Reading Recommendations from Your Library
Plus, visit our MyLibrarian page to check out what Berlin-Peck librarians are reading—and get a personalized list of reading recommendations just for you!
September 21, 2020
Visit our MyLibrarian page to check out what Berlin-Peck librarians are reading—and get a personalized list of reading recommendations just for you!
In this list:
- non-fiction
- biography & memoir
- realistic fiction
- fantasy, scifi & horror
- historical fiction
- mystery & thrillers
- romance
- graphic novels
Non-Fiction
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Katherine Boo
Profiles everyday life in the settlement of Annawadi as experienced by a Muslim teen, an ambitious rural mother, and a young scrap metal thief, illuminating how their efforts to build better lives are challenged by religious, caste, and economic tensions.
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
The author presents a history of racial discrimination in the United States and a narrative of his own personal experiences of contemporary race relations, offering possible resolutions for the future.
The Boys in The Boat
Daniel James Brown
Traces the story of an American rowing team from the University of Washington that defeated elite rivals at Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics, sharing the experiences of their enigmatic coach, a visionary boat builder, and a homeless teen rower.
Daughter of The Boycott: Carrying on A Montgomery Family’s Civil Rights Legacy
Karen Gray Houston
In a story of family in the pivotal years of the civil rights movement, an award-winning broadcast journalist reflects on how her father’s and uncle’s selfless actions changed the nationâ??s racial climate and opened doors for her and countless other African Americans.
A False Report
T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong
Now a Netflix series titled, Unbelievable, this book presents the true story of a teen who was charged with falsely reporting a rape, an investigation that revealed the work of a serial rapist in multiple states.
Flowers in The Gutter: The True Story of The Edelweiss Pirates, Teenagers Who Resisted the Nazis
K.R. Gaddy
The Edelweiss Pirates were a loosely organized group of working-class young people in the Rhine Valley of Germany. They faced off with Nazis during the Third Reich and suffered consequences for their resistance during and after World War II.
For the Good of The Game: The Inside Story of The Surprising and Dramatic Transformation of Major League Baseball
Bud Selig
The former MLB commissioner provides an insider’s assessment of professional baseball, revealing how he worked with players, managers, fellow owners, and fans to help bring the game into the modern age.
Games of Deception: The True Story of The First U.S. Olympic Basketball Team at the 1936 Olympics In Hitler’s Germany
Andrew Maraniss
the remarkable true story of the birth of Olympic basketball at the 1936 Summer Games, from its invention by James Naismith and debut in Hitler’s Berlin to the eclectic mix of people, events and propaganda that made it possible.
How to Do Nothing
Jenny Odell
In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Bryan Stevenson
The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.
The Killer Across the Table
John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
The FBI criminal profiler and inspiration for the “Mindhunter” series shares the stories of four of the most complex predatory killers of his career, offering previously undisclosed insights into his strategies and profiling process.
The Moth Presents Occasional Magic: True Stories About Defying the Impossible
Catherine Burns, Ed.
Carefully selected by the creative minds at The Moth, storytellers from around the world share times when, in the face of challenging situations, they found moments of beauty, wonder, and clarity, shedding light on their lives and helping them find a path forward.
Parkland: Birth of a Movement
Dave Cullen
The New York Times best-selling author of Columbine offers a deeply moving account of the extraordinary teenage survivors of Parkland who became activists and pushed back against the NRA and Congressional leaders, inspiring millions of Americans to join their grassroots #neveragain movement.
Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation
Candy J Cooper
Reveals the true story of Flint, Michigan’s poisoned water supply, describing how the water crisis unfolded in 2014 and the history of racism and segregation that led up to it.
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women
Kate Moore
A full-length account of the struggles of hundreds of women who were exposed to dangerous levels of radium while working factory jobs during World War I describes how they were mislead by their employers and became embroiled in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights.
Return to The Reich: A Holocaust Refugee’s Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis
Eric Lichtblau
The remarkable story of Fred Mayer, a German-born Jew who escaped Nazi Germany only to return as an American commando on a secret mission behind enemy lines
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Elizabeth Kolbert
Draws on the work of geologists, botanists, marine biologists, and other researchers to discuss the five devastating mass extinctions on Earth and predicts the coming of a sixth.
So, You Want to Talk About Race
Ijeoma Oluo
Examines the sensitive, hyper-charged racial landscape in current America, discussing the issues of privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the “N” word.
Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve And/Or Ruin Everything
Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith
Zach and Kelly Weinersmith give us a snapshot of the transformative technologies that are coming next – from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters – and explain how they will change our world in astonishing ways. By weaving together their own research, interviews with pioneering scientists and Zach’s trademark comics, the Weinersmiths investigate why these innovations are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, And You
Jason Reynolds
A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning
There Is No Good Card for This: What to Say and Do When Life Is Scary, Awful and Unfair to People You Love
Kelsey Crowe
When people you know are hurting, you want to let them know that you care. But many people don’t know what words to use– or are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Crowe and McDowell have created a guide to help you increase your emotional intelligence and learn how to offer comfort and support when someone you know is in pain.
Troop 6000: The Girl Scout Troop That Began in A Shelter and Inspired the World
Nikita Stewart
Describes how hardworking mother of five Giselle Burgess rose from poverty and homelessness to establish Girl Scout troops in 15 New York City shelters to bring pride, life-skill training and community to disadvantaged urban girls.
True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News
Cindy L. Otis
A comprehensive history of “fake news” counsels readers on how to avoid becoming victims, drawing on examples from different historical periods and the author’s experiences as a decorated former CIA analyst to explain how to recognize fake news, understand contradictory reports and see past biases.
