Author: Krist, Gary, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: 979.461 Format: Books Summary: "Shortly before dusk on November 3, 1870, just as the ferryboat El Capitan was pulling away from its slip into San Francisco Bay, a woman clad in black emerged from the shadows and strode across the crowded deck. Reaching under her veil, she drew a small pistol and aimed it directly at a well-dressed man sitting quietly with his wife and children. The woman fired a single bullet into his chest. "I did it and I don't deny it," she said when arrested shortly thereafter. "He ruined both myself and my daughter." Though little remembered today, the trial of Laura D. Fair for the murder of her lover, A. P. Crittenden, made headlines nationwide. As bestselling author Gary Krist reveals, the operatic facts of the case--a woman strung along for years by a two-timing man, killing him in an alleged fit of madness--challenged an American populace still searching for moral consensus after the Civil War. The trial shone an early and uncomfortable spotlight on social issues like the role of women, the sanctity of the family, and the range of acceptable expressions of gender, while jolting the still-adolescent metropolis of 1870s San Francisco, a city eager to shed its rough-and-tumble Gold Rush-era reputation."--
Author: Griffin, Amy (Businesswoman), author. Published: 2025 Call Number: B GRIFFIN Format: Books Summary: "For decades, Amy ran. Through the dirt roads of Amarillo, Texas, where she grew up; to the campus of the University of Virginia, as a student athlete; on the streets of New York, where she built her adult life; through marriage, motherhood, and a thriving career. To outsiders, it all looked, in many ways, perfect. But Amy was running from something-a secret she was keeping not only from her family and friends, but unconsciously from herself. "You're here, but you're not here," her daughter said to her one night. "Where are you, Mom?" So began Amy's quest to solve a mystery trapped in the deep recesses of her own memory-a journey that would take her into the burgeoning field of psychedelic therapy, to the limits of the judicial system, and ultimately, home to the Texas panhandle, where her story began. In her relentless search for the truth, Griffin probes the pursuit of perfectionism, control, and maintaining appearances that drives so many women, asking the question: When, in our path from girlhood to womanhood, did we learn to look outside ourselves for validation? And what kind of freedom is possible if we accept who we really are? With hope, heart, and honesty, Griffin points a way forward for all of us, revealing the transcendent power of radical truth-telling to deepen our connection to our families-and ourselves"--
Author: Wright, Lawrence, 1947- author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F WRIGHT Format: Books Summary: FBI agent Tony Malik travels to Gaza for a family wedding but becomes entangled in a complex murder investigation with an Israeli officer, navigating deeply rooted tensions, personal discoveries, and a volatile political landscape as they work together to uncover the truth amidst corruption and violence. "Tony Malik is a half-Irish, half-Arab New York based FBI agent, specializing in money flowing from drug and arms deals. The novel opens in shocking fashion, with Malik seriously injured by a terrorist-planted bomb. During his lengthy recuperative process, his life changes radically. A long-term relationship ends, and his job is on the verge of being taken away from him. During this period he learns more about his roots and becomes interested in his father's past and family--his father came to America years ago from Palestine. He decides to make a trip to his father's homeland to attend the wedding of his niece, whom he has never met. As a result of his plans, he is given a simple assignment by his boss at the FBI, partly to see how well he can still do his job. That simple assignment becomes extremely complicated. As soon as he arrives in Gaza, the Israeli police chief overseeing the area is murdered. Malik is at first a suspect. Then, due to his superior investigative skills, he is invited into the Israeli investigation, seeking the murderer. At the center of this novel is Malik's relationship with Yossi, the hardline anti-Arab Israeli police officer leading the investigation. They must learn to trust each other because, as they move closer to solving the case, they realize there is no one else they can trust on either side. Extraordinary three dimensional characters populate this novel: Yossi's daughter, studying in Paris, trying to escape the violence that surrounds her in Israel; Malik's niece, whose wedding and life are shattered by the murder; her fiancé, a peacenik whose existence is complicated by the fact that his cousin is high up in the Hamas command; religious leaders on both sides; corrupt Israeli cops; Palestinians thirsting for violence against Israel; Israelis determined to crush the Palestinians. Lawrence Wright brings a wide and complicated tapestry to life, one that culminates on October 7 with the deadly Hamas attack on Israel. But he has written more than just a thriller, or even just an examination of all these complicated lives. He has written a novel that manages to explore and explain much of the devastating history that encompasses the relationship between Israel and Palestine-and shows it to us in a way that poignantly reveals the tragic human scale that is involved"--
