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Best of the Best 2024
by muffy
Goodreads Readers’ Favorite Books 2024
Library Journal’s (114) Best Books of 2024
NPR's staff consumed culture in every imaginable form, and now that the end of the year is upon us, it had gathered all of its favorites right here: The Best of 2024: Our favorite movies, TV, books, music and games, all in one place.
100 Notable Books of 2024, selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. Here are their picks of The 10 Best Books of 2024
The 2024 New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books
The 10 winners are chosen each year by a rotating panel of three expert judges who made their selections from the nearly 800 books by authors and illustrators around the world, purely on the basis of artistic merit.
New York Times named The Best Audio Book of 2024, whether its “(v)oices, cadence, pacing: these 8 sublime audiobooks do everything right.”
The Best Book Covers of 2024 when a New York Times book review art director selects the book jackets that made a compelling impression. Feast for your eyes!
The New Yorker picked its The Best Books of 2024
Kirkus Reviews’ 100 Best Fiction Books of the Year. For the genre readers, here are: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historicals, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy. For readers with special interests: Best Book Club Picks, Short Fiction, Debut Fiction and Fiction in Translation.
Kirkus Reviews’ Best 100 Picture Books of 2024 and the funniest.
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Stream It on AADL.org!
by emjane
Great news! There’s a ton of excellent video to stream via your aadl.org catalog! You can browse the whole collection of more than 10,000 videos, or check out some recommended picks below:
Kids Content
Brand new to AADL streaming, we’ve got a whole bunch of content made especially for kids! Watch animated classics like Arthur, Franklin, and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Learn something from the History Kids or Kratts Creatures. Or curl up with a good book with Reading Rainbow or Storybook Classics
Nature Documentaries
There are nature documentary series aplenty available to stream. Why not check out the classic Planet Earth? Or Blue Planet? Frozen Planet? (We’ve got a lot of Planet content!) Learn about Big Cats or see what happens with Animals With Cameras
BBC Classics
Bite into a film adaptation of a book with any of these BBC literary classics! David Copperfield | Emma | Great Expectations | Jane Eyre | Lorna Doone | Mansfield Park |Pride and Prejudice | Sense & Sensibility (and many more!)
PBS Docuseries
Imagine rather than having to wait for your favorite series to air on PBS, you could just pull them up via your local library catalog? No need to imagine, it’s your reality! Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. is always intriguing, and I’m a huge fan of the science and history explored in NOVA. Or catch up with episodes of American Experience!
And there’s so much more! HBO’s Chernobyl, A&E’s Biography, History Channel’s Modern Marvels all the Ken Burns your heart desires, and more just waiting for you to find it!
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Kids Comics about Standing Out
by nicole
These middle-grade comics are all about standing out! Being in the spotlight can be exciting and scary. Check out these stories about tough tryouts, unlikely dance partners, theater camp crushes, and ambitious art clubs!
The Tryout by Christina Soontornvat | Request Now
As one of the only Asian Americans in her school, Christina confronts both well-meaning ignorance and cruel racism, but in middle school fitting in is important, which is why she and her best friend Megan are both excited and nervous to try out for the popular cheerleading squad. When cheerleading tryouts are announced, Christina and her best friend, Megan, literally jump at the chance to join the squad. As two of the only kids of color in the school, they have always yearned to fit in -- and the middle school cheerleaders are popular and accepted by everyone. But will the girls survive the terrifying tryouts, with their whole grade watching? And will their friendship withstand the pressures of competition? Readers who enjoy the first book can find its sequel, The Squad, in the catalog!
Upstaged by Robin Easter | Request Now
In a summer of goodbyes and new beginnings, shy Ashton Price hopes to confess to their theater camp crush in this heartfelt middle-grade graphic novel. Ever since sixth grade, Ashton Price and their best friend and enduring crush, Ivy Santos, have spent their summers together at theater camp. Now it’s their last year before they part ways for high school, and Ash is determined to end it on a high note! With Ash as stage manager and Ivy the lead in this year’s musical, this summer’s shaping up to be everything the two could have hoped for. Maybe Ash will even work up the courage to ask Ivy out! But between Ivy rehearsing long hours with her co-lead and Ash throwing themself into an ambitious stage production, will they end up drifting apart instead? As summer wanes and September looms, Ash and Ivy’s friendship will change forever, one way or another.
