New Bon Iver album!! I’m excited, but I also need to be in the right mood to listen to him. Feeling nostalgic and wistful, contemplative and a little sad. One of these books is sure to get me in the spirits. They’re brooding with a touch of melancholy, and go perfectly with Bon Iver’s vulnerability.
Becoming Carly Klein by Elizabeth Harlan
Neglected by self-absorbed parents and lost after her best friend moves away, Carly has to find ways to entertain herself. It doesn’t take her long to locate the perfect subject: her therapist mother’s patients. Carly soon becomes obsessed with one patient in particular — Daniel, a blind junior at Columbia College — and, desperate to become part of his life and knowing he’ll never go for a high school girl, gets close to him by pretending to be a student at neighboring Barnard College.
The Secret Song of Shelby Ray by Rayne Lacko
Eighteen-year-old Shelby Rey can hear people’s deepest emotions and truths, in song form, just by touching them. But her gift feels more like a curse. Life has been hard since she lost her dad, but it reaches a new low when her drug-addicted mom kicks her out. But when Shelby meets Zac Wyatt, a chart-topping rock star with a hidden side, she forms an electrifying connection. But darkness lurks beneath the spotlight, much like in my favorite Bon Iver songs.
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Stevens, at the end of three decades of being a butler at Darlington Hall, embarks on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the “great gentleman,” Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s “greatness,” and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy.
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
Ellis and Michael are twelve-year-old boys when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of overbearing fathers. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more. But a decade or so later, Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question: What happened in the years between?
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Lockwood new to the bleak Yorkshire moors, has to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before – the tale of the intense love between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff’s bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.
Good Girl by Aria Aber
Born in Germany to Afghan parents, drawn to philosophy, photography, and sex, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice as a young woman and artist. Then in the haze of Berlin’s legendary nightlife, Nila meets Marlowe, an American writer whose fading literary celebrity opens her eyes to a life of personal and artistic freedom. But as Nila finds herself pulled further into Marlowe’s controlling orbit, ugly, barely submerged racial tensions begin to roil Germany — and Nila’s family and community.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever — and will forever be forgotten by everyone she meets. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name. A Bon Iver song should be playing in the background while you read this.
The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton
In the depths of a 19th-century winter, a little girl is alone on the streets of Victorian London. Shortly after her eighteenth birthday, she travels with a group of artists to a beautiful house on a bend of the Upper Thames. Tensions simmer and one hot afternoon a gunshot rings out. A woman dies, another disappears, and the truth of what happened slips through the cracks of time. It is not until over a century later that its secrets are finally revealed.
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any 13-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The 7-year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevocably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing “big things [that] lurk unsaid” in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest.
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a wild snail that has taken up residence on her nightstand. As a result, she discovers the solace and sense of wonder that this mysterious creature brings and comes to a greater understanding of her own place in the world.
Real Life by Brandon Taylor
Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends. But a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.
Are you listening to the new Bon Iver album? Want to discover more books to read while listening to your next fav album release? Check out our Lit Happens blog for more lists!
Ellen Whitfield is senior publicist at Books Forward, an author publicity and book marketing firm committed to promoting voices from a diverse variety of communities. From book reviews and author events, to social media and digital marketing, we help authors find success and connect with readers.
Interested in what’s possible for your book sales and building readership? Check out our services, tell us your goals, and get a customized publicity campaign tailored just for you.
Zakiya N. Jamal
1:30 p.m.
