Are you a fan of the hit Marvel TV show Loki? Are you dying to find out what happens in the next episode? Check out one of these interesting books to read while you wait.
If you are enamored by Loki’s wit and humor, this book should be right up your alley. “In a world where one can literally get lost in literature, Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection, tries to stop the world’s Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature.” – from Novelist
Can’t get enough of a mythical god living in and interacting with us mere American mortals? Neil Gaiman’s classic should hit the spot. “Days before his release from prison, Shadow learns that his wife has been killed in an accident. On the plane ride back home for the funeral, he meets Mr. Wednesday, who offers Shadow a job. Shadow accepts but soon discovers that Mr. Wednesday is far more dangerous than he could ever have imagined.” – from Novelist
Maybe your favorite part of Loki is the alternate history and time-traveling. If so, you’ll want to read this exciting novel. “Living in an alternate world of flying cars, moon bases and plentiful food, aimless Tom Barren is blindsided by an accident of fate that leads to a time-travel mishap that lands him in our less-than-ideal 2016, where he discovers wonderful unexpected versions of his own life.” – from Novelist
Do you love the idea of the TVA from Loki and the idea of going back in time to alter major historical events? Then you’ll want to put Stephenson’s sci-fi thriller on your to-read list ASAP. “A discreet translation assignment enmeshes a linguistics expert and a military intelligence operator in the world-shattering revelation that magic was once widely practiced and can be reactivated if they travel back in time to make historical changes that are complicated by human treachery.” – from Novelist
Maybe the quirky cast of characters if your favorite part of Loki. Yu’s creative novel also features a cast of memorable, offbeat characters to enjoy. “In a world transformed by time-travel technology, counselor Charles Yu searches for the father who invented time travel and vanished, a quest marked by quirky pseudo-companions.” – from Novelist
There you have it! If you simply cannot wait for the next episode of Loki or you want a similarly creative and exciting tale of time-travel mischief, consider giving one of these books a read.
June is LGBTQ Pride Month, and Algonquin Area Public Library District is delighted to celebrate the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community, by highlighting some the best in LGBTQ literature, including winners of the 2021 Lambda Literary “Lammy” Awards.
The awards are given by Lambda Literary, which began in 1987 when the owner of the Lambda Rising Bookstore in Washington D.C., published the Lambda Book Report, (now the Lambda Literary Review) covering the LGBTQ book world. The awards were launched in 1989, and award excellence in numerous categories of LGBTQ fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
AAPLD’s Adult Services staff has created a special Pride Month display, located near the reference desk, which showcases selections by LGBTQ authors, including recent Lambda “Lammy” Award winners.
Learn a little more about some of the Lambda Award winners you’ll find at AAPLD:
Written In The Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur – After a disastrous blind date, Darcy Lowell is desperate to stop her well-meaning brother from playing matchmaker ever again. Love-and the inevitable heartbreak-is the last thing she wants. So she fibs and says her latest set up was a success. Darcy doesn’t expect her lie to bite her in the ass. (Amazon.com)
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby – “Irby is forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin despite what Inspirational Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason jar salads. This is the bourgeois life of a Hallmark Channel dream. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with “TV executives slash amateur astrologers” while being a “cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person,” “with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees,” who still hides past due bills under her pillow. The essays in this collection draw on the raw, hilarious particulars of Irby’s new life. Wow, No Thank You is Irby at her most unflinching, riotous, and relatable” (Amazon.com)
Fiebra Tropical by Juliana Delgado Lopera – “In this novel told in Spanglish, fifteen-year-old Francisca is uprooted from her life in Bogotá, Colombia, and moves with her family to Miami, Florida, where she is ushered into an evangelical church and falls in love with the pastor’s daughter” (from the publisher)
Browse the display virtually here or click here to learn more about the Lamdba Awards. Place items on hold online, or give the Adult Services department a call. We’re happy to help!
Are you looking for a fast-paced read this summer? Do you love action and adventure stories? Check out one of these brand new thrilling page-turners today. From super spies to daring archaeologists and intrepid explorers, these books will send you to far flung and exciting locales as the heroes battle to save the world and the ones they love.
After thwarting the violent, international, fascist syndicate known as Nemesis, Evan Ryder returns to Washington, D.C., to find her secret division of the DOD shut down and her deceased sister’s children missing. Now the target of a cabal of American billionaires who were among Nemesis’s supporters, Evan and her former boss, Ben Butler, must learn to work together as partners – and navigate their intricate past.
Their search will take them from Istanbul to Odessa to an ancient church deep within the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. And all along the way, an unimaginable enemy stalks in the shadows, an adversary whose secretive past will upend Evan’s entire world and everything she holds dear.
Jake doesn’t know who is trying to kill him and he doesn’t know why. Still, it’s a threat he can’t ignore.
When his small plane crashes in the Alps, Jake is the only survivor. A rescue helicopter soon arrives, but the men inside are not there to save anyone. They are determined to complete the murderous job they started.
