Recommended Reads

Tess and Anna discover that lightning may indeed strike twice as they navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge.

Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch): successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, a storm is brewing -- as Theo's career nosedives while Ivy's own ambitions take off, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites. The Roses is a reimagining of the 1989 classic film The War of the Roses, based on the novel by Warren Adler.

The classic "bear hibernation" story is turned on its head in this hilarious read-aloud full of surprises, perfect for a cozy winter read and story time year-round!

This is was supposed to be a sleepy bear book-a gentle, quiet story. Until Bear opened his cozy, quiet den, only to find-A DJ and a disco ball? Guitar riffs and a booming bass? A random jazz flute?Stop all these shenanigans! THIS ISN'T WHAT HAPPENS IN A SLEEPY BEAR BOOK!

Things only get noisier and more chaotic with every turn of the page. Winking at storytime conventions in a way that'll crack kids up, This Is Not a Sleepy Bear Book combines classic bedtime story tropes with visual, giggle-worthy surprises that offer a memorable twist and a great read-aloud.

Caldecott Honorees Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey deliver heart, hope, and holiday cheer in this magical companion to The Old Truck and The Old Boat.
 

On winter nights, an old sleigh delivers firewood, bringing warmth and light to a small town. But small towns get bigger and families grow. When the old sleigh is overwhelmed, a new sled and a new generation carry on the custom and ensure the town is warm and bright.

This enchanting picture book from the creators of the acclaimed The Old Truck celebrates tradition, community, and simple acts of giving.

Explore the science of snow in this informative picture book with a lyrical read-aloud from award-winning author and poet Laura Purdie Salas.

Stars and columns fill the sky
with dreams to flurry, float, and fly. 

When the first flakes of snow swirl toward the ground, it almost feels like magic. But in fact, it's science: a delicate process where cold air and moisture high in the sky work together to create tiny crystals that grow into sparkling snowflakes. 

Laura Purdie Salas's accessible, poetic text and Chiara Fedele's breathtaking art present the science behind snow and revel in the wonder of winter weather. Follow as the weather sets the stage for a glowing, snowy morning full of flakes that flurry, float, and fly!

An author's note delves deeper into the science of snow, making the book an excellent choice for classroom lessons on weather and seasons.

There's more to explore! Also read Zap! Clap! Boom! The Story of a Thunderstorm.

From the New York Times bestselling World of Click, besties Beth and Chanda set sail on their third adventure. But their dream cruise is not all smooth sailing as they navigate the changing tides of friendship and sisterhood.

Busy besties Beth and Chanda are all aboard for a relaxing ocean getaway! Chanda fully embraces being on "Sunshine Time." The only items on her to-do list are showing off her summer fashions, snorkeling, lounging on the beach with Beth, and sightseeing with her family--including her soon-to-be brother-in-law, Seth, and his parents. Scratch that; Chanda is so at ease that she hasn't even made a list!

Beth is...less relaxed. Back home, her big sister, Lisa, is preparing to move away for college in the fall. Missing out on precious time with Lisa before she leaves has Beth feeling bluer than the ocean. Making things worse, she's anxious about seeming like a wet beach towel on this once-in-a-lifetime vacation.

Can the two friends find their sea legs and ride the emotional waves together?

Get whisked away by the latest collaboration from Kayla Miller, coauthor Jeffrey Canino, and illustrator Kristina Luu. Readers will journey along with Beth and Chanda to a world of technicolor sunsets and sparkling oceans as the besties dive into the ups and downs of getting away from it all and being there for each other.

Solve Animal Mysteries from A to Z! Inspired by Ron Roy's A to Z Mysteries series, this exciting animal adventure mystery is perfect for budding young chapter book readers. This time, 8-year-old Abbi and her friends solve the mystery of a missing ferret!

F IS FOR FERRET . . .

