Author: Pyle, Nathan W., author, illustrator. Sequel to: Pyle, Nathan W. Strange planet.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 741.56
Format: Books
Summary: Straight from the mind of New York Times bestselling author Nathan W. Pyle, this eagerly awaited sequel. Nathan takes us back to his charming and instantly recognizable planet colored in bright pinks, blues, greens, and purples, providing more escapades, jokes, and phrases.
Author: Balukjian, Brad, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 796.357
Format: Books
Summary: ""The Wax Pack," part baseball nostalgia and part road trip travelogue, follows Brad Balukjian as he tracks down players from a single pack of baseball cards from 1986"--
Author: Menon, Sandhya, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: Y MENON
Format: Books
Summary: Pinky Kumar wears the social justice warrior badge with pride. From raccoon hospitals to persecuted rock stars, no cause is too esoteric for her to champion. But a teeny tiny part of her also really enjoys making her conservative, buttoned-up corporate lawyer parents cringe. Samir Jha might have a few...quirks remaining from the time he had to take care of his sick mother, like the endless lists he makes in his planner and the way he schedules every minute of every day, but those are good things. They make life predictable and steady. Pinky loves lazy summers at her parents' Cape Cod lake house, but after listening to them harangue her about the poor decisions she's made (a.k.a. boyfriends she's had), she hatches a plan. Get her sorta-friend-sorta-enemy--who is a total Harvard-bound Mama's boy--to pose as her perfect boyfriend for the summer. When Samir's internship falls through, leaving him with an unplanned summer, he gets a text from Pinky asking if he'll be her fake boyfriend in exchange for a new internship. He jumps at the opportunity; Pinky's a weirdo, but he can survive a summer with her if there's light at the end of the tunnel. As they bicker their way through lighthouses and butterfly habitats, sparks fly, and they both realize this will be a summer they'll never forget. --Inside jacket
Author: Zelizer, Julian E., author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 328.73
Format: Books
Summary: "The story of how Newt Gingrich and his allies tainted American politics, launching an enduring era of brutal partisan warfare When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, President Obama observed that Trump "is not an outlier; he is a culmination, a logical conclusion of the rhetoric and tactics of the Republican Party for the past ten, fifteen, twenty years." In Burning Down the House, historian Julian Zelizer pinpoints the moment when our country was set on a path towards an era of bitterly partisan and ruthless politics, an era that was ignited by Newt Gingrich and his allies. In 1989, Gingrich brought down the Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Wright and catapulted himself into the national spotlight. Perhaps more than any other politician, Gingrich introduced the rhetoric and tactics that have shaped Congress and the Republican Party for the last three decades. Elected to Congress in 1978, Gingrich quickly became one of the most powerful figures in America not through innovative ideas or charisma, but through a calculated campaign of attacks against political opponents, casting himself as a savior in a fight of good versus evil. Taking office in the post-Watergate era, he weaponized the good government reforms newly introduced to fight corruption, wielding the rules in ways that shocked the legislators who had created them. His crusade against Democrats culminated in the plot to destroy the political career of Speaker Wright. While some of Gingrich's fellow Republicans were disturbed by the viciousness of his attacks, his party enjoyed his successes so much that they did little collectively to stand in his way. Democrats, for their part, were alarmed, but did not want to sink to his level and took no effective actions to stop him. It didn't seem to matter that Gingrich's moral conservatism was hypocritical or that his methods were brazen, his accusations of corruption permanently tarnished his opponents. This brand of warfare worked, not as a strategy for governance but as a path to power, and what Gingrich planted, his fellow Republicans reaped. He lead them to their first majority in Congress in decades, and his legacy extends far beyond his tenure in office. From the rise of the Tea Party to the Trump presidential campaign, his fingerprints can be seen throughout some of the most divisive episodes in contemporary American politics. Burning Down the House presents the alarming narrative of how Gingrich and his allies created a new normal in Washington, introducing ruthless and destructive practices that have endured today"--
Author: Reddi, Rishi, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F REDDI
Format: Books
Summary: "A sweeping, vibrant first novel following a family of Indian sharecroppers at the onset of World War I, revealing an unknown part of California history"-- 1914. Ram Singh arrives in the Imperial Valley on the Mexican border, reluctantly accepting his friend Karak's offer of work and partnership in a small cantaloupe farm. Fleeing violence in Oregon, Ram desperately longs to return to his wife and newborn son in Punjab, but is duty bound to make his fortune first. Along with Ram and Karak are Jivan and his wife, Kishen; and Amarjeet, a U.S. soldier, though the Valley is full of settlers hailing from other cities and different continents. . They struggle to farm in the unforgiving desert: just one bad harvest or stolen crop could destabilize a family. And as anti- immigrant sentiment rises among white residents, tensions finally boil over. -- adapted from jacket
