Author: Hur, Anton, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F HUR Summary: Exploring the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future, Toward Eternity is a gorgeous, thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human--and how love survives even the end of that humanity. In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer: The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells that not only cure those afflicted but leave them virtually immortal. At the same time, literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning "Beloved," in honor of his husband. When Dr. Beeko, who holds the patent to the nano-therapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences.
Author: Durst, Sarah Beth, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F DURST Summary: "Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant Caz--a magically sentient spider plant--have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire's most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city's elite. Then a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames. She and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she'd see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy--and very handsome--neighbor who can't take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she's fed and help fix up her new home. In need of income and reluctantly inspired by the beauty and people of the island who have welcomed her into their hearts, Kiela discovers something that even the bakery in town doesn't have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries that become the town's, and her handsome neighbor's, new favorite confection. But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela decides to open the island's first-ever and much-needed secret spellshop. Her plan comes with risks--the empire condemns the use of unsanctioned magic, and the consequence of sharing spells with commoners is death. But Kiela has only just found a place that feels like home and people who feel like family, and she'll risk anything for a chance at happiness."--
Author: Cameron, Briony, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F CAMERON Summary: "An epic, dazzling tale based on true events, The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye illuminates a woman of color's rise to power as one of the few purported female pirate captains to sail the Caribbean, and the forbidden love story that will shape the course of history"-- In the tumultuous town of Yáquimo, Santo Domingo, Jacquotte Delahaye is an unknown but up-and-coming shipwright. Her dreams are bold but her ambitions are bound by the confines of her life with her self-seeking French father. When her way of life and the delicate balance of power in the town are threatened, she is forced to flee her home and become a woman on the run along with a motley crew of refugees, including a mysterious young woman named Teresa. Jacquotte and her band become indentured servants to the infamous Blackhand, a ruthless pirate captain who rules his ship with an iron fist. As they struggle to survive his brutality, Jacquotte finds herself unable to resist Teresa despite their differences. When Blackhand hatches a dangerous scheme to steal a Portuguese shipment of jewels, Jacquotte must rely on her wits, resourcefulness, and friends to survive. But she discovers there is a grander, darker scheme of treachery at play, and she ultimately must decide what price she is willing to pay to secure a better future for them all.
Author: Fletcher, Jessica, author. Moran, Terrie Farley, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F FLETCHER Summary: "Jessica Fletcher's British cousin, Emma MacGill, will be traveling to Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, to perform with internationally famous star of stage, screen, and television Derek Braverman in an old-fashioned musical review. Emma would love for Jessica to join her there and suggests she bring along some friends. Having just finished her latest book, Jessica is ready for a vacation and is delighted to agree. Dr. Seth Hazlitt and Sheriff Mort Metzger are huge fans of Braverman, so they are eager to tag along, and their fanboy behavior gives Jessica and Mort's wife, Maureen, more than occasional cause to roll their eyes. Upon arrival in Edmonton, Jessica is quickly outed as mystery writer J.B. Fletcher, and despite numerous protests, a hotel staffer arranges a book signing for her. This and touristy adventures arranged for the group make for a much busier trip than Jessica was expecting. When a hotel bartender, who also happens to be a stagehand for Emma's play, turns up dead backstage at the theater, Jessica's fun and relaxing vacation quickly becomes anything but"--
