A curated booklist by your favorite SPL librarians!
Tuesday Mooney Read-alikes
Literary Fiction | Nonfiction | Sci-fi and Fantasy
Literary Fiction
And Then the Gray Heaven by RE Katz
An ode to queer love and found family, And Then the Gray Heaven follows the journey of Jules, who is trans and nonbinary, after the shocking and sudden passing of their partner, B. To process their grief and honor B’s life, Jules and new friend Theo embark on a road trip to spread B’s ashes where they belong, rather than where B’s uncaring family would place them. |
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Bestiary by K-Ming Chang
An award-winning, spellbinding debut novel interspersed with Taiwanese mythology and magical realism. A young girl called Daughter mysteriously awakens with a tiger tail. Soon after, letters from her grandmother appear through holes in her front yard. Meanwhile, Daughter experiences a queer awakening upon the arrival of a young girl who also has mystical powers. |
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Bird Summons by Leila Aboulela
A group of friends from a Muslim Women’s group escape their suffocating lives when they road trip through the Scottish Highlands. Along the way, they encounter the Hoopoe, a sacred bird from Muslim and Celtic literature, and are inspired to reevaluate their life paths in this insightful, richly detailed novel by award-winning author, Leila Aboulela. |
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The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
A thrilling tale of adventure and dark family history by the critically acclaimed author of The Book of M. Cartographer Nell Young discovers that an exceedingly rare map in her late father’s possession holds deadly secrets. Charting into unknown territory, Nell finds herself on a dangerous path of mysteries in this compelling, engrossing tale. |
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Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Eleanor Oliphant will tell you she's completely fine, never mind her aversion to social interactions or her refusal to consume anything other than vodka and frozen pizza on the weekends. But Eleanor is shoved out of her triple-padded comfort zone and down a path of self-discovery when she and a coworker form an unexpected friendship with an elderly gentleman. |
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Hello, Sunshine by Laura Dave
Sunshine Mackenzie, a bestselling cookbook author and viral culinary sensation, has her life flipped upside down after an online hacker reveals her success was built on lies. The backlash is swift and Sunshine's left with no choice but moving into her childhood home with her estranged sister. But rebuilding her life from the ground up might be exactly what's needed to live her best life. |
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The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell
A winning debut novel about the surviving heir of the Brontë dynasty who receives a treasure hunt from her eccentric father upon his death, supposedly leading to a secret literary estate. After enrolling at Oxford University, Samantha Whipple keeps finding long lost literary relics that provide clues to the rumored hidden trove of Brontë treasures. But does the treasure truly exist, and can Samantha discover it before the quest drives her mad? |
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Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Unemployed web designer Clay Jannon receives a job offer to work at Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore; the only catch is that he must promise never to look inside the books intended for the members-only book club. Unable to keep his curiosity at bay, Clay eventually cracks open one of the restricted tomes, and is soon chasing down a global conspiracy and cracking complex codes on an epic adventure. |
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Skye Falling by Mia McKenzie
Forty-year-old Skye is fine living out of her suitcase and avoiding serious relationships, but responsibility catches up with her when a preteen girl claims she was born from an egg Skye donated years before. To make matters worse, the girl’s aunt happens to be a woman Skye unsuccessfully tried to go out with. Meanwhile, her family is trying to reconnect, too. But is she ready to put some roots down and open her heart to second chances? |
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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
In this award-winning bestseller, childhood friends Sam and Sadie have a chance encounter on a Cambridge subway stop. Picking up where they left off, the duo design a video game that becomes an overnight sensation, plunging them into fame and riches. But with success comes challenges around identity, disability, failure, and friendship. |
Nonfiction
Chasing the Thrill: Obsession, Death, and Glory in America's Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt by Daniel Barbarisi
A thrilling first-person account of the decade-long treasure hunt sparked by art dealer Forest Fenn in 2010. After learning he would soon pass away, Fenn hid a treasure trove of jewels and gold in a remote forest and published a poem riddled with clues about the treasure’s location. Though Fenn survived his diagnosis, his treasure hunt lived on and resulted in three fatalities. |
Sci-fi and Fantasy
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
Walking home from a late shift, April May bumps into a 10-foot-tall statue of a Transformer-samurai hybrid that seemingly appeared out of thin air. After her video of the “Carl” statue goes viral, more Carls are discovered all over the world, placing April center stage over their mysterious appearances as she quests to answer what they are and why they’re here. |
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Cross Talk by Connie Willis
A smart, quirky novel that’s as comical as it is chilling. In the near future, romantic partners are undergoing an outpatient procedure meant to improve their empathy. But when Briddey Flannigan undergoes the process, rather than connecting with her boyfriend, she becomes telepathically linked to a total stranger. Could things get any worse? |
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Finna by Nino Cipri
An elderly customer at an Ikea-type store falls into a different dimension, tasking two under-paid employees with searching through the multiverse to retrieve her and “save the bottom line.” To make matters worse, the employees, Ava and Jules, have just broken up. Now they’re stuck battling interdimensional monsters and their growing resentment for each other while time is running out to save the missing granny. |
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The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Uptight, but kindhearted government worker, Linus Baker, is sent on assignment to survey the care of six extraordinary, misfit children at their group home on a small, secluded island. Linus soon finds himself warming to these unusual children and their mysterious male caretaker, but can he break tradition to protect the fate of their home, and maybe even find his place in it? |
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Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
To escape eternal damnation, cursed violinist Shizuka Satomi makes a desperate deal with the literal devil to entice seven violin prodigies to sell their souls in exchange for greatness. The sixth soul, a young transgender runaway, is within Shizuka’s reach when she encounters Lan Tran, a retired starship captain and mother with kind eyes, who instills hope in Shizuka and causes her to rethink her destiny. |
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