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The Founding College of the University of Toronto
shelf of books including one with a "Staff Pick" label

Staff Picks

Wondering what to read next? Try one of our staff picks, personally recommended by UC library assistants, who are also students in the Faculty of Information.

Click a link below to find the book in the U of T Library catalogue. And the next time you're at the UC Library, look for the bright pink Staff Pick labels.

  • Staff Picks: Fiction

    • Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé Find it
    • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll  Find it
    • All's Well by Mona Awad Find it
    • All That's Left in the World by Erik J. Brown Find it
    • All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr  Find it
    • Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti Find it
    • Annabel by Kathleen Winter  Find it
    • Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer Find it
    • As for Me and My House by Sinclair Ross  Find it
    • Basic Black with Pearls by Helen Weinzweig Find it
    • Bear by Marian Engel  Find it
    • Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney Find it 
    • Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty  Find it
    • The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood  Find it
    • Blue Suicide by Jennifer Venner  Find it
    • The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Find it
    • Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami Find it
    • Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding  Find it
    • Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel  Find it
    • Bunny by Mona Awad Find it
    • Burial Rites by Hannah Kent  Find it
    • Carry On by Rainbow Rowell Find it
    • Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr Find it
    • A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab Find it
    • Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata Find it
    • Circe by Madeline Miller Find it
    • Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo Find it
    • Crow Lake by Mary Lawson  Find it
    • The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith  Find it
    • The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton  Find it
    • A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik Find it
    • Disgrace by J. M Coetzee  Find it
    • Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross Find it
    • Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien  Find it
    • Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall by Suzette Mayr Find it
    • Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk Find it
    • Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh Find it
    • Empress of the Night by Eva Stachniak  Find it
    • Everybody Has Everything by Katrina Onstad  Find it
    • Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng Find it
    • Fall on Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald  Find it
    • Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry  Find it
    • The Fault in Our Stars by John Green  Find it
    • The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer  Find it
    • Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis  Find it
    • Fifth Business by Robertson Davies  Find it
    • Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor Find it
    • Flights by Olga Tokarczuk Find it
    • The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews  Find it
    • A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore  Find it
    • Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Find it
    • The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh Find it
    • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson  Find it
    • Glitterland by Alexis Hall Find it
    • The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon  Find it
    • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald  Find it
    • Greenwood by Michael Christie Find it
    • The Gunslinger by Stephen King Find it
    • Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  Find it
    • A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh  Find it
    • Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince by J.K. Rowling Find it
    • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling Find it
    • Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories by Alice Munro   Find it
    • The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers  Find it
    • The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova  Find it
    • Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi Find it
    • How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti  Find it
    • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins Find it
    • The Idiot by Elif Batuman  Find it
    • If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga Find it
    • If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino  Find it
    • The Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake Find it
    • In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan Find it
    • The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King Find it
    • Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon Find it
    • Interpreter of Maladies: Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri  Find it
    • Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino Find it
    • The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by Victoria Schwab Find it
    • The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy Find it
    • The Jolly Postman, or, Other People's Letters by Janet Ahlberg  Find it
    • The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling  Find it
    • Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton Find it
    • The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper Find it
    • Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro Find it
    • The Lake House by Kate Morton Find it
    • The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Choksi Find it
    • Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay  Find it
    • Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders  Find it
    • The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters  Find it
    • Little Thieves by Margaret Owen Find it
    • Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro  Find it
    • Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov  Find it
    • Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World Retold by Bolu Babalola Find it
    • Lumberjanes: Unicorn power! by Mariko Tamaki; illustrated by Brooke Allen  Find it
    • The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton  Find it
    • The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides  Find it
    • Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden Find it
    • Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Find it
    • The Midnight Library by Matt Haig Find it
    • Minor Detail by Adania Shibli Find it
    • The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger  Find it
    • A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness Find it
    • Motherhood by Sheila Heti Find it 
    • Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie  Find it
    • My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante  Find it
    • My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk Find it
    • The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri  Find it
    • Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis  Find it
    • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah Find it
    • Normal People by Sally Rooney Find it
    • Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson  Find it
    • The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson Find it
    • One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston Find it
    • Open Throat by Henry Hoke Find it
    • Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson Find it
    • Orphan #8 by Kim van Alkemade  Find it
    • Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood Find it
    • The Outlander by Gil Adamson  Find it
    • Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield Find it
    • The Overstory by Richard Powers Find it
    • Pachinko by Ming Jin Lee Find it
    • Paradise by Toni Morrison Find it
    • Pastoral by André Alexis Find it
    • People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks  Find it
    • Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Find it
    • Poor Things by Alasdair Gray Find it
    • The Power by Naomi Alderman Find it
    • A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers Find it
    • A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers Find it
    • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline   Find it
    • Real Life by Brandon Taylor Find it
    • Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier  Find it
    • The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton  Find it
    • Room by Emma Donoghue  Find it
    • The Rosie Project by Graeme C. Simsion  Find it
    • Rouge by Mona Awad Find it
    • Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali Find it
    • Scream by Rohinton Mistry  Find it
    • Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel Find it
    • Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda Find it
    • The Secret History by Donna Tartt Find it
    • The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton  Find it
    • She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Can Find it
    • The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides Find it
    • The Silent Wife by A. S. A. Harrison  Find it
    • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward  Find it
    • Siren Queen by Nghi Vo Find it
    • The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt  Find it
    • Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo Find it
    • The Slow Fix by Ivan Coyote  Find it
    • Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson  Find it
    • The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller Find it
    • Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason Find it
    • The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester Find it
    • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Find it
    • Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg Find it
    • Studio Saint-Ex by Ania Szado  Find it
    • Stunt by Claudia Dey Find it
    • The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong Find it
    • Take Us to Your Chief by Drew Hayden Taylor  Find it
    • A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki  Find it
    • The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris Find it
    • Tell It to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami  Find it
    • The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield   Find it
    • They Say Blue by Jillian Tamaki Find it
    • This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz  Find it
    • A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini Find it
    • Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden  Find it
    • Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters  Find it
    • Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin Find it
    • The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera Find it 
    • Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt Find it
    • The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal Find it
    • The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson  Find it
    • Wednesday Night at the End of the World by Helene Rioux  Find it
    • The Weight of Snow by Christian Guay-Poliquin Find it
    • Where the Air is Sweet by Tasneem Jamal Find it
    • The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Find it
    • Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro  Find it
    • Wife by Bharati Mukherjee  Find it
    • Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan  Find it
    • The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak  Find it
    • The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels  Find it
    • Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck  Find it
    • Wonder by R.J. Palacio Find it
    • Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson   Find it
    • World War Z by Max Brooks  Find it
    • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle  Find it
    • Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister Find it
    • Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte  Find it
    • The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood  Find it
    • Yesterday, at the Hotel Clarendon by Nicole Brossard  Find it
    • You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked by Sheung-King Find it
  • Staff Picks: Non-Fiction

    • Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen Find it
    • The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson  Find it
    • An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield Find it
    • Behind the Red Door: How Elizabeth Arden's Legacy Inspired My Coming-of-Age Story in the Beauty Industry by Louise Claire Johnson Find it
    • The Beothuk Saga by Bernard Assiniwi  Find it
    • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Find it
    • Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson Find it
    • Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race by Naben Ruthnum  Find it
    • David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell   Find it
    • Dear Ijeawele, or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Find it
    • The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson  Find it
    • Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist by Frans de Waal Find it
    • The Dirt on Clean by Katherine Ashenburg  Find it
    • Dispatches from the Front: The Life of Matthew Halton, Canada's Voice at War by David Halton  Find it
    • Embers: One Ojibway's Meditations by Richard Wagamese  Find it
    • Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman  Find it
    • Everest: The West Ridge by Thomas Hornbein Find it
    • Falling Back in Love With Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom Find it
    • The File: A Personal History by Timothy Garton Ash  Find it
    • Finding Gobi by Dion Leonard with Craig Borlas  Find it
    • From Harvey River by Lorna Goodison  Find it
    • The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Find it
    • Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations by Otto Friedrich  Find it
    • The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida  Find it
    • The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin  Find it
    • How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychadelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan Find it
    • If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground by J. Edward Chamberlin  Find it
    • In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park and Maryanne Vollers Find it
    • In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson  Find it
    • In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick Find it
    • The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality by Julia Sondra Decker Find it
    • Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling  Find it
    • Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain  Find it
    • Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon   Find it
    • Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris  Find it
    • Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson  Find it
    • The Library Book by Susan Orlean Find it
    • Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science and Religion by Nicholas Spencer Find it
    • A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott Find it
    • The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabriel Maté Find it
    • The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload by  Daniel J. Levitin  Find it
    • Pageboy by Elliot Page Find it
    • Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History by Kyle Harper Find it
    • Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely  Find it
    • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain  Find it
    • Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age by Modris Eksteins  Find it
    • The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein  Find it
    • The Short, Happy Walks of Max MacPherson by Harry Bruce; illustrated by George Meadows  Find it
    • The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan  Find it
    • Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times by Jasbir K. Puar Find it
    • They Said This Would be Fun: Race, Campus Life, and Growing Up by Eternity Martis Find it
    • This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein Find it
    • Time Now for the Vinyl Café Story Exchange by Stuart McLean  Find it
    • Too Much and Not in the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose Find it
    • Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich  Find it
    • The Ward Uncovered: The Archeology of Everyday Life edited by Holly Martelle, Michael McClelland, Tatum Taylor, and John Lorinc Find it
    • The Wealthy Barber Returns by David Chilton  Find it
    • When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi  Find it
    • Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling   Find it
    • Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui Find it
    • Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed  Find it
    • Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde  Find it

