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monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/12/12/december-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/11/14/november-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/10/10/october-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/9/12/september-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/8/1/august-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/7/11/july-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2014/12/13/december-book-selection monthly 0.5 2022-10-19 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2014/11/8/november-book-selection monthly 0.5 2022-10-19 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/2/7/february-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/1/10/january-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/4/11/april-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/3/14/march-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/6/13/june-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/meetings/2015/5/9/may-book-selection monthly 0.5 2020-04-14 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/new-index daily 0.75 2020-04-13 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/home daily 1.0 2026-03-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/1586829871426-TR7AS005KF9SHBT2VS01/We+Slay+Book+Club-06.jpg About Us https://www.weslaybookclub.com/contact daily 0.75 2023-01-19 https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year1 daily 0.75 2024-11-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/4f14effb-8f9a-4526-93c4-023a77dee3af/A+wanted+Woman.jpg Year 1 November 2014 A Wanted Woman by Eric Jerome Dickey The assassin called Reaper is a woman of a thousand faces, and just as many accents. In the blink of an eye, she can become anyone. Some desirable. All dangerous. For Reaper, the Trinidad contract should be simple: infiltrate the infamous Laventille Killers’ organization, earn access to her political target, eliminate him, and then escape from the island. When complications arise and the job goes bad, Reaper has no viable exit plan. The LK warlords want her publicly executed, and their pursuit is far-reaching and merciless. Trawling for low-profile assignments is all Reaper can do to keep her skills sharp and garner money to survive. And for an assassin with so many changeable identities, her newest one is too frighteningly real—as an expendable pawn between two warring organizations. Now, trapped on an island paradise turned prison, Reaper discovers that family ties run deep on both sides. Somewhere, sometime, someone has to be trusted—but one wrong move could suddenly become her last breath. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/58da10eb-cddb-46d5-8328-bff9307e2dc7/red+queen+dies.jpg Year 1 December 2014 The Red Queen Dies by Frankie Y. Bailey The year is 2019, and a drug used to treat soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder, nicknamed "Lullaby," has hit the streets. Swallowing a little pill erases traumatic memories, but what happens to a criminal trial when the star witness takes a pill and can't remember the crime? When two women are murdered in quick succession, biracial police detective Hannah McCabe is charged with solving the case. In spite of the advanced technology, including a city-wide surveillance program, a third woman is soon killed, and the police begin to suspect that a serial killer is on the loose. But the third victim, a Broadway actress known as "The Red Queen," doesn't fit the pattern set by the first two murders. With the late September heat sizzling, Detective Hannah McCabe and her colleagues on the police force have to race to find the killer in a tangled web of clues that involve Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and Abraham Lincoln's assassination. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/f02597d1-6cd2-41ca-a288-64e4766fe38b/Debbe.jpg Year 1 January 2015 Debbie Doesn’t Do It Anymore by Walter Mosely Millions of men (and no doubt many women) have watched famed black porn queen Debbie Dare—she of the blond wig and blue contacts-"do it" on television and computer screens every which way with every combination of partners the mind of man can imagine. But one day an unexpected and thunderous on-set orgasm catches Debbie unawares, and when she returns to the mansion she shares with her husband, insatiable former porn star and "film producer" Theon Pinkney, she discovers that he's died in a case of hot tub electrocution, "auditioning" an aspiring "starlet." Burdened with massive debts that her husband incurred, and which various L.A. heavies want to collect on, Debbie must reckon with a life spent in the peculiar subculture of the pornography industry and her estrangement from her family and the child she had to give up. She's done with porn, but her options for what might come next include the possibility of suicide. Debbie . . . is a portrait of a ransacked but resilient soul in search of salvation and a cure for grief. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ccc4a150-3872-463e-b84f-f71f4068f7c6/when+night+whispers.jpg Year 1 February 2015 When the Night Whispers by Savanna Welles That night was the first time I tasted champagne—French he told me, and as I loved all things French I was enchanted. I barely remember what we said—only that I did most of the talking: about leaving the South, my dreams of becoming a writer, my thoughts of Harlem . . . and of you. He said very little, only this: "The moment I saw you I knew you would be mine forever. And even death, even that, could not part us." Jocelyn's life feels empty, devoid of passion and purpose. After she finds a journal written by her "doomed" great-grandmother, Caprice, she is spellbound by her story: the escape from a loveless marriage, her seduction by a nameless lover who is both "demon and savior." Then, as if stepping out of a dream, Jocelyn meets Asa, her mysterious next door neighbor. Asa is charming, handsome, and daring and, as if by magic, she is drawn into his hedonistic lifestyle. Yet there is something unsettling about Asa. Luna is suspicious of this man, and although Jocelyn is dismissive of Luna and amused by her friend's warnings, she can't completely ignore them. She begins to wonder if things with Asa aren't quite what they seem. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/2caeab5a-11e4-4bf3-af11-df97c3205021/voodoo+season.jpg Year 1 March 2015 Voodoo season by Jewell Parker Rhodes Meet Marie Levant. The great-great granddaughter of the beloved, tantalizing Marie Laveau, she is compelled by unseen forces to leave her medical career in Chicago behind and return to her roots. But once she arrives in New Orleans, Marie is both seduced and horrified by this mysterious landscape whose slave-holding past merges with the spoils of the twenty-first century. A place where the Quadroon Balls of yesterday are a present reality, and women of color are still being abused and -- even more horrifying -- rendered "undead." Yet through it all, Marie can't help but sense that she's lived here before . . . and that maybe there's more to this city's history -- and her own. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/3fa85ef3-40d9-4bf2-a2af-f824e8266429/perfect+peace.jpg Year 1 April 2015 Perfect Peace by Dr. Daniel Black When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, “You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain’t what you was supposed to be. So, from now on, you gon’ be a boy. It’ll be a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it, and this’ll be over after while.” From this point forward, Perfect’s life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events―while the rest of his family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/7fa7665d-f985-431c-a09b-4684849907e5/message+from+a+mistress.jpg Year 1 May 2015 Message from a Mistress by Niobia Bryant Through good times and bad, longtime friends Jaime, Renee, Aria, and Jessa have shared just about everything. But all hell breaks loose when Jessa texts them a shocking revelation: she's been sharing her bed—with one of their husbands. Worse, she refuses to name which husband. And all three wives believe they have reason to worry. . . The betrayed trio vow to stick together. But before the identity of Jessa's lover is revealed, each woman's deepest secrets will be exposed for all to see—and they'll need each other more than ever. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/7816fe5c-ada7-475d-96f1-5ab20a3e2e8b/keeping+secrets.jpg Year 1 June 2015 Keeping Secrets by Penny Mickelbury omeone is murdering wealthy, married--and deeply closeted gay people in their own automobiles while parked in deserted parking lots in Washington, DC. Someone the victims allowed into their cars late at night. Someone who knows their most guarded and protected secret. Five murders so far on the same day of the month. Police Lieutenant Gianna Maglione, head of the DC Police Department's Hate Crimes Unit, has a month to find and stop the killer or she'll find Body #6. But she has another problem in ace newspaper reporter Mimi Patterson, who thinks the public, especially the gay public, has a right to know that a serial killer is on the prowl. Until Mimi, Gianna had managed to keep the murders a secret. A newspaper story would create a sensation and most likely drive the killer underground. They clash, the reporter and the cop, but only in public. Their private attraction to each other is as dangerous to them as, well, as a serial killer. Secrets=Death, and almost everybody has at least one. Including cops and reporters. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/bc132bf2-560f-4380-b018-81d92150b2e7/one+night.jpg Year 1 July 2015 One Night by Eric Jerome Dickey On a cold and rainy night during the Christmas season, a woman who has suffered great personal loss and a successful businessman from Orange County meet by chance at a gas station in Los Angeles County. They have nothing in common, but as they engage in conversation and move from con games to assault to robberies, within hours they end up sequestered in an upscale hotel room. During intimacy, they continue to confide in each other and try to come to grips with their problems and their seasonal loneliness. For one night, their passion is boundless, but with every tick of the clock, their separate pasts close in. They push the limits of time, devotion, and even the law as they attempt to catch a glimpse of the future. They need each other for a lifetime but will have only one night. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/7e838d36-4f15-4fb7-bdba-61de4939d7d2/girl+on+train.jpg Year 1 August 2015 The Girl on the Train by Paula Watkins Every day the same. Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. Until today. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/a5726110-809a-4eb3-83e0-bd380a68d761/your+face+n+mine.jpg Year 1 September 2015 Your Face in Mine by Jess Row One afternoon, not long after Kelly Thorndike has moved back to his hometown of Baltimore, an African American man he doesn’t recognize calls out to him. To Kelly’s shock, the man identifies himself as Martin, who was one of Kelly’s closest friends in high school—and, before his disappearance nearly twenty years before, skinny, white, and Jewish. Martin then tells an astonishing story: After years of immersing himself in black culture, he’s had a plastic surgeon perform “racial reassignment surgery”—altering his hair, skin, and physiognomy to allow him to pass as African American. Unknown to his family or childhood friends, Martin has been living a new life ever since. Now, however, Martin feels he can no longer keep his new identity a secret; he wants Kelly to help him ignite a controversy that will help sell racial reassignment surgery to the world. Kelly, still recovering from the death of his wife and child and looking for a way to begin anew, agrees, and things quickly begin to spiral out of control. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/f56c2174-bf76-4449-bfb8-b4bddd82098b/woman+he+loved+before.jpg Year 1 October 2015 The Woman He Loved Before by Dorothy Koomson Libby has a nice life with a gorgeous husband and a big home by the sea. But over time she is becoming more unsure if Jack has ever loved her - and if he is over the death of Eve, his first wife. When fate intervenes in their relationship, Libby decides to find out all she can about the man she hastily married and the seemingly perfect Eve. Eventually Libby stumbles across some startling truths about Eve, and is soon unearthing more and more devastating family secrets. Frightened by what she finds and the damage it could cause, Libby starts to worry that she too will end up like the first woman Jack loved.. https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year2 daily 0.75 2022-11-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/b38e4c2a-e1ad-4cfe-903f-057bbdc3f5b8/shadowshaper.jpg Year 2 November 2015 Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older Come to the crossroads, to the crossroads come Sierra Santiago planned an easy summer of making art and hanging with her friends. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Her stroke-ridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears . . . Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on. Where the powers converge and become one With the help of a fellow artist named Robbie, Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one -- and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret. Now she must unravel her family's past, take down the killer in the present, and save the future of shadowshaping for herself and generations to come. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/f09fad11-1033-499a-a08d-e93c5069aec4/the+heiresses.jpg Year 2 December 2015 The Heiresses by Sara Shepard The only thing more flawless than a Saybrook’s solitaire is the family behind the diamond empire. Beauties, entrepreneurs, debutantes, and mavens, the Saybrooks are the epitome of high society. Anyone would kill to be one of them. But be careful what you wish for, because if you were a Saybrook, you’d be haunted by secrets and plagued by a dark streak of luck. Tragedy strikes the prominent family yet again on a beautiful morning in May when thirty-four-year-old Poppy, the most remarkable Saybrook of them all, flings herself from the window of her office. Everyone is shocked that someone so perfect would end her own life—until her cousins receive an ominous warning: One heiress down, four to go. Was it suicide . . . or murder? And who will be next: Aster, the beautiful but reckless girl who’s never worked a day in her life—and who’s covering up her father’s darkest secret? Her older sister, Corrine, whose meticulously planned future is about to come crashing down around her? Perhaps it will be Natasha, the black sheep of the family who suddenly disinherited herself five years ago. Or maybe the perpetually single Rowan, who had the most to gain from her cousin’s death. