Don’t know what to read this summer? Check out this list of staff suggestions. Click the image to view the item in the catalog.

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Fiction

After being dumped for her boyfriend’s lifelong best friend, Petra, Daphne agrees to room with Petra’s freshly heartbroken ex until she can figure things out.

Working here is my last chance to start fresh. I can pretend to be whoever I like. But I’ll soon learn that the Winchesters’ secrets are far more dangerous than my own.

Years after their parents’ murder, identical twin brothers, determined to clear one name at the expense of the other, ask Laura Moran and her Under Suspicion crew to solve this brutal crime and as they get close to the truth, they find the danger from the past finding its way into the present.

Harry Taylor and his unconventional Met team search for a lead when a metal box of radioactive material is found at a dump in Stepney, East London, in the new novel from the legendary British actor. 

A senior resident assistant at the University of Arkansas accepts an easy yet unusual opportunity offered by a visiting professor and things get messy when her new side-hustle is jeopardized by strange new friends and illicit and vengeful dorm antics.

A 30-year-old living with her Peruvian immigrant mother in a Brooklyn apartment after her father’s passing discovers a weird note under his urn that forces the pair to confront their complicated past.

The charming disappointment in the prominent Devlin family, TJ Devlin finds his world turned upside down when his lawyer brother confesses he has just killed one of his clients and, seizing this chance to prove his worth, becomes entangled in a deadly web of deception and murder to save his brother.

In 1918, field nurse Laura Iven returns to Belgium to uncover the truth about her brother Freddie’s supposed death in combat, while Freddie, unable to return to the killing fields, takes refuge with a mysterious man who has the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.

Marybeth and Edward forge a marriage of convenience as they venture westward to the untamed frontier of the newly incorporated railroad town of Cheyenne, where they must rely on each other’s strength amidst the perils of their new life.

Tracing the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 to the aftermath of Orvil Red Feather’s shooting, Opal tries to hold her family together while Orvil becomes emotionally reliant on prescription medications, and his younger brother, suffering from PTSD, secretly enacts blood rituals to connect to his Cheyenne heritage.

The New York Times best-selling author shares six stories based in New York City, which consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters, and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood, told from seven different viewpoints, which stars the indomitable Evelyn Ross.

Despite preferring women to men, Hera, adrift in millennial malaise, meets and falls for a married, middle aged journalist, Arthur, while working at a new outlet moderating their online comments section.

Ten years after one terrible night in Paxos, Greece, Julie, the classic “yummy mummy” of high society, is a stifled woman trapped in a gilded cage, stricken with anxiety and perfectionism until she meets a therapist who gives her hope for a different future.

Inspired by a true story, two teens kidnapped by an African warlord find salvation through love in a powerful and healing historical novel.

In 1965, nursing student Frankie McGrath, after hearing the words “Women can be heroes, too,” impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows her brother to Vietnam where she is overwhelmed by the destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.

As a lonely foster kid, Serafina Conte sought refuge in handmaking journals and writing her wishes within their pages. Now, in the quirky new age store she shares with her two best friends, Sera’s journals are in the spotlight and rumored to manifest great things. Sera’s finally ready to be the leading lady of her life story. Until her plot hits a twist.

Two Fire Island queen bees and their single friend who meant to spend summertime relaxing and gossiping discover a body face down off the side of the boardwalk and in addition to uncovering the murderer also reveal infidelity and backstabbing.

While leading a group bike trip from NYC to Niagara Falls, newly engaged, Abby Stern, encounters Sebastian, the one-night stand she never thought she’d see again, and, determined to keep him at arm’s length over the next two weeks, finds her certainties about herself and the nature of love challenged.

Private detective Jackson Brodie finds his own need for resolution sparked by three investigations, including that of two sisters who discover a shocking clue to the disappearance of their third sister thirty years earlier.

A tale reminiscent of “Hamlet” that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father’s death.

Nonfiction

Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers and plantation ledgers, offers a gripping account of the months between Lincoln’s election and the start of the Civil War, which tore a deeply divided nation in two.

Reexamining the lives of nine women who defined the hell of celebrity in the 2000s, this book reveals how their portrayal has shaped the way all women are viewed today as their stories intersect with our current political, social and cultural climate.