Follow that ferret! Abbi and her friends and family are pet-sitting at a petting zoo and animal sanctuary. The kids are in charge of the ferret, Marcie. There's just one problem: Marcie is acting very strange. She seems upset! Then she runs off, escaping her crate, and sending Abbi, Lydia, and Daniel on a hunt for the missing ferret! Little do they know that finding Marcie will lead to an even bigger mystery. . . .


Don't miss the first books in the A to Z Animal Mysteries series:
 

• #1: The Absent Alpacas
• #2: Bats in the Castle
• #3: Cougar Clues
• #4: Dolphin Detectives
• #5: The Emerald Egg

Ready for more? Check out the original A to Z Mysteries series by Ron Roy!

Erin Hunter's #1 bestselling Warriors series continues with the second book in the Changing Skies arc, as the Clans continue to navigate an ominous prophecy that foreshadows the end of the cats' connection to StarClan.

Still healing from an accident that almost killed her, Tawnypelt is eager to share the message she received from StarClan about a "great peril" looming over the clans. But her vision is dismissed by her son and leader, Tigerstar, leaving Tawnypelt with no choice but to take action on her own.

Racked with guilt that he caused his father's death, Starlingpaw is determined to atone for his mistake. His chance comes when Tawnypelt warns him of a "two-faced cat" intent on destroying the clans. Believing himself uniquely suited to find this cat and stop them, Starlingpaw seizes on the opportunity to prove that he is an asset, and not a liability, to SkyClan.

Moonpaw is settling into her role as a Thunderclan apprentice, even as she continues to grapple with the voice in her head. But the more she tries to ignore the voice, the louder--and angrier--it grows.

Meanwhile, Twolegs have set their sights on the Moonpool, preventing the Clans from reaching StarClan. Will the cats find a way to reach their ancestors before all is lost

Competitive gaming and fake dating combine to create a razor-sharp romance perfect for fans of Twelfth Knight and SLAY. 

Zora Lyon plays to dominate. And as a no-nonsense, strategic prodigy of Wizzard Game's viral battle royale, she has all the skills she needs. So when Wizzard offers their top players a chance to participate in a summer academy designed to crown a national champion, Zora knows she has what it takes to be the last player standing. 

But Wizzard isn't just looking for winners-they're looking to create viral gaming superstars. Suddenly, Zora finds herself competing against famous esports influencers who can play the game and boost their follower count. That includes Ivan Hunt, the insufferably good-looking fan-favorite streamer, whom she betrayed to cement her spot at the academy. 

As their matches broadcast to Wizzard's fanbase, Zora's ruthless playing style and obvious lack of streaming experience immediately sends her to the bottom of the class. With her dreams of impressing Wizzard's cofounder Brian Juno in jeopardy, Zora will do just about anything to fix her image-even if that means pretending to date Ivan to gain some popularity points. What can go wrong with a little white lie?

An engrossing oral history of a band that came to define a generation, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run tells the madcap story of Paul McCartney and his newly formed band, from their humble beginnings in the early 1970s to their dissolution barely a decade later. Drawn from over 500,000 words of interviews with McCartney, family and band members, and other key participants, Wings recounts--now with a half-century's wisdom--the musical odyssey taken by a man searching for his identity in the aftermath of The Beatles' breakup. Soon joined by his wife - American photographer Linda McCartney - on keyboard and vocals; drummer Denny Seiwell; and guitarist Denny Laine, McCartney sowed the seeds for a new band that would later provide the soundtrack of the decade.



Organized chronologically around McCartney, RAM, and nine Wings albums, the narrative begins when a twenty-seven-year-old superstar, rumored to be dead, fled with his new wife to a remote sheep farm in Scotland amid a sea of legal and personal rows. Despite the harsh conditions, the Scottish setting gave McCartney time to create, and it was here where this new band emerged. Wings then follows the group as they play unannounced shows at university halls, tour in a sheared-off double-decker bus with their children, survive a robbery on the streets of Nigeria, and eventually perform blockbuster stadium shows on their world tour, all while producing some of the most enduring music of the time.



