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| Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz JedrowskiThe setting: early 1980s Poland, crushed by a communist regime; two young men fall in love despite standing on different sides of the political divide.
What other obstacles do they face? Ludwik is a dreamer who wants more than secret encounters, while Janusz is more practical; despite their passion for each other, a sexual relationship with a woman also comes between them.
Reviewers say: This debut is "highly recommended for all who enjoy a tale of love under the most difficult circumstances" (Library Journal). |
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Beach Read
by Emily Henry
A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters. Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast. They are polar opposites. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they are living in neighbouring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block. Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts.
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| The Knockout Queen by Rufi ThorpeThe odd couple: misfit California teens Michael (gay and closeted) and Bunny (at 6'3", despairing of ever finding a boyfriend), who find a safe haven in their unlikely friendship.
What happens: Different as they are, they both come from traumatic childhoods and their bond is strong; when Bunny reacts violently in Michael's defense, everything changes.
Read it for: the insightful depiction of an intense adolescent friendship, the flawed and accessible characters, and a sharp writing style. |
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Paris is Always a Good Idea
by Jenn McKinlay
It's been seven years since Chelsea Martin embarked on her yearlong post-college European adventure. Since then, she's lost her mother to cancer and watched her sister marry twice, while Chelsea's thrown herself into work, becoming one of the most talented fundraisers for the American Cancer Coalition. When her introverted mathematician father announces he's getting remarried, Chelsea is forced to acknowledge that her life stopped after her mother died, and that the last time she can remember being happy, in love, or enjoying her life was on her gap year..
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The Orphan Collector
by Ellen Marie Wiseman
In the fall of 1918, 13-year-old German immigrant Pia Lange longs to be far from Philadelphia's overcrowded streets and slums. Spanish influenza is spreading through the city. Soon, dead and dying are everywhere. With no food at home, Pia must venture out in search of supplies. When Bernice Groves sees Pia leaving her tenement across the way, she is buoyed by a shocking, life-altering decision that leads her on a sinister mission: to transform the city's orphans and immigrant children into what she feels are "true" Americans.
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Mother Land
by Leah Franqui
When Rachel Meyer, a thirtysomething foodie from New York, agrees to move to Mumbai with her Indian-born husband, Dhruv, she knows some culture shock is inevitable. But the ex-pat American's sense of adventure is sorely tested when her mother-in-law, Swati, suddenly arrives from Kolkata, with a shocking announcement: she's left her husband of more than 40 years and is moving in with them.
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The Bright Side of Going Dark
by Kelly Harms
As one of the most popular influencers on social media, Mia Bell has lived her life online for years. She is planning the ultimate virtual wedding entirely paid for by sponsors. But off-camera, her world is far from picture perfect. After being jilted by her fiance and faking her nuptials to please her sponsors, Mia finally has had enough. She heaves her phone off a cliff, ready to live, and maybe find love, offline. Mia's sudden absence doesn't go unnoticed, especially by techie loner Paige Miller, who hacks Mia's account and begins impersonating the internet celebrity.
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| My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan BraithwaiteStarring: hardworking, practical Korede; her beautiful sister Ayoola, who seems to have developed a habit of killing her boyfriends.
What it's about: Korede is the one who disposes of the bodies and keeps her sister out of jail. But when the handsome doctor with whom Korede has fallen in love notices Ayoola and asks for her number, Korede faces a dilemma.
Why you might like it: This darkly funny debut captures the crowded streets of Lagos, Nigeria and complex family relationships with equal skill. |
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| Little Gods by Meng JinWhat it is: a debut novel that follows grief-stricken 17-year-old Liya as she travels to China to learn more about her recently deceased mother Su Lan -- a complex, remote woman obsessed with her research in theoretical physics.
Narrated by: Liya herself; Su Lan's former neighbor, who remembers a happy woman at odds with Liya's understanding of her mother; and Yongzong, Su Lan's husband and father to Liya, who he never knew.
Read it for: the slowly pieced-together picture you'll form of Su Lan; the experimental writing style. |
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| Machines Like Me by Ian McEwanWhat it's about: the relationships that develop between young Londoner Charlie, his girlfriend Miranda, and the android Adam, one of the first 26 "manufactured humans" who can pass as real.
Why you might like it: Readers curious about artificial intelligence and fans of the HBO show Westworld will appreciate the novel's playful, intriguing approach to coexisting with "robots." The alternate version of the 1980s, in which Alan Turing has had a greater influence, is fun too. |
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| The Ultimate Betrayal by Kimberla Lawson RobyWhat happens: In this 12th in the Reverend Curtis Black series, his daughter Alicia is about to remarry her first husband...but isn't quite ready to give up the man who broke up her marriage.
What else? Alicia's best friend, Melanie, is busy with her own serious problems -- and their stories alternate as they spiral out of control.
Read it for: lots of tension, plenty of drama, and a direct writing style, all of which makes for a "compellingly readable" (Kirkus Reviews) novel. |
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| Tin Man by Sarah WinmanThe perspectives: A middle-aged widower reflects on the loss of his much-loved wife, and on the intense relationship he'd formed with another boy, Michael, as a teen, but from whom he's now estranged. In the second half of the novel, Michael has his turn.
What it's about: love in all its forms; art as driving force; grief.
Read this next: Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses, Moshik Sakal's The Diamond Setter, James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, or John Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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