First 2025 Book of the Year
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
The latest book from sci-fi and fantasy writer Nnedi Okorafor who spends time in Nigeria, as well as in the U.S.A. The story follows a Nigerian American woman. She writes a novel that brings her fame, but she no longer has control of the narrative. Her fate is now tied to the whims of the reading public. The way she lives her life is no longer the same as before.
Library Books On Loan
Happy Place by Emily Henry
A couple has broken up but they pretend to their friends that they are still together. They go on vacation and try to figure out if they still want to be together.
The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer
Charlotte has heard her father’s stories about being in the war. She has also heard about two women spies and she begins to follow their trail to find out what happened to them. The answers she finds might be more shocking than she realizes.
Books Started in 2024
The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman
Young Ruth lives in a brothel and does not expect more from her life until she meets a man who sees her potential. He encourages her to fight bare-knuckled in a ring, which changes the course of her life.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The first book in His Dark Materials trilogy, the story follows two children Lyra and Will who begin a journey through the magical otherworlds and encounter witches and armoured bears along with other creatures.
Friday Reads
January 24, 2025
Books Started This Week
The Theory of Crows by David A. Robertson
Mainly a children’s author, David A Robertson wrote The Theory of Crows a few years ago for older readers. It follows one Indigenous family in Manitoba, Canada. There is a father, mother and two teenage children. Holly is a high school student on her school swim team. The father seems preoccupied with another romantic interest. In a time of change for the family, how can the family stay together even when the children are growing up and the adults in their lives seem restless.
Robertson released a nonfiction title this week, All the Little Monsters: How I Learned to Live With Anxiety.
Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
Persephone Fraser returns to Prince Edward Island after 10 years away. She is there to revisit her family’s past, taking time from her current life in a stylish apartment in Toronto. It appears to be a fun summer vacation, but there is more than meets the eye.
Books to Start this Week
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
The death of a woman leaves behind an unusual inheritance for her two children. It is a black cake a food from the Caribbean along with a voice message with her life story as well as a family recipe.
The author will have a new book released next week on January 28 called Good Dirt about an affluent Black family.
Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang
The narrator is a piano player whose parents left China during the Cultural Revolution. She takes a job at a high-end beauty and wellness shop in New York City.
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark
A history book on WWI, the revolutions taking place in the Old World, and how small acts of violence brought many nations into war.
Books to Complete
Crown of Midnight by Sarah J Maas
The second book in the Throne of Glass series following a young woman assassin. Many critics forget this series was intended for young adult or teenagers, but the series have been re-released for older readers.
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
A mainstream and popular author in Japan with the first in his mystery thriller novels to be translated to English. It is a difficult story to tell about the lives of women and sexual politics in Japan.