March 2021 Adult Acquisitions

Non-fiction

American Baby: a mother, a child, and the shadow history of adoption by Gabrielle Glaser (362.73) American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever.

Boomers: the men and women who promised freedom and delivered disaster / by Helen Andrews (305.20) Helen Andrews is a senior editor at The American Conservative, and has worked at the Washington Examiner and National Review

Come fly the world by Julia Cooke (387.7): "Glamour, danger, liberation: in a Mad Men–era of commercial flight, Pan Am World Airways attracted the kind of young woman who wanted out, and wanted up Required to have a college education, speak two languages, and possess the political savvy of a Foreign Service officer, a jet-age stewardess serving on iconic Pan Am between 1966 and 1975 also had to be between 5′3" and 5′9", between 105 and 140 pounds, and under 26 years

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake (579.5) Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

Four hundred Souls (973.04) Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, a community history of African America, 1619-2019 / edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Untamed by Glennon Doyle. (Memoir - 306.89) There is a voice of longing inside every woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good mothers, daughters, partners, employees, citizens, and friends. We believe all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed.

War: how conflict shaped us by Margaret MacMillan (355.02) : "War, the instinct to fight, is inherent in human nature; peace is the aberration in history.”

Wildlife and Habitats: a collection of natural history essays with photographs by Susan Morse (591.5)

Dusk night dawn: on revival and courage by Anne Lamott (memoir, Bio Lamott): In Anne Lamott's new book, she confronts the harsh truth that many of us grapple with every day: How can we recapture the confidence we once had in the world and in the future as we stumble through the dark times that seem increasingly bleak?

She come by it natural: Dolly Parton and the women who lived her songs by Sarah Smarsh (Bio: Dolly Parton). Explores how the music of Dolly Parton and other prominent women country artists has both reflected and validated the harsh realities of rural working-class American women.

Fiction

Apeirogon by Colum McCAnn: Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. Apeirogon is a novel that balances on the knife edge of fiction and nonfiction. Bassam and Rami are real men and their actual words are a part of this narrative, one that builds through thousands of moments and images into one grand, unforgettable crescendo"

The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear. A Maisie Dobbs #16.

Dark Sky by C.J. Box. Joe Pickett #21

Dark Site by Patrick Lee: Sam Dryden #3

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk: Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time. Where are you from? Where are you coming in from? Where are you going? we call to the traveler. Enchanting, unsettling, and wholly original, Flights is a master storyteller's answer. (Man Booker Prize 2018, Nobel Prize 2018)

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue: "'We should have known the end was near.' So begins Imbolo Mbue's exquisite and devastating novel How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by a large and powerful American oil company.”

Infinite country : a novel / Patricia Engel."I often wonder if we are living the wrong life in the wrong country. Talia is being held at a correctional facility for adolescent girls in the forested mountains of Colombia after committing an impulsive act of violence that may or may not have been warranted. She urgently needs to get out and get back home to Bogotá, where her father and a plane ticket to the United States are waiting for her. If she misses her flight, she might also miss her chance to finally be reunited with her family in the north.

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu: "Willis Wu doesn't perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he's merely Generic Asian Man. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He's a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy--the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?”

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro: "From her place in the store that sells artificial friends, Klara--an artificial friend with outstanding observational qualities--watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.”

Lethal Pursuit by Will Thomas: Barker & Llewelyn #11 "London, 1892-Cyrus Barker is brought into a game of international espionage by the Prime Minister himself in the newest mystery in Will Thomas's beloved series.”

Luster by Raven Leilani: "Edie is stumbling her way through her twenties--sharing a subpar apartment in Bushwick, clocking in and out of her admin job, making a series of inappropriate sexual choices. She is also haltingly, fitfully giving heat and air to the art that simmers inside her.”

The Mercies by Kiran Hargrave. : After a storm has killed off all the island's men, two women in a 1600s Norwegian coastal village struggle to survive against both natural forces and the men who have been sent to rid the community of alleged witchcraft. (Based on true events.)

Monstre by Duncan Swan: “From the wreckage of a research facility in Switzerland, a plume of toxic smoke and ash pours into the sky, forming an impenetrable cloud that is slowly smothering the world in darkness. As Europe disappears beneath the Cloud, a squad of United States marines are sent on a desperate mission to find out what went wrong, and how to undo it before it's too late.”

The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles: "Paris, 1939. Young, ambitious, and tempestuous, Odile Souchet has it all: Paul, her handsome police officer beau; Margaret, her best friend from England; her adored twin brother Remy; and a dream job at the American Library in Paris, working alongside the library's legendary director, Dorothy Reeder. But when World War II breaks out, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear - including her beloved library.”

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn: “The author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.”

A Scandal in Battersea by Mercedes Lackey: Elemental Masters #12 “While enjoying the Christmas season, Nan and Sarah, along with Dr. Watson and his wife Mary, are called to investigate when missing women reappear and their experiences while gone have driven them mad.”

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Washburn: “In 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.”

Smash-up by Ali Benjamin. "Life for Ethan and Zo used to be simple. Ethan co-founded a lucrative media start-up, and Zo was well on her way to becoming a successful filmmaker. Then they moved to a rural community for a little more tranquility--or so they thought.”

Steadfast by Mercedes Lackey: Elemental Masters: Elemental Masters #8 “On the run from an abusive husband, magician's assistant Katie discovers that her employer is an Elemental Magician capable of commanding the Elementals of Air to help with his illusions.”

A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey: Elemental Masters #11. “Sent by Lord Alderscroft to the bachelor's flat of a certain famous, and rather rude, detective, psychics Sarah and Nan are compelled to prove their powers to him before being asked to consult on behalf of his Elemental Masters associates, John and Mary Watson.”

The Topeka School by Ben Lerner: “A tender and expansive family drama set in the American Midwest at the turn of the century: a tale of adolescence, transgression, and the conditions that have given rise to the trolls and tyrants of the New Right.”

We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida: “Best friends Eulabee and Maria Fabiola have a vehement falling out after disagreeing on the nature of an act they witness while walking to their upscale all-girls' school, and Maria Fabiola's sudden disappearance soon after that exposes dark community secrets.”

What Could Be Saved by Liese Schwarz: “Washington, DC, 2019: Laura Preston is a reclusive artist at odds with her older sister Bea as their elegant, formidable mother slowly slides into dementia. When a stranger contacts Laura claiming to be her brother who disappeared forty years earlier when the family lived in Bangkok, Laura ignores Bea's warnings of a scam and flies to Thailand to see if it can be true.”

Win by Harlan Coben: (Windsor Horne Lockwood III ; 1) "Over twenty years ago, the heiress Patricia Lockwood was abducted during a robbery of her family's estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin for months. Patricia escaped, but so did her captors -- and the items stolen from her family were never recovered. Until now.”

Zorrie by Laird Hunt. Spanning an entire lifetime, a life convulsed and transformed by the events of the 20th century, Laird Hunt's extraordinary novel offers a profound and intimate portrait of the dreams that propel one tenacious woman onward and the losses that she cannot outrun. Set against a harsh, gorgeous, quintessentially American landscape, this is a deeply empathetic and poetic novel that belongs on a shelf with the classics of Willa Cather, Marilynne Robinson, and Elizabeth Strout