Fiction A to Z
March 2026

You Like It Darker: Stories by Stephen King
You Like It Darker: Stories
by Stephen King

Includes a bonus story, The Music Room NAMED A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP 10 HORROR BOOK OF 2024 WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR HORROR FINALIST FOR THE 2025 LOCUS AWARDS Stephen King knows You Like It Darker and obliges with sensational new tales (USA TODAY): From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King, an extraordinary collection of stories that are a master class in tension and full of King's dark humor (The New York Times Book Review). You like it darker? Fine, so do I, writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life--both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind, and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again. Two Talented Bastids explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In Danny Coughlin's Bad Dream, a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny's most catastrophically. In Rattlesnakes, a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance--with major strings attached. In The Dreamers, a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. The Answer Man asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful. King's skills as a storyteller remain undimmed (The Minnesota Star Tribune) and his ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace is unsurpassed. The titular darkness promised is as riveting and all-consuming as ever (New York magazine). You like it darker? You got it.
Lost Lambs
by Madeline Cash

A suburban family is in trouble in this buzzy, funny first novel. Bud and Catherine's relationship is sputtering, while their three girls have their own issues: Abigail, 17, is dating a security guard nicknamed "War Crimes Wes," Louise, 15, has an online boyfriend who encourages her to make bombs, and super-smart Harper, 13, investigates a sketchy local billionaire, who is her dad's employer. Read-alikes: Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang; Paul Murray's The Bee Sting
The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel
The Paris Daughter
by Kristin Harmel

Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change. When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life--her young daughter, playmate to Juliette's own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette's Librairie des Revães, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette's world is destroyed along with it. More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend's bookstore reduced to rubble--and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise's desperate search leads her to New York--and to Juliette--one final, fateful time. -- Provided by publisher.
Family Drama
by Rebecca Fallon

As actress Susan Bliss finds stardom on a soap opera in the 1980s and '90s, she commutes from Massachusetts, where her college professor husband works, to filming in California. This continues even after she becomes a mother, causing tension, and then when her twins are seven, she dies. As they grow into adulthood, artist Sebastian clings to his mother's memory while Viola ignores it, until she falls for her mom's former costar. Try this next: The Dazzling Truth by Helen Cullen.
So Old, So Young
by Grant Ginder

Over the course of 20 years, six college friends find jobs, partners, and challenges as they move in and out of each other's lives. Organized around five get-togethers, the first on New Year's Eve in 2007 New York and the last at a funeral, this character-driven latest from Grant Ginder (The People We Hate at the Wedding) explores change, friendship, and growing older. Read-alikes: Steven Rowley's The Celebrants; Angela Flournoy's The Wilderness.
This Is Not about Us
by Allegra Goodman

This "unsparingly frank, wryly funny" (Kirkus Reviews) linked story collection is narrated by three generations of the Rubenstein family as they navigate 74-year-old Jeanne's death, a feud between her older sisters over apple cake, and various other gatherings for holidays, divorces, a bat mitzvah, and more. Read-alikes: The Family Izquierdo by Ruben Degollado; Underburn by Bill Gaythwaite.
This Book Made Me Think of You
by Libby Page

When her new husband Joe dies of cancer, grief-stricken London book editor Tilly learns from their local bookseller that Joe has arranged for her to receive a book -- along with a note -- every month for a year. As the weeks pass, Tilly becomes friends with struggling bookstore owner Alfie and tries new things with Joe's literary encouragement in this charming read. For fans of: Mikki Brammer's The Collected Regrets of Clover.
Discipline
by Larissa Pham

On a cross-country book tour for her autofictional novel that's based on her bad relationship with her college art professor, Christine ponders life and creativity while talking with strangers and people from her past. Then she hears from the professor, leading her to visit his island home in Maine. Reflective and suspenseful, this debut novel thoughtfully examines art, ambition, and relationships. Try this next: A Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett.
Contact your librarian for more great books!
Central Mississippi Regional Library System
100 Tamberline Street, Brandon, Mississippi 39042
601-825-0100

https://www.cmrls.lib.ms.us