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September 2024 Staff Picks

Check out this month's recommendations from Chicago Public Library. Visit our Books page for previous lists of recommendations.

Chicago Public Library

19 items

  • Pat Cadigan's Alien3, based on an old original screenplay by William Gibson that, unfortunately, didn't make it to screen, puts to writing unaddressed governmental enigmas from the Alien films for fans to piece together as they wish. How…
    PaperbackLondon : Titan Books, 2022. — FIC CADIGAN
  • There's no way to know exactly when the world will end. For Sophie, the end of the world came swiftly after finishing her penance and coming home to find that her parents have become infected by a mysterious new disease, colloquially known…
    BookNew York : Nightfire, Tor Publishing Group, 2024. — FIC LEEDE
  • Autocracy, Inc.

    the Dictators Who Want to Run the World /

    Applebaum, Anne, 1964-
    Democracy was riding high during the 1990s. The Berlin Wall had fallen, and states of the former Soviet Union seemed to be moving toward open, democratic societies. Western democracies, most notably the United States and Great Britain,…
    BookNew York : Doubleday, [2024] — JC495.A67 2024
  • New Zealand novelist Chidgey's extraordinary latest features an unusual narrator: Tama, a magpie. Settle in, readers, because Tama has quite the tale to tell in this clever, suspenseful domestic drama. Marnie rescued Tama as a chick and…
    Paperback[Place of publication not identified] : Europa Editions, [2024] — FIC CHIDGEY
  • Becoming Earth

    How Our Planet Came to Life

    Jabr, Ferris, 1987-
    In science writer Jabr's debut book, he roams throughout billion of years of Earth history to help us appreciate just how active a role life takes in quite literally shaping the environment. Across three sections covering rock, water, and…
    BookNew York : Random House, [2023] — QH367.J23 2023
  • The Blue Sisters were always one of four until their sister, Nicky, is found dead in the family's NYC apartment. We meet the remaining sisters (Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky) a year after Nicky's death. Each sister has escaped the reality of…
    BookNew York : Ballantine Books, [2024] — FIC MELLORS
  • Butcher

    Father of Modern Gyno-psychiatry

    Oates, Joyce Carol, 1938-
    Not for the squeamish, Oates's new novel out-gores the most extreme horror. Based on actual medical diaries, it tells of the rise and fall of Silas Weir, the father of what was known as "gyno-psychiatry." A violent and disturbing look at…
    BookNew York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2024] — FIC OATES
  • Eevee is dead. Or, to be more clear, she is undead. She has no memory as to who she was in life. All she knows is that she signed her soul away to the goddess of assassins and is bound to serve in death. Supernaturally powerful and agile,…
    BookNew York : Tordotcom, 2024. — FIC CLARK
  • Dogland

    Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show

    Tomlinson, Tommy,
    Did you know that show dogs barely generate any income? Did you know that show dogs really do not do much, mostly standing doing nothing? Did you know that show dogs essentially attend boarding school with trainers just as the children of…
    BookNew York : Avid Reader Press, 2024. — SF425.16.N72N487 2024
  • Dunne's entertaining and poignant memoir of his privileged childhood among the Hollywood elite is dishy while exhibiting surprising depth. Griffin, the son of Dominick Dunne, nephew of Joan Didion, and best friend of Carrie Fisher, as well…
    BookNew York : Penguin Press, 2024. — PN2287.D848A3 2024
  • Manguso's searing novel about a collapsing marriage resembles a sort of diary following the relationship the narrator, Jane, has with John, both working artists when they meet. She's a writer; he's a filmmaker and painter. The red flags…
    BookNew York : Hogarth, 2024. — FIC MANGUSO
  • Every morning, Iðunn wakes up completely exhausted. She is young and doesn't push herself physically, yet no doctors are able to diagnose her severe fatigue, sore muscles and aching feet. To gain some semblance of control over her…
    BookNew York : Nightfire/Tor Publishing Group, 2024. — FIC HILDUR K
  • When Dorothy Darling spies a new younger resident, Kat, moving into Shelley House, her apartment building, she senses trouble. Dorothy, after all, knows everything that happens at Shelley House after documenting all the activity of its…
    BookNew York : Berkley, [2024] — FIC SAMPSON
  • Empty nester Rocky is eagerly anticipating her family's annual vacation at a beloved beach cottage in Cape Cod, and simultaneously can't help dreading its inevitable end. A 54-year-old writer, Rocky is joined at the cottage by her aging…
    BookNew York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2024] — FIC NEWMAN
  • Cordelia has lived a sheltered life. Kept mostly at home by her mother, her only real friend is their work horse, Falada. Spending her days toiling away in their tiny house, Cordelia can't even close a door and have a moment to herself…
    BookNew York : Tor, Tor Publishing Group, 2024. — FIC KINGFISH
  • Ember Lee Cardinal has a seemingly simple dream: to become an accountant and quit her job at the bowling alley cleaning the often-clogged men's room toilets. But, time after time, her applications for corporate jobs are denied. At the end…
    PaperbackNew York : Berkley Romance, 2024. — FIC NAVA
  • Undue Burden

    Life-and-death Decisions in post-Roe America /

    Luthra, Shefali,
    At turns heart-breaking, enraging, and inspiring, this is a necessary book for anyone looking to gain a greater understanding of the current status of abortion rights and women's healthcare in America, and how we got here. The author…
    BookNew York : Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, [2024] — HQ767.5.U5L88 2024
  • Cotman's second short story collection is masterfully written, but the title is a bit of a misnomer. Many of his stories are surrounding Black men, not girls, but "weird" is definitely the right word to describe the stories contained in…
    PaperbackNew York : Scribner, 2024. — FIC COTMAN
  • This collection of short stories by Stephen King is proof that the author keeps getting better with age. Varying in length from just a few pages to a novella, each tale explores the unsettling side of things thought previously to be…
    BookNew York : Scribner, 2024. — FIC KING