As women, we’re often told that we’re entitled or unrealistic when we want to create a life we love. We start hearing this message from a very early age, and by the time we’re old enough to know what we want, we’ve also been taught to doubt our instincts and to see selfishness in all our longings. This book is the antidote to those voices.

Why are women’s friendships so deep yet so fragile? Friendship coach and educator Danielle Bayard Jackson unpacks the latest research about women’s cooperation and communication, while sharing practical strategies to preserve and strengthen these relationships.

Told through interview with more than 150 people, including bands, producers, managers and fans, a music journalist offers an authoritative, impassioned and occasionally absurd account of the turn-of-the-millennium emo subculture that took over the American music scene from 1999 to 2008

Spanning three decades worth of astute, acerbic, and overall astounding music writing, Kick Out the Jams is the first large-scale anthology of the work of renowned critic Dave Marsh.

A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard

Hoops Muses is an homage to WNBA and women’s basketball, bringing style and flair to all the details, moments, and people who have shaped the collective world of (women’s) hoops.

Comedy Book changes the way we talk about an art form that is more diverse and exciting than ever before.” —Seth Meyers

Glitter and Concrete ducks beneath the velvet ropes of Harlem Renaissance balls, examines drags crucial role in the Stonewall Uprising, traces drag’s influence on disco and punk rock as well as its unifying power during the AIDS crisis and 9/11, and culminates with the modern-day drag queen in the era of RuPauls Drag Race.

Ten years ago, Martinus Evans got some stern advice from his doctor: “Lose weight or die.” First defensive, but then defiant, Evans vowed that day to run a marathon, though his doctor thought he was crazy. Since then, Evans has run eight marathons and hundreds of other distances in his 300-something body, created his own devoted running community, and has been featured on the cover of Runner’s World.

Ziwe made a name for herself by asking guests like Alyssa Milano, Fran Lebowitz, and Chet Hanks direct questions. In Black Friend, she turns her incisive perspective on both herself and the culture at large. 

During WWII, from Normandy to the shores of Japan, American soldiers exercised a level of free speech the military had never known nor would again. It was an extraordinary chapter in American democracy and military history. In the war for “four freedoms,” it was remarkably fitting that troops fought not only with guns but with their pens

Steeped in the glamour and grit of professional ballet, this captivating account of five extraordinarily accomplished Black ballerinas, the Swans of Harlem, celebrates both their historic careers and their 50-year sisterhood, offering a window into the history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.

Biography/Memoir

The number one New York Times best-selling authors of Vanderbilt turn their focus on another legendary American family that built a business empire and became the richest family in America. 

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.

Based on the author’s “Modern Love” essay in The New Yorker, this life-affirming memoir tells the story of the gifts and letters left behind by her mother who was diagnosed with terminal cancer during her childhood

Chronicling the emotional and physical lessons she’s learned as well as her most embarrassing experiences, the scene-stealing actress, writing about the most personal and important moments in her life, from fertility issues and weight gain and loss to rejections, shows us how to love ourselves while making us laugh uncontrollably.

Drawing on the manuscript of Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir, supplemented with meticulous research, two historians and Holocaust experts tell the astonishing true story of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg who saved thousands of lives in Nazi-occupied Poland by masquerading as a Polish aristocrat.

A landmark biography that reclaims Ella Fitzgerald as a major American artist and modernist innovator.

Published to coincide with her return to tennis, this deeply reported, revealing biography of the Haitian-American/Japanese phenomenon and activist chronicles her rise to fame and the incredible impact she’s had on the game and on social justice as she advocates for racial justice and mental health. 

AKA Lucy details how Ball changed the face of comedy and the entertainment industry. It sheds new light on the star’s history, from her childhood through hard-scrabble days trying to make it in show business, falling head over heels in love, to becoming the biggest star in the world.

The incredible, little-known story of one of the most promising race car drivers in the United States who defied the odds as a Black woman in the sport of auto racing to find success, but whose life came crashing down after repeated run-ins with authorities and struggles with mental illness before her death at age 35.

The distinguished stage and screen actor whose illustrious career spans six decades and who has captivated audiences around the world presents his long-awaited memoir in which he recounts his journey thus far, from his humble beginnings in Yorkshire, England, to the very heights of Hollywood.

