summer's hottest ebooks

 "Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting."
--"A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini

We know waiting is difficult, but here are some suggestions to tide you over while you wait for the summer's hottest ebooks and eaudiobooks!

Download the Hoopla app and log in with a valid library card for instant, anytime access to Hoopla's entire catalog of ebooks, eaudiobooks, music, movies, and graphic novels/comics!  Hoopla is available to residents within the city limits of the following communities: Birmingham, Center Point, Gardendale, Homewood, Hoover, Irondale, Leeds, Mountain Brook, Pinson, Pleasant Grove, Trussville, Vestavia Hills, and Warrior.

These are the top 5 most popular ebook titles with the longest holdlists.  Whet your appetite with something else while you wait!

·       Happy Place by Emily Henry

·       Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

·       Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

·       Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

·       Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (THISTITLE IS INSTANTLY AVAILABLE IN EBOOK AND EAUDIOBOOK ON HOOPLA!)

HAPPY PLACE

Stay by Allie Larkin (ebook on Libby)
Savannah “Van” Leone has been in love with Peter Clarke since their first day of college. Six years later, Peter is marrying Van's best friend, Janie. After the wedding, nursing her broken heart with a Rin Tin Tin marathon plus a vodka chaser, Van accidentally orders a German Shepherd puppy over the Internet. When “Joe” turns out to be a hundred-pound beast who only responds to commands in Slovak, Van is at the end of her rope-until she realizes that sometimes life needs to get more complicated before it can get better.

You Had Me at Hello by Mhairi McFarlane (ebook on Hoopla)
Rachel and Ben. Ben and Rachel. It was them against the world. Until it all fell apart. Ten years after they said goodbye, Rachel bumps into Ben one rainy day. As they talk, the years melt away. But life has moved on. Ben is married. Rachel is not. And slowly but surely, Rachel feels the return of the broken heart she can′t do anything to mend.

Mhairi McFarlane also has other great titles available in ebook & eaudio on Hoopla and Libby.

The Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
The USA Today bestselling author is back with a hilarious rom-com about two strangers who get trapped in a lie and have to fake date their way out of it...

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune (ebook & eaudio on Libby) **this may have as many holds as Emily Henry’s books but it’s a perfect readalike and worth the wait!
Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic story of love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha (ebook on Hoopla)
A darkly comic debut, bursting with vibrant Brazilian spirit and unforgettable characters – a jubilant novel about the emancipation of women.

Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict (ebook on Hoopla, ebook on Libby)
Marie Benedict's powerful new novel shines a light on Rosalind Franklin, a woman who sacrificed her life to discover the nature of our very DNA, a woman whose world-changing contributions were hidden by the men around her but whose relentless drive advanced our understanding of humankind.

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz (ebook onLibby)
Two women’s lives, separated by 30 years, intertwine as war breaks out across the timeline--a war that threatens to destroy time travel and leave only a small group of elites with the power to shape the past, present, and future. Against the vast and intricate forces of history and humanity, is it possible for a single person’s actions to echo throughout the timeline?

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz (ebook on Libby)
A"rollicking biography" (People Magazine) and extraordinarily entertaining account of how Julia Child transformed herself into the cult figure who touched off a food revolution that has gripped the country for decades.

Half Life by Jillian Cantor (ebook on Libby and ebook & eaudio on Hoopla)
The USA Today bestselling author reimagines the pioneering, passionate life of Marie Curie using a parallel structure to create two alternative timelines, one that mirrors her real life, one that explores the consequences for Marie and for science if she’d made a different choice.

HELLO BEAUTIFUL

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (ebook & eaudio on Hoopla, ebook & eaudio on Libby)
Meg - the sweet-tempered one. Jo - the smart one. Beth - the shy one. Amy - the sassy one. 
Together they're the March sisters. Their father is away at war and times are difficult, but the bond between the sisters is strong. Through sisterly squabbles, happy times and sad, their lives follow different paths, and they discover growing up is sometimes very hard to do. . . 

Maame by Jessica George (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.

Pride by Ibi Zoboi (ebook & eaudio on Hoopla, ebook & eaudio on Libby)
In a timely update of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi skillfully balances cultural identity, class, and gentrification against the heady magic of first love in her vibrant reimagining of this beloved classic. A smart, funny, gorgeous retelling.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
In Mary Beth Keane's extraordinary novel, a lifelong friendship and love blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next thirty years. Heartbreaking and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes is a gorgeous and generous portrait of the daily intimacies of marriage and the power of forgiveness.

The Lost Family by Jenna Blum (ebook & eaudio on Hoopla)
Jenna Blum artfully brings to the page a husband devastated by a grief he cannot name, a frustrated wife struggling to compete with a ghost she cannot banish, and a daughter sensitive to the pain of both her own family and another lost before she was born. Spanning three cinematic decades, The Lost Family is a charming, funny, and elegantly bittersweet study of the repercussions of loss and love.

