Category: AdultsReadOn

Botanical Horror

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

When socialite Noemí Taboada receives a desperate letter from her cousin, she travels to the eerie High Place estate in the remote Mexican countryside. What begins as a rescue mission soon spirals into a gothic nightmare as Noemí confronts the sinister secrets of the family’s crumbling mansion. Amid strange visions, twisted family dynamics, and a creeping dread that permeates the walls, Noemí must uncover the truth—or risk becoming trapped by it. Mexican Gothic is a chilling, atmospheric tale of horror, heritage, and feminine strength set against the haunting backdrop of 1950s Mexico.

Mexican Gothic – Book

Mexican Gothic – Large Print Book

Mexican Gothic – Audio eBook

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

Graveyard Shift is modern gothic mystery set in a haunted college town, where five night-shift workers cross paths in the local cemetery. When they discover a fresh, unmarked grave that shouldn’t exist, they’re drawn into a strange and suspenseful hunt for answers. With eerie twists, a shadowy gravedigger, and an ensemble of outsiders, this atmospheric tale unearths the darkness hiding just beneath the surface. Fans of academic intrigue and slow-burning suspense will find a chilling delight in this haunting story.

Graveyard Shift – Book

They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

In the eerie, decaying town of Mercy, Louisiana—where red algae chokes the water and people keep disappearing—Noon teams up with the guarded Covey to uncover the truth. As a powerful storm approaches, the two race against time to track a monstrous presence lurking beneath the surface. Suspenseful and atmospheric, this tale blends Southern Gothic dread with a gripping creature hunt.

They Bloom at Night – Book

Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews

When two teen boys discover that horrifying creatures from a series of eerie drawings are coming to life, they must confront a nightmare bleeding into reality. As the monsters close in, the boys race to uncover the source of the dark magic before it’s too late. Don’t Let the Forest In is a tense, supernatural thriller where imagination turns deadly, and survival means facing what lurks beyond the page.

Don’t Let the Forest In – Book

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

In What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher reimagines Poe’s classic with chilling flair, as retired soldier Alex Easton rushes to a crumbling estate where their childhood friend is dying under eerie circumstances. The Usher home is surrounded by grotesque fungi, unsettling wildlife, and a sinister lake that seems almost alive. As madness and decay close in, Alex must uncover the truth behind the haunting before it’s too late. Atmospheric, grotesque, and deeply unsettling, this gothic horror tale pulses with creeping dread.

What Moves the Dead – Book

What Moves the Dead – Audio eBook

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

In House of Hollow, something strange and sinister haunts Iris Hollow and her two sisters—ever since they vanished as children and returned with no memory and matching crescent-shaped scars. When the eldest sister, Grey, disappears again, Iris is pulled into a surreal and terrifying search through a world where reality unravels, and monsters wear familiar faces. With eerie encounters and haunting revelations, Iris must uncover the dark truth of their past before it consumes them all. This is a chilling, modern fairytale where beauty hides horror and memory is a dangerous thing.

House of Hollow – Book

Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew

Wyatt Westlock returns to the decaying estate of Willow Heath, ready to destroy the place that haunts her—until she discovers Peter, a boy she once cared for, caught in a cycle of ritual sacrifice. Bound to an eerie tradition that keeps ancient forest forces at bay, Peter is semi-immortal and trapped in a nightmare that resets every year. As dark secrets surface, Wyatt must decide whether to break the cycle or become part of it. Haunting and atmospheric, this story blends horror, memory, and the pull of something ancient in the woods.

Your Blood, My Bones – Book

Your Blood, My Bones – Audio eBook

Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson

In Bloom, Rosemary is instantly captivated by Ash, the charming and seemingly flawless vendor at the farmers’ market whose wares are as enchanting as she is. What begins as admiration quickly turns into a consuming obsession, blurring the line between desire and identity. But beneath Ash’s perfect exterior lies something far more sinister—and Ro may not be the predator in this tale. Lush and unsettling, this is a darkly seductive story where passion curdles into something dangerous.

