LibraryAware October 2025

Recent Releases

L.A. Women
by Ella Berman

New to Los Angeles’ party scene in 1965, ambitious writer Lane connects with socialite and fellow writer Gala. They eventually fall out and a decade later, Lane mines Gala’s life for a novel, only to learn she’s gone missing. This slow-burn latest from book club favorite Ella Berman serves up a sharp look at female friendship and rivalry. Try this next: The Sunset Crowd by Karin Tanabe; Didion & Babitz by Lili Anolik (nonfiction).

Hold Strong
by Robert Dugoni

Sam Carlson faces unimaginable brutality as a POW on the infamous Arisan Maru, while his girlfriend, Sarah, works as a Washington codebreaker, unknowingly aids a mission targeting his ship, testing their love and courage amid World War II.

One of Us
by Dan Chaon

In 1915, 13-year-old orphaned twins Bolt and Eleanor, who share a psychic connection, run away from a murderous man claiming to be their uncle. They end up with Mr. Jengling’s Emporium of Wonders, which includes a death-foretelling woman and a dog-faced boy. While Bolt settles in, Eleanor doesn’t, and they still have their “uncle” on their trail in this “mesmerizing and macabre historical adventure” (Booklist). For fans of: Amiee Gibbs’ The Carnivale of Curiosities.

Zeal
by Morgan Jerkins

Harlem, 2019. Ardelia and Oliver are hosting their engagement party. As the guests get ready to leave, he hands her a love letter on a yellowing, crumbling piece of paper... Natchez, 1865. Discharged from the Union Army as a free man after the war's end, Harrison returns to Mississippi to reunite with the woman he loves, Tirzah. Upon his arrival at the Freedmen's Bureau, though, he catches the eye of a woman working there, who's determined to thwart his efforts to find his beloved. After tragedy strikes, Harrison resigns himself to a life with her. Meanwhile in Louisiana, the newly free Tirzah is teaching at a freedmen's school, and discovers an advertisement in the local paper looking for her. Though she knows Harrison must have placed it, and longs tofind him, the risks of fleeing are too great, and Tirzah chooses the life of seeming security right in front of her. Spanning over a hundred and fifty years, Morgan Jerkins's extraordinary novel intertwines the stories of these star-crossed lovers and their descendants. As Tirzah's family moves across the country during the Great Migration, they challenge authority with devastating consequences, while of the legacy of heartbreak and loss continues on in the lives of Harrison's progeny. When Ardelia meetsOliver, she finds his family's history is as full of secrets and omissions as her own. Could their connection be a cosmic reconciliation satisfying the unfulfilled desires of their ancestors, or will the weight of the past, present and future tear them apart?

I'll be right here : a novel by Amy Bloom

I'll Be Right Here
by Amy Bloom

After immigrating to New York alone after World War II, Gazala builds an unbreakable bond with her brother and two spirited sisters, forming a fiercely loyal found family whose love, desires and unorthodox connections shape generations to come.

This Here Is Love
by Princess Joy L. Perry

In the 1690s, three young people come of age in Virginia: enslaved Bless, who’s all her mother has left; enslaved David, whose father is a free Black man; and Scots Irish indentured servant Jack, who’s an orphan. As they grapple with survival, love, and tough decisions, their lives eventually converge. This evocative, accomplished debut uses multiple voices to tell a powerful story. For fans of: Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher; Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

Buckeye
by Patrick Ryan

On Victory in Europe Day, 1945, while her husband is away in the Pacific, beautiful Margaret shares a celebratory kiss with married hardware store clerk Cal Jenkins, whose physical disability kept him from enlisting. This leads to a connection between their small-town Ohio families for decades, where their sons grow up together but take different paths in the Vietnam era. For fans of: Read with Jenna books; vivid, heartfelt novels about families and war.

Contact your librarian for more great books!