Open to ages 12 and over.
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You’ve heard of Bad Art programs, well, this is not one
Join us to explore different art forms.
Embrace your creativity and make something you’re proud of, no matter how it works. All supplies provided. Sponsored by the Atlantic County Library Foundation. All programs subject to change or cancellation.
Author: Gould, Courtney, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: Y GOULD
Format: Books
Summary: Sisters Beck and Avery travel to an isolated Arizona town to investigate its connection to their mother's death, but uncover more than they anticipated. Beck Birsching has been adrift since the death of her mother, a brilliant but troubled investigative reporter. She finds herself unable to stop herself from slipping into memories of happier days, clamoring for a time when things were normal. So when a mysterious letter in her mother's handwriting arrives in the mail with the words Come and find me, pointing to a town called Backravel, Beck hopes that it may hold the answers. But when Beck and her sister Riley arrive in Backravel, Arizona it's clear that there's something off about the town. There are no cars, no cemeteries, no churches. The town is a mix of dilapidated military structures and new, shiny buildings, all overseen by the town's gleaming treatment center high on a plateau. No one seems to remember when they got there, and the only people who seem to know more than they're letting on is the town's enigmatic leader and his daughter, Avery. As the sisters search for answers about their mother, Beck and Avery become more drawn together, and their unexpected connection brings up emotions Beck has buried since her mother's death.
Author: Myers, Kate (Television developer), author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F MYERS
Format: Books
Summary: "On a remote archeological site in Greece, the mythic home of the first Olympics, four women discover an unusual artifact. It's a piece of history that definitely shouldn't exist. And for the head archaeologist in charge, a relic himself, it means something's gone horribly wrong. Elise, Kara, Z, and Patty all find themselves digging here together, but they couldn't be farther apart. Kara's a polished conservator calling off her wedding. Patty and her bowl cut are desperate for love. Millennial Z just got dumped and fired yet again. And Elise, their star excavator, is a lone wolf about to go rogue. To figure out what they're really digging for, and to topple the man who wants to hide their history, these dirt-crusted colleagues have to become what they've avoided for years--friends. If they put their own messes aside for one summer, they might just make the discovery of a lifetime"--
Author: Harrison, Nicola, 1979- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F HARRISON
Format: Books
Summary: "In Hotel Laguna, Nicola Harrison transports readers from the female-staffed factories of World War II to the sun-splashed beaches of southern California, plunging into one woman's daring journey to demand more for herself. With rich period detail and skillful consideration of a postwar society in flux, Harrison spins a tale of love, identity, and the hidden secrets of the art world. Nicola Harrison has a gift for crafting leading ladies full of heart and moxie, and readers will fall in love with Hazel." - Allison Pataki, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post"-- "In 1942, Hazel Francis left Wichita, Kansas for California, determined to do her part for the war effort. At Douglas Aircraft, she became one of many "Rosie the Riveters," helping construct bombers for the U. S. military. But now the war is over, men have returned to their factory jobs, and women like Hazel have been dismissed, expected to return home to become wives and mothers..." --Amazon.com
Author: Rosenfelt, David, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F ROSENFEL
Format: Books
Summary: "Retired lawyer Andy Carpenter remembers every dog that's come through the Tara Foundation's doors, but the most well-known alum of the dog rescue organization that Andy founded in Paterson, New Jersey, may be Mamie. Adopted by famous actress Jenny Nichols--Andy's high school girlfriend--the miniature French poodle is now practically a starlet in her own right. Andy doesn't hold it against his friend. In fact, he and his wife, Laurie, have dinner with Jenny while she's in town filming her next big hit. But after an eventful meal, there's a plot twist the next morning that none of them see coming: Jenny's costar is found dead, a knife in his back. It's not long before Jenny is arrested for the murder and finds herself in need of Andy's legal services. While Mamie becomes reacquainted with Tara, Andy's golden retriever, Andy digs into the lives of the rich and famous"--
