I’ve reviewed several books by JoJo Moyes. She is only getting more and more popular. Check out my post at 5 Minutes for Mom for my recap of these two books, both of which you can enter to win.
If you want to read more reviews of JoJo Moyes’ books, all of which I’ve liked and many of which I’ve loved, see the related links below.
JoJo Moyes has become a big breakout success in the last year or so here in the states. Because of that her backlist titles are being released here as new audio releases, ebooks and more. Please check the related posts below for reviews of her other titles that I’ve enjoyed.
Silver Bay first published in 2007 abroad and was published as an ebook in April and will be available in paperback on August 26. It definitely feels like the writings of less experienced writer. In the end, I enjoyed the characters and the story, but it did take a little bit of time to get into.
Kathleen is a senior adult, known for having caught a record-breaking shark when she was a teenager. She’s run a family hotel for years, but it’s seen better days. Mike Dormer flies to the coastal Australian town on business. No one is quite sure what his story is, and this uptight Englishman doesn’t quite fit in. He’s drawn to Kathleen’s niece Liza and Liza’s daughter Hannah in a way that he can’t quite understand. The longer he stays in Australia, the more he grows to love it — and the people there.
Some of the differences made the book unique as compared to other JoJo Moyes books I’ve read — the Australian setting, complete with whalechasers — and then there are things that I’ve begun to see as one of JoJo Moyes’ strengths, like characters who have been hurt but are still strong, and well-developed child characters and adult characters who have a warm spot for those young people.
It was a little slow-moving at times, but it was still a story I enjoyed and am glad I read.
I have enjoyed every book I’ve read by JoJo Moyes since I “discovered” her a few years ago when The Last Letter From Your Lover came out, both her new releases and backlist titles.
She seems to write two types of stories — multi-generational stories that are set in the past and then cross-over into the present that read like slightly literary historical/contemporary fiction (like her other recent novel The Girl You Left Behind) and straight women’s fiction stories (like the popular Me Before You). One Plus One is in this latter camp.
It’s the story of single mom Jess. She struggles financially and has put her personal life on hold so she can care for her kids. Her son Nicky is struggling in high school. He doesn’t fit in anywhere. He wears black skinny jeans and a little mascara, but he doesn’t jive with the theater kids or with the jocks. Tanzie is 11, and she knows what she likes: math and sparkles, but that doesn’t win her many friends either. When she has the chance to attend a private school due to her extraordinary math talent, Jess is crushed, because even with a 90% scholarship, their tight budget doesn’t have any wiggle room. When they find out about a Math Olympiad that Tanzie could surely win, the prize money from which would cover the first year’s uniforms and fees, Jess is determined to give it a go.
Getting to Scotland is no easy feat and her efforts are thwarted time and again. When she’s stranded on the side of the road, one of her house-cleaning clients Ed — who is having his own personal and business problems — comes to her aid. Driving his client who helped him get home after he passed out in a bar, her 2 kids, and a very large dog named Norman is not the sort of thing that Ed usually does. Has he changed or has he lost his mind?
The result is a quirkily funny and surprisingly raw and touching account of a family that goes beyond the standard 2.3 kids and a station wagon.
I loved it.
Since I first “discovered” JoJo Moyes a few years ago, her success has skyrocketed here in the U.S. Because of that, a lot of her backlist titles have been re-released, including a new audio version of Windfallen from Tantor Media.
I’m going to take the easy way out with the plot description but please keep reading for my thoughts on the novel:
When a group of bohemians takes over Arcadia, a house on the seafront, Lottie Swift and Celia are as drawn to its temptations as Merham’s citizens are appalled by them. They set a chain of events that have longstanding and tragic consequences. Now, fifty years on, Arcadia is returning to life, and its inhabitants stirring up strong feelings again.
For Lottie Swift, Arcadia has always been magical. The breathtaking art deco house perched above the shoreline of the well-ordered village of Merham seems to stand still throughout the years. It has never changed, not really, but Lottie’s fate and fortune have been inextricably linked with those of the beautiful house, and it will forever be fixed in her mind as a symbol of adventure, youth, and loves lost and gained. Even as her life–and the house–falls into disrepair.
