Elizabeth's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 20 of 41  There are a total of 74 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "All the light we cannot see"
Star rating for All the light we cannot see
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six,...
Book cover for "All the sinners bleed"
Star rating for All the sinners bleed
Author:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
"After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, land of moonshine and cornbread, fist fights and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires him to run for sheriff. He wins, and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county. Then a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus's deputies. Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever...
Book cover for "Before the coffee gets cold"
Star rating for Before the coffee gets cold
Series:
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
"If you could go back, who would you want to meet? In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee--the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn't so simple, and there are rules that must be...
Book cover for "Blue Shoes and Happiness"
Star rating for Blue Shoes and Happiness
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:

Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma  Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea.

Life is good for Mma Ramotswe as she sets out with her usual resolve

...
Book cover for "Crook manifesto"
Star rating for Crook manifesto
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Harlem Shuffle continues his Harlem saga in a powerful and hugely-entertaining novel that summons 1970s New York in all its seedy glory.
A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, BookPage
“Dazzling” –Walter Mosley, The New York Times Book Review.
...
Book cover for "The devil in the white city"
Star rating for The devil in the white city
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
An account of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 relates the stories of two men who shaped the history of the event--architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and serial killer Herman Mudgett.

7. Dune

Book cover for "Dune"
Star rating for Dune
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
Follows the adventures of Paul Atreides, the son of a betrayed duke given up for dead on a treacherous desert planet and adopted by its fierce, nomadic people, who help him unravel his most unexpected destiny. In the far future, the son of Duke Leto Atreides leads a struggle against the Emperor from the desert planet of Arrakis, where his family has lived in exile for many years at the Emperor's command.
Book cover for "East of Eden"
Star rating for East of Eden
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
A masterpiece of Biblical scope, and the magnum opus of one of America's most enduring authors, in a deluxe Centennial edition. In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks and the Hamiltons--whose...
Book cover for "Enemy of all mankind"
Star rating for Enemy of all mankind
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"How did a single manhunt spark the modern era of multinational capitalism? Henry Avery was the seventeenth century's most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular--and wildly inaccurate--reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Avery's most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a new model for the global...
Book cover for "Frankenstein"
Star rating for Frankenstein
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
A monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator.
Book cover for "Garden spells"
Star rating for Garden spells
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
A successful caterer in Bascomb, North Carolina, Claire has always remained tied to the legacy of the Waverly family, until her peaceful life is transformed by Tyler Hughes, an art teacher and new next-door neighbor, and by the return of her prodigal sister, Sydney.
Book cover for "The gentle art of Swedish death cleaning"
Star rating for The gentle art of Swedish death cleaning
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning "death" and städning meaning "cleaning." This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace...
Book cover for "The geometry of sisters"
Star rating for The geometry of sisters
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice explores the complex emotional equations of love and loyalty that hold together three pairs of remarkable sisters, in an unforgettable story of loss, redemption, and forgiveness
 
The storm off Mackinac Island that engulfed Maura Shaw’s husband and elder daughter,Carrie, also swept away the illusion of her life as the perfect midwestern wife and mother. Now, after years away,...
Book cover for "The giver"
Star rating for The giver
Author:
Series:
Giver quartet volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives. Living in a "perfect" world without social ills, a boy approaches the time when he will receive a life assignment from the Elders, but his selection leads him to a mysterious man known as the Giver, who reveals the dark secrets behind the utopian...
Book cover for "The golden tresses of the dead"
Star rating for The golden tresses of the dead
Series:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Although it is autumn in the small English town of Bishop's Lacey, the chapel is decked with exotic flowers. Yes, Flavia de Luce's sister Ophelia is at last getting hitched, like a mule to a wagon. 'A church is a wonderful place for a wedding,' muses Flavia, 'surrounded as it is by the legions of the dead, whose listening bones bear silent witness to every promise made at the altar.' Flavia is not your normal twelve-year-old girl. An expert in the...
Book cover for "Invisible man"
Star rating for Invisible man
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
Ellison won the National Book Award for this searing record of a black man's journey through contemporary America. "Unquestionably, Ellison's book is a work of extraordinary intensity--powerfully imagined and written with a savage, wryly humorous gusto". "Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list...
Book cover for "Jane Eyre"
Star rating for Jane Eyre
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
The love story of Jane Eyre, a plain yet spirited governess, and her employer, the arrogant, brooding Mr. Rochester, originally published under the pseudonym Currer Bell.
Book cover for "The little book of hygge"
Star rating for The little book of hygge
Author:
Average Rating:
3.4 stars
Description:
"The Danes are famously the happiest people in the world, and hygge is a cornerstone of their way of life. Hygge (pronounced hoo-ga) loosely translates as a sense of comfort, togetherness, and well-being. You know hygge when you feel it. It is when you are cuddled up on the sofa with a loved one, or sharing comfort food with your closest friends. It is those crisp blue mornings when the light through your window is just right. It is about gratitude...
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. "A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door"--Amazon.com.
Book cover for "The marrow thieves"
Star rating for The marrow thieves
Series:
Average Rating:
3.3 stars
Description:
In a future world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America's indigenous population--and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world. But getting the marrow--and dreams--means death for the unwilling donors. Driven to flight, a 15-year-old and his companions struggle for survival, attempt to reunite...