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I SURE DO

As Demers’ rhyming text suggests, love occasionally makes parents say ridiculous things: “I great big meal and tiny snack you.” It also stirs overpowering emotions (“And on each clock / My favourite minute / Is every one / That has you in it”). Some of the book’s sentiments are a bit cliched—“And every year / […]

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LILLY’S SURPRISE PUMPKINS

Walking through the orchard in early summer with her parents and big white dog, Lilly spots some leafy vines spilling over the old compost heap—pumpkin “volunteers.” Dad explains, “We didn’t plant them, they sprouted from the pumpkins we threw away last fall.” Over the course of a long, hot season, Lilly plays, grooms her dog, […]

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BENEATH THE CRESCENT SHADOW

Naja and her best friend Sylda witness a shipwreck one stormy night near their jungle village of Karahvel, discovering a lone survivor: an albino woman in the throes of childbirth. The child who emerges is Rowan, who brings not joy but terror when a mysterious red crescent mark on his neck leads his mother to […]

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COUNTRY CLUB SUMMER

Holly Kilgour, a former model, is newly divorced and enjoying the freedom that comes with finally living life on her own terms. Her 26-year-old son, Austin, attends medical school, and she now embraces a future in which her life is no longer centered on taking care of others. Her newfound confidence is tested when Austin […]

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TRANSCENDENT

A four-time Emmy-nominated actress and transgender rights activist, Cox elaborates on a journey that’s been filled with joyful and challenging moments and, ultimately, liberating experiences. The book is split into three parts, each representing an era in the author’s evolution. She was raised in Mobile, Alabama, by an exasperated single mother. Even playgrounds became unsafe […]

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A HARD DAY’S NIGHT

For all the ways that writers have anatomized the 1964 Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night, no one has approached it like Ahmed. An English broadcaster and the daughter of South Asian immigrants, she fell for the Beatles in 1979 at age 11 while watching videos of the band’s films. She views A Hard Day’s […]

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JUST PLAIN FILTHY

< Many books have been freed from censorship by courts, James Joyce’s Ulysses and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover being only two of the most noteworthy. Aycock, a North Carolina writer and librarian who has devoted much of his life to the freedom of literary access, argues that another case matters. In 1982, the Supreme […]

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FROM THE DEPTHS

In 1990, Sen. Ariana Peters of the United States Shifter Council encounters an unusual sinkhole in California. It exudes a silver, tendril-like substance that interacts with her directly and raises concerns about general public safety. The senator, prioritizing containment, authorizes the use of a substance called oblivion tincture to wipe locals’ minds and then relocate […]

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WAIST DEEP

Sylvia—along with her faithful girlfriend, Charlie—arrives at the lake house of her university friend Karen. The secluded weeklong vacation is intended to be a much-needed reunion of their old friend group, which also includes reserved Esben, wild Quince, and caring Gry, who’s also brought her husband, Adam. After the first day among the “quiet and […]

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RESOURCEFULNESS

Antonini, a software engineer with experience working in the financial and insurance industries (who also holds degrees in pharmacy and technology), lays out clear and practical advice to help readers adapt to uncertainty and overcome life’s challenges. Likening the human system to a computer, Antonini outlines her trademarked concept of the “Thrivegorithm”—the process the mind […]