August 2020 Staff PicksLike this list

17 items

• The Authenticity Project

  Pooley, Clare,

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  Café owner Monica finds a strange spiral notebook cryptically titled The Authenticity Project. In it she reads the personal confession of Julian, who was once the life of the party, a carefree artist of great renown but is now a lonely widower who…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Deal With the Devil

  Rocha, Kit,

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  In a future America, 45 years after the U.S. government went belly up, survival is a struggle, and information is a valuable commodity. Nina ensures her own survival as an information broker, finding that valuable information and selling it to the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Empress of Salt and Fortune

  Vo, Nghi,

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  The Empress of Salt and Fortune can probably be finished in one sitting, but it is meant to be savored. Like a fairy tale, it is magical and dreamlike, with lessons to be learned in each chapter and fortunes to be told. As in a fairy tale, there is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Entangled Life

  How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

  Sheldrake, Merlin,

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  Fungal biologist Merlin Sheldrake brings a joyfulness and wonder to mycology in a book that will delight both the scientist and the novice fungi enthusiast alike. This is nature writing at its best; Sheldrake dives deep into the research about fungi…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Grass

  Gendry-Kim, Keum Suk,

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  This breathtaking biographic memoir, illustrated and written by Korean author Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, depicts the life story of Granny Lee Ok-sun during World War II and her experience being kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery as a "comfort…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hamnet

  a Novel of the Plague

  O'Farrell, Maggie, 1972-

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  Inspired by the life of Shakespeare and his family (and brilliantly inspired by what little is known about it), this domestic drama centers on an unforgettable character, Agnes. A folk healer with a streak of clairvoyance, she is wooed by the son of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hard Cash Valley

  Panowich, Brian,

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  Dane Kirby has been drifting through life since the death of his wife and daughter ten years earlier. A former fire chief, now part-time investigator for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Dane has a girlfriend who loves him and friends who care…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hurricane Season

  Melchor, Fernanda, 1982-

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  This scalding, newly-translated work of literary fiction from an acclaimed young Mexican writer was inspired by a true crime. A journalist, Melchor initially wanted to approach the subject in the vein of Capote's In Cold Blood, but the region is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Minor Feelings

  An Asian American Reckoning

  Hong, Cathy Park,

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  In this debut collection of seven fierce autobiographical essays, the New Republic poetry editor explores themes of identity, race and culture in modern America (as in "United" and "End of White Innocence"). She writes up growing up Korean American…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Only Good Indians

  a Novel

  Jones, Stephen Graham, 1972-

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  Trying to fix a light while balancing on a ladder, Lewis looks down through the blades of his ceiling fan and sees the outline of a dead elk. Not just any dead elk, but the elk that he and his three friends killed while hunting on the reservation…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Paying the Land

  Sacco, Joe,

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  Award-winning comic journalist Sacco traveled to Canada's Northwest Territories interviewing and documenting the struggles of the Dene people. Detailed illustrations capture the everyday life of the Dene, from nomadic past to the present, as they…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Pew

  Lacey, Catherine, 1985-

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  In this compact, fable-like story about the role of the stranger in society, a young person of ambiguous race and gender is discovered sleeping on a church pew in a Southern town. When questioned, "Pew" (temporarily named by the congregation)…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas

  Machado de Assis, 1839-1908,

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  Can you imagine a surreal Bildungsroman conceived on the back of a hippopotamus? This newly-translated 19th-century Brazilian classic offers just that. Open up your mind and join Cubas on a hilarious journey through life - and beyond. Solve the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Pull of the Stars

  a Novel

  Donoghue, Emma, 1969-

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  Set in Dublin during the height of the 1918 flu pandemic, Donoghue's latest follows a heroic nurse around the clock through a few, life-changing days of work in a maternity/fever ward. Julia is at a crossroads in her life. She loves her work and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Rodham

  a Novel

  Sittenfeld, Curtis,

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  What would have happened if Hillary Rodham hadn't married Bill Clinton? In this compelling story of alternative history, Sittenfeld imagines a world in which Hillary Rodham makes a name for herself in politics free from the shadow cast by Bill. The…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Shuggie Bain

  a Novel

  Stuart, Douglas, 1976-

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  This intense, beautifully-written, Booker-nominated novel set mostly in 1980s Glasgow tells the story of the Bain family. Two-timed by her husband Hugh, who plays a diminishing role in the family's life, Agnes is a proud woman who can never quite…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Unconquerable Sun

  Elliott, Kate, 1958-

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  Every child of a powerful leader has a lot to live up to. This is especially true for Princess Sun, sole heir of the imperious Queen-Marshal Eirene. And even after Sun proves herself with a decisive military battle, her reward is a boring victory…Read moreRead more of this annotation