Jake escapes from the mountainside deathtrap, but it won’t be the only attempt on his life. If he’s to have any chance at surviving, he’ll have to find out who’s behind the killings. But the circle of people Jake can trust is distressingly small as he suspects that someone inside the Agency is feeding his every move to the very people who are trying to end his life.
Jake’s quest takes him to the candle-lit cathedrals of Paris and the rain-slicked streets of London. He makes contact with old friends and new enemies along the way—but his true nemesis may be closer than he imagines.
For Fans of Tom Clancy-style Military and Political Thrillers
Navy SEAL Keith ”Chunk” Redman has been one of the military’s top doorkickers since the day he pinned on his trident: loyal, single-minded, lethal. Tasked to lead a new, covert team of Tier One SEALs — the most elite special operators in the world — Chunk can no longer simply rely on the status quo. To safeguard America, he needs help to stay a step ahead of its adversaries.
Brilliant at spotting patterns in the data that others miss, ex-CIA analyst Whitney Watts sees evidence of a troubling link between illicit Chinese arms sales and an attack on a US military convoy in Afghanistan. If she’s right, it would portend not only massive casualties, but a devastating threat to global stability.
In a post-Trump and Biden world, an independent senator, Ian Wrightman, is elected president to heal a nation frayed by extreme partisanship. After years of reporting chaos in the White House, digital journalist Rollie Stone and his colleagues embrace the normalcy. But after the country is rocked by a series of devastating terrorist attacks, the new administration springs into action and begins rolling out executive orders that claim to protect the American people–while slowly chipping away at their constitutional freedoms.
Rollie Stone is a wounded warrior whose hi-tech Mighty Chair serves as his unique assistant in investigations. When he uncovers evidence that the terrorist attacks are being coordinated much closer to home, he knows he needs to get this information into safe hands–but the president has declared war, and through his new executive powers is rounding up journalists, dissenters, and anyone else who gets in his way. Forced on the run with the help of an underground resistance movement, Rollie finds himself in a race for his life to reveal the truth. But who can he trust?
For Fans of Michael Crichton-style Technothrillers
Max, a data whiz at the Facebook-like social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he starts asking questions about what his company is doing with the data they collect, he finds himself fired…and then blackballed across all of Silicon Valley.
With time on his hands and inside knowledge about the biggest tech companies, Max and his longtime friend—and sometime crush—Akiko, decide to get even by…essentially, rebooting the internet. After all, in order to fix things, sometimes you have to break them. But when Max and Akiko join forces with a reclusive tech baron, they learn that breaking things can have unintended—and disastrous—consequences. And those consequences will ripple across the world, effecting every level of society in ways no one could have imagined.
Eliza Bright was living the dream as an elite video game coder at Fancy Dog Games when her private life suddenly became public. But is Eliza Bright a brilliant, self-taught coder bravely calling out the toxic masculinity and chauvinism that pervades her workplace and industry? Or, is Eliza Bright a woman who needs to be destroyed to protect “the sanctity of gaming culture”? It depends on who you ask…
When Eliza reports an incident of workplace harassment that is quickly dismissed, she’s forced to take her frustrations to a journalist who blasts her story across the Internet. She’s fired and doxed, and becomes a rallying figure for women across America. But she’s also enraged the beast that is male gamers on 4Chan and Reddit, whose collective, unreliable voice narrates our story. Soon Eliza is in the cross-hairs of the gaming community, threatened and stalked as they monitor her every move online and across New York City.
As the violent power of an angry male collective descends upon everyone in Eliza’s life, it becomes increasingly difficult to know who to trust, even when she’s eventually taken in and protected by an under-the-radar Collective known as the Sixsterhood. The violence moves from cyberspace to the real world, as a vicious male super-fan known only as The Ghost is determined to exact his revenge on behalf of men everywhere. We watch alongside the Sixsterhood and subreddit incels as this dramatic cat-and-mouse game plays out to reach its violent and inevitable conclusion.
In a tiny settlement on the west coast of Greenland, 11-year-old Aleq and his best friend, frequent trespassers at a mining site exposed to mountains of long-buried and thawing permafrost, carry what they pick up back into their village, and from there Shepard’s harrowing and deeply moving story follows Aleq, one of the few survivors of the initial outbreak, through his identification and radical isolation as the likely index patient.
While he shoulders both a crushing guilt for what he may have done and the hopes of a world looking for answers, we also meet two Epidemic Intelligence Service investigators dispatched from the CDC–Jeannine, an epidemiologist and daughter of Algerian immigrants, and Danice, an M.D. and lab wonk. As they attempt to head off the cataclysm, Jeannine–moving from the Greenland hospital overwhelmed with the first patients to a Level 4 high-security facility in the Rocky Mountains–does what she can to sustain Aleq.
Both a chamber piece of multiple intimate perspectives and a more omniscient glimpse into the megastructures (political, cultural, and biological) that inform such a disaster, the novel reminds us of the crucial bonds that form in the midst of catastrophe, as a child and several hypereducated adults learn what it means to provide adequate support for those they love. In the process, they celebrate the precious worlds they might lose, and help to shape others that may survive.