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander, 1948- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F MCCALLSM
Format: Books
Summary: "One of the author's most beloved characters is back--and once again she will have to call upon her powers of deduction and her unflappable moral code to unravel a new philosophical mystery. In Edinburgh, rumors and gossip abound. But Isabel well knows that such things can't be taken at face value. Still, the latest whispers hint at mysterious goings-on, and who but Isabel can be trusted to get to the bottom of them? At the same time, she must deal with the demands of her two small children, her husband, and her rather tempestuous niece, Cat, whose latest romantic entanglement comes--to no one's surprise--with complications. Still, even with so much going on, Isabel, through the application of good sense, logic, and ethics, will, as ever, triumph"--
Author: Glatt, John, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 364.152
Format: Books
Summary: "In The Perfect Father, New York Times bestselling author John Glatt reveals the true story of a Colorado family whose storybook life turned into a nightmare. In the early morning hours of August 13th, 2018, Shanann Watts was dropped off at her Frederick, Colorado home by a colleague after returning from a business trip. It was the last time anyone would see her alive. By the next day, Shanann and her two young daughters, Bella and Celeste, had been reported missing, and her husband, Chris Watts, was appearing on the local news, pleading for his family's safe return. But Chris Watts already knew that he would never see his family again. Less than 24 hours after his desperate plea, Watts made a shocking confession to police: he had strangled his pregnant wife to death and smothered their daughters, dumping their bodies at a nearby oil site. Heartbroken friends and neighbors watched in shock as the movie-star handsome, devoted family man they knew was arrested and charged with first degree murder. The perfect mask Chris had presented to the world in his TV interviews and the family's Facebook accounts was slipping-and what lay beneath was a horrifying image of instability, infidelity, sexual ambivalence, and boiling rage. In this first major account of the case, bestselling author and journalist John Glatt reveals the truth behind the tragedy and constructs a chilling portrait of one of the most shocking family annihilator cases of the 21st century"--
Author: Solomon, Rachel Lynn, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: Y SOLOMON
Format: Books
Summary: "Throughout the years both Rowan and Neil have been at competition with one another on everything from who has the best ideas for school functions to which one will be their graduating class's valedictorian. However, in the twenty-four hours left they have as high school students, the two learn they share something much deeper than a rivalry"--
Author: Iftin, Abdi Nor, author. Alexander, Max, 1957-
Published: 2020 2018
Call Number: 305.893
Format: Books
Summary: "Adapted for Young Adults". Adapted from the adult memoir, this gripping story follows one boy's journey into young adulthood and offers an intimate account of modern immigration.Abdi Nor Iftin grew up amidst a blend of cultures, far from the United States. At home in Somalia, his mother entertained him with vivid folktales and bold stories detailing her rural, nomadic upbrinding. As he grew older, he spent his days following his father, a basketball player, through the bustling street of the capital city of Mogadishu.But when the threat of civil war reached Abdi's doorstep, his family was forced to flee to safety. Through the turbulent years of war, young Abdi found solace in popular American music and films. Nicknamed Abdi the American, he developed a proficiency for English that connected him--and his story--with news outlets and radio shows, and eventually gave him a shot at winning the annual U.S. visa lottery.Abdi shares every part of his journey, and his courageous account reminds readers that everyone deserves the chance to build a brighter future for themselves.--
Author: Lapeña, Shari, 1960- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F LAPENA
Format: Books
Summary: "The new domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door and Someone We Know In upstate New York, Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin babies. The girls are a handful, but Stephanie doesn't mind being a stay-at-home mom, taking care of them while Patrick does the nine to five to pay the bills. When a woman from Patrick's past drops in on them unexpectedly, raising questions about his late first wife, Stephanie supports her husband wholeheartedly. She knows the car accident all those many years ago was just that--an accident. But Erica is persistent, and now she's threatening to go to the police. Patrick is afraid his job--and his reputation--will be at risk if he doesn't put an end to Erica's questioning immediately. And when the police start digging, Stephanie's trust in her husband begins to falter and Patrick is primed to lose everything he loves. As their marriage crumbles, Stephanie feels herself coming unglued, and soon she isn't sure what--or who--to believe. Now the most important thing is to protect her girls, but at what cost?"--
Author: Logan, T. M., author.
