May 2026: New format/new genre!
Our May Year in Reading challenge is meant to push you out of your comfort zone a little. Pick up a new genre that you don't usually read, or check out a different format. We've got books available in large print, on audio CD, and digitally (in audio AND e-book) through our apps!
House Of Leaves
Author(s):
Mark Z. Danielewski
Zampano
Description:
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Dan
Look back
Author(s):
Fujimoto, Tatsuki
Kirsch, Alexis,
Description:
"The overly confident Fujino and the shut-in Kyomoto couldn't be more different, but a love of drawing manga brings these two small-town girls together. A poignant story of growing up and moving forward..."--Page 4 of cover.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Fuj
Black Dahlia : murder, monsters, and madness in midcentury Hollywood
Author(s):
Mann, William J.
Bower, Michael,
Description:
The brutal murder of Elizabeth Short, better known as the Black Dahlia, in 1947 has been in the public consciousness for nearly eighty years, yet no serious study of the crime has ever been published. Short has been mischaracterized as a wayward sex worker or vagabond, and, like the seductive femme fatales of film noir, responsible for and perhaps deserving of her fate. William J. Mann, however, is interested in the truth. His extensive research reveals her as a young woman with curiosity and drive, who leveraged what little agency postwar society gave her to explore the world, defying draconian postwar gender expectations to settle down, marry, and have children. It's time to reexamine the woman who became known as the Black Dahlia.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
364.1523 Man
Stronger than
Author(s):
Grimes, Nikki
Lewis, E. B.
Description:
"When [Afro-Indigenous eight-year-old] ] Dante struggles with nightmares, his mother believes learning his family's history will help him cope. The roots on both sides of his family tree run deep, with stories of survival through events Dante's mother calls 'daymares.'Taking discovering his heritage into his own hands, Dante finds out hard truths--but also finds a love that shines through generations,and, finally, the strength to sleep through the night"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Gri
Hello, sunshine
Author(s):
Description:
When Becca Harrington is rejected from every college on her list, she decides to move to L.A. with dreams of becoming a star. After a few months reality sets in, and Becca and her friend Marisol start posting short videos online with the help of neighbor Raj. When the videos catch the attention of a TV producer, will this be her big break?
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC How
The official Netflix cookbook : 70 recipes from your TV to your table
Author(s):
Painter, Anna
Striewski, Beryl,
Description:
"You're settling in for a night of watching the next volume of your favorite show and you're going to need snacks! Netflix: The Official Cookbook offers Netflix-inspired food and drinks to create the best menu to devour along with the latest season of your favorite show. Pair your Netflix home menu of shows, movies, docuseries, and stand-up comedy specials with the perfect snacks, main courses, desserts, and drinks. Each chapter, from TUDUM to Watch Parties, offers delicious recipes based on popular Netflix shows and films. that will give viewers the perfect additions to their Grace & Frankie, Squid Game, Sex Education, and Heartstopper marathons! Prepare a themed meal to enhance your Witcher viewing experience or make Sweet Inspirations based on Nailed It! Prepare to Watch It Again and cook it again!"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
641.5 Pai
Butts : a backstory
Author(s):
Description:
Whether we love them or hate them, think they're sexy, think they're strange, consider them too big, too small, or anywhere in between, humans have a complicated relationship with butts. It is a body part unique to humans, critical to our evolution and survival, and yet it has come to signify so much more: sex, desire, comedy, shame. A woman's butt, in particular, is forever being assessed, criticized, and objectified, from anxious self-examinations trying on jeans in department store dressing rooms to enduring crass remarks while walking down a street or high school hallways. Heather Radke is determined to find out why.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
611.98 Rad
An ancient witch's guide to modern dating
Author(s):
Description:
"Meet Thorn Scarhart, a thirty-nine-year-old witch who's having trouble finding love in the 17th century. Despite the local matchmaker's efforts and Thorn's arsenal of powerful love potions, she has yet to fall in love. After the disappearance of her sister and the loss of her mother, Thorn was too caught up in... well, life, to focus on dating. Now, she fears she may have missed her chance. But, when one of her potion brews backfires spectacularly, Thorn is hurled 350 years into the future, landing in a bustling city where her once-isolated cottage is now a historical museum. While this unexpected leap through time may seem daunting, modern life does have its perks: indoor plumbing, electric kettles, and the world of online dating. At thirty-nine, the odds may not be perfect, but at least they're not impossible. With the help of the museum's new curator--and her charming veterinarian brother--Thorn dives headfirst into the 21st-century dating scene. And as she searches for romance, she might also find herself along the way" -- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Edw
