| All the Water in the World by Eiren CaffallIn a flooded and abandoned Manhattan, 13-year-old Nonie, her family, and a few others live at the top of the closed American Museum of Natural History, working to preserve artifacts. After a superstorm hits, the four survivors take a canoe from a display and set out on the Hudson River in a novel that depicts their journey and narrator Nonie's remembrances. For another lyrical apocalyptic tale, try Sequoia Nagamatsu's How High We Go in the Dark. |
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| Homeseeking by Karissa ChenThis sweeping novel follows the entwined lives of Haiwen and Suchi, who meet as young children in 1938 Shanghai and fall in love as teens, but end up mostly apart from each other due to war, family, marriage, and more, until happening upon each other in a Los Angeles grocery store in 2008. Read-alikes: Wendy Chen's Their Divine Fires; Eve J. Chung's Daughters of Shandong. |
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| Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love by Marianne CroninEddie Winston, a 90-year-old charity shop volunteer in Birmingham, England, unexpectedly becomes friends with Bella, a pink-haired young woman mourning her boyfriend. When Bella realizes that Eddie has never been kissed, she sweetly sets out to help him find love. Read-alikes: Clare Pooley's How to Age Disgracefully; Anna Johnston's The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife. |
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| The Three Lives of Cate Kay by Kate FaganIn this engaging fictionalized memoir, famous reclusive author Cate Kay shares her real name and describes life as an ambitious small-town teen, running away after an accident, changing her name (twice), her career, her relationships (including with a Hollywood actress), and more. Complete with chapters from the viewpoint of those who've known her, this Reese's Book Club Pick is great for fans of complex characters. |
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| The Favorites by Layne FargoSet in the cut-throat world of competitive ice dancing and inspired by Wuthering Heights, this high-drama novel finds Katarina Shaw telling her own story in response to a new documentary focused on the ups and downs of her years-long pairing with Heath Rocha. Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid will want to read this novel that's "engrossing, thrilling, and just downright fun" (Booklist). |
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| Mothers and Sons by Adam HaslettCovering several time periods, readers follow Peter Fisher, presently a lonely, gay 40-year-old New York City immigration lawyer who's estranged from his mother, Ann, a former Episcopal priest running a Vermont women's retreat with her girlfriend. This "thoughtful, psychologically acute, beautifully written examination of intersecting lives" (Booklist) will please fans of Andrew Sean Greer. |
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| We Do Not Part by Han KangBlurring reality with the mysterious, this poetic latest from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang follows Kyungha, a Korean author who isn't sleeping or eating much. After a friend is hospitalized and her pet bird needs care, Kyungha travels through wintery weather to Jeju Island, the setting of a 1940s military massacre, and encounters the spirit of her friend's mother. Try this next: The Liberators by E.J. Koh. |
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| Death of the Author by Nnedi OkoraforNewly fired and with her latest literary work rejected, paraplegic Nigerian American Zelu ends up writing a smash-hit science fiction novel. With excerpts of that book, Rusted Robots, interspersed throughout, readers follow Zelu as she navigates fame, family drama, fans clamoring for a sequel, and her own feelings and dreams for the future. Read-alike: Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn. |
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| Definitely Better Now by Ava RobinsonManhattan marketing assistant Emma is a self-described alcoholic who's officially been sober for a year. To aid her recovery, she stopped dating, but feels a connection with the office IT director, Ben, especially when they start planning the company holiday party. But will self-sabotage and family issues derail Emma's progress? Covering serious topics sensitively, this touching debut has hope and humor. Try this next: Early Sobrieties by Michael Deagler. |
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| Water Moon by Samantha SottoAt a magical Tokyo pawnshop, people hand over their regrets and leave unburdened. But one day Hana Ishikawa awakens to find the shop a mess, her shop-owner father gone, and an item missing, so she travels on a magical journey to set things right, assisted by a handsome young physicist. This whimsical tale will please fans of cozy Japanese fantasies, such as Sosuke Natsukawa's The Cat Who Saved Books. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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