10/14/2020

New audiobooks have arrived from the Librarians of the Upper Valley (LUV) Co-op! Have a look at the titles and their Goodreads reviews, and let me know if you’d like me to hold anything for you. (As usual, you won’t find these listed in the catalog.) Happy listening!

Edward Abbey – Desert Solitaire
C.J. Box – Off the Grid
Alan Bradley – The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
Bill Bryson – One Summer
Tracy Chevalier – At the Edge of the Orchard
Louise Erdrich – The Plague of Doves
Louise Erdrich – The Night Watchman
Linda Fairstein – Death Angel
Alan Furst – Polish Officer
Lisa Gardner – Fear Nothing
Miep Gies – Anne Frank Remembered
Elizabeth Gilbert – Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage
Leopoldo Gout – Ghost Radio
Sue Grafton – S is for Silence
Stephen Greenblatt – Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
Lauren Groff – Fates and Furies
Nathaniel Hawthorn – The House of the Seven Gables
Joseph Heller – Catch 22
Jon Katz – Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm
Brian Kilmeade – Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War that Changed American History
Harper Lee – Go Set a Watchman
Donna Leon – Blood from a Stone
Ben Macintyre – The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
Alexander McCall-Smith – Miracle at Speedy Motors
Jojo Moyes – The Girl You Left Behind
Stacey O’Brien – Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl
Louise Penny – Glass Houses
Nathaniel Philbrick – The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Edgar Allan Poe – Tales of Terror
Stacy Schiff – Cleopatra: A Life
Lisa See – The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
William Shakespeare – Othello
Daniel Silva – The Heist
J.R.R. Tolkien – The Hobbit
Kurt Vonnegut – Cat’s Cradle
Martin Walker – The Devil’s Cave

10/13/2020

The books below have arrived! If you see something of interest, you can place a hold in the catalog, or just let me know, and I’ll hold it for you.

Adult Fiction
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
The Lying Life of Adults by Elana Ferrante
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
The Shame by McKenna Goodman
Camino Winds by John Grisham
Monogamy: A Novel by Sue Miller
All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
Dark August by Katie Tallo

Adult Nonfiction
The Yellow House: A Memoir by Sarah M. Broom
Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald
His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham
Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves by Frans de Waal
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Rage by Bob Woodward

Picture Books
I Was Born in a Tree and Raised by Bees by Jim Arnosky
The Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena
The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit by Werner Holzwarth
Becoming a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery
Be You by Peter H. Reynolds
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli

Easy Readers
The Land of the Spring Dragon by Tracey West

Junior Fiction
The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
Frindle by Andrew Clements
The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden by Karina Yan Glaser
Nothing in Common by Kate Hoefler
Dog Man: Grime and Punishment by Dave Pilkey
The Unadoptables by Hana Tooke

Junior Graphic Novels
The Witches: The Graphic Novel by Penelope Bagieu and Roald Dahl

Junior Nonfiction
A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within by Ralph J. Fletcher
A Young People’s History of the United States (Vols. 1 & 2) by Howard Zinn

Young Adult
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junaulda Petrus

10/12/2020

Over the weekend, I discovered an educator who was getting rid of some marvelous children’s books and DVDs! These are in the process of being added to the collection, but if you see anything you want that isn’t already in the catalog, just send me an email!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

9/13/2020

These 11 adult novels have all finally arrived and will be ready for curbside pickup Tuesday, September 22. They’ve been added into the system and are available for placing holds, but if you prefer, you can email me, and I’ll place the hold(s) for you. To see reviews for each title, click on its image. Happy reading!

Adult Fiction

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

“Bennett’s tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson, but it’s especially reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s 1970 debut novel, The Bluest Eye.” —Kiley Reid, Wall Street Journal 

“A story of absolute, universal timelessness …For any era, it’s an accomplished, affecting novel. For this moment, it’s piercing, subtly wending its way toward questions about who we are and who we want to be….” – Entertainment Weekly

From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?

Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.

Fair Warning by Michael Connelly

The hero of The Poet and The Scarecrow is back in the new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly. Jack McEvoy, the journalist who never backs down, tracks a serial killer who has been operating completely under the radar–until now.

Veteran reporter Jack McEvoy has taken down killers before, but when a woman he had a one-night stand with is murdered in a particularly brutal way, McEvoy realizes he might be facing a criminal mind unlike any he’s ever encountered.

Jack investigates–against the warnings of the police and his own editor–and makes a shocking discovery that connects the crime to other mysterious deaths across the country. Undetected by law enforcement, a vicious killer has been hunting women, using genetic data to select and stalk his targets.

Uncovering the murkiest corners of the dark web, Jack races to find and protect the last source who can lead him to his quarry. But the killer has already chosen his next target, and he’s ready to strike.

Terrifying and unputdownable, Fair Warning shows once again why “Michael Connelly has earned his place in the pantheon of great crime fiction writers” (Chicago Sun-Times).

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

A husband, a father, a son, a business owner…And the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi. “Sensationally good―new, fresh, real, authentic, twisty, with characters and dilemmas that will break your heart. More than recommended.” ―Lee Child

Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast.

He thought he’d left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can’t-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver’s seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.

Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland…or die trying.

Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

In Dublin, 1918, a maternity ward at the height of the Great Flu is a small world of work, risk, death, and unlooked-for love, in “Donoghue’s best novel since Room” (Kirkus Reviews)

In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia’s regimented world step two outsiders — Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police , and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.

In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other’s lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.

In The Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue once again finds the light in the darkness in this new classic of hope and survival against all odds.

Th Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s  grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?

Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

In the Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

From the author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird and the best-selling modern classic The Color of Water, comes one of the most celebrated novels of the year. 

In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range.

The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself.

As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters – caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York – overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion.

Bringing both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water. Told with insight and wit, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.

The Geometry of Holding Hands by Alexander McCall Smith

Isabel finds herself entangled in some tricky familial and financial situations that will require all of her kindness, charm, and philosophical expertise to navigate.
 
Just when Isabel and Jamie finally seem to have some time to connect and unwind, a wealthy Edinburgh resident reaches out to Isabel with an unusual request—he would like her to become the executor of his large Highland estate. Though Isabel initially demurs, he presses on. He has only a short time to live, and, without any direct heirs, is struggling to determine which of his three cousins would be the best caretaker. Should it go to the bohemian artist, the savvy city property developer, or the quiet, unassuming bachelor?  
 
As if this weren’t enough to keep Isabel occupied, she’s also spending more time helping her niece Cat at the deli. Cat, perennially unlucky in love, seems to have finally found her match in the leonine Leo. But Isabel is beginning to suspect that Leo might be interested in more than Cat’s charms, namely her access to the family trust. Isabel will need to rely upon remarkable reserves of intelligence and compassion in order to give all parties exactly what they want and deserve—no more, and no less.

