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Mary

Mary likes fiction. Mary will never have time in her life to read all the fiction she would like to read.

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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel By Gabrielle Zevin Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593321201
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Published: Knopf - July 5th, 2022

Zevin combines culture, arts, & literature in the world of game design to tell an outstanding story of friendship that was clever & powerful with many wow moments.


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Tom Lake: A Reese's Book Club Pick By Ann Patchett Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780063327528
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Published: Harper - August 1st, 2023

Like a summer day that you want to savor, Ann Patchett's new novel was engaging and I was so happy in her company.


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The Librarianist: A Novel By Patrick deWitt Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780063085121
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Published: Ecco - July 4th, 2023

Bob is the embodiment of a librarian ~ an introvert who spends his life reading. This novel focuses on the enriching times in Bob's 72 years when he has opened up his life to relationships with quirky, fun characters.


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Yellowface: A Reese's Book Club Pick By R. F. Kuang Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780063250833
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Published: William Morrow - May 16th, 2023

I enjoyed Kuang's satirical takedown of the world of publishing, young authors, cultural appropriation, pressures of creativity, commercialization of art, cancel culture, & the power of social media.


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The Guest: A Novel By Emma Cline Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780812998627
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Published: Random House - May 16th, 2023

Cline's commentary about class and social status is told through the eyes of a 22-year-old fictional character who finds herself in the world of the wealthy.  I found Alex to be an honest narrator despite her behaving dishonestly throughout most of this book.  Her inability to accept defeat despite her many downfalls, makes for an interesting read.  


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I Have Some Questions for You: A Novel By Rebecca Makkai Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593490143
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Published: Viking - February 21st, 2023

Bodie Kane has returned to her New Hampshire boarding school campus to teach a podcast class 20+ years after her graduation.  In a compulsively readable story, she poses questions pertaining to the murder of her classmate & former roommate. Her flashbacks, speculations, and current timeline are all equally engaging.


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Hello Beautiful (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel By Ann Napolitano Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593243732
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Published: The Dial Press - March 14th, 2023

This book will resonate with you if you belong to a large family, or if you ever wished you were surrounded by siblings. If Little Women is one of your favorite books, there is a very good chance you will enjoy this story of the very connected Padavano sisters.  Truly Beautiful.


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This Bird Has Flown: A Novel By Susanna Hoffs Cover Image
$29.00
ISBN: 9780316409315
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Published: Little, Brown and Company - April 4th, 2023

Hoffs (the lead singer from the Bangles) has written a fun, music infused love story reminiscent of Bridget Jones's Diary.  Jane Start is a likeable, spontaneous lead character staying in England working on getting both her music and her personal life back on track.  The story provided the type of escapism we all crave at certain times.


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Lucy by the Sea: A Novel By Elizabeth Strout Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593446089
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Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - September 12th, 2023

Strout's introspective character Lucy Barton is back! I found it so comforting to read about Lucy's reflections on the first year of the pandemic as she departs Manhattan for a house on the coast of Maine where she will live with her ex-husband William.


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Oh William!: A Novel By Elizabeth Strout Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780812989441
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Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - April 26th, 2022

This novel, a continuation of My Name Is Lucy Barton, is about where we come from and how we leave it behind.  And, it's about how some relationships stay with us always.  Simply beautiful!


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My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel By Elizabeth Strout Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780812979527
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Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - October 11th, 2016

Strout's talent has always been her ability to convey multitudes in a simple paragraph.  Lucy Barton starts here & continues in "Oh William!" 


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Our Missing Hearts: Reese's Book Club (A Novel) By Celeste Ng Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593492666
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Published: Penguin Books - August 22nd, 2023

This is a cautionary tale set in the very near future about censorship, exclusion, & fractured families. But it is also a redemptive story about the power of protest & the love of language. Reads like a classic!


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Hourglass By Keiran Goddard Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9781609458171
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Published: Europa Editions - February 14th, 2023

Wow! Spending a few hours reading this book is time well spent. Love, in all its forms, is described with such emotional depth and humor. 


