LibGuides: Goodreads Choice Awards: 2020s

Goodreads Choice Awards
2020-2029

2023

WINNER

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Call Number: FIC KUANG RF YE (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780063250833
Publication Date: 2023-05-16
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena's a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena's death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena's just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song--complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn't this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That's what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can't get away from Athena's shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June's (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

FINALISTS

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand
Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes
The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
Maame by Jessica George
The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
Shark Heart: a Love Story by Emily Habeck
Evil Eye by Etaf Rum
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Wellness by Nathan Hill
Blackouts by Justin Torres
Family Meal by Bryan Washington

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Call Number: FIC NAPOL ANN HE (Adult ficton)
ISBN: 9780593243732
Publication Date: 2023-03-14
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it's a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family's artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia's new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household. But then darkness from William's past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia's carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters' unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

_____

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Call Number: FIC PATCH ANN TO
ISBN: 9780063327528
Publication Date: 2023-08-01
In the spring of 2020, Lara's three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.

_____

The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand
Call Number: FIC HILDE ELI FI (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780316258777
Publication Date: 2023-06-13
Inviting her best friend from each phase of her life, widow Hollis Shaw hosts an unforgettable weekend on Nantucket, during which things don't go as planned as each woman deals with heartbreak, infidelity, scandal, and secrets, but things turn around dueto new friendships, unexpected romance, and self-discovery.

_____

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes
Call Number: FIC MOYES JOJ SO (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781984879295
Publication Date: 2023-02-07
A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars. Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else's shoes? Nisha Cantor and Sam Kemp are two very different women. Nisha, 45, lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband inexplicably cuts her off entirely. She doesn't even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in. That's because Sam--47, middle-aged, struggling to keep herself and her family afloat--has accidentally taken Nisha's gym bag. Now Nisha's got nothing. And Sam's walking tall with shoes that catch eyes--and give her a career an unexpected boost. Except Nisha wants her life back--and she'll start with her shoes... Someone Else's Shoes is a funny, moving and heartfelt story about how, for any of us just one little thing can suddenly change everything.

_____

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
Call Number: FIC HOFFM ALI IN
ISBN: 9781982175375
Publication Date: 2023-08-15
One brilliant June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia's mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community--an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and books are considered evil. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her? Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you. As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?
The Invisible Hour [large print] by Alice Hoffman
Call Number: FIC HOFFM ALI IN LARGE (Large print collection)
ISBN: 9781638089100
Publication Date: 2023-11-01

_____

WINNER

Weyward by Emilia Hart

FINALISTS

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghesse
Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin
The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis
The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson
The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul
Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
Go As a River by Shelley Read
The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel
The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls
Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
Banyan Moon by Thao Thai
The Vaster Wilds Lauren Groff
North Woods by Daniel Mason

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See
Call Number: FIC SEE LIS LA (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781982117085
Publication Date: 2023-06-06
According to Confucius, "an educated woman is a worthless woman," but Tan Yunxian-born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness-is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations-looking, listening, touching, and asking-something a man can never do with a female patient. From a young age, Yunxian learns about women's illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose-despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it-and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other's joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity beauty can bloom. But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife-embroider bound-foot slippers, pluck instruments, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights. How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions, go on to treat women and girls from every level of society, and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts?
Lady Tan's Circle of Women [large print] by Lisa See
Call Number: FIC SEE LIS LA LARGE (Large print collection)
ISBN: 9781638087748
Publication Date: 2023-07-01

_____

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Call Number: FIC MBRID JAM HE (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780593422946
Publication Date: 2023-08-08
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us.

_____

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende; Frances Riddle (Translator)
Call Number: FIC ALLEN ISA WI (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780593598108
Publication Date: 2023-06-06
Vienna, 1938. Samuel Adler was six years old when his father disappeared during Kristallnacht-the night their family lost everything. Samuel's mother secured a spot for him on the last Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to the United Kingdom, which he boarded alone, carrying nothing but a change of clothes and his violin. Arizona, 2019. Eight decades later, Anita Diaz, a blind seven-year-old girl, and her mother board another train, fleeing looming danger in El Salvador and seeking refuge in the United States. However, their arrival coincides with the new family separation policy, and Anita finds herself alone at a camp in Nogales. She escapes through her trips to Azabahar, a magical world of the imagination she created with her sister back home. Anita's case is assigned to Selena Duran, a young social worker who enlists the help of a promising lawyer from one of San Francisco's top law firms. Together they discover that Anita has another family member in the United States: Leticia Cordero, who is employed at the home of now eighty-six-year-old Samuel Adler, linking these two lives.

