Kylie recommends: Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
Genre: Contemporary romance
Reading level: YA
Summary: This is an effortless and delightful young adult read about an older sibling taking on a lot of financial struggles for her family by playing in a chess tournament.
Kylie says: There is great banter and angst in this rivals-to-lovers story. If you like The Queen’s Gambit TV show and Ali Hazelwood’s writing, this one’s for you.
Olivia recommends: Educated by Tara Westover
Genre: Memoir
Reading level: Adult
Summary: Westover recounts overcoming her survivalist Mormon family in order to go to college, and emphasizes the importance of education in enlarging her world.
Olivia says: The author did a fantastic job of describing all her hardships in order to do what she felt was right to better her future.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Kylie recommends: Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Genre: Historical romance
Reading Level: Adult
Summary: This is a spicy regency historical romance from the Bridgerton series following Penelope and Colin as they start to become something more than friends.
Kylie says: Penelope is a wallflower who is plus-size spinster who is often overlooked, while Colin is the third Bridgerton brother who loves to travel and has a reputation. Their romance is enthralling and charming you will get sucked right into their world and will root for them until the very end. If you love the show, you’ll love this one, and make sure you read this book before Season 3, Colin & Penelope’s season, comes out in May 2024.
Audrey recommends: Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
Genre: Mystery
Reading level: YA to adult
Summary: All the brightest music students in the state are snowed in at a (possibly) haunted hotel, where a mysterious wedding-night murder occurred 15 years ago.
Audrey says: File this under “books I wish I could read again for the first time.” This novel pulls double duty as a whodunnit and a coming-of-age story. Each chapter flips between an equally captivating perspective, from the eccentric orchestra conductor to the wallflower bassoon prodigy to the elderly butler who was working the night of the murder. So many geniuses trapped under one haunted roof is a recipe for catastrophe, but the coming implosion is necessary for the teens to understand who they are and what they truly want out of life. I don’t know how Kate Racculia managed to write a dark mystery that’s also a feel-good novel about growing up, but I’m grateful she did.
Audrey recommends: It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood
Genre: Graphic novel memoir
Reading level: YA to adult
Summary: Zoe, in the throes of a quarter-life crisis, uses cartoons and storytelling to reframe how she views her life.
Audrey says: This short volume obliterates the limits of what a graphic novel can do and what art is for. Comics are how Zoe makes sense of the world around her: adding structure, finding narrative, changing perspective, and starting over from the beginning. Zoe draws herself in many different forms: a teenage loser, a cutesy cartoon, a barely-sketched outline, sometimes even a worm. She exists as both character and author on the page, arguing against her own narration. If you also stumble across questions like “what am I doing?” and “what’s the point?”, you won’t necessarily find answers here, but you will find someone who knows the journey it takes to answer them.
This title is available at Foster Public Library.
Cathy recommends: Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming
Genre: Fact-based fiction
Reading Level: Picture book
Summary: One well-meaning child benefits an entire town in a foreign country.
Cathy says: This book left me with a smile on my face. A child who joined USA’s Children’s Aid Society after WWII devastated parts of Europe sends a bar of soap, a pair of socks, and a bar of chocolate to a child in a small town in Holland. As the needs of these townspeople become known to the Indiana town, the generosity blossoms, as does the Dutch child and her community. How can a poor town repay such kindness? They do so in a clever way. The author’s mother is the little girl from Indiana.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Audrey recommends: The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner
Genre: Fantasy
Reading Level: Adult
Summary: The eccentric Mad Duke of Tremontaine decides to teach his niece, Katherine, how to become a swordmaster rather than marry her off to an eligible nobleman.
Audrey says: Ellen Kushner describes her Riverside series as “a melodrama of manners”: Jane-Austen-style social commentary in a bloody, high-stakes action-adventure. The ladies in town gossip about the latest slaughter as if it were a fashionable dress. Literary opinions are settled by a duel to first blood. “Melodrama of manners” is now my new favorite genre of all time.
Leaving aside the environment, this novel is, at its core, about breaking boundaries. Marriage or death seem to be the only option for a young lady, but the Mad Duke encourages her to take a third option: true independence.
At first, Katherine resists: if she walks around in boy’s clothes, folks will think she’s clinically insane, or worse, an actress. Katherine herself has no issue wearing breeches; she limits herself purely on the perceptions of others. The pressure to marry young, to appear chaste, to rely on men, to avoid making a scene… The societal norms of class and gender completely unravel once she realizes that they’re all illusions.
This brief summary can’t do justice to the detail of Kushner’s world nor the rich interiority of her characters. I’m surprised this cult classic isn’t more well-known; I recommend you read the book for yourself, not least so I have someone to talk to about it.
Kylie recommends: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Genre: Dystopian
Reading Level: YA
Summary: This is a prequel to The Hunger Games following President’s Snow origin story and the 10th Hunger Games.
Kylie says: This was a really interesting read. It was quite long and I was not really sure were it was going even though you know that Snow ends up as President Snow. I liked to see Snow’s backstory and how the war lead to the creation of the Hunger Games.
Snow throughout the book but especially at the end gave me psychopath, anti-hero, and vibes of Joe from You by Caroline Kepnes and June from Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. These stories are very deep to me and I like to see how their minds work even though they do terrible things, and you know as the reader that they are wrong but how they rationalize their perspective.
The ending was so good, I could not stop reading for the last like 20% of the book!
This title is available at Foster Public Library.
Cathy recommends: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Paranormal romance
Reading Level: YA
Summary: If you’re like me and think Bella chose the wrong one in Twilight…
Cathy says: Concise story about an independent student with overly preoccupied parents; all too often the case in recent times. She has to find her own way, with the help of a few good friends. Some say she has an obsession with wolves, but there’s a reason. Plenty of interesting action which quickly moves the plot along. Read it in a day.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
Olivia recommends: The Marriage Game by Alison Weir
Genre: Historical fiction
Reading Level: Teen and up
Summary: Another masterpiece by Alison Weir telling the story of Elizabeth I and the mounting pressure she was under to take a husband during her rein.
Olivia says: This author does an amazing job of bringing Tudor history to life. It was so interesting to read about Elizabeth Iās life as Queen and the constant pressure she was under to marry. Before reading this book, I knew a bit about the history between the late Queen and Robert Dudley, but the author brings more information to light, which was interesting to read about as well.
This title is available at Tyler Free Library.
