Save Your Own — Elisabeth Brink

Meet Gillian Cormier-Brandenburg: a virginal, narcoleptic, atheistic Harvard Divinity School student struggling to finish her Ph.D. thesis. Gillian is barely equipped for life outside the walls of academia-but when her fellowship is revoked, she has no choice but to venture into the wider world. In need of a new source of income as well as interview subjects for her dissertation, she takes a job at a halfway house for recovering addicts. Charged with the unlikely task of imposing order on the unruly tenants, including motorcycle-obsessed Janet, former prostitute Florine, and house martyr Stacy, pintsize Gillian is challenged in new and unexpected ways every time she reports for work. Eventually her anxiety gives way to a newfound confidence as her time spent at Responsibility House leads her not only to accept those around her but also to accept herself. A delightful read for anyone who has ever wished they could be a little more than they are, Save Your Own is the perfect self-made Cinderella story.