“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” – Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum
FICTION
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich ★
Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?
Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.
Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.
In The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.
Description from Goodreads.
“The Night Watchman is above all a story of resilience… It is a story in which magic and harsh realities collide in a breathtaking, but ultimately satisfying way. Like those ancestors who linger in the shadows of the pages, the characters Erdrich has created will remain with the reader long after the book is closed.” – New York Journal of Books
“National Book Award winner Erdrich once again calls upon her considerable storytelling skills to elucidate the struggles of generations of Native people to retain their cultural identity and their connection to the land.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“A spellbinding, reverent, and resplendent drama… A work of distinct luminosity… Through the personalities and predicaments of her many charismatic characters, and through rapturous descriptions of winter landscapes and steaming meals, sustaining humor and spiritual visitations, Erdrich traces the indelible traumas of racism and sexual violence and celebrates the vitality and depth of Chippewa life… Erdrich at her radiant best.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“In this kaleidoscopic story, the efforts of Native Americans to save their lands from being taken away by the U.S. government in the early 1950s come intimately, vividly to life… A knowing, loving evocation of people trying to survive with their personalities and traditions intact.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
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Deacon King Kong by James McBride ★
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .45 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range.
The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself.
As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters–caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York–overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion.
Bringing to these pages both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water. Told with insight and wit, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.
Description from Goodreads.
“Perhaps you wouldn’t expect your next great read to be a sort of comic opera set in a Brooklyn housing project circa 1969 starring a drink-addled church deacon named Sportcoat, his best friend Hot Sausage and a melancholic amateur gardener with mafia ties known as the Elephant. Best put on your seat belt, because McBride (The Good Lord Bird, Five-Carat Soul) will take you on a fast, funny, farcical ride.” – Washington Post
“Cracking… Terrific… Deeply felt, beautifully written, and profoundly humane.” – New York Times Book Review
“With a Dickensian wealth of quirky characters, a sardonic but humane sense of humor reminiscent of Mark Twain, and cartoonish action scenes straight out of Pynchon, McBride creates a lived-in world where everybody knows everybody’s business. This generous, achingly funny novel will delight and move readers.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Much is unpacked by the time the book reaches its lovely and heartfelt climax, as McBride shows what can happen when people set aside their differences. Highly recommended.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
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Writers & Lovers by Lily King ★
Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she’s been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.
Writers & Lovers follows Casey–a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist–in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
Description from Goodreads.
“This novel will become a defining classic for struggling young writers.” – Vulture
“[I]ntimate and vulnerable… Lily King’s novel follows a deeply relatable protagonist navigating a whole menu of crises surrounded by a cast of genuine, vivid characters… the book occupies a small space, but packs it to the brim with humanity.” – Entertainment Weekly
“[F]unny and romantic and hard to put down, full of well-observed details of restaurant culture and writer’s workshops. It’s hard to imagine a reader who wouldn’t root for Casey.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“King is one of those rare writers who can entwine sadness, hilarity and burning fury in the briefest of moments.” – BookPage
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | eBook | eAudiobook | Hoopla eBook
Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman ★
Judy never intended to start wearing the dog. But when she stumbled across her son Teddy’s old baby sling during a halfhearted basement cleaning, something in her snapped. So: the dog went into the sling, Judy felt connected to another living being, and she’s repeated the process every day since.
Life hasn’t gone according to Judy’s plan. Her career as a children’s book author offered a glimpse of success before taking an embarrassing nose dive. Teddy, now a teenager, treats her with some combination of mortification and indifference. Her best friend is dying. And her husband, Gary, has become a pot-addled professional “snackologist” who she can’t afford to divorce. On top of it all, she has a painfully ironic job writing articles for a self-help website—a poor fit for someone seemingly incapable of helping herself.
Wickedly funny and surprisingly tender, Separation Anxiety offers a frank portrait of middle-aged limbo, examining the ebb and flow of life’s most important relationships. Tapping into the insecurities and anxieties that most of us keep under wraps, and with a voice that is at once gleefully irreverent and genuinely touching, Laura Zigman has crafted a new classic for anyone taking fumbling steps toward happiness.
Description from Goodreads.
“Every middle-aged woman who has ever felt invisible, lost or depressed will connect with some aspect of Judy’s life… Unpredictable and delightfully original. For those seeking a good laugh and a good cry, look no further than Separation Anxiety.” – BookPage
“Deeply affecting.” – Real Simple
“…Zigman’s… is a world where motherhood, wifely duties, and career aspirations take hard twists and turns. With plenty of snark and a dash of humor, she shows just how real the struggle bus is, perfect for readers who like a heroine with a messy life.” – Booklist
“The author gamely combines characters and caricatures, real pain and farce.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
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These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card ★
Stanford Solomon has a shocking, thirty-year-old secret. And it’s about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley, a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend.
And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead.
