| Los muertos : Day of the Dead fiction / edited by Adela Pineda Franco. |
 Los Muertos is a wide-ranging anthology of stories inspired by or relating to el Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead tradition celebrated in Mexico and parts of the United States. Two dozen stories by Mexican and Mexican American writers explore the metaphors, symbolism, and connotations connected to memorializing the dead in our lives and honoring the past. From solemn ofrendas and milagros to everyday acts, these works of fiction invite us to appreciate the holiday's broader cultural significance. |
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| Gwendy's magic feather / Richard Chizmar ; [foreword by Stephen King]. |
 "Something evil has swept into the small western Maine town of Castle Rock on the heels of the latest winter storm. Sheriff Norris Ridgewick and his team are desperately searching for two missing girls, but time is running out to bring them home alive. In Washington D.C., thirty-seven-year-old Gwendy Peterson couldn't be more different from the self-conscious teenaged girl who once spent a summer running up Castle Rock's Suicide Stairs. That same summer, she was entrusted - or some might say cursed - with the extraordinary button box by Richard Farris, the mysterious stranger in the black suit. The seductive and powerful box offered Gwendy small gifts in exchange for its care and feeding until Farris eventually returned, promising Gwendy she'd never see the box again. One day, though, the button box shows up without warning - and without Richard Farris to explain why, or what she's supposed to do with it. The mysterious reappearance of the box, along with the troubling disappearances in Castle Rock, leads Gwendy home again ... where she just might be able to help rescue the missing girls and stop a madman before he does something ghastly."--Publisher description |
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| Tilda is visible : a novel / Jane Tara. |
 "When Tilda Finch is diagnosed with invisibility, she's not overly surprised - she's felt invisible for years. She has a good life and a successful business selling inspirational quotes on merchandise. But she's never really recovered from her divorce. Or, if she's honest, her childhood. Tilda's past has taken a toll and she's lost sight of herself. Now, with the possibility of completely disappearing, she must face the trauma of her past and rewrite the way she perceives the world, and herself. Entertaining, hilarious and poignant, Tilda Is Visible addresses the power of our thoughts and how childhood trauma shapes our adult experience."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The blanket cats / Kiyoshi Shigematsu ; translated by Jesse Kirkwood. |
 In a quirky Tokyo pet shop, seven struggling customers take home "blanket cats" for three days, hoping these temporary companions will help them escape their realities, including a couple facing infertility and a woman on the run, but the cats challenge their expectations and perceptions of happiness. |
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| Crush : a novel / Ada Calhoun. |
 "When a husband asks his wife to consider what might be missing from their marriage, what follows surprises them both--sex, heartbreak and heart rekindling, and a rediscovered sense of all that is possible. She's happy and settled and productive and content in her full life--a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of husband and wife force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose. Using the author's personal experiences as a jumping off point, Crush is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, about the havoc it can wreak, and most of all the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes. Destined to become a classic novel of marriage, and tackling the big questions being asked about partnership in post-pandemic relationships, Crush is a sharp, funny, seductive, and revelatory novel about holding on to everything it's possible to love--friends, children, parents, passion, lovers, husbands, all of the world's good books, and most of all your own deep sense of purpose"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The boyhood of Cain / Michael Amherst. |
 "A searing novel of love and betrayal as a young boy comes of age in the heart of England, from an exquisite new voice. In a small village in England, in the shadow of an ancient abbey nestled between rivers, a young boy is growing up. Daniel is highly intelligent but little understood by his family, and so a secret passion burns inside him-for love, for certainty, and for recognition. His father is a man of grand gestures but few practical skills, and his beautiful mother is attentive but compromised by her own unhappiness and fading ideals. When Daniel's father loses his job as the headmaster of the local school, the family is pulled beneath the undertow of his whims, stumbling into a rural life for which they are ill-prepared. The arrival of Philip, a new boy at school, whom Daniel worships with a confused intensity, is his sole solace. Before long, both boys fall under the spell of a charismatic art teacher, setting Daniel on a perilous course that could lead to the betrayal of all he loves. Tender, brutal, and enthralling, The Boyhood of Cain is a remarkable portrait of a young boy caught between mother and father, between self and desire, and between obedience and freedom. It evokes the passions and private wounds of youth and plumbs the turning points in our lives that make us who we are"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The rules of fortune : a novel / Danielle Prescod. |
 "On their Martha's Vineyard estate, the Carter family prepares to celebrate. But when the billionaire patriarch dies right before his seventieth birthday, the media is quick to question the future of the multi-industry conglomerate that makes the Carters living legends. Amid the succession crisis, his daughter, Kennedy, is questioning her father's past. Kennedy is an aspiring filmmaker, and the documentary she'd planned to present at her father's party begins an inquest into the life of a man she never really knew. A thoughtful outlier in an elite and fiercely guarded dynasty, she's not interested in keeping up the appearances that define her impeccably poised mother or in the capitalist games her ruthless brother plays. Kennedy wants only to understand the origins of their empire, and the lethally ambitious man behind it. That understanding comes at a cost. As a twisted history emerges, the fault lines in the family grow. Torn between morality and the promise of maintaining wealth, Kennedy must decide what's most important--the Carter legacy or exposing the shocking truth of how it was built." -- Amazon. |
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| A house for Miss Pauline / Diana McCaulay. |
 When the stones of her house begin to rattle and shift and call out mysterious messages to her in the middle of the night, Pauline Sinclair, age ninety-nine, knows she will not make it to her one-hundredth birthday. She has lived a modest life in Mason Hall, a rural Jamaican village, educating herself with stolen books, raising her two children, surviving by becoming a successful ganja farmers in the area, and experiencing both deep passion and true loss with her beloved baby father, Clive. |
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| The talent / a novel [by] Daniel D'Addario. |
 "As Hollywood prepares for its most glamorous evening, five actresses compete to see who will claim the top prize. Adria, a dignified and highly regarded grand dame of the movie industry, is intent on cementing her legacy as one of the greatest thespians of all time, even as the younger generation creeps up quickly behind her. Bitty must keep a nervous breakdown--and an increasingly debilitating alcohol addiction--at bay, as she searches for genuine closeness in an unforgiving landscape. Contessa, a former child star, is determined to make the world, and her leading man, take her seriously. Davina attempts to find her footing in superficial Los Angeles, a far cry from her roots as a serious London stage actress. And Jenny--always the underdog to her rival, Adria--sees this awards season as her personal redemption, a chance to atone for past mistakes and make up for missed opportunities. With humor, wit, and an insider's insight, 'The Talent' peels back the layers of women who are in the business of being perceived. And while they work to push their careers forward and maintain the public's goodwill, all five are forced to confront truths about themselves that they would rather ignore: Could Adria and Jenny have been a team all these years, rather than bitter enemies? Is it their responsibility to offer a lifeline to poor Bitty, who is clearly teetering on the edge? Should Contessa and Davina dim their own rising stars to make those around them more comfortable? What do women in the spotlight owe each other, and themselves?" -- Provided by publisher. |
