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News & Stories
Where can you check out books, movies and TV shows, attend tech classes, enjoy book discussions and more? The Reading Room at the Senior Center is open to all.
State-of-the-art library-on-wheels makes its debut, offering greater accessibility, modern features.
On Thursday, August 13, the library’s centennial celebration continued by Celebrating a Century of Fun at the Arlington Heights Senior Center.
Your Next Great Read

Yellow Pine
Watkins, Claire Vaye,
"In the latest novel from "our most significant rising writer of the American West" (Vulture), an unfettered heroine searches for a new way to love, and live, in a deeply uncertain world The first time Rose fell for Miles, she was a college kid, all too eager to be swept into his sexy orbit; little wonder the relationship crashed and burned. When Miles comes back into her life two decades later, he finds a different Rose. Not only has she moved back to her beloved desert, on a homestead she's dubbed Nothingness Flats, but she's chosen to live "on the other side of the portal," with an intentionality that's brought her hard-won peace and freedom. She's navigating single parenthood, and she's found a community out at Yellow Pine, where a group of spirited misfits have mounted a stand against the corporatization of solar power. Is it worth jeopardizing all this for another chance with Miles? And yet the universe seems to be beckoning her, not only back to him but possibly toward another child. What shape might her future take, on this side of the portal? As furious, funny, searching, and searingly original as ever, in Yellow Pine Watkins blazes a trail toward a radically reimagined vision of a good life in a precarious age"-- Provided by publisher

Exit 8
Kawamura, Genki, 1979-
"From the award-winning film director and New York Times bestselling author of If Cats Disappeared from the World, a surreal novelization of his hit film Exit 8, adapting the indie horror game of the same name. A path with no beginning, no end. A man with a life-changing decision to make finds himself trapped in a seemingly infinite corridor in a Tokyo subway station. Each time he passes through the sterile, quiet hallway, he discovers himself back at its beginning, walking past the same doors, the same posters, and disturbingly, the same people, as he did the previous time. He soon discovers that in order to reach the elusive "Exit 8", he must look more closely at his surroundings, and notice the tunnel's bizarre anomalies. Spot one, and he must turn back. Spot none, and he can proceed. Make it to eight, and he'll be free. Make a mistake, and he must start over again. As he stumbles through an endless loop of conformity, confronting the strange, new possibilities of his own life, he begins to wonder if anomalies are not things to be feared but to be embraced. Maybe, he thinks, the only way out is through"-- Provided by publisher

The amateur
Bohjalian, Chris, 1962-
When a young woman, a golf prodigy, kills a caddy with a stray ball at the country club, the investigation of this freak accident reveals a dark and shocking tale of secret affairs and predatory men, and suddenly a teenager is on trial in this spellbinding novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Midwives and The Flight Attendant . 1978: It is the first Thursday in August and temperatures are flirting with ninety when Mira Winston, eighteen years old, drives a golf ball from her tee toward the practice net near the clubhouse and caddy shack. The golf ball, weighing 1.6 ounces, tears through the net, traveling 150 miles per hour, and slams, with sickening force, into the temple of a high school junior named Kenny Foster, rupturing an artery and unleashing a torrent of blood. Kenny brings his hand to the side of his head, then topples onto his side. He's dead before the ambulance even arrives. In the wake of this terrible accident-and everyone, at first, agrees it was an accident-Mira looks for comfort in all the wrong places: In her lover, Theo Catton, a married man three decades her senior. In her mother, a well-kept woman with secrets of her own. In the dead caddy's little sisters, girls bewildered by grief. But when the investigators look more closely at the torn net, when a detective recalls Mira's history of recklessness, and when Kenny's father spies Mira with her married lover, the affluent and mannered community turns on this once-promising young woman. A gripping story that takes the reader from the sun-soaked greens of a tony Westchester country club to the fluorescent-lit stand of a county courtroom, The Amateur asks: What happens when one small moment-a swing, a ball, a piece of string-changes the course of an entire life?

Inevitable a Last Hope novel
Scott, J. S. (Jan S.),
"Meet the small town Michigan team of Last Hope. ... Marshall. As the leader and founder of Last Hope, I had no room for anything but my volunteer rescue operation in my life. I lived and breathed Last Hope nearly every minute of the day, and I liked it that way. I might be an older guy with a messed-up leg from my days as a SEAL commander, but at least I still had an important purpose in my life. Really, what else did I need? I wasn't the kind of guy who did relationships or any kind of emotional entanglements. I was too old and set in my ways to deal with that kind of drama. I was perfectly content with staying solo for the rest of my life. Or so I thought . . . Until the only woman on the planet who had always made me wish I could be a different kind of guy became a hostage in need of rescue. I hadn't seen Emma in fourteen years. It shouldn't matter that we'd known each other briefly a long time ago. Unfortunately, I sucked at lying to myself. For once in my life, an operation was going to get personal for me, whether I liked it . . . or not"--Page 4 of cover

Men in love
Welsh, Irvine,
There wasn't an album they wouldn't buy, or a drug they wouldn't try. Then it spiralled out of control. They were left with nothing. Nothing but the eternal quest of all men - the search for love. Opening in the late 1980s as rave culture is born and moving into the 1990s, 'Men In Love' reunites the Trainspotting crew for a riotous new journey. Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie leave heroin behind and seek joy, and the hope of redemption, on the dance floor. Each wants to feel alive in the closing years of Thatcher's Britain, and they fill their days with sex and romance and trying to get ahead. Taking in Edinburgh, London, Amsterdam and Paris, the group charges towards an unexpected event - Sick Boy's wedding day. But is falling in love the answer, or just another doomed quest?

Nowe życie
Jax, Joanna,
"Poruszająca historia ludzi, którzy muszą zacząć budować swoje życie od nowa, w zupełnie nieznanym im miejscu. Po opuszczeniu Wołynia, Wissarion, Nadia, Marcel i Marta z bratem przyjeżdżają do Wrocławia, by rozpocząć nowy rozdział w swoim życiu. Na miejscu czują się rozczarowani, ponieważ wszystko wygląda zupełnie inaczej niż przedstawiała to radziecka prasa. Dla Lemańskiego i jego przyjaciół powojenny rozgardiasz to dobry moment na zarobienie dużych pieniędzy, dla Andrzeja i jego rodziny to ciężka próba zmiany swojego życia a nawet wartości, którymi się dotychczas kierowali. Autorka pokazuje obraz Ziem Odzyskanych, ponurą epokę stalinizmu, w której bohaterowie powieści muszą się odnaleźć, by przetrwać."--PAge 4 of cover

Married with benefits
Palmer, Ellie, 1989-
"Lainey Davis can't wait for the day she'll be able to escape her tiny Wisconsin town. But she's not even close to covering her health insurance premiums and pricey migraine medication, let alone saving up enough to start over some place new. That is, until Lainey receives some news that might upend her unlucky streak. Through the archaic legal doctrine of adverse possession, Lainey has inadvertently squatted her way into owning one of the most notorious houses in modern architectural history. But Lainey owns only the house. The surrounding property, a lakeside money pit the previous owner used as a front to deal illegal reptiles, has been willed to newcomer Elliot Hodges, a D.C. architect who wants to rent the place to fellow architecture lovers. Neither can rent or sell without reaching an agreement. Desperate to rent out the only valuable house on the property, Elliot proposes an unconventional arrangement: marry him for health insurance and in exchange, she'll allow him to rent the house as part of his resort until he's saved enough to buy her out. It's a win-win situation: Lainey will finally have a way out of her small town, and he'll own the house designed by his architectural idol. But when the end date looms and their connection grows, Lainey's no longer sure what's more terrifying: leaving Elliot behind or letting him in"-- Provided by publisher

