Saturday, September 28, 2024

New Releases - October Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

NONFICTION

Sonny Boy by Al Pacino. Pacino writes a memoir about acting, and how it has been the love and light of his life. He details his youth in the South Bronx, his family life, his education in the arts, his life in avant-garde theater, and all the films that made him famous. Copyright 2024 Library Journal



Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten.  Garten, also known as the Barefoot Contessa, the author of multiple bestselling cookbooks, writes about her life in food, her marriage, her business, and the lessons she has learned and wants to impart (with a handful of recipes). The 25th anniversary edition of The Barefoot Contessa cookbook will be published simultaneously with Garten's memoir. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.


Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman.  “Your limitations aren’t obstacles to a meaningful existence”—they’re key to building one, according to this refreshing guide from journalist Burkeman (Four Thousand Weeks). He contends that once readers accept that “doing it all” is impossible, they can identify the handful of priorities that deserve their time and attention and better enjoy engaging in them. Laying out 28 brief lessons to be practiced over four weeks, Burkeman suggests swapping a daily to-do list for a “done list”—cataloging the tasks one has completed each day—to improve self-satisfaction; treating a to-read pile as an option rather than an obligation; and breaking tasks into “small, clearly defined packages of work” to be completed daily. Burkeman’s light touch when discussing such modern ills as doomscrolling, coupled with the smart balance he strikes between motivation and reassurance, make this an especially useful resource for burnt-out readers who want to ease their minds without upending their lives. Amid a sea of efficiency-focused, do-it-all self-help guides, this is a welcome alternative. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

 

I'll Be Waiting by Oliver Burkeman.  Armstrong shines in this nail-biting thriller that hinges on whether its protagonist is dealing with natural or supernatural evil. Nicola Laughton was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a child, and told she’d be lucky to live past 20. Despite this prognosis, Nicola, now in her 30s, is running her own company and happily married to Anton Novak. Then their marriage ends tragically when Anton dies in a car crash. Bystanders report his last words to Nicola—“I’ll be waiting for you”—to the press, with one claiming to have photographed Anton’s ghost as he spoke them, and the publicity makes Nicola a reluctant celebrity. To settle the matter in her own mind, she seeks out mediums to contact Anton’s spirit and plans a séance in his family’s old beach house. What starts with unsettling noises and weird phenomena, including clouds of insects, eventually leads to violence and threatens to expose secrets from Nicola’s past.(Oct.) Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

The Ancients, by Joh Larison.  In a world of sea and sand, everyone looks for green land. Kushim, Maren, and Leerit are a trio of siblings who struggle to survive in the wilderness after they are abandoned by their parents in their rundown fishing village. Their mother Lilah is a captive torn away from her home by desert raiders, and she's desperate to reunite with her children. Cyrus the city-dweller grapples with conflicting loyalties and forbidden love . . .  This is a poignant climate-fiction novel that is post-apocalyptic but with a prehistoric feel. The spare writing style enhances the stark and bleak atmosphere, but it also richly captures both the bounty and brutality of the natural world and the hard lessons they learn from it. Fables are interwoven throughout the story until this novel itself becomes something of a cautionary tale, emphasizing how to learn from the past in order to create a better world for the future. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.


The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski.  The Crescent Moon Tearoom, run by the triplet Quigley sisters, dispenses tea, sympathy, and fortune-telling to the well-to-do ladies of early 20th-century Chicago. The tea is magical, the sympathy is real, and the fortunes all true, as the sisters are magically gifted seers. Then they find their peace and prosperity under threat by a mysterious curse intended to separate them—and Coven leadership is determined to hasten the process. At least that's what it seems like, as the formerly united Quigleys chase after separate paths to happiness, leaving each other behind, just as the curse intends. . . This cozy fantasy leads the sisters and readers down a primrose path of fear and foreboding—revealing villains around every corner—only to turn delightfully on its heel and magically change into a story of love and hope and a sisterhood that will endure as fate takes the hand it was meant to in each of their paths.—Marlene Harris, Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Gale Legal Forms

Brought to  you by the 
Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, the Gale Legal Forms database provides Massachusetts specific legal forms for download. 

The easy to use search feature allows you to search for a specific topic or browse major categories and sample searches. Using the templates available on this site, individuals can create accurate, reliable legal documents.

