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• Staff Picks Newsletter • |
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Books or movies we just couldn't put down ... |
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It's Not Her
by Mary Kubica
A gripping thrill ride. --Jeneva RoseTantalizing, terrifying and all too real. --Shari LapenaCancel your plans, you won't be able to put this one down. --Chris WhitakerWickedly smart and incredibly twisted. --Ashley ElstonTerrifying. --Megan MirandaTwo families at a secluded lake resort are at the center of a chilling crime in this twisty thriller from the bestselling author of Local Woman Missing A scream shatters the silence...Courtney Gray's peaceful vacation turns into a nightmare when she discovers her brother and sister-in-law dead in their lakeside cottage. Her niece Reese is missing. Her nephew Wyatt is asleep upstairs--unharmed.A town full of secrets...As police swarm the quiet resort, dark truths about Courtney's family--and the town itself--begin to surface. Is Reese a victim... or the killer?A truth no one saw coming...With everyone hiding something, Courtney races to uncover the terrible mystery. But the closer she gets, the harder it is to know who--or what--to trust.
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Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle BurdenIn March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha's Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together--building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume. In Strangers, Belle revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed. The discreet, compliant woman she once was--someone whose nickname was Belle the Good--gives way to someone braver, someone determined to use her voice. With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love and rediscovers trust in herself.
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The Poppy Fields by Nikki ErlickWelcome to the Poppy Fields, where there's hope for even the most battered hearts to heal. Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain ... and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they're willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects. On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog: Ava, a book illustrator; Ray, a fireman; Sasha, an occupational therapist; Sky, a free spirit; and a friendly pup named PJ. As they attempt to make their way from the Midwest all the way west to the Poppy Fields--where they hope to find Ellis, its brilliant, enigmatic founder--each of their past secrets and mysterious motivations threaten to derail their voyage.
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Good Girl's Guide to Murder: Season One A closed murder case of five years. An a-grade student who won't let it go. Compulsive thriller based on Holly Jackson's hit novel and starring Emma Myers. Five years ago, popular student Andie Bell went missing from the tiny town of Little Kilton. Three days later, boyfriend Sal sent a text confessing to Andie's murder and killed himself. But questions about the case have always lingered and smart and single-minded Pip is convinced of Sal's innocence. Now she's going to prove it. Teaming up with Sal's brother Ravi, Pip questions old friends and follows long-buried leads. It isn't long before the two discover shaky alibis and sordid secrets. The town is on edge. Pip is in danger. And time is running out.
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Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn BensonWhen Ellie stumbles across the map to a mysterious ancient city, she knows she's holding her chance to revolutionize Pre-Colombian history. There's just one teensy complication. A ruthless villain wants it, and Ellie is all that stands in his way. To race him to the ruins—and avoid being violently disposed of—she needs the help of maverick surveyor Adam Bates, a snake-wrangling rogue who can't seem to keep his dratted shirt on. But there's more than Ellie's scholarly reputation (and life) on the line. Her enemies aren't just looters. They're after an arcane secret rumored to lie in the heart of the ruins, a mythical artifact with a power that could shake the world. Between stealing trousers, plummeting over waterfalls, and trying not to fall in love with her machete-wielding partner, will Ellie be able to stop the oracle of a lost empire from falling into the wrong hands?
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Everything Everywhere All at OnceEvelyn Wang, a flustered immigrant mother, is contacted from a parallel universe and told that only she can save the world. The unlikely hero must learn to channel her newfound powers and fight through the splintering timelines of the multiverse to save her home, her family, and herself in this big-hearted and irreverent adventure.
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Departure(s) by Julian BarnesShortly after our narrator, a writer named Julian, begins this compact book by discussing the workings of involuntary memory, he interrupts himself with a bulletin to the reader: There will be a story--or a story within the story--but not just yet. Of course, whether Departure(s) is mostly fiction or not, there is a lot of its author in it, including Barnes's reckoning with the blood disorder he has been living with since he was diagnosed in 2020, his long preoccupation with dying and grief, and his mordant sense of the indignities and lost opportunities we're prey to in love. The story he promises to deliver is a love story, that of two friends he met at university in the 1960s, that time of touted but rarely experienced sexual freedom. Julian played matchmaker to Stephen (tall, gangling, uncertain) and Jean (tart and attractive); as the third wheel he was deeply invested in the success of their love and insulted when they broke up. Time is swift, and forty years later, he tries again, watching as their rekindled affair produces joys, betrayals, and disappointments of a different order. Life and memory can be so . . . quixotic, don't you find? Barnes uses both his novelistic memory and his (real?) personal diary entries to examine not just the quixotic relationship of Jean and Stephen but his writer's eye upon it, and how his efforts in their behalf add up in the end. Having promised them he'd never write about them, he breaks the promise to fulfill one, amply, to his readers, in this delightful and poignant novelist's game that only Julian Barnes knows how to play.