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| No country for love / Yaroslav Trofimov. |
 "Seventeen-year-old Deborah Rosenbaum, ambitious and in love with literature, arrives in the capital of the new Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kharkiv, 1930, to make her own fate as a modern woman. The stale and forbidding ways of the past are out; it's a new dawn, the Soviet era, where skyscrapers go up overnight. Deborah finds work and meets a dashing young officer named Samuel who is training to become a fighter pilot. They fall in love, and begin to become part of Ukraine's new cultural elite. But Deborah's prospects - and Ukraine's - soon dim. Famine rolls through the over-harvested countryside, and any deviation from Moscow-dictated ideology is punished by disappearance: without warning, Samuel is sentenced to ten years' hard labour. Deborah is on her own with a baby. And this is only the beginning. As advancing Nazi armies move through Ukraine during World War II, its yellow fields of wheat run red with blood. Forced to renounce the man she loves, her identity and even her name, Debora also learns to endure, manipulate and resist. No Country for Love follows the hard choices Debora makes as Ukraine, caught between two totalitarian ideologies, turns into the deadliest place in the world - and she has to protect those she loves most. A sweeping, stunningly ambitious novel about a young Ukrainian girl arriving in Kharkiv in 1930, determined to contribute to the future of her country, and her struggle to survive the devastation and trauma that ravage Ukraine."--Publisher. |
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| Notes on surviving the fire / Christine Murphy. |
 "When Sarah's only friend in her graduate program is found dead of an alleged heroin overdose, she is forced back into the orbit of the man in their department who assaulted her. A hurtling ride of a novel-darkly funny and propulsive. At a PhD program in southern California, Sarah and her best friend Nathan spend their time working on their theses, getting high, and keeping track of the poor air quality due to nearby forest fires. No one believes Sarah when she reports a fellow student for raping her at a party-"he's such a good guy!"-and the Title IX office simply files away the information, just like the police. Nathan is the only person who cares. When Sarah finds him dead of an overdose from a drug he's always avoided, she knows something isn't right. She starts investigating his death as a murder, and as the pieces fall into place, she notices a disturbing pattern in the other student deaths on campus. As a girl, Sarah grew up in the forests of Maine, following her father on hunts, learning how to stalk prey and kill but only when necessary. Now, she must confront a different type of killing-and decide if it can be justified. Notes on Surviving the Fire is a story about vengeance, the insidious nature of rape culture and ultimately, a woman's journey to come back to herself"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| A season of light : a novel / Julie Iromuanya. |
 "A tightly bound Nigerian family living in Florida navigate wounds passed down from generation to generation"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The echoes / Evie Wyld. |
 "From the award-winning novelist, a ravishing new novel set between London and rural Australia, both a love story and a ghost story. Max didn't believe in an afterlife. Until he died. Now, as a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he is still here, he watches his girlfriend Hannah lost in grief in the apartment they shared and begins to realize how much of her life was invisible to him. In the weeks and months before Max's death, Hannah was haunted by the secrets she left Australia to escape. A relationship with Max seemed to offer the potential of a fresh new chapter, but the past refused to stay hidden. It found expression in the untold stories of the people she grew up with, and the events that broke her family apart and led her to Max. Both a celebration and autopsy of a relationship, spanning multiple generations, The Echoes is a novel about love and grief, motherhood and sisterhood, secrets and who has the right to reveal them-what of our past can be cast away and what is fixed forever, echoing down through the years"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| When we grow up / Angelica Baker. |
 "For fans of Fleishman is in Trouble and Such a Fun Age, an electrifying novel about six longtime friends on a tropical vacation, when an unexpected crisis forces them to ask how strong their bonds really are"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Day Like Any Other / Tom Oliva. |
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| Deep cuts : a novel / Holly Brickley. |
 "For anyone who loved High Fidelity and wants a woman's perspective on the early aughts music scene, Deep Cuts is both a love story between two people whose timing is always off, and a love letter to the thing that moves all of us-music"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Famous last words : a novel / Gillian McAllister. |
 It is June 21st, the longest day of the year, and new mother Camilla's life is about to change forever. After months of maternity leave, she will drop her infant daughter off at daycare for the first time and return to her job as a literary agent. Finally. But after she arrives at the office, police officers storm the foyer: in the city, just near her work, a man has taken three hostages and is now in a tense standoff with law enforcement. And Luke, the person she's loved for more than a decade, the father of her child, is involved. But he is not a hostage. He is the kidnapper. All she has is a half-written cryptic note that Luke left for her. Seven years after the crime that shocked the nation, and her husband's subsequent disappearance, Camilla has slowly accepted that she will never have answers about what really happened that day. But just as she prepares to let Luke go for good, an anonymous location, sent to her by text message, reignites her suspicions about the kidnapping and sends her on a dangerous search for the truth. |
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| Imposter syndrome / Joseph Knox. |
 "Sometimes bad people must decide to do good... On the run from his shady past, Lynch has just arrived in London, still looking over his shoulder. His phone is dead, he has no money, no contacts, no one at all. Until he runs into a young woman named Bobbie who mistakes him for her brother, Heydon Pierce, who disappeared 5 years ago without a trace. At Bobbie's suggestion, Lynch goes to the Pierce family home, posing as Heydon to try and con some money out of them. Unfortunately for Lynch, his subterfuge is instantly discovered. He instead strikes the devil's bargain with the family: their silence for his cooperation in finding out what really happened to Heydon. But Lynch's investigation goes too deep. Turns out, Heydon Pierce was tangled up with some dangerous and powerful people in London. Everyone has their own motives to keep Heydon well buried in the past. In such a conspiracy of mirrors, there's only one thing Lynch knows for certain: the only person he can trust is himself"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Sinkhole, and other inexplicable voids : stories / Leyna Krow. |
 "The women of this beguiling, darkly fabulist, new story collection grapple with the question "What do we owe our family and friends in times of wild uncertainty?" as they strive to be good mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, wives, and companions in a world that is constantly shifting around them"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Oromay / Baalu Girma ; translated from the Amharic by David DeGusta and Mesfin Felleke Yirgu. |
 "December 1981, Ethiopia. Tsegaye Hailemaryam, a well-known journalist for the state-run media, has just landed in Asmara. He is on assignment as the head of propaganda for the Red Star campaign, a massive effort by the Ethiopian government to end the Eritrean insurgency. There, amid the city's bars and coffeehouses buzzing with spies and government agents, he juggles the demands of his superiors while trying to reassure his fiancée back home that he's not straying with Asmara's famed beauties. As Tsegaye falls in love with Asmara-and, in spite of his promises, with dazzling, enigmatic local woman Fiammetta-his misgivings about the campaign grow. Tsegaye confronts the horror of war when he is sent with an elite army unit to attack the insurgents' mountain stronghold. In the aftermath, he encounters betrayals that shake his faith in both the regime and human nature. Oromay became an instant sensation when first published in 1983 and was swiftly banned for its frank depiction of the regime. The author vanished soon thereafter; the consensus is that he was murdered in retaliation for Oromay. A sweeping and timeless story about power and betrayal in love and war, the novel remains Girma's masterpiece"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The owl was a baker's daughter : the continuing adventures of Judith Shakespeare / Grace Tiffany. |
 "At the ripe age of sixty-one, Judith Shakespeare, twin of the doomed Hamnet, finds herself fleeing provincial Stratford on horseback to avoid a witchcraft charge. Her traveling companions are a zealous Puritan woman and her mischievous young niece, both displaced by the civil war between the Royalists and Roundheads. Judith also leaves behind her marriage, which has foundered since the wrenching loss of two adult sons to the plague. Her travels take her to London, where she reunites with an old love from her acting days, and to the battlefield outside Oxford, where she serves as a surgeon for Cromwell's forces"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Casualties of truth : a novel / Lauren Francis-Sharma. |
 "From the author of Book of the Little Axe, nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a riveting literary novel with the sharp edges of a thriller about the abuses of history and the costs of revenge, set between Washington, DC, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Prudence Wright seems to have it all: a loving husband, Davis; a spacious home in Washington, DC; and the past glories of a successful career at McKinsey, which now enables her to dedicate her days to her autistic son Roland. When she and Davis head out for dinner with one of Davis's new colleagues on a stormy summer evening filled with startling and unwelcome interruptions, Prudence has little reason to think that certain details of her history might arise sometime between cocktails and the appetizer course. Yet when Davis's colleague turns out to be Matshediso, a man from Prudence's past, she is transported back to the formative months she spent as a law student in South Africa in 1996. As an intern at a Johannesburg law firm, Prudence attended sessions of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, which uncovered the many horrors and human rights abuses of the Apartheid state, and which fundamentally shaped her sense of righteousness and justice. Prudence experienced personal horrors in South Africa as well, long hidden and now at risk of coming to light. When Matshediso finally reveals the real reason behind his sudden reappearance, he will force Prudence to examine her most deeply held beliefs and to excavate inner reserves of resilience and strength. Lauren Francis-Sharma's previous two novels have established her as a deft chronicler of history and its intersections with flawed humans struggling to find peace in unjust circumstances. With keen insight and gripping tension, Casualties of Truth explosively mines questions of whether we are ever truly able to remove the stains of our past and how we may attempt to reconcile with unquestionable wrongs"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Mazeltov : a novel / Eli Zuzovsky. |
 "In a glorious debut, a boy confronts queer lust, shame, the threat of wars, and the plague of family on the day he becomes a man. At a banquet hall, at the onset of war, Adam Weizmann's bar mitzvah party turns into a glorious catastrophe. On the cusp of manhood-and the verge of a nervous breakdown-Adam braces for his special day, mired in family neurosis and national dysfunction. In a chorus of voices, a cast of outsiders chronicles Adam's coming-of-age: his Italian grandmother, a convert to Judaism who remains an isolated soul in Israel, the country she has made her home; his newly religious father, mysteriously absent from the festivities; his best friend, Abbie, who might or might not have an eating disorder; Khalil, the Palestinian waiter who offers a glimpse of a different way to be; and Adam himself, his shame and desire as he confronts his sexuality and the brokenness of his world. At once tender and lustful, a work of scathing satire and piercing insight, Mazeltov is a wholly original vision of a young man's quest to know his own heart"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Idle grounds : a novel / Krystelle Bamford. |
 A group of cousins searching for a missing child during a family gathering wander deeper into haunted woods, uncovering unsettling family secrets that challenge everything they know about their past, identity and inheritance. |
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| We would never : a novel / Tova Mirvis. |
 "No one appears more surprised than Hailey Gelman when she comes under suspicion for the murder of her soon-to-be ex-husband Jonah. Hailey--nicknamed Sunshine by her mother for her bright outlook and ever-present smile--has always tried to do what is expected of her and is regarded as the family peacemaker. But is anyone, including Hailey, who she has always seemed to be? The months leading up to Jonah's death have been fraught, including a bitter separation and a messy custody battle over their young daughter Maya. When Hailey files a motion to relocate to Florida so she can be near her family, Jonahretaliates and the divorce begins to spiral dangerously out of control"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Red Clay / Charles B. Fancher. |
 "In 1943, when a frail old white woman shows up in Red Clay, Alabama, at the home of a Black former slave--on the morning following his funeral--his family hardly knows what to expect after she utters the words '...a lifetime ago, my family owned yours.' Adelaide Parker has a story to tell--one of ambition, betrayal, violence, and redemption--that shaped both the fate of her family and that of the late Felix H. Parker. But there are gaps in her knowledge, and she's come to Red Clay seeking answers from a family with whom she shares a name and a history that neither knows in full. In an epic saga that takes us from Red Clay to Paris, to the Côte d'Azur and New Orleans, human frailties are pushed to their limits as secrets are exposed and the line between good and evil becomes ever more difficult to discern"--Inside jacket flap. |
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| A century of fiction in the New Yorker : 1925-2025 / edited by Deborah Treisman. |
 "There is simply no A-Z like the alphabet of fiction writers who have appeared in the pages of The New Yorker in the last hundred years. The book boasts inarguable classics like Salinger's "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain," and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" alongside stunners to be rediscovered. Some stories defined a moment or a now-lost world (Isaac Bashevis Singer's "The Cafeteria"); others showed us a whole new way fiction could sound and feel ("The Red Girl," by Jamaica Kincaid). With this vivid selection, Treisman showcases how our fiction has changed over time, and reminds us that past literary fashions continue to ripple outward in the fiction we love today. What does a Donald Barthelme mean to the craft of short fiction now? What will a Yiyun Li mean to the next generation of readers and writers? This exquisite tour of the form as practiced at its highest level will leap directly into the hearts of readers of all ages, all stripes, and is a beautiful tribute to the magazine's influence on our literary culture over the last century."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Honey : a novel / Victor Lodato. |
 "For fans of Elizabeth Strout and Andrew Sean Greer, a brilliant, poignant literary breakout about the glamorous 82-year-old daughter of a notorious New Jersey mobster, who returns home after a lifetime denying her legacy, to a world very different from the one she left behind"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The lamb : a novel / Lucy Rose. |
 "From an incendiary new talent, a contemporary folktale in which a mother and daughter take in passersby and eat them, exploring queerness, first loves, and tense mother-daughter relationships. Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. They spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she picks apart their bodies and toasts them off with some vegetable oil. But Mama's want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must face the possibility that her life is changing for good. The Lamb is a folktale, a horror story, a love story, an enchantment. With this teeming, gothic debut, Lucy Rose wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| At dark, I become loathsome / Eric Larocca. |
