Station Eternity

Written by: Mur Lafferty

First line: Nobody ever believed murders "just happened" around Mallory Viridian.

Why you should read this book: This fun near-future science fiction murder mystery takes place primarily on the sentient space station where Mallory has fled to escape the constellation of murders that seem to happen all around her on Earth, where nobody believes they're not her fault even though she always finds the real killer. Surely the curse cannot follow her across the cosmos if she's only one of three humans on board, but her peace of mind is shattered when she learns that more earthlings are on their way. Suddenly, she's surrounded by death and mayhem again, and needs to use all her resources to unravel a series of mysteries and save the lives of every life on the station, including the station itself.

Why you shouldn't read this book: There are a couple main characters and many supporting characters, and the narrative perspective shifts frequently, often giving entire chapters to the point of view of a minor character for an entire chapter, which, to me, can be jarring. 

The Round House

Written by: Louise Erdrich

First line: Small trees had attacked my parents' house at the foundation.

Why you should read this book: Joe Coutts's childhood comes to an end the summer his mother is brutally assaulted by an unidentified assailant on land that may or may not fall under the jurisdiction of tribal law. Distressed by his mother's trauma and retreat from the world and frustrated by the callous inefficiency of the justice system, Joe takes on his own investigation of the crime, aided explicitly by his three best friends and implicitly by his Ojibwe family and community and their history, shared and secret, old and new, and often hindered by his own adolescent sensibilities. Powerful, revelatory, upsetting, and important, this book shines a light on inequality, hypocrisy, the betrayals of the American government toward indigenous people, the power of unbroken tradition, and questions of morality in an immoral world. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: The plot turns on the violent rape and attempted murder of an indigenous woman. 

Everyone Is Lying to You

Written by: Jo Piazza

First line: There are things I know I should be doing before bed in order to get a "good" night's sleep.

Why you should read this book: Lizzie and Bex were best friends in college, but they haven't spoken for over a decade, until Bex, now a famous trad wife influencer, invites Lizzie, who writes for a women's magazine, to join her at a conference and get the exclusive scoop. Lizzie's entire industry could use a boost, and Lizzie definitely wants to know why Bex ghosted her in the first place, so she takes the job and finds herself navigating the strange, plastic world of Mommy content creators. When Bex disappears after her husband is brutally murdered, Lizzie is reminded of her investigative journalism background and, following clues seemingly provided for her by an unseen friend, decides to uncover the truth.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Definitely a guilty pleasure sort of thing.

The Thin Man

Written by: Dashiell Hammett

First line: I was leaning against the bar in a speakeasy on Fifty-second Street, waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping, when a girl got up from the table where she had been sitting with three other people and came over to me. 

Why you should read this book: This is the classic hard-boiled detective story, featuring tough and clever alcoholic (and retired detective) Nick Charles, and his clever and beautiful wife, Nora, who are just trying to have a relaxing vacation. Nick is dragged, very much against his will, into the case of a dead woman who has some connection to people Nick used to know, and to a lot of people that Nick doesn't care to know at all. Even though he swears he's retired, now he's consulting with the cops, interviewing suspects, getting shot at, and gathering evidence while avoiding sobriety at every turn. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I thought it was pretty unfair to the reader that the story withholds some of the evidence until after Nick solved the crime.

Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels Book One

Written by: Nancy Springer and Serena Blasco

First line: Enola, you'll manage well on your own, won't you?

Why you should read this book: I usually find graphic novel adaptations woefully inadequate, but as I haven't read the original book (although I did see both films on Netflix) this one seemed decent to me. Young Enola, the little sister of Mycroft and Sherlock, has no interest in being forced into a corset or the role of a lady, and when her mother disappears, she employs her considerable intellect to escape the confines of the life others have laid out for her. Donning a variety of disguises, she runs away to London and sets up shop as a specialist in missing persons cases, managing to find several missing persons while successfully evading her brothers, without making much headway in finding her mother. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I'm guessing the original novel is better. It usually is. 

