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Recommended by Amy, IT Services
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Revelator
by Daryl Gregory
In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee. These remote hills of the Smoky Mountains are home to dangerous secrets, and soon after she arrives, Stella wanders into a dark cavern where she encounters the family's personal god, an entity known as the Ghostdaddy. Years later, after a tragic incident that caused her to flee, Stella--now a professional bootlegger--returns for Motty's funeral, and to check on the mysterious ten-year-old girl named Sunny that Motty adopted. Sunny appears innocent enough, but she is more powerful than Stella could imagine--and she's a direct link to Stella's buried past and her family's destructive faith.
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Root Rot
by Saskia Nislow
Meet The Liar, The Secret Keeper, and The Crybaby. When nine children arrive at their grandfather’s lake house, reality begins to fray: eyes blink bottom-up, mushrooms bleed, and the encroaching land warps time itself. As the children succumb one by one to bizarre transformations, The Liar must unravel the unsettling clues—from milk-tasting vials to missing stars—and decide whether to resist or assimilate. Told in an eerie collective voice, Root Rot explores predatory family dynamics, bodily autonomy, and the cost of complicity.
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The Learners: The Book After the Cheese Monkeys
by Chip Kidd
'The Learners' is the sequel to Kidd's previous novel, 'The Cheese Monkeys'. It is the story of Happy, a young graphic designer who lands his first job at an advertising firm in New Haven, Connecticut. Happy fits in among the likable eccentrics, and together they struggle to hold onto their most important client, Cringle Potato Chips.
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Victorian Psycho
by Virginia Feito
Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifred spends within the estate’s dreary confines and the more she learns of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family, the more trouble she has sticking to her plan. Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past until her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning.
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Recommended by Kori, Marketing & Communications
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The Butcher
by Jennifer Hillier
Thirty years after legendary police chief Edward Shank killed the Beacon Hill Butcher, he passes his Victorian home to his grandson, Matt. But backyard renovations unearth a crate containing a horrific secret—one directly tied to Matt’s girlfriend, Sam. A true-crime writer obsessed with her mother’s unsolved murder, Sam suspects the Butcher never truly died. When new bodies surface, her investigation puts them in crosshairs far closer to home than either could imagine.
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The Unknown
by Riley Sager
A century after five spiritual mediums vanished from Vermont's remote New Avalon island—leaving only their dresses behind—struggling actress Marin Keane arrives on location to shoot a film about the cold case. But when a sudden crisis strands the cast and crew, eerie occurrences escalate and people begin disappearing once more. Cut off from help, Marin must decipher a century-old diary from one of the original mediums to uncover the island's dark truth before history claims them all.
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Such Sharp Teeth
by Rachel Harrison
Returning to her hometown to support her pregnant twin sister, Rory Morris is already facing down bad memories when a roadside animal attack changes everything. She survives, only to find herself possessed by unnatural strength, an aversion to silver, and the pull of the moon. As she transforms into something feral, Rory must decide whether the beast within threatens the people she loves—or offers the ultimate path to self-acceptance.
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Heart of Glass
by Jennifer Hillier
Twenty-five years ago, high schooler Lorelei was murdered after a night out at the local amusement park with a charming drifter and her two best friends, Barb and Nicolette. The infamous "Carnival Killer" confessed, and the friends' lives diverged: Nicolette rebranded as a wealthy reality-TV star, while Barb stayed behind, secretly penning snarky gossip blogs about her. But when the killer recants and a new body washes ashore, both women must confront the buried truth of that night.
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Recommended by Emma, Public Services
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Carnegie's Maid
by Marie Benedict
Desperate to support her starving family in Ireland, impoverished Clara Kelley assumes the identity of a missing, experienced lady's maid to secure a position in Andrew Carnegie’s formidable household. Armed with fierce resolve and a sharp business mind, Clara quickly becomes the rising industrialist’s indispensable confidante—and something deeper. But as feelings grow and Carnegie's empire expands, the truth behind Clara’s stolen name threatens to destroy both her future and the dynasty she helped inspire.
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Recommended by Shannan, Marketing & Communications
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33 Place Brugmann
by Alice Austen
On the eve of the Nazi occupation of Brussels, the close-knit residents of 33 Place Brugmann see their world unravel. Art student Charlotte Sauvin watches her intimate circle fracture when her dearest friend’s family abruptly vanishes, while her neighbors navigate secret affairs, false identities, and clandestine resistance. As the brutal realities of war encroach, this accidental community is forced to make a harrowing choice: submit to the regime or risk everything for what—and who—matters most.
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If It Makes You Happy
by Julie Olivia
Taking over her mom’s Vermont bed-and-breakfast was supposed to be a temporary escape to heal post-divorce—not an audition for disaster. Between burnt scones and nonexistent small talk, she's barely surviving, much to the amusement of Cliff: small-town golden boy, devoted single dad, and annoyingly hot baker next door. Becoming friends is safe, especially with her dream Seattle promotion waiting in three months. Falling for the charming flannel-clad neighbor and his sweet daughters? Definitely not on the itinerary.
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The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin
Grieving, bitter, and facing financial ruin, curmudgeonly bookseller A.J. Fikry has retreated from the world on Alice Island. His wife is gone, his sales are plummeting, and his most prized possession—a rare volume of Poe—has just been stolen. But when a mysterious, life-altering package is abandoned inside Island Books, A.J. is given an unexpected second chance at connection, love, and the joy of rediscovering the power of stories.
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You Deserve to Know
by Aggie Blum Thompson
In tranquil East Bethesda, neighbors Gwen, Aimee, and Lisa share playdates, wine nights, and their deepest secrets. But their picture-perfect suburban enclave shatters when Gwen’s husband is murdered following one of their routine Friday dinners. As police probe the close-knit cul-de-sac, the women’s unbreakable bond fractures into a web of illicit affairs, buried jealousies, and toxic rivalry—forcing them to confront chilling truths about their spouses and the dark reality of their own friendship.
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Recommended by Khorye, Community Engagement
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Interstellar Megachef
by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
Fresh off an Earth freighter with her flying bot in tow, Saras Kaveri is the ultimate underdog invited to compete on Interstellar MegaChef—a sterile, high-tech cooking competition on planet Primus where nobody uses real fire. Enter Serenity Ko, a burned-out tech prodigy on mandatory corporate leave with a wild scheme to invent a food simulation. After a fateful cab ride, the unlikely duo teams up to revolutionize culinary history across the galaxy.
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Wandance 1
by Coffee
Kaboku Kotani is starting high school, and he plans to do what he’s always done: go along with his friends, keep quiet, and not to draw too much attention to himself. After all, it’s hard enough to get by with a stutter like his—why make things worse by standing out from the crowd? But then he sees another first-year, Hikari Wanda, dancing like no one is watching—or like she doesn’t care who sees her. It makes Kaboku wonder: Could he reach that same freedom? To find his way to Wanda, he does something he never thought he could: He joins the dance club. After all, every routine begins with a single step, right?
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A Witch's Life in Mongol, Vol. 1
by Tomato Tomato Soup
Eight centuries ago, in the latter days of the Islamic golden age, a young girl arrived in the Khwarazmian city of Tus. She was a slave. But she learned. Eight centuries ago, the Mongols blazed across the map, swept Khwarazm into the ash heap of history, and took all they desired from the ruins. They took the girl who learned.So begins the true story of how a witch, wielding knowledge as her only weapon, came to hold the greatest empire the world has ever known in the palm of her hand...
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Recommended by Kristine, Community Engagement
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The Mad Wife
by Meagan Church
Lulu Mayfield has spent five years playing the flawless 1950s housewife, burying past trauma beneath pristine gelatin salads and wifely devotion. But after welcoming her second child, her picture-perfect world begins to fracture. Enter Bitsy, an immaculate new neighbor whose fixed smile hides something sinister. As Lulu’s obsession with uncovering Bitsy’s secrets spirals, whispers about her own sanity mount—forcing her to confront whether she’s truly unravelling, or unearthing a terrifying truth.
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Nesting
by Roisín O'Donnell
On a bright spring afternoon, pregnant mother Ciara Fay straps her two young daughters into the car and flees her marriage for good. Behind the veneer of her comfortable home lies her husband Ryan’s insidious emotional abuse, volatile rages, and suffocating surveillance. Stranded in a temporary hotel shelter with no job or safety net, Ciara battles a broken system and Ryan’s relentless charm offensive to build an independent life, questioning her own resolve every step of the way.
