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Atmosphere (2025) is set during the 1980s NASA space program, when women were first accepted into the astronaut training program. The main character, a brilliant astrophysics professor, was fascinated by space from a very young age. She is determined to be among the rare women accepted into this NASA astronaut program.

I especially enjoy true crime books with a local connection, so I knew I needed to get on the wait list for Something Big: The True Story of the Brown’s Chicken Massacre (2025) by Patrick Wohl. This horrific crime occurred in January 1993, in Palatine, a northwestern suburb of Cook County.

Effy and Arlo are just two of the students at their boarding school who are chosen to enter a prestigious writing program during their January term at an isolated estate. The program is led by Meredith Graffam, a legendary writer, actress, and director with an eccentric teaching style who everyone admires. At the end of the program, one writer will have their dreams come true-- but not everything at the estate is as it seems, and the competition is fierce. It might even be deadly.

A book you can read in one sitting, Between Friends and Lovers (2024) blends relationship fiction and romance effortlessly. Jo, an MD who provides health education via her social media platforms, has been in love with her best friend (and movie star) Ezra since college. After they have a falling out, Jo meets and connects with awkward writer Malcolm.

Calling all artists! 

Your creative design could be featured on the next Wheaton Public Library card. Fit the theme of WPL’s mission statement: “Wheaton Public Library is a welcoming destination that connects the community to literacy, information, ideas and experiences. Grow with us!” Winners will be chosen from the following age groups: Youth (ages 0-11), Teens (ages 12-17), and Adults (ages 18+). Participation is limited to WPL cardholders. Deadline to submit is October 15.

You’ll want to put on a cozy Icelandic sweater and have a cup of tea next to you while reading Death on the Island (2025), an atmospheric mystery. A group of international figures, including a Canadian diplomat and his entourage, a politician, the owner of a high-profile fishing company, and an artist, all gather for dinner in a tiny village on an island off the coast of Iceland.

The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics (2020), by Tim Harford, is a fascinating look at statistics and how they have been regularly used and mis-used around the world and throughout history.

A sweet quirky cozy mystery with hints of romance, How to Have a Killer Time in D. C. (2025) is a fun escape. Oliver Popp is a 24-year-old gay autistic travel writer on his first feature assignment. His orderly plans are upended by Ricky, the impulsive freelance photographer he’s paired with, who wants to show him the less touristy parts of Washington, D.C.

Another (2025) by Paul Tremblay is his very first middle-grade horror after several fabulous adult novels with equally dark themes.

In 2023 Dublin, after Saoirse has an argument with her boyfriend about whether or not to have children, she meets an older woman, Maura, on a train platform, who turns out to have been instrumental in the founding of the 1970s Irish Women’s Liberation Movement.

If you were riveted by The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010), read Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum (2024).

When I first read the 'schtick' for Titan of the Stars, I was completely hooked: Alien meets Titanic. That could either be completely terrible, or excitingly great.