Whether you prefer a sexy and satirical read, political and polarizing, or just plain funny, the year’s best releases are guaranteed to hit the nail on the head by providing much-needed escapism while challenging the status quo and sparking timely conversation. The best books of 2017 have guided us through this messy year with the opportunity to see the world beyond our confines, allow us to learn more deeply about the human experience, or simply provide valuable entertainment. We live in hectic times, why not escape for a while with a book?
the future is history: how totalitarianism took russia back by masha gessen
Winner of the 2017 National Book Award for Nonfiction, Gessen’s latest giant book about his native Russia examines the rogue state of Vladimir Putin’s mafia. In his earlier acclaimed biography of Putin, The Man Without a Face, he focused on the leader of the totalitarian regime. She now shifts perspective and focuses on the lives of seven characters affected by the 2012 political crackdown. Gessen herself was forced to move to the United States during this time. (As an aside, when Gessen was editor of vokrug sveta, a popular science magazine, she was fired for refusing to send a reporter to cover Putin’s hang-gliding flight with endangered Siberian cranes. Soon after, she received a phone call from a man claiming to be putin requests an in-person meeting at the kremlin. the caller was in fact putin, and she took the meeting.) all this is to say: there is no better person to help us understand the intricacies of the Russian history, and how it is shaping world politics and American democracy.
You are reading: Top ten books 2017
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sing, unbury, sing for jesmyn ward
In her second national award-winning novel, Ward returns to the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, where her 2011 national award-winning book Salvage the Bones is set before Hurricane Katrina. This time, Ward’s lyrical story revolves around 13-year-old Jojo and his little sister, Kayla, who live with their grandparents, mom and dad. When Jojo and Kayla’s mother, drug addict Leonie, learns that her targeted father is to be released from Parchman Farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, she embarks on a road trip with her children to pick it up. what begins as an attempt to reunite a family ends as an allegory for so much more: the legacy of slavery and poverty in the rural South, the impact of the opioid crisis, and more.
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sagebrush by andy weir
The author of the smash hit The Martian, adapted into the Oscar-nominated hit movie, returns to outer space, this time swapping Mars for the moon as the setting for this near-future heist saga. Artemis, named for the first inhabited city on the moon and humanity’s first colony in the solar system, is home to Jazz Bashara, a shady small-time smuggler and the novel’s unlikely heroine. When Jazz decides to seize an irresistible (and criminal) opportunity, he is inadvertently catapulted into a conspiracy that threatens more than he ever could have imagined.
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they can’t kill us until they kill us for hanif abdurraqib
“It’s one thing to be good at what you do, and it’s another thing to be good and bold enough to have fun while you’re doing it,” says adburraqib of the rapper’s upbeat music in his vivid collection of essays not sure Whether Abdurraqib had fun writing these poignant and important essays, which range from Springsteen’s American Dream and weekend’s sex-obsessed lyrics to eulogies of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, and other Black lives lost to police brutality. but he sure is good at what he does. And by giving us access to his mind, Abdurraqib offers a perspective that connects music, art and memory with the political realities of our time.
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three daughters of eva by elif shafak
when peri nalbantoglu is attacked on the streets of istanbul one morning after a routine stop at starbucks with her daughter, she says nothing to her bourgeois friends at dinner later that night. The attack prompts Peri to recall her days at Oxford University, her crush on a controversial religious studies professor, and her friendship with Shirin, an Iranian atheist, and Mona, a devout Egyptian Muslim. Shafak deftly explores the feminism, religious extremism, and politics of her native Turkey as she alternates between lavish dining and peri college days, all the while keeping the saga alive and compelling.
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heather, the whole by matthew weiner
From the creative genius behind Mad Men comes a chilling novel about the multitudes of the human psyche. weiner introduces us to two disparate worlds: the privileged upper east side of manhattan, where mark and karen breakstone live with their beautiful daughter heather; and the world of former felon, now construction worker, Bobby Harrison from poverty-stricken, New Jersey. Right from the start, we feel like Heather and Bobby’s paths are destined to cross, and they certainly do, with sinister and surprising consequences.
