Staff Picks
Out of the Ashes by Stephanie Browitt
Biography 92 BRO
Picked by Sandra
A powerful memoir about one young woman's survival against the odds, and how the love of her mother saved her. When the White Island volcano erupted in New Zealand in 2019, it shattered the lives of Stephanie and Marie Browitt. Stephanie, just 23 years old, suffered horrific burns to 70 per cent of her body and lost her younger sister, Krystal Eve, in the tragedy. Both Stephanie and her father, Paul, were placed in an induced coma, leaving Marie to face the unimaginable: the potential loss of her entire family. As Marie ran from one ICU room to another, Paul lost his battle to survive. Out of the Ashes is the extraordinary story of how Stephanie miraculously fought back, with her remarkable mum beside her every step of the way, and how mother and daughter were forced to find strength in each other to survive the unthinkable. This deeply moving story explores Stephanie's fight for survival, her gruelling recovery, and her rise as an advocate for body positivity and resilience. Through heartbreak, hope and their unbreakable bond, Stephanie and Marie Browitt show us the power of love, courage and the human spirit.
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3,001 would you rather questions : ponder, debate, inspire, and inquire with these provocative prompts
Adult non-fiction 793.01 THR
Picked by Bill
Start asking questions! 3,001 Would You Rather Questions is your go-to for game nights, road trips, icebreakers, or just sharing laughs with friends and family. Packed with thousands of clean, creative, and surprising prompts, this journal invites everyone to explore their personalities while sparking thought-provoking, funny-and sometimes meaningful-conversations. Whether you're pondering on your own or using it as a game with a group, the format is simple-two choices per question, and endless insights. Flip through for lighthearted entertainment, or dive deeper to reflect on your values, quirks, and what really makes you you. This provocative book includes questions from the silly to the serious, including categories such as: Food Work, Lifestyle, Hobbies, Health, Future and the Past.
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Sold by Patricia McCormick
Teen fiction
Picked by Pam
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution. An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt-then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave. Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother's words--Simply to endure is to triumph--and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision-will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?
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Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Adult fiction
Picked by Adela
In the summer of 1980, Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston's Johnson Space Centre, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates. As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant. Atmosphere is a soaring story about the transformative power of love - this time among the stars.
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Glyph by Ali Smith
Adult fiction
Picked by Dani
Ghosts don't exist. They don't. End of Story, however. It is haunting. Everything tells it. It all starts when Petra and her little sister Patch hear a horrifying story from the past and find themselves making up a ghost. Is it imaginary? Is it real? Then it all starts again thirty years later when Petra, now estranged from Patch, finds a phantom horse kicking the furniture to pieces in her bedroom. What to do? She phones her sister. In a chiaroscuro dance through our increasingly antagonistic era, Glyph asks if we're attending to the history that's made us and to the history we're making. A funny, warm and clear-eyed take on where we are now, Glyph is about what our imaginations are for and how, in a broken, brutal and divided time, we rekindle care, solidarity, resistance and openness.
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The Tailor by Tim Sullivan
Adult fiction
Picked by Anna
Measure twice. Cut once. A bespoke tailor boards the 10:00 train from Bristol to London. Before it reaches Bath, he’s found dead in the toilet, his throat slit and a plastic bag pulled over his head. DS George Cross deduces that this wasn’t a robbery, nothing about the killing is random. It’s an execution. George’s investigation brings him dangerously close to a cold and merciless world. And is it his imagination or is he being followed? With the highest conviction rate of any officer in the force, someone will do anything to stop George from getting to the truth.
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Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Children's Fiction
Picked by Luke
There was a wild crashing sound, a ripping of metal, and the plane blew through the trees, out over the water and down, down to slam into the lake ...
Brian is a city boy. Not used to living rough. Until his plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness. All he has is a hatchet, and a desperate will to survive. Now Brian must learn to live the hard way - or die.
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