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Recommended by Ann O., Materials Collection
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A Redbird Christmas
by Fannie Flagg
After receiving a startling diagnosis, Oswald T. Campbell leaves the Chicago winter for the warm, sleepy Alabama community of Lost River to spend what he believes is his last Christmas. In this town, where time stands still and the postman delivers mail by boat, Oswald meets memorable locals—from a heartbroken store owner to the clandestine ladies of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society. But it is a little redbird named Jack who is at the center of this magical tale of a Christmas so amazing that it changed the lives of all who witnessed it.
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How to Read a Book
by Monica Wood
Violet Powell is released from prison after serving time for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local teacher. Her victim's husband, Frank Daigle, and the retired English teacher who ran her prison book club, Harriet Larson, are both struggling with their own grief and change. When the three unexpectedly meet in a Portland bookstore, their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.
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Recommended by Kelly, Administrative Services
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Oh William!
by Elizabeth Strout
Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are. So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. What happens next is nothing less than another example of what Hilary Mantel has called Elizabeth Strout’s “perfect attunement to the human condition.” There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children.
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Lucy by the Sea
by Elizabeth Strout
As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it's just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea.
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The Last Parenting Book You'll Ever Read: How We Let Our Kids Go and Embrace What's Next
by Meagan Francis
This guide is for mothers navigating the final stages of "active" parenting as their teenagers approach adulthood. Author Meagan Francis, a mother of five, understands the mixed feelings that accompany these transitions—the mourning of a season ending and the excitement of a new one beginning. In The Last Parenting Book You'll Ever Read, Francis offers compassion for the big feelings of letting go while guiding mothers to redefine their roles and nurture themselves once again. It’s a book about embracing endings, seeing new beginnings, and loving your kids more than ever while they prepare to step into the world.
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How about Now: Poems
by Kate Baer
With her trademark candor and curiosity, Baer explores what it means to grow older, to release children into the wildness of their own lives, and to reclaim the ever evolving self. Raw, luminous, and urgent, this collection channels Baer’s own journey to middle age into poems that are profoundly intimate yet resound universally, identifying the beauty, resilience, and fragility that arrive in every stage of life. How About Now is a striking declaration of ongoing transformation and self-discovery.
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Recommended by Paula, Community Engagement
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The Correspondent: A Novel
by Virginia Evans
For decades, Sybil Van Antwerp, a distinguished lawyer and lifelong letter writer, has used the practice to process her world—from everyday thoughts to critiques for authors like Joan Didion and a deeply personal letter she writes but never sends. Sybil expects her well-ordered life to continue as always. But when letters arrive from someone in her past, they force her to confront a painful period she thought she'd buried. Sybil realizes she must now find and send that unsent letter and, in doing so, find the courage to offer the forgiveness she needs to finally move forward.
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Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino"
by Héctor Tobar
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Héctor Tobar's Our Migrant Souls is a definitive, personal exploration of what it means to be Latino in the United States today. Written as a direct address to young Latinos, Tobar decodes this rapidly growing, yet loosely defined, identity by exploring the historical and social forces that shape it—from colonialism and immigration to media and pop culture. Interweaving his own story as the son of Guatemalan migrants, Tobar gives voice to the anger and the hopes of a generation facing hateful tropes and division. The book uncovers something expansive, inspiring, and true about the meaning of "Latino" in the twenty-first century.
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Hello, Tobi!
by Andrea Cáceres
Every day, Tobi goes for walks with his family. At the park, he likes to say hello to everyone-small families with big dogs, big families with small dogs, tall families with tall dogs, short families with short dogs. There are families who look alike and families where everyone is different; families who are quiet, some who yell or sing loudly, and some who like to play together or create. Even when there are so many people and dogs at the park that Tobi can't tell which dog belongs to which family, he still loves them all! But there's always one family he loves the best...
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Recommended by Shannan, Marketing & Communications
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The Gingerbread Bakery
by Laurie Gilmore
A wedding in Dream Harbor can only mean one thing, everyone wants to get involved! With Jeanie and Logan set to tie the knot, and Kira desperate to hire out her newly renovated barn at the Christmas tree farm, everything seems to be going well. Annie has agreed to bake the cake, and Mac is responsible for, well… just being Mac. And as the whole of Dream Harbor comes together to celebrate the wedding of the year with the snow falling around them, can Annie and Mac put aside their dislike for each just long enough for the ‘I Do’s’ or is that one request too far…
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How Can I Help You
by Laura Sims
No one knows Margo's real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library only know her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of countless premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo's subtly sinister edge, and watches her carefully. When a patron's death in the library bathroom gives her a hint of Margo's mysterious past, Patricia can't resist digging deeper--even as this new fixation becomes all-consuming.--
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Breaking Dawn
by Stephenie Meyer
Irrevocably in love with a vampire, Bella Swan has reached the ultimate turning point after a tumultuous year defined by her intense passion for Edward Cullen and her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black.
