Tag: staff picks

May 2025 Staff Pick: RAISING HARE

RAISING HARE: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton (Pantheon), picked by bookseller Leslie

RAISING HARE is an exceptional book that takes you along on Chloe Dalton’s unexpected journey with her little leveret, or baby hare. Chloe moves to her country home in the English countryside at the start of the pandemic, leaving her life in London as a political consultant and writer.

Adding to the book’s character and charm are two things that always draw me in – illustrations and the use of quotes to begin each chapter. Denise Nestor, an Irish artist and illustrator, captures the personality of the hare with her lovely drawings.

My favorite quote used in the book:

“What a destructive, cruel being man is, how many living beings and plants he annihilates to maintain his own life.”

~Leo Tolstoy, HADJI MURAT, 1912

But don’t get the wrong idea, this book is not a downer or even a commentary on man’s self-centered ways. This book is the antidote to our oh so very busy and important lives and the chaos of the world we live in. It’s not preachy at all. We are simply enjoying Chloe Dalton’s experience with her hare. It’s not her pet; she does not name her because that implies ownership. She allows the hare to be herself, and in exchange is witness to the life of this magnificent creature, including motherhood. She turns her home over to the hare and becomes attuned to the gardens, trees, and wildlife as never before.

I’m not going to tell you exactly what happens here in the recommendation. I will leave that to you to enjoy as the story unfolds. Consider what Chloe writes toward the end of the book:

“She has taught me patience. And as someone who has made their living through words, she has made me consider the dignity and persuasiveness of silence. She showed me a different life, and the richness of it. She made me perceive animals in a new light, in relation to her, and to each other. She made me re-evaluate my life, and the question of what constitutes a good one.”

April 2025 Staff Pick: Isola

Isola by Allegra Goodman, picked by Assistant Manager Sara

Sara, pictured with Isola by Allegra Goodman, in front of Field Theory by Tory Mata at The Studios of Key West.

Isola by Allegra Goodman is based on the true story of a young woman who sails from France to the New World in 1542 and is abandoned on an island in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence with her forbidden lover and nurse. This was a historical fiction read that was easy to get wrapped up in.

Marguerite de La Rocque de Roberval, a French noblewoman, who in the mid-sixteenth century grew up destined for a life of prosperity, is orphaned and left with her guardian – her uncle, a volatile and self centered man, who spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on his new adventure to New France. During this adventure you learn more about her character and who on the ship can be trusted. As Marguerite challenges her uncle, you can’t help but cheer her on as she keeps her loved ones safe even when faced over and over again with adversity. When she is left by her uncle on an uninhabited island, you immerse yourself in her journey of self-discovery, courage and strength as she is in the mercy of nature to survive. Battling hunger, lack of resources, adverse weather conditions, she searches for tools to build their new home. You will be delighted as she finds the little joys in this secluded place and how she embraces a faith that she never had before. 

This book has it all – a woman fighting for survival in this timeless story about love, resilience and finding the strength within to survive against all odds. I mean, she even fights a bear!

~ Sara

February 2025 Staff Pick – Bicycles: Love Poems

Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni (William Morrow), picked by Bookseller Lori

I’ve enjoyed the poetry of Ms. Giovanni for over 50 years! In this collection, the poems are erotic, introspective and bold. I see the bicycle as a metaphor for the ways in which we move ourselves away from the past, through the present, and into the future.

Favorites: I Am the Ocean, Bicycles, and Love (and the Meaning of Love).

January 2025 Staff Pick: The Safekeep

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster), picked by store co-founders Judy Blume & George Cooper

George raved about this novel so I had to see for myself. And I came away equally enthusiastic. It’s dark and different.

~ Judy

It’s 1961, the terrible war with a German occupation has settled into the past, and Isabel is living alone in the family home in the East of Holland, a house she shared with her mother until the mother’s recent death. Title to the house is held by her uncle, who has no interest in living there, nor do her two brothers, who have busy lives elsewhere.

But the uncle still believes the house will be for the older brother Louis once he marries and begins a family. So when Louis asks Isabel to take in his new girlfriend Eva for a short time, she feels compelled to do so, even though she finds the girl crude and unpleasant.

Thus begins a tale with more twists than a plate of fusilli, and a political revelation that will shake your beliefs in the humanity of the Dutch.

~ George

December Staff Pick: Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson (Mariner), picked by social media manager, Robin

Ernest Cunningham’s 7 Commandments of Holiday Specials:

3. The detective must, at some point, learn the true meaning of the word Christmas.

And, indeed, Ern, does. You, Dear Reader, will not, unless your holiday is even more skewed towards murder and mayhem than the typical holiday get-together.

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson, our December featured staff pick, is a fun take on the holiday mystery, and as this series is known for, full of classic misdirection. Full of secret Santas, advent calendar clues, and rigged magic tricks, it’s a great way to spend a cozy afternoon.


And here’s a few more seasonal reads to get you in a holiday mood:

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Most Wonderful: A Christmas Novel by Georgia Clark

Brightly Shining by Ingvild Rishøi, translated by Caroline Waight

Kissing Kosher by Jean Meltzer

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter. And the audiobook is currently on sale via Libro.fm!

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir Edited by Tod Goldberg

November Staff Pick: The Hypocrite

The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya (Pantheon), picked by bookseller Leslie

The country is Italy, specifically the island of Sicily.  To me, the opening conjured images of lazy afternoons, reading, Aperol spritzes, and warm, family togetherness, while exploring.  That’s not what this book is about.

The book takes place during present day London (during Covid) where the daughter, Sophia, has written a play, and about ten years earlier when Sophia is a teenager taking a holiday on Sicily with her father, a writer.  Coming from a divorced family, Sophia believes that their holiday will be a time to connect while her father treats her like an employee at times, dictating his new book to her.

Flash forward to London – her father sits down to see his daughter’s play; he is horrified to see it is about him.  Sophia is brutal in her characterization of her father and his old fashioned ways, and how he treated her during their holiday. The father can’t believe it!!

This book is about different generations, being uncomfortable, expectations, disappointment, love, all of it!

The book goes back and forth between Sicily and London, a format I love.  I was surprised and uncomfortable at times while reading this book.  There are no easy answers especially with family – I really thought a lot about that, and isn’t that what a good book should do?

~ Leslie

October Staff Pick: You Like It Darker

You Like It Darker by Stephen King (Scribner), picked by bookseller Lori

Twelve new short stories from the master of horror. Standouts for me: “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to 1981’s Cujo, and “The Answer Man,” my personal favorite, which asks us to ponder the meaning of our own lives and ask ourselves how we will approach the inevitable end of it. 

Beauty, horror, humor and humanity are all present in the pages from the true King of the genre.

~ Lori

September Staff Pick: Colored Television

Emily with an ARC of Colored Television by Danzy Senna in the bookstore

Colored Television by Danzy Senna (Riverhead Books), picked by manager Emily

When her novel (dubbed the “mulatto War and Peace”) is rejected by her agent, Jane wonders if pivoting to television might finally give her the life she wants; time and energy to enjoy her family, a nice house in a good school district and an audience that will actually consume and appreciate her work. 

Jane is used to life between worlds but will this new venture, and the deception she practices to get there, all finally be too much? 

No book is ever about one thing, at least not the good ones, but rarely does a story perfectly mix together life’s big issues. Senna cleverly examines race, class, and cultural consumption while still producing a fun and compelling read. 

~ Emily, store manager

August Staff Pick: The God of the Woods

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore (Riverhead Books), picked by assistant manager Sara

I couldn’t put this book down – the perfect summer mystery read! It had me all the way until the last sentence!

The dynamic of the two alternating timelines are seamlessly woven together uncovering family secrets and lies that leave you wondering exactly how far this family is willing to go to keep things hidden – and who is helping them.

This book has an ending you won’t see coming, and leaves you with a smile on your face.

July Staff Pick: The Paris Novel

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl (Random House), picked by bookseller Gina

When her mother dies Stella is left with a one way ticket and an unusual request “Go to Paris”…

Very similar to myself, Stella isn’t one to stray to far out of her comfort zone, but impulsively she honors her mother’s final request.

Here’s where the fun starts: through fashion, new friends, a mysterious painting and most importantly FOOD Stella begins to understand what it truly means to live YOUR life, take chances, and live your life to the fullest. (Hey, I quit my job and moved to Key West!)

This book is a true feast for the senses (especially your taste buds – did I mention the food???)

Transport yourself to Paris and LIVE!

~ Gina