Staff Picks

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A botanist's guide to parties and poisons book cover

Enlightenment : a novel

Sarah Perry

FICTION Perry Sarah
Fiction

"Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits--torn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community. It is two romantic relationships that will rend their friendship, and in the wake of this rupture, Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London. Over the course of twenty years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit. Thomas and Grace will ask themselves what it means to love and be loved, what is fixed and what is mutable, how much of our fate is predestined and written in the stars, and whether they can find their way back to each other"--

In Sarah Perry’s “Enlightenment,” the past is a circle. In her latest novel, we meet Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay. Steeped in a shared unshakeable faith, they both don’t belong to their small English village or their small Baptist church—or at least they don’t feel that way. While the decades that span between their ages makes their friendship unlikely, they bond through turning their eyes to the past, and more importantly the cosmos. It’s 1997 and Hart, a newspaper columnist for the “Essex Chronicle,” is told by his editor to write about Hale-Bopp, the great comet visible to the eye that year. This assignment leads Hart down a rabbit hole. He develops a new love of physics, and more importantly, an obsession with a local astronomer who vanished a century before. This need to solve the mystery of Maria Vaduva alters the course of thirty years (or was this always the course?), stretching and straining the relationship of Thomas and Grace—two people in orbit. You can argue with yourself about what is the gravitational pull. It is a splendid book. -Anne M

The future : a novel

Naomi Alderman

FICTION Alderman Naomi
Science Fiction

"The bestselling, award-winning author of The Power delivers a dazzling tour de force where a handful of friends plot a daring heist to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know it. When Martha Einkorn fled her father's isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. Now, she's surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics, and covert weaponry, while spouting technological prophecy. Martha may have left the cult, but if the apocalyptic warnings in her father's fox and rabbit sermon--once a parable to her--are starting to come true, how much future is actually left? Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin. She's cornered, desperate and--worst of all--might die without ever knowing what's going on. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future? Martha and Zhen's worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha's relentless drive and Zhen's insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful or the cataclysmic end of civilization. By turns thrilling, hilarious, tender, and always piercingly brilliant, The Future unfolds at a breakneck speed, highlighting how power corrupts the few who have it and what it means to stand up to them. The future is coming. The Future is here."--provided by publisher.

What would you do if you knew the world was ending? That question is answered from multiple viewpoints in Alderman's fantastic near-future novel. It's a surprisingly hopeful novel, and one that I recommend to just about everyone. -Brian

Knife : meditations after an attempted murder book cover

All you need is love : the Beatles in their own words book cover

Why we read : on bookworms, libraries and just one more page before lights out book cover

Moomin : the complete Tove Jansson comic strip book cover

The book proposal

K. J. Micciche

FICTION Micciche K
Fiction, Romance, Humor

Broke up with, broke, and with a vicious case of writer's block, romance writer Gracie Landing is a hot mess. She can hardly be blamed for drinking one (or a few) too many cocktails when out with her besties in an attempt to cheer herself up. Sometime in the foggy wee hours, she recklessly emails her unrequited high-school crush, Colin Yarmouth, who is now a successful attorney harboring regrets of his own. When she receives an intriguingly friendly (not to say flirty) response, her acute embarrassment is overcome only by her fervent curiosity―what would a hottie like Colin be like as a grown up? The two forge an unlikely friendship that's unmistakably headed for more. Colin's tales of his own woeful break-up become fodder for Gracie's fertile imagination and her current work-in-progress takes off. With the deadline looming and her checking account dwindling, Gracie has no idea that borrowing Colin's story could wreak havoc on her life, her career, and her own chance at happily-ever-after...

I picked up this book from our "Books about Book People" display that was up in May. That theme is right up my alley. I just know it's going to be a creative read when the hero is a struggling author. BUT THIS BOOK! I binged the last half of the book in one afternoon. The characters are (of course) likeable and relatable, for me anyway. I've read my fair share of books where the protagonist is a hot mess and I personally enjoy the comedic opportunity that kind of character provides. But my favorite comedic bits were in the interactions between Gracie and her friend's Eastern European immigrant mother. She treats Gracie as if she were her own, offering borscht to her anytime she is down on her luck. I just love the tenderness felt among the characters. I read some negative reviews on Goodreads so the book might not be for everyone. But for me, I didn't want the story to be over at "The End." I want more of these characters and hope the author considers featuring them in a future book. -Melody

The bullet swallower : a novel book cover

Swimming in Paris : a life in three stories book cover

The art thief : a true story of love, crime, and a dangerous obsession book cover

Worry : a novel

Alexandra Tanner

FICTION Tanner Alexandr
Literary Fiction

"Frances Ha meets No One Is Talking About This in a debut that follows two twenty-something siblings-turned-roommates navigating an absurd world about to suffer great change-a Seinfeldian novel of existentialism and sisterhood. It's March of 2019, and twenty-eight-year-old Jules Gold-anxious, artistically frustrated, and internet-obsessed-has been living alone in the apartment she once shared with the man she thought she'd marry when her younger sister Poppy comes to crash. Indefinitely. Poppy is a year out from a suicide attempt only Jules knows about, and as she searches for work and meaning in Brooklyn, Jules spends her days hate-scrolling the feeds of Mormon mommy bloggers and waiting for life to happen. Then the hives that've plagued Poppy since childhood flare up. Jules's uterus turns against her. Poppy brings home a maladjusted rescue dog named Amy Klobuchar. The girls' mother-a newly devout Messianic Jew-starts falling for the same deep-state conspiracy theories as Jules's online mommies. A trip home to Florida ends in disaster. Amy Klobuchar may or may not have rabies. And Jules struggles halfheartedly to scrape her way to the source of her ennui, slowly and cruelly coming to blame Poppy for her own insufficiencies as a friend, a writer, and a sister. As the year shambles on and a new decade looms near, Jules and Poppy-comrades, competitors, permanent fixtures in each other's lives-must ask themselves what they want their futures to look like, and whether they'll spend them together or apart. Deadpan, dark, and brutally funny, Worry is a sharp portrait of two sisters enduring a dread-filled American moment from a nervy new voice in contemporary fiction"--

I found much relatable about this, even if the characters are a little younger than me. It's a bittersweet and still funny exploration of being siblings and dealing with your weird parents, all while navigating your 20s and figuring out what you want from life. It's quirky with dry humor throughout. -Amanda