Bella has now made her decision: either join the dark, seductive world of immortals or pursue a fully human life. However, just as the frayed strands of her life seem ready to heal, her choice sets off a startling chain of unprecedented events with potentially devastating and unfathomable consequences, threatening to destroy everything she holds dear.
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Save You
by Mona Kasten
Ruby Bell thought that she and James Beaufort had something special. She's never had such strong feelings for someone. And after his betrayal, she's also never felt this much hurt. Ruby just wants her old life back before she knew anyone at Maxton Hall, before she knew James. She used to be able to rely on her studies to keep her focused, but school is no longer a refuge-not when she sees James everywhere. But she has to stay on track, especially with university looming over them and the uncertainty of what the future holds. Despite everything, Ruby wants to support James as he struggles with his father's expectations of him taking over the family business. But she makes one thing very clear: she is not willing to forgive him or give him a second chance. As love and hate compete for Ruby's heart, James will try everything he can to win her back.
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Recommended by Caitlin, Materials Collection
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Man Made Monsters
by Andrea Rogers
Tsalagi should never have to live on human blood, but sometimes things just happen to sixteen-year-old girls. Following one extended Cherokee family across the centuries, from the tribe’s homelands in Georgia in the 1830s to World War I, the Vietnam War, our own present, and well into the future, each story delivers a slice of a particular time period. Alongside each story, Cherokee artist and language technologist Jeff Edwards delivers illustrations that incorporate Cherokee syllabary.
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A World Without Summer: A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out
by Nicholas Day
Discover the story of the Mount Tambora eruption in April 1815, the largest explosion in recorded history. This catastrophic event plunged the world into darkness, scattering fine ash that caused global climate change, turning sunsets into "molten nightmares," and creating a hellscape for years. The resulting year without a summer inspired eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein while sheltering in Switzerland. Award-winning author Nicholas Day weaves this thrilling story of disaster and survival, tracing the widespread effects of this single event and tackling the ever-worrying issue of climate change in this masterful middle-grade nonfiction novel.
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My Presentation Today Is about the Anaconda
by Bibi Dumon Tak
Who needs another book by humans? All they do is make us animals super boring. They only look at things through their own eyes. Every, single, time. Human after human. Kid after kid. Class after class. YAWN!
This is a book of oral presentations given by us animals, for us animals, and about us animals. The cleaner fish will talk about his friend the shark and his sharp teeth. The zebra will get to tell you about all the black-and-white animals in the world. The mole knows everything there is to know about the daddy longlegs. The southern cassowa—yes, fox? What is it? Yes, you'll get to talk about geese. Huh? Yes, you'll get to talk about how delicious they are. Anyway, we're giving you twenty presentations from another twenty of us, but there's a lot more crammed in. And you know what, we did talk, and there's at least one human who's OK by us—Annemarie van Haeringen. She drew some portraits of us for this book and we gotta say, the likenesses are pretty good. Check it all out!
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Recommended by Pat K., Library Volunteer
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The Booklover's Library
by Madeline Martin
In wartime Nottingham, widowed mother Emma Taylor desperately needs a job to support her daughter, Olivia, and secures a position at Boots' Booklover's Library despite restrictions. When Olivia is evacuated to the countryside, Emma finds solace in her new library coworkers and the quirky regulars, but her work forces her to confront painful memories of her late father's bookstore. As the Blitz intensifies, Emma fights to reunite with Olivia. She must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times, proving the strength of the books that bring mother and daughter together.
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The Time Keepers
by Alyson Richman
In a small Long Island town, the lives of two women, Grace and Anh, from different worlds, are forever changed by the appearance of a runaway boy displaced by war. United by their love for the child, they find friendship and healing from their own painful pasts when they intersect with Jack, a mysterious wounded Vietnam vet. Jack works at the Golden Hours, a watch store that mends timepieces and damaged souls. Inspired by the true stories of a Vietnamese refugee and a wounded veteran, the novel weaves together these diverse journeys with the precision of a watchmaker, shedding light on lives forever impacted by the devastation of the Vietnam War.
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Recommended by Kelli C., Community Engagement
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The Night Guests
by Marina Scott
1903. Omaha, Nebraska. Once a prominent fixture in Omaha’s high society, Nina Wilson is now drowning in debt and disgrace following the untimely death of her father. Her engagement has been broken off, her family’s grand estate has fallen into disrepair, and her mother, consumed by grief, is incapable of running the household. Attempting to bring closure to her grieving mother, Nina invites a mysterious medium, Leroy Marshall, into their home. But Leroy Marshall’s brand of charisma—equal parts alluring and repellent—leaves Nina feeling deeply unsettled. The man’s presence seems to have awakened something otherworldly in the house itself, and now it’s stepping out of the shadows, refusing to leave.
