AJ's Staff Picks


Showing 21 - 40 of 63  There are a total of 63 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Fledgling"
Star rating for Fledgling
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
A young girl suffering from amnesia wakes up to find that she's actually a middle-aged vampire. Shori is a young amnesiac girl whose needs and abilities lead her to a shocking discovery: she is in fact a 53-year-old vampire, genetically modified to survive daylight. The sole survivor of a horrific slaughter, Shori must now struggle to rebuild her family and learn who would want--and still wants--to destroy her.
Book cover for "Galatea"
Star rating for Galatea
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
In this reimagining of the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion, "a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece--the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen--the gift of life. After marrying her, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own and yearns for independence"--Publisher marketing.
Book cover for "The great Gatsby"
Star rating for The great Gatsby
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
A young man newly rich tries to recapture the past and win back his former love, despite the fact that she has married. This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author's own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald's third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this...
Book cover for "How to be an antiracist"
Star rating for How to be an antiracist
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a “groundbreaking” (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves—now updated, with a new preface.
“The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.”—The New York...
Book cover for "How to sell a haunted house"
Star rating for How to sell a haunted house
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
"New York Times bestselling author Grady Hendrix takes on the haunted house in a hilarious and terrifying new novel that explores the way your past-and your family-can haunt you like nothing else.... Louise's parents have passed away, and she's returning to the small Southern town where she grew up to get their house ready to sell. It means she'll have to spend time with her younger brother-and their old grudges make that a terrifying prospect. But...
Book cover for "I am legend"
Star rating for I am legend
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:

The basis for the film starring Academy Award nominee Will Smith, I Am Legend is a classic of horror and suspense.

In I Am Legend, a terrible plague has decimated the world, and those who were unfortunate enough to survive are transformed into bloodthirsty creatures of the night. Robert Neville is the last living man on earth. Every other man, woman, and child has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood. By day, he is

...
Book cover for "I hope we choose love"
Star rating for I hope we choose love
Description:
"What can we hope for at the end of the world? What can we trust in when community has broken our hearts? What would it mean to pursue justice without violence? How can we love in the absence of faith? In a heartbreaking yet hopeful collection of personal essays and prose poems, blending the confessional, political, and literary, acclaimed poet and essayist Kai Cheng Thom dives deep into the questions that haunt social movements today. With the author's...
Book cover for "I'm glad my mom died"
Star rating for I'm glad my mom died
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor--including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother--and how she retook control of her life"--
Book cover for "The Importance of Being Earnest"
Star rating for The Importance of Being Earnest
Average Rating:
4 stars
Book cover for "It came from the closet"
Star rating for It came from the closet
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Twenty-five narrative essays by contemporary LGBTQ writers reflecting on queerness in horror film, from Hitchcock to HALLOWEEN"--
Book cover for "Just like home"
Star rating for Just like home
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
""Come home." Vera's mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories - she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there, beneath the house he'd built for his family. Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren't alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back and is slowly...

32. Kindred

Book cover for "Kindred"
Star rating for Kindred
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back, again and again, to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will grow to manhood and father...
Book cover for "Lord of the flies"
Star rating for Lord of the flies
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
The tale begins after a plane wreck deposits a group of English school boys, aged six to twelve on an isolated tropical island. Their struggle to survive and impose order quickly evolves from a battle against nature into a battle against their own primitive instincts. Golding's portrayal of the collapse of social order into chaos draws the fine line between innocence and savagery. The classic study of human nature which depicts the degeneration of...
Book cover for "The lost village"
Star rating for The lost village
Average Rating:
3.2 stars
Description:
"Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed "The Lost Village," since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother's entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left--a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn--have plagued her. She's gathered a small crew of...
Book cover for "Love that story"
Star rating for Love that story
Average Rating:
4 stars
Book cover for "Medea and other plays"
Star rating for Medea and other plays
Author:
Book cover for "Mexican Gothic"
Star rating for Mexican Gothic
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"The acclaimed author of Gods of Jade and Shadow returns with a darkly enchanting reimagining of Gothic fantasy, in which a spirited young woman discovers the haunting secrets of a beautiful old mansion in 1950s Mexico."--
Book cover for "My best friend's exorcism"
Star rating for My best friend's exorcism
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
"A heartwarming story of friendship and demonic possession. The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act different. She s moody. She s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she s nearby. Abby s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries and by the time their story reaches its...
Book cover for "Mythology"
Star rating for Mythology
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
A collection of Greek and Roman myths arranged in sections on the gods and early heroes, love and adventure stories, the Trojan war, and a brief section on Norse mythology For over fifty years readers have chosen this book above all others to discover the thrilling, enchanting, and fascinating world of Western mythology. From Odysseus's adventure-filled journey to the Norse god Odin's effort to postpone the final day of doom, Edith Hamilton's classic...
Book cover for "No gods for drowning"
Star rating for No gods for drowning
Description:
"The old gods have fled, and the monsters they had kept at bay for centuries now threaten to drown the city of Valentine, hunting mankind as in ancient times. In the midst of the chaos, a serial killer has begun ritually sacrificing victims, their bodies strewn throughout the city. Lilac Antonis wants to stop the impending destruction of her city by summoning her mother, a blood god--even if she has to slit a few throats to do it. But evading her...