The Bye Bye Man

Written by: Robert Damon Schneck

First line: In 1692, while the Devil was leading an assault on the fractious inhabitants of Salem Village, French and Indian raiders were menacing the seaport of Gloucester fifteen miles away.

Why you should read this book: Originally titled The President's Vampire, this book was rebranded after one of the chapters (the least strange and the least true one, in my opinion) was made into a horror film. Otherwise it's a collection of unusual occurrences throughout US history, most of which appear to be simple stories of hoaxes and cons based on some people's inclination to believe in the occult, along with a couple unsolved mysteries. That said, it contains numerous citations, appendixes, and an index, as if it's a real historical work, and, apart from the titular chapter, appears to catalog things that actually happened, reporting both what the gullible believe to have happened and what research suggests realistically could have taken place. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It doesn't quite cohere; there's not an internal consistency to the chapters, although they are each amusing, standalone anecdotes (except for the last one, which is just silly and made up). 

Eddie Whatever

Written by: Lois Ruby

First line: How does Mom find it crumpled in the bottom of my backpack, where it's been sitting for the past three week?

Why you should read this book: Eddie Lewin is not jazzed about being voluntold to perform twenty-five hours of community service at the local retirement home as part of his bar mitzvah project when he's already got school and baseball and robotics and his actual bar mitzvah to worry about, but there's no way around it. He's got to show up at Silver Brook Pavilion and make nice with the residents, who are definitely weird, but also kind of interesting, and also possibly haunted by a ghost and definitely targeted by a thief. Eddie's determined to get to the bottom of these mysteries, but even with the help of his friends, old and new, he's still a kid, and somebody is not happy to have him poking around. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: There is a surprisingly sad bit toward the end. 

The Yiddish Policeman's Union

Written by: Michael Chabon

First line: Nine months Landsman's been flopping at the Hotel Zamenhof without any of his fellow residents managing to get themselves murdered.

Why you should read this book: In prose so lush you could graze a herd of cattle on it, Chabon creates an alternate history in which the State of Israel lasted a mere three months before before being overrun by enemies in 1948; subsequently, the United States allowed a large number of Jews to settle in a temporary district in Sitka, Alaska. Here, in the modern day, we meet Detective Meyer Landsman, seeking solace from his multiple losses in a bottle of Slivovitz until some yid he doesn't even know gets his ticket punched in the terrible flophouse where Landsman is biding time until the district reverts to American control and he loses his job and everything else. His new boss, who happens to be his ex-wife, childhood sweetheart, and the only woman he's ever loved, tells him to let it go, but Landsman finds himself compelled to follow the case to its bitter end, even though every lead leads him deeper into personal danger and troubled territory.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You have a limited vocabulary and no Yiddishkeit.

Hold Fast

Written by: Blue Balliett

First line: It was the bitterest, meanest, darkest, coldest winter in anyone's memory, even in one of the forgotten neighborhoods of Chicago.

Why you should read this book: Early's idyllic family life is shattered when her kind, smart, beloved father disappears under mysterious circumstances and strangers invade and rob her home, and the police don't seem to care. Now she, her mother, and her brother are broke, homeless, and desperately adapting to a new way of living, but Early is determined to use every resource available to find her father and make her family whole again. A smart story about love and family, which is also a clever mystery. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Kids will likely identify with Early's determined optimism, but as an adult, I couldn't help but put myself in her mother's shoes, terrified that her husband has been murdered and that she won't be able to protect of care for her children as their world gets bleaker and bleaker, and this book wrecked me.

Rosewater

Written by: Tade Thompson

First line: I'm at the Integrity Bank job for forty minutes before the anxiety kicks in.

Why you should read this book: If you enjoy complexity in your science fiction plots and attention to detail in speculative world-building, you'll find lots to love in this Afro-futurism novel (first in a trilogy) about an angry psychic whose world is shaped by an alien entity known as "Wormwood," which has been skulking about the earth's crust since 2012. In 2066, Kaaro lives in Rosewater, a ring-shaped town in Nigeria that has sprung up around the alien "biodome," which opens once a year and heals human maladies, with varying results. But something is killing men and women like Kaaro, and now that he finally has something to live for (love), he needs to figure out what kind of danger he might be in before it destroys him.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I thought I wouldn't be able to get into it because the main character is such a curmudgeon, but he grows.

