Tag: 2025

Winners of the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards

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Goodreads has announced the winners of the 17th annual Goodreads Choice Awards! With more than 7.5 million votes cast, these winners represent readers’ favorite books of the year. This year there are 15 different categories with 300 nominated books over those categories. If you’re interested in checking out the winners, check the list below! Descriptions are provided by the publishers.

Readers’ Favorite Fiction: My Friends by Fredrik Backman

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art. – Atria Books

This title is also available in large print.

Readers’ Favorite Historical Fiction: Atmosphere: A Love Story by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars. – Ballantine Books

This title is also available in large print.

Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller: Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson

In seven days, Jet Mason will be dead.

Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old and back home, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.

Until Halloween night, when she is violently attacked by an unseen intruder, suffering a catastrophic head injury. Doctors are certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a fatal aneurysm. To her parents’ dismay, Jet rejects an extremely risky operation in order to guarantee herself at least a few more days.

Jet never thought of herself as having enemies. But now, in the one week she has left, she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend.

As her condition deteriorates, she reconnects with her childhood friend Billy, the only one willing to help her. With Billy at her side, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:

Jet is going to solve her own murder. – Bantam

This title is also available in large print.

Readers’ Favorite Romance: Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication.

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it. – Berkley

This title is also available in large print.

Readers’ Favorite Romantasy (AND Readers’ Favorite Audiobook narrated by Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton, Justis Bolding, and Jasmin Walker): Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty.

Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.

Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.

They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth.

But a storm is coming…and not everyone can survive its wrath. – Entangled Publishing, LLC

This title is also available in large print.

Readers’ Favorite Fantasy: Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

This is a story about hunger.
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.

This is a story about love.
1827. London.
A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.
2019. Boston.
College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life—how it ends, and how it starts. – Tor Books

This title is also available in large print.

Readers’ Favorite Science Fiction: The Compound by Aisling Rawle

Lily—a bored, beautiful twenty-something—wakes up on a remote desert compound, alongside nineteen other contestants competing on a massively popular reality show. To win, she must outlast her housemates to stay in the Compound the longest, while competing in challenges for luxury rewards like champagne and lipstick, plus communal necessities to outfit their new home, like food, appliances, and a front door.

Cameras are catching all her angles, good and bad, but Lily has no desire to leave: why would she, when the world outside is falling apart? As the competition intensifies, intimacy between the players deepens, and it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between desire and desperation. When the unseen producers raise the stakes, forcing contestants into upsetting, even dangerous situations, the line between playing the game and surviving it begins to blur. If Lily makes it to the end, she’ll receive prizes beyond her wildest dreams—but what will she have to do to win?

Addictive and prescient, The Compound is an explosive debut from a major new voice in fiction and will linger in your mind long after the game ends. – Random House

This title is also available in large print.

Readers’ Favorite Horror: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

They were never girls, they were witches . . . .

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, frightened, and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by the adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid . . . and it’s usually paid in blood. – Berkley

This title is also available in large print.

Readers’ Favorite Debut Novel: Alchemised by SenLinYu

“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”

Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.

In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.

According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?

To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost. – Del Rey

Readers’ Favorite Young Adult Fantasy & Sci-Fi: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena. – Scholastic Press

Readers’ Favorite Young Adult Fiction: Fake Skating by Lynn Painter

Growing up, Dani couldn’t help but follow around the adorable son of her mom’s best friend. Funny, kind of nerdy, and a little soft, Alec was always down to hang with Dani when they were little. From play dates on the playground to sneaking into movie theaters, Dani and Alec were inseparable. Until Dani moved away. Alec promised they’d stay in touch—except, they didn’t.

Flash forward and Dani is back in Minnesota for her senior year, she and her mom living with her grandfather. Dealing with the fallout of her parents’ devastating divorce, Dani wouldn’t mind a nerd-out with the cozy and comforting Alec (and maybe a chance to confront him on his MIA status for all these years). But teenage Alec is nothing like the kid Dani remembers. He’s a hockey star in a town where hockey players are worshiped as gods. Dani’s place as his shadow has been taken up by drooling female fans…and he loves it.

Dani is resolved to ice out her former best friend until an unlikely series of events brings them together—and forces them to fake being a couple. Once forced together, the former childhood sweethearts begin to reconnect, unearth complicated family secrets, and face their true feelings towards each other…including the real reason Alec has been pushing Dani away all these years. – Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Readers’ Favorite Nonfiction: Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection by John Green

Tuberculosis has been entwined with hu­manity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it.

