Popular End of Summer Reads! |
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| What Kind of Paradise by Janelle BrownTeenage Jane lives isolated from the outside world in a remote cabin with her beloved father, an enigmatic genius. After discovering disturbing information about him, she flees, finding herself in Silicon Valley in the 1990s. This twisty coming-of-age novel offers intriguing looks at extremism, technology, and humanity. Read-alikes: What Mother Won't Tell Me by Ivar Leon Menger; Godshot by Chelsea Jean Bieker. |
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Godshot
by Chelsea Bieker
Set in: Peaches, CA, an isolated town enduring a drought so terrible its residents have turned to a cult for help -- and the leader believes that the only solution involves the mass impregnation of all the teens in town.
Introducing: 14-year-old Lacey May, who is one of these teens; to make things worse, her mother has abandoned her.
Why you should read it: Lacey's an independent-minded young woman who isn't about to go down without a fight.
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| The Catch by Yrsa Daley-WardAfter their mother's belongings were found near the Thames River in 1995, young twins Clara and Dempsey were adopted by different families. Now 30, successful author Clara meets a woman who looks exactly as their mom did in the 1990s. While Clara thinks somehow this woman is their mom, administrative clerk Dempsey doesn't, leading to tension between the estranged sisters in this thought-provoking debut novel by a poet and memoirist. Read-alike: August Blue by Deborah Levy. |
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August Blue
by Deborah Levy
After glimpsing her identical double shopping in Athens, Elsa spends a month pursuing her doppelganger, resulting in an uncanny, erotic encounter in the summer rain, in the new novel by the highly-praised author of The Man Who Saw Everything.
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| Kakigori Summer by Emily ItamiThree 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. |
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The Summer Pact: A Novel
by Emily Giffin
Ten years after they made a pact, promising to always be there for each other in their times of need, Hannah, when one of the happiest moments of her life is suddenly turned upside down, calls on her closest friends, and together, they embark on a shared journey of self-discovery, forgiveness and acceptance. Simultaneous.
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| The Homemade God by Rachel JoyceNot 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. |
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Perfect: A Novel
by Rachel Joyce
In the aftermath of a life-shattering accident on the English countryside in 1972, 12-year-old Byron Hemming struggles with events that his mother does not seem to remember and embarks on a journey to discover what really did or did not happen. By the best-selling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.
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| The Accidental Favorite by Fran LittlewoodGathering 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. |
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Sandwich: A Novel
by Catherine Newman
While on her family's yearly escape to Cape Cod, Rocky, sandwiched between her half-grown kids and fully aging parents, relives the tenderness and sorrow of a handful of long-ago summers, coming face-to-face with her family's history and future and accepting she can no longer hide her secrets from the people she loves.
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| These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLeanAfter 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. |
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This Summer Will Be Different
by Carley Fortune
When her best friend flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy follows her to Prince Edward Island to help her through her crisis and resist the one man she's never been able to, but his flirty quips have been replaced with something new, making her wonder if her heart is still safe.
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| The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila MottleyIn 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. |
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Grown Women: A Novel
by Sarai Johnson
Three generations of strong-willed Black women in rural Tennessee, bound by love and burdened by resentment and clashing personalities, find an unexpected chance for reconciliation when they reunite to raise a child. 50,000 first printing.
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| Endling by Maria RevaIn 2022 Ukraine, two sisters talk a scientist intent on saving an endangered snail species into helping them kidnap Western men on so-called "romance" tours looking for docile brides. But Russia invades, changing everything in this "page-turning, genre-bending meta-novel as entertaining as it is gut-wrenching" (Library Journal). For fans of: inventive, stylistically complex literary debuts, like Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated. |
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The Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah
Reunited when the elder's husband is sent to fight in World War II, French sisters Vianne and Isabelle find their bond as well as their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways. Discussion guide available online. By the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Firefly Lane. Simultaneous.
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| Ordinary Love by Marie RutkoskiShortly after leaving her abusive husband, affluent Emily reconnects with her high school best friend (and first love), Gennifer, now a famous Olympian with a questionable reputation. Will their respective baggage keep them from a second chance at happiness? Try this next: Perris, California by Rachel Stark. |
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Perris, California: A Novel
by Rachel Stark
After surviving years of abuse, 27-year-old Tessa, pregnant with her third child and living in a trailer on her mother-in-law's property, is at peace in this familial existence until she runs into Mel, the woman she used to love, who causes her to question the very foundations of the life she's built.
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| Vera, or Faith by Gary ShteyngartHighly 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. |
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All The Water In The World
by Eiren Caffall
In a flooded and abandoned Manhattan, 13-year-old Nonie, her family, and a few others live at the top of the closed American Museum of Natural History, working to preserve artifacts. After a superstorm hits, the four survivors take a canoe from a display and set out on the Hudson River in a novel that depicts their journey and narrator Nonie's remembrances. For another lyrical apocalyptic tale, try Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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