eReading Room

Recommended at Open Book Night: Patron Picks in "E"

Not sure what to read next? Check out these book recommendations from fellow book lovers! The second Friday of the month is Open Book Night at the Mid-Manhattan Library, when we meet to talk about books we love. Readers share a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction titles that they’ve enjoyed, so we hope you’ll find something you’ll love to read in this selection of books recommended in 2015. All the tiles are available from the Library as e-books, as well as in print. Please come and share some of your book recommendations at our monthly gatherings. Our theme for Friday, January 8 is "In with the New!" We'd love to hear about your favorite new reads from 6-7 PM.

Never borrowed an e-book from the Library? No worries! We're also in the middle of our 5th annual  eBook Central this month (January 4 - January 16), helping readers set up free Library e-book apps on their e-readers, tablets, phones, and laptops.  If you're interested in a hands-on e-book tutorial, please stop by eBook Central during the hours listed. You can also find online help on the eBook Central page.

You can find the complete annotated reading lists from our 2015 Open Book Nights here. We wish you lots of great reading in 2016!

Old Favorites

Old Favorites recommended at Open Book Night

The Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. Renowned 13th-century Chinese epic.

The Aeneid by Virgil. Epic Latin poem published in the 1st century AD.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote. Classic New York novella.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Seminal post-colonial African novel, published in 1958.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Timeless meditation on how we live, published in 1972.

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty. Beselling horror classic published in 1971.

Time and Again by Jack Finney. Classic time travel novel of New York, published in 1970.

Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A gripping aviation tale, published in 1931.

Idiots First by Bernard Malamud. Short stories from a great mid-20th century New York writer.

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser. Pulitzer Prize-winning 1996 novel of 19th century New York.

Recent Fiction

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

The House Girl by Tara Conklin

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Recipe for a Happy Life by Brenda Janowitz

I Am Having So Much Fun Here WIthout You by Courtney Maum

Satin Island by Tom McCarthy

The Swing Voter of Staten Island  by Arthur Nersesian

Netherland by Joseph O’Neill

Lila by Marilynne Robinson

The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by Ryan J. Stradal

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

Memoirs, Travel, and Exploring

The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick (2015).

A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin (1951).

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman (2012)

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (1996)

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed (2012)

The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost: A Memoir of Three Continents, Two Friends, and One Unexpected Adventure by Rachel Friedman (2011).

1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (2011).

The Oregon Trail: An American Journey by Rinker Buck (2015).

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (1998).

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain (1875)

History

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen (2007).

Just Kids from the Bronx: Telling It the Way It Was: An Oral History by Arlene Alda (2015).

Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester (2010).

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides (2014).

The Ugly Renaissance: Sex, Greed, Violence and Depravity in an Age of Beauty by Alexander Lee (2013.)

Finance and Food

Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-- That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not by Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter (1997).

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (2010)

Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo  (2007).

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (2009).

What e-books would you recommend to our reading community? Come to an Open Book Night  and tell us, or let us know in the comments section below.