 Supporting COMMUNITY. Inspiring DISCOVERY. Promoting LITERACY. |
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| The Ascent by Allison BuccolaTwenty years after being the sole survivor of a now-vanished doomsday commune whose members vanished overnight, Lee Burton’s carefully built life begins to unravel. A stranger's sudden offer of answers pulls her back into the mystery she’s long tried to forget, forcing her to confront secrets, rising paranoia, and the fragility of motherhood and identity. |
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| Once Was Willem by M.R. CareyIn 12th century England, recently deceased 12-year-old Willem returns from the grave in the village of Cosham, only to be ostracized and outcast to the forest. As Once-Was-Willem befriends other supernatural creatures, the sorcerer who brought him back claws for more magic and more power...even if it means the lives of all the children of Cosham. M.R. Carey's latest is "a dark and hopeful fable with obvious contemporary resonance" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Parallel lines
by Edward St. Aubyn
The fates of Sebastian and his therapist Martin, as well as radio producer Olivia, best friend Lucy, and husband Francis, are improbably yet inextricably linked in a novel about extinction and survival, inheritance and loss.
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| Only Lovers in the Building by Nadine GonzalezLooking for a fresh start after quitting her job in corporate law, New Yorker Lily Lyon books a summer rental at a gorgeous art deco apartment building in Miami, where she meets author Ben Romero, a fellow bibliophile who suggests they form a poolside book club. When their co-written book reviews go viral, they land a podcast deal -- but with summer’s end approaching, Lily’s afraid to make the jump from friendship to something more. For fans of: Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee. |
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The girls who grew big
by Leila Mottley
Banished to her grandmother's small Florida town after becoming pregnant at sixteen, Adela finds an unlikely sisterhood among a group of young mothers who, despite societal judgment, support each other through friendship, love, and the complexities of motherhood and adolescence.
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| Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes by Sandra Jackson-OpokuRecently widowed Savvy Summers runs a Chicago soul food restaurant and catering business in this engaging series opener that includes recipes. But after a customer dies and people blame her, she must figure out what really killed the man to save herself and her livelihood. Thankfully she has help from her gossipy sous-chef and her cop ex-husband. Try this next: Abby Collette’s Books and Biscuits Mysteries; Danielle Arceneaux’s Glory Broussard Mysteries. |
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| Fonseca by Jessica Francis KaneMining a real 1952 trip to Mexico by Penelope Fitzgerald, this “masterful” (Publishers Weekly) novel follows the acclaimed English writer as she travels with her six-year-old son while broke and pregnant. She’s come at the behest of the eccentric Delaney sisters, who’ve dangled an inheritance before her, but it turns out, she's not the only one. For fans of: Penelope Fitzgerald; witty stories starring real people. |
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| People Like Us by Jason MottJason Mott follows up his National Book Award-winning Hell of a Book with this funny, moving, and surreal tale of two Black writers pondering race, loss, and survival. One of them, who specializes in grief, is at a Minnesota college where a shooting recently occurred, and the other, who just won a big award, is on a book tour in Europe. Try this next: Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour. |
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| Love Is A War Song by Danica NavaAfter Muscogee pop star Avery Fox becomes a pariah following an ill-advised Rolling Stone photoshoot, she retreats to her grandmother's horse ranch in Oklahoma to learn more about her heritage. When grumpy ranch hand Lucas Iron Eyes catches her eye, she finds herself torn between returning to the life she thought she wanted and the one she's just now getting to explore. For fans of: Colton Gentry's Third Act by Jeff Zentner. |
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| The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo NicholsElderly Mrs. B. rents her Santa Barbara, California, cottages to people who need help in this charming 1st in a series. When her newest renter, an ex-convict, is blamed when a body is found nearby, Mrs. B. sets out to prove his innocence with help from other tenants, including a single mom and her kids, an agoraphobic man, and a workaholic perfectionist. For fans of: Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building; Richard Osman; Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Vera Wong Mysteries. |
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| Greenteeth by Molly O'NeillWhen Temperance, falsely accused of witchcraft, is thrown into a lake, she is unexpectedly rescued by a sharp-toothed monster lurking within its depths. This monster, Jenny Greenteeth, forms an unlikely alliance with Temperance to save the town and Britain from an encroaching evil. For fans of: richly detailed fantasy laden with monsters who are more than their fangs, such as Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. |
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| The Original by Nell StevensIn 1899, 25-year-old Grace Inderwick, who has face blindness, travels with her aunt to Rome to meet someone claiming to be her cousin Charles, thought to have been lost at sea years ago. While Grace ponders growing up with her cold relatives and her remarkable ability to copy paintings, she and others wonder if the man is an imposter hoping to inherit a sizeable English estate. For fans of: captivating, evocative stories about art forgery; Sarah Waters; Emma Donoghue. |