Bloom – Book

Bloom – Audio eBook

Science-y Books for Non-Scientists

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

How is it possible that a sample of someone’s cells could lead to the most important advances in science without the world knowing their name? How could these cells launch an industry worth billions without their family receiving any profit? An absolute must-read, the shocking story of Henrietta Lacks confronts readers with issues of consent, ownership, and morality in the medical and scientific fields, and ensures that her name and the legacy of her contributions to science will live on.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Book

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – eBook

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Audio eBook

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

After its discovery by Pierre and Marie Curie, radium was marketed as a miracle cure and used extensively in everyday products from paint to cosmetics. Around World War 1, many young women considered themselves fortunate to have jobs painting watch dials with glowing radium paint…until they started to develop strange symptoms. The Radium Girls illuminates the lives of these brave women who found the strength to battle for workers’ rights and lay the groundwork for modern health and safety regulations, even as their bodies were being eaten away by radium.

The Radium Girls – Book

The Radium Girls – CD Audiobook

The Radium Girls – eBook

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Cadavers have contributed to many great scientific strides: through experimentation, dissection, and decomposition, scientists can study aspects of the natural world without risking lives. Stiff highlights specific uses for cadavers, from testing France’s first guillotines to analyzing plane crash sites, in order to examine ethical and moral issues related to postmortem bodies, and highlight the ways our lives have been quietly improved thanks to the dead.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers – Book

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

There aren’t many of us who would voluntarily pick up a Physics book, but this book might be the exception. Not many people would voluntarily pick up a physics book, but this one might be an exception. In less than one hundred pages, Seven Brief Lessons in Physics offers a refreshingly playful introduction to modern physics, with simple explanations of Einstein’s general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, and the role of humans in this fascinating world. To quote Rovelli, “Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world, and it’s breathtaking.”

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics – Book

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics – eBook

The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of Elements by Sam Kean

Behind the seemingly dull periodic table lie fascinating tales of treachery, obsession and adventure. The Disappearing Spoon takes a fun and humorous approach in its look at the development of the table and the history of the mad scientists who discovered the elements. This lighthearted book would make a great, if somewhat unusual, beach read.

The Disappearing Spoon – Book

The Disappearing Spoon – CD Audiobook

The Disappearing Spoon – eBook

Great Tragedies in History

Fires. Floods. Blizzards. Plagues. Ship sinkings. The month of May marks the anniversaries of several great tragedies in history.

May 7, 1915: A German U-boat sinks the British ocean liner Lusitania, resulting in the deaths of 1,198 people.

May 6, 1937: The Hindenburg bursts into flames while landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

May 4, 1970: The Ohio National Guard kills four unarmed students and wounds nine others during an anti-Vietnam War protest.

May 18, 1980: Mount St. Helens erupts. The eruption was one of the greatest volcanic explosions ever recorded in North America, killing 57 people and destroying the mountain’s volcanic cone.

Brush up on your history by reading one of these curated titles covering tragedies in history.

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

Using diaries, intelligent reports, letters, and other historical documents, Larson’s nonfiction account of this important World War I event reads a more like a thriller suspense novel. Dead Wake details the fatal last crossing of the British ocean liner the Lusitania in May 1915 while switching between perspectives of the boat’s passengers and the captain of the German U-boat.

Dead Wake – Book

Dead Wake – Large Print book

Dead Wake – Audiobook

Dead Wake – eBook

The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown

This account of the infamous Donner Party humanizes the group by following one of its members, new bride Sarah, as she, her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings head west for a better life. Their group joins the Donner party and is trapped in the mountains with them when heavy snowstorms prevent the group from reaching California. What follows are horrific hardships and decisions: eating their dead in order to survive.

The Indifferent Stars Above – Book

The Indifferent Stars Above – Large Print book

The Indifferent Stars Above – eBook

The Indifferent Stars Above – eAudiobook

The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin

January 12, 1888, began as an unseasonably warm morning across Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Minnesota, the weather so mild that children walked to school without coats and gloves. But that afternoon, without warning, the atmosphere suddenly, violently changed. One moment the air was calm; the next the sky exploded in a raging chaos of horizontal snow and hurricane-force winds. Temperatures plunged as an unprecedented cold front ripped through the center of the continent. By Friday morning, January 13, some five hundred people lay dead on the drifted prairie, many of them children who had perished on their way home from country schools.