Only men carry the virus. Only women can save us all.
The year is 2025, and a mysterious virus has broken out in Scotland–a lethal illness that seems to affect only men. When Dr. Amanda MacLean reports this phenomenon, she is dismissed as hysterical. By the time her warning is heeded, it is too late. The virus becomes a global pandemic–and a political one. The victims are all men. The world becomes alien–a women’s world.
What follows is the immersive account of the women who have been left to deal with the virus’s consequences, told through first-person narratives. Dr. MacLean; Catherine, a social historian determined to document the human stories behind the “male plague”; intelligence analyst Dawn, tasked with helping the government forge a new society; and Elizabeth, one of many scientists desperately working to develop a vaccine. Through these women and others, we see the uncountable ways the absence of men has changed society, from the personal–the loss of husbands and sons–to the political–the changes in the workforce, fertility, and the meaning of family.
Mental illness has often been stigmatized by society, but it doesn’t have to be that way. By talking about and learning about mental health, we can bring awareness and understanding to an important health topic. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), 1 in 5 American adults experience a mental health condition every year. The following books contain thoughtful and sensitive stories featuring characters with mental health conditions or are about the mental health care system. If you or a loved one suffer from a mental health condition or you simply want to learn more about these illnesses that affect so many Americans, read one of these fiction or non-fiction books.
FICTION HONEYMAN – Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she’ll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.
Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes the only way to survive is to open your heart.
FICTION FISHER – Carrie Fisher’s first novel is set within the world she knows better than anyone else: Hollywood, the all-too-real fantasyland of drug users and deal makers. This stunning literary debut chronicles Suzanne Vale’s vivid, excruciatingly funny experiences—from the rehab clinic to life in the outside world. Sparked by Suzanne’s—and Carrie’s—deliciously wry sense of the absurd, Postcards from the Edge is a revealing look at the dangers and delights of all our addictions, from success and money to sex and insecurity.
FICTION QUICK – Meet Pat Peoples. Pat Peoples has a theory that his life is actually a movie produced by God, and that his God-given mission in life is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending – which, for Pat, means the return of his estranged wife Nikki. (It might not come as any surprise to learn that Pat has spent several years in a mental health facility.)
The problem is, Pat’s home now, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; his old friends are saddled with families; he’s being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, Kenny G keeps haunting him!
The Silver Linings Playbook is the riotous and poignant story of how one man regains his memory and comes to terms with his wife’s betrayal. Matthew Quick takes us inside Pat’s mind, deftly showing us the world from his distorted yet endearing perspective. The result is a touching and funny novel that helps us look at both depression and love in a wonderfully refreshing way.
CLASSICS GILMAN – Featuring several of her greatest stories including “The Yellow Wall-paper,” this collection showcases Charlotte Perkins Gilman as a leading light of both fiction and feminism.
In the title story, a young woman is confined to her room by her husband for the sake of her health. With nothing to distract her apart from the patterns of the wall-paper itself, she slowly spirals into insanity.
FICTION HEALEY – Jen and Hugh Maddox have just survived every parent’s worst nightmare.
Relieved, but still terrified, they sit by the hospital bedside of their fifteen-year-old daughter, Lana, who was found bloodied, bruised, and disoriented after going missing for four days during a mother-daughter vacation in the country. As Lana lies mute in the bed, unwilling or unable to articulate what happened to her during that period, the national media speculates wildly and Jen and Hugh try to answer many questions.
Where was Lana? How did she get hurt? Was the teenage boy who befriended her involved? How did she survive outside for all those days? Even when she returns to the family home and her school routine, Lana only provides the same frustrating answer over and over: “I can’t remember.”
For years, Jen had tried to soothe the depressive demons plaguing her younger child, and had always dreaded the worst. Now she has hope—the family has gone through hell and come out the other side. But Jen cannot let go of her need to find the truth. Without telling Hugh or their pregnant older daughter Meg, Jen sets off to retrace Lana’s steps, a journey that will lead her to a deeper understanding of her youngest daughter, her family, and herself.
NEW 817 LAW – As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken, Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way.
With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to Shark Tank to the reason why Jenny can never go back to the post office, Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. And of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor―the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball―is present throughout.
362.2 ROS – When Dr. Kenneth Rosenberg trained as a psychiatrist in the late 1980s, the state mental hospitals, which had reached peak occupancy in the ’50s, were being closed at an alarming rate, with many patients having nowhere to go. There has never been a more important time for this conversation, as one in five adults–40 million Americans–experiences mental illness each year. Today, the largest mental institution in the U.S. is the LA County Jail, and the last refuge for many of the 20,000 mentally ill people living on the streets of Los Angeles is LA County Hospital. There, Dr. Rosenberg begins his chronicle of what it means to be mentally ill in America today, integrating his own moving story of how the system failed his sister, Merle, who had schizophrenia. As he says, “I have to come to see that my family’s tragedy is an American tragedy. My family’s shame is America’s great secret.”
