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Not That Wheel, Jesus!

Mary Katherine Backstrom

From the bestselling author of Holy Hot Mess, a laugh-out-loud look at what happens when life goes a direction we didn't expect and we are forced to reconsider the beliefs, assumptions, and stories that have always steered our course. 



Mary Katherine Backstrom grew up the most basic of all youth group kids--pH level 14--and her faith only grew as she led youth ministry, served as a missionary, and went on to become a bestselling Christian author. She knew all the practiced, perfect Sunday school answers and was driving happily down the straight and narrow, until one day her young son asked a simple question: will my Jewish best friend go to hell?



In the months and years that followed, that single question continued to snowball. MK challenged and reconsidered every part of the faith she'd been raised to accept so completely. Not That Wheel, Jesus! is Mary Katherine's hilarious journey from certainty to doubt to going nuclear on the socials ("it was my heresy era"), and then of slowly and painfully finding her way back to a different, less defined faith.



It's the heartfelt and achingly honest story of a spirituality that went off the road and crashed and burned in spectacular fashion, right before God and everybody. And then, slowly, through grace and plenty of therapy, grew richer and deeper than she ever could have imagined.

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The Price of Democracy

Vanessa S. Williamson

An eye-opening history of taxation showing that battles over taxes have always really been battles over democracy itself



"A convincing case that we must take back the power of taxation" (Heather Cox Richardson, New York Times-bestselling author of Democracy Awakening)



Americans have always fought over the meaning of freedom and equality. What is not commonly recognized is that the battles most pivotal in defining our democracy, from the framing of the Constitution to the decades-long backlash to the civil rights movement, hinged on one issue--taxes. 



In The Price of Democracy, Vanessa S. Williamson challenges the myth that Americans are instinctively anti-tax, revealing that fights over taxes have always been proxies for deeper conflicts over who is included in "We the People." Poorer people have repeatedly built movements that sought to tax all Americans to create a more equal and democratic nation. Wealthy people have responded by constraining the power to tax and stifling democracy through voting restrictions, gerrymandering, and violence. Yet as hard as anti-tax crusaders have fought to create an America that redistributes not from rich to poor, but from non-white people to rich white people, the battle rages on. 



The Price of Democracy uncovers how fights for fiscal fairness have defined American history, delivering a powerful message to the present: that taxes are the public's most powerful weapon in the fight for a real democracy.

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Dominion

Addie E. Citchens

A Must-Read: People, NPR, Vulture, Literary Hub, The Millions, Garden & Gun, Goodreads
Long-Listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
Winner of the O. Henry Prize for “That Girl”
An Indies Introduce and Indie Next Pick
A Publishers Weekly Writer to Watch

In this taut Southern family drama, the sins of a favorite son rock a small Mississippi town.

Reverend Sabre Winfrey, Jr., shepherd of the Seven Seals Missionary Baptist Church, believes in God, his own privilege, and enterprise. He owns the barbershop and the radio station, and generally keeps an iron hand on every aspect of society in Dominion, Mississippi. He and his wife, Priscilla, have five boys; the youngest, Emanuel, is called Wonderboy—no one sings prettier, runs as fast, or turns as many heads. But Wonderboy, his father, and all the structures in place that keep them on top are not as righteous as they seem to be. And when Wonderboy is caught off guard by an encounter with a stranger, he finds himself confronted by questions he’d never imagined. His response sends shock waves through the entire community.

Priscilla and Diamond, two women who love these men, bear witness to their charms and bear the brunt of their choices. Through their eyes and their stories, Dominion offers an intricate, intimate view of how secrets control us, how shame stifles us, how silence implicates us, and how even love plays a role in the everyday violence and casual sins of the powerful.

A brilliantly crafted Black Southern family drama told with the captivating force, humor, and tenderness carried in the hearts of these women, Addie E. Citchens’s Dominion wrestles with the many brutal, sinister ways in which we are shaped by fear and patriarchy, and studies how we might yet choose to break free.

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Proof

Jon Cowan

“Cowan has combined the best parts of classic legal thrillers, with an unexpected new lead character that brings the genre into a new generation.” —JAMES PATTERSON

From a writer and executive producer of Suits comes a riveting and gritty legal thriller about murder, cover-ups, redemption, and Los Angeles—perfect for fans of #1 bestselling authors John Grisham and Scott Turow.

