The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green – “The Fault in Our Stars brilliantly explores the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.”

Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson – Gilead is an intimate tale of three generations, from the Civil War to the 20th century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America’s heart.

All the Living: A Novel, by C.E. Morgan – All the Living has the timeless quality of a parable, but is also a perfect evocation of a time and place, a portrait of both age-old conflicts and modern life. It is an ode to the starve-acre Southern farm, the mountain landscape, and difficult love.

The Sense of an Ending, by Julian Barnes – Tony Webster is presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he’d understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

The Rest of Life: Three Novellas, by Mary Gordon –  This book comprises three masterful tales of women in the grips of complicated and dangerous loves.

Tinkers, by Paul Harding - Tinkers is about the legacy of consciousness and the porousness of identity from one generation to the next. At once heartbreaking and life affirming, it is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, and the fierce beauty of nature.