December's Recommended Reads

All books mentioned in this edition of the Great Reads Newsletter are available in the Ocean County Library's OverDrive Collection and/or in our catalog.

 

On mobile devices you can download the Libby App from the device's app store to browse the OverDrive Collection.

 

For help and support visit the library's help page and click on the Libby/OverDrive tab.

Adult Fiction

Always, in December

by Emily Stone


Every December, Josie posts a letter from her home in London to the parents she lost on Christmas night many years ago. Each year, she writes the same three words: Missing you, always. But this year, her annual trip to the postbox is knocked off course by a bicycle collision with a handsome stranger—a stranger who will change the course of Josie's life.

 

Josie always thought she was the only one who avoided the Christmas season, but this year, Max has his own reasons for doing the same—and coincidence leads them to spending the holiday together. Aglow with new love, Josie thinks this might be the start of something special. Only for Max to disappear without saying goodbye. 

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A Holly Jolly Diwali

by Sonya Lalli


Niki Randhawa has always made practical decisions. Despite her love for music and art, she became an analyst for the stability. She's always stuck close to home, in case her family needed her. And she's always dated guys that seem good on paper, rather than the ones who give her butterflies. When she's laid off, Niki realizes that practical hasn't exactly paid off for her. So for the first time ever, she throws caution to the wind and books a last-minute flight for her friend Diya’s wedding. Niki arrives in India just in time to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, where she meets London musician Sameer Mukherji. Maybe it's the splendor of Mumbai or the magic of the holiday season, but Niki is immediately drawn to Sam. At the wedding, the champagne flows and their flirtatious banter makes it clear that the attraction is mutual.

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Young Adult Fiction

Eight Nights of Flirting

by Hannah Reynolds


Shira Barbanel has a plan: this Hanukkah, she’s going to get a boyfriend. And she has the perfect candidate in mind—her great-uncle’s assistant, Isaac. He’s reliable, brilliant, and of course, super hot. The only problem? Shira’s an absolute disaster when it comes to flirting.

Enter Tyler Nelson, Shira’s nemesis-slash-former-crush. As much as she hates to admit it, Tyler is the most charming and popular guy she knows. Which means he’s the perfect person to teach her how to win Isaac over.

When Shira and Tyler get snowed in together at Golden Doors, they strike a deal—flirting lessons for Shira in exchange for career connections for Tyler. But as Shira starts to see the sweet, funny boy beneath Tyler’s playboy exterior, she realizes she actually likes hanging out with him. And that wasn’t part of the plan.

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Blame it on the Mistletoe

by Beth Garrod


Elle is a social medial star with the #DreamLife...or so it seems. Determined to shake up her content and gain new followers, she's on a mission: can she find a British fan to swap with for Christmas?


Holly loves everything about Christmas. But after a mortifying mistletoe disaster with her ex, her perfect plans unravel like a bad Christmas sweater. Can Holly save the holidays when she switches places with favorite social media influencer?



Elle gets more than she bargained for when she meets the cute boy from across the street. And Holly wasn't expecting Elle to have a handsome twin brother. This holiday is full of surprises. 

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Middle Grade Fiction

The Way Past Winter

by Kiran Millwood Hargrave


Mila, her sisters, and her brother, Oskar, live in a small forest cabin, surviving in a world gripped by frost and snow.

When a mysterious man shows up on her doorstep, Mila and her family grant him shelter for the night. But in the morning, the man is gone—and he's taken Oskar with them. Determined to save their brother, Mila and her sisters set out on a mission to rescue him. But challenges await them at every turn: wolves with the speed of demons, tempestuous gold, an untrustworthy mage—and always the relentless, stinging freeze of winter.

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Northwind

by Gary Paulsen


When a deadly plague reaches the small fish camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. Yet the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to "the heartbeat of the ocean . . . the pulse of the sea." 

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Picture Books

The Christmas Book Flood

Written by Emily Kilgore

Illustrated by Kitty Moss


The northern lights dance,

snow blankets the ground,

it's the Christmas season—so the Book Flood begins!

People plan and they dream,

and they visit the shops

for books to give loved ones, and families, and friends.

And when Christmas Eve comes,

they'll share magical stories,

curl up by the fire, and read, read, read, read...

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Latkes and Applesauce: A Hanukkah Story

Written by Fran Manushkin

Illustrated by Kris Easler


The Menashes love latkes and applesauce during Hanukkah. But a blizzard begins and erases any hope that they’ll harvest potatoes and apples in time. When a stray cat and dog show up, there’s not a lot of food to offer them, but kindness prevails, and they’re invited in. It turns out that the dog—Latke—and the cat—Applesauce—save the day.

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One Book OCL: Online Book Discussion

 

Children of the Land: A Memoir

by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo 


January 6 - March 10


When Marcelo Hernandez Castillo was five years old and his family was preparing to cross the border between Mexico and the United States, he suffered temporary, stress-induced blindness. Castillo regained his vision, but quickly understood that he had to move into a threshold of invisibility before settling in California with his parents and siblings. Thus began a new life of hiding in plain sight and of paying extraordinarily careful attention at all times for fear of being truly seen. Before Castillo was one of the most celebrated poets of a generation, he was a boy who perfected his English in the hopes that he might never seem extraordinary.

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