Here are few of my favorite recent reads. Library staff would be happy to help you place requests on these or any other titles. If you’d like to place your own request, visit www.newulmlibrary.org and choose Library Catalog.

May, Kelsey, and Lauren are meeting up in the Hamptons for a long-awaited girls’ trip. When they’re cut off in traffic, Kelsey leaves a prank note on the offending couple’s car windshield: “He cheated. He always does.” But a few days later the same man from the couple goes missing and their girls’ trip goes sideways. Each of them has been hiding secrets from one another and none of them want to be implicated in the disappearance of a man who may or may not be a stranger. I raced through “The Note” by Alafair Burke in one weekend.

Zoe moved to Los Angeles three years ago in hopes of becoming a best-selling thriller author. Her first book, the story of a disturbed stalker, bombed and she’s got a nasty case of writer’s block. While making a delivery for her day job, she meets movie star Zach and begins seeing him regularly. When someone starts reenacting violent events from her book, Zoe has to decide if she or Zach is the target and how to prevent the horrifying conclusion. Pip Drysdale weaves a tangled web of deception and betrayal in “The Close-Up.”

Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Emma Lewis is asked to assess a strange case in the English countryside: an unidentified man has washed up on the beach, seemingly with no memory and no identification. Emma is intrigued. Could this be her chance to investigate a genuine case of fugue? Is the man’s memory loss for real? And why does he seem familiar to Emma? Emma doesn’t want to revisit her troubled past, but solving the case of this mysterious man might require it. “Mr. Nobody” by Catherine Steadman is a fascinating thriller.

“The Dogist: Photographic Encounters with 1,000 Dogs” by Elias Weiss Friedman delivers on its promise: charming, sometimes funny, always adorable photography of the best friends we’ll ever have. I really enjoyed learning each featured dog’s name. A boxer mix called “Bagel”? Perfectly named! This book is a guaranteed bright spot in your day.

If you’d like to request these or any other titles, visit www.newulmlibrary.org and choose Library Catalog, or call the library at 507-359-8331. New Ulm Public Library is located at 17 North Broadway and is open from 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. on Monday-Thursday and 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday-Saturday.