With extraordinary recollections collected by Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville and edited into a genre-defining oral history by Ted Widmer, Wings transports the reader, as if on a magic carpet, to the grit and glamour of the 1970s. Pushing creative forms to produce a new history, even a Wings bible, the book refracts a bygone era in a totally new light. Introduced with a personal, heartfelt foreword by McCartney, the volume contains 150 black-and-white and color photographs, many previously unseen, as well as timelines, a gigography, and a full discography. Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run emerges as a work of soaring originality that presents a new art form all its own.



 

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL 2025

From the bestselling co-author of Apollo 13 comes the thrilling untold story of the pioneering Gemini program that was instrumental in getting Americans on the moon.

Without Gemini, there would be no Apollo.

After we first launched Americans into space but before we touched down on the moon’s surface, there was the Gemini program. It was no easy jump from manned missions in low-Earth orbit to a successful moon landing, and the ten-flight, twenty-month celestial story of the Gemini program is an extraordinary one. There was unavoidable darkness in the program—the deaths and near-deaths that defined it, and the blood feud with the Soviet Union that animated it.

But there were undeniable and previously inconceivable successes. With a war raging in Vietnam and lawmakers calling for cuts to NASA’s budget, the success of the Gemini program—or the space program in general—was never guaranteed. Yet against all odds, the remarkable scientists and astronauts behind the project persevered, and their efforts paid off. Later, with the knowledge gained from the Gemini flights, NASA would launch the legendary Apollo program.

Told with Jeffrey Kluger’s signature cinematic storytelling and in-depth research and interviews, Gemini is an edge-of-your-seat narrative chronicling the history of the least appreciated—and most groundbreaking—space program in American history. Finally, Gemini’s story will be told, and finally, we’ll learn the truth of how we landed on the moon.

The New York Times bestselling author of The Way Home returns with over 100 fabulous recipes--delicious updates of her favorite childhood meals.

From Kardea Brown: Growing up in a household with a single parent taught me how to make use of things we already had. She made gourmet meals with simple kitchen staples. I invite readers to do the same with my twist on Old School Classic recipes.

Kardea Brown is back with this practical and flavorful cookbook everyone needs. Offering crowd and palate pleasing dishes from morning to noon, and night.

SAMPLES

Breakfast

Break the fast with Geechee Egg Rice, Sausage and Grits and On the Run Breakfast Sandwiches.

Lunch

Dig into Turkey Burgers, Tuna Melts, and Ramen Chicken Noddle Soup.

Dinner

Welcome friends and family home with filling, mouthwatering dishes like Grilled "Poke" Chops, Chicken Mafe and "The Poor Man's Meal".

Desserts

Sweeten meals with delights such as Ma's goodie bars, Warm Sticky Apple Pudding and Lemon Snowball Cookies.

Filled with inviting and tasty food that won't break the bank, illustrated with over 100 color photos, Make Do with What You Have allows you to enjoy great meals every day.

In this candid memoir, United States Senator John Fetterman shares the story of his journey in public service (which started by winning his first election by a single vote in 2005), including unvarnished details of his life-threatening stroke and struggles with depression, the truth about what really happens in Washington, and his vision for navigating our divided country’s future.

In his early twenties, John Fetterman seemed to be set for life. He had an MBA, a job in the risk management industry, and a comfortable future ahead of him. Yet something felt missing, insufficient, lacking in purpose. Having paired with Big Brothers and Big Sisters after a close friend’s tragic death, Fetterman decided to make a change and devote his life to public service instead—first in AmeriCorps, then as the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, later as the state’s lieutenant governor, and now as its senior senator.

Today, Fetterman is the consummate anti-politician, instantly recognizable for his 6'8" height, his choice of facial hair, and his signature hoodies. A contrarian by nature, he quickly developed a reputation as a pugilist willing to take on Republicans and Democrats alike, in public if necessary. Little did the world know that his biggest fight was being waged in private, and often inside his own mind. 

