February 2026
Picture Books
Because of a Shoe by Julie Fogliano & Marla Frazee
Everybody has tantrums (kids and moms) in this tender yet funny picture book about an especially impossible-to-put-on pair of shoes—from New York Times bestselling author Julie Fogliano and three-time Caldecott Honor winner Marla Frazee, creator of The Boss Baby.
Even when it’s time to put on our favorite shoes and leave the house, and even when that time turns into a tantrum where someone can’t stop screaming, or flopping on the floor, or throwing a shoe across the room, and someone is making their maddest face and everyone else is waiting . . . Even then, nothing can come between the loving bond of a mother and their child. Not even a shoe.
With expressive text from bestselling author Julie Fogliano and timeless art from three-time Caldecott honor medalist Marla Frazee, here is a story that takes readers through a downward spiral of a shoe-inspired tantrum and is a reminder that even in moments of frustration, we are always our most loveable selves.
Hogbert by Briony May Smith
Uh-oh! When a tasty trail lures Hogbert away from his family, he ends up all alone in the forest. Can he find his way home? Lush artwork, subtle fairy-tale references, and the kindness of new friends keep readers smiling.
When Mommy Boar sends her little snufflebugs to explore the forest for the first time, she cautions them to stick together. After all, the Big Bad Wolf could be near! But Hogbert’s keen nose has other ideas, and after following a trail too far, he finds himself trembling alone in fear. What’s that rustling in the leaves? Just a little red squirrel on her way to visit her sick granny! What’s that growl coming through the trees? Just a snoring white doe who took a bite of an apple that made her sleepy! With each temporarily scary encounter, Hogbert finds that the world is a less frightening place, and that the same sense of smell that led him into trouble may just lead them all out of it again. Fans of Beatrix Potter and children taking their first steps toward independence will revel in the story’s gentle suspense and warm, welcoming illustrations.
Joan in the Cone by Billy Sharff, illustrated by Hala Tahboub
Joan’s life is wonderful, wild, and grand—
running and playing as much as she can!
Days full of fun, where she’s never alone.
And then . . .
came . . .
the cone.
For Joan the dog, life is different now. With her cone, she gets trapped in the doggy door. And she doesn’t command the same respect she once did at the dog park. Through funny challenges and mortifications, Joan reflects on her pre-cone glory days, including what led to her injury (let’s just say, certain choices were made). But with time, Joan begins to see there is love and life and joy beyond the rim of the cone—and sometimes popcorn inside it too, because, it turns out, the cone makes a great snack bowl.
This picture book is guaranteed to make kids and caregivers laugh, and see the trials of life—and dogs in cones—in a whole new way.
The Moon Moved In by Sue Soltis, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez
What would happen if the moon moved in next door? A funny and original story about an unexpected friendship, the essential role of the moon, and our power to connect, even from far away.
When the Moon moves into the long-empty house next door, all the rooms fill up with light—and Stella finally has a friend. But without the Moon in orbit, the world is going topsy-turvy. The tides stop, and the Earth has a new wobble. Stella worries, but the Moon just wants to stay and garden. Can Stella convince the Moon that life on Earth needs the Moon back in orbit? And what will become of her wish for a friend next door?
The Search for Our Cosmic Neighbors by Chloe Savage
Are we alone in the universe? Scientific exploration meets magical adventure in a third stunningly illustrated picture book from the creator of the celebrated The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish.
Commander Julia and her team have one mission: to head into the vast unknown and answer the greatest question of our universe: Are we alone? But after visiting countless moons and planets of every size and color, they’ve found . . . absolutely nothing. For the sake of her crew, who have been crammed into a rocket ship for ten long years, Commander Julia makes the call: it’s time to return home after checking one last planet. And it is on this seemingly desolated wasteland, just as their patience and hope have finally faded, that they find the answer they’ve been looking for—while facing new questions about who they are, what to do next, and what it means it have a home. Laced with humor and wisdom, this third gorgeously illustrated picture book from award-winning creator Chloe Savage blends scientific exploration with magical adventure, filling us with wonder, awe, and the potential for newfound joy every step of the way.
The Sweater: A Story of Community by Larissa Theule, illustrated by Teagan White
An unforgettable picture book about the power of kindness and the importance of community.
As Holly takes her morning stroll in the thicket, she comes across a small bird. It was plain to see he’d been through some things. The bird is alone and trying to find shelter for the winter. And Holly knows exactly what to do to help.
Illustrating the transformative role a community can play in caring for its members, The Sweater is a powerful and poignant tale of compassion and acceptance.
Together, Right Now by Olga Fadeeva
Right now, you are here . . . reading this book. Now imagine what someone else is doing at this exact moment across the world, in a beautifully illustrated picture book that encourages empathy and global connections.
Right now you are here . . . reading this book.
Now imagine what someone else is doing at this exact moment two blocks away.
What about someone across the country? Or an animal on the other side of our big, beautiful planet?
What else is happening round the world, right now?
A variety of colors and textures throughout the book will keep young readers engaged while each new scene will encourage curiosity, an adventurous spirit and a sense of awe that we can all share.
Early Chapter Books
Mia Mayhem (Books 1-11) by Kara West, illustrated by Leeza Hernandez
Meet Mia Macarooney, an ordinary eight-year-old who finds out she has an extraordinary super-secret in this first chapter book in the brand-new Mia Mayhem series!
Mia Macarooney is a regular eight-year-old girl who finds out that she’s A SUPERHERO! Her life literally goes from totally ordinary to totally super when she’s invited to attend the afterschool Program for In-Training Superheroes a.k.a. THE PITS! And the crazy thing is, in a weird meant-to-be sort of way, all of this news somehow feels super right. Because all her life, Mia thought she was just super klutz…but it turns out, she’s just SUPER! So now, it’s up to Mia to balance her regular everyday life and maintain her secret identity as she learns how to be the world’s newest superhero!
With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Mia Mayhem chapter books are perfect for emerging readers.
Easy Readers
Fun! by Ethan Long
Learning how to read should be as fun as a day at the beach! Frolick in the sand with four canine friends on a letter-replacement adventure in this phonics-based early reader from Theodor Seuss Geisel Medalist Ethan Long.
The Letter Setters—a lovable group of dynamic dogs—are enjoying a day at the beach, where Pat has D-U-G the perfect sandcastle! But when a huge wave washes the masterpiece away, the plan turns out to be a D-U-D. . . until the setters come up with a new idea to F-I-X this doggone mess. They’ll build S-I-X sandcastles, and keep their favorite one! But as their plans and their castles take shape, these curious canines realize that the best castle of all might be one they build together.
In this engaging new early reader series from acclaimed author-illustrator Ethan Long, each story starts out with a three letter word. On the next page, one swapped letter makes a new word—and a new canine caper for little ones learning how to read! As this fresh and fun device propels the pups into silly, slapstick sequences, phonics help readers to discover new words, study how words relate to each other, and observe how text and pictures support one another.
Worm and Butterfly Are Friends Always by Kaz Windness
Best friends Worm and Butterfly must spend time apart in this Level 1 Ready-to-Read Graphics “heartwarming story of found family” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)—the sequel to Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book Worm and Caterpillar Are Friends.
Worm and Butterfly are best friends. Worm says best friends stick together, but Butterfly has to fly somewhere warm for winter. Can they still be friends when they are far apart?
Ready-to-Read Graphics books give readers the perfect introduction to the graphic novel format with easy-to-follow panels, speech bubbles with accessible vocabulary, and sequential storytelling that is spot-on for beginning readers. There’s even a how-to guide for reading graphic novels at the beginning of each book.
Youth Graphic Novels
Higher Ground by Tull Suwannakit
An inspiring coming-of-age tale of resilience, courage and spirit that illuminates how life can be beautiful even in the darkest of times.
After a great flood swallows their city, a wise grandmother, her two grandchildren, and their pet rabbit find themselves stranded on the only safe place left—the rooftop of their home. With nothing but their small garden and a handful of supplies, they must learn to survive in a world where the familiar streets have turned to endless water.
Days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, as they face hunger, storms, and the uncertainty of what lies beyond the horizon. But through each hardship, the grandmother shares words of wisdom, teaching her grandchildren the power of resilience, kindness, and hope. As their garden grows, so too does their belief that even in the darkest times, life finds a way forward.
Higher Ground serves as both a warning and a call to action for future generations, urging readers to honor and protect the environment before it’s too late. Told through beautifully illustrated panels, this dystopian middle-grade graphic novel is a powerful meditation on survival, family, and the delicate balance between humanity and nature.
Perfect for fans of The Arrival and Amulet, Higher Ground is a poignant and breathtaking story that shows readers that even in a devastated world, hope can take root and flourish.
Loki (Asgardians series) by George O’Connor
Following the smash-hit Olympians series, George O’Connor embarks on a new graphic novel saga about the Norse gods. This third volume tells the story of Loki, the trickster god!
As night falls on Asgard there is one who does not dream. Loki, a trickster of epic proportions, has much to think on. He hearkens back to his challenge to the wolf Fenrir to break the strongest Dwarf-made chains. He remembers Thjazi, the jotunn in monstrous eagle form, and his pursuit of the apples of youth. And he worries he has fallen out of favor with his blood brother, Odin. Can he use his cunning and wiles to worm his way back in? Or, feeling spurned, will Loki choose to burn it all down?
