Author: Alexander, Ellie, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F ALEXANDE Format: Books Summary: After a long cold winter, spring is beginning to bloom in the alpine village of Leavenworth, Washington, where craft brewer Sloan Krause and her partner in crime Garrett Strong are putting the finishing touches on their bright and refreshing Lemon Kiss ale. They'll be debuting their new line at the Maifest celebration, which will bring visitors from near and far to dance around the Maipole and shop at the outdoor flower markets. Despite the festive spirit in the air, Sloan is brewing over her past. She's spent months following leads that have turned into dead ends. But when she spots a woman who strongly resembles Marianne--a long lost contact who may be her only connection to piecing together her story--she hopes that things might be taking a turn in her favor. That hope is quickly smashed when Marianne is involved in the murder of a local housekeeper. To make matters worse, Marianne issues a dire warning that Sloan and her entire family are in danger. If Sloan can't figure out who the killer is and what happened in her past, she won't find any hoppy endings.
Author: Brissett, Jennifer Marie, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F BRISSETT Format: Books Summary: "The Matrix meets an Afro-futuristic retelling of Persephone set in a science fiction underworld of aliens, refugees, and genetic engineering in Jennifer Marie Brissett's Destroyer of Light. Having destroyed Earth, the alien conquerors resettle the remains of humanity on the planet of Eleusis. In the three habitable areas of the planet--Day, Dusk, and Night--the haves and have nots, criminals and dissidents, and former alien conquerors irrevocably bind three stories: *A violent warlord abducts a young girl from the agrarian outskirts of Dusk leaving her mother searching and grieving. *Genetically modified twin brothers desperately search for the lost son of a human/alien couple in a criminal underground trafficking children for unknown purposes. *A young woman with inhuman powers rises through the insurgent ranks of soldiers in the borderlands of Night. Their stories skate across years, building to a single confrontation when the fate of all-human and alien-balances upon a knife's-edge. Warning: This book is designed for audiences 18+ due to scenes of physical and sexual violence, and themes that some may find disturbing"--
Author: Verble, Margaret, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F VERBLE Format: Books Summary: "Louise Erdrich meets Karen Russell in this deliciously strange and daringly original novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Margaret Verble: set in 1926 Nashville, it follows a death-defying young Cherokee horse-diver who, with her companions from the Glendale Park Zoo, must get to the bottom of a mystery that spans centuries"--
Author: Heller, L. Alison, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F HELLER Format: Books Summary: "L. Alison Heller, whose work has been praised by Liane Moriarty as "warm, witty...refreshingly true to life," explores the ultimate sacrifices of parenting in The Neighbor's Secret, a propulsive and juicy novel filled with gripping twists and instantly recognizable characters. How well do you really know your neighbors? With its sprawling yards and excellent schools, Cottonwood Estates is the perfect place to raise children. The Cottonwood Book Club serves as the subdivision's eyes and ears, meeting once a month for discussion, gossip, and cocktails. If their selections trend toward twisty thrillers and salacious murder mysteries, it's only because the members feel secure that such evil has no place in their own cul-de-sacs. Or does it? What happened to Lena's family fifteen years ago was a tragic accident, and she will never admit otherwise. Devoted wife and mother Annie refuses to acknowledge-even to herself-the weight of a past shame. And new resident Jen wants friends, but as always, worry about her troubled son gets in the way. When late-night acts of vandalism target the women of the book club in increasingly violent and personal ways, they will be forced to decide how far to go to keep their secrets. At least they all agree on what's most important: protecting their children at any cost-even if it means someone has to die"--
Author: Dalcher, Christina, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F DALCHER Format: Books Summary: "A chilling look into an alternate near future where a woman and her daughter seek refuge in a women-only colony, only to find that the safe haven they were hoping for is the most dangerous place they could be. Miranda Reynolds always thought she would rather die than live in Femlandia. But that was before the country sank into total economic collapse and her husband walked out in the harshest, most permanent way, leaving her and her sixteen-year-old daughter with nothing. The streets are full of looting, robbing, and killing, and Miranda and Emma no longer have much choice--either starve and risk getting murdered, or find safety. And so they set off to Femlandia, the women-only colony Miranda's mother, Win Somers, established decades ago. Although Win is no longer in the spotlight, her protégé Jen Jones has taken Femlandia to new heights: The off-grid colonies are safe, self-sufficient, and thriving--"Like Disney World for women and girls," Jen says, and Emma is instantly enchanted by the idea. But something is not right. There are no men allowed in the colony, but babies are being born--and they're all girls. Miranda discovers just how the all-women community is capable of enduring, and it leads her to question how far her mother went to create this perfect, thriving, horrifying society"--
Author: Yanique, Tiphanie, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: SPC F YANIQUE Format: Books Summary: "This novel maps the romantic history and emotional inheritance of one couple newly in love. Monster in the Middle moves from the U.S. to the Virgin Islands to Ghana and back again, to show how one couple's romance is influenced by the family lore and love stories that preceded their own pairing"--
Author: Garber, Stephanie, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: Y GARBER Format: Books Summary: Desperate to stop her beloved from marrying another, sixteen-year-old Evangeline Fox strikes a deal with the mythic Prince of Hearts leading her down a dangerous path that may ultimately end in her destruction. Raised in her father's curiosity shop, Evangeline Fox grew up on legends about immortals, like the tragic Prince of Hearts. She knows his powers are mythic, his kiss is worth dying for, and that bargains with him rarely end well. When Evangeline learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, she becomes desperate enough to offer the Prince of Hearts whatever he wants in exchange for his help to stop the wedding. The prince asks for three kisses. After Evangeline's first promised kiss, she learns that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she's pledged. He has plans for Evangeline that will either end in the greatest happily ever after... or the most exquisite tragedy. -- adapted from Goodreads info
Author: Solomon, Asali, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F SOLOMON Format: Books Summary: "Inspired by Mrs. Dalloway and Sula, as well as Audre Lorde's Zami, Asali Solomon's The Days of Afrekete is a deft, expertly layered, naturally funny, and deeply human examination of two women coming back to themselves at midlife. It is a watchful celebration of our choices and where they take us, the people who change us, and how we can re-imagine ourselves even when our lives seem set.
Author: Moorer, Allison, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: B MOORER Format: Books Summary: "Grammy-nominated musician Allison Moorer's lyrical memoir, a testament to love and resilience through the lens of parenting her young son, John Henry, who has nonverbal autism"-- "When Allison's son, John Henry, stopped using his growing vocabulary just before his second birthday, she knew in her bones that something was shifting. In the years since his autism diagnosis, Allison and John Henry have embarked on an intense journey filled with the adventure, joy, heartbreak, confusion, and powerful love lessons that are the hallmarks of a quest for understanding. In I Dream He Talks to Me, Allison details the meltdowns and the moments of grace, and how the mundane expectations of a parent turn into extraordinary achievements. The saying goes, "If you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism"; no two stories are alike, and yet there are universal truths that apply to all parent-child relationships. With gorgeous prose, Allison shares her and John Henry's experience while also creating a riveting narrative that will speak to anyone who parents--and who has questioned their own ability to do so. An exploration of resilience and compassion--both for ourselves and for others--I Dream He Talks to Me is also a moving meditation on our place in the world and how we get there; what words mean, what they don't; and, ultimately, how we truly express ourselves and truly know those whom we love."
