A Spy Agency, a Time Travel Mystery, Code Breakers, and News!

If you like to always keep wrapping paper on hand, here’s a lovely one for book lovers, sold in a pack of 5 or 10 sheets. ($22+)

For fans of middle grade mysteries and time travel!

Roya is the 11-year-old daughter of a Brooklyn apartment building’s superintendent and is currently dealing with her father having cancer. She plans on being a journalist and hosts a secret podcast about the residents in her building. Roya overhears her neighbor Katya talking while doing laundry—Katya plans on leaving after hearing about a cursed fortune, which is the reason behind other women in her family disappearing. Katya disappears and Roya decides to investigate. She partners with a new child resident, Amin, who can memorize conversations he’s heard and then perform them verbatim. This leads them to an adventure on Coney Island, where there is a fortune-telling machine…

This had Big (1980s film) vibes—minus the whole body “swapping” angle—which gave me nostalgic vibes while still being fresh and new. I loved the friendship and realistic relationships between children and adults ,and the balance of fun while also tackling Roya’s process of dealing with her father having cancer.

I inhaled the audiobook, narrated by Nikki Massoud, in a day.

(TW parent with cancer)

For fans of spy thrillers and a countdown to stop a terrorist plot!

Emma’s father was executed for being a spy before she was born. It’s why she grew up to be a spy—for an agency so secretive it doesn’t even have a name—and has never told her mom what she actually does. Currently, the G7 Summit is set to take place in Edinburgh and there is chatter of a planned attack. The summit can’t be canceled because nothing would ever get done in the world if everything got canceled due to threats, so Emma and her team need to figure out what the plot is and who is behind it in order to stop it in time. And that’s how she ends up in the situation of having to decide if she wants to be the honey in a honeypot trap to get the information needed.

If you’re looking for a spy thriller that isn’t too scary or intense to read before bed, but will keep you turning the pages, pick this one up!

Series note: You can start here and not be lost at all but you will learn about things that happened in the previous books, which give away their twists/endings. If you want to start at the beginning pick up Alias Emma.

For fans of history, narrative nonfiction, and ciphers!

Simon Singh takes readers into the real history of encryption, even showing the breakdown explanations. He highlights moments in history where codes were used—and features the code breakers who broke the codes as well as the people who originally wrote them—and leads all of it up to the need for codes to secure things on the Internet.

For fans of historical YA mysteries, friendship, a sapphic love story, and code breakers!

In 1943, a group of women were working as code breakers in Virginia. Among them is a young woman who was given a dead woman’s identity, which will obviously throw a wrench in things. While the women are all very different from each other, they are unified with one goal: solving a murder they suspect is a serial killer’s work. Their lives are surrounded by danger as they break codes for the war during the day and spend the rest of their time investigating, partnering with a reporter, and trying to catch a killer!

(TW date rape drug use, no assault/ murder victims raped, not on page nor detailed/ antisemitism/attempted sexual assault)