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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

Games a love story
Volkova, Anna Maria,
"Normal People meets Fifty Shades of Grey in this provocative coming-of-age debut chronicling the turbulent romance between a brilliant but damaged economics grad student and a magnetic Wall Street CEO two decades her senior over the course of a heady New York City summer"-- Provided by publisher

Immortal legend Batman
Higgins, Kyle, 1985-
"The story centers on three inheritors of this ancient legacy: Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, and Tim Drake--each embodying and mastering individual cosmic energies in a battle to uphold justice across space and time. The iconic identities of the Bat-Family--Robin, Nightwing, and Batman--are not just names, but represent powerful, elemental forces from across the galaxy. These powers, known as "ways," have been passed down through generations of warriors. Many, many centuries from now, humanity has become a galactic civilization, with capital megacities on half a dozen planets, and smaller outposts on dozens more. But this expansion came at a cost. To conquer the vast distances between solar systems, humanity tapped into dark matter to bend space-time around ships. This completely transformed the fate of our species. But in order to access the power of dark matter, humanity inadvertently broke the barrier between our universe and our universe's shadow."--

She had enough
Grey, Stacie,
"Six friends. One dinner. And a secret that won't stay buried. Mallory Taylor was looking forward to a fun night out with old college friends -- nostalgia, laughter, nothing more. But Caitlin, always the quiet one of the group, seems even more withdrawn than usual. On edge. Distant. Then, hours after the women all head their separate ways, a massive earthquake reduces San Francisco to rubble -- and Caitlin disappears. It isn't until six months later, as the city begins to recover, that Mallory learns the truth. Was her disappearance related to the earthquake? Or was something else, something sinister, going on with Caitlin? No one else seems alarmed. No one is asking questions. But the more Mallory digs, the more she uncovers secrets from that night: fractures in their friendships, hidden motives, and quiet betrayals. The kind of secrets people would kill to protect. Twisty, atmospheric, and impossible to put down, She Had Enough is a chilling exploration of friendship, silence, and what happens when one woman refuses to stop asking questions." --

Romance is dead
Bohn, Katie,
"Scream queen Quinn has had it with scary movies. After years as Hollywood's horror It Girl, she's sick of the tabloids and the off-screen drama. So she's decided: one last film, before quitting for good. All that stands in her way is leading man Teddy James. Reality TV star and renowned playboy Teddy has looks to kill for, but absolutely no talent. AKA, Quinn's worst nightmare. That's until they stumble - literally - across a dead body on set. Everyone believes it's a tragic accident, but Quinn's not convinced. So she offers Teddy a deal: acting lessons in exchange for his help investigating. And as Teddy and Quinn dig deeper, she begins to wonder what's most at risk here - their lives, or her heart?"--Publisher

The revenge of the baby-sat a Calvin and Hobbes collection
Watterson, Bill,
The praise and popularity of Calvin and Hobbes continue to escalate as the hottest comic strip around reaches its fifth birthday. With keen insight, Bill Watterson depicts life through the eyes of a child, and the limits of our imaginations are challenged as we accompany Calvin and Hobbes while they stir up trouble, travel through time, transmogrify themselves--and just have fun in everything they do

A heartbeat at my feet
Judd, Kristin, 1979-
After years of dreams deferred, Josie Ballard's life is about to change. She and her husband are off to Sorrento for a summer adventure, but on the eve of their departure, Josie discovers his infidelity. Devastated, she leaves her faithless husband, heading for the sun-drenched Italian coast. Alone, future unknown. Five thousand miles away, Cicero, a rather snobbish terrier of indeterminate breeding, is likewise living an upturned life after his beloved human's passing. Heartbroken, he wanders the wilds of Pompeii. When a flustered tourist with a kind smile appears in the ruins, clutching her tote bag and map, Cicero and Josie collide like the two lost souls they are. In a series of turns as twisty as Sorrento's streets, Cicero leads Josie to her second act: Hugo, a charming and somewhat contrary local bookseller. Against a backdrop of quaint villages, sun-dappled olive orchards, and the shimmering Mediterranean Sea, Hugo and Josie embark on a friendship that just might tiptoe into romance, with little Cicero to help them along the way--for dogs, he reasons, are nothing if not experts when it comes to love

