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JUST LIKE QUEEN ESTHER

Atara wears a crown everywhere she goes—in fact, her name even means crown. One day, her mom reads her a book about Purim, and Atara sees herself in Queen Esther; while Esther hid her Jewish identity, for a long time Atara never told her parents she was really a girl. Just as Esther’s crown made […]

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THE SPEAR AND THE SENTINEL

War veteran and widower “Voodoo” leads a group of hackers and “wrench-turners” for the United States Naval Special Warfareunit at the Directorate in San Diego. His skills earned him a spot in a rescue operation the previous year in Japan; now, the CIA station chief in Japan wants the same team for a mission in […]

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BOYS

Pete Barnes finds a terrified young Black boy named Alex Broadnax—shivering from the cold and covered in blood—hiding in his father’s milk barn in Leakesville, North Carolina. Alex witnessed the murder of his entire family by the Ku Klux Klan and is now on the run. Poppa Barnes, despite his unabashed racism, takes Alex in […]

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ON HEALING

Kalaichandran, a pediatrician and journalist, starts by revisiting her travails working at an Ontario hospital where, she says, the hostility of senior staff caused her to develop anxiety, depression, and high cholesterol levels. The ordeal prompted her to research connections between mental and physical healing and embark on a tour of alternate therapies. The journey […]

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NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

Rory, a former Honor Warrior, loves Ingefær, a battle wizard, very much. They have traveled together for years working as bounty hunters and are ready to begin the next part of their journey together: marriage. While Rory has been hesitant to propose to Ingefær after so many of his loved ones have died, Furæyar Shrine, […]

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I’M LUCKY TO HAVE MY PARENTS

The brown-haired, light-skinned narrator and their parents are a tightknit family. With their mom, the protagonist bakes, draws, and builds cardboard houses; with their dad, they go on walks, make up stories, and roughhouse. They love their time with each parent, but when all three are together, things don’t always go as smoothly. Mom and […]

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WOLFGANG AND THE MAGIC OF MUSIC

Wolfgang—a gray wolf with a large gray guitar case strapped against his red-jacketed back—puts up a poster on a tree: “WOLF SEEKS GANG to form a rock band…Let’s howl!” Wolfgang becomes increasingly disappointed when no one responds. Just as he’s about to tear down the sign, a white rabbit named Rex—clad in a dark jacket […]

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HOPE

Pope Francis’ Life: My Story Through History (2024) acted as a basic set of memoirs, but this newest work is a more in-depth look at the life of the pontiff. Francis, born as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, dives deep into his family story, memories of his youth, years of struggle and conflict in Argentina as a church […]

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THE BIG EMPTY

The sweetly likable Traci, now 23, has amassed a huge following with her website, The Baker Next Door, and on social media. Against the advice and self-interest of the people who over-manage her career, she decides to find out what happened to her father. Cole quickly determines that he was last seen at the SurfMutt […]

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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MCCRAYS?

Casey and Kyle McCray’s marriage seemed like storybook material. They began as childhood friends in Potsdam, New York, moved on to a teenage romance, and married young. For 21 years, they saw themselves as a solid team. But as this novel opens, they’re on opposite ends of the country—Kyle has fled all the way to […]