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Page-to-Screen Adaptations: Fiction Picks
Check out these titles recently adapted for the big screen - the book is always better!
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
If your mother was missing, would you tell the police? Even if the most obvious suspect was your father? This is the dilemma facing the four grown Delaney siblings. Two of the Delaney children think their father is innocent, two are not so sure - but as the two sides square off against each other, all of the Delaneys start to reexamine their shared family history in a very new light.
This adaptation is currently streaming on Peacock.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by Billy Dunne. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes the key to supercharged success is putting them together. 
This adaptation is currently streaming on Prime Video.
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Christmas season offers little cheer for Eileen Dunlop, an unassuming yet disturbed young woman trapped between her role as her alcoholic father’s caretaker and a day job at a boys’ prison. But when the bright, beautiful, and cheery Rebecca Saint John arrives on the scene as the new counselor at the prison, Eileen is enchanted and her affection for Rebecca ultimately pulls her into complicity in a crime that surpasses her wildest imaginings.
This adaptation is currently available to rent/buy on Prime Video.
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. When photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. the plan for damage control involves staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince. As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. 
This adaptation is currently available to stream on Prime Video.
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Women's History Month: Historical Fiction Recommendations
Celebrate Women's History Month by checking out these historical fiction picks!
The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict
Between the World Wars, the six Mitford sisters dominate the English political, literary, and social scenes. Though they've weathered scandals before, the family falls into disarray when Diana divorces her husband to marry a fascist leader and Unity follows her sister's lead, inciting rumors that she's become Hitler's own mistress. Novelist Nancy Mitford is the only member of her family to keep in touch with Diana and Unity after their desertion, so it falls to her to act when her sisters become spies for the Nazi party. 
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot. For you understood something long ago that the others never did. If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.
Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik
All through her childhood in Tehran, Forugh is told that Iranian daughters should be quiet and modest. She is taught only to obey, but she always finds ways to rebel. It’s during the summer of 1950 that Forugh’s passion for poetry really takes flight - and that tradition seeks to clip her wings. Forced into a suffocating marriage, Forugh runs away and falls into an affair that fuels her desire to write and to achieve freedom and independence. Forugh’s poems are considered both scandalous and brilliant, and the power of her writing only grows stronger amid the upheaval of the Iranian revolution. 
The President's Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood
Socialite Edith Bolling has been in no hurry to find a new husband since she was widowed, preferring to fill her days with good friends and travel. But the enchanting courting of President Woodrow Wilson wins Edith over and she becomes the First Lady of the United States. While uncomfortable for the fiercely independent Edith, she soon warms to the new role and is soon indispensable to her husband's presidency. When Woodrow's delicate health takes a dramatic turn for the worse, she all but assumes the presidency herself in order to preserve both his progress and his reputation.
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Gardening Recommendations
Are you ready for spring? Check out these books to help you start your garden this season!
Did you know you can also get seeds from the library? Our Seed Library is now open for the 2024 growing season! For more details, visit our website here.
100 Plants to Feed the Birds by Laura Erickson
In this volume, readers will find in-depth profiles offering planting and care guidance for 100 native plant species that provide food and shelter for birds throughout the year, from winter all the way through breeding and migrating periods. Readers will learn about plants they can add to their gardens and cultivate, as well as wild plants to refrain from weeding out. Plant photographs and range maps provide visual guidance to selecting the right plants for any location in North America.
Beginning Seed Saving for the Home Gardener by Jim Ulager
This comprehensive volume explores how seed saving is not only easier than we think, but that it is also essential for vibrant and bountiful gardens. This guide includes information on why seed saving belongs in the home garden; principles of vegetative and sexual reproduction; tips for easy inbreeding plants, like lettuce and tomatoes; tips for more challenging plants, like squash and spinach; and a brief discussion of more difficult crops, such as corn, carrots, and cabbage. 
The Compost Coach by Kate Flood
This volume is a colorful, comprehensive, and accessible guide to creating the very best compost AKA garden gold. Pitched at the home composter, including people who live in apartments and houses with or without gardens, Kate Flood helps readers rethink their waste management and teaches them how easy it is to divert food scraps and household carbon away from landfill. She unravels the technicalities of soil science, talks through the building blocks of a robust compost system, and busts a few myths along the way. 