Night. Sleep. Death. The Stars. by Joyce Carol Oates

The bonds of family are tested in the wake of a profound tragedy, providing a look at the darker side of our society by one of our most enduringly popular and important writers

Night Sleep Death The Stars is a gripping examination of contemporary America through the prism of a family tragedy: when a powerful parent dies, each of his adult children reacts in startling and unexpected ways, and his grieving widow in the most surprising way of all.

Stark and penetrating, Joyce Carol Oates’s latest novel is a vivid exploration of race, psychological trauma, class warfare, grief, and eventual healing, as well as an intimate family novel in the tradition of the author’s bestselling We Were the Mulvaneys.

These Women by Ivy Pochoda

From the award-winning author of Wonder Valley and Visitation Street comes a serial killer story like you’ve never seen before—a literary thriller of female empowerment and social change

In West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they’re referred to as “these women.” These women on the corner … These women in the club … These women who won’t stop asking questions … These women who got what they deserved … 

In her masterful new novel, Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They’re connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There’s Dorian, still adrift after her daughter’s murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.

Written with beauty and grit, tension and grace, These Women is a glorious display of storytelling, a once-in-a-generation novel.

The Order by Daniel Silva

From Daniel Silva, the internationally acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author, comes a riveting new thriller featuring art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon.

It was nearly one a.m. by the time he crawled into bed. Chiara was reading a novel, oblivious to the television, which was muted. On the screen was a live shot of St. Peter’s Basilica. Gabriel raised the volume and learned that an old friend had died …

Gabriel Allon has slipped quietly into Venice for a much-needed holiday with his wife and two young children. But when Pope Paul VII dies suddenly, Gabriel is summoned to Rome by the Holy Father’s loyal private secretary, Archbishop Luigi Donati. A billion Catholic faithful have been told that the pope died of a heart attack. Donati, however, has two good reasons to suspect his master was murdered. The Swiss Guard who was standing watch outside the papal apartments the night of the pope’s death is missing. So, too, is the letter the Holy Father was writing during the final hours of his life. A letter that was addressed to Gabriel.

While researching in the Vatican Secret Archives, I came upon a most remarkable book …

The book is a long-suppressed gospel that calls into question the accuracy of the New Testament’s depiction of one of the most portentous events in human history. For that reason alone, the Order of St. Helena will stop at nothing to keep it out of Gabriel’s hands. A shadowy Catholic society with ties to the European far right, the Order is plotting to seize control of the papacy. And it is only the beginning.

As the cardinals gather in Rome for the start of the conclave, Gabriel sets out on a desperate search for proof of the Order’s conspiracy, and for a long-lost gospel with the power to put an end to two thousand years of murderous hatred. His quest will take him from the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, to a monastery in Assisi, to the hidden depths of the Secret Archives, and finally to the Sistine Chapel, where he will witness an event no outsider has ever before seen—the sacred passing of the Keys of St. Peter to a newly elected pope.

Swiftly paced and elegantly rendered, The Order will hold readers spellbound, from its opening passages to its breathtaking final twist of plot. It is a novel of friendship and faith in a perilous and uncertain world. And it is still more proof that Daniel Silva is his generation’s finest writer of suspense and international intrigue. 

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

A deliciously funny, remarkably poignant, and simply unputdownable novel about the power of friendship, the lure of frenemies, and the importance of making peace with yourself through all life’s ups and down. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Good in Bed and Best Friends Forever, Big Summer is the perfect escape with one of the most lovable heroines to come to the page in years.

Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favor to ask. Daphne hasn’t spoken one word to Drue in all this time—she doesn’t even hate-follow her ex-best friend on social media—so when Drue asks if she will be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless.

Drue was always the one who had everything—except the ability to hold onto friends. Meanwhile, Daphne’s no longer the same self-effacing sidekick she was back in high school. She’s built a life that she loves, including a growing career as a plus-size Instagram influencer. Letting glamorous, seductive Drue back into her life is risky, but it comes with an invitation to spend a weekend in a waterfront Cape Cod mansion. When Drue begs and pleads and dangles the prospect of cute single guys, Daphne finds herself powerless as ever to resist her friend’s siren song.

A sparkling novel about the complexities of female relationships, the pitfalls of living out loud and online, and the resilience of the human heart, Big Summer is a witty, moving story about family, friendship, and figuring out what matters most.

8/15/2020

I’ve just added ten new children’s books and lots of donated goodies (three of which are in my list of absolute favorites – try to figure out which). Next week, I’ll be able to add a dozen or so new adult novels, too! Stay tuned….

Adult Fiction

Mercy Road by Dalia Pagani (an Upper Valley author)

From an astonishing new voice on the American literary landscape comes a powerful, haunting novel set against the harsh beauty of rural Vermont.  In Mercy Road Dalia Pagani exposes the soul of a wounded family, holding us captive under a spell of unforgettable characters in a mythic place.

On a rocky, windswept mountain ridge at the end of Mercy Road lives a family called Summer.  Earl and Darlene, trappers born to the ridge, rooted to the land, struggle to find hope and love in an unforgiving place.  Butch is their firstborn–with his father’s brawn and his mother’s tenderness, he would become his brother’s keeper.  Then Sid, the strange, silent son, willed to live by his mother’s fierce love.  And Tina, the only daughter, full of promise, but in whose heart beats her family’s madness.

For the Summers, a difficult life comes apart one fall day when Darlene does the unthinkable, fleeing the ridge for a long, strange winter in New York.  In the wake of her flight, each of the Summers is driven, as if by the land itself, to make choices that will shape the rest of their lives.  

In the hands of a remarkable writer, Mercy Road becomes an epic drama of heroism and redemption, of the forces that bind us to the land that gave us roots, and of what is passed from generation to generation.  At once fierce and tender, raw and lyrical, Mercy Road is a riveting portrait of an unseen corner of the American landscape.

Shana’s note: This is an incredibly dark story, but the language is achingly beautiful.

Want by Lynn Steger Strong

Grappling with motherhood, economic anxiety, rage, and the limits of language, Want is a fiercely personal novel that vibrates with anger, insight, and love.

Elizabeth is tired. Years after coming to New York to try to build a life, she has found herself with two kids, a husband, two jobs, a PhD―and now they’re filing for bankruptcy. As she tries to balance her dream and the impossibility of striving toward it while her work and home lives feel poised to fall apart, she wakes at ungodly hours to run miles by the icy river, struggling to quiet her thoughts.

When she reaches out to Sasha, her long-lost childhood friend, it feels almost harmless―one of those innocuous ruptures that exist online, in texts. But her timing is uncanny. Sasha is facing a crisis, too, and perhaps after years apart, their shared moments of crux can bring them back into each other’s lives.

In Want, Lynn Steger Strong explores the subtle violences enacted on a certain type of woman when she dares to want things―and all the various violences in which she implicates herself as she tries to survive.

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

Written with the haunting emotional power of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, an astonishing debut novel that explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s.

Mercy is hard in a place like this . . .

It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow.

