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I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang

After getting rejected from Harvard and every other Ivy League she applied to, Jenna is tired of being herself. Her cousin, Jessica Chen, seemingly has it all-- including the grades to get accepted into Harvard. After a family dinner leaves her feeling humiliated and not enough for her family, Jenna makes a wish on a shooting star: she wishes that she could be her cousin, Jessica. She doesn't expect to actually wake up as Jessica Chen, with everyone forgetting who Jenna Chen even is-- with the exception of her childhood friend/the boy who broke her heart, Aaron Cai.

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

How would a twelve-year old boy survive losing his entire family of origin, mother, father, and older brother, in plane crash? How would he cope with being the only survivor of the crash, which took, in addition to his family, nearly two hundred passengers and crew? How could anyone survive this?

Tom Lake by Anne Patchett

She did it again: with her latest novel, Tom Lake (2023), Ann Patchett has created a story that is accessible, believable, meaningful, and moving, a down-to-earth tale about a family of five, trying to keep their cherry farm in northern Michigan afloat during the global pandemic, the horrors of which are kept at a relatively safe remove.

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

Crossroads (2021) is the first novel I’ve read by Jonathan Franzen, an author who made a big splash when his first novel, The Corrections, was released, just over twenty years ago now. Franzen has gone on to write other popular novels (with single word titles), including Freedom and Purity, along with multiple essay collections.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

A lesser known title in Jane Austen's collection of novels, Mansfield Park is certainly a wild ride and does not disapoint in all that is ridiculous and full of drama. Heroine Fanny Price is born to a poor family with many, many siblings, and is taken in by her aunt and uncle who can afford to give her a proper, respectable upbringing. Her experience in her new home, Mansfield Park, is something to be desired as her family members constantly treat her as their servant, entertainment, and charity case, while they behave in the most selfish, unobservant way possible.