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Domestic fiction

  • Author:
    Warsh, Sylvia
    Summary:

    Amanda Moss is a young hairstylist with ambitions to become a musician and play in a band. She was adopted at age three after her parents were killed in a car crash. At least that's what her adoptive mother Shelley has always told her. Shelley is also a hairdresser. But beyond that, mother and daughter don't see eye to eye on much. Then one day Amanda's life changes dramatically when a stranger shows up and tells her a very different story about her parents. Her real mother has just died of cancer while serving a life sentence for the murder of Amanda's father. Suddenly Amanda feels her whole life has been a lie. Was her mother really guilty? When she also discovers that her father was in a successful rock-and-roll band when he was killed, she goes looking for former band members to try to find out what really happened so many years before. In the process she learns some unpleasant truths about her family. She also learns that you can love and hate someone at the same time.

  • Author:
    Roby, Kimberla Lawson
    Summary:

    Celine's marriage is at a crossroads when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. As her relationship deteriorates and Celine worries that she'll be left to endure cancer treatment alone, comfort and support come in the form of her best friend, Lauren, who vows to help by any means necessary.

  • Author:
    Bruneau, Carol
    Summary:

    Uprooted, longing for love and to feel somehow situated, Willa Jackson flees life as a military wife when she meets Hugh, the lighthouse keeper on McNabs Island in Halifax Harbour. The object of her fantasies, a musician, he's the last of a dying breed in this story set during the final days of lightkeeping before automation. Romanced by this magical location-so close to the city and its lively communities, yet so remote-she involves her ten-year-old son, Alex, in her escape. Things sour when isolation and Hugh, harbourer of secrets deadlier than she can imagine, turn as brutal as the forces of nature-and of self-deception-that threaten to engulf all three. A tender yet heartbreaking story of one woman's reckoning.

  • Author:
    Chong, Corinna
    Summary:

    A heartfelt and quirky look at growing up mixed-race in 1990s Calgary, viewed through the lens of the irrepressible Grace. The strange interests of Grace and her mother Belinda, ufology and undersea life respectively, do not overshadow the human kindness and love that suffuses this novel. Half-Asian teenager Grace (but she'd prefer it if you called her "Gray" instead) is not a perfect little supermom-in-the-making like her older sister Jessica, and would rather become a marine biologist than a mother?although she does understand how to take care of her peculiar kid brother Squid better than anyone else in her family. When her mother Belinda abruptly runs out on her family and flies across the Atlantic in order to study crop circles in the English countryside, Grace is left alone to puzzle out her life, the world, and her unique place within it. With a warmth and a boisterous sense of humour reminiscent of Miriam Toews' A Complicated Kindness and Peter Hedges' What's Eating Gilbert Grape? author Corinna Chong introduces us to two lovable and thoroughly original female characters: persnickety, precocious Grace, and her impractical, impulsive mother Belinda - very different women who nevertheless persistently circle back into each other's hearts.

  • Author:
    Fellowes, Julian
    Summary:

    Set in the 1840s when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia begins on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. At the Duchess of Richmond's new legendary ball, one family's life will change forever.

  • Author:
    Crewe, Lesley
    Summary:

    The story begins with Nell, the "spinster on the hill" near St. Peter's, Cape Breton. Scarred by her own childhood, she swears she could never love a child and that she will never marry, denying herself a life with the man she loves. She's proven wrong when a baby is born just down the road from her. Her love of little Jane, despite herself, propels us forward through generations trying to untangle their own traumas and secrets. Eventually, we meet Bridie-joyful, kind, capable Bridie-and see her struggling through the echoing pain of those who came before her. Her choices, her bravery, her "nest of wonderful women," and her ultimate refusal to settle for anything less than love, eventually redeem her and everyone around her-even the spinster on the hill.

  • Author:
    Mbue, Imbolo
    Summary:

    A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream-the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy Named one of BuzzFeed's "Incredible New Books You Need to Read This Summer" Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty-and Jende is eager to please. Clark's wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses' summer home in the Hamptons. With these opportunities, Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future. However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers' facades. When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Jongas are desperate to keep Jende's job-even as their marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice. Praise for Behold the Dreamers "Imbolo Mbue's masterful debut about an immigrant family struggling to obtain the elusive American Dream in Harlem will have you feeling for each character from the moment you crack it open."-In Style "This story is one that needs to be told."-Bust "In the near decade since the onset of the Great Recession, few works of fiction have examined what those years felt like for everyday people, how so many continued to hope and plan and love amid pervasive uncertainty. Enter Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, a Cameroonian American who situates her characters of US shores just as prosperity is beginning to seem like a thing of the past...' Behold the Dreamers challenges us all to consider what it takes to make us genuinely content, and how long is too long to live with our dreams deferred."-O Magazine "A revelation...'bue has written a clever morality tale that never preaches but instead teaches us the power of integrity."-Essence "At once a sad indictment of the American dream and a gorgeous testament to the enduring bonds of family, Mbue's powerful first novel will grip and move you right up to its heartfelt ending."-Shelf Awareness "Mbue proves herself a clear-eyed, unflinching storyteller, and Behold the Dreamers is a fearless, head-on journey into the thorny contemporary issues of American exceptionalism."-Interview "Gripping and beautifully told."-Good Housekeeping "Among the spate of novels forged in the crucible of the previous decade, Mbue's impressive debut deserves a singular place...' Realistic, tragic, and still remarkably kind to all its characters, this is a special book."-Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "The Jongas are...'ivid, and the book's unexpected ending-and its sharp-eyed focus on issues of immigration, race, and class-speak to a sad truth in today's cutthroat world: the American dream isn't what it seems."-Publishers Weekly From the Hardcover edition.