In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, fourteen-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field—an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, the stage is set for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences.

Valentine is a haunting exploration of the intersections of violence and race, class and region in a story that plumbs the depths of darkness and fear, yet offers a window into beauty and hope. Told through the alternating points of view of indelible characters who burrow deep in the reader’s heart, this fierce, unflinching, and surprisingly tender novel illuminates women’s strength and vulnerability, and reminds us that it is the stories we tell ourselves that keep us alive.

Children’s Picture Books

A Year of Borrowed Men by Michelle Barker, illustrated by Renné Benoit

When World War II “borrows” the men in seven-year-old Gerda’s family, the German government sends them three new men in return: Gabriel, Fermaine, and Albert, French prisoners of war who must sleep in an outbuilding and work the farm until the war is over. Gerda knows they are supposed to treat the men as enemies, but it doesn’t seem fair. Can’t they invite them into the warm house for one meal? What harm could it do to be friendly?

Writing from her mother’s childhood memories of Germany during World War II, Michelle Barker shares the story of one family’s daring kindness in a time of widespread anger and suspicion. Renné Benoit’s illustrations bring warmth to the era, showing the small ways in which a forbidden friendship bloomed: good food, a much-loved doll, a secret Christmas tree. Family photographs and an Author’s Note give further insight into the life of Gerda, the little girl who proved that it isn’t so far from Feinde (enemies) to Freunde (friends).

The Minpins by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Patrick Benson

Billy’s mum says he must never go out through the garden gate and explore the dark forest beyond. So, one day, he does exactly that! There Billy meets the amazing Minpins, tiny people who live inside the hollow trees.

But the Minpins are in danger. The terrible, galloping Gruncher stalks the forest, and the Minpins are disappearing in their thousands. Can Billy find a way to destroy the hungry beast, once and for all–or will it gobble him up too?

Wild Honey from the Moon by Kenneth Kraegel

In an epic adventure like no other, an unflappable mother will stop at nothing to find a cure for her ailing young son — even if it means traveling to the moon itself.

“Where are you going?”
“To the moon. A quick trip.”
“But you can’t fly.”
“Darling, I am your mother,” she said, and gave him one last kiss.

On a cold winter’s eve, deep in the woods, a mother shrew frets about her sick young son. His head is cold and his feet are hot, and there is only one thing that can cure him: wild honey from the moon. Mother Shrew does not stop to wonder how she will make such an impossible journey. Instead, she grabs her trusty red umbrella, gives her darling son a kiss, and sets out into the unknown. Along the way, Mother Shrew encounters one obstacle after another, from a malevolent owl to a herd of restless “night mares” to an island humming with angry bees. But each can prove no match for a mother on a mission. From the mind of the uniquely talented Kenneth Kraegel comes an utterly original ode to the limitlessness of maternal love.

The Sugaring-Off Party by Jonathan London, illustrated by Gilles Pelletier

A French-Canadian grandmother reminisces about her first sugaring-off party, complete with music, dancing, and lots of food. The primitive-style pictures are lush and colorful.
.
.

Storm by Sam Usher

A storm is brewing and the wind is picking up, so a boy and his grandfather decide it’s the perfect weather for kite flying. There’s just one problem: they have to find the kite! Their search brings up many wonderful memories of previous adventures together, and when they finally make it outside, their adventure really takes off!
.

Pyxx by Robert Wahl

When the wild children of Tangled Hill find a home and parents, they give their magical qualities to Pyxx who will live in the hearts of all children to make sure they are never too tame. “A genuinely childlike spirit pervades this tale, which may be taken as myth or metaphor…. Never sentimental, the story has a pleasant, rolling rhythm that adds to its fable-like qualities. Is it a story about the imaginative world of children and their return to a concrete universe with their parents, or is it meant to be a new fairy tale? It doesn’t matter. Striking illustrations, energetic and eerie, depict the action in a story of a time when children and animals lived as one in the wild.” (Publishers Weekly)

Easy Readers

Who says princesses don’t wear black? Not Princess Magnolia, whose monster-fighting alter ego saves the kingdom from monsters again and again in this funny, action-packed series.

The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Inconvenient monster alarms, a sparkly array of princess guests, and spot-on slapstick pacing make for a party readers will celebrate.

Today is Princess Magnolia’s birthday party, and she wants everything to be perfect. But just as her guests are arriving . . . Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! Princess Magnolia runs to the broom closet, ditches her frilly clothes, and becomes the Princess in Black! She rushes to the goat pasture, defeats the monster, and returns to the castle before her guests discover her secret. But every time Princess Magnolia is about to open her presents, the monster alarm rings again. And every time she rushes back—an inside-out dress here, a missing shoe there—it gets harder to keep the other princesses from being suspicious. Don’t those monsters understand that now is not a good time for an attack?

The Princess in Black and the Hungry Bunny Horde by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

It’s a case of monstrous cuteness as the Princess in Black encounters her biggest challenge yet: a field overrun by adorable bunnies.

Princess Magnolia and her unicorn, Frimplepants, are on their way to have brunch with Princess Sneezewort, an occasion Frimplepants enjoys more than anything in the world. But just when he can smell the freshly baked bread and the heaping platters of sugar-dusted doughnuts, Princess Magnolia’s glitter-stone ring rings. The monster alarm! After a quick change in the secret cave, Princess Magnolia and Frimplepants are transformed into the Princess in Black and her faithful pony, Blacky. But when they get to the goat pasture, all they can see is a field full of darling little bunnies nibbling on grass, twitching their velvet noses, and wiggling their fluffy tails. Where are the monsters? Are these bunnies as innocent as they appear?

The Princess in Black Takes a Vacation by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Even monster-battling princesses get tired sometimes! But a peaceful time away is hard to find as the humorous New York Times best-selling series continues.

After battling monsters all night, a sleepy Princess in Black decides that she needs a vacation. After all, the Goat Avenger, a new hero who looks oddly familiar, has offered to protect the goats while she takes a much needed break. The very next day Princess Magnolia rides her bicycle to the seaside, where the air is salty, the sun is shiny, and the sea is as blue as monster fur. But just as Princess Magnolia is about to take a nap on her hammock, she hears a “ROAR!” Seriously? A monster? On the perfect beach? Impossible! Could a sea monster really ruin this vacation for the Princess in Black?

The Princess in Black and the Mysterious Playdate by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Noseholes and elephants! A pet-eating monster interrupts a perfect playdate with Princess Sneezewort . . . but who is that new masked avenger?

Princess Magnolia and Princess Sneezewort have plans . . . mysterious plans, like a princess playdate! They dress-up slam! They karaoke jam! They playhouse romp and snack-time stomp! But then a shout from outside Princess Sneezewort’s castle interrupts their fun. It’s a monster trying to eat someone’s kitty! This is a job for the Princess in Black. Yet when the Princess in Black gets there, she finds only a masked stranger and no monster in sight . . . or is there? Action and humor abound in this ode to friendship that proves that when shape-shifting monsters intrude on your plans, two heroes are better than one.