Years later another young woman comes to Merham. A designer hired to make over the now-empty Arcadia, Daisy Parsons seeks a new beginning, as Lottie once did. Fleeing a broken relationship and now facing being a single mother, Daisy finds refuge in the house, and something more–a love she thought she would never know again and a friendship unlike any she’s experienced before.
The cover of this novel represents it well. It has an old-fashioned romantic feel. It seems sort of like something I would find on a shelf in a vacation home and devour in a few days spent relaxing at a lake. There’s mystery as the story unfolds regarding the characters and their associations with each other. There are misunderstandings, heartbreak, disappointments, surprises, and restorations.
As with other JoJo Moyes historical fiction, I loved the threading of the past with the present and finding out how characters are related as their secrets are uncovered. Windfallen is a great book to get lost in.
Please check out the related titles link below to read more of my reviews of JoJo Moyes’ novels.
NOTES ON THE AUDIOBOOK:
I enjoy British lit. Even when set in contemporary times, I feel as if I’m in another realm, one with tea instead of supper, gardens instead of lawns and some sort of refinement (even when they are acting in an unrefined way!). Reader Michelle Ford has a lovely voice and hearing it read with her British accent transported me even more. You can hear a sample of Windfallen on audiobook by following that link to Tantor Audio.
This is a long book, which makes for a good audio selection, because one can get more bang for one’s buck.
I love it when authors create a recognizable “brand” by using a similar theme for their covers. JoJo Moyes has gained popularity with the release of her last few novels. One of her earlier novels — actually the first one I ever read — is being re-released with her new signature cover style, and so Viking Penguin is offering to give away these two novels:
The Last Letter from Your Lover
Here’s an excerpt from my review. You can click through to read the whole thing.
Jennifer Stirling wakes up in a London hospital in 1968. She doesn’t know a lot. She’s been in an accident, as evidenced by the jagged scar on her arm. Friends and family, a husband, have visited her, but she doesn’t know them. Even when she leaves the hospital, her own home is a mystery to her. She doesn’t feel any tie to this man that she’s wedded to – wouldn’t she feel something? In addition, the way people respond to her makes her wonder what kind of person she was, apparently not a very nice one.
When Jennifer finds a love letter seemingly addressed to her, signed only with “B,” it begins to make sense to her. Perhaps she wasn’t in love with her husband after all, but in love with someone else. But who is this man?
The way this story unravels is so unique, since the reader learns about Jennifer’s past just as she does. Though I’m usually put off by storylines featuring adultery, the way this was handled with Jennifer almost being two different people, not remembering her former life, somehow lightened what might have normally soured the story for me.
Me Before You
Here’s an excerpt from my review. You can click through to read the whole thing.
Louisa Clark is in her mid-20’s, a working-class girl in a small town in England. She lives with her parents and her older sister and her son (“the smart one,” until the unplanned pregnancy caused her to drop out of school). Her grandfather lives there, too. Between her mother and father helping to care for their grandson while Katrina works and their father who can’t do much of anything for himself, everyone is a little worn down. The fact that layoffs have been threatened at her father’s job for quite some time doesn’t lighten the load. And then one day Louisa gets immediate notice that the bakery where she works is closing. She’s got to find a job, because the family is barely making ends meet, but there aren’t many possibilities.
When she’s offered a job as a “companion” to a quadriplegic man, a 6-month contract with a great wage, she hesitates. She’s never cared for an invalid before. She’s not even very good with her own grandfather. But duty to her family calls, and she takes the job. She’s surprised to find a man not much younger than her in the chair and quickly figures out that his mother has hired her to try to cheer him up. It’s no easy task. He’s bitter about the accident that changed his life so drastically, and he doesn’t make Louisa’s job easy. But eventually, her bright personality finds a way in to his dark soul. And once he opens up to her, he begins to help her change her life too.
Just follow the instructions in the widget, starting off by telling me which book you’d read first, and you could be eligible to win both books.
I read Me Before You when it first came out in paperback a couple of years ago. I enjoy JoJo Moyes’ fiction a good deal, and this one was no different, though it had a much more “chick lit” sort of feel to it than some of her other novels.
I remember liking the protagonist Louisa and the small-town English setting, so when I heard there was a sequel, After You, I was interested in checking it out.