_____

Looking for Jane [large print] by Heather Marshall
Call Number: FIC MARSH HEA LO Large (Large print collection)
ISBN: 9781638087250
Publication Date: 2023-05-01
2017: When Angela Creighton discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession, she is determined to find the intended recipient. Her search takes her back to the 1970s when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network in Toronto known only by its whispered code name: Jane. 1971: As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was sent to a home for "fallen" women where she was forced to give up her baby for adoption--a trauma she has never recovered from. Despite harrowing police raids and the constant threat of arrest, she joins the Jane Network as an abortion provider, determined to give other women the choice she never had. 1980: After discovering a shocking secret about her family, twenty-year-old Nancy Mitchell begins to question everything she has ever known. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she feels like she has no one to turn to for help. Grappling with her decision, she locates "Jane" and finds a place of her own alongside Dr. Taylor within the network's ranks, but she can never escape the lies that haunt her

_____

The Paris Daughter [large print] by Kristin Harmel
Call Number: FIC HARME KRI PA LARGE (Large print collection)
ISBN: 9781638087922
Publication Date: 2023-07-01
Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change. When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life -- her young daughter, playmate to Juliette's own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette's Librairie des Rev es, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette's world is destroyed along with it. More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend's bookstore reduced to rubble -- and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise's desperate search leads her to New York -- and to Juliette -- one final, fateful time.

_____

The Secret Book of Flora Lea [large print] by Patti Callahan Henry
Call Number: FIC HENRY PATC SE LARGE (Large print collection)
ISBN: 9781638088097
Publication Date: 2023-08-01
In the war-torn London of 1939, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone -- a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own. But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister's disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves. Twenty years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby's. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel's future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora's disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years?

_____

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Call Number: FIC GROFF LAU VA (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780593418390
Publication Date: 2023-09-12
A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her. Lauren Groffs new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. It is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask howand ifwe can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.

WINNER

The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden

FINALISTS

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
Vera Won's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
All the Dangerous Things by Stacy WIllingham
Homecoming by Kate Morton
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
After That Night by Karin Slaughter
The Coworker by Freida McFadden
Happiness Falls by Angela Kim
Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
Don't Let Her Stay by Nicola Sanders
The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok
The Maid's Diary by Loreth Anne White

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
Call Number: FIC JEWEL LIS NO
ISBN: 9781982179007
Publication Date: 2023-08-08
Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie has been listening to Alix's podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Josie's life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can't quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast.

_____

The Only One Left by Riley Sager
Call Number: FIC SAGER RIL ON (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780593183229
Publication Date: 2023-06-20
A Gothic chiller about a young caregiver assigned to work for a woman accused of a Lizzie Borden-like massacre decades earlier.

_____

The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club #4) by Richard Osman
Call Number: FIC OSMAN RIC T4 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780593299425
Publication Date: 2023-09-19
It's rarely a quiet day for the Thursday Murder Club. Shocking news reaches them: an old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing. The gang's search leads them into the antiques business, where the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers, and online fraudsters--as well as heartache close to home--Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim have no idea whom to trust.

_____

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham
Call Number: FIC WILLI STA AL (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781250803856
Publication Date: 2023-01-10
One year ago, Isabelle Drake's life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her-literally. Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn't slept in a year. Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can't go on this way forever. In hopes of jarring loose a new witness or buried clue, she agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster--but his interest in Isabelle's past makes her nervous. His incessant questioning paired with her severe insomnia has brought up uncomfortable memories from her own childhood, making Isabelle start to doubt her recollection of the night of Mason's disappearance, as well as second-guess who she can trust... including herself. But she is determined to figure out the truth no matter where it leads.

_____

Homecoming : a novel by Kate Morton
Call Number: FIC MORTO KAT HC (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780063020894
Publication Date: 2023-04-04
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of a grand country house, a local man makes a terrible discovery. Police are called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most baffling murder investigations in the history of South Australia. Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for two decades, she now finds herself unemployed and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and is seriously ill in the hospital. At Nora's house, Jess discovers a true crime book chronicling a long-buried police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of 1959. It is only when Jess skims through its pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this notorious event -- a mystery that has never been satisfactorily resolved.

_____

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
Call Number: FIC MAKKA REB I (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780593490143
Publication Date: 2023-02-21
In the riveting new novel from the author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers, a woman must reckon with her past when new details surface about a tragedy at her elite New England boarding school.

_____

All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby
Call Number: FIC COSBY SA AL (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781250831910
Publication Date: 2023-06-06
After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, the land of moonshine and cornbread, fist fights, and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires him to run for sheriff. He wins and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county. Then a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus's deputies. Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever it leads. But no one expected he would unearth a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon.

