Readers' Place: August 2026
Summer reading season is in full swing – check out what our adult Summer Reading Challenge participants have been reading and loving this season!
The Big Oyster by Mark Kurlansky (Library Catalog)
“I also read his book about salt and I preferred this one. It was fascinating to learn about the importance of oysters and their ubiquity in the US before the 20th century. I had no idea! Loved it.” - Nicolette Z.
Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster. For centuries New York was famous for this particular shellfish, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s life that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for all classes, and a natural filtration system for the city’s congested waterways. Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the seventeenth-century founding of New York to the death of its oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan’s Gilded Age dining chambers. With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.
The Burning Side by Sarah Damoff (Library Catalog)
“One of my top five star reads this year. Devoured the audiobook in less than 24 hours. The story and emotional depth of the characters was incredible. Highly recommend.” - Adina K.
From the author of The Bright Years, the story of April and Leo, a couple on the brink of collapse. When their house goes up in flames, family secrets and thorny histories emerge as they are forced to decide what is worth salvaging. When April and Leo's house burns in the middle of the night, they escape with their two young children and the quiet knowledge that the fire is not the only thing threatening their family. They retreat to April's childhood home in Dallas, where her spirited parents and siblings provide both comfort and complication. As the family reckons with the aftermath—grief, guilt, logistics, and memories scorched and intact—the fire exposes the cracks already forming in April and Leo's marriage. The novel unfolds in alternating perspectives: from April, who feels the crushing weight of motherhood, marriage, and self-blame; from Leo, a high school history teacher shaped by a lonely, fractured childhood; from Deb, April's generous and no-nonsense mother who has to contend with her husband's recent Alzheimer's diagnosis; and from flashbacks that trace April and Leo's relationship from its earliest days of connection to the devastating decisions that led them here. A family saga suffused with humor, longing, and heartbreak, The Burning Side is about what we inherit and what we choose, about forgiveness and the ache of being known. It is, above all, about the meaning of home and the costs of long love.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Library Catalog)
“This book was SO FUN! I loved the way it combined fantasy, sci-fi, and post apocalypse into something uniquely its own. Definitely a worthwhile read if you can manage to get your hands on it.” - Evie R.
The apocalypse will be televised! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That's what. Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that's actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain't your ordinary game show. Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.
Go Gentle by Maria Semple (Library Catalog)
“This book was a wild journey. I really thought it would be more about the coven but the potentially stolen art, the complicated mother-daughter relationships and the sexual assault added a lot of twists and turns I didn’t expect. I'm not mad I read this but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it either.” - Ashley B.
From the author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, this exuberant and life-affirming novel tells the story of one woman’s cheerful determination to live a life of the mind only to have the heart force its way in. Adora Hazzard has it all figured out. A Stoic philosopher and divorcée, she lives a contented life on New York City’s Upper West Side. Having discovered that the secret to happiness is to desire only what you have, she’s applied this insight to blissful effect: relishing her teenage daughter, the freedom of being solo, and her job as a moral tutor for the twin boys of an old-money family. She’s even assembled a "coven"—like-minded women who live on the same floor in the legendary Ansonia—and is making active efforts to grow its membership. Adora’s carefully curated life is humming along brilliantly until a chance meeting with a handsome stranger. Soon, her ordered world is upended by black-market art deals, secret rendezvous, and international intrigue…and her past—which she has worked so hard to bury—lands like a bomb in her present. Inflamed by unquenchable desire, Adora finds herself a woman wanting more: and she’ll risk everything to get it. Romantic, hilarious, intelligent, and bursting with the stuff of life, Go Gentle is a thrilling story of one woman’s mid-life transformation.
Heartwood by Amity Gaige (Library Catalog)
“A nurse dealing with the trauma of working during COVID gets lost on the Appalachian Trail in Maine. Told from the perspective of the nurse, a ranger who is looking for her, and a disabled woman investigating the mystery from afar, there are themes of motherhood, recovering from trauma, and connection to nature.” - Diane A.
Heartwood takes readers on a gripping journey as a search and rescue team race against time after a woman mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail. In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping. At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie's disappearance may not be accidental. Heartwood tells the story of a lost hiker's odyssey and is a moving rendering of each character's interior journey. The mystery inspires larger questions about the many ways in which we get lost, and how we are found.
Kin by Tayari Jones (Library Catalog)
“What an excellent read! Two close friends with similar upbringings; they both maintained their relationship however, one found a way out of poverty while the other struggled throughout her life.” - Milagros V.
From the author of An American Marriage, a story about two lifelong friends whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of a devastating tragedy. Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother’s death, Vernice leaves Honeysuckle at eighteen for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and discovers a world of affluence, manners, aspiration, and inequality. Annie, abandoned by her mother as a child and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, culminating in a battle for her life. A novel about mothers and daughters, friendship and sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South, Kin is an exuberant, emotionally rich work from one of the brightest and most irresistible voices in contemporary fiction.
Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez (Library Catalog)
“This was the best book I’ve read in a very long time. I literally stayed up until 4 am because I could not put the book down until it was finished. A satisfying nostalgic journey back to the summer of 2007, I felt like I’d traveled back in time to my twenties. I loved it! Very well written and easy to read. This would be a good one to enjoy on vacation because, while not devoid of emotional heft, it’s still light enough to find fun and entertaining.” - Sipiwe M.
Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a captivating story about a young woman whose life becomes ensnared in her glamorous neighbor's secret past. At twenty-six, Alicia Canales Forten feels smothered by her future. She's in a long-distance relationship, living at home with her mother's beliefs, saving up for her wedding to a future doctor. But after Alicia ventures out one night in the neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, she finds herself lured by the siren song of youth and possibility that the striving crowd of creatives holds, and moves in.No one embodies this milieu more than La Garza, a larger-than-life, up-and-coming fashion designer whose epic house parties fuel neighborhood lore. La Garza's life, observed by Alicia from her apartment across the street, seems to hold the allure and fearlessness Alicia has never dared to imagine for herself.
But when Alicia's wealthy banker cousin moves to the neighborhood, she finds herself increasingly drawn into both his and La Garza's precarious lives. Against the 2007 backdrop of a potentially life-changing presidential election and a looming once-in-a-generation fiscal crisis, Last Night in Brooklyn explores the dark compromise of the American Dream for people of color living, unknowingly, in the twilight of a cultural moment. It is a story about everything money can buy—and the destruction of what it can't.
Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower (Library Catalog)
“I didn’t know if I’d like this series, but I’m thoroughly invested in Emma’s exploits. It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed out loud at something I’ve read and this book has made me chuckle a few times. Quite a feat. I have a long to-to list, but journal vol 4 may have to go at the very top of that list.” - Isalys C.
The Year is 1883 and Emma M. Lion has returned to her London neighborhood of St. Crispian's. But Emma's plans for a charmed and studious life are sabotaged by her eccentric Cousin Archibald, her formidable Aunt Eugenia, and the slightly odd denizens of St. Crispian's. Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be, which comprise a series of novella-length volumes. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House. Readers have compared Beth Brower's writing to Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, P.G. Wodehouse, and L. M. Montgomery.
Whistler by Ann Patchett (Library Catalog)
“Such an incredible book about chosen family and the different ways love shows up in people’s lives. 5/5 stars!” -Ashley B.
“I loved this book and it describes how childhood experiences contribute to who we become as adults. The underlying tribute to love of books by two of the main characters did not go unnoticed.” - Isalys C.
“Heartwarming story of a daughter and stepfather reunited after 40 years. Themes of kindness, regret, and the impact of small but consequential moments in our lives. Moving and sweet - exactly what you'd expect from Ann Patchett.” - Susan Y.
“Beautiful story about the complexities of the past and family dynamics, I fell in love with all of the characters (even the unlikable ones); classic Ann Patchett novel, definitely recommend for fans of hers.” -Jackie D.
“Another winner from one of my favorite authors. I loved the characters in this book and the flipping from past to present.” - Marianne L.
A moving, luminous novel from Ann Patchett that reminds us of the sweetness and impermanence of life and the power of connection to defy time. When Daphne Fuller and her husband Jonathan visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they notice an older, white-haired gentleman following them. The man turns out to be Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, who had been married to her mother for a little more than a year when Daphne was nine. Now fifty-three, Daphne hasn't seen Eddie for many years, not since the fateful event that changed the direction of both their lives. Meeting again, time falls away; while their relationship was brief, it had a profound impact on them both, and now that they are reunited, they have no intention of ever being separated again. Whistler is a story about two adults looking back over the choices they made, and the choices that were made for them. It's a story about bravery, memory, the often small yet consequential moments that define our lives, and the endless stream of loss that in time comes for us all. Beautiful in its simplicity, it is ultimately about how love endures, and how the feeling of being known by one other person, even for a short period of time, can change everything.
Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Library Catalog)
“I absolutely loved the Vera Wong books. When I saw this novel by the same author on the shelves at my local library, I decided to give it a try. I am glad I did. On the surface, this is an easy going romantic novel that becomes addictive as one becomes invested in the lives of the characters. On a deeper level, it is an exploration of a culture in which gender roles are rigidly enforced until the main characters prove that women can succeed in business while men can find pleasure in cooking and cleaning.” - Joan C.
In Jesse Sutanto’s new novel Mulan is reimagined as a contemporary romance about family expectations, mistaken identity, and high stakes mergers—of both business and the heart. Following one's heart isn't easy when family honor is at stake. As the right hand of her father's hedge fund company, Fa Mulan knows what it takes to succeed as a woman in a man's world: work twice as hard, be twice as smart, and burp twice as loud as any of the other finance bros she works with. So when her father unexpectedly falls ill in the middle of a critical acquisition, she is determined to see it through. There's just one hitch: the family company in question is known for its ultra masculine whiskey brand, and the brood of old-fashioned aunts, uncles, and cousins who run it—lead by the dedicated but overworked Shang—will only trust Mulan's father, Fa Zhou, with the future of their business. Rather than fail the deal and her father, Mulan pretends she's Fa Zhou. Since they've only corresponded over email, how hard could it be to keep things moving in his absence? But the email leads to a face-to-face meeting, which leads to an invitation to a week long retreat at Shang's family ranch. One meeting she can handle, but a whole week of cattle wrangling, axe-throwing, and learning proper butchering techniques, all while trying to convince Shang's dubious family that this young woman is the powerful hedge fund CEO they've been negotiating with? Not so much—especially as she finds it harder and harder to ignore the undeniable spark between her and Shang. Can she keep her head in the game and make her father proud, all while trying not to fall into a trough, or in love with Shang?