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The Candy House: A Novel By Jennifer Egan Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781476716770
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Published: Scribner - March 7th, 2023

Can you win the Pulitzer twice?  In this perfect companion novel to A Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan is certainly worthy!  She's done it again with a clever & compelling character-driven commentary of our world.  I loved this book!


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A Visit from the Goon Squad: Pulitzer Prize Winner By Jennifer Egan Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780307477477
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Published: Anchor - March 22nd, 2011

Rarely do I love a book so much that I read it twice. This is that book! Egan's book about multiple characters and their connections to the music industry is worthy of all the praise. Ideal to read in concert with her recently released The Candy House.;


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This Time Tomorrow: A Novel By Emma Straub Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525539018
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Published: Riverhead Books - May 16th, 2023

This is a gorgeous father/daughter story about choices we make and what we would change if we could travel back in time.  Straub highlights relationships & fate (two of my favorite topics) in this readable & enjoyable novel.


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All Adults Here: A Read with Jenna Pick (A Novel) By Emma Straub Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781594634703
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Published: Riverhead Books - April 13th, 2021

Fellow bookseller Straub, of Books Are Magic, works her own magic writing a pitch-perfect family novel. Her characters are engaging in all their ways and interactions. 


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Less Is Lost (The Arthur Less Books #2) By Andrew Sean Greer Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780316498913
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Published: Back Bay Books - June 27th, 2023

The beloved Arthur Less from Andrew Sean Greer’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Less is back! He will charm you in his enduring humorous ways as he travels cross country to author-related events in the U.S. To quote Less quoting Meriwether Lewis, “I should be extremely happy in your company.” It is a delightful journey of laugh-out loud moments sprinkled between witty observations. Totally worth the ride.


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Less (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): A Novel (The Arthur Less Books #1) By Andrew Sean Greer Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780316316132
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Published: Back Bay Books - May 22nd, 2018

I quoted this book nonstop!  It made me laugh and was so well-written.  I wanted more!


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The Latecomer: A Novel By Jean Hanff Korelitz Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781250790781
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Published: Celadon Books - June 6th, 2023

While first and foremost this is a story about family, it is about so much more:  art, Brooklyn, New York history, education, beliefs, grief, and growth.  Outstanding!


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The Plot: A Novel By Jean Hanff Korelitz Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250790750
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Published: Celadon Books - May 3rd, 2022

The story of a story that will keep you guessing.  Enjoy Seattle's "cameo" appearance in this novel novel that explores the world of writing & writers.


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The Immortalists By Chloe Benjamin Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780735215092
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Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - February 5th, 2019

In the '60's four young siblings visit a psychic who tells each of them the day they will die.  Would you live your life differently if you knew the date of your death?  Would you want to know?  Free will or fate?  These and other questions are surrounded by beautiful writing that keeps you turning the pages to find the answers.


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The Great Believers: A Novel By Rebecca Makkai Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780735223530
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Penguin Books - June 4th, 2019

This book might break your heart as it beautifully tells a story of AIDS in the 1980's in Chicago but it will also make you reflective on close relationships and what it means to be a family.  Throw in art and Paris to balance it all out.


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Now Is Not the Time to Panic: A Novel By Kevin Wilson Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780062913517
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Published: Ecco - August 1st, 2023

If you enjoyed Wilson's Family Fang, you'll be happy to know that this book returns to the same type of themes. In 1996, 2 quiet teens start hanging out & anonymously hanging their handmade poster around town. It soon takes on a life of its own exploding into a public art project that sparks a pop culture movement that reverberates for many years.


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Pretty Things: A Novel By Janelle Brown Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780525479178
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - April 6th, 2021

This well-written suspense novel uses multiple narrators to keep the story of deceit in the Lake Tahoe setting moving at a page-turning quick pace.  Just the distraction I needed!

