Set in a Big City

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Updated May 28, 2025
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The book of doors : a novel
Brown, Gareth
Paper Book
A debut novel full of magic, adventure, and romance, The Book of Doors opens up a thrilling world of contemporary fantasy for readers of The Midnight Library, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, The Night Circus, and any modern story that mixes the wonder of the unknown...
Bangkok 8
Burdett, John.
Paper Book
Electrifying, darkly comic, razor-edged—a thriller unlike any other. Under a Bangkok bridge, inside a bolted-shut Mercedes: a murder by snake—a charismatic African American Marine sergeant killed by a methamphetamine-stoked python and a swarm of stoned cobras. ...
Braised pork
Yu, An
Paper Book
Beautiful, dreamlike, and utterly intoxicating, Braised Pork is the beguiling debut of an outstandingly talented young writer who is based in China but writes in English One autumn morning, Jia Jia walks into the bathroom of her lavish Beijing apartment to find her husband...
The hanging : a thriller
Hammer, Lotte.
Paper Book
One morning before school, two children find the naked bodies of five men hanging from the gym ceiling. The case leads detective Konrad Simonsen and his murder squad to the school janitor, who may know more about the killings than he is telling. Soon, Simonsen realizes that each of the five...
The Excitements
Wray, C. J.
Paper Book
"Irresistible...Filled with surprise, poignancy, and excitement, this is a surefire winner." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) A brilliant and witty drama about two brave female World War II veterans who survived the unthinkable without ever losing their killer instinct...or their joie...
How to end a love story : a novel
Kuang, Yulin
Paper Book
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK! "Emotional, relatable and binge-worthy." -Tessa Bailey "I'll read anything she writes. An absolute star." -Emily Henry "I was hooked on the very first page. Don't miss this one!" -- Carley Fortune Two writers with a complicated...
American mermaid : a novel
Langbein, Julia (Art historian)
Paper Book
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR * "Sublime." --New York Times Book Review "Brilliantly sharp, funny, and thought-provoking, the gripping story of a woman trying to find her way in our chaotic world." --Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe<...
The mayor of Maxwell Street
Cunningham, Avery
Paper Book
'The year is 1921, and America is burning. A fire of vice and virtue rages on every shore with Chicago at its beating heart.' Twenty-year-old Nelly Sawyer is the daughter of the alleged 'wealthiest Negro in America,' whose wealth catapulted his family to the heights of Black society. After the...
Spitting gold : a novel
Lowkis, Carmella
Paper Book
A deliciously haunting, "lush, and twist-filled tale" (CrimeReads) that blends gothic mystery with a captivating sapphic romance as two estranged sisters--celebrated (and fraudulent) spirit mediums--come back together for one last con in 19th-century Paris. Paris, 1866:...
Tales from the cafe : a novel
Kawaguchi, Toshikazu
Paper Book
From the author of the international bestseller Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this book follows four new customers who hope to travel back in time in a little Japanese café. In a back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more...
Ghost music : a novel
Yu, An
Paper Book
From the author of the "original and electric" Braised Pork (Time), An Yu's enchanting and contemplative novel of music and mushrooms follows a former concert pianist searching for the truth about a vanished musician For three years, Song Yan has filled the emptiness...
Silver nitrate
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film--and awakens one woman's hidden powers. ...
The republic of false truths
Aswa?ni?, ?Ala??
Paper Book
A "glorious, humane novel" (The Observer) about the Egyptian revolution, taking us inside the battle raging between those in power and those prepared to lay down their lives in the defense of freedom--this globally-acclaimed narrative from one of the foremost writers in the Arab...
The dissident
Goldberg, Paul
Paper Book
"A feast for serious fiction readers." --Wendy Smith, The Washington Post "A dead-serious, dead-funny, no-he-didn't marvel." --Joshua Cohen, author of The Netanyahus A thrilling, witty, and slyly original Cold War mystery...
Love in the big city : a novel
Park, Sang Young
Paper Book
A funny, transporting, surprising, and poignant novel that was one of the highest-selling debuts of recent years in Korea, Love in the Big City tells the story of a young gay man searching for happiness in the lonely city of Seoul Love in the Big City is the English...
Bad habit : a novel
Portero, Alana
Paper Book
Dua Lipa's September Book Club Pick! Included in The Guardian's Best Translated Fiction of 2024 "[Bad Habit] shows us that a 'trans novel' can actually be anything it wants to be." -New York Times "A novel that could very well serve as a surrogate mother for future children...
Jazz : a novel
Morrison, Toni.
Paper Book
From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner, a passionate, profound story of love and obsession that brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of Black urban life. With a foreword by the author. "As rich in...
White teeth : a novel
Smith, Zadie.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Updated for the 25th Anniversary with a new introduction by the author * The blockbuster debut novel from "a preternaturally gifted" writer (The New York Times) and author of On Beauty and Swing Time--set against London's racial and cultural tapestry,...
The house of Eve : a novel
Johnson, Sadeqa
Paper Book
"Amazing...I was completely surprised by the ending of this beautifully told and written book." --Reese Witherspoon "A triumph of historical fiction" (The Washington Post), an instant New York Times bestseller, and a Reese's Book Club pick, set in 1950s...
Table for two : fictions
Towles, Amor
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller "This may be Towles' best book yet. Each tale is as satisfying as a master chef's main course, filled with drama, wit, erudition and, most of all, heart." --Los Angeles Times "The book spans the 20th century,...
Harlem shuffle
Whitehead, Colson
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, this gloriously entertaining novel is "fast-paced, keen-eyed and very funny ... about race, power and the history of Harlem all disguised as a thrill...
Harlem rhapsody
Murray, Victoria Christopher
Paper Book
In 1919, as civil unrest grips the county, in a flourishing part of New York City called Harlem, something special is stirring. Here, the New Negro is rising and Black pride is evident everywhere... in music, theatre, fashion and the arts. And there on stage in the center of this renaissance is...
Women of good fortune : a novel
Wan, Sophie
Paper Book
A reluctant bride and her two best friends plot to steal all the gift money from her glitzy high-society wedding in this dazzling, heartfelt, funny novel for fans of Crazy Rich Asians "A glittering debut. Delightful." --Carley Fortune, #1 New York Times ...
The blanket cats
Shigematsu, Kiyoshi
Paper Book
"Utterly charming . . . I would read a hundred of these stories." --Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures Seven struggling customers are given the unique opportunity to take home a "blanket cat" . . . but only for three days,...
The sons of El Rey : a novel
Espinoza, Alex
Paper Book
A "masterful...mesmerizing and unflinching" (Patricia Engel, New York Times bestselling author) story about a family of luchadores contending with forbidden love and secrets in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and beyond. Ernesto Vega has lived many lives, from pig farmer to...
Going home
Lamont, Tom
Paper Book
Going Home is a sparkling, funny, bighearted story of family and what happens when three men--all of whom are completely ill-suited for fatherhood--take charge of a toddler following an unexpected loss Téo Erskine, now in his thirties, has moved on from childish things: He...

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