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Recommended by Pat K., Library Volunteer
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Murder at 30,000 Feet
by Susan Walter
Flight 868 to San Juan is packed with wedding revelers, high school athletes, and vacationers eager for paradise—until a lightning strike kills the avionics, plunging the cabin into pitch darkness. When the power flickers back on, a passenger lies brutally murdered. Trapped thousands of feet in the air with violent thunderstorms closing in, a lone air marshal must navigate a cabin full of suspects and deadly secrets before the killer strikes again.
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Without Warning
by David Rosenfelt
Years after Katie Sanford’s husband was convicted of murdering Jenny Robbins and subsequently died in prison, a violent hurricane unearths their Maine town’s fifty-year time capsule. Opening it alongside Police Chief Jake Robbins—the victim’s widower—Katie discovers a chilling list of macabre predictions written months before Jenny’s death. Not only did the anonymous author foresee Jenny’s murder, but eleven other tragedies that continue to occur today. To clear her late husband's name, Katie must help Jake decipher the clues before the next prophecy strikes.
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Recommended by Kelly, Administrative Services
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Lady Tremaine
by Rachel Hochhauser
Everyone branded her the wicked stepmother, but Lady Etheldreda Tremaine tells a different story. Saddled with a crumbling estate, two daughters, and a difficult stepdaughter, Elin, Ethel pins her hopes on a royal ball—only to watch Elin win the prince's favor. But when Ethel uncovers a sordid secret lurking inside the royal house, she faces an impossible choice: secure her family's future, or save the ungrateful girl who scorns her.
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Go Gentle
by Maria Semple
Stoic philosopher and divorcée Adora Hazzard has mastered contentment on Manhattan's Upper West Side, relishing her teenage daughter, her elite tutoring job, and her building’s quirky neighbor "coven." Her peaceful, desire-free existence hums along brilliantly—until a chance encounter with a handsome stranger detonates her ordered world. Thrust into black-market art deals, secret liaisons, and international intrigue, Adora's buried past resurfaces, tempting her to abandon her Stoic principles and risk everything for a wild shot at reinvention.
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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
by Becky Chambers
Seeking distance from a troubled past, introspective Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the patched-up space vessel Wayfarer. Expecting a quiet escape, she instead finds a chaotic, colorful family of oddballs—including a reptilian pilot, two chatty engineers, and a noble captain. But when the crew lands a high-paying, high-risk job tunneling a wormhole to a distant planet, Rosemary is thrust into deep-space danger. As unexpected mishaps threaten the mission, she must learn to trust her eccentric crewmates in a heartwarming journey about adventure, belonging, and found family.
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American Fantasy
by Emma Straub
When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, it carries all five members of a famous 1990s boyband—and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped them for thirty years. Newly divorced empty-nester Annie climbs aboard as a lark, feeling entirely out of place amid the bedazzled super-fans. But as the music begins, the nostalgia unlocks a long-submerged part of herself, leading to an unexpected friendship with one of the band members. Packed with wisdom, heart, and humor, Emma Straub’s latest is an uplifting story about the magic of revisiting youth and the power of starting anew.
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Recommended by Caitlin, Materials Collection
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I Who Have Never Known Men
by Jacqueline Harpman
In an underground prison where countless years have passed, the youngest captive—the fortieth prisoner—is an outcast who holds the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world above ground. Written by psychoanalyst Jacqueline Harpman, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, post-apocalyptic novel of female intimacy, exile, and the lengths people go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation.
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The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus
by Margaret Atwood
In Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope is immortalized as the quintessential faithful wife, waiting twenty years in Ithaca while holding off ravenous suitors—only for Odysseus to return and slaughter not just the men, but twelve of her maids. In The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood hands the narrative over to Penelope and the hanged maids speaking from the Underworld. Witty, subversive, and haunting, this retelling interrogates what Penelope was truly plotting and why twelve young women had to die.
