BOOKS WE'RE READING

Lady Tremaine is a feminist, historical fiction retelling of Cinderella from the perspective of the "wicked" stepmother, Lady Tremaine. The book reimagines her as a fierce mother fighting for her daughters' futures in a crumbling manor, uncovering dark secrets at the royal ball, and choosing between security and her stepdaughter's well-being. It's praised as a fresh, powerful take on the classic fairy tale, exploring themes of motherhood, female resilience, and the struggles of women in that era. 

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation.

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Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.”

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Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

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Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

The Correspondent is a debut epistolary novel about Sybil Van Antwerp, a retired lawyer who uses letters and emails to navigate life, grief, and past trauma, exploring themes of connection, forgiveness, and the power of the written word in the digital age. The story unfolds through Sybil's correspondence with friends, family, and even literary idols, revealing her witty, complex personality as she confronts a painful period in her past.

Parable of the Sower is a dystopian science fiction novel, published in 1993, that follows teenager Lauren Olamina as she navigates a near-future, climate-ravaged California, chronicling the collapse of society through her diary entries and developing a new religion called Earthseed, which posits that "God is Change" and humanity's destiny is to reach the stars. The story is known for its prescient themes of climate change, social inequality, and survival, as Lauren, who suffers from hyperempathy, flees her destroyed community and gathers followers on a perilous journey north.

I, Medusa is a Greek mythology retelling that reimagines Medusa as a young woman, Meddy, who is transformed into a monster after enduring violence and violation by the gods, particularly Poseidon, leading her to embrace her new identity as a vigilante. The novel explores themes of oppression, sexual assault, and resilience, presenting a feminist origin story that challenges the traditional narrative of Medusa as a one-dimensional monster. It follows her journey from a mortal girl seeking purpose to a powerful figure shaped by rage and heartbreak, caught in the games of the Olympians.