• So This is Ever After by F.T. Lukens: “Carry On meets Arthurian legend in this subversive, ‘delightfully original and whimsical’ (Kirkus Reviews) young adult fantasy about what happens after the chosen one wins the kingdom and has to get married to keep it...and to stay alive.”
• Things Past Telling by Sheila Williams: “Born in West Africa in the mid-eighteenth century, Maryam Prescilla Grace—a.k.a ‘Momma Grace’ will live a long, wondrous life marked by hardship, oppression, opportunity, and love. Though she will be ‘gifted’ various names, her birth name is known to her alone. Over the course of 100-plus years, she survives capture, enslavement by several property owners, the Atlantic crossing when she is only eleven years of age…”
• Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner: “Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favor to ask. Daphne hasn't spoken one word to Drue in all this time […], so when Drue asks if she will be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless.”
• All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells: “A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence. [...] On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as ‘Murderbot.’”
• Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza: “Charlotte Walsh is running for Senate in the most important race in the country during a midterm election that will decide the balance of power in Congress. Reeling from a presidential election that shocked and divided the country and inspired to make a difference, she's left her high-powered job in Silicon Valley and returned, with her husband and three young daughters, to her downtrodden Pennsylvania hometown to run for office in the Rust Belt state.”
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry: “One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming... Nora Stephens' life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. [...] In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, [...], and her beloved little sister Libby.”
• Antarctic Pioneer: The Trailblazing Life of Jackie Ronne by Johanna Kafarowski: “Jackie Ronne reclaims her rightful place in polar history as the first American woman in Antarctica. Jackie was an ordinary American woman whose life changed after a blind date with rugged Antarctic explorer Finn Ronne. After marrying, they began planning the 1946–1948 Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition. Her participation was not welcomed by the expedition team of red-blooded males eager to prove themselves in the frozen, hostile environment of Antarctica.”

All book descriptions are excerpted from the eBook Club library, powered by OverDrive. The eBook Club Summer Reading Program is made possible by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.

• The Travelers by Chris Pavone: “Meet Will Rhodes: travel writer, recently married, barely solvent, his idealism rapidly giving way to disillusionment and the worry that he’s living the wrong life. Then one night, on assignment for the award-winning Travelers magazine in the wine region of Argentina, a beautiful woman makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Soon Will’s bad choices—and dark secrets—take him across Europe…”
• Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck, Foreword by Jay Parini: “In September 1960, John Steinbeck embarked on a journey across America. He felt that he might have lost touch with the country, with its speech, the smell of its grass and trees, its color and quality of light, the pulse of its people.”
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan: “One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.”
• The Crazy Rich Asians trilogy by Kevin Kwan: “If there ever was summer reading guilty pleasure - the Crazy Rich Asians series by Kevin Kwan is among the top contenders. ‘There's rich, there's filthy rich, and then there's crazy rich ...’ - (PEOPLE magazine).”
• Tracy Flick Can’t Win by Tom Perrotta: “From New York Times bestselling author Tom Perrotta, a pitch-perfect new satirical novel about ambition, coming-of-age in adulthood, and never really leaving high school politics behind—featuring his most iconic character of all time.”
• Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon: From the Outlander series. “War leaves nobody alone. Neither the past, the present, nor the future offers true safety, and the only refuge is what you can protect: your family, your friends, your home. Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them twenty years of loss and heartbreak to find each other again.”
• Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea by Edith Widder: “Edith Widder’s childhood dream of becoming a marine biologist was almost derailed in college, when complications from a surgery gone wrong caused temporary blindness. A new reality of shifting shadows drew her fascination to the power of light—as well as the importance of optimism. As her vision cleared, Widder found the intersection of her two passions in oceanic bioluminescence, a little-explored scientific field within Earth’s last great unknown frontier: the deep ocean.”

All book descriptions are excerpted from the eBook Club library, powered by OverDrive. The eBook Club Summer Reading Program is made possible by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.

• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch: “A lot of professors give talks titled ‘The Last Lecture.’ Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can’t help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy?”
• One’s Company by Ashley Hutson: “Bonnie Lincoln just wants to be left alone. To come home from work, shut out the ghosts of some devastating losses, and unwind in front of the nostalgic, golden glow of her favorite TV show, Three's Company. When Bonnie wins the lottery, a more grandiose vision—to completely shuck off her own troublesome identity—takes shape.”
• The Catch by Alison Fairbrother: “Two years out of college, Ellie Adler has a job in journalism, an older lover, and a circle of smart friends. Her beloved father, James, who has children from three marriages, unites the family with his gentle humor and charisma, but Ellie has always believed she is her father's favorite. When he suddenly dies, she finds herself devastated by the unexpected loss.”
• The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Father Disgraced Descendant, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism by Bill Shaffer: “It's a story almost too tawdry to be true — a con woman prostitute who met the descendant of a Founding Father in a brothel, duped him into marriage using an infant purchased from a baby farm, then went to prison for stabbing the couple's baby nurse — all while in a common-law marriage with another man. The scandal surrounding Evangeline and Robert Ray Hamilton, though little known today, was one of the sensations of the Gilded Age, a sordid, gripping tale involving bigamy, bribery, sex, and violence.”
• Liars series: Family of Liars and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart: “A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.”
• Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard: “In 1951, former debutante Jacqueline Bouvier is hard at work as the Inquiring Camera Girl for a Washington newspaper. Her mission in life is “not to be a housewife,” but when she meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy at a Georgetown party, her resolution begins to falter. Soon the two are flirting over secret phone calls, cocktails, and dinner dates, and as Jackie is drawn deeper into the Kennedy orbit, and as Jack himself grows increasingly elusive and absent, she begins to question what life at his side would mean.”
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt: “Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living-and whom he does it for.”

All book descriptions are excerpted from the eBook Club library, powered by OverDrive. The eBook Club Summer Reading Program is made possible by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.

• The Midcoast by Adam White: “It’s spring in the tiny town of Damariscotta, a tourist haven on the coast of Maine known for its oysters and antiques. Andrew, a high school English teacher recently returned to the area, has brought his family to Ed and Steph Thatch’s sprawling riverside estate to attend a reception for the Amherst women’s lacrosse team.”
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: “Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.”
• Seven Days in June by Tia Williams: “Seven days to fall in love, fifteen years to forget, and seven days to get it all back again...”    
• Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli: “When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn't always so rhythmic.”    
• Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach: “It's a classic! ‘One of the most important utopian novels of the twentieth century that still has very important lessons to teach us. It will always convey to perfection the wild optimism of that moment: a feeling we need to recapture, adjusted for our time.’—Kim Stanley Robinson on Ecotopia.”
• While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams: “Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk for the legendary Justice Howard Wynn, is doing her best to hold her life together—excelling in an arduous job with the court while also dealing with a troubled family.”
• The Last Great Road Bum by Héctor Tobar: “In The Last Great Road Bum, Héctor Tobar turns the peripatetic true story of a naive son of Urbana, Illinois, who died fighting with guerrillas in El Salvador into the great American novel for our times.”

All book descriptions are excerpts from the eBook Club library, powered by OverDrive. The eBook Club Summer Reading Program is made possible by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.