An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.

Andy Cohen has taken on the most important job of his life— father— and boy (and girl!) does he have a lot to say about it!

Young Adult

Starting her junior year of high school at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy, Sade Hussein decides to investigate when her roommate Elizabeth goes missing and is plunged into a world of dark secrets ones that rival even her own. 

When her prestigious tearoom is threatened, criminal mastermind and collector of secrets Arthie Casimir must make a devil’s bargain with an adversary to infiltrate the dark and glittering vampire society of Athereum to pull off a heist that turns into a fight to save the world.

Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea why or even who Tobias Hawthorne is.

When her former childhood friend now K-pop superstar Robbie Choi asks Elena Soo to the prom that she has no interest in attending, Elena can’t stop thinking about his smile and the promise they made to each other as kids.

Desperate to stop the love of her life from marrying another, Evangeline Fox strikes a deal with the wicked Prince of Hearts a bargain that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy. 

Five years after the shattering murder and suicide of two popular teens, a skeptical high school student reexamines the case before uncovering disturbing clues about what really happened. 

Shy and softhearted Charlie strikes up a friendship with rugby player Nick, and as the two grow closer and take on the ups and downs of high school, their friendship grows into something more.

When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever

In order to break a curse on her kingdom, Isla Crown, the young ruler of Wilding, must compete in the Centennial, a deadly game that only the rulers of six realms are invited to play, and to survive she must lie, cheat, and betray even as love threatens to undo everything.

Belly spends the summer she turns sixteen at the beach just like every other summer of her life, but this time things are very different.

A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends the Liars whose friendship turns destructive.

Jude, seventeen and mortal, gets tangled in palace intrigues while trying to win a place in the treacherous High Court of Faerie, where she and her sisters have lived for a decade.

Wanting to escape her previous life after the accidental death of her mother, Bree enrolls in a program for high school students at the local university before her witness to a magical attack reveals her undiscovered powers as well as sinister truths about her mother’s death. 

Trapped in a mysterious time loop on the day after a member of the Lilies Society disappears, four Archwell Academy students discover they each hold a clue that will unlock the truth about the Lilies, but they’re each harboring a secret they would do anything to hide.

Two teen girls, Mara and Rory, navigate a complex web of love, infection, and survival as they reunite in an experimental resettlement program, grappling with their pasts and the looming threat of the virus that once transformed Mara into a monster.

Making an alliance with Death himself the very man she hates most to solve a murder by poisoning, Signa Farrow is shown that their connection may be more powerful than she dared imagine.

Children’s

Arriving on Marble Island off the coast of California to stay with her nanu, Harriet, who doesn’t always tell the truth, discovers a place full of surprises and a mystery involving her dad that she is determined to solve.

Meet incredible creatures, discover the secrets of the deep and learn all about the amazing habitats, geography, ocean climates, the flora and fauna and even the people who live and work on the world’s oceans.

Peggy is an apologetic pigeon. She automatically says she’s sorry for everything, even when she hasn’t done anything wrong, or when she’s the one getting picked on. But Joan a seagull who sees the trouble this is causing, gives her a nudge to stand up for herself.

You might know that gray wolves live in packs, but there’s so much more to learn about these incredible predators!

When the villainous Sir Ogre unleashes his evil army on Carbuncle, a land of endless rainbows and sugar-sprinkled donuts, Punycorn, a small, athletically challenged unicorn, and a motley group of misfits are Carbuncle’s only hope! 

When Duck lands a home on Moose’s head, Moose does everything to send him away, but this persistent neighbor might just be the best thing spring could bring

With so many different animals on Earth, it’s no surprise there are many different questions about the animal world. Lively text paired with photos and fun illustrations make it easy to stay curious about the world around you.

Fearful foes or fantastic fish? Uncover the truth about sharks and discover the dangers threatening their survival. Meet the world’s most endangered sharks and learn how to help save them.

Seventh-grader Selah knows that to be “normal” she has to keep her feelings tightly controlled when people are around, but after hitting a fellow student, she needs to figure out just what makes her different and why that is ok.

Erie and her older sister, Hurona, leave the only home they’ve ever known and discover that the world is much larger and more complicated than they’d ever imagined