Actress and library supporter Sarah Jessica is the honorary chair for the American Library Association's Book Club Central. Most recent selections are below.
Anatomy of a Miracle
By Miles, Jonathan
A profound new novel about a paralyzed young man's unexplainable recovery - a stunning exploration of faith, science, mystery, and the meaning of life.
Publisher: n/a
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9780553447583
|
Book
Exit West
By Hamid, Mohsin
WINNER OF THE 2018 LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR FICTION and THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2017, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW "A breathtaking novel ... [that] arrives at an urgent time." -NPR "It was as if Hamid knew what was going to happen to America and the world, and gave us a road map to our future ... At once terrifying and ... oddly hopeful." -Ayelet Waldman, The New York Times Book Review "Moving, audacious, and indelibly human." -Entertainment Weekly, "A" rating A New York Times bestseller, the astonishingly visionary love story that imagines the forces that drive ordinary people from their homes into the uncertain embrace of new lands. 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 familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors - doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through. . . . Exit West follows these remarkable characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.
Publisher: n/a
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9780735212176
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Hardcover
No One Is Coming to Save Us
By Watts, Stephanie Powell
The Great Gatsby brilliantly recast in the contemporary South.
Publisher: n/a
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62472984
|
Book
Stay with Me
By Adebayo, Ayobami
A New York Times Notable Book The New York Times' Critics' Top Books of the Year Named a Best Book of the Year by San Francisco Chronicle, National Public Radio, The Economist, Buzzfeed, Paste Magazine, Southern Living, HelloGiggles, and Shelf AwarenessHuffington Post's Best Feminist Books of the Year The New York Post's Most Thrilling and Fascinating Books of the Year The New York Public Library's Ten Best Books of the Year"A stunning debut novel." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York TimesThis celebrated, unforgettable first novel ("A bright, big-hearted demonstration of female spirit." -The Guardian) , shortlisted for the prestigious Women's Prize for Fiction and set in Nigeria, gives voice to both husband and wife as they tell the story of their marriage--and the forces that threaten to tear it apart. Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage--after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures--Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time--until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin's second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant. Which, finally, she does--but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. An electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.
Publisher: n/a
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9780451494603
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Hardcover
She Would Be King
By Moore, Waytu
A novel of exhilarating range, magical realism, and history -- a dazzling retelling of Liberia's formationWaytu Moore's powerful debut novel, She Would Be King, reimagines the dramatic story of Liberia's early years through three unforgettable characters who share an uncommon bond. Gbessa, exiled from the West African village of Lai, is starved, bitten by a viper, and left for dead, but still she survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, can fade from sight when the earth calls him. When the three meet in the settlement of Monrovia, their gifts help them salvage the tense relationship between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes, as a new nation forms around them.Moore's intermingling of history and magical realism finds voice not just in these three characters but also in the fleeting spirit of the wind, who embodies an ancient wisdom. "If she was not a woman," the wind says of Gbessa, "she would be king." In this vibrant story of the African diaspora, Moore, a talented storyteller and a daring writer, illuminates with radiant and exacting prose the tumultuous roots of a country inextricably bound to the United States. She Would Be King is a novel of profound depth set against a vast canvas and a transcendent debut from a major new author.
Publisher: n/a
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9781555978174
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Hardcover
Heartland
By Smarsh, Sarah
An eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in the American Midwest.
Publisher: n/a
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9781501133091
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Book
Most recent selections from Actress Reese Witherspoons'sHello Sunshine Book Club .
