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Category: –Staff Picks

--Staff Picks General

To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

Set in an alternate 1840s New England, Anequs, is an indigenous teen from the island of Masquapaug, known in English as Martha’s Vineyard. She and her people are mostly unbothered by the Anglish colonizers. When she discovers she is a Nampeshiweisit, a person who can bond with dragons, she becomes an honored member of her […]

--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 General

“Design For Living” by Ernst Lubitsch

As a person who watches a fair number of Hollywood movies from the 1940s (which tend to be fairly tame or suggestive at most), watching pre-Hays Code movies from the 1920s and ’30s is always a bit shocking. They knew about the birds and the bees back then??  Apparently so—t​he birds and the bees are […]

--Staff Picks Teens

“The Last Girls Standing” by Jennifer Dugan

In The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan, teens Sloane and Cherry are the only survivors of a summer camp massacre. Sloane has very few memories from that night and desperate to get answers about what happened and why they were the only two to make it out alive. Cherry has filled her in as […]

--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 General

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

This classic of holiday fantasy by the one and only Sir Terry Pratchett, like most of the Discworld novels, turns the tropes and events of our world just a little sideways–often with the effect that we can see it all a bit more clearly. And he does it, of course, with his trademark wit and […]

--Staff Picks General

Sketchtasy by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

Sketchtasy follows narrator Alexa and her friends through life in mid-1990s Boston. They party, go to clubs, dance, meet people, and try to experience the pleasures of life, while, as queer people, also facing homophobia and living through the height of the AIDS crisis. Sycamore’s writing is gripping: while reading, I felt as if I […]

--Staff Picks Teens

Check & Mate

Mallory Greenleaf walked away from chess for good at the age of 14 after it destroyed her family. Now, four years later, she finds herself begrudgingly agreeing to compete in a charity tournament with her best friend. She also happens to beat the current World Champion, Nolan Sawyer, at said tournament and shocks everyone. She’s […]