Author: Griffiths, Rachel Eliza, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F GRIFFITH
Format: Books
Summary: "New England, 1957. The Kindred sisters--Ezra and Cinthy--grew up with an abundance of love. Love from their parents, who let them believe that the stories they tell on stars can come true. Love from their neighbors, the Junketts, the only other Black family in town, whose home is filled with spice-rubbed ribs and ground-shaking hugs. And love for their adopted hometown of Salt Point, a beautiful village perched high up on coastal bluffs. But as the girls hit adolescence, their maturing bodies and minds start to change the way their white neighbors see them. And as the news from elsewhere fills with calls for freedom, equality, and justice for Black Americans, the white villagers of Salt Point begin to view the Kindreds and the Junketts as a threat to their way of life. Amidst escalating violence, prejudice, and fear, bold Ezra and watchful Cinthy will reach deep inside the wells of love they've built to commit great acts of heroism and grace on the path to survival"--
Author: Burke, James Lee, 1936- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F BURKE
Format: Books
Summary: "In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi river. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is retreating toward Texas, and being replaced by Red Legs, irregulars commanded by a maniacal figure, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers that prowl the bayous. Wade Lufkin, haunted by what he observed--and did--as a surgeon on the battlefield, has returned to his uncle's plantation to convalesce, where he becomes enraptured by Hannah. Flags on the Bayou is an engaging, action-packed narrative that includes a duel that ends in disaster, a brutal encounter with the local Union commander, repeated skirmishes with Confederate irregulars led by a diseased and probably deranged colonel, and a powerful story of love blossoming between an unlikely pair. As the story unfolds, it illuminates a past that reflects our present in sharp relief. James Lee Burke, whose "evocative prose remains a thing of reliably fierce wonder" (Entertainment Weekly), expertly renders the rich Louisiana landscape, from the sunsets on the Mississippi River to the dingy saloons of New Orleans to the tree-lined shores of the bayou and the cottonmouth snakes that dwell in its depths. Powerful and deeply moving, Flags on the Bayou is a story of tragic acts of war, class divisions upended, and love enduring through it all" --
Author: Raymer, Beth, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F RAYMER
Format: Books
Summary: ""Florida, we got it all. Motorsports, ribs, beer. You can drive on the sand right on up to the ocean. Fireworks every night." That's how twelve-year-old CC's father, who named her after his beloved Canadian Club whiskey, describes the appeal of their new home. The man is a born grifter, a used-car salesman who burns down his dealership in southern Ohio for enough insurance money to set up a life for himself, his wife, and his two young daughters in a place he picks largely at random, because the living seems easy. CC's mother is thirty-five going on seventeen, a housewife who just wants to drive a Mustang and hang out at the mall. CC's sister goes from loving Debbie Gibson and jelly shoes to having a full-on drug addiction and listening only to heavy metal, after enduring forms of abuse within her family. In the midst of this dysfunction, CC is trying to stay afloat and make it out--to achieve some semblance of a stable life in America while coming up against the structural and cultural challenges of growing up in poverty"--
Author: Jena, Anupam B., author. Worsham, Christopher, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 616.0072
Format: Books
Summary: "Why do kids born in the summer get diagnosed more often with A.D.H.D.? How are marathons harmful for your health, even when you're not running? What do surgeons and salesmen have in common? Which annual event made people 30 percent more likely to contract COVID-19? As a University of Chicago-trained economist and Harvard medical school professor and doctor, Anupam Jena is uniquely equipped to answer these questions. And as a critical care doctor at Massachusetts General who researches health care policy, Christopher Worsham confronts its impact on the hospital's sickest patients. In this singular work of science and medicine, Jena and Worsham work together to reveal the hidden side of medicine, and its effect on everyone that touches the health care system. Relying on ingeniously devised natural experiments--random events that unknowingly turn us into experimental subjects--Jena and Worsham do more than offer readers colorful stories. They help us see the way our health is shaped by forces invisible to the untrained eye..."--
Author: Macomber, Debbie, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F MACOMBER