In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John be­came fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequi­ties that allow this curable, preventable infec­tious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year.

In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis. – Crash Course Books

This title is also available in large print.

Readers’ Favorite Memoir: The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke

From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog—now the subject of a new Hulu docuseries—and the hidden abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, and how, in the face of unimaginable pain, she found freedom and healing.

Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2.5 million subscribers. But a darker truth lurked beneath the surface—Ruby’s wholesome online persona masked a more tyrannical parenting style than anyone could have imagined.

As the family’s YouTube notoriety grew, so too did Ruby’s delusions of righteousness. Fueled by the sadistic influence of relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, together they implemented an inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime.

Ruby and Jodi were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. On that fateful day, Shari shared a photo online of a police car outside their home. Her caption had one word: “Finally.”

For the first time, Shari will reveal the disturbing truth behind 8 Passengers and her family’s devastating involvement with Jodi Hildebrandt’s cultish life coaching program, “ConneXions.” No stone is left unturned as Shari exposes the perils of influencer culture and shares for the first time her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty. – Gallery Books

Readers’ Favorite History & Biography: How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy’s Guide to Silencing Women by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi

Nothing brings people together like a common enemy, and witches were the greatest enemy of all.

Scotland, 1563: Crops failed. People starved. And the Devil’s influence was stronger than ever—at least, that’s what everyone believed. If you were a woman living in Scotland during this turbulent time, there was a very good chance that you, or someone you knew, would be tried as a witch.

During the chaos of the Reformation, violence against women was codified for the first time in the Witchcraft Act—a tool of theocratic control with one chilling goal: to root out witches and rid the land of evil. What followed was a dark and misogynistic chapter in history that fanned the flames of witch hunts across the globe, including in the United States and beyond.

In How to Kill a Witch, Zoe Venditozzi and Claire Mitchell, hosts of the popular Witches of Scotland podcast, unravel the grim yet absurdly bureaucratic process of identifying, accusing, trying, and executing women as witches. With sharp wit and keen feminist insight, they reveal the inner workings of a patriarchal system designed to weaponize fear and oppress women.

This captivating (and often infuriating) account, which weaves a rich tapestry of trial transcripts, witness accounts, and the documents that set the legal grounds for the witch hunts, exposes how this violent period of history mirrors today’s struggles for justice and equality. How to Kill a Witch is a powerful, darkly humorous reminder of the dangers of superstition, bias, and ignorance, and a warning to never forget the past… while raising the question of whether it could ever happen again. – Sourcebooks

Online Reading Challenge – November Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

How did your reading go this month? Did you read a detective or crime fiction title for November? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King.  Originally published in 1994, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (Or On the Segregation of the Queen) is the first book in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie R. King. This title was also a nominee for the Agatha Award for Best Novel in 1995.

When searching for a book to read for this month, I knew I wanted to pay homage to the great Sherlock Holmes, but I didn’t want to read something written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which led me to exploring spinoffs. I eventually found Laurie R. King and her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. This series started in 1994 and has a total of 19 books so far. The latest book in the series, Knave of Diamonds, was published in 2025.

Let’s get into The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. It’s 1915 and Sherlock Holmes has been retired for quite a number of years. When a young Mary Russell stumbles upon an older gentleman on the Sussex Downs studying honeybees, she doesn’t realize that he is Sherlock Holmes at first. Russell is gawky, exceptionally smart, and recently orphaned, but her intellect is what attracts her to Holmes. Holmes decides to tutor Russell, which eventually leads them on a variety of cases throughout this first book. Eventually they are called to Scotland Yard to assist with finding the kidnapped daughter of an American senator. This case ends up being connected to Holmes’ past in a significant way and has deep repercussions for Holmes and Russell’s futures.

My thoughts: I quite enjoyed the fact that Sherlock Holmes was coming out of retirement a bit reluctantly in this book. Russell and Sherlock’s relationship was also intriguing. They become reluctant friends throughout this book with a relationship that changes the more they learn about each other. The disguises, danger, and problem solving was top-notch in this book. I also quite enjoyed that this book was told from young Mary Russell’s point of view which allowed me to take a step back and see Holmes through different eyes. All in all, a sold start to the series.

Next month, we will be reading historical fiction!

In addition to following the Online Reading Challenge here on our Info Cafe blog, you can join our Online Reading Challenge group on Goodreads and discuss your reads!

