January 2025 Staff PicksLike this list

19 items

• The Achilles Trap

  Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq

  Coll, Steve,

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  Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Coll (Ghost Wars, 2005) turns his eye toward the life of Saddam Hussein and his decades-long involvement in United States foreign policy culminating with his capture and then hanging in 2006. Born near the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Black Utopians

  Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America

  Robertson, Aaron, 1994-

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  Part scholarly history and part personal narrative, Robertson's "Black Utopians" focuses on Black communities created for the shelter of Black people. While it is not a comprehensive history of Black nationalism, it is a fascinating read.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Blood Over Bright Haven

  Wang, M. L. (Maya Lin),

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  Sciona breaks the glass ceiling, quite literally, in her test to become the first woman to achieve the rank of highmage at the University of Magics and Industry. Using a technical siphoning system not unlike coding at times, she and the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Challenger

  a True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

  Higginbotham, Adam,

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  When the space shuttle Challenger exploded upon liftoff in January of 1986, the world was shocked. It instantly became one of those you-remember-where-you-were moments like September 11th and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Don't Be a Stranger

  a Novel

  Minot, Susan,

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  Minot's introspective, atmospheric latest tells the story of recently divorced writer Ivy Cooper, who lives in New York City with her nine-year-old son Nicky. Soon after Ivy meets musician Ansel Fleming at a friend's dinner party, the two…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Empusium

  a Health Resort Horror Story

  Tokarczuk, Olga, 1962-

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  The Empusium is Nobel Prize-winning author Tokarczuk's homage to Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. It's the fall of 1913, and a young man, Mieczyslaw Wojnicz, arrives at a "health resort," or tuberculosis sanatorium, in the Silesian…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Gentleman and a Thief

  the Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue

  Jobb, Dean, 1958-

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  In brief, as the front flap puts it: “Catch Me If You Can meets The Great Gatsby.” Jobb’s meticulously researched (near 100 pages of endnotes) and dramatically narrated account of a Jazz Age Robin Hood (of sorts) offers a page-turning romp…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Havoc

  a Novel

  Bollen, Christopher, 1975-

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  Maggie has an unusual hobby. She sees herself as a relationship vigilante. Splitting up couples she sees as bad for each other is something she relishes. She sneaks around planting false evidence and sending misleading messages, whatever…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Headshot

  a Novel

  Bullwinkel, Rita,

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  Eight teenage girls from across the country gather in Reno Nevada at Bob's Boxing Palace. Artemis Victor, Andi Taylor, Kate Heffer, Rachel Doriko, Iggy and Izzy Lang (cousins), Rose Mueller and Tanya Maw are all competing for the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Infernal Machine

  a True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective

  Johnson, Steven, 1968-

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  Today, law enforcement and surveillance can seem ubiquitous. Police forces and investigative agencies are well established. They employ a broad range of techniques, and maintain a mountain of data, to solve crimes. These things are…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Is She Really Going Out With Him?

  a Novel

  Cousens, Sophie,

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  Anna Appleby has been having a rough year; her divorce from her husband has finalized and he's moved in with his Instagram model girlfriend, and the magazine she works at hired a suck-up wonder boy who won't leave her alone. Though she's…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions

  Hopkinson, Nalo,

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  Renowned author and Nebula Award winner Nalo Hopkinson’s latest work is an anthology of previously published short stories, available in a single volume for the first time. As in her other works of fiction, Hopkinson combines her stellar…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Knife

  Meditations After An Attempted Murder

  Rushdie, Salman,

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  These stories are well-known: how, in 1988, following the publication of his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, author Salman Rushdie found himself with a price on a head, the product of a religious proclamation by Iran's Supreme Leader…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Memory Piece

  Ko, Lisa,

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  Memory Piece by Lisa Ko (The Leavers) follows three different artistic practices in three different eras with three different Asian American women, all best friends. Giselle Chin is fascinated by the freedom of performance art, staging art…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Mina's Matchbox

  Ogawa, Yōko, 1962-

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  After her father dies and her mother embarks on a course of study so she can earn a living, only child Tomoko is sent to live for a year with her aunt's eccentric family in a town on the Japanese coast in the early 1970s. There she spends…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Model Home

  Solomon, Rivers,

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  The best haunted house tales keep the reader questioning the reality of the story. In Solomon's latest, siblings Ezri, Eve, and Emmanuelle are tasked with making sense of a disturbing event involving their estranged parents as well as…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Our Evenings

  a Novel

  Hollinghurst, Alan,

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  In this fictional life story, a modestly successful actor looks back on his life as the only child of an English dressmaker and a Burmese man he never met and was discouraged from asking about. Growing up biracial and gay, Dave Win becomes…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Swordcrossed

  Marske, Freya,

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  Following up her popular The Last Binding trilogy, Freya Marske ventures into a fictional world of merchants and trade guilds, where personal disputes are brokered by professional sword fighters. Matti, acting head of the house of Jay,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Tías and Primas

  on Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

  Mojica Rodríguez, Prisca Dorcas, 1985-

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  Following the success of her debut For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts: A Love Letter to Women of Color, storyteller and founder of Latina Rebels Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez has released a powerful new book about Latina…Read moreRead more of this annotation