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The mimicking of known successes
by Malka Older
When her former girlfriend, the enigmatic Investigator Mossa, arrives on Valdegord, needing her help with her latest investigation, Pleiti, a scholar of Earth's pre-collapse ecosystems, joins her on a twisting path where not only the future of Earth is at stake, but also their futures together.
Please see here for more information about the June 8th discussion.
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Afternoon Hours of a Hermit
by Patrick Cottrell
Five years after the death of his youngest brother, Dan Moran is now the published trans author of the autofictional novel Sorry to Disrupt the Peace. He is teaching fiction in Brooklyn and working on his next book-a psychological thriller-when a mysterious envelope arrives for him in the mail. Addressed to the wrong name, it includes a childhood photo of his deceased brother. But who would send such a thing, and why?Against his better judgment, Dan returns to his childhood home on the eve of his brother's memorial dinner. His estranged family is surprised to see him, but he ignores them. He drives around in his brother's Honda Accord, believing he is a detective. He searches for a constellation of unidentified women who may have been involved with his brother, all while being mistaken for another man. He hopes his investigation will reveal exactly who he was to his brother, but in a series of unsettling and destabilizing encounters, what he discovers is the irrevocable distance between who we are and how we are perceived.
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A Murder Most Camp: A Mystery
by Nicolas Didomizio
This fun, twisty mystery follows a spoiled nepo baby forced to work at a struggling summer camp who stumbles into a real-life murder mystery he has no choice but to solve. Rustic cabins. Lakefront bonfires. A painfully hot lifeguard. And a murder? Summer has never been this camp.
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Out of the Loop: A Mystery
by Katie Siegel
For the past two years, Amie Teller has been stuck in a time loop. Each day, she wakes up, and it's September 17. Same day, same weather, same people, same conversations. Until one day, it's September 18, and Amie is free. Before she can celebrate, Amie learns her neighbor was murdered the day before--the day Amie has lived hundreds of times. Amie knows she has to help; nobody knows yesterday like she does. But acclimating to her new nonrepeating life proves to be more difficult than expected. How does one resume their life after a time loop, anyway? Assisted by an ex-girlfriend who wants to make their friendship work and a grumpy neighbor who spends his days building Rube Goldberg machines, Amie sets out to track down who killed (and killed and killed and killed) Savannah Harlow.
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Take Me with You
by Steven Rowley
We are all alien, even to the people who know us best. College professor Jesse del Ruth has been abandoned. Thirty years into their relationship, Jesse witnesses his husband, Norman, get out of bed late one night, walk into their Joshua Tree backyard, step into a strange beam of light and . . . disappear. How could Norman desert him after a lifetime together? Where did he go? And, most confoundingly . . . will he ever return? Jesse knew they were both feeling stuck, longing for something they couldn't quite name. But was their rut so deep that Norman's only option was to leave Jesse behind? As Jesse struggles to understand Norman's disappearance, he tries to piece together his new reality. Is he expected to wait patiently for a partner who may never come back? Or is this an opportunity for reinvention? He is, after all, alone for the first time in his adult life. Should he return to the classroom? Put in a pool? Get a dog? Call his estranged mother? What does it mean to be alone when you've always been one half of a whole? When Norman's sister, Lally, lands on Jesse's doorstep with an urgent request, Norman's absence becomes even more profound. Add to Jesse's grief and confusion a conspiracy-theorist neighbor, a strange man following him, and suspicions that he may have had a hand in Norman's disappearance, and Jesse starts to crack under the pressure. With his husband missing and the world closing in, all eyes are on Jesse. Before he can understand how Norman could leave it all behind, Jesse must confront what it means to stay.
