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 121 - 140 of 302  There are a total of 302 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Hits, flops, and other illusions"
Star rating for Hits, flops, and other illusions
Description:
"This heartfelt and wry career memoir from the director of Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall, About Last Night, and Glory, creator of the show Thirtysomething, and executive producer of My So-Called Life, gives a dishy, behind-the-scenes look at working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood"--
Book cover for "Homeland elegies"
Star rating for Homeland elegies
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, at its heart it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.

123. Homestead

Book cover for "Homestead"
Star rating for Homestead
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"From NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35 HONOREE and FLANNERY O'CONNOR AWARD WINNER Melinda Moustakis, a debut novel set in Alaska, about the turbulent marriage of two unlikely homesteaders "Moustakis has OCEANS OF TALENT." --Pam Houston "A writer who TRULY HAS EVERYTHING." --Jaimy Gordon Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they...
Book cover for "How the mountains grew"
Star rating for How the mountains grew
Description:
Geology has long been a puzzling science. The theory of plate techtonics advanced geographical study immensely but plate techtonics can't explain the Black Hills or the walls of chalk in the fertile Kansas basin. What else has been and is creating the landscape of North America?
Book cover for "How to be well"
Star rating for How to be well
Author:
Description:
"A groundbreaking cultural, political, and personal exploration of the multi-billion dollar wellness industry and the ways it's shaping our thinking about health and self-care. Peleton. Pilates. Biohacking. Colonics. Ashwaganda. Today, the wellness industry is a $3.7 trillion dollar behemoth that touches us all. In this urgently needed book, journalist Amy Larocca peels back the layers behind the movement and reckons with its promises and profits....
Book cover for "How to know a person"
Star rating for How to know a person
Average Rating:
3.2 stars
Description:
"A how-to in becoming more understanding and considerate of others, and to find joy that comes from being seen."--
Book cover for "How to win at travel"
Star rating for How to win at travel
Description:
"'In How to Win at Travel,' Brian Kelly shares his greatest tips and strategies to experience the world in ways you never thought possible. This comprehensive guide is a road map with all of the knowledge and tools you need to become an expert traveler. Get practical advice on a range of topics, including how to find the cheapest flights; effectively leverage airline, hotel, and credit card loyalty programs; conquer your fear of flying; beat jet lag;...
Book cover for "The hunter"
Star rating for The hunter
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"It's a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die. Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He's found it, more or less: he's built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he's gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places....
Book cover for "The hypnotist"
Star rating for The hypnotist
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
After Detective Inspector Joona Linna convinces Dr. Erik Maria Bark to hypnotize a young boy, who is the sole survivior of a triple homicide, the boy reveals a disturbing chain of events.
Book cover for "I cheerfully refuse"
Star rating for I cheerfully refuse
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate...
Book cover for "I regret almost everything"
Star rating for I regret almost everything
Description:
"The entertaining, irreverent, and surprisingly moving memoir by the visionary restaurateur behind such iconic New York institutions as Balthazar and Pastis ... taking us from his gritty London childhood in the fifties to his serendipitous arrival in New York, where he founded the era-defining establishments the Odeon, Cafe Luxembourg, and Nell's. Eloquent and opinionated, Keith McNally writes about the angst of being a child actor, his lack of insights...
Book cover for "I seek a kind person"
Star rating for I seek a kind person
Description:
"This gripping family memoir of grief, courage, and hope tells the hidden stories of children who escaped the Holocaust, building connections across generations and continents. In 1938, Jewish families are scrambling to flee Vienna. Desperate, they take out advertisements offering their children into the safe keeping of readers of a British newspaper, the Manchester Guardian. The right words in the right order could mean the difference between life...
Book cover for "Ice"
Star rating for Ice
Description:
"The unexpected and unexplored ways that ice has transformed a nation-from the foods Americans eat, to the sports they play, to the way they live today-and what its future might look like on a swiftly warming planet"--
Book cover for "The idea of you"
Star rating for The idea of you
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"Solène Marchand, the thirty-nine-year-old owner of an art gallery in Los Angeles, is reluctant to take her daughter, Isabelle, to meet her favorite boy band. But since her divorce, she's more eager than ever to be close to Isabelle. The last thing Solène expects is to make a connection with one of the members of the world-famous August Moon. But Hayes Campbell is clever, winning, confident, and posh, and the attraction is immediate. That he is...
Book cover for "If I never met you"
Star rating for If I never met you
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
When her partner of over a decade suddenly ends things, Laurie is left reeling--not only because they work at the same law firm and she has to see him every day. Her once perfect life is in shambles and the thought of dating again in the age of Tinder is nothing short of horrifying. When news of her ex's pregnant girlfriend hits the office grapevine, taking the humiliation lying down is not an option. Then a chance encounter in a broken-down elevator...
Book cover for "I'll come to you"
Star rating for I'll come to you
Description:
"A modern and classic story of family, I'll Come to You chronicles intersecting lives over the course of one year-1995-anchored by the anticipation and arrival of a child. With empathy, insight, and humor, Rebecca Kauffman explores overlapping narratives involving a couple whose struggle to become pregnant has both softened and hardened them, a woman whose husband of forty years has left her for reasons he's unwilling to share and the man who is now...
Book cover for "The illegals"
Star rating for The illegals
Description:
"A century ago, the new Bolshevik government began sending Soviet citizens abroad as deep-cover spies, training them to pose as foreign aristocrats, merchants, and students. Over time, this became the most ambitious espionage program in human history. Many intelligence agencies use undercover operatives, but the KGB was the only one to go to such lengths, spending years training its spies to pass for foreigners, then sending them on missions that...
Book cover for "An immense world"
Star rating for An immense world
Author:
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into a previously unfathomable dimension: the world as it is truly perceived by other animals. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires (and fireworks), songbirds that can see the Earth's magnetic...
Book cover for "The impossible thing"
Star rating for The impossible thing
Average Rating:
2 stars
Description:
"From the exceptionally original mind of Booker Prize-longlisted author Belinda Bauer, a sweeping tale of obsession, greed, ambition, and a crime that has remained unsolved for a hundred years. 1926. On the cliffs of Yorkshire, men are lowered on ropes to steal the eggs of the sea birds who nest there. The most beautiful are sold for large sums. A small girl-penniless and neglected by her family-retrieves one such treasure. Its discovery will forever...
Book cover for "In this mountain"
Star rating for In this mountain
Series:
Mitford years volume 7.
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Restless with his retirement, Father Tim, accompanied by Cynthia, gears up for a year-long ministry across the state line, but a series of events sends shock waves throughout the town of Mitford and through Father Tim's faith.