Cordell

2018 WINNER!

Big Cat, Little Cat

by Elisha Cooper

2018 Honor Book

Crown: An Ode to a Fresh Cut

by Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Gordon C. James

2018 Honor Book

A Different Pond

by Bao Phi; illustrated by Thi Bui

2018 Honor Book

As a young boy, Bao Phi awoke early, hours before his father's long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not re...

Grand Canyon

by Jason Chin

2018 Honor Book

March: Book 3

by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin; illustrated by Nate Powell

2017 WINNER!

Asking For It

by Louise O'Neill

2017 Honor Book

The Passion of Dolssa

by Julie Berry

2017 Honor Book

Scythe

by Neal Shusterman

2017 Honor Book

The Sun Is Also A Star

by Nicola Yoon

2017 Honor Book

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

By Kelly Regan Barnhill

2017 WINNER!

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life

by Ashley Bryan

2017 Honor Book

The Inquisitor's Tale, or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog

by Adam Gidwitz; illuminated by Hatem Aly

2017 Honor Book

Wolf Hollow

by Lauren Wolk

2017 Honor Book

Hello, Universe

by Erin Entrada Kelly

2018 WINNER!

Crown: An Ode to a Fresh Cut

by Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Gordon C. James

2018 Honor Book

Long Way Down

by Jason Reynolds

2018 Honor Book

Piecing Me Together

by Renée Watson

2018 Honor Book

March: Book 3

by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin; illustrated by Nate Powell

2017 WINNER!

Giant Squid

by Candace Fleming; illustrated by Eric Rohman

2017 Honor Book

Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor's Story

by Caren B. Stelson

2017 Honor Book

Uprooted: The Japanese American experience during World War II

by Albert Marrin

2017 Honor Book

We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler

by Russell Freedman

2017 Honor Book

Twelve Days in May: Freedom Ride 1961

by Larry Dane Brimner

2018 WINNER!

Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix

by Jacqueline Briggs Martin & June Jo Lee; illustrated by Man One

2018 Honor Book

Grand Canyon

by Jason Chin

2018 Honor Book

Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability

by Shane Burcaw; photographs by Matt Carr

2018 Honor Book

Sea Otter Heroes: The Predators that Saved an Ecosystem

by Patricia Newman

2018 Honor Book

The Serpent King

by Jeff Zentner

WINNER!

Girl Mans Up

by M-E Girard

Rani Patel In Full Effect

by Sonia Patel

The Smell of Other People's Houses

by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

Tell Me Something Real

by Calla Devlin

March: Book 3

by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin; illustrated by Nate Powell

WINNER!

Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History

by Karen Blumenthal

In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives

by Kenneth C. Davis

Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune

by Pamela S. Turner; illustrated by Gareth Hinds

This Land is Our Land: The History of American Immigration

by Linda Barrett Osborne

Absalom, Absalom!

Far From the Madding Crowd

Song of Solomon

Daniel Deronda

My Man Jeeves

Our Mutual Friend

Loving

The Three Theban Plays

Frankenstein

The Age of Innocence

My Ántonia

Stories by Katherine Mansfield

Wives and Daughters

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Back

The Last Chronicle of Barset

Tom Jones

Walden and Other Writings

The Annotated Persuasion

Anna Karenina

The Tempest

Washington Square

Great Expectations

Madame Bovary

Beloved

Mill on the Floss

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Pale Fire

Bleak House

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Middlemarch

Light in August

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

by Gail Honeyman

Reviewed by Janet:Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine, thank you very much. She is quite settled and safe in her routine, keeping herself to herself, moving from work to home and back, with 2 bottles of vodka on the weekend. Yet her carefu...

Call Me American: A Memoir

by Abdi Nor Iftin

Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop artists like Michael Jackson and watching films starring action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines lan...

Normal People

by Sally Rooney

At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He's popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her job at...

Out of Darkness, Shining Light

by Petina Gappah

The captivating story of the loyal men and women who ensured explorer and missionary Dr. Livingstone's remains, papers, and maps could be returned home to England.

The Limits of the World

by Jennifer Acker

Reviewed by Linda:Jennifer Acker of Amherst College is editor of the school's literary magazine The Common and organizer of LitFest, which brings distinguished writers to campus each spring. This elegantly written and thought-provoking no...

Five-Carat Soul

by James McBride

An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. Five strangers find themselves thrown together and face unexpected judgment. An American ...

There There

by Tommy Orange

Reviewed by Janet:

This powerful novel begins as a series of loosely connected short stories, but turns into something so much more in this exploration of the plight of the urban Native American. Each of the characters follows their own path...

Little Fires Everywhere

by Celeste Ng

Reviewed by Janet:

When things don’t go to plan in the planned community of Shaker Heights, Elena Richardson finds herself struggling to make sense of it all. The secrets she uncovers about her tenants Mia and Pearl threaten to disrupt her own...

The Friend

by Sigrid Nunez

Reviewed by Linda:Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, this novel is for and about writers, teachers of writing, and those who love fine writing. The narrator is a woman who loses her beloved literary mentor to suicide and finds h...

All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir

by Nicole Chung

Chung investigates the mysteries and complexities of her transracial adoption in this chronicle of unexpected family for anyone who has struggled to figure out where they belong.

The Mothers

by Brit Bennett

This dazzling debut novel tells a surprising story about young love, a big secret in a small community — and the things that ultimately haunt us most.

Asymmetry

by Lisa Halliday

A first novel by an award-winning writer explores the imbalances that spark and sustain dramatic human relations, tracing the overlapping stories of a young American editor's relationship with a famous older writer, an unexpected New York ...

Small Fry

by Lisa Brennan-Jobs

A frank, smart and captivating memoir by the daughter of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Born on a farm and named in a field by her parents — artist Chrisann Brennan and Steve Jobs — Lisa Brennan-Jobs's childhood unfolded...

A Place for Us

by Fatima Farheen Mirza

A Place for Us is a deeply moving and resonant story of love, identity, and belonging. As an Indian wedding gathers a family back together, parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children have made. There is Hadi...

The Locals

by Jonathan Dee

Mark Firth is a home builder in Howland, Massachusetts in the early 2000s who, after being swindled by a finanical advisor, feels opportunity passing him by. In the paranoid days after 9/11, a New York money manager, Philip Hadi, moves his ...

They May Not Mean To, But They Do

by Cathleen Schine

Joy Bergman is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace her children, Molly and Daniel, would prefer. She won't take their advice, and she won't take an antidepressant. Her marriage to their father, Aaron, has lasted through health...

Moonglow

by Michael Chabon

A man bears witness to his grandfather's deathbed confessions, which reveal his family's long-buried history and his involvement in a mail-order novelty company, World War II, and the space program.

Sing, Unburied, Sing

by Jesmyn Ward

Reviewed by Linda:

Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, this novel follows three generations of an African American family in Mississippi over the course of a few days. Ward, a two-time winner of the NBA, writes powerfully of how p...

Future Home of the Living God

by Louise Erdrich

A tale set in a world of reversing evolution and a growing police state follows pregnant thirty-two-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, who investigates her biological family while awaiting the birth of a child who may emerge as a member of a ...

The Music Shop

by Rachel Joyce

It's 1988. The CD has arrived. Sales of the shiny new disks are soaring on high streets in cities across the country. Meanwhile, down a dead-end street, Frank's music shop stands small and brightly lit, jam-packed with records of every kind...

Walking Lions

by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen

After neurosurgeon Eitan Green hits and kills an African migrant while driving on a deserted road late at night, the victim's wife tracks him down and confronts him, and her price for silence shatters his safe existence.

All Grown Up

by Jami Attenberg

Hiding the truth about her unhappiness and struggles with anxiety from everyone including her family, best friend, and therapist, Andrea Bern joins her loved ones in a reevaluation of family strength in the wake of her newborn niece's hea...

When Breath Becomes Air

by Paul Kalanithi

Reviewed by Janet:

Paul Kalanithi was a promising young neurosurgeon on the verge of completing his residency. A talented doctor, he sought to connect with his patients as individuals, not merely problems to be fixed in surgery. Yet a diag...

News of the World

by Paulette Jiles

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an elderly widower and itinerant news reader, is offered fifty dollars to bring an orphan girl, who was kidnapped and raised by Kiowa raiders, from Wichita Falls back to her ...

Home Fire

by Kamila Shamsie

From an internationally acclaimed novelist, the suspenseful and heartbreaking story of a family ripped apart by secrets and driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences. Isma is free. After years of watching out for h...

The Locals

by Jonathan Dee

Reviewed by Linda:

I once met a librarian from the Berkshires who told me that many of the new houses in his hometown have helicopter pads in the backyards. I thought of him as I devoured Jonathan Dee’s new novel about a small Berk...

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

by Jill Lepore

This cultural history of Wonder Woman traces the character's creation and enduring popularity, drawing on interviews and archival research to reveal the pivotal role of feminism in shaping her seven-decade story.

Pachinko

by Min Jin Lee

Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea with Sunja, the prized daughter of a poor yet proud family, whose unplanned pregnancy threatens to shame them all. Deserted by her lover, Sunja is sav...

Be Frank with Me

by Julia Claiborne Johnson

Reclusive literary legend M. M. 'Mimi' Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she's flat broke. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time ...

Strangers in Their Own Land

by Arlie Russell Hochschild

In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country – a stronghold of th...

Man at the Helm

by Nina Stibbe

When her charmed life is shattered by her father's abandonment, young Lizzie is forced to move to a gossipy, disapproving village where her sister and she resolve to find a new man for their dysfunctional mother.

Everyone Brave Is Forgiven

by Chris Cleave

Shocking her blueblood political family by volunteering for the war effort in 1939 London, socialite Mary teaches evacuated and marginalized children and bonds with her employer, Tom, before their romance is challenged by a painful love tri...

The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between

by Hisham Matar

In 2012, after the overthrow of Qaddafi, the acclaimed novelist Hisham Matar journeyed to his native Libya after an absence of thirty years. When he was twelve, Matar and his family went into political exile. Eight years later Matar&rsq...