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Swordheart
by T. Kingfisher
Halla is a housekeeper who has suddenly inherited her great-uncle's estate--and, unfortunately, his relatives. Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. When Halla draws the sword that imprisons him, Sarkis finds himself attempting to defend his new wielder against everything from bandits and roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. And the sword itself may prove to be the greatest threat of all.
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Recommended by Katie, Materials Collection
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Yesteryear
by Caro Claire Burke
To her legions of envious followers, influencer Natalie lives the ideal traditional lifestyle on a picturesque working ranch—courtesy of off-camera nannies, producers, and industrial-grade appliances. But the illusion shatters one morning when she wakes up trapped inside an eerily warped version of reality. Her home, husband, and children are there, but everything is horribly wrong. Unsure if she's the victim of a hoax, a reality show, or a divine test, Natalie must find a way to escape.
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Daggermouth
by H. M. Wolfe
In a surveillance state ruled by the masked elite, love outside your sector is treason. When mercenary Shadera Kael botches the assassination of presidential heir Greyson Serel, survival forces her into a political marriage with her intended target. Trapped inside the regime’s opulent core, Shadera is both prisoner and deadly bride. As dangerous court conspiracies surface, Greyson and Shadera must decide whether their forced union will destroy them both—or burn the corrupt empire to the ground.
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Recommended by Paula, Community Engagement
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Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times
by Gregory Boyle
From the founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang-intervention program, Father Gregory Boyle offers a transformative antidote to our fractured world. Grounded in two radical truths—everyone is unshakably good and we belong to each other—Cherished Belonging reimagines faith as an active, subversive practice of equality and peace. Drawing on thirty years of community healing, Boyle demonstrates how viewing life through the lens of compassion can dismantle division, nurture deep human connection, and heal our collective spirit.
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Big Little Truths
by Liane Moriarty
A decade after the events of Big Little Lies, the children are now in high school—trading playground spats for teenage rebellion. But suburban peace shatters when the principal receives a severed finger in the mail. As a suspicious stranger begins sniffing around the school and Mary Louise behaves more erratically than ever, Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie must confront their buried secrets before the fragile truths shielding their families finally break.
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Recommended by Emily, Materials Collection
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Bone of My Bone
by Johanna Van Veen
In 1635 Bavaria, a fleeing nun and a sharp-witted peasant escape marauding soldiers into the blighted forest, uncovering the gilded skull of a saint rumored to grant a single wish if reunited with its body. Desperate for salvation, the two women embark on a perilous pilgrimage across war-torn land. But with a pursuing necromancer and the relic’s own sinister whispers trailing behind them, they discover the price of divine favor may cost them everything.
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The Prospects
by Kt Hoffman
As the first openly trans player in pro baseball, Gene Ionescu has fought hard for his comfortable minor-league life with the Beaverton Beavers. But that peaceful equilibrium detonates when his former teammate and fiercest rival, Luis Estrada, is traded to the roster. Forced together on long road trips and cramped dugouts, their on-field bickering sparks an undeniable, electric heat—daring Gene to risk his carefully guarded heart and swing for dreams bigger than he ever imagined.
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Hell's Heart
by Alexis Hall
In a ruined solar system powered solely by a hallucinogenic fuel harvested from Jupiter’s colossal atmospheric Leviathans, a penniless drifter joins the crew of the hunter-barque Pequod. But as the ship dives into the gas giant's crushing storms, she falls under the sway of Captain A—a fanatically obsessed woman spiraling into madness. Her only tether to sanity becomes Q, an enigmatic Earth survivor whose holographic skin holds the memories of a forgotten world.
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Cuckoo
by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Something evil is buried deep in the desert. It wants your body. It wears your skin. In the summer of 1995, seven queer kids abandoned by their parents at a remote conversion camp came face-to-face with it. They survived – but at Camp Resolution, everybody leaves a different person. Sixteen years later, only the scarred and broken survivors of that terrible summer can put an end to the horror before it’s too late. The fate of the world depends on it.
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Recommended by Amanda, Materials Collection
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A Head Full of Ghosts
by Paul Tremblay
When fourteen-year-old Marjorie Barrett begins showing signs of severe psychosis, medical treatments fail. Desperate and drowning in debt, her family turns to a priest who suspects demonic possession—and agrees to let a production company film the ordeal for a sensational reality show that ends in legendary tragedy. Fifteen years later, Marjorie’s younger sister Merry finally speaks out, unraveling buried family trauma that clashes chillingly with what millions watched on screen.
