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social justice

Rosa Parks Day

Rosa Parks Day promotes equal opportunities, civil rights, and fairness across communities in the U.S. Celebrate by reading about Rosa Parks and the history of the civil rights movement.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come by Todd S. Purdum A top Washington journalist recounts the dramatic political battle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law that created modern America, on the fiftieth anniversary of its passage It was a turbulent time in America--a time of sit-ins, freedom rides, a March on Washington and a governor standing in the schoolhouse door--when John F. Kennedy sent Congress a bill to bar racial discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations. Countless civil rights measures had died on Capitol Hill in the past. But this one was different because, as one influential senator put it, it was "an idea whose time has come." In a powerful narrative layered with revealing detail, Todd S. Purdum tells the story of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recreating the legislative maneuvering and the larger-than-life characters who made its passage possible. From the Kennedy brothers to Lyndon Johnson, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Hubert Humphrey and Everett Dirksen, Purdum shows how these all-too-human figures managed, in just over a year, to create a bill that prompted the longest filibuster in the history of the U.S. Senate yet was ultimately adopted with overwhelming bipartisan support. He evokes the high purpose and low dealings that marked the creation of this monumental law, drawing on extensive archival research and dozens of new interviews that bring to life this signal achievement in American history. Often hailed as the most important law of the past century, the Civil Rights Act stands as a lesson for our own troubled times about what is possible when patience, bipartisanship, and decency rule the day.
The Summer That Didn't End by Len Holt; Julian Bond (Introduction by) During the summer of 1964, America suddenly lost its innocence. By October, as a terrible by product of the Freedom Summer Project in Mississippi, there had been fifteen murders--including those of the three young civil-rights workers in Neshoba County. The Summer That Didn't End , originally published in 1965, was the first book to tell the full story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Project. Len Holt was a young black lawyer who was involved in the training sessions of the volunteers and personally investigated the lynchings in Neshoba County. He set out to answer the most difficult question evoked by the killings: Why did the federal government offer no protection to the freedom workers? What, indeed, was the role of the federal government in the South? And why did the FBI refuse to aid the investigation until it was too late? But Holt has plenty to say on the positive side of the Project as well. He points to the freedom schools, the white community project, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and how the focus on the state forced the situation in Mississippi to become a part of the national consciousness. Long out of print, this undiscovered classic is a powerful, distressing, yet hopeful book, written with the passion born of life-endangering participation, and thoroughly documented with eight appendices of invaluable source material.
The Bill of the Century by Clay Risen The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the single most important piece of legislation passed by Congress in American history. This one law so dramatically altered American society that, looking back, it seems preordained-as Everett Dirksen, the GOP leader in the Senate and a key supporter of the bill, said, "no force is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." But there was nothing predestined about the victory: a phalanx of powerful senators, pledging to "fight to the death" for segregation, launched the longest filibuster in American history to defeat it. The bill's passage has often been credited to the political leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, or the moral force of Martin Luther King. Yet as Clay Risen shows, the battle for the Civil Rights Act was a story much bigger than those two men. It was a broad, epic struggle, a sweeping tale of unceasing grassroots activism, ringing speeches, backroom deal-making and finally, hand-to-hand legislative combat. The larger-than-life cast of characters ranges from Senate lions like Mike Mansfield and Strom Thurmond to NAACP lobbyist Charles Mitchell, called "the 101st senator" for his Capitol Hill clout, and industrialist J. Irwin Miller, who helped mobilize a powerful religious coalition for the bill. The "idea whose time had come" would never have arrived without pressure from the streets and shrewd leadership in Congress--all captured in Risen's vivid narrative. This critical turning point in American history has never been thoroughly explored in a full-length account. Now,New York Times editor and acclaimed author Clay Risen delivers the full story, in all its complexity and drama.
Life upon These Shores by Henry Louis Gates Henry Louis Gates, Jr., gives us a sumptuously illustrated landmark book tracing African American history from the arrival of the conquistadors to the election of Barack Obama. Informed by the latest, sometimes provocative scholarship and including more than seven hundred images--ancient maps, fine art, documents, photographs, cartoons, posters--Life Upon These Shores focuses on defining events, debates, and controversies, as well as the signal achievements of people famous and obscure. Gates takes us from the sixteenth century through the ordeal of slavery, from the Civil War and Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era and the Great Migration; from the civil rights and black nationalist movements through the age of hip-hop to the Joshua generation. By documenting and illuminating the sheer diversity of African American involvement in American history, society, politics, and culture, Gates bracingly disabuses us of the presumption of a single "black experience." Life Upon These Shores is a book of major importance, a breathtaking tour de force of the historical imagination.
Lighting the Fires of Freedom by Janet Dewart Bell Recommended by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Book Riot and Autostraddle Nominated for a 2019 NAACP Image Award, a groundbreaking collection of profiles of African American women leaders in the twentieth-century fight for civil rights During the Civil Rights Movement, African American women did not stand on ceremony; they simply did the work that needed to be done. Yet despite their significant contributions at all levels of the movement, they remain mostly invisible to the larger public. Beyond Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, most Americans would be hard-pressed to name other leaders at the community, local, and national levels. In Lighting the Fires of Freedom Janet Dewart Bell shines a light on women's all-too-often overlooked achievements in the Movement. Through wide-ranging conversations with nine women, several now in their nineties with decades of untold stories, we hear what ignited and fueled their activism, as Bell vividly captures their inspiring voices. Lighting the Fires of Freedom offers these deeply personal and intimate accounts of extraordinary struggles for justice that resulted in profound social change, stories that are vital and relevant today. A vital document for understanding the Civil Rights Movement, Lighting the Fires of Freedom is an enduring testament to the vitality of women's leadership during one of the most dramatic periods of American history.
A More Beautiful and Terrible History by Jeanne Theoharis Praised by The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; Bitch Magazine; Slate; Publishers Weekly; and more, this is "a bracing corrective to a national mythology" (New York Times) around the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement has become national legend, lauded by presidents from Reagan to Obama to Trump, as proof of the power of American democracy. This fable, featuring dreamy heroes and accidental heroines, has shuttered the movement firmly in the past, whitewashed the forces that stood in its way, and diminished its scope. And it is used perniciously in our own times to chastise present-day movements and obscure contemporary injustice. In A More Beautiful and Terrible History award-winning historian Jeanne Theoharis dissects this national myth-making, teasing apart the accepted stories to show them in a strikingly different light. We see Rosa Parks not simply as a bus lady but a lifelong criminal justice activist and radical; Martin Luther King, Jr. as not only challenging Southern sheriffs but Northern liberals, too; and Coretta Scott King not only as a "helpmate" but a lifelong economic justice and peace activist who pushed her husband's activism in these directions. Moving from "the histories we get" to "the histories we need," Theoharis challenges nine key aspects of the fable to reveal the diversity of people, especially women and young people, who led the movement; the work and disruption it took; the role of the media and "polite racism" in maintaining injustice; and the immense barriers and repression activists faced. Theoharis makes us reckon with the fact that far from being acceptable, passive or unified, the civil rights movement was unpopular, disruptive, and courageously persevering. Activists embraced an expansive vision of justice--which a majority of Americans opposed and which the federal government feared. By showing us the complex reality of the movement, the power of its organizing, and the beauty and scope of the vision, Theoharis proves that there was nothing natural or inevitable about the progress that occurred. A More Beautiful and Terrible History will change our historical frame, revealing the richness of our civil rights legacy, the uncomfortable mirror it holds to the nation, and the crucial work that remains to be done.
The Autobiography of Medgar Evers by Manning Marable; Myrlie Evers-Williams On the evening of June 12, 1963--the day President John F. Kennedy gave his most impassioned speech about the need for interracial tolerance --Medgar Evers, the NAACP’s first field secretary in Mississippi, was shot and killed by an assassin’s bullet in his driveway. The still-smoking gun--bearing the fingerprints of Byron De La Beckwith, a staunch white supremacist--was recovered moments later in some nearby bushes. Still, Beckwith remained free for over thirty years, until Evers’s widow finally forced the Mississippi courts to bring him to justice. The Autobiography of Medgar Evers tells the full story of one the greatest leaders of the civil rights movement, bringing his achievement to life for a new generation. Although Evers’s memory has remained a force in the civil rights movement, the legal battles surrounding his death have too often overshadowed the example and inspiration of his life.Myrlie Evers-Williams and Manning Marable have assembled the previously untouched cache of Medgar’s personal documents, writings, and speeches. These remarkable pieces range from Medgar’s monthly reports to the NAACP to his correspondence with luminaries of the time such as Robert Carter, General Counsel for the NAACP in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. Most important of all are the recollections of Myrlie Evers, combined with letters from her personal collection. These documents and memories form the backbone of The Autobiography of Medgar Evers -- a cohesive narrative detailing the rise and tragic death of a civil rights hero.
Showdown by Wil Haygood Thurgood Marshall brought down the separate-but-equal doctrine, integrated schools, and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets. In this stunning new biography, award-winning author Wil Haygood surpasses the emotional impact of his inspiring best seller The Butler to detail the life and career of one of the most transformative legal minds of the past one hundred years. Using the framework of the dramatic, contentious five-day Senate hearing to confirm Marshall as the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Haygood creates a provocative and moving look at Marshall's life as well as the politicians, lawyers, activists, and others who shaped--or desperately tried to stop--the civil rights movement of the twentieth century: President Lyndon Johnson; Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., whose scandals almost cost Marshall the Supreme Court judgeship; Harry and Harriette Moore, the Florida NAACP workers killed by the KKK; Justice J. Waties Waring, a racist lawyer from South Carolina, who, after being appointed to the federal court, became such a champion of civil rights that he was forced to flee the South; John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy; Senator Strom Thurmond, the renowned racist from South Carolina, who had a secret black mistress and child; North Carolina senator Sam Ervin, who tried to use his Constitutional expertise to block Marshall's appointment; Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who stated that segregation was "the law of nature, the law of God"; Arkansas senator John McClellan, who, as a boy, after Teddy Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, wrote a prize-winning school essay proclaiming that Roosevelt had destroyed the integrity of the presidency; and so many others. This galvanizing book makes clear that it is impossible to overestimate Thurgood Marshall's lasting influence on the racial politics of our nation.
Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King Devil in the Grove, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, is a gripping true story of racism, murder, rape, and the law. It brings to light one of the most dramatic court cases in American history, and offers a rare and revealing portrait of Thurgood Marshall that the world has never seen before. As Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns did for the story of America's black migration, Gilbert King's Devil in the Grove does for this great untold story of American legal history, a dangerous and uncertain case from the days immediately before Brown v. Board of Education in which the young civil rights attorney Marshall risked his life to defend a boy slated for the electric chair--saving him, against all odds, from being sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.
Young Thurgood by Larry S. Gibson; Thurgood Marshall (Foreword by) Like the movie Marshall, this book--the only biography of Thurgood Marshall to be endorsed by Marshall's immediate family--focuses on his early civil rights struggles and successes before Brown v. Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall was the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century. He transformed the nation's legal landscape by challenging the racial segregation that had relegated millions to second-class citizenship. He won twenty-nine of thirty-three cases before the United States Supreme Court, was a federal appeals court judge, served as the US solicitor general, and, for twenty-four years, sat on the Supreme Court. Marshall is best known for achievements after he relocated to New York in 1936 to work for the NAACP. But Marshall's personality, attitudes, priorities, and work habits had crystallized during earlier years in Maryland. This work is the first close examination of the formative period in Marshall's life. As the author shows, Thurgood Marshall was a fascinating man of contrasts. He fought for racial justice without becoming a racist. Simultaneously idealistic and pragmatic, Marshall was a passionate advocate, yet he maintained friendly relationships with his opponents. Young Thurgood reveals how Marshall's distinctive traits were molded by events, people, and circumstances early in his life. Professor Gibson presents fresh information about Marshall's family, youth, and education. He describes Marshall's key mentors, the special impact of his high school and college competitive debating, his struggles to establish a law practice during the Great Depression, and his first civil rights cases. The author sheds new light on the NAACP and its first lawsuits in the campaign that led to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision. He also corrects some of the often-repeated stories about Marshall that are inaccurate. The only biography of Thurgood Marshall to be endorsed by Marshall's immediate family, Young Thurgood is an exhaustively researched and engagingly written work that everyone interested in law, civil rights, American history, and biography will want to read.
A Defiant Life by Howard Ball Thurgood Marshall's extraordinary contribution to civil rights and overcoming racism is more topical than ever, as the national debate on race and the overturning of affirmative action policies make headlines nationwide. Howard Ball, author of eighteen books on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary, has done copious research for this incisive biography to present an authoritative portrait of Marshall the jurist. Born to a middle-class black family in "Jim Crow" Baltimore at the turn of the century, Marshall's race informed his worldview from an early age. He was rejected by the University of Maryland Law School because of the color of his skin. He then attended Howard University's Law School, where his racial consciousness was awakened by the brilliant lawyer and activist Charlie Houston. Marshall suddenly knew what he wanted to be: a civil rights lawyer, one of Houston's "social engineers." As the chief attorney for the NAACP, he developed the strategy for the legal challenge to racial discrimination. His soaring achievements and his lasting impact on the nation's legal system--as the NAACP's advocate, as a federal appeals court judge, as President Lyndon Johnson's solicitor general, and finally as the first African American Supreme Court Justice--are symbolized by Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that ended legal segregation in public schools. Using race as the defining theme, Ball spotlights Marshall's genius in working within the legal system to further his lifelong commitment to racial equality. With the help of numerous, previously unpublished sources, Ball presents a lucid account of Marshall's illustrious career and his historic impact on American civil rights.
Thurgood Marshall by Juan Williams This New York Times Notable Book of the Year, 1998, is now in trade paper. From the bestselling author of Eyes on the Prize, here is the definitive biography of the great lawyer and Supreme Court justice.
Call Number: eBook
The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson * Longlisted for the National Book Award * A New York Times Notable Book * A Washington Post Notable Book * An NPR Best Book of 2017 * A Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2017 * An Atlanta Journal-Constitution Best Southern Book of 2017 * This extraordinary New York Times bestseller reexamines a pivotal event of the civil rights movement--the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till--"and demands that we do the one vital thing we aren't often enough asked to do with history: learn from it" (The Atlantic). In 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. His murder was part of a wave of white terrorism in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional. Only weeks later, Rosa Parks thought about young Emmett as she refused to move to the back of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Five years later, Black students who called themselves "the Emmett Till generation" launched sit-in campaigns that turned the struggle for civil rights into a mass movement. Till's lynching became the most notorious hate crime in American history. But what actually happened to Emmett Till--not the icon of injustice, but the flesh-and-blood boy? Part detective story, part political history, The Blood of Emmett Till "unfolds like a movie" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), drawing on a wealth of new evidence, including a shocking admission of Till's innocence from the woman in whose name he was killed. "Jolting and powerful" (The Washington Post), the book "provides fresh insight into the way race has informed and deformed our democratic institutions" (Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Carry Me Home) and "calls us to the cause of justice today" (Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, president of the North Carolina NAACP).
Let the People See by Elliott J. Gorn The world knows the story of young Emmett Till. In August 1955, the fourteen-year-old Chicago boy supposedly flirted with a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, who worked behind the counter of a country store, while visiting family in Mississippi. Three days later, his mangled body was recoveredin the Tallahatchie River, weighed down by a cotton-gin fan. Till's killers, Bryant's husband and his half-brother, were eventually acquitted on technicalities by an all-white jury despite overwhelming evidence. It seemed another case of Southern justice.Then details of what had happened to Till became public, which they did in part because Emmett's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, insisted that his casket remain open during his funeral. The world saw the horror, and Till's story gripped the country and sparked outrage. Black journalists drove down toMississippi and risked their lives interviewing townsfolk, encouraging witnesses, spiriting those in danger out of the region, and above all keeping the news cycle turning. It continues to turn. In 2005, fifty years after the murder, the FBI reopened the case. New papers and testimony have come tolight, and several participants, including Till's mother, have published autobiographies. Using this new evidence and a broadened historical context, Elliott Gorn delves more fully than anyone has into how and why the story of Emmett Till still resonates, and always will. Till's murder marked aturning point, Gorn shows, and yet also reveals how old patterns of thought and behavior endure, and why we must look hard at them.
Freedom Summer by Bruce Watson A majestic history of the summer of '64, which forever changed race relations in America In the summer of 1964, with the civil rights movement stalled, seven hundred college students descended on Mississippi to register black voters, teach in Freedom Schools, and live in sharecroppers' shacks. But by the time their first night in the state had ended, three volunteers were dead, black churches had burned, and America had a new definition of freedom. This remarkable chapter in American history, the basis for the controversial film Mississippi Burning, is now the subject of Bruce Watson's thoughtful and riveting historical narrative. Using in- depth interviews with participants and residents, Watson brilliantly captures the tottering legacy of Jim Crow in Mississippi and the chaos that brought such national figures as Martin Luther King Jr. and Pete Seeger to the state. Freedom Summer presents finely rendered portraits of the courageous black citizens-and Northern volunteers-who refused to be intimidated in their struggle for justice, and the white Mississippians who would kill to protect a dying way of life. Few books have provided such an intimate look at race relations during the deadliest days of the Civil Rights movement, and Freedom Summer will appeal to readers of Taylor Branch and Doug Blackmon.
I've Got the Light of Freedom by Charles M. Payne This momentous work offers a groundbreaking history of the early civil rights movement in the South with new material that situates the book in the context of subsequent movement literature.
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis 2014 NAACP Image Award Winner- Outstanding Literary Work - Biography / Auto Biography 2013Letitia Woods Brown Award from the Association of Black Women Historians Choice Top 25 Academic Titles for 2013 The definitive political biography of Rosa Parks examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement Presenting a corrective to the popular notion of Rosa Parks as the quiet seamstress who, with a single act, birthed the modern civil rights movement, Theoharis provides a revealing window into Parks's politics and years of activism. She shows readers how this civil rights movement radical sought-for more than a half a century-to expose and eradicate the American racial-caste system in jobs, schools, public services, and criminal justice.
Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose "When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.'" - Claudette Colvin On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff inBrowder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South. Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history. Claudette Colvin is the 2009 National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature and a 2010 Newbery Honor Book.
Breach of Peace by Eric Etheridge; Diane McWhorter (Introduction by); Roger Wilkins (Preface by) In the spring and summer of 1961, several hundred Americans - black and white, male and female - converged on Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge the state segregation laws. The Freedom Riders, as they came to be known, were determined to open up the South to civil rights. Over 300 were arrested and convicted of 'breaching of the peace'. The name, mug shot and other personal details of each arrested Freedom Rider were duly recorded and saved. Collected here is a richly illustrated book book featuring contemporary photos and interviews alongside the mug shots.
Until I Am Free by Keisha N. Blain National Book Critics Circle 2021 Biography Finalist 53rd NAACP Image Award Nominee-Outstanding Literary Work - Biography/Autobiography " A riveting and timely exploration of Hamer's life. . . . Brilliantly constructed to be both forward and backward looking, Blain's book functions simultaneously as a much needed history lesson and an indispensable guide for modern activists."-New York Times Book Review Ms. Magazine "Most Anticipated Reads for the Rest of Us - 2021" KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW BOOKLIST STARRED REVIEW Publishers Weekly Big Indie Books of Fall 2021 Explores the Black activist's ideas and political strategies, highlighting their relevance for tackling modern social issues including voter suppression, police violence, and economic inequality. "We have a long fight and this fight is not mine alone, but you are not free whether you are white or black, until I am free." -Fannie Lou Hamer A blend of social commentary, biography, and intellectual history, Until I Am Free is a manifesto for anyone committed to social justice. The book challenges us to listen to a working-poor and disabled Black woman activist and intellectual of the civil rights movement as we grapple with contemporary concerns around race, inequality, and social justice. Award-winning historian and New York Times best-selling author Keisha N. Blain situates Fannie Lou Hamer as a key political thinker alongside leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks and demonstrates how her ideas remain salient for a new generation of activists committed to dismantling systems of oppression in the United States and across the globe. Despite her limited material resources and the myriad challenges she endured as a Black woman living in poverty in Mississippi, Hamer committed herself to making a difference in the lives of others. She refused to be sidelined in the movement and refused to be intimidated by those of higher social status and with better jobs and education. In these pages, Hamer's words and ideas take center stage, allowing us all to hear the activist's voice and deeply engage her words, as though we had the privilege to sit right beside her. More than 40 years since Hamer's death in 1977, her words still speak truth to power, laying bare the faults in American society and offering valuable insights on how we might yet continue the fight to help the nation live up to its core ideals of "equality and justice for all." Includes a photo insert featuring Hamer at civil rights marches, participating in the Democratic National Convention, testifying before Congress, and more.

