Staff Picks!
Click the images to read the reviews!
Kristen
Random House
Paperback
*KRISTEN’S PICK!*
And now, for something completely different. Slapstick was the first Vonnegut I read, (took it off of my parents bookshelves as a preteen) and still one of my faves. This is the first book with "adult themes" I remember reading (not sex, get your minds out of the gutter) it careens between humor, tenderness, science fiction, and satire in a way that thrilled my adolescent self, and still does. Come for the prologue, (I wouldn't hesitate to rank it as some of Vonnegut's best, most affecting writing) but stay for the "Chinese plague" that is timely, in a not what you would expect kind of way. If other plague reading has given you the blues, this is the wry, melancholy cure.
Slapstick presents an apocalyptic vision as seen through the eyes of the current King of Manhattan (and last President of the United States), a wickedly irreverent look at the all-too-possible results of today’s follies. But even the end of life-as-we-know-it is transformed by Kurt Vonnegut’s pen into hilarious farce—a final slapstick that may be the Almighty’s joke on us all.
Hachette
Paperback
*KRISTEN’S PICK!*
Mike Carey is something special, it is known. Acclaimed runs with X-Men and Hellblazer (you can see shades of Constantine in Felix Castor) and he wrote the entirety of Lucifer, the superlative spinoff from Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Lots of people also know him from his “ The Hungry Plague Series” (Girl With All the Gifts, Boy on the Bridge) Bonafides established, ‘nuff said.
It is his Felix Castor novels, which really float my boat, and they deserve to be more well known. A modern (fantasy/alternate history) noir, starring a foul mouthed, dry witted, and wonderfully flawed protagonist, Felix is a PI, a ghost hunter/exorcist who never really thinks about where the ghosts go afterwards until now…. (dun dun DUN!!!)
The world itself is fascinating. It’s our world, set in our time, but sometime within the last twenty or thirty years, the dead began to wake up. Some come back as ghosts while others possess their own dead bodies (zombies, but not the boring kind) or take over animal bodies (as a loup-garou, best name for “werewolf type thing” ever)
These books are eminently readable, fun, and thought provoking. 5 books in the series so far, and some of us have been waiting for the 6th book as eagerly as we await “The Winds of Winter” (okay, maybe not that eagerly, but still) The reissue of these books in Trade Paperback makes me think (hope) that the 6th book might be coming in my lifetime, lol.
The Devil You Know (Book One) $15.99
Vicious Circle (Book Two) $15.99
Dead Men's Boots (Book Three) $15.99
The Devil You Know
Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stomping ground. It may seem like a good ghostbuster can charge what he likes and enjoy a hell of a lifestyle, but there’s a risk: sooner or later he’s going to take on a spirit that’s too strong for him.
When Castor accepts a seemingly simple ghost-hunting case at a museum in the shadowy heart of London, what should have been a perfectly straightforward exorcism is rapidly turning into the Who Can Kill Castor First Show, with demons and ghosts all keen to claim the big prize.
But that’s business as usual: Castor knows how to deal with the dead. It’s the living who piss him off.
Vicious Circle
Felix Castor has reluctantly returned to exorcism after a successful case convinces him that he really can do some good with his abilities — “good,” of course, being a relative term when dealing with the undead. His friend Rafi is still possessed, the succubus Ajulutsikael (Juliet to her friends) still technically has a contract on him, and he’s still dirt poor.
Doing some consulting for the local cops helps pay the bills, but Castor needs a big private job to really fill the hole in his bank account. That’s what he needs. What he gets is a seemingly insignificant “missing ghost” case that inexorably drags him and his loved ones into the middle of a horrific plot to raise one of hell’s fiercest demons.
When satanists, stolen spirits, sacrifice farms, and haunted churches all appear on the same police report, the name Felix Castor can’t be too far behind.
Dead Men’s Boots
You might think that helping a friend’s widow to stop a lawyer from stealing her husband’s corpse would be the strangest thing on your To Do list. But life is rarely that simple for Felix Castor.
A brutal murder in the heart of London bears all the hallmarks of a long-dead American serial killer, and it takes more good sense than Castor possesses not to get involved. He’s also fighting a legal battle over the body — if not the soul — of his possessed friend, Rafi, and can’t shake the feeling that his three problems might be related.
With the help of the succubus Juliet and paranoid zombie data-fence Nicky Heath, Castor just might have a chance of fitting the pieces together before someone drops him down an elevator shaft or rips his throat out.
Or not…
Blair
Penguin
Paperback
The Magicians (Book One) $18.00
The Magician’s King (Book Two) $18.00
The Magician’s Land (Book Three) $18.00
*Blair’s Pick!*
Many people have likened this to a teenage, R-rated Harry Potter, which is somewhat accurate because magic but also blood and sex and violence etc., and our Harry in this case is an witty existential joker with a dirty vocabulary. Also, add Narnia. This is a fun read that has surprisingly sincere and moving moments along with its sometimes very creepy and haunting ones.
