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

Alex's Picks
Betting on you by Lynn Painter
Betting on you
by Lynn Painter

When they first meet, Bailey and Charlie cannot stand one another, but when they met a year later as coworkers, Charlie secretly bets a colleague he can get Bailey to go out with him, and their relationship gets more complicated as they get closer and closer
These violent delights by Chloe Gong
These violent delights
by Chloe Gong

Set in 1920s Shanghai, a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet follows the star-crossed romance of a flapper-turned-gang leader who must set aside her prejudices to work beside a rival to protect their city from territorial gangsters. 
Alexa's Picks
Behind you is the sea : a novel by Susan Muaddi Darraj
Behind you is the sea : a novel
by Susan Muaddi Darraj

A new novel that gives voice to the diverse residents of a Palestinian American community in Baltimore—from young activists in conflict with their traditional parents to the poor who clean for the rich—shows lives which intersect across divides of class, generation and religion.
Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson
Death at Morning House
by Maureen Johnson

From the best-selling author of the Truly Devious books comes a new standalone YA about teen Marlowe Wexler who uncovers a mystery while working as a tour guide on an island and must solve it before history repeats itself.
Immortal dark by Tigest Girma
Immortal dark
by Tigest Girma

Nineteen-year-old orphan Kidan Adane, heiress to a fallen House of humans tethered to vampiric creatures called draniacs, navigates her duty to foster human-draniac relations, but when her sister is kidnapped, Kidan suspects a draniac and will do anything to find her
Angela's Picks
Atonement : a novel by Ian McEwan
Atonement : a novel
by Ian McEwan

The Booker Prize-winning author of Amsterdam creates a richly textured coming-of-age novel, set in 1935 England, that follows thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis, who witness an event involving her sister Cecilia and her childhood friend Robbie Turner, as she becomes the victim of her own imagination, which tears her family apart and leads her on a lifelong search of truth and absolution. 
Endure : mind, body, and the curiously elastic limits of human performance by Alex Hutchinson
Endure : mind, body, and the curiously elastic limits of human performance
by Alex Hutchinson

An elite distance runner explores the science of human endurance and performance and discusses the cutting-edge studies that show it is the brain—and not heart size, lung capacity or muscle strength—that dictates how far a person can go.
His dark materials. The complete first season  by Dafne Keen
His dark materials. The complete first season

Follows an orphan girl who, in search of her missing friend, uncovers a series of kidnappings, leading her on an epic adventure
Elise's Picks
Clockwork angel by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork angel
by Cassandra Clare

In the prequel to the best-selling The Mortal Instruments series, Tessa Gray descends into Victorian London's dark underworld to search for her missing brother, with the mysterious Shadowhunters as her only allies.
Has Anyone Seen Jessica Jenkins? by Liz Kessler
Has Anyone Seen Jessica Jenkins?
by Liz Kessler

Manifesting an ability to become invisible, Jessica organizes a band of fellow students who also demonstrate supernatural abilities only to be targeted by an unscrupulous adult. By the author of the best-selling Emily Windsnap series.
Felicity's Picks
Alcott Hall by Emily Rath
Alcott Hall
by Emily Rath

When her late aunt leaves her a generous fortune, socially awkward Lady Madeline Blaire believes she's finally found a way out of the high society husband hunt. There's only one problem. To claim it, Madeline must marry by New Year's Eve . . . which is now only three weeks away!
 
Lisa W's Picks
Nothing to see here by Kevin Wilson
Nothing to see here
by Kevin Wilson

Agreeing to help her former college roommate care for two stepchildren who possess the ability to spontaneously combust when agitated, Lillian endeavors to keep her young charges cool in the face of an astonishing revelation.
The second husband : a novel by Kate White
The second husband : a novel
by Kate White

Starting a new life with Tom, a loving widower who makes her feel safe again, Emma, when a police detective shows up asking questions about her first husband's unsolved murder, learns a shocking truth about her second husband that calls everything into question.
Peg's Picks
The boy from the woods by Harlan Coben
The boy from the woods
by Harlan Coben

A man with a past shrouded in mystery searches desperately for a missing teenage girl whose disappearance is triggering disastrous consequences throughout her community and the world. By the best-selling author of Fool Me Once.
Clear : a novel by Carys Davies
Clear : a novel
by Carys Davies

