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Leaving Time (with bonus novella Larger Than Life): A Novel#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deeply moving, gripping, and intelligent page-turner about a daughter’s search for her mother, Leaving Time is Jodi Picoult at the height of her powers. Includes the novella Larger Than Life Throughout her blockbuster career, Jodi Picoult has seamlessly blended nuanced characters, riveting plots, and rich prose, brilliantly creating stories that “not only provoke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us” (The Boston Globe). Now, in Leaving Time, she has delivered a book unlike anything she’s written before. For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe she was abandoned, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts. Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest: Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons, only to later doubt her gifts, and Virgil Stanhope, the jaded private detective who’d originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers. As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish. Praise for Leaving Time “Piercing and uplifting . . . a smart, accessible yarn with a suspenseful puzzle at its core.”—The Boston Globe “Poignant . . . an entertaining tale about parental love, friendship, loss.”—The Washington Post “A riveting drama.”—Us Weekly “[A] moving tale.”—People “A fast-paced, surprise-ending mystery.”—USA Today “In Jenna, [Jodi] Picoult has created an unforgettable character who will easily endear herself to each and every reader. . . . Leaving Time may be her finest work yet.”—Bookreporter “[A] captivating and emotional story.”—BookPage - 12.
Mrs. Dalloway: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)In this vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of preparation for a party while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she readies her house for friends and neighbors, she is flooded with remembrances of the past--the passionate loves of her carefree youth, her practical choice of husband, and the approach and retreat of war. And, met with the realities of the present, Clarissa reexamines the choices that brought her there, hesitantly looking ahead to the unfamiliar work of growing old.
From the introspective Clarissa, to the lover who never fully recovered from her rejection, to a war-ravaged stranger in the park, the characters and scope of Mrs. Dalloway reshape our sense of ordinary life and reshaped English literature as we know it.
"Perhaps her masterpiece...Exquisite and superbly constructed...Required like most writers to choose between the surface and the depths as the basis of her operations, she chooses the surface and then burrows in as far as she can." -E. M. Forster
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The Halloween TreeMake storytime a little spookier with fantasy master Ray Bradbury as he takes readers on a riveting trip though space and time to discover the true origins of Halloween. Join the shadowy Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud as he takes eight trick-or-treaters on an unforgettable journey to find their missing friend, Pip. Travel through space and time, from the tombs of ancient Egypt to the gargoyles of Notre-Dame Cathedral, all the way to the cemeteries of Mexico on el Día de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Is Pip still alive? And if so, can his friends save him from a ghastly fate before it’s too late? "If you want to know what Halloween is, or if you simply want an eerie adventure, take this mystery history trip. You couldn't ask for better than master fantasizer Ray Bradbury." --The Boston Globe - 14.
The Castle of OtrantoThe Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. It is generally regarded as the first gothic novel, initiating a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th and early 19th century, with authors such as Charles Maturin, Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and Daphne du Maurier. Running a book club?
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Get Started- 15.
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. Reading with a group?
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Set Up Your Club- 19.
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. - 20.
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.