Beloved

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An unflinchingly look into the abyss of slavery, from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner. This spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. With a new afterword. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.

ONE OF FIVE NEW VINTAGE FUTURE CLASSICS READING GUIDE EDITIONS

Arguably Toni Morrison's best novel, Beloved addresses the powerful legacy of slavery and those whose voices have been historically silenced by it. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, Morrison's novel confronts the past in order to heal the present

“This gentle, gorgeously written book may be one of my favorites ever.” —Jenna Bush Hager (A Today show “Read with Jenna” Book Club Selection!) This “moving portrait of love and friendship set against a backdrop of social change” (The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice) traces two married couples whose lives become entangled when the husbands become copastors at a famed New York city congregation in the 1960s. Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart. Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How then, can he fall in love with Lily—fiercely intellectual, elegantly stern—after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? And yet, how can he not? James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante. James’s escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life. In The Dearly Beloved, Cara wall reminds us of “the power of the novel in its simplest, richest form: bearing intimate witness to human beings grappling with their faith and falling in love,” (Entertainment Weekly, A-) as we follow these two couples through decades of love and friendship, jealousy and understanding, forgiveness and commitment. Against the backdrop of turbulent changes facing the city and the church’s congregation, Wall offers a poignant meditation on faith and reason, marriage and children, and the ways we find meaning in our lives. The Dearly Beloved is a gorgeous, wise, and provocative novel that is destined to become a classic.

A people-pleasing bridesmaid-for-hire falls for the crushable new lesbian in town. Will she finally find her happily ever after—and her own voice? ONE OF BUZZFEED’S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022 • “A delightful debut, perfect for any person who’s ever created their own place to belong.”—Casey McQuiston, bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue and One Last Stop Amy, a semicloseted queer baker and bartender in mid-2010s Oklahoma, has spent a lifetime putting other people’s needs before her own. Until, that is, she hits it off with Charley, a brilliant, attractive engineer who’s just moved to Tulsa. Suddenly, Amy’s found something—someone—she actually wants. Her tight-knit group of chosen family is thrilled she’s finally moving on from her ex. Mostly, though, they want Amy to find a way to show up for love—and life—as her authentic self. But when a one-off gig subbing in for a bridesmaid turns into a full-time business—thanks to Amy’s baking talents, crafting skills, and years watching rom-coms and Say Yes to the Dress—her deep desire to please kicks into overdrive, at her own expense. It’s not until Amy’s precarious balancing act strains her relationships to the breaking point that she must decide what it looks like to be true to herself—and if she has the courage to try.

Gregory Orr's ambitious and visionary lyrics explores every dimension of what it is to be human

Despite being raised in a religion and culture that forbids secular music, John has always heard music where others simply hear sound. Entirely self-taught, John composes music that he hides from the world; music that has never been played out loud but exists only inside his mind. Then one day while working in the cornfield, John hears beautiful music coming from a nearby farmhouse. Entranced, he walks towards the music and through an open window sees a beautiful, young lady playing the piano. This chance encounter awakens within his heart the desire to hear his own music played. John places one of his compositions in an envelope along with a note and slides it under the door of the pianist. After a life of glamour, travel and music, acclaimed concert pianist, Elise finds herself facing a personal crisis entirely alone. Needing a quiet, peaceful place to recover and heal, Elise abandons her cosmopolitan life and retreats to the Indiana farmhouse she inherited from her grandparents. Broken-hearted and ill, Elise’s days seem to be filled with darkness and depression until she receives a note and sheet music from a stranger. Intrigued, she plays the composition and finds it to be unique, unorthodox and beautiful. Because the music brings joy into her previously dark days, Elise writes a note in response and leaves it on her doorstep hoping the mysterious person will return and find it. Thus, begins a journey that will take both John and Elise down a path that neither expected to walk. In the days ahead, they will face moral and spiritual dilemmas and will have to answer the question: will they follow God’s plan for their lives no matter how high the cost may be? Come: follow John and Elise on a musical journey that will either bring them the greatest heartache they have ever known or the greatest joy.

Two of the greatest fears in life come in the form of questions we often ask ourselves but rarely say out loud: “Am I okay?” and “Do you love me?” The answer the Gospel gives us is both surprising and just what we need to hear: “No, you are not okay, and, yes, I love you.” Jesus holds these two truths about us together, and this is the good news we desperately need.