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Fiction A to Z December 2025 |
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| Heart the Lover by Lily KingLike the author’s acclaimed Writers & Lovers (which has ties to this novel), this lyrical story also centers on a love triangle. In a 1980s college literature class, a woman grows close to two best friends, who call her Jordan after a character in The Great Gatsby. She eventually dates one of the men but falls in love with the other. Decades later, they all meet again. Read-alikes: Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident; Marie Rutkoski’s Ordinary Love. |
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| The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O'NeillAfter years apart, all three Ryan sisters gather for Thanksgiving at their parents' home on the East End of Long Island. Though each brings her own current issues, it’s the tragic deaths of two young people in the past that cast shadows over all the Ryans. This debut novel and Read with Jenna pick features complex characters who have all sorts of secrets. Read-alikes: J. Courtney Sullivan’s Maine; Christina Clancy’s The Second Home. |
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| Pick a Color by Souvankham ThammavongsaNing is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complex power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange. As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities- as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances- will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning. Winner of the 2025 Giller Prize. |
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Queen Esther
by John Irving
Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won't be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won't find any family who'll adopt her. When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren't Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther's gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, Esther Nacht is seventy-six--
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Mountain of Fire
by Jason Cordova
New Mass Market in the Best-Selling Black Tide Rising Series FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN When the lights went out, humanity died. But from darkness came hope. The surviving students at St. Dominic's Preparatory School for Girls have had it rough since the H7D3 virus virtually wiped out human civilization. Between rampaging hordes of zombies and wannabe tinpot dictators, the only thing holding them together is the iron will of the school's lone surviving nun, Sister Ann. They know how to survive, but rebuilding isn't only about surviving--it's about rising up. As more survivors start to seek asylum at the isolated school, it becomes readily apparent that the school can be the anvil from which humanity is reforged. To achieve this, though, the survivors must rely on one another to rebuild. The flames of life will be fanned, and the sparks from every strike of the hammer will provide light in the darkness. But it will not be easy. From atop the mountain of fire, this beacon of hope must spread--or humanity will die quietly in the long, final night.
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Santa's Secret
by Fern Michaels
Friends since high school, four 30-something women reunite for a once-in-a-lifetime Italian adventure filled with tons of laughter, mischief, great food, and even a little romance in this humorous, heartwarming celebration of friendship and fun from #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels. Christmas is filled with beloved and long-kept traditions, but sometimes, there's nothing better than creating brand-new ones. That's why Francesca and her high school friends Amy, Rachael, and Nina are traveling to Italy to spend the holidays with Frankie's boyfriend, Giovanni, and his family. Giovanni and his brother, Marco, run a small Italian restaurant in Manhattan, where cherished family recipes delight tourists and locals alike. But there's one recipe that eludes the brothers. Their mama refuses to divulge the secret behind her coveted panettone, claiming it is Santa's secret. While Frankie joins Giovanni and Marco in the kitchen, hoping to uncover the mystery of Mrs. Lombardi's mouthwatering panettone, Amy, Nina, and Rachael are on their own quests. Amy wants to see the sights, Nina needs career inspiration, and Rachael longs to meet some eligible Italian men. Can one trip provide the answers everyone seeks? With a stunning Italian backdrop and a sprinkling of holiday magic in the mix, there may be all kinds of sweet surprises in store . . .
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Boy from the North Country
by Sam Sussman
When Evan, twenty-six, is suddenly called home from his life abroad to the secluded farmhouse where he was raised by his mother, June, there is so much he does not yet know. He doesn't know his mother is dying. He still doesn't know the identity of his biological father or the elusive story of his mother's creatively intense, emotionally turbulent romance with Bob Dylan, whom Evan reveres as an artist and whom strangers have long insisted he resembles. He doesn't know the secrets of his mother's life before he was born or what drove her to leave New York City for a completely different existence.--
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The Year of Living Scandalously
by Julia London
Fake identities, missing jewels, and unexpected passion abounds in 18th-century England in this first novel in the fresh and satisfying (RT Book Reviews) Secrets of Hadley Green series. When Declan O'Connor, Earl of Donnelly, arrives at Hadley Green to meet with Lily Boudine, the new countess of Ashwood, he knows instantly that she is not who she pretends to be. Desperate to avoid an unwanted marriage, Keira Hannigan has assumed her cousin's identity and is staying at the estate while Lily is abroad. When Declan threatens to expose her, Keira convinces him to guard her secret, then enlists him in her investigation of a set of missing jewels. Fifteen years earlier, a man had been executed for the theft, but Keira believes an innocent man was hanged. Unable to deny the beautiful, exasperating Keira--or their simmering passion--Declan reluctantly agrees. But neither is prepared for the danger that awaits them as they embark on their investigation.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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