Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
“Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the
lives of two successive generations--those who lived through Mao's Cultural
Revolution and their children, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen
Square. At the center of this epic story are two young women, Marie and
Ai-Ming. Through their relationship Marie strives to piece together the tale of
her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking answers in the fragile
layers of their collective story.” –WorldCat
Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart
"Lily Jo McGrother, born Timothy McGrother, is a girl. But being a
girl is not so easy when you look like a boy. Especially when you're in the
eighth-grade. Norbert Dorfman, nicknamed Dunkin Dorfman, is bipolar and has
just moved from the New Jersey town he's called home for the past thirteen
years. This would be hard enough, but the fact that he is also hiding from a
painful secret makes it even worse. One summer morning, Lily Jo McGrother meets
Dunkin Dorfman, and their lives forever change." –WorldCat
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
“A young woman and her husband, admitted to hospital to have a baby,
request that their nurse be reassigned--they are white supremacists and don't
want Ruth, who is black, to touch their baby. The hospital complies, but the
baby later goes into cardiac distress when Ruth is on duty. She hesitates
before rushing in to perform CPR. When her indecision ends in tragedy, Ruth
finds herself on trial, represented by a white public defender who warns
against bringing race into the courtroom. As the two come to develop a truer
understanding of each other's lives, they begin to doubt the beliefs they each
hold most dear.” –Amazon
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
“This book is inspired by Big History (to learn about one thing, you
have to learn about everything). In The Sun is Also a Star, to understand the
characters and their love story, we must know everything around them and
everything that came before them that has affected who they are and what they
experience. Two teens--Daniel, the son
of Korean shopkeepers, and Natasha, whose family is here illegally from
Jamaica--cross paths in New York City on an eventful day in their lives--Daniel
is on his way to an interview with a Yale alum, Natasha is meeting with a lawyer
to try and prevent her family's deportation to Jamaica--and fall in love.”
–Amazon
The Women in the Walls: A Dark and Dangerous Tale by Amy Lukavics
“Lucy Acosta's mother died when she was three. Growing up in a
Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she
explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They're
inseparable—a family. When her aunt
Penelope, the only mother she's ever known, tragically disappears while walking
in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone.
Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear
her dead mother's voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her
father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin's sanity slowly unravels. But
when she begins hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an
ancient and deadly legacy that has marked the women in her family for
generations.” –Amazon
The Wonder: A Novel by Emma Donoghue
“A small village in 1850s rural Ireland is baffled by Anna O'Donnell's
fast, which began as a self-inflicted and earnest expression of faith. After
weeks of subsisting only on what she calls 'manna from heaven,' the
story of the 'miracle' has reached a fever pitch. Tourists flock in
droves to the O'Donnell family's modest cabin hoping to witness, and an
international journalist is sent to cover the sensational story. Enter Lib, an
English nurse trained by Florence Nightingale who is hired to keep watch for
two weeks and determine whether or not Anna is a fraud. As Anna deteriorates,
Lib finds herself responsible not just for the care of a child, but for getting
to the root of why the child may actually be the victim of murder in slow
motion.” –Amazon
Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks
“At 32, Russell Green has it all: a stunning wife, a lovable six
year-old daughter, a successful career as an advertising executive and an
expansive home in Charlotte. He is living the dream, and his marriage to the
bewitching Vivian is the center of that. But underneath the shiny surface of
this perfect existence, fault lines are beginning to appear...and no one is
more surprised than Russ when he finds every aspect of the life he took for
granted turned upside down.” –Amazon