Librarians pick their favorite reads from 2024! All book descriptions come from Novelist.

Katie, Head of Youth Services

Barely Floating by Lilliam Rivera- Twelve-year-old Natalia's dream of becoming a synchronized swimmer is in jeopardy when her parents decide they are against a sport that emphasizes looks, but Nat is determined to change their minds.-From CountyCat

We Are Big Time by Hena Kahn- Inspired by a true story, new Muslim student Aliya joins an all-girls, hijab-wearing basketball team, and she learns about teamwork and herself.--From CountyCat

Funny Story by Emily Henry- After being dumped for her boyfriend's lifelong best friend, Petra, Daphne agrees to room with Petra's freshly heartbroken ex until she can figure things out, in the new novel from the New York Times best-selling author of Happy Place.
 

Emma, Circulation Assistant/Reference Assistant Sub

The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt- A modern amorality play about a 17-year-old girl, the wilder shores of connoisseurship, and the power of false friends.

The Love Songs of W.E.B Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers- To come to terms with who she is and what she wants, Ailey, the daughter of an accomplished doctor and a strict schoolteacher, embarks on a journey through her family’s past, helping her embrace her full heritage, which is the story of the Black experience in itself.

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles- Based on a true story, describes how a lonely, 1980s teenager befriends an elderly neighbor and uncovers her past as a librarian at the American Library in Paris who joined the Resistance when the Nazis arrived.

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult- Across centuries two women, Melina Green and Emilia Bassano, one a modern playwright and the other her Elizabethan ancestor, each fight societal expectations to have their voices heard on the stage in a world that silences female playwrights.

The Hunter by Tana French- It’s a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.
 

Mary, Circulation Assistant/Reference Assistant Sub

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods- For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives. But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder... where nothing is as it seems.

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell- Popular podcaster Alix Summer becomes the subject of her own podcast after a woman named Josie Fair comes into her life and then disappears, leaving behind a terrible and terrifying legacy that puts her life and her family's lives in mortal danger.
 

The Slip: the New York City Street that Changed American Art Forever by Prudence Peiffer- For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world. Coenties Slip, a dead-end street near the water, was home to a circle of wildly talented and varied artists that included Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. As friends and inspirations to one another, they created a unique community for unbridled creative expression and experimentation, and the works they made at the Slip would go on to change the course of American art.-From CountyCat

Shady Hollow by Juneau Black- A newcomer to Shady Hollow, reporter Vera Vixen is fast on the case when a local resident is murdered, but when her investigation exposes more than one mystery, revealing that more lives are in danger--including hers--she must race against time to bring a killer to justice.

Patterns in Nature by Philip Ball- Though at first glance the natural world may appear overwhelming in its diversity and complexity, there are regularities running through it, from the hexagons of a honeycomb to the spirals of a seashell and the branching veins of a leaf. Revealing the order at the foundation of the seemingly chaotic natural world, Patterns in Nature explores not only the math and science but also the beauty and artistry behind nature's awe-inspiring designs. --Amazon.com.

Eva, Adult Services Reference Assistant
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang- After the death of her literary rival in a freak accident, author June Hayward steals her just-finished masterpiece, sending it to her agent as her own work, but as emerging evidence threatens her success, she discovers just how far she’ll go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Built to Move: the ten essential habits to help you move freely and live fully by Kelly Starrett- After decades spent working with pro-athletes, Olympians, and Navy Seals, mobility pioneers Kelly and Juliet Starrett began thinking about the physical well-being of the rest of us. What makes a durable human? How do we continue to feel great and function well as we age? And how do we counteract the effects of technology-dependence, sedentary living, and other modern ways of life on our body's natural need for activity? The answers lie in an easy-to-use formula for basic mobility maintenance: 10 tests + 10 physical practices = 10 ways to make your body work better.

The Mind-Gut Immune Connection by Emeran Mayer-From one of today's leading experts on the emerging science of the microbiome comes a ground-breaking book that offers, for the first time, evidence that the gut-microbiome plays a pivotal role in the health crises of the twenty-first century.

Lisa, Mary, Circulation Assistant/Reference Assistant Sub
James by Percival Everett- When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of Twain's original novel remain in place, Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

God of the Woods by Liz Moore-  Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig- In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed. Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor with her sisters and their father and stepmother. Once there were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last -- the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge -- and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods. Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that her sisters' deaths were no accidents. The girls have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who -- or what -- are they really dancing with? When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family -- before it claims her next.