Oregon City Library 2023 Mid-year Staff Picks

Here's what your Oregon City library staffers have enjoyed reading this first half of 2023.

Updated September 6, 2023
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Beartown : a novel
Backman, Fredrik
Paper Book
"You'll love this engrossing novel." --People From the bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Anxious People, Fredrik Backman captivates readers with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream--and the price required to make it come...
The body : a guide for occupants
Bryson, Bill
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST * LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD "Glorious. . .You will marvel at the brilliance and vast weirdness of your design." --The Washington...
Cloud cuckoo land : a novel
Doerr, Anthony
Paper Book
On the New York Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks * A New York Times Notable Book * A National Book Award Finalist * Named a Best Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, and many more "If you're looking for...
The code breaker : Jennifer Doudna, gene editing, and the future of the human race
Isaacson, Walter
Paper Book
A Best Book of 2021 by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Time, and The Washington Post The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a "compelling" (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna...
Convenience store woman
Murata, Sayaka
Paper Book
The English-language debut of an exciting young voice in international fiction, selling 660,000 copies in Japan alone, Convenience Store Woman is a bewitching portrayal of contemporary Japan through the eyes of a single woman who fits in to the rigidity of its work culture only too well<...
The covenant of water : a novel
Verghese, Abraham
Paper Book
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in...
Demon Copperhead : a novel
Kingsolver, Barbara
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION New York Times Readers' Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century * An Oprah's Book Club Selection * An Instant New York Times Bestseller * An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller * A #1 Washington Post...
Dune
Herbert, Frank.
Paper Book
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the 'spice' melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange...
The factory
Oyamada, Hiroko
Paper Book
The English-language debut of one of Japan's most exciting new writers, The Factory follows three workers at a sprawling industrial factory. Each worker focuses intently on the specific task they've been assigned: one shreds paper, one proofreads documents, and another studies the moss growing...
The forever witness : how DNA and genealogy solved a cold case double murder
Humes, Edward
Paper Book
When Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook were murdered during a trip to Seattle in the 1980s, detectives had few leads. They assumed Tanya and Jay were victims of a serial killer - but without any leads, the case seemed doomed. In deep-freeze, long-term storage, biological evidence from the crime sat...
Fuzz
Roach, Mary
Paper Book
What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the...
A gentleman in Moscow
Towles, Amor
Paper Book
The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers * A New York Times "Readers' Choice: Best Books of the 21st Century" Pick From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Table for Two, a beautifully transporting novel about a...
The girl who fell beneath the sea
Oh, Axie
Audiobook
Deadly storms have ravaged Mina's homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a...
The guide : a novel
Heller, Peter
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The best-selling author of The River returns with a heart-racing thriller about a young man who is hired by an elite fishing lodge in Colorado, where he uncovers a plot of shocking menace amid the natural beauty of sun-drenched streams and forests.
Hamnet : a novel of the plague
O'Farrell, Maggie
Paper Book
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The bestselling author of The Marriage Portrait delivers a luminous portrait of a marriage, a family ravaged by grief, and a boy whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time. *...
Happiness : a novel
Steel, Danielle
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From Danielle Steel comes an uplifting novel about an author who--to her surprise--inherits a grand estate near London. Sabrina Brooks is a wildly successful bestselling author of gripping thrillers. Unlike her fictional characters, Sabrina...
Happy place
Henry, Emily
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ∙ A couple who broke up months ago pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry. "The beach-read master...
Heartstopper. Volume 1
Oseman, Alice
Paper Book
Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. A sweet and charming coming-of-age story that explores friendship, love, and coming out. This edition features beautiful two-color artwork. Now streaming on Netflix! Shy and softhearted Charlie Spring sits next to...
Hell followed with us
White, Andrew Joseph
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A furious, queer debut novel about embracing the monster within and unleashing its power against your oppressors. "A long, sustained scream to the various strains of anti-transgender legislation multiplying around the world...
High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out
Ripley, Amanda
Paper Book
When we are baffled by the insanity of the "other side"--in our politics, at work, or at home--it's because we aren't seeing how the conflict itself has taken over. That's what "high conflict" does. It's the invisible hand of our time. And it's different from the useful friction...
In a sunburned country
Bryson, Bill.
Paper Book
Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. This time in Australia. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned Country is his...
The Inugami curse
Yokomizo, Seishi
Paper Book
A fiendish classic murder mystery, from one of Japan's greatest crime writers, featuring the country's best-loved detective In 1940s Japan, the wealthy head of the Inugami clan dies, and his family eagerly await the reading of the will. But no sooner are its strange details...
The island of sea women : a novel
See, Lisa
Paper Book
A new novel from Lisa See, the New York Times bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and family secrets on a small Korean island. Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come...
Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI
Grann, David
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, "one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."--New York...
Klara and the sun
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. This magnificent novel from the Nobel laureate and author of Never Let Me Go is "an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures ... a...
Lapvona
Moshfegh, Ottessa
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller! "Lapvona flips all the conventions of familial and parental relations, putting hatred where love should be or a negotiation where grief should be . . . Through a mix of witchery, deception, murder, abuse, grand delusion, ludicrous...
Lessons in chemistry
Garmus, Bonnie
Paper Book
#1 GLOBAL BESTSELLER WITH MORE THAN 8 MILLION COPIES SOLD * Meet Elizabeth Zott: "a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention" (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a ...
The light pirate
Brooks-Dalton, Lily