The Children’s Blizzard – Book

The Children’s Blizzard – eBook

The Children’s Blizzard – eAudiobook

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff

The Only Plane in the Sky recounts the day of September 11, 2001 using “the words of those who lived it.” Graff uses oral histories, interviews, declassified documents, and more from almost 500 individuals from the events of that fateful day that results in a moving tribute to the lives lost and changed forever.

The Only Plane in the Sky print book

The Only Plane in the Sky large print book

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham

The Soviet government concealed the seriousness of the explosion of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986, which has led to deadly and long-lasting consequences. Higginbotham uses recently declassified documents and eyewitness testimony to create what is considered “the first English-language account that is close to the truth” of the deadliest and most expensive nuclear disaster in history.

Midnight in Chernobyl – Book

Midnight in Chernobyl – Large Print book

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time by John Kelly

In the mid 1300s, a bacterium that thrived in fleas carried by rats went on to kill 75 million people –around a third of the European population. Kelly makes this scary number from the Black Plague more than just a statistic: he makes it a reality as he conveys what people must have felt when they heard that hundreds were dying in a town just over from them.

The Great Mortality – Book

The Great Mortality – eBook

The Great Mortality – eAudiobook

70s Glam

The 1970s provided a bridge between the folksy ’60s and the over-the-top ‘80s, filling the disco decade with flowy bohemian fashion, manmade fabrics designed to show off bodies on the dance floor, and vintage references like turbans and feather boas. Sink into the glamour of the 1970s by reading a book set in that era. Not sure where to start? Here are some ideas!

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Written as an oral history of the fictional biggest band of the 70s, Daisy Jones & the Six, this book will scratch your tell-all itches. The ups and downs of stage life will have you feeling like a Fleetwood Mac roadie without all the hassle. (Hint: This one is especially good as an audiobook!)

Daisy Jones – Book

Daisy Jones – Large Print

Daisy Jones – CD Audiobook

Daisy Jones – eAudiobook

Nothing to Lose: The Making of Kiss 1972-1975 by Ken Sharp

70s music wasn’t all folksy singer/songwriters and disco, and the proof lies in this memoir about the formative years of the iconic rock band KISS. It’s an oral history of the band’s creation, and includes interviews not only with band members, roadies, and publicists, but also fellow musicians who watched it all happen, like Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, and members of Black Sabbath.

Nothing to Lose – Book

Never a Dull Moment: 1971 The Year That Exploded by David Hepworth

To look at the musical releases and events of 1971 is to see an overwhelming list of iconic songs, people, and moments. Here are just a select few covered in this history of the year: Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” David Bowie’s arrival in the US, The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly,” the death of Jim Morrison, Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” and the release of Carole King’s “Tapestry.”

Never a Dull Moment – Book

Never a Dull Moment – CD Audiobook

Never a Dull Moment – eAudiobook

Come Fly the World: the Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am by Julia Cooke

In addition to an iconic music scene, the 70s were also the glory days of air travel. This history of Pan Am stewardesses explores not only the freedom found in a jet setting lifestyle, but also the historical role that these women played during the Vietnam War and Operation Babylift.

Come Fly – Book

Come Fly – Large Print

Come Fly – eAudiobook

Groupies by Sarah Priscus

In 1977, Faun Novak loses her mother and starts a new life by hopping a bus to California with nothing more than a love of music and a Polaroid camera. She reconnects with a childhood friend and ends up enmeshed in the life of a rock ‘n roll hangaround, photographing the band and especially the groupies while also getting closer and closer to the dark side of the lifestyle.

Groupies – Book

Mysteries Around the World

Read a mystery set anywhere outside of the USA. No passport or tickets necessary – Why spend money and stress on travel when you can go anywhere in the world with a good story?! And if you are a fan of the mystery genre you are in luck. Many talented authors have written whodunnit page-turners set in a wide variety of locations. Pick a country, pick a mystery, and be transported.