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the state of affairs: rethinking infidelity by esther perel
if the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives, as belgium-born psychotherapist perel believes, what happens when infidelity catapults a couple into total crisis? Perel’s work explores this underlying question. his 2006 book on captive mating, his two ted talks (viewed nearly 20 million times), and the recent podcast where should we start? all urge us to examine the cultural frameworks that shape our romantic expectations. in her opinion, honestly and courageously confronting and discovering the why behind an affair can bring a relationship back from the brink, possibly into a place of erotic rediscovery.
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manhattan beach by jennifer egan
it’s easy to assume that new york’s mystique and vibrancy is created on the island of manhattan itself, though with its clash of wall street bankers, lanky models, dirty college students, and struggling journalists (to name a few of the characters strutting through its streets), all of which Egan has explored in his previous work. On Manhattan Beach, his first novel since winning the 2011 Pulitzer Prize with a visit from the thug squad, explores New York’s maritime history from the depression era to World War II, replete with daring divers, sailors salty, body-sinking longshoremen, proving that it is the shimmering ocean and often murky waterways that surround manhattan that are home to some of the city’s most defining stories.
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oliver sacks river of conscience
Very few people have an asteroid named after them, but very few people have contributed to the understanding of science, medicine, philosophy, and psychology in the way that the late Oliver Sacks did. in the river of consciousness, we catch a glimpse of what he was working on until his death. He examines the fallibility of memory, the nature of creativity, the still monumental ideas of Charles Darwin, and more, all with his characteristic sensitivity and spirit of optimism.
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we were in power for eight years by ta-nehisi coates
This is Coates’ first book after his thought-provoking letter to his son, Between Me and the World. is a collection of his pieces written for the atlantic during obama’s presidency. New introductions to each essay add poignant context to his already electric writing, especially in the wake of President Trump’s election. A particularly interesting essay concerns Coates’s time in Paris. Following in the footsteps of James Baldwin, Coates sought an escape and respite from American racism in France, only to find a different version there, just as ugly. No matter what you think of Coates’s sometimes controversial arguments, there’s no denying his standing as one of America’s foremost intellectuals.
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thank you obama: my hopeful and life changing years in the white house by david litt
Remember when presidents spoke in full sentences instead of insane tweets? former obama speechwriter david litt reflects on a time when fact-checking was an integral part of white house protocol, climate change was recognized as real, and presidents didn’t just attend dinner parties of the white house correspondents, but they also made comedic skits with Keegan-Michael key. In this candid memoir, Litt takes us inside Obamaworld, recalling the electrifying moment he discovered Obama and how he entered the White House at age 24 (one of the youngest speechwriters in White House history). to eventually become Obama’s favorite comedy writer. We take a look at politics as it was under the previous administration and find out why Litt believes the legacy of Barack Obama will endure long after the Donald Trump era.
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stephen colbert’s midnight confessions by stephen colbert and the staff of the late show with stephen colbert
Based on the popular segment of the late show in which Stephen Colbert recreates his most beloved Catholic tradition, Confession, this illustrated collection of Midnight Confessions reveals more of his most embarrassing secrets. (What is his favorite thing to watch in excess? Alcohol going into his own mouth.) True to Colbert form, this book is witty, clever, and funny. And in case he ever asks if he can pet your dog, say no. just asking because the men’s room didn’t have hand towels.
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nicole krauss dark forest
From the best-selling author of the love story comes a moving and riveting tale of two New Yorkers searching for meaning. 68-year-old recently divorced attorney Jules Epstein is giving away most of his money in a quest to rid himself of his possessions. With the latter, he decides to travel to Israel to honor his deceased parents. Simultaneously, novelist Nicole, known for her authentic Jewish characters, leaves her family in Brooklyn and heads to Tel Aviv to write and discuss her failed marriage from afar. What unfolds in Israel irrevocably alters their lives and reveals some of life’s mysteries along the way.