Who Ate the First Oyster? The Extraordinary People Behind The Greatest Firsts In History
Cody Cassidy
Who wore the first pants? Who painted the first masterpiece? Who first rode the horse? This madcap adventure across ancient history uses everything from modern genetics to archaeology to uncover the geniuses behind these and other world-changing innovations.
A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, And How We Should Respond
Daniel Susskind
Drawing on almost a decade of research in the field, Susskind argues that machines no longer need to think like us in order to outperform us, as was once widely believed. As a result, more and more tasks that used to be far beyond the capability of computers – from diagnosing illnesses to drafting legal contracts, from writing news reports to composing music – are coming within their reach. The threat of technological unemployment is now real. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
Biography & Memoir
24: Life Stories and Lessons from The Say Hey Kid
Willie Mays
A man widely regarded as one the greatest all-around players in baseball history reflects on his lifetime of experience meeting challenges with positivity, integrity and triumph.
Alan Turing: The Enigma
Andrew Hodges
Explores the life of the mathematician, reveals the character of the man behind such concepts as the universal machine and the scientific understanding of the mind, and discusses his pioneering role in electronic computer design.
Becoming
Michelle Obama
An intimate and uplifting memoir by the former First Lady chronicles the experiences that have shaped her remarkable life, from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago through her setbacks and achievements in the White House.
The Book of Rosy: A Mother’s Story of Separation at The Border
Rosayra Pablo Cruz
From a mother whose children were taken from her at the U.S. border by the American government in 2018 and another mother who helped reunite the family, a crucial, searing story about the immigration odyssey, family separation and reunification, and thepower of individuals to band together to overcome even the most cruel and unjust circumstances
Born A Crime: Stories from A South African Childhood
Trevor Noah
One of the comedy world’s fastest-rising stars tells his wild coming of age story during the twilight of Apartheid in South Africa and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
A true story of tenacity and imagination describes how an enterprising teenager in Malawi built a windmill from scraps to create electricity for his home and his village, improving life for himself and his neighbors.
Call Me American: The Extraordinary True Story of a Young Somali Immigrant
Abdi Nor Iftin
Adapted from the adult memoir, an intimate portrait of modern immigration describes how the author’s family was forced by war to leave their home in Somalia before he received an opportunity to win the annual U.S. visa lottery.
Educated
Tara Westover
Traces the author’s experiences as a child born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, describing her participation in her family’s paranoid stockpiling activities and her resolve to educate herself well enough to earn acceptance into a prestigious university and the unfamiliar world beyond.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Clemantine Wamariya
In 1994, six-year-old Clemantine and her fifteen-year-old sister flee the Rwandan Genocide and spend the next six years surviving refugee camps before arriving in America. This is Clemantine’s story–that of a survivor, a refugee, and an immigrant who defies stereotype time and time again.
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
Hyeonseo Lee
In 1997 the author, aged 17, escaped North Korea for China. Her mother’s first words over the telephone to her lost daughter were “don’t come back”. The reprisals for all of them would have been lethal. Twelve years later she returned to the North Korean border in a daring mission to spirit her mother and brother to South Korea in a very costly and dangerous journey.
Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers
Nick Offerman
Offerman focuses on the lives of those who inspired him. From George Washington to Willie Nelson, he describes twenty-one heroic figures and why they inspire in him such great meaning. He combines both serious history with light-hearted humor—comparing, say, Benjamin Franklin’s abstinence from daytime drinking to his own sage refusal to join his construction crew in getting plastered on the way to work. The subject matter also allows Offerman to expound upon his favorite topics, which readers love to hear—areas such as religion, politics, woodworking and handcrafting, agriculture, creativity, philosophy, fashion, and, of course, meat.
Naturally Tan
Tan France
In this heartfelt, funny, touching memoir, Tan France, star of Netflix’s smash-hit QUEER EYE tells his origin story for the first time. With his trademark wit, humor, and radical compassion, Tan reveals what it was like to grow up gay in a traditional Muslim family, as one of the few people of color in Doncaster, England. He illuminates his winding journey of coming of age, finding his voice (and style!), and how he finally came out to his family at the age of 34, revealing that he was happily married to the love of his life–a Mormon cowboy from Salt Lake City.
No Ordinary Dog: My Partner from The SEAL Teams to The Bin Laden Raid
Will Chesney
Two dozen Navy SEALs descended on Osama bin Laden’s compound in May 2011. After the mission, only one name was made public: Cairo, a Belgian Malinois and military working dog. This is Cairo’s story, and that of his handler, Will Chesney, a member of SEAL Team Six whose life would be irrevocably tied to Cairo’s.
Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love
Jonathan Van Ness
Before he stole our hearts as the grooming and self-care expert on Netflix’s hit show Queer Eye , Jonathan was growing up in a small Midwestern town that didn’t understand why he was so…over the top. From choreographed carpet figure skating routines to the unavoidable fact that he was Just. So. Gay., Jonathan was an easy target and endured years of judgement, ridicule and trauma – yet none of it crushed his uniquely effervescent spirit.
Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living
Nick Offerman
Growing a perfect moustache, grilling red meat, wooing a woman—who better to deliver this tutelage than the always charming, always manly Nick Offerman, best known as Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson? Combining his trademark comic voice and very real expertise in woodworking—he runs his own woodshop—Paddle Your Own Canoe features tales from Offerman’s childhood in small-town Minooka, Illinois—“I grew up literally in the middle of a cornfield”—to his theater days in Chicago, beginnings as a carpenter/actor and the hilarious and magnificent seduction of his now-wife Megan Mullally. It also offers hard-bitten battle strategies in the arenas of manliness, love, style, religion, woodworking, and outdoor recreation, among many other savory entrees.
