Winter 2022 Book Tasting
Highlighting the most anticipated books of 2022!
January 22, 2022
Realistic & Contemporary Fiction
Olga Dies Dreaming
Xochitl Gonzalez
A blazing talent debuts with the tale of a status-driven wedding planner grappling with her social ambitions, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots, all in the wake of Hurricane María. It’s 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1%, but she can’t seem to find her own…until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets… Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives. Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream-all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.?
What the Fireflies Knew
Kai Harris
A coming-of-age novel told from the perspective of an eleven-year-old over the course of a single summer, as she tries to make sense of her new life with her estranged grandfather and sister after the death of her father and disappearance of her mother?
One Italian Summer
Rebecca Serle
Following the release of her New York Times bestselling book, In Five Years, Rebecca Serle returns. When Katy’s mother dies before their special mother-daughter trip to Positano, she’s forced to go on the trip alone. While she’s there, her mom appears as a 30-year-old and she gets to know her as a young woman before she became her mother.?
The Unsinkable Greta James
Jennifer E. Smith
After the death of her beloved mother, failed indie singer-songwriter Greta James joins her father on a week-long Alaskan cruise, which becomes a journey of discovery for them both as they work to heal old wounds, giving her confidence she needs to move forward.?
True Biz
Sara Novic
Plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they’ll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the headmistress, who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another—and changed forever.?
The Sign for Home
Blair Fell
Arlo Dilly is young, handsome and eager to meet the right girl. He also happens to be DeafBlind, a Jehovah’s Witness, and under the strict guardianship of his controlling uncle. His chances of finding someone to love seem slim to none. And yet, it happened once before: many years ago, at a boarding school for the Deaf, Arlo met the love of his life—a mysterious girl with onyx eyes and beautifully expressive hands which told him the most amazing stories. But tragedy struck, and their love was lost forever. Or so Arlo thought. No longer willing to accept what others tell him, Arlo convinces a small band of misfit friends to set off on a journey to learn the truth.?
Historical Fiction
Violeta
Isabel Allende
Living out her days in a remote part of her South American homeland, Violeta finds her life shaped by some of the most important events of history as she tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others. Through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humor carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.?
Love & Saffron
A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love
Kim Fay
In the vein of the classic 84, Charing Cross Road and Meet Me at the Museum, this witty and tender novel follows two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all, and that friendship and laughter are the best medicine.
The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
Allison Pataki
The epic reimagining of the extraordinary life of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the American heiress who lived and loved on a grand scale, reveals the heartbreak she endured as a wife four times over in vastly different, dramatic marriages.
The Diamond Eye
Kate Quinn
The New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet librarian who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.?
A Light Beyond the Trenches
Alan Hlad
From the USA Today bestselling author of The Long Flight Home, a WWI novel both tender and exciting, as a German Red Cross nurse joins the world’s first guide dog training school for the blind and begins a quest to show a Jewish pianist who was blinded on the battlefield that life is worth living.?
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
The Maid
Nita Prose
A charmingly eccentric hotel maid discovers a guest murdered in his bed, turning her once orderly world upside down—and inspiring a motley crew of unexpected allies to band together to solve the mystery—in this utterly original debut. A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.?
The Perfect Escape
Leah Konen
New friends Sam, Margaret and Diana are thrilled to be getting out of the city for a girls’ weekend—they’ve bonded over their messy divorces, and every mile on the odometer feels like another step towards putting their exes in the past. But when car trouble halfway into their trip strands them in the most unlikely of mountain towns, they come face-to-face with the hurts and betrayals they were so desperate to leave behind. When Diana doesn’t return home after a night out, Sam and Margaret’s search for her reveals just how little they know about their friend. As eerie coincidences and secrets begin to pile up, and an ex-boyfriend arrives in the tiny town, the women realize that their detour may not have been a mistake…and that someone wants to guarantee that they never make it out.
A Flicker in the Dark
Stacy Willingham
From debut author Stacy Willingham comes a masterfully done, lyrical thriller, certain to be the launch of an amazing career. A Flicker in the Dark is eerily compelling to the very last page. When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Now twenty years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren’t actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?
