Upcoming Events
Do you need a place to wrap presents away from prying eyes? We will have everything you need! You bring the presents and we provide the rest. Enjoy some festive music and hot cocoa while you are here too.
Disclaimer(s)
Photo Permission
Staff often take pictures during library programs. The library uses photos in its publicity, in social media, and on its website. If you do not want your photo used, please contact the library and the library will honor that request.
The Friends of the Benbrook Public Library are partnering with Carter Blood Care for another Blood Drive.
You are cordially invited to our 10th annual Holly Jolly celebration. Join us for a day of joy and cheer!
Disclaimer(s)
Accessibility
The library makes every effort to ensure our programs can be enjoyed by all. If you have any concerns about accessibility or need to request specific accommodations, please contact the library.
Food Allergies
We cannot guarantee that food served at this program has not come into contact with tree nuts, soy, or other allergens.
Photo Permission
Staff often take pictures during library programs. The library uses photos in its publicity, in social media, and on its website. If you do not want your photo used, please contact the library and the library will honor that request.
Do you need a place to wrap presents away from prying eyes? We will have everything you need! You bring the presents and we provide the rest. Enjoy some festive music and hot cocoa while you are here too.
Disclaimer(s)
Photo Permission
Staff often take pictures during library programs. The library uses photos in its publicity, in social media, and on its website. If you do not want your photo used, please contact the library and the library will honor that request.
Writing Critique
The library’s Writing Critique Group offers writers the opportunity to share their work with their peers and receive feedback in a constructive setting. Attendees read aloud from their writing projects and receive notes, praise, and constructive criticism from their fellow writers. It’s our hope that the group will prove helpful to experienced and aspiring authors alike. Anyone 18 or older may join the group. Writers of all genres and experience levels are welcome, though we do ask that all content presented be kept between “PG-13” and “R” levels of propriety.
Disclaimer(s)
Photo Permission
Staff often take pictures during library programs. The library uses photos in its publicity, in social media, and on its website. If you do not want your photo used, please contact the library and the library will honor that request.
Benbrook Bound is a free delivery service for patrons who are unable to visit the library due to a temporary or extended illness or disability.
Applications are available at the information desk, or by emailing our Adult Services Librarian.
The library is proud to offer a collection of circulating technological devices. All devices circulate for a period of three weeks. Borrowers of devices must be resident or non-resident Benbrook Public Library cardholders 18 years of age or older. A signed technology agreement will need to be on file before items are checked out, please see our information desk for assistance.
Public computers are available in the main area, teen room, and children's area of the library. You may use your Benbrook Library Card to gain access, or see the information desk to obtain a guest pass.
There is a two-hour limit on computers. If you need additional time, and nobody is waiting for a computer, please see the information desk to extend your time.
Items available for purchase:
USB Drives: $3.00
Ear Buds: $2.50
Prints and Copies (Letter or legal size only)
Black & White: $.10 page (single-sided), $.20 page (double-sided)
Color: $.25 page (single-sided), $.50 page (double-sided)
Wireless Printing
Pick up your prints at the Benbrook Public Library's Print Release Station or at the Information Desk. When using the Print Release Station, you will sign in using your email address. There are three ways to print wirelessly:
Print Through Email:
- Create a new email with the print job attached.
- Send to bpl-mobileprint-bw@printspots.com (black & white)
- Send to bpl-mobileprint-color@printspots.com (color)
Print from Home:
- Go to www.printeron.net/bpl/mobileprint
- Type in email address and upload document
- Pick up at Benbrook Public Library
Print Through App:
- Download PrinterOn from your app store
- Find Benbrook Library, choose black & white or color
- Click on Document, Photo, or Web, Send by App
Faxing
We offer fax services to local and toll-free numbers free of charge.
Interlibrary loan (also known as ILL) service is a system that libraries nationwide participate in. It allows Benbrook cardholders (resident or non-resident) to borrow items from a larger network and obtain items that are not owned by Benbrook Public Library or one of our MetroShare partners. Another library will loan our library materials, and we will loan it to you. This allows you to get your hands on harder to find materials.
