New Year, New Reads Staff Picks (1/30/24)

In celebration of a new year, we’re getting out of our comfort zones and picking up books outside of the genres we normally read!

AMANDA’S PICK: THE WEDDING PEOPLE BY ALISON ESPACH

This book has been getting so much in-house love that I can’t wait to dive in. It introduces a woman who gets the last room in a hotel where all other rooms are booked for a wedding. The bride thought she had accounted for every potential detail but didn’t account for a stranger in their midst, which makes it that much more surprising when the women can’t stop confiding in each other. It’s a fresh, wryly funny and big-hearted story about taking stock of your life at the middle of it and starting anew that will make the perfect literary beach read for fans of Fleishman is in Trouble and Meg Wolitzer.

Available for download on Edelweiss and NetGalley. LibraryReads votes due by June 1st.

EMILY’S PICK: CUNNING FOLK: LIFE IN THE ERA OF PRACTICAL MAGIC BY TABITHA STANMORE

I don’t often read a lot of nonfiction, but this one piqued my interest. A charming, heavily researched history of cunning folk: practitioners of “service magic” in medieval Europe. Cunning folk were essential to everyday life and were a resource used to navigate life’s many challenges, from finding lost items to falling in love to seizing the throne, and everything in between. CUNNING FOLK is an immersive reconstruction of a bygone world, and a thought-provoking commentary on the beauty and bafflement of being human. While this will certainly appeal to fans of medieval history and nonfiction, the writing is just as accessible and engaging as that in many of my favorite fantasy novels, and I’d recommend this to any reader looking for a uniquely magical book.

Available for download on Edelweiss and NetGalley. LibraryReads votes due by April 1st.

MICHELLE’S PICK: FIRST LIGHT BY LIZ KERIN

This riveting sequel to NIGHT’S EDGE is about seizing a brighter future by confronting the shadows of our past. It’s been nine months since the catastrophe in Tucson sent Mia fleeing from her home. But she’s not running away from the darkness—she’s running toward it, obsessively pursuing the man who gave her mother a thirst for blood and destroyed their lives. But when Mia finds the monsters she’s been hunting and infiltrates a secret network of fugitives, she discovers she might have been their prey all along. To escape their clutches, she’ll have to reckon with her mother’s harrowing past and confront a painful truth: that they might be more alike than she ever imagined. Horror fans looking for their next frightful fix will delight in this, but FIRST LIGHT is also perfect for readers who love women’s fiction and domestic suspense. Fans of THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET and EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE will especially enjoy this one!

Available for download on Edelweiss and NetGalley. LibraryReads votes due by March 1st.