I began reading without refreshing myself on the original story. I remembered Louisa. I remembered her job caring for the young man who was a quadriplegic, Will, and the love she developed for him. But I didn’t remember how it ended, so I just trusted After You to fill me in. It did. Honestly, I think you could read the books in either order and feel just as satisfied.
This novel focuses on loss and continues the theme from the other novel of unmet expectations, whether those expectations are put on you by yourself or by others. Several of the characters experience a reinvention in this novel. Louisa is constantly evolving, but her empty-nester mom makes some significant changes as well.
Louisa is trying to figure out how to move forward in her life when a teen girl shows up on her doorstep. If Louisa’s family (in particular her judgmental sister) think she is a mess, they certainly haven’t seen Lily. Louisa steps in to try to help her, but she’s not sure she can, or should. This is the probably the central crisis of the novel. Can Louisa help Lily? Should she? The answer to this question affects all of her other decisions — her job, her family, her love life. Seeing them work together really defines Louisa as a character.
I’m 0 for 2 for the last two months. Last month I thought it was all set up, but it was still just saved as a draft and not published. And then last week, I had it on my schedule for last week — the 4th Tuesday — and talked myself out of it! I know that every week that we have a 5th Tuesday, it always causes some confusion.
I’m going to let you faithful participants decide — should it always be the last Tuesday? Or should we stick with the 4th Tuesday as we’ve done all these years?
I have taken on a big new volunteer commitment, so my reading has been down some, but I’m hoping to catch up some this month, starting with JoJo Moyes’ newest.
What about you? What are you reading? Link up below:
I reviewed One Plus One (with a 5-Star rating) when it came out in hardcover last summer. At the end of this month, it’s available in paperback, which makes it even more accessible and might help it reach even more groups and individual readers.
It’s the kind of story about non-traditional families, people coming together: weaknesses, warts and all. I enjoyed it, and I think it would make a good book to discuss in a fairly lighthearted way. The characters are so unique, and there are so many points about mothers — mothering kids who aren’t technically yours, dealing with special needs, going out of your way for your kids — everything that we moms see in our own lives or those of our friends.
The publisher has created a One Plus One Reading Guide to go along with the paperback release that could really add to a book club discussion. It includes an interview with the author, some recipes, and a fun music playlist.
Read my companion post at 5 Minutes for Mom, How to Start a Book Club.
Whether you want to read this with friends or on your own, I encourage you to enter to win a copy (U.S. only).
There are a few international women’s fiction writers who have exploded as of late here in the U.S. JoJo Moyes is the prime example, Lisa Jewell is a new favorite of mine and is successfully gaining traction, and now there’s no doubt that Australian Liane Moriarty is in that club as well, perhaps the queen with all the attention this book has gotten this year.
Earlier this year, I listened to the newly-published-on-audio Three Wishes. I liked it, and could see that she had that ability to balance plot, told with humor and suspense, with that “something more” bit of social commentary designed to make you think about the issues of our day while also grappling with the idea of right and wrong. Big Little Lies is a perfect example of this. The characters have their secrets, most of which are secreted away from the reader until Moriarty chooses to reveal them, and knowing them changes how we feel about them.
This book has been under $4 on Kindle for a while (as has Three Wishes), so I snatched it up to read on a long car trip last weekend. It was the perfect diversion. I loved each twist and turn these characters took. From the beginning of the book, the reader is privy to the fact that one of the school parents died at the school trivia night. Other parents are interviewed throughout the book, giving tidbits about the personality clashes and scandals that might have contributed. As I read, my mind was churning, trying to predict who might have died and whom had a part in it.
It sounds intense, but what really took this novel to the next level for me was the humor. Yes, the social commentary was right on, yes it was a gripping, suspenseful and surprising read, but it was so funny as well. I grew to love these characters (or hate them, where appropriate), but I couldn’t see how it could end in a way that would please me, and yet it did. Some of the cast of characters includes:
Rounding out the cast of Pirriwee Public are the high-powered working moms, a stay-at-home dad, Madeline’s ex-husband and his new-age wife, whose daughter is in her daughter’s class, the Blonde Bob PTA mothers, and the sweet Kindergarten teacher caught in the middle of it all.
