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New and Featured eBooks May 2026 |
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How to Cheat Your Own Death
by Kristen Perrin
From the gritty streets of 1960s Soho to the lofty galleries of present-day West London, two interlocking mysteries decades apart unfold in this latest instalment in the award-winning, New York Times bestselling Castle Knoll Murder Mystery seriesSome secrets are deadlier than others1968: Frances Adams is loving her new London life, and she's stepped into a world of glamour thanks to her new friend, Vera Huntington--a magnetic socialite as mysterious as she is provocative. Vera dances around London like she owns it, taking Frances with her. Present day: When Annie Adams heads to London to visit her famous artist mother, Laura, the last thing she expects to find is a dead body. Least of all for it to be Laura's new protégée, left in an alley with her heart surgically removed from her chest. Annie is no stranger to murder--after all, she's solved a few already. And something about this case feels familiar. She's read about one just like it in the journals of her late great aunt Frances, whose friend Vera was killed in the 1960s in the exact same way. As Annie investigates, threats pile up on Laura's doorstep, and it soon becomes clear that she's next. With her mother's life on the line, can Annie find the killer before it's too late?
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Japanese Gothic: A Gothic Dual-Timeline Novel of Ghosts, Hauntings and Redemption
by Kylie Lee Baker
New York Times Most Anticipated Book for 2026USA TODAY Most Anticipated Books of 2026Goodreads Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2026Book Riot Our Most Anticipated Books of 2026In this lyrical, wildly inventive horror novel interwoven with Japanese mythology, two people living centuries apart discover a door between their worlds.October, 2026: Lee Turner doesn't remember how or why he killed his college roommate. The details are blurred and bloody. All he knows is he has to flee New York and go to the one place that might offer refuge--his father's new home in Japan, a house hidden by sword ferns and wild ginger. But something is terribly wrong with the house: no animals will come near it, the bedroom window isn't always a window, and a woman with a sword appears in the yard when night falls.October, 1877: Sen is a young samurai in exile, hiding from the imperial soldiers in a house behind the sword ferns. A monster came home from war wearing her father's face, but Sen would do anything to please him, even turn her sword on her own mother. She knows the soldiers will soon slaughter her whole family when she sees a terrible omen: a young foreign man who appears outside her window.One of these people is a ghost, and one of these stories is a lie.Something is hiding beneath the house of sword ferns, and Lee and Sen will soon wish they never unburied it.For readers who love: Grady Hendrix and Stephen King Japanese mythology Friendship and family themes Terrifying, gory stories Horror with heart A new take on the classic haunted house trope
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Famesick: A Memoir
by Lena Dunham
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - In this rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series Girls and the bestselling author of Not That Kind of Girl asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been worth the pain. For the last decade, as she's spent countless hours in doctor's waiting rooms searching for diagnoses, treatments, and relief, being the owner and operator of Lena Dunham's body has felt, as she puts it, like towing a wrecked car across town at midnight. It's not easy dragging a wrecked car anywhere, much less to the Met Gala while sewn into a gold lam corset. Or to the set of the hit show that you--as a twenty-five-year-old--are writing, directing, producing, and starring in. Or to the White House, the Golden Globes, or your publicist's office to discuss the latest internet disaster. But Dunham does it--even if it means interminable hospital stays, vomiting in the bathroom when she's meant to be meeting Oprah, or terrifying those closest to her--because she can no longer tell the difference between fighting to do what she loves and being a servant to her own ambition. All the while, she is holding out for a love that can withstand her personal and public challenges and, more than anything, yearning to feel like herself again--if only she could remember who that self was. As Dunham takes us through her journey, tracking her rise to fame--from selling the pilot of Girls to the present--in three acts, it becomes clear that the spotlight casts long shadows, distorting the relationships she once held dear and isolating everyone in its glare. When an endless supply of drugs can't protect you from pain--and begins to control your every move--being famous doesn't stand a chance against the darker corners of the human experience. In Famesick, Dunham asks herself what the cost of fulfilling her dreams has really been, and whether it was worth it. What she finds is deeper than physical relief, and more lasting, as she learns to live with what she can't change and turn her regrets into wisdom that can carry her forward, as she reconnects to what, and who, she loves.
