September Staff Picks

Lib­by says:

“Hunger comes in many shapes and is well-known to many of the set­tlers and inhab­i­tants of the Sun­dar­bans. Raised in the Unit­ed States by Indi­an par­ents, marine biol­o­gist Piya Roy’s hunger becomes avari­cious when she dis­cov­ers a rare species of dol­phin in the rivers dur­ing her lat­est expe­di­tion there. She con­tracts a local fish­er­man, Fokir, to assist her in the painstak­ing, method­i­cal process of find­ing and cat­a­loging the dol­phins. His his­to­ry on the islands, his child­hood, and the polit­i­cal geog­ra­phy of the Sun­dar­bans col­lide in two fas­ci­nat­ing, fast-paced, and emo­tion­al­ly charged storms. Ghosh’s ten­der accounts of his char­ac­ters are as vivid as his descrip­tions of the island and its wind­ing rivers, man­grove forests, and clever creatures.”

Kady says:

“It’s one thing to know an author is impor­tant and worth read­ing; it’s anoth­er thing to read an impor­tant author for the first time and to for­get about their impor­tance because you’re so lost in the sto­ry. Louise Erdrich is a pro­lif­ic author who has won count­less awards, includ­ing a Pulitzer Prize for fic­tion. She writes for chil­dren, for adults, and even moon­lights as a book­store own­er, spread­ing her love of the writ­ten word through her work at Birch­bark Books in Min­neapo­lis. And none of that mat­ters once you get going with her prose – it’s just too seduc­tive. The Plague of Doves, my start­ing point for Erdrich, invites you into the sto­ry of Plu­to, North Dako­ta, jump­ing for­ward and back­ward in time and switch­ing nar­ra­tors to show how acts of love, ded­i­ca­tion, des­per­a­tion, and racism have com­pound­ing rip­ple effects tying the com­mu­ni­ty togeth­er while also forc­ing it apart.”

Ruthie says:

“In a post-apoc­a­lyp­tic world, Elsa is hid­ing her ​‘song­light’ – the mag­i­cal abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate across vast dis­tances. Con­stant­ly in dan­ger of dis­cov­ery and per­se­cu­tion, Elsa has to face a misog­y­nis­tic and racist soci­ety and fig­ure out how to save her best friend. Song­light reads like a thriller, but it also has mys­tery, mag­ic, romance, and polit­i­cal intrigue. The sto­ry delves into themes of female pow­er, rebel­lion against an unjust gov­ern­ment, and the ways that a misog­y­nis­tic soci­ety hurts every­one. I’ve been rec­om­mend­ing this book to every­one I pos­si­bly can! You won’t be able to put it down.”