Stranger than Fiction (06/02/2026): Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality

Stranger than Fiction (06/02/2026): Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality
Stranger than Fiction (06/02/2026): Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality

Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer

A quiet revolution has been underway in recent years, with study after study revealing substantial same-sex sexual behavior in animals. Join celebrated author Eliot Schrefer on an exploration of queer behavior in the animal world–from albatrosses to bonobos to clownfish to doodlebugs.

In sharp and witty prose–aided by humorous comics from artist Jules Zuckerberg–Schrefer uses science, history, anthropology, and sociology to illustrate the diversity of sexual behavior in the animal world. Interviews with researchers in the field offer additional insights for readers and aspiring scientists.

Queer behavior in animals is as diverse and complex–and as natural–as it is in our own species. It doesn’t set us apart from animals–it bonds us even closer to our animal selves.


Next Meeting:
June 2nd @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Spinecrackers (06/05/2026): The Listeners

Spinecrackers (06/05/2026): The Listeners
Spinecrackers (06/05/2026): The Listeners

The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.


Next Meeting:
June 5th @ 10:00 AM at Harnish Library

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Oh, the Horror! (05/26/2026): Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

Oh, the Horror! (05/26/2026): Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng
Oh, the Horror! (05/26/2026): Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. The bloody messes don’t bother her, not when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train.

Before fleeing the scene, the murderer whispered two words: bat eater.

Months pass, the killer is never caught, and Cora can barely keep herself together. She pushes away all feelings, disregards the bite marks that appear on her coffee table, and won’t take her aunt’s advice to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open.

Cora tries to ignore the rising dread in her stomach, even when she and her weird co-workers begin finding bat carcasses at their crime scene clean-ups. But Cora can’t ignore the fact that all their recent clean-ups have been the bodies of East Asian women. Soon Cora will learn: you can’t just ignore hungry ghosts.


Next Meeting:
May 26th @ 7:00 PM at Virtual

Register for online meeting here

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
EBOOK

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Nail Biters (05/19/2026): The Cuban Heiress

Nail Biters (05/19/2026): The Cuban Heiress
Nail Biters (05/19/2026): The Cuban Heiress

The Cuban Heiress by Chanel Cleeton

In 1934, a luxury cruise becomes a fight for survival as two women’s pasts collide on a round-trip voyage from New York to Havana in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton’s page-turning new novel inspired by the true story of the SS Morro Castle.

New York heiress Catherine Dohan seemingly has it all. There’s only one problem. It’s a lie. As soon as the Morro Castle leaves port, Catherine’s past returns with a vengeance and threatens her life. Joining forces with a charismatic jewel thief, Catherine must discover who wants her dead—and why.

Elena Palacio is a dead woman. Or so everyone thinks. After a devastating betrayal left her penniless and on the run, Elena’s journey on the Morro Castle is her last hope. Steeped in secrecy and a burning desire for revenge, her return to Havana is a chance to right the wrong that has been done to her—and her prey is on the ship.

As danger swirls aboard the Morro Castle and their fates intertwine, Elena and Catherine must risk everything to see justice served once and for all.


Next Meeting:
May 19th @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Happily Ever After (05/18/2026): Meet Me at the Lake

Happily Ever After (05/18/2026): Meet Me at the Lake
Happily Ever After (05/18/2026): Meet Me at the Lake

Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune

Fern Brookbanks has wasted far too much of her adult life thinking about Will Baxter. She spent just twenty-four hours in her early twenties with the aggravatingly attractive, idealistic artist, a chance encounter that spiraled into a daylong adventure in Toronto. The timing was wrong, but their connection was undeniable: they shared every secret, every dream, and made a pact to meet one year later. Fern showed up. Will didn’t.

At thirty-two, Fern’s life doesn’t look at all how she once imagined it would. Instead of living in the city, Fern’s back home, running her mother’s Muskoka lakeside resort—something she vowed never to do. The place is in disarray, her ex-boyfriend’s the manager, and Fern doesn’t know where to begin.

She needs a plan—a lifeline. To her surprise, it comes in the form of Will, who arrives nine years too late, with a suitcase in tow and an offer to help on his lips. Will may be the only person who understands what Fern’s going through. But how could she possibly trust this expensive-suit wearing mirage who seems nothing like the young man she met all those years ago. Will is hiding something, and Fern’s not sure she wants to know what it is.

But ten years ago, Will Baxter rescued Fern. Can she do the same for him?


Next Meeting:
May 18th @ 7:00 PM at Harnish Library

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

The Next Chapter (05/08/2026): An Unwanted Guest

The Next Chapter (05/08/2026): An Unwanted Guest
The Next Chapter (05/08/2026): An Unwanted Guest

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

It’s winter in the Catskills and Mitchell’s Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing–maybe even romantic–weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity–and all contact with the outside world–the guests settle in and try to make the best of it. Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead–it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.

Within the snowed-in paradise, something–or someone–is picking off the guests one by one. And there’s nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm–and one another.


Next Meeting:
May 8th @ 2:00 PM at Harnish Library

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Unicorns and Spaceships (05/12/2026): Red Rising

Unicorns and Spaceships (05/12/2026): Red Rising
Unicorns and Spaceships (05/12/2026): Red Rising

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.
But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies… even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.


Next Meeting:
May 12th @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
AUDIOBOOK

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

Forever Young (05/11/2026): Aisle Nine

Forever Young (05/11/2026): Aisle Nine
Forever Young (05/11/2026): Aisle Nine

Aisle Nine by Ian X. Cho

Ever since the world filled with portals to hell and bloodthirsty demons started popping out on the reg, Jasper’s life has gotten worse and worse. A teenage nobody with no friends or family, he is plagued by the life he can’t remember and the person he’s sure he’s supposed to be.

Jasper spends his days working as a checkout clerk at the Here For You discount mart, where a hell portal in aisle nine means danger every shift. But at least here he can be near the girl he’s crushing on—Kyle Kuan, a junior member of the monster-fighting Vanguard—who seems to hate Jasper for reasons he can’t remember or understand.

But when Jasper and Kyle learn they both share a frightening vision of the impending apocalypse, they’re forced to team up and uncover the uncomfortable truth about the hell portals and the demons that haunt the world. Because the true monsters are not always what they seem, the past is not always what we wish, and like it or not, on Black Friday, all hell will break loose in aisle nine.


Next Meeting:
May 11th @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK

Friends of Fiction (05/13/2026): Maame

Friends of Fiction (05/13/2026): Maame
Friends of Fiction (05/13/2026): Maame

Maame by Jessica George

Maame (ma-meh) has many meanings in Twi but in my case, it means woman.

It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.
When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts”: She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it’s not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils––and rewards––of putting her heart on the line.
Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George’s Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.


Next Meeting:
May 13th @ 7:00 PM at Harnish Library

AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE CHECKOUT ON HOOPLA
AUDIOBOOK

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
AUDIOBOOK

Stranger than Fiction (05/05/2026): Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World

Stranger than Fiction (05/05/2026): Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World
Stranger than Fiction (05/05/2026): Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World

Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World by Theresa MacPhail

Hay fever. Peanut allergies. Eczema. Either you have an allergy or you know someone who does. Billions of people worldwide—an estimated 30 percent to 40 percent of the global population—have some form of allergy. Even more concerning is that fact that over the last decade the number of people diagnosed with an allergy has been steadily increasing, placing an ever-growing medical burden on individuals, families, communities, and healthcare systems.

Medical anthropologist Theresa MacPhail, herself an allergy sufferer whose father died from a bee sting, set out to understand why. In pursuit of answers, MacPhail studied the dangerous experiments of early immunologists as well as the mind-bending recent development of biologics and immunotherapies that are giving the most severely impacted patients hope. She scaled a roof with an air-quality controller who diligently counts pollen by hand for hours every day; met a mother who struggled to use WIC benefits for her daughter with severe food allergies; spoke with doctors at some of the finest allergy clinics in the world; and discussed the intersecting problems of climate change, pollution, and pollen with biologists who study seasonal respiratory allergies. This is the story of what they are, why we have them, and what that might mean for the fate of humanity in a rapidly changing world.


Next Meeting:
May 5th @ 6:30 PM at Eastgate Library

MAY BE AVAILABLE ON OVERDRIVE/LIBBY
EBOOK OR AUDIOBOOK