If there is anything we love more than reading books... it's talking about them! Scroll down to see what books we are raving about this month.
For more recommendations, check out our full Staff Picks Page.
"Days of Distraction is a heart-wrenching wonderful stream of conscious character-focused read that revels in the essence of the quarter-life crisis. The lead will make decisions you don't agree with. You will experience uncomfortable situations that are explicitly true to the 1st generation experience. Most of all this book is true and questing for a better life. Read this if you love the feeling of sonder." -Hanz
"An absolutely stunning historical fantasy. Nghi Vo managed to subtly tell a deep and grueling story in such a short amount of time, building vivid characters and relationships that drive feminism. It’s a story that resists erasure, mapping out the lives of two women living in a world against them." -Sarah
"If you're in the mood for the perfect light cozy read grab a copy and settle into your favorite café chair, latte and snack nearby . A great story about reinvention and pursuing a dream with a touch of romance on the side." -Will
"Imagine traveling through a dark tunnel and finding yourself transported into a world cloaked in darkness. Reading Eileen, I found myself existing inside a photograph from the 1960s, trapped within its vignette. The story of a troubled woman juxtaposed by commentary from her older self with more of a slice-of-life feel than suspense -- if I could, I would court this book." -Anastasia
"In this collection of essays, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha writes of disability justice, envisioning a world where the long-standing approaches of queer, trans, and BIPOC towards communal [disability] care is acknowledged and implemented. They emphasize the importance of an intersectional approach- leadership concentrated in the hands of those who are most acquainted with the systems of oppression against disabled people in order to free all from these systems. I recommend this as inspiration for re-imagining your own approach toward mutual aid to be inclusive of disability care." -Anastasia
This is really an unexpected jewel of a book. The central mystery of the disappearance and suspected death of a minor radio celebrity is solid enough, but it's Hansen's protagonist that draws the reader in emotionally. His insurance investigator has all the hardnosed cynicism and tenacity of his peers in noir, but also a tender vulnerability, as a gay man struggling with the loss of a longtime lover. The brief ruminations on grief and love and longing are that much more moving, interspersed as they are in such a compact and spare story." -Mindy
"A lovely picture book about the relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter who live on different sides of the world. A tear-jerker but you'll be crying tears of joy!" -Amanda
"A memoir that reads like a poem, E.J. Koh's The Magical Language of Others is a compassionate, vulnerable, sad and loving book about mother-daughter relationships and the restorative power of poetry. This is a book that has haunted me since I read it and I return to it again." -Amanda
"Some dude from a century ago has a hundred things to say about love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion and death? And I agree with 99 of them? For some probably cynical reason I have until now neglected to read this miraculous little volume but if you find yourself with the opportunity to read it please read it. If you find yourself, like I do, overwhelmed with a sense of uneasiness and unsure how to proceed in life with both awareness and joy, unable to discern what truly matters, please read it. There is enough wisdom and humane sentiment in it to soften the hardest heart and reorient the most wayward soul." -Davi
"It's rare that when I finish a book I already know that I will re-read it someday, and Fight Night fits squarely into that category. Author Miriam Toews insightfully & tenderly captures the dynamics between precocious eight-year-old, Swiv, and her tenacious, affectionate grandmother whose care she falls into when suspended from school for fighting. Told mostly from Swiv's perspective, Fight NIght probes at the ferocity of maternal relationships largely by way of the loving and somewhat unconventional wisdom passed down to Swiv from her grandmother. Toews manages to explore many heavy themes like mental illness & spiritual abuse with wit and care. The book is full of exceptionally poignant observations that resist the pull towards sanctimony or excessive sentimentality. I loved every last bit of it. (P.S. The audiobook -- narrated by Toews and her daughter -- is excellent. Download from Libro.fm!)" -Holly (also reocmmended by Aly)
"After Fight Night I went down a Miriam Toews rabbit hole because wow. Now that I've read her whole oeuvre, I feel like Amy March after her trip to Europe, when she can't paint anymore because she's too aware of what's already been done. In All My Puny Sorrows, all my spiraling thoughts find words. Yolandi, empathetic but tired of following what feels like an expected script, struggles to express herself and her love in her own terms. Her inner voice is so kind and she gives real thought even to ideas that cause her unbearable pain, but she also fights and screams and demands to be considered in return. All My Puny Sorrows is autobiographical and drawn from a period of deep grief, and so requires almost every content warning out there, especially for its themes of suicide and eating disorders." -Aly
"A magical, fresh take on a classic that is, in a word, fantastic. It isn't that it 'takes liberties' with Gatsby -- it illuminates what lingered beneath the glamour, what longed for exorcism. The writing is superb; I will read anything Vo writes. Cannot recommend this book enough." -Lorenzo
"Here lies a clinical dissection of Japanese folklore dancing with gleeful yōkai and vengeful spirits; a ghastly meta-haunting that embraces Scooby Doo tropes as it thoughtfully disembowels them. Cassandra Khaw's surgical, syntactic precision ensures that every paragraph of this emaciated novella bears the weight of cursed centuries." -Steven
"This lovely, clever book highlights the importance of stewardship -- of land, of gifts, of knowledge. Two young people learn that their grandmother is a lot more than meets the eye and are invited into her pursuit to conserve and protect that which needs our help. The illustrations are also just playful and beautiful." -Holly