Censorship is so 1984 – Read for Your Rights

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Banned Book Week 2025 is finally here! Running from October 5th through October 11th, 2025, the theme for this year is ‘Censorship is So 1984 – Read for Your Rights’. According to the American Library Association, ‘With the escalation in attempts to ban books in libraries, schools, and bookstores around the country, George Orwell’s cautionary tale “1984” serves a prescient warning about the dangers of censorship. This year’s theme reminds us that the right to read belongs to all of us, that censorship has no place in contemporary society, and that we must defend our rights.’

Below are the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024 (Descriptions are provided by the publishers.):

1. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
Why this book matters: bit.ly/allboysBR

In a series of personal essays, award-winning author and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue explores their childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.

From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.

Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson’s emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults. (Johnson used he/him pronouns at the time of publication.) – Farrar, Straus and Giroux

2. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
Why this book matters: bit.ly/genderBR

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.

Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. – Oni Press

3. (TIE) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Why this book matters: bit.ly/bluestBR

From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner—a powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity that asks questions about race, class, and gender with characteristic subtlety and grace.

In Morrison’s acclaimed first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. – Vintage

3. (TIE) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Why this book matters: bit.ly/wallflowerBR

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

A #1 New York Times bestseller for more than a year, adapted into a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson (and written and directed by the author), and an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (2000) and Best Book for Reluctant Readers (2000), this novel for teen readers (or wallflowers of more-advanced age) will make you laugh, cry, and perhaps feel nostalgic for those moments when you, too, tiptoed onto the dance floor of life. – MTV Books

5. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Why this book matters: bit.ly/tricksBR

When all choice is taken from you, life becomes a game of survival.

Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching…for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don’t expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words “I love you” are said for all the wrong reasons.

Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story—a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, “Can I ever feel okay about myself?” – Margaret K. McElderry Books

6. (TIE) Looking for Alaska by John Green
Why this book matters: bit.ly/alaskaBR

First drink. First prank. First friend. First love.

Last words.

Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.

Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A modern classic, this stunning debut marked #1 bestselling author John Green’s arrival as a groundbreaking new voice in contemporary fiction. – Penguin Books

6. (TIE) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Why this book matters: bit.ly/earlBR

This is the funniest book you’ll ever read about death.

It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he’s figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad?

His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl.

This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg’s mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life.– Amulet Books

8. (TIE) Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Why this book matters: bit.ly/crankBR

Life was good
before I
met
the monster.

After,
life
was great,
At
least

for a little while.

Kristina Snow is the perfect daughter: gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble.

Then, Kristina meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild, ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul—her life.

8. (TIE) Sold by Patricia McCormick
Why this book matters: bit.ly/soldBR

The powerful, poignant, bestselling National Book Award finalist gives voice to a young girl robbed of her childhood yet determined to find the strength to triumph.

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.

An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family’s debt-then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.

Lakshmi’s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother’s words—Simply to endure is to triumph—and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision-will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?

Written in spare and evocative vignettes by the co-author of I Am Malala (Young Readers Edition), this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs. – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

10. Flamer by Mike Curato
Why this book matters: bit.ly/flamerBR

I know I’m not gay. Gay boys like other boys. I hate boys. They’re mean, and scary, and they’re always destroying something or saying something dumb or both.

I hate that word. Gay. It makes me feel . . . unsafe.

It’s the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone’s going through changes—but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. As he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can’t stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance. – Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

Online Reading Challenge – September Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read a young adult literature title for September? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: The Cousins by Karen McManus. McManus is known for her Bayview High series (One of Us is Lying, One of Us is Next, and One of Us is Back), but The Cousins is a standalone novel diving into one family’s sordid history. What caught my attention about this novel was the premise: three teenage cousins invited to spend the summer with their estranged grandmother at the resort she owns. Sounds intriguing and a bit familiar, right? I thought so, too.

The three Story cousins, Jonah, Millie, and Aubrey, are contacted by their estranged grandmother, inviting them to spend the summer in a resort beach town. Mildred Story, the estranged matriarch of the Story family, cut off her four children over twenty years ago, their only notice a cryptic letter stating, ‘You know what you did’. Despite her children professing to have no idea what they did to earn her displeasure, Mildred refused to see her children or correspond in any way. This new invitation to her grandchildren comes completely out of the blue, catching everyone off guard. The fact that Mildred is incredibly wealthy has her children hoping that the grandchildren will get access to her money if they land themselves in her good graces.