_____

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
Call Number: FIC KRUEG WILK RI
ISBN: 9781982179212
Publication Date: 2023-09-05
On Memorial Day, as the people of Jewel, Minnesota gather to remember and honor the sacrifice of so many sons in the wars of the past, the half-clothed body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. Investigation of the murder falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn's murder but also to put to rest the demons from his own past. Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn's death threatens to expose.

_____

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
Call Number: FIC HAWKI RAC VI (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781250280015
Publication Date: 2023-01-03
As kids, Emily and Chess were inseparable. But by their 30s, their bond has been strained by the demands of their adult lives. So when Chess suggests a girls' trip to Italy, Emily jumps at the chance to reconnect with her best friend. Villa Aestas in Orvieto is a high-end holiday home now, but in 1974, it was known as Villa Rosato, and rented for the summer by a notorious rock star, Noel Gordon. In an attempt to reignite his creative spark, Noel invites up-and-coming musician, Pierce Sheldon to join him, as well as Pierce's girlfriend, Mari, and her stepsister, Lara. But he also sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Mari writing one of the greatest horror novels of all time, Lara composing a platinum album--and ends in Pierce's brutal murder. As Emily digs into the villa's complicated history, she begins to think there might be more to the story of that fateful summer in 1974. That perhaps Pierce's murder wasn't just a tale of sex, drugs, and rock & roll gone wrong, but that something more sinister might have occurred--and that there might be clues hidden in the now-iconic works that Mari and Lara left behind. Yet the closer that Emily gets to the truth, the more tension she feels developing between her and Chess. As secrets from the past come to light, equally dangerous betrayals from the present also emerge--and it begins to look like the villa will claim another victim before the summer ends. Inspired by Fleetwood Mac, the Manson murders, and the infamous summer Percy and Mary Shelley spent with Lord Byron at a Lake Geneva castle--the birthplace of Frankenstein--The Villa welcomes you into its deadly legacy.

_____

After That Night (Will Trent #11) by Karin Slaughter
Call Number: FIC SLAUG KAR T11 (Adult ficiton)
ISBN: 9780063157781
Publication Date: 2023-08-22
After that night, everything changed. fifteen years ago, Sara Lintons life changed forever when a celebratory night out ended in a violent attack that tore her world apart. Since then, Sara has remade her life. A successful doctor engaged to a man she loves, she has finally managed to leave the past behind her. Until one evening, on call in the ER, everything changes. Sara battles to save a broken young woman whos been brutally attacked. But as the investigation progresses, led by GBI Special Agent Will Trent, it becomes clear that Dani Coopers assault is uncannily linked to Saras. And the past isnt going to stay buried forever.

_____

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Call Number: FIC KIM ANG HA (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780593448205
Publication Date: 2023-08-29
We didn't call the police right away. When Mia's father doesn't come home from a walk in the local nature reserve, she doesn't think much of it. He must've turned off his phone. Or his battery died. Or he probably stopped for an errand-but doing what exactly? Soon more questions arise and it becomes clear to Mia and her family that he is missing. Or is he?

_____

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
Call Number: FIC FEENE ALI GO
ISBN: 9781250843968
Publication Date: 2023-08-29
Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she's planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning messes and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything. Edith's own daughter, Clio, won't speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio's door--and their intentions aren't good. With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim.

WINNER

Happy Place by Emily Henry

FINALISTS

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
Things We Hide From the Light by Lucy Score
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Final Offer by Lauren Asher
King of Pride by Ana Huang
The Right Move by Liz Tomforde
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Wildfire by Hannah Grace
Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
Pucking Around by Emily Bath
True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
Practice Makes Perfect by Sara Adams
Powerless by Elsie Silver
In the Likely Event Rebecca Yarros
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
You, Again by Kate Goldbeck
A Long TIme Coming by Meghan Quinn
The Long Game by Elena Armas

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Call Number: FIC SITTE CUR RC (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780399590948
Publication Date: 2023-04-04
Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls, the late night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she's long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life. But when Sally's friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show--and in society at large--who've gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the Danny Horst Rule, poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman. Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week's show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder if there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn't a romantic comedy--it's real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her... right?

