I've said it often: as the Collection Development Librarian for NPL, I have the best job in the building. Why? I get to purchase lots of materials for the library collection. I'm frequently asked, "How do you know what to buy?"
The first time someone called John Paul (JP) Brammer “Papi” was on the gay hookup app Grindr. At first, it was flattering; JP took this as white-guy speak for “hey, handsome.” But then it happened again and again…and again, leaving JP wondering: Who the hell is Papi? JP shares his story of growing up biracial and in the closet in America’s heartland, while attempting to answer some of life’s most challenging questions: How do I let go of the past? How do I become the person I want to be? Is there such a thing as being too gay? Should I hook up with my grade school bully now that he’s out of the closet? Questions we’ve all asked ourselves, surely.
As a young woman, Corina leaves her Mexican family in Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a writer in the cafés of Paris. Instead, she spends her brief time in the City of Light running out of money and lining up with other immigrants to call home from a broken pay phone. But the months of befriending panhandling artists in the métro, sleeping on crowded floors, and dancing the tango at underground parties are given a lasting glow by her intense friendships with Martita and Paola. Over the years the three women disperse to three continents, falling out of touch and out of mind—until a rediscovered letter brings Corina’s days in Paris back with breathtaking immediacy.
Penelope Grand has scrapped her failed career as an artist in Pittsburgh and moved back to Brooklyn to keep an eye on her ailing father. Her mother, Mirella, has abandoned the family to reclaim her roots in the Dominican Republic. When Penelope moves into the attic apartment of the affluent Harpers, she thinks she's found a semblance of family--and maybe even love. But her world is upended again when she receives a postcard from Mirella asking for reconciliation. As old wounds are reopened, and secrets revealed, a journey across an ocean of sacrifice and self-discovery begins.
The first time Isabel meets her father-in-law, Omar, he's already dead--an apparition appearing uninvited on her wedding day. Her husband, Martin, still unforgiving for having been abandoned by his father years ago, confesses that he never knew the old man had died. So Omar asks Isabel for the impossible: persuade Omar's family--especially his wife, Elda--to let him redeem himself. Omar returns each year on the celebratory Day of the Dead, but to the aggrieved Martin and Elda, Omar's spirit remains invisible. When Martin's teenage nephew crosses the Mexican border and takes refuge in Isabel and Martin's home, questions about past and future homes, borders, and belonging arise that may finally lead to forgiveness.
During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost. But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.
It's 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro “Prieto” Acevedo, are boldfaced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn, while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan’s power brokers. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the 1 percent but she can’t seem to find her own. . . until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets. Olga and Prieto’s mother, Blanca, a Young Lord turned radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.
Diane Guerrero, the television actress from the megahit Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, was just fourteen years old on the day her parents were detained and deported while she was at school. Born in the U.S., Guerrero was able to remain in the country and continue her education, depending on the kindness of family friends who took her in and helped her build a life and a successful acting career for herself, without the support system of her family.
Buried in debt due to his young daughter's illness, his marriage at the brink, Mario reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, surprising himself with his proclivity for violence. After tragedy destroys the life he knew, Mario agrees to one final job: hijack a cartel's cash shipment before it reaches Mexico. Along with an old friend and a cartel-insider named Juanca, Mario sets off on the near-suicidal mission, which will leave him with either a cool $200,000 or a bullet in the skull. As the three complicated men travel through the endless landscape of Texas, across the border and back, their hidden motivations are laid bare alongside nightmarish encounters that defy explanation.
After a wild bet, gourmet grilled-cheese sandwich, and cuddle with a baby goat, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who's ten years younger than her and as casual as they come--the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can't just give up the joy she's found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?
A mother and father set out with their two children, a boy and a girl, driving from New York to Arizona in the heat of summer. Their destination: Apacheria, the place the Apaches once called home. As the family drives, we sense they are on the brink of a crisis of their own. A fissure is growing between the parents, one the children can almost feel beneath their feet. They are led, inexorably, to a grand, harrowing adventure--both in the desert landscape and within the chambers of their own imaginations.
One month short of her wedding day—and her thirtieth birthday—Nadia Palacio finds herself standing up to her infuriating, cheating fiancé for the first time. But she’s hyperventilating about facing her Argentinean family.
With a wedding venue already paid for, and family from all over the world with plane tickets, Nadia decides instead to celebrate her treintañera, her double quinces. Then she discovers that the man in charge of the venue is none other than her college fling that became far more than a fling.
The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather's house to listen to any fast tunes. Then one day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather's room. She opens it--and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea's demise, but success could make her dreams come true.
1910, Mexico. As the country's revolution spreads, Dolores, the daughter of a wealthy banker, settles with her family in Mexico City, where, at sixteen, she marries the worldly Jaime del Río. But at a party, she meets an influential American director who recognizes in her a natural performer. He invites her to Hollywood, and practically overnight, the famous Miss del Río is born. Swept up in L.A.'s glitzy inner circle, she takes her place among film royalty. But as her career soars, her personal life becomes increasingly complicated. And when she's labeled box office poison amid growing prejudice before WWII, Dolores must decide if her heart and future instead lie where it all began...in Mexico.
In this stunning debut, poet José Olivarez explores the stories, contradictions, joys, and sorrows that embody life in the spaces between Mexico and America. He paints vivid portraits of good kids, bad kids, families clinging to hope, life after the steel mills, gentrifying barrios, and everything in between. Drawing on the rich traditions of Latinx and Chicago writers like Sandra Cisneros and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olivarez creates a home out of life in the in-between.
