Gillian

Books: 
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The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession By Michael Finkel Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780525657323
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Knopf - June 27th, 2023

The absolutely riveting true story of a brazen young art thief who strolled into dozens of museums around Europe and just took things! I couldn't put it down!


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All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me By Patrick Bringley Cover Image
$28.99
ISBN: 9781982163303
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Simon & Schuster - February 14th, 2023

All the Beauty in the World is the touching memoir of a young man who responds to personal grief by leaving his glamorous job at the New Yorker to spend ten years as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Amid glorious masterpieces and throngs of museum-goers, he affectionately recounts the rhythms of the museum community he comes to cherish.


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Anna: The Biography By Amy Odell Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9781982122645
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Gallery Books - September 5th, 2023

Hang on to your designer hat for an illuminating foray into the worlds of high fashion and glossy magazines. Amy Odell takes us along on Anna Wintour’s extraordinary journey, from her earliest days growing up in London with a journalist father and activist mother to her unshakeable status as an icon of the fashion world. As a talented, determined young woman storming into a man’s world with a take-no-prisoners attitude, Anna’s story is alternatively inspiring, alarming, sympathetic and horrifying. Throughout, it’s a fascinating romp through the halls of Vogue, Conde Nast and the Met on the arms of a larger-than-life cast of characters. Love her or hate her? Read Anna and decide for yourself!


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The School for Good Mothers: A Novel By Jessamine Chan Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781982156138
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: 37 Ink - February 7th, 2023

After a one-time lapse in parenting judgment, frazzled single-mom Frida is whisked away by the state to its experimental new School for Good Mothers. You will be on the edge of your seat as you watch Frida’s desperate struggle to prove her worth as a mother in order to be reunited with her young daughter Harriet. This gripping story provides terrifying and heartbreaking insights into contemporary society’s impossible standards for motherhood. I couldn’t put it down!


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Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel By Anthony Doerr Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781982168445
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Scribner - September 27th, 2022

Is it possible that Anthony Doerr has surpassed the brilliance of All the Light We Cannot See? Offering a hint of Station Eleven, a whiff of Cloud Atlas and an abundance of nothing you’ve ever encountered, Cloud Cuckoo Land is an absolute marvel. Five sets of characters spin through three distinct time periods: the final days of Constantinople, 21st century small town America, and an uncanny near-future in space. An ancient folktale and a timeworn manuscript are woven gracefully throughout each story binding them, and us, with ageless messages of hope and appreciation for love, endurance, home, books and our planet.


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The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 By Rachel Kushner Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781982157708
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Scribner - March 15th, 2022

I was drawn to these essays by a love for Kushner’s fiction and they definitely didn’t disappoint. Her searing voice and formidable intellect blaze through each sharp portrait of compelling artistic and cultural issues, including her own lawless youth on the San Francisco music scene.


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Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason By Gina Frangello Cover Image
$16.95
ISBN: 9781640095250
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Counterpoint - April 12th, 2022

Gina Frangello bares her soul with unflinching candor as she takes you through the self-inflicted destruction of her marriage. As her story unfolds you despise her, you pity her, you admire her, you want to scream at her and you can't take your eyes off her as she examines the cumulative pressures of a women's traditional place in our society.


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The Harpy By Megan Hunter Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780802159137
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Grove Press - November 16th, 2021

A husband negotiates forgiveness of a betrayal for his wife's freedom to exact three instances of revenge. The specter of what and when they will be hangs over them both. Intense and oh, so imaginative, this story captivated me from the first page.


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Anxious People: A Novel By Fredrik Backman Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781501160844
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Atria Books - July 6th, 2021

When an ill-conceived bank robbery goes horribly wrong, a real estate open house turns into a farcical hostage situation. The determined realtor, the potential buyers, the inept perpetrator and the squabbling police officers are all delightful, if reluctant, participants in this clever, entertaining and poignant escapade.


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The Weekend: A Novel By Charlotte Wood Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780593086445
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Riverhead Books - August 3rd, 2021

No one knows you better than your oldest, dearest friends and perhaps that’s part of the problem for this quartet of older women whose fragile equilibrium is rocked when one of them dies. Faced with insecurities of aging and long-suppressed hurts, the remaining three find the ties that bind them beginning to fray. The Weekend is a poignant look at life-long friends growing older and growing apart.


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Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family By Robert Kolker Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780525562641
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Anchor - March 2nd, 2021

I couldn’t turn away from this fascinating account of the Galvin family as they cope with the devastating impact of schizophrenia on six of their twelve children. Compelling and heartbreaking, this book sheds a light on a poorly-understood disease and the generosity of a unique family who makes itself available for important scientific studies on the role played by genetics.


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The Vanishing Half: A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel) By Brit Bennett Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780525536963
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Riverhead Books - February 1st, 2022

The author of The Mothers has given us another affecting novel about family, relationships and race. At the center of The Vanishing Half are identical twin sisters Stella and Desiree who grow up in Mallard, a small Southern town inhabited entirely by light-skinned African Americans. Inseparable as girls, the twins both long to escape their small town, yet once they break away they embark on very different paths. Stella’s decision to secretly pass as a white woman opens up economic opportunities that her sister never experiences, but her material comfort comes at enormous personal cost. Beautifully written and full of psychological insights and plot twists, Bennett examines the long-reaching consequences of decisions regarding race and community on the twins’ lives, their identities and their families.