The Library of Things is a collection of kits of items that facilitate a variety of educational, recreational, and practical activities. Most kits contain books and other materials that provide instruction and guidance on the activity each kit supports.
Library of Things kits are available to resident and non-resident Benbrook Public Library cardholders ages 18 and up and may be borrowed for a three-week checkout period. Kits are limited to one per borrower.
The Makerspace is a space built just for you to dream, plan, and create – all ages are welcome. We have variety of innovative tools available for in-house use at the Library.
Use of the Makerspace is by appointment and there will be a library staff member to provide guidance while leaving the vision and execution of the projects to you. Please use the Makerspace Calendar to reserve an appointment for use of our 3D printers and laser engraver. If you would like to make an appointment to print a poster, use the Poster Printer Calendar.
Benbrook Public Library has commissioned notaries public on staff ready to help you get your documents notarized.
For more information on our notary services, you can view our notary page here.
Para la información en español haga clic aquí.
*If you need legal advice, please consult an attorney. The notary public is prohibited from helping you to prepare, complete, or understand legal documents.
Notarizations at Benbrook Library are by appointment only. This is to ensure that we have a notary available for you that can perform the requested service.
To schedule your notary appointment, you can email us at notary@benbrooklibrary.org or you can call us at (817) 249-6632.
*If you need legal advice, please consult an attorney. The notary public is prohibited from helping you to prepare, complete, or understand legal documents.
We are excited to share our new collection, our seed library! It has a variety of fruit, vegetable, and flower seeds that can be "checked out."
To become a member of the seed library, simply fill out a membership card, which can be found next to our seed cart.
Donations are welcome! If you save seeds or have extra to donate, please feel free to share them with our seed library.
New Non-Fiction
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Bad Men
Meet the most irresistible serial killer of the year . . . Award-winning author Julie Mae Cohen's twisty feminist thriller is lethal and wickedly fun.
"The feminist serial killer you didn't know you were waiting for. Sensational." --Claire Mackintosh, bestselling author of The Last Party
"Silence of the Lambs meets Sex and the City." --Financial Times
Saffy Huntley-Oliver is an intelligent and glamorous socialite; she also happens to be a proficient serial killer. For the past fifteen years, she's hunted down and dispatched rapists, murderers, domestic abusers--bad men all. But leading a double life has left her lonely--dating's tough when your boyfriend might turn out to be your next victim.
Saffy thinks she's finally found a truly good man in Jonathan Desrosiers, a true-crime podcaster who's amassed legions of die-hard fans for cracking cold cases and bringing justice to victims.
When a decapitated body shows up on Jon's doorstep the morning after his wife leaves him, he becomes the chief suspect for a murder he insists he didn't commit. Saffy's crush becomes an obsession as she orchestrates a meet-cute and volunteers to help Jon clear his name, using every trick up her sleeve to find the real killer and get her man--no matter the cost.
Darkly comic and addictively readable, Bad Men is a wild romp of a feminist thriller that asks if even a serial killer can have a happily ever after.
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The Blues Brothers
The story of the epic friendship between John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, the golden era of improv, and the making of a comedic film classic that helped shape our popular culture
"They're not going to catch us," Dan Aykroyd, as Elwood Blues, tells his brother Jake, played by John Belushi. "We're on a mission from God." So opens the musical action comedy The Blues Brothers, which hit theaters on June 20, 1980. Their scripted mission was to save a local Chicago orphanage. But Aykroyd, who conceived and wrote much of the film, had a greater mission: to honor the then-seemingly forgotten tradition of rhythm and blues, some of whose greatest artists--Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles--made the film as unforgettable as its wild car chases. Much delayed and vastly over budget, beset by mercurial and oft drugged-out stars, The Blues Brothers opened to outraged reviews. However, in the 44 years since, it has been acknowledged a classic: it has been inducted into the National Film Registry for its cultural significance, even declared a "Catholic classic" by the Church itself, and re-aired thousands of times on television to huge worldwide audiences. It is, undeniably, one of the most significant films of the twentieth century.
