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.

A new school year has begun at Tiffin Academy. Amid the flurry of dorm assignments, class schedules, and football games, the campus discovers that Tiffin has been ranked number two on America Today’s list of U.S. boarding schools. This is a positive step for the campus, but the extra attention is unnerving, especially when the campus is still reeling from the tragic loss of one of its students. Authors Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham deftly juggle a large cast of characters and create a beautiful sense of place in The Academy.

Lily wakes up in The Compound, the setting of a reality TV show in which young, beautiful contestants complete tasks to earn prizes ranging from personal care items all the way to designer clothes and fine jewelry. Contestants are weeded out one by one, until one is left and can stay in The Compound for as long as they’d like and earn unlimited prizes. In The Compound, Aisling Rawle captures the soul-crushing sense of desperation and dissatisfaction that each character feels with life both in and out of The Compound and explores the ultimately unfulfilling nature of humanity’s desire for physical spoils.

When Iris receives a gift of bespoke perfume from her friend, a renowned French perfumer, she finds her life transformed. The perfume seems to open doors in all aspects of her life. As she makes new connections and advances at work, she will learn which new discoveries are worth cultivating and which weeds will choke new blooms. Full Bloom by Francesca Serritella is an engrossing and richly detailed novel.

It is the 1990s, and best friends Ramona and Grace are elated to learn that they have been accepted into the Dollhouse Academy, a school that trains young people to become entertainers. As their talents are honed, they will become contracted entertainers in the Dollhouse studio system, much like the MGM system of early Hollywood. This is a speculative look at the effect of absolute studio control on complicated human lives. Margarita Montimore’s focus on characters and the building sense of dread kept me reading The Dollhouse Academy.

Lyndsay Rush’s debut collection of poetry, A Bit Much, is a commentary on the modern, millennial woman’s experience: questioning whether to have children, aging gracefully (what does that even mean?), and dealing with the never-ending onslaught of online negativity – all while facing the current state of the world. Rush encourages readers to find joy in the little things and squeeze out every bit of life that we can. Her poetry is full of wordplay and hard-won wisdom.

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.