Staff Picks: August 2025
Enjoy these Amherst Town Library staff picks!

Alexa's Picks
All my rage
by Sabaa Tahir

When his attempts to save his family's motel spiral out of control, Salahudin and his best friend Noor, two outcasts in their town, must decide what their friendship is worth and how they can defeat the monsters of their past and in their midst.
Not in love
by Ali Hazelwood

A successful biotech engineer, Rue Siebert, when a hostile takeover and its front man, Eli Killgore, threaten to bring her stable, hard-fought world crashing down, is torn between loyalty and undeniable attraction when they embark on a forbidden, no-strings-attached affair that proves all's fair in love and science.
The reappearance of Rachel Price
by Holly Jackson

When her mother, who disappeared 16 years before, reappears while a true crime documentary about her case is being filmed, 18-year-old Bel, not buying her mom's unbelievable story about what happened to her, must uncover the real reason Rachel Price is back from the dead. 
The spellshop
by Sarah Beth Durst

When the Great Library of Alyssium goes up in flames, introverted librarian Kiela and her sentient spider plant flee to the faraway island of her childhood where she opens a spell shop to restore the island's power, coming out of her shell to make a new life for herself.
Angela's Picks
Choosing to run : a memoir
by Des Linden

This inspirational memoir from the two-time Olympian and Boston Marathon winner traces her unique path to the top of professional running and how she built her own personal business model and brand.
London rules
by Mick Herron

Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, MI5 First Desk Claude Whelan navigates political rivals, tabloid speculation, hostile adversaries and the personal problems of his fellow agents while countering a seemingly random string of terror attacks.
Meditation for fidgety skeptics : a 10% happier how-to book
by Dan Harris

The co-anchor of Nightline and author of the best-selling 10% Happier presents a lighthearted, practical guide to meditation that debunks the myths, misconceptions and self-deceptions that make everyday people reluctant to participate.
Lisa W's Picks
Empire of pain : the secret history of the Sackler dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe

The award-winning author of Say Nothing presents a narrative account of how a prominent wealthy family sponsored the creation and marketing of one of the most commonly prescribed and addictive painkillers of the opioid crisis.
The perfect girl
by Gilly Macmillan

Fighting to start over after serving time for her role in a fatal accident, teen musical prodigy Zoe is horrified when her mother is found dead after a career-launching recital, in a high-suspense tale told over the course of 24 hours. By the author of New York Times best-selling author of What She Knew.
Peg's Picks
How to Be a Good Creature : A Memoir in Thirteen Animals
by Sy Montgomery

Understanding someone who belongs to another species can be transformative. No one knows this better than author, naturalist, and adventurer Sy Montgomery. To research her books, Sy has traveled the world and has encountered some of the planet's rarest and most beautiful animals. From tarantulas to tigers, Sy's life continually intersects with and is informed by the creatures she meets. This restorative memoir reflects on the personalities and quirks of thirteen animals--Sy's friends-- and the truths revealed by their grace.
Marriage story

A New York couple hoping for an amicable divorce find themselves in a system that pits them against each other
Remarkable creatures
by Tracy Chevalier

Marked for greatness after being struck by lightning in infancy, Mary Anning discovers a fossilized skeleton near her 19th-century home that triggers attacks on her character and upheavals throughout the religious, scientific and academic communities. By the best-selling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring.
A spool of blue thread
by Anne Tyler

The changing needs of aging parents impact a family gathering during which Abby Whitshank relates how her husband and she fell in love during the summer of 1959 and shared decades of marriage impacted by children and long-held secrets. Reading-group guide available. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Breathing Lessons.
Renee's Picks
How to celebrate everything : recipes and rituals for birthdays, holidays, family dinners, and every day in between
by Jenny Rosenstrach

A best-selling author and the popular blogger behind dinneralovestory.com offers her own personal recipes, traditions, rituals and personal stories to help inspire readers to make lasting memories of family celebrations including birthdays, Sunday dinner, vacations, holidays and smaller occasions.
Piranesi
by Susanna Clarke

Living in a labyrinthine house of endless corridors, flooded staircases and thousands of statues, Piranesi assists the dreamlike dwelling's only other resident throughout a mysterious research project before evidence emerges of an astonishing alternate world.
Skyward
by Brandon Sanderson

The best-selling author of the Mistborn books presents a first entry in a new series about a girl from a world under constant alien attack who dreams of becoming a war-time pilot to determine the fate of humanity's future.
Sarah L's Picks
Chocolat : a novel
by Joanne Harris

A timeless novel of the small French village of Lansquenet's awakening to joy and sensuality tells the story of how bewitching newcomer Vianne Rocher and her chocolate shop arrive and begin to play havoc with everyone's Lenten vows.
The flight of Gemma Hardy : a novel
by Margot Livesey

Overcoming a life of hardship and loneliness, Gemma Hardy, a brilliant and determined young woman, accepts a position as an au pair on the remote Orkney Islands where she faces her biggest challenge yet.
The husbands : a novel
by Holly Gramazio

When she discovers the attic in her London flat is creating an infinite supply of husbands, waking up to a slightly altered life each day, Lauren confronts the question: if swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you've taken the right path?
Sea prayer
by Khaled Hosseini

The #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Kite Runner presents an evocatively illustrated tribute to the tragic human realities of today's refugee crisis in the form of a father's letter to his young son on the eve of a dangerous journey.
Tina's Picks
The It girl
by Ruth Ware

After John Neville, the man convicted of killing her best friend April 10 years earlier, dies in prison, expectant mother Hannah Jones, after new evidence surfaces proving his innocence, reconnects with old friends to solve the mystery of April's death and realizes they all have something to hide—including a murder.
Our country friends : a novel
by Gary Shteyngart

When a group of old friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic, they end up spending six months in isolation during which old betrayals emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most.
Amherst Town Library
14 Main Street
Amherst, New Hampshire 03031
(603) 673-2288

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