Author: Beck, Richard, 1986- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: 973.931 BECK Format: Books Summary: "A groundbreaking argument on how the decades-long War on Terror changed virtually every aspect of American life, from the erosion of democracy down to what we watched on TV--by an acclaimed n+1 writer"-- For twenty years after September 11, the war on terror was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. With all of the military violence occurring overseas even as the threat of sudden mass death permeated life at home, Americans found themselves living in two worlds at the same time. In one of them, soldiers fought overseas so that nothing at home would have to change at all. In the other, life in the United States took on all kinds of unfamiliar shapes, changing people's sense of themselves, their neighbors, and the strangers they sat next to on airplanes. In Homeland, Richard Beck delivers a gripping exploration of how much the war changed life in the United States and explains why there is no going back. Though much has been made of the damage that Donald Trump did to the American political system, Beck argues that it was the war on terror that made Trump's presidency possible, fueling and exacerbating a series of crises that all came to a head with his rise to power. Homeland brilliantly isolates and explores four key issues: the militarism that swept through American politics and culture; the racism and xenophobia that boiled over in much of the country; an economic crisis that, Beck convincingly argues, connects the endurance of the war on terror to at least the end of the Second World War; and a lack of accountability that produced our impunity culture; the government-wide inability or refusal to face consequences that has transformed how the U.S. government relates to the people it governs. To see American life through the lens of Homeland's sweeping argument is to understand the roots of our current condition. In its startling analysis of how the war on terror hollowed out the very idea of citizenship in the United States, Beck gives the most compelling explanation yet offered for the ongoing disintegration of America's social, political, and cultural fabric.
Author: Randall, David K., author. Published: 2024 Call Number: 910.41 Format: Books Summary: "Equal parts THE RIGHT STUFF and THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, INTO UNKNOWN SKIES tells the unbelievable history of the 1924 race to circumnavigate the globe for the first time by air, a nail-biting contest that pitted underdog US pilots against their better-funded European rivals, created technology that changed aviation, and convinced America that its future was in the sky. In the early 1920s, America's faith in aviation was in shambles. Twenty years after the Wright Brothers' first flight, most Americans believed airplanes were for delivering the mail or performing daredevil stunts in front of crowds. The dream of commercial air travel remained just that. Even the American military was a skeptic-rather than pay to bring its planes back from Europe following World War I, the War Department chose to burn most of them instead. All that changed with a single race in 1924. It was not just any race, though-it was a race to become the first to circle the globe in an airplane, pitting a team of four underdog American pilots against the best aviators in the world from England, Italy, Portugal, France, and Argentina. Rooted in the same daring spirit that pushed early twentieth-century explorers to attempt crossings of the Antarctic ice or locate the source of the Nile, this race was an adventure unlike anything the world had seen before. The obstacles were daunting-from experimental planes, to dangerous landings in uncharted territory, to the simple navigational gauges that could lead pilots hundreds of miles off course. Failure seemed all but guaranteed-the suspense less about who would win than how many would perish for the honor of being the first. Now on the race's centennial, award-winning author David K. Randall tells the story of this riveting, long-forgotten race. Through larger-than-life characters, treacherous landings, disease, and ultimately triumph, INTO UNKNOWN SKIES demonstrates how one race returned America to aviation greatness. A story of underdog teammates, bold exploration, and American ingenuity, INTO UNKNOWN SKIES is an untold adventure tale showing the power of flight to bring the world together"--
Author: Miodownik, Mark, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: 530.43 Format: Books Summary: "[A] rollicking guided tour of the secret lives of gases: the magnificent, strange, and fascinating substances that shape our world. Gases are all around us -- they fill our lungs, power our movement, create stars, and warm our atmosphere. Often invisible and sometimes odorless, these ubiquitous substances are also the least understood materials in our world, and always have been. It wasn't long ago that gases were seen as the work of ancient spirits: the sudden closing of a door after a change in airflow signaled a ghost's presence. Scientists and engineers have struggled with their own gaseous demons. The development of high-pressure steam power in the eighteenth century literally blew away some researchers, ushering in a new era for both safety regulations and mass transit. And carbon dioxide, that noxious by-product of fossil fuel consumption and cow burps, gave rise to modern civilization. Its warming properties known for centuries, it now spells ruin for our fragile atmosphere. In It's a Gas, bestselling materials scientist Mark Miodownik chronicles twelve gases and technologies that shaped human history. From hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and neon to laughing gas, steam, and even wind, the story of gases is the story of the space where science and belief collide, and of the elusive limits of human understanding." --
