April 2018 Staff PicksLike this list

17 items

• All the Beautiful Lies

  a Novel

  Swanson, Peter, 1968-

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  Days before his college graduation, Harry Ackerson receives word that his father has died. The police think it's suicide. Once Harry returns to his father's home in Maine, he finds himself mesmerized by his stepmother and another mysterious young…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• America Is Not the Heart

  Castillo, Elaine,

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  In this debut family saga, Pol and Paz are forced to leave the Philippines due to political upheaval. Five years later, their niece Hero must do the same and join them in the San Francisco Bay Area. As Hero adjusts to her new life in California,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Circe

  a Novel

  Miller, Madeline,

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  A figure in Greek mythology, Circe is best known from her minor role in The Odyssey, the ancient epic that is one of the founding texts of Western civilization. Here novelist Miller (Song of Achilles) tells Circe’s full story, drawing not only on…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Electric Arches

  Ewing, Eve L.,

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  University of Chicago sociologist Eve Ewing's debut is an inventive and vivid book of poetry about African-American girlhood with many of the poems set in Chicago. Ewing grew up in Chicago, and much of her work is inspired by real life experiences.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Female Persuasion

  Wolitzer, Meg,

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  Meg Wolizter's latest is a sweeping novel with women and evolving feminism at its center. Greer Kadetsky is a bright young woman with unconventional parents who fail to correctly fill out financial aid forms for Yale, which forces her to reluctantly…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hot Mess

  Belden, Emily,

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  At age 25, Allie, a usually responsible young woman has found herself in a major crisis: her celebrity chef/junkie boyfriend Benji has gone MIA, but not before he convinced her to invest every penny of her life savings in a restaurant in Chicago's…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How to Be Safe

  a Novel

  McAllister, Tom,

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  Tom McCallister’s novel is a searing and timely take on the response of an American small-town to a school shooting, voiced by troubled former teacher Anna Crawford. Anna is badly shaken by a shooting at the school where she recently taught.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Lawn Boy

  a Novel

  Evison, Jonathan,

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  Young Mike Munoz has a lot of problems. He actually enjoys his work as a landscaper, but this is tempered by clueless bosses who expect too much and pay too little, a mentally disabled brother who needs constant care, sharing a house with his…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• My Lady's Choosing

  An Interactive Romance Novel

  Curran, Kitty,

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  You are a plucky but penniless ladies' companion in Regency London. They are two handsome men at a ball, both with large fortunes. You can be introduced to one or the other, but whichever you choose determines the direction your story takes from…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Natural Causes

  An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer

  Ehrenreich, Barbara,

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  Do you ever feel dubious about scientific health claims that you've read in the news? The ones that often seem to contradict other findings reported previously? Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) brings her backgrounds in science and journalism to bear…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Rabbit

  the Autobiography of Ms. Pat

  Williams, Patricia,

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  Patricia Williams was born into poverty with an alcoholic mother, ended up dropping out of middle school, had two children by the age of 15, was shot twice and spent time in jail for dealing drugs. At 45, she’s living in a large home in a suburban…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Sometimes I Lie

  Feeney, Alice,

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  This is the type of story to keep you up until 1 am. Amber starts out by telling the reader three things. She’s in a coma, her husband doesn’t love her, and sometimes she lies. This sets the stage for a riveting story that whiplashes between a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Sparsholt Affair

  Hollinghurst, Alan,

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  This novel of fathers and children traces LGBT life from WWII to modern day England. The first part consists of a manuscript by a literary student at Oxford during the blitz concerning an infatuation a gay friend has with a handsome younger man…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Tangerine

  Mangan, Christine,

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  Christine Mangan’s debut is an atmospheric, slow-burning work of psychological suspense. It opens in 1950s Tangiers, Morocco. Lucy Mason unexpectedly shows up at the doorstop of Alice Shipley, a friend from Bennington College. The tension between…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• This Could Hurt

  a Novel

  Medoff, Jillian,

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  In this novel set in the recent past, we meet the fumbling but earnest cast of characters who make up a New York corporate HR department living through the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008. Told from multiple perspectives, we see them…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• This Will Be My Undoing

  Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (white) America

  Jerkins, Morgan,

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  Even if your life has been greatly different from Jerkins's, you may occasionally need to put This Will Be My Undoing down and think about the life lessons that she explores. Jerkins deftly examines the intersectionality of what it means to be black…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Unbury Carol

  a Novel

  Malerman, Josh,

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  Carol is a woman of wealth and influence. She also has a secret. Sometimes, she falls into death-like comas for days at a time. She is aware and able to hear when she’s in the coma. Her husband Dwight thinks he is the only person who knows about…Read moreRead more of this annotation