Noah Feldman’s “The Arab Winter” tries to find hope in a grim turn of events.
All branches of the Atlantic County Library System will be closed for Memorial Day.
Martha Wells' freethinking robot stars in its first full-length adventure, remaining just as misanthropic and TV-obsessed as ever, even as it attempts to figure out who kidnapped it and its friends.
(Image credit: Tor.com)
In her new novel, Samanta Schweblin gives everyone in the world a little critter that's basically a Furby with a webcam — naturally, this does not end well, for the owners, the devices, or anyone.
(Image credit: Riverhead Books)
Hans Morgenthau’s “Politics Among Nations” taught thinkers from George F. Kennan to Henry Kissinger to put national interest above idealism. America is still learning that lesson.
Author: Gaige, Amity, 1972- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F GAIGE
Format: Books
Summary: "Juliet is failing to juggle motherhood and her stalled-out dissertation on confessional poetry when her husband, Michael, informs her that he wants to leave his job and buy a sailboat. With their two kids - Sybil, age seven, and George, age two - Juliet and Michael set off for Panama, where their forty-four foot sailboat awaits them. The initial result is transformative; the marriage is given a gust of energy, Juliet emerges from her depression, and the children quickly embrace the joys of being feral children at sea. Despite the stresses of being novice sailors, the family learns to crew the boat together on the ever-changing sea. The vast horizons and isolated islands offer Juliet and Michael reprieve - until they are tested by the unforeseen.Sea Wife is told in gripping dual perspectives: Juliet's first person narration, after the journey, as she struggles to come to terms with the life-changing events that unfolded at sea, and Michael's captain's log, which provides a riveting, slow-motion account of these same inexorable events, a dialogue that reveals the fault lines created by personal history and political divisions."--Publisher description.
Author: Beah, Ishmael, 1980- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F BEAH
Format: Books
Summary: "A powerful novel about five young people, struggling to replace the homes they have lost with the one they have created together, from the internationally bestselling author of A Long Way Gone. Hidden away from a harsh and chaotic outside world, five young people have cobbled together a home for themselves in an abandoned airplane, a relic of their country's tumult. At seventeen, Elimane, the bookworm, is as street-smart as he is wise: the group's father figure. Clever Khoudimata is mother by default, helping scheme how to keep the younger boys-athletic, pragmatic Ndevui and thoughtful Kpindi-and especially little Namsa, their newest and youngest member-safe and fed. When Elimane makes himself of service to the shadowy William Handkerchief, it seems as if the small group may be able to keep the world at bay and their ad hoc family intact. But when Khoudi comes under the spell of the "Beautiful People"-the fortunate sons and daughters of the powerful and corrupt-the desire to resume an interrupted coming of age and forge her own destiny proves impossible to resist. A profound and tender portrayal of the connections we forge to survive the fate we're dealt, Little Family marks the further blossoming of a unique global voice"--
Author: White, Kate, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: LP F WHITE
Format: Large print
Summary: "The key to her missing memories could bring relief--or unlock her worst nightmares. On a cold, rainy morning, finance journalist Ally Linden arrives soaked to the bone at her Manhattan office, only to find that she's forgotten her keycard. When her boss shows, he's shocked to see her--because, he explains, she hasn't worked there in five years. Ally knows her name, but is having trouble coming up with much beyond that, though after a trip to the psychiatric ER, she begins to piece together important facts: she lives on the Upper West Side; she's now a freelance journalist; she's married to a terrific man named Hugh. More memories materialize and yet she still can't recall anything about the previous two days. Diagnosed as having experienced a dissociative state, she starts to wonder if it may have been triggered by something she saw. Could she have witnessed an accident--or worse--had something happened to her? Desperate for answers, Ally tries to track where she spent the missing days, but every detail she unearths points to an explanation that's increasingly ominous, and it's clear someone wants to prevent her from learning where those forty-eight hours went. In order to uncover the truth, Ally must dig deep into the secrets of her past--and outsmart the person who seems determined to silence her." -- Amazon.
Author: Thomas, Elizabeth Marshall, 1931- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: B THOMAS
Format: Books
Summary: From the revered author of the bestselling The Hidden Life of Dogs, a witty, engaging, life-affirming account of the joy, strength, and wisdom that comes with age. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has spent a lifetime observing the natural world, chronicling the customs of pre-contact hunter-gatherers and the secret lives of deer and dogs. In this book, the capstone of her long career, Thomas, now eighty-eight, turns her keen eye to her own life. The result is an account of growing old that is at once funny and charming and intimate and profound, both a memoir and a life-affirming map all of us may follow to embrace our later years with grace and dignity. A charmingly intimate account and a broad look at the social and historical traditions related to aging, Growing Old explores a wide range of issues connected with growing older, from stereotypes of the elderly as burdensome to the methods of burial humans have used throughout history to how to deal with a concerned neighbor who assumes you're buying cat food to eat for dinner. Written with the wit of Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck and the lyrical beauty and serene wisdom of When Breath Becomes Air, Growing Old is an expansive and deeply personal paean to the beauty and the brevity of life that offers understanding for everyone, regardless of age.