Author: Wood, Tracey Enerson, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F WOOD Format: Books Summary: "Everyone knows of Orville and Wilbur, the famous Wright brothers who invented and piloted the first powered airplane. But how many have heard of their sister Katharine, a vital member of the team? It was Katharine who kept the family businesses afloat, Katharine who secured financial backers for the project, Katharine who marketed their invention worldwide. While the brothers were brilliant inventors and builders, Katharine was the glue that held their family and their business together. As important as she was to the Wright family, she has often been forgotten in the history books. No longer. THE WRIGHT SISTER will immerse you in the drama and excitement of Wilbur and Orville's first flights while simultaneously illuminating Katharine's work behind the scenes, recounting the deep sibling bond that tied the three together until tragedy ultimately wrenched their family apart"--
Author: White, Kiersten, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F WHITE Format: Books Summary: "Her name was written in the pages of someone else's story: Lucy Westenra was one of Dracula's first victims. But her death was only the beginning. Lucy rose from the grave a vampire and has spent her immortal life trying to escape from Dracula's clutches--and trying to discover who she really is and what she truly wants. Her undead life takes an unexpected turn in twenty-first-century London, when she meets another woman, Iris, who is also yearning to break free from her past. Iris's family has built a health empire based on a sinister secret, and they'll do anything to stay in power. Lucy has long believed she would never love again. Yet she finds herself compelled by the charming Iris while Iris is equally mesmerized by the confident and glamorous Lucy. But their intense connection and blossoming love is threatened by outside forces. Iris's mother won't let go of her without a fight, and Lucy's past still has fangs: Dracula is on the prowl once more. Lucy Westenra has been a tragically murdered teen, a lonesome adventurer, and a fearsome hunter, but happiness has always eluded her. Can she find the strength to destroy Dracula once and for all, or will her heart once again be her undoing?" --
Author: Woods, Caroline (Caroline Courtney), author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F WOODS Format: Books Summary: "A tightly plotted page-turner ripped from the headlines of history, as three very different women must work together to stop a killer and save the truest home they've ever known"-- "Before hypnotism, there was Mesmerism. And in 1894 Minneapolis, in the wake of a national financial crisis, spiritualism of every stripe is all the rage, and women are dying under mysterious circumstances. But until a new guest lands at the Bethany Home for Unwed Mothers, refusing to speak or explain her arrival, the sordid stories of unexplained deaths seem unconnected. Faith?s reticence is quickly interpreted as malevolence, setting the house abuzz with whispers of dark magic. Abby, a staunch Quaker, lifelong supporter of progressive causes, and the Bethany Home's treasurer, thinks the rumors of mystical powers swirling around Faith are nonsense, but she recognizes the danger of a good story. Unwilling to allow the Home's important mission to be clouded by scandal, Abby tasks Faith's roommate, May, with tracing Faith's path to the Bethany Home." --Amazon.com
Author: Hildur Knútsdóttir, 1984- author. Kowal, Mary Robinette, 1969- translator. Published: 2024 2021 Call Number: F HILDURKN Format: Books Summary: "Hildur Knútsdóttir's The Night Guest is an eerie and ensnaring story set in contemporary Reykjavík that's sure to keep you awake at night. Iðunn is in yet another doctor's office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something's not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven't revealed any cause. When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same - have you tried eating better? exercising more? establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps. Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on, and wakes up to find she's walked over 40,000 steps in the night . . . What is happening when she's asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won't anyone believe her?"--
Author: Robb, J. D., 1950- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F ROBB Format: Books Summary: "On a hot August night, Lt. Eve Dallas and her husband, Roarke, speed through the streets of Manhattan to the Down and Dirty club, where a joyful, boisterous pre-wedding girls' night out has turned into a murder scene. One of the brides lies in a pool of blood, garroted in a private room where she was preparing a surprise for her fiancée--two scrimped and saved-for tickets to Hawaii. Despite the dozens of people present, useful witnesses are hard to come by. It all brings back some bad memories for Eve who once suffered an assault in the very same room--but she'd been able to fight back and survive. She'd gotten justice. And now she needs to provide some for poor young Erin. Eve knows that the level of violence and the apparent premeditation involved suggest a volatile mix of hidden, heated passion and ice-cold calculation. This is a crime that can be countered only by hard detective work and relentless dedication--and Eve will not stop until she finds the killer who destroyed this couple's dreams before the honeymoon even began..."--
Author: Macintyre, Ben, 1963- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: 356.167 MACINTYR Format: Books Summary: "A thrilling tick-tock recounting one of the most harrowing hostage situations and daring rescue attempts of our time--from true-life espionage master and New York Times bestselling author of Operation Mincemeat and The Spy and the Traitor Ben Macintyre"--
