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Prior to her latest novel, Matrix (2021), Lauren Groff was best know for her previous book, Fates and Furies, the story of a marriage set over the course of recent decades, a favorite book of President Barack Obama in 2016, a New York Ti

Trespasses (2022) is an impressive debut novel by Louise Kennedy, set in the 1970s during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

I really enjoyed All the Ways We Said Goodbye (2020), written by 3 great historical fiction authors; Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White.

So Long, See You Tomorrow (1980) was published in the 1980's, when author William Maxwell was 71 years old.

I finally read Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to the hype, but it did, and more. What a thrilling story! The story’s setting and main character were fascinating, and the way Owens unfolded the mystery was perfect – I didn’t want to put the book down. When I finished the book, I had one of those “Wow” moments.

As soon as I heard that The Marriage Portrait(2022), a new novel by Maggie O'Farrell, was to be added to our library collection, I added my name to the Hold List.

Described by the New York Times as “a love letter to old-fashioned department stores,” and by author Hillary Mantel as “the book I most often give as a gift to cheer people up,” The Women in Black (2020) by Madeleine St. John explores the lives of five women who work in the Ladies’ Frocks department of a fictional high-end retail establishment, F.G. Goode, during the 1950s.

I started reading the novel Anywhere You Run (2022) because I was soon to interview the author, Wanda Morris, for WPL’s Thriller Author Panel. I wanted to be prepared, of course, but by the end of the book I was far more than that.

An engrossing historical romance featuring spies during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Elle Burns is now a free woman. In 1862, she goes undercover, working as a slave in the household of a Confederate senator in Richmond, Virginia. She meets Pinkerton Secret Service Agent Malcolm McCall, a Scottish immigrant, and the pair form an uneasy alliance. As their relationship (both professional and personal) grows, Elle and Malcolm must navigate the uneasy world of race, politics, and war. 

Loosely based on true events at a Russian nuclear facility in the 1960s, The Half Life of Valery K (2022) follows the story of a Russian nuclear scientist, pulled from a freezing gulag to lend his expertise to what seem to be human radiation trials at the mysterious City 40. Never sure who to trust and who to fear, he picks his way through a minefield of misinformation and mystery. 

Set in 1893, The Once and Future Witches (2020) takes us back to the fight for women’s suffrage, with a magical twist. Following three estranged sisters who are drawn back together by the suffragist movement and the pull of long-lost witchcraft in their blood, this compelling story is a magical, feminist adventure with dangers and issues that also seem to mirror today’s world.  

The Nickel Boys, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019, is a slender volume, clocking in at only two hundred-some pages long.