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little fires all over celestial ng
In the progressive little town of Shaker Heights in Cleveland, Ohio, residents are proud of the community they’ve built. it is a place where no one sees race, the neighbors take care of each other and everyone follows the rules. But when a childless couple decides to adopt a Chinese-American baby abandoned at a firehouse, everyone — particularly self-proclaimed town watchdog Elana Richardson and single mom Mia Warren — seem to have mixed opinions about what to expect. it is better for the child. Like NG did in her haunting first novel Everything I Never Told You, she once again weaves together race and identity in America in what is also a compelling story about the nature of secrets and family.
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the golden house of salman rushdie
rushdie’s provocative new novel opens on the historic eve of barack obama’s election. Secretive billionaire Nero Golden and his three children have recently moved into an exclusive community in Greenwich Village where they meet a budding filmmaker, René, the novel’s narrator. René quickly decides that the Dorados are the perfect subject for a mockumentary-style film, and this premise allows him to fully immerse himself in the family’s tense ecosystem. When presidential candidate Gary “Green” Gwynplaine, who calls himself the Prankster, enters the story, things become surprisingly familiar. what follows is a fascinating and timely examination of American politics and values.
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things that happened before the earthquake by chiara barzini
When 15-year-old Eugenia’s family is cast as the face of Italian spam (yes, canned meat), her father, Ettore, decides the next logical step is to call his only contact in Hollywood: Mr. guy who wrote the phil collins song “run to paradise”. And so the family moves from Rome to post-riot Los Angeles in the early 1990s, specifically the less than idyllic San Fernando Valley. Eugenia’s parents quickly begin work on a low-budget psychological horror movie (including a cameo from Johnny Depp). Against this wild backdrop, Eugenia begins her own cultural (and sexual) awakening, which takes her from skipping high school to the counterculture of Topanga Canyon, the Mojave Desert, and beyond. This mesmerizing and audacious first novel is inspired by Barzini’s teenage years in Los Angeles, and the unusual details are unlike anything ever captured in fiction before.
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mrs. fletcher by tom perrotta
you’re my milf! send me a nude photo!! eve fletcher, divorced mom, never, ever received a text like this before. Could it be from one of her son brendan’s friends? what exactly is a milf anyway? A quick Google search catapults Eve into a seemingly endless world of porn; a week later, she has seen more milfateria than she cares to admit. Eve’s discovery of porn propels her to push the limits in real life with exciting and cringe-worthy consequences. Perrotta, author of the bestselling Choice, Toddlers, and Leftovers, once again delivers a riveting story about the longing for human connection and the inherent complications that arise when we challenge the status quo.
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new people from danzy senna
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maria and khalil are the seemingly perfect couple; They are both the same shade of beige, live in a small, culturally elite apartment in Brooklyn, and have been cast in a movie, New People, about biracial relationships. However, for Maria, the thought of a stranger, a poet to whom she has barely addressed three words, transports her to a secret and happy place. And, although she should be in the library working on her dissertation on the Jonestown Massacre, she is forced to walk through the poet’s neighborhood, albeit with disturbing consequences. Senna’s thriller is a poignant exploration of race and identity, and a compelling look at a fantasy unfolding before one’s eyes.
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autumn by karl ove knausgaard
From the author of the six-volume sensation My Struggle comes an autobiographical quartet based on four seasons. Addressed to his unborn daughter, Autumn is like an encyclopedia of everyday things, which Knausgaard suggests are quite extraordinary on closer examination. zooms in on topics and objects like apples, fingers, and gasoline, and less everyday stuff (depending on who you are and where you live) like badgers, beekeeping, and flaubert. knausgaard is polarizing, and fall is sure to stoke the fire for naysayers. Regardless, reading this book, which is also peppered with illustrations by Vanessa Baird, will make you slow down, take a moment, and remember your childhood wonder.