Unfairies by Huw Aaron
Artemis Fowl meets Dogman in the first book of this madcap graphic novel series following factions of sneaky, double-crossing fairies who will do anything for control of their world, The Garden.
Some stories will tell you that fairies are sweet, beautiful, and kind creatures who fly around with sparkly wands. But they are WRONG! Fairies are horrible, rude back stabbers who are constantly at war with each other. (They’re not even magical, for crying out loud!)
And then there’s Pip, a clueless tree fairy who couldn’t give two hoots about power and would rather just have a party. But after being tasked with delivering an important message from the root stores all the way to the top of the tree, Pip is thrown into a whirlwind adventure involving a dubious ancient prophecy, epic acorn-based warfare, and sinister plots that could shatter the delicate peace among the fairies for good. The Garden may be in desperate need of a hero . . . Too bad it’ll have to settle for Pip.
Wrong Friend by Charise Mericle Harper, illustrated by Rory Lucey
What happens when your BFF is no longer forever?
A fresh and honest graphic novel about friendships lost and found.
Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier!
Charise and Casey have been best friends for years. It never mattered that Casey was older by two years―until she started high school. Now, the two barely talk, and Charise is on a mission to get a new best friend. But can she find that perfect person while navigating long-distance friendships, guinea pig allergies, and the embarrassing quirks of her family?
Junior Fiction
The Ordinary and Extraordinary Auden Greene by Corey Ann Haydu
In this poignant, magical tale by the acclaimed author of Eventown, two girls find themselves dropped into each other’s world—and must face down dragons they’ve only imagined.
Auden “Denny” Greene is happiest with her friend Runa, creating stories set in their imaginary land of Sorrowfeld, where princesses rule and cursed dragons are a constant danger. But now that they are turning twelve, Runa seems ready to give up on the magic of Sorrowfeld just when Denny needs it the most…
Princess Auden is the last remaining princess of Sorrowfeld—and on her twelfth birthday, she will be expected to vanquish the dragons that took her family. Only, when a swarm attacks her birthday celebration, all she can do is run…
But suddenly. Auden is in Denny’s world. And Denny is in Auden’s.
The two Audens have switched places. No one but them has any idea. And now, each girl must come into her own power in order to fight the other’s dragons.
The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
A thrilling mystery and collaboration between award-winning and bestselling authors Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin! This historical adventure follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother’s disappearance.
Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act…
Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister, Lizzie, share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amid one of the greatest secrets of World War II—Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi’s Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.
The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler’s invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother’s disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues that unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?
The Experiment by Rebecca Stead
Nathan wants to help his people, but first he has to figure out who they are…
Nathan never understood what was “fun” about secrets, probably because he’s always had to keep a very big one.
Although he appears to be a typical sixth-grader (with parents, homework and a best friend, Victor), Nathan learned at an early age that his family is from another planet. Now, their time on Earth may be coming to an end.
Nathan, his parents and nine other families are part of an experiment that suddenly seems to be going wrong. Some of the experimenters, including Nathan’s first crush, Izzy, are disappearing without a word. After his family is called back to the mothership, Nathan begins to question everything he’s been taught to believe about who he is and why he’s on Earth.
The Experiment is a fast-paced coming-of-age novel that asks universal questions about how we figure out who we want to be, and whether it’s ever too late to change.
The Mysterious Magic of Lighthouse Lane by Erin Stewart
A young empath spending the summer with her grandfather stumbles upon a bit of magic in this middle grade novel about letting in the light—perfect for fans of Barbara Dee and Jamie Sumner.
Sixth grader Lucy thinks people are seriously overrated. People come with feelings, and Lucy can’t escape them because of her so-called “gift” of empathy. She can feel the tension when her parents fight and can’t escape the truth of what went wrong in her relationship with her former best friend. So when Lucy’s parents suggest spending her summer vacation with her reclusive grandfather at his isolated cabin on Prince Edward Island, she jumps at the chance to get away from people, feelings—all of it.
Lucy arrives at her grandfather’s with a small suitcase and the only thing she really needs: her camera. From behind the lens, she can watch the world without having to feel any of it. While exploring her new home, Lucy finds her grandmother’s old camera and a darkroom that hasn’t been used since Nana passed away five years ago. Lucy starts taking pictures of the people in her grandfather’s town and developing photos the old-fashioned way.
The finished photos reveal everything about the subjects—their deepest fears and hidden desires. Along with a quirky neighbor and her reluctant grandfather, Lucy sets out to get to the bottom of the photographic magic. But can she uncover the truth of her grandmother’s legacy and figure out what to do with the magical photos before summer ends?
The Lions’ Run by Sara Pennypacker
The acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of Pax delivers an historical novel about an orphan during WWII who discovers unexpected courage within himself when he becomes involved with the Resistance.
Petit éclair. That’s what the other boys at the orphanage call Lucas DuBois. Lucas is tired of his cowardly reputation, just as he’s tired of the war and the Nazi occupation of his French village. He longs to show how brave he can be.
He gets the chance when he saves a litter of kittens from cruel boys and brings them to an abandoned stable to care for them. There he comes upon a stranger who is none too happy to see him: Alice, the daughter of a horse trainer, who is hiding her filly from German soldiers.
Soon Lucas begins to realize they are not the only ones in the village with secrets. The housekeeper at the German maternity home and a priest at the orphanage pass coded messages; a young mother at the home makes dangerous plans to keep her baby from forced adoption; and a neighbor in town may be harboring a Jewish family.
Emboldened by the unlikely heroes all around him, Lucas is forced to decide how much he is willing to risk to make the most courageous rescue of all.
Youth Nonfiction
101 Dog Tricks: Kids Edition by Kyra Sundance
This Kids Edition of the internationally best-selling 101 Dog Tricks presents tricks, games, and crafts specifically designed to get children involved in training the family dog. Step-by-step instructions and photography show kids exactly what to do.
Having your children train the family dog to perform tricks is an ideal way for them to build a safe and respectful relationship with their pet. Plus, it’s a great way for kids and dogs to bond, build confidence, and have fun. Color photos show kids performing each step of the activity along with succinct descriptions of the numbered steps. The step-by-step approach, difficulty rating, and prerequisites will allow you and your child to start training easily and immediately. No special tools (such as clickers) or knowledge of specific training methods are required.
The amazing, yet simple-to-learn, tricks and games include:
- Hide-and-seek
- Peekaboo
- Hoop jump
- Balance on a brick
- Tidy up toys into toy box
Also included are fun arts and crafts projects that kids can make for and with their dogs, including paw paintings, personalized dogwear, handmade dog toys, and painted pet portraits.
The Big Book of Pi: The Famous Number You Can Never Know by Anita Lehmann
A mathe-magician explores what makes Pi so intriguing, so unknowable and so very important to our lives.
For millennia, humans have been obsessed with the number Pi. We needed it for architecture, geometry and astronomy, and so it was sought by the ancient Egyptians, the Mayans and the ancient Chinese. But no one has ever found it—and no one ever will because Pi is infinite and irrational. Its decimals contain the birthdates of all the children who have ever lived, every piece of music, the complete works of Shakespeare. Pi never ends and can’t be learned, but humans keep on trying. Today, we know trillions of decimals of Pi, even if the first fifteen are more than enough to send a rocket to Mars!
Telling the story of Archimedes the Greek to Srinivasa Ramanujan the Indian (who saw in his dreams a formula for calculating Pi still used by computers today), via Arabs and mathematics enthusiasts from all over the world and all eras, The Big Book of Pi is an extraordinary adventure (almost) to infinity.
Written by a mathe-magician with a Pi-passion, in these pages you’ll meet a man who memorized ten thousand digits—and get a chance to try yourself. You’ll read about a Pi paradox and a Pi magic trick and laugh at more Pi jokes than you ever thought you’d hear. We can’t ever know Pi, but there sure is a lot to learn!
Feeling Feelings: Inside the World of Raina Telgemeier by Raina Telgemeier
Spend an afternoon with Raina as she shares her artwork and tells stories about a range of topics spanning from her childhood to the creation of her graphic novels Smile, Sisters, Guts, Drama, and Ghosts!
Raina Telgemeier is the #1 New York Times bestselling, multiple Eisner Award-winning cartoonist who has been at the forefront of today’s middle-grade graphic novel boom and has published several beloved books that are widely regarded as modern classics. The idea to create Facing Feelings was born from an exhibition featuring Raina’s work that was shown at The Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. This book explores how Raina developed into a legendary cartoonist, looks at the artists who influenced her work, and considers why her art resonates so strongly with readers of all ages. Rare artwork, an interview, special commentary from Raina, and more are included!
How to Survive an Apocalypse: The End of the World Doesn’t Have to Be the End of the World by Cameron Hardy & Coby Coonradt, illustrated by Victoria Stebleva
Would you know what to do if there was an AI takeover or an asteroid hit Earth? If not, don’t worry. In How to Survive an Apocalypse, preppers and podcast hosts Cam and Coby have got your back!