_____

The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren
Call Number: FIC LAURE CHR TR (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781982173432
Publication Date: 2023-05-16
Felicity 'Fizzy' Chen is lost. Sure, she's got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she's asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn't been practicing what she's preached.Fizzy hasn't ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can't-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she's spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie? Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass--unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too

_____

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
Call Number: FIC CENTE KAT HE
ISBN: 9781250283788
Publication Date: 2023-07-11
Sadie Montgomery has had good breaks and bad breaks in her life, but as a struggling artist, all she needs is one lucky break. Things seem to be going her way when she lands one of the coveted finalist spots in a portrait competition. It happens to coincide with a surgery she needs to have. Minor, they say. Less than a week in the hospital they say. Nothing about you will change, they say. Upon recovery, it begins to dawn on Sadie that she can see everything around her, but she can no longer see faces. Temporary, they say. Lots of people deal with this, they say. As she struggles to cope -- and hang onto her artistic dreams-she finds solace in her fourteen-year-old dog, Peanut. Thankfully, she can still see animal faces. When Peanut gets sick, she rushes him to the emergency vet nearby. That's when she meets veterinarian Dr. Addison. And she's pleasantly surprised when he asks her on a date. But she doesn't want anyone to know about her face blindness. Least of all Joe, her obnoxious neighbor who always wears a bowling jacket and seems to know everyone in the building. He's always there at the most embarrassing but convenient times, and soon, they develop a sort of friendship. But could it be something more? As Sadie tries to save her career, confront her haunting past, and handle falling in love with two different guys she realizes that happiness can be found in the places -- and people- you least expect.

WINNER

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Fourth Wing (Empyrean #1) by Rebecca Yarros
Call Number: FIC YARRO REB E1
ISBN: 9781649374042
Publication Date: 2023-05-02
Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders. Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--also known as her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter--like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret. Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda--because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

FINALISTS

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
The Ashes & the Star Cursed King by Carissa Broadbent
A Soul of Ash and Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Zodiac Academy by Caroline Peckham
Throne of the Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco
The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
The Hanging City by Charlie N. Homberg
A Fire in the Flesh by Jennifer L. Armentrout
The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem
A Game of Gods by Scarlett St. Clair
The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten
The Coven by Harper L. Woods
Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Bewitched by Laura Thalassa
Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent
Rule of the Aurora King by Nisha J. Tuli
A Queen of Thieves & Chaos by K. A. Tucker
A Court This Cruel & Lovely by Stacia Stark
A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden

WINNER

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

Hell Bent (Alex Stern #2) by Leigh Bardugo
Call Number: FIC BARDU LEI S2 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781250313102
Publication Date: 2023-01-10
Galaxy "Alex" Stern is determined to break Darlington out of hell-even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. But Alex is playing with forces far beyond her control, and when faculty members begin to die off, she knows these aren't just accidents. Something deadly is at work in New Haven, and if Alex is going to survive, she'll have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university's very walls.

FINALISTS

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
A Day of Falling Night by Samantha Shannon
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab
Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi b Shannon Chackraborty
The Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
Clytemnestra by Constanza Casati
The Will of the Many by James Islington
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
Witch King by Martha Wells
VenCo by Cherie Dimaline

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
Call Number: FIC YOUNG ADR UN
ISBN: 9780593598672
Publication Date: 2023-10-17
In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm--and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow's disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors. It's been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren't there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere-the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own. After her grandmother's death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother's decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she'd been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
Call Number: FIC HAYNE NAT ST (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780063258396
Publication Date: 2023-02-07
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know. When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene's temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge--on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon's actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude. Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon.
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
Call Number: FIC CASAT COS CL (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781728268231
Publication Date: 2023-05-02
As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best... You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offense against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot. But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice. Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So, you bide your time and force the gods' hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did. If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
Call Number: FIC SAINT JEN AT (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781250855572
Publication Date: 2023-05-09
Princess, Warrior, Lover, Hero. When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. But even then, she is a survivor. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing. Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. The Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves herself equal to the men she fights alongside. As she is swept into a passionate affair, in defiance of Artemis's warning, she begins to question the goddess's true intentions. Can Atalanta carve out her own legendary place in a world of men, while staying true to her heart? Full of joy, passion, and adventure, Atalanta is the story of a woman who refuses to be contained. Jennifer Saint places Atalanta in the pantheon of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology, where she belongs.Princess, Warrior, Lover, Hero. When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. But even then, she is a survivor. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing. Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. The Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves herself equal to the men she fights alongside. As she is swept into a passionate affair, in defiance of Artemis's warning, she begins to question the goddess's true intentions. Can Atalanta carve out her own legendary place in a world of men, while staying true to her heart? Full of joy, passion, and adventure, Atalanta is the story of a woman who refuses to be contained. Jennifer Saint places Atalanta in the pantheon of the greatest heroes in Greek mythology, where she belongs.
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
Call Number: FIC RUSHD SAL VI (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780593243398
Publication Date: 2023-02-07
In the wake of an insignificant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in fourteenth-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati, who begins to speak out of the girl's mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana's comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga--literally 'victory city'--the wonder of the world. Over the next two hundred and fifty years, Pampa Kampana's life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga's, from its literal sowing out of a bag of magic seeds to its tragic ruination in the most human of ways: the hubris of those in power. Whispering Bisnaga and its citizens into existence, Pampa Kampana attempts to make good on the task that Parvati set for her: to give women equal agency in a patriarchal world. But all stories have a way of getting away from their creator, and Bisnaga is no exception. As years pass, rulers come and go, battles are won and lost, and allegiances shift, the very fabric of Bisnaga becomes an ever more complex tapestry--with Pampa Kampana at its center.