Go read it. Download it now so you can sneak bits of it on your phone or your ereader as you’re riding from house to house over the holidays, or perhaps to give yourself a much-needed respite from cleaning or shopping or wrapping. Better yet, buy it for that reader on your list, perhaps the person who loves a good read but doesn’t give herself the time to enjoy it. Once she starts this one, she won’t be able to stop.
Caroline Meadows is taking care of her mother, whose Altzheimer’s disease has progressed too soon and too fast. When she moves to a care facility and Caroline cleans out her house, she finds a quilt which was her grandmother’s. Caroline’s mother said that she always wanted Caroline to have it. It’s beautiful and the unique fabrics seem to tell their own story. The quilt was made by her grandmother’s dear friend when she was in a mental facility that recently closed because of unfair practices.
Caroline’s investigation leads her to the story of another resident, called Queenie, because she claims to have worked for the Queen. More than that, she says that she had an affair with the Prince of Wales which landed her pregnant. Is she a fantacist, like the doctor’s say, or is she the victim of a great wrong?
In between flashes of the past, back to before World War I, Caroline is also trying to deal with her own present situation. After ending a long-term relationship and quitting her job, she’s looking to start the second half of her life being who she wants to be.
The Forgotten Seamstress kept me interested in both the historical and the contemporary stories. The mystery came together, unfolding piece after piece in perfect time.
Fans of Kate Morton and JoJo Moyes should check out this new novel by Liz Trenow.
NOTES ON THE AUDIOBOOK
Listen to a sample of the book at Tantor Audio’s page. You’ll hear Anne Flosnik’s reading which makes the novel even better. She navigates the different British accents and moods well which immersed me further into the story.
At the end of the year, there is a universal compulsion to make lists. We are not immune to this trend, but rather than providing a top ten style list, we thought we’d go a simpler route and share some of the titles that we reviewers found to be our favorite reads of the year. Here, in no particular order, are the 2013 books we urge you to pick up in 2014 if you haven’t read them already.
DAWN
JENNIFER
My teen bookworm daughter asked me this week when we were in the car (we are always in the car, at least lately) about my favorite book or books. “I don’t have one,” I answered. “Me, either,” my fellow bookloving kid responded.
That said, I do have some authors who I like following and enjoy almost everything that they publish. One newfound favorite is JoJo Moyes. I read a new title from her two years ago, but then this year when her newest came out, The Girl You Left Behind, they were also promoting her backlist, so I read and enjoyed Me Without You. I love the way she writes her characters, and in many of her books she mixes historical fiction with a present-day tale as well.
There were also some children’s novels that I enjoyed and even better, enjoyed sharing with my children. My son Kyle (9 1/2) read Flora 
and Ulysses, an unexpected novel from Kate DiCamillo (as in, not what you would expect from her), then I read it, then we passed it on to 15-year-old Amanda. We all loved the quirky “cynic” Flora and the squirrel superhero-in-waiting Ulysses. This looks like a book aimed at 7 year olds, but it’s the kind of book that will be appreciated by 9 to 12 year olds if you can convince them to pick it up.
I also really loved Counting by 7s. It was one of those books that I couldn’t put down. It was a joy to read. I wasn’t sure about the “kid appeal” of this particular title, because the characters are a bit quirky and their situations are strange, but I asked Kyle to give it a try this month, and he liked it too!
NANCY
I’m going a little outside the lines with my first pic for my favorite reads of the year as it’s a book I didn’t review (but Jennifer did last year). The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, is a simple, heartbreaking story of a mall circus gorilla, and it completely blew me away. Ivan is lonely, even though he has a few other animals he talks to, and he also is an artist. Patricia Castelao’s illustrations perfectly convey the beauty of the story.
Neil Gaiman is an author whose work I haven’t always loved, but I find his writing is always wonderful even when the story doesn’t grab me. The Ocean At the End of the Lane is the only book I tagged as a 5 Star Read in 2013, and I still maintain it is my favorite book of the year. It’s fantasy, the story of a little boy and his sinister babysitter, but just realistic enough that it could really happen, should one be paying close enough attention to the world around you.
ELIZABETH
I always have a terrible time choosing favorites. I read some fantastic books this year, and I’m just going to tell you of a couple I enjoyed recently.
