Readers’ Choice: Our Top 25 Most Popular Books of the Year!

December 30 2020
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Congrats, everyone: We’ve done a crazy amount of reading over the past 12 months. Let’s take one last look back at 2020 with a roundup of Off the Shelf’s top 25 most popular books of the year. Be sure and add some of these popular reads to your 2021 reading resolutions list.

Look back on even more best books of the year with Simon & Schuster’s Best of List!

This Tender Land
by William Kent Krueger

An instant New York Times bestseller, this magnificent novel follows four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression. Over the course of a summer, they cross paths with many others: struggling farmers and traveling faith healers, displaced families, and lost souls of all kinds.

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This Tender Land
William Kent Krueger

For fans of Before We Were Yours and Where the Crawdads Sing, “a gripping, poignant tale swathed in both mythical and mystical overtones” (Bob Drury, New York Times bestselling author) that follows four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression, from the New York Times bestselling author of Ordinary Grace.

1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.

Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will fly into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an en­thralling, big-hearted epic that is “more than a simple journey; it is a deeply satisfying odyssey, a quest in search of self and home” (Booklist).

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Dear Mrs. Bird
by AJ Pearce

The idea for A. J. Pearce’s irresistible debut novel came to her after she read actual letters and articles in wartime magazines written by the women who remained behind during World War II. DEAR MRS. BIRD is a charming story about a bygone era, with likable characters in Emmeline Lake and her best friend Bunty, and a refreshingly different perspective on wartime Britain that history buffs and casual readers alike will love.

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Dear Mrs. Bird
AJ Pearce

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The Lost Queen
by Signe Pike

A splendid mix of THE MISTS OF AVALON and your favorite Philippa Gregory novel, THE LOST QUEEN has it all: romance, bloodshed, and betrayal. This thrilling read reveals the untold story of Languoreth—a forgotten queen of sixth-century Scotland and the twin sister of the man who inspired the legend of Merlin.

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The Lost Queen
Signe Pike

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Three Things About Elsie
by Joanna Cannon

Eighty-four-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits to be rescued, she thinks about her lifelong friend Elsie and wonders if a terrible secret from their past is about to come to light. Is the charming new resident who suddenly appeared who he claims to be? Why does he look exactly like a man who died sixty years ago? And why will no one listen to her concerns?

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Three Things About Elsie
Joanna Cannon

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All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr

Beloved by millions of readers, ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE follows a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as they both try to survive the devastation of World War II. The breakout hit of 2014, this beautiful novel was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. If you haven’t read this one yet, it should be at the top of your spring reading list.

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All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book, National Book Award finalist, more than two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller list

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Ten years in the writing, a National Book Award finalist, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).

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The Daughter's Tale
by Armando Lucas Correa

An unforgettable saga exploring a hidden piece of World War II history and the lengths a mother will go to protect her children—perfect for fans of LILAC GIRLS and THE ALICE NETWORK. Seven decades of secrets unravel with the arrival of a box of letters from the distant past, taking readers on a harrowing journey from Nazi-occupied Berlin, to the South of France, to modern-day New York City.

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The Daughter's Tale
Armando Lucas Correa

From the internationally bestselling author of The German Girl, an unforgettable, “searing” (People) saga exploring a hidden piece of World War II history and the lengths a mother will go to protect her children—perfect for fans of Lilac Girls, We Were the Lucky Ones, and The Alice Network.

Seven decades of secrets unravel with the arrival of a box of letters from the distant past, taking readers on a harrowing journey from Nazi-occupied Berlin, to the South of France, to modern-day New York City.

Berlin, 1939. The dreams that Amanda Sternberg and her husband, Julius, had for their daughters are shattered when the Nazis descend on Berlin, burning down their beloved family bookshop and sending Julius to a concentration camp. Desperate to save her children, Amanda flees toward the South of France. Along the way, a refugee ship headed for Cuba offers another chance at escape and there, at the dock, Amanda is forced to make an impossible choice that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Once in Haute-Vienne, her brief respite is inter­rupted by the arrival of Nazi forces, and Amanda finds herself in a labor camp where she must once again make a heroic sacrifice.

New York, 2015. Eighty-year-old Elise Duval receives a call from a woman bearing messages from a time and country that she forced herself to forget. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise is shocked to discover that the letters were from her mother, written in German during the war. Her mother’s words unlock a floodgate of memories, a lifetime of loss un-grieved, and a chance—at last—for closure.

Based on true events and “breathtakingly threaded together from start to finish with the sound of a beating heart” (The New York Times Book Review), The Daughter’s Tale is an unforgettable family saga of love, survival, and redemption.

