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50 Great Books to Read This Spring! |
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A spell of good things
by Ayobami Adebayo
The lives of two Nigerians, Eniola, who spends his days running small errands and begging and Wuraola, an exhausted young doctor from a wealthy family, are intertwined when sudden violence shatters them both. 50,000 first printing.
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Birnam Wood
by Eleanor Catton
The founder of a guerilla gardening group that plants crops on roadsides, parks and neglected yards fights an enigmatic billionaire over a parcel of land in the new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries.
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Flux
by Jinwoo Chong
A blazingly original and stylish debut novel about a young man whose reality unravels when he suspects his mysterious employers have inadvertently discovered time travel-and are using it to cover up a string of violent crimes . . .
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The new life : a novel
by Tom Crewe
In late 19th-century London, after Oscar Wilde is arrested, two men, who have collaborated on a book in defense of homosexuality, must decide if publishing their project is bravery or foolishness as they risk ostracism, imprisonment, their safety and the safety of the people they love.
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Our share of night : a novel
by Mariana Enriquez
United in grief after the death of the wife and mother they both loved, a young father and son travel to confront the terrifying legacy she bequeathed a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality.30,000 first printing.
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The trackers
by Charles Frazier
Commissioned to create a mural representing Dawes, Wyoming, for their new Post Office, Val Welch, a painter in Depression-era America, stays with a wealthy art lover, his wife and a mysterious elder cowboy where he turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them. 150,000 first printing.
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Maame
by Jessica George
A young British Ghanaian woman navigates her 20s and finds her place in the world.
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Your driver is waiting : a novel
by Priya Guns
For the first time ever, Damani, who drives for an app, starts dating a white girl with money, but when their romance intensifies and she finally lets her guard down, her girlfriend does something unforgivable, setting off an explosive chain of events.
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Really good, actually : a novel
by Monica Heisey
Determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcě, 29-year-old Maggie, with the help of her tough-loving academic advisor, her newly divorced friend and her group chat, barrels through her first year of singledom, searching for what truly makes her happy. 100,000 first printing.
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Pineapple Street : a novel
by Jenny Jackson
"A deliciously funny, sharply observed novel of family, wealth, love and tennis, this zeitgeisty debut follows three women in an old Brooklyn Heights clan: one who was born with money, one who married into it, and one, the millennial conscience of the family, who wants to give it all away. Darley, the eldest daughter in the Stockton family, has never worried about money. The product of generational wealth and capitalist success, Darley renounced her inheritance when she married Malcolm, a first generation Korean American with a lucrative job in banking. Sasha, Darley's new sister-in-law, has come from more humble origins, and her hesitancy about signing a pre-nup has everyone worried about her intentions. Georgiana, newly graduated from Brown and proud to think of herself as a "do-gooder," has enough money from her trust that she's able to work for a pittance at a not-for-profit, where she has started a secret love affair with a senior colleague. But when a scandal derails Malcolm's career, leaving Darley financially in the lurch, when Sasha glimpses the less-than-attractive attributes beneath the Stockton brood's carefully-guarded façade, and when Georgiana discovers her boyfriend is married and still in love with his wife, they must all come to terms with what money can't buy-the bonds of love that can make and unmake a family. Rife with the indulgent pleasures of affluent WASPS in New York and full of recognizable if fallible characters (and a couple of appalling ones!), it's about the peculiar unknowability of someone else's family, about the haves and have-nots and the nuances in between, and the insanity of first love-Pineapple Street is a scintillating, wryly comic novel of race, class, wealth and privilege in an age that disdains all of it"
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What happened to Ruthy Ramirez
by Claire Jimenez
A powerful debut novel follows a Puerto Rican family in Staten Island who discovers their longmissing sister is potentially alive and cast on a reality TV show, and they set out to bring her home. 75,000 first printing.
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Biography of X : a novel
by Catherine Lacey
When a famous iconoclastic artist and shape-shifter dies suddenly, her widow, CM, begins writing her wife's biography and opens a vast Pandora's box of secrets and explores the history of the fascist theocracy where she lived. 75,000 first printing. Illustrations.
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Lone women : a novel
by Victor LaValle
In 1915, Adelaide Henry, after her secret sin killed her parents, sets out for Montana, dragging an enormous steamer trunk thats locked at all times, to become one of the lone women taking advantage of the governments offer of free land where she hopes to bury her past.
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Small mercies : a novel
by Dennis Lehane
In 1974 Boston, as a heatwave blankets the city, Mary Pat Fennessey, in a desperate search for her missing daughter, asks questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, who doesnt take kindly to anyone who threatens his business. 150,000 first printing.
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Calling Ukraine
by Johannes Lichtman
National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree and author of Such Good Work Johannes Lichtman returns with a novel that is strikingly relevant to our times--about an American who takes a job in Ukraine in 2018, only to find that his struggle to understand the customs and culture is eclipsed by a romantic entanglement with deadly consequences.