The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison
Jason Hardy
Hardy, a former parole officer, shines a bright light on a huge yet hidden part of our justice system: life on parole. Through the intertwining stories of seven parolees striving to survive the chaos that awaits them after prison, he stokes our outrage at the status quo and our hope that better approaches are within out grasp.
Show Them You’re Good: A Portrait of Boys in The City of Angels the Year Before College
Jeff Hobbs
Traces the academic pursuits of four Los Angeles high school boys with very different backgrounds and resources who navigate challenges in class, race, expectations, cultural divides and luck to attend college.
Sissy: A Coming-Of-Gender Story
Jacob Tobia
A heart-wrenching, eye-opening, and giggle-inducing memoir about what it’s like to grow up not sure if you’re (a) a boy, (b) a girl, (c) something in between, or (d) all of the above
Son of Havana: A Baseball Journey from Cuba To the Big Leagues and Back
Tiant Luis
In a book told in his own words, the author, one of the most charismatic, accomplished Major League Baseball players of the 1960s and 1970s, describes his road from fields strewn with rocks and rubbish in Havana to the pristine lawns of Major League ballparks.
Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land
Noé Álvarez
A debut memoir by the son of working-class Mexican immigrants describes his upbringing in Washington State, membership in the Peace and Dignity Journeys movement and competition in the Native American cultural marathon from Canada to Guatemala.
Too Much Is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Toward Adulthood
Andrew Rannells
In this conspiratorial memoir, 19-year-old Andrew Rannells leaves Nebraska for New York City in hopes of instantly achieving Broadway stardom. He is met with the harsh reality of auditions, responsibilities, and his own immaturity before his eventual big break—joining the cast of Hairspray.
The Unexpected Spy: From the CIA to the FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of The World’s Most Notorious Terrorists
Tracy Walder
Offers a riveting account of a young woman who went straight from her college sorority to the CIA, where she hunted terrorists and weapons of mass destruction.
Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
Megan Phelps-Roper
At the age of five, Megan Phelps-Roper began protesting homosexuality and other alleged vices alongside fellow members of the Westboro Baptist Church. Founded by her grandfather and consisting almost entirely of her extended family, the tiny group would gain worldwide notoriety for its pickets at military funerals and celebrations of death and tragedy. As Phelps-Roper grew up, she saw that church members were close companions and accomplished debaters. Soon, however, dialogue on Twitter caused her to begin doubting the church’s leaders and message: If humans were sinful and fallible, how could the church itself be so confident about its beliefs?
When Truth Is All You Have: A Memoir of Faith, Justice, And Freedom for The Wrongly Convicted
Jim McCloskey
The founder of the Centurion Ministries, the first American organization dedicated to freeing the wrongly imprisoned, describes his life-changing advocacy of an innocent convict and his establishment of a movement that has freed dozens of victims.
The Woman Who Smashed Codes
Jason Fagone
Traces the life of Elizebeth Smith, who met and married groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman and worked with him to discover and expose Nazi spy rings in South America by cracking multiple versions of the Enigma machine.
You Are Worth It: Building A Life Worth Fighting For
Kyle Carpenter
The youngest living recipient of the Medal of Honor presents an inspirational memoir that describes the selfless act that protected his brothers in arms in Afghanistan and his motivational battle to recover from catastrophic injuries
Realistic Fiction
A People’s History of Heaven
Mathangi Subramanian
In Bangalore, India, five young women fight to save their homes, which are really only shacks and lean-tos, in a slum named “Heaven,” which the city wants to bulldoze in order to accommodate its growing tech industry
All American Boys
Jason Reynolds
When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend.
All We Ever Wanted
Emily Giffin
When her golden-boy son posts a controversial photograph of a scholarship student online, triggering a local scandal, a wife and mother finds herself sympathizing more with the girl’s family than her own
The Art of Racing in The Rain
Garth Stein
Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher’s soul, tries to bring together the family, pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe’s maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.
Beartown
Fredrik Backman
In the forest community of Beartown, the possibility that the amateur hockey team might win a junior championship, bringing the hope of revitalization to the fading town, is shattered by the aftermath of a violent act that leaves a girl traumatized.
The Book of Essie
Meghan MacLean Weir
Essie, the youngest family member of Evangelical television reality stars, is pregnant and refuses to name the father. The showrunners–and her parents–decide the best solution is for Essie to marry quickly with lots of hype to increase ratings. Celebrity, scandal, and reality TV make for a wicked, compulsively readable combination.
Dear Martin
Nic Stone
Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him.
The Death of Bees
Lisa O’Donnell
Trying to keep the death of their parents a secret, Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own until several residents in Glasgow’s Hazelhurst housing estate suspect that something is not right.
The Dive from Clausen’s Pier
Ann Packer
When her fiance Mike is left paralyzed following a tragic accident, Carrie Bell begins to question her familiar world, from her everyday life in Wisconsin to her relationships, as she sets out to rediscover her own identity.
Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
Robert Dugoni
Born with ocular albinism, small-town eye doctor Sam Hill must finally face a past tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known–a journey that makes him realize what truly matters.
The Falconer
Dana Czapnik
In 1993 New York, seventeen-year-old street-smart, trash-talking baller Lucy Adler finds her comfortable life playing pick-up games with her unrequited love, Percy, thrown into turmoil when a pair of female artists draw her into their world.
Far from The Tree
Robin Benway
Feeling incomplete as an adopted child after placing her own baby up for adoption, teen Grace tracks down her biological siblings and finds herself struggling with the dynamics of being a middle child between an embittered older brother and an outspoken younger sister.