The story behind any classic is rich; the saga behind The Blues Brothers, as Daniel de Visé reveals, is epic, encompassing the colorful childhoods of Belushi and Aykroyd; the comedic revolution sparked by Harvard's Lampoon and Chicago's Second City; the birth and anecdote-rich, drug-filled early years of Saturday Night Live, where the Blues Brothers were born as an act amidst turmoil and rivalry; and, of course, the indelible behind-the-scenes narrative of how the film was made, scene by memorable scene. Based on original research and dozens of interviews probing the memories of principals from director John Landis and producer Bob Weiss to Aykroyd himself, The Blues Brothers illuminates an American masterpiece while vividly portraying the creative geniuses behind modern comedy.
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Normal Women
"Lively, timely and gloriously energetic. Each page bursts with life, and every chapter swirls with personalities left out of traditional narratives of Britain's past. Philippa Gregory has produced something rare and wonderful: a genuinely new history of [Britain], with women at its beating heart." --Dan Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Plantagenets
"You've devoured her novels, but now Gregory shows off chops as a historian. . . . An amazing read." --The Los Angeles Times
The #1 New York Times bestselling historical novelist delivers her magnum opus--a landmark work of feminist nonfiction that radically redefines our understanding of the extraordinary roles ordinary women played throughout British history.
AN INDIE BESTSELLER
Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were protesting a tax on women? Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men, but that they'd evolve to become ever more inferior?
These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory's Normal Women. In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women--some fifty per cent of the population--center stage.
Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers, and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The "normal women" you will meet in these pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things, and rioted. A lot.
A landmark work of scholarship and storytelling, Normal Women chronicles centuries of social and cultural change--from 1066 to modern times--powered by the determination, persistence, and effectiveness of women.
*INCLUDES ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT AND A FULL-COLOR INSERT*
"An expansive, inclusive and elegantly woven nonfiction account of the lives of women in England from the Norman Conquest to the modern day. To describe it as merely a retelling is to undermine a core principle: This is a history of women in England, yes, but it is also a history of England, full stop. . . . At more than 500 pages, with extensive endnotes and a 30-page index, Normal Women is a behemoth you may be inclined to skim, until you realize you're actually luxuriating in every word." --The New York Times
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The Power of Mess
We are taught to hate mess, whether it's an untidy bedroom or a chaotic divorce. But mess is important, because, like it or not, it is a big part of our lives and who we are. Things go wrong all the time and life rarely goes to plan. How do we stop that from being a recurring negative point in our lives, though?
Life is messy, the process of cleansing and healing is hard, and the only way is through. But what if the process of 'sorting through' didn't have to feel as draining as it often does? What if there were a way of resolving life's mess that could set you upon a path of discovering deeper and truer versions of yourself? What if the mess that comes up along the way liberated you into living an integrated, wholesome, blossoming life?
In The Power of Mess Samantha Lourie offers a way of working through the messy aspects of life that develops a sense of resilience and a quiet assurance that we will be okay. She encourages us to own the mess and see our lives as an epic journey where we pick up the pieces along the way and make something authentic out of them. The loss, hurt and mess are still there, but our perception of their place in our lives has changed.
We've dropped the old maps and manuals behind and started paving our own path through the mess. We are empowered because of it. -
Money Talks
A feminist take on financial wellbeing which alleviates financial anxiety in millennials by tackling the areas in life where money and wellbeing intersect.
How can we handle the impact of comparison culture on our bank accounts? Should we want an engagement ring, or is that anti-feminist? How can we say no to events we can’t afford but we feel obliged to attend to please others?
Money has the power to shape, make or even break our lives, and can have a significant impact on our mental health – so why aren’t we treating it as an important part of our wellbeing? In each chapter of this book, financial influencer Ellie Austin-Williams tackles a major area in our life that might bring us financial anxiety, from friendship to love. Topics covered include:- The rise of girl boss culture
- How society has increasingly encouraged women to spend their way to happiness
- The role of privilege, race and class in our pursuit of financial "success"
- Why we feel we have to get ahead of others to be happy
- The impact of social media on our spending habits
- What we learned about work and money from our parents.
Insights from financial experts add to Ellie's own expertise, alongside relatable anecdotes from real people. Each chapter ends with some practical tips and tricks that you can use to empower yourself to improve your financial wellbeing.