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Caller Unknown
by Gillian McAllister
An unputdownable adventure that was both heartwarming and thrilling! Everything I've come to expect from Gillian McAllister! --Freida McFadden, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Only a Gillian McAllister thriller can make your heart race and then your heart melt from one page to the next! I'm a devoted fan! --Liane Moriarty, #1 New York Times bestselling authorHow far would you go to rescue your child? A mother races against the clock--and finds herself on the wrong side of the law--in a desperate fight to save her teenage daughter in this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of Reese's Book Club Pick and New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time.There is nothing that Simone won't do for her daughter, Lucy. The two have always been close, and with Lucy about to leave home for university, they depart the UK for a vacation to Texas to spend some quality time together. But when Simone awakens on their first morning in the desert, Lucy is gone, missing from their rental cabin. In her place is a cell phone, and a voice on the other line issues a shocking ransom demand. Don't tell the police. Come to this location. And be prepared to do a deal...Though Simone's husband urges her to bring in the authorities for help, she knows she can't take any chances. The kidnappers might kill Lucy if she tells anyone. No mother would take that risk. Instead, that night, she drives to the isolated meet-up.What she finds there changes everything. The mysterious kidnapper doesn't want money. They want Simone to do something. The unthinkable.A catastrophic chain of events is set in motion, with chilling consequences that extend beyond Simone and her family. What follows is a heart-pounding journey through the small towns and punishing deserts of remote Texas, in which Simone's courage--and morality--is pushed to the brink as she discovers what it truly means to be a mother.Unbearably tense, compassionately told, and full of well-crafted moral dilemmas, Caller Unknown proves once again why Gillian McAllister's thrillers are the best of the best (Lisa Jewell).
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Mad Mabel
by Sally Hepworth
From New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth comes a twisty tale of justice, redemption, and one irrepressible woman who's not done breaking the rules just yet. Meet Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick: eighty-one years old, gloriously grumpy, fiercely independent, and never without a hot cup of tea--or a cutting remark. She minds her own business in her quiet Melbourne suburb, until a neighbor turns up dead and the whispers start flying. Because Elsie hasn't always been Elsie. Once upon a headline, she was Mad Mabel Waller--Australia's youngest convicted murderer. But was she really mad, or just misunderstood? Either way, she's kept her secret buried for decades. Enter seven-year-old Persephone, a relentless little chatterbox who has just moved in across the road (armed with stickers, questions, and no sense of personal boundaries); Joan, who appears to have it in for Elsie; and a healthy dose of public interest--the cops are sniffing around, and the media is circling like seagulls at a picnic. So Mabel does what she's always done best--she takes matters into her own hands. Is she a cantankerous old lady with a shady past? A cold-blooded killer with arthritis? Or just someone who's finally ready to tell her side of the story? Sharp, surprising, and wickedly funny, this is the unforgettable story of a woman who's spent a lifetime being underestimated--and is about to prove everyone wrong. Again.
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The Caretaker
by Marcus Kliewer
Follow the Rites... Nothing less than the survival of humanity is at stake. From Marcus Kliewer, a new titan of the macabre and unsettling (Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author), comes a supernatural horror about a young woman who accepts a caretaking job from Craigslist, only to discover the position has consequences far greater--and more dangerous--than she ever could have imagined. EXCITING OPPORTUNITY: Caretaker urgently needed. Three days of work. Competitive pay. Serious applicants ONLY. Macy Mullins can't say why the job posting grabbed her attention--it had the pull of a fisherman's lure, barbed hook and all--vaguely ominous. But after an endless string of failed job interviews, she's not exactly in the position to be picky. She has rent to pay, groceries to buy, and a younger sister to provide for. Besides, it's only three days' work... Three days, cooped up in a stranger's house, surrounded by Oregon Coast wilderness. What starts as a peculiar side gig soon becomes a waking nightmare. An incomprehensible evil may dwell on this property--and Macy Mullins might just be the only thing standing between it, and the rest of humanity. Follow the Rites... Follow the Rites... Follow the Rites... ..--- / ..... / ---..
