what should we read next?⤴

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

library? yes (physical + digital)

feminism · contemporary · LGBTQ+ | 400-500 pages

The twelve central characters of this multi-voiced novel lead vastly different lives: Amma is a newly acclaimed playwright whose work often explores her Black lesbian identity; her old friend Shirley is a teacher, jaded after decades of work in London’s funding-deprived schools; Carole, one of Shirley’s former students, is a successful investment banker; Carole’s mother Bummi works as a cleaner and worries about her daughter’s lack of rootedness despite her obvious achievements. From a nonbinary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman living on a farm in Northern England, these unforgettable characters also intersect in shared aspects of their identities, from age to race to sexuality to class.

Sparklingly witty and filled with emotion, centering voices we often see othered, and written in an innovative fast-moving form that borrows technique from poetry, Girl, Woman, Other is a polyphonic and richly textured social novel that shows a side of Britain we rarely see, one that reminds us of all that connects us to our neighbors, even in times when we are encouraged to be split apart.

recommendation note: "Maybe I can learn something from this book about my own womanhood and I've been seeing it all over book-tok (the subsection of TikTok dedicated to books) so I want to see what the hype is about."

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

library? yes (physical + digital)

literary · LGBTQ+ | 200-300 pages

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

recommendation note: "In case we all feeling like collectively crying for a month!"

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik

library? yes (physical only)

adventure · thriller · suspense | 300-400 pages

A high-stakes drama set against the harsh beauty of the Maine wilderness, charting the journey of four friends as they fight to survive the aftermath of a white water rafting accident, The River at Night is a nonstop and unforgettable thriller.

recommendation note: "I want to read an adventure novel."

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

library? yes (physical + digital)

adventure | 200-300 pages

The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck.

recommendation note: "I feel like it’s one of those books that’s referenced a lot as a sort of classic, but I’ve never taken the time to read it. Also we can watch the movie after! Or movies. I think there are 3? I’ve never seen any of them either."

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

library? yes (physical + digital)

science fiction | <200 pages

In this science-fiction novel by H.G. Wells, published in 1897, the story concerns the life and death of a scientist named Griffin who has gone mad. Having learned how to make himself invisible, Griffin begins to use his invisibility for nefarious purposes, including murder.

What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

library? yes (physical + digital)

LGBTQ+ · young adult · romance · coming-of-age | 300-400 pages

Told in two voices, when Arthur, a summer intern from Georgia, and Ben, a native New Yorker, meet it seems like fate, but after three attempts at dating fail they wonder if the universe is pushing them together or apart.

recommendation note: "It looks good and we haven't had a lot of LGBTQ+ content thus far."

The Birth House by Ami McKay

library? yes (physical + digital) | 300-400 pages

The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing. Dora becomes Miss Bs apprentice, and together they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling sex lives. Filled with details as compelling as they are surprising The Birth House is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women have faced to have control of their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.

recommendation note: "I read it in a women's studies class back in 2015(?) and I think it would have good discussion points."

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

library? yes (physical + digital)

historical fiction · romance · comedy | 300-400 pages

Kayla's pick

Set in the 1960s, the novel centres around a scientist whose career takes a detour when she becomes the star of a beloved cooking show.

recommendation note: "A friend recommended it and she never misses."

15 Dogs by Andre Alexis

library? yes (physical + digital)

fantasy · satire · animals | <200 pages

Kayla's pick

And so it begins: a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change.

The gods watch from above as the dogs venture into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as each struggles with new thoughts and feelings. Wily Benjy moves from home to home, Prince becomes a poet, and Majnoun forges a relationship with a kind couple that stops even the Fates in their tracks.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

library? yes (physical)

coming-of-age · disability· friendship · romance | 400-500 pages

Sharmaine's pick

In this exhilarating novel, two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

recommendation note: "One of my favourite books I've read so far this year. It's getting a lot of praise right now, so the loan queue for it at library is crazy long. If we all place a hold on it now, we can read it in 2024 lmao"

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

library? yes (physical)

historical · LGBTQ+ · adventure · metafiction | 300-400 pages

Set in the eighteenth century London underworld, this bawdy, genre-bending novel reimagines the life of thief and jailbreaker Jack Sheppard to tell a profound story about gender, love, and liberation.

Recently jilted and increasingly unhinged, Dr. Voth throws himself into his work, obsessively researching the life of Jack Sheppard, a legendary eighteenth century thief. No one knows Jack’s true story—his confessions have never been found. That is, until Dr. Voth discovers a mysterious stack of papers titled Confessions of the Fox.

Dated 1724, the manuscript tells the story of an orphan named P. Sold into servitude at twelve, P struggles for years with her desire to live as “Jack.” When P falls dizzyingly in love with Bess, a sex worker looking for freedom of her own, P begins to imagine a different life. Bess brings P into the London underworld where scamps and rogues clash with London’s newly established police force, queer subcultures thrive, and ominous threats of an oncoming plague abound. At last, P becomes Jack Sheppard, one of the most notorious—and most wanted—thieves in history.

Back in the present, Dr. Voth works feverishly day and night to authenticate the manuscript. But he’s not the only one who wants Jack’s story—and some people will do whatever it takes to get it. As both Jack and Voth are drawn into corruption and conspiracy, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined—and only a miracle will save them both.

An imaginative retelling of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, Confessions of the Fox blends high-spirited adventure, subversive history, and provocative wit to animate forgotten histories and the extraordinary characters hidden within.

recommendation note: "Read it for a Literature class! Really loved the meta-meta-(meta-meta)fiction, plus Jordy Rosenberg really said 'I teach 18th century literature and gender and sexuality studies and I'm gonna make that everyone's problem'"

Cold by Drew Taylor Hayden

library? yes (physical)

thriller · comedy | 300-400 pages

Emily's pick

A tragic plane crash that leaves two women stranded and fighting for their lives kicks off this sweeping and hilarious novel from award-winning writer Drew Hayden Taylor that blends thriller, murder mystery, and horror with humour and spectacle.

Elmore Trent is a professor of Indigenous studies who finds himself entangled in an affair that's ruining his marriage; Paul North plays in the IHL (Indigenous Hockey League), struggling to keep up with the game that's passing him by; Detective Ruby Birch is chasing a string of gruesome murders, with clues that conspicuously lead her to both Elmore and Paul. And then there's Fabiola Halan, former journalist-turned-author and famed survivor of a plane crash that sparked a nationwide tour promoting her book.

What starts off as a series of subtle connections between isolated characters quickly takes a menacing turn, as it becomes increasingly clear that someone—or something—is hunting them all.

Taking tropes from the murder mystery, police procedural, thriller, and horror genres, Drew Hayden Taylor weaves a pulse-pounding and propulsive narrative with an intricate cast of characters, while never losing the ability to make you laugh.

recommendation note: "Love Drew Hayden Taylor’s plays; intrigued how he’s going to make a comedic thriller."

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

library? yes (physical + digital)

sci fi · horror · weird fiction | 200-300 pages

Sharmaine's pick

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

recommendation note: "Saw this pop on a book Facebook group I'm in. The fourth book is about to come out and honestly the cover just looked cool. Everyone likes how weird it is and I think it would be fun. Concept is intriguing too."

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

library? yes (physical + digital)

memoir · grief · identity · Asian stories | 200-300 pages

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.

As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band—and meeting the man who would become her husband—her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

recommendation note: "Michelle Zauner is the lead singer and guitarist of popular indie rock band Japanese Breakfast! I've seen this book recommended on so many different forums and I've never cried at an H Mart but I've definitely cried at other Asian grocery stores."