New Books for February 19
3, 2, 1, awesome!
Chen, Eva, 1980- author
2020
"From Instagram superstar and New York Times bestselling author Eva Chen, here is a primer in prominent female icons from throughout history that doubles as a fun counting book."-- Provided by publisher.
Bitter pill
Michaels, Fern, author
2021
After Myra receives a worrying letter from a childhood friend, the Sisterhood sets out to bring down a team of unscrupulous doctors pushing destructive natural remedies.
Blue sky kingdom : an epic family journey to the heart of the Himalaya
Kirkby, Bruce 1968- author
2020
One morning at breakfast, while gawking at his phone and feeling increasingly disconnected from family and everything else of importance in his world, it strikes writer Bruce Kirkby: this isn't how he wants to live. Within days, plans begin to take shape. Bruce, his wife Christine, and their two children--seven-year-old Bodi and three-year-old Taj--will cross the Pacific by container ship, then travel onward through South Korea, China, India and Nepal aboard bus, riverboat and train, eventually traversing the Himalaya by foot. Their destination: a thousand-year-old Buddhist monastery in the remote Zanskar valley, one of the last places where Tibetan Buddhism is still practised freely in its original setting. Taken into the mud-brick home of a senior lama, Tsering Wangyal, the family spends the summer absorbed by monastery life. In this refuge, where ancient traditions intersect with the modern world, Bruce discovers ways to slow down, to observe and listen, and ultimately, to better understand his son on the autism spectrum--to surrender all expectations and connect with Bodi exactly as he is. Recounted with wit and humility, Blue Sky Kingdom is an engaging travel memoir as well as a thoughtful exploration of modern distraction, the loss of ancient wisdom, and the challenges and rewards of intercultural friendships.
The deserter
DeMille, Nelson, author
2020
A taut, psychologically suspenseful military thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille--writing with his son, screenwriter Alex DeMille--about two army investigators on the hunt in Venezuela for an army deserter who might know too much about a secret Pentagon operation.
Erotic stories for Punjabi widows
Jaswal, Balli Kaur, author
2017
Nikki has spent most of her life distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community. After her father's death she takes a job teaching a creative writing course in the heart of the Punjabi community. When one of the women students brings a book of erotica to class, Nicki use it as the basis for helping these modest women unleash creativity by telling their own stories.
How to be a girl in the world
Carter, Caela, author
2020
Twelve-year-old Lydia, feeling threatened by the attention her changing body is getting from boys and men, finds a way to take control of her own skin.
If I knew then : finding wisdom in failure and power in aging
Arden, Jann, author
2020
Digging deep into her strengths, her failures and her losses, Jann Arden brings us an inspiring account of how she has surprised herself, in her fifties, by at last becoming completely her own person. Like many women, it took Jann a long time to realize that trying to be pleasing and likeable and beautiful in the eyes of others was a loser's game. Letting it rip, and damning the consequences, is not only liberating, it's a hell of a lot of fun: "Being the age I am--that so many women are--is just the best time of my life." Jann weaves her own story together with tales of her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, and the father she came close to hating, to show her younger self--and all of us--that fear and avoidance is no way to live.
The inn
Patterson, James, 1947- author
2020
The building at Gloucester stands alone on the rocky shoreline. Its seclusion suits former Boston police detective Bill Robinson, novice owner and innkeeper. As long as the dozen residents pay their rent, Robinson doesn't ask any questions. Neither does Sheriff Clayton Spears, who lives on the second floor. Then Mitchell Cline arrives, with a deadly new way of doing business. His crew of local killers break laws, deal drugs, and bring violence to the front door. That's when Robinson realizes, with the help of journalist Susan Solie, that leaving the city is no escape from the reality of evil, or the responsibility for action.
Instant karma
Meyer, Marissa, author
2020
Chronic overachiever Prudence Daniels is always quick to cast judgment on the lazy, rude, and arrogant residents of her coastal town. After a night out with her friends, she wakes up with the sudden ability to cast instant karma on those around her. Pru makes use of the power, punishing everyone from public vandals to karaoke hecklers, but there is one person on whom her powers consistently backfire: Quint Erickson, her slacker of a lab partner and all-around mortal enemy. When Pru begins working at an animal rescue center for extra credit, she discovers how thin the line is between virtue and vanity, generosity and greed, love and hate.
