2024 Reading Challenge Crossover Books

Book Summary

Beginning in the 1980s and spanning 30 years, this story follows the lives of Sam and Sadie as they continue to reconnect at various points in their lives. Their first meet as children in the hospital – Sadie is visiting her sister, and Sam is recovering from a terrible car accident. They bond over their love of video games, and their instant friendship helps pull Sam out of his depression. But eventually, they have a falling out, and they don’t meet again until Sam’s junior year of college at Harvard (she is a student at MIT). He’s exiting a subway car when he sees Sadie across the platform.

This unexpected reunion soon begets an incredible collaboration as Sam and Sadie create a legendary video game before they’ve even graduated from college. They are young, brilliant, rich, and successful, but none of these characteristics can protect them from their creative ambitions, future betrayals, and inevitable failures.

Book Summary

Through the true story of a racehorse named Lexington, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks manages to weave a tale of spirit and injustice over 150 years of American history.

The book has three timelines. In 1850, you’ll meet an enslaved horse groomer, Jarrett, in Kentucky, who has a special bond with Lexington. There is also a young artist who paints images of the horse. When the Civil War erupts, the artist fights for the union and runs into the young groom and stallion again far from the track.

In 1954, a gallery owner on Martha’s Vineyard takes a special interest in a 19th-century equestrian old painting, even though the artist and provenance are unknown.

In 2019, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia and a Nigerian-American art historian unexpectedly connect through a common interest in the painting as they look for clues to the origin.

Book Summary

In 1912, Edwin, the teenage son of an earl, is exiled after an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He crosses the Atlantic by steamship and ends up in the beautiful Canadian wilderness. There, he’s shocked to hear and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal.

Two centuries later, Olive Llewellyn is visiting Earth her from her home on a second moon colony. She’s on a book tour promoting her pandemic novel, which includes a strange passage about a man playing his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal in a forest.

In a third timeline, Gasprey is a detective assigned to investigate an anomaly in the Canadian wilderness.

Book Summary

In 1846, the Mexican-American war began in the Río Grande Region as the United States tried to seize land along the river. Ximena Salomé is a gifted Mexican healer who dreams of building a family with the man she loves on the coveted land she calls home. However, the Texas Rangers killed her husband after invading their ranch. In order to honor her husband and country, Ximena volunteers as a nurse on the front lines.

John Riley is Irish, but in the Yankee army with a hope of helping his family escape the famine back home. However, he soon becomes upset at the atrocities committed by his officers. Instead of fighting for them, he boldly swims across the Río Grande and forms St. Patrick’s Battalion, a band of Irish soldiers willing to fight to the death for México’s freedom.

It’s here that he meets Ximena, and their passion for each other matches their passion for changing history. These events and characters are based on a true story that still impacts the US-México border today.

Book Summary

Catalina “Cat” Capuleta is an ambitious singer living in San Antonio. When she is given the opportunity to join superstar heartthrob Patricio Galán on his seven-week Mariachi concert tour, she knows it’s the chance of a lifetime. Patricio might be a superstar heartthrob, but he also turns out to be demanding and arrogant. He challenges Cat at every turn, but she’s determined to make him feel he’s met his match.

Cat is also determined not to fall for him because her one and only goal is her own success so she can make her family proud. But when the duo hit the road, the chemistry is undeniable – even the audiences can feel it.

Book Summary

This split timeline tells the story of two people, a century apart, connected by one lighthouse. In 1913, 83-year-old Silvestre petitioned to have his Newfoundland lighthouse, Swan Light, moved from its precarious cliff edge. But the town patriarch, Cort, doesn’t seem to understand the importance.

In 2014, marine archaeologist Mari is saving money to fund her hunt for a missing ship – the SS Californian. She’s hired to find the remains of Swan Light, which was rumored to have collapsed into the sea 100 years ago. She teams up with salvager Julian, and they find more than they bargained for. Past and present collide as they uncover secrets from the ocean floor.

Book Summary

While this book takes place on September 11, 2001 and the following days, it’s not the constantly devastating story you would expect. Instead, this heartwarming book recounts the experiences of countless passengers from some of the 38 planes that were unexpectedly diverted to Newfoundland – an island in Canada’s easternmost province – when US airspace was closed on 9/11. On that day, the small town of Gander, with a population of just 10,000, received more than 6,600 passengers from 92 countries. Ganderites, along with residents of the surrounding towns, opened the doors to the local churches, schools, and even their own homes.

Throughout this book, you’ll not only learn the personal stories of the passengers, but you’ll also learn a lot about life on this tiny, remote island and about the unexpected hosts who welcomed strangers from around the world with open arms and generous hearts.

Book Summary

Greenwood is a multi-generational saga, following one family from 1934-2038. However, the book works backward, first introducing you to Jake, an eco-tour guide in one of the world’s last remaining forests in 2038.

Then you’ll meet Liam, a carpenter in 2008, followed by Willow in 1974 as she attempts to make up for the sins of her father and his timber empire. Finally, you’ll be all the way back to 1934, when Everett Greenwood spent his days alone with the trees and their maple syrup. One day, he hears the cries of an abandoned baby in the forest. His life and the life of the following generations are forever changed.

Timber and the environment tie the family together through changing generations.

Book Summary

In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women are often on their own as the men leave looking for other work. However, the setting is also surrounded by the drug war, which is even more dangerous than the terrain and abundant poisonous creatures. As a result, resourceful mothers learn to hide the beauty of their daughters as a form of protection – disguising them as boys or making them unattractive in other ways. 

Ladydi is one of these daughters, and you’ll quickly fall in love with her fierce intelligence and willingness to make the best of the circumstances in which she was born. When she’s offered a chance to leave Guerrero to become a nanny for a wealthy American family in Acapulco, she jumps at the opportunity to make a better and safer life for herself. However, the cartel still looms and impacts her life in unexpected ways. 

