Summer reading isn’t just for kids!
Homewood Public Library has an adult summer reading program, too. Navigate to Homewood.beanstack.com and sign up (or log in) to start logging the adult books (fiction and/or nonfiction; audio, print, or ebook) that you read between June 3 and August 4, 2019. Each adult book logged earns a badge. Earn four badges to be automatically entered into a drawing for a $25 gift card. Earn seven badges and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a $50 gift card. You earn your first badge just for signing up! Winners will be contacted by August 6.
Need some book suggestions to start you off? Here’s we have on our reading lists:
Fiction
At Briarwood School for Girls by Michael Knight ~Heather
Following a cast of memorable characters as they reckon with questions about fate, history, and the possibility of happiness, At Briarwood School for Girls is a stunning and inventive new work from a master storyteller.
Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan ~Meg
The love story of C.S. Lewis and his wife, Helen Joy Davidman Gresham, was improbable–and seemingly impossible. Their Eros-story led to some of Lewis’s greatest works, yet Joy is most commonly known for how she died. Becoming Mrs. Lewis allows us to see how this brilliant and passionate woman lived–and why she stole Jack’s heart.
The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai ~Molly
Lucy Hull, a young children’s librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home.
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid ~Heather
The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice”.
Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson ~Rob
Three years ago, Lift asked a goddess to stop her from growing older–a wish she believed was granted. Now, in Edgedancer, the barely teenage nascent Knight Radiant finds that time stands still for no one.
Homesick For Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh ~Cristina
An electrifying first collection from one of the most exciting short story writers of our time.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman ~Meg
When one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door to the curmudgeonly Ove and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin ~Wilson
With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians.
Night Soldiers by Alan Furst ~Carol
Night Soldiers masterfully re-creates the European world of 1934–45: the struggle between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia for Eastern Europe, the last desperate gaiety of the beau monde in 1937 Paris, and guerrilla operations with the French underground in 1944.
The Persian Gamble by Joel Rosenberg ~Meg
Rosenberg’s latest international thriller tracks a terrifying nuclear alliance among three world powers―Russia, Iran, and North Korea―and the deadly mission former US Secret Service Agent Marcus Ryker must risk to halt their deadly strategy.
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse ~Molly
While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters. Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens ~Meg
Perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver and Karen Russell, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly ~Rob
In the beautiful Maine woods, a partly preserved body is discovered. Investigators realize that the young woman gave birth shortly before her death. But there is no sign of a baby. And in a house by the woods, a toy telephone begins to ring and a young boy is about to receive a call from a dead woman.
NonFiction
America The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges ~Carol
A deep and troubling examination of the dark corners of working-class America, where unemployment and the loss of traditional jobs have produced an epidemic of drug abuse, bigotry, and even suicide, coupled with an urgent plea to rearrange our priorities to address the ills of middle America and emphasize the common good.
How To Be A Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery ~Cristina
This restorative memoir reflects on the personalities and quirks of thirteen animals—Sy’s friends—and the truths revealed by their grace. It also explores vast themes: the otherness and sameness of people and animals; the various ways we learn to love and become empathetic; how we find our passion; how we create our families; coping with loss and despair; gratitude; forgiveness; and most of all, how to be a good creature in the world.
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters & the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O’Meara ~Cristina
A true-life detective story and a celebration of a forgotten feminist trailblazer, Mallory O’Meara’s The Lady from the Black Lagoon establishes Patrick in her rightful place in film history while calling out a Hollywood culture where little has changed since.
Life Will Be the Death of Me by Chelsea Handler ~Heather
Thrillingly honest, insightful, and deeply, darkly funny, Chelsea Handler’s memoir keeps readers laughing, even as it inspires us to look within and ask ourselves what really matters in our own lives.
Manufacturing Consent by Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky ~Carol
An intellectual dissection of the modern media to show how an underlying economics of publishing warps the news.
My Life As a Goddess: A Memoir through (Un) Popular Culture by Guy Branum ~Heather
From a young age, Guy Branum always felt as if he were on the outside looking in. Self-taught, introspective, and from a stiflingly boring farm town, he couldn’t relate to his neighbors. While other boys played outside, he stayed indoors reading Greek mythology. And being gay and overweight, he got used to diminishing himself. But little by little, he started learning from all the sad, strange, lonely outcasts in history who had come before him, and he started to feel hope.
Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony Horowitz ~Carol
The best-selling author of Confederates in the Attic returns to the South and the Civil War era for an epic adventure on the trail of America’s greatest landscape architect.
Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark ~Cristina
Sharing never-before-heard stories ranging from their struggles with depression, eating disorders, and addiction, Karen and Georgia irreverently recount their biggest mistakes and deepest fears, reflecting on the formative life events that shaped them into two of the most followed voices in the nation.
Graphic Novel
About Betty’s Boob by Vero Cazot
She lost her left breast, her job, and her guy. She does not know it yet, but this is the best day of her life. An inspiring and surprisingly comedic tale of loss and acceptance told largely through silent sequential narrative.
Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisley ~Cristina
This moving, hilarious, and surprisingly informative memoir not only follows Lucy’s personal transition into motherhood but also illustrates the history and science of reproductive health from all angles, including curious facts and inspiring (and notorious) figures in medicine and midwifery. Whether you’ve got kids, want them, or want nothing to do with them, there’s something in this graphic memoir to open your mind and heart.