Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief, fostered and fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end.
(Description from NoveList)

It’s been years since the Ryan sisters were all together at their beloved family home on the eastern shore of Long Island. Two decades ago, their lives were upended by an accident on their brother Topher’s boat: A friend’s brother was killed, the resulting lawsuit nearly bankrupted their parents, and Topher spiraled into depression, eventually taking his life. Now the Ryan women are back for Thanksgiving, eager to reconnect, but each carrying a heavy secret.
(Description from NoveList)

In Bonhomie, Ohio, a stolen moment of passion, sparked in the exuberant aftermath of the Allied victory in Europe, binds Cal Jenkins, a man wounded not in war but by his inability to serve in it, to Margaret Salt, a woman trying to obscure her past.
(Description from NoveList)

A missing child, two girls in search of their true identities -- a stunning novel of mothers, daughters and best friends.
(Description from NoveList)

Nora's whirlwind romance and marriage to wealthy lawyer Will in exclusive Winter Park, Florida takes a dark turn when he vanishes the morning after his birthday party, leaving Nora to unravel the mystery of his disappearance.
(Description from NoveList)

Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments.
(Description from NoveList)

Cora’s hesitation to name her son triggers three alternate paths over thirty-five years, revealing the lasting impact of domestic abuse and the complexities of family in her search for autonomy and healing.
(Description from NoveList)

Heartwood takes you on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.
(Description from NoveList)

"From Laila Lalami-the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and a "maestra of literary fiction" (NPR)-comes a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman's fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance. Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA's algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days. The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom. Eerie, urgent, and ceaselessly clear-eyed, The Dream Hotel artfully explores the seductive nature of technology, which puts us in shackles even as it makes our lives easier. Lalami asks how much of ourselves must remain private if we are to remain free, and whether even the most invasive forms of surveillance can ever capture who we really are"-- Provided by publisher.

For fifty years, Abe and Jane have been coming to Central Park, as young lovers, as exhausted parents, as artists watching their careers take flight. But now, Jane is dying, and Abe is recounting their life together as a way of keeping them going.
(Description from NoveList)

Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something. She believes she'll find the answer in Scotland, where a friend of her father's - the famous writer Lord Lennox - lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox's centuries-old estate with his family, Pen begins to unravel her parents' secret, just as she's falling in love for the first time. Experiencing the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, and sexual awakening, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward.

Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother. But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.
(Description from Amazon)