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Boston PL - Staff Picks

Staff in our Reader Services Department select their top titles to share and recommend to the public. Here is the list.

51 items

  • Grunt

    the Curious Science of Humans at War

    Roach, Mary
    Whoever knew military science was a real thing? I certainly didn't, and was shocked to find after reading Roach's latest that it's actually pretty interesting and multi-faceted. This isn't surprising considering the author always manages…
    BookNew York : W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2016. — U43.U4 R63 2016b
  • Hillbilly Elegy

    a Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

    Vance, J. D.,
    A riveting account of the decline of America’s white working class by a Yale Law School graduate who grew up in a poor Rust Belt town. Check out the BPL's "Lucky Day" collection in New & Novel to see if there is a copy on shelf.
    BookNew York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2016] — HD8073.V37 A3 2016x
  • After a life of uncertainty, Dana Clarke has finally achieved the stability she has craved in her marriage to a man who can trace his lineage back to the Mayflower, but her world is shattered when her daughter is born with African American…
    BookNew York : Doubleday, 2007. — PS3554.E4427 F36 2007
  • Ever since her husband ditched her-for another man-A.J. hasn't exactly been on the road to inner peace. Then her yoga-guru aunt is found dead, and A.J.'s named the sole heir to her lucrative yoga studio-making her a multimillionaire, a…
    BookNew York : Berkley Prime Crime, c2008. — PS3611.I4515 C67 2008x
  • Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat

    Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals

    Herzog, Hal
    This book asks: How can people have such ranges of feelings about animals as exemplified in the book’s title? The author is a psychology professor and a leading expert on human-animal relations who has spent years studying the…
    BookNew York : Harper, c2010. — QL85 .H47 2010
  • In this epistolary novel, the characters, drawn together by their love of books and affection for each other, tell a tale of friendship and endurance under the German occupation of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, during World War II.…
    BookNew York, N.Y. : The Dial Press, c2008. — PS3619.H3365 G84 2008
  • John Milton crafts the English language like Michelangelo crafted stone, Rembrandt employed paint and Beethoven wove notes. The reader/listener can only marvel as the words and phrases flow in magnificent torrents of artistic excellence.…
    BookLondon ; New York : Penguin Books, [2003] — PR3560 2003
  • This debut novel by Australian author, Sally Thorne is everything you could want in a chick-lit/romance novel about two co-workers who despise each other, yet work closely with one another, and the one incident that changes everything for…
    BookNew York : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2016]
  • 13 Hours

    the Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi

    Zuckoff, Mitchell
    A riveting account of the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. State Department Special Mission Compound, and the nearby CIA Station in Bengazi, Libya, told from the perspective of the private security operators contracted to protect CIA…
    BookNew York : Twelve, 2014. — HV6433.L75 Z83 2014
  • Mark and Maggie set out on an extended car trip to a summer cabin, when they realized they are driving in the direction of a major storm. Adding to the stress, Maggie — recently mugged at gunpoint — is lately not her-self. In Listen to Me…
    BookBoston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.
  • “Naked in Death” is the first in the “...in Death" series written by best-selling author Nora Roberts under the name J.D. Robb. This futuristic series is set in New York City in the year 2058. Lieutenant Eve Dallas's of (NYPSD) New York…
    BookNew York : Berkley Books, c1995. — MYSTERY ROBB J
  • Death in the City of Light

    the Serial Killer of Nazi-occupied Paris

    King, David, 1970-
    This true story of a brutal serial killer is also a social history of Paris in the forties. The cast of characters includes those desperate to escape, and the gestapo, gangsters, resistance fighters, pimps, prostitutes and spies. Right up…
    BookNew York : Crown Pub., c2011. — HV6248.P43 K56 2011
  • Set in colonial Cape Cod, MA, this novel about a determined woman's struggle for independence is thought-provoking and a must-read. Lyddie's defiance and strength will have you cheering!
    BookNew York : Morrow, 2006. — PS3607.U548 W53 2006
  • Cinnabar, an empire like ancient Rome, set in a space faring tableaux akin to “Master and Commander”. You will discover an honorable “black sheep” scion of a noble dynasty and a brilliant Librarian who is a deadly pistolero harboring a…
    BookRiverdale, NY : Baen Books, 1998. — DRAKE D
  • The Traitor's Wife

    a Novel : the Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America

    Pataki, Allison
    This historical novel set during the American Revolution is an absorbing tale of treachery - specifically that of Benedict Arnold and his conniving and loathsome wife, Peggy. Thankfully the tale is told from the perspective of Peggy's…
    BookNew York : Howard Books, 2014. — FICTION PATAKI A
  • Gardner, a professor of medieval literature, retells the story of Beowulf, the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon classic, from the point of view of the villain of the piece, the monster Grendel. Check it out and see whether it changes your…
    BookNew York : Vintage Books, 1989, c1971. — PS3557.A712 G7 1989x
  • What would make a perfect man? In Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard, that's the delicious topic heating up between four friends at their favorite restaurant. A tongue-in-cheek list was created and it became an overnight sensation, when it was…
    BookNew York : Pocket Books, c2000. — PS3558.O8822 M7 2000x
  • Bobby Wonderful

    An Imperfect Son Buries His Parents

    Morris, Bob, 1958-
    An adult child with flaws has to figure out how to do his best for his elderly parents while trying to find the balance with carrying on his own rich life; It’s a mix of comedy and tragedy tinged with Morris’s dry sense of humor.
    BookNew York : Twelve, 2015. — BF575.D35 M67 2015
  • Based on a shameful period in French history, this compelling page-turner about World War II, the Holocaust, and contemporary Paris is beautifully written and profoundly moving. I will remember this story!
    BookNew York : St. Martin's Press, 2007. — PR9105.9.R66 S27 2007
  • The opening novel of the Harry Dresden series introduces us to a private investigator working in Chicago. A typical jaded hard boiled gumshoe of the noir variety Harry does have a unique talent. He is also a Wizard. A series of brutal…
    BookNew York : ROC : New American Library, c2000.