Staff Picks

I read, reread, and even read aloud to a friend selections from Cursed Bunny. The stories left me feeling haunted, reinforced by a matter of fact-ness in the narrator's tone. Recommend to fans of the grotesque, dark and unusual--Bora Chung goes there.

Publisher's description: 
Collection of short stories that blend horror, surrealism, and speculative fiction to take on the patriarchy, capitalism, and reign of big tech.

Find Cursed Bunny in our online catalog

"At the Full Moon Coffee Shop we don't take your order; instead we bring you desserts, meals, and drinks--selected just for you." You are invited to the Full Moon Coffee Shop and are served by cats. They bring you what you need and teach you about your star chart, explaining the gifts and difficulties of the planets. The cats help you find your way back to your path.

 

Publisher's description:

In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they’ll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon. This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and it seemingly appears at random. It’s also run by talking cats. While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes and coffees and teas, the cats also consult their star charts, offering cryptic wisdom, and letting them know where their lives veered off course. Every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. For a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the coffee shop’s feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. For there is a very special reason the shop appeared to each of them . . .

 

Looking for a story unlike anything you've ever read? This cast of characters will shock, dazzle, and disgust you. With a blend of dark humor, horror, and a touch of magical realism, readers are transported inside a family's power-struggle to be anything but "normal."

 

Publisher's description: 

Nominated for the National Book Award, Geek Love is mesmerizing, daring, and unconventional. Award-winning novelist Katherine Dunn fascinates and amazes much the same way tornados, earthquakes, and volcanos do. No one wants to be a victim, but most find the event too hypnotic to ignore. In order to save their traveling carnival from bankruptcy, the Binewskis are creating their own brood of sideshow freaks. Under Al's careful direction, the pregnant Lil ingests radioisotopes, insecticides, and arsenic to make her babies "special." As the oldest daughter, albino dwarf Olympia, puts listeners in the ring side seat, her family's incredible drama erupts and spills over into the "normal" world. Not for the squeamish or faint of heart, this brilliantly daring novel is shocking and delightful. Christina Moore's vibrant narration conspires with Katherine Dunn's evocative, energetic prose to shock us at seeing something of ourselves in these exotic characters.

 

One of the coziest magical romances I've ever read, it pairs wonderfully with a cup of tea before bedtime! Mia, a member of a secret society of witches, receives a message about tutoring three secluded young witches. Little does she know, this invitation will completely transform her life!

Publisher’s description: 

A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family-and a new love-changes the course of her life. As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos "pretending" to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously. But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic.

Find The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches in our online catalog.

I discovered this book on our shelves and was happy to find an author similar to my favorite author, Sarah Addison Allen. It is heartwarming and hopeful and is about making new choices on life's journey, with a sprinkle of magic , of course!

 

Publisher's description:

An uplifting novel about a heartbroken young pie maker who is granted a magical second chance to live the life she didn't choose. . . . from the bestselling author of The Enlightenment of Bees. Lolly Blanchard's life only seems to give her lemons. Ten years ago, after her mother's tragic death, she broke up with her first love and abandoned her dream of opening a restaurant in order to keep her family's struggling Seattle diner afloat and care for her younger sister and grieving father. Now, a decade later, she dutifully whips up the diner's famous lemon meringue pies each morning while still pining for all she's lost. As Lolly's thirty-third birthday approaches, her quirky great-aunt gives her a mysterious gift-three lemon drops, each of which allows her to live a single day in a life that might have been hers. What if her mom hadn't passed away? What if she had opened her own restaurant in England? What if she hadn't broken up with the only man she's ever loved? Surprising and empowering, each experience helps Lolly let go of her regrets and realize the key to transforming her life lies not in redoing her past but in having the courage to embrace her present.

 

This story is a disturbing yet powerful exploration of trauma, imagination, and the limits of conformity. While the book's cute cover belies its dark and uncomfortable content, Murata masterfully weaves elements of magical realism to create a haunting story that lingers on the mind.

 

Publisher's description:

As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. Each summer, Natsuki counts down the days until her family drives into the mountains of Nagano to visit her grandparents in their wooden house in the forest. One summer, her cousin Yuu confides to Natsuki that he is an extraterrestrial, and Natsuki starts to wonder if she might be an alien too. Later, as a married woman, Natsuki feels forced to fit in to a society she deems a "baby factory" but wonders if there is more to the world than the mundane reality everyone else seems to accept. The answers are out there, and Natsuki has the power to find them.

 

I found this book to be super engaging. Zoey and the characters sprung to life in this story about transformation, acceptance and creating your own supportive and colorful community. Fans of Sarah Addison Allen won't be disappointed!

 

Publisher's description:

Right off the coast of South Carolina, on Mallow Island, The Dellawisp sits--a stunning cobblestone building shaped like a horeshoe and named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey comes to claim her deceased mother's apartment on Mallow Island, she meets her quirky and secretive neighbors, including a girl on the run, two estranged middle-aged sisters, a lonely chef, a legendary writer, and three ghosts. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn't written yet.

 

A thought provoking book about how we can learn to appreciate the earth and others by changing the story we tell ourselves. The philosophical questions are approached in a way that lets us learn along with the narrator as he makes his discoveries with his teacher...a gorilla. The presentation is so digestible and the big picture idea of how our culture is divided into takers and leavers feels so profound. The leavers let others grow and become themselves and the takers need to destroy and stamp out the competition to conquer. I love the idea that we can make a difference by thinking hard about how we tell our story.

 

Publisher's description: 

The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. "You are the teacher?" he asks incredulously. "I am the teacher," the gorilla replies. Ishmael is a creature of immense wisdom and he has a story to tell, one that no other human being has ever heard. It is a story that extends backward and forward over the lifespan of the earth from the birth of time to a future there is still time save. Like all great teachers, Ishmael refuses to make the lesson easy; he demands the final illumination to come from within ourselves. Is it man's destiny to rule the world? Or is it a higher destiny possible for him-- one more wonderful than he has ever imagined?

The author of the acclaimed novel Lakewood returns with a beautifully written political parable reminiscent of Margaret Atwood and Octavia E. Butler. This novel, which Publisher's Weekly describes simply as "brilliant" in their starred review, will be of interest to readers looking for more near-future feminist dystopian novels along the lines of Red Clocks by Leni Zumas and The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan.

 

Publisher's Description:

Josephine Thomas has heard every conceivable theory about her mother's disappearance. That she was kidnapped. Murdered. That she took on a new identity to start a new family. That she was a witch. This is the most worrying charge because in a world where witches are real, peculiar behavior raises suspicions and a woman--especially a Black woman--can find herself on trial for witchcraft. But fourteen years have passed since her mother's disappearance, and now Jo is finally ready to let go of the past. Yet her future is in doubt. The State mandates that all women marry by the age of 30--or enroll in a registry that allows them to be monitored, effectively forfeiting their autonomy. At 28, Jo is ambivalent about marriage. With her ability to control her life on the line, she feels as if she has her never understood her mother more. When she's offered the opportunity to honor one last request from her mother's will, Jo leaves her regular life to feel connected to her one last time. In this powerful and timely novel, Megan Giddings explores the limits women face--and the powers they have to transgress and transcend them.

Find The Women Could Fly in our online catalog.