These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel’s decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present day Harlem. There is Vera, whose widowhood forced her into the role of single mother. There are two daughters and a granddaughter who have never known they are related. And there are others, like the house boy who loved Vera, whose lives might have taken different courses if not for Abel Paisley’s actions.
These Ghosts Are Family explores the ways each character wrestles with their ghosts and struggles to forge independent identities outside of the family and their trauma. The result is an engrossing portrait of a family and individuals caught in the sweep of history, slavery, migration, and the more personal dramas of infidelity, lost love, and regret. This electric and luminous family saga announces the arrival of a new American talent.
Description from Goodreads.
“Through a fluid blend of patois and erudite descriptions of Jamaica, Card offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of a troubled but resilient family whose struggles are inscribed by the island they once called home. This masterful chronicle haunts like the work of Marlon James and hits just as hard.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Card’s lyrical, ambitious debut… build[s] into a centuries-spanning epic about race, trauma, and the weight of a lie.” – Entertainment Weekly
“Inventive and captivating… Card’s depiction of genealogy and historical research is spot-on…”- BuzzFeed
“Beguiling… Vividly drawn and compelling. There is magic in these pages.”- BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
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Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn ★
In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.
Nainoa’s family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods–a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities. But as time passes, this supposed divine favor begins to drive the family apart: Nainoa, working now as a paramedic on the streets of Portland, struggles to fathom the full measure of his expanding abilities; further north in Washington, his older brother Dean hurtles into the world of elite college athletics, obsessed with wealth and fame; while in California, risk-obsessed younger sister Kaui navigates an unforgiving academic workload in an attempt to forge her independence from the family’s legacy.
When supernatural events revisit the Flores family in Hawaii–with tragic consequences–they are all forced to reckon with the bonds of family, the meaning of heritage, and the cost of survival.
Description from Goodreads.
“Washburn’s standout debut provides a vivid portrait of Hawaiian identity, mythology, and diaspora… a unique and spirited depiction of the 50th state and its children.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“One of the primary delights of this novel is the singular voice that Washburn creates for each of his narrators. He writes with verve and laces their language with wit and Hawaiicisms… Washburn’s reverence and longing for the land and traditions of Hawaii is so strong you might catch homesickness even if you’re a haole (non-Hawaiian) who does strange things like butter your rice and leave your shoes on indoors. This novel graces the reader with the spirit of Hawaii, from its fragrant forests to its cultural traditions, and feels, despite its undercurrent of sadness, like a dose of tropical sun.” – Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Recalling Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, each character in turn narrates portions of the story, an effective technique that offers a 360-degree perspective while keeping the story’s secrets until ready to be revealed… A more than noteworthy first foray into contemporary fiction by Hawaiian native Washburn.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“By turns lyrical and gritty, a moving family story focuses on the aftermath of miracles… Washburn’s prose is lush and inventive; a native of Hawai’i, he portrays the islands and their people with insight and love. He skillfully creates distinct voices for each of his narrators… Their stories go in unexpected directions, from hilarious to heartbreaking. Striking style, memorable characters, and a believably miraculous premise add up to a beautifully crafted first novel.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
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This Town Sleeps by Dennis E. Staples
On an Ojibwe reservation called Languille Lake, within the small town of Geshig at the hub of the rez, two men enter into a secret romance. Marion Lafournier, a midtwenties gay Ojibwe man, begins a relationship with his former classmate Shannon, a heavily closeted white man obsessed with his image as a northern Minnesotan. While Marion is far more open about his sexuality, neither is immune to the realities of the lives of gay men in small towns and closed societies.
One night, while roaming the dark streets of Geshig, Marion unknowingly brings to life a dog from beneath the elementary school playground. The mysterious revenant leads him to the grave of Kayden Kelliher, an Ojibwe basketball star who was murdered at the young age of seventeen and whose presence still lingers in the memories of the townsfolk. While investigating the fallen hero’s death, Marion discovers family connections and an old Ojibwe legend that may be the secret to unraveling the mystery he has found himself in.
Meanwhile, Marion’s mother, Hazel, must come to terms not only with her role in her son’s haunting but also with a mummified jawbone she uncovers at her grandmother’s burial site and the possible curse it has cast on the Lafournier family.
Set on a reservation in far northern Minnesota, This Town Sleeps explores the many ways history, culture, landscape, and lineage shape our lives, our understanding of the world we inhabit, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of it all.
Description from Goodreads.
“Staples’ first novel is an arresting look at the intersection of past and present. Himself an Ojibwe, Staples writes with authority about his characters and setting… An auspicious debut with a memorable protagonist.” – Booklist
“In a novel that embodies the word ‘multifaceted,’ Dennis E. Staples pens the story of a queer Ojibwe man living on a reservation in northern Minnesota… Weaving the corporeal and the spiritual, the present-day and the ancestral, This Town Sleeps has been compared to Tommy Orange’s There There, with multiple perspectives and layered narratives. Its compelling storylines and gripping prose mark the arrival of a skilled novelist.” – Book Marks
“In frank, urgent language, [This Town Sleeps] explores the mystery of this murder and so much more.” – Library Journal
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Actress by Anne Enright
Katherine O’Dell is an Irish theater legend. As her daughter Norah retraces her mother’s celebrated career and bohemian life, she delves into long-kept secrets, both her mother’s and her own.
