November 2, 2020
Adult Fiction
Elsewhere by Dean Koontz.
Since his wife, Michelle,
left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for
himself and his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach. It's a
quiet life, until a local eccentric known as Spooky Ed shows up on their
doorstep. Ed entrusts Jeffy with hiding a strange and dangerous
object--something he calls "the key to everything"--and tells Jeffy
that he must never use the device. But after a visit from a group of ominous
men, Jeffy and Amity find themselves accidentally activating the key and
discovering an extraordinary truth. The device allows them to jump between
parallel planes at once familiar and bizarre, wondrous and terrifying. And
Jeffy and Amity can't help but wonder, could Michelle be just a click away? Jeffy
and Amity aren't the only ones interested in the device. A man with a dark
purpose is in pursuit, determined to use its grand potential for profound evil.
Unless Amity and Jeffy can outwit him, the place they call home may never be
safe again.
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel.
Eva Traube Abrams, a
semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes
lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it's an
image of a book she hasn't seen in sixty-five years--a book she recognizes
as The Book of Lost Names. The accompanying article discusses the looting
of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II--an experience Eva
remembers well--and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them
so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text
thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of
the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin's Zentral-und Landesbibliothek
library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don't know
where it came from--or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer--but will
she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost
during the war? As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris
after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small
mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for
Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a
price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she
must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to
remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost
Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for
is betrayed and Rémy disappears.
Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman.
Where does the story of
the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she's abandoned
in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens,
Maria learns about the "Unnamed Arts." Hannah recognizes that Maria
has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns
her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back. When
Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows
him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her
family. And it's here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that
she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that
matters.
Adult Non-Fiction
Mental Traveler by W. J. T. Mitchell.
Gabriel Mitchell was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age twenty-one and died by suicide eighteen years later. He left behind a remarkable archive of creative work and a father determined to honor his son's attempts to conquer his own illness. Before his death, Gabe had been working on a film that would show madness from inside and out, as media stereotype and spectacle, symptom and stigma, malady and minority status, disability and gateway to insight. He was convinced that madness is an extreme form of subjective experience that we all endure at some point in our lives, whether in moments of ecstasy or melancholy, or in the enduring trauma of a broken heart. Gabe's declared ambition was to transform schizophrenia from a death sentence to a learning experience, and madness from a curse to a critical perspective. Shot through with love and pain, Mental Traveler shows how Gabe drew his father into his quest for enlightenment within madness. It is a book that will touch anyone struggling to cope with mental illness, and especially for parents and caregivers of those caught in its grasp.
Strength for His People by Dr. Steven Waterhouse.
This book addresses needs
that arise among Christian Families of those with severe mental illness. The
study guide also offers a Biblical perspective on Schizophrenia which will be
of interest to ministers, counselors, and chaplains. Many of the Bible studies
in Strength for His People have a secondary application to other types of
ongoing family pressures such as physical disabilities, Alzheimer's disease, or
mental retardation.
Easy/Juvenile/Young Adult/Graphic Novel
Becoming Muhammad Ali by James Patterson & Kwame Alexander. J
Before he was a household name, Cassius Clay was a kid with struggles like any other. Kwame Alexander and James Patterson join forces to vividly depict his life up to age seventeen in both prose and verse, including his childhood friends, struggles in school, the racism he faced, and his discovery of boxing. Readers will learn about Cassius' family and neighbors in Louisville, Kentucky, and how, after a thief stole his bike, Cassius began training as an amateur boxer at age twelve. Before long, he won his first Golden Gloves bout and began his transformation into the unrivaled Muhammad Ali. Fully authorized by and written in cooperation with the Muhammad Ali estate, and vividly brought to life by Dawud Anyabwile's dynamic artwork, Becoming Muhammad Ali captures the budding charisma and youthful personality of one of the greatest sports heroes of all time.
The Glass Queen by Gena Showalter. YA
Welcome to the Forest of Good and Evil, where villains may be heroes and heroes may be villains...it all depends on who you ask. Ashleigh Ansklelisa may be called the Glass Princess due to her weak heart, but Saxon, king of the Avian, knows she is more dangerous than broken glass, in this Cinderella retelling that sweeps readers into the magical land of Enchantia, filled with treacherous enemies, unexpected allies, forbidden love, and dangerous magic! Can destined lovers find their way to each other, or will evil win the day? Everything changes at the stroke of midnight as one determined princess fights for her legacy, her love, and the crown that is her destiny.
Brooke County Public Libraries Wellsburg (304) 737-1551 Follansbee (304) 527-0860
