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THE SECOND LIFE OF MIRIELLE WEST

One of our recommended books is The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore

A story of resilience, repulsion, and the Roaring 20’s based on the little-known history of Carville, America’s only leper colony, by RUSA Award-winning author and registered nurse Amanda Skenandore.

Based on the little-known true story of America’s only leper colony, The Second Life of Mirielle West by RUSA Award-winning author Amanda Skenandore brings vividly to life the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were stripped of their civil rights, branded as lepers, and forcibly quarantined throughout the entire 20th century.

For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star,

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THE MOVEMENT

One of our recommended books is The Movement by Petra Hůlová

The Movement’s founding ideology emphasizes that women should be valued for their inner qualities, spirit, and character, and not for their physical attributes.

Men have been forbidden to be attracted to women on the basis of their bodies. Some continue with unreformed attitudes but many submit—or are sent by their wives and daughters—to the Institute for internment and reeducation. However, the Movement also struggles with women and their “old attitudes,” with many still undergoing illegal cosmetic surgeries and wearing makeup. Our narrator, an unapologetic guard at one of these reeducation facilities, describes how the Movement started,

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NOTHING BURNS AS BRIGHT AS YOU

One of our recommended books is Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk

From acclaimed author Ashley Woodfolk, Nothing Burns as Bright as You is an impassioned story about queer love, grief, and the complexity of female friendship that will keep your heart racing, and breaking, until the very last page.

Two girls. One wild and reckless day. Years of tumultuous history unspooling like a thin, fraying string in the hours after they set a fire.

They were best friends. Until they became more. Their affections grew. Until the blurry lines became dangerous.

Over the course of a single day, the depth of their past,

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LIGHTS OUT IN LINCOLNWOOD

One of our recommended books is Lights Out in Lincolnwood by Geoff Rodkey

A mordantly funny, all-too-real novel in the vein of Tom Perotta and Emma Straub about a suburban American family who have to figure out how to survive themselves and their neighbors in the wake of a global calamity that upends all of modern life.

It’s Tuesday morning in Lincolnwood, New Jersey, and all four members of the Altman family are busy ignoring each other en route to work and school. Dan, a lawyer turned screenwriter, is preoccupied with satisfying his imperious TV producer boss’s creative demands. Seventeen-year-old daughter Chloe obsesses over her college application essay and the state tennis semifinals.

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THE METAL HEART

One of our recommended books is The Metal Heart by Caroline Lea

In the dark days of World War II, an unlikely romance blossoms between a Scottish woman and an Italian prisoner of war in this haunting novel with the emotional complexity of The Boat Runner and All the Light We Cannot See—a powerful and atmospheric story of love, jealousy, and conscience that illuminates the beauty of the human spirit from the author of The Glass Woman.

In the wake of the Allies’ victory in North Africa, 1,000 Italian soldiers have been sent to a remote island off the Scottish coast to wait out the war.

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OF BEARS AND BALLOTS

One of our recommended books is Of Bears and Ballots by Heather Lende

Heather Lende was one of the thousands of women inspired to take an active role in politics during the past few years. Though her entire campaign for assembly member in Haines, Alaska, cost less than $1,000, she won! And tiny, breathtakingly beautiful Haines isn’t the sleepy town it appears to be. Yes, the assembly must stop bears from rifling through garbage on Main Street, but there is also a bitter debate about the fishing boat harbor and a vicious recall campaign that targets three assembly members, including Lende. In Of Bears and Ballots we witness the nitty-gritty of passing legislation,

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