Adult

A powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black man – set on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation in the 1970s.

An epic adventure of a 44-year-old father who leaves his family for six months to walk 4,286 km across America on the Pacific Crest Trail. Following his intuition, Voors embarks on a life-changing hike – feeling alive, being afraid, pushing through pain, confronting emptiness and starting a passionate romance with the wilderness. What effect does it have on his marriage? His children? Himself? This travelogue takes us through the physical, mental and spiritual journey he experienced on this adventure.

Haunted house tale, steeped in Japanese folklore and full of devastating twists. A night of food, drinks and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding. This book terrified me.

With Halloween at the end of the month, I thought I should feature something morbid. In each of these twelve short stories, small events have huge consequences.

Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather when a talking cat demands the teenager’s help in saving books with him. Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey.

A funny, gossipy and ultimately poignant novel about four Gen X teen friends turned 21st-century adults who awkwardly come back together to confront an influential teacher whose brutal remarks have haunted them all for years.

Who could resist picking up a copy of a book with such a great title and cover art? You won’t be disappointed by this collection of funny and insightful essays that got me thinking maybe I’ve misunderstood Baltimore all these years. Wonderful examination of what to do when “the journey” winds in unexpected directions.

Told from the perspective of a schoolteacher of Arabic for whom even daily errands become life-threatening tasks, this harrowing story illuminates the pointlessness of war, as it shows the wide-scale destruction wrought upon the monumental Syrian metropolis as it became the stage for a vicious struggle between warring powers.

An Indian American daughter articulates how the dangerous model minority myth fractured her family in this deeply-moving, heartfelt memoir.

Nishikawa, a Tokyo college student, discovers a dead body with a gun beside it. From the moment he decides to take the gun, the world around him blurs. As he spirals into obsession, his focus is consumed by one idea: that possessing the gun is no longer enough – he must fire it.

In March 1943, a team of expatriate Norwegian commandos sailed from northern England for Nazi-occupied arctic Norway to organize and supply the Norwegian resistance. But they were betrayed, and the Nazis ambushed them. This is the incredible and gripping story of the only man to escape and survive – Jan Baalsrud. Fascinating!

While the Dilbert cartoonist Adams has fallen from grace for some controversial views and ill-advised statements, he continues to make me laugh with his contrarian advice. I’d argue that anyone interested in succeeding should read this book, as it’s a fun, easy read – filled with gems.

The true story that inspired the wonderful film Invictus. After being released from prison and winning South Africa's first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by 50 years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: use the national rugby team, the Springboks – long an embodiment of white-supremacist rule – to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandela's miraculous effort to bring South Africans together again in a hard-won, enduring bond.

Part of the New Deal, President Roosevelt’s Federal Art Project created thousands of posters celebrating our nation’s landscapes with the hope to motivate citizens to get out and see what this country’s treasures. This book is a result of a campaign to re-imagine those posters. With any luck it will prompt you to take your loved ones to visit some of our nation’s glorious National Parks.

Halbreich has spent nearly forty years as the legendary personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman, where she works with socialites, stars and ordinary women off the street find their true selves through fashion, frank advice and her own brand of wisdom. But her personal transformation from cosseted young girl to fearless truth teller is the greatest makeover of her career. Fascinating read.