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Tag: staff pick

--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 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 […]

--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 […]

--Staff Picks

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 […]

--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 […]