Helen Cartwright returns home after the loss of her husband and son and only wishes to quietly leave the world. Until she finds a lost mouse... This is a beautiful novel about community and reminder that there is always the opportunity to connect…
- General Recommendations
- Staff-Created List
What We Loved in 2025: Fiction
These are the books staff discovered and loved this last year. It's a mix of current and older titles.
StaffLibrary Staff
Hennepin County Library
User from Hennepin County Library
35 items
Sipsworth
a Novel
- A novel following the disappearance of two sisters on the remote Kamchatka peninsula in Russia - this one had me hooked through the very last page. - Anna
- This novel begins in the present day with two siblings on the cusp of learning a family history that's been hidden from them - and then delves into the past, spanning continents, generations, and identities. A great read for lovers of an…
- This year I rediscovered Maggie O'Farrell and have been devouring her work. The Hand That First Held Mine has stuck with me. Two mothers across two points in time, as the connections between them are slowly revealed. - Bailey
- A beautiful, expansive, emotional fable-like story about trying to figure out how to live and about grief. I highly recommend this book to dead dad club members. - Lucy
- A zombie book in which the narrator is consciously grieving their own life. It's astoundingly pared down in its words, everything said is so essential and emotional with no excess. - Lucy
- For fans of a dark and twisted short story collection - these connected stories reveal the lengths some will go when rejection exposes their biggest secrets and insecurities. - Anna
- A contemporary reinterpretation of Mansfield Park that reckons with race, class, and family trauma. - Kimberly
- I love a nonlinear book! This one jumps between three time periods and places -- Shanghai, Hong Kong, and the United States, to reveal the story of two people who met and fell in love as children, became separated by war, and reconnected decades…
- A true-to-life, funny, and incredibly romantic story (though it is not a romance) of love lost and found, intergenerational friendship, and the things that are worth keeping. A great book club pick, too! - Christie (Mary loved it too!)
- My mom and I listened to this audiobook on a car ride. An interesting thought experiment, but also a good time! I especially liked the audiobook, because you get to hear Bob read it for you. - Emma
- Well-written and compelling ghost story with indigenous characters taking on a history of greedy white folks, spirits and introduced demons in a horror story that will pluck at your heartstrings while sowing a quiet fear. A great book club pick,…
- The author of the Stolen Coast tries writing a haunted house story. - Ian
- A funny and entertaining book about relationships and sexuality. Recommended by Christina. (Anna loved it too!)
- From one of our many amazing local indie presses, this is a stark and unromanticized fictionalized account of the very real experiences of mental illness, and a highly effective demonstration of the double-edged choices faced by those who experience…
- It was just as touching and had many pure moments of laughter, joy and sadness as her novel "Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love." I didn't want the story to end. Mary
- This is an amazing book set in Palestine in the 90s looking at the lives of various women and the cultural and social aspects of life that they have to navigate. - Recommended by Christina.
- We read this for queer romance book club! I read it in high school, but it felt more poignant as an adult. A book written in 1913 and published in 1971 about the experience of being a gay man, but in many ways it still doesn't feel dated. "It comes…
- Fantasy. A brilliant start to a fantasy series, it was an emotional roller coaster for me reading this, but nothing made me laugh more this year. - Antonio B___Long Live Evil was a hilarious and heartfelt twist on the popular dark fantasy and…
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