MLA - Main Librarians' Picks 2023 Q3 | Parsippany Library

Author

Weinersmith, Zach

Description

When their evil neighbor, also known as the guardian of gloom, lays siege to Treeheart, a kid-forged sanctuary, turning them into pimply teenagers and sullen adults, the survivors of the onslaught call out for Bea Wolf--an unbreakable warrior with a penchant for mischief.

2) Between the mountain and the sky: a mother's story of love, loss, healing, and hope

Author

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"Maggie's story begins in suburban New Jersey, in a comfortable middle-class family that supports her decision to travel the world during a gap year before starting college. During her travels, the trajectory of her life alters when she has a surprise encounter with a Nepali girl breaking rocks in a quarry. Maggie decides to invest her life savings of five thousand dollars to buy a piece of land and open a children's home in Nepal. That home becomes...

3) The boy you always wanted

Author

Quach, Michelle

Description

Attempting to fulfill her dying grandfather's dying wish, seventeen-year-old Francine enlists Ollie Tran to act as his honorary male, but the mounting lies and romantic feelings they develop complicate their plan.

4) The Centre: a novel

Author

Manazir Siddiqi, Ayesha

Description

"A darkly comic, speculative debut following an adrift Pakistani translator in London who attends a mysterious language school which boasts complete fluency in just ten days, but at a secret, sinister cost. Anisa Ellahi dreams of being a translator of "great works of literature," but instead mostly spends her days subtitling Bollywood movies, living off her parents' generous allowance, and discussing the "underside of life" with her best friend, Naima....

5) A dangerous business

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print

Description

"From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California, as two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls. Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have:...

6) The deepest breath

Author

Description

Struggling with her feelings for a female classmate, an eleven-year-old Irish girl tries to confide in her mother, the person she trusts most in the world.

7) Design happy: colorful homes for the modern family

Author

Description

"In her first book, interior designer Betsy Wentz shares 13 fabulous family homes. The book is really a practical design guide for anyone who may not want— or simply cannot afford— to hire an interior designer. The story of each home includes color studies, design lessons, and pro tips, plus plenty of practical advice for anyone who might face similar challenges." --

8) Divine rivals: a novel

Author

Series

Letters of Enchantment

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever."--

9) Don't let's go to the dogs tonight: an African childhood

Author

Fuller, Alexandra

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eBook, Large Print

Description

From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fuller, known to friends and family as Bobo, grew up on several farms in southern and central Africa. Her father joined up on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war and was often away fighting against the powerful black guerrilla factions. Her mother, in turn, flung herself into their African life and its rugged farmwork with the same passion and maniacal energy she brought to everything. She taught...

10) An echo in the city

Author

Description

"Two teenagers come of age against the backdrop of the 2019 Hong Kong protests"-- Sixteen-year-old Phoenix knows her parents have invested thousands of dollars to help her leave Hong Kong and get an elite Ivy League education. They think America means big status, big dreams, and big bank accounts. But Phoenix doesn't want big; she just wants home. The trouble is, she doesn't know where that is...until the Hong Kong protest movement unfolds, and she...

11) Emily Wilde's encyclopaedia of faeries

Author

Fawcett, Heather

Series

(Heather M.).Emily Wilde volume 1

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print

Description

"In the early 1900s, a curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town to study faerie folklore, where she discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love. Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on dryadology, the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small...

12) A first time for everything: a true story

Author

Description

"A middle grade graphic memoir based on bestselling author and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat's awkward middle school years and the trip to Europe that changed his life. Dan's always been a good kid. The kind of kid who listens to his teachers, helps his mom with grocery shopping, and stays out of trouble. But being a good kid doesn't stop him from being bullied and feeling like he's invisible, which is why Dan has low expectations when his parents...

13) First to the front: the untold story of Dickey Chapelle, trailblazing female war correspondent

Author

Rinehart, Lorissa

Series

Thorndike Press large print biography and memoir

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle, Large Print

Description

"The first biography of pioneering photojournalist Dickey Chapelle, who from World War II through the early days of Vietnam got her story by any means necessary as one of the first female war correspondents. "I side with prisoners against guards, enlisted men against officers, weakness against power." From the beginning of World War II through the early days of Vietnam, groundbreaking female photojournalist and war correspondent Dickey Chapelle chased...

14) The great alone

Author

Hannah, Kristin

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print, Playaway/Launchpad

Description

"In 1974, a former Vietnam POW, suffering from flashbacks and nightmares, moves his family to Alaska to live off the grid in an attempt to find peace, restoration, and freedom. They will also face dangers, both internally and externally, as they face the ultimate test of the human spirit"-- Lenora Allbright is 13 when her father convinces her mother, Cora, to move from Seattle to Kaneq, AK. It's 1974, and the former Vietnam POW sees a better future...

15) How high we go in the dark: a novel

Author

Nagamatsu, Sequoia

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, Playaway/Launchpad

Description

"In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus. Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing...

16) How you grow wings

Author

Description

Sisters Cheta and Zam's paths to break free of their oppressive home diverge wildly--one moves into an aunt's luxurious home and the other struggles to survive on her wits alone--and when they finally reunite, Zam realizes how far Cheta has fallen, leaving Cheta's fate in Zam's hands.

17) Ink blood sister scribe: a novel

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"Two estranged half sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection--a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power"--

18) Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI

Author

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print

Description

Presents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. --Publisher

19) Lady Tan's circle of women: a novel

Author

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Print

Description

Sent into an arranged marriage, Tan Yunxian, forbidden to continue her work as a midwife-in-training as well as see her forever friend Meiling, is ordered to act like proper wife and seeks a way to continue treating women and girls from every level of society in fifteenth-century China. According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is...

20) The lager queen of Minnesota: a novel

Author

Stradal, J. Ryan

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, Large Print, Playaway/Launchpad

Description

A talented baker running a business out of her nursing home reconnects with her master brewer sister at the same time that her pregnant granddaughter launches an IPA brewpub.