| Women and Children First by Alina GrabowskiNarrated by ten women and girls in a small Massachusetts town, this "craftily constructed and deeply moving debut" (Booklist) covers events before and after a house party where a high schooler dies following a suspicious fall. Read-alikes: If the Ice Had Held by Wendy J. Fox; Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan. |
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Ocean State
by Stewart O'Nan
This compelling and heartbreaking story of working-class life in Rhode Island and the terrible things love makes us do is told through the alternating perspectives of four women at the heart of the murder of a high school student.
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| All Fours by Miranda JulyStopping a solo cross-country road trip after 30 miles, a 45-year-old semi-famous California artist rethinks her life and marriage as she develops a connection with a younger man and remodels her motel room before heading home in this witty, weird, and sexy novel. Read-alikes: Milk Fed by Melissa Broder; The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie; Clover Hendry's Day Off by Beth Morrey. |
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Milk Fed
by Melissa Broder
Starring: twenty-something Rachel, whose anorexia is closely linked to an overbearing mother but whose burgeoning attraction to an accepting, food-loving Orthodox woman may help heal her.
Why you might like it: Rachel's a stand-up comedian by night; this is a smart, funny book about love, religion, and body image.
Content warning: homophobia, disordered eating, and self-harm are all a part of Rachel's world.
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| Blue Ruin by Hari KunzruYears ago, Jay left the London art scene while on the cusp of stardom and is now an undocumented, unhoused delivery driver in upstate New York during COVID. After running into his artist ex-girlfriend (now married to his artist ex-best friend), he moves to their estate, where an art gallery owner has also taken refuge. This atmospheric, lyrical novel is for fans of Memory Piece by Lisa Ko and The Hundred Waters by Lauren Acampora. |
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The Hundred Waters: A Novel
by Lauren Acampora
When Gabriel, a young artist-environmentalist arrives in the affluent town of Nearwater, Connecticut, former model and photographer Louisa Rader, who is trying to vitalize the provincial local art center, and her preteen daughter are pulled under his spell, with consequences that disrupt the Rader's world forever.
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| Oye by Melissa MogollonColombian American high school senior Luciana deals with school stress, Hurricane Irma, her eccentric grandmother's cancer diagnosis, family secrets, and more. Written as Luciana's one-sided phone calls to her sister away at college, this humorous and moving coming-of-age debut presents a unique voice. Read-alikes: Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez; An American Immigrant by Johanna Rojas Vann. |
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Olga Dies Dreaming
by Xochitl Gonzalez
In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Olga, the tony wedding planner for Manhattan's power brokers, must confront the effects of long-held family secrets when she falls in love with Matteo, while other family members must weather their own storms. 300,000 first printing.
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| One Last Word by Suzanne ParkSara Chae has put everything into making One Last Word a success. But the app, which delivers personalized messages after someone's death, mistakenly sends out Sara's missives (written while drunk). She's left picking up the pieces while trying to get funding from a venture capitalist...who happens to be her crush and one of the message recipients. Read-alikes: Ali Hazelwood's romantic comedies; Better Left Unsent by Lia Louis. |
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Better Left Unsent: A Novel
by Lia Louis
A woman who uses her email“drafts” folder to pen unsent sarcastic replies to her boss, difficult truths to her friends and love declarations to an engaged man must face all her repressed feelings when they all get sent. Original.
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| Sweetness in the Skin by Ishi RobinsonIn Kingston, Jamaica, 13-year-old Pumkin Patterson dreams of France. After her grandmother dies and her aunt moves to Paris, Pumkin lives with her neglectful mother and starts a baking business to earn money for French lessons. With authentic characters who sometimes speak in Jamaican dialect, this atmospheric first novel will please fans of If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery and Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. |
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Black Cake: A Novel
by Charmaine Wilkerson
Two estranged siblings try to reclaim the closeness they once shared while trying to piece together their late mother's life story and fulfill her last request of sharing a traditional Caribbean black cake“when the time is right.”
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| The Guncle Abroad by Steven RowleySitcom star Patrick O'Hara takes his 14-year-old niece and 11-year-old nephew traveling around Europe before heading to Lake Como, Italy, for their dad's wedding. But it's not all smooth sailing: the kids, whose mother died five years ago, oppose the marriage and Patrick is stressed about turning 50. Fans of The Guncle will enjoy this, but anyone who appreciates funny, upbeat family stories will also be charmed. |
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The Celebrants
by Steven Rowley
This "hilarious and richly affecting" (Booklist) novel follows five college friends decades after graduation who reunite for living "funerals" for each other during times of need. But when one's cancer returns, they may be facing a real funeral too. Reunion-centered read-alikes: Tomi Obaro's Dele Weds Destiny; Elyssa Friedland's The Most Likely Club.
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| I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie SueJolene deals with a soul-crushing job by venting about coworkers in white text at the end of her emails to them. After she's caught, HR makes her take a sensitivity class and restricts her communications...but she's also accidentally given access to coworkers' emails and DMs, with surprising results. If you'd like more smart, witty looks at workplaces, try Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman, The Cleaner by Brandi Wells, or Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. |
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The Cleaner: A Novel
by Brandi Wells
"Every night, she cleans. On the fourth floor of an unnamed office in an unnamed city, the night cleaner comes and does what she does best--sorts out the messes of the daytime employees. None of them know her, but she knows everything about them: Sad Intern's dreams to get promoted, Râesumâe Woman's nasty flight-risk behavior, Mr. Buff's secret smoking habit...After all, protecting the employees is her responsibility: whether it's from rats and window smudges or from the sinister CEO who may be driving the company into ruin"
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| Long Island by Colm TóibínThough she left Ireland over 20 years ago, Ellis Lacey still feels like an outsider in 1976 Long Island...especially when she discovers her husband has impregnated another man's wife. At a loss, she returns to Ireland to visit family and friends. Readers may know Ellis from the acclaimed 2009 novel Brooklyn, but this moving tale works fine as a standalone. Read-alikes: My Coney Island Baby by Billy O'Callaghan; The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott. |
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The Ninth Hour
by Alice McDermott
A portrait of the Irish-American experience is presented through the story of an Irish immigrant's suicide and how it reverberates through innumerable lives in early 20th-century Catholic Brooklyn. By the National Book Award-winning author of Charming Billy.
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| How to Read a Book by Monica WoodViolet Powell, a 22-year-old just released from prison, visits a bookstore where she encounters the husband of the woman she killed after driving drunk and the retired volunteer who ran her prison book club. If you enjoy this heartwarming, character-driven novel about second chances, try Sara Nisha Adams' The Reading List or Lucy Gilmore's The Lonely Hearts Book Club. |
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The Lonely Hearts Book Club
by Lucy Gilmore
"Sloane Parker lives a small, contained life as a librarian in her small, contained town. She never thinks of herself as lonely...but still she looks forward to that time every day when old curmudgeon Arthur McLachlan comes to browse the shelves and cheerfully insult her. Their sparring is such a highlight of Sloane's day that when Arthur doesn't show up one morning, she's instantly concerned. And then another day passes, and another. Anxious, Sloane tracks the old man down only to discover him all but bedridden...and desperately struggling to hide how happy he is to see her. Wanting to bring more cheer into Arthur's gloomy life, Sloane creates an impromptu book club. Slowly, the lonely misfits of their sleepy town begin to find each other, and in their book club, find the joy of unlikely friendship. Because as it turns out, everyone has a special book in their heart--and a reason to get lost (and eventually found) within the pages"
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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