July 26, 2021
Adult Fiction
The President’s
Daughter by Bill Clinton & James
Patterson.
"Matthew Keating, a one-time Navy SEAL--and a past president--has always
defended his family as staunchly as he has his country. Now those defenses are
under attack. A madman abducts Keating's teenage daughter, Melanie--turning
every parent's deepest fear into a matter of national security. As the world
watches in real time, Keating embarks on a one-man special-ops mission that tests
his strengths: as a leader, a warrior, and a father."-- Provided by
publisher.
The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan.
"In late March 1944,
as Stalin's forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel must make a
terrible decision: Do they wait for the Soviet bear's intrusion and risk being
sent to Siberia? Or do they reluctantly follow the wolves - murderous Nazi
officers who have pledged to protect "pure-blood" Germans? The
Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed
in Ukraine for more than a century. But after already living under Stalin's
horrifying regime, Emil and Adeline decide they must run in retreat from their
land with the wolves they despise to escape the Soviets and go in search of
freedom. Caught between two warring forces and overcoming horrific trials to
pursue their hope of immigrating to the West, the Martels' story is a brutal,
complex, and ultimately triumphant tale that illuminates the extraordinary
power of love, faith, and one family's incredible will to survive and see their
dreams realized."-- Provided by publisher.
The Cottage on
Lighthouse Lane by T. Davis Bunn.
"Billy Walker is a
North Carolina boy whose Hollywood star is beginning to shine. His rough past
is in the rearview. Now seeing the world from the back seat of a limousine,
Billy has no regrets about what he had to do, and the choices he made, to get
there. But all it takes is one death-defying moment for Billy's world to shift.
When an on-set accident leaves him shaken and plagued by haunting dreams, he's
in desperate need of a rest cure. Given keys to a getaway cottage on Lighthouse
Lane in Miramar Bay, he'll regroup, relax, and recover. Yet as Billy's dreams
grow darker and more fearful, his only promise for light is in a stunning,
mysterious, and uniquely gifted stranger. . . Mimi has never forgotten her
tragic childhood in eastern Ukraine. Violence, a vanished family, abandonment,
and a hard-won struggle to escape. Miramar Bay couldn't be a more beautiful or
unexpected refuge. In yoga and dance, and imbued with a talent to read the
unrestful visions of others, Mimi has a seemingly divine ability to comfort.
She may be everything Billy desires, but Mimi knows what Billy needs. He must
confront his troubling past - and not just in his dreams. As their connection
deepens, Billy finds himself falling in love, and waking up to something he's
never felt before. But when the real world comes calling again, how can he say
goodbye to a woman who's changing his life one illuminating sunrise at a
time?"-- Provided by publisher.
Adult Non-Fiction
The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson.
When Jennifer Doudna was
in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback
titled The Double Helix on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was
one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday,
she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she
became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the
code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn't
become scientists, she decided she would. Driven by a passion to understand how
nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make
what the book's author, James Watson, told her was the most important
biological advance since his co-discovery of the structure of DNA. She and her
collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that
will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as
CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. The
development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will
hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past
half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and
internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study
digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code. Should we use
our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a
wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression?
Hmmm...Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or
muscles or IQ of their kids? After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader
in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle
Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story is a thrilling detective
tale that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of
life to the future of our species.
Think Again by Adam Grant.
Intelligence is usually
seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world,
there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to
rethink and unlearn. In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of
conviction over the discomfort of doubt. We listen to opinions that make us
feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. We see disagreement as a
threat to our egos, rather than an opportunity to learn. We surround ourselves
with people who agree with our conclusions, when we should be gravitating
toward those who challenge our thought process. The result is that our beliefs
get brittle long before our bones. We think too much like preachers defending
our sacred beliefs, prosecutors proving the other side wrong, and politicians
campaigning for approval--and too little like scientists searching for truth.
Intelligence is no cure, and it can even be a curse: being good at thinking can
make us worse at rethinking. The brighter we are, the blinder to our own
limitations we can become.
Easy/Juvenile/Young Adult/Graphic Novel
The Echo Park Castaways by M. G. Hennessey.
J
Nevaeh, Vic, and Mara are
veterans of the Los Angeles foster care system. For over a year they've been
staying with Mrs. K in Echo Park. Vic spends most of his time living in a dream
world, Mara barely speaks, and Nevaeh is forced to act as a back-up parent.
Though their situation isn't ideal, it's still their best home yet. Then Child
Protective Services places Quentin in the house, and everything is turned
upside down. Nevaeh really can't handle watching over anyone else, especially a
boy on the autism spectrum. Meanwhile, Quentin is having trouble adjusting and
attempts to run away. So when Vic realizes Quentin just wants to see his mom
again, he plans an "epic quest" to reunite them. It could result in
the foster siblings getting sent to different group homes. But isn't family
always worth the risk?
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Ryan North, & Albert Monteys. GN
An
American classic and one of the world's seminal antiwar books, Kurt Vonnegut's
Slaughterhouse-Five is faithfully presented in graphic novel form for the first
time from Eisner Award-winning writer Ryan North (How to Invent Everything: A
Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler) and Eisner Award-nominated
artist Albert Monteys (Universe!).
