It's time for our end-of-the-year favorites, this time from Chandler Library staff! Check out some of the books that we recommend as the best of 2017, or view the complete list of books that staff voted for.
Best of the Best - Books that two or more staff members recommended:
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders - Traces a night of solitary mourning and reflection as experienced by the sixteenth president after the death of his eleven-year-old son at the dawn of the Civil War.
The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen Flynn - The Austen fan genre is expanded by an original new novel set both in the past and the near future. Two employees of a time travel company are assigned to go back to Austen’s day, ostensibly to retrieve the full copy of “The Watsons,” lost for all time… until now. The blending of historical fiction, fantasy, and romance with a beloved classic author thrown in the mix is a daring combination that succeeds.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - After witnessing her friend's death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter's life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid - Presents the story of two young lovers whose furtive affair is shaped by local unrest on the eve of a civil war that erupts in a cataclysmic bombing attack, forcing them to abandon their previous home and lives.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan - Anna and her father Eddie arrive at the home of Dexter Styles on Manhattan Beach searching for a job during the Depression. After Eddie goes missing five years later, Anna supports her mother and sister by working at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. One night, Anna approaches Styles for information about her father. They become involved, but he is still marked by his past relationship with Eddie.
More staff picks - Fiction:
The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda
Smile by Roddy Doyle
More staff picks - Nonfiction:
The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by Thomas Childers
Endurance: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly
A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney
Sting-Ray Afternoons by Steve Rushin
More staff picks - Children's Books:
Saving Marty by Paul Griffin
Bob, Not Bob by Audrey Vernick
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers