From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:
Hardcover
Music of the Distant Stars by Alys Clare (Severn House, $28.95, 9780727869418/0727869418). "This medieval murder mystery wonderfully captures the dynamics of the time period and is infused with engaging characters and great dialogue. The young heroine, Lassair, is an apprentice healer--endearing, exasperating, and true to both her age and era. A wonder of creative construction!"--Eileen Charbonneau, Merritt Books, Millbrook, N.Y.
How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell (Other Press, $25, 9781590514252/1590514254). "Bakewell has written a thoroughly engaging look at the life and work of Michel de Montaigne, whose incessantly questioning approach to life is both remarkably modern and usefully instructive, even though he composed his famous essays more than 400 years ago."--Dale Szczeblowski, Porter Square Books, Cambridge, Mass.
Paperback
Hygiene and the Assassin by Amelie Nothomb (Europa Editions, $15, 9781933372778/193337277X). "In this debut novel, originally published in 1992, a Nobel Laureate novelist spars with several journalists he has agreed to meet upon learning that he has only two months to live. Each of the interviews ends with little satisfaction on either side until, finally, a young woman journalist manages to hold her own. She's the only one who has read his novels, and she raises questions about his life and work that lead to an unexpected conclusion. Written almost entirely in dialogue, the book reads like a brilliant and graceful fencing match, and we are pulled along, unsure who will win."--Alice Meloy, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Tex.
For Teen Readers
Annexed by Sharon Dogar (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $17, 9780547501956/0547501951). "Everyone knows the story of Anne Frank. This book re-imagines that story as experienced by Peter, the teenage boy who lived in the Annex with the Frank family. Peter's voice is haunting and heartbreaking. His pleas for people to remember, to believe, will stay with you long after the book has ended."--Kyla Paterno, Garfield Book Company at PLU, Tacoma, Wash.
[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]