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in The Hating Game, Lucy is the executive assistant to the CEO of a publishing company. When her company merges with another, the heads of both companies are kept on as co-CEOs, and Lucy is forced to start sharing an office with her counterpart Joshua. In contrast to cheerful, quirky, approachable Lucy, Joshua is an intimidating and seemingly humorless workaholic. They hate each other instantly, and before long, they’ve made a game out of trying to outdo and annoy each other.

Most mystery readers love a good series. It’s fun to get to know a character, while secure in the knowledge that there will be more adventures after you’ve turned the last page. Few series, however, have as many titles to enjoy as J.D. Robb’s Eve Dallas Mysteries.

Award-winning American poet Mary Oliver was once the best-selling poet in the United States (that title now belongs to Rumi). Swan: Poems and prose poems was published in 2010, making it one of her more recent works. I don’t just recommend this particular set of poetry to people who know they enjoy poetry – this is great for anyone who is looking for a short, yet inspiring read, or anyone who has been overcome by the beauty and power of nature.

In Spoiler Alert, Marcus, star of the fictional hit TV show Gods of the Gates, deals with his frustration with the showrunners by secretly writing and posting fanfiction about his own character. He becomes close to another fanfiction writer, April, and though he wishes he could meet her in person, he can’t tell anyone about his online alter ego without destroying his career.

Kindred, by classic science fiction author Octavia Butler, is a novel about a Black woman from 1970s Los Angeles who finds herself repeatedly pulled back in time to pre-Civil War Maryland, where she must save the life of her white ancestor. While there, she experiences the horrors of slavery first-hand and is forced to make difficult choices in order to stay alive and return home.

Spanning decades over the lifespan of the Conroy family, Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House is a difficult, absorbing, fascinating read that was really hard to put down. Told from the perspective of younger brother, Danny, the reader is taken through Danny’s difficult childhood with his father and his stepmother. Protected and raised almost entirely by his sister Maeve, Danny graduates high school, college and eventually medical school; falls in love, gets married and has children.

Mortician Caitlin Doughty does it again with her second book, this time not about cremation, but still about death, don’t worry! In From Here to Eternity, she reviews her experiences in countries around the world, teaching us what she learned about how different cultures care for their dead. We learn about different rituals and ceremonies, and compare them to our own.

The Monopolists explores the fascinating and little-known origins of the board game Monopoly. Though long marketed as the brainchild of an unemployed father during the Great Depression, Monopoly was in fact lifted almost entirely from a game that was invented thirty years earlier by a progressive feminist. Lizzie Magie created The Landlord’s Game to demonstrate how landowners were unjustly enriching themselves at the expense of renters.

Looking back on her life on and off the screen, Sally Field brings a mature, sensitive, and poignant reading to her intimate, hauntingly honest, as well as authentic and fresh memoir, 

In How the Universe Works prominent Astrophysicists, Astronomers, and Scientists including Phil Plait, Michelle Thaller, Lawrence Krauss, Michio Kaku, among others, take viewers on a journey of the incredible, fascinating, and mind-blowing inner workings of the cosmos.

Kathryn Stockett’s first historical fiction novel is amazing. It’s about the lives of African American maids/nannies who served white women in the 1960’s, particularly in Mississippi.

In 2009 “Precious”, the movie that is based on Push, was highly acclaimed and received multiple Academy Awards. I wanted to know what all the hype was about, but I wouldn’t watch the movie because I was afraid it would be unsettling. So, I decided to read the book. The book is intense. I was not prepared for its graphic nature. Both the language and subject matter are very disturbing, albeit authentic to the author’s traumatic experience.