Here are some books on our Staff Picks' shelves we love!

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
  • Inspired (presumably) by the imaginary drawings of huge columnated spaces containing giant statues, and reminiscent of Borges's "The Library of Babel", this story is narrated by the inhabitant of a vast "World" made up entirely of rooms, the lower of which contain water and sea life, the upper of which contain clouds. There's a "But what is this?" question that has motivated Luke's reading, and while he's only halfway through at time of writing, there have been some exhilarating reveals. 
• A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck
  • This one came back to Luke's mind as he was reading Piranesi, as it also takes place in an infinite "World" made of rooms, though this one is more explicitly based on Borges's "Library of Babel". Though published by itself in a book, the text is large and the pageblock skinny; it could have easily been a long story in a collection. The name of the game is existential dread.
• When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
  • A difficult book to describe. It's kind of like historical fiction, sort of actually fan-fiction about a handful of physicists and mathematicians during the 20th century. The beginning of the book is almost entirely factual, and the fiction/speculation ramps up from there. Weird and fun. It was followed up by The Maniac.
• The Assault by Harry Mulisch
  • Actually recommended to Luke by a coworker, this novel tracks the life of a Dutch individual on whose street a Nazi was killed close to the end of Nazi rule in the Netherlands; by virtue of its mere proximity, this event has a huge impact on his life. We also see other characters' perspectives of this killing and its aftermath.
• 2120 by George Wylesol
  • It's like a point-and-click mystery computer game, but it's a book! You'll see an area, and things like doorknobs and hallways might have page-numbers on them. To explore that way, turn to that page. It's a delight, and Luke doesn't know why it hasn't gone viral. Severance vibes. Luke also wishes there were more books like this.
• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
  • In Margaret Atwood's introduction to this newer translation by Bela Shayevich, she says this book inspired Orwell in writing 1984. Frankly, Luke's impression on reading this was that Orwell straight-up ripped it off to a significant degree, stripping some of the more interesting elements but keeping the core -- a core which Luke could spell out, but to do so would spoil the book, so never mind.
• The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune
  • A grieving and disgraced journalist retreats to his family’s remote Oregon cabin, only to find it's already occupied by a wounded ex-soldier and a ten-year-old girl with uncanny knowledge, otherworldly powers, and people who will go to terrifying lengths to control her. 
• Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
  • After dying unexpectedly, Wallace Price is guided by a peculiar reaper to a tea shop that helps souls transition to the afterlife. In this strange and magical place, Wallace learns to rediscover his humanity and confront the life he never truly lived.
• The Overstory by Richard Powers
  • An expansive, emotionally charged novel that weaves together the stories of nine strangers whose lives are irrevocably transformed by their encounters with trees. Each character begins with a small, almost accidental connection, a family chestnut, a near-death experience in a forest, and those moments grow, intertwine, and eventually converge into a sweeping, urgent call to defend the living world.
• Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
  • In this multigenerational novel, a Dominican-American family grapples with secrets, loss, and the ways in which their pasts shape their futures. The narrative weaves together the lives of several women in the family, revealing how intertwined their stories are through love, grief, and healing.
• Fairy Tale by Stephen King
  • Charlie Reade, a seemingly ordinary teenager, stumbles upon a parallel world where good and evil battle in a timeless struggle. Tasked with a mission that could alter the fate of both worlds, Charlie must face dangers and make unimaginable sacrifices in a world that operates by its own rules.
• The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune
  • A grieving and disgraced journalist retreats to his family’s remote Oregon cabin, only to find it's already occupied by a wounded ex-soldier and a ten-year-old girl with uncanny knowledge, otherworldly powers, and people who will go to terrifying lengths to control her. 
• Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
  • After dying unexpectedly, Wallace Price is guided by a peculiar reaper to a tea shop that helps souls transition to the afterlife. In this strange and magical place, Wallace learns to rediscover his humanity and confront the life he never truly lived.
