|
The Great Alone
by Kristin Hannah
What it's about: Lenora Allbright is 13 when her father, Ernt, convinces her mother, Cora, to forgo their inauspicious existence in Seattle and move to Kaneq, AK. It's 1974, and the former Vietnam POW sees a better future away from the noise and nightmares that plague him.
Why you might like it: The Allbrights are as green as greenhorns can be, and even first love must endure unimaginable hardship and tragedy as the wilderness tries to claim more victims.
|
|
|
The Only Story
by Julian Barnes
What it's about: From the Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sense of an Ending, a novel about Paul, a young man on the cusp of adulthood and a woman who is already there, a love story shot through with sheer beauty, profound sadness, and deep truth. Most of us have only one story to tell. I don't mean that only one thing happens to us in our lives: there are countless events, which we turn into countless stories. Read it for:
Reviewers Say: "It's a piercing account of helpless devotion, and of how memory can confound us and fail us and surprise us (sometimes all at once), of how, as Paul puts it, "first love fixes a life forever"-- (Publisher)
|
|
|
An American Marriage
by Tayari Jones
What it's about: Newlyweds, Celestial and Roy, are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. They are settling into the routine of their life together, when they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit.
Why you might like it: An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward - with hope and pain - into the future.
|
|
|
The Whole Bright Year
by Deborah Oswald
What it's about: Years ago, when her husband was killed, Celia left the city and brought her newborn daughter Zoe to this farm for a secure life. Now sixteen, Zoe is a passionate, intelligent girl. Barging into this world as itinerant fruit-pickers come a desperate brother and sister from Sydney. Kieran and Zoe are drawn to each other the instant they meet, sparking excitement, worry, lust, and trouble.
Why you might like it: From the creator of Offspring and author of Useful, The Whole Bright Year is a gripping, wry and tender novel about how holding on too tightly can cost us what we love.
|
|
| 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. |
|
Best Short Stories of 2017
|
|
| 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). |
|
|
Letters from Klara- and other short stories
by Tove Jansson
Why you might like it: The rich seam that is Jansson's adult prose continues with this penultimate collection of short stories, written in her seventies at the height of her Moomin fame and translated into English for the first time. What Reviewers Say:"In these light-footed, beautifully crafted yet disquieting stories, Jansson tells of discomfiting encounters, unlooked-for connections and moments of isolation that span generations and decades." (Allen and Unwin)
|
|
| 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). |
|
| 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. |
|
Contact your librarian for more great books!
|
|
|