Tumble into autumn with our September staff picks! Click the links or give us a call to request a copy for yourself.
Darci: Sucker Punch by Laurell K. Hamilton (2020)
I like this book for its quirky and paranormal characters (werewolves, vampires, etc.), edgy storyline, action, and sarcastic humor. The series is Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 27.
Terika: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (2012)
Alice is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she gets a head injury and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers she is getting divorced, has three kids, and she is actually 39 years old. Alice cannot remember anything, but she has to reconstruct the last decade of her life and figure out where things went wrong.
Hannah: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green (2020)
This is the follow-up to 2018's An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, and explores what happens after aliens visit Earth in the form of a giant, mysterious robot statue named Carl. April May's discovery of Carl rockets her to superstardom, but when she (and the Carls) disappear, humanity is left to grapple with the aftermath. In an age where we are more connected than ever, can we overcome the ways in which technology drives us apart? Green (the younger brother of YA author John Green) writes with style, wit, and insight, and both books in this fast-paced duology were impossible for me to put down.
Emily: A must read for fans of contemporary psychological thrillers in the style of B.A. Paris and Lisa Jewell--The Wife Between Us by Hendricks and Pekkanen (2018) does not disappoint with its complex love gone bad plot and unpredictable characters.
Cindy: He Started It by Samantha Downing (2020)
Grandpa died, and has left all his worldly possessions to his grandchildren - with a catch. They must go on a road trip together, with his ashes in tow, to collect the money. Well written, suspenseful, and twisty, there is an ending that you never saw coming. Read to find out!
Mara: Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything by Viktor E. Frankl (2020)
Published for the very first time in English, Frankl offers an insightful exploration of the maxim “Live as if you were living for the second time,” and he unfolds his basic conviction that every crisis contains opportunity. Despite the unspeakable horrors of the camps, the author learned from the strength of his fellow inmates that it is always possible to “say yes to life.” Viktor E. Frankl was a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School until his death in 1997. He was the founder of what has come to be called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy—the school of logotherapy.
Susan: The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue (2020)
Donoghue’s newest novel is set in 1918 in the middle of the Spanish Flu epidemic in a Dublin maternity ward where pregnant women ill with the flu come and go. The novel takes place in a restricted timeframe of just three days, which allows the author to show how relentless a nurse's work really was during this time. It is a quiet but poignant and intense little gem of a book as it is very graphic in the descriptions of the physiology of deliveries and infectious disease. It was an amazing book to listen to.