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eastman was here for alex gilvarry
“happiness is a warm phallus. I’ve always thought so,” declares Gilvarry’s protagonist, Allan Eastman, at a cocktail party in Ho Chi Minh City in 1973. May this inappropriate, self-serving, and (highly amusing) hyperbole be an indication of what lies ahead in this novel. satirical about the kind of macho public intellectual, journalist and cultural critic one hopes is a relic of the past. Fortunately, Eastman finds his match in two fascinating women: his second wife, Penny, who leaves him because she claims Eastman has fallen in love with her, and Anne Channing, a brave and principled war correspondent who challenges his misogynistic views. about women and women writers. inspired by norman mailer’s early biography (before he stabbed his second wife), eastman was here is the book mailer might have written had he accepted an assignment to the international herald during the fall of the united states . participation in vietnam.
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sour heart by jenny zhang
Lenny Dunham’s first book at Random House crackles with vivid, vital stories of newly arrived Chinese Americans adjusting to life in New York. Like Zhang herself, many of her characters come to the United States from Shanghai as young children dealing with a foreign language and parents struggling to bridge the cultural gap. In one story, a girl spends lonely afternoons inventing ways she can sacrifice as much as her parents made her to get to America. in another, set in china during the 1966 cultural revolution, gangs of vigilante teens roam the streets enforcing the regime’s toxic and dehumanizing rules, actions that haunt the characters decades later, even after they have escaped across the globe. . these stories are as fresh and lively as they are illuminating.
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what we lose for zinzi clemons
How does place define us and those we love? For Clemmons’ protagonist Thandi, her annual visits to Johannesburg, South Africa, her mother’s birthplace, help shape and confuse her sense of identity. Why do people, including much of her extended South African family, insist on being classified by the color of her skin? On one level, Clemmons subtly examines how location and cultural norms shape identity, while on another, she ponders what it means to lose the person you love most. As Thandi deals with the death of her mother, she invites us to ask ourselves how we want to live and why.
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goodbye vitamin by rachel khong
When her fiancé leaves for another woman, Ruth tentatively accepts her mother’s invitation to come home. But when her father Howard, a revered history professor who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, throws his pants (and most of the rest of his wardrobe) into the lighted Christmas trees lining their street, Ruth begins to realize that this homecoming is not going to be what she expected. As incongruous as it sounds, this is a hilarious story of love, family bonds, and insanity that manages genuine cuteness while being weird and unpredictable in all the best ways.
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moving kings by joshua cohen
david king, a self-described republican jew, is the owner of moving kings, a moving company that increasingly specializes in evicting people from the still ungentrified corners of the tri-state area of new York. When him’s distant cousin yoav and his friend uri’s arrive in new york from israel after completing their mandatory military service, he offers them jobs they’ll be perfect for: kicking out delinquent tenants. But just as they’re adjusting to civilian life, they’re eerily thrust into a revenge-fueled situation reminiscent of the war zone they left behind.
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thank you for paul lynch
This powerful story takes us back to 19th century Ireland. the great famine, which would kill a million people, is imminent. A widow, with four children and another on the way, kicks her eldest daughter, Grace, out of the house to look for work, but not before cutting Grace’s hair and dressing her in men’s clothing for her own protection. Grace is accompanied by her rambunctious younger brother, Colly, who ran away from her to be with her, but not for long. what follows is an epic tale of resistance, which in lynch’s capable hands is heartbreaking and, at the same time, utterly beautiful.
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christopher bollen’s destroyers
ever wanted to fall into the life of a rich friend because he would just solve everything? in this talented mr. A ripley-style thriller, you’ll be transported to the remote and dazzling Greek island of Patmos, where Europe’s dazzling jet set cavorts all summer long. When Ian Bledsoe flees New York after the death of his father, he is reunited with Charlie Konstantinou, his childhood best friend, who Ian hopes has riches to spare. however, like most things that seem too good to be true, there ends up being a sinister twist that shatters his escapist fantasies.
