Author: Ackerman, Spencer, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: 973.931 Format: Books Summary: "An examination of the profound impact that the War on Terror had in pushing American politics and society in an authoritarian direction for an entire generation, at home and abroad, the United States has waged an endless conflict known as the War on Terror. In addition to multiple ground wars, it has pioneered drone strikes and industrial-scale digital surveillance, as well as detaining people indefinitely and torturing them. These conflicts have yielded neither peace nor victory, but they have transformed America. What began as the persecution of Muslims and immigrants has become a normalized, paranoid feature of American politics and security, expanding the possibilities for applying similar or worse measures against other targets at home. A politically divided country turned the War on Terror into a cultural and then tribal struggle, first on the ideological fringes and ultimately expanding to conquer the Republican Party, often with the timid acquiescence of the Democratic Party. Today's nativist resurgence walked through a door opened by the 9/11 era. Reign of Terror will show how these policies created a foundation for American authoritarianism and, though it is not a book about Donald Trump, it will provide a critical explanation of his rise to power and the sources of his political strength. It will show that Barack Obama squandered an opportunity to dismantle the War on Terror after killing Osama bin Laden. That mistake turns out to have been portentous. By the end of his tenure, the war metastasized into a broader and bitter culture struggle in search of a demagogue like Trump to lead it. A union of journalism and intellectual history, Reign of Terror will be a pathbreaking and definitive book with the power to transform how America understands its national security policies and their catastrophic impact on its civic life"--
Author: Boardman, Samantha, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: 613 Format: Books Summary: "In this work, the author defines vitality as the positive feeling of aliveness and energy that lies at the core of wellbeing, and offers strategies for cultivating this feeling. Vitality is associated with positive health outcomes like productivity, better coping with stress and challenges, greater mental health and the ability to manage negative emotions. Boardman believes that meaningful connections and other-oriented actions are what strengthen us. Everyday Vitality explains how to identify such experiences in readers' own lives, develop them, and use them as a foundation to counter stress"--
Author: Billingham, Mark, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F BILLINGH Format: Books Summary: "Alice Armitage is a police officer. Or she was. Or perhaps she just imagines she was. Whatever the truth is, following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. Though convinced that she doesn't really belong there, she finds companionship with the other patients in the ward despite their challenging and often intimidating issues. So when one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice feels personally compelled to launch an investigation from within the ward. Soon, she becomes convinced that she has identified the killer and that she can catch them. Ignored by the police, she must gather proof on her own, relying on the few contacts she has on the outside that still take her calls. But when her prime suspect becomes the second victim, Alice's life begins to unravel as she realizes that she cannot trust anyone in the ward, least of all herself. Having lost her conviction and with her investigative confidence shattered, she comes dangerously close to a psychological point of no return. Mark Billingham spins a mind-bending, heart-stopping, and tightly suspenseful yarn"--
Author: Freeman, Brian, 1963- author. Ludlum, Robert, 1927-2001, creator. Published: 2021 Call Number: LP F FREEMAN Format: Large print Summary: "Three years ago, Jason Bourne embarked on a mission in Estonia with his partner and lover, a fiery UK-based Treadstone agent code-named Nova. Their job was to rescue a Russian double agent. They failed. Now, everything has changed for Bourne. Nova is gone, killed in a mass shooting in Las Vegas, and Bourne is a lone operative working for Treadstone when he's called in for a new mission in London. But nothing is what it seems, and Bourne discovers that everything he thought he knew about the past was a lie. He comes to the inevitable conclusion that some secrets should stay buried." --Back cover
Author: Stern, Adam (Psychiatrist), author. Published: 2021 Call Number: B STERN Format: Books Summary: "Grey's Anatomy meets One L in this psychiatrist's funny and moving memoir about his residency at Harvard Medical School"-- Adam Stern was a student at a state medical school before being selected to train as a psychiatry resident at one of the most prestigious programs in the country. His new and initially intimidating classmates were high achievers from the Ivy League and other elite universities around the nation. In his memoir, Stern pulls back the curtain on the intense and emotionally challenging lessons he and his fellow doctors learned while studying the human condition, and ultimately, the value of connection. The narrative focuses on these residents, their growth as doctors, and the life choices they make as they try to survive their grueling four-year residency. Rich with drama, insight, and emotion, Stern shares engrossing stories of life on the psychiatric wards, as well as the group's experiences as they grapple with impostor syndrome and learn about love and loss. Most importantly, as they study how to help distressed patients in search of a better life, they discover the meaning of failure and the preciousness of success. --
Author: So, Anthony Veasna, 1992-2020, author. So, Anthony. Three women of Chuck's donuts. So, Anthony. Superking Son scores again. So, Anthony. Maly, Maly, Maly. So, Anthony. Shop. Published: 2021 Call Number: F SO Format: Books Summary: "A debut story collection about Cambodian-American life-immersive and comic, yet unsparing-that marks the arrival of an indisputable new talent in American fiction"-- Seamlessly transitioning between the absurd and the tenderhearted, balancing acerbic humor with sharp emotional depth, Afterparties offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian-Americans. As the children of refugees carve out radical new paths for themselves in California, they shoulder the inherited weight of the Khmer Rouge genocide and grapple with the complexities of race, sexuality, friendship, and family. A high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle's snubbing of the bride and groom. A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a "safe space" app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed with Moby-Dick. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.
