Author: Medie, Peace A., author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F MEDIE Format: Books Summary: "An intelligent and funny debut about a relatable, indomitable heroine: a young seamstress in Ghana who agrees to an arranged marriage, only to realize that some compromises are too extreme to accept, illuminating what it means to be a woman in a rapidly changing world."-- A seamstress in Gana, Afi Tekple is smart; she is pretty; and she has been convinced by her mother to marry a man she does not know. Elikem is a wealthy businessman whose mother has chosen Afi in the hopes that she will distract him from his relationship with a woman his family claims is inappropriate. But Afi is not prepared for the shift her life takes when she comes to live in Accra, Ghana's gleaming capital, where she has days of nothing to do but cook meals for a man who may or may not show up to eat them. She has agreed to this marriage in order to give her mother the financial security she desperately needs, and so she must see it through-- or does she? -- adapted from jacket
Author: Quinn, Colin, 1959- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 306.0973 Format: Books Summary: The United States is in a fifty-states-wide couples' counseling session, thinking about filing for divorce. Can a nation composed of states that are so different possibly hang together? Quinn calls us out state-by-state, and identifies the hypocrisies inherent in what we claim to believe and what we actually do. Within a framework of big-picture thinking about systems of government he skewers us all: red, blue, and purple-- while maintaining the same blend of optimism and practicality that sparked the U.S. into being. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Gessner, David, 1961- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 333.78 GESSNER Format: Books Summary: "An urgent call to protect America's public lands, told through New York Times bestselling author David Gessner's American road trip with our greatest conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt, as his guide"-- "Leave it as it is," Theodore Roosevelt announced while viewing the Grand Canyon for the first time. "The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it." His rallying cry signaled the beginning of an environmental fight that still wages today. To reconnect with the American wilderness and with the president who courageously protected it, Gessner traveled to the Dakota badlands where Roosevelt awakened as a naturalist; to Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon where Roosevelt escaped during the grind of his reelection tour; and finally, to Bears Ears, Utah, a monument proposed by Native Tribes that is embroiled in a national conservation fight. Along the way, Gessner questions and reimagines Roosevelt's vision for today. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Butcher, Jim, 1971- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F BUTCHER Format: Books Summary: "Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of Vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders. But this time, it's different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennia is coming. And she's bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago, and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way. Harry's mission is simple but impossible: Save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry's life, Chicago, and the mortal world forever."--Provided by publisher.
Author: Weiner, Tim, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 327.73 Format: Books Summary: "With vivid storytelling and access to insider accounts, Weiner sets out to trace the roots of Russian-American political warfare--conflict waged without weapons--over the last seven decades to understand how a president landed in the White House with the help of an expansive, covert Russian campaign. Russia's modern revival of Soviet-era intelligence operations constitutes one of the most significant threats to democracy in the United States and around the world, and yet the US has not engaged its own political warfare methods in defense, even as our own justice department has concluded unequivocally that Russia influenced the 2016 election. To get to the heart of what's at stake and find potential solutions, Weiner examines long-running twentieth century CIA operations, political machinations by the Soviet KGB around the world, the erosion of American political warfare after the Cold War, and why twenty-first century Russia has returned to the practice while the US has not. Weiner takes us behind closed doors and into the deliberation rooms of past and present Russian and American intelligence operations that directly led to-and help illuminate-the current administration and the future of American democracy"--
Author: Macintyre, Ben, 1963- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 327.12 MACINTYR Format: Books Summary: "The New York Times bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor tells the thrilling true story of the most important female spy in history: an agent code-named "Sonya," who set the stage for the Cold War. In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her three children and her husband, who worked as a machinist nearby. Ursula Burton was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. By all accounts, she seemed to be living a simple, unassuming life. Her neighbors in the village knew little about her. They didn't know that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. They didn't know that her husband was also a spy, or that she was running powerful agents across Europe. Behind the facade of her picturesque life, Burton was a dedicated Communist, a Soviet colonel, and a veteran agent, gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb. This true-life spy story is a masterpiece about the woman code-named "Sonya." Over the course of her career, she was hunted by the Chinese, the Japanese, the Nazis, MI5, MI6, and the FBI-and she evaded them all. Her story reflects the great ideological clash of the twentieth century-between Communism, Fascism, and Western democracy-and casts new light on the spy battles and shifting allegiances of our own times. With unparalleled access to Sonya's diaries and correspondence and never-before-seen information on her clandestine activities, Ben Macintyre has conjured a page-turning history of a legendary secret agent, a woman who influenced the course of the Cold War and helped plunge the world into a decades-long standoff between nuclear superpowers."-- In 1942, in a quiet village in the English Cotswolds, Ursula Burton was friendly but reserved, and spoke English with a slight foreign accent. Her unassuming life hid the fact that she was a high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. Her husband was also a spy, and she was running powerful agents across Europe gathering the scientific secrets that would enable the Soviet Union to build the bomb. Macintyre tells the story of "Sonya," a woman who influenced the course of the Cold War and helped plunge the world into a decades-long standoff between nuclear superpowers. - adapted from jacket
Author: Walschots, Natalie Zina, 1983- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F WALSCHOT Format: Books Summary: Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. As a temp, she's just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called 'hero' leaves her badly injured. So, of course, then she gets laid off. With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks. Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it.
