Tell Me Everything
by Elizabeth Strout
It’s autumn in Maine, and town lawyer Bob Burgess is enmeshed in a murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives in a house by the sea with her ex-husband. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears, their regrets, and what might have been.
Lucy, meanwhile, is introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community nearby. They spend afternoons together telling each other stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea
by TJ Klune
Arthur Parnassus lives a good life, built on the ashes of a bad one. He’s the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six magical children who live there. Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain he once felt as an orphan on that very same island long ago. And he is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth; Zoe Chapelwhite, the island’s sprite; and Zoe’s girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.