What are you reading?

You know it has to be good reading when your librarian suggests it.

To kick off About’s new partnership with the Stark County District Library, we asked the staff there to tell us some of their recent favorite books. Here are some of their selections.

“The Long Goodbye,” by Meghan O’Rourke (hardcover, Riverhead Books, 2011, 320 pages, $25.95). In this eloquent, somber memoir about the death of her mother and grieving aftermath, poet and journalist O’Rourke ponders the eternal human question: How do we live with the knowledge that we will one day die?

“Left Neglected,” by Lisa Genova (hardcover, Gallery Books, 2011, 336 pages, $25.00). Sarah, a career-driven young mother, suffers a traumatic brain injury in a car accident that leaves her unable to perceive left-side information. The disability causes her to struggle through an uncertain recovery as she adapts to her new life.

“Madame Tussaud: a Novel of the French Revolution,” by Michelle Moran (hardcover, Crown, 2011, 464 pages, $25.00). Spanning five years, from the budding revolution to the Reign of Terror, “Madame Tussaud” brings us into the world of an incredible heroine whose talent for wax modeling saved her life and preserved the faces of a vanished kingdom.

“Still Missing,” by Chevy Stevens (hardcover, St. Martin’s Press, 2010, 352 pages, $24.99). On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old Realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she’s about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

“The Girl’s Guide to Homelessness: a Memoir,” by Brianna Karp (hardcover, Harlequin, 2011, 352 pages, $16.95). Karp delivers a heart wrenching and darkly funny memoir about her experience becoming homeless after losing her corporate job in the Great Recession.