Predator kills the Marvel Universe
Percy, Benjamin,
"A Predator King, emboldened by a new vibranium arsenal and aided by a surprising human ally, launches an all-out invasion of Earth, claiming the planet as a hunting preserve! After several battles in our solar system -- which devastate both the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Fantastic Four -- the Predators escalate to the next stage of their war. And the X-Men and the Avengers are at the top of their kill list! Who will survive this extinction-level event as the entire Marvel Universe finds itself in the tri-laser crosshairs of the Predators?!"--

Helpless
Knoll, Jessica,
"It's been twelve years since Faye Heron broke Henry Spalding's heart. Henry was her college boyfriend, her first love, but Faye was in danger of being subsumed by him and the intensity of their connection--a connection that took her beyond boundaries she'd only dreamed of crossing. Now, Faye is one half of a power-producing duo with her Hollywood husband. Henry is a married father running the family business. On the surface, both of their lives have essentially gone to plan. When a former and beloved college professor suddenly passes away, Faye and Henry find themselves back on campus for the funeral, circling something old and dangerous. Something, if Faye is honest with herself, she has been trying to duplicate for years. But Henry is one of a kind. The kind who delivers a hypnotic apology for the way things ended. The kind who suggests they go back to the hotel for a drink. The kind who drugs and kidnaps her. When Faye comes to Henry's remote mountain cabin, she's beside herself. Has Henry brought her here to punish her? She did, after all, write and star in a lauded episode of television based on their indelicate appetites and vicious breakup. As her week of captivity unfolds, Henry's wanton demands intensify, and Faye finds herself pulled back into his irresistible gravity. But as Faye and Henry spiral into their old dynamic, a sprawling, years-old mystery begins to take shape--one that will rewrite history as Faye remembers it and reveal an astounding, cataclysmic truth."--Provided by publisher

Cocky August rake
Anders, Annabelle,
"Lord Reginald Preston--the long-absent younger brother of the Duke of Malum--has returned to society, having formerly believed to have gone down with his ship, The Phantom Gale. ... Lord Reginald has reportedly been seen on more than one occasion in the company of Lady Josephine, the youngest sister of the Earl of Standish. Respectable ladies, after all, do not usually favor gentlemen who spend their evenings preserving the business interests of London's most notorious private emporium"--Pages 1-2

Fortune
Cast, Kristin,
"Amanda Ward has a five-step manifestation routine, a ritual pouch in every purse, and a dating profile designed to reflect the version of herself she wishes she could be: grounded, glowing, and in total alignment. In reality, she's overwhelmed, under-satisfied, and one passive-aggressive email away from a full-blown meltdown. When a sext thread with her in-app boy toy, Declan Thorne, leads to an invitation she can't resist, Amanda finds herself face-to-face with the man behind the messages. A devastatingly hot, emotionally constipated venture capitalist. Oh-and a tarot-card-triggered portal that drops them into a fantasy realm. Now stranded in the Kingdom of Wands with an aggravating, broody CEO-turned-reluctant bodyguard and zero clue how to get home, Amanda's facing nightly onstage performances, suspicious queens, and magick that refuses to cooperate. What's worse is that her biggest issue might not be the kingdom-it might be catching real feelings for the one man who makes her want to drop the act. To survive and find their way back home, she'll have to ditch the affirmations and the carefully controlled persona she's been clinging to and learn how to wield something way more powerful-her actual, honest-to-Goddess truth. Even if it burns everything down"-- Provided by publisher

The Shark
Styles, Emma,
"At the height of Australian summer, a serial killer known as The Shark stalks a coastal suburb, hunting young female swimmers. Afraid and furious at the failure of the police to protect them, two women fight back. Raych is grieving someone she'd have died to save, while Carmen hides her own disturbing connection to the murders. In desperation, they form an uneasy alliance. And when another girl vanishes, they take matters into their own hands - by kidnapping the prime suspect. But as their interrogation spirals, horrifying truths surface on both sides of the table. The clock is ticking to save the missing girl. And in their quest for justice, Raych and Carmen must face the darkest question of all: have they caught a monster - or become one?"--

