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Recommended by Alyssa, Community Engagement
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New Spring
by Robert Jordan
In the prequel to the legendary Wheel of Time series, Lan Mandragoran, an exiled king and master swordsman, enters the city of Canluum only to find it infested with the Dark One’s influence. Amidst the growing shadows, he meets Moiraine, a young Aes Sedai on a desperate mission. Together, they begin a quest to validate a prophecy that could save the world: the search for a child born to be the Dragon Reborn.
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Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
by Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy is a powerful true story and a call to end mass incarceration. As a young lawyer, Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Alabama to defend the poor and wrongly condemned. The book follows EJI’s journey, from challenging the execution of children to confronting America’s history of racial injustice, through the lens of clients like Walter McMillian, a Black man falsely sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman. It exposes a legal system that often values wealth and status over truth and innocence.
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The Wedding People
by Alison Espach
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
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The God of the Woods
by Liz Moore
When Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her summer camp bunk one morning in August 1975, it triggers a panicked, terrified search. Losing a camper is a horrific tragedy under any circumstances, but Barbara isn't just any camper: she's the daughter of the wealthy family who owns the camp--as well as the opulent nearby estate, and most of the land in sight. And this isn't the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared in this region. Barbara's older brother also went missing 16 years earlier, never to be found. How could this have happened yet again? Out of this gripping beginning, Liz Moore weaves a ... textured drama, both emotionally nuanced and propelled by a double-barreled mystery.
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Recommended by Kelli, Community Engagment
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The School for Good Mothers
by Jessamine Chan
In this explosive debut, one lapse in judgment forces struggling mother Frida Liu into a government reform program where custody of her daughter, Harriet, hangs in the balance. To reclaim her child, Frida must endure a "Big Brother" style institution designed to measure maternal devotion and enforce the rigid standards of "perfect" parenting. The School for Good Mothers is a taut, witty exploration of state surveillance, upper-middle-class expectations, and the lengths a mother will go to for her child.
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Awake: A Memoir
by Jen Hatmaker
In this brutally honest and surprisingly funny memoir, bestselling author Jen Hatmaker recounts the sudden collapse of her twenty-six-year marriage and the resulting identity crisis. After discovering her husband’s infidelity, the popular leader was forced to navigate life as a single mother while grappling with a sense of total failure. Awake follows Hatmaker’s journey through the wreckage of midlife upheaval and the unraveling of long-held religious and cultural systems. By questioning the myths that shaped her past, she discovers a path toward radical authenticity and a new kind of love story.
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The Irish Goodbye
by Heather Aimee O'Neill
In this explosive debut, three sisters return to their Long Island childhood home for Thanksgiving, still haunted by a tragic boat accident that claimed their brother’s life twenty years earlier. As they attempt to reconnect, each sister struggles with a life-altering secret: eldest sister Cait hides her true role in the accident, middle sister Alice faces a professional and marital crisis, and youngest sister Maggie fears coming out to their devout mother. When an unexpected guest arrives for dinner, buried tensions and new truths surface, forcing the Ryans to finally confront their shared grief. To save their family bond, the sisters must navigate the wreckage of the past and find a path toward forgiveness.
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Recommended by Lauren, Public Services
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The Empress of Salt and Fortune
by Nghi Vo
A young royal from the far north is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders. Alone and sometimes reviled, she must choose her allies carefully. Rabbit, a handmaiden, sold by her parents to the palace for the lack of five baskets of dye, befriends the emperor's lonely new wife and gets more than she bargained for. At once feminist high fantasy and an indictment of monarchy, this evocative debut follows the rise of the empress In-yo, who has few resources and fewer friends. She's a northern daughter in a mage-made summer exile, but she will bend history to her will and bring down her enemies, piece by piece.
