We hope that you are enjoying the 2022 Reading Challenge! If you’re not already, be sure to follow along in our Better World Books 2022 Reading Challenge Facebook Group, subscribe to our text messages, or email list to stay up-to-date. This month, our category is Tales Across Time. This means you can select any title that has two or more timelines: whether it’s through character flashbacks, stories in the same location on different timelines, or time travel, whatever stands out to you is what we want you reading! We know this is a trickier category, so check out these recommendations below and Happy Reading!
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The Magnolia Palace: A Novel
by Fiona Davis
Lillian was one of the most sought after artists’ models in New York City. But since her mother’s death, Lillian’s work has dried up, and a looming scandal has left her entirely without a safe haven. So when she stumbles upon an employment opportunity at the Frick mansion, Lillian jumps at the chance. But the longer she works as a private secretary to Helen Frick, the more she gets pulled into a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama. Nearly fifty years later, model Veronica Weber has her own chance to make her career within the walls of the former Frick residence, now a museum. But when she’s dismissed from the Vogue shoot taking place at the Frick Collection, she chances upon a series of hidden messages that could reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder.
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The Clockmaker’s Daughter: A Novel
by Kate Morton
In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor on the banks of the Upper Thames. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe’s life is in ruins. Over one hundred and fifty years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist’s sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river. Told by multiple voices across time, The Clockmaker’s Daughter is a story of murder, mystery, and thievery, of art, love, and loss.
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Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the world’s great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
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Furyborn (The Empire Trilogy Book 1)
by Claire Legrand
Two young women–a magic-wielding queen and a ruthless bounty hunter–are separated by centuries but connected by a prophecy in this instant “New York Times” bestseller and launch of a thrilling high-fantasy trilogy.
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A riveting, high-stakes political story like UNDER THE DOME, a love story like BAG OF BONES, a 1950s community like IT, Stephen King’s incredibly ambitious, heartstoppingly dramatic time travel novel, 11.22.63 is a WHAT IF? novel like no one’s ever read before – a one thousand page tour de force.
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Love & Gelato
by Jenna Evans Welch
Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home. But then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything Lina knew about her mother, her fatherand even herself. People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.
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The Chalk Man: A Novel
by C.J. Tudor
A riveting psychological suspense debut that weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone dangerously awry, and will keep readers guessing right up to the shocking ending In 1986, Eddie and his friends are on the verge of adolescence, spending their days biking in search of adventure. The chalk men are their secret code, stick figures they draw for one another as hidden messages. But one morning the friends find a chalk man leading them to the woods. They follow the message, only to find the dead body of a teenage girl. In 2016, Eddie is nursing a drinking problem and trying to forget his past, until one day he gets a letter containing a chalk man–the same one he and his friends saw when they found the body. Soon he learns that all his old friends received the same note. When one of them is killed, Eddie realizes that saving himself means figuring out what happened all those years ago.
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Winter Garden: A Novel
by Kristin Hannah
Can a woman ever really know herself if she doesn’t know her mother? From the author of “Firefly Lane” comes a powerful novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the present and the past.
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