Katherine began her career on Ireland’s bus-and-truck circuit before making it to London’s West End, Broadway, and finally Hollywood. Every moment of her life is a star turn, with young Norah standing in the wings. But the mother-daughter romance cannot survive Katherine’s past or the world’s damage. With age, alcohol, and dimming stardom, her grip on reality grows fitful and, fueled by a proud and long-simmering rage, she commits a bizarre crime.
Her mother’s protector, Norah understands the destructive love that binds an actress to her audience, but also the strength that an actress takes from her art. Once the victim of a haunting crime herself, Norah eventually becomes a writer, wife, and mother, finding her way to her own hard-won joy. Actress is finally a book about the freedom we find in our work and in the love we make and keep.
Description from Goodreads.
“Anne Enright writes so well that she just might ruin you for anyone else.” – Washington Post
“Another triumph for Enright: a confluence of lyrical prose, immediacy, warmth, and emotional insight.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“A marvelous novel about a mercurial showbiz star — and the mystery she bequeaths to her daughter… The twinned story lines are very powerful, as is Enright’s understated prose.” – Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Available Formats:
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The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver
Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They’d been together for more than a decade, and Lydia thought their love was indestructible.
But she was wrong. On her twenty-eighth birthday, Freddie died in a car accident.
So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants to do is hide indoors and sob until her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to try to live fully, happily, even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world, open to life–and perhaps even love–again.
But then something inexplicable happens that gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened.
Lydia is pulled again and again across the doorway of her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. But there’s an emotional toll to returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there’s someone in her new life, her real life, who wants her to stay.
Written with Josie Silver’s trademark warmth and wit, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a powerful and thrilling love story about the what-ifs that arise at life’s crossroads, and what happens when one woman is given a miraculous chance to answer them.
Description from Goodreads.
“At its core, this is a story of love lost and individual growth. But it is also about love found and future happiness. While this is in many ways the complete opposite of Linda Holmes’ Evvie Drake Starts Over, fans of that book will enjoy it.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Silver’s latest (after One Day in December) is a heartbreaking, poignant tale… Through lush prose, expert plotting, and richly imagined characters, Silver offers an achingly real portrait of grief transposed with the character’s intoxicating parallel universe. This will stay with readers long after the final page is turned.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“…offers wit in abundance, deeply satisfying characterization, and a mega-dose of heart. What a journey these characters take, and what magic this author uses to bring each of them alive.” – BarbaraDelinsky.com
Available Formats:
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Temporary by Hilary Leichter
In Temporary, a young woman’s workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements in search of steadiness, connection, and something, at last, to call her own. Whether it’s shining an endless closet of shoes, swabbing the deck of a pirate ship, assisting an assassin, or filling in for the Chairman of the Board, for the mythical Temporary, “there is nothing more personal than doing your job.”
This riveting quest, at once hilarious and profound, will resonate with anyone who has ever done their best at work, even when the work is only temporary.
Description from Goodreads.
“Leichter’s funny, absurdist debut cleverly explores a capitalist society taken to a dreamlike extreme… her cutting, hilarious critique of the American dream will appeal to fans of Italo Calvino.” – Publisher’s Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A young temp searches for permanence in Leichter’s whimsically surreal fable of late-stage capitalism… clever and strange and, in the end, unexpectedly hopeful, less a biting gig-economy satire than a wistful 21st-century myth. A dreamy meditation on how we construct who we are.” – Kirkus Reviews
“A weird, punny, hysterical, hard and soft-hitting collection of laughs, tears, and thought-provoking entertainment. Temporary will be one of the best books you read [this] year.” – Paperback Paris
Available Formats:
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The Last Taxi Driver by Lee Durkee
Written by a former cabbie, The Last Taxi Driver is a darkly comic novel about a middle-aged hackie’s daylong descent into madness, heartbreak, and murder.
Lou—a lapsed novelist and UFO aficionado—drives 70-hour weeks for a ramshackle taxi company that operates on the outskirts of a north Mississippi college town among the trailer parks and housing projects. With Uber moving into town and his way of life fast vanishing, his girlfriend moving out on him, and his archenemy-dispatcher suddenly returning to the state on the lam, Lou must keep driving his way through a bedlam shift even when that means aiding and abetting the host of criminal misfits haunting the back seat of his Town Car.
Shedding nuts and bolts at every turn, The Last Taxi Driver careens through the highways and back roads, from Mississippi to Memphis and back, as Lou becomes increasingly somnambulant and his fares increasingly eccentric. Equal parts Bukowski and Portis, Durkee’s novel is an homage to a dying American industry.
Description from Goodreads.
