October Staff Picks from CLP – Squirrel Hill

Emy’s pick It begins with an ending. Six months before they were to be married, Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn’s fiancé broke off their engagement, leaving her stunned and reeling. Looking for stability – and health insurance – she married a friend instead. Then, while sharing a home and tending to a garden together, the marriage of convenience turned into a marriage of love.

Megan’s pick In the empire, magic determines your fate. But Yumi is tired of being a failed Cricket. Their magic is lousy and boring. She dreams instead of the sparkling magic of Fireflies, whose powers rival the sun. If only she could harness her talents like other magicians. For now, Yumi is ignored by even the crickets who are supposed to follow her spells. Then, Yumi gets a chance to prove herself sooner than expected when all sorcerers are summoned for the princess’s coronation.

Laura’s pick In the whimsical world of Tangleroot Valley, magic flows like the seasons, and every witch has her cat dragon–except Aloysia Papplewick. She’s far from bonding with her fiery feline familiar, and with her magical farm in chaos, her prattling pumpkin patch meddling in her life and the annual Harvest Festival to prepare for, Aloysia has enough to handle–even before her best friend’s insufferable brother, Hollis, brings danger and distraction to her door.

Halle’s pick The stunning third collection from award-winning poet Maya C. Popa dramatizes the paradox of correspondence: the private worlds shaped by the act of writing, and the charged silences that follow. Drawing from nineteenth-century courtship letters, the collection lingers in the rush of love and its fallout.

Heidi’s pick Sadie Revelare has always believed that the curse of four heartbreaks that accompanies her magic would be worth the price. But when her grandmother is diagnosed with cancer with only weeks to live, and her first heartbreak, Jake McNealy, returns to town after a decade, her carefully structured life begins to unravel.

Salem’s pick Learn how to cultivate your own magical garden, begin your journey with folk herbalism, and awaken to your place in nature through practical skills from an experienced Appalachian forager and witch.

Ana’s pick Although it has Hikaru’s face, his voice, and even his memories, whatever came down from the mountains six months ago isn’t Yoshiki’s best school friend.

Jen’s pick Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Lear, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old; she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

Allison’s pick Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends. Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.

Megan’s pick Galaxy ‘Alex’ Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride.

Emy’s pick For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back–almost as if by magic…

Allison’s pick Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls lined with thousands upon thousands of statues. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; and waves thunder up staircases, while rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house

Ana’s pick Ursula K. LeGuin meets The Road in a post-apocalyptic modern classic of female friendship and intimacy. Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.

Ana’s pick In 2004, we mourned the loss of one of America’s true theatrical innovators. Spalding Gray took his own life by jumping from the Staten Island ferry into the waters of New York Harbor, finally succumbing to the impossible notion that he could in fact swim to Cambodia. Originally published in 1985, Swimming to Cambodia is reissued here 20 years later in a new edition as a tribute to Gray’s singular artistry.

Salem’s pick When a group of high school outsiders discover witchcraft, they intend on using it for their own gain.