At the County of Prince Edward Public Library we love giving book recommendations!

If you want to discover an author you have not yet read, learn about something for the first time, or try a new genre, just ask us and we’ll help! Here are a few suggested titles, available in the library or as ebooks.

Fans of The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins will be sure to like The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish.

Set in the UK, this novel tells the story of a couple that meet some new friends. All seems to be going well until one of their new friends goes missing – and we won’t spoil it here but there are twists and turns aplenty in this page-turning book!

Completely different from the first book, is How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England by Ruth Goodman.

Goodman is a historian of the social and domestic life of Britain and here she turns her attention to all of the different ways people broke social norms in the past. There’s a great chapter on all the ways that you could insult someone by bowing just slightly less or in a slightly different manner, something that would probably not occur to modern audiences. This book is definitely not for the easily offended, especially if you have Elizabethan standards of proper behaviour!

Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story is a one-of-a-kind memoir.

This story is told through the first-person voice of Bobby, the grandmother of author Bess Kalb. Bobby has died at ninety, and Kalb imagines what she would say to guide her through her life. Anyone who has thought to themselves “What would my loved one advise me to do, if only they could?” will understand the premise of the book. The Washington Post described it as “a poignant and funny look at four generations of women”.

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris has been described as Get Out meets the Stepford Wives, and that description aptly captures the unsettling nature of the story.

On the surface the story is about a 26-year old editorial assistant who is the only Black employee at a book publisher. All seems fairly normal until she receives a note on her desk telling her to LEAVE NOW – and it soon becomes apparent that all is not as it seems. If any of these titles interest you, drop by any branch of the library to request them. If you’d prefer to read something else just pop in and ask us for suggestions – we’re happy to help!

-Liz Zylstra