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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 […]

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WHY WE EAT FRIED PEANUTS

Fried peanuts always make an appearance at Meng’s family’s New Year celebrations. Dad mentions that the food has an extra-special meaning because of Meng’s great-grandmother, or tài nǎi nǎi: “When she spoke, everyone listened.” He tells Meng about the time that Tài Nǎi Nǎi noticed an unfamiliar pregnant woman wandering the neighborhood. Days later, Tài […]

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GABBY TORRES GETS A BILLION FOLLOWERS

As the youngest member of a student environmental club known as the Sea Musketeers, 9-year-old Gabby Torres is eager to stand out, and she decides that starting a social media account for the group is just the ticket. The others are encouraging, but Gabby’s worried parents lay down some guidelines for online safety. Her best […]

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A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO MARRIAGE

Hazel and Fox have been married for more than 10 years, and they both adore their little daughter, Bibi. Hazel, an artist, has hung up her paintbrush to become a stay-at-home mom, and Fox is out breadwinning at an investment company every day. So what if they might have sex a little less often than […]

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THE LOST HOUSE

Obsession prompts Agnes Glin to journey from California, where she’s lived her whole life, to remote Bifröst, Iceland, in response to an offer from passionate true crime podcaster Nora Carver. Agnes’ grandfather, Einar Pálsson, was the chief suspect in one of Iceland’s most notorious unsolved cases, the murder of his wife, Marie Hvass, and their […]

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THE STARLIGHT HEIR

Suraya Saab’s dealings with royalty usually come in the form of commissions to make weapons imbued with some of the world’s last remaining slivers of magic. Now, however, a glittering envelope arrives with a different request: King Zarek wants her to travel to the capital city of Kaldari to meet the crown prince, along with […]

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HITLER’S DESERTERS

In conservative West Germany, courts in the 1950s and ’60s ruled that the commanders of the Wehrmacht and the Nazi regime’s judiciary had ruled fairly when sentencing deserters to be executed, decreeing that “the Wehrmacht had not been any harsher in enforcing military law than had the Americans and British.” That’s not quite right, notes […]

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BUILDING THE METROPOLIS

Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, writes Wood, historian of American architecture and urbanism, New York City “grew into one of the world’s largest, most important, and dynamic cities.” Roughly 1 million buildings—an astonishing number—went up in the city during that period. In his deeply informed and informative account, Wood describes how population […]