Veg Out by Heather Rodino
Watching delicate seedlings sprout from the ground and plucking cute cherry tomatoes at the peak of ripeness - if this is your idea of living the dream, you'll want this friendly guide. This volume teaches the basics of growing your own vegetables, such as how to choose the right plants for a climate and guarding the crop from critters. Included are 30 profiles of beginner-friendly vegetables and herbs with detailed instructions on where to grow, when to harvest, as well as their sunlight, watering, and soil needs.
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Women's History Month: Nonfiction Recommendations
Celebrate Women's History Month this March by checking out one of these nonfiction recommendations!
The Six by Loren Grush
When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots - a group then made up exclusively of men - had the right stuff. Eventually, NASA recognized its blunder and opened the application process to a wider array of hopefuls, regardless of race or gender. From a candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected in 1978 - Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon. Together, "the Six" built  the tools that made the space program run.
The Exceptions by Kate Zernike
In 1963, a young Nancy Hopkins fell in love with the promise of genetics. In 1999, Hopkins, now a noted molecular geneticist and cancer researcher at MIT, found herself underpaid and denied the credit and resources given to men of lesser rank. Galvanized by the flagrant favoritism, Hopkins led a group of sixteen women on the faculty in a campaign that prompted MIT to make the historic admission that it had long discriminated against its female scientists, which then set off a national reckoning with the pervasive sexism in science
The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura
Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood. Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical establishment. In 1849, she became the first woman in America to receive an M.D. She was soon joined in her iconic achievement by her younger sister, Emily. This biography celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for women in medicine. 
The Girl Explorers by Jayne Zanglein
This is the inspirational and untold story of the founding of the Society of Women Geographers - an organization of adventurous female world explorers - and how key members served as early advocates for human rights and paved the way for today's women scientists by scaling mountains, exploring the high seas, flying across the Atlantic, and recording the world through film, sculpture, and literature. For these women dared to go where no woman―or man―had gone before, achieving the unthinkable and breaking through barriers to allow future generations to carry on their important and inspiring work.
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Black History Month: Fiction Recommendations
Moonrise Over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks
After leaving the only home she has ever known, Alice Young steps into the all-Black town of New Jessup, Alabama, where residents have largely rejected integration as the means for Black social advancement. Instead, they seek to maintain, and fortify, the community on their “side of the woods.” Alice soon falls in love with Raymond Campbell, whose clandestine activities challenge the town's status quo, and finds herself trying to balance her support of Raymond's underground work, while also protecting New Jessup from pressures of upheaval within and without the town. 
Coconut Drop Dead by Olivia Matthews
Brooklyn’s annual Caribbean American Heritage Festival is finally here, and Spice Isle Bakery is thrilled to be one of the event’s food vendors. Co-owner Lyndsay Murray hopes their West Indian pastries and finger foods draw people back to the bakery in Little Caribbean. She’s looking forward to having fun, connecting with customers, and celebrating with family. The day's festivities are cut short, however, when the lead singer of an up-and-coming band dies. The police think it's a tragic accident, but Lyndsay’s cousin believes otherwise and needs Lyndsay’s help to make sure the killer faces the music.
This is the third volume of the "Spice Isle Bakery Mysteries" series.
Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Faladé
By fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater, Virginia, and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina. Thousands of freed slaves and runaways flooded the Union lines, but Confederate irregulars still roamed the region. In December, a newly-formed African Brigade set out to hunt down the rebel guerillas. From this little-known historical account comes a dramatic novel about these soldiers: men who only weeks before had been enslaved, but were now Union infantrymen setting out against former owners.
The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts by Soraya Palmer
Sisters Zora and Sasha Porter are drifting apart. Bearing witness to their father’s violence and their mother’s worsening illness, an unsettled Zora escapes into her journal, dreaming of being a writer, while Sasha discovers sex and chest binding, spending more time with her new girlfriend than at home. But the sisters, like their parents, must come together to answer to something more ancient and powerful than they know - and reckon with a buried family secret.
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February is... Library Lovers Month!
Celebrate Library Lovers Month by visiting a library to check out a book... about a library!
