Alexandra's Staff Picks

For my LGTBQ+ book lists, search "LGBTQ YA," "LGBTQ Children's," "Queer Nonfiction," and/or "Queer Books I Have Read."

Showing 1 - 20 of 24  There are a total of 147 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Babel"
Star rating for Babel
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire. Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious...
Book cover for "The city of brass"
Star rating for The city of brass
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
A "historical fantasy in which a young con artist in eighteenth century Cairo discovers she's the last descendant of a powerful family of djinn healers. With the help of an outcast immortal warrior and a rebellious prince, she must claim her magical birthright in order to prevent a war that threatens to destroy the entire djinn kingdom"--
Book cover for "A court of thorns and roses"
Star rating for A court of thorns and roses
Series:
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from stories, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin, a High Lord of the faeries. As her feelings toward him transform from hostility to a fiery passion, the threats against the faerie lands grow. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose Tamlin forever"--
Book cover for "The cruel prince"
Star rating for The cruel prince
Author:
Series:
Folk of the air volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him - and face the consequences.
Book cover for "Emily Wilde's encyclopaedia of faeries"
Star rating for Emily Wilde's encyclopaedia of faeries
Series:
Emily Wilde volume 1.
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"In the early 1900s, a curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town to study faerie folklore, where she discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love. Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on dryadology, the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encylopedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small...
Book cover for "The Empress of Salt and Fortune"
Star rating for The Empress of Salt and Fortune
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women.
A young royal from the far north, is sent south for a political marriage in an empire reminiscent of imperial China. Her brothers are dead, her armies and their war mammoths long defeated and caged behind their borders....
Book cover for "The ex hex"
Star rating for The ex hex
Series:
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:

New York Times Bestseller

Erin Sterling casts a delightful spell with a spine-tingling romance full of wishes, witches, and hexes gone wrong.

"A delightful and witty take on witchy mayhem." — Popsugar

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths...and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows

...
Book cover for "The greyfriar"
Star rating for The greyfriar
Series:
Vampire Empire volume 1.
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
In 1870, vampires took over the northern regions of the world, forcing the surviving humans to flee to the southern hemisphere. Now the year is 2020 and Princess Adele, a human, is on the verge of coming to power just as a final war with the vampires is approaching.
Book cover for "The house in the cerulean sea"
Star rating for The house in the cerulean sea
Author:
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret. Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel...
Book cover for "Howl's moving castle"
Star rating for Howl's moving castle
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Eldest of three sisters in a land where it is considered to be a misfortune, Sophie is resigned to her fate as a hat shop apprentice until a witch turns her into an old woman and she finds herself in the castle of the greatly feared wizard Howl.
Book cover for "In deeper waters"
Star rating for In deeper waters
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
Sixteen-year-old Prince Tal is on his long-awaited coming-of-age tour when he meets the intriguing and roguish Athlen, and when he is kidnapped by pirates, Athlen is his only hope of escape.
Book cover for "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell"
Star rating for Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
Epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two very different magicians who, as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.
Book cover for "The night circus"
Star rating for The night circus
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.
Book cover for "Piranesi"
Star rating for Piranesi
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"From the ... author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality. Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi...
Book cover for "Seraphina"
Star rating for Seraphina
Series:
Seraphina volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents.
Book cover for "Spinning silver"
Star rating for Spinning silver
Author:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father is not a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has left his family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem intercedes. Hardening her heart, she sets out to retrieve what is owed, and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. But when an ill-advised boast brings her to the attention of the cold creatures who haunt the wood, nothing will...
Book cover for "The starless sea"
Star rating for The starless sea
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
"Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a rare book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues--a bee, a key, and a sword--that lead him...
Book cover for "Strange the dreamer"
Star rating for Strange the dreamer
Series:
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
In the aftermath of a war between gods and men, a hero, a librarian, and a girl must battle the fantastical elements of a mysterious city stripped of its name.
Book cover for "Swan Lake"
Star rating for Swan Lake
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Odette and Dillie are supposed to be enemies. Their kingdoms have been feuding since before they were born. But when the two princesses meet each other at the lake that separates their castles, it's clear they were destined to be best friends. Odette--who lives with a curse that magically transforms her into a swan when the sun rises--is happy to find someone who treats her like everyone else. And Dillie has finally met someone who understands her...

20. Terrier

Book cover for "Terrier"
Star rating for Terrier
Series:
Beka Cooper volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
When sixteen-year-old Beka becomes "Puppy" to a pair of "Dogs," as the Provost's Guards are called, she uses her police training, natural abilities, and a touch of magic to help them solve the case of a murdered baby in Tortall's Lower City.