February Staff Picks
Looking for your next great read? Need to fill some spots in our 26 in ’26 Reading Challenge? Here’s three books our staff have loved recently.
In need of more recommendations? Check out past Staff Picks on our What We’re Reading page, or complete a short form and we’ll email you a list of personalized recommendations.
Jamie says
“A/S/L is a novel about how we try to be free. In the 1990s, three teenagers who have never met in person collaborate on a video game they are sure will change the world. Eighteen years later, unbeknownst to each other, they find themselves in the same city, three trans women attempting to cope with life through white-collar assimilation, the search for knowledge, and magic. When their paths finally cross again, they find themselves forced to confront their dreams and their delusions. Both formally inventive and emotionally compelling, A/S/L explores nostalgia, technology, friendship, and literature. Lambda Literary Award-winner Jeanne Thornton exposes the implicit expectations placed on trans women by a society determined to make things easier for cis people.”
Elizabeth says:
“One of my favorite books of 2025 was All the Water in the World, by Eiren Caffall. It’s a climate fiction book that illustrates what might happen to the human population if most of the United States were on fire or underwater. It’s told from the perspective of a young girl. She doesn’t really remember The Time Before, but others in her community do. And they all react to their new reality differently. By the way, her community is made up of museum workers and their families who have found refuge on the roof of the Museum of Natural History in New York City, which is an intriguing setup. There is a lot of action, as the girl and her family are forced to relocate to upstate New York. But this book is about more than their fight for survival. Over the course of the novel, you’ll learn how society collapsed (slowly, then all at once), and it forces you to think about the choices you would make if your way of life and everything you’ve known no longer existed. If you enjoyed Station Eleven, you might like this one.”
Jude says:
“This is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in history, especially American history. It’s the story of President James A. Garfield – who rose from humble origins to the presidency, and has since been largely forgotten – and of his assassin, Charles Guiteau. But the real meat of this story is about how the era’s medical practices (fatally dirty fingers probing open wounds in search of the assassin’s bullet) and lack of understanding of mental illness and pathology contributed to the death of a man on the rise to greatness. Notably, Guiteau’s subsequent high-profile trial would contain one of the first major uses of the temporary insanity defense. This is history written by lightning! (And also the basis of a limited series on Netflix.)”