“By turns hilarious, angry and sweet, once again Durkee perfectly captures the mood of our time.” – Washington Post
“[A] black-comic delight.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“…one of the best novels in recent memory… The combination of highbrow references and lowlife characters is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree and makes The Last Taxi Driver a comic masterpiece. But Durkee is after something bigger than laughs… a wild and hilarious ride filled with dirty jokes. But it’s also a story about a truth we often forget: It’s hard to be a good person.” – Washington Examiner
Available Formats:
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Beautiful by Massimo Cuomo
Miguel is beautiful. His beauty is so rare and miraculous that it has made him the object of cult-like devotion in the city. Santiago, his older brother, watches with a mix of admiration and disquiet the prodigious effect that Miguel’s looks have on his mother and father, on passersby, their neighbors, and the droves of female suitors that follow him everywhere. He loves his little brother but ends up living in his shadow. With Miguel constantly under the spotlight, Santiago is left to inhabit darker, hidden places, from where he will finally learn that life is not easy for anyone, even his prodigiously handsome brother.
Set in Mexico, this story shines at every turn with the colors and mythical light of magical realism. The conflict between brothers, the role of the parents, the loves, the violence, the journeys are presented with realism and deep psychological insight yet possess an aura of legend. Disappointments, flights, regrets, reunions, goodbyes, epiphanies make up this story, as we follow the two brothers, their family, the women they love, and the people around them—all forever marked, each in their own way, by their extraordinary encounter with Beauty.
Description from Goodreads.
“In contemporary Italian literature, never has the theme of the close-knit yet ambivalent relationship between two brothers been addressed with such clarity, depth, and ability to bring to light the conflict raging within each soul.” – Avvenire
“Intense, engaging, psychologically deep. Beautiful lives up to its title.” – Ex Libris
“Massimo Cuomo’s writing, not the protagonist’s beauty, is what’s truly wonderful about this book.” – Coooperazione
Available Formats:
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The Ice Cream Man & Other Stories by Sam Pink
It was maybe the first job I’d ever had where people were happy to see me.
An odd feeling indeed, to wield this kind of power.
To be this kind of force.
As near to magical as any mortal should stride.
A technician of unspeakable joy.
Braving the neon mountains to return with blue raspberry concentrate.
Tearing out sundae cone fangs from the mouths of snow beasts.
And so on.
Cone dealer, sunshine stealer, alleyway counselor, lunch lady to the homeless, friend to the dead, maker of sandwiches. Metal wrangler. Stag among stags. And so it goes–another journey through time spent punched in. A life’s work of working for a living. Blood, death, and violence. Dirty dishes, dead roaches, and sparkler-lit nights. Nights ahead and no real fate. So open your mouths because the forecast calls for sprinkles. Thirteen delights, scooped and served. Let it melt down your hand. Let the sun burn your face. It’s the ice cream man, and other stories.
Description from Goodreads.
“Sam Pink’s latest book comprises 13 grisly, spare, and poetic stories that delve into the darkest corners of modern society―or, as Pink described in a 2018 Electric Literature interview, ‘the garbage times’―and the wageworkers that inhabit it. Divided into sections on Chicago, Florida, and Michigan, Pink zooms in on the mundanities and dirty realities of labor―and the rare moments of humanity that manage to break through it.” – BuzzFeed
“Pink is a keen observer of the culture of minimum-wage jobs and low-rent studio apartments that is the reality of life for all those who don’t find a cog space in today’s hyper-capitalist economy.” – The Guardian
“It’s almost impossible to describe one of Pink’s books without relying on adjectives chronically overused to evoke a certain type of 21st-century voice-driven urban realism. His books are gritty, it’s true; also cynical, often vicious, funny in a wry, despairing sort of way… Pink, who is also a visual artist and a musician, continues exploring a world of the relentlessly profane with the kind of tender humanity usually reserved for stories more interested in the redemption of their characters. Pink is far too honest to fall into this trap. His characters don’t need redemption so much as they need a sandwich, or a blanket, or someone to talk with in order to pass the time, and herein lies the collection’s greatest, and most surprising, strength. A voice like none other writing today―Pink is riveting.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
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SUSPENSE
Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne’s Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox’s Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald’s The Drowner, and Donna Tartt’s A Secret History.
But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookshop in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. The killer is out there, watching his every move—a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.
To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects—and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn’t count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead—and the noose around Mal’s neck grows so tight he might never escape.
Description from Goodreads.
“Fiendishly clever catnip for any lover of classic crime fiction.” – Seattle Times
“A devilish premise combined with jaw-dropping execution… Mystery fans will be salivating as the plot unfolds, trying to outsmart the confoundingly unreliable narrative… Swanson hits every note in this homage to the old-school crime novel, and the turnabout ending will leave readers reeling in delight.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[An] outstanding fair-play crime novel… Swanson will keep most readers guessing until the end. Classic whodunit fans will be in heaven.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
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MYSTERY
Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen
Summer has come to Atlantic City but the boardwalk is empty of tourists, the casino lights have dimmed, and two Jane Does are laid out in the marshland behind the Sunset Motel, just west of town. Only one person even knows they’re there.