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I'm Thinking of Ending Things
by Iain Reid

If you had a chance to watch the Netflix original movie adaptation, dive into the book for a bit of different twist. Following a couple who takes a road trip during a snowstorm, this book is filled with odd ramblings, hints of a crime committed, and sinister foreshadowing that will have you questioning everything.

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I'm Thinking of Ending Things
Iain Reid

Now a Netflix original movie, this deeply scary and intensely unnerving novel follows a couple in the midst of a twisted unraveling of the darkest unease. You will be scared. But you won’t know why…

I’m thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It’s always there. Always.

Jake once said, “Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.”

And here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t want to be here.

In this smart and intense literary suspense novel, Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago’s early work, Michel Faber’s cult classic Under the Skin, and Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin, your dread and unease will mount with every passing page” (Entertainment Weekly) of this edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping, and atmospheric, I’m Thinking of Ending Things pulls you in from the very first page…and never lets you go.

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The Doll Factory
by Elizabeth Macneal

Dive into this Victorian era psychological thriller that follows an aspiring artist named Iris whose encounter with a collector at Hyde Park's Great Exhibition soon turns eerie, as he becomes entranced with her. Iris goes on to study under a famed artist, while her stalker sets his web. This book is a whirlwind exploration of art, love, and obsession.

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The Doll Factory
Elizabeth Macneal

The #1 international bestseller and The New York Times Editor’s Choice

“As lush as the novels of Kate Morton and Diane Setterfield, as exciting as The Alienist and Iain Pears’ An Instance of the Fingerpost, this exquisite literary thriller will intrigue book clubs and rivet fans of historical fiction.” —A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

“A lush, evocative Gothic.” —The New York Times Book Review

This terrifically exciting novel will jolt, thrill, and bewitch readers.” —Booklist, starred review

Obsession is an art.

In this “sharp, scary, gorgeously evocative tale of love, art, and obsession” (Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train), a beautiful young woman aspires to be an artist, while a man’s dark obsession may destroy her world forever.

Obsession is an art.

In 1850s London, the Great Exhibition is being erected in Hyde Park and, among the crowd watching the dazzling spectacle, two people meet by happenstance. For Iris, an arrestingly attractive aspiring artist, it is a brief and forgettable moment. But for Silas, a curiosity collector enchanted by all things strange and beautiful, the meeting marks a new beginning.

When Iris is asked to model for Pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost, she agrees on the condition that he will also teach her to paint. Suddenly, her world begins to expand beyond her wildest dreams—but she has no idea that evil is waiting in the shadows. Silas has only thought of one thing since that chance meeting, and his obsession is darkening by the day.

“A lush, evocative Gothic” (The New York Times Book Review) that is “a perfect blend of froth and substance” (The Washington Post), The Doll Factory will haunt you long after you finish it and is perfect for fans of The Alienist, Drood, and Fingersmith.

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The Coincidence of Coconut Cake
by Amy E. Reichert

Milwaukee chef Lou receives a scathing review from a critic who happened to come to her restaurant on basically the worst day of her life, and now her business is in shambles. Drowning her sorrows in a local pub, she runs into Al, a gruff but charming Brit who’s celebrating getting a new article in the paper. Banter ensues, and when Al pooh-poohs the local scene, Lou undertakes to show him the best of what Milwaukee has to offer. But what happens when the two of them discover that Al’s the critic who ruined Lou’s career?

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The Coincidence of Coconut Cake
Amy E. Reichert

A chance meeting between talented chef Luella and British transplant Al leads to a budding romance. But when Luella discovers her new paramour is the writer behind the anonymous food column whose scathing review of her cooking left her restaurant facing closure, can their relationship survive? A charming tale of mistaken identity and unlikely love, this delightful tale will surely satisfy your sweet tooth.

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Mornings with Rosemary
by Libby Page

Rosemary Peterson’s calm, routine lifestyle is upended when her beloved outdoor pool where she holds memories of her husband is threatened with closure by a local housing developer. Thankfully a reporter takes interest in the story and teams up with Rosemary to save the neighborhood institution. MORNINGS WITH ROSEMARY is a charming feel-good novel that captures the heart and spirit of a community across generations—an irresistible tale of love, loss, aging, and friendship.

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Mornings with Rosemary
Libby Page

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The World That We Knew
by Alice Hoffman

Beginning in Berlin in 1941, this novel follows Hanni Kohn’s decision to send her daughter Lea away before the Nazis have a chance to harm her. To protect Lea, Hanni asks her rabbi’s daughter, Ettie, to create a mystical golem that will accompany Lea on her journey to France. Once mother and daughter are separated, a compelling story of resilience unfolds. Perseverance and strength are put to the test as the women of this story struggle to survive. But above all else, the power of a mother’s love and protection remain true.