Lab Girl

by Hope Jahren

This debut memoir by an award-winning paleobiologist traces her childhood in her father's laboratory, her longtime relationship with a brilliant but wounded colleague, and the remarkable discoveries they have made both in the lab and during ...

My Brilliant Friend

by Elena Ferrante

The story begins in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples. Growing up on these tough streets, the two girls learn to rely on each other ahead of anyone or anything else. As they grow — and as their paths ...

The Summer Before the War

by Helen Simonson

Arriving in the village of Rye, England, in 1914, Beatrice Nash, a young woman of good family, becomes the first female teacher of Latin at the local school and falls in love with her sponsor's nephew.

The State We're In: Maine Stories

by Ann Beattie

An award-winning short story master presents a collection of new, linked tales that impart the diverse perspectives of women orbiting around a disaffected teen who is staying with relatives while attending summer school.

The Marriage of Opposites

by Alice Hoffman

Dreaming of an exotic life in Paris while coming of age in a St. Thomas refugee community, young Rachel is forced to marry a widower before falling scandalously in love and becoming the mother of Impressionist master Camille Pissarro.

Nora Webster

by Colm Tóibín

Set in Wexford, Ireland, Colm Tóibín's superb seventh novel introduces the formidable, memorable, and deeply moving Nora Webster. Widowed at forty, with four children and not enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man...

The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House

by Kate Andersen Brower

An intimate account of White House life from the perspectives of the service staff from the Kennedys through the Obamas details their friendships, marriages, everyday activities, and elaborate state dinners.

Dimestore: A Memoir

by Lee Smith

In her first work of nonfiction, an author recounts her early days in the small coal town of Grundy, Virginia — and beyond.

Three Strong Women

by Marie NDiaye; translated by John Fletcher

The U.S. release of a Prix Goncourt-winning novel follows the intertwined stories of three women who discover the power of saying no, including a French-born lawyer who must save a victim of her tyrannical fathe...

Euphoria

by Lily King

Frustrated by his research efforts and depressed over the death of his brothers, Andre Banson runs into two fellow anthropologists, a married couple, in 1930s New Guinea and begins a tumultuous relationship with them.

A Strangeness in My Mind

by Orhan Pamuk

Selling Turkish spirits on the street and dreaming of becoming rich in a rapidly developing Istanbul, street youth Melvut Karatas elopes with the wrong woman and builds a family over decades marked by a series of dead-end jobs and an endurin...

Alice in Bed

by Judith Hooper

Reviewed by Linda:

In Amherst author Judith Hooper’s fascinating work of historical fiction it wasn’t hysteria that kept the brilliant Alice James trapped in bed. Sister to the famous writer Henry and psychologist William, she suffered as m...

Deep South

by Paul Theroux

One of the most acclaimed travel writers of our time turns his unflinching eye on an American South too often overlooked. Paul Theroux has spent fifty years crossing the globe, adventuring in the exotic, seeking the rich history and folklor...

Delicious

by Ruth Reichl

Working as a public relations hotline consultant for a once-prestigious culinary magazine, Billie Breslin unexpectedly enters a world of New York restaurateurs and artisanal purveyors while reading World War II letters exchanged between a pl...

The Hilltop

by Assaf Gavron

Life in a West Bank settlement from one of Israel's most acclaimed young novelists, skewering the complex, often absurd reality of life in Israel, the West Bank settlers, and the nation's relationship to the United States.

Dear Life

by Alice Munro

This collection of stories illuminates moments that shape a life, from a dream or a sexual act to simple twists of fate that turn a person out of his or her accustomed path and into another way of being. Set in the countryside and towns of L...

Some Luck

by Jane Smiley

An epic novel that spans thirty years in the lives of a farm family in Iowa, telling a parallel story of the changes taking place in America from 1920 through the early 1950s.

The Mysteries of Udolpho

Northanger Abbey

Excellent Women

Longbourn

Jane Austen's England

Bridget Jones's Diary

Jane Austen: A Life

Pride and Prejudice

The Man Who Invented Christmas (streaming video)

directed by Bharat Nalluri

A film about the magical journey that led to the creation of Ebenezer Scrooge (Christopher Plummer), Tiny Tim, and other classic characters from A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) mixed real-life inspirations with h...

A Long Petal of the Sea

by Isabel Allende

In the late 1930s, civil war gripped Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them...

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

by Sonia Purnell

Reviewed by Linda:Open this book and meet a truly remarkable woman, one who was instrumental in liberating France from the Nazis. Virginia Hall was considered a most unlikely candidate to be a spy: a socialite from Baltimore who had a pros...

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

by Isabel WilkersonIn this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern an...

My Afternoons with Margueritte (Le Tête en Friche) (streaming video)

directed by Jean BeckerThis film stars Gerard Depardieu who plays Germain, a 45-year-old, illiterate handyman. Margueritte is a lovely 95-year-old lady who loves any good book to share with others. The two meet in the afternoons where Margueritte reads an...

Becoming Astrid (streaming video)

directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen

This film follows the early life of the Swedish children author, Astrid Lindgren. She is considered to be the world’s third most-translated children’s author. She has written more than a 100 titl...

1985 (streaming video)

directed by Yen Tan

This film is shot on black-and-white super 16mm film and centers on a pivotal time in America during the first wave of the AIDS crisis. Adrian returns to Texas to celebrate Christmas and reconnect with his family. Unresolved issues forc...

A Man Called Ove

by Fredrik Backman

In this bestselling and delightfully quirky debut novel from Sweden, a grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.

Elephant Company

by Vicki Croke

The remarkable story of James Howard "Billy" Williams, whose uncanny rapport with the world’s largest land animals transformed him from a carefree young man into the charismatic war hero known as Elephant Bill.

Call Me American: A Memoir

by Abdi Nor Iftin

Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop artists like Michael Jackson and watching films starring action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines lan...

The Improvisatore

by Hans Christian Andersen; translated by Frank Hugus

This semi-autobiographical novel, inspired by Andersen’s travels in Italy, was recently translated by Frank Hugus, Amherst resident and UMass Professor of German & Scandinavian Studies.

The Rosie Project

by Graeme Simsion

Reviewed by Janet:Don Tillman is a socially challenged professor who decides it is time to marry. Being a researcher, he decides to use a specially designed questionnaire for the Wife Project, as he calls it. However, things go contrary t...

The Battle for Christmas

by Stephen Nissenbaum

In 1659 the Massachusetts Bay General Court declared the celebration of Christmas to be a criminal offense. What the Puritans were trying to suppress was a holiday marked by boisterous invasions of the homes of the wealthy. As recentl...

The End of American Childhood

by Paula S. Fass

A sweeping look at the history of American childhood and parenting, from the nation's founding to the present day. Renowned historian Paula Fass shows how, since the beginning of the American republic, independence, self-definition, and in...

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation

by Cokie Roberts

Cokie Roberts's number one New York Times bestseller, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, examined the nature of women's roles throughout history and led USA Today to praise her as a "custodian of time-honored values." Her second best...

Sisters In Law

by Linda Hirshman

The relationship between Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg — Republican and Democrat, Christian and Jew, western rancher's daughter and Brooklyn girl — transcends party, religion, region, and culture. Strengt...

Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties

by Madeleine May Kunin

Many readers are already familiar with Madeleine Kunin, the former three-term governor of Vermont, who served as the deputy secretary of education and ambassador to Switzerland under President Bill Clinton. The topic of this — her mo...

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

by Trevor Noah

Noah's path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at the time such a union was punishable by five years in prison. As he struggl...

The Hidden Life of Trees

by Peter Wohlleben

A forester's fascinating stories, supported by the latest scientific research, reveal the extraordinary world of forests and illustrate how trees communicate and care for each other.

Just Mercy

by Bryan Stevenson

The executive director of a social advocacy group for prisoners tells the story of Walter McMillian, a man condemned to death row for a murder he didn't commit — and explains why justice and mercy must go hand-in-hand.

American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West

by Nate Blakeslee

The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her. Before men ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hu...

The Locals

by Jonathan Dee

Reviewed by Linda:I once met a librarian from the Berkshires who told me that many of the new houses in his hometown have helicopter pads in the backyards. I thought of him as I devoured Jonathan Dee’s new novel about a small Berk...

Becoming

by Michelle Obama

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive Whit...

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directed and produced by Betsy West & Julie Cohen

At the age of 85, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a lengthy legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But the unique personal journey of her rise to the na...

The Library Book

by Susan Orlean

Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metro...

Revolution Song: A Story of Freedom

by Russell Shorto

In his epic new book, Russell Shorto takes us back to the founding of the American nation, drawing on diaries, letters and autobiographies to flesh out six lives that cast the era in a fresh new light. They include an African man who free...

Let's Take the Long Way Home

by Gail Caldwell

In this moving memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gail Caldwell reflects on her own coming-of-age in midlife, as she learns to open herself to the power and healing of sharing her life with a best friend.

The Hanging Judge

by Michael Ponsor

When a drive-by shooting in Holyoke, Massachusetts, claims the lives of a Puerto Rican drug dealer and a hockey mom volunteering at an inner-city clinic, the police arrest a rival gang member. With no death penalty in Massachusetts, the U...

Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia

by Steven Stoll

An original investigation into the rise of the Appalachian homestead explores the impact of coal mining, timber and other industries on victimizing and marginalizing the region, sharing insights into how Appalachia became wrongly associated...

The Stranger in the Woods

by Michael Finkel

For readers of Jon Krakauer and The Lost City of Z, a remarkable tale of survival and solitude — the true story of a man who lived alone in a tent in the Maine woods, never talking to another person and surviving by stealing supplies from...

Moloka'i

by Alan Brennert

Seven-year-old Rachel is forcibly removed from her family's 1890s Honolulu home when she contracts leprosy and is placed in a settlement, where she loses a series of new friends before new medical discoveries enable her to reenter the worl...

Saints for All Occasions

by J. Courtney Sullivan

A sweeping novel about two sisters — one the matriarch of a boisterous Irish Catholic family, the other a cloistered nun, hidden from the world — and the secret that drove them apart.

News of the World

by Paulette Jiles

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an elderly widower and itinerant news reader, is offered fifty dollars to bring an orphan girl, who was kidnapped and raised by Kiowa raiders, from Wichita Falls back to her ...