As a disgraced lawyer with a drinking problem that he doesn’t view as a problem, Jake West is coasting on what’s left of his charm and money. He used to be the kind of lawyer who could convince anyone of anything—until he decided to take on his father’s biggest client and prove his dad was corrupt. Now Jake finds himself almost at rock bottom, and that’s before his ex-best friend is murdered and Jake is accused of the crime.

In a desperate bid to save himself, Jake must sober up and search for the real killer, whom he suspects might be hidden in one of the case files of his father’s illustrious law firm. As he delves into a labyrinth of lies and corruption, Jake teams up with an eclectic group of equally broken people as they all must skirt the law in order to find the proof he needs…no matter the personal or professional cost.

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Hot Desk

Laura Dickerman

Younger meets Writers & Lovers in this rollicking, sparkling, and funny novel that spans decades and generations of a family in the publishing industry.

In the post-pandemic publishing industry, two rival editors are forced to share a “hot desk” on different days of the week, much to their chagrin. Having never set eyes on each other, Rebecca Blume and Ben Heath begin leaving passive-aggressive Post-it notes on the pot of their shared cactus. But when revered literary legend Edward David Adams (known as “the Lion”) dies, leaving his estate up for grabs, their banter escalates as both work feverishly to land this career-making opportunity. Their fierce rivalry ultimately forces each to decide how far they’ll go to get ahead, what role they want to play in the Lion’s legacy, and what they mean to each other.

As their battle for the estate gets more heated, Rebecca learns of a connection between her mother, Jane, and the Lion. The story travels back four decades earlier to when Jane arrives in Manhattan and meets Rose, soon her best friend. Jane and Rose are two strong, talented young women trying to make their mark in the publishing world at a time when art, the written word, and creative expression were at their height. But one fateful day during the April blizzard of 1982 will change the course of Jane’s life, and of their friendship, forever...

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The Intruder

Freida McFadden

"A dark and stormy night. An isolated cabin in the woods. A runaway child with a mysterious past...Thriller fans, buckle up!" -- Jason Rekulak, New York Times bestselling author of The Last One at the Wedding

There's someone at your front door - should you let them in? Find out in a riveting new thriller from global sensation and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid, Freida McFadden!

Who knows what the storm will blow in...

Casey's cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she's a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window.

She's young. She's alone. And she's covered in blood.

The girl won't explain where she came from, or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse.

The girl has a dark secret. One she'll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.

In this taut, deadly tale of survival and desperation, #1 New York Times bestselling author Freida McFadden explores how far one girl will go to save herself.

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A Guardian and a Thief: Oprah's Book Club

Megha Majumdar

OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE • Megha Majumdar’s electrifying new novel, following her acclaimed New York Times bestseller A Burning, is set in a near-future Kolkata, India in which two families seeking to protect their children must battle each other. A piercing and propulsive tour de force.

“Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go.”—Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life

NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, THE ATLANTIC, TIME, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, NEW YORK MAGAZINE, ELLE, KIRKUS, BOOKPAGE

In a near-future Kolkata, Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, containing their treasured immigration documents, has been stolen.

Set over the course of one week, A Guardian and a Thief tells two stories: the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief while keeping hunger at bay during a worsening food shortage; and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose desperation to care for his family drives him to commit a series of escalating crimes whose consequences he cannot fathom. With stunning control and command, Megha Majumdar paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of two families, each operating from a place of ferocious love and undefeated hope, each discovering how far they will go to secure their children’s future as they stave off encroaching catastrophe.

A masterful new work from one of the most exciting voices of her generation.

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Decoding History

Ash A. Hamilton

The year is 2055. In a world where power reigns supreme, knowledge is the ultimate weapon, carefully guarded and ruthlessly controlled. But in the shadows, a strange alliance thrives: as underground libraries and sanctuaries for the keepers of forbidden wisdom are formed through covert coalitions.

 

Thirty years after the Librarian of Congress was fired by a two-line email, the world has lost much of its knowledge. Into this dangerous landscape steps Eliza, a book whore was raised an orphan, trained as a courtesan, attempts to discover what is hidden in the past, while her present is never stable.

