Newly arrived at the library!
Creation Lake : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Sadie Smith" is how the narrator introduces herself to her lover, to the rural commune of French subversives on whom she is keeping tabs, and to the reader. We never learn her real name. Sadie has met her lover Lucien, a young and well-born Parisian, by "cold bump"--making him believe the encounter was accidental. And like everyone she chooses to interact with, Lucien is useful to her. Sadie operates on strategy and dissimulation, based on what her "contacts,"--shadowy figures in business and government--instruct. First, these contacts want her to incite provocation. Then they want more. In this region of centuries-old farms and ancient caves, Sadie becomes entranced by a mysterious figure named Bruno Lacombe, a mentor to the young activists who communicates only by email. Bruno believes that the path to emancipation from what ails modern life is not revolt, but a return to the ancient past. Just as Sadie is certain she’s the seductress and puppet master of those she surveils, Bruno Lacombe is seducing her with his ingenious counter-histories, his artful laments, his own tragic story. 3/3
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Kus
Pony confidential : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with the only little girl he ever loved, Penny, who he was separated from and hasn't seen in years. Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Her only comfort when the past comes back to haunt her are the memories of her precious, rebellious pony. Hearing of Penny's fate, Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny's name and find the real killer" 3/3
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Lyn
Bone of the bone : essays on America by a daughter of the working class
Author(s):
Description:
In Bone of the Bone, Sarah Smarsh brings her graceful storytelling and incisive critique to the challenges that define our times--class division, political fissures, gender inequality, environmental crisis, media bias, the rural-urban gulf. Smarsh, a journalist who grew up on a wheat farm in Kansas and was the first in her family to graduate from college, has long focused on cultural dissonance that many in her industry neglected until recently. Now, this thought-provoking collection of more than thirty of her highly relevant, previously published essays from the past decade (2013-2024)--ranging from personal narratives to news commentary--demonstrates a life and a career steeped in the issues that affect our collective future. Compiling Smarsh's reportage and more poetic reflections, Bone of the Bone is a singular work covering one of the most tumultuous decades in civic life. Timely, filled with perspective-shifting observations, and a pleasure to read, Sarah Smarsh's essays--on topics as varied as the socioeconomic significance of dentistry, laws criminalizing poverty, fallacies of the "red vs. blue" political framework, working as a Hooters Girl, and much more--are an important addition to any discussion on contemporary America. 3/3
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP 305.562 Sma
American rapture
Author(s):
Description:
"A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust. Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she discovers there are far worse fates than dying a virgin... The end times are coming" 3/3
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Lee
The teller of small fortunes
Author(s):
Description:
"Tao, an immigrant fortune teller, lives in a wagon and roams the dusty outskirts of the kingdom of Eshtera. Fleeing a troubled past, she travels between villages telling only small fortunes: whether it will hail next Thursday; what boy will kiss which barmaid; when the cow will calve. Big fortunes come with big consequences... which she wants to avoid at all costs. Life on the road can be lonely but, to Tao's surprise, companionship comes unexpectedly. She encounters Mash and Silt, an ex-mercenary and semi-reformed thief; the oddball pair endear themselves to Tao and enlist her in the search for Mash's lost daughter. Next the trio finds Kina, a brilliant baker, with a 'knead' for adventure. And, finally, Fidelitus rounds out their party, a cat smart enough to mark the travelers as ready suppliers of fish. As they journey together across Eshtera, confronting small-minded villagers and philosophizing trolls alike, Tao's unlikely new friends break down her walls and unravel her secrets. Ultimately, Tao must decide what's more important: her hard-won freedom, or reuniting a family not her own" 2/24
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Leo
The JFK conspiracy : the secret plot to kill Kennedy--and why it failed
Author(s):
Meltzer, Brad
Mensch, Josh,
Description:
"Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States, is often ranked among Americans' most well-liked presidents. Yet what most Americans don't know is that JFK's historic presidency almost ended before it began--at the hands of a disgruntled sociopathic loner armed with dynamite. On December 11, 1960, shortly after Kennedy's election and before his inauguration, a retired postal worker named Richard Pavlick waited in his car--a parked Buick--on a quiet street in Palm Beach, Florida. Pavlick knew the president-elect's schedule. He knew when Kennedy would leave his house. He knew where Kennedy was going. From there, Pavlick had a simple plan--one that could've changed the course of history. Written in the gripping, page-turning style that is the hallmark of Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch's bestselling series, this is a slice of history vividly brought to life. Meltzer and Mensch are at the top of their game with this brilliant exploration of what could've been for one of the most compelling leaders of the 20th century" 2/24
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP 973.922 Mel
More or less Maddy : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU. Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent breakup, it's normal to be feeling overwhelmed. It doesn't help that she's always felt like the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family. But Maddy's latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on an antidepressant. She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough" 2/24
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Gen
Sweet fury
Author(s):
Description:
"Lila Crayne is America's sweetheart: she's generous and kind, gorgeous and magnetic. She and her fiancé, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, have settled into a stunning new West Village apartment and are set to begin filming their feminist adaptation of Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins working with charming and accomplished therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila's impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch--and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, and no one is quite who they seem. A twisty, thought-provoking novel of construction and deconstruction in conversation with the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and told through the lens of the film industry, Sweet Fury is an incisive and bold critique of America's deep-rooted misogyny" 2/24
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Bis
I'll be waiting
Author(s):
Description:
"Nicola Laughton never expected to see adulthood, being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a child. Then medical advances let her live into her thirties and she met Anton, who taught her to dream of a future... together. Months after they married, Anton died in a horrible car crash, but lived long enough to utter five words to her, "I'll be waiting for you." That final private moment became public when someone from the crash scene took it to the press--the terminally ill woman holding her dying husband as he promised to wait for her on the other side. Worse, that person claimed it wasn't Anton who said the words but his ghost, hovering over his body. Since their story went public, Nicola has been hounded by spiritualists promising closure. In the hopes of stopping her downward spiral, friends and family find a reputable medium--a professor of parapsychology. For the séance, they rent the Lake Erie beach house that Anton's family once owned. The medium barely has time to begin his work before things start happening. Locked doors mysteriously open. Clouds of insects engulf the house. Nicola hears footsteps and voices and the creak of an old dumbwaiter... in an empty shaft. Throughout it all she's haunted by nightmares of her past. Because, unbeknownst to the others, this isn't her first time contacting the dead. And Nicola isn't her real name. That's when she finds the first body" 1/27
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Arm
The fourteen sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien
Author(s):
Hijuelos, Oscar
Soto, Gary,
Description:
Oscar Hijuelos brings to life the rambunctious Montez O'Brien family. The father, Nelson O'Brien, is an enterprising Irish immigrant who travels to Cuba as a photographer during the Spanish-American War in 1898, and there he meets his future wife, the sensitive, aristocratic, poetic Mariela Montez. As they are enroute to America in 1902, their first daughter, Margarita, is born at sea. The Montez O'Briens settle in a small Pennsylvania town, where Nelson practices his photography trade and runs the Jewel Box Movie Theater, and Mariela gives birth to thirteen more daughters and then, finally, a son. As Margarita looks back on her long and full life, the novel recounts the lives, loves, and tragedies of the Montez O'Briens and their always complex relations with one another. It also follows Emilio through his days in Greenwich Village, the army, and Hollywood, where, as Monty O'Brien, he stars in grade-B detective and Tarzan movies and pals around with screen idols like Errol Flynn. Never altogether at peace in the overwhelming feminine world of his family, he searches restlessly for an elusive true love. 1/27
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Hij
Haunted
Author(s):
Description:
"1898: Robbery, prostitution, and violence are commonplace in the fabulously rich copper mining city of Jerome, Arizona. But a brutal murder sets the stage for a series of strange events that will echo far into the future. 2024: Jenny Spencer's Copper Star Saloon and Hotel is one of the best-loved attractions in the popular tourist destination, but eerie occurrences in the newly renovated wing are souring business. Cain Barrett, the wealthy owner of the nearby Grandview Hotel, has his eye on Jenny. He'll help her any way he can, but Cain has problems of his own... A brutal murder at the Copper Star, entries in a dusty journal, and ghostly sightings at both hotels. Is the connection a figment of Jenny's imagination, or a threat to her life? And who is causing trouble for Cain? As they work together to solve the mystery, Cain vows not to let anything, or anyone--living or dead--stand between him and the woman he has come to love" 1/27
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Mar
The book of George
Author(s):
Description:
"If you haven't had the misfortune of dating a George, you know someone who has. He's a young man brimming with potential but incapable of following through; noncommittal to his long-suffering girlfriend, Jenny; distant from but still reliant on his mother; funny one minute, sullenly brooding the next. Here, Kate Greathead paints one particular, unforgettable George in a series of droll and surprisingly poignant snapshots of his life over two decades. And yet, it's hard not to root for George at least a little. Beneath his cynicism is a reservoir of fondness for Jenny's valiant willingness to put up with him. Each demonstration of his flaws is paired with a self-eviscerating comment. No one is more disappointed in him than himself (except maybe Jenny and his mother). As hilarious as it is astute and singular as it is universal, The Book of George is a deft, unexpectedly moving portrait of millennial masculinity" 1/27
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Gre
Where the creek bends
Author(s):
Description:
"Madison Bettencourt has tried to assemble all the pieces of a perfect life, but nothing fits quite the way it should. She's moved back home to Montana to care for her grandmother, who is slipping further and further away. And she's called off her wedding, and worries her dreams of a family are fading with it. As Madison rattles around her family home, childhood memories come flooding back. Bliss Morgan transformed eight-year-old Madison with her loyalty, and for a while, the two girls were as close as can be. But Madison never understood why Bliss suddenly vanished, leaving only a friendship bracelet and a message etched into a matchbook" 1/21
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Mil
The trial of Mrs. Rhinelander
Author(s):
Description:
"New York, 1924. Born to English immigrants who've built a comfortable life, idealistic Alice Jones longs for the kind of true love her mother and father have. She believes she's found it with Leonard "Kip" Rhinelander, the shy heir to his prominent white family's real estate fortune. Alice too, is "white", though she is vaguely aware of rumors that question her ancestry -- gossip her parents dismiss. But when the lovers secretly wed, Kip's parents threaten his inheritance unless he annuls the marriage. Devastated but determined, Alice faces overwhelming odds both legally and in the merciless court of public opinion. But there is one person who can either help her -- or shatter her hopes for good: In the 1940s, her estranged niece, Roberta Brooks, must put aside her disdain for her infamous aunt to combat an unexpected new Rhinelander legal assault. And in the 1920s, reporter Marvel Cunningham lives to chronicle the social change and the Harlem Renaissance's fiery creativity, but when Alice's story dominates the headlines, Marvel's job is to cover it. At first, Marvel and Roberta, in different decades, see Alice's legal entanglements as tabloid sensations generated by a self-hating woman who failed to 'pass'. But the deeper they investigate, the more they will learn about the reasons behind Alice Jones's behavior and what the three women have in common" 1/21
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Bry
Hip-hop is history
Author(s):
Description:
"When hip-hop first emerged in the 1970s, it wasn't expected to become the cultural force it is today. But for a young Black kid growing up in a musical family in Philadelphia, it was everything. He stayed up late to hear the newest songs on the radio. He saved his money to buy vinyl as soon as it landed. He even started to try to make his own songs. That kid was Questlove, and decades later, he is a six-time Grammy Award-winning musician, an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, a New York Times bestselling author, a producer, an entrepreneur, a cofounder of one of hip-hop's defining acts (the Roots), and the genre's unofficial in-house historian. In this landmark book, Hip-Hop Is History, Questlove skillfully traces the creative and cultural forces that made and shaped hip-hop, highlighting both the forgotten but influential gems and the undeniable chart-topping hits--and weaves it all together with the stories no one else knows" 1/21