time travel

Time Travel Fiction

Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day is December 8!

For more titles, try a subject search of "Time travel - Fiction"!

While most of these listings link by default to a print copy, many are available in other formats (eBook and eAudiobook). Don't forget to check the catalog by title or author if you prefer digital!

Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum Named a Most Anticipated Book by Bookish   Named a Best Book of the Month by Buzzfeed "The novel is masterfully plotted."--New York Times Book Review "Atomic Anna is a dazzling work of ingenuity and imagination."―Téa Obreht,National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Inland From the author of A Bend in the Stars, an epic adventure as three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past.   Three brilliant women. Two life-changing mistakes. One chance to reset the future. In 1986, renowned nuclear scientist, Anna Berkova, is sleeping in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl's reactor melts down. It's the exact moment she tears through time--and it's an accident. When she opens her eyes, she's landed in 1992 only to discover Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Molly, with her dying breath, begs Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster, to save Molly's daughter Raisa, and put their family's future on a better path. In '60s Philadelphia, Molly is coming of age as an adopted refusenik. Her family is full of secrets and a past they won't share. She finds solace in comic books, drawing her own series, Atomic Anna, and she's determined to make it as an artist. When she meets the volatile, charismatic Viktor, their romance sets her life on a very different course. In the '80s, Raisa, is a lonely teen and math prodigy, until a quiet, handsome boy moves in across the street and an odd old woman shows up claiming to be her biological grandmother. As Raisa finds new issues of Atomic Anna in unexpected places, she notices each comic challenges her to solve equations leading to one impossible conclusion: time travel. And she finally understands what she has to do. As these remarkable women work together to prevent the greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century, they grapple with the power their discoveries hold. Just because you can change the past, does it mean you should?
Lost in Time by A. G. Riddle "Amazing! One of the twistiest time-tales I've ever read." -Diana Gabaldon "Crichtonesque thrillers don't come much better than this... Readers won't be able to turn the pages fast enough." -Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) From the worldwide bestselling author of Departure and Winter World comes a standalone novel about a father and daughter trying to unravel an intricate murder mystery spread across time--with a jaw-dropping twist. Control the past. Save the future. One morning, Dr. Sam Anderson wakes up to find that the woman he loves has been murdered. For Sam, the horror is only beginning. He and his daughter are accused of the crime. The evidence is ironclad. They will be convicted. And so, to ensure his daughter goes free, Sam does what he must: he confesses. But in the future, murderers aren't sent to prison. Thanks to a machine Sam helped invent, the world's worst criminals are now sent to the past--approximately 200 million years into the past, to the dawn of the time of the dinosaurs--where they must live out their lives alone, in exile from the human race. Sam accepts his fate. But his daughter doesn't. Adeline Anderson has already lost her mother to a deadly, unfair disease. She can't bear to lose her father as well. So she sets out on a quest to prove him innocent. And to get him back. People around her insist that both are impossible tasks. But Adeline doesn't give up. She only works harder. She soon learns that impossible tasks are her specialty. And that she is made of tougher stuff than she ever imagined. As she peels back the layers of the mystery that tore her father from this world, Adeline finds more questions than answers. Everyone around her is hiding a secret. But which ones are connected to the murder that exiled her father? That mystery stretches across the past, present, and future - and leads to a revelation that will change everything.
Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore NATIONAL BESTSELLER A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK AMAZON EDITORS' 20 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR PICK "With its countless epiphanies and surprises, Oona proves difficult to put down." --USA Today "By turns tragic and triumphant, heartbreakingly poignant and joyful, this is ultimately an uplifting and redemptive read." --The Guardian A remarkably inventive novel that explores what it means to live a life fully in the moment, even if those moments are out of order. It's New Year's Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she's told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. And so begins Oona Out of Order... Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside. Who will she be next year? Philanthropist? Club Kid? World traveler? Wife to a man she's never met? Surprising, magical, and heart-wrenching, Margarita Montimore has crafted an unforgettable story about the burdens of time, the endurance of love, and the power of family.
The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart "Time travel, murder, corruption, restless baby dinosaurs, and a snarky robot named Ruby collide in this excellent, noir-inflected, humor-infused, science-fiction thriller."--The Boston Globe   An impossible crime. A detective on the edge of madness. The future of time travel at stake. From the author of The Warehouse . . . January Cole's job just got a whole lot harder. Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing's simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their "flights" to the past. Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion--and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls. None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see. On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. Because the U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology--and the world's most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims. January is sure the timing isn't a coincidence. Neither are those "accidents" that start stalking their bidders. There's a reason January can glimpse what others can't. A reason why she's the only one who can catch a killer who's operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once. But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality--and as her past, present, and future collide, she finds herself confronting not just the hotel's dark secrets but her own. At once a dazzlingly time-twisting murder mystery and a story about grief, memory, and what it means to--literally--come face-to-face with our ghosts, The Paradox Hotel is another unforgettable speculative thrill ride from acclaimed author Rob Hart.
A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong In this series debut from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, a modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland--in an unfamiliar body--with a killer on the loose. "A great read." --Charlaine Harris MAY 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She's drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness. MAY 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half day off, only to be discovered that night strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one hundred and fifty years before Mallory is strangled in the same spot. When Mallory wakes up in Catriona's body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to her new reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it's too late. In A Rip Through Time, New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong introduces a brand-new series mixing mystery, romance, and fantasy with thrilling results.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space. "One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.  Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.  When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe. A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER "The pages brim with tenderness and an appreciation for what we had and who we were. I could not have loved it more."--Ann Patchett "The kind of book that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you call the people you love. Exceptional."--Emily Henry "Delightful"--Boston Globe "Poignant"--New York Times What if you could take a vacation to your past? With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a different kind of love story.             On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn't just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it's her dad:  the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?
Thrust by Lidia Yuknavitch INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER THRUST IS: "Epic." -The New York Times "A triumph." --Elle "Stunningly beautiful." --The Daily Beast "Both of the moment and utterly timeless." --Chicago Review of Books "A book to take in wide-eyed."  --Rebecca Makkai NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE SUMMER BY TIME, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, ELLE, THE DAILY BEAST, BUSTLE, LITHUB, and GIZMODO As rising waters--and an encroaching police state--endanger her life and family, a girl with the gifts of a "carrier" travels through water and time to rescue vulnerable figures from the margins of history Lidia Yuknavitch has an unmatched gift for capturing stories of people on the margins--vulnerable humans leading lives of challenge and transcendence. Now, Yuknavitch offers an imaginative masterpiece: the story of Laisvė, a motherless girl from the late 21st century who is learning her power as a carrier, a person who can harness the power of meaningful objects to carry her through time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as the Brook, she discovers a talisman that will mysteriously connect her with a series of characters from the past two centuries: a French sculptor; a woman of the American underworld; a dictator's daughter; an accused murderer; and a squad of laborers at work on a national monument. Through intricately braided storylines, Laisvė must dodge enforcement raids and find her way to the present day, and then, finally, to the early days of her imperfect country, to forge a connection that might save their lives--and their shared dream of freedom.   A dazzling novel of body, spirit, and survival, Thrust will leave no reader unchanged.
The Actual Star by Monica Byrne David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas meets Octavia Butler's Earthseed series, as acclaimed author Monica Byrne (The Girl in the Road) crafts an unforgettable piece of speculative fiction about where humanity came from, where we are now, and where we're going--and how, in every age, the same forces that drive us apart also bind us together. "A stone-cold masterpiece."--New Scientist The Actual Star takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents--telling three powerful tales a thousand years apart, all of them converging in the same cave in the Belizean jungle. Braided together are the stories of a pair of teenage twins who ascend the throne of a Maya kingdom; a young American woman on a trip of self-discovery in Belize; and two dangerous charismatics vying for the leadership of a new religion, racing toward a confrontation that will determine the fate of the few humans left on Earth after massive climate change. In each era, a reincarnated trinity of souls navigates the entanglements of tradition and progress, sister and stranger, and love and hate--until all of their age-old questions about the nature of existence converge deep underground, where only in complete darkness can they truly see.
Annie and the Wolves by Andromeda Romano-Lax Ruth McClintock is obsessed with the past. For nearly a decade, she has been studying Annie Oakley, convinced that the legendary sharpshooter experienced a scarring event in childhood that led her to fight for the right of every American woman to own and operate a gun. This fruitless search has cost Ruth her doctorate, a book deal, and her fiance. But Ruth may finally have the evidence she is looking for. She has managed to hunt down a journal purporting to be a 'true account' of Oakley's midlife struggles, including secret visits to a psychoanalyst and the desire for vengeance against the 'Wolves,' or those who have wronged her.
The Little Shop of Found Things by Paula Brackston New York Times bestselling author of The Witch's Daughter Paula Brackston returns to her trademark blend of magic and romance guaranteed to enchant in The Little Shop of Found Things, the first book in a new continuing series. An antique shop haunted by a ghost. A silver treasure with an injustice in its story. An adventure to the past she'll never forget. Xanthe and her mother Flora leave London behind for a fresh start, taking over an antique shop in the historic town of Marlborough. Xanthe has always had an affinity with some of the antiques she finds. When she touches them, she can sense something of the past they come from and the stories they hold. When she has an intense connection to a beautiful silver chatelaine she has to know more. It is while she's examining the chatelaine that she's transported back to the seventeenth century where it has its origins. She discovers there is an injustice in its history. The spirit that inhabits her new home confronts her and charges her with saving her daughter's life, threatening to take Flora's if she fails. While Xanthe fights to save the girl amid the turbulent days of 1605, she meets architect Samuel Appleby. He may be the person who can help her succeed. He may also be the reason she can't bring herself to leave. The story continues in October 2019 with book two in the Found Things series, Secrets of the Chocolate House.
Come Back to Me by Jody Hedlund The ultimate cure that could heal any disease? Crazy. That's exactly what research scientist Marian Creighton has always believed about her father's quest, even if it does stem from a desire to save her sister Ellen from the genetic disease that stole their mother from them. But when her father falls into a coma after drinking a vial of holy water believed to contain traces of residue from the Tree of Life, Marian must question all of her assumptions. He's left behind tantalizing clues that suggest he's crossed back in time. Insane. Until Marian tests his theories and finds herself in the Middle Ages during a dangerous peasant uprising. William Durham, a valiant knight comes to Marian's rescue and offers her protection . . . as his wife. The longer Marian stays in the past, the more she cares about William. Can she ever find her father and make it back to the present to heal her sister? And when the time comes to leave, will she want to? Bestselling author Jody Hedlund is your guide down the twisting waters of time to a volatile era of superstition, revolts, and chivalry in this suspenseful story.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The first book in Diana Gabaldon's acclaimed Outlander saga, the basis for the Starz original series. Don't miss the new Outlander novel, Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, available November 23! One of the top ten best-loved novels in America, as seen on PBS's The Great American Read!   Unrivaled storytelling. Unforgettable characters. Rich historical detail. These are the hallmarks of Diana Gabaldon's work. Her New York Times bestselling Outlander novels have earned the praise of critics and captured the hearts of millions of fans. Here is the story that started it all, introducing two remarkable characters, Claire Beauchamp Randall and Jamie Fraser, in a spellbinding novel of passion and history that combines exhilarating adventure with a love story for the ages. Scottish Highlands, 1945. Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding clans in the year of Our Lord . . . 1743.   Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of a world that threatens her life, and may shatter her heart. Marooned amid danger, passion, and violence, Claire learns her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. What begins in compulsion becomes urgent need, and Claire finds herself torn between two very different men, in two irreconcilable lives.
The Rise and Fall of D. O. D. O. by Neal Stephenson; Nicole Galland NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Goodreads Choice Awards Semifinalist! B&N Editor's Pick - Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2017  From bestselling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world. When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must swear herself to secrecy in return for the rather large sum of money. Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London's Crystal Palace--the world's fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it's up to Tristan to find out why. And so the Department of Diachronic Operations--D.O.D.O.--gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial--and treacherous--nature of the human heart. Written with the genius, complexity, and innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephenson's work and steeped with the down-to-earth warmth and humor of Nicole Galland's storytelling style, this exciting and vividly realized work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible, and take you to places--and times--beyond imagining.
Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey International Bestseller! Soon to be a major motion picture starring Gal Gadot! "Inventive, bold and surprising . . . Builds in suspense and emotion, revealing itself page by page, layer by layer. Cleverly constructed and highly entertaining."  -- CHARLES YU Recommended by Popsugar * Bustle * Goodreads * Tor * Mashable * BookBub * io9 Gizmodo * Lambda Literary * BookRiot * CrimeReads * The Nerd Daily * and many more! For fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and Life After Life, a poignant genre-bending debut novel about a man and woman who must discover why they continue to meet in different versions of their lives--a thrilling and imaginative exploration of the infinite forms of love and how our choices can change everything. Thora and Santi have met before. Two strangers in a foreign city, Thora and Santi meet in a chance encounter. At once, they recognize in each other a kindred spirit--someone who is longing for more in life than the cards they've been dealt. Before their friendship can blossom, though, a tragic accident cuts their story short. They will meet again. But this is only one of the many connections they share. Like satellites trapped in orbit around each other, Thora and Santi will find each other again: as husband and wife; teacher and student; caretaker and patient; cynic and believer. In recurring lifetimes they become friends, partners, lovers, and enemies. Only they can make sure it's not for the last time. As strange patterns and blurred memories compound, Thora and Santi come to a shocking revelation. They must work together to discover the true reason behind their repeating realities . . . before their many lives come to one, final end. 
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don't exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can't imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there's certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.But then, there's this gorgeous girl on the train. Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August's day when she needed it most. August's subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there's one big problem: Jane doesn't just look like an old school punk rocker. She's literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it's time to start believing in some things, after all.Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop is a magical, sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.
The Rehearsals by Annette Christie Groundhog Day meets People We Meet on Vacation in a funny and romantic novel about a couple who call off their wedding after a disastrous rehearsal dinner--only to wake up the next morning on an "irresistible" adventure (Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Hotel Nantucket). The wedding is tomorrow. If today ever ends. "A sweet, delightful romance." --People "An enchanting and compelling look at life's what-if's." --Helen Hoang "Terrific fun from beginning to end." --Sarah Haywood Megan Givens and Tom Prescott are heading into what is supposed to be their magical wedding weekend on beautiful San Juan Island. But with two difficult families, ten years of history, and all too many secrets, things quickly go wrong. After a disastrous rehearsal dinner they vow to call the whole thing off--only to wake up the next morning stuck together in a time loop. Are they really destined to relive the worst day of their lives, over and over? And what happens if their wedding day does arrive? A funny, romantic, and big-hearted debut novel, The Rehearsals imagines what we might do if given a second chance at life and at love--and what it means to finally get both right.
She Wouldn't Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha Sliding Doors meets Life After Life in Sarah Adlakha's story about a wife and mother who is given the chance to start over at the risk of losing everything she loves. A second chance is the last thing she wants.When thirty-nine year old Maria Forssmann wakes up in her seventeen-year-old body, she doesn't know how she got there. All she does know is she has to get back: to her home in Bienville, Mississippi, to her job as a successful psychiatrist and, most importantly, to her husband, daughters, and unborn son. But she also knows that, in only a few weeks, a devastating tragedy will strike her husband, a tragedy that will lead to their meeting each other.Can she change time and still keep what it's given her?Exploring the responsibilities love lays on us, the complicated burdens of motherhood, and the rippling impact of our choices, She Wouldn't Change a Thing is a dazzling debut from a bright new voice.
Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi From the author of the international bestseller Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this book follows four new customers who hope to travel back in time in a little Japanese café. In a back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee--the chance to travel back in time. With faces both familiar and new, Tales from the Cafe follows the story of four patrons who visit to take advantage of café Funiculi Funicula's time-traveling offer and revisit moments with family, friends and lovers. Each one must face up to the past to move on with their lives. Kawaguchi's wistful and heartwarming new novel once again invites the reader to ask themselves, "What would you do if you could travel back in time?"
Life after Life by Kate Atkinson What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she? Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original: this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best.
The Peripheral by William Gibson William Gibson returns with his first novel since 2010's New York Times-bestselling Zero History. Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton has to go out, but there's a job he's supposed to do--a job Flynne didn't know he had. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. The job seems to be simple: work a perimeter around the image of a tower building. Little bug-like things turn up. He's supposed to get in their way, edge them back. That's all there is to it. He's offering Flynne a good price to take over for him. What she sees, though, isn't what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder.
Burden of Proof by Davis Bunn Three weeks after his twenty-third birthday, Ethan missed the chance to save his brother's life when he was murdered on the steps of the courthouse in Jacksonville, Florida. Ever since that fateful day, Ethan has sensed a deep disconnect between the man he should have been and the one he has become. His days play out a beat too slow, his mind replaying the scene of his failure again and again. But when his brother's widow appears, asking for his help in uncovering what was really behind his brother's death, Ethan is stunned to hear that she and her late husband were involved in a much larger case than he knew--one that threatens the global power structure. As Ethan joins the search for answers, he will enter into his own past--and discover a means of redeeming his future. Bestselling and award-winning author Davis Bunn invites you into a world of intrigue as a man held captive by his failure learns how to move forward with hope.
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle's house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel from the author of the "innovative, unexpected, and absolutely chilling" (Mira Grant, Nebula Award-winning author) The Twisted Ones. Pray they are hungry. Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she's discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle's house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area--only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts...and the more one fears them, the stronger they become. With her distinctive "delightfully fresh and subversive" (SF Bluestocking) prose and the strange, sinister wonder found in Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, The Hollow Places is another compelling and white-knuckled horror novel that you won't be able to put down.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Good Morning America, FabFitFun, and Marie Claire Book Club Pick "In Five Years is as clever as it is moving, the rare read-in-one-sitting novel you won't forget." --Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists Perfect for fans of Me Before You and One Day--a striking, powerful, and moving love story following an ambitious lawyer who experiences an astonishing vision that could change her life forever. Where do you see yourself in five years? Dannie Kohan lives her life by the numbers. She is nothing like her lifelong best friend--the wild, whimsical, believes-in-fate Bella. Her meticulous planning seems to have paid off after she nails the most important job interview of her career and accepts her boyfriend's marriage proposal in one fell swoop, falling asleep completely content. But when she awakens, she's suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. Dannie spends one hour exactly five years in the future before she wakes again in her own home on the brink of midnight--but it is one hour she cannot shake. In Five Years is an unforgettable love story, but it is not the one you're expecting.
