Author: Sun, Lixing, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: 578.4 Format: Books Summary: "A natural history of cheating from selfish genes to lying politicians. Nature is rife with cheating. Possums play possum, feigning death to cheat predators. Crows cry wolf to scare off rivals. Amphibians and reptiles are inveterate impostors. Even genes and cells cheat. The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars explores the evolution of cheating in the natural world, revealing how dishonesty has given rise to wondrous diversity. Blending cutting-edge science with a wealth of illuminating examples--from microscopic organisms to highly intelligent birds and mammals--Lixing Sun shows how cheating in nature relies on two basic rules. One is lying, by which cheaters exploit honest messages in communication signals and use them to serve their own interests. The other is deceiving, by which cheaters exploit the biases and loopholes in the sensory systems of other creatures. Sun demonstrates that cheating serves as a potent catalyst in the evolutionary arms race between the cheating and the cheated, resulting in a biological world teeming with complexity and beauty. Brimming with insight and humor, The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars also looks at the prevalence of cheating in human society, identifying the kinds of cheating that spur innovation and cultural vitality and laying down a blueprint for combatting malicious cheating such as fake news and disinformation."--
Author: Kotler, Steven, 1967- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: 613.7044 Format: Books Summary: An expert in human performance describes his experience pushing his own aging body past preconceived limits in a quest to become an expert skier at age fifty-three. Cutting-edge discoveries in embodied cognition, flow science, and network neuroscience have revolutionized how we think about peak performance aging. On paper, these discoveries should allow older athletes to progress in supposedly "impossible" activities. To see if theory worked in practice, Kotler conducted his own ass-on-the-line experiment in applied neuroscience and later-in-life skill acquisition: He tried to push his own aging body past preconceived limits. Here he takes us on his punk rock, high-velocity joy-ride for a better life in spite--and often in defiance of-- the perceived limitations of the aging human body. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Jewell, Lisa, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F JEWELL Format: Books Summary: "Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie has been listening to Alix's podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Josie's life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can't quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realize that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix's life--and into her home. But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family's lives under mortal threat. Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?" --
Author: Pearce, A. J. (Amanda-Jane), author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F PEARCE Format: Books Summary: "A novel featuring plucky aspiring journalist Emmy Lake as she navigates life, love, and friendship in London during World War II"-- "London, 1943. Twenty-five-year-old Emmy Lake is doing her part in the war effort by spearheading the hugely popular "Yours Cheerfully" advice column in Woman's Friend magazine. The postbags are full, Emmy's guidance offers much needed support to her readers, and Woman's Friend is thriving. Cheered on by her best friends Bunty and Thelma, and resolute in the absence of her husband who is fighting in the army, Emmy is dedicated to helping women face the increasing challenges brought about by over three years of war.
But Emmy's world is turned upside down when glamorous socialite, the Honorable Cressida Porter, becomes the new publisher of the magazine, and wants to change everything about it. Aided by Mrs. Pye, a Paris-obsessed fashion editor with delusions of grandeur, and Small Winston, the grumpiest dog in London, Mrs. Porter fills the pages with expensive clothes and frivolous articles about her friends. Worst of all, she announces that she is cutting the advice column and leaving the readers to fend for themselves. Her vision for the publication's future is dreadful and Emmy is determined to fight back..." --Amazon.com
Author: Zizka, Maria, author. Malosh, David, photographer. Published: 2023 Call Number: 641.5 Format: Books Summary: "Author Maria Zizka introduces readers to ideas from color theory and cooking sciences, explaining how to master food styling and cooking techniques to enhance and preserve color, without any artificial additives. But cooking by color isn't just about looks; it is an approach that draws connections between aesthetics, seasonality, and flavor. Arranged in a gradient, the recipes begin with creamy shades of white--from a coconut cod and rice bowl to a garlicky bean and cauliflower salad. Yellows evoke the bright flavors in margarita bars, reds bring forward fiery tastes in dishes like mapo ragù with rice cakes, and greens highlight fresh and herbal flavors with dishes like matcha and mint ice cream sundae or zhoug-marinated feta and fava toasts. Blues, purples, and blacks present revelations: a butterfly pea flower boa stuffed with blue oyster mushroom, a classic Italian grape focaccia turned on its head with the addition of purple ube, and elegant black tahini cookies. To tie it all together, Zizka presents a special section of color menus"--
