Here at the library, we are often asked to recommend a good book.

Suffice it to say, there are many definitions of a good book. Just Google the best books of 2018, and you will marvel at the variety of those mentioned.

Some books are considered good because they have won major awards. Some books we expect to be good because they are the latest by our favorite author. In this column, we will feature works by authors generally acknowledged for the quality of their work. Some will be more recent than others. We hope that you will find all of them interesting.

This month, we are featuring the work of several lawyers who went from practicing law to writing legal thrillers.

The lawyer Earle Stanley Gardner wrote a series of legal thriller short stories featuring criminal defense lawyer Perry Mason. While the stories sold well, America’s appetite for legal thrillers was whetted by the television series based on those stories starring Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. The series ran from September 1957 to May 1966. The genre was born, and several lawyers quickly found an audience for their work.

Richard North Patterson published his first work, “The Lasko Tangent,” in 1979. Scott Turow’s “Presumed Innocent” followed in 1987. John Grisham published “A Time to Kill” in 1989. Lisa Scottoline published “Everywhere That Mary Went” in 1993. Meg Gardiner published the first of the Evan Delaney mysteries in 2002. All these writers went on to write many more legal thrillers, many of which became blockbuster movies.

Nonfiction can often read like a novel and be just as spellbinding as a legal thriller. If you have never read nonfiction but you like American history, the work of Nathaniel Philbrick might just be for you. Philbrick’s work really does read like a novel. He takes his subject and explores the before, during and after in such a way that the reader comes away with a very good understanding.

To mention just a few of Philbrick’s novels: “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex,” published in 1999, won the National Book Award; “Revenge of the Whale” followed in 2002; “Mayflower” in 2006; “Why Read Moby Dick” in 2011; and many more.

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NEW BOOKS

Fiction: “Labyrinth,” Catherine Coulter; “A Dangerous Man,” Robert Crais; “Tidelands,” Philippa Gregory; “The Girl Who Lived Twice,” David Lagercrantz; “Someone We Know,” Shari Lapena; “Temptation’s Darling,” Johanna Lindsey; “Lady in the Lake,” Laura Lippman; “Killer Instinct,” James Patterson and Howard Roughan; “Old Bones,” Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child; “Vendetta in Death,” J.D. Robb; “The Last Widow,” Karin Slaughter; “The Dark Side,” Danielle Steel; “The Turn of the Key,” Ruth Ware

Nonfiction: “Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort and Community After Unthinkable Loss,” Jennifer Ashton, M.D.; “Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know,” Malcolm Gladwell; “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court,” Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino; “Unfreedom of the Press,” Mark R. Levin; “Alone at Dawn: Medal of Honor Recipient John Chapman and the Untold Story of the World’s Deadliest Special Operations Force,” Dan Schilling and Lori Chapman Longfritz; “Three Women,” Lisa Taddeo

Juvenile: “What Is NASA?” Sarah Fabiny; “Magic Tree House: To the Future, Ben Franklin!” Mary Pope Osborne; “Wings of Fire: The Poison Jungle,” Tui T. Sutherland

Young Adult: “Wilder Girls,” Rory Power

Picture books: “The King of Kindergarten,” Derrick Barnes; “Sorry, Grown-Ups, You Can’t Go to School!” Christina Geist; “Red: A Crayon’s Story,” Michael Hall; “Moon’s First Friends: One Giant Leap for Friendship,” Susanna Leonard Hill; “How to Catch a Dinosaur,” Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton