LibGuides: What to Read Next?: Suggested Reading from Library Staff

July Staff Picks

Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home by Ilona Bray; Ann O'Connell
ISBN: 9781413332421

Publication Date: 2025-03-25

This book provides everything the first-time home buyer needs to: research the local market and listings; choose a house, condo, co-op or townhouse; create a realistic budget; qualify for an affordable loan; borrow a down payment from friends or family;get protection with inspections and insurance; and negotiate and close the deal successfully. This book includes insights from numerous real estate professionals-agents, attorneys, mortgage specialists, a home inspector, and more. Also included are the real-life stories from more than 20 first-time homebuyers.
On the Hippie Trail by Rick Steves
ISBN: 9781641716437

Publication Date: 2025-02-04

Stow away with Rick Steves for a glimpse into the unforgettable moments, misadventures, and memories of his 1978 journey on the legendary Hippie Trail.
Salsa Daddy: a Cookbook by Rick Martínez
ISBN: 9780593798935

Publication Date: 2025-04-29

From the author of Mi Cocina comes a comprehensive (and unbelievably delicous) cookbook that focuses on one of the main pillars of Mexican cuisine: salsas. Featuring 75 salsas and 25 full meal recipes, this cookbook will have you whipping up fresh, enticing spreads in no time.
When Southern Women Cook by Morgan Boiling (Editor); Toni Tipton-Martin (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781954210493

Publication Date: 2024-11-12

When Southern Women Cook showcases the hard work, hospitality, and creativity of women who have given soul to Southern cooking from the start. Every page amplifies their contributions, from the enslaved cooks making foundational food at Monticello to Mexican Americans accessing sweet memories with colorful conchas today.
Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn
ISBN: 9780593718339

Publication Date: 2025-03-18

A darkly humorous and tantalizing pandemic-ridden portrait of sex, divorce, and midlife, about a Brooklynite who Frankensteins the perfect lover.
The Baby Dragon Cafe by A. T. Qureshi
ISBN: 9780008727666

Publication Date: 2025-01-16

When Saphira opens her cafe welcoming pet baby dragons, she isn’t expecting it to be quite so hard to keep the fires burning. But her young dragon patrons keep incinerating her furniture, which means selling coffee isn’t covering all her costs. Local heart-throb Aiden is a gardener, though his disobedient baby dragon is a major distraction from his beloved plants. However, Saphira’s café gives him an idea – he’ll ask Saphira to train his dragon, and pay her enough to keep the cafe afloat.
The Favorites by Layne Fargo
ISBN: 9780593732045

Publication Date: 2025-01-14

She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family's support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating-and each other-to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and rollercoaster relationship.
Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen
ISBN: 9780593320945

Publication Date: 2025-05-13

"The afternoon of September first, dishwater-gray and rainy, a man named Dale Figgo picked up a hitchhiker on Gus Grissom Boulevard in Tangelo Falls, Florida. The hitchhiker, who reminded Figgo of Danny DeVito, asked for a lift to the interstate. Figgo said he'd take him there after finishing an errand." Thus begins Fever Beach.
First-Time Caller by B. K. Borison
ISBN: 9780593641194

Publication Date: 2025-02-11

Aiden Valentine has a secret: he's fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore's romance hotline, that's a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls into the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight. Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job, an incredible family, and a smart, if slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life-or lack thereof-she begins to question if she's as happy as she thought.
The Geographer's Map to Romance by India Holton
ISBN: 9780593641477

Publication Date: 2025-04-08

Geography professors in a failed marriage of convenience inconveniently reconnect for an emergency mission in this swoony historical-fantasy rom-com. Professor Elodie Tarrant is an expert in magic disasters. Nothing fazes her-except her own personal disaster, that is: Professor Gabriel Tarrant, the grumpy, unfriendly man she married for convenience a year ago, whom she secretly loves. Gabriel is also an expert in magic disasters. And nothing fazes him either-except the walking, talking tornado that is his wife.
Great Big Beautiful Life: Reese's Book Club by Emily Henry
ISBN: 9780593441299

Publication Date: 2025-04-22

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.
Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto
ISBN: 9781368112802

Publication Date: 2025-06-03

As the right hand of her father's hedge fund company, Fa Mulan knows what it takes to succeed as a woman in a man's world: work twice as hard, be twice as smart, and burp twice as loud as any of the other finance bros she works with. So when her father unexpectedly falls ill in the middle of a critical acquisition, she is determined to see it through. There's just one hitch: the family company in question is known for its ultra masculine whiskey brand, and the brood of old-fashioned aunts, uncles, and cousins who run it-lead by the dedicated but overworked Shang-will only trust Mulan's father, Fa Zhou, with the future of their business.
This Is Not a Game by Kelly Mullen
ISBN: 9780593854471

