Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

Scientist Inti Flynn arrives in the Scotish Highlands with a purpose: to reintroduce wolves into the forests. Her efforts to rewild the dying landscape, are met with fierce opposition from the locals, who fear for their safety and way of life. When a farmer is mauled to death, Inti decides to bury the evidence, but what if the wolves didn't make the kill

258 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck

For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will transform into that of a great white shark. As Lewis changes, he struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams.

384 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Blue Skies by T.C. Boyle

Denied a dog, a baby, and even a faithful fiancé, Cat suddenly craves a snake: a creature that can be worn like “jewelry, living jewelry” to match her black jeans. But when the budding social media star loses the young “Burmie,” she inadvertently sets in motion a chain of increasingly events that comes to threaten her very survival.

367 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

Years ago, a reclusive mega-bestselling children’s author quit writing under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly he resurfaces with a brand-new book and a one-of-a-kind competition, offering a prize that will change the winner’s life .

278 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart

Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo and James are born under different stars—and they should be sworn enemies. Yet against all odds, they become best friends. As they fall in love, they dream of finding somewhere they belong.

390 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

The McMasters Conservatory is dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder.

388 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of The City We Became by N.K. Jemison

Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six.

437 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, and sends it to her agent as her own work. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

323 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of The Change by Kirsten Miller

In a Long Island oceanfront community, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment… They discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative and instead take matters into their own hands

470 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of The Cloisters by Katy Hayes

Ann arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is assigned to The Cloisters. She is happy to indulge the researchers’ outlandish theories about the history of fortune telling. What begins as academic curiosity turns into obsession when Ann discovers a hidden 15th-century deck of tarot cards that might hold the key to predicting the future.

320 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González

Olga and her brother, Pedro, are names in their hometown. Pedro is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood, while Olga is the wedding planner for Manhattan's powerbrokers. Behind closed doors things are far less rosy when Olga confront the effects of long-held family secrets...

369 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that.

371 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour

Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential. Darren is content, but that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the CEO of NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team.

400 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Heartstopper: Volume One by Alice Oseman

Softhearted Charlie sits next to rugby player Nick in class and a warm and intimate friendship follows. Soon it develops into something more for Charlie, but Nick is struggling with feelings of his own. As the two grow closer and take on the ups and downs of high school, they come to understand the surprising and delightful ways in which love works.

288 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

A memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity. Growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school; struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; painful adolescence; treasured months spent in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.

256 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

Rachel is a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. Until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting. Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her.

320 pages

Join for a discussion of Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu: August 1983. It's the day of Nina Riva's annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself. By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. A story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family.

400 pages

Join for a discussion of The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

In the waning days of the Civil War, freed brothers Prentiss and Landry seek refuge on the homestead of George Walker and his wife, Isabelle. Parallel to their story runs a forbidden romance between two Confederate soldiers. Equal parts beauty and terror, an epic whose grandeur locates humanity and love amid the most harrowing circumstances.

368 pages

Join for a discussion of The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons.

320 pages

Join for a discussion of Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen

Ava Wong has always played it safe. Enter Winnie Fang, Ava's enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend.

288 pages

Join for a discussion of The Guest List by Lucy Foley

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. Every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human.  And then someone turns up dead. Who didn't wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

320 pages

Join for a discussion of The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

Linus Baker is a by-the-book case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth- tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world.  Arthur Parnassus would do anything to keep the children of the orphanage safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light.

396 pages

Join for a discussion of The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

When Ray McMillian he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather's fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise. Then his prized family heirloom is stolen. But now his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray's great-grandfather are each claiming that the violin belongs to them.

345 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. And she has a secret, Belle's complexion lets her pass as white. She is the daughter of the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality.

341 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of The Guncle by Steven Rowley

Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. So when tragedy strikes, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian.

326 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson

Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Brown was promised her freedom on her eighteenth birthday. But when her birthday finally comes around, instead of the idyllic life she was hoping for with her true love, she finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half-Acre.

278 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Dannie Kohan is right on track to achieve her five-year plan. But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened.

255 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it's an image of a book she hasn't seen in sixty-five years--a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

400 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of There There by Tommy Orange

Twelve characters from Native communities are traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow.  Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American.

304 pages

Join Reference Librarian Sam Lee for a discussion of Midnight Library by Matthew Haig

Out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. Nora Seed travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

304 pages