Junior Fiction

Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure by Jeff Kinney and Greg Heffley

From the imagination of Rowley Jefferson comes an adventure of epic proportions. Join Roland and his best friend, Garg the Barbarian, as they leave the safety of their village and embark on a quest to save Roland’s mom from the White Warlock. Will our heroes survive? Find out in Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure!
.
.

The Bottle Imp of Bright House by Tom Llewellyn, illustrated by Gris Grimly

A delightfully dark middle-grade novel reminiscent of the Newbery-winning classic, The Westing Game.

Think of a wish. Go big with it. A winning lottery ticket. Eternal happiness. School vacation for a year. Now, answer this question: If you know this wish will come true, would you still make it if you knew someone else would somehow have to pay for it?

That’s the catch thirteen-year-old Gabe Silver faces when a mysterious millionaire sells him a bottle containing a wish-granting imp. Any time Gabe makes a wish, someone else, somewhere, is going to lose something–maybe something big. That means each of Gabe’s wishes should be an ethical dilemma–but as he scores a Ferrari, a hot tub, and all the pizza and sub sandwiches a kid could want, he’s certain a guilty conscience is worth it…isn’t it?

This thought-provoking book, inspired by a Robert Louis Stevenson novella, is pithy, dark, and very, very funny. It has an endearing, wacked-out cast of characters brought to life by illustrator Gris Grimly, whose cover art will be embossed to highlight the depth and detail of the art.

Knights vs. the End (of Everything) by Matt Phelan

Five daring heroes face their most difficult challenge yet: saving Camelot itself. Can the band of friends survive an evil queen, a powerful Faerie King, and one nasty dragon? This heavily illustrated middle grade adventure is a hilarious tale of derring-do, perfect for reluctant readers as well as fans of The Terrible Two and The Wild Robot.

A year has passed since the knights battled monsters on the mist-covered Orkney Isles. The knights have searched high and low for the elusive Queen Morgause, who is bent on destroying King Arthur and all of Camelot. Finally, a tip from the legendary Green Knight sends the heroes searching for the Faerie Realm, an eerie world where nothing is what it seems. Together, the knights will lose an old friend, discover a new ally, face a dangerous dragon, and learn what it means to be a legend.With art on nearly every page, including an epic fight scene depicted in several graphic-novel–style spreads, this engaging story is ideal for reluctant readers, aspiring knights, and action-adventure fans. Camelot may never be the same after these heroes come to the rescue!

The Griffins of Castle Cary by Heather Shumaker

A charming, adventure-filled debut novel that’s perfect for fans of The Penderwicks series.

Siblings Meg, Will, and Ariel Griffin are off on an adventure! They can’t wait to spend a week visiting their eccentric aunt and her giant, tongue-drooling Newfoundland dog in England. But when they finally arrive, they’re faced with a few local secrets that stir up more than a little trouble.

Add in some very peculiar lights, strange new friends, a police chase and some stampeding sheep, and the Griffin kids are in over their heads—literally. Apparently this town has a ghost problem and the three children must race to solve the mystery before the ghosts take something that doesn’t belong to them.

The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman

Imani is adopted, and she’s ready to search for her birth parents. Anna has left behind her family to escape from Holocaust-era Europe to meet a new family–two journeys, one shared family history, and the bonds that make us who we are. Perfect for fans of The Night Diary.

Imani knows exactly what she wants as her big bat mitzvah gift: to find her birth parents. She loves her family and her Jewish community in Baltimore, but she has always wondered where she came from, especially since she’s black and almost everyone she knows is white. Then her mom’s grandmother–Imani’s great-grandma Anna–passes away, and Imani discovers an old journal among her books. It’s Anna’s diary from 1941, the year she was twelve and fled Nazi-occupied Luxembourg alone, sent by her parents to seek refuge in Brooklyn, New York. Anna’s diary records her journey to America and her new life with an adoptive family of her own. And as Imani reads the diary, she begins to see her family, and her place in it, in a whole new way.

Children’s Nonfiction

What Linnaeus Saw: A Scientist’s Quest to Name Every Living Thing by Karen Magnuson Beil

The globetrotting naturalists of the eighteenth century were the geeks of their day: innovators and explorers who lived at the intersection of science and commerce. Foremost among them was Carl Linnaeus, a radical thinker who revolutionized biology.

In What Linnaeus Saw, Karen Magnuson Beil chronicles Linnaeus’s life and career in readable, relatable prose. As a boy, Linnaeus hated school and had little interest in taking up the religious profession his family had chosen. Though he struggled through Latin and theology classes, Linnaeus was an avid student of the natural world and explored the school’s gardens and woods, transfixed by the properties of different plants. At twenty-five, on a solo expedition to the Scandinavian Mountains, Linnaeus documented and described dozens of new species. As a medical student in Holland, he moved among leading scientific thinkers and had access to the best collections of plants and animals in Europe. What Linnaeus found was a world with no consistent system for describing and naming living things―a situation he methodically set about changing. The Linnaean system for classifying plants and animals, developed and refined over the course of his life, is the foundation of modern scientific taxonomy, and inspired and guided generations of scientists.

What Linnaeus Saw is rich with biographical anecdotes―from his attempt to identify a mysterious animal given him by the king to successfully growing a rare and exotic banana plant in Amsterdam to debunking stories of dragons and phoenixes. Thoroughly researched and generously illustrated, it offers a vivid and insightful glimpse into the life of one of modern science’s founding thinkers. 60 color illustrations

A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars by Seth Fishman, illustrated by Isabel Greenberg

Did you know that the earth is covered in three trillion trees? And that seven billion people weigh about the same as ten quadrillion ants? Our world is full of constantly changing numbers, from a hundred billion trillion stars in space to thirty-seven billion rabbits on Earth. Can you imagine that many of anything?

The playful illustrations from New York Times–bestselling artist Isabel Greenberg and the friendly, straightforward voice of author Seth Fishman illuminate some of the biggest numbers in the universe—a hundred billion trillion stars—and the smallest—one unique and special YOU. Here is a book for story time, for science time, for math time, for bedtime, and all the times in between.

Flight for Freedom: The Wetzel Family’s Daring Escape from East Germany by Kristen Fulton, illustrated by Torben Kuhlmann

An Inspiring True Story about One Family’s Escape from Behind the Berlin Wall!

Peter was born on the east side of Germany, the side that wasn’t free. He watches news programs rather than cartoons, and wears scratchy uniforms instead of blue jeans. His family endures long lines and early curfews. But Peter knows it won’t always be this way. Peter and his family have a secret. Late at night in their attic, they are piecing together a hot air balloon—and a plan. Can Peter and his family fly their way to freedom? This is the true story of one child, Peter Wetzel, and his family, as they risk their lives for the hope of freedom in a daring escape from East Germany via a handmade hot air balloon in 1979.

Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel

In an unprecedented effort, sixteen of the world’s foremost photographers traveled to thirty nations around the globe to live for a week with families that were statistically average for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and family collaborated on a remarkable portrait of the family members outside their home, surrounded by all of their possessions – a few jars and jugs for some, an explosion of electronic gadgetry for others. Vividly portraying the look and feel of the human condition everywhere on Earth, this internationally acclaimed bestseller puts a human face on the issues of population, environment, social justice, and consumption as it illuminates the crucial question facing our species today: Can all six billion of us have all the things we want?

You Are Enough: Your Guide to Body Image and Eating Disorder Recovery by Jen Petro-Roy

This nonfiction self-help book for young readers with disordered eating and body image problems delivers real talk about eating disorders and body image, tools and information for recovery, and suggestions for dealing with the media messages that contribute so much to disordered eating.

You Are Enough answers questions like:
• What are eating disorders?
• What types of treatment are available for eating disorders?
• What is anxiety?
• How can you relax?
• What is cognitive reframing?
• Why are measurements like BMI flawed and arbitrary?
• What is imposter syndrome?
• How do our role models affect us?
• How do you deal with body changes?
. . . just to name a few.

Many eating disorder books are written in a way that leaves people out of the eating disorder conversation, and this book is written with a special eye to inclusivity, so that people of any gender, socioeconomic group, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, or chronic illness can benefit.

Eating disorder survivor Jen Petro-Roy draws from her own experience with anorexia, OCD, and over-exercising, as well as research and interviews with survivors and medical professionals, to deliver a toolkit for recovery, written in a easy-to-understand, conversational way.

Born Just Right by Jordan Reeves and Jen Lee Reeves

From tween advocate for limb difference and founder of Project Unicorn Jordan Reeves and her mom, Jen, comes an inspiring memoir about how every kid is perfect just the way they are.

When Jordan Reeves was born without the bottom half of her left arm, the doctors reassured her parents that she was “born just right.” And she has been proving that doctor right ever since!

With candor, humor, and heart, Jordan’s mother, Jen Lee Reeves, helps Jordan tell her story about growing up in an able-bodied world and family, where she was treated like all of her siblings and classmates—and where she never felt limited. Whether it was changing people’s minds about her capabilities, trying all kinds of sports, or mentoring other kids, Jordan has channeled any negativity into a positive, and is determined to create more innovations for people just like her.

Her most famous invention, aptly called Project Unicorn, is a special prosthetic (that shoots glitter!) made with the help of a 3-D printer. A real-life superhero, Jordan is changing the world with her foundation, Born Just Right, which advocates and celebrates kids with differences, and helps them live their best possible life—just like Jordan is today!

8/4/2020

Here are the newest Audiobooks from the Librarians of the Upper Valley (LUV) Co-op. Their due dates will be only two weeks (rather than the now-standard month) from the checkout date, as we’ll have to swap them out within a few months. Shorter check-out lengths will allow more people to view them before they disappear. Each title links to the GoodReads page for the book – not the audiobook. You won’t be able to find these in the catalog, so if you’d like to check one (or more!) out, just email me.

Barr, Nevada – Firestorm (read by Barbara Rosenblat)
Bird, Sarah – How Perfect Is That? (read by Susan Bennett)
Box, C.J. – Wolf Pack (read by David Chandler)
Capote, Truman – Breakfast at Tiffany’s (read by Michael C. Hall)
Connelly, Michael – The Lincoln Lawyer (read by Adam Grupper)
Dent, Jim – The Kids Got It Right: How the Texas All-Stars Kicked Down Racial Walls (read by Brian Hutchison)
Drury, Bob & Tom Clavin – The Heart of Everything that Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend (read by George Newbern)
Erdrich, Louise – LaRose (read by the author)
Grandin, Temple & Catherine Johnson – Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (read by Shelly Frasier)
Griffiths, Elly – The Dark Angel (read by Jane McDowell)
Groff, Lauren – Arcadia (read by Andrew Garman)
Herbert, Frank – Dune (read by Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Susan Morton, Simon Vance, and cast)
Horowitz, Anthony – Magpie Murders (read by Samantha Bond and Allan Corduner)
Kaling, Mindy – Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (read by the author)
Kidd, Sue Monk – The Mermaid Chair (read by Eliza Foss)
Kondo, Marie – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (read by Emily Woo Zeller)
Leon, Donna – Drawing Conclusions (read by David Colacci)
Leroux, Gaston – The Phantom of the Opera (read by Henry Butler)|
MacDonald, Helen – H Is for Hawk (read by the author)
Malerman, Josh – Bird Box (read by Cassandra Campbell)
Morgan, Robert – Gap Creek (read by Kate Forbes)
Peters, Elizabeth – Tomb of the Golden Bird (read by Barbara Rosenblat)
Rutherfurd, Edward – Paris (read by Jean Gilpin)
Sedaris, David – Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk (read by David Sedaris, Elaine Stritch, Dylan Barker, and Sian Phillips)
Shakespeare, William – Macbeth (fully dramatized)
Shakespeare, William – Richard III (fully dramatized)
Ware, Ruth – The Turn of the Key (read by Imogen Church)
Winspear, Jacqueline – Messenger of Truth (read by Orlagh Cassidy)

7/28/2020

Here are the newest DVDs from the Librarians of the Upper Valley (LUV) Co-op. Their due dates will be only two weeks (rather than the now-standard month) from the checkout date, as we’ll have to swap them out within a few months. Shorter check-out lengths will allow more people to view them before they disappear. Each title is linked to its IMDB page (though in a few cases, linked to another review page). You won’t be able to find these in the catalog, so if you’d like to check one (or more!) out, just email me.

Beyond Borders
Brothers McMullen
The Escape Artist
Follow the Fleet
Free Solo
Hot Fuzz
Houdini
How to Die in Oregon
The Human Resources Manager
I Am MLK Jr.
I, Tonya
The Ides of March
Inside Planet Earth
The Internship
Interstellar
The Invisible War
Isle of Dogs
Jack the Giant Slayer
Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (2 discs)
Kidnapped
Killer Subs in Pearl Harbor
The Kings of Summer
Life, Animated
The Lincoln Lawyer
Little Fugitive
Lo and Behold
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
Mad Hot Ballroom
Mad Max: Fury Road
Mad Men – Season 3 (4 discs)
Maiden
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Manglehorn
Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge
Martin Clunes: Islands of America
Mississippi Grind
Muscle Shoals
OSS 117: Lost in Rio
Pat and Mike
Planet of the Apes
Verdi’s Il Trovatore

7/26/2021

We’ve finally received may of the books that focus on issues of racism and/or, in the case of children’s books, inclusion and kindness. (If you’d like to view Baxter’s collection of children’s books that can help facilitate conversations about race with children, please see the blog post Using Books to Talk about Racism.) These titles have all been added into the catalog, so if you see something you’d like to check out, just log into the catalog and place a hold on the item. (You’ll be added to the waiting list, if someone has already requested it.) If you’re unsure how to log into your account, you can simply email me, and I’ll place the hold for you (or send you your patron number so that you can do so, yourself).

