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I recently asked Laurel, a member of our circulation team, for a recommendation. Laurel was deep into We Begin at the End (2021) by British author Chris Whitaker.

Still Life by Sarah Winman is a love letter to the city of Florence, Italy, its art, and its inhabitants. An ode to chance encounters, love and found family. A delightful story of a tender-hearted English soldier and an eccentric art historian who serendipitously meet on the outskirts of Florence towards the end of WWII. Filled wi

In The Colour of Magic, part 1 of the Discworld Series, Terry Pratchett introduces readers to a flat earth-like planet held up

Get ready to embark on a fun, quirky adventure with Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts (2019) by Kate Racculia. After eccentric billionaire Vincent Price dies, he invites Boston residents to join a treasure hunt. Tuesday Mooney is a loner, researcher, and reluctant socializer. She has secrets (who doesn’t?) and soon becomes engaged in the quest to solve the puzzle.

Fun fact: a section of The Dearly Beloved, Cara Wall’s debut novel, is set in Wheaton, Illinois!

Part eco fiction, part family saga, Greenwood by Michael Christie follows the story of the ill-fated Greenwood family through several generations.

What do you do when your whole world changes? That is the question Vasya must answer in Katherine Arden’s gorgeous story of Russian history and mythology.

Vasilisa Petrovna has always been a strange girl. Everyone in her village says so; her face looks like a frog’s, she runs around in the woods like some sort of wild thing, and she has a habit of talking to the air. What the villagers don’t know is Vasya has the sight and can speak with the chyruthi – spirits of nature and the home. And the chyruthi are afraid.

Brit Bennett‘s debut novel, The Mothers, earned well-deserved attention in 2016. 

I picked up Strange Weather by Joe Hill because I often turn to collections of short (horror) stories when I need a little pick me up. Something to take the edge off put the edge on. I’m sure Joe Hill is tired of people saying it by now, but for anyone who hasn’t read Joe Hill before, the apple does not fall far from the familial tree and I hope Stephen King is a proud papa.

Although novelist Mary Beth Keane received strong reviews for her previous publications, The Walking People (200

Rosemary Harper, the main character of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, takes a job as a file clerk on a rundown spaceship called the Wayfarer in order to escape her painful past. When the Wayfarer is hired for an incredibly dangerous mission, Rosemary and her new crewmates—a ragtag mix of humans and aliens—must learn to trust each other with their lives, and soon she grows to consider them family.

Richard Osman’s debut novel, The Thursday Murder Club, came to me as a recommendation from a friend who hadn’t read it, yet heard about it and thought of me. I’d take recommendations from a dirty shoe, so I went for it, and I had a great time.