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Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
by Emily Krempholtz
In this charming cozy fantasy debut, Violet Thistlethwaite, former right-hand witch to a dark sorcerer, escapes her villainous past to open a flower shop in the quiet town of Dragon's Rest. Her goal is simple: trade poison for peonies and prove she can be good, despite her sentient, homicidal houseplant. Her plans are complicated by Nathaniel Marsh, a grumpy, handsome alchemist with whom she’s forced to share a greenhouse. When a magical blight threatens the town, the unlikely pair must work together to save their home. Amidst the mystery and small-town magic, Violet must decide if a reformed villain truly deserves a second chance at love.
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Murder by Memory
by Olivia Waite
In this cozy sci-fi mystery, Dorothy Gentleman, a no-nonsense auntie and ship detective, wakes up in a body that isn't hers on the luxurious interstellar liner HMS Fairweather. The ship promises immortality by storing minds in a digital Library, but someone has discovered a way to make death permanent by deleting those backups. As Dorothy investigates the impossible murders, she must navigate the chaos caused by her feckless programmer nephew and a suspicious ex-girlfriend. With a mastermind potentially three centuries in the making, Dorothy must solve the case before the Fairweather’s "endless" life spans are cut permanently short.
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Six of Crows
by Leigh Bardugo
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone...A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.
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Recommended by Kelly D., Administrative Services
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Wreck
by Catherine Newman
If you loved Rocky and her family on vacation on Cape Cod, wait until you join them at home two years later. (And if this is your first meeting with this crew, get ready to laugh and cry--and relate.) Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic, and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick and their daughter Willa, who's back home after college. Their son Jamie has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky's widowed father, has moved in. It all couldn't be more ridiculously normal--until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them--and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won't affect them at all.
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Ghost
by Jason Reynolds
Running. That's all that Ghost (real name Castle Cranshaw) has ever known. But never for a track team. Nope, his game has always been ball. But when Ghost impulsively challenges an elite sprinter to a race—and wins—the Olympic medalist track coach sees he has something: crazy natural talent. Thing is, Ghost has something else: a lot of anger, and a past that he is trying to outrun. Can Ghost harness his raw talent for speed and meld with the team, or will his past finally catch up to him?
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Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall
by Helena Merriman
In the summer of 1962, student Joachim Rudolph escaped East Germany—only to begin tunneling back in to rescue dozens of others. Tunnel 29 is the gripping true story of an ingenious group of student-diggers risking everything to bypass the Berlin Wall. Drawing on Stasi documents and survivor interviews, Helena Merriman reveals a high-stakes operation involving American news networks and a devastating betrayal. As the escapees prepare to crawl through the darkness, they are unaware that a Stasi spy has infiltrated the mission, turning a desperate bid for freedom into a deadly race against time.
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The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
by Siddharth Kara
From the author of Cobalt Red comes the harrowing true story of the Zorg, a slave ship whose doomed 1781 voyage changed history. After navigational errors left the vessel low on water, the crew made the barbaric decision to throw dozens of enslaved people overboard to preserve resources and insurance value. The resulting legal battle in England’s high courts transformed a "brutal calculus" into a public scandal, catapulting abolitionism from a niche cause to a global moral crusade. Using meticulous research, Siddharth Kara reconstructs the ship’s journey, the fates of those on board, and the mysterious whistleblower who finally exposed the truth, sparking the movement to end slavery in both the UK and the US.
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Recommended by Shannan, Marketing & Communications
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The Alchemy of Flowers
by Laura Resau
Seeking a retreat from a painful past, Eloise Bourne takes a job at Le Château du Paradis, a secretive French estate where children are strictly forbidden. While the magical gardens offer her a chance to heal alongside a group of fellow outcasts, she soon discovers that "Paradise" is governed by unsettling, archaic rules. When Eloise glimpses a mysterious child hiding in the trees, she must decide if the girl is a forest spirit or a human in danger. To save the child and her newfound family, Eloise must break the castle's rules and unearth the dark secrets buried within the walls, transforming her refuge into a high-stakes prison.