Meanwhile, Clara, a young boardwalk psychic, struggles to attract clients for the tarot readings that pay her rent. When she begins to experience very real and disturbing visions, she suspects they could be related to the recent cases of women gone missing in town. When Clara meets Lily, an ex-Soho art gallery girl who is working at a desolate casino spa and reeling from a personal tragedy, she thinks Lily may be able to help her. But Lily has her own demons to face. If they can put the pieces together in time, they may save another lost girl—so long as their efforts don’t attract perilous attention first. Can they break the ill-fated cycle, or will they join the other victims?
Evocative, eerie, and compelling, Please See Us is a fast-paced psychological thriller that explores the intersection of womanhood, power, and violence.
Description from Goodreads.
“Exceptional… Readers won’t be able to stop turning the pages of this heartbreaking story as it touches on prostitution, drug abuse, and the fates of women who go unseen. Mullen is definitely an author to watch.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Finally, the Atlantic City mystery we’ve all been waiting for!” – CrimeReads
“At last, a ‘woman in peril’ thriller that doesn’t involve a handsome, psychopathic husband. What Mullen’s debut gives readers is a wrenchingly detailed, utterly credible story of women whose peril comes from poverty, either a slow slide or a sudden slip. Brilliant… Mullen builds almost unbearable suspense.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
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Victim 2117 by Jussi Adler-Olsen
The newspaper refers to her only as Victim 2117–the two thousand one hundred and seventeenth refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and her death sets off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold cases division led by Detective Carl Mørck, into a deeply dangerous–and deeply personal–case: a case that not only reveals dark secrets about the past, but has deadly implications for the future.
For troubled Danish teen Alex, whose identity is hidden behind his computer screen, the death of Victim 2117 becomes a symbol of everything he resents and the perfect excuse to unleash his murderous impulses in real life. For Ghallib, one the most brutal tormentors from Abu Ghraib, Saddam Hussein’s infamous prison, murdering Victim 2117 was the first step in a terrorist plot years in the making. And for Department Q’s Assad, Victim 2117 is a link to his buried past–and a clue that the family he assumed was long dead may still be alive.
With the help of the Department Q squad–Carl, Rose, and Gordon–Assad must finally confront painful memories from his years in Syria and Afghanistan in order to hunt down Ghallib. But with the clock ticking down to Alex’s first kill and Ghallib’s devastating attack, the thinly spread Department Q will need to stay one step ahead of their most lethal adversary yet if they are to prevent the loss of thousands of innocent lives.
Description from Goodreads.
“In a feat of unparalleled storytelling, this eighth Department Q episode brings the full team back together as Adler-Olsen weaves el-Assad’s heart-wrenching story into a pair of relentless manhunts.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Adler-Olsen supplies everything you could possibly want from a thriller and much, much more.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Series fans will relish Assad’s gripping backstory. Adler-Olsen does a masterly job juggling plotlines.” – Publishers Weekly
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Trace Elements by Donna Leon
When Dottoressa Donato calls the Questura to report that a dying patient at the hospice Fatebenefratelli wants to speak to the police, Commissario Guido Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, waste no time in responding.
“They killed him. It was bad money. I told him no,” Benedetta Toso gasps the words about her recently-deceased husband, Vittorio Fadalto. Even though he is not sure she can hear him Brunetti softly promises he and Griffoni will look into what initially appears to be a private family tragedy. They discover that Fadalto worked in the field collecting samples of contamination for a company that measures the cleanliness of Venice’s water supply and that he had died in a mysterious motorcycle accident. Distracted briefly by Vice Questore Patta’s obsession with youth crime in Venice, Brunetti is bolstered once more by the remarkable research skills of Patta’s secretary, Signora Elettra Zorzi. Piecing together the tangled threads, in time Brunetti comes to realize the perilous meaning in the woman’s accusation and the threat it reveals to the health of the entire region. But justice in this case proves to be ambiguous, as Brunetti is reminded it can be when, seeking solace, he reads Aeschylus’s classic play The Eumenides.
As she has done so often through her memorable characters and storytelling skill, Donna Leon once again engages our sensibilities as to the differences between guilt and responsibility.
Description from Goodreads.
“…thought-provoking… As usual, Leon adroitly portrays the complex questions of what constitutes justice and the sad consequences that can result from its pursuit. This long-running series shows no sign of losing steam.” – Publishers Weekly
“…the book proceeds with the smooth, practiced ease of precision clockwork… a satisfyingly multifaceted mystery… will have readers hoping Brunetti keeps postponing that retirement indefinitely.” – Open Letters Review
“…yes, this is a police ‘procedural’, but it is much more than that.” – NB
Available Formats:
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Long Range by C.J. Box
The wife of a prominent local judge is shot and killed on Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett’s turf. But as Joe investigates, all signs point to the shot having been taken from an impossibly long distance. Joe has seen a lot in his time as warden, but he’s never seen a killing like this. How could the shooting have been arranged? And who else is in the cross hairs?
