Author: Wilkerson, Isabel, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 305.5
Format: Books
Summary: ""As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power--which groups have it and which do not." In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of America life today"-- The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power-- which groups have it and which do not. Wilkerson explores how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. She discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Levesque, Emily, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 520
Format: Books
Summary: "For readers of Labgirl and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, The Last Stargazers combines the exciting travels of award-winning astronomer Emily Levesque with the misunderstood antics of a scrappy (and shrinking) crew of scientists working with stars and telescopes. She dissects both the romance and the real human curiosity that is so important to our exploration of space. Amidst the lonely quiet of stargazing to wild bears loose in the observatory, these love stories of astronomy show how scientists are going beyond the machines to infuse important creativity and intimate passion into the stars, inspiring future generations to peer skyward in pursuit of the universe's secrets"--
Author: Lenhardt, Melissa, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F LENHARDT
Format: Books
Summary: "Nora hasn't looked back. Not since she fled Texas to start a new life. Away from her father's volatile temper and the ever-watchful gaze of her claustrophobically conservative small town, Nora has freed herself. She can live - and love - however she wants. The only problem is that she also left behind the one woman she can't forget. Now tragedy calls her back home to confront her past - and reconcile her future. Sophie seems to have everything - a wonderful daughter, a successful husband and a rewarding career. Yet underneath that perfection lies an explosive secret. She still yearns for Nora - her best friend and first love - despite all the years between them. Keeping her true self hidden hasn't been easy, but it's been necessary. So when Sophie finds out that Nora has returned, she hopes Nora's stay is short. The life she has built depends on it. But they both find that first love doesn't fade easily. Memories come to light, passion ignites and old feelings resurface. As the forces of family and intolerance that once tore them apart begin to reemerge, they realize some things may never change - unless they demand it."--Provided by publisher.
Author: Collins, Max Allan, author. Schwartz, A. Brad (Austin Bradley), author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 364.1523
Format: Books
Summary: "In the spirit of Devil in the White City and Furious Hours comes the haunting true story of Eliot Ness's forgotten final case-his years-long hunt for "The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run," a serial killer who terrorized Cleveland through the 1936 World Fair"--
Author: Kiernan, Stephen P., author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F KIERNAN
Format: Books
Summary: "Graduating from Harvard at the height of World War II, brilliant mathematician Charlie Fish is assigned to the Manhattan Project. Working with some of the age's greatest scientific minds, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and Leo Szilard, Charlie is assigned the task of designing and building the detonator of the atomic bomb. As he performs that work Charlie suffers a crisis of conscience, which his wife, Brenda--unaware of the true nature of Charlie's top-secret task--mistakes as self-doubt. She urges him to set aside his qualms and continue. Once the bombs strike Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the feelings of culpability devastate him and Brenda. At the war's end, Charlie receives a scholarship to pursue a PhD in physics at Stanford--an opportunity he and Brenda hope will allow them a fresh start. But the past proves inescapable. All any of his new colleagues can talk about is the bomb, and what greater atomic weapons might be on the horizon. Haunted by guilt, Charlie and Brenda leave Stanford and decide to dedicate the rest of their lives to making amends for the evil he helped to birth into the world. Based on the life of the actual mathematician Charles B. Fisk."--Provided by publisher.
Author: Burke, James Lee, 1936- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F BURKE
Format: Books
Summary: "On his way to visit an inmate at a Texas prison who has promised him information, Detective Dave Robicheaux stops off at an amusement park to watch a teenaged Elvis-like rock-and-roller from his hometown of New Iberia named Johnny Shondell playing to a crowd of swooming young girls. One of them is another New Iberia teenager named Isolde Balangie. The Shondell and Balangie families are longtime rivals in the New Iberia criminal underworld. Yet Johnny and Isolde are in love. And like Romeo and Juliet, Johnny and Isolde are being kept apart by their families. In fact, Isolde tells Robicheaux, her parents have given her to the Shondell patriarch to be used as a sex slave. Seeking to uncover why, Robicheaux gets too close to both Isolde's mother and her father's mistress. As retribution, the elder Balangie orders a mysterious assassin to go after Robicheaux and his longtime partner, Clete Purcell. Yet this is unlike any hitman Robicheaux has ever faced: he has the ability induce hallucinations and might be a time-traveling reptilian."--
Author: Emezi, Akwaeke, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F EMEZI
Format: Books
Summary: "A tender, potent, and compulsively readable novel of a Nigerian-Indian family and the deeply held secret that tests their traditions and bonds"-- What does it mean for a family to lose a child they never really knew? One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son's body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family's struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women married to Nigerian men. But Vivek's closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens--and Osita struggles to understand Vivek's escalating crisis--the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom. Propulsively readable, teeming with unforgettable characters, The Death of Vivek Oji is a novel of family and friendship that challenges expectations--a dramatic story of loss and transcendence that will move every reader.
Author: Paretsky, Sara, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F PARETSKY
Format: Regular print
Summary: In "Miss Bianca," a young girl becomes involved in espionage when she befriends a mouse in a laboratory that is conducting dark experiments. Ten-year-old V.I. Warshawski appears in "Wildcat," embarking on her very first investigation to save her father. A hardboiled New York detective and elderly British aristocrat team up to reveal a murderer in Chicago during the World's Fair in "Murder at the Century of Progress." In the new title story, "Love & Other Crimes," V.I. treads the line between justice and vengeance when the wrongful firing of a family friend makes him a murder suspect. This collection of fourteen short stories-- eight of which feature detective V.I. Warshawski-- are a celebration of Paretsky's exceptional storytelling skill and a searing exploration of the dark conspiracies and desperate human acts hiding in plain sight. The stories range from V.I.'s very first investigation (at the age of ten) to a new story in which V.I. treads the line between justice and vengeance. The other stories involve a young girl involved in espionage when she befriends a mouse in a laboratory; a New York detective and a British aristocrat teaming up in Chicago during the World's Far; and many more. -- adapted from back cover
Author: Burnham, Gabriella, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F BURNHAM
Format: Books
Summary: "With sharp, gorgeous prose, It Is Wood, It Is Stone takes place over the course of a year in São Paulo, Brazil, in which two women's lives intersect. Linda, an anxious and restless American, has moved with her husband, Dennis, for a year professorship. As Dennis submerges himself into his work, Linda finds herself unmoored and adrift, feeling increasingly disassociated from her own body. Linda's unwavering and skilled maid, Marta, has more claim to Linda's home than she can fathom. Marta, who is struggling to make sense of her country's complicated history and its racial tensions, is exasperated by Linda's instability. One day, Linda leaves home with a charismatic and beguiling artist, whom she joins on a fervent adventure that causes reverberations felt by everyone, and ultimately binds Marta and Linda in a profoundly human, and tender, way. An exquisite debut novel by young Brazilian American author Gabriella Burnham, It is Wood, It is Stone is about women whose romantic and subversive entanglements reflect on class and colorism, sexuality, and complex, divisive histories"--Provided by publisher.
Author: Janowitz, Brenda, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: JAN
Format: Large print
Summary: "Two years after Grace Kelly's royal wedding, her iconic dress is still all the rage in Paris-and one replica, and the secrets it carries, will inspire three generations of women to forge their own paths in life and in love. Paris, 1958: Rose, a seamstress at a fashionable atelier, has been entrusted with sewing a Grace Kelly-look-alike gown for a wealthy bride-to-be. But when, against better judgment, she finds herself falling in love with the bride's handsome brother, Rose must make an impossible choice, one that could put all she's worked for at risk: love, security and of course, the dress. Sixty years later, tech CEO Rachel, who goes by the childhood nickname "Rocky," has inherited the dress for her upcoming wedding in New York City. But there's just one problem: Rocky doesn't want to wear it. A family heirloom dating back to the 1950s, the dress just isn't her. Rocky knows this admission will break her mother Joan's heart. But what she doesn't know is why Joan insists on the dress-or the heartbreaking secret that changed her mother's life decades before, as she herself prepared to wear it. As the lives of these three women come together in surprising ways, the revelation of the dress's history collides with long-buried family heartaches. And in the lead-up to Rocky's wedding, they'll have to confront the past before they can embrace the beautiful possibilities of the future"--Provided by publisher.
Author: Carlson, Melody, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: LP F CARLSON
Format: Large print
Summary: "As autumn of 1916 descends upon the once-peaceful town of Sunset Cove, Anna McDowell has great hopes that the excitement of the summer will be over, now that a few of the key players in the rum-running ring have been arrested. But with a daring jailbreak getting the town in a dither again, she knows that the danger hasn't passed for anyone in her coastal hometown. With a mayoral election keeping tensions high and the authorities busy searching for those behind the jailbreak, Anna has plenty to keep the newspaper busy. But when her sixteen-year-old daughter begins making noises about leaving high school and abandoning dreams of college, Anna realizes that prohibition isn't the only thing she needs to be worrying about. How deep does the root of corruption run in their town? As she digs deeper, Anna is forced to put the concerns of her own heart on hold in an effort to save some of the people dearest to her"--Provided by publisher.
Author: Slaughter, Karin, 1971- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F SLAUGHTE
Format: Books
Summary: Investigating a brutal murder that eerily resembles another from years earlier, Will Trent reopens the case of a possibly wrongly convicted prisoner before teaming up with medical examiner Sara Linton to hunt down the true killer.
Author: Birch, Anna (Romance fiction writer), author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: Y BIRCH
Format: Books
Summary: "Rhodes and Iliana couldn't be more different, but that's not why they hate each other. Rhodes, a gifted artist, has always excelled at Alabama's Conservatory of the Arts (until she's hit with a secret bout of creator's block), while Iliana, a transfer student, tries to outshine everyone with her intense, competitive work ethic. Since only one of them can get the coveted Capstone scholarship, the competition between them is fierce. They both escape the pressure on a fanfic site where they are unknowingly collaborating on a web comic. And despite being worst enemies in real life, their anonymous online identities I-Kissed-Alice and Curious-in-Cheshire are starting to like each other... a lot. When the truth comes out, will they destroy each other's future?" --Amazon.
