By Thomas Rutigliano – Senior Circulation Librarian
As we head into winter, we wanted to share some of our reading, listening and viewing suggestions. Consider stopping by the Library and checking one out today.
Abby, Director
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta – Sand Talk was fascinating, as well as eye-opening. Yunkaporta presents a different way of thinking and experiencing the world, through symbols, stories, and “yarns” with everyone around you. I found each chapter thoughtful and inspiring.
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher – This creepy reimagining of Snow White was delightful and compelling. T. Kingfisher never disappoints.
DanDaDan by Yukinobu Tatsu – This manga series (and anime) is about teens fighting aliens and evil spirits, sometimes at the same time, and is equal parts horror and hilarious. I can’t put it down.
First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison – An adorable meet-cute. In a very Sleepless in Seattle style, the main character’s daughter calls into a failing radio advice show to ask how to get her single mom a boyfriend. The characters were well-developed and funny, and I loved the found family surrounding the protagonist. The sequel is coming out soon and I already have it on hold.
Barbara, Reference
The Correspondent: A Novel by Virginia Evans
In this epistolary novel, Sybil, a 75 year old woman, comes to terms with the decisions made in her life and their impact on her relationships with friends and more importantly, her family and the death of her youngest son. I appreciated the growth of the character as the depth of her letters changed as the novel progressed and Sybil learned to forgive both herself and those individuals who had a significant impact on her life.
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The Frozen River: A Novel by Arien Lawhon
This historical novel is based on the real-life of an 18 th century midwife, Martha Ballard, who chronicled her relationship with her patients as she navigated her role in their lives. She is also at the center of a murder investigation in her town, involving a man who wants to control the future of the town as well as take over the lumber plant owned and operated by her husband.
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Framed in Death by J. D. Robb
I listened to the audiobook version of this title, read by Susan Ericksen. Centering on the art galleries in Manhattan and those who frequent such, this novel deals with ego and the denial of the artistic talent of a male artist, repeatedly refused the option of displaying his work. To gain recognition, he chooses to replicate famous paintings, acquiring reproductions of the clothing depicted in each as well as choosing representative subjects from the streetwalkers in New York. Lt. Eve Dallas leads the investigation to locate and capture the murderer before another death occurs.
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Mary, Circulation
Heartwood by Amity Gaige
Heartwood is Amity Gaige’s fifth novel. It was selected by Jenna Bush Hager as a Read with Jenna pick for April 2025 and became an instant national bestseller. Amity is the author of four previous novels, O My Darling, The Folded World, Schroder, and Sea Wife. Sea Wife was a 2020 New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Mark Twain American Voice Award. Schroder was also a New York Times Notable Book and a best book of 2013 according to The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, among others, and was shortlisted for UK’s Folio Prize in 2014. In 2018, Amity was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction. She lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her family and teaches creative writing at Yale.
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Molly, Reference
Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee
In Joyful, designer Ingrid Fetell Lee explores how the seemingly mundane spaces and objects we interact with every day have surprising and powerful effects on our mood. Drawing on insights from neuroscience and psychology, she explains why one setting makes us feel anxious or competitive, while another fosters acceptance and delight—and, most importantly, she reveals how we can harness the power of our surroundings to live fuller, healthier, and truly joyful lives.
Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad
In The Book of Alchemy, Suleika explores the art of journaling and shares everything she’s learned about how this life-altering practice can help us tap into that mystical trait that exists in every human: creativity. She has gathered wisdom from one hundred writers, artists, and thinkers in the form of essays and writing prompts. Their insights invite us to inhabit a more inspired life.
A companion through challenging times, The Book of Alchemy is broken into themes ranging from new beginnings to love, loss, and rebuilding. Whether you’re a lifelong journaler or new to the practice, this book gives you the tools, direction, and encouragement to engage with discomfort, ask questions, peel back the layers, dream daringly, uncover your truest self—and in doing so, to learn to hold the unbearably brutal and astonishingly beautiful facts of life in the same palm.
Samantha, Reference
Heart the Lover by Lily King
Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
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Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar.
Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.
Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.
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Katherine- Head of Circulation
Tales from the Cafe: A Novel by Toshikazu Kawauguchi
In a back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.
With faces both familiar and new, Tales from the Cafe follows the story of four patrons who visit to take advantage of café Funiculi Funicula’s time-traveling offer and revisit moments with family, friends and lovers. Each one must face up to the past to move on with their lives.
Kawaguchi’s wistful and heartwarming new novel once again invites the reader to ask themselves, “What would you do if you could travel back in time?”
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Thomas- Circulation
What You Are Looking For is in this Library by Michiko Aoyama
What are you looking for? So asks Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian. For Sayuri Komachi is able to sense exactly what each visitor to her library is searching for and provide just the book recommendation to help them find it.
A restless retail assistant looks to gain new skills, a mother tries to overcome demotion at work after maternity leave, a conscientious accountant yearns to open an antique store, a recently retired salaryman searches for newfound purpose.
In Komachi’s unique book recommendations they will find just what they need to achieve their dreams. What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is about the magic of libraries and the discovery of connection. This inspirational tale shows how, by listening to our hearts, seizing opportunity and reaching out, we too can fulfill our lifelong dreams. Which book will you recommend?
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Chihiro- Substitute
Franklin Endicott and the Third Key by Kate Diccamillo
Welcome back to Deckawoo Drive for a sixth endearing installment in the companion series to Kate DiCamillo’s New York Times best-selling Mercy Watson books. Frank Endicott is a worrier. He worries about lions, submarines, black holes, leprosy, and armadillos. He lists his worries alphabetically in a notebook and suffers vivid nightmares that even a certain neighborhood pig can’t dispatch. When he accompanies Eugenia Lincoln on an errand to duplicate a key at her favorite dark and dusty thrift shop, Frank earns fresh cause for alarm. Odd Buddy Lamp, the shop’s proprietor, has sent them home with the original key and its copy. Can Frank come to terms with the mystery without buckling under his mounting dread? With a little help from friends (old and new), hot cocoa, and some classic short stories read aloud, the prognosis is good.