Fiction A to Z
August 2025
Recent Releases
All the words we know : a novel
by Bruce Nash

"Rose may be in her eighties and suffering from dementia, but she's not done with life just yet. Alternately sharp as a tack and spectacularly forgetful, she spends her days roaming the corridors of her assisted living facility, musing on the staff and residents, and enduring visits form her emotionally distant children and granddaughters. But when her friend is found dead after an apparent fall from a window, Rose embarks on an eccentric and determined investigation to discover the truth and uncover allmanner of secrets . . . even some from her own past"
The Poppy Fields : a novel
by Nikki Erlick

A speculative story of healing, self-discovery, forgiveness and found friendship.
Kakigori Summer
by Emily Itami

Three sisters -- ambitious London finance expert Rei; single mom Kiki, who works at a care home; and young pop star Ai -- reunite at their Japanese childhood home after Ai is caught up in a scandal. Over the summer, they support each other and navigate memories of their troubled mother and their early years, where being half-British and half-Japanese made them outsiders. For fans of: Emily Giffin's The Summer Pact. 
The Homemade God
by Rachel Joyce

Not long after their larger-than-life 76-year-old artist father suddenly marries a 27-year-old they've never met, the four Kemp siblings learn he has drowned in an Italian lake he'd swam in for decades. Descending on the vacation villa during a sweltering heatwave, they meet their enigmatic stepmother, question their dad's mysterious death, hunt for his unfinished masterpiece, and confront long-hidden familial wounds. Read-alike: Lynn Steger Strong's Flight.
The Accidental Favorite
by Fran Littlewood

Gathering to celebrate their mother's 70th birthday at a posh rented house in the English countryside, three middle-aged sisters, each with their own families and issues, are shocked when an unexpected event indicates who their father's favorite child is. Told from multiple points of view over various time periods, this is the moving latest by the author of Amazing Grace Adams. Read-alike: Catherine Newman's Sandwich.
These Summer Storms
by Sarah MacLean

After their billionaire patriarch's death, the Storms come together at their New England island. There, they are introduced to Jack, their father's right-hand man and daughter Alice's recent one-night-stand, who says they must all complete individual tasks or no one inherits anything. Bestselling historical romance author Sarah MacLean delivers a fun contemporary family novel that will please fans of HBO's Succession.
The Girls Who Grew Big
by Leila Mottley

In the Florida Panhandle, young mothers support each other amid upheavals while others judge and put obstacles in their paths. Three of them narrate: de facto leader Simone, a 20-year-old mother of twins who's pregnant again; newcomer Adela, a champion teen swimmer from Indiana who's been sent to live with her grandmother; and determined Emory, who brings her infant to high school with her. Read-alikes: Sarai Johnson's Grown Women; Brit Bennett's The Mothers.
People like us : or The other continent, or Johnny Wordcount stumbles into a high-end croissant bar on the Siene in search of The Kid & orders the big dream
by Jason Mott

"People Like Us is Jason Mott's electric new novel. It is not memoir, yet it has deeply personal connections to Jason's life. And while rooted in reality, it explodes with dreamlike experiences that pull a reader in and don't let go, from the ability to time travel to sightings of sea monsters and peacocks, and feelings of love and memory so real they hurt. In People Like Us, two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. And as their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds"
Maggie ; : or, A man and a woman walk into a bar
by Katie Yee

A Chinese American woman discovers her husband is cheating with someone named Maggie; she then finds out she has cancer and names the tumor Maggie, talking to her body's new inhabitant as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation
Vera, or Faith
by Gary Shteyngart

Highly intelligent ten-year-old Vera loves words and lists. She also worries a lot, including about money, her Jewish dad and WASP stepmother divorcing, that they love her brother more, and how to find her Korean mom. This highly anticipated satirical latest from an acclaimed author explores a modern New York family in a politically troubled world. Read-alike: Alice Franklin's Life Hacks for a Little Alien; Eiren Caffall's All the Water in the World.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Pewaukee Public Library
210 Main Street
Pewaukee, Wisconsin 53072
262-691-5670

https://www.pewaukeelibrary.org/