Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

From the Publisher

What if you couldn't touch anything in the outside world? Never breathe in the fresh air, feel the sun warm your face . . . or kiss the boy next door? In Everything, Everything, Maddy is a girl who's literally allergic to the outside world, and Olly is the boy who moves in next door . . . and becomes the greatest risk she's ever taken.

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I'm allergic to the world. I don't leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He's tall, lean and wearing all black--black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can't predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It's almost certainly going to be a disaster. 

-----NOT RUNNING AS A BOOK GROUP-----

I Am the Cage by Allison Sweet Grant

From the Publisher

Fish Creek, Wisconsin--Beautiful. Quiet. Isolated. Anonymous. It's all that nineteen-year-old Elisabeth needs, and everything she wants. Cloistered in her tiny cabin, Elisabeth is determined to be alone, hiding from her memories and making sure that no one can ever hurt her again.

But when a massive snowstorm strikes, plunging the town into darkness, Elisabeth finally allows herself to accept help from her neighbor, Noah, the town's young sheriff. Forced to show him more vulnerability than she ever intended, Elisabeth realizes she can no longer outrun the scars of her childhood, and facing the darkness might be exactly what she needs to let the light in.

In a searing own-voices story accented by poignant childhood flashbacks and stunning poetry, Allison Sweet Grant's young adult debut is a quietly powerful portrait of a young woman's journey to confront the medical trauma inflicted to "fix" her--and heal her heart in the process. An emotional coming-of-age story about a young woman running away from herself, yet grasping to find a way back. Deeply moving, authentically raw, and humming with the possibility of a new love. 

-----NOT RUNNING AS A BOOK GROUP-----

A Life Impossible : living with ALS : finding peace and wisdom within a fragile existence by Steve Gleason

From the Publisher

From NFL player Steve Gleason, a powerful, inspiring memoir of love, heartbreak, resilience, family, and remarkable triumph in the face of ALS

In 2011, three years after leaving the NFL, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease that takes away the ability to move, talk, and breathe. Doctors gave him three years to live. He was thirty-three years old. As Steve says, he is now ten years past his expiration date.

His memoir is the chronicle of a remarkable life, one filled with optimism and joy, despite the trauma and pain and despair he has experienced. Writing using eye-tracking technology, Gleason covers his pre-ALS life through the highs and lows of his NFL career with the New Orleans Saints, where he made one of the most memorable plays in Saints history, leading to a victory in the first post-Katrina home game, uplifting the city, making him a hero, and reflected in a nine-foot bronze statue outside the Superdome. Then came his heartbreaking diagnosis. Gleason lost all muscle function, he now uses Stephen Hawking-like technology to communicate, and breathes with the help of a ventilator. This book captures Gleason and his wife Michel's unmatched resilience as they reinvent their lives, refuse to succumb to despair, and face his disease realistically and existentially.

This unsparing portrait argues that a person's true strength does not reside solely in one's body but also in the ability to face unfathomable adversity and still be able to love and treasure life. 

-----NOT RUNNING AS A BOOK GROUP-----

When You're Ready : a love story by Kareem Rosser

From the Publisher

An unforgettable and heartrending love story that will break your heart and piece it back together.

Kareem Rosser and Lee Lee Jones were young, beautiful, and deeply in love. Their love was a real-world romance that felt like a fairy tale: Kareem was raised in the Bottom -- one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Philadelphia -- while Lee Lee was raised in the wealth of the Pennsylvania suburbs. They met and fell in love in the world of horses: Kareem, a nationally ranked polo player and Lee Lee, a legacy equestrian. The world was at their feet, a lifetime of joy and adventure ahead of them. But their love story is interrupted by a devastating accident, which almost costs Lee Lee her life, and destroys every plan and dream that Lee Lee and Kareem had made together.

In the months and years that follow, while Lee struggles to heal, Kareem is crippled by ambiguous grief, for the woman that he loves and for the future he imagined for them both. He feels buried alive. In the space between debilitating grief and bursts of anxiety, he's forced to finally face his demons: his tumultuous childhood, his latent mental health issues, the murders of his older brother and his best friend, and a life constantly lived in the grip of panic and fear.

Honest and captivating, When You're Ready is a narrative that honors love in all its forms: first love, parental love, renewed love, and, most importantly, self-love. With notes on unresolved loss and second chances, it's a story that will grab you by the heartstrings and uplift your soul.