Author: Benedict, Marie, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: LP F BENEDICT Format: Large print Summary: "London, 1930. The five greatest women crime writers have banded together to form a secret society with a single goal: to show they are no longer willing to be treated as second class citizens by their male counterparts in the legendary Detection Club. Led by the formidable Dorothy L. Sayers, the group includes Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham and Baroness Emma Orczy. They call themselves the Queens of Crime. Their plan? Solve an actual murder, that of a young woman found strangled in a park in France who may have connections leading to the highest levels of the British establishment. May Daniels, a young English nurse on an excursion to France with her friend, seemed to vanish into thin air as they prepared to board a ferry home. Months later, her body is found in the nearby woods. The murder has all the hallmarks of a locked room mystery for which these authors are famous: how did her killer manage to sneak her body out of a crowded train station without anyone noticing? If, as the police believe, the cause of death is manual strangulation, why is there is an extraordinary amount of blood at the crime scene? What is the meaning of a heartbreaking secret letter seeming to implicate an unnamed paramour? Determined to solve the highly publicized murder, the Queens of Crime embark on their own investigation, discovering they're stronger together. But soon the killer targets Dorothy Sayers herself, threatening to expose a dark secret in her past that she would do anything to keep hidden"--
Author: Dodd, Christina, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F DODD Format: Books Summary: "As a child, Maarja Daire saw her mother ignite an explosion that killed vengeful mob boss Benoit Arundel--and herself--to save Maarja's life. Maarja's been on the run ever since...fleeing from intimacy, from love, from consequences. Now an adult, Maarja hides in plain sight as a fine arts mover, transporting priceless belongings. Work for a new client brings her to the mansion where the fateful blast from her childhood occurred. There she meets Dante, the ruthless, scarred and brooding Arundel family boss. He watches her with dark intent...but does he remember her? Will he use her to take revenge for his father's death? A chance turn of events earns her his trust, when she courageously leaps into flames to rescue his mother. And what happens between them in the darkness sets their worlds on fire, as Maarja recklessly abandons her lifelong caution and self-imposed isolation. Dante calls the urgency between them Fate. Maarja denies him, struggles against his domination and fights the slow erosion of her resistance. When he vows to end the ancient feud, his hidden enemies seize the opportunity to destroy him and the woman he will do anything to protect. Bound together by destruction, passion and destiny, Dante and Maarja must navigate uncharted depths of betrayal and loss, to create a new beginning...before the flames of the vendetta consume them"--
Author: Corren, Andy, 1969- author. Published: 2025 Call Number: 929.2 CORREN Format: Books Summary: "Because she was my mother, the death of zaftig good-time gal Renay Corren is newsworthy to me, and I treat it with the same respect and reverence she had for, well, nothing. A more disrespectful, trash talking woman was not to be found." So began Andy Corren's unforgettable obituary for his mother, Renay Mandel Corren, a tribute that went on to touch the hearts of millions around the globe. In his brief telling of the life and legend that was Renay, a "loud, filthy-minded (and filthy-mouthed) Jewish lady redneck who birthed six kids," Andy captured only a slice of his loving and fabulously unconventional mother. In this uproariously funny, deeply moving family portrait, readers meet the rest of his absurd clan: his brothers, affectionately nicknamed Asshole, Twin, and Rabbi; his one-eyed pirate queen of a sister, Cathy Sue; and then there's Bonus, who Andy isn't aware of until later in life since this mysterious oldest brother grew up at the Green Valley School for Emotionally Disturbed and Delinquent Children... Dirtbag Queen is an entertaining and poignant portrayal of the complex and heartfelt humanity that unites us all--especially family."--
Author: Brooks, Terry, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F BROOKS Format: Books Summary: "One of the most iconic structures in the Four Lands is Paranor, the fortress home of the Druid Order. Legend holds that it was erected by an Elven leader known as Galaphile Joss. But who was this Galaphile, and how and why did he choose to establish this center of magic and learning? Within these pages we meet the real Galaphile, following him from a friendless teenage orphan stranded in the Human world to a powerful adult and master mage, studying under the infamous recluse, Cogline. We learn of the forces that shaped him--those he loved, and those he lost; those who aided him, and those who stood against him. Throughout it all, Galaphile's goal is a noble one: to bring order to a chaotic world, and to make life better for those trying to survive it. To this end, he commences building the citadel which will one day be known as Paranor with the aid of the King of the Silver River. But there is one other who seeks dominion over the Four Lands--and for far less virtuous ends. For this foe has been corrupted by an ancient evil--one that will not only reach out and touch Galaphile's nearest and dearest, but also echo down through the centuries, sowing the seeds for some of the darkest times the Four Lands will ever face"--
