Ocean State Libraries

"Madeline Miller's Circe meets Cersei Lannister in a stunning debut following Clytemnestra, the most notorious heroine of the ancient world and the events that forged her into the legendary queen. As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best... You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign...

The proprietor of a vintage clothing store in Manhattan comes across a journal written by a young woman who wished to become a department store buyer, a goal which--in 1907--meant butting against the prevailing mores that dictated that women be confined to marriage and motherhood.

When Eleanora's father is shot dead on the cobblestone streets of 1910 Albania, she must abandon her dreams and struggle to survive in a remote mountain village with her stepmother Meria. Nearing starvation, Meria sells Eleanora into marriage with the cruel heir of a powerful clan. Intent on keeping her freedom, Eleanora takes an oath to remain a virgin for the rest of her life-- a tradition that gives her the right to live as a man: she is now head...

"Remy is a Chorister, rescued from the surface world and raised to sing in a choir of young boys. Remy is part of a strange crew who control the Leviathan, an aging nuclear submarine, that bears a sacred mission: to trigger the Second Coming when the time is right. But Remy has a secret too--she's the submarine's only girl. Gifted with the missile's launch key by the Leviathan's dying caplain, she swears to keep it safe. Safety, however, is not the...

Art Blastside is bored with life ashore, so she jumps at the chance to return to sea.

"From The Lady's Guide to Swampshire, Volume 1: Acceptable topics of conversation: The weather, hats. Unacceptable topics of conversation: Gossip, France, missing person cases. Feisty, passionate Beatrice Steele has never fit the definition of a true lady, according to the strict code of conduct that reigns in Swampshire, her small English township--she is terrible at needlework, has no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people....

"Walter Schmidt has lived his whole life within the narrow, "comfortable" confines of traditional gender roles: he has made it to retirement without learning how to fry an egg or use a vacuum cleaner. After all, he could always count on his wife, Barbara. But when one morning she can't get up from bed anymore, everything changes. With biting humor and great warmth, Alina Bronsky writes about how Walter, nearing the end of his life, is suddenly forced...

"Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan's She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy. To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything "I refuse to be nothing..." In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness......

"Young widow Constance, in 1900 New Orleans, and widowed and pregnant seamstress, Alice, who, in exchange for lodging, agrees to help her create a beautiful Mardi Gras gown, form an unlikely bond that reveals the truth surrounding Constance's husband's mysterious death."--

Set in medieval times, this coming-of-age story follows Scholastica, or “Tick,” as she sets out to prove to her father that she deserves to be his candle-making apprentice despite being forbidden from helping because she's a girl.