Book Summary

This novel traces the history of Colorado’s Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, and also explores how the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was impacted by a traumatic event involving Orvil Red Feather in Tommy Orange’s acclaimed There There.

In the 19th century, Star is a survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre who is brought to the Fort Marion Prison Castle under the evangelical guard of Richard Henry Platt. Platt would go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, founded with the intent to eradicate Native history and culture. A generation after the Massacre, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school where he is brutalized by Platt.

In Oakland in 2018, Opal is trying to hold her family together after her nephew Orvil’s near-death experience. Beginning during his recovery in the hospital, Orvil becomes obsessed with researching similar incidents online, all the while becoming dependant on prescription medication. His younger brother, Lonny, has PTSD from the event.

Book Summary

Cara assumed she’d have her factory job forever, but in the midst of the 2008 Great Recession, she’s laid off. Now in her mid-50s, Cara finds herself back in the job market for the first time in decades. When she’s set up with a job counselor, she ends up sharing her life story instead of her career ambitions.

Cara’s story is told in over twelve sessions, from love affairs and financial strain to her difficult relationship with her son. Full of heart and humor, you’ll fall in love with this character amid her tales of life’s ups and downs.

Book Summary

It’s Nana’s 80th birthday, and her party will be in her crumbling gothic family home, which is on a tiny, isolated island. Daisy has been avoiding her family members for years but agrees to attend the gathering to celebrate Nana.

At midnight, Nana is killed, followed by another family member an hour later. They’re all trapped together until the tide comes in, and it’s time to reconcile past secrets with the present danger before it’s too late.

Book Summary

This non-fiction book is part memoir and part literary true crime. It takes us deep inside the landmark sexual assault investigation into the University of Colorado football program through the eyes of the private investigator who helped crack the case open.

When Erika Krouse was assigned to investigate the sexual assault of a college student who was attacked by football players and recruits at a party the year before, she knows she should turn the case down because her own personal experience with sexual violence makes it feel too personal… but that’s exactly why she takes the job. Over the next five years, as the investigation grew into a national scandal and historic civil rights case, she had to struggle to win the case without losing herself too deep into it.

Book Summary

What began as a terrible vacation for Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Diana Marcum turned into a quest to learn more. When Diana inadvertently came upon a wildlife sanctuary supported by an international live butterfly trade, she was eager to learn more about this first-of-its-kind farm.

Soon, her vacation turned into an extended stay as she and her new partner, Jack, moved into a long-empty jungle house in Belize. Diana becomes acquainted with Clive, a whimsical British millionaire who created an industry of his childhood passion, and Sebastian, the Maya farm manager.

While Diana was chasing blue butterflies, Mayan secrets, and happily ever after in Belize, she couldn’t have expected that just ahead, she’d also face a hurricane and global pandemic.

Book Summary

Margot and Anthony were leading lives filled with stresses that would sound familiar to many parents – long hours at work, carpooling, overscheduled kids, and concerns about money. One day in 2003, Margot impulsively suggested the family move to Costa Rica, and a short seven weeks later, they were jobless on top of a remote mountain.

In this witty memoir, Margot provides insight into her family’s struggle to get back on track in a new life. She shares insights on parenting and privilege, loneliness, and connection. Along the way, she discovers that even when everything changes, some things still remain the same.

Book Summary

At the beginning of this novel, written by an Afghan author, ten-year-old Sitara has a great life. It’s 1978, and Sitara’s father has an important job as the right-hand man of the country’s progressive President, Sardar Daoud.

Her privileged world is shattered when she’s the lone survivor of her family after a coup. After being smuggled out of the palace, Sitara finds safety with an American diplomat, who later adopts her.

Thirty years later, she’s become a successful surgeon in America. However, her past comes racing back when she sees a new elderly patient, Shair, who was the soldier who saved her during the coup. However, Shair may have also been responsible for the deaths of her family. Her desire for past answers is rekindled after decades of a successful life.

Book Summary

Soraya is a 21-year-old British-Iranian woman who has just graduated from university. She’s ready for her first job and catching up on life experiences she has missed due to her cultural upbringing – life her first kiss. Rugby player Magnus seems like just the person for the job. He is quintessentially British and so different from the type of person she is expected to marry that it seems like she can enjoy a harmless kiss with no risk of falling for him.

Soraya’s story is counter-balanced with flashbacks to her mother’s life growing up in 1970s Tehran, Iran, before it was radicalized. You’ll see her struggles and how she ended up leaving Iran, along with how her background impacted the decisions she made raising her own daughters.

Book Summary

This novel is set in war-torn 1979 Kurdistan, a province in northern Iraq that is now an autonomous region. The main character, Olivia, is a secretary for an LA newspaper but dreams of being a photojournalist. So when her Kurdish boyfriend is invited home to a wedding, she agrees to join him and hopes to take photos that will get her recognized at work. Plus, it’s an excellent opportunity to understand her boyfriend’s past.

However, when they arrive, they realize the trip will be more dangerous than they anticipated. The town is now under curfew and patrolled by the armed Iraqi military. When Olivia photographs a tragic event, it may pull her relationship apart.

Despite the region being torn apart by war, the book is a beautiful look at the lush landscapes and culture of Kurdistan. You’ll also find a balance of destruction and hope in this descriptive romance.

Book Summary

This dual-timeline novel takes readers back in time, first to the 1950s and then to 1995. During the 50s, thousands of Yemeni Jews immigrated to then newly-founded Israel hoping to find a better life there. In an overcrowded immigrant camp, a shy young man named Yaqub falls in love with a beautiful young girl named Saida after first encountering her singing by the river. But Saida is married with a child, so their love was not meant to be.

