October 2018 Staff PicksLike this list

19 items

• The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

  Turton, Stuart,

  Add The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle to your for later shelf

  A man dressed in a tuxedo wakes up in a forest with no idea where or who he is, only that he is looking for a woman. Stumbling out of the forest, he sees a country house in the distance, and when he arrives at the door, he discovers that he is part…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

  a Novel

  Green, Hank,

  Add An Absolutely Remarkable Thing to your for later shelf

  Green's debut novel is an endearing and funny story of a young woman who finds a 10-foot sculpture that changes her life. Art school graduate April May, somewhat directionless but charming, is working at a Manhattan start-up when she stumbles upon a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bad Blood

  Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

  Carreyrou, John,

  Add Bad Blood to your for later shelf

  Silicon Valley has a term for products that are being hyped to investors, but aren't ready: vaporware. But what if the company used vaporware to test patients' blood and give medical results? After a tip, journalist John Carreyrou began to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Clockmaker's Daughter

  a Novel

  Morton, Kate, 1976-

  Add The Clockmaker's Daughter to your for later shelf

  An old photo leads a London archivist to discover the rich story of her family's history. As with many of Kate Morton's books, this story centers around an English country house over a period of about 150 years, with characters from different levels…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Dracul

  Stoker, Dacre,

  Add Dracul to your for later shelf

  This is the story before the story that launched many a movie career. Bram Stoker was a sickly child from birth and should never have survived his childhood. But survive he did due to the mysterious treatments from his beloved Nanny Ellen. After a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Golden State

  Kiesling, Lydia, 1984-

  Add The Golden State to your for later shelf

  In Keisling's debut novel, which takes place over ten days, Daphne Nilson has hastily decided to take a road trip with her 16-month-old daughter, Honey. She's traveling from San Francisco, where she resides and works at a university, to rural…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Heads of the Colored People

  Stories

  Thompson-Spires, Nafissa,

  Add Heads of the Colored People to your for later shelf

  Thompson-Spires has created a solid collection of thought-provoking stories that will have you laughing aloud and seriously pondering topics that distress middle-class African Americans. Some of her interlinked stories provide a front seat into the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How to Be a Good Creature

  a Memoir in Thirteen Animals

  Montgomery, Sy,

  Add How to Be a Good Creature to your for later shelf

  In this charming brief memoir, suitable for older children as well as adults, naturalist Montgomery writes about some of the memorable animals she has known, both pets (including dogs and a hog) and in the wild (including tarantulas, tree kangaroos,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• November Road

  a Novel

  Berney, Lou

  Add November Road to your for later shelf

  November Road is a thriller, a romance, and a crime novel. The author uses the 1963 J.F.K. assassination as the backdrop, which starts a cat-and-mouse chase across the country. The main character, Frank Guidry, has been working for mob boss Carlos…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ordinary People

  a Novel

  Evans, Diana, 1971-

  Add Ordinary People to your for later shelf

  Set in 2008, Evan's third novel explores race, identity, parenthood and relationships through two couples living in London. Michael and Melissa are growing apart after the birth of their second child, and Stephanie and Damian are married with three…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Outsider

  a Novel

  King, Stephen, 1947-

  Add The Outsider to your for later shelf

  King's latest begins as procedural crime fiction. Terry Maitland, a popular teacher and Little League coach, is arrested for the rape and murder of a young boy. Ralph Anderson, a detective in Flint City, Oklahoma, is heading the case. The evidence…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Pieces of Her

  a Novel

  Slaughter, Karin, 1971-

  Add Pieces of Her to your for later shelf

  How well do you really know your mother? Floundering 30-something Andy Oliver has always had a normal if occasionally strained relationship with her seemingly perfect mom, Laura. Then a sudden act of terrible violence leads Andy to question…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Poppy War

  Kuang, R. F.,

  Add The Poppy War to your for later shelf

  Rin, a war orphan with a miserable life in a rural village, unexpectedly achieves admission into the most prestigious military academy in all of Nikan. Her peers, most from wealthy elite families, do not readily accept a dark-skinned peasant from…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Real Lolita

  the Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World

  Weinman, Sarah,

  Add The Real Lolita to your for later shelf

  In this absorbing narrative that is a part true crime and part literary history, Sarah Weinman recounts the harrowing real-life kidnapping of Sally Horner and presents compelling evidence that the case influenced Nabokov's novel Lolita. 11-year-old…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Severance

  Ma, Ling, 1983-

  Add Severance to your for later shelf

  Capitalism and zombies have gone together like chocolate and peanut butter since George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, but in Severance, Ling Ma takes a common conceit and turns it into something completely new. Candace Chen is 20-something,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Sun Does Shine

  How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

  Hinton, Anthony Ray,

  Add The Sun Does Shine to your for later shelf

  Anthony Ray Hinton, who was wrongly convicted of two 1985 murders in Alabama, spent his first three years on death row isolating himself in a stew of anger and hatred. But, as he describes in this book subtitled How I Found Life and Freedom on Death…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Trail of Lightning

  Roanhorse, Rebecca,

  Add Trail of Lightning to your for later shelf

  Maggie Hoskie is a fierce monster slayer in post-apocalyptic Dinétah, or what was once known as Arizona and New Mexico. The gods and other supernatural beings, both good and bad, walk the earth. She partners with Kai Arviso, a gifted medicine man…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Washington Black

  Edugyan, Esi,

  Add Washington Black to your for later shelf

  Born a slave on a Barbados plantation, George Washington Black (known as Wash) is about 12 years old when he is assigned to be the manservant and assistant to the plantation owner's brother, Titch. Titch is a scientist, inventor and explorer who…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• We Sold Our Souls

  Hendrix, Grady,

  Add We Sold Our Souls to your for later shelf

  Kris Pulaski is the jaded, burnt-out guitarist of the defunct metal band Dürt Würk. Terry, the former lead singer, has achieved solo superstardom and left Kris and the rest of his old bandmates to wallow in obscurity. Kris's determination to…Read moreRead more of this annotation