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It's summer, which means spending all your time outside. While you're there, take a few minutes to appreciate your surroundings and the plants and animals you share space with—because there are a lot of them, even in the middle of New York City. Let yourself be inspired by Unseen City: The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails, & Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness. —Kay Menick, Digital Curatorial Assistant

Emily Giffin is back with yet another summer hit. First Comes Love explores the difficult relationship between two sisters, who are very different. This is an engaging read, with relatable yet flawed characters that gives a detailed look into realistic family conflict and drama. —Morgan O'Reilly, Young Adult Librarian, Aguilar

I just finished reading The Girls by Emma Cline, released on June 14 of this year. It's inspired by the Charles Manson killings and focuses on a fourteen year-old girl who gets swept up in a Manson-esque group. Cline explores what it means to be a girl in our world and how the need to be loved, accepted, and seen can lead to terrible consequences. —Jessica Maldoff, Children's Librarian, 115th Street

I just finished The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson, her retelling of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale (available to keep in SimplyE). Retold in a contemporary setting, the book has her signature lyricism and nuance, with a fair smattering of mystery and violence. —Jennifer Craft, Library Manager, Mulberry Street

Two thumbs way up for debut author Alwyn Hamilton's Rebel of the Sands. Amani is from back country, the only life she knows is gun slinging and the desert. Determined to break away, she disguises herself as a man participates in a marksman contest. Trapt between an unhappy future and escape, she takes a chance by escaping with a mysterious foreigner named Jin. The two embark on a caravan through the desert only to get caught up in the kingdom's rebellion. It might sound cheesy, but this is a real page turned. With fantastic mythology and great characters, you'll find yourself caught up waiting for "a new dawn, a new desert!" —Chantalle Uzan, Young Adult Librarian, Francis Martin

Beauty is a Wound is a lush book of extremes: equal parts satire and epic, it is at once marvelous and horrifying. Kurniawan's novel illustrates the history of Indonesia in the twentieth century through the eyes of Dewi Ayu, a beautiful, brilliant prostitute with a can-do attitude. If you're into ghosts, magical realism, folklore, and historical fiction, this book is a must-read. You probably have heard that 2016 is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, but did you know that this year also marks the 400th year since Shakespeare's contemporary and literary peer, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra shuffled off this mortal coil? Cervantes' Don Quixote (some translations available to keep in SimplyE) is an endlessly entertaining novel that contains just as much wisdom, humor, tragedy, and insight as Shakespeare's collected plays. Read Edith Grossman's translation for the truest and most vibrant experience of this great work in English. —Nancy Aravecz, Adult Librarian Trainee, Jefferson Market

LaRose by Louise Erdrich is a multilayered story of grief, family and community. It has a rich sense of place and the female teenage friendships are refreshingly supportive while also feeling very real. The novel itself is quite optimistic despite being built around the accidental death of a child. It makes me want to read all of her back list immediately. —Alexis Walker, Senior Librarian, Epiphany

I'm using the New York Public Library SimplyE reader app and making my way through the detective novels of Peter Lovesey. Though I must say that I prefer a bound volume for reading at the beach or at night, the SimplyE reader is a great tool when you need instant gratification. I hope that we have enough e-copies of the novels once this post goes live—I wouldn't want to have to wait for my next installment of Superintendent Peter Diamond's adventures in Bath, England and environs with the Avon and Somerset Constabulary. Every time he discusses a case with his colleagues in the Manvers Street station canteen, or a pub, or tea shop I need to fix a snack. Diamond does enjoy his food. —Virginia L. Bartow, Senior Rare Book Cataloger and Special Formats Cataloging Instruction Coordinator, Special Formats Processing

In Camille Perri's The Assistants, what starts as a clerical error-cum-windfall quickly turns into a company-wide embezzlement scheme run by the assistants to the powerful directors of a media conglomerate. What the Nanny Saw by Fiona Neill is about a powerful British family's undoing during the mid-2000s financial crisis—like an accident, you can see the end coming and you can't look away. —Rebecca Dash Donsky, Manager, 67th Street

Two best friends are in a car accident during a student tour of Italy. The passenger, Simone, is dead and the driver, Jill, claims memory loss of the whole trip. According to social media and the press, it's murder and the Italian detectives certainly have their suspicions. However, Jill loved Simone like a sister and can't believe that she would ever harm her friend intentionally. So was it an accident or murder? Read With Malice and you decide. In Two Summers, Summer is just about to get on a plane to fly to Provence, France to visit her artist father, when she gets a phone call and that's when her life splits in two. In one summer, she doesn't answer the call and continues on to Provence where she meets a charming French boy and eats lots of chocolate croissants and in the other, she answers the phone, stays home, finally talks to her crush and discovers new sides to herself. Which one is her perfect one? —Anne Rouyer, Mulberry Street