Literary Fiction: A Guide for the Perplexed
Best Southern Women’s Fiction and Overall Good Story: Someone Else’s Love Story 
Best New (to me) Series that I’m Dying to Catch Up On: Nina Borg, by duo Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis. I read Death of a Nightingale (Nina Borg #3)
Best Memoir: I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Michelle
I always find it hard to go back and figure out my favorite books (aside from Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett that is my all time favorite book), let alone remember all the books I’ve read over the course of the year to narrow it down. This year, there were a few that have really stood out, however.
I absolutely adored Bedtime Math by Laura Overdeck. It is such a brilliant concept to make math more fun and accessible to so many different levels of kids from toddlers who are just learning to count through kids who get multiplication and more. Reading this book inspired me to subscribe to her daily email, and you don’t often see me subscribing to any lists! The wee ones have so much fun with her creativity, and they’ve gone back to the book to reread it again and again. I shared all the reasons I loved this book in my full review of Bedtime Math: A Fun Excuse to Stay Up Late.
This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila was another book I couldn’t put down. I wasn’t expecting much from this anthology of stories about Hawaiians, but the raw power of the stories and the variety of perspectives presented kept me riveted. It was incredibly well-written and made me think, something fiction, especially short stories, don’t tend to do often. I will definitely never look at Hawaii the same way again. And yes, I have a full review of This Is Paradise, as well.
Lastly, Mike Greenberg – the ESPN radio guy – wrote a novel this year. From a woman’s perspective. Again, I was intrigued by the concept of All You Could Ask For, but I wasn’t anticipating much. I cried so hard reading this book, and I absolutely adored it. It was hard to get into at the start, as it is written from the alternating perspective of three different women, all of whom are dealing with cancer diagnoses in very different manners. I tried not to give away much in my review of All You Could Ask For, but trust me, it’s definitely one to pick up no matter what stage in life you are, whether you’ve been touched by cancer or not.
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What are your most memorable reads from 2013?
The Girl You Left Behind is the 3rd novel by JoJo Moyes that I’ve read, and she’s a strong three for three (Read my reviews of The Last Letter from Your Lover and Me Without You).
The Girl You Left Behind is a painting, and a person (well — two people, but we’ll get to that later). We first meet Sophie Lefevre in 1917 France. Her husband Edouard is serving the French military in the first World War, and she has been left behind in the village of St. Peronne, which is now occupied by the Germans. Because she lives in the hotel her family ran before the war, the Germans order Sophie and her sister Helene to cook the officers dinner each night. They don’t want to, and fear what it will mean for their reputation in town, but they have no choice. And the leftovers from the food supplies help keep them and their younger brother, and Helene’s children well.
The Kommandant takes interest in the painting that hangs in the hallway of The Girl You Left Behind. Reluctantly, he and Sophie become friends, mostly over his appreciation of the painting, which Edouard, who trained under Matisse, painted of Sophie before they were married.
Flash forward almost 100 years, and we meet Olivia Halston. The painting was a wedding gift from her husband. But she too has been left behind, when he died suddenly four years before. When Olivia is sued by the Lefavre family to get it back under the Geneva convention, she looks into Sophie’s life to try to figure out what happened. Olivia feels like the painting belongs with her, like she truly understands her, and she also feels as if The Girl is the only person who understands her and doesn’t want to let her go.
The characters, the two different settings, the painting — they all come together to create a story that I loved reading.
The giveaway is closed.
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A couple of years ago, I read a novel by JoJo Moyes, The Last Letter from Your Lover (linked to my review). It’s one of those books that surprised me and left a big impression.
Me Before You has just been released as a paperback, and I was offered a copy to review and another to give away. Reading my second book by an author who really impressed me made a little nervous, because I wanted to love it. Well I did!
Me Before You was a bit different, not quite as complex and subtle, yet no less enjoyable.
Louisa Clark is in her mid-20’s, a working-class girl in a small town in England. She lives with her parents and her older sister and her son (“the smart one,” until the unplanned pregnancy caused her to drop out of school). Her grandfather lives there, too. Between her mother and father helping to care for their grandson while Katrina works and their father who can’t do much of anything for himself, everyone is a little worn down. The fact that layoffs have been threatened at her father’s job for quite some time doesn’t lighten the load. And then one day Louisa gets immediate notice that the bakery where she works is closing. She’s got to find a job, because the family is barely making ends meet, but there aren’t many possibilities.
