Already made it through your TBR (to be read) list this summer? The Libraries can help you find your next read! Between the leisure reading collection, borrowing requests from other libraries and local community resources, we’re never low on books. Here are some recent favorites from a few members of the Libraries team, whether you’re searching for mystery, romance or connection to the natural world. Happy reading!
Beautyland
by Marie-Helene Bertino
This one is good for anyone who likes a weird book or a different perspective as it’s told from the point a view of a girl who is an alien from another planet who is tasked with sending information about Earth to her home planet. But she’s growing up as a “normal” child of a single parent in Northeast Philly in the late 70s/80s.
–Elise Ferer, Instruction & Outreach Librarian
Shady Hollow
by Juneau Black
It’s like Wind in the Willows, but also a murder mystery. It’s the first in a series.
-Anonymous
A Superfluous Woman
by Emma Frances Brooke
This book will shock all your Victorian sensibilities, with runaway socialites, kisses out of wedlock and a bawdy description of a man’s legs in a kilt. This is as close to a bodice ripper as you can get in the Victorian era, although be warned- there is no happy ending.
–Maddie White, Archival Processing Manager
Red Pottage
by Mary Cholmondeley
Mary Cholmondeley’s writing is the height of Victorian melodrama, with secret illegitimate children, murder plots, and surprise inheritance. Red Pottage is her best known book, which subverts convention with a fallen man and two spinsters who aren’t married by the end, but are still happy.
–Maddie White, Archival Processing Manager
Here We Go Again
by Alice Cochrun
This is the perfect type of book for summer as its a queer romance that revolves around a summer road trip. Both funny and heartfelt, and worthy of a trip to a beach or pool.
–Elise Ferer, Instruction & Outreach Librarian
Greta & Valdin
by Rebecca K Reilly
This novel explores family dynamics, queer relationships, Māori identity and what it means to navigate the little and monumental decisions in your life. I fell in love with the characters and was invested in this quirky family all the way through.
–Caitlin Holton, Digital Initiatives Assistant
The Only One Left
by Riley Sager
If you like gothic thrillers that take place in giant creepy mansions, then this book may be for you! A desperate caretaker living in coastal Maine during the 1980s ends up taking a job caring for an old woman, Lenora Hope, who is rumored to have killed her family over 50 years ago. Although never proven, the mystery surrounding the murders of Lenora’s entire family have only grown as the years have passed, and as the caretaker begins building a relationship with Lenora, she starts to realize that there are even more secrets surrounding that horrible night that only continue to have dire consequences in the present.
–Jen Embree, Subject Librarian for Psychology, Biology, LACAS, TRIP & Comparative Literature; Sustainability Hub Coordinator
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
by Brandon Sanderson
It’s a very character-focused romance that follows two people from different worlds. They each have a fantastical job: a nightmare painter and a yoki-hijo shrine maiden. They end up body swapping and are forced to learn about each other as they each pretend to be the other person. It’s inspired by the anime movie, Your Name, and I would definitely recommend it to anime fans as well as anyone who enjoys whimsical love stories.
–Aleshia Huber, Engineering Librarian
101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think
by Brianna Wiest
Incredibly insightful and life-changing.
–Mien Wong, Preservation Specialist
An Immense World
by Ed Yong
Ed Yong urges us to think about how a wide variety of different animals perceive the world around them, and how our own perspective might benefit from putting ourselves in their shoes (so to speak). Fascinating and deeply researched.
–Jeremy Dibbell, Special Collections Librarian