This Pulitzer Prize winner follows the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War. Our narrator, a captain, served as a communist spy for the Viet Cong…and continues to do so once he moves to America with the general of the South Vietnamese army and others fleeing the country. Caught between two worlds and conflicted in his loyalties, he has an uneasy relationship with both the duality of his work and his origin as an illegitimate son treated with scorn and distrust by those around him. Nguyen explores the legacy of the Vietnam War and what it means to survive. More info →

Libro.fm is running a sale on several titles this month. They're my go-to for audiobooks these days; read more about Libro.fm here. No membership required for most sale prices, including this one. The ebook is ALSO on sale. This stirring debut novel follows three generations of Vietnamese American women in the wake of the death of their beloved matriarch. “Secrets never stay hidden,” muses one character. “Someone always has to deal with the fallout.” Across the generations and in rotating points of view, we see each woman deal with both the burdens she inherited and the secrets she keeps from her daughter out of love, and how this well-intentioned choice causes terrible harm to all. But even after one family member dies, it might not be too late for the surviving women to reunite in their Florida home under the banyan tree for one more attempt at understanding and redemption. More info →

This is the first historical I've read from Katherine Reay, though her last several novels have been of that genre. I picked this up because I was certain we would pop over to Berlin when we were in Germany a couple of years ago. While we didn't make it to that great city, I'm thankful I at least got to visit on the page. The story revolves around a German family that was separated when the Berlin Wall went up overnight in 1961. Many years later, in 1989, Luisa puts the decoding skills she's been taught from a young age to use for the CIA in the DC area. She lives with her grandparents, since her parents were killed in a car accident when she was three—or so she was told. But after her grandfather dies, she finds a secret stash of his letters that leads her to question everything she's been told about her family, and eventually leads her to Berlin to catch up for lost time. I listened to the audio version, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, Ann Marie Gideon, and P. J. Ochlan. Whispersync narration available. More info →

From the publisher: "The game is once again afoot in this thrilling mystery, sanctioned by the Conan Doyle estate, which explores what really happened when Sherlock Holmes and his arch nemesis Professor Moriarty tumbled to their doom at the Reichenbach Falls." This bestseller by Anthony Horowitz is recommended reading for Sherlock fans, obviously. More info →

This Pulitzer winner begins with a terrorist attack: an explosion at The Met that kills 13-year-old Theo Decker's mother and forever changes his life. The novel takes on an epic feel as it winds and twists through New York City, then Vegas, then Amsterdam. I would have given it up during the dark and depressing Vegas sojourn if I hadn't read that The Goldfinch was Donna Tartt's artistic response to 9/11. I'm not certain that's even true, yet framing it that way fundamentally changed the way I read the book, and kept me from abandoning it during the unrelentingly gritty middle. More info →

Imagine a grown-up take on The Parent Trap, with a lot more twin troubles and a lot fewer tween giggles. When they were 17, Harper and Tabitha's parents divorced. Tabitha went with her mom to Nantucket; Harper went with her dad to Martha's Vineyard. Now 39, the twins haven't spoken in years, and each has heaps of her own troubles—love, family, work, you name it. For reasons that are easy to read but hard to explain, the twins end up trading islands to work through the latest crisis. They call Nantucket native Elin Hilderbrand queen of the summer novel for a reason; the islands themselves have so much personality in these pages that it feels like very realistic escapist fiction. A previous Summer Reading Guide pick. More info →

I love A. S. Byatt, particularly for the wonderful way she writes her female characters. In this literary mystery and comedy of manners, two scholars research the lives of Victorian Era poets Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte. Through parallel plot lines, two separate love stories and a literary mystery unfold as we push past the surface and get to know all four characters. More info →

After reading A Place Like Mississippi, I was inspired to learn more about Margaret Walker, who spent her early years in New Orleans and went on to become a prominent writer of the Chicago Black Renaissance. Walker was a prolific poet; Jubilee is her only novel. The sweeping story follows a slave named Vyry through the antebellum era, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, focusing on her struggles and suffering, the men she loved, the children she bore, and her constant yearning for freedom. Walker modeled her protagonist after her own great-grandmother. I read the 50th anniversary edition and loved poet Nikki Giovanni’s foreword. (Sensitive readers, be aware of a handful of difficult scenes involving beating, lynching, racism, and cruelty.) When I discovered favorite narrator Robin Miles reads the audiobook, I knew I had to listen. Whispersync narration available. More info →

Readers who loved Killers of the Flower Moon won’t want to miss Grann’s backlist book about an Amazonian expedition gone wrong. In 1925, Percy Fawcett and his son journeyed into the Amazon wilderness in search of an ancient civilization. The whole crew vanished, untraceable in the thick of the forest, but Fawcett did leave a few clues behind about the undiscovered city he called "Z". For years, scientists and explorers have searched for answers to Fawcett’s fate and what he might have discovered before his disappearance. After discovering a collection of Fawcett’s diaries, David Grann embarked on his own quest to solve the mystery, joining other truth-seekers in the dangerous jungle. This propulsive narrative reveals Grann’s dedication to uncovering the truth at all costs: you won't be able to put it down. More info →

From the publisher: "A 'moving and memorable' novel about a cafe where everyone has a story to tell from the award-winning author of The Women of Brewster Place (The Boston Globe). In post–World War II Brooklyn, on a quiet backstreet, there's a little place that draws people from all over—not for the food, and definitely not for the coffee. An in-between place that's only there when you need it, Bailey's Cafe is a crossroads where patrons stay for a while before making a choice: Move on or check out? In this novel, National Book Award–winning author Gloria Naylor’s expertly crafted characters experience a journey full of beauty and heartbreak. Touching on gender, race, and the African American experience, Bailey’s Cafe is 'a sublime achievement' about the resilience of the human spirit (People)." More info →