Summer of love
Maher, Kerri,
"In this moving novel about the transformative power of storytelling, three women make life-changing decisions set in motion by the 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco, shaping the legacy of their family's Napa Valley winery forever, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Bookseller. 1967: Concerts, hippies, and war protests define the counter-culture revolution that flourishes during the Summer of Love in San Francisco. No one is more into the messages of love and peace than Winifred (Winnie) Hartley who has just graduated from UC Berkeley determined to make it as a poet. When she reconnects with her high school boyfriend Lincoln Sawyer, it feels like her life is finally everything she wants it to be. Meanwhile, her sister Miranda throws herself into running the family business, Hartley Vineyard, determined to make California wine that rivals French. Little do the sisters know that the choices they make and the secrets they keep will set their lives down radically different paths. 2015: Dawn Hartley has a secret that she can't share with her mother Miranda, who has long been her closest confidant. How can she possibly admit that she has a drinking problem to her famous vintner mother? It feels like a betrayal of her own heritage. When an assignment for work requires her to research the wildly popular Vineland novels by a famously anonymous writer, she embarks on a quest that will shake her to the core, and just might set her life on the right path at last"-- Provided by publisher

Wisdom corner
Weiden, David Heska Wanbli, 1963-
"Virgil Wounded Horse is desperately trying to escape his past as a hired vigilante on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. But when a legendary figure from the reservation is murdered, he's forced to return to the job. Making matters more complicated, threats are coming from the Pine Ridge 705 - a street gang from a neighboring reservation who want to expand their reach into Rosebud - and Mitch Gagnon, a shady politician who will stop at nothing to gain more power. With a heated tribal council election looming, as well as new revelations regarding past injustices at the local Native boarding school, the stakes grow even higher. Will Virgil find the justice he's seeking before it's too late?"-- Provided by publisher

The wedding week
Saeed, Aisha,
"Long-buried secrets resurface when a woman returns home for her sister's lavish resort wedding in the Everglades, where gossiping aunties and Burmese pythons aren't the only threats. It's been three years since Hena Mirza saw her family. Three years since her fiancé mysteriously vanished on their wedding day. Three years since everyone decided she was to blame. When her younger sister, Lulu, calls with shocking news--she's getting married in forty-eight hours and their mother is dying--Hena's plan is simple: fly home, say goodbye, and leave before she reopens old wounds. But nothing about the trip is simple. This isn't a one-day event. It's an eight-day desi wedding with a guest list that eerily mirrors the one from her own failed nuptials. And though Hena feels unexpected sparks fly with two men in the wedding party--a childhood friend and a newcomer unfamiliar with her history--the remaining guests quickly make it clear: No one is happy she's back. Then Lulu's carefully planned itinerary goes awry. Hena initially dismisses the strange incidents, but as days pass and the sabotage escalates, it seems that someone is determined to destroy the wedding, just as Hena's was destroyed years ago. To survive this week, she'll have to uncover the culprit behind these attacks--before the past she's tried to outrun finally catches up to her"--

A lady's handbook to gadgets and guile
Bell, Angela,
"Wheelchair user Margaret Kingsley secretly crafts gadgets for a covert team of lady inspectors. When her expertise is needed to infiltrate the domain of London's most prolific inventor, she teams up with the inventor's secretary, Charles Noble. As strange occurrences surface, they must unravel a plot of sabotage while grappling with sparks of attraction"-- Provided by publisher

Mind over grind how to break free when work hijacks your life
Winch, Guy,
Clinical psychologist, TED Speaker, and author of Emotional First Aid offers a guide to combating the many stresses modern work imposes, based on recent research and the stories of clients Winch has helped to thrive in the relentless grind of today's workplace. --

