Readers’ Choice: September’s 10 Most Shelved Books on Off the Shelf

England, 1976. Mrs. Creasy is missing, and the Avenue is alive with whispers. Two ten-year-old girls—spunky, spirited Grace and quiet, thoughtful Tilly—go door to door in search of clues. Soon the amateur detectives uncover more than they ever imagined possible. It’s a quirky and utterly charming story about a community wrought with secrets and two girls learning what it means to belong.

Read the full review of THE TROUBLE WITH GOATS AND SHEEP.

From the author of WE ARE CALLED TO RISE comes a brilliantly conceived novel that will make you stop everything and read. ’ROUND MIDNIGHT follows the interconnected lives of four women in Las Vegas, each of whom experiences a life-changing moment at a classic casino nightclub.

Read the full review of 'ROUND MIDNIGHT.

Ted and his elderly dachshund are at the center of this story of steadfast companionship, loss, and longing that will break your heart and put it back together again. The two share a comfortable life spent chatting about boys, playing board games, and ordering pizza just so Lily can bark at the delivery boy. But then the Octopus arrives and their simple little world begins to change. By turns hilarious and poignant, LILY AND THE OCTOPUS is a book you’ll never stop talking (and crying) about.

Read the full review of LILY AND THE OCTOPUS.

This acclaimed tragic and transcendent hymn is a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance.

Read the full review of A LITTLE LIFE.

Set in an Australian seaside town overlooking the vast, blue ocean, THE RAILWAYMAN’S WIFE tells the story of the town’s locals as they face incredible loss in the aftermath of World War II. When Anikka Lachlan, a postwar widow, finds a poem on her mantel, an unexpected love triangle begins between Ani, the poem, and the poet, who is struggling with his own loss following the war.

Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals the pasts of two music industry veterans in this Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. With music pulsing on every page, this masterpiece is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.

Read the full review of A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD.

As Gil, a famous author, is dying from cancer, he finds hidden notes from his wife who disappeared suddenly 12 years before. Everyone assumed that she drowned—everyone except Flora, Gil’s daughter, who returns to care for him and finally uncover what happened to her mother. You won’t be able to put this book down until you, too, figure out what really happened. 

As if growing up during the Great Depression wasn’t enough, Violet Mathers is also abandoned by her mother, mistreated by her father, teased by her schoolmates, and seriously injured in a terrible accident. When her bus to a new life in California breaks down in North Dakota, Violet thinks Fate is having another cruel laugh, but it may actually deliver her to two kindhearted musicians and a chance for real happiness.

Megan Miranda’s nail-biting follow-up to ALL THE MISSING GIRLS asks the question: How do you uncover the truth when you are busy hiding your own? When Leah’s friend Emmy goes missing, people begin to wonder: Did Emmy ever really exist? Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy and, along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name.

Read the full review of THE PERFECT STRANGER.

A recent winner of the 2017 Edgar Award for Best Novel. The description of a crash into the ocean and the epic, heroic swim the protagonist takes to save himself and a young boy will have you on the edge of your seat.

Read the full review of BEFORE THE FALL.