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I have some questions for you
by Rebecca Makkai
A successful film professor returns to teach at her alma mater and becomes determined to investigate a closed murder case, in the new novel from the author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist The Great Believers.
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The deluge : a novel
by Stephen Markley
In 2013 California, environmental scientist Tony Pietrus, after receiving a death threat, is linked to a colorful cast of characters, including a brazen young activist who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come.
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Hello beautiful : a novel
by Ann Napolitano
Awarded a college basketball scholarship away from his childhood home silenced by tragedy, a young man befriends a spirited young woman who welcomes him into her loving, loud, chaotic household in the new novel by the author of Dear Edward.
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Victory city : a novel
by Salman Rushdie
Giving rise to the great city Bisnaga, a wonder of the world, Pampa Kampana, the vessel for her namesake, the goddess Pampa, who has given her powers beyond her comprehension, attempts, over the centuries, to make good on the task the goddess set for her: women equal agency in a patriarchal world.
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The sense of wonder : a novel
by Matthew Salesses
From the author of PEN/Faulkner finalist Disappear Doppelgñger Disappear and Craft in the Real World comes a searing masterwork on the ways Asian Americans navigate the thorny worlds of sports and entertainment when everything is stacked against them.
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Endpapers
by Jennifer Savran
Dawn Levit, a bookbinder conservationist working at the Met in 2003 and dealing with her gender identity discovers a love letter hidden in the endpapers of a 1950s lesbian pulp novel and tries to track down the author. 25,000 first printing.
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Romantic comedy : a novel
by Curtis Sittenfeld
A sketch writer for a late-night comedy show, Sally Milz pokes fun at the phenomenon of talented but average men whove gotten romantically involved with beautiful women and how the reverse never happens until she meets a pop music sensation who flips the script on all her assumptions. Original.
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Brutes : a novel
by Dizz Tate
A group of young teenage girls discover a dark secret about their fame-hungry Florida town that will haunt them for the rest of their lives when their friend, the local preacher's daughter, Sammy, goes missing.
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Stealing : a novel
by Margaret Verble
In the 1950s, strong-willed and shrewd Kit Crockett, ripped from her home and Cherokee family and sent to a religious boarding school, she, along with the other Native students, is stripped of her heritage, force-fed Christian indoctrination and is sexually abused until she decides to fight back. 50,000 first printing.
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Hang the moon
by Jeannette Walls
After encouraging her younger step-brother to participate in daredevil activities leads to an accident, Sallie Kincaid is cast out of her family in the new novel from the number one New York Times best-selling author of The Glass Castle.
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A living remedy : a memoir
by Nicole Chung
The best-selling author of All You Can Ever Know returns with a memoir of her experiences as a Korean adoptee and the challenges she faced holding on to family bonds in the face of hardship and tragedy.
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Once upon a Tome : The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller
by Oliver Darkshire
By turns unhinged and earnest, Once Upon a Tome is the colorful story of life in one of the world's oldest bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment.
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Second star : and other reasons for lingering
by Philippe Delerm
"A number one best seller in France, Second Star is a series of lyrical meditations on life's smallest moments, from peeling a clementine, drinking a cold mojito, or washing your windows."
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Poverty, by America
by Matthew Desmond
Drawing on history, research and original reporting, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted reimagines the debate on poverty, revealing there is so much poverty in America not in spite of our wealth but because of it, and builds a startingly original case for eliminating poverty in our country.
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Look at the Lights, My Love
by Annie Ernaux
A revelatory meditation on class and consumer culture, from 2022 Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux.
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The other family doctor : a veterinarian explores what animals can teach us about love, life, and mortality
by Karen R. Fine
"All Creatures Great and Small meets Being Mortal in this compelling memoir of one woman's dream to become a veterinarian in a field historically dominated by men, and how, through her work both with her patients and their people, she comes to better understand humanity, mortality, and the unique role animals play in our lives. Karen Fine always knew that she wanted to be a vet and wasn't going to let anything stop her: not her allergy to cats, and not the fact that in the '80s veterinary medicine was still a mostly male profession. Inspired by her grandfather, a compassionate doctor who paid house calls to all his (human) patients, Dr. Fine persevered, and brought her Oupa's principles into her own practice, which emphasizes the need to contextualize pets' care in terms of their stories. And in The Other Family Doctor, Dr. Fine shares all these touching, joyful, heartbreaking, and life-affirming tales that make up her career as a vet. There's the feral cat who becomes a creature out of a fable when he puts his trust in a young vet to heal his injured paw; the pot-bellied pig who grows too big to fit in the car but remains a cherished part of her family; the surprising colony of perfectly behaved ferrets; the beloved aging pet who gives her people the gift of accompanying them on one final family vacation; and the dog who saves his owner's life in a most unexpected way. Woven into Dr. Fine's story are, of course, also the stories of her own pets: the birds, cats, and dogs who have taught her the most valuable lessons-how we can be better caretakers of the animals in our lives and, ultimately, of ourselves"
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The Real Work : On the Mystery of Mastery
by Adam Gopnik
For decades, Adam Gopnik has been one of our most beloved writers, a brilliantly perceptive critic of art, food, France, and more. But recently, he became obsessed by a fundamental matter: How did the people he was writing about learn their outlandish skill, whether it was drawing a nude or baking a sourdough loaf? In The Real Work--his title the term magicians use for the accumulated craft that makes for a great trick--Gopnik apprentices himself to an artist, a dancer, a boxer, and even a driving instructor (from the DMV), among others, trying his late-middle-age hand at things he assumed were beyond him. He finds that mastering a skill is a process of methodically breaking down and building up, piece by piece--and that true mastery, in any field, requires mastering other people's minds. Exuberant and profound, The Real Work is ultimately about why we relentlessly seek to better ourselves in the first place.
