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Rating things on a five star scale is a popular way to convey experience. John Green uses this scale to rate the geological age we currently inhabit. Beautifully written essays cover a range of topics from the song "Auld Lang Syne" to the QWERTY Keyboard to Diet Dr. Pepper. - Lisa N
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Spoiler alert volume 2
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An impulsive actor with a heart of gold plus a burned out ER therapist assigned to babysit him should equal disaster. But in this steamy, banter-filled romance, opposites attract as Alex and Lauren see beyond hard situations and surface impressions to find true love. - Jennie R
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3) Akata witch
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Akata series volume 1
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Fans of magical realism will enjoy the world created in this first installment of "The Nsibidi Scripts." Sunny, a 12 year old albino girl living in Nigeria, discovers she not only has magical abilities but is a key member to protect the world from a new threat. - Lisa N
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The Hawthorne family seems to have it all, but when eldest daughter Angela starts the college admission process determined to follow in her father's footsteps at Harvard, things begin to unravel in this darkly funny exploration of the downside of the race to the top. - Keren J
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This is a sobering and exciting collection from native Hawaiians, writing about their land; a subtle reminder that the place where you took that amazing family vacation may also be the site of a corporate-backed coup, military testing, and devastating environmental racism. - Charlotte M
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We know the U.S. has territories like Puerto Rico and Guam, but how often do Americans think about sharing a nation with people beyond the continental states? Immerwahr shows us how deeply empire-building drives U.S. history, in obvious and less obvious ways. - Charlotte M
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A fascinating collection of essays about examining memory and injury through the lens of time. A great read for anyone who wants to learn more about Sarah Polley's career as an author, director and actor, or has struggled through excavating the foundations of their own life. - Alex Z
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8) Fourth wing
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Empyrean volume 1
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The first book in an exciting new fantasy adventure series in which dragons choose to bond with humans, unleashing dangerous magical talents, in order to protect their shared lands against an encroaching enemy. - Alex Z
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9) I am a cat
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A playful satire of the human world as seen through feline eyes. Our narrator watches his master’s foibles (napping all afternoon instead of working on a promised piece of writing) with the quizzical air of one perched above the rest. Elegant and often hilarious. - Theodore R
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A woman recounts the lives she has lived in the shadow of self-destruction and pleasure. Early 20th-century Paris, through Rhys' eyes, appears as endless temptation of drink, relations, and scrappiness. Deserving of its status as a masterpiece of Modernist literature. - Theodore R
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Tasha Jun shares her story about being half Korean and half white and never fitting in places especially in the church. With a lyrical writing style, this book is perfect for fans of Crying in H-Mart who seek more stories from Asian American voices and struggles about faith. - Deborah K
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In a girl's boarding school set in a remote Swiss village, an intensive period of maturation unfolds. Hovering between desire and vastation, Jaeggy's girls are nihilists and aesthetes, poetically obsessed with small details like handwriting and snowflakes. A rarefied read. - Theodore R
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13) Harmada
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Harmada beats a rhythm we know: a man longs to return home. Writing as if "plot" and "characterization" were debilitating mosquitos to be smacked, Noll deals in the irrational, the sexual, the violent, and the genuinely subversive. Expect genre (and gender) stretching. - Theodore R
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14) Cigarettes
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Novels concerning New York's upper-crust pecking at each other and taking extended rendezvous are a dime a dozen, but "Cigarettes" swaggers differently. With a missing portrait as the idea, a socialite class makes trade-offs. Surprises abound including a moving ending. - Theodore R.
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Published posthumously, Salt in My Soul chronicles the innermost thoughts of Mallory Smith - a brilliant mind, athlete, daughter, sister, and friend - as she fights to live a fulfilling life in spite of her cystic fibrosis and the complications it brings. - Emily L
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16) Adelaide
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Adelaide is a twenty-something in London, full of love for her friends, her job, and a man who will never love her back. I savored every moment of this intensely relatable, beautiful book. This is a go-to recommendation for fans of Sally Rooney. - Andrea W
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In this graphic memoir, Kate Beaton tells the poignant and, at times, harrowing tale of the two years she spent working in the Oil Sands of Alberta, Canada. It is an artful looks at humanity, nature, and what drives people to leave home in search of their fortune. - Maggie P
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18) A bit of Earth
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After her parents' deaths, Maria arrives in the United States by way of Pakistan and Bangladesh with a reputation for being...prickly. With some extra care, perhaps she (and the abandoned garden she finds) can grow in this modern retelling of The Secret Garden. - Andrea W
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A family’s identity was in jeopardy. It affected the outcome of all Axton's decision as an adult. Her life revolved around that fact and truth about the person who stole her identity has overturned everything. A great revelation about identity theft. Trust no one. - Shahana P
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Earth has become uninhabitable, and the remnants of humankind are sailing through space on the HSS Matilda in search of a new home. Unfortunately, all the societal ills are also aboard and in abundance. For the determined protagonist, Aster, it is a matter of life or death. - Bridgette W
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