Author: Cass, Laurie, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: LP F CASS
Format: Large print
Summary: "A friendly feline and a feisty librarian merrily roll along ... until murder stops them in their tracks! It's the summer season in Chilson, Michigan, and the town is packed with tourists ready for a fabulous Fourth of July fireworks show. Minnie Hamilton and her rescue cat, Eddie, have spent a busy day on the bookmobile, delivering good cheer and great reads to even the library's most far-flung patrons. But Minnie is still up for the nighttime festivities, eager to show off her little town to her visiting niece, Katrina. But then, during the grand finale of the fireworks display, Katrina discovers a body. Minnie recognizes the victim as one of the bookmobile's most loyal patrons. And she knows she-and Eddie-will have to get to the bottom of this purr-fect crime"--Provided by publisher.
Author: Freeman, Dianne, 1958- author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F FREEMAN
Format: Books
Summary: "1899. Risings, George Hazleton's family estate in Hampshire, is a perfect choice for the wedding of Lily, sister of Frances, the widowed Countess of Harleigh. But the bucolic setting harbors a menace. Above and below stairs, mysterious accidents befall guests and staff alike. Before long, Frances suspects these 'accidents' are deliberate, and fears that the intended victim is Lily's fiancé, Leo. As Frances and George search for the culprit, more victims fall prey to the mayhem. And unless Frances can quickly flush out the culprit, the peal of wedding bells may give way to another funeral toll."--Publisher description.
Author: Beukes, Lauren, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F BEUKES
Format: Books
Summary: "Three years after a plague has wiped out the male population, twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence, and pursued by Cole's own ruthless sister, Billie - all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won't be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home."--Publisher description.
Author: Lovesey, Peter, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: F LOVESEY
Format: Books
Summary: "Through a particularly tragic series of events, couch potato Maeve Kelly, an elementary school teacher whose mother always assured her "curvy" girls shouldn't waste their time trying to be fit, has been forced to sign up for the Other Half, Bath's springtime half-marathon. The training is brutal, but she must disprove her mother and collect pledges for her aunt's beloved charity. What Maeve doesn't know is just how brutal some of the other runners are. As race day draws closer, an undocumented Albanian man named Spiro makes a run for freedom on the other side of town, escaping the chain gang that has held him hostage and its murderous foreman, who is known to his charges as The Finisher. The Finisher has killed for disobedience before, and Spiro knows there's a target on his back as he tries to lose himself in the genteel medieval city of Bath. Meanwhile Detective Peter Diamond is tasked with crowd control on the raucous day of the race-and catches sight of a violent criminal he put away a decade ago, and who very much seems to be up to his old tricks now that he is paroled. Diamond's hackles are already up when he learns that one of the runners never crossed the finish line-disappeared without a trace. Was Diamond a spectator to the prelude to a murder?"--
Author: Stevens, Stuart, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 324.2734
Format: Books
Summary: "An indictment of the Republican Party from one of the most successful Republican political operatives of his generation"-- Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. Here he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. Stevens shows how Trump is the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s. Racism has always lurked in the modern GOP's DNA, as has the rank hypocrisy of the party's claims to embody "family values" and fiscal responsibility. Stephen helped to create the modern party that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man-- and now he wants nothing more than to see it held accountable. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Begala, Paul, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: 324.273
Format: Books
Summary: ""You're fired!" Donald Trump became famous bellowing those words in a make-believe boardroom. In November, tens of millions of Americans want to yell it right back at him. Yet Trump has seemed to almost defy the laws of political physics. Paul Begala, one of America's greatest political talents, lays out the strategy that will defeat him and send him and his industrial-strength spray-on tan machine back to Mar-a-Lago."--Amazon.
Author: Tye, Larry, author.
Published: 2020
Call Number: B MCCARTHY
Format: Books
Summary: "The definitive biography of the most dangerous demagogue in American history, based on first-ever access to his personal and professional papers, medical and military records, and recently-unsealed transcripts of his closed-door Congressional hearings."-- From 1950 to 1954 Joe McCarthy destroyed many careers and even entire lives, whipping the nation into a frenzy of paranoia, accusation, loyalty oaths, and terror. When the public finally turned on him, he came crashing down, dying of alcoholism in 1957. Tye shows that McCarthy was a tireless worker and a genuine war hero. But his ambitions knew few limits, and neither did his socializing, his drinking, nor his gambling. When he finally made it to the Senate he angered many with his lack of integrity. After he hit upon anti-communism as his agenda, McCarthy became the most influential and controversial man in America. His chaotic, meteoric rise-- and sudden fall from fame-- are charted through access to his personal and professional papers, medical and military records, and recently unsealed transcripts of his closed-door Congressional hearings. -- adapted from jacket
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