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This Time Tomorrow
by Emma Straub
Fiction: On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But something is missing. Her father, the single parent who raised her, is ailing and out of reach. How did they get here so fast? Did she take too much for granted along the way? When Alice wakes up the next morning somehow back in 1996, it isn't her 16-year-old body that is the biggest shock, or the possibility of romance with her adolescent crush, it's her dad: the vital, charming, 49-year-old version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, is there anything that she should do differently this time around? What would she change, given the chance?
Recommended by Karen, Ewing Branch
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The Bodyguard
by Katherine Center
Fiction: New York Times bestselling author Katherine Center's The Bodyguard is unabashedly romantic, laugh-out-loud funny, and the perfect summer read. She's got his back. Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. Or a ballpoint pen. Or a dinner napkin. But the truth is, she's an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker. He's got her heart. Jack Stapleton's a household name-captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid. They've got a secret. When Jack's mom gets sick, he comes home to the family's Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn't want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah-against her will and her better judgment-finds herself pretending to be Jack's girlfriend as a cover. Even though her ex, like a jerk, says no one will believe it. What could possibly go wrong??? Hannah hardly believes it, herself. But the more time she spends with Jack, the more real it all starts to seem. And there lies the heartbreak. Because it's easy for Hannah to protect Jack. But protecting her own, long-neglected heart? That's the hardest thing she's ever done.
Recommended by Patricia, Hickory Corner Branch
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A Place for Us
by Fatima Farheen Mirza
Fiction: A novel that unfolds the lives of an Indian-American Muslim family, gathered together in their Californian hometown to celebrate the eldest daughter, Hadia's, wedding--a match of love rather than tradition. It is here, on this momentous day, that Amar, the youngest of the siblings, reunites with his family for the first time in three years. Rafiq and Layla must now contend with the choices and betrayals that lead to their son's estrangement--the reckoning of parents who strove to pass on their cultures and traditions to their children; and of children who in turn struggle to balance authenticity in themselves with loyalty to the home they came from.
Recommended by Marwa, Hightstown Memorial Branch
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Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
by Grady Hendrix
Fiction: They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they're sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened. Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There's Rose, a hippie who insists she's going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she's going to go home and marry her baby's father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who. Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they're allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what's best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it's never given freely. There's always a price to be paid-and it's usually paid in blood.
Recommended by Rebecca, Hollowbrook Branch
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Margo's Got Money Troubles
by Rufi Thorpe
Fiction: A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman's attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world-from the PEN/ Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.
Recommended by Kathleen, Hopewell Branch
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My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Short Stories: Beautifully crafted . . . eclectic and original . . . this collection makes us remember how powerful and essential the best short stories are. --Francine Prose, O magazine My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead is a literary masterpiece of amorous tales selected by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jeffrey Eugenides. From classics such as Chekhov's The Lady with the Lapdog to such modern fare as Richard Ford's Fireworks, these outstanding works capture the desire, obsession, power, and spirit of the emotion that drives and transforms our lives. Writers featured include: William Faulkner - James Joyce - Alice Munro - Milan Kundera - Grace Paley - Lorrie Moore - Eudora Welty - Denis Johnson - Vladimir Nabokov - Miranda July - Raymond Carver - George Saunders - Annie Proulx - And many, many more.
Recommended by Albena, Lawrence Headquarters Branch
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The Life Impossible
by Matt Haig
Fiction: When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook, and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend's life and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.
Recommended by Christina, Robbinsville Branch
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Black Cake
by Charmaine Wilkerson
Fiction: In this moving debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother's death and her hidden past--a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake. In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking journey Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child, challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their family, and themselves. Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor's true history, and fulfill her final request to 'share the black cake when the time is right?' Will their mother's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever? Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names, can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.
Recommended by McKenna, Twin Rivers Branch
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Bulletproof Vest: The Ballad of an Outlaw and His Daughter
by Maria Venegas
Non-fiction: After a fourteen-year estrangement, Maria Venegas returns to Mexico from the United States to visit her father, who is living in the old hacienda where both he and she were born. While spending the following summers and holidays together, herding cattle and fixing barbed-wire fences, he begins sharing stories with her, tales of a dramatic life filled with both intense love and brutal violence--from the final conversations he had with his own father, to his extradition from the United States for murder, to his mother's pride after he shot a man for the first time at the age of twelve.
Recommended by Dennis, West Windsor Branch
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Franny and Zooey
by J. D. Salinger
Fiction: Perhaps the best book by the foremost stylist of his generation (New York Times), J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey collects two works of fiction about the Glass family originally published in The New Yorker. Everything everybody does is so--I don't know--not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and--sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different way. A novel in two halves, Franny and Zooey brilliantly captures the emotional strains and traumas of entering adulthood. It is a gleaming example of the wit, precision, and poignancy that have made J. D. Salinger one of America's most beloved writers.
Recommended by Kelsey, Information Technology Department
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Mercer County Library System
2751 Brunswick Pike Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648 609-882-9246
https://mcl.org
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