After the flood inside Bob Dylan's memory palace
Polito, Robert, 1951-
"Blending biography and archival history, After the Flood asks of Bob Dylan, "If your dreams are fulfilled at twenty, what do you do with the rest of your life?" A prevailing narrative goes: Bob Dylan, the voice of Sixties counterculture, disappeared in the 1970s, then released arguably the worst music of his career in the 1980s-only to be resurrected in 2016, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Dylan's concerts once began with an announcer intoning a deadpan version of just such a narrative. That is not this story. Drawing on thousands of pages of archival materials, After the Flood reveals Dylan's output during the last three decades as his most ambitious yet. Across an abecedarium of chapters surveying his albums, performances, films, and books since the early 1990s, celebrated poet and biographer Robert Polito shows how Dylan evolved a late musical style that has embodied and resisted its era-interweaving Ovid and Americana, film noir and the Civil War. Imaginatively researched, After the Flood is both an essential revision and continuation of the Dylan saga"-- Provided by publisher

Bonded by evolution the new science of love and connection
Eastwick, Paul W.,
"A groundbreaking look at the science of attraction and compatibility, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about how human mating evolved-to demonstrate the real keys to romantic attachment"-- Provided by publisher

MCAT biochemistry review

iPad for seniors in easy steps
Vandome, Nick,
"A handy guide for any Senior new to the iPad - get up and running quickly! Presented in larger type than our standard books, for easier reading. Covers all models with iPadOS 26. Discover the joy of using an iPad with iPad for Seniors in easy steps, 15th edition - updated for iPadOS 26. Written in larger type than our standard books, iPad for Seniors in easy steps will help seniors learn and enjoy key iPad features with confidence and ease: Choose the right iPad: Find the perfect model for your needs and customize it to suit your lifestyle. Stay connected: Make video calls, send fun messages, and share photos with family and friends. Shop and explore: Order food, shop online, take virtual museum tours, and plan your next adventure - all from your iPad. Master new features: Get the most out of the enhanced tools in iPadOS 26. No need to ask the kids for help anymore!"--

Love poems
Kaur, Rupi,
"For the first time, Rupi Kaur's heartfelt love poems are together in one intimate and timeless collection! ...'love will come and when love comes love will hold you love will call your name'... Since her groundbreaking debut with the bestselling milk and honey, Rupi Kaur's poetry has become a source of comfort, empowerment, and emotional truth for millions around the world. Now, for the first time ever, her most cherished reflections on love are together in one place! Love Poems by Rupi Kaur is a curated collection of love poems from Kaur's acclaimed body of work, including poems from milk and honey, the sun and her flowers, and home body, along with an all-new introduction. These timeless pieces capture the sensuality, romance, passion, and all-consuming nature of modern love, making it the perfect gift for anyone who has loved deeply or is learning to love themselves."--Amazon.com

Embroidery on knits
Gummlich, Judit,
Transform your knits with a handful of simple embroidery stitches: a cosy cardigan embellished with bright flowers, a dragonfly on the front of a sweater and mittens with plants climbing up the back of the hand. This timeless embroidery book features 18 nature-inspired templates, generously complimented by insightful tips and ideas on how to use them. Embroidery on Knits is an in-depth guide to contemporary stitching with and on wool, explaining every step of the process from planning to finished project. It is a source of inspiration and knowledge for crafty beginners and savvy stitchers alike

Adobe Illustrator 2026 release
Wood, Brian (Adobe instructor),
The fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator Classroom in a Book 2026 Release contains 17 lessons that use real-world, project-based learning to cover the basics and beyond, providing countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. For beginners and experienced users alike, you can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you. Unleash your creativity with 17 hands-on projects--from bold logos and sleek illustrations to stunning posters and expressive digital art. Dive in with quick, step-by-step lessons that build real Illustrator skills fast. Master selections, shapes, colors, and edits--then push your style further with Generative AI, gradients, layers, artistic brushes, effects, sharing, and much more. Every project helps you create something eye-catching, original, and portfolio-ready. Classroom in a Book®, the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, offers what no other book or training program does - an official training series from Adobe, developed with the support of Adobe product experts

Forgotten London exploring the hidden life of the city
Ackroyd, Peter, 1949-
No city shaped the modern world quite like London - a powerhouse of trade, finance and empire, the centre of global influence in the nineteenth century. But beyond the familiar stories of power and politics, its true life played out in the streets, where market traders, music hall crowds and factory workers gave it its vitality, its light and its shadows. This book uncovers its stories, bringing to life the highs and lows of those who made the city what it was. Covering the transformative years from the Victorian era to the Second World War, this richly illustrated book - featuring rare photographs, colourised images and period artwork - immerses readers in a side of London often overlooked