• The Overstory by Richard Powers
  • An expansive, emotionally charged novel that weaves together the stories of nine strangers whose lives are irrevocably transformed by their encounters with trees. Each character begins with a small, almost accidental connection, a family chestnut, a near-death experience in a forest, and those moments grow, intertwine, and eventually converge into a sweeping, urgent call to defend the living world.
• Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
  • In this multigenerational novel, a Dominican-American family grapples with secrets, loss, and the ways in which their pasts shape their futures. The narrative weaves together the lives of several women in the family, revealing how intertwined their stories are through love, grief, and healing.
• Fairy Tale by Stephen King
  • Charlie Reade, a seemingly ordinary teenager, stumbles upon a parallel world where good and evil battle in a timeless struggle. Tasked with a mission that could alter the fate of both worlds, Charlie must face dangers and make unimaginable sacrifices in a world that operates by its own rules.
• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
  • Faulkner's dark-comedy road trip story recounts the journey of the Bundren clan as they travel to bury their matriarch in her ancestral land of Mississippi. A tale of grief, memory and growth, through the eyes of the Bundren's and the people they meet along the way, we are painted a picture of a woman and a place both whimsical and real, in the way only Faulkner can achieve.
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Heartbreak as told from the background. How do you reconcile a live in service, when the ones you've served may not be worthy of that dedication? At the heart of this struggle lies a lone butler, who recounts his life and loves as he travels across the English countryside in his waning years.
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
  • Heartbreak as told from the background. How do you reconcile a live in service, when the ones you've served may not be worthy of that dedication? At the heart of this struggle lies a lone butler, who recounts his life and loves as he travels across the English countryside in his waning years.
• Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
  • Lust, heartbreak, identity and tragedy collide in Paris. Baldwin's tale of David and his path of destruction that he carves across Paris in his ultimately doomed pursuit of love and self is one of two books that has made Jayson openly weep.
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
  • Half memoir, half guide for aspiring writers, On Writing is not 100% one thing, but it's 100% essential for anyone who has ever flirted with the idea of writing. Told by one of the most prolific storytellers of the 20th and 21st centuries, King recounts his childhood, the stories behind his stories and just what makes a writer that.
• Shift by Hugh Howey
  • Following the mind blowing first novel, Wool, we go back to the beginning of the real story: what brought us to the creation of the silos in the first place? The news tell us about a new drug, Propranolol, that help trauma victims, but only by erasing the entire memory! And in 2007, a groundbreaking nanotechnology is debuted to the world. These nanobot can cure disease, make home repairs, everything the world needs.... right in time for humanity to figure out the best way to destroy itself. Follow the path and learn exactly how we got to the brink of extinction.
• The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
  • Follows the story of a young Robbie, unjustly accused and sent to a "reformatory" school. A prison in all but name, the staff are vicious overseers and the boys are often brought into the darkness and never return. While his sister Gloria desperately tries to mount a legal defense to get him released, Robbie is fending off haunts: spiritual menaces that cause trouble and anguish for all the boys. During the Civil Rights Movement, this Florida based story tells the story of fighting for freedom, and fighting demons both mortal and beyond.
• Circe by Madeline Miller
  • Madeline Miller is a master storyteller, and this origin story is no different. Circe, the daughter of Helios, the most powerful Titan, is born different: she is the first witch, with powers over natural forces but without the power of her father and his family. Threatened by her power, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island. Circe uses that to her advantage by taking her time alone to hone her craft. Unfortunately, eventually men and gods alike arrive to her shores and disturb her peace. The classic tale of Circe as a mere footnote in the epics of Odysseus, Titans, and the Olympians are turned on their heads. Miller centers Circe's perspective and we see these stories is a new light. Circe is an incredibly heartfelt, and oftentimes sorrowful, perspective on how powerful women are left voiceless, when their power is in fact phenomenal.
• Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
  • Daunis Fontaine, a daugther of an Ojibwe woman and a white father, is stuck between two worlds in her hometown in the Upper Penninsula near Canada. A formidable hockey player in her own right, she finds herself falling for Jamie, the newest hotshot on her high school's team. But lurking in the corners of their budding romance is a town filled with suspicion, bad blood, and now the FBI. An agent takes Daunis under his wing and gets her to go undercover to find the source of a brand new drug that is killing the locals and beyond. Using her genius knowledge of chemistry and natural medicines she learned from her Ojibwe people, she not only learns the disturbing origins of the drug, but even darker secrets about her past, her people, and the real history of her home.
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
  • Every season has an end. But in this dystopian broken world, one season comes and undoes the earth. Every fifth season is unique: plagues, drought, even laughter. But one this is for sure, it will destroy civilizations. In this world, there are ruins everywhere, and, more mysteriously, people with powers; they can cause earthquakes, bring storms, heal the sick. This story follows one such woman, whose powers are discovered and is shipped off to a distant land, where she is assigned someone designed to diminish her powers to keep the world safe. But the danger isn't in the powers she has.... it's in the power she has yet to unleash. N.J. Jemisin is a masterful world builder, and this is a book that you have to read to believe. The power is in the unknown, the mysteries, and the people in power who may not be telling the truth about the origins of this broken Earth.
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  • The Devil arrives in Soviet Moscow with a retinue of strange companions, sowing chaos and challenging the rigid ideals of the time, while the story also intertwines with a retelling of the trial of Jesus in ancient Jerusalem. Bulgakov’s novel blends satire, fantasy, and philosophy in a darkly comedic examination of power, love, and freedom.
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired to solve a blackmail case involving the wealthy Sternwood family, only to uncover a complex web of deception, murder, and moral ambiguity. Chandler's hard-boiled noir novel is filled with sharp dialogue, dark intrigue, and a pervasive sense of disillusionment.
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
  • In post-World War I Europe, a group of disillusioned expatriates navigate love, loss, and the search for meaning in a world that seems to have lost its way. Hemingway’s novel explores the themes of aimlessness, personal struggle, and the need for connection with a concise and impactful writing style
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Janie Crawford recounts her journey through three marriages and a search for self-identity, set against the backdrop of early 20th-century African-American life in the South. Hurston’s masterpiece explores themes of love, independence, and the complexity of womanhood with lyrical and powerful prose.
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
  • A haunting, semi-autobiographical novel that follows Esther Greenwood, a young woman navigating the pressures of societal expectations, career ambitions, and personal identity in 1950s America. As she struggles with mental illness, Esther’s experiences reveal the suffocating effects of gender roles and the fragility of the human psyche, offering a raw, poetic exploration of depression, ambition, and self-discovery.

• Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
  • Lust, heartbreak, identity and tragedy collide in Paris. Baldwin's tale of David and his path of destruction that he carves across Paris in his ultimately doomed pursuit of love and self is one of two books that has made Jayson openly weep.
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
  • Half memoir, half guide for aspiring writers, On Writing is not 100% one thing, but it's 100% essential for anyone who has ever flirted with the idea of writing. Told by one of the most prolific storytellers of the 20th and 21st centuries, King recounts his childhood, the stories behind his stories and just what makes a writer, that
• Shift by Hugh Howey
  • Following the mind blowing first novel, Wool, we go back to the beginning of the real story: what brought us to the creation of the silos in the first place? The news tell us about a new drug, Propranolol, that help trauma victims, but only by erasing the entire memory! And in 2007, a groundbreaking nanotechnology is debuted to the world. These nanobot can cure disease, make home repairs, everything the world needs.... right in time for humanity to figure out the best way to destroy itself. Follow the path and learn exactly how we got to the brink of extinction.
• The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
  • Follows the story of a young Robbie, unjustly accused and sent to a "reformatory" school. A prison in all but name, the staff are vicious overseers and the boys are often brought into the darkness and never return. While his sister Gloria desperately tries to mount a legal defense to get him released, Robbie is fending off haunts: spiritual menaces that cause trouble and anguish for all the boys. During the Civil Rights Movement, this Florida based story tells the story of fighting for freedom, and fighting demons both mortal and beyond.
