Comsewogue Public Library: Fiction A to Z: December 2025

Recent Releases

The White Hot
by Quiara Alegría Hudes

A fed-up April Soto abandons the home she shares with her eight-year-old daughter Noelle, her mom, and her abuela. She returns days later to leave Noelle with her dad, who'd broken it off with teenaged April when he found out she was pregnant. Then April leaves for good.

Heart the Lover
by Lily King

Like the author’s acclaimed Writers & Lovers (which has ties to this novel), this lyrical story also centers on a love triangle. In a 1980s college literature class, a woman grows close to two best friends, who call her Jordan after a character in The Great Gatsby. She eventually dates one of the men but falls in love with the other. Decades later, they all meet again.

Will There Ever Be Another You
by Patricia Lockwood

As a global pandemic takes hold, a woman falls ill, leading to brain fog, confusion, and obsessions (with Anna Karenina, a particular song, and more). Then she becomes the caregiver when her husband needs emergency surgery.

Evensong
by Stewart O'Nan

In Pittsburgh, a group of aging church women who call themselves the Humpty Dumpty Club help others in myriad ways, by baking cookies, taking care of pets, running errands, and sitting with the sick. Then one of their own has a bad fall. This quietly moving character-driven story portrays the importance of community and chosen family.

The Irish Goodbye
by Heather Aimee O'Neill

After years apart, all three Ryan sisters gather for Thanksgiving at their parents' home on the East End of Long Island. Though each brings her own current issues, it’s the tragic deaths of two young people in the past that cast shadows over all the Ryans.

Minor Black Figures
by Brandon Taylor

One hot New York summer after the worst of COVID, Black painter Wyeth faces a creative block and ponders art and identity as he embraces a project restoring a decades-old work by another Black artist. Then, at a West Village bar, he meets a handsome blond man who’s recently left the seminary.

Pick a Color
by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. Winner of the 2025 Giller Prize.

Palaver
by Bryan Washington

In the weeks before Christmas, a mother arrives unannounced in Japan to visit her estranged son, who isn’t happy to see her. They speak infrequently and haven’t seen each other in years, but can they come to an understanding with each other before it’s too late? Readers who appreciate spare yet evocative tales or stories that center gay men and family in all its forms will enjoy Bryan Washington’s novels.

The Second Chance Cinema
by Thea Weiss

Newly engaged couple Ellie and Drake discover a magical movie theater down a cobblestone alley showing The Story of You. As moments from both of their pasts replay on the big screen, they wrestle with what they learn about each other and revisit their own upsetting secrets in this intriguing debut novel. For fans of: romantic magical realism stories.

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