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/b8cc6af8-17e2-44de-812a-0449287a50ca/timelocust.jpg Year 2 January 2016 Time of the Locust by Morowa Yejidé Sephiri is an autistic boy who lives in a world of his own making, where he dwells among imagined sea creatures that help him process information in the “real world” in which he is forced to live. But lately he has been having dreams of a mysterious place, and he starts creating fantastical sketches of this strange, inner world. Brenda, Sephiri’s mother, struggles with raising her challenged child alone. Her only wish is to connect with him—a smile on his face would be a triumph. Sephiri’s father, Horus, is serving a life sentence in prison, making the days even lonelier for Brenda and Sephiri. Yet prison is still not enough to separate father and son. In the seventh year of his imprisonment and at the height of his isolation, Horus develops extraordinary mental abilities that allow him to reach his son. Memory and yearning carry him outside his body, and through the realities of their ordeals and dreamscape, Horus and Sephiri find each other—and find hope in ways never imagined. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/18e17d66-3295-423e-9b0a-cf91b8ae1aa3/ruby.jpg Year 2 February 2016 Ruby by Cynthia Bond Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city - the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village - all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother. When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, 30-year-old Ruby Bell finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out again, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town’s dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/78c9b864-06cd-4502-8aa3-e7613cb56457/happily.jpg Year 2 March 2016 Happily Ever After by Elizabeth Maxwell At forty-six, Sadie Fuller's life isn't exactly the stuff of romantic fiction. A divorced, overweight, somewhat sexually frustrated mother of an eleven-year-old, she lives in the suburbs, shops the big box stores, makes small talk with her small-minded neighbors, and generally leads a quiet life. But while her daughter is at school, or when Sadie is up late at night, she writes erotic fiction under the name KT Briggs. Then, during a routine shopping trip, Sadie runs into someone familiar...too familiar, in fact. She encounters an incredibly handsome man exactly like the one in her imagination--and her latest novel. Is Aidan Hathaway really one of her characters? And if so, what is he doing in Target? As Sadie tries to negotiate this strange new world, her eyes begin to open to romantic possibilities in places she never dreamed of looking...places where Happily Ever After might not be so far-fetched after all. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/97e3b2bd-eb8c-4cd1-9842-e4a00ae53606/famliylies.jpg Year 2 April 2016 Family of Lies by Mary Monroe After growing up poor in Texas, Vera Lomax used every gold-digging trick in the book to land a rich husband. Now living in luxury in San Francisco, her only job is to fawn over her much-older husband. So when her husband's mistress gets pregnant, Vera figures that a little hush money will ensure her husband's fortune is hers alone . . . Unfortunately for Vera, Sarah Cooper is the child Kenneth Lomax always wanted. When the father she never knew shows up at her mother's funeral to claim her, it's a fairy tale journey from the ghetto to a mansion on a hill. But Sarah knows that her stepmother is as two-faced as they come. And after losing all the family she's ever known, she wants a life that's richer than Vera has planned for her. As Vera and Sarah scheme to get what they want, everyone will be choosing sides, taking chances, and gambling it all to come out on top . . . https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/0a714658-53d0-4518-be82-ceb7e7a84392/lessons+young.jpg Year 2 May 2016 Lessons from a Younger Lover by Zuri Day First grade teacher Gwen Smith was happily married--until her husband got himself a twenty-something mistress and filed for divorce. Now just months away from turning forty-one, Gwen is back in her tiny California hometown, caring for her ailing mother, convinced her life is over. Then she meets Ransom Blake. Ransom is a twenty-six-year-old hunk who pushes every one of Gwen's buttons. Gwen has no intention of getting involved with a younger man, but he won't take no for an answer. So when he shows up at her classroom unannounced, Gwen can't help but tell him off--and then she realizes he's come for his daughter. But Ransom isn't shy about letting Gwen know how she can make it up to him. And if he gets his way, Gwen will lose all her inhibitions--and her heart. . . https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/3966ef0e-0dea-40b9-8efe-00c7f862d516/allyhas.jpg Year 2 June 2016 Ally Hughes has Sex Sometimes by Jules Moulin Life isn’t easy for single mother Ally Hughes. Teaching at Brown, her class load is huge and her boss is a menace. At home, she contends with a critical mother, a falling-down house, and a daughter who never misses a beat. Between taking care of the people she loves, teaching full time, and making ends meet, Ally doesn't have time for a man. She doesn’t date. She’s not into flings. But then she meets Jake, an eager student, young in years but old in soul, who challenges his favorite professor to open up her life, and her heart, to love. It doesn't work. In fact, his urging backfires. Ten years later, Ally's still single. Jake reappears and surprises her in a brand-new role: He's dating Ally's now-grown daughter. In this hilarious, heartrending tale, Ally is finally forced to concede (not only to herself) that an independent, "liberated" woman can still make room in her life for love. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/a18af926-4fb7-419b-9868-360c4fd67bc1/murder+with+fried+chicken.jpg Year 2 July 2016 Murder with Fried Chicken and Waffles by A. L. Herbert Welcome to Mahalia's Sweet Tea--the finest soul food restaurant in Prince George's County, Maryland. In between preparing her famous cornbread and mashed potatoes so creamy "they'll make you want to slap your Momma," owner Halia Watkins is about to dip her spoon into a grisly mystery. . . Halia Watkins has her hands full cooking, hosting, and keeping her boisterous young cousin, Wavonne, from getting too sassy with customers. Having fast-talking entrepreneur Marcus Rand turn up in her kitchen is annoying enough when he's alive--but finding his dead body face-down on her ceramic tile after hours is much worse. Marcus had his enemies, and the cast iron frying pan beside his corpse suggests that at last, his shady business deals went too far. Halia is desperate to keep Sweet Tea's name out of the sordid spotlight but her efforts only make Wavonne a prime suspect. Now Halia will have to serve up the real villain--before the killer returns for a second helping. . . https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/f1c782f1-4b16-42fa-94ad-330104740aad/mrloverman.jpg Year 2 August 2016 Mr. Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he’s lived in Hackney, London, for years. A flamboyant, wisecracking character with a dapper taste in retro suits, and a fondness for Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father, grandfather—and also secretly gay lovers with his childhood friend, Morris. His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away? With an abundance of laugh-out-loud humor and wit, Mr. Loverman explodes cultural myths and shows the extent of what can happen when people fear the consequences of being true to themselves. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ec66ee81-15f4-4e45-9a73-492b6dbd826a/allamri.jpg Year 2 September 2016 All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement? There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/9ca5fd6a-fb2f-478b-b406-6344629132cc/girlwhofell.jpg Year 2 October 2016 The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy after a fateful morning on their Chicago rooftop. Forced to move to a new city, with her strict African American grandmother as her guardian, Rachel is thrust for the first time into a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring a constant stream of attention her way. It’s there, as she grows up and tries to swallow her grief, that she comes to understand how the mystery and tragedy of her mother might be connected to her own uncertain identity. https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year3 daily 0.75 2023-10-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/23cdd714-d202-4042-a279-d348e5626d8a/rooms.jpg Year 3 November 2016 Rooms by Lauren Oliver Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His estranged family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance. But the Walkers are not alone. Prim Alice and the cynical Sandra, long dead former residents bound to the house, linger within its claustrophobic walls. Jostling for space, memory, and supremacy, they observe the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a light bulb. The living and dead are each haunted by painful truths that will soon surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide—with cataclysmic results. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/79037039-2c3b-423f-b9df-489547ccdeee/getting+even.jpg Year 3 December 2016 Getting Even by Kayla Perrin For the past year, self-proclaimed Black American Princess Claudia has been planning her perfect wedding, destined to be the event in Atlanta's black society. But when her prince gets cold feet, she's stunned and humiliated. She's done things in the bedroom with this man that her mother would disown her for! Annelise is frustrated. How long can a woman go without getting some from her husband? The man she supported through law school, who she signed a prenup for. But it seems the man who used to want it all the time is still getting it…from another woman. Thank goodness their devotedly single friend Lishelle has a couch to spare. But when The Guy Who Got Away in college reappears in her life, she starts envisioning a walk down the aisle. Ignoring her friends' advice, she agrees to guarantee his bank loans for a new business. A girl's got to invest in her future husband, right? But once he gets his hands on her money, he disappears. After a little digging, the women discover that the jerks they've trusted have betrayed them in ways they'd never imagined. As the scorned friends bitch over a bottle of wine, an idea begins to take shape—letting these weasels slink quietly out of their lives is too good for them. These women want revenge. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ef91512c-74f7-4525-8ec0-d6138b243f15/Blackbird.jpg Year 3 January 2017 The Blackbirds by Eric Jerome Dickey They call themselves the Blackbirds. Kwanzaa Browne, Indigo Abdulrahaman, Destiny Jones, and Ericka Stockwell are four best friends who are closer than sisters and will go to the ends of the earth for one another. Yet even their deep bond can’t heal all wounds from their individual pasts, as the collegiate and post-collegiate women struggle with their own demons, drama, and desires. Trying to forget her cheating ex-fiancé, Kwanzaa becomes entangled with a wicked one-night stand—a man who turns out to be one in five million. Indigo is in an endless on-again, off-again relationship with her footballer boyfriend, and in her time between dysfunctional relationships she pursues other naughty desires. Destiny, readjusting to normal life, struggles to control her own anger after avenging a deep wrong landed her in juvi, while at the same time trying to have her first real relationship—one she has initiated using an alias to hide her past from her lover. Divorced Ericka is in remission from cancer and trying to deal with two decades of animosity with her radical mother while keeping secret the desperate crush she has always had on Destiny’s father...a passion with an older man that just may be reciprocated. As the women try to overcome—or give in to—their impulses, they find not only themselves tested but also the one thing they always considered unbreakable: their friendship. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/38b8de8e-f880-4bd3-a6ac-6c77c80d9618/big+little+lies.jpg Year 3 February 2017 Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty A murder...A tragic accident...Or just parents behaving badly? What’s indisputable is that someone is dead. Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny, biting, and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare but she is paying a price for the illusion of perfection. New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for a nanny. She comes with a mysterious past and a sadness beyond her years. These three women are at different crossroads, but they will all wind up in the same shocking place. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/96e23cba-bef5-450b-b623-c918148bfede/IQ.jpg Year 3 March 2017 IQ by Joe Ide East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can't or won't touch. They call him IQ. He's a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he's forced to take on clients that can pay. This time, it's a rap mogul whose life is in danger. As Isaiah investigates, he encounters a vengeful ex-wife, a crew of notorious cutthroats, a monstrous attack dog, and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. The deeper Isaiah digs, the more far reaching and dangerous the case becomes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d6e7b4a9-25af-43b6-9a96-e64d264b8412/midnight+crossroads.jpg Year 3 April 2017 Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and the Davy highway. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town. There’s a pawnshop with three residents. One is seen only at night. There’s a diner, but people stopping there tend not to linger. There’s a newcomer, Manfred Bernardo, who just wants to work hard and blend in. But Manfred has secrets of his own... https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/88e2915c-1577-467e-828f-655f26c5fe32/forty+acres.jpg Year 3 May 2017 Forty Acres by Dwayne Alexander Smith Martin Grey, a smart, talented black lawyer working out of a storefront in Queens, becomes friendly with a group of some of the most powerful, wealthy, and esteemed black men in America. He’s dazzled by what they’ve accomplished, and they seem to think he has the potential to be as successful as they are. They invite him for a weekend away from it all—no wives, no cell phones, no talk of business. But far from home and cut off from everyone he loves, he discovers a disturbing secret that challenges some of his deepest convictions… Martin finds out that his glittering new friends are part of a secret society dedicated to the preservation of the institution of slavery—but this time around, the black men are called “Master.” Joining them seems to guarantee a future without limits; rebuking them almost certainly guarantees his death. Trapped inside a picture-perfect, make-believe world that is home to a frightening reality, Martin must find a way out that will allow him to stay alive without becoming the very thing he hates. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/6f40593c-3bdf-42bb-9cb1-9a36dd27b1f7/douglass+women.jpg Year 3 June 2017 Douglass’ Women by Jewell Parker Rhodes Douglass' Women reimagines the lives of an American hero, Frederick Douglass, and two women -- his wife and his mistress -- who loved him and lived in his shadow. Anna Douglass, a free woman of color, was Douglass' wife of forty-four years, who bore him five children. Ottilie Assing, a German-Jewish intellectual, provided him the companionship of the mind that he needed. Hurt by Douglass' infidelity, Anna rejected his notion that only literacy freed the mind. For her, familial love rivaled intellectual pursuits. Ottilie was raised by parents who embraced the ideal of free love, but found herself entrapped in an unfulfilling love triangle with America's most famous self-taught slave for nearly three decades. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/860ece5c-f893-4961-8913-5f33419e7c71/Flyy+Girl.jpg Year 3 July 2017 Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree Tracy Ellison, a young knockout with tall hair and attitude, is living life as fast as she can. Motivated by the material world, she and her friends love and leave the young men who will do anything to get next to them. It's only when the world of gratuitous sex threatens heartbreak that Tracy begins to examine her life, her goals, and her sexuality. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d64ffbe5-312d-4c09-84b6-1267c0d26865/the+regulars.jpg Year 3 August 2017 The Regulars by Georgia Clark Best friends Evie, Krista, and Willow are just trying to make it through their mid-twenties in New York. With average looks and typical quarter-life crises, they’re trying to make it up the corporate ladder, make sense of online dating, and make rent. Until they come across Pretty, a magic tincture that makes them, well...gorgeous. Like, supermodel gorgeous. And it’s certainly not their fault if the sudden gift of beauty causes unexpected doors to open for them. But there’s a dark side to Pretty, too, and as the gloss fades for these modern-day Cinderellas, there’s just one question left: What would you sacrifice to be Pretty? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/dfbb0bb7-1072-4722-8710-e88ecc14b319/real+ms+price.jpg Year 3 September 2017 The Real Mrs. Price by J. D. Mason Lucy Price is living the American dream. She has been married to her successful husband and businessman, Edward Price for a year and couldn’t be happier until she learns that Eddie is a dangerously ruthless man, heavily involved in illegal activities that threaten not only her marriage, but her life. Eddie abruptly disappears, but not before warning Lucy that if she wants to keep breathing she'd better keep her mouth shut. Six months later, word of her husband surfaces when she learns that he is presumed murdered in a small Texas town, apparently killed by his “wife”, Marlowe Price. Marlowe is no stranger to trouble. An outcast in her own community for being one of those "hoodoo women," who can curse you or cast you under her beguiling spell, Marlowe is shunned at every turn. Six months ago, a whirlwind romance in Mexico led Marlowe to marry the man she thought she’d spend the rest of her life with. For Marlowe and Eddie, there is no such thing as trouble in paradise. But late one night, when Marlowe witnesses her husband putting the body of a dead man in the trunk of his car, the illusion comes crashing down around her and she knows she has to move fast before the devil comes calling once again. Now, Lucy and Marlowe must come together to find out where and who Eddie really is, and help each other through the threat he poses. There's nothing more dangerous than a woman scorned...except for two women scorned who are willing to put their pasts behind them and band together to take one bad man down... https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/cddd69b2-9984-41c3-8148-2bfdeb48532d/three+strong+women.jpg Year 3 October 2017 Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye The story of three women who say no: Norah, a French-born lawyer who finds herself in Senegal, summoned by her estranged father to save another victim of his paternity; Fanta, who leaves a contented life as a teacher in Dakar to follow her boyfriend back to France, where his depression and dislocation poison everything; and Khady, a penniless widow put out by her husband's family with nothing but the name of a distant cousin in France. As these three lives intertwine, each woman manages an astonishing feat of self-preservation against those who have made themselves the fastest-growing and most-reviled people in Europe. In Marie NDiaye's stunning narration we see the progress by which ordinary women discover unimagined reserves of strength. https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year5 daily 0.75 2022-11-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/769c7131-ffc1-4c9f-bb08-b764a0a22da2/lets+talk+about+Love.jpg Year 5 November 2018 Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann Alice had her whole summer planned. Nonstop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting—working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she's asexual). Alice is done with dating—no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done. But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!). When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library-employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/20693d7a-90c9-4b53-a963-93919d83a076/anansi+boys.jpg Year 5 December 2018 Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman God is dead. Meet the kids. Fat Charlie Nancy’s normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn’t know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother. Now brother Spider is on his doorstep—about to make Fat Charlie’s life more interesting . . . and a lot more dangerous. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d23d2021-9613-4dc8-836f-72086b5c43c1/epic+love+story+2.jpg Year 5 January 2019 This is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender Nathan Bird doesn’t believe in happy endings. Although he’s the ultimate film buff and an aspiring screenwriter, Nate’s seen the demise of too many relationships to believe that happy endings exist in real life. Playing it safe to avoid a broken heart has been his MO ever since his father died and left his mom to unravel—but this strategy is not without fault. His best-friend-turned-girlfriend-turned-best-friend-again, Florence, is set on making sure Nate finds someone else. And in a twist that is rom-com-worthy, someone does come along: Oliver James Hernández, his childhood best friend. After a painful mix-up when they were little, Nate finally has the chance to tell Ollie the truth about his feelings. But can Nate find the courage to pursue his own happily ever after? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/6429d2d2-9d7a-493b-a81e-c34222a3b8e4/exit+west.jpg Year 5 February 2019 Exit West by Mohsin Hamid In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair, and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors—doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through. . . . https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/472761f8-8c34-4028-8beb-08f85dda9ee4/my+soul+to+keep.jpg Year 5 March 2019 My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/48f3e4e2-7592-4361-ac46-4b81cead1089/meddling+kids.jpg Year 5 April 2019 Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero SUMMER 1977. The Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in Oregon’s Zoinx River Valley) solved their final mystery and unmasked the elusive Sleepy Lake monster—another low-life fortune hunter trying to get his dirty hands on the legendary riches hidden in Deboën Mansion. And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids. 1990. The former detectives have grown up and apart, each haunted by disturbing memories of their final night in the old haunted house. There are too many strange, half-remembered encounters and events that cannot be dismissed or explained away by a guy in a mask. And Andy, the once intrepid tomboy now wanted in two states, is tired of running from her demons. She needs answers. To find them she will need Kerri, the one-time kid genius and budding biologist, now drinking her ghosts away in New York with Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the club. They will also have to get Nate, the horror nerd currently residing in an asylum in Arkham, Massachusetts. Luckily Nate has not lost contact with Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star who was once their team leader . . . which is remarkable, considering Peter has been dead for years. The time has come to get the team back together, face their fears, and find out what actually happened all those years ago at Sleepy Lake. It’s their only chance to end the nightmares and, perhaps, save the world. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/2a1747de-eab3-4695-a945-975de4f6bfc8/heads+of+the+colored+people.jpg Year 5 May 2019 Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires Nafissa Thompson-Spires grapples with race, identity politics, and the contemporary middle class in this “vivid, fast, funny, way-smart, and verbally inventive” (George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo) collection. Each captivating story plunges headfirst into the lives of utterly original characters. Some are darkly humorous—two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids’ backpacks—while others are devastatingly poignant. In the title story, when a cosplayer, dressed as his favorite anime character, is mistaken for a violent threat the consequences are dire; in another story, a teen struggles between her upper middle class upbringing and her desire to fully connect with so-called black culture. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/b396fb8d-f0a1-49ce-a7be-f9fc84aace83/ghana+must+go.jpg Year 5 June 2019 Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi Kweku Sai is dead. A renowned surgeon and failed husband, he succumbs suddenly at dawn outside his home in suburban Accra. The news of Kweku’s death sends a ripple around the world, bringing together the family he abandoned years before. Ghana Must Go is their story. Electric, exhilarating, beautifully crafted, Ghana Must Go is a testament to the transformative power of unconditional love, from a debut novelist of extraordinary talent. Moving with great elegance through time and place, Ghana Must Go charts the Sais’ circuitous journey to one another. In the wake of Kweku’s death, his children gather in Ghana at their enigmatic mother’s new home. The eldest son and his wife; the mysterious, beautiful twins; the baby sister, now a young woman: each carries secrets of his own. What is revealed in their coming together is the story of how they came apart: the hearts broken, the lies told, the crimes committed in the name of love. Splintered, alone, each navigates his pain, believing that what has been lost can never be recovered—until, in Ghana, a new way forward, a new family, begins to emerge. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/68f86c17-ae05-4432-a54e-80905341b9f9/this+will+be+my+undoing.jpg Year 5 July 2019 This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins Morgan Jerkins is only in her twenties, but she has already established herself as an insightful, brutally honest writer who isn’t afraid of tackling tough, controversial subjects. In This Will Be My Undoing, she takes on perhaps one of the most provocative contemporary topics: What does it mean to “be”—to live as, to exist as—a black woman today? This is a book about black women, but it’s necessary reading for all Americans. Doubly disenfranchised by race and gender, often deprived of a place within the mostly white mainstream feminist movement, black women are objectified, silenced, and marginalized with devastating consequences, in ways both obvious and subtle, that are rarely acknowledged in our country’s larger discussion about inequality. In This Will Be My Undoing, Jerkins becomes both narrator and subject to expose the social, cultural, and historical story of black female oppression that influences the black community as well as the white, male-dominated world at large. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/9b760cb1-3bef-49f0-ba19-bd9c2facde25/fool.jpg Year 5 August 2019 Fool by Christopher Moore Fool—the bawdy and outrageous New York Times bestseller from the unstoppable Christopher Moore—is a hilarious new take on William Shakespeare’s King Lear…as seen through the eyes of the foolish liege’s clownish jester, Pocket. A rousing tale of “gratuitous shagging, murder, spanking, maiming, treason, and heretofore unexplored heights of vulgarity and profanity,” Fool joins Moore’s own Lamb, Fluke, The Stupidest Angel, and You Suck! as modern masterworks of satiric wit and sublimely twisted genius, prompting Carl Hiassen to declare Christopher Moore “a very sick man, in the very best sense of the word.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/c67260c7-f461-4d3c-819b-1e3d78ed0266/pride.jpg Year 5 September 2019 Pride: A Pride and Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable. When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding. But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/6722b209-2e9f-4110-b719-75d796730314/in+the+window.jpg Year 5 October 2019 The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn It isn’t paranoia if it’s really happening . . . Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems. https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year4 daily 0.75 2022-11-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/c3f0754b-2dcc-4851-a8e4-b3efd255c377/american+gods.jpg Year 4 November 2017 American Gods by Neil Gaiman A storm is coming . . . Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the magic day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life. But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow’s best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself. Life as Wednesday’s bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined—it is a job that takes him on a dark and strange road trip and introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates are mysteriously intertwined with his own. Along the way Shadow will learn that the past never dies; that everyone, including his beloved Laura, harbors secrets; and that dreams, totems, legends, and myths are more real than we know. Ultimately, he will discover that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewing—an epic war for the very soul of America—and that he is standing squarely in its path. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ba0c88ab-960e-4748-8f50-ef9e1a4bcf0e/the+ex.jpg Year 4 December 2017 The Ex by Alafair Burke Twenty years ago she ruined his life. Now she has the chance to save it. Widower Jack Harris has resisted the dating scene ever since the shooting of his wife Molly by a fifteen-year-old boy three years ago. An early morning run along the Hudson River changes that when he spots a woman in last night’s party dress, barefoot, enjoying a champagne picnic alone, reading his favorite novel. Everything about her reminds him of what he used to have with Molly. Eager to help Jack find love again, his best friend posts a message on a popular website after he mentions the encounter. Days later, that same beautiful stranger responds and invites Jack to meet her in person at the waterfront. That’s when Jack’s world falls apart. Olivia Randall is one of New York City’s best criminal defense lawyers. When she hears that her former fiancé, Jack Harris, has been arrested for a triple homicide—and that one of the victims was connected to his wife’s murder—there is no doubt in her mind as to his innocence. The only question is who would go to such great lengths to frame him—and why? For Olivia, representing Jack is a way to make up for past regrets, to absolve herself of guilt from a tragic decision, a secret she has held for twenty years. But as the evidence against him mounts, she is forced to confront her doubts. The man she knew could not have done this. But what if she never really knew him? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/a6d9187f-da84-4b73-a7d5-e7d21150620c/henrietta+lacks.jpg Year 4 January 2018 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/bb5ec481-bd75-41bc-9e67-294a3e4baa37/final+girls.jpg Year 4 February 2018 Final Girls by Riley Sager Ten years ago, six friends went on vacation. One made it out alive…. In that instant, college student Quincy Carpenter became a member of a very exclusive club—a group of survivors the press dubbed “The Final Girls”: Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who endured the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape the massacre at Pine Cottage. Despite the media's attempts, the three girls have never met. Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life. Her mind won’t let her recall the events of that night; the past is in the past…until the first Final Girl is found dead in her bathtub and the second Final Girl appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a hurricane, Sam seems intent on making her relive the trauma of her ordeal. When disturbing details about Lisa's death emerge, Quincy desperately tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies while evading both the police and bloodthirsty reporters. Quincy knows that in order to survive she has to remember what really happened at Pine Cottage. Because the only thing worse than being a Final Girl is being a dead one. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/8765a45e-9733-4f59-9f99-8efeea92b4a9/unforgivable+love.jpg Year 4 March 2018 Unforgivable Love by Sophfronia Scott In this vivid reimagining of the French classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses, it’s the summer when Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball’s color barrier and a sweltering stretch has Harlem’s elite fleeing the city for Westchester County’s breezier climes, two predators stalk amidst the manicured gardens and fine old homes. Heiress Mae Malveaux rules society with an angel’s smile and a heart of stone. She made up her mind long ago that nobody would decide her fate. To have the pleasure she craves, control is paramount, especially control of the men Mae attracts like moths to a flame. Valiant Jackson always gets what he wants—and he’s wanted Mae for years. The door finally opens for him when Mae strikes a bargain: seduce her virginal young cousin, Cecily, who is engaged to Frank Washington. Frank values her innocence above all else. If successful, Val’s reward will be a night with Mae. But Val secretly seeks another prize. Elizabeth Townsend is fiercely loyal to her church and her civil rights attorney husband. Certain there is something redeemable in Mr. Jackson. Little does she know that her worst mistake will be Val’s greatest triumph. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/080be526-ed98-479f-98d0-471e964f45ea/weight+of+lies.jpg Year 4 April 2018 The Weight of Lies by Emily Carpenter Reformed party girl Meg Ashley leads a life of privilege, thanks to a bestselling horror novel her mother wrote decades ago. But Meg knows that the glow of their very public life hides a darker reality of lies, manipulation, and the heartbreak of her own solitary childhood. Desperate to break free of her mother, Meg accepts a proposal to write a scandalous, tell-all memoir. Digging into the past—and her mother’s cult classic—draws Meg to Bonny Island, Georgia, and an unusual woman said to be the inspiration for the book. At first island life seems idyllic, but as Meg starts to ask tough questions, disturbing revelations come to light…including some about her mother. Soon Meg’s search leads her to question the facts of a decades-old murder. She’s warned to leave it alone, but as the lies pile up, Meg knows she’s getting close to finding a murderer. When her own life is threatened, Meg realizes the darkness found in her mother’s book is nothing compared to the chilling truth that lurks off the page. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d87b87d1-f8a3-4da7-a9e8-50bfb50a24c3/getting+rid+matthew.jpg Year 4 May 2018 Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon Helen has had an affair with Matthew, her boss, that has lasted for years. Just at the moment she decides it's time to dump him and get on with her life, she opens the front door to find Matthew on her doorstep. "I've done it!" he announces triumphantly. "I've left her. I'm yours!" he tells her, and proceeds to move in. She is not brave enough to throw him out. She then discovers how much she can't stand him, wherein ensues a zany plot that involves figuring out that the best way to get rid of Matthew is to befriend his wife and convince her to take him back. The only problem is that Helen discovers she really likes Sophie, Matthew's wife -- a lot more than she likes Matthew. And on top of that, she has a rather dishy stepson. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/30774efa-7d9b-441d-864f-c2bbddfbcebe/finding+me.jpg Year 4 June 2018 Finding Me by Darnella Ford Eleven-year-old Blaze James and her twin sister, Aerial, know two things beyond a doubt. They're two of the prettiest girls in Shreveport, Louisiana, and they'll always be there for each other. Then one night, a gas explosion leaves their father dead and Aerial severely burned, changing their lives forever. While Aerial goes with their mother to Baton Rouge for treatment, Blaze stays behind with a neighbor. Free-spirited and unconventional, Felicity Hardaway opens Blaze's eyes to a whole new world, inspiring her to explore her own budding desires. . .and the answers she finds will bring passion, betrayal, and a love beyond expectations. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/7f0f3678-9058-4ca3-826e-2a8cd7e8c4e1/allegedly.jpg Year 4 July 2018 Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson Mary B. Addison killed a baby. Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/2ac19605-dc14-4586-bffd-b2662ae0375c/ice+cream+girls.jpg Year 4 August 2018 The Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson As teenagers Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a high-profile murder. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed "The Ice Cream Girls" by the press and were dealt with by the courts-Poppy headed to prison after being convicted for murder and Serena was set free. Years later, after having led very different lives, Poppy is keen to set the record straight about what really happened. The only problem is she has no one to turn to and no clue where to begin her hunt for Serena. Meanwhile, Serena is married with children and wants no one in her present to find out about her past. Constantly looking over her shoulder, Serena knows she should come clean to her husband, however, she can't seem to find the words. With Poppy determined to salvage what's left of her reputation, Serena may not have a choice in reopening a can of worms that may threaten both their lives . . . again. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/2cdac19b-4ce8-48e9-b978-ce0368b67ec1/we+are+never+meeting.jpg Year 4 September 2018 We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby Whether Samantha Irby is talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making “adult” budgets; explaining why she should be the new Bachelorette (she's "35-ish, but could easily pass for 60-something"); detailing a disastrous pilgrimage-slash-romantic-vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes; sharing awkward sexual encounters; or dispensing advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms (hang in there for the Costco loot!); she’s as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/61666dec-9628-49e8-a263-ad70f94dd33f/kiss+quotient.jpg Year 4 October 2018 The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position... Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but crave all of the other things he's making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic... https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year6 daily 0.75 2022-11-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/465845db-81b3-4698-ba91-5614e6ae8f43/keeping+faith.jpg Year 6 November 2019 Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult When the marriage of Mariah White and her cheating husband, Colin, turns ugly and disintegrates, their seven-year-old daughter, Faith, is there to witness it all. In the aftermath of a rapid divorce, Mariah falls into a deep depression—and suddenly Faith, a child with no religious background whatsoever, hears divine voices, starts reciting biblical passages, and develops stigmata. And when the miraculous healings begin, mother and daughter are thrust into the volatile center of controversy and into the heat of a custody battle—trapped in a mad media circus that threatens what little stability the family has left. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/eb442bd6-6cf2-48e5-aa05-a005b4efbd7b/how+long+til+black+furure+month.jpg Year 6 December 2019 How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story "The City Born Great," a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis's soul. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/22957dd6-d0c0-4521-992c-e89e31b2d162/diamond+doris.jpg Year 6 January 2020 Diamond Doris by Doris Payne with Zelda Lockhart Growing up during the Depression in the segregated coal town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, Doris Payne was told her dreams were unattainable for poor black girls like her. Surrounded by people who sought to limit her potential, Doris vowed to turn the tables after the owner of a jewelry store threw her out when a white customer arrived. Neither racism nor poverty would hold her back; she would get what she wanted and help her mother escape an abusive relationship. Using her southern charm, quick wit, and fascination with magic as her tools, Payne began shoplifting small pieces of jewelry from local stores. Over the course of six decades, her talents grew with each heist. Becoming an expert world-class jewel thief, she daringly pulled off numerous diamond robberies and her boyfriend fenced the stolen gems to Hollywood celebrities. Doris’s criminal exploits went unsolved well into the 1970s—partly because the stores did not want to admit that they were duped by a black woman. Eventually realizing Doris was using him, her boyfriend turned her in. She was arrested after stealing a diamond ring in Monte Carlo that was valued at more than half a million dollars. But even prison couldn’t contain this larger-than-life personality who cleverly used nuns as well as various ruses to help her break out. With her arrest in 2013 in San Diego, Doris’s fame skyrocketed when media coverage of her astonishing escapades exploded. Today, at eighty-seven, Doris, as bold and vibrant as ever, lives in Atlanta, and is celebrated for her glamorous legacy. She sums up her adventurous career best: “It beat being a teacher or a maid.” A rip-roaringly fun and exciting story as captivating and audacious as Catch Me if You Can and Can You Ever Forgive Me?—Diamond Doris is the portrait of a captivating anti-hero who refused to be defined by the prejudices and mores of a hypocritical society. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/84b82151-4fe6-4464-b418-105666b4d472/truly+devious.jpg Year 6 February 2020 Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.” Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history. True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/794e6d79-5218-46a0-9587-61bb5ff94c31/John+Woman.jpg Year 6 March 2020 John Woman by Walter Mosley At twelve years old, Cornelius Jones, the son of an Italian-American woman and a black man from Mississippi, secretly takes over his father’s job at a silent film theater in New York’s East Village—until the innocent scheme goes tragically wrong. Years later, his dying father imparts this piece of wisdom to Cornelius: The person who controls the narrative of history controls their own fate. After his father dies and his mother disappears, Cornelius sets about reinventing himself—becoming Professor John Woman, a man who will spread his father’s teachings through the classrooms of an unorthodox southwestern university and beyond. But there are other individuals who are attempting to influence the narrative of John Woman, and who might know something about the facts of his hidden past. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/bd586008-3378-43ed-a368-70e5751ee6c7/Binti.jpg Year 6 April 2020 Binti: Bk 1 by Nnedi Okorafor Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself — but first she has to make it there, alive. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/03d4d85a-fcad-4309-8ed4-c0c86949ba0e/the+one+that+got+away.jpg Year 6 May 2020 The One Who Got Away by Joe Clifford In the early 2000s, a string of abductions rocked the small upstate town of Reine, New York. Only one girl survived: Alex Salerno. The killer, Ken Parsons, was sent away. Life returned to normal. No more girls would have to die. Until another one did. It’s been seven years since Kira Shanks was reported missing and presumed dead. Alex Salerno has been living in New York City, piecemealing paychecks to earn a livable wage, trying to forget those three days locked underground and her affair with Sean Riley, the married detective who rescued her. When Noah Lee, hometown reporter with a journalistic pedigree, requests an interview, Alex returns to Reine and Riley, reopening old wounds. What begins as a Q&A for a newspaper article soon turns into an opportunity for money, closure and—justice. The disappearance of Kira Shanks has long been hung on Benny Brudzienski, a hulking man-child who is currently a brain-addled guest at the Galloway State Mental Hospital. But after Alex reconnects with ex-classmates and frenemies, doubts are cast on that guilt. Alex is drawn into a dangerous game of show and tell in an insular town where everyone has a secret to hide. And as more details emerge about the night Kira Shanks went missing, Alex discovers there are some willing to kill to protect the horrific truth. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/44543e3a-a006-4df2-8aa0-ee641f775654/follow+me.jpg Year 6 June 2020 Follow Me Back by A. V. Geiger Tessa Hart's world feels very small. Confined to her bedroom with agoraphobia, her one escape is the online fandom for pop sensation Eric Thorn. When he tweets to his fans, it's like he's speaking directly to her... Eric Thorn is frightened by his obsessive fans. They take their devotion way too far. It doesn't help that his PR team keeps posting to encourage their fantasies. When a fellow pop star is murdered at the hands of a fan, Eric knows he has to do something to shatter his online image fast--like take down one of his top Twitter followers. But Eric's plan to troll @TessaHeartsEric unexpectedly evolves into an online relationship deeper than either could have imagined. And when the two arrange to meet IRL, what should have made for the world's best episode of Catfish takes a deadly turn... Told through tweets, direct messages, and police transcripts, this thriller for the online generation will keep you guessing right up to the shocking end. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/b753b356-7497-40ba-b627-75d64fb63a3c/daughter+of+smoke+and+bone.jpg Year 6 July 2020 Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth have grown dangerously low. And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war. Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages -- not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out. When one of the strangers -- beautiful, haunted Akiva -- fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d2e7e095-e8ec-4aa0-8028-fffda2372fc6/the+boy+in+the+black+suit.jpg Year 6 August 2020 The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died—although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can’t handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. So while Dad’s snagging bottles of whiskey, Matt’s snagging fifteen bucks an hour. Not bad. But everything else? Not good. Then Matt meets Lovey. Crazy name, and she’s been through more crazy stuff than he can imagine. Yet Lovey never cries. She’s tough. Really tough. Tough in the way Matt wishes he could be. Which is maybe why he’s drawn to her, and definitely why he can’t seem to shake her. Because there’s nothing more hopeful than finding a person who understands your loneliness—and who can maybe even help take it away. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/fb694067-0dbb-4d7e-842f-91470722b4ed/Slay.jpg Year 6 September 2020 Slay by Brittney Morris By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the “downfall of the Black man.” But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for “anti-white discrimination.” Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ee623b80-e0ee-42f3-a27d-5f9ec3bfb569/lock+every+door.jpg Year 6 October 2020 Lock Every Door by Riley Sager No visitors. No nights spent elsewhere. No disturbing the rich and famous residents. These are the rules for Jules Larsen’s new job apartment sitting at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile buildings. Recently heartbroken—and just plain broke—Jules is taken in by the splendor and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind. As she gets to know the occupants and staff, Jules is drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who reminds her so much of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew has a dark history hidden beneath its gleaming façade, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story—until the next day when Ingrid seemingly vanishes. Searching for the truth, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew’s sordid past. But by uncovering the secrets within its walls, Jules exposes herself to untold terrors. Because once you’re in, the Bartholomew doesn’t want you to leave.... https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year7 daily 0.75 2022-11-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/510d1bde-a367-4913-8eb3-b78cd2cb3c18/night+tiger.jpg Year 7 November 2020 The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for. Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever. As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths racks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren’s increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/42b1864c-cc5d-4930-b8ca-21d17d33d486/such+a+fun+age.jpg Year 7 December 2020 Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right. But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/3d445d10-dac8-4981-b6ea-ee8cc82fcbb0/sadie.jpg Year 7 January 2021 Sadie by Courtney Summers “Today, WNRK is launching the first episode of our new serialized podcast, The Girls, created and hosted by West McCray.” When popular radio personality West McCray receives a desperate phone call from a stranger imploring him to find nineteen-year-old runaway Sadie Hunter, he’s not convinced there’s a story there; girls go missing all the time. But when it’s revealed that Sadie fled home after the brutal murder of her little sister, Mattie, West travels to the small town of Cold Creek, Colorado, to uncover what happened. Sadie has no idea that her journey to avenge her sister will soon become the subject of a blockbuster podcast. Armed with a switchblade, Sadie follows meager clues hoping they’ll lead to the man who took Mattie’s life, because she’s determined to make him pay with his own. But as West traces her path to the darkest, most dangerous corners of big cities and small towns, a deeply unsettling mystery begins to unfold—one that’s bigger than them both. Can he find Sadie before it’s too late? Alternating between Sadie’s unflinching voice as she hunts the killer and the podcast transcripts tracking the clues she’s left behind, Sadie is a breathless thriller about the lengths we go to protect the ones we love and the high price we pay when we can’t. It will haunt you long after you reach the final page. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/6903ff2c-666d-4558-b9b7-224c392960dc/lies+we+tell+ourselves.jpg Year 7 February 2021 Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily. Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept "separate but equal." Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and the fact that they may be falling for one another. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ef5d5441-2280-4ce8-8edd-e31d6f2f3fed/not+all+downhill.jpg Year 7 March 2021 It’s Not All Downhill From Here by Terry McMillan Loretha Curry’s life is full. A little crowded sometimes, but full indeed. On the eve of her sixty-eighth birthday, she has a booming beauty-supply empire, a gaggle of lifelong friends, and a husband whose moves still surprise. True, she’s carrying a few more pounds than she should be, but Loretha is not one of those women who think her best days are behind her—and she’s determined to prove wrong her mother, her twin sister, and everyone else with that outdated view of aging wrong. It’s not all downhill from here. But when an unexpected loss turns her world upside down, Loretha will have to summon all her strength, resourcefulness, and determination to keep on thriving, pursue joy, heal old wounds, and chart new paths. With a little help from her friends, of course. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/adc23f96-75cd-4cfe-b399-b6fe980eb765/city+we+became.jpg Year 7 April 2021 The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power. In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her. In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels. And they're not the only ones. Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d50c4880-3a0c-46bf-84e7-1fe7db4dc71a/Bitter+root.jpg Year 7 May 2021 Bitter Root: Family Business by David F. Walker and Chuck Brown Once known as the greatest monster hunters of all time, the Sangerye family specialized in curing the souls of those infected by hate. But those days are fading. A terrible tragedy has claimed most of the family, leaving the surviving cousins divided between by the desire to cure monsters or to kill them. Now, though, there’s a new breed of monster loose on the streets of Harlem, and the Sangerye family must either come together or watch the human race fall to untold evil. Collects BITTER ROOT #1-5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/86bfd126-4e9d-412c-92af-639f539e9bc5/before+we+were+wicked.jpg Year 7 June 2021 Before We Were Wicked by Eric Jerome Dickey They say the love of money is the root of all evil, but for Ken Swift, it's the love of a woman. Ken is twenty-one, hurting people for cash to try to pay his way through college, when he lays eyes on Jimi Lee, the woman who will change the course of his entire life. What's meant to be a one-night stand with the Harvard-bound beauty turns into an explosion of sexual chemistry that neither can quit. And when Jimi Lee becomes pregnant, their two very different worlds collide in ways they never could have anticipated. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d4292e6a-8ea3-448c-9611-f1b185c2813a/Libertie.jpg Year 7 July 2021 Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge Coming of age in a free Black community in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her mother, a physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie is to go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie is hungry for something else—is there really only one way to be independent? And she is constantly reminded that, unlike her light-skinned mother, she will not be able to pass for white. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises a better life on the island, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it—for herself and for generations to come. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/b61f954d-d855-4ecc-8f2a-b41bc4831359/shakespeare+squirrels.jpg Year 7 August 2021 Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore Set adrift by his pirate crew, Pocket of Dog Snogging—last seen in The Serpent of Venice—washes up on the sun-bleached shores of Greece, where he hopes to dazzle the Duke with his comedic brilliance and become his trusted fool. But the island is in turmoil. Egeus, the Duke’s minister, is furious that his daughter Hermia is determined to marry Demetrius, instead of Lysander, the man he has chosen for her. The Duke decrees that if, by the time of the wedding, Hermia still refuses to marry Lysander, she shall be executed . . . or consigned to a nunnery. Pocket, being Pocket, cannot help but point out that this decree is complete bollocks, and that the Duke is an egregious weasel for having even suggested it. Irritated by the fool’s impudence, the Duke orders his death. With the Duke’s guards in pursuit, Pocket makes a daring escape. He soon stumbles into the wooded realm of the fairy king Oberon, who, as luck would have it, IS short a fool. His jester Robin Goodfellow—the mischievous sprite better known as Puck—was found dead. Murdered. Oberon makes Pocket an offer he can’t refuse: he will make Pocket his fool and have his death sentence lifted if Pocket finds out who killed Robin Goodfellow. But as anyone who is even vaguely aware of the Bard’s most performed play ever will know, nearly every character has a motive for wanting the mischievous sprite dead. With too many suspects and too little time, Pocket must work his own kind of magic to find the truth, save his neck, and ensure that all ends well. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/bf09fe87-c44d-4440-988a-a165467b72ab/ace+of+spades.jpg Year 7 September 2021 Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé All you need to know is . . . I’m here to divide and conquer. Like all great tyrants do. —Aces When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too. Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures. As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/a7afd9d3-6009-42ea-840b-f15cba953b2a/mrs+wiggins.jpg Year 7 October 2021 Mrs. Wiggins by Mary Monroe The daughter of a prostitute mother and an alcoholic father, Maggie Franklin knew her only way out was to marry someone upstanding and church-going. Someone like Hubert Wiggins, the most eligible man in Lexington, Alabama—and the son of its most revered preacher. Proper and prosperous, Hubert is glad to finally have a wife, even one with Maggie’s background. For Hubert has a secret he desperately needs to stay hidden. And Maggie’s unexpected charm, elegance, and religious devotion makes her the perfect partner in lies . . Their surprising union makes the Wigginses the town’s most envied couple—complete with a son, Claude, whom Maggie idolizes. Until he falls in love with the worst possible fiancée. Terrified, Maggie won’t let Daisy destroy her son. And when her employer’s brother sexually harasses her, Maggie knows something needs to be done about him as well. In fact, she realizes there are an awful lot of sinning “disruptive” people who should be eliminated from her perfect world . . . But the more Maggie tries to take control, the more obstacles are thrown in her way. And when it seems like the one person she always expected to be there is starting to drift away, Maggie will play one final, merciless game to secure what she’s fought so hard to earn . . . https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year8 daily 0.75 2022-11-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d4de4b81-1294-4ab9-9fe8-47d5cb570473/heart+principle.jpg Year 8 November 2021 The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She's going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better. That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex—he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she herself has just started to understand. However, when tragedy strikes Anna’s family she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/22b0f92e-6a63-4546-8d78-a7b7b841635a/how+to+fail+at+flirting.jpg Year 8 December 2021 How to Fail at Flirting by Denise Williams When her flailing department lands on the university's chopping block, Professor Naya Turner’s friends convince her to shed her frumpy cardigan for an evening on the town. For one night her focus will stray from her demanding job and she’ll tackle a new kind of to-do list. When she meets a charming stranger in town on business, he presents the perfect opportunity to check off the items on her list. Let the guy buy her a drink. Check. Try something new. Check. A no-strings-attached hookup. Check…almost. Jake makes her laugh and challenges Naya to rebuild her confidence, which was left toppled by her abusive ex-boyfriend. Soon she’s flirting with the chance at a more serious romantic relationship—except nothing can be that easy. The complicated strings around her dating Jake might destroy her career. Naya has two options. She can protect her professional reputation and return to her old life or she can flirt with the unknown and stay with the person who makes her feel like she's finally living again. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/9d20c8ed-0f27-40e6-8003-869c1e520ed8/seven+days+in+june.jpg Year 8 January 2022 Seven Days in June by Tia Williams Seven days to fall in love, fifteen years to forget, and seven days to get it all back again... Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award-winning novelist, who, to everyone’s surprise, shows up in New York. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their buried traumas, but the eyebrows of the Black literati. What no one knows is that fifteen years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. While they may be pretending not to know each other, they can’t deny their chemistry—or the fact that they’ve been secretly writing to each other in their books through the years. Over the next seven days, amidst a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect—but Eva’s wary of the man who broke her heart, and wants him out of the city so her life can return to normal. Before Shane disappears though, she needs a few questions answered... https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/c7ab4b0d-88c7-43d4-ab4d-520506403310/instructions+for+dancing.jpg Year 8 February 2022 Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon Evie Thomas doesn't believe in love anymore. Especially after the strangest thing occurs one otherwise ordinary afternoon: She witnesses a couple kiss and is overcome with a vision of how their romance began . . . and how it will end. After all, even the greatest love stories end with a broken heart, eventually. As Evie tries to understand why this is happening, she finds herself at La Brea Dance Studio, learning to waltz, fox-trot, and tango with a boy named X. X is everything that Evie is not: adventurous, passionate, daring. His philosophy is to say yes to everything--including entering a ballroom dance competition with a girl he's only just met. Falling for X is definitely not what Evie had in mind. If her visions of heartbreak have taught her anything, it's that no one escapes love unscathed. But as she and X dance around and toward each other, Evie is forced to question all she thought she knew about life and love. In the end, is love worth the risk? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/1b9581ba-0c91-4dd3-af8d-734bdfe94119/these+toxic+things.jpg Year 8 March 2022 These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall A dead woman’s cherished trinkets become pieces to a terrifying puzzle. Mickie Lambert creates “digital scrapbooks” for clients, ensuring that precious souvenirs aren’t forgotten or lost. When her latest client, Nadia Denham, a curio shop owner, dies from an apparent suicide, Mickie honors the old woman’s last wish and begins curating her peculiar objets d’art. A music box, a hair clip, a key chain—twelve mementos in all that must have meant so much to Nadia, who collected them on her flea market scavenges across the country. But these tokens mean a lot to someone else, too. Mickie has been receiving threatening messages to leave Nadia’s past alone. It’s becoming a mystery Mickie is driven to solve. Who once owned these odd treasures? How did Nadia really come to possess them? Discovering the truth means crossing paths with a long-dormant serial killer and navigating the secrets of a sinister past. One that might, Mickie fears, be inescapably entwined with her own. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/807033ad-1612-4e76-806f-f93f7973497c/final+girl+group.jpg Year 8 April 2022 The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after? Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/85f1ef5a-5feb-423c-91bf-ef8805b67842/yinka.jpg Year 8 May 2022 Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn Yinka’s Nigerian aunties frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, her work friends think she’s too traditional (she’s saving herself for marriage!), her girlfriends think she needs to get over her ex already, and the men in her life…well, that’s a whole other story. But Yinka herself has always believed that true love will find her when the time is right. Still, when her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences Operation Find-A-Date for Rachel's Wedding. Aided by a spreadsheet and her best friend, Yinka is determined to succeed. Will Yinka find herself a huzband? And what if the thing she really needs to find is herself? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/cc90e167-5534-4c23-9f74-2ad9a4382380/black+girls+must+die+exhausted.jpg Year 8 June 2022 Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen Tabitha Walker is a black woman with a plan to “have it all.” At 33 years old, the checklist for the life of her dreams is well underway. Education? Check. Good job? Check. Down payment for a nice house? Check. Dating marriage material? Check, check, and check. With a coveted position as a local news reporter, a "paper-perfect" boyfriend, and even a standing Saturday morning appointment with a reliable hairstylist, everything seems to be falling into place. Then Tabby receives an unexpected diagnosis that brings her picture-perfect life crashing down, jeopardizing the keystone she took for granted: having children. With her dreams at risk of falling through the cracks of her checklist, suddenly she is faced with an impossible choice between her career, her dream home, and a family of her own. With the help of her best friends, the irreverent and headstrong Laila and Alexis, the mom jeans-wearing former "Sexy Lexi," and the generational wisdom of her grandmother and the nonagenarian firebrand Ms. Gretchen, Tabby explores the reaches of modern medicine and tests the limits of her relationships, hoping to salvage the future she always dreamed of. But the fight is all consuming, demanding a steep price that forces an honest reckoning for nearly everyone in her life. As Tabby soon learns, her grandmother's age-old adage just might still be true: Black girls must die exhausted. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/30753a2a-2390-4803-ba2a-3231a2aaf560/Black+Cake.jpg Year 8 July 2022 Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become? In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves. Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d7382ae0-75a6-43ef-a09a-757150ea4bb4/everything%27s+trash.jpg Year 8 August 2022 Everything’s Trash but it’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson Written in her trademark unfiltered and witty style, Robinson's latest collection is a call to arms. Outfitted with on-point pop culture references, these essays tackle a wide range of topics: giving feminism a tough-love talk on intersectionality, telling society's beauty standards to kick rocks, and calling foul on our culture's obsession with work. Robinson also gets personal, exploring money problems she's hidden from her parents, how dating is mainly a warmed-over bowl of hot mess, and, definitely most important, meeting Bono not once, but twice. She's struggled with being a woman with a political mind and a woman with an ever-changing jeans size. She knows about trash because she sees it every day - and because she's seen roughly 100,000 hours of reality TV and zero hours of Schindler's List. With the intimate voice of a new best friend, Everything's Trash, But It's Okay is a candid perspective for a generation that has had the rug pulled out from under it too many times to count. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/3dfa8bde-35a2-4893-908c-14777dbeb0d6/d%27vaughn+%26+Kris+plan+a+wedding.jpg Year 8 September 2022 D’Vaughn & Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia C. Higgins D’Vaughn and Kris have six weeks to plan their dream wedding. Their whole relationship is fake. Instant I Do could be Kris Zavala’s big break. She’s right on the cusp of really making it as an influencer, so a stint on reality TV is the perfect chance to elevate her brand. And $100,000 wouldn’t hurt, either. D’Vaughn Miller is just trying to break out of her shell. She’s sort of neglected to come out to her mom for years, so a big splashy fake wedding is just the excuse she needs. All they have to do is convince their friends and family they’re getting married in six weeks. If anyone guesses they’re not for real, they’re out. Selling their chemistry on camera is surprisingly easy, and it’s still there when no one else is watching, which is an unexpected bonus. Winning this competition is going to be a piece of wedding cake. But each week of the competition brings new challenges, and soon the prize money’s not the only thing at stake. A reality show isn’t the best place to create a solid foundation, and their fake wedding might just derail their relationship before it even starts. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ad05c198-78fb-47f8-abf3-77bc6424e81b/empty+vows.jpg Year 8 October 2022 Empty Vows by Mary Monroe Forty-something widow Jessie Tucker is beloved throughout Lexington, Alabama, for her kind heart and endless generosity. But she feels it’s past time she rewarded herself—especially when upstanding Hubert Wiggins tragically loses his wife and son. Making herself indispensable, yet discouraged by Hubert’s lack of romantic interest, Jessie cooks up a deception she knows will make pious Hubert do right by her… Hoax or not, Hubert couldn’t be happier. The passionate self he’s long hidden from everyone has a new, much-riskier secret love. And the unsuspecting second Mrs. Wiggins will help him maintain his ever-so-devout image in the community… But when Hubert is not the ardent lover Jessie always dreamed he was, she turns her desires to handsome younger man Conway. Suddenly the “good church wife” can’t resist temptation at all. And someone is watching: Conway’s new girlfriend—and Jessie’s longtime rival—Blondeen. Now Blondeen has the perfect opportunity to harass Jessie, destroy her reputation, drive her out of town—then become the real wife Hubert should have had all along… https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year9 daily 0.75 2023-11-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/40165f31-63aa-4b71-859f-dbf071820a34/She+memes+well.jpg Year 9 November 2022 She Memes Well by Quinta Brunson Quinta Brunson is a master at breaking the internet. Before having any traditional background in media, her humorous videos were the first to go viral on Instagram’s platform. From there, Brunson’s wryly observant POV helped cement her status in the comedy world at large, with roles on HBO, Netflix, ABC, Adult Swim, BuzzFeed, the CW, and Comedy Central. Now, Brunson is bringing her comedic chops to the page in She Memes Well, an earnest, laugh-out-loud collection about this unusual road to notoriety. In her debut essay collection, Quinta applies her trademark humor and heart to discuss what it was like to go from a girl who loved the World Wide Web to a girl whose face launched a thousand memes. With anecdotes that range from the ridiculous—like the time she decided to go clubbing wearing an outfit she describes as "Gary Coleman meets metrosexual pirate"—to more heartfelt material about her struggles with depression, Quinta's voice is entirely authentic and eminently readable. With its intimate tone and hilarious moments, She Memes Well will make you feel as if you're sitting down with your chillest, funniest friend. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/08c8dd09-bf2a-4d5f-b15b-23c6e04e4225/White+Smoke.jpg Year 9 December 2022 White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper. The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street, sitting between dilapidated houses, surrounded by wary neighbors has its . . . secrets. That’s only half the problem: household items vanish, doors open on their own, lights turn off, shadows walk past rooms, voices can be heard in the walls, and there’s a foul smell seeping through the vents only Mari seems to notice. Worse: Piper keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone. But “running from ghosts” is just a metaphor, right? As the house closes in, Mari learns that the danger isn’t limited to Maple Street. Cedarville has its secrets, too. And secrets always find their way through the cracks. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/3105fc50-6958-4fa1-91fd-54b30eb73760/wow+no+thanks.jpg Year 9 January 2023 Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason jar salads. This is the bourgeois life of a Hallmark Channel dream. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with "tv executives slash amateur astrologers" while being a "cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person," "with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees," who still hides past due bills under her pillow. The essays in this collection draw on the raw, hilarious particulars of Irby's new life. Wow, No Thank You. is Irby at her most unflinching, riotous, and relatable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/afba25ef-9e15-4fe9-89c6-548b0e38aa9a/CBB.jpg Year 9 February 2023 Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi They killed my mother. They took our magic. They tried to bury us. Now we rise. Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good. Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/cc500cd0-7945-4b43-aaf1-0690eb7e3bec/reckless.jpg Year 9 March 2023 Reckless by Selena Montgomery aka Stacey Abrams Kell Jameson has the life she’s always dreamed about. A partner at a prestigious Atlanta law firm that represents famous—if guilty—clients, she’s far from her days as a lonely orphan in rural Georgia. But one frantic phone call will bring her back to the place she’s spent years trying to escape. The head of her childhood orphanage has been accused of murder, and Kell is her only hope for freedom. From the first moment Kell meets Sheriff Luke Calder, tempers flare. Luke is a stickler for law and order, and while he finds Kell compelling, unfortunately she represents his prime suspect. Forced to work together, they dig deep into the town’s scandals to uncover the truth. But Kell has a secret of her own… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/499ab1fb-564d-47eb-944e-093624540540/good+mothers.jpg Year 9 April 2023 The School For Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. She can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet, their cherubic daughter, does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she is just enough. Until Frida has a very bad day. The state has its eye on mothers like Frida. The ones who check their phones, letting their children get injured on the playground; who let their children walk home alone. Because of one moment of poor judgement, a host of government officials will now determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that a bad mother can be redeemed. That she can learn to be good. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/c728ef84-d5aa-4549-81ed-94a7a9daaaf6/wash+diaries.jpg Year 9 May 2023 Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser & Robyn Smith Wash Day Diaries tells the story of four best friends—Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie—through five connected short story comics that follow these young women through the ups and downs of their daily lives in the Bronx. The book takes its title from the wash day experience shared by Black women everywhere of setting aside all plans and responsibilities for a full day of washing, conditioning, and nourishing their hair. Each short story uses hair routines as a window into these four characters' everyday lives and how they care for each other. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/95444d99-b887-4985-9327-1957fb7503a7/weight+in+blood.jpg Year 9 June 2023 The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation . . . Maddy did it. An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington. After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life. But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret . . . one that will cost them all their lives. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d7b9dcbc-55b6-4db5-96f2-3f4dead9c5af/The+World+We+Make.jpg Year 9 July 2023 The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin All is not well in the city that never sleeps. Even though the avatars of New York City have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading—and destroying the entire universe in the process—the mysterious capital "E" Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and "law and order" may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside. In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/8b29c8d8-7adc-4961-9000-473113c42425/Nothing+But+Blackend+Teeth.jpg Year 9 August 2023 Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding. A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested. But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/2438fdfe-ed0e-4182-9312-0aef3f8a1084/promise+boys.jpg Year 9 September 2023 Promise Boys by Nick Brooks The prestigious Urban Promise Prep school might look pristine on the outside, but deadly secrets lurk within. When the principal ends up murdered on school premises and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of students―J.B., Ramón, and Trey―emerge as the prime suspects. They had the means, they had the motive―and they may have had the murder weapon. But with all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. Or is the true culprit hiding among them? Find out who killed Principal Moore in Nick Brooks's murder mystery, Promise Boys―The Hate U Give meets One of Us Is Lying https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d5978c93-0722-4330-a575-a307beb46d55/love%2C+honor%2C+betray.jpg Year 9 October 2023 Love, Honor, Betray by Mary Monroe With mysterious serial murders putting peaceful Lexington, Alabama, on edge, Jessie and Hubert Wiggins’ steadfast calm and devotion to each other reassures everyone that faith will see them through. But Jessie and Hubert have paid a terrible hidden cost to maintain their devout facade and respectable standing. Nothing can allay the guilt they feel—or stop the growing distrust between them . . . Hubert thought he and his secret lover, Leroy, could continue seeing each other on the down-low in peace. But when Leroy’s ex-wife moves back in with him, a heartbroken Hubert is driven to distraction trying to keep Jessie in the dark—and quell his mounting jealousy. And his need for satisfaction is driving Hubert to reckless extremes—and desperate risks . . . Jessie believes the struggles between her and Hubert will all be worth it if she can connive him to finallyconsummate their marriage—no matter what she has to do. But his erratic behavior and her frustration soon has her trying yet another new lover, who is as charming as he is unreliable—and unexpectedly dangerous . . . Now with their secrets out of control—and the police perilously near—Jessie and Hubert discover who might be behind the deaths plaguing their town. But can they risk a pursuit that could expose their own web of lies? When their only choice pits them and their suspicions against each other, their next move will either bury their deceptions deep for good—or reveal the one truth they can’t escape . . . https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year10 daily 0.75 2024-10-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ec89f19c-f737-4bf6-b3d1-7cc29e3a7177/demoninwood.jpg Year 10 November 2023 Jessica’s Pick Demon in the Wood by Leigh Bardugo & Dani Pendergast Before he became the Darkling, Eryk was just a lonely boy burdened by an extraordinary power. The dangerous truth is that Eryk is not just a Grisha―he is the deadliest and rarest of his kind. With stunning illustrations and raw emotion, peer into the shadows of the Darkling’s past and discover why he has always been feared by those who wish to destroy him and hunted into hiding his true abilities. But even in this villain origin story, wicked secrets are destined to reveal themselves . . . https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/9eb52071-9028-4b04-8003-8b76bc826bef/Cubana.jpg Year 10 December 2023 Quandra’s Pick Cubana by JaQuavis Coleman A man’s quest to escape his past life is an uphill battle. After seeking a Cuban voodoo doctor to receive a spiritual advantage on his upcoming court case, Saint opens up Pandora’s box. The Santeria voodoo seemed to work, but at what cost? His dangerous visit to Cuba came with much more than he anticipated. He entered an underground secret society of high stakes gambling. He also gets tangled in a web of heinous crimes, money games, and backstabbing. He is torn between a woman he met in Cuba and his wife at home, which leads to an intricate plan which threatens his freedom and everything that he has worked hard for. Lines are crossed, both internationally and morally. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/0a55eac3-b226-439b-b022-41e6f6e85d03/Verity.jpg Year 10 January 2024 Jessica’s Pick Verity by Colleen Hoover Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/16159584-41cf-42e6-bc82-d33002a36d41/stone+blind.jpg Year 10 February 2024 Tracey’s Pick Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster. The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know. When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene’s temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge—on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon’s actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude. Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . . https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/2dbac162-a603-445d-8213-019aee03c819/Love+Hypo.jpg Year 10 March 2024 Trinity’s Pick Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos. As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees. That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding...six-pack abs. Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope. Read less https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/b23af123-5e49-4a2b-af83-0da49703fd36/Fine+Print.jpg Year 10 April 2024 Trinity’s Pick The Fine Print by Lauren Asher Rowan I’m in the business of creating fairy tales. Theme parks. Production companies. Five-star hotels. Everything could be all mine if I renovated Dreamland. My initial idea of hiring Zahra was good in theory, but then I kissed her. Things spiraled out of control once I texted her using an alias. By the time I realized where I went wrong, it was too late. People like me don’t get happy endings. Not when we’re destined to ruin them. Zahra After submitting a drunk proposal criticizing Dreamland’s most expensive ride, I should have been fired. Instead, Rowan Kane offered me a dream job. The catch? I had to work for the most difficult boss I’d ever met. Rowan was rude and completely off-limits, but my heart didn’t care. At least not until I discovered his secret. It was time to teach the billionaire that money couldn’t fix everything. Especially not us. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/984e17ca-58aa-413a-963b-738c1caa56c5/Memory+Librarian.jpg Year 10 May 2024 Tracey’s Pick The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, futurist, and worldwide superstar Janelle Monáe brings to the written page the Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums, exploring how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape…and what the costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms. Whoever controls our memories controls the future. Janelle Monáe and an incredible array of talented collaborators have crafted a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether you were human, AI, or other, your life and sentience were dictated by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate. That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free. Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian society . . . and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the tradition of speculative fiction writers such as Octavia E. Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with powerful themes and Monáe’s emblematic artistic vision—The Memory Librarian serves to readers tales that dissect the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, reaching through to the worlds of memory and time, and the stakes and power that pulse there. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/3b2a7e96-f50c-4271-898a-3c91d6d753a1/I+feed+her+to+the+Beast.jpg Year 10 June 2024 Shanti’s Pick I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast is Me by Jamisen Shea There will be blood. Ace of Spades meets House of Hollow in this villain origin story. Laure Mesny is a perfectionist with an axe to grind. Despite being constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures deep into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood. The primordial power Laure gains promises influence and adoration, everything she’s dreamed of and worked toward. With retribution on her mind, she surpasses her bitter and privileged peers, leaving broken bodies behind her on her climb to stardom. But even as undeniable as she is, Laure is not the only monster around. And her vicious desires make her a perfect target for slaughter. As she descends into madness and the mystifying underworld beneath her, she is faced with the ultimate choice: continue to break herself for scraps of validation or succumb to the darkness that wants her exactly as she is―monstrous heart and all. That is, if the god-killer doesn’t catch her first. From debut author Jamison Shea comes I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me, a twisted dark fantasy that lifts a veil on the institutions that profit on exclusion and the toll of giving everything to a world that will never love you back. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/5079b058-47e5-4796-997f-b6f35c35b789/House+of+Hollow.jpg Year 10 July 2024 Quandra's Pick House of Hollow by Krystal Sullivan A dark, twisty modern fairytale where three sisters discover they are not exactly all that they seem and evil things really do go bump in the night. Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. And they're changing. First, their dark hair turned white. Then, their blue eyes slowly turned black. They have insatiable appetites yet never gain weight. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous. But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time--something her two famously glamourous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, Iris and Vivi are left to trace her last few days. They aren't the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they've been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/e048f48f-f1c7-4234-8843-59e51ac49fea/Paladin%27s+Grace.jpg Year 10 August 2024 Brandon’s Pick Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher Stephen’s god died on the longest day of the year… Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind… From the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of Swordheart and The Twisted Ones comes a saga of murder, magic, and love on the far side of despair. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/90358c1d-8e79-4968-9d40-e836799b171f/House+of+Agnes.jpg Year 10 September 2024 Kelly’s Pick House of Agnes by Fiona Zedde A lesbian romance filled with intrigue and sizzling sexual tension as enemies discover that the other side of hatred…is desire. Agnes Noble is private, mysterious, and untouchable. She rules House of Agnes, the most exclusive escort agency on the East Coast, with a diamond fist. Crossing her is a mistake no one makes twice. Investigative reporter Lola Osbourne is not afraid. She’s gunning for the House and its so-called queen. She’ll make sure no other innocent gets dragged into Agnes’s alluring web, to be used and discarded the way Lola’s sister was. But her plan to get close to the elusive madam shatters the moment her eyes meet the Queen’s. One look and everything’s different. More complicated. Dangerous. Now, Lola’s not just fighting to topple a queen from her throne, she’s also scrambling to escape their explosive collision with her suddenly vulnerable heart intact. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/880b2ca1-4155-4a85-a671-6af806b7a3d2/blanche.jpg Year 10 October 2024 Ms. Dee’s Pick Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely Blanche White is a plump, feisty, middle-aged African-American housekeeper working for the genteel rich in North Carolina. But when an employer stiffs her, and her checks bounce, she goes on the lam, hiding out as a maid for a wealthy family at their summer home. That plan goes awry when there’s a murder and Blanche becomes the prime suspect. So she’s forced to use her savvy, her sharp wit, and her old-girl network of domestic workers to discover the truth and save her own skin. Along the way, she lays bare the quirks of southern society with humor, irony, and a biting commentary that makes her one of the most memorable and original characters ever to appear in mystery fiction. https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year12 daily 0.75 2026-03-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/1761438392725-SJW3WHZL8ADDXDFIJLR8/Screenshot_20251025_201659_Amazon+Shopping.jpg Current Year November 2025 Jessica’s Pick New Nigeria County by Clare Brown New Nigeria is a good, clean, all-American town. The husbands are smiling and handsome, the wives are strong, rich, and powerful, and Nat Turner High is the best public school in the state. Yet, the citizens of this idyllic community find themselves in a rapidly changing country and, to be perfectly honest, some of them are a teeny bit uncomfortable with it all. When a New Nigeria community leader Carèn makes a frantic phone call to the local police about a “potential gang member” roaming her cushy Malcolm X Estates neighborhood, it turns out the boy is her new European American neighbor, Jake Smith, and the misunderstanding quickly becomes the talk of the town. While Jake’s mom, Meghan, is hurt by her new neighbor’s behavior, Carèn works tirelessly to preserve the safety (and the property values) of her beloved community. As the two women work toward their own version of equity, their conflict continues to escalate, setting off a chain of cringe-worthy confrontations that send the good citizens of New Nigeria into a tailspin. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d8970bf2-881c-434f-8494-13250bdc266b/1000028686.jpg Current Year December 2025 Shanti's Pick Hold You Down by Tracy Brown New York City. Late 1980s to early 1990s. Mercy and Lenox Howard have always only had each other. Growing up on the mean streets of Harlem with an absentee mother meant that they had to have each other's backs. Now young, smart mothers they are determined to survive in New York City while raising their two sons, who have bright futures ahead of them. Mercy is the quiet, straight laced hospital administrator, struggling to make ends meet. At night and on weekends, she pours her heart into her cooking and her dream of owning her own restaurant. Lenox is the diva, the wild child, looking for excitement and her big come up in life and love. Their boys, Deon and Judah, have been raised more like brothers than cousins, forging a bond that is unbreakable. When Lenox heads down a path that she believes will bring success and power, it changes the entire course of her life and her family’s life forever. As a result of their mother’s choices, cousins Deon and Judah soon find themselves in uncharted territory. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/700969c7-febe-47cf-8edc-add3ae0d1580/1000029479.jpg Current Year January 2026 Jessica's Pick The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career. Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways. “Heartbreaking, yet beautiful” (Jamie Blynn, Us Weekly), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is “Tinseltown drama at its finest” (Redbook): a mesmerizing journey through the splendor of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it costs—to face the truth. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/de78de07-460d-4c5b-8f2b-b509e5b3c950/one+of+our+kind.jpg Current Year February 2026 Tracey’s Pick Our of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California hoping to find a community of like-minded people, a place where their growing family can thrive. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill, which proves to be the heart of the community. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles. Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ff6c7fa0-f286-4647-8430-7f98245daab6/1000031177.jpg Current Year March 2026 Quandra's Pick I'm Too Old For This by Samantha Downing Lottie Jones thought her crimes were behind her. Decades earlier, she changed her identity and tucked herself away in a small town. Her most exciting nights are the weekly bingo games at the local church and gossiping with her friends. When investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past and specifically her involvement with numerous unsolved cases, well, Lottie just can’t have that. But getting away with murder is hard enough when you’re young. And when Lottie receives another annoying knock on the door, she realizes this crime might just be the death of her… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/ad7bd9fb-1dfd-41fb-9480-ee7fc4c9f127/scammer.jpg Current Year April 2026 Kelly's pick The Scammer by Tiffany D. Jackson Out from under her overprotective parents, Jordyn is ready to kill it in prelaw at a prestigious, historically Black university in Washington DC. When her new roommate’s brother is released from prison, the last thing Jordyn expects is to come home and find the ex-convict on their dorm room sofa. But Devonte needs a place to stay while he gets back on his feet—and how could she say no to one of her new best friends? Devonte is older, as charming as he is intelligent, pushing every student he meets to make better choices about their young lives. But Jordyn senses something sinister beneath his friendly advice and growing group of followers. When one of Jordyn’s roommates goes missing, she must enlist the help of the university’s lone white student to uncover the mystery—or become trapped at the center of a web of lies more tangled than she can imagine. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/50c01080-a348-4119-8fa7-ec6f88a9719b/1000033340.jpg Current Year May 2026 Ms. Debra Do What Godmother Says by L. S. Stratton Shanice Pierce knows better than to heed bad omens. But she has a hard time ignoring the signs when she finds herself newly single and out of a job on the same seemingly cursed day. Then, while cleaning out her grandmother’s house, Shanice comes across a painting she hasn’t seen in years. Drawn to the haunting portrait in a way she can't explain, Shanice accepts her grandmother’s offer to keep the family heirloom. She soon uncovers the story of the artist, a Harlem Renaissance painter named Estelle Johnson. The young woman was taken under wing by the wealthy art patron Maude Bachmann—or “Godmother” as she insisted her artists call her—and vanished shortly after Bachmann’s brutal murder a century ago. As Shanice digs deeper, a paranoia that’s haunted her for years returns. She becomes convinced she’s being stalked, and that the deaths happening around her are connected to the staggering offer she turned down for the painting. But the truth hiding in plain sight is even more shocking—and deadly—than Shanice could possibly have imagined . . . https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/a9658e2d-19f5-4055-aaf3-9afc51f3b527/1000032177.jpg Current Year June 2026 Shanti's pick I, Medusa by Ayana Gray Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else’s story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents—both gods, albeit minor ones—she dreams of leaving her family’s island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home. In the colorful market streets of Athens and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena’s favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, the course of Meddy’s promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered. When her locs are transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity—not as a victim, but as a vigilante—and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/12d317f5-2138-467d-bceb-44623419129e/WSBC+Undecided.jpg Current Year July 2026 Quandra's pick https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/e5a19007-776b-45aa-8590-db66e944b3c9/drank+moon.jpg Current Year August 2026 Tracey’s Pick The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the Forest, Xan, is kind. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Xan rescues the children and delivers them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. As Luna’s thirteenth birthday approaches, her magic begins to emerge—with dangerous consequences. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Deadly birds with uncertain intentions flock nearby. A volcano, quiet for centuries, rumbles just beneath the earth’s surface. And the woman with the Tiger’s heart is on the prowl . . . https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/3ac6ede7-b347-4470-9c2c-76bf157256f0/boom+town.jpg Current Year September 2026 Kelly’s Pick Boom Town by Nic Stone When Damaris “Charm” Wilburn, a new daytime dancer, is missing for her shift at Boom Town, former headliner Michah “Lyriq” Johanssen suspects something more than a “no call, no show.” As Lyriq’s former headline partner and lover—Felice “Lucky” Carothers—also vanished under similar circumstances, Lyriq decides she’s going to find them. Delving deeper into Charm and Lucky’s disappearances, Lyriq uncovers a tangled web of deceit, privilege, and power. The line between friend and foe blurs, forcing Lyriq to confront the question: Is finding for these women worth the threat to her own life? This tantalizing thriller will take you on a heart-pounding journey through the peaks and valleys of Atlanta’s underworld. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/e003d5e2-ab1b-49be-a15a-36ef2b764981/1000032611.jpg Current Year October 2026 Chibuzo's pick Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind. https://www.weslaybookclub.com/year11 daily 0.75 2025-10-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/d5bedbff-569f-453d-ab32-d11e7e7b599e/Me+Moth.jpg Year 11 November 2024 Jessica’s pick Me (Moth) ,by Amber McBride Moth has lost her family in an accident. Though she lives with her aunt, she feels alone and uprooted. Until she meets Sani, a boy who is also searching for his roots. If he knows more about where he comes from, maybe he’ll be able to understand his ongoing depression. And if Moth can help him feel grounded, then perhaps she too will discover the history she carries in her bones. Moth and Sani take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors. The way each moves forward is surprising, powerful, and unforgettable. Here is an exquisite and uplifting novel about identity, first love, and the ways that our memories and our roots steer us through the universe. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/c6a19419-7759-4542-8e28-60796ac508ae/none+of+this+is+true.jpg Year 11 December 2024 Quandra’s Pick None of This is True by Lisa Jewell Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summer crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home. But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat. Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/2b8a6f06-9584-49a4-a13c-01a420df9c3e/boyfriend.jpg Year 11 January 2025 Shanti's Pick The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden She's looking for the perfect man. He's looking for the perfect victim. Sydney Shaw, like every single woman in New York, has terrible luck with dating. She's seen it all: men who lie in their dating profile, men who stick her with the dinner bill, and worst of all, men who can't shut up about their mothers. But finally, she hits the jackpot. Her new boyfriend is utterly perfect. He's charming, handsome, and works as a doctor at a local hospital. Sydney is swept off her feet. Then the brutal murder of a young woman―the latest in a string of deaths across the coast―confounds police. The primary suspect? A mystery man who dates his victims before he kills them. Sydney should feel safe. After all, she is dating the guy of her dreams. But she can't shake her own suspicions that the perfect man may not be as perfect as he seems. Because someone is watching her every move, and if she doesn't get to the truth, she'll be the killer's next victim... https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/c99e6bce-907b-4c89-8553-1fac286073f6/wonder+woman.jpg Year 11 February 2025 Tracey's Pick She will become one of the world's greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. . . . Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mere mortal. Even worse, Alia Keralis is no ordinary girl and with this single brave act, Diana may have doomed the world. Alia just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn't know she is being hunted. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery. Together, Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. If they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/a8e0a795-32f3-447a-ad7e-6226471f55dd/when+no+one+is+watching.jpg Year 11 March 2025 Ms. Debra's Pick When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole Sydney Green is Brooklyn born and raised, but her beloved neighborhood seems to change every time she blinks. Condos are sprouting like weeds, FOR SALE signs are popping up overnight, and the neighbors she’s known all her life are disappearing. To hold onto her community’s past and present, Sydney channels her frustration into a walking tour and finds an unlikely and unwanted assistant in one of the new arrivals to the block—her neighbor Theo. But Sydney and Theo’s deep dive into history quickly becomes a dizzying descent into paranoia and fear. Their neighbors may not have moved to the suburbs after all, and the push to revitalize the community may be more deadly than advertised. When does coincidence become conspiracy? Where do people go when gentrification pushes them out? Can Sydney and Theo trust each other—or themselves—long enough to find out before they too disappear? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/4adea4e2-4b2b-4ba6-a74d-92bd754f6b76/rosewater.jpg Year 11 April 2025 Shanti's Pick Rosewater by Liv Little Elsie is a sexy, funny, and fiercely independent woman in south London. But several things in her life have gone terribly wrong. She’s estranged from her family; is failing to make it as a poet; and has just been evicted from her social housing. As fierce and independent as she is, even Elsie must admit that being a carefree 28-year-old is proving difficult―and that she’s running out of options. Juliet, her best friend since childhood, has always been Elsie’s lifeline. So even though they haven’t spoken in months, Elsie is soon snuggled up on Juliet’s couch, back at home among the mismatched cushions and knit blankets. Between their reruns of Drag Race and nights smoking on the balcony, something surprising begins to glimmer in Elsie’s heart. And as the days turn into weeks and then months, this feeling quickly becomes too fierce to ignore. Will Elsie be brave enough to open herself up to love? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/5fadc8e2-27e3-4d05-8022-b0d6dd612985/The+List.jpg Year 11 May 2025 Kelly's Pick The List by Yomi Adegoke Ola Olajide, a celebrated journalist at Womxxxn magazine, is set to marry the love of her life. Young, beautiful, and successful, she and her fiancé, Michael, are considered the “couple goals” of their social network and seem to have it all. That is, until one morning when they both wake up to the same message: “Oh my god, have you seen The List?” It began as a list of anonymous allegations about abusive men. Now it has been published online. Ola would usually be the first to support such a list—she'd call for the men to be fired, write article after article. Except this time, Michael's name is on it. With one month to the wedding, Ola gives Michael an ultimatum: prove his innocence or the wedding's off. But will the truth of what happened change everything for them both? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/4a505e79-8b92-4717-9fc7-845cf31a57e1/lost+village.jpg Year 11 June 2025 Ms. Quandra's Pick The Lost Village by Camilla Sten Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,” since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left―a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn―have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened. But there will be no turning back. Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice: They are not alone. They’re looking for the truth… But what if it finds them first? Come find out. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/3b3dc32d-adcf-46f3-9675-5ee7d56b70df/head+full+of+ghost.jpg Year 11 July 2025 Quandra"s Pick Head Full of Ghost by Paul Tremblay The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents’ despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie’s descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts’ plight. With John, Marjorie’s father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend. Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie’s younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface—and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/35c101ae-fe53-4c57-918b-6e91fbfd4948/dead+cat+tail+assasins.jpg Year 11 August 2025 Tracey's Pick The Dead CatTail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark Eveen the Eviscerator is skilled, discreet, professional, and here for your most pressing needs in the ancient city of Tal Abisi. Her guild is strong, her blades are sharp, and her rules are simple. Those sworn to the Matron of Assassins―resurrected, deadly, wiped of their memories―have only three unbreakable vows. First, the contract must be just. That’s above Eveen’s pay grade. Second, even the most powerful assassin may only kill the contracted. Eveen’s a professional. She’s never missed her mark. The third and the simplest: once you accept a job, you must carry it out. And if you stray? A final death would be a mercy. When the Festival of the Clockwork King turns the city upside down, Eveen’s newest mission brings her face-to-face with a past she isn’t supposed to remember and a vow she can’t forget. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/9bdc8eaf-da23-44b6-8a47-97de4d32a339/immortal+dark.jpg Year 11 September 2025 Kelly's Pick Immortal Dark by Tigma Gist It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family. Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad. To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs. When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/55352e7de4b01b38213d4ecd/5d14b6e8-cfac-4220-8f61-5fc3fd395a4f/banned+bookshop+of+maggie+banks.jpg Year 11 October 2025 Pick Chibuzo’s Pick I, Maggie Banks, solemnly swear to uphold the rules of Cobblestone Books. If only, I, Maggie Banks, believed in following the rules. When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy. Bell River's literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat. And in Maggie's world, book rules are made to be broken. To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything. Maggie will have to decide what's more important: the books that formed a small town's history, or the stories poised to change it all.