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See You Yesterday
by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Hoping for a fresh start at college, Barrett Bloom instead suffers a disastrous first day that ends in a literal frat fire. When she wakes up the next morning, she discovers she is trapped in a time loop—it's September 21st all over again. She soon learns she isn't alone; Miles, the "know-it-all" from her physics class, has been stuck in the same loop for months. As the two team up to find a way out, they embark on wild adventures and begin to fall for each other. But their growing connection faces a daunting uncertainty: if they ever break the loop, will their relationship survive the arrival of tomorrow?
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Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything: A Memoir
by Alyson Stoner
The world knew Alyson Stoner as the charming tomboy from Cheaper by the Dozen, the iconic kid dancer with Missy Elliott, and the friendly face on Disney Channel hits like Camp Rock and Phineas and Ferb. But behind the scenes, a different story was unfolding—one of relentless pressure, family trauma, and a lonely battle to get help. Semi-Well-Adjusted is more than a Hollywood memoir, it’s a fierce and unflinching look at what it takes to heal in a society that seems determined to break us. With bravely and hard-earned wisdom, Alyson shares their harrowing journey from an eighty-hour work week at age eight and stratospheric child stardom, to navigating religious trauma and rebuilding a life on their own terms. Now a mental health advocate, Alyson offers a masterclass in self-reclamation for anyone ready to break free from the narratives that have defined them. Semi-Well-Adjusted is a roadmap for finding your own voice and power—despite literally everything.
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The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop
by Takuya Asakura
Welcome to The Cherry Blossom Bookshop, a haven for book lovers that only appears during the fleeting cherry blossom season. Nestled amidst the bloom of delicate petals, you’ll find a sanctuary for those burdened by regrets and past sorrows. Here, Sakura, the mysterious young owner, and her wise calico cat, Kobako, patiently await the arrival of souls in need of solace and healing.Told over four seasons, each visitor to the bookshop holds a book that bridges their past and present, guiding them towards understanding and acceptance. Within the antique charm of the shop and the soothing aroma of freshly brewed coffee, Sakura and Kobako help their guests confront their lingering sadness through the power of stories, enabling them to move forward with renewed hope.
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Recommended by Emily, Materials Collection
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Flowers for the Sea
by Zin E. Rocklyn
Flowers for the Sea is a dark, dazzling debut novella that reads like Rosemary's Baby by way of Octavia E. Butler. We are a people who do not forget. Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp. Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she’s pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine. Zin E. Rocklyn’s extraordinary debut is a lush, gothic fantasy about the prices we pay and the vengeance we seek.
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Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder
by Rachel McCarthy James
Much like the wheel, the boat, and the telephone, the axe is a transformative piece of technology--one that has been with us since prehistory. And just as early humans used the axe to chop down trees, hunt for food, and whittle tools, they also used it to murder. Over time, this particular use has endured: as the axe evolved over centuries to fit the needs of new agricultural, architectural, and social development, so have our lethal uses for it. Whack Job is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII's favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture.
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Recommended by Kori, Marketing & Communications
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The Reluctant Reaper
by Maryjanice Davidson
Amara Morrigan has zero interest in inheriting the family business, especially since her father is Death. Haunted by a childhood of watching loved ones vanish, Amara refuses to take the mantle—even though she can sense exactly when everyone she meets will die, including her best friend, Gray. When her father falls into an impossible coma, Amara is drawn back to Minot, North Dakota, with a loyal Gray in tow. As other death gods gather and the world tilts off balance, Amara is forced to temporarily assume her father's powers. Now, she must navigate a divine crisis and find a way to save her father before she's stuck with the world’s most morbid job forever.