![Image for "Violeta [English Edition]"](/sites/default/files/bibliographic-record/9780593496206.jpg)
Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family with five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth. She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting times of devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy.
Since Lamont Cranston - known to a select few as the Shadow - defeated Shiwan Khan and ended his reign of terror over New York one year ago, the city has started to regenerate. But there is evil brewing elsewhere. And this time the entire world is under threat. Which is why Lamont has scoured the globe to assemble a team with unmatched talent. Only their combined powers can foil an enemy with ambitions and abilities beyond anyone's deepest fears.
Every day financial analyst Travis Devine boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan. Then one morning Devine's tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead. Sara Ewes, Devine's coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building, prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. Next Devine is confronted with a threat to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his investment firm. This treacherous role will take him to the darkest corners of the country's economic halls of power where a killer lurks with Devine in a bull's-eye.
One fateful night, David Burroughs woke suddenly to discover that his three-year-old son, Matthew had been murdered while David was asleep just down the hall. Half a decade later, David's been wrongly convicted of the murder and left to serve out his time in a maximum-security prison. Then his former sister-in-law, Rachel, makes a surprise appearance. She brings a strange photograph with a boy in the background who looks just like David's son. David now knows: Matthew is still alive. He plans a harrowing escape, determined to save his son, clear his own name, and discover the real story of what happened. Can David evade capture long enough to reveal the shocking truth?
One Monday morning, Stephanie Plum knows that something is amiss when she turns up for work at Vinnie’s Bail Bonds to find that longtime office manager Connie Rosolli hasn't show up. Stephanie gets a call from Connie’s abductor, who will only release her in exchange for a mysterious coin. Unfortunately, this coin, which should be in the office is nowhere to be found. As Stephanie, Grandma Mazur, Lula, Morelli, and Ranger get closer to unraveling the reasons behind Connie’s kidnapping, Connie’s captor grows more threatening. Stephanie has no choice but to throw caution to the wind, follow her instincts, and go rogue.
The brilliant crime-solving duo of Washington, DC's, Metro PD and the FBI has a proven MO: Detective Alex Cross makes his own rules. Detective John Sampson enforces them. When military-style attacks erupt, brutally sidelining Cross, Sampson is sent reeling. Sampson's friend, his partner, his brother have told him: Don't trust anyone. As a shadow force advances on the nation's capital, Sampson alone must protect the Cross family, his own young daughter, and every American, including the president.
After serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. But everyone in her daughter's life is determined to shut Kenna out. Then Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna's daughter, slowly becomes an important part of Kenna's life. Both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them if they're revealed as a couple. Kenna must find a way to absolve the mistakes of her past in order to build a future out of hope and healing.
Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just settled into a civil coparenting rhythm when she suddenly bumps into her first love, Atlas. After nearly two years separated, she is elated that for once, time is on their side, and she immediately says yes when Atlas asks her on a date. But her excitement is quickly hampered by the knowledge that, though they are no longer married, Ryle is still very much a part of her life. And Atlas Corrigan is the one man he will hate being in his ex-wife and daughter’s life.
As the villagers of Three Pines prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in Three Pines after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them shattered. Have the terrible wounds of their mother's murder festered into current danger? Chief Inspector Gamache's alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered, describing his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. When the room is found, the villagers open it and discover a world of curiosities and puzzles, including hidden messages warning of mayhem and revenge.
Amos Decker is called to South Florida to investigate a double homicide. A federal judge and her bodyguard have been found dead, the judge's face sporting a blindfold with two eye holes crudely cut out. Not only did the judge have more enemies than Decker can count, but the bodyguard presents additional conundrums. Meanwhile, Decker must contend with a new partner, Special Agent Frederica "Freddie" White. Decker and White are inexorably pulled down a twisted tunnel of secrets and crimes, ending with Decker's deadliest threat yet.
Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen Ashleigh to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is a bone-chilling, unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read with her recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, but as Lowen's feelings for him begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. A truth this horrifying would make it impossible for Jeremy to continue loving Verity.
When Tate Collins meets airline pilot Miles Archer, she doesn't think it's love at first sight. The only thing Tate and Miles have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. He doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her: 1) Never ask about the past; 2) Don’t expect a future. They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.
Olivia McAfee never imagined that she and her son Asher would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business. When Lily Campanello and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.
Biloxi was known for its beaches, resorts, and seafood industry, but it was also notorious for corruption and vice. Keith Rudy and Hugh Malco grew up in Biloxi in the sixties and were childhood friends, as well as Little League all-stars. Keith’s father became a legendary prosecutor, determined to “clean up the Coast.” Hugh’s father became the “Boss” of Biloxi’s criminal underground. Keith went to law school and followed in his father’s footsteps. Hugh preferred the nightlife and worked in his father’s clubs. The two families were headed for a showdown, one that would happen in a courtroom.
Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness, with life in the spotlight. At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. Two combat tours made him a hero at home, but he suffered from post-traumatic stress and crippling panic attacks. When he met Meghan, the world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance. From the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Harry saw no other solution than to flee his mother country. Leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try had been his mother.
When Mickey Gibson, single mother and former detective, gets a call from a ProEye colleague named Arlene Robinson, she thinks nothing of Arlene's unusual request for her to go inventory the vacant home of an arms dealer who cheated clients and fled. That is, until she arrives at the mansion to discover a dead body in a secret room. Not only does the arms dealer not exist but the murder victim is Harry Langhorne, a man with mob ties who used to be in Witness Protection. And no one named Arlene Robinson works at ProEye. Before long, Gibson is locked in a battle of wits with a brilliant woman with no name, a hidden past, and unknown motives.
