Feature and Contest

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly Ayer out of juvie and worse. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that they aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children. Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life --- answers that will ultimately free them both.

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City of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn

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The World Without You by Joshua Henkin

On July 4, 2005, the Frankel family descends upon their summer home in the Berkshires for a memorial to Leo, the youngest Frankel sibling, who was killed while on assignment in Iraq a year before. Over the course of three days, the Frankels will contend with sibling rivalries and marital feuds, volatile women and silent men, and, ultimately, the true meaning of family.

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I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe

Rosetta doesn't want her new husband Jeremiah to enlist as a soldier in the Civil War, but he joins up nonetheless, hoping to make enough money that they'll be able to afford their own farm someday. Determined to be with him, no matter the cost, Rosetta cuts off her hair, hems an old pair of his pants, and signs up as a Union soldier. Fearing discovery of her secret, Rosetta’s strong will clashes with Jeremiah’s as their marriage is tested by war.

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Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life by Gretchen Rubin

One Sunday afternoon, as she unloaded the dishwasher, Gretchen Rubin felt hit by a wave of homesickness. Homesick --- why? She was standing right in her own kitchen. She felt homesick, she realized, with love for home itself. “Of all the elements of a happy life,” she thought, “my home is the most important.” In a flash, she decided to undertake a new happiness project, and this time, to focus on home.

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The Returned by Jason Mott

In their old age, Harold and Lucille have settled comfortably into life without their son, who died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. But then one day, Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep --- still eight years old. All over the world, people's loved ones are returning from beyond. The Hargraves are forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what it is to be human.

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The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles by Katherine Pancol

When her chronically unemployed husband runs off to start a crocodile farm in Kenya with his mistress, Joséphine Cortès is forced to maintain a stable family life while making ends meet on her meager salary as a medieval history scholar. When Joséphine’s sister, Iris, charms a famous publisher into offering her a lucrative deal for a 12th-century romance, she offers Joséphine a deal of her own: Joséphine will write the novel and pocket all the proceeds, but the book will be published under Iris’s name. All is well --- that is, until the book becomes the literary sensation of the season.

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The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister

Lillian and her restaurant have a way of drawing people together. Among the cast of characters are Al, the accountant who finds meaning in numbers and ritual; Chloe, a budding chef who hasn’t learned to trust after heartbreak; Louise, Al’s wife, whose anger simmers just below the boiling point; and Isabelle, whose memories are slowly slipping from her grasp. And there’s Lillian herself, whose life has taken a turn she didn’t expect.

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Strings Attached by Joanne Lipman

STRINGS ATTACHED centers on the legacy of Mr. K, the sharp-spoken, foot-pounding, never-praising Ukrainian-born despot whose music lessons and orchestra rehearsals reduced students to tears. Yet, when he passed away, more than 100 students from three generations returned to play in a memorial concert and acknowledge the amazing lesson he instilled: Demand great things of yourself.

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The Preservationist by Justin Kramon

To Sam Blount, meeting Julia is the best thing that has ever happened to him. Working at the local college, he’d been feeling troubled about his approaching 40th birthday, but being with Julia makes him feel young and hopeful. Their relationship is tested by a shy young man with a secret, Marcus Broley, who is also infatuated with Julia.

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