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Staff Picks

Below are staff picks we hope you will enjoy!

Select a staff member’s name below to see their favorite books:

Let Us Descend

by Jesmyn Ward

HOLIDAY GIFT PICK A haunting masterpiece set in the years before the Civil War about an enslaved girl who is sold …

North Woods

by Daniel Mason

HOLIDAY GIFT PICK A young couple escapes the confines of their Puritan village to build a place of their own in th…

The Vaster Wilds

by Lauren Groff

HOLIDAY PICK & OUR FAVORITE BOOK THIS YEAR! It’s the middle of the night, nearing the end of winter, and a you…

Bookshops & Bonedust

by Travis Baldree

The follow up to the perfectly cozy and heartfelt Legends & Lattes, this is another warm hug of a book. Viv’s …

Don’t Fear the Reaper

by Stephen Graham Jones

This is the second installment in the Indian Lake trilogy, and it is outstanding! Jones continues to prove himself a …

The Librarianist

by Patrick deWitt

Comic and tender characters, a sudden surreal adventure halfway through – if you’ve read other deWitt (like The Siste…

Foe

by Ian Reid

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE Junior leads a simple life. He loves his wife. He works on their farm. That is all he n…

The Whalebone Theatre

by Joanna Quinn

When we first meet Christabel Seagrave, we know three things: it is the end of WWI, she is 3 years old, and she is a …

Now Is Not the Time to Panic

by Kevin Wilson

Frankie and Zeke, two teens in Coalfield, TN, begin and artistic and slightly awkward friendship one summer. The magi…

The Rachel Incident

by Rachel O’Donoghue

Rachel is 20, finishing up her English degree, working in a bookstore, and contemplating what comes next as she launc…

The Marriage Portrait

by Maggie O’Farrell

Lucrezia de Medici is vividly bought to life in this stunning new novel from Maggie O’Farrell . Lucrezia is the odd o…

The Thick and the Lean

by Chana Porter

I devoured this book (pun intended). The world Chana Porter has created is a beautifully realized fun house mirror of…

Edgar & Lucy

by Victor Lodato

From the very first pages, young Edgar captures the reader’s heart. He is so fragile and so vulnerable. While his bon…

The Writing Retreat

by Julia Bartz

The enigmatic and intoxicatingly charming Roza Vallo writes dark, fantastical, sapphic horror that has developed a cu…

Good Omens

by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

The rare kind of book that completely lives up to its reputation! This smart and hilarious romp though the apocalypse…

You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty

by Akwaeke Emezi

A reimagining of the love story from the author of The Death of Vivek Oji. Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be a…

Walking Practice

by Dolki Min

PRIDE MONTH PICK  The Left Hand of Darkness meets Under the Skin in this radical literary sensation from South Ko…

We Spread

by Iain Reid

No one does delightful disorientation quite like Ian Reid. Inspired by his time caring for his mother, We Spread is a…

Yellowface

by R. F. Kuang

Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and sh…

The Lincoln Highway

by Amor Towles

It’s 1954. 18 year-old Emmett Watson has just been released from a work farm in Kansas after serving 18 months for in…

This Time Tomorrow

by Emma Straub

What if you woke up one morning and found yourself back in high school? The day she is supposed to turn 40, this is e…

Providence

by Max Barry

After aliens attack a research vessel, Earth declares war on them, sending five AI spaceships, one manned with a crew…

Grievers

by adrienne maree brown

“I asked myself: Who are the Black people who are writing about grief? And it turns out most of us are. A lot of spec…

The Girl With All the Gifts

by M.R. Carey

Given Carey’s history as a writer of chilling urban fantasy novels and horror comics it’s no surprise he wrote a drea…

Murder in Chianti (A Tuscan Mystery)

by Camilla Trinchieri

Nico Doyle, a former NYPD homicide detective, moves to a small town in Tuscany after the death of his beloved Italian…

The Stranger Diaries

by Elly Griffiths

The winner of the 2020 Edgar Awards. Death lies between the lines when the events of a dark story start coming true i…

Pretty as a Picture

by Elizabeth Little

Marissa Dahl, a shy but successful film editor travels to a small island off the coast of Delaware to work on a film …

The Windsor Knot

by SJ Bennett

The first book in the clever new crime series featuring Queen Elizabeth II solving the death of a young Russian piani…
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau - Silvia Moreno Garcia

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

by Silvia Moreno Garcia

Which is more monstrous: the creation of life, or the exploitation of it? This reimagining of the classic novel is se…

The Anthropocene Reviewed

by John Green

As the United States descended into the Delta variant phase of the pandemic and the Oregon sky filled with smoke, I f…