Dreamland
Blake, Olivie,
"The headlines are calling it the "summer of exsanguination" in LA-girls are being murdered, the Santa Ana winds are blowing a strange energy into the city, and all signs point to fire season. More pressing for Anya Morris, though, is the drudgery of living at home, working part time at the family store, and contending with her mother's disdain for the acting career Anya knows she's destined for but that feels more impossible by the day. It's in this suffocating late summer heat that Anya receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, an invitation to work for the de Witt family, one of LA's most influential film dynasties. Soon, she's spending her days and nights at their strange villa high in the Hollywood Hills, where she meets Jude, a recluse who is both the family's heir apparent and its most closely guarded secret. There's a magnetism to Jude that Anya cannot resist, despite warning signs that scream like sirens in the night. Because the villa holds generations of bloodstained history, and an occult family curse may even live within its walls-or within Jude himself. In this city, everyone cuts a deal with the devil. When Anya comes face to face with a devil of her own, she'll learn just how far she's willing to go to get everything she's ever wanted"--

Unprecedented times
Kannan, Malavika, 2001-
"Malavika Kannan establishes herself as an literary voice of Gen Z in this piercing coming-of-age debut novel. Which comes first: experience or narrative? Rishi thinks she knows the answer as she arrives on campus for her first year at Stanford. Her future is set-she's going to leave behind the strict trappings of her Indian American childhood in Florida, embrace her queer identity, experiment with love, and write all about it. Within a few months, she gets a new tattoo, makes her first best friend, falls in love with her situationship, and even gets her heart broken. Rishi's final paper for Asian American Autofiction practically writes itself. What is not a part of Rishi's plan, however, is the onset of the COVID pandemic. As the outside world becomes a terrifying place, she increasingly finds solace in the friendships she's made. In lieu of virtual college, Rishi and her classmates join a farm collective and grapple with America's political situation and growing disillusionment-along with sexual tension and responsibility. It's only when those relationships start fracturing under the stress of careless decisions, unrequited crushes, jealousies, and, yes, unprecedented times, that Rishi begins to question her own story. Unprecedented Times captures the beauty, frustration, love, and pain that exists in relationships between best friends, lovers, mothers and daughters, and between storytellers and themselves. Malavika Kannan's fresh, arresting novel is a testament to the power of self-narrative for first-generation Americans: of writing oneself into existence where no previous script exists"-- Provided by publisher

The unselected journals of Emma M. Lion. Vol. 8
Brower, Beth,
The Year is 1884 and Emma M. Lion has, at long last, gained her majority. Entering a golden age of friendship with Pierce, Islington, and Hawkes, Emma is confident she will manage whatever comes her way. It is The Season she must help Arabella secure a husband, while navigating the threat of Aunt Eugenia, the unflagging adoration of Charles Goddard, and the amusing unpredictability of St. Crispian's. But the secrets of her trusted friends are what might very well bring about disaster. Emma M. Lion offers up her Unselected Journals, however self-incriminating they may be. Armed with wit and a sideways amusement, Emma documents the curious realities of her life at Lapis Lazuli House

Corto Maltese fable of Venice and other adventures
Pratt, Hugo,
"Corto, a modern Ulysses whose wanderings in the early decades of the 20th century take him to the most fascinating places on Earth, is a hard-luck, hard-driving iconoclastic anti-hero who values freedom and independence more than wealth and status. In 'Fable of Venice,' a riddle from a deceased friend plunges Corto into a phantasmagorical mystery thriller that zigzags between the solidity of dreams and the fluidity of reality. A frantic chase in 1921 Venice ensues, up twisting stairs and down tangled alleys, as Corto vies against Freemasons, occultists, budding fascists, and his friend (suddenly back from the dead) in a mad scramble to secure a mystical emerald that will open the doors of forbidden magic and unravel time and space itself!"--

The witch below the dreaming wood
Parry, H. G.,
"Wales, 1941. As war rages across the globe and bombs fall from the sky, people all over the world begin to dream of King Arthur. The dreams spread like a fantastical plague, flooding people's sleep night after night. Whispers arise of wonders and unexplained sights - dragons in the London Underground, and strange lights over Stonehenge. Self-proclaimed prophets claim they are miracles, heralding Arthur's return at the time of Britain's greatest need. Elaine Ambrose has never dreamed of Arthur, and she doesn't believe in miracles. A librarian at the British Museum, she wants only to protect the museum's collection from the London Blitz, and is frustrated to be sent instead to catalog a reclusive professor's private library on the coast of North Wales. But all is not as it seems. Soon Ellie must confront what she's tried to ignore: she dreams not of Arthur, but of Nimue - the Lady of the Lake. And her dreams promise not salvation, but a return to the darkness of the last days of Camelot."--

Ordinary saints
Ní Mhaoileoin, Niamh,
"Brought up in a devout household in Ireland, Jay is now living in London with her girlfriend, determined to live day to day and not think too much about either the future or the past. But when she learns that her beloved older brother, who died in a terrible accident, may be made into a Catholic saint, she realises she must at last confront her family, her childhood and herself . . . "--

That night
McAllister, Gillian,
"On vacation in Europe, Frannie makes two urgent phone calls. One to her sister, and one to her brother. The siblings come running, and they find their sister covered in blood, kneeling over an unmoving body. There's been an accident: Frannie has hit a man with her car, and she needs their help. They bury the body, and they make a promise. They'll never tell anyone. But when the police come calling, the siblings' lies start to spiral. They begin to doubt their trust in each other. Because what really happened that night? And who will be the first to crack?"--

An Irish immigrant
Thompson, Daniel (Airline operations manager),
"[This book] follows the harsh and hopeful journey of Irish families who flee poverty in their homeland and sail to New York in search of a better life. Instead, they find a city unprepared to welcome them, where jobs are scarce and prejudice runs deep. Many are pushed into the dirtiest, lowest-paid work-or even desperate acts for survival-earning the Irish an unfair reputation that overshadows their struggle. Amid the hardship, some manage to carve out honest livelihoods, slowly building stability through determination and grit. But just as life begins to settle, the men are called to fight in a brutal war, leaving behind the fragile homes they worked so hard to create. ... Those who survive carry their scars into a new peace, forging a brighter future with the strength born from loss, endurance, and unbroken hope"--Page 4 of cover

Something wicked why feminism can't be fused with Christianity
Gress, Carrie,
"The culture wars have raged for decades, but with seemingly little success. Christians are losing the cultural battle for family, life, and faith. But why? In this riveting look at the underbelly of feminism, Dr. Carrie Gress lays out why pro-life and pro-family efforts have failed to deliver. Feminism has quietly captured the minds and hearts of women by mimicking aspects of Christianity. Through its own 'commandments,' 'virtues,' 'evangelization,' and even 'a sacrament,' feminism has become an exceedingly powerful megachurch"--

The spy in the archive how one man tried to kill the KGB
Corera, Gordon,
"How do you steal a library? Not just any library but the most secret, heavily guarded archive in the world. The answer is to be a librarian. To be so quiet, that no-one knows what you are up to as you toil undercover and deep amongst the files. The work goes on for decades but remains so low key, that even after your escape, aided by MI6, no-one even notices you are gone. 'The Spy in the Archive' tells the remarkable story of how Vasili Mitrokhin - an introverted archivist who loved nothing more than dusty files - ended up changing the world. As the in-house archivist for the KGB, the secrets he was exposed to inside its walls turned him first into a dissident and then a spy, a traitor to his country but a man determined to expose the truth about the dark forces that had subverted Russia, forces still at work in the country today." -- jacket flap

