Laura's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 20 of 26  There are a total of 37 valid entries on the list.
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 "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 "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 "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 "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 "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.

12. 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.
Book cover for "Just for the summer"
Star rating for Just for the summer
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other's out, and they'll both go on to find the love of their lives. It's a bonkers idea... and it just might work. Emma hadn't planned that...
Book cover for "A man called Ove"
Star rating for A man called Ove
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
A curmudgeon hides a terrible personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbors, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship.
Book cover for "The mountain between us"
Star rating for The mountain between us
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Stranded in a frigid mountain wilderness after a plane crash, a gifted surgeon and a young magazine writer are forced to rely on each other for survival while confronting painful truths about their personal lives.
Book cover for "One day in December"
Star rating for One day in December
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Get ready to be swept up in a whirlwind romance. It absolutely charmed me.”—Reese Witherspoon (A Reese’s Book Club Pick)
“The perfect book to get lost in . . . Josie Silver’s characters sneak their way into your heart and stay.”—Jill Santopolo, author of The Light We Lost

Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love
...
Book cover for "The outsiders"
Star rating for The outsiders
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society.
Book cover for "Press here"
Star rating for Press here
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Instructs the reader on how to interact with the illustrations to create imaginative images.
Book cover for "Queen bee"
Star rating for Queen bee
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"Immerse yourself in the enchanting world of New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank's Carolina Lowcountry in this evocative tale that returns at long last to her beloved Sullivan's Island. Beekeeper Holly McNee Kensen quietly lives in a world of her own on Sullivan's Island, tending her hives and working at the local island library. Holly calls her mother The Queen Bee because she's a demanding hulk of a woman. Her mother, a devoted...