Books, Movies, CDs

The Square of Sevens

Laura Shepherd-Robinson

OverDrive Audiobook
Fiction, Mystery, Historical Fiction

This "intricately plotted, epic" (The Times, London) international bestseller—in the vein of the vivid novels of Sarah Waters and Sarah Perry—follows an orphaned fortune teller in 18th-century England as she searches for answers about her long-dead mother.Cornwall, 1730: A young girl known only as Red travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of the Square of Sevens. Shortly before he dies, her father entrusts Red's care to a gentleman scholar, along with a document containing the secret of the Square of Sevens technique. Raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendor of Bath, Red's fortune telling delights in high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him? The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholomew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red's quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads to grave danger. "Intricate, haunting, and magical by turns, Laura Shepherd-Robinson's tale is an absolute immersive read you won't soon forget" (Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author).

An engrossing account of a young woman finding her way in 17th century England, from plying her trade of reading tarot on the streets and in fair booths, to seeking out the story of her family in the country homes of Bath and Devon. Red (aka Rachel) is at once an intelligent and curious waif, and a cunning teenager who balks at restraints and finds her own strength, as well as her weaknesses, as she grows up. This is a heroine one can root for at the same time they cringe at some of the choices she has to make, or chooses to make. Expertly read, as ever, by Imogen Wilde, who knows how to nail all the voices and dialects. Aimed at adults, but I think older teens would like this as well. -Candice

Paris like a local : by the people who call it home. book cover

Chain Gang All Stars: A Novel

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

OverDrive Audiobook
Diverse Characters, Fiction, LGBTQ+, Dystopian

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • NATIONAL BESTELLER • Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America’s own in this explosive, hotly-anticipated debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE “Like Orwell’s 1984 and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Adjei-Brenyah’s book presents a dystopian vision so…illuminating that it should permanently shift our understanding of who we are and what we’re capable of doing.” —The Washington Post “This book will change you!...A masterpiece.” —Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show’s #ReadWithJenna She felt their eyes, all those executioners… Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE’s corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar’s path have devastating consequences. Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system’s unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means from a “new and necessary American voice” (Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review).

A very informative and gripping dystopian novel that will make you think about the U.S. prison system and how we consume modern-day professional sports. -Annie

The art of talking with children : the simple keys to nurturing kindness, creativity, and confidence in kids book cover

Extremely online : the untold story of fame, influence, and power on the internet

Taylor Lorenz

302.231 /Lorenz
Technology, History

"For over a decade, Taylor Lorenz has been the authority on internet culture, documenting its far-reaching effects on all corners of our lives. Her reporting is serious yet entertaining and illuminates deep truths about ourselves and the lives we create online. In her debut book, Extremely Online, she reveals how online influence came to upend the world, demolishing traditional barriers and creating whole new sectors of the economy. Lorenz shows this phenomenon to be one of the most disruptive changes in modern capitalism. By tracing how the internet has changed what we want and how we go about getting it, Lorenz unearths how social platforms' power users radically altered our expectations of content, connection, purchasing, and power. Lorenz documents how moms who started blogging were among the first to monetize their personal brands online, how bored teens who began posting selfie videos reinvented fame as we know it, and how young creators on TikTok are leveraging opportunities to opt out of the traditional career pipeline. It's the real social history of the internet. Emerging seemingly out of nowhere, these shifts in how we use the internet seem easy to dismiss as fads. However, these social and economic transformations have resulted in a digital dynamic so unappreciated and insurgent that it ultimately created new approaches to work, entertainment, fame, and ambition in the 21st century. Extremely Online is the inside, untold story of what we have done to the internet, and what it has done to us." --Amazon.

