Adult Fiction
The Noise by James Patterson & J. D. Barker.
"In the shadow of
Mount Hood, sixteen-year-old Tennant is checking rabbit traps with her
eight-year-old sister Sophie when the girls are suddenly overcome by a strange
vibration rising out of the forest, building in intensity until it sounds like
a deafening crescendo of screams. From out of nowhere, their father sweeps them
up and drops them through a trapdoor into a storm cellar. But the sound only
gets worse..."-- Provided by publisher.
The House on Fripp
Island by Rebecca Kauffman.
Fripp Island, South
Carolina is the perfect destination for the wealthy Daly family: Lisa, Scott,
and their two girls. For Lisa's childhood friend, Poppy Ford, the resort island
is a world away from the one she and Lisa grew up in--and when Lisa invites
Poppy's family to join them, how can a working-class woman turn down an
all-expenses paid vacation for her husband and children? But everyone brings
secrets to the island, distorting what should be a convivial, relaxing summer
on the beach. Lisa sees danger everywhere--the local handyman can't be allowed
near the children, and Lisa suspects Scott is fixated on something, or someone,
else. Poppy watches over her husband John and his routines with a sharp eye.
It's a summer of change for all of the children: Ryan Ford who prepares for
college in the fall, Rae Daly who seethes on the brink of adulthood, and the
two youngest, Kimmy Daly and Alex Ford, who are exposed to new ideas and
different ways of life as they forge a friendship of their own. Those who
return from this vacation will spend the rest of their lives trying to process
what they witnessed, the tipping points, moments of violence and tenderness,
and the memory of whom they left behind.
Another Kind of Eden by James Lee Burke.
The American West in the
early 1960s appears to be a pastoral paradise: golden wheat fields, mist-filled
canyons, frolicking animals. Aspiring novelist Aaron Holland Broussard has observed
it from the open door of a boxcar, riding the rails for both inspiration and
odd jobs. Jumping off in Denver, he finds work on a farm and meets Joanne
McDuffy, an articulate and fierce college student and gifted painter. Their
soul connection is immediate, but their romance is complicated by Joanne's
involvement with a shady professor who is mixed up with a drug-addled cult.
When a sinister businessman and his son who wield their influence through
vicious cruelty set their sights on Aaron, drawing him into an investigation of
grotesque murders, it is clear that this idyllic landscape harbors tremendous
power--and evil. Followed by a mysterious shrouded figure who might not be
human, Aaron will have to face down all these foes to save the life of the woman
he loves and his own.
Adult Non-Fiction
The Splendid and the
Vile by Erik Larson.
On Winston Churchill's
first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland
and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two
weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing
campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country
together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy
ally--and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik
Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people
"the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship,
but it's also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of
Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat,
Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the
bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing
on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence
reports--some released only recently--Larson provides a new lens on London's
darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his
wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her
parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful,
unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and
the advisers in Churchill's "Secret Circle," to whom he turns in the
hardest moments.
The Amusement Park by Stephen M. Silverman.
Step right up! The
Amusement Park is a rich, anecdotal history that begins nine centuries ago
with the "pleasure gardens" of Europe and England and ends with the
rise and fall and rise again of some of the most elaborate parks in the world.
It's a history told largely through the stories of the colorful, sometimes
hedonistic characters who built them and features, among many, showmen like
Joseph and Nicholas Schenck and Marcus Loew, railroad barons such as Andrew
Mellon and Henry E. Huntington, and the men who ultimately destroyed the parks
including Robert Moses and Fred Trump. The many gifted artisans and
craftspeople who brought these parks to life are also featured, along with an
amazing cast of supporting players from Al Capone to Annie Oakley. And, of
course, there are the rides, whose marvels of engineering and heart-stopping
thrills are celebrated at full throttle. The parks and fairs featured include
the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Coney Island, Steeplechase Park, Dreamland,
Euclid Beach Park, Cedar Point, Palisades Park, Ferrari World, Dollywood, Sea
World, Six Flags Great Adventure, Universal Studios, Disney World and
Disneyland, and many more.
Easy/Juvenile/Young Adult/Graphic Novel
The Orpheus Plot by Christopher Swiedler. J
Lucas Adebayo grew up on a
small mining ship in the asteroid belt, but wants to join the Navy and become
the best pilot in the galaxy. The Navy has never accepted a Belter cadet
before, but Lucas's skills secure him a place on the training ship, the
Orpheus.
Life in the Navy couldn't
be more different than life in the Belt, and Lucas struggles to find his place.
As a Belter, he's an outsider among his peers; as a Navy cadet, he doesn't
quite fit in at home anymore, either. Lucas is caught between the worlds of his
past and his future when a Belter rebellion puts everyone's lives at risk. Only
he can lead the way to peace.
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron.
YA
Briseis
has a gift: with a single touch she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich
blooms. When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural
New York, Bri and her parents hope that surrounded by plants and flowers, she
will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways
they never expected--it comes with a mysterious set of instructions, a walled
garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world, and generations of
secrets. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than she could have
imagined, and she is determined to uncover it.