Author: Rowland, Amy, 1969- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F ROWLAND Format: Books Summary: "After her academic career in New York flames out, Rachel Ruskin returns to her family's tobacco farm in North Carolina and is haunted by memories and by her hometown's buried history of racism and violence. When a child is accidentally shot and killed, Rachel can no longer avoid confronting her own past wrongs; nor can she continue to hold herself apart from her community"--
Author: Black, Regina, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F BLACK Format: Books Summary: "On the night of her Mayor husband's 40th birthday, Rachel Abbott receives a sexy, explicit text from her husband, which she quickly realizes was meant for another woman. They're at a crossroads and divorce is inevitable, but Rachel is determined not to leave her thirteen-year marriage with nothing. Meanwhile, Matt, the rising star of a Kennedyesque political dynasty with eyes on the White House, can't afford a messy split in the middle of his reelection campaign. They strike a deal: Rachel gets one million dollars and their lavish house in the wealthy DC suburb of Oasis Springs if she agrees to keep playing the perfect Black trophy wife until the election. Amid the forced smiles of photo shoots and donor events, Rachel begins to rediscover herself as the ice queen persona she needed to survive in her husband's privileged world unravels. When she meets Nathan Vasquez, a very handsome, very lost twenty-six-year-old artist, their connection makes her forget about being the perfect politician's wife. In turn, Rachel reawakens Nathan's long-dormant artistic aspirations, but she's also an off-limits reminder of the status-hungry world he walked away from years ago..."--
Author: Edin, Kathryn, 1962- author. Shaefer, H. Luke, author. Nelson, Timothy Jon, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: 339.4 Format: Books Summary: "Three of the nation's top scholars, known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America, turn their attention from the country's poorest people to its poorest places. Based on a fresh, data-driven approach, they discover that America's most disadvantaged communities are not the big cities that get the most notice. Instead, nearly all are rural. Little if any attention has been paid to these places or to the people who make their lives there. This revelation set in motion a five-year journey across Appalachia, the Cotton and Tobacco Belts of the Deep South, and South Texas. Immersing themselves in these communities, pouring over centuries of local history, attending parades and festivals, the authors trace the legacies of the deepest poverty in America, including inequalities shaping people's health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families. Wrung dry by powerful forces and corrupt government officials, the "internal colonies" in these regions were exploited for their resources and then left to collapse. The unfolding revelation in The Injustice of Place is not about what sets these places apart, but about what they have in common: a history of raw, intensive resource extraction and human exploitation. This history and its reverberations demand a reckoning and a commitment to wage a new War on Poverty, with the unrelenting focus on our nation's places of deepest need"--
Author: Dinan, Nicola, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F DINAN Format: Books Summary: It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at their local university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a magnetic young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom's awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming's orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he's already mapped out their future together. But shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition. From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face tectonic shifts in their relationship and friend circle in the wake of Ming's transition... --
Author: Williams, Pip, 1969- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F WILIIAMS Format: Books Summary: "It is 1914, and as the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, women must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who live on a narrowboat in Oxford and work in the bindery at the university press. Ambitious, intelligent Peggy has been told for most of her life that her job is to bind the books, not read them--but as she folds and gathers pages, her mind wanders to the opposite side of Walton Street, where the female students of Oxford's Somerville College have a whole library at their fingertips. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has: to spend her days folding the pages of books in the company of the other bindery girls. She is extraordinary but vulnerable, and Peggy feels compelled to watch over her. Then refugees arrive from the war-torn cities of Belgium, sending ripples through the Oxford community and the sisters' lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can educate herself and use her intellect, not just her hands. But as war and illness reshape her world, her love for a Belgian soldier--and the responsibility that comes with it--threaten to hold her back."--