The butter book
Stockwell, Anna,
"In this charming kitchen companion, discover butter's curious history, collectible butter accessories, tips for buying butter, fun ways to serve it, and its ability to transform the most humble foods-hot porridge, a pot of rice-into something revelatory"-- Provided by publisher

When you listen to this song on memory, loss, and writing
Lafon, Lola, 1974-
"A quietly powerful exploration of memory and forgetting, from one of France's leading feminist public intellectuals. In 2021, the award-winning French writer Lola Lafon was granted permission to stay overnight--alone for ten hours--in the Annex in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family had hidden from the Nazis between 1942 and 1944. Lafon's visit to this space, where Anne Frank wrote her famous diary, evoked the confinement and constant danger suffered by the Franks, and the family's ghostly presence as well. 'The night was inhabited, lit by reflections,' Lafon writes. 'Some urgency still dwelled at the heart of the Annex, crouched there, ready to be discovered.' Exploring the many stories told about Anne Frank, Lafon tries to find the precocious girl at the heart of the venerated and exploited myth, a disciplined writer whose famous diary is in fact a wonderfully constructed literary work. Throughout, Lafon reflects on what it means to lose loved ones, both Lafon's own family in the Holocaust and her childhood friend to the Khmer Rouge. A prizewinner and bestseller in France, this book asks us to consider the stories we tell ourselves about tragedy, how we grapple with loss, and why, in the face of danger and confinement, women write"--Amazon website

Until the last gun is silent a story of patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the fight to save America's soul
Delmont, Matthew F.,
"As the civil rights movement blazed through America, more than 300,000 Black troops were drafted and sent to fight in the Vietnam War. These soldiers, often from disadvantaged backgrounds and subjected to the brutalities of racism back home, found themselves thrust onto the frontlines of a war many saw as unjust. On the homefront, Black antiwar activists faced another battle: Opposition to the Vietnam War, vilified by key allies in the media and government as anti-American, jeopardized the fight for civil rights. For Black Americans, the Vietnam War forced a generation to question what it truly meant to fight for justice. Award-winning civil rights historian Matthew F. Delmont weaves together the stories of two Black heroes of the Vietnam War era: Coretta Scott King, who bravely championed the antiwar cause--and eventually persuaded her husband to do the same and Dwight "Skip" Johnson, a Medal of Honor recipient whose life ended tragically after returning from battle to his native Detroit. Together, these extraordinary accounts expose the contradictions of Black activism and military service during the Vietnam War. Through rich storytelling, Delmont offers a portrait of this period unlike any other, shedding light on a fractured civil rights movement, a generation of veterans failed by the country they served, and the valor of Black servicemen and peace advocates in the midst of it all"--

America's founding son : John Quincy Adams, from president to political maverick
Crawford, Bob (Musician),
"An accessible and entertaining biography of our nation's greatest public servant and original political maverick John Quincy Adams, from the bassist of the Grammy-nominated band the Avett Brothers."--Amazon

Moon handbooks. U.S. civil rights trail : a traveler's guide to the people, places, and events that made the movement

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"--

Leap of faith memoirs of an unexpected life
Noor, Queen, consort of Hussein, King of Jordan, 1951-

The world walk 7 years. 28,000 miles. 6 continents. a grand meditation, one step at a time
Turcich, Tom,
After the death of a close friend at seventeen, Tom Turcich resolved to make the most out of life; to travel and be forced into adventure; to experience and understand the world. On April 2nd, 2015, he set out to see it all--one step at a time.The World Walk is the emotional and exhilarating story of the tenth person and first dog to walk around the world. Together, Turcich and his dog Savannah covered twenty-eight thousand miles over the course of seven years

Mission accomplished: stop the clock a personal memoir
Engelman, Muriel P.,

My grandfather would have shot me a Black woman discovers her family's Nazi past
Teege, Jennifer, 1970-
"The memoir of a German-Nigerian woman who learns that her grandfather was the brutal Nazi commandant depicted [by Ralph Fiennes] in Schindler's List, Amon Goeth"--Provided by publisher