Swing by Audrey Meeker | Request Now
This middle-grade story explores complicated friendships, gender norms, and the struggle of navigating other people's expectations. Marcus McCalister wants to fit in. So much so that he’s still playing on a soccer team with his childhood friend Ted, despite not liking soccer — or Ted — all that much. Izzy Briggs wants to stand out. Being labeled the “weird kid” for her bold fashion choices is the price an aspiring designer must pay for a life of greatness—but being confident isn't always easy. So when Izzy and Marcus are paired together to perform a swing dance routine for a gym project, it’s no surprise that everything goes up in flames, including their grade in the class. Until their gym teacher proposes a deal: if the pair performs the swing routine in the upcoming talent show, they’ll receive extra credit and a passing grade. They accept. . . but Izzy has her own proposal for Marcus: this time, she gets to be the lead.
Art Club by Rashad Doucet | Request Now
Inspired by the author’s own childhood, this middle-grade graphic novel paints a picture of an aspiring young artist on a mission to prove that the arts are worth fighting for. Dale Donavan has heard the same lecture over and over again: Art will get you nowhere in life. A kid with a creative streak, Dale wants nothing more than to doodle, play video games, and create comics forever—maybe even as a full-time job one day. But between his grandfather pushing him to focus on his studies and a school with zero interest in funding arts programs, Dale feels like his future has already been decided for him. That is, until he comes up with the perfect plan: What if he starts an after-school art club, gathers a team of creative students like himself, and proves all the naysayers—his stubborn vice principal in particular—wrong? This might just work, but if the club isn’t financially successful by the end of the semester, the school with shut them down. This may be Dale’s only chance to show the adults in his life that a career as an artist is not just a dream but a possibility!
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Charming Holiday Romances
by eapearce
Cozy up this season with some of these fun new holiday romance novels!
Love You A Latke, by Amanda Elliot | Request Now
Abby is the only Jewish woman on her small Vermont town’s council, and because of this she’s been pigeonholed into planning their first ever Hanukkah festival. Unfortunately, most of her fellow council-members are uneducated about the meaning of the holiday and Abby’s having trouble getting the support and funding she needs to make the festival a meaningful one. Desperate, she reaches out online to see if there are any other Jewish people in the area who might be willing to help out. It turns out there is one—Seth, who annoys Abby immediately with his sunny personality and insistence on visiting her at her cafe every morning. He has connections to a huge Jewish community in New York City and can introduce Abby to all the vendors she needs to make the festival a success… if Abby can tolerate him. This sweet story shows that sometimes, breaking down our emotional walls is worth it: both for the success of our dreams and, maybe, for true love?
The Merry Matchmaker, by Sheila Roberts | Request Now
In this cheery Christmas themed story, a woman can’t resist trying to help everyone around her, even when her help is unasked for, unwanted and sometimes even leads to disaster. Author Sheila Roberts was inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma when she wrote her character of Frankie Lane. Frankie seems to know what’s best for everyone in her life, but doesn’t spend much time thinking about what might be best for her. She’s determined to help her divorced sister find new love, her shy employee to come out of her shell and her chocolate-making daughter to start her own shop. She’s also determined to help Mitch, the local hardware store owner, find a new woman after his recent divorce. He and Frankie have been friends for years and he was her support system when her husband passed away in a freak accident. Any lady would be lucky to have him, Frankie just needs to find the right one…. Readers will smile at Frankie’s blunders, and root for her all the way to the last page of this festive romance.
Three Holidays and a Wedding, by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Staphy | Request Now
Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson are seatmates on a December flight to Toronto. They’re traveling there for vastly different reasons: Maryam is headed to her sister’s impromptu wedding and Anna is excited to meet her boyfriend’s family for the first time. All is going well, until unexpected turbulence forces the plane to redirect and make an emergency landing, and Maryam and Anna find themselves confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another as they cross their fingers that they’ll land safely. The plane does indeed land safely, in a snowbound town where the passengers, including Anna, Maryam, Maryam’s sister’s entire bridal party, and Saif, the love of Maryam’s life (who happened to be sitting behind the two women on the plane and overheard their entire conversation) are forced to stay at the quirky Snow Falls Inn. It’s not where anyone expected to be, but as Maryam works to repair things with Saif and Anna realizes that an actor she’s had a crush on forever just happens to be filming a movie at the Inn, the women find themselves getting into the holiday spirit after all.
