Laurie Gelman

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Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Pennsylvania

A Novel

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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Amy Tan

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Minnesota

On an ill-fated art expedition, eleven Americans find themselves deep in the Burmese jungle, where they encounter a tribe awaiting a leader and the mystical book of wisdom that will protect them from the Myanmar military regime.

Saving Fish from Drowning

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Jean Meltzer

Florida

Oy! to the world Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she's hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach. But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah's not magical. It's not merry. It's not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel's determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy--Jacob Greenberg. Though Rachel and Jacob haven't seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah--and Jacob--in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze.

The Matzah Ball

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Ethan Joella

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

North Carolina

"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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Nikki May

New Jersey

"An incisive and exhilarating debut novel following three Anglo-Nigerian best friends and the lethally glamorous fourth woman who infiltrates their group-the most unforgettable girls since Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha"--

Wahala

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#hardcover #fiction #bookofthemonth #botm #contemporaryfiction 

From Matthew Quick, the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook--made into the Academy Award-winning movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper--comes a poignant and hopeful novel about a widower who takes in a grieving teenager and inspires a magical revival in their small town.

Lucas Goodgame lives in Majestic, Pennsylvania, a quaint suburb that has been torn apart by a recent tragedy. Everyone in Majestic sees Lucas as a hero--everyone, that is, except Lucas himself. Insisting that his deceased wife, Darcy, visits him every night in the form of an angel, Lucas spends his time writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl. It is only when Eli, an eighteen-year-old young man whom the community has ostracized, begins camping out in Lucas's backyard that an unlikely alliance takes shape and the two embark on a journey to heal their neighbors and, most importantly, themselves.

From Matthew Quick, whose work has been described by the Boston Herald as "like going to your favorite restaurant. You just know it is going to be good," We Are the Light is an unforgettable novel about the quicksand of grief and the daily miracle of love. The humorous, soul-baring story of Lucas Goodgame offers an antidote to toxic masculinity and celebrates the healing power of art. In this tale that will stay with you long after the final page is turned, Quick reminds us that life is full of guardian angels.

We Are the Light

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Laurie Frankel

California

The Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick “Every once in a while, I read a book that opens my eyes in a way I never expected.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine book pick) People Magazine’s Top 10 Books of 2017 Amazon’s Best Books of 2017: Top 20 Amazon’s Best Literature and Fiction of 2017 Bustle’s 17 Books Every Woman Should Read From 2017 PopSugar’s Our Favorite Books of the Year (So Far) Refinery29's Best Books of the Year So Far BookBrowse’s The 20 Best Books of 2017 Pacific Northwest Book Awards Finalist The Globe and Mail's Top 100 Books of 2017 “It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think.” —Liane Moriarty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Little Lies This is how a family keeps a secret...and how that secret ends up keeping them. This is how a family lives happily ever after...until happily ever after becomes complicated. This is how children change...and then change the world. This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes. Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.

This Is How It Always Is

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#paperback #veteran #christianfiction #homelandheroes #restoration #childabuse #contemporaryfiction 

Michigan

Can Chris forgive the unforgivable?If not, is she willing to pay the cost? A cost that may be more than she ever imagined . . . There's nothing Chris McIntyre hates more than child abuse. And now one of the children at Kimberley Square's new gymnasium is showing the signs---signs Chris knows all too well. With no evidence to take to the police, the tough-as-nails former soldier knows it's time to take matters into her own hands. But her anger at the abuser goes deeper than defending an innocent child. Memories haunt Chris---memories of her own childhood and her own father. As these memories locked inside her well up into a rage that threatens to consume her, she finds it impossible to forgive. But how can she continue as a Christian while harboring hatred in her heart? One remarkable man may hold the answers to help Chris sort through the agonizing secrets of her past. To help her find a road to peace. But the route threatens to take her to a place she thought she'd never again have to go---a place she swore she'd die before ever seeing again.

Valiant Hope

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#paperback #fiction #silversparrow #nytbestsellingauthor #contemporaryfiction #tayarijones #blackfamilies #family 

From the New York Times Bestselling Author of An American Marriage “A love story . . . Full of perverse wisdom and proud joy . . . Jones’s skill for wry understatement never wavers.” —O: The Oprah Magazine “Silver Sparrow will break your heart before you even know it. Tayari Jones has written a novel filled with characters I’ll never forget. This is a book I’ll read more than once.” —Judy Blume With the opening line of Silver Sparrow, "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist," author Tayari Jones unveils a breathtaking story about a man's deception, a family's complicity, and the two teenage girls caught in the middle. Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon's two families—the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode. This is the third stunning novel from an author deemed "one of the most important writers of her generation" (the Atlanta Journal Constitution).

Silver Sparrow

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Ruth Hogan

Never read. Has some shelf wear on the corners  and scuffs on the dust jacket. 

A “subtle and poignant” novel about unexpected friendships, second chances, and dark secrets—from the international bestselling author behind The Keeper of Lost Things (Good Housekeeping)

“Despite tackling such huge topics as bereavement and cancer, Hogan’s work is filled with hope and the power of friendship.” —Evening Standard

They say friends make life worth living...

