New Books: Monthly Features

"Set in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s, this is Doris Kearns Goodwin's touching memoir of growing up in love with her family and baseball. She recreates the postwar era, when the corner store was a place to share stories and neighborhoods were equally divided between Dodger, Giant, and Yankee fans. 'Lively, tender hilarious,...[Goodwin's] memoir is uplifting evidence that the American dream still exists--not so much in the content of the dream as in the tireless, daunting dreaming.'-Jodi Maynard"--Back cover

"An award-winning sportswriter presents this ultimate baseball resource that tells the story of the game through the extraordinary lives of its 100 greatest players by retracing their origins, illuminating their characters and placing their accomplishments in the context of baseball's past and present."--BN

“It’s the ultimate in fantasy baseball: You get to pick the roster, set the lineup, and decide on strategies — with real players, in a real ballpark, in a real playoff race. That’s what baseball analysts Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller got to do when an independent minor-league team in California, the Sonoma Stompers, offered them the chance to run its baseball operations according to the most advanced statistics. Their story in The Only Rule is it Has to Work is unlike any other baseball tale you've ever read.”--BN

"The riveting story of four men-Larry Doby, Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, and Satchel Paige-whose improbable union on the Cleveland Indians in the late 1940s would shape the immediate postwar era of Major League Baseball and beyond. In July 1947, not even three months after Jackie Robinson debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers, snapping the color line that had segregated Major League Baseball, Larry Doby would follow in his footsteps on the Cleveland Indians."--Destiny

"Posnanski writes of [baseball's] major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays's catch, Babe Ruth's called shot, and Kirk Gibson's limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters . . ."--Provided by publisher.

Bestselling author Tony Horwitz tells the electrifying tale of the daring insurrection that put America on the path to bloody war
Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, Midnight Rising portrays Brown's uprising in vivid color, revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict.Tony Horwitz's riveting book travels antebellum America to deliver both a taut historical drama and a telling portrait of a nation divided—a time that still resonates in ours."-BN

"What's so weird about U.S. presidents? Plenty! Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was a great wrestler? That Ulysses S. Grant got a speeding ticket riding his horse – twice! Or that Benjamin Harrison was afraid of electricity? And let's not forget that President McKinley had a pet parrot that whistled "Yankee Doodle Dandy" duets with him! In this new single-subject Weird But True book, you'll have a blast learning that there's a lot of substance – and weirdness – in every president's past."-BN

“From the acclaimed creative team behind GIDEON FALLS and THE PASSAGEWAY comes a new story in the bold and ambitious shared horror universe of THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS. Trish and Jackie are best friends and avid gamers. But when the line between reality and their fantasy world is blurred by an evil darkness, can they be the heroes of their own story?“–Amazon

"Told in alternating timelines, 17-year-old Daisy and her mother move into her deceased uncle's mansion, only to find horrors waiting inside, and ten years later, Brittney investigates the mystery behind the Miracle Mansion that turned her mother's life around"--Publisher.

""In the early 1900s, a curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town to study faerie folklore, where she discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love."--Destiny

"A masterful, intensely suspenseful novel about a reader whose obsession with a reclusive writer goes far too far--a book about the power of storytelling, starring the same trio of unlikely and winning heroes King introduced in Mr. Mercedes" -- provided by publisher.

"Laure Mesny is constantly overlooked in the elite and cutthroat world of the Parisian ballet, she will do anything to prove that a Black girl can take center stage. To level the playing field, Laure ventures into the depths of the Catacombs and strikes a deal with a pulsating river of blood....s she descends into madness and the mystifying underworld beneath her, she is faced with the ultimate choice: continue to break herself for scraps of validation or succumb to the darkness that wants her exactly as she is."--Amazon

"Seventeen-year-old bisexual Jade Nguyrn is spending the summer in Vietnam at the French colonial house her estranged father is fixing up as a vacation rental, but unbeknownst to her family, the house and its ghosts have other plans."--Destiny

"Adina Walker,18, a scholarship student at a prestigious academy, faces the consequences of a single mistake and competes in a high-stakes contest hosted by the wealthy Remington family, where she uncovers unsettling truths about the sponsors and the contest's high stakes"--Publisher.

"Much of the ancient knowledge that has been passed down from Native American medicine men, or shamans, is in danger of being lost. Bobby Lake-Them is a Native American healer who has studied with the elders of many tribes. He explains the significance of animal figures as manifestations of good or evil, and shows how we can develop our own powers of awareness and intuition. Includes dozens of fascinating animal myths and legends as well as exercises and activities to expand spiritual influences in our lives."--Publisher

"A young Native American boy in a splintering family grasps for stability and love, making all the wrong choices until he finds a space of his own"--Provided by publisher.