Author: Strout, Elizabeth, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F STROUT Format: Books Summary: "With her "extraordinary capacity for radical empathy" (The Boston Globe), remarkable insight into the human condition, and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst; fall in love and yet choose to be apart; and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it: What does anyone's life mean? It's autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. Together, they spend afternoons in Olive's apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known -- "unrecorded lives," Olive calls them -- reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning"--
Author: Rendon, Marcie R., author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F RENDON Format: Books Summary: "From the award-winning author of the Cash Blackbear series, a harrowing novel of a Native American woman who learns of the disappearance of one of her own and decides enough is enough... All they heard was her scream. Quill has lived on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota her whole life. She knows what happens to people who look like her. Just a girl when Jimmy Sky jumped off the railway bridge and she ran for help, Quill realizes now that she hasn't ever stopped running. As she trains for the Boston Marathon early one morning out in the woods, she hears a scream. When she investigates, she finds tire tracks and a lone, beaded earring. Things are different now for Quill than when she was a lonely girl. Her friends Punk and Gaylyn are two women who don't know what it means to quit; she has her loving husband, Crow, and two beautiful children who challenge her to be better every day. So when she realizes another woman has been stolen, she is determined to do something-and her first stop is the group of men working the pipeline construction just north of their homes. As Quill closes in on the truth behind the missing woman in the woods, someone else disappears. In her quest to find justice for the women of the reservation, she is confronted with the hard truths of their home and the people who purport to serve them. When will she stop losing neighbors, friends, family? As Quill puts herself, her family, and everything she's built on the line to make a difference, the novel asks searing questions about bystander culture, the reverberations of even one act of crime, and the long-lasting trauma of being invisible"--
Author: Quartey, Kwei, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F QUARTEY Format: Books Summary: "Marcelo Tetteh, a twenty-seven-year-old LGBTQ activist, is butchered to death one night after being lured on Grindr to a deserted building site. With high instances of homophobia in Ghana, Marcelo's wealthy father doesn't trust the Ghana Police Service to find the killer, so he goes to the Sowah Private Investigators Agency for help, partly because he still feels guilty for disowning his son when he came out. Emma is assigned the case, but quickly learns of a complication that prevents her from teaming up as usual with Jojo, her trusted colleague. Emma is the only one at work who knows Jojo is gay, and now he reveals something else: for some time, Jojo was dating Marcelo, the victim. Working with Manu, whom she's never gotten along with at work, Emma goes undercover in several organizations including International Congress of Families, a powerful organization seeking to criminalize homosexuality in African countries. As Emma infiltrates the ICF, she uncovers a web of deceit and hypocrisy and discovers that the mastermind behind the murders is someone much closer than she ever imagined. Emma must race against time to unmask the killer, protect the vulnerable LGBTQ community, and bring justice to the victims, all while navigating the dangerous waters of politics, power, and personal secrets."--
Author: Coile, Mason, 1968- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F COILE Format: Books Summary: "Henry is a brilliant engineer who, after untold hours spent in his home laboratory, has achieved the discovery of his career-he has created artificially intelligent consciousness. He calls the half-formed robot William. No one knows about William. Not yet anyway. Henry's agoraphobia keeps him inside the house, and his fixation on William keeps him up in the attic, away from everyone, including his pregnant wife, Lily. When Lily's coworkers show up one day, wanting to finally meet Henry and see their new house, the smartest-of-smart-homes, things start to go wrong. Because William can "talk" to the house, and it turns out he's not a fan of visitors--especially not the man who seems to know Lily a little too well. Soon Henry and Lily discover the security upgrades they wanted to keep danger out are even better at locking people in. William is a clever, twisty, one-sitting read, a timely exploration of our intimate relationship with technology and the enormous responsibility that comes with invention, with parenthood, with marriage"--
Author: Wunder, Wendy, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: Y WUNDER Format: Books Summary: Seventeen-year-old Maya struggles with her omniscient abilities, but when she meets a cute guy at her new school, he helps her learn how to cope with knowing too much. "Seventeen-year-old Maya knows everything. When she looks at someone, she instantly knows their history, their private thoughts, their secret desires, their most tragic failures. Combine these private miseries with the general state of the world, and it's easy to see why Maya's power starts to get her down...Which is why she was sent to the Whispering Pines Psychiatric Facility, and also why starting at a new school is going to be such a challenge. Now, faced with Tyler, a cute guy she actually wants to know everything about, Maya realizes that maybe her power isn't so horrible after all. Maybe she can use it for good. Maybe she can even get the guy. Or maybe there really is such a thing as knowing too much."--
Author: Meyer, Nicholas, 1945- Published: 2024 Call Number: F MEYER Format: Books Summary: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson cross the Atlantic at the height of World War I in pursuit of a mysterious coded telegram in this new mystery from the author of The Return of the Pharaoh.
Author: Swann, Leonie, 1975- author. Bojang, Amy, translator. Published: 2024 Call Number: F SWANN Format: Books Summary: "The year is rapidly drawing to an end, Hettie the tortoise is hibernating and Agnes, Charlie, Marshall, and the other elderly residents of Sunset Hall are going stir-crazy at home. They've had enough of broken heating, draughty bedrooms, and Christmas jingles on the radio. And to top it all off, another series of murders is rocking the hamlet of Duck End. It seems like every villager and his dog is trying to make up for all of the thwarted murders of the past thirty years. Most unpleasant! The residents of Sunset Hall don't want anything to do with the criminal activities. So when Edwina manages to slip onto Marshall's computer in an unobserved moment and promptly wins a stay in an exclusive coastal hotel in Cornwall, the Sunset Hall crew doesn't waste any time in deciding to join her. After all, Edwina can't be let loose unsupervised on a presumably civilized party of hotel guests. But they've barely unpacked their bags when Agnes sees something unsettling from the terrace of the hotel: two figures in hoods walk away from the hotel along the cliffs, but only one returns. Worried she's witnessed a murder, Agnes tells the others. At first nobody really believes her, after all the crew have enough to do working their way through the incredible menu, exploring the hotel's wellness-landscape, navigating old and new love affairs and adopting a boa constrictor. But when a storm causes a piece of the road to collapse into the sea and the hotel is cut off from the outside world, it becomes clear that a murderer really is on the loose-and they're trapped, just like all of the other guests!"--
Author: Goldberg, Lee, 1962- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F GOLDBERG Format: Books Summary: "Vacant homes in a new housing development are erupting into flames in broad daylight with no apparent cause. It's a perplexing mystery for dogged arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his restless new partner, Andrew Walker, an ex-US marshal who craves action. But as they puzzle over the blazes, another home miles away burns to the ground, leaving a man's corpse in the ashes and homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone demanding answers. The burn patterns and charred body tell Sharpe a bizarre story that only creates more questions for Eve. So the four detectives team up to find the answers. Their investigation into the two unrelated cases leads to one shocking discovery after another. Now they must gamble their lives to unmask a brilliant arsonist, crack open a massive swindle, track down a desperate fugitive with a terrifying secret, and race against time to save thousands of people from an agonizing death"--
Author: Posnanski, Joe, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: 796.332 Format: Books Summary: "A moving celebration of the history of American football"-- "After his bestselling home run books Why We Love Baseball and The Baseball 100, Joe Posnanski turns from the national pastime to the number one sport in America. Why We Love Football is Posnanski's newest must-have deep dive into the archives and legends of the sport, and the result is a rousing tale of the 100 greatest moments in football lore. This is the best kind of sports writing. Entertaining, enlightening, heartbreaking, hilarious, and always fascinating, these stories of the sport offer a panoramic look across its history. From hidden gems and classic tales to famous moments told from previously unheard perspectives, this book is the football book for even its most ardent fans." --Amazon.com
Author: Maden, Mike, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: LP F MADEN Format: Books Summary: "When African jihadis attack a Nigerian regiment using American weapons, Cabrillo and the Oregon crew are on the case, investigating from Afghanistan to Kuala Lumpur to track a mysterious arms dealer--a genius, or perhaps a devil--known only as the Vendor. Cabrillo goes undercover to find the Vendor's base, but his adversary isn't just an arms smuggler. He's an arms maker, and Cabrillo just walked into a lethal military game alongside the most dangerous mercenaries in the world, designed to test the Vendor's cutting-edge AI arsenal. And yet, surviving an arena full of flame-throwing robots isn't even his biggest problem. The Vendor has an army of high-speed drones headed for a pivotal military site, and if the Oregon crew can't stop them from releasing a deadly neurotoxin, the entire globe will erupt in conflict."--
Author: Jackson, Lisa, author. Published: 2024 1992 Call Number: PB JACKSON Format: Regular print Summary: Famous criminal defense attorney Jackson Moore thinks he's left his bad-boy past behind--but his childhood sweetheart has different plans for him. Rachelle Remont thinks she can forget her tragic small-town history by writing about it in her nationally syndicated column. But she didn't expect Jackson Moore's return, or the way her blood runs hot at the sight of him. He is determined to discover the town's secrets with Rachelle--and in doing so, they uncover some secrets of their own....
