But what if…

 

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Who should read this: fans of Choose Your Own Adventure, poets, nihilists, optimists, history nerds, musicians, and those searching for meaning in life

The story: A child dies shortly after birth, the same child lives to die in adulthood in a mass grave, the same woman, older, has to explain her life to survive, and so it goes on. Will she ever rest in peace? In a series of five books, the same character will die. Between each book is an intermezzo, a what-if, a turning of the die, chance intervenes, and the character lives on through European history spanning three wars, only one cold. With eloquence, the author creates five different lives, all lived by the same woman. Each voice is distinct, each life a new iteration of what was and what could be. The ultimate Choose Your Own Adventure for adults. Continue reading “But what if…” →

Race, Family, and Belonging

9780812993455 With laughter and heartache, Mat Johnson creates a world so absurd it seems unreal, and yet so real, it cannot be ignored. Using humor as an armored shield against deep hurt and questioning, Loving Day is a must-read for anyone who has ever felt they didn’t belong, and didn’t know if there was a home for them to come back to. -BCA

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Unlock the Surreal

oyeyemi

Take a trip into avant-guarde with this luminous collection of stories tenuously connected by keys. Sometimes it is best things are left locked, but in these stories, you will hope that the characters turn the lock, so you can see what might be. Modern fairy tales that read as stories and pieces of art come alive, echoes of surrealist painting, nightmares, and unknown worlds firmly grounded in the real will keep you spellbound. So much to discuss and so much to try to decipher, a literary fiction book club pick that mustn’t be missed. -BCA Continue reading “Unlock the Surreal” →

Two Tales of Two Mothers

ordinary light  the liars club

She was the best of mothers, she was the worst of mothers. She was always present but unknowable, she was unknowable but often present. She was the touchstone of existence, she was the essence of loss. Two extraordinary mothers, two searching daughters, two journeys to take, many questions to be answered. Read them together for a dive into two markedly different worlds, both with daughters trying to make sense of their childhoods as their future depends on it. -Book Club Advisor Continue reading “Two Tales of Two Mothers” →

Epic Love Stories

Escape into these great love stories. Travel through history, feel childhood love growing up , marriage growing stronger, and take a trip back through time that might just change the past.

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II.

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