Staff Picks Format: Book

All Girls by Emily Layden [Book]

view/request

Layden’s debut novel, set in the fictional all-girls Atwater boarding school, is filled with longstanding traditions, social complexities, shifting alliances, and shocking secrets. The story of an academic year is told through the eyes of nine different students, month by month. From a freshman legacy student whose grandmother and mother both attended to a talented senior who is the school’s poster girl, each young woman reveals her motivations and concerns as she attends classes, participates in events, and lives her life. A twenty-year-old scandal resurfaces as students arrive to begin the year, and the school’s handling of the situation at the time has lasting effects for the institution itself and the students readers grow to care about over the months. Readers will find themselves thinking about the vividly and compassionately rendered characters long after their chapters end, and considering decisions they would make in the same situations. Give it to grown up fans of Gossip Girl and readers of Curtis Sittenfeld and Emma Straub. YA crossover appeal for, again, fans of Gossip Girl and aspirational prep school students.

The Queen’s Thief Series [Book]

view/request

With some of the most unexpected twists in young adult literature, this “best series you have never heard of” is a great match for those looking for a mixture of Greek Mythology, adventure, humor, political intrigue, and mystery. The series follows that character of Gen, who begins the first novel languishing away in prison. With the proclamation “I can steal anything!” Gen is sent on a mission that brings him face to face with the gods and his destiny. The novels mature in both theme and writing style, much like the Harry Potter series, and by the end readers will have jaws tired from dropping from the twists that this intentionally vague review is leaving out. Lovers of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson and genuinely good writing should flock to this series. Start with The Thief and make your way through the realm of Attolia, you won’t regret it!

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir [Book]

view/request

If you liked Weir’s The Martian you will love Project Hail Mary. This is a tale of a good, but flawed man who has to think his way out of a seemingly impossible situation. A very plausible story, set in the near future, with more heart than The Martian because not only does the main character have to save himself, he has to save others. Science nerds will love the internal ruminations as the protagonist overcomes each problem. Non-nerds might learn some physics, painlessly.

Tsarina by Ellen Alpsten [Book]

view/request

Catherine Alexeyevna (Catherine I) was the second wife of Peter the Great, a woman who progressed from humble origins as a serf to Empress of all the Russias in her short life. The first woman to rule Russia in her own right, she was by the side of the man whose legacy of modernizing Russia in the early 18th century is well-documented in popular culture. Lesser known is the sometimes bloody story of the woman who spent more than twenty years coddling, supporting, and challenging him. Ellen Alpsten’s debut novel relates a compelling if unverified story of Catherine’s (then known as Marta) early years before she entered Peter’s orbit and became his companion and, later, wife. Catherine bore him twelve children, only two of whom lived to adulthood. She traveled with him to the front in his various wars over many years. She was a constant in his life through successes, failures, triumphs, disappointments, and numerous mistresses. She was the best thing that ever happened to him, and the one person who could soothe his rages and return him to reason. Illuminating the realities of life in premodern Russia and the growth and changes brought about in the Petrine Era, It’s a fascinating and extraordinary ride from slavery to royalty for an incredible woman.

“Fiction about real people” is a great genre for readers who like history and also like to listen in on conversations. Offer this to fans of historical fiction, Russia, political intrigue, and powerful women.

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 [Book]

view/request

This very readable history of why and how we got involved in the mess of competing tribes and loyalties that is Afghanistan explained in short, digestible chapters each detailing an event or a person. The long chain of events that led to September 11 and the failure of intelligence services is enlightening if grim reading. This writer will be interested in the author’s sequel to see if we’ve learned anything at all.

Fall or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson [Book]

view/request

This is a cheeky poke at nerdy types and downright funny if you are one (with a sense of humor). Stephenson’s written a thoroughly enjoyable send-up of geek culture. Still underneath this near-future tale of the desire for immortality he asks some big questions and reflects on contemporary societal divisions and where they might lead.

The Glass House by Beatrice Colin [Book]

view/request

Disappointed artist Antonia McCulloch is going through the motions with her distant husband when her previously unknown sister-in-law and niece unexpectedly arrive on her doorstep. Antonia has been managing Balmarra, the family estate, since her father’s death, and never expected to hear from her estranged brother again. Cicely Pick has packed herself and her daughter Kitty up to travel from Darjeeling, India to Scotland in pursuit of her husband’s right to the family home. He’s in need of financial support, and she intends to sell Balmarra and the assets therein to fund his continued botanical expeditions in Asia. As Antonia and Cicely become acquainted, their mutual suspicions give way to tentative friendship. Cicely is a novel addition to village society, and strikes up an ill-advised flirtation with a wealthy neighbor. Neither of the women’s husbands seems invested in the future of the estate, and none of them anticipate what they eventually learn from the family solicitors. Balmarra itself is another character in the story, filled with family treasures and portraits, with a spectacular glass house on the grounds containing rare plant specimens from all over the world.

