SCLS Staff Picks - Summer 2025Unpublished

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She doesn't need to have magic in order to be magic... In the heart of Adenashire, where elvish enchantments and dwarven delights rule, human baker Arleta Starstone works twice as hard at perfecting her unique blend of baking with apothecary herbs. So, when her orc neighbor (and biggest...

"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...

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. ...

"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...

A New York Times Editor's Choice PIck How to Dodge a Cannonball is a razor-sharp satire that dives into the heart of the Civil War, hilariously questioning the essence of the fight, not just for territory, but for the soul of America. ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

"Impossible to put down." --Kelly Link, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Get In Trouble A ragtag posse must hunt down a witch through a wild west beset by demons and ghosts--where death is always just around the bend--in this new supernatural horror by...

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...

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...

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. ...

" 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 new novel from Emily Henry. Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big...

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...

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...

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...

The hilarious debut Sarah's Scribbles collection from Sarah Andersen, winner of three consecutive Goodreads Choice Awards for Graphic Novels and Comics These casually drawn, perfectly on-point comics by the hugely popular young artist Sarah Andersen are for the rest...

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...

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...

Experience the essential Artist's Way philosophy in this practical, accessible collection of tools from "the Queen of Change" (New York Times) author Julia Cameron. Dive into the genius behind The Artist's Way with exclusive, never-before-published Q&A's,...

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...

YOU’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE…. A wonderful new store has opened in the little town of Castle Rock, Maine. Whatever your heart’s secret desire—sexual pleasure, wealth, power, or even more precious things—it’s for sale. And even though every item has...

The instant New York Times bestseller: "Today it hit me when he hit me, blood shaking in my brain. Maybe there wasn't a savior coming. Maybe it was up to me to save me." Recruited into the fundamentalist Quiverfull movement as a young wife, Tia...

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 ...

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...

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...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . A super-flexible meal prep cookbook featuring 125 healthy gluten-free, grain-free, and paleo recipes plus 15 weeks of menu plans, detailed meal prepping advice, grocery lists, and more-from theauthor of the Against All Grain series. In this...

"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...

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...

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:...

The very first book in Bolinda Audio's award-winning Phryne Fisher mystery series, now available on CD. Unforgettable characters and a fascinating 1920s setting. It's the end of the roaring twenties, and the exuberant and Honourable Phryne Fisher is dancing and gaming with gay abandon. But...

A new TV series based on Watchmen will debut on HBO in 2019 by the creator of Lost, Damon Lindelof! A murder mystery-turned-nationwide conspiracy, Watchmen examines the lives of the eponymous superhero team as they seem to decay alongside the ever-darkening America around them....

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...

Fjord Stone's early years to life in this all-new hardcover Critical Role graphic novel! Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt, writers for the Amazon Original animated series Critical Role- The Legend of Vox Machina, join fan-favorite artist Selina Espiritu, colorist...

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...