Greenwich Park
Katherine Faulkner
A sophisticated female-led thriller about a woman whose life starts to unravel as a result of her friendship with an unpredictable single mother, Greenwich Park explores the terrible consequences of guilt, the complexity of female friendships, and the fallibility of the memories we cherish.
The Violin Conspiracy
Brendan Slocumb
Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can’t afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather’s fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise. Then with the international Tchaikovsky Competition-the Olympics of classical music-fast approaching, his prized family heirloom is stolen. Ray is determined to get it back. But now his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray’s great-grandfather are each claiming that the violin belongs to them. With the odds stacked against him and the pressure mounting, will Ray ever see his beloved violin again??
Truth and Other Lies
Maggie Smith
Centers on a young former reporter who clashes with her politically conservative mother who’s running for Congress. After the former reporter lands an opportunity to work for an iconic journalist on her PR team, a scandal threatens her work, family, and relationships.?
Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
To Paradise
Hanya Yanagihara
In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him—and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances.
Sea of Tranquility
Emily St. John Mandel
The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon three hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space. ?
In a Garden Burning Gold
Rory Power
Twins imbued with incredible magic and near-immortality will do anything to keep their family safe-even if it tears the siblings apart-in the first book of a mythic epic fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls.?
The Children on the Hill
Jennifer McMahon
In 1978, a psychiatrist brings home a feral child and her grandchildren teach her about monsters. 2019: Lizzy Shelley, the host of the popular podcast Monsters Among Us, is traveling to Vermont, where a young girl has been abducted, and a monster sighting has the town in an uproar. She’s determined to hunt it down, because Lizzy knows better than anyone that monsters are real—and one of them is her very own sister.
Romance
Yinka, Where is Your Huzband?
Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
Meet Yinka: a 30-something, Oxford educated, British Nigerian woman with a well-paid job, good friends, and a mother whose constant refrain is “Yinka, where is your huzband?” Yinka’s Nigerian aunties frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, her girlfriends think she’s too traditional (she’s saving herself for marriage!), her sister thinks she needs to get over her ex already, and the men in her life…well, that’s a whole other story. But Yinka herself has always believed that true love will find her when the time is right. Still, when her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find A Date for Rachel’s Wedding. Aided by a spreadsheet and her best friend, Yinka is determined to succeed. Will Yinka find herself a husband? And what if the thing she really needs to find is herself? With shades of Bridget Jones’ Diary and Jane Austen herself, Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? brilliantly subverts the traditional romantic comedy with an unconventional heroine who bravely asks the questions we all have about love. Wry, acerbic, moving, this is an #OwnVoices love story that makes you smile but also makes you think—and explores what it means to find your way between two cultures, both of which are yours.
One Night on the Island
Josie Silver
From the New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December…When a double-booking at a remote one-room cabin accidentally throws two solace-seekers together, it feels like a cruel twist of fate. But what if it’s fate of a different kind? Spendingher thirtieth birthday alone is the last thing that dating columnist Cleo wanted, but she is going on a solo retreat—at the insistence of her boss—in the name of re-energizing herself and adding a new perspective to her column. The remote Irish islandshe’s booked is a far cry from London, but at least it’s a chance to hunker down in a luxury cabin and indulge in some quiet, solitary self-care while she figures out her next steps in her love life and her career. Mac is also looking forward to some timeto himself. With his life in Boston deteriorating in ways he can’t bring himself to acknowledge, his soul searching has brought him to the same Irish island in search of his roots and some clarity. Unfortunately, a mix-up with the bookings means both solitude seekers have reserved the same one-bedroom hideaway on exactly the same dates. Instantly at odds with each other, Cleo and Mac don’t know how they’re going to manage until the next weekly ferry arrives. But as the days go by, they no longer seem tomind each other’s company quite as much as they thought they would.
The Love of My Life
Rosie Walsh
Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them, but almost everything she’s told them about herself is a lie. When the very darkest moments of Emma’s past finally emerge, she must somehow prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was. But first, she must tell him about the love of her other life.?
