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.

New Releases: January 2024 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

You Dreamed of Empires: A Novel by Álvaro Enrigue. When the armies of Hernando Cortes first enter the city of Tenochtitlan in 1519, many in his entourage are dazzled by the size, grandeur and strangeness of the city. The Aztecs covet the invaders’ horses, but are baffled of their kings, and by their Christian faith. As Cortes and the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma prepare to meet, tensions rise and some among the Spaniards begin to wonder if they’ll get out alive let alone conquer an empire. What follows is a vividly imagined clash between two cultures, two languages, two religions and two possible futures. Be warned: This is not your typical historical novel. Enrigue has produced a feverish hallucinatory work that is in the words of one reviewer, “so electric, so unique that it feels like a dream.”

Blizzard by Marie Vingtras. A young boy goes missing in the midst of an Alaskan blizzard, and four diverse individuals converge in the effort to find him. As the hours pass, the storm strengthens, the atmosphere becomes increasingly ominous, and secrets that each character harbors are slowly revealed. Despite the novel’s North American setting, Vingras is actually French and Blizzard has become a runaway best seller in her home country.

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar.  This luminous work of fiction by first-time novelist Akbar, focuses on Cyrus Shams, Iranian immigrant and Midwesterner who is a poet, an orphan a recovering addict and a seeker. Obsessed with finding meaning in his own life as well as in the lives of his deceased parents, he embarks on a journey to uncover a family secret that leads him into an unlikely friendship with a dying poet living out her days in the Brooklyn Museum. Grief, violence, the joy of language, displacement, martyrdom, homesickness and belonging are all woven into a rich and compelling quest tale.

NONFICTION

 I Survived Capitalism and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt: Everything I Wish I Never Had to Learn about Money by Madeline Pendleton. Well, she may not have wanted to, but Tik-Tok star and entrepreneur Madeline Pendleton surely did learn about money. Her new memoir/financial guide describes her childhood in a financially-strapped household headed by her punk father and Goth mother and her couch-surfing years working a series of low-end, dead-end jobs. Eventually, she found a compassionate employer, learned what she needed to know about-you got it-money and started her own successful clothing company, Tunnel Vison, where she is committed to fostering an equitable corporate structure. Pendleton offers practical advice to her fellow Gen-Zers, as well as a searing indictment of our socioeconomic system, which she says, “you could describe as dog-eat-dog, except dogs are more cooperative.”  

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson. Author Wilkinson is a native of Appalachia and former poet laureate of Kentucky so it may come as no surprise that she has produced a lyrical “praisesong” in honor of her homeland, her family, and “Affrilachian” culinary history. Her work incorporates family lore, archival photographs, and, and of course, recipes. How about green beans with new potatoes, or chicken and dumplings, or a lighter-than-air angel food cake? In a word, yum.

Toxic: Women, Fame and the Tabloid 2000s by Sarah Ditum. Welcome to the “noughties” roughly the first decade of the early 2000s when social media exploded and the words slut shaming, fat shaming, and revenge porn became part of our vocabulary. In this book, author Ditum profiles nine young women, most of them household names, who were caught in the crosshairs of the cyber revolution. The idea that we as a society place our idols on a pedestal only to gleefully tear them down is not new, but Ditum argues that the cost of celebrity rose exponentially during this era due to the lack of privacy and reach that social media affords. Interestingly, she does not portray all of these women as helpless victims. Some were indeed destroyed (Amy Winehouse) or continue to struggle (Britney Spears), but others adapted. Paris Hilton instinctively understood that her role was to “stand for privileged nothingness” and she played it with aplomb. And, Kim Kardashian? Doing just fine. An interesting lens through which to view our very recent past.

                       .   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Releases: December 2023 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

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch: Could it actually happen in Ireland? Commercial scientist Eilish Stack is living a quiet middle class life in a Dublin suburb with her husband, a trade unionist, and their four children. While, they may not be happy with the creeping loss of civil liberties under a new authoritarian government, they aren’t overly inconvenienced until a knock at the door signals her husband’s arrest and ultimate disappearance, and Eilish’s hitherto comfortable life is, step-by-step, upended utterly. Just how far will she go to preserve her family? The British edition of this timely, bleak, but beautiful novel, recently won the prestigious Booker Prize.