Author: McCrae, Shane, 1975- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: B MCCRAE Format: Books Summary: "An unforgettable memoir by an award-winning poet about being kidnapped from his Black father and raised by his white supremacist grandparents"-- "When Shane McCrae was three years old, his grandparents kidnapped him and took him to suburban Texas. His mom was white and his dad was Black, and to hide his Blackness from him, his maternal grandparents stole him from his father. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, refusing to acknowledge his heritage--all the while believing they were doing what was best for him. For their own safety and to ensure the kidnapping remained a success, Shane's grandparents had to make sure that he never knew the full story, so he was raised to participate in his own disappearance. But despite elaborate fabrications and unreliable memories, Shane begins to reconstruct his own story and to forge his own identity. Gradually, the truth unveils itself, and with the truth, comes a path to reuniting with his father and finding his own place in the world." --Amazon.com
Author: Power, Susan, 1961- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F POWER Format: Books Summary: "A Council of Dolls is the moving and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award-winning Sioux author Mona Susan Power, spanning four generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day"-- "From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, A Council of Dolls is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried....A modern masterpiece, A Council of Dolls is gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people. With stunning prose, Mona Susan Power weaves a spell of love and healing that comes alive on the page." --Amazon.com
Author: Russell, Craig, 1956- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F RUSSELL Format: Books Summary: "A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist. This is the breakout from Craig Russell, author of The Devil Aspect. 1927: Mary Rourke-a Hollywood studio fixer-is called urgently to the palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in American silent film. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone is openly talking about...a terrifying horror picture called The Devil's Playground that is rumored to have unleashed a curse on everyone involved in the production. Mary finds Norma's cold, dead body, and she wonders for just a moment if these dark rumors could be true. 1967: Paul Conway, a journalist and self-professed film aficionado, is on the trail of a tantalizing rumor. He has heard that a single copy of The Devil's Playground-a Holy Grail for film buffs-may exist. He knows his Hollywood history and he knows the film endured myriad tragedies and ended up lost to time. The Devil's Playground is Craig Russell's tour de force, a richly researched and constructed thriller that weaves through the Golden Age of Hollywood and reveals a blossoming industry built on secrets, invented identities, and a desperate pursuit of image. As Mary Rourke charges headlong through the egos, distractions, and traps that threaten to take her down with the doomed production, she discovers a truth far more sinister than she-or we-would imagine. This is Craig Russell's strongest novel to date, and one that will resonate with American readers"--
Author: Millhauser, Steven, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F MILLHAUS Format: Books Summary: "Here are eighteen stories of astonishing range and precision. A housewife drinks alone in her Connecticut living room. A guillotine glimmers above a sleepy town green. A pre-recorded customer service message sends a caller into a reverie of unspeakable yearning. With the deft touch and funhouse-mirror perspectives for which he has won countless admirers, Steven Millhauser gives us the towns, marriages, and families of a quintessential American lifestyle that is at once instantly recognizable and profoundly unsettling. Disruptions is a provocative, utterly original new collection from a writer at the peak of his form"--
Author: Yarros, Rebecca, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F YARROS Format: Books Summary: "When Izzy Astor gets on a plane to go home, she isn't expecting much. It's the usual holiday travel experience: busy, crowded, stressful. Then she spots her seatmate, who is anything but ordinary. Nate Phelan sports dark hair, blue eyes, and a deliciously rugged charm that Izzy can't resist. Their connection is undeniable. Izzy never believed in destiny before, but she does now. Just ninety seconds after takeoff, their plane goes down in the Missouri River. Their lives change. They change. Nate goes on to a career in the military while Izzy finds her way into politics. Despite a few chance encounters over the years, the timing never feels right. Then comes a high-stakes reunion in Afghanistan, where Nate is tasked with protecting Izzy's life. He'll do anything to keep her safe. And everything to win her heart"--