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The Winner
by Teddy Wayne
Conor O'Toole, seeking an escape from Yonkers, lands a summer job giving tennis lessons in the casually glamorous, elite gated community of Cutters Neck near Cape Cod. When money becomes tight, Conor accepts an offer from Catherine, a sharp-tongued divorcée, for private lessons at double the rate. He soon tumbles into a secret, off-the-court erotic affair with the woman twice his age. Despite this, he simultaneously falls for an artsy, outspoken girl he met on the beach. Conor attempts to manage this tangled web of desire and deceit until he makes one final, irreversible mistake.
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Recommended by Amanda, Materials Collection
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Last Rites
by Ozzy Osbourne
At sixty-nine, Ozzy Osbourne was on a triumphant farewell tour until disaster struck, leading to near-total paralysis and the abandonment of his public life. Last Rites is the shocking, brutally honest, and bitterly hilarious story of Ozzy's descent into this hell. Through this experience, the "Prince of Darkness" reflects on his extraordinary life and career—including his turbulent marriage to Sharon, his regrets over Black Sabbath, and encounters with fellow hellraisers like Lemmy Kilmister, John Bonham, and Slash. Unflinching and surprisingly life-affirming, the book demonstrates why Ozzy has transcended metal stardom to become a modern-day folk hero.
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The Girl with All the Gifts
by M. R. Carey
Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius." Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.
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Keep It Simple, Y'All: Easy Dinners from Your Barefoot Neighbor: A Cookbook
by Matthew Bounds
Social media creator Matthew Bounds, known as Your Barefoot Neighbor, offers sixty simple and satisfying recipes in Keep It Simple, Y’all to help you get dinner on the table with minimal fuss.
Ideal for beginners and busy cooks, the cookbook focuses on efficient, budget-friendly meals that fit a busy lifestyle. Recipes include easy weeknight options like slow-cooked Beef and Mushroom Stroganoff, sheet pan dinners like Cajun Ranch Chicken Breasts, and meals utilizing rotisserie chicken, such as French Onion Chicken Casserole. With easy-to-follow instructions and flexible tips, Matthew's laid-back approach takes the intimidation out of making wholesome, homemade meals.
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Recommended by Kori, Marketing & Communications
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Not Quite Dead Yet
by Holly Jackson
Jet Mason, the twenty-seven-year-old daughter of a wealthy Vermont family, is violently attacked on Halloween night, suffering a catastrophic head injury. Doctors predict a deadly aneurysm will kill her in seven days. Suddenly viewing everyone, her family, ex-boyfriend, and sister-in-law, as potential enemies, Jet is determined to use her final week to finally finish something: she is going to solve her own murder. With her condition deteriorating, she enlists her childhood friend Billy to help her solve this twisty thriller before time runs out.
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Finding Mr. Write
by Kelley Armstrong
Daphne McFadden is tired of rejection. After submitting her manuscript to dozens of agents, she's gotten rejection after rejection, and now it's time for something drastic. And so, Daphne submits her manuscript again… under a man's name. Imagine her surprise when it sells for big money at an auction and soon becomes a publicity darling. Only she needs a man to play her super macho alter ego Zane Remington. Enter Chris Stanton, who absolutely looks the part of a survivalist and has a talent for pressing her piss‑me‑off‑I‑dare‑you buttons while somehow being endearing at the same time. But Chris has a few secrets of his own, including the fact that he’s really an accountant who has no idea how to chop wood or paddle a canoe. When Daphne's book becomes a bestselling sensation and they're forced to go on tour together, Daphne finds herself wondering if this city‑boy geek is exactly what she needs to push her to claim her dreams.
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The Tenant
by Freida McFadden
Fired from his job and facing foreclosure on his brownstone, VP of marketing Blake Porter is desperate for cash. He rents a room to Whitney, a beautiful and charming tenant who seems perfect—until she moves in. Soon, Blake notices strange changes: his neighbors treat him differently, an inexplicable smell of decay permeates the house, and jarring noises wake him at night. Blake begins to fear someone knows his darkest secrets. Danger lives right at home, and by the time Blake realizes the trap is set, it will be far too late.
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Small Things Like These
by Claire Keegan
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
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Recommended by Angela, Public Services
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Roses
by Leila Meacham
Spanning the 20th century, the story of Roses takes place in a small East Texas town against the backdrop of the powerful timber and cotton industries, industries controlled by the scions of the town's founding families. Cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick should have married but unwisely did not, and now must deal with the deceit, secrets, and tragedies of their choice and the loss of what might have been--not just for themselves but for their children, and children's children.
