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 "Axiom's end"
Star rating for Axiom's end
Series:
Noumena volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"By the fall of 2007, one well-timed leak revealing that the U.S. government might have engaged in first contact has sent the country into turmoil, and it is all Cora Sabino can do to avoid the whole mess. The force driving this controversy is Cora's whistleblower father, and even though she hasn't spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government-and redirected it to her....
Book cover for "A complicated kindness"
Star rating for A complicated kindness
Average Rating:
4 stars
Notes:
Ranked #3 as Best Book on Life In Small Towns in the WSJ on July 25-26th, 2025.
Description:
Doomed to work at the Happy Family Farm, a chicken slaughterhouse in a town run by a Mennonite community, sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel nevertheless manages to bear witness to the dissolution of her family with a dark, sly wit.
Book cover for "Flashlight"
Star rating for Flashlight
Description:
"A thrilling, globe-spanning novel on memory, identity, and what it means to be in a family (and to lose one), from the award-winning author of Trust Exercise. One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old. Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves...
Book cover for "The quiet tenant"
Star rating for The quiet tenant
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"A psychological thriller about trauma, power, and survival, which follows a young woman who has been captured and confined by a serial killer--who is a father, widower, former Marine, and lineman for the local electric company--as he hides the true nature of his double life from his daughter, neighbors, and the local bartender who could be his next victim, unless his captive manages to stop him."--
Book cover for "The slowworm's song"
Star rating for The slowworm's song
Description:
Summoned to an inquiry in Belfast, asking him to give testimony about his participation in a disastrous event during the Troubles, ailing ex-soldier and recovering alcoholic Stephen Rose, just beginning to build a fragile bond with the adult daughter he barely knows, must finally face the consequences of his actions.
Book cover for "Time of the child"
Star rating for Time of the child
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"In December 1962, 12-year-old Jude Quinlan and his father take their cows to the Christmas fair in Faha, a small town where 'all commentators agreed: nothing happened here.' The town's reputation begins to change after Jude, waiting for his father to emerge from the pub, finds a baby at the back wall of the church. Jude brings the baby to the local physician, Jack Troy, whose grown daughter Ronnie names her Noelle. The Troys hide the baby to prevent...
Book cover for "To kill a mockingbird"
Star rating for To kill a mockingbird
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Notes:
Ranked #4 for the Best Book On Life In Small Towns in the WSJ on July 25-26, 2025.
Description:
"Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee exploreswith rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice--but the weight of history will only tolerate so much."--Provided by publisher.