Book Recommendations
If there is a book you would like to recommend, email us at [email protected].
David Henshaw
The Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Atria Books (2019)
Set on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, in the summer of 1932, this novel covers the travels of four orphans who escape the confines of the Lincoln Indian Training School. Traveling in a stolen canoe, they head to the Mississippi and a place to call their own. Theirs is a life-changing odyssey, crossing paths with others who are adrift during the Great Depression. This is a big-hearted epic that showcases our magnificent American landscape and unites our dreams.
Janice Henshaw
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (2007)
This book is a fantasy which pays homage to Queen Elizabeth. It is a charming novella about the Queen, who while walking her corgis, stumbles across a mobile library that is visiting Buckingham Palace. Out of a sense of duty, the Queen checks out a book. Overtime, with the guidance of the palace staff, the Queen finds herself developing a new obsession with reading, devouring works by a range of authors, resulting in the development of the Queen’s new perspective on the world. Described as “a lovable book about the love of books”, this enjoyable read celebrates books, writers, and readers.
Roberta Yarker Smith
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Viking (2022)
Roberta is quoted as saying, “Horse is the best book I have read in a long time.” This is Pulitzer winner, Brooks latest of six novels. It is a present-day interracial romance woven together with the history of thoroughbred racing in the early 1850’s, antebellum South. Known for her historical research and signature storytelling style, Brooks uses the true story of a famous 19th century racehorse to explore the legacy of enslavement. Horse exposes how our present interactions and relationships are anchored in our tangled racial roots.
The Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Atria Books (2019)
Set on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, in the summer of 1932, this novel covers the travels of four orphans who escape the confines of the Lincoln Indian Training School. Traveling in a stolen canoe, they head to the Mississippi and a place to call their own. Theirs is a life-changing odyssey, crossing paths with others who are adrift during the Great Depression. This is a big-hearted epic that showcases our magnificent American landscape and unites our dreams.
Janice Henshaw
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (2007)
This book is a fantasy which pays homage to Queen Elizabeth. It is a charming novella about the Queen, who while walking her corgis, stumbles across a mobile library that is visiting Buckingham Palace. Out of a sense of duty, the Queen checks out a book. Overtime, with the guidance of the palace staff, the Queen finds herself developing a new obsession with reading, devouring works by a range of authors, resulting in the development of the Queen’s new perspective on the world. Described as “a lovable book about the love of books”, this enjoyable read celebrates books, writers, and readers.
Roberta Yarker Smith
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
Viking (2022)
Roberta is quoted as saying, “Horse is the best book I have read in a long time.” This is Pulitzer winner, Brooks latest of six novels. It is a present-day interracial romance woven together with the history of thoroughbred racing in the early 1850’s, antebellum South. Known for her historical research and signature storytelling style, Brooks uses the true story of a famous 19th century racehorse to explore the legacy of enslavement. Horse exposes how our present interactions and relationships are anchored in our tangled racial roots.