Hunger a memoir of (my) body
Gay, Roxane,

What I talk about when I talk about running a memoir
Murakami, Haruki, 1949-
In 1982, having sold his jazz bar to devote himself to writing, Murakami began running to keep fit. A year later, he'd completed a solo course from Athens to Marathon, and now, after dozens of such races, not to mention triathlons and a dozen critically acclaimed books, he reflects upon the influence the sport has had on his life and--even more important--on his writing.--From publisher description

Rabbit the autobiography of Ms. Pat
Williams, Patricia (Comedian),
The popular comedian traces her youth in Atlanta's most troubled neighborhood at the height of the crack epidemic, discussing her experiences with petty crime and prostitution that led to her becoming a mother at age thirteen before resolving to secure a better life for her children

My life on the road
Steinem, Gloria
"Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. Every fall, her father would pack the family into the car and they would drive across the country, in search of their next adventure. The seeds were planted: Steinem would spend much of her life on the road, as a journalist, organizer, activist, and speaker. In vivid stories that span an entire career, Steinem writes about her time on the campaign trail, from Bobby Kennedy to Hillary Clinton; her early exposure to social activism in India, and the decades spent organizing ground-up movements in America; the taxi drivers who were "vectors of modern myths" and the airline stewardesses who embraced the feminist revolution; and the infinite, surprising contrasts, the "surrealism in everyday life" that Steinem encountered as she traveled back and forth across the country. With the unique perspective of one of the greatest feminist icons of the 20th and 21st centuries, here is an inspiring, profound, enlightening memoir of one woman's life-long journey"--

Yet here I am lessons from a Black man's search for home
Capehart, Jonathan,
"MSNBC anchor Jonathan Capehart is one of the most recognizable faces in cable news. But long before that success, Capehart spent his boyhood growing up without his father, shuttling back and forth between New Jersey and rural Severn, North Carolina, contemplating the complexities of race and identity as they shifted around him. It was never easy bridging two worlds; whether being told he was too smart or not smart enough, too black or not black enough, Capehart struggled to find his place. Then, an internship at The Today Show altered the course of his life, bringing him one step closer to his dream. From there, Capehart embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Yet Here I Am takes us along that journey, from his years at Carleton College, where he learns to embrace his identity as a gay, black man surrounded by a likeminded community; to his decision to come out to his family, risking rejection; and finally to his move to New York City, where time and again he stumbles and picks himself up as he blazes a path to become the familiar face in news we know today. Honest and endearing, Yet Here I Am is an inspirational memoir of identity, opportunity, and of finding one's voice and purpose along the way"--

The motherload episodes from the brink of motherhood a memoir
Hoover, Sarah,
The Motherload, offers a candid and sobering exploration of the journey women undergo as expectant mothers and wives. Hoover, who grew up imagining a life for herself, experienced a series of challenges when she became pregnant. She felt like an imposter, distant from her friends and husband, and suffered from anxiety, fear, guilt, and shame. Her son was born, and she experienced severe postpartum depression. The Motherload is about learning to forgive oneself for not being what they were told they should be and for not loving the way they should. It is a moving and exciting exploration of the unique female experience of constantly grappling with expectation versus reality and rejecting the cultural idea of the mother as a perfect being

Year of the monkey
Smith, Patti,
"A memoir about the year 2016 in which dreams and reality are interwoven" -- Provided by publisher

Always carry salt a memoir of preserving language and culture
Ellis, Samantha,
A life-affirming memoir about resilience, language, and the healing power of our ancestor's music, stories, and recipes