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the ministry of greatest happiness by arundhati roy
Roy’s first novel, the god of small things, set in his homeland of India, was published in 1997 and became a worldwide sensation. It chronicled the lives of Estha and Rahel, seven-year-old twins whose lives were changed one fateful day in 1969. In his second novel, published 20 years later, Roy turns his lens outward to examine the rich but violent history of India and the catastrophic lingering effects of partitioning. Told largely through the eyes of Anjum, a born hermaphrodite, the novel weaves together the personal and the political with powerful results.
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catherine lacey’s answers
mary parsons, a southern christian ex-survivor turned account manager for a new york travel agency, is in desperate need of fast cash to treat her bewildering chronic pain, so she answers a well-paid ad on craigslist to participate in the famous (but very lonely) actor kurt sky. the so-called girlfriend experiment. kurt’s hope? that a series of women playing “girlfriend” roles will give him the “perfect relationship.” sounds weird and surreal? it is. it’s also a hypnotic read about how people aren’t always what they seem.
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magpie murders by anthony horowitz
horowitz is a master of the mystery genre; He created two popular BBC mystery series, Foyle’swar and Midsomermurders, wrote two Sherlock Holmes novels and the successful Alex Rider series. Now, he returns to the setting of some of his most beloved tales, the quaint English town, with a whodunit laden with twists and turns set in the publishing world. there’s a book within a book, also called the magpie murders, written by a fictional mystery writer, and it’s full of clues (if you can find them) from page one.
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diksha basu’s windfall
This cross-cultural comedy of manners set between India and America is about the complex (and hilarious) antics of a family whose patriarch, Mr. jha, intends to ascend in the world. He’s glad he’s put the petty goings-on of his previous community in New Delhi behind him: whispers about who might have stolen the attractive young widow’s yoga pants are exactly the kind of nonsense he hopes to avoid in his posh new neighbourhood. Although money doesn’t necessarily buy jha’s happiness, it does offer readers plenty of laughs and more. It’s coming to the screen soon because anonymous prime content (known from the likes of theknick and truedetective) is making it into a TV series.
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we’ll never meet in real life by samantha irby
It often feels like the phrase “laugh out loud” is thrown back and forth when describing a comic book; seldom does work deliver on promise. Not so in Irby’s wackadoodle, raw and relatable essay book, which is guaranteed to make you laugh for real. irby amassed a cult following with her bitches gotta eat blog, which she wrote while working full time at an animal hospital, and her meaty memoir is being developed for television by inside amy schumer lead writer jessi klein and broad city co-creator/star abbi jacobson. now, in her essay book, irby shares her hilarious application to be a bachelorette contestant, the life lessons she learned from her 14 years at the animal hospital, and what she’s willing to do for love. (Buying and assembling sex-type gear with some barbie-scented latex accessory gives you a taste of what’s to come.)
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dinner and other stories by joshua ferris
Observatory and penetrating, Ferris’s tales expose how tense and emotionally explosive the search for connection with other human beings can be. The memorable lead story caused a stir when it was first published in The New Yorker: The cocky yuppie couple at its core were depicted so vividly and realistically that most New Yorkers feared the story would be based on them. Now, with the addition of his other stories, Ferris reveals his keen ability to depict the intimate minutiae of thought and feeling exchanged within a relationship, the mindless randomness of interacting with strangers, and the alluring fantasy of stepping into someone else’s life. someone else.
