No Pressure Book Club

 

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get the truth.

 

 

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

A science-fiction classic! Hari Seldon alone can see into the future. With the Galactic Empire dying, he knows a dark age is coming. To create a beacon of hope for future generations, he brings together the best minds of scientists and scholars to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy. This sanctuary will be known as Foundation.

 

 

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

A deadly virus, newly unearthed from melting permafrost, reshapes life on earth for generations. How High We Go in the Dark follows an intricately linked cast of characters across hundreds of years as humanity stubbornly rebuilds their world through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention.

 

 

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Shizuka Satomi has made a faustian deal with the devil and must deliver 7 violin prodigies' souls to escape her own damnation. Runaway Katrina Nguyen might just be her final candidate. But in a donut shop, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn’t have time for crushes or dates but soon finds that a warm smile might just redefine the worth of a soul and be powerful enough to break a curse.

 

 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Welcome to the Wayfarer. Life with the patched-up ship’s diverse crew is chaotic, cathartic, and sometimes dangerous. In the far reaches of deep space, they will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. Secrets will be revealed, wormholes will be tunneled, and a family will be forged.

 

 

The Martian by Andy Weir

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet.

 

 

A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga

A charming middle-grade novel that follows Resilience, rover with very human-like feelings. As millions watch his progress across the dangerous terrain of Mars, Res finds himself tested in unexpected ways. 

 

 

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

All her life Kyr has trained for the day she can avenge the murder of planet Earth. Raised in the bowels of Gaea Station alongside the last scraps of humanity, she readies herself to face the Wisdom, the all-powerful, reality-shaping weapon that gave the Majoda their victory over humanity. But when Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands.

 

 

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet that will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question what it means to be "human".

 

 

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Divorced substitute teacher, Charlie, just wants the bank to approve his loan so he can buy the pub down the street and maybe get his life in order. But things quickly take a turn when he inherits a supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) from his uncle, and all the enemies and complications that come with it.

 

 

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

Leigh is certain about one thing: When her mother died, she turned into a bird. In her search for her mother, she travels to Taiwan to meet her grandparents and winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. As she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, her mother was taking her own life.

 

 

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Sethe 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.

 

 

The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez

When Alma inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic, her homeland, she decides that it might be the place to bury her untold stories—literally. She creates a graveyard for the manuscript drafts and revisions, and the characters whose lives she tried and failed to bring to life. But the stories aren’t done yet and soon take on a life of their own.

 

 

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

When digging foundations for a new housing development, workers didn’t expect to find a human skeleton. But Chicken Hill, a dilapidated neighborhood of immigrant Jews and African Americans side by side, has long shared ambitions, sorrows, and secrets at the margins of white Christian America.

 

 

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach

The start of the summer before Sally enters eighth grade is uneventful, a time for her and her older sister Kathy to hang out at the pool and ogle the cute boy, Billy, at concessions. But the summer ends in tragedy. Set over the span of 15 years, Sally addresses Kathy before, during and after that fateful summer. It’s a love story and a letter to the ways people we love can shape us even after they’re gone.

 

 

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Little Dog, in his late twenties, writes to his mother, who cannot read. The letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. It is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

 

 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

In a series of letters written by new high school student Charlie, we find thoughts and stories singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory.

 

 

The Second Chance Convenience Store by Kim Ho-Yeon

Set in Seoul, South Korea, the elderly owner of a corner store takes in an unhoused man who does a good deed, a man with no memory of his life before. Despite the wariness of the other employees, Dok-go soon wins over the quirky neighborhood. A heartwarming tale of community and redemption.

 

 

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality, they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.

 

 

There There by Tommy Orange

A wondrous and shattering novel that follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American--grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.