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki A brilliant, unforgettable novel from bestselling author Ruth Ozeki--shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award "A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be." In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there's only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates' bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who's lived more than a century. A diary is Nao's only solace--and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox--possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao's drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future. Full of Ozeki's signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.
Jane in Love by Rachel Givney "Artfully written and engaging, Jane in Love is a lively effusion of wit and humor."--Graeme Simsion, New York Times bestselling author of The Rosie Project A charming, romantic debut novel in which Jane Austen, heralded author, ends up time-traveling almost 200 years in the future. There she finds the love she's written about and the destiny she's dreamed of...but is it worth her legacy? Bath, England, 1803. At 28, Jane Austen prefers walking and reading to balls and assemblies; she dreams of someday publishing her carefully crafted stories. Already on the shelf and in grave danger of becoming a spinster, Jane goes searching for a radical solution--and as a result, seemingly by accident, time-travels. She lands in... Bath, England, present day. The film set of Northanger Abbey. Sofia Wentworth is a Hollywood actress starring in a new period film, an attempt to reinvent her flagging career and, secretly, an attempt to reinvent her failing marriage. When Sofia meets Jane, she marvels at the young actress who can't seem to "break character," even off set. And Jane--acquainting herself with the horseless steel carriages and seriously shocking fashion of the twenty-first century-- meets Sofia, a woman unlike anyone she's ever met before. Then she meets Fred, Sofia's brother, who has the audacity to be handsome, clever, and kind-hearted. What happens when Jane, against her better judgement, falls in love with Fred? And when Sofia learns the truth about her new friend Jane? And worst of all, if Jane stays with Fred, will she ever achieve her dream, the one she's now seen come true?
A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain When brilliant FBI agent Kendra Donovan stumbles back in time and finds herself in a 19th century English castle under threat from a vicious serial killer, she scrambles to solve the case before it takes her life--200 years before she was even born. Beautiful and brilliant, Kendra Donovan is a rising star at the FBI. Yet her path to professional success hits a speed bump during a disastrous raid where half her team is murdered, a mole in the FBI is uncovered and she herself is severely wounded. As soon as she recovers, she goes rogue and travels to England to assassinate the man responsible for the deaths of her teammates. While fleeing from an unexpected assassin herself, Kendra escapes into a stairwell that promises sanctuary but when she stumbles out again, she is in the same place--Aldrich Castle--but in a different time: 1815, to be exact. Mistaken for a lady's maid hired to help with weekend guests, Kendra is forced to quickly adapt to the time period until she can figure out how she got there; and, more importantly, how to get back home. However, after the body of a young girl is found on the extensive grounds of the county estate, she starts to feel there's some purpose to her bizarre circumstances. Stripped of her twenty-first century tools, Kendra must use her wits alone in order to unmask a cunning madman.
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez A "highly imaginative and utterly exhilarating" (Thrillist) debut that is "the best of what science fiction can be: a thought-provoking, heartrending story about the choices that define our lives" (Kirkus Reviews, Best Debut Fiction and Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year). FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AWARD * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TORDOTCOM AND KIRKUS REVIEWS A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever.   I expected many things from this trip. I did not expect a family. A ship captain, unfettered from time. A mute child, burdened with unimaginable power. A millennia-old woman, haunted by lifetimes of mistakes. In this captivating debut of connection across space and time, these outsiders will find in each other the things they lack: a place of love and belonging. A safe haven. A new beginning. But the past hungers for them, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart.    Praise for The Vanished Birds "This is the most impressive debut of 2020."--Locus "This extraordinary science fiction epic, which delves deep into the perils of failing to learn from one's mistakes, is perfect for fans of big ideas and intimate reflections."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A lyrical and moving narrative of space travel, found families, and lost loves set against an evocative space-opera background."--Booklist (starred review)   "The Vanished Birds finds an intimate heartbeat of longing in a saga of galactic progress and its crushing fallout. . . . A novel of vast scope that yet makes time for compassion, wonder, and poetry."--Indra Das, author of The Devourers
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy Hailed as a classic of speculative fiction, Marge Piercy's landmark novel is a transformative vision of two futures--and what it takes to will one or the other into reality. Harrowing and prescient, Woman on the Edge of Time speaks to a new generation on whom these choices weigh more heavily than ever before.   Connie Ramos is a Mexican American woman living on the streets of New York. Once ambitious and proud, she has lost her child, her husband, her dignity--and now they want to take her sanity. After being unjustly committed to a mental institution, Connie is contacted by an envoy from the year 2137, who shows her a time of sexual and racial equality, environmental purity, and unprecedented self-actualization. But Connie also bears witness to another potential outcome: a society of grotesque exploitation in which the barrier between person and commodity has finally been eroded. One will become our world. And Connie herself may strike the decisive blow.   Praise for Woman on the Edge of Time   "This is one of those rare novels that leave us different people at the end than we were at the beginning. Whether you are reading Marge Piercy's great work again or for the first time, it will remind you that we are creating the future with every choice we make."--Gloria Steinem   "An ambitious, unusual novel about the possibilities for moral courage in contemporary society."--The Philadelphia Inquirer   "A stunning, even astonishing novel . . . marvelous and compelling."--Publishers Weekly   "Connie Ramos's world is cuttingly real."--Newsweek   "Absorbing and exciting."--The New York Times Book Review
Exhalation by Ted Chiang ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A NATIONAL BESTSELLER ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: THE WASHINGTON POST * TIME MAGAZINE * NPR * ESQUIRE * VOX * THE A.V. CLUB * THE GUARDIAN * FINANCIAL TIMES * THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS  "Exhalation by Ted Chiang is a collection of short stories that will make you think, grapple with big questions, and feel more human. The best kind of science fiction." --Barack Obama, via Facebook "THE UNIVERSE BEGAN AS AN ENORMOUS BREATH BEING HELD." In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity's oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine. In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will. Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic--revelatory.
Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen From the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Brotherhood A Goodreads Choice Awards 2019 Semifinalist One of BookBub's Best Science Fiction Books of 2019 One of Book Riot's Best Books of 2019 So Far One of The Nerd Daily's Best Debut Novels of 2019 Featured in The Millions "A Year in Reading" One of Entropy's Best Fiction Books of 2019 He'll go anywhere and any when to save his daughter Kin Stewart is an everyday family man: working in IT, trying to keep the spark in his marriage, struggling to connect with his teenage daughter. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career...as a time-traveling secret agent from over a century in the future. Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, until one afternoon, his "rescue" team arrives--eighteen years too late. Their mission: return Kin to 2142, where he's been gone only weeks, not years, and where another family is waiting for him. A family he can't remember. Torn between two lives, Kin's desperate efforts to stay connected to both will threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself. With his daughter's very existence at risk, he will have to take one final trip to save her--even if it means breaking all the rules of time travel in the process. "Heartfelt and thrilling... Chen's concept is unique, and [his characters'] agony is deeply moving. Quick pacing, complex characters, and a fascinating premise."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
Lanny by Max Porter Longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize An entrancing new novel by the author of the prizewinning Grief Is the Thing with Feathers There's a village an hour from London. It's no different from many others today: one pub, one church, redbrick cottages, some public housing, and a few larger houses dotted about. Voices rise up, as they might anywhere, speaking of loving and needing and working and dying and walking the dogs. This village belongs to the people who live in it, to the land and to the land's past. It also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort, a mythical figure local schoolchildren used to draw as green and leafy, choked by tendrils growing out of his mouth, who awakens after a glorious nap. He is listening to this twenty-first-century village, to its symphony of talk: drunken confessions, gossip traded on the street corner, fretful conversations in living rooms. He is listening, intently, for a mischievous, ethereal boy whose parents have recently made the village their home. Lanny. With Lanny, Max Porter extends the potent and magical space he created in Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. This brilliant novel will ensorcell readers with its anarchic energy, with its bewitching tapestry of fabulism and domestic drama. Lanny is a ringing defense of creativity, spirit, and the generative forces that often seem under assault in the contemporary world, and it solidifies Porter's reputation as one of the most daring and sensitive writers of his generation.
Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds Fix the past. Save the present. Stop the future. 2080: at a remote site on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a group of scientists, engineers and physicians gather to gamble humanity's future on one last-ditch experiment. Their goal: to make a tiny alteration to the past, averting a global catastrophe while at the same time leaving recorded history intact. To make the experiment work, they just need one last recruit: an ageing schoolteacher whose late mother was the foremost expert on the mathematics of paradox.2028: a young woman goes into surgery for routine brain surgery. In the days following her operation, she begins to hear another voice in her head... an unwanted presence which seems to have a will, and a purpose, all of its own - one that will disrupt her life entirely. The only choice left to her is a simple one.Does she resist ... or become a collaborator?
The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas "Astonishing."--The New York Times "A fascinating meditation on the many ways traveling through time can change a person." --HelloGiggles "This genre-bending, time-bending debut will appeal to fans ofDoctor Who, dystopian fiction, and life's great joy: friend groups."--Refinery29 Perfect for fans of Naomi Alderman'sThe Power and Margot Lee Shetterly'sHidden Figures comesThe Psychology of Time Travel, a mind-bending, time-travel debut. In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world's first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project--and future of time travel--in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team--erasing her contributions from history. Fifty years later, time travel is a big business. Twenty-something Ruby Rebello knows her beloved grandmother, Granny Bee, was one of the pioneers, though no one will tell her more. But when Bee receives a mysterious newspaper clipping from the future reporting the murder of an unidentified woman, Ruby becomes obsessed: could it be Bee? Who would want her dead? And most importantly of all: can her murder be stopped? Traversing the decades and told from alternating perspectives,The Psychology of Time Travel introduces a fabulous new voice in fiction and a new must-read for fans of speculative fiction and women's fiction alike.
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar; Max Gladstone HUGO AWARD WINNER: BEST NOVELLA NEBULA AND LOCUS AWARDS WINNER: BEST NOVELLA ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019 Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters--and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked "Burn before reading. Signed, Blue." So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space. Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common--save that they're the best, and they're alone. Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning's what you do in war. Isn't it? A tour de force collaboration from two powerhouse writers that spans the whole of time and space.
Time after Time by Lisa Grunwald A magical love story, inspired by the legend of a woman who vanished from Grand Central Terminal, sweeps readers from the 1920s to World War II and beyond.   "Readers who enjoyed Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife will be enchanted."--Publishers Weekly "I utterly loved this clever, charming, hopeful tale of true love against all odds."--Ariel Lawhon, New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia   On a clear December morning in 1937, at the famous gold clock in Grand Central Terminal, Joe Reynolds, a hardworking railroad man from Queens, meets a vibrant young woman who seems mysteriously out of place. Nora Lansing is a Manhattan socialite and an aspiring artist whose flapper clothing, pearl earrings, and talk of the Roaring Twenties don't seem to match the bleak mood of Depression-era New York. Captivated by Nora from her first electric touch, Joe despairs when he tries to walk her home and she disappears. Finding her again--and again--will become the focus of his love and his life.   As thousands of visitors pass under the famous celestial blue ceiling each day, Joe and Nora create a life of infinite love in a finite space, taking full advantage of the "Terminal City" within a city. But when the construction of another landmark threatens their future, Nora and Joe are forced to test the limits of their freedom--and their love.   Praise for Time After Time "I'll never again set foot in Grand Central Terminal without looking over my shoulder for Nora and Joe, or marveling at the station itself--a backdrop as intriguing as the love story that unfolds beneath its star-studded ceiling."--Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones "In lively prose set against the fascinating history of Grand Central . . . Grunwald asks a compelling question: How long would we stay in one place [for love]?"--Time "The spectacular Lisa Grunwald has written a classic story of fate, true love, art, and chance with truth and beauty. You will want to share it with every reader you know."--Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of Tony's Wife
William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher In the iconic film by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, teenaged MartyMcFly travels back in time from the 1980s to the 1950s, changingthe path of his parents' destiny . . . as well as his own. Now fans ofthe movie can journey back even further-to the 16th century, whenthe Bard of Avon unveils his latest masterpiece- William Shakespeare'sGet Thee Back to the Future! Every scene and line of dialogue from thehit movie is re-created with authentic Shakespearean rhyme, meter,and stage directions. This reimagining also includes jokes and Eastereggs for movie fans, from Huey Lewis call-outs to the inner thoughtsof Einstein (the dog). By the time you've finished reading, you'llbe convinced that Shakespeare had a time-traveling DeLorean ofhis own, speeding to our era so he could pen this time-tossed tale.
The Afterlives by Thomas Pierce "Ridiculously good" (The New York Times) author Thomas Pierce's debut novel is a funny, poignant love story that answers the question: What happens after we die? (Lots of stuff, it turns out). Jim Byrd died. Technically. For a few minutes. The diagnosis: heart attack at age thirty. Revived with no memory of any tunnels, lights, or angels, Jim wonders what--if anything--awaits us on the other side.  Then a ghost shows up. Maybe. Jim and his new wife, Annie, find themselves tangling with holograms, psychics, messages from the beyond, and a machine that connects the living and the dead. As Jim and Annie journey through history and fumble through faith, they confront the specter of loss that looms for anyone who dares to fall in love. Funny, fiercely original, and gracefully moving, The Afterlives will haunt you. In a good way.
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch "I promise you have never read a story like this."--Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter Inception meets True Detective in this science fiction thriller of spellbinding tension and staggering scope that follows a special agent into a savage murder case with grave implications for the fate of mankind... Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family--and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship U.S.S. Libra--a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows first-hand the mental trauma of time-travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence. Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection from her own past, Moss travels ahead in time to explore possible versions of the future, seeking evidence to crack the present-day case. To her horror, the future reveals that it's not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work, for what she witnesses rising over time's horizon and hurtling toward the present is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself. Luminous and unsettling, The Gone World bristles with world-shattering ideas yet remains at its heart an intensely human story.
Hazards of Time Travel by Joyce Carol Oates An ingenious, dystopian novel of one young woman's resistance against the constraints of an oppressive society, from the inventive imagination of Joyce Carol Oates "Time travel" -- and its hazards--are made literal in this astonishing new novel in which a recklessly idealistic girl dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled (future) world and is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America -- "Wainscotia, Wisconsin"--that existed eighty years before.  Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town she is set upon a course of "rehabilitation"--but cannot resist falling in love with a fellow exile and questioning the constrains of the Wainscotia world with results that are both devastating and liberating.   Arresting and visionary, Hazards of Time Travel  is both a novel of harrowing discovery and an exquisitely wrought love story that may be Joyce Carol Oates's most unexpected novel so far.
Miss Blaine's Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas Shona McMonagle may look bookish and harmless, but her education at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls has left her with a deadly expertise in everything from martial arts to quantum physics. It has also left her with a bone-deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the novel that spread scandalous untruths about the finest educational institution in Edinburgh. These skills make Shona the perfect recruit for a new and interesting project: Time-travel to Tzarist Russia, prevent a gross miscarriage of romance, and - in any spare time - see to it that only the right people get murdered.
An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim AN INDIE NEXT PICK! A "Best Book of 2018" --Real Simple "Lim's steady prose and deft character development ensured that I was hooked on Polly's story from beginning to end. [F]ull of fascinating social commentary on class differences, racism and sexism...it's easy to fall into this novel and become emotionally involved in Polly's journey and her search to find the people she loves." --Los Angeles Times In the vein of The Time Traveler's Wife and Station Eleven, a sweeping literary love story about two people who are at once mere weeks and many years apart. America is in the grip of a deadly flu pandemic. When Frank catches the virus, his girlfriend Polly will do whatever it takes to save him, even if it means risking everything. She agrees to a radical plan--time travel has been invented in the future to thwart the virus. If she signs up for a one-way-trip into the future to work as a bonded laborer, the company will pay for the life-saving treatment Frank needs. Polly promises to meet Frank again in Galveston, Texas, where she will arrive in twelve years. But when Polly is re-routed an extra five years into the future, Frank is nowhere to be found. Alone in a changed and divided America, with no status and no money, Polly must navigate a new life and find a way to locate Frank, to discover if he is alive, and if their love has endured. An Ocean of Minutes is a gorgeous and heartbreaking story about the endurance and complexity of human relationships and the cost of holding onto the past--and the price of letting it go.
Paris Adrift by E. J. Swift Paris was supposed to save Hallie. But Paris has other ideas. She's linked to a hole in time and chosen by fate to prevent a terrible war. Tumbling through Paris' turbulent past and future, Hallie changes the world--and falls in love. But with every trip, she loses a little of herself, and every change she makes ripples through time, until the future she's trying to save suddenly looks nothing like what she hoped for...
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai One of Wall Street Journal's Best of 2017 "Entertainingly mixes thrills and humor."--Entertainment Weekly "[An] amazing debut novel. . . . Dazzling and complex. . . . Fearlessly funny storytelling."--The Washington Post "Instantly engaging. . . . A timeless, if mind-bending, story about the journeys we take, populated by friends, family, lovers, and others, that show us who we might be, could be--and maybe never should be--that eventually leads us to who we are."--USA Today Elan Mastai's acclaimed debut novel is a story of friendship and family, of unexpected journeys and alternate paths, and of love in its multitude of forms. It's 2016, and in Tom Barren's world, technology has solved all of humanity's problems--there's no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocadoes. Unfortunately, Tom isn't happy. He's lost the girl of his dreams. And what do you do when you're heartbroken and have a time machine? Something stupid. Finding himself stranded in a terrible alternate reality--which we immediately recognize as our 2016--Tom is desperate to fix his mistake and go home. Right up until the moment he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and the woman who may just be the love of his life. Now Tom faces an impossible choice. Go back to his perfect but loveless life. Or stay in our messy reality with a soulmate by his side. His search for the answer takes him across continents and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future--our future--is supposed to be. Filled with humor and heart and packed with insight, intelligence, and mind-bending invention, All Our Wrong Todays is a powerful and moving story of life, loss, and love.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler A Good Morning America 2021 Top Summer Read Pick The visionary author's masterpiece pulls us--along with her Black female hero--through time to face the horrors of slavery and explore the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now. Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.
Shada by Douglas Adams; Gareth Roberts From the unique mind of Douglas Adams, legendary author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, comes  Shada, a Doctor Who story scripted for the television series Doctor Who, but never produced--and now, transformed into an original novel... A little knowledge is a dangerous thing Imagine how dangerous a LOT of knowledge is... The Doctor's old friend and fellow Time Lord Professor Chronotis has retired to Cambridge University, where among the other doddering old professors nobody will notice if he lives for centuries. He took with him a few little souvenirs--harmless things really. But among them, carelessly, he took The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. Even more carelessly, he has loaned this immensely powerful book to clueless graduate student Chris Parsons, who intends to use it to impress girls. The Worshipful and Ancient Law is among the most dangerous artifacts in the universe; it cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. The hands of the sinister Time Lord Skagra are unquestionably the wrongest ones possible. Skagra is a sadist and an egomaniac, bent on universal domination. Having misguessed the state of fashion on Earth, he also wears terrible platform shoes. He is on his way to Cambridge. He wants the book. And he wants the Doctor...