Once a spirited, independent woman with a rebellious streak, Masha’s life was forever changed by a tragic event twelve years ago. Unable to let go of her grief, she finds comfort in her faithful canine companion Haizum, and peace in the quiet lanes of her town’s swimming pool. Almost without her realizing it, her life has shuddered to a halt.

It’s only when Masha begins an unlikely friendship with the mysterious Sally Red Shoes—a bag lady with a prodigious voice and a penchant for saying just what she means—that a new world of possibilities opens up: new friendships, new opportunities, and even a chance for new love. For the first time in years, Masha has the chance to start living again.

But just as Masha dares to imagine the future, her past comes roaring back.

Like her beloved debut, The Keeper of Lost Things, Ruth Hogan’s second novel introduces a cast of wonderful characters, both ordinary and charmingly eccentric, who lead us through a moving exploration of the simple human connections that unite us all.

Ruth Hogan, the international bestselling author behind the The Keeper of Lost Things returns with an irresistible novel of unexpected friendships, second chances—and dark secrets... They say friends make life worth living... Once a spirited, independent woman with a rebellious streak, Masha's life was forever changed by a tragic event twelve years ago. Unable to let go of her grief, she finds comfort in her faithful canine companion Haizum, and peace in the quiet lanes of her town's swimming pool. Almost without her realizing it, her life has shuddered to a halt. It’s only when Masha begins an unlikely friendship with the mysterious Sally Red Shoes, a bag lady with a prodigious voice and a penchant for saying just what she means, that a new world of possibilities opens up: new friendships, new opportunities, and even a chance for new love. For the first time in years, Masha has the chance to start living again. But just as Masha dares to imagine the future, her past comes roaring back... Like her beloved debut, The Keeper of Lost Things, Ruth Hogan's second novel introduces a cast of wonderful characters, both ordinary and charmingly eccentric, who lead us through a moving exploration of the simple human connections that unite us all.

The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes

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#kevinkwain #contemporaryfiction #sexandvanity #fiction #paperback 

Kentucky

Instant New York Times bestseller One of Time's 100 Must Read Books of the Year A truly modern love story you won't be able to put down.--CNN The author of the New York Times bestselling phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians takes you from Capri to NYC where Lucie Tang Churchill finds herself torn between two men--and two very different cultures. On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can't stand him. She can't stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can't stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can't stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte. Your mother is Chinese so it's no surprise you'd be attracted to someone like him, Charlotte teases. The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and ultimately herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world--and her heart. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.

Sex and Vanity

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James Kelman

Maryland

James Kelman's inimitable voice brings the stories of lost men to light in these twenty one tales of down on their luck antiheroes who wander, drink, hatch plans, ponder existence, and survive in an unwelcoming and often comic world. Keep Moving and No Questions is a collection of the finest examples of Kelman's facility with dialog, stream of conscious narrative, and sharp cultural observation. Class is always central in these brief glimpses of men abiding the hands they've been dealt. An ideal introduction to Kelman's work and a wonderful edition for fans and Kelman completionists, this lovely vollume will make clear why James Kelman is known as the greatest living modernist writer.

Keep Moving and No Questions

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Jill Santopolo

Ohio

The Light We Lost mixes with a touch of Daisy Jones and the Six in this novel of first love, passion, and the power of choice--and how we cannot escape the people we are meant to be. Two loves. Two choices. One chance to follow her dreams. Emily has come a long way since she lost her two passions fifteen years ago: music, and Rob. She's a psychologist at NYU who helps troubled college students like the one she once was. Together with her caring doctor husband, Ezra, she has a beautiful life. They're happy. They hope to start a family. But when a tragic event in Emily's present too closely echoes her past, and parts of her story that she'd hoped never to share come to light, her perfect life is suddenly upturned. Then Emily hears a song on the radio about the woman who got away. The melody and voice are hauntingly familiar. Could it be? As Emily's past passions come roaring back into her life, she'll find herself asking: Who is she meant to be? Who is she meant to love?

Everything After

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Nicholas Sparks

Nebraska

Divorced and disillusioned about relationships, Theresa Osborne is jogging when she finds a bottle on the beach. Inside is a letter of love and longing to "Catherine," signed simply "Garrett." Challenged by the mystery and pulled by emotions she doesn't fully understand, Theresa begins a search for this man that will change her life. What happens to her is unexpected, perhaps miraculous-an encounter that embraces all our hopes for finding someone special, for having a love that is timeless and everlasting.... Nicholas Sparks exquisitely chronicles the human heart. In his first bestselling novel, The Notebook, he created a testament to romantic love that touched readers around the world. Now in this New York Times bestseller, he renews our faith in destiny, in the ability of lovers to find each other no matter where, no matter when...

Message in a Bottle

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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?

The SEAL's Secret Child

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#paperback #fiction #youngadult #juvenilefiction #ya #contemporaryfiction #teen #ages14-17 #friendships #booktomovie  

Mississippi

After she dies in a car crash, teenaged Samantha relives the day of her death over and over again until, on the seventh day, she finally discovers a way to save herself.