 "A single line of text, glowing in the darkness of the internet. Written by Ashley Lutin, who has often thought the same--and worse--in the years since his wife died and his young son disappeared. But the peace of the grave is not for him--it's for those he can help. Ashley has constructed a peculiar ritual for those whose desire to die is at war with their yearning to live a better life. Struggling to overcome his own endless grief, one night Ashley finds connection with Jinx--a potential candidate for Ashley's next ritual--who spins a tale both revolting and fascinating. Thus begins a relationship that traps the two men in an ever-tightening spiral of painful revelations, where long-hidden secrets are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light. Only through pain can we find healing. Only through death can we find new life."--Amazon. |
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| Cecilia / K-Ming Chang. |
 "A surreal novella about the intensity and eroticism of girlhood friendships, the ecstasy of desire and disgust, and matriarchal mythmaking. Seven, who works as a cleaner at a chiropractor's office, reencounters Cecilia, a woman who has obsessed her since their school days. Their chance meeting spurs a series of intensely vivid and corporeal memories, and also leads to a bus ride during which each claims dubiously not to be following the other. In the defamiliarization that follows, the narrator begins to experience queerness as an alienation from normative time. Smart, subversive, and gripping, Cecilia is a novella about queerness, obsessive love, inextricable histories of desire and violence, diaspora, and bodily transformation."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The sable cloak / Gail Milissa Grant. |
 "An eye-opening, atmospheric novel set in the South and Midwest during the time of Jim Crow that reveals a little-known part of American pre-civil rights history of Black intrigue and power. In the South, justice is swift and absolute. Jordan Sable, a prosperous undertaker turned political boss, has controlled the Black vote in St. Louis for decades. Sara, his equally formidable wife, runs the renowned funeral establishment that put the Sable name on the map. Agile and pragmatic, she is known for the careful, deliberate way in which she powders, dresses, and embalms the community's dead. Together, in a true partnership built on trust, mutual respect, and a shared vision for a better future, they have pushed through several obstacles in order to create a legacy for their children through a business that serves as a source of unity and stability for their friends and neighbors. When tragedy bursts their carefully constructed empire of dignity and safety, the family rallies around an unconventional solution. But at what cost? Set in the Midwest in the 1940s, The Sable Cloak is a rarely seen portrait of an upper middle class, African American family in the pre-Civil Rights era. Brimming with multifaceted characters who weave their way through love, heartbreak, and the fight for autonomy, this intricate, deeply personal novel inspired by the author's own family history delves into legacy and the stories we tell ourselves, and celebrates a largely self-sustaining, culturally rich Missouri community that most Americans may not be aware of"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Our winter monster / Dennis Mahoney. |
 "Holly and Brian race through a blizzard, hoping a ski-village getaway will save their strained relationship, until they lose control of the car... and lose each other in the storm. Something monstrous stalks them in the whiteout, leaving a trail of wreckage and bodies, and echoing a trauma they suffered last winter. Sheriff Kendra Book pursues them, too, determined to end the chaos and overcome a terrible, guilty secret. After a year of private pain, Holly and Brian's only hope is surviving the night together. Because the storm is getting worse, there really is a monster, and the danger is more personal than anyone expects"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The quiet librarian / Allen Eskens. |
 "Hana Babic is a quiet middle-aged librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared. Thirty years before, Hana was someone else: Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia--until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend--the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head. Now, someone is hunting Hana, and her friend has paid the price, leaving her eight-year-old grandson in Hana's care. To protect the child without revealing her secret, Hana must again become the Night Mora--and hope she can find the killer before the past comes for them, too."--Amazon. |
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| Theory & practice : a novel / Michelle De Kretser. |
 A new novel of startling intelligence from prizewinning Australian author Michelle de Kretser, following a writer looking back on her young adulthood and grappling with what happens when life smashes through the boundaries of art. It's 1986, and "beautiful, radical ideas" are in the air. The narrator of Theory & Practice, a young woman originally from Sri Lanka, arrives in Melbourne for graduate school to research the novels of Virginia Woolf. In the bohemian neighborhood of St. Kilda she meets artists, activists, students--and Kit. He claims to be in a "deconstructed relationship." They become lovers, and the narrator's feminism comes up against her jealousy. Meanwhile, an entry in Woolf's diary upends what the narrator knows about her literary idol, and throws her own work into disarray. What happens when our desires run contrary to our beliefs? What should we do when the failings of revered figures come to light? Who is shamed when the truth is told? Michelle de Kretser's new novel offers a spellbinding meditation on the moral complexities that arise in the gap between our values and our lives. |
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| The girl most likely to : a novel / Julie Tieu. |
 "Rachel Dang, once voted 'Most Likely to Succeed' in high school, is funemployed for the first time. After years of doing everything her boss asked, it's time to say yes to new opportunities. So when she gets invited to her twentieth high school reunion by none other than her former frenemy, Danny Phan, Rachel agrees despite their unresolved past. As a teenager, Danny was seen as smart, but unfocused. Teachers often paired him with Rachel, hoping her work ethic would rub off on him. Though Danny and Rachel weren't exactly friends, she had seen a different side of him, one that only existed online over intimate late-night AIM chats that never translated into real life. When they meet again, Rachel discovers their roles have reversed. Danny is thriving in his career while she's the one flailing. The reunion takes an unexpected turn when a simple errand takes them into town for a night of mishaps and misadventure where they run into a colorful cast of characters from their childhood. Rachel and Danny soon rediscover the feelings they once shared and must decide if this is only a quick trip down memory lane or a second chance for their happily ever after." -- Provided by publisher |
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| Grace of the Empire State : a novel / Gemma Tizzard. |
 "After the death of their father, it's up to Grace O'Connell and her twin brother Patrick to support their family as the Great Depression takes its toll on New York City. When Grace is laid off from her dancing gig and Patrick is injured at work on the construction of the Empire State Building, desperation leaves them only one solution: Grace must disguise herself as Patrick and take his place on the half-built skyscraper. She soon proves herself as capable as any man on the steel, and her affection for the loyal men around her--especially Italian immigrant Joe--grows by the day. But when a terrible accident happens high above the city and Grace is the only one capable of saving her stranded colleague, she must make a split-second decision to risk everything or live with her conscience forever. Set against the backdrop of a city at a crossroads, this electrifying story is full of heart and hope, family and friendship, and the sacrifices we make for those we love"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Junie : a novel / Erin Crosby Eckstine. |
