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EVERYTHING I THOUGHT I KNEW

One of our recommended books is Everything I Thought I Knew by Shannon Takaoka

A teenage girl wonders if she’s inherited more than just a heart from her donor in this compulsively readable debut.

Seventeen-year-old Chloe had a plan: work hard, get good grades, and attend a top-tier college. But after she collapses during cross-country practice and is told that she needs a new heart, all her careful preparations are laid to waste. Eight months after her transplant, everything is different. Stuck in summer school with the underachievers, all she wants to do now is grab her surfboard and hit the waves–which is strange, because she wasn’t interested in surfing before her transplant.

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THE TOTALLY TRUE STORY OF GRACIE BYRNE

One of our recommended books is The Totally True Story of Gracie Byrne by Shannon Takaoka

Gracie feels like a minor character in her own life story–until a mysterious journal turns her fictional stories into reality.

It’s 1987, and sixteen-year-old Gracie Byrne wishes her life were totally different. Shy and awkward, she has trouble fitting in at her new school, she’s still reeling from her parents’ divorce, and her grandmother Katherine’s Alzheimer’s is getting worse. So when Gracie finds a blank journal in Katherine’s vanity drawer, she begins writing stories about herself–a more popular version of herself, that is. But then the hot guy in her art class describes a dream he had about her–the exact scene she wrote about him in her journal–and Gracie realizes that she can create any reality she wants,

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ALL THE LITTLE BIRD-HEARTS

Longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, this poetic and often funny debut — “a motherhood story unlike any other” (Booklist) — a by an author with autism is written from the point of view of an autistic woman as she and her headstrong adolescent daughter are befriended by a glamorous, charismatic couple with dark ulterior motives.

I lived for and loved a bird-heart that summer; I only knew it afterwards.

Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people.

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THE SECOND CHANCE YEAR

In this unforgettable story full of charm, wit–and just a bit of magic–a woman down on her luck is given a second chance at fixing her life and trying one year all over again. Perfect for readers of Josie Silver and Rebecca Serle.

Sadie Thatcher’s life has fallen apart in spectacular fashion. In one fell swoop, she managed to lose her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend–all thanks to her big mouth. So when a fortune teller offers her one wish, Sadie jumps at the chance to redo her awful year. Deep down, she doesn’t believe magic will fix her life,

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UNFINISHED WOMAN

One of our recommended books is Unfinished Woman by Robyn Davidson

A spellbinding memoir exploring time and memory, home and belonging, from the internationally bestselling author of Tracks, “an unforgettably powerful book” (Cheryl Strayed).

In 1977, while she was in her twenties, Robyn Davidson set off with a dog and four camels to cross 1,700 miles of Australian desert to the sea.

A life of almost constant travelling followed—from the Outback to Sydney’s underworld; from sixties street life, to the London literary scene; from migrating with nomads in India and Tibet, to marrying an Indian prince. The only territory she avoided was the past.

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MEET THE BENEDETTOS

One of our recommended books is Meet the Benedettos by Katie Cotugno

An A-list movie star moves to Los Angeles–next door to a family of five eligible sisters–in this irresistible novel where The Kardashians meets Pride and Prejudice, from the NYT bestselling author of Birds of California.

Every family is complicated, and the Benedettos are no exception. A few years after a reality TV show skyrocketed them to pop-culture fame, the five twentysomething sisters are living together in their parents’ crumbling McMansion, nearly broke and teetering towards rock-bottom. Lilly, the sensible second-eldest sister, is all too aware that her family is viewed as a spectacle,

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