Hi everyone, here are our recommended titles for the week, consisting entirely of eBooks & downloadable audiobooks available through the Digital Catalog.
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Weekly Suggested Reading postings are published on Tuesdays.
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The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season: A Novel by Molly Fader (eBook)
“A stunning story about family and hope that unfolds unexpectedly but beautifully, like a Michigan summer sunset over an orchard.” —Viola Shipman, bestselling author of The Heirloom Garden and The Summer Cottage
In cherry season, anything is possible…
Everything Hope knows about the Orchard House is from the stories of her late mother. So when she arrives at the northern Michigan family estate late one night with a terrible secret and her ten-year-old daughter in tow, she’s not sure if she’ll be welcomed or turned away with a shotgun by the aunt she has never met.
Hope’s aunt, Peg, has lived in the Orchard House all her life, though the property has seen better days. She agrees to take Hope in if, in exchange, Hope helps with the cherry harvest—not exactly Hope’s specialty, but she’s out of options. As Hope works the orchard alongside her aunt, daughter and a kind man she finds increasingly difficult to ignore, a new life begins to blossom. But the mistakes of the past are never far behind, and soon the women will find themselves fighting harder than ever for their family roots and for each other.
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Buzzard’s Bluff by William W. Johnstone & J.A. Johnstone (eBook)
JOHNSTONE COUNTRY. WILDER THAN EVER.
Welcome to the Lost Coyote Saloon. Saddle up to the bar and order a whiskey. Play a few hands of poker. But don’t make any trouble. The new owner is savage. Ben Savage. Once a Texas Ranger, he’s always cocked and ready for some fool to come looking for payback . . .
EAT, DRINK, AND BE WARY
When Ben Savage receives a telegram informing him that an old friend died—and left him his saloon—he’s not sure what to think. Western saloons are as wild as it gets, full of rowdy ranchers and cocky cowboys, high-stakes gamblers and low-life drifters, hard liquor and easy women. Then there’s the occasional outlaw gang. But when Savage travels to Buzzard’s Bluff, Texas, to check out his inheritance, he meets the saloon’s lovely manager, Rachel Baskin, and has a change of heart. As an experienced lawman, he figures he can run a decent establishment. Keep things friendly, peaceful, and orderly. There’s just one problem: a rival saloon owner wants Savage out of the way so he can control all the vice in town. And some of his men are bound to turn up in his saloon—thirsty for whiskey . . . and killing . . .
Live Free. Read Hard.
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Collected Memoirs: Ahead of Time, Haven, and Inside of Time by Ruth Gruber (eBook)
Three poignant and powerful memoirs from the award-winning journalist, human rights advocate, and “fearless chronicler of the Jewish struggle” (The New York Times).
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for her biography of the pioneering Israeli nurse, Raquela Prywes, Ruth Gruber lived an extraordinary life as a foreign correspondent, photographer, humanitarian, and author. This collection is comprised of three of her most gripping memoirs, covering many of the most significant historical events in the first half of the twentieth century.
Ahead of Time: At the tender age of eighty, the trailblazing journalist looked back on her remarkable first twenty-five years: growing up in a Brooklyn shtetl; entering New York University at fifteen; becoming the world’s youngest person to earn a PhD at nineteen in Cologne, Germany; being exposed to Hitler’s rise to power; and becoming the first American to travel to Siberia at the age of twenty-four, reporting on Gulag conditions for the New York Herald Tribune, in this “beautifully crafted” memoir (Publishers Weekly).
“Ruth Gruber’s singular autobiography is both informative and poignant. Read it and your own memory will be enriched.” —Elie Wiesel
Haven: In 1943, nearly one thousand European Jewish refugees were chosen by President Roosevelt to receive asylum in the United States. Working for the secretary of the interior, Gruber volunteered to shepherd them on their secret route across the Atlantic from Italy. She recorded the refugees’ dangerous passage, along with the aftermath of their arrival, which involved a fight to stay in the US after the war ended. The “remarkable story” was made into a TV miniseries starring Natasha Richardson as Gruber (Booklist).
“[A] touching story . . . [Ruth Gruber] has put us into the full picture and humanized it.” —The New York Times
Inside of Time: Unstoppable at ninety-one, Gruber, “with clarity, insight and humor,” revisited the years 1941 to 1952, recounting her eighteen months spent surveying Alaska on behalf of the US government, her role assisting Holocaust refugees’ emigration from war-torn Europe to Israel, and her relationships with some of the most important figures of the era, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Golda Meir (Publishers Weekly).
