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Salvage the Bones (fiction), Jesmyn Ward – “A pitch–perfect account of struggle and community in the rural South . . . Though the characters in Salvage the Bones face down Hurricane Katrina, the story isn’t really about the storm. It’s about people facing challenges, and how they band together to overcome adversity.” (2011)
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Secret Daughter (fiction), Shilpi Somaya Gowda –A child born in India is adopted by an American couple. In alternating chapters, the author traces both the girl’s life and her birth parents’ hardships, including several years spent in Bombay’s (now Mumbai’s) infamous slum. (2010) *
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A Secret Kept (fiction), Tatiana de Rosnay – This new novel from the author of Sarah’s Key deals with complex family relationships and the power of a past secret to change everything in the present. It begins with a simple seaside vacation which is followed by a car crash, a hospital stay and the disclosure of the family secret. (2009)
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The Sense of an Ending (fiction), Julian Barnes – Winner of the Man Booker Prize for 2011, Barnes’ novel explores memory: how fuzzy it can be, and how we change the past to suit our own needs. (2011)
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The Sentence (fiction), Louise Erdrich – “Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors. The Sentence asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book” (2021)
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Shutter Island (fiction), Dennis LeHane – “In 1954, U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels and his partner, Chuck Aule, are sent to Shutter Island to find a mass murderer who has escaped from Ashcliffe Hospital. As an intense hurricane bears down on the island, the marshals are forced to piece together clues to a shocking puzzle hidden within Shutter Island.” (2003)
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Sing, Unburied, Sing (fiction), Jesmyn Ward. – Thirteen-year-old Jojo is dragged on a journey through rural Mississippi to be reunited with his white father. The writing, though matter-of-fact in its depiction of prejudice, is poetic throughout as Ward skillfully weaves realistic and supernatural elements into a powerful narrative. (2017)*
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Skinwalkers (mystery), Tony Hillerman. – Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee of the Navajo Tribal Police investigate an attack on Officer Chee. This leads them into the mystical domain of evil beings of Navajo legend, the ‘skinwalkers’. Book seven in the 18 book series and winner of the 1988 Anthony Award for “Best Novel.” (1986)
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The Sparrow, (fiction), Mary Doria Russell - If you have to send a group of people to a newly discovered planet to contact a totally unknown species, whom would you choose? How about four Jesuit priests, a young astronomer, a physician, her engineer husband, and a child prostitute-turned-computer-expert? This motley combination of agnostics, true believers, and misfits becomes the first to explore the Alpha Centuri world of Rakhat with both enlightening and disastrous results. Challenging and thought-provoking. (1996) *
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Stay with Me (fiction), Ayobami Adebayo – When Yejide and Akin marry, they agree the Nigerian custom of polygamy is not for them. After four years of struggling with personal loss and political turmoil, earth- shattering secrets threaten their marriage. (2017)
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Still Alice (fiction), Lisa Genova – Follow the life of Alice Howland and her family after she becomes aware of her early–onset Alzheimer’s disease. A Harvard professor, wife and mother, she works at maintaining her personal and professional life, while adjusting to her new one. As she does, her family learns to live with the ever changing Alice. (2007)
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Still Life (fiction), Louise Penny – "Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team are called to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal and yet a world away. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, was found dead in the woods on Thanksgiving morning. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul this holiday season. Chief Inspector Gamache novel #1, which inspired the series Three Pines on Prime Video" (2008)
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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (fiction), Gabrielle Zevin–A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over – and see everything anew. (2014) *
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Summer of ‘69 (fiction), Elin Hilderbrand – In the author’s first historical novel, a family in Nantucket experiences their own dramatic upheavals along with the rest of the country during a tumultuous summer. (2019)
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The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat (fiction), Edward Kelsey Moore - Odette, Barbara Jean, and Clarice, the "Supremes", are lifelong friends, now age 55. Odette has been seeing a lot of her mother, who happens to be dead. Clarice has decided her philandering husband no longer gets a pass. And the greatest love of Barbara Jean’s past has returned, dredging up a loss she numbs with vodka. This is a charming tribute to the bonds of female friendship. (2013)
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Take My Hand (fiction), Dolen Perkins-Valdez – “A searing and compassionate novel about a young nurse’s shocking discovery and burning quest for justice in post-segregation Alabama.” (2022)
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The Tattooist of Auschwitz (fiction), Heather Morris – Based on interviews with Holocaust survivor Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew imprisoned for almost three years at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he served as the tattooist marking prisoners. Fictional account of romance between two concentration camp survivors. (2019)
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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane (fiction), Lisa See - The author’s newest novel explores the lives of a Chinese mother and her daughter who has been adopted by an American couple. (2017)
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Their Eyes Were Watching God (fiction), Zora Neale Hurston – The story of Janie Crawford, her strength and gentleness, and survival as a Black woman in early 20th century rural America. (1937)
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There There (fiction), Tommy Orange – “Chronicles of contemporary Native Americans in Oakland, California as their lives collide in the days leading up to the city's inaugural Big Oakland Powwow. The propulsion of both the overall narrative and its players are breathtaking as Orange unpacks how decisions of the past mold the present, resulting in a haunting and gripping story. This vivid and moving book articulates the challenges and complexities not only of Native Americans, but also of America itself.” (2018)
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To Kill a Mockingbird (fiction,) Harper Lee – "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." This is a lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel—a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. (1960)