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The World That We Knew
Alice Hoffman

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL

On the brink of World War II, with the Nazis tightening their grip on Berlin, a mother’s act of courage and love offers her daughter a chance of survival.

“[A] hymn to the power of resistance, perseverance, and enduring love in dark times…gravely beautiful…Hoffman the storyteller continues to dazzle.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

At the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. Her desperation leads her to Ettie, the daughter of a rabbi whose years spent eavesdropping on her father enables her to create a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Hanni’s daughter, Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their fortunes linked.

What does it mean to lose your mother? How much can one person sacrifice for love? In a world where evil can be found at every turn, we meet remarkable characters that take us on a stunning journey of loss and resistance, the fantastical and the mortal, in a place where all roads lead past the Angel of Death and love is never-ending.

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The Book of Lost Names
by Kristin Harmel

This captivating novel is about a young woman, Eva, with a talent for forgery who helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis. Now, sixty-five years later, Eva is a librarian with the chance to help researchers crack the code to a mysterious text—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

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The Book of Lost Names
Kristin Harmel

Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this unforgettable historical novel from the international bestselling author of the “epic and heart-wrenching World War II tale” (Alyson Noel, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Winemaker’s Wife.

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.

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Ask Again, Yes
by Mary Beth Keane

NYPD rookies and good friends Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope lead very different lives behind the doors of their neighboring homes. Their friendship—filled with secrets and hidden tensions—is also the start of a lifelong friendship between their children, Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope. But when a shocking tragedy takes place that reverberates over the next 40 years, loyalties are divided and bonds are tested.

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Ask Again, Yes
Mary Beth Keane

One of the most beloved novels of the year, the 2019 Tonight Show Summer Reads pick and “magnificent” (NPR) New York Times bestseller offers “profound insights about blame, forgiveness, and abiding love” (People) about two neighboring families in a suburban town, the friendship between their children, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness.

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, rookie cops in the NYPD, live next door to each other outside the city. What happens behind closed doors in both houses—the loneliness of Francis’s wife, Lena, and the instability of Brian’s wife, Anne, sets the stage for the explosive events to come.

“A beautiful novel, bursting at the seams with empathy” (Elle), Ask Again, Yes is a deeply affecting and “smartly told” (Entertainment Weekly) exploration of the lifelong friendship and love that blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next forty years. Heartbreaking and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes is a gorgeous portrait of a relationship haunted by echoes from the past, yet marked by tenderness, generosity, and grace.

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In the Midst of Winter
by Isabel Allende

After a Brooklyn snowstorm results in a car crash, three people find their lives forever intertwined—a human rights scholar; his tenant, an international lecturer; and a young refugee caretaker. The narrative follows them during the ensuing snowstorm as these three strangers unite to help one another, and it weaves in scenes from their past, showing the tragedies, politics, cultures, and more.

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In the Midst of Winter
Isabel Allende

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The Clockmaker's Daughter
by Kate Morton

After a little girl is abandoned on the streets of Victorian London, she grows up to become a thief and an artist’s muse. Following her eighteenth birthday, this girl travels alongside a group of artists to the beautiful Upper Thames. But after a woman is killed and another goes missing, the truth begins to muddle, leaving everyone in uncertainty for over a century. More than 150 years later, another young woman is drawn to Birchwood Manor, and its dark secrets about the artists are finally revealed. 

 
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The Clockmaker's Daughter
Kate Morton

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Once Upon a River
by Diane Setterfield

This richly imagined, gripping novel is set in a small town bordering the Thames and is about the devastating loss of a little girl and her miraculous return—unless it’s not the same girl at all. From the bestselling author of THE THIRTEENTH TALE, ONCE UPON A RIVER is an enchanting story of folklore and science, magic, and myth.

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Once Upon a River
Diane Setterfield

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By the Book
by Julia Sonneborn

Anne Corey, an English professor with the goal of tenure, has a problem: her ex-fiancé has just been hired as her boss. Anne keeps herself distracted with her careful plans to procure tenure and take care of her ailing father, but as she thinks about her future, lingering memories crop up as well. Providing an often-comical backdrop to the underlying fixation on past love, this heartwarming tale was inspired by Jane Austen’s PERSUASION. 

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By the Book
Julia Sonneborn

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In a Dark, Dark Wood
by Ruth Ware

When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.