Still Life by Louise Penny

Canada. This first book of the ‘Three Pines Series’ introduces you to a rural town of quirky characters and the popular series hero, Armand Gamache.

Still Life – Book

Still Life – eBook

Still Life – Audio CD

Still Life – eAudiobook

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

England. The first book in a bestselling mystery series set in a cozy retirement village. When a developer is found dead, a group of residents are on the case, whether the local police appreciate it or not! Charming and engaging, this series has captured the hearts of mystery readers, young and old.

The Thursday Murder Club – Book

The Thursday Murder Club – Large Print

The Thursday Murder Club – eBook

The Thursday Murder Club – eAudiobook

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen (translated by Lisa Hartford)

Denmark. Our introduction to detective Carl Mørck finds him recovering from a life-threatening case and leading Department Q, the less-than-prestigious dept that deals with cold cases. If you like strong settings and a flawed hero with quirky side characters this series will appeal to you.

The Keeper of Lost Causes – Book

The Keeper of Lost Causes – eBook

The Keeper of Lost Causes – Audio CD

In the Woods by Tana French

Ireland. If you like gritty crime with complex and flawed characters then you can join the numerous fans of this wildly popular series by Tana French. This first book in the ‘Dublin Murder Squad Series’ introduces detective Rob Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox as they investigate the murder of a 12-year-old girl.

In the Woods – Book

In the Woods – eBook

In the Woods – Audio CD

In the Woods – eAudiobook

Malice by Keigo Higashino (translated by Alexander O. Smith)

Japan. Police detective Kyochiro Kaga must solve the “who” and the “why” of an author’s death. This twist on the “locked room” mystery will show you why this is an international bestselling series.

Malice – Book

Malice – eAudiobook

Poetry on the Pages of Prose

April is National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world. Launched by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month’s goals are to honor the vital role poets and poetry play in our cultural identity and to celebrate the beauty and power of language. This booklist highlights five works of fiction written by poets. The books on this list offer readers stories that are intriguing, dark, poignant, witty, and satirical – all in language that possesses the sensorial and evocative qualities of poetry.

The Bell Jar by Slyvia Plath

The Bell Jar is the only novel written by American poet Sylvia Plath. The novel tells the story of Esther Greenwood, a 19-year-old undergraduate from Boston, as she experiences a mental breakdown during a summer internship with the fictional Ladies’ Day magazine in New York City. Esther is ambitious but finds she cannot feel anything about the work she’s doing for the magazine or for the bustling world of fashion and society the internship immerses her in. Plath’s novel is witty and dark, and deals with themes of women’s roles in society, identity, and mental health. After years of struggling with her own mental health issues, Plath took her own life, and many critics draw parallels between The Bell Jar’s storyline and Plath’s lived experiences.

Read Plath’s poetry in The Collected Poems, The Colossus & Other Poems, Ariel, Crossing the Water, and Winter Trees.

The bell jar print book

The bell jar ebook

The bell jar Audio ebook

The letters of Sylvia Plath print book

Red comet : the short life and blazing art of Sylvia Plath print book

10:04 by Ben Lerner

The narrator of American poet Ben Learner’s second novel is a young and successful writer. After receiving a potentially devastating medical diagnosis, the unnamed narrator is asked by his best friend to conceive a child with her. These events lead the narrator to a reckoning between his past and present. Set against the backdrop of a New York City facing increasingly frequent super storms and political unrest, the narrator must also confront the volatility of his (and everyone’s) future. 10:04 explores multiple plot lines and immerses the reader in Lerner’s sophisticated, playful language.

Read Lerner’s poetry in The Lights, Angle of Yaw, The Lichtenberg Figures, and Mean Free Path.

The Topeka school Audio ebook

Transcription ebook

Transient Worlds by Arthur Sze

Transient Worlds by Arthur Sze

Arthur Sze was appointed as the U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Born in New York City in 1950 to Chinese immigrant parents, Sze has authored 12 poetry collections, including Into the Hush (2025) and Sight Lines (2019), which won the National Book Award for Poetry. His other notable works include Compass Rose (2014), a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and The Glass Constellation (2021), which received the 2024 Science and Literature Award from the National Book Foundation. Sze has also published translations of Chinese poetry, including The Silk Dragon II (2024), reflecting his commitment to cross-cultural literary exchange.

