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April 2026 "Unputdownable" Books |
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All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps by Book AuthorStoryCorps founder David Isay shares stories from the revolutionary oral history project, revealing the many remarkable journeys that relationships can take. In these pages we discover that love is found in unexpected places: a New York tollbooth, a military base in Iraq, an airport lounge. We encounter love that survives discrimination, illness, poverty, distance--even death. Carrying us from the excitement and anticipation of courtship to the deep connection of lifelong commitment, All There Is enriches our understanding of love and of the resilience of the human spirit. Available as an eAudiobook on Hoopla |
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Zone One by Colson WhiteheadA pandemic has devastated the planet, sorting humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. After the worst of the plague is over, armed forces stationed in Chinatown's Fort Wonton have successfully reclaimed the island south of Canal Street--aka Zone One. Mark Spitz is a member of one of the three-person civilian sweeper units tasked with clearing lower Manhattan of the remaining feral zombies. Zone One unfolds over three surreal days in which Spitz is occupied with the mundane mission of straggler removal, the rigors of Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder (PASD), and the impossible task of coming to terms with a fallen world. And then things start to go terribly wrong... At once a chilling horror story and a literary novel by a contemporary master, Zone One is a dazzling portrait of modern civilization in all its wretched, shambling glory. Available on Libby |
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The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. CareyIn the ruins of civilization, a young girl's kindness and capacity for love will either save humanity -- or wipe it out. 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 keeps his gun pointed 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. Also available on Libby |
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Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma HooperOtto finds a note left by his wife in the kitchen of their farmhouse in windswept Saskatchewan. Eighty-three-year-old Etta will be walking 3,200 kilometers to see the ocean, but somehow, Otto understands. He took his own journey once before, to fight in a faraway land. With Etta gone, Otto struggles with his demons of war, while their friend Russell initially pursues the woman he has loved from afar. Also available as an eAudiobook on Hoopla |
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Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony BourdainThen little-known chef Anthony Bourdain spared no one's appetite as he revealed what happens behind the kitchen door. Frankly confessional, addictively acerbic, and utterly unsparing, Bourdain pulls no punches in this memoir of his years in the restaurant business. Fans will love to return to this deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine--this time with never-before-published material. Also available on Libby |
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Theo of Golden by Allen LeviOne spring morning, a stranger named Theo arrives in the small Southern city of Golden. He doesn't explain much about where he came from or why he's there--but when he visits the local coffeehouse, where pencil portraits of the people of Golden hang on the walls, he begins purchasing them and giving each portrait to the person depicted. In exchange, he asks only for the person's story. And so portrait by portrait, person by person, secrets are revealed, regrets are shared, and ordinary lives are profoundly altered. A story of giving and receiving, of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is an unforgettable novel about the power of generosity, the importance of connection, and the quiet miracles that happen when we choose kindness and wonder. Also available on Libby |
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The Emperor of Gladnessby Ocean VuongA year in the life of a wayward young man in New England who, by chance, becomes the caretaker for an eighty-two-year-old widow living with dementia, powering a story of friendship, loss, and how much we're willing to risk to claim one of life's most treasured mercies: a second chance. Also available on Libby |
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The Secret History by Donna TarttUnder the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and forever, and they discover how hard it can be to truly live and how easy it is to kill. Also available on Libby |
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Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-AknerIn 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of Long Island, brutalized, and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, only slightly the worse for wear, and the family begins the hard work of trying to move on with their lives and resume their prized places in the saga of the American dream, coming to understand that though their money may have been what put them in danger, it is also what guaranteed them their safety in the end. But forty years later, when Carl's mother dies and the family comes home to mourn her, it becomes clear that nobody ever really got over anything. Also available on Libby |
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The Vanishing Half by Brit BennettThe Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community, it's not just the shape of their lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Even separated by so many miles the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters storylines intersect? Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Also available on Libby |
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Best Offer Wins by Marisa KashinoAn insanely competitive housing market. A desperate buyer on the edge. In Marisa Kashino's darkly humorous debut novel, Best Offer Wins, the white picket fence becomes the ultimate symbol of success--and obsession. Eighteen months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband and get their plan to have a baby back on track, Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it's listed. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners' lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged. Margo will prove again and again that there's no boundary she won't cross to seize the dream life she's been chasing. Also available on Libby |
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Play Nice by Rachel HarrisonClio Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a secret--she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio's parent's divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. That's not what Clio's sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped Alex of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house. After Alex's sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house-flipping content. As the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother's claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother's book, the presence in the house becomes more real, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio's life to its core. Also available on Libby |
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Crux by Gabriel TallentDan and Tamma are two teenagers in their last year of high school in the Mojave Desert. One is a gifted golden child, the other a mouthy burnout. Climbing boulders in parking lots during cold desert nights, they seal their unique bond and dream of a life of adventure. As the year progresses and adult reality looms, they are rocked by change and pulled apart by obligations. Differences of class, talent, and prospects take on new importance; options dwindle, and their decisions grow ever more consequential and perilous. It feels inevitable, finally, that something must give.
