by Hanya Yanagihara (2015)
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they are broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tethered to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma.
Gabrielle Zevin
On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people upon the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends not to hear him, but then she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom.
Ted Chiang
Including "Story of Your Life"—the basis for the major motion picture Arrival—this visionary collection combines profound human emotion and rigorous scientific inquiry, exploring the consequences of alien contact, mathematical truth, and theological towers.
Natsume Akatsuki
"Kazuma's first winter in another world isn't going so well. With companions like Aqua (Arch-priest), Megumin (Arch-wizard), and Darkness (Crusader), his party of advanced classes should be the most powerful in Axel--but they're so dysfunctional, even the easiest-seeming quest goes terribly awry, and they can barely save enough to afford a stable! When an opportunity arises to stay in a mansion, it's like a dream come true--the only catch is that they have to exorcise the evil spirits haunting it. Goddess Aqua is an expert with the undead, so the quest should be a piece of cake, right...? Unfortunately with this useless goddess, things have a way of working out for the worse..."--Page [4] of cover.
Nora Roberts
Unfinished business: Vanessa Sexton returns to her home town to sort out her life, only to be confused by the presence of her first love Brady Tucker. Local hero: Single mother Hester Wallace reluctantly begins to care about comic book creator Mitch Dempsey.