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE Set in the near future, this hopeful story of survival and resilience follows Wanda--a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane--as she navigates a rapidly changing world: A "symphony of beauty and heartbreak"...
The maid : a novel
Prose, Nita
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK * "A heartwarming mystery with a lovable oddball at its center" (Real Simple), this cozy whodunit introduces a one-of-a-kind heroine who will steal your heart.   FINALIST FOR...
Middlemarch
Eliot, George
Paper Book
George Eliot's beloved masterpiece in a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with a foreword by Rebecca Mead, author of the bestselling memoir My Life in Middlemarch A triumph of realist fiction, George Eliot's Middlemarch- A Study of Provincial Life explores a fictional...
Middlesex
Eugenides, Jeffrey.
Paper Book
Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. A dazzling triumph from the bestselling author of The Virgin Suicides--the astonishing tale of a gene that passes down through three generations of a Greek-American family and flowers in the body of a teenage girl.
The myth of normal : trauma, illness, and healing in a toxic culture
Mate?, Gabor
Paper Book
The instant New York Times bestseller By the acclaimed author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, a groundbreaking investigation into the causes of illness, a bracing critique of how our society breeds disease, and a pathway to health and healing. ...
Night film : a novel
Pessl, Marisha.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR * Cosmopolitan * Kirkus Reviews * BookPage A page-turning thriller for readers of Stephen King, Gillian Flynn, and Stieg Larsson, Night Film tells the haunting story of a...
Ordinary men : Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the final solution in Poland
Browning, Christopher R.
Audiobook
"A remarkable--and singularly chilling--glimpse of human behavior. . .This meticulously researched book...represents a major contribution to the literature of the Holocaust."--Newsweek  Now available in audio for the first time, Christopher R. Browning's shocking account...
The perfect marriage
Rose, Jeneva
Paper Book
One million sold: "A tantalizing premise . . . twists at every turn . . . [A] masterful debut about betrayal and justice" by a New York Times-bestselling author (Samantha M. Bailey, #1 national bestselling author of Watch Out for Her).<...
A psalm for the wild-built
Chambers, Becky
Paper Book
Winner of the Hugo Award! In A Psalm for the Wild-Built, bestselling Becky Chambers's delightful new Monk and Robot series, gives us hope for the future. It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools;...
Rebecca
Du Maurier, Daphne
Paper Book
Now a Netflix film starring Lily James and Kristin Scott Thomas "Last Night I Dreamt I went to Manderley Again..." With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the...
Reckless girls
Hawkins, Rachel
Paper Book
Instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller Indie Next Pick and LibraryReads Pick From Rachel Hawkins, the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs, comes a deliciously wicked gothic suspense, set on an...
Rogues : true stories of grifters, killers, rebels and crooks
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the award-winning author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing--and one of the most decorated journalists of our time--twelve enthralling true stories of skulduggery and intrigue "An excellent collection of Keefe's detective...
Rough sleepers
Kidder, Tracy
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The powerful story of an inspiring doctor who made a difference, by helping to create a program to care for Boston's homeless community--by the Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Mountains Beyond Mountains "I...
Saga. Volume ten
Vaughan, Brian K.
Paper Book
Book Riot
The silent patient
Michaelides, Alex
Paper Book
**THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** "An unforgettable--and Hollywood-bound--new thriller... A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy." --Entertainment Weekly The Silent Patient is a...
Something wilder
Lauren, Christina
Paper Book
The "reigning romance queens" (PopSugar) and New York Times bestselling authors of Love and Other Words and The Unhoneymooners present a charming and laugh-out-loud funny novel filled with adventure, treasure, and, of course, love. Growing up the...
State of terror : a novel
Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Paper Book
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER​ Named one of the most anticipated novels of the season by People, Associated Press, Time, Los Angeles Times, Parade, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Guardian, Publishers Weekly,...
A tale for the time being
Ozeki, Ruth L.
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there's only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates' bullying. But before she ends it , Nao plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who's lived more than a century. A diary...
That bird has my wings : the autobiography of an innocent man on death row
Masters, Jarvis Jay
Paper Book
Finding freedom behind the walls of San Quentin.
The three little guinea pigs
Perl, Erica S.
Paper Book
A laugh-out-loud retelling of The Three Little Pigs, The Three Little Guinea Pigs is perfect for fans of fairytales and guinea pigs alike. This clever story by prolific children's book author Erica S. Perl and dynamic illustrator Amy Young makes a perfect read-aloud and includes...
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Zevin, Gabrielle
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Sam and Sadie--two college friends, often in love, but never lovers--become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It...
Transcendent kingdom
Gyasi, Yaa
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK! * Finalist for the WOMEN'S PRIZE Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama...
Tuesdays with Morrie : an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson
Albom, Mitch
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A special 25th anniversary edition of the beloved book that has changed millions of lives with the story of an unforgettable friendship, the timeless wisdom of older generations, and healing lessons on loss and grief--featuring a new afterword by the author<...
Us against you
Backman, Fredrik
Paper Book
A #1 New York Times Bestselling AuthorAfter all that the citizens of Beartown have gone through, they now learn that their beloved hockey team will soon be disbanded. Former Beartown players now playing for a rival team take obvious satisfaction in that fact. Amidst the mounting tension, a...
The wife upstairs
Hawkins, Rachel
Paper Book
Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller "Compulsively readable...a gothic thriller laced with arsenic." --EW One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021: CNN * Newsweek * Vulture * PopSugar...
The winners : a novel
Backman, Fredrik
Paper Book
A breathtaking new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People and A Man Called Ove, The Winners returns to the close-knit, resilient community of Beartown for a story about first loves, second chances, and last goodbyes. Over...
A year in Provence
Mayle, Peter.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures...
Yellow bird : oil, murder, and a woman's search for justice in Indian country
Murdoch, Sierra Crane
Paper Book
The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it--an urgent work of literary journalism.   "I don't know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than...

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