Laura's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 20 of 37  There are a total of 37 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "100 days of real food"
Star rating for 100 days of real food
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Book cover for "11/22/63"
Star rating for 11/22/63
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? The author's new novel is about a man who travels back in time to prevent the JFK assassination. In this novel that is a tribute to a simpler era, he sweeps readers back in time to another moment, a real life moment, when everything went wrong: the JFK assassination. And he introduces readers to a character who has...
Book cover for "7 days of simplicity"
Star rating for 7 days of simplicity
Average Rating:
4 stars
Book cover for "The beach trees"
Star rating for The beach trees
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Ellie Holt befriends a struggling artist who reminds her of her little sister who disappeared and was never found, and through the friendship is able to begin a long and painful healing process.
Book cover for "Best friends, occasional enemies"
Star rating for Best friends, occasional enemies
Description:
A mother and daughter present personal essays that explore life through their close bond, in a volume inspired by their weekly column, "Chick Wit," that discusses such topics as their relationship, their carb counts, and the green jacket that almost caused a catfight.
Book cover for "The Boxcar Children"
Star rating for The Boxcar Children
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden are orphans looking for a place to live together as a family. Could a boxcar in the woods be their new home?
Book cover for "City of girls"
Star rating for City of girls
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"[A] unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance....
Book cover for "Demon Copperhead"
Star rating for Demon Copperhead
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
Book cover for "Different seasons"
Star rating for Different seasons
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Four novellas from Stephen King bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters. This gripping collection begins with "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge--the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption. Next is "Apt Pupil," the inspiration for the film...
Book cover for "The dream daughter"
Star rating for The dream daughter
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"From bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes an irresistible new novel. When Caroline Sears receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated. It is 1970 and there seems to be little that can be done. But her brother-in-law, a physicist, tells her that perhaps there is. Hunter appeared in their lives just a few years before--and his appearance was as mysterious as his past. With no family, no friends, and a background...
Book cover for "Drop dead healthy"
Star rating for Drop dead healthy
Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
"Having sanctified himself in The Year of Living Biblically and sharpened his mind in The Know-It-All, A. J. Jacobs had one feat left in the self-improvement trinity: to become the healthiest man in the world. He didn't want just to lose weight, or finish a triathlon, or lower his cholesterol. His ambitions were far, far greater: Maximal health from head to toe.The task was massive. He had to tackle a complicated web of diet and exercise advice, much...
Book cover for "Eight perfect murders"
Star rating for Eight perfect murders
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre's most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack--which he titled "Eight Perfect Murders"--chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie's A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin's Deathtrap, A. A. Milne's The Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double...
Book cover for "The five people you meet in heaven"
Star rating for The five people you meet in heaven
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Killed in a tragic accident, Eddie, an elderly man who believes that he had an uninspired life, awakens in the afterlife, where he discovers that heaven consists of having five people explain the meaning of one's life.
Book cover for "The good sister"
Star rating for The good sister
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"From the outside, everyone might think Fern and Rose are as close as twin sisters can be: Rose is the responsible one, with a home and a husband and a fierce desire to become a mother. Fern is the quirky one, the free spirit, the librarian who avoids social interaction and whom the world might just describe as truly odd. But the sisters are devoted to one another and Rose has always been Fern's protector from the time they were small. Fern needed...
Book cover for "Happy-go-lucky"
Star rating for Happy-go-lucky
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
The bestselling author offers a collection of satirical and humorous essays that chronicle his own life and ordinary moments that turn beautifully absurd, including how he coped with the pandemic, his thoughts on becoming an orphan in his seventh decade, and the battle-scared America he discovered when he resumed touring.
Book cover for "Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone"
Star rating for Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches.
Book cover for "House rules"
Star rating for House rules
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
A teenager with Asperger's syndrome--smart, quirky, with a passion for crime scene analysis--winds up on trial for murder.
Book cover for "I see life through rosé-colored glasses"
Star rating for I see life through rosé-colored glasses
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
The "mother daughter duo are back with more hilarious, witty, and true tales from their lives. Whether they are attempting to hike the Grand Canyon, setting up phone calls with their dogs, or learning what adulting means, Lisa and Francesca are guaranteed to make you laugh, cry, and appreciate the funniest moments in life"--

19. It

Book cover for "It"
Star rating for It
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Stephen King's classic New York Times bestseller and the basis for the massively successful films It: Chapter One and It: Chapter Two as well as inspiration for HBO Max's series Welcome to Derry --about seven adults who return to their hometown to confront a nightmare they had first stumbled upon as teenagers...an evil without a name: It. Welcome to Derry, Maine. It's a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry...
Book cover for "It looked like spilt milk"
Star rating for It looked like spilt milk
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Illustrations show that a cloud may look like spilt milk, an ice cream cone, a tree, a mitten, a rabbit, or many other objects. A mystery book for young children presents a continuously changing white shape silhouetted against a blue background that challenges them to guess what it is.