Staff Recommendations
Daryl M.
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The Secret Life of Sam Holloway
by Thomas, Rhys
February 18, 2020
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Sam Holloway is a good guy, who is kind and thoughtful, with a stable, but not terribly exciting, job with an electronic parts distributor. He meets up with a couple of friends several nights a week at a local pub, where they talk about comics, movies, videogames and what it might be like to meet a nice woman. Yes, Sam is a bit of a geek, but he is also a nice guy, and everyone seems to know that. What no one knows though, is that on nights when Sam isn’t at the pub with his friends, he dons a homemade superhero costume (You can order pretty much anything off of the Internet!), and patrols... Read Full Review
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Made things
by Tchaikovsky, Adrian, 1972-
January 27, 2020
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Coppelia is not quite a thief and not quite a con-artist. What she is, or could be if she were living a different life, is an artist. A builder who could create function and beauty from raw materials, but only in a different life. A life where her parents hadn’t been taken to a workhouse, leaving Coppelia to be sent to an orphanage. A life where she hadn’t fled that orphanage with only the clothes on her back, left to scrape out a living on the streets of the Barrio in Fountains Parish. But living on the street has made Coppelia both a thief and a con-artist, and it has also given her one... Read Full Review
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Riot Baby
by Onyebuchi, Tochi
January 13, 2020
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Ella has what she refers to as her Thing. It allows her to see things that have not yet happened. As a young girl growing up in Compton, California, this is more of a curse than a blessing. Ella is rarely happy by the future she sees. And, as she grows older, her Thing will allow her to do more than simply see into the future.Kev is born in the early hours of the riots that erupted in South Central Los Angeles in the spring of 1992. He and Ella are moved to the East Coast and Harlem by their mother after the riots. Life is hard for people of color in Harlem and Kev is no exception. He is... Read Full Review
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Steel Crow Saga
by Krueger, Paul
December 30, 2019
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A prince, a soldier, a detective, and a thief. Four very different people, with very different histories and experiences. There are two things that they all share: they have survived the war that just ended, and during that war they have all suffered significant losses. Over the course of a few days, the prince, the soldier, the detective and the thief will learn, in very real, tangible ways that they are more alike than unalike, and it is a lesson that very well may change their world.Sergeant Tala, of the army of the Republic of Sanbu, is a warrior. She has fought in the war her entire... Read Full Review
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The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl
by Goss, Theodora
December 16, 2019
Call Number: M
In The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss introduced readers to The Athena Club whose members are Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde, Beatrice Rappaccini, Catherine Moreau and Justine Frankenstein. They are the daughters of some of speculative fiction’s maddest scientists. In that novel, The Athena Club assisted with solving a series of murders in Whitechapel. The second novel,... Read Full Review
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The Starless Sea
by Morgenstern, Erin
December 2, 2019
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In 2011, Erin Morgenstern made an unforgettable impression on readers with her debut novel, The Night Circus, which is about a challenge between two ancient beings. Each selects an apprentice, whom they then raise and train to compete. The arena for the competition is the wondrous Night Circus, where each apprentice creates and enhances the shows and performances using magic. As the competition proceeds, something unexpected happens: the apprentices fall in love, but what neither of them knows is at the end of this challenge, there can be only one survivor.The Night... Read Full Review
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The Girl Who Reads on the Metro
by Feret-Fleury, Christine
November 18, 2019
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Juliette lives a quiet life in Paris. She rides the metro every day to her job in a real estate office. She rides the metro home. She spends a quiet evening in her apartment, and then rises to do it all again the next morning. One of the bright spots in her days is observing the other passengers as she rides the metro to and from work. She takes note of what they are reading and constructs elaborate stories about who they are and why they are reading the book they are reading. One morning, Juliette disembarks the train at an earlier station, deciding that she will walk the remainder of her... Read Full Review
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Today We Go Home
by Estes, Kelli
November 4, 2019
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It has only been six years since the US military ended its policy of “no women in units that are tasked with direct combat.” And yet, even though it wasn’t officially sanctioned, women have served and fought, in virtually every conflict in which the US has participated. This has been happening since the founding of our country, when Deborah Samson disguised herself as a man so she could fight against the redcoats in the Revolutionary War. During the Civil War, more than 400 women dressed as men to fight; and 150 years later we are finally beginning to learn about them and their stories. In... Read Full Review
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Violet
by Thomas, Scott
October 28, 2019
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Our past affects us. Significant events, whether pleasant or devastating, can follow us throughout our lives. But what if a tragic event, experienced as a child, affected not only those who directly experienced it, but all of those who lived in the immediate area? What if those effects lasted for decades after the initial event occurred? This is the idea that Scott Thomas explores, both thoughtfully and frighteningly, in his new novel, Violet.Kris Barlow is a veterinarian living in Colorado. When her husband is killed in a car accident, Kris decides to pack up her eight-year-old... Read Full Review
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Haunting of Tram Car 015
by Clark, P. Djeli
October 21, 2019
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In his short story “A Dead Djinn in Cairo” (available in e-Media), author P. Djeli Clark introduced readers to an alternate Egypt of 1912, and the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, who are charged with investigating disturbances of a paranormal nature. In his new novella, Clark returns to both this world and the Ministry to investigate The Haunting of Tram Car 015.The case seemed simple enough on the surface: car 015 of the Cairo’s... Read Full Review
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The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
by Richardson, Kim Michele
October 7, 2019
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In The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, Kim Michele Richardson tells two stories that have, until now, been overlooked in most fiction and history: the story of the blue people of Kentucky and the Pack Horse Librarians of the 1930s, both of whom are incredible examples of the resilience to triumph over difficult circumstances.Cussy Mary Carter lives near Troublesome Creek, Kentucky. She is a young, unmarried woman living with her father, who works in the coal mine along with most of the men in town. She was named after Cussy, France, the place from which her great grandfather, Martin... Read Full Review
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The Ruby Slippers of Oz: Thirty Years Later
by Thomas, Rhys
September 23, 2019
Call Number: 791.1 W835Th-1
“Keep tight inside of them. Their magic must be very powerful, or she wouldn't want them so badly," said Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, talking about the ruby slippers.In L. Frank Baum’s children’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the magic shoes worn by the Wicked Witch of the East – and transferred to Dorothy after the Witch of the East’s untimely demise – were silver. In 1938, when MGM began pre-production of the motion picture based on Baum’s novel, it was decided that silver simply would not do for the lavish Technicolor film. With the slash of a pen,... Read Full Review