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Life of Pi
by Yann Martel

Pi Patel, a zookeeper's son, sets sail for America with his family, but when the ship sinks, he finds himself lost at sea on a life boat with four animals, which eventually dwindle down to one--a hungry Bengal tiger.

One of Sarah Vessalo's favorites.

A Complicated Kindness
by Miriam Toews

Doomed to work at the Happy Family Farm, a chicken slaughterhouse in a town run by religious fundamentalists, sixteen-year-old Nomi Nickel nevertheless manages to bear witness to the dissolution of her family with a dark, sly wit.

One of Laura Scott's favorites.

The Things They Carried
by Tim O'Brien

A collection of interconnected fictional stories follows the members of an American platoon fighting in the Vietnam War, in a book that mirrors the author's own wartime experiences.

One of Neal Quigley's favorites.

You Should Have Known
by Jean Hanff Korelitz

A successful New York City oncologist with the perfect family she always wanted has her life turned upside after her husband goes missing and a chain of horrible revelations sends her reeling, in this new novel from the author of Admission.

One of Cathy Thompson's favorites.

The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver

In 1959, Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist who has taken his wife and four daughters on a mission to the Belgian Congo, finds that their traditions are no longer secure in this very different world, in a powerful story set against the backdrop of the Congo's battle for independence from Belgium.

One of Lynn Zmija's favorites.

Night Film
by Marisha Pessl

When the daughter of an enigmatic cult horror film director is found dead in an abandoned Manhattan warehouse, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath, disbelieving the official suicide ruling, probes into the strange circumstances of the young woman's death while being drawn into the director's eerie world. By the author ofSpecial Topics in Calamity Physics.

One of Rachel Depcik's favorites.

A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving

While playing baseball in the summer of 1953, Owen Meany hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother, and he becomes convinced that he is an instrument of God.

One of Claire Griebler's favorites.