Author: Baker, Kylie Lee, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: Y BAKER Format: Books Summary: "Ren Scarborough has been collecting souls in the London streets for centuries...When her failure to control her Shinigami abilities drives Ren out of London, she flees to Japan to seek the acceptance she's never gotten from her fellow Reapers. Accompanied by her younger brother, the only being on earth to care for her, Ren enters the Japanese underworld to serve the Goddess of Death, only to learn that here, too, she must prove herself worthy"--
Author: Lepore, Gabriella, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: Y LEPORE Format: Books Summary: When a fellow student is murdered, Jenna Dallas and Adam Cole, who discovered the body, launch their own investigation and discover that everyone in the community of Gardiners Bay has something to hide. When Jenna Dallas and Adam Cole find Colleen O'Dell's body floating off the shore of their coastal town, the community of Gardiners Bay is shaken. But even more shocking is the fact that her drowning was no accident. When Jenna's best friend becomes a key suspect, she starts to look for answers-- and uncovers scandals inside Preston Prep School that lead back to Rookwood reform school. As a student at Rookwood, Adam is used to getting judgmental looks, but now his friends are being investigated by the police. He will do whatever he can to keep them safe, even if that means trusting Jenna. As lies unravel, they learn everyone in Gardiner's Bay has a secret-- and somebody must take the fall. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Hedges, Chris, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: 365.6 HEDGES Format: Books Summary: "Chris Hedges's powerful memoir of his year of teaching inmates in a maximum-security New Jersey prison takes readers into the lives of men who were all but destined to become incarcerated because of their impoverished and dangerous childhoods and shows why criminal justice reform is so essential"-- "Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist Chris Hedges has taught courses in drama, literature, philosophy, and history since 2013 in a college-degree program offered by Rutgers University at New Jersey prisons. In Our Class, he recalls his first class at maximum-security East Jersey State Prison, where students read and discussed plays by Amiri Baraka, Miguel Pinero, and August Wilson, among others. Inspired by what they read, the class set out to write a play of their own. This play, Caged, would run for a month in 2018 to sold-out audiences at the Passage Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey, and eventually would be published. In writing the play, students gave words to the grief and suffering they and their families had endured, and expressed their hopes and dreams as well as their fears and regrets." --Front jacket flap
Author: Onuzo, Chibundu, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F ONUZO Format: Books Summary: "When Anna, wondering who she really is, discovers that the African father she never knew is still alive, she embarks on a journey to a small nation in West Africa where she searches for her family's hidden roots"-- A funny, gripping and surprising story of a mixed-race British woman who goes in search of the African father she never knew, by award-winning author Chibundu Onuzo. Anna grew up in England with her white mother and knowing very little about her African father. In middle age, after separating from her husband and with her daughter all grown up, she finds herself alone and wondering who she really is. Her mother's death leads her to find her father's student diaries, chronicling his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London. She discovers that he eventually became the president - some would say the dictator - of Bamana in West Africa. She also discovers that he is still alive. She decides to track him down and so begins a funny, painful, fascinating journey, and an exploration of race, identity and what we pass on to our children.
Author: Schindler, Meriel, 1964- author. Published: 2021 Call Number: 943.64 Format: Books Summary: "An extraordinary memoir of a Jewish family spanning two world wars and its flight from Nazi-occupied Austria. Meriel Schindler spent her adult life trying to keep her father, Kurt, at bay. But when he died in 2017, he left behind piles of Nazi-era documents related to her family's fate in Innsbruck and a treasure trove of family albums reaching back to before World War I. Meriel was forced to confront not only their fractured relationship, but also the truth behind their family history. The Lost Café Schindler re-creates the journey of an extraordinary family, whose relatives included the Jewish doctor who treated Hitler's mother when she was dying of breast cancer; the Kafka family; and Alma Schindler, the wife of Gustav Mahler. But the narrative centers around the Café Schindler, famous for its pastries, home-distilled liquors, live entertainment, and hospitality-which was expropriated during the Nazi era. This is a story of tragic loss-several relatives disappeared in Terezín and Auschwitz-but ultimately of reclamation and reconciliation"--
Author: Schutt, Bill, author. Wynne, Patricia, illustrator. Published: 2021 Call Number: 612.17 Format: Books Summary: "Zoologist Bill Schutt delivers a look at hearts from across the animal kingdom, from insects to whales to humans. Illustrated with black-and-white line drawings"-- "In this lively, unexpected look at the hearts of animals--from fish to bats to humans--American Museum of Natural History zoologist Bill Schutt tells an incredible story of evolution and scientific progress. We join Schutt on a tour from the origins of circulation, still evident in microorganisms today, to the tiny hardworking pumps of worms, to the golf-cart-size hearts of blue whales. We visit beaches where horseshoe crabs are being harvested for their blood, which has properties that can protect humans from deadly illnesses. We learn that when temperatures plummet, some frog hearts can freeze solid for weeks, resuming their beat only after a spring thaw. And we journey with Schutt through human history, too, as philosophers and scientists hypothesize, often wrongly, about what makes our ticker tick. Schutt traces humanity's cardiac fascination from the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, who believed that the heart contains the soul, all the way up to modern-day laboratories, where scientists use animal hearts and even plants as the basis for many of today's cutting-edge therapies. Written with verve and authority, weaving evolutionary perspectives with cultural history, Pump shows us this mysterious organ in a completely new light.