 "A strong-willed enslaved girl is haunted by her sister's ghost as she grapples with circumstances beyond her control, risking her life as the Civil War looms in this lush and tenderhearted debut. Junie has always yearned for more. Born and raised on the Bellereine plantation in the Alabama countryside, the sixteen-year-old spends her days working for the McQueens and serving as a maid for their daughter Violet, her oldest and closest friend. In the daytime, she entertains herself with poetry and imagines grand romances and faraway worlds. Under the cover of night, she steals away to the woods, curling up by the riverbank. But consumed by grief over the recent death of her older sister Minnie, she has vowed never to leave her family's side. Her world is capsized at the arrival of the Taylors, a wealthy brother and sister from New Orleans. The McQueens are keen to marry Violet off to Mr. Taylor, and if they succeed, Junie would be ripped away from everyone she knows and loves. Committing a desperate act, she awakens Minnie's tempestuous spirit, who can only move on once Junie completes three crucial tasks. She enlists the aid of Caleb, Mr. Taylor's chauffeur, and the two strike up a quick friendship that soon becomes something more. Yet time is ticking, and as secrets and betrayals rise to the surface, Junie must wade into unfamiliar territory as she pushes against the current that has controlled her entire life. Encapsulating the multitudes of a young girl caught between the steadiness of the familiar and the gamble of diving into the unknown, Erin Crosby Eckstine explores the strength of love and friendship under the crushing weight of servitude. In this radiant and stirring novel, Junie soars to life, brimming with longing that cannot be contained and hope that can never be extinguished"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| People of means : a novel / Nancy Johnson. |
 From the acclaimed author of The Kindest Lie, a propulsive novel about a mother and daughter, Freda and Tulip, each seeking justice and following their dreams during moments of social reckoning-1960s Nashville and 1992 Chicago. |
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| Supernatural tales from Japan : ghosts, goblins, demons and magic / Lafcadio Hearn, Yei Theodora Ozaki ; illustrations by Sakyu. |
 "This collection of fifteen chilling tales brings to life a world where the supernatural and earthly realms are seamlessly entwined. The ghosts, goblins and magical creatures in its pages are by turns mischievous, terrifying, protective and tender. "--Back cover. |
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| A killing cold / Kate Alice Marshall. |
 "A woman invited to her wealthy fiance's family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret - and that she's been there before."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Something in the walls : a novel / Daisy Pearce. |
 "Unbearably tense, utterly propulsive, and studded with folklore and horror, Something in the Walls is perfect for anyone who loves Midsommar and The Haunting of Hill House. Newly-minted child psychologist Mina has little experience. In a field where the first people called are experts, she's been unable to get her feet wet. Instead she aimlessly spends her days stuck in the stifling heat wave sweeping across Britain, and anxiously contemplating her upcoming marriage to careful, precise researcher Oscar. The only reprieve from her small, close world is attending the local bereavement group to mourn her brother's death from years ago. That is, until she meets journalist Sam Hunter at the grief group one day. And he has a proposition for her. Alice Webber is a thirteen year old girl who claims she's being haunted by a witch. Living with her family in their crowded home in the remote village of Banathel, Alice's symptoms are increasingly disturbing, and money is tight. Taking this job will give Mina some experience; Sam will get the scoop of a lifetime; and Alice will get better, Mina is sure of it. But instead of improving, Alice's behavior becomes increasingly inexplicable and intense. The town of Banathel has a deep history of superstition and witchcraft. They believe there is evil in the world. They believe there are ways of...dealing with it. And they don't expect outsiders to understand. As Mina races to uncover the truth behind Alice's condition, the dark cracks of Banathel begin to show. Mina is desperate to understand how deep their sinister traditions go-and how her own past may be the biggest threat of all. "Unexpected, mesmerizing, and totally original...will keep you guessing until its wild end." -#1 International Bestselling author Darby Kane "Harrowing and moving...Pearce has written something magical. There are scenes in this book I'll never forget." -Kristi DeMeester, author of Such a Pretty Smile"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| I got abducted by aliens and now I'm trapped in a rom-com / Kimberly Lemming. |
 "A hilarious and sexy romance about a woman who gets dropped on a strange planet only to fall for not one, but two, aliens, from the author of I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf. Dorothy Valentine is close to getting her PhD in wildlife biology when she's attacked by a lion. On the bright side, she's saved! On the not-so-bright side, it's because they're abducted by aliens. In her scramble to escape, Dory and the lion commandeer an escape pod and crash-land on an alien planet that has...dinosaurs? Dory and her new lion bestie, Toto, are saved in the nick of time by a mysterious and sexy alien, Sol. On their new adventure, they team up with the equally hot, equally dangerous Lok, who may or may not be a war criminal. Whether it be trauma, fate, or intrigue, Dory can't resist the attraction that's developing in their trio.... As this ragtag group of misfits explore their new planet, Dory learns more about how and why they've all ended up together, battles more prehistoric creatures than she imagined (she imagined...zero), and questions if she even wants to go back home to Earth in this hilarious and steamy alien romance adventure comedy romp"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| This is a love story : a novel / Jessica Soffer. |
 "A love letter to New York City, to Central Park, to art, and to love, told through the lens of a fifty-year romance and from various points of view"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The dressmakers of London / Julia Kelly. |
 "Isabelle Shelton has always found comfort in the predictable world of her mother's dressmaking shop, Mrs. Shelton's Fashions, while her sister Sylvia turned her back on the family years ago to marry a wealthy doctor whom Izzie detests. When their mother dies unexpectedly, the sisters are stunned to find they've jointly inherited the family business. Izzie is determined to buy Sylvia out, but when she's conscripted into the WAAF, she's forced to seek Sylvia's help to keep the shop open. Realizing this could be her one chance at reconciliation with her sister, Sylvia is determined to save Mrs. Shelton's Fashions from closure--and financial ruin. Through letters, the sisters begin to confront old wounds, new loves, and the weight of family legacy in order to forge new beginnings in this lyrically moving novel perfect for fans of Genevieve Graham and Lucinda Riley." - Amazon.com |
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| Behind every good man : a novel / Sara Goodman Confino. |
 It's a doozy of a bad day for Beverly Diamond when she catches her husband, Larry, in a compromising position with his secretary. What's a DC suburban wife to do with a soon-to-be ex, two young kids, and no degree or financial support in 1962? Beat the louse at his own game, that's what. Larry runs the Maryland senatorial campaign for the incumbent candidate projected to win against his younger underdog opponent, Michael Landau. But Beverly has the pluck, political savvy, and sheer drive to push Landau's campaign in a successful new direction, even if he already has a campaign manager who is less than pleased she has inserted herself into the race. Now it's rival against rival. She and Michael do make a great team...maybe in more ways than one. But with the election heating up, she needs to focus on one thing at a time. If Bev can convince Michael to go modern, pay attention to women's issues, and learn how to dress himself properly, maybe she can show Larry exactly how much he has underestimated her their entire marriage--and make her own dreams come true in the process"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The riveter : a novel / Jack Wang. |
 Follows Josiah Chang, a Chinese Canadian who, barred from military service, works in a shipyard and falls in love with Poppy; as their romance blossoms, Josiah seeks to prove his worth to her family and himself, leading him to enlist in Toronto amid the changing dynamics of wartime Canada. |
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| The umbrella maker's son : a novel of WWII / Tod Lending. |
