Staff Picks – October 2021

The Halloween Hoax
by Carolyn Keene

“It’s Halloween in River Heights! The girls can’t wait to go trick-or- treating and are busy getting their costumes ready. They also can’t wait for the Halloween special of their favorite TV show. They even get the chance to visit the TV studio while the show is being taped! But soon after they arrive, Nancy is spooked. With all the scary noises the Clue Crew keeps hearing and the creepy shadows that seem to be lurking, it seems like the studio is haunted! Is it just Halloween jitters…or are there really such things as ghosts?” -amazon.com

The Girl Who Cried Monster
by R. L. Stine

“She’s telling the truth…but no one believes her Lucy likes to tell monster stories. She’s told so many that her friends and family are sick of it. Then one day Lucy discovers a real live monster: the librarian in charge of the summer reading program. Too bad Lucy’s told so many monster tall tales. Too bad no on believes a word she says. Too bad the monster knows who she is…and is coming after her next.” -amazon.com

Lover Unveiled
by J.R. Ward

Sahvage has been living under the radar for centuries–and he has every intention of staying ‘dead and buried.’ But when a civilian female sucks him into her dangerous battle with an evil as ancient as time, his protective side overrides his common sense. Mae has lost everything, and desperation sets her on a collision course with fate. Determined to reverse a tragedy, she goes where mortals should fear to tread-and comes face-to-face with the Brotherhood’s new enemy. She also discovers a love she never expected to find with Sahvage, but there can be no future for them. Knowing they will part, the two band together to fight against what Mae unknowingly unleashed-as the Brotherhood closes in to reclaim one of their damned, and the evil vows to destroy them all.

The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath

“The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: young, brilliant, beautiful, and enormously talented, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that Esther’s neurosis becomes completely understandable and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such thorough exploration of the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche – and the profound collective loneliness that modern society has yet to find a solution for – is an extraordinary accomplishment, and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.” -amazon.com

Wonder Woman: Love is a Battlefield
by G. Willow Wilson

Wonder Woman survives her battle against young god Ares only to discover her mother and goddess of love, Aphrodite’s son are missing! Wonder Woman’s mother is missing, and so is the goddess of love, Aphrodite’s son! Together, they’ll turn the world upside down to find them…but they must fight a pack of wayward Titans first and convince Diana’s foe Dr. Doris Zuel, a.k.a. Giganta, to join the fight. After Steve Trevor joins to support Diana and Aphrodite, and they find Aphrodite’s missing son, who might know the secret to reunite Wonder Woman with her long-lost family and home on Paradise Island…will Diana and her compatriots be able to survive the journey through the broken realm?

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll

“The story of the young girl Alice and her magical fall down a rabbit hole into a subterranean fantasy world full of fantastical characters, like the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen of Hearts. One of the best-known and most popular works of English-language fiction, its narrative, structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in popular culture and literature and the subject of numerous stage, screen, and art adaptations. ” -amazon.com

The House With a Clock In Its Walls
by John Bellairs

“When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan. comes to stay with his uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. But he is wrong. Uncle Jonathan and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, are both magicians! Lewis is thrilled. At first, watching magic is enough. Then Lewis experiments with magic himself and unknowingly resurrects the former owner of the house: a woman named Selenna Izard. It seems that Selenna and her husband built a timepiece into the walls – a clock that could obliterate humankind. And only the Barnavelts can stop it!” -amazon.com

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith

“This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to ‘help people with problems in their lives.’ Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.” -amazon.com

The Whip
by Karen Kondazian

The Whip is inspired by the true story of a woman, Charlotte ‘Charley’ Parkhurst (1812-1879) who lived most of her extraordinary life as a man in the old west. As a young woman in Rhode Island, she fell in love with a runaway slave and had his child. The destruction of her family drove her west to California, dressed as a man, to track the killer.

Charley became a renowned stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo. She killed a famous outlaw, had a secret love affair, and lived with a housekeeper who, unaware of her true sex, fell in love with her. Charley was the first known woman to vote in America in 1868 (as a man). Her grave lies in Watsonville, California

This book contains strong language.” -amazon.com