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 21 - 40 of 302  There are a total of 302 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Beyond stoicism"
Star rating for Beyond stoicism
Description:
"A philosophical and practical guide to incorporating the wisdom of ancient philosophers and build on a Stoic way of life"--
Book cover for "The Big hop"
Star rating for The Big hop
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
In 1919, in Newfoundland, four teams of aviators came from Britain to compete in "the Big Hop" : an audacious race to be the first to fly, nonstop, across the Atlantic Ocean. One pair of competitors was forced to abandon the journey halfway, and two pairs never made it into the air. Only one team, after a death-defying sixteen-hour flight, made it to Ireland.

23. Big sky

Book cover for "Big sky"
Star rating for Big sky
Series:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an aging Labrador, both at the discretion of his ex-partner Julia. It's picturesque, but there's something darker lurking behind the scenes. Jackson's current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, is fairly standard-issue, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into...
Book cover for "Billion dollar whale"
Star rating for Billion dollar whale
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Two Pulitzer-finalist Wall Street Journal reporters document the true story of how a young social climber orchestrated one of history's biggest financial heists, exposing the secret nexus of elite wealth, banking, Hollywood, and politics.
Book cover for "Bleak House"
Star rating for Bleak House
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Notes:
Top 5 Best Book On Courtroom Drama. This book was ranked #2 on the WSJ on May 18th, 2025.
Description:
Textual notes and a Dickens chronology accompany this satire of Victorian society built around an interminable suit at the Court of Chancery.
Book cover for "Bletchley riddle"
Star rating for Bletchley riddle
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"This middle grade historical adventure follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother's disappearance."--
Book cover for "Blood and oil"
Star rating for Blood and oil
Book cover for "Blood grove"
Star rating for Blood grove
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
After being approached by a shell-shocked Vietnam War veteran who claims to have gotten into a fight protecting a white woman from a black man, Easy embarks on an investigation that takes him from mountaintops to the desert, through South Central and into sex clubs and the homes of the fabulously wealthy, facing hippies, the mob, and old friends perhaps more dangerous than anyone else.
Book cover for "The books of Jacob, or, A fantastic journey across seven borders, five languages, and three major religions, not counting the minor sects"
Star rating for The books of Jacob, or, A fantastic journey across seven borders, five languages, and three major religions, not counting the minor sects
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
"In the mid-eighteenth century, as new ideas ... begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following. In the decade to come, Frank will traverse the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires with throngs of disciples in his...
Book cover for "The bookseller of Florence"
Star rating for The bookseller of Florence
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Against the ... backdrop of Renaissance Florence, [this book] brings to light an extraordinary story about the city and its culture--that of Vespasiano da Bisticci, the 'king of the world's booksellers,' Florence's most indispensable and prolific merchant of knowledge. His bookshop in the heart of Florence was a gathering place for the city's most prominent poets and philosophers, and it was there that Vespasiano and his team of scribes created beautiful...
Book cover for "The bramble and the rose"
Star rating for The bramble and the rose
Author:
Series:
Description:
"A headless stranger is found in the woods of Wild Thyme, a small town in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. All signs point to a man-killing bear, and Officer Henry Farrell would just as soon leave this hunt to the Game Commission. But doubts arise when he discovers the victim was a retired investigator. What drew the investigator to sleepy Wild Thyme? Before Henry can find answers, his own nephew disappears into the hills. Then an old flame...
Book cover for "The bright side"
Star rating for The bright side
Description:
A reassuring look at the philosophy, psychology, and practice of optimism, and why being optimistic is a moral obligation--even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. Scrolling through our daily newsfeeds we see violence and cruelty, turmoil and injustice, fake news and clickbait, and worsening environmental and social crises--just a few of the dark currents feeding a tidal wave of pessimism. In the face of so many challenges, how can...
Book cover for "Brightly shining"
Star rating for Brightly shining
Description:
"Beautifully told with humor and tenderness, a Norwegian Christmas tale of sisterhood, financial hardship, and far-off dreams, acclaimed by reviewers and beloved by readers across Europe, where it has been a bestseller. Christmas is just around the corner, and Ronja and Melissa's dreamer of a father is out of work again. When ten-year-old Ronja hears about a job selling Christmas trees near where the family lives in central Oslo, she thinks it might...
Book cover for "Buckley"
Star rating for Buckley
Description:
"At age 25 in 1951, with the publication of God and Man at Yale, a scathing attack on his alma mater, William F. Buckley, Jr. instantly seized the public stage-and commanded it for the next half century, leading a new generation of activists and ideologues to the heights of political power while he himself attained unique fame and public influence. Ten years before his death in 2008, Buckley chose prize-winning biographer Sam Tanenhaus to tell the...
Book cover for "Burma Sahib"
Star rating for Burma Sahib
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"At age nineteen, young Eton graduate Eric Blair set sail for India, dreading the assignment ahead. Along with several other young conscripts, he would be trained for three years as a servant of the British Empire, overseeing the local policemen in Burma. Navigating the social, racial, and class politics of his fellow British at the same time as he learned the local languages and struggled to control his men would prove difficult enough. But doing...
Book cover for "Bury our bones in the midnight soil"
Star rating for Bury our bones in the midnight soil
Description:
"Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1827. Boston, 2019. Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild. And all of them grow teeth. This is a story about hunger. 1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada. A young girl grows up wild and wily--her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a...
Book cover for "Bury your dead"
Star rating for Bury your dead
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
An obsessive historian's quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly 400 years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it? Although he is supposed to be on leave, Chief Inspector Gamache cannot walk away from a crime that threatens to ignite long-smoldering tensions between the English and the French. Meanwhile, he is receiving disquieting letters from...
Book cover for "The café with no name"
Star rating for The café with no name
Description:
"Summer 1966. Robert Simon is in his early thirties and has a dream. Raised in a home for war orphans, Robert has nonetheless grown into a warm-hearted, hard-working, and determined man. When the former owners of the corner café in the Carmelite market square shutter the business, Robert sees that the chance to realize his dream has arrived. The place, dark and dilapidated, is in a poor neighborhood of the Austrian capital, but for some time now...
Book cover for "Capitalism and its critics"
Star rating for Capitalism and its critics
Description:
"At a time when artificial intelligence, climate change, inequality, trade wars, and a right-wing populist backlash to globalization are raising fundamental questions about the economic system, Capitalism and Its Critics provides a kaleidoscopic history of global capitalism, from the East India Company and Industrial Revolution to the digital revolution...From the English Luddites who rebelled against early factory automation to communists in Germany...
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'"--