Staff Picks: Book Collection: Novels

Recommended by Jasmine Rizer, Cataloging Department

You probably know the concept of this one already: Time-traveling serial killer is hunted by one of the women he tried to kill. It sure sounded to me like this book turned the notion of the serial-killer genre on its head by focusing on the women and the tragic loss of not only their lives but their potential, but somewhere in the back of my mind I think I was afraid it would fail, and slide into breathless "ooh, serial killers are SO FASCINATING!" inanity.

Well, it didn't.

This book is loudly and boldly and unapologetically admiring of the women in its pages, several of whom are marginalized in their times for reasons beyond their femaleness. The serial killer, on the other hand, is grubby, creepy nobody who murders women because he likes hurting things.

The violence in this book -- from a mercifully brief scene of the young serial killer tormenting his family's chickens to a long and unsparing scene of his attack on the heroine, and all points in between -- is awful and hard to read, and Beukes meant it to be. You might be fine if, like me, you are just squeamish in general, but if a personal history of violence would make any of this triggering, you're probably better off picking another one of my colleagues' fine recommendations from this collection.

Recommended by Sandra Riggs, MLC, Research & Instruction

You don't have to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes mysteries to get caught up in this story. The book features a young Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's older brother, who is starting out his government career dealing with the mysterious deaths of several children, and international intrigue, in the British Crown colony of Trinidad.

If Mycroft is the brain of the book, the heart is Cyrus Douglas, a successful black businessman from Trinidad, and Mycroft's best friend. Despite his success, Douglas deals with racism, sometimes pretending to be Mycroft's servant, or an employee of his own business, to avoid trouble. Nevertheless, Douglas does not walk away from a fight when necessary, and is an extremely brave, resourceful, and loyal character.

Warning: expect gruesome deaths in the first few pages, and a fairly high body count as you approach the end. There's also a great deal of angst and sorrow, as various characters' pasts become revealed.

Some of the crimes are daunting, but you'll want to see justice, and that will keep you reading to the end.

Recommended by MacKenzie Smith, Cataloging Department

If you haven't read this book yet, what are you waiting for?! Arguably one of Stephen King's best works, this book tells the story of Jake Epping who goes back in time to try to prevent the assassination of JFK. Does he succeed? What does he discover about life in the early 1960s along the way? Who does he meet while he's back in time? This book is amazing and will stay with you long after you read it.

Recommended by Elizabeth Durusau, Music Library

If you grew up in the 80s, then this will be one huge nostalgia trip for you. Set in the future where almost every aspect of day to day life is lived in virtual reality, there is a treasure that everyone is trying to find. But only one can win.

Recommended by Mary Poland, Access Services Department

Clever, imaginative and different from other fantasy novels. Lyrical language, beautifully written, magical and fierce.

Recommended by John Prechtel, Research & Instruction Department

LaRose is a young boy whose best friend is killed by LaRose's father in a hunting accident. Employing an old Ojibwe custom, LaRose's parents give LaRose to the aggrieved family to raise as their son. What seems an unimaginable act to many actually sets in motion a lengthy process of healing--often painful, sometimes funny--among the many people who are lucky enough to live within the quietly redemptive reach of LaRose. Includes a high school girls' volleyball match that is an utterly riveting bit of sports fiction.

Recommended by MacKenzie Smith, Cataloging Department

This book follows the aftermath of a tragic accident and how it affects the lives of all those it touched. If you like books with intertwining plots and characters, this one is for you!

Recommended by Rachel Evans, Law Library Web Developer

This is a stunning work of experimental fiction. A book about a book about a movie about a house (or something like that). If that sound intriguing then you'll love this book! It is part horror, part psychological thriller, part diaries of multiple people whose interest in an unexplainable phenomenon found within a photographer's house brings all of the stories and storytellers together into one confusing but ultimately very rewarding novel. The book itself is also filled with typography that requires you to read the book sideways and upside down at times. As the one character gets lost in the abyss of his house that seems to have a never-ending depth, you the reader get just as lost within the book as the typography begins to reflect visually on the page the journey of the character within who is video-documenting the movie that is at the center of this story within a story. A fascinating read that will make you question the boundaries of reality!

Recommended by MacKenzie Smith, Cataloging Department

Have you ever wondered how urban legends come to be? This haunting story by Shirley Jackson will have you wondering who the real monsters are: the troubled sisters who have been made pariahs or the townspeople who turned them into such.

Recommended by MacKenzie Smith, Cataloging Department

The premise of this book is pretty straightforward: an astronaut, Mark Watney, gets stranded on Mars. This books takes you through his amazing journey to try to get back to Earth. To say anything else would give too much away!

