2023 Staff Favorites
Check out what Berlin-Peck staff read and loved in 2023!
December 1, 2023
Check out what we read and loved in 2023!
Non-Fiction:
Realistic fiction:
Mystery and thriller fiction:
Speculative fiction:
Other fiction:
Feeling nostalgic? Check out previous years: 2020 | 2021 | 2022
Non-Fiction
Infused
Adventures In Tea
Henrietta Lovell
In this blend of travel writing, memoir, recipes and stunning photography, the ‘Rare Tea Lady’ takes readers along on her quest around the world to revolutionize the way we drink tea.
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Dee Brown
Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown introduces readers to great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes, revealing in heartwrenching detail the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that methodically stripped them of freedom.
You’re Not Listening
Kate Murphy
How well we listen determines how we love, learn, and connect with one another, and in this moment when we need to hear and be heard more than ever, this thought-provoking and engaging book shows us how.
Tiny Beautiful Things
Advice On Love And Life From Dear Sugar
Cheryl Strayed?
Top-selected postings on life and relationships from The Rumpus’ popular “Dear Sugar” online column, sharing recommendations on everything from infidelity and grief to marital boredom and financial hardships.
Master Slave Husband Wife
An Epic Journey From Slavery To Freedom
Ilyon Woo
The remarkable true story of Ellen and William Craft, who escaped slavery through daring, determination, and disguise, with Ellen passing as a wealthy, disabled white man and William posing as “his” slave.
Memoirs
In Love
Amy Bloom
The New York Times best-selling author tells the story of her husband’s battle with early onset Alzheimer’s, their determination to support one another and his eventual decision to end his own life with dignity.
Unbroken
Laura Hillenbrand
The story of a U.S. airman who survived when his bomber crashed into the sea during World War II, spent forty-seven days adrift in the ocean before being rescued by the Japanese Navy, and was held as a prisoner until the end of the war.
The Watchmaker’s Daughter
Larry Loftis
The first major biography of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker who saved the lives of hundreds of Jews during World War II-at the cost of losing her family and being sent to a concentration camp, only to survive, forgive her captors and live the rest of her life as a Christian missionary.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful
Maggie Smith
The award-winning poet explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself, interweaving snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness and narrative itself and revealing how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something beautiful.
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family’s nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities.
Contemporary Fiction
The School Of Essential Ingredients
Erica Bauermeister
Gathering at Lillian’s Restaurant for a weekly cooking class, a young mother struggles with the growing demands of her family, an Italian kitchen designer works to adapt to life in America, and a widower mourns the loss of his wife to breast cancer.
Earth’s The Right Place For Love
Elizabeth Berg
Arthur becomes friends with the hottest girl in his class even though she has a crush on his older brother and must come to terms with grief and how to go on when a sudden tragedy changes his world.
Small Things Like These
Claire Keegan
In a small Irish town in 1985, while delivering an order to the local convent, coal merchant and family man makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver
The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
The Plot
Jean Hanff Korelitz
Wildly successful author Jacob Finch Bonner, who had stolen the plot of his book from a late student, fights to hide the truth from his fans and publishers, while trying to figure out who wants to destroy him.
Yellowface
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 shethinks she deserves.
Stolen
Ann-Helen Laestadius
As hatred and threats against the Sami reindeer herders escalate, resulting in more reindeer being tortured and killed, Elsa, a young Indigenous woman, decides to push back on the apathetic police force, making her the target of a devious hunter who wants to silence her forever.
The Book Club Hotel
Sarah Morgan
While dealing with her fully booked inn for the holidays, widow and single mom Hattie Coleman just wants to make it through the festive season and is not prepared when her own story becomes entwined in those of three lifelong friends, changing all their lives during the most enchanting time of the year.
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace
The story of an intelligent but zany dysfunctional family is set in a drug-and-alcohol addicts’ halfway house and a tennis academy and follows such themes as heartbreak, philosophy, and advertising.
Black Cake
Charmaine Wilkerson
Two estranged siblings try to reclaim the closeness they once shared while trying to piece together their late mother’s life story and fulfill her last request of sharing a traditional Caribbean black cake ‘when the time is right.’
Historical Fiction
Hester
Laurie Lico Albanese
Arriving in Salem from Scotland in the early 1800s and left penniless and alone by her husband in a strange country, Isobel is instantly drawn to Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The Postcard
Anne Berest?
Fifteen years after the arrival of an anonymous postcard with the names of her maternal great-grandparents and their children—all killed at Auschwitz—Anne Berest is moved to discover who sent it and why and embarks on a journey to learn the fate of the Rabinovitch family.
The House Of Eve
Sadeqa Johnson?