An impoverished 1840s Scottish minister tasked with evicting a hermit from his island home ends up forming an unlikely connection with the man as the pair navigate language, loss and the legacy of forced displacement.
My anecdotal life :  a memoir by Carl Reiner
My anecdotal life : a memoir
by Carl Reiner

The award-winning actor and director recalls the major events in his life through a series of short stories including "Sidney Bechet and His Jazz Band Meet Franz Kafka," "The Birth of the 2000 Year Old Man and His Attending Midwives," and "Mary Tyler Moore Made Me Quake." 
Roman J. Israel, Esq.

An idealistic defense attorney finds himself caught up in a series of events that leads him to take extreme action
Renee's Picks
Arrival  by Amy Adams
Arrival

After alien ships arrive at locations around Earth, a linguist is called in to translate and understand the alien language
The last murder at the end of the world : a novel by Stuart Turton
The last murder at the end of the world : a novel
by Stuart Turton

On an isolated island where 122 villagers and three scientists live in peaceful harmony, one of the scientists is found brutally murdered, which triggers a security system, giving the islanders only 107 hours to solve the murder or be smothered by the fog that destroyed the planet.
Miss Benson's beetle : a novel by Rachel Joyce
Miss Benson's beetle : a novel
by Rachel Joyce

Leaving London behind, Margery Benson, a schoolmarm and spinster in 1950, embarks on a quest to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession– the golden beetle of New Caledonia– with the help of a fun-loving assistant who changes her life forever.
Sarah L's Picks
Into the woods  by Anna Kendrick
Into the woods

When a childless baker and his wife ask a witch to reverse a curse on their family tree, she demands that they retrieve items from a variety of fairy tale characters before she will grant their wish
A reliable wife : a novel by Robert Goolrick
A reliable wife : a novel
by Robert Goolrick

Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman with a troubled past who lives in a remote nineteenth-century Wisconsin town, has advertised for a reliable wife; and his ad is answered by Catherine Land, a woman who makes every effort to hide her own dark secrets
A song for Nagasaki / :  The Story of Takashi Nagai: Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb by Paul Glynn
A song for Nagasaki : The Story of Takashi Nagai: Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb
by Paul Glynn

The story of Takashi Nagai, M.D., professor of radiology at the University of Nagasaki and survivor of the atomic bombing, and of his spiritual pilgrimage from Shintoism to atheistic rationalism, and finally to a Christian faith.
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Travels With My Aunt
by Graham Greene

Travels with My Aunt is the story of Hanry Pulling, a retired and complacent bank manager who meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time at what he supposes to be his mother's funeral. She soon persuades Henry to abandon his dull suburban existence to travel her way—winding through Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, and Paraguay. Through Aunt Augusta, one of Greene's greatest comic creations, Henry joins a shiftless, twilight society; mixes with hippies, war criminals, and CIA men; smokes pot; and breaks all currency regulations.
Woman 99 : a novel by Greer Macallister
Woman 99 : a novel
by Greer Macallister

Going undercover to rescue her wrongly committed sister from a notorious asylum, Charlotte uncovers a dangerous secret about the institution and why their fellow inmates were put away. By the author of The Magician's Lie.
Tina's Picks
Super bloom : a novel by Megan Tady
Super bloom : a novel
by Megan Tady

Massage therapist Joan Johnston works at an iconic Vermont spa, but she's deep in debt, burnt out, and grieving the death of her boyfriend. Spa guest Carmen Bronze, a hotheaded bestselling romance author, offers Joan a chance to pay off her debt by dishing spa secrets for Carmen's next novel. Sounds easy enough until Joan realizes she wants to write the story herself
Women are the fiercest creatures by Andrea Dunlop
Women are the fiercest creatures
by Andrea Dunlop

Three women—Anna, the ex-wife of the charming, manipulative tech wunderkind Jake Sarnoff; Samanta, Jake's college girlfriend; and Jessica, Jake's much younger new wife—find their lives entangled as long-held secrets are forced to the surface, threatening to destroy their families.
Amherst Town Library
14 Main Street
Amherst, New Hampshire 03031
(603) 673-2288

www.amherstlibrary.org
Facebook Instagram