Staff Picks

This is such a lovely story! Amazing art telling an all-ages fairytale about community, friendship, acceptance, and tea. I've personally been recommended this a few times, but it definitely exceeded my expectations! It's set across 4 seasons and can be read in about 20 minutes over some tea, but reread and appreciated year-round. One of my favorite reads this year, both cozy and exciting! 

 

Publisher's description:

 

From the award-winning author of Princess Princess Ever After comes The Tea Dragon Society, a charming all-ages book that follows the story of Greta, a blacksmith apprentice, and the people she meets as she becomes entwined in the enchanting world of tea dragons. After discovering a lost tea dragon in the marketplace, Greta learns about the dying art form of tea dragon care-taking from the kind tea shop owners, Hesekiel and Erik. As she befriends them and their shy ward, Minette, Greta sees how the craft enriches their lives-and eventually her own.

 

This is one of my favorite books of all time - fast paced, culturally aware, and also a fantastic film that brings the story to life. The story is so beautifully crafted with funny characters that I absolutely fell in love with. I recommend this book for anyone that likes romance novels, or simply a fun read! 

-Anonymous twelfth-grade teen volunteer

 

Publisher's description:

 

When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country’s most eligible bachelor.

Find Crazy Rich Asians in the library's online catalog.

If you want to learn or re-learn how to stitch and embroider, this book is a super introduction. Designer Hope Brasfield offers craft as a way to reduce stress alongside creating and making. Satisfying Stitches has step-by-step tutorials and some really fun projects to get you started.

 

Publisher's description:

With Satisfying Stitches, you'll learn to create beautiful embroidery designs and discover how creative stitching can relieve stress and provide a sense of accomplishment.

 

A master of quirky and likable characters, the author of French Exit presents a moving study of character and interpersonal relations. Slate columnist Laura Miller calls deWitt "a 21st-Century Mark Twain," filling his books with eccentrics who each get to share their story. For fans of Amor Towles.

 

Publisher's description:

Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he's known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.

Behind Bob Comet's straight-man façade is the story of an unhappy child's runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian's vocation, and of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob's experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life.

With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert's condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity.

 

Find The Librarianist in our online catalog.

A truly twisty, spooky story set in the aftermath of World War I. A mysterious family lives alone in an isolated Scottish castle, and they may or may not be preparing for the end of the world and the despotic rule of the Adder god.

 

Publisher's description:

Eve and Dinah are everything to one another, together day and night. They are raised among the Children, a clan ruled by a mysterious figure they call Uncle. All they know is the gray Isle of Altnaharra, which sits alone in the black sea off the wildest coast of Scotland. Eve loves the free, savage life of the Isle and longs to inherit Uncle's power. But Dinah longs for something more, something different. With the dawn of the first World War, the solitude of Altnaharra is broken, and soon after, Eve's faith starts to fracture. In the depths of winter, as the old year dies, the nearby townsfolk awaken to discover a massacre on the Isle. Eve and Dinah's accounts of that night contradict and intertwine. As past and present converge, only one woman can be telling the truth. Who is guilty, who innocent? And who can be trusted?

 

I loved this book with my whole heart. The art style is amazing, and the story follows a summer coming of age. Tamaki comments on many important themes while also creating characters and a plot that I felt connected with. Read this book if you like slice of life stories and beautiful visuals.

- Anonymous twelfth-grade teen volunteer

Publisher's description:

Rose and her parents have been going to Awago Beach since she was a little girl. It's her summer getaway, her refuge. Her friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had, completing her summer family. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and Rose and Windy have gotten tangled up in a tragedy-in-the-making in the small town of Awago Beach. It's a summer of secrets and heartache, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.

 

When your day starts off bad, there's nowhere to go but up...right? Well, not always. Sometimes, as Naomi finds out, it can get even worse. Naomi's about to find that life doesn't always turn out like you expected, and sometimes that's the best thing that could happen.

 

Publisher's description:
Bearded, bad-boy barber Knox prefers to live his life the way he takes his coffee: alone--unless you count his basset hound Waylon. Knox doesn't tolerate drama, even when it comes in the form of a stranded runaway bride. Naomi wasn't just running away from her wedding. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the-edges town where disputes are settled the old-fashioned way: with fists and beer. Usually in that order. Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn't changed at all. After helping herself to Naomi's car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected: the niece Naomi didn't know she had.

 

Debut novelist Yume Kitasei joins the fast-growing ranks of women in science fiction who are producing top notch mysteries featuring inclusive casts of well-developed characters. This compelling thriller is highly recommended for fans of Ann Leckie, Mur Lafferty, and Malka Older.

 

Publisher's description:

It is the eve of Earth's environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity's last hope: eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect. As the mystery unfolds on the ship, poignant flashbacks reveal how Asuka came to be picked for the mission. Despite struggling through training back on Earth, she was chosen to represent Japan, a country she only partly knows as a half-Japanese girl raised in America. But estranged from her mother back home, The Phoenix is all she has left. With the crew turning on each other, Asuka is determined to find the culprit before they all lose faith in the mission--or worse, the bomber strikes again.

 

What if you knew that your life was limited to only 21 years? What if Earth no longer has the resources needed to sustain a full human life? The premise of Logan's Run, a short read that contemplates a society of control rather than freedom, and possibly a foreshadowing of Earth's future state.

 

Publisher's description:

In 2116, it is against the law to live beyond the age of twenty-one years. When the crystal flower in the palm of your hand turns from red to black, you have reached your Lastday and you must report to a Sleepshop for processing. But the human will to survive is strong--stronger than any mere law. Logan 3 is a Sandman, an enforcer who hunts down those Runners who refuse to accept Deep Sleep. The day before Logan's palmflower shifts to black, a Runner accidentally reveals that he was racing toward a goal: Sanctuary. With this information driving him forward, Logan 3 assumes the role of the hunted and becomes a Runner.

 

I loved reading this novel because of the plot and setting. Salt and Sugar, by Rebecca Carvalho, is a novel about two characters who start out as enemies and end as best friends: Lari Ramires from the Salt Bakery and Pedro Molinas from the Sugar Bakery. Both character’s families have been in a feud for years because of the constant competitions between both bakeries. Lari and Pedro have never been close before, but when they start attending the same high school something shifts in their attitudes toward one another. Both teenagers are determined to keep their bakeries safe against a big supermarket chain that moved into their town and is forcing family-owned, small businesses to close. Read this novel to find out what happens when two enemies work together with trust and determination!

- Anonymous eleventh-grade teen volunteer

 

Publisher's description:

Trust neither thin-bottomed frying pans nor Molinas. Lari Ramires has always known this to be true. In Olinda, Brazil, her family's bakery, Salt, has been at war with the Molinas' bakery across the street, Sugar, for generations. But Lari's world turns upside down when her beloved grandmother passes away. On top of that, a big supermarket chain has moved to town, forcing many of the small businesses to close. Determined to protect her home, Lari does the unthinkable--she works together with Pedro Molina to save both of their bakeries. Lari realizes she might not know Pedro as well as she thought--and she maybe even likes what she learns--but the question remains: Can a Ramires and a Molina truly trust one another?