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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (fiction,) Gabrielle Zevin – "Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts. Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love" (2022)
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (fiction), Betty Smith – An American classic. “Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny–candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn–of–the–century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely – to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child.” (1943)
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True Biz: A Novel (fiction), Sara Novic – “Set at the fictional River Valley School for the Deaf in the struggling industrial town of Colson, Ohio, True Biz follows the interconnected lives of several students and teachers over the course of one tumultuous year. Though written in English, the book is bursting with ASL, offering an exploration into the power of language and the violence of language deprivation, the beauty of free and open communication, and the possibilities (and limitations) of translation. At times somber, often bitingly funny, awash in playfulness and fiercely proud, True Biz is a masterfully crafted love letter to Deaf culture.” (2022)
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The Truth According to Us (fiction), Annie Barrows - Fans of Barrows’ novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will enjoy this sly charmer of a story about a small town in Depression-era West Virginia whose history is rewritten by a debutante on the run. Family histories are unraveled, but mended by the fierce, strong women who dominate this delightful page-turner. (2015)
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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (biography), Laura Hillenbrand – On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Force bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared.It was that of the plane’s bombardier, Louis Zamperini, who struggled to a life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. (2010)
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The Underside of Joy (fiction), Sere Prince Halverson –The story of two women bound together by loss and hope for the future. Each claim to be the mother of the same two children. (2012)
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Vera: A Novel (fiction), Carol Edgarian - “Though raised by a foster mother, 15-year-old Vera is, in fact, the illegitimate daughter of Rose, the most successful madam on the Barbary Coast. Vera's life is upended when the great earthquake of 1906 strikes San Francisco, followed by disastrous fires.” (2021)
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Violeta: A Novel (fiction), Isabel Allende – “The epic story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century. She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting times of devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, poverty and wealth, terrible loss, and immense joy.” (2021)
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Warlight (fiction), Michael Ondaatje – Fourteen-year old Nathaniel and his sister Rachel are left in the care of unusual characters when their parents suddenly leave the country for work. Only one parent returns and the siblings are offered no explanation. A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to piece together the mysterious story that has shaped his life. (2018)
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Water Dancer (fiction), Ta-Nehisi Coates. – In this magical debut novel, readers meet Hiram, an enslaved man with special abilities. Coates brings his experience in journalism and nonfiction to ground the book in research, using history to create something new and unique. (2019)*
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We Were the Lucky Ones (fiction), Georgia Hunter - A vast novel that follows three generations of a Polish- Jewish family’s efforts to survive during World War II. The strength of family, love and determination to live is explored. Inspired by the author’s family experience, a first novel. (2017)
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When Breath Becomes Air (nonfiction), Paul Kalanithi - About to complete training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. The author chronicles his growth from medical student to neurosurgeon at Stanford treating the brain, the site of human identity, and finally to a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. (2016)
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Where The Crawdads Sing (fiction), Delia Owens – A young girl abandoned by her family struggles to survive along the coast of North Carolina. Kya, who is known as The Marsh Girl in town, keeps to herself but becomes tangled in a murder investigation. (2018)
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White Houses (fiction), Amy Bloom – Fictional account of the affair between reporter Lorena “Hick” Hickok and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. An unforgettable story infused with world-changing history that ultimately breaks up their hidden love. (2017)
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The Wicked Girls (fiction), Alex Marwood–On a fateful summer morning in 1986, two eleven-year-old girls meet for the first time. By the end of the day, they will both be charged with murder. Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of attacks on young female tourists in a seaside vacation town when her investigation leads her to interview carnival cleaner Amber Gordon. For Kirsty and Amber, it’s the first time they’ve seen each other since childhood. A gritty psychological thriller. (2012)
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The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress (fiction), Ariel Lawhon–On an August night in 1930 Manhattan, Judge Joseph Force Crater steps into a cab and is never seen again. This entertaining historical mystery transports readers to a bygone era with spins through jazz clubs and backstage dressing rooms. But beneath the Art Deco skyline and amid the intoxicating smell of smoke and whiskey, the mystery of his disappearance lingers seductively until a twist in the very last pages. (2014)
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The Yearling (fiction), Marjory Kinnan Rawlings. – “When a young boy rescues a fawn and keeps him as a pet, he is ultimately forced to decide the animal's fate and come to terms with the harsh reality of life in the rugged Florida backwoods. Winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a beloved classic.” (1938)
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You Could Make This Place Beautiful (nonfiction), Maggie Smith. – “An unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. With a poet’s attention to language and an innovative approach to the genre, Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new. Something beautiful” (2023)
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* Book Kits with asterisks are gifts from St Lucie County Book Clubs or individuals.
Annotations in quotation marks have been summarized from reviews found on Amazon.com.
For more information or to book your kit, please call 772–462–2190.
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