We’re exploring the best of the almost-best: books that were shortlisted for prestigious literary prizes. While they didn’t take home the top honor, these titles more than earn their spot on your reading list with their exceptional writing and unforgettable stories.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE AT KINGSTON LIBRARY

September’s book is New York Burning by Jill Lepore

In New York Burning, Bancroft Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore recounts these dramatic events of 1741, when ten fires blazed across Manhattan and panicked whites suspecting it to be the work a slave uprising went on a rampage. In the end, thirteen black men were burned at the stake, seventeen were hanged and more than one hundred black men and women were thrown into a dungeon beneath City Hall.

Shortlisted 2006 Pulitzer Prize in History

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