Author: Whitehead, Colson, 1969- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: F WHITEHEA Format: Books Summary: In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men." In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys' fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy.
Author: Macomber, Debbie, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: LP F MACOMBER Format: Large print Summary: Jenna Boltz's life is at a crossroads. After a messy divorce nearly twenty years ago, she raised her two children on her own, juggling motherhood with her beloved job as a Seattle intensive care nurse. Now that Paul and Allie have gone to college and moved out, Jenna can't help but wonder what her future holds. Her best friend, Maureen, is excited for Jenna's newfound independence. Now is the perfect time to finally book the trip to Paris they've been dreaming of since their college days. But when it comes to life's other great adventure--dating--Jenna still isn't sure she's ready to let love in...until an unexpected encounter begins to change her mind. When Jenna's elderly mother breaks her hip, Dr. Rowan Lancaster saves the day. Despite his silent, stoic exterior, Rowan is immediately smitten with Jenna. And even though Jenna is hesitant about becoming involved with another surgeon, she has to admit that she's more than a little intrigued. But when Jenna's children approach her with shocking news, she realizes that she needs to have faith in love and embrace the unexpected--before the life she has always dreamed of passes her by.
Author: Kuritzkes, Justin, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: F KURITZKE Format: Books Summary: A young pop star traces the story of his unlikely rise to fame and his struggles with his father's suicide, sharing philosophical, darkly whimsical observations about the clash between celebrity and the human condition. Honestly, what amazes me the most with a lot of the people I meet is that they think they're so big. They think, ultimately, that the universe revolves around them. And I'm beginning to think that it's only when you live a life like mine--it's only when you're in a position where you don't even really own yourself, when you can't even really say that you're a citizen of any particular country--that you realize that we're all just tiny pieces of cosmic dust floating through the void until we disappear forever and we're never heard from again. So begins the life story of our uber famous twenty-two year old narrator. A teen idol since he was twelve, when a video of him singing went viral, his star has only risen since. Now, haunted by the suicide of his manager-father, unsettled by the very different paths he and his teenage love (and girl pop-star counterpart) "Mandy" have taken, and increasingly aware that he has signed on to something he has little control over, he begins to parse the divide that separates him from the "normal people" of the world. Sneakily philosophical, earnest and funny, Justin Kuritzkes's Famous People is a rollicking, unforgettable look at the clash between fame and the human condition.
Author: Wallace, Kali, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: F WALLACE Format: Books Summary: "A lethal virus is awoken on an abandoned spaceship in this incredibly fast-paced, claustrophobic thriller. They thought the ship would be their salvation. Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it. All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya--the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship. But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship--a terrifying secret buried by the government. A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead. And then they woke it up"--Back cover.
Author: Zoglin, Richard, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: 782.42 Format: Books Summary: Elvis's 1969 opening night in Vegas was his first time back on a live stage in more than eight years. His career had gone sour--bad movies, and mediocre pop songs that no longer made the charts. He'd been dismissed by most critics as over the hill. But in Vegas he played the biggest showroom in the biggest hotel in the city, drawing more people for his four-week engagement than any other show in Vegas history. His performance got rave reviews, "Suspicious Minds" gave him his first number-one hit in seven years, and Elvis became Vegas's biggest star. Over the next seven years, he performed more than 600 shows there, and sold out every one. Las Vegas was changed too. The intimate night-club-style shows of the Rat Pack, who made Vegas the nation's premier live-entertainment center in the 1950s and '60s, catered largely to well-heeled older gamblers. Elvis brought a new kind of experience: an over-the-top, rock-concert-like extravaganza. He set a new bar for Vegas performers, with the biggest salary, the biggest musical production, and the biggest promotion campaign the city had ever seen. In doing so, he opened the door to a new generation of pop/rock performers, and brought a new audience to Vegas--a mass audience from Middle America that Vegas depends on for its success to this day.
Author: Duncan, David Ewing, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: 629.8 Format: Books Summary: What robot and AI systems are being built and imagined right now? What do they say about us, their creators? Will they usher in a fantastic new future, or destroy us? What do some of our greatest thinkers, from physicist Brian Greene and futurist Kevin Kelly to inventor Dean Kamen, geneticist George Church, and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, anticipate about our human-robot future? For even as robots and AI intrigue us and make us anxious about the future, our fascination with robots has always been about more than the potential of the technology -- it's also about what robots tell us about being human.