Green
Sam Graham-Felsen
In 1992 Boston, David Greenfield hates being one of the few white kids in his middle school where even his former best friend bullies him. He connects with a boy from the projects, but competition cause a rift in their blossoming friendship.
I Liked My Life
Abby Fabiaschi
A husband and teen daughter are challenged to redefine their understandings of family when a devoted wife and mother commits suicide and begins meddling from beyond the grave.
I’ll Give You the Sun
Jandy Nelson
A story of first love and family loss follows the estrangement between daredevil Jude and her loner twin brother, Noah, as a result of a mysterious event that is brought to light by a beautiful, broken boy and a new mentor.
In Zanesville
Jo Ann Beard
Along with her best friend, the fourteen-year-old narrator navigates a 1970s American girlhood, including challenges from popular girls and the first hints of womanhood.
Lawn Boy
Jonathan Evison
Twenty-something Mike Muñoz is passionate about the art of landscaping–a fresh cut lawn and a creative topiary. Caught between taking care of his mother and brother and trying to strike out on his own, Mike is not-so-patiently waiting for a lucky break. His struggle is familiar and heartbreaking, and it’s impossible not to root for him as he chases the elusive American Dream.
Memoirs of An Imaginary Friend
Matthew Dicks
A creative tale imparted from the perspective of long-time imaginary friend, Budo, traces his awareness of his advancing age and constant thoughts of the inevitable day when 8-year-old Max, an autistic boy, will stop believing in him, a progression that is complicated by a teasing bully and Max’s abduction by an overly-possessive therapist.
Night Road
Kristin Hannah
When stay-at-home mom Jude Farraday takes in Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, the girl becomes inseparable from Jude’s teenage twins before a shattering accident rips the family apart and sets the stage for a sobering confrontation years later.
Red at The Bone
Jacqueline Woodson
Two families from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces.
Such A Fun Age
Kiley Reid
Seeking justice for a young black babysitter who was wrongly accused of kidnapping by a racist security guard, a successful blogger finds her efforts complicated by a video that reveals unexpected connections.
What Girls Are Made Of
Elana K. Arnold
Believing her cynical mother’s statement that there is no such thing as unconditional love, Nina desperately clings to a boyfriend who leaves her, causing her to question her identity outside of romantic relationships.
Fantasy, Scifi & Horror
88 Names
Matt Ruff
John Chu is a “sherpa”, a paid guide to online games. For a fee, he and his crew will provide you with a character equipped with the best weapons and armor, and take you dragon-slaying in the Realms of Asgarth or hunting rogue starships in the Alpha Sector. Chu’s new client claims to be a wealthy, famous person, and he’s offering a ridiculous amount of money—but as the tour gets underway, he begins to suspect his client is really North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, whose interest in VR gaming has more to do with power than entertainment.
All Our Wrong Todays
Elan Mastai
You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we’d have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren’s 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases. Except Tom just can’t seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world. In a time-travel mishap, Tom finds himself stranded in our 2016, what we think of as the real world. For Tom, our normal reality seems like a dystopian wasteland.
Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman
His past marked by his father’s embarrassing taunts and untimely death, Fat Charlie meets the brother he never knew and is introduced to new and exciting ways to spend his time.
The Bear and The Nightingale
Katherine Arden
A novel inspired by Russian fairy tales follows the experiences of a wild young girl who taps the mysterious powers of a precious necklace given to her father years earlier to save her village from dark and dangerous forces.
The Bird King
G. Willow Wilson
Fatima, a concubine in the royal court of Granada at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, and her friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker, risk their lives to escape when the latter is accused of sorcery.
The Book of Lost Things
John Connolly
Taking refuge in fairy tales after the loss of his mother, twelve-year-old David finds himself violently propelled into an imaginary land in which the boundaries of fantasy and reality are disturbingly melded.
A Boy and His Dog at The End of The World
C. A. Fletcher
The world used to be crowded before all the people went away, but Gris and his parents were never lonely on their remote island. They had each other and their dogs. Then the thief came. There may be no laws left, but if someone steals your dog, you can expect someone to come after you, because what’s the point of love if you’re not loyal.
Camp So-And-So
Mary McCoy
The letters went out in mid-February. Each letter invited its recipient to spend a week at Camp So-and-So, a lakeside retreat for girls nestled high in the Starveling Mountains. Each letter came with a glossy brochure with photographs of young women climbing rocks, performing Shakespeare under the stars, and spiking volleyballs. By the end of the month, twenty-five applications had been completed, signed, and mailed. Had any of these girls tried to visit the camp for themselves on that day in February, they would have discovered that there was no such mountain, and that no one within a fifty-mile radius had ever heard of Camp So-and-So . .
Circe
Madeline Miller
Follows Circe, the banished witch daughter of Helios, as she hones her powers and interacts with famous mythological beings before a conflict with one of the most vengeful Olympians forces her to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals.
A Darker Shade of Magic
V.E. Schwab
Serving as an ambassador of his own world while carrying messages to parallel-universe Londons with respective magical abilities and conflicts, Kell hides his secret smuggling activities only to be set up with a forbidden object from a dark dimension.
The Family Plot
Cherie Priest
Music City Salvage is a family operation, owned and operated by Chuck Dutton. But business is lean and times are tight, so he’s thrilled when the Augusta Withrow appears with a massive family estate to unload. It’s enough of a gold mine that he assigns his daughter Dahlia to personally oversee the project. The property is in unusually great shape for a condemned building. It’s empty, but it isn’t abandoned. Something in the Withrow mansion is angry and lost. This is its last chance to raise hell before the house is gone forever.
The Future of Another Timeline
Annalee Newitz
A geologist desperate to change the past and a teen rebel who has witnessed a history-changing murder are swept up in a secret historical war in a parallel-world America where time travel is possible.
The Girl with All the Gifts
M.R. Carey
Not every gift is a blessing. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite. But they don’t laugh. Melanie is a very special girl.
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. But what if, for once, the predictions are right, and the apocalypse really is due to arrive next Saturday, just after tea?
Highfire
Eoin Colfer
Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie, is the last dragon on Earth and is hiding out in a Louisiana swamp. He strikes a deal with Cajun swamp rat Squib: Squib will keep him company and fetch supplies for him and Vern will protect Squib from the dirty cop that is chasing him. However, there will be soon be a firery reckoning, in which dragons wither finally become extinct or Ver’s glory days are back.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy
Douglas Adams
Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse
K. Eason
Princess Rory Thorne must use the fairy blessings gifted to her at birth to change the multiverse–or possibly destroy it. How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse is a feminist reimagining of familiar fairytale tropes and a story of resistance and self-determination–how small acts of rebellion can lead a princess to not just save herself, but change the course of history.
The Institute
Stephen King
Abducted youth Luke Ellis is imprisoned in an inescapable institute, where children with the abilities of telekinesis and telepathy are subjected to torturous manipulation.
Jane Unlimited
Kristin Cashore
Recently orphaned Jane accepts an unexpected invitation from an old acquaintance to an island mansion where she will face five choices that could ultimately determine the course of her newly untethered life
John Dies at The End
David Wong
My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you’ll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it’s too late. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me. The important thing is this: The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do.
Kill the Farm Boy
Delilah Dawson
Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, a hero, the Chosen One, was born…and so begins every fairy tale ever told. This is not that fairy tale. There is a Chosen One, but he is unlike any One who has ever been Chosened. And there is a faraway kingdom,but you have never been to a magical world quite like the land of Pell. There, a plucky farm boy will find more than he’s bargained for on his quest to awaken the sleeping princess in her cursed tower.
Lost and Found
Orson Scott Card
What good is finding lost bicycles and hair scrunchies, if when you return them to their owners they think you must have stolen them in the first place? Ezekial Blast’s friend Beth thinks there must be some way to use his “micropower” for good. And so does a police detective investigating the disappearance of a little girl. When tragedy strikes, it’s up to Ezekiel to use his talent to find what matters most
Magic for Liars
Sarah Gailey
When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister–without losing herself
The Martian
Andy Weir
After a dust storm nearly kills him, astronaut Mark Watney finds himself stranded and completely alone. But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills — and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
Middlegame
Seanan McGuire
Roger and Dodger are twins, created in a lab in order to bestow their creator with the power to shape reality—but only if they don’t figure out how to manifest that power for themselves first.
Neverwhere
Neil Gaiman
Richard Mayhew a good hearted man. He’s a young businessman when he discovers a young bleeding woman on a London sidewalk. But after this happens he’s plunge into a world of horror.
The Radleys
Matt Haig
Struggling with overwork and parenting angst, English village doctor Peter Radley endeavors to hide his family’s vampire nature until their daughter’s oddly satisfying act of violence reveals the truth, an event that is complicated by the arrival of a practicing vampire family member.
The Reapers Are the Angels
Alden Bell
In a fallen America infested with zombies, a young girl named Temple is on the run, haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, and she must decide where she can find the salvation she seeks–in the insulated remnants of society or on the bleak, brutal frontier
Spinning Silver
Naomi Novik
Miryem has earned a reputation for turning silver into gold, but soon her talent gains unwanted attention from a cold, cruel fae king. Now Miryem finds herself trapped in a bargain that will change her life and the lives of those around her in this magical, multilayered fairy tale.
Stardust
Neil Gaiman
The story of young Tristran Thorn and his adventures in the land of Faerie. He has fallen in love with beautiful Victoria Forester and in order to win her hand, he must retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to her
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Alix E. Harrow
January thought a door to another world was a product of her childhood imagination. However, at the age of 17, she discovers a book that implies not only that such portals are absolutely real, but that they have shaped her entire life.
The Testaments
Margaret Atwood
This long-awaited sequel to the feminist dystopian classic The Handmaid’s Tale introduces readers to the testimonies of three women deeply tied to the Gilead empire. As secrets and identities are revealed, each woman discovers the limits of her own bravery.
This Is How You Lose the Time War
Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.
Walkaway
Cory Doctorow
Hubert, Etc. was too old to be at that Communist party. But after watching the breakdown of modern society, he really has no where left to be—except amongst the dregs of disaffected youth who party all night and heap scorn on the sheep they see on the morning commute. After falling in with Natalie, an ultra-rich heiress trying to escape the clutches of her repressive father, the two decide to give up fully on formal society—and walk away.
Historical Fiction
All Involved
Ryan Gattis
A tale set against the backdrop of the 1992 race riots triggered by the Rodney King trial acquittal details a series of murders committed outside of the active rioting zones by gang members who would use the chaos to settle old scores.
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned-Resistance tracker struggle with respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast.
Before We Were Yours
Lisa Wingate
Learning that her grandmother was a victim of the corrupt Tennessee Children’s Home Society, attorney and aspiring politician Avery Stafford delves into her family’s past and begins to wonder if some things are best kept secret.
Between Shades of Gray
Ruta Sepetys
In 1941, Lina and her family are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers.
Brewster
Mark Slouka
Still reeling from the death of his older brother, a sixteen-year-old track star befriends a street-fighting rebel and together they search for redemption amidst the social changes of 1968.
