Great recent titles you may have missed, selected by our librarians.
October-December 2021 Issue
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See also:
- Featured Review: Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
- Nonfiction Recommendations
- Previous Issues
Ahmed, Nawaaz. Radiant Fugitives.
A queer woman living in San Francisco, who is about to give birth, is visited by her younger sister, who does not approve of her lifestyle, and their mother, a Muslim Indian woman dying of cancer.
Al Aswany, Alaa. The Republic of False Truths.
This novel looks at the Egyptian uprising of 2011 through the viewpoints of a number of characters: a general and his rebellious daughter, her medical-student boyfriend, a failed actor, a teacher, an Imam, and others.
Anam, Tahmima. The Startup Wife.
A brilliant young computer coder marries her high school crush after a whirlwind romance; they find work at a tech company, where she creates a social networking app and her husband is given the credit for her achievement. eBook
Arnett, Kristen. With Teeth.
In Florida, a young queer mother of an oddly-behaved son has a difficult relationship with the boy, leading her to question her parenting ability.
Arudpragasam, Anuk. A Passage North.
While on a long train journey to attend the funeral of his grandmother's caretaker, a young Sri Lankan man reflects on his life and the disastrous effects of his country's three-decade civil war. eBook
Austin, Emily. Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead.
After breaking her arm in a car crash, a young woman goes to the emergency room, where she picks up a flyer offering help with anxiety. When she visits the Catholic church where the help is offered, she is mistaken for a job applicant, and becomes their receptionist. eBook, eAudio
Bell, Matt. Appleseed.
This mythological science fiction story looks at Earth's fragility from the points of view of three characters separated by time: a faun who plants apple seeds with his human half-brother in Ohio in the 1700s, a former employee of a huge corporation in the near future who is plotting to destroy it, and a cyborg 1000 years later who/which is trying to regenerate life on the nearly dead planet. eBook, eAudio
Brodie, Emma. Songs in Ursa Major.
In 1969, a young singer-songwriter and her folk rock band become a sudden success at a music festival in New England, leading to a tour and romance with a big star. eBook, eAudio
Chin, YZ. Edge Case.
When her husband suddenly disappears, a young woman must uncover where he went-and who she might be without him-in this striking debut of immigration, identity, and marriage. eBook
Cohen, Joshua. The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family.
This satirical novel is inspired by the experience of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's father, who interviewed for a teaching position at Cornell University in the late 1950's.
Dalton, Trent. All Our Shimmering Skies.
In World War II-era Australia, a girl growing up in the outback goes in search of the Aboriginal elder who put a spell on her family, turning them hard-hearted in revenge for their theft of his ancestors' gold.
Edwards, Louis. Ramadan Ramsey.
A half-Black and half-Syrian boy, raised in New Orleans by his maternal grandmother, travels to the Middle East after she dies to find his father, who he has never met. eBook
El Akkad, Omar. What Strange Paradise.
A nine-year-old Syrian boy accidentally boards a boat carrying refugees to Europe and eventually washes up on a Greek island, the only survivor of the harrowing trip. eBook
Faye, Lyndsay. The King of Infinite Space.
In this fantasy/mystery based loosely on Shakespeare's Hamlet, a young man is anguished by the recent death of his father, supposedly by suicide, as well as the quick remarriage of his mother to her brother-in-law.
Ferrell, Carolyn. Dear Miss Metropolitan.
This novel portrays the experiences and tells the backstories of three young women who are kidnapped and held captive together in the late 1990s. eBook
Frankel, Laurie. One Two Three.
Three young women, triplets, born in a town where run-off from a chemical company poisoned the air, water, and soil, work together to discover the truth when they hear rumors that the company may be planning to reopen the plant. eBook, eAudio
Fung, Pik-Shuen. Ghost Forest.
A young Hong Kong woman who has grown up in Vancouver without her father, who stayed behind to work while the rest of the family immigrated, realizes, when he develops a serious illness, that this may be their only opportunity to have a real relationship before he dies. eBook
Galchen, Rivka. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch.
