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The Geography of Desire: A Memoir of West AfricaIt's 1978, and twenty-four-year-old Linda Gambill is stuck with a dead-end job, a nightly marijuana habit, and a troubled relationship with a former professor. Desperate to explore the world and find her place in it, she makes good on a long-held dream. She joins the Peace Corps. A year later, she arrives in Medina, a devout Muslim village in The Gambia, West Africa. She's tasked with teaching health and nutrition to the village women, but they have no confidence in a young white woman trying to change their ways. Instead of finding a sense of belonging, Linda becomes so depressed she can barely leave her hut. When tragedy strikes, her perspective shifts from self-absorption to service. She learns the local language, forges friendships, and begins to make her mark on the village, all the while falling in love with two very different men. But it is only when a coup breaks out that the course of her life becomes clear. Richly sensual and poignant, The Geography of Desire is the story of one woman's transformative journey amidst the challenges and beauty of West Africa, showing how the people we set out to change, in the end, change us.
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Accidental TribesFROM AWARD-WINNING, BESTSELLING AUTHOR C.S. PASCOAL An acclaimed tale for teenagers and adults about eight misfit teens judged by their online mistakes as they search for belonging, second chances, and the courage to trust each other. "Original, exceptional, and a riveting read from start to finish. The kind that keeps young readers fully engaged from beginning to end." Midwest Book Review "Fast-paced and compelling, perfect for teens who want fiction grounded in the realities of the twenty-first century." The Children's Book Review Eight kids nobody trusted. One room everyone forgot. Secrets the school was hiding. At an underfunded public school in Times Square, eight teens facing expulsion or worse are given one last chance: Experiment 359, a thirty-day test designed to prove they can change. Hacked grades. AI-generated humiliation. Anonymous social media accounts. One disastrous week that put them all in the same room. They aren't friends. Some are enemies. And none of them trusts the others. Then they uncover something no one expected them to find. The deeper they dig, the stranger things get. To save themselves, eight outsiders who can barely look at one another will have to do the one thing nobody expects. Trust each other. Because the eight are about to discover one thing no one warned them about: they aren't the only ones being tested. Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying and Truly Devious, Accidental Tribes is a sharp, funny, digital-age YA coming-of-age mystery book about misfit teens, online identity, grief, second chances, secrets, and the unexpected family you find when everything goes wrong. "This book is bold, heartfelt, and unforgettable." Horror Writers Association
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Where Sleeping Girls LieA girl new to boarding school discovers dark secrets after her roommate disappears, in this "beautifully written coming-of-age mystery that should appeal to fans of Tiffany Jackson, Kara Thomas, and Jumata Emill." (Shelf Awareness, starred review) Finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards! After being home-schooled, Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school. Misfortune has been a constant companion throughout her life, but even she doesn’t expect her new roommate, Elizabeth, to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think she had something to do with it. With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the girls known as the Unholy Trinity. Between learning more about them—especially Persephone, who Sade is inexplicably drawn to—and playing catchup in class, Sade already has so much on her plate. But the police are hardly looking into what happened to Elizabeth, so it's up to her and Elizabeth's best friend, Baz, to investigate. And then a student is found dead. As Sade and Baz try to make sense of it all, she realizes there’s more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she thought. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface…Secrets that rival even her own. Running a book club?
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The Death of Mrs. WestawayINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A New York Public Library Best Book of 2019 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game comes Ruth Ware’s fourth novel, “her best yet” (Library Journal, starred review). On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money. Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it. Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, this is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time. - 6.
Muñeca"Filled with longing and desire, Muñeca explores the true cost of freedom and the lengths we go to attain it. Cynthia Gómez's writing is utterly hypnotic; from the very beginning, she had me completely under her spell." —Monika Kim, author of Eyes are the Best Part A vivid, surreal Gothic about a queer, Latine, working class witch who sets out to rescue a bespelled heiress and loses control of her powers and her heart in the process. It is 1968 Oakland, and Natalia Fuentes has been hearing rumors about the beautiful Violeta Miramontes. The young heiress to Spanish colonial wealth has been left paralyzed by a mysterious illness. But Nati knows a thing or two about witchcraft, and she is certain that this is the work of dark magic. Armed with a plan to break the spell and earn a handsome reward, Nati works her way into the house as Violeta’s caretaker, and immediately discovers her suspicions are true. But who cursed Violeta? And why? As feelings between the two women bloom into romance, Nati grows more and more reckless, and is forced to face her own ghosts— ones she hoped would stay gone forever. Riveting and richly layered, Muñeca explores how far one will go to save the person they love—even if that means damning themselves. Cynthia Gómez fills her debut novel with moments that chill your bones and warm your heart, a razor-sharp examination of deep-rooted issues that will haunt readers long after the last page is turned. - 7.
