The night before Abi turned 16, her brother vanished. That same year, she begins to receive strange packages in the mail: chapters from an odd little self-help book called The Guidebook. Those chapters provided hope when she needed it, and have always felt intimately connected to her brother’s unsolved disappearance. When, at age 35, she’s invited to a retreat on a remote Australian island to learn the truth about The Guidebook, she can’t say no. The truth is bewildering, but for the first time in years, hope does begin to glimmer again. The style is quirky and playful, the sense of humor wry. Gravity is sad but heartwarming, tender and funny, a little familiar yet wholly original. For fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and Nine Perfect Strangers.

When single mother Anna loses her job, her friend secures her a position at Sydney’s Time Travel Agency. The shop’s inauspicious location makes it hard for employees to convince prospective patrons that the “time travel” part is real and not a fancy arcade experience. Anna loves her work, and throws herself into helping the struggling agency turn a profit: my favorite bits involve her repeatedly going back in time to meet her favorite authors and craft historical literary tours for their customers. But she’s plenty distracted by her present-tense struggles, especially her huge crush on a customer and her daughter’s middle-school drama. Despite the high concept premise, this is a warm and gentle story about figuring out love and life. For fans of Moriarty’s Gravity Is the Thing and Holly Gramazio’s The Husbands.