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New & Notable @NPL Our librarians are excited for all the new spring books! Check out all the new titles in the library and on Libby. Need a suggestion? Fill out our online form and a librarian will get back to you with a list of titles and authors that you will enjoy! |
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NPL Staff Pick of the Month
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Show don't tell : stories
by Curtis Sittenfeld
Recommended by Erin (Teen Services Coordinator/Community Literacy Liaison): The short stories in Curtis Sittenfeld's second collection feature middle age, marriage, female friendship - and the return of Lee Fiora, the complicated but lovable protagonist of the author's debut novel, Prep.
In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she's as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned. In "The Patron Saints of Middle Age," a woman visits two friends she hasn't seen since her divorce. In "A for Alone," a married middle-aged artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can't spend time alone without lusting after each other. And in "Lost but Not Forgotten," Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel, Prep, a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Leeattends an alumni reunion at her boarding school. Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld's stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.
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Murder takes a vacation : a novel
by Laura Lippman
Former private investigator and middle-aged widow Muriel Blossom's vacation on a Parisian river cruise turns into a deadly international mystery… that only she can solve.
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June in the garden : a novel
by Eleanor Wilde
A beautiful and heartwarming portrait of a young woman who looks at the world differently, June in the Garden encourages others to do the same. Because thinking unconventionally is not a flaw, it's often the key to appreciating the wonder and bloom that surrounds us.
After her mother's unexpected death, June must vacate her home. But when the social worker urges her to move into a flat with no garden -- clearly, that won't work. With no other options, she embarks on her first solo trip in search of a father she's only seen in a single old photograph. When June unexpectedly shows up at her father's door, he panics and turns her away, unwilling to jeopardize his idyllic life and new family. On her way out, June spies an unruly backyard and with nowhere else to go, quietly moves into her father's yellow garden shed. Once again, she can spend her days surrounded by her beloved flowers. But when her father's 12-year-old son -- her half-brother -- discovers June, she must choose between being seen for the first time or running away yet again.
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The Fun Times Brigade
by Lindsay Zier-vogel
Amy is a new mother, navigating the fog of those bewildering early days and struggling with a role she feels ill-prepared for. It's the first time in a decade that she hasn't been living the busy life of an acclaimed children's musician, and her sense of self is unravelling. To make matters worse, her bandmates have seemingly abandoned her. In flashbacks, we see Amy's journey to success--her stumblings as a solo singer-songwriter and her eventual rise to fame as a member of the Fun Times Brigade. But as the novel progresses--and Amy grapples with a devastating loss--we come to understand how precarious definitions of artistic success can be. The Fun Times Brigade examines the enduring challenges of reconciling being an artist with being a mother. It is also a timely reflection on forgiveness and what it really means to have a good life in a world that demands we have--and be--it all, and asserts that amidst the chaos, we can find our way back to our genuine selves.
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New Ebooks & Audiobooks (on Libby)
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Home of the American circus
by Allie Larkin
After an emergency leaves her short on rent, thirty-year-old Freya Arnalds bails on her lackluster life as bartender in Maine and returns to her suburban hometown of Somers, New York, to live in the house she inherited from her estranged parents. Despite attempts to lay low, Freya encounters childhood friends, familial enemies, and old flames--as well as her fifteen-year-old niece, Aubrey, who is secretly living in the derelict home. As they reconnect, Freya and Aubrey lean on each other, working to restore the house and come to terms with the devastating events that pulled them apart years ago. Set in the birthplace of the American circus, this deeply moving novel is an exploration of broken families, the weight of the past, and the complicated journey of finding home.
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All that life can afford : a novel
by Emily Everett
A taut, lyrical, and life-affirming debut, All That Life Can Afford is a tale of aspirations, high society, and the bittersweet journey of turning over a new leaf while staying true to one's roots. I would arrive, blank like a sheet of notebook paper, and write myself new. As a child, Eva devoured London through library books-savoring its soft, dreamlike edges of castles and dances, a far cry from her life of co-pays and Craigslist and caring for her diabetic mother. She wanted to climb through the pages and live there. But when she arrives after college to a mildewed flat full of mousetraps, the real London, that free, intoxicating life of plenty, feels just as inaccessible as it did from America. Then she meets the Wilders-her stubborn, brilliant tutee Pippa, who whisks her off to Saint Tropez for winter lessons, and sphinxlike Faye, who dolls Eva up in her clothing and makeup, toting her around like a shiny new bauble. From Lisbon to Highgate, Eva is thrown into a heady whirlpool of luxury and excess, uncovering a hidden side of Europe, one where confidence is a birthright and blue blood runs through bulletproof veins. This life feels like a play upon a high, distant stage, but when Eva starts to take the role a little too seriously, she risks forgetting who she is underneath her borrowed clothes.
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A Book We Are Excited About! Coming Soon!
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The gowkaran tree in the middle of our kitchen
by Shokoofeh Azar
Spanning fifty years in the history of modern Iran, this lush, layered story embraces politics and family, revolution and reconstruction, loss and love as it recounts the colorful destinies of twelve children who get lost one long-ago night inside a mysterious palace.
From International Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist Shokoofeh Azar, comes a stylistically audacious and emotionally powerful novel about one large, complicated family and a love affair lasting decades. Spanning fifty years in the history of modern Iran, this lush, layered story embraces politics and family, revolution and reconstruction, loss and love as it recounts the colorful destinies of twelve children who get lost one long-ago night inside a mysterious palace.
Azar's first novel, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Europa Editions, 2020), was shortlisted for the Stella Prize for Fiction and the International Booker Prize; it was longlisted for the PEN America Award and the National Book Award for Translated Literature. In Azar's new novel, each lost child's story unfolds against the backdrop of immense cultural and political transformation; lovers must survive war, revolution, and rigid social strictures to keep their love alive; family bonds are tested, especially those indissoluble connections between the living and the dead. The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen is also the moving story of one family's efforts to preserve the richness of Iranian culture in the face of Islamic hegemony following the 1979 revolution.
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