Code Name Helene
Ariel Lawhon
A novel based on the real life story of socialite spy Nancy Wake, about the astonishing woman who killed a Nazi with her bare hands and went on to become one of the most decorated women in WWI
Code Name Verity
Elizabeth Wein
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.
Daisy Jones and The Six
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Two rising 70s rock-and-roll artists are catapulted into stardom when a producer puts them together, a decision that is complicated by a pregnancy and the seductions of fame.
Dominicana
Angie Cruz
The award-winning author of Soledad draws on her mother’s story in a tale set in a turbulent 1960s Dominican Republic, where a young teen agrees to marry a man twice her age to help her family’s immigration to America.
Girl at War
Sara Novic
When her happy life in 1991 Croatia is shattered by civil war, ten-year-old Ana Juric is embroiled in a world of guerilla warfare and child soldiers before making a daring escape to America, where years later she struggles to hide her past.
Girl in Translation
Jean Kwok
Caught between the pressure to succeed in America, her duty to their family, and her own personal desires, Kimberly Chang, an immigrant girl from Hong Kong, learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.
The Girls with No Names
Serena Burdick
In 1910s New York City, a girl goes missing and her younger sister hatches an audacious plan to be admitted to the House of Mercy, a home for wayward girls, risking everything to bring her older sister home.
Mudbound
Hillary Jordan
At the close of WW II, two soldiers return to their home in the South to find racial tensions as explosive as the battlefields of Europe. This beautifully written story casts a spell as inescapable as the mud fields of the Mississippi Delta.
My Name Is Mary Sutter
Robin Oliveira
Traveling to Civil War-era Washington, D.C., to tend wounded soldiers and pursue her dream of becoming a surgeon, headstrong midwife Mary receives guidance from two smitten doctors and resists her mother’s pleas for her to return home.
The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead
Idealistic Elwood and cynical Turner form an unlikely bond at Nickel Academy, a corrupt 1960s reform school, as they endure the abuse meted out by the sadistic warden. Their heart-wrenching story of physical and mental survival is based on the real-life experiences of children at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.
The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah
Reunited when the elder’s husband is sent to fight in World War II, French sisters Vianne and Isabelle find their bond as well as their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways.
Nothing More Dangerous
Allen Eskens
A high school boy growing up in the Ozark hills rethinks his understanding of the world, race and class when he befriends a black family that moves in across the street.
Orphan Train
Christina Baker Kline
Close to aging out of the foster care system, Molly Ayer takes a position helping an elderly woman named Vivian and discovers that they are more alike than different as she helps Vivian solve a mystery from her past.
Prisoner B-3087
Alan Gratz
Based on the life of Jack Gruener, this book relates his story of survival from the Nazi occupation of Krakow, when he was eleven, through a succession of concentration camps, to the final liberation of Dachau.
The Round House
Louise Erdrich
When his mother, a tribal enrollment specialist living on a reservation in North Dakota, slips into an abyss of depression after being brutally attacked, 14-year-old Joe Coutz sets out with his three friends to find the person that destroyed his family.
Shanghai Girls
Lisa See
Forced to leave Shanghai when their father sells them to California suitors, sisters May and Pearl struggle to adapt to life in 1930s Los Angeles while still bound to old customs, as they face discrimination and confront a life-altering secret.
The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from The Titanic
Allan Wolf
Recreates the 1912 sinking of the Titanic as observed by millionaire John Jacob Astor, a beautiful young Lebanese refugee finding first love, “Unsinkable” Molly Brown, Captain E.J. Smith, and others including the iceberg itself.
The World That We Knew
Alice Hoffman
Sent away to 1941 Paris when Berlin becomes too dangerous for Jewish families, a young girl bonds with her protective mystical golem; while her friend, a rabbi’s daughter, rises to become a defender of their people.
Zane And the Hurricane: A Story of Katrina
Rodman Philbrick
Visiting New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hits, mixed-race 12-year-old Zane Dupree is rescued by two African-American locals before facing the limited supplies and responses that threaten their survival.
Mystery & Thrillers
Confessions
Kanae Minato
After her pupils murder her only daughter, Yuko Moriguchi sets in motion a diabolical plot for revenge.
Defending Jacob
William Landay
When his fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student, assistant district attorney Andy Barber is torn between loyalty and justice as facts come to light that lead him to question how well he knows his own son.
Descent
Tim Johnston
A girl vanishes “on a sunny, late-summer vacation morning” and thus begins a “family’s harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths, until all that continues to bind them to each other are the questions they can never bring themselves to ask: At what point does a family stop searching? At what point does a girl stop fighting for her life?
Everything I Never Told You
Celeste Ng
A story of the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family explores the fallout of the drowning death of Lydia Lee, the favorite daughter of a Chinese-American family in 1970s Ohio.
Finding Jake
Bryan Reardon
In the wake of a wrenching school shooting, a stay-at-home father is forced to confront what he does and does not know about his missing teenaged son.
Finding Nouf
Zoe Ferraris
Stumbling upon the drowned body of Nouf, the teenage daughter of a prominent, wealthy Saudi Arabian family, Nayir, a desert guide hired by her family to search for her, feels compelled to discover what really happened to her.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
Holly Jackson
As her senior capstone project, Pippa Fitz-Amobi is determined to find the real killer in a closed, local murder case, but not everyone wants her meddling in the past.
The Guest List
Lucy Foley
An expertly planned celebrity wedding between a rising television star and an ambitious magazine publisher is thrown into turmoil by petty jealousies, a college drinking game, the bride’s ruined dress and an untimely murder.