Mr. and Mrs. Prince

by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina

This dual portrait of a pioneering African-American poet and her Revolutionary War veteran husband describes their groundbreaking court battle to retain their land in Vermont and Massachusetts when bigoted neighbors attempted t...

Austin and Mabel

by Polly Longsworth

The romance between Mabel Loomis Todd and Austin Dickinson, the brother of the poet Emily Dickinson, is portrayed in a selection of letters.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

by Jill Lepore

This cultural history of Wonder Woman traces the character's creation and enduring popularity, drawing on interviews and archival research to reveal the pivotal role of feminism in shaping her seven-decade story.

The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House

by Kate Andersen Brower

America's first families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and hea...

Strangers in Their Own Land

by Arlie Russell Hochschild

In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country – a stronghold of the conserva...

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

by J.D. Vance

Provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction i...

Born on a Blue Day

by Daniel Tammet

An autistic savant with genius-level mathematical talents describes how he was shunned by his classmates in spite of his super-human capacity for math and language and offers insight into how he experiences the world.

Love, Loss, and What I Wore

by Ilene Beckerman

In a volume originally intended just for friends, the author reflects on her fortunes and misfortunes through the clothes she has worn, clothes that have expressed her hopes and dreams — from her Brownie uniform to her first maternity dr...

The Sixth Extinction

by Elizabeth Kolbert

Provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extin...

The Nightingale

by Kristin Hannah

Reunited when the elder's husband is sent to fight in World War II, French sisters Vianne and Isabelle find their bond as well as their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways.

Fates and Furies

by Lauren Groff

An exhilarating novel about marriage, creativity, art, and perception.

The Job: True Tales from the Life of a New York City Cop

by Steve Osborne

A retired NYPD lieutenant shares the most entertaining and engrossing true stories from his two decades on the beat, including when he mistook a dentist as an armed robbery suspect and a strange request made by the mother of a suspected cr...

An Unmarked Grave

by Charles Todd

When battlefield nurse Bess Crawford, while contending with wounded soldiers and influenza patients, stumbles upon the body of an officer and family friend who has been murdered, she – using her father's connections in the military – search...

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned-Resistance tracker struggle with their respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast.

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

by Atul Gawande

Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending. Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Gawande asserts that medicine can comfort and enhanc...

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (DVD)

directed by John Madden

When seven cash-strapped seniors decide to 'outsource' their retirement to a resort in far-off India, friendship and romance blossom in the most unexpected ways.

Mr. Holmes (DVD)

directed by Bill Condon

In 1947, an aging Sherlock Holmes returns from a journey to Japan, where, in search of a rare plant with powerful restorative qualities, he has witnessed the devastation of nuclear warfare. Now, in his remote seaside farmhouse, Holm...

Strangers in Good Company (DVD)

directed by Cynthia Scott

Seven elderly women and their bus driver band together to survive when their bus breaks down in the Quebec countryside. As they draw closer, the women begin to share stories from their pasts.

Counter Clockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility

by Ellen J. Langer

If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically? For more than thirty years, award-winning social psychologist Ellen Langer has studied this provocative question, and now, in Counter Clockwise, she ...

Foundryside

by Robert Jackson Bennett

Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been...

The City of Brass

by S. A. Chakraborty

A brilliantly imagined historical fantasy in which a young con artist in eighteenth century Cairo discovers she's the last descendant of a powerful family of djinn healers. With the help of an outcast immortal warrior and a rebellious ...

A Natural History of Dragons

by Marie Brennan

Isabella, Lady Trent, known as the world's preeminent dragon naturalist, writes her memoir detailing how she sought true love and happiness despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition to the perilous mountains of...

Green Rider

by Kristen Britain

After being expelled from school, spoilt Karigan G'ladheon meets a rider dying from an arrow wound who gives her a magic brooch and a message for his king. So begins a life of adventure which transforms Karigan into an exemplary heroine....

The Tethered Mage

by Melissa Caruso

CONTROL THE MAGIC, CONTROL THE WORLD. In the Raverran Empire, magic is scarce and those born with power are strictly controlled — taken as children and conscripted into the Falcon Army. Zaira has lived her life on the streets to...

The Immortals

by Jordanna Max Brodsky

A high quality contemporary fantasy novel that will appeal to a wide range of readers from fans of American Gods to kids who grew up reading Percy Jackson. The Relentless One, the Bearer of the Bow, the Untamed... those are only a f...

Going Postal

by Terry Pratchett

Arch-swindler Moist Van Lipwig never believed his confidence crimes were hanging offenses — until he found himself with a noose tightly around his neck, dropping through a trapdoor, and falling into — a government job...

Existence

by David Brin

In a future world dominated by a neural-link web where people can tune into live events and revolutions can be instantly sparked, an active alien communication device is discovered in orbit around the Earth, triggering an international upheav...

Storm Front

by Jim Butcher

A modern-day mage and consultant to the police finds his stale life suddenly enlivened by the presence of a rival in the black arts.

The Year’s Best Science Fiction (32nd Annual Collection)

edited by Gardner Dozois

A selection of thirty-six of the best science fiction stories of the year from such authors as Nancy Kress, Cory Doctorow, Elizabeth Bear, Ian McDonald, Lauren Beukes, Michael Stanwick, Peter Watts, Alastair Reynolds, and Ken Liu.

The Belgariad (Volume 1)

by David Eddings

The Orb protecting the West from the evil god Torak has been stolen and must be reclaimed in this fast-paced and dramatic epic fantasy series. At the center of these banter-filled stories of good and evil, Gods and Kings, monsters and prop...

Wool

by Hugh Howey

In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. In a society full of regulations meant to protect the community, Sheriff Holston unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: he asks...

Age of Myth

by Michael Sullivan

Michael Sullivan's trailblazing career began with the breakout success of his Riyria series: full-bodied, spellbinding fantasy adventures whose imaginative scope and sympathetic characters won a devoted readership and comparisons to fan...

The Light of Other Days

by Arthur C. Clarke

A breakthrough in quantum physics allows all human beings to spy on each other and to look back into the past, but the human race may not be ready to handle all the ramifications of the scientific innovation.

River of Stars

by Guy Gavriel Kay

Ren Daiyan was just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate of Kitai. That moment on a lonely road changed his life — in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai am...

The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Atwood

Offred, a Handmaid, describes life in what was once the United States, now the Republic of Gilead, a shockingly repressive and intolerant monotheocracy, in this dystopian tour de force set in the near future.

Poison Study

by Maria V. Snyder

After she is given a reprieve from her death sentence, Yelena faces mounting disasters as rebels plot to seize Ixia, her life is once again threatened, and the chief of security is attempting to poison her.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

by Robert A. Heinlein

A one-armed computer technician, a radical blonde bombshell, an aging academic, and a sentient all-knowing computer lead the lunar population in a revolution against Earth's colonial rule.

Ship of Magic

by Robin Hobb

Expecting to inherit her family's Liveship, Althea Vestrit now must defend this animate, intelligent treasure from both her scheming brother-in-law, who plans to use it as a slave ship, and a nation of ruthless pirates led by Captain Kennit.

Blue Remembered Earth

by Alistair Reynolds

In a future where crime, war, and disease have been eradicated, Geoffrey Akinya must travel to the Moon in an attempt to protect his family's name and businesses from dangerous secrets his late grandmother left behind.

A Crown for Cold Silver

by Alex Marshall

Twenty years ago, feared general Cobalt Zosia led her five villainous captains and mercenary army into battle, wrestling monsters and toppling an empire. When there were no more titles to win and no more worlds to conquer, she retired and ...

The Birthday of the World

by Ursula K. Le Guin

A collection of stories that are filled with love, lust, sex, marriage, gender, and other annoying problems that people must deal with no matter where they reside in the universe.

The Dirty Streets of Heaven

by Tad Williams

Bobby Dollar, an angel who has taken part in the long battle between Heaven and Hell, must figure out why there are suddenly an unprecedented number of souls missing from both sides and who summoned a Babylonian demon to kill him.

A Fire Upon the Deep

by Vernor Vinge

A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is ...

Acacia

by David Anthony Durham

Leodan Akaran, the powerful ruler of an idyllic empire, hides the dark realities of their prosperity from his four children, until an assassin from the Mein — a race exiled to an ice-locked stronghold in the north &mda...

Proxima

by Stephen Baxter

Mankind's future in this galaxy could be all but infinite. There are hundreds of billions of red dwarf stars, lasting trillions of years — and their planets can be habitable for humans. Such is the world of Proxima Centauri. And...

Half a King

by Joe Abercrombie

Heir to the throne Yarvi, prompted by the murder of his father, embarks on a kingdom-transforming journey to regain the throne, even though having only one good hand means he cannot wield a weapon.

The Martian Chronicles

by Ray Bradbury

The tranquility of Mars is disrupted by the earthmen who have come to conquer space, colonize the planet, and escape a doomed Earth.

Mage's Blood

by David Hair

The first book in an epic fantasy quartet about the struggle for mastery in a world ruled by magic.

Welcome to the Monkey House

by Kurt Vonnegut

A collection of twenty-five short works written between 1950 and 1968 and originally printed in a wide range of publications including The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, and Ladies’ Home Journal.

The Night Circus

by Erin Morgenstern

A circus, titled Le Cirque des Reve, comes to town out of the blue and without warning. Within its tents, young magicians Celia and Marco compete to be the best, having done so since childhood. However, under the backdrop of their inten...

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

by Mary Roach

The author of Stiff and Gulp explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity.

The Black Prism

by Brent Weeks

Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to liv...

The Sparrow

by Mary Doria Russell

The sole survivor of a crew sent to explore a new planet, Jesuit priest Emilio Sandoz discovers an alien civilization that raises questions about the very essence of humanity – an encounter that leads Sandoz to a public inqu...

A Wizard of Earthsea

by Ursula K. Le Guin

A boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard.

Contact

by Carl Sagan

Astrophysicist Dr. Rebecca Blake deciphers a message from outer space and finds that it contains directions for the construction of a complicated machine.

