SCLS Staff Picks - Summer 2025

Updated August 13, 2025
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The CIA Book Club :
English, Charlie
Paper Book
"A story as fascinating as it is undersung . . . a riveting account" (The New York Times Book Review, Best Books of 2025 So Far) of the CIA's secret program to smuggle millions of books through the Iron Curtain during the Cold War "Brimming with poetic detail, spring...
What kind of paradise :
Brown, Janelle
Paper Book
A teenage girl breaks free from her father's world of isolation to discover that her whole life is a lie in this "absorbing and well-crafted" (The Washington Post) novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me Disappear. ...
Heartwood :
Gaige, Amity,
Paper Book
"The best thriller of 2025." --The Boston Globe * "Genius." --The Washington Post "A literary thriller of the highest order" (Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Couple), Heartwood takes you on a gripping journey as a...
Murder in the dollhouse :
Cohen, Rich
Paper Book
A nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Jennifer Dulos and the aftershocks that rattled a wealthy suburb. Rich Cohen's Murder in the Dollhouse is the chilling, unputdownable story of Jennifer Dulos, a beautiful, rich suburban...
The book club for troublesome women :
Bostwick, Marie
Paper Book
USA TODAY BESTSELLER · SOUTHERN INDIE BESTSELLER · A BRENDA NOVAK BOOK GROUP PICK · GLOSS BOOK CLUB PICK · THE GIRLFRIEND BOOK CLUB PICK · A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025 (SheReads) · Margaret never really meant to start a book club . . . or a feminist revolution, for that matter in...
Victorian psycho :
Feito, Virginia
Paper Book
Virginia Feito's Mrs. March was hailed as "a brilliant debut . . . [by] a writer who keeps pace with the grandees she invokes" (Sarah Ditum, Guardian)--from Daphne Du Maurier and Shirley Jackson to Patricia Highsmith. Now, Feito returns with her "silver-polish sentences and her eerie psychological...
Boudicca :
Cast, P. C.
Paper Book
From P. C. Cast, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the landmark House of Night urban fantasy series, comes an epic, lusty, magic-filled romantasy about British warrior queen Boudicca. Perfect for fans of Sue Lynn Tan and Madeline Miller! In Roman-occupied...
Red rabbit /
Grecian, Alex
Audiobook
The antidote /
Russell, Karen,
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE * From Pulitzer finalist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient, and bestselling author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell: a gripping dust bowl epic about five...
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Jones, Stephen Graham
Paper Book
An instant New York Times bestseller, a chilling historical horror novel tracing the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet reservation looking for justice. A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a...
Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love
Cronin, Marianne
Paper Book
The author of the beloved international hit The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot returns with a funny, uplifting story about the power of friendship and finding love in unexpected places. Eddie Winston is 90 years old. He has lived and he has loved, but he has never been kissed. ...
Great big beautiful life
Henry, Emily
Paper Book
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK ∙ AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ∙ Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping novel from Emily Henry. As...
Say Everything :
Skye, Ione
Paper Book
In this instant New York Times bestselling memoir, Gen X icon Ione Skye shares her "delightfully juicy" (People) and achingly vulnerable story about chasing fame, desire, and true love in the shadow of her famous, absent father. In 1987, sixteen-year-old Ione Skye...
Dinner for Vampires
Lenz, Bethany Joy
Paper Book
An "incredible" (Alex Cooper, Call Her Daddy), "riveting" (People) New York Times bestselling memoir by One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz about her decade in a cult and her quest to break free. In the early 2000s, after years of hard work and...
Ash's Cabin
Wang, Jen
Paper Book
A Kirkus Best Book of the YearA Booklist Best Book of the Year An Amazon Best Book of the Year Nominate for an Eisner Award (Best Publication for Teens) Ash has always felt alone. Adults ignore the climate crisis. Other...
Adulthood is a myth :
Andersen, Sarah
Ebook
These casually drawn, perfectly on-point comics by the hugely popular young artist Sarah Andersen are for the rest of us. They document the wasting of entire beautiful weekends on the internet, the unbearable agony of holding hands on the street with a gorgeous guy, and dreaming all...