 "A novel following the odyssey of a 17-year-old at the outset of WWII from the occupied Krakow ghetto to the Polish countryside and finally to the arms of the young woman he's loved since childhood; a story of survival against all odds, guided by the transformative power of love. Born to a middle class Polish Jewish family, Reuven grows up admiring his father, the respected businessman who owns the local shop that produces beautiful handmade umbrellas. The family's peaceful life begins to unravel as the Nazis infiltrate the town, take over the business, and eventually persecute Reuven and all other Jews. One night, Zelda, the girl who seven-year-old Reuven loves, disappears with her family; soon thereafter, Reuven and his father are conscripted by the Nazis into backbreaking physical labor that almost kills them. Clearly, they must escape-and some of them will die trying. What ensues is a fast paced, but heartfelt and lovely, story of survival and hope. Reuven is saved by a local farmer who has never met a Jew before-mostly because he wants him to help work the farm. Meanwhile, the farmer's wife has other ideas about Reuven-which lead to his desperate escape further into the countryside, and eventually to a local town where he hopes to reconnect with Zelda, herself forever changed by her experiences of war."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Adam & Eve in Paradise / José Maria de Eça de Queirós ; translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. |
 "Gloriously translated by Margaret Jull Costa, Adam and Eve in Paradise is not the rosy prelapsarian tale of your childhood Bible: yellow-eyed Adam is a slope-browed Neanderthal all alone and panicked, and Paradise is abominable (seethingly alive with vicious insects and roving primordial carnivores). Luckily for Adam, Eve appears: "O wonder, there before Adam, as if it were both him and not him, was another Being very similar to him, only more slender and covered with a more silken down, and who was regarding him with wide, lustrous, liquid eyes ... And slowly, gently rubbing its bare knees together, the whole of this silken, tender Being was offering itself up in astonished, lascivious submission. It was Eve ... It was you, O Venerable Mother!" But still we must pity poor Adam and Eve: "Our Parents' tireless, desperate efforts were devoted entirely to surviving in the midst of a Nature that was ceaselessly, furiously plotting their destruction. And Adam and Eve spent those days - which Semitic texts celebrate as delightful - always trembling, always whimpering, always fleeing!" Eça de Queirós's pleasure in the glories of language and his delight in skewering all complacencies are richly palpable, leaving the reader smiling and sighing: Ahhh, those Genesiac days ..."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Nesting / Roisín O'Donnell. |
 "A devastating and suspenseful portrait of gaslighting and emotional abuse, and a triumphant story about family, love, and finding a new place to nest"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Change of heart : a novel / Falon Ballard. |
 Campbell Andrews despises exactly three things in life: incompetence, tardiness, and love stories. Making partner at her law firm at thirty-four, she has no time for anything or anyone else. And certainly no respect for those who choose love over work. That is, until she wakes up in Heart Springs -- her own personal hell. The good news? She's not dead. She's been magically transported to a small town straight out of the Hallmark channel, complete with a meddling mayor, seasonal festivals, and friendly townsfolk. Cam can't stand it, but in order to make it back to her real life, she has to fulfill three tasks... foremost among them, experience true love. It seems impossible. But anything's possible with a change of heart. |
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| The strange case of Jane O. : a novel / Karen Thompson Walker. |
 "A woman born with perfect memory suddenly develops a series of eerie psychological symptoms--blackouts, hallucinations, premonitions, an inexplicable sense of dread. It is the first year after her child is born, and she and her untraditional psychiatrist struggle to solve the mystery of what is happening to Jane, to her mind. Then Jane suddenly goes missing and is found a day later lying unconscious in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, with no memory of her missing hours. A police detective becomes suspicious of Jane, and begins to track her, convinced that Jane is lying. What happened to Jane, and what do these peculiar experiences, including in something called a fugue state, have to do with a hallucination Jane has about a young man she knew twenty years ago, who warns her of a disaster ahead? The extraordinary mystery behind Jane's symptoms leads the forward-thinking young Dr. Byrd to reassess everything he thought he knew about Jane, the mind, psychology, and reality, including the events of his own life. This stunning novel is a provocative literary puzzle about memory, identity, consciousness, and the tender bonds of love between people, as well as a celebration of the gymnastic capabilities and the unexplained nature of the human mind"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Not who we expected / Lisa Black. |
 "Forensic experts Ellie Carr and Rachael Davies are pulled into solving a deadly mystery unfolding in the shadow of a celebrated rock star. The two crime experts are enlisted by legendary rock star Billy Diamond to find his missing daughter. A level-headed student at Yale, Devon left six months earlier with her boyfriend, Carlos, for a career development retreat in Nevada. Her calls and notes became less frequent until they stopped. Billy wanted to give his daughter space--but after learning Carlos' body was found a few miles upstream from the ranch, he needs answers. Rachael and Ellie hatch a plan--as Ellie goes undercover, Rachael will work with Billy to find out about Devon. But Rachael has a second agenda, to find out why Billy seems so familiar with her late sister Isis, whose little boy Rachael is raising. The music idol is hiding something, but what? The southwest ranch is full of surprises. Devon is not only alive but thriving, and no one mentions Carlos. The attendees follow their leader, Galen, with slavish devotion, and their daily mind-body exercises stretch from brain-numbing to downright treacherous. If Galen is behind some nefarious scheme, how does it relate to the rock star and his daughter? To answer those questions, Rachael will also have to ask: Who was her sister Isis, really? The answers will draw Ellie and Rachael deeper into danger. In Billy's world and in Galen's, the living, the missing, and the dead all have secrets"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Ballad of sword & wine : qiang jin jiu. 1 / written by Tang Jiu Qing ; illustrated by St ; translated by XiA, Jia, amixy ; adaptation: Dara. |
 Scourge of a nation. Shen Zechuan is the eighth son of the traitorous Prince of Jianxing, a man who doomed his cities and people to destruction at the hands of the foreign enemy. As the only surviving member of his reviled line, Shen Zechuan bears the hatred of the nation. And no one's hate burns hotter than that of Xiao Chiye, the youngest son of the powerful Prince of Libei. Xiao Chiye would love nothing more than to see Shen Zechuan dead, but against all odds, he clings to life. Rather than succumb to his family's disgrace, he becomes a thorn in Xiao Chiye's side, clawing his way into the cutthroat political world of the capital. Yet as these two bitter enemies struggle against the bonds of their fate, they find themselves drawn together with a force neither expected--and neither can hope to resist. |
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| I think they love you / Julian Winters. |
 "When Denzel 'Denz' Carter's workaholic father and CEO of 24 Carter Gold unexpectedly announces his retirement, the competition is on for who will become his successor. To convince his family members that he's capable of commitment, Denz impulsively lies about being in a serious relationship. Now he needs to find a fake boyfriend to seal the deal on the CEO position. Denz is forced to turn to the last person he wants to be in a pretend (or any) relationship with: Braylon, the man who broke his heart. Braylon's sudden reappearance in Denz's life turns everything upside down. But, apparently, he needs Denz's connections to the mayor to win his own promotion. So, they strike a deal. It's all business until the funny texts and the confusing kisses leave Denz struggling to separate this temporary arrangement from the affairs of his heart. 'I think they love you' is a celebration of love, queer communities, big families--in all their beautiful complications--healing, and, most important, falling in love with the person you're becoming"-- Page 4 of cover. |
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| The English problem : a novel / Beena Kamlani. |
