Best New Books for 2017

Irish map-maker Garrett Carr spends a year traveling the border between the United Kingdom and Ireland. Carr explores via foot, canoe, and other means, to explore the modern-day climate and past history of this divided area.

What People Are Saying: "This invisible line, now set to become the UK’s frontier with the European Union, has hosted smugglers and kings, runaways and peacemakers, protestors and terrorists. Carr also includes his own maps, which are something truly special." – Arminta Wallace, The Irish TimesAvailable on Amazon.

Ever read the New York Times' popular Modern Love column and wish for more detail? If you loved Emily Robbin's feature, "Grappling With the Language of Love", you're in luck, as she's written a full book detailing her experience as an American exchange student who travels to Syria.

What People Are Saying:  "In this timely and pressingly relevant novel, Robbins crafts a melodic meditation on the culture, language, and familial devotion that account for the ninety-nine different ways a language expresses the idea we call 'love.'" – Riverfront TimesAvailable on Amazon.

Anna Pitoniak's debut novel is set in 2008, during the financial market crash. Amid economic turmoil, a trust-fund kid meets a scholarship student from a rural town—they fall in love and move to New York City together.

What People Are Saying: "This winter's cathartic read: a story that feels familiar yet wholly original, like every heartbreak ever." - Marie Claire

Available on Amazon.

Han Kang follows up her bestselling novel The Vegetarian with a much-buzzed about work of fiction: Human Acts. Human Acts tells the story of a young boy who is killed during a student uprising in South Korea, and how his death reverberates through the country. This is sure to be one of the best new books of 2017.

What People Are Saying: "A rare and astonishing book, sensitively translated by Deborah Smith, Human Acts enrages, impassions, and most importantly, gives voices back to who were silenced" - The Observer

Available on Amazon.The 10 Best Books to Read This Fall

Couldn't you use a little bit more comfort and coziness in your life this winter? Meik Wiking's book explores "hygge," the Danish word for "coziness," a trend that has taken over the country as of late.

What People Are Saying: "Has the concept of hygge recently entered your consciousness? You’re not alone. Hygge, or the Danish idea of 'coziness,' can be found in anything from a roaring fire to a perfect pair of lumpy socks, and it has long been a vital aspect of the Scandinavian culture. And 2016 was the year in which it moved west. Hygge became a full-blown phenomenon in England, and to a lesser extent, in the U.S. More than 20 books on hygge were published last year in America alone, and more are due out on this side of the Atlantic in the coming months, including Meik Wiking’s The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living, which is already a best-seller in the U.K." - Vogue

Available on Amazon.

Author Emily Ruskovich won the O. Henry Prize for her short story work, but she now offers up a full-length novel as a contender for one of the best new books of 2017. Idaho is a suspenseful story of love and grief, told through the points of view of multiple characters.

What People Are Saying: "Hauntingly brilliant, this book will stay with you for days after you've put it down." - Evening StandardAvailable on Amazon.The Best Summer Beach Reads of 2016

Gift the millennial in your life this collection of bitingly funny stories by acclaimed author Mary Miller. This collection of shorts tells the stories of twenty-something women trying to find their way in life.

What People Are Saying: "The women in these stories worry about their weight, how they look in bikinis, if they will ever have children, and whether they are living the life they should be. Miller’s collection feels so true because it never glosses over the desperate or unflattering portrayals of its narrators, but neither does it exploit their faults." - Publishers WeeklyAvailable on Amazon.

The true story of uncovering a lost city hidden deep in the Honduran jungle is more fascinating than any fiction. Author Douglas Preston accompanied an expedition into the Mosquitia rainforest, and takes the reader along for the ride as the team uncovers artifacts from a civilization that was mysteriously abandoned over 500 years ago.

What People Are Saying: "People are forever looking for ‘lost cities,’ if not ‘the’ lost city of some ancient civilization or other. Machu Picchu was billed as ‘The Lost City of the Incas,’ but it turned out to be a summer retreat for Incan one percenters. Adventurers, archaeologists and writers periodically launch such grandiose scavenger hunts, generally deep in some forbidding jungle. Douglas Preston, author of best-selling thrillers as well as non-fiction books and magazine articles, accompanied a recent quest to find a mysterious metropolis long hidden in the Honduran hinterlands, where poisonous snakes, infectious insects and jaguars lurk." - USA TodayAvailable on Amazon.

The stories inside Foreign Soil span the globe, from Australia to Sudan, and yet a common thread runs through them all. Acclaimed author Maxine Beneba Clarke hooks readers from the start in one of the best new books of 2017.

What People are Saying: "Maxine Beneba Clarke is a powerful and fearless storyteller, and this collection—written with exquisite sensitivity and yet uncompromising—will stay with you with the force of elemental truth. Clarke is the real deal, and will, if we're lucky, be an essential voice in world literature for years to come." - Author Dave Eggers

Available on Amazon.

The book Swimming Lessons is one you should open for the first time on a long flight; this suspenseful page-turner will keep you engrossed, and the time will fly by. The book's plot centers on the mysterious potential reappearance of a woman who supposedly drowned years ago—but the only witness to her reappearance is her potentially senile husband.

What People are Saying: "As she did in her first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days (2015), Fuller proves to be a master of temporal space, taking readers through flashbacks and epistolary chapters at a pace timed to create wonder and suspense. It’s her beautiful prose, though, that rounds this one out, as she delves deeply to examine the legacies of a flawed and passionate marriage." - Booklist

Available on Amazon.

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Caroline Morse is always in the middle of a good book, and would love to hear your recommendations on what to read next! Follow her on InstagramTravelWithCarolineand on Twitter @CarolineMorse1for photos from around the world.