Staff Picks Newsletter for Adults
November 2025
New Fiction
The girl in the green dress : a mystery featuring Zelda Fitzgerald by Mariah Fredericks
The Girl in the Green Dress
by Mariah Fredericks
 
New York, 1920. Zelda Fitzgerald is at loose ends. Atlanta journalist Morris Markey is lost in every way. When the notorious Joseph Elwell is found shot through the head, the fortunes of these two southerners collide. Zelda encountered Elwell at the scandalous Midnight Frolic revue on the night of his death, and Markey saw him hours before with a mystery woman dressed in green. Markey has his story. Zelda has her next adventure. As they investigate who wanted the man dead, Zelda sweeps Markey into her New York: the heady, gaudy Jazz Age of excess, as the lost generation takes its first giddy steps into a decade-long spree. As they follow dangerous desires, the pair close in on what really happened that night and hunt for the elusive girl in the green dress.
Honey and heat by Aurora Palit
Honey and Heat
by Aurora Palit
 
Cynthia Kumar is successful, competitive, and knows exactly what she wants: to be the heir to her father's business. Except, her father just chose his successor and it's not her- it's her one-night stand. Rohit Patel can't believe his luck. He's landed the opportunity of a lifetime and the woman he just spent the night with could be the love of his life. Except she's his boss's daughter and she hates him. When Kumar Constructions falls under scrutiny, both are determined to see its tarnished reputation restored. As they try to swoop in and save the day, their game of one-upmanship fails spectacularly, forcing them to work together. But as their partnership to save the company and their feelings for one another blossom, they'll have to decide which is more important.
The Night That Finds Us All by John Hornor Jacobs
The Night that Finds us All
by John Hornor Jacobs
 
Sam Vines is struggling. Turns out the snorkelers and the scuba divers are looking for an ultra-luxury boating experience, not her single-handed, rarely sober, snarky stylings of a sailboat captain. So it's a good thing when her former crewmate asks her to help deliver a hundred-year-old sailboat from Seattle to England. Sam is the only one who can handle the ship's engine, and the money is good. The Blackwatch is an ancient boat. It's also probably haunted. Someone's standing on deck, then they're gone. Wet feet slap against the wood at night. A wail rises up through the rigging. Sam's withdrawal has her doubting her senses, but when one crewmate disappears and another has a gruesome accident, she knows this simple delivery job has spiraled into something sinister.
Automatic noodle by Annalee Newitz
Automatic Noodle
by Annalee Newitz
 
A cozy near-future novella about a crew of leftover robots opening their very own noodle shop, from acclaimed sci-fi author Annalee Newitz. You don't have to eat food to know the way to a city's heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war. But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they'll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other- and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn't built for them.
The righteous by Ronald H. Balson
The Righteous
by Ronald H. Balson
 
By the end of 1943, nearly all of Europe's Jewish population has fled, been deported, captured, or killed. Only Hungary and its almost 900,000 Jews remain free. That changes after the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad, as an avaricious Hitler conquers Hungary and declares his plan for mass extermination. Theresa Weissbach hasn't heard from her parents in Budapest for over a year. Her best friend Julia, recently awarded a medal for her service in occupied Holland, joins with her to locate and rescue Theresa's family. While there, they become involved in a much larger cause: trying to save as many people as they can. Their skills and connections in complex networks of diplomacy enable them and others to take enormous risks in an effort to save thousands of innocent lives.
New Nonfiction
Misunderstood : A Memoir by Allen Iverson
Misunderstood
by Allen Iverson
 
Iverson shares his meteoric rise from impoverished child in the Virginia projects to NBA All-Star and Reebok's Vice President of Basketball. Boomers and Gen Xers watched his decades-long run as a scrappy, tenacious basketball player on the Philadelphia 76ers who redefined the sport's style, while millennials and Gen Zers are perhaps more familiar with his Reebok line's resurgence in popularity, his callout in Post Malone's hit "White Iverson," and for being the namesake of Kendall Roy's son on "Succession". In his memoir, Iverson explores how he shattered the mold dictating what an NBA star could be in the 1990s and 2000s, all while dealing with legal troubles and personal traumas that only contributed to his sense of individualism and star power.
The Healing Power of Trees : The Definitive Guide to Forest Bathing by Olga Terebenina
The Healing Power of Trees
by Olga Terebenina & Gary Evans
 
From Thoreau and Nietzsche to Aristotle, history's greatest thinkers have long celebrated the healing power of the natural world. But forest bathing is more than just a walk in the woods- it's the mindful practice of reconnecting with nature through your senses, and The Healing Power of Trees is here to show you how. This guide reveals the unparalleled health benefits of the outdoors, with experts at The Forest Bathing Institute leading you on a journey of healing. The Institute has spent years researching the benefits of this practice and training practitioners to share them. Now, its founders present their method in this stunning guide. 
Every Screen on the Planet : The War over Tiktok by Emily Baker-white
Every Screen on the Planet
by Emily Baker-White
 
Emily Baker-White's narrative charts TikTok's rise from obscurity into the world's most valuable startup, led by its ambitious founder Zhang Yiming. TikTok seemed to know its users in an almost spooky way, provoking wonder and delight. But virtually everything about TikTok's users- their interests, locations, and even their unspoken desires- was accessible to staff in Bejing. TikTok was the first Chinese app to become a US juggernaut, and lawmakers soon recognized its potential for surveillance and propaganda- and the threat it might pose in the hands of their rivals. Yet even as hawks in Congress gained support to ban the app, the White House was secretly negotiating for unprecedented control over its information stream. 
The lost Mary : rediscovering the Mother of Jesus by James D. Tabor
The Lost Mary
by James D. Tabor
 
A world-renowned historian of early Christianity and ancient Judaism lifts the veil on the life of Mary- revealing her revolutionary role as the matriarch of the Jesus movement. Revered and worshipped by millions, she remains a figment of the imagination, the ethereal subject of Raphaels and Botticellis. But what about the real Mary? The young Jewish woman and single mother of eight. The defiant citizen of Roman-occupied Galilee who survived through one of the most dangerous periods of Jewish history- an ancient "game of thrones" that claimed the lives of three of her sons. The historical Mary whose teachings and courageous example may in fact make her the "first founder" of what we now call Christianity. 
The Unprocessed Plate : Simple, Flavorful Upf-free Recipes to Transform Your Life by Rhiannon Lambert
The Unprocessed Plate
by Rhiannon Lambert
 
The Unprocessed Plate is essential reading for anyone wanting to cut out Ultra Processed Food (UPF) from their diet. What are UPFs? How are they impacting our lives? How do we avoid them? Lambert is here to answer the biggest questions and unpack one of the hottest topics in the nutrition world today. She also shares 60 minimally processed, family-friendly recipes for nutritious breakfasts, on-the-go lunches, weeknight meals, and easy swaps for snacks and store-cupboard essentials. Written by an expert and parent, The Unprocessed Plate empowers us all to prioritize home cooking for the good of our health.
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