 "The English Patient meets EM Foster, The English Problem is a stunning debut that looks at the insidiousness of colonialism and one young man's sexual awakening. In 1931 a young man from India arrives in London. Ten years later he will be on a ship bound for India, in a coma, accompanied by a nurse. But that is a decade away For now, in 1931 he is not dressed for the British rain, and shivering, rings the doorbell of the people who have agreed to host him during his stay in this strange land. He finds that his hosts are having a party and warmly welcome him in. He is the only Brown person in the room. It is the first time for what will become an everyday experience"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The broposal / Sonora Reyes. |
 "Alejandro (Han for short) has never been in love. He purposefully keeps his heart at arm's length from anyone who might want it, which he lets his family and friends think is due to commitment-phobia paired with a heavy dose of emotional constipation. Now, though, he's coming to learn that it might have more to do with his fear of looking too deeply inward, whether that be his sexuality (he's straight, right?), or the looming anxiety about being undocumented in an increasingly hostile environment. On the other hand, Han's roommate and best friend, Kenny, is stuck in a soul-sucking relationship with a woman who wants nothing more than for Kenny to ditch Han and marry her. Kenny can't stand being alone, and has always been afraid of being punished for making the wrong choice, so his girlfriend happily makes most of his decisions for him. But when she forces his hand and makes him choose between their relationship and his best friend, he finally knows without a doubt who the correct choice is. But things aren't as easy as they should be with Kenny's ex out of the picture. When Han loses the job that had promised to sponsor his work visa, it leaves the two of them anxious as ever. In order to give his best friend a chance at security (and ok, maybe to make his ex a little jealous), Kenny asks Han to marry him. But neither of them are prepared for the very real feelings pretending to be madly in love stirs up"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Hungerstone : a novel / Kat Dunn. |
 It's the height of the industrial revolution and ten years into Lenore's marriage to steel magnate Henry, their relationship has soured. When Henry's ambitions take them from London to the remote British moorlands to host a hunting party, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into their lives. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night. Carmilla, who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger. As the day of the hunt draws closer, Lenore begins to unravel, questioning the role she has been playing all these years. Torn between regaining her husband's affection and the cravings Carmilla has awakened, soon Lenore will uncover a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk. Hungerstone is a mesmerizing reclamation of the lesbian vampire trope, set against the backdrop of the voracious appetite of the Industrial Revolution.-- Publisher description. |
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| The relationship mechanic / Karmen Lee. |
 Jessica Jae-un Miller came to Peach Blossom, Georgia, for a visit, not a breakdown. But when her rental car dies on the outskirts of town, mechanic Lavenia "Vini" Williams provides a tow--and a very welcome jump start to Jessica's heart. It's been a minute since Jessica's last fling--her relationship specialty--and Vini checks all the right boxes. If only the sexy car whisperer seemed interested...Vini knows herself and what she wants. She loves her job, her family, her hometown--but she'd love to fall in love. Jessica stirs up all the right feelings, but the city girl has no intention of staying in Peach Blossom. Why sign up for a broken heart? But the temptation is real as Vini goes out of her way to drive a carless Jessica around town. The pair can't seem to keep their distance--or their hands to themselves. With only six weeks to figure out where their red-hot chemistry might lead, Vini and Jessica will have to decide if home can be where the heart is when the heart only knows how to run. From showing up to glowing up, the characters in Afterglow Books are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way. Don't miss any of these other fun titles... |
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| Code Noir : fictions / Canisia Lubrin ; with art by Torkwase Dyson ; with a foreword by Christina Sharpe. |
 "Canisia Lubrin's debut fiction combines immense literary and political force. Its departs from the infamous real-life Code Noir, a set of historical decrees passed in 1685 by King Louis XIV of France defining the conditions of slavery in the French colonial empire. The original Code had fifty-nine articles; Code Noir has fifty-nine linked fictions - vivid, unforgettable, multi-layer fragments filled with globe-wise characters who desire to live beyond the ruins of the past. Ranging in style from contemporary realism to dystopia, from futuristic fantasy to historical fiction, this inventive, shape-shifting braid of stories exists far beyond the enclosures of official decrees. This is a timely, daring, virtuosic book by a young literary star. The stories are accompanied by fifty-nine black-and-white drawings - one at the start of each fiction - by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Beartooth : a novel / Callan Wink. |
 "In an aging, timber house hand-built into the Absaroka-Beartooth mountains, two brothers are struggling to keep up with their debts. They live off the grid, on the fringe of Yellowstone, surviving off the wild after the death of their father. Thad, the elder, is more capable of engaging with things like the truck registration, or the medical bills they can't afford from their father's fatal illness, or the tax lien on the cabin their grandfather built, while Hazen is . . . different, more instinctual, deeply in tune with the natural world. Desperate for money, they are approached by a shadowy out-of-towner with a dangerous proposition that will change both of their lives forever."-- provided by publisher. |
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| The Dollhouse Academy / Margarita Montimore. |
 "From the national bestselling author of Oona Out of Order, a novel about two best friends and aspiring actresses who join the Dollhouse Academy, where stars are made and dangerous secrets are hidden"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Survival tips : storiesl / Miriam Gershow. |
 Survival Tips: Stories follows characters through their friendships, their jobs, their marriages, and their grief as they stumble toward connection and meaning. A wife begins communicating to her husband only in rebus puzzles. A new teacher confronts her strongest foes, the parents of a disruptive student. A group of conference-goers join their guru in a jerry-rigged sweat lodge. A woman shows up to her blind date in a "Don't Leave Me" t-shirt. With wit and candor, these ten stories examine the ways we live, the mistakes we make, and the paths we take in hopes of delivering us to ourselves and each other--Publisher's description. |
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| A wounded deer leaps highest : a novel / Charlie J. Stephens. |
 "In 1980's Oregon, Smokey is figuring out how to survive childhood with a young mom who is increasingly desperate in her search for love. As their mother's boyfriends come and go, Smokey aches for the comfort and safety their mother can never quite provide. When a dangerous new man moves into the house, Smokey seeks refuge in the nearby forests--finding comfort as they give themselves over to the strength and beauty of the natural world."--Page 4 of cover. |
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| Frankie : a novel / Graham Norton. |
 "Always on the periphery, looking on, young Frankie Howe was never quite sure enough of herself to take center stage--after all, life had already judged her harshly. Now old, Frankie finds it easier to forget the life that came before. Then Damian, a young Irish caretaker, arrives at her London flat, there to keep an eye on her as she recovers from a fall. A memory is sparked, and the past crackles into life as Damian listens to the story Frankie has kept stored away all these years. Traveling from post-war Ireland to 1960s New York, a city full of art, larger-than-life characters and turmoil, Frankie shares a world in which friendship and chance encounters collide. A place where, for a while, life blazes with an intensity that can't last but will perhaps live on in other ways and in other people."-- provided by publisher. |
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| The Irish girl : a novel / Ashley E. Sweeney. |