In 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, the lives of 15-year-old Ruby Pearsall, whose taboo affair threatens her dreams of being the first in her family to attend college, and Eleanor Quarles, who hopes having a baby will gain her husband’s wealthy family’s acceptance, collide in the most unexpected of ways.
Yellow Wife
Sadeqa Johnson
Born on a plantation but set apart from the others by her mother’s position as a medicine woman, a young slave is forced to leave home at eighteen and unexpectedly finds herself in an infamously cruel jail.
The Golden Doves
Martha Hall Kelly
To finally secure justice and protect the ones they love, two former female spies, American Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue, aka the Golden Doves, risk everything to hunt down an infamous Nazi doctor in the aftermath of World War II.
The Librarian Of Burned Books
Brianna Labuskes
Set against the backdrop of World War II, this novel, inspired by the true story of the Council of Books in Wartime, follows three women whose fates become intertwined by their belief in the power and goodness in the written word to triumph over the verydarkest moments of war.
Finding Dorothy
Elizabeth Letts
This richly imagined novel tells the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the book that inspired the iconic film, through the eyes of author L. Frank Baum’s intrepid wife, Maud.
The Matchmaker’s Gift
Lynda Cohen Loigman
After her beloved grandmother passes away, leaving behind a collection of handwritten journals recording the details of her matches, Abby, a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, finds more questions than answers as she discovers she also has the unique gift of seeing soulmates in the most unexpected places.
The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison
The story of Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old Black girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes, and the tragedy that results from her longing to be accepted.
Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell
The evocative story of a young Shakespeare’s marriage to a talented herbalist before the ravaging death of their 11-year-old son shapes the production of his greatest play.
West With Giraffes
Lynda Rutledge
An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America.
Humorous Fiction
Nature Girl
Carl Hiaasen
Honey Santana, the bipolar, self-proclaimed “queen of lost causes,” has plans to give Boyd Shreave and his mistress a lesson in civility, unaware that she is being followed by her obsessed ex-employer and her one-time drug runner ex-husband.
A Confederacy Of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole
Here is Ignatius Reilly: slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one, who is in violent revolt against the entire modern age, lying in his flannel nightshirt in a back bedroom on Constantinople Street in New Orleans, who between gigantic seizures of flatulence and eructations is filling dozens of Big Chief tablets with invective.
Romance
The Bodyguard
Katherine Center
Hired as superstar actor Jack Stapleton’s bodyguard, Hannah Brooks must pose as his girlfriend while visiting his family’s ranch in Texas where she finds it easy to protect him, but hard to protect her own, long-neglected heart.
The Lonely Hearts Book Club
Lucy Gilmore
A young librarian and an old curmudgeon forge the unlikeliest of friendships in this charming, feel-good novel about one misfit book club and the lives (and loves) it changed along the way.
Out Of The Clear Blue Sky
Kristan Higgins
When her husband suddenly leaves her for another woman, Lillie, furious and with limited options of whom to turn to for help, finds unexpected allies who come to her aid, while, at the same time, she comes to theirs.
Don’t You Forget About Me
Mhairi McFarlane
If there’s anything worse than being fired from the lousiest restaurant in town, it’s coming home early to find your boyfriend in bed with someone else. Georgina takes the next job that comes her way. There’s only one problem: it’s run by the guy she fell in love with years ago. And—make that two problems—he doesn’t remember her. At all.
One True Loves
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Years after losing her husband in a helicopter accident, Emma Blair gradually puts her life back together and finds healing and love through her engagement to an old friend before her husband is found alive, forcing her to choose between her first and second loves.
Romantic Comedy
Curtis Sittenfeld
A sketch writer for a late-night comedy show, Sally Milz pokes fun at the phenomenon of talented but average men who’ve gotten romantically involved with beautiful women and how the reverse never happens until she meets a pop music sensation who flips the script on all her assumptions.
Cozy Mystery
Every Trick In The Book
Lucy Arlington
When she discovers the dead body of an editor whom she resembles during the Book and Author Festival, literary agent Lila Wilks investigates, trying to find a link between the editor’s murder and that of a promising new author.
A Troubling Tail
Laurie Cass
Librarian Minnie Hamilton and her rescue cat Eddie get into a sticky situation when they investigate the murder of one of their favorite patrons, the owner of Henika’s Candy Emporium, determined to bring a killer to sweet justice.
The Game Is A Footnote
Vicki Delany
Asked to look into some strange happenings at Scarlet House, a historical re-enactment museum, Gemma Doyle, owner of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, and Jayne instead find a dead body and suspect foul play as secrets about the museum come to light.
