Staff Picks

This is a very sweet, sexy, and moving read. A great look at starting over in the dating world after divorce. Funny too!

Publisher’s description
Columnist Anna Appleby has left her love life behind after a painful divorce. Who needs a man when she has two kids, a cat, and uncontested control of the TV remote? Besides, she'd rather be single than subject herself to the hell of online dating. But her office rival is vying for her column, and no column means no stable source of income. In a desperate attempt to keep her job, Anna finds herself pitching a unique angle: seven dates, all found offline, chosen by her children. From awkward encounters to unexpected connections, Anna gamely begins to put herself out there, asking out waiters, the mailman, and even her celebrity crush. But when a romantic connection appears where she least expected it, will she be brave enough to take another chance on love?

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This witty, well-written book explores how beavers and their decimation drastically altered the landscape of the American continent and what folks are doing to bring them back. Eager made me laugh, cry, and look at our environment in a whole new way. Now I can't stop thinking about beavers!

 

Publisher's description:

Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America’s lakes and rivers. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. Today, a growing coalition of “Beaver Believers”—including scientists, ranchers, and passionate citizens—recognizes that ecosystems with beavers are far healthier, for humans and non-humans alike, than those without them. From the Nevada deserts to the Scottish highlands, Believers are now hard at work restoring these industrious rodents to their former haunts. This is a powerful story about one of the world’s most influential species, how North America was colonized, how our landscapes have changed over the centuries, and how beavers can help us fight drought, flooding, wildfire, extinction, and the ravages of climate change. Ultimately, it’s about how we can learn to coexist, harmoniously and even beneficially, with our fellow travelers on this planet.

 

I love reading about scams, history, and the history of scams, and I am pleased to report that this is simply the finest book about pyramid schemes that I have ever read. This book considers pyramid schemes within the full context of American business history, bringing the propulsive energy and weird details of a novel while remaining almost comprehensively informative and engaging. If you only read one book about pyramid schemes, ever, in your life, make it this one.

 

Publisher's description: 
A groundbreaking work of history and reportage that unveils the stranger-than-fiction world of multilevel marketing, from the shadowy cabals at the top to the strivers at the bottom, whose deferred dreams churn a massive money-making scam that has remade American society. Multilevel marketing companies like Amway, Mary Kay, and Herbalife advertise the ultimate business opportunity: the chance to be your own boss. In exchange for peddling their wares, they offer a world of pink Cadillacs, white-columned mansions, tropical vacations, and-most precious of all-financial freedom. If, that is, you're willing to shell out for expensive products, recruit everyone you know to buy them, and make them recruit everyone they know to do the same-thus creating the "multiple levels" of multilevel marketing, or MLM. Despite overwhelming evidence that multilevel marketing causes most of its participants to lose their money, and that many MLM companies are pyramid schemes, the industry's dubious origins, inextricably tied to well-known ideological figures like Ronald Reagan, have escaped public scrutiny. Behind the scenes of American life, MLM has slithered in the wake of every economic crisis of the last century, from the Depression to the pandemic, ensnaring laid-off workers, stay-at-home moms, teachers, nurses-anyone who has been left behind by inequality. In Little Bosses Everywhere, journalist Bridget Read tells the gripping story of multilevel marketing in full for the first time, winding from sunny post-war California, where a failed salesman started a vitamin business, through the suburbs of Michigan and North Carolina, where MLM bought its political protection, to the stadium-sized conventions where top sellers today preach to die-hard recruits. MLM has been endorsed by multiple American presidents, has its own Congressional caucus, and enriched powerful people, like the DeVos and Van Andel families, Warren Buffet, and Donald Trump. Along the way, Read delves into the heartbreaking stories of those enmeshed in the majority-female industry: a veteran in Florida searching for healing; a young mom in Texas struggling to feed her children; a waitress scraping by in Brooklyn. A wild trip down an endless rabbit hole of greed and exploitation, Little Bosses Everywhere exposes multilevel marketing as American capitalism's stealthiest PR campaign: a cunning right-wing political project that has shaped nearly everything about how we live.

 

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin is a beautifully written and emotionally powerful novel that captures the complexity of grief, friendship, and growing up through the eyes of a thoughtful young girl named Suzy. After the sudden death of her best friend, Suzy becomes convinced that a rare jellyfish sting might be the cause, and her journey to prove it is both scientific and deeply personal. Benjamin’s writing is lyrical and full of heart, blending fascinating facts about marine biology with a moving exploration of loss and healing. Suzy’s voice is honest, intelligent, and quietly brave, making her an unforgettable narrator. This book is a celebration of curiosity, resilience, and the quiet magic of the natural world—it’s the kind of story that stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

 

Publisher's description:

Twelve-year-old Suzy Swanson wades through her intense grief over the loss of her best friend by investigating the rare jellyfish she is convinced was responsible for her friend's death.