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP 781.649 Que
Second tide's the charm
Author(s):
Description:
"At first glance, Hope Evans just landed the perfect job: spending the summer on a shark research boat. Except as every marine biologist knows, it's what's going on beneath the surface that counts, and Hope's new position comes with a big catch--the boat belongs to her ex-boyfriend, Adrian Hollis-Parker. For three years Hope's been treading water, staying away from anything that reminds her of their past. It's time to dive back into a job that could springboard her career--and maybe offer much-needed closure. Since their split, Adrian has risen to Internet fame as a shark expert with the launch of his YouTube channel to dispel myths and educate viewers about sharks. But success rings hollow without Hope" 1/13
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Blu
The hidden book
Author(s):
Description:
Austria, 1940s: Yugoslavian Nico Antonov is just one of more than 200,000 people imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp near the Danube River. Malnourished and forced into hard labor in a quarry, he still defies his captors any way he can. When fate brings him into contact with Lena Lang, a young woman living with her family in fear of their Nazi occupiers, he finds an ally. SS officers have charged Spanish POW and photographer Mateo Baca with recording the events and prisoners of Mauthausen and to make five copies of the collected photo book for the Third Reich's leaders. But Mateo also creates a sixth book to be smuggled out of the camp--where Nico entrusts Lena to hide it and protect their secret. Australia, 1980s to present day: When teenager Hannah Campbell discovers her grandfather Nico's mysterious photo album, filled with horrific visions of suffering and cruelty, the barbarities of World War II no longer feel like ancient history. Haunted by the images for years, as a university student and a married young mother, she pursues the truth behind her grandfather's incarceration. As Hannah experiences love and loss in her own life, she comes to understand how the photos not only capture history but reflect a shared humanity that must never be forgotten. 1/13
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Man
Love you a latke
Author(s):
Description:
"Snow is falling, holiday lights are twinkling, and Abby Cohen is pissed. For one thing, her most annoying customer, Seth, has been coming into her café every morning with his sunshiny attitude, determined to break down her carefully constructed emotional walls. And, as the only Jew on the tourism board of her Vermont town, Abby's been charged with planning their fledgling Hanukkah festival. Unfortunately, the local vendors don't understand that the story of Hanukkah cannot be told with light-up plastic figures from the Nativity scene, even if the Three Wise Men wear yarmulkes. Desperate for support, Abby puts out a call for help online and discovers she was wrong about being the only Jew within a hundred miles. There's one other: Seth. As it turns out, Seth's parents have been badgering him to bring a Nice Jewish Girlfriend home to New York City for Hanukkah, and if Abby can survive his incessant, irritatingly handsome smiles, he'll introduce her to all the vendors she needs to make the festival a success. But over latkes, doughnuts, and winter adventures in Manhattan, Abby begins to realize that her fake boyfriend and his family might just be igniting a flame in her own guarded heart" 1/13
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Ell
Allow me to introduce myself
Author(s):
Description:
Aṅuṛị Chinasa has had enough. And really, who can blame her? She was the unwilling star of her stepmother’s social media empire before “momfluencers” were even a thing. For years, Ophelia documented every birthday, every skinned knee, every milestone and meltdown for millions of strangers to fawn over and pick apart. Now, at twenty-five, Aṅuṛị is desperate to put her way-too-public past behind her and start living on her own terms. But it’s not going so great. She can barely walk down the street without someone recognizing her, and the fraught relationship with her father has fallen apart. Then there’s her PhD application (still unfinished) and her drinking problem (still going strong). When every detail of her childhood was so intensely scrutinized, how can she tell what she really wants? Still, Ophelia is never far away and has made it clear she won’t go down without a fight. With Noelle, Anuri’s five-year-old half sister now being forced down the same path, Aṅuṛị discovers she has a new mission in life... To take back control of the family narrative. 1/13
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Nwa