 

Cloaked in coded messages within books passed through clandestine libraries, this sisterhood seeks to reclaim lost power in a world determined to keep them silent. But in a society built on secrets and surveillance, can the future still be shaped, or will the forces of control crush her rebellion before it even begins?

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The Silverblood Promise

James Logan

"A fast-paced carnival of setbacks and skullduggery that reminds me of... me! Charming from the first twist to the last."—Scott Lynch

Set in a city of traders and thieves, monsters and murderers, this page-turning epic fantasy debut is a must-read for fans of Nicholas Eames and Joe Abercrombie.

Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and—thanks to a duel that ended badly—the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away.

When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father's death.

His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin. Lukan only seeks the truth, but instead he finds danger and secrets in every shadow.

For in Saphrona, everything has a price—and the price of truth is the deadliest of all.

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Sleep

Honor Jones

A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN OPRAH DAILY AND REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

“Incredibly moving." – Ann Patchett

“Propulsive and funny and heartbreaking.” —J. Courtney Sullivan

"An exceptionally moving novel. Jones takes her cues from writers like John Cheever, Richard Yates and Virginia Woolf."—The New York Times

"Profoundly beautiful."— NPR

From a dazzling new talent, the story of a newly divorced young mother forced to reckon with the secrets of her own childhood when she brings her daughters back to the big house where she was raised.

Every parent exists inside of two families simultaneously – the one she was born into, and the one she has made. 

Ten-year-old Margaret hides beneath a blackberry bush in her family’s verdant backyard while her brother hunts for her in a game of flashlight tag. Hers is a childhood of sunlit swimming pools and Saturday morning pancakes and a devoted best friend, but her family life requires careful maintenance. Her mother can be as brittle and exacting as she is loving, and her father and brother assume familiar, if uncomfortable, models of masculinity. Then late one summer, everything changes. After a series of confusing transgressions, the simple pleasures of girlhood, slip away. 

Twenty-five years later, Margaret hides under her parents’ bed, waiting for her young daughters to find her in a game of hide and seek. She’s newly divorced and navigating her life as a co-parent, while discovering the pleasures of a new lover. But some part of her is still under the blackberry bush, punched out of time. Called upon to be a mother to her daughters, and a daughter to her mother, she must reckon with the echoes and refractions between the past and the present, what it means to keep a child safe, and how much of our lives are our own, alone.

Warm and generous, unflinchingly human, and ultimately joyful and empowering, SLEEP is about the cycles of motherhood and childhood, the cost of secrets and the burden of love, and what’s on the other side of silence: the world, rich in possibility.

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Heart the Lover

Lily King

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Lily King has written another masterpiece. This book overflows with her brilliance and her heart. We are so lucky." --Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow

From the New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers comes a magnificent and intimate new novel of desire, friendship, and the lasting impact of first love

You knew I'd write a book about you someday.

Our narrator understands good love stories--their secrets and subtext, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.

In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.

Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan's youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news bring the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.

Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

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Mercy

Joan Silber

Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize

A rich and nuanced story beginning with a moment of fear and abandonment that will reverberate across decades and change the course of many lives, by a beloved PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award–winning author

In the gritty East Village of 1970s New York, Ivan and his best friend, Eddie, a popular local bartender, are dabbling in drugs following a short tour of Europe. One night, as Ivan and Eddie experiment with heroin, things go horribly wrong. In a panic, Ivan rushes Eddie to a crowded local ER and, believing his friend is about to die, makes the awful choice to leave him there.

This one act of abandonment haunts Ivan his entire life. He keeps this secret from his friends and later his family, forever searching for mercy from “a remorse that never dies.” Ivan’s decision also ripples across time through an extended community, affecting a host of other people unknowingly connected to that night.

Following a bold cast of characters across decades, and set against the changing social and sexual mores from the 1970s onward, Mercy is Silber’s most ambitious and expansive novel yet, proving once again how we are all connected in mysterious and often unknown ways.

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Murder by the Book

Amie Schaumberg

Two dead students. A coded reference to Shakespeare. And the promise of darker things to come.