The Magicians
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he’s secretly fascinated with a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams may have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined . . .
The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.
The Magician King
Quentin Coldwater should be happy. He escaped a miserable Brooklyn childhood, matriculated at a secret college for magic, and graduated to discover that Fillory—a fictional utopia—was actually real. But even as a Fillorian king, Quentin finds little peace. His old restlessness returns, and he longs for the thrills a heroic quest can bring.
Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off—only to somehow wind up back in the real-world and not in Fillory, as they’d hoped. As the pair struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, Quentin is forced to rely on Julia’s illicitly learned sorcery as they face a sinister threat in a world very far from the beloved fantasy novels of their youth.
The Magician’s Land
Quentin Coldwater has lost everything. He has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical world of his childhood dreams that he once ruled. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Meanwhile, the magical barriers that keep Fillory safe are failing, and barbarians from the north have invaded. Eliot and Janet, the rulers of Fillory, embark on a final quest to save their beloved world, only to discover a situation far more complex—and far more dire—than anyone had envisioned.
Along with Plum, a brilliant young magician with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. His new life takes him back to old haunts, like Antarctica and the Neitherlands, and old friends he thought were lost forever. The Magician’s Land is an intricate and fantastical thriller, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy.
Macmillan Publishers
Paperback
The Three Body Problem (Book One) $18.99
The Dark Forest (Book Two) $19.99
Death's End (Book Three) $19.99
The Three-Body trilogy by New York Times bestseller Cixin Liu keeps you riveted with high-octane action, political intrigue, and unexpected twists in this saga of first contact with the extraterrestrial Trisolaris.
The Three-Body Problem
An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.
The Dark Forest
In The Dark Forest, the aliens' human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information remains. Humanity responds with the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.
Death’s End
Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?
Penguin Random House
Paperback
*BLAIR AND KRISTEN’S PICK!*
We ADORE this book, which is a weird word to use in the context of death and destruction but, we do. On the more literary and realistic end of the dystopia spectrum, this book focuses on a traveling Shakespeare troupe and asks: what is the role of art during the end times? Also it does that cool thing where it weaves past and present and you don't realize it's happening and then BAM your mind is blown.
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.
Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.
Scholastic
Hardcover
Ages 8+
*BLAIR’S PICK!*
”If you lose your purpose…it’s like you’re broken”
If you’re not already sold just by picking up and flipping through this visually stunning book, then you are boring. This is a beautiful story that blends film and magic and childlike wonder to create Hugo Cabret, a boy who tends to the clocks at a train station in Paris, where he also lives. At the heart of the story lies a mystery: an automaton with a message. This message not only changes Hugo’s life, but also someone unexpected. Like the small parts that make each clock work, the characters in this story realize they too are parts of a vast machinery where each piece matters, be it a dreamer, adventurer, magician or clockmaker.
ORPHAN, CLOCK KEEPER, AND THIEF, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.
Random House
Hardcover
Ages 8+
*BLAIR’S PICK!*
This book, for better or worse, is responsible for my entire college career. This is one of those books that I read when I was young and revisited it when I was older and has become one of the five books, along with my cat, that I would rescue from a fire. My love of language began here and is still with me. It is with young Milo that I learned how wonderful and strange language can be, which led me to pursue poetry, philosophy and linguistics in college. In Dictionopolis I learned that letters taste different. I learned that Conclusions is an island that can only be reached by jumping. I learned that war is what happens when rhyme and reason are nowhere to be found. I learned that meaning in language is never exhausted, but always open to new and imaginative possibilities.
For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason. Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams!
Michael
Harper Collins
Hardcovers
Ages 14+
Divergent (Book One) $21.99
Insurgent (Book Two) $19.99
Allegiant (Book Three) $19.99
*MICHAEL’S PICK!*
One of the most popular dystopian series out right now – and for good reason! Divergent takes place in post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the city’s inhabitants are divided into five factions – based on personal attributes like strength and bravery, intelligence, and selflessness – and discouraged from associating with each other. This book has an interesting premise and fantastic characters, both of which you’ll learn much more about the further you fall into the story. While critics seem eager to compare it to The Hunger Games trilogy, Divergent goes far beyond your typical dystopian storyline, exploring that fine line between order and chaos and encouraging its readers to re-examine what it means to be loyal, to be obedient. To be truly afraid.
The Divergent is a series of young adult science fiction adventure novels by American novelist Veronica Roth set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian Chicago. The trilogy is set in the future in a dystopian society that is divided into five factions. The trilogy's society defines its citizens by their social and personality affiliations, with the five different factions removing the threat of anyone exercising independent will and threatening the population's safety. Beatrice Prior, who later changes her name to Tris, is born into Abnegation but transfers into Dauntless; she must figure out her life as a Divergent, conceal her true nature, and live with the danger of being killed if her true nature is discovered by the Erudite and Dauntless leaders.
Macmillan Publishers
Hardcovers
Ages 12+
Shadow and Bone (Book One) $19.99
Siege and Storm (Book Two) $19.99
Ruin and Rising (Book Three) $19.99
*MICHAEL’S PICK!*
Using magic is akin to juggling live landmines, yet somehow the worst that ever happened to Potter and pals is that someone’s teeth would grow overlarge, or the group would be forced to dance uncontrollably. So what happens when you make a magical mess that won’t go away with the simple flick of a wand? The Grisha Trilogy tells this story while introducing readers to a shadowy, sinister world that makes the Slytherin common room look like a tea party.
Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Follow Alina Starkov through Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising as she discovers her dormant powers and is swept up in a world of luxury and illusion. As Alina struggles to fit into her new life, a threat to the kingdom of Ravka grows―one that will test old alliances and challenge the very limits of magic, one that will forge a leader from a frightened girl.
Adam
Penguin Random House
Paperback
*ADAM’S PICK!*
There’s a blurb on the back of this book that says, “shelve The Name of the Wind beside The Lord of the Rings...and look forward to the day when it’s mentioned in the same breath, perhaps as first among equals,” and to be honest with you, I don’t think there’s any higher praise that a book could receive. So when I tell you that I was extremely skeptical of that remark and that my skepticism was utterly destroyed by this book, I do not do so lightly. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a book that is truly the equal of LotR, but I will say that I see where that blurb is coming from. I’m way more excited for the next installment of this series than I am about the next Song of Ice and Fire book. Patrick Rothfuss has given us a fantasy series that really does everything right. In its characters, setting, plot, and writing style, The Name of the Wind leaves very very little to be desired.
My name is Kvothe.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.
So begins a tale unequaled in fantasy literature—the story of a hero told in his own voice. It is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man’s search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend.
Random House
Paperback
*Adam’s Pick!*
If you like watching A Game of Thrones on TV, you’ll love reading the books on which it’s based. The books really include everything great from the show plus so much more! There are places where certain plot points diverge, of course, but that really just makes the book-reading experience that much richer! Each chapter of the books is told from the point of view of a character from a set that rotates within each book. Both dialogue and action scenes are excellent and super fun to read. Plus, it’s just cool to imagine/reimagine the scenes from the book and TV show melding. If you’re a fantasy fan at all, give A Song of Ice and Fire a chance.
Winter is coming. Such is the stern motto of House Stark, the northernmost of the fiefdoms that owe allegiance to King Robert Baratheon in far-off King’s Landing. There Eddard Stark of Winterfell rules in Robert’s name. There his family dwells in peace and comfort: his proud wife, Catelyn; his sons Robb, Brandon, and Rickon; his daughters Sansa and Arya; and his bastard son, Jon Snow. Far to the north, behind the towering Wall, lie savage Wildings and worse—unnatural things relegated to myth during the centuries-long summer, but proving all too real and all too deadly in the turning of the season.
Yet a more immediate threat lurks to the south, where Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, has died under mysterious circumstances. Now Robert is riding north to Winterfell, bringing his queen, the lovely but cold Cersei, his son, the cruel, vainglorious Prince Joffrey, and the queen’s brothers Jaime and Tyrion of the powerful and wealthy House Lannister—the first a swordsman without equal, the second a dwarf whose stunted stature belies a brilliant mind. All are heading for Winterfell and a fateful encounter that will change the course of kingdoms.
Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, Prince Viserys, heir of the fallen House Targaryen, which once ruled all of Westeros, schemes to reclaim the throne with an army of barbarian Dothraki—whose loyalty he will purchase in the only coin left to him: his beautiful yet innocent sister, Daenerys.
Penguin
Hardcover
Ages 10+
*ADAM’S PICK!*
The first Redwall book came out the year before I was born, but the series was really really popular when I was in grade school. Most of my friends read the books, and for many of us the wait for the next installment of the series was a herald of our later obsessive impatience for the next Harry Potter book and then later George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. In many ways, Redwall is the perfect fantasy primer. It recalls Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in its use of adorable woodland creatures as heroes and creepy vermin as villains. The plots are classic tales of unlikely heroes overcoming challenges and growing up to defeat evil. If you need a classic adventure tale for someone who’s not quite ready for The Lord of the Rings or A Game of Thrones, you need look no further.
