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Must-Read Books October 2025 |
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| Guilty by Definition by Susie DentA cryptic letter with references to Shakespeare arrives at the Clarendon English Dictionary offices in Oxford, England. Editor Martha Thornhill thinks the odd missive might be related to her sister’s disappearance a decade earlier, so when more notes appear, Martha and her team work to solve the clues and possibly a crime. This clever debut by English lexicographer and TV presenter Susie Dent will please both mystery fans and language lovers. Try this next: Murder by the Book by Amie Schaumberg. |
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| The Wasp Trap by Mark EdwardsAt a glamorous London dinner party, six old friends are forced into a deadly game: confess their darkest secrets or face elimination. Tied to a long-buried psychological experiment from 1999, their past resurfaces with chilling consequences. The Wasp Trap is a fast-paced, suspenseful thriller about truth, betrayal, and hidden psychopaths. |
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| What We Can Know by Ian McEwanRising seas have changed the landscape of the United Kingdom, where in 2119 Professor Thomas Metcalfe studies every detail he can find about “A Corona for Vivien,” a lost masterpiece read by an esteemed poet at his wife’s 2014 birthday party. In the second half of this eloquent novel, Vivien herself narrates. Try these next: C. Pam Zhang’s Land of Milk and Honey; Eiren Caffall’s All the Water in the World. |
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| The Dead Come to Stay by Brandy SchillaceAutistic American Jo Jones has relocated to rural England after inheriting a rundown family estate. In her 2nd outing, she once again teams up with handsome detective James MacAdams when her new tenant is killed in a case with links to missing teens. Meanwhile, she unearths more secrets about her ancestors. For fans of: Nita Prose’s Maid novels. |
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| Too Old for This by Samantha DowningIn Samantha Downing’s very, twist-filled new novel, 75-year-old Lottie Jones -- once a notorious serial killer -- lives quietly under a new identity. But when a journalist starts digging into her past, Lottie must confront old crimes and consider new ones to stay hidden. Murder, however, isn’t so easy at her age. |
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The Seasons 1
by Rick Remender
Left to raise themselves, the Seasons Sisters -- Summer, Winter, Spring and Autumn, the daughters of the world-renowned Seasons Detectives -- formed an unbreakable bond, but now that bond is tested as the sisters fall prey to sinister forces.
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The sea witch
by Eva Leigh
Condemned as witches in Puritan New England, a defiant band of women flee by sea to become pirate outlaws, capturing a British naval navigator and forging a fiery alliance as they battle dark magic, imperial power, and forbidden desire in an alternate Caribbean world.
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Heart the lover : a novel
by Lily King
Decades after a tangled college love triangle shaped her life, a woman is forced to confront her old choices and hidden truths in this intimate novel of friendship and desire from the bestselling author of Writers & Lovers.
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Famous : a novel
by Blake Crouch
Meet Lance. Thirty-eight years old. Works a meaningless job. Still lives above his parents' garage. By all accounts, a world-class loser. Save for one glaring exception: He has a million-dollar face. Lance has been mistaken eighty-seven times for the Oscar-winning movie star James Jansen, and for the last ten years, he's saved his money, studied Jansen's films, his moves, his idiosyncrasies-even the way he speaks. Now, after an unceremonious termination from his job, Lance has decided that the time has come to go after his dream of truly becoming Jansen. From New York's avant-garde, off-off Broadway scene to the glitter of Los Angeles, Lance embarks on a journey towards becoming James Jansen that will take him far closer to the star than even he had dreamed-and to far darker lengths than he could've possibly imagined.
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The loneliness of Sonia and Sunny : a novel
by Kiran Desai
When Sonia and Sunny meet again by chance on an overnight train, their rekindled connection propels them through a journey shaped by family expectations, artistic disillusionment and personal upheaval as they seek meaning, love and belonging across continents and generations.
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Standstill
by Lee Loughridge
Meet Ryker Ruel, an enigmatic, lecherous and clinically insane sociopath who is suddenly in possession of a top-secret device that can freeze time! Now, as the bodies of world leaders pile up, famous works of art go missing, and other strange crimes dominate the headlines, only the device's creator, a run-of-the-mill science geek, knows what's happening and sets out to stop Ryker's seemingly endless revenge tour.
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The guest in room 120 : a novel
by Sara Ackerman
In 1905 Honolulu, hotel worker Iliahi Baldwin forms an unexpected friendship with the accomplished, willful Jane Stanford before her mysterious death, leaving a dark legacy at the fashionable hotel for two writers to uncover a century later.
