Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins recommends a chilling mystery, an immigrant’s breakup letter to the West and speculative fiction about astronauts.
A Killing Cold
By Kate Alice MarshallFlatiron Books$28.99February 2025Purchase
From the publisher: When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.
Stay away from Connor Dalton. Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood. Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.
From Revati, store manager: This was exactly the mystery/thriller, I was looking for! Rich family with secrets? Check. Remote, snowy setting? Check. A protagonist with secrets of her own? Check. I loved that there were enough clues to put some pieces together but also some unexpected twists.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
By Omar El AkkadKnopf Publishing Group$28February 2025Purchase
Version 1.0.0From the publisher: On October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” This tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times.
As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past 20 years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human—not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. This is El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West.
From Teresa, bookkeeper: First time reading El Akkad and this book was so dense and heart breaking at the same time. I devoured this book, read it in one sitting and when I finished it I had to sit and think about… a lot. To this day I am still thinking of this book and I know that I will think about this book for the rest of my life.
I would recommend it to any person in my life and would look forward to discussing it with them. I can’t really put into words how this book made me feel but I can say with conviction that this book has forever changed the way I view certain things in politics, the world but most of all how I view the U.S.
The Calculating Stars: A Lady Astronaut Novel
By Mary Robinette KowalTor Books$18.99July 2018Purchase
Version 1.0.0From the publisher: On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to Earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the Earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process.
Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too. Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.
From Simon, bookseller: The Lady Astronaut series takes place in a timeline where a meteor alters the trajectory of world history in the 1950s. Pilot Elma York is an amazing candidate for the now-hasty space program, but prejudices against women and POC in STEM remain in the way. I also recommend the audiobooks specifically — find out what happens when an author with a theater background narrates her own series!
THIS WEEK’S BOOK RECS COME FROM:
Old Firehouse Books
232 Walnut St., Fort Collins
oldfirehousebooks.com
Twitter Instagram FacebookAs part of The Colorado Sun’s literature section — SunLit — we’re featuring staff picks from book stores across the state. Read more.
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