Bug Hollow: A Novel“Perfectly captures the unpredictability of life . . . Right down to its final moments, Huneven casually offers up little revelations that crunch as sweet and tart as pomegranate seeds.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post “Instantly seduces even the most news-addled reader with its lovely, lucid prose, its spot-on period details and superb gift for description . . . Huneven remains a compassionate guide through the secrets and lies, betrayals and chance encounters, losses and disappointments that buffet this broken and remade family over time." —Helen Schulman, New York Times Book Review Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus and Oprah Daily A decades-spanning family saga featuring the messy but loving Samuelson clan trying to make sense of the world after one event changes their lives forever When Sally Samuelson was eight years old, her golden boy brother, Ellis, went missing the summer he graduated from high school. Ellis finally turned up at the bucolic Bug Hollow, a last gasp of the beautiful Northern California counterculture of the seventies. He had found joy in the communal life there, but died in a freak accident weeks later. From that point, the world of the Samuelsons never spins on the same axis, especially after Julia, Ellis’s girlfriend from Bug Hollow, shows up pregnant on their doorstep. Each Samuelson has sought their own solace: Sybil Samuelson pours herself into teaching and numbing her pain after the loss of her beloved son; her husband, Phil, had found respite in a love that developed while he was working as an engineer in Saudi Arabia; Katie, the high-achieving middle Samuelson, comes home to try and make peace with her mother after a cancer diagnosis. And Sally has become the de facto caretaker to Eva, the child Ellis never knew. Michelle Huneven is “known for five enthralling novels, which chronicle the lives of middle-class Americans in her lushly conjured native California, as her characters struggle with addiction, excruciating romances, and resounding losses as they continue to seek meaning and a way to be good” (American Academy of Arts and Letters). She captures the Samuelson clan with glorious precision and the deepest empathy as they fracture and rebuild again and again. - 8.
This Cursed HouseOne of Esquire's Best Horror Books of 2024 One of Crime Reads' Best Gothic Novels of 2024 In this Southern gothic horror debut, a young Black woman abandons her life in 1960s Chicago for a position with a mysterious family in New Orleans, only to discover the dark truth: They’re under a curse, and they think she can break it. In the fall of 1962, twenty-seven-year-old Jemma Barker is desperate to escape her life in Chicago—and the spirits she has always been able to see. When she receives an unexpected job offer from the Duchon family in New Orleans, she accepts, thinking it is her chance to start over. But Jemma discovers that the Duchon family isn’t what it seems. Light enough to pass as white, the Black family members look down on brown-skinned Jemma. Their tenuous hold on reality extends to all the members of their eccentric clan, from haughty grandmother Honorine to beautiful yet inscrutable cousin Fosette. And soon the shocking truth comes out: The Duchons are under a curse. And they think Jemma has the power to break it. As Jemma wrestles with the gift she’s run from all her life, she unravels deeper and more disturbing secrets about the mysterious Duchons. Secrets that stretch back over a century. Secrets that bind her to their fate if she fails. Reading with a group?
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The Eyes Are the Best Part: Deluxe Limited Edition“Violent, smart, gruesome and wildly original, this novel pulls readers into a horrific world of murder and cannibalism while also critiquing misogyny, exploring Asian fetishization and stereotypes, sharing what it’s like to navigate two cultures and telling a touching story of a family in turmoil.” —New York Times Book Review * TIME MAGAZINE 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024 * BRAM STOKER AWARD WINNER * SHIRLEY JACKSON AWARD FINALIST * Crying in H-Mart meets My Sister, the Serial Killer in this feminist psychological horror about the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective. Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying . . . yet enticing. In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that. For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated. A brilliantly inventive, subversive novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more. - 10.
The PenelopiadA feminist retelling of Homer's The Odyssey by the international best-selling author of The Handmaid's Tale. Penelope. Immortalised in legend and myth as the devoted wife of the glorious Odysseus, silently weaving and unpicking and weaving again as she waits for her husband's return. Now Penelope wanders the underworld, spinning a different kind of thread: her own side of the story - a tale of lust, greed and murder. The Myths series brings together some of the world's finest writers, each of whom has retold a myth in a contemporary and memorable way. Authors in the series include Karen Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, David Grossman, Natsuo Kirino, Alexander McCall Smith, Philip Pullman, Ali Smith and Jeanette Winterson.