Book of the Week:

   The Library After Dark by Ande Pliego

A library science student gets trapped inside a mysterious New York City library where she must confront both a psychopathic killer and unfinished business from her past. When horror-story enthusiast Aria Stokes is invited by a charming architect named Jasper Knox to view a famous 19th-century manuscript of fairy tales at a library once owned by purported serial killer Evangeline Riordan, she’s shaken to the core. The manuscript, published as The Dark Hearth Tales, and the Daedalus Library are part of a past she would rather forget; but the prospect of romance beckons. Aria accepts the date only to find that five other bookworms—Callum Greene, a Scottish professor; Michelle Baudelaire, a middle-grade fantasy author; Piper Kingston, a journalist; Ruth Howard, a retired nurse; and Weston Martinez, a schoolteacher—also have tickets for the evening tour. The event quickly goes awry when the automatic door system malfunctions and the group gets imprisoned inside the Daedalus. Fear and tensions rise; one by one, group members meet gruesome ends in impossibly beautiful reading rooms filled with deadly objects, including toxic wallpaper that sickens Aria and a guillotine that surely isn’t just for show. Moving among the perspectives of the attendees, Pliego spins a complex narrative about secrets, betrayal, and revenge that eerily resonates with stories from The Dark Hearth Tales. Nothing and no one is quite what they seem. As a real serial killer stalks the Daedalus, Aria is forced to plumb the depths of an emotionally brutal past while coming to terms with a library she once called home and her relationship with Evangeline, a woman she once loved “with [her] whole…heart.” Intricately plotted and unique, Pliego’s novel seamlessly blends fairy tale, romance, and horror to create a richly textured reading experience.

Barry's Picks

Pennies from Heaven by James P. Blaylock

With a 100-year storm threatening the southern California coast, Jane Larkin is approached by a strange, audacious woman who wants to invest much-needed money in Jane’s Old Orange Co-op. Meanwhile Jane’s husband Jerry discovers an ancient excavation beneath the Larkin home. On that ominous morning in autumn, shadows descend over the deceptively quiet neighborhoods of Old Orange, ushering in a flood of chaos, terror, and murder.

 To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild

To End All Wars focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war’s critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Many of these dissenters were thrown in jail for their opposition to the war, from a future Nobel Prize winner to an editor behind bars who distributed a clandestine newspaper on toilet paper. These critics were sometimes intimately connected to their enemy hawks: one of Britain’s most prominent women pacifist campaigners had a brother who was commander in chief on the Western Front. Two well-known sisters split so bitterly over the war that they ended up publishing newspapers that attacked each other.

 Guillermo Del Toro Cabinet of Curiosities by Guillermo Del Toro

Cabinet of Curiosities begins with a book-length interview with del Toro by New York Times best-selling author and filmmaker Marc Scott Zicree, in which they identify and discuss del Toro’s reigning themes, citing examples of his signature motifs that have originated in the notebooks and then migrated to the minds of other artists del Toro has worked with, including storyboard artists, concept artists, makeup artists, cinematographers, and comic book artists. Also explored are del Toro’s personal inspirations, including literary references, old films, and figures from mythology.

 Watership Down by Richard Adams

Watership Down is a 1978 British animated adventure drama film written, produced and directed by Martin Rosen and based on the hugely popular book of the same name by Richard Adams. It was released on October 19, 1978, and was an immediate success, becoming the sixth most popular film of 1979 at the British box office. The same year of the film release, "The Watership Down Film Picture Book with linking text by Richard Adams" was published, a book of pictures from the film with linking text from the original novel by Richard Adams. It features a preface written by Richard Adams and a foreword written by Martin Rosen; hardcover with glossy printed cover over boards, 9.5" x 8'" x 1", more than 250 color stills from the film captioned with quotes from the book and the movie script, unpaginated - over 200 pages. The Lapine Glossary (courtesy of Richard Adams) appears at the back.

No Ordinary Time Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic about the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and how it shaped the nation while steering it through the Great Depression and the outset of World War II.

Patty's Picks

 Bridgerton: The Duke & I by Julia Quinn

The story of Daphne Bridgerton, in the first of her beloved Regency romance novels featuring the charming, powerful Bridgerton family.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Marry Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

 January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb.... As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends - and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island - boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever. 
The Library of Amorlin by Kaylyn Josephson

A brilliant con artist and a secretive librarian collide in this enchanting adult fantasy packed with twists, tricks, slow burn romantic tension, and magical creatures. When Kasira assumes the role of the new Assistant Librarian, she enters an enchanting world brimming with books and beasts, tempting her with a life she can never have. But Kasira’s real future depends on her long con to bring down the Librarian. Unfortunately, Allaster is as prickly as he is handsome, and his monstrous secrets are about to catch up with them both.

Spell Caster by Jaymin Eve

 Intense enemies-to-lovers romantasy with steamy heat, magical creatures, fast pacing, and stakes that will keep you hooked. Dive into a world where love is as dangerous as power—and nothing is ever as it seems.