An Irish country cottage
Taylor, Patrick, 1941-, author
2020
The New Year brings challenges and changes to the colorful Irish village of Ballybucklebo. The Christmas holidays have barely passed before a fire engulfs the humble thatched cottage housing Donal Donnally and his family. Although the family escapes the blaze more or less unsinged, Donal, his wife, their three small children, and their beloved dog find themselves with nothing left but the clothes on their back. Good thing Doctors O'Reilly and Laverty are on hand to rally the good people of Ballybucklebo to come to their aid. Rebuilding the cottage won't be quick or easy, but good neighbors from all walks of life will see to it that the Donallys get back on their feet again, no matter what it takes. Meanwhile, matters of procreation occupy the doctors and their patients. Young Barry Laverty and his wife, Sue, frustrated in their efforts to start a family, turn to modern medicine for answers. O'Reilly must tread carefully as he advises a married patient on how to avoid another dangerous pregnancy. As a new and tumultuous decade approaches, sectarian divisions threaten to bring unrest to Ulster, but in Ballybucklebo at least, peace still reigns and neighbors look after neighbors.
Mrs. Everything
Weiner, Jennifer, author
2021
Growing up in 1950s Detroit, Jo and Bethie Kaufman's roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life. As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and women's lib, Bethie becomes an adventure-loving wild child who dives headlong into the counterculture, up for anything -- except settling down. Jo becomes a proper young mother in Connecticut, a witness to the changing world instead of a participant. Is it too late for the women to finally stake a claim on happily ever after?
Net force. Attack protocol
Preisler, Jerome, author
2020
The president's new cybersecurity team, Net Force, is up and running. But a political deadlock in Washington makes the young agency dangerously vulnerable to the criminals, terror groups and hostile governments who would use the digital space to advance their destructive goals. In Central Europe, an unknown enemy mounts a crippling high-tech assault against the organization's military threat-response unit on its home base. The strike casts suspicion on a core member of Net Force, threatening to destroy the cyber defense group from within. But as they race to track down their attackers, the stakes are suddenly ratcheted higher. For a global syndicate of black hat hackers and a newly belligerent Russia are hatching a mysterious, shadowy scheme for world domination from a place known only as the Secret City. Their attack protocol: leave Net Force in ashes while Moscow and its Dark Web allies set the stage for a devastating strike against the United States. Unless the men and women of Net Force can regroup in time to stop them.
The river murders : thrillers
Patterson, James, 1947- author
2020
Sometimes figuring out the truth means going to the point of no return. For Mitchum, returning isn't something he concerns himself with. In three "Bookshot" thrillers, the Navy SEAL reject-turned-private-eye has to solve some very high-stakes cases.
Robert Ludlum's the Treadstone resurrection
Hood, Joshua, author
2020
The top-secret CIA Black Ops program Operation Treadstone trained Adam Hayes to be an all-but-invincible assassin, but it also cost him his family and any chance at a normal life. Now working as a carpenter in rural Washington state, Adam thinks he has left Treadstone in the past. Then he receives a mysterious email from a former colleague and is attacked by an unknown hit team at his job site. Are his pursuers enemies from a long-ago mission? Rival intelligence agents? Or, perhaps, forces inside Treadstone? Adam's search will unearth secrets in the highest levels of government--and pull him back into the shadowy world he worked so hard to forget.
The storied life of A.J. Fikry : a novel
Zevin, Gabrielle, author
2020
When his most prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, is stolen, bookstore owner A. J. Fikry begins isolating himself from his friends, family and associates before receiving a mysterious package that compels him to remake his life.
The suspect
Barton, Fiona, author
2020
"When two eighteen-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft, and frantic with worry. What were the girls up to before they disappeared? Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth--and this time is no exception. But she can't help but think of her own son, whom she hasn't seen in two years, since he left home to go travelling. As the case of the missing girls unfolds, they will all find that even this far away, danger can lie closer to home than you might think."-- from Worldcat.org.
The vanishing
Krentz, Jayne Ann, author
2020
Decades ago in the small town of Fogg Lake, "The Incident" occurred: an explosion in the cave system that released unknown gases. The residents slept for two days. When they woke up they discovered that things had changed--they had changed. Some started having visions. Others heard ominous voices. And then the scientists from a mysterious government agency arrived. Determined not to become research subjects of strange experiments, the residents of Fogg Lake blamed the "hallucinations" on food poisoning, and the story worked. But now it has become apparent that the eerie effects of The Incident are showing up in the descendants of Fogg Lake... Catalina Lark and Olivia LeClair, best friends and co-owners of an investigation firm in Seattle, use what they call their "other sight" to help solve cases. When Olivia suddenly vanishes one night, Cat frantically begins the search for her friend. No one takes the disappearance seriously except Slate Arganbright, an agent from a shadowy organization known only as The Foundation, who shows up at her firm with a cryptic warning. A ruthless killer is hunting the only witnesses to a murder that occurred in the Fogg Lake caves fourteen years ago--Catalina and Olivia. And someone intends to make both women vanish.