The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night
Banbury, Steven
Paper Book
A spooky yet heartwarming adventure about one girl's journey into the land of the undead, and the unexpected family she finds along the way. Perfect for fans of Nevermoor and the hit series Wednesday. On Halloween, it is always wise to expect the...
The secret of Moonrise Manor /
Bearce, Stephanie
Paper Book
Wednesday Addams + Sherlock Holmes = Raven Gallows--a curious girl who uses her budding skills as a mortician and a scientist to investigate a mysterious death at her small town's haunted hotel.  Raven Gallows lives in a funeral home and is determined to become a famous...
The harder I fight, the more I love you :
Case, Neko
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AN APPLE BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH Singer-songwriter Neko Case paints a vivid portrait of an extraordinary life--one forged through a poverty-stricken childhood, obsessive desire, bursts of comedy, and...
By the time you read this I'll be gone :
Kuehn, Stephanie
Ebook
Needful things : a novel
King, Stephen
Audiobook
A new store has opened in the town of Castle Rock, Maine. It has whatever your heart desires . . . if you're willing to pay the price. In this chilling novel by one of the most potent imaginations of our time, evil is on a shopping spree and out to scare you witless. Presented unabridged and read by...
A well-trained wife :
Levings, Tia
Audiobook
You are here :
Nicholls, David,
Paper Book
THE INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A Good Housekeeping "Book We're Most Looking Forward To" * An Independent Today "Best Fiction Books to Read" * A GQ Magazine (UK) "Best Book of 2024" * A Harper's Bazaar (UK) "Best Novels to Read" * A ...
Mind games /
Roberts, Nora
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Identity presents a suspenseful novel of tragedy and trauma, love and family, and the evil that awaits. Thea Fox is getting the life she always wanted. She's become a renowned videogame designer, a job that allows her to...
Young and damned and fair :
Russell, Gareth
Paper Book
Written with an exciting combination of narrative flair and historical authority, this interpretation of the tragic life of Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, breaks new ground in our understanding of the very young woman who became queen at a time of unprecedented social and political...
The faint of heart
Wilson, Kerilynn
Paper Book
"Beautiful, tender, and relevant. Full of mystery, and not surprisingly, full of heart."--Tillie Walden, award-winning author of Spinning What would you do if you were the only person left with a heart The only person left who felt anything at all Would you give in to the...
The Flicker /
Edgmon, H. E.
Paper Book
Perfect for fans of The Marrow Thieves, Hatchet and The City of Ember, H.E. Edgmon's middle grade debut offers a bittersweet tale of hope and survival, a modern classic for the climate change generation. One year ago, a solar flare scorched the Earth and...
The night shift
Finlay, Alex
Paper Book
From the author of the breakout thriller Every Last Fear, comes Alex Finlay's electrifying next novel The Night Shift, about a pair of small-town murders fifteen years apart--and the ties that bind them. One of the Best or Most Anticipated Books of 2022:...
Cocaine blues : a Phryne Fisher mystery
Greenwood, Kerry.
Paper Book
This is where it all started! The first classic Phryne Fisher mystery, featuring our delectable heroine, cocaine, communism and adventure. Phryne leaves the tedium of English high society for Melbourne, Australia, and never looks back. The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but...
Watchmen
Moore, Alan,
Ebook
The Whalebone Theatre /
Quinn, Joanna,
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK * A transporting, irresistible debut novel that takes its heroine, Cristabel Seagrave, from a theatre made of whalebones to covert operations during World War II--a story of love, family, bravery, lost innocence, and...
Empresses of Seventh Avenue :
MacDonell, Nancy,
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES MOST ANTICIPATED * "Reads like a work of fiction, but remarkably, it's all true" (Airmail) * In the tradition of The Barbizon and The Girls of Atomic City, fashion historian and journalist Nancy MacDonell chronicles the untold story of how the Nazi...

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