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men without women by haruki murakami
Japanese literary legend Haruki Murakami questions the current state of masculinity in his new collection of short stories. Murakami’s men grapple with the universal existential loneliness of being human, but their fears and anxieties are further exacerbated by their emotional disconnection from the women in their lives. Easily embarrassed, stoic Murakami’s men are more comfortable withdrawing from complicated one-on-one confrontations. Reading this book may make you want to shake these characters and say, “Wake up! It’s better to risk being hurt than to stay away from the ones you love.” but maybe that’s the point: we can learn from their mistakes.
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problems of the rich by kevin kwan
The third installment in Kwan’s satirical CrazyRich (Asians) trilogy returns us to the wacky and irresistible world of Singapore’s ultra-rich. The antics of the dazzling and glamorous young clan, traveling (on private jets) from London to Paris to Shanghai and beyond, are made all the more riveting because Kwan insists nothing is made up in his books. This means that pet fish plastic surgeons really do exist! It’s fun facts and bits like these from a world rarely portrayed in mainstream culture that make reading all of Kwan’s books such a voyeuristic pleasure. Soon, however, the whole world will learn a lot more about the scandalous lifestyle of Asia’s rich and famous when the film based on Kwan’s first book, Crazy Rich Asians, hits the big screen.
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w’s uncomfortable thoughts. kamau bell: tales of a 6’4″ black, straight, cisgender, leftist, asthmatic, black, proud blerd, mama’s boy, papa and comedian, by w. kamau bell
w. Kamau Bell never shies away from difficult and uncomfortable questions and situations. On his Emmy-nominated hit show United Shades of America, Bell interviewed white nationalist Richard Spencer and joined KKK members in a controversial exploration of race in America. bell brings this kind of unexpected and shocking storytelling to his book that is part comic memoir, part social commentary, to interrogate today’s most pressing issues. From struggling to find his voice as a black nerd who was also regularly mistaken for a basketball player to his views on interracial marriage, Bell’s perspective is fresh, funny and always illuminating.
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start-up by dorée shafrir
The “demonstration” and “crushing” in Shafrir’s clever and satirical novel about startup culture will have you grinning and groaning as you recognize the antics of its tech-obsessed cast of characters. techie bro mack mcallister, founder of mindfulness app takeoff, is nervous about his second round of funding; Journalist Katya Pasternack is on the hunt for the next viral sensational story; and sabrina chloe blum, mother of two and the unlikely takeoff social media manager, is trying to figure out what twf and lol mean. when some secret and lewd information becomes public, everyone has to calculate the cost of being famous on the internet. startup is obviously written by an insider: shafrir has written for wired and is the lead culture writer at buzzfeed news, and her knack for capturing the world of juice-filled pre-work sunrise raves and sxsw libertine peregrinations, while exposing our collective obsession with technology is a much-needed reflection on our times.
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marlena by julie buntin
“Primitive” is one way to describe Buntin’s surprisingly good first novel, Marlena, which recalls the unfortunate and absorbing year-long friendship between a 15-year-old cat and her 17-year-old neighbor Marlena. The story takes place in northern Michigan, where Buntin grew up, and evokes the “catastrophic sadness” of the end of winter: these kids can’t ski, whose families live on food stamps. instead, it’s drinking mom’s boxed wine, numbing herself with pills, running into meth labs in the woods, and trading advances from men they love and fear. The crux of the story, however, is the intensity of the bond between Cat and Marlena and how certain friendships can distort our lives and shape who we become.
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the book of joan de lidia yuknavitch
With her post-apocalyptic reinvention of Joan of Arc in The Book of Joan, Yuknavitch proves that she can make futuristic fiction as radical, raw, and inventive as her realistic works. The novel begins in 2049. The privileged ruling classes have fled the now radioactive “dying ball of earth” and regrouped on a floating station known as Ciel, ruled by the empire’s leader Jean de Men, who defeated the young rebel Joan in a previous battle. Our narrator and heroine, if we can call her that since she’s mostly genderless, Christine Pizan is the soon-to-be-executed wife of Trinculo Forsythe, who created Ciel. pizan has seared joan’s story into her skin: it is the very story we are reading, and it is how we came to learn about joan’s life. Memorable and alarming, this book will force you to reflect on the ecological issues that threaten our planet’s survival, the fluidity of gender and sexuality, and the sinister ramifications of political theatrics.