Cao Xueqin's Story of the Stone, otherwise known as Dream of the Red Chamber, is one of the four great works of Chinese literature. The work itself is famous for casting a spell over its reader, rendering this fascinating piece impossible to put down. The romantic tale of the love between the eccentric Bao-yu and the moody Dai-yu, coupled with strange philosophical episodes involving a talking stone, is sure to appeal to a broad readership. —Andrew Fairweather, Library Information Assistant, Seward Park

The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth J. Church is a good beach read. What happens when an aspiring ornithologist falls for an atomic scientist who is twenty years her senior? This novel is chockablock with bird facts and unseen forces of attraction. —Jenny Baum, Supervising Librarian, Jefferson Market

Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna is a poetically written, rich historical novel that I was looking forward to reading so much that I put it off for seven years! It was more than worth the wait. It follows a half-Mexican, half-American gay man from childhood to adulthood, as he finds himself involved with key political situations of the era. From the Depression to Leon Trotsky's exile in Mexico with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and back to the U.S. for WWII and the McCarthy era, this is a fabulous book that reminded me how beautiful a literary novel can be. —Suzanne Lipkin, Special Collections Reading Room, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

I've been reading Blood, Bones, and Butter, a memoir written by the Chef/Owner of the East Village restaurant Prune. I generally give the side-eye to any memoir written by a person-du-jour (this was written at the height of Prune's, and therefore the author's, popularity), especially if that person is younger than 70, but this book reads like a really good novel—evocative prose, clear-eyed (sometimes painful) observations, and deep truths about the worlds in which this writer moves. I've started reading it more slowly as I get closer to the end, because I don't want it to end. —Melisa Tien, Library Technical Assistant III, Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

For whatever reason, all of my reading feels linked to Game of Thrones. I just read She-Wolves: the Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor, for everyone rooting for the women taking charge at the end of the last season. —Judd Karlman

For fans of armchair travel, I am currently reading and recommend Mumbai New York Scranton: A Memoir by Tamara Shopsin. This is a breezy-turns-serious memoir and visual diary, written and illustrated by Tamara Shopsin (daughter of cheeky restaurateur Kenny Shopsin) with photographs by her husband Jason Fulford. Tamara narrates in a cheerful and quirky manner her trip to India with Jason, an unexpected illness, and the journey home. Shortly clipped sentences come loaded with gems of detail and emotional punch. —Sherri Machlin, Senior Librarian, Mulberry Street

I just finished reading Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. It was such a quick read and I loved it. It is about an epic friendship of Iseult and Safi. Safi is a truthwitch, which are very rare in the witchlands. She is also on the run from a Bloodwitch who is trying to capture her... —Lilian Calix, Library Information Assistant, Hamilton Grange

I just finished reading White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World by Geoff Dyer. It caught my eye since I took my own trip to White Sands National Monument earlier this year. The titular story is less about the place, more about the experience of picking up a hitchhiker nearby. Another essay in the book explores the psychic significance of land art—like The Lightning Field and Spiral Jetty—two places I have since added to my must-see list. The author recently appeared at Books at Noon and the NYPL Podcast. —Lauren Lampasone, Digital Experience

I'm reading The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. A gripping biography of two young men with many similarities, including having the same name and growing up fatherless and in close proximity of each other. One gets a life sentence for murder and the other becomes a Rhodes scholar and successful business leader although their paths could have easily been interchanged. —Nicola McDonald, Library Manager, Jerome Park

I've just begun Finding Fraser by KC Dyer, a funny tale about a young woman named Emma Sheridan (huge fan of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series) who has just been fired from her Barista job, sold everything she owns, and booked a flight to Scotland with a brand new adventure blog to find her own Jamie Fraser. Along the way, she meets colorful characters, has some incredibly strange and comical experiences, and gains some valuable allies and supporters. It's great in that it is not obsessed with so much of the Outlander tale, but fans of Diana Gabaldon's work will enjoy the tidbits of reference to the novel. —Sherise Pagan, Senior Librarian, Grand Concourse

I'm reading an oldie but goodie, Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay. About an Italy-like fantasy country which two tyrants have split between them. It's about love, and honor, and memory, and freedom, and the concept of home. —Nicole Rosenbluth, Senior Librarian, Pelham Bay

If you enjoy dark humor with a healthy mix of fantasy, mythology, and folklore, you will LOVE the American Gods series by Neil Gaiman. I laughed throughout the whole first book and cannot wait for the TV series to come out in 2017. Next on my list is book number 2: Anansi Boys. —Rebecca Martinez, Library Information Assistant, Hudson Park