Recommended by Elizabeth Durusau, Music Library

I'll admit, I've been on a bit of a Sherlock Holmes kick lately. Although, it did start a few months before the newest television series started. "Hound of the Baskervilles" is truly one of the best Holmes mysteries. It has mystery, intrigue, romance, suspense, a couple of red herrings but not so many that it makes your head hurt, and an overall very satisfying ending. If you've ever though about reading Sherlock Holmes and wanted something to capture your attention, this is the one. This was actually written after Holmes "died" even though it happened I think a year or two prior. But due to family and reputations and such, Watson had to keep quiet about it for a while. Even if you just like mysteries, I do recommend this one to you. It has everything a mystery lover could want.

Recommended by J. Rizer, Cataloging

I don't know what to do about Alice Hoffman. In theory, I don't even care much for love stories. In practice, I cannot stop reading these books of hers that are chock full of romances both large and small.

One simple explanation for this is that Alice Hoffman is just a really, really good writer, no matter what she's writing about. Romantic love is not the only kind of love explored in her books, either. In The Story Sisters, the love of family members for one another is the most compelling part of the narrative, the part that kept me turning the pages and wondering frantically, "Will they get back together?" I could try to do a jacket-copy kind of review here, with teasers about all the genuinely wonderful characters in this novel, but I won't do that. I'll just say that The Story Sisters is big-hearted and heartbreaking and well worth your time. Also there are ladies who know how to catch demons in butterfly nets. Because this is an Alice Hoffman novel we're talking about, after all.

*In all seriousness, I feel I should add a couple of trigger warnings. Violence against a child is a major theme (although Hoffman doesn't enter into details, being more concerned with the impact on the victim's life), and one character, as a teenager, is pursued by more than one grown man (although Hoffman certainly does not portray this as admirable behavior on the men's part).

Recommended by Leandra Nessel, Development Department

The second in French's Dublin Murder Squad series, The Likeness is, so far, my favorite. It does reference events in book #1, but I think can be read on its own. In this psychological thriller, the main character, Cassie, is a homicide detective who is called upon to help solve the murder of a young woman who looks enough like her that they could be twins. Spreading the story that the young woman survived, Cassie goes undercover posing as the dead woman in an attempt to solve the mystery.

Recommended by Sandra Riggs, Research & Instruction Department (MLC)

This is a fantasy book set in an alternative version of China, filled with magic, goddesses, scholars and spirits. You'll find the trope of the knowledgeable con artist, guiding a young adventurer (who is really an innocent at heart) on a complex quest, but there's much more. This book is paradoxical. It is terribly bawdy and irreverent, but by the end you're likely to likely to tear up at how themes of love, faith, and forgiveness find their resolutions.

Recommended by Jasmine Rizer, Cataloging Department

The thing about David Mitchell is that even if (like me) you are not smart enough to appreciate his books on every level, it's okay, because he also just tells a really great story.

I am a sucker for a haunted house story in almost any form, but of course, Slade House is also a story about many, many other things, many of which I imagine I was too dim to notice, but including the love of a sister, or the compassion of a stranger. In Slade House, the ghost of a stranger who was not even a particularly nice person when he was alive may do his best to save you, to tell you, "I found a weapon in the cracks."

Which is not to say that it is not also a very scary haunted-house story about soul-sucking baddies, with a doozy of an ending that will (no pun intended) haunt you something awful, because it is that, too.

Recommended by Elizabeth White, Miller Learning Center

New spin on the fairy tale genre, Uprooted is about a young girl and a cold, frightening Wizard. Agnieszka's village owes its safety from the evil woods which surround it to the Wizard. His price: one young woman with magic ability be handed over to serve and be educated by him for ten years. A book about friendship, magic, and growing up.

Recommended by Elizabeth Durusau, Music Library

Books that aren't books, mechanical bees, warrior elephants, political intrigue, and at the center of it all: Joe Spork. Clock repair man, son of a gangster, all around normal boring guy, thrown into extraordinary circumstances which makes him into a hero.

Recommended by Elizabeth Durusau, Music Library

If you like stories that are creepy in an odd way. If you like roaming around in the mind of a killer to see why they work. If you like Silence of the Lambs, you'll probably like this book. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille was born with a perfect sense of smell. He was also born in 18th-century France which is not, by any means, a time and place famous for its good smells. He's also a very strange child who grows up to be an even stranger man. He becomes obsessed with one scent, and one scent in particular. And this one scent leads him to commit one murder after another. But the ending, the ending is something to behold because I never saw that coming. Highly recommended to those with a taste for the twisted, bizarre, and deadly.