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american war for omar el akkad
This first dystopian novel imagines epic civilization shifts. american war imagines a united states (albeit increasingly under water), divided by the second american civil war of 2074-2093. The conflict begins when the president tries to introduce the Sustainable Future Act, designed to ban the use of fossil fuels anywhere in the United States in response to climate change. The southern states of louisiana, arkansas, tennessee, and south carolina want nothing (much of california, nevada, arizona, and west texas have already seceded from the union and are controlled by mexican forces). biological terrorism and war make things even more complicated. Amidst this tumultuous backdrop stands El Akkad’s protagonist, the rugged young nature-loving “Sarat” or Sarah, whose journey through this future world humanizes what would otherwise be a terrifying and unforgiving place. .
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everything is possible by elizabeth strout
Pulitzer Prize-winning
Strout explores (and exposes) the lives of a cast of characters living in a small town in Illinois, the town where the eponymous protagonist of her previous novel, My Name Is Lucy Barton, grew up. Lucy’s memoirs are now for sale at the local bookstore, and as some of the townspeople gobble them up, they face abuse they suspected was going on in Lucy’s house and her siblings, but long ignored. This may sound bleak, however, in Strout’s capable hands it transforms into a poignant examination of the intricacies of human nature, and the beauty of the writing will have you gasping involuntarily.
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rules don’t apply by ariel levy
A self-described professional explorer, Levy likens the exhilaration of orienting herself between new people and new surroundings to the euphoric first few weeks with a new lover: think heightened senses and a heady intensity in the moment. she has traveled the world in search of these unique experiences as a staff writer for the new yorker since 2008, and now she turns her questioning gaze on herself. the results are deep and lasting. From an essay called “Thanksgiving in Mongolia,” Rules Don’t Apply reveals what happens when nature decides to shatter the plans you’ve made and derail what you thought was your life.
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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west exit by mohsin hamid
“In a city full of refugees but still at peace, or at least not openly at war, a young man met a young woman in a classroom and didn’t speak to her.” This opening sentence sets the stage for this quickly told love story between Nadia and Saeed, whose relationship is strained and twisted by war. In this nameless city, suspended somewhere between the past, the present and the future, text messages and an hour a day of internet connection link Nadia and Saeed to the world beyond a home that disintegrates day by day. day. first the rich flee, then communication is interrupted, and as the violence escalates, they must decide how and when to escape their crumbling homeland. This timely novel takes the terrifying reality of war outside your window and makes it deeply personal.
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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celine by peter heller
Though born in New York City, Peter Heller has become a hardened adventurer, eco-pirate and surfer whose life and work have been defined by the remote parts of the world he has explored. In his new Celine crime novel, he returns (momentarily) to the place of his childhood, with a story inspired by the life of his own remarkable mother, a posh private detective who breaks the rules. Celine struggles with issues of family, loss and privilege, and when a photographer’s mutilated body turns up in Yellowstone National Park, a cold trail turns warm and a daughter’s need for the truth heightens the suspense.
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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who thought this was a good idea?: and other questions you should have answers to when you work in the white house by alyssa mastromonaco
How is it that a picky iga girl and public school student from upstate new york, with no ivy league connections or education, ends up a few feet from the oval office, working as the youngest woman in be a deputy? chief of staff to the president of the united states? mastromonaco shares the memories and mishaps that shaped her journey, from desperately trying (and failing) to get a job in politics after college to finding herself joking with obama about her penchant for black turtlenecks. This relatable memoir is packed with juicy roadside stories and crisis management advice, and makes a strong case for embracing a sense of humor in the face of humiliating setbacks.