Transient Worlds print book

The glass constellation print book

The glass constellation ebook

Into the hush print book

Into the hush ebook

The white orchid print book

“April is the cruelest month”: Poet Memoirs and Biographies

In honor of one of the most influential poems of the 20th century that begins with the line, “April is the cruellest month”, this April check out these biographies about poets, their muses, and their influence. Not a fan of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land or poetry in general? Try out some memoirs and biographies that don’t rhyme, couplet, or break midsentence— Give prose a chance and learn about some of the most influential poets from different eras.

The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster and the Year that Changed Literature by Bill Goldstein

Following the lives of some of the most famous modernist writers in 1922, this book chronicles the personal experiences and literary triumphs of Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, and E. M. Forster during a pivotal year. If you’re interested in how these writers were propelled by the same artistic movements and environments, this will be a fun read for you.

The World Broke in Two print book

The world broke in two Audio ebook

Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver

This collection of autobiographical essays and poetry from renowned Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award contemporary poet, Mary Oliver, deals head on with the concepts of creativity, artistic expression, and finding your way with the help of writers who have come before.

Upstream print book

Upstream Audio ebook

A poetry handbook ebook

A poetry handbook Audio ebook

A rare recording of Mary Oliver reading her own poetry Audio ebook

Dream work print book

Little Alleluias : collected poetry and prose print book

Poet warrior: a memoir by Joy Harjo

Poet Laureate Joy Harjo offers a vivid, lyrical, and inspiring call for love and justice in this contemplation of her trailblazing life. In the second memoir from the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, Joy Harjo invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her “poet-warrior” road.

Poet warrior print book

Poet warrior Large print book

Washing my mother’s body: a ceremony for grief print book

Girl warrior: on coming of age print book

For a girl becoming print book

For a girl becoming Audio ebook

Beyond the Dream: Exploring the full Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is often remembered through a few familiar lines from “I Have a Dream,” but his legacy extends far beyond a single speech. When King’s work is reduced to convenient quotations, the depth of his ideas and his growth as a bold, outspoken activist are often lost. Throughout his life, he challenged economic injustice, opposed the Vietnam War, and called for a “radical revolution of values.” This booklist invites you to read deeper and engage with King’s own words. By exploring his speeches, essays, and books in full, you can better understand the breadth of his vision and the lasting relevance of his call for justice.

Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr.  

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recounts the 1963 Birmingham campaign, highlighting the power of nonviolent direct action in one of the nation’s most segregated cities. The book reflects on the broader civil rights struggle, the work still ahead, and includes the landmark “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” 

Why We Can’t Wait – Book

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. edited by Clayborne Carson 

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. traces his life as a student, minister, family man, and global leader shaped by his vision of equality. Through personal reflections and insights on major historical figures, it portrays a nation in change and the power of hope to inspire action. 

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. – Book

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. – eBook 

The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. – Audio eBook

A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. edited by James Melvin Washington 

This acclaimed collection offers a concise look into the ideas of Martin Luther King Jr., exploring his views on nonviolence, social justice, and the ethics of love and hope. Both a call to action and a source of comfort, A Testament of Hope encourages continued work toward equality through compassion and moral courage. 

A Testament of Hope – Book

A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. edited by Clayborne Carson and Kris Shepard 

The book features the full text of King’s most famous speech, “I Have a Dream,” his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance address, and Beyond Vietnam, his compelling call to end the war. It also includes tributes and reflections from figures such as Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, and the Dalai Lama. 

A Call to Conscience – Book

A Call to Conscience – Audio eBook 

Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King, Jr. 

In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his final manuscript, analyzing the civil rights movement and calling for economic justice, including fair wages, housing, and education. His message—that society has the means to end poverty—continues through the work of Coretta Scott King and Vincent Harding, who helped carry his legacy forward. 

Where Do We Go from Here – Book