The Warded Man

by Peter V. Brett

As darkness falls each night, the corelings rise, demons who well up from the ground like a hellish steam, and when young Arlen decides to brave the night roads and face the demons, he attempts something not dreamt of since ancient times:...

Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick

with an introduction by Jonathan Lethem

This collection of stories by the master of science fiction includes "The Minority Report," about the creator of an innovative crime prevention system who himself falls victim to his own invention.

Sorcerer to the Crown

by Zen Cho

While trying to discover why England's magical stocks are drying up, Zacharias Wythe, freed slave and Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers, meets an unusual woman whose power could alter the nature of sorcery in all of Britain.

Red Rising

by Pierce Brown

This tale set in a bleak future society torn by class divisions follows the experiences of secret revolutionary Darrow, who after witnessing his wife's execution by an oppressive government joins a revolutionary cell and attempts to infiltr...

Watership Down

by Richard Adams

An allegorical tale of survival about a band of wild rabbits who leave their ancestral home to build a more humane society, Watership Down chronicles their adventures as they search for a safe place to establish a new warren where they can...

Foreigner

by C. J. Cherryh

Two hundred years after a group of humans had lost a war to the atevi, Bren Cameron, the only human allowed into the atevi society, realizes he must forge a bond between the two seemingly incompatible species.

Theft of Swords

by Michael J. Sullivani

Two thieves in the wrong place at the wrong time are on the run in this fast-paced adventure fantasy.

Redshirts

by John Scalzi

Enjoying his assignment with the xenobiology lab on board the prestigious Intrepid, ensign Andrew Dahl worries about casualties suffered by low-ranking officers during away missions before making a shocking discovery about the starship's act...

Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy

edited by Robert Silverberg

A collection of original short novels by such acclaimed authors as Stephen King, Robert Jordan, Anne McCaffrey, Ursula K. Le Guin, Orson Scott Card, and Terry Goodkind returns each to his own special fantasy world for a new and ...

Embassytown

by China Miéville

Retaining a tenuous peace on a distant planet in the far future, humans and aliens work together through a mutually beneficial economic arrangement that is threatened by the arrival of a new group of humans that destabilizes th...

The Name of the Wind

by Patrick Rothfuss

The story of a hero told in his own voice. It is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man's search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend. So begin...

Goblin Emperor

by Katherine Addison

The youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three sons in line for the throne are killed in an "...

Becoming

by Michelle Obama

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive Whit...

Call Me American: A Memoir

by Abdi Nor Iftin

Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop artists like Michael Jackson and watching films starring action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines lan...

Americanah

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi

A young woman from Nigeria leaves behind her home and her first love to start a new life in America, only to find her dreams are not all she expected.

There There

by Tommy Orange

Reviewed by Janet:

This powerful novel begins as a series of loosely connected short stories, but turns into something so much more in this exploration of the plight of the urban Native American. Each of the characters follows their own path...

If a Tree Falls: A Family’s Quest to Hear and Be Heard

by Jennifer Rosner

This revelatory memoir explores family, silence, and what it means to be heard. When her daughters are born deaf, Rosner is stunned. Then she discovers a hidden history of deafness in her family, going back generations to the Jewish encl...

So You Want to Talk about Race

by Ijeoma Oluo

A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide.

Chasing Space: An Astronaut's Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances

by Leland Melvin

A memoir by the former NASA astronaut and NFL wide receiver traces his personal journey from the gridiron to the stars, examining the intersecting roles of community, perseverance, and grace that create opportunities for success.

Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey

by Stephen Kuusisto

A blind poet describes his relationship with his first guide dog and how it changed his life and gave him a newfound appreciation for travel and independence.

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of he...

The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life

by Lauren Markham

The deeply reported story of identical twin brothers who escape El Salvador's violence to build new lives in California — fighting to survive, to stay, and to belong. Growing up in rural El Salvador in the wake of the civil war,...

Make Trouble

by Cecile Richards

From the president of Planned Parenthood, daughter of the late Governor Ann Richards, and featured speaker at the Women's March on Washington, comes a story about learning to lead and make change, based on a lifetime of fighting for wome...

When They Call You a Terrorist

by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele

A memoir by the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement explains the movement's position of love, humanity, and justice, challenging perspectives that have negatively labeled the movement's activists while ...

News of the World

by Paulette Jiles

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an elderly widower and itinerant news reader, is offered fifty dollars to bring an orphan girl, who was kidnapped and raised by Kiowa raiders, from Wichita Falls back to her ...

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

by J.D. Vance

Provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction i...

I am Malala

by Malala Yousafzai

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the u...

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

by Trevor Noah

Noah's path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at the time such a union was punishable by five years in prison. As he struggl...

Homegoing

by Yaa Gyasi

Reviewed by Janet:

Half-sisters Effia and Esi were born in different villages in 18th century Ghana, and they never know each other. Alternating chapters trace the generations of Effia’s descendants in Ghana and Esi’s in the...

The Book of Joy

by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Two leading spiritual masters share their wisdom about living with joy even in the face of adversity, sharing personal stories and teachings about the science of profound happiness and the daily pr...

The Lovers: Afghanistan’s Romeo and Juliet

by Rod Nordland

An astonishingly powerful and profoundly moving story of a young couple willing to risk everything for love that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about women's rights in the Muslim world. Zakia and Ali were from different tribes, but...

This Is How It Always Is

by Laurie Frankel

When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it's another baby boy. At least their large, loving, chaotic family knows what to expect. But Claude is not like his brothers. One day ...

The Windfall

by Diksha Basu

Moving to a wealthy community after the lucrative sale of their website, Mr. And Mrs. Jha, formerly of East Delhi, struggle with cultural changes while their son, studying in America, pursues romance and wonders how his parents' new status w...

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

by Arlie Russell Hochschild 

Reviewed by Linda:

A renowned sociologist from Berkeley spends months getting to know conservatives in Louisiana bayou country. She wants to understand the feelings that drive their politics, the “deep story&a...

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

by Jill Lepore

A cultural history of Wonder Woman traces the character's creation and enduring popularity, drawing on interviews and archival research to reveal the pivotal role of feminism in shaping her seven-decade story. This book examines the life of ...

And the Mountains Echoed

by Khaled Hosseini

Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and step-mother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters....

Their Eyes Were Watching God

by Zora Neale Hurston

When Janie Starks returns to her rural Florida home, her small black community is overwhelmed with curiosity about her relationship with a younger man.

You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)

by Felicia Day

From the online entertainment pioneer, actress, and "queen of the geeks" Felicia Day, comes a funny, quirky, and inspiring memoir about her unusual upbringing, her rise to internet stardom, and embracing her weirdness to find her p...

Just Mercy

by Bryan Stevenson

The executive director of a social advocacy group for prisoners tells the story of Walter McMillian, a man condemned to death row for a murder he didn't commit — and explains why justice and mercy must go hand-in-hand.

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned-Resistance-tracker struggle with their respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast.

Switched On: A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening

by John Elder Robison

Shocked by the teenage violence she witnessed during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Erin Gruwell became a teacher at a high school rampant with hostility and racial intolerance. For many of these students - whose ranks included...

Freedom Writers Diary

by the Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell

Shocked by the teenage violence she witnessed during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, Erin Gruwell became a teacher at a high school rampant with hostility and racial intolerance. For many of these students &am...

Mom & Me & Mom

by Maya Angelou

The celebrated author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings shares the intimate story of her relationship with her mother, an officer in the Merchant Marines and a purveyor of a gambling business and rooming house, relating the events that pro...

All I Love and Know

by Judith Frank

For years, Matthew Greene and Daniel Rosen have enjoyed a quiet domestic life together in Northampton, Massachusetts. Opposites in many ways, they have grown together and made their relationship work. But when they learn that Daniel's twin ...

Strength in What Remains

by Tracy Kidder

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder returns with the extraordinary true story of Deo, a young man who arrives in America from Burundi in search of a new life. After surviving a civil war and genocide, he ekes out a precarious exi...

The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House

by Kate Andersen Brower

America's first families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and hea...

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the indigenous peoples was genocidal and imperialist, designed to crush the original inhabitants.

The House on Mango Street

by Sandra Cisneros

For Esperanza, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago, life is an endless landscape of concrete and run-down tenements, and she tries to rise above the hopelessness.

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

by Kay Redfield Jamison

The personal story of a manic depressive and a world-renowned authority on the subject describes the onset of the illness during her teenage years and her determined journey through the realm of available treatments.

Between the World and Me

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

A profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a black father for his son, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present...

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking

by Susan Cain

A former Wall Street attorney and business coach demonstrates how introverted people are misunderstood and undervalued in today's culture, charting the rise of "the extrovert ideal" while sharing anecdotal examples to counsel reader...

On the Move: A Life

by Oliver Sacks

Recounts the author's life and career, sharing his experiences as a neurologist in the early 1960s, his obsession with motorcycles and speed, and finding a long-forgotten illness in the wards of a New York chronic hospital.

Not My Father’s Son: A Memoir

by Alan Cumming

In his unique and engaging voice, the acclaimed actor of stage and screen shares the emotional story of his complicated relationship with his father and the deeply buried family secrets that shaped his life and career.

God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine

by Victoria Sweet

This portrait of America's last surviving almshouse describes the author's long-time practice at Laguna Honda Hospital, explaining how its extraordinary patients and low-tech focus on "attentive medicine" transformed her views a...

Giovanni's Room

by James Baldwin

An American, separated from his fiancee, becomes involved in an intense relationship with a young Italian bartender while in Paris.

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

by Black Elk and John G. Neihardt

Reveals the life of Lakota healer Nicholas Black Elk as he led his tribe's battle against white settlers who threatened their homes and buffalo herds, and describes the victories and tragedies at Little Bighorn and Wounded...

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

A Pulitzer Prize-winning husband-and-wife team speaks out against the oppression of women in the developing world, sharing example stories about victims and survivors who are working to raise awareness, counter ab...

Say What You Will

by Cammie McGovern

Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, an...

