Michigan City Public Library: Must-Read Books: February 2026

Adult Fiction

The Bookbinder's Secret
by A.D. Bell

In this "stellar debut" (Publishers Weekly), Lilian Delaney is an apprentice bookbinder in 1901 Oxford working at her widowed father's failing bookshop. When she's given a burned book by a customer, she finds a cryptic 50-year-old love letter hidden beneath the binding that speaks of murder. Drawn into the story, Lily looks for other books by the obscure author, discovering she's not the only one after them. Read-alikes: Jess Armstrong's Ruby Vaughn mysteries, starting with The Curse of Penryth Hall.

Murder Your Darlings
by Jenna Blum

Caught between an impending book deadline and a sudden, intoxicating romance with a famed novelist, Sam Vetiver is pulled into a world where charm masks danger. As a stalker closes in and bodies surface, shifting viewpoints reveal a sharp, darkly funny plot about trust, ambition, and the perils of desire.

A Most Worthy Husband
by Faye Delacour

Determined to remain a spinster, debutante Hannah Williams concocts a scheme to ruin her reputation by publicly kissing disgraced Silas Corbyn, who's been dishonorably discharged from the navy and disinherited from his family. But Hannah's plan backfires when her mother insists the two marry. This 3rd steamy Lucky Ladies of London Victorian romance will appeal to fans of Evie Dunmore.

Only Lovers in the Building
by Nadine Gonzalez

Looking for a fresh start after quitting her job in corporate law, New Yorker Lily Lyon books a summer rental at a gorgeous art deco apartment building in Miami, where she meets author Ben Romero, a fellow bibliophile who suggests they form a poolside book club. When their co-written book reviews go viral, they land a podcast deal -- but with summer’s end approaching, Lily’s afraid to make the jump from friendship to something more. For fans of: Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee.

Simultaneous
by Eric Heisserer

Grant Lukather, agent of the elusive federal department known as Predictive Analytics, teams up with Sarah Newcomb, a past-life hypnosis therapist, to embark on an investigation into a bizarre killer who crosses time, space, and consciousness. The Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Arrival brings a mind-bending science fiction thriller that will draw in fans of The Glass Woman by Alice McIlroy and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.

With Friends Like These
by Alissa Lee

A deadly game from their Harvard days resurfaces when five alumni gather for the annual “Circus,” a playful elimination contest turned high-stakes gamble. With a fortune on the line, old rivalries and hidden betrayals come to light, forcing the friends to confront decades of secrets, ambition, and the shadow of a lost sixth roommate.

The Hitch
by Sara Levine

Opinionated Rose Cutler is excited to watch her six-year-old nephew Nathan and feed him vegan food while his parents vacation in Mexico. But things go bad when Rose's Newfoundland dog kills a corgi at the park, leading Nathan to proclaim the corgi is actually alive, its soul melded to his own. As Nathan acts strangely, Rose wonders if he might be right in this darkly humorous, offbeat tale. For fans of: the author's Treasure Island!!!; Melissa Broder.

It Should Have Been You
by Andrea Mara

When a new mother mistakenly shares a private complaint with her whole neighborhood, tensions escalate into violence and shocking deaths. What begins as a minor misstep spirals into a web of betrayal and fear, exposing the fragility of trust and showing how quickly social media can upend seemingly ordinary lives. For fans: of Lisa Jewell and B.A. Paris.

The Case of the Murdered Muckraker
by Rob Osler

In 1898, 21-year-old Prescott Agency junior field operative Harriet Morrow investigates when a journalist who'd found evidence of a corrupt government official is fatally stabbed in a Chicago tenement house. Going undercover, Harriet dons a variety of guises to get to the truth in her richly detailed 2nd outing, which also sees her find a girlfriend. For fans of: Stephen Spotswood, Lev AC Rosen, Cathy Pegau's A Murderous Business.

