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| When You Read This by Mary AdkinsWhat it is: an epistolary novel comprised primarily of emails and blog posts.
Why you might like it: Poignant (it centers on the death of 33-year-old Iris), hopeful (will Iris' boss and her sister find comfort in each other?), and humorous (intern Carl is...a bit much), this debut offers quirky characters and a fun format.
Want a taste? "I thanked him for his honesty, because that's what you do when someone bothers to point out they're being honest." |
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The Peacock Feast by Lisa GornickWhat it is: A novel telling the dramatic, multi-generational story of the O'Connor family. What happens: When Prudence receives an unexpected visit from Grace, the granddaughter of Prudence's long estranged and now deceased brother, the two begin to unravel the stories of their connected lives. Reviewers say: "Spanning a century, two coasts, and two continents, this well-researched historical novel is moving and profound." --Lauren Gilbert, Library Journal
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| The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa GrayWhat it's about: Two sisters, each struggling with their own personal problems, step up when their oldest sister and her husband face jail time.
Why you might like it: A closely knit group of strong female characters stand out in this family drama, which stars an African American family in a mostly white Michigan town.
For fans of: Brit Bennett's The Mothers; Tayari Jones' An American Marriage; Caroline Leavitt's Cruel Beautiful World. |
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99 Nights in Logar by Jamil Jan KochaiWhat it is: A dog on the loose. A boy yearning to connect to his family's roots. A country in the midst of great change. And a vibrant exploration of the power of stories--the ones we tell each other and the ones we find ourselves in. What happens: A trepidatious return visit to a family compound in Afghanistan finds a disastrous encounter with a terrifying but beloved guard dog leading to a 12-year-old boy's mythology-laced search through the landscape of contemporary Logar. Reviewers say: An imaginative, enthralling, and lyrical exploration of coming home--and coming-of-age--set amid the political tensions of modern Afghanistan. . . . Kochai is a masterful storyteller." --Publishers Weekly
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| Lost Children Archive by Valeria LuiselliWhat happens: An educational road trip to the U.S.-Mexico border turns harrowing when the children of the unnamed narrators disappear into the desert.
Book buzz: With immigration a hot topic, this complex novel is timely. Author Valeria Luiselli illuminates the devastating plight of migrants by mixing Apache history, contemporary stories of immigrant families separated at the border, and ephemera such as poems, photos, and scraps of music. |
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Old Newgate Road by Keith ScribnerWhat happens: Returning after 30 years to his family's tobacco fields in Connecticut, a man haunted by his mother's death at his father's hands puts his rabble-rousing son to work in the fields and becomes quickly enmeshed in a complicated family legacy. Reviewers say: "This gripping saga draws out themes of masculinity, sublimated trauma, and physical violence-- speaking to the ways people fashion narratives out of troubled pasts to survive, resulting in a probing, tightly-plotted novel."-- Publishers Weekly
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| The Heart's Invisible Furies by John BoyneStarring: Cyril Avery, born in 1945 to an unmarried teenager and adopted by a wealthy if rather eccentric Dublin couple.
What happens: Every seven years, we get to peek into Cyril's life as he comes to terms with his homosexuality in a violently repressive Ireland, flees his home country, and falls in love.
Why you might like it: With richly drawn characters, plausibly life-altering choices, and an absorbing, often humorous writing style, The Heart's Invisible Furies may well appeal to fans of John Irving's work (it is, in fact, dedicated to him). |
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| Milkman by Anna BurnsWhat it's about: Though trying to keep her head down amid the Troubles, the young female narrator nevertheless attracts the unwelcome attention of a man -- a powerful dissident, as it turns out -- known as "the milkman."
Is it for you? While it's a challenging read, the conversational writing style beautifully depicts the dangers of living in a paramilitary state, caught between the government, its opposition, and a culture too ready to blame the victim.
Book Buzz: Anna Burns won the 2018 Man Booker Prize for Milkman, the first Northern Irish author to do so in the award's history. |
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| The Library at the Edge of the World by Felicity Hayes-McCoyFeaturing: unhappy bookmobile driver Hanna-Mariah Casey, who's so eager to move out of her mother's home that she tackles renovating an old family cabin, with unexpected results.
Read it for: quirky characters, a growing sense of community, and Ireland's scenic west coast (Finfarran might not actually exist, but it sure feels real).
For fans of: the equally prickly protagonist of Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. |
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Galway Bay
by Mary Pat Kelly
Fleeing Ireland in the wake of the great potato famine and her beloved husband's death, Honora, accompanied by her gutsy sister and their eight children, resettles in a frontier town near Chicago where they face such challenges as the Civil War and the Chicago fire.
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An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick TaylorWhat it's about: A recent medical school graduate, Barry Laverty is delighted by the opportunity to join a small rural practice in the beautiful hills of Ballybucklebo, Northern Ireland, until he meets his superior, Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly, a cantankerous older physician who has his own way of doing things. About the series: This is the debut title in the cherished Irish Country series. Look for the 14th book, An Irish Country Family to be published this coming November.
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| This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'FarrellWhat it is: a wide-ranging, globe-trotting, timeline-jumping, narrator-switching tale of relationships -- fraught or strong, romantic, or familial.
Read it for: a vast web of realistically flawed characters; complex relationships; the heady role of fate.
Reviewers say: "sheer reading pleasure" (The Washington Post); "juicy and cool" (Kirkus Reviews) |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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