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In a Dark, Dark Wood
Ruth Ware

*AUTHOR OF THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 and THE LYING GAME
*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER
*SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

An NPR Best Book of the Year * An Entertainment Weekly Summer Books Pick * A Buzzfeed “31 Books to Get Excited About this Summer” Pick * A Publishers Weekly “Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers” Pick * A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year * A BookReporter Summer Reading Pick * A New York Post “Best Novels to Read this Summer” Pick * A Shelf Awareness “Book Expo America 2015 Buzz Book” Pick

What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller.

Sometimes the only thing to fear…is yourself.

When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.

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Things in Jars
by Jess Kidd

THINGS IN JARS is a charming gothic mystery set in Victorian London. Birdie Devine, a renowned female detective, has a stunning new case: to find a kidnapped a girl whose alleged supernatural powers have made her an obsession of curiosity collectors worldwide. Birdie and her crew of unusual accomplices dig deep into London’s foggy, grime-encrusted underworld to find her, and through the telling of Christabel’s story, author Jess Kidd proves that even in dark and strange places, there is humanity left in the world. 

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Things in Jars
Jess Kidd

In this “miraculous and thrilling” (Diane Setterfield, #1 New York Times bestselling author) mystery for fans of The Essex Serpent and The Book of Speculation, Victorian London comes to life as an intrepid female sleuth wades through a murky world of collectors and criminals to recover a remarkable child.

Bridie Devine—flame-haired, pipe-smoking detective extraordinaire—is confronted with the most baffling puzzle yet: the kidnapping of Christabel Berwick, secret daughter of Sir Edmund Athelstan Berwick, and a peculiar child whose reputed supernatural powers have captured the unwanted attention of collectors in this age of discovery.

Winding her way through the sooty streets of Victorian London, Bridie won’t rest until she finds the young girl, even if it means unearthing secrets about her past that she’d rather keep buried. Luckily, her search is aided by an enchanting cast of characters, including a seven-foot-tall housemaid; a melancholic, tattoo-covered ghost; and an avuncular apothecary. But secrets abound in this foggy underworld where nothing is quite what it seems.

Blending darkness and light, Things in Jars is a stunning, “richly woven tapestry of fantasy, folklore, and history” (Booklist, starred review) that explores what it means to be human in inhumane times.

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Vacuum in the Dark
by Jen Beagin

Jen Beagin’s novel about a cleaning lady named Mona and her struggles to move forward in life is a one-of-a-kind read. Mona, twenty-six, moved to New Mexico to get away from a bad junkie boyfriend, but ends up with another bad boyfriend. Readers get to know Mona through her experiences with her clients, and her attempts to escape her past. Darkly witty, and yet serious, this is a book that stays with you for a long time after.

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Vacuum in the Dark
Jen Beagin

From the Whiting Award–winning author of Pretend I’m Dead and one of the most exhilarating new voices in fiction, a “thoroughly delightfully, surprisingly profound” (Entertainment Weekly) one-of-a-kind novel about a cleaning lady named Mona and her struggles to move forward in life.

Soon to be an FX television show starring Lola Kirke.

Mona is twenty-six and cleans houses for a living in Taos, New Mexico. She moved there mostly because of a bad boyfriend—a junkie named Mr. Disgusting, long story—and her efforts to restart her life since haven’t exactly gone as planned. For one thing, she’s got another bad boyfriend. This one she calls Dark, and he happens to be married to one of Mona’s clients. He also might be a little unstable.

Dark and his wife aren’t the only complicated clients on Mona’s roster, either. There’s also the Hungarian artist couple who—with her addiction to painkillers and his lingering stares—reminds Mona of troubling aspects of her childhood, and some of the underlying reasons her life had to be restarted in the first place. As she tries to get over the heartache of her affair and the older pains of her youth, Mona winds up on an eccentric, moving journey of self-discovery that takes her back to her beginnings where she attempts to unlock the key to having a sense of home in the future. The only problems are Dark and her past. Neither is so easy to get rid of.

Jen Beagin’s Vacuum in the Dark is an unforgettable, astonishing read, “by turns nutty and forlorn…Brash, deadpan, and achingly troubled” (O, The Oprah Magazine). Beagin is “a wonderfully funny writer who also happens to tackle serious subjects” (NPR).

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Less
by Andrew Sean Greer

Approaching his 50th birthday, famed novelist Arthur Less is feeling his age. Couple that with his lost love, a recently rejected manuscript, and unfortunate bout of bad luck, and he's in need of a change. An international holiday should do the trick! Traveling to various countries, this eccentric man rides out the end of his youth in style. Told from the perspective of a mysterious narrator, this book is a nonstop delight with hints of wit and bitter observations.

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Less
Andrew Sean Greer

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The Truth According to Us
by Annie Barrows

From the author of the beloved THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY comes a lovely story about an inquisitive young girl, her beloved aunt, and the alluring visitor who changes the course of their destiny forever. With long-buried family secrets, delightfully eccentric characters, a small-town setting, and a plot that will have you rapidly turning pages, what's not to love?

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The Truth According to Us
Annie Barrows

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Family Upstairs
by Lisa Jewell

When Libby’s 25th birthday arrives with a letter of inheritance, she realizes there is more mystery surrounding her birth family than she ever could have imagined. After learning she has been named the sole owner of an abandoned mansion in London’s Chelsea swanky neighborhood, Libby’s life changes drastically.

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Family Upstairs
Lisa Jewell

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA COVER TO COVER BOOK CLUB PICK

“Rich, dark, and intricately twisted, this enthralling whodunit mixes family saga with domestic noir to brilliantly chilling effect.” —Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author

“A haunting, atmospheric, stay-up-way-too-late read.” —Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author

From the New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone comes another page-turning look inside one family’s past as buried secrets threaten to come to light.

Be careful who you let in.

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

In The Family Upstairs, the master of “bone-chilling suspense” (People) brings us the can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

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The Whispers of War
by Julia Kelly

It’s August 1939, and three friends fearfully watch the British headlines as their country falls into another devastating war with Germany. There is talk among the town about Germans being sent to internment camps to weed out any spies. Marie, a German-born girl who moved to England at the age of twelve is branded an enemy alien. Her family is in danger, and Marie’s time is running out. As the three friends’ journey unfolds, they find themselves fighting to preserve Marie’s life and freedom at all costs.

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The Whispers of War
Julia Kelly

For fans of historical novels by Kristin Harmel and Martha Hall Kelly comes a “gripping tale by a writer at the top of her game” (Fiona Davis, author of The Chelsea Girls) following three friends who struggle to remain loyal as one of them is threatened with internment by the British government at the start of World War II.

In August of 1939, as Britain watches the headlines in fear of another devastating war with Germany, three childhood companions must choose between friendship and country. Erstwhile socialite Nora is determined to find her place in the Home Office’s Air Raid Precautions Department, matchmaker Hazel tries to mask two closely guarded secrets with irrepressible optimism, and German expat Marie worries that she and her family might face imprisonment in an internment camp if war is declared. When Germany invades Poland and tensions on the home front rise, Marie is labeled an enemy alien, and the three friends find themselves fighting together to keep her free at any cost.

Featuring Julia Kelly’s signature “intricate, tender, and convincing” (Publishers Weekly) prose, The Whispers of War is a moving and unforgettable tale of the power of friendship and womanhood in the midst of conflict.

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The Tenant
by Katrine Engberg

In this pulse-pounding thriller, perfect for fans of Tana French, two female detectives take on the case of a woman found murdered with lines etched into her face. While they quickly establish a connection between the woman and her eccentric landlord, Esther, not all is as it appears. In fact, it becomes obvious that Esther herself may be a victim of an even more twisted game. As they peel back the layers of an elaborate revenge plot, Detectives Jeppe and Anette must uncover the true puppet master before it’s too late. 

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The Tenant
Katrine Engberg

An Indie Next Pick
An O, The Oprah Magazine Titles to Pick Up Now
A People Book Pick
A New York Post Best Book of the Week
A Parade Most Anticipated Books of Early 2020
A Bustle Most Anticipated Books of January 2020
A CrimeReads Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020
A She Reads Most Anticipated Thrillers of 2020

An electrifying work of literary suspense from internationally bestselling author Katrine Engberg, The Tenant—heralded as a “stunning debut” by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs—follows two Copenhagen police detectives struggling to solve a shocking murder and stop a killer hell-bent on revenge.

When a young woman is discovered brutally murdered in her own apartment with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. In short order, they establish a link between the victim, Julie Stender, and her landlady, Esther de Laurenti, who’s a bit too fond of drink and the host of raucous dinner parties with her artist friends. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist—and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the still-unfinished mystery she’s writing, the link between fiction and real life grows both more urgent and more dangerous.

But Esther’s role in this twisted scenario is not quite as clear as it first seems. Is she the culprit or just another victim, trapped in a twisted game of vengeance? Anette and Jeppe must dig more deeply into the two women’s pasts to discover the identity of the brutal puppet-master pulling the strings.

Evocative and original, The Tenant promises “dark family secrets—and a smorgasbord of surprises” (People).

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