Next Year in Havana
By Cleeton, Chanel
After the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity--and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution...Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba's high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country's growing political unrest--until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary...Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa's last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth. Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba's tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she'll need the lessons of her grandmother's past to help her understand the true meaning of courage.READERS GUIDE INCLUDED
Publisher: n/a
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9780399586682
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Paperback
You Think It, I'll Say It
By Sittenfeld, Curtis
A dazzling collection of short stories from the New York Times bestselling author of Prep, American Wife, and Eligible Curtis Sittenfeld has established a reputation as a sharp chronicler of the modern age who humanizes her subjects even as she skewers them. Now, with this first collection of short fiction, her "astonishing gift for creating characters that take up residence in readers' heads" (The Washington Post) is showcased like never before. Throughout the ten stories in You Think It, I'll Say It, Sittenfeld upends assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided. In "The World Has Many Butterflies," married acquaintances play a strangely intimate game with devastating consequences. In "Vox Clamantis in Deserto," a shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate's seemingly enviable life. In "A Regular Couple," a high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school. And in "The Prairie Wife," a suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle-brand empire may or may not be built on a lie. With moving insight and uncanny precision, Curtis Sittenfeld pinpoints the questionable decisions, missed connections, and sometimes extraordinary coincidences that make up a life. Indeed, she writes what we're all thinking - if only we could express it with the wit of a master satirist, the storytelling gifts of an old-fashioned raconteur, and the vision of an American original. Praise for Curtis Sittenfeld "Novelists get called master storytellers all the time, but Sittenfeld really is one." - The Washington Post "Sittenfeld . . . . is popular but intellectual, accessible but mysterious and, above all - a perspective chameleon with an uncanny ability to enter the minds of callow prep school outcasts and devotedly compromising first ladies alike." - NPR's All Things Considered "[Sittenfeld] is a master of dramatic irony, creating fully realized social worlds before laying waste to her heroines' understanding of them. . . . Her prose [is] a rich delight." - The Boston Globe "Three cheers for Curtis Sittenfeld and her astute, sharp and ebullient anthropological interest in the human condition." - The New York Times
Publisher: n/a
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9780399592867
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Hardcover
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
By Jaswal, Balli Kaur
A lively, sexy, and thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women's lives at all ages - a spicy and alluring mix of Together Tea and Calendar Girls.
Publisher: n/a
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9780062645128
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Book
The Rules of Magic
By Hoffman, Alice
From beloved author Alice Hoffman comes the spellbinding prequel to her bestseller, Practical Magic. Thrilling and exquisite, real and fantastical, The Rules of Magic is a story about the power of love reminding us that the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself.
Publisher: n/a
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9781501137471
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Book
The Last Mrs. Parrish
By Constantine, Liv
The mesmerizing debut about a coolly manipulative woman and a wealthy "golden couple," from a stunning new voice in psychological suspense.
Publisher: n/a
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9780062667571
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Book
The Light We Lost
By Santopolo, Jill
The New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick "This love story between Lucy & Gabe spans decades and continents as two star-crossed lovers try to return to each other ... Will they ever meet again? This book kept me up at night, turning the pages to find out, and the ending did not disappoint." - Reese Witherspoon "One Day meets Me Before You meets your weekender bag." - The Skimm "Extraordinary." - Emily Giffin He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last? Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story - their story - at the very beginning. Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated - perhaps they'll find life's meaning in each other. But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York. What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each other's hearts. This devastatingly romantic debut novel about the enduring power of first love, with a shocking, unforgettable ending, is Love Story for a new generation. "It's the epic love story of 2017." - Redbook
Publisher: n/a
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9780735212756
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Hardcover
Something in the Water
By Steadman, Catherine
A shocking discovery on a honeymoon in paradise changes the lives of a picture-perfect couple in this taut psychological thriller debut - for readers of Ruth Ware, Paula Hawkins, and Shari Lapena. If you could make one simple choice that would change your life forever, would you? Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. . . . Could the life of your dreams be the stuff of nightmares? Suddenly the newlyweds must make a dangerous choice: to speak out or to protect their secret. After all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events. . . . Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave? Wonder no longer. Catherine Steadman's enthralling voice shines throughout this spellbinding debut novel. With piercing insight and fascinating twists, Something in the Water challenges the reader to confront the hopes we desperately cling to, the ideals we're tempted to abandon, and the perfect lies we tell ourselves.
Publisher: n/a
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9781524797188
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Hardcover
Oprah Winfrey launched her book club in 1996. Her most recent selections are below.
An American Marriage
By Jones, Tayari
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB 2018 SELECTION One of the most anticipated novels of 2018 according to Entertainment Weekly * Goodreads * Esquire * Elle * Cosmopolitan *BBC * Huffington Post * Bustle * Southern Living * Newsday * Bookish * Nylon * iBooks Store "Transcendent . . . Triumphant . . . Gorgeous."-Elle "A stunning epic love story . . . An exquisite, timely, and powerful novel that feels both urgent and indispensable."-Edwidge Danticat Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the
Publisher: n/a
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9781616201340
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Hardcover
Behold the Dreamers
By Mbue, Imbolo
A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream.
Publisher: n/a
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9780812998481
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Book
The Underground Railroad
By Whitehead, Colson
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, the #1 New York Times bestseller from Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling an enslaved woman's journey as she makes a bid for freedom in the antebellum South.