Author: White, Kate, 1950- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F WHITE
Format: Books
Summary: "The key to her missing memories could bring relief--or unlock her worst nightmares. On a cold, rainy morning, finance journalist Ally Linden arrives soaked to the bone at her Manhattan office, only to find that she's forgotten her keycard. When her boss shows, he's shocked to see her--because, he explains, she hasn't worked there in five years. Ally knows her name, but is having trouble coming up with much beyond that, though after a trip to the psychiatric ER, she begins to piece together important facts: she lives on the Upper West Side; she's now a freelance journalist; she's married to a terrific man named Hugh. More memories materialize and yet she still can't recall anything about the previous two days. Diagnosed as having experienced a dissociative state, she starts to wonder if it may have been triggered by something she saw. Could she have witnessed an accident--or worse--had something happened to her? Desperate for answers, Ally tries to track where she spent the missing days, but every detail she unearths points to an explanation that's increasingly ominous, and it's clear someone wants to prevent her from learning where those forty-eight hours went. In order to uncover the truth, Ally must dig deep into the secrets of her past--and outsmart the person who seems determined to silence her." -- Amazon.
Author: Paretsky, Sara, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: LP F PARETSKY
Format: Large print
Summary: "Chicago may be the city of broad shoulders, but its political law is "Pay to Play." Money changes hands in the middle of the night, and by morning, buildings and parks are replaced by billion-dollar projects. Chicago PI V.I. Warshawski gets pulled into one of these clandestine deals through her impetuous goddaughter, Bernie Fouchard. Bernie tries to rescue Lydia Zamir, a famed singer-songwriter now living on the streets; Zamir's life fell apart when her lover was murdered next to her in a mass shooting at an outdoor concert. Not only does Bernie plunge her and V.I. headlong into the path of some ruthless developers, they lead to the murder of the young man Bernie is dating. He's a computer geek working for a community group called SLICK. V.I. is desperate to find a mysterious man named Coop, who roams the lakefront in the middle of the night with his dog. She's sure he holds the key to the mounting body count within SLICK. Coop may even know why an international law firm is representing the mass murderer responsible for Lydia's lover's death. Instead, the detective finds a terrifying conspiracy stretching from Chicago's parks to a cover-up of the dark chapters in America's meddling in South American politics. Before she finds answers, this electrifying novel pushes V.I. close to the breaking point: People who pay to play take no prisoners" --
Author: Ignatius, David, 1950- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F IGNATIUS
Format: Books
Summary: "A daring, high-tech CIA operation goes wrong and is disowned. Without legal protection, Michael Dunne's only recourse is revenge. CIA operations officer Michael Dunne is tasked with infiltrating an Italian news organization that smells like a front for an enemy intelligence service. It is headed by an American journalist, but the self-styled "people's bandits" run a cyber operation unlike anything the CIA has seen before. Fast, slick and indiscriminate, they steal secrets from everywhere and anyone, and exploit them in ways the CIA can neither understand or stop. Dunne knows it is illegal to run a covert op on an American citizen or journalist; but he has never refused an assignment and he has his boss's assurance of protection. Soon after Dunne infiltrates the organization, his cover disintegrates. When news of the operation hits the papers, someone leaks Dunne's extra-marital affairs and the CIA leaves him to take the fall. Now a year later and fresh out of jail, Dunne sets out to track down the people who destroyed his life"--
Author: Shipman, Viola, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F SHIPMAN
Format: Books
Summary: "Iris Maynard lost her husband in World War II, her daughter to illness and, finally, her reason to live. Walled off from the world for decades behind the towering fence surrounding her home, Iris has built anew family ... of flowers. Iris propagates her own daylilies and roses while tending to a garden filled with the heirloom starts that keep the memories of her loved ones alive. When Abby Peterson moves next door with her family--a husband traumatized by his service in the Iraq War and a young daughter searching for stability--Iris is reluctantly yet inevitably drawn into her boisterous neighbor's life, where, united by loss and a love of flowers, she and Abby tentatively unearth their secrets, and help each other discover how much life they have yet to live"--
Author: Steel, Danielle, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F STEEL
Format: Books
Summary: From the glamorous San Francisco social scene of the 1920s, through war and the social changes of the '60s, to the rise of Silicon Valley today, this extraordinary novel takes us on a family odyssey that is both heartbreaking and inspiring, as each generation faces the challenges of their day. The Parisian design houses in 1928, the crash of 1929, the losses of war, the drug culture of the 1960s--history holds many surprises, and lives are changed forever. For richer or for poorer, in cramped apartments and grand mansions, the treasured wedding dress made in Paris in 1928 follows each generation into their new lives, and represents different hopes for each of them, as they marry very different men. From inherited fortunes at the outset to self-made men and women, the wedding dress remains a cherished constant for the women who wear it in each generation and forge a destiny of their own. It is a symbol of their remaining traditions and the bond of family they share in an ever-changing world.
