Staff Picks

  • Staff Pick: The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill

    October 23, 2025Staff Pick: The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill
    Adam Nevill, author of the uniquely disturbing The House of Small Shadows has written many horror stories, of which I have enjoyed almost all (mostly his older ones), A couple have been made into movies, but as I find most of the time, the books were much better, The Ritual being one example.   I actually traded ...
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  • Staff Pick: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology

    October 16, 2025Staff Pick: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
    Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology is the perfect read for spooky season! This chilling collection is haunting, eerie, and unsettling in all the best ways. More than once, I had to put it down just to catch my breath—and a few times I even caught myself covering my mouth to keep ...
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  • Spooky Staff Picks

    October 8, 2025
    It’s spooky season, and PFL staff love a creepy read!  Browse the list for some of our newest favorites and current thrills.   The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez “House of Leaves, if it was set in a Florida Swamp.” Florida by Lauren Groff “Every night I brace myself for another unsettling story.” Starling House by Alix E. Harrow Magpie Murders by Anthony ...
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  • Staff Pick: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

    September 25, 2025Staff Pick: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
    I recently finished Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, which is a sideways sort of murder mystery with a decidedly animal liberationist flair. Since the main character is a reclusive older woman living alone in a cabin in the Polish forests, it also gets points as a major source of ...
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  • Staff Picks: Compass South By Hope Larson & Rebecca Mock

    September 17, 2025Staff Picks: Compass South By Hope Larson & Rebecca Mock
    Compass South is a whirlwind graphic novel following the adventures of self-proclaimed orphans Alex and Cleo. The scrappy yet charming twins hatch a plot to impersonate the lost heirs to the Kimball company fortune and rob Mr. Kimball for all he’s worth. Unfortunately, the plot is almost immediately spoiled when the two run into another ...
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  • Staff Picks: Extinction by Douglas Preston

    September 10, 2025Staff Picks: Extinction by Douglas Preston
    Extinction by Douglas Preston is one of last summers big thrillers. It’s a great mix of murder mystery/thriller/science fiction set at a resort featuring “de-extincted” woolly mammoth and other prehistoric mega fauna. It shares the fascinating ethical conundrums found in Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park and feels ready-made for its own movie adaptation.  This title was on ...
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  • Staff Picks: The Ghost Trap by K. Stephens

    August 27, 2025Staff Picks: The Ghost Trap by K. Stephens
    The Ghost Trap is part of the OystHers summer book club that includes all books by Maine women authors. This fiction book perfectly captures the lobstering community of Rockland and Owls Head, Maine and tells a sad but beautiful story of one family and their very real struggle of that life.  -Samantha, Development Director
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  • Staff Picks: The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass

    August 21, 2025Staff Picks: The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass
    While the book is written for a middle school aged person, I found the audio version to be very entertaining. Particularly because a cat is one of the featured characters. The narrators really made the book come alive for me. This is why I love audio books; because good narration adds so much to it. I ...
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  • Staff Picks: The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

    August 6, 2025Staff Picks: The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
    The Bone Shard Daughter is a YA fantasy novel with an east, south-east Asian style culture set in a string of floating islands drifting around in “The Endless Sea”. The emperor of these floating islands keeps the art of bone shard magic (a magic used to animate constructs made from dead flesh using a small ...
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  • Staff Picks: The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer

    July 29, 2025Staff Picks: The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer
    A middle grade book that I’ve been meaning to read for years, and I truly couldn’t put down. It’s a story about a newly trained bard who is kidnapped with his sister and has to learn to survive amidst bloodthirsty Vikings, frost giants, and more. It’s a really great suggestion for someone looking for a ...
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News & Updates

  • October 8, 2025
    Spooky Staff Picks

    It’s spooky season, and PFL staff love a creepy read!&n…