A Choir of Ill Children

Written by: Tom Piccirilli

First line: We move in spasms.

Why you should read this book: A thick and grimy tapestry of southern gothic intrigue, this book begins with Thomas, a man plagued by history, his own personal experiences and the lives of the ancestors who came before him and left him alone with a giant house, a sizable fortune, and the care of his three brothers, conjoined triplets joined at the forehead. Murder, suicide, and accidental death creep through his story like Spanish moss and rising water, alone with a strange cast of colorful locals and equally colorful out-of-towners. There's a phantom dog-kicker, a mute girl, a bevy of swamp witches, ghosts, monks, and coked out grad students, combined with dangerous weather, and the weight of the world's expectations in this weird and wonderful story.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The morality of Kingdom Come is likely not your morality.

A Room Away from the Wolves

Written by: Nova Ren Suma

First line: When the girl who lived in the room below mine disappeared into the darkness, she gave no warning, she showed no twitch of fear.

Why you should read this book: Bina isn't just running away from home, where her mother seems to care more for the feelings of Bina's wicked stepsisters than for her own daughter; she's running to somewhere: an all-girls boarding house in New York City where her mother once spent a summer that has grown to mystical proportions in Bina's imagination. But something strange is going in at Catherine House, something she can't quite put her finger on, something to do with ghosts and secrets and rules and girls who don't want to be there but can't seem to leave and an opal ring that vanishes and reappears with astonishing regularity. Bina doesn't want to leave, but she doesn't know if she can stay, and until she figures out the mystery of the house, and how it connects to her personally, she'll never figure out who she is or what she's supposed to do.

Why you shouldn't read this book: A house full of teenage girls is your nightmare, even without the ghosts.

The Beatrice Letters

Written by: Lemony Snicket

First line: I am sorry I embarrassed you in front of your friends.

Why you should read this book: If you can't get enough of a Series of Unfortunate Events, you will enjoy this epistolary supplement, which includes six letters written by Lemony Snicket to his beloved Beatrice Baudelaire prior to the events of the series, and six letters written by Beatrice Snicket to Lemony Snicket a decade or so after the the series. I personally found it more interesting, more readable, more informative, and more intelligible than the Lemony Snicket biography. The book also contains some other images, including a double-sided full-color poster and some perforated letters than can be removed and arranged to form possibly useful anagrams.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You have to really be a fan of the series.

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett

Written by: Cheslea Sedoti

First line: The first thing that happened was Lizzie Lovett disappeared, and everyone was all, "How can someone like Lizzie be missing?" and I was like, "Who cares?"

Why you should read this book: Hawthorn Creely doesn't understand why everyone is so caught up in the disappearance of pretty, perky Lizzie Lovett, who graduated from her high school three years ago and moved to the next town over, even though Hawthorn's own brother used to date her and there's nothing else going on to talk about in their town anyway. Jealous of the relationships she believes Lizzie had, Hawthorn neglects her own relationships as her obsession with the mystery leads her to insert herself into the life of the missing girl and attempt to recreate some of her circumstances. Fast-paced and fun, this story of a teenager taking a final, convoluted step, toward becoming a grown-up walks a surprising path.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The title is pretty misleading, given that Lizzie Lovett is a maguffin who possibly lies once in a flashback but doesn't actually play much of a role in the book, and the vast majority of lies about Lizzie are the conclusions Hawthorn draws in her head. Also, one of these coming-of-age stories where a teenage girl loses her virginity sort of accidentally.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

Written by: Balli Kaur Jaswal

First line: Why did Mindi want an arranged marriage?