At the same time–just as he’s adjusting to the arrival of a new baby, his first child–Joe’s best friend Nate Romanowski is attempting to decipher a startling grizzly attack in the area.
Beset by threats both man-made and natural, the two men must go to great lengths to figure out how to keep their loved ones safe.
Description from Goodreads.
“Clever plotting keeps this conspiracy yarn moving briskly, and the scenes depicting Nate’s abuse while in prison are harrowing. This is another top-flight crime yarn illustrating why Box’s readers are never happier than when Joe and Nate have reason to ‘get western.'” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Box has secured his reputation as an author who can take this increasingly popular genre—the modern western—and make it do whatever he wants… with a clear, easy style that plays nicely against the pulse-pounding tension. Box remains the gold standard among writers of modern western-mystery blends.” – Booklist
“Fans of this outstanding series will know better than to place their money against Joe.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
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HISTORICAL FICTION
The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner
As Nazi soldiers round up the Jews in their town, Róża and her 5-year-old daughter, Shira, flee, seeking shelter in a neighbor’s barn. Hidden in the hayloft day and night, Shira struggles to stay still and quiet, as music pulses through her and the farmyard outside beckons. To soothe her daughter and pass the time, Róża tells her a story about a girl in an enchanted garden:
The girl is forbidden from making a sound, so the yellow bird sings. He sings whatever the girl composes in her head: high-pitched trills of piccolo; low-throated growls of contrabassoon. Music helps the flowers bloom.
In this make-believe world, Róża can shield Shira from the horrors that surround them. But the day comes when their haven is no longer safe, and Róża must make an impossible choice: whether to keep Shira by her side or give her the chance to survive apart.
Inspired by the true stories of Jewish children hidden during World War II, Jennifer Rosner’s debut is a breathtaking novel about the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter. Beautiful and riveting, The Yellow Bird Sings is a testament to the triumph of hope—a whispered story, a bird’s song—in even the darkest of times.
Description from Goodreads.
“In Shira and Róża, Rosner captures two souls in turmoil, chronicling their grief as well as their strength of will to overcome, their longing and even surprising triumphs… The Yellow Bird Sings keeps your heart in your throat, your eyes pricked with tears.” – BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
“This stunning debut novel sings with the power of a mother’s love and the heartbreaking risks she’ll endure.” – Booklist
“A World War II story with a Room-like twist, one that also deftly examines the ways in which art and imagination can sustain us… This is a Holocaust novel, but it’s also an effective work of suspense, and Rosner’s understanding of how art plays a role in our lives, even at the worst of times, is impressive.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
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SCI-FI & FANTASY
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas ★
Bryce Quinlan had the perfect life—working hard all day and partying all night—until a demon murdered her closest friends, leaving her bereft, wounded, and alone. When the accused is behind bars but the crimes start up again, Bryce finds herself at the heart of the investigation. She’ll do whatever it takes to avenge their deaths.
Hunt Athalar is a notorious Fallen angel, now enslaved to the Archangels he once attempted to overthrow. His brutal skills and incredible strength have been set to one purpose—to assassinate his boss’s enemies, no questions asked. But with a demon wreaking havoc in the city, he’s offered an irresistible deal: help Bryce find the murderer, and his freedom will be within reach.
As Bryce and Hunt dig deep into Crescent City’s underbelly, they discover a dark power that threatens everything and everyone they hold dear, and they find, in each other, a blazing passion—one that could set them both free, if they’d only let it.
With unforgettable characters, sizzling romance, and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love.
Description from Goodreads.
“YA author Maas makes her adult debut with this electrifying series launch set on a planet plagued by conflict between oppressed humans and upper-class supernaturals… Maas delivers a richly imagined tale spiced with snarky humor and smoldering romance between Bryce and Hunt… [an] ambitious, emotionally charged contemporary fantasy.” – Publishers Weekly
“Full of complex sociopolitical commentary and steamy romance… The author’s world-building skills have long been considered among the finest of her peers. And they’re newly thrilling in Earth and Blood, intricately rendering Crescent City as a place that feels both familiar and wildly imagined. But it’s Maas’ sweeping feel for love stories, and particularly her essential take on female fellowship, that cast the real spell.” – Entertainment Weekly
“…keeps you in suspense the entire time, and I just wanted to keep reading until I ran out of book.” – The NERD Daily
“It’s got everything you might want in a fantasy series. Magic, Faes, Wolfs, A Viper Queen and Fallen Angels. Everything story-wise works in this novel. It starts off strong and then builds to a thrilling climatic finale with shocking twists and turns.” – Red Carpet Crash
Available Formats:
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YOUNG ADULT
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
Welcome to Edwardian London, a time of electric lights and long shadows, the celebration of artistic beauty and the wild pursuit of pleasure, with demons waiting in the dark. For years there has been peace in the Shadowhunter world. James and Lucie Herondale, children of the famous Will and Tessa, have grown up in an idyll with their loving friends and family, listening to stories of good defeating evil and love conquering all. But everything changes when the Blackthorn and Carstairs families come to London… and so does a remorseless and inescapable plague.