Rebecca, not Becky by Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene: This whip-smart, compulsively readable novel focuses on two affluent stay-at home mothers, one Black, and one white, who attempt to find common ground across a yawning racial divide. Forced by circumstance to leave her Atlanta home, former lawyer, D’Andrea Whitman finds herself marooned and deeply unhappy in the heavily white suburb of Rolling Hills, Virginia, until her therapist challenges her to find a white friend. Enter the painfully earnest Rebecca-not-Becky Myland, champion of racial diversity in the Rolling Hills community, who may just fit the bill. Satire meets probing social commentary. Misunderstanding and missteps abound, but eventually both women learn a little something about race, class, gender, parenting, and, yes, sisterhood.

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon: Anyone who encounters the real-life midwife and diarist, Martha Ballard, through the pages of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife'sTale, is unlikely to forget her. So, it is perhaps not surprising that author Ariel Lawhon, has chosen to make this intrepid, competent, and courageous woman the protagonist of an historical mystery. When, in the year 1789, a man is found entombed in the ice-bound waters of the Kennebec River, Ballard, well-known in her community as an astute observer and healer, is asked to examine the body and assist in establishing a cause of death. However, when her conclusion differs from that of a prominent local physician, Martha is forced to investigate what she believes to be murder on her own.

NONFICTION

Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair by Christian Wiman: Few contemporary writers ask the questions about faith, morality, and God that Christian Wiman does, and even fewer do so with his urgency and eloquence. Wiman, an award-winning poet, professor, parent and cancer survivor, has created a genre-defying work, an indivisible blend of poetry, criticism, theology and searing memoir in which he explores and ultimately refuses to accept existential despair. A soul-provoking contribution to devotional literature from a contemporary mystic.

Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel by Shahnaz Habib: Attending a lecture by a travel videographer, author Shahnaz Habib heard him proclaim, “Europeans travel in August, cruises are for American retirees, and people from the third world do not travel, they immigrate.” Habib, who was raised in India, lives in Brooklyn and routinely visits relatives on several continents, is both an immigrant and a traveler. In this witty and wide-ranging collection of essays, she examines the intersection between tourism and western privilege, as well as diverse travel-related topics, including, the history of travel guides, the popularity of Thai food, and her own fear of nature (biophobia) among others.

The Lost Tomb and Other Real Life Stories of Bones, Burials and Murder by Douglas Preston: For those of us who believe that there is nothing more relaxing after a hectic day, than kicking back with a bracing account of an unsolved mystery, archeological conundrum, or gruesome murder, Preston’s latest offering may just be the perfect book you. His essays, many published previously in the New Yorker, cover the mass-murdering Monster of Florence, the discovery of an Egyptian tomb, and the booby-trapped money pit on Oak Island, among many other historical (and in some cases prehistoric) puzzles past and present.

   

 

 

New Releases: November 2023 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

A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates: Written by Herself by Katherine Howe.  At the bloody end of the Age of Pirates, Hannah Masury, an indentured servant in Boston is forced to flee for her life, disguising herself as a cabin boy on the ship of notorious pirate captain Ned Lowe. Thus begins a—yes—swashbuckling, tale of adventure on the high seas. When, three hundred years later, scholar Marian Beresford discovers hints as to the location of buried treasure in Hannah’s long-lost journal, she embarks upon a quest to find both the treasure and the truth behind Hannah’s tale.

A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter.  The stories of five generations of indigenous women in Western Canada are woven together into a tapestry of funny, wise, confused, struggling, and resilient characters, including a young mother facing big decisions, a piano-playing octogenarian entering rehab for the first time, the ghost of the family matriarch who can’t seem to settle into the afterlife, and a love-sick bison. Problems abound; familial bonds persist; magic is afoot.

The Kingdom of Sweets: A Novel of the Nutcracker by Erika Johansen. In this eerie and sophisticated re-imagining of the story of The Nutcracker, twin sisters, Clara the adored, and Natasha the overshadowed and ignored, are set against one another one Christmas Eve, when their evil godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer, brings them an enchanted gift—a Nutcracker—which allows them entry into an alternate world, the Kingdom of Sweets. There, Natasha discovers the truth about a dark destiny crafted long before her birth and she must reckon with forces both earthly and magical, human and diabolical. To which world does she truly belong?