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
With the unexpected arrival of a child placed for adoption by one of their daughters fifteen years before, the Sorensons will be forced to reckon with the rich and varied tapestry of their past. As they grapple with years marred by adolescent angst, infidelity, and resentment, they also find the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile.

Shaky Town by Lou Mathew (ebook on Hoopla)
Welcome to Shaky Town, a place invisible on maps and found only in the secret heart of its citizens. In this masterwork of panoramic style, Lou Mathews—a former mechanic and street racer—weaves together the tragedies and glories of one eastside neighborhood in the 1980s. A luminous achievement of peerless authenticity, Shaky Town captures the grit and gold of working-class Los Angeles and lays down Matthews's marker as one of the city’s great chroniclers.

ROMANTIC COMEDY

Other ebooks by Curtis Sittenfeld on Libby

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade (ebook & eaudio on Hoopla)
Olivia Dade bursts onto the scene in this delightfully fun romantic comedy set in the world of fanfiction, in which a devoted fan goes on an unexpected date with her celebrity crush, who’s secretly posting fanfiction of his own. 

The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
A disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
“Beautifully written and incredibly funny, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about the importance of friendship and human connection. I fell in love with Eleanor, an eccentric and regimented loner whose life beautifully unfolds after a chance encounter with a stranger; I think you will fall in love, too!” —Reese Witherspoon

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
A heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: there's not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

DEMON COPPERHEAD (THIS TITLE IS INSTANTLY AVAILABLE INEBOOK AND EAUDIOBOOK ON HOOPLA!)

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (ebook on Libby, ebook & eaudio on Hoopla)
The story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver (ebook & eaudio on Hoopla)
Over the course of one humid summer, as the urge to procreate overtakes the lush countryside, this novel's intriguing protagonists—a reclusive wildlife biologist, a young farmer's wife marooned far from home, and a pair of elderly, feuding neighbors—face disparate predicaments but find connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with whom they necessarily share a place.

The Most They Ever Had by Rick Bragg (ebook & eaudio on Libby, eaudio on Hoopla)
In the spring of 2001, a community of people in the Appalachian foothills of northern Alabama had come to the edge of all they had ever known. Across the South, padlocks and logging chains bound the doors of silent mills, and it seemed a miracle to blue-collar people in Jacksonville that their mill still bit, shook, and roared. This is a mill story—not of bricks, steel, and cotton, but of the people who suffered it to live.

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
Ree Dolly's father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. With two young brothers depending on her, 16-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. Living in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks, Ree learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake. But, as an unsettling revelation lurks, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in a family network that protects its own at any cost.

White Trash by Nancy Isenberg (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
In her groundbreaking  bestselling history of the class system in America, Nancy Isenberg takes on our comforting myths about equality, uncovering the crucial legacy of the ever-present, always embarrassing—if occasionally entertaining—poor white trash.

Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
Urgent and compassionate, Signal Fires is a magical story for our times, a literary tour de force by a masterful storyteller at the height of her powers. A luminous meditation on family, memory, and the healing power of interconnectedness.

Here are the top 5 most popular eaudiobook titles with the longest holdlists.  Bide your time with a listenalike!

·       Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

·       Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (THISTITLE IS INSTANTLY AVAILABLE IN EBOOK AND EAUDIOBOOK ON HOOPLA!)

·       Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

·       Happy Place by Emily Henry

·       Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW

Followers by Megan Angelo (ebook & eaudio on Libby, ebook & eaudio on Hoopla)
“This dark, pitch-perfect novel about our dependence on technology for validation and human connection is as addictive as social media itself.” —People Magazine

The Overstory by Richard Powers (eaudio on Hoopla)
From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours―vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days. When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself. 

Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen (ebook & eaudio on Hoopla, ebook & eaudio on Libby)
For fans of Hustlers and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, the story of two women who band together to grow a counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprise—an incisive and glittering blend of fashion, crime, and friendship

Libby ebook only for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. 

REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES (THIS TITLE IS INSTANTLYAVAILABLE IN EBOOK AND EAUDIOBOOK ON HOOPLA!)

Ebook only on Hoopla and Libby for The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
A remarkable journey of survival and resilience, showing us how a small part of the natural world can illuminate our own human existence, while providing an appreciation of what it means to be fully alive.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (ebook & audio on Hoopla, ebook & eaudio on Libby)
This New York Times bestselling novel from Garth Stein is a heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope as well as a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life . . . as only a dog could tell it.

Inland by Tea Obreht (eaudio on Libby)
Mythical, lyrical, and sweeping in scope, Inland is grounded in true but little-known history. It showcases all of Téa Obreht’s talents as a writer, as she subverts and reimagines the myths of the American West, making them entirely—and unforgettably—her own.

