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Author: Susanne

--Staff Picks

Feel the Bern: A Bernie Sanders Mystery by Andrew Shaffer

Crash Robertson, newly hired intern to Senator Bernie Sanders, finds herself tasked with keeping the iconic senator on track as they travel back to Vermont, where he is scheduled to give speeches, meet with constituents, and serve as Grand Marshall at the Champ Days Parade in Crash’s hometown on Lake Champlain. Soon after their arrival, […]

--Staff Picks General

Shady Hollow by Juneau Black

First in a newer series of cozy mysteries, this is a fun novel for when you want an easy read with a bit of a twist. All the main characters are anthropomorphic creatures living in the quiet woodland community of Shady Hollow. Think Midsomer Murders meets Wind in the Willows. Local curmudgeon, Otto the Toad, […]

--Staff Picks General

Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club by Roselle Lim

Sophie Go is finally out of her parents’ home and ready to start her career as a professional matchmaker. However, she faces one major problem, despite her natural matchmaking skill and ability, she did not quite graduate from matchmaking school. She forges ahead, moving into a swanky apartment complex in Toronto and begins networking and […]

--Staff Picks General

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

Kara, aka Carrot, finds herself divorced and penniless at thirty. Rather than go home to her mom where the relationship is tense, she goes to live with her Uncle Earl at his beloved small-town Museum of Wonders, a collection of weird items and taxidermied animals curated over many years. That’s when a portal opens up […]

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Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia P. Manansala

This third installment of Manansala’s culinary cozy mystery series, Tita Rosie’s Kitchen, takes place during the winter holidays in Shady Palms as they prepare for Christmas Eve and the community Winter Bash. Lila’s good-for-nothing cousin Ronnie returns to town after a mysterious 15-year disappearance, and he brings a new cast of characters, and a whole […]

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The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

This action-packed and very current novel begins in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown in New York City. Jamie Gray, a Ph.D. dropout, is fired by their entitled tech CEO and, desperate, ends up delivering food as a contracted driver for the same app company that fired them. One fateful delivery later to a college […]

--Staff Picks

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

A witch child who can talk to birds? Science whiz smart enough to build an AI computer in his bedroom? These two tweens, Patricia and Laurence form a trauma bond through their one commonality—they are both misfits, bullied at school, and to different degrees, at home. During one of her parentally forbidden romps through the […]

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Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

When Maybell Parrish inherits her aunt’s estate in the Smoky Mountains, it’s the perfect opportunity to start fresh, away from her terrible bosses and toxic “friend.” But once she arrives at her new home, she’s shocked to learn she has to share the property with the hot but brooding groundskeeper, Wesley, who has (surprise!) co-inherited […]

--Staff Picks General

Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones

In this engaging and often sardonic first-person account, the nameless child narrator tells the stories of his life growing up in a family of werewolves. Gritty and realistic, Jones draws a vivid picture of the life of people who scrape by on the edges of society. Werewolves are always hungry, always on the hunt and […]