LibraryAware April 2025

Adult Fiction

Promise Me Sunshine
by Cara Bastone

Grief-stricken after the death of her best friend, Brooklyn nanny Helen "Lenny" Bellamy strikes up an unlikely friendship with her charge's protective uncle, Miles, who has his own experiences with loss. As the pair try to make their way through Lenny's "Live Again" list, they discover they just might be what the other needs to move on. Try this next: Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez.

Boudicca
by P.C. Cast

Boudicca, the fiery-haired and ferocious widow of chief of the Celtic Iceni tribe, ascends to the tribe's throne in Tasceni in 60 CE. However, the Roman Empire is closing in, seeing a woman ruler as weak. Devoted to both her daughters and the goddess Andraste, Boudicca is determined to strike back at the Romans against all odds. For fans of: lush and richly detailed fantastical stories of lesser-known women in history and mythology, such as Babylonia by Costanza Casati and Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel.

The Quiet Librarian
by Allen Eskens

In Minnesota, librarian Hana Babic, once the feared Bosnian fighter Night Mora, is forced to confront her past when her best friend Amina is murdered. To protect Amina’s grandson, she must unravel a deadly mystery tied to war-torn Bosnia, facing relentless enemies while balancing justice, survival, and the weight of her past.

The grand scheme of things : a novel
by Warona Jay

Eddie, an aspiring playwright facing rejection in London's theater scene, teams up with Hugo, a charismatic lawyer seeking escape from corporate life, to secretly submit her play under his name, but their scheme to expose the industry's racism threatens both their friendship and their reputations.

Theft
by Abdulrazak Gurnah

This acclaimed latest from 2021 Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah follows three interlinked young people navigating uncertain futures in Tanzania: Karim, whose mother left his abusive father when he was three; beautiful Fauzia, who'd been sick as a child; and Badar, who was sent to work as a servant boy in his uncle's household. "Gurnah is at the top of his game," raves Publishers Weekly.

Back After This
by Linda Holmes

When she half-heartedly agrees to host a show about her dating life, podcast producer Cecily Foster is tasked with going on 20 blind dates set up for her by relationship coach Eliza Cassidy. But she keeps running into cute waiter Will on her dates, with whom she shares an instant spark of attraction. Is she falling for the wrong guy -- or making the right choice? For fans of: How to Get a Life in Ten Dates by Jenny L. Howe.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
by Stephen Graham Jones

In 2012, college professor Etsy Beaucarne learns about a 100-year-old diary written by her great-great-grandfather, Lutheran minister Arthur Beaucarne, hoping she can utilize it to secure tenure. Contained within its pages are the confessions of Good Stab, a Blackfeet vampire seeking vengeance for the massacre of his people. For fans of: The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo; Lone Women by Victor LaValle.

Wild dark shore
by Charlotte McConaghy

On a remote island near Antarctica, the Salt family's fragile existence is upended by the arrival of Rowan, a mysterious woman who washes ashore during a storm, forcing them to confront rising dangers and the hope of rebuilding trust amidst isolation and loss.

Harlem Rhapsody
by Victoria Christopher Murray

In 1919, Jessie Redmon Fauset becomes the first Black woman literary editor of The Crisis magazine, putting her at the forefront of Harlem's cultural renaissance, where she discovers talents such as Langston Hughes and Nella Larsen. But her ambitions and a secret affair with W.E.B. Du Bois threaten it all. Try these next: Piper Huguley's By Her Own Design; Tia Williams' A Love Song for Ricki Wilde.

The Museum Detective
by Maha Khan Phillips

Pakistani museum curator and archaeologist Dr. Gul Delani gets a nighttime call from the Karachi police. She's hoping for news about her three-years-missing niece, but it's about a mummy and a sarcophagus in a remote drug hideout. With help from a wide variety of people, Gul investigates in this twisty, evocative series starter. Read-alikes: Elly Griffiths' Ruth Galloway mysteries; Sujata Massey's Perveen Mistry novels.

Kills Well with Others
by Deanna Raybourn

When a mole in the elite assassin organization the Museum leaks names to an Eastern European gangster who's murdering agents, assassins Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie -- senior in status and age -- must root out the organization's mole and hunt down their new nemesis.

Dream state : a novel
by Eric Puchner

"Cece and Charlie are in love and a few weeks away from their summer wedding. But when Cece meets Charlie's best friend from college, Garrett, her long-held expectations for her future begin to crumble. As Garrett's gruff mask slips, Cece begins to anticipate the big day with dread as her feelings for Garrett become impossible to bury. And as she decides to follow her instincts, ditching her groom for his best man, she will alter the three of their lives forever, the events of that July reverberating through marriage, parenthood, and, in the end, across generations"

Three days in June
by Anne Tyler

"Gail Baines is long divorced from her husband, Max, and not especially close to her grown daughter, Debbie. Today is the day before Debbie's wedding. To start, Gail loses her job-or quits, depending who you ask. Then, Max arrives unannounced on Gail's doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay and without even a suit in which to walk their daughter down the aisle. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband-to-be. It will not only throw the wedding itself into question but also send Gail back into her past and how her own relationship fell apart. Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer at the height of her powers"

Stone yard devotional / : A Novel
by Charlotte Wood

"Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of rural Australia. She doesn't believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident. But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past"

Adult Nonfiction

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
by Omar El Akkad

In his frank and thought-provoking blend of history and memoir, award-winning novelist Omar El Akkad (American War) examines the West's apathy and inaction toward Israel's ongoing destruction of Gaza. Try this next: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of...
by Eve L. Ewing

In her scholarly and incisive history, sociologist Eve L. Ewing examines how the United States education system has perpetuated structural racism against Black and Indigenous children from the 18th century to the present. Try this next: Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children by Noliwe Rooks.

The Lost and the Found: A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family, and Second...
by Kevin Fagan

Award-winning San Francisco Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan's moving and intimate social history explores homelessness through the experiences of a pair of individuals trying to get by in San Francisco, California. Further reading: Seeking Shelter: A Working Mother, Her Children, and a Story of Homelessness in America by Jeff Hobbs.

Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America
by Russell Shorto

Drawing on never-before-seen archival materials, bestselling author Russell Shorto's (The Island at the Center of the World) lively social history explores the early days of New York City, from its 1626 purchase by the Dutch to its capture by the English four decades later. For fans of: The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village by John Strausbaugh.

Youth Fiction

Speak Up, Santiago!
by Julio Anta; illustrated by Gabi Mendez

Though he's bilingual, middle schooler Santi speaks way more English than Spanish. He's trying to change that while visiting his Abuela Emma in the Latin American neighborhood of Hillside Valley, but his frustration and embarrassment keeps getting in the way. This graphic novel series-starter is packed with authentic characters and crisp, bright artwork.

Right back at you
by Carolyn Mackler

"Mason lives in 2023. His parents have just split up, and there's a guy at school who won't get off his case. As part of an assignment, he writes a letter to Albert Einstein and it ends up getting a little too personal. He throws the letter into his closet . . . and the next day he gets a letter back from a girl named Talia, who lives in 1987. She has problems of her own, including classmates who make jokes because she's Jewish. She thought her friends would have her back. But it ends up the only person she really has to talk to is . . . a random boy from the future?"

One Wrong Step
by Jennifer A. Nielsen

It's 1939, and nobody has ever reached the top of Tibet's Mt. Everest. British 14-year-old Atlas and his dad hope to be among the first. Their climb, however, is charged with danger, from Nazi spies to a life-threatening avalanche. Fascinating details will keep you turning the pages of this historical adventure.

The Otherwhere Post
by Emily J. Taylor

Because Maeve’s father famously unleashed horror with writing-based magic, she keeps a low profile, living under a fake name. An anonymous letter claiming her father’s innocence prompts her to learn the arcane magic for herself and uncover the truth. This fantasy mystery infuses a slow-burn romance with dark academia vibes.

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