Staff Picks - LibGuides at Boulder Public Library

A personal, engaging book that seamlessly weaves together both fact and fiction. A window into the experience of a Muslim writer in America. This book encompasses so much, from the family dynamic with his parents, both doctors, the complications of faith, and not feeling as if you belong.

Publisher description:

A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, at its heart it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.

Find Homeland Elegies in our online catalog

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Sarah recommends The river of doubt by Candice Millard

If you are someone who loves a great wilderness adventure full of natural dangers, exotic creatures, and human tenacity, then The River of Doubt will thrill you. Twenty-two men from Brazil and the United States, led by the intrepid Carlos Rondon and Theodore Roosevelt, set out to explore a portion of the Amazon River that had yet to be charted by Westerners. Along with the physical trials of the expedition, we learn about Roosvelt's mentality in choosing to take on such a feat.Publisher’s description:The River of Doubt' is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron. After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil's most famous explorer, Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever. Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. 'The River of Doubt' brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.Find The river of doubt in our online catalog....

Melissa recommends The Spellshop by Sara Beth Durst

The author says in the acknowledgements "I wanted to write a book that reads like drinking hot chocolate." I think this is the perfect description of The Spellshop. I was warmed and comforted from the first page to the last. Keila escapes a burning city and returns to the remote island that was her home. She thinks she is not lonely because she has her books, but bit by bit, cinnamon roll by patched roof, the people of the island welcome her back. They help her create a home and a found family that I want to visit and be a part of.Publisher's description:The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst's romantasy debut -- a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love. Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz--a magically sentient spider plant--have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire's most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city's elite. When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she'd see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy--and very handsome--neighbor who can't take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she's fed and to help fix up her new home. In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn't have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries. But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island's first-ever and much needed secret spellshop. Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.Find The Spellshop in our online catalog....

Abby recommends The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

One of my favorites from recent years, this book is classic Grady Hendrix. Suspenseful, very Southern, and a little gory (especially near the end), it is a yearly re-read for me. The audiobook is phenomenal too!Publisher's description:South Carolina in the '90s: a women's book club must protect its suburban community from a mysterious stranger who turns out to be a real monster.Find The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires in our online catalog...

Rachel recommends Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

Polly Perks lives in Borogravia, a country that has been ravaged by war for as long as she can remember. To find her missing brother, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in the army, alone in her deception--or so she thinks. Pratchett's signature blend of humor and moving social analysis anchor this tale of what is means to really take pride in your country, and what it takes to fight against the status quo.Publisher’s description:In the small country of Borogravia, there are strict rules citizens must follow. Women belong in the kitchen-not in offices, pubs, nor pants. And certainly not on the front lines when war comes to Discworld. Polly Perks took over running her family's humble inn when her brother, Paul, marched off to war. But it's been more than two months since his last letter home, and the news from the front is bad. To find her missing brother, the resourceful Polly cuts off her hair and joins the army as a young man named Oliver. As Polly closely guards her secret, she notices that her fellow recruits seem to be guarding secrets of their own. And before they've learned to properly march, Polly and her fellow raw recruits find themselves in the thick of a losing battle. All they have on their side is the most artful sergeant in the army and a vampire with a lust for coffee. No matter, it's time to make a stand. . . . The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Monstrous Regiment is a standalone.Find Monstruous Regiment in our online catalog....

Alyssa F. recommends Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar