December Adult Reading Challenge
-
Heart Berries
Having survived a profoundly dysfunctional upbringing only to find herself hospitalized and facing a dual diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder, Terese Marie Mailhot is given a notebook and begins to write her way out of trauma. The triumphant result is Heart Berries, a memorial for Mailhot's mother, a social worker and activist who had a thing for prisoners; a story of reconciliation with her father―an abusive drunk and a brilliant artist―who was murdered under mysterious circumstances; and an elegy on how difficult it is to love someone while dragging the long shadows of shame.
-
A Christmas Escape
Lonely Charles Latterly arrives at his small hotel hoping that the island’s blue skies and gentle breezes will brighten his spirits. Unfortunately, there’s no holiday cheer to be found among his fellow guests, who include a pompous novelist, a stuffy colonel, a dangerously ill-matched married couple, and an ailing old man. The one charming exception is orphaned teenager Candace Finbar, who takes Charles under her wing and introduces him to the island’s beauty. But the tranquility of the holiday is swiftly disrupted by a violent quarrel, an unpleasant gentleman’s shocking claims of being stalked, and the ominous stirrings of the local volcano. Then events take an even darker turn: A body is found, and Charles quickly realizes that the killer must be among the group of guests.
-
The Tusks of Extinction
Moscow has resurrected the mammoth. But someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out again. Dr. Damira Khismatullina, an expert in elephant behavior, was brutally murdered trying to defend the world's last elephants from the brutal ivory trade. Now, her digitized consciousness has been downloaded into the mind of a mammoth. As the herd's new matriarch, can Damira help fend off poachers long enough for the species to take hold? Or will her own ghosts, and Moscow's real reason for bringing the mammoth back, doom them to a new extinction?
-
Rizzio
On the evening of March 9th, 1566, David Rizzio, the private secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, was brutally murdered. Dragged from the chamber of the heavily pregnant Mary, Rizzio was stabbed fifty six times by a party of assassins. This breathtakingly tense novella dramatises the events that led up to that night, telling the infamous story as it has never been told before.
-
The Descent of Man
In this witty and necessary new book, artist Grayson Perry trains his keen eye on the world of men to ask, what sort of man would make the world a better place? What would happen if we rethought the macho, outdated version of manhood, and embraced a different ideal? In the current atmosphere of bullying, intolerance and misogyny, demonstrated in the recent Trump versus Clinton presidential campaign, The Descent of Man is a timely and essential addition to current conversations around gender.
-
The Art of War
Twenty-five hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military have used the teaching on Sun Tzu to warfare and cilivzation have adapted these teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life. The Art of War is a book which should be used to gain advantage of opponents in the boardroom and battlefield alike.
-
Tell Me how it Ends
Valeria Luiselli's extended essay on her volunteer work translating for child immigrants confronts with compassion and honesty the problem of the North American refugee crisis. Appealing to the language of the United States' fraught immigration policy, Luiselli exposes the cracks in this foundation. Herself an immigrant, she highlights the human cost of its brokenness, as well as the hope that it (rather than walls) might be rebuilt.
-
The Honor of Your Presence
In this short novella, Dave Eggers gives us an unforgettable duo, Helen and Peter Mahoney, a homebody niece and her adventurous, almost-British uncle. Helen designs invitations to parties and galas to which she is not welcome, and is quite comfortable with that. One day, though, Peter wonders, "Why not print an extra invite and I'll be your plus one?" What starts out as an innocuous lark becomes much more -- a very funny and lyrical referendum on why humans congregate and celebrate, and the pros and cons of leaving the house at all.
-
The Christmas Guest
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma's aloof and handsome brother. But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting.
-
The Pearl
Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the Kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence. Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull's egg, as "perfect as the moon." With the pearl comes hope, the promise of comfort and of security.
-
Haunt Sweet Home
When aimless twenty-something Mara lands a job as the night-shift production assistant on her cousin’s ghost hunting/home makeover reality TV show Haunt Sweet Home, she quickly determines her new role will require a healthy attitude toward duplicity. But as she hides fog machines in the woods and improvises scares to spook new homeowners, a series of unnerving incidents on set and a creepy new coworker force Mara to confront whether the person she's truly been deceiving and hiding from all along—is herself.
-
The Crane Husband
A fifteen-year-old teenager is the backbone of her small Midwestern family, budgeting the household finances and raising her younger brother while her mom, a talented artist, weaves beautiful tapestries. Yet when her mom brings home a six-foot tall crane with a menacing air, the girl is powerless to prevent her mom letting the intruder into her heart, and her children’s lives. Utterly enchanted and numb to his sharp edges, her mom abandons the world around her to weave the masterpiece the crane demands.
-
Full Speed to a Crash Landing
Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew. But Rian White, the government agent in charge, starts to suspect that there’s more to Ada than meets the eye. He’s not wrong—but he’s so pretty that Ada is perfectly happy to keep him paying attention to her—at least until she can complete the job she was sent to pull off. But as quick as Ada is, Rian might be quicker—and she may not be entirely sure who’s manipulating whom until it’s too late.
-
The Fire Next Time
At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism.
-
We Should All Be Feminists
In this personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from the much-admired TEDx talk of the same name—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.
Most Checkouts Last Month - For Adults
-
Holmes is Missing
The New York City agency led by three detectives--Brendan Holmes, "the brain," Margaret Marple, "the eyes," and Auguste Poe, the "muscle"--with famous names and mysterious pasts is one major case away from cementing its professional reputation. As a series of child abductions tests the PIs' legendary skills, the cerebral Holmes's absence leaves a gaping hole in the agency roster. Only by closing ranks and solving the mystery within can they recover all that's been lost.
-
Framed in Death
Before dawn, Lt. Eve Dallas is speeding toward the home of the two art gallery owners whose doorway has been turned into a horrifying crime scene overnight. A lifeless young woman has been elaborately costumed and precisely posed to resemble the model of a long-ago Dutch master, and Dallas plunges into her investigation.
-
The Writer
In a tower apartment on Central Park West, NYPD Detective Declan Shaw finds a woman waiting for him. She's covered in blood. A body is lying dead on the floor of the luxurious living room. Every book in the apartment's floor-to-ceiling shelves is by the same author: bestselling true-crime writer Denise Morrow. "This is you?" Shaw asks the woman. "You're a writer?" Only one person knows the ending to this story.
-
Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte's brutally passionate poetic masterpiece is about doomed love on the bleak Pennine moors. This haunting tale of uncontrolled, violent passion between the wilful Catherine Earnshaw and the wild, dark-natured Heathcliff has gripped readers since it was first published in 1847.
-
The Widow
Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it. Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But when she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t commit: murder.
-
2 Sisters Murder Investigations
Rhonda and Barbara "Baby" Bird are half-sisters--and full partners in their Los Angeles detective agency. They agree on nothing. Rhonda, a former attorney, takes a by-the-book approach to solving crimes, while teenage Baby relies on her street smarts. When they take a controversial case of a loner whose popular wife has gone missing, they're accused of being PIs who can't tell a client from a killer. If they can stop fighting each other long enough to work together.
-
The Hamptons Lawyer
The Hamptons on Long Island is known for its beautiful beaches, its luxury lifestyle--and its exclusive legal advice. When Jane Smith takes on a famous celebrity client, she's armed and ready: with brilliant arguments, hard evidence--and two Glocks. Yet she's chased down, shot at, and risks contempt of court. That's when mounting a legal defense turns into self-defense. Knowing every day in court could be her last, she's a survivor. For now.
-
Never Flinch
When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to “kill thirteen innocents and one guilty” in “an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man,” Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realizes that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.
-
The Waiting
When Renee Ballard and her LAPD Open-Unsolved Unit team move in on their suspect for the Pillowcase Rapist, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles. Then Ballard's badge, gun, and ID are stolen, and her enemies in the department will use the burglary against her if she doesn't get them back soon. Renee Ballard knocks on the door of Harry Bosch to solicit his help. At the same time, she takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit: Bosch's daughter Maddie, now a patrol officer, who has ulterior motives for this assignment.
-
The Winds from Further West
Dr. Neil Anderson has just started a new position at the University of Edinburgh. Things seem to be going well for him until an accusation of insensitive comments lands him in hot water with the university and he discovers a troubling secret about his relationship. Neil leaves his unraveling life behind for the remote and secluded beauty of the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. When a ship comes in to the harbor with two wolf cubs, his life will change drastically once again.
-
Iron Flame (Standard Edition)
In her second year at Basgiath War College, the real training begins. Violet Sorrengail’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders’ capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves. But Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.
-
Hidden Nature
Natural Resources police officer Sloan Coope pulled in at a convenience store and walked right into a robbery in progress and subsequent gunshot. After being shocked back to life on the operating table, she moves back to her parents’ peaceful house in Heron’s Rest. When a woman vanishes, leaving her car behind in a supermarket parking lot, Sloan searches online for similar cases. She finds them: Men and women, old and young, with nothing apparent in common. And the abductions keep happening.
-
Nobody's Fool
Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up covered in blood with a knife in his hand. Beside him, the dead body of his girlfriend Anna. His screams drown out his thoughts and then he runs. Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City. One evening, he recognizes Anna at the back of the classroom. She bolts when they make eye contact. Kierce knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment.
-
Now Or Never
She said yes to Morelli. She said yes to Ranger. Now Stephanie Plum has two fiancés and no idea what to do about it. While Stephanie stalls for time, she buries herself in her work as a bounty hunter, tracking down an unusually varied assortment of fugitives from justice. With timely assists from her stalwart supporters Lula, Connie, and Grandma Mazur, Stephanie uses every trick in the book to reel in these men. But she can’t hold Ranger and Morelli at bay for long, and she’s keeping a secret from them that is the biggest bombshell of all.
-
To Die for
Travis Devine is hoping to keep off the radar of an enemy -- the girl on the train. He's sent to Seattle to aid the FBI to escort orphaned, twelve-year-old Betsy Odom to a meeting with her uncle, who's under investigation for RICO charges. En route, Betsy is adamant that her parents never used drugs, but the police insist the Odoms died of an overdose. When Devine starts digging for answers, he finds a conspiracy bigger than he could've ever imagined. The question is, how do Betsy, her uncle, and various government agencies all fit into it.