Author: Johnstone, William W., author. Johnstone, J. A., author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F JOHNSTON Format: Books Summary: His wicked ways mostly behind him, reformed bank robber Jimmy "Slash" Braddock is getting hitched to his sweetheart. But before the honeymoon, Chief U.S. Marshal Luther T. "Bleed-'Em-So" Bledsoe needs Slash and his former partner-in-crime, Melvin "Pecos Kid" Baker, to don a couple of deputy marshal badges and saddle up for a trip to Nebraska. Seems the town of Harveyville has fallen prey to a trio of murderous badmen blasting away up and down Main Street, and the local law needs some assistance from men who know how to handle a gun. But Slash and Pecos killed the wrong man. Worse, the town marshal tells them that the outlaws rode on and he doesn't need their help after all. But now Slash and Pecos are wanted men. Tom Gyllenwater's son is dead. He won't rest until Slash and Pecos are permanently relocated to Boot Hill. And as the duo are targeted by every gun-crazy desperado in the territory, Slash and Pecos discover they'll find no help from anyone in Harveyville, a town of ruthless and corrupt folks willing to kill to protect their secrets . . ."--Amazon.
Author: Ronald, Susan, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: 973.9092 Format: Books Summary: "Acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald reveals the truth about Joseph P. Kennedy's shockingly controversial tenure as Ambassador to Great Britain on the eve of World War II. On February 18, 1938, Joseph P. Kennedy was sworn in as US Ambassador to the Court of St. James. To say his appointment to the most prestigious and strategic diplomatic post in the world shocked the Establishment was an understatement: known for his profound Irish roots and staunch Catholicism, not to mention his "plain-spoken" opinions and womanizing, he was a curious choice as Europe hurtled toward war. Initially welcomed by the British, in less than two short years Kennedy was loathed by the White House, the State Department and the British Government. Believing firmly that Fascism was the inevitable wave of the future, he consistently misrepresented official US foreign policy internationally as well as direct instructions from FDR himself. The Americans were the first to disown him and the British and the Nazis used Kennedy to their own ends. Through meticulous research and many newly available sources, Ronald confirms in impressive detail what has long been believed by many: that Kennedy was a Fascist sympathizer and an anti-Semite whose only loyalty was to his family's advancement. She also reveals the ambitions of the Kennedy dynasty during this period abroad, as they sought to enter the world of high society London and establish themselves as America's first family. Thorough and utterly readable, The Ambassador explores a darker side of the Kennedy patriarch in an account sure to generate attention and controversy"--
Author: Lange, Richard, 1961- author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F LANGE Format: Books Summary: Summer, 1976. Jesse and his brother, Edgar, are on the road in search of victims. They're rovers, nearly indestructible nocturnal beings who must consume human blood in order to survive. For seventy years they've lurked on the fringes of society, roaming from town to town, dingy motel to dingy motel, stalking the transients, addicts, and prostitutes they feed on. This hard-boiled supernatural hell ride kicks off when the brothers encounter a young woman who disrupts their grim routine, forcing Jesse to confront his past and plunging his present into deadly chaos as he finds himself scrambling to save her life. The story plays out through the eyes of the brothers, a grieving father searching for his son's murderer, and a violent gang of rover bikers, coming to a shattering conclusion in Las Vegas on the eve of America's Bicentennial.