How Can I Help You by Laura Sims
No one knows Margo’s real name. Her colleagues and patrons at a small-town public library know only her middle-aged normalcy, congeniality, and charm. They have no reason to suspect that she is, in fact, a former nurse with a trail of premature deaths in her wake. She has turned a new page, so to speak, and the library is her sanctuary, a place to quell old urges. That is, at least, until Patricia, a recent graduate and failed novelist, joins the library staff. Patricia quickly notices Margo’s subtly sinister edge and, when a tragic incident in the library gives her a hint of Margo’s past, Patricia can’t resist digging deeper.
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning - it just happens that one of them is a murderer.
The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander
Jess Metcalf is perfectly content with her quiet life. But when her beloved grandmother passes away and she loses her job at the local library, her life is turned upside down. Unable to part with her grandmother's cherished books, she packs them all up and moves to a tiny cottage in the English countryside. To her surprise, Jess discovers an old red phone box that was left on the property. Missing her job at the local library, she decides to give back to her new community by using her grandmother's collection to turn the ordinary phone box into the littlest library in England.
The Librarian Spy by Madeline Martin
Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the US military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence. Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. It's a job usually reserved for men, but in the war, those rules have been forgotten. As the battle in Europe rages, Ava and Elaine find themselves connecting through coded messages and discovering hope in the face of war.
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New Romance Picks
Fall in love with reading by immersing yourself in a new romance!
To Have and to Heist by Sara Desai
Simi Chopra is on a bad-luck streak. She’s lost yet another job, her student loan debt won’t stop growing, her basement apartment is a certifiable flood zone, and now her best friend has been accused of stealing a multimillion-dollar diamond necklace. To put it lightly, she’s desperate for a break - that’s right when Jack waltzes into her life. When he offers to help her infiltrate a high-society wedding to steal back the necklace, Simi jumps at the chance to clear her friend’s name. But the ultimate robbery might not be the wedding con, but the way Jack is stealing her heart.
One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny
Oxford 1360: When his sister's betrothed vanishes the night before her politically arranged marriage, Raff Barden must track and return the elusive groom to restore his family's honour. William de Foucart - known to his friends as Penn - had no choice but to abandon his fiancé, and with it his own earldom, when he fled the night before his enforced marriage. Ill-equipped to survive on the run, however, he must trust the kindness of a stranger, Raff, to help him escape. Unaware their fates are already entwined, their unexpected bond deepens into a far more precious relationship, one that will test all that they hold dear. 
Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner
Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women’s National Team for ten years, but when she’s sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. Phoebe is too focused on her first season as a professional soccer player to think about seducing her longtime idol, but when Grace ends up making the first move, they can’t keep their hands off of each other. As the World Cup approaches, both players soon have to decide what's more important - being together or making the roster.
The Build Up by Tati Richardson
Rumpled and ragged was not how architect Ari James envisioned kicking off her first day at a new firm. And few things can top the horror of her extremely hot new colleague, Porter Harrison, walking in on her at the worst moment ever. Meanwhile, nothing is going to stand in the way of Porter absolutely killing it on his new project: especially not his new coworker whose gorgeous curves he accidentally saw and can't get out of his head. Though neither of them is looking for love, Ari and Porter's connection is obvious and when their shared goal has always been winning at work, a relationship might cost them everything.
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Black History Month: Nonfiction Picks
Black AF History by Michael Harriot
It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights - after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. In this volume, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history. Combining unapologetically provocative storytelling with meticulous research based on primary sources, as well as the work of pioneering Black historians, scholars, and journalists, Harriot removes the white sugarcoating from the American story, placing Black people squarely at the center.
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson considers eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations. Using riveting stories about real people - including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, and Wilkerson herself - this volume shows the ways in which the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. 
I Take My Coffee Black by Tyler Merritt
In this volume, Tyler Merritt tells hilarious stories from his own life as a black man in America. He talks about growing up in a multi-cultural community and realizing that he wasn't always welcome, how he quit sports for musical theater (that's where the girls were), to how Jesus barged in uninvited and changed his life forever, to how he ended up at a small Bible college in Santa Cruz because he thought they had a great theater program (they didn't). Throughout his stories, he also teaches readers about the history of encoded racism that still undergirds our society today.