Celebrate the return of spring and warm, sunny weather and beautiful flowers by springing into one of these heartwarming and romantic stories!
I’ll Be Your Blue Sky by Marisa De Los Santos (FICTION DE LOS SANTOS) – On the weekend of her wedding, Clare Hobbes meets an elderly woman named Edith Herron. During the course of a single conversation, Edith gives Clare the courage to do what she should have done months earlier: break off her engagement to her charming, yet overly possessive, fiancé. Three weeks later, Clare learns that Edith has died–and has given her another gift. Nestled in crepe myrtle and hydrangea and perched at the marshy edge of a bay in a small seaside town in Delaware, Blue Sky House now belongs to Clare.
Though the former guest house has been empty for years, Clare feels a deep connection to Edith inside its walls, which are decorated with old photographs taken by Edith and her beloved husband, Joseph. Exploring the house, Clare finds two mysterious ledgers hidden beneath the kitchen sink. Edith, it seems, was no ordinary woman–and Blue Sky House no ordinary place.
With the help of her mother, Viviana, her surrogate mother, Cornelia Brown, and her former boyfriend and best friend, Dev Tremain, Clare begins to piece together the story of Blue Sky House–a decades-old mystery more complex and tangled than she could have imagined. As she peels back the layers of Edith’s life, Clare discovers a story of dark secrets, passionate love, heartbreaking sacrifice, and incredible courage. She also makes startling discoveries about herself: where she’s come from, where she’s going, and what–and who–she loves.
The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman (FICTION SHIPMAN) – Iris Maynard lost her husband in World War II, her daughter to illness and, finally, her reason to live. Walled off from the world for decades behind the towering fence surrounding her home, Iris has built a new family…of flowers. Iris propagates her own daylilies and roses while tending to a garden filled with the heirloom starts that keep the memories of her loved ones alive.
When Abby Peterson moves next door with her family—a husband traumatized by his service in the Iraq War and a young daughter searching for stability—Iris is reluctantly yet inevitably drawn into her boisterous neighbor’s life, where, united by loss and a love of flowers, she and Abby tentatively unearth their secrets, and help each other discover how much life they have yet to live.
The Road to Rose Bend by Naima Simone (NEW FICTION SIMONE) – Sydney Collins left the small Berkshires town of Rose Bend eight years ago, grieving her sister’s death—and heartbroken over her parents’ rejection. But now the rebel is back—newly divorced and pregnant—ready to face her fears and make a home for her child in the caring community she once knew. The last thing she needs is trouble. But trouble just set her body on fire with one hot, hot smile.
Widower and Rose Bend mayor Coltrane Dennison hasn’t smiled in ages. Until a chance run-in with Sydney Collins, who’s all grown-up and making him want what he knows he can’t have. Grief is his only connection to the wife and son he lost, and he won’t give it up. Not for Sydney, not for her child, not for his heart. But when Sydney’s ex threatens to upend everything she’s rebuilt in Rose Bend, Cole and Sydney may find that a little trouble will take them where they never expected to go.
On Second Thought by Kristan Higgins (FICTION HIGGINS) – Ainsley O’Leary is so ready to get married—she’s even found the engagement ring her boyfriend has stashed away. What she doesn’t anticipate is being blindsided by a breakup he chronicles in a blog…which (of course) goes viral. Devastated and humiliated, Ainsley turns to her older half sister, Kate, who’s struggling with a sudden loss of her own.
Kate’s always been the poised, self-assured sister, but becoming a newlywed—and a widow—in the space of four months overwhelms her. Though the sisters were never close, she starts to confide in Ainsley, especially when she learns her late husband was keeping a secret from her.
Despite the murky blended-family dynamic that’s always separated them, Ainsley’s and Kate’s heartaches bind their summer together when they come to terms with the inevitable imperfection of relationships and family—and the possibility of one day finding love again.
Secrets of the Tulip Sisters by Susan Mallery (FICTION MALLERY) – Kelly Murphy’s life as a tulip farmer is pretty routine—up at dawn, off to work, lather, rinse, repeat. But everything changes one sun-washed summer with two dramatic homecomings: Griffith Burnett—Tulpen Crossing’s prodigal son, who’s set his sights on Kelly—and Olivia, her beautiful, wayward and, as far as Kelly is concerned, unwelcome sister. Tempted by Griffith, annoyed by Olivia, Kelly is overwhelmed by the secrets that were so easy to keep when she was alone.
But Olivia’s return isn’t as triumphant as she pretends. Her job has no future, and ever since her dad sent her away from the bad boy she loved, she has felt cut off from her past. She’s determined to reclaim her man and her place in the family…whether her sister likes it or not. For ten years, she and Kelly have been strangers. Olivia will get by without her approval now.
While Kelly and Olivia butt heads, their secrets tumble out in a big hot mess, revealing some truths that will change everything they thought they knew. Can they forgive each other—and themselves—and redefine what it means to be sisters?
Today is Mother’s Day, a day to celebrate all the mothers in your life. Motherhood can be incredibly joyful and fulfilling. It can also come with its own sorrows and challenges. The following stories reflect a range of motherhood experiences. From a single woman who will do anything to become a mother to ____, these stories will make you appreciate all the strong women in your life. Happy Mother’s Day!
First Comes Love by Emily Giffin — Growing up, Josie and Meredith Garland shared a loving, if sometimes contentious relationship. Josie was impulsive, spirited, and outgoing; Meredith hardworking, thoughtful, and reserved. When tragedy strikes their family, their different responses to the event splinter their delicate bond.
Fifteen years later, Josie and Meredith are in their late thirties, following very different paths. Josie, a first grade teacher, is single—and this close to swearing off dating for good. What she wants more than the right guy, however, is to become a mother—a feeling that is heightened when her ex-boyfriend’s daughter ends up in her class. Determined to have the future she’s always wanted, Josie decides to take matters into her own hands.
On the outside, Meredith is the model daughter with the perfect life. A successful attorney, she’s married to a wonderful man, and together they’re raising a beautiful four-year-old daughter. Yet lately, Meredith feels dissatisfied and restless, secretly wondering if she chose the life that was expected of her rather than the one she truly desired.
As the anniversary of their tragedy looms and painful secrets from the past begin to surface, Josie and Meredith must not only confront the issues that divide them, but also come to terms with their own choices. In their journey toward understanding and forgiveness, both sisters discover they need each other more than they knew . . . and that in the recipe for true happiness, love always comes first.
Emotionally honest and utterly enthralling, First Comes Love is a story about family, friendship, and the courage to follow your own heart—wherever that may lead.
Rose Napolitano is fighting with her husband, Luke, about prenatal vitamins. She promised she’d take them, but didn’t. He promised before they got married that he’d never want children, but now he’s changed his mind. Their marriage has come to rest on this one question: Can Rose find it in herself to become a mother? Rose is a successful professor and academic. She’s never wanted to have a child. The fight ends, and with it their marriage.
But then, Rose has a fight with Luke about the vitamins–again. This time the fight goes slightly differently, and so does Rose’s future as she grapples with whether she can indeed give up the one thing she thought she knew about herself. Can she reimagine her life in a completely new way? That reimagining plays out again and again in each of Rose’s nine lives, just as it does for each of us as we grow into adulthood. What are the consequences of our biggest choices? How would life change if we let go of our preconceived ideas of ourselves and became someone completely new? Rose Napolitano’s experience of choosing and then choosing again shows us in an utterly compelling way what it means, literally, to reinvent a life and, sometimes, become a different kind of woman than we ever imagined.
A stunning novel about love, loss, betrayal, divorce, death, a woman’s career and her identity, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano is about finding one’s way into a future that wasn’t the future one planned, and the ways that fate intercedes when we least expect it.
Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan — Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town after nearly twenty years in New York City. Alone in the house with her infant son all day (and awake with him much of the night), she feels uneasy, adrift. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms’ Facebook group, her “influencer” sister’s Instagram feed, and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore.
Enter Sam, a senior at the local women’s college, whom Elisabeth hires to babysit. Sam is struggling to decide between the path she’s always planned on and a romantic entanglement that threatens her ambition. She’s worried about student loan debt and what the future holds. In short order, they grow close. But when Sam finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Elisabeth’s father-in-law, the true differences between the women’s lives become starkly revealed and a betrayal has devastating consequences.
A masterful exploration of motherhood, power dynamics, and privilege in its many forms, Friends and Strangers reveals how a single year can shape the course of a life.
That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam — Like many first-time mothers, Rebecca Stone finds herself both deeply in love with her newborn son and deeply overwhelmed. Struggling to juggle the demands of motherhood with her own aspirations and feeling utterly alone in the process, she reaches out to the only person at the hospital who offers her any real help—Priscilla Johnson—and begs her to come home with them as her son’s nanny.
Priscilla’s presence quickly does as much to shake up Rebecca’s perception of the world as it does to stabilize her life. Rebecca is white, and Priscilla is black, and through their relationship, Rebecca finds herself confronting, for the first time, the blind spots of her own privilege. She feels profoundly connected to the woman who essentially taught her what it means to be a mother. When Priscilla dies unexpectedly in childbirth, Rebecca steps forward to adopt the baby. But she is unprepared for what it means to be a white mother with a black son. As she soon learns, navigating motherhood for her is a matter of learning how to raise two children whom she loves with equal ferocity, but whom the world is determined to treat differently.
Written with the warmth and psychological acuity that defined his debut, Rumaan Alam has crafted a remarkable novel about the lives we choose, and the lives that are chosen for us.
Caul Babyby Morgan Jerkins — Laila desperately wants to become a mother, but each of her previous pregnancies has ended in heartbreak. This time has to be different, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power.