Publisher: n/a
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9780385542364
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Book
The Sun Does Shine
By Hinton, Anthony Ray
A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free. But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence -- full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty-seven years he was a beacon -- transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty-four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015. With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton's memoir tells his dramatic thirty-year journey and shows how you can take away a man's freedom, but you can't take away his imagination, humor, or joy.
Publisher: n/a
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9781250124715
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Hardcover
Becoming
By Obama, Michelle
An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America - the first African American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations - and whose story inspires us to do the same.
Publisher: n/a
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9781524763138
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Hardcover
Most recent book club picks for Emma Watson, actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador, are below.
Heart Berries
By Mailhot, Terese
Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest.
Publisher: n/a
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9781619023345
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Book
The Immortalists
By Benjamin, Chloe
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"A captivating family saga." - The New York Times Book Review"You won't be able to put it down." - The Skimm (Skimm Reads Pick) "This literary family saga is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Donna Tartt." - People Magazine (Book of the Week) "A sprawling, enchanting family saga." - Entertainment Weekly (The Must List) A dazzling family love story reminiscent of Everything I Never Told You from a novelist heralded by Lorrie Moore as a "great new talent."If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children - four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness - sneak out to hear their fortunes.The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.
Publisher: n/a
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9780735213180
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Hardcover
The Remains of the Day
By Ishiguro, Kazuo
The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading insular world postwar England.
Publisher: n/a
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679731725
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Paperback
Hunger
By Gay, Roxane
New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay's Hunger is a deeply personal memoir about weight and acceptance.
Publisher: n/a
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9780062362599
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Book
Jimmy Fallon launched his book club in July 2018. The Tonight Show is teaming up with publisher Macmillan to donate 3,000 copies through First Book, which provides books to classrooms, shelters, and community programs across the country.
Children of Blood and Bone
By Adeyemi, Tomi
With five starred reviews, Tomi Adeyemi's West African-inspired fantasy debut, and instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, conjures a world of magic and danger, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir.They killed my mother.They took our magic.They tried to bury us.Now we rise.Zlie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zlie's Reaper mother summoned forth souls.But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zlie without a mother and her people without hope.Now Zlie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zlie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.Danger lurks in Orsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zlie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy."A phenomenon." -- Entertainment Weekly"The epic I've been waiting for." -- New York Times-bestselling author Marie Lu "You will be changed. You will be ready to rise up and reclaim your own magic!" -- New York Times-bestselling author Dhonielle Clayton"The next big thing in literature and film." -- Ebony"One of the biggest young adult fiction debut book deals of theyear." -- Teen VogueThis title has Common Core connections.#1 New York Times bestseller, March 14, 2018
Publisher: n/a
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9781250170972
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Hardcover
Southern Lady Magazine launched a book club spring 2018. Most recent selections are below.
The Road to Bittersweet
By Everhart, Donna
Southern Lady Magazine's innaugural Book Club Pick.
Set in the Carolinas in the 1940s, The Road to Bittersweet is an evocative account of a young woman reckoning not just with the unforgiving landscape, but with the rocky emotional terrain that leads from innocence to wisdom.
Publisher: n/a
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1496709497
|
Book
Between Earth and Sky
By Skenandore, Amanda
In Amanda Skenandore's provocative and profoundly moving debut, set in the tragic intersection between white and Native American culture, a young girl learns about friendship, betrayal, and the sacrifices made in the name of belonging.
Publisher: n/a
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9781496713667
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Paperback
Chariot on the Mountain
By Ford, Jack
Based on little-known true events, this astonishing account from Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Jack Ford vividly recreates a treacherous journey toward freedom, a time when the traditions of the Old South still thrived - and is a testament to determination, friendship,
Publisher: n/a
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1496713095
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Book
Portrait of a Sister
By Bradford, Laura
Katie Beiler was always the follower to her twin sister Hannah's lead. That is until Hannah left their Amish upbringing for an English life - leaving Katie to find her own footing in a world that no longer looks as it once did . . . Katie has always imagined her life being just like Mamm's. It's why she chose baptism and why she'll soon marry Abram Zook. But ever since Hannah left, the only thing that truly makes Katie smile is the sketchpad in which she indulges her talent for drawing faces - a sin that, if discovered, could get her shunned by her family, her friends, and even Abram. Yet Katie sees her secret pastime as the only way to quiet a growing restlessness she'd just as soon ignore. That is until their Mamm's untimely death brings Hannah back home to Pennsylvania, with a new outlook on life, a man she adores, and, soon, an invitation for Katie to visit her in New York City. Suddenly, Katie is experiencing a freedom she's never had, in a world she never imagined. She's also spending time in the company of a fellow dreamer, someone who sees her as strong and brave and makes her laugh. But it's when Hannah shows Katie's drawings to a gallery owner that she truly finds herself at a crossroads between the only life she's ever known and the powerful lure of an unfamiliar future."A charming, well-told story of love and devotion between sisters." - New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck "Kudos to Bradford for a complex and compelling story about faith, family, and love." - Sally Kilpatrick, author of Bless Her Heart
Anatomy of a Miracle
By Miles, Jonathan
A profound new novel about a paralyzed young man's unexplainable recovery - a stunning exploration of faith, science, mystery, and the meaning of life.
