Author: Smith, Ali, 1962- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F SMITH Format: Books Summary: "From a literary master, a moving and genre-bending story about our era-spanning search for meaning and knowing. Gliff explores how and why we endeavor to make a mark on the world. In a time when western industry wants to reduce us to algorithms and data--something easily categorizable and predictable--Smith shows us why our humanity, our individual complexities, matter more than ever"-- "An uncertain near-future. A story of new boundaries drawn between people daily. A not-very brave new world. Add two children. And a horse. From a Scottish word meaning a transient moment, a shock, a faint glimpse, Gliff explores how and why we endeavour to make a mark on the world. In a time when western industry wants to reduce us to algorithms and data-- something easily categorizable and predictable-- Smith shows us why out humanity, our individual complexities, matter more than ever."--
Author: Mayne, Kerryn, author. Published: 2024 2023 Call Number: F MAYNE Format: Books Summary: "Lenny Marks is excellent at not having a life. She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a friendship is playing Scrabble against an imaginary Monica Gellar while watching Friends reruns. And Lenny Marks is very, very good at not remembering what happened the day her mother and stepfather disappeared when she was still a child. The day a voice in the back of her mind started whispering, You did this. Until a letter from the parole board arrives in the mail--and when her desperate attempts to ignore it fail, Lenny starts to unravel. As long-buried memories come to the surface, Lenny's careful routines fall apart. For the first time, she finds herself forced to connect with the community around her, and unexpected new relationships begin to bloom. Lenny Marks may finally get a life-but what if her past catches up to her first? Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming, Kerryn Mayne's stunning debut is an irresistible novel about truth, secrets, vengeance, and family lost and found, with a heroine who's simply unforgettable"--
Author: Nesbø, Jo, 1960- author. Ferguson, Robert, 1948- translator. Published: 2024 Call Number: F NESBO Format: Books Summary: "By all accounts, Carl and Roy Opgard are doing quite well for themselves. Or at least they're doing as well as can be expected in a small town like Os. Carl manages the area's swanky and successful spa and hotel, while Roy runs a nearby gas station and harbors grand plans to build it out into an entire amusement park complete with a roller coaster. But when news breaks about a new highway to be built nearby, bypassing Os and leaving the town cut-off and isolated, it's clear that something has to be done... even if the methods are bound to be dirty. Fortunately, Carl and Roy have experience with just that kind of work. Meanwhile, the town sheriff has gotten his hands on new technology that will enable him to take a deeper look at a slate of unsolved murders from years past - including that of his own father. And just as the sheriff reopens his investigation, the death toll begins to climb. It's like Roy says about his roller coaster: "Once it's rolling, it's too late to get off." Blood Ties is a tense, compulsively readable tour de force about loyalty, family ties, and love that is as destructive as it is powerful"--
Author: Klassen, Julie, 1964- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: LP F KLASSEN Format: Large print Summary: Claire Summers replies to an advertisement to help run a Sidmouth boarding house, but her handsome, secretive business partner might send her packing if he learns her genteel façade hides a less-than-respectable past. And will a hoped-for reunion with her family lead to reconciliation or leave her estranged forever?--
Author: McGuire, Seanan, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F MCGUIRE Format: Books Summary: "Every night, a Moon shines down on the Impossible City... New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire takes us back to the world of the award-winning Alchemical Journeys series in this action-packed follow-up to Middlegame and Seasonal Fears. All across the world, people look up at the moon and dream of gods. Gods of knowledge and wisdom, gods of tides and longevity. Over time, some of these moon gods incarnated into the human world alongside the other manifest natural concepts. Their job is to cross the sky above the Impossible City - the heart of all creation - to keep it connected to reality. And someone is killing them. There are so many of them that it's easy for a few disappearances to slip through the cracks. But they aren't limitless. In the name of the moon, the lunar divinities must uncover the roots of the plot and thwart the true goal of those behind these attacks - control of the Impossible City itself"--
Author: Johnson, Debbie (Debbie M.), author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F JOHNSON Format: Books Summary: "As a high school history teacher, Gemma Jones loves the certainty of the past: specific names, solid dates, proven statistics. Maybe that's because her own past resembles a jumbled-up sock drawer, one where it's impossible to find a match. On paper, Gemma's life is just like any other successful, single thirty-something. Her students adore her. She lives in a cute beach-side cottage next door to the world's sweetest neighbor, Margie. And she's definitely caught the eye of Karim, the resident hot PE teacher at her school. But every day of her life she can't get one thing out of her mind: the baby she gave up for adoption when Gemma was just sixteen years old. This is the year that Baby--the only name Gemma has for her little girl--will turn eighteen. And it might be the year she actually meets her daughter face-to-face." --
Author: Griffis, Gigi, author. Published: 2024 Call Number: Y GRIFFIS Format: Books Summary: "When a series of brutal, mysterious deaths start plaguing the countryside and whispers of a beast in the mountains reach the quiet French hamlet of Mende, most people believe it's a curse--God's punishment for their sins. But to sixteen-year-old Joséphine and her best friend, Clara, the beast isn't a curse. It's an opportunity. For years, the girls of Mende have been living in a nightmare--fathers who drink, brothers who punch, homes that feel like prisons--and this is a chance to get them out. Using the creature's attacks as cover, Joséphine and Clara set out to fake their friends' deaths and hide them away until it's safe to run. But escape is harder than they thought. If they can't brave a harsh winter with little food... If the villagers discover what they're doing... If the beast finds them first... Those fake deaths might just become real ones."--
Author: Desprairies, Cécile, author. Lehrer, Natasha, translator. Published: 2024 2023 Call Number: F DESPRAIR Format: Books Summary: In a grand Paris apartment, a young girl attends gatherings regularly organized by her mother. The women talk about beauty secrets and gossip, but the mood grows dark when the past, notably World War II, comes under coded discussion in hushed tones. Years later, the silent witness to these sessions has become a prominent historian, and with this chilling autobiographical novel she sets out to unmask enigmatic figures in and around her family. Why, she seeks to understand, did the narrator's relatives zealously collaborate with the Nazi occupiers of France, even remaining for decades afterward obsessive devotees of that evil lost cause?--
Author: McFarlane, Fiona, 1978- author. Published: 2024 Call Number: F MCFARLAN Format: Books Summary: "A gripping, enigmatic collection of linked short stories about the reverberations of a serial killer's crimes in the lives of everyday people"-- "In the small town of Barrow, Australia, people go about their ordinary lives. They drive to work through the dense state forest. They raise their families. They flirt and yearn. They lie and confess. Some of them leave home. Some of them return.Darkness thrums beneath the surface of these ordinary lives: the violence of one man, a serial killer whose murders made Barrow infamous. His twelve victims-- women, men, mostly young-- are long gone, but their deaths are felt, beyond the forest where they were buried, beyond this country, beyond even this time. In the past, where a young woman on a school trip to Rome sees something she shouldn't have. In the present, where a man confronts an ancient grief on the suburban streets of Texas. In the future, in the hands of journalists and podcast hosts and television actors whose livelihoods hinge on the twin spectacles of loss and violence."--
Author: Baldree, Travis, 1977- author. Published: 2022 Call Number: F BALDREE Format: Books Summary: "The much-beloved BookTok sensation from Travis Baldree, Legends & Lattes is a novel of high fantasy and low stakes. The new paperback edition will include a very special, never-before-seen bonus story, Pages to Fill. Come take a load off at Viv's cafe, the first & only coffee shop in Thune. Grand opening! Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv, the orc barbarian, cashes out of the warrior's life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen. However, her dreams of a fresh start filling mugs instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune's shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners, and a different kind of resolve. "Take a break from epic battles and saving the world. Legends & Lattes is a wholesome, cozy novel that feels like a warm hug. This is my new comfort read"--Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch's Heart"--
Author: Adams, Sara Nisha author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F ADAMS Format: Books Summary: Working at the local library, Aleisha reads every book on a secret list she found, which transports her from the painful realities she's facing at home, and decides to pass the list on to a lonely widower desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter. Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It's a list of novels that she's never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she's facing at home. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list...hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles to find joy again.
Author: Garvin, Eileen author. Published: 2021 Call Number: F GARVIN Format: Books Summary: "Following three lonely strangers in a rural Oregon town, each working through grief and life's curveballs, who are brought together by happenstance on a local honeybee farm where they find surprising friendship, healing--and maybe even a second chance--just when they least expect it"-- Alice Holtzman is forty-four years old, working a dead-end job, bereft of family, and trying to deal with the loss of her husband. Alice has panic attacks when she thinks about her life. Even her honeybees aren't helping her feel better. In the grip of a panic attack, she almost collides with Jake--a troubled paraplegic teenager with a mohawk--while carrying 120,000 honeybees in the back of her pickup truck. Seeking to rescue Jake from his toxic home life, Alice invites Jake to her farm--he also has a sincere interest in the honeybees. When Alice is looking for part-time farm help, she hires Harry, a twenty-four year old who has debilitating social anxiety. As Alice, Jake, and Harry become friends, a nefarious pesticide company moves to town, threatening the local honeybee population and illuminating deep-seated corruption in the community. The unlikely trio must unite for the sake of the bees-- and in the process, they might just forge a new future for themselves.