The hunger code resetting your body's fat thermostat in the age of ultra-processed food
Fung, Jason,
"For generations, we've accepted the story that weight loss can never last--that as soon as we go off the diet or stop taking the medication, we revert to our old habits, regain the weight, and the calorie-counting journey starts all over again. Traditional medicine continues to treat the symptom of weight gain rather than addressing its root causes. Too often, healthcare systems intervene with quick fixes and short-term solutions, ignoring the factors that lead to sustainable weight loss that can last a lifetime. What if the secret to long-term weight maintenance and better health isn't just about what you eat--or even when you eat--but why you eat? With the food industry's reliance on ultra-processed foods and the popularity of Ozempic and Mounjaro, understanding the forces behind why we eat is more important than ever before. In The Hunger Code, New York Times bestselling author Dr. Jason Fung reveals the three powerful forces that drive us to eat: physical hunger, emotional hunger, and social hunger. Dr. Fung also introduces the concept of the body's "fat thermostat"--a biological "set point" that regulates how much fat your body tries to maintain. Guided by hormones and metabolism, this internal system drives hunger and energy use, explaining why lasting weight loss requires more than just willpower ... With three Golden Rules and 50 actionable tips, The Hunger Code empowers you to recognize and respond to hunger appropriately. Learn how to slow digestion, break emotional eating cycles, and overcome social pressures to eat constantly, so you can maintain a healthy weight--from scratch, after fasting, or after using weight loss drugs"--

Better ways to read the Bible transforming a weapon of harm into a tool of healing
Lambert, Zach W., 1988-
"A popular pastor dismantles four common lenses for reading the Bible that almost always lead to harm before offering four revolutionary lenses that promote healing and wholeness"--

The Glorians : visitations from the holy ordinary
Williams, Terry Tempest,
In this time of political fragility, climate chaos, and seeking beauty wherever we can find its glimmer, Terry Tempest Williams introduces us to the Glorians. They are not distant deities, but the ordinary, often overlooked presences - animal, plant, memory, moment - that reveal our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness with the natural world. The Glorians can be as small as an ant ferrying a coyote willow blossom to its queen or as commonplace as the night sky. But when they can collectively show us - about the radical art of attending to beauty and carrying forward against all odds - is immense. Journeying through encounters with the Glorians from the red rock desert of Utah during the pandemic to Harvard University where she teaches at the Divinity School, Williams weaves a story of astonishing personal and societal insight. As she grapples with the unsettled state of the world, she turns not to despair but to deep reflection. She sees how the Glorians are calling us to attention, not as an army, but as fellow inhabitants of our sacred, threatened home. They remind us of the power of contact between species and the profound courage - and awareness - it will take to dream a more cohesive future into being. Wise and lyrical, The Glorians is a testament to the power of witness. Terry Tempest Williams offers honest sustenance to the mind and spirit and distinguishes herself again as a trusted voice to whom we can turn, to more fully understand our times

The making and breaking of the American constitution a thousand-year history
Peterson, Mark A., 1960-
"A provocative new history of America's constitution and an urgent call to action for a nation confronted by challenges its founders could never have imagined. The American Revolution occurred at a time when Britain's constitutional order failed to adapt to the extraordinary growth of its colonies. The framers designed an American constitution to succeed where Britain's had faltered, planning for continuous population and territorial expansion that would eventually cross the continent. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, it was already ill-suited for an increasingly urban, industrialized society, and the transformations of the twentieth century have pushed it to a breaking point. This book charts the history and aims of the American constitution from its origins in an agrarian past to the grave crisis we face today. Mark Peterson traces the American constitutional tradition to the control of land in medieval England, showing how the founders incorporated the aspirations of Magna Carta with the administrative principles of the Domesday Book, a meticulous survey and valuation of landed property commissioned by William the Conqueror. This framework encouraged the growth of democratic self-government in a young nation. It also institutionalized the colonization of territory and the expulsion of Indigenous peoples, establishing a legal blueprint for transforming tribal lands into revenue-yielding real estate for settlers. Peterson's riveting narrative paints an arresting picture of a dynamic republic whose frame of government has changed enormously to meet the challenges of the modern age but whose written constitution has changed very little. Marking the 250th anniversary of American independence, The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution reveals how this widening disconnect threatens the very existence of our democracy. It calls for a constitution that sustains the ideals developed over the past thousand years while meeting the challenges of the future."--

Optimize a groundbreaking 7-step plan to health and longevity through quantum biology
Clinton, Catherine, Dr,
"What if the key to better health isn't just in what you eat or how much you exercise--but in how you interact with the world around you? Optimize reveals the cutting-edge science of quantum biology, showing how light, water, sound, and even human energy directly influence your body at the cellular level. We are biologically wired to exchange energy with our environment--yet modern life has severed this essential connection. Sunlight directs hormone signaling and immune function. Electrical fields guide cellular repair. Sound waves can alter the structure of water inside our bodies. Even walking barefoot on the earth reduces inflammation. In this groundbreaking book by quantum biology expert and naturopathic physician Dr. Catherine Clinton, you'll... How to harness natural energy sources for optimal health The surprising role of light and sound in cellular function Quantum biology's impact on longevity, immunity, and vitality Simple, science-backed practices to reconnect with your body's natural intelligence Rooted in the latest research, Optimize presents a revolutionary new paradigm for wellness--one that empowers you to align with nature's forces for deep healing, increased energy, and a longer, healthier life"-- Goodreads

A way with words style in the age of artificial intelligence
Marsh, John, 1975-
"A Way with Words helps readers learn the essentials of writing. Rather than lecturing about when to use who or whom, this book focuses on writing clear, concise, and lively prose: eliminating wordiness, using active verbs, avoiding run-on sentences. John Marsh applies his experience grading over 5,000 essays over a quarter century as a teacher to take readers through the issues he most commonly sees. While Marsh teaches in the humanities, the advice applies to writing regardless of discipline. Using examples from papers students might actually write, the book invites readers to apply what they have learned to quizzes that mix and match issues -- vague pronouns, sentence fragments, punctuating quotations -- from previous chapters. The book includes a thoughtful discussion about balancing the competing demands of writing well and fighting linguistic discrimination. Finally, A Way with Words prompts readers to consider what artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT and Bard will mean for student writing. It offers advice about how writers can distinguish their writing from the assembly-line writing that artificial intelligence tends to generate, and how they can develop their style to stand out to their teachers, employers, and clients" --

Flourish the art of building meaning, joy and fulfilment
Coyle, Daniel,
A science-based, practical blueprint for cultivating a life--at work and at home--full of belonging, joy, and vitality, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Culture Code. What is a meaningful life, and how do we make one? How do certain communities foster closeness, fulfillment, happiness, and energy? What makes us flourish? In Flourish, bestselling author and leading culture expert Daniel Coyle trains his eye on the groups and people who have demonstrated exceptional connectivity and dynamism. He draws on research and original reporting--introducing us to thirty-three men who were trapped in a Chilean coal mine, an anarchist deli in Ann Arbor, the Dutch soccer team that revolutionized the sport as we know it, a nursing home that helped its residents turn back the clock--to reveal the principles and secrets that distinguish these communities. He finds that flourishing groups do two they cultivate presence (open, responsive awareness) and practice group flow (generative exploration). Through captivating real-world stories, reporting, and firsthand accounts, Coyle explores what sets some groups apart--and unlocks the door to allow you to flourish in your life

Give me a word the promise of an ancient practice to guide your year
Paintner, Christine Valters,
"In Give Me a Word, spiritual director, poet, and teacher Christina Valters Paintner invites us on a transformative journey through thirty contemplative and creative practices. Learn to listen, wait, and open yourself to deeper sources of wisdom in order to embrace a guiding word that will anchor your life for the coming year."--Page 4 of cover

Stay alive Berlin, 1939-1945
Buruma, Ian,
"An astonishing account of the human capacity for survival amidst a great city's descent into utter annihilation"-- Provided by publisher

