2023 Staff Picks - Books for Adults

Check out these selected favorites of DPL staff and access the full list here.   

Fiction | Nonfiction

Fiction

Vampires of El Norte Book Cover
Cañas, Isabel

As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters--her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago. Believing Nena dead, Něstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. 

Catwoman : Lonely City  Book Cover
Chiang, Cliff

Ten years ago, the massacre known as Fools' Night claimed the lives of Batman, the Joker, Nightwing, and Commissioner Gordon...and sent Selina Kyle, the Catwoman, to prison. A decade later, Gotham has grown up-it's put away costumed heroism and villainy as childish things. The new Gotham is cleaner, safer and a lot less free, under the watchful eye of Mayor Harvey Dent and his Batcops. It's into this new city that Selina Kyle returns, a changed woman with her mind on that one last big score: the secrets hidden inside the Batcave! 

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries Book Cover
Fawcett, Heather

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on dryadology, the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encylopedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--much less get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog Shadow, and the Fair Folk to that of friends or lovers. So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hransvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. 

The Color of Always : An LGBTQIA+ Love Anthology Book Cover
Fisher, Brent and Michele Abounader (editors)

The Color of Always is a collection of personal stories, testimonies, heirlooms, evocations, and evangelisms for queer creators and readers that celebrates feeling good about who you are, and coming into your own at last.

Love, Theoretically Book Cover
Hazelwood, Ali

The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she's an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people-pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs. Honestly, it's a pretty sweet gig--until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. 

Curves for Days Book Cover
Moher, Laura

Rose Barnes feels best when she's invisible-so when she wins the lottery and is suddenly thrust into the spotlight where everyone wants something, hiding out in a small town in North Carolina makes perfect sense. Rose has got curves for days-and to Angus, the big, burly, bearded contractor working on her new house, she's just plum perfect.

 Drowning : The Rescue of Flight 1421 Book Cover
Newman, T. J.

When Flight 1421 crashes into the ocean six minutes after take-off, the surviving passengers believe they are the lucky ones until the plane starts to sink to the ocean floor, trapping them inside, and they must wait to be rescued as both air and time run out.

The Magician’s Daughter Book Cover
Parry, H. G.

It is 1912, and for the last seventy years magic has all but disappeared from the world. Yet magic is all Biddy has ever known. Orphaned as a baby, Biddy grew up on Hy-Brasil, a legendary island off the coast of Ireland hidden by magic and glimpsed by rare travelers who return with stories of wild black rabbits and a lone magician in a castle. To Biddy, the island is her home, a place of ancient trees and sea-salt air and mysteries, and the magician, Rowan, is her guardian. She loves both, but as her seventeenth birthday approaches, she is stifled by her solitude and frustrated by Rowan's refusal to let her leave.

Go as a River Book Cover
Read, Shelley

Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family's peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado--the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses. Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, unknowingly igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known. She flees into the surrounding mountains where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring.

Tress of the Emerald Sea Book Cover
Sanderson, Brandon

The only life Tress has known on her island home in an emerald-green ocean has been a simple one, with the simple pleasures of collecting cups brought by sailors from faraway lands and listening to stories told by her friend Charlie. But when his father takes him on a voyage to find a bride and disaster strikes, Tress must stow away on a ship and seek the Sorceress of the deadly Midnight Sea. Amid the spore oceans where pirates abound, can Tress leave her simple life behind and make her own place sailing a sea where a single drop of water can mean instant death?

Starter Villain Book Cover
Scalzi, John

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie.

The Fragile Threads of Power Book Cover
Schwab, V.E.

It's been seven years since Kell, Lila, and Holland defeated the evil force known as Osaron. Lila has spent those seven years as captain of a ship, exploring her new magical world and occasionally spying for the Crown. Kell has spent them learning to fight with ordinary weapons now that wielding his magic causes him intense pain. Holland, of course, gave his life to defeat Osaron. But now a shadowy organization called the Hand is plotting against Kell's brother, King Rhy, and they've set their sights on a powerful magical object.

The Bandit Queens Book Cover
Shroff, Parini

In the five years since her husband's disappearance, Geeta has become accustomed to a solitary life; you'd be surprised how difficult it is to make friends when your entire village believes you're a witch who murdered your husband. And since she can't convince anyone that she didn't murder him, she figures she might as well use her fearsome reputation to protect herself as a woman on her own. But when other women in the village decide that they, too, want to be "self-made" widows and rid themselves of their abusive husbands, Geeta's reputation becomes a double-edged sword--the very thing that's meant to keep her safe is now threatening everything she's built as she unwittingly becomes the go-to consultant for village husband-disposal.

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers Book Cover
Sutanto, Jesse Q.

Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady--ah, lady of a certain age--who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco's Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy--oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her college-aged son is up to. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing: a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn't know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of-- swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron.

