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HOTEL CUBA

One of our recommended books is Hotel Cuba by Aaron Hamburger

From the award-winning author of The View from Stalin’s Head, a stunning novel about two sheltered Russian Jewish sisters, desperate to get to America to make a new life, who find themselves trapped in the sultry, hedonistic world of 1920s Havana.

Fleeing the chaos of World War I and the terror of the Soviet Revolution, practical, sensible Pearl Kahn and her lovestruck, impulsive younger sibling Frieda sail for America to join their sister in New York. But discriminatory new immigration laws bar their entry, and the young women are turned back at Ellis Island. With few options,

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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE NEW WORLD

One of our recommended books is The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé

A miracle baby is born on Easter Sunday, rumored to be the child of God. Award-winning Caribbean author Maryse Condé follows his journey in search of his origins and mission.

One Easter Sunday, Madame Ballandra puts her hands together and exclaims: “A miracle!” Baby Pascal is strikingly beautiful, brown in complexion, with gray-green eyes like the sea. But where does he come from? Is he really the child of God? So goes the rumor, and many signs throughout his life will cause this theory to gain ground. From journey to journey and from one community to another, Pascal sets off in search of his origins,

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WHERE COYOTES HOWL

One of our recommended books is Where Coyotes Howl by Sandra Dallas

Beautifully rendered, Where Coyotes Howl is a vivid and deeply affecting ode to the early twentieth century West, from master storyteller Sandra Dallas.

Except for the way they loved each other, they were just ordinary, everyday folks. Just ordinary.

1916. The two-street town of Wallace is not exactly what Ellen Webster had in mind when she accepted a teaching position in Wyoming, but within a year’s time she’s fallen in love—both with the High Plains and with a handsome cowboy named Charlie Bacon. Life is not easy in the flat, brown corner of the state where winter blizzards are unforgiving and the summer heat relentless.

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LAST TO EAT, LAST TO LEARN

One of our recommended books is Last to Eat, Last to Learn by Pashtana Durrani

The harrowing yet ultimately inspiring memoir of the young educator and activist who has become the face of women’s rights in Afghanistan.

From growing up in a refugee camp to becoming an Amnesty International Global Youth Ambassador and Malala Fund Education Champion who’s ruthlessly targeted by the Taliban, Pashtana Durrani shares the deeply inspiring true story of her unyielding fight to provide educational materials to the disappearing girls of rural Afghanistan.

Since childhood, Pashtana Durrani has recognized her calling: to educate Afghanistan’s girls and young women. In a country devastated by war and violence,

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HOMESTEAD

One of our recommended books is Homestead by Melinda Moustakis

From NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35 HONOREE and FLANNERY O’CONNOR AWARD WINNER Melinda Moustakis, a debut novel set in Alaska, about the turbulent marriage of two unlikely homesteaders

Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they are more in love with the promise of homesteading than anything. For Lawrence, his parcel of 150 acres is an opportunity to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promise. For Marie, the land is an escape from the empty future she sees spinning out before her,

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WALK THROUGH FIRE

One of our recommended books is Walk Through Fire by Yasmine S. Ali

The first book to examine the rarely-acknowledged Waverly Train Disaster of 1978 – the catastrophic accident that changed America forever and led to the formation of FEMA. Coinciding with the 45th anniversary of the event, WALK THROUGH FIRE is a tribute to the first responders, as well as an examination of the strengths and vulnerabilities in rural America.

On the night of February 22, 1978, a devastating freight train derailment drastically altered Waverly, Tennessee, and its place in history. This was one of the worst train explosions of the twentieth century, killing 16 people, injuring hundreds more,

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