BostonPL_BPL Staff Picks: Best Releases of 2024Like this list

72 items

• All That Grows

  Wong, Jack

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  Children's Picture Book. This gentle book introduces children to the beauty of plants all around us, as a brother and sister tend to their garden. - Maggie L., Central Library

• Another First Chance

  Couch, Robbie

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  Teen Fiction. This story about a teen boy grieving his best friend while participating in a mental health study and falling for another boy took me on a roller coaster of emotions. It had me laughing, feeling warm and fuzzy, and sobbing at…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Antenora

  Lumpkin, Dori,

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  Horror. Perfect for fans of gothic and queer stories. Dori Lumpkin's prose is beautiful and haunting. The novella is well paced and suspenseful while still giving Abby room to bring us into the strange, sometimes dreamy world she shared…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• A Bánh Mì for Two

  Nguyen, Trinity,

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  Teen Fiction. This book is only 224 pages, but it packs an emotional punch and I really loved both main characters! It follows a Vietnamese American teen, Vivi, who teams up with her favorite food blogger, Lan, in Sài Gòn. Vivi agrees to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Beautyland

  Bertino, Marie-Helene,

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  Fiction. The beauty of Marie-Helene Bertino's latest novel Beautyland is that while our protagonist, Adina, purports to be from another planet, born through a human mother, you never really know for sure if that's fact, or delusion... and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Be Ready When the Luck Happens

  a Memoir

  Garten, Ina,

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  Memoir. Funny, heartfelt, and inspiring, Ina Garten, of Barefoot Contessa fame, shares captivating and dishy memories that will appeal to both cooks and non-cooks. A handful of important recipes and artifacts included. - Julie R., Central…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Book That Almost Rhymed

  Abed, Omar,

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  Children's Picture Book. This picture book is not only funny, clever, and exciting, but it also shows a perfect example of the ups and downs of having a younger sibling! - Amy B., Central Library

• Briefly Very Beautiful

  Dineen, Roz,

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  Fiction. Most apocalyptic fiction focuses on the details and the plot, but in this story, we visit the emotional world of Cass, a mother of three, trying to find a safe place for her family as the world falls apart around her. Her internal…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Candy Darling

  Dreamer, Icon, Superstar

  Carr, C.,

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  Biography. The first biography about Warhol Superstar Candy Darling. The trans icon was a trailblazer in many ways, and ahead of her time. Despite her short life, she made a lasting impact on the world. I enjoyed learning more about this…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Chicano Frankenstein

  Olivas, Daniel A.,

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  Science Fiction. "Chicano Frankenstein" is for the reader who loves epistolary writings, are interested in how right-wing politics affects personal lives, and Frankenstein retellings. Our unnamed character grapples with his sense of self…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Come and Get It

  a Novel

  Reid, Kiley,

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  Literary Fiction. Reid is skilled at creating stories that explore race and class dynamics. In this book she does so with a lighter touch, leaving room for the readers to draw their own conclusions. The characters are complex (flawed, but…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Color of a Lie

  Johnson, Kim, 1979-

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  Teen Historical Fiction. When Calvin and his family move to an all-white suburb, he agrees to pass as white until the injustices he sees force him to choose between his safety and doing what is right. Johnson's first historical novel is…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Craft

  Stories I Wrote for the Devil

  Lima, Ananda,

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  Fiction. Lima has created an interesting mix of immigration fears; life during COVID; auto-fiction; and observations about the way time and stories change us. The stories are ostensibly written for the "Devil," structured in a way that…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Cranky

  Tran, Phuc, 1974-

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  Children's Picture Book. "You know what doesn't help you when you're feeling cranky? People telling you to cheer up." Yellow crane, Cranky, woke up in a foul mood and nothing will make them feel better. Balancing humor and empathy, I love…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Death at Morning House

  Johnson, Maureen

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  Teen Mystery. In the same vein as And Then There Were None and Glass Onion, this stand-alone from the author of the Truly Dangerous series, follows the mysterious activities that occur at Morning House, a large, abandoned Edwardian manor…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Diablo's Curse

  Novoa, Gabe Cole,

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  Teen Fantasy. This companion novel to The Wicked Bargain is just as full of magic and adventure and found family. It follows Dami, the demonio from the first book as they try to cancel every magical deal they have ever made in order to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Extinction of Irena Rey

  a Novel

  Croft, Jennifer (Translator),

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  Fiction. Croft, a translator of Olga Tokarczyk, crafts a droll metafictional tale of eight translators "summiting" at the home of a Polish author to translate her latest opus. And then -- the author goes missing. I loved this novel of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Fi

  a Memoir

  Fuller, Alexandra, 1969-

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  Memoir. Grieving the sudden loss of her twenty-one-year-old son, Fuller shares her broken self in words that are equally as broken. Devastating, yet uplifting, this memoir is a heartbreaking look at one mother's journey through the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Fire Exit

  a Novel

  Talty, Morgan, 1991-

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  Fiction. Talty follows up Night of the Living Rez with this incredibly moving novel about Charles Lamosway, a middle-aged white man yearning to tell his birth daughter, who was raised on the Penobscot Reservation, that he's her father.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Full Shift

  Dugan, Jennifer,

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  YA Graphic Novel. Tessa has always had a complicated relationship with her werewolf identity because of her inability to fully shift into a wolf, so when she hears that a group of werewolf hunters might have a cure she'll risk everything…Read moreRead more of this annotation