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Get Me to 21: The Jenna Lowe Story


Gabi Lowe - 2019
    Jenna was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, an extremely rare illness that, after a double lung transplant, ultimately led to her untimely death, four months before her 21st birthday.In this riveting and brutally honest memoir, in all its terrible truth, pain and beauty, Gabi Lowe shares her family’s extraordinary four-year battle to save Jenna’s life.Despite the tragic loss of Jenna, Get Me to 21 will leave the reader deeply inspired and reminded of the capabilities and depths of the human spirit. Embracing grit, resilience and never turning her back on the hope to save her daughter’s life, Gabi Lowe encourages us to believe that the ability to face darkness lives deep within us all.

Enigma Variations


André Aciman - 2017
    Whether in southern Italy, where as a boy he has a crush on his parents’ cabinet maker, or on a snowbound campus in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he’ll meet again and again over the years is punctuated by anonymous encounters with men; on a tennis court in Central Park, or a sidewalk in early spring New York, his attachments are ungraspable, transient and forever underwritten by raw desire—not for just one person’s body but, inevitably, for someone else’s as well. In mapping the most inscrutable corners of desire, Aciman proves to be an unsparing reader of the human psyche and a master stylist of contemporary literature. With language at once lyrical, bare-knuckled, and unabashedly candid, he casts a sensuous, shimmering light over each facet of desire to probe how we ache, want, and waver, and ultimately how we sometimes falter and let go of those who may want only to offer what we crave from them. Behind every step the hero takes, his hopes, denials, fears, and regrets are always ready to lay their traps. Yet the dream of love always casts its luminous halo. We may not always know what we want. We may remain enigmas to ourselves and others. But sooner or later we discover who we’ve always known we were.

The Bricks that Built the Houses


Kate Tempest - 2016
    But can they truly leave the city that's in their bones?Kate Tempest's novel reaches back through time--through tensely quiet dining rooms and crassly loud clubs--to the first time Becky and Harry meet. It sprawls through their lives and those they touch--of their families and friends and faces on the street--revealing intimacies and the moments that make them. And it captures the contemporary struggle of urban life, of young people seeking jobs or juggling jobs, harboring ambitions and making compromises.The Bricks that Built the Houses is an unexpected love story. It's about being young, but being part of something old. It's about how we become ourselves, and how we effect our futures. Rich in character and restless in perspective, driven by ethics and empathy, it asks--and seeks to answer--how best to live with and love one another.Kate Tempest, a major talent in the poetry and music worlds, sits poised to become a major novelist as well.

Queen Anne's Lace


Dawn Gardner - 2019
    Lacy starts on a journey to find to find the man that could change her life. As Lacy gets closer to finding the man, circumstances force her to do something that she will regret for the rest of her life. This explosive coming-of-age story set in the late 1970s is full of twists and turns, forgiveness and courage.

Dance to My Tunes: A collection of short stories


Tanvi Sinha - 2020
    It is time to rewrite the stories. We are no longer the hero’s love interest. Neither do we believe in happily ever after. We do not wish to dance to anybody else’s tunes. We choose our path. We make mistakes. We learn from them. We love. We lose. We age. We evolve. These are stories of women. Different women. For we cannot and should not stereotype women. These stories are of relationships. These stories touch upon social issues. These stories may inspire you. These stories make you feel like you are not alone. These stories may surprise you. These stories may entertain you. I hope everybody would be able to pick something they like.

The Girls From Mersey View


Lyn Andrews - 2020
    Monica Savage is delighted when new neighbours move in next door, and she and Joan Copperfield quickly become firm friends. While Monica's father has a good job as a guard on the railway, Joan's family are harder up, with her sailor dad Billy mostly off at sea, and restless when he's home - Mersey View is no substitute for the exotic places he sails to. Though money's tight, the Copperfield women are spirited and independent, and it's her friendship with the more confident Joan that gives Monica the courage to challenge her parents and pursue her dream of becoming a hairdresser. Joan is lucky enough to get a job at Crawford's biscuit factory, where she's even allowed to buy broken biscuits cheaply as a perk.But there are dark secrets lurking. When an abandoned child arrives unexpectedly on the Copperfields' doorstep, her arrival will change everything. As war clouds gather, can the girls make their back street dreams reality, or will the families of Mersey View be torn apart?

The Sleepwalker


Mardria Portuondo - 2021
    

When Life Gives You Lemons: A Collection of Reader-Submitted Medical Stories


Kerry Hamm - 2019
    “Can a doctor put this back on?” one patient asked a befuddled registration clerk. A nurse recalls in another submission, "He came rushing out of the vehicle and practically mowed my patient and me down as he rushed to the center of the lobby and screamed, “I need help!”"First responders share what prompted them to enter the healthcare field. It's undeniable that some of you have saving lives in your blood.Medical professionals share submissions that will make your blood boil, but there are no shortages of laughs to create the balance you've all come to love.