"This riveting debut collection of stories breathe life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. With humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight, they shed light on what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy."--adapted --from the cover

"Award-winning author Eddie Chuculate recounts his experience growing up in rural Oklahoma, from boyhood to young manhood, in an evocative and vivid voice. Despite the challenges he faced, his upbringing was rich with love and bountiful lessons from his Creek and Cherokee heritage, deep-rooted traditions he embraced even as he learned to live within the culture of white, small-town America that dominated his migratory childhood."--Publisher

"The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions, struggling to survive, don't yet know that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves."--Publisher

"Two Native American boys have vanished into thin air, leaving a pool of blood behind them. Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police has no choice but to suspect the very worst, since the blood that stains the parched New Mexico ground once flowed through the veins of one of the missing, a young Zuñi. But the investigation is being complicated by archaeological finds, a steel hypodermic needle, and unique laws and sacred rites of the Zuñi people. Will the murderer be able to escape justice, or worse, kill again?--Publisher

Six-year-old Turtle Green witnesses an accident that will change the lives of her and her mother. Her mother’s belief in her truthfulness leads them to a moment of celebrity, but the repercussions of their celebrity draws them into a conflict of historic proportions. “Pigs in Heaven travels the roads from rural Kentucky and the urban Southwest to Heaven, Oklahoma, and the Cherokee Nation as it draws the reader into a world of heartbreak and redeeming love, testing the boundaries of family and the many separate truths about the ties that bind.” -Publisher

Printz Medal Award Winner! "Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths"--OCLC.

"For the 400th anniversary of the 'first Thanksgiving,' here is a new look at the Plymouth colony’s founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the story. Silverman deepens the narrative to consider tensions that developed well before 1620 and lasted long after the devastating war–tracing the Wampanoags’ ongoing struggle for self-determination up to this day.”--Publisher

"With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family's involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people's inheritance"--OCLC.

"Blast off for an unbelievably fascinating journey through time, space, and even a holographic pop concert (or two)! With chapters on future cities, space travel, high-tech entertainment, and even saving the world, Future World is a thorough, fun compendium of high-tech gadgets being built today and the coolest stuff tomorrow has to offer, plus the amazing dreamers making it all happen."--Publisher

"This activity-packed book encourages educators to move beyond traditional models of teaching and learning and provides them with the tools for getting started.
100 Experiential Learning Activities for Social Studies, Literature, and the Arts, Grades 5–12 focuses on using active learning to engage students in critical thinking and reflection about complex content knowledge in the humanities and the arts. The 100 activities address significant social issues, including social justice, culture, language, and diversity."--BN

"In 1850's South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faces a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag for her with a few items, and soon after, the 9-yr-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language."--(from the cover) "Deeply layered and insightful...a broad and bold reflection on American history, African American resilience and the Human capacity for love and perseverance in the face of soul-crushing madness."--The Washington Post

"From the Man Booker Prize shortlisted-author..., a major new novel that promises to capture the present moment with Smith's genius and bold spirit. 'A story is never an answer. A story is always a question.' Here we are in extraordinary times. Is this history? What happens when we cease to trust governments, the media, each other? What have we lost? What stays with us? What does it take to unlock our future? Following her astonishing Seasonal Quartet, Ali Smith again lights a way for us through the nightmarish now, in a vital celebration of companionship in all its timeless and contemporary, legendary and unpindownable, spellbinding and shapeshifting forms. "--Destiny

From the author: "When I wrote Devil I had a simple thought in mind. I wanted to tell the story about LA that highlighted black life and the black contribution to culture within a mirror-darkly that partially reflected the American experience within a shadowy landscape of national shame." ---"Unemployed African-American veteran Easy Rawlins accepts an offer of some detective work in 1948 from white gangster Dewitt Albright, who wants Easy to scour the jazz joints of Los Angeles in an effort to locate blonde femme fatale Daphne Monet."(Destiny) "Easy doesn't know it yet but his life is about to change forever." -Publisher

". . . explores the real life history of female athletes, members of the first integrated women's Olympic team, and their journeys to the 1936 summer games in Berlin, Nazi Germany. It is a chronicle of three athletes who defied society's expectations of what women could achieve"--Provided by publisher.