Offer this to fans of historical fiction, women’s stories, botany, and Scotland.

Brontë’s Mistress by Finola Austin [Book]

view/request

Austin’s debut novel expands on scholarly speculation that Branwell Brontë (brother to authors Anne, Charlotte, and Emily) had a passionate affair with Lydia Robinson, a married lady whose son Branwell tutored while Anne was governess to her daughters. Lydia is vain, aging, and longs for excitement. Branwell is young, passionate, and misguided. The story is told from Lydia’s viewpoint; we learn she grieves the recent losses of her mother and her youngest daughter, and is challenged by the management of her living children, interference from her mother-in-law, and her disinterested husband. We are privy to her flights of fancy as she imagines becoming involved with the much-younger Branwell and resists her urges, until she doesn’t. They begin an affair, communicating through a servant and meeting in an abandoned cottage to indulge their attraction. The scandal that follows exacerbates Branwell’s mental fragility and changes the lives of both families.

Offer this to fans of Victorian literature, readers who like their historical fiction populated with real people, and those who prefer their romances without happy endings.

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life) by George Saunders [Book]

view/request

Reading this book is like getting to take author George Saunders’ MFA writing course on the Russian short story, as he takes you through reading seven of his favorites by Russian giants Tolstoy, Chekov, Gogol, and Turgenov. And while this might seem like a daunting hurdle, or something only helpful for aspiring writers – Saunders’ engaging examinations into how these greats are doing what they do, make for an accessible exploration into the importance of fiction and in turn: a revelatory experience of becoming a better reader AND an inspiration for finding one’s voice in any form of expression (not just writing). A non-fiction extension from what Saunders achieves with his own award winning fiction, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is appearing on many “Best of…” lists for good reason – an essential read for anyone who loves stories!

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan [Book]

view/request

In 14th-century China, a fortune-teller reveals to twelve-year-old Zhu Chongba that he is destined to achieve greatness. But when he dies in a bandit raid on their impoverished village, his younger sister assumes his identity and his fate in order to achieve the thing she wants above all else: to survive. She Who Became the Sun is a beautifully written, character-driven story that follows the new Zhu Chongba as she fights to keep her secret and her life in a world upended by war and rebellion in the aftermath of the collapse of the Mongol Empire. Shelley Parker-Chan seamlessly weaves fantasy, humor, and romance into a queer historical military fantasy unlike anything else on the shelf.

Well-Behaved Indian Women by Saumya Dave [Book]

view/request

Three generations of Indian women living in India, New Jersey, and Manhattan try in vain to do what is expected of them and all fail, in the same year, by following their dreams instead.

Simran is finishing her master’s degree in psychology and planning her wedding to Kunal, an altruistic medical student, when she meets someone who changes the way she sees herself. Nandini is anticipating her empty nest with a sense of dissatisfaction with her distant husband and her job in a family practice clinic where the bottom line is everything, when a former colleague gets in touch about an amazing opportunity. Mimi is enjoying a peaceful widowhood in her village in India, visiting the local school to teach girls around the edges of what the curriculum offers, when parental complaints bring her to the attention of the superintendent. All three of them face these surprises with their own strength and the support of the others, in ways they didn’t realize were possible.

A compelling and complicated family story filled with secrets, assumptions, and growth through communication, Saumya Dave’s debut renders these women’s lives realistically, with stumbles and corrections as they go along.

This debut is a good fit for readers who like layered stories of women’s lives, complex social structures, and families finding balance between tradition and progressiveness.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo [Book]

view/request

In 1950’s San Francisco, seventeen-year-old Lily Hiu’s Chinatown community, including her parents, are constantly under scrutiny for not being “American enough.” Lily works hard to fit in at school and with her friends, but she has a secret she can’t share with anyone: she’s attracted to other girls, a dangerous realization that could put her family’s citizenship at risk. When classmate Kathleen Miller invites Lily to the Telegraph Club, a bar for San Francisco’s underground lesbian community, Lily is torn between her duty to her family and her fascination with the forbidden Telegraph Club—and with Kathleen. At turns hopeful and heartbreaking, Last Night at the Telegraph Club paints a vivid portrait of mid-century San Francisco and the people whose lives were endangered by the fear-mongering and needless moral panic of the Red Scare.