Staff Recommendations
Daryl M.
Pages
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The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers
by Levesque, Emily
December 29, 2020
Call Number: 520 L662
Halley's Comet is quite possibly the most famous, and infamous, comet currently known. It is a “periodic” comet, coming close enough to the earth for viewing approximately every 75 years. Over the centuries, the appearance of Halley’s Comet has been erroneously blamed for earthquakes, illnesses (including the Black Plague in England), the births of two-headed animals and the assassination of Julius Caesar. The comet was last visible from earth in 1986. Early that year, a toddler named Emily Levesque looked through her older brother’s telescope at Halley’s Comet. It was her first step in a... Read Full Review
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The Devil and the Dark Water
by Turton, Stuart
December 2, 2020
Call Number:
In a "locked-room" or "impossible crime" mystery, a crime, or series of crimes, is committed under circumstances that appear, at least initially, impossible for said crime to have been enacted. Those same conditions will also seem to preclude the criminal entering or exiting the crime scene.The first “locked-room” mystery was Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” published in 1841. Other classics of the subgenre are Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room; “The Speckled Band,” a Sherlock Holmes adventure by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; and Agatha Christie’s And Then... Read Full Review
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The Eighth Detective
by Pavesi, Alex
November 16, 2020
Call Number: M
In the early 1940s, a Scottish professor of mathematics devises a mathematical definition of the murder mystery story and writes seven provocative stories as proof of his theory. He publishes a journal article regarding his ideas and then self-publishes his seven stories in a small volume, entitled The White Murders.Decades later, the owner of a small publisher stumbles across one of the copies of The White Murders and decides he wants to reissue the book. The publisher sends an editor in search of the author, whom the editor finally locates on a small, isolated island in... Read Full Review
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Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre
by Brooks, Max
November 2, 2020
Call Number:
What if Sasquatch is real? What if there actually is a large, hair-covered hominid that lives in the undeveloped areas of the Pacific Northwest and is occasionally sighted by unsuspecting humans? What if a natural disaster displaced these creatures and their prey, forcing them to move closer to human settlements? And what if a small group of humans, desiring to get back to nature created a community that allowed them to live a distance from more urban environments while maintaining and relying on the creature comforts afforded by contemporary technologies? What if the natural disaster that... Read Full Review
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Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond
by Skal, David J.
October 26, 2020
Call Number: e-Book
As the days grow short and the nights grow longer, as the air gets cooler and the leaves on the trees shift in color from green to brown, red, and gold, we know that we have moved into autumn. And autumn is the time for movies that provide chills, from gentle and humorous to frightful and fearsome. If you are looking to find that perfect movie for an autumnal eve, then David J. Skal has the perfect resource: Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond.Skal, a horror media expert and enthusiast, began his career with the 1990’s ... Read Full Review
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Crossings : consisting of three manuscripts
by Landragin, Alex
October 14, 2020
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Crossings, Alex Landragin’s debut novel is as difficult to define as it is to describe. At its most elemental, Crossings is a collection of three novellas that collectively tell a story. There are elements of several different genres present: historical fiction, mystery, fantasy, and romance. And, perhaps most surprising, the novel can be read in two distinctly different ways: traditionally (beginning on page one and reading through the book sequentially), or it can be read it using the “Baroness sequence” as described in the novel’s preface, which leads readers to an alternate... Read Full Review
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Before She Was Helen
by Cooney, Caroline B.
September 23, 2020
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Helen Stephens lives a quiet life in Sun City, a retirement community in South Carolina. She regularly plays cards in the clubhouse with other residents of the complex, including her neighbors Joyce and Johnny. While she is mostly retired, she continues teaching some Latin classes at a local high school. She has what she needs and most of what she wants. But a single careless act will set in motion a series of events that will upend, and ultimately threaten, Helen’s quiet life in Caroline B. Cooney’s new novel As Helen begins another day, she sends her daily text to Dom, her next-door... Read Full Review
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It Came From the Sky
by Sedoti, Chelsea
September 8, 2020
Call Number: YA
Sixteen-year-old Gideon Hofstadt prefers an orderly life and an orderly future. In his schoolwork, he excels in the sciences, but struggles with the vagaries of the humanities. It is the same way he struggles with his relationships with his family, friends, and his maybe boyfriend, Owen. Gideon cares about Owen, but as the only other gay student in his school, Gideon fears that Owen really doesn’t care about him, as there aren’t any local alternatives for either of them. When he creates a seismograph and wants to test it, he allows, against his better judgement, his older brother Ishmael to... Read Full Review
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The Operator
by Berg, Gretchen
August 31, 2020
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In a world where most people walk around with a telephone on their person that can allow them to contact someone anywhere in the country, or the world, easily and directly, it may be a bit of a shock to realize that as little as 50 years ago many people relied upon the assistance of an operator to connect their calls. Operators, primarily women, manually connected callers to the person with whom they wanted to speak. Another marked change, societal rather than technological between the age of operators and today, has to do with personal information. Again, it may seem odd to contemporary... Read Full Review
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The Darwin Affair
by Mason, Timothy
August 18, 2020
Call Number: M
It probably goes without saying that when Charles Darwin published his revolutionary theories regarding evolution, and their supporting evidence, in The Origin of Species in 1859, there was controversy. Even today, 160 years later, Darwin’s theory of species evolving over time still engenders strong feelings of resistance to his ideas, especially within faith-based communities, in spite of the fact that his ideas gained the wide ranging support of the scientific community long ago. So, it probably isn’t surprising that when first introduced, Darwin’s ideas sparked outrage and controversy... Read Full Review
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The Ghosts of Sherwood
by Vaughn, Carrie
August 10, 2020
Call Number: e-Book
The earliest references to Robin Hood date back to the 14th century, and the earliest surviving copies of the story are from the 15th century. The details may change, but the core of the legend concerns a nobleman turned outlaw with a band of followers known as the Merry Men. He is a highly skilled archer and swordsman, who is loyal to the absent King Richard. He challenges the treatment of common people by Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham by robbing the rich and giving to the poor. He also has a legendary romance with Maid Marion. The story is one of the best-known British folktales... Read Full Review
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A Star is Bored
by Lane, Byron
August 3, 2020
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Kathi Kannon is the daughter of a famous actress mother, and went on to gain her own fame as Princess Talara in the space spectacular, Nova Quest. She has gone on to work as a script doctor and written several novels, but several decades later she is a star in decline. She is famous, outrageous and always looking for the next thrill, and needs a personal assistant. Enter Charlie Besson, a young man from New Orleans who has transplanted himself to Los Angeles. He is searching for something, anything, that will bring purpose to his currently miserable existence. When he is suggested as a... Read Full Review