In Unfettered, Fetterman reveals, for the first time, the full story of a life and career marked by battles, from his work with community leaders to revitalize Braddock to his recovery from the stroke that nearly ended his political career, to his lifelong struggles with the depression that landed him in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and nearly ended his life. At each step, Fetterman displays a rare level of candor for a sitting senator, sharing insights into the difficult and nonlinear path to mental health, the strain his challenges have placed on his family, the auditory processing issues he’s still overcoming, and more—all in the hope of paying it forward for anyone who has struggled with the depths of depression in their own life. 

Despite the toll the past few years have taken on him, Fetterman’s passion for making change remains. Raw and visceral, this memoir is an unapologetic account of his unconventional life, a reminder that public service comes in many forms, and a vision for fighting the battles that matter in a divided country.

A comprehensive narrative history of Mt. Rushmore, written in light of recent political controversies, and a timely retrospective for the monument's 100th anniversary in 2025

“Well, most people want to come to a national park and leave with that warm, fuzzy feeling with an ice cream cone. Rushmore can’t do that if you do it the right way. If you do it the right way people are going to be leaving pissed.”

Gerard Baker, the first Native American superintendent of Mt. Rushmore, shared those words with author Matthew Davis. From the tragic history of Wounded Knee and the horrors of Indian Boarding Schools, to the Land Back movement of today, Davis traces the Native American story of Mt. Rushmore alongside the narrative of the growing territory and state of South Dakota, and the economic and political forces that shaped the reasons for the Memorial's creation. 

A Biography of A Mountain combines history with reportage, bringing the complicated and nuanced story of Mt. Rushmore to life, from the land’s origins as sacred tribal ground; to the expansion of the American West; to the larger-than-life personality of Gutzon Borglum, the artist who carved the presidential faces into the mountain; and up to the politicized present-day conflict over the site and its future. Exploring issues related to how we memorialize American history, Davis tells an imperative story for our time.

"The inside story of the race to develop Ozempic, and its potentially revolutionary impact on public health and culture. A "cure" for obesity has long been the holy grail for the pharmaceutical industry, one that seemed unattainable until recent breakthroughs in type 2 diabetes research led to the development of Ozempic, a weight loss medication that activates hormones in the stomach, making people feel fuller for longer. The treatment is so effective that it is already disrupting many industries-from healthcare to fast food to fashion-and it has quickly made its creator, Denmark's Novo Nordisk, the most valuable company in Europe. But the impact of these drugs goes far beyond billion-dollar profits; a true long-term cure for obesity could save 40% of American adults from dangerous preventable illnesses. And as their success continues to grow, one question looms in the minds of investors, healthcare workers and politicians: are they too good to be true? In Off the Scales, Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan illuminates the history of the latest medical breakthrough that is poised to change the world, while bringing difficult social questions about inequality and morality to the forefront. Through original reporting and rigorous research, she forecasts the future of Ozempic and similar medications-and examines what their explosive popularity tells us about our ideals of beauty, the lengths to which people will go in order to become thin, the current state of healthcare, and the inner workings of the pharmaceutical industry. Along the way, Donnellan profiles the scientist whose contributions to the discovery of GLP-1 were overlooked and her fight for recognition while her colleagues were thrust into the limelight, and offers new insights into the ways that the food and beauty industries made billions while promoting unhealthy and unrealistic body image standards and accelerating the obesity crisis. She also reveals the lengths that the celebrity class went to obtain this medication when supplies were limited and prescriptions were costly, and relates the first-hand accounts of several early Ozempic users and the transformative effect the drug has had on their weight loss journeys. Above all, Off the Scales is an informative and entertaining study of the unexpected social consequences of finally getting what we've wanted for so long"-- Provided by publisher.

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes an enthralling contemporary fantasy seeped in horror about a woman trying to escape her past by moving to the remote US desert--only to find herself beholden to the wrath of a vengeful god.

With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt's house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. The scorpions and spiders are better than what she left behind.

Because in Quartz Creek, there's a strange beauty to everything, from the landscape to new friends, and more blue sky than Selena's ever seen. But something lurks beneath the surface. Like the desert gods and spirits lingering outside Selena's house at night, keeping watch. Mostly benevolent, says her neighbor Grandma Billy. That doesn't ease the prickly sense that one of them watches too closely and wants something from Selena she can't begin to imagine. And when Selena's search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, she discovers a sinister truth about her new home: It's the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as "Snake-Eater," who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled.

Snake-Eater has taken a liking to Selena, an obsession of sorts that turns sinister. And now that Selena is the new owner of his home, he's hell-bent on collecting everything he's owed.

Available in paperback at last, Peter Heller’s masterful coming-of-age tale, the story of a mother and daughter living on a Vermont apple orchard, escaping ghosts of the past.

Hayley and her seven-year-old daughter, Frith, live in a rustic cabin with no electricity in the foothills of Vermont’s Green Mountains. A renowned translator of Tang dynasty poetry, Hayley walked away from her career and her addict husband to raise Frith alone in a land populated not by ambition-fueled academics but by hawks, beavers, and other wild things—including their exuberant Bernese Mountain dog, Bear. They get by on what little they earn from their overgrown apple orchard and the syrup they make from their maple trees. Frith— precocious, homeschooled, and a voracious reader—considers herself queen of this backwoods paradise. She is too young to understand the pain and regret that have followed her mother here.

Season after season, it is the three of them—mother, daughter, and dog—until the spring day when Rose Lattimore appears at their door and upends Hayley and Frith’s solitary existence. When tragedy unexpectedly strikes, Frith must come to terms with heartbreak for the very first time. By turns joyful and searing, The Orchard reminds us that, even during the hardest of times, the enduring power of nature, love, and friendship will prevail.

Lady Georgiana “Georgie” Rannoch is just like any other new mother, balancing responsibilities of being 34th in line for the British throne and solving the shocking deaths of several young men, in this new Royal Spyness novel from the queen of historical mystery, Rhys Bowen.

Georgie may be figuring out what it means to be a new mother but she does know one thing for sure: she absolutely despises the strict nanny who was foisted upon her by her meddlesome sister-in-law. In search of a new nanny, Georgie travels to London to see her old friend ZouZou only to find her about to depart for a funeral, after the unexpected death of a young man in her social circle. It quickly becomes clear there’s more than one mysterious death around town, when another friend reveals he’s also just returned from the funeral of a school friend, who seemingly died in a boating accident. But when word arrives that the son of family friend has also died tragically and unexpectedly, Georgie is certain it can’t be a coincidence. Yet the victims don’t seem to have any connection to one another.

ZouZou shares Georgie’s suspicions that the deaths were not an accident and begs Georgie to solve the case. As Georgie delves deeper, she can’t help worrying that her own husband, Darcy, may be next. It seems likely there is a serial killer at work and Darcy fits the bill to be their next victim. Will Georgie solve the murders before it’s too late for Darcy, and manage to find the perfect nanny all at the same time?

A murder in the science lab shatters a woman’s quiet and ordered life when she decides she must solve the crime herself in this entertaining and uplifting mystery.

Plenty of people consider Margaret Finch odd. Six-feet-tall and big-boned, she lives alone in a small cabin in the woods, drives a 20-year-old truck, and schedules her life so precisely you can tell the time and day of the week by the chore she is doing and what she is wearing. But the same attributes that cause her to be labeled eccentric—an obsessive attention to detail and the ability to organize almost anything—make her invaluable in her job as Research Assistant II to a talented and charismatic botanist.

It's those very same qualities, however, that also turn Margaret into a target after a surprising death shakes the small university where she works. Even as authorities claim the death appears to be from natural causes, Margaret fears it might be something more: a murder born of jealousy and dark secrets. With the aid of a newly hired and enigmatic night custodian, Margaret finds herself thrust into the role of detective, forcing her to consider that she may not be able to find the killer before the killer finds her.

With a cast of quirky and likeable characters that one won’t soon forget, The Botanist’s Assistant is a delightful story of perseverance and the power in all of us to survive.