Readers’ Choice: The 13 Best Books on Off the Shelf in 2017 (So Far)

For fans of “The Affair”

There are two sides to every story—and the psychological drama “The Affair” explores that quite creatively. FATES AND FURIES is perfect for fans of dramatic romances told from alternating perspectives. At the core of this expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents a dazzling examination of a marriage over the course of 24 years.

Full of twists and turns, EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE reconstructs a year in the life of a dangerously mesmerizing young woman, during which a small town’s darkest secrets come to the forefront . . . and she inches closer and closer to her death.

Read our review of EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE here.

One of the first books publicly shared by the president after taking office in 2009, Paul Harding’s debut novel is a Pulitzer Prize winner and is a meditation on life, loss, illness, faith, and nature, told through the perspective of a dying old man. As the clock runs down, his memories intertwine with those of his father and grandfather.

POTUS showed off his cultural knowledge once again in 2015, when he picked up this Man Booker Prize–winning novel by Richard Flanagan. THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH is a sweeping story that moves from a Japanese POW camp to present-day Australia and explores the important themes of war and truth, love and death.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of "The Namesake "comes an extraordinary new novel, set in both India and America, that expands the scope and range of one of our most dazzling storytellers: a tale of two brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn by revolution, and a love that lasts long past death.

Seventy-year-old widow Addie Moore makes a surprising proposal to her neighbor Louis Waters, a 70-year-old widower. What follows is the engaging story of two isolated people finding solace in each other’s company, falling in love, sharing memories, and reflecting on their lives—their joys, regrets, fears.

Read our review of OUR SOULS AT NIGHT here.

Every reader needs a little escapism, and the leader of the free world is likely no exception. Salman Rushdie’s fantastic (and fantastical) story centers on a storm in New York City that reawakens an ancient conflict between humans and the descendants of a mystical creature known as the Jinn.

The Courtland family is taking one last vacation in the Rocky Mountains before their daughter leaves for college. But when Caitlin and her younger brother, Sean, go out for an early morning run and only Sean returns, the mountains become as terrifying as they are majestic.

Read our review of DESCENT here.

A modern classic of Gothic horror, Susan Hill drew upon the rich tradition of British ghost stories to craft this atmospheric tale of a mysterious specter whose appearance heralds the death of a child. Who is the terrifying woman in black and why does she haunt the halls of the isolated Eel Marsh House?

Though she was born to a famous father—the romantic poet Lord Byron—Ada Lovelace made a name for herself in her lifetime as one of the pioneers of computer technology. Overcoming numerous obstacles and receiving a level of education nearly unthinkable for a woman of her time, Lovelace joined forces with Charles Babbage (considered the father of the computer, though she wrote the program that made the whole thing possible).

The charming, engrossing tale of a rural Kentucky native who only wants to get away from her roots and travels from her home to Tucson, Arizona. Along the way she inherits a three-year-old Native American girl named Turtle, and together, the two search for a new life in the West.

Read our review of THE BEAN TREES here.

A tenacious junior lawyer assigned to a reparations case discovers that a young slave girl may actually be the true artist of the famous works of her owner. Moving between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this unforgettable novel is a suspenseful and heartbreaking journey that showcases the courage and determination of two women from very different times.

In a small rural village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as Russian soldiers abduct her father in the middle of the night and then set fire to her home. When their lifelong neighbor Akhmed finds Havaa hiding in the forest with a strange blue suitcase, he makes a decision that will forever change their lives. A story of the transcendent power of love in wartime, A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA is a work of sweeping breadth, profound compassion, and lasting significance.