Staff Picks

  • Staff Picks: Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty

    July 31, 2024Staff Picks: Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
    I just finished reading Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty, and I have to say, it’s one of the most eye-opening books I’ve come across. This collection of short stories weaves together the lives of indigenous people growing up on a reservation in Maine, and it hits hard. Talty doesn’t shy away from showing ...
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  • Staff Picks: What We’re Reading, July 2024

    July 24, 2024Staff Picks: What We're Reading, July 2024
    It’s hot!  Here’s what PFL Staffers have been reading to beat the heat. All titles with links are owned by PFL and can be placed on hold!   I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S Beagle     “An unconventional fairy tale.” Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson     “A fun read, especially for fans of Indiana Jones and ...
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  • Staff Picks: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

    July 19, 2024Staff Picks: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
    In the not too distant future, a civil servant in the UK is offered a complicated, top secret job.  The British government has recently figured out time travel, and are gathering people from different moments throughout history and bringing them to the present to see what happens.  The government chooses only people who would have ...
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  • Staff Picks: Aurora’s Anticipated Non-Fiction, July

    July 10, 2024Staff Picks: Aurora's Anticipated Non-Fiction, July
    Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World by Kathryn Hughes  Before there were cat memes, there was Louis Wain. The British illustrator was the Victorian era’s foremost feline portraitist, famed for his drawings of goggle-eyed cats and kittens partaking in such genteel pastimes as playing cricket, Christmas caroling, tea-partying in the garden, and ...
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  • Staff Pick: How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

    June 29, 2024Staff Pick: How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
    Twenty two year old Violet is fresh out of prison from a drunk driving accident that killed a local kindergarten teacher, alone in a city where she knows no one.  Middle aged Harriet, who runs the book group in the women’s prison that housed Violet, is about to watch the last of her children leave ...
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  • Staff Picks: Books on Tap

    June 21, 2024Staff Picks: Books on Tap
    Books on Tap is a book club for people who don’t want to be told what to read.  We meet the third Thursday of the month at 6pm a rotating location of local breweries and pubs to talk about all things books.  Below is a list of (almost) all the books we talked about. The next ...
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  • Staff Pick: Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly

    June 5, 2024Staff Pick: Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly
    Greta and Valdin Vladislavljevic (pronunciation guide included, and often) are Māori-Russian-Catalonian adult siblings who share in apartment in Auckland, New Zealand, not far from the rest of their family.  As the book begins, they are not doing well.  As the book continues, things only get worse. Valdin, the host of a travel show who suffers from ...
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  • Staff Picks: The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl

    May 30, 2024Staff Picks: The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
    Ruth Reichl’s The Paris Novel is a delightful journey through the enchanting streets of Paris, tailor-made for food lovers and bookworms. The story revolves around the captivating Shakespeare and Company bookstore and a myriad of mouthwatering restaurants scattered across the city. Reichl’s writing is so vivid that you can practically taste the delicious food and ...
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  • Aurora’s Anticipated New Non-Fiction: May

    May 23, 2024Aurora's Anticipated New Non-Fiction: May
    A Field Guide to the Patchy Anthropocene: The New Nature by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Jennifer Oeger, Alder Keleman Saxena and FeiFei Zhou Most likely you’ve noticed, but more than just the earth’s climate is changing. There is a tendency, in discussions about the epoch of human-induced environmental transmutation known as the Anthropocene, to emphasize the planetary: rising ...
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  • Staff Picks: Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages by Carmella Ciuraru

    May 15, 2024Staff Picks: Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages by Carmella Ciuraru
    Lives of the Wives describes the lives of wives of five famous writers and how their husbands resented or stifled their artistic careers. Many of us know about Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (not included in this book) or Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal (included) but in this book contains chapters on couples whose marital ...
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