Author: Rollins, James, 1961- author. Container of (work): Rollins, James, 1961- Kowalski's in love. Container of (work): Rollins, James, 1961- Skeleton key. Container of (work): Rollins, James, 1961- Midnight watch. Container of (work): Rollins, James, 1961- Ghost ship. Published: 2020 Call Number: F ROLLINS Format: Books Summary: "At the center of Unrestricted Access is the never-before-published novella "Sun Dogs. Other stories--each with an introduction by James Rollins--are just as compelling, offering broader insight into this acclaimed master's fictional universes, including: "The Pit": a young dog is kidnapped and brutalized into becoming the bloody champion of a dog-fighting ring. But can this tortured monster find redemption and a path back to the boy who first raised him with love and compassion? "Tagger": A pair of teenage street artists must protect San Francisco from a demon who has been seeking revenge for centuries. "The Devil's Bones": In this jungle adventure-the first joint story from Rollins and Steve Berry-Commander Gray Pierce and Cotton Malone must work together using their unique skills to survive a deadly threat. The stories "The Midnight Watch," "The Skeleton Key,"
Author: Mytting, Lars, 1968- author. Dawkin, Deborah, translator. Published: 2020 Call Number: F MYTTING Format: Books Summary: "As long as people could remember, the stave church's bells had rung over the isolated village of Butangen, Norway. Cast in memory of conjoined twins, the bells are said to ring on their own in times of danger. In 1879, young pastor Kai Schweigaard moves to the village, where young Astrid Hekne yearns for a modern life. She sees a way out on the arm of the new pastor, who needs a tie to the community to cull favor for his plan for the old stave church, with its pagan deity effigies and supernatural bells. When the pastor makes a deal that brings an outsider, a sophisticated German architect, into their world, the village and Astrid are caught between past and future, as dark forces come into play"--
Author: Desus Nice, author. Kid Mero, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 817.6 Format: Books Summary: "Desus & Mero have turned their Bronx-born friendship into a growing brand. And it's no surprise--tuning in to them is like listening to the funniest, smartest people you know dissect a topic and then light it on fire. Now they've written the most entertaining guide to life you'll ever read, in which all the important questions are asked: How do I talk to my kids about drugs if I do them too? How do I bet on sports? How should I behave in jail? How much is too much to spend on sneakers? Is porn really that bad for me? The pair met in high school, and as they put it: "We want to share all we've learned, after years in the Bronx streets, with you: the people. So with a lifetime spent building up a plethora of information from trials and tribulations and a handful of misdemeanors, we decided to write this book--a sequel to the Bible, or maybe to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, depending on how big a nerd you are. Let this book be your North Star.""--
Author: Koontz, Dean R. (Dean Ray), 1945- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F KOONTZ Format: Books Summary: Since his wife, Michelle, left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for himself and his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach. It's a quiet life, until a local eccentric known as Spooky Ed shows up on their doorstep. Ed entrusts Jeffy with hiding a strange and dangerous object-something he calls "the key to everything"-and tells Jeffy that he must never use the device. But after a visit from a group of ominous men, Jeffy and Amity find themselves accidentally activating the key and discovering an extraordinary truth. The device allows them to jump between parallel planes at once familiar and bizarre, wondrous and terrifying. And Jeffy and Amity can't help but wonder, could Michelle be just a click away? Jeffy and Amity aren't the only ones interested in the device.
Author: Owens, Candace, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: 324.273 Format: Books Summary: The political activist and social-media star explains why she believes that the Democratic Party's policies hurt, rather than help, the African-American community, outlining the reasons that she and others are embracing Republican politics. Owens, an American conservative political activist, believes that Black Americans have long been shackled to the Democrats, watching liberal politicians take the black vote for granted without pledging anything in return. She contends that the Democrat Party has a long history of racism and hinders the black community's ability to rise above poverty. Owens shows why turning to the right will leave them happier, more successful, and more self-sufficient. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Reid, Iain, 1981- author. Published: 2020 2016 Call Number: F REID Format: Books Summary: An unsettling novel about a couple in the midst of a twisted unraveling of the darkest unease. Explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. I'm thinking of ending things. Once this thought arrives, it stays. It sticks. It lingers. It's always there. Always. Jake once said, "Sometimes a thought is closer to truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can't fake a thought." And here's what I'm thinking: I don't want to be here. In this smart and intense literary suspense novel, Iain Reid explores the depths of the human psyche, questioning consciousness, free will, the value of relationships, fear, and the limitations of solitude. Reminiscent of Jose Saramago's early work, Michel Faber's cult classic Under the Skin, and Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk about Kevin, "your dread and unease will mount with every passing page" (Entertainment Weekly) of this edgy, haunting debut. Tense, gripping, and atmospheric, I'm Thinking of Ending Things pulls you in from the very first page...and never lets you go.