Published: 2020 2019
Call Number: F LOGAN
Format: Books
Summary: "Four lifelong friends on a luxurious vacation come face-to-face with an explosive secret. It was supposed to be the perfect vacation, dreamed up by Kate as the ideal way to turn 40: four best friends and their husbands and children, spending a week in a luxurious villa under the blazing sunshine of Provence. But there is trouble in paradise. Kate suspects that her husband is having an affair--and that the other woman is one of her best friends. One of these women is willing to sacrifice years of friendship and destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realizes--too late--that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined. And someone in the villa may be prepared to kill to keep their lies hidden"--
Author: Baker, Nicholson, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 358.38
Format: Books
Summary: "Ten years into researching a book about the possibility that the United States had used biological weapons in the Korean War, Nicholson Baker was frustrated and disheartened. In the course of his research, he had become deeply disillusioned with the process of FOIA requests. He has been forced to wait years in some cases, while other requests have been answered only with documents rendered inscrutable, or even illegible, by copious redactions. Rather than wait forever, with his head full of secrets about government atrocities committed by his own country, Baker sets out to keep a personal journal of his obstructed research instead. He begins documenting his correspondence with the government administrators who are charged with responding to, and thus stymying, his requests. The result is one of the most original and daring works of nonfiction in recent memory, a singular and mesmerizing narrative into the history of some of the darkest and most shameful secrets of the CIA and US government--all willfully concealed to some degree despite the existence of the so-called Freedom of Information Act. In his preternaturally lucid and unassuming style, Baker unearths stories of CIA programs involving weaponized insects and the deliberate spread of Lyme disease; dangerous military experiments carried out on unsuspecting American citizens; and devastating chemical munitions designed to inflict terrible harm on innocent civilians in far-flung countries. At the same time, he shares beautiful anecdotes from his daily life in Maine feeding his dogs and watching the morning light gather on the horizon. The result is an astonishing and utterly disarming story about waiting, bureaucracy, the horrors of war, and, above all, the deadly secrets the United States government keeps from its citizens"--
Author: Freeman, Brian, 1963- author. Ludlum, Robert, 1927-2001, creator.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F FREEMAN
Format: Books
Summary: "After the death of his lover in a mass shooting, secret agent Jason Bourne is convinced that there is more to her murder than it seems. Worse, he believes that Treadstone--the agency that made him who he is, that trained him--is behind the killing. Bourne goes rogue, leaving Treadstone behind and taking on a new mission to infiltrate and expose an anarchist group, Medusa. But when a congresswoman is assassinated in New York, Bourne is framed for the crime, and he finds himself alone and on the run, hunted by both Treadstone and the tech cabal that had hired him. In his quest to stay one step ahead of his enemies, Bourne teams up with a journalist, Abbey Laurent, to figure out who was behind the frame-up, and to learn as much as he can about the ever-growing threat of the mysterious Medusa group. As more and more enemies begin to hunt Bourne, it's a race against the clock to discover who led him into a trap ... and what their next move may be"--
Author: Butcher, Jim, 1971- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F BUTCHER
Format: Books
Summary: When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, joins the White Council's security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed, when dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago--and all he holds dear?
Author: Lustbader, Eric, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F LUSTBADE
Format: Books
Summary: Evan Ryder is a lone wolf, a field agent for a black-ops arm of the DOD, who has survived unspeakable tragedy and dedicated her life to protecting her country. When her fellow agents begin to be systematically eliminated, Evan must unravel the thread that ties them all together ... and before her name comes up on the kill list. The list belongs to a mysterious cabal known only as Nemesis, a hostile entity hell-bent on tearing the United States apart. As Evan tracks them from Washington D.C. to the Caucasus Mountains, from Austria to a fortress in Germany where her own demons reside, she unearths a network of conspirators far more complex than anyone could have imagined. Can Evan uproot them before Nemesis forces bring democracy to its knees?--
Author: Draper, Robert, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 956.7044
Format: Books