In this fun and practical illustrated guide, you’ll learn prepping 101, from basic first aid and water purification to packing a useful emergency kit and how to communicate during a tech outage.
Then you’ll discover how to survive all kinds of disasters, including a zombie apocalypse, a supernatural takeover, and an alien invasion.
Packed with useful tips, tricks, and strategies, this laugh-out-loud handbook will have you hoping for the worst!
Kids Learn to Stitch by Lucinda Guy and Francois Hall
Kids Learn to Stitch introduces children to the creative world of hand sewing. The latest in the successful Kids Learn to… series, following on from Kids Learn to Knit and Kids Learn to Crochet (which combined sold almost 20,000 copies), this book enlists the help of the two original animal characters, Pip and Peg, from the earlier books. With their aid, children learn how to use a sewing needle and thread to make simple, practical and decorative projects, with six lovely finished designs acting as incentive!
My Latin America and the Caribbean: A Celebration by Gabriela Goldin Marcovich, illustrated by Andres Landazabal
From teeming rainforests and city plazas to bright coral reefs and the sweeping ruins of civilizations, this wide-ranging portrait of the people, places, flora, and fauna of Latin America and the Caribbean—from ancient to modern times—is a magical bird’s-eye view.
Thousands of years ago, early humans crossed an icy land bridge between what is now Siberia and Alaska onto the American continent, gradually migrating south to build vibrant new societies and cultures, erect pyramids and great cities, and cultivate foods like maize, potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate that still grace our tables today. Join a tiny migrating hummingbird for an enchanted tour of the dazzling biodiversity and human history of Latin America and the Caribbean. In spread after color-splashed spread, our bejeweled guide traverses volcanoes and barrier reefs to reveal howler monkeys and singing frogs, manatees and macaws, anteaters and alpacas. Ranging from the Amazon, our planet’s largest rainforest, to the Andes, Earth’s longest continental mountain range; from the magnificent civilizations of the Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas to the conquistadors and modern struggles for independence; from the sugar skulls and candle-lit cemeteries of Mexico’s Day of the Dead to Carnival in Brazil; and from cricket and football to salsa, reggae, and calypso, this friendly tour spiced with bright illustrations, maps, and an index offers young readers a taste of the extraordinary richness of this captivating part of the world.
A Pebble for Your Pocket: Mindful Stories for Children and Grown-ups by Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh presents Buddhist teachings in child-friendly parables, offering a colorful introduction to mindfulness for kids ages 5-10. This expanded edition now includes Under the Rose Apple Tree and several new stories—plus over 2 dozen practices for kids and grown-ups.
Written in a highly accessible style that doesn’t rely on lot of jargon or difficult vocabulary, Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes the importance of the present moment through vivid metaphors, original allegories, and colorful stories. Young readers will learn:
• How to handle anger
• How to live in the present moment
• How to recognize the interconnectedness of all things.
• Practices for transforming anger or unhappiness
• Techniques for connecting to the wonders of nature and the present moment
• And more!
This revised edition contains teachings and stories that the whole family can benefit from, as well as practices such as transforming anger in the family, instructions on how to ‘invite the bell’, breathing and sitting meditation, ‘touching the Buddha inside’, and others.
Young Adult Fiction
I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang
Jenna Chen has spent her life in the shadow of her flawless cousin. Jessica Chen is so smart she gets the top score on every test. Jessica Chen is so beautiful people stop in the hallway to stare at her. Jessica Chen is so perfect she got into Harvard.
And Jenna Chen will only ever be a disappointment.
So when Jenna makes a desperate wish to become her cousin, the last thing she expects is for it to come true—literally. All of a sudden she gets to live the life she’s always dreamed of . . . but being the model student at cutthroat Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she’d imagined. Worse, people seem to be forgetting that someone named Jenna Chen ever existed. But isn’t it worth trading it all away—her artistic talent, her childhood home, even the hope of golden boy Aaron Cai loving her back—to be Jessica Chen?
The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig
All gifts come with a price.
Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.
When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.
But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?
From the astonishing mind of Erin A. Craig comes the breathtaking fairy tale retelling readers have been waiting for—what does a life well-lived mean, and how do we justify the impossible choices we make for the ones we love? The Thirteenth Child is a must-read for fans of dark fairy tales, romantasy, and epic fantasy alike.
Adult Fiction
Cold Zero by Brad Thor
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor and USA TODAY bestselling author Ward Larsen, comes a heart-pounding thriller of survival, espionage, and global brinkmanship, where the frozen Arctic becomes the deadliest battlefield on Earth.
A vanished plane. An earth-shattering secret. A countdown to World War III.
Hemisphere Airlines Flight 777—the most advanced jetliner ever built—disappears without a trace over the North Pole. Crippled by sabotage, it crash-lands on the ice, stranding the surviving passengers in a wasteland of frigid cold and chaos.
The real storm, however, is still coming.
Hidden inside the wreckage is the prototype for a revolutionary piece of technology that could upend the balance of world power. Now Washington, Moscow, and Beijing are racing to be the first on scene to retrieve it—at any cost.
Trapped in the middle of the world’s most dangerous flashpoint are CIA operative Kasey Sheridan and former fighter pilot turned first officer, Brett Sharpe. Hunted by enemy forces, they must spirit both the device and its creator across the ice to safety—before rival superpowers turn the Arctic into a war zone.
With the clock ticking and the temperature dropping, the fate of the free world is about to be decided at the top of the globe.
The Hadacol Boogie by James Lee Burke
Dave Robicheaux, James Lee Burke’s iconic detective, returns to investigate the death of an unidentified woman, pulling him into a vortex of corruption and violence in the Louisiana bayou
When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux’s property, he knows his world and family are about to change.
With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks on an investigation that brings him into the most dangerous moments of his career and threatens the lives of Valerie and his daughter Alafair.
He encounters a local handyman who leaves cryptic notes and warns of the ghosts who roam the shores of the bayou and is targeted by a vicious New Orleans button man and gangsters from the north.
Through brilliant prose and a quintessential cast of characters, James Lee Burke weaves a portrait of a gritty, violent Louisiana at the turn of the 20th century. Visceral, atmospheric, and wholly original, The Hadacol Boogie brings to life Dave Robicheaux’s fierce determination to confront evil both past and present.
Huguette by Cara Black
In the lawlessness of post–World War II France, a resilient young woman fights to survive and make a living, no matter the cost—from the New York Times bestselling author of Three Hours in Paris and the Aimée Leduc series
After Libération, spring 1945: Seventeen-year-old Huguette Faure is a survivor. The war has taken everything from her—both her parents and her sense of safety. Now, pregnant and on the lam, she cannot return to her childhood home in Paris. Forced to reinvent herself, she must outrun her father’s enemies, who want her dead. After narrowly avoiding jail time—thanks to the help of a kindhearted police officer named Claude Leduc—Huguette lands a job assisting a legendary film director. As her role develops from helping him with chores to cooking his books, she sees an opportunity to break free from the ghosts of her past once and for all.
In this big-hearted story of resilience, New York Times bestselling author Cara Black offers a wholly original depiction of postwar France as well as introduces Claude Leduc—the man who decades later inspired his granddaughter, Aimée, to become a private investigator.
I’m Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig
After a decades-long stint in prison, former serial killer Carol is looking to kick back and relax in her new retirement home…until a fellow resident drops dead and Carol has to prove she actually didn’t do it this time….
Carol is delighted to be leaving her tiny prison cell behind to take her place in a luxury retirement home. She’s hoping her past as a serial killer won’t come to light so she can make a few friends and find some murder-free hobbies. But it’s not long before a fellow resident—who happens to be a former police commissioner—drops dead, and Carol’s true identity is leaked—making catching up over daily activities of bingo and baking rather awkward.
Just her luck, Carol soon realizes that the victim wasn’t the only former law enforcement officer at Sheldon Oaks—it’s filled to the brim with former cops, barristers, and government representatives, her newfound friends included. And everyone thinks Carol’s guilt is a no-brainer, but she is ready to prove them dead wrong…without killing anyone, for once.
The Mad Wife by Meagan Church
From bestselling author Meagan Church comes a haunting exploration of identity, motherhood, and the suffocating grip of societal expectations that will leave you questioning the lives we build―and the lies we live.
They called it hysteria. She called it survival.
Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife. Despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations, she keeps her husband happy, her household running, and her gelatin salads the talk of the neighborhood. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu’s carefully crafted life begins to unravel.
When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman’s constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew―and soon, others begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?
In the vein of The Bell Jar and The Hours, The Mad Wife weaves domestic drama with psychological suspense, so poignant and immersive, you won’t want to put it down.
The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery
Knives Out meets Downton Abbey! Secrets, murder, and mayhem collide as this unlikely sleuthing duo—an under-butler and a foul-mouthed octogenarian—hunt a killer in a manor sealed against the end of the world, in this locked-room mystery by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ross Montgomery.
Cornwall, 1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the passing of Halley’s Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom—every window, chimney, and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that lies within… By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow.