How to Be Black

by Baratunde Thurston

An editor at The Onion presents a tongue-in-cheek guide to being black that pokes fun at the so-called experts, purists, and racists who think they know what black people believe, do, stand for, and like.

The Things They Carried

by Tim O'Brien

The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O'Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the...

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation

by Cokie Roberts

Cokie Roberts's number one New York Times bestseller, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, examined the nature of women's roles throughout history and led USA Today to praise her as a "custodian of time-honored values." Her second best...

Blindsight

directed by Lucy Walker

The gripping true-life adventure of six blind Tibetan teenagers on a climbing expedition up formidable Mount Everest.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

by Michelle Alexander

Law professor Alexander argues that the War on Drugs and policies that deny convicted felons equal access to employment, housing, education, and public benefits create a permanent under caste based largely on race. As the United State...

Wonder

R.J. Palacio

Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and...

Voices of Our Time

by Studs Terkel

From the 1950s through 1997, Louis "Studs" Terkel, bestselling author of Hard Times, Working, The Great War, Coming of Age, and eight other books, hosted a daily one-hour show on WFMT Radio in Chicago. This nationally syndicated, ...

Limbo

by Alfred Lubrano

In Limbo, award-winning journalist Alfred Lubrano identifies and describes an overlooked cultural phenomenon: the internal conflict within individuals raised in blue-collar homes, now living white-collar lives.

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.

Moving Violations

by John Hockenberry

A memoir that is both funny and furious from a nationally known radio and TV reporter who is paralyzed from the chest down.

White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son

by Tim Wise

White Like Me is part memoir, part polemical essay collection. It is a personal examination of the way in which racial privilege shapes the daily lives of white Americans in every realm: employment, education, housing, criminal justice, and els...

Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People

by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald

In this accessible and groundbreaking look at the science of prejudice, Banaji and Greenwald show that prejudice and unconscious biases toward others are a fundamental part of the human psyche.

Nimona

by Noelle Stevenson

Lord Blackheart, a villain with a vendetta, and his sidekick, Nimona, an impulsive young shapeshifter, must prove to the kingdom that Sir Goldenloin and the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren't the heroes everyone thinks th...

Hamilton and Peggy!

by L.M. Elliott

In the throes of the Revolutionary War, Peggy Schuyler finds herself a central figure amid Loyalists and Patriots, spies and traitors, friends and family. Among those friends, she develops a relationship with Alexander Hamilton, who becomes...

Ms. Marvel

by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona

Kamala Khan is an ordinary girl from Jersey City — until she's suddenly empowered with extraordinary gifts. But who truly is the new Ms. Marvel? Teenager? Muslim? Inhuman? Find out as she takes the Marvel ...

#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women

edited by Lisa Charleyboy & Mary Beth Leatherdale

Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of Indigenous women across North America resound in this book. In the same style as the best-selling Dreaming i...

Turtles All the Way Down

by John Green

It all begins with a fugitive billionaire and the promise of a cash reward. Turtles All the Way Down is about lifelong friendship, the intimacy of an unexpected reunion, Star Wars fan fiction, and tuatara. But at its heart is Aza Holmes, a yo...

The Language of Thorns

by Leigh Bardugo

Travel to Grishnaverse, a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid's voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestru...

Eliza and Her Monsters

by Francesca Zappia

Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of Monstrous Sea, a wildly popular webcomic, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she's worked for begins to crumble.

Tell Me Something Real

by Calla Devlin

The three Babcock sisters must travel to a Mexican clinic across the border so their mother, ill with leukemia, can receive alternative treatments. The sisters' world is about to shatter under the weight of an incomprehensible betrayal &...

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned-Resistance-tracker struggle with their respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

by Chris Grabenstein

Twelve-year-old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new town library, which was designed by his hero: the famous gamemaker Luigi Lemoncello. When morning comes, he and his friends must solve puzzles in order to escape.

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of he...

History Is All You Left Me

by Adam Silvera

Secrets are revealed as OCD-afflicted Griffin grieves for his first love, Theo, who died in a drowning accident.

The Passion of Dolssa

by Julie Berry

Buried deep within the archives of a convent in medieval France is an untold story of love, loss, and wonder and the two girls at the heart of it all.

Spontaneous

by Aaron Starmer

A darkly funny and spectacularly original exploration of friendship, goodbyes – and spontaneous combustion.

Bone Gap

The Oxford English Dictionary: 'Nothing Else Comes Close'

The Oxford English Dictionary.

It calls itself "the definitive record of the English Language," and rightly so. If you’re a writer, a poet, or just a "word-lover" (first documented usage in 1857, says the OED), you might lose ...

A Valentine for the Jones Library!

The November issue of Oprah Magazine includes a very sweet valentine to the Jones Library written by local author Catherine Newman. You can read "Dear Public Library" at www.oprahmag.com or here (PDF). Thank you, Catherine!

Jones Library ESL Program Receives Grant

From the Amherst Bulletin (bottom of 'Around Amherst' section):

"The English as Second Language Center at the Jones Library recently received a $1,000 grant to help new immigrants achieve English literacy and proficiency.

Vernon Library Supplies of Nor...

Jones Library Recognized by Human Rights Commission

We are honored to have been recognized by the Amherst Human Rights Commission.

Excerpted from their press release entitled "Amherst Human Rights Commission announces Recipients of 13th Annual Human Rights Heroes Awards":

The special recognition aw...

Call Me American: A Memoir

by Abdi Nor Iftin

Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop artists like Michael Jackson and watching films starring action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines lan...

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

by Ocean Vuong

Reviewed by Linda:A faculty member in the UMass MFA Program and recently named a 2019 MacArthur Fellow, Ocean Vuong earned comparisons to Emily Dickinson with his first book, a collection of poetry. For his second, he turned to autobiographi...

Becoming: A Memoir

by Michelle Obama

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America, she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive Whit...

A Gentleman in Moscow

by Amor Towles

Reviewed by Linda:An utterly charming and moving tale of a Russian count, one Alexander Ilyich Rostov, who is called before a Bolshevik tribunal in 1922 for having written an incendiary poem, and is sentenced to house arrest at the Metropol,...

Educated: A Memoir

by Tara Westover

Reviewed by Linda:The author of this remarkable book was raised by survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, where she and her six siblings prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling food. Born at home, Tara had no birth certificate; n...

The Overstory

by Richard Powers

Reviewed by Linda:This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, although perhaps overly long, is a profound and insightful look at our understanding of trees. Joining The Secret Lives of Trees and other recent works, it causes the reader to re-evalu...

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

by Isabel WilkersonIn this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern an...

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II

by Sonia Purnell

Reviewed by Linda:Open this book and meet a truly remarkable woman, one who was instrumental in liberating France from the Nazis. Virginia Hall was considered a most unlikely candidate to be a spy: a socialite from Baltimore who had a pros...

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Reviewed by Linda:Robin Wall Kimmerer has written a very personal book about plants and our relationship to them and the natural world. She is both a biologist and a Native American who is steeped in traditional knowledge. Her book h...

The Water Dancer

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Reviewed by Janet:This Oprah’s Book Club pick takes us to Virginia, where the elevated white culture based on the tobacco crop is eroding as the fields produce less and less. Hiram, who Tasks on the Lockless plantation, cannot remember ...

The History of the Town of Amherst (1731 - 1896)

Compiled and published by Carpenter & Morehouse in 1896. Digitized by UMass Amherst Libraries. Hosted by Archive.org.

Guide to the Robert Frost Trail (PDF)

Fourth edition. Created by the Amherst Conversation Department and the Amherst Area Trails Committee in 2004. Hosted by Amherstma.gov.

Historic Homes of Amherst

By Alice M. Walker. Published under the auspices of the Amherst Historical Society in 1905. Digitized by UMass Amherst Libraries. Hosted by Archive.org.

Encyclopedia of Small Business (2017)

This encyclopedia provides entrepreneurs with how-to information that they can apply to their own business. It features revised and expanded coverage to reflect the most current small business topics.

Free access with a Jones Library card

Small Business Sourcebook: The Entrepreneur's Resource (2017)

This book is designed to facilitate the start-up, development, and growth of specific small businesses. Listings for general small business topics and relevant state and federal government agencies are also included.

Free access with a Jones Library card

Encyclopedia of Business and Finance (2014)

Designed for the nonspecialist, the Encyclopedia of Business and Finance is a 2-volume complete reference covering five general areas: finance and banking; accounting; marketing; management; and information systems. Drawing on practical professional exper...

Scholarships, Fellowships and Loans (2017)

Provides comprehensive information on sources of education-related financial aid sponsored and administered by private organizations and companies.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The College Blue Book (2017)

Guide to thousands of 2-year and 4-year schools in the U.S. and Canada. Covers the expected listings and detailed descriptions, degree programs offered, scholarships, and occupational education programs.

Free access with a Jones Library card

Career Information Center (2014)

Provides the most current information available on careers in the United States and Canada to people of all ages and all stages of career development. Each volume covers a career cluster and its common career pathways. Job profiles cover the following: jo...

Career and Technical Education (2014)

Explores the issues surrounding career and technical education.

Free access with a Jones Library card

Business Plans Handbook (2014)

Actual business plans compiled by – and aimed at – entrepreneurs seeking funding for small businesses. Presents sample plans taken from businesses in the manufacturing, retail, and service industries which serve as examples of how to approach, structure, ...

Encyclopedia of Business and Finance (2014)

Designed for the nonspecialist, the Encyclopedia of Business and Finance is a 2-volume complete reference covering five general areas: finance and banking; accounting; marketing; management; and information systems. Drawing on practical professional exper...

Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations (2017)

This encyclopedia presents easy-to-understand information on more than 200 countries and dependencies from around the world. Entries discuss a variety of topics in detail, from banking and securities to climate, from government data to demographic statist...

The Gale Encyclopedia of Nutrition and Food Labels (2017)

This encyclopedia provides information on food, nutrition, food labels, and associated legislation, organizations, and diseases and conditions.

Free access with a Jones Library card

Encyclopedia of Small Business (2017)

This encyclopedia provides entrepreneurs with how-to information that they can apply to their own business. It features revised and expanded coverage to reflect the most current small business topics.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (2016)

This encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of the field of psychology – including notable people, theories and terms, landmark case studies and experiments, applications of psychology in advertising, medicine, and sports, and career information.