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The Once and Future Queenby Paula LaffertyVera always knew she didn't fit in. When she learns that she is meant to be in another time, she leaps at the chance to embrace a new life in a world of valor, intrigue, and unexpected magic in this bold and romantic retelling of Arthurian legend . . . 22-year-old Vera is at a crossroads: waiting tables, grieving her previous relationship, and jogging aimlessly each morning as if toward an uncertain future. Then an odd man shows up at her workplace, insisting that she was once the legendary Queen Guinevere of Camelot, and that her lost memories hold the key to changing both the past and the present. Somehow, it all feels like the direction she's been looking for. But when she asks the mysterious man to tell her more about Lancelot, Arthur, and a faithless queen, he can only say that much of what she's heard about Camelot is wrong. The truth, he claims, is something she must see for herself.
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Heart the Lover by Lily KingYou knew I'd write a book about you someday. Our narrator understands good love stories--their secrets and subtext, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules. In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever. Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan's youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news bring the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
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The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya ParkerIn The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience. The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue--and how you host and attend them.
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Three Birds Renovations: Vacay Vibes at Homeby Three Birds RenovationsFor a decade, Bonnie, Erin and Lana have been turning tired homes into show-stopping spaces. With nearly 30 kitchens, 50+ bathrooms, 70 bedrooms and over 80 outdoor areas under their tool belts, they've learned a thing or two along the way. The secret to every stunning transformation? Creating a home that feels like a holiday. Now, they're spilling all their latest reno wisdom in these pages, helping you bring that vacation vibe into your everyday life. Inside, you'll find: - Incredible before-and-afters- Clever space-saving solutions- Money-saving tricks- Inspo from homes big and small, urban and rural. Whether you're drawn to the laid-back charm of a Mediterranean villa, the breezy allure of modern coastal, a Palm Springs retreat or the cosy warmth of a snow-capped cabin, you'll find plenty of ideas to bring your vision to life.
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Clutch by Emily NemensFive friends, twenty years, one reunion trip. As undergrads, Gregg, Reba, Hillary, Bella, and Carson formed the kind of rare bond that college brochures promise--friendship that lasts a lifetime. Two decades later, the women are spread across the country but remain firmly tethered through their ever-unfurling group chat. They've made it through COVID and childbirth and midcareer challenges, but no one can anticipate what's coming down the pike. The five women converge on Palm Springs for a long overdue reunion: Gregg, who has forged a path as a progressive Texas legislator, is facing a huge decision about her political future. Reba, who moved back to the Bay Area after decades away, is deep in IVF treatments while caring for her aging parents and navigating a San Francisco she hardly recognizes. Hillary's medical career in Chicago is going great--but at home, her husband's struggles with addiction have derailed their life. In New York City, Bella faces the biggest case in her career as a litigator while her home life crumbles around her, and across the river in Brooklyn, Carson is working on a new novel as well as forging a possible relationship with the father she's never met. Clutch is a big, beautiful, and deeply absorbing novel that asks how much space and heart we can give to our friends and our families, and what space we can save for ourselves.
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Automatic Noodle
by Annalee Newitz
You don't have to eat food to know the way to a city's heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food--the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around--for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war. But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they'll have to call on their customers, their community, and each other--and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn't built for them--
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Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher Stephen's god died on the longest day of the year… Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind…
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How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion by David McRaneyInspired by curiosity and underpinned by diligent research, How Minds Change is an expansive, big-hearted journalistic narrative for our divided times, told with David McRaney's trademark humor, compassion, and scientific inquiry. In engaging chapters built around eye-opening interviews and anecdotes--featuring psychologists and neuroscientists, and also former cult members, conspiracy theorists, and political activists--McRaney shows why illusions like The Dress captivate (and break) the internet; how conversational techniques can crack hardened attitudes; and what miracles are possible when we show up with open minds and a better understanding of how the human brain works. Reaching surprising and thought-provoking conclusions, How Minds Change demonstrates that the ability to uncover our own motives and beliefs--and understand those of others--may be the greatest persuasive tool of all.
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The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
by Erik Larson
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. Master storyteller Erik Larson offers [an] ... account of the chaotic months between Lincoln's election and the Confederacy's shelling of Sumter--a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were 'so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them'--
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