Many forms are ideal for legal tasks relevant to business owners, such as filing for copyrights, patents and trademarks, articles of incorporation, licenses, and more. Some of the commonly researched areas are:

  • Bankruptcy
  • Divorce
  • Landlord tenant
  • Power of Attorney
  • Real estate contracts
  • Wills and estates

You can also find information on a variety of legal topics and a legal dictionary. Sample Legal Q&A from various states are also included to provide legal information (not legal advice).The platform also comes with an Attorney Directory, which is a unique listing of attorneys who have agreed to offer their services at some of the most competitive rates. These lawyers can assist with everything from basic legal form presentation to complex representation.

To access legal forms or any of our other online resources from home, go to our databases page, and connect with your library card/PIN. 

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

New Releases - September Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

FICTION

Playground by Richard Powers. Pulitzer winner Powers (The Overstory) delivers an epic drama of AI, neocolonialism, and oceanography in this dazzling if somewhat disjointed novel set largely on the French Polynesian island of Makatea, where a mysterious American consortium plans to launch floating cities into the ocean. The story centers on three characters: Rafi Young, a former literature student from an abusive home in Chicago . . . Rafi’s onetime friend Todd Keane, the billionaire founder of a social media company and AI platform whose connection to the seasteading project is revealed later; and Evelyne Beaulieu, a Canadian marine biologist who has come to Makatea just as the island’s residents must vote on whether to let the project proceed. For some Makateans, the seasteading initiative raises hopes of economic renewal; for others, it triggers fears of environmental destruction and a return to colonialist oppression. Agent: Melanie Jackson, Melanie Jackson Agency. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston.  Johnston's feel-good debut begins with a case of mistaken identity. Eighty-two-year-old Frederick Fife is on the edge of despair, but everything changes when he takes the place of Bernard Greer, a missing resident of a nursing home. Now Frederick has food, a found family, and a chance to figure out how to return Bernard's life to him better than he found it.  Copyright 2024 Library Journal




The Whitewashed Tombs by Kwei Quartey.  Quartey’s fourth mystery featuring PI Emma Djan .(after Last Seen in Lapaz) is the best yet, interweaving an agonizing portrait of anti-LGBTQ prejudice in Ghana with a top-notch whodunit. Djan works for Accra’s Sowah Agency, an investigative firm retained by Godfrey Tetteh to probe the murder of his gay 27-year-old son, Marcelo . . . Godfrey hires Djan’s agency because he doesn’t trust the local authorities with the inquiry, given Marcelo’s status as one of Ghana’s most vocal queer activists. . .Emma’s investigation—which treats Ansah as a primary suspect—grows complicated when she learns that her closeted partner used to date Marcello. To find answers, Emma goes undercover, with one of her least favorite colleagues, to infiltrate the upper ranks of Ghana’s government. Quartey never puts a foot wrong, keeping the plot twists coming fast and furious without sacrificing the story’s heart. Readers will be wowed. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff & Assoc. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.


NONFICTION

Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II by Elyse Graham. Written like a spy thriller, this work by historian Graham (SUNY Stony Brook; You Talkin' to Me?) details how the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA, recruited academics as spies at the start of WWII. Librarians, humanities professors, and more were trained in tradecraft and undertook missions that helped defeat the Nazis. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.





The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir by Kelly Bishop and  Amy Sherman-Palladino.  The Playbill bio that accompanied Bishop's first starring stage role (playing Sheila in the original 1975 Broadway production of A Chorus Line) emphasized the actor's "survival" in show business for, at that point, 12 years. Bishop went on to win a Tony for that role and have a successful career on the stage and screen. Today, she's most known for playing Emily Gilmore, the matriarch of The Gilmore Girls. Bishop's memoir fills in all the scenes of her fascinating life leading up to that role. From her childhood study of ballet to her steep climb to Broadway and Hollywood, her story is one of perseverance and good old-fashioned chutzpah. Though Bishop describes herself as a private person who's not nosy or interested in gossip, her book is a definitively dishy read, written with warmth and refreshing frankness about the hard work and luck that contributed to her career. VERDICT A captivating narrative, engagingly told. Claire Sewell Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

Becoming Elizabeth Arden: The Woman Behind theGlobal Beauty Empire by Stacy A. Cordery.  Cordery (history, Iowa State Univ.; Juliette Gordon Low) provides the definitive biography of one of the United States' first businesswomen: Elizabeth Arden (1881–1966). Born in Canada as Florence Graham, Arden came to the U.S. and founded her company in 1910. One of the first women to link inner health with outer beauty, she pioneered makeup use for the masses and the idea of self-care. Throughout her success, she continued to innovate, earning 97 patents and garnering a reputation as a marketer with high standards. Even today, a tube of her Eight-Hour Cream is reportedly purchased every 30 seconds in the U.S. The book sometimes borders a bit on hagiography, and Cordery has a clear fondness for her subject, but many readers will think the praise of Arden is well-deserved. Little time is spent, however, on exploring how white privilege played out for Arden and her business opportunities. VERDICT This well-researched biography is recommended for business history collections. A fun related read, Louise Claire Johnson's Behind the Red Door, offers insight from an Arden intern who worked there in the early 2000s. Maria Ashton-Stebbings Copyright 2024 Library Journal.




Wednesday, July 31, 2024

New Releases - August Edition

Check out these highly anticipated new releases featuring fiction and nonfiction titles. Click on the title to request a copy or get your name on the waitlist. Don’t forget to watch for more featured releases next month!

NONFICTION

The Devil Behind theBadge: The Horrifying Twelve Days of the Border Patrol Serial Killer by Rick Jervis.  Gritty account of a Texas lawman turned serial killer. Jervis, an Austin-based Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, unearths the 2018 murder spree of Border Patrol officer Juan Ortiz, who killed four sex workers in Laredo before being captured by local police. They had perceived the murders were related but were shocked to find the perpetrator was one of their own. Although Ortiz’s arc of violence was brief, the author patiently develops the larger social backdrop and the stories of both killer and victims. He also traces the volatile histories of the border region and the once-neglected Border Patrol, which became a militarized behemoth after 9/11, underscoring that “agents who violated the agency’s use-of-force policy rarely faced consequences.”… The author contrasts Ortiz’s seedy unraveling with the difficult lives of his victims. He empathetically reconstructs their lives and the complex social network that marginalized people depend on, capturing how places like Laredo have become ground zero for the intersecting crises of opiate abuse and migration, amplifying opportunities for predators. An affecting true-crime drama that captures unsettling realities of the southern border. Copyright Kirkus 2024 Kirkus/BPI Communications. 

I Heard There Was aSecret Chord: Music As Medicine by Daniel Levitin. Neuroscientist is also a musician who has devoted much of his attention to the role of music—classical, folk, popular—in various therapies and how it impacts the human brain. In his latest book, he investigates the neuroanatomy of music and how it relates to memory and attention. He also offers insight into what he calls the brain's default modes: introspection and meditation. His book takes a look—in a brilliantly creative yet solidly evidence-based light—at the part music can play in the treatment of movement disorders. He also explores other health issues that music can help: Parkinson's disease, trauma-induced and other mental illnesses, memory loss, dementia, Alzheimer's, strokes, and other types of pain and neurodevelopment disorders. VERDICT This fascinating and valuable title gives readers insight into the many neurological benefits of music. Most readers can easily identify what kind of music calms them, provokes creative sparks, or helps get them through strenuous exercises but until they read this, they may not know why music has that power or that it can be great medicine too. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

 

Never Saw Me Coming: How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System - and Pocketed $40 Million by Tanya Smith. In this rollicking debut, Smith reflects on the crime spree that led a judge to label her “a threat to the United States of America.” As a preteen in 1970s Minneapolis, Smith was so infatuated with Michael Jackson that she tracked down his grandfather’s phone number. Wanting more, she called the phone company and got transferred between departments enough times that her call appeared to be coming from the billing division, at which point she pumped employees for Jackson’s home address. Using the same method, Smith conned utility companies, pretending to pay off bills for family and friends, and eventually learned to fake bank transfers and pocket millions of dollars. Her purchases of diamonds and luxury cars caught the attention of the FBI, who started investigating Smith when she was in her teens but refused to believe a young Black woman could organize such a sophisticated scheme. Her run of luck first ended in 1986, when she was arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison—then again in the early 1990s, after she’d escaped from prison and was arrested on new fraud charges. Smith is deliriously entertaining company, keeping her foot on the gas all the way through. It’s a gripping real-life caper from a charismatic antihero. Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