In this historical novel based on a true story, an old woman in Germany in the 17th Century, Katharina Kepler, is falsely accused of witchcraft and struggles to defend herself. eBook, eAudio
Hoby, Hermione. Virtue.
A recent college graduate becomes an intern at a prestigious literary magazine in New York, where he finds himself trying to choose between two opposite directions in his life: his friendship with a glamorous, wealthy couple; and his desire to be an ally of his only Black coworker, a political activist.
Jin, Ha. A Song Everlasting.
A Chinese man who sings with a state-sponsored choir touring the United States stays behind to perform at a Taiwanese celebration; after he returns to China, his government threatens him with punishment, and he goes back to the U.S., leaving his career and family behind. eBook
Lin, Tom. The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu.
A Chinese man living in the Western United States in the 19th Century swears revenge on the men who beat him, stole his wife, and got him sentenced to 10 years of forced labor building a railroad. eBook
Lippman, Laura, Dream Girl.
In this suspense novel, a writer breaks his leg in a fall, and is cared for at home by his assistant and a nurse. Then he begins to receive phone calls from a woman who claims to be a character from his most successful novel and threatens to blackmail him. eBook, eAudio
McCarthy, Jesse. The Fugitivities.
A young Black American who grew up in Paris becomes disillusioned with his teaching job in Brooklyn, and takes off with an old friend who invites him on a trip to Rio de Janeiro in pursuit of the friend's old flame.
Mendez, Paul. Rainbow Milk.
After opening with the voice of a Jamaican gardener who moved to England in the 1950s, this book moves into the story of a Black teenager in England at the beginning of this century, who, rejected by his parents and their church, moves to London where he can live freely as a gay man. eBook
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. Velvet Was the Night.
In this noir crime novel set in 1971 during the government suppression of student protests in Mexico, two people are looking for a missing college student – her neighbor who she had asked to feed her cat, and a man who works as an enforcer for a right-wing paramilitary group. eBook, eAudio
Offutt, Chris. The Killing Hills.
A military investigator, who's come back home to rural Kentucky to try to patch things up with his estranged wife, helps his sister, the new county sheriff, to deal with her first murder case.
Parker-Chan. Shelley. She Who Became the Sun.
In this historical novel set in China in the 14th Century, a boy is told by a fortune teller that he is destined for greatness. He and his father die shortly after, and his identity and fate are claimed by his sister, who becomes a leader in a rebel army seeking to overthrow the Mongol rulers. eBook, eAudio
Prose, Francine. The Vixen.
In the 1950's, a young Jewish man, recently graduated from Harvard, gets a job in a prestigious publishing house, where he finds himself in a quandary when he is assigned to edit a badly-written anti-communist book based on the lives of the recently-executed Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. eBook
Santlofer, Jonathan. The Last Mona Lisa.
An American art professor with a stalled career searches a library in Florence, Italy for the diary of the man who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911 – a poor workman who was the professor's great-grandfather.
Shriver, Lionel. Should We Stay or Should We Go.
An English couple, after watching their parents experience painful and drawn-out deaths at the end of their lives, swear a pact to commit suicide together when they reach the age of 80. But the book details a dozen possible ways their plan could play out. eBook, eAudio
Spiotta, Dana. Wayward.
In this novel set in Syracuse, New York, a middle-aged woman, outraged by Donald Trump's election to the presidency, joins women's protest groups, buys a rundown historic house, and leaves her husband and daughter. eBook
St. Aubyn, Edward. Double Blind.
In this sensitive and witty novel of ideas, three close friends experience a year of transformation.
Vernon, P. J. Bath Haus: A Thriller.
A gay man is nearly killed by a man he meets at a Washington, D.C. bathhouse, then lies to his partner about how he was injured. eBook
Yoder, Rachel. Nightbitch.
An artist, who gave up her dream job and became a full-time mother when she had a baby, finds herself experiencing bizarre physical changes, and fears that she is turning into a dog. eBook, eAudio