Adults

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

How to Be and Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

From the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a “groundbreaking” (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society—and in ourselves.

Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.

Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society.

Some Americans insist that we’re living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America–it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.

In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis.

As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial inequities.

In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

In this New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America. Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy–from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans–has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair–and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.

Children

The Colors of Us by Karen Katz

Seven-year-old Lena is going to paint a picture of herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when she and her mother take a walk through the neighborhood, Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades.

Through the eyes of a little girl who begins to see her familiar world in a new way, this book celebrates the differences and similarities that connect all people.

Be Kind by Pat Zeitlow Miller, illustrated by Jen Hill

When Tanisha spills grape juice all over her new dress, her classmate wants to make her feel better, wondering: What does it mean to be kind?

From asking the new girl to play to standing up for someone being bullied, this moving story explores what kindness is, and how any act, big or small, can make a difference―or at least help a friend.

With a gentle text from the award-winning author of Sophie’s Squash, Pat Zietlow Miller, and irresistible art from Jen Hill, Be Kind is an unforgettable story about how two simple words can change the world.

Saturday by Oge Mora

In this warm and tender story by the Caldecott Honor-winning creator of Thank You, Omu!, join a mother and daughter on an up-and-down journey that reminds them of what’s best about Saturdays: precious time together.

Today would be special. Today would be splendid. It was Saturday! But sometimes, the best plans don’t work out exactly the way you expect….

In this heartfelt and universal story, a mother and daughter look forward to their special Saturday routine together every single week. But this Saturday, one thing after another goes wrong–ruining storytime, salon time, picnic time, and the puppet show they’d been looking forward to going to all week. Mom is nearing a meltdown…until her loving daughter reminds her that being together is the most important thing of all.

Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester

In this acclaimed book, the author of the Newbery Honor Book To Be a Slave shares his own story as he explores what makes each of us special. A strong choice for sharing at home or in the classroom.

Karen Barbour’s dramatic, vibrant paintings speak to the heart of Lester’s unique vision, truly a celebration of all of us. “This stunning picture book introduces race as just one of many chapters in a person’s story” (School Library Journal). “Lester’s poignant picture book helps children learn, grow, discuss, and begin to create a future that resolves differences” (Children’s Literature).

Julius Lester said: “I write because our lives are stories. If enough of these stories are told, then perhaps we will begin to see that our lives are the same story. The differences are merely in the details.”

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael López

National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson and two-time Pura Belpré Illustrator Award winner Rafael López have teamed up to create a poignant, yet heartening book about finding courage to connect, even when you feel scared and alone.

There will be times when you walk into a room
and no one there is quite like you.

There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it’s how you look or talk, or where you’re from; maybe it’s what you eat, or something just as random. It’s not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.

Jacqueline Woodson’s lyrical text and Rafael López’s dazzling art reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.

7/21/2020

I’m adding thirteen new children’s titles today. Remember, you can click on the each title’s image for its GoodReads review. We’ve also received a donation of an Electronic Snap Circuits kit. If you’re interested in checking it out, just email. You can view the instructions here.

Clap when You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other. 

Cape: The League of Secret Heroes by Kate Hannigan

Hidden Figures meets Wonder Woman in this action-packed, comic-inspired adventure about a brilliant girl puzzler who discovers she’s part of a superhero team—the first in a new series! Josie O’Malley does a lot to help out Mam after her father goes off to fight the Nazis, but she wishes she could do more—like all those caped heroes who now seem to have disappeared. If Josie can’t fly and control weather like her idol, Zenobia, maybe she can put her math smarts to use cracking puzzles for the government.

After an official tosses out her puzzler test because she’s a girl, it soon becomes clear that an even more top-secret agency has its eye on Josie, along with two other applicants: Akiko and Mae. The trio bonds over their shared love of female superhero celebrities, from Hauntima to Zenobia to Hopscotch. But during one extraordinary afternoon, they find themselves transformed into the newest (and youngest!) superheroes in town. As the girls’ abilities slowly begin to emerge, they learn that their skills will be crucial in thwarting a shapeshifting henchman of Hitler, and, just maybe, in solving an even larger mystery about the superheroes who’ve recently gone missing.

Inspired by remarkable real-life women from World War II—the human computers and earliest programmers called “the ENIAC Six”—this pulse-pounding adventure features bold action and brave thinking, with forty-eight pages of comic book style graphic panels throughout the book. Readers will want to don their own capes for an adventure, and realize they have the power to be a superhero, too!

We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

It’s the first day of school for Penelope Rex, and she can’t wait to meet her classmates. But it’s hard to make human friends when they’re so darn delicious! That is, until Penelope gets a taste of her own medicine and finds she may not be at the top of the food chain after all. . . . Readers will gobble up this hilarious new story from award-winning author-illustrator Ryan T. Higgins.

The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments: Awesome Things To Do With Your Parents, Babysitters and Other Adults by Holly Homer, Rachel Miller, and Jamie Harrington

The Quirky Mommas from the wildly popular Kids Activities Blog and authors of the bestselling 101 Kids Activities That Are the Bestest, Funnest Ever! have done it again with this book of ridiculously amazing, simple science experiments. You can do things both indoors and outdoors. The handy mess meter, preparation times and notes on the level of supervision will keep your parents happy, and you safe. Experimenting is really fun, and you will have a blast being a scientist! You will be so entertained, you might not notice you’re also learning important things about the world around you. Some experiments to master:

• Balloon-Powered Car
• Burst Soap Cloud
• CD Hovercraft
• Creeping Ink
• Bendy Bones
• Electromagnet
• Paper Helicopters
• Unbreakable Bubbles

Now put on your lab coat and let’s get experimenting!

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

When Floyd’s kite gets stuck in a tree, he’s determined to get it out. But how? Well, by knocking it down with his shoe, of course. But strangely enough, it too gets stuck. And the only logical course of action . . . is to throw his other shoe. Only now it’s stuck! Surely there must be something he can use to get his kite unstuck. An orangutan? A boat? His front door? Yes, yes, and yes. And that’s only the beginning. Stuck is Oliver Jeffers’ most absurdly funny story since The Incredible Book-Eating Boy. Childlike in concept and vibrantly illustrated as only Oliver Jeffers could, here is a picture book worth rescuing from any tree.

Awesome Robotics Projects for Kids: 20 Original STEAM Robots and Circuits to Design and Build by Bob Katovich

Get ready to build all kinds of incredible robots―right in your own home! Designed for young robot builders (ages 5 – 10), these do-it-yourself robotics for kids projects will teach you about science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) as you assemble an amazing collection of real working robots!