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A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth: Stories By Daniel Mason Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9780316477628
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Back Bay Books - January 4th, 2022

What an exquisite book of stories this is! Although varied in setting and voice, each vignette contains characters seeking explanations for phenomena they are grappling to understand. Whether exploring matters of science, faith, magic or merely survival, these elegant, almost Victorian, tales make captivating forays into the intricacies of human nature.


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Simon the Fiddler: A Novel By Paulette Jiles Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062966759
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: William Morrow Paperbacks - April 6th, 2021

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, Simon navigates the harsh Texas landscape in pursuit of two things: a plot of land to purchase and Doris Ahearne - the woman he intends to marry. Standing in his way are Doris’ employer, drunken bandmates, rowdy bar crowds, and his own hot temper. This is a fast-paced adventure story with a tender, musical heart.


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Valentine: A Read with Jenna Pick By Elizabeth Wetmore Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780062913272
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Harper Perennial - March 2nd, 2021

This luminous debut paints a powerful portrait of strong women’s hard-scrabble lives. Gloriously set against the barren landscape of Texas oilfields, Valentine is tightly wound and perfectly crafted.


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Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me By Adrienne Brodeur Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780358361329
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Harper Perennial - July 7th, 2020

A family tale like no other, Wild Game is an unflinching look at the dynamic created when a beloved mother makes her 13-year old daughter her confidante in a love affair with her husband's best friend. As the years go on, unquestioning devotion and complicity between mother and daughter are undermined by their destructive secret.


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How to Catch a Mole: Wisdom from a Life Lived in Nature By Marc Hamer Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781771649940
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Greystone Books - June 14th, 2022

In this charming and lyrical little book, a Welsh gardener eloquently juxtaposes the grim reality of authentic mole-catching with a celebration of the natural world and all its creatures. As he perfects the craft of ridding farmers of a destructive nuisance, he poetically contemplates the role of humanity in taming the world around us. He also teaches us a lot about moles!


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Red at the Bone: A Novel By Jacqueline Woodson Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780525535287
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Riverhead Books - September 1st, 2020

This little book packs a powerful punch! The story of Melody, her young and confused parents, and her formidable grandparents is touchingly rendered in gorgeous poetic language. Jacqueline Woodson has created a treasure.


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Boy Swallows Universe: A Novel By Trent Dalton Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780062898111
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Harper Perennial - April 7th, 2020

Already my favorite book of the year! This extraordinary coming-of-age tale is based on the author's own early life in the suburbs of Brisbane, Australia, where his beloved mother and stepfather were heroin dealers and his babysitter was a notorious prison escapee. Stubborn, charismatic and ever-resilient, Eli Bell is an unforgettable character. 


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In Pieces By Sally Field Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781538763032
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Grand Central Publishing - October 15th, 2019

This is the rare celebrity memoir in which the author's own voice resonates with clarity and truth. Self-reflective, insightful, and fiercely intelligent, Sally Field hits the perfect note as she unfolds the story of a naïve girl with a difficult family, struggling to forge her own path in a world that refuses to acknowledge her potential.  This candid and moving account deserves a standing ovation!  


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Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth By Sarah Smarsh Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781501133107
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Scribner - September 3rd, 2019

I absolutely love Heartland. Through her gorgeous writing, Sarah Smarsh manages to weave memoir, history and social commentary with a lyricism that is both tender and steely. Her focus on the women in her community is heartbreaking and important and she tells their stories with a delicate touch, full of respect, affection, and compassion.


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The Winter Soldier By Daniel Mason Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316477598
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Back Bay Books - September 17th, 2019

Lyrical, romantic, and at times heartbreaking, this is the moving story of an inexperienced medical student conscripted to a skeletal field hospital during the First World War. In this brutal crucible, Lucius learns what he is capable of -- hard work and determination, occasional heroism,  and, more often, human frailty.  Against a bleak background of wartime hardship, this is a magnificent tale of resilience, atonement, and love


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The Mercy Seat By Elizabeth H. Winthrop Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802129611
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Grove Press - April 16th, 2019

The Mercy Seat tells the haunting story of a sweltering summer weekend in a small Louisiana township, where a young man awaits execution in his jail cell and a traveling electric chair wends its way down the highway toward him. Short, exquisitely-drawn chapters describe the impact of this harrowing event on various members of the community. In her sparse, perfectly crafted prose, Winthrop conveys a powerful sense of place permeated with the dreams, tensions, disappointments, and secrets of the imperfect characters it contains. 


The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism By John U. Bacon Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780062666543
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Mariner Books - November 6th, 2018

In 1917, a freighter left NY laden with explosives intended for the trenches of France. Seeking refuge from German U-boats in Halifax harbor, it collided with a Norwegian relief ship which ignited its deadly cargo. The ensuing explosion levelled the city, killing and wounding thousands. The City of Boston immediately rushed in to help, transforming the dynamics of US-Canadian relations. Even now, a Christmas tree arrives on Boston Common each year as an expression of gratitude from Nova Scotia. Bacon gives a gripping account of a staggering but largely-unknown historical event.


