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Owl Book Group Selections 2017-2018
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Another Brooklyn
by Jacqueline Woodson
Torn between the fantasies of her youth and the realities of a life marked by violence and abandonment, August reunites with a beloved old friend who challenges her to reconcile past inconsistencies and come to terms with the difficulties that forced her to grow up too quickly.
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Commonwealth : a novel
by Ann Patchett
A five-decade saga tracing the impact of an act of infidelity on the parents and children of two Southern California families traces their shared summers in Virginia and the disillusionment that shapes their lasting bond.
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Class matters
by Bill Keller
Explores class inequities in American society, describing how factors such as education, occupation, and income all contribute to creating real differences in social mobility and opportunity, with real life examples.
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Rooftops of Tehran
by Mahbod Seraji
An unforgettable debut novel of young love and growing up in an Iran headed toward revolution. In a middle-class neighborhood of Iran's sprawling capital city, 17-year-old Pasha Shahed spends one perfect, stolen summer with his beautiful neighbor, Zari, until he unwittingly guides the Shah's secret police to their target: Zari's intended. The violent consequences awaken Pasha and his friends to the reality of life under the rule of a powerful despot, and lead Zari to make a shocking choice from which Pasha may never recover.
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The sellout : a novel
by Paul Beatty
A biting satire by the author of The White Boy Shuffle traces a young man's isolated upbringing and a racially charged trial that sends him to the Supreme Court.
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The soul of an octopus : a surprising exploration into the wonder of consciousness
by Sy Montgomery
Naturalist Montgomery admirably demonstrates the complexity, intellect, and personalities of the octopuses she has come to know at the Boston Aquarium—sweet-natured Athena, steadfast Octavia, mischievous Kali—without ever resorting to easy anthropomorphism. Her science is accessible but not overly simple, and the details she offers about these creatures bring them into sharp focus: they are sophisticated camouflage artists, can solve puzzles, and show distinct preferences for people, places, and tastes.
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The Moor's account : a novel
by Laila Lalami
A tale inspired by the experiences of the New World's first explorer of African descent describes how Moroccan slave Estebanico barely survives his early 16th-century expedition's encounters with storms, disease and hostile natives while traveling to the Gulf Coast and beyond.
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Swing time
by Zadie Smith
Two dark-skinned dancers with very different talents share a complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in early adulthood in a story that transitions from northwest London to West Africa.
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The sympathizer
by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Follows a Viet Cong agent as he spies on a South Vietnamese army general and his compatriots as they start a new life on 1975 Los Angeles.
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Lab girl
by Hope Jahren
A debut memoir by an award-winning paleobiologist traces her childhood in her father's laboratory, her longtime relationship with a brilliant but wounded colleague and the remarkable discoveries they have made both in the lab and during extensive field research assignments.
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Hillbilly elegy : a memoir of a family and culture in crisis
by J. D. Vance
Shares the poignant story of the author's family and upbringing, describing how they moved from poverty to an upwardly mobile clan that included the author, a Yale Law School graduate, while navigating the demands of middle-class life and the collective demons of the past.
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Cedar Mill Community Libraries 12505 NW Cornell Road Suite 13 Portland, Oregon 97229 503-644-0043library.cedarmill.org/
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