March Staff Picks

Julia says:

“This book will bring you laugh­ter and tears in close prox­im­i­ty. Noah’s life in the shad­ows of the gov­ern­ment of South Africa is an all-too-con­tem­po­rary sto­ry of racism, vio­lence, and pover­ty, bal­anced with the impor­tance of fam­i­ly, cre­ativ­i­ty, and per­se­ver­ance to sur­vive. On many lev­els, this book is a love let­ter to his moth­er, the coun­try, and unique cir­cum­stances that formed his suc­cess. Rec­om­mend­ed for read­ers of non­fic­tion, mem­oir, and humor.”

Angela says:

“This book is about sev­er­al peo­ple at dif­fer­ent stages of their life stum­bling upon a read­ing list of books, and how read­ing those books affect­ed them. I feel this book is about the ran­dom­ness of fate – about how what we per­ceive as ran­dom hap­pens when it does, for a rea­son. This book is beau­ti­ful and sad, mov­ing and pow­er­ful, all at the same time. I believe if you read this book more than once, you’ll see some­thing dif­fer­ent in it each time. The audio edi­tion of this book real­ly brings it to life.”

Antho­ny says:

“The first nov­el in the 16-book Realm of the Elder­lings series may seem like just anoth­er medieval fan­ta­sy focus­ing on an orphaned-yet-spe­cial child who alters the fate of his world, but I assure you that it is so, so much more than that. Read­ers watch these char­ac­ters grow through child­hood, pass into adult­hood, and beyond. Fin­ish­ing this series had me in tears of per­fect sat­is­fac­tion from the moment I opened the cov­er of the final install­ment. Hobb is a mas­ter of fan­ta­sy and The Realm of the Elder­lings is a series that no fan of the genre should miss.”

Scot says:

“Have you exhaust­ed your sup­ply of fiendish­ly clever mys­ter­ies by Christie and Carr, but find your­self in the mood for anoth­er brain-mas­sag­ing lit­er­ary conun­drum? Then allow me to intro­duce you to this clas­sic riff on Christie’s And Then There Were None. Here, a group of uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents – each an enthu­si­ast of mys­tery nov­els – trav­el to a now-desert­ed island to attempt to solve a mass mur­der that occurred there six months pri­or. Fresh deaths ensue, and soon the sur­viv­ing stu­dents are attempt­ing to suss out who among them is the mur­der­er. Can you? This is anoth­er excel­lent entry in Pushkin Vertigo’s reis­sue series of clas­sic crime and mys­tery novels.”

Les­ley says:

“If there was a Cozy Eng­lish Vil­lage amuse­ment park, I would buy an annu­al pass. This is one of my favorite books to rec­om­mend to my fel­low Anglophiles. Bar­bara Bun­cle, unmar­ried and of a cer­tain age, is in trou­ble. It’s the 1930s and her ​“div­i­dends” are wretched. With few prospects in Sil­ver­stream, the lit­tle vil­lage she’s lived in all her life, she decides to write and sell a nov­el. Since she has ​“no imag­i­na­tion at all,” Bar­bara sim­ply writes about her fel­low vil­lagers. To her sur­prise, the book is pub­lished and is a huge suc­cess, but it’s a good thing she used a pseu­do­nym, because every­one is in uproar when they rec­og­nize them­selves as char­ac­ters in the novel.”