September Reading List for Adults

Celebrate National Library Card Sign-Up Month! Read stories that feature librarians or take place in a library. These books have a surprising amount of action and drama, especially for a setting that is usually associated with quiet!

Updated August 26, 2023
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The giver of stars
Moyes, Jojo
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER |  A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK   "A great narrative about personal strength and really captures how books bring communities together." --Reese Witherspoon   From the author of the forthcoming Someone Else's Shoes<...
Checked out : a dead-end job mystery
Viets, Elaine
Paper Book
Shhh...in the newest hardcover in the national bestselling Dead-End Job Mystery series, Helen Hawthorne quietly goes undercover at a local library to search for a missing masterpiece. Wealthy socialite Elizabeth Cateman Kingsley has hired Helen to find a missing John Singer...
The woman in the library
Gentill, Sulari
Paper Book
USA TODAY BESTSELLER * MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD NOMINEE * 2022 BOOKPAGE BEST MYSTERIES AND SUSPENSE * LIBRARY READS TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2022 * CRIME READS BEST NEW CRIME FICTION "Investigations are launched, fingers are pointed, potentially dangerous liaisons unfold and I was turning those...
The librarian of burned books : a novel
Labuskes, Brianna
Paper Book
For fans of The Rose Code and The Paris Library, The Librarian of Burned Books is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war.  Berlin...
The library of legends : a novel
Chang, Janie
Paper Book
"The Library of Legends is a gorgeous, poetic journey threaded with mist and magic about a group from a Chinese university who take to the road to escape the Japanese invasion of 1937 - only to discover that danger stalks them from within. Janie Chang pens pure enchantment!" ...
The last chance library
Sampson, Freya
Paper Book
A Good Morning America Buzz Pick A Library Reads Pick June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way. ...
LAST HEIR TO BLACKWOOD LIBRARY
FOX, HESTER
Paper Book
 "Weaves a spell of darkness that's mysterious and magical, and binds it with a knot of deathless love." --New York Times bestselling author Susanna Kearsley on A Lullaby for Witches In post-World War I England, a young woman inherits a mysterious library...
Public library and other stories
Smith, Ali
Paper Book
From the acclaimed, award-winning author: Why are books so very powerful? What do the books we've read over our lives--our own personal libraries--make of us? What does the unraveling of our tradition of public libraries, so hard-won but now in jeopardy, say about us? The stories...
Better off read
Page, Nora
Paper Book
When her best hope of saving her storm-damaged library is found murdered, senior librarian Cleo Watkins hits the road in her bookmobile in search of justice. Septuagenarian librarian Cleo Watkins won't be shushed when an upstart young mayor threatens to permanently shelve her tiny town's storm...
A deadly edition
Gilbert, Victoria
Paper Book
At a party celebrating their upcoming nuptials, library director Amy Webber and her fianc© Richard discover the body of art dealer Oscar Selvaggio - a bitter rival of their host, Kurt Kendrick. Both had been in a heated battle to purchase a rare illustrated volume, so suspicion immediately falls...
The personal librarian
Benedict, Marie
Paper Book
In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world as she helps build a world-class collection. But...
How can I help you
Sims, Laura
Paper Book
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR The New York Times Book Review * Publishers Weekly * CrimeReads * Book Riot A LibraryReads Pick The lives of two librarians become dangerously intertwined in this razor-sharp exploration of human nature and the lure of artistic...

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