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Little broken things : a novel
by Nicole Baart
When her estranged sister, Nora, disappears after asking her to keep a frightened little girl named Lucy safe, Quinn Cruz struggles to honor her sister’s desperate request, while Nora faces a life and death situation as she goes to great lengths to protect the ones she loves. Original.
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Woman at 1,000 degrees
by Hallgrímur Helgason
An octogenarian living out her final days in a garage with a laptop and a hand grenade reflects on her life as the daughter of a prominent political family in idyllic western Iceland, who in the aftermath of her father's fateful alliance with the Nazis is forced to rely on her wits to survive in the United States, Argentina and a native Iceland vastly changed by technology and economic crashes.
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| A State of Freedom by Neel MukherjeeWhat it is: a set of interconnected stories (each written in a different style), bound together by recurring characters and common themes, and set in modern-day India.
Why you might like it: A State of Freedom offers a variety of characters all dealing with disruption; the divide between the haves and have-nots is starkly depicted.
Read it with: V.S. Naipul's 1971 novel In a Free State, which is similarly structured. |
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Fire Sermon
by Jamie Quatro
A highly anticipated, provocative debut novel by the author of I Want to Show You More charts with bold intimacy and immersive sensuality the experiences of a married woman in the grip of a magnetic affair.
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| Red Clocks by Leni ZumasIntroducing: four very different women in a small Oregon fishing town, all struggling with personal issues in a country where Roe v. Wade has been overturned, single parenthood is soon to be outlawed, and misogyny is on the rise.
Why you might like it: You've read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and are looking for another chilling take on women's reproductive rights, identity, and freedom.
Book buzz: Red Clocks, which the author has said draws on real government proposals, has been trumpeted by such diverse media outlets as Amazon, The Wall Street Journal, Elle, PopSugar, and more. |
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Best Short Stories of 2017
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| Difficult Women by Roxane GayWhat it is: the stories of a diverse array of imperfect, fully realized women haunted by pain and loss in unusual, often troubling situations.
What's inside? In "The Mark of Cain," a woman pretends not to know that her abusive husband and his gentler identical twin have switched places; women participate in fight clubs in another story, while a priest refuses to feel bad about an affair in a third.
Reviewers say: With complex characters and straightforward writing, this "fantastic collection is challenging, quirky, and memorable" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria MachadoWhat it is: recognizably realistic yet edging into science fiction and horror, these short stories are a gripping, sometimes horrifying mix of tragic, creepy, and thought-provoking, centered as they are on women's lives and bodies and the violence inflicted upon both.
For fans of: the genre-bending stories of Karen Russell, the female characters of Roxane Gay, or the twisting inventiveness of Angela Carter. |
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| Five-Carat Soul by James McBrideWhat it is: the first short story collection from National Book Award-winning James McBride, featuring a multitude of different voices and settings, often focusing on themes of race, identity, and history.
What's inside: a grieving Abraham Lincoln; five at-risk youth who form a funk band; a zoo menagerie that communicates through Thought Speak; an antique toy seller and the priceless toy train he seeks.
Reviewers say: "Every one of them is brash, daring and defiantly original" (NPR). |
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| The Refugees by Viet Thanh NguyenWhat it is: eight short stories, set mostly in California and portraying Vietnamese refugee experiences in the U.S. But the topics they explore -- relationships, grief, the desire for fulfillment -- "transcend ethnic boundaries to speak to human universals" (Kirkus Reviews).
Author alert: Author Viet Thanh Nguyen's 2015 debut novel The Sympathizer won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Carnegie Medal.
Why you might like them: Written before The Sympathizer was published, they'll appeal to readers interested in sympathetic characters, cultural dislocation, or the experiences of refugees. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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