This is the kind of book that will be invaluable and useful to future readers interested in the evolution of the internet as we know it. I lived through all of this, and was not fully aware of the players or the context, or even some of the apps that thrust people into the spotlight. It's a fun read now for sure, but I think it will fill a spot in the discourse we need as we develop and innovate more. -Amanda

The first cat in space and the Soup of Doom book cover

Tomfoolery! : Randolph Caldecott and the rambunctious coming-of-age of children's books book cover

Normal rules don't apply : stories book cover

Harvest days : giving thanks around the world book cover

Catside up, catside down : a book of prepositions book cover

Everybody Knows: A Novel

Jordan Harper

OverDrive Audiobook
Fiction, Mystery

In this "hardboiled mystery" (Maureen Corrigan) from an Edgar Award winning author, a fearless black-bag publicist exposes the belly of the L.A. beast. Welcome to Mae Pruett's Los Angeles, where "Nobody talks. But everybody whispers." As a "black-bag" publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae works for one of LA's most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks, and private security firms she calls "The Beast." They protect the rich and powerful and depraved by any means necessary. After her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a random attack, Mae takes it upon herself to investigate and runs headfirst into The Beast's lawless machinations and the twisted systems it exists to perpetuate. ... Recommended by New York Times Book Review • NPR/Fresh Air • Wall Street Journal • Washington Post • LA Times •CrimeReads• Alta Online • Lit Hub• Kirkus Reviews• Publishers Weekly• NBC/TODAY and many more! • An ABA January 2023 Indie Next List Pick • A NYTBR Editors' Choice Selection "The book everybody's been waiting for" —Michael Connelly "An absolute tour de force"—S. A. Cosby "The best mystery novel I've read in years" —James Patterson

This was so good! I came across this title on ICPL's 'Featured Collections' scroller on the website (which, by the way, is a great way to find titles you might not be aware of), and I was hooked from the beginning. The story is told in alternating chapters by Mae and Chris, and the first thing of note is that I found both narrators to be unique and excellent, with a nice range of emotion (even hard-on-the-outside Chris). You know when a narrator sounds just like the character you're imagining? This had that going on for me. The story itself is compelling and original, even while having well-known elements that are in the miasma surrounding Hollywood: the big players, the world of dirty secrets perpetrated by those who hold the power, the broken systems, the people who fall through the cracks, and the people who perpetuate all of this in various ways. I found all the characters to be nicely fleshed out, especially Mae and Chris of course, but the side characters are also given unique characteristics and situations that tell their stories. One final note: this is the second book I've read or listened to recently that has a female "cleaner" at the center of it, someone who helps cover up bad situations for powerful people in Hollywood (the other is the Devil's Playground), and it is making for some very interesting post-book thinking. -Candice

The season : a social history of the debutante book cover

The devil's playground : a novel

Craig Russell

FICTION Russell Craig
Fiction, Mystery

"A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist. This is the breakout from Craig Russell, author of The Devil Aspect. 1927: Mary Rourke-a Hollywood studio fixer-is called urgently to the palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in American silent film. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone is openly talking about...a terrifying horror picture called The Devil's Playground that is rumored to have unleashed a curse on everyone involved in the production. Mary finds Norma's cold, dead body, and she wonders for just a moment if these dark rumors could be true. 1967: Paul Conway, a journalist and self-professed film aficionado, is on the trail of a tantalizing rumor. He has heard that a single copy of The Devil's Playground-a Holy Grail for film buffs-may exist. He knows his Hollywood history and he knows the film endured myriad tragedies and ended up lost to time. The Devil's Playground is Craig Russell's tour de force, a richly researched and constructed thriller that weaves through the Golden Age of Hollywood and reveals a blossoming industry built on secrets, invented identities, and a desperate pursuit of image. As Mary Rourke charges headlong through the egos, distractions, and traps that threaten to take her down with the doomed production, she discovers a truth far more sinister than she-or we-would imagine. This is Craig Russell's strongest novel to date, and one that will resonate with American readers"--

This book has it all--a solid crime for someone to solve, interesting characters (including more than one strong, intriguing female), old Hollywood glamour coupled with whip-smart dialogue, and a healthy dose of the kind of supernatural that is just a little too real for comfort or dismissal. Author Craig Russell manages all of this really well, and has a deft hand with vocabulary (this book presented me with one of the few times in recent memory where I had to resort to a dictionary). A perfect read for heading into the spooky season! -Candice

The vaster wilds

Lauren Groff

FICTION Groff Lauren
Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

"A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her. Lauren Groff's new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how--and if--we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves."