• Circe by Madeline Miller
  • Madeline Miller is a master storyteller, and this origin story is no different. Circe, the daughter of Helios, the most powerful Titan, is born different: she is the first witch, with powers over natural forces but without the power of her father and his family. Threatened by her power, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island. Circe uses that to her advantage by taking her time alone to hone her craft. Unfortunately, eventually men and gods alike arrive to her shores and disturb her peace. The classic tale of Circe as a mere footnote in the epics of Odysseus, Titans, and the Olympians are turned on their heads. Miller centers Circe's perspective and we see these stories is a new light. Circe is an incredibly heartfelt, and oftentimes sorrowful, perspective on how powerful women are left voiceless, when their power is in fact phenomenal.
• Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
  • Daunis Fontaine, a daugther of an Ojibwe woman and a white father, is stuck between two worlds in her hometown in the Upper Penninsula near Canada. A formidable hockey player in her own right, she finds herself falling for Jamie, the newest hotshot on her high school's team. But lurking in the corners of their budding romance is a town filled with suspicion, bad blood, and now the FBI. An agent takes Daunis under his wing and gets her to go undercover to find the source of a brand new drug that is killing the locals and beyond. Using her genius knowledge of chemistry and natural medicines she learned from her Ojibwe people, she not only learns the disturbing origins of the drug, but even darker secrets about her past, her people, and the real history of her home.
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
  • Every season has an end. But in this dystopian broken world, one season comes and undoes the earth. Every fifth season is unique: plagues, drought, even laughter. But one this is for sure, it will destroy civilizations. In this world, there are ruins everywhere, and, more mysteriously, people with powers; they can cause earthquakes, bring storms, heal the sick. This story follows one such woman, whose powers are discovered and is shipped off to a distant land, where she is assigned someone designed to diminish her powers to keep the world safe. But the danger isn't in the powers she has.... it's in the power she has yet to unleash. N.J. Jemisin is a masterful world builder, and this is a book that you have to read to believe. The power is in the unknown, the mysteries, and the people in power who may not be telling the truth about the origins of this broken Earth.
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  • The Devil arrives in Soviet Moscow with a retinue of strange companions, sowing chaos and challenging the rigid ideals of the time, while the story also intertwines with a retelling of the trial of Jesus in ancient Jerusalem. Bulgakov’s novel blends satire, fantasy, and philosophy in a darkly comedic examination of power, love, and freedom.
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired to solve a blackmail case involving the wealthy Sternwood family, only to uncover a complex web of deception, murder, and moral ambiguity. Chandler's hard-boiled noir novel is filled with sharp dialogue, dark intrigue, and a pervasive sense of disillusionment.
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
  • In post-World War I Europe, a group of disillusioned expatriates navigate love, loss, and the search for meaning in a world that seems to have lost its way. Hemingway’s novel explores the themes of aimlessness, personal struggle, and the need for connection with a concise and impactful writing style
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Janie Crawford recounts her journey through three marriages and a search for self-identity, set against the backdrop of early 20th-century African-American life in the South. Hurston’s masterpiece explores themes of love, independence, and the complexity of womanhood with lyrical and powerful prose.
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
  • A haunting, semi-autobiographical novel that follows Esther Greenwood, a young woman navigating the pressures of societal expectations, career ambitions, and personal identity in 1950s America. As she struggles with mental illness, Esther’s experiences reveal the suffocating effects of gender roles and the fragility of the human psyche, offering a raw, poetic exploration of depression, ambition, and self-discovery.

• Shift by Hugh Howey
  • Following the mind blowing first novel, Wool, we go back to the beginning of the real story: what brought us to the creation of the silos in the first place? The news tell us about a new drug, Propranolol, that help trauma victims, but only by erasing the entire memory! And in 2007, a groundbreaking nanotechnology is debuted to the world. These nanobot can cure disease, make home repairs, everything the world needs.... right in time for humanity to figure out the best way to destroy itself. Follow the path and learn exactly how we got to the brink of extinction.