Mysteries of the human body : weird and wonderful anatomy explained
Author(s):
Chowdhury, Azmain,
Nelson, Daniel
Description:
"You know your heart is always beating, your intestines digest your food, and even that your brain is still awake when you're asleep--that's no mystery. But why do we get 'brain freeze' if we eat ice cream too quickly? And why on earth do we get butterflies in our stomach when we're nervous? And is it true we can squirt milk from our eyes? This book focuses on the bizarre things all of our bodies do--including things we don't understand (looking at you, appendix)"--Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J 612 Cho
The Dallergut Dream Department store : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
In a mysterious town hidden in our collective subconscious there's a department store that sells dreams. Day and night, visitors both human and animal shuffle in to purchase their latest adventure. Each floor specializes in a specific type of dream: childhood memories, food dreams, ice skating, dreams of stardom. Flying dreams are almost always sold out. Some seek dreams of loved ones who have died. For Penny, an enthusiastic new hire, working at Dallergut is the opportunity of a lifetime. As she uncovers the workings of this whimsical world, she bonds with a cast of unforgettable characters, including Dallergut, the flamboyant and wise owner, Babynap Rockabye, a famous dream designer, Maxim, a nightmare producer, and the many customers who dream to heal, dream to grow, and dream to flourish. 12/2
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Yi
Into the planet : my life as a cave diver
Author(s):
Description:
From one of the world's most renowned cave divers comes a firsthand account of exploring the earth's final frontier: the hidden depths of our oceans and the sunken caves inside our planet. Jill Heinerth--the first person in history to dive deep into an Antarctic iceberg and leader of a team that discovered the ancient watery remains of Mayan civilizations--has descended farther into the inner depths of the planet than any other woman. This book blends science, adventure, and memoir to bring listeners face-to-face with the terror and beauty of earth's remaining unknowns and the extremes of human capability.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
796.525 Hei
The edible woman
Author(s):
Description:
A humorous, ironic, disturbing, and parabolic novel features a woman who, after her engagement to be wed, first loses her appetite and then becomes obsessed with the idea that she herself is being eaten.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Atw
A history of the Second World War in 100 maps
Author(s):
Description:
This book offers a selection of 100 maps, all presented in full color, that shaped the course of World War II. Alongside the maps, historian Jeremy Black offers context and explanations. World War II was a uniquely difficult war to map: it was fought across an unprecedented geographical range, through the air as well as by land and sea, and at a faster tempo than any previous conflict. Creating maps for the military to use as tools, as well as for governments and others to use in spreading their messages about the war, presented new challenges to mapmakers. The development of new technologies such as aerial photography and all-weather instrument flying aided their efforts, and the scale of map production during the war was astonishing. The maps in this book are drawn from the British Library's collections as well as other sources across the world and organized thematically. In addition to military operations, tactics, and strategy on all sides, the maps illustrate the geopolitical context for war as well as reporting and propaganda efforts by the Allies and the Axis countries during and after the war.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
940.53 Bla
Cosmic crystals : rituals and meditations for connecting with lunar energy
Author(s):
Description:
Living in sync with the rhythm of the lunar cycle is a powerful way to stay aligned to universal energy. Crystals and moon magic have been used together to this aim for centuries. Learn how to get the most potency out of your stones by working with the phases and signs of the moon to energize and amplify the power of your crystals. Learn crystal meditations and rituals for each moon phase, as well as which crystals are most potent during New Moons, Full Moons, and other lunar events. See how to combine the power of lunar energy and healing crystals to create sacred space, set intentions, and manifest magic and abundance in your life.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
133.2548 Lea
Running in the family
Author(s):
Description:
Running in the Family is a 1982 memoir by Michael Ondaatje that blends fact and fiction to explore his eccentric Dutch-Ceylonese family history in colonial Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). The book is a fragmented, poetic journey through memory, recounting the wild lives of his parents and grandparents, characterized by drinking, gambling, and romance, as Ondaatje reconstructs his past after leaving the island as a child. It's celebrated for its beautiful prose and unique narrative style, which blurs the lines between autobiography, travelogue, and mythology.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
B Ond
Gideon the ninth
Author(s):
Muir, Tamsyn
Quirk, Moira,
Description:
Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die. Of course, some things are better left dead.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Mui
Paying the land
Author(s):
Description:
The Dene have lived in the Mackenzie River Valley since time immemorial, by their account. To the Dene, the land owns them, not the other way around, and it is central to their livelihood and very way of being. But the subarctic Canadian Northwest Territories are home to valuable resources, including oil, gas, and diamonds. With mining came jobs and investment, but also road-building, pipelines, and toxic waste, which scarred the landscape, and alcohol, drugs, and debt, which deformed a way of life. Here Joe Sacco travels the frozen North to reveal a people in conflict over the costs and benefits of development. The mining boom is only the latest assault on indigenous culture: Sacco recounts the shattering impact of a residential school system that aimed to "remove the Indian from the child"; the destructive process that drove the Dene from the bush into settlements and turned them into wage laborers; the government land claims stacked against the Dene Nation; and their uphill efforts to revive a wounded culture. Paying the Land lends an ear to trappers and chiefs, activists and priests, to tell a sweeping story about money, dependency, loss, and culture--recounted in visual detail.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
971.2 Sac
Richard Scarry's bedtime stories.
Author(s):
Description:
A collection of five stories featuring familiar characters such as Lowly Worm and Uncle Willy.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Sca
The man and the fox
Author(s):
Description:
Relates how a clever fox outwits the man who set a trap for him by promising him a chicken.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
E Sha
Serafina and the black cloak
Author(s):
Description:
In 1899, a twelve-year-old rat catcher on North Carolina's Biltmore estate teams up with the estate owner's young nephew to battle a great evil and, in the process, unlocks the puzzle of her past.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Bea
Victim 2117
Author(s):
Adler-Olsen, Jussi
Frost, William,
Description:
"The newspaper refers to her only as Victim 2117-the two thousand one hundred and seventeenth refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and the death sets off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen's cold cases division led by Detective Carl Mørck, into a deeply dangerous-and deeply personal-case. A case that not only reveals dark secrets about the past, but has deadly implications for the future. For troubled Danish teen Alex, whose identity is hidden behind his computer screen, the death of Victim 2117 becomes a symbol of everything he resents and the perfect excuse to unleash his murderous impulses in real life. For Ghallib, one the most brutal tormentors from Abu Ghraib-Saddam Hussein's infamous prison-the death of Victim 2117 was the first step in a terrorist plot years in the making. And for Department Q's Assad, Victim 2117 is a link to his buried past-and the family he assumed was long dead. With the help of the Department Q squad-Carl, Rose, and Gordon-Assad must finally confront painful memories from his years in the Middle East in order to find and capture Ghallib. But with the clock ticking down to Alex's first kill and Ghallib's devastating attack, the thinly spread Department Q will need to stay one step ahead of their most lethal adversary yet if they are to prevent the loss of thousands of innocent lives"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Adl
Lucy undying : a Dracula novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Her name was written in the pages of someone else's story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula's first victims. But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula's clutches--and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants. Her undead life takes an unexpected turn in twenty-first-century London, when she meets another woman, Iris, who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris's family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they'll do anything to stay in power. Lucy has long believed she would never love again. Yet she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris while Iris is equally mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by outside forces. Iris's mother won't let go of her without a fight, and Lucy's past still has fangs: Dracula is on the prowl once more. Lucy Westenra has been a tragically murdered teen, a lonesome adventurer, and a fearsome hunter, but happiness has always eluded her. Can she find the strength to destroy Dracula once and for all, or will her heart once again be her undoing?" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Whi
