Lake Bluff Library Adult Reading Lists: Uplifting Reads

From the bestselling author, media pioneer, and curator of TED, an inspiring book about one of humankind's defining but overlooked impulses, and how we can super-charge its potential to build a hopeful future. As head of TED, Chris Anderson has had a ringside view of the world's boldest thinkers sharing their most uplifting ideas. Inspired by them and the unique insights he gained from how online sharing transformed TED into a global beacon of transformative ideas, he believes there's a pathway back from outrage to optimism. It all comes down to reimagining the role that one of the most fundamental human virtues-generosity-can play in our connected era.
(Description from catalog)

Born in 1945, Ruth J. Simmons grew up the twelfth child of sharecroppers. Her first home had no running water, no electricity, no books to read. Yet despite this—or, in her words, because of it—Simmons would become the first Black president of an Ivy League university. The former president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M, Texas’s oldest HBCU, Simmons has inspired generations of students as she herself made history.
(Description from Amazon)

The eagerly awaited return of master American storyteller Rinker Buck, Life on the Mississippi is an epic, enchanting blend of history and adventure in which Buck builds a wooden flatboat from the grand “flatboat era” of the 1800s and sails it down the Mississippi River, illuminating the forgotten past of America’s first western frontier.
(Description from Amazon)

Ttraces the personal crisis the author endured after the death of her mother and a painful divorce, which prompted her ambition to undertake a dangerous 1,100-mile solo hike that both drove her to rock bottom and helped her to heal. (Description from NoveList)

Raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists, 20-something Clayton Summer, when the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in his life passes away, bestowing her final puzzle on him, embarks on a quest to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth, which will change him, and the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, forever.--Description by NoveList

Sylvia Bergstrom Compson is contemplating the future of her beloved Elm Creek Quilts. Unexpected financial difficulties have beset them and the Bergstrom family’s 19th-century manor, and she needs new resources to maintain the family legacy. Summer Sullivan, a founding Elm Creek Quilter, arrives to discuss an antique quilt that she wants to display at an upcoming quilt exhibit.
(Description from NoveList)

Bud Threadgoode grew up in the bustling little railroad town of Whistle Stop, Alabama with his mother Ruth and his Aunt Idgie. Together they ran the town's popular Whistle Stop Café, known for its famous 'Fried Green Tomatoes.' But sadly, the town became a ghost town with nothing left but boarded-up buildings and memories of a happier time. Then one day, Bud decides to take one last trip, just to see where his beloved Whistle Stop used to be.
(Description from catalog)

When Poppy met Alex, there was no spark, no chemistry, and no reason to think they'd ever talk again. Alex is quiet, studious, and destined for a future in academia. Poppy is a wild child who only came to University of Chicago to escape small-town life. But after sharing a ride home for the summer, the two form a surprising friendship. Over the years, Alex and Poppy's lives take them in different directions, but every summer the two find their way back to each other for a magical week long vacation. Until one trip goes awry, and in the fallout, they lose touch.
(Description from catalog)

Harlow Smith thought she had finally achieved the quiet life she wanted-a little bookstore on Cape Cod, an apartment in her grandpa's house, a more or less happily single life-when the biggest secret from her past walked into town and changed everything. A kid walks into your bookstore and says to you, Guess what? I'm your son. The one you put up for adoption seventeen years ago. The one you never told anyone about. Surprise! His name is Matthew Walker, and he's come to spend the summer on the Cape with his parents.
(Description from catalog)

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases--a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.
(Description from catalog)

Young widow Evvie Drake and major league pitcher Dean Tenney, who has lost his game and needs a chance to reset his life, form an unlikely relationship when Dean moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie's house. (Description from NoveList.)

Darley, the eldest daughter in the Stockton family, has never worried about money. The product of generational wealth and capitalist success, Darley renounced her inheritance when she married Malcolm, a first generation Korean American with a lucrative job in banking. Sasha, Darley's new sister-in-law, has come from more humble origins, and her hesitancy about signing a pre-nup has everyone worried about her intentions.
(Description from catalog)

In this retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day Pakistan, Alys Binat has sworn never to marry--until an encounter with one Mr. Darsee at a wedding makes her reconsider. A scandal and vicious rumor in the Binat family have destroyed their fortune and prospects for desirable marriages, but Alys, has found happiness teaching English literature to schoolgirls. Knowing that many of her students won't make it to graduation before dropping out to marry and start having children, Alys teaches them about Jane Austen and her other literary heroes and hopes to inspire them to dream of more.
(Description from catalog)

In this hilarious and joyous rom com, sparks fly when a piano genius and a Hollywood heartthrob are thrown together for a charity performance of solos, heartfelt duets, and a big, showstopping finale. (Description from NoveList)

After resurrecting her great-aunt and befriending a half-villainous talking fox, Sera Swan is exiled from the magical Guild and loses her magic, but an old spell book mentioned by a handsome historian may hold the key to restoring her power.
(Description from NoveList)

When Miranda Brooks receives the unexpected news that her uncle Billy has died and left her his bookstore, she discovers he's left her a business teetering on bankruptcy and a final scavenger hunt.

Two parents and their recently-bitten-werewolf daughter try to fit into a privileged New England society of magic aristocracy. But deadly terrors await them – ancient prophecies, remorseless magical trials, hidden conspiracies and the PTA bake sale.
(Description from NoveList)

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic ... and then her bus drives away. Certain they're fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn't find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It's Jack, the man from the bus.
(Description from catalog)

Following the unexpected death of her beloved husband, art gallery owner Samantha Thompson finds herself adrift in their Malibu beach house. Her three adult children are concerned for her well-being and encourage her to take a trip to Paris.
(Description from NoveList)

Agreeing to help her former college roommate care for two stepchildren who possess the ability to spontaneously combust when agitated, Lillian endeavors to keep her young charges cool in the face of an astonishing revelation. (Description from NoveList.)