Staff Picks

Nonfiction (biographical, historical, how-to, philosophical, and travelogues nonfiction) and Fiction (comedic, historical and romantic fiction)

Showing 1 - 20 of 29  There are a total of 74 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Aru Shah and the end of time"
Star rating for Aru Shah and the end of time
Series:
Pandava volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Twelve-year-old Aru Shah has the tendency to stretch the truth to fit in at school. One day, three schoolmates show up at Aru's doorstep to catch her in a lie. They don't believe her claim that the museum's Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it. But lighting the lamp has dire consequences. Her classmates and beloved mother are frozen in time, and it's up to Aru to save them.
Book cover for "Big little lies"
Star rating for Big little lies
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Follows three mothers, each at a crossroads, and their potential involvement in a riot at a school trivia night that leaves one parent dead in what appears to be a tragic accident, but which evidence shows might have been premeditated.
Book cover for "Born a crime"
Star rating for Born a crime
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • More than one million copies sold! A “brilliant” (Lupita Nyong’o, Time), “poignant” (Entertainment Weekly), “soul-nourishing” (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid
 
“Noah’s childhood stories are told with all the hilarity and intellect that characterizes
...
Book cover for "Chasing fire"
Star rating for Chasing fire
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
Little else in life is as dangerous as fire jumping. But there's also little else as thrilling--at least to Rowan Tripp. Being a Missoula smoke jumper is in Rowan's blood: her father is a legend in the field. At this point, returning to the wilds of Montana for the season feels like coming home--even with reminders of the partner she lost last season still lingering in the air. One of the best of this year's rookie crop, Gulliver Curry is a walking...
Book cover for "Daisy Jones & the Six"
Star rating for Daisy Jones & the Six
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go-Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it's the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she's twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne....
Book cover for "The day the world came to town"
Star rating for The day the world came to town
Author:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:

The True Story Behind the Events on 9/11 that Inspired Broadway's Smash Hit Musical Come from Away, Featuring All New Material from the Author

When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the

...
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 "Hidden figures"
Star rating for Hidden figures
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA's greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances and used their intellect to change their own lives,...
Book cover for "The Hunger Games"
Star rating for The Hunger Games
Series:
Hunger Games volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.8 stars
Description:
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place. "In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol...
Book cover for "In a holidaze"
Star rating for In a holidaze
Average Rating:
3.9 stars
Description:
"Love Actually meets Groundhog Day in the quintessential holiday romance by the New York Times bestselling author of The Honey-Don't List"--
Book cover for "The Island of Sea Women"
Star rating for The Island of Sea Women
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"A new novel from Lisa See, the New York Times bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and family secrets on a small Korean island. Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends that come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village's all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook's mother. As the girls take...
Book cover for "Killers of the Flower Moon"
Star rating for Killers of the Flower Moon
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, “one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."—New York Magazine • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NOW A MARTIN SCORSESE PICTURE
“A shocking whodunit…What
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Book cover for "The lightning thief"
Star rating for The lightning thief
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea. His mother sends him to a summer camp for demigods where he and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.
Book cover for "Longbourn"
Star rating for Longbourn
Author:
Average Rating:
3.8 stars
Description:
A reimagining of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" from the perspectives of its below-stairs servants captures the drama of the Bennet household from the sideline viewpoint of Sara, an orphaned housemaid. In this irresistibly imagined belowstairs answer to Pride and Prejudice, the servants take center stage. Sarah, the orphaned housemaid, spends her days scrubbing the laundry, polishing the floors, and emptying the chamber pots for the Bennet household....
Book cover for "Lose the clutter, lose the weight"
Star rating for Lose the clutter, lose the weight
Description:
"A houseful of clutter may not be the only reason people pack on extra pounds, but research proves that it plays a big role. A recent study showed that people with supercluttered homes were 77 percent more likely to be overweight or obese! Why? Author Peter Walsh thinks it's because people can't make their best choices--their healthiest choices--in a cluttered, messy, disorganized home. In Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight, organizing guru Walsh comes...
Book cover for "The maid"
Star rating for The maid
Author:
Series:
Maid novels volume 1.
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"A charmingly eccentric hotel maid discovers a guest murdered in his bed, turning her once orderly world upside down--and inspiring a motley crew of unexpected allies to band together to solve the mystery--in this utterly original debut. Molly Dunn is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and interprets people literally. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by. Since...
Book cover for "The man who died twice"
Star rating for The man who died twice
Series:
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
"Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim--the Thursday Murder Club--are still riding high off their recent real-life murder case and are looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet at Cooper's Chase, their posh retirement village. But they are out of luck. An unexpected visitor--an old pal of Elizabeth's (or perhaps more than just a pal?)--arrives, desperate for her help. He has been accused of stealing diamonds worth millions from the wrong men and he's...
Book cover for "Mockingjay"
Star rating for Mockingjay
Series:
Hunger Games volume 3.
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Katniss Everdeen's having survived the Hunger games twice makes her a target of the Capitol and President Snow, as well as a hero to the rebels who will succeed only if Katniss is willing to put aside her personal feelings and serve as their pawn.
Book cover for "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"
Star rating for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Average Rating:
3.2 stars
Description:
Working in Gaborone, Botswana, Precious Ramotswe investigates several local mysteries, including a search for a missing boy and the case of the clinic doctor with different personalities for different days of the week.
Book cover for "The notebook"
Star rating for The notebook
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
In a testimony to the lasting power of love, a man tells an elderly woman a story from a faded old notebook, his voice relating the heartbreaking tale of two lovers and their fifty-year journey to happiness.