LibraryAware February 2025

Adult Fiction

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes
by Clay McLeod Chapman

When Noah Fairchild's parents stop returning his calls, he races to his childhood home in Richmond, Virginia, where he discovers them in a trance inflicted by a far-right cable news channel. Attempts to help them are met by physical attacks, and before long Noah and his young nephew are the only ones that remain unaffected. Can they stop this strange affliction from possessing more families before it's too late? Try this next: This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno.

Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love
by Marianne Cronin

Eddie Winston, a 90-year-old charity shop volunteer in Birmingham, England, unexpectedly becomes friends with Bella, a pink-haired young woman mourning her boyfriend. When Bella realizes that Eddie has never been kissed, she sets out to help him find love. Read-alikes: Clare Pooley's How to Age Disgracefully; Anna Johnston's The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife.

Mask of the Deer Woman
by Laurie L. Dove

As the new tribal marshal on the Oklahoma reservation where her dad grew up, ex-Chicago cop Carrie Starr, who struggles with addiction and her teen daughter's death, is assigned to work cold cases of missing Indigenous women. But on her third day, a new woman is reported missing and Carrie's determined to find her. "The suspense builds steadily into a stunning ending" (Booklist) in this compelling debut.

Sister snake : a novel
by Amanda Lee Koe

"A glittering, bold, darkly funny novel about two sisters--one in New York, one in Singapore--who are bound by an ancient secret"

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
by Grady Hendrix

At a home for unwed mothers in 1970 Florida, 15-year-old Fern is given a spellbook by a mysterious librarian, which she and her friends initially use to enact petty revenge on their keepers -- until they question whether they should use their newfound powers for darker purposes. This "pulpy throwback" (Kirkus Reviews) from bestselling author Grady Hendrix (How to Sell a Haunted House) offers a violent homage to Rosemary's Baby.

Rental house
by Weike Wang

"Keru and Nate first meet in college, brought together by a joke at a Halloween party (would a "great white" costume mean dressing like a shark or a privileged Ivy League student?) and marrying a few years later. Misfits in their own families, they find in each other a feeling of home. Keru is the only child of strict, well-educated Chinese immigrant parents who hold her to impossible standards even as an adult ("To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat," says her father). Nate is from a rural, white, working class family that has never trusted his intellectual ambitions or - now - the citizenship status of his "foreign" wife. Nevertheless, some years into their marriage, Keru and Nate find themselves incorporating their families into two carefully plannedvacations. The results are disastrous and revealing. First in a cozy beach house on Cape Cod, and later in a luxury bungalow in the Catskills, the couple is forced to confront the hidden truths at the core of their relationship. Alongside their giant sheepdog Mantou, Keru and Nate navigate visits from in-laws, a sibling, and surprising new friends, all while trying to determine if they have what it takes to make themselves and each other happy. How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) are needed to make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what does it take to shepherd everyone back together?"

The stolen queen : a novel
by Fiona Davis

"Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. But after an unbearable tragedy strikes, Charlotte knows her future will never be thesame. New York City, 1978: Eighteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for iconic former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who's in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the "party of the year." Though Annie soon realizes she'll have her work cut out for her, scrambling to meet Diana's capricious demands and exacting standards. Meanwhile, Charlotte, now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met's celebrated Department of Egyptian Art, wants little to do with the upcoming gala. She's consumed with her research on Hathorkare-a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant. That is, until the night of the gala. When oneof the Egyptian art collection's most valuable artifacts goes missing . . . and there are signs Hathorkare's legendary curse might be reawakening. As Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she'd never return: Egypt. But if they're to have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past-which may mean leading them both directly into danger"

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt
by Chelsea Iversen

In 19th-Century London, Harriet Hunt has been abandoned by her father in their family manor with only her plants for company. After marrying a man even worse than him, Harriet learns that her garden magically responds to her emotions, and uses it to take back her own power. For fans of: fantastical stories of women overcoming abuse and societal expectation such as Threadneedle by Cari Thomas and Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid.

The rest is memory : a novel
by Lily Tuck

"First glimpsed riding on the back of a boy's motorcycle, fourteen-year-old Czeslawa comes to life in this mesmerizing novel by Lily Tuck, who imagines her upbringing in a small Polish village before her world imploded in late 1942. Stripped of her modest belongings, shorn, and tattooed number 26947 on arriving at Auschwitz, Czeslawa is then photographed. Three months later, she is dead. How did this happen to an ordinary Polish citizen? This is the question that Tuck grapples with in this haunting novel, which frames Czeslawa's story within the epic tragedy of six million Poles who perished during the German occupation. A decade prior to writing The Rest Is Memory, Tuck read an obituary of the photographer Wilhelm Brasse, who took more than 40,000 pictures of the Auschwitz prisoners. Included were three of Czeslawa Kwoka, a Catholic girl from rural southeastern Poland. Tuck cut out the photos and kept them, determined to learn more about Czeslawa, but she was only able to glean the barest facts: the village she came from, the transport she was on, that she was accompanied by her mother and her neighbors, her tattoo number, and the date of her death. From this scant evidence, Tuck's novel becomes a remarkable kaleidoscopic feat of imagination, something only our greatest novelists can do"

The last room on the left
by Leah Konen

Kerry, a struggling writer with a crumbling life, takes a caretaker job at a remote Catskills motel to finish her book, but when a snowstorm traps her with a frozen corpse, she must unravel a deadly game of survival?—?or risk losing her mind and her life.

