The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister (publication date: 10/21) successfully combines a murder mystery and a magic performance in a captivating and, in itself, magically artful way. Also, Ruslan and Lyudmila by Alexander Pushkin. It's got a great cover for this time of year. I really enjoyed reading it. —Jenny, Jefferson Market Library

I'm currently reading Greenglass House by Kate Milford. Our young protagonist lives in an Inn that has an unexpected number of strange guests over the winter holidays. Mysteries and secrets abound in this book full of squabbling guests and missing possessions—can't wait to find out the answers! —Stephanie, Seward Park

I just finished Miranda July's upcoming novel The First Bad Man, due out in January 2015. On page 20 I had declared it the funniest book I have ever read, with David Sedaris as a distant second. About half way in it got pretty explicit and I was afraid someone might be reading over my shoulder. All in all it was completely unpredictable and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Jeanette Winterson and Lena Dunham.​ —Lynn, Reader Services

I am currently reading We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart, which is a YA book with a lot of buzz, and am also reading The Winter Guest, by Pam Jenoff, because I have enjoyed her other books, which I would describe as literate historical romances. —Ronni, Morningside Heights Library

I am reading The Burning of the World: A Memoir of 1914 by Bela Zombory-Moldovan. I picked it because of my Hungarian heritage, and also because it's a New York Review Books title. I am big in to discovering these rich and varied titles! —Jennifer, Mulberry Street Library

I'm currently reading Hello, NY: An Illustrated Love Letter to the Five Boroughs. Artist, author, and New Yorker Julia Rothman brings forth an eclectic assortment of historical tidbits like how the New York Public Library lion sculptures got their names in this tender and humorous book. She also tells you about different places you can visit like the hidden tennis courts in Grand Central Station. This is a truly informative city guide even for a native New Yorker, like myself. Plus I love the illustrations! —Stevie, Hudson Park Library

The Sweet Science & Other Writings by A.J. Liebling. I discovered A.J. Liebling from reading old (really old) issues of the New Yorker. His beat was the world of boxing, horse racing, scammers, schemers, con men and ne'er-do-wells. The denizens of this world had names as colorful as the lives they led: "Count de Pennies," "Colonel John R. Stingo," "Hockticket Charlie," "Acid Test Ike," and "Judge Horumph" are a few examples. If you've read and enjoyed Damon Runyon, you'll love Liebling, who is by far the better writer. —Wayne, BookOps

I just finished 10:04 by Ben Lerner. I really enjoyed his first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, and had Reader's Den discussion on it. 10:04 discusses relate-able events, while also bringing in poetic and aesthetic elements that make you want to linger on a subject long after you've put the book down. I've just begun Sōseki's Kokoro. It is a quiet book, with timeless themes. I read that it is required reading in school in Japan, so it drew me in from a cultural standpoint. —Jessica, Mid-Manhattan Library

I am reading: Persuasion, Captain Wentworth and Cracklin' Cornbread by Mary Jane Hathaway (November 2014). An out of the box retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion in the American South. I thought it would be good to read Jane Austen again in a more contemporary setting. —Jean, Bronx Library Center

I'm reading Persuasion, Captain Wentworth and Cracklin' Cornbread by Mary Jane Hathaway (out 11/11/14) and The Seven Poor Travellers by Charles Dickens (transcribed from the Chapman & Hall 1894 edition). —Virginia, Special Formats Processing

The Marco Effect by Jussi Adler-Olsen. Detective Carl Morck is back and so is his rag-tag group of investigators who form the cold case squad known as Dept. Q. This Scandinavian crime fiction series features deliciously sinister villains, engaging forensic detail, and the ongoing soap opera of the lives of members of the investigative team, who harbor their own secrets. In this fifth installment of the series a Gypsy street urchin crosses paths with high-level corporate malfeasance and murder. When an old missing persons case points to homicide, Morck and his team must connect the dots before the high-stakes cover-up gets more deadly. For fans of Stieg Larsson who also want a good laugh... —Jeremy, Billy Rose Theatre Collection

I am reading Planesrunner by Ian McDonald—steampunk-inspired parallel universe action adventure novel set in alternative versions of London, England. I am reading it because Cory Doctorow blurbed it on Boing Boing—and I will give any book Cory Doctorow suggests a shot. Also, the main character is Everett Singh and #We(Really)Need(More)DiverseBooks like this. —Amie, MyLibraryNYC

Life is a Wheel, by Bruce Weber. My brother-in-law recommended this one (Weber was his high school English teacher). The main appeal is not that the guy is riding his bicycle across America for the first time, but that he's doing it for the second time, at the age of fifty-seven. He says the first time you do something like a long bike ride, innocence is insulation; the second time, you know what you're going to be putting yourself through. Some good middle-aged wisdom here on life, death, love—and riding on gravel. —Rob, IT Initiatives & Project Management Office

Reading My Real Children by Jo Walton—a writer who absolutely amazed me with Among Others and Tooth and Claw. Walton does a long study of the butterfly effect here, pivoting a life at the acceptance or denial of a marriage proposal. She works really well with concepts where either interpretation could be true. This one is a bit like Sliding Doors meets Life After Life. —Carmen, Milstein Division

I just finished Geoff Dyer's first novel Colour of Memory. The novel follows a group of friends in and around London's Brixton neighborhood in the mid to late '80s as they move apartments, attend parties, drink beer, attempt to write, attempt to create art, attempt to keep steady employment, and attempt to find meaning in their lives. While the novel was originally published in the UK in 1989, it was only released in the United States this year. I'll read most anything Dyer writes; his narrators (often Dyer himself) are fine company to keep. —Rebecca, Collections Strategy

