LibraryAware Must-Read Books December 2024

Adult Fiction

Curdle Creek
by Battle-Felton, Yvonne

Forced into a test of allegiance, Osira, a middle-aged widow, navigates a surreal journey through time and realms when she is exiled to space and where she confronts her community's dark secrets and oppressive traditions. 80,000 first printing.

Pony Confidential
by Christina Lynch

Narrated by both a grumpy pony and his former owner, Penny, who's just been jailed for a murder she supposedly committed when she was 12, this thoroughly charming novel follows Pony as he travels cross country plotting his revenge on the girl who broke his heart. But then Pony discovers Penny didn't sell him years ago and sets out to prove her innocence. Fans of Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie mysteries will appreciate this humorous, thought-provoking tale that has a bit of bite.

When I think of you
by Ariel, Myah

When her college boyfriend, now a hot shot director, offers her a job on his next production, Kaliya finally gets her chance break into the movie-making business, and as a true connection forms between them, Hollywood politics and scandal threaten everything, forcing her to make an impossible choice. Original.

Guilt and ginataan
by Manansala, Mia P.

"The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town's biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts, and of course, the second- largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event, though their fun is cut short when their wager on who can make it through the corn maze fastest ends with a dead body in the middle of the maze and an unconscious Adeena next to the body, clutching a bloody knife. With her best friend and business partner the main suspect in the murder, Lila and her crew put on their sleuthing caps yet again to find the killer who framed Adeena and show them what happens whenthey mess with a Brew-ha..."

The City and Its Uncertain Walls
by Haruki Murakami

Featuring his signature genre-blending originality, Haruki Murakami's first novel in years (which is partially based on an old short story) begins with two teens in love: a girl who says her real self exists in a walled city and the boy she imagines the city with. She goes missing, and the boy grows up, always looking for her. Read-alikes: Miye Lee's The Dallergut Dream Department Store; David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas; Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera.

Bull Moon Rising
by Ruby Dixon

In this 1st in a steamy new romantasy series from the author of Ice Planet Barbarians, destitute Lady Aspeth Honori, desperate to save her family home, joins the Royal Artifactual Guild and agrees to a marriage of convenience with her minotaur teacher, Hawk. For fans of: Kimberly Lemming's Mead Mishaps series.

This Will Be Fun
by E.B. Asher

This cozy romantasy revolves around former friends and lovers, a reunion at the queen's wedding, and dark secrets from the past forcing the heroes to dust off their old weapons and save the world one more time. Will Beatrice, Elowen, Clare and Galwell be able to put old wounds aside and live happily ever after? "[A]n enchanting tale of self-discovery and second chances" (Booklist) for fans of Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth and Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne.

The witches of El Paso
by Jaramillo, Luis

A lawyer and her elderly great-aunt use their supernatural gifts to find a lost child.

Time of the Child
by Niall Williams

As Christmas 1962 approaches, a 12-year-old boy finds an infant in a churchyard one cold night and quietly delivers her to his small Irish town's doctor. Dr. Troy nurses the baby back to health (secretly, lest rumors begin about his unmarried daughter), and then he hatches a complex plan that might help everyone. Set in the same location as the author's 2019 novel This Is Happiness, this "lovely Christmas miracle of a book" (Library Journal) can be enjoyed on its own.

This cursed house
by Sandeen, Del

"In this Southern gothic horror debut, a young Black woman abandons her life in 1960s Chicago for a position with a mysterious family in New Orleans, only to discover the dark truth: They're under a curse, and they think she can break it. In the fall of 1962, twenty-seven-year-old Jemma Barker is desperate to escape her life in Chicago-and the spirits she has always been able to see. When she receives an unexpected job offer from the Duchon family in New Orleans, she accepts, thinking it is her chance tostart over. But Jemma discovers that the Duchon family isn't what it seems. Light enough to pass as white, the Black family members look down on brown-skinned Jemma. Their tenuous hold on reality extends to all the members of their eccentric clan, from haughty grandmother Honorine to beautiful yet inscrutable cousin Fosette. And soon the shocking truth comes out: The Duchons are under a curse. And they think Jemma has the power to break it. As Jemma wrestles with the gift she's run from all her life, sheunravels deeper and more disturbing secrets about the mysterious Duchons. Secrets that stretch back over a century. Secrets that bind her to their fate if she fails"

The Boyfriend
by Freida McFadden

After a string of terrible dates, Sydney Shaw finally meets her ideal man -- a charming doctor. But when a young woman is murdered, part of a series of coast-wide killings by a man who dates his victims, Sydney grows uneasy, suspecting her “perfect” boyfriend might be more dangerous than he seems.

Deadly animals
by Tierney, Marie

Finding a dead body is not normal, but then again Ava Bonney is not a normal teenager.

Flint Kill Creek
by Joyce Carol Oates

In this unsettling but "grimly satisfying collection" (Publishers Weekly), Joyce Carol Oates explores the dark dynamics of dysfunctional relationships. From anxious mothers to jealous colleagues, her characters face tension, violence, and horror in ordinary settings. Oates’s precise prose delves into the macabre, with each story revealing the disturbing closeness between love and hate.

A very bad thing
by Ellison, J. T.

An author at the pinnacle of her career's past threatens to destroy everything she has—and everyone she knows.

A killer clue
by Gilbert, Victoria

The owner of an antiquarian bookshop visits retired librarian Jane Hunter and eccentric collector Cameron Clewe to help clear her mother's name of a murder she didn't commit, in the second book of the series following A Cryptic Clue.

Adult Nonfiction

Bandit heaven
by Clavin, Tom

A New York Times bestselling author tells the thrilling true story of the most infamous hangout for bandits, thieves and murderers of all time. Illustrations. Maps.

Madness : race and insanity in a Jim Crow asylum
by Antonia Hylton

Tracing the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people's bodies and minds in our current healthcare system, a Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist tells the 93-year-old history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation's last segregated asylums.

I will show you how it was
by Ponomarenko, Illia

A Ukrainian journalist shares a heart-wrenching memoir of the war on his homeland, focusing on both the brutality of the Russian invasion and the inspiring story of the people who banded together to force them from Kyiv. 100,000 first printing.

Youth Fiction

Pig Town Party
by Lian Cho

A mysterious invitation leads a curious, over-confident child to an extravagant masquerade party in Pig Town, where all the inhabitants are anthropomorphic pigs. Deliciously absurd farce ensues, illustrated in exaggerated mixed-media art that’s sure to elicit plenty of giggles.

The Last Dragon on Mars
by Scott Reintgen

Like everyone else in the failing human settlement on Mars, orphaned scavenger Lunar Jones is just trying to survive. When he joins a secret squadron of dragon riders, however, Lunar realizes that there may yet be hope for the planet. This series opener boasts high-flying action and an imaginative blend of science fiction and fantasy.

Ellie Haycock is totally normal
by Schreiber, Gretchen

Forced to return to the hospital while trying to balance her illness with the pressures of high school, Ellie Haycock finds this stay different when she becomes close with a group of friends, including optimistic Ryan, who, despite their differences, she can't stop thinking about. Simultaneous eBook.

Contact your librarian for more great books!