John's Recommendations

John Reading
John Reading

Recommendations: 

The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero By Timothy Egan Cover Image
$22.99
ISBN: 9780544944831
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Mariner Books - March 7th, 2017

In the New York Times bestseller The Immortal Irishman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Timothy Egan illuminates the dawn of the great Irish American story, with all its twists and triumphs, through the life of one heroic man.

A dashing young orator during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for


Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia By Steven Stoll Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780809080199
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hill and Wang - November 20th, 2018

Short-listed for the Phi Beta Kappa Ralph Waldo Emerson Book Award


The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 (The Liberation Trilogy #3) By Rick Atkinson Cover Image
$26.00
ISBN: 9781250037817
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - May 13th, 2014

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The magnificent conclusion to Rick Atkinson's acclaimed Liberation Trilogy about the Allied triumph in Europe during World War II


Washington: A Life (Pulitzer Prize Winner) By Ron Chernow Cover Image
$23.00
ISBN: 9780143119968
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Books - September 27th, 2011

From the author of Alexander Hamilton, the New York Times bestselling biography that inspired the musical, comes a gripping portrait of the first president of the United States.

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography


Deacon King Kong (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel By James McBride Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780735216730
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Riverhead Books - February 2nd, 2021

Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction
 
Winner of the Gotham Book Prize

One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year"

Oprah's Book Club Pick

Named one of the Top Ten Books of the Year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and TIME Magazine

A Washington Post Notable Novel


All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel By Anthony Doerr Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781501173219
Availability: Backordered
Published: Scribner - April 4th, 2017

*NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti*

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose p


Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times By Nancy Koehn Cover Image
$35.00
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ISBN: 9781501174445
Published: Scribner - October 3rd, 2017

This “engaging, unusually rewarding book…[which] will foster a new appreciation for effective leadership and prompt many readers to lament the lack of it in the world today” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), by celebrated Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn, examines five masters of crisis: explorer Ernest Shackleton; Abraham Lincoln; abolitionist Frederick D


Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 (The Pacific War Trilogy #1) By Ian W. Toll Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9780393343410
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - November 26th, 2012

Winner of the Northern California Book Award for Nonfiction

"Both a serious work of history…and a marvelously readable dramatic narrative." —San Francisco Chronicle


The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942-1944 (The Pacific War Trilogy #2) By Ian W. Toll Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9780393353204
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - September 6th, 2016

A New York Times Bestseller

"A beautiful blend of history and prose and proves again Mr. Toll’s mastery of the naval-war narrative." —Wall Street Journal


The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy #1) By Rick Atkinson Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781250231321
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Holt Paperbacks - April 7th, 2020

Winner of the George Washington Prize
Winner of the Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History
Winner of the Excellence in American History Book Award
Winner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award


American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West By Nate Blakeslee Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781101902806
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Crown - July 31st, 2018

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The enthralling true story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her.
 


The Secret History of Wonder Woman By Jill Lepore Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9780804173407
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - July 7th, 2015

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Within the origin of one of the world’s most iconic superheroes hides a fascinating family story—and a crucial history of feminism in the twentieth-century.


The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel By Michael Chabon Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780007149834
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Harper Perennial - April 29th, 2008

The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback—an excellent, hyperliterate, genre-pantsing detective novel that deserves every inch of its…blockbuster superfame” (New York).


Painted Horses By Malcolm Brooks Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802123817
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press - June 9th, 2015

"Engrossing . . . The best novels are not just written but built--scene by scene, character by character--until a world emerges for readers to fall into. Painted Horses creates several worlds in a seamless and ambitious blend of history, romance, archaeology and nature. . . . Hard to forget." --Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today (4 out of 4 stars)


Chuck Noll: His Life's Work (The Library of Pittsburgh Sports History) By Michael MacCambridge Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780822965077
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: University of Pittsburgh Press - November 3rd, 2017

Chuck Noll won four Super Bowls and presided over one of the greatest football dynasties in history, the Pittsburgh Steelers of the ‘70s. Later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, his achievements as a competitor and a coach are the stuff of legend.


The Overstory: A Novel By Richard Powers Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9780393356687
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - April 2nd, 2019

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction
Winner of the William Dean Howells Medal
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
Over One Year on the New York Times Bestseller List


Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington By Ted Widmer Cover Image
$21.00
ISBN: 9781476739441
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Simon & Schuster - December 29th, 2020

WINNER OF THE LINCOLN FORUM BOOK PRIZE

“A Lincoln classic...superb.” ­—The Washington Post

“A book for our time.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin

Lincoln on the Verge tells the dramatic story of America’s greatest president discovering his own strength to save the Republic.


Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America's Role in the World By Robert D. Kaplan Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780399588228
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - November 7th, 2017

An incisive portrait of the American landscape that shows how geography continues to determine America’s role in the world


Everybody's Fool: A Novel (North Bath Trilogy #2) By Richard Russo Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780307454829
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Vintage - January 24th, 2017

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls returns to North Bath, the Rust Belt town first brought to unforgettable life in Nobody’s Fool. • "Irresistible.... Very funny.... A joy." —The New York Times


Moonglow: A Novel By Michael Chabon Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062225566
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper Perennial - September 19th, 2017

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER


The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism By John U. Bacon Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780062666543
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Mariner Books - November 6th, 2018

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

The "riveting" (National Post) tick-tock account of the largest manmade explosion in history prior to the atomic bomb, and the equally astonishing tales of survival and heroism that emerged from the ashes


My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel By Elizabeth Strout Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780812979527
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - October 11th, 2016

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the tender relationship between mother and daughter in this extraordinary novel by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys.


The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels By Jon Meacham Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9780399589829
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - April 30th, 2019

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear.


NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Nathaniel Philbrick is a masterly storyteller. Here he seeks to elevate the naval battles between the French and British to a central place in the history of the American Revolution. He succeeds, marvelously."--The New York Times Book Review


The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution By Eric Foner Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9780393358520
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - August 11th, 2020

“Gripping and essential.”—Jesse Wegman, New York Times


Thomas Jefferson's Education By Alan Taylor Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9780393358575
Availability: Backordered
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - October 20th, 2020

“Taylor… probes [Jefferson’s] ambitious mission in clear prose and with great insight and erudition.” —Annette Gordon-Reed, Atlantic


Chances Are . . .: A novel By Richard Russo Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781101971994
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - July 7th, 2020

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls • Three men in their late sixties—old friends from college, each with a secret—come together on Martha’s Vineyard in this “gripping, wise, and wonderful summer treat.” (The Boston Globe).


The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz By Jack Fairweather Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9780062561411
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Custom House - June 25th, 2019

COSTA BOOK AWARD WINNER: BOOK OF THE YEAR • #1 SUNDAY TIMES (UK) BESTSELLER


A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution By David Head Cover Image
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ISBN: 9781643130811
Availability: Out of Print
Published: Pegasus Books - December 3rd, 2019

The dramatic story of George Washington's first crisis of the fledgling republic.

In the war’s waning days, the American Revolution neared collapsed when Washington’s senior officers were rumored to be on the edge of mutiny.

After the British surrender at Yorktown, the American Revolution blazed on—and as peace was negotiated in Europe, grave problems su


The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl: A National Book Award Winner By Timothy Egan Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780618773473
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Mariner Books Classics - September 1st, 2006

This National Book Award–winning story, a tour de force of historical reportage, rescues an iconic chapter of American history—the Dust Bowl that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression—from the shadows.

Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to


These Truths: A History of the United States By Jill Lepore Cover Image
$19.95
ISBN: 9780393357424
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - October 1st, 2019

“Nothing short of a masterpiece.” —NPR Books
A New York Times Bestseller and a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year

In the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, award-winning historian Jill Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation.


Whiskey When We're Dry By John Larison Cover Image
$26.00
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ISBN: 9780735220447
Published: Viking - August 21st, 2018

Named a Best Book by Entertainment Weekly, O Magazine, Goodreads, Southern Living, Outside Magazine, Oprah.com, HelloGiggles, Parade, Fodor’s Travel, Sioux City Journal, Read it Forward, Medium.com, and NPR’s All Things Considered.
 


Peace Like a River By Leif Enger Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802139252
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Atlantic Monthly Press - August 7th, 2002

Leif Enger's debut novel, Peace Like A River, was launched to critical acclaim in 2001 and went on to sell over one million copies. Now a perennial, best-selling American classic, it is at once a heroic quest, a tragedy, and a love story, in which "there is magic... none more potent that Leif Enger's prose" (Newsday).


Virgil Wander By Leif Enger Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802147127
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Grove Press - August 20th, 2019

The first novel in ten years from award-winning, bestselling author Leif Enger, Virgil Wander is a sweeping story of new beginnings against all odds that follows the inhabitants of a hard luck town in their quest to revive its flagging heart.


Orfeo: A Novel By Richard Powers Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9780393349849
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: W. W. Norton & Company - September 2nd, 2014

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory, an emotionally charged novel inspired by the myth of Orpheus.

"Bravo, Richard Powers, for hitting so many high notes with Orfeo and contributing to the fraction of books that really matter." —Heller McAlpin, NPR