"Do you have this book?  I heard it on NPR this morning." 

It's a question frequently asked of us here at the library and it's usually an easy one to answer.  As long as you had pencil and paper handy, weren't driving at the time, and were able to jot down the title of the aforementioned book.  Otherwise, we put on our detective hats and get to work!  

Author interviews, book reviews, booklists, and a lot more in between make NPR a great place to find your next great read!  Here's a selection of books recently featured; maybe you'll stumble across that title you've been wondering about!

Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette

Claire Luchette's debut, Agatha of Little Neon, is a novel about yearning and sisterhood, figuring out how you fit in (or don’t), and the unexpected friends who help you find your truest self.

The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon

When a personal trainer agrees to fake date her client, all rules are out the window in this "fun, heartfelt, and totally relatable" romantic comedy (Abby Jimenez, NYT bestselling author of Life's Too Short).

Edge Case by YZ Chin

When her husband suddenly disappears, a young woman must uncover where he went and who she might be without him in this striking debut of immigration, identity, and marriage.

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

When she suddenly loses her ability to play the violin, Anna Sun must learn to listen to her heart and falls in love with a man her parents disapprove of, forcing her to choose between meeting expectations and finding happiness in who she really is.

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

To come to terms with who she is and what she wants, Ailey, the daughter of an accomplished doctor and a strict schoolteacher, embarks on a journey through her family's past, helping her embrace her full heritage, which is the story of the Black experience in itself.

The Other Me by Sarah Zachrich Jeng

When she accidentally opens a door to an alternate reality where she never pursued her dreams, free-spirited artist Kelly, now married to a man she barely knows, tries to put the pieces together, shifting reality even more, which could cost her everything.

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.

Pilgrim Bell by Kaveh Akbar

With formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar’s second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. 

The Second Rebel by Linden A. Lewis

Linden A. Lewis returns with this next installment of The First Sister Trilogy, perfect for fans of Red Rising, The Handmaid\s Tale, and The Expanse.

Astrid has reclaimed her name and her voice, and now seeks to bring down the Sisterhood from within. Throwing herself into the lioness den, Astrid must confront and challenge the Aunts who run the Gean religious institution, but she quickly discovers that the business of politics is far deadlier than she ever expected.

Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In 1970s Mexico City, Maite, a secretary with a penchant for romance novels, searches for her missing neighbor, Leonora, a beautiful art student, which leads her to an eccentric gangster who longs to escape his own life, and together, they set out to discover the dangerous truth.

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad

Looking at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child, this dramatic story follows Vänna who comes to the rescue of a 9-year-old Syrian boy who has washed up on the shores of her small island and is determined to do whatever it takes to save him.

Women of Troy by Pat Barker

Held captive by the victorious Greeks, one time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles slave, forges alliances when she can with Priam’s aged wife, the defiant Hecuba and the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.

A World Without Police: How Strong Communities Make Cops Obsolete by Geo Maher

Offers concrete strategies for confronting and breaking police power, as a first step toward building community alternatives that make the police obsolete. Surveying the post-protest landscape in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Oakland, as well as the people who have experimented with policing alternatives at a mass scale in Latin America, Maher details the institutions we can count on to deliver security without the disorganizing interventions of cops: neighborhood response networks, community-based restorative justice practices, democratically organized self-defense projects, and well-resourced social services.