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| Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail HoneymanEleanor Oliphant -- despite her social isolation and the rules she sets to survive weekends -- insists that she is just fine. But is she really? The gentle overtures of a coworker who accepts her as she is gets things rolling and gives her the emotional support she needs when a horrific (and embarrassing) event forces her to reevaluate her life. As it turns out, Eleanor Oliphant is absolutely not completely fine...but she will be. Though an emotional read, Eleanor's unique take on life offers plenty of humor; read it if you enjoyed the damaged or isolated protagonists in Fredrik Backman's A Man Called Ove or Ramsey Hootman's Courting Greta. |
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| The Standard Grand by Jay Baron NicorvoOnce a fancy Catskills resort, the Standard Grand is now a struggling halfway house for homeless veterans suffering from PTSD; its owner is dying and looking for a successor. He believes he has found her in AWOL Army specialist Antebellum Smith. Meanwhile, developers also have an eye on the home and are more than willing to resort to shady practices to get their hands on the land. With a strong sense of place, multiple narrators, a lively plot, and timely themes, this debut "effectively braids corporate greed, outdoorsy grit, and human connection" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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If We Were Villains
by M. L. Rio
Entreated to tell his side of the story to a detective who put him in prison a decade earlier for a murder he may not have committed, Oliver describes his past as a Shakespearean actor whose rivalry with a castmate escalated in dangerous ways. A first novel.
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| Startup: A Novel by Doree ShafrirWho best to write a novel poking fun at startups and the media outlets that cover them than a culture writer from BuzzFeed? Featuring a tech journalist who needs a juicy scoop to keep her job, a high-pressure round of funding for a new health and wellness app, and some inappropriate (and meant-to-be-private) texts, this debut offers plenty of layers: workplace drama, startup satire, and a treatment of the challenges women face in the workforce. |
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Complicated Family Dynamics
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| We Are Water: A Novel by Wally LambFramed by an intriguing story of a black artist, this complex novel revolves around Anna Oh, a middle-aged artist and mother who's left her Chinese-Italian husband for her art dealer, a Greek woman. Told in alternating perspectives and evoking Greek mythology, the story tangles the past and the present together -- Anna's recollections of her brutal childhood and her soon-to-be wife's prenup request each lead to the exploration of painful family dynamics. |
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The Two-Family House
by Lynda Cohen Loigman
A book set in a two-family brownstone in 1950s Brooklyn unravels a multigenerational story woven around a deeply buried family secret.
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| They May Not Mean to, But They Do by Cathleen SchineTaking its title from a famous poem by Philip Larkin, this darkly comic novel is full of sharp commentary and awash in guilt, all focused around family relationships. Joy Bergman is 86, recently widowed, and about to be forcibly retired. She doesn't want to be a burden, and isn't ready for a nursing home, but shouldn't really live alone in her Manhattan apartment. Her kids do the best they can for her, but they are busy with families and complications of their own. Narrated in turn by each of the Bergmans, this story may well hit home with readers who have aging parents of their own. |
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| Modern Lovers by Emma StraubIn college, Elizabeth, Andrew, Zoe, and Lydia were friends and bandmates; after a brush with fame, Lydia OD'd at 27. The rest are middle-aged, still close but distracted by common mid-life problems. Elizabeth and Andrew, married to each other, disagree on an important point, while Zoe's marriage to outsider Jane is faltering. Career woes, lack of fulfillment, an awareness that youth is fleeting -- these are just a few of the issues that keep them up at night (there's also the troubling fact that their teenage children have discovered sex -- and each other). Character-driven and witty, Modern Lovers alternates between the perspectives of each of the well-drawn protagonists. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Michigan City Public Library 100 E. 4th Street Michigan City, Indiana 46360 219-873-3044mclib.org/ |
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