James Herondale longs for a great love, and thinks he has found it in the beautiful, mysterious Grace Blackthorn. Cordelia Carstairs is desperate to become a hero, save her family from ruin, and keep her secret love for James hidden. When disaster strikes the Shadowhunters, James, Cordelia and their friends are plunged into a wild adventure which will reveal dark and incredible powers, and the true cruel price of being a hero…and falling in love.
Description from Goodreads.
“Clare delivers a richly imagined fantasy rife with action, intrigue, and smoldering romance.” – Publishers Weekly
“Decadently mixing existing Shadowhunter lore with an exciting new story, there’s plenty in Chain of Gold for diehard fans of this incredible world to sink their teeth into.” – Booktopia
Available Formats:
Print Book
Wicked As You Wish by Rin Chupeco
Many years ago, the magical Kingdom of Avalon was left desolate and encased in ice when the evil Snow Queen waged war on the powerful country. Its former citizens are now refugees in a world mostly devoid of magic. Which is why the crown prince and his protectors are stuck in…Arizona.
Prince Alexei, the sole survivor of the Avalon royal family, is in hiding in a town so boring, magic doesn’t even work there. Few know his secret identity, but his friend Tala is one of them. Tala doesn’t mind—she has secrets of her own. Namely, that she’s a spellbreaker, someone who negates magic.
Then hope for their abandoned homeland reignites when a famous creature of legend, and Avalon’s most powerful weapon, the Firebird, appears for the first time in decades. Alex and Tala unite with a ragtag group of new friends to journey back to Avalon for a showdown that will change the world as they know it.
Description from Goodreads.
“Incorporating modern sensibilities and a sprawling world drawn from fairy tales, Chupeco has brought readers a truly original novel. A deftly executed melding of folklore and reality grounded in contemporary issues.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Combining legends, myths, fairy tales, and classic children’s literature from Oz to Neverland, Chupeco creates an enchanting story that is both a feast for the senses and a unique spin on the hero’s journey… Chupeco’s novel teems with exhilarating wizardry, from ice wolves to a marsh king in the form of a giant toad… a nail-biting quest that introduces a gripping new series.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
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GRAPHIC NOVELS
Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg
Glass Town is an original graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg that encompasses the eccentric childhoods of the four Brontë children—Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The story begins in 1825, with the deaths of Maria and Elizabeth, the eldest siblings. It is in response to this loss that the four remaining Brontë children set pen to paper and created the fictional world that became known as Glass Town. This world and its cast of characters would come to be the Brontës’ escape from the realities of their lives. Within Glass Town the siblings experienced love, friendship, war, triumph, and heartbreak. Through a combination of quotes from the stories originally penned by the Brontës, biographical information about them, and Greenberg’s vivid comic book illustrations, readers will find themselves enraptured by this fascinating imaginary world.
Description from Goodreads.
“…this lyrical, endlessly inventive book will appeal equally to lovers of history, literature, and metatextual fantasy.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Engrossing for both adults and teens attracted to alt-history fantasy or the Brontës.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“Greenberg breathes life into the Brontës’ unpublished early writings… Those who appreciate historical fiction and classic literature will be engrossed by this reimagining of the childhoods of these literary luminaries.” – School Library Journal
Available Formats:
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NONFICTION
Every Drop of Blood: Hatred and Healing at Lincoln’s Second Inauguration by Edward Achorn
By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had slaughtered more than 700,000 Americans and left intractable wounds on the nation. After a morning of rain-drenched fury, tens of thousands crowded Washington’s Capitol grounds that day to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term. As the sun emerged, Lincoln rose to give perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history, stunning the nation by arguing, in a brief 701 words, that both sides had been wrong, and that the war’s unimaginable horrors–every drop of blood spilled–might well have been God’s just verdict on the national sin of slavery. Edward Achorn reveals the nation’s capital on that momentous day–with its mud, sewage, and saloons, its prostitutes, spies, reporters, social-climbing spouses and power-hungry politicians–as a microcosm of all the opposing forces that had driven the country apart. A host of characters, unknown and famous, had converged on Washington–from grievously wounded Union colonel Selden Connor in a Washington hospital and the embarrassingly drunk new vice president, Andrew Johnson, to poet-journalist Walt Whitman; from soldiers’ advocate Clara Barton and African American leader and Lincoln critic-turned-admirer Frederick Douglass (who called the speech “a sacred effort”) to conflicted actor John Wilkes Booth–all swirling around the complex figure of Lincoln.
In indelible scenes, Achorn vividly captures the frenzy in the nation’s capital at this crucial moment in America’s history and the tension-filled hope and despair afflicting the country as a whole, soon to be heightened by Lincoln’s assassination. His story offers new understanding of our great national crisis, and echoes down the decades to resonate in our own time.
