Selected New York Times Notable Books for 2020
FICTION
FICTION
FICTION
BEHELD
By TaraShea Nesbit
In this plain-spoken and lovingly detailed historical novel, the story of the Mayflower Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony is refracted through the prism of female characters. Despite the novel’s quietness of telling, its currency is the human capacity for cruelty and subjugation, of pretty much everyone by pretty much everyone.
FICTION
FICTION
FICTION
DECON KING KONG
By James McBride
At the center of this raucous novel by the National Book Award-winning author of “The Good Lord Bird” are a hard-drinking church deacon and a sudden, inexplicable act of violence. But that’s just one strand of McBride’s tour de force, a book resounding with madcap characters and sly commentary on race, crime and inequality.
FICTION
FICTION
FICTION
HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD
By C Pam Zhang
Zhang’s mesmerizing tale of two Chinese-American siblings crossing the West during the gold rush, with their father’s corpse in tow, unfolds in a landscape of desolation and struggle that recalls Steinbeck and Faulkner, and in a voice that is all her own.
FICTION
NON-FICTION
FICTION
THE KING AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
By Arthur Phillips
Intrigue and espionage fuel this delectable novel set during the twilight of the reign of Elizabeth I and featuring a Muslim Ottoman physician who is enlisted in the machinations surrounding the choice of the queen’s successor.
NON-FICTION
NON-FICTION
NON-FICTION
CASTE: THE ORIGINS OF OUR DISCONTENTS
By Isabel Wilkerson
The Pulitzer-winning author advances a sweeping argument for regarding American racial bias through the lens of caste. Drawing analogies with the social orders of modern India and Nazi Germany, she frames barriers to equality in a provocative new light.
NON-FICTION
NON-FICTION
NON-FICTION
THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE
By Erik Larson
Larson’s account of Winston Churchill’s leadership during the 12 turbulent months from May 1940 to May 1941, when Britain stood alone and on the brink of defeat, is fresh, fast and deeply moving.
new Fiction @ the library
The Last Train to London
The Last Train to London
The Last Train to London
The Last Train to London fits the bill! This is a well-written and page turning story based on real life hero Truus Wijsmuller, known to the children as Tante Truus. She is one of the people who help to get children out of Germany and other Nazi-occupied countries via the Kindertransports.
Three Things About Elsie
The Last Train to London
The Last Train to London
The bestselling author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep delivers a suspenseful and emotionally satisfying novel “infused with warmth and humor” (People) about a lifelong friendship, a devastating secret, and the small acts of kindness that bring people together. There are three things you should know about Elsie.
Curious Toys
The Last Train to London
Full Throttle
In the sweltering summer of 1915, Pin, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a carnival fortune-teller, dresses as a boy and joins a teenage gang that roams the famous Riverview amusement park, looking for trouble.
The crime will lead her to the iconic outsider artist Henry Darger, a brilliant but seemingly mad man. Together, the two navigate the seedy underbelly of a changing city to uncover a murderer few even know to look for.
Full Throttle
The Word Is Murder
Full Throttle
In this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in thirteen relentless tales of supernatural suspense, including "In The Tall Grass," one of two stories co-written with Stephen King, basis for the terrifying feature film from Netflix.
The Word Is Murder
The Word Is Murder
The Word Is Murder
New York Times bestselling author of Magpie Murders and Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz has yet again brilliantly reinvented the classic crime novel, this time writing a fictional version of himself as the Watson to a modern-day Holmes.
A masterful and tricky mystery that springs many surprises, The Word is Murder is Anthony Horowitz at his very best.
New Non-Fiction @ THE LIBRARY
Catch & Kill
When Einstein Walked with Godel
When Einstein Walked with Godel
In this instant New York Times bestselling account of violence and espionage, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow exposes serial abusers and a cabal of powerful interests hell-bent on covering up the truth, at any cost.
When Einstein Walked with Godel
When Einstein Walked with Godel
When Einstein Walked with Godel
Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth.
Blow Out
When Einstein Walked with Godel
Blow Out
Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth
Falter
The Education of an Idealist
Blow Out
Bill McKibben’s groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic -- was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization can exist, new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics threaten to bleach away the variety of human experience.
The Education of an Idealist
The Education of an Idealist
The Education of an Idealist
Pulitzer Prize winner Samantha Power, widely known as a relentless advocate for promoting human rights, has been heralded by President Barack Obama as one of America's "foremost thinkers on foreign policy."
NEW DVDs
The Education of an Idealist
The Education of an Idealist
Bohemian Rhapsody
Call the Midwife
Christopher Robin
Maudie
North & South
The Vicar of Denby