Fre...

The Gale Encyclopedia of Pregnancy and Childbirth (2017)

This encyclopedia presents authoritative medical information related to pregnancy and childbirth – including common and rare diseases and medical conditions, immunizations and drugs, procedures, and developmental issues.

Free access with a Jones ...

The Gale Encyclopedia of Nutrition and Food Labels (2017)

This encyclopedia provides information on food, nutrition, food labels, and associated legislation, organizations, and diseases and conditions.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The Gale Encyclopedia of Dermatology (2017)

This encyclopedia provides in-depth coverage of various issues related to skin, hair, and nails – including dermatological diagnoses and procedures, treatment options, and medications.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders (2016)

This encyclopedia provides clear, complete information on genetic disorders – including conditions, tests, procedures, treatments, and therapies – in articles that are both comprehensive and easy to understand.

Free access with a Jones ...

The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (2016)

This encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of the field of psychology – including notable people, theories and terms, landmark case studies and experiments, applications of psychology in advertising, medicine, and sports, and career infor...

The Gale Encyclopedia of Children's Health: Infancy through Adolescence (2016)

This encyclopedia provides in-depth coverage of pediatric diseases and disorders, along with issues related to physical, cognitive, and behavioral development.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The Gale Encyclopedia of Surgery and Medical Tests (2014)

This encyclopedia provides coverage of numerous surgical procedures, medical tests, and related topics – such as anesthetics, common lab test and procedures, medications, and postoperative care. Entries for medical tests and surgical procedures include: d...

The Gale Encyclopedia of Senior Health (2015)

This encyclopedia covers various issues related to one’s aging body, how diseases affect it, and treatment options, including medications.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine (2014)

This encyclopedia covers all aspects of the subject including therapies, conditions/diseases, herbs/plants, and people. Identifies numerous types of alternative medicine being practiced today, including reflexology, acupressure, acupuncture, chelation the...

The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health (2013)

This encyclopedia provides detailed information on mental disorders and conditions. It also features entries for prescription, alternative, and over-the-counter drugs, as well as various therapies.

Free access with a Jones Library card

Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations (2017)

This encyclopedia presents easy-to-understand information on more than 200 countries and dependencies from around the world. Entries discuss a variety of topics in detail, from banking and securities to climate, from government data to demographic statist...

The Great American Mosaic: An Exploration of Diversity in Primary Documents (2014)

This collection is a comprehensive source of documents that give voice to those who comprise the American mosaic, illustrating the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Each volume focuses on a major racial/ethnic group: Africa...

Proud Heritage: People, Issues, and Documents of the LGBT Experience (2015)

This three-volume reference traces the roots and development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights and issues in the United States from the pre-colonial period to the present day.

Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic (2014)

How is race defined and perceived in America today, and how do these definitions and perceptions compare to attitudes 100 years ago, or 200 years ago? This four-volume set addresses many topics related to race in the United States.

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (2013)

This encyclopedia includes more than 3,000 signed essays, written or reviewed by subject experts. Entries cover topics and people in major areas of popular culture: film, music, print culture, social life, sports, television and radio, and art and perform...

The Age of Exploration (2013)

This volume in Lucent's World History series tells the story of the Age of Exploration, beginning with the efforts of Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal in the 15th century, and covering major discoveries and expeditions through the late 17th century....

Women Civil Rights Leaders (2013)

The Lucent Library of Black History places important topics in context so that readers will understand the connection between black history and the sweep of America's story. This volume covers African American women civil rights workers. Search the index

Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (2014)

This encyclopedia includes 23 new ethnic groups and contains 152 revised ethnic entries on specific minority groups in the United States, with an emphasis on culture (religions, holidays, customs, language) in addition to information on historical backgro...

Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (2014)

This encyclopedia includes 23 new ethnic groups and contains 152 revised ethnic entries on specific minority groups in the United States, with an emphasis on culture (religions, holidays, customs, language) in addition to information on historical backgro...

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (2013)

This encyclopedia includes more than 3,000 signed essays, written or reviewed by subject experts. Entries cover topics and people in major areas of popular culture: film, music, print culture, social life, sports, television and radio, and art and perform...

The Age of Exploration (2013)

This volume in Lucent's World History series tells the story of the Age of Exploration, beginning with the efforts of Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal in the 15th century, and covering major discoveries and expeditions through the late 17th century....

Women Civil Rights Leaders (2013)

The Lucent Library of Black History places important topics in context so that readers will understand the connection between black history and the sweep of America's story. This volume covers African American women civil rights workers. Search the index

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia (2003)

A completely revised and updated version of the original work published in Germany in 1960, this edition incorporates recent developments in the animal world as noted by prominent advisors and contributors from the scientific community. Search the index t...

Achieving Sustainability (2014)

This book is aimed at readers who are not experts in the field and the material is relevant to courses in natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. It presents and analyzes the underpinnings of the multi-disciplinary concept of sustainability...

UXL Sustainable Living (2016)

This encyclopedia helps students and general readers understand the economic, social, and environmental issues humans face today. It addresses sustainability challenges and opportunities – from air pollution to natural resources to zero waste.

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia (2003)

A completely revised and updated version of the original work published in Germany in 1960, this edition incorporates recent developments in the animal world as noted by prominent advisors and contributors from the scientific community. Search the index t...

Achieving Sustainability (2014)

This book is aimed at readers who are not experts in the field and the material is relevant to courses in natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. It presents and analyzes the underpinnings of the multi-disciplinary concept of sustainability...

The Gale Encyclopedia of Senior Health (2015)

This encyclopedia covers various issues related to one’s aging body, how diseases affect it, and treatment options, including medications.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The Gale Encyclopedia of Nutrition and Food Labels (2017)

This encyclopedia provides information on food, nutrition, food labels, and associated legislation, organizations, and diseases and conditions.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The Gale Encyclopedia of Dermatology (2017)

This encyclopedia provides in-depth coverage of various issues related to skin, hair, and nails – including dermatological diagnoses and procedures, treatment options, and medications.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine (2014)

This encyclopedia covers all aspects of the subject including therapies, conditions/diseases, herbs/plants, and people. Identifies numerous types of alternative medicine being practiced today, including reflexology, acupressure, acupuncture, chelation the...

The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Health (2013)

This encyclopedia provides detailed information on mental disorders and conditions. It also features entries for prescription, alternative, and over-the-counter drugs, as well as various therapies.

Free access with a Jones Library card

The Gale Encyclopedia of Surgery and Medical Tests (2014)

This encyclopedia provides coverage of numerous surgical procedures, medical tests, and related topics – such as anesthetics, common lab test and procedures, medications, and postoperative care. Entries for medical tests and surgical procedures include: d...

You Can Keep That to Yourself

A Comprehensive List of What Not to Say to Black People, for Well-Intentioned People of Pallorby Adam Smyer

An eye-opening and humorous little book about a serious topic: the many ways that white people too often offend their black coworkers in conversatio...

So You Want to Talk about Race

by Ijeoma Oluo

How do you explain white privilege to your friends?

Find in our catalog

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandel

The authors, leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, have been called terrorists but in truth are women seeking justice for those victimized by the powerful.

Find in our catalog

They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement

by Wesley Lowery

A deeply reported book about the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray.

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The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

by Michelle Alexander

A book by a legal scholar which opened the eyes of Americans to the broken state of the American legal system.

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White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide

by Carol Anderson

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner

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How to Be an Antiracist

by Ibram X. Kendi

The opposite of “racist” isn’t “not racist.” A new approach to race, justice, and equality.

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Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

by Ibram X. Kendi

Winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction

Find in our catalog

The Fire Next Time

by James Baldwin

The classic that galvanized the country when it was first published in the early days of the civil rights movement.

Find in our catalog

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race

edited by Jesmyn Ward

A bestseller that continues Baldwin’s conversation with new essays and poems.

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Between the World and Me

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction is an eloquent and heartbreaking memoir in the form of a letter to the author’s teenage son.

Find in our catalog

Citizen: An American Lyric

by Claudia Rankine

Award-winning poetry that addresses race and racism.

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From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century

by William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen

The most comprehensive case to date for economic reparations; co-author Darity is an Amherst native.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism

by Robin DiAngelo

A sociologist probes the reasons that white Americans resist confronting racism.

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A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind

by Harriet A. Washington

The devastating consequences of racism and how to remedy its toxic effects.

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Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor

by Layla F. Saad

Recommended for white people who want to challenge white supremacy.

Find in our catalog

When They Come for You: How Police & Government Are Trampling Our Liberties & How to Take Them Back

by David Kirby

An argument that basic constitutional rights and equal protection under the law are being threatened.

The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crime, Racism, and Injustice in American Law Enforcement

by Matthew Horace

An African-American police officer with 28 years of experience writes powerfully about the racism inside American police departments.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

by Jason Reynolds

A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism — and antiracism — in America. This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A b...

Because They Marched: The People's Campaign for Voting Rights that Changed America

by Russell Freedman

In the early 1960s, tired of reprisals for attempting to register to vote, Selma’s black community began to protest. The struggle received nationwide attention when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a voting rights march in Janu...

We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide

by Carol Anderson

Carol Anderson’s White Rage took the world by storm, landing on the New York Times bestseller list and best book of the year lists from New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Chicago Review of Books. It launched her ...

Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice

by Bryan Stevenson

In this young adult adaptation of the acclaimed bestseller Just Mercy, which the New York Times calls "as compelling as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so," Bryan Stevenson delves deep into the broken U.S. justice ...

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

edited by Ibi Zoboi

A collection of short stories explore what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teenagers and emphasizing that one person’s experiences, reality, and personal identity are different than some...

All American Boys

by Jason Reynolds

In an unforgettable new novel from award-winning authors Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, two teens — one black, one white — grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their commu...

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of he...

Dear Martin

by Nic Stone

Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning New York Times bestselling debut, a William C. Morris Award Finalist.Jus...