South to America by Imani Perry
In this volume, Imani Perry shows that the meaning of American is inextricably linked with the South, and that our understanding of its history and culture is the key to understanding the nation as a whole. This is the story of a Black woman and native Alabaman returning to the region she has always called home and considering it with fresh eyes. Her journey is full of detours, deep dives, and surprising encounters with places and people. Weaving together stories of immigrant communities, contemporary artists, exploitative opportunists, enslaved peoples, unsung heroes, her own ancestors, and her lived experiences, Perry crafts a tapestry unlike any other.
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Historical Fiction Recommendations
Spanning from 18th century North America to 20th century Asia, check out these historical fiction recommendations!
Dust Child by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
In 1969 Vietnam, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their rural village and become “bar girls” in Sài Gòn, drinking, flirting (and more) with American GIs in return for money. As the war moves closer to the city, the once-innocent Trang gets swept up in an irresistible romance with a young and charming American helicopter pilot, Dan. Decades later, Dan returns to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda, hoping to find a way to heal from his PTSD and, unbeknownst to her, reckon with secrets from his past. 
One Blood by Denene Millner
Raised by her beloved grandmother in tension-filled, post-segregation Virginia, Grace is barely a teenager when she loses her Maw Maw. Shellshocked, she is shipped up North to live with her formidably ambitious Aunt Hattie - a woman who firmly left behind her “undesirable” Southern roots in pursuit of upward mobility. Feeling like a fish out of water, Grace’s only place of sweet comfort is with the smart, handsome son of one of the society’s grand dames. However, when he gets caught up in a racial police killing and Grace ends up pregnant, she is quickly hidden away and deceived by Hattie in an ultimate act of betrayal.
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert's, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one. Additionally, in desperate need of a subject for his next book, Maugham soon finds a story worthy of fiction when coming to learn more about Lesley's past. 
The Woman with the Cure by Lynn Cullen
In 1940s and ’50s America, polio is as dreaded as the atomic bomb. No one’s life is untouched by this disease that kills or paralyzes its victims, particularly children. Some of the world’s best minds are engaged in the race to find a vaccine. The man who succeeds will be a god. But Dorothy Horstmann is not focused on beating her colleagues to the vaccine. She just wants the world to have a cure. Applying the same determination that lifted her from a humble background to becoming a doctor, she hunts down the monster where it lurks: in the blood.
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January is... National Soup Month!
Every Season is Soup Season by Shelly Westerhausen
From broths and gazpachos to chowders and chilis, this flexible cookbook is overflowing with scrumptious soups for every season. Tips for batching and freezing soups and instructions for using an Instant Pot or a slow cooker ensure stress-free meals, with less time in the kitchen and more time at the table. With gorgeous photography and a bonus section on soup accompaniments, everyday soups have never been so simple - or delicious.
Seriously Good Chili by Brian Baumgartner
No one takes chili more seriously than Brian Baumgartner, whose character as Kevin Malone became a household name in the Emmy-winning TV series, The Office. In real life, Brian is a true chili master and aficionado who is just as serious as his fictional counterpart about making the most perfect pot of chili. Featuring 177 chili recipes stamped with Brian's "seriously good" approval rating, this volumecontains new ways to spice up chili for all occasions, all year long.
Healing Herbal Soups by Rose Cheung & Genevieve Wong
Combining the trends of culinary medicine and seasonal eating and adding a dash of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this cookbook is the first of its kind to focus on boosting immunity and weathering the seasons, by a mother-daughter, Chinese-American duo. This volume provides a complete herbal encyclopedia and more than fifty tasty recipes - with full-color photographs - that mix herbs with meat and vegetables to create healing broths.
Zuppe by Mona Talbott
Much more than a collection of remarkable soups, this volume by Mona Talbott is also a wise and gentle tutorial on how the humblest foods can be the most profoundly satisfying. In addition to 50 recipes, Talbott shares approaches and techniques that can change the way a cook thinks about economy, improvisation, and using all the flavors and nutrients inherent in each ingredient. Organized seasonally, this cookbook also serves as a practical guide to using the bounty of farmers markets throughout the year. 
