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Staff Picks December 2015
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Here's what staff are reading, click the title to view in our catalog:
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Conversations with Saint Bernardby Jim KrausWidower George Gibson sets off on a trip across the United States with a recently adopted Saint Bernard named Lewis as a traveling companion, sharing thoughts with his new friend and meeting the people that Lewis seems to draw into their lives
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Buried Secrets: Men of Valorby Irene HannonAfter the discovery of a human skeleton by a construction crew at the edge of town, police chief Lisa Grant and detective Mac McGregor join forces to uncover a secret someone is determined to keep buried.
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Falling Like Snowflakes: A Summer Harbor Novel by Denise HunterWhen the Christmas season finds Eden in Summer Harbor, Maine, she's on the run from trouble. Romance is the last thing on her mind. Riding in a bus in the thickly falling snow, Eden Davis wonders how it ever came to this -- fleeing under cover of night with young Micah sleeping fitfully in the seat beside her. When a winter storm strands them in Summer Harbor, Maine, Eden wonders if what might have been the end could be a new beginning. Beau Callahan is a habitual problem-solver. He's recently left his job with the sheriff's department to take over the family Christmas tree farm to save it from insolvency. But he's flummoxed. During the busiest season of the year, he's shorthanded. Then Eden shows up looking for work, and Beau believes he's been rescued. Competent, smart, and beautiful, Eden's also guarded and quiet. He soon figures out she comes with a boatload of secrets. But Beau can't seem to help himself from falling for her. As Christmas Eve approaches, Beau discovers he'll do anything to keep Eden safe. But who's going to protect his heart from a woman who can't seem to trust again?
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On Borrowed Timeby David RosenfeltProposing to his girlfriend Jen and accompanying her to Kendrick Falls in spite of rumors that no man has ever gone to the falls with Jen and come back the same, Richard suffers a car accident on the journey only to discover that Jen has disappeared. By the Edgar Award-winning author of Down to the Wire.
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Johnny Carsonby Henry BushkinAn unreserved and incisive account of the career and personal life of the "King of Late Night" at the height of his fame and influence is shared from the perspective of his lawyer, wingman, fixer, and closest confidant.
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Playing with Fireby Tess GerritsenDiscovering an old and strikingly unusual music composition that causes her to black out and her daughter to be implicated in acts of violence, Julia Ansdell travels to Venice to find the composition's owner and uncovers a dark secret dating back to the Holocaust. By the New York Times best-selling author of the Rizzoli & Isles series.
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The Last Chance Christmas Ball by Mary Jo PutneyA collection of holiday-themed historical romances includes contributions by such award-winning genre favorites as Jo Beverley, Joanna Bourne and Patricia Rice.
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The New Sugar and Spice: A Recipe for Bolder Bakingby Samantha SeneviratneCollects more than eighty unique dessert recipes using exotic spices, including chile-chocolate truffles, cinnamon toast bread pudding, Indonesian spiced layer cake, crêpe cake with pistachio cream, and fig and fennel seed biscotti.
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Wicked Mobileby Brendan KirbyMoving to the Mobile area in 2000, Brendan Kirby learned that his adopted city was nearly as old as his birthplace, Philadelphia, PA, and had its own rich history and collection of wild stories. With the aid of local historians and research librarians -- as well as the writings of key players and contemporaneous journalists -- this veteran investigative reporter delved into the oft-repeated tales and juicy rumors of the Port City in an attempt to separate fact from fiction and weave a richly detailed truth for today's readers. Exposing the underbelly of this genteel Southern Belle, Wicked Mobile certainly will appeal to those born and bred in Mobile, Baldwin and surrounding counties, who might well spy a distant cousin among its dastardly cast of characters, but it also will captivate transplants (or anyone) with a love of history or fondness for misdeeds and scandal.
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The Watchmaker of Filigree Streetby Natasha PulleyWhen a strange watch saves his life, warning him of a blast that destroys Scotland Yard, telegraphist Thaniel Steepleton goes in search of its maker and meets Keita Mori, a Japanese immigrant who remembers the future, and soon Thaniel discovers that nothing in this world is certain.
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The Border Empireby Ralph ComptonWhen his father, the Gunfighter, is brutally murdered by the Sandlin gang, Wes Stone, surrendering his lawman's badge, goes up against the outlaw army in an attempt to teach his father's killers a lesson they will soon not forget.