A lot of “pandemic novels” are coming out right now—at least narratives inspired by or written during the pandemic and everything that happened within that time. They provide a window into what authors were thinking about, working through, or grappling with during the height of the pandemic. Lauren Groff’s thinking was pretty bleak. Her thoughts turned to the “Starving Time” of Jamestown: crops failed, disease flourished, and those that survived ate everything. The narrative centers on a white servant girl, who is called many different names in her short life, and her decision to run away from the colonial settlement and strike out on her own in hopes of finding the French. She is hungry and afraid in the settlement and what is unknown to her beyond the palisade holds better chances for survival. The story follows her during those first few weeks with glimpses into how she found herself on this side of the Atlantic. This survival novel is engrossing, and it takes on quite a few subjects: colonization, land use, 17th century religion, and the oppressively hierarchical structure of English society. But also, what does it mean to be human when you are alone? What does real survival mean? Groff left me with more questions than answers, but good novelists do that. -Anne M

Yumi and the nightmare painter book cover

Tenderheart : a cookbook about vegetables and unbreakable family bonds book cover

Happiness for Beginners: A Novel

Katherine Center

OverDrive Audiobook
Adventure, Romance, Humor

As seen on Netflix—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bodyguard and Hello Stranger Helen Carpenter can't quite seem to bounce back. Newly divorced at thirty-two, her life has fallen apart beyond her ability to put it together again. So when her annoying younger brother, Duncan, convinces her to sign up for a hardcore wilderness survival course in the backwoods of Wyoming—she hopes it'll be exactly what she needs. Instead, it's a disaster. It's nothing like she wants, or expects, or anticipates. She doesn't anticipate the surprise summer blizzard, for example—or the blisters, or the rutting elk, or the mean pack of sorority girls. And she especially doesn't anticipate that her annoying brother's even-more-annoying best friend, Jake, will show up for the exact same course—and distract her, derail her, and . . . kiss her. But it turns out sometimes disaster can teach you exactly the things you need to learn. Like how to keep going, even when you think you can't. How being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes getting really, really lost is your only hope of getting found. Happiness for Beginners is Katherine Center at her most heart-warming, captivating best—a nourishing, page-turning, up-all-night read about how to get back up. It's a story that looks at how our struggles lead us to our strengths. How love is always worth it. And how the more good things we look for, the more we find.

I saw this trailer on Netflix (which knows me so well) and knew I had to read the book first. I prefer audiobooks for rom coms, and this one did not disappoint. I am a sucker for a transformational backpacking journey in fiction--not something I get to do in real life. The characters were humane and loveable, and the banter between the leads was light-hearted and witty. The title comes from the name of a textbook a fellow sojourner brings with her, a book for a positive psychology class she's taking. Happiness studies grew in popularity as the pandemic wore on, so it might sound old hat to you as you're reading this in 2023. The first edition of this novel came out in 2015 and is seeing a resurgence thanks to the film adaptation. Now I just have to find 2 hours to sit still for a movie night. Happy reading! -Melody

Our migrant souls : a meditation on race and the meanings and myths of "Latino"

Héctor Tobar

305.868 /Tobar
Nonfiction

"Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino" assembles the Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar's personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latino students to offer a spirited rebuke to racist ideas about Latino people. Our Migrant Souls decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and seeks to give voice to the angst and anger of young Latino people who have seen Latinidad transformed into hateful tropes about "illegals" and have faced insults, harassment, and division based on white insecurities and economic exploitation.

