neurodivergent: differing in mental or neurological function from what is considered typical or normal (frequently used with reference to autistic spectrum disorders); not neurotypical.
Check out our April reads that feature characters who are neurodivergent.
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"Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods; she drinks only carbonated beverages; she avoids clocks. It's 1988, before autism was widely diagnosed. Sunday has an old etiquette handbook that guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly, her clever, headstrong teenage daughter, now on the cusp of leaving their home in the Lake District of England. When the glamourous Vita and Rollo move in next door, the couple disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday's book. Soon they are spending loads of time together, and Sunday feels acknowledged like never before. But underneath Vita and Rollo's allure lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daughter of her own" --
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Book
Call Number:
FIC Llo
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All the things we don't talk about
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"Morgan Flowers has spent their adolescence following all the rules. Raised by their neuro-divergent father Julian and recently deceased grandmother, nonbinary Morgan grew up painfully aware of all they needed to do to stay out of trouble and maintain their scholarship, and of their mother Zoe's absence. Dazzling, dangerous, and increasingly alcoholic Zoe, who fled to Europe on a trust fund, believed that Julian and his mother would raise Morgan better than she could've. And she's right, in a sense. Julian has raised Morgan with care, but now at seventeen, Morgan is struggling with gender and trauma, while falling in love with the only other scholarship kid at school, in ways Julian can't quite understand. When Zoe reappears in New York on a bender after her ex kicks her out of their Lisbon apartment, she upends each of their lives. Through it all, Zoe's ex Brigid has been an unlikely pen-pal for Julian, whose autism keeps him at an arm's length from everyone besides Morgan--but Brigid understands what it's like to love and lose Zoe, and their secrets feel safe with each other. And when Zoe's return propels Morgan into a dizzying series of mistakes, Brigid might be the link that can pull them back from the edge" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Fel
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Eve, the flightiest Brown sister, finds it's time to grow up and prove herself, even though she's not entirely sure how. But when she crashes into the life of Jacob Wayne, an uptight B&B owner, she has him falling hard, literally. Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to "help." Before long, she has infiltrated his work, the heat between them is impossible to ignore, and it might just be melting Jacob's frosty exterior.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Hib
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In the blazing hot summer of 1994, there’s nothing for Cora Mowat to do but hang around in empty parking lots. Stuck in her Mom’s small house and tired of her own restless mind, she’s desperate to break free of the limits of Fife but unsure of what the future holds--if it holds anything at all for a girl like her trying to find her way in the world. After her mother invites a new man to live with them, tensions quickly rise in the cramped house. Gunner is kind but strange, too--a one-eyed shoplifter with more than a few hidden secrets. But when tragedy strikes shortly after, Cora rebels against her small-town existence in search of love, acceptance, and a path to something good. If only she can learn to navigate her grief and everything she thinks she knows about who she is and what she might be capable of, she may finally find the way forward.
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Book
Call Number:
FIC New
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The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things--the strange and the unexplainable--began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned. As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents' death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family's past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a "natural" death for their parents . . . but was it supernatural? 10/28
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Sol
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Don Tillman, a professor of genetics, sets up a project designed to find him the perfect wife, starting with a questionnaire that has to be adjusted a little as he goes along. Then he meets Rosie, who is everything he's not looking for in a wife, but she ends up his friend as he helps her try and find her biological father.
Format:
Kit
Call Number:
Book Club Kit FIC Sim
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"Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war"--Page 4 of cover.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Sol
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New & Best List
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Description:
It all begins with a fugitive billionaire and the promise of a cash reward. Turtles All the Way Down is about lifelong friendship, the intimacy of an unexpected reunion, Star Wars fan fiction, and tuatara. But at its heart is Aza Holmes, a young woman navigating daily existence within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Gre
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The Fifth Season: Every Age Must Come To An End
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A season of endings has begun. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
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Book
Call Number:
FIC Jem
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Super-intelligent AI Gods rule the galaxy. Their algorithms determine the rewards you reap before and after death. But the Gods give and the Gods take away. And Yasira has never been good at Gods. Autistic scientist Yasira Shien has developed a radical new energy drive on board The Pride of Jai that could change the future of humanity. But when she activates it, reality warps, destroying the space station and everyone left inside. The Gods declare her work heretical, and Yasira is abducted by their agents. Instead of simply executing her, the offer mercy - if she'll help them hunt down a bigger target: her mysterious, vanished mentor. With her homeworld's fate in the balance, Yasira must choose who to trust: the Gods and their ruthless post-human angels, or the rebel scientist whose unorthodox mathematics could turn her world, literally, inside out.
