October 2021 eBook Staff PicksLike this list

18 items

• Beautiful Country

  A Memoir

  Wang, Qian Julie, 1987-

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  Qian, a Yale-graduated attorney, introduces herself as a young girl along with her family who lived in New York during the 1990s as undocumented immigrants in her memoir. If you are unfamiliar with the lives of immigrants or the undocumented, here…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Beautiful World, Where Are You

  Rooney, Sally,

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  After moving to the west of Ireland, Alice meets a warehouse worker named Simon on a dating app. They hit it off, but Simon's behavior becomes somewhat strange after he learns she's a highly successful novelist. In Dublin, Alice's friend Eileen, a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bombshell

  a Hell's Belles Novel

  MacLean, Sarah,

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  Lady Sesily Talbot has always been the most scandalous of her sisters. And while they've all settled down with husbands and children, Sesily knows that is not the path for her. So, when given the opportunity to join a group of fellow misfits who…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Chosen and the Beautiful

  Vo, Nghi,

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  The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (The Empress of Salt and Fortune) finds all the little crevices in The Great Gatsby where imagination can run wild and fills them with lore, mysteriousness, and enchantment through the perspective of socialite…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Clark and Division

  Hirahara, Naomi, 1962-

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  Rose and Aki are daughters of Japanese immigrant parents who settled in Los Angeles County and lead a mostly happy, fortunate life until they are forced into the Manzanar internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Rose is first to be…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• HARLEM SHUFFLE

  WHITEHEAD, COLSON

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  Whitehead continues to astonish with his range, delivering yet another excellent novel that's dramatically different from his previous work. Here Ray Carney is a self-made family man in late-50s Harlem with one foot in the straight world as a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• If the Shoe Fits: A Meant to Be Novel

  Murphy, Julie

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  Cindy just graduated from design school with a focus on shoes. While figuring out what to do next, she moves in with her stepfamily. When her stepmom, a TV producer, needs replacement contestants for her reality dating show, Before Midnight, Cindy…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina

  a Novel

  Córdova, Zoraida,

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  In her first book for adults, fans of Cordova will recognize the trademark ethereal imagery and supernatural elements of her YA novels. The Montoya family gathers in the enchanted house of their matriarch, Orquidea Divina, as she's about to die.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• King Richard

  Nixon and Watergate--an American Tragedy

  Dobbs, Michael, 1950-

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  President Nixon taped almost everything. Every phone call and conversation made in his principal working areas in the White House and in the nearby Executive Office Building was automatically recorded using a sophisticated taping network. Given his…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Love Songs of W.e.b. Du Bois

  A Novel

  Jeffers, Honorée Fanonne, 1967-

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  Honorée Fanonne Jeffers's debut novel explores themes of caste, color, education, love, abuse, betrayal, and hope for a family. This is a very long book, but as you're reading it, you want to tell the protagonists to take their time; to get the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Magician

  a Novel

  Tóibín, Colm, 1955-

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  As in The Master, his acclaimed and wonderful novel about the writer Henry James, Toibin centers The Magician on the life of a real writer, Thomas Mann (the German author of Death in Venice), in this sweeping biographical fiction. Mann lived through…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Martita, I Remember You

  Martita, Te Recuerdo

  Cisneros, Sandra,

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  In this short novella, a Chicago woman named Corina rediscovers a cache of old letters that transport her back to her youthful adventures in Paris when she dreamed of establishing a literary career. There, as a young Mexican American who struggles…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Matrix

  Groff, Lauren,

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  Set in 12th-century Europe, Matrix was inspired by Marie de France, the first known female French poet. There is very little known about Marie de France, but Groff has constructed a vivid and sensual novel of what her life may have been. Eleanor of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• My Heart Is a Chainsaw

  Jones, Stephen Graham, 1972-

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  Teenager Jade Daniels is obsessed with slasher movies. She knows them all and is fascinated by the intense desire for revenge that drives the killers. She, too, has plenty to be angry about: an abusive father, an absent mother, and a depressing home…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Nightbitch

  a Novel

  Yoder, Rachel, 1978-

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  Yoder's debut channels maternal rage into a darkly humorous and fierce magical realism tale about a mother who transforms into a dog. An unnamed young mother from a suburban enclave who is feeling mentally crushed by stay-at-home motherhood notices…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Poet Warrior

  a Memoir

  Harjo, Joy,

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  U.S. Poet Laureate Harjo's latest memoir weaves together narrative storytelling and poetry to create a beautiful rendering of her life. The six distinct parts reflect on everything from her childhood to what she has learned throughout the years from…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Razorblade Tears

  a Novel

  Cosby, S. A.,

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  The latest novel by the author of the acclaimed Blacktop Wasteland features unlikely partners in crime: Ike and Buddy Lee, who have both been striving to leave their criminal pasts behind them. But when their adult sons are targeted and murdered as…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Three Girls From Bronzeville

  A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood

  Turner, Dawn,

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  Dawn Turner, her sister Kim and her best friend Debra were once children together in the same apartment building in 1970s Bronzeville but had wildly divergent fates in life. Turner, a novelist, journalist and commentator (well-known in Chicago for…Read moreRead more of this annotation