Millie, Aubrey, and Jonah have no desire to spend summer with their grandma. They are teenagers with their own summer plans! Despite their protests, the three soon find themselves in the crosshairs of the rich and reclusive woman who disinherited their parents all those years ago. After their initial meeting, the three realize that Mildred’s plans are different than what they thought. She becomes increasingly hard to get a hold of, disappearing for trips, and using her assistant to blow off the cousins’ requests to meet. The cousins spend their time on island working and looking for more information about their parents. This leads to discovering some of the dark secrets in the Story family’s past. What fractured the family structure years ago? Can the cousins find the truth and repair these destroyed relationships?

Told from the point of view of the three cousins, plus one of their parents, McManus has written a mystery full of twists and turns. Flashback chapters fill in background information and family secrets that the cousins would not have been able to discover on their own. (The flashback chapters are the ones that kept me hooked throughout the book to be honest.) What kept me from completely loving this book were the twists’ reveals. I had trouble suspending my disbelief during some of the reveals, as it seemed implausible that only a few people would realize what was happening. The ending also seemed very rushed, to the point where I had to reread the last three chapters and the epilogue to piece together the end, but I’m still confused… This was a three star read for me.

Next month, we will be reading fantasy!

In addition to following the Online Reading Challenge here on our Info Cafe blog, you can join our Online Reading Challenge group on Goodreads and discuss your reads!

Online Reading Challenge – September

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Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge is focusing on young adult literature. Our main title for September is The Cousins by Karen McManus. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised . . . and curious.

Their parents are all clear on one point–not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother’s good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it’s immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious–and dark–their family’s past is.

The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over–and this summer, the cousins will learn everything. – Delacorte Press

Looking for some other young adult literature? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Online Reading Challenge – August Wrap-Up

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Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read a classic? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. Published in 1956, Giovanni’s Room is the story of David, a young man living in Paris in the 1950s. Waiting for his fiancée Hella to return from a trip to Spain, David starts an affair with an Italian bartender named Giovanni. Said affair spans several months. Giovanni is passionate and clever, but something seems off. Soon the two find themselves living together in Giovanni’s small room. David begins to feel stifled, while Giovanni repeatedly says that he won’t survive if David leaves him. During this time, David reflects on a homosexual affair he had in his adolescence and the impulses he has been struggling to repress for years. David is caught in a conflict between heterosexual and homosexual love, between desire and conventional morality. When Hella returns, David again struggles with the life he envisions for himself (and Hella) and with his homosexuality. The three impacted parties (Giovanni, David, and Hella) are humans with flaws whose decisions end up altering their lives forever.

I chose to listen to the audiobook narrated by Matt Bomer with an introduction by Kevin Young, but I highly recommend you read this book in any format that you can get your hands on. The writing style and imagery are gorgeous. The prose was laden with love, highlighting a depth of emotion portrayed beautifully throughout the book. Although I enjoyed the book, the main character was decidedly not my favorite and was hard to love. David was incredibly selfish, only worried about himself, and unlikable. The relationships he was in were toxic, but I had hopes throughout that David would grow by the end. Sadly, he did not. I had a rough time getting through this book, but I’m glad I did as it hooked me in completely with about 45 minutes left in the story. If this is on your to-read list, give it a go and let me know what you think.

Next month, we will be reading young adult literature!

In addition to following the Online Reading Challenge here on our Info Cafe blog, you can join our Online Reading Challenge group on Goodreads and discuss your reads!

Online Reading Challenge – August

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge is focusing on classics. Our main title for August is Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality.

David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy.

David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night—“the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.” With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin’s now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a deeply moving story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart. – Vintage

Looking for some other classics? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Online Reading Challenge – July Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read domestic fiction? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg. When I was picking out a domestic fiction title to read for this month, All This Could Be Yours caught my attention as it was described as ‘Big Little Lies meets Succession‘. Intriguing, right? Jami Attenberg was also described as ‘the queen of dysfunctional families,’ which also caught my eye! Let’s get into what the book was about and my thoughts.