Author: Pitlor, Heidi, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F PITLOR Format: Books Summary: "Allie Lang is a professional ghostwriter and a perpetually broke single mother to a young boy. Years of navigating her own and America's cultural definitions of motherhood have left her a lapsed idealist. Lana Breban is a powerhouse lawyer, economist, and advocate for women's rights with designs on elected office. She also has a son. Lana and her staff have decided she needs help softening her public image and that a memoir about her life as a mother will help. When Allie lands the job as Lana's ghostwriter, it seems as if things will finally go Allie's way. At last, she thinks, there will be enough money not just to pay her bills but to actually buy a house. After years of working as a ghostwriter for other celebrities, Allie believes she knows the drill: she has learned how to inhabit the lives of others and tell their stories better than they can. But this time, everything becomes more complicated. Allie's childcare arrangements unravel; she falls behind on her rent; her subject, Lana, is better at critiquing than actually providing material; and Allie's boyfriend decides to go on a road trip toward self-discovery. But as a writer for hire, Allie has gotten too used to being accommodating. At what point will she speak up for all that she deserves?"--Provided by publisher.
Author: Graham, Heather, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F GRAHAM Format: Books Summary: Stacey Hanson has had strange dreams - and sometimes they come true. Her skills and experience led her straight to the FBI's Krewe of Hunters. Now a serial killer is stalking Washington, DC. People are scared - and it will be Stacey's first case. Special Agent Keenan Wallace isn't thrilled to be teamed up with a rookie, but they're going to have to get past their mutual friction if they want to stop a brutal killer. The victims are all vulnerable women, and the clues lead to suspects from DC's powerful elite. Stacey can't escape her nightly visions, but in trying to prevent them from occurring in real life she might come face-to-face with a nightmare. -- adapted from jacket
Author: Cross, Tiffany D., 1977- author. Dyson, Michael Eric, writer of foreword. Published: 2020 Call Number: 324.6 Format: Books Summary: A Washington D.C. insider discusses both the historical and current influence of African Americans in our electoral process and offers ideas for how they can use their rising power to affect elections and overcome voter suppression efforts. Black voters were critical to the Democrats' 2018 blue wave. In fact, 90 percent of Black voters supported Democratic House candidates, compared to just 53 percent of all voters. Despite media narratives, this was not a fluke. Throughout U.S. history, Black people have played a crucial role in the shaping of the American experiment. Yet still, this powerful voting bloc is often dismissed as some "amorphous" deviation, argues Tiffany Cross. Say It Louder! is her explosive examination of how America's composition was designed to exclude Black voters, but paradoxically would likely cease to exist without them. With multiple tentacles stretching into the cable news echo chamber, campaign leadership, and Black voter data, Cross creates a wrinkle in time with a reflective look at the timeless efforts endlessly attempting to deny people of color the right to vote--a basic tenet of American democracy. And yet as the demographics of the country are changing, so too is the electoral power construct--by evolution and by force, Cross declares. Grounded in the most-up-to-date research, Say It Louder! is a vital tool for a wide swath of constituencies."--Amazon.
Author: Leavitt, Caroline, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F LEAVITT Format: Books Summary: "After almost twenty years together, Stella and Simon are starting to run into problems. An up-and-coming rock musician when they first met, Simon has been clinging to dreams of fame even as the possibility of it has grown dimmer, and now that his band might finally be on the brink again, he wants to go on the road, leaving Stella behind. But when she falls into a coma on the eve of his departure, he has to make a choice between stardom and his wife - and when she wakes a different person, with an incredible artistic talent of her own, the two of them must examine what it is that they really want."--Provided by publisher.
Author: Forgrave, Reid, 1979- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: B EASTER Format: Books Summary: "The story of a young man from small-town Iowa who decided to take his own life rather than continue his losing battle against the traumatic brain injuries (CTE) he had sustained as a no-holds-barred high school football player, and at the same time a larger story about the hot-button issues that football raises about masculinity and violence, and about what values we want to instill in our kids"--
Author: Dailey, Janet, author. Published: 2020 Call Number: F DAILEY Format: Books Summary: "A desire for absolution brought ex-con Travis Alden to Paradise Peak, Tennessee. But when he finds honest work, along with a keen sense of belonging, he shelves his plan to unburden his guilty secret, instead working to rehabilitate a ranch alongside the very people his transgressions hurt the most. With the chance to create a haven for wildfire refugees, Travis seizes the opportunity to do good, to earn the respect his new boss shows him. Only Travis doesn't count on his feelings for his boss's beautiful niece."--Provided by publisher.
Author: Lewis, Beverly, 1949- author. Published: 2020 Call Number: LP F LEWIS Format: Large print Summary: A Lancaster County tour guide researches her Alzheimer's patient grandmother's Plain heritage and the story behind a mysterious stone wall while confronting a difficult choice about her growing feelings for a handsome Mennonite and a young Amish widower.
