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SHOOTING THE BREEZE

Little received his first camera from his father when he was 9 years old. With that serendipitous gift, he embarked on an impressive career as a photojournalist that spanned 40 years. He largely worked for Time, Incorporated and was given the opportunity to photograph everything and everyone—Cary Grant, the Rolling Stones, presidents, and Playboy bunnies. […]

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TAKE IT FROM THE TOP

Thirteen-year-olds Eowyn Becker and Jules Marrigan became best friends during their first Wisconsin camp summer. Over the years, though, their friendship has developed cracks. Talented Eowyn suffers from severe stage fright, desperately misses her deceased mother, and resents her doctor father and Broadway-star brother, who have little time for her. She covets Jules’ supportive family […]

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ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME

The first book in this seven-volume novel series introduced readers to Tara Selter, a bookseller who has mysteriously been forced to relive November 18th over and over. In that book, Tara chronicled her sometimes desperate efforts to recruit her husband for clues about the rationale behind her predicament. As the second book opens, a year […]

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PEOPLE AND TREES

Sadyk is born in the mountains of Azerbaijan, and on the very day he begins his tumultuous life, he loses his mother. He’s raised by his father, Nadzhaf, who sells muskmelons grown on the village’s collective farm, and his Aunt Medina. One day, with little ceremony, Nadzhaf announces that he’s sold the family’s cow and […]

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BUILDING A LIGHT

Following an injuryas a competitive runner during his senior year of high school, Tao learned about the field of physical therapy and found it to be a “profound, eye-opening experience.” By 2020, he’d taken the most difficult, but potentially most rewarding first step in his career: residency at a health clinic in San Francisco. As […]

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SPIRITUS EX MACHINA

In “The Contagion,” the Dreiyer family’s annual road trip includes a stop at a bed-and-breakfast—that’s where 7-year-old Sylvia peeks into a trunk of dolls, one of which, she swears, moves on its own. Decades later, when looking for inspiration for a TV show she’s working on, she returns to the inn and makes a startling […]

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THE WHISPERING NIGHT

A couple of dramatic prologues and some early exposition bring readers up to speed about the mysteries and players of Hemlock Falls. Winnie Wednesday, Erica Thursday, and Jay Friday have formed a clue-gathering trio collectively known as the WTF triangle. The three agree to work together to uncover the truth behind mysteries involving Winnie’s missing […]

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ALL KINDS OF THINGS / TODO TIPO DE COSAS

These inquisitive strands of commonalities form the basis for Gervais’ eclectic bilingual word book, a hodgepodge of animals, vehicles, everyday items, and natural phenomena. Each spread opens to a catalog of things—faithfully rendered via stencils and brushes against mostly solid color backgrounds—collected around a declarative statement in all caps. “THINGS THAT SMELL GOOD” boasts a […]

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THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS

In what is in many ways a bookend to 1Q84, Murakami blends science fiction, gothic novel, noir mystery, horror (think Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film Pulse), and coming-of-age story. His protagonist and narrator, as the novel opens, is a 17-year-old boy aswoon in love with a 16-year-old girl. “At that time neither you nor I had names,” […]

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WE THREE QUEENS

Lady Georgiana Rannoch is cousin to David (King Edward VIII to you), sister to a duke, and wife of Darcy O’Mara, a spy for Great Britain. Happy to leave her exciting past behind and devote herself to doting on her adorable infant son, she lives with her family on the estate she’ll inherit from her […]