May 2024 Staff PicksLike this list

16 items

• Angel of Indian Lake

  Jones, Stephen Graham, 1972-

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  Readers return to Proofrock on Halloween night for one last bloodbath in The Angel of Indian Lake, the end of the action-packed horror saga by Stephen Graham Jones. Loveable outcast Jade Daniels is now a twentysomething teacher, reconnecting with…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Best Minds

  a Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions

  Rosen, Jonathan, 1963-

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  Appearing in numerous Top 10 lists for 2023, Rosen's memoir chronicles his complex friendship with Michael Lauder, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who killed his fiancée, Caroline, in 1998. Johnathan and Michael grew up together in a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Cinema Love

  a Novel

  Tang, Jiaming,

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  Set in 1980s China, this searing debut focuses on the members of a clandestine gay community who use an old movie theater as a safe place to meet. Moving forward in time and place to current day New York, the main characters have a freer life but…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Darling Girls

  Hepworth, Sally,

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  As children in foster care, Jessica, Alicia and Norah were told over and over again by their social workers how lucky they were to grow up at Wild Meadows with the kind Miss Fairchild. Though Wild Meadows sound wonderful, it was, in fact, terrible…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Emperor and the Endless Palace

  Huang, Justinian,

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  Across three lifetimes, one set 2000 years ago, one in the 1740s and another in the present day, the love story of two men whose lives are intertwined unfolds. Throughout the years, they face palace intrigue, magic and betrayal. There is an…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Extinction

  a Novel

  Preston, Douglas J.,

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  Taking a break from his writing partnership with Lincoln Childs, Preston draws on his non-fiction writing about natural history to craft a fascinating and terrifying story about what could happen when scientists tinker with genetics. Erebus is a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Great Divide

  a Novel

  Henríquez, Cristina, 1977-

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  This sweeping novel tells the stories of the people who built the monumental Panama Canal. It is told from the point of view of a multitude of characters from widely varying backgrounds. Ada is a young stowaway from Barbados desperate to make money…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Husbands

  a Novel

  Gramazio, Holly,

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  Lauren, a single woman living in London, comes home late one evening to find a strange man claiming he's her husband. She's bewildered but soon finds out that by sending him into the attic, she can get a fresh new one, resetting her whole life…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Kids Run the Show

  Vigan, Delphine de,

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  French author de Vigan's novel is an intelligent literary thriller and a sharp social critique of social media. The book opens with the disappearance of 6-year-old Kimmy, the star of viral YouTube videos alongside her 8-year-old brother Sammy. Kimmy…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Kiss Countdown

  Easton, Etta,

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  To say Mimi is down on her luck is an understatement. She's recently been fired from her job, her rent has been increased, her mother has a chronic illness, and her boyfriend just broke up with her. When she bumps into a handsome stranger, spilling…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Loved and Missed

  Boyt, Susie, 1969-

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  Ruth is a middle-aged schoolteacher scraping by in London. Her daughter Eleanor lives the unapologetic life of an addict with her boyfriend in a squalid flat nearby. When Ruth learns that Eleanor is pregnant, she does her best to be there for her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Morningside

  a Novel

  Obreht, Téa,

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  In Obreht's latest novel, Silvia and her mother flee their homeland and move to the Morningside, a dilapidated luxury apartment building, as part of a repopulation program. As tragedy unfolds around them, Silvia is preoccupied with the woman who…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• On the Move

  the Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America /

  Lustgarten, Abrahm,

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  ProPublica reporter Lustgarten offers a thoughtful and harrowing examination of climate-driven migration. For many, climate-driven migration brings up images of population shifts from Central and South American into the United States, something…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Orbital

  a Novel

  Harvey, Samantha,

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  In gorgeous, lyrical prose Samantha Harvey follows six astronauts as they orbit the earth in the international space station over the course of a 24-hour period. At 90 minutes each, the craft completes 16 orbits in a day, revealing breathtaking…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Wild Houses

  Barrett, Colin, 1982-

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  Irish novelist Barrett's debut novel is an absorbing character study with a dash of small-time crime in the mix. Dev lives alone in a remote cottage, now that his mother has passed away. A local gang of drug dealers has realized his place is an…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Worry

  a Novel

  Tanner, Alexandra, 1991-

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  Tanner's razor sharp debut follows floundering twentysomething sisters living in a small Brooklyn apartment in 2019. Both suffer from anxiety specific to the post-truth social media era. Narrator Jules, a writer, pays the bills by editing for a…Read moreRead more of this annotation