#hardcover #fiction #maisycard #generational #caribbeanliterature #contemporaryfiction #debut #diverse 

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

A Novel

*An Entertainment Weekly, Millions, and LitHub Most-Anticipated Book of 2020 pick* *A Rumpus and Electric Literature Most-Anticipated Debut of 2020 pick* *A Ms. Magazine Top Feminist Book Coming Out in 2020* *A BookRiot Best Book Club Pick of 2020* *A Celadon Books Most-Anticipated Novel of 2020* *A Lily Top Book to Read by Women in 2020 Selection* *A Buzz Magazine Top New Book of the New Decade* *A She Reads Most-Anticipated Historical Fiction Pick of 2020* A transporting debut novel that reveals the ways in which a Jamaican family forms and fractures over generations, in the tradition of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Stanford Solomon has a shocking, thirty-year-old secret. And it’s about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley, a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend. And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead. These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel’s decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present day Harlem. There is Vera, whose widowhood forced her into the role of single mother. There are two daughters and a granddaughter who have never known they are related. And there are others, like the house boy who loved Vera, whose lives might have taken different courses if not for Abel Paisley’s actions. These Ghosts Are Family explores the ways each character wrestles with their ghosts and struggles to forge independent identities outside of the family and their trauma. The result is an engrossing portrait of a family and individuals caught in the sweep of history, slavery, migration, and the more personal dramas of infidelity, lost love, and regret. This electric and luminous family saga announces the arrival of a new American talent.

These Ghosts Are Family

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#hardcover #fiction #contemporaryfiction 

Laurie Gelman’s clever debut novel about a year in the life of a kindergarten class mom—a brilliant send-up of the petty and surprisingly cutthroat terrain of parent politics. Jen Dixon is not your typical Kansas City kindergarten class mom—or mom in general. Jen already has two college-age daughters by two different (probably) musicians, and it’s her second time around the class mom block with five-year-old Max—this time with a husband and father by her side. Though her best friend and PTA President sees her as the “wisest” candidate for the job (or oldest), not all of the other parents agree. From recording parents’ response times to her emails about helping in the classroom, to requesting contributions of “special” brownies for curriculum night, not all of Jen’s methods win approval from the other moms. Throw in an old flame from Jen’s past, a hyper-sensitive “allergy mom,” a surprisingly sexy kindergarten teacher, and an impossible-to-please Real Housewife-wannabe, causing problems at every turn, and the job really becomes much more than she signed up for. Relatable, irreverent, and hilarious in the spirit of Maria Semple, Class Mom is a fresh, welcome voice in fiction—the kind of novel that real moms clamor for, and a vicarious thrill-read for all mothers, who will be laughing as they are liberated by Gelman’s acerbic truths.

Class Mom

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#hardcover #fiction #philadelphia #addiction #family #chicklit #contemporaryfiction 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Struggling with the demands of her job, distant husband, spoiled daughter and Alzheimer's patient father, Allison becomes addicted to painkillers and lands in rehab, where amid fellow inpatients she confronts incompatible recovery techniques, barely trained counselors and her own denial. By the best-selling author of In Her Shoes.

All Fall Down

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#hardcover #fiction #youngadult #ya #firstedition #youngadultfiction #contemporary #contemporaryfiction 

The lives of four high school seniors intersect weeks before a meteor is set to pass through Earth's orbit, with a 66.6% chance of striking and destroying all life on the planet. Simultaneous eBook.

We All Looked Up

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#hardcover #contemporaryfiction #fiction #funny 

Call it fate Call it synchronicity Call it an act of God Call it . . . The Good Luck of Right Now For thirty-eight years, Bartholomew Neil has lived with his mother. When she gets sick and dies, he has no idea how to be on his own. His redheaded grief counselor, Wendy, says he needs to find his flock and leave the nest. But how does a man whose whole life has been grounded in his mom, Saturday Mass, and the library learn how to fly? Bartholomew thinks he's found a clue when he discovers a "Free Tibet" letter from Richard Gere hidden in his mother's underwear drawer. In her final days, Mom called him Richard—there must be a cosmic connection. Believing that the actor is meant to help him, Bartholomew awkwardly starts his new life by writing Richard Gere a series of letters. Jung and the Dalai Lama, philosophy and faith, alien abduction and cat telepathy, the Catholic Church and the mystery of women, are all explored in his soul-baring epistles. But mostly the letters reveal one man's heartbreakingly earnest attempt to assemble a family of his own. A struggling priest, a "Girlbrarian," her feline-loving, foulmouthed brother, and the spirit of Richard Gere join the quest to help Bartholomew. In a rented Ford Focus, they travel to Canada to see the Cat Parliament and find Bartholomew's biological father . . . and discover so much more.