Reputation
Lex Croucher
Abandoned by her parents, bookish and sheltered Georgiana Ellers is spending the summer with her stodgy aunt and uncle at their home in the English countryside. At a particularly dull party, she meets the enigmatic Frances Campbell, a wealthy member of the in-crowd who delights Georgiana with her disregard for so-called “polite society.” Lonely and vulnerable, Georgiana quickly falls in with Frances and her wealthy, wild, and deeply improper friends, who introduce her to the upper echelons of Regency aristocracy, and a world of drunken debauchery, frivolous spending, and mysterious young men. One, in particular, stands out from the rest: Thomas Hawksley, who has a tendency to cross paths with Georgiana in her most embarrassing moments. Sparks fly, but Thomas seems unimpressed with the company she is keeping. And soon, Georgiana begins to wonder whether she’ll ever feel like she fits in—or if the price of entry into Frances’s gilded world will ultimately be higher than she is willing to pay. ?
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty
Akwaeke Emezi
Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be alive again. It’s been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she’s almost a new person now-an artist with her own studio, and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride-or-die best friend, Joy, who insists it’s time for Feyi to ease back into the dating scene. Feyi isn’t ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could have never imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and a major curator who wants to launch her art career. She’s even started dating the perfect guy, but their new relationship might be sabotaged before it has a chance by the dangerous thrill Feyi feels every time she locks eyes with the one person in the house who is most definitely off-limits. This new life she asked for just got a lot more complicated, and Feyi must begin her search for real answers. Who is she ready to become? Can she release her past and honor her grief while still embracing her future? And, of course, there’s the biggest question of all-how far is she willing to go for a second chance at love? Akwaeke Emezi’s vivid and passionate writing takes us deep into a world of possibility and healing, and the constant bravery of choosing love against all odds.?
Nonfiction
One: Pot, Pan, Planet
A Greener Way to Cook for You and Your Family
Anna Jones
With over 200 recipes for every occasion—from busy weeknight meals, to weekend feasts, to desserts that promise to delight—these inventive, deeply satisfying dishes will become your new go-to kitchen staples. Whether preparing the recipes vegetarian or vegan, you will also find information to help you reduce waste, use leftovers, make kitchens plastic-free, and become a more environmentally mindful shopper.
The Nineties
Chuck Klosterman
In The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman makes a home in all of it: the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan. Chuck Klosterman has written a multi-dimensional masterpiece, a work of synthesis so smart and delightful.
Bittersweet
How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole
Susan Cain
With her mega-bestseller Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an untapped power hidden in plain sight. Now, she employs the same mix of research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and the surprising lessons these states of mind teach us about creativity, compassion, leadership, spirituality, mortality and love.
Paradise Falls
The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
Keith O’Brien
From the New York Times best-selling journalist, the staggering, hidden story of an unlikely band of mothers who discovered the deadly secret of Love Canal, and exposed one of America’s most devastating environmental disasters.
Biography & Memoir
In Love
A Memoir of Love and Loss
Amy Bloom
Amy Bloom began to notice changes in her husband, Brian. Their world was altered forever when an MRI confirmed what they could no longer ignore: Brian had Alzheimer’s disease. Supporting each other in their last journey together, Brian and Amy made the unimaginably difficult and painful decision to go to Dignitas, an organization based in Switzerland that empowers a person to end their own life with dignity and peace.
Left on Tenth
Delia Ephron
In Left on Tenth, Delia Ephron enchants as she seesaws us between tears and laughter, navigating the suicidal lows of enduring cutting-edge treatment and the giddy highs of a second chance at love. With Peter and her close girlfriends by her side, with startling clarity, warmth, and honesty about facing death, Ephron invites us to join her team of warriors and become believers ourselves.
Finding Me
Viola Davis
Finding Me is Viola Davis’ story, in her own words, and spans her incredible, inspiring life, from her coming-of-age in Rhode Island to her present day. Hers is a story of overcoming, a true hero’s journey. Deeply personal, brutally honest, and riveting, Finding Me is a timeless and spellbinding memoir that will capture hearts and minds around the globe.?