Near a small college campus, a student is found strangled in an abandoned barn on the outskirts of town. She's been posed to look like a painting of Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the scene taunting the police with a message they don't understand. Detective Ian Carter is known as a straitlaced cop, but seeing the girl's body leaves him shaken and uncertain of where to turn--until a chance meeting with a charmingly awkward literature professor ends with her accidentally seeing, and solving, a clue left by the killer.



Professor Emma Reilly knows that the books she loves might hold the key to unraveling the killer's crimes now that a second murder has been discovered, with the victim posed as the Lady of Shalott this time. However, when the murderer strikes too close to home and kills a third student, one from Emma's classes, she realizes that the safety of her insular life might be nothing more than an illusion. She must find the strength to confront a killer who is turning the stories she loves into lurid scenes of death.



Amie Schaumberg has crafted a smart, thrilling and utterly compelling mystery that will have you trying to figure out whodunit right up until the end.

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Designed with Love

Tracie Peterson

Love weaves together two determined hearts through even the most unexpected paths. 

After being widowed on her wedding day, Emma Johnson moves to Cheyenne with her sister-in-law to start over. Emma's life has been marked by wild living and a desire for fun, but the death of her husband forces her to reconsider her priorities. Her brother-in-law Colton Benton travels with them, intending to help Emma get established, but she becomes wary of Colton's intentions, wondering if he is genuinely interested in her or merely after his brother's inheritance--which is now hers. 

Colton has harbored feelings for Emma since they first met, and he is caught between his love for her and the pressure from his brothers to marry her for the family's financial benefit. As they settle into Cheyenne, Colton tries to balance his business dealings with the Union Pacific and his growing affection for Emma. With his sister's simple yet profound faith in God as inspiration amidst their struggles, Emma and Colton will be challenged to believe that a divine plan is intricately woven into their lives. 

Bestselling author Tracie Peterson delivers a heartfelt and hopeful historical frontier novel for fans of When Calls the Heart, Lauraine Snelling, and western romances.

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Turns of Fate

Anne Bishop

A young detective investigating crimes of the uncanny will learn that bargains can change your fate—for good or ill—in this darkly enthralling fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Others and the Black Jewels series.

Words have power. Intentions matter.

Most people come to Destiny Park for entertainment. They come to have their cards read to tell them a bit about their future. They come to walk through a beautiful park and to eat at the hotel’s restaurant. They come in the hope of catching a glimpse of the Arcana, the paranormal beings who rule the Isle of Wyrd.

But some people come to make a bargain with the Arcana—to change their fate. And some people come for dark purposes.

When Detective Beth Fahey is sent to Destiny Park to inquire about a “ghost gun,” she will begin a strange journey on which she must learn to navigate the Arcana’s unforgiving laws and dangerous attractions. Her search will draw her into seemingly impossible cases and the secrets of her own past as tensions rise between the Arcana and their human neighbors across the river.

For the Isle of Wyrd is a place where the dead ride trains to their final destinations, predators literally become prey, and seekers’ true natures are revealed in the ripples of destiny unknowingly stirred in their wakes.

Who will live? Who will die? And who will be lost in between?

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Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story

Wendell Berry

In the newest novel in the Port William series, Wendell Berry’s beloved protagonist Andy Catlett tells the inspiring story of his grandfather Marce Catlett to his own children and grandchildren, and gives them a key to their place on the questionably settled land they all love

Andy Catlett’s story begins as his grandfather Marce Catlett rises in the dark to travel from his farm by horseback and train to Louisville for the auction of his 1906 tobacco crop. The price paid for each year’s crop has been depressed to virtually nothing by the power of a single buyer, James B. Duke. This year is especially grim since the price offered to each grower is less than the expense of bringing the crop to market. A year’s labor is lost.

Marce returns to his family defeated, defiant, and determined to grow another crop. Many of his fellow farmers at first seem to lack the resiliency and resourcefulness to continue. Only with the cooperation of other growers can a way be found that protects these farmers and keeps their rural families vital and in place.

The power and depth of this story—and of the many stories within the history of the Port William Membership—resonate with love, kindness, and the held memory of family and community. In Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story, celebrated author Wendell Berry brings to life a tale that devoted readers of the series will cherish. This moving novel is a testament to the goodwill that lives within the human heart and a stirring reminder that standing up for what we believe in is always a cause worth fighting for.

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