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Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill"Wild, mesmerizing, perversely witty". Joe Hill's story of a jaded rock star haunted by a ghost he purchased on the internet, relentless, gripping, powerful. Open this Heart-Shaped Box from two-time Bram Stoker Award-winner Hill if you dare and see what all the well-deserved hoopla is about. Also available on Libby and Hoopla |
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The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-DaleDare Me meets Black Swan and Luckiest Girl Alive in a captivating, voice-driven debut novel about a trio of ballerinas who meet as students at the Paris Opera Ballet School. e-Audiobook available on Libby |
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Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryThe Pulitzer Prize-winning classic of the American West. An epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness. Journey to the dusty little town of Lonesome Dove, where retired Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call undertake a perilous cattle drive to the untamed plains of Montana. Along the way, they face danger, adventure, and an unforgettable cast of characters. Richly authentic and beautifully written, Lonesome Dove is a story of love, loss, and the unyielding spirit of the American West. Also available on Libby |
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The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'FarrellIn the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage-clothing shop in Edinburgh and sidestepping her married boyfriend's attempts at commitment, Iris receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital--where she has been locked away for more than sixty-one years. Iris's grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme's papers prove she is Kitty's sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme's face. Esme has been labeled harmless, but she's still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward in this compelling family saga. Also available on Hoopla |
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Alias Grace by Margaret AtwoodIt's 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders. An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories? Also available on Libby |
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A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor TowlesWhen, in 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal. He's sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel's doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Also available on Libby |
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Beautiful Ruins by Jess WalterThe acclaimed, award-winning author Jess Walter returns with his funniest, most romantic, and most purely enjoyable novel yet: A novel that spans fifty years. The Italian housekeeper and his long-lost American starlet; the producer who once brought them together, and his assistant. A glittering world filled with unforgettable characters. Also available on Hoopla |
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The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories by Anthony MarraBeginning in the tunnels beneath Leningrad and ending at the edge of the solar system, The Tsar of Love and Techno stretches across a century, a continent, and a striking cast of characters tied together by an obscure 19th century Russian painting. Alternately tragic and comic, and richly profound throughout.
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House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. MaasHalf-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life but it all comes crumbling down when a ruthless murder shakes the very foundations of the city, and Bryce's world. She finds herself dragged into the investigation and paired with an infamous Fallen Angel whose own brutal past haunts his every step. Hunt Athalar, personal assassin for the Archangels, wants nothing to do with Bryce Quinlan, who seems more interested in partying than solving the murder. As Bryce and Hunt race to untangle the mystery, they have no way of knowing the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents, and down to the darkest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir. Also available on Libby |
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Legendborn by Tracy DeonnTo discover the truth behind her mother's mysterious death, a teen girl infiltrates a magical secret society claiming to be the descendants of King Arthur and his knights. Available on Libby |
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Station Eleven by Emily St John MandelAn audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame, and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time-from the actor's early days to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains. This spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people. Sometimes terrifying, sometimes tender, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it. Also available on Libby |
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Just Kids by Patti SmithIt was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his provocative style toward photography. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous, the influential artists of the day. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years. Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame. Also available on Libby and Hoopla |
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A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. MaasDragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from stories, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin, a High Lord of the faeries. As her feelings toward him transform from hostility to a fiery passion, the threats against the faerie lands grow. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose Tamlin forever. Also available on Libby and Hoopla as an e-Audiobook |
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Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie GarberFor as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings, until she learns that the love of her life will marry another. Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic, but wicked, Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses to be given at the time of his choosing. But after Evangeline's first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she'd pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy. Also available on Libby and Hoopla as an e-Audiobook |
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A Lady for All Seasons by Tj AlexanderBeautiful Verbena Montrose must marry to save herself and her odious family from abject poverty. Fortunately, what she lacks in a dowry, she makes up for in the currency of gossip. When she hears an alarming rumor about her very dear, very queer friend that could ruin him, she comes to his aid with a proposal--for a marriage of convenience, that is. But when Verbena discovers that a mysterious and celebrated poet by the name of Flora Witcombe has been publishing verses that hint she is onto their scheme, Verbena has no choice but to confront her and, unexpectedly, be charmed by her. Flora, in turn, is smitten with Verbena but she holds a secret of her own: he is also William Forsyth, a struggling novelist and fifth son of a minor noble family. And if circumstances don't allow Flora to woo Verbena, perhaps William can. Verbena begins to realize she may need to think outside of society's constraints to find true happiness.
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