Author: Oda, Tomohito, 1991- author, artist. Werry, John (Translator), author, translator. Published: 2024 Call Number: GN ODA Summary: "Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi's greatest dream is to make some friends, but everyone at school mistakes her crippling social anxiety for cool reserve. Luckily she meets Tadano, a timid wallflower who decides to step out of his comfort zone in order to help her achieve her goal of making 100 friends. Itan High is in danger! Proxy Chair Icho has accidentally placed the school on the chopping block, but the students still have one way to save their beloved institution-study camp! There's another school at the camp, though, and their star pupil is someone special from Tadano's past. How will Komi handle the scholastic and romantic competition?! "--
Author: Prose, Francine, 1947- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: 813.54 Summary: The first memoir from critically acclaimed, bestselling author Francine Prose, about the close relationship she developed with activist Anthony Russo, one of the men who leaked the Pentagon Papers--and the year when our country changed. "During her twenties, Francine Prose lived in San Francisco, where she began an intense and strange relationship with Tony Russo, who had been indicted and tried for working with Daniel Ellsberg to leak the Pentagon papers. The narrative is framed around the nights she spent with Russo driving manically around San Francisco, listening to his stories--and the disturbing and dramatic end of that relationship in New York. What happens to them mirrors the events and preoccupations of that historical moment: the Vietnam war, drugs, women's liberation, the Patty Hearst kidnapping. At once heartfelt and ironic, funny and sad, personal and political, 1974 provides an insightful look at how Francine Prose became a writer and artist during a time when the country, too, was shaping its identity." --Amazon.com
Author: Zahn, Timothy, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F ZAHN Summary: "Gregory Roarke-former bounty hunter, former Trailblazer, current agent for the ultra-secret Icarus Group-has received a new assignment: locate a suspected but as-yet undiscovered teleportation portal on the backwater colony world of Alainn. The rival Patth are also searching for the device, and have considerably more resources at their disposal. Fortunately, Roarke has Selene and her incredibly sensitive Kadolian sense of smell. On paper, it should be a straightforward enough job. But that was before there was a murder in the small town of Bilswift . . . and another one . . . and the discovery that the Patth are already on the scene and have narrowed the search to a heavily forested area in the hills and mountains east of town. Most disturbing of all is the discovery that one of Selene's people, a Kadolian teenaged boy named Tirano, is working at one of Bilswift's fish markets. A boy who may have lost his parents before his proper socialization was completed. A boy who may be connected to both the murders and the Patth. A boy who may be the potentially dangerous wild card that the Kadolians call changelings"--
Author: Parédez, Deborah, 1970- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: 790.2 Summary: "What does it mean to be a 'diva'? A shifting, increasingly loaded term, it has been used to both deride and celebrate charismatic and unapologetically fierce performers like Aretha Franklin, Divine, and the women of Labelle. In this brilliant, powerful blend of incisive criticism and electric memoir, Deborah Paredez--scholar, cultural critic, and lifelong diva devotee--unravels our enduring fascination with these icons and explores how divas have challenged American ideas about feminism, performance, and freedom"--Front jacket flap.
Author: North, Claire, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F NORTH Summary: For twenty years, Penelope and the women of Ithaca have kept their isle safe. But now Odysseus has returned--in disguise--to plot revenge and test his queen's loyalty. A beggar has arrived at the Palace. Salt-crusted and ocean-battered, he is scorned by the suitors - but Penelope recognises in him something terrible: her husband, Odysseus, returned at last. Yet this Odysseus is no hero. By returning to the island in disguise, he is not merely plotting his revenge against the suitors - vengeance that will spark a civil war - but he's testing the loyalty of his queen. Has she been faithful to him all these years? And how much blood is Odysseus willing to shed to be sure..."-- Amazon.