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Celebrating the Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
King by Jonathan Eig
In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, Jonathan Eig gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. Casting a fresh light on the King family’s origins, as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists, this volume reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death.
The Heavens Might Crack by Jason Sokol
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was fatally shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. At the time of his murder, King was a polarizing figure - scorned by many white Americans, worshipped by some African Americans and liberal whites, and deemed irrelevant by many black youth. In this volume, historian Jason Sokol traces the diverse responses, both in America and throughout the world, to King's death. 
The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs
Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them, who were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America's racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families' safety.
You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live by Paul Kix
In this volume, Paul Kix takes the reader behind the scenes as he tells the story of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s pivotal 10- week campaign in 1963 to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. At the same time, he also provides a window into the minds of the four extraordinary men who led the campaign - Martin Luther King, Jr., Wyatt Walker, Fred Shuttlesworth, and James Bevel. With page-turning prose that reads like a thriller, Kix’s book is the first to zero in on the ten weeks of Project C.
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Warm Up with a Good Book!
Need a book to spark your interest & keep you warm? Check out one of these fiery recommendations! Make sure to also log whatever you read for our upcoming "Snow Many Books" Winter Reading Challenge, which begins this Friday, January 12th!
Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias
Costa Rica, 1968: When a lethal fire erupts at the American Fruit Company’s most lucrative banana plantation burning all evidence of a massive cover-up, and her husband disappears, the future of Teresa’s family is changed forever.
Now, twenty-seven years later, Teresa and her daughter Lyra are picking up the pieces. Lyra wants nothing to do with Teresa, but is desperate to find out what happened to her family that fateful night. Teresa, haunted by a missing husband and the bitter ghost of her mother, Amarga, is unable to reconcile the past. What unfolds is a story of a mother and daughter trying to forgive what they do not yet understand, and the mystery at the heart of one family’s rupture.
Dance Among the Flames by Tori Eldridge
Passion. Horror. Betrayal.
Across forty years, three continents, and a past incident in 1560 France, Serafina Olegario tests the boundaries of love, power, and corruption as she fights to escape her life of poverty and abuse. Serafina's quest begins in Brazil when she's possessed by the warrior goddess Yansã, who emboldens her to fight yet threatens to consume her spirit. Fueled by power and enticed by Exú, an immortal trickster and intermediary to the gods, Serafina turns to the seductive magic of Quimbanda. It's dangerous to dance in the fire. But when you come from nothing, you have nothing to lose.
Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao
Poornima and Savitha have three strikes against them: they are poor, they are ambitious, and they are girls. After her mother’s death, Poornima has very little kindness in her life. She is left to care for her siblings until her father can find her a suitable match. So when Savitha enters their household, Poornima is intrigued by the joyful, independent-minded girl. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond arranged marriage.
But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend. Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of India's underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle.
The Archive of the Forgotten by A.J. Hackwith
The Library of the Unwritten in Hell was saved from total devastation, but hundreds of potential books were destroyed. Former librarian Claire and Brevity the muse feel the loss of those stories, and are trying to adjust to their new roles within the Arcane Wing and Library, respectively. But when the remains of those books begin to leak a strange ink, Claire realizes that the Library has kept secrets from Hell - and from its own librarians.
Claire and Brevity are immediately at odds in their approach to the ink, and the potential power that it represents has not gone unnoticed. When a representative from the Muses Corps arrives at the Library to advise Brevity, the angel Rami and the erstwhile Hero hunt for answers in other realms. The true nature of the ink could fundamentally alter the afterlife for good or ill, but it entirely depends on who is left to hold the pen.
This is the second volume of the "Hell's Library" series.
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Read-Alike Friday: The Lace Widow by Mollie Ann Cox
The Lace Widow by Mollie Ann Cox
New York, 1804. America’s beloved Alexander Hamilton lies dead after a duel with Aaron Burr. Meanwhile, Eliza Hamilton’s eighteen-year-old son, Alexander Jr., was seen fighting with a man in a tavern the night before his father’s duel and quickly comes under suspicion for murder when the man turns up dead.
