April 2021 eBook Staff PicksLike this list

12 items

• Brood

  a Novel

  Polzin, Jackie, 1979-

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  In this short, memorable debut novel, a married woman struggles to protect her small flock of chickens through a tough Minnesota winter. As the winter months go by, we get insight into her strained relationship to mothering, meeting her quirky…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Burning Girls

  a Novel

  Tudor, C. J.,

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  Rev. Jack Brooks is abruptly transferred from her inner city parish in Nottingham to an isolated rural hamlet in the south of England after she is blamed for the death of an abused child. In Chapel Croft, Jack and her 15-year-old daughter Flo find a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Detransition, Baby

  a Novel

  Peters, Torrey

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  Peters's spirited comedy of manners, featuring two nuanced trans characters, is brimming with keen insight and compassion. It is a deeply satisfying book that manages to be both extremely ambitious and very entertaining. Reese, a trans woman in her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Eartheater

  a Novel

  Reyes, Dolores

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  One of the more unusual novels published recently, Reyes's Eartheater is a wake-up call to the world about the murder epidemic in Argentina. In an unnamed slum, a young woman eats dirt to conjure visions of missing and murdered citizens. Sparse and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Fake Accounts

  a Novel

  Oyler, Lauren,

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  The perniciousness and pervasiveness of social media is not an unexamined topic, but Oyler's treatment of it yields an urgent, timely comment on private life in the current moment. This biting, witty debut is narrated by an unnamed, aspiring young…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Good Neighbors

  a Novel

  Langan, Sarah,

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  Misfits Arlo and Gertie Wilde move from Brooklyn to an upscale community on Long Island, hoping for a better life for their two children. Although they strive to assimilate, everyone in the community keeps them at arm's length in part because…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The House on Vesper Sands

  O'Donnell, Paraic,

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  On a snowy, quiet London night, a seamstress leaps to her death, a mysterious message stitched into her skin. This is the striking opening act of O'Donnell's atmospheric historical mystery, set in 1893. Gideon Bliss, a sensitive Cambridge dropout,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• No One Is Talking About This

  a Novel

  Lockwood, Patricia,

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  Lockwood's debut novel (after the acclaimed memoir Priestdaddy) delves into modern day experience with poetic, incisive style somewhat reminiscent of the epigrammatic prose of Jenny Offill, the autobiographical fiction of Rachel Cusk. This compact…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Raft of Stars

  A Novel

  Graff, Andrew J.

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  Best friends Fischer ("Fish") and Dale ("Bread") are inseparable and spend the summer of 1994 together, roaming the country around the Northwoods area of Wisconsin. Fish and his grandfather, Teddy, know that Bread's father, Jack, is physically and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Remote Control

  Okorafor, Nnedi,

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  Okorafor's latest book blends plant-inspired science fiction with a fairy tale-like narrative. Sankofa, a girl who has forgotten her name, finds a mysterious seed that gives her deadly powers. Her talents cause fear and awe to follow in her wake.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Removed

  a Novel

  Hobson, Brandon,

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  The Echota family is hoping to reunite once more for their annual bonfire in celebration of their Cherokee heritage and in memory of their departed son, Ray-Ray, who was killed by a police officer. Each member of the family is struggling in their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Two Truths and a Lie

  a Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice

  McGarrahan, Ellen,

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  At a rest stop in Florida in 1976, a pair of law enforcement officers approached a Camaro with three adults and two children sleeping inside. The interaction ended with the two officers shot and killed at close range. In 1990, Ellen McGarrahan, a…Read moreRead more of this annotation