NONFICTION

A City on Mars:  Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. So, what will we do when we have finally messed up the earth so badly that it is no longer habitable? I know, find another planet and move there! Not so fast, say the authors Weinersmith.  We humans may be hurtling towards expansion into space but we have not begun to grapple with the myriad, scientific, political, socioeconomic, and legal challenges involved. With deep expertise, and a winning sense of humor, the authors address a host of issues including: Can we make space babies and raise space kids, grow space food on space farms, and govern space colonies in a way that ensures peaceful coexistence? Moreover, even if we can, should we? The answers to the three questions posed in the subtitle above are: maybe but not for a long time; uh…maybe, maybe not; and a resounding no.

Eyeliner: A Cultural History by Zahra Hankir. Who knew that a humble and ubiquitous adornment could carry so much cultural significance? In this book, Zahra Hankir explores the intersection of beauty and power through the lens of an iconic cosmetic that has, over millennia, served to protect the eyes, signify status, ward off the evil eye, attract partners and transform faces into fantasies. Along the way, she takes us on a whirlwind tour through the streets, bedrooms, stages, and museums, of the world, referencing figures as diverse as Nefertiti and Amy Winehouse.

The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human-Canine Connection by Jen Goldbeck and Stacey Colino. Most dog owners know instinctively that sharing a home with a canine companion, enhances their lives. Now, co-authors Goldbeck and Colino take a deep dive into the scientific evidence that dog ownership improves emotional and physical health, and increases mental acuity and cognitive skills. Most importantly, they suggest that dogs remind us of all that is right in the world—love, trust, affection, playtime, and exercise—at time when so much else seems so wrong...Perhaps it is no accident that the adoption of shelter dogs doubled during the COVID pandemic.  

 

New Releases: September 2023 Edition

Check out these highly anticipated September 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

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll - Pamela was never the same after she witnessed the murder of two of her sorority sisters and the wounding of two others at her University of Florida sorority house in 1978. When she meets another young woman convinced that the same perpetrator killed one of her friends two years previously, the two join forces to bring him to justice. If these few details bring to mind the crimes of serial killer Ted Bundy, the resemblance is intentional. Knoll, however, quietly subverts the myth of the charismatic killer by focusing her narrative on his victims and their survivors in this suspenseful, thought-provoking thriller. 

The Long Game: a Novel by Elena Armas - An unlikely duo find love while coaching a team of unruly nine-year-olds on the soccer field in this steamy, sporty rom-com set in small-town North Carolina. When disgraced soccer exec Adalyn Reyes, who has been exiled from her home in Miami and tasked with helping the hapless Green Turtles turn their fortunes around, meets retired hotshot goalie Cam Caldani, she can’t help but think he might be the perfect companion on her road to redemption. But, no, due to a series of mishaps and misunderstandings, Cam can’t stand her. Adalyn, however, is not one to take no for an answer. Eventually, the Green Turtles triumph and, perhaps not surprisingly, enmity gives way to romance.  

The North Woods by Daniel Mason - When a pair of young lovers abscond from a repressive Puritan colony to the north woods, little do they know that over centuries and through generations, the humble cabin in which they take refuge will host a multitude of characters human and non-human alike: a lovelorn painter, a stalking panther, an anguished ghost, a sinister con-man, and an amorous beetle among them. This panoramic novel teems with inter-connected stories that explore love, and madness, greed and generosity, hope and humor, the natural world and the occult, all against the backdrop of the dark and wondrous north woods.

NONFICTION

Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better by Myisha Cherry - Forgiveness is essential to the healing of both the individual psyche and the world. Spiritual leaders, philosophers, and pop culture icons agree. However, scholar Myisha Cherry asks what does it really mean to forgive? Are there circumstances in which forgiveness is not the appropriate response to injustice? Cherry contrasts “superficial repair” of broken relationships be they personal or political, with the “radical repair” predicated on addressing the situation that gave rise to the need to forgive in the first place. In addition, she says, “We can only learn to do forgiveness better, not perfectly.”

 

The Burning of the World: The Great Chicago Fire and the War for a City’s Soul by Scott W. Berg - The late summer of 1871 had been uncommonly hot and dry and the booming metropolis of Chicago was a tinderbox. Contrary to legend, a cow was not the culprit, but when fire did strike on the evening of October 8th, it swept through the city’s neighborhoods, destroyed the central business district, killed hundreds, and left an estimated 100,000 homeless. No sooner had the firefight ended than a new battle erupted between private interests representing native born, Protestant elites, and the city’s burgeoning immigrant population, determined not to be left behind. Regardless of circumstances, however, the city’s rapid transformation from a pile of ashes on the shore to cultural and industrial powerhouse was, indeed miraculous.

Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City by Elyssa Maxx Goodman -  This expansive, celebratory survey of the richness, diversity and resilience of drag in the Big Apple, takes us from Jazz Age masquerade balls to RuPaul’s Drag Race and features a cast of characters who can only be described as marvelous. Although consistently lively and entertaining, the ongoing social and political issues faced by participants in drag life then and now, are addressed in depth in this heavily researched, seminal history. 

  

New Releases: August 2023 Edition

New Releases: August 2023 Edition

Check out these highly anticipated August 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

Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago - In her first novel since the widely acclaimed When I Was Puerto Rican, author Santiago tells the story of a close-knit group of Puerto Rican women bound by ties of family and friendship. It all begins in 1975 when aspiring ballerina Luz, is gravely injured in an automobile accident that takes the lives of both of her parents. Many years later, Luz, now living in the Bronx, returns to the island, accompanied by her daughter and the friends who helped raise her, to revisit the past and uncover the truth about the accident that inalterably changed the course of her life. When Hurricane Maria strikes and long-buried secrets come to light, they all get more than they bargained for.

Fever House by Keith Rosson - When leg-breaking debt collectors Hutch and Tim attempt to strong arm a drug addict named Wesley, who owes their boss $12,000, they find a severed hand hidden in a Wonder Bread bag and decide to take it home. Bad idea. Madness ensues. Full-throated splatter punk, gritty noir, rock and roll, break- neck pacing and, surprisingly well-realized characters. What’s not to love?

Mobility by Lydia Kiesling - The personal meets the political head on, in the story of Bunny a self-described “foreign service brat" who, after a privileged childhood in various exotic postings, moves on to an equally privileged adulthood as an oil company executive in Texas. But can she reconcile her comfortable life with her role in shaping the dire future she sees looming on the horizon?

NONFICTION

The Underworld:Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey - For centuries, mariners have spun tales of a sinister undersea world of deadly peril and marvelous creatures. Now cutting-edge technologies have allowed scientists to dive miles beneath the ocean’s surface, and they have discovered both marvelous creatures and deadly peril. Soaring mountains, smoldering volcanoes, valleys 7,000 times as deep as Everest is high, shimmering creatures one hundred feet long, sharks that live half a millennium and an estimated three million shipwrecks littering the ocean floor, to name a few. In her new work, oceanographic enthusiast Casey chronicles her own literal and figurative deep dive into the past, present and precarious future of the watery world that lies beneath.  

Anansi’s Gold: TheMan Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington and Swindled the World by Yepoka Yeebo. Some consider him the most successful con man in history. Beginning in 1957 after Ghana achieved independence from Britain, John Ackah Blay-Miezah perpetrated a series of audacious frauds, raking in millions, living large on several continents, and luring in many notable figures including, Nixon’s attorney general John Mitchell and child star and one-time US ambassador to Ghana, Shirley Temple Black. In Anansi’s Gold, Ghanaian journalist Yeebo tells the story of this charismatic man who hoodwinked just about everybody he met and proved maddeningly adept at escaping justice all along the way.

Althea by Sally Jacobs - Before Venus and Serena Williams, there was Althea Gibson. Three years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in professional baseball, Althea Gibson entered the rarefied, largely upper-crust world of professional tennis. Many were skeptical. After all, apart from the color of her skin, her impoverished background, short hair and tattered jeans fit nobody’s image of how a tennis player looks. Never mind, Gibson’s ability to play soon silenced all critics. Now, author Jacobs chronicles the life and career of this woman who defied multiple obstacles to win Wimbledon, hobnob with dignitaries and become a personal hero to women and people of color who aspired to secure a place on the court.

