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Leave the world behind
by
Rumaan Alam
What happens: A white family staying in a rented Hamptons home finds their idyllic vacation cut short by the arrival of the owners, an older Black couple hoping to take refuge from a power outage in New York City. Then what? Though suspicion and resentment (on both sides) are their initial reactions, the two families form an uneasy alliance as it becomes clear that the blackout -- and other disquieting occurrences -- may be a sign of societal collapse. Reviewers say: "This illuminating social novel offers piercing commentary on race, class and the luxurious mirage of safety" (Publishers Weekly).
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The last taxi driver: A novel
by
Lee Durkee
A darkly comic novel about a day in the life of an exhausted, middle-aged hackie about to lose his job to Uber, his girlfriend to lethargy, and his ability to stand upright to chronic back spasms. Lou - a lapsed novelist and UFO enthusiast who has returned to his home state of Mississippi after decades away - drives for a ramshackle taxi company that operates on the outskirts of a college town among the trailer parks and housing projects. With Lou's way of life fast vanishing, an ex-dispatcher resurfaces in town on the lam, triggering a bedlam shift which will test Lou's sanity and perhaps cost him his life.
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I was told it would get easier
by
Abbi Waxman
Stuck in a bus full of strangers, mother-and-daughter duo Jessica and Emily Burnstein watch their carefully mapped-out college tour devolve into something they never expected Jessica and Emily have very different ideas of how this college tour should go. For Emily, it's a last-ditch effort to get excited about her future, because every day in the present feels like such a slog. Can't she just skip straight to the adulting part? For Jessica, it's a chance to bond with the daughter she seems to have lost. They used to be so close. She isn't even sure if Emily likes her anymore. To be honest, Jessica isn't entirely sure she likes herself. Together with a dozen strangers, and two familiar enemies, Jessica and Emily travel the East Coast, visiting one prospective college after another, meeting up with family and old friends along the way. Surprises and secrets test their relationship and, in the end, change it forever..
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The Jane Austen Society
by
Natalie Jenner
Can a village in need, find hope after the devastation of war? The Jane Austen Society is a fictional telling of the start of the society in the 1940s in the village of Chawton, where she lived. There are eight main characters, all of whom are obsessed with Austen and conspire to create the society and turn the Austen cottage into a museum in her honour, a WWII war widow, a farmer, a village doctor, a local solicitor, a house-girl in the Knight estate, the anticipated heiress of that estate, an employee of Sotheby's, and a Hollywood actress. Multiple social, romantic, and cultural collisions ensue.
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Quotients
by
Tracy O'neill
Jeremy Jordan and Alexandra Chen hope to make a quiet home together but struggle to find a space safe from their personal secrets. For Jeremy, this means leaving behind his former life as an intelligence operative during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, while for Alexandra, a vocation in image control for whole countries cannot prepare her for the challenge of guarding a beloved brother's confidences or learning more of his mysterious history. In a culture pervaded by surveillance, Jeremy and Alexandra will go to great lengths to protect what is closest to them and answer the question of whether they are as loved as they love..
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How to bury your brother
by
Lindsey Rogers Cook
After Alice's older brother runs away at fifteen, the next she hears of him is that he's dead. Eight years after the funeral, Alice cleans out her childhood home in Georgia only to find her brother's autopsy report showing the many lies behind his death. She also discovers sealed, addressed letters he wrote shortly before he died. In a search for the truth, Alice delivers the letters to his closest friends, lovers, and enemies, each letter daring her to finally open her eyes to her family's dark past and her own role in it. But it's the last letter that takes Alice to her brother's final home in New Orleans, and it will force her to choose if she'll let the secrets break her or finally bring her home..
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Sad Janet: A novel
by
Lucie Britsch
"This dark-comedic novel is about a woman, Janet, who wears a cloak of gloomy realism, until one summer when she learns of a new pill that offers even confirmed cynics a short-term taste of happiness. Her family stages an intervention, her boyfriend leaves her, and she decides to take the pill to get through the Christmas holiday. What follows is life-changing for all concerned, in ways no one expected"
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Memorial
by
Bryan Washington
Starring: Mike, a Japanese American chef, and Ben, a Black daycare teacher; their rocky relationship is further tested when Mike goes to Japan to spend time with his estranged and dying father, leaving his visiting mother with Ben. Why you might like it: Set in a vividly depicted Houston and told in three distinct sections narrated by either Mike or Ben, this bittersweet, complex novel portrays the messy, passionate, and sometimes painful relationships between lovers; the two men's difficult relationships with their fathers are also key to the story.
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Less
by
Andrew Sean Greer
Starring: less-than-successful novelist Arthur Less, who's invited to his ex-boyfriend's wedding less than a year after their breakup. What does he do? Not wanting to go but so far lacking a compelling reason to send his regrets, he accepts every other invitation that comes his way, traveling to New York, Mexico, Morocco, and other far-flung destinations. Why you might like it: With a surprising narrator (you'll find out who at the end) and flawed but sympathetic characters, this engaging Pulitzer Prize winner is a poignant meditation on the universal search for love and happiness.
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Motherhood
by
Sheila Heti
What it is: an examination of motherhood and the very personal decision of whether to become a mother. What happens: The narrator consults the I Ching and a tarot deck while also reflecting on her relationship with her boyfriend and on her own mother's experiences, all in service of determining whether she too should try for a child. Reviewers say: bestselling author Sheila Heti "writes with courage, curiosity, and uncommon truth" (Booklist).
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Himself
by
Jess Kidd
Starring: Irish charmer Mahony, a young man who can communicate with the dead, has returned to the insular rural village where he was born after learning that his mother -- who he thought had left him at an orphanage as a baby -- may actually have been murdered. Why you might like it: Like the best fairytales, this spellbinding story has plenty of whimsy, magic, and darkness. For fans of: Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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