Format: Books
Summary: "Joan Sample is not living the life she expected. Now a widow and an empty-nester, she has become by her own admission something of a recluse. But after another birthday spent alone, she is finally inclined to listen to her sister, who has been begging Joan to reengage with the world. With her support, Joan gathers the courage to take some long-awaited steps: hiring someone to tame her overgrown garden, joining a grief support group, and even renting out a room to a local college student. Before long Joan is starting to feel a little like herself again..."--
Author: Brodeur, Adrienne, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F BRODEUR
Format: Books
Summary: "From the author of the bestselling memoir Wild Game comes a riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families, and long-buried secrets--for fans of the New York Times bestsellers The Paper Palace and Ask Again, Yes. Ken and Abby Gardner lost their mother when they were small and they have been haunted by her absence ever since. Their father, Adam, a brilliant oceanographer, raised them mostly on his own in his remote home on Cape Cod, where the attachment between Ken and Abby deepened into something complicated--and as adults their relationship is strained. Now, years later, the siblings' lives are still deeply entwined. Ken is a successful businessman with political ambitions and a picture-perfect family and Abby is a talented visual artist who depends on her brother's goodwill, in part because he owns the studio where she lives and works. As the novel opens, Adam is approaching his seventieth birthday, staring down his mortality and fading relevance. He has always managed his bipolar disorder with medication, but he's determined to make one last scientific breakthrough and so he has secretly stopped taking his pills, which he knows will infuriate his children. Meanwhile, Abby and Ken are both harboring secrets of their own, and there is a new person on the periphery of the family--Steph, who doesn't make her connection known..."--
Author: Pool, Katy Rose, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: Y POOL
Format: Books
Summary: Seventeen-year-old cursebreaker Marlow Briggs reluctantly pretends to be in love with a powerful noble to gain entry into an illustrious--and deadly--society that holds clues to her mother's disappearance. Since fleeing the gilded halls of Evergarden for the muck-filled canals of the Marshes, Marlow Briggs has made a name for herself as the best godsdamn cursebreaker in Caraza City. But no matter how many cases she solves, she is still haunted by the mystery of her mother's disappearance. When Adrius Falcrest, Marlow's old friend and scion of one of Caraza's most affluent spell-making families, asks her to help break a life-threatening curse, Marlow wants nothing to do with the boy who spurned her a year ago. But a new lead in her mother's case makes Marlow realize that the only way to get the answers she desperately seeks is to help Adrius and return to Evergarden society--even if it means suffering through a fake love affair with him to avoid drawing suspicion from the conniving Five Families.
Author: Wood, Alikay, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: Y WOOD
Format: Books
Summary: Facing imminent death from a parasitic infection, three teenagers elect to spend their final days on a madcap adventure, and discover a lot about themselves along the way. "Hattie Larken doesn't know if she's ever really been real in her life. A compulsive liar with a quick-witted response to everything, she's willing to do whatever it takes to just skate through the rest of high school until she can graduate and escape it all: the mind-numbing monotony of this town, the guilt of everything that happened with her dad, and the debt that her mom's dealing with that she feels responsible for. But then Hattie finds out she's dying. Not like in that overdramatic way that people sometimes say they're dying. She's literally dying. Apparently, she was exposed to a parasite because of a mistake her mom's company made. (And no, the irony of that all is not lost on Hattie...) And she's not the only one." --Amazon.com
Author: Keng, Natalie, author. Llewellyn, Deborah Whitlaw, photographer.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 641.5975
Format: Books
Summary: "Southern foodways intersect with various Asian-American tastes in this fusion cookbook of 100 recipes celebrating inclusivity and diversity at the dinner table with the best from various cultures, cooking styles, and comforting foods"--
Author: Adler, Sarah, 1991- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F ADLER
Format: Books
