Browse through Hamilton East Public Library’s staff picks for January 2025!
Download the January 2025 Staff Picks list here and check out our January 2025 Book to Screen Staff Picks here.
Girly Drinks by Mallory O’Meara – REBECCA F.’S PICK
Provides a tour through the feminist history of women drinking, revealing the untold female distillers, drinkers, and brewers that played vital roles in potent potable history, from ancient Sumerian beer goddess Ninkasi to 1920s
bartender Ada Coleman.
362.292 OME 2021 & HOOPLA AUDIO BOOK
Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis – SYDNEY’S PICK
A sharp-witted, debut high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, evil wizards, and a garlic festival-all at once.
HOOPLA AUDIO BOOK
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune – TORI’S PICK
In the sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea, Arthur Parnassus, headmaster of a strange orphanage, and the other inhabitants of Marsyas Island must fight to save the dangerous and magical children of the orphanage or risk the entire island falling apart.
LIBBY EBOOK & AUDIOBOOK
The Wolf, the Duck & the Mouse by Mac Barnett – JANE’S PICK
When a mouse is swallowed by a wolf, he learns that a duck devoured earlier has set up a table to enjoy the food the gluttonous predator eats.
J PIC BK BARNETT, M.
A Crown of Ivy and Glass by Claire Legrand – DANIELLE’S PICK
Gemma, the only Ashbourne to possess magic, meets the extremely handsome Talan d’Astier, the only survivor of a family who dabbled in forbidden magic, in the first novel of a new trilogy.
LIBBY AUDIOBOOK & EBOOK
Hidden History of Hamilton County, Indiana by David Heighway – KIM’S PICK
A collection of strange tales from Hamilton County’s past, including an unsolved mystery about a missing groom whose body was found under a shed four decades later; a sheriff’s posse who liberated the county from banditry; and a giant wave of ravenous squirrels that descended on the county’s crops.
977.256 HEI 2021
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – ISIS’S PICK
A blind French girl on the run from the German occupation and a German orphan-turned- Resistance tracker struggle with their respective beliefs after meeting on the Brittany coast.
FIC DOERR, A.
Thank You for Listening: A Novel by Julia Whelan – JOAN’S PICK
An audiobook narrator, former actress Sewanee Chester, after having a one-night stand with a handsome stranger in Las Vegas, returns home to narrate a romance novel and forms a connection with the anonymous author, but when his identity is finally revealed, she must risk everything for desire.
LIBBY AUDIOBOOK & EBOOK, FIC WHELAN, J.
Turing Machine by Fabien Gridel (Board Game) – JARED’S PICK
Turing Machine is fast, demanding, and intense! Find the Secret Code using a “mechanical” computer that works with punch cards alone. Ask the Machine the right questions and find the answer before everyone else. One: Overlay three cards. Two: Question the machine. Three: Analyse and deduce the secret code.
BOARD GAME TURING
Presents the story of a group of eccentric 19th century Victorians who accidentally stumbled upon a huge tranche of dinosaur bones that changed our understanding of human history.
NEW 567.9094 DOL 2024
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune – ALEXANDRA’S PICK
After he dies, a curious and powerful being gives Wallace one week to cross over to the land of the dead, and Wallace, who finally starts to learn about all the things he missed in life, sets about living a lifetime in seven days.
FIC KLUNE, T.
Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration by Bryan Douglas Caplan – PREET’S PICK
Economist Bryan Caplan adds a new, compelling perspective to the immigration debate: He argues that opening all borders could eliminate absolute poverty worldwide and usher in a booming worldwide economy–greatly benefiting humanity.
GRAPHIC 325.73 CAP 2019
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer – MALLORY’S PICK
A young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve, while restoring an old house, answer the door to a man claiming to have lived there years before, which sets in motion a chain of uncanny and inexplicable events leading to Charlie’s disappearance and Eve’s descent into insanity.
LIBBY AUDIOBOOK & EBOOK
Miss Macintosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young – JOSEPH A.’S PICK
The novel touches on many aspects of life–drug addiction, woman’s suffrage, murder, suicide, pregnancy both real and imaginary, schizophrenia, many strange loves, the psychology of gambling, perfectionism; but the profusion of this huge book serves always to intensify the force of the central question: “What shall we do when, fleeing from illusion, we are confronted by illusion?”
NEW FIC YOUNG, M.
The Sign for Home by Blair Fell – ABBY’S PICK
Arlo Dilly, deaf, blind, a Jehovah’s Witness, and under the strict guardianship of his controlling uncle, sets out, with his gay interpreter and his wildly inappropriate Belgian best friend, to find the love of his life, who he thought he lost forever.
LIBBY AUDIOBOOK & FIC FELL, B.
She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat. 1 by Sakaomi Yuzaki – HAYES’S PICK
Cooking is how Nomoto de-stresses, but one day, she finds herself making way more than she can eat by herself. And so, she invites her neighbor Kasuga, who also lives alone. What will come out of this impromptu dinner invitation?
MANGA SHE
The Stolen Key by Margaret Peterson Haddix – HALEY’S PICK
Determined to find the truth about his dad and finally solve this deeply personal mystery, Colin and his friend Nevaeh discover a new clue, which takes them on a quest from eerie storage units to lock-lined bridges to the secrets in Nevaeh’s family.
J FIC HADDIX, M. & LIBBY EBOOK
Invisible by Christina Diaz Gonzalez – ERIN’S PICK
When five overlooked students are forced to complete their school’s community service hours, they meet someone in need but must decide if they are each willing to expose their own secrets to help… or if remaining invisible is the only way to survive middle school.
MS AWARD YHOOSIER GONZALEZ, C. & HOOPLA E COMIC BOOK
Practical Optimism: The Art, Science, and Practice of Exceptional WellBeing by Sue Varma – ALISON F.’S PICK
Combining philosophy, her own personal experience, and the latest research in psychology, psychiatry, medicine, and neuroscience, a board certified psychiatrist offers a scientific and tangible pathway to boosting health, happiness, resilience, success, and longevity by cultivating an optimistic mindset.
158.1 VAR 2024
The Alchemist’s Secret by Scott Mariani – CLAUDIA’S PICK
A former élite member of the SAS, Ben is tortured by a tragedy from his past and now devotes his life to finding kidnapped children. When he is recruited to locate an ancient manuscript which could save a dying child, he embarks on the deadliest quest of his life.
FIC MARIANI, S
Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman – AMY W.’S PICK
A group of misfit, big-box store employees working the overnight shift in a small upstate New York town vie for the stability, salary, and possibility of a new job when their store manager announces he is leaving.
FIC WALDMAN, A.
The Examiner by Janice Hallett – KELLY’S PICK
Told in emails, text messages, and essays, thisinnovative page-turner follows a group of students in an art master’s program that goes dangerously awry.
NEW FIC HALLETT, J.
Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Calvin Ortlund – AMY M.’S PICK
Shows how the heart of Christ feels about God’s people as they sin and stumble their way through life.
231.7 ORT 2020
Joan Baez: I Am A Noise (DVD) – STEFANIE P.’S PICK
Explores the life and career of American folk musician Joan Baez.
NEW DVD B BAEZ