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Whether you want something to read on the beach or you want something that will turn you on, there is a book on this list for you.

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ARIES: To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

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I love unreliable narrators. I love having to pay close attention to the words I’m reading to figure out whether I should take them at face value or whether they are complete bullshit. I love playing detective while I read. I love twists and turns and being slapped in the face by the unexpected. 

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An American Marriage by Tayari Jones: This bestseller is about a husband and wife who are torn apart early on in their marriage after he is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit.

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“You are one of 100 boys in a race. You must walk at or over 4 mph, or you are killed by gunshot after 2 warnings. The race ends when one boy is left.”

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“It tells the story of a group of children who manage to tie up their babysitter, and as the realization of the power they have over her sinks in, their games become increasingly violent and humiliating.”

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I have an idea that our political meltdown will be good for art. It imposes a new set of constraints, and for me constraints are liberating.

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“We all have demons inside us, voices that whisper we’re no good, that if we don’t make this promotion or ace that exam we’ll reveal to the world exactly what kind of worthless sacks of skin and sinew we really are.”

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“The husband’s intestines are hanging out while he is being raped, still alive. That’s how the comic starts. It gets bleaker from there.”

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As a first-time novelist, the internet was my go-to guide to the mysterious world of publishing. Yet the Internet only led me so far.