Author: Silva, Daniel, 1960- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: LP F SILVA Format: Large print Summary: When a girl from an exclusive private school in Switzerland is kidnapped in the Haute-Savoie region of France, Gabriel Allon is thrust into a deadly secret war with an old enemy that will determine the future of the Middle East--and perhaps the world.
Author: Whitehead, Colson, 1969- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: LP F WHITEHEA Format: Large print Summary: "In this bravura follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida."--
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander, 1948- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: LP F MCCALLSM Format: Large print Summary: In a French village where the local restaurant's haute cuisine leaves a lot to be desired--and two books into an astounding ninth series from one of our most beloved authors. Renowned cookbook writer Paul Stuart, renewed and refreshed from his time in Tuscany, has returned to Scotland to work on his new book, The Philosophy of Food in Six Easy Chapters. Writing, though, is complicated by Paul's changed domestic circumstances. His editor and new girlfriend, Gloria, has moved in with him despite not being specifically invited, and she's brought her two rather demanding Siamese cats. When Paul's cousin Chloe suggests Paul visit her in the French countryside, Paul jumps at the chance. However, once he arrives, he finds his fortunes tangled up with the infamous local restaurant that gives the book its title. In this story about a man who prides himself on his taste finding delight in the most unexpected places, we have Alexander McCall Smith at his most witty and charming.
Author: Daheim, Mary, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: LP F DAHEIM Format: Large print Summary: Vacations can be murder. No one knows that better than Judith McMonigle Flynn, owner of Seattle's popular Hillside Manor B&B. After a busy summer, she desperately needs some R&R. Leave it to her thoughtful husband, Joe, to surprise her with a trip to the Canadian Rockies. Thrilled to be getting away, Judith's overjoyed when Cousin Renie and Bill agree to join them. Though the husbands have made the arrangements, how bad can a short time away in the beautiful mountains be? Judith and Renie are about to find out! While the accommodations certainly leave something to be desired, the other guests are the real prize. They've gathered on the mountainside to give a relative a proper and permanent send-off--a nice gesture, until Judith realizes that paying their respects might be a little premature...without some very sinister assistance. Now, it's up to her and Renie to save a would-be corpse from an early date with the undertaker.--
Author: Ramos, Joanne, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: LP F RAMOS Format: Large print Summary: Nestled in New York's Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages--and all of it for free. In fact, you're paid big money to stay here--more than you've ever dreamed of. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds; your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines, is in desperate search of a better future when she commits to being a Host at Golden Oaks, or the Farm as residents call it. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her own family, Jane is determined to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she'll receive on delivery. Heartbreaking, gripping, provocative, The Farm pushes our thinking on motherhood, money, and merit to the extremes, and raises crucial questions about the trade-offs women will make to fortify their futures and the futures of those they love.
Author: Stewart, Kate, 1978- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: B RAPPAPOR Format: Books Summary: "For forty years, book by book, one librarian saved our nation. This is her story. Books were the one constant in a life full of trauma and turmoil, and Ruth Rappaport always turned to them for reassurance, renewal, and solace when she had no one and nothing else ... Above all, this book is a tribute to a teenage girl who understood the power of forbidden books: that by reading them she would find a way to liberate herself. She devoted the rest of her long life to liberating them for the readers of the world. That includes you."--Dust jacket.
Author: Vanderah, Glendy, author. Published: 2019 Call Number: F VANDERAH Format: Books Summary: A mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again. After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. When a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin, barefoot and covered in bruises, Joanna enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren't Jo and Gabe checking the missing children's website anymore? Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made.
Author: Klosterman, Chuck, 1972- author. Published: 2019 Call Number: F KLOSTERM Format: Books Summary: A man flying first class discovers a puma in the lavatory. A new coach of a small-town Oklahoma high school football team installs an offense comprised of only one, very special, play. A man explains to the police why he told the employee of his local bodega that his colleague looked like the lead singer of Depeche Mode, a statement that may or may not have led in some way to a violent crime. A college professor discusses with his friend his difficulties with the new generation of students. An obscure power pop band wrestles with its new-found fame when its song "Blizzard of Summer" becomes an anthem for white supremacists. A couple considers getting a medical procedure that will transfer the pain of childbirth from the woman to her husband. A woman interviews a hit man about killing her husband but is shocked by the method he proposes. A man is recruited to join a secret government research team investigating why reality is mathematically unraveling. A man sees a whale struck by lightning, and knows that everything about his life has to change. A lawyer grapples with the unintended side effects of a veterinarian's rabies vaccination.