BostonPL_BPL Staff Picks: October 2021Like this list

18 items

• The Taking of Jake Livingston

  Douglass, Ryan,

  Add The Taking of Jake Livingston to your for later shelf

  Teen Horror. Jake Livingston sees dead people. The majority of them are harmless ghouls, reliving the moment of their death over and over again -- except for Sawyer, who has broken free of his death loop. Sawyer is a vengeful ghost of a white…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Dead and the Dark

  Gould, Courtney

  Add The Dead and the Dark to your for later shelf

  Teen Horror. A perfect read for Halloween season, this small town mystery follows Logan as she and her TV ghosthunter dads move back to their hometown. Unfortunately, teenagers start going missing soon after they arrive and Logan finds herself…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Driftless

  Rhodes, David, 1946-

  Add Driftless to your for later shelf

  Fiction. Word, Wisconsin, is a town in the Driftless area of Southwest part of the state, and it is so small that it is no longer on the map. We meet several of the community's residents and how they relate to one another. The characters and the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Giannis

  the Improbable Rise of An NBA MVP

  Fader, Mirin,

  Add Giannis to your for later shelf

  Nonfiction. I struggle with the period between NBA basketball seasons. I refuse to fill up that amount of time I set aside for basketball and basketball only, lest I never wrest it back. So I read about basketball. I find much of the writing in the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Natsumi's Song of Summer

  Weston, Robert Paul,

  Add Natsumi's Song of Summer to your for later shelf

  Children's Picture Book. As we near the end of summer, Natsumi reminds us to slow down and appreciate the world around us. When her cousin Jill comes to visit her in Japan for the first time, Natsumi shows her everything that she loves about summer…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Three Act Tragedy

  a Hercule Poirot Mystery

  Christie, Agatha, 1890-1976

  Add Three Act Tragedy to your for later shelf

  Mystery. Thirteen guests gather for drinks at actor Charles Cartwright's seaside escape. Reverend Babbington, who rarely imbibes, takes one sip of his beverage and keels over dead. Soon after Sir Bartholomew Strange convenes the same party and meets…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• I Want to Sleep Under the Stars!

  Willems, Mo,

  Add I Want to Sleep Under the Stars! to your for later shelf

  Children's Easy Reader. All Zoom Squirrel wants to do is sleep under the stars. His friends want to help but hilariously they are not very helpful. This book is packed with zany antics, endearing friends, corny jokes and even some factual info. A…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Everything She Touched

  the Life of Ruth Asawa

  Chase, Marilyn, 1949-

  Add Everything She Touched to your for later shelf

  Nonfiction. I first saw Ruth Asawa's breathtaking floating wire work displayed at the MFA. This biography gave me a whole new appreciation for the artist herself, a self-described "minority of one." Asawa was interned as a Japanese American youth…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Widow

  Barton, Fiona,

  Add The Widow to your for later shelf

  Fiction. This debut thriller is a smartly crafted, compulsively readable tale about the lies people tell each other, and themselves, when the truth is the last thing they really want to know. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Beauty of Living Twice

  Stone, Sharon, 1958-

  Add The Beauty of Living Twice to your for later shelf

  Memoir. A very candid and personal memoir from Hollywood icon Sharon Stone. She talks about the trauma she's faced and overcome. She also shares stories and anecdotes from her life. A very enjoyable read. - Shane J.

• The Witch's Heart

  Gornichec, Genevieve,

  Add The Witch's Heart to your for later shelf

  Fantasy. The Witch's Heart is a reimaging of Norse mythology that centers around Angrboda, a witch who was burned alive by Odin for refusing to divulge secrets to the god. While hiding from Odin's all-seeing eye, she fosters complicated…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ants

  Workers of the World

  Spicer Rice, Eleanor,

  Add Ants to your for later shelf

  Nonfiction. From the human point of view, it sometimes seems that all ants appear similarly nondescript. This large-format book's spectacular close-up photographs shatter that illusion, revealing ants' incredible interspecies diversity, dramatic…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Everybody

  A Book about Freedom

  Laing, Olivia

  Add Everybody to your for later shelf

  Nonfiction. Olivia Laing explores notions of bodily freedom in this collection of related essays, using the life of Wilhelm Reich (yes, the orgone guy) as a touchstone. With passion and intelligence, the author ponders sexual liberation and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey

  Kelly, Erin Entrada,

  Add Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey to your for later shelf

  Children's Chapter Book. Marisol Rainey has a big imagination, but sometimes that means big fears to go along with it. She's in awe of the wonderfully climbable tree in her yard, but she's too scared to climb it. With the help of her best friend…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Day the World Came to Town

  9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

  DeFede, Jim

  Add The Day the World Came to Town to your for later shelf

  Nonfiction. When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, 2001, the citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Paranorthern and the Chaos Bunny A-hop-calypse

  Cooke, Stephanie, 1986-

  Add Paranorthern and the Chaos Bunny A-hop-calypse to your for later shelf

  Children's Graphic Novel. Despite living in a paranormal world, witch-in-training Abby Morgan lives a perfectly normal life. That is, of course, until she accidentally opens up a portal to another dimension, unleashing the highly destructive (and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Breasts and Eggs

  Kawakami, Mieko, 1976-

  Add Breasts and Eggs to your for later shelf

  Fiction. This book is an immersive, dream-like tale of three working class Osakan women, newly available in English for the first time. I enjoyed the fearless exploration of art, bodies, and childbearing, as well as the obsessions and longings of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Dial A for Aunties

  Sutanto, Jesse Q.

  Add Dial A for Aunties to your for later shelf

  Fiction. This was a wild ride! The premise (after accidentally killing a would-be date rapist, a young woman has to rely on her mother and overbearing aunts to help cover up the crime, without disrupting the elaborate destination wedding they're…Read moreRead more of this annotation