The Good Luck of Right Now

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#hardcover #fiction #comedy #contemporary #contemporaryfiction #funny 

"Torday is a singular American writer with a big heart and a real love for the world. He has the rare gift for writing dynamic action scenes while being genuinely funny." --George Saunders

Bluegrass musician, former journalist and editor, and now PhD in English, Mark Brumfeld has arrived at his thirties with significant debt and no steady prospects. His girlfriend Cassie--a punk bassist in an all-female band, who fled her Midwestern childhood for a new identity--finds work at a "new media" company. When Cassie refuses his marriage proposal, Mark leaves New York and returns to the basement of his childhood home in the Baltimore suburbs.

Desperate and humiliated, Mark begins to post a series of online video monologues that critique Baby Boomers and their powerful hold on the job market. But as his videos go viral, and while Cassie starts to build her career, Mark loses control of what he began--with consequences that ensnare them in a matter of national security.

Told through the perspectives of Mark, Cassie, and Mark's mother, Julia, a child of the '60s whose life is more conventional than she ever imagined,Boomer1is timely, suspenseful, and in every line alert to the siren song of endless opportunity that beckons and beguiles all of us.

Boomer1

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#hardcover #fiction #beachread #romance #theperfectcouple #elinhilderbrand #contemporary #contemporaryfiction 

From New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand, comes a novel about the many ways family can fill our lives with love...if they don't kill us first. It's Nantucket wedding season, also known as summer-the sight of a bride racing down Main Street is as common as the sun setting at Madaket Beach. The Otis-Winbury wedding promises to be an event to remember: the groom's wealthy parents have spared no expense to host a lavish ceremony at their oceanfront estate. But it's going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony-and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield-and no couple is perfect. Featuring beloved characters from The Castaways, Beautiful Day, and A Summer Affair, The Perfect Couple proves once again that Elin Hilderbrand is the queen of the summer beach read.

The Perfect Couple

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#hardcover #fiction #robertobalano #youth #adventure #sexualadventure #contemporaryfiction

From a master of contemporary fiction, a tale of bohemian youth on the make in Mexico City Two young poets, Jan and Remo, find themselves adrift in Mexico City. Obsessed with poetry, and, above all, with science fiction, they are eager to forge a life in the literary world--or sacrifice themselves to it. Roberto Bolaño's The Spirit of Science Fiction is a story of youth hungry for revolution, notoriety, and sexual adventure, as they work to construct a reality out of the fragments of their dreams. But as close as these friends are, the city tugs them in opposite directions. Jan withdraws from the world, shutting himself in their shared rooftop apartment where he feverishly composes fan letters to the stars of science fiction and dreams of cosmonauts and Nazis. Meanwhile, Remo runs headfirst into the future, spending his days and nights with a circle of wild young writers, seeking pleasure in the city's labyrinthine streets, rundown cafés, and murky bathhouses. This kaleidoscopic work of strange and tender beauty is a fitting introduction for readers uninitiated into the thrills of Roberto Bolaño's fiction, and an indispensable addition to an ecstatic and transgressive body of work.

The Spirit of Science Fiction

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#hardcover #fiction #contemporaryfiction #bookofthemonth #botm #family #drama #life 

"How do you hold onto hope in a difficult time? In the small city of Wharton, Connecticut, lives are beginning to unravel. A woman loses the love of her life. A son struggles with addiction. A widow misses her late spouse. A husband betrays his wife. At the heart of these interlinking stories is one couple: Freddie and Greg Tyler. Greg has just been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a brutal form of cancer. He has never been dependent or weak, and wants to overcome this the way he has succeeded at everything else: through grit and determination. But can Greg fight his illness? How will Freddie and their daughter cope if he doesn't? How do the other residents of Wharton learn to live with loss and to find happiness again? A debut that pulls at the heartstrings and immerses readers in a community, A Little Hope broadcasts the joy and hope to be found in the everyday acts of loving, forgiving, and surviving"--

A Little Hope

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#fiction #hardcover #mothersandchildren #womensfriendship #suemonkkidd #bestseller #womensfiction #contemporaryfiction #themermaidchair

Jessie Sullivan is summoned home to tiny Egret Island, where she meets Brother Thomas, a monk who is about to take his final vows, and encounters the legend of a mysterious chair dedicated to a saint who had originally been a mermaid.

