Staff Picks

  • Staff Picks: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

    September 9, 2026Staff Picks: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
    There’s a reason this series has a cult following.   Carl is outside in subzero weather, trying to persuade his ex-girlfriend’s cat to come in, when It happens – aliens annex the Earth, kill almost everyone, take all of Earth’s resources, and chase the survivors into the Dungeon.  Carl (in his boxers) and the reigning Persian Tortoiseshell ...
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  • Hannah’s Reading Streak: Summer

    August 19, 2026Hannah's Reading Streak: Summer
    Hannah has been on a great reading streak this summer and wanted to share her favorite titles from the last few months:   Everything Under by Daisy Johnson A modern retelling of the Oedipus myth.  This is a strange and mythical story full of strange and beautiful language.  Unsettling and memorable and rich.   Drive Your Plow Over the Bones ...
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  • Staff Pick: Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Dias

    August 13, 2026Staff Pick: Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Dias
    Ordinary Girls is a coming of age memoir that takes place in the housing projects (and streets) of Miami Beach. So many societal and cultural issues are packed into this book. Mental health, poverty, queerness, and racism are all presented through the appalling childhood of Jaquira and her family and friends. This book is not for the ...
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  • Staff Pick: The Children by Melissa Albert

    July 30, 2026Staff Pick: The Children by Melissa Albert
    Guinevere and Ennis Sharpe live a storybook childhood with their author mother and actor father in a beloved old farmhouse in the woods of Vermont, surrounded by nature, artists, and their own imaginations.  Or at least that’s how the outside world sees it. In reality, the children don’t go to school, are often hungry, and ...
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  • Aurora’s Anticipated New Fiction: July

    July 23, 2026Aurora's Anticipated New Fiction: July
    Each month, Reference Librarian Aurora gives a glimpse of a few new titles she is most looking forward to.  Read on for July’s picks and don’t forget to place a hold on your favorites!   We’re Having Much More Fun: Punk Archives for the Present from CBGB to Gilman and Beyond edited by Judith A. Peraino and Tom ...
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  • Staff Pick: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    July 15, 2026Staff Pick: Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    This coming of age story follows a 15 year-old Nigerian Igbo teenager, Kambili, as she struggles with an overpowering abusive father and an oppressive Catholic upbringing. The story explores a post Colonial Nigeria where the clashes of Igbo traditions bump up against new Christian beliefs for Kambili and her brother Jaja. After spending time with ...
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  • What We’re Reading: Summer Reading Edition

    June 25, 2026What We're Reading: Summer Reading Edition
    Summer Reading is here!  Check our what PFL staff is reading to complete their Bingo sheets and Reading Tickets! Place a title on hold by clicking the link provided and don’t forget to register for Summer Reading!   Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Children by Melissa Albert Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin The Nantucket Reader by Susan Beegel The ...
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  • Staff Picks: Go Gentle by Maria Semple

    June 17, 2026Staff Picks: Go Gentle by Maria Semple
    Middle ages divorcee Adora Hazzard has it all; a best selling philosophy book and and a cushy job as a personal philosopher to a wealthy family, a smart (and smart alek) teenage daughter, a coven of other divorcees to share the second half of her life, and the wisdom and attitudes of the stoics to ...
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  • Aurora’s Anticipated New Nonfiction May 2026

    May 27, 2026Aurora's Anticipated New Nonfiction May 2026
    Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl by Mandy-Suzanne Wong If I were to distill the lesson of novelist Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s essay collection Daughter of Mother-of-Pearl into a single sentence, that sentence would be: snails are someones, too! The same goes for crabs, jellyfish, starfish, oysters, mussels—Wong excludes no one, no matter how eyeless or slimy. Her essays on undersea invertebrates ...
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  • Staff Pick: The Witches: Salem,1692 by Stacy Schiff

    May 18, 2026
    A thorough and engaging historical account exploring the mass hysteria, accusations, and executions that took place during the witch trials of 1692. In The Witches, Schiff examines all aspects of the community at that time, including the social, political, and religious tensions of Puritan New England. -Samantha, Development
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