 


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The Family Remains: A Novel By Lisa Jewell Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781982178901
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Published: Atria Books - June 6th, 2023

This is a sequel to the Family Upstairs that is just as satisfying.  The setting is London, Nice, & Chicago and centers on the investigation of two murders with all the characters from the original story.


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The Family Upstairs: A Novel By Lisa Jewell Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781501190117
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Atria Books - June 2nd, 2020

The settings of this story - taking place in Nice and London - will provide as much escape as the many surprises within the fast-paced plot. 


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Anxious People: A Novel By Fredrik Backman Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781501160844
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Published: Atria Books - July 6th, 2021

I had Stockholm Syndrome upon reading this book. Being held hostage with these characters was the perfect escape. Laugh, cry, laugh, cry...

 


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Writers & Lovers By Lily King Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780802148544
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Published: Grove Press - February 16th, 2021

Casey has had a few setbacks including the devastating recent loss of her mother. Her writing life, while living in a tiny rental in Cambridge MA, while also supporting herself as a waitress, is compromised, but you will cheer her on! 

 



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The Dictionary of Lost Words: A Novel By Pip Williams Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781984820747
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Published: Ballantine Books - May 3rd, 2022

This book combines the love of language, origins of words, the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, history, and women's place in it for a story to savor.


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Ghosts: A novel By Dolly Alderton Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593313978
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Published: Vintage - July 5th, 2022

Spend a year with this charming character, Nina Dean, as she navigates her 32nd year with humor and perseverance.  I enjoyed this book so much!


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Wayward: A novel By Dana Spiotta Cover Image
$17.00
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9780593312490
Published: Vintage - June 21st, 2022

This is about awareness and one woman's story of fleeing a portion of her life that isn't fulfilling her quest to embrace the ideals that she is passionate about in her 53-year-old coming-of-age story.  It's about mothers & daughters and waking up.


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We Are the Brennans: A Novel By Tracey Lange Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781250796219
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Celadon Books - June 14th, 2022

Told in alternating voices by the members of a close Irish family, this is a story of love, loyalties, & secrets.  Set in New York and the family-run tavern. 


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The Postscript Murders: A Mystery By Elly Griffiths Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780358695226
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Mariner Books - April 5th, 2022

What I liked about this book:

- The mystery writers' world in which it takes place.

- The English seaside & Scotland settings.

- The clever plotting & characters.

- The literary humor.


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Damnation Spring By Ash Davidson Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781982144418
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Scribner - May 3rd, 2022

Ash Davidson has written an authentic story of the Northwest.  When a community in the Redwoods struggles in the '70s to make a living as loggers while being challenged by conservationists, they will confront the local water pollution's effects on their families.  A profound story that will stay with you long after the last page.


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Beautiful World, Where Are You: A Novel By Sally Rooney Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781250859044
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Published: Picador - June 7th, 2022

As always, I so enjoyed spending hours immersed in Rooney's beautiful world of richly described rooms, detailed gestures, and intimate conversations.


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Apples Never Fall By Liane Moriarty Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250220271
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Published: Holt Paperbacks - July 19th, 2022

This is an enticing story told from multiple perspectives back and forth when a stranger comes to town & a year later when someone goes missing in a large tennis-playing family.


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Crossroads: A Novel By Jonathan Franzen Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781250858702
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Published: Picador - October 4th, 2022

I loved this introduction (or re-introduction) to the early 1970's which places the reader in the middle of all the changes the decade brought.  Franzen's novel (the first in a trilogy) also introduces a family of a minister while they each explore their faith and personal beliefs.


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The Sentence: A Novel By Louise Erdrich Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780062671134
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Published: Harper Perennial - September 6th, 2022

Bookseller Tookie is a character you will root for while you spend a year (November 2019 - November 2020) with her and her bookseller friends & family. A special bonus: the author uses her own independent bookshop in Minneapolis as the setting which provides an authentic feeling.