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This Story Might Save Your Life
by Tiffany Crum
Podcasters Benny Abbott and Joy Moore have built a global empire sharing "against all odds" survival stories. But when Benny arrives to record a new episode and finds Joy and her husband, Xander, missing from their ransacked home, he becomes the prime suspect in their disappearance. Desperate to clear his name, Benny uses the only clue he has: a secret, unfinished draft of Joy’s memoir. As the search intensifies, the "life-affirming" image of the two best friends begins to crack, revealing dark secrets that even their most devoted listeners, and each other, never could have guessed.
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Play Nice
by Rachel Harrison
Influencer Clio Louise Barnes has spent years distancing herself from her "glamorous" childhood secret: her mother claimed their family home was possessed by a demon. While her sisters and the courts dismissed Alex as mentally ill, the trauma of their mother's obsession—and the bestselling book she wrote about it—still haunts them. Following Alex’s death, Clio decides to flip the infamous house for social media content. But as the renovations strip away the layers of the past, Clio realizes her mother may not have been lying. Forced to confront her resurfacing memories and the sinister presence within the walls, Clio discovers that some family secrets are better left buried.
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Maine Characters
by Hannah Orenstein
In this adult "Parent Trap," half-sisters Vivian and Lucy meet for the first time following their father’s sudden death. Vivian, a high-stakes New York sommelier, arrives at her father’s Maine cabin to sell it, only to find Lucy, the local sister she never knew existed, waiting there to mourn. Forced to spend the summer together, the two navigate a storm of hostility and long-held secrets about their parents' pasts. As Vivian reels from a professional betrayal and Lucy fights to save the only home she’s ever known, they must decide if thirty years of separation is too wide a gap to bridge, or if they can finally become a family.
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Recommended by Pat K., Library Volunteer
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We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America
by Norah O'Donnell
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A vivid portrait of the unsung American women from 1776 to today who changed the course of history in their fight for freedom and helped shape a more perfect unionThis terrific book reveals the central, though often hidden role that women have played at every stage of our country's history.--Doris Kearns Goodwin Over a decades-long, distinguished career, award-winning journalist Norah O'Donnell has made it her mission to shed light on untold women's stories. Now, in honor of America's 250th birthday, O'Donnell focuses that passion on the American heroines who helped change the course of history. We the Women presents a fresh look at American history through the eyes of women, introducing us to inspiring patriots who demanded that the country live up to the promises made 250 years ago in the Declaration of Independence: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Since the signing of that document, the pressing question from women has been: Why don't those unalienable rights apply to us? Through extensive research and interviews, as well as historical documents and old photos, O'Donnell curates a compelling portrait of these fierce fighters for freedom. From Mary Katherine Goddard, who printed the first signed Declaration of Independence, to the Forten family women, who were active in the abolition and suffrage movements and were considered the Black Founders of Philadelphia, to the first women who served in the armed forces even before they had the right to vote, O'Donnell brings these extraordinary women together for the first time, and in doing so writes the American story anew.
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The Stolen Child
by Ann Hood
For decades, Nick Burns has been haunted by a decision he made as a young soldier in World War I, when a French artist he’d befriended thrust both her paintings and her baby into his hands—and disappeared. In 1974, with only months left to live, Nick enlists Jenny, a college dropout desperate for adventure, to help him unravel the mystery. The journey leads them from Paris galleries and provincial towns to a surprising place: the Museum of Tears, the life’s work of a lonely Italian craftsman. Determined to find the baby and the artist, hopeless romantic Jenny and curmudgeonly Nick must reckon with regret, betrayal, and the lives they’ve left behind. With characteristic warmth and verve, Ann Hood captures a world of possibility and romance through the eyes of a young woman learning to claim her place in it. The Stolen Child is an engaging, timeless novel of secrets, love lost and found, and the nature of forgiveness.