Bright Lights, Big Christmas, by Mary Kay Andrews | Request Now
Kerry Oliver is not in a great place. She’s newly single and she’s just lost her job and she desperately needs a second chance at, well, life. She’d never planned on moving back to her family’s Christmas tree farm in North Carolina but she’s out of options so that’s where she heads. She no sooner arrives, though, when she’s guilt tripped into heading to New York City for two months with her brother Murphy to sell trees out of a trailer in the East Village. It’s definitely not how Kerry expected to spend the holidays but, again, she doesn’t have much of a choice. When she meets Patrick, an annoying Mercedes owner who keeps taking her parking spot, she’s unimpressed. But as she finds out more about him: he’s recently divorced, the father to a charming six-year-old son, and lives just down the street from the Christmas tree trailer, she begins to wonder if first impressions can be wrong. Filled with the magic of Christmas in the city, readers will root for Kerry to find love and happiness again—and for her to sell lots of Christmas trees!
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Slice-of-Life Graphic Novels
by walkerk
Slice of life is a genre that explores the mundane events of a character's everyday life. Do you ever just wanna see your favorite character have fun at a party without an overarching doomsday plot? If so, this is the genre for you! Naturally, most of these stories are more personal and have lower stakes, but their tone can vary. If you're interested in ending the year with a handful of sweet, tender, and/or more lighthearted slice-of-life stories, here are five titles to explore:
Young Adult:
Himawari House by Harmony Becker | Request Now
Living in a new country is no walk in the park. When Nao returns to Tokyo to reconnect with her Japanese heritage, she books a yearlong stay at the Himawari sharehouse. There, she meets Hyejung and Tina, two other girls who came to Japan to freely forge their own paths. The trio live together, share meals, and even attend the same Japanese-language school, which results in them becoming fast friends. But will they be able to hold one another up as life tests them with new loves, old heartbreaks, and the everyday challenges of being fish out of water?
This tender and heartfelt slice of life features coming-of-age themes, dynamic black and white art, and big questions around identity and belonging. Readers felt as though they were given time to really connect with and live alongside the characters, with Becker's writing easily bringing their world to life.
Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen by Hiromi Sato | Request Now 
Night falls on the Witch Hat Atelier, and Coco and her fellow apprentices take to their beds. In the quiet of midnight, Qifrey and Olruggio are finally free to pursue their culinary experiments. The magic of the kitchen comes alive as they cook puddings, stews, parfaits, and jellies, and when the sun rises, Coco and the gang are there to savor every bite!
In this Witch Hat Atelier spinoff, magic is in the kitchen as Qifrey and the gang whip up everything their hearts desire. If you haven't read Witch Hat, don't worry! Newcomers looking for an introduction to the world are more than welcome to start here, and all readers are invited to recreate recipes using the step-by-step instructions included within the book. Relax and have fun with this food-focused slice of life.
Giant Days by John Alison | Request Now
Susan, Esther, and Daisy started at university three weeks ago and became fast friends. Now, away from home for the first time, all three want to reinvent themselves. But in the face of hand-wringing boys, "personal experimentation," influenza, mystery-mold, nu-chauvinism, and the willful, unwanted intrusion of "academia," they may be lucky just to make it to spring alive. Going off to university is always a time of change and growth, but things are about to get a little weird.
With its lighthearted and fun tone, Giant Days follows its three main characters and their first taste of freedom after starting college. This title has a similar vibe to Scott Pilgrim—especially with fourth-wall breaks—and it's filled with sharp dialogue and vibrant art to match. If you enjoy this title, volume two awaits.
Adult:
Wash Day Diaries by Jamila Rowser | Request Now 
Through five connected short story comics, Wash Day Diaries follows four best friends—Kim, Tanisha, Davene, and Cookie—and the ups and downs of their daily lives in the Bronx. Each short story uses hair routines as a window into these characters' lives and how they care for each other.
