Monthly Archives: December 2018

She Has Her Mother’s Laugh – Carl Zimmer

December 31, 2018
Non-Fiction
“Science book of the year”—The Guardian Longlisted for the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award One of New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2018 One of Publishers Weekly‘s Top Ten Books of 2018 One of Kirkus‘s Best Books of 2018 One of Mental Floss’s Best Books of 2018 One of Science Friday’s Best Science Books of 2018 “Extraordinary”—New York Times Book Review “Magisterial”—The Atlantic “Engrossing”—Wired “Leading contender as the most outstanding nonfiction work of the year”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune Award-winning, celebrated New York Times columnist and science writer Carl Zimmer presents a ...

Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth – Sarah Smarsh

December 30, 2018
Society
*Finalist for the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize* *Instant New York Times Bestseller* *Named a Best Book of 2018 by NPR, The New York Post, Buzzfeed (Nonfiction), Shelf Awareness (Nonfiction), Bustle, and Publishers Weekly (Nonfiction)* An essential read for our times: an eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in America that will deepen our understanding of the ways in which class shapes our country. Sarah Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side, and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side. ...

Heads You Win – Jeffrey Archer

December 29, 2018
Historical
Leningrad, Russia, 1968. Alexander Karpenko is no ordinary child, and from an early age, it is clear he is destined to lead his countrymen. But when his father is assassinated by the KGB for defying the state, he and his mother will have to escape from Russia if they hope to survive. At the docks, they are confronted with an irreversible choice: should they board a container ship bound for America, or Great Britain? Alexander leaves that choice to the toss of a coin… In ...

Our Little Lies – Sue Watson

December 28, 2018
Thriller
Marianne has a life others dream of. A beautiful townhouse on the best street in the neighbourhood. Three bright children who are her pride and joy. Sometimes her past still hurts: losing her mother, growing up in foster care. But her husband Simon is always there. A successful surgeon, he’s the envy of every woman they’ve ever met. Flowers, gifts, trips to France – nothing is too good for his family. Then Simon says another woman’s name. The way he lingers on it, Caroline, gives Marianne a shudder of ...

A Dog’s Way Home – W. Bruce Cameron

December 27, 2018
Adventure
The beloved New York Times and USA Today bestseller A Dog’s Way Home is soon to be a feature film from Sony Pictures! This remarkable story of one endearing dog’s journey home after she is separated from her beloved human is directed by Charles Martin Smith and stars Ashley Judd, Edward James Olmos, Wes Studi, Alexandra Shipp, and Jonah Hauer-King. W. Bruce Cameron and his wife, Cathryn Michon, wrote the screenplay for the film. With four hundred miles of dangerous Colorado wilderness separating one brave ...

Before We Were Strangers – Brenda Novak

December 26, 2018
Drama
Something happened to her mother that night. Something no one wants to talk about. But she’s determined to uncover her family’s dark secrets, even if they bury her. Five-year-old Sloane McBride couldn’t sleep that night. Her parents were arguing again, their harsh words heating the cool autumn air. And then there was that other sound—the ominous thump before all went quiet. In the morning, her mother was gone. The official story was that she left. Her loving, devoted mother! That hadn’t sat any better at ...

The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer

December 25, 2018
Classics
The classic collection of beloved tales, both sacred and profane, of travelers in medieval England. Complete and Unabridged. “An adored classic and, of course, a canonical giant, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales bears infinite recreation and translation. That’s precisely why Gerald J. Davis has put countless hours of work into researching and translating the tales from Middle English into a more contemporary, accessible dialect. Make no mistake, though, all of that reworking certainly hasn’t stripped the original text of its wit or its caustic humor. ...

The Island Builders – Steve Peek

December 25, 2018
Science Fiction
The new islands popped into existence. Civilization ground to a halt. No disease, no zombies, no alien invaders, at least not what we imagined. It was a land rush for 8 billion people. This mind-bending novel follows Alex Gamble, a ridiculed physicist who knows the truth, Stephanie Hart, a stunning TV reporter determined to follow the wheels falling off our world, and two terrifying, brutal killers embrace the world’s end and claim authority to do what they want. Those left on Earth fight for survival ...

European Politics on Drugs: A True Story of How Shameless Political Corruption Destroyed a Brilliant Product – Christoph Klein

December 25, 2018
Biography
Winston Churchill was one of the first to call for a “United States of Europe” after the Second World War. He envisioned a multinational project based on a common market, one that would create prosperity for all Europeans and prevent future wars. However, the English Brexit and a looming trade war between the United States and the European Union indicate that the EU is currently facing an existential crisis. 2019 is an election year in the EU and may prove pivotal to the fate of ...

The Polar Express – Chris Van Allsburg

December 24, 2018
Children
Caldecott Medal Winner A young boy, lying awake one Christmas Eve, is welcomed aboard a magical trip to the North Pole . . . Through dark forests, over tall mountains, and across a desert of ice, the Polar Express makes its way to the city atop the world, where the boy will make his Christmas wish. For millions of readers worldwide, this mysterious journey to the North Pole has become a beloved classic. In this 30th anniversary edition, the inimitable artistry of Chris Van Allsburg ...

How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them – Jason Stanley

December 23, 2018
Society
“A vital read for a nation under Trump.”­—The Guardian “By placing Trump in transnational and transhistorical perspective, Stanley sees patterns that others miss. . . . Twenty months into Trump’s presidency, the evidence is mounting that he’s right.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) Fascist politics are running rampant in America today—and spreading around the world. A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history. As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and ...

Long Claws – Steve Peek

December 23, 2018
Horror
“Damned great scary story.” Pat Conroy “I slept with the lights on for two weeks.” Remote Alabama. Cut off by rain flooded rivers: a veteran with a secret, a runaway teenage boy, and a Cherokee medicine woman face terrifying creatures – the Long Claws, a clan of cunning beings equipped to track and kill with speed and strength like nothing seen before. REVIEWERS “powerful story, characters, and chills – this book has everything” “darkly fabulous storytelling” “the best horror I’ve read since Stephen King hit ...

The Boy in the Well – Steve Peek

December 23, 2018
Historical
John Ryan was about to be drafted, so instead of risking punji-stick filled jungles, he joined the Air Force. When his best-laid plans and schemes backfired, he volunteered for the war he tried to avoid – irony he failed to appreciate. His tour in Nam chronicles so many other boys of that war, The Boy in the Well is a universal memoir for the nine out of ten who served behind the lines in non-combat roles. Except there weren’t any lines and nearly everyone in-country ...

On Desperate Ground – Hampton Sides

December 22, 2018
History
“Superb…A masterpiece of thorough research, deft pacing and arresting detail…This war story — the fight to break out of a frozen hell near the Chosin Reservoir — has been told many times before. But Sides tells it exceedingly well, with fresh research, gritty scenes and cinematic sweep.”—Washington Post From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers and In the Kingdom of Ice, a chronicle of the extraordinary feats of heroism by Marines called on to do the impossible during the greatest battle of the Korean War On October 15, 1950, General ...