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Recommended by Emily, Materials Collection
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The Works of Vermin
by Hiron Ennes
He was sent to kill a pest. Instead, he found a monster. Enter the decadent, deadly city of Tiliard, a metropolis carved into the stump of an ancient tree. In its canopy, the pampered elite warp minds with toxic perfume; in its roots, gangs of exterminators hunt a colossal worm with an appetite for beauty. In this complex, chaotic city, Guy Mouláene has a simple goal: keep his sister out of debt. For her sake, he'll take on any job, no matter how vile. As an exterminator, Guy hunts the uncanny pests that crawl up from the river. These vermin are all strange, and often dangerous. His latest quarry is different: a worm the size of a dragon with a deadly venom and a ravenous taste for artwork. As it digests Tiliard from the sewers to the opera houses, its toxin reshapes the future of the city. No sane person would hunt it, if they had the choice. Guy doesn't have a choice.
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A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome
by Emma Southon
In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common--murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered. But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.
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Jade City
by Fonda Lee
The Kaul family is one of two crime syndicates that control the island of Kekon. It's the only place in the world that produces rare magical jade, which grants those with the right training and heritage superhuman abilities.The Green Bone clans of honorable jade-wearing warriors once protected the island from foreign invasion--but nowadays, in a bustling post-war metropolis full of fast cars and foreign money, Green Bone families like the Kauls are primarily involved in commerce, construction, and the everyday upkeep of the districts under their protection. When the simmering tension between the Kauls and their greatest rivals erupts into open violence in the streets, the outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones and the future of Kekon itself.
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Recommended by Jane, Public Services
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Letter from Japan
by Marie Kondo
Known globally for "tidying up," Marie Kondo addresses her audience's interest in her personal life and cultural inspirations in Letter from Japan. Responding to years of questions, Kondo uses her trademark gentle wisdom to explore the Japanese customs intrinsic to her tidying method—from tea ceremonies and garden care to the power of the passing seasons. More than an audience response, this lyrical book is a manifesto for her three children, documenting the foundational elements of their culture.
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Recommended by Amy, IT Services
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You Weren't Meant to Be Human
by Andrew Joseph White
Alien meets Midsommar in this chilling debut adult novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White about identity, survival, and transformation amidst an alien invasion in rural West Virginia. Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It's an offer that none refuse. Crane is grateful. Among his hive's followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won't destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant-and the hive demands the child's birth, no matter the cost-Crane's desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.
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Recommended by John, IT Services
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In the Lives of Puppets
by Tj Klune
In a strange home built into a grove of trees, human Victor Lawson lives with his adopted family: fatherly android inventor Giovanni Lawson (Gio), a nurse machine, and a small vacuum. They are safe until Vic salvages and repairs HAP, an unfamiliar android. Vic discovers a shared dark past—Hap and Gio were once robot hunters. When Hap accidentally alerts Gio’s former life to their location, Gio is captured and taken to the City of Electric Dreams. The rest of Vic's unconventional family must journey across an unforgiving, otherworldly country to rescue Gio from reprogramming. Amid feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide if he can accept love with strings attached.
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The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
Cora, an outcast slave on a Georgia cotton plantation, risks a terrifying escape with Caesar via the Underground Railroad. After a violent confrontation, they find a station and head north, pursued relentlessly by the notorious slave catcher, Ridgeway. In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is a literal network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora's harrowing flight becomes an odyssey as she travels state by state, encountering different "worlds" at each stop, from a seemingly placid South Carolina city masking an insidious scheme to further terrors. The Underground Railroad is both a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape bondage and a powerful meditation on American history, weaving the saga of the nation from the importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day.
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We Live Here Now: The Sensational New Thriller from the Number One Bestselling Author of Behind Her Eyes!
by Sarah Pinborough
After a near-fatal accident, Emily and her husband, Freddie, move from London to the beautiful but unsettling Dartmoor country house, Larkin Lodge. Emily immediately feels a terrible presence in the third-floor room, experiencing chilling phenomena, creaking boards, extinguishing fires, falling books, but only when she is alone. Medically fragile and suffering from post-sepsis hallucinatory side effects, Emily cannot trust her own senses, while Freddie remains blissfully unaware. She becomes obsessed with proving the house is haunted by a murder victim, even as bizarre events escalate and her marriage crumbles. Yet, just as Larkin Lodge holds secrets, so do Emily and her husband.
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The Midnight Library
by Matt Haig
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change. The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?
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