ADULT FICTION
“A Mosaic of Wings” by Kimberly Duffy — “A nineteenth-century entomologist is caught between social expectations and desire in Kimberly Duffy’s A Mosaic of Wings, a novel about wanderlust and women’s empowerment. . . . India’s allure is captured with appreciative details of its spices and embroidered saris. . . . A Mosaic of Wings is a religious romance that pays tribute to trailblazers and field research as a captivating, down-to-earth bluestocking dares to let her own dreams take flight.”–Foreword Reviews
“Betty” by Tiffany McDaniel — “Magical, densely lyrical and often disturbing. Tiffany McDaniel follows in the tradition of The Color Purple with her unflinching portrayal of the generational ripples of racism, poverty, and abuse. Shot through with moonshine, Bible verses, and folklore, Betty is about the cruelty we inflict on one another, the beauty we still manage to find, and the stories we tell in order to survive.”
—Eowyn Ivey, New York Times bestselling author of To the Bright Edge of the World and the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Snow Child
“Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey” by Kathleen Rooney — “Imaginative and audacious…Rooney uses Cher Ami’s bird’s-eye view and curious afterlife to exhilerating, comic, and terrifying effect, while Whit’s tragic fate is exquisitely rendered… Unforgettable… A celebration of animal intelligence, and tribute to altruism and courage.”—Booklist
“Fast Girls” by Elise Hooper — “Fast Girls is a compelling, thrilling look at what it takes to be a female Olympian in pre-war America. Rich with historical detail and brilliant story-telling, the book follows three athletes on their path to compete – and win – in a man’s world.” — (Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The House Girl and The Last Romantics)
“Glorious Boy” by Aimee Liu — “This fascinating novel examines the many dimensions of war, from the tragedy of loss to the unexpected relationships formed during conflict. The Andamans are a lush and unusual setting, a sacred home to all kinds of cultures and people, and Liu’s prose is masterful. A good choice for book groups and for readers who are unafraid to be swept away.” – Booklist
“Jack” by Marilynne Robinson — “A sometimes tender, sometimes fraught story of interracial love in a time of trouble . . . The story flows swiftly―and without a hint of inevitability ―as Robinson explores a favorite theme, ‘guilt and grace met together.’ An elegantly written proof of the thesis that love conquers all―but not without considerable pain.” ―Kirkus
“Migrations” by Charlotte McConaghy — “Visceral and haunting…As well as a first-rate work of climate fiction, Migrations is also a clever reimagining of Moby-Dick…This novel’s prose soars with its transporting descriptions of the planet’s landscapes and their dwindling inhabitants, and contains many wonderful meditations on our responsibilities to our earthly housemates…Migrations is a nervy and well-crafted novel, one that lingers long after its voyage is over.” ―The New York Times Book Review
“Monogamy” by Sue Miller — “Miller takes on and renews familiar themes of trust and betrayal between husbands and wives, parents and children, and does so with her signature crystalline focus and boundless empathy. The grieving process is hard enough to endure without having to question everything one ever knew about the deceased, an emotional minefield Miller traverses with grace and authenticity that are both haunting and vital.” — Booklist
“Network Effect” by Martha Wells — “Network Effect is the perfect fare for any seeking the perfect weekend binge read or escapist vacation.” ―BookPage
“Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke — “As questions multiply and suspense mounts in this spellbinding, occult puzzle of a fable, one begins to wonder if perhaps the reverence, kindness, and gratitude practiced by Clarke’s enchanting and resilient hero aren’t all the wisdom one truly needs.” ―Booklist
“Red At the Bone” by Jacqueline Woodson — “A spectacular novel that only [a] legend can pull off, one that wrenches us to confront the life-altering and life-pulling and life-subsuming facts of history, of love, of expectations, of status, of parenthood.” – Ibram X. Kendi in The Atlantic
“Royal” by Danielle Steel — A fascinating story of family and royalty, and an unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary young woman and the man who brings her home, Royal is an exhilarating work from America’s most beloved storyteller.” — Amazon
“The Bell in the Lake” by Lars Mytting — “With its broad-canvas narrative about the intersection of religion, superstition, and duty, The Bell in the Lake is an irresistible story of ancient times and modern challenges, by a powerful international voice.” — Annotation
“The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig — “Nora’s life is burdened by regrets. Then she stumbles on a library with books that enable her to test out the lives she could have led, including as a glaciologist, Olympic swimmer, rock star, and more. Her discoveries ultimately prove life-affirming in Matt Haig’s dazzling fantasy.” —Christian Science Monitor
“The Order” by Daniel Silva — “Pulse-pounding…. [Silva] proves to be a master weaver of tales of international espionage and assassinations. One cannot help but marvel at his uncanny prescient knowledge of events unfolding today and those of tomorrow.” — (The Times of Israel)
“The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls” by Ursula Hegi — “Compassionately observant…The offbeat characters enhance the quasi-dreamlike effect, but the scenarios they face are starkly real…Their emotional hardships are satisfyingly leavened by softer moments of romantic and familial love.”