From self-care to spilling the tea at an hours-long salon appointment to healing family rifts, Wash Day Diaries is a touching, triumphant, and funny title that pays loving tribute to Black joy. Touched by these unique and heartwarming stories, with beautifully drawn characters and color palettes that reflect each story's mood, readers were often left craving more.
A Sign of Affection by Suu Morishita | Request Now
Yuki, who's always been deaf, is used to communicating with sign language and her phone, but she's not used to English. So when a tourist from overseas asks for directions, she nearly panics until a handsome stranger steps in to help. This stranger's name is Itsuomi, and it turns out that he's a friend-of-a-friend, a fellow student, and a charismatic globetrotter who speaks three languages—but sign language isn't one of them. Can the two learn to communicate the budding feelings between them?
Featuring lovable characters that hooked readers in from the first few pages, this cute, romantic slice-of-life follows Yuki's experience as a college student and beautifully captures the beginnings of a romance. If you enjoy this title, volume two eagerly awaits.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #846, Healing Fiction
by muffy
The Full Moon Coffee Shop * * by Mai Mochizuki is “(a) beautifully crafted contemporary fantasy debut”, (Publishers Weekly), a Japanese national bestseller translated by Jesse Kirkwood. (Also available in downloadable eBook and audiobook).
Each of the 5 chapters focuses on an individual whose life is changed by his/her encounter at the mysterious Kyoto coffee shop that appears only on nights of a full moon.
Mizuki Serikawa, once a much sought-after television script writer, now is barely able to support herself writing scripts for supporting characters in a video game dating sim. Her last-ditch pitch to director Akari Nakayama, a former colleague, is rejected. Though sympathetic, Akari was unable to interest the company executives to take a chance. Wandering aimlessly among the Kyoto neighborhoods along the Kamo River, Mizuki chanced upon the Full Moon Coffee Shop, recommended to her by two odd-looking strangers at a bar. This turns out to be a very unusual cat café staffed by feline astrologers, serving up coffee and decadent desserts, and a reading of the customers' horoscopes.
“The coffee shop appears to several other Kyoto residents facing unexpected troubles in their personal and professional lives: director Akari, who's struggling against an unexpected attraction; actor Satsuki Ayukawa, whose career tanked after her affair with a married costar; hairdresser Megumi Hayakawa, who isn't satisfied in what she thought was her dream career; and IT startup founder Takashi Mizumoto, who is plagued with inexplicable tech trouble. The stories of all five characters subtly but cleverly intersect, pointing to an act of kindness in their pasts that gets mystically mirrored back to them in the present." (Publishers Weekly)
In this Sunday’s New York Times Book Reviews, readers will find the delightful article In Tumultuous Times, Readers Turn to ‘Healing Fiction’ - cozy, whimsical novels - often featuring magical cats - that have long been popular in Japan and Korea are taking off globally. Boy, do we need them now!
Readers who enjoyed Before the Coffee Gets Cold (series) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (featured in the NYTimes article), might also be interested in The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa, and The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa.
* * = 2 starred reviews
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Superhero Fiction for Teens
by nicole
Superhero stories have become so popular that they're expanding outside of the world of comics into full-length novels. These books are perfect for readers who want to explore the multiverse or learn the origin stories of their favorite superheroes.
Storm: Dawn of a Goddess by Tiffany D. Jackson| Request Now
Before she was the super hero Storm of Marvel's X-Men, she was Ororo of Cairo--a teenaged thief on the streets of Egypt, until her growing powers catch the eye of a villain who steals people's souls. Few can weather the storm. As a thief on the streets of Cairo, Ororo Munroe is an expert at blending in--keeping her blue eyes low and her white hair beneath a scarf. Stealth is her specialty . . . especially since strange things happen when she loses control. Lately, Ororo has been losing control more often, setting off sudden rainstorms and mysterious winds . . . and attracting dangerous attention. When she is forced to run from the Shadow King, a villain who steals people's souls, she has nowhere to turn to but herself. There is something inside her, calling her across Africa, and the hidden truth of her heritage is close enough to taste. But as Ororo nears the secrets of her past, her powers grow stronger and the Shadow King veers closer and closer. Can she outrun the shadows that chase her? Or can she step into the spotlight and embrace the coming storm?
