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| Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa AnapparaStarring: nine-year-old Jai, who turns detective when his classmate disappears from their unnamed Indian slum, and the two friends he charms into helping him, Pari and Faiz.
Why you might like it: The characters are engagingly complex; the neighborhood is poverty-stricken but full of life; the writing is descriptive, warm, and witty despite the heartbreaking lack of support for India's poor.
Read it if: Katherine Boo's depiction of a Mumbai slum in Behind the Beautiful Forevers stayed with you long after finishing. |
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| The Regrets by Amy BonnaffonsStarring: recently deceased Thomas, who must remain on Earth for 90 days due to a bureaucratic error; Rachel, still alive but perpetually unlucky in love.
What happens: Despite being forbidden from interacting with the living, Thomas falls in love with Rachel, and the feeling is mutual.
Why you might like it: The surreal set-up creates a humorous, one-of-a-kind romantic comedy. |
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| Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel BumpWhat it's about: the coming of age of young Claude McKay Love, raised by his civil rights activist grandmother and her gay best friend on Chicago's South Side.
Why you might like it: Told in short vignettes and very much focused on themes of racial injustice, this debut offers sharp humor, clever dialogue, and a relatable protagonist in awkward, uncomfortable Claude.
Reviewers say: Debut author Gabriel Bump "delivers a singular sense of growing up black that will resonate with readers" (Library Journal). |
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| Weather by Jenny OffillWhat it's about: the impending end of the world, as worried about by university librarian Lizzie, who's taken a second job for a podcaster who focuses on futurism. Other worries include: politics, her brother's drug addiction, her son's journey through New York's public school system, her knee, her mostly good relationship with her husband.
The style...might not be for everyone: it's told in observational fragments, and despite many witty, sharp comments, this quick read is drenched in anxiety and hopelessness. |
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| Shuggie Bain by Douglas StuartThe setting: Glasgow, Scotland, in the 1980s and early '90s.
Starring: young Shuggie Bain, bullied for his effeminate manner and living in oppressive poverty, whose beautiful mother is an alcoholic whom he loves deeply despite her flaws.
What it's like: dark, gritty, and with dialogue relayed in a Glaswegian dialect, this bleak coming-of-age story "will crack you open" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Property of the State by Kiki SwinsonWhat it's about: Pharmacy worker Misty is in prison, having been charged with murdering her ex-boyfriend; in an effort to avoid assaults by violent prison gangs, she unwittingly becomes a test subject in illegal laboratory experiments and is exposed to unspeakable cruelty. But Misty is determined to survive.
Read this first: The Black Market and The Safe House, the first two books in this fast-paced urban fiction series. |
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The heap : a novel
by Sean Adams
What it's about: Chronicles the rise and fall of a massive high-rise housing complex, and the lives it affected before—and after—its demise. A first novel.
You might also like this because: This book and Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel are melancholy, stylistically complex, and nonlinear, and they have the theme "band of survivors"; the genre "adult books for young adults"; and have characters that are complex.
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House on endless waters : a novel
by Emunah Elon
What it's about: Returning to his birthplace in Amsterdam, a successful writer uncovers heartbreaking secrets about his Dutch-Jewish family’s wartime experiences. By the best-selling author of If You Awaken Love.
You may also like this: Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Both are "books about books"; and have the subjects "authors," "Jews," and "World War II"; and have characters that are sympathetic and religiously diverse.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Central Mississippi Regional Library System
100 Tamberline Street
Brandon, Mississippi 39042
601-825-0100
http://www.cmrls.lib.ms.us
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