Staff Picks

Staff Picks

At our staff meetings we take a few minutes to talk about the books we are reading. This is a list of recent favorites. STAFF PICKS 500 Years of Black History This year, Martin Luther King Day will be celebrated on January 16, an occasion to commemorate King’s leadership of the Civil Rights movement. King's influence on African-American history is pivotal, and one way to appreciate his role is by understanding the bigger picture. Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Life Upon These Stores chronicles the most important figures and events, both famous and overlooked, in African-American history. This comprehensive volume begins before the first shipment of slaves to America and ends with America's first black president. Reading Life Upon These Shores will help to place King and his accomplishments in the broader spectrum, thus making the day all the more relevant. To sign up for this, or any of our newsletters, check out our Newsletter sign up page. This Beautiful Life By Schulman, Helen 2011-08 - Harper 9780062024381 Check Our Catalog The events of a single night shatter a Manhattan family's sense of security and identity--and, ultimately, their happiness--in this gripping, provocative novel by the author of "A Day at the Beach." …More Heartwishes By Deveraux, Jude 2011-08 - Atria Books 9781439108000 Check Our Catalog Gemma Ranford wants the job cataloging the documents of the Frazier family so much that she is ready to do battle to get it. Fascinated with history, and desperately trying to finish her dissertation, she's hoping against all hope that the papers will yield new information to invigorate her research. What she didn't expect to find is references to the Heartwishes Stone - believed by most to be pure legend - and said to grant wishes to anyone named Frazier. …More The Help By Stockett, Kathryn 2009-02 - Amy Einhorn Books 9780399155345 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another. HPL patron: Best book I've read in a long time. Love it. HPL patron: Four stars. Quite a look at our history. HPL patron: Loved this book, a true aspect of the past. …More Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?: (and Other Concerns) By Kaling, Mindy 2011-11 - Crown Archetype 9780307886262 Check Our Catalog Kaling shares her observations, fears, and opinions about a wide-ranging list of the topics she thinks about the most. From her favorite types of guys to life in the "The Office" writers' room, her book is full of personal stories and laugh-out-loud philosophies. 224 pp. …More Crossed By Condie, Ally 2011-11 - Dutton Books 9780525423652 Check Our Catalog In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky--taken by the Society to his certain death--only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake. Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. 250,000 print. (Children's - Young Adult) …More The Best of Me By Sparks, Nicholas 2011-10 - Grand Central Publishing 9780446547659 Check Our Catalog Sparks' latest is the heart-rending story of two small-town former high school sweethearts from opposite sides of the tracks. Now middle-aged, they've taken wildly divergent paths, but neither has lived the life they imagined--and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever altered their world. When they are both called back to their hometown for the funeral of their mentor, they will be forced to confront the choices each has made, and ask whether love can truly rewrite the past. 288 pp. (General Fiction) …More Interpreter of Maladies By Lahiri, Jhumpa 1999-06 - Mariner Books 9780395927205 Check Our Catalog Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and a baffling new world, the characters in Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. …More Mourning Gloria By Albert, Susan Wittig 2011-04 - Berkley Publishing Group 9780425239131 Check Our Catalog After a woman is killed in an arson-homicide, Jessica Nelson, an intern-reporter at the local paper, is assigned to cover the story. When Jessica disappears, China Bayles is determined to find her, before she becomes a headline herself. HPL patron: Entertaining mystery. …More Changes By Lackey, Mercedes 2011-10 - Daw Books 9780756406929 Check Our Catalog The orphan Magpie pursues his quest for his parents' identity with burning urgency--while also discovering another hidden talent and being trained as an undercover agent. Shy Bardic Trainee Lena has to face her famous but uncaring father. And Healing Trainee Bear must struggle against his disapproving parents. …More The Ogre of Oglefort By Ibbotson, Eva Illustrator Weber, Lisa K. 2011-08 - Dutton Books 9780525423829 Check Our Catalog For excitement-hungry orphan Ivo, a mission to save Princess Mirella from the dreaded Ogre of Oglefort is a dream come true. Together with a hag, wizard, and troll, Ivo sets out for adventure. But after they get to the ogre's castle, the rescuers are in for a surprise: the princess doesn't need saving, but the depressed ogre does! 25,000 print. …More The Marriage Plot By Eugenides, Jeffrey 2011-10 - Farrar Straus Giroux 9780374203054 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title It's the early 1980s--the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels. But real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes. 416 pp. 400,000 print. (General Fiction) …More We Have Always Lived in the Castle By Jackson, Shirley Introduction by Lethem, Jonathan 2006-10 - Penguin Books 9780143039976 Check Our Catalog Alone since four members of the family died of arsenic poisoning, Merricat, Constance, and Julian Blackwood spend their days in happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. …More