Staff Recommendations
Daryl M.
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The Lies of the Ajungo
by Utomi, Moses Ose
May 15, 2023
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“There is no water in the City of Lies.”Tutu has lived all of his short life in the City of Lies with his mother. Located in the Forever Desert, the City of Lies used to have water. . .but the inhabitants were vanquished by the fierce Ajungo Empire which required, in exchange for water, that every person aged thirteen and older have their tongue cut out. The cost is terrible and the Ajungo do provide water, but just enough to keep most people alive. There are still many who die of dehydration, the “blood drought.”“There are no heroes in the City of Lies.”When Tutu’s mother becomes ill, Tutu... Read Full Review
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Going Zero
by McCarten, Anthony
May 1, 2023
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We all know that we are constantly being observed and monitored in today’s world. There are security and surveillance cameras on many homes, businesses, and on the traffic lights at intersections. ATMs and now self-check out machines in retail establishments also include cameras. Purchases, whether online or in a brick and mortar store can, and are, tracked. Many retail establishments offer “discount” cards or memberships that track customer purchases. And the personal information of banking and/or retail customers is regularly breached and sold, while many people willingly provide personal... Read Full Review
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Weyward: A Novel
by Hart, Emilia
April 24, 2023
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“The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.” From: On Lies, Secrets, and Silence by Adrienne RichAltha is a 21-year-old woman who, in 1619, is accused of, and tried for, witchcraft in her small English village. She is a healer, like her mother before her. Her mother was long suspected of being a witch for daring to have a greater understanding of biology and physiology than the local doctor. In a small village, that suspicion grows and festers until blame is laid... Read Full Review
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The Motion Picture Teller
by Cotterill, Colin
April 12, 2023
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Supot Yongjaiyut knows he is not living his best life. The year is 1996 and Supot lives in Bangkok. During the day, he works for the Royal Thai Mail Service, a job he loathes and for which he knows he has no aptitude. When he’s not at work, he spends his evenings watching movies with his best friend Ali. Ali owns a video store and shares a love of movies, all movies, with Supot. Another thing both men share is the belief that they are waiting for “something big” to happen to them. And that when that something big happens, they will both begin to live their lives the way they were meant to... Read Full Review
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Stone Blind
by Haynes, Natalie
March 13, 2023
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"I only see them for an instant. Then they're gone. But it's enough. Enough to know that the hero isn't the one who's kind or brave or loyal. Sometimes -- not always, but sometimes -- he is monstrous. And the monster? Who is she? She is what happens when someone cannot be saved. This particular monster is assaulted, abused and vilified. And yet, as the story is always told, She is the one you should fear. She is the monster.We'll see about that." In Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes retells the story of Medusa, one of the three Gorgon sisters from Greek mythology, who could turn... Read Full Review
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How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain
by North, Ryan
January 30, 2023
Call Number: 500 N866
In How to Take Over the World, Ryan North, an award winning comics and science writer and computer scientist, provides a primer for those considering supervillainy as a career. He provides step by step instructions, beginning with where to build a secret lair (no matter what you see in movies, television, or comics, do NOT build a lair in an active volcano – North explains why!), potentially villainous schemes to pursue, along with explorations of the existing, or soon to exist, science, including physics, mathematics, biology, history, genetics, along with political science and... Read Full Review
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Paperback Jack
by Estleman, Loren D.
January 3, 2023
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The year is 1946. WWII has ended and Jacob Heppleman is one of the many veterans returning home from the European conflict. For Jacob, home is New York City. Before the war, he wrote detective, western, and war stories for the pulp magazines. He even published a novel that was released just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry into the war.Desperate to re-start his writing career, Jacob steals a typewriter from a local pawnshop and begins to write again. He finds that he is simply unable to write the fictionalized version of war after having experienced the real... Read Full Review
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Gallant
by Schwab, Victoria
December 27, 2022
Call Number: YA
Olivia Prior has lived at Merilance since she was two years old. While Merilance calls itself a school, the truth is that it is closer to an asylum, a prison. It is a place where girls and young women who are not wanted are sent when they have nowhere else to go. They are supposed to be cared for, but they are not. They are supposed to be educated, but they are not. The children in residence at Merilance are supposed to be prepared for life after they leave the school, but they are not. As terrible as Merilance is, the outside world is worse, and the girls that leave, fleeing Merilance for a... Read Full Review
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Neom
by Tidhar, Lavie
December 20, 2022
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A sprawling metropolis on the edge of the Red Sea that is simultaneously a playground of the wealthy and a struggle for the poor. A woman working multiple jobs to survive because she isn’t rich in a place that isn’t kind to someone without money. A young boy, alone in the world. His only possession may be his ticket off-world and to a better, different life. It could also be the end of everything. A robot, centuries old, in search of a connection to a dangerous past, who enters a shop and asks to buy a single rose. In Neom, award winning author... Read Full Review
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Wrong Place, Wrong Time
by McAllister, Gillian
December 12, 2022
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It is a given that, in most mystery novels, someone dies. The death occurs either before, or shortly after, the novel begins. The bulk of the narrative will explore how or why someone died. In her new novel, Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Gillian McAllister finds a new way to approach the classic mystery: Can you stop a murder after it has occurred?Late in the evening on October 29th, Jen is waiting up for her seventeen-year-old son, Todd, to come home. He is late (possibly, it is the evening of the time change, and at the moment Todd is technically late, midnight, he is granted an... Read Full Review
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The Picture Bride
by Yi, Kŭm-i
November 16, 2022
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The year is 1917 and a seventeen-year-old girl named Willow, who lives with her widowed mother and two younger brothers in a small, rural village in southeastern Korea, is asked by a traveling matchmaker if she wants to get married. The older woman shows Willow a photo of a young man and tells her he lives in Powa, a place the Americans call Hawai’i. She goes on to say that in Powa, you can “sweep up money with a dustpan”, that “clothes and shoes grow on trees, you only have to put them on”, and that “every season is late springtime.” More important to Willow than any of this, is the claim... Read Full Review
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Darling Girl: A Novel of Peter Pan
by Michalski, Liz
November 8, 2022
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We all know the story of Peter Pan, the boy who refuses to grow up. J.M. Barrie wrote and published a play and two books about Peter and his adventures in the early 20th century, recounting how Peter visited the Darling children: Wendy, John, and Michael, and spirited them away to Neverland by teaching them how to fly. But what if there is more to the story than we were told? What if Peter Pan is real? What if the ideas for the story didn’t originate with Barrie, but he merely wrote down what Wendy told him after returning from her adventure? And what if Barrie’s version, sanitized and... Read Full Review