Author: Stewart, Erin, 1982- author. Published: 2025 Call Number: Y STEWART Format: Books Summary: After receiving a successful heart transplant, seventeen-year-old Sydney starts to fall for her organ donor's best friend whom she met under false pretenses and feels guilty as her own best friend's health worsens. "Sydney Wells should have died. She was supposed to die. She never expected, after years of waiting, to receive a heart transplant. Now, seventeen-year-old Sydney doesn't know what to do with her life. Her daily routine consisted of staying indoors, eating heart-healthy foods, and posting about her transplant list experiences on TheWaitingList with her long-distance BFF (and heart failure buddy) Chloe. Now, Sydney latches onto the one thing that gives her meaning: learning as much as she can about the person whose heart she inherited. After finding the family of her likely-donor, Mia, Sydney falls deep into her world--and may also be falling for Mia's best friend, Clayton..." --Amazon.com
Author: Silver, Josh, 1989- author. Sequel to Silver, Josh, 1989- HappyHead. Published: 2025 2024 Call Number: Y SILVER Format: Books Summary: The experiment continues in the dark and disturbingly thrilling conclusion to the HappyHead duology where Seb will find the secret to escaping is more heart-wrenching than he ever imagined. Seb was sure surviving the experimental health center of HappyHead would be enough to send him home. But now he joins the top ten contestants in the next stage of the testing, which will take place on a remote island, under the watchful eye of a mysterious couple. Unsure if Finn is dead or alive, Seb reluctantly teams up with Eleanor again as the pair are forced to compete in a series of ever stranger trials to prove their connection and get their lives back. But Seb can't stop thinking about Finn and how he may have been too much of a threat to the program. Determined to find him, Seb's search uncovers an even darker reality--and the only way to escape the island will be to expose the sinister truth behind HappyHead once and for all.
Author: Zhao, Amélie Wen, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: Y ZHAO Format: Books Summary: Nine years ago, the war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore An'ying's family apart, leaving her mother barely alive and a baby sister to fend for. Now the mortal realm is falling into eternal night, and mo--beautiful, ravenous demons--roam the land, feasting on the flesh of humans and drinking their souls. An'ying is no longer a helpless child, though. Armed with her crescent blades and trained in the ancient art of practitioning, she has decided to enter the Immortality Trials, which are open to any mortal who can survive the journey to the immortal realm. Those who complete the Trials are granted a pill of eternal life--the one thing An'ying knows can heal her dying mother. But to attain the prize, she must survive the competition. Death is common in the Trials. Yet oddly, An'ying finds that someone is helping her stay alive. A rival contestant. Powerful and handsome, Yu'chen is as secretive about his past as he is about his motives for protecting An'ying. The longer she survives the Trials, the clearer it becomes that all is not right in the immortal realm. To save her mother and herself, An'ying will need to figure out whether she can truly trust the stranger she's falling for or if he's the most dangerous player of all . . . for herself and for all the realms.
Author: O'Donnell, Roisín, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F ODONNELL Format: Books Summary: "A devastating and suspenseful portrait of gaslighting and emotional abuse, and a triumphant story about family, love, and finding a new place to nest"--
Author: Becker, Elizabeth, (Author), author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F BECKER Format: Books Summary: Louise Winston discovers her family's secret healing abilities, allowing her to bring the dead back to life, but when seeking answers in her grandmother's Appalachian orchard, she uncovers their hidden history and must confront the mysterious costs of her newfound powers.
Author: Heredia, Alejandro, 1994- author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F HEREDIA Format: Books Summary: "It's 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he's held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she'd escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo's worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other." --
Author: Giraud, Brigitte, 1960- author. Stockwell, Cory, translator. Published: 2025 Call Number: F GIRAUD Format: Books Summary: Paced and structured with the inevitable suspense of a countdown, Brigitte Giraud's tense and haunting novel follows one woman's quest to comprehend the motorcycle accident that took the life of her partner Claude at age 41. The narrator of Live Fast recounts the chain of events that led up to the fateful accident, tracing the tiny, madden twists of fate that might have prevented its tragic outcome. Each chapter asks the rhetorical question, "what if," departing from an image or memory from early years meeting in Algeria during the war, to moving to the suburbs of Lyon, buying and renovating a home where they could "put down their suitcase for a whole life." A sensitive elegy to her husband and a subtle, precise vision of a lasting love, Live Fast is a moving and electrifying portrait of two people caught up in the mundane activities of life, forgetting that living itself can be dangerous.