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There's Only One Sin in Hollywood
by Rasheed Newson
Xavier C. Barlow, one of Hollywood's young Black stars taking the industry by storm in the late 1950s, is Skyline Studios's ambitious attempt to rival Sidney Poitier's burgeoning success. His arrival into the industry is calculated, his charm is magnetic, and his seductive screen presence appeals to both audiences and celebrities across generations. But years later, after Xavier dies at the height of his fame, Aaron Touissant-Skyline's designated backlot fixer who helps the studio's stars stay as deep in the closet as humanly possible-is finally ready to expose the powerful culprits responsible for his untimely death.
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After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal
by Merlin Holland
Oscar Wilde died in November 1900, exiled in Paris, his reputation in tatters, exhausted by scandal and prison life. While the details of his life in the limelight are well known, often ignored are the reverberations of the Wilde scandal over the decades following his trial and death.With pathos, humor, and his grandfather's signature wit, Merlin Holland charts the extraordinary afterlife of the legendary writer and thinker, tracing the dramatic fluctuations in Wilde's posthumous reputation.
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The Double Dutch Fuss: A Memoir
by Phill Branch
In this raw and lyrical memoir, an Emmy Award-winning director chronicles his struggle to break free from--and live outside of--the prescribed paradigms of Blackness and masculinity that shaped him. The Double Dutch Fuss recounts growing up under the heavy burden of expectation--to be a boy, to be Black, and to be queer in ways that conform to rigid, often unforgiving norms. It is about the knotted path of becoming, while navigating the always-present fear of emotional and physical violence, and the threat of isolation for simply being who you are. Branch explores the cosmic pull between fathers and sons, and how healing wounds can open a pathway toward freedom and wholeness. His is an insightful and surprisingly humorous reflection on identity, masculinity, and the quiet, radical act of choosing to exist on your own terms.
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Transcendent: A Memoir
by Laverne Cox
Four-time Emmy-nominated actress Laverne Cox shares her journey as a transgender woman in Hollywood, confronting childhood trauma, shame, gender identity, her transition, body image issues, her search for romantic love, deep-seated feelings of unworthiness, and ultimately, healing. Laverne Cox is a powerhouse in the fight for transgender rights and representation--but her path from a struggling trans actress to a cultural movement was anything but easy. Surviving a childhood full of trauma, dealing with depression, and working at a drag restaurant in New York City for seven years, Laverne was turning forty and felt it was time to throw in the towel when it came to being a Hollywood star--then she booked the character of Sophia Burset in Orange is the New Black. Her world changed overnight. She made history as the first openly transgender person nominated for a Primetime Emmy, starred in a range of high-profile shows, and became the first transgender person to win a Daytime Emmy as executive producer on Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word. A red-carpet fashion icon, podcast host, and fearless advocate, she uses her stardom to champion LGBTQ+ rights, whether on Hollywood's biggest stages, her personal channels, or at Supreme Court hearings. And she's only getting started.
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The Hanging Bones
by Elle Tesch
In this YA fantasy inspired by Germanic folklore, a resourceful girl enters the hunt for a legendary stag in a desperate attempt to win the death of her lecherous overlord.
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In Between Days
by Camryn Garrett
Seventeen-year-old Mira explores her queerness and navigates grief through an unlikely friendship with her deceased father's boyfriend.
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The Labyrinth of Waking Dreams
by Michelle Kulwicki
Barren's Peak, West Virginia, is not a place anyone would call magical, but Thea LaGuerre calls it home. A high school drop-out whose mother died in an accident, Thea is stuck working part-time jobs just to make ends meet. The most she has to look forward to are barn parties where she can make out with Callum, the one interesting boy who moved to town six months ago. Thea doesn't know it yet, but Callum was sent to Barren's Peak to watch her. He was raised within the magicians' order, a shadowy organization meant to keep humanity safe from an underworld of monsters. Callum would sacrifice anyone, including himself, to help their cause, but he still can't help falling into Thea's orbit. She's the first person he's felt seen by since his childhood sweetheart, Oliver--who he hasn't seen since Oliver's banishment from the order. But Oliver hasn't given up on Callum or on magic. Following a magical creature's trail to Barren's Peak, Oliver happens upon Callum and Thea at a barn party that turns into a monster-overrun massacre. To save Callum and the girl he's protecting from a wave of deadly fairies, Oliver opens a portal for the three of them to flee into the Labyrinth. To get home again, Thea, Oliver, and Callum will have to work together to survive the Labyrinth's trials and discover the threads that brought them there.