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman (eaudio on Libby)
When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—she finds work as the caretaker of a soon-to-be demolished recreation center. The fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery (eaudio on Hoopla)
This “fascinating…touching…informative…entertaining” (The Daily Beast) book explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus—a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature—and the remarkable connections it makes with humans.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (eaudio on Libby)
Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. This magnificent novel is “an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures ... a poignant meditation on love and loneliness” (The Associated Press).

Dog on It by Spencer Quinn (eaudio on Hoopla)
Chet, the wise and lovable canine narrator of Dog on It, and Bernie, a down-on-his-luck private investigator, are quick to take a new case involving a frantic mother searching for her teenage daughter. With Chet’s highly trained nose leading the way, their hunt for clues takes them into the desert to biker bars and other exotic locales—until the bad guys try to turn the tables and the resourceful duo lands in the paws of peril.

Honorable mention, but not available digitally: Genesis by Bernard Beckett
In this brilliant novel of dazzling ingenuity, Anax’s examination to be admitted into the Academy—the elite governing institution of her utopian society—leads us into a future where we are confronted with unresolved questions raised by science and philosophy. Centuries old, these questions have gained new urgency in the face of rapidly developing technology. What is consciousness? What makes us human? If artificial intelligence were developed to a high enough capability, what special status could humanity still claim? 

PINEAPPLE STREET

The Guncle by Steven Rowley (eaudio on Libby)
A warm and deeply funny novel about a once-famous gay sitcom star whose unexpected family tragedy leaves him with his niece and nephew for the summer.

The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (eaudio on Libby, eaudioon Hoopla)
A warm, funny and acutely perceptive debut novel about four adult siblings and the fate of the shared inheritance that has shaped their choices and their lives.

The Mothers by Brit Bennett (eaudio on Libby)
It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother's recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor's son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it's not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance—and the subsequent cover-up—will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth.

Family Trust by Kathy Wang (eaudio on Hoopla)
Spanning themes of culture, ambition, love and – most of all – family, this sparkling debut is a sharp, funny and loving portrait of modern Asian-American life.

Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan (eaudio on Libby)
Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life—and announces herself as a singular new voice.

The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward (eaudio on Hoopla)
Can four lost adults find the peace they’ve been seeking by reconciling their childhood aches and coming back together? The Jetsetters is a delicious and intelligent novel about the courage it takes to reveal our true selves, the pleasures and perils of family, and how we navigate the seas of adulthood.

HAPPY PLACE

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
With its keen observations of creative life in America today, as well as the joys and complications of being a mother and a daughter, Seven Days in June is a hilarious, romantic, and sexy-as-hell story of two writers discovering their second chance at love.

A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria (ebook & eaudio on Hoopla, ebook & eaudio on Libby)
The national bestselling author of You Had Me at Hola returns with a seductive second-chance romance about a commitment-phobic Latina and her childhood best friend who has finally returned home.

The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
From “the undisputed boss of the beach read” (The New York Times), The Summer Place is a testament to family in all its messy glory; a story about what we sacrifice and how we forgive. Enthralling, witty, big-hearted, and sharply observed, this is Jennifer Weiner’s love letter to the Outer Cape and the power of home, the way our lives are enriched by the people we call family, and the endless ways love can surprise us.

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
Second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble and when he loses his cool at their already strained relationship, Thea asks for a divorce. Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.

LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

Florence Gordon by Brian Morton (ebook & eaudio on Hoopla)
Meet Florence Gordon, a blunt, brilliant feminist. At seventy-five, Florence wants to be left alone to write her memoir and shape her legacy. But when her son and his family come to visit, they embroil Florence in their dramas, threatening her coveted solitude. Marked with searing wit, sophisticated intelligence, and a tender respect for humanity, Florence Gordon is cast with a constellation of unforgettable characters. 

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
A misanthropic matriarch leaves her eccentric family in crisis when she mysteriously disappears in this "whip-smart and divinely funny" novel that inspired the movie starring Cate Blanchett (New York Times).

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
Charming and wise, knowing and witty, Meg Wolitzer delivers a novel about power and influence, ego and loyalty, womanhood and ambition. At its heart, The Female Persuasion is about the flame we all believe is flickering inside of us, waiting to be seen and fanned by the right person at the right time. It’s a story about the people who guide and the people who follow (and how those roles evolve over time), and the desire within all of us to be pulled into the light.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (ebook & eaudio on Hoopla)
Chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: young, brilliant, beautiful, and enormously talented, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that Esther’s neurosis becomes completely understandable and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such thorough exploration of the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche - and the profound collective loneliness that modern society has yet to find a solution for - is an extraordinary accomplishment, and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.

Memphis by Tara Stringfellow (ebook & eaudio on Libby)
A spellbinding debut novel tracing three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter’s discovery that she has the power to change her family’s legacy.