Author: Wood, Katherine, 1979- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F WOOD Summary: "The estranged best friend of a missing heiress races to unravel the secrets behind her disappearance-with the only clues left behind in a manuscript detailing her possible last days-in this gripping psychological thriller. Abby and Gia have been friends since they were thirteen, when Abby's mom came to work for Gia's billionaire family as a chef. Five years later, the two were forever bound by tragedy when Gia saved Abby from an attack by Gia's stalker, killing him in the process. In the aftermath, Abby threw herself into her studies while Gia wrote a somewhat embellished memoir about that fateful summer. And ever since Gia got married and inherited a remote mansion in the Greek islands, she and Abby haven't been talked much. But when Abby receives an invitation from Gia to see the Northern Lights in Sweden for her thirtieth birthday, first-class airfare and five-star accommodations included, it's almost impossible to resist. Especially since Gia's crush-worthy brother Benny-Abby's "one who got away"-will also be there. The invite is soon followed by a mysterious, threatening email in Abby's inbox. Suddenly a trip out of town isn't such a bad idea. Abby and Benny arrive together at the Swedish resort only to discover Gia isn't there. As the days pass with no word, they get worried enough to fly to Greece to find her themselves. In their search through Gia's eerily empty beachfront estate, they find no sign of her except a new manuscript, penned by Gia in the months leading up to her disappearance. The pages reveal tales of Gia's luscious new marriage and the wealthy young couple they entertained with fizzy champagne under the hot Mediterranean sun. Indulgent luxury at its finest-until Gia's plot turns. As money troubles arise, Gia feels less and less safe in her own home. Who are their guests, really? The pages end abruptly, leaving Abby and Benny with more questions than answers. But given her previous use of artistic license, can they believe what they read? And, more important, where is Gia now?"--
Author: Schulz, Charles M. (Charles Monroe), 1922-2000, creator. Kannenberg, Gene, Jr., paper engineer, colorist. Kochman, Charles, editor. Published: 2024 Call Number: Y SCHULZ Summary: "Charles M. Schulz introduced readers to "Good Ol' Charlie Brown" on October 2, 1950, with the publication of the very first Peanuts comic strip--considered the most iconic comic of all time. It is also a perfect haiku of art, text, and paranoia, with a variation of the Browning sonnet "How Do I Love Thee?" thrown in for literary measure. Everything that is great about Schulz and Peanuts is established right out of the gate in these four perfect panels, which have influenced every comic strip that has followed. With this innovative, palm-sized pop-up book, cartoonist and comics historian Gene Kannenberg Jr. brings that very first comic strip to life for a whole new generation, as well as for longtime fans of the classic and beloved brand."--
Author: Gordon, Marianne, author. Published: 2024 2023 Call Number: F GORDON Summary: "Since she was a little girl, Hellevir has been able to raise the dead. Every creature can be saved for a price, a price demanded by the shrouded figure who rules the afterlife, who takes a little more from Hellevir with each soul she resurrects. Such a gift can rarely remain a secret. When Princess Sullivain, sole heir to the kingdom's throne, is assassinated, the Queen summons Hellevir to demand she bring her granddaughter back to life. But once is not enough; the killers might strike again. The Princess's death would cause a civil war, so the Queen commands that Hellevir remain by her side. But Sullivain is no easy woman to be bound to, even as Hellevir begins to fall in love with her. With the threat of war looming, Hellevir must trade more and more of herself to keep the Princess alive. But Death will always take what he is owed."--
Author: Shattuck, Ben, 1984- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F SHATTUCK Summary: "A stunning collection of interconnected stories, set mostly in New England, exploring how the past is often misunderstood and how history, family, heartache, and desire can echo over centuries In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck's ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven between characters and families. The haunting title story recalls the journey of two men who meet around a piano in a smoky, basement bar only to spend a summer walking the Maine woods collecting folk songs in the shadow of the first World War, forever marked by the odyssey. Decades later, a woman discovers the wax cylinders recorded that fateful summer while cleaning out her new house in Maine. Shattuck's inventive, exquisite stories transport readers from colonial Nantucket to the woods of New Hampshire-into a landscape both enduring and unmistakably modern. Memories, artifacts, paintings, and journals resurface in surprising and poignant ways among evocative beaches, forests, and orchards, revealing the secrets, misunderstandings, and love that linger across centuries. Written with breathtaking humanity and humor, The History of Sound is a love letter to New England, a radiant conversation between past and present, and a moving meditation on the abiding search for home"--
Author: Calhoune, Belle, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: PB CALHOUNE Summary: A small-town restaurateur, True Everett, and a big-city former football player, Xavier Stone, go head-to-head in this heartfelt enemies-to-lovers romance. "As the oldest of three brothers, former pro-football player Xavier Stone is no stranger to making tough calls. Like returning to his small hometown of Moose Falls, Alaska to help run his grandmother's hard cider company and gastro pub. He agrees to keep an open mind, but between working with his estranged father and confronting heavy childhood memories with his brothers, Xavier's ready to rush back to civilization. Even the stunning woman who runs his grandmother's restaurant seems to instantly dislike him... True Everett knows better than to let a ridiculously handsome man distract her, especially when it's the same guy who stands between her and owning Northern Exposure, the tavern she manages. She didn't pour her soul into the restaurant just for Xavier to swoop in and snatch away her dreams. But amid all the barbs--and, fine... all the sparks--flying, True glimpses the man beneath the swagger. That version of Xavier, the real one, might just steal True's heart."--
Author: Zentner, Jeff, author. Cavallaro, Brittany, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: Y ZENTNER Summary: "Jude loves photography, and he's good at it, too. Between his parents' divorce and his anxiety, being behind a camera is the only time his mind is quiet. Florence is confronting the premature end of her dance career as a degenerative eye disease begins to steal her balance. She's having a hard time letting go. The two meet at Sunrise Night, their sleepaway art camp's dusk-to-dawn closing celebration, and decide to take a chance on each other. Their one rule: No contact for a year after the sun has risen. Over the course of three Sunrise Nights, will Florence and Jude find a deeper connection and learn who they are--and who they could be together?"--
Author: Sarr, Mohamed Mbougar, 1990- author. Anderson, Alison, translator. Published: 2024 2017 Call Number: F SARR Summary: "Seventy-two men arrive in the middle of the Sicilian countryside. They are "immigrants," "refugees" or "migrants." But in Altino, they're called the ragazzi, the "guys" that the Santa Marta Association have taken responsibility for. In this small Sicilian town, their arrival changes life for everybody. While they wait to know their fate, the ragazzi encounter all kinds of people: a strange vicar who rewrites their pasts, a woman committed to ensuring them asylum, a man determined to fight against it, an older ragazzo who has become an interpreter, and a reclusive poet who no longer writes. Each character in this moving and important saga is forced to reflect on what it means to encounter people they know nothing about. They watch as a situation unfolds over which they have little control or insight. A story told through a growing symphony of voices that ends only when one final voice brings silence to the choir."--
Author: Steinman, David, author. Lavigne, Sharon C., writer of foreword. Published: 2024 Call Number: 640.286 Summary: Every parent wonders: Am I buying products for my child that are filled with chemical toxins? In his powerful new book, Raising Healthy Children, David Steinman, the director of the Chemical Toxin Working Group and one of America's premier environmental activists, shows how today's most popular items--from bubble bath to cereal to cleaning products to snack foods--are contaminated with unacceptable levels of chemical toxins and pesticides, and he proposes alternatives and substitutes to keep your family safe. Steinman reveals never-before-seen test results for major brands like Johnsons & Johnsons, Kellogg, Tide, and Clairol, and General Mills that identify exactly which products contain dangerous ingredients. He casts a wide net, showing how beauty products as well as food items can cause reproductive health issues in pregnant women, and that environmental exposures, particularly in schools, can have a profound impact on babies' and children's development. Drawing on current research, illuminating vignettes, and inspiring stories of activism, Steinman provides action steps for parents in every chapter, giving them the tools they need to shop for everyday products that will be toxin-free and helping them ask the right questions about their local schools and workplaces to determine their potential levels of exposure.
Author: Miller, Nicole M., 1986- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F MILLER Summary: "The German invasion of Poland derails Adia Kensington's plans to learn from the greatest breeders of Arabian horses in the world, but brings a British spy to her aid. Amidst the Blitzkrieg and a tense occupation, the two clash over everything--except their efforts to save the horses."--
Author: Apekina, Katya (Novelist), author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F APEKINA Summary: "Zhenia is adrift in Los Angeles, pregnant with a baby her husband doesn't want, while her Russian grandmother and favorite person in the world is dying on the opposite coast. She's deeply disconnected from herself and her desires when she gets a strange call from Paul, a psychic medium who usually specializes in channeling dead pets, with a message from the other side. Zhenia's great-grandmother Irina, a Russian Revolutionary, has approached him from a cloud of ancestral grief, desperate to tell her story and receive absolution from Zhenia. As Irina begins her confession with the help of a purgatorial chorus of grieving Russian ghosts, Zhenia awakens to aspects of herself she hadn't been willing to confront. But does either woman have what the other needs to understand their predicament? Or will Irina be stuck in limbo, with Zhenia plagued by ancestral trauma, and her children after her?"--