 The Zookeepers Wife by Diane Ackerman

A true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by Nazi racism, who managed to save over three hundred people. Yet their story has fallen between the seams of history.  Drawing on Antonina’s diary and other historical sources, best-selling naturalist Diane Ackerman vividly re-creates Antonina’s life as “the zookeeper’s wife,” responsible for her own family, the zoo animals, and their “Guests” ?Resistance activists and refugee Jews, many of whom Jan had smuggled from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Amie's Picks

 Greetings from Witness Protection! by Jake Burt

The marshals are looking for the perfect girl to join a mother, father, and son on the run from the nation’s most notorious criminals. After all, the bad guys are searching for a family with one kid, not two, and adding a streetwise girl who knows a little something about hiding things may be just what the marshals need. Nicki swears she can keep the Trevor family safe, but to do so she’ll have to dodge hitmen, cyberbullies, and the specter of standardized testing, all while maintaining her marshal-mandated B-minus average. As she barely balances the responsibilities of her new identity, Nicki learns that the biggest threats to her family’s security might not lurk on the road from New York to North Carolina, but rather in her own past.

 Himawari House by Harmony Becker

A shared house in Tokyo brings five young people together. After moving to the U.S. as a child with her Japanese mother and White American father, Nao has returned to Japan for a gap year before college to explore the language and cultural heritage that she deliberately shed—at great emotional cost—in an effort to assimilate. She moves into Himawari House, which she shares with Korean Hyejung and Chinese Singaporean Tina, girls who are attending the same Japanese language institute as Nao. Also resident are two Japanese brothers, outgoing, friendly Shinichi and taciturn, broodingly handsome Masaki. Blending English, Japanese, Korean, and Singlish, the group bonds over meals, excursions, K-dramas, and never-ending conversations about life, love, and family. Becker perfectly captures the heady roller coaster of feelings that accompanies cross-cultural immersion, with ordinary activities serving as barometers of successful adaptation in a new country. The personal stakes of each encounter with Japanese life are even higher for Nao, throwing into relief her internal struggles over her identity. Nao is the focal point, but Hyejung and Tina are well developed, with complex, heartstring-tugging backstories. Most of the text is bilingual, but the occasional use of Japanese or Korean alone effectively mirrors the dislocation of language learners. The predominantly photorealistic art is enhanced with a range of stylized techniques that masterfully communicate emotion. Altogether, this work exemplifies what the graphic novel format can achieve.

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweet water washing away all of high society’s troubles. Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

  The Unexpected Consequence of Bleeding on a Tuesday by Kelsey B. Toney

High school senior Delia Bridges has the most amazing mom and sister, a killer GPA--and periods that are so painful they make her scream, pass out, and throw up. Though she doesn't know it yet, Delia has endometriosis, an affliction plaguing millions of people that is notoriously difficult to diagnose. Pain makes everything harder, but Delia is just one semester away from graduating from Stockwood Prep and pursuing her dream of becoming the kind of doctor she's never had: one who takes her symptoms seriously. But when she breaks a rule for the first time ever and is caught using marijuana at school to manage her pain, Delia is expelled.

  Seeing Voices by Olivia Smit

Skylar Brady has a plan for her life—until a car accident changes everything. Skylar knows exactly what she wants, and getting in a car accident the summer before twelfth grade isn’t supposed to be part of the plan. Although she escapes mostly unharmed, the accident has stolen more than just her hearing from her: she’s also lost the close bond she used to have with her brother. When her parents decide to take a house-sitting job halfway across the province, it’s just one more thing that isn’t going according to plan. As the summer progresses, Skylar begins to gain confidence in herself, but as she tries to mend her relationship with her brother, she stumbles upon another hidden trauma. Suddenly, she’s keeping as many secrets as she’s struggling to uncover and creating more problems than she could ever hope to solve.

Acacia's Picks

 Neuromancer by William Gibson

 Neuromancer is a science fiction masterpiece—a classic that ranks as one of the twentieth century’s most potent visions of the future. Case was the sharpest data-thief in the matrix—until he crossed the wrong people and they crippled his nervous system, banishing him from cyberspace. Now a mysterious new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run at an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, a mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case is ready for the adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

 The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The Call of the Wild is a novel by Jack London published in 1903. The story is set in the Yukon during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush—a period when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The novel's central character is a dog named Buck, a domesticated dog living at a ranch in the Santa Clara valley of California as the story opens. Stolen from his home and sold into the brutal existence of an Alaskan sled dog, he reverts to atavistic traits. Buck is forced to adjust to, and survive, cruel treatments and fight to dominate other dogs in a harsh climate. Eventually he sheds the veneer of civilization, relying on primordial instincts and lessons he learns, to emerge as a leader in the wild. London lived for most of a year in the Yukon collecting material for the book.

 Do Aneroids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick

By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force.

 The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

In this captivating narrative of natural history (enlivened with more than seventy original illustrations and photographs), Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost  stars of the field?naming fifteen new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork?masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting- edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy. Captivating and revelatory, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is a book for the ages.