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DUST CHILD

One of our recommended books is Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

From the internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing, a suspenseful and moving saga about family secrets, hidden trauma, and the overriding power of forgiveness, set during the war and in present-day Việt Nam.

In 1969, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their rural village and become “bar girls” in Sài Gòn, drinking, flirting (and more) with American GIs in return for money. As the war moves closer to the city, the once-innocent Trang gets swept up in an irresistible romance with a young and charming American helicopter pilot.

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CHASING THE BLACK EAGLE

One of our recommended books is Chasing the Black Eagle by Bruce Geddes

Against a backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance and Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia, a young man tails Hubert Julian — a pilot, inventor, adventurer, charlatan, and possible threat to America.

Facing an attempted murder charge, seventeen-year-old Arthur Tormes is in no position to refuse when a federal agent named Riley Triggs offers him a deal: all charges get dropped and Arthur goes free if he agrees to help the Bureau with a problem.

That problem is Hubert Julian, a.k.a. the Black Eagle of Harlem: inventor, pilot, parachutist, daredevil, charlatan, and one of the most extraordinary and popular figures of the Harlem Renaissance.

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THE BOOK SPY

One of our recommended books is The Book Spy by Alan Hlad

An American librarian. A Portuguese bookseller. A WWII mission to change the tide of the war.

Inspired by true stories of the heroic librarian spies of WWII and spanning from the New York Public Library to Portugal’s city of espionage, this thrilling tale from the internationally bestselling author of The Long Flight Home is perfect for fans intrigue-packed historical fiction by authors such as Kate Quinn, Marie Benedict, and Pam Jenoff.

1942: With the war’s outcome hanging in the balance, President Roosevelt sends an unlikely new taskforce on a unique mission.

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PRIZE WOMEN

One of our recommended books is Prize Women by Caroline Lea

The critically acclaimed author of The Glass Woman and The Metal Heart reimagines the shocking story of one of the most controversial contests in history, the Great Stork Derby, in which a millionaire’s death spawns a furious competition for his inheritance.

Toronto, 1926. Knowing that he will die without an heir, childless millionaire Charles Millar leaves behind a controversial will: the recipient of his fortune will be decided in a contest that will become a media sensation and be known as the Great Stork Derby. His money will go to the winner: the woman who bears the most children in the ten years after his death.

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THE SENSE OF WONDER

One of our recommended books is The Sense of Wonder by Matthew Salesses

From the author of PEN/Faulkner finalist Disappear Doppelgänger Disappear and Craft in the Real World comes a “a smart, very meta take” (Kirkus Reviews) on the ways Asian Americans navigate the thorny worlds of sports and entertainment when everything is stacked against them.

An Asian American basketball star walks into a gym. No one recognizes him, but everyone stares anyway. It is the start of a joke but what is the punchline? When Won Lee, the first Asian American in the NBA, stuns the world in a seven-game winning streak, the global media audience dubs it “The Wonder”—much to Won’s chagrin.

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WOMEN TALKING

One of our recommended books is Women Talking by Miriam Toews

Now a major motion picture from writer/director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, with Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand.

One evening, eight Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For the past two years, each of these women, and more than a hundred other girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm.

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