Three decades later, Saida’s daughter, Zohara, is now a 30-something. Growing up in Israel, Zohara always wished that her skin was lighter, that her mother’s Yemeni music was quieter, and that her father was still alive. Zohara now lives in New York City, where life feels much less complicated to her. She hasn’t been back home in a long time and has little contact with her mother or sister. But when her sister, Lizzie, calls to tell her their mom has died, Zohara buys a one-way plane ticket to Israel.

Once back home, she begins down a path that will reveal things she never knew about her mother, and will cause her to question both her own heritage and her own future.

Book Summary

Author Sabeeha Rehman grew up in Pakistan and married her husband, a Pakistani doctor, via an arranged marriage. Together they raised their sons in New York, where Sabeeha attended grad school and received a Masters in Health Administration. After working as a hospital executive in New Jersey, Sabeeha and her oncologist husband, relocated to Saudi Arabia. They originally planned to live in Riyadh, the most conservative city in the country, for just two years- but they ended up staying for six. 

When Sabeeha is offered a position at Riyadh’s most prestigious hospital, she’s first required to get permission from her husband to work. Then she has to quickly familiarize herself with local laws and customs. Women in the city cannot work in public places, yet they do hold positions of authority within corporate culture. Sabeeha also discovers many women-owned-and-operated businesses flourishing outside of Riyadh. 

Sabeeha provides insights into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” boundaries in which Saudi and Western expat cultures coexist. As well as how to discern the difference between what is considered “culturally appropriate” versus what is legally required.

Book Summary

This debut novel was written by a Palestinian-American poet and covers three generations of the same Palestinian family. It begins as the family is uprooted after the Six Day War of 1967. The main character, Alia, moves to Kuwait City and builds a new life with her husband and three children until Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait in 1990. Then, the family must again flee, this time being spread apart to Beirut, Paris, and Boston. 

As Alia’s grandchildren are born, each part of the family navigates the burdens and blessings of assimilation in new cities. 

Book Summary

Author Khalid Hosseini is most known for his best-selling novel, The Kite Runner, which would also be a great pick this month. However, we chose one of his other works, A Thousand Splendid Suns, for the list because it spans the three decades in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion, and the Taliban’s reign, to post-Taliban rebuilding. 

The emotional book follows two generations of brave women, Mariam and Laila, brought together by war. It explores the universal desire to find happiness and raise a family, even when tragic circumstances are happening all around you. It does a beautiful job of humanizing the real people living in a country that has undergone dramatic changes in lifestyle due to the changing government. So grab the tissues and prepare for tears, horror, and a sprinkling of hope. 

Book Summary

The main character, Leila, is a young Kurdish woman living in Iran. She dreams of telling the untold stories of her people, the 40 million stateless Kurds, via filmmaking. Her younger brother, Chia, pursues activism differently, and his involvement in politics and social justice has been growing. Then, one day, he disappears from Tehran.

Leila fears the worst and makes it her mission to save him. However, her attempts at finding him begin to endanger her own life. Throughout this fictional modern-day story, you’ll find yourself immersed in the everyday life of the Kurds while learning about Kurdish history from the 1970s to the present.

Book Summary

Translated from the original Hebrew, About the Night is a love story that begins in the 1940s. Elias is a Christian Arab living on the eastern side of the newly divided city, and Lila is a Jew living on the western side. Despite their deep love for each other, they’re separated by a physical wall and by distrust between their regions. Sadly, from 1948 until the end of the 1967 Six-Day War, which reunited Jerusalem, Elias and Lila couldn’t communicate at all. 

This slow-burning book is told from the perspective of Elias from his sick bed in 2006 as he reflects on his life and choices. It’s fiction but loosely based on the story of the Israeli author’s family friend. 

Book Summary

The night before Oona’s 19th birthday, on New Year’s Eve 1982, she’s struggling with a big decision. Should she go all-in on her commitment to her band and boyfriend or follow through with a long-time plan to study economics in London with her best friend?

Before she can go down either path, she wakes up on New Year’s Day. Except she’s now in the year 2014. Instead of being 19, Oona is suddenly 51. She continues to live her life out of order, traveling backward or forward each New Year, but never knowing what age she’ll be when she wakes up.

Book Summary

This atmospheric, dual-timeline thriller, with a side of the paranormal, is a perfect pick for fans of the suspense and horror genres.

In 1982, 20-year-old Viv worked as a night clerk at the Sun Down Motel. She was hoping to save enough money for a move to NYC, but something isn’t right at the hotel, and she’s determined to find out what it is.

In 2017, 20-year-old Carly grew up hearing the story of her aunt Viv’s disappearance from the Sun Down Motel thirty-five years before. When she visits the motel, she soon finds herself entangled in the mystery of the haunted motel.

Book Summary

This coming-of-age memoir opens in 1975 with the fall of Saigon when five-year-old Phuc Tran’s family immigrated to a small town in Pennsylvania. Most of the book, however, covers Phuc’s older childhood/teen years throughout the 1980s.

Part immigrant story and part coming-of-age tale, this book is described as a misfit’s memoir of great books, punk rock, and the fight to fit in. It is all of that and much more.

Book Summary

Naomi May never expected to be widowed at the young age of twenty. When she sets off with her family on the Overland Trail, she hopes it will be a chance to leave her grief behind. Along the trail, she forms a connection with a half-Pawnee man named John Lowry. John straddles two worlds, but feels like a stranger in both. Even as John and Naomi are drawn together, their pasts, and the trials of life on the wagon train, work to keep them apart. 