Eliza searches for ways to clear her son’s name, even as she is grieving, but as she combs through her late husband’s papers, she finds evidence of a plot to steal money from the government during his tenure as secretary of state. Hamilton was accused of stealing that money, and it was a scandal that almost broke the family—but is Eliza now holding proof of Alexander’s innocence?
Deep in debt and despair, with eight children to support, Eliza turns to selling her handmade lace—and is drawn into a mysterious network of widow lacemakers who are intimately connected to New York’s high-society families. They know their dead husbands’ secrets—and soon, Eliza begins to piece together the truth.
There’s a dark plot connected with the duel, as one by one, witnesses to the bout are being killed. Now, Eliza must not only clear her husband’s and son’s names but keep herself out of the killer’s sights.
Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Amanda Flower
January 1855: Willa Noble knew it was bad luck when it was pouring rain on the day of her ever-important job interview at the Dickinson home in Amherst, Massachusetts. When she arrived late, disheveled with her skirts sodden and filthy, she'd lost all hope of being hired for the position. As the housekeeper politely told her they'd be in touch, Willa started toward the door of the stately home only to be called back by the soft but strong voice of Emily Dickinson. What begins as tenuous employment turns to friendship as the reclusive poet takes Willa under her wing.
Tragedy soon strikes and Willa's beloved brother, Henry, is killed in a tragic accident at the town stables. With no other family and nowhere else to turn, Willa tells Emily about her brother's death and why she believes it was no accident. Willa is convinced it was murder. Henry had been very secretive of late, only hinting to Willa that he'd found a way to earn money to take care of them both. Viewing it first as a puzzle to piece together, Emily offers to help, only to realize that she and Willa are caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse that reveals corruption in Amherst that is generations deep. Some very high-powered people will stop at nothing to keep their profitable secrets even if that means forever silencing Willa and her new mistress...
This is the first volume of the "Emily Dickinson Mystery" series.
What the Dead Leave Behind by David Housewright
Once a police detective in St. Paul, Minnesota, Rushmore McKenzie has become not only an unlikely millionaire, but an occasional unlicensed private investigator, doing favors for friends and people in need. When his stepdaughter Erica asks him for just such a favor, McKenzie doesn t have it in him to refuse. Even though it sounds like a very bad idea right from the start.
The father of Malcolm Harris, a college friend of Erica's, was found murdered a year ago in a park in New Brighton, a town just outside the Twin Cities. With no real clues and all the obvious suspects with concrete alibis, the case has long since gone cold. As McKenzie begins poking around, he soon discovers another unsolved murder that's tangentially related to this one. And all connections seem to lead back to a group of friends the victim was close with. But all McKenzie has is a series of odd, even suspicious, coincidences until someone decides to make it all that more serious and personal.
This is the 14th volume of the "Mac McKenzie" series.
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas
With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London.
When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old—a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her.
But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.
This is the first volume of the "Lady Sherlock" series.
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New Year, New Job!
Linked by Omar Garriott & Jeremy Schifeling
LinkedIn is synonymous with today's job market, where hirers meet job seekers en masse. Written by two former LinkedIn employees, Linked is the definitive guide to building a career in a digital world. It demystifies LinkedIn step-by-step and empowers every professional - from the newly minted college graduate to the midlife career-changer - with the most important strategies to win the job search game.
Coming Back! by Fawn Germer
Millions of mid- to late-career professionals are wondering why our careers are dying. We've been fired, downsized, job-eliminated, or we've left work voluntarily to raise children, care for loved ones, or go to school. It takes twice as long to get hired, and usually for far less money than we were making. Is it age discrimination? Maybe. But it’s not that simple.
Coming Back shows how you can save a career if still employed or get one back if cast out. Fawn Germer, one of the nation’s most popular leadership experts and global motivational speakers, has personally interviewed more than three hundred CEOs, senior executives, professors, lawyers, organizational experts, industry leaders, and professionals. The result is a tactical, tough-love call to action: to learn, re-tool, connect, grow, and get ready to work again.
The Big Book of Job-Hunting Hacks by Brenda Bernstein
In The Big Book of Job-Hunting Hacks, experienced job-hunting professionals offer detailed advice on every step of the job-hunting process. From how to navigate the interview process, to how to create the perfect resume, this book will help you stand out from your competitors. With a new introduction by John Henry Weiss, president of a recruitment firm, that contextualizes the current economic state as a result of COVID-19, this book offers hundreds of practical tips for those laid-off, fired, or new to enter the workplace.