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Islas
An intimate reflection on tropical island cooking's bold flavors and big stories, with 125 recipes, from celebrated food writer Von Diaz.
The islands spanning the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans are remarkable places, sharing dozens of ingredients and cooking techniques, including marinating, pickling and fermentation, braising and stewing, frying, grilling and smoking, and steaming and in-ground roasting. Bold flavors drip from the edges of each dish with tastes that represent stories of resistance, persistence, and wisdom passed down from generation to generation.
This narrative cookbook by writer, documentary producer, and author Von Diaz travels across oceans and nations to uplift the shared ancestral cooking techniques of these islands in more than 125 recipes, including intimate profiles of the historical context of each technique, stories from islanders, and step-by-step guides for recreating them at home.
Recipes include:
- Coco Bread from Jamaica
- Arroz con Jueyes (Stewed Crab Rice) from Puerto Rico
- Masikita (Papaya-Marinated Beef Skewers) from Madagascar
- Bebek Betutu (Roasted Duck in Banana Leaf) from Indonesia
- Lechon Kawali (Crispy Fried Pork Belly) from the Philippines
Bright citrus and vinegars, verdant herbs, slow-cooked and smoky grilled meats, fresh seafood, aromatic rice, and earthy root vegetables: These flavors, found in the meals and recipes across these island nations pair remarkably well together, despite distance and cultural differences. The ingredients and deep-rooted cooking techniques in each of these recipes typify the harmonious, synchronous spirit found in each culture's unique cuisines. Even amid environmental chaos and food insecurity, islanders cook in ways that are soul nourishing and flavorful.Islas is about preserving the wisdom, values, and resilience of the people who live in some of the most volatile, vulnerable places on this planet. Each recipe, an archive of strategies for persistence, creativity, and ingenuity, provides a path for cooking delicious food. But above all, these stories and recipes acknowledge that cooking delicious food for others is always a selfless act.
AN AUTHENTIC DEEP DIVE INTO UNDERREPRESENTED FOODWAYS: Amid environmental chaos and food insecurity, and with limited ingredients, islanders cook in ways that are soul nourishing and emphasize flavor. This book expertly and authentically presents the diverse recipes and techniques of the islands of the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans.
DETAILED RECIPES AND FULL-COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS: Each of the techniques and recipes are paired with lots of how-tos and step-by-step guides, including key historical and scientific background to help you master these delicious recipes--from quick pickles to soups, stews, and barbecues--at home.
EXPERT AUTHOR AND A LEADING VOICE: Von Diaz is a celebrated author and seasoned food researcher who has dedicated her life to bringing forth unique food stories and the people behind them.
Perfect for:
- Anyone interested in learning more about AAPI cooking and cuisine
- A great hostess gift or self-purchase for those who enjoy entertaining and exploring food cultures around the world
- An educational and practical resource for sustainable cooking enthusiasts
- Special occasion, holiday, or birthday present for foodies and cookbook collectors
- Those who enjoy Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat; Coconut & Sambal; Cook Real Hawai'i; and Ottolenghi cookbooks
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Container and Small-Space Gardening for the South
Vast flower beds and large summer vegetable gardens are many southern gardeners' pride and joy. But gardening on a large scale isn't--and doesn't need to be--for everyone. In an era when many people would like to grow plants but are challenged by time, space, and lack of other resources, this concise, easy-to-use guide introduces southern gardeners to the art, craft, and science of growing plants in containers and in small spaces. Through friendly, engaging text and beautiful, inspiring photographs, Barbara Ellis demonstrates how to create container and small-space gardens that can withstand southern heat and humidity while still looking gorgeous all season long. Written for gardeners of all ages and experience levels, this book will inspire southerners to add containers brimming with flowers, herbs, vegetables, or a mix of all things green to every yard, garden, and terrace.
- Features plants that everyone can grow throughout the southeast, with suggestions for overwintering tender plants indoors or replacing them annually.
- Covers key plant-care basics, including options on container selection, potting mediums, seasonal care, pest and disease control, and more.
- Identifies plants that support butterflies, hummingbirds, and pollinators.
- Offers comprehensive lists to help readers select the best plant options for their sites and objectives.