John’s heritage allows them to gain passage through hostile territory, but it also comes between their desire to build a life together. When a terrible tragedy strikes, both will have to make incredible sacrifices to save each other.

Book Summary

When 30-year-old Dean Nicholson left Scotland with a plan to cycle around the world, he had no idea his journey would include adopting a kitten that would make them both internet-famous. Three months into his journey, on a remote mountain road between Montenegro and Bosnia, he found an abandoned kitten. He picked her up and got her to a local vet before setting off on the rest of his trek with his new friend, Nala.

The video of Dean and Nala’s meeting now has had 20 million views. As Nala rode on the bicycle with Dean, the duo experienced the kindness of strangers, visited refugee camps, and rescued animals throughout Europe and Asia.

Book Summary

Twelve-year-old Clover Blue isn’t sure of his birthday, who is parents are, or what his name used to be. He does know that he’s happy living among the Saffron Freedom Community – the commune into which he was adopted. On the commune, everyone is family, but when Clover (urged on by his funny best friend, Harmony) begins to ask questions, his search for identity will bring upheaval to the community.

This novel will introduce you to a unique group of characters who paint a portrait of the decade. They include the commune’s guru, a Grateful Dead groupie, a Vietnam deserter, a surfer, and even a midwife, just to name a few.

Book Summary

Naoko is a seventeen-year-old girl in 1957 Japan whose family has prearranged a marriage for her that will secure their family’s status. But Naoko wants to marry for love, and she’s fallen for an American sailor. When her family finds out that she is pregnant with the sailor’s child, she is cast out in disgrace and forced to make an unimaginable choice.

In present-day America, Tori finds a letter that contains a shocking revelation. In her quest to learn the truth, she travels to a remote seaside village in Japan.

Drawing upon the experiences of the author’s father, this historical fiction is based on the true stories of a little-known era in Japanese and American history. Although this is a dual-timeline novel, the historical story takes center stage.

Book Summary

Kimi is a high school student who aspires to attend art school. Her mother is a well-known painter who wants Kimi to follow in her fine art footsteps, but Kimi has become much more drawn to fashion design – a field that her mother strongly disapproves of.

After an explosive fight with her mom, Kimi receives a letter from her estranged Japanese grandparents inviting her to visit them in Kyoto for spring break. Even though she’s never met them, she sees it as the perfect opportunity to escape her troubles at home.

When she arrives in Japan, the cultural customs and language and completely familiar to her – as are her grandparents. Soon she discovers that inspiration is everywhere – from Kyoto’s outdoor markets, art installations, and the cherry blossom festival. She meets a young man named Akira – an aspiring med student – who helps to show her even more of the city.

As the week goes on, Kimi gets to know her grandparents and learns so much more about both her mother back in America, herself, and her art.

Book Summary

Korea’s Jeju Island has a fascinating real-life history of female deep-sea free divers called Haenyeo, who collect seaweed, clams, and abalone. Inspired by this history, this novel tells the story of Mi-ja and Young-sook – two best friends from very different backgrounds despite both growing up on Jeju island. As soon as they are old enough, they take their place as “baby divers” in the village’s all-female diving operation, led by Young-sook’s mom. This is the beginning of a life of excitement and responsibility for the two friends but also a life filled with danger.

The Island of Sea Women takes place over many decades, beginning in the 1930s, throughout WWII and the Korean War, and all the way up to the era of cell phones.

Over the years, the residents of Jeju are caught between warring empires, which often makes it difficult for Mi-ja and Young-soon to ignore their differences – especially when Mi-ja’s father becomes a Japanese collaborator. As the years go on, forces beyond their control will drive their friendship to a breaking point.

Book Summary

Do you enjoy offbeat travel memoirs and dry British wit? Stans by me will take you along author Ged Gillmore’s trip through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

He documents the landscapes and ancient traditions he encounters at each stop along the way. You’ll feel like you’ve visited Central Asia by the time you’re done reading, and may even add one or more of his destinations to your bucket list.

His travel companions from his bus tour are fascinating characters on their own and add another level to his stories.

Book Summary

When Tang Yitian’s mother calls him frantically saying that his father has disappeared, he returns to his family’s rural China village for the first time in ten years. The family has been estranged during his decade in America, making it difficult for Yitian to understand what has happened. 

The search is complicated by his mother’s evasiveness and China’s impenetrable bureaucracy. His only hope is to reconnect with a childhood friend, Tian Hanwen. The friends dreamt of attending university together, but while Yitian ended up a professor in America, Hanwen was left behind and resigned to live as a midlevel bureaucrat’s wealthy housewife.

Now adults, the duo must figure out who Yitian’s father really was. Their search spans rural provinces and big cities, providing an up-close look at much of 20th-century China.

Book Summary

Born with ocular albinism, Sam Hill is a young boy whose rare red eyes cause problems from the moment his mother enrolls him at the Our Lady of Mercy school. 

Labeled “Hell Boy,” he is bullied not only by his classmates but also given a hard time by the nun who is the principal at his elementary school. Eventually, Sam finds the new best friend he desperately needs in Ernie Cantwell, the only African American boy in his class, and years later in a fiercely individual girl named Mickie.

As an adult, Sam is a respected ophthalmologist moving through life with Ernie and Mickie still by his side. His world is about to be upturned when he’s unexpectedly reunited with the biggest schoolyard bully from his past.

Book Summary

Young Kya, who was left to fend for herself in the North Carolina marsh in the 1950s, will steal your heart from the beginning.

Locals know Kya as the “Marsh Girl.” She lives away from other humans and has only attended one day of school, but finds companions in nature all around her. While traditional school was not a good fit, she is always eager to learn. Eventually, she finds a friend who agrees to help her read.

The book has a split timeline between Kya’s formative years in the 1950s and an incident in 1969. A handsome boy from town is found dead, and the locals immediately suspect Kya.

