BIOGRAPHY
Mozart
Jan Swafford

This celebration of the composer’s life and music shows a genial, happy man with brilliant energy and fearless confidence, creating masterworks that include symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and operas. Despite the very competitive music environment, a hectic schedule, and little money, his music continued to reflect a deep love of life, family, and faith. There is also much in- depth analysis about the development of individual scores. (832 pages)

SPORTS/BIOGRAPHY
Tom Seaver
Bill Madden

Beloved pitcher and rescuer of the Mets franchise, Seaver receives a warm overview of his life and career by friend and iconic sportswriter, Bill Madden. It includes baseball highlights, insight into Seaver’s family relationships, details of his battles with management for respect and fair pay, the career changing dispute with Daily News columnist Dick Young, later health issues, and life after baseball. (304 pages)

THRILLER
The Opium Prince
Jasmine Aimaq

Kabul was once a city of Western fashions, discos, cinemas, business, and universities – “The Paris of Central Asia”. An American aid agency sends Daniel to his family homeland to help farmers turn fields from poppies to food crops shortly before the Russian-backed revolution. But a tragic accident exposes him to blackmail by Taj, a local opium dealer. In the spiraling chaos, Daniel confronts family secrets, haunted by a young girl’s death and the uncertainties of ethics, loyalty, and betrayal. (384 pages)

ADVENTURE
Miss Benson’s Beetle
Rachel Joyce

Her secret childhood dream of searching for a mythical golden beetle becomes reality when spinster Margery flees a dull teaching job with a pair of stolen boots. Sailing away with her young and unqualified (yet resourceful) assistant, Enid, they are pursued
through often humorous and sometimes poignant adventures by a menacing war
veteran and their own troubled pasts. But aided by a growing friendship, the women persist in their expedition to the wilds of New Caledonia. (352 pages)

MEMOIR
All the Young Men
Ruth Coker Burks

In every crisis there are Americans who step forward before everyone else, taking risks and fighting battles no others dare – only to be largely forgotten by history. Ruth is one such person and this is her story at the forefront of helping frightened young men during the start of the AIDS epidemic. Though outcast by her family and community, and harassed by the KKK, she persevered, giving comfort to the sick and counsel to a President. (304 pages)

SCARY FICTION
Plain Bad Heroines
Emily M. Danforth

Students at a 1902 girls school form “The Plain Bad Heroine Society”, a club infatuated with the scandalous memoir of Mary MacLane. After several girls tragically die, the school closes. A century passes and the property is reopened to serve as the set for a horror film based on a new book about the school. There is a creepy pall over the production, even as the glam of a famous new author and Hollywood actresses add an air of satire to the spooky atmosphere. (640 pages)

POLITICS/GOVERNMENT
Kill Switch
Adam Jentleson

Though not originally part of their processes, filibusters were an unintended consequence of early efforts to simplify 1800s, it – Senate rules. Since the mid has been used to block legislation. The author discusses filibuster history, efforts to reform and circumvent the process, types of legislation commonly targeted, and its role in the decline of American democracy. (272 pages)

DID YOU MISS THIS ONE?
No One Is Talking About This
By Patricia Lockwood

She surrendered to the portal, a “spiderweb of human connection grown so thick it was almost a shimmering and solid silk”. She scrolls through familiar, endless, humorous or ironic posts and tweets gone viral, which lulled her into fame, an international career, and social media addiction. But then a family appears in the portal. Can it wrench her away with their demands —a family in crisis, grief, and desperation? Now all that came before is surreal. Has it left her still with enough humanity intact to connect? A truly unique book of lives lived in parallel, online and off. (224 pp)

The Outsider
Stephen King

Don’t DNA, witnesses, and fingerprint evidence close the case? Detective
Anderson has it all from the homicide scene of a young boy, but the killer has an airtight alibi and is a beloved family man, teacher, and coach. How can a murderer be in two places at the same time, hundreds of miles apart? A perplexed Anderson finds there are much more frightening leads to discover.

The Outsider
Warner Bros/HBO series

This cast received positive reviews for their performances, and the series Choice ’ was nominated for two Critics Awards. Ten episodes running a total of 551 minutes.