October 2020 eBook Staff PicksLike this list

15 items

• Daddy

  Stories

  Cline, Emma,

  Add Daddy to your for later shelf

  Cline (The Girls) returns with 10 elegantly written, unsettling stories, including a precursor to her novel in which two unsupervised girls explore a dangerous commune. As the title suggests, several stories feature fathers: frequently absent in…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Deadly Education

  a Novel

  Novik, Naomi,

  Add A Deadly Education to your for later shelf

  This first book of the Scholomance series is a dark, twisted take on the "school of magic" theme. El is a sixteen-year-old sorceress studying at the incredibly dangerous magic school the Scholomance. The students are trapped in the school, fending…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Exiles

  a Novel

  Kline, Christina Baker, 1964-

  Add The Exiles to your for later shelf

  This historic epic follows three women in the 1840s trying to carve out lives for themselves. Evangeline and Hazel are prisoners in England who are sentenced to transport as convicts to the penal colonies of Australia, and they become friends on the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hench

  a Novel

  Walschots, Natalie Zina, 1983-

  Add Hench to your for later shelf

  Anna is just a cog in a wheel, a temp who works as a data analyst and spreadsheet whiz. Except her line of work is in villainy, in a world where there are superheroes and villains, backed up by corporate entities complete with accounting and H.R.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• His & Hers

  Feeney, Alice,

  Add His & Hers to your for later shelf

  His & Hers is sure to be a hit once readers watch the forthcoming TV adaptation of Alice Fenney's first novel, Sometimes I Lie. Similar to that debut, this novel has several narrators: DCI Jack Harper is investigating a woman's grisly murder, Anna…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• His Only Wife

  Medie, Peace Adzo, 1981-

  Add His Only Wife to your for later shelf

  When impoverished twenty-one-year-old Afi is married to the scion of a wealthy and powerful family, her life changes overnight. Thirteen years her senior, Eli is practically a stranger, and already living with another woman. Immediately after the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Invisible Life of Addie Larue

  Schwab, Victoria

  Add The Invisible Life of Addie Larue to your for later shelf

  In order to escape an arranged marriage in a small French village in the early 1700s, Addie makes a deal with the devil: a life of freedom and relative immortality for the price of her soul. Unfortunately, Addie is also cursed to be forgotten by…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Jack

  Robinson, Marilynne

  Add Jack to your for later shelf

  John Ames Boughton (Jack) is a prodigal son of a minister from Gilead, Iowa. He lives as a bum in St. Louis in the 1950s, keeping himself apart from society as self-punishment for his past sins and out of fear that he'll cause harm to anyone who…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Lying Life of Adults

  Ferrante, Elena,

  Add The Lying Life of Adults to your for later shelf

  12-year-old Giovanna overhears her father, in conversation with her mother, calling her ugly. Well, this is how she interprets her father's words when he describes Giovanna as "getting the face of Vittoria." Vittoria, her father's estranged sister,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Piranesi

  Clarke, Susanna,

  Add Piranesi to your for later shelf

  Clarke's long-awaited follow-up novel after 2004's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is almost nothing like her debut, except perhaps for its bold originality. A list of this short, page-turning novel's uncanny qualities has to begin with its strange…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Stakes Is High

  Life After the American Dream

  Smith, Mychal Denzel, 1986-

  Add Stakes Is High to your for later shelf

  This short, well-argued and heady collection of essays (the title will be recognized by fans of 1990s hip hop) considers familiar topics like capitalism, racism, justice and accountability with a bracing clarity of moral vision that ultimately…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Summer

  a Novel

  Smith, Ali, 1962-

  Add Summer to your for later shelf

  Smith's seasonal quartet finishes in top form with Summer, bringing back some characters from previous installments in a character-driven story that is accessible even if you haven't read any of the other three volumes. Teenager Sacha is concerned…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• These Women

  a Novel

  Pochoda, Ivy,

  Add These Women to your for later shelf

  This smart, gritty thriller is told from the perspective of six women living in a gentrifying South Central L.A. neighborhood where a serial killer has been targeting prostitutes. The women differ in age, race, and class, but we slowly learn how…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• What Are You Going Through

  a Novel

  Nunez, Sigrid

  Add What Are You Going Through to your for later shelf

  In the latest from the National Book Award-winning Nunez, a writer visits a friend who is fighting cancer and who asks her to do something out of the ordinary for her. It's a request that tests their friendship and the writer's ethics. As in The…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• When No One Is Watching

  a Thriller

  Cole, Alyssa

  Add When No One Is Watching to your for later shelf

  After a traumatic divorce, Sydney Green moves back home to Brooklyn, to care for her elderly mother and heal her self. But the old neighborhood isn't the close, happy one she remembers. New people are moving in, and old neighbors are gone seemingly…Read moreRead more of this annotation