Author: Beveridge, Charles E., author. Rocheleau, Paul, author. Larkin, David, 1936- editor. Published: 2021 Call Number: 712.092 Format: Books Summary: "A landscape architect, city planner, and creative genius who transformed the American landscape, Frederick Law Olmsted was a man of passionate vision and drive. He defined the profession of landscape architecture and designed America's most outstanding landscapes, many gorgeously illustrated here, including New York's Central Park, Brooklyn's Prospect Park, the U. S. Capitol grounds, and the Biltmore Estate. During a remarkable forty-year career that began in the mid-1800s, Olmsted created the first major urban parks and park systems in this country, along with widely influential suburban residential communities. He was a pivotal figure in the movement to create scenic reservations and national parks, such as Niagara Falls, Yosemite, and Yellowstone, and he contributed to the design of many academic campuses, including Stanford University. A comprehensive view of the man and his work, this updated edition of the Rizzoli classic marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of this seminal American landscape designer and includes new photography of Olmsted's masterworks Central and Prospect Parks, as well as a new introduction and new final chapter by the author that examines Olmsted's ongoing influence."--
Author: Adeyemi, Tomi author. Published: 2019 Call Number: Y ADEYEMI Format: Books Summary: After Zélie and Amari bring magic back to the land of Orïsha, the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, forcing Zélie to fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.
Author: Garber, Stephanie author. Published: 2017 Call Number: Y GARBER Format: Books Summary: "Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their ruthless father. Now Scarlett's father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the legendary, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over. But this year, Scarlett's long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor who she has just met, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval's mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season's Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner."--
Author: Balson, Ronald H. author. Published: 2013 Call Number: F BALSON Format: Books Summary: "The gripping tale about two boys, once as close as brothers, who find themselves on opposite sides of the Holocaust. Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist, is attending a fundraiser when he is suddenly accosted and accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, "the butcher of Zamosc." Although the charges are denounced as preposterous, his accuser, Ben Solomon, is convinced he is right. Solomon persuades attorney Catherine Lockhart to take his case, revealing that the true Piatek was abandoned as a child and raised by Solomon's family only to betray them during the Nazi occupation. But has he accused the right man? Once We Were Brothers is the compelling tale of two boys and a family who struggle to survive in war-torn Poland and a young love that incredibly endures through the unspeakable cruelty of the Holocaust. Two lives, two worlds, and sixty years converge in an explosive race to redemption that makes for an enthralling tale of love, survival, and ultimately the triumph of the human spirit"--
Author: Reston, James, Jr., 1941-2023. Published: 2005 Call Number: 946.03 Format: Books Summary: From historian James Reston comes an account of the pivotal events of 1492, a year when towering political ambitions, horrific religious excesses, and a drive toward adventure and conquest changed the world forever. This book chronicles one of the most savage epochs in history, the years of the Spanish Inquisition. In an effort to consolidate their power on the Iberian Peninsula, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella turned to the priest Torquemada, a member of the Dominican order. Torquemada urged an Inquisition that would strengthen the sovereigns' authority throughout Spain, particularly in the coming campaign against the Moors of Granada. When Granada fell, tens of thousands of Muslims were given the choice of converting to Christianity or facing death or banishment. Torquemada then turned his ferocity on Spain's Jews. Reston also looks beyond the dark deeds of 1492, capturing the excitement of exploration and the promise of the future that was born in the same year.--From publisher description.
Author: Moore, Christopher, 1957-. Published: 2005 2004 Call Number: F MOORE Format: Books Summary: When a boy witnesses the murder of a portly, Scrooge-like real-estate developer, he believes the victim is Santa Claus and wishes for the man's recovery, and when the haphazard angel, Raziel, grants the wish, unexpected occurrences result.
Author: Sleator, William. Published: 2004 Call Number: YF SLEATOR Format: Books Summary: When his best friend dies in a plane crash, sixteen-year-old Ken has a ritual performed that will make him invulnerable, but soon learns that he had good reason to be suspicious of the woman he paid to lock his soul away.
