Elizabeth's Staff Picks


Showing 1 - 20 of 26  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.
...

6. 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 "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 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 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 "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 "My grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry"
Star rating for My grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
"From the author of the internationally bestselling A Man Called Ove, a charming, warmhearted novel about a young girl whose grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters, sending her on a journey that brings to life the world of her grandmother's fairy tales"--
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 "The other black girl"
Star rating for The other black girl
Average Rating:
3.7 stars
Description:
"Get Out meets The Devil Wears Prada in this electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing. Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she's thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They've only...
Book cover for "Project Hail Mary"
Star rating for Project Hail Mary
Author:
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
The sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission to save both humanity and the earth, Ryland Grace is hurtled into the depths of space when he must conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
Book cover for "A rule against murder"
Star rating for A rule against murder
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
Irene Finney and her four adult children have come together to commemorate their late father's life at a beautiful lakeside getaway. However, past secrets and unfinished jealousies ignite when a corpse is found the day after the ceremony with a slew of possible suspects to blame.
Book cover for "Sense and sensibility"
Star rating for Sense and sensibility
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
In nineteenth-century England, two sisters are drawn into unhappy romances despite the cool judgement of one and the emotional intensity of the other.