Staff Picks - Adult

Created on August 8, 2021, 12:09 pm

Last Updated June 9, 2023, 11:52 am

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A 1950s British teacher decides to abandon her boring life by embarking on a life-changing adventure with her assistant to New Caledonia. Finding the beetle is her main goal, but she finds so much more along this endearing and hilarious adventure! - Rebecca C
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Taking place in Swanford Abbey, a luxury hotel that is rumored to be haunted, Rebecca is a guest when she becomes a suspect of a murder. What happens next is if you combine Agatha Christie with Jane Austen and a dash of the Brontes. Perfect for historical mystery fans! - Deborah K
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This second book of the Thursday Murder Club series is so good it can be read on its own. A group of four seniors living in an English retirement community are back at it. Full of wonderful characters, murders, lots of plot twists and many smile worthy moments, I loved it! - Mike N
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If you're looking for something magical and unusual, check out The Cartographers. Nell is blacklisted from her chosen field...by her father. When he dies unexpectedly, Nell rediscovers a seemingly worthless map that's tied to a family secret. Why did he keep the map hidden? - Karen G
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A razor-sharp poetic retort to the ableism found in Literature. Weise's incisive poems directly respond to the ways authors use disability as metaphor and the way disabled writers are expected to perform disability. Smart, moving, often funny, and very powerful. - Jennie R
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Winter’s Orbit is a lively mix of science fiction, murder mystery, political thriller, and romance with some fantastic world-building and humor to tie it all together. For fans of The Captive Prince and The Murderbot Diaries. - Sarah D
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Psychological SF thriller: a cave diver hired to explore a system of caverns and tunnels for a mining company begins to suspect that her employer has a hidden agenda. There may be ghosts or worse underground with her. Or she may be losing her grip on reality. - Charlotte M
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First mate Campion wakes at the end of a long space journey to find 31 passengers have been murdered when everyone was supposed to be asleep. She must solve the mystery with an investigator from colony Bloodroot and visitors from space station Lagos. Creepy and suspenseful! - Michelle M
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Following the stories of several of Pan Am’s stewardesses, Cooke details how working for the airline let them travel the world and gain more freedom than many of their contemporaries, even when caught in the middle of coups and wars! Fascinating and eye-opening. - Jennifer R
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After the 9.2 Good Friday Earthquake struck in 1964, Anchorage reporter Genie Chance took to the airwaves, issuing warnings, information, and comfort to a devastated city. Through the lens of her reporting, we get a gripping account of the quake and the following days. - Jennifer R
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This series of essays reflects on the role pop culture has played in Branum's life. Part cultural commentary, part memoir, he is insightful and hilarious when discussing everything from Chelsea Handler to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. - Jennifer R
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Firefall volume 1
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Half hard science fiction, half meditation on human consciousness. After aliens make accidental first contact with Earth, a crew of specialists are sent to investigate. What they find brings to question whether the idea of "self" is more harmful than good in the universe. - Pete P
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The not so typical Rom-Com: family Indian restaurant, food you can almost taste, Toronto, Muslim faith, standing up for your beliefs, handsome competition, racial confrontation, neighborhood unity, joy, love, friendship, hope. This book has it all and is a wonderful read. - Mike N
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You can travel through time to see someone but the visit can only last the length of time it takes for a cup of coffee to get cold. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is a quartet of finely layered and intertwined stories about the moments that may unknowingly serve to define us. - Bridgette W
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Foul murder and devilry aboard a 1634 Dutch Indiaman carrying Samuel Pipps and his bodyguard Arent Hayes. Old Tom is terrifying the crew and passengers of a cursed ship transporting mysterious cargo. The body count keeps rising like the Batavian waves in this thriller. - Stephen H
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By chance, Jay Parini, a Vietnam War draft dodger and grad student in literature at St. Andrew’s meets the visiting blind Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges and winds up squiring him on an epic road trip through the Scottish landscape using Parini's eyes and imagination. - Stephen H
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How lucrative of a business is it to be a budding American legend? This delightful piece of Americana answers that question as Big Son, the pride of Ohio City, struggles to make his way in 19th century Ohio. Full of old timey writing and humor, this tall tale is a treasure. - Pete P
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Explores how the term Latino developed over decades to identify peoples from Latin American countries in the U.S. The book focuses on the precarious racial status of Latinos- an identity for a group of marginalized people not quite Black, but not white either. - Janelle O
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This is a substantial look at writer and illustrator Edward Gorey, detailing both his life and his works, and especially his relationships with other people. It's a strong attempt to know someone who desperately wanted NOT to be known. - Heather C
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This delightful book about four women and a teenage intern, who work at a high end clothing store in the 1950's in Sydney during the busy holiday season will make you laugh and smile throughout its 200+ pages. For once the blurbs on the cover are accurate, a wonderful read. - Mike N
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