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Author: Emily

--Staff Picks

“Art of Crime” TV Show on Hoopla

Captain Verlay is a police detective who knows nothing about art, Florence is an art expert whose phobia is easier to deal with when he’s close by.  Despite a vast personality difference, these two discover that they make a great team as they solve art crimes in Paris, France.  This show has all the hallmarks […]

--Staff Picks

“Last Call at the Local” by Sarah Grunder Ruiz

Jack is the owner of an Irish pub called The Local.  He knows changes need to be made to the family business to make it a success, but his OCD keeps getting in the way.  Enter Raine, a travelling musician who just had all of her worldly possessions stolen.  While her ADHD makes living the […]

--Staff Picks

“Vampires of El Norte” by Isabel Cañas

Growing up on her family’s hacienda in 1840s Mexico was difficult enough with the threat of aggressive Anglo settlers from the north, but Nena wasn’t prepared to face the sinister and terrifying creatures that come from the dark and seem to suck the very life from people.  It is one of these creatures that changes […]

--Staff Picks

Signora Volpe (TV series)

Sylvia Fox has been an operative with MI6 for years when, disillusioned and ready for change, she decides to retire to the Italian countryside to be closer to her sister and her family.  It isn’t long before she is pulled into a local murder case and decides to use her particular set of skills to […]

--Staff Picks General

“The Wishing Game” by Meg Shaffer

As a lonely child, Lucy Hart tried to run away to Clock Island, the made-up world created by her favorite author Jack Masterson.  As a struggling grown-up, Lucy is facing the hard truth that everything doesn’t always work out in the end, and even working hard and wishing with all her might will not get […]

--Staff Picks Teens

“While You Were Dreaming” by Alisha Rai

This YA novel, based loosely on the plot of the 1995 film “While You Were Sleeping,” follows 17-year-old Sonia Patil as she makes plans to finally get noticed by her crush.  Instead, he faints into a canal and Sonia jumps in to save him.  When a video of the rescue goes viral, she can only […]

--Staff Picks

“The Spare Man” by Mary Robinette Kowal

Tesla Crane is an engineering genius and famous heiress who is traveling with her new spouse and service dog Gimlet on a luxury cruise spaceship headed to Mars.  She is reveling in her anonymity when a body turns up and her husband is taken into custody as suspect #1.  Tesla is willing to do whatever […]

--Staff Picks General

“Love & Vermin” by Will McPhail

Will McPhail is an artist with a distinctly expressive style that will keep you engaged and laughing with every drawing.  In his first graphic novel, In, he explored one man’s journey to connect with his fellow humans.  Love & Vermin is a collection of his comics, some previously published in The New Yorker, which can […]

--Staff Picks

“Partners in Crime” by Alisha Rai

Thirty-five year old accountant Mira has achieved her goal of getting far away from her turbulent childhood and now just wants to find the perfect man to be her life partner.  But nobody is quite right, and she knows her matchmaker is about to give up on her when her aunt – the only person […]

--Staff Picks

“A Deadly Education” by Naomi Novik

El attends Scholomance, a school meant to prepare young magicians like her to live in a world where ferocious creatures called mals hunt and eat magic-users, and adolescents are a mal’s favorite meal.  The school is supposed to train and protect the students, but what El and her classmates are mostly learning is how not […]