Book Summary

This suspenseful saga is set both during the war and in present-day Việt Nam. Trang and Quỳnh are sisters from a rural village, and like many in the region, their parents are struggling to survive. In 1969, the daughters take the desperate step of becoming “bar girls” in Sài Gòn, drinking, flirting (and more) with American GIs in return for money.

Trang becomes involved with a charming helicopter pilot named Dan. Decades later, we’ll see Dan return to Việt Nam with his wife in an attempt to heal from his PTSD and reckon with secrets from his past.

Also, in the present day, we’ll meet Phong as he tries to find his parents, a Black American soldier, and a Vietnamese woman. He was abandoned at an orphanage as a baby, and grew up being called names because he was a “child of the enemy”. He dreams of finding a way to America in hopes of a better life for his family.

Book Summary

Kerala, on India’s southern coast, is a slender, coastal state with almost 373 miles of Arabian Sea coast and beaches. Being surrounded by water makes this a popular tourist destination. But for the family at the heart of this novel, being surrounded by water has plagued three generations. In every generation, at least one person dies by drowning.

This new literary fiction epic is a tale of love, faith, and medicine in which the family is seeking answers to this strange secret. The family is part of a Christian community that traces itself to the time of the apostles, but times are shifting, and the matriarch of this family, known as Big Ammachi—literally “Big Mother”—will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life.

Book Summary

In this family saga, Shahryar is on a work visa in the United States. Soon, he will be forced to return to Bangladesh without his young American daughter. As he tries to cherish his final weeks with her, he also ponders his family history and how it intertwines with his home country. 

A large cast of major and minor characters are woven together in this novel to cover the history of Bangladesh, from WW2 Burma to the present day. The storylines include the Partition of India in 1947, the 1970 Bhola Cyclone and Bangladesh becoming an independent country in 1972. 

While these stories covers history, you’ll also his Shahryar’s struggles as a modern-day immigrant in Washington DC.

Book Summary

Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a 21-year-old nursing student who has been raised by her conservative parents to always do “the right thing.” But when her brother ships out for Vietnam in 1965, she begins to change her views of right and wrong. Frankie impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows her brother to Vietnam. As she tends to the green and inexperienced young men who have been sent to fight the war, she is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction. Returning home to a changed America doesn’t prove to be any easier.

While The Women is the story of Frankie going to war, it also shines a light on the story of all women who risk everything to help others. The publisher describes this book as “a novel of searing insight and lyrical beauty” that is “profoundly emotional” and “richly drawn.”

Through the story of Frankie’s family, we see the devastation of those who lost their sons, brothers, and other loved ones in Vietnam. But we also get a glimpse of what it was like on the ground in a war that was very complicated and blurred lines. We see how the country treated these soldiers and nurses differently, even though they were doing their sworn duty for the country, just like those before them.

Book Summary

This coming-of-age story is about three different 18-year-old men growing up in 3 different time periods. 

William was 18 in 1967 when he went to Vietnam as a Marine. Vincent is 18 in 1979 when he meets William, working on a construction crew, and hears William’s stories of his war-time experience. 

The third young man is Vincent’s son, Beau, who has had an easier life than the first two men. He was 18 in 2015 when Vincent received William’s old Vietnam journal in the mail as a thank you for listening to his stories years ago. It was written while he was a Marine and facing things that no one, much less a teenager, should have to encounter. 

The three stories are woven together in a beautiful way that many are calling a must-read for everyone, despite the grim nature of William’s combat experiences. 

Book Summary

As kids, Prany and his sister Noi, along with their friend Alisak, were three of the hundreds of thousands impacted by the nine years of bombing in Laos as The CIA, with the Royal Lao Government, fought the Communist Pathet Lao. When the kids take shelter in a bombed out field hospital, they meet Vang, a doctor dedicated to helping the wounded at all costs.

They begin working as motorcycle couriers, navigating both unexploded bombs that litter the land and the endless barrage from the sky until Vang secures their evacuation on the last helicopters leaving the country.

This evacuation sets them on disparate and treacherous paths across the world. The novel follows the trios for decades, giving us a glimpse into the long-lasting effects of growing up in 1960s Laos.

Book Summary

Ah Boon is growing up in the last days of British rule in Singapore. He lives in a small fishing village but would rather play with the girl next door, Siok Mei, than go fishing. Despite his disinterest in fishing, he discovers that he has an uncanny ability to locate uncharted islands, which are rich with fish. 

By the time Ah Boon and Siok Mei are teenagers, the Japanese army has arrived and occupied Singapore as part of WW2. This coming-of-age story is set against the backdrop of Singapore’s legacy of British colonialism, the World War II Japanese occupation, and the pursuit of modernity. Readers say the beautiful writing transports you to a different time and place and includes a hint of magical realism to emphasize the human-land connection.

Book Summary

In this memoir, Chick Donohue, a Vietnam vet, recounts the craziest of his many adventures. It all began on a night in 1967 when 26-year-old Chick was at a bar in NYC with his buddies. Each of them had lost loved ones in Vietnam, and they were disheartened to see anti-war protesters turning on the troops.

One of the guys came up with a crazy idea – someone should sneak into Vietnam and track down their buddies still serving there to bring them messages of support, and – of course – a beer. It would be the Greatest Beer Run Ever.

It’s likely none of them meant for the idea to be taken seriously, but nonetheless, Chick volunteered. A day later he was on a cargo ship headed back to Vietnam during the height of combat with a backpack full of alcohol. 

What would follow was his own personal Odyssey – a serviceman turned civilian searching for his childhood friends in Vietnam. Chick’s story is filled with lots of hilarious escapades and harrowing close calls – including the Tet Offensive. 

