February 22, 2021
Adult Fiction
Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory.
"A chance meeting
with a handsome stranger turns into a whirlwind affair that gets everyone
talking. Dating is the last thing on Olivia Monroe's mind when she moves to LA
to start her own law firm. But when she meets a gorgeous man at a hotel bar and
they spend the entire night flirting, she discovers too late that he is none
other than hotshot junior senator Max Powell. Olivia has zero interest in
dating a politician, but when a cake arrives at her office with the cutest
message, she can't resist--it is chocolate cake, after all. Olivia is surprised
to find that Max is sweet, funny, and noble--not just some privileged white
politician she assumed him to be. Because of Max's high-profile job, they start
seeing each other secretly, which leads to clandestine dates and silly disguises.
But when they finally go public, the intense media scrutiny means people are
now digging up her rocky past and criticizing her job, even her suitability as
a trophy girlfriend. Olivia knows what she has with Max is something special,
but is it strong enough to survive the heat of the spotlight?"-- Provided
by publisher.
Korea Strait by David Poyer.
United States Navy officer
and Medal of Honor winner Dan Lenson's mission is to observe an international
military exercise involving the navies of South Korea, Japan, Australia, and
America. It should be routine duty for Dan, but old alliances are unraveling,
as North Korea threatens the U.S. and China expands its influence. Acting as
both adviser and adversary to a ruthless South Korean task force commander, Dan
must stop a wolfpack of unidentified submarines, armed with nuclear weapons,
which is trying to elude Allied surveillance and penetrate the Sea of Japan. Is
it the start of an invasion...or an elaborate feint, to divert attention from a
devastating attack? Battling faulty weapons, a complacent Washington
establishment, and a fierce typhoon season at sea, Dan must act on his own -
even if doing so means the end of his career, the lives of his observers, and
the risk of nuclear war.
Always the Last to Know by Kristan Higgins.
Barb and John Frost are
testy and bored with each other after fifty years of marriage. At least they
have their daughters - Barb's favorite, Juliet; and John's darling, Sadie. The
girls themselves couldn't be more different, but at least they got along, more
or less. Until the day John has a stroke, and their house of cards came
tumbling down. Now Sadie has to come home to care for her beloved dad-and face
the love of her old life. Now Juliet has to wonder if people will notice that despite
her perfect life, she's spending an increasing amount of time in the closet
having panic attacks. And now Barb and John will finally have to face what's
been going on in their marriage all along.
Adult Non-Fiction
Soul Full of Coal Dust by Chris Hamby.
Decades ago, a grassroots
uprising forced Congress to enact long-overdue legislation designed to
virtually eradicate black lung disease and provide fair compensation to coal
miners stricken with the illness. Today, however, both promises remain unfulfilled.
Levels of disease have surged, the old scourge has taken an aggressive new
form, and ailing miners and widows have been left behind by a dizzying legal
system, denied even modest payments and medical care. In this urgent work of
investigative journalism, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hamby traces the
unforgettable story of how these trends converge in the lives of two men: Gary
Fox, a black lung-stricken West Virginia coal miner determined to raise his
family from poverty, and John Cline, an idealistic carpenter and rural medical
clinic worker who becomes a lawyer in his fifties. Opposing them are the
lawyers at the coal industry's go-to law firm; well-credentialed doctors who
often weigh in for the defense, including an elite unit Johns Hopkins; and Gary's
former employer, Massey Energy, a regional powerhouse run by a cantankerous CEO
often portrayed in the media as a dark lord of the coalfields. On the line in
Gary and John's longshot legal battle are fundamental principles of fairness
and justice, with consequences for miners and their loved ones throughout the
nation. Taking readers inside courtrooms, hospitals, homes tucked in
Appalachian hollows, and dusty mine tunnels, Hamby exposes how coal companies
have not only continually flouted a law meant to protect miners from deadly
amounts of dust but also enlisted well-credentialed doctors and lawyers to help
systematically deny much-needed benefits to miners. The result is a legal and
medical thriller that brilliantly illuminates how a band of laborers -- aided
by a small group of lawyers, doctors and lay advocates, often working out of
their homes or in rural clinics and tiny offices - challenged one of the
world's most powerful forces, Big Coal, and won.
The Third Rainbow Girl by Emma Copley Eisenberg.
In the early evening of
June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders
named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated
clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering
but never arrived; they traveled with a third woman however, who lived. For
thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders,"
though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the
community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward. In 1993, a local farmer
was convicted, only to be released when a known serial killer and diagnosed
schizophrenic named Joseph Paul Franklin claimed responsibility. With the
passage of time, as the truth seemed to slip away, the investigation itself
caused its own traumas--turning neighbor against neighbor and confirming a fear
of the violence outsiders have done to this region for centuries. Emma Copley
Eisenberg spent years living in Pocahontas and re-investigating these brutal
acts. Using the past and the present, she shows how this mysterious act of
violence has loomed over all those affected for generations, shaping their
fears, fates, and the stories they tell about themselves. In The Third Rainbow
Girl, Eisenberg follows the threads of this crime through the complex history
of Appalachia, forming a searing and wide-ranging portrait of America--its
divisions of gender and class, and of its violence.
Easy/Juvenile/Young Adult/Graphic Novel
What is the Civil
Rights Movement? by Sherri L. Smith. J NF
Even though slavery had
ended in the 1860s, African Americans were still suffering under the weight of
segregation a hundred years later. They couldn't go to the same schools, eat at
the same restaurants, or even use the same bathrooms as white people. But by
the 1950s, black people refused to remain second-class citizens and were
willing to risk their lives to make a change. Author Sherri L. Smith brings to
life momentous events through the words and stories of people who were on the
frontlines of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Never After: The
Thirteenth Fairy by Melissa de la
Cruz. J
Nothing ever happens in
Filomena Jefferson-Cho's sleepy little suburban town of North Pasadena. The sun
shines every day, the grass is always a perfect green, and while her
progressive school swears there's no such thing as bullying, she still feels
bummed out. But one day, when Filomena is walking home on her own, something
strange happens. Filomena is being followed by Jack Stalker, one of the heroes
in the Thirteenth Fairy, a series of books she loves about a brave girl and her
ragtag group of friends who save their world from an evil enchantress. She must
be dreaming, or still reading a book. But Jack is insistent--he's real, the
stories are real, and Filomena must come with him at once! Soon, Filomena is
thrust into the world of evil fairies and beautiful princesses, sorcerers and
slayers, where an evil queen drives her ruthless armies to destroy what is left
of the Fairy tribes. To save herself and the kingdom of Westphalia, Filomena
must find the truth behind the fairytales and set the world back to rights
before the cycle of sleep and destruction begins once more.
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