From scribblebots to two-legged walkers, this book walks you through robotics for kids, one beautifully-photographed project at a time. The robots start out simple and get more advanced as you go, helping you boost your skills (and your confidence) at the same time. This exciting guide to robotics for kids includes:

• 20 awesome projects―Rock the world of robotics for kids with nearly two-dozen different designs for bots that glow, draw, walk, climb, and more.
• Full-color photos―Construction is easy thanks to clear directions and 200 step-by-step pictures that help you build your robot right.
• Robots in the world―Chapters are divided based on the functions of robots, showing you how they can be used to help in your day-to-day life.

Between Us and Abuela: A Family Story from the Border by Mitali Perkins, illustrations by Sara Palacios

It’s almost time for Christmas, and Maria is traveling with her mother and younger brother, Juan, to visit their grandmother on the border of California and Mexico. For the few minutes they can share together along the fence, Maria and her brother plan to exchange stories and Christmas gifts with the grandmother they haven’t seen in years. But when Juan’s gift is too big to fit through the slats in the fence, Maria has a brilliant idea. Here is a heartwarming tale of families and the miracle of love.

You Are My Friend: The Story of Mister Rogers and His Neighborhood by Aimee Reid, illustrated by Matt Phelan

Mister Rogers is one of the most beloved television personalities, but before he was the man who brought us Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, he was just little Freddie Rogers. Though he was often sick and had trouble making friends as a child, his mom and grandfather encouraged him to ask for help and explore the world. With their support, he learned how to better say what he was feeling and see the beauty around him. As he grew up, he realized he could spread the message of compassion, equality, and kindness through television. You Are My Friend is a gentle homage to Fred Rogers and shows how his simple message still resonates with us today: “There’s no person in the world like you and I like you just the way you are.” The book includes a short biography of Fred’s life and a bibliography.

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan (fifth book in The Heroes of Olympus series)

Though the Greek and Roman crew members of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen-all of them-and they’re stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood-the blood of Olympus-in order to wake.

The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it might be able to stop a war between the two camps.

The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea’s army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan

A publisher in New York asked me to write down what I know about the Greek gods, and I was like, Can we do this anonymously? Because I don’t need the Olympians mad at me again. But if it helps you to know your Greek gods, and survive an encounter with them if they ever show up in your face, then I guess writing all this down will be my good deed for the week.

So begins Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods, in which the son of Poseidon adds his own magic–and sarcastic asides–to the classics. He explains how the world was created, then gives readers his personal take on a who’s who of ancients, from Apollo to Zeus. Percy does not hold back. “If you like horror shows, blood baths, lying, stealing, backstabbing, and cannibalism, then read on, because it definitely was a Golden Age for all that.”

The Tyrant’s Tomb by Rick Riordan (fourth book in The Trials of Apollo series)

It’s not easy being Apollo, especially when you’ve been turned into a human and banished from Olympus. On his path to restoring five ancient oracles and reclaiming his godly powers, Apollo (aka Lester Papadopoulos) has faced both triumphs and tragedies. Now his journey takes him to Camp Jupiter in the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Roman demigods are preparing for a desperate last stand against the evil Triumvirate of Roman emperors. Hazel, Reyna, Frank, Tyson, Ella, and many other old friends will need Apollo’s aid to survive the onslaught. Unfortunately, the answer to their salvation lies in the forgotten tomb of a Roman ruler . . . someone even worse than the emperors Apollo has already faced.

Teddy’s Favorite Toy by Christian Trimmer, illustrated by Madeline Valentine

A mom goes to great lengths to rescue her son’s favorite doll in this delightful tribute to treasured toys—and mothers. Teddy has a lot of cool toys. But his very favorite doll has the best manners, the sickest fighting skills, and a fierce sense of style. Then one morning, something truly awful happens. And there’s only one woman fierce enough to save the day. Can Teddy’s mom reunite Teddy with his favorite toy?

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

A Newbery Honor Book
“An irresistible Southern narrator—a literary descendant of Scout Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird.” —Newsday

Rising sixth grader Miss Moses LoBeau lives in the small town of Tupelo Landing, NC, where everyone’s business is fair game and no secret is sacred. She washed ashore in a hurricane eleven years ago, and she’s been making waves ever since. Although Mo hopes someday to find her “upstream mother,” she’s found a home with the Colonel–a café owner with a forgotten past of his own–and Miss Lana, the fabulous café hostess. She will protect those she loves with every bit of her strong will and tough attitude. So when a lawman comes to town asking about a murder, Mo and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Johnson III, set out to uncover the truth in hopes of saving the only family Mo has ever known.

7/11/2020

We’ve gotten a BIG shipment! Since browsing isn’t possible at the moment, I’ll use this page to detail each new title. You can also click on the covers to see each book’s GoodReads page (including reviews).

Adult Fiction

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez

The first adult novel in almost fifteen years by the internationally bestselling author of In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.

Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.

Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including—maybe especially—members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?

Hello, Summer by Mary Kay Andrews

Conley Hawkins left her family’s small town newspaper, The Silver Bay Beacon, in the rearview mirror years ago. Now a star reporter for a big-city paper, Conley is exactly where she wants to be and is about to take a fancy new position in Washington, D.C. Or so she thinks.

When the new job goes up in smoke, Conley finds herself right back where she started, working for her sister, who is trying to keep The Silver Bay Beacon afloat―and she doesn’t exactly have warm feelings for Conley. Soon she is given the unenviable task of overseeing the local gossip column, “Hello, Summer.”

Then Conley witnesses an accident that ends in the death of a local congressman―a beloved war hero with a shady past. The more she digs into the story, the more dangerous it gets. As an old heartbreaker causes trouble and a new flame ignites, it soon looks like their sleepy beach town is the most scandalous hotspot of the summer.

Outfox by Sandra Brown

FBI agent Drex Easton is relentlessly driven by a single goal: to outmaneuver the conman once known as Weston Graham. Over the past thirty years, Weston has assumed many names and countless disguises, enabling him to lure eight wealthy women out of their fortunes before they disappeared without a trace, their families left without answers and the authorities without clues. The only common trait among the victims: a new man in their life who also vanished, leaving behind no evidence of his existence . . . except for one signature custom.

Drex is convinced that these women have been murdered, and that the man he knows as Weston Graham is the sociopath responsible. But each time Drex gets close to catching him, Weston trades one persona for another and disappears again. Now, for the first time in their long game of cat and mouse, Drex has a suspect in sight.

Attractive and charming, Jasper Ford is recently married to a successful businesswoman many years his junior, Talia Shafer. Drex insinuates himself into their lives, posing as a new neighbor and setting up surveillance on their house. The closer he gets to the couple, the more convinced he becomes that Jasper is the clever, merciless predator he’s sought–and that his own attraction to Talia threatens to compromise his purpose and integrity.

This is Drex’s one chance to outfox his cunning nemesis before he murders again and eludes justice forever. But first he must determine if the desirable Talia is a heartless accomplice . . . or the next victim.

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England’s finest novelists. Now it’s home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen’s legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen’s home and her legacy. These people―a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others―could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.

