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Must-Read Books August 2025 |
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| El Dorado Drive by Megan AbbottIn Megan Abbott’s latest noir-tinged thriller, three Detroit sisters entangle themselves in the Wheel, a secretive, women-led investment group promising financial salvation. As debts mount and loyalties fray, what began as a sisterhood of support spirals into manipulation, secrets, and escalating danger. El Dorado Drive is a sharp, suspenseful exploration of desperation, power, and betrayal. |
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The love hypothesis
by Ali Hazelwood
"When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos. As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like anyself-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees. That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding...six-pack abs. Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope"
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| Death at the White Hart by Chris ChibnallLeaving Liverpool for her sleepy coastal hometown, DS Nicola Bridge wants to work less and save her marriage. But when the local pub owner is tied to a chair, killed, and left in the road, Nicola puts in long hours with her new team to solve the case. This "spectacular" (Library Journal) debut by the creator of TV's Broadchurch features well-drawn characters and will please fans of Ann Cleeves. |
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The Jackal's mistress : a novel
by Chris Bohjalian
Managing her gristmill amid the turmoil of war in 1864 Virginia, Libby Steadman must choose whether to risk treason and aid a gravely injured Union officer left to die, while her desperate hope for news of her imprisoned husband collides with the harsh realities of war.
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The book of elsewhere : a novel
by Keanu Reeves
A warrior who cannot be killed, known simply as“B,” wants to die and a U.S. black-ops group has promised they can help with that if he helps them in return, but when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event points to a force even more mysterious than B himself.
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| Angel Down by Daniel KrausAfter intense fighting in France's Argonne Forest during World War I, American Cyril Bagger is ordered along with four other misfits to "silence" the soldier stuck in No Man's Land producing unearthly screams -- but what they find is an injured angel wrapped in barbed wire, whom they agree to protect. Compelling and innovative in both structure and story, this is the buzzy latest by the author of Whalefall. Try this next: Chigozie Obioma's The Road to the Country. |
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| These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLeanAfter their patriarch's death, the Storm family gather at their New England island. There, they are introduced to Jack, their father's right-hand man and daughter Alice's recent one-night-stand, who says they must all complete individual tasks or no one inherits anything. Bestselling historical romance author Sarah MacLean delivers a fun contemporary family novel that'll please fans of HBO's Succession. |
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| The Last Illusion of Paige White by Vanessa McCauslandWhen influencer Paige White is found dead in a lake near her idyllic Australian home, her childhood friend Jane, now a Sydney journalist, returns to investigate. As Jane digs into Paige’s polished online life, long-buried secrets and past tragedies resurface in this haunting, slow-burn mystery about image, memory, and betrayal. |
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| The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-GarciaA graduate student researching a mysterious horror author uncovers dark family secrets and a haunting past linked to witchcraft and disappearances spanning decades in this multi-timeline gothic novel rich with folklore, suspense, and power struggles, delivering a chilling tale of legacy, survival, and supernatural terror. For fans of: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. |
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| The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila MottleyIn the Florida Panhandle, young mothers support each other amid upheavals while others judge and put obstacles in their paths. Three of them narrate: de facto leader Simone, a 20-year-old mother of twins who's pregnant again; newcomer Adela, a champion teen swimmer in Indiana who's been sent to live with her grandmother; and determined Emory, who brings her infant to high school with her. Read-alikes: Sarai Johnson's Grown Women; Brit Bennett's The Mothers. |
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Detective aunty : a novel
by Uzma Jalaluddin
"After her husband's unexpected death eighteen months ago, Kausar Khan never thought she'd receive another phone call as heartbreaking--until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say that she's been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years. Returning to the Golden Crescent suburb where she raised her children and where her daughter still lives, Kausar finds that the thriving neighborhood she remembered has changed. The murder of Sana's landlord is only the latest in a wave of local crimes which have gone unsolved. And the facts of the case are troubling: Sana found the man dead in her shop at a suspiciously early hour, with a dagger from her windowfront display plunged in his chest. And Kausar--a woman with a keen sense of observation and deep wisdom honed by her years--senses there's more to the story than her daughter is telling. With the help of some old friends and her plucky teenage granddaughter, Kausar digs into the investigation to uncover the truth. Because who better to pry answers from unwilling suspects than a meddlesome aunty? But even Kausar can't predict the secrets, lies, and betrayals she finds along theway"
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Happy place
by Emily Henry
Despite breaking up months earlier, a picture-perfect couple still haven't told their friends about the split and attempt to pretend they are still together at an annual Maine getaway, in the new novel from the best-selling author of Book Lovers.
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| Misbehaving at the Crossroads: Essays & Writings by Honorée Fanonne JeffersNational Book Award-nominated poet and novelist Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois) makes her genre-defying nonfiction debut with this unflinching and insightful essay collection exploring various crossroads Black women have faced throughout history. For fans of: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker; Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry. |
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| JFK: Public, Private, Secret by J. Randy TaraborrelliKennedy family biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli follows up his bestselling Jackie: Public, Private, Secret with a nuanced and well-researched portrait of America's 35th president, drawing upon interviews and previously unpublished materials to focus on his personal relationships. For more on John F. Kennedy's political life, check out the works of Robert Dallek. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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