Author: Deveraux, Jude, author. Sheets, Tara, 1973- author. Published: 2021 Call Number: LP F DEVERAUX Format: Large print Summary: "Liam O'Connor has one purpose in this life--to push the woman he loves into the arms of another man. The Irish rogue unknowingly changed the course of destiny when he fell in love with Cora McLeod over a century ago, and the angels have been trying to restore the balance of fate ever since. Now police officers in Providence Falls, North Carolina, Liam and Cora are partners on a murder investigation. The angels have made it clear Cora must be with Finley Walsh. But Cora is starting to have feelings for Liam. Liam knows this is the last chance to save his soul. But does he love Cora enough to let her go?"--
Author: Woods, Stuart, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: LP F WOODS Format: Large print Summary: Stone Barrington is nearing his New York City abode when he stumbles into trouble. As it turns out, a new client is in danger - and with both business and the safety of the city at stake, Stone has no choice but to get involved. It's soon clear that a complicated scheme is being hatched and the source remains enigmatic but it's only a matter of time before he and Stone must each show their hands. From ritzy Manhattan high-rises to the lush serenity of the Connecticut countryside, the game of cat-and-mouse can end with only one victor.
Author: Andrews, Mary Kay, 1954- author. Published: 2021 Call Number: LP F ANDREWS Format: Large print Summary: "When newly divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love. At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit. In the pocket she finds a note from a girl who has one Christmas wish, for her father to return home from the war. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? Ivy's quest brings her into the community at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy might find more than she ever thought possible: a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love"--
Author: Fielding, Joy, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: LP F FIELDING Format: Large print Summary: "Someone on this quiet cul-de-sac will be shot dead. Will it be Maggie, the perfectionist wife, or Craig, the husband who can't quite live up to her expectations? Maybe it will be Nick, an oncologist, or his wife, Dani, a successful dentist, both with secrets of their own. Or Julia, a widow, whose grandson has moved in with her, introducing unsavory habits and acquaintances into her quiet existence. Then there's Olivia and Sean. Having lost his job, Sean is depressed and drinking heavily. And what of the newlyweds, Aiden and Heidi, whose marriage is already on the rocks? All harbor secrets. All bear scars. And all have access to guns. Not all will survive the night"--
Author: Bowen, Rhys, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: LP F BOWEN Format: Large print Summary: Georgie is excited for her first Christmas as a married woman in her lovely new home. She suggests to her dashing husband, Darcy, that they have a little house party, but when Darcy receives a letter from his aunt Ermintrude, there is an abrupt change in plans. She has moved to a house on the edge of the Sandringham estate, near the royal family and wants to invite Darcy and his new bride for Christmas. Aunt Ermintrude hints that the queen would like Georgie nearby. Georgie had not known that Aunt Ermintrude was a former lady-in-waiting and close confidante of her royal highness. The letter is therefore almost a royal request, so Georgie, Darcy and their Christmas guests - Mummy, Grandad, Fig and Binky all head to Sandringham. Georgie soon learns that the notorious Mrs Simpson, mistress to the Prince of Wales, will also be in attendance. It is now crystal clear to Georgie that the Queen expects her to do a bit of spying. There is tension in the air from the get-go and when Georgie pays a visit to the queen, she learns that there is more to her request than just some simple eavesdropping. There have been a couple of strange accidents at the estate recently. Two gentlemen of the royal household have died in mysterious circumstances and another has been shot by mistake during a hunt. Georgie begins to suspect that a member of the royal family is the real target but her investigation will put her new husband and love of her life, Darcy, in the crosshairs of a killer.