Once There Was

by Kiyash Monsef

“Once was, once wasn’t,” is the way all Iranian fairy tales begin. How can something be and not be at the same time? …

The Dawn of Everything

by David Graeber & David Wengrow

This is the big book everyone is talking about. It presents a dramatically new understanding of human history, challe…

Hang the Moon

by Jeannette Walls

This novel takes place in western Virginia during Prohibition. The rich and powerful Kincaid family, under the patria…

Sea of Tranquility

by Emily St. John Mandel

1912, Vancouver Island; 2020, New York City; 2203, a globe-spanning book tour; 2401, Moon Colonies 1 & 2. Seeming…

The Candy House

by Jennifer Egan

Tech genius Bix Bouton is searching for the next big innovation when he stumbles upon a group of Colombia professors …

American Mermaid

by Julia Langbein

Penelope did not write American Mermaid for fame or fortune- she is quite content with her life teaching highschool e…

Boys Run the Riot

by Keito Gaku

Trying to find a space where you can be authentically you is hard especially in the judgmental world of high school. …

The Stars Did Wander Darkling

by Colin Meloy

Hold onto your seats! In his thrilling new horror story that is not for the faint of heart, Meloy takes his readers o…

Age of Vice

by Deepti Kapoor

Part crime drama, part family saga, and all money, power and corruption set in modern India, Age of Vice has all the …

I Have Some Questions For You

by Rebecca Makkai

It’s been over twenty years since Bodie Kane graduated from Granby Academy when she is invited to return to her board…

Enchantment

by Katherine May

“Enchantment cannot be destroyed. It waits patiently for us to remember that we need it.” Feeling drained, anxious an…

Sundial

by Catriona Ward

Rob’s childhood was not normal. It’s taken her years to carefully construct and curate a facade of normalcy, which sh…

Still Life

by Sarah Winman

It’s 1944, somewhere in the Italian countryside, when Evelyn Skinner and Ulysses Temper first meet. He’s a 24 year-ol…

The School for Good Mothers

by Jessamine Chan

Frida has had a bad year. She gave birth to her daughter, discovered her husband was cheating, and had her heart brok…

Blue Period

by Tsubasa Yamaguchi

Yatora is an exceptional student, popular and aimless until he is moved by a chance encounter with a fellow students …
Free Love by Tessa Hadley

Free Love

by Tessa Hadley

Phyllis is content with her life, playing the role of dutiful wife and mother effortlessly. But, when she hosts a din…

Legends & Lattes

by Travis Baldtree

This book was a delightful surprise! Despite its goofy title, this story of a warrior leaving behind her former life …

The Cruel Prince

by Holly Black

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the t…

Signal Fires

by Dani Shapiro

Shapiro’s achingly beautiful novel centers on the Wilf and Shenkman families, neighbors on Division Street whose live…

How High We Go In the Dark

by Sequoia Nagamatsu

“Haunting and luminous, How High We Go in the Dark orchestrates its multitude of memorable voices into beautiful and…

Love & Saffron

by Kim Fay

In 1962, Imogen is an established food columnist, documenting her life on a small island off the coast of Seattle, he…

What Strange Paradise

by Omar El Akkad

A ship full of refugees sinks off the coast of a small island, leaving only one survivor – nine-year-old Amir. Vanna,…

Revelator

by Daryl Gregory

Stella is a good liar. As a bootlegger, she has to be. She lies about her job, she lies about why she left home at 1…

Harlem Shuffle

by Colson Whitehead

From the two-time Pulitzer-winning author, a gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set i…

Knight Owl

by Christopher Denise

I adore this book! A determined little owl is not the stereotypical Knight, but proves that this is good thing in th…
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Velvet Was the Night

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

1972, Mexico City. Amidst the chaos of violent protests and political unrest, we meet two seemingly unconnected lost …
When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

When We Were Birds

by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Port Angeles, Trinidad. Darwin has reluctantly, painfully gone against the beliefs of his Rastafarian family and take…
Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro

Ordinary Monsters

by J.M. Miro

Charlie and Marlowe are pursued by a man made of shadow in this intricate offering from J.M. Miro. It is easy to f…
Bomb Shelter - Mary Laura Philpott

Bomb Shelter

by Mary Laura Philpott

Mary Laura Philpott, author of I Miss You When I Blink, returns with a beautiful memoir that meanders and weaves thro…
The Last White Man - Mohsin Hamid

The Last White Man

by Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid’s gift for exploring deep and complex issues in original ways is on full display with The Last White Man…