"The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt
When 13-year-old Theo Decker survives an accident that kills his single mother, he's taken in by a wealthy New York family and launched into an affluent Park Avenue world that is completely scary and unfamiliar to him.
His only consolation is the last token he has of his mother's: a small, mysterious painting that drags Theo, even through adulthood, into the dark, and ultimately dangerous, underworld of art.
"Pilgrim's Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier" by Tom Kizzia
The Pilgrims, new to the tiny town of McCarthy, seem like the model Christian family on the outside at first, until maniacal patriarch Papa Pilgrim moves his wife and 15 kids into an abandoned copper mine, involving them all in a battle with McCarthy, its residents, and the National Park Service.
Alaskan journalist Tom Kizzia paints a portrait of a power struggle, family dynamics, and deeply-rooted American history in his captivating true story of a live-off-the-land family.
"The Husband's Secret" by Lianne Moriarty
A #1 New York Times bestseller, "The Husband's Secret" is the gripping tale of Cecilia Fitzpatrick, a successful businesswoman who seemed to have it all until her husband wrote her a letter, only to be opened after his death. The letter derails her entire life, because it contains his deepest, darkest secret.
But the letter has an even bigger impact, as it soon starts to change the lives of other people as well — and none of them know each other.
"Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East" by Scott Anderson
History comes to life in Scott Anderson's critically acclaimed non-fiction book.
His narrative of the Arab revolt against the Turks during World War I follows four key players — German academic Curt Prüfer, Zionist and agronomist Aaron Aaronsohn, Standard Oil Company employee William Yale, and the archaeologist Lawrence himself — and the roles they played in each others' lives, the conflict and, ultimately, the course of history.
"Alex Cross, Run" by James Patterson
Renowned plastic surgeon Elijah Creem's life is ruined when Detective Alex Cross nabs him for sleeping with teenage girls. Now out of jail, Dr. Creem gives himself a new face and begins life as a completely different person.
When Alex starts following the trail of a serial killer in D.C., he can't help but feel like he's being watched by someone he knows. The only way, he realizes, to avoid his own death is to keep running, and not get caught.
"A Fighting Chance" by Elizabeth Warren
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren gives readers an intimate glimpse into the inner workings of Washington in her best-selling book.
Senator Warren goes back to her upbringing in Oklahoma, where injustices she both witnessed and experienced firsthand explain why she's determined to go above and beyond and make a better world for the middle class.
"Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls" by David Sedaris
Filled with witty and sometimes impossible-to-believe anecdotes from his younger years, readers of "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls" will feel like they're listening to the author tell them stories over tea in his kitchen.
From the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy to the time he had his first (unpleasant) colonoscopy, Sedaris is a good reminder that life, when looked at through the right lens, is a very funny thing.
"Doctor Sleep" by Stephen King
King revives "The Shining" in his sequel and most recent novel, "Doctor Sleep." Dan Torrance, now middle-aged, has settled in a quiet New Hampshire town to escape his father's legacy of violence and alcoholism. Working a steady job at a nursing home where he provides final comfort to dying patients, Dan is dubbed "Doctor Sleep."
Then an unusual meeting with 12-year-old Abra Stone, who possesses a bizarre gift, launches Dan right back into all the things he's trying to escape, not to mention the ultimate good-versus-evil fight of his life.
"No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State" by Glenn Greenwald
A journalist and author, Glenn Greenwald finds himself jetting off to Hong Kong in May 2013 to meet a young government contractor who claims to have hard evidence of government spying. That contractor was Edward Snowden.
Complete with a selection of "the Snowden files," Greenwald puts the pieces together in "No Place to Hide" of how the National Security Agency goes to great lengths to get information, and what the future implications could be.
"Sycamore Row" by John Grisham
Seth Hubbard, a wealthy man dying of lung cancer, hangs himself — after which a new, handwritten will, in which he leaves most of his fortune to his maid, creates an outcry among his children.
Best-selling author John Grisham brings back the lawyer Jake Brigance from "A Time to Kill" in this new legal thriller that explores racial tensions, tortured pasts, and a new mystery to be solved.
"The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith
Cormoran Strike loses a leg to a landmine in Afghanistan and is down on his luck. Down to his last client, he's barely eking out a living as a private investigator — and to make matters worse, his long-term girlfriend just broke up with him.
In walks John Bristow, the brother of a famous supermodel whose recent death was ruled a suicide. Only John isn't quite convinced that there wasn't some foul play involved. Suddenly, Cormoran has his hands very full.
The chilling whodunit, penned by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling under a pseudonym, doesn't fail to entertain.
"Mom & Me & Mom" by Maya Angelou
Of all Maya Angelou's poetic memoirs, this, detailing her relationship with her mother, is the most intriguing of all. Vivian Baxter was living proof that big things come in small packages which, being raised primarily by her mother, Angelou discovers when she and her mother are reunited nearly a decade later.
Angelou timelines the imperfect and late-blooming relationship between herself and the woman she called "Lady" in her heartwarming, recent autobiography.