WINNER

In the Lives of Puppets by T. J. Klune

FINALISTS

Light Bringer by Pierce Brown
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
The Marriage Act by John Marrs
System Collapse by Martha Wells
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
The Future by Naomi Alderman
Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
Bridge by Lauren Beukes
Some Desperate Glory by Emily esh
Translation State by Ann Leckie
Ascension by Nicholas Binge
The Deluge by Stephen Markley
The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu
The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins

Light Bringer (Red rising #6) by Pierce Brown
Call Number: FIC BROWN PIE R6 (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780425285978
Publication Date: 2023-07-25
The legendary Reaper, Darrow, to defend Mars from a bloodthirsty would-be conqueror, begins his long voyage home, an interplanetary adventure where old friends will reunite, new alliances will be forged, and rivals will clash on the battlefield
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Call Number: FIC SCALZ JOH ST (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780765389220
Publication Date: 2023-09-19
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital. It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good. In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.
The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Call Number: FIC BROOK LIL LI (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9781538708279
Publication Date: 2022-12-06
Florida as we know it is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state's infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker for the local utility municipality, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before. As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature. Told in four parts-power, water, light, and time-The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness.
Bridge : a novel of suspense by Lauren Beukes
Call Number: FIC BEUKE LAU B (Adult fiction)
ISBN: 9780316267885
Publication Date: 2023-08-08
Twenty-four-year-old Bridge is paralyzed by choices: all the other lives she could have lived, the decisions she could have made. And now, who she should be in the wake of her mother's unexpected death. Jo was a maverick neuroscientist fixated on an artifact she called the "dreamworm" that she believed could open the doors to other worlds. It was part of Jo's grand delusion, her sickness, and it cost her everything, including her relationship with her daughter. But in packing up Jo's house, Bridge discovers Jo's obsession hidden amongst her things. And the dreamworm works, exactly the way it's supposed to, the way Bridge remembers from when she was a little girl. Suddenly Bridge can step into other realities, otherselves. In one of them, could she find out what really happened to her mother? What Bridge doesn't know is that there are others hunting for the dreamworm--who will kill to get their hands on it.

WINNER

Holly by Stephen King

Holly by Stephen King
Call Number: FIC KING STE HL
ISBN: 9781668016138
Publication Date: 2023-09-05
When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, [featured Stephen King character Holly Gibney] is reluctant to accept the case. Her own mother has just died, and Holly is supposed to be taking time off. But something in Penny Dahl's desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down. Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie's disappearance.

Goodreads Choice Awards

2023

WINNER

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

FINALISTS

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

Maame by Jessica George

The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

Shark Heart: a Love Story by Emily Habeck

Evil Eye by Etaf Rum

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Wellness by Nathan Hill

Blackouts by Justin Torres

Family Meal by Bryan Washington

WINNER

Weyward by Emilia Hart

FINALISTS

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghesse

Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis

The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul

Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall

Go As a River by Shelley Read

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash

River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer

Banyan Moon by Thao Thai

The Vaster Wilds Lauren Groff

North Woods by Daniel Mason

WINNER

The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden

FINALISTS

None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

The Only One Left by Riley Sager

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

Vera Won's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

All the Dangerous Things by Stacy WIllingham

Homecoming by Kate Morton

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

The Villa by Rachel Hawkins

After That Night by Karin Slaughter

The Coworker by Freida McFadden

Happiness Falls by Angela Kim

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney

Don't Let Her Stay by Nicola Sanders

The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok

The Maid's Diary by Loreth Anne White

WINNER

Happy Place by Emily Henry

FINALISTS

Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

Things We Hide From the Light by Lucy Score

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Final Offer by Lauren Asher

King of Pride by Ana Huang

The Right Move by Liz Tomforde

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Wildfire by Hannah Grace