Strange bewildering time Istanbul to Kathmandu in the last year of the Hippie Trail
Abley, Mark,
"A poet and journalist looks back on a remarkable journey from Turkey to Nepal in 1978, when the region was on the brink of massive transformation. In the spring of 1978, at age twenty-two, Mark Abley put aside his studies at Oxford and set off with a friend on a three-month trek across the celebrated Hippie Trail — a sprawling route between Europe and South Asia, peppered with Western bohemians and vagabonds. It was a time when the Shah of Iran still reigned supreme, Afghanistan lay at peace, and city streets from Turkey to India teemed with unrest. Within a year, many of the places he visited would become inaccessible to foreign travellers. Drawing from the tattered notebooks he filled as a youthful wanderer, Abley brings his kaleidoscope of experiences back to life with vivid detail: dancing in a Turkish disco, clambering across a glacier in Kashmir, travelling by train among Baluchi tribesmen who smuggled kitchen appliances over international borders. He also reflects on the impact of the Hippie Trail and the illusions of those who journeyed along it. The lively immediacy of Abley’s journals combined with the measured wisdom of his mature, contemporary voice provides rich insight, bringing vibrant witness and historical perspective to this beautifully written portrait of a region during a time of irrevocable change."--

A change of habit leaving behind my husband, career, and everything I owned to become a nun
Monica Clare, Sister,
"The Work shall be the Author's memoir, tracing her journey from a glamorous career in Hollywood to a convent in New Jersey, told with dry wit and her knack for one-liners, bringing alive her soulful story of finding solace in a sisterhood of women, where she slowly shed a lifelong habit of people pleasing, and where she also transformed the convent culture to allow for expressiveness, warmth, and more straightforward communication"--

Rocky Mountain highway stories and photos of my 25 years traveling with John Denver
Norman, Lowell,
This memoir delves into the author's extensive and close relationship with the celebrated singer-songwriter John Denver. Over 25 years, Norman Lowell, who served as Denver's personal photographer and friend, offers an intimate glimpse into the musician's life. The book weaves together personal anecdotes and a rich collection of photographs, revealing both public and private moments of Denver's life and career. Through these stories and images, Lowell presents a unique perspective on Denver's journey, his music, and the breathtaking landscapes that inspired him

Evidence poems
Oliver, Mary, 1935-2019

Chicago poems
Sandburg, Carl, 1878-1967

The immortal soul salvage yard poems
May, Beth,

Night owl poems
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee,
"From the New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders and Bite by Bite, Aimee Nezhukumatathil's fifth collection of poetry explores love, nature, and the transformative powers of the night. In her latest poetry collection, Aimee Nezhukumatathil plumbs the depths of nighttime, crafting a series of nocturnes that explore the magic, sensuality, and life that emerge as the rest of the world goes to bed. Night Owl navigates questions and concerns for the environment that envelops us. It meditates on our connections to family and beloveds, and explores our position within the broader beauty of the planet. Just as the night transforms how we see things, so too does love in its many forms transform our understanding of togetherness and the natural world. And these poems are deeply suffused with love-each an expression of Nezhukumatathil's captivating responses to the animals, plants, and people who have her heart and enliven her world. Night Owl presents a dazzling vision of nature that celebrates the beautiful noises and silences of this planet, as well as its many complications. Nezhukumatathil provides a singular contribution to writing on the natural world, calling up our sense of love-even in the face of increasing violence to one another and the environment-by focusing on the transformative impact of the dark"-- Provided by publisher

Pretty boys are poisonous poems
Fox, Megan, 1986-
"Megan Fox showcases her wicked humor throughout a heartbreaking and dark collection of poetry. Over the course of more than seventy poems Fox chronicles all the ways in which we fit ourselves into the shape of the ones we love, even if it means losing ourselves in the process."--Amazon

Moments of joy the poetry of Sister Jina, Chan Dieu Nghiem
van Hengel, Jina, Sister,
"The first full-length collection of 150 poems by contemplative Buddhist nun Sister Jina (Chan Dieu Nghiem), with imagery from the natural world and a life immersed in meditation practice"--

