Staff End-of-Year Favorites
Check out our end-of-year staff favorites. We asked our library staff to share their favorite pieces of media from the last year. Everything here is available in our catalog!
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
This cozy fantasy was perfect to enjoy on the first chilly weekend of October. The conflict was low-stakes, but still felt like a reflection of our modern world’s issues on censorship and divisiveness. – Taylor
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
I listened to this on a road trip and it is hilarious! This is more about making your own family with friends than about the murder. p.s. My son also ignores my texts! – Sue
The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom (Video Game)
I know it’s basic to love a Zelda game but this is the funnest I have had with a game in a while. The puzzles are a blast to figure out. I love you Peahat. – Sue
Forbrydelsen (The Killing) Soren Sveistrup (DVD)
The first season is 20 episodes of twists and turns. Don’t let the Danish scare you, this is Scandinavian Noir at its best – Sue
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
An incredible debut novel filled with intrigue, romance, and mystery that gives a fresh and exciting take on vampire lore. – Christiana
Babel by R.F. Kuang
An incredible and tragic story of a boy named Robin who was thrown into a completely new world and dared to question it. The story kept me guessing and had me so deeply invested that I was unable to put it down. – Christiana
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Emily Henry has a way of making a basic romantic comedy plot and turning it into so much more! I would recommend any of her books but I think that her skills for character development as well as creating an intense tension for the romantic interests really shine in this book. – Christiana
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
Holly Jackson writes incredible Young Adult thriller and murder novels that keep you guessing and wanting more. – Brian
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
Matt Haig keeps writing books that are moving and insightful and always make me have to stop and just take in what I just read. – Brian
Somewhere Beyond The Sea by TJ Klune
TJ Klune followed up House On the Cerulean Sea with a sequel that is both funny and beautiful and 1000% poignant. The relationship between this book and the attacks on trans youth that is taking place makes it extremely sad and something that everyone should read to understand what it feels like to be attacked for being different. TJ Klune is what JK Rowling wishes she could be. – Brian
The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
This 2024 Southern gothic novel’s sibling dynamics and claustrophobic home environment reminded me of my favorite Shirley Jackson work, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. – Kristen
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
This is a truly wild ride full of chaotic gods and angsty teens who are murdered and then resurrected just to battle for the prize of staying alive. We get a story of growing up, loss, sibling rivalry, and horror in a silly but emotional story that only Kelly Link could write. – Kristen
Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter
In this beautifully crafted novel, Brothers Grimm meets Borges in what might be modern-day New York City. Confounding, tantalizing, and just the right length, it is unlike any novel I’ve read in recent years. – Karen
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
If you enjoy accessible science writing (that still makes you feel smart), or are concerned about the environment and the future of humanity, or want to have everything you’ve previously assumed about the nature of life and conscious thought challenged by learning about the world of fungi, then this is the book for you. – Karen
Ted Lasso (DVD)
This 7 disc set covers all three seasons of the beloved Apple TV series. Hilarious and touching, the show follows lovable American football coach turned British football (soccer) coach Ted Lasso and encompasses themes of empathy, diplomacy, mental illness, the art of English shortbread, and not judging a book by its cover…or DVD. – Kate
An Autographed Mystery by DeAnna Julie Dodson
I love a good cozy mystery and a mystery book about mystery books that takes place in a charming antique library gets extra points in my book. – Sara
The How Not to Die Cookbook by Michael Greger
I learned a lot about choosing foods that restore and maintain health in How Not to Die, so I appreciated a cookbook to take some of that knowledge off the page and onto my plate. – Sara
The Life of Fred: Butterflies (but, really, any in the series is great. I am up to book 5 out of the 10 in the first set.) by Stanley F. Schmidt
Yes, these are math textbooks for kids…and they are, almost unbelievable as it sounds, hilarious. They star five-year-old Fred Gauss who is such a math super-genius that he teaches college level math instead of going to kindergarten. – Sara
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
I just got around to reading this one from 2020 and dang, it was spellbinding. A hybrid of forms — from essayistic science writing to lyrical semi-biographical prose — the book tells the stories of a handful of mathematicians and scientists whose work circled the secrets and terrors of life. – Ben
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
An incredibly absorbing peek into the dark familial machinations behind the genesis of the opioid crisis in America. Chock full of details about the three colorful Sackler brothers who kindled the addiction conflagration. By the same author of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. – Ben
Nuclear War by Annie Jacobsen
A chillingly comprehensive account of how a nuclear attack on the United States would play out. Spoiler: life on Earth ends. Pulitzer prize finalist, Annie Jacobsen doggedly researches whatever topic she writes about, whether it’s DARPA, CIA paramilitary operations, or Roswell. – Ben
The Coast Road by Alan Murrin
This 2024 debut novel takes place in Ireland the early 1990’s before divorce became legal and the complications it wrought in the lives of three women. – Patty
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
Set in the 1975 as the Vietnam War is ending, Whitaker takes you on a journey that is part missing person mystery, coming of age, and epic love story. One of my new favorite authors. – Patty
Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino
This book is the perfect comfort read. Set on the Jersey Shore during the 1960’s, it is the story of young Madeline who has disgraced her family and is sent to her live with her great aunt for the summer who happens to be a well-known matchmaker. There is lots of funny adventures and banter between the two main characters. – Patty
Moon Music (CD) by Coldplay
Been enjoying listening to this new CD. The video of All My Love with Dick Van Dyke is the sweetest. – Patty