Fantasy crochet 16 whimsical patterns inspired by faeries, elves, nymphs & more
Bertolina, Jessica,
Create a whimsical array of crochet patterns that will bring a magical sparkle to your everyday outfits. Use your hook and yarn to escape to shimmering streams, ancient forests, and enchanted landscapes that are home to folkloric creatures. With each pattern, crochet designer and fantasy-lover Jessica Bertolina of @cozyfaeriecraft invites you to add a subtle hint of whimsy to your daily wear, or you can create each chapter's complete themed outfit. Even better, mix and match the patterns together using your favorite yarns to create a look that's all your own! All of the garment patterns are made to measure and come with step-by-step photographs, ensuring that you can achieve the perfect fit with ease. Capture the charm of fantasy worlds with this collection of delightful wearables that are sure to enchant you again and again. --

Intimacy a field guide to finding connection and feeling your deep desires
O'Brien, Ita,
"What is desire? What is attachment? What is chemistry? What is intimacy? In Intimacy, the pioneering intimacy coordinator behind the series Normal People offers a groundbreaking exploration of sex, love, and partnership--and the path to forging a deeper connection to ourselves and others. "A vital contribution to our understanding of intimacy both on screen and in life."--from the Foreword by Gillian Anderson As intimacy coordinator, Ita O'Brien has choreographed some of the most passionate and vulnerable intimate scenes on-screen. From Normal People to Sex Education and I May Destroy You, and in so many more productions, she has also made these scenes safer, more joyful and more empowering to perform in. No one knows intimacy, the power of true connection, better than O'Brien. So, what can her work teach us about our own relationships, both with ourselves and others? How can we use her tools to discover what it is that we truly want in our intimate lives? And how can all of this create environments in which intimacy can take seed, grow, and even thrive? Combining embodied wisdom, behind-the-scenes stories, and exercises for connection, Intimacy offers us a field guide to discovering our desires, communicating our needs, and cultivating truly intimate relationships at every stage of our lives."--Publisher

Hello, home cooking do-able dishes for every day
El-Waylly, Hisham,
"A global approach to memorable meals, Hello, Home Cooking is a kaleidoscope of 75 flavorful, unique, nostalgic, and approachable recipes using everyday ingredients from one half of the beloved team of Ham and Sohla El-Waylly. Quirky, beloved, fun-loving New York Times Cooking video star Ham El-Waylly combines his unique personal heritage (representing the cuisines of Qatar, Bolivia, Brazil, and Egypt) with his 15 years as a professional chef to bring delicious, global recipes to home cooks. Deeply rooted in everyone's nostalgia, Ham centers culture and community in his recipes-featuring beloved dishes from across different nations that carry a can't quite put my finger on it hominess, regardless of the origin. Within these pages, cooks of all experience levels learn the base flavors of cuisines around the world, freeing them to mix, match, and alter classic dishes into something delicious and new: from the Macarona Bechamel that parallels American Mac n Cheese and Basbousa (a sweet, semolina cake) that would rival any Blondie, to Egyptian ta'amaya (like falafel but made with fava beans instead of chickpeas) and beyond, Hello, Home Cooking shows you how to highlight your own heritage in familiar recipes by swapping in certain ingredients for others-focusing on affordability and availability. Most people are familiar with the mezze staple muhammara, a dip made of ground walnuts and charred red peppers. Ham's go-to version isn't red. It's green from roasted hatch chilies and pistachios. The Brazilian icebox cake, pave, is usually made with pricey, impossible-to-find fresh passionfruit-try it with seasonal strawberries instead for a summery treat. Masaco, the teatime Bolivian staple of mashed plantain or yuca, can be made with any pounded starchy vegetable, from sweet potato to honeynut squash. Ham teaches readers how flavors work so that you can swap in local or seasonal ingredients to any recipe, letting you make any comfort meal an adventure, and any adventurous dish feel like you've eaten and loved it a hundred times"-- Provided by publisher

Law school
Simmons, Tracy L.,
Offers strategies for succeeding on exams, approaching the Law Review competition, and balancing study and personal life. Learn about the law school path, including making the most of your first year. Maximize your time by prioritizing assignments, even if you're working while in school. Gain the confidence you need to join and start study groups, find a mentor, overcome impostor syndrome, and beyond. Land summer jobs, internships, and other opportunities--without burning out

Teacher man a memoir
McCourt, Frank

Bernie's mitten maker a memoir
Ellis, Jen,
"Bernie's Mitten Maker is a raw and honest account of the joy, stress, and shock of sudden internet fame. Told with captivating storytelling, this memoir explores the many roads that led to the Bernie Sanders mitten meme sensation that followed the 2021 presidential inauguration. Jen Ellis's debut publication reads like an intimate conversation with an old friend. Vermont teacher, mother, and crafter, Ellis weaves the stories of her life together with humor and thoughtful insight. She shares her struggles with childhood trauma, infertility, and homophobia and shows us how crafting can build community and generosity can bring joy."--Amazon.com

Lovely one a memoir
Jackson, Ketanji Brown, 1970-
"With this unflinching account, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson invites readers into her life and world, tracing her family's ascent from segregation to her confirmation on America's highest court within the span of one generation. Named 'Ketanji Onyika,' meaning 'Lovely One,' based on a suggestion from her aunt, a Peace Corps worker stationed in West Africa, Justice Jackson learned from her educator parents to take pride in her heritage since birth. She describes her resolve as a young girl to honor this legacy and realize her dreams: from hearing stories of her grandparents and parents breaking barriers in the segregated South, to honing her voice in high school as an oratory champion and student body president, to graduating magna cum laude from Harvard, where she performed in musical theater and improv and participated in pivotal student organizations. Here, Justice Jackson pulls back the curtain, marrying the public record of her life with what is less known. She reveals what it takes to advance in the legal profession when most people in power don't look like you, and to reconcile a demanding career with the joys and sacrifices of marriage and motherhood. Through trials and triumphs, Justice Jackson's journey will resonate with dreamers everywhere, especially those who nourish outsized ambitions and refuse to be turned aside. This moving, openhearted tale will spread hope for a more just world, for generations to come"--

Old in art school : a memoir of starting over
Painter, Nell Irvin,
Following her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school--in her sixties--to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In Old in Art School, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design; finds meaning in the artists she loves, even as she comes to understand how they may be undervalued; and struggles with the unstable balance between the pursuit of art and the inevitable, sometimes painful demands of a life fully lived. How are women and artists seen and judged by their age, looks, and race? What does it mean when someone says, "You will never be an artist"? Who defines what "An Artist" is and all that goes with such an identity?--from publisher's description

Dear life a doctor's story of love and loss
Clarke, Rachel (Physician),
"In Dear Life, palliative care specialist Dr. Rachel Clarke recounts her professional and personal journey to understand not the end of life, but life at its end. Death was conspicuously absent during Rachel's medical training. Instead, her education focused entirely on learning to save lives, and was left wanting when it came to helping patients and their families face death. She came to specialize in palliative medicine because it is the one specialty in which the quality, not quantity of life truly matters. In the same year she started to work in a hospice, Rachel was forced to face tragedy in her own life when her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He'd inspired her to become a doctor, and the stories he had told her as a child proved formative when it came to deciding what sort of medicine she would practice. But for all her professional exposure to dying, she remained a grieving daughter. Dear Life follows how Rachel came to understand-as a child, as a doctor, as a human being-how best to help patients in the final stages of life, and what that might mean in practice"--