License To Dill
Mary Ellen Hughes
Piper Lamb, a fruit and vegetable preserver, finds herself in quite a pickle when her ex-fiance drops in for a visit and her dill supplier, local farmer Gerald Standley, is accused of murdering his bitter rival, the manager of an Italian soccer team.
Mystery & Thriller
The Last Word
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.
I Will Find You
Harlan Coben
Receiving evidence that his son might still be alive, an innocent father convicted of murdering his own child breaks out of prison to uncover the truth.
Faithful Place
Tana French
Detective Frank Mackey finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind twenty-two years ago when the suitcase belonging to his first love, Rosie Daly, shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place.
Running Grave
Robert Galbraith
In the seventh installment in the Strike series, Cormoran and Robin must rescue a man ensnared in the trap of a dangerous cult.
The Dry
Jane Harper
Receiving a sinister anonymous note after his best friend’s suspicious death, federal agent Aaron Falk is forced to confront the fallout of a twenty-year-old false alibi against a backdrop of the worst drought Melbourne has seen in a century.
None Of This Is True
Lisa Jewell
Popular podcaster Alix Summer becomes the subject of her own podcast after a woman named Josie Fair comes into her life and then disappears, leaving behind a terrible and terrifying legacy that puts her life and her family’s lives in mortal danger.
Happiness Falls
Angie Kim
Mia isn’t initially concerned when her family fails to return from a walk, until her mute brother Eugene, who suffers from a rare genetic condition, returns bloody and alone and is unable to describe what happened to their father.
Just The Nicest Couple
Mary Kubica
When her husband Jack vanishes without a trace, Nina Hayes will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, which, unbeknownst to her, is inextricably linked to their close friends, who may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing.
Everyone Here Is Lying
Shari Lapena
A father who had been having an affair that just ended badly discovers his difficult daughter unexpectedly home from school and loses his temper, ultimately discovering he’s not the only one harboring secrets when she goes missing several hours later.
Small Mercies
Dennis Lehane
1974 Boston, as a heatwave blankets the city. Mary Pat Fennessey, in a desperate search for her missing daughter, asks questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, who doesn’t take kindly to anyone who threatens his business.
Just Another Missing Person
Gillian McAllister?
While investigating the disappearance of 22-year-old Oliva, detective Julia discovers that—to save her own family—she must not find out what happened to Oliva and must frame somebody else for her murder.
The Housemaid
Freida McFadden
A young woman with a troubled past finds herself employed as a housekeeper for Nina Winchester, a wealthy woman grappling with apparent mental health issues.
Behind Her Eyes
Sarah Pinborough
The secretary of a successful psychiatrist is drawn into the seemingly picture-perfect life of her boss and his wife before discovering a complex web of controlling behaviors and secrets that gradually reveal profound and dangerous flaws in the couple’s relationship.
All The Dangerous Things
Stacy Willingham?
After her son is kidnapped while sleeping in his crib, a mother agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster with ulterior motives.
Speculative Fiction
Friday Black
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
A raw debut story collection from a young writer is a treacherously surreal, and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it’s like to be young and black in America.
Such Sharp Teeth
Rachel Harrison
When she is attacked by a huge animal, Rory Morris becomes unnaturally strong, changing into someone else—or something else—and wonders if she is putting those close to her in danger or if embracing the wildness inside her is the key to acceptance.
Whalefall
Daniel Kraus
Diving in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach to find the remains of his deceased father, Jay Gardiner, in a terrifying turn of events, is swallowed by a sperm whale and has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape.
How High We Go In The Dark
Nagamatsu Sequoia
Spanning hundreds of years, a cast of intricately linked characters struggle with the Arctic Plague, an ancient illness accidentally unleashed by researchers investigating the melting permafrost in 2030, which forces humanity to continually reinvent itself to survive.
Science Fiction
A Psalm For The Wild-Built
Becky Chambers
Centuries after disappearing into the wilderness en masse, the sentient robots of Panga return to visit with a tea monk and answer their burning question, ‘What do people need?’ in the first novel of a new series.
In The Lives Of Puppets
TJ Klune
When an unwitting act of betrayal leads to the capture of his android Gio, who once hunted humans, Victor Lawson and his assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to the City of Electric Dreams to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
Bubblegum
Adam Levin
In an alternate present-day world in which the Internet doesn’t exist, one of the first owners of a popular interactive ‘flesh and bone’ robot called Curio grapples with the outside world as he attempts to write his memoir.
Starter Villain
John Scalzi
When his long-lost uncle dies, leaving him his supervillain business, Charlie, as rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital come after him, finds going bad looking pretty good with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats and a terrifying henchperson at his side.
The End Of The World Running Club
Adrian Walker
Asteroids are striking Earth, the end of the world is near, and Edgar Hill is on the wrong side of the country. Over five hundred miles of devastated wastelands stretch between him and his family, and every second counts.
Fantasy
Slewfoot
Brom
A recently widowed outcast, Abitha turns to Slewfoot, an ancient spirit who has awakened in a dark wood, for help, and together they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan, leaving ashes and bloodshed in their wake.
Weyward
Emilia Hart
A riveting debut that explores witchcraft and female intuitive powers, told over five centuries through three connected women.
A Marvellous Light
Freya Marske
When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, Robin Blyth must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy.
Ink Blood Sister Scribe
Emma Torzs
Two estranged half sisters tasked with guarding their family’s library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection–a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.
Horror
Nestlings
Nat Cassidy
When they win an apartment in the Deptford, one of Manhattan’s most revered buildings, new parents Ana and Reid get the lucky break they’ve been waiting for until disturbing events occur, unease and paranoia set in and needle-like bite marks appear on the baby.
Just Like Home
Sarah Gailey
Called back home by her mother, Vera must not only face the love she had for her serial-killer father but also confront the secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder house, finding out just how deep the rot goes.
Monstrilio
Samano Cordova Gerardo
Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased 11-year-old son’s lung, nurturing it until in gains sentience, and hides this carnivorous little Monstrilio in the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate, but his innate impulses threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
How To Sell A Haunted House
Grady Hendrix
Forced to return to the small Southern town where she grew up to sell her late parents’ house, Louise discovers that her and her brother’s old grudges pale in comparison to the terror that still lurks within its walls.
What Moves The Dead
T. Kingfisher
When he receives word that his childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, retired soldier Alex Easton races to the House of Usher where he, after encountering a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, recruits a British mycologist and a baffled American doctor to unravel the truth.
A House With Good Bones
T. Kingfisher
Warned by her brother that their mother seems ‘off,’ Sam visits and discovers a once-cozy home with sterile white walls, her mom a jumpy, nervous wreck and a jar of teeth hidden in the rosebushes.
Out There Screaming
Jordan Peele
The visionary writer and director of Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates an anthology of all-new stories of black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation.
The Destroyer Of Worlds
Matt Ruff
Set In 1957, this masterful blend of historical fiction and fantastical horror, returning to the world of Lovecraft Country, explores the meaning of death, the hold of the past on the present and the power of hope in the face of uncertainty.
Camp Damascus
Chuck Tingle
Situated high up in the mountains, Camp Damascus offers a sin-free and ‘saved’ life to its ultra-conservative Christian patrons as the self-proclaimed ‘most effective’ gay conversion camp in America, while hiding a host of very unholy secrets.
Looking Glass Sound
Catriona Ward
Returning to the small New England town of his youth where a killer had once stalked its streets, writer Wilder Harlow, while penning his memoir, fears his grip on the truth of the tragedy fading and that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does.
Mister Magic
Kiersten White
Reuniting 30 years after a tragic accident ended their show Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members, who hold the secret of their close circle, the mystery of the beloved magical host and what really happened on that deadly last day, soon wonder ifthey’ve been lured into a trap.
Graphic Novel
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse
Charlie Mackesy
The tale of a curious boy, a greedy mole, a wary fox and a wise horse who find themselves together in sometimes difficult terrain, sharing their greatest fears and biggest discoveries about vulnerability, kindness, hope, friendship and love.
Young Adult Fiction
Shout
A Poetry Memoir
Laurie Halse Anderson
When she was thirteen years old, Anderson was a shy, bookish girl who was raped by a boy she trusted. She has since become known for the unflinching way she writes about, and advocates for, survivors of sexual assault. Inspired by her fans and enraged byhow little in our culture has changed in the years since, she has written a poetry memoir that shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she’s never written about before.
Warrior Girl Unearthed
Angeline Boulley
With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family’s involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people’s inheritance.
Suggested Reading
Dave Connis
Horrified when her draconian principal bans all awareness-raising and issue-centric books from the school library, passionate bibliophile Clara teams up with the student council president and other friends to start an underground library.
The Getaway
Lamar Giles
When Karloff Country, one of the world’s most famous resorts, suddenly offers the richest and most powerful families a safe haven from the nightmare outside its walls, Jay and his crew learn just how far they’ll go to find out the truth and save themselves.
We Deserve Monuments
Jas Hammonds
Forced to move to Georgia to live with her hostile, terminally ill grandmother, 17-year-old Avery discovers that the racist history of this town is rooted in her family in ways she can’t even imagine, jeopardizing her newfound romance with her next-door neighbor, Simone.