myth

New Mythology Reads

While most of these listings link by default to a print copy, many are available in other formats (eBook and eAudiobook). Don't forget to check the catalog by title or author if you prefer digital!

Medea by Eilish Quin Discover the full story of the sorceress Medea, one of the most reviled and maligned women of Greek antiquity, in this "haunting, deeply moving" (Claire Legrand, New York Times bestselling author) debut in the tradition of Circe, Elektra, and Stone Blind. Among the women of Greek mythology, the witch Medea may be the most despised. Known for the brutal act of killing her own children to exact vengeance on her deceitful husband, Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, Medea has carved out a singularly infamous niche in our histories. But what if that isn't the full story? The daughter of a sea nymph and the granddaughter of a Titan, Medea is a paradox. She is at once rendered compelling by virtue of the divinity that flows through her bloodline and made powerless by the fact of her being a woman. As a child, she intuitively submerges herself in witchcraft and sorcery but soon finds her skills may not be a match for the prophecies that hang over her entire family like a shroud. As Medea comes into her own as a woman and a witch, she also faces the arrival of the hero Jason, preordained by the gods to be not only her husband but also her lifeline to escape her isolated existence. Medea travels the treacherous seas with the Argonauts, battles demons she has never imagined, and falls in love with the man who may ultimately be her downfall in this fresh and propulsive "must-have" (Library Journal, starred review) read in which you will finally hear Medea's side of the story through a fresh and feminist lens.
Divine Might by Natalie Haynes New York Times bestselling author Natalie Haynes returns to the world of ancient Greek myth in this scintillating follow-up to Pandora's Jar. Few writers today have reshaped our view of the ancient Greek myths more than revered bestselling author Natalie Haynes. Divine Might is a female-centered look at Olympus and the Furies, focusing on the goddesses whose prowess, passions, jealousies, and desires rival those of their male kin, including: Athene, who sprang fully formed from her father's brow (giving Zeus a killer headache in the process), the goddess of war and provider of wise counsel. Aphrodite, born of the foam (and sperm released from a Titan's castrated testicles), the most beautiful of all the Olympian goddesses, the epitome of love who dispenses desire and inspires longing--yet harbors a fearsome vengeful side, doling out brutal punishments to those who displease her. Hera, Zeus's long-suffering wife, whose jealousy born of his repeated dalliances with mortals, nymphs, and other goddesses, leads her to wreak elaborate and often painful revenge on those she believes have wronged her. (Well, wouldn't you?) Demeter, goddess of the harvest and mother of Persephone; Artemis, the hunter and goddess of wild spaces; the Muses, the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory; and Hestia, goddess of domesticity and sacrificial fire. Infused with Haynes's engaging charm and irrepressible wit, Divine Might is a refreshing take on the legends and stories we thought we knew.
Bunyan and Henry; or, the Beautiful Destiny by Mark Cecil A large-hearted reimagining of beloved all-American legends, this epic debut novel brings men of myth Paul Bunyan and John Henry alive like never before, teaming up for an adventure quest with deeper interrogations of race, class, and industrialization. Paul Bunyan-legendary larger-than-life American lumberjack-is a man down on his luck. With a load of family debts on his broad back, he ekes out a miserable miner's life in Lump Town, a bleak hamlet controlled by famed industrialist El Boffo. When Bunyan's wife Lucette falls ill with a disease caused by the toxic mineral Lump, he embarks on a quest to save her. His only guide- the Chilali-a mysterious creature who speaks only in questions. Bunyan's path leads to The Windy City-and to John Henry. Henry is not yet the "steel-drivin'" man known to folklore, but a fugitive on the run from a rigged, racist prison system. As Bunyan and Henry strive to reunite with the families they love, they must work together to solve riddles, forge weapons, brawl with a behemoth, and confront at every turn the relentless, duplicitous El Boffo. A richly imaginative reinvention of myth, Bunyan and Henry is at once a timeless quest, a fresh origin story, and an urgent modern fable that wrestles with the two sides of the American dream-its wild idealism and cruel underbelly-to inspire the awakening of the folk hero in us all.
The Games Gods Play (Standard Edition) by Abigail Owen THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "This story is my latest obsession." --USA Today bestselling author, Devney Perry The gods love to play with us mere mortals. And every hundred years, we let them... I have never been favored by the gods. Far from it, thanks to Zeus. Living as a cursed office clerk for the Order of Thieves, I just keep my head down and hope the capricious beings who rule from Olympus won't notice me. Not an easy feat, given San Francisco is Zeus' patron city, but I make do. I survive. Until the night I tangle with a different god. The worst god. Hades. For the first time ever, the ruthless, mercurial King of the Underworld has entered the Crucible--the deadly contest the gods hold to determine a new ruler to sit on the throne of Olympus. But instead of fighting their own battles, the gods name mortals to compete in their stead. So why in the Underworld did Hades choose me--a sarcastic nobody with a curse on her shoulders--as his champion? And why does my heart trip every time he says I'm his? I don't know if I'm a pawn, bait, or something else entirely to this dangerously tempting god. How can I, when he has more secrets than stars in the sky? Because Hades is playing by his own rules...and Death will win at any cost.
The Slavic Myths by Noah Charney; Svetlana Slapsak A Pulitzer-nominated author and one of the great public intellectuals of Slavic culture bring to life the unfamiliar myths and legends of the Slavic world. Slavic cultures are far-ranging, comprising of East Slavs (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus), West Slavs (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland) and South Slavs (the countries of former Yugoslavia plus Bulgaria), yet they are connected by tales of adventure and magic with deep roots in a common lore. In this first collection of Slavic myths for an international readership, Noah Charney and Svetlana Slapsak expertly weave together a retelling of the ancient stories with nuanced analysis that illuminates their place at the heart of Slavic tradition. Though less familiar to us than the legends of ancient Egypt, Greece and Scandinavia, in the world of Slavic mythology we find much that we can recognize: petulant deities, demons and faeries; witches, the sinister vestica, whose magic may harm or heal; a supreme god who can summon storms and hurl thunderbolts. Gods gather under the World Tree, reminiscent of Norse mythology's Yggdrasill; or, after the coming of Christianity, congregate among the clouds. The vampire - usually the only Serbo-Croatian word in any foreign-language dictionary - and the werewolf emerge from the shallow graves of Slavic belief. In their careful analysis and sensitive reconstructions of the origin stories, Charney and Slapsak unearth the Slavic beliefs before their distortion first by Christian chroniclers and then by 19th-century scholars seeking origin stories for their new-born nation states. They reveal links not only to the neighbouring pantheons of Greece, Rome, Egypt and Scandinavia but also the belief systems of indigenous peoples of Australia, the Americas, Africa and Asia. In so doing, they draw out the universalities that cut across cultures in the stories we tell ourselves.
Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson A queer revisionist retelling of the story of Hercules, for fans of The Song of Achilles, A Thousand Ships and Ariadne. This should be the story of Hercules: his twelve labours, his endless adventures... everyone's favorite hero, right? Well, it's not. This is the story of everyone else: Alcmene: Herc's mother (She has knives everywhere) Hylas: Herc's first friend (They were more than friends) Megara: Herc's wife (She'll tell you about their marriage) Eurystheus: Oversaw Herc's labours (He never asked for the job) His friends, his enemies, his wives, his children, his lovers, his rivals, his gods, his victims It's time to hear their stories. Told with humour and heart, Herc gives voice to the silenced characters, in this feminist, queer (and sometimes shocking) retelling of classic Hercules myth.
Lilith by Nikki Marmery A triumphantly feminist retelling of ancient creation myths in the tradition of Madeline Miller and Claire North. Lyrically rendered, this epic U.S. debut tells the story of the woman known as Adam's first wife and her fall from Paradise and quest for revenge. Before Eve, there was Lilith. Lilith and Adam are equal and happy in the Garden of Eden. Until Adam decides Lilith should submit to his will and lie beneath him. She refuses--and is banished forever from Paradise. Demonized and sidelined, Lilith watches in fury as God creates Eve, the woman who accepts her submission. But Lilith has a secret: she has already tasted the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Endowed with Wisdom, she knows why Asherah--God's wife and equal, the Queen of Heaven--is missing. Lilith has a plan: she will rescue Eve, find Asherah, restore balance to the world, and regain her rightful place in Paradise.  Lilith's quest for justice drives her throughout history, from the ziggurats of Ancient Sumer, to the court of Israel's Queen Jezebel, and to the side of a radical preacher in Roman Judea. Noah's wife, Norea, Jezebel and Mary Magdalene all play their part in Lilith's enlightenment. In the modern age, as she observes the catastrophic consequences of a world built on inequality, Lilith finally understands what must be done to correct the wrong done to women--and all humankind--at the beginning of time. Inspired by ancient myths and suppressed scriptures, Lilith is a thought-provoking and ambitious novel with an evocative literary voice and a triumphantly engaging heroine.
Medusa's Sisters by Lauren J. A. Bear A vivid and moving reimagining of the myth of Medusa and the sisters who loved her. "A gorgeously crafted retelling of Greek mythology, Medusa's Sisters is a celebration of the many faces love can wear." --BookPage (starred review) "Perfect for fans of Circe, this is easily one of the best books I've read this year. Prepare to be enthralled!"--Stephanie Marie Thornton, USA Today bestselling author of Her Lost Words *A BookPage Best Book of 2023: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror* The end of the story is only the beginning... Even before they were transformed into Gorgons, Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale were unique among their immortal family. Curious about mortals and their lives, Medusa and her sisters entered the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly found themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry and learned--too late--that a god's love is a violent one.  Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags, damned and doomed. But they were sisters first, and their journey from lowly sea-born origins to the outskirts of the pantheon is a journey that rests, hidden, underneath their scales.  Monsters, but not monstrous, Stheno and Euryale will step into the light for the first time to tell the story of how all three sisters lived and were changed by each other, as they struggle against the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace.
Ithaca by Claire North From the multi-award-winning author Claire North comes a daring reimagining that breathes life into ancient myth and gives voice to the women who stand defiant in a world ruled by ruthless men. It's time for the women of Ithaca to tell their tale . . . "North brings a powerful, fresh, and unflinching voice to ancient myth. Breathtaking." --Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne Seventeen years ago, King Odysseus sailed to war with Troy, taking with him every man of fighting age from the island of Ithaca. None of them has returned, and the women of Ithaca have been left behind to run the kingdom.   Penelope was barely into womanhood when she wed Odysseus. While he lived, her position was secure. But now, years on, speculation is mounting that her husband is dead, and suitors are beginning to knock at her door.    No one man is strong enough to claim Odysseus' empty throne--not yet. But  as everyone waits for the balance of power to tip, Penelope knows that any choice she makes could plunge Ithaca into bloody civil war.  This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before. Beyond Ithaca's shores, the whims of gods dictate the wars of men. But on the isle, it is the choices of the abandoned women--and their goddesses--that will change the course of the world.  
Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara  "A pure delight . . . Romantic, poignant, and spellbinding."-- REBECCA ROSS, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Divine Rivals "Fiercely feminist and deeply romantic, Psyche and Eros has the allure of an old fable and the epic quality of ancient myth, tinged with a provocative, modern wit. Passionate and deftly-told." -- AVA REID, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and The Wolf and the Woodsman Has the god of love finally met his match? Prepare to fall for this glorious reimagining of Greek mythology about a god struck by his own cursed arrow and the mortal woman who teaches him what love truly means Psyche, princess of Mycenae, was born with a prophecy that she will one day conquer a great monster. Rejecting her royal duties, Psyche spends her youth mastering blade and bow, preparing for her destiny. Tales of her beauty and rebellious nature reach even the goddess Aphrodite, who decides to teach Psyche a lesson. Aphrodite commands Eros, the god of desire, to deliver a cruel love curse. After eons watching humanity misuse his gifts, the last thing Eros wants is to become involved in the chaos of the mortal world. But when he accidentally pricks himself with the arrow intended for Psyche, Eros finds himself doomed to yearn for a woman who will be torn from him the moment their eyes meet. Thrown together by fate, headstrong Psyche and world-weary Eros will face challenges greater than they could have ever imagined. As the Trojan War begins and divine powers try to keep them apart, the pair must determine: could this be true love, or is that only a myth? A joyous and subversive tale of gods, monsters, and the human heart and soul, Psyche and Eros dazzles the senses while exploring notions of trust, sacrifice, and what it truly means to be a hero. With unforgettably vivid characters, spellbinding prose, and delicious tension, Luna McNamara has crafted a shimmering and propulsive debut novel about a love so strong it defies the will of Olympus. "A riotous adventure . . . McNamara strikes the perfect note of irreverent humor and furious emotion in this fabulous novel. An absolute joy!"-- JENNIFER SAINT, bestselling author of Ariadne "An enthralling tale of adventure, romance, and star-crossed lovers." -- SUE LYNN TAN, bestselling author of Daughter of the Moon Goddess
Women of Myth by Jenny Williamson; Genn McMenemy; Sara Richard (Illustrator) Uncover the fascinating and complex women from mythology and folklore with this collection of stories profiling powerful goddesses, mighty queens, and legendary creatures. Get inspired with 50 fascinating stories of powerful female figures from mythologies around the world. From heroines and deities to leaders and mythical creatures, this collection explores figures of myth who can inspire modern readers with their ability to shape our culture with the stories of their power, wisdom, compassion, and cunning. Featured characters include: -Atalanta: Greek heroine and huntress who killed the Caledonia Boar and joined the Argonauts -Sky-Woman: The first woman in Iroquois myth who fell through a hole in the sky and into our world -Pele: Hawaiian volcano goddess -Clídna: Queen of the Banshees in Irish legend -La Llorona: A ghostly woman in Mexican folklore who wanders the waterfront Celebrate these game-changing, attention-worthy female characters with this collection of engaging tales.
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "MYTHIC RETELLING AT ITS BEST." (R. F. Kuang, author of Yellowface) * A 2023 IGNYTE AWARD FINALIST * A BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB PICK "With a graceful, measured elegance" (New York Times), this lyrical novel reimagines the life of the infamous queen from the ancient epic the Ramayana, giving voice to an extraordinary woman determined to leave her mark in a world where gods and men dictate the shape of things to come. I was born on the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions--much good it did me. So begins Kaikeyi's story. The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on legends of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and how they offer powerful boons to the devout and the wise. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is reduced to how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear. Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With this power, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat, and most favored queen, determined to carve a better world for herself and the women around her. But as the evil from her childhood tales threatens the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family. Kaikeyi must decide if resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak--and what legacy she intends to leave behind. PRAISE FOR KAIKEYI "Patel resets the balance of power, creating an unforgettable heroine who understands that it isn't necessarily kings or gods who change history." -Washington Post "Easily earns its place on shelves alongside Madeline Miller's Circe." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Utterly captivating from start to finish." ―Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch's Heart    "Brave, compassionate and powerful." ―Tasha Suri, author of The Jasmine Throne   "A lyrical and evocative retelling, full of power and grace." ―Ava Reid, author of Juniper & Thorn  "Compulsively readable and infinitely compassionate." ―Roshani Chokshi, author of The Last Tale of the Flower Bride "A thought-provoking, nuanced new look at one of humanity's most foundational stories." --Shannon Chakraborty, author of The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi  
