The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy Reichert

Title: The Kindred Spirits Supper Club
Author: Amy Reichert 
Genre: Romance

This is a sweet, light, fun read about two people trying to escape their respective family legacies, and the complicated ways these haunt them. (Hint!) With a touch of the supernatural, lots of local small town politics and feuds, and some sweet romantic gestures, this is a delightful little concoction of a book. Set in the Wisconsin Dells, it has a lot of local flavor and references that were wonderful to see!

- Meagan

Check out The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy Reichert @ the library!

Cold by Mariko Tamaki

Title: Cold
Author: Mariko Tamaki
Genre: Young Adult

Told through two alternating points of view, Cold shares the story of a teenager who died too young as well as the story of the teenagers around town discovering what happened to him. The narrators are Georgia, a young lady who didn't know the dead teen, but can't seem to shake the feeling that she had seen him before - at her own house; and Todd, the ghost? spirit? of the boy who died, trying to piece together his own memories of what happened leading up to his death outside, overnight, left in a cold park. This book was an interesting exploration of what it means to be missing some of the information, and what worth there may be in putting it all together for yourself.

- Katrina

Check out Cold by Mariko Tamaki @ the library!

Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

Title: Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Author: Adam Higginbotham
Genre: Non-fiction

This goes through the Chernobyl nuclear disaster almost moment by moment, but also provides detailed context and history of the Soviet nuclear program. It's truly horrifying, and makes you realize how much worse things could have been if only a few things had been different. It's a really great read for anyone who likes disaster books!!

- Meagan

Check out Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham @ the library!

One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

 

Title: One Dark Window
Author: Rachel Gillig
Genre: Fantasy; Dystopia

Elspeth Spindle should not still be alive. In her society, anyone who catches a specific disease has a tendency to develop magical abilities, and magic is forbidden in this society. Her father hid her and kept her safe...but in order to do so, he shipped her off to live with her aunt and uncle in the country, where she could be more easily sheltered and kept from society's prying eyes.

Elspeth has another entity trapped in her head, known as The Nightmare. It's a peculiar type of magic, and has brought her to the attention of the king's cousin who needs her help. But in order to help, Elspeth will have to share many of her long-protected secrets, and has to decide - is this the cause, and the person, who is worth the risk?

- Katrina

Check out One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig @ the library!

The Widowmaker by Hannah Morrissey

Title: The Widowmaker
Author: Hannah Morrissey
Genre: Mystery; Fiction; Suspense

Morgan heads back to her hometown of Black Harbor, a city in Wisconsin along Lake Michigan. She takes a job photographing the area's wealthiest family whose patriarch mysteriously vanished years before. Then she witnesses the death of a police officer who had been investigating the man's disappearance. As she becomes more involved with the family, she teams up with Ryan Hudson, the new lead investigator of the cold case. Great characters and an atmospheric setting make this mystery hard to put down.

- Sarah

Check out The Widowmaker by Hannah Morrissey @ the library!

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr

Title: The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers
Author: Samuel Burr
Genre: Fiction

A young man raised by a group of eccentric puzzlemakers is sent off on a puzzle of his own, determined to find his birth parents. This sweet mystery has all the highlights of a cozy book: eccentric older characters, gentle mysteries, and a super sweet happy ending.

- Meagan

Check out The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr @ the library!

Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar

Title: Counting the Cost
Author: Jill Duggar
Genre: Memoir

This was an interesting recounting of a specific, rather unique, story of a child growing up - but what I found fascinating is the universality that was captured in this story.

Jill Duggar spent many of her teenage years on her family's reality television show. Her parents garnered the public interest with their very large family (currently 19 kids) and saw their fame as a chance to spread their own views on raising children and families under rather more strict conservative Christian ideals than are commonly followed in America. It was a chance for the public to see something a little unusual, but it also exposed their family to a world full of ideas and ideals that the children - especially the girls - had been very sheltered from.

This tells the story of which of those ideals Jill eventually began questioning as she grew up and moved out, forming a family of her own. While few of us can relate to having our lives splashed across tabloids and told through headlines, there is a commonality to the idea of having to begin looking at - and re-evaluating - those rules that we just accepted, for years, because that was what our parents said was true.

- Katrina

Check out Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar @ the library!