Summary: "Millicent Watts-Cohen is on a mission. When she promised her elderly best friend that she'd reunite her with the woman she fell in love with nearly eighty years ago, she didn't expect that would mean traveling to Key West with three tablespoons of Mrs. Nash's remains in her backpack. But Millie's determined to give her friend a symbolic happily ever after, before it's (really) too late-and hopefully reassure herself of love's lasting power in the process. She just didn't expect to have a (living) travel companion. After a computer glitch grounds flights, Millie is forced to catch a ride with Hollis Hollenbeck, an also-stranded acquaintance from her ex's MFA program. Hollis certainly does not believe in happily-ever-afters, symbolic or otherwise, and makes it quite clear that he can't fathom how Millie's plan could possibly end well for anyone. But as they contend with odd bed-and-breakfasts, peculiar small-town festivals, and suicidal deer, Millie begins to suspect that her reluctant travel partner might enjoy her company more than he lets on. Because for someone who supposedly doesn't share her views on romance, Hollis sure is becoming invested in the success of their journey. And the closer they get to their destination, the more Millie has to admit that maybe this trip isn't just about Mrs. Nash's love story after all-maybe it's also about her own"--
Author: Graham, Heather, Author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F GRAHAM
Format: Books
Summary: "Four bodies have been discovered along Europe's riverbanks, placed with care--and completely drained of blood. Pinpricks on their throats indicate a slender murder weapon, but DNA found in the wounds suggests something far more sinister. Tasked with investigating, the FBI recruits Agents Della Hamilton and Mason Carter to Blackbird, an international offshoot of the Krewe of Hunters. If you want to catch a vampire killer, you need agents who can speak with the dead..." --Amazon.com
Author: Berry, Steve, 1955- author. Blackwood, Grant, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: F BERRY
Format: Books
Summary: "Luke Daniels is in London, between assignments with the Magellan Billet, when he receives a frantic call from an old friend. Jillian Stein is in trouble. She made a mistake and now her life may be in danger. She needs Luke's help. Immediately. Racing to Belgium, Luke quickly finds that she was right. A shadow team of highly trained operatives is there on the hunt. Intervening, he finds himself embroiled in a war between two determined sides--one seeking the truth, the other trying to escape the past--a war that has already claimed one life and is about to claim more. Thomas Rowland is a Washington insider, a kingmaker, problem solver, but also a man with a past. For him everything turns with what happened on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. What history has recorded is wrong. There is more to the story, much more, and Thomas Rowland is at the center of that terrible reality..."--
Author: Chaffetz, Jason, 1967- author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: 320.5109
Format: Books
Summary: "Chaffetz explains how nonprofit leaders, union bosses, global CEOs, and many unelected leaders have worked in parallel with the aims of "permanent Washington.""--
Author: White, Ralph, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B WHITE
Format: Books
Summary: The true story of how one Chase Manhattan banker fought to the save the staff of its Saigon branch before the city fell to the North Vietnamese army in the waning days of the Vietnam War. April 1975. White was asked to transfer from the Bangkok branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank to the Saigon Branch. He was tasked with closing the branch if and when it appeared that Saigon would fall to the North Vietnamese army, and ensure the safety of the senior Vietnamese employees. The senior staff members there urged him to evacuate the entire staff of the branch and their families, which was far more than he was authorized to do. He realized that no one would be safe when the city fell, and it was no longer a question of whether to evacuate but how. This is the story of a city on the eve of destruction-- and the colorful characters who respond differently to impending doom. White's desire to save innocent lives was not because it was ordered, but because it was the right thing to do. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Kloots, Anna, author.
Published: 2023
Call Number: B KLOOTS
Format: Books
Summary: "Despite what appeared to be a glamorous existence full of globetrotting adventures, behind the scenes, Anna Kloots felt invisible in her own life. Consumed by a marriage that left no space for her own desires, she chose to reframe the failure of her marriage as an opportunity to begin again. Now, for every woman searching for her voice, Anna shares her story of starting over by trusting the magic that was always within"--Amazon.
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