When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage. What she doesn’t know is that a baby will soon be delivered in her family—by her niece, Amara, an ambitious college student—and delivered to the Melancons to raise as one of their own. Hallow is special: she’s born with a caul, and their matriarch, Maman, predicts the girl will restore the family’s prosperity.
Growing up, Hallow feels that something in her life is not right. Did Josephine, the woman she calls mother, really bring her into the world? Why does her cousin Helena get to go to school and roam the streets of New York freely while she’s confined to the family’s decrepit brownstone?
As the Melancons’ thirst to maintain their status grows, Amara, now a successful lawyer running for district attorney, looks for a way to avenge her longstanding grudge against the family. When mother and daughter cross paths, Hallow will be forced to decide where she truly belongs.
Engrossing, unique, and page-turning, Caul Baby illuminates the search for familial connection, the enduring power of tradition, and the dark corners of the human heart.
When I Ran Away by Ilona Bannister — As the Twin Towers collapse, Gigi Stanislawski flees her office building and escapes lower Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry. Among the crying, ash-covered, and shoeless passengers, Gigi, unbelievably, finds someone she recognizes–Harry Harrison, a British man and a regular at her favorite coffee shop. Gigi brings Harry to her parents’ house, where they watch the television replay the planes crashing for hours, and she waits for the phone call that will never come: the call from Frankie, her younger brother.
Ten years later, Gigi, now a single mother consumed with bills and unfulfilled ambitions, meets Harry, again by chance, and they fall deeply, headlong in love. But their move to London and their new baby–which Gigi hoped would finally release her from the past–leave her feeling isolated, raw, and alone with her grief. As Gigi comes face-to-face with the anguish of her brother’s death and her rage at the unspoken pain of motherhood, she must somehow find the light amid all the darkness. Startlingly honest and shot through with unexpected humor, When I Ran Away is an unforgettable first novel about love–for our partners, our children, our mothers, and ourselves–pushed to its outer limits.
When the ApricotsBloom by Gina Wilkinson — At night, in Huda’s fragrant garden, a breeze sweeps in from the desert encircling Baghdad, rustling the leaves of her apricot trees and carrying warning of visitors at her gate. Huda, a secretary at the Australian embassy, lives in fear of the mukhabarat—the secret police who watch and listen for any scrap of information that can be used against America and its allies. They have ordered her to befriend Ally Wilson, the deputy ambassador’s wife. Huda has no wish to be an informant, but fears for her teenaged son, who may be forced to join a deadly militia. Nor does she know that Ally has dangerous secrets of her own.
Huda’s former friend, Rania, enjoyed a privileged upbringing as the daughter of a sheikh. Now her family’s wealth is gone, and Rania too is battling to keep her child safe and a roof over their heads. As the women’s lives intersect, their hidden pasts spill into the present. Facing possible betrayal at every turn, all three must trust in a fragile, newfound loyalty, even as they discover how much they are willing to sacrifice to protect their families.
The Restoration of Celia Fairchildby Marie Bostwick — Celia Fairchild, known as advice columnist ‘Dear Calpurnia’, has insight into everybody’s problems — except her own. Still bruised by the end of a marriage she thought was her last chance to create a family, Celia receives an unexpected answer to a “Dear Birthmother” letter. Celia throws herself into proving she’s a perfect adoptive mother material — with a stable home and income — only to lose her job. Her one option: sell the Charleston house left to her by her recently departed, estranged Aunt Calpurnia.
Arriving in Charleston, Celia learns that Calpurnia had become a hoarder, the house is a wreck, and selling it will require a drastic, rapid makeover. The task of renovation seems overwhelming and risky. But with the help of new neighbors, old friends, and an unlikely sisterhood of strong, creative women who need her as much as she needs them, Celia knits together the truth about her estranged family — and about herself.
The Restoration of Celia Fairchild is an unforgettable novel of secrets revealed, laughter released, creativity rediscovered, and waves of wisdom by a writer Robyn Carr calls “my go-to author for feel-good novels.”
Brood by Jackie Polzin — A new literary voice–wryly funny, honest and observational,–depicts one woman’s attempt to keep her four chickens alive while reflecting on a recent loss.
Over the course of a single year, our nameless narrator heroically tries to keep her small brood of four chickens alive despite the seemingly endless challenges that caring for another creature entails. From the forty-below nights of a brutal Minnesota winter to a sweltering summer which brings a surprise tornado, she battles predators, bad luck, and the uncertainty of a future that may not look anything like the one she always imagined. This book is a meditation on life and longing.
Have you always wanted a quick, easy way to know about the best, upcoming new releases in adult fiction? The library has your back! Subscribe to one of our new book newsletters here. New book newsletters are a great way to keep track of the most popular upcoming books so that you can be among the first to place a hold. Just click on a book cover to be taken directly to the library catalog! Subscribe to as many or as few newsletters as you’d like. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each newsletter e-mail. Keep reading for more information on our current newsletter offerings, and make sure to check back often as we will be rolling out additional genre-based newsletters in the future!
