Are you looking for your next great read? We can help! Visit us in person, explore reading recommendations online, join an in-person or online book discussion, get recommendations on Facebook, tune in to our televised book club segments, and more. Get started here!
Sunday Nights on Facebook
Join us on Sunday nights at 8:30pm on Facebook for Currently Reading. Enjoy this hour during which book enthusiasts share favorite books and offer suggestion about what to read next. Find out about the books that have everyone talking.
Indy Now Book Club
Catch book recommendations and IndyPL program highlights from your own local librarians once a month on the Indy Now Morning Show with Ryan and Jillian on Fox59. The show airs at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays. Browse our past appearances.
In-Person & Online Book Discussions
Do you love talking about books? Join one of our book discussions or book clubs available both in-person and online.
Online Reading Recommendations
NovelList and NovelList K-8 are online services that offer reading recommendations. Browse both fiction and nonfiction, read-alike suggestions, series information, reviews, and lists of recommended and award-winning books for adults, teens and kids. Learn how to start on this video tutorial. Also try Book Connections which includes a “find the right book for you” feature.
Would you prefer one-on-one help? Call or ask a Library staff member at any of our locations or call, text, or email ask-a- librarian.
Make a selection from one of the book lists below created by our staff of avid readers. You can also follow our staff’s most recently published lists on the library catalog home page. Don’t miss our If You Like… suggestions that cover all the favorite genres like science fiction, graphic novels, romance, and more. Finally, don’t miss What We’re Reading Teens and What We’re Reading Kids.
Finding Books by Black Authors
Find compelling fiction and nonfiction by both contemporary and classic Black authors, including books in every genre from literary fiction to romance, to science fiction to personal memoirs, whether you are looking for a thrilling page turner are recognized prize-winner! Learn more at Finding Books by Black Authors. Here is a sampling of reading recommendations from our staff:
Contemporary Romance
Romances are books that feature a relationship between two main characters that have a “happily ever after” ending. They can be a great optimistic escape! There are many sub-genres too, if there is a particular setting or mood you like, such as historical, contemporary, paranormal, or inspirational. Browse If you Like Contemporary Romance to find your next read as well as a convenient clickable list of contemporary romance authors linked directly to our catalog for placing requests or checking out e-books or audiobooks. For more romantic reads browse our If You Like Historical Romance reading recommendations. Here is a sampling of recommendations from our staff:
Waiting for Onyx Storm?
The third book in the Empyrean Series by Rebecca Yarros following “Fourth Wing” and “Iron Flame” comes out on January 21st. While you what for it to come out (or for your hold to come through), try one of the following!
Pro Tip- Put multiple formats on hold! Sometimes the e-book will come in before the physical book. Just don’t forget to cancel your extra holds when you’re done reading so it can go to the next person!
Royal Rumble 2025
One of the biggest wrestling events of the year, WWE’s Royal Rumble, is coming to Indianapolis for the first time since it debuted in 1988. Get ready to rumble with this list, from the history of wrestling to some of WWE’s most unforgettable superstars.
Black to the Future: 30 Years of African-American Fashion in Indianapolis and Beyond
Celebrate Meet the Artists XXXVII with The Library! Immerse yourself in masterful local art and electric fashion at our annual celebration of the arts and 30th anniversary fashion show. Before you join us for the “Pearl Experience” on Feb. 15, read up on the colorful legacy of Black creatives in the fashion world, in Indy and abroad.
It Bears Repeating
Let’s do the time loop again! And again! And again. And again? The 1993 film Groundhog Day starred Bill Murray as a curmudgeonly weather man stuck repeating the same day, seemingly forever, until he figures out how to break the streak. Like that film, the titles on this list feature time loops. If you’re looking for something different to watch this Groundhog Day, why not check out a film from this list?
Inspiring Non-Fiction
These are some really amazing non-fiction books I have both read and listened to. Varied topics but all interesting and fun.
Sad Girl Lit Fic
” ‘Sad Girl Literature’ is a relatively new term coined to categorize literature where trauma, vulnerability and a female main character take the stage. They may be thoroughly average yet feel like their life is falling apart. They may self-sabotage. They may experience depression. They may desire the wrong people. Do the wrong thing…. they may leap out the page as humans. “
Books For When You Need to Feel Some Hope
Sometimes in the cold days of Winter after the lights and family gatherings of the holidays are over things can look dark and bleak.
Here’s a list of books that offer light at the end of the tunnel (and sometimes it’s a dark tunnel!)- be it in stories of heroes pressing on when all seems lost, or reminders that sometimes it’s OK to just exist and be enough.
Get Lost in the Magical World of Maps
I am not sure why I find printed maps so comforting. Maybe it’s because in a world where we can often feel adrift, maps provide us with the illusion of control over the world we inhabit. This curated list invites you to browse and discover new ways of seeing the world both real and imagined.
Oh, Sweetie!
Books about Sweet Potatoes… Growing them, eating them, and even a bit of humor about them. Browse our complete listing of 2025 Gardening Workshops.
On Medieval Times
If you’re someone like me who enjoys reading about medieval European history, then I implore you to try out one of the titles in our collection below.
Exposing Corruption
Corruption affects the safety and security of the public regardless of political slant. With recent attempts to remove Federal Inspectors General, tasked with fighting governmental waste, fraud, and abuse, it is important to understand the implications. These titles examine prior instances of corruption revealed by whistleblowers and the consequences some have experienced, while resources at the end explain protections offered to whistleblowers standing against corruption.
2024 In Fifteen Films and Shows
Here are my top titles that I viewed in 2024 across television and film. You’ll find characters in thrilling peril, and characters quietly contemplating the meaning of life. Tales of revenge and tales of repairing relationships. Robots that will make you cry, football teams that will make you laugh (and cry), and an intrepid multigenerational trio that will make you cry with laughter. I hope you find something new to love.
What to Read Next Based on Your Favorite Timothy Egan Book
Timothy Egan is a prolific nonfiction writer who has tackled a wide variety of subjects including the KKK in Indiana, the history of the West and Pacific North West, and a moving portrait of the Dust Bowl. In this list, each of Timothy Egan’s sweeping and well-researched books is paired with a nonfiction book and a fiction book that capture some of the same themes.
Whether you’re a first time reader of Egan or have devoured everything he has to offer, you should be able to find your next book here!
Join us March 20 at the Madam Walker Legacy Center for the 46th Annual Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture featuring a special discussion with acclaimed historian Timothy Egan, acclaimed writer and veteran chronicler of the American experience, and author of A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them.
Tickets are free but extremely limited and will be available to the public beginning Friday, March 7 at 5 p.m., while supplies last. Sign up for a reminder to secure your free ticket.
Learn more about this year’s Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture.