     

  • Staff Picks: Graphic Novels

    • American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang Find it
    • Blankets by Craig Thompson  Find it
    • Boundless by Jillian Tamaki Find it
    • Boxers by Gene Luen Yang  Find it
    • bpNichol Comics edited by Carl Peters  Find it
    • Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu Find it
    • Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton Find it
    • The Frank Book by Jim Woodring  Find it
    • Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel  Find it
    • Hark!: A Vagrant by Kate Beaton  Find it
    • Heartstopper, Volumes 1-4 by Alice Oseman Find it
    • Hooky Volume 1 & Volume 2 by Míriam Bonastre Tur Find it
    • If I Go Missing by Brianna Jonnie, Nahanni Shingoose, and Neal Shannacappo Find it
    • In-Between Days by Teva Harrison  Find it
    • Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney Find it
    • My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book One by Emil Ferris  Find it
    • My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Kabi Nagata Find it
    • Nimona by Noelle Stevenson Find it
    • Paper Girls, Volumes 1 & 2 by Brian K. Vaughan  Find it
    • Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley Find it
    • Roaming by Mariko Tamako Find it
    • Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K. Vaughan  Find it
    • Saints by Gene Luen Yang  Find it
    • Snotgirl Vol. 1: Green Hair Don't Care by Bryan Lee O'Malley Find it
    • Spinning by Tillie Walden  Find it
    • Step Aside, Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection by Kate Beaton  Find it
    • Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero by Michael DeForge  Find it
    • The Ticking by Renee French  Find it
    • Trillium by Jeff Lemire  Find it
    • Weathercraft by Jim Woodring   Find it
    • A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L'Engle; adapted and illustrated by Hope Larson  Find it
  • Staff Picks: Poetry

    • Crush by Richard Siken Find it
    • Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera by Anne Carson  Find it
    • The Essential Richard Outram by Richard Outram; selected by Amanda Jernigen.  Find it
    • If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Anne Carson  Find it
    • Kaleidoscope: Selected Poems by P.K. Page  Find it
    • MxT by Sina Queyras  Find it
  • Staff Picks: Plays

    • The Admirable Crichton: A Comedy by J. M. Barrie  Find it
    • As You Like It by William Shakespeare  Find it
    • Faust by Goethe  Find it
    • Four Major Plays by Henrik Ibsen  Find it
    • Venus in Fur by David Ives  Find it