Better to have gone love, death, and the quest for utopia in Auroville
Kapur, Akash,
"A spellbinding story about love, faith, the search for utopia -- and the often devastating cost of idealism. It's the late 1960s, and two lovers converge on an arid patch of earth in South India. John Walker is the handsome scion of a powerful East Coast American family. Diane Maes is a beautiful hippie from Belgium. They have come to build a new world -- Auroville, an international utopian community for thousands of people. Their faith is strong, the future bright. So how do John and Diane end up dying two decades later, on the same day, on a cracked concrete floor in a thatch hut by a remote canyon? This is the mystery Akash Kapur sets out to solve in Better to Have Gone, and it carries deep personal resonance: Diane and John were the parents of Akash's wife, Auralice. Akash and Auralice grew up in Auroville; like the rest of their community, they never really understood those deaths. In 2004, Akash and Auralice return to Auroville from New York, where they have been living with John's family. As they reestablish themselves, along with their two sons, in the community, they must confront the ghosts of those distant deaths. Slowly, they come to understand how the tragic individual fates of John and Diane intersected with the collective history of their town. Better to Have Gone is a book about the human cost of our age-old quest for a more perfect world. It probes the underexplored yet universal idea of utopia, and it portrays in vivid detail the daily life of one utopian community. Richly atmospheric and filled with remarkable characters, spread across time and continents, this is narrative writing of the highest order -- a heartbreaking, unforgettable story." --

How Starbucks saved my life a son of privilege learns to live like everyone else
Gill, Michael (Michael Gates)

Born with teeth a memoir
Mulgrew, Kate, 1955-
A star known for her strong female roles in Star Trek: Voyager and Orange Is the New Black offers a deeply moving account of the price and rewards of a passionate life

One day, everyone will have always been against this
El Akkad, Omar, 1982-
"From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in the heart of an empire that doesn't consider you fully human. On October 25th, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: "One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this." This tweet was viewed more than ten million times. One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This chronicles the deep fracture that has occurred for Black, brown, Indigenous Americans, as well as the upcoming generation, many of whom had clung to a thread of faith in Western ideals, in the idea that their countries, or the countries of their adoption, actually attempted to live up to the values they espouse"--

Crooked smile what it took to escape a decade of homelessness, addiction, & crime
Klickstein, Jared, 1989-
The author recounts his own life as the child of two heroin addicts and his own battle with addiction and living on Skid Row, connecting his first-hand experiences to insights on solutions and policies that could help those suffering from homelessness and drug addiction

Every day I read 53 ways to get closer to books
Hwang, Po-rŭm,
"Why do we read? What is it that we hope to take away from the intimate, personal experience of reading for pleasure? How often do we ask these profound, expansive questions of ourselves and of our relationship to the joy of reading? In each of the essays in 'Every day I read,' Hwang Bo-reum contemplates what living a life immersed in reading means. She goes beyond the usual questions of what to read and how often, exploring the relationship between reading and writing, when to turn to a bestseller vs. browse the corners of a bookstore, the value of reading outside of your favorite genre, falling in love with book characters, and more. 'Every day I read' provides many quiet moments for introspection and reflection, encouraging booklovers to explore what reading means to each of us. While this is a book about books, at its heart is an attitude to life, one outside capitalism and climbing the corporate ladder. Lifelong and new readers will take inspiration from it, including a treasure trove of book recommendations blended seamlessly within"--Inside jacket flap

To the new owners : a Martha's Vineyard memoir
Blais, Madeleine,
"In the 1970s, Madeleine Blais' in-laws purchased a vacation house on Martha's Vineyard for the exorbitant sum of $80,000. 2.2 miles down a poorly marked, one lane dirt road, the house was better termed a shack--it had no electricity, no modern plumbing, the roof leaked, and mice had invaded the walls. It was perfect. Sitting on Tisbury Great Pond--well-stocked with oysters and crab for foraged dinners--the house faced the ocean and the sky, and though it was eventually replaced by a sturdier structure, the ethos remained the same: no heat, no TV, and no telephone. Instead, there were countless hours at the beach, meals cooked and savored with friends, nights talking under the stars, until at last, the house was sold in 2014. To the New Owners is Madeleine Blais' charming, evocative memoir of this house, and of the Vineyard itself--from the history of the island and its famous visitors to the ferry, the pie shops, the quirky charms and customs, and the abundant natural beauty. But more than that, this is an elegy for a special place. Many of us have one place that anchors our most powerful memories. For Blais, it was the Vineyard house--a retreat and a dependable pleasure that also measured changes in her family. As children were born and grew up, as loved ones aged and passed away, the house was a constant. And now, the house lives on in the hearts of those who cherished it"--

Talk to me lessons from a family forged by history
Benjamin, Rich (Richard M.),
"Rich Benjamin's mother, Danielle Fignolé, grew up the eldest in a large family living a comfortable life in Port-au-Prince. Her mother was a schoolteacher, her father a populist hero--a labor leader and politician. The first true champion of the black masses, he eventually became the country's president in 1957. But two weeks after his inauguration, that life was shattered. Soldiers took Danielle's parents at gunpoint and put them on a plane to New York, a coup hatched by the Eisenhower administration. Danielle and her siblings were kidnapped, and ultimately smuggled out of the country. Growing up, Rich knew little of this. No one in his family spoke of it. He didn't know why his mother struggled with emotional connection, why she was so erratic, so quick to anger. And she, in turn, knew so little about him, about the emotional pain he moved through as a child, the physical agony from his blood disease, while coming to terms with his sexuality at the dawn of the AIDS crisis. For all that they could talk about--books, learning, world events--the deepest parts of themselves remained a mystery to one another, a silence that, the older Rich got, the less he could bear. It would take Rich years to piece together the turmoil that carried forward from his grandfather, to his mother, to him, and then to bring that story to light. In Talk to Me, he doesn't just paint the portrait of his family, but a bold, pugnacious portrait of America--of the human cost of the country's hostilities abroad, the experience of migrants on these shores, and how the indelible ties of family endure through triumph and loss, from generation to generation"--

On call a doctor's journey in public service
Fauci, Anthony S., 1940-
"The memoir by the doctor who became a beacon of hope for millions through the COVID pandemic, and whose six-decade career in high-level public service put him in the room with seven presidents"--

Weightless making space for my resilient body and soul
Dionne, Evette,
"In this insightful, funny, and whip-smart book, acclaimed writer Evette Dionne explores the minefields fat Black women are forced to navigate in the course of everyday life. From her early experiences of harassment to adolescent self-discovery in internet chatrooms to a diagnosis of heart failure at age twenty- nine, Dionne tracks her relationship with friends, sex, motherhood, agoraphobia, health, pop culture, and self-image. Along the way, she lifts the curtain to reveal the subtle, insidious forms of surveillance and control levied at fat women: At the doctor's office, where any health ailment is treated with a directive to lose weight. On dating sites, where larger bodies are either rejected or fetishized. On TV, where fat characters are asexual comedic relief. But Dionne's unflinching account of our deeply held prejudices is matched by her fierce belief in the power of self-love. An unmissable portrait of a woman on a journey toward understanding our society and herself, Weightless holds up a mirror to the world we live in and asks us to imagine the future we deserve."--

Meister Eckhart's book of the heart meditations for the restless soul
Sweeney, Jon M., 1967-

The distance of a shout selected poems
Ondaatje, Michael, 1943-
"The poetry of Michael Ondaatje begins in memory: distant landscapes, myths from childhood, fleeting interactions with loved ones, and characters from history itself. In poems that are spare as often as they are fable-like-as tender as they are heart-wrenching-the poet navigates the past, looks toward the future, and unearths inevitable truths about the world. Assembling Michael Ondaatje's finest poems in one brilliant volume, Selected Poems chronicles the poet's journey-moving book to book, moment to moment, border to border-and leads the reader through the threshold of discovery itself. The Distance of a Shout is a profound and gorgeous collection by an indispensable poet of our time, and proof of why miraculous poetry endures"--