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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sarah dunn’s arrangement
Have you ever fantasized about “opening up” your relationship or marriage? If so, you can live vicariously through another couple’s experiences in Dunn’s comic novel before putting a spin on it yourself. When Lucy and Owen’s friends reveal they’re giving an open marriage shot at a drunken dinner party, Lucy shudders at the thought. still, she can see the appeal of indulging in a few no-questions-asked dates in the city, just for six months, as an experiment, of course. What could go wrong? This funny and relatable story from the writer who crafted many of the mishap-laden stories in Murphy Brown and Spin City provides the perfect escapist read in these harrowing political times.
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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the refugees by viet thanh nguyen
The versatile Nguyen knows what it means to inhabit a life radically marked by history. In 1975, he and his family came to the United States as refugees from the Vietnam War. His debut novel, The Sympathizer, winner of last year’s Pulitzer Prize, revisited the conflict that changed the trajectory of his life and inserted a much-needed Vietnamese perspective into the largely American-driven narrative. In Refugees, a collection of stories 20 years in the making, gives a voice to the Vietnamese communities in Southern California (where he grew up) and those living in the country he fled from, acknowledging that the ghosts of war echo for generations.
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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lincoln in the bard by george saunders
saunders, the master of strangeness, celebrated for his quirky, witty, and humorous tales, shares his first novel with the world and he doesn’t disappoint. When Saunders discovered that a grief-stricken Abraham Lincoln repeatedly visited the crypt of his 11-year-old son in the days after his death in February 1862, he couldn’t get the image of the grieving father out of his mind. . what results is a playful and poignant supernatural wonder of a novel. taking place during the night that lincoln inhabits the “bardo”, the place of transition between life and death according to tibetan tradition, lincoln is surrounded by ghosts from the past and the present. these ghosts are sexy, rude, mischievous, haughty and shocking. (The audiobook cast, packed to the brim with 166 members, might give you a hint of what lies ahead: Julianne Moore, Susan Sarandon, Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, Carrie Brownstein, Miranda July, Lena Dunham, Jeffrey Drum, Don Cheadle, Patrick Wilson and ben stiller lent their voices to the recording).
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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leave me from melissa febos
Anyone who has read Phoebus’s memoir of her four years working as a professional dominatrix in a downtown Manhattan “dungeon” while in graduate school knows that her work explores boundaries as skillfully as it defies categorization. . In this new collection of essays, she once again erases convention with her intellectually astute and erotically charged recollections of family, relationships, and the search for identity. In Abandon Me, Phoebus interrogates what it means to be the product of a distant sea captain and a psychotherapist, how the mysteries of her childhood shaped her, and how pain, addiction, and the need for human connection forged in her desires and desires so profound. deep. longings.
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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running for cara hoffman
In the 1980s, teenage Cara Hoffman dropped out of college and went to Europe, occasionally sleeping in train stations and stowing away on Venetian water taxis. Just as his funds were running dangerously low, he heard about a place where he could sleep and earn a small commission by working as a “broker” in Greece, that is, walking along trains and luring unsuspecting tourists into cheap hotels. death in the red light district of athens Running, the novel inspired by these experiences, explores the dark and seductive intersections between love and survival. When Hoffman’s three young protagonists inadvertently engage in an act of terrorism, the bonds they have formed are irreversibly fractured and each must bear the cost.
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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pachinko by min jin lee
Thirty years later, Lee’s sweeping multi-generational novel is set in 20th-century Asia and informed by stories he heard about legal and social discrimination against Koreans in Japan, a story largely denied and erased. This story begins with an unplanned pregnancy and the promise of a less shameful life in Japan, and evolves into an addictive family saga filled with forbidden love, the search for belonging, and triumph against all odds.
See Also: Past Life and Reincarnation Books, Ten Great Reads – Owlcation
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angela ledgerwood is the host of illuminated, a podcast about books, writers, and all things literature.
See Also: How to Find a Literary Agent for Your Book | Jane Friedman