- Gives advice for readers on tight budgets and on how to create attractive containers from found materials.
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A History of Women in 101 Objects
Discover the hidden history of women—and the world—through this visual exploration of intimate objects and the surprising, sometimes shocking stories behind them.
“I adored this book!”—Olivia Colman
This is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular: a single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, manifold, and too often overlooked histories of women.
With engaging prose, compelling stories, and a beautiful full-page image of each object, Annabelle Hirsch’s book contains a curated and diverse compendium of women and their things, uncovering the thoughts and feelings at the heart of women’s daily lives. The result is an intimate and stirring alternative history of humans in the world. The objects date from prehistory to today and are assembled chronologically to show the evolution of how women were perceived by others, how they perceived themselves, how they fought for freedom. Some (like a sixteenth-century glass dildo) are objects of female pleasure, some (a thumbscrew) of female subjugation. These are artifacts of women celebrated by history and of women unfairly forgotten by it. With variety and nuance, A History of Women in 101 Objects cracks open the fissures of what we think we know in order to illuminate a much richer retelling: What do handprints on early cave paintings tell us about the role of women in hunting? How is a cell phone related to femicides? What does Kim Kardashian’s diamond ring have to do with Elena Ferrante?
Wide-ranging, subversive, witty, and superbly researched, this is a book that upends all our assumptions about, and presentations of, the past, proving that it has always been as complicated and fascinating as the women who peopled it. -
Millionaire Habits
Transform your financial present and future so you can give back to the people you care about the most
In Millionaire Habits: How to Achieve Financial Independence, Retire Early, and Make a Difference by Focusing on Yourself First, popular personal finance educator Steve Adcock delivers a fun, insightful, and hands-on discussion of how to build financial security, retire early, and give back to the community. You’ll learn to focus on yourself and your family first, creating personal wealth for the purpose of giving back to others.
In the book, the author explains that “saving money” isn’t a goal in and of itself, but rather the end product of the personal wealth equation: Wealth = Income + Investments – Lifestyle. You’ll discover how to pay yourself first with concrete guidance and practical advice drawn from people who built wealth on modest incomes.
You’ll also find:
- Strategies for maintaining your physical and financial fitness so you can maximize the value of your assets
- Ways to turn your existing wealth into even more valuable investments that generate continued, passive income
- Methods to help you retire early and enjoy your financial independence at a young age
Perfect for young professionals, working families, self-employed people, and anyone else seeking to increase their net worth and get more out of life, Millionaire Habits is the intuitive and engaging personal finance roadmap we’ve all been waiting for.
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The Gift of Limitations
"For anyone who struggles with the limits of life--such as time, energy, money, and opportunities--Sara Hagerty eloquently explores The Gift of Limitations as she guides readers to embrace limits as a way to draw closer to God"-- "Are you feeling stretched to your limits and wish those limits weren't there at all? Bestselling author Sara Hagerty asks: "What if your greatest weaknesses--the areas of your life you resent the most, the places where you feel the most overextended and unfulfilled--are your doorway to rich intimacy with God? What if your limitations were, in fact, your greatest gift?"It's all too much. Too much laundry and too many bills. Too many appointments, meetings, and open tabs on our browser. Yet in the midst of so much, we feel deprived. Limited. We make another family dinner while shelving our passion for art. We tend our tiny patch of grass while envying the time our neighbor has to garden. We go to bed exhausted, too tired to enjoy a few minutes with our own thoughts.As a writer, speaker, and mother of seven, Sara Hagerty knows what limitations feel like. Yet she has also seen how the boundaries of our life circumstances can bring about growth and satisfaction we'd never experience otherwise. With the poetic voice, gentle validation, and deep spiritual insights that have made Sara's books so popular, The Gift of Limitations explores how to: Name the limitations that haunt us and how we have unknowingly given them power; Open our eyes to what God can do with the weaknesses we resent; Discover what God's Word says about living within our limitations; Understand what embracing our limits looks like in everyday life; Recognize when we are pushing ourselves too far; Understand how God sees weakness and how He has used it in the lives of great believers; Dream again while remaining tethered to God's best story for us; Release the shame and frustration of our weaknesses. In The Gift of Limitations, you will learn to see the beauty and peace God provides in the midst of our life circumstances--and the deep spiritual growth we can experience through the limitations that we once thought held us back"--
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Meditation for the Real World
"No matter how busy you are, wherever you are, your age, or what you are going through, meditation offers simple, fast relief and can support you in your day-to-day life. Through science-backed, practical and accessible guidance, this book will show you how meditation can work for you. Balm your soul and body with over 75 can-do meditation techniques to build into your daily routine.