Author: Kurczy, Stephen, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: 975.4 Format: Books Summary: An award-winning journalist takes us deep into the Appalachian Mountains where the last truly quiet town of America exists and where its residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity, challenging us to rethink the role of tech in our lives. Deep in the Appalachian Mountains, Green Bank, West Virginia, is a place at once futuristic and old-fashioned. It is home to the Green Bank Observatory, where astronomers search the depths of the universe using the latest technology,. With a ban on all devices emanating radio frequencies that might interfere with the observatory's telescopes, residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity; schoolchildren go without WiFi or iPads. Kurcxy introduces readers to a tech buster patrolling the area for illegal radio waves; "electrosensitives" who claim that WiFi is deadly; a sheriff's department with a string of unsolved murder cases dating back decades; a camp of neo-Nazis plotting their resurgence from a nearby mountain hollow; and ordinary citizens seeking a simpler way of living. Kurczy asks: Is a less connected life desirable? Is it even possible? -- adapted from jacket
Author: Cowley Heller, Miranda, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: LP F COWLEY Format: Large print Summary: "Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at ... the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different, because last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time ... Now, over the next 24 hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas"--
Author: Michaelides, Alex, 1977- author. Published: 2021 Call Number: LP F MICHAELI Format: Large print Summary: When a member of a secret society known as The Maidens is murdered, a brilliant, but troubled, group therapist finds her obsession with proving the guilt of an untouchable Cambridge University professor spiraling out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her life. "Edward Fosca is a murderer. Of this Mariana is certain. But Fosca is untouchable. A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Fosca is adored by staff and students alike-particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana's niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld? When another body is found, Mariana's obsession with proving Fosca's guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything-including her own life"--
Author: Pilcher, Rosamunde, author. Riley, Lucinda, author of introduction. Published: 2021 Call Number: F PILCHER Format: Books Summary: A collection of Rosamunde Pilcher's most enduring short stories, never before published in book form. The collection contains fifteen stories, which range from The Holiday, in which a wife surprises her husband of twenty-five years with a holiday full of Mediterranean sunshine, red rocks and blue seas in an effort to rekindle the romance they had before children; The Eye of Love which takes the reader to a village by the sea where old flames meet again; and A Place Like Home, where a lonely young woman goes to recuperate in a Scottish countryside after a brief illness.
Author: Putney, Mary Jo, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F PUTNEY Format: Books Summary: Called home to take his rightful place as laird, Kai Ramsey, returning to the remote Thorsay Islands, works together with Signy Matheson, a force to be reckoned with, for their people until unspoken desire and unexpected danger threaten to tear them apart. After the death of his fiancée, Kai Ramsey left Scotland to roam distant lands, even escaping certain death after being imprisoned as a spy during the Napoleonic War. Signy Matheson has dedicated her life to the people of Scotland's remote Thorsay Islands, and is a faithful ally to the aging laird. But now their leader is near death, and Signy must summon his successor at once. It is time for Kai Ramsey to come home. Signy has blossomed into an alluring beauty, and a force to be reckoned with. But their complicated past interferes with their unspoken desire as they work together for their people. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Woods, Stuart, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: LP F WOODS Format: Large print Summary: "Stone Barrington takes down old and new enemies in the latest thriller from perennial fan favorite Stuart Woods. After a rocky jaunt in Maine, Stone Barrington is settling back in New York City when an old client reaches out for help with a delicate matter. A feud they thought was put to rest long ago has reemerged with a vengeance, and reputations--and money--are now on the line. As Stone sets out to unravel a tangled web of crime and secrets, his mission becomes even more complicated when he makes an irresistible new acquaintance. In both the underbelly and upper echelons of New York, everyone has something to hide--and if Stone has learned anything, it's that history has a way of repeating itself..." --
Author: Levy, Ashley Nelson, 1985- author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F LEVY Format: Books Summary: "A tender and fierce debut novel that explores of the bond between two siblings-one the biological child and one adopted-and the complexities of motherhood, infertility, race, and the many definitions of family"--