All eyes turn to Stephen Pike, Tithe Hall’s newest under-butler. Fresh out of Borstal for a crime he didn’t commit, he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. His unlikely ally? Miss Decima Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, eighty-year-old family matriarch. Fearless and unconventional, she relishes chaos and puzzles alike, and a murder is just the thrill she’s been waiting for.
Together, this mismatched duo must navigate secret passages, buried grudges, and rising terror to unmask the killer before it’s too late…
Nash Falls by David Baldacci
When Walter Nash is recruited by the FBI to help bring down a global crime network his life is turned completely upside down in this thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.
Nash is an intelligent man, tough but fair-minded. He has a wife and a daughter and a very high-level position at Sybaritic Investments, where his innate skills and dogged tenacity have carried him to the top of the pyramid in his business career. Despite never going on grand adventures, and always working too many hours, he has a happy and upscale life with his family.
However, following his estranged Vietnam-veteran father’s funeral, Nash is unexpectedly approached by the FBI in the middle of the night. They have an important request: become their inside man to expose an enterprise that is laundering large sums of money through Sybaritic. At the top of this illegal operation is Victoria Steers, an international criminal mastermind that the FBI has been trying to bring down for years.
Nash has little choice but to accept the FBI’s demands and try to bring Steers and her partners to justice. But when Steers discovers that Nash is working with the FBI, she turns the tables on him in a way he never could have contemplated. And that forces Nash to take the ultimate step both to survive and to take his revenge: He must become the exact opposite of who he has always been.
And even that may not be enough.
The Predicament by William Boyd
From the internationally bestselling author, a thrilling novel starring the travel writer-turned-reluctant spy Gabriel Dax, who finds himself implicated in a dangerous conspiracy with global consequences
1963, Guatemala. The country is in turmoil, with a presidential election looming and a charismatic, left-wing ex-priest and trade union leader predicted to win. United Fruits, a giant American corporation responsible for a large percentage of the country’s GNP, meanwhile, is not pleased by this prospect. Neither is the CIA. Amid the uncertainty, Gabriel Dax arrives on orders from his MI6 handler Faith Green, who has tasked him with assessing the fallout from the election.
Upon arrival, Gabriel meets Frank Sartorius, the local CIA agent. Despite Sartorius’s genial manner, Gabriel suspects something untrustworthy brewing under the surface. Soon, a political assassination with suspicions of Mafia involvement leads to riots, and Dax escapes to Europe, thinking he will finally return to his normal life as a travel writer. But when Green compels him to investigate some shady characters in West Berlin, it becomes clear that an even greater danger is afoot as the magnetic young President Kennedy prepares to arrive for a state visit. A gripping novel of politics and spy craft with dramatic twists and turns, The Predicament shows Boyd to be one of our most masterful contemporary storytellers.
Queen Esther by John Irving
After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award–winning film, The Cider House Rules, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud’s, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes in Esther—a Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism.
Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won’t find any family who’ll adopt her.
When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren’t Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther’s gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, Esther Nacht is seventy-six.
John Irving’s sixteenth novel is a testament to his enduring ability to weave complex characters and intricate narratives that challenge and captivate. Queen Esther is not just a story of survival but a profound exploration of identity, belonging, and the enduring impact of history on our personal lives showcasing why Irving remains one of the world’s most beloved, provocative, and entertaining authors—a storyteller of our time and for all time.
The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams
From the two-time Emmy Award–winning producer and host of the Black and Published podcast comes a sweeping multi-generational epic following seven generations of Dupree women as they navigate love, loss, and the unyielding ties of family in the tradition of Homegoing and The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois.
It’s 1995, and fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity of her father. But her mother, Nadia, keeps her secrets close, while her grandmother Gladys remains silent about the family’s past, including why she left Land’s End, Alabama, in 1953. As Tati digs deeper, she uncovers a legacy of family secrets, where every generation of Dupree women has posed more questions than answers.
From Jubi in 1917, whose attempt to pass for white ends when she gives birth to Ruby; to Ruby’s fiery lust for Sampson in 1934 that leads to a baby of her own; to the night in 1980 that changed Nadia’s future forever, the Dupree women carry the weight of their heritage. Bound by a mysterious malediction that means they will only give birth to daughters, the Dupree women confront a legacy of pain, resilience, and survival that began with an enslaved ancestor who risked everything for freedom.
The Seven Daughters of Dupree masterfully weaves together themes of generational trauma, Black women’s resilience, and unbreakable familial bonds. Echoing the literary power of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, Nikesha Elise Williams delivers a feminist literary fiction that explores the ripple effects of actions, secrets, and love through seven generations of Black women.
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering.
Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with.
Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.
Such a Perfect Family by Nalini Singh
A man with a deadly past marries into the perfect, most respectable family in this riveting thriller from New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh. . . .
A woman buried.
A woman broken.
A woman crashed.
A woman burned.
And the man who knew them all.
Love at first sight, a whirlwind Vegas wedding, a fairy-tale romance.
For forty-three days, Tavish Advani has been the happiest man in the world—until his new life turns to ash, his wealthy in-laws’ house going up in a fiery explosion. His badly injured wife lies in a coma, her family all but annihilated.
Tavish thought he’d left the sins of his Los Angeles life behind, but it’s not so easy to leave behind an investigation into the deaths of several high-profile women—all of whom he’d professed to love. Tragedy and death follow him no matter where he goes . . . but this time, he knows he’s truly innocent.
Desperately trying to clear his name as the authorities zero in, Tavish begins his own investigation into the fire—and learns that his wife’s picture-perfect family may have been nothing but a meticulously constructed mirage. The truth is much darker than anything Tavish could’ve imagined. . . .
This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page
A woman receives an unexpected gift from the man she loved and lost—a year of books, one for every month—launching a reading-inspired journey to live, dream, and love again in this glimmering and heart-stopping novel.
Twelve books. Twelve months. One chance to heal her heart…
When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her there’s a birthday gift from her husband waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldn’t come as more of a shock. Partly because she can’t remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. But mainly because Joe died five months ago….
When she goes to pick up the present, Alfie, the bookshop owner with kind eyes, explains the gift—twelve carefully chosen books with handwritten letters from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.
At first Tilly can’t imagine sinking into a fictional world, but Joe’s tender words convince her to try, and something remarkable happens—Tilly becomes immersed in the pages, and a new chapter begins to unfold in her own life. Monthly trips to the bookstore—and heartfelt conversations with Alfie—give Tilly the comfort she craves and the courage to set out on a series of reading-inspired adventures that take her around the world. But as she begins to share her journey with others, her story—like a book—becomes more than her own.
This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman
A kaleidoscopic portrait of a modern American family—steadfast, complicated, begrudging, and loving—from the bestselling author of Isola
Was this just a brief skirmish, or the beginning of a thirty-year feud? In the Rubinstein family, it could go either way.
When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own lives—divorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals—their children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible.
With This Is Not About Us, master storyteller Allegra Goodman—whose prior collection was heralded as “one of the most astute and engaging books about American family life” (The Boston Globe)—returns to the form and subject that endeared her to legions of readers. Sharply observed and laced with humor, This Is Not About Us is a story of growing up and growing old, the weight of parental expectations, and the complex connection between sisters—a big-hearted book about the love that binds a family across generations.
Vigil by George Saunders
Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.
She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?
Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead), clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room; a black calf grazes on the love seat; a man from a distant, drought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s postdeath future.
With the wisdom, playfulness, and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
From the Booker prize–winning, bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday, a genre-bending new novel full of secrets and surprises; an immersive exploration, across time and history, of what can ever be truly known.
2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, ‘A Corona for Vivien’. Much wine is drunk as the guests listen, and a delicious meal consumed. Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come people will speculate about the message of this poem, a copy of which has never been found, and which remains an enduring mystery.
2119: Just over one hundred years in the future, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost. In the water-logged south of what used to be England, Thomas Metcalfe, a lonely scholar and researcher, longs for the early twenty-first century as he chases the ghost of one poem, ‘A Corona for Vivian’. How wild and full of risk their lives were, thinks Thomas, as he pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the elusive poem’s discovery, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a brutal crime that destroy his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.
What We Can Know is a masterpiece, a fictional tour de force, a love story about both people and the words they leave behind, a literary detective story which reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.
You & Me and You & Me and You & Me by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees
Meet Adam and Jules.
Married for nearly twenty-five years and stuck in a rut, their future looks, well, boring.
Then Adam stumbles across a box of old mixtapes he and Jules made for each other when they were young and falling in love. He dusts off his vintage stereo, inserts one of the cassettes, presses “Play” …and the unbelievable happens.
With the power to travel back in time, Jules and Adam can recapture the headiness of falling in love. But they soon realize that visiting the past could be as dangerous as it is addictive, because the temptation to change just a few tiny things is irresistible.
As the consequences start to spiral out of control, can they find a way back to their messy and imperfect, yet glorious, real life? Or will they lose each other forever?
Adult Nonfiction
The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by Richard Bell
A prize-winning historian’s fascinating and unfamiliar recasting of America’s war of independence as a transformative international event
In this revelatory and enthralling book, award-winning historian Richard Bell reveals the full breadth and depth of America’s founding event. The American Revolution was not only the colonies’ triumphant liberation from the rule of an overbearing England; it was also a cataclysm that pulled in participants from around the globe and threw the entire world order into chaos.
