May 2026 Staff PicksLike this list

12 items

• Autobiography of Cotton

  a Novel

  Rivera Garza, Cristina, 1964-

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  Rivera Garza's dazzling fictionalized account of her grandparents' lives paints a picture of their work farming cotton in the borderlands of Northern Mexico in the 1930s, detailing the events that led them to be in that place at that momentous time.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Book Witch

  Shaffer, Meg,

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  Rainy March is a book witch. She protects books of fiction from all kinds of threats. The main rule is simple: real people belong in the real world, and fictional characters in fiction. When Rainy's beloved grandfather disappears, she must turn to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Don't Tell Me How It Ends

  a Novel

  Thurman, Adrienne

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  Don't Tell Me How This Ends is a reflective summer romance that captures the uncertainty of early adulthood with honesty and warmth. The story follows Kaia, a recent college graduate stuck in the all-too-familiar post-grad spiral, questioning her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder

  a Novel

  McConigley, Nina Swamidoss,

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  Adolescent Indian American sisters, Georgie and Agatha, set out to murder their sexually abusive relative in this short, sharp debut novel by Nina McConigley set in Wyoming in 1986. Georgie and Agatha's lives are disrupted when their mother's…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How to Fake It in Society

  Charles, KJ

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  Titus Pilcrow is not having a good day. He's on the verge of potentially losing his paint business and his living space when things take a dramatic turn while visiting an elderly client. Miss Whitecross is on her deathbed and needs to marry…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200

  Brockway, Robert,

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  "I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200," the Craigslist ad reads. It sounds like a joke, but it isn't. Ivan, the man behind the ad, has a rare skill. A traumatic incident has left him with the ability to see imaginary friends. Desperate for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir

  Junod, Tom

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  In the first half of this unusually nuanced and complex work of memoir, journalist Tom Junod (ESPN, GQ, Esquire) paints a picture of his father, his hero who loomed large over his childhood as a suave figure of authority who kept his wife and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Japanese Gothic

  Baker, Kylie Lee,

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  Baker weaves together two tales from very different timelines around the same house in the countryside of Japan. In 1877 the house is occupied by Sen, a young woman training to be a samurai, and her family. Her father is violent and cold after…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Lake Effect

  a Novel

  Sweeney, Cynthia D'Aprix

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  Sweeney's novel follows two families across two decades and the consequences of one big decision. The Larkins are your typical family living in Rochester, New York. As the mother, Nina, starts to feel like something's missing from her marriage, she…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Last Contract of Isako

  Lee, Fonda

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  Earth as we know it is no more, and humanity now exists inside terraformed domes on a frozen, hostile planet. The dome is run by the company and two rival factions - those seeking to continue terraforming, and others who want to reach out to the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Transcription

  Lerner, Ben, 1979-

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  Structured in three parts, this short novel combines seemingly disparate incidents into a thematically rich whole that feels appropriate for a writer also known for writing poetry. The first section concerns the narrator preparing to interview his…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Whidbey : Novel

  Madden, T Kira,

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  Madden's novel opens with Birdie Chang traveling by ferry to Whidbey Island off the coast of Seattle. She's on the run from Calvin, a pedophile who sexually assaulted her when she was a child. Birdie shares her story with a stranger on the ferry,…Read moreRead more of this annotation