November 2024 Staff PicksLike this list

19 items

• The Blue Hour

  Hawkins, Paula,

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  Julian Becker is the (young) blue-collar art curator at the esteemed Fairburn Foundation, which, in years past, has become the sole owner of all of the works by the late Vanessa Chapman, an amazing and prolific artist. Becker spends most…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bull Moon Rising

  Dixon, Ruby, 1976-

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  Aspeth is an heiress with nothing left to inherit. Her father gambled away their valuable artefacts, and now they have no money and no magic to defend the family's lands. Out of options, she decides to run away and join the guild in charge…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Devil Is Fine

  Vercher, John,

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  Vercher's Devil Is Fine is a multifaceted work that captivates on so many levels. The nameless narrator is a recovering alcoholic grappling with the recent loss of his only child. As a biracial man, his father Black and his mother White,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Entitlement

  Alam, Rumaan,

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  In Alam's incisive, funny novel, Brooke Orr has left her job teaching at a Brooklyn charter school, and is feeling optimistic about her new role as program coordinator for a charitable foundation. It's the summer of 2014, the late Obama…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Fire Exit

  Talty, Morgan, 1991-

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  Talty's introspective debut novel is narrated by the lonely Charles, who has carried a burdensome secret for decades. A middle-aged white man, Charles grows up on Maine's Penobscot reservation with his mother Louise and loving stepfather,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Frozen River

  a Novel

  Lawhon, Ariel,

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  Set in the 1780s, The Frozen River is a work of historical fiction based upon real-life midwife, Martha Ballard. Starting at age 50, Ballard kept a diary detailing births, deaths, and other notable events, giving future historians rare…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Heavyweight

  a Family Story of the Holocaust, Empire, and Memory

  Brager, Solomon J.,

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  In this deeply researched graphic memoir, Sol Brager explores the story of his maternal family's escape from Nazi Germany with a specific focus on his great-grandfather, an amateur boxer rumored to have punched Joseph Goebbels in the face…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Here One Moment

  a Novel

  Moriarty, Liane,

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  Imagine you're traveling via plane when a fellow passenger starts walking down the aisle, speaking to each passenger individually. When she gets to you, you realize she is telling everyone on the plane the age they will be when they die…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The History of Sound

  Stories

  Shattuck, Ben, 1984-

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  In this widely lauded fiction debut, Shattuck presents an interconnected short story collection with a twist: the stories come in pairs (and the collection's pattern is inspired by a traditional old song form). Ranging from historical…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Hypocrite

  Hamya, Jo, 1997-

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  When asked about the inspiration for her second novel in an interview, author Jo Hamya said she wanted to write about "one massive grey area." Tackling big discussions of gender, white feminism, class, parental relationships and narrative…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Life Impossible

  Haig, Matt, 1975-

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  Grace Winters is a 72-year-old retired math teacher. Both her husband and son have passed away, and she's been living her life just going through the motions until one day when she receives notice that a long-lost friend has recently died…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Mighty Red

  a Novel

  Erdrich, Louise,

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  Erdrich's warm portrait of a small farming community in the Red River Valley in North Dakota after the 2008 financial crisis is a solid addition to her impressive oeuvre, much of which centers on the lives on Native Americans. The story…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Pillars of Creation

  How the James Webb Telescope Unlocked the Secrets of the Cosmos

  Panek, Richard,

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  The James Webb telescope has been giving astronomers amazing data since its launch in 2021. With the information gathered, scientists have been able to get a fuller picture of how the universe was created and how planets and stars are…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Pink Slime

  a Novel

  Trías, Fernanda, 1976-

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  In an unnamed city, an environmental disaster poisons the air when the wind blows in from sea, but a young woman remains stubbornly rooted to her apartment even as the city population starts to pack up and leave for the country. The food…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Rejection

  Fiction

  Tulathimutte, Tony,

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  Things go terribly, terribly wrong for the characters in this scathing, satirical fiction composed of seven interconnected stories. In "The Feminist," a man who thinks of himself as an enlightened ally to women finds himself increasingly…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Run

  a Novel

  Crouch, Blake,

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  Jack and Dee are an unhappily married couple with two children. They've been having problems for a while now, and as their marriage splutters out, the world around them erupts into chaos. The US is tearing itself apart and nobody knows…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Someone Like Us

  Mengestu, Dinaw, 1978-

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  Growing up in Chicago, and then in D.C., Mamush is the American-born son of an Ethiopian immigrant mother. Her friend Samuel, a cab driver, was always in Mamush's life, and it seems clear that Samuel is Mamush's father, even if no one…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Something, Not Nothing

  a Story of Grief and Love

  Leavitt, Sarah, 1969-

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  After years of experiencing chronic illness and pain, Sarah Leavitt's partner, Donimo, passed away with medical assistance in April of 2020. This graphic novel/memoir focuses on Leavitt's life before and after, documenting the ways such a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Woe

  a Housecat's Story of Despair

  Knisley, Lucy,

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  Knisley's latest, marketed to teens but just as likely to be loved by adults, is a memoir in comic strips about the author's cat Linney, who passed away a few years ago. What sets this apart from other pet memoirs is its arch sense of…Read moreRead more of this annotation