LAMP Best Books of the 2024

When you read a great book, it stays with you, and if you are anything like me you want to share that book with as many people as possible. Over a year here at LAMP we read a lot of books. Some of the books we read aren’t what we hoped for, some are fine, some are good, some are great, and some are so significant that we want to share them with you. We have compiled a list of the best books the staff at LAMP read over this past year. If you are ever in need of a great book recommendation, you can always contact one of the Reader Advisors by phone at 800-242-0586 or email us at info@mylamp.org. We hope you enjoy the books we have selected, and we look forward to finding great new reads in 2025.

Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Non-Fiction, Social Sciences | Audio DB 55875

The author, who studied law, sociology, and journalism, provides an account of teenagers in the Bronx during the 1980s. By becoming personally involved, LeBlanc attained a firsthand understanding of how the teens’ need for excitement, money, sex, and family led to drugs, sexual abuse, unwanted babies, and prison terms. Strong language. 2003.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession, by Michael Finkel Non-Fiction, True Crime | Audio, Large Print DB 115367, CL 20679

“For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion. In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down. This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.” — Provided by publisher.

Unrated. Commercial audiobook. Bestseller.

Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch Fiction, Political Fiction | Audio DB 119629

“On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police on her step. They have arrived to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist. Ireland is falling apart, caught in the grip of a government turning toward tyranny. As the life she knows and the ones she loves disappear before her eyes, Eilish must contend with the dystopian logic of her new, unraveling country. How far will she go to save her family? And what-or who-is she willing to leave behind? Exhilarating, terrifying, and surprisingly intimate, Prophet Song offers a shocking vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together”– Provided by publisher.

Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien Fiction, Fantasy | Audio, Large Print DB 123864, CL 07742

“Frodo Baggins, a young hobbit, sets out on a perilous journey to the Cracks of Doom, along with a band of warriors from different kingdoms, to destroy the Dark Lord’s Ring of Power.”– WorldCat.Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

A Sorceress Comes to Call, by T. Kingfisher Fiction, Fantasy | Audio DB 123396 

“Cordelia knows her mother is . . . unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms–there are no secrets in this house–and her mother doesn’t allow Cordelia to have a single friend. Unless you count Falada, her mother’s beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t evil sorcerers. When her mother unexpectedly moves them into the manor home of a wealthy older Squire and his kind but keen-eyed sister, Hester, Cordelia knows this welcoming pair are to be her mother’s next victims. But Cordelia feels at home for the very first time among these people, and as her mother’s plans darken, she must decide how to face the woman who raised her to save the people who have become like family.”– OCLC.

Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore Fiction, Psychological Fiction | Audio, Large Print DB 122747, CL 21228

“When Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her summer camp bunk one morning in August 1975, it triggers a panicked, terrified search. Losing a camper is a horrific tragedy under any circumstances, but Barbara isn’t just any camper, she’s the daughter of the wealthy family who owns the camp–as well as the opulent nearby estate, and most of the land in sight. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared in this region: Barbara’s older brother also went missing 16 years earlier, never to be found. How could this have happened yet again? Out of this gripping beginning, Liz Moore weaves a richly textured drama, both emotionally nuanced and propelled by a double-barreled mystery. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded drama brings readers into the hearts of characters whose lives are forever changed by this eventful summer: Barbara’s wounded, grieving mother; the “townie” whose family makes a living off this land; the 13-year-old camper struggling to find her way; and the outsider tasked with seeing the bigger picture, and uncovering the truth”– Provided by publisher.

Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett Fiction, Historical Fiction | Audio, Large Print, Braille DB 96739, CL 19261, BR 22980

Through a canny investment at the end of World War II, Cyril Conroy lifts his family out of poverty. His first order of business is to buy the lavish Dutch House. But this purchase brings only heartache to his loved ones–including children Danny and Maeve. Some strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2019.

Last Lifeboat, by Hazel Gaynor Fiction, Historical Fiction | Audio DB 118957

“1940, Kent: Alice King is not brave or daring she’s happiest finding adventure through the safe pages of books. But times of war demand courage, and as the threat of German invasion looms, a plane crash near her home awakens a strength in Alice she’d long forgotten. Determined to do her part, she finds a role perfectly suited to her experience as a schoolteacher to help evacuate Britain’s children overseas. 1940, London: Lily Nichols once dreamed of using her mathematical talents for more than tabulating the cost of groceries, but life, and love, charted her a different course. With two lively children and a loving husband, Lily’s humble home is her world, until war tears everything asunder. With her husband gone and bombs raining down, Lily is faced with an impossible choice: keep her son and daughter close, knowing she may not be able to protect them, or enroll them in a risky evacuation scheme, where safety awaits so very far away. When a Nazi U-boat torpedoes the S. S. Carlisle carrying a ship of children to Canada, a single lifeboat is left adrift in the storm-tossed Atlantic. Alice and Lily, strangers to each other one on land, the other at sea will quickly become one another’s very best hope as their lives are fatefully entwined.” — Provided by publisher.

Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Family Meal, by Bryan Washington Fiction, Psychological Fiction | Audio, Large Print, DB 117049, CL 21050, LP 38394

“Cam is living in Los Angeles and falling apart after the love of his life has died. Kai’s ghost won’t leave Cam alone; his spectral visits wild, tender, and unexpected. When Cam returns to his hometown of Houston, he crashes back into the orbit of his former best friend, TJ, and TJ’s family bakery. TJ’s not sure how to navigate this changed Cam, impenetrably cool and self-destructing, or their charged estrangement. Can they find a way past all that has been said – and left unsaid – to save each other? Could they find a way back to being okay again, or maybe for the first time? When secrets and wounds become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Spanning Los Angeles, Houston, and Osaka, Family Meal is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love. With his signature generosity and eye for food, sex, love, and the moments that make us the most human, Bryan Washington returns with a brilliant new novel.” — Provided by publisher.

Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics, by Kevin Hazzard Non-Fiction, Biography | Audio DBC 25075, DB 116198

The extraordinary story of an unjustly forgotten group of Black men in Pittsburgh who became the first paramedics in America, saving lives and changing the course of emergency medicine around the world. Some strong language. 2022. Some strong language.

Late Show, by Michael Connelly Fiction, Mystery | Audio, Large Print, Braille DB 88433, CL 16664, LP 33527 BR 22065

Night-shift LAPD detective Renée Ballard must turn over all investigations to the day shift. A once up-and-coming detective, she’s on this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against her supervisor. But one night she catches two assignments she refuses to part with. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2017.

Monstrilio, by Gerardo Sámano Córdova Fiction, Occult and Horror Fiction | Audio DB 119611

“Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care–threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.”–OCLC.

Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Lost in Time, by A.G. Riddle Fiction, Science Fiction | Audio DB 110974

“PANGEA, 202,320,641 BC Quantum physicist Sam Anderson is trapped, 202 million years in the past. Sam has helped create a machine able to unpick the threads of spacetime, casting objects eternally into the past. It’s useful only as a permanent means of disposal—and in a world where criminals need to be punished, that’s exactly how it will be used. But Sam’s invention will become his undoing, the judicial penalty for a crime that he confessed to, but didn’t commit. It’s a death sentence. Now he’s on a raw and hostile planet, stalked by dinosaurs, in the midst of a mass extinction event, and unlikely to survive the night. But he can’t give up, because he has to save his family, who are 202 million years in the future. UNITED STATES, AD 2027 Adeline is an orphan—her mother died three years ago when she was sixteen, and her father is lost 202 million years ago, in the late Triassic. Adeline knows he sacrificed his life to save hers, but her determination to find the truth reveals more questions. What has unnerved her father’s ex-colleagues? What are they secretly digging for in the desert? Adeline will do whatever it takes to get to the truth, because somewhere, 202 million years in the past, her father is still alive.” — Provided by publisher.

Unrated. Commercial audiobook.

Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears, by Michael Schulman Non-Fiction, Stage and Screen | Audio DB 114470

“America does not have royalty. It has the Academy Awards. For nine decades, perfectly coiffed starlets, debonair leading men, and producers with gold in their eyes have chased the elusive Oscar. What began as an industry banquet in 1929 has now exploded into a hallowed ceremony, complete with red carpets, envelopes, and little gold men. But don’t be fooled by the pomp: the Oscars, more than anything, are a battlefield, where the history of Hollywood—and of America itself—unfolds in dramas large and small. The road to the Oscars may be golden, but it’s paved in blood, sweat, and broken hearts. In Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman chronicles the remarkable, sprawling history of the Academy Awards and the personal dramas—some iconic, others never-before-revealed—that have played out on the stage and off camera. Unlike other books on the subject, each chapter takes a deep dive into a particular year, conflict, or even category that tells a larger story of cultural change, from Louis B. Mayer to Moonlight. Schulman examines how the red carpet runs through contested turf, and the victors aren’t always as clear as the names drawn from envelopes. Caught in the crossfire are people: their thwarted ambitions, their artistic epiphanies, their messy collaborations, their dreams fulfilled or dashed. Featuring a star-studded cast of some of the most powerful Hollywood players of today and yesterday, as well as outsiders who stormed the palace gates, this captivating history is a collection of revelatory tales, each representing a turning point for the Academy, for the movies, or for the culture at large.” — Provided by publisher.

Unrated. Commercial audiobook.