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Lake Life
by Tanya Boteju
This is definitely not how Maya wanted to spend the summer—depressed at her once-beloved cabin in Spruce Lake, and unable to avoid seeing her lifelong best friend, Rashida, after confessing her woefully unrequited love to her last year. Maya can’t decide if she wants to escape, or convince Rashida they’re still meant to be. Gabe is sent to Spruce Lake by her mom in hopes she stays out of trouble. Gabe is NOT excited to be here. She does NOT like nature. She does NOT want to spend her summer in a tiny town with outdoorsy environmentalist types. Gabe is pretty sure she’ll be spending this entire summer bored and alone…until she meets Maya. Together, they hatch a fake-dating scheme to make Rashida jealous and convince Gabe’s mom that Gabe has turned a wholesome new leaf. But as the plan plays out, and Gabe and Maya contend with protests, a relentlessly concerned community, and romantic twists, they start to realize that their assumptions about friendship and love might have led them completely astray. Can they find their way through this mess without hurting each other in the process?
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The Last Best Quest Ever
by F. T. Lukens
Seventeen-year-old Ellinore has the best questing record in the kingdom. Not even Aven--the infuriatingly charming royal who's become her fiercest rival--can compete. But every one of Ellinore's triumphs is a lie. The monsters she's slain? Staged. The treasures she's claimed? Planted. Tired of the charade, she shocks the realm by retiring during a royal feast. Her hopes for a quiet life vanish when her reckless twin brother, Zig, bets his life on her ability to retrieve the horn of the mythical Elder Beast--a creature no one believes is real. To save him, Ellinore must return to the spotlight for one final quest. She's joined by Zig, eager to prove himself; Aven, determined to finally outshine her; and a ragtag crew of unlikely questers with big dreams, questionable skills, and a knack for trouble. As the stakes rise, Ellinore must decide who she really wants to be: the fraud the kingdom celebrates, the hero it needs, or someone entirely new.
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Meet Me at the Picket Line
by Jasper Sanchez
All's fair in love and solidarity...Eli Goldstein might be the only teenager looking forward to earning minimum wage at his objectively terrible summer job. Not only will he be working at the kitschy roadside museum he loves, he'll finally have the down payment for his top surgery with a first-class surgeon. But the museum really is a late-stage capitalist hellscape, and Eli's co-workers--led by his irritatingly self-righteous and annoyingly attractive school rival, Efraín--plan to unionize. With his sanity and safety at risk on the job, Eli knows he has to join their campaign. If he and Efraín can stop bickering long enough to keep their ragtag union together, they might actually have a shot. But when management begins to grow suspicious, Eli will have to make a choice: Is he willing to stand in solidarity with his friends and the boy he's starting to fall for, even if it means risking his job and the key to his life-changing surgery?
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The Redwood Bargain
by Markelle Grabo
Indentured servant Katrien longs to make amends after a difficult choice extended her cousin Helsa's servitude with their lord of the manor. So when a dark creature in the forest known as The Redwood Man demands the lord's youngest daughter as payment for saving his life, Katrien is eager to make her own bargain that will guarantee her cousin's freedom--so long as she can successfully lie. Katrien must fool The Redwood Man into believing she is the daughter he was promised, Lady Zaviera. Yet three girls have already lost their lives trying to pose as the young noblewoman, with the increasingly impatient forest lord seeing through each deception and exerting his wrath in return. To ensure Katrien's success where the girls before her have failed, Zaviera and her sisters teach her how to be the perfect imposter, even as The Redwood Man's sentient vines threaten to consume the manor and its staff. Turning a kitchen maid into a proper lady is no simple task, and matters are complicated further as Katrien begins to fall for the tenderhearted lady she might die for. Caught between duty, desire, and Zaviera's own blooming feelings, Katrien must decide if she's truly willing to risk her life to right past wrongs and sacrifice herself for the girl she's come to love.
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The Saw Mouth
by Cale Plett
Heart-pounding rural horror following a genderqueer teen who survives a near-apocalypse, only to be hunted by a mysterious monster whose very existence is entwined with their own. When Cedar was a child, fragmented, tortured souls woke up in the world's most complex machines, destroying them and pushing technology back decades. A fall. The Fall, some said, and they called it Autumn. Ten years later, following a family tragedy, Cedar moves to the nowhere town of Sawblade Lake only to find something hunting them. A long, bent shadow that reeks like rot and has the mouth of a deep crevice. It's after Cedar, and it's willing to go to any lengths to break them, including preying on Cedar's new queer family. The closer it circles, the more it seems to weave through Cedar's whole life. It might stretch back to their mother's gruesome, inexplicable death, to the murk of their missing family, to the house they grew up in. Back and back and back to the first day of Autumn. Cedar thought they understood how their world had changed, but they're far from dredging the bottom.
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Smash or Pass
by Birdie Schae
For 16-year-old Ellie, beach volleyball camp is a disaster until she's paired with Sierra, an athletic prodigy who teaches her that volleyball...and love are about taking the right shot in this sporty sapphic romance. Ellie dates the Right Guy, says all the Right Things, and acts the Right Way to avoid being ridiculed for her autism. When that Right Guy unceremoniously dumps her right before they're supposed to go to beach volleyball camp together, Ellie's perfectly curated world comes crashing down and she's labeled the boring, weird girl. Desperate to regain her good reputation (and yeah, sure, the boy...), Ellie goes to Camp SMASH, which is nothing like she expected. There, she's paired with Sierra, a mysterious, standoffish volleyball legacy who makes Ellie's quest to get her boyfriend back even more complicated... Dive into this sporty summer romance full of the classics: a ragtag group of friends, a tense game of capture the flag, and a swoon-worthy sapphic love story.
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Forgive-Me-Not: A Graphic Novel
by Mari Costa
Aisling has spent her whole life believing she was the beloved crown princess. But on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, a mysterious girl named Forgive-Me-Not breaks into her bedroom with a terrifying truth: Aisling is not human.She's a changeling -- a fae child secretly swapped into the royal family years ago.And Forgive-Me-Not? She's the real princess.Raised in the brutal world of Faerie while Aisling lived in luxury, Forgive-Me-Not wants revenge for the life stolen from her. But when the two girls are forced onto the run together, anger slowly gives way to reluctant trust, sharp banter, aching vulnerability, and an undeniable attraction.
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Queer and How We Got Here: A (Personal) History
by Hazel Newlevant
Queer and How We Got Here weaves queer history with personal narrative to paint a nuanced and poignant picture of gender expression and queer experience in today's world.
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Clock Hands: A Graphic Novel
by Marieke Nijkamp
Vale, a non-binary twelve-year-old, is swept into a tense conflict between the guilds and the guildless when they apprentice to a clockmaker in the vibrant fictional city of Siannerra.
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Princess Pete
by Zoey Allen
A joyous picture book from an exciting debut author touches on gender identity in a warmhearted celebration of individuality. In a castle on the hill lives a happy family: the king, the queen, and their child, Pete. Pete likes a lot of different things: wearing red trousers or flowery dresses, experimenting with makeup, and going outside in the mud. Playing sports, drawing pictures, and making music; running races and dressing up; playing with the boys and playing with the girls--Pete's days are filled with laughter, creativity, and friendship. Some people are confused and ask, Are you a girl or a boy? But Pete is just Pete, and they are loved just as they are. A story of acceptance and childhood joy, energetically illustrated with colorful scenes and whimsical details.
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