The Mermaid Chair

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#hardcover #bestseller #fiction #ivypochoda #contemporaryfiction

NPR Best Book of 2017 Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Pick Refinery29 Best Book of the Year BOLO Books Top Read of 2017 “Destined to be a classic L.A. novel.”—Michael Connelly When a teen runs away from his father’s mysterious commune, he sets in motion a domino effect that will connect six characters desperate for hope and love, set across the sun-bleached canvas of Los Angeles. From the acclaimed author of Visitation Street, a visionary portrait of contemporary Los Angeles in all its facets, from the Mojave Desert to the Pacific, from the 110 to Skid Row. During a typically crowded morning commute, a naked runner is dodging between the stalled cars. The strange sight makes the local news and captures the imaginations of a stunning cast of misfits and lost souls. There's Ren, just out of juvie, who travels to LA in search of his mother. There's Owen and James, teenage twins who live in a desert commune, where their father, a self-proclaimed healer, holds a powerful sway over his disciples. There's Britt, who shows up at the commune harboring a dark secret. There's Tony, a bored and unhappy lawyer who is inspired by the runner. And there's Blake, a drifter hiding in the desert, doing his best to fight off his most violent instincts. Their lives will all intertwine and come crashing together in a shocking way, one that could only happen in this enchanting, dangerous city. Wonder Valley is a swirling mix of angst, violence, heartache, and yearning—a masterpiece by a writer on the rise.

Wonder Valley

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#youngadult #contemporaryfiction #bookofthemonth #family #hardcover #whenwewerevikings #ya 

a novel

When we were Vikings 

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Two teenagers on vacation switch houses for the summer. They keep each other up to date on what's going on in their hometown and fall in love, despite never having met in real life. Will their relationship survive the summer with a thousand miles between them? #fiction #ya #paperback #youngadult #love #contemporary #contemporaryfiction 

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

In Your Room

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#hardcover #fiction #abroad #college #katiecrouch #contemporaryfiction #newyork 

"A young English woman studying abroad in Italy is murdered under bizarre circumstances"--

Abroad

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#hardcover #fiction #ifonlyicouldtellyou #botm #contemporary #family #contemporaryfiction #familydrama 

If Only I Could Tell You

#hardcover #paperback #adultbooks #contemporaryfiction #fiction #lgbt #nonbinary #queer #family #romance 

A "big-hearted, lively, and expansive portrait of a family" that follows a neurodivergent father, his nonbinary teenager, and the sudden, catastrophic reappearance of the woman who abandoned them (Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author).



Morgan Flowers just wants to hide. Raised by their neurodivergent father, Morgan has grown up haunted by the absence of their mysterious mother Zoe, especially now, as they navigate their gender identity and the turmoil of first love. Their father Julian has raised Morgan with care, but he can't quite fill the gap left by the dazzling and destructive Zoe, who fled to Europe on Morgan's first birthday. And when Zoe is dumped by her girlfriend Brigid, she suddenly comes crashing back into Morgan and Julian's lives, poised to disrupt the fragile peace they have so carefully cultivated.



Through it all, Julian and Brigid have become unlikely pen-pals and friends, united by the knowledge of what it's like to love and lose Zoe; they both know that she hasn't changed. Despite the red flags, Morgan is swiftly drawn into Zoe's glittering orbit and into a series of harmful missteps, and Brigid may be the only link that can pull them back from the edge. A story of betrayal and trauma alongside queer love and resilience, ALL THE THINGS WE DON'T TALK ABOUT is a celebration of and a reckoning with the power and unintentional pain of a thoroughly modern family.

 

All the Things We Don't Talk About

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#hardcover #fiction #contemporaryfiction #familydrama #botm

“Therese Anne Fowler has taken the ingredients of racism, justice, and conservative religion and has concocted a feast of a read: compelling, heartbreaking, and inevitable. I finished A Good Neighborhood in a single sitting. Yes, it’s that good.” —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light A provocative contemporary novel that examines the American dream through the lens of two families living side by side in an idyllic neighborhood, and the one summer that changes their lives irrevocably, from the New York Times bestselling author of Z and A Well-Behaved Woman. In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door—an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter. Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he's made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. Their new house is more than she ever imagined for herself, and who wouldn't want to live in Oak Knoll? But with little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers. Told in multiple points of view, A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today — what does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye? — as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful. Praise for A Good Neighborhood: "A Good Neighborhood is my favorite kind of novel — compelling, complicated, timely, and smart. With great humanity, Therese Anne Fowler imparts a full-hearted, unflinching indictment of a broken system and in so doing tells a story hard to put down and hard to forget." —Laurie Frankel, bestselling author of This is How it Always Is