Recommended by Rachel Evans, Law Library Web Developer

This book is excellent on so many levels. If you love cats, there are talking cats! If you love libraries, there is (like almost all Murakami novels) a library and a librarian. If you love weird tales with metaphysical twists then this book is for you. Possibly the best modern Japanese fiction author working today, this book is an excellent introduction to Murakami.

Recommended by MacKenzie Smith, Cataloging Department

This quiet little love story can easily be read in one sitting, but it will stay with you long after you read it. It's about two widows who discover a new side of themselves later in life. One of the best books I've read this year!

Recommended by MacKenzie Smith, Cataloging Department

This novel is set in the 1930s and loosely based on the life of Margaret Mead. It features a love triangle and fascinating descriptions of the tribes all three are studying. The descriptions in this book will make you feel like you're in Papua New Guinea (while in the comfort of your AC)! This is a very compelling love story with one of the best last lines I've ever read!

Recommended by Jason Bennett, UGA Press

As a Southerner who always felt a little oddly placed growing up, this book was a revelation to me. I know McCullers is not the first Southern writer to write about misfits in a small town, but something about how she conveys the struggles with race, faith, gender, and all the other trappings of small-town Southern life resonated with me in a way no other book had. It was sort of punk rock before there was such a thing, and it really owned its weirdness. A treasure of a book.

Recommended by Kelly Holt, Cataloging Department

Days after I finished this book, I would think about it and wonder how the characters were doing. I had to remind myself that it wasn't real.

It's terrifying. You run a whole range of emotions reading it. It's THAT good!

Recommended by Mollie Armour, Administration

Better a Dinner of Herbs is incredible and beautifully written. It almost has a rhythm all its own--it feels like poetry, but it's a novel. Super engaging, twisted, dramatic, and sometimes violent.

Byron Herbert Reece was a native Georgian from the Appalachian mountains, active in the early 20th century. If you've never heard of him look him up, he was a super interesting person.

In his own words:
"From chips and shards, in idle times,
I made these stories, shaped these rhymes;
May they engage some friendly tongue
When I am past the reach of song."

Recommended by Jimmy A. Brown, Cataloging

"I have become a pilgrim to cure myself of being an exile."

Innocent Smith lands (literally) in a boarding house full of disillusioned young people, upending their settled, gloomy lives. He brings with him a satchel of apparently random objects, a life-dealing revolver, and accusations of heinous crimes. His trial before the court of Beacon Hill reveals the truth behind his actions, his journeys, and his multiple marriages.

Recommended by Elizabeth Durusau, Music Library

"Man wonders but God decides
When to kill the Prince of Tides."

A story about family secrets that shouldn't have been kept and the consequences that were paid. A story about losing your way and coming back again. A story about saving those you love and saving yourself in the process. A story that you will read again and again and discover more in each time.

Recommended by Erin Leach, Miller Learning Center Director

Swamplandia! is the tale of the Bigtrees, a family of alligator wrestlers and proprietors of the tourist attraction that shares its name with the book's title. Russell breathes enough life the South Florida swamplands to make them one of the novel's characters. A mix of grim reality and magical realism, Swamplandia! is an enjoyable and riveting read.

Recommended by Leandra Nessel, Development Department

Captain Jefferson Kidd is given the task of returning a young captive of the Kiowah tribe to her family.

This brief synopsis cannot adequately convey the beauty of this book. This is one of the most engaging, heartbreaking yet heartwarming books I've ever read. The characters will stick with you long after you finish and you want to return to them again and again. Everyone that I have recommended it to has loved it.

Recommended by Jasmine Rizer

You've probably already read a lot of reviews about how Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series is not just excellent mystery stories but also stand out as amazing novels regardless of genre.

All I have to add is that this book accomplished a number of notable feats for this particular reader: It unsettled me profoundly but didn't make me actually sorry that I'd read it. It made me root for a protagonist who is arguably not the nicest man in the world. And it made me dread getting to the last page because I had a terrible feeling that whatever book I tried to read next would not quite measure up. (SPOILER: It didn't.) Four hundred odd pages with narrator Mick Kennedy and villains visible and otherwise will fly by, and you'll wish there were more.

Recommended by Mick Gusinde-Duffy, UGA Press

A lively tale of Robin Hood-esque insurgents in post-Norman Invasion England.