After a few paragraphs into this book, I was hooked by the author's writing style, historical knowledge and perspective, but perhaps most of all by his humility and humanity. Part professor and part reporter, Tobar is first a collector and reflector of stories, of histories, and this book is an ode to his Latino students and those trying to make sense of their ancestral roots; but will resonate with anyone who has left their motherland in search of a new life. Tobar contends that the very notion of the word "Latino" to describe such myriad life experiences that have intersected with geopolitical and socioeconomic clashes of civilizations (namely North vs. South America,) is ridiculous. I found myself looking up historical facts mentioned in the book, or googling landmarks to gain more insight. While I did not agree with everything the author laid out, overall I thought this was an excellent, moving and brave undertaking. I have no doubt it will bring solace to those who have made journeys across oceans, deserts, or walls due to war, country instability, or in search of something more. In the very least they know that while their stories may differ, they are not alone. -Victoria

I have some questions for you book cover

The invisible hour : a novel

Alice Hoffman

FICTION Hoffman Alice
Fiction

"One brilliant June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia's mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community--an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and books are considered evil. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her? Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you. As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?"--

First and foremost, I enjoyed reading “The Invisible Hour.” It was the right book at the right time for me. I needed something fast-paced and light and compelling and fun. But it was also silly and sort of ludicrous. I liked it and I hated it. That is how some books are. I haven’t read Alice Hoffman before, but I will pick up any book about modern-day Puritanical societies hidden in the wilds of Western Massachusetts. And the novel is about the love of reading, which resonates with me. “The Invisible Hour” is about Mia, a young girl, living in a restrictive collective community who discovers books and through those books finds herself and learns about the outside world. The book that changes her life is “The Scarlett Letter.” She escapes the collective, finds kindred spirits (and they are librarians!) that help her get on her feet, and rereads Hawthorne. I like Nathaniel Hawthorne. Puritan guilt is something I relate to and he explores that quite frequently in his fiction. He is moody and dark and great with imagery. “The House of the Seven Gables” is one of my favorites. All of this works for me. But then Mia falls in love and that is where the book goes off the rails. This book turns suddenly to have elements of “Back to the Future” mixed with “Outlander,” but with Nathaniel Hawthorne, which was weird to read. I guess you could say that Hoffman is exploring the relationship between author and reader, its intimacies, and power. Overall, it was fun. -Anne M

The awakening, and selected stories book cover

We could be so good : a novel book cover

Homegrown : Timothy McVeigh and the rise of right-wing extremism book cover

Magic words : what to say to get your way book cover

Lapidarium : the secret lives of stones book cover

Root, nurture, grow : the essential guide to propagating and sharing houseplants book cover

Business or pleasure

Rachel Lynn Solomon

FICTION Solomon Rachel
Fiction, Romance, Humor

"A ghostwriter and a struggling actor help each other on the page and in the bedroom in this steamy romantic comedy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Ex Talk. Chandler Cohen has never felt more like the ghost in 'ghostwriter' until she attends a signing for a book she wrote--and the author doesn't even recognize her. The evening turns more promising when she meets a charming man at the bar and immediately connects with him. But when all their sexual tension culminates in a spectacularly awkward hookup, she decides this is one night better off forgotten. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done. Her next project is ghostwriting a memoir for Finn Walsh, a C-list actor best known for playing a lovable nerd on a cult classic werewolf show who now makes a living appearing at fan conventions across the country. But Chandler knows him better from their one-night stand of hilarious mishaps. Chandler's determined to keep their partnership as professional as possible, but when she admits to Finn their night together wasn't as mind-blowing as he thought it was, he's distraught. He intrigues her enough that they strike a deal: when they're not working on his book, Chandler will school Finn in the art of satisfaction. As they grow closer both in and out of the bedroom, they must figure out which is more important, business or pleasure--or if there's a way for them to have both"--

This book is on my TBR pile (to be read). It's a new rom-com (published July 4, 2023) that is getting rave reviews. I have to read a lot of book reviews for work, and each one I read about this book has great things to say. Why else do I want to read it? I love comedy that turns your everyday feelings of failure into a no-big-deal moment. Sex-positive book about open communication? Nice. Woman writer settling for a paycheck over following her creative writing dream? Awesome. Can't wait for my hold to come in for this one. -Melody

Poetry unbound : 50 poems to open your world book cover

Treasure State

C.J. Box

OverDrive Audiobook
Fiction, Thriller, Mystery

Christina Delaine's spot-on performance ensures that Box's story and dialogue are as entertaining as ever." —AudioFile on C.J. Box's The Bitterroots #1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box's Treasure State finds Cassie Dewell in Montana on the trail of a con man. Private Investigator Cassie Dewell's business is thriving, and her latest case puts her on the hunt for a slippery con man who's disappeared somewhere in the "treasure state". A wealthy Florida widow has accused him of absconding with her fortune, and wants Cassie to find him and get it back. The trail takes Cassie to Anaconda, Montana, a quirky former copper mining town that's the perfect place to reinvent yourself. As the case develops, Cassie begins to wonder if her client is telling her everything. On top of that, Cassie is also working what's easily one of her strangest assignments ever. A poem that promises buried treasure to one lucky adventurer has led to a cutthroat competition and five deaths among treasure-hunters. But Cassie's client doesn't want the treasure. Instead, he claims to be the one who hid the gold and wrote the poem. And he's hired Cassie to try to find him. Between the two cases, Cassie has her hands full. In Montana, a killer view can mean more than just the scenery, and Cassie knows much darker things hide behind the picturesque landscape of Big Sky Country. Treasure State, C. J. Box's highly anticipated follow-up to The Bitterroots, is full of more twists and turns than the switchbacks through the Anaconda Range. A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

As a reader of thriller/mystery, I find myself perplexed as I say that this is the first C.J. Box book I have ever read or listened to...Box is well-regarded and a prolific author in the genre, and while they may not be my regular go-to, sometimes you just want a 'does what it says on the tin' type of book. At least, that's what I was expecting when I downloaded this, but to my surprise, there's a whole lot more going on here than I expected. The setting is unique, and the author rightly spends a fair amount of time highlighting the beauty and environmental aspects of the big sky state. There's a double mystery going on here as well (unless they merge at some point...), and both are engaging and fitting for where the action takes place. All of the characters are, if not entirely fully realized, fleshed out enough to be interesting and believable (even honestly menacing) even those that fill a sometimes well-worn role (the bad cop, the odd-but-loveable relative, the quirky outsider). Christina Delaine is a fine narrator, and voices all the characters really well. I'm enjoying this book much more that I thought I would, and this won't be the last for me. -Candice

The heat will kill you first : life and death on a scorched planet

Jeff Goodell

363.73874 /Goodell
Nonfiction

"The Heat Will Kill You First is about the extreme ways in which our planet is already changing. It is about why spring is coming a few weeks earlier and fall is coming a few weeks later and the impact that will have on everything from our food supply to disease outbreaks. It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical summer days in Chicago or Boston go from 90°F to 110°F. A heatwave, Goodell explains, is a predatory event--one that culls out the most vulnerable people. But that is changing. As heatwaves become more intense and more common, they will become more democratic. As an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of environmental journalism for decades, Goodell's new book may be his most provocative yet, explaining how extreme heat will dramatically change the world as we know it"--

Here in Iowa this August, cities across the state are breaking historical temperature highs. Though not taken on nearly as much as other extreme weather such as tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, and flash flooding, extreme heat is the number one killer. Prolonging its devasting effects with air conditioning not only places a band-aid on the problem but causes global temperatures to rise even more. Once thought as one-offs, extreme heat events have become the norm, are not going away and in fact, the author notes are becoming more "democratic;" disrupting all facets of our lives (think over-extended power grids and school closures.) While this is a disturbing book to read, if extreme weather will affect you (spoiler, it will,) then this is an absolutely necessary read. I love climate books that offer pragmatic solutions; albeit solutions that could be hard to swallow (think eating insects instead of that hefty steak). Author Goodell is astute at correlating global events in a logical way and in his over two decades of reporting on climate change, has become well-versed in connecting the dots of imminent disaster of a planet in peril if left unchecked. -Victoria

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