"Featuring quotes from civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Dolores Huerta, this collaborative and informational picture book is accompanied by artwork from 16 different artists. Full spreads of quotes accompany illustrations, as well as notes from the illustrator about the speaker. The illustrators have all done a beautiful job incorporating the text into their artwork, and the different styles make for a colorful and varied experience. Each quote and accompanying illustrator's note is short yet powerful."--Amazon editorial review

"In Cows Save the Planet, journalist Judith D. Schwartz looks at soil as a crucible for our many overlapping environmental, economic, and social crises. for many of these problems—climate change, desertification, biodiversity loss, droughts, floods, wildfires, rural poverty, malnutrition, and obesity—there are positive, alternative scenarios to the degradation and devastation we face. In each case, our ability to turn these crises into opportunities depends on how we treat the soil...Schwartz challenges much of the conventional thinking about global warming and other problems. For example, land can suffer from undergrazing as well as overgrazing, since certain landscapes, such as grasslands, require the disturbance from livestock to thrive. Regarding climate, when we focus on carbon dioxide, we neglect the central role of water in soil—"green water"—in temperature regulation...Cows Save the Planet is at once a primer on soil's pivotal role in our ecology and economy, a call to action, and an antidote to the despair that environmental news so often leaves us with."--Publisher

Fascinating! "Introduces some of Earth's ... natural landmarks through landscape photography, 3-D terrian models, illustrations, and other explanatory artwork"--OCLC.

"...A the Turtle Rescue League, there are hundreds of turtles recovering from injury and illness. Endangered by cars, highways, pollution and poachers, these turtles--with wounds so severe that even veterinarians would have dismissed them as fatal--are given a second chance at life. The League's founders, Natasha and Alexxia, live by one motto: Never give up on a turtle. But why turtles? What is it about them that inspires such devotion?"--adapted, Publisher.

Take a look at one hundred animals, minerals, microorganisms, plants, and rocks.You may be familiar with some, but have you really SEEN them?

"Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College--Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the the unworthy. Although weaker and frailer, she still has her wits--and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules..."--Cover

"Evangeline Fox ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she's paid for this fairytale. She doesn't know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out. . . . but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts"--Publisher.

"Best friends, wintergirls Lia and Cassie are frozen in fragile bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the thinnest. But then Cassie suffers the ultimate loss—her life—and Lia is left behind, haunted by her friend's memory and racked with guilt for not being able to help save her. In her most powerfully moving novel since Speak, award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia's struggle, her painful path to recovery, and her desperate attempts to hold on to the most important thing of all: hope."--from the publisher

"I believe in ghosts. They're the ones who haunt us, the ones who have left us behind..."A story of resilience in the face of tremendous odds and oppressive loneliness. Two unlikely friends--one, a 90-yr. old survivor of the grinding poverty of rural Ireland, and the other, a casualty of a string of foster homes--each struggling to transcend a past of isolation and hardship....will hold you in its grip as their fascinating tales unfold."--book cover

"We're all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us." Set against the magnificent backdrop of Alaska in the waning days of WW II, The Cloud Atlas is an enthralling debut novel, a story of adventure and awakening--and of a young soldier who went to Alaska on an extraordinary top secret mission...and found a world that would haunt him forever"--from the book cover

"'Bod said, "What ARE you people?' 'Ghouls,' said the Bishop of Bath and Wells. 'Bless me, somebody wasn't paying attention was he? We're ghouls.' 'Look!' ...and before he could say another word, he was snatched up by a pair of bony hands and was flying through the air..." Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he's been raised by ghosts and other denizens of a graveyard.--from the book

"Abducted by aliens periodically throughout his youth, Henry Denton is informed by his erstwhile captors that they will end the world in 144 days unless he stops them by deciding that humanity is worth saving"--Provided by publisher.

"Newly transgender Barney needs a job and a place to live. Luckily, he finds both in Dead End, a theme park haunted house! Unfortunately, Dead End also serves as a portal to hell. Along with his best friend Norma and talking dog Pugsley, he must battle demonic party poopers, undead country singers and scariest of all: his love life"--Back cover.

"Norma's got it all--a great job at a haunted hotel, amazing friends and a sweet new scar on her cheek. It's just a shame that her soul keeps falling out of her body. But with an alliance of demon kings declaring war on Earth and the vengeful ghost of a country singer on the loose, finding a way to keep herself together might just have to wait"--Book cover.

"They are the last children on Earth and they also happen to be vampires. For longer than they can remember, these child vampires have lived a life of eternal wonder amongst the ruins of humanity. But shocking events fracture the group and set them on a path of discovery that will shatter their innocence forever."--Publisher.

"Collette LeSange's youthful beauty masks the dark truth of her life: she has endured centuries of turmoil and heartache in the wake of her grandfather's long-ago decision to make her immortal like himself. Now in 1984, Collette finds her life upended by the arrival of a gifted child from a troubled home, the return of a stalking presence from her past, and her own mysteriously growing hunger"-Publisher

""For the past six months, newly chosen Green Lantern Sojourner "Jo" Mullein has been protecting City Enduring, a massive metropolis of 20 billion people. The city has maintained peace for over 500 years by stripping its citizens of their ability to feel. As a result, violent crime is virtually unheard of, and murder is nonexistent. But that's all about to change in this new graphic novel that gives a DC's Young Animal spin to the legacy of the Green Lanterns!"-- Provided by publisher.

"Miner Jim Holden, managing a crew making runs from the rings of Saturn to stations of the Belt, comes across an abandoned ship, and, after learning a deadly secret, must team up with detective Miller, who was hired to look for the daughter of a very rich couple who may hold the key to everything, in order to protect the universe and himself.-"--Destiny

"James Holden and his crew on the spaceship Rocinante become involved in an alien invasion of the Outer Planets Alliance when they agree to look for a scientist's missing child"..."Interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written. [-George R. Martin] "--Destiny, The publisher

"Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine an alien artifact that has built a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus, but behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core."--Destiny

"Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion"--Provided by publisher.

"Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion. The presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are totally exposed. Only the human mind remains a secret. This is the motivation for a daring plan that gives four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist,. Baffled by his new status, all he knows is that he's the one that Trisolaris wants dead"--Provided by publisher.

"With human science advancing and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent. Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She has knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of theTrisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?"--Provided by publisher.

"Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself--and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first"--From author's web page--Destiny overview

Ryland Grace has been asleep for a very, very long time. He's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. He can't remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance"--OCLC.--Destiny

"Inequality in America manifests in many ways, but it especially impacts how we eat. Sociologist Priya Fielding-Singh brings us into the kitchens of dozens of families from varied educational, economic, and ethno-racial backgrounds to explore how--and why--we eat the way we do." -Publisher

"Discusses poverty in the United States and the low-wage labor market that increasingly fails to deliver a living wage and provides accounts of the survival strategies of some of the 1.5 million American households that live on two dollars per day per person."-Destiny

"Water. Food. Housing. The most basic and crucial needs for survival, yet 40 percent of people in the United States don't have the resources to get them. With key policy changes, we could eradicate poverty in this country within our lifetime--but we need to get started now."--From the book.

"The author articulates not only what it is to be working poor in America, but what poverty is truly like-on all levels. ... and discusses how she went from lower-middle class, to sometimes middle class, to poor and everything in between, and in doing so reveals why 'poor people don't always behave the way middle-class America thinks they should.'"--Provided by publisher.

"Her dreams cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy, Stephanie Land turned to cleaning houses to make ends meet. Working days, she took online classes and began to write relentlessly, the true stories of the overworked and underpaid, of living on food stamps and WIC coupons to eat.... Her memoir cuts through the stigmas of the working poor and explores the underbelly of upper-middle class America and the reality of being in service to them"--from the publisher

"Each year, more than 400 minors arrive alone in Canada requesting refugee status. They arrive without their parents, accompanied by no adult at all.
This shares the journey of three: Afshin, Alain and Patricia. Their stories open a window onto the heartbreaks, difficult sacrifices and countless hardships that punctuate their obstacle-filled path. And it tells of the courage and resilience they demonstrated before finally obtaining a life where threats and danger are no longer a part of their everyday existence."--Amazon

“After her husband’s tell-all profile of the newest drug lord is published, none of their lives will ever be the same…Forced to flee, Lydia and her son Luca find themselves joining the countless people trying to reach the United States. Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?”--BN

“Growing up in the Soviet Union, he experienced first-hand the horrors of a socialist paradise gone wrong, having lived in extreme poverty with little access to even the most basic of necessities. It wasn't until he moved to the UK that Kisin found himself thriving in an open and tolerant society, receiving countless opportunities he would never have had otherwise.”--BN

"In this eye-opening collection of immigrant trials, triumphs, and contributions, leading immigration lawyer Susan Cohen invites you to walk with her clients as they share their incredible journeys coming to America while overcoming unimaginable dangers and often heartbreaking obstacles abroad."--BN

"Offers advice to teenagers about smart shopping, budgeting, building and managing credit, and the pros and cons of using cash, credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards."--Destiny