The author pulls off the neat trick of writing in an invented quasi-Saxon language, which starts out opaque but very quickly (intuitively) becomes clearer, much like visiting a foreign country and picking up the language by immersion. This adds the joy and self-satisfaction of solving a puzzle to the ongoing narrative.

Add to that the presentation from the viewpoint of one quite unreliable narrator and an ambiguous ending, and you're in for a fun ride.

The book was self-published through a collaborative, crowdfunding site ("Unbound") and quickly became a runaway bestseller in the UK.

Recommended by Mary Poland, Access Services

Assigned to the cold-case murder of a blues musician whose death had been ruled a drug overdose, rookie homicide detective Sarah "Salt" Alt considers new evidence from a convicted felon who Sarah helped put behind bars.

On her first day as a homicide detective, Sarah "Salt" Alt is given the cold-case murder of a blues musician whose death was originally ruled an accidental drug overdose. New evidence that he may have been given a hot dose intentionally comes from a convicted felon hoping to trade his knowledge for shortened prison time... a man who Salt herself put behind bars. In the depths of Atlanta, Salt searches for the truth in a case that has more at stake than she ever could have imagined.

Recommended by Mary Poland, Access Services Department

This is a story of a prison and the people in it. It is dark and disturbing, yet hopeful. It probably isn't for everyone. Once I started this book, I couldn't stop reading it and then I read it twice.

Recommended by Margie Compton, Media Archives

The protagonist is a librarian and the plot involves archival materials--what's not to like? Of course, that doesn't necessarily make it a good book but, as it turned out, I couldn't put it down. The tension in the plot built well and carried me along and, though I don't go in much for fantasy, the fantastic side of the story in this book wasn't so far out there that it turned me off. This is a good read.

Recommended by Elizabeth White, Research & Instruction Department

This book takes place in a dystopian future, where the consequences of an attempt to create super soldiers went horrifically wrong. Most of the US population is gone, devoured, by the products of the experiment, and 100 years in the future we see society struggling to hang on in a world where we are no longer the alpha predator. Told from the point of view of the survivors, this fast-paced book is incredibly engrossing, well written, and action-packed. It defies all the usual tropes and is a truly unique novel. Highly recommended.

Recommended by Jasmine Rizer, Cataloging Department

If I had tried to read this book, say, fifteen years ago, I probably would have thought, "The so-called heroine of this novel is a terrible person and I could not possibly care less what happens to her."

However, if you look back at your life and you see some ghastly choices you have made, and some damage you have done, and you would like to believe that you might still have the potential to do better, to become someone who deserves a little slice of peace and happiness, to become someone that a person might unexpectedly find themselves rooting for if they were reading the story of your life, then you could do a whole lot worse than to read this book. Wally Lamb might just make you believe that you are redeemable. That's one of the magic powers of fiction, folks.

Recommended by MacKenzie Smith, Cataloging Department

This book is set in early 20th century Australia and tells the story of a lighthouse keeper on a small island. When a boat carrying an infant washes ashore, Tom and Isabel, his wife, must make a critical decision and the book deals with the repercussions. Even more compelling than the story is the beautiful way this book is written. The descriptions of Janus Rock are breathtaking. This is one of the best books I read last year and I cannot recommend it enough!

Recommended by Kaelin Broaddus, UGA Press

This book is so much better than the movie. Its deeper and more magical. The writing is beautiful.

Recommended by Elizabeth White, Miller Learning Center

Love historical adventure, but want a twist instead of the usual damsel in distress plot? Written by a Shakespearean scholar, "The Perilous Gard" is set in Elizabethan England. A young woman under house arrest by Queen Mary must use her wits to solve a mysterious disappearance. Set in a magical world of fairies, this book offers a unique spin on a centuries-old folktale. Suitable for younger audiences and adults alike.

Recommended by Rachel Evans, Law Library Web Developer

This book is incredible! Perhaps one of the best books I've ever read. Long and meandering with more characters than I can count, and with genuine descriptions of the human experience. It takes determination to get through it, but you won't regret it! If you're a fan of postmodernist fiction then this is a must-read!

Recommended by Leandra Nessel, Development Department

This is an engaging book that takes place immediately following World War II. The story is told partially through a series of letters from residents of the island of Guernsey to the main character that describe the German occupation of the island and the clever ways the islanders subverted the rules established by the German commander. By turns funny and poignant, this book is so engaging that I read it one day. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good book and everybody that I've recommended it to thus far has loved it.

Recommended by J. Rizer, Cataloging Department

This book is actually the second in a series (The Cazalet Chronicle) that begins with The Light Years, but I haven't read The Light Years in long enough to write a coherent review of it. But. Start with The Light Years and then devour this one.

