A tag-team of favorite reads -- mostly fiction -- from Karrie and Stephanie, from the past year!

Karrie's List

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jamie Ford

In a narrative that alternates between 1986 and the 1940s, Henry Le tells the story of his childhood friend Keiko Okabe, who was shipped off to a Japanese internment camp. Forty years later, he comes upon the hotel where the belongings of displaced Japanese families have been stored, and his love for Keiko is reborn.

By Nightfall
by Michael Cunningham

Peter and his wife Rebecca live a seemingly perfect upper-middle class life in Soho; yet when Rebecca's much younger brother comes to stay with them, thoughts of youth, freedom and desire take over.

Incendiary
by Chris Cleave

An unnamed mother writes a letter to Osama bin Laden after her husband and son are killed in a bombing in a London soccer stadium.

Sarah's Key
by Tatiana de Rosney

During the 1942 Paris round-up, Sarah locks her brother in a cupboard to protect him from the authorities and spends the rest of her life trying to return to him.

Let the Great World Spin
by Colum McCann

As Phillipe Petit walks a tight rope across the New York skyline one morning in 1974, the lives of the people down below show us that we are all so connected.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith

Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive.

Too Much Happiness
by Alice Munro

The best set of short stories I have ever read!

Ape House
by Sara Gruen

Isabel Duncan has devoted her life to the scientific study of apes; after her Language Lab is bombed she must work to rescue her friends and reconstruct the life she nearly lost.

Steph's List

Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen

A portrait of a nuclear family in turmoil.

House Rules
by Jodi Picoult

Autistic 18 year old Jacob, obsessed with forensic science, is accused of killing his therapist.

The Lonely Polygamist
by Grady Udall

A family man's burnout, temptation and redemption, although the family man in question happens to have 4 wives and 26 children.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
by Helen Simonson

An unlikely romance develops between the wry, courtly Major Pettigrew and Jasmina Ali, a local spirited Pakistani shop owner.

The Murder Room
by Michael Capuzzo [363.25 Cap]

The heirs of Sherlock Holmes gather to solve the world's most perplexing cold cases.

Worth Dying For
by Lee Child

Jack Reacher takes care of business in Nebraska.

The Wrong Mother
by Sophie Hannah

A year after having a brief affair with a man she'd never met, Hannah is surprised to see him on the news after his wife and daughter go missing… and he's not who he claimed to be.

The Dead Lie Down
by Sophie Hannah

Begins with a heartfelt confession to a murder which doesn't seem to have happened, since the supposed victim is found alive and well.

Faithful Place
by Tana French

Detective Frank Daly is reluctantly drawn back to his old neighborhood to investigate the disappearance of his highschool girlfriend.

The Devil's Company
by David Liss

Historical suspense, an enthralling mix of corporate espionage, international spies and industrial secrets surrounding the ruthless British East India Company.

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian
by Avi Steinberg [Biography Steinberg]

The adventures of an accidental prison librarian.

Mary Ann in Autumn
by Armisted Maupin

20 years after leaving her husband and daughter to pursue a television career in NY, a pair of personal calamities brings Mary Ann back to San Francisco where she can lick her wounds and take stock of her mistakes.

So Cold the River
by Michael Koryta

When Eric Shaw is asked to do a documentary about 95 year old billionaire Campbell Bradford, he discovers that the man in the hospital is an imposter with an evil past.