Fiction A to Z features upcoming new releases in contemporary, literary, and mainstream fiction. This is where you’ll find anything that falls into the general fiction category but isn’t by a blockbuster author like James Patterson. Monthly.
Subscribe to this newsletter to be among the first to know when your favorite bestselling author releases a new book. This newsletter is home to the biggest authors around, like James Patterson, Danielle Steel, David Baldacci, and many more! These authors often have long hold lists. Get your hold in early with this newsletter. Monthly.
Library Reads books are chosen by librarians all around the country. They represent a collection of each month’s most popular, well-liked books. Do you have trouble deciding what to read next? Let the Library Reads newsletter help you out! Monthly.
This weekly newsletter showcases the hottest selling fiction books as determined by The New York Times. Don’t miss your chance to read one of these books that everyone is talking about. Weekly.
This weekly newsletter showcases the hottest selling non-fiction books as determined by The New York Times. Don’t miss your chance to read one of these books that everyone is talking about. Weekly.
Drawn to puzzles? These books will provide you with a steady stream of who-dun-its for your solving delight. Features all types of mysteries from police procedurals to cozies. Monthly.
Other Genres Coming Soon
Check back often as we will be adding more genre newsletters in the near future, including horror, romance, historical fiction, inspirational fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers/suspense.
“It is not my deeds that I write down, it is myself, my essence.”
Michel de Montaigne
Pick up a memoir this March, and get to know someone remarkable.
Whether it’s an ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances, or someone who is already a household name but has a story about how an unexpected challenge or tragedy has shaped them, memoirs can inspire, make us laugh, cry or cheer, and see our own lives through a different perspective.
What makes a memoir different from a biography or an autobiography? While the forms are similar (and shelved together at AAPLD!) a memoir is an account of a person’s life, usually the author’s, that’s centered around a theme or experience. Whether that’s a harrowing childhood, a serious illness, addiction, tragedy; or a fight to succeed against enormous odds, a good memoir can give us insight into the writer’s experience and how we can apply those lessons as well.
To celebrate our month-long focus on memoirs, we’ve created a special collection which you can browse by clicking here. If you stop by the Main Library, you’ll find some of our staff’s favorite memoirs displayed by the Adult Services desk, on our Staff Picks shelves.
Listed below are memoirs that have been turned into films– bonus points if you’re also looking for a March “Twice Told Tales” Reading Challenge:
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls – A journalist tells the story of her nomadic childhood in a highly dysfunctional, but uniquely vibrant family.
Wild by Cheryl Strayed – After battling addiction and grieving the loss of her mother, a young woman sets out alone to hike the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail.
March is Women’s History Month, a time to recognize the contributions of women– from great leaders, and top achievers in sports, entertainment, and literature, to the anonymous women working daily to build a better world for their families and communities.
The annual recognition began in California as a local week-long celebration in 1978. In 1980, President Carter issued a presidential proclamation designating the second week of March as National Women’s History Week. It was expanded to a month long event in 1987.
At AAPLD, we’re recognizing the accomplishments of women in several ways, starting with two special collections that tell women’s stories, one dedicated to books, the other to films.
A few stories you might have missed include:
Frida – Salma Hayek stars as ground-breaking Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, from her humble beginnings, to international fame as a talented painter with unique vision.
He Named Me Malala – A documentary tells the incredible story of Pakistani teen Malala Yousafzai, who was attacked by the Taliban for pursuing an education.
On The Basis of Sex – Felicity Jones stars as a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg, struggling to balance the demands of her rising career and new motherhood, as she partners with her husband Martin (Armie Hammer) to argue a landmark case of gender discrimination.
A Skating Life: My Story by Dorothy Hamill – An Olympic medalist and international skating star by the age of 19, Hamill faced significant personal challenges in adulthood, but found strength to persevere through her love for her daughter.
Becoming Beyonce by J. Randy Taraborrelli – The first comprehensive biography ever published about America’s favorite living pop icon, from New York Times bestselling biographer Taraborrelli.
Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt – If you loved Hidden Figures, you won’t want to miss this story of the women who propelled the space program from missiles to the moon and beyond.
We’re also pleased to offer these special online programs. Two focus on history-making female leaders, the other is an evening with a best-selling woman author, as she shares insights about her process and experience in the publishing industry.
On Thursday, March 18, from 6:30- 8:00 p.m., historian Jim Gibbons will present Notorious: The Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and her tireless crusade for women’s rights. Ginsburg was many things: Glamour magazine’s 2009 Woman of the Year, one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, a cancer survivor, and an inspiration to many. But she was not a quitter. Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993, Ginsburg served until the time of her death in September 2020. Click here to register for the program, presented on Zoom.
Best-selling suspense author Mary Kubica will present a program on Thursday, March 25 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Kubica is the bestselling author of The Good Girl and five other thrillers. Her latest novel, The OtherMrs., scored her a film deal with Netflix. Mary will discuss her writing process, how she balances her personal and professional life, and the unprecedented success of The Other Mrs. Mary’s next title, Local Woman Missing, will be released in May. Click here to register for this program, presented via Zoom.
On Wednesday, March 31, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., popular historical presenter Leslie Goddard, Ph.D., returns with a new presentation, Becoming Queen Elizabeth II, which explores the life of England’s longest reigning monarch: her childhood, the abdication of her uncle, her marriage to a navy officer named Philip, her World War II service, and her struggle to balance her roles as queen and mother. Get to know the woman behind the images, her sense of humor, and savvy intelligence with which she meets her demanding obligations. Click here to register for the program, presented on Zoom.
If you prefer to register or place your holds by phone, give the Adult Services Department a call at 847-458-6060. We’re happy to help!
February is Black History Month, a time to celebrate the contributions and history of Black Americans, past and present.
The celebration dates back to 1926, when it was created by African American historian, educator and publisher Carter G. Woodson as a one week observance. It expanded to a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12) and abolitionist Frederick Douglas (Feb. 14).
We’ve created a display highlighting the work of Black authors, non-fiction titles by prominent Black voices, and films centered on Black stories. Here’s a sample of what you’ll find in our collection:
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke – A Black Texas Ranger investigates a murder in a small town in East Texas, and uncovers a shocking secret. Steeped in the culture, music and atmosphere of the East Texas bayou country, the novel creates a vivid portrait of contemporary Black life in rural America.
No One Is Coming To Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts – A successful man returns to his North Carolina hometown to build his hillside dream home and win back the love of his high school sweetheart. But his success, contrasted with the town’s decline, forces everyone to consider what they really want from life, and how they might go about finding it.
The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory – When a Los Angeles writer goes to a Dodgers game with an actor she’s casually dating, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. After she refuses, she’s trailed by a camera crew, until a handsome fan comes to her rescue. When what begins as another casual affair unexpectedly blossoms into love, can she find the courage to follow her heart?
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid – An influential businesswoman tries to help her babysitter, who was falsely accused of kidnapping a child. But when a viral video reveals unwelcome aspects of the businesswoman’s past, both she and the babysitter are forced to confront what they think about themselves and each other.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead – An enslaved young woman escapes from a plantation in Georgia, via the Underground Railroad, which Whitehead reimagines as a literal railroad of tracks and tunnels running beneath the ground of the Civil War-era South.
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole – A psychological thriller set in a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood. A young woman investigating the neighborhood’s vanishing history, with the help of a new arrival, begin to uncover the deadly secret of what really happened to the departed residents.
Find these books, and lots more, in our Black History Month featured collection. Click here for more titles.
Are you a fan of the hit Marvel TV show Loki? Are you dying to find out what happens in the next episode? Check out one of these interesting books to read while you wait.
Do you love the idea of the TVA from Loki and the idea of going back in time to alter major historical events? Then you’ll want to put Stephenson’s sci-fi thriller on your to-read list ASAP. “A discreet translation assignment enmeshes a linguistics expert and a military intelligence operator in the world-shattering revelation that magic was once widely practiced and can be reactivated if they travel back in time to make historical changes that are complicated by human treachery.” – from Novelist
Instagram Infographics have promised her. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and has been friendzoned by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how with her wife in a Blue town in the middle of a Red state where she now hosts book clubs and makes mason jar salads. This is the bourgeois life of a Hallmark Channel dream. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with “TV executives slash amateur astrologers” while being a “cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person,” “with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees,” who still hides past due bills under her pillow. The essays in this collection draw on the raw, hilarious particulars of Irby’s new life. Wow, No Thank You is Irby at her most unflinching, riotous, and relatable” (Amazon.com)
FICTION HONEYMAN – Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
the only way to survive is to open your heart.
God-given mission in life is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending – which, for Pat, means the return of his estranged wife Nikki. (It might not come as any surprise to learn that Pat has spent several years in a mental health facility.)
wonderfully refreshing way.
Relieved, but still terrified, they sit by the hospital bedside of their fifteen-year-old daughter, Lana, who was found bloodied, bruised, and disoriented after going missing for four days during a mother-daughter vacation in the country. As Lana lies mute in the bed, unwilling or unable to articulate what happened to her during that period, the national media speculates wildly and Jen and Hugh try to answer many questions.
overwhelmed. Struggling to juggle the demands of motherhood with her own aspirations and feeling utterly alone in the process, she reaches out to the only person at the hospital who offers her any real help—Priscilla Johnson—and begs her to come home with them as her son’s nanny.
power.
covered, and shoeless passengers, Gigi, unbelievably, finds someone she recognizes–Harry Harrison, a British man and a regular at her favorite coffee shop. Gigi brings Harry to her parents’ house, where they watch the television replay the planes crashing for hours, and she waits for the phone call that will never come: the call from Frankie, her younger brother.
secrets of her own.
Brood
March is Women’s History Month, a time to recognize the contributions of women– from great leaders, and top achievers in sports, entertainment, and literature, to the anonymous women working daily to build a better world for their families and communities.
February is Black History Month, a time to celebrate the contributions and history of Black Americans, past and present.