Author: Pekkanen, Sarah, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F PEKKANEN Format: Books Summary: "Catherine Sterling thinks she knows her mother. Ruth Sterling is quiet, hardworking, and lives for her daughter. All her life, it's been just the two of them against the world. But now, Catherine is ready to spread her wings, move from home, and begin a new career. And Ruth Sterling will do anything to prevent that from happening. Ruth Sterling thinks she knows her daughter. Catherine would never rebel, would never question anything about her mother's past or background. But when Ruth's desperate quest to keep her daughter by her side begins to reveal cracks in Ruth's carefully-constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception. No one can know Ruth's history. There is a reason why Ruth kept them moving every few years, and why she was ready--in a moment's notice--to be gone in the night. But danger is closing in. Is it coming from the outside, from Ruth's past? Is Ruth reaching a breaking point? Or is the danger coming from the darkness that may live in Catherine, herself? Propulsive, brilliant, layered, and provocative, GONE TONIGHT is a thriller that showcases Sarah Pekkanen at the top of her game"--
Author: McBride, James, 1957- author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F MCBRIDE Format: Books Summary: "In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us."--
Author: Kelley, Jeanne, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: 641.83 Format: Books Summary: "People love a good salad! This hunger for salad is matched by a genuine desire for good vegetarian dinner ideas and better plant-based recipes. Jeanne Kelley shares a new collection of creative, easy-to-follow, and foolproof salad recipes for lifelong vegetarians looking for inspiration, omnivores looking to up their meatless Monday game, and general salad enthusiasts. With bold flavors influenced by the vibrant dining scene and the abundant produce of the author's home garden, the recipes are innovative yet approachable, satisfying experienced and novice cooks alike. The salads range from familiar to exotic, taking the idea beyond the traditional tossed bowl, with creative categories such as classic salads, grain salads, pulse salads, salads with seeds, pasta salads, bread salads, and roasted and toasted salads..."--Provided by publisher.
Author: Duncan, David James, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F DUNCAN Format: Books Summary: "A random bolt from a DC-8 falls from the sky, killing a child and throwing the faith of a young Jesuit into crisis. A boy's mother dies on his fifth birthday, sparking a lifetime of repressed anger that he unleashes once a year in reckless duels with the Fate, God, or Power who let the coincidence happen. A young woman on a run in Seattle experiences a shooting star moment that pierces her with a love that will eventually help heal the Jesuit, the angry young man, and innumerable others. The journeys of this unintentional menagerie carry them to the healing lands of Montana and a newly founded community--where nothing tastes better than Maker's Mark mixed with glacier ice, and nothing seems less likely than the soul-filling delight a troupe of spiritual refugees, urban sophisticates, road-weary musicians, and local cowboys begin to find in each other's company"--
Author: Jaworowski, Ken, author. Published: 2023 Call Number: F JAWOROWS Format: Books Summary: "A gripping Rust Belt thriller that captures the characters of a down-and-out Pennsylvania town, revealing their troubled pasts and the crimes that could cost them their lives. In Locksburg, Pennsylvania, a former coal and steel town whose best days seem long past, five thousand residents have toughed it out, and have reasons for both worry and hope as this neglected place teeters between decay and renewal. For some of them, their biggest troubles have just arrived. After years of just scraping by, three restless souls have their lives upended: Nathan, a volunteer fireman who uncovers a secret stash of money in a burning building and takes it; Callie, a nurse whose tender patient may not have long to live, despite the girl's fundamentalist parents' ardent beliefs; and Andy, a recovering heroin addict who undertakes a nightmare mission to hunt down and stop a serial predator. Before long, Nathan's stolen riches threaten to destroy everyone around him as he tries to cover his haphazard trail of lies. Callie risks her career to grant her young patient a final, and likely illegal, wish. And Andy's hunger for vigilante justice becomes a fierce obsession that may end in violence. As their stories barrel toward unexpected ends, Nathan, Callie, and Andy struggle to endure - or escape. They each face their pasts and gamble on their futures, and confront the underside of their rough Rust Belt town. Riveting, evocative, and unforgettable, Small Town Sins is a debut novel that marks the arrival of a major new talent"--