Looking Glass Sound Book Cover
Ward, Catriona

In a lonely cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of a sun-drenched summer of his youth, and of the killer that stalked the small New England town. And of the terrible tragedy that forever bonded him with his friends Nat and Harper in unknowable ways. Decades later, Wilder returns to the town in an attempt to recount that summer's events in his memoirs. But as he writes, Wilder begins to fear his grip on the truth is fading and that the book may be writing itself.

Nonfiction

We See Each Other Book Cover
Anderson, Tre'vell

We See Each Other is a personal history of trans visibility since the beginning of moving images. A literary reckoning, it unearths a transcestry that's long existed in plain sight and in the shadows of history's annals, and further contextualizes our present moment of increased representation. The films and television shows that Tre'vell covers include: Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, Psycho, Holiday Heart, Boy's Don't Cry, America's Next Top Model, Some Like It Hot, Survivor, Tangerine, Pose, RuPaul's Drag Race and much more.

Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult Book Cover
Bamford, Maria

Maria Bamford is a comedian's comedian and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it. In Bamford's signature voice, this book brings us on a quest to participate in something. 

Inventing Photography Book Cover
Batchen, Geoffrey

William Henry Fox Talbot is celebrated today as the English inventor of photography. He first made early photographic experiments in the 1830s and released the details of his photogenic drawing process in January 1839. He continued to introduce important innovations to the medium in the 1840s and 1850s. Drawing on archival material in the Bodleian Library, including three albums given by Talbot to his sister, Horatia Feilding, and his illustrated books, Sun Pictures in Scotland and The Pencil of Nature, this volume shows how Talbot was continually inventing photography anew. 

Cheap Land Colorado Book Cover
Conover, Ted

From Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author Ted Conover, a fascinating portrait of a group of Americans living off-grid.

Soil Book Cover
Dungy, Camille T.

Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominantly white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013 with her husband and daughter, the community held restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens. In resistance to the homogenous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Dungy employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for how homogeneity threatens the future of our planet, and why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it.

The (Big) Year That Flew by Book Cover
Dwarshuis, Arjan

When Arjan Dwarshuis first heard of the "Big Year"--the legendary record for birdwatching--he was twenty years old, it was midnight, and he was sitting on the roof of a truck in the Andean Mountains. In that moment he promised himself that, someday, somehow, he would become a world-record-holding birder. Ten years later, he embarked on an incredible, arduous, and perilous journey that took him around the globe; over uninhabited islands, through dense unforgiving rainforests, across snowy mountain peaks and unrelenting deserts--in just a single year. 

A Fever in the Heartland Book Cover
Egan, Timothy

The Roaring Twenties has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

50 Pies, 50 States Book Cover
Fong, Stacey Mei Yan

An Asian immigrant and home baker presents a love letter to her adopted country with recipes for pies from every state such as Mississippi mud pie and Kentucky Derby pie.

Like, Literally, Dude Book Cover
Fridland, Valerie

Linguist Valerie Fridland argues that our most hated or confusing speech habits shape our conception of the world and our place in it in remarkable ways. With a mix of laugh-out-loud anecdotes and expertise built over two decades of research, Fridland helps us understand the history, cultural significance, and impact of how we speak today. 

“You Just Need to Lose Weight” : And 19 Other Myths About Fat People Book Cover
Gordon, Aubrey

The co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast and creator of Your Fat Friend equips you with the facts to debunk common anti-fat myths and with tools to take action for fat justice.

Paris : The Memoir Book Cover
Hilton, Paris

From the woman who is credited for launching what we know as the celebrity focused, "brand" driven, social media obsessed popular culture of today, comes an honest and surprising memoir that reckons with that truth, and shows that there is so much more to Paris Hilton than you might believe.

Perfectly Good Food Book Cover
Li, Margaret

How to cook flexibly and fight food waste, with 80 recipes and 150 ideas to use up what you have.

The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll Book Cover
Guralnick, Peter

The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll: 70 Years of Sun Records is the official history of this legendary label, and looks at its story in a unique way: through the lens of 70 of its most iconic recordings. From the early days with primal blues artists like Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King to long nights in the studio with Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, you will see how the label was shaped and how it redefined American music.

The Light We Carry Book Cover
Obama, Michelle

Mrs. Obama offers readers a series of fresh stories and insightful reflections on change, challenge, and power, including her belief that when we light up for others, we can illuminate the richness and potential of the world around us, discovering deeper truths and new pathways for progress. 

A Cook’s Book Book Cover
Slater, Nigel

A Cook's Book is the story of Nigel Slater's life in the kitchen from the first jam tart he made with his mum standing on a chair trying to reach the AGA, through to what he is cooking now. He writes about how his cooking has changed from discovering the trick to whipping cream perfectly, to the best way to roast a chicken. He gives the tales behind the recipes and recalls the first time he ate a baguette in Paris and his first slice of buttercream-topped chocolate cake. These are the favorite recipes Nigel Slater cooks at home every day; the heart and soul of his cooking.

Summaries provided by DPL's catalog unless otherwise noted. Click on each title to view more information.