 "Thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her home in rural Ireland in 1886 after being accused of incest, endures a treacherous voyage across the Atlantic alone to an unknown life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor and Irish. After moving west to Colorado, Mary Agnes again faces hardships and grapples with heritage, religion, and matters of the heart. Will she ever find a home to call her own? Where?"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Whoever steals this book / Nowaki Fukamidori ; illustration by Naffy ; translation by Michael Blaskowsky. |
 "Literature is everywhere high schooler Mifuyu goes. The great-granddaughter of a renowned book collector, she lives in Yomunaga, the Town of Books, and her father runs a vast library known as Mikura Hall that has been handed down through generations. However, Mifuyu doesn't share her family's passion; in fact, she hates reading! But when several books are stolen from Mikura Hall, triggering an ancient curse, Mifuyu must catch the thief by entering the books she despises. With the help of a mysterious girl named Mashiro, she embarks on an adventure through the worlds of various stories...and maybe she'll find that reading isn't so bad after all"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| At the bottom of the garden : a novel / Camilla Bruce. |
 Clara Woods is a killer--and perfectly fine with it, too. So what if she takes a couple of lives to make her own a little bit better? At the bottom of her garden is a flowerbed, long overgrown, where her late husband rests in peace--or so she always thought. Then the girls arrive. Lily and Violet are her nieces, recently orphaned after their affluent parents died on an ill-fated anniversary trip. In accordance with their parents' will, the sisters are to go to their closest relative--who just so happens to be Clara. Despite having no interest in children, Clara agrees to take them, hoping to get her hands on some of the girls' assets--not just to bolster her dwindling fortune, but also to establish what she hopes will be her legacy: a line of diamond jewelry. There's only one problem. Violet can see the dead man at the bottom of the garden. She can see all of Clara's ghosts...and call them back into existence. Soon Clara is plagued by her victims and at war with the gifted girls in her care. Lily and Violet have become a liability--and know far more than they should... |
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| The curious kitten at the Chibineko Kitchen : a novel / Yuta Takahashi ; translated by Cat Anderson. |
 In a remote seaside town near Tokyo, Kotoko discovers the Chibineko Kitchen, where kagezen meals promise reunions with departed loved ones, and where she meets the young chef Kai and embarks on a magical journey of eating and remembrance. |
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| Dream state : a novel / Eric Puchner. |
 "PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, Pushcart Prize winner, and Best American Stories contributor, Eric Puchner returns with an ambitious and deeply moving novel set against the backdrop of the American West that follows three lifelong friends and the betrayal at the center of their entwined fates. Cece and Charlie are in love and a few weeks away from their summer wedding. But when Cece meets Charlie's best friend from college, Garrett, her long-held expectations for her future begin to crumble. As Garrett's gruff mask slips, Cece begins to anticipate the big day with dread as her feelings for Garrett become impossible to bury. And as she decides to follow her instincts, ditching her groom for his best man, she will alter the three of their lives forever, the events of that July reverberating through marriage, parenthood, and, in the end, across generations. Years later, Cece's daughter, Lana, and Charlie's son, Jasper, meet and become fast friends, finding themselves reunited again and again throughout their adolescence. Soon enough, they find themselves enacting their parents' mistakes, falling victim to duplicity and heartbreak, with age and mortality looming. With Montana's once-warm summers growing untenably hot, and the nearby lake all but drying up, obscured only by the ceaseless smoke of wildfires, Garrett's career as a wildlife researcher feels increasingly futile. As he watches Cece begin to lose herself, Charlie wonders whether he will ever find stability, especially with a son failing to adjust to the demands of adulthood. With delicacy, precision, and enormous heart, Dream State is at once a study of the unholy catastrophe of marriage, and a tender ode to the beauty of impermanence"-- Provided by publisher. |
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| Rabbits / Hugo Rifkind |
 'Rabbits' is the much-anticipated, long awaited novel from columnist Hugo Rifkind. It is a story of drugs, aristocracy, death and disputed inheritance, set in the 1990s - it's Iain Banks meets 'The Secret History', a journey into a different class and a coming-of-age story in a changing Scotland. |
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| Life hacks for a little alien : a novel / Alice Franklin. |
 "Before she thinks of herself as Little Alien, our protagonist is a lonely girl who doesn't understand the world the way other children seem to. So when a late-night TV special introduces her to the mysterious Voynich Manuscript--an ancient tome written in an indecipherable language--Little Alien experiences something she hasn't before: hope. Could there be others like her, who also feel like they're from another planet? Convinced the Voynich Manuscript holds the answers she needs, Little Alien and her best (and only) friend Bobby decide they must find this strange book. Where that decision leads themwill change everything."-- Provided by publisher. |
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| The spirit collection of Thorne Hall : a novel / J. Ann Thomas. |
 A young woman forced to live with ghosts in a mansion frozen in time must decide between forbidden love and the price of freedom in this gothic fantasy where Jane Eyre meets The Haunting of Bly Manor, perfect for fans of Starling House. At Thorne Hall, a grand estate nestled in the Berkshires, fifteen restless spirits roam, bound within the mansion's walls since the Gilded Age. Elegy Thorne bears the weight of her family's curse to preserve the mansion as it was in the 1890s, using ancient folk songs to keep the spirits secret and silent in order to avoid deadly consequences. When a mischievous child spirit wreaks havoc on the manor, the Thorne family calls upon their trusted preservationist to restore the mansion. He brings along his son, Atticus--a vibrant man full of life and ideas of modernization--and Elegy is captivated by him, igniting a longing for freedom she's never dared to embrace. Torn between her desire to follow her heart and her duty to her family and its legacy, Elegy begins searching for a way to release the spirit collection back to the afterlife and set both herself and the ghosts free. With century-old secrets, peculiar magic, and spirits both whimsical and deadly, Thorne Hall will haunt and enrapture readersand you might just not want to leave. |
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| The woman in the wallpaper / Lora Jones. |
 The lives of three women dramatically collide during the French Revolution: Sofi, a wallpaper factory worker; her sister Lara, a lady's maid; and a young aristocrat, Hortense. At the factory, the sisters notice something eerie about the intricately illustrated wallpaper: the same mysterious woman appears again and again. But what does it portend? After the death of their beloved father, sisters Sofi and Lara are forced to leave their family home in Marseilles and move to a small village on the outskirts of Paris, where they have been offered work at a factory renowned for its intricately illustrated wallpaper known as Toile de Jouy. But when Sofi and Lara arrive at the factory, owned by a wealthy businessman named Wilhelm Oberst, they notice something unsettling about the wallpaper's pattern. At the heart of its seemingly idyllic vignettes, the same woman appears again and again: Madame Justine, Oberst's former wife-who, they discover, met an untimely and mysterious death years before, and who bears more than a passing resemblance to Lara. At the factory, Lara attracts the attention of the factory owner's son, Josef. But there is something uncannily familiar about their interactions, and Lara soon realizes that her life is mirroring the scenes illustrated on the wallpaper that lines her bedchamber. As the strange occurrences surrounding the wallpaper become ever more unnerving, Lara is gripped by paranoia. Is history is repeating itself and, if so, will she share the same tragic fate as the woman in the wallpaper? -- Publisher |
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