Faith: Taking Flight by Julie Murphy | Request Now
Meet Faith, a groundbreaking, plus-sized superhero from Valiant comics, and learn her origin story in this two-part book series. When she's not hanging out with her two best friends, Matt and Ches, Faith Herbert is volunteering at the local animal shelter or obsessing over the long-running teen drama The Grove. So far, her senior year has been spent trying to sort out her feelings for her maybe-crush Johnny and making plans to stay close to Grandma Lou after graduation. And there's the small matter of recently discovering she can fly. Then the fictional world of The Grove relocates to her town, and TV heroine Dakota Ash takes a romantic interest in Faith. But when animals, then people, begin to vanish, only Faith seems able to connect the dots to a new designer drug infiltrating her high school. If you enjoy Faith's story, you can find the second book in the duology here.
Miles Morales: Suspended by Jason Reynolds | Request Now
Miles Morales is just your average teenager. He has unexpectedly become totally obsessed with poetry and can never seem to do much more than babble around his crush. Nothing too weird. Oh! Except, just yesterday, he used his superpowers to save the world (no big deal) from an evil mastermind called The Warden. And the grand prize Miles gets for that is...a suspension. But what begins as a long boring day of in-school suspension is interrupted by a little bzzz in his mind. His Spidey sense is telling him there’s something not quite right here, and soon he finds himself in a fierce battle with an insidious...termite?! His unexpected foe is hiding a secret, one that could lead to the destruction of the world’s history — especially Black and Brown history — and only Miles can stop him. It's just a typical day in the life of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt de la Peña | Request Now
For as long as he can remember, Clark Kent has always been faster, stronger, and, well...better than everyone else around him. But lately it's been difficult to hold back and keep his heroics in the shadows. In Clark's opinion, he hasn't even earned his powers...at least, not yet. When Clark follows the sound of a girl crying, he comes across Gloria Alvarez and learns that people are disappearing from the Mexican-American and undocumented worker community in Smallville. Teaming up with his best friend, Lana Lang, Clark discovers that before he can save the world, he has to save his own hometown.
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Great Baking Books
by eapearce
Any time of year is a great time to bake, but baking just as the weather starts to turn cold might be the best time of all. Bake for yourself, bake for your family and friends, bake for the holidays! Bake breads, bake cookies, bake cakes or pies, bake whatever floats your boat. Need some inspiration for what to pop in the oven? Read on!
Delectable: Sweet & Savory Baking, by Claudia Fleming | Request Now
You might recognize the name of Chef Claudia Fleming for several reasons: she’s the author of the best-selling 2001 cookbook The Last Course and her dessert menus have reigned supreme for many years at the beloved Gramercy Tavern in New York City. Fans long wondered if Fleming would ever publish a second cookbook, but the 20+ year wait was worth it when she released Delectable in 2022. Despite being a wildly talented James Beard Award-winning chef with (presumably) any ingredient she needs at her fingertips, you don’t need to be a world class baker yourself to make use of Delectable. There are very few hard-to-find ingredients, and her recipes are straightforward and detailed, making even the more complicated ones to follow easy if you go step-by-step. What’s particularly nice about this book is that it contains recipes for both sweet bakes and savory ones, so it can be used for more than just dessert. Along with recipes for Devil’s food cake cookies and rhubarb scones, you’ll find ones for chickpea crackers, gruyere and onion biscuits, and eggplant tart. Yum!
A Good Day to Bake: Simple Baking Recipes for Every Mood, by Benjamina Ebuehi | Request Now
2016 Great British Bakeoff contestant Benjamina Ebuehi loves the ritual of baking. In her book, she encourages readers take time to enjoy the baking process and perhaps even find it therapeutic. “Going through the ritual of bringing out the measuring scales, pouring out flour, whipping up the eggs, stirring the batter and impatiently slicing up warm cake is a beautiful thing that deserves to be enjoyed all year round, no matter the day, season, or occasion,” she says. Her recipes reflect this belief: they’re very seasonal and down-to-earth and are often quite simple, perhaps with a small unexpected twist that elevate them above other routine bakes. She arranges her cookbook (her sophomore effort; her first was A New Way to Cake) by ingredient and introduces each recipe with tips, flavor notes and an explanation of how she developed it. The clean, peaceful images that accompany the recipes will aid readers who are using baking as a mindfulness practice or way to relax.
