January 2022 Staff PicksLike this list

17 items

• Animal, Vegetable, Junk

  a History of Food, From Sustainable to Suicidal

  Bittman, Mark,

  Add Animal, Vegetable, Junk to your for later shelf

  Calling it his "most serious book," prolific cookbook author Bittman delves into large-scale, industrial agriculture and its ramifications for the human diet, sustainability, and the global economy. Though, globally, much agriculture still follows…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Apples Never Fall

  a Novel

  Moriarty, Liane,

  Add Apples Never Fall to your for later shelf

  Former tennis instructors, Stan and Joy Delaney, are adjusting to retirement when a mysterious young woman arrives on their doorstep, injured and on the run from her abusive ex-boyfriend. With cooking skills and unwavering gratefulness, Savannah…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream

  the Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer

  Jobb, Dean, 1958-

  Add The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream to your for later shelf

  Most people have heard of Jack the Ripper, but a lesser-known Victorian serial killer was more deadly: Dr. Thomas Neill Cream. Born in Scotland and raised in Canada, Dr. Cream killed mostly women in Canada, Chicago, and London before being caught.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Damnation Spring

  a Novel

  Davidson, Ash,

  Add Damnation Spring to your for later shelf

  In this richly detailed historical fiction debut, Davidson tells the story of the Gundersen family, living in the redwood-abundant Pacific Northwest of the 1970s. Rich and Colleen and their son Chub are deeply embedded in logging culture, going back…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Death at Greenway

  a Novel

  Rader-Day, Lori, 1973-

  Add Death at Greenway to your for later shelf

  In 1941 many London children were evacuated from London to escape the Blitz. Bridget Kelly, a trainee nurse who made a serious dosage mistake while treating a wounded soldier, is sent to staff a "war nursery" of young children in southwest England.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Kindred

  Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

  Wragg Sykes, Rebecca,

  Add Kindred to your for later shelf

  Imagine a Neanderthal and you might see an oaf, grunting and dragging a club behind him. In Kindred, Dr. Rebecca Wragg Sykes refutes that stereotype with evidence from the fossil record. Neanderthals walked upright, did math, produced a range of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Land of Big Numbers

  Chen, Te-Ping,

  Add Land of Big Numbers to your for later shelf

  Chen, a Wall Street Journal reporter who served as a correspondent in Beijing and Hong Kong, writes about China and the Chinese diaspora with insight, wit, warmth and grace in 10 crisply-written stories ideal for book clubs, short story fans and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Master of Djinn

  Clark, P. Djèlí,

  Add A Master of Djinn to your for later shelf

  No matter how you try to describe A Master of Djinn - steampunk mystery, alternate history, urban fantasy - you still end up with a story that is just plain fun while also offering commentary on the problems of the modern world. In a reimagined…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven

  Miller, Nathaniel Ian,

  Add The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven to your for later shelf

  Loosely inspired by a true story, this enjoyable work of historical fiction relates the life story of a man who leaves Sweden in 1916 for Svalbard, an archipelago far to the north of Scandinavia. There he is disfigured while mining during an…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Noor

  Okorafor, Nnedi,

  Add Noor to your for later shelf

  In this delightful piece of Afrofuturism, AO (the name she gave herself) is an unwitting product of Ultimate Corporation, a company Jeff Bezos would be envious of. Ultimate Corp gets more than it bargained for, however, when AO is set upon in the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Reading Set for Olga Dies Dreaming

  Gonzalez, Xochitl, 1977-

  Add The Reading Set for Olga Dies Dreaming to your for later shelf

  This stunning debut novel by talented new author Xóchitl González has been attracting plenty of positive buzz. Incorporating the personal and political in a unique and exciting way, this multi-layered story centers on ambitious Nuyorican siblings…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• People Love Dead Jews

  Reports From a Haunted Present

  Horn, Dara, 1977-

  Add People Love Dead Jews to your for later shelf

  Horn provides readers with a unique perspective on how Jewish history and culture is written about, taught, and discussed, arguing that much of society focuses on how Jews die rather than on how Jews live. She talks about the commodification of the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• She Who Became the Sun

  Parker-Chan, Shelley,

  Add She Who Became the Sun to your for later shelf

  During the famine of the 1340s in China's Hunan province, an impoverished family visits their village's fortune teller and learns that favored son, Zhu Chongba, is destined for greatness and will be revered throughout history. The family's only…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Sleeping Beauties

  and Other Stories of Mystery Illness

  O'Sullivan, Suzanne,

  Add The Sleeping Beauties to your for later shelf

  In this fascinating read, O'Sullivan, an Irish neurologist and prize-winning author travels the world to meet with communities and individuals who've suffered through mysterious so-called psychosomatic illnesses and mass hysteria events. This group…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Spindle Splintered

  Harrow, Alix E.,

  Add A Spindle Splintered to your for later shelf

  A Sleeping Beauty re-telling set in a multiverse? Yes, please! Zinnia Gray doesn't expect to live past her 21st birthday due to a fatal condition brought on by a childhood industrial accident. When her best friend decides to go all out and throw a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• To Paradise

  Yanagihara, Hanya,

  Add To Paradise to your for later shelf

  Yanagihara returns with a strange and unique doorstopper of a novel that is sure to divide readers. Somewhat in the vein of Cloud Atlas, it's structured as a suite of stories. Its three parts share thematic concerns, sets of character names, and a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Waiting

  Gendry-Kim, Keum Suk,

  Add The Waiting to your for later shelf

  Inspired by author/illustrator Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's own family history and stories of separation she gathered from interviews, The Waiting sheds light on the traumas that countless Korean families endured during the Korean War, the lasting effects…Read moreRead more of this annotation