Staff Picks: Nov. 2024

Jessamine County Public Library Staff love these books!

Updated October 31, 2024
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The book of unknown Americans
Henríquez, Cristina
Paper Book
"A triumph of storytelling. Henríquez pulls us into the lives of her characters with such mastery that we hang on to them just as fiercely as they hang on to one another and their dreams. This passionate, powerful novel will stay with you long after you've turned the final page." --Ben Fountain,...
The bullet swallower : a novel
Gonzalez James, Elizabeth
Paper Book
A "mesmerizing...wildly entertaining" (The Boston Globe) magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to rob a train, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come,...
Early morning riser
Heiny, Katherine
Paper Book
Alternately bittersweet and laugh-out-loud funny, a wise, bighearted novel of love, disaster, and unconventional family--from the acclaimed author of Standard Deviation, who has been called the "literary descendant of Jane Austen, sharing Austen's essentially comic world view" (NPR). ...
Fancy Bear goes phishing : the dark history of the information age, in five extraordinary hacks
Shapiro, Scott
Paper Book
"Unsettling, absolutely riveting, and--for better or worse--necessary reading." --Brian Christian, author of Algorithms to Live By and The Alignment Problem An entertaining account of the philosophy and technology of hacking--and why we all need to understand...
Firestarter
King, Stephen
Paper Book
Eight-year-old Charlie was born with the most destructive personality power a human being has ever commanded.
The militia house : a novel
Milas, John
Paper Book
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize Nominated for the 2023 Shirley Jackson Award "An extraordinary novel about the quiet and not so quiet horrors of war." --Roxane Gay Stephen King meets Tim O'Brien in John Milas's...
My rotten redheaded older brother
Polacco, Patricia.
Paper Book
There's nothing worse than a rotten redheaded older brother who can do everything you can do better! Patricia's brother Richard could run the fastest, climb the highest, and spit the farthest and still smile his extra-rotten, greeny-toothed, weasel-eyed grin. But when little Patricia wishes on a...
Ozark dogs
Cranor, Eli
Paper Book
After his son is convicted of capital murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armoury. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough...
The rook : a novel
O'Malley, Daniel.
Paper Book
Myfanwy Thomas awakens in a London park surrounded by dead bodies. With her memory gone, she must trust the instructions left by her former in order to survive. She quickly learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that protects the world from supernatural threats....
Strange the dreamer
Taylor, Laini
Paper Book
From National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor comes an epic fantasy about a mythic lost city and its dark past. The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around--and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared his dream chose poorly....
Sunshine
McKinley, Robin
Ebook
A small-town baker uses her magic to confront a post-vampire apocalypse world in this award-winning fantasy Neil Gaiman called "pretty much perfect." Although it had been mostly deserted since the Voodoo Wars, there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years. Rae...
Sweet home Alaska
Dagg, Carole Estby
Paper Book
This exciting pioneering story, based on actual events, introduces readers to a fascinating chapter in American history, when FDR set up a New Deal colony in Alaska to give loans and land to families struggling during the Great Depression. This exciting pioneering story, based on...
Tangled up in blue : policing the American city
Brooks, Rosa
Paper Book
Named one of the best nonfiction books of the year by The Washington Post "Tangled Up in Blue is a wonderfully insightful book that provides a lens to critically analyze urban policing and a road map for how our most dispossessed citizens may better relate to those sworn...
Virgil Wander
Enger, Leif
Paper Book
The first novel in ten years from award-winning, million-copy bestselling author Leif Enger, Virgil Wander is an enchanting and timeless all-American story that follows the inhabitants of a small Midwestern town in their quest to revive its flagging heart Midwestern movie...

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