More Than Cake: 100 Baking Recipes Built for Pleasure and Community, by Natasha Pickowicz | Request Now
Pickowicz has won awards for her baking at Altro Paradiso and Flora Bar, but is especially renowned for how she uses her baking skills for good. She’s raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes that she cares about through her community bake sales and taught hundreds of people how to bake along the way. Though she’s certainly capable of making the most complicated baked creation, she typically prefers to keep her recipes unfussy (chocolate mousse in a blender) and to experiment with flavors that honor her Chinese heritage (red bean and brown butter pie, scallion pancake biscuits and black sesame fortune cookies, to name a few). She adheres to the “no occasion is too small an occasion to bake for” mentality and includes recipes perfect for baking just for your partner or recipes that scale up well to create for your entire office. Included in the book is an essay for tips on how to hold a successful bake sale and suggestions for baked goods that perform particularly well in a bake sale setting.
Baking Yesteryear: the Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s, by B. Dylan Hollis | Request Now
The back cover of this fun cookbook touts it as “a decade-by-decade collection of wild, wacky and wonderful recipes from the 20th century,” and that’s truly what it is! You can travel back in (culinary) time aided by B. Dylan Hollis, who has selected a unique assortment of popular recipes from days of old. He mainly used antique cookbooks to compile the recipes in this collection and—purposefully—they’re not all winners. While some are just as delicious today as they probably were in 1934, others are delightfully strange and still others might make you question what people were eating back then! Some of Hollis’ favorites include cornflake macaroons from 1909, mayonnaise cake from 1956 and potato chip cookies from the 1970s. Others, like chocolate sauerkraut cake from the 1940s, are a bit of a stretch. Hollis accompanies all the recipes with witticisms and humorous commentary. This book is great fun.
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Hot off the Press–New Releases from Fifth Avenue Press
by emjane
One of the neatest things about this collection of books is that ALL of them are available for you to read digitally RIGHT NOW, and the only ticket for entry is your AADL Library Card! You can read them directly in your browser from AADL’s catalog or download the PDFs to read from other devices.
The Twin Panthers by Héctor Fox | Request Now
Fox’s short pitch of his debut novel is “Game of Thrones done Mesoamerican style,” and I couldn’t say it any better! If that draws you in, this book is for you! The Twin Panthers centers on Itza’ and Chanil, the two daughters of the king in a region facing unrest from a neighboring kingdom and foreign invaders. Both sisters struggle with the expectations put upon them, as they attempt to figure out who they are within (and outside of) their role in their community. Fox excels at character development, and though I’m often skeptical of men writing women characters, his voice reads authentically. As someone who is NOT a typical fantasy reader and one who frequently gets bored during battle scenes, I was stunned to find that The Twin Panthers was absolutely my jam—including the battles! I can’t wait to read what Fox comes up with next!
The Northeast Corner by Colby Halloran | Request Now
Set in Ann Arbor in the late 1950s-late 1960s, this auto-fiction (Halloran states that 95% of the book actually happened), tracks the coming of age of a precocious protagonist. Finding comfort in rules and patterns, the young narrator’s worldview begins to crumble when she starts to uncover a secret that her idolized father may not be the man she thought he was. Health challenges further mar the family dynamic, necessitating a move and forcing both the narrator and her mother to change their roles in the family. Despite these serious circumstances, The Northeast Corner is filled with humor and moments of lightness, giving the book a balanced feel. And, oh, the ending! Don’t flip ahead, but, gee…that last line of the book.