A bit much poems
Rush, Lyndsay,
"The debut poetry collection from Lyndsay Rush (aka @maryoliversdrunkcousin) is a humorous and joyful celebration of big feelings, tender truths, and hard-won wisdom, for fans of Maggie Smith, Kate Baer, and Kate Kennedy. At long last, a book of poetry for people who didn't even know they liked poetry. And they're in good company: author Lyndsay Rush didn't know she liked it either. That is, until she embarked on an internet experiment under the Instagram username @MaryOliversDrunkCousin that turned into a body of work that struck a chord with women across the country; thanks to her signature wordplay, witticisms, and-against all odds-wisdom. With titles like "Shedonism", "Someone to Eat Chips With", "It's Called Maximalism, Babe", and "Breaking News: Local Women Gets Out of Bed", Rush's debut collection of poetry uses humor to grapple with the female experience-from questioning whether or not to have children, to roasting the patriarchy, to challenging what it means to "age gracefully"-and each piece delivers gut-punching truths alongside gratifying punchlines. Readers walk away from Lyndsay's work feeling seen, celebrated, and wholly convinced that joy is an urgent, worthwhile pursuit. With over 140 convention-bending poems-most of which are never-before-seen-this book is quite literally A Bit Much"--

The carrying poems
Limón, Ada,
"Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. A daughter tends to aging parents. A woman struggles with infertility--"What if, instead of carrying / a child, I am supposed to carry grief?"--and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy. A nation convulses: "Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal." And still Limón shows us, as ever, the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives. "Fine then, / I'll take it," she writes. "I'll take it all." In Bright Dead Things, Limón showed us a heart "giant with power, heavy with blood"--"the huge beating genius machine / that thinks, no, it knows, / it's going to come in first." In her follow-up collection, that heart is on full display--even as The Carrying continues further and deeper into the bloodstream, following the hard-won truth of what it means to live in an imperfect world."--Publisher's website

The gift of animals poems of love, loss, and connection
"This unique collection of poems from diverse contemporary voices offers a range of perspectives on humans' complex relationship with animals, celebrating and bearing witness to the lives of animals both wild and domestic. The Gift of Animals includes poems by some of today's most beloved poets, including Ellen Bass, Lucille Clifton, Michael Collier, Toi Derricotte, Rita Dove, Camille Dungy, Mark Doty, Nick Flynn, Jorie Graham, Joy Harjo, Terrance Hayes, Yusef Komunyakaa, Ada Limón, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Craig Santos Perez, Paisley Rekdal, and more" --

Good poems

Love her wild poems
Atticus (Poet),
"The first collection of poetry by Instagram sensation Atticus. Love Her Wild is a collection of new and beloved poems from Atticus, the young writer who has captured the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of avid followers on his Instagram account @atticuspoetry, including superstars like Karlie Kloss and Shay Mitchell. He was dubbed the "#1 poet to follow" by Teen Vogue and "the world's most tattoo-able" poet by Galore magazine, in Love Her Wild, Atticus captures what is both raw and relatable about the smallest and the grandest moments in life: the first glimpse of a new love in Paris; skinny dipping on a summer's night; the irrepressible exuberance of the female spirit; or drinking whiskey in the desert watching the rising sun. With honesty, poignancy, and romantic flair, Atticus distills the most exhilarating highs and the heartbreaking lows of life and love into a few perfectly evocative lines, ensuring that his words will become etched in your mind--and will awaken your sense of adventure"--

Bright poems for dark days an anthology for hope

Playlist for the Apocalypse poems
Dove, Rita,
"A piercing, unflinching new volume offers necessary music for our tumultuous present, from "perhaps the best public poet we have" (Boston Globe). In her first volume of new poems in twelve years, Rita Dove investigates the vacillating moral compass guiding America's, and the world's, experiments in democracy. Whether depicting the first Jewish ghetto in sixteenth-century Venice or Black Lives Matter, this extraordinary poet never fails to connect history's grand exploits to the triumphs and tragedies of individual lives-the simmering resentment of an elevator operator, an octogenarian's exuberant mambo, the mordant humor of a philosophizing cricket. Audaciously playful yet grave, alternating poignant meditations on mortality and acerbic observations of injustice, Playlist for the Apocalypse takes us from the smallest moments of redemption to apocalyptic failures of the human soul"--

An American sunrise poems
Harjo, Joy,
A stunning new volume from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, informed by her tribal history and connection to the land

Winter roses after fall
Drake, Robert M.,
"There's a harshness in the air; the season is changing its colors. The rain is chilled, icy to the touch, and the sky, filled with melancholy. Your search for warmth has brought you here; you starve for something profound. You require something that will resonate with your soul. Despite how cold, you're determined to grow. And with these words, you bloom, a winter rose."--Publisher description

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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