The author of The Cazalet Chronicle passed away at the beginning of 2014, and there was talk in at least one of her obituaries that she had written a Downton Abbey kind of series before Downton Abbey existed. I can see that, but I think it's a comparison that might unnecessarily narrow the audience for books that tell a fairly universal story about young people trying to grow up and grown people trying to be good. Also, in some cases, grown people trying to grow up. And you certainly don't have to be a period-drama fan to relate to that.

Recommended by M. Duever, Map & Government Information Library

It's a mystery novel with enough red herrings thrown in to keep you guessing (and second-guessing yourself) whodunit until the end. Entertaining and well written, it is J.K. Rowling after all.

Recommended by Kaelin Broaddus, UGA Press

This book is an exquisitely written, otherworldly, "otherweirdly" account of Abraham Lincoln's grief for his son Willy, as told by the inhabitants of the graveyard where Willy's body in temporarily interred, and where Lincoln comes to grieve alone. Through this fantastical, bawdy telling the reader learns that the dead grieve for the living as much as the living grieve for the dead.

Recommended by J. Rizer, Cataloging Department

I have known for some time I should re-read this book and I am sorry to admit it took the passing of the magnificent David Bowie, who was, of course, in the film version, to spur me into doing so at last.

That said, I love this book so much that I've never actually made it through the film. If you have not read this book you should probably forget everything you think you know about the story and just dive in as though you've never heard of it. It can function on many, many levels, whether it makes you clutch your heart in sympathy because you've felt just as lost in the middle of your own life as the alien, Thomas Jerome Newton, or whether you just love it as a terrific science fiction yarn with suspense and sadness and a lovelorn Earth girl and a number of unnervingly accurate predictions about the future, although, alas, we have not made it to the six-hour workday mentioned in these pages.

Also, Newton deflects someone's curiosity about his origins at least once by saying that he's from Kentucky, which made this Kentucky native smile a private smile.

Recommended by Amber Prentiss, Research & Instruction

If you want to go way down south with a team of unlikely Antarctic explorers (including an African American literature professor and "the world’s only civil rights activist turned deep-sea diver"), then read this book. There are also monsters. Did I mention that this is a riff on Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket?

Recommended by Elizabeth White, MLC

Intrigue! Mistaken identity! English country estates! True love! Murder! Money! Dogs! What more could you ask for?

Recommended by Elizabeth Durusau, Music Library

Okay, stay with me here. This is a book about five different characters living in five completely different time periods. All of them, except the first one, are reading or watching a record of the time and the character that came directly before them. And each narrator has a birthmark that is exactly the same. The main theme is one of reincarnation and regeneration. Sometimes we all run in the same circles and meet the same people over and over again. Sometimes we fix what we did wrong in the past, and sometimes we simply make it worse. Yet each story is different. There's the sea-faring adventure, a tragic love story about mistakes and hopes, a politcal thriller, a comedy about mistakes you make and others make coming back to bite you, a revolution of ideas, and an adventure to look for one last hope. Each one is distinctly different and each one has its own great characters and moments. I highly recommend it to those who are ready for a challenging book that will take them new places. (Also if you're wondering about what I think of the movie: I have seen it twice now and this is one of those rare times when I can't tell you if I like the book or the movie more. I really can't. I love them both equally.)

Also recommended by J. Rizer, Cataloging Department

I cannot pretend to be even remotely bright enough to have understood even one-tenth of what David Mitchell probably had to say in this novel. But I can safely say that it made the other books I was reading at the time look pretty shabby by comparison. Some of the narrators are rather unpleasant characters to spend time with, and yet I recommend this one. I do.

Recommended by Elizabeth Durusau, Music Library

And amazing tale of love, magic, and a mysterious circus where nothing is quite what it seems.

Recommended by Margie C., Special Collections

Eminently readable book that takes you out of the hum-drum, every-day life you lead and puts you in Shangri-La.

Recommended by J. Rizer, Cataloging Department

I often tell people that I love Toni Morrison because she writes beautiful stories about horrible things. I am pretty sure I did not invent this turn of phrase myself. I probably read it somewhere in a context that had nothing to do with Toni Morrison. Nevertheless, this is what she does. People do awful things to one another in real life, and Toni Morrison doesn't shy away from that in her fiction, and yet somehow her books manage, for me, not to fall into the category of Things I Wish I Could Remove From My Brain Somehow. I consistently feel enriched for having read them.

She knocks it out of the park again with this one. It's a deceptively quick read, which means you have extra time to re-read and savor before it's due back to the library.