Publication Date: 2025-04-08

Widow Mimi lives on idyllic Mackinac Island where cars are not allowed and a Gibson with three onions at the witching hour is compulsory. Her granddaughter, Addie, is getting over the heartbreak of her fiancé, Brian, dumping her and cutting her out of the deal for the brilliantly successful video game, Murderscape, they invented together (with Addie doing most of the heavy lifting). Soon Mimi and Addie are caught in a dangerous game, relying on their skills (Mimi loves a crossword puzzle, and Addie is a brilliant game designer, after all) to narrow down the suspects. When another body turns up, the sleuthing pair realize someone else is playing a deadly game, and they might not survive the night.
The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi
ISBN: 9780316572514

Publication Date: 2025-03-18

Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She's built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time-to any point in the traveler's lifetime-and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it's not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the past. They can only observe.
Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler
ISBN: 9780374615369

Publication Date: 2025-04-01

In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Meanwhile, on the fringes of a Western Europe that has renounced human governance in favor of ostensibly more efficient, objective, and peaceful AI Prime Ministers, an experimental artificial mind is malfunctioning, threatening to set off a chain of events that may spell the end of the Western world.
If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal by Justin Gregg
ISBN: 9780316388061

Publication Date: 2022-08-09

If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal overturns everything we thought we knew about human intelligence, and asks the question: would humans be better off as narwhals? Or some other, less brainy species? There's a good argument to be made that humans might be a less successful animal species precisely because of our amazing, complex intelligence.
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
ISBN: 9781501134616

Publication Date: 2019-02-12

Draws on twenty years of research, recently declassified files, and interviews with survivors in an account of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster that also reveals how propaganda and secrets have created additional dangers.
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
ISBN: 9780804190114

Publication Date: 2017-02-28

The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. [The author believes that] today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine, February - December 2022 by John S. Harrel
ISBN: 9781399031769

Publication Date: 2024-01-28

Clear narrative of the war from the start of the invasion to the end of 2022. Expert, well-informed analysis from former US army officer who helped train Ukrainian army and previously commanded troops on UN operations. Explains Russia's objectives and the strategic decisions as well as the reasons for their failure. Explains the Ukrainian defensive response and the reasons for their successes (so far), including the role played by Western military aid.
Animal Farm And 1984 by George. Orwell
ISBN: 9780151010264

Publication Date: 2003-06-01

Out of their cleverness, the pigs Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball emerge as leaders of the new community in a subtle evolution that proves disastrous. The climax is the brutal betrayal of the faithful horse Boxer, when totalitarian rule is re-established with the bloodstained postscript to the founding slogan: but some animals are more equal than others. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
The Cider House Rules by John Irving
ISBN: 9780688030360

Publication Date: 1985-06-01

Set in the pre– and post–World War II era, the story tells of a young man named Homer Wells growing up in an orphanage under the guidance of Dr. Wilbur Larch, an obstetrician and abortion provider. It shows Homer's coming of age as he eventually sets off on his own.
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
ISBN: 9780735223523

Publication Date: 2018-06-19

In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him.
The Husbands: a Read with Jenna Pick by Holly Gramazio
ISBN: 9780385550611

Publication Date: 2024-04-02

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There's only one problem--she's not married. She's never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they've been together for years.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
ISBN: 9780778311973

Publication Date: 2022-02-22

Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary's fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
ISBN: 9780593537619

Publication Date: 2024-01-23

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother's plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father's life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past.
One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig
ISBN: 9780316312486

Publication Date: 2022-09-27

Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom she calls home--she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets. But nothing comes for free, especially magic. When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it.
The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi
ISBN: 9780778386148

Publication Date: 2023-03-28

After being tasked with her first major project for the master perfumer, Radha travels to India, enlisting the help of her sisters and the courtesans of Agra, but discovers that the son she gave up years earlier is heading to locate her in Paris--threatening her marriage and carefully managed world.
The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
ISBN: 9781668023938

Publication Date: 2024-05-07

Detective Chelsey Calhoun's life is turned upside down when she gets the call Ellie Black, a girl who disappeared years earlier, has resurfaced in the woods of Washington state--but Ellie's reappearance leaves Chelsey with more questions than answers.
The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne
ISBN: 9780316539883

Publication Date: 2021-05-04

century has passed since the gods fought and drove themselves to extinction. Now only their bones remain, promising great power to those brave enough to seek them out. As whispers of war echo cross the land of Vigrið, fate follows in the footsteps of three warriors: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman pursuing battle fame and a thrall seeking vengeance among the mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn. All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods.
Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole
ISBN: 9781668085721

Publication Date: 2024-10-08

Diem Bellator yearns to escape her poor village. Her mother's sudden disappearance--and the discovery of a dangerous secret about her past--offer Diem an unexpected opportunity to enter the dark world of Descended royalty and unlock a web of mysteries left behind by her mother.
The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
ISBN: 9780679406419

Publication Date: 1996-11-19

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek's harrowing story of survival is woven into the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century's grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors.
Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe
ISBN: 9780593160299

Publication Date: 2021-11-02

Persephone, young goddess of spring, is new to Olympus. Her mother, Demeter, has raised her in the mortal realm, but after Persephone promises to train as a sacred virgin, she's allowed to live in the fast-moving, glamorous world of the gods.
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
ISBN: 9781250290281

Publication Date: 2024-06-04

To fix the world they must first break it further. Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human well-being is having to find a new purpose. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming.
Influencer by Adam Cesare
ISBN: 9781454954248

Publication Date: 2024-10-01

Aaron Fortin is new in town. He drives a brand-new Acura—a gift from his parents for uprooting him in the middle of senior year. Crystal Giordano carpools to the same school in her friend Trevor’s beat-up van. When Aaron Fortin sits at their lunch table, Crystal can see he’s not who he says he is. But how big of a fraud is Aaron Fortin?
Sunrise on the Reaping (a Hunger Games Novel) by Suzanne Collins
ISBN: 9781546171461

Publication Date: 2025-03-18

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.
Remarkable Women by Eric Huang; Sam Caldwell (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9780711292895

Publication Date: 2025-01-28

Misconceptions about women from the past and present are everywhere, but none of them are true! In Oh No They Didn't: Remarkable Women myths are busted about over 50 remarkable women from politicians to legends, performers, activists, scientists, mathematicians, creatives, and more.
Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness; Tim Miller (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781536235937

Publication Date: 2024-09-03

When Principal Wombat makes monitor lizards Zeke, Daniel, and Alicia hall monitors, Zeke gives up on popularity at his new school. Brought in as part of a district blending program, the monitor lizards were mostly ignored before. Reptiles aren't bullied any more than other students, but they do stick out among zebras, ostriches, and elk. Why would Principal Wombat make them hall monitors?
How to Talk to Your Succulent by Zoe Persico
ISBN: 9781774883129

Publication Date: 2025-04-01

Eleven-year-old Adara and her dad are moving from California to the cold and flat lands of Michigan . . . and it sucks. After Mom's recent passing, it seems way too soon. Talking to Dad has always been harder than with Mom, but now it's like walking around eggshells. And why did Dad bring so many of Mom's houseplants across the country? Her mother might have been called the Plant Whisperer back home, but Adara is beginning to wonder if there is something more to it.

Regional Reads Summer 2025

Regional Reads Summer 2025

This column features recent and forthcoming titles from southeastern authors or books set in the region. Place any of these titles on hold online or call any Henderson County Library for assistance.

Several popular regional authors have new titles publishing this summer, perfect for your next beach read.

Where the Rivers Merge by Mary Alice Monroe is set in Lowcountry South Carolina and follows a woman who fights against her son to save the family estate that has been held for generations.

Beach House Rules by Kristy Woodson Harvey is a story about a mother and daughter thrown into a difficult situation when they are locked out of their house by the FBI and end up staying in a beachfront home with a group of single mothers.

That Last Carolina Summer, the upcoming book from Karen White, is a standalone novel about a woman who returns home to Charleston as an adult to care for an ailing mother and is faced with some unresolved issues from her past.

After a teenage romance that ended in heartbreak, two adults are now running against each other for the office of Governor of Virginia in The Summer We Ran by Audrey Ingram.

For a fun sibling adventure story, check out Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson. Madeline and her mom have lived alone on their farm in Tennessee for 20 years until Reuben shows up and tells Maddie they have the same dad. Maddie decides to tag along on a road trip to find their other siblings.

Fans of Civil War historical fiction will be interested in Measure of Devotion by North Carolina author Nell Joslin. This novel follows a mother who travels from South Carolina to Tennessee to care for her son who was injured during the Civil War after enlisting against his parents’ wishes.

The River Knows Your Name by Kelly Mustian is set in both Mississippi and North Carolina where two young sisters discover that one of them was adopted under mysterious circumstances.

For an interesting nonfiction read, former curator at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Jennifer Dasal, shares an engaging history of women artists in The Club: Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris.

Happy Reading!

Lisa Donaldson