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“A Gentleman in Moscow '' by Amor Towles is set in 1922 Soviet Russia and follows Count Alexander Rostov as he has to adapt to the changing world while trapped in a hotel. After being convicted of treason, he gets sentenced to house arrest inside a luxury hotel.

See You Yesterday by Rachel Solomon is a YA rom com, Groundhog Day story. And it worked so well. Barrett is excited to begin her first day of college and leave her high school self behind. Unfortunately the day is mostly a disaster.

Spinning Silver (2018) is a fairy tale-like fantasy version of Rumpelstiltskin. Miryem, daughter of a softhearted moneylender, takes over the money collecting duties to try and turn around the fate of her family. Her success and boasting that she can turn silver into gold captures the attention of the Staryk king, a fey creature from a wintery land.

The Book of Thorns (2024) by Hester Fox is an historical fiction tale of two sisters, separated as children, who are linked through the magic of language of flowers and a locket that they both wear. Set in 19th-century New England, Cornelia was raised by a cruel uncle who wants to marry her off and Lisbeth was raised as a servant.

Jessamine Chan's debut novel, The School for Good Mothers (2022), was recommended as one of the best novels of 2022, by many top reviewers and news outlets. It's a challenging and provocative read, as Chan herself acknowledges in author interviews. Her hope was that the book would leave readers thinking about the systematic pressures and demands imposed upon mothers, rooted in historical ideals, but ever-increasing due to the influences of technology and social media.

Forgotten Sisters (2024) by Cynthia Pelayo is an eerie, otherworldly ghost story that takes place in present-day Chicago. Sisters Jennie and Anna live in a historic bungalow in the Ravenswood neighborhood, with the north branch of the Chicago River right in their backyard.

Rebecca, Not Becky (2023) by co-authors Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene, is a thoughtful and entertaining story about two wealthy stay-at-home moms, one Black, one white, dealing with the complexities of race and privilege in a post-George Fl

How would you feel if you woke up tomorrow with a small wooden box containing a string the length of your life inside? Would you change the way you live your life or would you remain the same? In The Measure (2022) by Nikki Erlick, the entire world wakes up one day with identical boxes at their doorstep. Some open it while others ignore it.

A Trojan Horse. That's how author Xochitl Gonzalez describes her debut novel, Olga Dies Dreaming (2022), a work of contemporary fiction set in Brooklyn and Puerto Rico, primarily in 2017.

This lovely and magical story features three book lovers who become entwined with a lost bookshop that spans 19th and 20th century Ireland. Opaline attempts to break the barriers that aim to confine and subjugate women as she runs from a forced marriage; Martha is running from an abusive husband; and Henry is trying to find an elusive break into the book world.

Meet Aubrey, a somewhat spoiled young girl living in Paris in the late 1800s, who one day comes down with a mysterious, life-threatening illness. She speedily discovers that if she keeps moving location, the illness disappears. And so, she begins her adventurous life of endless travelling around the globe, trying to outrun her unique disease.  

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a tremendous book that is an enjoyable read while having deep themes of racism, sexism, and pride.