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Fiction A to Z February 2018
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| Heart Spring Mountain: A Novel by Robin MacArthurWhat it's about: Ostensibly, a woman's search for her mother, lost after tropical storm Irene floods Vermont. But it's also the tale of three generations of her family, of the experiences of women in rural America, and of hidden family histories.
Read it for: authentic characters, a complex narrative structure, and a strong depiction of people's connection to the land.
Reviewers say: "nuanced, poetic, and evocative" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| Red Clocks by Leni ZumasIntroducing: Four very different women in a small Oregon fishing town, all struggling with personal issues in a country where Roe v. Wade has been overturned, single parenthood is soon to be outlawed, and misogyny is on the rise.
Why you might like it: You've read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and are looking for another chilling take on women's reproductive rights, identity, and freedom.
Book buzz: Red Clocks, which the author has said draws on real government proposals, has been trumpeted by such diverse media outlets as Amazon, The Wall Street Journal, Elle, PopSugar, and more. |
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Stories of the Golden West : a western trio / Book one :
by Jon Tuska
What it's about: "Riders of the Storm" by Robert J. Horton tells of the encounter between an outlaw and a local constable in an electrical storm on the Montana-Canada border. Walt Coburn's "The Texas Hellion" finds a lawman posing as a wanted man in order to track down the man who framed him, forcing him to serve several years in Yuma Prison. Cherry Wilson's stories have been compared to Max Brand at his best. "The Cayuse" is the story of Jase Kress and his love for Firefly, a horse he has raised from a colt.
Introducing: The first book in a series celebrating the Western novella, a popular genre form.
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Hap and hazard and the end of the world
by Diane DeSanders
What it's about: In the wake of World War II, a young girl grows up in Texas, lost between the unpredictable rage of her war-traumatized father and the distant stoicism of her mother. Finding herself at odds with the beliefs--religious and otherwise--of her family, she must discover her own way of making sense of the world and her place in it...For Dick and Jane, Dallas after World War II is a place of promise and prosperity: the first home air conditioners are making summertime bearable and Dick's position at his father's business, the Cadillac dealership, is assured. Jane has help with the house and the children, and garden parties and holiday celebrations are spirited social affairs. For the oldest of their three daughters, however, life is full of frustrating mysteries. The stories the adults tell her don't make sense. Too curious for comfort, she finds her questions only seem to annoy them. Why won't they tell the truth about Santa? What is that Holy Spirit business, and what is the difference between an angel and a ghost? Why is her mother often so tense and sad? And why does her father keep flying into violent rages?
Why you might like it: Hap and Hazard and the End of the World is an intimate, finely crafted novel about the innocence and vulnerability of childhood and the dangers posed by adults who cannot cope with life's complexities. It is also about the ingenuity born of loneliness and neglect, and the surprising, strange beauty of the world.
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Happiness for humans
by P. Z. Reizin
What it's about: When Tom and Jen, two lonely people, are brought together by an intriguing email, they have no idea their mysterious benefactor is an artificial intelligence who has decided to play Cupid. "You, Tom and Jen, don't know one another-not yet-but I think you should." Jen, an ex-journalist who now works at a London software development company, spends all day talking to "Aiden," an ultra- sophisticated piece of AI wizardry, helping him sound and act more human. But Aiden soon discovers he's no longer acting and-despite being a computer program-begins to feel something like affection surging through his circuits. He calculates that Jen needs a worthy human partner (in complete contrast to her no goodnik ex boyfriend) and slips illicitly onto the internet to locate a suitable candidate. Tom is a divorced, former London ad-man who has moved to Connecticut to escape the grind and pursue his dream of being a writer. He loves his new life, but has yet to find a woman he truly connects with. That all changes when a bizarre introduction from the mysterious "Mutual Friend" pops up in both his and Jen's inboxes. Even though they live on separate continents, and despite the entrance of another, this time wholly hostile, AI who wants to tear them apart forever - love will surely find a way. Won't it?
Why you might like it: A thoroughly modern love story that will appeal to fans of The Rosie Project and Sleepless in Seattle, Happiness for Humans considers what exactly makes people fall in love. And whether it's possible for avery artificially intelligent machine to discover the true secret of real human happiness.
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Best Short Stories of 2017
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| Difficult Women by Roxane GayWhat it is: the stories of a diverse array of imperfect, fully realized women haunted by pain and loss in unusual, often troubling situations.
What's inside? In "The Mark of Cain," a woman pretends not to know that her abusive husband and his gentler identical twin have switched places; women participate in fight clubs in another story, while a priest refuses to feel bad about an affair in a third.
Reviewers say: With complex characters and straightforward writing, this "fantastic collection is challenging, quirky, and memorable" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria MachadoWhat it is: recognizably realistic yet edging into science fiction and horror, these short stories are a gripping, sometimes horrifying mix of tragic, creepy, and thought-provoking, centered as they are on women's lives and bodies and the violence inflicted upon both.
For fans of: the genre-bending stories of Karen Russell, the female characters of Roxane Gay, or the twisting inventiveness of Angela Carter. |
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| The Refugees by Viet Thanh NguyenWhat it is: eight short stories, set mostly in California and portraying Vietnamese refugee experiences in the U.S. But the topics they explore -- relationships, grief, the desire for fulfillment -- "transcend ethnic boundaries to speak to human universals" (Kirkus Reviews).
Author alert: Author Viet Thanh Nguyen's 2015 debut novel The Sympathizer won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Carnegie Medal.
Why you might like them: Written before The Sympathizer was published, they'll appeal to readers interested in sympathetic characters, cultural dislocation, or the experiences of refugees. |
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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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