Lights All Night Long
Lydia Fitzpatrick
With the help of his American host family’s daughter, Sadie, who has secrets of her own, Russian exchange student Ilya embarks on a mission to prove his brother Vladimir’s innocence in the murders of three girls back in Russia.
Maisie Dobbs
Jacqueline Winspear
In her first case, private detective Maisie Dobbs must investigate the reappearance of a dead man who turns up at a cooperative farm called the Retreat that caters to men who are recovering their health after World War I
Mother, Mother
Koren Zailckas
The disturbing fate of a runaway older sister is gradually revealed in a tale told from the perspectives of the Hurst family, including a teen girl whose drug use has landed her in a mental ward, an autistic youth, an alcoholic father, and an insidiouslymanipulative mother.
One of Us Is Lying
Karen M. McManus
Five students walk into Bayview High detection. Only four walk out…. Simon was the creator of a high school gossip app. He planned to post juicy reveals about his four high-profile classmates. When he dies before detention is over, is one of them a murderer– or are they the perfect patsies for a killer?
The Other Mrs.
Mary Kubica
Unnerved by her husband’s inheritance of a decrepit coastal property and the presence of a disturbed relative, community newcomer Sadie uncovers harrowing facts about her family’s possible role in a neighbor’s murder.
Something in The Water
Catherine Steadman
A successful banker and a rising filmmaker embark on a blissful paradise honeymoon in Bora Bora, where the discovery of a mysterious bag of riches triggers a sequence of events that indelibly marks their marriage and lives
The Swallows
Lisa Lutz
The arrival of a new teacher with a complicated past ignites a student rebellion against Stonebridge Academy’s misogynistic culture, which has gone unchecked for years.
The Sweetness at The Bottom of The Pie
Alan Bradley
Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is propelled into a mystery when a man is murdered on the grounds of her family’s decaying English mansion and Flavia’s father becomes the main suspect.
Tell Me Everything
Cambria Brockman
A college senior on the cusp of graduation uses her extraordinary insights to uncover her friends’ closest-held secrets before a devastating chain of events culminates in a murder that tests the limits of her capabilities.
Things We Have in Common
Tasha Kavanagh
Yasmin, a high school misfit who desperately wants to fit in, notices a strange, sinister-looking man stalking Alice, the most popular girl in the school. Yasmin develops a relationship with him despite her resolution to use him to become a hero.
Those Who Wish Me Dead
Michael Koryta
After witnessing a murder, a young teen is hidden in a wilderness skills program for troubled kids while the killers embark on a methodical quest to reach him.
We Were Liars
E. Lockhart
Spending the summers on her family’s private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer.
The Woman in Cabin 10
Ruth Ware
Assigned to review an exclusive North Sea luxury cruise, travel journalist Lo Blacklock witnesses a woman being thrown overboard and is baffled when all passengers remain accounted for, a nightmare that unravels as Lo struggles to convince everyone that what she saw was real.
The Woman in The Window
A.J. Finn
After the Russells move in next door, Anna Fox, a recluse, finds her world crumbling when she witnesses something she shouldn’t.
Romance
American Panda
Gloria Chao
Struggling with guilt stemming from her parents’ cultural expectations about her future as a proper wife and doctor, a 17-year-old Taiwanese-American college freshman hides the truth about her germ phobia and her crush on a Japanese classmate before reconnecting with her brother, who is estranged from the family for dating the wrong woman
Better Off Friends
Elizabeth Eulberg
Macallan and Levi are best friends from the first day they meet in seventh grade, but over the years their close friendship keeps interfering with their dating life because everyone else regards them as a couple.
Fangirl
Rainbow Rowell
Cath struggles to survive on her own in her first year of college while avoiding a surly roommate, bonding with a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words, and worrying about her fragile father.
Hearts Unbroken
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Breaking up with her first real boyfriend when he makes racist remarks about her Native American heritage, high school senior Louise Wolfe teams up with a fellow school newspaper editor to cover a multicultural casting of the school play and the racial hostilities it has exposed
The Lover’s Dictionary
David Levithan
A modern love story told through a series of dictionary-style entries is a sequence of intimate windows into the large and small events that shape the course of a romantic relationship.
More Than Just A Pretty Face
Syed Masood
When self-proclaimed ‘not very bright’ nineteen-year-old Danyal Jilani is chosen for a prestigious academic contest, he hopes to impress a potential arranged marriage match, only to begin falling for the girl helping him study instead
Now That I’ve Found You
Kristina Forest
Blacklisted from Hollywood for badmouthing a famous director, a disgraced teen star enlists the help of a cute delivery boy when her eccentric, once-famous grandmother goes missing in New York City on the eve of receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Odd One Out
Nic Stone
High school juniors and best friends Courtney and Jupe, and new sophomore Rae, explore their sexuality and their budding attractions for one another.
Paper Princess
Erin Watt
From strip clubs and truck stops to southern coast mansions and prep schools, one girl tries to stay true to herself. Fans of Gossip Girl and Cruel Intentions will be drawn in by this young adult tale of wealth, excess, and deception, by bestselling authors Elle Kennedy and Jen Frederick, writing as Erin Watt.
Red, White, And Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston
After an international incident affects U.S. and British relations, the president’s son Alex and Prince Henry must pretend to be best friends, but as they spend time together, the two begin a secret romance that could derail a presidential campaign.
The Sea of Tranquility
Katja Millay
Teenage former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov and Josh Bennett, a lonely boy at her school, enter into an intense relationship, with neither unaware of the dark secrets the other’s past holds
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
Passionately in love, Clare and Henry vow to hold onto each other and their marriage as they struggle with the effects of Chrono-Displacement Disorder, a condition that casts Henry involuntarily into the world of time travel.
