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| Standard Deviation: A Novel by Katherine HeinyGraham Cavanaugh is blessed with a lovely (if overly chatty) second wife and a healthy (if obsessive and socially awkward) young son. But he's beginning to wonder if he's got more in common with his first wife than he truly ever realized. Never fear, though -- this isn't a story of a failing marriage. Rather, this charming, humorous debut and its authentic characters offer a sensitive examination of the challenges of love, marriage, trust, parenthood, and commitment. |
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| Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail HoneymanEleanor Oliphant -- despite her social isolation and the rules she sets to survive weekends -- insists that she is just fine. But is she really? The gentle overtures of a coworker who accepts her as she is gets things rolling and gives her the emotional support she needs when a horrific (and embarrassing) event forces her to reevaluate her life. As it turns out, Eleanor Oliphant is absolutely not completely fine...but she will be. Though an emotional read, Eleanor's unique take on life offers plenty of humor; read it if you enjoyed the damaged or isolated protagonists in Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove or Ramsey Hootman's Courting Greta. |
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| The Leavers: A Novel by Lisa KoDeming Guo is a fifth grader in the Bronx when his mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, disappears. Adopted by two white academics and renamed Daniel, he appears to be well-armed for success, but ten years later Daniel has failed out of college. Then he learns that his mother, who he has never stopped wondering about, is still alive. Told first from his perspective and then from hers, this moving, character-driven novel explores the lack of options for undocumented workers. It won the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction in 2016. |
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| The Standard Grand by Jay Baron NicorvoOnce a fancy Catskills resort, the Standard Grand is now a struggling halfway house for homeless veterans suffering from PTSD; its owner is dying and looking for a successor. He believes he has found her in AWOL Army specialist Antebellum Smith. Meanwhile, developers also have an eye on the home and are more than willing to resort to shady practices to get their hands on the land. With a strong sense of place, multiple narrators, a lively plot, and timely themes, this debut "effectively braids corporate greed, outdoorsy grit, and human connection" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Startup: A Novel by Doree ShafrirWho best to write a novel poking fun at startups and the media outlets that cover them than a culture writer from BuzzFeed? Featuring a tech journalist who needs a juicy scoop to keep her job, a high-pressure round of funding for a new health and wellness app, and some inappropriate (and meant-to-be-private) texts, this debut offers plenty of layers: workplace drama, startup satire, and a treatment of the challenges women face in the workforce. |
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Complicated Family Dynamics |
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The people we hate at the wedding
by Grant Ginder
The People We Hate at the Wedding is the story of a less than perfect family. Donna, the clan's mother, is now a widow living in the Chicago suburbs with a penchant for the occasional joint and more than one glass of wine with her best friend while watching House Hunters International . Alice is in her thirties, single, smart, beautiful, stuck in a dead-end job where she is mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable, affair with her married boss. Her brother Paul lives in Philadelphia with his older, handsomer, tenured track professor boyfriend who's recently been saying things like "monogamy is an oppressive heteronormative construct," while eyeing undergrads. And then there's Eloise. Perfect, gorgeous, cultured Eloise. The product of Donna's first marriage to a dashing Frenchman, Eloise has spent her school years at the best private boarding schools, her winter holidays in St. John and a post-college life cushioned by a fat, endless trust fund. To top it off, she's infuriatingly kind and decent. As this estranged clan gathers together, and Eloise's walk down the aisle approaches, Grant Ginder brings to vivid, hilarious life the power of family, and the complicated ways we hate the ones we love the most in the most bitingly funny, slyly witty and surprisingly tender novel you'll read this year.
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| They May Not Mean to, But They Do by Cathleen SchineTaking its title from a famous poem by Philip Larkin, this darkly comic novel is full of sharp commentary and awash in guilt, all focused around family relationships. Joy Bergman is 86, recently widowed, and about to be forcibly retired. She doesn't want to be a burden, and isn't ready for a nursing home, but shouldn't really live alone in her Manhattan apartment. Her kids do the best they can for her, but they are busy with families and complications of their own. Narrated in turn by each of the Bergmans, this story may well hit home with readers who have aging parents of their own. |
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| Modern Lovers by Emma StraubIn college, Elizabeth, Andrew, Zoe, and Lydia were friends and bandmates; after a brush with fame, Lydia OD'd at 27. The rest are middle-aged, still close but distracted by common mid-life problems. Elizabeth and Andrew, married to each other, disagree on an important point, while Zoe's marriage to outsider Jane is faltering. Career woes, lack of fulfillment, an awareness that youth is fleeting -- these are just a few of the issues that keep them up at night (there's also the troubling fact that their teenage children have discovered sex -- and each other). Character-driven and witty, Modern Lovers alternates between the perspectives of each of the well-drawn protagonists. |
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