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Reviews

Reviews

by Megan Abbott - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn't let anything stop her. But now someone else is standing in her way --- Diane. Best friends at 17, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret --- the worst thing she'd ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine --- and it blew their friendship apart. Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she's worked so hard for.

by Rachel Heng - Dystopian Fiction, Fiction

Lea Kirino is a “Lifer,” which means that a roll of the genetic dice has given her the potential to live forever --- if she does everything right. But her perfect life is turned upside down when she spots her estranged father on a crowded sidewalk. His return marks the beginning of her downfall as she is drawn into his mysterious world of the Suicide Club, a network of powerful individuals and rebels who reject society’s pursuit of immortality, and instead choose to live --- and die --- on their own terms. In this future world, death is not only taboo; it’s also highly illegal. Soon Lea is forced to choose between a sanitized immortal existence and a short, bittersweet time with a man she has never really known, but who is the only family she has left in the world.

by Jonathan Santlofer - Memoir, Nonfiction

On a summer day in New York, Jonathan Santlofer discovers his wife, Joy, gasping for breath on their living room couch. After a frenzied 911 call, an ambulance race across Manhattan, and hours pacing in a hospital waiting room, a doctor finally delivers the fateful news. Consumed by grief, Jonathan desperately tries to pursue life as he always had --- writing, social engagements, and working on his art --- but finds it nearly impossible to admit his deep feelings of loss to anyone, not even to his beloved daughter, Doria, or to himself. As Jonathan grieves and heals, he tries to unravel what happened to Joy, a journey that will take him nearly two years.

by Jordy Rosenberg - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers and lovers of 18th-century London. Yet no one knows the true story; their confessions have never been found. Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript --- a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’ adventures. Is Confessions of the Fox an authentic autobiography or a hoax? As Dr. Voth is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’ tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined --- and only a miracle will save them all.

by Emily Giffin - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville’s elite. Yet sometimes the middle-class small-town girl in Nina wonders if she has strayed from the person she once was. Tom Volpe is a single dad working multiple jobs while struggling to raise his headstrong daughter, Lyla. His road has been lonely, long and hard, but he finally starts to relax after Lyla earns a scholarship to Windsor Academy, Nashville’s most prestigious private school. Then one photograph, snapped in a drunken moment at a party, changes everything. At the heart of the lies and scandal, Tom, Nina and Lyla are forced together --- all questioning their closest relationships, asking themselves who they really are, and searching for the courage to live a life of true meaning.

by Caleb Johnson - Fiction

Janie Treeborne lives on an orchard at the edge of Elberta, Alabama, and in time, she has become its keeper. Elberta has seen fierce battles, violent storms and frantic change --- and when the town is once again threatened from without, Janie realizes it won’t withstand much more. So she tells the story of its people: of Hugh, her granddaddy, determined to preserve Elberta’s legacy at any cost; of his wife, Maybelle, the postmaster, whose sudden death throws the town into chaos; of her lover, Lee Malone, a black orchardist harvesting from a land where he is less than welcome; of the time when Janie kidnapped her own Hollywood-obsessed aunt and tore the wrong people apart.

written by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori - Fiction

Winner of Japan’s prestigious Akutagawa Prize, CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN is the incomparable story of Keiko Furukura, a 36-year-old Tokyo resident who has been working at the Hiiromachi “Smile Mart” for the past 18 years. Keiko has never fit in --- neither in her family nor in school --- but in her convenience store, she is able to find peace and purpose with rules clearly delineated by the store’s manual, and copying her colleagues’ dress, mannerisms and speech. She plays the part of a “normal person” excellently --- more or less. Keiko is very happy, but those close to her pressure her to find a husband and a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action.

by Liz Nugent - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

On the surface, Lydia Fitzsimons's life seems idyllic. Her husband, Andrew, is a prosperous, respected judge; they live in the spacious, comfortable, well-appointed house where she was raised. And she is utterly, obsessively devoted to her son, Laurence --- her adored only child, her pride and joy. But Andrew's murder of Annie Doyle, accidental or not, sets into motion a dark downward spiral. It doesn’t take long for Laurence to suspect that something is very, very wrong in the Fitzsimons household --- and he is determined to discover the truth.

by James A. McLaughlin - Fiction

Rice Moore is just beginning to think his troubles are behind him. He’s found a job protecting a remote forest preserve in Virginian Appalachia where his main responsibilities include tracking wildlife and refurbishing cabins. It’s hard work, and totally solitary --- perfect to hide away from the Mexican drug cartels he betrayed back in Arizona. But when Rice finds the carcass of a bear killed on the grounds, the quiet solitude he’s so desperately sought is suddenly at risk. More bears are killed on the preserve and Rice’s obsession with catching the poachers escalates, leading to hostile altercations with the locals and attention from both the law and Rice’s employers.

by Tommy Orange - Fiction

THERE THERE follows 12 characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to each other in ways they may not yet realize. There is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and working to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, who is pulling his life back together after his uncle’s death, has come to work at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil has come to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American --- grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.