Horses poems
Skeets, Jake,
"Navajo Nation Poet Laureate Jake Skeets's highly anticipated second collection patiently tracks the impacts of climate change on the land and its myriad inhabitants"-- Provided by publisher

Where to begin a small book about your power to create big change in our crazy world
Wade, Cleo,
A collection of the ideas, mantras, and poems the author turns to when she feels overwhelmed by worry, fear, anxiety, or helplessness. Helps readers with how to retain hope for big change through small actions

The pocket Sappho
Sappho,

The sweetest little blueberry
Bluett, Cheyenne
"Written with unflinching honesty about pregnancy and the first year of motherhood, The Sweetest Little Blueberry is a book for all mothers. Bluett pens everything we know and love - like feeling those baby kicks, perfect newborn toes, and the magic of motherhood - while also being vulnerable about the parts of motherhood that aren't as magical - morning sickness (and afternoon and night sickness), fears of inadequacy, postpartum depression, and the struggles of figuring out this "new" you." -- Amazon.com

When you see my mother, ask her to dance poems
Baez, Joan,
"An intimate, autobiographical poetry collection from legendary artist and activist, Joan Baez. Joan Baez shares poems for or about her contemporaries (such as Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Jimi Hendrix), reflections from her childhood, personal thoughts, and cherished memories of her family, including pieces about her younger sister, singer-songwriter Mimi Fariña. Speaking to the people, places, and moments that have had the greatest impact on her art, this collection is an inspiring personal diary in the form of poetry. While Baez has been writing poetry for decades, she's never shared it publicly. Poems about her life, her family, about her passions for nature and art, have piled up in notebooks and on scraps of paper. Now, for the first time ever, her life is shared revealing pivotal life experiences that shaped an icon, offering a never-before-seen look into the reminiscences and musings of a great artist. Like a late-night chat with someone you love, this collection connects fans to the real heart of who Joan Baez is as a person, as a daughter and sister, and as an artist who has inspired millions"--

Thinky thoughts all grown up and still just as confused: a collection of thoughts
Laithland, Gwenna,
"Instant New York Times bestselling author Gwenna Laithland, aka Momma Cusses, is back with a collection of Thinky Thoughts (essays, memories, poems and more!) perfect for readers of Jenny Lawson, Samantha Irby and KC Davis. Before I was a mom who cusses, I was a millennial. Before I was that, I was just a kid with a brain that moved too fast. I've spent more time than I'm proud of getting lost in my Thinky Thoughts. They go a little something like this: How has my childhood shaped my motherhood? I might have lost my phone again. Is it that big a deal if the kids call me cringe? I haven't left the house today. Is it a problem that I don't leave the house for days? Why does my daughter hate rollercoasters but love adzuki beans? Cranberry bog spiders. What if they rearrange the grocery store again? Thinky Thoughts walks the line between memoir, storytelling, guided meditation, and self-help. It's a little bit of explanation, a lot a bit of exploration, and a tiny bit of still not knowing what's I'm supposed to be doing as an adult. It's also being okay with not knowing. Thinky Thoughts won't answer life's great questions. But it will make you feel a little better knowing you're not alone in asking them"-- Provided by publisher

Chicago poems
Sandburg, Carl, 1878-1967,

She's strong, but she's tired
Sin, R. H.,
"A poetic documentation of pain, loneliness, courage, and triumph" --

Just us An American conversation
Rankine, Claudia, 1963-
"At home and in government, contemporary America finds itself riven by a culture war in which aggression and defensiveness alike are on the rise. It is not alone. In such partisan conditions, how can humans best approach one another across our differences? Taking the study of whiteness and white supremacy as a guiding light, Claudia Rankine explores a series of real encounters with friends and strangers - each disrupting the false comfort of spaces where our public and private lives intersect, like the airport, the theatre, the dinner party and the voting booth - and urges us to enter into the conversations which could offer the only humane pathways through this moment of division. Just Us is an invitation to discover what it takes to stay in the room together, and to breach the silence, guilt and violence that surround whiteness. Brilliantly arranging essays, images and poems along with the voices and rebuttals of others, it counterpoints Rankine's own text with facing-page notes and commentary, and closes with a bravura study of women confronting the political and cultural implications of dyeing their hair blonde."--Publisher's description

You are only just beginning lessons for the journey ahead
Nichols, Morgan Harper, 1990-
This illustrated collection of poetry empowers you to embrace your next adventure with confidence and grace, drawing on valuable lessons from nature

Shakespeare's sonnets
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616

Above ground poems
Smith, Clint, 1988-
Clint Smith's vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world. There are poems that interrogate the ways our lives are shaped by both personal lineages and historical institutions. There are poems that revel in the wonder of discovering the world anew through the eyes of your children, as they discover it for the first time. There are poems that meditate on what it means to raise a family in a world filled with constant social and political tumult. Above Ground wrestles with how we hold wonder and despair in the same hands, how we carry intimate moments of joy and a collective sense of mourning in the same body. Smith's lyrical, narrative poems bring the reader on a journey not only through the early years of his children's lives, but through the changing world in which they are growing up--through the changing world of which we are all a part

Zero at the bone fifty entries against despair
Wiman, Christian, 1966-
"Few contemporary writers ask the questions about faith, morality, and God that Christian Wiman does, and even fewer--perhaps none--do so with his urgency and eloquence. Wiman, an award-winning poet and the author of My Bright Abyss, lays the motion of his mind on the page in this genre-defying work, an indivisible blend of poetry, criticism, theology, and searing memoir. As Marilynne Robinson wrote, "[Wiman's] poetry and his scholarship have a purifying urgency that is rare in this world . . . It enables him to say new things in timeless language, so that the reader's surprise and assent are one and the same." Zero at the Bone begins with Wiman's preoccupation with despair, and through fifty brief pieces, he unravels its seductive appeal. The book is studded with the poetry and prose of writers who inhabit Wiman's thoughts, and the voices of Wallace Stevens, Lucille Clifton, Emily Dickinson, and others join his own. At its heart and Wiman's, however, are his family--his young children (who ask their own invaluable questions, like "Why are you a poet? I mean why?"), his wife, and those he grew up with in West Texas. Wiman is the rare thinker who takes up the mantle of our greatest mystics and does so with an honest, profound, and contemporary sensibility. Zero at the Bone is a revelation." -- Provided by publisher

The Calamity Club
Stockett, Kathryn,
"Oxford, Mississippi, 1933. Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable 'big girls' at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she's left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister's seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies. Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates--and Meg's--converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan to claim what's rightfully theirs. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women's freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences"--Inside jacket flap

Theo of golden
Levi, Allen, 1956-
"Questions linger about Theo, a pleasant but mysterious stranger, after his arrival in the southern city of Golden. Who is he, and why is he here? He arrives early one spring and by chance -- or is it? -- he visits a coffee shop where 92 framed pencil portraits are on display. Inspired, Theo sets out on a mission of purchasing all the portraits one at a time and quietly bestowing them on their 'rightful owners.' Stories are told; friendships are born; and lives are changed. Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted story about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the far-reaching possibilities of anonymous kindness."--

Dungeon Crawler Carl the graphic novel. Volume one
Dinniman, Matt,
"You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Getting stuck on a sadistic alien game show with her cat"--Page 4 of cover

Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone
Rowling, J. K
Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry

My friends
Backman, Fredrik, 1981-
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, who "captures the messy essence of being human" (The Washington Post), returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger's life twenty-five years later. Most people don't even notice them-three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it's just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There's Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there's the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream. Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa's care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting's birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don't always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art"--