Repositioning the Revolution at the center of an international web, Bell’s narrative ranges as far afield as India, Africa, Central America, and Australia. As his lens widens, the “War of Independence” manifests itself as a sprawling struggle that upended the lives of millions of people on every continent and fundamentally transformed the way the world works, disrupting trade, restructuring penal systems, stirring famine, and creating the first global refugee crisis. Bell conveys the impact of these developments at home and abroad by grounding the narrative in the gripping stories of individuals—including women, minorities, and other disenfranchised people. The result is an unforgettable and unexpected work of American history that shifts everything we thought we knew about our creation story.
A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction by Elizabeth McCracken
From bestselling and award-winning author and professor Elizabeth McCracken comes an irresistible look at the art of writing.
Writing can feel like an endless series of decisions. How does one face the blank page? Move a character around a room? Deal with time? Undertake revision? The good and bad news is that in fiction writing, there are no definitive answers to such questions: writers must come up with their own. Elizabeth McCracken, author of bestselling novels, National Book Award long-listed story collections, and a highly praised memoir, has been teaching for more than thirty-five years, guiding her many students through their own answers.
In A Long Game, she shares insights gleaned along the way, offering practical tips and incisive thoughts about her own work as an artist. The book covers:
- Understanding and developing characters
- Plot, and what to do if it eludes you
- Her thoughts on common writing “rules”
- And of course, the Butter Cow Lady of the Iowa State Fair and her work as it relates to revision
Writing “is a long game,” she notes. “What matters is that you learn to get work done in the way that is possible for you, through consistency or panic. Through self-recrimination or self-delusion or self-forgiveness: every life needs all three.”
As much a book about the life of a working artist as it is a guide to thinking about fiction, A Long Game is a revelatory and indispensable resource for any writer.
Six Seasons of Pasta by Joshua McFadden
In the follow-up to Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, James Beard Award–winning author Joshua McFadden teaches home cooks how to use storebought dried pasta to create seasonal, restaurant-quality dishes at home. Named a Best New Cookbook of 2025 by Bon Appetit, Eater, Epicurious, Publishers Weekly, Saveur, The Strategist, The Week, and more.
In Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, Joshua McFadden’s approach to seasonal produce revolutionized the way we cook with vegetables. Now, he’s back to transform the way we cook and eat pasta. In Six Seasons of Pasta, noodles become the perfect showcase for each season’s bounty of produce. There are more than 125 recipes organized by season, plus the Italian classics that everyone should have in their repertoire, from Cacio e Pepe to Pasta Fagiole (three ways!). Artichokes with Tomato and Mint celebrates the fresh, delicate flavors of spring; Fall’s warming notes are reflected in Mushrooms with Onion, Pancetta, and Cream; and a classic Winter dish like Baked Ziti with Broccoli Rabe is hearty and nourishing. And the best part? These recipes are all made using storebought dried pasta. Six Seasons of Pasta does so much more than pair noodles with seasonal produce. The book teaches us how to intuitively cook a perfect pasta dish from scratch using McFadden’s no-fail “build-the-sauce-in-the-skillet” method. McFadden’s time-tested technique will always result in a satisfying and delicious bowl of pasta.
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone
Through the “revelatory and gut-wrenching” (Associated Press) stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend—the dramatic rise of the working homeless in cities across America.
The working homeless. In a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success, there is something scandalous about this phrase. But skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights have produced a startling phenomenon: People with full-time jobs cannot keep a roof over their head, especially in America’s booming cities, where rapid growth is leading to catastrophic displacement. These families are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but a thriving one.
In this gripping and deeply reported book, Brian Goldstone plunges readers into the lives of five Atlanta families struggling to remain housed in a gentrifying, increasingly unequal city. Maurice and Natalia make a fresh start in the country’s “Black Mecca” after being priced out of DC. Kara dreams of starting her own cleaning business while mopping floors at a public hospital. Britt scores a coveted housing voucher. Michelle is in school to become a social worker. Celeste toils at her warehouse job while undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Each of them aspires to provide a decent life for their children—and each of them, one by one, joins the ranks of the nation’s working homeless.
Through intimate, novelistic portraits, Goldstone reveals the human cost of this crisis, following parents and their kids as they go to sleep in cars, or in squalid extended-stay hotel rooms, and head out to their jobs and schools the next morning. These are the nation’s hidden homeless—omitted from official statistics, and proof that overflowing shelters and street encampments are only the most visible manifestation of a far more pervasive problem.
By turns heartbreaking and urgent, There Is No Place for Us illuminates the true magnitude, causes, and consequences of the new American homelessness—and shows that it won’t be solved until housing is treated as a fundamental human right.
January 2026
Picture Books
Look Up by Azul López
From the beloved illustrator of Giant on the Shore, a dreamy retelling of a Mexican legend about the other world that exists right in front of us, if only we slow down and look.
Many, many years ago, a man was immensely curious about the sky, his curiosity as big as the sky itself. He would spend all day looking up, his eyes reflecting clouds or stars. But as time went on, his gaze was brought to earth, and he joined his neighbors in looking down, putting one foot in front of the other-until the passing days became a mysterious labyrinth that opened before him, leading him somewhere secret.
With the power of a myth and the finesse of a watercolor, Look Up opens up the worlds within worlds that only careful attention can reveal. Award-winning author and artist Azul López welcomes us into subtle and immersive acrylic paintings in a tale of wonder lost and found, and of the courage required to turn one’s gaze in another direction.
A Quick Trip to the Store by Sam Wedelich
A belly laugh-inducing tale about a mother-daughter trip to the store that goes absolutely bananas when a little girl takes the task of grocery shopping into her own hands.
It all started when Mom said we were out of bananas.
But who likes going to the grocery store? Especially with Moms who always say “no” to sugar cereals and don’t let you ride in the cart. But for one little kid, the perfect opportunity rolls by when Mom is busy chatting with neighbors. It turns out, the store isn’t boring AT ALL if you’re the one pushing the cart! But where are the bananas? And what happens when you find yourself IN the cart, hurtling down an aisle at full speed??
With lively illustrations, this funny read-aloud narrates a true-to-life tale about the total nuisance that is grocery shopping with your parents, and the sweet result of an event that goes hilariously wrong.
Easy Readers
Dragon Tales by Dav Pilkey
Dragon Tales contains three hilarious, warmhearted, and loveable friendship stories about Dragon, a hero that everyone will cheer for! With easy-to-read text, a short story format, plenty of humor, and full-color artwork throughout, these books will boost reading confidence and fluency.
A Friend for Dragon
Lonely Dragon has made a friend and he loves spending time with his new buddy! He enjoys telling scary stories, cracking funny jokes, and fixing a midnight snack for them to share. But when his friend appears to be ill, Dragon demonstrates what it means to be a true friend.
Dragon Gets By
When Dragon is tired, he accidentally reads an egg and fries his morning newspaper! And when Dragon goes grocery shopping, he buys more food than he can fit into his car! Using his trademark humor and heart, Dav Pilkey illustrates the fun side of chores and responsibility.
Dragon’s Fat Cat
When Dragon finds a stray cat in his yard, he brings it inside to escape the cold. He likes living with his new feline friend, but Dragon soon realizes that he doesn’t know how to take care of it. He doesn’t know how to train the cat, what to feed the cat, and what to do about all the yellow puddles the cat leaves behind! Dav Pilkey illustrates the highs and lows of having a new pet in this tender story about care and responsibility.
Early Chapter Books
Owl Diaries: Eva Saves the Day by Rebecca Elliott
In the next installment of this New York Times bestselling early chapter book series, Eva and her friends find and take care of some mysterious eggs!
In this latest story, it’s Be a Swooperhero Week at school! Eva and her friends are excited to dress up in their best superhero costumes. At a special picnic, they all play games and eat lots of delicious food. It’s the most perfect class outing ever until Eva and Lucy discover twenty-five mysterious eggs. No one seems to be protecting the eggs. So Eva decides that she and her classmates must keep the eggs safe until they hatch! Will they be able to save the day?
With speech bubbles, easy-to-read text, and adorable characters, this New York Times bestselling series is perfect for newly independent readers!
Press Start: The Super Jump Between Worlds! by Thomas Flintham
Super Rabbit Boy jumps to strange new worlds in the latest page-turning installment of this USA Today bestselling series!
Meanie King Viking has kidnapped everyone in Animal Town and sent Super Rabbit Boy to another world! With the help of his new friend, Blocky, Super Rabbit Boy learns how to jump through portals that take him to new worlds. Blocky wants to help Super Rabbit Boy get back home, but he’s not as good at being a hero. As they keep jumping, each world gets stranger than the last. Will the next jump be the jump home? Can Super Rabbit Boy finally rescue his friends?