Author: Franklin, Alice, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F FRANKLIN Format: Books Summary: "Before she thinks of herself as Little Alien, our protagonist is a lonely girl who doesn't understand the world the way other children seem to. So when a late-night TV special introduces her to the mysterious Voynich Manuscript--an ancient tome written in an indecipherable language--Little Alien experiences something she hasn't before: hope. Could there be others like her, who also feel like they're from another planet? Convinced the Voynich Manuscript holds the answers she needs, Little Alien and her best (and only) friend Bobby decide they must find this strange book. Where that decision leads them will change everything"--
Author: Puchner, Eric, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: LP F PUCHNER Format: Books Summary: "PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, Pushcart Prize winner, and Best American Stories contributor, Eric Puchner returns with an ambitious and deeply moving novel set against the backdrop of the American West that follows three lifelong friends and the betrayal at the center of their entwined fates. Cece and Charlie are in love and a few weeks away from their summer wedding. But when Cece meets Charlie's best friend from college, Garrett, her long-held expectations for her future begin to crumble. As Garrett's gruff mask slips, Cece begins to anticipate the big day with dread as her feelings for Garrett become impossible to bury. And as she decides to follow her instincts, ditching her groom for his best man, she will alter the three of their lives forever, the events of that July reverberating through marriage, parenthood, and, in the end, across generations. Years later, Cece's daughter, Lana, and Charlie's son, Jasper, meet and become fast friends, finding themselves reunited again and again throughout their adolescence. Soon enough, they find themselves enacting their parents' mistakes, falling victim to duplicity and heartbreak, with age and mortality looming. With Montana's once-warm summers growing untenably hot, and the nearby lake all but drying up, obscured only by the ceaseless smoke of wildfires, Garrett's career as a wildlife researcher feels increasingly futile. As he watches Cece begin to lose herself, Charlie wonders whether he will ever find stability, especially with a son failing to adjust to the demands of adulthood. With delicacy, precision, and enormous heart, Dream State is at once a study of the unholy catastrophe of marriage, and a tender ode to the beauty of impermanence"--
Author: Buxton, Kira Jane, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F GODDARD Format: Books Summary: "After nearly losing the election to a geriatric but wildly popular donkey named Maurizio, newly installed Mayor Delizia Miccuci can't help but feel like the sun has finally set on the rural Italian village of Lazzarina Boscarino. Tourists only stop by to ask for directions, Nonna Amara's cherished ristorante is long shuttered, and the town hall is disgustingly overrun with glis glis poo-even Postman Duccio has been disgraced. All that's left is Bar Celebrità, a rustic establishment where weary locals gather to quibble over decades-long disputes, submit their poor stomachs to bartender Giuseppina's volcanic espresso, and wonder what will become of the place where together they've spent their entire lives. Little do the villagers know that, mere miles away in the forest, local truffle hunter Giovanni Scarpazza has just happened upon something that could change everything. Swollen to massive proportions, soaking the atmosphere in its pungent fumes, potentially worth six figures in certain international circles, a truffle-un tartufo, that is-sits beneath the soil with the power to either be the greatest gift or the foulest curse the village has ever seen-they're not completely sure which since Giuseppina's psychic was a bit unclear on the matter. Tartufo is much more than a charming romp through the foothills of Tuscany. Written in the same enchanting style and raucous humor that defines Hollow Kingdom and Feral Creatures, Buxton's newest story is a reflection on the interconnectedness of life in all its manifestations-and how holding on to harmony in the face of hardship can grow something beautiful and rare beneath the surface"--
Author: Mallery, Susan, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F MALLERY Format: Books Summary: While Beth is proud of her Malibu beach shop, Surf Sandwiches, she's even prouder of her charismatic brother Rick, who rose from foster care through surgical residency. She makes subs, he saves lives. Life takes a turn for the happy after she finds out Rick is dating her new best friend, Jana. Then Jana's handsome brother adds even more sparkle to Beth's days... and nights. But when she catches Rick with another woman--like, with-with--her visions of an idyllic family future disappear in one awful instant. Either she betrays her brother, or she keeps his secret and risks losing the man she loves and her best friend.
Author: Russell, Karen, 1981- author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F RUSSELL Format: Books Summary: "A gripping Dust Bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraska town"-- "The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing--not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the dust bowl drought but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a 'Prairie Witch,' whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples' memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch's apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the towns secrets and its fate." --Amazon.com
Author: Freed, Alexander, author. Published: 2025 Call Number: F FREED Format: Books Summary: "Before the Rebellion, the Empire reigns, in book one of a trilogy told through the eyes of Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Saw Gerrera. For fans of Andor. "In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire! For a safe and secure society!" With one speech, and thunderous applause, Chancellor Palpatine brought the era of the Republic crashing down. In its place rose the Galactic Empire. Across the galaxy, people rejoiced and celebrated the end to war--and the promises of tomorrow. But that tomorrow was a lie. Instead the galaxy became twisted by the cruelty and fear of the Emperor's rule. During that terrifying first year of tyranny, Mon Mothma, Saw Gerrera, and Bail Organa face the encroaching darkness. One day, they will be three architects of the Rebel Alliance. But first, each must find purpose and direction in a changing galaxy, while harboring their own secrets, fears, and hopes for a future that may never come, unless they act"--
