LibraryReads is a monthly list of new books that have been recommended by librarians nationwide as some of their favorite books that are published that month.  The purpose is to “showcase the incredible power that public library staff has in helping to building word-of-month for new books, and the important role we play in creating audiences for all kinds of authors.”

               

The lists are primarily fiction, but there is a mixture of nonfiction as well.  The lists are limited to ten books and are nominated by public library staff.  The top book nominated is the number one book of the month.

               

The lists are available online at libraryreads.org and are published in BookPage, a monthly free publication about books including reviews that is available at the library.  Remember that these are books published during the month so many of them are not yet released. 

               

The top selection for November is by best-selling author, Alice Hoffman, “Faithful.”  It tells the story of a young girl whose best friend is killed in a car accident that she survives.  “Despite her best effort to avoid it, love, hope and forgiveness patiently shadow her as she slowly heals.  Simply irresistible.”  This is the opinion of Sharon Layburn at the South Huntington Public Library, NY.

               

“The Fate of the Tearling” by Erika Johansen is the third volume in this “riveting blend of fantasy and dystopian fiction with characters developing in unexpected but satisfying ways.”  Warren Ellis’ “Normal” tells the tale of an asylum dedicated to treating only futurists.  “Witty and insightful, Ellis’s writing has much to say about technology and gives readers much to think about in this brief novel.”  Mary Vernau, Tyler Public Library, Texas.

               

Lee Child goes back in time for his latest Jack Reacher novel in “Night School.”  Jack is sent to school in 1996, but it turns out to be a covert mission aided by an agent from the FBI and one from the CIA.

Another best-selling author, Jayne Ann Krentz, puts two new partners to the test as they investigate a murder that turns complicated and twisty in “When All the Girls Have Gone.”

               

Wally Lamb returns in “I’ll Take You There,” a funny and entertaining trip to the past when a passionate film fan meets a ghost from the silent film era.  Zadie Smith’s new novel, “Swing Time,” spans twenty years and two continents about two friends who bond over being poor and brown in London, and grow and change in this story of friendship.

               

Michael Chabon’s latest novel is “Moonglow” about a family that keeps secrets and Carol Birch’s “Orphans of the Carnival” tells the story of an accomplished young woman whose face is covered with thick hair.

               

The one work of nonfiction on this month’s list is “Victoria: The Queen” by Julia Baird that follows the eighteen-year-old Victoria who still slept in a room with her mother when she ascended to the throne, and established her independence that very day by ordering a separate room for herself, and continued through the rest of the century to devote herself to her family and her country.