This memoir has been described as a “hilarious quest laced with sorrow, but never dull.”

Book Summary

Seven-year-old Raami lived in a carefully guarded world of royal privilege until her father brought home news about the civil war raging in the streets of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. 

Over the next four years, Raami endures starvation, forced labor, and survives the genocide that killed more than ¼ of the population of the country, including many of her family members. Throughout it all, she finds comfort only in the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father.

Book Summary

In the 1920s, Lakshmi enjoyed a carefree childhood among the coconut and mango trees of Ceylon (which later became a part of Sri Lanka). But at the age of 14, she was sent across the ocean to Malaysia and forced into a marriage with a much older man. Lakshmi was promised a life of riches and luxury, but instead, they struggle to get by as Lakshmi gives birth to six children by the age of 19. 

Throughout her life, Lakshmi endures incredible hardship and suffering, but draws upon her incredible strength to face each new challenge. This includes finding a way to keep her daughters safe during the Japanese occupation of WWII.

Rich with traditional folklore, Eastern magic, Indian celebrations, and Malaysian cuisine – this long novel spans 85 years and four generations as it tells one family’s saga. Although Lakshmi (the “Rice Mother”) is the main character of this story, each chapter is narrated by a different member of the family. This provides readers with different perspectives on various events, creating even greater depth and layering to the story, while maintaining a consistent plot from beginning to end.

Book Summary

Evelyn Hugo lived a glamorous and scandalous life, but doesn’t like to talk about it and has become reclusive after leaving her career. When the movie icon is finally ready to talk about her time in show business, she picks an unknown reporter to log her personal history, but why?

You’ll slowly unwrap Evelyn’s life from the 1950s – 1980s as she chronicles her past life and relationships, including the seven husbands she had along the way. As the book covers so much of her life, it moves quickly and will keep you engaged and entertained for hours.

Book Summary

Five female office colleagues are reluctantly on a corporate retreat that is supposed to encourage teamwork and resilience. They all head out on the muddy track through the rugged Giralang Ranges together, but only four come out on the other side of the trail.

Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk arrives to investigate the disappearance of Alice, who knew secrets about her company and co-workers. As he learns more about the days spent in the remote Australian bushland, he discovers stories of fear, violence, and fractured trust.

Book Summary

This Canadian novel opens in 1950s Quebec, where tensions run high between the French and English. When 15-year-old Maggie’s parents find out that she’s pregnant and the father is a poor French boy, they force her to give her baby girl, Elodie, up for adoption.

As the years go by, we follow the lives of both the mother and daughter. Elodie is a bright and determined young girl growing up in Quebec’s impoverished orphanage system. But when a law is enacted that provides more funding to psychiatric hospitals than to orphanages, Elodie and thousands of other orphans are declared mentally ill. Elodie withstands terrible treatment until she is finally able to gain her freedom at age seventeen.

Maggie marries and is eager to start a family, but she never forgets the daughter that she was forced to give up. Through the years, the lives of the mother and daughter continue to circle around one another, never quite intersecting. Until finally, Maggie decides to go in search of her long-lost daughter.

Book Summary

In 1808, Rose loves working with her naturalist father on his groundbreaking study of the platypus. When he is unable to travel to present his findings to the Royal Society in England, Rose goes in his place. What she discovers will change generations.

In 1908, Tamsin needs to travel to the Hunter Valley to get an old sketchbook donated to the public library. When she arrives, she discovers that there is more to the sketchbook than she expected. Shaw, a young bookseller and lawyer, has his own ideas about the book, and Tasmin partners with him to try and uncover the book’s true provenance.

Book Summary

This novel tells the story of four different women who meet at the Bonegilla Migrant Camp in 1954.

Hungarian Elizabeta has just arrived from with her family after escaping post-war Germany. At the migrant camp, she befriends Vasiliki from Greece and Iliana from Italy, as well as Frances, the adventurous daughter of the camp’s director.

Together, the “Bonegilla Girls” envision a brighter future in Australia. But when a ghost from Elizabeta’s past threatens to her path forward, her friends are willing to do anything to keep her safe.

Book Summary

On Christmas Eve sixty years ago, a delivery man makes a gruesome discovery that forever changes the small town of Tambilla. In the present day, Jess is a journalist in London when she gets a call to return home to Australia to help with her grandmother, Nora. Nora was more like a mother to Jess, after Jess’s mother, Polly, left her with Nora and moved to Brisbane when Jess was only 10. 

Nora fell in her attic while searching for something, and now she is mumbling about an event in her past in a way that is difficult to understand. As Jess tries to piece things together, she learns that Nora was agitated and restless even before the fall. She knows something is going on, and is determined to figure it out. As she searches the house for clues, she finds a true crime book about the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve. But what does this cold case have to do with her family?

Book Summary

Cyril Avery was born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community before being adopted by a well-off couple from Dublin. His adoptive parents tell him that he’ll never be a real Avery, but if that’s true, than who is he?

As a boy, he becomes friends with Julian, but this is complicated when Cyril realizes he loves Julian as more than a friend. Keeping this secret comes with great costs.

Over the course of 70 years, Cyril struggles to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more. Through his eyes, readers also see the history of Ireland and LGBTQ rights from the 1940s to the 2010s.

Book Summary

When you think of maritime disasters, the Titanic is probably the first that comes to mind. But the deadliest disaster at sea occurred in 1945 when a Soviet submarine sunk the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner, in the Baltic Sea.

As WWII drew to a close and the Red Army advanced on Germany, a massive evacuation effort began to ferry civilians, soldiers, and equipment to safety. The Wilhelm Gustloff, which had a capacity of 1,800, was packed with more than 10,500 passengers. More than 9,000 people lost their lives when the ship sank, including 5,000 infants and children.

