WSJ’s Top Book Recommendations-Cary Regional

Discover the best books of the year, handpicked by the editors of The Wall Street Journal. From thought-provoking nonfiction to engrossing fiction, our Top Book Recommendations offer a curated list of exceptional reads that will inform, inspire, and entertain. Featuring titles from acclaimed authors and emerging voices, our selection spans genres and subjects, ensuring there's something for every reader. Dive into the world of ideas, stories, and perspectives that will change the way you think, feel, and see the world.

Showing 1 - 7 of 7  There are a total of 302 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Capote's women"
Star rating for Capote's women
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Leamer reveals the complex web of relationships and scandalous true stories behind Truman Capote's never-published final novel, Answered Prayers--the dark secrets, tragic glamour, and Capote's ultimate betrayal of the group of female friends he called his 'swans'"--
Book cover for "The doorman"
Star rating for The doorman
Description:
"Chicky Diaz is everyone's favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world, home of celebrities, financiers, and New York's cultural elite. Up in the penthouse, Emily Longworth has the perfect-looking everything, all except her husband, whom she'd quietly loathed even before the recent revelations about where all the money comes from. But his wealth is immense, their prenup is iron-clad, and Emily can't bring herself...
Book cover for "Harlem shuffle"
Star rating for Harlem shuffle
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"'Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked' ... To his customers and neighbors on 125th Street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably-priced furniture, making a life for himself and his family. He and his wife Elizabeth are expecting their second child, and if her parents on Striver's Row don't approve of him or their cramped apartment across from the subway tracks, it's still home. Few people know he descends from...
Book cover for "Lazarus man"
Star rating for Lazarus man
Description:
"In this electrifying novel, Richard Price, the author of Clockers and a writer on The Wire, shines a light in every corner of New York City"--
Book cover for "Let the great world spin"
Star rating for Let the great world spin
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Notes:
Ranked #5 in the WSJ on May 18th, 2025 as the best book on courtroom drama.
Description:
In 1974 Manhattan, a radical young Irish monk struggles with personal demons while making his home among Bronx prostitutes, a group of mothers shares grief over their lost Vietnam soldier sons, and a young grandmother attempts to prove her worth. "In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing,...
Book cover for "The Netanyahus"
Star rating for The Netanyahus
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Corbin College, not-quite-upstate New York, winter 1959-1960: Ruben Blum, a Jewish historian--but not an historian of the Jews--is co-opted onto a hiring committee to review the application of an exiled Israeli scholar specializing in the Spanish Inquisition. When Benzion Netanyahu shows up for an interview, family unexpectedly in tow, Blum plays the reluctant host, to guests who proceed to lay waste to his American complacencies. Mixing fiction...
Book cover for "The New York game"
Star rating for The New York game
Description:
"A hugely entertaining history of baseball in New York City, bursting with bigger than life figures, and long-forgotten heroes, spanning the game's founding to the early 1940s"--