I just finished tearing through The Passenger by Lisa Lutz. The narrator (I would tell you her name, but I don't know which one is real anymore) changes identities like we change outfits, but she keeps it going for ten years. What a roller coaster! —Jessica DiVisconte, Executive Assistant, Office of the Chief Library Officer

I read The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls in about 18 hours straight—couldn't put it down! A memoir about growing up the child of two very dysfunctionally unique parents. Each time people realized her father was a con man, the family would "skeddadle" to a new place to start afresh. They lived in the desert of California, Phoenix, West Virginia, New York... Her parents had her convinced that it was all part of a big adventure, and she loved it—until she didn't. —Erin Arlene Horanzy, Adult Librarian, Francis Martin

Every summer I tackle my #TBR (to be read) pile—right now I am reading The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music And The Structure Of The Universe by Stephon Alexander (graduate of DeWitt High School X440 in NYC!). Beyond being a fascinating interdisciplinary read tackling physics and music, Alexander poetically shows "...how finding the right analogies can help us break new ground and traverse the hidden quantum world to the vast superstructure of our universe." Wow. —Amie Wright, Program Manager, MyLibraryNYC

Mary Roach has done it again with Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War. Boldly going where many civilians have not gone before, Roach infiltrated the military to ask the questions we didn't even know we had. Be like me and happily read aloud to everyone in ear shot about diarrhea, shark attacks, and stink bombs. —Kate Fais, Young Adult Librarian, Bloomingdale

Summer is often rereading time for me-currently rereading The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, an old favorite I haven't read in years. Clearing the name of Richard III! —Danita Nichols, Library Manager, Inwood

I'm currently (re)reading The Spiritwalker Trilogy by Kate Elliott on NYPL's SimplyE app. It's a diverse steampunk adventure, taking place in an alternate Victorian era, featuring a strong female protagonist. I just started the second book, Cold Fire. —Nanyamkah M. Mars, Young Adult Library Trainee, Westchester Square

LA Woman by Eve Babitz clocks in at just 160 pages, there’s no good reason not to read this fictional memoir at the beach this summer. Don’t let the novel’s slim size fool you; Eve Babitz’s raw, funny prose cuts deep as she describes the heady days of growing up, getting wasted, and dating artists and rockers in bohemian Los Angeles during the 1960s. —Mina Hong, Senior Young Adult Librarian, Epiphany

Lions by Bonnie Nadzam is recommended for fans of writing where the place itself is as much of a character as any of the protagonists. This one is set in a dying small town in rural Colorado, where people are leaving for all of the expected reasons, and also for reasons that seem to touch on something deeper and eerier. Summer heat and stillness, and restlessness, and a current of something else infuse the town of Lions. As in her earlier novel Lamb, Nadzam is a master of making her reader feel slightly uneasy and conflicted, and it's not always easy to pinpoint why, but that's part of the joy and nuance of it. —Emily Pullen, Library Shop

I must mention the book I'm currently reading: Tolstoy, Rasputin, Others, and Me by Teffi, a pseudonym for Russian writer Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya. It is hilarious. One of my favorite couple of sentences appears on the first page, "And then what wakes me an hour or two later is Paris itself—dear, elegant, beautiful Paris. Far better than being woken by some bewhiskered old crone of a concierge, with the eyes of a cockroach." —Alexis Walker, Senior Librarian, Epiphany

I'm reading two books: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe and Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts by Susan Cain. Although this version is for teens, I can totally relate to this version. It is definitely a must read for all introverts, like myself! All the time that I'm reading it I'm thinking "How come there wasn't a book like this for me when I was a teenager?" —Tabrizia Jones, Young Adult Senior Librarian, Sedgwick

I'm reading A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara using the SimplyE app. Now I don't have to lug around the heavy book!
The lives of four college friends are beautifully chronicled over the course of thirty years of good and terrible times. The solace of friendship, the connecting thread. —Maura Muller, Volunteer Manager

I recently found two books on SimplyE that were popular a while back and I never go to read them so I clicked on GET and READ and enjoyed The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Still deciding what to read on vacation at the end of July but August will be taken up with my Book Group's choice for September; 11/22/63 by Stephen King. —Peggy Salwen, Senior Children's Librarian, St. Agnes

Inspired by the "New Nordic Noir" film series that recently screened at the IFC Center, I've started Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q series about a dogged Danish cop exiled to a solitary basement office to work cold cases when higher-ups want him out of the way. Currently, I'm reading Fasandræberne (The Absent One), the second in the series. Detective Møerck and his Arab sidekick Assad must prove that a gang of former prep school bullies, now rich and powerful, are guilty of the gruesome murder of two teenagers twenty years previously—although another man has confessed and is serving time for the crime. —Kathie Coblentz, Special Collections/Special Formats Processing

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