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The Reformatory
by Tananarive Due
In 1950 Jim Crow Florida, twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens Jr. is sentenced to the segregated Gracetown School for Boys after defending his sister. Behind the reformatory walls, Robbie discovers a chamber of terrors—and the spectral boys who never made it out alive. Gifted with the ability to see ghosts, Robbie must navigate violent guards, missing classmates, and restless spirits to survive, while on the outside, his sister races against time to win his freedom.
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When the Wolf Comes Home
by Nat Cassidy
One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives. As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, horrifying incidents of butchery follow them. At first, Jess thinks she understands what they're up against, but she's about to learn there's more to these surreal and grisly events than she could've ever imagined. And that when the wolf finally comes home, none will be spared.
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Recommended by John, IT Services
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Before They Are Hanged
by Joe Abercrombie
Inquisitor Glokta must hold a crumbling city riddled with traitors before a relentless southern army arrives, while to the north, a vain prince leads an incompetent peasant militia into slaughter against invading barbarians. Meanwhile, the First of the Magi leads an alliance of lethal misfits—the South's most hated woman, the North's most feared killer, and a shallow noble—on a desperate quest into the ruins of the past to avert global ruin. If they don't murder each other first.
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The Unworthy
by Agustina Bazterrica
In a drowned, post-apocalyptic wasteland, a lowly initiate survives inside the authoritarian shelter of the Sacred Sisterhood, scrawling her memories in dirt and blood while striving to join the exalted "Enlightened." But when an enigmatic newcomer breaches the convent walls, the initiate begins questioning her erased past and the grim truth behind the Sisterhood’s holy ascension. As the two grow closer, the promise of safety curdles into a nightmare of zealotry, control, and exploitation.
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The Listeners
by Maggie Stiefvater
In January 1942, the luxurious Avallon Hotel & Spa in West Virginia becomes an unlikely gilded prison when the State Department commandeers it to house captured Axis diplomats. General manager June Porter Hudson faces an agonizing challenge: convincing a local staff whose loved ones are fighting overseas to wait on enemies hand and foot. As a brooding FBI agent probes the guests for secrets, the war breaches the hotel's secluded walls, testing June's loyalties to the brink.
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Bloodhounds
by Peter Lovesey
A rare stamp and a corpse are discovered in Bath within hours of each other. As he investigates, Inspector Peter Diamond discovers that both the person who found the stamp and the victim belong to the Bloodhounds, an elite group of mystery lovers, who now urge Diamond to bring the murderer to justice. But there’s a hitch: the body lies inside a padlocked houseboat and the only key is in the pocket of a man with an airtight alibi.
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Recommended by Lauren, Public Services
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Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor of a desperate interstellar mission to save humanity from extinction—except he has no idea who he is. Waking from a deep coma millions of miles from Earth alongside two dead crewmates, his shattered memories slowly return to reveal an impossible scientific mystery. Hurtling through the void with the clock ticking down on Earth's survival, he thinks he’s entirely alone in the dark. He’s about to discover he isn’t.
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Recommended by Alyssa, Community Engagement
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The Wilderness
by Angela Flournoy
Spanning twenty transformative years from the late 2000s to the late 2020s, five Black women navigate the messy wilderness between early ambition and midlife reality. Between estranged sisters nursing old wounds, an ambivalent mother-to-be, an outspoken librarian thrust into viral fame, and an aspiring restaurateur defying family expectations, life brings relentless change. As careers, motherhood, and social upheaval test their bonds, they must discover whether their enduring sisterhood can survive the volatility of modern adulthood.
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Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World
by Vivek H. Murthy
In this groundbreaking book, Murthy argues that loneliness is the underpinning to the current crisis in mental wellness and is responsible for the upsurge in suicide, the opioid epidemic, the overuse of psych meds, the over-diagnosing and pathologizing of emotional and psychological struggle. The good news is that social connection is innate and a cure for loneliness. In Together, the 19th Surgeon General will address the importance of community and connection and offer viable and actionable solutions to this overlooked epidemic.
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