Staff Picks
Lisa Gardner writes fantastic Boston-based mysteries. Her latest series features Frankie Elkins, a recovering alcoholic with a talent for finding missing people, who takes on cases whether the police want her help or not.
Sarah
Dhonielle Clayton has a fresh, new take on the magic school trope in this entrancing and inclusive new series starter. Ella is the first conjurer to attend the Arcanum Magic Institute, and she must contend with others' prejudice while exploring her own power. Perfect for fans who didn't see themselves in those other magic books.
April
A very sweet story about consent. Not everyone likes touching or hugs or high-fives and that's okay!
Hazel
"Oops, I accidentally created a new person instead of Frankenstein-ing my sister back. That's okay, I'll just start over, right?" A creative and heartbreaking look at what it means to exist as an individual and how we deal with loss and grief.
Stacey
A Swedish journalist on a travel grant in Spain meets a stranger in a bar who believes a black market body organ harvesting firm is after his heart because they were hired by a nun on an underground reality show. Dark, absurd, occasionally malicious, and always brilliant, Carnality gives a new structure to understanding the burden of carrying your own body through life.
Josh
One of my all-time favorite novels. It'll break your heart several times over, but when you reach the end? It feels so totally complete and well rounded - like a musical chord resolving. Several of us have read it across the years, and we all love it. It's such a well crafted story with such human and fallible characters.
Horowitz takes a series of walks around her neighborhood accompanied by various experts: bug knowers, typeface designers, rockhounds; connoisseurs of sounds, spines, couches, crowds. How much can you learn about the world around you just by learning how to notice things?
Piera
Reading this beautiful book, I certainly learned more about Australian wildlife, the Australian Aboriginal language Kunwinjku, and Bininj approaches to art. But I also feel like I learned more about the nature of counting?!? The way that Kunwinjku constructs the names for numbers is really neat, and a good intro to the concept of base-10 vs base-5, for example.
Piera
The first in the Brown Sisters trilogy, I read this book and then both sequels in three days because I just couldn’t put them down. Chloe Brown is sarcastic and relatable and ready to start living her life –which of course requires the help of her surly super with a heart of gold, Red Morgan. A high heat romance that’s enemies to lovers, some truly fantastic banter, and a conflict at the center of the story that felt real and understandable. The perfect book to take with you to the beach this August, and the perfect book for fans of Book Lovers.
Katherine
For a picture book that just came out this year, this one already feels like a classic. The story is about community and paying it forward, and the art is absolutely gorgeous. This is a picture book you’ll read over and over again (and I may have already gifted it to several babies in my life).
Katherine
Ever since her home was ravaged by a hurricane, high school senior Eliza has found comfort and carthasis in vocalizing her passion for combating climate change in her hometown. However, her world is flipped dangerously and disastrously upside down a second time when a certain tourist named Milo enters her world and leaves a sandy footprint. Surely the volley of her heart can't be attributed to him...? Rich with resonance, Don't Call Me a Hurricane is a whirlpool of a story about love and home and the price of getting stuck in the riptide of feeling.
Cindy
This is my first Katherine Center book and it's certainly not going to be my last. Center writes with a chaotic, lighthearted, and humorous hand while at the same time not sacrificing the integrity of the storyline. This was a fun read that (1) totally subverted my expectations (2) made Jack Stapleton my new golden standard for fictional men. This is the perfect book for anyone who enjoys the charm of Emily Henry and the humor of Ali Hazelwood!
Cindy
This experimental novel asks what would happen if you were the only person left on Earth and all you had were snippets of art history and Greek mythology — “the baggage that remains in one’s head” — to keep your mind from unspooling. Rather than take a dystopian bent, this post-apocalyptic novel quietly mesmerizes as its protagonist anchors herself in the quotidian and her own “fanciful private improvisations.” Unique and hypnotic.
Rachael
What do you do when your big weekend plans go awry? This picturebook's mother-daughter duo remind us all to take a deep breath - whew! - recenter, and keep on enjoying ourselves. After all, the best thing we can share is our company. Vibrant textural collages are the icing on the cake.
Kendall
Such a sweet book highlighting how even the tiniest of things can create great change. Lovely illustrations paired with a lyrical story that will reach in and touch your heart.
Jane