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"The tale that emerged is one of insane asylums and conspiracies, poison squads and political maneuvering, irradiated sheep grease, smuggled rats, even a doctor so intent on proving his theories about nutrition that he injected himself with his patients' blood." ~ from Catherine Price's Vitamania
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New and Recently Released!
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| Just Kids From the Bronx: Telling It the Way it Was: An Oral History by Arlene AldaNonfiction. Incorporated in 1898, the Bronx is New York City's northernmost borough, and the only one located on the mainland. Less famous than some its neighbors (ahem, Brooklyn), the Bronx has been home to both ordinary folks (24-year-old Erik Zeidler, astute observer of the Bronx River's thriving snapping turtle population) and celebrities (including Carl Reiner, Colin Powell, and Al Pacino, to name just a few). Compiled by Bronx native Arlene Alda, this collection of 65 oral histories features first-person accounts of growing up in the Bronx that document the significant social and demographic changes that have shaped its unique culture. |
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| Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik LarsonHistory. On May 7, 1915, the RMS Lusitania was struck by a torpedo fired by a German U-boat just 11 miles off the southern coast of Ireland. Eighteen minutes later, she was at the bottom of the sea, taking 1,198 passengers and crew with her. Interspersing survivors' accounts of the tragedy with insightful discussions of history, politics, espionage, and maritime technology, author Erik Larson traces the luxury liner's final voyage, speculating on the circumstances that may have contributed to the vessel's destruction. |
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| World Gone By: A Novel by Dennis LehaneFiction. Set 10 years after Live by Night, World Gone By catches up with Joseph "Boston Joe" Coughlin in 1940s Tampa, Florida, where he's set himself up as a respectable businessman while maintaining strong ties to the powerful Bartolo crime family. Once a gangster, Joe now mostly limits his activities to making himself and his associates wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. So why is there a contract on his life? This fast-paced, atmospheric trilogy, which begins with The Given Day, takes place in the U.S. and Cuba and spans Prohibition, the Great Depression, and two World Wars. |
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| Vitamania: Our Obsessive Quest for Nutritional Perfection by Catherine PriceNonfiction. "We know nearly nothing about vitamins," declares journalist Catherine Price in her thorough investigation of dietary supplements and the industry that produces and markets them. Although it's true that vitamins can cure an array of conditions caused by nutritional deficiencies (e.g. scurvy, rickets, beriberi), they are not a panacea, nor are they risk-free. In fact, what we think we know about vitamins may be harming us in the long run. Find out how and why in the engaging, well-researched Vitamania. |
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| All the Old Knives: A Novel by Olen SteinhauerFiction. Several years after the "2006 Vienna Airport Disaster," a failed attempt to stop terrorists who hijacked a plane and crashed it, killing all 172 people on board, former CIA agents (and lovers) Henry Pelham and Celia Favreau meet at a California restaurant to review the details of the event -- and, in the process, come to some shocking conclusions. Beginning at a dinner table and unfolding over the space of a meal, this leisurely paced but suspenseful story employs multiple perspectives, flashbacks, and complex relationship dynamics to hook listeners and keep them guessing at every turn. |
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Focus on: Spring Cleaning
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| Longbourn: A Novel by Jo BakerHistorical Fiction. In a story that runs parallel to the events of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Longbourn examines the lives of the Bennet family's household servants, whose days are spent laying fires, cooking meals, emptying chamber pots, changing linens, and performing other domestic tasks. All are content with (or at least resigned to) their lot in life -- save for housemaid Sarah, whose restlessness is exacerbated by the unexpected arrival of mysterious new manservant, James Smith. Providing an intimate glimpse into daily life in Regency England, both above and below stairs, this "vivid reimagining" (Publishers Weekly) of a classic will delight Austen fans, but will also captivate anyone who enjoys well-drawn characters, richly detailed settings, and moving love stories. |
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| The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie KondoNonfiction. In this international bestseller, Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo introduces the KonMari method, which eschews location-oriented approaches in favor of a category-by-category system -- clothes, books, papers, komono (miscellaneous objects), and photos -- to help people distinguish between those items that "spark joy" (and should be kept) and those that don't (which should be given away, recycled, or discarded). Stymied by Spring Cleaning? Perhaps KonMari can help you organize your life. |
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| Coming Clean: A Memoir by Kimberly Rae MillerMemoir. As a child, author and actress Kimberly Rae Miller would pray each night for the following: "new dolls, a best friend, and for my house to burn down." Her parents, both extreme hoarders, did in fact lose one house to fire, while letting another accumulate garbage, insects, and rats until it became uninhabitable. Torn between her love for her doting but deeply flawed parents and her loathing of their squalid living conditions, Miller maintained a stressful double life of secrets and lies, even pointing out a "decoy" house to anyone who asked where she lived. At once compelling and disturbing, Coming Clean describes Miller's childhood, her attempts to understand her parents' condition, and her struggle to come to terms with her past. |
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| The Housekeeper and the Professor: A Novel by Yōko OgawaFiction. This "exquisite" story (Publishers Weekly) explores the surrogate family that forms when a brilliant math professor with an unusual memory problem employs a young housekeeper, who's both a high-school dropout and the mother of a ten-year-old boy. Though she must reintroduce herself to him each day, the gentle professor takes a liking to both his housekeeper and her baseball-crazed son and begins to teach them about the beauty of mathematical equations. First published in Japan in 2003, The Housekeeper and the Professor has since been adapted into a 2006 film entitled The Professor's Beloved Equation. |
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| Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time by Brigid SchulteNonfiction. Skeptical when a researcher suggested that all American women have 30 hours of leisure per week (men have more), journalist Brigid Schulte set out to track her own time -- much of which she ultimately dedicated to searching for answers as to why an increasing number of people find themselves overworked and under-rested. Conducting interviews with neuroscientists and sociologists as well as with working parents and child-free professionals, Schulte embarks on a quest to understand where our times goes and how to reclaim it, restoring balance to busy lives. |
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Contact your librarian for more books!
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