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Fiction Book Club The Fiction Book Club meets at 7pm on the third Tuesday of the month, excluding December. 2024 Meetings are hybrid; meet in person at the library or online via Zoom. Registration is required to receive the Zoom link: meeting time is 7-8 pm. Visit our events calendar to register. You may also register by calling 309.590.6168 or by visiting us in person at the library. To reserve a print copy of the next title to be discussed, contact the Help Desk by phone at 309.590.6168 or by email to reference@bloomingtonlibrary.org. Digital copies of each title (eBook or eAudiobook) may also be available through the Libby or Hoopla Apps.
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The Lincoln Highway
by Amor Towles
In June of 1954, 18-year-old Emmett Watson, released after serving 15 months for involuntary manslaughter, discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car and have hatched a different plan for Emmett's future.
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Memphis
by Tara M. Stringfellow
Told over the course of 70 years, this spellbinding debut novel traces three generations of a Southern Black family and one daughter, who, channeling her rage into art, discovers with the power of her paint brush, she can change her family's legacy.
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The Bandit Queens
by Parini Shroff
Considered a“self-made” widow after the disappearance of her husband, Geeta, when other women in the village ask her for help in getting rid of their own no-good husbands, must decide how far she is willing to go to protect her fearsome reputation and the life she's built. 50,000 first printing.
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The Other Americans
by Laila Lalami
"From the Pulitzer Prize finalist, author of The Moor's Account--a timely and powerful new novel about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant that is at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, all of it informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture. Nora Guerraoui, a jazz composer, returns home to a small town in the Mojave after hearing that her father, owner of a popular restaurant there, has been killed in a suspicious hit-and-run car accident. Told by multiple narrators--Nora herself, Jeremy (the Iraq war veteran with whom she develops an intimacy), widow Maryam, Efrain (an immigrant witness to the accident who refuses to get involved for fear of deportation), Coleman (the police investigator), and Driss (the dead man himself), The Other Americans deftly explores one family's secrets and hypocrisies even as it offers a portrait of Americans riven by race, class, and religion, living side by side, yet ignorant of the vicissitudes that each tribe, as it were, faces"
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Künstlers In Paradise
by Cathleen Schine
In this powerful novel of stories hand down and handed on, and those held close to the heart, Julian Künstler, during the 2020 pandemic, is trapped in Venice, California, with his glamorous, eccentric 93-year-old grandmother who shares her experiences upon arriving in the US after escaping Nazi Germany. 125,000 first printing.
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The House in the Cerulean Sea
by TJ Klune
Given a curious classified assignment to evaluate the potential risks posed by six supernatural orphans, a case worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth bonds with an enigmatic caregiver who hides dangerous secrets.
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The House of Lincoln
by Nancy Horan
An outsider in her community for as long as she can remember, Ana, in 1860s Springfield, Illinois, finds employment as a Saturday girl and household help for Abraham and Mary Lincoln where she gets a front-row seat to historic societal changes that reshape Springfield and the entire country.
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Sunshine Nails
by Mai Nguyãäen
When an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street from their family nail salon, Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran devise some good old-fashioned sabotage, but when the line between right and wrong gets blurred, they must choose between keeping their family together or fighting for their salon.
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Out of Darkness
by Ashley Hope Pâerez
Loosely based on a school explosion that took place in Texas in 1937, tells the story of two teenagers--Naomi, who is Mexican, and Wash, who is black--and their dealings with race, segregation, love, and the forces that destroy people
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The London Séance Society
by Sarah Penner
In 1873, Lenna Wickes accompanies acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D'Allaire to England where they team up with London's exclusive Seance Society to solve a high-profile murder and soon suspect they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves. 200,000 first printing.
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The Seed Keeper
by Diane Wilson
"A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most"
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