A powerful and moving novel that explores the tragedies and triumphs of life, both large and small, and the universal humanity in us all, Natalie Jenner’s The Jane Austen Society is destined to resonate with readers for years to come.

Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

The critically acclaimed, bestselling author of News of the World and Enemy Women returns to Texas in this atmospheric story, set at the end of the Civil War, about an itinerant fiddle player, a ragtag band of musicians with whom he travels trying to make a living, and the charming young Irish lass who steals his heart.

In March 1865, the long and bitter War between the States is winding down. Till now, twenty-three-year-old Simon Boudlin has evaded military duty thanks to his slight stature, youthful appearance, and utter lack of compunction about bending the truth. But following a barroom brawl in Victoria, Texas, Simon finds himself conscripted, however belatedly, into the Confederate Army. Luckily his talent with a fiddle gets him a comparatively easy position in a regimental band.

Weeks later, on the eve of the Confederate surrender, Simon and his bandmates are called to play for officers and their families from both sides of the conflict. There the quick-thinking, audacious fiddler can’t help but notice the lovely Doris Mary Dillon, an indentured girl from Ireland, who is governess to a Union colonel’s daughter.

After the surrender, Simon and Doris go their separate ways. He will travel around Texas seeking fame and fortune as a musician. She must accompany the colonel’s family to finish her three years of service. But Simon cannot forget the fair Irish maiden, and vows that someday he will find her again.

Incandescent in its beauty, told in Paulette Jiles’s trademark spare yet lilting style, Simon the Fiddler is a captivating, bittersweet tale of the chances a devoted man will take, and the lengths he will go to fulfill his heart’s yearning.

The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd

An extraordinary story set in the first century about a woman who finds her voice and her destiny, from the celebrated number one New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings.

In her mesmerizing fourth work of fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes an audacious approach to history and brings her acclaimed narrative gifts to imagine the story of a young woman named Ana. Raised in a wealthy family with ties to the ruler of Galilee, she is rebellious and ambitious, with a brilliant mind and a daring spirit. She engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes narratives about neglected and silenced women. Ana is expected to marry an older widower, a prospect that horrifies her. An encounter with eighteen-year-old Jesus changes everything.

Their marriage evolves with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, and their mother, Mary. Ana’s pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to Rome’s occupation of Israel, partially led by her brother, Judas. She is sustained by her fearless aunt Yaltha, who harbors a compelling secret. When Ana commits a brazen act that puts her in peril, she flees to Alexandria, where startling revelations and greater dangers unfold, and she finds refuge in unexpected surroundings. Ana determines her fate during a stunning convergence of events considered among the most impactful in human history.

Grounded in meticulous research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus’s life that focuses on his humanity, The Book of Longings is an inspiring, unforgettable account of one woman’s bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time, place and culture devised to silence her. It is a triumph of storytelling both timely and timeless, from a masterful writer at the height of her powers.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events-a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.

Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby’s glass wall: “Why don’t you swallow broken glass.” High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients’ accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan’s wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.

In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, the business of international shipping, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.

6/2/2020

Baxter Memorial Library is a part of Librarians of the Upper Valley (LUV), a group of a few dozen area libraries that rotate audiobook and dvd collections. These are our current LUV audiobook offerings. They don’t appear in the catalog, but feel free to email me if you’d like to reserve one. Currently, we’re scheduled to exchange these audiobooks for a new batch in July, so please have them returned by July 1st. Happy listening!

Jane Austen – Mansfield Park
David Baldacci – The Last Mile
Linda Barnes – Steel Guitar (The Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries Book 4)
Jennifer Chiaverini – Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule
Lee Child – Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol
Joseph J. Ellis – American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic
Leif Enger – Virgil Wander
Tina Fey – Bossypants
Alan Furst – Spies of the Balkans: A Novel
Malcolm Gladwell – The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Elly Griffiths – The Chalk Pit (Ruth Galloway Mysteries Book 9)
Robert Harris – Munich
Kent Haruf – Benediction
Kent Haruf – Our Souls at Night
Ernest Hemingway – The Old Man and the Sea
Craig Johnson – The Western Star
Jonathan Kellerman – Evidence: An Alex Delaware Novel
Stephen King – On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Christina Baker Kline – Orphan Train: A Novel

---

6/1/2020

The kids’ books below have just been added; however, we’re waiting on a shipment of new fiction and nonfiction for adults (as well as another shipment of children’s books – including lots of books brimming with cool activities). The new adult books listed below are what we had before the stay-home order.

KIDS’

Jack Blasts Off! by Mac Barnett (easy reader)
Monstrous: The Lore, Gore, and Science Behind Your Favorite Monsters by Carlyn Beccia (jr. nonfiction)
Wildheart: The Daring Adventures of John Muir by Julie Bertagna and William Goldsmith (nonfiction graphic novel)
Scary Stories for Young Foxes by Christian McKay Heidicker (jr. fiction)
Science Comics – Trees: Kings of the Forest by Andy Hirsch (graphic novel)
Earth by the Numbers: A Book of Infographics by Steve Jenkins (nonfiction)
A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata (jr. fiction)
The Singing Rock & Other Brand New Fairy Tales by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer and Siini Blocker (graphic novel)
The Hundred-Year Barn by Patricia MacLachlan
The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty (jr. fiction)
Pilu of the Woods by Mai K. Nguyen (graphic novel)
Cast Away: Poems for Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye (jr. book of poetry)
The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree by Paola Peretti (jr. fiction)
One Dark Bird by Liz Garton Scanlon
Astronuts – Mission One: The Plant Planet by Jon Scieszka (jr. fiction)
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys (YA fiction)
Small in the City by Sydney Smith (picture book)
Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh (YA graphic novel)
Guts by Raina Telgemeier (graphic novel)

ADULT FICTION

The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
Blue Moon by Lee Child
The Body in Question by Jill Ciment 
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Night Fire by Kevin Connelly
Akin by Emma Donohue
Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
The River by Peter Heller
Cemetery Road by Greg Iles
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
The Institute by Stephen King
Bomber’s Moon by Archer Mayor
To the Land of Long Lost Friends by Alexander McCall Smith
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Starless Sea by Emily Morgenstern
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
The Friend: A Novel by Sigrid Nunez
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The 18^th Abduction by James Patterson
A Better Man by Louise Penny
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Last Day by Luanne Rice
Chances Are… by Richard Russo
The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine
Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith
The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

ADULT NONFICTION

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow
The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay
From the Oven to the Table cookbook by Diana Henry
The Winter Army: The WWII Odyssey of the 10^th Mountain Division, America’s Elite Alpine Warriors by Maurice Isserman
Why We’re Polarized by Ezra Klein
This America: The Case for the Nation by Jill Lepore
The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law that Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America by Daniel Okrent
Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir by Victoria Riskin
The Heartbeat of Wounded Kneww: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer