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Literature that will inspire — this list of books from diverse authors all contain stories that ultimately inspire hope. Complex characters and distinct, attention-grabbing writing styles make each of these titles quite different from each other in many ways... except for the inspiration they often provide when characters overcome great challenges.
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Station Eleven
Emily St John Mandel - Knopf
Format: Book
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Set in the days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
One snowy night... |
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The City We Became
N. K. Jemisin - Orbit
Format: Book
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Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.
But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors... |
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I'll Give You the Sun
Jandy Nelson - Dial Books
Format: Book
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At first, Jude and her twin brother Noah, are inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them.
Years later, they are barely speaking.... |
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Transcendent Kingdom: A novel
Yaa Gyasi - Knopf
Format: Book
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Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left... |
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Exit West: A Novel
Mohsin Hamid - Riverhead Books
Format: Book
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In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning... |
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The Book of Lost Things: A Novel
John Connolly - Atria Books; First Edition edition
Format: Book
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High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun... |
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The Friend: A Novel
Sigrid Nunez - Riverhead Books
Format: Book
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When a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the unwanted dog he has left behind. Her own battle against grief is intensified by the mute suffering of the dog, a huge Great Dane traumatized by the inexplicable disappearance of its master,... |
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All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr - Scribner
Format: Book
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Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them... |
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The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe
Mary Simses - Little
Format: Book
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A high-powered Manhattan attorney finds love, purpose, and the promise of a simpler life in her grandmother's hometown.
Ellen Branford is going to fulfill her grandmother's dying wish--to find the hometown boy she once loved, and give him her last letter. Ellen leaves... |
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Women Talking
MIRIAM TOEWS - Bloomsbury Publishing
Format: Book
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One evening, eight Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For the past two years, each of these women, and more than a hundred other girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women... |
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As Bright as Heaven
Susan Meissner - Berkley
Format: Book
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In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start on its cobblestone streets. Into this bustling town, came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give... |
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We Were the Lucky Ones
Georgia Hunter - Viking
Format: Book
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It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown... |
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