Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists

In the predawn hours of July 10, 2014, the son of Alaskan scientist and National Geographic Explorer Roman Dial walked alone into Corcovado National Park, an untracked rainforest along Costa Rica's remote Pacific Coast. He carried a light backpack and machete. Cody emailed his father that he would do 4 days in the jungle and a day to walk out. He was never seen again. The authorities suspected murder. Dial was forced to confront the question: Was he responsible for his son's fate? (Description from catalog.)

From a mother whose children were taken from her at the U.S. border by the American government in 2018 and another mother who helped reunite the family, a crucial, searing story about the immigration odyssey, family separation and reunification, and the power of individuals to band together to overcome even the most cruel and unjust circumstances. (Description from catalog.)

#1 New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston takes readers on an adventure deep into the Honduran jungle in this riveting, danger-filled true story about the discovery of an ancient lost civilization.
(Description from catalog)

Traveling to World War II Nassau to interview the infamous Duke and Duchess of Windsor, an investigator for a New York society magazine uncovers a treasonous plot that is complicated by her romance with an unscrupulous scientist. (Description from NoveList.)

Unexpectedly chosen to be a family manservant, an 11-year-old Barbados sugar-plantation slave is initiated into a world of technology and dignity before a devastating betrayal propels him throughout the world in search of his true self. (Description from NoveList)

Lala must deal with a chain of events that have terrible consequences when her petty criminal husband is interrupted in his attempt to rob one of the mansions in their "paradise" home of Baxter Beach, Barbados.
(Description from catalog)

In 1960s Florida, a young Cuban exile will risk her life—and heart—to take back her country. (Description from NoveList.)

A fictional account of the young lives of Mirabal sisters Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa, otherwise known in the Dominican Republic as Las Mariposas, describes their suffering and martyrdom in the last days of the Trujillo dictatorship. (Description from NoveList)

Moving his family to an immigrant enclave in New York in the hope of starting over, an emotionally damaged Haitian man succumbs to dark impulses that have dangerous ripple effects for the others living in his home. (Description from NoveList.)

"When Ferron Morgan's father dies in suspicious circumstances, his trauma is exacerbated by the conflict within his family and among his father's friends over whether the death was the result of medical negligence or if it was a political assassination."

Receiving her long-coveted visa to America, Patsy leaves behind her family in Jamaica, only to discover that life as an undocumented immigrant is not what her best friend had described. (Description from NoveList.)

Tells the story of Moshe Fisher, a man who was "born without skin," so that no one is able to tell what race he belongs to; and Arrienne Christie, his quixotic soul mate who makes it her duty in life to protect Moshe from the social and emotional consequences of his strange appearance. (Description from NoveList.)

The founder of World Central Kitchen describes how his culinary network challenged broken government systems while feeding tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans who lost their homes and livelihoods to Hurricane Maria. (Description from NoveList)

An unflinching account of growing up as a queer biracial girl searching for home as her family splits apart and her mother struggles with mental illness and addiction.
(Description from catalog)

Traces the author's explorations of U.S. territories including American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands to juxtapose their blends of culture against the expansionist views of the Founding Fathers. (Description from catalog)

A suburban wife confronts the loss of everything at the same time her husband is found dead on the beaches of St. John, where he harbored a secret second family. (Description from NoveList)