The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach - Once the reader picks up The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach's novel about a phenomenally talented and dedicated college baseball player, it is impossible to put down. Harbach's lyrical descriptions of a shortstop's fielding will enthrall even those readers with no passion for the game, and his development of characters and their relationships stretches beyond the national pastime.<br><br>—Nancy of Breakwater Books, Guilford

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain - Unless you served in Iraq as I did, this is the closest you'll come to understanding this war and the suffering every combat veteran must endure in returning home. Like Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Heller before him, Fountain brings to light the truths and fallacies of war balanced with a proper dose of humor. You'll feel the weight of a ballistic vest heavy upon your shoulders...a weight that never fully disappears and is carried for the duration of a soldier's life until one can find peace. —Tim of RJ Julia Booksellers, Madison

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo - Life in Annawadi, a slum of 3,000 people on the outskirts of Mumbai airport, is populated with colorful, resourceful characters who dumpster-dive and thieve to survive. Although bleak, the story is illuminating in its depiction of the pervasive corruption, feuds, and redemption of the residents. Katherine Boo has been credited with writing the best piece of reportage on India in at least a half century. —Barb of Breakwater Books,Guilford

Bringing Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel - Yes, we all know the story of the downfall of Anne Boleyn. But, Hilary Mantel portrays the time, the people, the drama, and the suspense so well that the story seems fresh and absorbing. —Kathryn of RJ Julia Booksellers, Madison

Canada by Richard Ford - I fell in love with this wonderful, complicated, intense novel by page 30. The prose is terrific, and I was immersed in the story of a family and the impact on children from their parents' errant behavior. A great read! —Kathryn of RJ Julia Booksellers, Madison

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles - This novel set in Manhattan and Long Island in the '30s will remind you of F. Scott Fitzgerald with its depiction of the very privileged and the working class aspiring to become part of that world. Katey Kontent is the wisecracking and nervy main character, and the reader will be rooting for her until the very end. —Kathy of Breakwater Books, Guilford

Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick - I am moved to think that the author, Robert Goolrick, has experienced the kind of love that forms the basis for this book; the love that comes unexpectedly and unbidden, that transports you to the heights of happiness and the depths of despair, that inhabits the heart and smashes the soul. How else could he write about Charlie, the lonely stranger new to Brownsburg, Virginia and Sylvan, the beautiful teenage bride of the town's richest man? How else could he put on paper this story, as old as time, but told with such force and emotion that I found my physical self propelled forward through this book with no turning back? —Peggy of RJ Julia Booksellers, Madison

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward - Don't be deterred by the setting, a very small, impoverished Southern town, or the main characters, an alcoholic father still grieving for his late wife after many years and his four dirt-poor-but-resourceful children. By the time Hurricane Katrina makes landfall, this National Book Award-winner becomes a powerful treatise on hope, spirit, and, especially, love. ­—Kathy of Breakwater Books, Guilford