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The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder
by David Grann
In this tale of shipwreck, survival and savagery, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the events on His Majestys Ship The Wager, a British vessel that left England in 1740 on a secret mission, resulting in a court martial that revealed a shocking truth. Illustrations.
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Hijab butch blues : a memoir
by Lamya H
A queer Muslim immigrant recalls her coming of age and how she drew inspiration from the stories in the Quran throughout her lifetime search for safety and belonging. 30,000 first printing.
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Palo Alto : a history of California, capitalism, and the world
by Malcolm Harris
"In PALO ALTO, the first comprehensive, global history of Silicon Valley, Malcolm Harris examines how and why Northern California evolved in the particular, consequential way it did, tracing the ideologies, technologies, and policies that have been engineered there over the course of 150 years of Anglo settler colonialism, from IQ tests to the "tragedy of the commons," racial genetics, and "broken windows" theory. The Internet and computers, too. It's a story about how a small American suburb became a powerful engine for economic growth and war, and how it came to lead the world into a surprisingly disastrous 21st century"
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The half known life : in search of paradise
by Pico Iyer
From Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lamas Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, this thought-provoking book, tracing the authors almost 50-year journey around the world, offers a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our lives.
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Have you eaten yet? : stories from Chinese restaurants around the world
by Cheuk Kwan
"Weaves a global narrative by linking the myriad personal stories of chefs, entrepreneurs, labourers, and dreamers who populate Chinese kitchens worldwide. Behind these kitchen doors lies an intriguing paradox which characterizes many of these communities: how Chinese immigrants have resisted--or have often been prevented from--complete assimilation into the social fabric of their new homes"
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Hanging out : the radical power of killing time
by Sheila Liming
Makes a case for the necessity of unstructured social time as a key element of our cultural vitality and how it can help take back our social lives from the constant swirl of social media. 75,000 first printing.
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And finally : matters of life and death
by Henry Marsh
"From the bestselling neurosurgeon and author of Do No Harm, comes Henry Marsh's And Finally, an unflinching and deeply personal exploration of death, life and neuroscience. As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. And Finally explores what happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own death sentence. As he navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness and old age. But he is also more entranced than ever by the mysteries of science and the brain, the beauty of the natural world and his love for his family. Elegiac, candid, luminous and poignant, And Finally is ultimately not so much a book about death, but a book about life and what matters in the end"
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Saving Time : Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock
by Jenny Odell
In this thought-provoking, deeply hopeful reframing of time, the author takes us on a journey through other temporal habitats, urging us to become stewards of different rhythms of life, to imagine an existence, identity and source of meaning outside the world of work and profit.
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Culture : the story of us, from cave art to K-pop
by Martin Puchner
"What good are the arts? Why should we care about the past? For millennia, humanity has sought to understand and transmit to future generations not just the "know-how" of life, but the "know-why"--the meaning and purpose of our existence, as expressed inart, architecture, religion, and philosophy. This crucial passing down of knowledge has required the radical integration of insights from the past and from other cultures. In Culture, acclaimed author, professor, and public intellectual Martin Puchner takes us on a breakneck tour through pivotal moments in world history, providing a global introduction to the arts and humanities in one engaging volume"
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Fieldwork : a forager's memoir
by Iliana Regan
The National Book Award nominee presents a memoir of her life and heritage as a forager, her life in the forests of Michigans Upper Peninsula and how her complex gender identity informs her work as a chef.
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Oscar wars : a history of Hollywood in gold, sweat, and tears
by Michael Schulman
Chronicling the remarkable, sprawling history of the Academy Awards and the personal dramas that have played out on the stage and off camera, this entertaining exploration of the Oscars features a star-studded cast of some of the most powerful Hollywood players of today and yesterday. 75,000 first printing. Illustrations.
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We should not be friends : the story of a friendship
by Will Schwalbe
Tracing an extraordinary, life-changing college friendship over decades of challenge and change, this warm, funny and irresistible book follows the author as he, joining a little-known secret society at Yale, finds an unlikely friend in a physically imposing, loud, star wrestler determined to become a Navy SEAL.
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