Why you should read this book: Nikki has always been the black sheep of her Punjabi Sikh family, but now that her sister wants to pursue this insane arranged-marriage scheme, Nikki only wants to show the world that she's a modern British girl. Still, in an effort to show her family that she is accomplishing important things in life, and in the community, she takes a job through the temple where she believes she will be teaching women about creative writing, until she realizes that most of her students are illiterate and don't speak English. Somehow, her class turns into a subversive gathering for sex-starved widows to exchange sexual fantasies, which they transcribe into Gurmukhi and pass around to their friends, creating a scandal in a community racked by scandals, but now it's out of Nikki's hands, and this one isn't going to get swept under the rug.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I found the beginning, which did a great job of showcasing all the characters' flaws, particularly an overwhelmingly judgemental mindset for the protagonist even as she condemned this characteristic in others, a little uncomfortable to read.

Kill My Mother

Written by: Jules Feiffer

First line: And now for your listening pleasure—Miss Ginger Rogers singe her new hit from her new musical, "The Gold Diggers!"

Why you should read this book: Cartooning legend Jules Feiffer showcases his slapdash drawing style and his in-depth knowledge of human nature in this hard-boiled graphic novel, a murder mystery that twists and turns and romps through history until it reaches its beautiful, satisfying, unexpected conclusion. The lives of five determined women intersect in surprising ways, driven by lies, secrets, betrayals, family, and love. A joyous, funny, deep, and intelligent drama that reminds the reader what human beings are really like, on the surface and behind their veils.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You can't stomach too much murder.

The Westing Game: A Puzzle Mystery

Written by: Ellen Raskin

First line: The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east.

Why you should read this book: This is the kind of story that's best enjoyed if you don't really have any idea what's going on and only figure out the details as the characters reveal them: a murder mystery with more twists than a pretzel factory. A reportedly unpleasant industrialist, Sam Westing, dies under unusual circumstances, having previously gathered sixteen potential heirs of all ages and from all walks of life, who are then pitted against each other to find his killer and inherit his two hundred million dollar fortune. Nothing is as it seems, and, according to Westing's will, the information they don't have is more important than the information they do have.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're easily confused and don't enjoy it.

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

Written by: E. L. Konigsburg

First line: To my lawyer, Saxonberg: I can't say that I enjoyed your last visit.

Why you should read this book: The classic of all modern classic children's literature, in my humble estimation. Claudia doesn't exactly remember exactly why she needs to leave home, but once she decides to run away, dragging her less enthusiastic brother, Jamie along with her, reason falls aside in favor of planning the world's most luxurious adventure and coming home different. Claudia and Jamie run away (to) and hide out (in) New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and find themselves living with a mystery they just have to solve, no matter what the cost.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You'd rather run away (to) the side of a mountain. 

Indian Killer

Written by: Sherman Alexie

First line: The sheets are dirty.

Why you should read this book: A complex murder mystery with a large cast of suspects, this smart, fast-paced novel develops along a perfect timeline, bringing its characters to life, investigating the killings, and exposing the never ending experience of microaggression and unseen racism experienced by Native Americans. Throughout the novel we return again and again to the character of John Smith, a mentally ill Indian man raised by his adoptive white parents, to Marie, the angry Indian activist student, and to the white men who, in their desire to embrace native culture, inadvertently fan the flames of racism even higher. Well written and lovingly constructed, this novel performs both its function--solving the murder and exposing racism--with fluency and grace.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're one sixty-fourth Cherokee on your mother's side, which is why you have such a special connection to the earth.

The Egypt Game

Written by: Zilpha Keatley Snyder

First line: Not long ago in a large university town in California, on a street called Orchard Avenue, a strange old man ran a dusty, shabby store.

Why you should read this book: I remember this book from my childhood, and it withstood the test of time: when April Hall's mother sends her away from Hollywood to live with her grandmother, she brings an air of painted glamour to her newfound friendship with neighbor Melanie, and the two girls invent a magical game involving the ancient gods of Egypt in an unused yard. Soon there are a half-dozen kids involved in the work of creating altars and costumes and rituals and hieroglyphic alphabets, until the day tragedy strikes the neighborhood and none of the kids are allowed to play outside anymore. But there and mysteries to explore in Egypt, and April refuses to give up the allure of serving as a priestess to the gods.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Kids making up their own religions and worshiping foreign gods is just too much blasphemy for you.