Did you know that September 6th is National Read a Book Day? Of course, here at MHL we observe that day every day. But in honor of the occasion, here's a list of books centered around readers and writers.
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The Air Raid Book Club : a novel
by Annie Lyons In 1938 London as the Blitz begins, bookstore owner Gertie Bingham takes in a Jewish refugee, a headstrong teenage girl named Hedy, and together with neighbors and customers, they start an air raid book club to bolster people's spirits and make connections to see them all through to brighter days. |
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The banned bookshop of Maggie Banks
by Shauna Robinson Banned from selling anything written this century, bookstore manager Maggie Banks, to keep the business afloat, starts an underground book club that unexpectedly unearths a town secret that could upend everything, forcing her to choose between the books that formed a small town's history or the stories poised to change it all. |
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By the book
by Jasmine Guillory A young, black woman working in publishing makes a surprise connection with an author who has failed to deliver his highly anticipated manuscript. |
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Corey Fah does social mobility : a novel
by Isabel Waidner This is the story of Corey Fah, a writer who has hit the literary jackpot: their novel has just won the prize for the Fictionalization of Social Evils. But the actual trophy, and with it the funds, hovers peskily out of reach. Neon-beige, with UFO-like qualities, the elusive trophy leads Corey, with their partner Drew and eight-legged companion Bambi Pavok, on a spectacular quest through their childhood in the Forest and an unlikely stint on reality TV. Navigating those twin horrors, along with wormholes and time loops, Corey learns-the hard way-the difference between a prize and a gift. |
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Finding Mr. Write
by Kelley Armstrong A woman writing under a male pseudonym lands a huge book deal but finds herself falling for the man she hired to pretend to be her, in the new novel from the New York Times best-selling Darkest Powers. |
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How to read a book : a novel
by Monica Wood Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn't yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed. When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland-Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman-their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways. How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living. |
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The last word : a novel
by Taylor Adams After posting a one-star review for a poorly written—but gruesome—horror novel, Emma Carpenter is dragged into an online argument with the author himself, but when disturbing incidents start happening at night, Emma digs into his life and work, discovering a sadistic man who is capable of anything. |
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The mystery writer : a novel
by Sulari Gentill When he is accused of murdering his sister Theo's literary mentor and lover, Gus, after Theo disappears, leaving behind clues in the form of a story, soon discovers that in order to protect the carefully constructed deceit, Theo, and everyone who ever looked for her, must die. |
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A novel summer
by Jamie Brenner In her return to Provincetown after a best-selling novel exposes local secrets, an author returns to her idyllic Cape Cod hometown to face her betrayal but rediscovers her passion and community through a summer managing a friend's bookstore. |
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The seaside sisters
by Pamela M. Kelley Retreating to her aunt's oceanfront house in Chatham, Cape Cod, for the summer to get her creative juices flowing, best-selling author Hannah and her sister Sara spend the summer making friends, rekindling romance and opening themselves up to the magic of books and the beach. |
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The Southern book club's guide to slaying vampires
by Grady Hendrix When her hectic but predictable life is upended by a vicious attack by an elderly local, Patricia unexpectedly bonds with a well-read neighbor who her senile mother-in-law claims to have known herself when she was a girl. |
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The Titanic Survivors Book Club : a novel
by Timothy Schaffert Paris bookshop owner Yorick, joining a secret society of other Titanic ticket holders who didn't board the ship, forms a book club where they can grapple with their good fortune and anxieties through heated discussions of literature. But when one of them unexpectedly dies, he wonders what fate has in store. |
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The underground library : a novel
by Jennifer Ryan When the Blitz destroys Bethnal Green Library in London, librarian Juliet Lansdown, along with two other women, relocates the stacks to the local Underground station where the city's residents shelter nightly, determined to lend out stories that will keep spirits up, but soon tragedy after tragedy threatens to destroy what they've built. |
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Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop
by Bo-reum Hwang Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeong-Ju, in a leap of faith, opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, and, welcoming new friends and visitors to her circle, builds an inviting space for hurt and lost souls to rest, heal and learn how to write their own stories. |
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Yellowface : a novel
by R. F. Kuang After the death of her literary rival in a freak accident, author June Hayward steals her just-finished masterpiece, sending it to her agent as her own work, but as emerging evidence threatens her success, she discovers how far she'll go to keep what she thinks she deserves. |