Lady Tremaine
Hochhauser, Rachel,
"Twice-widowed, Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley is solely responsible for her two children, a priggish stepdaughter, a razor-taloned peregrine falcon, and a crumbling manor. Fierce and determined, Ethel clings to the respectability her deceased husband's title affords her, hoping it will secure her daughters' future through marriage. When a royal ball offers the chance to change everything, Ethel risks her pride in pursuit of an invitation for all three of her daughters--only to see her hopes fulfilled by the wrong one. As an engagement to the future king unfolds, Ethel discovers a sordid secret hidden in the depths of the royal family, forcing her to choose between the security she craves and the wellbeing of the stepdaughter who has rebuffed her at every turn. As if Bridgerton met Circe, and exhilarating to its core, Lady Tremaine reimagines the myth of the evil stepmother at the heart of the world's most famous fairy tale. It is a battle cry for a mother's love for her daughters, and a celebration of women everywhere who make their own fortunes"-- Provided by publisher

Yesteryear
Burke, Caro Claire,
"A social media celebrity, a wife and mother who sells her fantasy pioneer lifestyle of sourdough and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of followers, suddenly wakes up cold, dirty, and hungry in the year 1805 and must uncover the nature - hoax, reality show, test from God - of her terrifying new existence in this sensational debut novel. "My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive." Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie's followers - all 8 million of them - don't know won't hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an anti-feminist iconoclast? They're sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn't simply living the good life, she's living the ideal - and just so happens to be building an empire from it. Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn't hers. Her home, her husband, her children - they're all familiar, but something's off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she's expected to haul firewood andhand washh clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible. A gripping, electrifying novel that is as darkly funny as it is frightening, Yesteryear is a gimlet-eyed look at tradition, fame, faith, and the grand performance of womanhood"-- Provided by publisher

The two towers being the second part of The lord of the rings
Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973
Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord

Dolly all the time
Monaghan, Annabel,
"If they start by pretending, can they end with something real? Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn't solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home. So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield: annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family: with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it's in her nature to help. But Stewart's proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She's never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now?"--Provided by publisher

Dolly all the time
Monaghan, Annabel,
"If they start by pretending, can they end with something real? Dolly Brick has never met a problem she couldn't solve. Not when her mom left when she was twelve, and not at thirty-nine when she moves with her son back to Whitfield, Rhode Island for the summer to keep her dad and brother from losing the family home. So when she comes across Stewart Whitfield: annoyingly handsome scion of the Whitfield family: with a flat tire and at the wrong end of a very public, very humiliating breakup, it's in her nature to help. But Stewart's proposed arrangement ends up being more than either of them bargained for, because as public dinners and high society benefits turn into sunset boat rides and kisses that hit her bloodstream like a ghost pepper, Dolly starts to feel something more than helpful. She's never relied on anyone besides herself, can she really start now?"--Provided by publisher

Remarkably bright creatures
Van Pelt, Shelby,
"For fans of A Man Called Ove, a luminous debut novel about a widow's unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium-and the truths she finally uncovers about her son's disappearance 30 years ago"--

Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets
Rowling, J. K
When the Chamber of Secrets is opened again at the Hogswart School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, second-year student Harry Potter finds himself in danger from a dark power that has once more been released on the school

Kingdom of ash
Maas, Sarah J.,
With Aelin locked in an iron coffin by Queen of the Fae Maeve, Aedion and Lysandra struggle to defend Terrasen, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian face their own fates, and Rowan seeks his captured wife and queen. The series concludes in a final epic battle

The possession of Alba Díaz
Cañas, Isabel,
"When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn't trust... from bestselling author Isabel Cañas. In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family's isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong. Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family's legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin's betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can't help but notice her every time she enters a room or the growing tension between them... and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon's thirst for blood grows stronger. In the fight for her life, Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets, and one another... not knowing that one of these things will spell their doom"--

My name is Emilia del Valle
Allende, Isabel,
"In San Francisco in 1866, an Irish nun, abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman. To pursue her passion for writing, she is willing to defy societal norms. At the age of seventeen, she begins to publish pulp fiction using a man's pen name. When these fictional worlds can no longer satisfy her sense of adventure, she turns to journalism, convincing an editor at The Daily Examiner to hire her. There she is paired with another talented reporter, Eric Whelan. As she proves herself, her restlessness returns, until an opportunity arises to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. She seizes it, as does Eric, and while there, she meets her estranged father and delves into the violent confrontation in the country where her roots lie. As she and Eric discover love, the war escalates and Emilia finds herself in extreme danger, fearing for her life and questioning her identity and her destiny." --

The Grand Paloma Resort
Natera, Cleyvis,
"The Grand Paloma Resort is a lush paradise in the Dominican Republic where the guests enjoy incredible luxury, and the staff is always eager to please-that is, until they are pushed to the brink"-- Provided by publisher

Hombrecito
Sanchez, Santiago Jose,
"A novel by a brilliant new voice, Hombrecito is a queer coming-of-age story about a young immigrant's complex relationships with his mother and his motherland."--

Catalina
Cornejo Villavicencio, Karla,
"Catalina is trying to work out her own life as she leaves her undocumented family behind to enter Harvard. Suffering from bouts of PTSD, she struggles to connect to her new world just as she struggled to make sense of her old one. She infiltrates the subcultures of elite undergrads-internships and college newspapers, parties and secret societies-and observes them like an anthropologist, but then falls in love, or something like love, with a fellow student, an actual anthropology scholar who wants to teach her about the Andean world she was born in but never knew. They are drawn to each other by the strange attraction of exocticized fascination-she, a real live Latin American, becomes a subject of academic interest; he, in turns, draws her fascination as a white legacy admit born into the strange world she now navigates. Catalina is uncertain: should she let herself become what he wants her to be and take up residence in his secure and privileged world? Or should she return to the life she's known, with all its thorny precarity? Who is she anyway?"--

The dance and the fire
Saldaña París, Daniel, 1984-
"After years apart, three high school friends return to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where an intense love triangle once left an indelible mark on their adolescence. The city, surrounded by a ring of claustrophobic wildfires, brings out the past and confronts them with their present: they must once again face the entanglement of friendship and desire, the seemingly distant discovery of sexuality, complex parental relationships, and the daunting task of artistic fulfillment. In the background, two forces of chaos and destruction are a constant presence. As fires ravage the physical landscape, one of the friends begins choreographing an ecstatic dance inspired by the German expressionist Mary Wigman and medieval Danse Macabre. What starts as a coping mechanism for the anxieties of youth and climate catastrophe becomes an overpowering, all-consuming hysteria. Mysterious powers are awakened, the boundary between reality and myth begins to blur, and the friends find themselves immersed in an increasingly turbulent and uncertain universe"--

Loca
Heredia, Alejandro, 1994-
"It's 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he's held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she'd escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo's worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other." --

Speak to me of home
Cummins, Jeanine,
"What does it mean to call a place home? From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jeanine Cummins comes a deeply felt multigenerational family story On her wedding day in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1968, Rafaela Acuña y Daubón has mild misgivings, but she marries Peter Brennan Jr. anyway in a blaze of romantic optimism. She has no way of knowing how dramatically her life will change when she uproots her young family to start over in the American Midwest, unleashing a fleet of disappointments. In the 1980s, against the backdrop of her mother's isolation in St. Louis, Missouri, Rafaela's daughter, Ruth Brennan, wants only to belong. Eager to fit in, Ruth lets go of her language, habits, and childhood memories of Puerto Rico. It's not until decades later when Ruth's own daughter, Daisy, returns to San Juan that her mother and grandmother begin to truly reflect on the choices that have come to define their lives. When a hurricane ravages the island in 2023, leaving Daisy critically injured, Rafaela and Ruth return to the city where it all began. As they gather at Daisy's bedside, we follow them back into the pasts that brought them to this point: we watch as they come of age, fall in love, take risks, and contend with all the heartbreaks, triumphs, and reversals of fortune--both good and bad--that make up a meaningful life. As old memories come to light, so do buried secrets, leaving everyone in the family wondering exactly where it is that they belong. A striking, resonant examination of marriage, family, and identity, Speak to Me of Home is ultimately a story of mothers and daughters that asks: How can three women who share geography and genetics have such wildly different ideas of where they come from? And, more importantly, can they discover a common language to find their way back home?"--

