If you are looking for the next big summer reads to share with your patrons, below you will find a few of our favorites.
Remember LibraryReads nominations for June titles are due by May 1st.
Enter the Captivating World of San Francisco 1938 in Lisa See’s China Dolls
China Dolls: A Novel
By Lisa See
The New York Times bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan has garnered international acclaim for her great skill at rendering the intricate relationships of women and the complex meeting of history and fate. Now comes Lisa See’s highly anticipated new novel, China Dolls.
It’s 1938 in San Francisco: a world’s fair is preparing to open, a war is brewing overseas, and the city is alive with possibilities. Grace, Helen, and Ruby, three young women from very different backgrounds, meet by chance at the exclusive and glamorous Forbidden City nightclub. The girls become fast friends, relying on one another through unexpected challenges and shifting fortunes. But after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, paranoia and suspicion threaten to destroy their lives, and a shocking act of betrayal changes everything.
“STELLAR . . . each woman’s voice [is] strong and dynamic, developing a multilayered richness as it progresses. The depth of See’s characters and her winning prose make THIS BOOK A WONDERFUL JOURNEY THROUGH LOVE AND LOSS.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Visit the Author’s Website for Tour Dates and More.
More June Reads …
Summer House With Swimming Pool
By Herman Koch
The blistering and addictive new novel from Herman Koch, author of the instant New York Times bestseller The Dinner.
With characters that can’t be trusted, an array of suspects, and two ethically charged crimes, Summerhouse with Swimming Pool reveals the narrative trickery that is Herman Koch at his best.
When a medical mistake goes horribly wrong and Ralph Meier, a famous actor, winds up dead, Dr. Marc Schlosser is forced to conceal the error from his patients and family. After all, reputation is everything in this business. But the weight of carrying such a secret lies heavily on his mind, and he can’t keep hiding from the truth…or the Board of Medical Examiners.
The Book of Unknown Americans
By Cristina Henriquez
After their daughter Maribel suffers a near-fatal accident, the Riveras leave México and come to America. But they discover that Maribel’s recovery—the piece of the American Dream on which they’ve pinned all their hopes—will not be easy. Every task seems to confront them with language, racial, and cultural obstacles. Mayor Toro, a high school sophomore whose family arrived from Panamà fifteen years ago, sees in Maribel something others do not: that beyond her lovely face, and beneath the damage she’s sustained, is a gentle, funny, and wise spirit. But as the two grow closer, violence casts a shadow over all their futures in America.
“Spectacular . . . highly believable and poignant . . . A well-written story set among ‘unknown Americans,’ ostensibly Hispanic but in many ways any family adjusting to a new culture and way of life, regardless of ethnicity.” —Library Journal
The Arsonist
By Sue Miller
From the bestselling author of While I Was Gone and The Senator’s Wife, a superb new novel about a family and a community tested when an arsonist begins setting fire to the homes of the summer people in a small New England town.
Suspenseful, sophisticated, rich in psychological nuance and emotional insight, The Arsonist is vintage Sue Miller—a finely wrought novel about belonging and community, about how and where one ought to live, about what it means to lead a fulfilling life. One of our most elegant and engrossing novelists at her inimitable best. A perfect selection for Reading Groups.
The Quick: A Novel
By Lauren Owen
An astonishing debut, a novel of epic scope and suspense that is perfect for fans of Erin Morgenstern and Elizabeth Kostova.
London, 1892: James Norbury, a shy poet newly down from Oxford, finds lodging with a charming young aristocrat. Introduced into the drawing-rooms of high society, James finds love. Then, suddenly, he vanishes without a trace. Unnerved, his sister, Charlotte, sets out to find him. In the sinister, labyrinthine city that greets her, she discovers that the answer to her brother’s disappearance lies within the doors of one of the country’s preeminent and mysterious institutions: The Aegolius Club, whose members include the most ambitious, and most dangerous, men in England.
“Seductive . . . extraordinarily polished . . . a book for readers to lose themselves in.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A feast of gothic storytelling that is impossible to resist.”
—Kate Atkinson
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