Alex Tuchman has been summoned by her mother to her father’s deathbed. He has suffered from a heart attack and the results aren’t good. As she travels to New Orleans to be with her family, Alex reflects on her life growing up. She decides that now is the time to confront her tight-lipped mother Barbra about her father Victor, his secrets, and why they stayed together for so long. Barbra is not ready to answer Alex’s questions, but her questions force her to reflect on the tumult she and Victor went through. Barbra and Alex are left picking up the pieces because Alex’s brother Gary has disappeared. He’s gone quiet and is across the country in Los Angeles working on his movie career. Gary’s wife Twyla is left behind in New Orleans dealing with his family. This family is incredibly dysfunctional. Each family member, plus some outside people, are dragged into dealing with Victor’s complicated history. Even though they are not close, each person will have to figure out how they will move on after Victor eventually passes.

All This Could Be Yours is a multi-generational drama told through flashbacks in time. Each member of the family tells their story, plus some random side characters that are also somehow connected to the family. At times I was confused about why certain people were talking and how their stories were relevant. I also found myself wanting to learn more about the family dysfunction and how they ended up the way they are. I spent most of the book wondering what the point was because even though you learn about each family member and their lies, there isn’t a real plot. This title felt on the verge of greatness, but didn’t quite make it there for me.

Next month, we will be reading classics!

In addition to following the Online Reading Challenge here on our Info Cafe blog, you can join our Online Reading Challenge group on Goodreads and discuss your reads!

Online Reading Challenge – July

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge is focusing on domestic fiction, also known as domestic realism. This genre focuses on everyday lives of ordinary people, particularly the domestic sphere that focuses on families and communities. It strives to show a realistic portrayal of ordinary life in a straightforward way. Our main title for July is All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

“If I know why they are the way they are, then maybe I can learn why I am the way I am,” says Alex Tuchman of her parents. Now that her father, Victor, is on his deathbed, Alex—a strong-headed lawyer, devoted mother, and loving sister—feels she can finally unearth the secrets of who Victor is and what he did over the course of his life and career. (A power-hungry real estate developer, he is, by all accounts, a bad man.) She travels to New Orleans to be with her family, but mostly to interrogate her tight-lipped mother, Barbra.

As Barbra fends off Alex’s unrelenting questions, she reflects on her tumultuous life with Victor. Meanwhile Gary, Alex’s brother, is incommunicado, trying to get his movie career off the ground in Los Angeles. And Gary’s wife, Twyla, is having a nervous breakdown, buying up all the lipstick in drugstores around New Orleans and bursting into crying fits. Dysfunction is at its peak. As family members grapple with Victor’s history, they must figure out a way to move forward—with one another, for themselves, and for the sake of their children.

All This Could Be Yours is a timely, piercing exploration of what it means to be caught in the web of a toxic man who abused his power; it shows how those webs can entangle a family for generations, and what it takes to—maybe, hopefully—break free. With her signature “sparkling prose” (Marie Claire) and incisive wit, Jami Attenberg deftly explores one of the most important subjects of our age. – Ecco

Looking for some other domestic fiction? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Online Reading Challenge – June Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read queer fiction? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters. This national bestseller has won many awards, was featured on many publication lists, and was longlisted for other prizes. With these high accolades, this was an easy queer fiction pick for June.

Here’s a short summary before I discuss my thoughts. Detransition, Baby is the story of Reese and Amy and what they each want out of life. Reese has created the life that she has always dreamed of: a gorgeous apartment in New York City, a job she enjoys, and a loving stable relationship with Amy. As a trans woman, this life is full of things that she never thought herself worthy of, but one thing has always been missing: a child. Just when Amy and Reese start the process to have a child, their relationship explodes. Amy detransitions and become Ames and the life they know is over. Flash forward and neither Ames nor Reese are happy. When Ames’ partner, his boss Katrina, announces that she’s pregnant, Ames realizes that this baby is the way to get Reese back into his life. Ames, Reese, and Katrina start an awkward dance to figure out if this unconventional family will work.

The exploration that the author makes into each characters’ life was eye-opening. Each character is forced to confront their thoughts about sex, motherhood, and gender, to examine the messy corners of what it truly means to be a woman. The author isn’t afraid to discuss the uncomfortable, which I enjoyed. When I started Detransition, Baby, the writing and pacing hooked me. I could tell that the author was sincere in their writing, that nothing was written without a lot of thought, although some sections were a bit wordy. While I loved certain characters, others were unlikeable, which is honestly true of most books. The book’s ending also caught me completely off guard. If you read this book, I would love to know your opinion! Please let me know in the comments.

Next month, we will be reading domestic fiction!

In addition to following the Online Reading Challenge here on our Info Cafe blog, you can join our Online Reading Challenge group on Goodreads and discuss your reads!