  • Author:
    Keats, Israel
    Summary:

    Hannah's sister, Alexis, has been acting different lately. For one thing, she's constantly on her phone when she never used to care that much about it. But after Hannah discovers that Alexis has developed a relationship with a boy she met online, her strange behavior starts to make sense. What's worse, Alexis plans to skip out on college to run away with this guy. Hannah teams up with her best friend to find out more about the online stranger. What if he isn't who he says he is'

  • Author:
    Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee
    Summary:

    The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family's situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single, unforgivable misstep. Years later, Sabitri's own daughter, Bela, flees abroad with her political refugee lover--but the America she finds is vastly different from the country she'd imagined. As the marriage crumbles, Bela unwittingly imprints her own child, Tara, with indelible lessons about freedom, heartbreak, and loyalty that will take a lifetime to unravel.

  • Author:
    Lang, Maureen
    Summary:

    18-year-old Meg Davenport is in New York City after her father dies. Never close to the man--having been raised in an exclusive prep school--Meg is surprised to learn he was not a wealthy businessman but an accomplished thief. Determined to succeed on her own, Meg decides to take up her father's trade--but at what cost?

  • Author:
    Goldberg, Myla
    Summary:

    Nine-year-old Eliza Naumann is considered an unspectacular child -- until she surprises everyone by winning her school spelling bee. But just as Eliza begins to shine, her family starts falling apart.

  • Author:
    Backman, Fredrik
    Summary:

    By the lake in Beartown is an old ice rink, and in that ice rink Kevin, Amat, Benji, and the rest of the town's junior ice hockey team are about to compete in the national semi-finals-and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys. Under that heavy burden, the match becomes the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown. This is a story about a town and a game, but even more about loyalty, commitment, and the responsibilities of friendship; the people we disappoint even though we love them; and the decisions we make every day that come to define us. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.

  • Author:
    Holton, Cathy
    Summary:

    Holton's novel finds four middle-aged friends convening at a beautifully appointed beach house--and reexamining their lives.

  • Author:
    Smith, Heather
    Summary:

    Growing up in a picturesque Newfoundland fishing village should be idyllic for sixteen-year-old Kit Ryan, but living with an alcoholic father makes Kit's day-to-day life unpredictable and almost intolerable. When the 1992 cod moratorium forces her father out of a job, the tension between Kit and her father grows. Forced to leave their rural community, the family moves to the city, where they live with Uncle Iggy, a widower with problems of his own. Immediately pegged as a "baygirl," Kit struggles to fit in, but longstanding trust issues threaten to hold her back when a boy named Elliot expresses an interest in her.

  • Author:
    DeWoskin, Rachel
    Summary:

    Samantha Baxter has a full, sane life--creative job, lovely family, and all the trappings of middle-age happiness. But when she gets a diagnosis that terrifies her, a lifetime of polite pleasing and putting others first ignites in her a surprising, pure rage. Maybe Sam will survive the surgery, and maybe not, but either way, she'll spend the next three weeks burning her life down: sleeping with a student her daughter's age, speaking every truth she's ever swallowed, and refusing to apologize for her wildest, most essential self.

  • Author:
    Haigh, Jennifer
    Summary:

    Born and raised on Bakerton's Polish Hill, the five Novak children come of age during wartime, a thrilling era when the world seems on the verge of changing forever. The oldest, Georgie, serves on a minesweeper in the South Pacific and glimpses life beyond Bakerton, a promising future he is determined to secure at all costs. His sister Dorothy takes a job in Washington, DC, and finds she is unprepared for city life. Brilliant Joyce becomes the family's keystone, bitterly aware of the opportunities she might have had elsewhere. Sandy sails through life on his looks and charm, and Lucy, the volatile baby, devours the family's attention and develops a bottomless appetite for love.

  • Author:
    Jackson, Joshilyn
    Summary:

    Rose Mae Lolley is a fierce and dirty girl, long-suppressed under flowery skirts and bow-trimmed ballet flats. As "Mrs. Ro Grandee" she's trapped in a marriage that's thick with love and sick with abuse. Her true self has been bound in the chains of marital bliss in rural Texas, letting "Ro" make eggs, iron shirts, and take her punches ...

  • Author:
    Herne, Ruth Logan
    Summary:

    Here comes a captivating western romance and family-centered drama with a heart of gold, featuring plenty of cowboys and family drama, from prolific author and networker Ruth Logan Herne. Colt Stafford's winner-take-all personality clashed with his father's similar temperament and led Colt to pursue his own success far from the Double S ranch. The opportunity came in private equities once he earned his way to a desk on Wall Street. But timing is everything and Colt's financial demise coincided with his father's illness. God's perfect timing doesn't always seem all that perfect, but Colt needed a job, the Double S needed Colt and Sam sent his prodigal son a ticket.and Colt came home. He rediscovers his love for ranching, for Washington and for the great outdoors. His father's change of heart seems surreal, and by the time Colt realizes he belongs with his family, he's lost his heart to a Latina cop whose gone undercover to protect her child and her mother. Through the accidents of timing, God has brought multiple facets together at the Double S, just in time for healing, hope and home.

  • Author:
    Weber, Carl
    Summary:

    In Baby Momma Drama, sisters Jasmine and Stephanie struggle to understand the complicated relationships they have with the men in their lives. Luckily, they've got each other to turn to when the going gets tough.

  • Author:
    Urquhart, Jane
    Summary:

    An Irish family escapes the potato famine by emigrating to Canada. The novel traces its contribution to the culture of its adopted land--from Irish sense of humor to Irish idealism--the latter leading one of its members to engage in political assassination.

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