 

A pitch-black story about a girl born in the slums of 18th century London, cursed with the desire for more. Mary Saunders should be content with her lot in life, but fine fabrics and ribbons always tempt her. As she wends her way through life on the streets of St. Giles, her eternal desire leads her to darker and darker places. This book has stuck with me for twenty years since I first read it, and it absolutely holds up to the scrutiny of a second read. Not for the faint of heart.

 

Publisher description:

Born to rough cloth in Hogarth's London, but longing for silk, Mary Saunders's eye for a shiny red ribbon leads her to prostitution at a young age. A dangerous misstep sends her fleeing to Monmouth, and the position of household seamstress, the ordinary life of an ordinary girl with no expectations. But Mary has known freedom, and having never known love, it is freedom that motivates her. Mary asks herself if the prostitute who hires out her body is more or less free than the "honest woman" locked into marriage, or the servant who runs a household not her own? And is either as free as a man? Ultimately, Mary remains true only to the three rules she learned on the streets: Never give up your liberty. Clothes make the woman. Clothes are the greatest lie ever told.

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Cute book with so many adorable illustrations showing Baby Capybara living authentically and finding friends he can be himself with. Super fun and chaotic!

 

Loud and splashy Baby Capybara must change his ways if he wants a bevy of peaceful birds perched on his back, but when an unexpected critter splashes onto the scene, he realizes he does not need to change himself to find friends.

 

For those that are fans of Macolm Gladwell or listeners to his podcast, "Revisionist History," this sequel to The Tipping Point delivers big time. Gladwell is a master of revisiting historical moments and encourages his readers to approach critical moments from new perspectives. His work is a reminder that headlines often do not tell the full story; it is crucial that we allow time to pass to be able to really look at and absorb the full picture.

 

Publisher’s description
Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami… Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena. Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.

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I flew through these three stories filled with so much tension truth and heartbreak. The first story personifies the inter-generational views on Isreal through the loss of an older woman teaching Hebrew at an American university for forty years. Then we meet a woman forcing an extended visit on her reluctant and distant son and daughter in law to spend time with her grandson. And in the final story, we see how far a mother will go worried about her daughter's lack of friends.

 

Publisher's description:

Three Israeli women, their lives altered by immigration to the United States, seek to overcome crises. Ilana is a veteran Hebrew instructor at a Midwestern college who has built her life around her career. When a young Hebrew literature professor joins the faculty, she finds his post-Zionist politics pose a threat to her life's work. Miriam, whose son left Israel to make his fortune in Silicon Valley, pays an unwanted visit to meet her new grandson and discovers cracks in the family's perfect facade. Efrat, another Israeli in California, is determined to help her daughter navigate the challenges of middle school, and crosses forbidden lines when she follows her into the minefield of social media. In these three stirring novellas -- comedies of manners with an ambitious blend of irony and sensitivity -- celebrated Israeli author Maya Arad probes the demise of idealism and the generation gap that her heroines must confront.

 

A fun and genuine early college story featuring two A-spec characters! The library's LGBTQIA book club for teens, Book Queeries, read and discussed this book with positive reviews from teen attendees who loved the story because it featured aromantic and asexual characters. Author Ann Zhao captures the undergrad anxiety well, while sprinkling multimedia dialogue throughout. Recommend to fans of Alice Oseman and Becky Albertalli.

 

Publisher description:

Sophie Chi is in her first year at Wellesley College (despite her parents’ wishes that she attend a 'real' university, rather than a liberal arts school) and has long accepted her aromantic and asexual identities. Despite knowing she’ll never fall in love, she enjoys running an Instagram account that offers relationship advice to students at Wellesley. No one except her roommate knows that she’s behind the incredibly popular 'Dear Wendy' account. When Joanna 'Jo' Ephron -- also a first-year student at Wellesley -- created their 'Sincerely Wanda' account, it wasn't at all meant to be serious or take off like it does -- not like Dear Wendy’s. But now they might have a rivalry of sorts with Dear Wendy? Oops. As if Jo’s not busy enough having existential crises over gender, the fact that she’ll never truly be loved or be enough, or her few friends finding The One and forgetting her! While tensions are rising online, Sophie and Jo are getting closer in real life, bonding over their shared aroace identities. As their friendship develops and they work together to start a campus organization for other a-spec students, can their growing bond survive if they learn just who’s behind the Wendy and Wanda accounts?

 

As a first-generation American who has been the family interpreter since I was a child, this book brought tears to my eyes! It is an honor and a privilege to interpret for my parents who do not speak English fluently, but at times it was too much for a young child to handle. This picture book perfectly encapsulates the experience of many first-gen kids who do their best to help their parents, whilst acknowledging the weight of responsibility.

 

A sharp and heartfelt picture book about a young soccer-loving girl who's an interpreter for her Spanish-speaking parents.