I just finished Ties that Bind by Marie Bostwick. This is a series that Debbie Macomber and quilters might enjoy.
-Barb at the Byron Township branch

The vignettes are as enjoyable as the recipes in this cookbook, which I read cover to cover.
-Melissa at the Service Center

I just finished Dead End In Norvelt, by Jack Gantos. It was the winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal, and it’s hilarious!
-Kris at the Comstock Park branch

Much more than a story of baseball, life at a Midwestern college, or good things gone bad, this is a book populated with well drawn characters you are bound to care about. Love, loss, discovery, friendship, families, ambition, hopes – everything that sounds cliché handled in a way that isn’t.
-Cathy at the Gaines Township branch

Oh, my, I suspect this author has had sons….or brothers….or boy cousins….. or boy neighbors…
I need not say more—She’s right on! I love the illustrations too!
-Laura at the Plainfield Township branch

This is my new favorite adult historical fiction; I’ve read it twice already and I am waiting for the audiobook recording to make its way to me too. I believe it will become a “classic” piece in literature by an enduring and award-winning storyteller.
-Laura at the Plainfield Township branch

Magritte’s Marvelous Hat by D.B. Johnson is a fun, interactive read that introduces readers to the surrealist work of René Magritte. Transparent overlays add whimsy and illustrate the concept of surrealism in this tale of a magical hat that inspires Magritte’s best paintings.
-Dawn at the Wyoming branch

A House Held Up By Trees is a collaboration between former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser and up and coming children’s literature illustrator Jon Klassen, of I Want My Hat Back fame. The book tells the wistful, poignant story of a house undergoing the changes that time brings as its inhabitants grow older, move away, and it is eventually put up for sale and abandoned. Klassen’s delicate palate of browns, greens, pinks, black, and cream perfectly illustrate Kooser’s text that ends quite magically. A thoughtful, lovely book.
-Dawn at the Wyoming branch

After German Luftwaffe bomb London, Maggie Hope—trained in math and code breaking, but only able to find a job as Winston Churchill’s secretary—uses the access her position demands to try to unravel an assassinate plot.

Recommended by Michelle at the Service Center

After an interview with an elderly baker leaves her feeling like she is the one who revealed too much—especially about her Border Patrol husband, Riki—El Paso journalist Reba Adams, as well as her interview subject and Riki, must confront the ghosts of the past.

Recommended by Susan at the Plainfield Township branch

Historical fiction that gives an eye-opening look at the Civil War medical corps. Wouldn’t want to have a baby OR an amputation in 1862!
-Marlys at the Wyoming branch

This book follows the life of Auggie Pullman, a 5th grade boy born with a severe facial deformity, who is about to enter a mainstream school for the first time. Told from the point of view of Auggie himself, as well as his sister and his friends, this touching story shows how we all struggle with acceptance and that kindness makes all the difference. With short chapters and lots of humor, this book is easy to recommend and hard to put down.
-Liz at the Gaines Township branch

Traces how the author’s investigation into an alleged hoax unexpectedly drew him into the mental health industry, explaining how an influential psychologist revealed the psychopathic profiles of top CEOs and politicians while imparting strategies for recognizing psychopathic behavior.

Recommended by Rich at the Wyoming branch

This book is a great reminder to take a strategic assessment of how you’re spending your time and discern the overall value of such activities. While the author is more compulsively committed to her year of many, many projects, than I could ever be, (a book contract is great for accountability) her story has motivated me to let go of some stuff and start baking more.
-Heidi at the Englehardt branch

Even though her toenails fell off, she ran out of money and she met some unsavory characters, the author was able to remind me how much I love backpacking. I listened to the audio version and the narrator was excellent.
-Morgan at the Walker branch

While inspiring both the Japanese and America movies of the same name, the book reads much more like a mystery novel than the twisted tale of horror exemplified by the films. Although, it certainly has its moments.
-Erik at the Tyrone Township branch

Seventeen-year-old Karou, a lovely, enigmatic art student in a Prague boarding school, carries a sketchbook of hideous, frightening monsters—the chimaerae who form the only family she has ever known, in a unique fantasy by an award-winning author about forbidden love, an epic battle and hope for a world remade.
-Recommended by Susan at the Plainfield Township branch

This is a great companion graphic novel to Westerfeld’s Uglies series. I loved seeing the story from another point of view.
-Beth at the Gaines Township branch

When Eddie Pettit’s death is ruled an accident by the police, friends and neighbors believe that this gently soul who had a special way with horses was murdered and Maine Dobbs, determined to do right by Eddie, searches for the truth amid the working-class of Lambeth.

Recommended by Michelle at the Service Center

This documentary is stunning and provides the only access any of us will ever have to the Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient cave art ever discovered. Unforgettable!
-Heidi at the Englehardt branch

I have…watched great sci-fi and fantasy…the first one is “Game of Thrones” season #1, patterned after the book by George Martin…this movie is… like taking a trip..and never leaving the farm…(that was for all of those who lived thru the 70’s)
-Tami at the Sand Lake/Nelson Township branch

”…whoa…eye candy…lot’s and lot’s of mythology…special effects are delightful…
-Tami at the Sand Lake/Nelson Township branch

An amazing movie that takes you back to your own coming-of-age via “the music of that era” (no matter the era or decade it actually was). Estranged family and in particular, father and son, find a devastating medical diagnosis the start of a challenging journey back to healing and connection, using both the music of the 1940s and 1960s (especially The Grateful Dead, the son’s favorite group).
-Laura at the Plainfield branch