Youth Graphic Novels
City Under the City by Dan Yaccarino
Bix lives with her family in a city where people rarely talk or play together, and no longer read books. Instead, they stare at small portable screens, monitored by giant eyeballs. The Eyes are here to help! With everything. But Bix would like to do things for herself. Running from an Eye, she discovers another world: the City Under the City. There, she befriends a rat who leads her to a library and its treasure trove of books and knowledge. As she explores the abandoned city, she’s thrilled to learn about the people who lived there, with no Eyes. But she misses her family, and decides to head home, where, just maybe, she can help defeat the intrusive Eyes—and show her people how to think for themselves and enjoy each other’s company. Told through Dan Yaccarino’s stunning graphic style, this page-turning picture book/early reader crossover will spark a new appreciation of reading, books, independence, friendship, and family.
Dog Man: Big Jim Believes by Dav Pilkey
The celebration comes to a halt for our heroes in Dog Man: Big Jim Believes when the mischievous Space Cuties From Space return. Our caped crusaders — Dog Man (aka Scarlet Shedder), Commander Cupcake, and Sprinkles — along with Mecha Molly discover that the city has changed, and nothing is how it should be. Can Big Jim’s positivity and innocence help our heroes? Will Dog Man, Big Jim, Grampa, and Molly have the courage to trust each other and save the day? How does the past help shape the future? And who is the chosen one?
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Four Eyes by Rex Ogle & Dave Valeza
A humorous and heartwarming middle-grade graphic memoir about fitting in, facing bullies, and finding the right pair of glasses.
Sixth grade isn’t as great as Rex thought it would be. He’s the only kid who hasn’t had a growth spurt, and the bullies won’t let him forget it. His closest friend is unreliable, at best. And there’s a cute girl in his class, who may or may not like him back. With so much going on, everything is a blur — including Rex’s vision! So when he discovers that he needs glasses, and his family can only afford the ugliest pair in the store, any hope Rex had of fitting in goes completely out of focus.
In this true coming-of-age story, Rex has his sights set on surviving sixth grade, but now he’s got to find a way to do it with glasses, no friends, and a family that just doesn’t get it!
Junior Fiction
It Happened on Saturday by Sydney Dunlap
Thirteen-year-old Julia would much rather work with horses at the rescue barn than worry about things like dating and makeup. But when her BFF meets a boy at camp, Julia’s determined not to get left behind. After a makeover from her older sister, she posts a picture of herself online and gets a comment from Tyler—a seemingly nice kid who lives across town. As they DM more and more, Julia’s sure that Tyler understands her in a way her family never has. Even better, their relationship earns her tons of attention at school. Then Julia finds out Tyler’s true plan, and her world is turned upside down. She fiercely guards her secret, but could her silence allow her friends to fall into the same trap? This character-driven book expands child trafficking awareness while exploring one girl’s search for belonging, self-love, and acceptance.
Junior Nonfiction
How to Tell Time: A Lift-the-Flap Guide to Telling Time
Telling time is a key topic for early learners. This charming and colorful book helps kids understand the basics of telling time. Fully interactive, the book features lift-the-flap puzzles that help kids to relate telling the time to everyday life – posing questions such as “It’s 8:15 – is it time for breakfast?” “Does it take 2 minutes to brush your teeth?” How to Tell Time introduces kids to how we measure time using seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years. It gets kids learning to tell and write the time to the nearest five minutes. There is a flap attached to the front jacket that opens to reveal an amazing clock with moveable hands. Quiz questions that relate to the clock are found sprinkled throughout the book, encouraging kids to move the hands on the clock face and tell the correct time. Telling time is often a subject that children find hard to grapple with. This book is just what those children need, as it tackles the subject in a fully interactive and playful way.
National Parks Maps by Abby Leighton
Explore all 62 national parks in the United States with this immersive collection of illustrated maps and facts.
Explore all 62 national parks in the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific and everywhere in between in this illustrated map collection. Learn about our parks’ founding fathers and the unique characteristics each park has to offer―maybe even discover a park you’ve never heard of before, or a new one to have your next adventure. National Parks Maps is an informative and educational art collection meant for park fans of all ages.
Things Scientists Don’t Know Yet: The Unsolved Mysteries of Science by Peter Gallivan
Explore science’s biggest unsolved mysteries, from unanswered questions about the animal kingdom and the human body to the unknowns of space and time.
Have you ever wondered how the universe will end or why we dream? From the possibility of life on other planets to understanding how scientists are bringing mammoths back to life, this science book for kids age 7-9 sheds light on fascinating questions that are still unanswered.
With stunning facts and fun science, Things Science Doesn’t Know Yet is packed with the latest scientific developments and captivating topics like the multiverse and time travel. Young readers will not only marvel at what science is yet to solve, but also learn how the scientific process works – step by step – through experiments, collaboration, and persistence.
The Usborne Book of the Moon by Laura Cowan; Illustrated by Diana Toledano
Welcome to the story of our moon – a story of moon dust and moon rabbits, cheese and astronauts, deep thoughts and bold plans. Read, dream and wonder. For thousands of years, the Moon has been the one thing in the night sky that everyone anywhere on our planet recognizes. Trace the story of the Moon around the world and through history, from ancient legends about its creation, to its first sighting through a telescope, right up until the Apollo 11 mission and the first
moon landing in 1969.
Young Adult Fiction
Songlight by Moira Buffini
Star-crossed lovers, against-all-odds friendship, and a brutal post-apocalyptic world make this first in a trilogy utterly unforgettable.
We’re two songs joined. And there’s a word for that. A harmony.
Elsa is used to hiding the most important parts of herself—her feelings for Rye, her distaste for a world ruled by men, and, most crucially, her gift of songlight. She buries that secret deep inside. In Brightland, those with songlight are called Unhumans and are abhorred. Rye is the only other person Elsa has known with songlight, and their shared bond has brought them together.
Elsa’s world begins to fall apart one desperate, heart-wrenching day and she doesn’t know where to turn until a girl appears before her. But the girl isn’t really there—her songlight has been drawn to Elsa’s frantic grief.
Elsa lives in a remote seaside village; Nightingale, her new friend, lives in a city hundreds of miles away with her father, a government official responsible for rooting out Unhumans. The two never expected to connect via songlight. But when they do, and when they realize the extent of their power, they’ll be thrust in the middle of a war that threatens their very existence.
Young Adult Graphic Novels
In Mourning by Paula Cheshire & Jodie Troutman
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE DIES? The fact of the matter is, no one really knows. What is left behind is what we really know: a tornado of emotions and a feeling of deep, complex change: that what was once there now no longer is.
Paula Cheshire tells the story of her complex feelings and her grieving process after the loss of her mother, walking us through the process of her loss. And, while this loss hurts more than anything, the grieving process—being in mourning—leads to one goal: learning to live with this newfound pain and learning to grow from it without letting it take you over.
Adult Fiction
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.
As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.
Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.
The Dentist by Tim Sullivan
Who was the unknown man whose weather-beaten body is discovered on Clifton Downs?Did the tragedy that led to a life on the streets also lead to his death?
His police colleagues may dismiss it as a squabble among Bristol’s homeless community, but Detective Sergeant George Cross is not convinced. An outsider himself, Cross’s obsession with logic, detail and patterns does not always endear him to those who have to work alongside him—or his superiors.But he has the best conviction rate in the Avon & Somerset Constabulary. By far.
As he delves into the dead man’s past, Cross becomes convinced that to catch this killer, he needs to solve a cold case murder from years before. A murder that someone has spent fifteen years thinking they’ve got away with. And they have no intention of letting one eccentric, socially-awkward detective, change that now…
The young woman standing in front of him was smiling. Cross was sure of this as her mouth was turned up at both corners, which was a definite sign. He wasn’t sure what it meant though, because he didn’t know her. With people he knew he would note the upturned mouth, together with what had been said, combine it with the tone in which it had been said and make his inference. Context was everything for Cross. His interpreter.
Evensong by Stewart O’Nan
An intimate, moving novel that follows The Humpty Dumpty Club, a group of women of a certain age who band together to help one another and their circle of friends in Pittsburgh as they face the challenges of their golden years.
The Humpty Dumpty Club is distraught when their powerhouse leader, Joan Hargrove, takes a bad fall down her stairs, knocking her out of commission. Now, as well as running errands and shepherding those less able to their doctors’ appointments, they have to pick up the slack.
Between navigating their own relationships and aging bodies and attending choir practice, these invisible yet indomitable women help where they can. They bake cookies, they care for pets, they pick up prescriptions, they sit vigil by the sick, and most of all, they show up for the people they’ve pledged to help. In the face of death, divorce, and the myriad directions our lives can take, the Humpty Dumpty club represents the power of community and chosen family.
Weaving together the perspectives of the four cardinal members as they tend to those in need, Stewart O’Nan revisits beloved characters from his past work — most notably Emily Maxwell — to fashion a rich and moving novel that celebrates our capacity for patience and care. Vivid, warm, and often wryly funny, Evensong reminds us that life is made up of moments both climactic and quotidian, and we weather those moments with the people we choose to keep close.
Exit Strategy by Lee Child and Andrew Child
First—a Baltimore coffee shop. A seat in the corner, facing the door. Black coffee, two refills, no messing around. A minor interruption from two of the customers, but nothing he can’t deal with swiftly. As he leaves, a young guy brushes against him in the doorway. Instinctively Reacher checks the pocket holding his cash and passport. There’s no problem. Nothing is missing.