Exit West
By Hamid, Mohsin
WINNER OF THE 2018 LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR FICTION and THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2017, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW "A breathtaking novel ... [that] arrives at an urgent time." -NPR "It was as if Hamid knew what was going to happen to America and the world, and gave us a road map to our future ... At once terrifying and ... oddly hopeful." -Ayelet Waldman, The New York Times Book Review "Moving, audacious, and indelibly human." -Entertainment Weekly, "A" rating A New York Times bestseller, the astonishingly visionary love story that imagines the forces that drive ordinary people from their homes into the uncertain embrace of new lands. 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 familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors - doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through. . . . Exit West follows these remarkable characters as they emerge into an alien and uncertain future, struggling to hold on to each other, to their past, to the very sense of who they are. Profoundly intimate and powerfully inventive, it tells an unforgettable story of love, loyalty, and courage that is both completely of our time and for all time.
No One Is Coming to Save Us
By Watts, Stephanie Powell
The Great Gatsby brilliantly recast in the contemporary South.
Stay with Me
By Adebayo, Ayobami
A New York Times Notable Book The New York Times' Critics' Top Books of the Year Named a Best Book of the Year by San Francisco Chronicle, National Public Radio, The Economist, Buzzfeed, Paste Magazine, Southern Living, HelloGiggles, and Shelf Awareness Huffington Post's Best Feminist Books of the Year The New York Post's Most Thrilling and Fascinating Books of the Year The New York Public Library's Ten Best Books of the Year"A stunning debut novel." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York TimesThis celebrated, unforgettable first novel ("A bright, big-hearted demonstration of female spirit." -The Guardian) , shortlisted for the prestigious Women's Prize for Fiction and set in Nigeria, gives voice to both husband and wife as they tell the story of their marriage--and the forces that threaten to tear it apart. Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage--after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures--Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time--until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin's second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant. Which, finally, she does--but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. An electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.
She Would Be King
By Moore, Waytu
A novel of exhilarating range, magical realism, and history -- a dazzling retelling of Liberia's formationWaytu Moore's powerful debut novel, She Would Be King, reimagines the dramatic story of Liberia's early years through three unforgettable characters who share an uncommon bond. Gbessa, exiled from the West African village of Lai, is starved, bitten by a viper, and left for dead, but still she survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, can fade from sight when the earth calls him. When the three meet in the settlement of Monrovia, their gifts help them salvage the tense relationship between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes, as a new nation forms around them.Moore's intermingling of history and magical realism finds voice not just in these three characters but also in the fleeting spirit of the wind, who embodies an ancient wisdom. "If she was not a woman," the wind says of Gbessa, "she would be king." In this vibrant story of the African diaspora, Moore, a talented storyteller and a daring writer, illuminates with radiant and exacting prose the tumultuous roots of a country inextricably bound to the United States. She Would Be King is a novel of profound depth set against a vast canvas and a transcendent debut from a major new author.
Heartland
By Smarsh, Sarah
An eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in the American Midwest.
Next Year in Havana
By Cleeton, Chanel
After the death of her beloved grandmother, a Cuban-American woman travels to Havana, where she discovers the roots of her identity--and unearths a family secret hidden since the revolution...Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba's high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country's growing political unrest--until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary...Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa's last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth. Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba's tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she'll need the lessons of her grandmother's past to help her understand the true meaning of courage.READERS GUIDE INCLUDED
You Think It, I'll Say It
By Sittenfeld, Curtis
A dazzling collection of short stories from the New York Times bestselling author of Prep, American Wife, and Eligible Curtis Sittenfeld has established a reputation as a sharp chronicler of the modern age who humanizes her subjects even as she skewers them. Now, with this first collection of short fiction, her "astonishing gift for creating characters that take up residence in readers' heads" (The Washington Post) is showcased like never before. Throughout the ten stories in You Think It, I'll Say It, Sittenfeld upends assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided. In "The World Has Many Butterflies," married acquaintances play a strangely intimate game with devastating consequences. In "Vox Clamantis in Deserto," a shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate's seemingly enviable life. In "A Regular Couple," a high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school. And in "The Prairie Wife," a suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle-brand empire may or may not be built on a lie. With moving insight and uncanny precision, Curtis Sittenfeld pinpoints the questionable decisions, missed connections, and sometimes extraordinary coincidences that make up a life. Indeed, she writes what we're all thinking - if only we could express it with the wit of a master satirist, the storytelling gifts of an old-fashioned raconteur, and the vision of an American original. Praise for Curtis Sittenfeld "Novelists get called master storytellers all the time, but Sittenfeld really is one." - The Washington Post "Sittenfeld . . . . is popular but intellectual, accessible but mysterious and, above all - a perspective chameleon with an uncanny ability to enter the minds of callow prep school outcasts and devotedly compromising first ladies alike." - NPR's All Things Considered "[Sittenfeld] is a master of dramatic irony, creating fully realized social worlds before laying waste to her heroines' understanding of them. . . . Her prose [is] a rich delight." - The Boston Globe "Three cheers for Curtis Sittenfeld and her astute, sharp and ebullient anthropological interest in the human condition." - The New York Times
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
By Jaswal, Balli Kaur
A lively, sexy, and thought-provoking East-meets-West story about community, friendship, and women's lives at all ages - a spicy and alluring mix of Together Tea and Calendar Girls.
The Rules of Magic
By Hoffman, Alice
From beloved author Alice Hoffman comes the spellbinding prequel to her bestseller, Practical Magic. Thrilling and exquisite, real and fantastical, The Rules of Magic is a story about the power of love reminding us that the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself.
The Last Mrs. Parrish
By Constantine, Liv
The mesmerizing debut about a coolly manipulative woman and a wealthy "golden couple," from a stunning new voice in psychological suspense.
The Light We Lost
By Santopolo, Jill
The New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick "This love story between Lucy & Gabe spans decades and continents as two star-crossed lovers try to return to each other ... Will they ever meet again? This book kept me up at night, turning the pages to find out, and the ending did not disappoint." - Reese Witherspoon "One Day meets Me Before You meets your weekender bag." - The Skimm "Extraordinary." - Emily Giffin He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last? Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story - their story - at the very beginning. Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated - perhaps they'll find life's meaning in each other. But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York. What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each other's hearts. This devastatingly romantic debut novel about the enduring power of first love, with a shocking, unforgettable ending, is Love Story for a new generation. "It's the epic love story of 2017." - Redbook
Something in the Water
By Steadman, Catherine
A shocking discovery on a honeymoon in paradise changes the lives of a picture-perfect couple in this taut psychological thriller debut - for readers of Ruth Ware, Paula Hawkins, and Shari Lapena. If you could make one simple choice that would change your life forever, would you? Erin is a documentary filmmaker on the brink of a professional breakthrough, Mark a handsome investment banker with big plans. Passionately in love, they embark on a dream honeymoon to the tropical island of Bora Bora, where they enjoy the sun, the sand, and each other. Then, while scuba diving in the crystal blue sea, they find something in the water. . . . Could the life of your dreams be the stuff of nightmares? Suddenly the newlyweds must make a dangerous choice: to speak out or to protect their secret. After all, if no one else knows, who would be hurt? Their decision will trigger a devastating chain of events. . . . Have you ever wondered how long it takes to dig a grave? Wonder no longer. Catherine Steadman's enthralling voice shines throughout this spellbinding debut novel. With piercing insight and fascinating twists, Something in the Water challenges the reader to confront the hopes we desperately cling to, the ideals we're tempted to abandon, and the perfect lies we tell ourselves.
An American Marriage
By Jones, Tayari
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB 2018 SELECTION One of the most anticipated novels of 2018 according to Entertainment Weekly * Goodreads * Esquire * Elle * Cosmopolitan *BBC * Huffington Post * Bustle * Southern Living * Newsday * Bookish * Nylon * iBooks Store "Transcendent . . . Triumphant . . . Gorgeous."-Elle "A stunning epic love story . . . An exquisite, timely, and powerful novel that feels both urgent and indispensable."-Edwidge Danticat Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the
Behold the Dreamers
By Mbue, Imbolo
A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream.