Author: Thompson-Hernández, Walter author
Published: 2020
Call Number: 920
Format: Books
Summary: In Compton, California, ten black riders on horseback cut an unusual profile, their cowboy hats tilted against the hot Los Angeles sun. They are the Compton Cowboys, their small ranch one of the very last in a formerly semirural area of the city that has been home to African-American horse riders for decades. To most people, Compton is known only as the home of rap greats NWA and Kendrick Lamar, hyped in the media for its seemingly intractable gang violence. But in 1988 Mayisha Akbar founded The Compton Jr. Posse to provide local youth with a safe alternative to the streets, one that connected them with the rich legacy of black cowboys in American culture. From Mayisha's youth organization came the Cowboys of today: black men and women from Compton for whom the ranch and the horses provide camaraderie, respite from violence, healing from trauma, and recovery from incarceration. The Cowboys include Randy, Mayisha's nephew, faced with the daunting task of remaking the Cowboys for a new generation; Anthony, former drug dealer and inmate, now a family man and mentor, Keiara, a single mother pursuing her dream of winning a national rodeo championship, and a tight clan of twentysomethings--Kenneth, Keenan, Charles, and Tre--for whom horses bring the freedom, protection, and status that often elude the young black men of Compton. The Compton Cowboys is a story about trauma and transformation, race and identity, compassion, and ultimately, belonging. Walter Thompson-Hernández paints a unique and unexpected portrait of this city, pushing back against stereotypes to reveal an urban community in all its complexity, tragedy, and triumph.
Author: Kessler, David A., 1951- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 615.8
Format: Books
Summary: "The American body is plagued by obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. In Fast Carbs, Slow Carbs, the follow up to his bestselling book The End of Overeating, Dr. David A. Kessler explains how we can reduce heart disease, keep weight off, and reduce chronic disease"--
Author: Murthy, Vivek Hallegere, 1977- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 158.2
Format: Books
Summary: "In Together, the former Surgeon General addresses the overlooked epidemic of loneliness as the underpinning to the current crisis in mental wellness and offers solutions to create connection and stresses the importance of community to counteract the forces driving us to depression and isolation"--
Author: Foster, Brooke Lea, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F FOSTER
Format: Books
Summary: "In 1962, coed Heddy Winsome leaves her hardscrabble Irish Brooklyn neighborhood behind and ferries to glamorous Martha's Vineyard to nanny for one of the wealthiest families on the island. But as she grows enamored with the alluring and seemingly perfect young couple and chases after their two mischievous children, Heddy discovers that her academic scholarship at Wellesley has been revoked, putting her entire future at risk. Determined to find her place in the couple's wealthy social circles, Heddy nurtures a romance with the hip surfer down the beach while wondering if the better man for her might be a quiet, studious college boy instead. But no one she meets on the summer island--socialite, starlet, or housekeeper--is as picture-perfect as they seem, and she quickly learns that the right last name and a house in a tony zip-code may guarantee privilege, but that rarely equals happiness. Rich with the sights and sounds of midcentury Martha's Vineyard, Brooke Lea Foster's debut novel Summer Darlings promises entrance to a rarefied world, for readers who enjoyed Tigers in Red Weather or The Summer Wives" --
Author: Gray, Shelley Shepard, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F GRAY
Format: Books
Summary: "New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shelley Shepard Gray returns to the charming and evocative Walnut Creek Series with an unforgettable novel following one broken young woman whose search for peace leads her back to her hometown, where she rediscovers her faith and reconnects with those she loves most"--
Author: Sandler, Lauren, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 305.48
Format: Books
Summary: "More than forty-five million Americans attempt to survive under the poverty line, day by day. Nearly 60,000 people sleep in New York City-run shelters every night--forty percent of them children. This Is All I Got makes this issue deeply personal, vividly depicting one woman's hope and despair and her steadfast determination to improve her situation, despite the myriad setbacks she encounters. Camila is a twenty-two-year-old new mother. She has no family to rely on, no partner, and no home. Despite her intelligence and determination, the odds are firmly stacked against her. Award-winning journalist Lauren Sandler tells the story of a year in Camila's life--from the birth of her son to his first birthday--as she navigates the labyrinth of poverty and homelessness in America. As Camila attempts to secure a college education and a safe place to raise her son, she copes with dashed dreams, failed relationships, and miles of red tape with grit, grace, and resilience. This Is All I Got is a dramatic story of survival and powerful indictment of a broken system, but it is also a revealing and candid depiction of the relationship between an embedded reporter and her subject and the tricky boundaries to navigate when it's impossible to remain a dispassionate observer"--
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