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| Shiner by Amy Jo BurnsIntroducing: 15-year-old Wren, the daughter of an Appalachian snake-handling preacher, who's grown up cut off almost entirely from the outside world.
What happens: An apparent miracle at the hands of her father sets off a series of discoveries on Wren's part that open up a different kind of future than she'd envisioned for herself.
For fans of: the depiction of cloistered adolescent lives in Chelsea Bierker's Godshot. |
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In five years : a novel
by Rebecca Serle
An ambitious young lawyer on the brink of having it all disregards a vivid dream about how different her life will be in five years, before meeting the man in her vision nearly five years later. 200,000 first printing. Tour.
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| The Knockout Queen by Rufi ThorpeThe odd couple: misfit California teens Michael (gay and closeted) and Bunny (at 6'3", despairing of ever finding a boyfriend), who find a safe haven in their unlikely friendship.
What happens: Different as they are, they both come from traumatic childhoods and their bond is strong; when Bunny reacts violently in Michael's defense, everything changes.
Read it for: the insightful depiction of an intense adolescent friendship, the flawed and accessible characters, and a sharp writing style. |
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| My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan BraithwaiteStarring: hardworking, practical Korede; her beautiful sister Ayoola, who seems to have developed a habit of killing her boyfriends.
What it's about: Korede is the one who disposes of the bodies and keeps her sister out of jail. But when the handsome doctor with whom Korede has fallen in love notices Ayoola and asks for her number, Korede faces a dilemma.
Why you might like it: This darkly funny debut captures the crowded streets of Lagos, Nigeria and complex family relationships with equal skill. |
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| Little Gods by Meng JinWhat it is: a debut novel that follows grief-stricken 17-year-old Liya as she travels to China to learn more about her recently deceased mother Su Lan -- a complex, remote woman obsessed with her research in theoretical physics.
Narrated by: Liya herself; Su Lan's former neighbor, who remembers a happy woman at odds with Liya's understanding of her mother; and Yongzong, Su Lan's husband and father to Liya, who he never knew.
Read it for: the slowly pieced-together picture you'll form of Su Lan; the experimental writing style. |
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| Machines Like Me by Ian McEwanWhat it's about: the relationships that develop between young Londoner Charlie, his girlfriend Miranda, and the android Adam, one of the first 26 "manufactured humans" who can pass as real.
Why you might like it: Readers curious about artificial intelligence and fans of the HBO show Westworld will appreciate the novel's playful, intriguing approach to coexisting with "robots." The alternate version of the 1980s, in which Alan Turing has had a greater influence, is fun too. |
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Written with the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, an astonishing debut novel that explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s. It's February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town's men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow. In the early hours of the morning after Valentine's Day, fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead's ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field--an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, the stage is set for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences.
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The talented Mr. Varg
by Alexander McCall Smith
A sequel to The Department of Sensitive Crimes finds detective Ulf Varg and his team investigating a playboy whose blackmailing case is complicated by Ulf’s brother’s questionable politics. By the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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