Discover monthly book recommendations for adults, teens, and children. Scroll down or jump to each section for descriptions, page counts, subject and reading level information, teaching & discussion guides, as well as links to check out titles for use in your own DIY Book Club. You can instantly borrow digital copies through Hoopla.
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Have your own book in mind? No problem. We put together a list of general questions that will fit just about any book. Click here for a general discussion guide.
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Adult Fiction
Find monthly adult fiction titles that our librarians recommend for discussion:
The Alice Network
Bad Ideas
Missy Marston
Trudy works nights in a linen factory, avoiding romance and sharing the care of her four-year-old niece with Trudy’s mother, Claire. Claire still pines for Trudy’s father, a St. Lawrence Seaway construction worker who left her twenty years ago. Claire believes in true love. Trudy does not. She’s keeping herself to herself. But when Jules Tremblay, aspiring daredevil, walks into the Jubilee restaurant, Trudy’s a goner.
Adult Nonfiction
Find monthly adult nonfiction titles that our librarians recommend for discussion:
All Creatures Great and Small
James Herriot
Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world’s most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients. For over forty years, generations of readers have thrilled to Herriot’s marvelous tales, deep love of life, and extraordinary storytelling abilities. For decades, Herriot roamed the remote, beautiful Yorkshire Dales, treating every patient that came his way from smallest to largest, and observing animals and humans alike with his keen, loving eye.
Subjects: Veterinarians, England, Biography
Page count: 440
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I Contain Multitudes
Ed Yong
This book lets us peer into the world of microbes — not as germs to be eradicated, but as invaluable parts of our lives — allowing us to see how ubiquitous and vital microbes are: they sculpt our organs, defend us from disease, break down our food, educate our immune systems, guide our behavior, bombard our genomes with their genes, and grant us incredible abilities.
Subjects: Human body, Microbiology, Microorganisms
Page count: 368
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YA Books
Find monthly teen-friendly titles that our librarians recommend for discussion:
The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Leslye Walton
Born with bird wings, Ava Lavender is well aware that love has long made fools of her family. When pious Nathaniel Sorrows mistakes her bird wings for angel wings, 16-year-old Ava faces the man’s growing obsession, which comes to a head with the rain and feathers that fly through the air during a nighttime summer solstice celebration.
Subjects: Teenage Girls, Fantasy
Page count: 320
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The Poet X
Elizabeth Acevedo
Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
Subjects: Poets, Harlem
Page Count: 384
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Children Books
Find monthly child-friendly titles that our librarians recommend for discussion:
Stick and Stone
Beth Ferry
Stick and Stone are both lonely until Pinecone’s teasing causes one to stick up for the other, and a solid friendship is formed.
Page count: 48
Suggested ages: Birth-9
Lexile: 250
AR: 1.2
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Mrs. Dole Is Out of Control!
Dan Gutman
Second grade graduation turns into a full-blown spectacle when an overzealous PTA president pulls out all the stops for A.J. and his classmates on the last day of school.
Page count: 112
Suggested ages: 7-10
Lexile: 610
AR: 3.9
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Inside Out & Back Again
Thanhhà Lai
Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.
Page count: 288
Suggested ages: 8-12
Lexile: 800
AR: 4.8
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Walk Two Moons
Sharon Creech
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother’s route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
Page count: 304
Suggested ages: 8-12
Lexile: 770
AR: 4.9
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