Summary: "Even now, after more than fifteen years, it is hard to see the invasion of Iraq through the cool, considered gaze of history. For too many people, the damage is still too palpable, and still unfolding. Most of the major players in that decision are still with us, and few are not haunted by it, in one way or another. Perhaps that combination, the passage of the years and the still unresolved trauma, explains why so many protagonists opened up so fully for the first time to Robert Draper. Draper's prodigious reporting has yielded scores of important new revelations, from the important to the merely absurd. As a whole, the book paints a vivid and indelible picture of a decision-making process that was fatally compromised, by a combination of post-9/11 fear and paranoia, rank naïveté, craven groupthink, and a set of actors with idées fixes who gamed the process relentlessly. Everything was believed; nothing was true. The intelligence failure was comprehensive. Draper's fair-mindedness and deep understanding of the principal actors suffuse his account, as does a storytelling genius that is close to sorcery. No one is cheap-shotted here, which makes the ultimate conclusion all the more damning. In the spirit of Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August and Marc Bloch's Strange Defeat, To Start A War will stand as the definitive account of a collective process that arrived at evidence that would prove to be not just dubious but entirely false, driven by imagination rather than a quest for truth--evidence to drive a verdict that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and a flood tide of chaos in the Middle East that shows no signs of ebbing"--
Author: Miller, Jax, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 364.152
Format: Books
Summary: "The stranger-than-fiction cold case from rural Oklahoma that has stumped authorities for two decades, concerning the disappearance of two teenage girls and the much larger mystery of murder, police cover-up, and an unimaginable truth... On December 30, 1999, in rural Oklahoma, sixteen-year-old Ashley Freeman and her best friend, Lauria Bible, were having a sleepover. The next morning, the Freeman family trailer was in flames and both girls were missing. While rumors of drug debts, revenge, and police collusion abounded in the years that followed, the case remained unsolved and the girls were never found. In 2015, crime writer Jax Miller--who had been haunted by the case--decided to travel to Oklahoma to find out what really happened on that winter night in 1999, and why the story was still simmering more than fifteen years later. What she found was more than she could have ever bargained for: jaw-dropping levels of police negligence and corruption, entire communities ravaged by methamphetamine addiction, and a series of interconnected murders with an ominously familiar pattern. These forgotten towns were wild, lawless, and home to some very dark secrets"--
Author: Davis, Krista, author.
Published: 2020 2019
Call Number: F DAVIS
Format: Books
Summary: "Nothing heats up Old Town quite like the annual Pie Festival, and this year is no exception, especially since Sophie's professional rival, Natasha Smith, is barred from participating. Sophie, meanwhile, has been asked to oversee the pie-eating contest. But the drama really rolls out when celebrity judge, Patsy Lee Presley, host of television's most popular cooking show, bites the crust during the competition, and Sophie's friends are suspected of the crime. As the folks of Old Town dish, the tough truth about Patsy's meteoric rise to domestic stardom begins to leak. It turns out that Patsy's sweet exterior hid a secret sour side, which alienated many of her closest allies, including a jilted ex-husband, a bitter ex-mentor, and a jaded ex-best friend. With the festival falling apart, and her friends in danger of being boxed up for murder, Sophie must cobble together the clues and stop a flaky fiend from serving up any more deadly desserts." -- Amazon.
Author: Olson, Steve, 1956- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 623.4
Format: Books
Summary: "A thrilling narrative of scientific triumph--and the unimaginable, world-ending peril it brought us. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction with unimaginable explosive power. It would begin with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured by humans. In a matter of months, a city designed to produce this dangerous material arose from the desert of eastern Washington State. Plutonium powered the bomb that dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 (a target selected in almost arbitrary fashion). And the work of Glenn Seaborg, Enrico Fermi, and hundreds of thousands of others--the physicists, engineers, laborers, and support staff of the Hanford Nuclear Facility--would remain the basis of the entire US nuclear arsenal during the Cold War and into the present. With his characteristic blend of scientific clarity and human stories, Steve Olson offers this dramatic story of human achievement--and hubris--to a new generation"--
Author: Darby, Seyward, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 305.42
Format: Books
Summary: "After the election of Donald J. Trump, journalist Seyward Darby went looking for the women of the so-called "alt-right" -- really just white nationalism with a new label. The mainstream media depicted the alt-right as a bastion of angry white men, but was it? As women headlined resistance to the Trump administration's bigotry and sexism, most notably at the Women's Marches, Darby wanted to know why others were joining a movement espousing racism and anti-feminism. Who were these women, and what did their activism reveal about America's past, present, and future? Darby researched dozens of women across the country before settling on three -- Corinna Olsen, Ayla Stewart, and Lana Lokteff. Each was born in 1979, and became a white nationalist in the post-9/11 era. Their respective stories of radicalization upend much of what we assume about women, politics, and political extremism. Corinna, a professional embalmer who was once a body builder, found community in white nationalism before it was the alt-right, while she was grieving the death of her brother and the end of hermarriage. For Corinna, hate was more than just personal animus -- it could also bring people together. Eventually, she decided to leave the movement and served as an informant for the FBI"--Amazon.
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