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The Serial Killer's Apprentice
"Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. was only fourteen when he first became entangled with serial rapist and murderer Dean Corll in 1971. Fellow Houston, Texas, teenager David Brooks had already been ensnared by the charming older man, bribed with cash to help lure boys to Corll's home. When Henley unwittingly entered the trap, Corll evidently sensed he'd be of more use as a second accomplice than another victim. He baited Henley with the same deal he'd given Brooks: $200 for each boy they could bring him. Henley didn't understand the full extent of what he had signed up for at first. But once he started, Corll convinced him that he had crossed the line of no return and had to not only procure boys but help kill them and dispose of the bodies, as well. When Henley first took a life, he lost his moral base. He felt doomed. By the time he was seventeen, he'd helped with multiple murders and believed he'd be killed, too. But on August 8, 1973, he picked up a gun and shot Corll. When he turned himself in, Henley showed police where he and Brooks had buried Corll's victims in mass graves. Twenty-eight bodies were recovered -- most of them boys from Henley's neighborhood -- making this the worst case of serial murder in America at the time. The case reveals gross failures in the way cops handled parents' pleas to look for their missing sons and how law enforcement possibly protected a larger conspiracy. The Serial Killer's Apprentice tells the story of Corll and his accomplices in its fullest form to date. It also explores the concept of 'mur-dar' (the predator's instinct for exploitable kids), current neuroscience about adolescent brain vulnerabilities, the role of compartmentalization, the dynamic of a murder apprenticeship, and how tales like Henley's can aid with early intervention. Despite his youth and cooperation, Henley went to trial and received six life sentences. He's now sixty-five and has a sense of perspective about how adult predators can turn formerly good kids into criminals. Unexpectedly, he's willing to talk. This book is his warning and the story of the unspeakable evil and sorrow that befell Houston in the early 1970s"-
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Royal Audience
"From the moment she first enchanted the world as a youthful princess, Queen Elizabeth II found a unique place in American hearts-and she also played an unprecedented role in forging transatlantic ties. Over her seventy-year reign, she developed extraordinary and varied personal bonds with thirteen U.S. presidents-Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, both Bush Sr. and Jr., Clinton, Obama, Trump, and Biden-that other diplomats and leaders could only dream of. A fascinating, in-depth look at international relations and interpersonal intrigue, Royal Audience peels back the curtain on the "special relationship" between the U.S. and the U.K. as embodied by the Queen herself-charting Elizabeth II's distinctive brand of one-to-one diplomacy through the eyes of those who experienced it firsthand. From horse-riding with Ronald Reagan, to sharing her recipe for scones with Dwight D. Eisenhower, to striking up a kinship with the Bushes and the Obamas, the Queen's interactions with her U.S. counterparts often acted as a restorative tonic for relations between two nations, even when political tensions ran high. Not all royal encounters with U.S. presidents went smoothly, though. Between Jackie Kennedy's complaints about Elizabeth and the Queen Mother's shock at being kissed on the lips by Jimmy Carter, there was never a dull moment. Throughout the years, Queen Elizabeth II's sense of duty and service remained steadfast, and her iconic legacy is unlikely to be repeated"--
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Indulge
Beloved actress and New York Times bestselling author Valerie Bertinelli returns with her most indulgent cookbook yet; a collection of 100 recipes to nourish the body and the soul.
in·dulge: to allow oneself to enjoy the pleasure of.
When Valerie Bertinelli turned 60, she said “Enough already!” and ended her battle with the scale for good. She stopped counting calories. She stopped thinking of certain foods as good or bad. She quit saying no and began saying yes, finally learning how to enjoy the pure pleasure of being alive – starting in the kitchen.
In short, she learned how to indulge.
