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Goodreads Author and journalist Bartlett infiltrates the life of infamous book thief John Gilkey, whose sticky fingers made off with a fortune's worth of books. In this nonfiction tome, Bartlett befriends Gilkey and even accompanies him when he cases a bookstore. Miamienne calls it "strangely addictive. It's like getting a private tour of a book thief's life. He's a wild-thinking, unrepentant criminal hiding behind a Mr. Rogers persona."
The lives of three strangers converge: a man searching for his missing twin brother, a teenage girl who runs away with her history teacher, and a college dropout presumed dead and starting from scratch. Mike says, "Chaon charts his own roadmap; we all have to make sense of who we are, how others see us, who we want to be, who we've been. This novel was deeply affecting, on so many levels: nails bitten, nerves frayed, heart tugged, mood altered, mind boggled."
A Caldecott-winning children's writer enters adult territory with a graphic novel about his childhood in 1950s Detroit. Small's domineering mother and detached father never tell him that he has throat cancer, until one day he wakes up post-op, silenced and shocked to find that his vocal chords have been cut. Sarah says, "Small's memoir goes straight to the gut...leaving you momentarily speechless. And is there any more just reaction to the story of a boy who lost—and then found—his own voice?"
The acclaimed author of Birds of America returns with her first book in ten years. Narrator Tassie Keltjin is a Midwestern college student who takes a part-time nanny job, caring for a biracial adopted child. Set immediately following 9/11, Moore's story is a deft examination of race and class. Anne says, "Here is some of the finest yet of [Moore's] brutal, gorgeous, pun-soaked prose, that tension between witty satire and raw, real human connection."
In this controversial young adult novel, five teenagers fall into prostitution, turning tricks to survive: a preacher's daughter, a prostitute's daughter, a desperate gambling addict, an Indiana farm boy hiding that he's gay, and a popular girl in rebellion. Terry says, "Ultimately, Tricks really is about the human heart, about how it can beguile and deceive, can debase and ennoble, can stumble and fail and recover. And not."
Which author was an advocate for temperance?
Family vacations can be as stressful as they are relaxing. In 1998, Sue Monk Kidd, author of the bestseller The Secret Life of Bees, traveled to Greece and France with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. A decade later, mother and daughter penned a dual memoir of their travels, Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story. Out this month, the book juxtaposes the reflections of a mother, searching for creative renewal at age 50, and a daughter, mired in the aimless confusion of 20-something depression. We asked Sue and Ann for their favorite books that encapsulate the complicated mother-daughter bond.
The Bonesetter's Daughter
"I took this novel on vacation a few summers ago. I can still remember the beach chair I sat in day after day as I read about the conflicted, loving, and enduring bond between a mother and a daughter. I remember nothing else about the vacation but this sumptuous book."
Paula by Isabel Allende
"At first, I didn't know if I could bear to read this heart-rending memoir, which tells the incandescent story of Allende's journey through her grown daughter's coma and death. But I ended it filled with hope and feeling like I'd been returned to what matters most in life."
One True Thing
"I love this utterly gripping novel about a daughter on a career fast track, who returns home to care for her mother and discovers her as a real person before it's too late." 
The Bean Trees
"One of my all-time favorite books about a wise and funny young woman who has managed to escape her poor life in Kentucky without getting pregnant (this being her main goal growing up), and the three-year-old Native American girl she 'inherits' on her road trip. The novel's beauty and brilliance are the deepening way this unlikely pair become mother and daughter."
The Mermaids Singing
"This novel is as magical as the title. Narrated in the voices of three generations of women—mother, daughter, and grandmother—it crisscrosses between America and Ireland, awash in islands, Celtic mythology, and the rich exploration of motherhood."
Little Women
"No matter how often I read this 1868 classic, I find myself enthralled. Marmee, a wise and loving mother, encourages her daughters' ambitions during a time when such notions are not fashionable. You couldn't ask for a better mom in any historical period."
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
"When magical Vianne and her imaginative daughter, Anouk, open a decadent chocolate shop in a small French town during Lent, secrets are revealed and love is tested in the village, but not as much as between Vianne and Anouk themselves. Impossible to read without eating chocolate."
Not Becoming My Mother
"After her mother's death, Reichl goes through her mother's letters and stumbles upon one that is written to her. What unfolds is a compelling story about a mother's choices and the lessons they teach her daughter. Sometimes her best lesson is what not to do." 
Anywhere But Here
"Adele and Ann are one of the more unique mother-daughter duos in literature. Adele could have taken a lesson from Marmee in Little Women about the finer points of motherhood, not to mention the basic ones. I found myself rooting for Ann and absorbed in the messy bond she has with her mother."
Sense and Sensibiilty
"Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters support each other during dreary times. When Mrs. Dashwood comes to ailing Marianne's bedside, it is vividly clear why you never outgrow wanting your mother when you're sick."
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Jessica, Elizabeth, and the Goodreads Team
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