Staff Picks: Jan-Feb 2025
* CHRIS *
Playground
by Richard Powers
Powers' depth of knowledge, boundless imagination, and astonishing vocabulary are on full display in this unique tesseract of a novel. Tackling AI, colonialism, and deep-sea diving, Powers delivers a saga of friends and a cautionary tale of techno-capitalism that culminates in hopeful but complicated glimpse at human happiness.
* MICHAEL *
Too Soon
by Betty Shamieh
Following three generations of women from the same family, this stunning debut novel deftly examines art as an act of resistance, tribalism, and what it means to feel caught between two worlds. “Too Soon” is truly something special.
* CARA *
I Hope This Finds You Well
by Natalie Sue
After being disciplined at her humdrum office job, Jolene accidentally gains access to all of her colleagues' emails and decides to use the intel she gains from this breach of privacy to save her job. Natalie Sue's debut novel is a hilarious, thrillingly absurd take on office culture and the bonds we can forge when we dare to lift our heads up from our screens.
* SIERRA *
Superbloom
by Nicholas Carr
An essential read for anyone interested in an insightful and refreshingly human exploration of our obsession with communication technologies. With a nuanced understanding of the relentless drive to reduce friction in our lives, Nicholas Carr expertly asks us what simple pleasures we have trained ourselves to ignore, and how, with practice, we might experience them anew.
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