| Brother by David ChariandyWhat it's about: a marginalized community in Toronto, where run-ins with police can quickly turn violent.
Starring: a Trinidadian family composed of two boys and their single mom. The novel itself shifts in time, from when the three were together, to when one brother is no longer around.
Read it for: riveting characters, a melancholy tone, impending sense of doom, and a "haunting story that will linger in readers' memories" (Booklist). |
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| Our homesick songs by Emma HooperWhat it is: a fable-like tale of a family -- and a community -- torn apart by their circumstances but struggling to remain together.
The setting: a desolate, dwindling fishing village in Newfoundland, Canada, where the Connors are one of the few families left.
Why you might like it: A quiet meditation on loss, sorrow, and hope, this moving tale offers moments of magical realism. |
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Normal people
by Sally Rooney
Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland. The similarities end there; they are from very different worlds. When they both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin, a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the following years. This is an exquisite story about how a person can change another person's life; a simple yet profound realisation that unfolds beautifully over the course of the novel. It tells us how difficult it is to talk about how we feel and it tells us, blazingly, about cycles of domination, legitimacy and privilege.
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Hazards of time travel
by Joyce Carol Oates
An ingenious, dystopian novel of one young woman's resistance against the constraints of an oppressive society, from the inventive imagination of Joyce Carol Oates "Time travel" - and its hazards-are made literal in this astonishing new novel in which a recklessly idealistic girl dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled (future) world and is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America - "Wainscotia, Wisconsin"- that existed eighty years before. Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town she is set upon a course of "rehabilitation"- but cannot resist falling in love with a fellow exile and questioning the constrains of the Wainscotia world with results that are both devastating and liberating. Arresting and visionary, Hazards of Time Travel is both a novel of harrowing discovery and an exquisitely wrought love story that may be Joyce Carol Oates's most unexpected novel so far. | |
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No good deed
by John Niven
What do you do when the homeless man on the street you've just given money to thanks you by name and turns out to be one of your 'closest' friends, one you haven't seen for over twenty years? Take him for a hot meal and see him on his way? Give him a lot more money than you usually would? Or take him in and try to get him back on his feet? For Alan, there's no question - only natural that he'd want to see his old mate Craig off the streets, even if only for a few nights, and into some clean clothes. But what if the successful life you've made for yourself good job, happy marriage, lovely kids, grand Victorian house (you did well out of the property boom, thank you very much) is one that your old pal would quite like to have too? Even if it means taking it from you? Gradually, inevitably, mayhem ensues as Craig turns Alan's orderly household upside down, threatening to wreck Alan's life for good. Following the divergent lives of two childhood friends, No Good Deed is a funny and painful examination of friendship; of the strange currents of ambition, loathing, pity and affection that flow between people over the decades; and of men getting older as they fail and succeed.
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The cactus
by Sarah Haywood
Avoiding messy emotions in a perfectly ordered life marked by a logic-oriented career and a friends-with-benefits arrangement, Susan tackles the unexpected double challenge of losing her mother and becoming pregnant and is challenged to ask for help while discovering herself in unlikely ways.
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| The incendiaries by R.O. KwonStarring: Three Korean Americans: grieving university student Phoebe, who falls in with an extremist cult; shy Will, a transfer student from a Bible college; and John, a magnetic zealot who claims to have been released from a North Korean prison.
What happens: In the wake of a violent act that leaves five people dead at the hands of John's quasi-religious cult, Phoebe disappears, leaving Will to piece together what happened.
Reviewers say: "an urgent and disarming debut" (Publishers Weekly). |
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| The shortest way home by Miriam ParkerWhat it's about: In this engaging, character-driven debut, 30-year-old Hannah makes the impulsive decision to quit a promising career in finance in order to help out at a charming Sonoma winery.
Who it's for: Sweet and optimistic while addressing issues of self-discovery and growth, this is a great choice for fans of Jennifer Weiner.
Read this next: Lisa Owen's Not Working, or Kelly Harms' The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay. |
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| Octavia E. Butler's Kindred: A graphic novel adaptation by Damian Duffy; illustrated by John JenningsWhat it is: a graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler's classic SF novel, Kindred, in which Dana, a black woman in the 1970s, is pulled back in time to a Southern plantation in 1815.
Read it for: A compelling story that examines the roles that individuals play in perpetuating systemic racism. Plus there's stark illustrations, which change in hue for the two eras, and Dana herself, a determined woman in a challenging environment. |
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| Kill my mother: A graphic novel by Jules FeifferWhat it is: a noirish graphic novel set on the dark, menacing streets of Hollywood in the 1930s and '40s.
Read it for: recognizably noir characters -- alcoholic PIs, femmes fatales, tough guys, resourceful widows; the twists and turns of the plot, which require close reading and an appreciation for Jules Feiffer's deft eye for the absurd. |
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| Black Hammer: Secret origins by Jeff Lemire; illustrated by Dean Ormston and Dave StewartWhat it is: an omnibus of the first six Black Hammer comics issues, sharing the stories of six former superheroes who've been trapped on a farm for a decade.
Read it for: intriguing origin stories, a lot of world-building, and moody artwork fitting for the tale.
What to read next: Volume 2, obviously! It's called The Event -- and there's a new visitor to the farm... |
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| The thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney PaduaWhat it is: the (not really very true at all) story of the world's first computer, starring Ada Lovelace (who in real life died not long after writing the first paper on computer science) and Charles Babbage (who created, but never built, the first calculating machine). Together they fight crime and financial collapse using a steam-powered Analytical Engine.
Why you might like it: dynamic drawings; plenty of wit and whimsy; tidbits of actual history. |
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| Killing and dying: Stories by Adrian TomineWhat it is: six short stories, starring flawed, damaged people and illustrated with careful, clean lines (a style that is modified slightly for each story).
What's with the title? "Killing and dying" refers (mostly) to the stage, as a shy young teenager tries her hand at stand-up comedy. Will she kill? Or will she die up there?
For fans of: American cartoonist Chris Ware; Japanese manga artist Toshihiro Tatsumi; the stories of middle America and the working class. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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