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Hamlet Globe to Globe: Two Years, 193,000 Miles, 197 Countries, One Play By Dominic Dromgoole Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780802127969
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Grove Press - April 17th, 2018

In honor of the 450th Anniversary of Shakespeare's birth , the Globe Theatre in London mounted a production of Hamlet and sent it to every country in the world. Some audiences rolled out the red carpet and others understood no English and had never heard of the Danish prince. This beautifully-written and irreverent account of an extraordinary two-year journey across this crazy globe of ours celebrates the universality of a timeless story that resonates from refugee camps to opera houses.


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Salt Houses By Hala Alyan Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781328915856
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Harper Perennial - June 5th, 2018

This graceful and timely novel follows Alia and her family through a series of displacements, from Palestine to Beirut and on to Paris and Boston. Despite heartbreak and misfortune, powerful family bonds help each generation reconnect and create a sense of home wherever the vagaries of war and life deposit them.
 


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The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit By Michael Finkel Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781101911532
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Vintage - January 30th, 2018

Do you remember hearing about Christopher Knight,  the hermit who was caught in the Maine woods after living outdoors for twenty-two years?  It turns out he was only a few miles from home and a few yards from the very cabins he was raiding for supplies! This book tells the incredible story of why he chose to disappear from the world,  how he survived on his own for so long, and what has happened to him since. I couldn't put it down!


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Exit West: A Novel By Mohsin Hamid Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780735212206
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Riverhead Books - February 27th, 2018

The author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist delivers another compelling twist on life in the Middle East. This time, a desperate young couple abandons home and family, escaping a war-torn city by way of hidden doors that rumors promise will lead to a better life.


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The Mothers: A Novel By Brit Bennett Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780399184529
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Riverhead Books - October 10th, 2017

This sharply-observed debut novel about family and friendship is narrated Greek chorus-style in the single voice of elderly church women.  They wisely observe the triangle of relationships between three unforgettable young people in their community, two of whom are grieving the loss of their own mothers.  Brit Bennett is an exciting new storyteller!


The Versions Of Us By Laura Barnett Cover Image
$15.99
ISBN: 9780544947276
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Harper Perennial - April 18th, 2017

When Eva and Jim have a chance encounter in Cambridge, do they meet and fall in love, barely notice each other, or become intrigued but feel duty bound to honor prior commitments?  Each outcome produces a vastly different story but with some intriguing similarities.  As Barnett plays with fate, destiny and choice in this effortless journey in three simultaneous versions of Eva and Jim's lives, we are completely drawn in to each story and the inescapable results of choices made along the way.


Red Sox Rhymes: Verses and Curses By Dick Flavin Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780062391520
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: William Morrow - July 14th, 2015

Absolutely wonderful!  This whimsical collection of poems by Sox announcer Dick Flavin will move baseball fans of all ages to laughter and tears.  Be sure to recite them out loud!


Descent: A Novel By Tim Johnston Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781616204778
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Algonquin Books - December 1st, 2015

I got completely caught up in this unnerving, lyrically-written story of imperfect people coping with unimaginable circumastances.


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The Lifeboat: A Novel By Charlotte Rogan Cover Image
$21.99
ISBN: 9780316185912
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Back Bay Books - January 8th, 2013

Grace is one of 39 passengers who escape a sinking ocean-liner onto an overcrowded lifeboat. On trial for murder as a result of her own choices, Grace describes the best and worst of human behavior under desperate conditions.


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The Snow Child: A Novel By Eowyn Ivey Cover Image
$19.99
ISBN: 9780316175661
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Back Bay Books - November 6th, 2012

A middle-aged couple longing for a child of their own hope for a fresh start on the Alaskan frontier. The reader shares the couple's doubts and wonder when a wild but delicate child emerges from the wilderness and into their lives. 


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The Night Circus: A Novel By Erin Morgenstern Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780307744432
Availability: On our shelves now.
Published: Vintage - July 3rd, 2012

"How did she ever think of that?" I kept asking myself, as I luxuriated in the author's extraordinary descriptions of an enchanted traveling circus, crafted entirely in black and white, and open only from dusk to dawn. Amid tarot card readers, contortionists and acrobatic kittens, rival magicians engage in a deadly competition, leaving circus goers and readers unsure whether they are witnessing magic or merely magic tricks.


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The Tiger's Wife: A Novel By Téa Obreht  Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780385343848
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - November 1st, 2011

The Tiger's Wife is an exquisitely written first novel about a young female doctor in the Balkans, and the stories she learns from and about her beloved grandfather.


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Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison By Piper Kerman Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780385523394
Availability: Usually ships to store in 4-6 days.
Published: Random House - March 8th, 2011

A searing, clear-eyed look at life inside a women’s federal prison. The author describes in detail the relationships and code of behavior among the female prisoners, none of whom have had her own advantages in life.