Fiction Recommendations

This book is part of our Fall Reading Challenge 2023. Read more about the challenge here.

Lara and Joe own a cherry farm in upper Michigan. When their young adult children return home to stay during COVID, the family has a unique chance to learn more about each other. Picking cherries for harvest, they learn the unexpected, sultry, and significant moments from their parents' summer at a theater festival long ago. What do we tell our children about who we were and how do all of life's moments prepare us for who we become? Mirroring the deft with which Patchett approaches all of her writing, this family drama is filled with emotional resonance, immersive storytelling, and a generous vision of love and life.

—Casey

This book is part of our Fall Reading Challenge 2023. Read more about the challenge here.

In the 1930's Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, immigrant jews and African Americans find themselves equally reliant on an informal network of relationships to navigate a community on the edge of a predominantly white, Christian nation. When a mystery develops and a crisis unfolds, it is the kindness, understanding, generosity of spirit, and ingenuity between neighbors that makes a difference. Suspenseful, heartwarming, funny, and poignant, McBride demonstrates that community is not only the answer, it is the balm.

—Casey

This book is part of our Fall Reading Challenge 2023. Read more about the challenge here.

All This Could Be Different tells the story of Sneha, a young queer brown woman living through the recession and coming into her adulthood. Told with beautiful prose that is both simple and captivating, I couldn’t put this down. To see the story of a complex, and at times troubling character, this book is one that I felt the need to sit with and think about long after I finished reading it.

—Andrea

This book is part of our Fall Reading Challenge 2023. Read more about the challenge here.

Mika’s life has been sloppy since she gave up her daughter, Penny, for adoption at nineteen. She gave up art, her passion, and spent the next sixteen years in a state of arrested development. When Penny finds Mika, hoping for answers, her world tilts. Mika’s story is told with such humor and candor where even if you know she’s making a mistake, you can’t help but root for her. This one goes out to the messy millennials.

—Ivy

The Apology begins after 105-year-old Jeonga has died. As a newly-fledged spirit in the afterlife, she is tasked to reveal her long-held family secret and prevent the living from unknowingly cursing them all. Moving back and forth through time, accompanied by her equally old and bold sisters, we are treated to a heartfelt, madcap escapade of sorts through South Korea, the U.S., and the afterworld, all while exploring deeper themes of family, duty, and love set in a century of Korean history.

—Melinda

It seems like an absurd premise. A man mutates into a great white shark?! As bizarre as that may sound, you will not want to miss this beautiful novel. It's an exquisite exploration of love, loss, grief, and joy. Served up in short lyrical chapters, I found that I couldn't stop turning the pages. If you like your literary fiction a little strange and with a lot of heart, you will love this stunning debut. 

—Trey

In Witness, Jamel Brinkley's short stories harness intense emotional impact in short order. Each character—from a sister grieving her brother's murder by the police to a lonely woman humorously and achingly reaching out to a food delivery person—is searching to be seen and heard. Will others, even those closest to them, only bear witness or become involved in the messy and fraught nature of life, love and loss? With each new collection, Brinkley shows he is a masterful observer of the human condition.

—Casey

Immerse yourself in A Council of Dolls, an intricate tale spanning generations of Yanktonai Dakota women. Power's captivating narrative travels from the present to the 1880s, with each story seen through a young Dakota girl's eyes and her doll as a companion. Unveiling the plights of indigenous people, it confronts the impact of generational trauma and the need to address the past's influence on the present. A compelling, eye-opening read that will keep you engaged.

—Kristina

Schumacher first landed on my radar with Dear Committee Members, a novel in letters of recommendation written by a slightly insane and hilariously cynical professor. She followed that up with The Shakespeare Requirement and now completes the trilogy with The English Experience, in which poor Professor Fitger is back, this time called upon to lead a group of misfit students on a trip to England. Schumacher is one of the smartest writers working today—and possibly the funniest. I can't wait to dive into this one!

—Rico

Learned By Heart is the story of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine, two young women paired up in a British boarding school in 1805 who slowly, then very quickly, fall madly in love. Rarefied, intimate, and Dickensian in all the best ways, with characters who walk into your mind and make a home, Learned By Heart is the perfect novel to settle into fall with.

—Kat