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Category: –Staff Picks

--Staff Picks

Lessons in Chemistry

“Set in 1960s California, this blockbuster debut is the hilarious, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is constantly derailed by the idea that a woman’s place is in the home, only to find herself starring as the host of America’s most beloved TV cooking show.” Elizabeth Zott is first and foremost […]

--Staff Picks General

Spencer

“Spencer is a 2021 historical psychological drama film directed by Pablo Larraín from a screenplay by Steven Knight. The The marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at the Queen’s Sandringham Estate. There’s eating and […]

--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 […]

--Booklists --Staff Picks General

2022 releases your HPL staff loved!

Just because you missed them last year doesn’t mean we don’t still recommend them-check out this list of 2022 releases that staff loved! Click on the cover image to be brought to our catalog where you can request these titles. Delilah Green swore she would never go back to Bright Falls—nothing is there for her […]

--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 […]

--Staff Picks

“Stick Season” by Noah Kahan

In case you didn’t know, stick season is the time in New England between fall and winter. With that in mind, Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” really puts you in that place of feeling like you’re just leaving autumn, but anticipating the cold days and piles of snow. If you’re facing the upcoming cold months and […]

--Staff Picks General

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 […]

--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

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 […]