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I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness: A Novel By Claire Vaye Watkins Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593330227
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Published: Riverhead Books - October 4th, 2022

Brutally honest auto-fiction.  Many WOW moments.  Powerfully poetic!


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Violeta [English Edition]: A Novel By Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle (Translated by) Cover Image
By Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle (Translated by)
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593496220
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Published: Ballantine Books - January 24th, 2023

Violeta is a powerful woman whose strength seems to mirror Allende's.  In her trademark narrative in the form of a letter to a loved one, Allende covers 100 years of history (1920-2020).  I learned so much!


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Five Tuesdays in Winter By Lily King Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802159496
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Published: Grove Press - November 1st, 2022

Relationships are the heart of this collection of short stories.  Lily King's honest voice makes you feel you know these characters immediately.  She does it with such finesse.  I will read anything she writes!


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Checkout 19: A Novel By Claire-Louise Bennett Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593420508
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Published: Riverhead Books - February 28th, 2023

There are so many jewels within this book that I want to place it gently in the hands of every bibliophile I meet.  Do you love books?  Claire-Louise Bennett so obviously does and this is her gift to the reader.


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What We Were Promised By Lucy Tan Cover Image
$15.99
ISBN: 9780316437196
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Published: Back Bay Books - August 6th, 2019

This beautifully constructed story is about a sense of place within a country, city, family, and most importantly, a sense of place within one's self. I so enjoyed reading my colleague Lucy's book and learning about Chinese culture and Shanghai. I look forward to reading whatever she writes next!


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Joan Is Okay: A Novel By Weike Wang Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780525563952
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - February 7th, 2023

This little book (weighing just under 1 lb.) blew me away.  Joan's observations as an ICU doctor & introvert are honest & humorous.  Joan is more than okay!


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Happy for You: A Novel By Claire Stanford Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780593298282
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Published: Penguin Books - April 18th, 2023

This is a story that focuses on identity.  Evelyn is a character who spends her time immersed in the philosophy of what we define as happiness.  Evelyn is so enduring & honest, I enjoyed looking at the world from her point of view.


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Goodbye, Vitamin: A Novel By Rachel Khong Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781250182555
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Published: Picador - July 10th, 2018

Khong's character Ruth is quirky and philosophical.  This young talented author possesses the ability to regularly make me laugh or cry in three short sentences.


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Dear Edward: A Novel By Ann Napolitano Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781984854803
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Published: Dial Press Trade Paperback - February 2nd, 2021

This book is about humanity - how we live, how we die, and most importantly when we suffer, how we survive. 


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Unsheltered: A Novel By Barbara Kingsolver Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780062684738
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Published: Harper Perennial - October 15th, 2019

Alternating in time 150 years apart, the main characters inhabit a once utopian village in New Jersey. Kingsolver employs her usual stellar science expertise in this tale of academia and friendship.


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Vigil Harbor: A Novel By Julia Glass Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781101873588
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Published: Anchor - April 25th, 2023

This book takes place about 10 years in the future. Glass examines changes in our world and the small community of Vigil Harbor on the Coast of Massachusetts & NYC. Filled with art, architecture, education, language, environmentalism, activism, & folklore.


Fellowship Point: A Novel By Alice Elliott Dark Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781982131821
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books - May 9th, 2023

I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in the long lives of forever friends Agnes & Polly. This story magnifies the beauty of their neighboring homes on the coast of Maine. These 80-year-olds have weathered it all. The strong characters are feminists & environmentalists who sought to hold on to what & who mattered to each of them.


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Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau By Ben Shattuck Cover Image
$22.95
ISBN: 9781953534040
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Published: Tin House Books - April 19th, 2022

This book is for anyone who enjoys long walks, nature, human interactions, & reflections.  Shattuck's personal journey & illustrations read like a current day Thoreau.


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Year of the Monkey By Patti Smith Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781984898920
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Published: Vintage - September 1st, 2020

Reading this made me want to grab a camera and a journal and go on a journey. Patti Smith pays attention to the little and big things.