Book recommendations from the Biblioracle

1. “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead

2. “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski

3. “Kafka on the Shore” by Haruki Murakami

4. “These Truths: A History of the United States” by Jill Lepore

5. “Lost Empress” by Sergio De La Pava

— Mark W., Clarendon Hills

I’m continuing to assuage my guilt over how few Biblioracle Live recommendations I was able to accommodate during my recent event by doing them here. For Mark, I’m recommending a book I highlighted at the live show: Will Chancellor’s “A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall.”

1. “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle

2. “Ask Again, Yes” by Mary Beth Keane

3. “The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West” by David McCullough

4. “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens

5. “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead

— Bambie M., Elkhorn, Wisconsin

Bambie looks like she can handle some emotionally difficult and graphic material which delivers a blow, which draws me to Roxane Gay’s “Untamed State.”

1. “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley” by John Carreyrou

2. “Heavy: An American Memoir” by Kiese Laymon

3. “Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family” by Robert Kolker

4. “Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson” by Robert Polito

5. “The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform The Grisly World of Victorian Medicine” by Lindsey Fitzharris

— Chris C., Wilmette

All nonfiction here, so I’ll go with it. This is a somewhat older book that has taken on new relevance for obvious reasons, but is fascinating even without that reality: “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History” by John M. Barry.