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Last Night in Brooklyn
by Xochitl Gonzalez
NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 BY TIME, OPRAH DAILY, USA TODAY, PEOPLE, ELECTRIC LIT, HARPER'S BAZAAR, VULTURE, LITHUB, BOOK RIOT, PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, THE BOSTON GLOBE, TOWN & COUNTRY, SHE READS, LIBRARY JOURNAL, AND MORE New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a captivating story about a young woman whose life becomes ensnared in her glamorous neighbor's secret past SPRING, 2007 At twenty-six, Alicia Canales Forten feels smothered by her future. She's in a long-distance relationship, living at home with her mother's beliefs, saving up for her wedding to a future doctor. But after Alicia ventures out one night in the neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, she finds herself lured by the siren song of youth and possibility that the striving crowd of creatives holds, and moves in. No one embodies this milieu more than La Garza, a larger-than-life, up-and-coming fashion designer whose epic house parties fuel neighborhood lore. La Garza's life, observed by Alicia from her apartment across the street, seems to hold the allure and fearlessness Alicia has never dared to imagine for herself. But when Alicia's wealthy banker cousin moves to the neighborhood, she finds herself increasingly drawn into both his and La Garza's precarious lives. Against the backdrop of a potentially life-changing presidential election and a looming once-in-a-generation fiscal crisis, Last Night in Brooklyn explores the dark compromise of the American Dream for people of color living, unknowingly, in the twilight of a cultural moment. It is a story about everything money can buy--and the destruction of what it can't.
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Thinky Thoughts: All Grown Up and Still Just as Confused
by Gwenna Laithland
Instant New York Times bestselling author Gwenna Laithland, aka Momma Cusses, is back with a collection of Thinky Thoughts (essays, memories, poems and more!) perfect for readers of Jenny Lawson, Samantha Irby and KC Davis. Before I was a mom who cusses, I was a millennial. Before I was that, I was just a kid with a brain that moved too fast. I've spent more time than I'm proud of getting lost in my Thinky Thoughts. They go a little something like this: How has my childhood shaped my motherhood? I might have lost my phone again. Is it that big a deal if the kids call me cringe? I haven't left the house today. Is it a problem that I don't leave the house for days? Why does my daughter hate rollercoasters but love adzuki beans? Cranberry bog spiders. What if they rearrange the grocery store again? Thinky Thoughts walks the line between memoir, storytelling, guided meditation, and self-help. It's alittle bit of explanation, a lot a bit of exploration, and a tiny bit of still not knowing what's I'msupposed to be doing as an adult. It's also being okay with not knowing. Thinky Thoughts won'tanswer life's great questions. But it will make you feel a little better knowing you're not alone inasking them.
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Yesteryear
by Caro Claire Burke
A GMA BOOK CLUB PICK - NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A traditional American woman, a tradwife influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855--where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel. A bold and biting satire, Yesteryear...will have you cackling and gasping right to the final page.--Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive. Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the heir to a political dynasty? What Natalie's followers--all 8 million of them--don't know won't hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They're sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn't simply living the good life, she's living the ideal--and just so happens to be building an empire from it. Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn't hers. Her home, her husband, her children--they're all familiar, but something's off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she's expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a ruthless reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible. A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood.
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A Spell for Saints and Sinners
by Emily Carpenter
Like a gender-flipped Saltburn set amidst the moss-draped, haunted beauty of Savannah, this intoxicating blend of Southern suspense and modern witchcraft from bestselling author Emily Carpenter casts a spell of class, power, and possession. In a city where ghosts linger in the moss and money buys salvation, a struggling psychic is drawn into Savannah's glittering elite, as obsession and need curdle the lines between magic and madness, seduction and salvation, pirates and protectors... In front of an elegantly shabby townhouse on a Savannah side street sits a hand-painted sign: Miss Edie, Psychic. Ingrid White inherited the house and business from her beloved grandmother, a local celebrity in town. But unless Ingrid can find a way to pay for crushing property taxes and mounting repairs, she's going to lose them both. Ingrid has faith in the homespun witchcraft Edie passed down to her, yet hope and clients are dwindling. . . . Until Sailor Loeffler's bachelorette party changes everything. Sailor is local royalty-part of the vast Savannah Sauce empire, beautiful and wealthy beyond imagining-and Ingrid's reading is so accurate that she becomes the bride-to-be's confidante. To keep that access and all the privileges it brings, Ingrid relies more and more on hexes and dark spells-using the baneful magic Edie always warned her against. As Ingrid works even riskier spells, she is drawn further into the Loefflers' inner circle and the obstacles in her path melt away. But is it witchcraft or other, more earthbound forces? Ingrid can feel the lines blurring even as her powers seem to grow, until she must confront the truth about just how far some people, including herself, will go to keep the life they've always wanted . . .
