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Reviews

Reviews

by Bernardine Evaristo - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Bernardine Evaristo is the winner of the 2019 Booker Prize and the first black woman to receive this highest literary honor in the English language. GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity, and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of Black British women that paints a vivid portrait of the state of contemporary Britain and looks back to the legacy of Britain’s colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters also intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class.

by Erin Morgenstern - Fantasy, Fiction, Romance, Women's Fiction

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead.

by Meg Cabot - Fiction, Romance, Women's Fiction

When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island --- as well as its connection to the mainland --- 25-year-old Bree Beckham isn’t worried…at first. But animal-loving Bree does become alarmed when she realizes how many islanders have been cut off from their beloved pets. Now it’s up to her to save as many of Little Bridge’s cats and dogs as she can. To do so, she’s going to need help from her boss’s sexy nephew, Drew Hartwell. But when Bree starts falling for Drew, just as Little Bridge’s power is restored and her emotionally abusive (but now-penitent) ex shows up, she has to ask herself if her island fling was only a result of the stormy weather, or if it could last during clear skies too.

by Amy Stewart - Fiction, Historical Fiction

It’s the spring of 1917, and change is in the air. American women have done something remarkable: they’ve banded together to create military-style training camps for women who want to serve. These so-called National Service Schools prove irresistible to the Kopp sisters, who leave their farm in New Jersey to join up. When an accident befalls the matron, Constance reluctantly agrees to oversee the camp --- much to the alarm of the Kopps’ tent-mate, the real-life Beulah Binford, who is seeking refuge from her own scandalous past under the cover of a false identity. Will she be denied a second chance? And after notoriety, can a woman’s life ever be her own again?

by Emma Donoghue - Fiction

Noah Selvaggio is a retired chemistry professor and widower living on the Upper West Side, but born in the South of France. He is days away from his first visit back to Nice since he was a child, bringing with him a handful of puzzling photos he's discovered from his mother's wartime years. But he receives a call from social services: Noah is the closest available relative of an 11-year-old great-nephew he's never met, who urgently needs someone to look after him. Out of a feeling of obligation, Noah agrees to take Michael along on his trip. Both come to grasp the risks people in all eras have run for their loved ones, and find they are more akin than they knew.

by Margaret Atwood - Dystopian, Fiction

More than 15 years after the events of THE HANDMAID'S TALE, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third: Aunt Lydia. Her complex past and uncertain future unfold in surprising and pivotal ways. With THE TESTAMENTS, Margaret Atwood opens up the innermost workings of Gilead, as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

written by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones - Fiction, Humor, Literary Fiction, Mystery

In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind.

by Cambria Brockman - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

In her first weeks at Hawthorne College, Malin is swept up into a tight-knit circle that will stick together through all four years. But Malin isn’t like the rest of her friends. She’s an expert at hiding her troubled past. She acts as if she shares the preoccupations of those around her, all while using her extraordinary insight to detect their deepest vulnerabilities and weaknesses. By Senior Day, Malin’s secrets --- and those of her friends --- are revealed. While she scrambles to maintain her artfully curated image, her missteps set in motion a devastating chain of events that ends in a murder. And as fragile relationships hang in the balance and close alliances shift, Malin must test the limits of what she’s capable of to stop the truth from coming out.

by Jaclyn Moriarty - Fiction, Humor

Twenty years ago, Abigail Sorenson’s brother, Robert, went missing one day before her 16th birthday, never to be seen again. That same year, she began receiving scattered chapters in the mail of a self-help manual, The Guidebook, whose anonymous author promised to make her life soar to heights beyond her wildest dreams. The Guidebook’s missives have remained a constant in Abi’s life --- through her family’s grief over her brother’s disappearance, a move across continents, the devastating dissolution of her marriage, and the new beginning as a single mother and café owner in Sydney. Now, two decades after receiving those first pages, Abi is invited to an all-expenses-paid weekend retreat to learn “the truth” about The Guidebook.

by Michael Robotham - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

A girl is discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Half-starved and filthy, she won’t tell anyone her name or where she came from. Six years later, still unidentified, she is living in a secure children’s home with a new name, Evie Cormac. When she initiates a court case demanding the right to be released as an adult, forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven must determine if Evie is ready to go free. Meanwhile, Cyrus is called in to investigate the shocking murder of a high school figure-skating champion, Jodie Sheehan, who is portrayed by everyone as the ultimate girl-next-door. But as Cyrus peels back the layers, a secret life emerges --- one that Evie Cormac, the girl with no past, knows something about.