Temple of Swoon
by Jo Segura

In this banter-filled spin-off of Jo Segura's action-packed debut, Raiders of the Lost Heart, archeologist Miriam "Miri" Jacobs is appointed co-lead on an expedition in search of the Lost City of the Moon in the Brazilian Amazon. Tagging along for the trip is Rafael "Rafa" Monfils, a journalist whose ulterior motives are thwarted when he starts to fall for Miri. Try this next: The Jewel of the Isle by Kerry Rea.

Single Player
by Tara Tai

When aspiring video game writer Cat Li lands her dream job writing romance storylines for Compass Hollow, she's paired with narrative director and romance-averse Andi Zhang, who's recovering from a recent doxxing after gamers discovered Andi was nonbinary and Asian American. Can the pair overcome their prickly dynamic to create a love story in-game...and in real-life? For fans of: TJ Alexander, Helen Hoang, and Sally Thorne.

Variation : a novel
by Rebecca Yarros

On fateful summer a celebrated dancer returns home and unearths years of family secrets with the Coast Guard rescue swimmer she never forgot

The naming of the birds : a novel
by Paraic O'Donnell

As a series of gruesome and meticulously executed murders rocks the city, Sergeant Gideon Bliss grows increasingly puzzled by Inspector Henry Cutter's withdrawn behavior and strange investigative methods, leading him, alongside sharp journalist Octavia Hillingdon, to unearth dark secrets from the past that may hold the key to the killer's motive.

The Lotus Shoes
by Jane Yang

In 1800s China, six-year-old Little Flower, an exceptional embroiderer with coveted bound feet, is sold to the wealthy Fong family to be a lady's maid to jealous six-year-old Linjing, whose family has chosen to ignore the old ways and not bind her feet. Told from the viewpoints of the two well-realized main characters as they grow up, this moving debut will please fans of Lisa See's Lady Tan's Circle of Women.

Adult Nonfiction

Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History
by Olivia Campbell

Journalist Olivia Campbell (Women in White Coats) reveals the compelling yet little-known story of four women scientists who fled Nazi Germany after their research was stymied and found success in the United States and Sweden. Try this next: Chamber Divers: The Untold Story of the D-Day Scientists Who Changed Special Operations Forever by Rachel Lance.

Brooke Shields is not allowed to get old : thoughts on aging as a woman
by Brooke Shields

The former child star reflects on aging with confidence and empowerment, challenging societal stereotypes about women growing older, while sharing personal experiences and insights to encourage women to reclaim their power and redefine the narrative around aging. 350,000 first printing. Illustrations.

I Am Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free
by Lee Hawkins

Pulitzer Prize finalist and What Happened in Alabama? podcast host Lee Hawkins' intimate and thought-provoking family history utilizes genealogical research and interviews to examine the ongoing impacts of generational trauma stemming from enslavement and Jim Crow. Further reading: Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing by Dionne Ford.

The crazies : the cattleman, the wind prospector, and a war out west
by Amy Gamerman

Explores the conflict between a struggling rancher and wealthy neighbors over a wind farm in Big Timber, Montana, examining themes of land rights, environmental challenges, and American values, while introducing a diverse cast of characters amid an epic showdown that reflects broader societal issues in a changing landscape.

Youth Fiction

To See An Owl
by Matthew Cordell

Young Janie is absolutely obsessed with owls, and her heart is set on spotting one in the wild. It's a challenging goal, but with support from understanding adults, Janie's determination might pay off. With evocative landscape illustrations and a deep respect for nature, this spellbinding picture book pairs with Jane Yolen's classic Owl Moon.

After Life
by Gayle Forman

Amber shocks her family upon arriving home from school one day, because seven years ago, a car struck and killed her. Given this second chance, Amber investigates how she returned, and more importantly, why? Fans of author Gayle Forman's popular If I Stay will appreciate this character-driven meditation on life and death.

Fresh Start
by Gale Galligan

After years of constantly moving, imaginative, anime-loving Ollie and her family have finally settled in one place. Now Ollie just has to figure out how to make friends without the option of running away anytime she messes up. Manga-style art and real-feeling emotions make this graphic novel a breeze to read.

Contact your librarian for more great books!