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Welcome to Night Valeby Joseph FinkHanded a message by a mysterious man, a young pawn shop owner embarks on a psychologically dangerous mystery that entangles her in the life of the local PTA treasurer, who helplessly watches her son's growing obsession with his absent father. Based on the #1 international hit podcast.
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by Jennifer Weiner
First meeting as young children in the hospital, a wealthy girl with a congenital heart defect and an underprivileged boy with athletic talents meet periodically over the course of three decades before considering whether their growing affections will overcome their differences. By the best-selling author of In Her Shoes.
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The Sparrow Sisters by Ellen HerrickWhen her herbs and tinctures are believed to be implicated in a local tragedy, and Granite Point is consumed by a long-buried fear, healer Patience Sparrow must find a way to turn the tide and return life to this seaside New England hamlet with the help of the town's women. Reading-group guide available.
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War Room: Prayer is a Powerful Weaponby Chris FabryWhen real-estate agent Elizabeth Jordan meets elderly widow Clara Williams, a visit to the elder woman's prayer room helps Elizabeth realize that her mounting problems at home are surmountable with the help of God.
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Graceby Richard Paul EvansThe best-selling author of The Christmas Box and Finding Noel presents an inspirational tale of hope, love, and faith set during the holiday season.
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Cross Roadsby William P. YoungComatose in a hospital ICU after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage, egotistical self-made businessman Anthony Spencer experiences an incremental transformation while caught in a surreal existence between heaven and earth.
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Brown-Eyed Girlby Lisa KleypasA conclusion to the series that began with Sugar Daddy finds cynical wedding planner Avery avoiding the advances of seductive wedding guest Joe, who challenges her beliefs about love and commitment.
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Helplessby Daniel PalmerReturning home to Shilo, New Hampshire to raise his teenage daughter after his ex-wife is murdered, former Navy SEAL Tom Hawkins becomes the target of vicious rumors and implicated in a series of disturbing crimes by someone who is determined to destroy everything he loves.
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Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Centuryby John HiggsIn Stranger Than We Can Imagine, John Higgs argues that before 1900, history seemed to make sense. We can understand innovations like electricity, agriculture and democracy. The twentieth century, in contrast, gave us relativity, cubism, quantum mechanics, the id, existentialism, Stalin, psychedelics, chaos mathematics, climate change and postmodernism. In order to understand such a disorienting barrage of unfamiliar and knotty ideas, Higgs shows us, we need to shift the framework of our interpretationand view these concepts within the context of a new kind of historical narrative. Instead of looking at it as another step forward in a stable path, we need to look at the twentieth century as a chaotic seismic shift, upending all linear narratives. Higgs invites us along as he journeys across a century "about which we know too much" in order to grant us a new perspective on it. He brings a refreshingly non-academic, eclectic and infectiously energetic approach to his subjects as well as a unique ability to explain how complex ideas connect and intersect-whether he's discussing Einstein's theories of relativity, the Beat poets' interest in Eastern thought or the bright spots and pitfalls of the American Dream.
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The Periodic Tableby Primo LeviOne of Italy's leading men of letters, a chemist by profession, writes about incidents in his life in which one or another of the elements figured in such a way as to become a personal preoccupation.
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The Light Between Us: Stories from Heaven. Lessons for the Living. by Laura Lynne JacksonA high school teacher who secretly worked as a medium for celebrity clients shares the story of how she hid her abilities for years before discovering scientific information about her gift, sharing uplifting life lessons she learned along the way.
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Local Girlsby Caroline ZancanMaggie, Lindsey and Nina find their lives forever changed by an encounter with a movie star that brings about the appearance of a former member of their group and the escalation of long-buried issues that force them to see one another as the women they are now instead of the girls they used to be. Online reading-group guide.
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The Animalsby Christian KieferWhen a childhood friend is released from prison, Bill Reed, the manager of a wildlife sanctuary in rural Idaho, is forced to confront the secrets of his criminal youth while trying to keep it hidden from those closest to him as he fights to save the only place he has ever been able to call home.
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The Swimmerby Joakim ZanderA former spy whose career forced him to give up his infant daughter must come to her rescue years later when she is targeted by powerful international adversaries who would kill her for discovering volatile intelligence.
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