The intrigue
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia,
"Handsome con artist Ulises has long charmed lonely women via letters to steal their money, but money is hard to come by in 1940s Mexico. Ulises knows his looks won't last forever, and he's desperate to get his hands on a real fortune. He thinks he's found it when he captivates his newest correspondent, Perla, the owner of a small-town boardinghouse in picturesque Veracruz. But when he meets her, he finds something he didn't expect. The woman has a niece, Inés, who is as observant as she is desperate to escape her aunt's household. When Inés discovers Ulises' true intentions, she wants in on the scheme. They'll convince her aunt that Ulises is a great catch, Perla will marry him, and her money will vanish. Easy, fast and clean. But Perla is not the desperate, silly spinster Ulises imagines. She harbors secrets. And although Ulises does not believe in true romance, Inés is more alluring than he bargained on. Suddenly, a simple plan may become perilously complicated. Venture into the streets of a small town where the patina of convention and good manners conceals a cauldron of avarice and lust"--

Last night in Brooklyn
Gonzalez, Xochitl, 1977-
"New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a captivating story about a young woman whose life becomes ensnared in her glamorous neighbor's secret past, laying bare the mounting tensions at play in a rapidly gentrifying, early 2000's Fort Greene, Brooklyn. SPRING, 2007 At twenty-six, Alicia Canales Forten feels smothered by her future. She's in a long-distance relationship, living at home with her mother's beliefs, saving up for her wedding to a future doctor. But after Alicia ventures out one night in the neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, she finds herself lured by the siren song of youth and possibility that the striving crowd of creatives holds, and moves in. No one embodies this more than La Garza, a larger-than-life, up-and-coming fashion designer whose epic house parties fuel neighborhood lore. La Garza's life, observed by Alicia from her apartment across the street, seems to hold the allure and fearlessness Alicia has never dared to imagine for herself. But when Alicia's wealthy banker cousin moves to the neighborhood, she finds herself increasingly drawn into both his and La Garza's precarious lives. Against the backdrop of a potentially life-changing presidential election and a looming once-in-a-generation fiscal crisis, Last Night in Brooklyn explores the dark compromise of the American Dream for people of color living, unknowingly, in the twilight of a cultural moment. It is a story about everything money can buy--and the destruction of what it can't"--

I give you my silence
Vargas Llosa, Mario, 1936-2025,
"In his final novel, the Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa returns to his native Peru"-- Provided by publisher

Autobiography of cotton
Rivera Garza, Cristina, 1964-
"In 1934, a young Jose Revueltas traveled to Tamaulipas to support the cotton workers' strike in Estacion Camaron, which became the basis of his landmark novel Human Mourning. In her own groundbreaking novel, Autobiography of Cotton, Cristina Rivera Garza recounts her grandparents' journey from mining towns to those same cotton fields as it intersects with Revueltas's life in a vivid and evocative history of cotton cultivation along the Mexico-US border. Through archival research and personal narrative, Rivera Garza chronicles the way cotton transformed the borderlands by reconstructing the cotton workers' strike and reveals how cycles of deprivation and ecocide persist across generations. Deeply personal and politically acute, Rivera Garza crafts a new kind of border novel that tells how a brittle land radically altered her grandparents' lives and the territories they helped develop. An intimate fictionalization, Autobiography of Cotton reveals a rich social history of agricultural colonization, labor activism, environmental degradation, and cross-border migration"-- Provided by publisher

Frida's cook
Etcheves, Florencia, 1971-
"This colorful, emotive historical debut whisks us to the home of Frida Kahlo, where food, art, and love weave together an unforgettable story of friendship and loyalty, with a bright Coyoacán as a vivid background. A hidden painting. A buried past. A legacy waiting to be uncovered. Mexico City, 1939: Young and determined Nayeli Cruz flees from her Oaxaca home to arrive in Mexico City with neither friends nor prospects. Alone and armed only with her sharp wit and extraordinary talent in the kitchen, she finds herself in front of La Caza Azul, the home of Frida Kahlo. As she begins work as the artist's cook, Nayeli is pulled into Frida's world of pain, passion, and defiance. But it isn't long before amid the vibrant tapestry of flavors, scents, and colors, the two women form a deep bond--one that will shape the course of Nayeli's life and leave behind a secret buried in art. Buenos Aires, Present Day: Paloma, Nayeli's granddaughter, stumbles upon a mysterious painting depicting her grandmother as a young woman. The artist's identity is unknown, but the artwork's existence threatens to unravel long-held family secrets. As Paloma delves into her grandmother's past, she uncovers a tale of passion, betrayal, and resilience that challenges everything she thought she knew about the one woman who raised her"--

My name is Emilia del Valle
Allende, Isabel,
"In San Francisco in 1866, an Irish nun, abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman. To pursue her passion for writing, she is willing to defy societal norms. At the age of seventeen, she begins to publish pulp fiction using a man's pen name. When these fictional worlds can no longer satisfy her sense of adventure, she turns to journalism, convincing an editor at The Daily Examiner to hire her. There she is paired with another talented reporter, Eric Whelan. As she proves herself, her restlessness returns, until an opportunity arises to cover a brewing civil war in Chile. She seizes it, as does Eric, and while there, she meets her estranged father and delves into the violent confrontation in the country where her roots lie. As she and Eric discover love, the war escalates and Emilia finds herself in extreme danger, fearing for her life and questioning her identity and her destiny." --

Deeper than the ocean
Ojito, Mirta A.,
"One hundred years after the shipwreck of the Valbanera, known to history as the 'poor man's Titanic', Mara Denis gets an assignment to report on the Canary Islands, where her ancestors lived before they moved to Cuba. Unexpectedly, she discovers that the grandmother her mother cherished was listed among the dead of the Valbanera, years before Mara's mother was even born. This fateful twist changes everything Mara thought she knew about her family and herself, and sends her on a quest to find the truth. If her great grandmother is a ghost, who is she and where did she come from?"--

Malinalli
Chapa, Veronica,
An imaginative retelling of the triumphs and sorrows of one of the most controversial and misunderstood women in Mexico's history and mythology

Last night in Brooklyn
Gonzalez, Xochitl, 1977-
"New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a captivating story about a young woman whose life becomes ensnared in her glamorous neighbor's secret past, laying bare the mounting tensions at play in a rapidly gentrifying, early 2000's Fort Greene, Brooklyn. SPRING, 2007 At twenty-six, Alicia Canales Forten feels smothered by her future. She's in a long-distance relationship, living at home with her mother's beliefs, saving up for her wedding to a future doctor. But after Alicia ventures out one night in the neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, she finds herself lured by the siren song of youth and possibility that the striving crowd of creatives holds, and moves in. No one embodies this more than La Garza, a larger-than-life, up-and-coming fashion designer whose epic house parties fuel neighborhood lore. La Garza's life, observed by Alicia from her apartment across the street, seems to hold the allure and fearlessness Alicia has never dared to imagine for herself. But when Alicia's wealthy banker cousin moves to the neighborhood, she finds herself increasingly drawn into both his and La Garza's precarious lives. Against the backdrop of a potentially life-changing presidential election and a looming once-in-a-generation fiscal crisis, Last Night in Brooklyn explores the dark compromise of the American Dream for people of color living, unknowingly, in the twilight of a cultural moment. It is a story about everything money can buy--and the destruction of what it can't"--
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