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You Think It, I'll Say It : Stories
by Curtis Sittenfeld
What it's about: A collection of ten short stories from the author of Eligible.
Why you might like it: Literary fiction with young adult appeal. Well-developed characters in fascinating circumstances. Poignant, timely, sad, funny, and cohesive. Sittenfeld shows her craft in a new form.
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| Summer Hours at the Robbers Library by Sue HalpernWhat it's about: A trio of oddballs finds a home of sorts in the Carnegie library of a declining industrial town in New Hampshire.
Why you might like it: Authentic characters, unexpected and evolving relationships, and multiple narrators keep the story moving forward.
For fans of: other book-oriented novels with quirky characters, like Felicity Hayes-McCoy's The Library at the Edge of the World or Rebecca Makkai's The Borrower. |
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| Speak No Evil by Uzodinma IwealaWhat it's about: Star athlete Niru is bound for the Ivy League...until his loving but traditional Nigerian parents discover that he's gay. The repercussions are violent and far-reaching.
Why you should read it: Cross-generational misunderstandings, as well as cross-cultural complications, are sensitively portrayed. Niru is a complex young man trying to come to terms with being a young gay black man.
Is it for you? Readers who prefer happy endings will want to look elsewhere. |
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| Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha RaoStarring: motherless Poornima and penniless Savitha, whose deep friendship sustains them in their rural Indian town.
What it's about: Separated by acts of cruelty and abuse, the two young women must navigate the world alone, each searching for the other.
Why you might like it: Narrated in the girls' alternating voices, this debut novel offers a vivid portrayal of contemporary India, as well as a devastating exploration of gender inequalities and human trafficking. |
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First person
by Richard Flanagan
What it's about: A down-on-his-luck ghost writer penning the memoirs of a notorious con man in the six weeks before the latter's trial for a $700 million heist begins to experience a chilling psychological downward spiral that makes him question his perceptions of the truth.
Why you might like it: In a brilliant third act, Flanagan turns his savage mockery to the recent trend of autobiographical fiction. Full of hilarious asides, this sonorous, blackly comic novel offers searing insight into our times.
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| I Am Radar by Reif LarsenWhat it is: a sprawling novel that involves a black boy named Radar born inexplicably to white parents and a secretive group of physicist puppeteers who stage experimental performances in the world's war zones.
You might also like: Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang, another character-centered tale with performance artists in starring roles.
Where does the Arctic come in? Radar meets the puppeteers in northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle. |
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| Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria SempleWhat it's about: Eighth-grader Bee Branch has been promised a trip to Antarctica by her parents, tech guru Elgin Branch and architect Bernadette Fox. Until Bernadette -- whose creative genius is outstripped only by her social anxiety and agoraphobia -- disappears.
Why you might like it: A compilation of emails, faxes, official documents, and letters forms the basis of this delightful, charming, witty novel. |
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The Brief History of the Dead
by Kevin Brockmeier
What it's about: In The City, an afterlife world inhabited by the recently departed as long as they remain in the memories of the living, Marion and Phillip Byrd find themselves falling in love again after decades of marriage, while on Earth, their daughter, Laura, is stranded alone in an Antarctic research station, cut off by extreme weather.
Why you might like it: Brockmeier’s haunting reminder of how connected people are to one another will appeal to readers of fantasy yearning for a bit more to think about than the usual fare offers.
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The Comet Seekers
by Helen Sedgwick
What it's about: A magical, intoxicating novel that imagines the future and history of Róisín and François, two strangers who become lovers, connected by the passing of the great comets overhead and by the ancestors that bind them together.
Why you might like it: Readers would do well to suspend disbelief and open their hearts to the romance, the lush prose, and the mystery of Sedgwick's original and inventive debut.
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