This historical fiction YA novel, tells the stories of four passengers – 21-year-old Joana, who is fleeing her native country of Lithuania; Florian, an artist from East Prussia; 15-year-old Emilia from Poland, who is pregnant; and Alfred, a pompous 17-year-old German soldier.

When tragedy strikes, each of them – regardless of country, culture, or status – must fight for their survival.

Book Summary

Lilac Girls crosses three continents and follows three women whose lives are on a collision course. 

Caroline is a New York socialite working at the French consulate, Kasia is a Polish teenager and a courier for the underground resistance movement, and Herta is an ambitious young German doctor who finds herself trapped in a male-dominated world of Nazi secrets and power.

The book alternates between the three stories, each providing thought-provoking insights into uniquely difficult situations as the war progressed.

Book Summary

Inspired by the author’s own family history, this novel is a tragic love story. Alina and Tomasz were best friends who planned to marry. But when their village falls to the Nazis, Alina doesn’t know if Tomasz is alive or dead. 

Decades later, Alice is struggling to support her son, who was born with an autism spectrum disorder. When her grandmother is hospitalized, she begs Alice to return to Poland to see what became of those she loved. Alice travels to Poland and begins to uncover her grandmother’s story.

Book Summary

This dual-timeline historical fiction novel is told from alternating points of two female spies.

Ingrid Bauer lost her entire family in World War II. A decade later, she agrees to a hasty marriage to a Soviet embassy worker and moves with him to Moscow in the 1950s. Despite his gentle demeanor, Ingrid comes to suspect that her new husband, in fact, works for the KGB. After her daughter is born, Ingrid risks everything when she begins passing along intelligence to Britain, her mother’s home country.

In 1980, Anya Kadinova is set to return to Moscow after finishing her degree at Georgetown University. Despite being raised by loyal Soviet parents, Anya has gained much respect for the US after taking part in the Foreign Studies Initiative. Upon returning home at the height of the Cold War, she witnesses the increasingly oppressive Soviet regime. After the KGB murders her best friend, Anya contacts the CIA and begins passing along intelligence that she gains from working in a military research lab.

As the novel progresses, Ingrid’s storyline catches up to Anya’s where an unprecedented act of treachery will threaten all undercover agents in the Soviet Union.

Book Summary

Wealthy aristocrat Eva is engaged to a doctor and spending her last single summer at her family’s estate in Sopron. However, she meets a Romani fiddler and artist, Aleandrao, and they quickly fall in love despite the differences in class that make them look incompatible to outsiders.

The outbreak of war separates Eva and Aleandro, but their chance meeting that summer leads to decisions that change their individual futures.

Book Summary

In Warsaw, Zofia depends on books and her best friend, Janina, to endure the horrors of the Nazi occupation of Poland. However, as bombing increases, even books are endangered. Zofia begins hiding books away, and even starts an underground book club. When Janina is forced into a newly established ghetto, she still doesn’t give up her love of reading.

However, as the war continues, Zofia and Janina’s activities put them at risk. Can they save both Janina and the literature that has brought them so much comfort?

Book Summary

In 1941, Romania was newly allied with the German army, and the Jewish population was in grave danger of persecution. One freezing night, a young Jewish girl’s parents are forced to leave her behind, and she is found on the steps of an apartment building in Bucharest.

The girl is placed in an orphanage and eventually adopted by a wealthy couple that renames her Natalia. She comes of age in Romania under Soviet occupation, where life behind the Iron Curtain feels bleak and hopeless.

When Natalia is in her early twenties and working at a warehouse packing fruit, she is reunited with Victor, who she had a secret crush on in her younger years. He is now an important official in the Communist regime, and the two are fatefully drawn into a passionate affair despite the obstacles swirling around them and Victor’s dark secrets. When Natalia is suddenly offered a one-time chance at freedom, Victor is determined to help her escape, even if it means losing her. She must make an agonizing decision: remain in Bucharest with her beloved adoptive parents and the man she has come to love, or seize the chance to live life on her own terms.

Book Summary

This historical fiction novel is based on the true story of Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko, a Ukrainian sniper who fought against the Nazis during WWII. The novel follows Mila’s journey from a young woman studying history in Kyiv to a decorated war hero known as “Lady Death.”

In the late 1930s, Mila is a 24-year-old student and library worker living in Kyiv. She is intelligent, independent, and fiercely patriotic. When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, she joined the Red Army. Mila quickly proves to be a natural sniper.

This novel is told in two timelines – the first being Mila’s time on the battlefield. The second timeline follows Mila’s press tour in Washington DC.

When news of her 300th kill makes her a national hero, she is sent to the United States on a 1942 goodwill tour. In the US, she pleads for the US to send weapons and troops to Europe to help stop the Germans. She also forms an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Throughout the novel, in addition to Mila’s perspective, we also see short notes from Eleanor Roosevelt and chapters from the point of view of an unnamed marksman who has been tasked with assassinating Franklin Roosevelt and framing Mila for the murder.

Book Summary

Sisters Meredith and Nina have little in common other than their love for their dear father. They’ve spent most of their life feeling like they didn’t really know their mother, but when their father falls ill, his final wish is for his daughters to get to know their mother better. In their younger years, Anya sometimes tells the girls a Russian fairy tale, and their father makes her promise that she will tell the story one last time – all the way to the end.

The story alternates between past and present as Meredith and Nina hear the fairy tale and learn the harrowing story of the mother’s life five decades earlier in war-torn Leningrad, Russia. They will ultimately learn something so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

Why Our Readers Love This Book…
This tugged at my mama heart strings. You do the best you can, but inevitably make mistakes along the way. The characters were so real. I’m not a huge mystery fan, but this felt like a mystery in disguise, and I loved trying to figure it out as I read. -Kristin R.