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If Books Could Kill
by Karen Rose Smith
Daisy Swanson's daughter Jazzi has moved away to the lakeside town of Belltower Landing, but the apple doesn't fall from the tree. Much like Daisy, she's running a tea bar and bookshop--and has a knack for getting into hot water... Town librarian Mathilda has a troublesome new emplROSEoyee, and after Jazzi spots the two of them arguing at the ice-sculpture festival, Mathilda asks Jazzi if she'd mind discussing her workplace woes over a cup of tea. During the visit, Jazzi also finds out about Mathilda's top-secret stash of valuable first editions. Soon afterward, those rare books have vanished--and Mathilda is dead. As the police check out suspects and a lawyer searches for the next of kin, Jazzi learns that the librarian's life was as mysterious as any crime thriller. She'd left home and changed her name as a teenager, and always seemed a little lonely. Oddly, it's her new employee who seems the most distraught. It's the off-season, so the upstate New York town is free of the usual swarm of tourists--but the quiet doesn't last long. The press is descending as the murder makes national news, and rumors start circulating. With Belltower Landing steeped in suspicion, Jazzi must figure out whether the first editions were the real motive for sending Mathilda to her final resting place...
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The Hockey Problem: A single dad hockey romance
by Kendall Ryan
He's the NHL's most guarded single dad.She's the one woman who can't afford to fall for him.Tori Wells didn't fight her way into the NHL just to become another cautionary tale. As a team physical therapist, she lives by strict rules: heal the players, protect her career, and never-ever-cross the line with a hockey player.Then she's assigned to Zayden Bishop.On the ice, he's untouchable-a French-Canadian superstar with a reputation for being cold, private, and impossible to read. Off the ice, he's a devoted single father running on discipline, stubbornness, and too little sleep. Until a serious shoulder injury threatens his season-and the stability he's built for his six-year-old daughter.Tori is in charge of his rehab. Full oversight. Daily sessions.No room for mistakes.No room for attraction.Except Zayden isn't what she expected.The more time they spend together-early mornings, quiet road trips, late-night conversations-the harder it becomes to pretend this is just professional. Because Zayden doesn't just need his shoulder fixed. He needs someone who sees the man behind the jersey.And Tori is dangerously close to becoming that someone.Crossing the line could cost her everything she's worked for. And Zayden can't risk bringing anyone into his daughter's life unless he's certain they'll stay.
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The Final Storm
by Fern Michaels
In an exciting and richly moving new standalone page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels, an acclaimed photographer who has overcome her difficult past is suddenly faced with a test of all her courage and resilience. In her award-winning wildlife photographs, Charlotte Gray captures all the beauty and wonder of the natural world. Far better to focus on breathtaking landscapes than to turn the lens on her own painful childhood and the uncaring mother she left behind in Florida. Piece by piece, Charlotte has built a new, independent life, one she's eager to protect. A chance encounter on assignment in Las Vegas sparks an intriguing relationship, and for the first time, Charlotte impulsively follows her heart. But along with love and fresh beginnings comes a trove of secrets about her new husband. And someone in his past is determined to upend Charlotte's happiness by threatening what she cares about most. After everything she's weathered, Charlotte is about to face the task of rebuilding her life yet again. But this time she's doing it with hard-won strength, experience, and the wisdom to know when to forgive, when to let go, and how to walk into the sunshine and claim the support and love she deserves . . .
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The Governess's Guide to Spells and Managing Misfit Marquesses
by Amy Rose Bennett
Mary Poppins meets My Fair Lady in a feel-good blend of cozy fantasy magic, historical romance, humor, and Victorian era charm, as a recent graduate of the Parasol Academy for Exceptional Nannies and Governesses finds herself at sea on a ship commanded by a captivating Irishman. For readers of India Holton, Heather Fawcett, Allison Saft, Katherine Arden, Freya Marske, and Olivia Atwater's Regency Faerie Tales series. Hermina Davenport can hardly believe the audacious exploit she is about to attempt. To protect an orphaned young viscount, the prim and proper governess feels she has no choice but to break the rules of the Parasol Academy Handbook When the lad's guardian, a ruthlessly ambitious explorer, ensorcelled by the evil Fae Queen, spirits him away on a dangerous North Pole expedition, Mina employs an invisibility spell to snatch him from the ship. But a magical misfire whisks Mina and her charge onto a different vessel, that of a ruggedly handsome Irishman-a strapping prizefighter from Dublin's backstreets-and Mina finds she's at sea in more ways than one . . . Phineas O'Connell, Lord Kinsale, can no more explain the arrival of this English Rose than he can adapt to his newly-inherited title-though his disgruntled pet pug clearly has thoughts about the fair stowaway. But their enchanted encounter sparks an irresistible offer: Phinn enlists the polished Miss Davenport to transform this misfit marquess into a mannered gentleman ready for his seat in Parliament. No magic required, just enticingly intimate lessons in etiquette and elocution to smooth all his rough edges including a stammer. . . But when enemies-both earthly and supernatural, past and present-threaten, a confrontation begins, where Mina's nondescript umbrella is just one of her powerful weapons . . .