―Booklist
“The Return” by Nicholas Sparks — “As much a family drama as it is a love story . . . If you, like Trevor, are looking to slow down and focus on what’s really important, The Return is the heartwarming read you’ve been waiting for.”―BookPage
“The Shame” by Makenna Goodman — “Alma’s reckless fantasy, of complete domestic abandonment, speaks volumes about the emotional and physical labor of homestead motherhood. Goodman’s debut, an engrossing page-turner, is equal parts psychological case study and searing commentary of parenting and capitalism.”―Booklist
“To Sleep in a Sea of Stars” by Chrisopher Paolini — “A powerful piece of SF, with intelligent writing and big ideas.”―Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time
ADULT MYSTERY
“All the Devils are Here” by Louise Penny — “Penny excels at creating a sense of place, and she brings Paris to life with scenes small (a favorite garden at the Rodin museum) and big (the top of the Eiffel Tower). We walk ― or, when necessary, run ― through the streets of Paris, taste lemon tarts and mourn the fire damage to Notre Dame.” ―St. Louis Post Dispatch
“Flowers Over the Inferno” by Ilaria Tuti — “Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a criminal profile expert, is in her sixties, overweight, lonely, diabetic, full of the ailments of aging—and delightful. It’s rare that such a character enters crime fiction for the first time, and with such gripping impact.” —The Times (UK)
“The Midwife Murders” by James Patterson & Richard Diallo — “In this psychological thriller, a missing patient raises concerns in a New York hospital, but as others start disappearing every dark possibility becomes more and more likely.” — Annotation
“The Sleeping Nymph” by Ilaria Tuti — “In this follow-up to Flowers over the Inferno, steel-spined Italian police superintendent Teresa Battaglia faces down a cunning killer, unravels a 70-year-old cold case, and battles an enemy from her past, all while guarding a career-killing secret: she has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia . . . The case leads to possibly psychopathic partisans, goddess cults, and twisted family history—all absolutely absorbing, as is the series-propelling exploration of Battaglia and Marino’s relationship.” —Booklist
ADULT BIOGRAPHY
“Arthur Ashe: A Life” by Raymond Arsenault — “For those who have long admired Ashe, this close look at his life offers even more evidence that he was more than a great player, he was an extraordinary person. . . . Arthur Ashe: A Life is among the best books about tennis I’ve ever read — it’s a deep, detailed, thoughtful chronicle of one of the country’s best and most important players.” — Touré, The New York Times Book Review
“A Knock at Midnight” by Brittany Barnett — “A crusading lawyer battles unfair sentences meted out in the ‘war on drugs’ in this passionate memoir. . . . An engrossing legal drama complete with wrenching reversals and redemptions, this account richly humanizes defendants while incisively analyzing deep flaws in America’s justice system.”—Publishers Weekly
“She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman” by Erica Armstrong Dunbar — “This book is fascinating . . . hyper accessible . . . Harriett Tubman is one of those people [that I thought] like I know her, I’m a black person, I know Harriet Tubman, and it turns out, I did not know her. …It is a page-turner and there’s so much life into that it’s so different from your typical stereotypical history book.”—Aminatou Sow, Call Your Girlfriend
“The Yellow House: A Memoir” by Sarah Broom — “Broom’s memoir of poverty, striving, and justice in pre and post-Katrina-stricken New Orleans concerns rising tides, the literal ones that took her childhood home, and the structural ones, too, that, instead of lifting all, are threatening to drown. Broom has a reporter’s eye but an essayist’s heart, blending urban history of her segregated home city and her family’s attempt to survive in it.”―Vogue
“This is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman” by Ilhan Omar — “Rep. Ilhan Omar is not just pushing America to live up to its best ideals—she’s showing us how the struggle for inclusion and solidarity can transform our communities in the here and now. This book is a gripping, wonderfully frank account of a remarkable political journey that is just getting started. As dazzling as its author.” — (Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The Burning Case for the Green New Deal)
ADULT NON-FICTION
“14 Miles: Building the Border Wall” by DW Gibson — “[A] fascinating collection of voices that shows not just how the wall works (or doesn’t), but what it says about our national identity.”—John Wilkens, The San Diego Union-Tribune
“All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” by Elizabeth Johnson & Katherine K. Wilkinson — “Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward.” — Amazon.com
“Capital and Ideology” by Thomas Piketty — “Nothing less than a global history of inequality and the stories that societies tell to justify it, from pre-modern India to Donald Trump’s U.S.”―Wired
“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson –“Extraordinary . . . one of the most powerful nonfiction books I’d ever encountered . . . an instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far. . . .Caste deepens our tragic sense of American history. It reads like watching the slow passing of a long and demented cortege. . . . It’s a book that seeks to shatter a paralysis of will. It’s a book that changes the weather inside a reader.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“Democracy: In One Book or Less: : How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think” by David Litt — “Casts a welcome, cleansing beam of light on a subject that has become increasingly murky and frustratingly confusing . . . Litt has a breezy, often conversational tone, but that in no way diminishes the force of his argument. Politics has changed, and not in a good way. But there are ways American democracy can be fixed, and it is to Litt’s credit that he offers practical albeit challenging solutions to the problems confronting our system of governance.” — (Booklist (starred review))
