Take Ten! with Amber

In the five years since Amber came to Raleigh, she has moved from Quail Ridge Books' Inventory Manager to Assistant General Manager. A lot has changed in those five years, but the most important things remain the same: She still moderates the store’s Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club and is actively obsessed with her cats. When not reading or working, she’s watching her way through the AFI Top 100 films, hunting for random items in used books, or admiring the ducks and turtles at Lake Lynn. She makes lists and spreadsheets for fun, collects fantastical plushies, and still refuses to wear matching socks.

This atmospheric triumph leaves the reader just as uncertain as the protagonist, where its (very few) characters are all unreliable in some way or another. In fewer than 300 pages, Clarke builds a world that you can feel all around you, that is a character all its own, and is just as unreliable as all the others.

Greek mythology has been a major interest of mine since childhood, and after the beauty that was The Song of Achilles, I knew I could rely on Miller to deliver another incredible novel.

Linus Baker, caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youths, must determine if the children under the care of one Arthur Parnassus are safe where they are—and whether the world is safe from them. Heartwarming, comforting, beautifully written. In a genre filled with grimdark, we need more cozy fantasies.

Kimmerer's book is memoir, science, spirituality, and history, all while reading like poetry. Some books, it doesn't matter if it's in your wheelhouse—you can still count on it to be incredible. Kimmerer's masterpiece brings comfort and hope to a world that feels claustrophobic.

Candid and wildly creative, Machado deep dives into her past abusive relationship with another woman, using tropes from fairy tales, horror, and other genres to create a powerful yet accessible memoir.

Moreno-Garcia's take on classic Gothic literature tantalizes from page to page as the reader becomes just as desperate as our heroine, Noemí, to uncover the secrets hidden at High Place in 1950s Mexico.

If you’ve ever seen footage of Abramović’s performance art, you have a small idea of how bonkers this remarkable woman’s life has been so far.