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The Women of Wild Hill
by Kirsten Miller
Summoned back to their ancestral home on Wild Hill, three generations of Duncan women—estranged sisters and an unknowing daughter—must embrace their magical legacy and reconcile old grievances to stop a rising elemental force bent on reshaping humanity's future.
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The Night We Became Strangers
by Lorena Hughes
In 1957 Quito, photojournalist Valeria Anzures teams up with rival reporter Matías Montero to investigate the deadly aftermath of a 1949 radio hoax that destroyed their families, uncovering buried truths, tangled loyalties, and long-simmering feelings that threaten to upend their lives.
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No rest for the wicked : a novel
by Rachel Louise Adams
In one Halloween-obsessed Midwestern town, everyone's on red alert after a local politician goes missing; little do they know it's only the beginning.
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Adrift on a Painted Sea
by Tim Bird
Sue Bird was always painting: botanical art, landscapes, still lifes, and especially the sea. She took classes, kept countless sketchbooks, and filled the house with art. From their neighborhood to their family trips, all the moments of her life were memorialized in her artwork. Throughout her life, she never sold a piece -- she gave art to family and friends, and shared her work online, but never received wider recognition for her work. This graphic novel by her son, Tim Bird, explores their family life and her creative explorations through a mix of her paintings and Tim's comics, depicting their relationship and her life from teenagehood to her struggle with cancer at the height of the covid pandemic. After her death, this graphic novel at last showcases her work.
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Little Alleluias : Collected Poetry and Prose
by Mary Oliver
With three distinct books collected in one volume for the first time, this curated compendium of poetry and prose asks what passes and what persists, and offers readers the peace that every mind deserves.
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Strong Ground : The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit
by Brené Brown
This is a vital playbook for everyone from senior leaders developing and executing complex strategies to Gen Z-ers entering and navigating turbulent work environments. It is also an unflinching assessment of what happens when we continue to perpetuate the falsehood that performance and wholeheartedness are mutually exclusive. With equal amounts of optimism and caution about AI, Brown writes, "I hear a lot of experts trying to soothe people's anxiety about the pace of technological change by offering platitudes like, What makes us human will ensure our relevance. This is dangerous simply because, right now, we're not especially good at what makes us human. We're not hardwired for this level of uncertainty, and many of us feel as if the constant need to self-protect is driving the humanity right out of us. This is why organizational transformation today must foster deep connection, deep thinking, and deep collaboration. We need the courage to lead people in a way that honors and protects the wisdom of the human spirit." Brown offers a broad assessment of the skill sets and mindsets we need moving forward, including the capacity for respectful and difficult conversations, increased productive urgency and smart prioritization rather than reactivity, and strategic risk-taking, paradoxical thinking, and situational and anticipatory awareness skills. She identifies the toughest skill set as the discipline, humility, and confidence to unlearn and relearn.
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| Cat Nap by Brian LiesAfter the determined Kitten chases a mouse into a poster for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, their pursuit takes on the styles of ten iconic masterpieces. Kids don’t need any museum knowledge to be fascinated by the hilarious, arresting illustrations (which include stained glass, ceramics, wooden masks, and more), all rendered in meticulous three-dimensional detail by Caldecott Honoree Brian Lies. |
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| The Poisoned King by Katherine RundellEver since his first excursion, Christopher has been longing to return to the Archipelago, a hidden realm of mythological animals. So when he’s summoned by a dragon, Christopher is thrilled to follow it into a mystery involving a sphinx, a spreading poison, and a small girl bent on revenge. This exciting, illustrated sequel will be most fun if you’ve already read Impossible Creatures. |
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The Infinite Glade
by James Dashner
Forever has no end . . . War has finally ignited. The Remnant Nation is done waiting. Their mission: destroy the Godhead and everything she stands for. But as Sadina and the islanders fight to protect the Goddess--who claims to be their only hope for Evolution's survival--the battle reveals unfathomable truths leaving behind devastation that will change the islanders' future forever. Determined to save their friends, Isaac and Ximena--along with Old Man Frypan and Jackie--struggle to find their way back to the others when two strangers intercept them, throwing everything they thought they knew about the Cure into doubt. Following the strangers into the unknown, Frypan unearths the shocking truth behind the Cure and the secrets so many have died to protect. But what they uncover is only the beginning. The descendants must decide between risking their lives and the safety of those they love back home to expose the painful truth behind the maze trials, or walk away from history's darkest secrets and let the truth remain buried in the Glade forever.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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