Description from Goodreads.
“Drawing on historical wizardry―diaries, accounts, and memoirs―Achorn has assembled a prismatic portrait of that fateful day which reads like one long rolling dolly shot of history.” – LitHub
“The author provides rich description of a wide cast of people, including politicians, poets, soldiers, and nurses… Achorn is especially insightful in setting the scene for the inaugural, going deep inside the social world of the capital and remarking on the constant positioning for favor or notice… A solid history that will allow readers to feel as if they are in the moment.” – Library Journal
“Achorn provides a rich, heavily psychological portrait [of Lincoln]… A moving chronicle of the country on the eve of assassination.” – Booklist
Available Formats:
Hoopla eBook
Eat Something: A Wise Sons Cookbook for Jews Who Like Food and Food Lovers Who Like Jews by Evan Bloom & Rachel Levin
From nationally recognized Jewish brand Wise Sons, the cookbook Eat Something features over 60 recipes for salads, soups, baked goods, holiday dishes, and more.
This long-awaited cookbook (the first one for Wise Sons!) is packed with homey recipes and relatable humor; it is as much a delicious, lighthearted, and nostalgic cookbook as it is a lively celebration of Jewish culture.
Stemming from the thesis that Jews eat by occasion (and with enthusiasm), the book is organized into 19 different events and celebrations chronicling a Jewish life in food, from bris to shivah, and all the makeshift and meaningful events in between, including: Shabbat, Passover, the high holidays, first meal home from college, J-dating, wedding, and more.
• Both a Jewish humor book and a cookbook
• Recipes are drawn from the menus of their beloved Bay Area restaurants, as well as all the occasions when Jews gather around the table.
• Includes short essays, illustrations, memorabilia, and stylish plated food photography.
Wise Sons is a nationally recognized deli and Jewish food brand with a unique Bay Area ethos—inspired by the past but entirely contemporary, they make traditional Jewish foods California-style with great ingredients.
Recipes include Braided Challah, Big Macher Burger, Wise Sons’ Brisket, Carrot Tzimmes, and Morning After Matzoquiles, while essays include Confessions of a First-Time Seder Host, So, You Didn’t Marry a Jew, and Iconic Chinese Restaurants, As Chosen by the Chosen People.
• The perfect gift for Wise Sons fans of all ages, lovers of Jewish food and humor, as well as gift-givers young and old looking for Jewish-themed gifts for bar mitzvahs, birthdays, weddings, and more
• Great for those who enjoyed Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking by Michael Solomonov, The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List by Alana Newhouse, and Russ & Daughters: Reflections and Recipes from the House That Herring Built by Mark Russ Federman
• A must for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of Jewish cuisine and culture
Description from Goodreads.
“The essence of Levin’s colorful personal narratives can be boiled down to one memorable quote: ‘Every Jewish mother mourns the day her child leaves her dinner table.’ Rich traditions, plated with a touch of schmaltz, make this a fun and satisfying cookbook.” – Publishers Weekly
“…a fun ride through Jewish cuisine old and new… To call Eat Something a cookbook would do it a disservice. It is much more than that.” – J Weekly
Available Formats:
Hoopla eBook
Preventing Lyme & Other Tick-Borne Diseases by Alexis Chesney
Disease-carrying ticks are found in all 50 states in the U.S. and, as their numbers rise and their ranges increase, so, too, do cases of tick-borne illnesses. Alexis Chesney, a naturopathic physician specializing in the treatment of diseases transmitted through tick bites, offers a comprehensive strategy for reducing exposure to disease-causing organisms and boosting the effectiveness of standard treatment protocols.
With an overview of the tick species present in the U.S. and profiles of Lyme and other top diagnosed tick-borne diseases, including anaplasmosis and babesiosis, this guide gives concerned readers and medical professionals alike a deeper understanding of how tick populations — and associated illnesses — spread, and how to combat them naturally. In addition to covering landscape-management methods for dramatically reducing tick populations around the home, Chesney outlines prophylactic herbal tinctures that provide an additional layer of protection against tick-borne illnesses — an important strategy for those living in high-risk regions, especially in the event of an undetected bite. Chesney also provides options for treating acute tick-borne diseases, if symptoms develop, as well as herbs that can be used in combination with antibiotics to augment their efficacy.
Description from Goodreads.
“Lyme disease, and the debilitating conditions associated with it, is difficult to detect and treat, which makes this book by naturopathic physician and acupuncturist Chesney especially important. Included are descriptions of different kinds of ticks, their habitats, and the types of pathogens they carry and transmit. Chesney thoroughly explains preventative measures against the disease, such as pharmaceuticals and herbal tinctures (specific to geography and the local tick populations), including dosages for children. Most important, the author covers what to do after you are bitten and what to look for beyond the tell-tale bull’s-eye rash. A chart that suggests blood tests for specific tick-borne pathogens is alone worth the price of admission. Also included are suggestions on how to find a Lyme-literate physician.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW