We read to know that we are not alone

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern • 2011

<b><b><b><i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER </b>• Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in the spellbinding novel that captured the world's imagination. <b>•</b> "Part love story, part fable ... defies both genres and expectations." —<i>The Boston Globe</i><br><br></b></b>The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called <i>Le Cirque des Rêves</i>, and it is only open at night. <br><br>But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

Happy Place

Emily Henry • 2023

What Moves the Dead (Sworn Soldier, 1)

T. Kingfisher • 2022

An Instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller<br/>A Barnes & Noble Book of the Year Finalist<br/>A Goodreads Best Horror Choice Award Nominee<br/><br/>A gripping and atmospheric reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” from Hugo, Locus, & Nebula award-winning author T. Kingfisher<br/><br/>*A very special hardcover edition, featuring foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.*<br/><br/>When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.<br/><br/>What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.<br/><br/>Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.<br/><br/>Also by T. Kingfisher<br/>What Feasts at Night<br/>A House with Good Bones<br/>Nettle & Bone<br/>Thornhedge<br/>A Sorceress Comes to Call

Loveless

Alice Oseman • 2022

When Women Were Dragons: A Novel

Kelly Barnhill • 2023

<b><b>A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are. • The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of <i>The Girl Who Drank the Moon</i><br></b></b><br>Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of.<br>  <br> Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and <br>watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden.<br><br> In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. <i>When Women Were Dragons</i> exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.