New Releases: June 2023 Edition

Check out these highly anticipated June 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

 The Whispers by Audrey Audrain The peace of a summer barbecue in a bucolic suburban community is shattered when a hitherto “perfect mother” explodes in rage at her teenage son, Xavier. Scandalous enough, but when Zach falls through his bedroom window and ends up hospitalized and in a coma, friendships unravel and whispers abound. As in her previous best-selling novel, The Push, Audrain’s new work offers twist after suspenseful twist.

Open Throat: A Novel by Henry Hoke A lonely, dangerously hungry mountain lion, exiled from his family by his domineering father, ekes out a living below the Hollywood sign, and ponders the variety of humans who cross his path. Question is, does he want to eat a human or become one? This poignant highly original novel is garnering a host of rave reviews.

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women:A Novel by Lisa See Born into an aristocratic family in 15^th century China, Tan Yunxian overcomes numerous obstacles to become a physician catering especially to women. This richly detailed portrait of a strong woman and the time and place in which she lived, is based on a true story.

NONFICTION

Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper A self-described, “blerd”, black nerd, Cooper has been an avid birder since he was ten years old. Every spring he takes a short ride on the subway from his home to Central Park where he studies the migratory patterns of the Park’s avian population, a supremely peaceful pursuit, until in 2019, when a racially charged confrontation with a dog walker, was caught on film and went viral. Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, Better Living Through Birding encourages us to both wake up to the racism that permeates our lives, and look up into the sky above us.

100 Places to See After You Die by Ken Jennings Think you’ve been there and done everything? Not so fast. From New York Times bestselling author, legendary Jeopardy! champion, and host Ken Jennings comes a hilarious travel guide to the afterlife, exploring destinations to die for from literature, mythology, and pop culture ranging from Dante’s Inferno to Hadestown to NBC’s The Good Place.  As the reviewer from Kirkus suggested, the book could be titled, everything you wanted to know about the afterlife but were too alive to ask.

 

      

 

  

PageBoy: A Memoir by Elliot Page Before he became one of the most well-known trans men in the world, Elliot Page, a talented  actor who had garnered critical respect for the roles he played in a number of mostly small indie films, before the breakout film, Juno, catapulted him to fame and earned him an Academy Award. What should have been a dream come true, became instead a nightmare, when Page, who was just beginning his transition, was forced to act the part of a hot young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl. In this highly anticipated memoir, Page shares the story of his search for identity and his coming of age in Hollywood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Releases: April Edition

Check out these highly anticipated April 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

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

They are what’s left. They are what must survive. Kyr is one of the best warriors of her generation, the sword of a dead planet. But when Command assigns her brother to certain death and relegates her to the nursery to bear sons until she dies trying, she knows she must take humanity’s revenge into her own hands.

  

Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb 

A gripping page-turner about a professor who uncovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time—that his music was stolen from a young Black composer named Josephine Reed. Determined to uncover the truth and right history’s wrongs, Bern Hendricks will stop at nothing to finally give Josephine the recognition she deserves.

Pomegrante by Helen Elaine Lee

Ranita is regaining her freedom, but she’s leaving behind her lover Maxine, who has inspired her to imagine herself and the world differently. Now she must steer clear of the temptations that have pulled her down, while atoning for her missteps and facing old wounds. With a fierce, smart, and sometimes funny voice, Ranita reveals how rocky and winding the path to wellness is for a Black woman, even as she draws on family, memory, faith, and love in order to choose life.

Nonfiction

Honey, Baby, Mine by Laura Dern & Diane Ladd

Laura Dern and Diane Ladd always had a close relationship, but the stakes were raised when Diane developed a sudden life-threatening illness. Diane’s doctor prescribed long walks to build back her lung capacity. The exertion was challenging, and Laura soon learned the best way to distract her mom was to get her talking and telling stories. 

The Wounded World: W.E.B. Du Bois and the First World War

Drawing on a broad range of sources, most notably Du Bois’s unpublished manuscript and research materials, Williams tells a sweeping story of hope, betrayal, disillusionment, and transformation, setting into motion a fresh understanding of the life and mind of arguably the most significant scholar-activist in African American history. 

If It Sounds Like a Quack…: A Journey to the Fringes of American Medicine By Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

It's no secret that American health care has become too costly and politicized to help everyone. So where do you turn if you can't afford doctors, or don't trust them? In this book, Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling examines the growing universe of non-traditional treatments -- including some that are really non-traditional.