| The Great Believers by Rebecca MakkaiWhat it's about: Set in Chicago during the height of the AIDS crisis as well as in modern-day Paris, this thoughtful novel is a powerful portrayal of loss, life, friendship, and family.
Why you might like it: Empathetic characters; moving details of the AIDS epidemic; an emphasis on the families you choose.
Read it if: you enjoyed the scope and subject matter of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara but want something a little more uplifting. |
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| Bearskin by James A. McLaughlinWhat it's about: Obsessed with catching the poachers intruding on a private preserve, caretaker Rice Moore runs into trouble with vicious locals, a drug cartel, and U.S. law enforcement.
Why you might like it: With a flawed and damaged hero, bursts of violence, and an atmospheric setting in Virginia's Appalachian forests, this visceral, literary debut shows that it's not just nature that's red in tooth and claw... |
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| The Book of M by Peng ShepherdWhat it's about: Sometime in the near future, people are losing their shadows -- a precursor to losing all of their memories. Chaos ensues, and Ory and his wife Max flee to a mountain cabin to escape the violence -- and then Max loses her shadow and runs away.
Why you might like it: You can't get enough cross-country dystopian fiction, like Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven. |
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| The Shepherd's Hut by Tim WintonWhat it's about: After the sudden death of his violent father, teenager Jaxie Clackton takes off across the rough and dangerous landscape of Western Australia in hopes of reaching the girl he loves.
Read it for: Jaxie's journey across the unforgiving wilderness; the compelling and gritty writing; and Jaxie himself -- as rough as his language, he's not always easy to feel sympathy for, despite his brutal upbringing.
Be aware of: a fair amount of blood and violence, including cruelty to animals. |
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How to Stop Time
by Matt Haig
Introducing: Tom Hazard, who is centuries old -- but appears to be only in his 40s. Now, he's in danger -- he's falling in love, and that is expressly forbidden by the shadowy group that "protects" people like him.
Read it for: the rich details of the different eras that Tom lives through; the purpose that Tom's search for his daughter gives to his lonely existence; the quirky rom-com nature of the novel.
Book buzz: Benedict Cumberbatch will star in the planned-for big-screen adaptation.
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How to Walk Away
by Katherine Center
What it's about: A devastating injury forces Maggie Jacobsen to reevaluate everything about her life and begin anew, with help from her estranged sister and her gruff physical therapist.
Why you might like it: Full of well-developed characters, How to Walk Away offers quietly inspiring moments (and humor) as Maggie's healing process unfolds along a realistic trajectory.
For fans of: Jojo Moyes' Me Before You.
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| How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica HenryWhat it's about: After the death of her father, Emilia struggles to fill the role he played in his small Cotswolds town while also keeping his beloved bookshop afloat.
Why you might like it: There's a warm and welcoming community, a bit of romance, and a number of obstacles for Emilia (and others) to overcome.
For fans of: neighborly, book-centric novels like Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Jenny Colgan's The Bookshop on the Corner, or Katarina Bivald's The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend. |
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| How to Build a Girl by Caitlin MoranStarring: awkward 14-year-old misfit Johanna Morgan, whose family is on the dole and who reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde, a hard-charging partier who makes a name for herself as a hard-to-please rock critic.
Why you might like it: England in the 1990s (and its music scene) is vividly depicted; the writing is clever, observant, and often hilarious; your awkward teen years are comfortably far behind you.
Look for: the sequel, How to Be Famous, publishing this month. |
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| How to Be Both by Ali SmithWhat it is: an inventive, genre-blending combination of historical and contemporary stories, in a highly unusual format -- chapters are arranged in a different order from copy to copy, so readers will experience the book differently depending on what they hold in their hands.
Starring: a Renaissance-era artist and a grieving modern-day teen.
Why you might like it: With thought-provoking explorations of gender and art, plus the creative layout, How to Be Both offers plenty of fodder for discussion. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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