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THE HIRED GIRL

One of our recommended books for 2017 is The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz

Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her sharp wit and keen eye to early twentieth-century America in a comedic tour de force destined to become a modern classic.

Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs yearns for real life and true love—like the heroines in her beloved novels experience. But what hope is there for adventure, beauty, or art on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania where the work never ends? Over the summer of 1911, Joan pours her heart out into her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself—because maybe, just maybe, a hired girl cleaning and cooking for six dollars a week can become what a farm girl could only dream of—a woman with a future.

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WOLF WINTER

Swedish Lapland, 1717. Maija, her husband Paavo and her daughters Frederika and Dorotea arrive from their native Finland, hoping to forget the traumas of their past and put down new roots in this harsh but beautiful land. Above them looms Blackåsen, a mountain whose foreboding presence looms over the valley and whose dark history seems to haunt the lives of those who live in its shadow.

One day, Frederika happens upon the mutilated body of one of their neighbors. The death is dismissed as a wolf attack, but Maija feels certain that the wounds could only have been inflicted by another man.

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SWEET BREATH OF MEMORY

With its tree-lined streets and curbside planters

brimming with spring bulbs, Amberley,

Massachusetts seems a good place for Cate Saunders

to start over. It’s been two years since her husband,

John, was killed in Iraq, and life has become

something to simply struggle through. Cate’s new

job as a caregiver doesn’t pay much, but the locals

are welcoming. Cate’s barely unpacked before she’s

drawn—reluctantly at first—into a circle of friends.

There’s Gaby, who nourishes her diner customers’ spirits as well as their

bodies;

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ANOTHER WOMAN’S DAUGHTER

Set against the tumultuous background of apartheid South Africa, a powerful and moving debut about family, sacrifice, and discovering what it means to belong…

Celia Mphephu knows her place in the world. A black servant working in the white suburbs of 1960s Johannesburg, she’s all too aware of her limitations. Nonetheless, she has found herself a comfortable corner: She has a job, can support her faraway family, and is raising her youngest child, Miriam.

But as racial tensions explode, Celia’s world shifts. Her employers decide to flee the political turmoil and move to England—and they ask to adopt Miriam and take her with them.

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THE WINTER PEOPLE

A Boston Globe Best Book of the Year

A simmering literary thriller of the unbreakable

bonds between mothers and their children, The

Winter People showcases the spellbinding talent

that has made Jennifer McMahon a bestselling

storyteller. This tale of ghostly secrets and dark

choices takes us to rural West Hall, Vermont, a

town known for strange disappearances. The most

legendary victim is Sara Harrison Shea. In 1908, she was found dead in the

field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter,

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A RESPECTABLE ACTRESS

When India Hartley is accused of murder, she must uncover the deceptions of others to save

herself.

India Hartley, a famous and beautiful actress, is now alone after her father’s death and embarks

upon a tour of theaters across the South. Her first stop is Savannah’s Southern Palace. On the eve

of the second night’s performance, something goes horribly wrong. Her co-star, Arthur Sterling, is

shot dead on stage in front of a packed house, and India is arrested and accused of the crime.

A benefactor hires Philip Sinclair,

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