Bestsellers this week at Sonoma’s local bookstore, Readers’ Books.
Fiction hardcover:
1. “The Emperor of Gladness,” Ocean Vuong.
When an elderly woman sees a young man poised to jump from a bridge, she invites him in and offers him a room in her nearly condemned house on the river’s bank.
2. “James,” Percival Everett.
A reimagining of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view.
3. “Atmosphere: A Love Story,” Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Set during the 1980s Space Shuttle program, a woman finds an unlikely romance during her quest to become one of the first women in space.
4. “Tell Me Everything,” Elizabeth Strout.
After an eighty-six year old woman is found dead in a quarry, a semi-retired lawyer agrees to represent the victim’s son who is the prime suspect in her possible murder.
5. “Nightshade,” Michael Connelly.
After being exiled due to office politics, an Los Angeles sheriff finds that idyllic Catalina Island is just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County when a body is found in the local harbor.
Fiction paperback:
1. “Long Island Compromise,” Taffy Brodesser-Akner.
Forty years since the patriarch’s kidnapping, a family’s dwindling wealth spurs a reckoning with the role that money has played in their successes and failures.
2. “Tom Lake,” Ann Patchett.
At the behest of her three daughters, a mother recounts her love affair as a young woman with a famous actor.
3. “Table for Two: Fictions,” Amor Towles.
A collection of six stories based in New York City about the consequences of compromises made in 21st century marriages, plus one novella set in Golden Age Hollywood following a beloved character, Evelyn Ross.
4. “The Paris Novel,” Ruth Reichl.
A woman’s estranged mother dies and leaves her with a one-way ticket to Paris where she learns to embrace adventure and authenticity.
5. “Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop,” Hwang Bo-reum, transl. Shanna Tan.
A woman takes a leap of faith, abandons her high-flying career and opens a bookshop in a quaint neighborhood in Seoul.