“Gruber bore witness, spoke bluntly, galvanized public opinion, inspired people to action.” —Blanche Wiesen Cook, Los Angeles Times
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Fast Girls: A Novel of the 1936 Women’s Olympic Team by Elise Hooper (eBook)
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE SUMMER BY POPSUGAR, FROLIC, PARADE, TRAVEL & LEISURE, SHE KNOWS, and SHE READS!
NAMED A REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOK OF 2020 (SO FAR).
“Fast Girls is a compelling, thrilling look at what it takes to be a female Olympian in pre-war America…Brava to Elise Hooper for bringing these inspiring heroines to the wide audience they so richly deserve.”—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and The House Girl
Acclaimed author Elise Hooper explores the gripping, real life history of female athletes, members of the first integrated women’s Olympic team, and their journeys to the 1936 summer games in Berlin, Nazi Germany. Perfect for readers who love untold stories of amazing women, such as The Only Woman in the Room, Hidden Figures, and The Lost Girls of Paris.
In the 1928 Olympics, Chicago’s Betty Robinson competes as a member of the first-ever women’s delegation in track and field. Destined for further glory, she returns home feted as America’s Golden Girl until a nearly-fatal airplane crash threatens to end everything.
Outside of Boston, Louise Stokes, one of the few black girls in her town, sees competing as an opportunity to overcome the limitations placed on her. Eager to prove that she has what it takes to be a champion, she risks everything to join the Olympic team.
From Missouri, Helen Stephens, awkward, tomboyish, and poor, is considered an outcast by her schoolmates, but she dreams of escaping the hardships of her farm life through athletic success. Her aspirations appear impossible until a chance encounter changes her life.
These three athletes will join with others to defy society’s expectations of what women can achieve. As tensions bring the United States and Europe closer and closer to the brink of war, Betty, Louise, and Helen must fight for the chance to compete as the fastest women in the world amidst the pomp and pageantry of the Nazi-sponsored 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
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The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin (eBook)
Assassin priests, mad kings, and the goddess of death collide in the first book of the Dreamblood Duology by NYT bestselling and three time Hugo-Award winning author N. K. Jemisin.
The city burned beneath the Dreaming Moon.
In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers – the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe . . . and kill those judged corrupt.
But when a conspiracy blooms within Gujaareh’s great temple, Ehiru – the most famous of the city’s Gatherers – must question everything he knows. Someone, or something, is murdering dreamers in the goddess’ name, stalking its prey both in Gujaareh’s alleys and the realm of dreams. Ehiru must now protect the woman he was sent to kill – or watch the city be devoured by war and forbidden magic.
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Little Wonder: The Fabulous Story of Lottie Dod, the World’s First Female Sports Superstar by Sasha Abramsky (eBook)
Lottie Dod was a truly extraordinary sports figure who blazed trails of glory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dod won Wimbledon five times, and did so for the first time in 1887, at the ludicrously young age of fifteen. After she grew bored with competitive tennis, she moved on to and excelled in myriad other sports: she became a leading ice skater and tobogganist, a mountaineer, an endurance bicyclist, a hockey player, a British ladies’ golf champion, and an Olympic silver medalist in archery.
In her time, Dod had a huge following, but her years of distinction occurred just before the rise of broadcast media. By the outset of World War I, she was largely a forgotten figure; she died alone and without fanfare in 1960.
Little Wonder brings this remarkable woman’s story to life, contextualizing it against a backdrop of rapid social change and tectonic shifts in the status of women in society. Dod was born into a world in which even upper-class women such as herself could not vote, were restricted in owning property, and were assumed to be fragile and delicate.
Women of Lottie Dod’s class were expected not to work and to definitely get married. Dod never married and never had children, instead putting heart and soul into training to be the best athlete she could possibly be. Paving the way for the likes of Billie Jean King, Serena Williams, and other top female athletes of today, Dod accepted no limits, no glass ceilings, and always refused to…
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Memoirs and Misinformation: A Novel by Jim Carrey & Dana Vachon (eBook)
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“None of this is real and all of it is true.” —Jim Carrey
Meet Jim Carrey. Sure, he’s an insanely successful and beloved movie star drowning in wealth and privilege—but he’s also lonely. Maybe past his prime. Maybe even . . . getting fat? He’s tried diets, gurus, and cuddling with his military-grade Israeli guard dogs, but nothing seems to lift the cloud of emptiness and ennui. Even the sage advice of his best friend, actor and dinosaur skull collector Nicolas Cage, isn’t enough to pull Carrey out of his slump.
