Alicia recommends "Lessons In Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus

What was life really like for women in the late 1950s and early 60s?  Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not an average woman, she is a female chemist at an all-male research facility.  The only non-misogynist male at the facility is Calvin Evans, a brilliant scientist.  When they meet the chemical attraction is immediately evident and they soon are a couple.  Because life is messy and there is not always a happy ending to every story, Elizabeth finds herself a few years later on her own with a child. Elizabeth is the popular host of an afternoon cooking show called, Supper at Six.  She is teaching the afternoon housewives and children how to cook with chemistry.  Along with recipes that include H2O and a quarter teaspoon of sodium chloride, she is blunt, honest and the public "eats" up the witty unconventional comments. Filled with uncommon characters such as six-thirty the dog, Mad her daughter and a host of others.  This was funny, witty, and poignant. 

Catherine recommends "Three Strike Summer"

Gloria Mae Willard wants nothing more in life than to play on a baseball team. She could strike out anyone, if she only had the chance to show off her pitching skills – but she has yet to find a baseball team that will let a girl play. When her parents have to sell their house in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl and move to California where they work as migrant farmers, everything in Gloria’s life seems like it has turned upside down. There is barely enough food to eat, they live in a shanty, they have no freedom to go where they want, and they can’t even eat the peaches that surround them in the orchard. Yet in the midst of the family’s turmoil, Gloria learns there is a secret baseball team – and this time, she is going to find a way to play. I was immediately drawn into this story of a stubborn girl who learns to stand up for herself and for her community. I think anyone who reads this will want Gloria to be on their team!

I would recommend this for middle grade readers – upper elementary and middle school.

Justine recommends Danse Macabre by Stephen King

In Danse Macabre, Stephen King gives an overview of the horror genre from the years 1950-1980.  Originally published in 1981, the book functions as both a historical retrospective and a time capsule of the period it was written in, when Stephen King was new to his success and grappling with the issues of the early 1980's.

"Ranging across the whole spectrum of horror in popular culture and going back to the seminal classics of Count Dracula and Frankenstein, Stephen King describes in his ideas how horror works on many levels, and how he brings it to bear in his own inimitable novels."

Although this is an older title, it's a newer edition to our collection.  Check it out today!

Katie recommends "The Door of No Return"

For anyone who knows me, you know I love a novel in verse! Kwame Alexander’s new one does not disappoint.

This book is POWERFUL. The first book in a soon to be trilogy, The Door of No Return follows Kofi Offin, an 11 year old boy from Ghana in the 1860s. Alexander beautifully weaves details of Ghana’s geography and culture into the descriptions of every day life. I just felt an intense sense of dread as I read this, knowing that something awful was coming and I just…couldn’t stop reading. This book is beautiful, brutal, and a little bit hopeful.

I would recommend this to more mature middle grade readers (grades 5 and up), as some scenes include graphic violence. Definitely recommend to teens and adults as well. The audiobook is fantastic.