Staff Picks

As the days get colder and snowier, you may be looking to settle down in a cozy spot with a hot drink and some good books.  Winter is a great time to catch up on your reading, so here are some great reads from 2018 that you might want to check out.

New York Times and NPR Lists and Top Staff Picks

The New York Times has recently released its Notable Books of 2018 list, which provides a wide variety of excellent options.  Take a look at the MPHPL-owned fiction and nonfiction titles that appear on this list.  By clicking on a book's title, you can find reviews, ratings, summaries and similar titles in our catalg.  The complete list of Notable Books can be found on the New York Times website.

A few staff favorites from the Notable Books list are:

• White Houses, a novel about the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and reporter Lorena Hickock
• The Witch Elm, a suspense novel that “asks what we become, and what we're capable of, when we no longer know who we are”
• Spinning Silver, a fantasy novel that retells the story of Rumpelstilskin
• Girl Wash Your Face, a self-help book that discusses the twenty lies that we believe and that hold us back

A few more popluar staff picks published in 2018 are:

• The Woman in the Window, a psychological thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she has witnessed a murder
• The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers, the story of the relationship between a troubled artist and his personal assistant
• Lethal White, a mystery in which two private detectives try to help a young man understand a crime that he witnessed as a child
• An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, the story of a woman who finds social media fame by documenting and seeking to understand the arrival of mysterious robot statues called Carls
• The Cabin at the End of the World, a tense thriller in which a family suffers a home invasion at the hands of men who claim to be saving the world
• The Immortalists, the story of the lives and choices of four young siblings who learn the dates on which they will die from a traveling psychic
• The Patchwork Bride, a grandmother's narrative about broken engagements and the search for a soul mate, told to her granddaughter who has just ended her engagement

NPR

You might also want to peruse NPR's list of the best books of 2018 for some good reading ideas, both fiction and nonfiction.

Top Checkouts

If you are interested in what other library users have read this year, below are the authors with the highest checkouts at MPHPL in 2018.  These authors have had multiple books at the top of our list of checkouts, and their titles are listed next to the authors’ names.  By clicking on each author’s name, you will find a list of their books in our collection starting with the most recent.

• James Patterson:  17th Suspect, Juror #3, Fifty Fifty, Count to Ten, Manhunt, Texas Ranger, Red Alert, Princess, The Exile, The President is Missing (with Bill Clinton), Murder in Paradise (story collection), Triple Homicide (story collection), Murder Beyond the Grave (NF), Home Sweet Murder (NF), All American Murder
• Danielle Steel:  Accidental Heroes, Fall from Grace, The Cast, Past Perfect, The Good Fight, In His Father’s Footsteps
• Fern Michaels:  Sweet Vengeance, Need to Know, Truth or Dare, Holly and Ivy, Safe and Sound
• Tracie Peterson:  Out of the Ashes, In Places Hidden, In Dreams Forgotten, In Times Gone By
• David Baldacci:  End Game, The Fallen
• Stuart Woods:  Unbound, Shoot First, The Money Shot, Turbulence, Quick and Dirty
• Douglas Preston:  City of Endless Night, The Pharaoh Key
• Susan Mallery:  Sister Like Us, You Say It First

Some additional popular 2018 fiction titles at MPHPL this year are:

• The View from Rainshadow Bay by Colleen Coble, the first book in a new series that tells the story of a deadly secret in the lavender fields of Washington State
• The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, the story of the struggles of a former POW and his family, who move to Alaska for a new start
• As You Wish by Jude Deveraux, the tales of three women, their loves and regrets
• The Disappeared by C.J. Box, a mystery about a British executive who disappeared during her visit to a Wyoming ranch
• By Invitation Only by Dorothea Benton Frank, a novel about the engagement of a young couple, the wealthy Chicago family of bride Shelby and the Georgia farming family of groom Fred
• Words from the Heart by Kathleen Fuller, the story of an Amish woman and an auctioneer, who come across a collection of old love letters while cleaning out an attic together
• Chicago by David Mamet, a thriller about a reporter in 1920s Chicago and his search for the murderer of the woman he loved, Annie, who had connections to the criminal underground
• A Nantucket Wedding by Nancy Thayer, a love story and family drama about the marriage of Alison and David, and the eventful blending of their families of adult children
• As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner, a historical novel set in 1918 Philadelphia
• Force of Nature by Jane Harper, a thriller in which five colleagues go on a team-building retreat into the woods, but only four return

If you prefer nonfiction, some of our top nonfiction titles this year are:

• Educated by Tara Westover, a memoir of a young woman, raised in a survivalist family in Idaho, and her efforts to obrain an education
• All-American Murder by James Patterson, an investigation of Aaron Hernandez's conviction for murder, and his death
• 12 Rules for Life, a psychiatrist's rules for livng a happier, less chaotic life
• Murder Beyond the Grave, two "true-crime thrillers"
• Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff's look inside President Trump's West Wing
• Everybody Always, Bob Goff's assertion that we find happiness when we "love people, even the difficult ones, without distinction and without limits"
• Try Not to Suck, Joe Maddon's life in baseball
• The Soul of America, John Meacham's examination of our present political situation through the study of similarly challenging historical moments
• The Sun Does Shine, the memoir of a wrongly convicted man who spent 30 years on death row and now advocates for prison reform

 

Happy Reading and Happy Holidays from MPHPL!