Peri Peri Paprika by Leanne Su | Request Now
This page-turner is an utter delight from beginning to end! A cozy sci-fi filled with humor, heart, and a dash of legitimate science (Su is a aerospace engineer focusing on propulsion), Peri Peri Paprika is a book I could recommend to just about anybody! Moss, a disenchanted pilot on an interstellar trash collection ship, is simply existing until she is technically legally kidnapped by Turnip, the ship’s janitor, and taken on a galactic adventure that completely reframes her life. The reader is taken along on Moss and Turnip’s journey, meeting various lifeforms, evading law enforcement, and, of course, becoming friends along the way. The small twist made me cackle with glee, and in the short nine chapters, I found myself truly loving Turnip and Moss. I got to read this book pre-publication, and am so pleased it’s finally out in the world so that I can give it to all my friends who I told “I read this book you’re going to EAT UP! Just you wait until November!”
A2Z: An Ann Arbor Alphabet by Bettina Senga | Request Now
A2Z is truly an alphabet book for all ages, and one particularly enhanced by passing (or intimate) familiarity with key places in Ann Arbor. Charming linocuts of iconic Ann Arbor artifacts and landmarks set alongside brightly colored letters, reminiscent of classic letter blocks, make each page turn a delight. Senga’s detailed art makes the familiar reader’s mind jump straight to location: my personal favorite is H for Huron River, but maybe, for you, it’ll be F for the Fleetwood, M for Mastodon, or Z for Zingerman’s. Only one way to find out: treat yourself to the read!
And THAT'S NOT ALL! Here are some other amazing releases from 2024:
Zmagria: Poems by Moana Ammar | Request Now
Field Guide to Ambiguity by Hannah Burr | Request Now
Family Foundations: Four Stories of Black Washtenaw County Community Building: 1850-1950 | Request Now
Ripple Effects: A Northern Woods Romance by Amy Hepp | Request Now
Zaftig by Molly Pershon Raynor | Request Now
Blog Post
Staff Picks: Poetry Anthologies
by walkerk
Poetry is a personal experience, and it can be overwhelming to find what you like when you're exploring or just starting out. Luckily, anthologies expose us to a variety of writers and poems we might not have otherwise heard of, giving us the chance to experience something new and figure out what we enjoy. Here are four poetry anthologies to check out if you're looking to expand your palate:
Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry, collected by Joy Harjo | Request Now
Living Nations, Living Words is a powerful and moving anthology that celebrates the breadth of Native poets writing today. Joy Harjo, the first Native poet to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, gathers the work of contemporary Native poets into a national, fully digital map of story, sound, and space, celebrating their vital and unequivocal contributions to American poetry. Featuring work from Natalie Diaz, Ray Young Bear, Craig Santos Perez, Sherwin Bitsui, Layli Long Soldier, among others, this companion anthology offers readers a chance to hold the wealth of poems in their hands.
This is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets, edited by Kwame Alexander | Request Now 
This is the Honey is a breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage. It features work from promising and well-loved Black poets and writers, such as Rita Dove, Jericho Brown, Warsan Shire, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith, Terrance Hayes, Morgan Parker, and Nikki Giovanni. Edited by Kwame Alexander, author of Why Fathers Cry at Night and a New York Times bestselling author, this collection of contemporary anthems, with tender threads and poignant imagery, contains poems exploring joy, love, origin, race, resistance, praise, and music.
The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal, edited by James Crews | Request Now
The Wonder of Small Things is a collection of accessible and uplifting poetry celebrating moments of wonder and peace in everyday life. James Crews, editor of How to Love the World and The Path to Kindness, curates a selection of poems from a diverse range of authors, as well as emerging poets. Readers are guided in exploring the meaning of poems through a series of reflective pauses and reading questions in the back of the book. This anthology is perfect for anyone interested in mindful living and bringing poetry into their everyday lives.
Queer Nature: a Poetry Anthology, edited by Michael Walsh | Request Now
Queer Nature centers LGBTQIA+ voices and perspectives in a collection of contemporary nature poetry. Showcasing over two hundred queer writers from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, it expands upon the canon of nature poetry while also offering new lenses to view queerness and the natural world. Edited by Michael Walsh, this anthology features poets such as Elizabeth Bishop, Richard Blanco, Kay Ryan, Jericho Brown, Allen Ginsberg, Natalie Diaz, and June Jordan.