Second—a store to buy a coat. Nothing fancy. Something he can ditch when he heads to warmer climates. Large enough to fit a man the size of a bank vault. As he pulls out his cash, he finds something new in his pocket. A handwritten note. A desperate plea for help.
Third—wherever this bend in the road takes him. Impressed by the guy’s technique and intrigued by the message, Reacher makes it his mission to find out more . . .
Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories by Lee Child
Lee Child tells the stories behind the stories from the bestselling Jack Reacher novels.
Includes a new, never-before-seen Reacher tale. After making his debut in 1997’s The Killing Floor, Jack Reacher has quickly become one of the most popular―and most enduring―fictional heroes to emerge in the past half century. Now, his creator tells the stories behind the stories.
These are the origin tales of all of the Reacher novels written solely by Lee Child, chock full of colorful anecdotes and intriguing inspirations. One by one, they expand upon each novel and place it in the context not only of the author’s life, but of the world outside the books. And taken together, they chart the rise of an action icon, from 1999’s The Killing Floor to 2019’s Blue Moon. An afterword by crime fiction expert and bookseller Otto Penzler considers the importance of the character and novels in the canon of contemporary crime fiction.
In addition to the essays, this collection also includes an original Reacher short story―the first new Reacher appearance entirely written by Lee Child since 2019. Entertaining and enlightening, Reacher: The Stories Behind the Stories is a must-read for fans of the Jack Reacher series and a capstone to any collection of this excellent author.
The Impossible Fortune (A Thursday Murder Club Mystery) by Richard Osman
Who’s got time to think about murder when there’s a wedding to plan?
It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favorite criminal.
But when Elizabeth meets Nick, a wedding guest asking for her help, she finds the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. And when Nick disappears without a trace, his cagey business partner becomes the gang’s next stop. It seems the duo have something valuable—something worth killing for.
Joyce’s daughter, Joanna, jumps into the fray to help the gang as they seek answers: Has someone kidnapped Nick? And what’s this uncrackable code they keep hearing about? Plunged back into action once more, can the four friends solve the puzzle and a murder in time?
The Iron Storm: A Clive Cussler novel by Jack Du Brul
Detective Isaac Bell faces the horrors of the Great War while battling a mysterious anarchist group intent on bringing brutality to the shores of America in the next thrilling adventure in this #1 New York Times bestselling series from Clive Cussler.
Van Dorn agent Isaac Bell knows that when the President of the United States asks you to undertake a special mission, the only appropriate answer is, “Right away, sir.”
As an official observer, Bell is supposed to avoid action, but that’s like asking a fish to shun water. After battling in the trenches, he finds himself flying beside a group of Allied aviators, unwilling to let them fight alone, even when they are faced with capture. Bell and his compatriots are imprisoned in a medieval castle—one that’s withstood the test of time and countless assaults by conventional weapons in its history. Escape lies tantalizingly close…but only with the help of the latest in battlefield technology.
But freedom may be short-lived. Even in the middle of a World War, Bell finds there are forces worse than those arrayed against the Americans on the battlefield. Opponents who are so evil that they are willing to set aside whatever rules of war still exist to take the fight to where they think it belongs: the streets of the United States. And there’s only one man who can stop them…Isaac Bell.
The Librarians by Sherry Thomas
Sometimes a workplace isn’t just a workplace but a place of safety, understanding, and acceptance. And sometimes murder threatens the sanctity of that beloved refuge….
In the leafy suburbs of Austin, Texas, a small branch library welcomes the public every day of the week. But the patrons who love the helpful, unobtrusive staff and leave rave reviews on Yelp don’t always realize that their librarians are human, too.
Hazel flees halfway across the world for what she hopes will be a new beginning. Jonathan, a six-foot-four former college football player, has never fit in anywhere else. Astrid tries to forget her heartbreak by immersing herself in work, but the man who ghosted her six months ago is back, promising trouble. And Sophie, who has the most to lose, maintains a careful and respectful distance from her coworkers, but soon that won’t be enough anymore.
When two patrons turn up dead after the library’s inaugural murder mystery–themed game night, the librarians’ quiet routines come crashing down. Something sinister has stirred, something that threatens every single one of them. And the only way the librarians can save the library—and themselves—is to let go of their secrets, trust one another, and band together….
The Living and the Dead by Christoffer Carlsson
Small towns sometimes have a voice of their own.
On a snowy winter night in 1999, Sander and Killian leave a house party together outside a small town in rural Sweden. The very best of friends, the two seventeen-year-olds imagine they will remain so forever. But by the next morning, a corpse is found in the trunk of a car, and each boy is a suspect in the murder. Each has something they want to conceal from the police. And from the other.
The hunt for the killer will take more than twenty years. It will see the lead detective leave the force forever. And it won’t end until a second body turns up in similar circumstances, and the tight-knit community’s secrets are finally brought to light.
In The Living and the Dead, renowned criminologist Christoffer Carlsson masterfully transports us to the fields and forests of western Sweden, a region of farmers and truck drivers torn apart by economic injustice and self-deceit—a world where the portal between the living and the dead is flung wide open and where no one is entirely innocent.
The Quiet Mother by Arnaldur Indridason
Retired detective Konrad returns to Reykjavik in The Quiet Mother by Arnaldur Indridason, “one of the most brilliant crime writers of his generation” —The Sunday Times (UK)
A woman is found murdered in her Reykjavík home, her apartment ransacked. On her desk lies a note with retired detective Konrad’s phone number. Days earlier, she had begged him to find the child she gave up nearly fifty years ago. But Konrad, reluctant to reopen old wounds, turned her away. Now, haunted by guilt, he vows to uncover the truth—for her and for himself.
As Konrad digs into her tragic past, he is drawn into a web of secrets, lies, and betrayal. Each revelation points to a hidden life that connects her death to a decades-old murder—and to shadows from Konrad’s own family history.
The Quiet Mother is a masterful blend of human tragedy and relentless suspense, where every discovery comes at a cost. Arnaldur Indridason once again proves why he is the voice of Nordic Noir, delivering a harrowing tale of guilt and redemption.
Ripeness by Sarah Moss
A story of sisterhood, forbidden desire, lost connection, and what it means to find a home among strangers.
Edith, just out of school, has been sent from her quiet English life to rural Italy. It is the 1960s, and her mother has issued strict instructions: tend to her ballerina sister, Lydia, in the final weeks of her scandalous pregnancy; help at the birth; make a phone call that will summon the nuns who will spirit the child away to a new home.
Decades later, happily divorced, recently moved, and full of new energy, Edith has fashioned a life of contentment and comfort in Ireland. Then her best friend, Méabh, receives a shocking phone call from an American man. He claims to be a brother she never knew existed: a child her mother gave up and never spoke of again. As Edith helps her friend reckon with this new idea of connection and how it might change her life, her thoughts turn back to Lydia and the fractured history of her own family. What did they give up when they sent the baby away? What kind of family has he been given? What kind of life? And how was hers changed by his arrival and departure?
In Ripeness, Sarah Moss has again tapped into the questions that haunt us individually and as communities. This extraordinary novel explores familial love and the bonds we forge across time, migration and new beginnings, and what it means to find somewhere to belong.
The Seven Rings (The Lost Bride Trilogy – book 3) by Nora Roberts
The #1 New York Times-bestselling author Nora Roberts concludes her compelling Lost Bride trilogy as two women—one dead, one alive—prepare for a terrifying final showdown…
Long ago, Arthur Poole built a grand house overlooking the turbulent ocean, in a Maine village that bore his name. Today, Sonya MacTavish lives in that house—a manor that has been cursed for generations. Within its walls, she has witnessed the deaths of seven brides and the thefts of seven wedding rings. And now, to break the curse and banish a malevolent spirit once and for all, a difficult task must be completed.
After Sonya, her boyfriend, Trey, and their friends are forced to hear, see—and feel—the suffering of the house’s many ghosts as their torment is reenacted by the evil presence, their bond only strengthens and their anger is renewed. Refusing to let her spirit be broken, Sonya searches each room for clues to her ancestors’ hidden story, putting the picture together, unearthing small treasures, and uncovering the moments of joy that existed among the sorrows. She’s determined to bring light to this haunted place—to fill it with people, with life and hope, once again.
But the enemy in the black dress continues to hover, to come at her in frightening forms. They may be illusions—but illusions can be powerful enough to wound and kill. She feeds on fear, and lies are her weapon. This dark-hearted witch wants to be mistress of Poole Manor, at any cost. And Sonya will need to fight a battle across two realms to finally take possession of the house on the clifftop—and of her own future…
Skylark by Paula McLain
The New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife weaves a mesmerizing tale of Paris above and below—where a woman’s quest for artistic freedom in 1664 intertwines with a doctor’s dangerous mission during the German occupation in the 1940s, revealing a story of courage and resistance that transcends time.
1664: Alouette Voland is the daughter of a master dyer at the famed Gobelin Tapestry Works, who secretly dreams of escaping her circumstances and creating her own masterpiece. When her father is unjustly imprisoned, Alouette’s efforts to save him lead to her own confinement in the notorious Salpêtrière asylum, where thousands of women are held captive and cruelly treated. But within its grim walls, she discovers a small group of brave allies, and the possibility of a life bigger than she ever imagined.
