The Half Orphan's Handbook


Joan F. Smith - 2021
    Pan, The Half-Orphan's Handbook by Joan F. Smith is a coming-of-age story and an empathetic, authentic exploration of grief with a sharp sense of humor and a big heart.It’s been three months since Lila lost her father to suicide. Since then, she’s learned to protect herself from pain by following two unbreakable rules:1. The only people who can truly hurt you are the ones you love. Therefore, love no one.2. Stay away from liars. Liars are the worst.But when Lila’s mother sends her to a summer-long grief camp, it’s suddenly harder for Lila to follow these rules. Potential new friends and an unexpected crush threaten to drag her back into life for the first time since her dad’s death.On top of everything, there’s more about what happened that Lila doesn’t know, and facing the truth about her family will be the hardest part of learning how a broken heart can love again.

The Folklore of Discworld


Terry Pratchett - 2008
    Legends, myths, and fairy tales: our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got here. It is the same on Discworld, except that beings, which on Earth are creatures of the imagination — like vampires, trolls, witches and, possibly, gods — are real, alive and, in some cases kicking, on the Disc.In The Folklore of Discworld, Terry Pratchett teams up with leading British folklorist Jacqueline Simpson to take an irreverent yet illuminating look at the living myths and folklore that are reflected, celebrated and affectionately libelled in the uniquely imaginative universe of Discworld.

The Legendary Shiver


J.H. MacAl - 2020
    What she doesn’t know is he’s in love with her. And like Ruby, he craves success, but in hopes that it’ll make him worthy of her.In New York, they journey through the treacherous music industry. As Ruby rises to fame, they find themselves surrounded by scandals and shady icons. And when she has to battle her demons under the spotlight, what began as a dream-come-true becomes a dangerous trial to their friendship that raises the questions: how far is one willing to go to protect a friend? What if such friend commits an act that can end up with her incarceration? Finally, how do you find the power to tell someone you feel undeserving of that you love her?

Why Girls Are Weird


Pamela Ribon - 1999
    He's been bugging her to start writing again since her breakup with Ian over a year ago. And so what if the "Anna K" persona in Anna's online journal has a fabulous boyfriend named Ian? It's not like the real Ian will ever find out about it."The story started writing itself."Almost instantly Anna K starts getting e-mail from adoring fans that read her daily postings religiously. One devotee, Tess, seems intent on becoming Anna K's real-life best friend and another, a male admirer who goes by the name of "Ldobler," sounds like he'd want to date Anna K if she didn't already have a boyfriend. Meanwhile, the real Anna can't help but wonder if her newfound fans like her or the alter ego she's created. It's only a matter of time before fact and fiction collide and force Anna to decide not only who she wants to be with, but who she wants to be.

Twenty


Debra Landwehr Engle - 2020
    All she has left is a yard brimming with plants that are wilting in the scorching Iowa summer—and a bone-deep feeling that she’s through with living. Meg has something else too: a bottle of mysterious pills, given to her years ago by an empathetic doctor. He promised that they would offer her dying mother a quick, painless end in exactly twenty days. Though her mother never needed them, Meg does. But a strange thing happens after Meg swallows the little green pearls . . . Now that she’s decided to leave this world, Meg is rediscovering the joy in it. She sheds everything she no longer needs—possessions, regrets, guilt—and reconnects with those she cares for. Finally confronting the depth of her grief, she’s learning that love runs deeper still. But is it too late to choose to stay?

The Three Wise Monkeys


Jeet Gian - 2016
    And as is the fate of all morons, they were drawn intotrouble—deep trouble—of hiding crores of rupees of black money in secret offshore companies.Will their mistake of turning a blind eye to the philosophy of ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ cost them their careers and put them in prison? Or Will Lady Luck change their fortunes forever?

Wedding Wipeout


Jacob M. Appel - 2013
    The sisters’ family is shaken up when Florence invites them to her wedding. The morning after the wedding, Florence is found dead in her bed. Was it an asthma attack as her new husband and the police believe or did someone enter her room in the middle of the night and suffocate the old woman with a pillow? Local amateur sleuth Rabbi Jacob Kappelmacher is brought in to investigate the suspicious death. He soon discovers that all of the sisters’ relatives stayed overnight following the wedding and could have strangled the old woman in her sleep. So could have the bridegroom. But who did it? And why? With no money and no motive, why would anyone kill the old woman? Rabbi Kappelmacher begins his investigation by interviewing all of the interested parties, intent on figuring out the convoluted and devious crime––and the sinister culprit behind it.

