September Staff Picks

Kate says:

“For page-turn­ing sci-fi adven­ture with humor, heart, and a mem­o­rable nar­ra­tive voice, check out this first novel­la in the Mur­der­bot Diaries series. A secu­ri­ty con­struct built by a pow­er­ful space cor­po­ra­tion hacks itself free, but instead of going on the expect­ed mur­der­ous ram­page, it binge­watch­es enter­tain­ment. Drawn into pro­tect­ing a group of humans, Mur­der­bot must face a hos­tile plan­et, mys­te­ri­ous sab­o­tage, and the pains of social inter­ac­tion. I adore this com­pul­sive­ly read­able (and re-read­able) book! It’s espe­cial­ly relat­able for any­one who feels awk­ward, anx­ious, or like they’d rather be enjoy­ing their media than deal­ing with situations.”

Sarah says:

“What does it mean to be a dinosaur? That some­one is old, out of touch, head­ed for extinc­tion? Birds are mod­ern-day descen­dants of dinosaurs, and many of them can be vicious and oppor­tunis­tic; their sur­vival depends on it. Gil is a man whose priv­i­lege means he has nev­er had to wor­ry about sur­vival, even though he has known suf­fer­ing and hard­ship. He is deeply uncom­fort­able because he knows he hasn’t earned his wealth or his priv­i­lege. When he moves to the Ari­zona desert, his life becomes inti­mate­ly inter­twined with the fam­i­ly who lives next door. Togeth­er, along with a few friends and neigh­bors, they mud­dle through life. While this isn’t a polit­i­cal book, it is set against the back­drop of the 2016 – 2018 elec­tions, and the ten­sion of those years affects the char­ac­ters’ lives in very real ways. I love Lydia Millet’s writ­ing: It’s sparse and sim­ple on the sur­face, but there is so much going on under­neath. Read­ing this book felt like catch­ing a glimpse of the char­ac­ters’ messy, imper­fect, com­pli­cat­ed lives, and left me won­der­ing what comes next – for them and for us.”

Lib­by says:

“Start spooky sea­son off the right way with Grady Hen­drix’s hilar­i­ous and sur­pris­ing­ly mov­ing stab at the vam­pire genre. Branch­ing off from a stodgy book club into oh so much more, a group of women learn about them­selves, their com­mu­ni­ty, and the mean­ing of fam­i­ly while dip­ping in and out of var­i­ous states of mad­ness. The sub­ur­ban ennui and dra­ma are pitch-per­fect, but race and class issues ground what could eas­i­ly become con­de­scend­ing par­o­dy. It’s fast, creepy, sexy, and I now feel con­fi­dent I could iden­ti­fy and destroy any Drac­u­la that dares set foot in Decatur.”

Shaki­ra says,

“I love a good fan­ta­sy nov­el, and I usu­al­ly go for YA fan­ta­sy. How­ev­er, A Dark­er Shade of Mag­ic has been on my TBR list for a long time. It has such rich world­build­ing that it’s hard not to fall in love with this uni­verse and its four alter­nate but iso­lat­ed Lon­dons. I loved the pro­tag­o­nist Kell, a magi­cian with the rare pow­er to trav­el between the alter­nate Lon­dons. Kell’s job as an ambas­sador for the roy­al fam­i­ly of Red Lon­don pro­vides cov­er for his work as smug­gler of arti­facts, and, well – you can read what fol­lows. This book had me on the edge of my seat, and I so look for­ward to read­ing the next two books in the tril­o­gy.”

Tom says,

“Heat 2 serves as both a pre­quel and a sequel to Michael Mann’s 1995 movie of the same name. It pro­vides fas­ci­nat­ing back­sto­ries for the film’s pro­tag­o­nists, LAPD homi­cide detec­tive Vin­cent Han­nah and crim­i­nal boss Neil McCauley. It also answers the ques­tion as to whether or not McCauley’s right-hand man Chris Shi­herlis made it out of Los Ange­les in the after­math of the failed bank rob­bery and sub­se­quent shootout with the police. You will def­i­nite­ly want to read this book if you are a fan of the movie.”