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Book
Call Number:
FIC Hof
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Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. A brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his odd behavior, he is designated the ship's artist in residence in order to document the journey with images. Caden pretends to join his school's track team but spends his days walking for miles, absorbed by the thoughts in his head; he is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny. Caden Bosch is torn.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Shu
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"In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2034, a comet is due to hit the Earth within the hour. Denise, who's sixteen years old and autistic, must try to find her missing sister and also help her neglectful, undependable mother safely aboard a spaceship"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Duy
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London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old trans, autistic Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife. After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness--a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness--and shipped away to Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium. When the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its guts to the world--so long as the school doesn’t break him first.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Whi
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High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality--Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more. But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won't say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork--whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew's wicked stories. Desperate to figure out what's wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster--Thomas's drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator. 11/25
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Book
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YA FIC Dre
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"There's much ado about everything when two adversaries become allies and fake a relationship to fool their meddling friends in this reimagining of Much Ado About Nothing. Jamie and Bea have nothing in common except a meet-disaster and the mutual understanding that they couldn't be more wrong for each other. But when the people closest to them play Cupid and trick them into dating, Jamie and Bea realize they have something else in common after all--an undeniable need for revenge. Soon their plan is in place: Fake date. Obnoxiously. Convince the meddlers they're madly in love. Then, break up. Spectacularly. Dash everyone's hopes and put a stop to the matchmaking madness--once and for all. To convince everyone they've actually fallen for each other, Jamie and Bea will have to nail the performance of their lives. But as their final act nears and playing parts becomes easier than not, what once felt fake now seems all too real. What if Cupid's arrow wasn't so off the mark? And what if two wrongs do make a right?" --
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Book
Call Number:
FIC Lie
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Store worker Keiko, the perfect employee, is happy with her life. When family and coworkers pressure her to marry and find a proper profession, her world is upended. Will it be for the better?
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Mur
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"Plain, poor, plus-size, and autistic, Alesta grew up trying to convince her beauty-obsessed kingdom that she's too useful to be sacrificed. Their god blessed their island Soladisa as a haven for his followers, but to keep the devil at bay, the church sends a child sacrifice to hell's entrance every season--often poor or plain girls just like Alesta. With a head full of ideas for inventions, Alesta knows her best shot at making it to adulthood is to design something impressive for the festival exhibition so she might win a spot in the university--acceptance could guarantee her safety. But Alesta's flying machine demonstration goes awry, a failure that will surely mean death. What happens is worse: her best friend and heir to the throne, Kyrian, takes the blame expecting leniency--but ends up sacrificed in her place. To stop the sacrifices forever, Alesta plans to kill the monster that killed her friend. Prepared to save her kingdom or die trying, she travels to the depths of hell only to find Kyrian--alive, but monstrously transformed. There is no escaping hell or their growing feelings for one another, and the deeper they descend into hell, the closer they come to uncovering a truth about the sacrifices that threatens to invoke the wrath of not only monsters but the gods as well" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Sch
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Friends Finn, Liva, Maddy, Carter, and Ever begin a farewell round of the game they have played for three years, but each is hiding secrets and the game itself seems to turn against them.
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Book
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YA FIC Nij
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Astrophysicist Cammie Skoura has joined the first research team traveling to the Nether anomaly, eager to understand the mechanics of the wormhole and to explore its possibilities as a shortcut to Alpha Centauri. But another race of ancient beings has already been here, an impossibly long time ago, leaving remnants of their vast complexes and gigantic temples built for horrific beings beyond comprehension. Cammie and the crew of Nether Station must find the answers before the darkest part of the cosmos swallows them up.
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Book
Call Number:
FIC And
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New & Best List
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Struggling with Asperger's, Rose shares a bond with her beloved dog, but when the dog goes missing during a storm, Rose is forced to confront the limits of her comfort levels, even if it means leaving her routines in order to search for her pet.
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Book
Call Number:
J FIC Mar
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Twelve-year-old Clea wants to do her homework, follow instructions, pay attention in school, and play chess on the school team, but somehow she cannot focus on whatever is in front of her, and the other kids at school are starting to notice and make fun of her; when her worried parents take her to be tested she finds out that she has ADHD (only without the hyperactivity)-and with help from the psychiatrist who seems to really understand her she is determined to learn how to focus.
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Book
Call Number:
J FIC Ger
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London banking heiress Hattie Greenfield wanted just three things in life. One: Acclaim as an artist. Two: A noble cause. And three: Marriage to a young lord who puts the "gentle" in gentleman. Why then does this Oxford scholar find herself at the altar with the darkly attractive financier Lucian Blackstone, whose murky past and ruthless business practices strike fear in the hearts of Britain's peerage? Trust Hattie to take an invigorating little adventure too far. Now she's stuck with a churlish Scot who just might be the end of her ambitions.... When the daughter of his business rival all but falls into his lap, Lucian sees opportunity. As a self-made man, he has vast wealth but holds little power, and Hattie might be the key to finally setting long-harbored political plans in motion. Driven by an old desire for revenge, he has no room for his new wife's apprehensions or romantic notions, bewitching as he finds her. But a sudden journey to Scotland paints everything in a different light. Hattie slowly sees the real Lucian and realizes she could win everything--as long as she is prepared to lose her heart.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Dun
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New & Best List
The Way She Feels : My Life On The Borderline In Pictures And Pieces
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"A witty and one-of-a-kind debut graphic memoir detailing and drawing the life of a girl with borderline personality disorder finding her way-and herself-one day at a time. What does it feel like to fall in love too hard and too fast, to hate yourself inequal and opposite measure? To live in such fear of rejection that you drive friends and lovers away? Welcome to my world. I'm Courtney, and I have borderline personality disorder (BPD), along with over four million other people in the United States. Though I've shown every classic symptom of the disorder since childhood, I wasn't properly diagnosed until nearly a decade later, because the prevailing theory is that most people simply "grow out of it." Not me. In my illustrated memoir The Way She Feels: MyLife on the Borderline in Pictures and Pieces, I share what it's been like to live and love with this disorder. Not just the hospitalizations, treatments, and residential therapy, but the moments I found comfort in cereal, the color pink, or mini corn dogs; the days I couldn't style my hair because I thought the blow-dryer was going to hurt me; the peace I found when someone I love held me. This is a book about vulnerability, honesty, acceptance, and how to speak openly-not only with doctors, co-patients, friends, family, or partners, but also with ourselves"-- Provided by publisher.
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Book
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A year ago, Millie lost her legs and her filmmaking career in a failed suicide attempt. Just when she's sure the credits have rolled on her life story, she gets a second chance with the Arcadia Project: a secret organization that polices the traffic to and from a parallel reality filled with creatures straight out of myth and fairy tales. For her first assignment, Millie is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star who also happens to be a nobleman of the Seelie Court. To find him, she ll have to smooth-talk Hollywood power players and uncover the surreal and sometimes terrifying truth behind the glamour of Tinseltown. But stronger forces than just her inner demons are sabotaging her progress, and if she fails to unravel the conspiracy behind the noble's disappearance, not only will she be out on the streets, but the shattering of a centuries-old peace could spark an all-out war between worlds. No pressure."
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Book
Call Number:
FIC Bak
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Description:
"Everyone knows Miz Poppy, the vibrant reviewer whose commentary brightens the New Orleans nightlife. But no one knows Hollyn Tate, the real face behind the media star...or the fear that keeps her isolated. When her boss tells her she needs to add video to her blog or lose her job, she's forced to rely on an unexpected source to help her face her fears. When aspiring actor Jasper Deares finds out the shy woman who orders coffee every day is actually Miz Poppy, he realizes he has a golden opportunity to get the media attention his acting career needs. All he has to do is help Hollyn come out of her shell...and through their growing connection, finally find her voice" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Lor