“Home Learning Year by Year, , Revised and Updated: How to Design a Creative and Comprehensive Homeschool Curriculum” by Rebecca Rupp — “A comprehensive guide to designing homeschool curriculum, from one of the country’s foremost homeschooling experts—now revised and updated!” — Amazon.com
“Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor” by Layla Sand — “Layla Saad’s Me and White Supremacy is an indispensable resource for white people who want to challenge white supremacy but don’t know where to begin. She moves her readers from their heads into their hearts, and ultimately, into their practice. We won’t end white supremacy through an intellectual understanding alone; we must put that understanding into action.” – Robin DiAngelo, author of New York Times bestseller White Fragility
“Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets” by Luke Dittrich — “The machinations of scientists and researchers—their personality and ambition, power and hubris—are of equally vital (and cautionary) importance in Dittrich’s unusual and compelling mix of science and family history.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning” by Elliot Ackerman — “The power of this memoir comes from [Ackerman’s] illumination of paradoxes and contradictions that provide a common emotional denominator for soldiers who previously found themselves in wars where they discovered more than two sides. . . . A profoundly human narrative that transcends nationality and ideology.” —Kirkus, starred review
“Redlands, Volume 1, Sisters by Blood” by Jordie Bellaire — “…a stellar feminist occult horror comic. The first volume takes place in rural Florida, where a coven took over the town of Redlands in 1977 “to make new, through sacrifice.” In present day, the coven is Redlands’ police force, attempting to maintain control in the wake of a serial killer’s rampage. Laurent, a friend and ally of the coven since the ’70s, finds the killer, decapitates him, and feeds him to alligators. During this battle, a witch named Bridget almost drowns and becomes possessed by Nancy, a dead sex worker forced into servitude by the monstrous pimp Zuzu. Bridget grants Nancy permission to use her body and track down her former captor. The spine-tingling adventure is filled with examples of sexual harassment, such as a principal propositioning one of his female students for sex, adding emotional terror to the spooky mix. Monsters abound, but even the supernatural characters evoke humanity and empathy. … This dark campfire tale is both politically relevant and terrifying.” — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2018.
“Simply Living Well: A Guide to Creating a Natural, Low-Waste Home” by Julia Watkins — “Living a life with zero waste can seem like an impossible task, and author, conservationist, and Instagram influencer Watkins recognizes that it is, rather hoping that readers will instead strive to do their best to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot (compost). This guide spans a wide range of household opportunities to practice these five Rs by making and using a variety of items, including reusable food storage tools, cleaning products, recipes, personal care toiletries, and objects to enhance a kitchen garden. ….”– Anne Heidemann. Booklist Online Review. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2020.
“Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote” by Ellen Carol Dubois — “Ellen DuBois tells us the long drama of women’s fight for the vote, without privileging polite lobbying over radical disobedience—or vice versa. In so doing, she gives us the gift of a full range of tactics now, and also the understanding that failing to vote is a betrayal of our foremothers and ourselves.” — Gloria Steinem
“The Deepest South of All: True Stories of Natchez, Mississippi” by Richard Grant — “This richly layered book offers a multifaceted view of the culture and history of an American city that, in its history, reveals the roots of the racial conflicts that continue to haunt the American psyche. An entertaining and thought-provoking memoir and sociological portrait.”—Kirkus Reviews
“The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy” by Stephanie Kelton — “Stephanie Kelton convincingly overturns the conventional wisdom that federal budget deficits are somehow bad for the nation. …Kelton argues that our government’s inability to provide for citizens isn’t due to a lack for money; instead, our leaders lack political will.”―Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times
“The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers” by Eric Weiner — “Weiner makes a convincing and winningly presented case for the practical applications of philosophy to everyday existence in the 21st century. With humor and thoughtfulness, he distills the wisdom of thinkers from throughout history . . . into ways to slow down, ask questions, and pay attention. . . . His book offers an appealing way to cope with the din of modern life and look at the world with attentive eyes and ears.” —Publishers Weekly
“Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future” by Margaret Heffernan — “The cumulative result of Heffernan’s smartly assembled case studies and insights is a thought-provoking look at how readers can face down a sometimes frightening future with courage and grace.” —Publishers Weekly
“Vesper Flights: New and Collected Essays” by Helen Macdonald — “Vesper Flights is a book of tremendous purpose. Throughout these essays, Macdonald revisits the idea that as a writer it is her responsibility to take stock of what’s happening to the natural world and to convey the value of the living things within it.” ―Washington Post
BLUE/DVD
“Scoob!”
“The King of Staten Island”
YOUNG ADULT
“Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orisha)” by Tomi Adeyemi — “Adeyemi’s thrilling second Legacy of Orïsha novel ups the stakes and expands the series’ mythology while extolling unity and illustrating the futility of hatred and retribution… a vivid, visceral tale studded with action and capped with a literary gut-punch.” ―Publishers Weekly