By Jamie Hanley
How do we choose books? Everyone has a different answer. Sometimes by the cover alone, sometimes we read of or heard about it on our favorite talk show, or maybe it was a book passed along to us from a friend.
For me, it’s a little different. I am fortunate to work in a place where all walks of life gather – many of these people I would not normally have an opportunity to cross paths with in daily life. But as life would have it, I am able to seek these people out in order to discuss a shared love – books! Again, we are a diverse group from a wide range of backgrounds, educations, and experiences, but we find a strong commonality in books.
Books are discussed in the break room, books are discussed in the hallways, there are book exchange baskets in many offices, and sometimes books are exchanged with no words – just a hand on the heart as we pass it along to the next reader (Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall).
Books are often discussed while in progress – I myself have become involved in many conversations that start with one of the following questions mid-read in these books:Who do you think did it? (The Widow – John Grisham)
- What has happened so far? (Secret of Secrets – Dan Brown)
- When did you finish? (And can I have it next please? – any books)
- Where is the character now? (The Woman in Suite 11 – Ruth Ware)
- Why do we have to wait so long for the next one? (Whatever Charlie Donlea’s next book is!)
- How did we not see that coming?! (Gone Before Goodbye – Harlen Coben/Reese Witherspoon)
Books are discussed in terms of past, present, and future: what was the last great book you finished? What are you reading now? And, what’s next on your TBR (To Be Read) list? These are questions that I posed recently, and surveyed many of the people I work with.
The results were curious. Because we are such a large group, the same books tend to be read and passed amongst ourselves, and sometimes there’s an outlier that becomes the new ‘it’ book for us all.
Last year we saw several good reads being devoured and making the rounds: Frozen River (Ariel Lawhon), The God of the Woods (Liz Moore), The Personal Librarian (Heather Terrell and Victoria Christopher Murray), It Ends with Us (Colleen Hoover), Blue Sisters (Coco Mellors), Family Family (Laurie Frankel), and The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits (Jennifer Weiner).
As we now know, God of the Woods by Liz Moore was chosen to be the 2026 Two Towns One Book Community Choice read! Perhaps some of you have attended one of the recent programming events – how to conduct a missing person’s investigation? Or maybe you’re more interested in learning about the historical background of the Great Adirondack Camps? Stay tuned for more events related to this great read, including an author visit with Liz Moore herself in April!
So, you ask, what are we reading now? Based on the responses I received, there are a LOT of good reads to put on your TBR list! Too many to list each one, but it appears Frieda McFadden is still wildly popular with Never Lie, The Co-Worker, The Crash, and of course, The Housemaid series. I’ve also heard that the recently released The Housemaid movie is a must-see for fans of the book!
The feel-good reads on our collected list include everything from A Little Christmas Spirit by Sheila Roberts, to re-reading JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, James Herriott’s All Creatures Great and Small, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson – Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters.
In the category of historical fiction, favorites included The Women by Kristin Hannah, Clare Leslie Hall’s Broken Country (I admit, a personal favorite), Fredrik Backman’s My Friends, A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland, and The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris.
General fiction certainly had some standouts as well, with John Grisham’s The Widow, the Reese Witherspoon/Harlen Coben collab Gone Before Goodbye, Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life, and Dan Brown’s latest installment of Robert Langdon’s adventures in action-packed Secret of Secrets all landing high on our lists.
And it’s not only colleagues and friends who can talk about reading lists. CPH Library staff have also shared some of their picks on WNYT at the end of last year – you can see the interview with Library Director Alex Gutelius and the segment with Web & Digital Coordinator, Amanda Mennetto.
As far as what’s next on my list…..well, before I left my desk for the day I was handed a copy of Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy, and told ‘you should read this’. Beyond that, who knows – I’m always looking for my next good read. Make your own TBR list and keep adding to it – the next Friends Used Book Sale is not that far away!
~ Happy Reading friends ~
even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.