Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson. A charming and poignant Southern love story filled with Jackson's trademark humor, first on display in her classic debut novel Gods in Alabama. Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Nathan, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced parents. She's got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up and falling in love with William Ashe, who willingly steps between the robber and her son. Unfortunately, Ashe - a brilliant scientist - has his own issues, which makes their new-found relationship all the more complicated, Throw in surprising plot twists and Jackson's empathy for her quirky, imperfect couple and you have a thoroughly satisfying read.


The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. You may know McBride from his powerful memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. His new novel, published last year in hardcover, was the winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction - the story of a young boy born a slave who joins John Brown's antislavery crusade - and who must pass as a  girl to survive.

Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1857, when the region is a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces. When John Brown, the legendary abolitionist, arrives in the area, an argument between Brown and Henry's master quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave town and does so with Brown, who believes he's a girl. Over the ensuing months, Henry- whom Brown nicknames Little Onion - conceals his true identity as he struggles to stay alive. Eventually Little Onion finds himself with Brown at the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 - one of the great catalysts for the Civil War.