Goodnight, Beautiful Women, Anna Noyes, Grove Press – Joni’s husband drowns in a quarry, a dad fears for his daughter when another girl is raped, ten-year-old Collette learns of her sister’s affair with an older neighbor – Noyes’ debut collection follows women through times of change and discovery.
The Atomic Weight of Love, Elizabeth J. Church, Algonquin Books) – Meridian loved studying birds and hoped to get her Masters in ornithology. She also loved Alden, a brilliant professor of physics.
Born on a Tuesday, Elnathan John, – When Dantala leaves his Quranic studies and falls in with a street gang, he experiences firsthand the violence of Nigerian politics.
The Alaskan Laundry, Brendan Jones, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – Grieving her mother’s death and her father’s rejection, Tara leaves her Philadelphia home for an uncertain Alaskan future with only a promised job in a fish hatchery.
The Queen of the Night, Alexander Chee, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt –Tragedy throws a young Minnesota farm girl with an incredible voice and equestrian skills in with a circus bound for Europe.
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, Katrina Bivald, Sourcebooks – Sara and Amy are pen pals – Amy in small town Iowa, Sara in Sweden. Across the seas, they share their love of books and Amy’s stories of the inhabitants of Broken Wheel.
This is Why I Came, Mary Rakow, Counterpoint – A woman waits to go into confessional after decades of being away. She carries a small volume of Bible stories as she has embellished them, filling in the blanks.
Esther, Rebecca Kanner, Howard Books – Esther is a teenage Jewish orphan when she is rounded up by King Xerxes’ Immortals and brought to the royal harem.
Mrs. Engels, Gavin McCrea–Lizzie Burns and her sister, Mary, were textile factory workers in Manchester when the owner’s son, Frederick, came on board. Of all the girls who were swooning over him, he chose Mary
After the Parade, Lori Ostlund, Scribner–Aaron Englund’s life is divided – before and after the parade, before and after his mother leaves and before and after he leaves Walter. Trying to make it on his own in San Francisco, he finds he has to make sense of his years of growing up in small-town Minnesota . . .
