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Category: –Staff Picks

--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 […]

--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

Cleat Cute

This sports rom-com follows Phoebe Matthews, a young hotshot player who has just been called up to the US National Team World Cup camp for the first time, and Grace Henderson, the veteran superstar who has been on the team for 10 years (and is only 26). Phoebe has idolized (and crushed on) Grace for […]

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Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery by Brom

So, take The Handmaid’s Tale and bring it back to it’s origins: Puritan, colonial America. Now, make the main character reactive Janine instead of calculating June. And give her a friend who happens to be a demon that is having an existential crisis. Yes, I’m serious. And this is just the start. This book, beloved […]

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“Manhunter” by Michael Mann

Manhunter (1986) was the first installment in the Hannibal Lecter (in this movie “Lecktor”, don’t ask me why) films. Directed by Michael Mann (Thief, Heat, Collateral, The Insider), Manhunter is full of his trademark style, including striking lighting and a very ‘80s musical score. This movie is an adaptation of Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon, which […]

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Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is, at it’s core, a love story, but not in the romantic sense. It is the story of the deep love and decades long friendship between Sam and Sadie who met as children in a children’s hospital game room in California (Sam was a patient, as was […]

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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

“Open Throat” by Henry Hoke

Open Throat follows the adventures of a cougar in Los Angeles. Though they are elderly and prey on younger men, they are not the kind of cougar you might assume. The real P-22 puma lived in L.A.’s Griffith Park from 2012-2022, and author Henry Hoke has spun a colorful narrative based on sightings of the […]