Before I Fall

ea5877b5-dba0-43e5-abca-8f5c37b4e9ca-1

#paperback #fiction #lifelessons #love #family #hearttouching #contemporaryfiction #familyfiction 

For fans of Maria Semple and Rainbow Rowell, a comedy-drama for the digital age: an epistolary debut novel about the ties that bind and break our hearts. Iris Massey is gone. But she's left something behind. For four years, Iris Massey worked side by side with PR maven Smith Simonyi, helping clients perfect their brands. But Iris has died, taken by terminal illness at only thirty-three. Adrift without his friend and colleague, Smith is surprised to discover that in her last six months, Iris created a blog filled with sharp and often funny musings on the end of a life not quite fulfilled. She also made one final request: for Smith to get her posts published as a book. With the help of his charmingly eager, if overbearingly forthright, new intern Carl, Smith tackles the task of fulfilling Iris's last wish. Before he can do so, though, he must get the approval of Iris' big sister Jade, an haute cuisine chef who's been knocked sideways by her loss. Each carrying their own baggage, Smith and Jade end up on a collision course with their own unresolved pasts and with each other. Told in a series of e-mails, blog posts, online therapy submissions, text messages, legal correspondence, home-rental bookings, and other snippets of our virtual lives, When You Read This is a deft, captivating romantic comedy--funny, tragic, surprising, and bittersweet--that candidly reveals how we find new beginnings after loss.

When You Read This

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#hardcover #fiction #newrelease #contemporaryfiction #funny #carolynprusa #prince #aardvark 

New York

Perfect for fans of Maria Semple and Jennifer Weiner, this smart and witty debut novel follows Ramona through the forty-eight hours after her life has been upended by the discovery of her husband's affair and an approaching Category Four hurricane.

Ramona's got a bratty boss, a toddler teetering through toilet training, a critical mom who doesn't mind sharing, and oops--a cheating husband. That's how a Category Four hurricane bearing down on her life in Savannah becomes just another item on her to-do list. In the next forty-eight hours she'll add a neighborhood child and the class guinea pig named Clarence Thomas to her entourage as she struggles to evacuate town.

Ignoring the persistent glow of her minivan's check engine light, Ramona navigates police check points, bathroom emergencies, demands from her boss, and torrential downpours while fielding calls and apology texts from her cheating husband and longing for the days when her life was like a Prince song, full of sexy creativity and joy.

Thoroughly entertaining and completely relatable, None of This Would Have Happened if Prince Were Alive is the hilarious, heartwarming story of a woman up to her elbows in calamities and about to drive off the brink of the rest of her life.

None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive

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Jonathan Safran Foer

Oskar Schell, the 9-year-old son of a man killed in the World Trade Center attacks, searches the five boroughs of New York City for a lock that fits a key his father left behind. Reissue.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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#paperback #booktomovie #contemporaryfiction #extremelyloudandincrediblyclose #jonathansafranfoer #adventure #fiction 

Texas

Kansas

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

#hardcover #fiction #contemporaryfiction #drama #family #historicalfiction #newbook #haiti 

Illinois

A novel about one family wading through the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010, from the acclaimed author who has been compared to Toni Morrison "at the height of her power" (Harper's Bazaar)--a haunting and astonishing story of restoration and disaster, motherhood, and the bonds that carry through generations.  

Genevieve, a single mother, flies from New York to Port-au-Prince with her teenage son, Miles. The trip is meant to be an education for fifteen-year-old Miles--a chance to learn about his family's roots while coming to terms with his father's departure--but it's also an excuse for Genevieve to escape the city, where her life is dominated by her failed marriage and the daily pressures of raising Black children in America. For Genevieve, the journey is also a homecoming of sorts: An opportunity to visit the island she remembers from childhood and reconnect with family. But when the country is rocked by a massive earthquake--decimating the city and putting their lives at risk--their visit becomes a nightmare of survival.
 
Written before the horrific earthquake that struck Haiti in 2021, The Garden of Broken Things delivers readers beyond the headlines and into the shattered world of a distant family--coming together, forced apart--suddenly brought to the brink.
 

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Save this search

Laurie Gelman

Class Mom

Amy Tan

Saving Fish from Drowning

Jean Meltzer

The Matzah Ball

Ethan Joella

A Little Hope

Nikki May

Wahala

Matthew Quick

We Are the Light

Laurie Frankel

This Is How It Always Is

Donna Fleisher

Valiant Hope

Tayari Jones

Silver Sparrow

Ruth Hogan

The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes

Kevin Kwan

Sex and Vanity

James Kelman

Keep Moving and No Questions

Jill Santopolo

Everything After

Nicholas Sparks

Message in a Bottle

Elisabeth Rees

The SEAL's Secret Child

Lauren Oliver

Before I Fall

Mary Adkins

When You Read This

Carolyn Prusa

None of This Would Have Happened If Prince Were Alive

Ethan Joella

A Little Hope

Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Laurie Gelman

Class Mom

Amy Tan

Saving Fish from Drowning

Francesca Momplaisir

The Garden of Broken Things