Fiction

Immerse yourself in the tale of a lifelong tennis enthusiast with Richard S. Hillman's A Tennis Story. Peter Love fell in love with tennis the day his father introduced the game to his son during a family vacation at a resort in the Catskill Mountains. He played tennis throughout his college years until he graduated from Upsilon University in 1965, trying to cope with the socio-political strife of the '60s by using tennis as an outlet to navigate the stress and pressure of everyday life. During this time, he met the beautiful May Taylor-his future wife. After his stint as a professor at NYU, Peter and his wife retired to Florida. Now, as age has finally caught up to him, Peter struggles to keep up with the game he has loved all his life.

"Funny, poignant, and heartwarming, A Tennis Story is an ode to the game of tennis. The book follows the adventures of a diehard devotee and his lifelong quest to stay competitive even as his body catches up to the passing of the years. Richard S. Hillman infuses a lot of heart and humor into this story. The author captures the turbulent times of '60s and '70s America with an engaging narrative that plays out like a slice-of-life drama with some relevant social commentary. Peter Love is a fascinating protagonist whose inner monologues were some of my favorite parts of the book. The scene when he teamed up with May for a mixed-doubles match had me in stitches. All in all, this is a must-read for tennis fans and drama lovers alike." -Pikasho Deka for Readers' Favorite

Andy Carver and Byron Walker are basically good guys. They just happen to have a highly questionable side-hustle.

Andy was a soldier. Now he's a tractor parts salesman with an adrenaline deficit. Walker is a middle school PE teacher who needs two part-time jobs just to make ends meet. Another thousand dollars a month would make a big difference for Walker. When an opportunity presents itself, Andy and Walker commit their first burglary, with more to follow.

Then they come across a weapon that has to have been stolen from the military. Andy feels obligated to report it to the Army, which means tiptoeing around what he and Walker were doing in a place they didn't belong. Soon, he's in an uneasy alliance with two military police investigators and an ATF agent.

All of this takes place in Raleigh, North Carolina during the early days of COVID-19 and the social and political upheaval of that time. Walker has a run-in with a group of anti-lockdown protestors who turn out to be connected to the stolen weapon. Later, he and Andy are caught up in a Black Lives Matter protest that turns into a riot.

Andy and Walker learn that right and wrong aren't always black and white.

New York Times Readers Pick: 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.