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| Early Morning Riser by Katherine HeinyWhat it's about: the ever-evolving relationship between second-grade teacher Jane and the local Casanova, Duncan. Over 17 years, they form an unconventional family that includes his ex-wife and a childlike coworker.
Why you might like it: Buzzing with humor and peopled with characters who are easy to root for, this engaging tale of quotidian small-town life is a heartwarming portrayal of community.
For fans of: Emma Straub's All Adults Here; Amy Poeppel's Musical Chairs. |
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Paradise, Nevada
by Dario Diofebi
A luxury casino bombing on the Vegas strip is connected to political power grabs that embroil a high-stakes poker player, a cocktail waitress, an Italian tourist and a Mormon journalist in a fight for the city’s survival.
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| Caul Baby by Morgan JerkinsStarring: three generations of Melancons, a Harlem family of healers who sell their caul only to wealthy white families while ignoring their Black neighbors. Until, that is, a child they're raising as their own starts looking into her own past.
Read it for: the consequences of Harlem's gentrification over 20 years; the intergenerational links among two Black families; the questions of belonging and identity; the touches of magical realism.
Read this next: The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. |
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Aquarium
by Ya'arah Shehori
A debut novel follows two sisters, both deaf and raised in seclusion by deaf parents, and the shattering consequences that unfold when that isolation comes to an end.
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| The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez QuadeWhat it is: the tale of three generations of the Padilla family, whose matriarch is dying, whose first son is an ambitionless alcoholic, whose pregnant teen is both strong and frail.
Read it for: the depictions of faith and religion, New Mexico's rich culture and traditions, and the Mexican-American family at the heart of it all.
What you need to know: The Five Wounds is the July pick for Roxane Gay's Audacious Book Club; it's an expansion of a short story from author Kristin Valdez Quade's collection Night of the Fiestas. |
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Under the Wave at Waimea
by Paul Theroux
A once-famous surfer confronts aging, privilege and mortality when he accidentally kills a man and makes an astonishing discovery about his personal link to the victim. By the author of The Mosquito Coast.
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| Gold Diggers by Sanjena SathianStarring: Indian American Neeraj "Neil" Narayan, who has never felt anything more than average at his high-achieving high school in Hammond Creek, Georgia.
But wait! Neil's neighbor, who's into alchemy, has learned that if you eat their gold jewelry, you can absorb the potential of gifted individuals. So of course that's what Neil begins to do.
Then what happens? Well, you'll have to read it for yourself, but in this layered coming-of-age story, comedy and tragedy go hand in hand. |
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What Comes After
by JoAnne Tompkins
The grieving single parents of two recently deceased teenage boys forge an unexpected bond over the appearance of a mysterious pregnant girl who offers insight into the tragedy. A first novel.
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| The Night Always Comes by Willy VlautinStarring: 30-year-old Portland, Oregon waitress Lynette, who's been working multiple jobs to buy the house that she, her mother, and her disabled brother are living in.
What happens: This is a heart-wrenching novel from an author who specializes in the downtrodden, so it will come as no surprise that the initial deal Lynette has worked out fails...and she's moved by desperation to consider other, more dangerous options to secure housing for her family.
Read it for: an exploration of the perils of gentrification; the fully realized and sympathetic characters; Lynette's inner strength. |
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First Person Singular : Stories
by Haruki Murakami
Told in the first person by a classic Murakami narrator, a new collection by the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award-winning writer explores the boundaries of the mind through subjects ranging from youth and music to baseball and solitude.
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Contact your librarian for more great books! |
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