But then Jim meets Georgie: ruthless ingénue, love of his life. And with the help of auteur screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, he has a role to play in a boundary-pushing new picture that may help him uncover a whole new side to himself—finally, his Oscar vehicle! Things are looking up!
But the universe has other plans.
Memoirs and Misinformation is a fearless semi-autobiographical novel, a deconstruction of persona. In it, Jim Carrey and Dana Vachon have fashioned a story about acting, Hollywood, agents, celebrity, privilege, friendship, romance, addiction to relevance, fear of personal erasure, our “one big soul,” Canada, and a cataclysmic ending of the world—apocalypses within and without.
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Murder at the Mena House by Erica Ruth Neubauer (eBook)
Well-heeled travelers from around the world flock to the Mena House Hotel—an exotic gem in the heart of Cairo where cocktails flow, adventure dispels the aftershocks of World War I, and deadly dangers wait in the shadows…
Egypt, 1926. Fiercely independent American Jane Wunderly has made up her mind: she won’t be swept off her feet on a trip abroad. Despite her Aunt Millie’s best efforts at meddling with her love life, the young widow would rather gaze at the Great Pyramids of Giza than into the eyes of a dashing stranger. Yet Jane’s plans to remain cool and indifferent become ancient history in the company of Mr. Redvers, a roguish banker she can’t quite figure out . . .
While the Mena House has its share of charming guests, Anna Stainton isn’t one of them. The beautiful socialite makes it clear that she won’t share the spotlight with anyone—especially Jane. But Jane soon becomes the center of attention when she’s the one standing over her unintentional rival’s dead body.
Now, with her innocence at stake in a foreign country, Jane must determine who can be trusted, and who had motive to commit a brutal murder. Between Aunt Millie’s unusual new acquaintances, a smarmy playboy with an off-putting smile, and the enigmatic Mr. Redvers, someone has too many secrets. Can Jane excavate the horrible truth before her future falls to ruin in Cairo . . . and the body count rises like the desert heat?
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Summer Darlings by Brooke Lea Foster (eBook)
Set during the splendid summer days of 1960s Martha’s Vineyard, this page-turning debut novel pulls back the curtain on one mysterious and wealthy family as seen through the eyes of their nanny—a college student who, while falling in love on the elegant island, is also forced to reckon with the dark underbelly of privilege.
In 1962, coed Heddy Winsome leaves her hardscrabble Irish Brooklyn neighborhood behind and ferries to glamorous Martha’s Vineyard to nanny for one of the wealthiest families on the island. But as she grows enamored with the alluring and seemingly perfect young couple and chases after their two mischievous children, Heddy discovers that her academic scholarship at Wellesley has been revoked, putting her entire future at risk.
Determined to find her place in the couple’s wealthy social circles, Heddy nurtures a romance with the hip surfer down the beach while wondering if the better man for her might be a quiet, studious college boy instead. But no one she meets on the summer island—socialite, starlet, or housekeeper—is as picture-perfect as they seem, and she quickly learns that the right last name and a house in a tony zip-code may guarantee privilege, but that rarely equals happiness.
Rich with the sights and sounds of midcentury Martha’s Vineyard, Brooke Lea Foster’s debut novel Summer Darlings promises entrance to a rarefied world, for readers who enjoyed Tigers in Red Weather or The Summer Wives.
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Wicked As You Wish: A Hundred Names for Magic Series, Book 1 by Rin Chupeco (eBook)
Combining legends, myths, fairy tales, and classic children’s literature from Oz to Neverland, Chupeco (The Bone Witch) creates an enchanting story that is both a feast for the senses and a unique spin on the hero’s journey. Tala Warnock is a Makiling, a spellbreaker, living with her Scottish and Filipino family in the Royal States of America, where ICE hunts refugees from other magical lands. Tala’s best friend, Prince Alexei, is the hidden heir to Avalon, a world of advanced spelltech that is unbreachable after the Wonderland Wars against the Snow Queen. When Alex turns 18 and a firebird appears to guide him back to Avalon, Tala joins a gang of Banders sworn to protect him and fight the Snow Queen’s powers. As Tala learns more about her family and her own strengths, she discovers a fate in Avalon she never expected. Chupeco’s novel teems with exhilarating wizardry, from ice wolves to a marsh king in the form of a giant toad. Though the beginning is heavily weighted with background information, the pace quickens into a nail-biting quest that introduces a gripping new series. Starred Publishers Weekly Review
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Have a great week!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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