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Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune

Certified Aries: Staff Recommendation by Alison

Genre: Fantasy, LGBTQIA+, Romance, Adult Fiction

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead. But even in death, he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

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The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Certified Aries: Staff Recommendation by John

Genre: Science Fiction, Horror, Dystopian

Set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape, while struggling to survive and preserve the last remnants of their own humanity.

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The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré

Certified Taurus: Staff Recommendation by Andrea

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Feminism, Cultural, Coming of Age

Adunni is a 14 year-old Nigerian girl who knows what she wants: an education. This, her mother has told her, is the only way to get a “louding voice”—the ability to speak for herself and decide her own future. But instead, Adunni’s father sells her to be the wife of a local man who is eager for her to bear him a son and heir. When Adunni runs away, hoping to make a better life, she finds that the only other option before her is servitude to a wealthy family. While misfortunes might muffle her voice for a time, they cannot mute it. And when she realizes that she must stand up not only for herself but for other girls, she finds the resolve to speak however she can.

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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Certified Taurus: Staff Recommendation by Nic

Genre: Historical Fiction, Jewish Fiction, Humor

It is New York City in 1939. Joe Kavalier, a young artist who has also been trained in the art of Houdini-esque escape, has just pulled off his greatest feat to date: smuggling himself out of Nazi-occupied Prague. He is looking to make big money, fast, so that he can bring his family to freedom. His cousin, Brooklyn’s own Sammy Clay, is looking for a collaborator to create the heroes, stories and art for the latest novelty to hit the American dreamscape: the comic book. Out of their fantasies, fears and dreams, Joe and Sammy weave the legend of that unforgettable champion, the Escapist.

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Armageddon: The Battle for Germany by Max Hastings

Certified Gemini: Staff Recommendation by Paul

Genre: Nonfiction, Military History, War

In September 1944, the Allies believed that Hitler’s army was beaten and expected the bloodshed to end by Christmas. Yet a series of mistakes and setbacks, including the Battle of the Bulge, drastically altered this timetable and led to eight more months of brutal fighting. Historian Max Hastings gives us memorable accounts of the great battles and tells the story of both the Eastern and Western Fronts, raising provocative questions and offering vivid portraits of the great leaders. This rousing and revelatory chronicle brings to life the crucial final months of the 20th century’s greatest global conflict.

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Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

Genre:  Romance, Contemporary Fiction, Humor

Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong. When her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding, it’s time for Eve to grow up and prove herself. Jacob Wayne is in control. The bed and breakfast owner is on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman infiltrates his work, his kitchen and his spare bedroom, Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else.

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The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard

Certified Cancer: Staff Recommendation by Jason

Genre: Heroic Fantasy, Adventure, Short Stories

Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian—black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand—to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet. Collected in this volume are Howard’s first 13 Conan stories in their original versions and in the order Howard wrote them. Here are timeless tales featuring Conan the raw and dangerous youth, Conan the daring thief, Conan the swashbuckling pirate and Conan the commander of armies.

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The Bright and Breaking Sea by Chloe Neill

Certified Cancer: Staff Recommendation by Randi

Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Adventure

Kit Brightling has worked hard to rise through the ranks of the Isles’ Crown Command and become one of the few female captains in Queen Charlotte’s fleet. Her ship is small, but she’s fast—in part because of Kit’s magical affinity to the sea. But the waters become perilous when the queen sends Kit on a special mission with a partner she never asked for. Rian Grant may be a veteran of the Continental War, but Kit doesn’t know him or his motives—and she’s dealt with one too many members of the Beau Monde. Kit can lead her ship and clever crew on her own, but with the fate of queen and country at stake, Kit and Rian must learn to trust each other, or else the Isles will fall.

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Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Certified Leo: Staff Recommendation by Aysha

Genre: Historical Fiction, Cultural, Health

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, they are bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine. The twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution, but Marion flees his homeland fresh out of medical school when he and his brother fall in love with the same woman. He goes to work in an underfunded New York hospital until his past catches up with him, nearly destroying him, and he must trust his life to his father and brother.

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Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Genre: Thriller, Fiction

Somewhere in South America, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of Mr. Hosokawa, a powerful Japanese businessman. Roxanne Coss, opera’s most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening—until a band of gun-wielding terrorists breaks in and takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different countries and continents become compatriots.

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Certified Virgo: Staff Recommendation by Roxanne

Genre: Classic, Romance, Historical Fiction

The pride of high-ranking Mr. Darcy and the prejudice of middle-class Elizabeth Bennet conduct an absorbing dance through the rigid social hierarchies of early 19th century England, with the passion of the two unlikely lovers growing as their union seems ever more improbable.

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Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

Genre: Historical Fiction

Like her mother, Rue is an all-knowing midwife, healer and conjurer of curses on the plantation of Marse Charles. Moving back and forth in time between the years before and after the Civil War, this novel tells the story of Rue, the families she cares for, and the mysteries and secrets she knows about the plantation owner’s daughter, Varina. At the heart of this story is the intimate bonds and transgressions among people and across racial divides, during both slavery time and freedom time.

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The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Certified Libra: Staff Recommendation by Andy

Genre: Classic, Russian Literature, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction

An English translation of the Russian novel written at the height of Stalin’s regime, in which Satan, in the guise of a man named Woland, arrives in Moscow and begins to wreak havoc in the literary community, honing in on his real target, an author called The Master, who has written a novel about Pontius Pilate.

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Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh

Genre: Science Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Dystopian

Calla knows how the lottery works. Everyone does. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you marriage and children. A blue ticket grants you a career and freedom. And once you’ve taken your ticket, there is no going back. But what if the life you’re given is the wrong one? Calla, a blue ticket woman, is pregnant, desperate and on the run. But her survival will be dependent on the very qualities the lottery has taught her to question in herself and on the other women the system has pitted against her.

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The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Certified Scorpio: Staff Recommendation by Ben

Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Adventure, Epic

A part of The Kingkiller Chronicle, The tale of Kvothe, from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages, you will come to know Kvothe as a notorious magician, an accomplished thief, a masterful musician and an infamous assassin. But this book is so much more, for the story it tells reveals the truth behind Kvothe’s legend.

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The Silent Corner by Dean Koontz

Certified Scorpio: Staff Recommendation by Audrey

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Fiction Series

I very much need to be dead. These are the chilling words left behind by a man who had everything to live for—but took his own life. In the aftermath, his widow, Jane Hawk, does what all her grief, fear and fury demand: find the truth. People of talent and accomplishment, people admired and happy and sound of mind have been committing suicide in surprising numbers. When Jane seeks to learn why, she becomes the most-wanted fugitive in America. Her powerful enemies are protecting a secret so important they will exterminate anyone in their way. But all their power and viciousness may not be enough to stop a woman who is driven by a righteous rage they can never comprehend.

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Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

Certified Sagittarius: Staff Recommendation By Eyan

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Paranormal

Half-fae Toby retreats to the human world after being rejected by her Faerie family but finds her anonymity compromised by the murder of an important countess who binds her to investigate, forcing Toby to resume her fae position.

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Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

Genre: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Thriller

When everything goes wrong on a trip to the local market, AO, a woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations, must race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria with a Fulani herdsman named DNA in a world where everything is streamed.

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The House in the Cerulean Sea By T.J. Klune

Certified Capricorn: Staff Recommendation by Hayley

Genre: Fantasy, Fiction, LGBTQIA+, Romance

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages. When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management, he’s given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside. But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

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The American Night by Jim Morrison

Certified Capricorn: Staff Recommendation by Brian

Genre: Poetry, Nonfiction, Music

Read the previously unpublished work by the celebrated rock singer, Jim Morrison.

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A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Certified Aquarius: Staff recommendation by Jay

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopian

In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here, the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to re-celebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes.

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Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

Genre: Fantasy, Ghost Story

When Jessamyn Teoh starts hearing a voice in her head, she chalks it up to stress. She soon learns the new voice isn’t even hers, it’s the ghost of her estranged grandmother. In life, Ah Ma was a spirit medium, avatar of a mysterious deity called the Black Water Sister. Now she’s determined to settle a score against a business magnate who has offended the god—and she’s decided Jess is going to help her, whether Jess wants to or not. Drawn into a world of gods, ghosts and family secrets, Jess finds that making deals with capricious spirits is a dangerous business, but dealing with her grandmother is just as complicated. As Jess fights for retribution for Ah Ma, she’ll also need to regain control of her body and destiny, or the Black Water Sister may finish her off for good.

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Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Certified Pisces: Staff recommendation by Christopher

Genre: Literary Fiction, Coming of Age, Family

Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, grow up first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great aunts and finally of Sylvie, the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother. The family house in the small town of Fingerbone on a glacial lake in the Far West is the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. Lucille begins to resist her unconventional upbringing, but Ruth grows closer to Sylvie as she is drawn into a world of transience.

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A Burning by Megha Majumdar

Genre: Suspense, Thriller, Political Fiction

After a fiery attack on a train leaves 104 people dead, the fates of three people become inextricably entangled. Jivan, a bright, striving woman from the slums looking for a way out of poverty, is wrongly accused of planning the attack because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir, a slippery gym teacher from Jivan’s former high school, has hitched his aspirations to a rising right-wing party, and his own ascent becomes increasingly linked to Jivan’s fall. Lovely, a spirited, impoverished, relentlessly optimistic hijra, who harbors dreams of becoming a Bollywood star, can provide the alibi that would set Jivan free, but her appearance in court will have unexpected consequences that will change the course of all of their lives.

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