Piecing Me Together

by Renee Watson

Acclaimed author Renee Watson offers a powerful story about a girl striving for success in a world that too often seems like it’s trying to break her.Jade believes she must get out of her poor neighborhood if she’s ever ...

Pet

by Akwaeke Emezi

The highly-anticipated, genre-defying new novel by award-winning author Akwaeke Emezi that explores themes of identity and justice. Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look? There are no monsters anymore, or so the child...

This Book is Anti-Racist

by Tiffany Jewell; illustrated by Aurélia Durand

This book is written for the young person who doesn’t know how to speak up to the racist adults in their life. For the 14 year old who sees injustice at school and isn’t able t...

Ghost Boys

by Jewell Parker Rhodes

A heartbreaking and powerful story about a black boy killed by a police officer, drawing connections through history, from award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes.Only the living can make the world better. Live and make it better....

Genesis Begins Again

by Alicia Williams

This deeply sensitive and powerful debut novel tells the story of a thirteen-year-old who must overcome internalized racism and a verbally abusive family to finally learn to love herself.There are ninety-six things Genesis hates about he...

New Kid

by Jerry Craft

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is ...

Brown Girl Dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her ...

One Crazy Summer (One Crazy Summer Series, Book 1)

by Rita Garcia Williams

In this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them. "This vibrant and moving awa...

Ghost

by Jason Reynolds

A National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature.Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.Ghost wants to be the fastest sprinter on his elite middle school ...

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

by Mildred D. Taylor

Winner of the Newbery Medal, this remarkably moving novel has impressed the hearts and minds of millions of readers.Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, this is the story of one family’s struggle to maintain th...

The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963

by Christopher Paul Curtis

Celebrate the 25th anniversary of this Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree about a hilarious family on a road-trip at one of the most important times in America’s history. This special edition makes a perfect gift an...

The Stars Beneath Our Feet

by David Barclay Moore

"The right story at the right time. . . . It’s not just a narrative; it’s an experience. It’s the novel we’ve been waiting for." —The New York TimesA New York Times Notable ...

Blended

by Sharon Draper

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s blended family is more divided than ever in this "timely but genuine" (Publishers Weekly) story about divorce and racial identity from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author o...

A Good Kind of Trouble

by Lisa Moore Ramée

From debut author Lisa Moore Ramée comes this funny and bighearted debut middle grade novel about friendship, family, and standing up for what’s right, perfect for fans of of Angie Thomas’s The ...

Harbor Me

by Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s LiteratureA NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!Jacqueline Woodson’s first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming ce...

Midnight without a Moon

by Linda Williams Jackson

Washington Post 2017 KidsPost Summer Book Club selection!It’s Mississippi in the summer of 1955, and Rose Lee Carter can’t wait to move north. But for now, she’s living with her sharecropper grandpare...

Betty Before X

by Ilyasah Shabazz & Renée Watson

A New York Public Library Best Children’s Book of 2018A Washington Post Best Children’s Book of 2018A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2018In Detroit, 1945, eleven-year-old Betty’s h...

The Undefeated

by Kwame Alexander; illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Winner of the 2020 Caldecott MedalA 2020 Newbery Honor BookWinner of the 2020 Coretta Scott King Illustrator AwardThe Newbery Award-winning author of The Crossover pens an ode to black American triumph and tr...

The Day You Begin

by Jacqueline Woodson; illustrated by Rafael López

Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s LiteratureA #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belp...

Sugar Hill: Harlem’s Historic Neighborhood

by Carolel Boston Weatherford; illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

An Arnold Adoff Poetry Award for Early Readers Honor BookTake a walk through Harlem’s Sugar Hill and meet all the amazing people who made this neighborhood legendary. With upbeat r...

I Have a Dream

by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; paintings by Kadir Nelson

From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s daughter, Dr. Bernice A. King: "My father’s dream continues to live on from generation to generation, and this beautiful and powerful illus...

Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America

by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by Jamey Christoph

Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Literary WorkGordon Parks is most famous for being the first black director in Hollywood. But before he made movies and wrote ...

Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America

by Andrea Davis Pinkney & Brian Pinkney

Hand in Hand presents the stories of ten men from different eras in American history, organized chronologically to provide a scope from slavery to the modern day. The stories are accessible, fully-drawn narrative...

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History

by Vashti Harrison

Based on her popular Instagram posts, debut author/illustrator Vashti Harrison shares the stories of 40 bold African American women who shaped historyAmong these women, you’ll find heroes, role models, and everyday women who di...

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature

by J. Drew Lanham

In honor of National Bird Day (January 5), we have chosen a remarkable memoir published in 2016 by an African-American birder and naturalist. The Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University, J. Drew Lanham has writte...

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

edited by Ibi Zoboi

This 2019 anthology of young adult short stories is a wonderful offering of modern Black voices. Featuring 16 excellent Black authors such as Nic Stone and Jason Reynolds, my favorite part of reading this was the diversity of stories to...

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

by Les Payne and Tamara Payne

This highly acclaimed new book is winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview...

You Can Keep That to Yourself

A Comprehensive List of What Not to Say to Black People, for Well-Intentioned People of Pallor by Adam Smyer

How do you write something humorous about racism in America? If you are Adam Smyer, an attorney, martial artist, and mediocre bass player,...

King and the Dragonflies

by Kacen Callender

This bittersweet middle grade book takes us to the bayous of small town Louisiana where homophobia and racism are very real things that twelve year old Kingston James must deal with. Mourning the sudden death of his older brother, King s...

The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir

by Michele Harper

The author of this eloquent memoir is an ER doctor and a practitioner of yoga and meditation. Here she recounts how she overcame racist colleagues, a background of domestic violence, and the trauma of seeing suffering people every day at ...

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

by Kamala D. Harris

The results of the presidential election are now acknowledged by most Americans, and for the first time a woman of color was on the winning ticket! Kamala Harris, the daughter of an economist from Jamaica and a cancer researcher from In...

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People

by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz; adapted by Jean Mendoza & Debbie Reese

In our antiracist efforts to dismantle white supremacy, we have to also look at this country's relationship with its Indigenous communities. Both Black and Indigenous people have suffered ...

Race after Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

by Ruha Benjamin

An African American Studies scholar turns a bright light on technology, illuminating how racism and inequality underpin its newest creations. From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to unders...

From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century

by William A. Darity, Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen

Racism and discrimination have choked economic opportunity for African Americans at nearly every turn. William Darity, an economist at Duke University and an Amherst native, and folklorist Kirsten Mullen toge...

The City We Became

by N. K. Jemisin

Congratulations to N. K. Jemisin for being named one of this year’s MacArthur “geniuses!” The MacArthur Foundation describes her as “a speculative fiction writer exploring deeply human questions about structural racism, environmental crise...

Dread Nation

by Justina Ireland

This 2018 young adult historical fiction by Justina Ireland is the perfect spooky October read to get you in the mood for Halloween. Why? Because there are zombies! Zombies! Set just after the Civil War, this is a fun and action-packed s...

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

by Leah Penniman

At a time when Americans are closely examining all aspects of our society for racism, those of us interested in food issues would do well to start with this remarkable book. Author Leah Penniman, the 2019 recipient of the James Beard Found...

Say Her Name

by Zetta Elliott; illustrated by Loveis Wise

Turn to the Acknowledgements section in the final pages of this short 100 page collection of poetry-activism and you will see that the author knowingly divines that there will be more black women to mourn and re...

Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All

by Martha S. Jones

According to conventional wisdom, American women’s campaign for the vote began with the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. But this women’s movement was an overwhelmingly ...

Towers Falling

by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Fifth grade student Dèja is starting the year at a new school in Brooklyn after her family moves into a shelter. Although the first day is filled with challenges, it is also filled with promise: a teacher who connects to her student...

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir

by Natasha Trethewey

Natasha Trethewey is a former U.S. Poet Laureate and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She earned her M.F.A. at UMass Amherst. Memorial Drive is her first book that is not poetry. This memoir was written because, in the aut...

One Crazy Summer (One Crazy Summer Series, Book 1)

by Rita Garcia Williams

One Crazy Summer follows the three Gaither sisters as they travel from Brooklyn to Oakland in the summer of 1968, where they hope to get to know the mother who left them. Delphine, the oldest sister, takes on many roles in her famil...

Brother Robert: Growing Up with Robert Johnson

by Annye C. Anderson with Preston Lauterbach; foreword by Elijah Wald

We are excited to offer this new weekly feature and to share a wide array of books about Black lives in America. It seems appropriate to begin with a new book by a well-known Amherst res...

Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America

by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by Jamey Christoph

This picture book biography introduces readers to the life and work of multi-talented artist Gordon Parks. It traces Parks’ path to becoming one of the most important photographers of the 20th ce...

March: Book 1, 2, and 3

by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin; illustrated by Nate Powell

The nation is mourning the death of a civil rights hero and “conscience of the Congress,” Representative John Lewis. Adults and young adults wanting to know more about Lewis and the civil rights mo...

This Is Major: Notes on Diana Ross, Dark Girls, and Being Dope

by Shayla Lawson

Writing in a fierce and humorous voice, Shayla Lawson provides a memoir in essays that is also a celebration of black women’s lives and culture. She knows the richness and resilience of black girl culture (its irony and rebellion!) and the...

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

In this 2020 YA remix of Ibram X. Kendi’s work (2016’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America), Jason Reynolds is quick to point out that this isn’t a history book. That said, he d...

Horace Pippin, American Modern

by Anne Monahan

Horace Pippin, sometimes described as an American Henri Rousseau, was a disabled veteran (WWI) without formal art training who began painting in his 40s and soon became famous in the art world. His works depict WWI, black families, Abraham ...

The Jane Austen Society

by Natalie Jenner

Reviewed by Janet:The perfect read for Jane Austen fans! This novel takes us to Chawton, England where another group of Jane Austen fans gradually find each other and mobilize to preserve the property of their favorite author. Immersing u...

Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

by James Clear

Reviewed by Linda:This bestseller looks at the science of how we form and maintain habits. The author provides lots of fascinating details about human nature as it relates to habits, and stories about how tiny changes in behavior can bring b...

