Among Friends by Hal EbbottTwo wealthy men who’ve been friends since college gather at one’s New York country home to celebrate his 52nd birthday, bringing along their wives and teenage daughters. But tension, envy, and a devastating action reverberate afterward. Exploring male friendship and duality, this buzzy debut literary novel is "subtle, keenly intelligent, psychologically deft -- and deeply grim" (Kirkus Reviews). For fans of: John Cheever. |
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The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghanistani youth and a servant's son, in a tale that spans the final days of the nation's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day. 40,000 first printing.
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People Like Us by Jason MottJason Mott follows up his National Book Award-winning Hell of a Book with this funny, moving, and surreal tale of two Black writers pondering race, loss, and survival. One of them, who specializes in grief, is at a Minnesota college where a shooting recently occurred, and the other, who just won a big award, is on a book tour in Europe. Try this next: Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour. |
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Black Buck
by Mateo Askaripour
What it is: a debut novel with a biting take on racism in corporate America and the story of a man who may have found success at the expense of his sense of self.Starring: Darren, a college graduate who takes a job at a cult-like NYC startup. The longer he stays and the greater his success, the more the corporate excesses push him toward helping other young Black people succeed in America's sales force.Why you might like it: styled like a self-help manual, this provocative satire exposes a lot of hypocrisy and prejudice and speaks to the current moment in American history.
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Archive of Unknown Universes by Ruben Reyes Jr.In 2018, Harvard student Ana uses an experimental technology that depicts personalized alternate timelines, leaving her questioning her past and her future. Days later, she visits Cuba with her boyfriend, a fellow student, and both research and look for answers about their Salvadoran families' ties to the island. Meanwhile, in 1978 El Salvador, two revolutionaries fall in love against the backdrop of an impending civil war. Read-alike: The Volcano Daughters by Gina Maria Balibrera. |
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The Volcano Daughters
by Gina Maria Balibrera
Spending years under the cruel dictator El Gran Pendejo's regime in El Salvador, sisters Graciela and Consuelo, when genocide strikes the community from which they hail, and each believing the other to be dead, flee across the globe, reinventing themselves until fate brings them back together in the most unlikely of ways.
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Bring the House Down by Charlotte RuncieAt the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, critic Alex Lyons pens a devastating review of Hayley Sinclair's one-woman act. He then sleeps with her just before it’s published. In retaliation, she turns her show into “The Alex Lyons Experience,” where she and others detail his misdeeds. Narrated by Alex’s coworker, a struggling new mom whose husband may be having an affair, this witty, compelling tale explores art, gender, power, and identity. For fans of: Mona Awad’s All’s Well. |
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Writers & Lovers: A Novel
by Lily King
A follow-up to the award-winning Euphoria follows the story of a former child golf prodigy-turned-unemployed writer whose determination to live a creative life is complicated by her relationships with two very different men.
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Jamaica Road by Lisa SmithBeginning in 1981, this evocative coming-of-age novel follows two best friends who become something more. Quiet 12-year-old Daphne is of Jamaican heritage and the only Black girl in her South London class when Jamaican immigrant Cornelius “Connie” Smalls arrives, ready to be seen and heard. Thoughtfully portraying their relationship as it ebbs and flows, this tender debut also spotlights societal issues. For fans of: Sally Rooney’s Normal People; Jacqueline Crooks’ Fire Rush. |
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The Sizzle Paradox
by Lily Menon
Writing a doctoral thesis on sexual chemistry, grad student Lyric Bishop, who is unable to find the“sizzle” with someone, gets schooled on dating tactics by her roommate, Kian Montgomery, and soon discovers that he might be the solution to cracking the Sizzle Paradox. Original. 40,000 first printing.
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The Satisfaction Café by Kathy WangHaving left Taiwan in the 1970s to attend Stanford graduate school, Joan marries a fellow student, but that lasts mere weeks. She stays in California, unexpectedly drawn to a wealthy, thrice-divorced older man. They marry, and in this quietly powerful portrait, Joan becomes a stepmother, a mother, a widow, and the owner of café designed to combat loneliness. For fans of: The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin; Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. |
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At The Coffee Shop Of Curiosities
by Heather S. Webber
Accepting a job as a live-in caretaker for an odd old man and his cranky cat, Ava moves to Alabama to start over, in the new novel by the author of In the Middle of Hickory Lane. 50,000 first printing.
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The Rabbit Club by Christopher J. YatesAlistair McCain, an 18-year-old from California, has never met his British rock star father. Starting at Oxford, he hopes to finally do so and to be accepted into a secret society he’s heard about at the university. While his lineage gets him an invite, he soon suspects the group may be involved in murder in this suspenseful and entertaining read. Try this next: I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai. |
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Ninth House
by Leigh Bardugo
Surviving a horrific multiple homicide, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks is unexpectedly offered a full scholarship to Yale, where her mysterious benefactors task her with monitoring the university's secret societies. Maps.
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Maggie; Or, A Man and A Woman Walk Into A Bar by Katie YeeOur unnamed narrator learns her husband is leaving her for his coworker Maggie. So, when she’s told she has cancer days later, she names the tumor Maggie, too. Not telling her ex any of this, she gets help from her best friend and shares her Chinese mother’s mythological tales with her kids. Depicting resilience and heart, this moving first novel is liberally peppered with humor. Read-alike: Catherine Newman's We All Want Impossible Things. |
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We All Want Impossible Things: A Novel
by Catherine Newman
When Edith, her best friend of 42 years, succumbs to ovarian cancer, spending her last days at a hospital near her, Ashley, stumbling around into heartbreak, helps Edith celebrate her life as they reminisce, hold on and try to let go. 75,000 first printing.
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Contact your librarian for more great books! |
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