Welcome to Mossflower Wood, where the gentle mice have gathered to celebrate a year of peace and abundance. All is well…until a sinister shadow falls across the ancient stone abbey of Redwall. It is rumored that Cluny is coming—Cluny, the terrible one-eyed rat and his savage horde—Cluny, who has vowed to conquer Redwall Abbey! The only hope for the besieged mice lies in the lost sword of the legendary Martin the Warrior. And so begins the epic quest of a bumbling young apprentice—a courageous mouse who would rise up, fight back…and become a legend himself.
Athena
More!
Random House
Paperback
*TYLER’S PICK!*
If you had to make me choose either Androids or Blade Runner, it would be Androids every time. Philip K. Dick delivers an insanely gripping story focused on humanity and the lack thereof. Parts of this story affected me so much that they are and will be forever ingrained into my brain. You feel anger when androids just give up and accept their fate. You feel companionship to chickenheads, and hope that the spider will be ok. It wraps you up in this tale of desperation and darkness that you just can’t find in any other story. This is one of my favorite novels of all time and I can’t see that ever changing.
By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force.
Harper Collins
Hardcover
*Jessi’s pick!*
I am a huge fan of Bradbury. I like his novels (you really can’t go wrong with Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles) but I what I really prefer are his short stories. Dandelion Wine is, in my opinion, the best of both worlds. It is a collection of short stories that take place in one small town in the summer of 1928. My copy of this book is now well dog-eared, my favorite stories have been read over and over again. One chapter in particular (The Swan) is quite tear stained. It is a beautiful story that overwhelms me every time. Bradbury has such a lyrical way with words and it translates especially well in this book. “Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in.”
Ray Bradbury's moving recollection of a vanished golden era remains one of his most enchanting novels. Dandelion Wine stands out in the Bradbury literary canon as the author's most deeply personal work, a semi-autobiographical recollection of a magical small-town summer in 1928.
Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole wide world that lies beyond the city limits. It is a pair of brand-new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather's renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley's bell on a hazy afternoon. It is yesteryear and tomorrow blended into an unforgettable always. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.
Come and savor Ray Bradbury's priceless distillation of all that is eternal about boyhood and summer.
Random House
Paperback
*INDIGO’S PICK!*
Sula is a novel that follows the empowering black, gay witch for which it is named. Or IS she a witch?? A larger discourse explores the demonization of queer folk (especially people of color) within their communities. Throughout the book, characters make her out to be a scapegoat for disaster, when really she’s just independent woman. Imagine The Scarlet Letter but written by Toni Morrison--meaning it includes some of her trademark topics of black family dynamics and intersectional feminism. If you’re seeking some magical realism with a timely political twist, this is the book for you. Favorite quote? Sula’s mom asks her, “When you gone to get married? You need to have some babies. It’ll settle you.” Sula’s response? “I don’t want to make somebody else. I want to make myself.” Sula makes me want to do cartwheels and backflips for days straight I love it so much.
Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio.
Nel and Sula’s devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.
Penguin
Paperback
Ages 14+
*INDIGO’S PICK!*
Dear Zoe is a book that asks a question no one else has the courage to ask--what happens if the worst day of your life is shadowed by a separate, larger tragedy? On 9/11, Tess Denuizo loses her younger sister in a traumatic, hit-and-run accident and it changes her life forever. Her family finds it impossible to cope with their grief and is ultimately falling apart. She feels a distance between her mother and stepfather, and ends up moving in with her deadbeat dad and slipping into her coming of age story. She falls for the boy next door, they smoke a lot of weed, drama ensues, they kiss at Kennywood. It’s everything you could want from a teen love story set in Pittsburgh. I read this book when I, too, was 15, like Tess, and trying to balance a life of disorder at home and puberty and first love. This book was a friend to me and brought me comfort at a time when we all think we might be the only ones struggling. I passed it along from friend to friend, sharing its relief. If you’re a Pittsburgh native or a transplant who’s fallen in love with our little city of bridges, this book will delight you to no end. If you’re trying to grapple with a loss or even just the cruel unpredictability of life, it will bring you the peace you’ve been seeking. Pick this book up from the shelf and let it be your friend. You can count on it.
Philip Beard’s stunning debut novel is fifteen-year-old Tess DeNunzio’s letter to her sister, Zoe, lost to a hit-and-run driver on a day when it seemed that nothing mattered but the tragedies playing out in New York and Washington. Dear Zoe is a remarkable study of grief, adolescence, and healing with a pitch-perfect narrator who is at once sharp and naïve, world- worried and self-centered, funny and heartbreakingly honest. Tess begins her letter to Zoe as a means of figuring out her own life, her place in the world, but the result is a novel of rare power and grace that tells us much about ours.