Elektra by Jennifer Saint A spellbinding reimagining of the story of Elektra, one of Greek mythology's most infamous heroines, from Jennifer Saint, the author of the beloved international bestseller, Ariadne. Three women, tangled in an ancient curse. When Clytemnestra marries Agamemnon, she ignores the insidious whispers about his family line, the House of Atreus. But when, on the eve of the Trojan War, Agamemnon betrays Clytemnestra in the most unimaginable way, she must confront the curse that has long ravaged their family. In Troy, Princess Cassandra has the gift of prophecy, but carries a curse of her own: no one will ever believe what she sees. When she is shown what will happen to her beloved city when Agamemnon and his army arrives, she is powerless to stop the tragedy from unfolding. Elektra, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon's youngest daughter, wants only for her beloved father to return home from war. But can she escape her family's bloody history, or is her destiny bound by violence, too?
The Japanese Myths by Joshua Frydman The perfect introduction to the world of Japanese myth and legend. This is a smart and succinct guide to the rich tradition of Japanese mythology, from the earliest recorded legends of Izanagi and Izanami, their divine offspring and the creation of Japan, to medieval tales of vengeful ghosts, through to the modern-day reincarnation of ancient deities as the heroes of mecha anime. While many around the world love Japan's cultural exports, few are familiar with Japan's unique mythology - enriched by Shinto, Buddhism and regional folklore. Mythology remains a living, evolving part of Japanese society, and the ways in which the people of Japan understand their myths are very different today even from a century ago, let alone over a millennium into the past. Offering much more than any competing overview of Japanese mythology, The Japanese Myths not only retells the ancient stories but also considers their place within the patterns of Japanese religions, culture and history, helping readers to understand the deep links between past and present in Japan, and the ways these myths live and grow. Joshua Frydman takes the very earliest written myths in the Kojiki and the Nihonshoki as his starting point, and from there traces Japan's mythology through to post-war State Shinto, the rise of the manga industry in the 1960s, J-horror and modern-day myths. Reinventions and retellings of myth are present across all genres of contemporary Japanese culture, from its auteur cinema to renowned video games such as Okami. This book is for anyone interested in Japan, as knowing its myths allows readers to understand and appreciate its culture in a new light.
Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER! For millennia, men have told the legend of the woman whose face launched a thousand ships--but now it's time to hear her side of the story. Daughters of Sparta is a tale of secrets, love, and tragedy from the women behind mythology's most devastating war, the infamous Helen and her sister Klytemnestra. As princesses of Sparta, Helen and Klytemnestra have known nothing but luxury and plenty. With their high birth and unrivaled beauty, they are the envy of all of Greece. But such privilege comes at a cost. While still only girls, the sisters are separated and married to foreign kings of their father's choosing--the powerful Agamemnon, and his brother Menelaos. Yet even as Queens, each is only expected to do two things: birth an heir and embody the meek, demure nature that is expected of women. But when the weight of their husbands' neglect, cruelty, and ambition becomes too heavy to bear, Helen and Klytemnestra must push against the constraints of their society to carve new lives for themselves, and in doing so, make waves that will ripple throughout the next three thousand years. Daughters of Sparta is a vivid and illuminating reimagining of the Siege of Troy, told through the perspectives of two women whose voices have been ignored for far too long. "Required reading for fans of Circe, and a remarkable, thrilling debut." --Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue "[A] gorgeous retelling of the classic Greek myth... Absolutely riveting!" --Alka Joshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist
The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec Angrboda's story begins where most witch's tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to give him knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into a remote forest. There she is found by a man Loki, and her initial distrust grows into a deep and abiding love. Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who she is keen to raise at the hidden from Odin's all-seeing eye. But as Angrboda slowly recovers her prophetic powers, she learns that her blissful life - and possibly all of existence - is in danger.
Troy by Stephen Fry In this brilliant addition to his Greek Myths series, legendary author and actor Stephen Fry retells the tale of the Trojan War with his trademark wit and vibrance. Full of tragic heroes, intoxicating love stories, and the unstoppable force of fate, there is no conflict more iconic than the Trojan War. Troy is the story of the epic battle retold by Fry with drama, humor, and vivid emotion. Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, Helen, their lovers, and their mortal enemies all burn bright in Fry's compelling prose. Illustrated throughout with classical art inspired by the myths, this fresh take on an ancient tale invites you to explore a captivating world with a virtuoso storyteller as your guide. BELOVED AUTHOR: Stephen Fry is an icon whose signature wit and mellifluous style makes this retelling utterly unique. Fans will love hearing his interpretation, whether they are familiar with the original Greek myths or not. POPULAR SERIES: The previous books that comprise Stephen Fry's Greek Myths--Mythos and Heroes--have been international bestsellers, praised for their engaging and nuanced retellings. Now fans can read Fry's take on the Trojan War. GORGEOUS GIFT: With a vibrant contemporary design, full-color artwork throughout, and shimmering metallic highlights on the jacket, this book makes a superb present. READERS LOVE IT:  Stephen Fry's Greek Myths series' nearly 5-star rating and rave reviews make each of the three volumes a winner. "Stephen Fry is our modern-day Homer," one reviewer declares, while another observes that "you really feel as if you're there as the events take place." Buzzfeed says, "It's a quick-witted retelling so beginners and experts can both get something from it." Perfect for: Readers of Madeline Miller's Circe and Song of Achilles, Edith Hamilton's Mythology, and Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology People who enjoy reading timeless stories, from fairy tales to Viking mythology to legends of Greek gods Fans of classic literature and poetry about ancient Greece 
Women and Other Monsters by Jess Zimmerman A fresh cultural analysis of female monsters from Greek mythology, and an invitation for all women to reclaim these stories as inspiration for a more wild, more "monstrous" version of feminism The folklore that has shaped our dominant culture teems with frightening female creatures. In our language, in our stories (many written by men), we underline the idea that women who step out of bounds-who are angry or greedy or ambitious, who are overtly sexual or not sexy enough-aren't just outside the norm. They're unnatural. Monstrous. But maybe, the traits we've been told make us dangerous and undesirable are actually our greatest strengths. Through fresh analysis of eleven female monsters, including Medusa, the Harpies, the Furies, and the Sphinx, Jess Zimmerman takes us on an illuminating feminist journey through mythology. She guides women (and others) to reexamine their relationships with traits like hunger, anger, ugliness, and ambition, teaching readers to embrace a new image of the female hero- one that looks a lot like a monster, with the agency and power to match. Often, women try to avoid the feeling of monstrousness, of being grotesquely alien, by tamping down those qualities that we're told fall outside the bounds of natural femininity. But monsters also get to do what other female characters-damsels, love interests, and even most heroines-do not. Monsters get to be complete, unrestrained, and larger than life. Today, women are becoming increasingly aware of the ways rules and socially constructed expectations have diminished us. After seeing where compliance gets us-harassed, shut out, and ruled by predators-women have never been more ready to become repellent, fearsome, and ravenous.
Crazy Cupid Love by Amanda Heger When a single arrow inspires romance, can you really trust happy endings? I wouldn't say I'm anti-love exactly, but really, the whole idea of a happily-ever-after makes no sense. I'm the black sheep of the Eros family, the embarrassing hidden family secret, affectionately called the World's Worst Cupid by my siblings, and I'm actually pretty fine with that. But when a family crisis requires me to fill in at the local Cupid-for-hire shop, I can't say no. Particularly when the gig comes with a gorgeous mentor named Jake Sanders who holds the top spot on my "I wouldn't throw you out of bed for eating crackers" dating list. Now, I'm questioning my whole stance on love and friendship...which is a huge bummer because my enchantments are suddenly going terribly wrong. I'm definitely going to need some hands-on help from Jake if I want to unravel the conspiracy that's threatening the very essence of Love itself.
Great Goddesses by Nikita Gill Bestselling poet, writer, and Instagram sensation Nikita Gill returns with a collection of poetry and prose retelling the legends of the Goddesses, both great and small, in their own words. With lyrical prose and striking verse, beloved poet Nikita Gill (Fierce Fairytales, Wild Embers) uses the history of Ancient Greece and beyond to explore and share the stories of the mothers, warriors, creators, survivors, and destroyers who shook the world. In pieces that burn with empathy and admiration for these women, Gill unearths the power and glory of the very foundations of mythology and culture that have been too-often ignored or pushed aside.  Complete with beautiful hand-drawn illustrations, Gill's poetry and stories weave old and forgotten tales of might and love into an empowering collection for the modern woman.
Norma Jeane Baker of Troy by Anne Carson Norma Jeane Baker of Troy is a meditation on the destabilizing and destructive power of beauty, drawing together Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe, twin avatars of female fascination separated by millennia but united in mythopoeic force. Norma Jeane Baker was staged in the spring of 2019 at The Shed's Griffin Theater in New York, starring actor Ben Whishaw and soprano Renée Fleming and directed by Katie Mitchell.
Circe by Madeline Miller "A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story," this #1 New York Times bestseller is "both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right" (Alexandra Alter, The New York Times). In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power -- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love. With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world. #1 New York Times Bestseller -- named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the Washington Post, People, Time, Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self, Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider.
Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky by David Bowles Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky is a stunning collection of Aztec folklore and myths passed from generation to generation and, now, writer to reader. The stories in Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky trace the history of the world from its beginnings in the dreams of the dual god, Ometeotl, to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in Mexico and the fall of the great city Tenochtitlan. In this book's beautiful language, we learn the history of the Creator Twins--Feathered Serpent and Dark Heart of Sky--and how they built the world on a leviathan's back; of the shape-shifting nahualli; and the aluxes, elfish beings known to help out the occasional wanderer. And finally, we read Aztec tales about the arrival of the blonde strangers from across the sea, the strangers who seek to upend the rule of Moctezuma and destroy the very stories we are reading. David Bowles stitches together the fragmented folklore and mythology of pre-Colombian Mexico into an exciting, unified narrative in the tradition of William Buck's Ramayana, Robert Fagles's Iliad, and Neil Gaiman's Norse Myths. Legends and myths captured David's imagination as a young Latino reader; he was fascinated with epics like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Despite growing up on the United States/Mexico border, he had never read a single Aztec or Mayan myth until he was in college. This experience inspired him to reconnect with that forgotten past.
Thats What the Old Ones Say by Chief Joseph RiverWind; Laralyn RiverWind (As told to) "That's What the Old Ones Say"Pre-Colonial Revelations of God to Native AmericaA revealing book of intriguing stories told by elders from different First Nations Tribes about The Creator, His Son, Native End-Times Prophecies, Revelations & more.Many of these traditional stories have been told for generations at Ceremonial Grounds, Stomp Arbors, Powwow Grounds, and private family gatherings tucked away deep on tribal lands. I was honored and humbled to be able to sit and learn these old stories from elders hailing from many First Nations tribes. Comanche, Dineh, Apache, Anishinabe, Aztec, Cherokee, Creek, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Mohawk are a few of the tribes whose elders shared their beautiful stories with me. I listened eagerly to these accounts that were passed down from generation to generation while understanding filled my spirit and I was asked to pass these stories along to the next generation.These are stories that were told before missionary contact and I realized with each story that I listened to I had heard them before...not from my tribe but from another ancient tribe who has left an impacting legacy on the earth called The Bible. The Creator planted the seed in my heart to write this book as a way to help build the bridge of reconciliation between the nations. You might laugh, cry, sing for joy or wail from the deepest parts of your soul. Betrayal, love, reconciliation, unity, sacrifice, joy, peace, history, archaeology, science, the perseverance of the human spirit and the longing for Creator to heal our land and broken hearts. A longing for our spirit to be uplifted from the only One who can give us Hope in the face of utter defeat and despair. I was humbled being entrusted with hearing these stories and was given permission to retell them so they can be shared with the world. Seneco Kakona (Many Blessings). - Chief Joseph RiverWind
The Poetic Edda by Carolyne Larrington Earth from the ocean, eternally green;the waterfalls plunge, an eagle soars above them,over the mountain hunting fish.'After the terrible conflagration of Ragnarok, the earth rises serenely again from the ocean, and life is renewed. The Poetic Edda begins with The Seeress's Prophecy which recounts the creation of the world, and looks forward to its destruction and rebirth. In thisgreat collection of Norse-Icelandic mythological and heroic poetry, the exploits of gods and humans are related. The one-eyed Odin, red-bearded Thor, Loki the trickster, the lovely goddesses and the giants who are their enemies walk besidethe heroic Helgi, Sigurd the Dragon-Slayer, Brynhild the shield-maiden, and the implacable Gudrun. New in this revised translation are the quest-poem The Lay of Svipdag and The Waking of Angantyr, in which a girl faces down her dead father to retrieve his sword.Comic, tragic, instructive, grandiose, witty and profound, the poems of the Edda have influenced artists from Wagner to Tolkien and a new generation of video-game and film makers.
Xo Orpheus by Kate Bernheimer Fifty leading writers retell myths from around the world in this dazzling follow-up to the bestselling My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. Icarus flies once more. Aztec jaguar gods again stalk the earth. An American soldier designs a new kind of Trojan horse-his cremains in a bullet. Here, in beguiling guise, are your favorite mythological figures alongside characters from Indian, Punjabi, Inuit, and other traditions. Aimee Bender retells the myth of the Titans. Elizabeth McCracken retells the myth of Lamia, the child-eating mistress of Zeus. Madeline Miller retells the myth of Galatea. Kevin Wilson retells the myth of Phaeton, from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Emma Straub and Peter Straub retell the myth of Persephone. Heidi Julavits retells the myth of Orpheus and Euridice. Ron Currie, Jr. retells the myth of Dedalus. Maile Meloy retells the myth of Demeter. Zachary Mason retells the myth of Narcissus. Joy Williams retells the myth of Argos, Odysseus' dog. If "xo" signals a goodbye, then xo Orpheus is a goodbye to an old way of mythmaking. Featuring talkative goats, a cat lady, a bird woman, a beer-drinking ogre, a squid who falls in love with the sun, and a girl who gives birth to cubs, here are extravagantly imagined, bracingly contemporary stories, heralding a new beginning for one of the world's oldest literary traditions.

