Top 10 Winter Reads
Fiction
The Girl Before
by J.P. Delaney
An enthralling psychological thriller that spins one woman’s seemingly good fortune, and another woman’s mysterious fate, through a maelstrom of duplicity, death, and deception.
Ballantine
The Sleepwalker 
by Chris Bohjalian
In this thriller about lies, loss, and buried desire, Annalee Ahlberg is a sleepwalker who goes missing. While she has disappeared in the past, this time seems eerily different, and her children are worried.
Doubleday
Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders
In 1862, Abraham Lincoln lost his 11-year-old son, Willie. The National Book Award winner draws inspiration from this event to write a kaleidoscopic tale that takes place in a single night.
Random House
4 3 2 1
by Paul Auster
A child is born two weeks early in 1947. Starting at the maternity ward, Auster explores four separate paths for the child. Inventive yet realistic, this is one of Auster’s greatest works. Perhaps the best.
Henry Holt
The Futures
by Anna Pitoniak
Evan and Julia are from widely divergent backgrounds. After they meet at Yale and fall in love, they move to New York, where all is rosy until the 2008 financial collapse hits.
Lee Boudreaux Books
Nonfiction
Thomas Jefferson — Revolutionary
by Kevin R. C. Gutzman
Fascinating perspective on a radical founding father. Jefferson had very clear thoughts on citizenship, the size and scope of government, and other important topics of the time that still resonate today.
St. Martin’s Press
The Nature Fix
by Florence Williams
We all know that nature is good for us. In this book, the author looks at the intersection of nature, mood, health, and creativity.
W.W. Norton
Portraits Of Courage
by George W. Bush
A vibrant collection of oil paintings and stories honoring the sacrifice and courage of America’s military veterans. Net author proceeds donated to George W. Bush Institute’s Military Service Initiative.
Crown
The Lost City of the Monkey God
by Douglas Preston
In 2012, the best-selling thriller writer boarded a small plane into the Honduran interior to search for a fabled lost city. Here is that story.
Grand Central Publishing
Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert
by Patricia Cornwell
This best-selling author has been on the trail of Jack the Ripper for years. Here, she adds more extensive evidence to her theory that the fabled murderer was a charismatic Victorian painter.
Thomas & Mercer
Top Holiday Reads 2016
Fiction
The Whistler
by John Grisham
The no. 1 best-selling author takes his talents to Florida in this dark thriller about the pursuit of a corrupt judge that could turn deadly.
Doubleday
Moonglow
by Michael Chabon
Inspired by his grandfather’s death, Chabon journeys from a deathbed confession to the Jewish slums of prewar Philadelphia to WWII Germany to New Yorks’ Wallkill Prison and beyond.
Harper
The Terranauts
by T.C. Boyle
A novel based on the failed Biosphere experiment of the 1990s, written by one of the most talented and interesting authors working today.
Ecco
Faithful
by Alice Hoffman
An accident leaves one young woman in a coma and another living with survivor’s guilt, as Hoffman weaves a tale about suffering, happiness, and finding one’s way in the world.
Simon & Schuster
Swing Time
by Zadie Smith
One of the most highly anticipated books of the season, spanning northwest London to West Africa, is a story of friendship, music, dance, and the stubbornness of roots.
Penguin Press
Nonfiction
Just Getting Started
by Tony Bennett
Even at 90 years old, the crooner possesses the gratitude to pay homage to the many remarkable people he has learned from in life — people like Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, and Fred Astaire.
Harper
The Glass Universe
by Dava Sobel
Subtitled “How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars,” this book uncovers the important scientific work performed by a group of remarkable women who were nearly forgotten.
Viking
Twenty-Six Seconds
by Alexandra Zapruder
The film lasts only 26 seconds, but when Abraham Zapruder captured JFK’s assassination, his key contribution to American culture also forever changed his family’s future.
Grand Central Publishing
Thank You for Being Late
by Thomas L. Friedman
The best-selling author of The World Is Flat offers his optimistic advice for how we can live in a world where change is accelerating at a break-neck pace.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Victoria: The Queen
by Julia Baird
Drawing on previously unpublished papers, this biography separates Victoria the woman from Victoria the myth, offering a brilliant perspective of a queen who ruled during one of the most fascinating eras in history.
Random House
Gifty
The Rolling Stones All the Songs
by Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon
More than 700 pages and 500 photographs chronicle the history of every song in the Rolling Stones’ catalogue.
Black Dog & Leventhal
The Art of Movement
by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory
A lavish collection of photographs of more than 70 dancers from top dance companies; for lovers of dance, movement, grace, and the human form.
Black Dog & Leventhal
A Year Between Friends 3191 Miles Apart
by Maria Alexandra Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes
Over a full year, two friends from opposite coasts share their daily love of the handmade, well-lived domestic life.
Abrams
What Good Cooks Know
by America’s Test Kitchen
Much more than just a book of recipes, this is the perfect gift for anyone who ever wished their kitchen came with an instruction manual.
Versace
by Donatella Versace
A stunning visual history of the famous fashion house, celebrating the years since Donatella Versace took over as creative artistic director in 1997.
Rizzoli