The Underground Railroad
By Whitehead, Colson
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, the #1 New York Times bestseller from Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling an enslaved woman's journey as she makes a bid for freedom in the antebellum South.
The Sun Does Shine
By Hinton, Anthony Ray
A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free. But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence -- full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty-seven years he was a beacon -- transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty-four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015. With a foreword by Stevenson, The Sun Does Shine is an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times. Destined to be a classic memoir of wrongful imprisonment and freedom won, Hinton's memoir tells his dramatic thirty-year journey and shows how you can take away a man's freedom, but you can't take away his imagination, humor, or joy.
Becoming
By Obama, Michelle
An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America - the first African American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations - and whose story inspires us to do the same.
Heart Berries
By Mailhot, Terese
Heart Berries is a powerful, poetic memoir of a woman's coming of age on the Seabird Island Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest.
The Immortalists
By Benjamin, Chloe
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"A captivating family saga." - The New York Times Book Review"You won't be able to put it down." - The Skimm (Skimm Reads Pick) "This literary family saga is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Donna Tartt." - People Magazine (Book of the Week) "A sprawling, enchanting family saga." - Entertainment Weekly (The Must List) A dazzling family love story reminiscent of Everything I Never Told You from a novelist heralded by Lorrie Moore as a "great new talent."If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children - four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness - sneak out to hear their fortunes.The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in '80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.
The Remains of the Day
By Ishiguro, Kazuo
The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading insular world postwar England.
Hunger
By Gay, Roxane
New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay's Hunger is a deeply personal memoir about weight and acceptance.
Children of Blood and Bone
By Adeyemi, Tomi
With five starred reviews, Tomi Adeyemi's West African-inspired fantasy debut, and instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, conjures a world of magic and danger, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir.They killed my mother.They took our magic.They tried to bury us.Now we rise.Zlie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zlie's Reaper mother summoned forth souls.But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zlie without a mother and her people without hope.Now Zlie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zlie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.Danger lurks in Orsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zlie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy."A phenomenon." -- Entertainment Weekly"The epic I've been waiting for." -- New York Times-bestselling author Marie Lu "You will be changed. You will be ready to rise up and reclaim your own magic!" -- New York Times-bestselling author Dhonielle Clayton"The next big thing in literature and film." -- Ebony"One of the biggest young adult fiction debut book deals of theyear." -- Teen VogueThis title has Common Core connections.#1 New York Times bestseller, March 14, 2018
The Road to Bittersweet
By Everhart, Donna
Southern Lady Magazine's innaugural Book Club Pick. Set in the Carolinas in the 1940s, The Road to Bittersweet is an evocative account of a young woman reckoning not just with the unforgiving landscape, but with the rocky emotional terrain that leads from innocence to wisdom.
Between Earth and Sky
By Skenandore, Amanda
In Amanda Skenandore's provocative and profoundly moving debut, set in the tragic intersection between white and Native American culture, a young girl learns about friendship, betrayal, and the sacrifices made in the name of belonging.
Chariot on the Mountain
By Ford, Jack
Based on little-known true events, this astonishing account from Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Jack Ford vividly recreates a treacherous journey toward freedom, a time when the traditions of the Old South still thrived - and is a testament to determination, friendship,
Portrait of a Sister
By Bradford, Laura
Katie Beiler was always the follower to her twin sister Hannah's lead. That is until Hannah left their Amish upbringing for an English life - leaving Katie to find her own footing in a world that no longer looks as it once did . . . Katie has always imagined her life being just like Mamm's. It's why she chose baptism and why she'll soon marry Abram Zook. But ever since Hannah left, the only thing that truly makes Katie smile is the sketchpad in which she indulges her talent for drawing faces - a sin that, if discovered, could get her shunned by her family, her friends, and even Abram. Yet Katie sees her secret pastime as the only way to quiet a growing restlessness she'd just as soon ignore. That is until their Mamm's untimely death brings Hannah back home to Pennsylvania, with a new outlook on life, a man she adores, and, soon, an invitation for Katie to visit her in New York City. Suddenly, Katie is experiencing a freedom she's never had, in a world she never imagined. She's also spending time in the company of a fellow dreamer, someone who sees her as strong and brave and makes her laugh. But it's when Hannah shows Katie's drawings to a gallery owner that she truly finds herself at a crossroads between the only life she's ever known and the powerful lure of an unfamiliar future."A charming, well-told story of love and devotion between sisters." - New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck "Kudos to Bradford for a complex and compelling story about faith, family, and love." - Sally Kilpatrick, author of Bless Her Heart