Now Read This!
FEBRUARY 2026
 
Our Now Read This! newsletters offer suggestions for your next favorite read, from hidden gems to the latest hot pick. In this issue, you will find a featured book of the month, a blog post worth checking out, a curated selection of newly acquired and upcoming titles, and booklists for further reading. Whether you prefer epic fantasies or hard sci-fi, your friendly BPL Reader Services Librarians have recommendations for every reader.
 
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Book of the Month
The Astral Library (Deluxe Limited Edition) by Kate Quinn
The Astral Library
by Kate Quinn
 
Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.
 
Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives... inside their favorite books.
Event Spotlight
Short Story Social Club: Ken Liu
Wednesdays, February 11, March 11, & April 8, 4:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Central Library in Copley Square
 
Come listen to and discuss a short story read aloud. Copies of the book will be available at the discussion and you do not need to read anything ahead of time. From February - April 2026 we will be reading from Ken Liu's science fiction/fantasy anthology The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. 
 
Feel free to bring any portable craft projects to work on while we listen and chat.
 
REGISTRATION: Sign up for the event reminder emails here. They go out one week prior to the event. 
 
New and Upcoming Titles
This Brutal Moon by Bethany Jacobs
An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole
Graceless Heart by Ibañez Isabel
This Brutal Moon
Bethany Jacobs
  
"The Jeveni face a brutal fight for their lives and freedom in the conclusion to the Kindom trilogy, a space opera that asks what happens after a genocide."
 
An Arcane Inheritance
Kamilah Cole
 
"Warren University has stood amongst the ivy elite for centuries, built on the bones—and forbidden magic—of its most prized students."
 
Graceless Heart
Isabel Ibañez
 
"Desperate to save her brother in a city where magic is forbidden, Ravenna enters a competition hosted by Florence's most feared immortal family."
 
Pedro the Vast by Simón López Trujillo
The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao
The Wolf and His King: A Spellbinding Queer Fantasy Retelling of the Quintessential Medieval Werewolf Romance by Finn Longman
Pedro the Vast
Simón López Trujillo
 
"Pedro awakens from a coma, the miraculous lone survivor of a fungal disease, to discover that the local priest has proclaimed him a prophet."
 
The Elsewhere Express
Samantha Sotto Yambao
 
"Raya has given up on her dreams, until one day on the subway, as her thoughts wander, she's swept off onto the mysterious Elsewhere Express."
 
The Wolf and His King
Finn Longman
 
"A noble knight hiding the beast inside. A lonely king isolated by his courtiers. Between them an impossible gulf surmountable only by relentless destiny."
 
Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
The Daughter Who Remains by Nnedi Okorafor
The Legend of the Nine-Tailed Fox by Katrina Kwan
Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter
Heather Fawcett
 
"Agnes, who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montreal, turns to a grouchy but charming magician to help save her shelter."
 
The Daughter Who Remains
Nnedi Okorafor
 
"In conclusion to the She Who Knows trilogy Najeeba, now older and wiser, must journey back to the place where she was born."
 
The Legend of the Nine-Tailed Fox
Katrina Kwan
 
"A nine-tailed fox and the demon-hunter who captured her are forced to form a reluctant alliance in order to escape the circles of Hell."
 
Find Your Next Great Read
Climate Apocalypses: 13 Speculative Futures to Avoid
The specter of climate change has inspired authors to imagine not just future versions of Earth, but future versions of humanity. Who will we be and how will we live, if our environment changes in ways we cannot reverse?

For More Suggestions...
Love in Outer Space: 14 Otherworldly Science Fiction Romances
 
 
 
   

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