A Good Neighborhood

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#paperback #fiction #contemporaryfiction #family #marriage

This clever and witty debut novel about the unexpected consequences of one woman’s attempt to exert control over her life by adhering to a strict wellness routine is “the kind of book you devour in a day or two…sexy and funny, but also very perceptive” (BuzzFeed). Kit and David were college sweethearts. Now married and in their thirties, they live in Kit’s childhood home in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. While David has a successful career, jetting off on work trips to exciting destinations, Kit is stuck in a loop. She keeps quitting her job managing her sister’s bakery to seek a more ambitious profession, but fear of failure always brings her back to Sweet Cheeks. Kit finds a fraught solace in cycling through fad diets, which David, in his efforts to be supportive, follows along with her. Their latest program is the Radiant Regimen, an intense cleanse, and Kit is optimistic about embarking on a new chapter of healthy eating and self-control. Hungry in more ways than one, she soon falls into a flirtation with a carpenter named Matt who is building new shelves for the bakery kitchen. Unable to resist their mutual attraction, Kit and Matt soon begin a passionate affair. Kit suppresses her guilt by obsessing over her diet, pushing herself in greater extremes. Told in precise, intimate detail, Cheat Day is “an incredibly likable novel of hungers controlled and liberated, and marriage’s gray areas” (Booklist) that explores monogamy versus monotony, deprivation versus indulgence, and limitations of modern wellness.

Cheat Day

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#fiction #family #relationships #contemporaryfiction #annaquindlen

Every Last One

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#hardcover #fiction #suspensethrillers #mystery #everythingwedidntsay #contemporaryfiction #thriller #botm 

Everything We Didn’t Say

#fiction #hardcover #youngadult #ya #youngadultfiction #thriller #comingofage #contemporaryfiction #yacontemporary #newadult

Tourmaline Harris and Virginia Campbell, two teenagers from opposite sides of the track, join forces to overthrow the people in their southern Virginia town who exploit them.

Done Dirt Cheap

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#hardcover #fiction #botm #contemporary #family #familydrama #contemporaryfiction 

SHIELDING HIS FAMILY 

Defending an accused kidnapper could get attorney Josie Bishop killed—but facing the father of her child for the first time in seven years could destroy her heart. Yet when her ex-fiancé, former SEAL Edward "Blade" Harding, shows up at her door ready to offer his protection, she can't deny him. Nor can she deny him the chance to know their son. Then shots are fired at Josie's home and a brick is thrown through her window with a scrawled note that says "Drop the case or pay the price." Now Blade is more determined than ever to protect his newfound family at all costs. But can he overcome his past mistakes in order to make sure they survive their present…and possibly have a future together? #paperback #contemporaryfiction #adventure 

SHIELDING HIS FAMILY Defending an accused kidnapper could get attorney Josie Bishop killed--but facing the father of her child for the first time in seven years could destroy her heart. Yet when her ex-fianc�, former SEAL Edward "Blade" Harding, shows up at her door ready to offer his protection, she can't deny him. Nor can she deny him the chance to know their son. Then shots are fired at Josie's home and a brick is thrown through her window with a scrawled note that says "Drop the case or pay the price." Now Blade is more determined than ever to protect his newfound family at all costs. But can he overcome his past mistakes in order to make sure they survive their present...and possibly have a future together?

Maisy Card

These Ghosts Are Family

Laurie Gelman

Class Mom

Jennifer Weiner

All Fall Down

Tommy Wallach

We All Looked Up

Matthew Quick

The Good Luck of Right Now

Daniel Torday

Boomer1

Elin Hilderbrand

The Perfect Couple

Roberto Bolaño; Natasha Wimmer (Translator); Roberto Bolaño

The Spirit of Science Fiction

Ethan Joella

A Little Hope

Sue Monk Kidd

The Mermaid Chair

Ivy Pochoda

Wonder Valley

Laurie Gelman

Class Mom

Andrew David MacDonald

When we were Vikings

Jordanna Fraiberg

In Your Room

Katie Crouch

Abroad

Hannah Beckerman

If Only I Could Tell You

Amy Feltman

All the Things We Don't Talk About

Therese Anne Fowler

A Good Neighborhood

Liv Stratman

Cheat Day

Anna Quindlen

Every Last One

Nicole Baart

Everything We Didn’t Say

Sarah Nicole Lemon

Done Dirt Cheap

Hannah Beckerman

If Only I Could Tell You

Elisabeth Rees

The SEAL's Secret Child