Children’s books

“Room Love: 50 DIY Projects to Design Your Space” by Heather Wutschke

It’s the new year and if your children are looking for a DIY changes for their rooms, check out “Room Love.” It’s full of new ideas that will inspire organization, fun and your child’s unique self with projects like confetti walls, fabric banners, stenciled doors and more.

“The Gross Cookbook: Awesome recipes for (deceptively) disgusting treats kids can make” by Susanna Tee

If you have a picky eater, one of these disgusting-looking recipes might help by adding humor to meal and snack times. Try dishes like Squiggly Jelly Worms (raspberry gelatin mixed with heavy cream and put into straws to set) or Big Green Boogers (popcorn, frosting and food coloring) in this fun cookbook. Tee disguises real food as gross and funny alternatives and also provides trivia about unusual dishes that are eaten around the world.

— Sheila Grier, Deschutes Public Library community librarian

Teen books

“The Marrow Thieves” by Cherie Dimaline

In a dystopian near future, Frenchie is on the run with a loose band of Native Americans. They’re running from a new residential school system established to harvest their dreams, which are seen as the key to saving humanity. The story starts slowly but ramps up quickly when a key member of the group is captured, culminating in an ending that packs a huge and ultimately hopeful emotional punch. Part coming-of-age story, part indictment of the treatment of indigenous peoples and part treatise on the power of language, “The Marrow Thieves” is a powerful and thought-provoking book that will appeal to older teens and adults.

“Devils & Thieves” by Jennifer Rush

This first installment in a fun new paranormal romance series reads like a mash-up of “Twilight” and “Sons of Anarchy.” Eighteen-year-old Jemmie Carmichael belongs to The Devil’s League, a kindled (magical) motorcycle gang. Jemmie’s powers have always been weak and undefined, but as a League member she is fully embraced and protected. When people start disappearing at the annual festival of kindled gangs, Jemmie is caught between her new crush, a member of a rival gang, and the League’s leader, Crowe, with whom she has a passionate past.

Adult books

“The Power” by Naomi Alderman

Alderman has fantastic timing with her book being released just as the #metoo movement was snowballing. Her tale of an evolutionary change that flips the power structure between men and women is smart, playful and thoroughly entertaining. She explores what such a change could mean for both genders through a variety of characters including an orphan turned prophet, an American politician, the leader of a small (fictional) Balkan country, a gangster and a photojournalist. And there’s a fun little twist that will make you rethink all your gender stereotypes.

“The Blind” by A.F. Brady

Brady offers up a truly refreshing take on the sometimes formulaic psychological thriller genre in “The Blind.” Sam James is a top psychologist at a mental institution in New York, but outside of work, her life is a mess. She thinks she’s holding it together, but when she’s assigned a challenging new patient, she is forced to face her own instability. Brady is herself a psychotherapist, and it’s her care and empathy with Sam and the institution’s patients that really set this novel apart.

— Jenny Pedersen, Deschutes Public Library community librarian