Modernize Your Resume by Wendy Enelow
Based on today’s real-world job search trends, Modernize Your Resume shows you how to craft a winning resume to meet the complexities of today’s highly competitive and technologically driven employment market. The 2nd edition has been updated with new resume samples, new designs, and new ATS and e-resume guidelines, along with new chapters for jobseekers with special circumstances – career change, military transition, and return to work.
Clear guidelines and easy-to-follow examples give you practical know-how for building your own powerful resume that will serve all of your job search needs. You’ll learn what works, why it works, and how you can make it work for you.
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Cozy Sci-Fi Picks
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.
Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers' series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?
This is the first volume of the "Monk and Robot" series.
The Humans by Matt Haig
When an extraterrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. Taking the form of Professor Andrew Martin, a leading mathematician at Cambridge University, the visitor wants to complete his task and return home to his planet and a utopian society of immortality and infinite knowledge.
He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, and the wars they witness on the news, and is totally baffled by concepts such as love and family. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this weird species than he has been led to believe. He drinks wine, reads Emily Dickinson, listens to Talking Heads, and begins to bond with the family he lives with, in disguise. In picking up the pieces of the professor's shattered personal life, the narrator sees hope and redemption in the humans' imperfections and begins to question the very mission that brought him there - a mission that involves not only thwarting human progress... but murder.
Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes
Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom.
But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship’s hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family.
To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down.
This is the first volume of the "Chilling Effect" series.
The Tatami Galaxy by Tomihiko Morimi
Our protagonist, an unnamed junior at a prestigious university in Kyoto, is on the verge of dropping out. After rebelling against the dictatorial jock president of the film club, he and his worst and only friend, the diabolical creep Ozu, are personas non grata on campus. For two years, our protagonist has made all the wrong decisions, and now he's about to make another mistake. He and Ozu are preparing for revenge - a fireworks attack at the film club's welcoming party for new members. Then, a chance encounter with a self-proclaimed god sets the confused and distraught young man on a new course. Destiny will bring him together with Akashi, the blunt but charming sophomore he has a crush on - if he's brave enough to make a move.
Yet our protagonist cannot get beyond his profound disillusionment and the moment is lost. But what if there's a universe where he did join the club of his dreams, ditched Ozu for good, and was confident enough to get the girl? A realm of possibility opens up for our protagonist as time rewinds, and from the four-and-a-half-mat tatami floor of his dorm room, he is plunged into a series of adventures that will take him to four parallel universes. In each universe, he is given the opportunity to start over as a freshman, in search of a rose-colored campus life.
This is the first volume of the "Tatami Galaxy" series.
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January NoveList Challenge: Read a 2023 Debut
A Good House for Children by Kate Collins
Once upon a time Orla was: a woman, a painter, a lover. Now she is a mother and a wife, and when her husband Nick suggests that their city apartment has grown too small for their lives, she agrees, in part because she does agree, and in part because she is too tired to think about what she really does want. She agrees again when Nick announces with pride that he has found an antiquated Georgian house on the Dorset cliffs - a good house for children, he says, tons of space and gorgeous grounds.
But as the family settles into the mansion - Nick absent all week, commuting to the city for work - Orla finds herself unsettled. She hears voices when no one is around; doors open and close on their own; and her son Sam, who has not spoken in six months, seems to have made an imaginary friend whose motives Orla does not trust.
Four decades earlier, Lydia moves into the same house as a live-in nanny to a grieving family. Lydia, too, becomes aware of intangible presences in the large house, and she, like Orla four decades later, becomes increasingly fearful for the safety of the children in her care. But no one in either woman’s life believes the stories that seem fanciful, the stuff of magic and mayhem, sprung from the imaginations of hysterical women who spend too much time in the company of children.
Are both families careening towards tragedy? Are Orla and Lydia seeing things that aren’t there? What secrets is the house hiding?
