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Fiction A to Z January 2020
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Big lies in a small town
by Diane Chamberlain
What its about: Imprisoned for a crime she did not commit, an artist is offered a chance to complete her remaining time by restoring a post office mural in a sleepy Southern town where another artist confronted violent prejudice decades earlier.
Why you might like it: Takes place in North Carolina, but involves two time lines--Raleigh, NC, in 2018 and Edenton, NC, in 1940. Reviewers say: "Refined, impressive, effective story-telling and adroitly, meticulously developed two amazing characters and their lyrically interwind stories."(Goodreads)
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A longer fall
by Charlaine Harris
What it is: A sequel to An Easy Death finds Lizbeth Rose going undercover with an old friend when a transport job involving a stolen crate threatens an alternate-world Dixie with a violent rebellion.
Why read it: The new Gunnie Rose series spans several genres including urban fantasy, western, alternate history, and thriller with magic adding another level. It contains a Western gunslinger woman, Russian Mob type wizard, dead bones, train robberies, slavery, bloodhounds, backstabbing, dead bodies and alligators.
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| Such a Fun Age by Kiley ReidStarring: Emira, a college-educated babysitter, who is black; her wealthy employer Alix, who is white.
What happens: An accusation of kidnapping shakes and terrifies Emira, shocks Alix, and leads to a complicated situation when well-meaning (but clueless) Alix proceeds to implement a "solution" for her own feelings of guilt -- regardless of what Emira wants.
Read it for: An upending of the white savior trope; a thought-provoking examination of contemporary race relations; nuanced characters; and even some humor. |
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All the ways we said goodbye : a novel of the Paris Ritz
by Beatriz Williams
Starring: Aurelie de Courcelles, an heiress; Daisy Villon, a Resistance fighter; and Barbara "Babs" Langford, a widow--three women, three different time periods, three different situations, but they all find the Ritz of Paris to be their comfort zone.
What happens: A writing team of Willig, Williams, and White--each strong writers, tells the tale of one of the three female characters set in: 1914, 1942, 1964. All three women had a unique connection to the famous French hotel. They had lived or stayed at the Ritz.
Reviewers say: "I was fully transported into this novel in which the Ritz Hotel provides its central location across the decades. In addition to the three lead women, the men in the book were well developed and admirable." (Goodreads)
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Focus on: The Debuts of 2019
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| The Red Address Book by Sofia LundbergWhat it is: a lifetime's worth of stories, all prompted by a handwritten address book owned by 96-year-old Stockholm resident Doris.
Why you might like it: Spanning multiple historical settings from Paris in the 1930s to Stockholm today, this sweet and sentimental novel offers a tale of star-crossed lovers and a strong grandmother-granddaughter connection.
For fans of: the novels of Fredrik Backman or Nina George. |
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| We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos RuffinWhat happens: Tired of experiencing nearly constant racism in the near-future American South, the unnamed black narrator is desperate to protect his biracial son from the same fate: he's considering an experimental plastic surgery to make his son appear white.
Why you should read it: The seemingly absurd situations the narrator experiences highlight the structural racism of this dystopian future...which is simply a forecast of the world today.
Reviewers say: "rakishly funny and distressingly up-to-the-minute" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| A People's History of Heaven by Mathangi SubramanianWhat it is: The story of five best friends in a Bangalore slum, who together with their independent mothers and their community fight to save their homes from being bulldozed to build a mall.
Who they are: Already marginalized by their poverty and gender, these five friends are of different religions, backgrounds, and sexual identities, but they share the same tenacious spirit.
About the author: This is YA author Mathangi Subramanian's first novel for adults. |
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| On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean VuongWhat it is: a novel framed as a letter from an adult son to his illiterate mother, exploring the legacy of the Vietnam War on their family and explaining his first doomed love with a boy two years older.
Reviewers say: "a raw and incandescently written foray into fiction by one of our most gifted poets" (Kirkus Reviews).
Want a taste? "Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between hunter and prey." |
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| The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara ZgheibStarring: French former ballerina Anna Roux, who enters an American treatment facility to get help for a life-threatening eating disorder.
Why you might like it: Poetically written, this moving debut captures the challenges of disordered eating as it depicts the friendships that form among the young women at 17 Swann Street.
About the author: Yara Zgheib is herself in recovery from anorexia. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Forsyth County Public Library 660 W 5th Street Winston Salem, North Carolina 27101 336-703-3030www.forsythlibrary.org |
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