When she’s offered a job as a “companion” to a quadriplegic man, a 6-month contract with a great wage, she hesitates. She’s never cared for an invalid before. She’s not even very good with her own grandfather. But duty to her family calls, and she takes the job. She’s surprised to find a man not much younger than her in the chair and quickly figures out that his mother has hired her to try to cheer him up. It’s no easy task. He’s bitter about the accident that changed his life so drastically, and he doesn’t make Louisa’s job easy. Eventually, her bright personality finds a way in to his dark soul, and once he opens up to her, he begins to help her change her life too.
These characters were wonderful. They were somewhat stereotypical — what vibrant young man wouldn’t become bitter after getting paralyzed in an accident? — and I saw some of the plot twists coming, but others surprised me completely. As I became involved in the characters’ lives and futures, I was worried about how it might come out.
I’m keeping mum about that, but I can say that I am glad I read this book. I loved it.
I’m happy that I can offer this up to one of you (U.S. shipping only). Just leave a comment below if you’d like to win. The giveaway is closed.
The winner of Capturing Life Everyday is #4 Annette, This Simple Mom.
The winner of A Walk Through the Dark is #5 Ellie.
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The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes is a novel that I was able to savor while I was on vacation. When I had a spare moment, I picked it up, and whether I had time to read 5 pages or 40, I was so excited to see what was going to happen next.
Jennifer Stirling wakes up in a London hospital in 1968. She doesn’t know a lot. She’s been in an accident, as evidenced by the jagged scar on her arm. Friends and family, a husband, have visited her, but she doesn’t know them. Even when she leaves the hospital, her own home is a mystery to her. She doesn’t feel any tie to this man that she’s wedded to – wouldn’t she feel something? In addition, the way people respond to her makes her wonder what kind of person she was, apparently not a very nice one.
When Jennifer finds a love letter seemingly addressed to her, signed only with “B,” it begins to make sense to her. Perhaps she wasn’t in love with her husband after all, but in love with someone else. But who is this man?
The way this story unravels is so unique, since the reader learns about Jennifer’s past just as she does. Though I’m usually put off by storylines featuring adultery, the way this was handled with Jennifer almost being two different people, not remembering her former life, somehow lightened what might have normally soured the story for me.
The story of the year of 1968 ends and the story fast-forwards 30 years, introducing new characters. Again adultery is prominent, with Ellie being involved with a married man, wanting more from him and wondering why she’s let herself get in this predicament. When she stumbles across an old love letter in some papers at the Daily Mail, she becomes interested in the story, and wants to track the lovers down for a story. She also has a personal angle. She knows that Jennifer was a married woman, and wants to know how it turned out for her, hoping it might help her figure out what to do in her own life.
I was loving this novel as the first part of the plot was uncovered, but the addition of the secondary time frame and characters, which layer so perfectly with the first part, catapults this book even higher and made it even more memorable.
I highly recommend The Last Letter from Your Lover (I’m not going as far as a 5 Star Read, but it’s definitely 4+++), especially for those interested in the 1960’s, or those who love a good character-driven story, with a bit of dramatic suspense as the story unfolds.
Jennifer Donovan sill has some of the love letters her husband wrote to her, but has gotten rid of the others that came before him. She blogs at Snapshot.
If we post a review of a book here at 5 Minutes for Books, it means that we think that someone out there would like it. It may not have been our favorite book, but it was worth our time to read and review, and we hope someone likes it. We wanted to distinguish our “must reads,” and so we’ve given them the special 5 Star Reads designation.
The Precious One by Marisa de los Santos
Things Half in Shadow by Alan Finn
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
It Was Me All Along by Andie Mitchell
Chestnut Street by Maeve Binchy
The Art of Arranging Flowers by Lynne Branard
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
The Never Never Sisters by L. Alison Heller
The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez
We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
One Plus One by JoJo Moyes
The Vacationers by Emma Straub
The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg
Soul Keeping by John Ortberg
God is Just Not Fair: Finding Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense by Jennifer Rothschild
Drama High by Michael Sokolove
Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
All You Could Ask For by Mike Greenberg
Courting Greta by Ramsey Hootman
A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn
And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
This is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakauwila
Truth in Advertising by John Kenney
The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg
The Experts by Chris Pavone
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Etched in Sand by Regina Calcaterra
We Laugh, We Cry, We Cook by Becky Johnson and Rachel Randolph
I am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainer
Beyond the Paw Paw Trees by Palmer Brown
Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
Bedtime Math by Laura Overdeck
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Paperboy by Vince Vawter
Astray by Emma Donoghue
Falling Together by Marisa De Los Santos
All That I Am by Anna Funder
I, Iago by Nicole Galland
Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Dragon Keeper by Minda Mejia
The Starlite Drive-in by Marjorie Reynolds
The Color of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe
Stasiland by Anna Funder
I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag by Jennifer Gilbert
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
The Queen: A Life in Brief by Robert Lacey
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms by Lissa Evans
Prophet by R. J. Larson
Life with Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher
The Fates will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley
The Long Song by Andrea Levy
Night Road by Kristin Hannah
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
Q: A Novel by Evan Mandery
5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Son by Vicki Courtney
Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein
Stasiland by Anna Funder
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Where You Left Me by Jennifer Gardner Trulson
The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure
Amazing Cows by Sandra Boynton
Blackout by John Rocco
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
My Name Is Not Alexander by Jennifer Fosberry
Olivia’s Birds: Saving the Gulf by Olivia Bouler
Press Here by Herve Tullet
Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party by Melanie Watt
Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Thunder Birds: Nature’s Flying Predators by Jim Arnosky
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Diamond Ruby by Joseph Wallace
Finny by Justin Kramon
Secret Daughter by Shilpa Somaya Gowda
Small Wars by Sadie Jones
So Much For That by Lionel Shriver
The Stuff that Never Happened by Maddie Dawson
Vanishing by Deborah Willis
Bonhoeffer: A Biography by Eric Metaxes
Brave Girl Eating by Harriet Brown
The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Every Natural Fact by Amy Lou Jenkins
The Heroine’s Bookshelf by Erin Blakemore
I Will Carry You by Angie Smith
Little Girls Can Be Mean by Drs. Anthony and Lindert
Radical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes
Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart
This is Not the Story You Think it Is by Laura Munson
The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy
We’ve Got Issues by Judith Warner
After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick
Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
Betsy Red Hoodie by Gail Carson Levine
D is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet by Nancy Sanders
The Frog Scientist by Pamela Turner
Guys Read: Funny Business edited by Jon Scieszka
How to Survive Middle School by Donna Gephart
I Didn’t Do It! by Patricia MacLachlan
Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation by Matt Myklusch
The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl
Scarecrow Pete by Mark Kimball Moulton
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
The Tighty Whitey Spider Poems by Kenn Nesbitt
Up We Grow: A Year in the Life of a Small, Local Farm by Deborah Hodge
Written in Bone by Sally Walker
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
After You by Julie Buxbaum
Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger
Hannah’s Dream by Diane Hammond
The Rook by Steven James
Stealing with Style by Emyl Jenkins
Small Wars by Sadie Jones
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Godmother by Carolyn Turgeon
The Weight of Heaven by Thrity Umrigar
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
My Prison, My Home by Haleh Esfandiari
Boy Alone by Karl Taro Greenfeld
Clara’s War by Clara Kramer
Coop by Michael Perry
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepherd
How to Be Like Walt by Pat Williams
Dough by Mort Zachter
Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman
On the Go Devotional: Contentment by Lydia Brownback
The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies
Finding An Unseen God by Alicia Britt Chole
5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Daughter by Vicki Courtney
Stubborn Twig, by Lauren Kessler
The Uncommon Woman: Making an Ordinary Life Extraordinary by Susie Larson
Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy
The Grand Weaver, by Ravi Zacharias
My Name Is Not Isabella by Jennifer Fosberry
The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller
Tiana’s Cookbook: Recipes for Kids edited by Cindy Littlefield
Eye Like and Incredible Books by Play Bac Publishing
Little Hoot and Little Pea, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems
All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon
Savvy by Ingrid Law
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Hunger Games & Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Much Ado About Anne by Heather Vogel Frederick
Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle
Map of the Known World by Lisa Ann Sandell
The Strictest School in the World series by Howard Whitehouse
The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