spiritual fiction

Spiritual Fiction

Spiritual Literacy Month December 2024

While most of these listings link by default to a print copy, many are available in other formats (eBook and eAudiobook). Don't forget to check the catalog by title or author if you prefer digital!

Haven by Emma Donoghue In this beautiful story of adventure and survival from the New York Times bestselling author of Room, three men vow to leave the world behind them as they set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them. In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks--young Trian and old Cormac--he rows down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. In such a place, what will survival mean?
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse; Susan Bernofsky (Translator); Tom Robbins (Introduction by) In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life -- the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace, and, finally, wisdom.
Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo "Enlightenment meets On the Road in this witty, insightful novel." --The Boston Sunday Globe When his sister tricks him into taking her guru on a trip to their childhood home, Otto Ringling, a confirmed skeptic, is not amused. Six days on the road with an enigmatic holy man who answers every question with a riddle is not what he'd planned. But in an effort to westernize his passenger--and amuse himself--he decides to show the monk some "American fun" along the way. From a chocolate factory in Hershey to a bowling alley in South Bend, from a Cubs game at Wrigley field to his family farm near Bismarck, Otto is given the remarkable opportunity to see his world--and more important, his life--through someone else's eyes. Gradually, skepticism yields to amazement as he realizes that his companion might just be the real thing. In Roland Merullo's masterful hands, Otto tells his story with all the wonder, bemusement, and wry humor of a man who unwittingly finds what he's missing in the most unexpected place.
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A New York Times Notable Book The astonishing debut novel from the acclaimed bestselling author of The Death of Vivek Oji, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, and Pet, Freshwater tells the story of Ada, an unusual child who is a source of deep concern to her southern Nigerian family. Young Ada is troubled, prone to violent fits. Born "with one foot on the other side," she begins to develop separate selves within her as she grows into adulthood. And when she travels to America for college, a traumatic event on campus crystallizes the selves into something powerful and potentially dangerous, making Ada fade into the background of her own mind as these alters--now protective, now hedonistic--move into control. Written with stylistic brilliance and based in the author's realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER* A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * MORE THAN 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD "Quietly powerful [and] moving." O, The Oprah Magazine (recommended reading) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award, GILEAD is a hymn of praise and lamentation to the God-haunted existence that Reverend Ames loves passionately, and from which he will soon part. In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War," then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father--an ardent pacifist--and his grandfather, whose pistol and bloody shirts, concealed in an army blanket, may be relics from the fight between the abolitionists and those settlers who wanted to vote Kansas into the union as a slave state. And he tells a story of the sacred bonds between fathers and sons, which are tested in his tender and strained relationship with his namesake, John Ames Boughton, his best friend's wayward son. This is also the tale of another remarkable vision--not a corporeal vision of God but the vision of life as a wondrously strange creation. It tells how wisdom was forged in Ames's soul during his solitary life, and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.
The Hour of the Fox by Cassandra Clark Introducing reluctant spy and friar-sleuth Brother Rodric Chandler in the first of a brand-new medieval mystery series. London. July, 1399. As rumours spread that his ambitious cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, has returned from exile in France, King Richard's grip on the English throne grows ever more precarious. Meanwhile, the body of a young woman is discovered at Dowgate sluice. When it's established that the dead woman was a novice from nearby Barking Abbey, the coroner calls in his friend, Brother Chandler, to investigate. Who would cut the throat of a young nun and throw her remains in the river? And what was she doing outside the confines of the priory in the first place? Secretly acting as a spy for Henry Bolingbroke, Chandler is torn by conflicting loyalties and agonising self-doubt. As the king's cousin marches towards Wales and England teeters on the brink of civil war, Chandler's investigations will draw him into affairs of state - and endanger not only himself but all those around him.
Revival Season by Monica West The daughter of one of the South's most famous Baptist preachers discovers a shocking secret about her father that puts her at odds with both her faith and her family in this debut novel. "Spellbinding...Revival Season should be read alongside Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus." --The Washington Post A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice Every summer, fifteen-year-old Miriam Horton and her family pack themselves tight in their old minivan and travel through small southern towns for revival season: the time when Miriam's father--one of the South's most famous preachers--holds massive healing services for people desperate to be cured of ailments and disease. But, this summer, the revival season doesn't go as planned, and after one service in which Reverend Horton's healing powers are tested like never before, Miriam witnesses a shocking act of violence that shakes her belief in her father--and her faith. When the Hortons return home, Miriam's confusion only grows as she discovers she might have the power to heal--even though her father and the church have always made it clear that such power is denied to women. Over the course of the following year, Miriam must decide between her faith, her family, and her newfound power that might be able to save others, but if discovered by her father, could destroy Miriam. Celebrating both feminism and faith, Revival Season is a "tender and wise" (Ann Patchett) story of spiritual awakening and disillusionment in a Southern, Black, Evangelical community.
The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall "This gentle, gorgeously written book may be one of my favorites ever." --Jenna Bush Hager (A Today show "Read with Jenna" Book Club Selection!) "A thoughtful, beautiful multigenerational novel about love, God, jealousy, and friendship." --Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love "A moving portrait of love and friendship set against a backdrop of social change." --The New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice) "Here is the power of the novel in its simplest, richest form: bearing intimate witness to human beings grappling with their faith and falling in love. That Wall executes it so beautifully? Well, this is exactly why we read literary fiction...The best book about faith in recent memory." --Entertainment Weekly (A-) Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart. Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How then, can he fall in love with Lily--fiercely intellectual, elegantly stern--after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? And yet, how can he not? James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante. James's escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life. In The Dearly Beloved, we follow these two couples through decades of love and friendship, jealousy and understanding, forgiveness and commitment. Against the backdrop of turbulent changes facing the city and the church's congregation, these four forge improbable paths through their evolving relationships, each struggling with uncertainty, heartbreak, and joy. A poignant meditation on faith and reason, marriage and children, and the ways we find meaning in our lives, Cara Wall's The Dearly Beloved is a gorgeous, wise, and provocative novel that is destined to become a classic.
Bring on the Blessings by Beverly Jenkins On Bernadine Brown's fifty-second birthday she received an unexpected gift - she caught her husband, Leo, cheating on her. She was hurt and angry, but rather than cry and scream, she hired herself a top-notch lawyer and ended up with a cool $275 million. Now Bernadine needs a purpose, and that turns out to be the town of Henry Adams, Kansas, one of the last surviving townships founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. The town has put itself up for sale on the Internet, and Bernadine buys it. Watching the town he loves slide into foreclosure is painful for Mayor Trent July, but when he meets Bernadine, he's impressed. She not only offers the town vision, strength, and hope, she also extends her largesse to kids in desperate need of a second chance.
Call Number: Large Print
The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi Called "archetypal and stirring" by Deepak Chopra, The Immortals of Meluha heralds an exciting new wave of fantasy writing inspired by the ancient civilizations of the East. Tripathi devoted years to the research of Hindu mythological stories and history, and discussions with his family about the destiny of the human body, mind and soul to create this sweeping and fascinating adaptation of ancient Hindu mythology for modern fantasy readers. 1900 BC in what modern Indians call the Indus Valley Civilization and the inhabitants called the land of Meluha: a near-perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram--one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived--faces peril as its primary river, the Saraswati, is slowly drying to exctinction. The Suryavanshi rulers are challenged with devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis. To make matters worse, the Chandravanshis appear to have allied with the Nagas, an ostracized and sinister race of deformed humans with astonishing martial skills. The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient legend: When evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, a hero will emerge. Is the unexpected, rough-hewn Tibetan immigrant Shiva that hero? Drawn suddenly to his destiny, duty, and by love, Shiva will attempt to move mountains and lead the Suryavanshi to destroy evil.
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak; Laural Merlington (Narrated by) In this follow-up to her acclaimed 2007 novel The Bastard of Istanbul, Turkish author Elif Shafak unfolds two tantalizing parallel narratives-one contemporary and the other set in the thirteenth century, when Rumi encountered his spiritual mentor, the whirling dervish known as Shams of Tabriz-that together incarnate the poet's timeless message of love.Ella Rubenstein is forty years old and unhappily married when she takes a job as a reader for a literary agent. Her first assignment is to read and report on Sweet Blasphemy, a novel written by a man named Aziz Zahara. Ella is mesmerized by his tale of Shams' search for Rumi and the dervish's role in transforming the successful but unhappy cleric into a committed mystic, passionate poet, and advocate of love. She is also taken with Shams's lessons, or rules, which offer insight into an ancient philosophy based on the unity of all people and religions, and the presence of love in each and every one of us. As she reads on, she realizes that Rumi's story mirrors her own and that Zahara-like Shams-has come to set her free.
Call Number: Check it out now - only available from hoopla digital!
Hild by Nicola Griffith A brilliant, lush, sweeping historical novel about the rise of the most powerful woman of the Middle Ages: Hild In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, frequently and violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods are struggling, their priests worrying. Hild is the king's youngest niece, and she has a glimmering mind and a natural, noble authority. She will become a fascinating woman and one of the pivotal figures of the Middle Ages: Saint Hilda of Whitby. But now she has only the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world--of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing her surroundings closely and predicting what will happen next--that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her. Her uncle, Edwin of Northumbria, plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief. Hild establishes a place for herself at his side as the king's seer. And she is indispensable--unless she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, for her family, for her loved ones, and for the increasing numbers who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future. Hild is a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the early Middle Ages--all of it brilliantly and accurately evoked by Nicola Griffith's luminous prose. Working from what little historical record is extant, Griffith has brought a beautiful, brutal world to vivid, absorbing life.
Illuminations by Mary Sharratt A triumphant portrait of a resilient and courageous woman and the life she might have lived . . . Skillfully interweaving historical fact with psychological insight and vivid imagination, Sharratt's redemptive novel,Illuminations, brings to life one of the most extraordinary women of the Middle Ages: Hildegard von Bingen, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath. Offered to the Church at the age of eight, Hildegard was entombed in a small room where she was expected to live out her days in silent submission as the handmaiden of a renowned but disturbed young nun, Jutta von Sponheim. Instead, Hildegard rejected Jutta's masochistic piety and found comfort and grace in studying books, growing herbs, and rejoicing in her own secret visions of the divine. When Jutta died some thirty years later, Hildegard broke out of her prison with the heavenly calling to speak and write about her visions and to liberate her sisters and herself from the soul-destroying anchorage. Riveting and utterly unforgettable,Illuminationsis a deeply moving portrayal of a woman willing to risk everything for what she believed. "With elegance and sensitivity, Mary Sharratt rescues Hildegard von Bingen from the obscurity of legend, bringing to life the flesh-and-blood woman in all her conflict, faith, and unwavering tenacity.Illuminationsis an astonishing revelation of a visionary leader willing to sacrifice everything to defend her beliefs in a dangerous time of oppression." --C. W. Gortner, author ofThe Confessions of Catherine de Medici
The Anchoress by Robyn Cadwallader England, 1255. What could drive a girl on the cusp of womanhood to lock herself away from the world forever? Sarah is just seventeen when she chooses to become an anchoress, a holy woman shut away in a cell that measures only seven by nine paces, at the side of the village church. Fleeing the grief of losing a much-loved sister in childbirth as well as pressure to marry the local lord's son, she decides to renounce the world--with all its dangers, desires, and temptations--and commit herself to a life of prayer. But it soon becomes clear that the thick, unforgiving walls of Sarah's cell cannot protect her as well as she had thought. With the outside world clamoring to get in and the intensity of her isolation driving her toward drastic actions, even madness, her body and soul are still in grave danger. When she starts hearing the voice of the previous anchoress whispering to her from the walls, Sarah finds herself questioning what she thought she knew about the anchorhold, and about the village itself. With the lyricism of Nicola Griffith's Hild and the vivid historical setting of Hannah Kent's Burial Rites, Robyn Cadwallader's powerful debut novel tells an absorbing story of faith, desire, shame, fear, and the very human need for connection and touch. Compelling, evocative, and haunting, The Anchoress is both quietly heartbreaking and thrillingly unpredictable.
Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson From the best-selling author ofSnow Falling on Cedars—an emotionally charged, provocative new novel about a teenage girl who claims to see the Virgin Mary. Ann Holmes seems an unlikely candidate for revelation. A sixteen-year-old runaway, she is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. But on a November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day. Father Collins—a young priest new to North Fork—finds Ann disturbingly alluring. But it is up to him to evaluate—impartially—the veracity of Ann’s sightings: Are they delusions, or a true calling to God? As word spreads and thousands, including the press, converge upon the town, Carolyn Greer, a smart-talking fellow mushroomer, becomes Ann’s disciple of sorts, as well as her impromptu publicity manager. And Tom Cross, an embittered logger who’s been out of work since his son was paralyzed in a terrible accident, finds in Ann’s visions a last chance for redemption for both himself and his son. As Father Collins searches his own soul and Ann’s, as Carolyn struggles with her less than admirable intentions, as Tom alternates between despair and hope,Our Lady of the Foresttells a suspenseful, often wryly humorous, and deeply involving story of faith at a contemporary crossroads.
Esther by Angela Hunt When an ambitious tyrant threatens genocide against the Jews, an inexperienced young queen must take a stand for her people. When Xerxes, king of Persia, issues a call for beautiful young women, Hadassah, a Jewish orphan living in Susa, is forcibly taken to the palace of the pagan ruler. After months of preparation, the girl known to the Persians as Esther wins the king's heart and a queen's crown. But because her situation is uncertain, she keeps her ethnic identity a secret until she learns that an evil and ambitious man has won the king's permission to exterminate all Jews--young and old, powerful and helpless. Purposely violating an ancient Persian law, she risks her life in order to save her people...and bind her husband's heart.
Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak The stunning, timely new novel from the acclaimed, internationally bestselling author of The Architect's Apprentice and The Bastard of Istanbul. Peri, a married, wealthy, beautiful Turkish woman, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground--an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor. A relic from a past--and a love--Peri had tried desperately to forget. Three Daughters of Eve is set over an evening in contemporary Istanbul, as Peri arrives at the party and navigates the tensions that simmer in this crossroads country between East and West, religious and secular, rich and poor. Over the course of the dinner, and amidst an opulence that is surely ill-begotten, terrorist attacks occur across the city. Competing in Peri's mind however are the memories invoked by her almost-lost polaroid, of the time years earlier when she was sent abroad for the first time, to attend Oxford University. As a young woman there, she had become friends with the charming, adventurous Shirin, a fully assimilated Iranian girl, and Mona, a devout Egyptian-American. Their arguments about Islam and feminism find focus in the charismatic but controversial Professor Azur, who teaches divinity, but in unorthodox ways. As the terrorist attacks come ever closer, Peri is moved to recall the scandal that tore them all apart. Elif Shafak is the number one bestselling novelist in her native Turkey, and her work is translated and celebrated around the world. In Three Daughters of Eve, she has given us a rich and moving story that humanizes and personalizes one of the most profound sea changes of the modern world.
Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah When sixteen-year-old Amal decides to wear the hijab full-time, her entire world changes, all because of a piece of cloth...Sixteen-year-old Amal makes the decision to start wearing the hijab full-time and everyone has a reaction. Her parents, her teachers, her friends, people on the street. But she stands by her decision to embrace her faith and all that it is, even if it does make her a little different from everyone else.Can she handle the taunts of "towel head," the prejudice of her classmates, and still attract the cutest boy in school? Brilliantly funny and poignant, Randa Abdel-Fattah's debut novel will strike a chord in all teenage readers, no matter what their beliefs.
Call Number: Young Adult
American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar From Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar, a stirring and explosive debut novel about an American Muslim family in Wisconsin struggling with faith and belonging in the pre-9/11 world. Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything changes. American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life.
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber A monumental, genre-defying novel that David Mitchell calls "Michel Faber's second masterpiece," The Book of Strange New Things is a masterwork from a writer in full command of his many talents. It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment, overseen by an enigmatic corporation known only as USIC.; His work introduces him to a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter's teachings--his Bible is their "book of strange new things." But Peter is rattled when Bea's letters from home become increasingly desperate: typhoons and earthquakes are devastating whole countries, and governments are crumbling. Bea's faith, once the guiding light of their lives, begins to falter.; Suddenly, a separation measured by an otherworldly distance, and defined both by one newly discovered world and another in a state of collapse, is threatened by an ever-widening gulf that is much less quantifiable.; While Peter is reconciling the needs of his congregation with the desires of his strange employer, Bea is struggling for survival.; Their trials lay bare a profound meditation on faith, love tested beyond endurance, and our responsibility to those closest to us. Marked by the same bravura storytelling and precise language that made The Crimson Petal and the White such an international success, The Book of Strange New Things is extraordinary, mesmerizing, and replete with emotional complexity and genuine pathos.
The Chosen by Chaim Potok "Anyone who finds it is finding a jewel. Its themes are profound and universal."--The Wall Street Journal It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again. . . .
Call Number: audio
Dawn by Elie Wiesel; Frances Frenaye (Translator) Elie Wiesel's Dawn is an eloquent meditation on the compromises, justifications, and sacrifices that human beings make when they murder other human beings. "The author . . . has built knowledge into artistic fiction." --The New York Times Book Review Elisha is a young Jewish man, a Holocaust survivor, and an Israeli freedom fighter in British-controlled Palestine; John Dawson is the captured English officer he will murder at dawn in retribution for the British execution of a fellow freedom fighter. The night-long wait for morning and death provides Dawn, Elie Wiesel's ever more timely novel, with its harrowingly taut, hour-by-hour narrative. Caught between the manifold horrors of the past and the troubling dilemmas of the present, Elisha wrestles with guilt, ghosts, and ultimately God as he waits for the appointed hour and his act of assassination. The basis for the 2014 film of the same name, now available on streaming and home video.
The Age of Shiva by Manil Suri Following his spectacular debut, The Death of Vishnu, Manil Suri returns with a mesmerizing story of modern India, richly layered with themes from Hindu mythology. The Age of Shiva is at once a powerful story of a country in turmoil and an extraordinary portrait of maternal love. Meera, the narrator, is seventeen years old when she catches her first glimpse of Dev, performing a song so infused with passion that it arouses in her the first flush of erotic longing. She wonders if she can steal him away from Roopa, her older, more beautiful sister, who has brought her along to see him. When Meera's reverie comes true, it does not lead to the fairy-tale marriage she imagined. She escapes her overbearing father only to find herself thrust into the male-dominated landscape of India after independence. Dev's family is orthodox and domineering, his physical demands oppressive. His brother Arya lusts after her with the same intensity that fuels his right-wing politics. Although Meera develops an unexpected affinity with her sister-in-law Sandhya, the tenderness they share is as heartbreaking as it is fleeting. It is only when her son is born that Meera begins to imagine a life of fulfillment. She engulfs him with a love so deep, so overpowering, that she must fear its consequences. Meera's unforgettable story, embodying Shiva as a symbol of religious upheaval, places The Age of Shiva among the most compelling novels to emerge from contemporary India.
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman Over five years in the writing, The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman's most ambitious and mesmerizing novel, a tour de force of imagination and research, set in ancient Israel. In 70 C.E., nine hundred Jews held out for months against armies of Romans on Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. According to the ancient historian Josephus, two women and five children survived. Based on this tragic and iconic event, Hoffman's novel is a spellbinding tale of four extraordinarily bold, resourceful, and sensuous women, each of whom has come to Masada by a different path. Yael's mother died in childbirth, and her father, an expert assassin, never forgave her for that death. Revka, a village baker's wife, watched the horrifically brutal murder of her daughter by Roman soldiers; she brings to Masada her young grandsons, rendered mute by what they have witnessed. Aziza is a warrior's daughter, raised as a boy, a fearless rider and an expert marksman who finds passion with a fellow soldier. Shirah, born in Alexandria, is wise in the ways of ancient magic and medicine, a woman with uncanny insight and power. The lives of these four complex and fiercely independent women intersect in the desperate days of the siege. All are dovekeepers, and all are also keeping secrets--about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love. The Dovekeepers is Alice Hoffman's masterpiece.
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry An NPR and Kirkus Review Best Book of 2017, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction. Winner of the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year and overall Book of the Year, selected as the Waterstones Book of the Year, and a Costa Book Award Finalist "A novel of almost insolent ambition--lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate...it's part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home."  -New York Times "An irresistible new novel...the most delightful heroine since Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice...By the end, The Essex Serpent identifies a mystery far greater than some creature 'from the illuminated margins of a manuscript': friendship."  -Washington Post "Richly enjoyable... Ms. Perry writes beautifully and sometimes agreeably sharply... The Essex Serpent is a wonderfully satisfying novel. Ford Madox Ford thought the glory of the novel was its ability to make the reader think and feel at the same time. This one does just that." -Wall Street Journal An exquisitely talented young British author makes her American debut with this rapturously acclaimed historical novel, set in late nineteenth-century England, about an intellectually minded young widow, a pious vicar, and a rumored mythical serpent that explores questions about science and religion, skepticism, and faith, independence and love. When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at nineteen, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend. While admiring the sites, Cora learns of an intriguing rumor that has arisen further up the estuary, of a fearsome creature said to roam the marshes claiming human lives. After nearly 300 years, the mythical Essex Serpent is said to have returned, taking the life of a young man on New Year's Eve. A keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, Cora is immediately enthralled, and certain that what the local people think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to local vicar William Ransome. Will, too, is suspicious of the rumors. But unlike Cora, this man of faith is convinced the rumors are caused by moral panic, a flight from true belief. These seeming opposites who agree on nothing soon find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart--an intense relationship that will change both of their lives in ways entirely unexpected. Hailed by Sarah Waters as "a work of great intelligence and charm, by a hugely talented author," The Essex Serpent is "irresistible . . . you can feel the influences of Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, and Hilary Mantel channeled by Perry in some sort of Victorian séance. This is the best new novel I've read in years" (Daily Telegraph).
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin In one of the greatest American classics, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity--told "with vivid imagery, with lavish attention to details ... [a] feverish story" (The New York Times). Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin tells the story of the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Originally published in 1953, Baldwin said of his first novel, "Mountain is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else."
The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela "A versatile prose stylist... [Aboulela's] lyrical style and incisive portrayal of Muslims living in the West received praise from the Nobel Prize winner J. M. Coetzee... [she is] a voice for multiculturalism."--New York Times It's 2010 and Natasha, a half Russian, half Sudanese professor of history, is researching the life of Imam Shamil, the 19th century Muslim leader who led the anti-Russian resistance in the Caucasian War. When shy, single Natasha discovers that her star student, Oz, is not only descended from the warrior but also possesses Shamil's priceless sword, the Imam's story comes vividly to life. As Natasha's relationship with Oz and his alluring actress mother intensifies, Natasha is forced to confront issues she had long tried to avoid--that of her Muslim heritage. When Oz is suddenly arrested at his home one morning, Natasha realizes that everything she values stands in jeopardy. Told with Aboulela's inimitable elegance and narrated from the point of view of both Natasha and the historical characters she is researching, The Kindness of Enemies is both an engrossing story of a provocative period in history and an important examination of what it is to be a Muslim in a post 9/11 world.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver New York Times Bestseller * Pulitzer Prize Finalist * An Oprah's Book Club Selection "Powerful . . . [Kingsolver] has with infinitely steady hands worked the prickly threads of religion, politics, race, sin and redemption into a thing of terrible beauty." --Los Angeles Times Book Review The Poisonwood Bible, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, established Barbara Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, it is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in Africa. This special Harper Perennial Deluxe Edition features beautiful cover art on uncoated stock, French flaps, and deckle-edge pages, making it the perfect gift book. The story is told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it--from garden seeds to Scripture--is calamitously transformed on African soil. The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Against this backdrop, Orleanna Price reconstructs the story of her evangelist husband's part in the Western assault on Africa, a tale indelibly darkened by her own losses and unanswerable questions about her own culpability. Also narrating the story, by turns, are her four daughters--the teenaged Rachel; adolescent twins Leah and Adah; and Ruth May, a prescient five-year-old. These sharply observant girls, who arrive in the Congo with racial preconceptions forged in 1950s Georgia, will be marked in surprisingly different ways by their father's intractable mission, and by Africa itself. Ultimately each must strike her own separate path to salvation. Their passionately intertwined stories become a compelling exploration of moral risk and personal responsibility.
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks The bestselling novel that follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war, from the author of The Secret Chord and of March, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Inspired by a true story, People of the Book is a novel of sweeping historical grandeur and intimate emotional intensity by an acclaimed and beloved author. Called "a tour de force" by the San Francisco Chronicle, this ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding--an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair--only begin to unlock its deep mysteries and unexpectedly plunges Hanna into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultranationalist fanatics.
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "One of the most vital and original novelists of her generation." --Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker From the bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home--a home that is silent and suffocating. As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father's authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins' laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together. Purple Hibiscus is an exquisite novel about the emotional turmoil of adolescence, the powerful bonds of family, and the bright promise of freedom.
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.   Praise for The Sparrow   "A startling, engrossing, and moral work of fiction."--The New York Times Book Review   "Important novels leave deep cracks in our beliefs, our prejudices, and our blinders. The Sparrow is one of them."--Entertainment Weekly   "Powerful . . . The Sparrow tackles a difficult subject with grace and intelligence."--San Francisco Chronicle   "Provocative, challenging . . . recalls both Arthur C. Clarke and H. G. Wells, with a dash of Ray Bradbury for good measure."--The Dallas Morning News   "[Mary Doria] Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense."--USA Today
The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota Short-listed for the 2015 Man Booker Prize The Guardian: The Best Novels of 2015 The Independent: Literary Fiction of the Year 2015 From one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and Man Booker Prize nominee Sunjeev Sahota--a sweeping, urgent contemporary epic, set against a vast geographical and historical canvas, astonishing for its richness and texture and scope, and for the utter immersiveness of its reading experience. Three young men, and one unforgettable woman, come together in a journey from India to England, where they hope to begin something new--to support their families; to build their futures; to show their worth; to escape the past. They have almost no idea what awaits them. In a dilapidated shared house in Sheffield, Tarlochan, a former rickshaw driver, will say nothing about his life in Bihar. Avtar and Randeep are middle-class boys whose families are slowly sinking into financial ruin, bound together by Avtar's secret. Randeep, in turn, has a visa wife across town, whose cupboards are full of her husband's clothes in case the immigration agents surprise her with a visit. She is Narinder, and her story is the most surprising of them all. The Year of the Runaways unfolds over the course of one shattering year in which the destinies of these four characters become irreversibly entwined, a year in which they are forced to rely on one another in ways they never could have foreseen, and in which their hopes of breaking free of the past are decimated by the punishing realities of immigrant life. A novel of extraordinary ambition and authority, about what it means and what it costs to make a new life--about the capaciousness of the human spirit, and the resurrection of tenderness and humanity in the face of unspeakable suffering.
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker In The Golem and the Jinni, a chance meeting between mythical beings takes readers on a dazzling journey through cultures in turn-of-the-century New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life to by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic and dies at sea on the voyage from Poland. Chava is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York harbor in 1899. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert, trapped in an old copper flask, and released in New York City, though still not entirely free. Ahmad and Chava become unlikely friends and soul mates with a mystical connection. Marvelous and compulsively readable, Helene Wecker's debut novel The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of Yiddish and Middle Eastern literature, historical fiction and magical fable, into a wondrously inventive and unforgettable tale.
Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz "I think we got off on the wrong foot, with you telling me I had to be killed and then me getting all upset about it. Let's start again. My name is Jameela, and I'm a writer. What do you do, besides . . . assassinations Is that a hobby or more of a full-time thing"  Jameela Green has only one wish: to see her memoir on the New York Times bestseller list. When that doesn't work out, she decides that her best next step is to make a deal with God, so she heads over to her local mosque. The idealistic new imam, Ibrahim Sultan, is appalled by Jameela's shallowness but agrees to assist her, on one condition--that she perform a good deed.  Jameela reluctantly accepts his terms, kicking off a series of unfortunate events. The homeless man they try to help gets recruited by a terrorist group, causing federal authorities to become suspicious of Ibrahim. When the imam mysteriously disappears, Jameela is certain that the CIA has captured her new friend for interrogation and possibly torture.  Despite having no talent for this sort of thing, Jameela decides to set off on a one-woman operation to rescue him. Her quest soon lands her at the center of an international plan targeting the leader of the terrorist organization--a scheme that puts Jameela and count-less others, including her hapless husband and clever but disapproving daughter, at risk.  A no-holds-barred satire about the international cost of the American Dream, Jameela Green Ruins Everything is a compulsively readable, darkly comedic, yet unexpectedly touching story of one woman's search for meaning and connection.
The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern Award-winning novelist Steve Stern's exhilarating epic recounts the story of how a nineteenth-century rabbi from a small Polish town ends up in a basement freezer in a suburban Memphis home at the end of the twentieth century. What happens when an impressionable teenage boy inadvertently thaws out the ancient man and brings him back to life is nothing short of miraculous.
The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock 14th century Yorkshire: the time of Chaucer. Father Peregrine is appointed Abbot of St Alcuin's Benedictine abbey. An arrogant, impatient man, a hawk trying hard to be a dove - his name in religion is "Columba" - he is respected, but not loved. A sudden, shocking act of violence changes everything. As the story unfolds, this community of monks, serious about their calling but as flawed and human as we are, come to love their ascetic but now vulnerable leader. They lived six centuries ago, yet their struggles are our own. Finding our niche; coping with failure; living with impossible people; and discovering that we are the impossible ones.
Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather The sisters of the Order of Saint Rita captain their living ship into the reaches of space in Lina Rather's debut novella, Sisters of the Vast Black. A Golden Crown Literary Society Award Finalist Years ago, Old Earth sent forth sisters and brothers into the vast dark of the prodigal colonies armed only with crucifixes and iron faith. Now, the sisters of the Order of Saint Rita are on an interstellar mission of mercy aboard Our Lady of Impossible Constellations, a living, breathing ship which seems determined to develop a will of its own. When the order receives a distress call from a newly-formed colony, the sisters discover that the bodies and souls in their care--and that of the galactic diaspora--are in danger. And not from void beyond, but from the nascent Central Governance and the Church itself.
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk; Jennifer Croft (Translator) "Just as awe-inspiring as the Nobel judges claimed." - The Washington Post "Olga Tokarczuk is one of our greatest living fiction writers. . . This could well be a decade-defining book akin to Bolaño's 2666." -AV Club "Sophisticated and ribald and brimming with folk wit. . . The comedy in this novel blends, as it does in life, with genuine tragedy." -Dwight Garner, The New York Times LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD The Nobel Prize-winner's richest, most sweeping and ambitious novel yet follows the comet-like rise and fall of a mysterious, messianic religious leader as he blazes his way across eighteenth-century Europe. In the mid-eighteenth century, as new ideas--and a new unrest--begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following. In the decade to come, Frank will traverse the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires with throngs of disciples in his thrall as he reinvents himself again and again, converts to Islam and then Catholicism, is pilloried as a heretic and revered as the Messiah, and wreaks havoc on the conventional order, Jewish and Christian alike, with scandalous rumors of his sect's secret rituals and the spread of his increasingly iconoclastic beliefs. The story of Frank--a real historical figure around whom mystery and controversy swirl to this day--is the perfect canvas for the genius and unparalleled reach of Olga Tokarczuk. Narrated through the perspectives of his contemporaries--those who revere him, those who revile him, the friend who betrays him, the lone woman who sees him for what he is--The Books of Jacob captures a world on the cusp of precipitous change, searching for certainty and longing for transcendence. In a nod to books written in Hebrew, The Books of Jacob is paginated in reverse, beginning on p. 955 and ending on p. 1 - but read traditionally, front cover to back.
Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk; Ekin Oklap (Translator) From the the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Part detective story, part historical epic--a bold and brilliant novel that imagines a plague ravaging a fictional island in the Ottoman Empire. It is April 1900, in the Levant, on the imaginary island of Mingheria--the twenty-ninth state of the Ottoman Empire--located in the eastern Mediterranean between Crete and Cyprus. Half the population is Muslim, the other half are Orthodox Greeks, and tension is high between the two. When a plague arrives--brought either by Muslim pilgrims returning from the Mecca or by merchant vessels coming from Alexandria--the island revolts.  To stop the epidemic, the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II sends his most accomplished quarantine expert to the island--an Orthodox Christian. Some of the Muslims, including followers of a popular religious sect and its leader Sheikh Hamdullah, refuse to take precautions or respect the quarantine. And then a murder occurs.  As the plague continues its rapid spread, the Sultan sends a second doctor to the island, this time a Muslim, and strict quarantine measures are declared. But the incompetence of the island's governor and local administration and the people's refusal to respect the bans doom the quarantine to failure, and the death count continues to rise. Faced with the danger that the plague might spread to the West and to Istanbul, the Sultan bows to international pressure and allows foreign and Ottoman warships to blockade the island. Now the people of Mingheria are on their own, and they must find a way to defeat the plague themselves.  Steeped in history and rife with suspense, Nights of Plague is an epic story set more than one hundred years ago, with themes that feel remarkably contemporary.
Feathers of Hope by Sharon Garlough Brown "We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen." (2 Corinthians 4:18) In a season of loss and change, Wren Crawford and her great-aunt, Katherine Rhodes, share the journey as companions in sorrow and hope. As Katherine prepares to retire as the director of the New Hope Retreat Center, she faces both personal and professional challenges--especially after the arrival of the board's candidate to replace her. Not only must she confront more unresolved grief from her past, but she's invited to embrace painful and unsettling insights about her own blind spots. How might disruption become a gift that opens the way to new growth?Wren's world is shifting and expanding as she presses forward in recovery from a period of deep depression. Still processing open questions around the death of her best friend, Casey, Wren stewards her grief by offering compassionate care to the residents of the nursing home where she now works. But the shedding of her old life is exhausting--especially as she doesn't yet see what new life will emerge. How might art continue to provide a pathway for deepening her awareness of God's presence with her?In this sequel to Shades of Light and Remember Me, fans of the Sensible Shoes series will not only be able to attend Katherine's final retreat sessions at New Hope but also encounter old and new friends along the way.Also available: Feathers of Hope Study Guide
These Impossible Things by Salma El-Wardany A *Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club pick* and razor‑sharp debut novel of three best friends navigating love, sex, faith, and the one night that changes it all. It's always been Malak, Kees, and Jenna against the world. Since childhood, under the watchful eyes of their parents, aunties and uncles, they've learned to live their own lives alongside the expectations of being good Muslim women. Staying over at a boyfriend's place is disguised as a best friend's sleepover, and tiredness can be blamed on studying instead of partying. They know they're existing in a perfect moment. With growing older and the stakes of love and life growing higher, the delicate balancing act between rebellion and religion is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. Malak wants the dream: for her partner, community, and faith to coexist happily, and she wants this so much she's willing to break her own heart to get it. Kees is in love with Harry, a white Catholic man who her parents can never know about. When he proposes, she must decide between her future happiness and the life she knows and family she loves. Jenna is the life of the party, always ready for new pleasures, even though she's plagued by a loneliness she can't shake. Through it all, they have always had each other. But as their college years come to a close, one night changes everything when harsh truths are revealed. As their lives begin to take different paths, Malak, Kees, and Jenna--now on the precipice of true adulthood--must find a way back to each other as they reconcile faith, family, and tradition with their own needs and desires. These Impossible Things is a paean to youth and female friendship--and to all the joy and messiness love holds. A Marie Claire Book Club Pick for June 2022 and a Most Anticipated Book by: Bustle, theSkimm, Fortune, Apartment Therapy, and BookRiot
The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land by Omer Friedlander A brilliant young author's stunning fiction debut: gorgeously immersive and imaginative stories that transcend borders as they render the intimate lives of people striving for connection "A beautiful debut by a deeply humane writer. Every story is a vivid world unto itself, intensely felt, and often revelatory."--Nicole Krauss, author of The History of Love The Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land announces the arrival of a natural-born storyteller of immense talent. Warm, poignant, delightfully whimsical, Omer Friedlander's gorgeously immersive and imaginative stories take you to the narrow limestone alleyways of Jerusalem, the desolate beauty of the Negev Desert, and the sprawling orange groves of Jaffa, with characters that spring to vivid life. A divorced con artist and his daughter sell empty bottles of "holy air" to credulous tourists; a Lebanese Scheherazade enchants three young soldiers in a bombed-out Beirut radio station; a boy daringly "rooftops" at night, climbing steel cranes in scuffed sneakers even as he reimagines the bravery of a Polish-Jewish dancer during the Holocaust; an Israeli volunteer at a West Bank checkpoint mourns the death of her son, a soldier killed in Gaza. These stories render the intimate lives of people striving for connection. They are fairy tales turned on their head by the stakes of real life, where moments of fragile intimacy mix with comedy and notes of the absurd. Told in prose of astonishing vividness that also demonstrates remarkable control and restraint, they have a universal appeal to the heart.
Search by Michelle Huneven "Delectable. . . Huneven treats us to a savory plot that blends spiritual yearnings with earthly pleasures. Forks out!" --Oprah Daily From critically acclaimed, award-winning author Michelle Huneven, a sharp and funny novel of a congregational search committee, told as a memoir with recipes Dana Potowski is a restaurant critic and food writer and a longtime member of a progressive Unitarian Universalist congregation in Southern California. Just as she's finishing the book tour for her latest bestseller, Dana is asked to join the church search committee for a new minister. Under pressure to find her next book idea, she agrees, and resolves to secretly pen a memoir, with recipes, about the experience. That memoir, Search, follows the travails of the committee and their candidates--and becomes its own media sensation. Dana had good material to work with: the committee is a wide-ranging mix of Unitarian Universalist congregants, and their candidates range from a baker and microbrew master/pastor to a reverend who identifies as both a witch and an environmental warrior. Ultimately, the committee faces a stark choice between two very different paths forward for the congregation. Although she may have been ambivalent about joining the committee, Dana finds that she cares deeply about the fate of this institution and she will fight the entire committee, if necessary, to win the day for her side. This wry and wise tale will speak to anyone who has ever gone searching, and James Beard Award-winning author Michelle Huneven's food writing and recipes add flavor to the  delightful journey.
The Ghetto Within by Santiago H. Amigorena; Frank Wynne (Translator) In his English language debut, Santiago H. Amigorena writes to fight the silence that "has stifled [him] since [he] was born", weaving together fiction, biography, and memoir to distill a stirring novel of loss and unshakeable love. A critical sensation in France, The Ghetto Within is its author's personal attempt to confront his grandfather's silence. Passed down, from generation to generation, the silence of Amigorena's grandfather became his own. A gripping study of inheritance,The Ghetto Within re-imagines the life of this Jewish grandfather, a Polish exile in Argentina, whose guilt provokes an enduring silence to span generations. 1928. Vicente Rosenberg is one of countless European émigrés making a new life for themselves in Argentina. It is here, along the bustling avenues of Buenos Aires, that he will meet and marry Rosita, whose ties to his native Poland are more ancestral than extant. They will have three children and pursue a quiet, comfortable domestic life. Vicente will start a profitable business and, on occasion, look back. Still, despite success, he will ache for his mother, Gustawa, who stayed behind in Warsaw with his siblings. For years, she writes him several times a month. Yet, as rumors mount from abroad, Vicente is given pause. The war in Europe feels so remote. Over time, his mother's letters become increasingly sporadic and Vicente, through delayed missives and late transmissions, begins to construct the reality of a tragedy that has already occurred. And one day, the letters stop altogether. Racked with guilt and anxiety over the fate of his mother and family, he lapses into a deep despair and longstanding silence. With his new novel, Amigorena employs language to reclaim his "voice" from the oblivion of familial trauma. An effort to understand the ways in which his grandfather's silence continues to affect the generations that followed,The Ghetto Within is a powerful new addition to Holocaust canon, a stunning introduction of an essential new voice to English readers.  Translated from the French by Frank Wynne.
The Winter Rose by Melanie Dobson In this gripping WWII time-slip novel from the author whose books have been called "propulsive" and a "must-read" (Publishers Weekly), Grace Tonquin is an American Quaker who works tirelessly in Vichy France to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis. After crossing the treacherous Pyrénées, Grace returns home to Oregon with a brother and sister whose parents were lost during the war. Though Grace and her husband love Élias and Marguerite as their own, echoes of Grace's past and trauma from the Holocaust tear the Tonquin family apart.More than fifty years after they disappear, Addie Hoult arrives at Tonquin Lake, hoping to find the Tonquin family. For Addie, the mystery is a matter of life and death for her beloved mentor Charlie, who is battling a genetic disease. Though Charlie refuses to discuss his ties to the elusive Tonquins, finding them is the only way to save his life and mend the wounds from his broken past.
American Saint by Sean Gandert After his miracles go viral, one man's crisis of faith puts everything in doubt, erasing the line between memory, reality, and truth. Raised in a poor neighborhood in Albuquerque by his mother and curandera grandmother, Gabriel Romero grows up fervently religious, privately conflicted, and consumed by what he's certain is the true will of God. A radical activist determined to enlighten the consciousness of a country losing its way, Gabriel starts his own church. His slogans go viral. His protests make him either a hero or an anarchist in a polarized America, and his miracles--if we believe what we see--cast him as either a charlatan or a saint. But Gabriel knows that, above all, to ensure lasting faith he must do something truly memorable. For that, he will see his divine mission to its startling end. In this visionary novel framed as a hagiography, the ruminative, subjective memories of Gabriel's witnesses--spiritual, familial, romantic, and political--converge to make sense of the man's confounding works and message. As they do, a surprising portrait develops...not only of the deepening mystery of Gabriel Romero himself but also of a country in conflict and the faith it takes to fight the suspicion and fear that divide us.
A Pure Heart by Rajia Hassib Sisters Rose and Gameela could not have been more different. Rose, an Egyptologist, immigrated to New York City, where she works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gameela, a devout Muslim, stayed in Cairo. During the aftermath of Egypt's revolution, Gameela is killed in a suicide bombing. When Rose returns to Egypt after the bombing, she sifts through Gameela's things, desperate to understand who she truly was. Soon, Rose realizes that Gameela has left many questions unanswered. Rich in depth and feeling, a brilliant portrait of two Muslim women in the twenty-first century.