The Guest List

by Lucy Foley

Reviewed by Janet:This feels like an Agatha Christie mystery at first, with a wedding being celebrated on a small island off the coast of Ireland, accessible only by boat. As a handful of characters take turns narrating the story, it becomes ...

The Exiles

by Christina Baker Kline

A special holiday two-fer from Janet and Linda!

Reviewed by Janet:Falsely accused of theft and left pregnant after being seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline loses her post as a governess and is sentenced to 14 years&...

The Love Story of Missy Carmichael

by Beth Morrey

Reviewed by Linda:  Millicent Carmichael, a retired librarian living in London, is at loose ends after the death of her husband and the departure of her two adult children from her life (her beloved son moving with his fami...

Chosen Ones

by Veronica Roth

Reviewed by Janet:From the bestselling author of the Divergent series comes a sci-fi/fantasy/thriller for adults. Ten years ago, Sloane Andrews and four other teens, called the Chosen Ones, defeated the Dark One, who was wreaking havoc in ...

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Reviewed by Linda:Robin Wall Kimmerer has written a very personal book about plants and our relationship to them and the natural world. She is both a biologist and a Native American who is steeped in traditional knowledge. Her book h...

You Had Me at Hola

by Alexis Daria

Reviewed by Janet:This new rom-com series for ScreenFlix could be just what Jasmine needs as the next step in her Leading Lady Plan. It could also be a career boost out of telenovelas for the secretive new leading man, Ashton. Yet their pro...

Know My Name: A Memoir

by Chanel Miller

Reviewed by Linda:This powerful book was just named the non-fiction winner of the 2020 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Three years ago, the Internet lit up with the story of Jane Doe, a young woman who was raped while unconscious by a Stanfor...

All Adults Here

by Emma Straub

Reviewed by Janet:Astrid lives in a picturesque small town in upstate New York, and finds her world off-kilter after witnessing an acquaintance get struck by a local school bus. This event serves as a catalyst for Astrid, causing her to look...

The Glass Hotel

by Emily St. John Mandel

Reviewed by Linda:The author of Station Eleven has written a new bestseller entitled The Glass Hotel. This superbly written book looks at the insecurity of modern life, and how easy it is to lose one's moral compass when t...

Afterlife

by Julia Alvarez

Reviewed by Janet:Antonia is a retired professor from a Vermont liberal arts college, and the first anniversary of her husband’s death is approaching. Still struggling to find her “afterlife” following both of...

Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020

by Lawrence Douglas

Reviewed by Linda:Amherst College professor Lawrence Douglas has written a very timely book for all who are concerned about the upcoming presidential election. He assesses the likelihood of mayhem if Trump loses a close election or if t...

The Happy Ever After Playlist

by Abby Jimenez

Reviewed by Janet:This fun follow-up to The Friend Zone catches readers up with artist Sloan Monroe, a couple years after the end of the previous book. Witty and irreverent, this look at love, friendship, grieving, and being true to yoursel...

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

by Robert Kolker

Reviewed by Linda:What an astonishing true story! The Galvin Family of Colorado was always exceptional owing to its size (10 sons and 2 daughters). Six of the sons were tragically hit with schizophrenia as each reached adulthood. Little wa...

Conjure Women

by Afia Atakora

Reviewed by Janet:Rue is a healer and midwife on Marse Charles’ plantation, having learned her skills from her mother, May Belle. Varina is Marse Charles’ daughter, and being the same age as Rue, has been both playmate a...

The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House

by Ben Rhodes

Reviewed by Linda:An Amherst College alum, Ben Rhodes was twenty-nine when he went to work for the Obama presidential campaign. For the next decade, he worked as a speechwriter, national security advisor, and aide to the President, with whom ...

The Dutch House

by Ann Patchett

Reviewed by Linda:A stunning Pennsylvania mansion called the “Dutch House” is more than just the setting in this novel by beloved author Ann Patchett. It remains vivid in the minds of family and staff who have lived and ...

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

by Abbi Waxman

Reviewed by Janet:The perfect fun read for book lovers, trivia buffs, and fans of quirky novels! Nina Hill is quite content with her life – her job at an independent bookshop, her kick-butt trivia team, her cat Phil, and her perfec...

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

by Garrett M. Graff

Reviewed by Linda:This book tells the story of 9/11 from the perspective of the people who lived it. Everyone is included, from those who escaped the towers and the Pentagon and the families of the survivors and of those who perished, t...

These Ghosts Are Family

by Maisy Card

Reviewed by Janet:When his childhood friend is killed in a London dockside accident in 1970, Abel Paisley decides to assume Solomon’s identity, and permanently abandon his wife and family back in Jamaica. As Solomon, he begins a new...

Such a Fun Age

by Kiley Reid

Reviewed by Linda:This spring title, a selection of Reese’s Book Club, was soaring in popularity with many holds when the coronavirus hit. I was lucky enough to score a copy of the audiobook through Libby/Overdrive. It is a fascinat...

Master Class

by Christina Dalcher

Reviewed by Janet:From the author of Vox comes another gripping and haunting novel, set in a near future that will seem eerily possible. Imagine that education reform has created a tiered system of schools, where monthly testing determ...

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

by Patrick Radden Keefe

Reviewed by Linda:This history of the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland is so gripping that, at times, it reads like a thriller. The author focuses on a devastating cold case from the 1970s, involving a widowed mother of ten ...

You Again

by Debra Jo Immergut

Reviewed by Linda:Valley author Debra Jo Immergut follows up her Edgar-nominated novel The Captives with a page-turner that is also a meditation on life as an artist, on balancing family and finances with creating new work. Abby Willar...

House of Trelawney

by Hannah Rothschild

Reviewed by Janet:After 800 years, the fortunes of the Scott family have disintegrated, as has Trelawney Castle. Kitto, the future earl, spends his days in London as chairman of a bank. Jane, his wife, holds hearth and home together wi...

Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss

by Margaret Renkl

Reviewed by Linda:Margaret Renkl, whose column appears weekly in the New York Times, has written a soaring collection of essays about the natural world outside her door in Nashville. She reveals surprises, beauty, and heartache in the liv...

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators

by Ronan Farrow

Reviewed by Linda:I am in awe of Ronan Farrow for accomplishing what numerous other talented journalists tried and failed to do, to expose the dangerous predator Harvey Weinstein and the powerful interests that sought to protect him and oth...

The Music Book

by Karen Osborn

Reviewed by Linda:Local novelist Karen Osborn’s newest work looks back to the 1950s and the life of a gifted female musician at a time when few were allowed entry into the male world of professional classical musicians. Newly grad...

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations

by Mira Jacob

Reviewed by Linda:Thank you to the colleague who recommended this graphic novel and said it was a very fast read. I’d seen it on multiple best of 2019 lists, and it fully deserves those spots. Mira Jacob writes of being an American ...

On Beauty

by Wally Swist

Reviewed by Cyndi:Amherst author Wally Swist is a prolific writer who easily crosses genres, as is evident in his latest publication that incorporates four types of writing not often seen side-by-side. The preface provides a guide to the who...

The Yellow House

by Sarah M. Broom

Reviewed by Linda: Sarah Broom’s first book has made quite an impression, winning the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction and being named one of the New York Times’s 10 Best Books of the Year for 2019. The...

The Last Train to London

by Meg Waite Clayton

Reviewed by Janet:While most Jews fleeing Hitler’s Nazi regime in the late 1930s had increasingly fewer places that would receive them, Jewish children fared a little better. The parallel stories in this novel – of ...

Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough

by Pawan Dhingra

Reviewed by Linda:Pawan Dhingra, a sociologist at Amherst College, has written an up-close look at the education arms race of after-school learning, academic competitions, and the perceived failure of even our best schools to educate child...

Just Breathe

by Cammie McGovern

Reviewed by Linda:This moving novel may remind readers of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, both for its realistic portrayal of teens up against serious medical challenges and for its very sympathetic characters. David, the ...

The Giver of Stars

by Jojo Moyes

Reviewed by Linda:Library lovers will rejoice in popular British novelist Moyes’s latest work. She has turned her focus across the Atlantic to the Appalachian Mountains during the Great Depression and introduces the pack horse libra...

Oona Out of Order

by Margarita Montimore

Reviewed by Janet:Nineteen-year-old Oona is ready to celebrate her birthday on the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. Her life lies before her, as does a crucial decision. Yet after the clock strikes twelve, Oona finds h...

Battle Dress: Poems

by Karen Skolfield

Reviewed by Cyndi:With beautiful language and imagery, Karen Skolfield engages with the best and worst of humanity through the lens of her unique experiences as a female U.S. Army veteran. Her way with language is particularly noticeable...

The 100% Solution: A Plan for Solving Climate Change

by Solomon Goldstein-Rose

Reviewed by Linda:This very eye-opening book should be read by all concerned citizens, scientists, engineers, public officials, activists, donors, farmers, and educators. Written by a well-known local activist, it makes clear how ...

How to Love a Country: Poems

by Richard Blanco

Reviewed by Cyndi:This new volume from Richard Blanco, the Presidential Inaugural Poet for Barack Obama, wrestles with complex and challenging aspects of our nation. He tackles issues such as immigration, gender, race, and sexuality by gr...

These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson

by Martha Ackmann

Reviewed by Cyndi:Even if you’re not a fan of Emily Dickinson, Martha Ackmann’s beautiful prose and vivid descriptions are certain to delight you. For Dickinson fans, These Fevered Days provides new insights into the l...

The Yellow Bird Sings

by Jennifer Rosner

Reviewed by Linda:Jennifer Rosner, formerly of Leverett and now living on the other side of the river, is known to many in the community. It is very exciting to see the publication of her debut novel (and second adult book). The book is ...

The Floating Feldmans

by Elyssa Friedland

Reviewed by Linda:Three generations of a family embark on a cruise to celebrate the imposing matriarch’s seventieth birthday. As it has been over a decade since they spent more than 24 hours under the same roof, togetherness d...

The Starless Sea

by Erin Morgenstern

Reviewed by Janet:Calling all lovers of words, stories, tales, and books! From the author of The Night Circus comes this amazingly constructed book, which weaves the narrative of Zachary Ezra Rawlins with other stories and tales, creati...