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| The Satisfaction Café by Kathy WangHaving left Taiwan in the 1970s to attend Stanford graduate school, Joan marries a fellow student, but that lasts mere weeks. She stays in California, unexpectedly drawn to a wealthy, thrice-divorced older man. They marry, and in this quietly powerful portrait, Joan becomes a stepmother, a mother, a widow, and the owner of café designed to combat loneliness. For fans of: The Healing Season of Pottery by Yeon Somin; Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. |
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A bomb placed close to the heart : a novel
by Nishant Batsha
"An expansive and poignant novel of love, radical ambition, and intellectual rebirth set at the dawn of World War I. At a party near Stanford University's campus in 1917, Cora Trent, a graduate student raised in the rugged mining towns of the American West, meets Indra Mukherjee, an Indian revolutionary newly arrived in California. Indra is grieving the recent loss of a friend and unsure of the place violence has in the cause of national liberation, while Cora is seeking a new life that stays true to herambitions as a writer and an idealist. They spark an instant connection, and their passionate romance deepens as they attend protests alongside anticolonial dissidents and socialize with radical thinkers in Berkeley and Palo Alto. All the while, Indra awaits orders from a mysterious German spymaster. As the United States is drawn into the war in Europe, Cora and Indra quickly marry in a climate increasingly intolerant of dissent. When news of arrests threatens their future together, they are forced to flee to New York City with the hope that they can avoid the attention of the British and American authorities. Trying to find footing in their new life, Cora and Indra must reckon with divergent ambitions that challenge the foundations of their hasty marriage-and their freedom. Profound, immersive, tenderly written, and with finely wrought characters drawn from the forgotten archives of American history, A Bomb Placed Close to the Heart is an extraordinary story of a marriage caught at the intersection of radical politics and everyday life"
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| Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas BoggsDrawing on interviews and previously unreleased archival materials, National Humanities Center fellow Nicholas Boggs’ moving and intimate biography of writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin examines how his personal relationships impacted his life and career. Further reading: James Baldwin: Living in Fire by Bill V. Mullen. |
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| A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought... by Haley Cohen GillilandYale Journalism Initiative director Haley Cohen Gilliland’s compelling debut spotlights the Argentinian grandmothers who founded the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in 1977 and stood up to their government’s military dictatorship to help locate their kidnapped grandchildren. Further reading: The Disappeared by Rebecca J. Sanford, a historical fiction novel about the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. |
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| Black Genius: Essays on an American Legacy by Tre JohnsonCultural critic Tre Johnson's impassioned debut essay collection examines the ways in which Black genius is overlooked and undervalued, revealing how gentrification, cultural appropriation and extraction, and policy undermine Black creatives' accomplishments. For fans of: How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill edited by Jericho Brown. |
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| Dream On by Shannon Hale; illustrated by Marcela CespedesWith a too-big family, too-intense emotions, and a too-cool best friend, life feels like too much for fourth-grader Cassie. When a letter from a magazine contest declares that she’s a winner, Cassie immediately starts fantasizing about how the promised prizes could fix all her problems. For fans of: author Shannon Hale’s Friends series and other honest, heartfelt graphic novels about the ups and downs of everyday life. |
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A perfect mistake
by Melanie Conklin
Eleven-year-old Max struggles with his ADHD and making mistakes, so when a mistake leaves one friend in a coma and another shutting him out, Max resolves to find out what really happened that night.
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Into the wild magic
by Michelle Knudsen
"Eleven-year-old Bevvy spends her time avoiding other kids, playing with her neighbor's kittens, and escaping into her fantasy novels. When new girl Cat arrives at school, Bevvy thinks she may finally have found a friend, until Cat provokes Bevvy's worsttormentor and leaves her alone to deal with the consequences. Later, on Bevvy's doorstep, Cat's apology is cut short when a car with dark windows rolls up. Bolting into a nearby wood with Bevvy in tow, Cat proceeds to open a hole, in the air, just in time. Bevvy knows magic when she sees it, the kind in books, but the world the girls escape to-teeming with unicorns, sorcerers, and dragons-is shockingly, exhilaratingly real. It's a world at war. Those who wield wild magic, in tune with nature, are pitted against dark sorcerers. As Bevvy's role in the struggle grows, and her confidence with it, can she trust Cat to support her? Can she trust herself not to run? An acclaimed author builds a breathtaking and emotionally resonant world where magic and monsters are real and friendship and risk go hand in hand"
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Mary Riley Styles Public Library
120 N. Virginia Ave, Falls Church, Virginia 22046 703-248-5030 (TTY 711) www.mrspl.org
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