The Miseducation of Evie Epworth


Matson Taylor - 2020
    Like discovering Adrian Mole or Bridget Jones for the first time.’ Joanna Nadin, author of The Queen of Bloody Everything ‘A sweet, fizzy sherbet dib-dab of a book - deliciously nostalgic, hugely funny and ultimately heartwarming. The perfect book for our times.’ Veronica Henry ‘Such a joyful and uplifting read. Just the sort of thing that people will want to be reading right now.’ Anita Rani, Radio 2 Book ClubIt is the summer of 1962 and sixteen-year-old Evie Epworth stands on the cusp of womanhood. But what kind of a woman will she be? Up until now, Evie’s life has been nothing special: a patchwork of school, Guides, cows, lost mothers, lacrosse and village fetes. But, inspired by her idols (Charlotte Brontë, Shirley MacLaine, the Queen), she dreams of a world far away from rural East Yorkshire, a world of glamour lived under the bright lights of London (or Leeds). Standing in the way of these dreams, though, is Christine, Evie’s soon-to-be stepmother, a manipulative and money-grubbing schemer who is lining Evie up for a life of shampoo-and-set drudgery at the stinky local salon.   Luckily Evie is not alone. With the help of a few friends, and the wise counsel of the two Adam Faith posters on her bedroom wall (‘brooding Adam’ and ‘sophisticated Adam’), Evie comes up with a plan to rescue her future from Christine’s pink and over-perfumed clutches. She will need a little luck, a dash of charm and a big dollop of Yorkshire magic if she is to succeed, but in the process she may just discover who exactly it is she is meant to be.   Moving, inventive and achingly funny, with an all-star cast of bold-as-brass characters, The Miseducation of Evie Epworth is a perfectly pitched modern fairytale about love, friendship and following your dreams while having a lot of fun along the way. 'Full of fabulous characters, sprinkled with joy and drenched in wit.’ Milly Johnson 'Funny and original with a cast of eccentric characters, this debut novel is a tour de force. Not to be missed.' Sunday Express 'A rich triumph of comic writing.' Waterstones.com 'One of the funniest, wittiest and most joyful books you will read this year.' Lancaster Guardian

You Only Live Once


Jess Vallance - 2018
    But now GCSEs are behind her and she suddenly starts to think: what was the POINT of it all?When Gracie thinks she's dying of a disgusting tropical illness, she starts to worry she's been wasting her best years being sensible. It's like people say: you only live once - so isn't it about time she started LIVING?(OK, so the tropical illness turned out to be a fake-tan miscalculation. Anyone could make the same mistake.) When Gracie decides to do something, she does it properly. Gracie Dart is about to live out her dreams. However embarrassing.

Friends, Lies and Alibis


Debby Holt - 2011
    Now she's back, with a husband who is sapping the life from her. He is also unfaithful, a fact which Leah wished she had never discovered. Should Merrily's friends stand by and watch their old friend sink ever further into drab submissiveness?

The Sunday Lunch Club


Juliet Ashton - 2018
    Every few Sundays, Anna and her extended family and friends get together for lunch. They talk, they laugh, they bicker, they eat too much. Sometimes the important stuff is left unsaid, other times it's said in the wrong way. Sitting between her ex-husband and her new lover, Anna is coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy at the age of forty. Also at the table are her ageing grandmother, her promiscuous sister, her flamboyantly gay brother and a memory too terrible to contemplate. Until, that is, a letter arrives from the person Anna scarred all those years ago. Can Anna reconcile her painful past with her uncertain future? Juliet Ashton weaves a story of love, friendship and community that will move you to laughter and to tears. Think Cold Feet meets David Nicholls, with a dash of the joy of Jill Mansell added for good measure.

Almost, Maine


John Cariani - 2020
    And it almost doesn’t exist, because its residents never got around to getting organized. So it’s just . . . Almost.One cold, clear Friday night in the middle of winter, while the northern lights hover in the sky above, Almost’s residents find themselves falling in and out of love in the strangest ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. Love is lost and found. And life for the people of Almost, Maine will never be the same.

Joanna (Court of the Tetrarch #1)


Katrina D. Hamel - 2021
    Claimed as a hostage, she's forced from the verdant slopes of her beloved vineyard to serve Herod Antipas' neglected wife. In an opulent palace where Roman culture supersedes the commands of God, Joanna struggles to express her Jewish faith. Despite her misgivings, she is swept into the adventure of traveling with the court, and conflicted by her feelings towards the enigmatic man who took her captive. As the royal marriage fractures, she is caught in the crossfire, and her choice will alter the fates of those she loves.When rumors whisper that a man from Nazareth travels the roads of Galilee, healing and proclaiming the kingdom of God, Joanna yearns to follow. When it becomes impossible to leave the palace, she begins to fear her role in an earthly court will cost her place in the heavenly one.The first novel in the Court of the Tetrarch series imagines the origins of the biblical woman who beholds the empty tomb.

The Bucket List


Georgia Clark - 2018
    Her high hereditary risk forces a decision: increased surveillance or the more radical step of a preventative double mastectomy. Lacey doesn't want to lose her breasts. For one, she’s juggling two career paths; her work with the prestigious New York trend forecaster Hoffman House, and her role on the founding team of a sustainable fashion app with friend/mentor, Vivian Chang. Secondly, small-town Lacey’s not so in touch with her sexuality: she doesn’t want to sacrifice her breasts before she’s had the chance to give them their hey-day. To help her make her choice, she (and her friends) creates a “boob bucket list”: everything she wants do with and for her boobs before a possible surgery.This kicks off a year of sensual exploration and sexual entertainment for the quick-witted Lacey Whitman. Ultimately, this is a story about Lacey’s relationship to her body and her future. Both are things she thought she could control through hard work and sacrifice. Both are things she will change by choosing to have a major surgery that could save her life, and will give her the future she really wants.Featuring the pitch-perfect “compulsively delicious” (Redbook) prose of The Regulars, The Bucket List is perfect for fans of Amy Poeppel and Sophie Kinsella.