House of Day, House of Night
by Olga Tokarczuk

This reissuing of a book first published in Polish in 1998 by a Nobel and Booker Prize winner explores life in a small village along the Polish-Czech border. Stylistically complex and using a variety of elements (stories, gossip, recipes, etc.), Olga Tokarczuk's "scattered fragments are beautifully tied together to form a unified whole" (Library Journal). Try this next: Vaim by Jon Fosse.

Beasts of the Sea
by Iida Turpeinen

Part of Captain Bering's Great Northern Expedition in 1741, naturalist Georg Steller notices an animal that's never been documented. But the starving men hunt and kill the gentle sea cows for food, which leads to their extinction just 27 years later. As years pass, a sea cow skeleton is found, studied, and moved to a museum in the 1950s in this "masterful debut" (Booklist) that fuses science and literature. Read-alike: Ethan Rutherford's North Sun, or The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther.

Adult Nonfiction

The Great Resistance: The 400-Year Fight to End Slavery in the Americas
by Carrie Gibson

Historian Carrie Gibson's (El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America) sweeping history illuminates four centuries of enslaved people's resistance to the Atlantic slave trade and "insists on the primacy of the enslaved themselves as agents of their own liberation" (Kirkus Reviews). Further reading: Daring to Be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World by Sudhir Hazareesingh.

Mexico: A 500-Year History
by Paul Gillingham

From its outset Mexico was more profoundly, globally hybrid than anywhere else in the prior history of the world. Over the ensuing five centuries, Mexicans have prefigured and shaped the course of human lives across the globe. The history of Mexico has been, Gillingham shows, one of suffering empire but also of overcoming. Through it all the country set new standards for inclusivity, for progressive social policies, for artistic expression, for adroitly balancing dictatorship and democracy. While racial divides endured, so too did indigenous peoples, who enjoyed rights unthinkable in the United States.

24 Hours at the Capitol: An Oral History of the January 6th Insurrection
by Nora Neus

Emmy Award-nominated producer and freelance journalist Nora Neus' compelling follow-up to 24 Hours in Charlottesville is a nail-biting, minute-by-minute oral history of the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack, featuring never-before-heard firsthand accounts from lawmakers, staffers, and police officers who were there. Further reading: Storm at the Capitol: An Oral History of January 6th by Mary Clare Jalonick.

Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic
by Kenneth R. Rosen

Journalist Kenneth R. Rosen's compelling debut blends science writing, travelogue, and geopolitical analysis to detail how the Arctic could become the site of a new cold war, with Russia, China, and America all vying for control of the complex region. Try this next: So You Want to Own Greenland? Lessons from the Vikings to Trump by Elizabeth Buchanan.

Youth Fiction

Rumpelstiltskin
by Mac Barnett; illustrated by Carson Ellis

The traditional fairy tale about a magical trickster -- and the woman who outwits him -- gets a fresh take in this retelling. Quirky humor gives the text a contemporary edge, balanced by medieval-inspired illustrations in deep, rich hues. For fans of: The Three Billy Goats Gruff, another fairy tale remix by author Mac Barnett

Winging It: A Graphic Novel
by Megan Wagner Lloyd

Twelve-year-old Luna never wanted to move from California to Virginia, even if it is near historic Washington, DC, and no matter how excited her dad is to show her the sites and introduce her to the area where her late mother grew up. And she definitely doesn't want to live with a very formal grandmother she barely knows. But during a visit to the National Museum of Natural History, the rarely seen luna moth for which Luna was named sparks her curiosity. Using her mother's old naturalist notebooks as a guide, Luna, who has always preferred the indoors, endeavors to see a real luna moth with her own eyes. Learning more about nature just might help her make a new friend, figure out how to feel at home in her new life, and understand the mother she never got the chance to know. Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter have again teamed up to tell a charming and funny story of family, friendship, adventure, and appreciating all life has to offer.

Contact your librarian for more great books!