Top Ten

Thanks to bookmovement.com, here are this week's top ten book club picks (from June 15th -June 22nd)!

#1 - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

#2 - All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

#3 - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

#4 - Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

#5 - Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

#6 - The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

#7 - The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison

#8 - The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

#9 - Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

#10 - Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

2015 Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced

The 2015 Pulitzer Prize Winners were announced on Monday, April 20, 2015 at Columbia University in NYC. The book winners in the fiction, history, biography and general nonfiction categories are listed below - congrats to all!

Category: Fiction

Title/Author: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Summary: "This is a beautiful book. Two children, a book-loving blind girl from Paris and a gifted orphan boy from Germany, move in alternate chapters through the 1930s into World War II." - Voices of Youth Advocates Reviews

Category: History

Title/Author: Encounters at the Heart of the World : a History of the Mandan People by Elizabeth A. Fenn

Summary: "Anyone who has seen the sensitive portraits of Mandan chiefs painted in the 1830s by George Catlin and Karl Bodmer will be captivated by Fenn's exhaustively researched history of the tribe that once thrived on the upper Missouri River in present-day North Dakota—at one time the center of northern Plains commerce." - Booklist Reviews 

Category: Biography

Title/Author: The Pope and Mussolini: the secret history of Pius XI and the rise of Fascism in Europe by David I. Kertzer 

Summary: "Two leaders came to power in 1922 in Rome, Achille Ratti was elevated to the papacy as Pius XI, and Benito Mussolini was appointed Italian prime minister. How relations between them developed until the pope's 1939 demise occupies this original history, which rests on Kertzer's thorough research of available Vatican archives and other sources." - Booklist Reviews

Category: General Nonfiction

Title/Author: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Summary: "Few writers engage readers in thinking about the meaning of scientific discoveries as well as Elizabeth Kolbert, a staff writer at The New Yorker. Kolbert’s enviable talents, her wit and intelligence, the clarity of her prose, are on full display in The Sixth Extinction, a fascinating and alarming book that examines mass extinctions of life forms, past and present." - BookPage Reviews

Click here for more information on current and past Pulitzer Prize winners, as well as nominated finalists.

If You Liked 'All the Light We Cannot See,' You May Also Like..

A National Book Award finalist, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. (Publisher Summary).

All the Light We Cannot See received a starred review from Booklist Reviews: "a novel to live in, learn from, and feel bereft over when the last page is turned, Doerr's magnificently drawn story seems at once spacious and tightly composed. It rests, historically, during the occupation of France during WWII, but brief chapters told in alternating voices give the overall—and long—­narrative a swift movement through time and events."

Already read the book and loved it? Check out these read-alikes suggested by NoveList!
Jacob's Oath by Martin Fletcher

As World War II comes to a close, Jacob, consumed with hatred, will not rest until he has killed his brother's murderer, a concentration camp guard called The Rat, which affects his newfound relationship with Sarah, another lonely Holocaust survivor. (Publisher Summary)

Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
Follows Trudi Montag, a dwarf who serves as her town's librarian, unofficial historian, and recorder of the secret stories of her people, in a novel that charts the course of German history in the first half of the twentieth century. (Publisher Summary)

In the Wolf's Mouth by Adam Foulds

A tale set in North Africa and Sicily at the end of World War II traces the Allies' ill-fated liberation campaign against the Nazis from the viewpoints of an ambitious English field security officer and a wide-eyed Italian-American infantryman. By the award-winning British author of The Quickening Maze. (Publisher Summary)

Favorite of Favorites 2014

Since their inception in September 2013, LibraryReads has honored 140 books. Librarians voted for their favorites among the 140, and LibraryReads created their first ever "Favorite of Favorites" list. The top ten overall picks are shown below and are all available at the Community Library.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 

After his rare collection of Edgar Allen Poe poems is stolen, bookstore owner A.J. Fikry begins isolating himself from his friends, family, and associates until he is compelled to change his life after receiving a mysterious package. (Publisher Summary)

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

A socially awkward genetics professor who has never been on a second date sets out to find the perfect wife, but instead finds Rosie Jarman, a fiercely independent barmaid who is on a quest to find her biological father. (Publisher Summary)

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 respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast. (Publisher Summary)

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 

Feeling cast off when her best friend outgrows their shared love for a favorite celebrity, Cath, a dedicated fan-fiction writer, struggles to survive on her own in her first year of college while avoiding a surly roommate, bonding with a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words and worrying about her fragile father. (Publisher Summary)

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Taken in by a wealthy family friend after surviving an accident that killed his mother, thirteen-year-old Theo Decker tries to adjust to life on Park Avenue. (Publisher Summary)

We Were Liars by E. Lockart

Spending the summers on her family's private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer. (Publisher Summary)

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The sudden death of a Hollywood actor during a production of "King Lear" marks the beginning of the world's dissolution in a story told at various past and future times from the perspectives of the actor and four of his associates. (Publisher Summary)

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

A single mom trying to raise a bullied stepson and a mathlete daughter finds an unexpected rescue in the form of an obnoxious tech millionaire named Geeky Ed. (Publisher Summary)

Landline by Rainbow Powell

Recognizing that her marriage is in deep trouble in spite of her abiding and mutual love for her husband, television writer Georgie excludes herself from a Christmas family visit before discovering a way to reconnect with the man her husband used to be. (Publisher Summary)

Longbourne by Jo Baker

A reimagining of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" from the perspectives of its below-stairs servants captures the drama of the Bennet household from the sideline viewpoint of Sarah, an orphaned housemaid. (Publisher Summary)

Click here for more information on LibraryReads.

2014 National Book Award FINALISTS Announced

The National Book Foundation, whose mission is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America has announced their 2014 National Book Award finalists.  

The 2014 finalists in the fiction category are shown below:

For more information about the National Book Foundation click here.

Winners will be announced on November 19th.