This memorable and well-told story evokes strong emotions and reminds readers that the pain of war is a burden suffered by people on both sides; there truly are no winners.

I was drawn in by reading about the life experiences of a survivor as a means to understand her present-day life. We, as outsiders, can never judge a person by who he/she is today without understanding the past. – Tammy W.

It seemed to be a very human story, a story that explains some of why we do what we do. I read it years ago when the split narrative wasn’t quite so popular, and I enjoyed being presented with the present day and a time long ago. -Nancy F.

Notable Awards for Winter Garden:
2010 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction

Book Summary

In 1944, Ukrainians faced invaders on multiple fronts as Hilter and Stalin had both pushed into their country. The Last Green Valley tells the story of one family with a common dilemma in their region. The Martel’s had a strong German heritage, but their families had been farming in Ukraine for more than a century.

Like many others, they had a choice. Do they trust that their German blood will protect them and go with the German troops despite not agreeing with the Third Reich agenda? Or stay and risk being sent to Siberian work camps by Russia?

Book Summary

When the author was ten years old, his homeland of Poland was invaded, and his family was forced to move to a Krakow ghetto. Daily life required perseverance for survival in unbelievably cruel conditions. Eventually, his life was saved by the incredibly generous and brave actions of Oskar Shindler.

Book Summary

Few names are as synonymous with chic glamour as Coco Chanel. However, all your opinions of the woman who created the classic little black dress could change after reading this historical fiction account of her entire life.

From her humble beginnings as an orphan to her determination to keep her atelier afloat during WW2, this book details the decisions that led to her lasting name recognition. 

Book Summary

The Nightingale tells the story of French sisters Vianne and Isabelle, who have always been at odds. Vianne is a rule-follower, and Isabelle is more rebellious and willing to speak her mind. With WWII escalating, Isabelle intends to fight for France, while Vianne simply wants to survive the war with her family intact – even if it means allowing a German officer to live in her home. 

Isabelle, who refuses to live passively under German authority, joins the French resistance and guides Allied airmen out of France after their planes are shot down – work for which she adopts the codename the Nightingale. As the war wages on, both sisters learn who they are and what they can do.

Book Summary

When Scottish teen Ella gets a chance to spend the summer of 1937 on the French Île de Ré, it changes the trajectory of her life. She meets the charming Christophe and they spend their days exploring the many beaches of the island. For the first time, Ella feels truly free.

However, with the start of WW2, Ella must return to Scotland. She jumps into volunteering for the war effort, but feels herself drifting further away from the person she was on the Île de Ré. Will she ever be able to recapture that magic in her life?

Book Summary

Three women’s stories intertwine in the Florida Keys as a powerful hurricane approaches over the Labor Day weekend of 1935.

Key West native Helen Berner yearns to escape her abusive husband. Elizabeth Preston has traveled down from New York in search of a veteran of the Great War. Mirta Perez’s family suffered great losses in the Cuban Revolution of 1933, and now they have arranged her marriage to a man in a dangerous business, followed by a honeymoon in Key West.

The approaching storm is not the only danger that these women face as their paths unexpectedly cross.

Book Summary

As WW2 began, Jewish families in Poland were trying to flee to safer countries outside of Hilter’s reach. In this story, Esther’s father has gone ahead of the family to Cuba, and Esther is the first family member to join him. She’s devastated to be separated from her sister, so she documents her new life in Cuba to share her experiences in writing until her sister can join her. 

Her writings include both the kindness of the Cuban people and the unfortunate reality that Nazism has reached Cuba. 

Book Summary

When diamonds were discovered in Marange, Zimbabwe in 2006, the region changed, often not for the better. In this novel, fifteen-year-old Patson has a normal teenage life, running track for his high school and experience having his first girlfriend. Then, at his stepmother’s prompting, the family moves as part of The Great Marange Diamond Rush. His family goes to work hoping to find their “girazi,” a priceless stone that could change the future. 

However, the governor’s soldiers soon arrive at the diamond field. Their action will help you understand the term “blood diamonds,” and Patson will soon be on a new adventure as he first succumbs to greed and then finds himself on a transformative journey to find his sister in South Africa.

Book Summary

This multi-generation epic follows the divergent paths of two half-sisters born in 18th century Ghana and their descendants over 300 years. Effia marries a wealthy Englishman and lives in a castle, but she doesn’t know Esi is imprisoned in the dungeon below. Esi is sold in the slave trade and shipped to America, where she, her children, and her grandchildren are raised in slavery. 

The book continues to follow each generation of both Effia and Esi all the way to the present day and includes a range of historical time periods, including the American Civil War and the Jazz Age.

Book Summary

Nelson Mandela is one of the great leaders of the 20th century whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him not only the Nobel Peace Prize, but also the presidency of his country. This autobiography is very broad in its scope, covering his upbringing in the traditional tribal culture of his ancestors, his early years as a poor student and a law clerk, his political awakening, his time spent in jail, and finally, his inauguration as South Africa’s first black president. 

In addition to providing an in-depth and personal look at the life of this incredible man – Long Walk to Freedom also provides a riveting account of South Africa’s history and change from Apartheid to a Democratic state.

Book Summary

Alice disappeared in the wake of an accident, and ten years later, her daughter, Jenna, still refuses to believe that her mother abandoned her. Jenna still regularly searches for clues, both online and within Alice’s journals.

Alice was a scientist who studied grief among elephants in Botswana. While the journal entries are mostly about the elephants, Jenna hopes that she’ll find a clue within the writing. As part of her investigation, she also works with a psychic and detective, and we’ll see the story from their points of view as well.