I recently finished Dance to the Piper by Agnes de Mille, the great American choreographer who was an equally great writer. Covering her early years as a dancer and choreographer, the book ends with her breakthrough as choreographer of Oklahoma! in 1943. While I knew the outcome, de Mille created such a compelling narrative that I was riveted to every word, and her hard-fought success brought Dance to the Piper to a tremendous emotional climax. Her vivid descriptions of the dance, film, and theater worlds she inhabited, along with her accessible writing style, make it an ideal book for young readers interested in the arts. —Kevin, Library Sites and Services

I'm finishing Art Spiegelman's Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, and I can't believe I've waited so long to read this amazing nonfiction comic! A few weeks ago, someone left an unwanted copy of part one of Maus: A Survivor's Tale at the information desk, so I took that as a sign and checked it out. I devoured it and immediately put Part II on hold. I found the structure of the story extremely effective. Spiegelman portrays his difficult relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor, as he elicits his father's memories of his life in Poland before and during the Nazi occupation and his imprisonment in Auschwitz, alternating between the present and the past. He makes himself the audience for the story as well as the reader as he tries to understand his father. The comic format and animal metaphors make the history accessible on different levels without trivializing a tragic subject. I felt menace, sorrow, and anger as I read, and can now understand first-hand why Maus was the first comic to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. —Elizabeth, Mid-Manhattan Library

The Price of Thirst: Global Water Inequality and the Coming Chaos by Karen Piper. There's business in water? Yes! BIG Business. Controlling fresh unpolluted water sources is lucrative and global businesses have financial and political backings to make it happen. From California to India, water privatization is only expanding and so is the threat. Taking resources owned by the people these business aren't looking out for humanities best interests. They're only looking to dance under the dollar signs brought on by a population's thirst. While I'm not finished with the book, I appreciate the author's informative approach and the inclusion of people all over the globe. When the title caught my interest, the whole idea seemed far-fetched, but the references for even the most minor details and their clear and well supported arguments are persuasive. I'm looking forward to the part where I learn what I can do to push back. —Jaqueline, Ask NYPL

After I wrote the blog post about cleaning things I was asked why I didn't include Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson—it's basically the bible of homemaking. It's huge and I'm poking through it slowly but I might end up buying the ebook just to have as a reference. A few days after starting that I saw The Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits on the staff picks shelf at Mid-Manhattan and grabbed it up... I guess you could say I'm going through a bit of a phase. Fictionwise, I just started To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris. I remember really enjoying the dark humor of Then We Came to the End and this one seems to strike a similar existential note. —Lauren, Reference and Research Services

Next year is going to be the year I walk across England on the Coast to Coast path. I'm reading The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane for his beautiful descriptions of paths in the UK and their history and meditations on his experience of getting around on foot. —Emily, Children's Educational Programming

I've just finished Personal, by Lee Child. The nineteenth in the Jack Reacher series, it finds our lone-wolf hero back working for the U.S. government, but no less lone. He's been dispatched to London as an "unacknowledged asset," on a mission to stop the mad sniper who might be out to kill a whole bunch of European heads of state soon to assemble there. Or is our sniper only out to get Reacher? Of course a strong female law enforcement type comes along for the ride, and of course the pages practically turn themselves. —Kathie, Special Formats Processing

Right now, I'm reading Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking) by Christian Rudder. Written by one of the founders of the dating website OK Cupid (and with a data set based on his work there), it's a fascinating look at the world of big data, with all kinds of interesting, funny, surprising, and sometimes depressing insights into modern life. —Susie, Mulberry Street Library

I am reading Festive in Death by J D Robb, a police procedural. —Serena, Ask NYPL

Right this minute, I am reading The Road to Help; the Revolution in Charity, Philanthropy, and International Development. The author, Miles Wortman, a friend of mine, is an historian and economic development consultant of prodigious intellect and experience. When he appeared last Monday at Mid-Manhattan's Author @ the Library series he skillfully advanced his thesis, which is that giving has become a big business with a huge marketing apparatus for feel good spin. It's 10% of the American economy, in fact, when you factor in the legions of attorneys and accountants and administrators who service the sector. Wortman's narrative is studded with evidence that the charity industry wields outsized influence. Philanthropy impacts communities when, for example, massive educational or health initiatives, driven by a donor's personal vision, are launched and summarily dismantled if results fall short. Because charitable deductions equals billions lost in tax revenues, Miles shares philanthropist Lewis Cullman's conviction that the tax code must be revised. But he's cynical about the much heralded "giving pledge" that 167 billionaires have signed. It tickles me to note that the seeds for the ballyhoo'd giving pledge were sown at SIBL's Financial Services Leadership Forum when Lewis Cullman publicly challenged Warren Buffet to give away his fortune now rather than later so he'd have the fun of seeing his largesse in action. —Kristin, Science, Industry and Business Library

I just finished The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball, which tells the story of a couple's efforts to start a farm that goes beyond the usual CSA and provides its members with a full diet, all year round. This engrossing story of the transformation of a woman, a marriage, and a farm came out a few years ago, but I know NYPL readers would enjoy it so I submitted the Recommend a Title for Purchase form in hopes we can add it to our collection. I've traveled from North Country New York back to the familiar landscape of Alaska's Chilkat Peninsula, and just started Heather Lende's Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs. I loved her first book, If You Lived Here I'd Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska and am looking forward to hearing more quirky and heartfelt stories about the good folks of Haines, Alaska, population 2200. —Jenny, Reference and Research Services