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Ward D
by Freida McFadden
Medical student Amy Brenner is spending the night on a locked psychiatric ward. Amy has been dreading her evening working on Ward D, the hospital's inpatient mental health unit. There are very specific reasons why she never wanted to do this required overnight rotation. Reasons nobody can ever find out. And as the hours tick by, Amy grows increasingly convinced something terrible is happening within these tightly secured walls. When patients and staff start to vanish without a trace, it becomes clear that everyone on the unit is in grave danger. Amy's worst nightmare was spending the night on Ward D. And now she might never escape--
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The Last Letters of Sally and Walter
by Cammie McGovern
This is a beautiful, hopeful, and exhilarating gem about second chapters, second chances, and fresh beginnings. --Lily King, acclaimed author of Read with Jenna pick Writers & Lovers and Heart the LoverWith the tenacious spirit of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and the long-lived verve of Thursday Murder Club comes a heartwarming story of a curmudgeon and a newcomer who strike up an unlikely friendship over cutthroat Scrabble at their retirement home, outrageously starting something new in their golden eras.As a new resident of Golden Grove, an independent living community for active seniors, Sally wants to do everything in her power to start off on the right foot. But between navigating unspoken social rules of the community and leaving two struggling adult children back at home, fitting in becomes harder than she expected. So when she sees flyers advertising the Scrabble Club, she thinks she might as well give it a try. She quickly realizes her faux pas when she walks into the library to find just one man, Walter Kretzer, who has a reputation for being a bit intense. Walter has taken his Scrabble club a pinch too seriously in the past, but when he meets Sally, with her golden-flecked eyes and sensible style, and discovers she is something of a prodigy at the game, he can't help but feel his fate is about to change. As he draws Sally into the world of high-stakes Scrabble tournaments, his feelings for her grow and inspire him to take a hard look at his life. When the truth about Sally's reasons for moving to Golden Grove are suddenly exposed, Walter finds himself with the gumption to make his last chapter in life the best yet.
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The Manhattan Confessions
by Jocelyn Green
Ivy Malone, the New-York Historical Society's librarian, is dedicated to preserving Manhattan's history, but when Adeline King reveals her shocking story, Ivy finds herself holding a coveted secret. When Ivy's immigrant cousin is detained, she is pulled further into danger. Who can she trust, and how far is she willing to go to protect those she loves?
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Burn the Kingdom Down
by Addie Thorley
An action-packed enemies-to-lovers romantasy filled with a romance that will leave you breathless, betrayals that will rip your heart out, and a princess who will stop at nothing for revenge.One year ago, Rowenna Harrack, the crown princess of Tashir, left her homeland in a wedding dress of chains--sent away to the enemy nation of Vanzador as a captive bride.Now, Rowenna is dead. Brought home in a coffin after an alleged fall from a cliff.Second-born princess, Indira, knows her sister's death was no accident. Desperate for truth and vengeance, Indira agrees to wed the prince so she can infiltrate Vanzador, find Rowenna's murderer, and burn their kingdom to the ground.Indira's plan is simple, she will make nice until she can find out how to avenge her sister and free her country from the rival nation's stranglehold. But when Indira arrives, nothing is as terrible as Rowenna described. As Indira grows closer to her new husband, Prince Alaric, and uncovers more about Vanzador, the source of its powers, and what happened during Rowenna's final days, she's no longer sure what--and who--to believe. Because everyone, even her sister, has secrets. Deadly ones.Sharp as a dagger and just as deadly, Indira's daring quest for revenge and her romance forged in fury will keep you guessing and gasping until the breathless end. -Sarah Glenn Marsh, author of the Reign of the Fallen series
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Plainfield Area Public Library
15025 S. Illinois St.
Plainfield, Illinois 60544
815.436.6639papl.info |
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