Author: Palmer, Andrew, 1981 August 4- author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F PALMER Format: Books Summary: "Reeling from a breakup with his almost-fiancée, the narrator of Andrew Palmer's first novel returns to his hometown in Iowa to house-sit for a family friend. There, a chance flick of the TV remote and a correspondence with an old grad school classmate plunge him into unlikely twin obsessions: the reality TV show The Bachelor and the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet John Berryman. As his heart begins to mend, his fixation with each deepens and calcifies, and somewhere along the way, art and "reality" become harder and harder to distinguish from life. Love interests accumulate and then fall away: an old girlfriend calls and he answers; he meets a young woman at the dry cleaner. Soon he finds himself corresponding intimately, regularly with other suitors (as Berryman did in his lifetime), participating in a group outing (as The Bachelor does each season), and trying to puzzle through the strange turn his life seems to have taken"--
Author: Qu, Anna, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: B QU Format: Books Summary: "As a teen, Anna Qu is sent by her mother to work in her family's garment factory in Queens. At home, she is treated as a maid and suffers punishment for doing her homework at night. Her mother wants to teach her a lesson: she is Chinese, not American, and such is their tough path in their new country. But instead of acquiescing, Qu alerts the Office of Children and Family Services, an act with consequences that impact the rest of her life. Nearly twenty years later, estranged from her mother and working at a Manhattan start-up, Qu requests her OCFS report. When it arrives, key details are wrong. Faced with this false narrative, and on the brink of losing her job as the once-shiny start-up collapses, Qu looks once more at her life's truths, from abandonment to an abusive family to seeking dignity and meaning in work. Traveling from Wenzhou to Xi'an to New York, Made in China is a fierce memoir unafraid to ask thorny questions about trauma and survival in immigrant families, the meaning of work, and the costs of immigration."--Amazon.
Author: Mitchell, Josh, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: 378.38 Format: Books Summary: In 1981, a new executive at Sallie Mae took home the company's financial documents to review. "You've got to be shitting me," he later told the company's CEO. "This place is a gold mine." Over the next four decades, the student loan industry that Sallie Mae and Congress created blew up into a crisis that would submerge a generation of Americans into $1.5 trillion in student debt. In The Debt Trap, Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Mitchell tells the untold story of the scandals, scams, predatory actors, and government malpractice that have created the behemoth that one of its original architects called a "monster." The tale begins in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik. Afraid that America was falling behind the Soviets in science education, Congress created the first major federal student loan program to enroll more students in college. What followed were a series of well-intentioned government actions that created a cycle of reckless lending and runaway tuition. Easy access to loans allowed colleges to raise tuition to unheard of levels, which in turn led Congress to increase loan limits and interest rates and expand who could borrow. This spiral continued as the private banks that fronted the money made huge profits on interest. "Nobody was pure in this business," one former college president said. As he charts the gripping seventy-year history of student debt in America, Mitchell never loses sight of the countless student victims ensnared by an exploitive system that depends on their debt. Mitchell also draws alarming parallels to the housing crisis in the late 2000s, showing the catastrophic consequences student debt has had on families and the nation's future. Mitchell's character-driven narrative is required reading for anyone wanting to understand the central economic issue of our day. --adapted from publisher
Author: Cameron, Lindsay, author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F CAMERON Format: Books Summary: "Eyes aren't the windows to the soul. Emails are. Cassie Woodson is adrift. After suffering an epic tumble down the corporate ladder, Cassie finds the only way she can pay her bills is to take a thankless temp job reviewing correspondence for a large-scale fraud suit. The daily drudgery amplifies all that her life is lacking--love, friends, stability--and leaves her with too much time on her hands, which she spends fixating on the mistakes that brought her to this point. While sorting through a relentless deluge of emails, something catches her eye: the tender (and totally private) exchanges between a partner at the firm, Forest Watts, and his enchanting wife, Annabelle. Cassie knows she shouldn't read them. But it's just one look. And once that door opens, she finds she can't look away. Every day, twenty floors below Forest's corner office, Cassie dissects their emails from her dingy workstation. A few clicks of her mouse and she can see every adoring word they write to each other. By peeking into their apparently perfect life, Cassie finds renewed purpose and happiness, reveling in their penchant for vintage wines, morning juice presses, and lavish dinner parties thrown in their stately Westchester home. There are no secrets from her. Or so she thinks. Her admiration quickly escalates into all-out mimicry, because she wants this life more than anything. Maybe if she plays make-believe long enough, it will become real for her. But when Cassie orchestrates a "chance" meeting with Forest in the real world and sees something that throws the state of his marriage into question, the fantasy she's been carefully cultivating shatters. Suddenly, she doesn't simply admire Annabelle--she wants to take her place. And she's armed with the tools to make that happen."--