FICTION

And So I Roar: A Novel by Abi Daré. The wait is over for fans of Daré's who want to know what's next for Adunni, the protagonist of her debut novel, The Girl with the Louding Voice. Her latest outstanding offering, which can be read as a stand-alone, opens with 14-year-old Adunni, who's excited about being only one day away from finally starting school. But the next day brings a slew of high-stakes conflicts that not only dim her chances of obtaining the education she's always wanted but also threaten her life. Adunni lives with Tia, a married woman who is also at risk of significant loss, thanks to secrets—both her own and her dying mother's. Daré expertly tells Adunni's and Tia's stories by alternating chapters from each character's point of view. Set in rural Nigeria and bigger places there, her book illuminates traditional rituals that often lead to harmful outcomes for girls and women. She also breaks the typical prose structure by incorporating letters, distinctively presenting words of wisdom at the bottom of some of the pages, and even transcribing a talk show, all of which enhance the reading experience. VERDICT Eye-opening, evocative, exquisite; this title will resonate with Daré's fans and readers drawn to themes around women's empowerment, educational rights, choices, and cultural customs.—Jill Cox-Cordova, Copyright 2024 Library Journal.

Burn by Peter Heller
A Maine camping trip turns into a fight for survival in this meditative dystopian thriller from Heller (The Last Ranger). Best friends Jess and Storey are headed home from their annual moose hunt when they find their route cut off by a bridge that appears to have been recently demolished. On foot, they arrive at a scorched village littered with corpses; with no phone signal, they speculate the violence is linked to the “secession mania” that’s been spreading through Maine. Further hiking takes them to a lakeside hamlet, where the friends exchange fire with hostile locals and steal a boat to pursue their attackers. They lose their quarry, but discover a five-year-old girl named Collie hiding in the boat—and now, in addition to finding their way home, Jess and Storey must locate Collie’s parents. Despite the high stakes, Heller gives the narrative plenty of space to breathe, allowing him to cast a haunting, immersive spell as his heroes traverse the ruined landscape. Painterly descriptions of nature and sparkling philosophical ruminations. The result is a wilderness adventure with real emotional depth. Agent: David Halpern, David Halpern Literary. (Aug.)
Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly.

She Who Knows: Firespitter by Nnedi Okorafor.  This first in a projected trilogy tells the tale that came before Who Fears Death by giving readers a portrait of Onye's mother as a young woman who brings both tragedy and prosperity to her family—and violence and exile to herself—in the novel's vision of an Afrocentric future. In this world, salt is life, but the gods that control access to that life-giving substance have plans that will divide humans into those who submit to them and those who want to take everything for themselves. Najeeba, "she who knows," is caught in the middle as a young woman who travels the desert and finds great power but pays for her gains with the lives of those she holds dear. VERDICT Readers who fell hard for Okorafor's award-winning Who Fears Death (recently optioned by HBO, with George R.R. Martin at the helm) will be thrilled to read this novel that dives deeply into the backstory of one of the fundamental but mysterious characters in that tale. Those who enjoyed Shadow Speaker will find a story with a similar form but featuring a much-deadlier young woman who defies the rules that are intended to reduce and confine her gifts and her spirit.—Marlene Harris. Copyright 2024 Library Journal.





Friday, July 19, 2024

Massachusetts Permit Practice Test

Need to pass a written learner’s permit exam for passenger vehicles, motor cycles, or commercial vehicles (CDL)? Try the Massachusetts Permit Practice Test on our website! You'll find hundreds of practice questions here based on the RMV manuals that resemble those on the official learner’s permit exams. 

The practice test includes:

  • Ability to get voice over assistance, check answer popularity and test progress.     
             
  • Interactive handbook: Read/listen to it or download for offline use.

  • Some tests available in Spanish and/or Russian.

To access this helpful resource from the comforts of your home, go to Online Databases and click on Home, under Massachusetts Permit Practice Test.