The Salinger Contract


Adam Langer - 2013
    Traven and J. D. Salinger—to a sinister collector in Chicago.Adam Langer, the narrator of this deft and wide-ranging novel by the author of the same name, tells the intertwining tales of two writers navigating a plot neither one of them could have ever imagined. There may be no other escape than to write their way out of it. Adam is a writer and stay-at-home dad in Bloomington, Indiana, drawn into an uneasy friendship with the charismatic and bestselling thriller author Conner Joyce. Conner is having trouble writing his next book, and when a menacing stranger approaches him with an odd—and lucrative—proposal, events quickly begin to spiral out of control. A novel of literary crimes and misdemeanors, The Salinger Contract will delight anyone who loves a fast-paced story told with humor, wit, and intrigue.

Waiting for Unicorns


Beth Hautala - 2015
    Over the course of one summer, and through several unlikely friendships, Talia learns that stories have the power to connect us, to provide hope, and to pull us out of the darkness"--

It's About Love


Steven Camden - 2015
    A bold, thought-provoking novel from the exceptionally talented, Steven Camden.He's Luke. She's Leia.Just like in Star Wars. Just like they’re made for each other. Same film studies course, different backgrounds, different ends of town.Only this isn't a film. This is real life. This is where monsters from the past come back to take revenge. This is where you are sometimes the monster.But real life? Sometimes, only sometimes, it turns out just like in the movies…… maybe.

Exchange


Paul Magrs - 2008
    United by their voracious appetite for books, Simon and his grandmother stumble across the Great Big Book Exchange—a bookshop with a difference. There they meet impulsive, gothic Kelly and her boss, Terrance—and the friendships forged in the Great Big Book Exchange result in startling and unsettling consequences for all of them.

The Wisdom of the Heart


Henry Miller - 1941
    Writing “from the heart,” always with a refreshing lack of reticence, Miller involves the reader directly in his thoughts and feelings. “His real aim,” Karl Shapiro has written, “is to find the living core of our world whenever it survives and in whatever manifestation, in art, in literature, in human behavior itself. It is then that he sings, praises, and shouts at the top of his lungs with the uncontainable hilarity he is famous for.”Here are some of Henry Miller’s best-known writings: an essay on the photographer Brassai; Reflections on Writing, in which Miller examines his own position as a writer; Seraphita and Balzac and His Double, on the works of other writers; and The Alcoholic Veteran, Creative Death, The Enormous Womb, and The Philosopher Who Philosophizes.

4 Kids Walk Into a Bank


Matthew Rosenberg - 2017
    Paige picks the bad one.180ish pages of full color comic-booking about friendship, family, growing up, and grand larceny from rising star writer Matthew Rosenberg (WE CAN NEVER GO HOME, KINGPIN, SECRET WARRIORS) and equally rising star artist Tyler Boss (LAZARUS, CALEXIT, Vice Magazine).

The Roxy Letters


Mary Pauline Lowry - 2020
    She’s a sometimes vegan, always broke artist with a heart the size of Texas and an ex living in her spare bedroom. Her life is messy, but with the help of a few good friends and by the grace of the goddess Venus she’ll discover that good sex, true love, and her life’s purpose are all closer than she realizes.Bridget Jones penned a diary; Roxy writes letters. Specifically: she writes letters to her hapless, rent-avoidant ex-boyfriend—and current roommate—Everett. This charming and funny twenty-something is under-employed (and under-romanced), and she’s decidedly fed up with the indignities she endures as a deli maid at Whole Foods (the original), and the dismaying speed at which her beloved Austin is becoming corporatized. When a new Lululemon pops up at the intersection of Sixth and Lamar where the old Waterloo Video used to be, Roxy can stay silent no longer. As her letters to Everett become less about overdue rent and more about the state of her life, Roxy realizes she’s ready to be the heroine of her own story. She decides to team up with her two best friends to save Austin—and rescue Roxy’s love life—in whatever way they can. But can this spunky, unforgettable millennial keep Austin weird, avoid arrest, and find romance—and even creative inspiration—in the process?

The Naughty Girls Book Club


Sophie Hart - 2013
    A quiet little book club. A very naughty reading list.When Estelle sets up a book group in order to increase custom to her struggling cafe, what follows is more mind-blowing than she could have ever imagined...As the first book club meeting flounders, Estelle suggests a spot of erotica to spice things up.Inspired by their naughty novels, this group of shy suburban readers shake off their inhibitions and soon discover that their own lives can be just as scandalous...