1939: Kristof Larson is a medical student beginning his psychiatric residency in Paris, whose neighbors on the Rue de Gobelins are a Jewish family who have fled Poland. When Nazi forces descend on the city, Kristof becomes their only hope for survival, even as his work as a doctor is jeopardized.
A spellbinding and transportive look at a side of Paris known to very few—the underground city that is a mirror reflection of the glories above—Paula McLain’s unforgettable new novel chronicles two parallel journeys of defiance and rescue that connect in ways both surprising and deeply moving.
Slow Gods by Claire North
Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning tale of one man’s impossible life charted against the fate of humanity amongst the stars—a powerfully imaginative space opera from multi-award-winning author Claire North, perfect for fans of A Memory Called Empire and The Vanished Birds.
My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.
In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.
Here is one truth: out there in deep space, in the pilot’s chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.
This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I’ve lived since I died for the first time.
Some Bright Nowhere by Ann Packer
Eliot and his wife Claire have been happily married for nearly four decades. They’ve raised two children in their sleepy Connecticut town and have weathered the inevitable ups and downs of a long life spent together. But eight years after Claire was diagnosed with cancer, the end is near, and it’s time to gather loved ones and prepare for the inevitable.
Over the years of Claire’s illness, Eliot has willingly—lovingly—shifted into the role of caregiver, appreciating the intimacy and tenderness that comes with a role even more layered and complex than the one he performed as a devoted husband. But as he focuses on settling into what will be their last days and weeks together, Claire makes an unexpected request that leaves him reeling. In a moment, his carefully constructed world is shattered.
What if your partner’s dying wish broke your heart? How well do we know the deepest desires of those we love dearly? As Eliot is confronted with this profound turning point in his marriage and his life, he grapples with the man and husband he’s been, and with the great unknowns of Claire’s last days.
Ann Packer makes a triumphant return with this powerful novel that is tender and raw, visceral and unexpected. Emotionally vibrant and complex, Some Bright Nowhere explores the profound gifts and unexpected costs of truly loving someone, and the fears and desires we experience as the end of life draws near.
Adult Nonfiction
Butterfly Gardening with Native Plants: How to Attract and Identify Butterflies by Christopher Kline
• Fun how-to guide for attracting butterflies with native plants
• Includes more than 150 color photographs
• Suitable for kids and adults
Have you ever wanted to draw butterflies to your home, but you haven’t known where to start? This book will help you! Butterfly Gardening with Native Plants is much more than a book filled with beautiful photographs. It brings the butterfly’s perspective to the reader. Living in nature is getting more and more difficult around the planet for butterflies. This makes man-made habitats, filled with native plants, much more important.
Butterfly expert Christopher Kline explains how to use native plants and draw butterflies to your home landscape. He discusses butterfly gardening basics, common butterflies in the garden, garden designs, guide to host plants, native nectar, and sources for native plants. Many detailed illustrations on garden layout will make building your own garden much easier. This guide also makes it easy to pick plants that attract different butterfly species.
Knit Hats Now: 40+ Designs for Women from Classic to Trendsetting
More than 40 enticing knitted hat designs for women by 21 designers are collected here in this project book. Whether colorful and crazy or subdued and elegant, cool and casual or romantic and playful, there is a hat for every occasion. The designs are suited to needle-clicking enthusiasts of all skill levels, from beginner to expert, and detailed instructions for each project are included.
Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris and Jeff Warren
Too busy to meditate? Can’t turn off your brain? Curious about mindfulness but more comfortable in the gym? This book is for you.
What exactly is meditation? ABC News anchor Dan Harris used to think that meditation was for people who collect crystals, play Ultimate Frisbee, and use the word “namaste” without irony. After he had a panic attack on live television, he went on a strange and circuitous journey that ultimately led him to become one of meditation’s most vocal public proponents.
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Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
One of our greatest novelists and thinkers presents a radiant, thrilling interpretation of the book of Genesis.
For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true.
Both of these approaches preclude an appreciation of its greatness as literature, its rich articulation and exploration of themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture. Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis, which includes the full text of the King James Version of the book, is a powerful consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity. This magisterial book radiates gratitude for the constancy and benevolence of God’s abiding faith in Creation.
Something from Nothing by Alison Roman
In Something from Nothing, bestselling author Alison Roman gives you a collection of simple, smart, timeless recipes that rely on a home cook’s best kept secret: a well-stocked pantry. Making the most of your shelf-stable bottles, bags, jars and cans, Alison shows you how to cook as she does–loosely, intuitively, and with maximum flavor. With each recipe you’ll fall deeper in love with the magic of pantry cooking by using flavorful, hardworking ingredients, leaving you to ask, “How did something so wonderful come from basically nothing?”. In this book, you’ll find warm, opinionated writing coupled with classic recipes, both with signature Alison flair, such as:
- Snacks and Things to Start with: Herbed Artichoke Dip; Spanish Tortilla & Friends; and Labne with Caramelized Harissa
- Soups & Stews: Kimchi-Tomato Soup with Rice & a Soft Egg; Golden Mushroom Soup with Orzo & a Pat of Butter; and Ginger & Greens Noodle Soup
- Vegetables & How to Make Them Taste Even Better: Forever-Roasted Squash with Browned Butter Dates; Wine-Braised Romano Beans with Anchovy; and Spiced, Butter-Roasted Carrots with Walnuts
- Pasta & Noodles: Saucy Roasted Eggplant Pasta; Bolognese with Fennel; and Carbonara for Two
- Beans & Grains: Crispy Baked Beans with Mushrooms & Parmesan; Buttered Polenta with Fresh Corn; Caramelized Beans with Tomato & Cabbage
- Meats & Fishes: Crushed-Olive Chicken with Turmeric; Steak Like Tartare; Crispy Fish with Dill & Fried Capers
Thirst: Poems by Mary Oliver
Thirst, a collection of forty-three new poems from Pulitzer Prize winner Mary Oliver, introduces two new directions in the poet’s work. Grappling with grief at the death of her beloved partner of over forty years, she strives to experience sorrow as a path to spiritual progress, grief as part of loving and not its end. And within these pages she chronicles for the first time her discovery of faith, without abandoning the love of the physical world that has been a hallmark of her work for four decades.
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What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. and Oprah Winfrey
Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.
“Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.”―Oprah Winfrey
This book is going to change the way you see your life.
Have you ever wondered “Why did I do that?” or “Why can’t I just control my behavior?” Others may judge our reactions and think, “What’s wrong with that person?” When questioning our emotions, it’s easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It’s time we started asking a different question.
Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”
Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future―opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.
What to Eat Now: The Indespensable Guide to Good Food, How to Find It, and Why It Matters by Marion Nestle
A thoroughly revised classic, What to Eat Now is a field guide to food shopping in America, and a treatise on how to eat well and deliciously.
What to Eat Now is a clear-eyed, no-nonsense guide to the most important food questions on our plate today. How do we make informed dietary choices for ourselves, our families, and our communities?
In the twenty years since Marion Nestle’s groundbreaking What to Eat first came out, food has undergone a radical change. The emergence of techno foods, the growth of corporate organics, and a surge of interest in food-delivery services reignited by the pandemic are just a few of the things that have altered how we think about how we eat.
The typical American supermarket carries more than thirty thousand products. How do you choose? Misinformation, disinformation, and corporate misdirection play a crucial and hard-to-see role in how the average shopper thinks about and chooses food.
In an aisle-by-aisle guide, Nestle, America’s preeminent nutritionist and a founding figure in American food studies, takes us through the American supermarket. With persistence, wit, and common sense, she establishes the basics of good nutrition, food safety, and ethical and sustainable eating, and gives readers a close-up look at the web of interests―from supermarket slotting policies to multinational food corporations to lobbying groups―that food has to navigate before it gets to your shopping basket.
Above all else, What to Eat Now is a defense of real food and of the value of eating deliciously, mindfully, and responsibly.
December 2025
A note about new arrivals: The oldest and largest of the three main library book distributors ceased operations a few months ago. While Baxter Memorial Library utilizes one of the other two, they’ve been inundated with new customers and have been very slow to send out orders. You can learn more about the logistical challenges libraries face as a result of this shut down from this National Public Radio story: Book distributor shutting down deals logistical blow to libraries.
Youth Graphic Novels
Alessandro Ferrari: Star Wars: The Original Trilogy (Graphic Novel)
Mat Heagerty: Lumberjackula
Raina Telgemeier: The Baby-Sitters Club vol. 2: The Truth About Stacey (Graphic Novel)
Junior Nonfiction
Kelli Ronci: Kids Crochet: Projects for Kids of All Ages
Adult Nonfiction
Bartow J. Elmore: Seed Money: Monsanto’s Past and Our Food Future
Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson: Abundance
Games
The National Theatre’s Play in a Box: Everything You Need to Put on Your Own Show (Ages 6+)
Discover how to create, direct and act in your very own play in this brilliant kit from the National Theatre.
The Storymatic – Kids! (Ages 5+)
Six gazillion stories in one little box. Which one will you tell?
Baxter Memorial Library 