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The Glassmaker
by Tracy Chevalier
In 1486, Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers in Murano, Italy. As a woman, she is not meant to blow glass-but when her father dies, she teaches herself to make beads in secret, and her work becomes the cornerstone of the Rosso family fortunes. Skipping like a stone through the centuries, we follow Orsola and her family as they live through creative triumph and heartbreaking loss, from a plague rearing its head over Venice to Continental soldiers stripping its palazzos bare, from the domination of Murano and its maestros to the transformation of the city of trade into a city of tourists. In every era, the Rosso women ensure that their work, and their bonds, endure.
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The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County
by Claire Swinarski
In this uplifting novel set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, seventy-year-old Esther Larson has spent her life feeding mourners as part of the "funeral ladies." But after an internet scam threatens her home, the proud matriarch finds herself in need of a miracle. Her granddaughter, Iris, is determined to save her family and the lakeside town she’s desperate to call home. Enter Cooper Welsh, a grieving paramedic struggling to raise his half-sister while their celebrity-chef father ignores them. As Iris and Cooper team up with Esther to create a community cookbook, they discover that a mix of Midwestern grit, shared recipes, and long-awaited forgiveness might be the key to healing their hearts and saving their community.
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Recommended by Caitlin, Materials Collection
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Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories
by Bora Chung
From the author of Cursed Bunny comes Midnight Timetable, a bone-chilling novel-in-ghost-stories set within a mysterious research institute for cursed objects. As a new night-shift employee navigates the center’s shifting corridors, they encounter relics with dark histories: a handkerchief fueled by brotherly rivalry, a haunted sneaker that traps a thief, and a cat that bears witness to a family’s crimes. True to Bora Chung’s mastery of literary horror, these eerie tales serve as violent allegories for real-world terrors, from domestic abuse to late-stage capitalism. Deeply political, wryly funny, and masterfully told, this collection explores what happens when the horrors of the past refuse to be contained.
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Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II
by Adam Gidwitz
Max Bretzfeld doesn’t want to move to London. Leaving home is hard and Max is alone for the first time in his life. But not for long. Max is surprised to discover that he’s been joined by two unexpected traveling companions, one on each shoulder, a kobold and a dybbuk named Berg and Stein. Germany is becoming more and more dangerous for Jewish families, but Max is determined to find a way back home, and back to his parents. He has a plan to return to Berlin. It merely involves accomplishing the becoming a British spy. The first book in a duology, Max in the House of Spies is a thought-provoking World War II story as only acclaimed storyteller Adam Gidwitz can tell it—fast-paced and hilarious, with a dash of magic and a lot of heart.
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Bad Badger: A Love Story
by Maryrose Wood
Septimus is not good at being a badger. He adores the sunset. He dreams of going to Venice. And he lives alone in a charming cottage by the sea. He’s not unhappy with his tidy, solitary life, but there are times when being so bad at badgerdom makes him wonder if he’s even a badger at all. When a gull of very few words lands on the windowsill, Septimus leaps at the possibility of friendship. However, his new confidant soon goes missing and Septimus is bereft. Determined to find his best—and only—friend, he ventures into new territory and encounters a cast of surprising characters. Can Septimus be as brave and bighearted as he’ll need to be to find Gully? Or is he really a bad badger after all?
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Recommended by Dawn, Community Engagement
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The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
by Anna Johnston
At eighty-two, Frederick Fife is broke, lonely, and facing homelessness—until a bizarre case of mistaken identity allows him to take the place of the grumpy Bernard Greer at a local nursing home. For the first time in years, Fred has a warm bed and a roof over his head, provided he can maintain the charade and his look-alike never returns. As Fred settles into his "borrowed" life, his inherent kindness transforms the facility, catching the eye of Denise Simms, a weary caregiver battling her own crumbling marriage. Though Denise has vowed never to be deceived by a man again, Fred’s gentle spirit forces her to question everything she knows about Bernard. Together, they navigate a bittersweet journey of grief and redemption, proving it's never too late to find a family or return a broken life to mint condition.
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Hamnet
by Maggie O'Farrell
Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare's most enigmatic play, Hamnet is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child.
Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet. Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.
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