• The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
  • Follows the story of a young Robbie, unjustly accused and sent to a "reformatory" school. A prison in all but name, the staff are vicious overseers and the boys are often brought into the darkness and never return. While his sister Gloria desperately tries to mount a legal defense to get him released, Robbie is fending off haints: spiritual menaces that cause trouble and anguish for all the boys. During the Civil Rights Movement, this Florida based story tells the story of fighting for freedom, and fighting demons both mortal and beyond.
• Circe by Madeline Miller
  • Madeline Miller is a master storyteller, and this origin story is no different. Circe, the daughter of Helios, the most powerful Titan, is born different: she is the first witch, with powers over natural forces but without the power of her father and his family. Threatened by her power, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island. Circe uses that to her advantage by taking her time alone to hone her craft. Unfortunately, eventually men and gods alike arrive to her shores and disturb her peace. The classic tale of Circe as a mere footnote in the epics of Odysseus, Titans, and the Olympians are turned on their heads. Miller centers Circe's perspective and we see these stories is a new light. Circe is an incredibly heartfelt, and oftentimes sorrowful, perspective on how powerful women are left voiceless, when their power is in fact phenomenal.
• Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
  • Daunis Fontaine, a daugther of an Ojibwe woman and a white father, is stuck between two worlds in her hometown in the Upper Penninsula near Canada. A formidable hockey player in her own right, she finds herself falling for Jamie, the newest hotshot on her high school's team. But lurking in the corners of their budding romance is a town filled with suspicion, bad blood, and now the FBI. An agent takes Daunis under his wing and gets her to go undercover to find the source of a brand new drug that is killing the locals and beyond. Using her genius knowledge of chemistry and natural medicines she learned from her Ojibwe people, she not only learns the disturbing origins of the drug, but even darker secrets about her past, her people, and the real history of her home.
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
  • Every season has an end. But in this dystopian broken world, one season comes and undoes the earth. Every fifth season is unique: plagues, drought, even laughter. But one this is for sure, it will destroy civilizations. In this world, there are ruins everywhere, and, more mysteriously, people with powers; they can cause earthquakes, bring storms, heal the sick. This story follows one such woman, whose powers are discovered and is shipped off to a distant land, where she is assigned someone designed to diminish her powers to keep the world safe. But the danger isn't in the powers she has.... it's in the power she has yet to unleash. N.J. Jemisin is a masterful world builder, and this is a book that you have to read to believe. The power is in the unknown, the mysteries, and the people in power who may not be telling the truth about the origins of this broken Earth.
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  • The Devil arrives in Soviet Moscow with a retinue of strange companions, sowing chaos and challenging the rigid ideals of the time, while the story also intertwines with a retelling of the trial of Jesus in ancient Jerusalem. Bulgakov’s novel blends satire, fantasy, and philosophy in a darkly comedic examination of power, love, and freedom.
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired to solve a blackmail case involving the wealthy Sternwood family, only to uncover a complex web of deception, murder, and moral ambiguity. Chandler's hard-boiled noir novel is filled with sharp dialogue, dark intrigue, and a pervasive sense of disillusionment.
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
  • In post-World War I Europe, a group of disillusioned expatriates navigate love, loss, and the search for meaning in a world that seems to have lost its way. Hemingway’s novel explores the themes of aimlessness, personal struggle, and the need for connection with a concise and impactful writing style
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Janie Crawford recounts her journey through three marriages and a search for self-identity, set against the backdrop of early 20th-century African-American life in the South. Hurston’s masterpiece explores themes of love, independence, and the complexity of womanhood with lyrical and powerful prose.
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
  • A haunting, semi-autobiographical novel that follows Esther Greenwood, a young woman navigating the pressures of societal expectations, career ambitions, and personal identity in 1950s America. As she struggles with mental illness, Esther’s experiences reveal the suffocating effects of gender roles and the fragility of the human psyche, offering a raw, poetic exploration of depression, ambition, and self-discovery.