Today Tonight Tomorrow
Rachel Lynn Solomon
It’s the last day of senior year. Rowan Roth and Neil McNair, both overachievers, have been bitter rivals for all of high school. When Neil is named valedictorian, Rowan has only one chance at victory: Howl, a senior class game that takes them all over Seattle, a farewell tour of the city she loves. Learning that a group of seniors is out to get them, the two reluctantly decide to team up. They’ll play until they are the last players left– and then destroy each other.
Wait for You
J. Lynn
New college student Avery Morgansten falls for the irresistible Cameron Hamilton, but when she begins receiving threatening messages about a traumatic event from her past, she is torn between protecting herself and accepting love.
Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen
Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Depression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them hope.
When Dimple Met Rishi
Sandhya Menon
A heartfelt romantic comedy told from the alternating perspectives of two Indian-American teens whose parents have arranged their marriage follows the efforts of one to distance herself from the agreement and the other to woo his intended during a summer program they are attending together
Graphic Novels
Animus
Antoine Revoy
The residents of a quiet Japanese neighborhood have slowly come to realize that inauspicious, paranormal forces are at play in the most unlikely of places: the local playground. Two friends, a young boy and girl, resolve to exorcise the evil that inhabit it, including a snaggle-toothed monster.
Assassination Classroom.
Yusei Matsui
The students in Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High have a new teacher: an alien octopus with bizarre powers and unlimited strength, who’s just destroyed the moon and is threatening to destroy the earth–unless they can kill him first! Meet the would-be assassins of class 3-E: Sugino, who let his grades slip and got kicked off the baseball team. Karma, who’s doing well in his classes but keeps getting suspended for fighting. And Okuda, who lacks both academic and social skills, yet excels at one subject: chemistry. Who has the best chance of winning that reward? Will the deed be accomplished through pity, brute force or poison …? And what chance does their teacher have of repairing his students’ tattered self-esteem?
Big Mushy Happy Lump
Sarah Andersen
Containing illustrated personal essays on the author’s real-life experiences with anxiety, career, relationships and other adulthood challenges, this collection of the hugely popular, world-famous Sarah’s Scribbles comics are perfect for those of us who boast bookstore-ready bodies and Netflix-ready hair.
Black Hammer/Justice League. Hammer of Justice!
Jeff Lemire
DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics present the ultimate superhero crossover event of 2019! A strange man arrives simultaneously on Black Hammer Farm and in Metropolis and both worlds are warped as Starro attacks! Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Superman, and more crossover with Golden Gail, Colonel Weird and the rest of the Black Hammer gang!
Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World
Pénélope Bagieu
With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Penelope Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known. From Nellie Bly to Mae Jemison or Josephine Baker to Naziq al-Abid, the stories in this comic biography are sure to inspire the next generation of rebel ladies.
Check, Please!
Ngozi Ukazu
Y’all… I might not be ready for this. I may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and very talented amateur pâtissier, but being a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team is a whole new challenge. It’s nothing like co-ed club hockey back in Georgia! First of all? There’s checking. And then, there is Jack—our very attractive but moody captain.
Gender Queer
Maia Kobabe
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be non-binary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity-what it means and how to think about it-for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
Home After Dark
David Small
After his mother abandons them, his father uproots thirteen-year-old Russell Pruitt to a rundown town in 1950s California. Russell tries to fit in while navigating a landscape of homophobic bullies and a serial animal killer. David Small’s storytelling and lush illustrations capture all the uncertainties of adolescence in this coming of age story.
Hyperbole and A Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, And Other Things That Happened
Allie Brosh
This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.
In Waves
A.J. Dungo
In this beautiful graphic memoir, perfectly cast in muted beach tones, Dungo interweaves his story of first love with his girlfriend’s passion for surfing, her heroism in the face of cancer, and a primer on the history of surfing.
King of King Court
Travis Dandro
From a child’s-eye view, Travis Dandro recounts growing up with a drug-addicted birth father, alcoholic step-dad, and overwhelmed mother. As a kid, Dandro would temper the everyday tension with flights of fancy, finding refuge in toys and animals and insects rather than in the unpredictable adults around him. He perceptively details the effects of poverty and addiction on a family while maintaining a child’s innocence for as long as he can.
Making Comics
Lynda Barry
In a new hand-drawn syllabus detailing her creative curriculum, the author has students drawing themselves as monsters and superheroes, convincing students who think they can’t draw that they can, and, most importantly, encouraging them to understand that a daily journal can be anything so long as it is hand drawn.
The Umbrella Academy Volume 1. Apocalypse Suite
Gerard Way
As six superheroes unite to attend their adopted father’s funeral, they must deal with their individual problems and team up to save the world from different foes.
The Umbrella Academy Volume 2. Dallas
Gerard Way
Following the near apocalypse created by one of their own and the death of their beloved mentor Pogo, the team is despondent, but when it’s time for another catastrophic event to rouse the team into action, each member of the team is distracted by some very real problems of their own.
The Umbrella Academy Volume 3. Hotel Oblivion
Gerard Way
Faced with an increasing number of lunatics with superpowers eager to fight his own wunderkind brood, Sir Reginald Hargreeves developed the ultimate solution… But their past is coming back to haunt them.
We’ll Soon Be Home Again
Jessica Bab Bonde
Based on interviews with six Holocaust survivors, these first-person point of view stories relate living through the de-humanization and starvation in concentration camps and the industrial-scale mass murder in extermination camps.
The Wicked + The Divine
Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie
Every ninety years, twelve gods return as young people. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are all dead. It’s happening now. It’s happening again.