The Art of Scandal by Regina Black
On the night of her husband Matt’s fortieth birthday, Rachel Abbott receives a sexy, explicit text from her husband that she quickly realizes was meant for another woman. Divorce is inevitable, and Rachel is determined not to leave her thirteen-year marriage empty handed. Meanwhile, Matt, a rising star mayor with his eye on the White House, can’t afford a messy split in the middle of his reelection campaign. They strike a deal: Rachel gets one million dollars and their lavish house in the wealthy DC suburb of Oasis Springs, as long as she keeps playing the ideal Black trophy wife until the election.
Then Rachel meets Nathan Vasquez, a very handsome, very lost twenty-six-year-old artist, and their connection makes Rachel forget about being the perfect politician’s wife. As Rachel reawakens Nathan’s long-dormant artistic aspirations, their attraction becomes impossible to resist. But secrets are hard to keep in a town like Oasis Springs, and Nathan has a few of his own. With the risk of scandal looming and their hearts on the line, they’ll have to decide whether the possibility of losing everything is worth taking a chance on love.
The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong
After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.
A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses - or Pellars - but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.
To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night.
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
Five attendees are selected for a month-long writing retreat at the remote estate of Roza Vallo, the controversial high priestess of feminist horror. Alex, a struggling writer, is thrilled.
Upon arrival, they discover they must complete an entire novel from scratch, and the best one will receive a seven-figure publishing deal. Alex’s long-extinguished dream now seems within reach.
But then the women begin to die.
Trapped, terrified yet still desperately writing, it is clear there is more than a publishing deal at stake at Blackbriar Estate. Alex must confront her own demons – and finish her novel – to save herself.
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January NoveList Challenge: Read a 2023 Debut
Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling
In the far north of Canada sits Camp Zero, an American building project hiding many secrets.
Desperate to help her climate-displaced Korean immigrant mother, Rose agrees to travel to Camp Zero and spy on its architect in exchange for housing. She arrives at the same time as another newcomer, a college professor named Grant who is determined to flee his wealthy family’s dark legacy. Gradually, they realize that there is more to the architect than previously thought, and a disturbing mystery lurks beneath the surface of the camp. At the same time, rumors abound of an elite group of women soldiers living and working at a nearby Cold War-era climate research station. What are they doing there? And who is leading them?
The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao
High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity - plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. Here, architects are revered deeply, with humanity’s survival reliant on a privileged few. If not for their abilities, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.
Charismatic and powerful, Iravan is one such architect. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his archeologist wife, they are a method to suppress non-architects. Their marriage is thorny and fraught - yet when a jungle expedition goes terribly wrong, jeopardizing their careers, Ahilya and Iravan must work together to save their reputations. But as their city begins to plummet, their discoveries threaten not only their marriage, but their entire civilization.
This is the first volume of the "Rages" series.
The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire's shadows.
Prince Alaric, the emperor's only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire's rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. That is until he sees Talasyn burning brightly on the battlefield with the magic that killed his grandfather, turned his father into a monster, and ignited the Hurricane Wars. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen.
Talasyn and Alaric both know this war can only end with them. But a greater threat is coming, and the strange new magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it. Thrust into an uneasy alliance, they will confront the secrets at the heart of the war and find, in each other, a searing passion - one that could save their world...or destroy it.
This is the first volume of "The Hurricane Wars" series.
The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero-Lacruz
Reina is desperate.
Stuck living on the edges of society, her only salvation lies in an invitation from a grandmother she’s never known. But the journey is dangerous, and prayer can’t always avert disaster.
Attacked by creatures that stalk the region, Reina is on the verge of death until her grandmother, a dark sorceress, intervenes. Now dependent on the Doña’s magic for her life, Reina will do anything to earn - and keep - her favor. Even the bidding of an ancient god who whispers to her at night.
Eva Kesare is unwanted.
Illegitimate and of mixed heritage, Eva is her family’s shame. She tries her best to be perfect and to hide her oddities. But Eva is hiding a secret: magic calls to her.
Eva knows she should fight the temptation. Magic is the sign of the dark god, and using it is punishable by death. Yet, it’s hard to deny power when it has always been denied to you. Eva is walking a dangerous path, one that gets stranger every day. And, in the end, she’ll become something she never imagined.
This is the first volume of "The Warring Gods" series.
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