With this gorgeous cookbook, Valerie shares her secrets for indulging so you can start living your best, most fulfilling life too. Whether it’s splurging on fresh produce at the farmer’s market, cooking an extravagant steak dinner for one, or serving an ice cream sundae bar at a dinner party, this book is a reminder that indulging can take many shapes and forms.
You’ll discover the delicious recipes she cooks for her friends and family, including favorites like Garlic Confit BLT, Oven “Fried” Okra, Sausage and Olive Cheese Bites, Spaghetti al Limone, Salmon Burgers With Quick-Pickled Vegetables, Filet Mignon with Béarnaise Sauce and Chocolate Peanut Butter Dates, and more.
Written in Valerie’s warmhearted and intimate style—including heartfelt essays about how to savor moments big and small—this cookbook is a permission slip to enjoy food, and more importantly, enjoy life.
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Family Unfriendly
"Washington Examiner columnist Timothy P. Carney explains why parenting is harder and children are less happy than a generation ago"--
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The Art of Playful Lettering
"This comprehensive guide from professional lettering artist Dawn Nicole Warnaar, perfect for beginners and experienced lettering artists alike, begins with three foundational lettering styles and then expands to 10 playful variations. Each style comes complete with a full alphabet of letters, detailed instructions, tracing practice, and creative worksheets. But that's not all! Dawn also includes lessons showing how to embellish your lettering with cute elements to creative expressive word art"
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The Cookie That Changed My Life
"A cookbook full of Nancy Silverton's staple baking recipes"-- Biting into a particularly delicious peanut butter cookie, Silverton had an epiphany: everything-- sweet or savory-- should taste this good. She set to work perfecting the rest of the American baking cannon. Here she shares recipes for the platonic ideals of our most beloved baked goods. From buttermilk biscuits to key lime pie, her recipes are sure to become fixtures of everyone's pastry repertoire. -- adapted from inside front cover
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How to Walk Into a Room
A Podcast host, spiritual director and best-selling author offers guidance to help readers recognize when to leave situations that are no longer useful, including how to navigate endings without closure and differentiate between peace and discomfort avoidance.
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The Amish Wife
"In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner's report: natural causes. Ida's husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed. What really happened to Ida? The dubious circumstances of the tragic blaze were willfully ignored and Eli's shifting narratives disregarded. Could Eli's subsequent cross-country journey of death--including that of his own son--have been prevented if just one person came forward with what they knew about the real Eli Stutzman? The questions haunted Gregg Olsen and Ida's brother Daniel Gingerich for decades. At Daniel's urging, Olsen now returns to Amish Country and to Eli's crimes first exposed in Olsen's Abandoned Prayers, one of which has remained a mystery until now. With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth--about Ida's murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that kept it hidden for forty-five years"--
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The Design of Books
"Of all the aspects of making a book, design is perhaps the most mysterious. Authors and readers surely realize that covers are designed objects that, like it or not, books are commonly judged by. But a book's interior is also the product of a designer's careful attention to such matters as where the page numbers go or how wide the margins are. Even publishing professionals-editors, agents, marketing staff-often have only the vaguest idea of how designers use type, color, space, and other elements to turn manuscripts into visually distinctive and compelling books. This is the first book that explains what designers do for the benefit of all the "word people" involved in making (and enjoying) books. By demystifying how she and her fellow design professionals approach their tasks, Debbie Berne seeks to make authors and publishing colleagues informed partners in design decisions and to ensure the process is collaborative from start to finish. She considers self-published as well as traditionally published authors in her advice. And along the way, she offers delightful reflections on how each part of a book functions and how they ideally come together as a package for the ultimate benefit of the reader"--
New Fiction
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A Novel Love Story
Most Anticipated by Parade · Buzzfeed · Harper’s Bazaar · Elle · She Reads · The Seattle Times · BookRiot and more!
A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction…literally, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Year Slip and The Dead Romantics.
Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.
But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…
Because it is.
This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.
Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.
Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.
Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own. -
The Book of Thorns
"Betrayal, loss, love, redemption, and justice collide in this masterpiece of a novel. You won't want to miss The Book of Thorns." --Paulette Kennedy, author of The Devil and Mrs. Davenport
A spellbinding tale of secrets, betrayal, and magic from the author of The Heir to Blackwood Library!
Penniless and stranded in France after a bid to escape her cruel uncle goes awry, Cornelia Shaw is far from the Parisian life of leisure she imagined. Desperate and out of options, she allows herself to be recruited to Napoleon's Grande Armée. As a naturalist, her mysterious ability to heal any wound with herbal mixtures invites awe amongst the soldiers...and suspicion. For behind Cornelia's vast knowledge of the natural world is a secret she keeps hidden--the flowers speak to her through a mystical connection she has felt since childhood. One that her mother taught her to heed, before she disappeared.
As Napoleon's army descends on Waterloo, the flowers sing to her of a startling revelation: a girl who bears a striking resemblance to Cornelia. A girl she almost remembers--her sister, lost long ago, who seems to share the same gifts. Determined to reunite with Lijsbeth despite being on opposite sides of the war, Cornelia is drawn into a whirlwind of betrayal, secrets, and lies. Brought together by fate and magic at the peak of the war, the sisters must uncover the key to the source of the power that connects them as accusations of witchcraft swirl and threaten to destroy their very lives.
Look for these other gothic mysteries from Hester Fox:
- The Last Heir to Blackwood Library
- The Witch of Willow Hall
- The Orphan of Cemetery Hill
- The Widow of Pale Harbor
- A Lullaby for Witches
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North Woods
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR
A WASHINGTON POST TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries—“a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic” (The Washington Post) from the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Piano Tuner and The Winter Soldier.
“With the expansiveness and immersive feeling of two-time Booker Prize nominee David Mitchell’s fiction (Cloud Atlas), the wicked creepiness of Edgar Allan Poe, and Mason’s bone-deep knowledge of and appreciation for the natural world that’s on par with that of Thoreau, North Woods fires on all cylinders.”—San Francisco Chronicle
New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, The Boston Globe, NPR, Chicago Public Library, The Star Tribune, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor, Real Simple, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Bookreporter
When two young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and nonhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to growing apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths an ancient mass grave—only to discover that the earth refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister con man, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle: As the inhabitants confront the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
This magisterial and highly inventive novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason brims with love and madness, humor and hope. Following the cycles of history, nature, and even language, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment, to history, and to one another. It is not just an unforgettable novel about secrets and destinies, but a way of looking at the world that asks the timeless question: How do we live on, even after we’re gone? -
An Inconvenient Wife
This astonishing crime novel—inspired by the Tudor era—takes the reader into the world of Kate Parker, who has just married billionaire Hank Tudor when a headless body is discovered near their summer home . . .
Kate Parker knows what she’s getting into when she marries billionaire businessman Hank Tudor—she’s his sixth wife, after all, and was by his side (as his assistant) when his fifth marriage to actress Caitlyn Howard fell apart.
But honeymoon plans go awry when a headless body is discovered near Hank’s summer home, forcing Kate to contend with two more of his exes: Catherine Alvarez—the first—who lives as a shut-in with her computers, carefully following Tudor Enterprises; and Anna Klein—the fourth—who runs a bed-and-breakfast where she and her wife keep a steady eye on things—particularly Hank’s children, Lizzie and Teddy.
In this clever and suspenseful reimagining of Tudor era betrayals, these three women become entwined in a deadly game of cat and mouse—with each other, Hank, and Hank’s brilliant fixer, Tom Cromwell—as Kate seeks to solve the puzzle of who the murdered woman is, who killed her, and whether her death has any connection to the other headless body from eight years ago. -
Mother Doll
* A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 Selected By * The Millions * Chicago Review of Books * Hey Alma * Stylecaster * And Many More! *
Prize-winning author Katya Apekina's Mother Doll is a sharp and visceral nesting doll of a novel, about four generations of mothers and daughters and the inherited trauma cast by Russian history.
"A profoundly moving story . . . Strange, wild, offbeat, and hilarious. I absolutely loved it." --Lauren Groff
"Spellbinding, hallucinatory, and very funny . . . A rare achievement." --Elif Batuman
Zhenia is adrift in Los Angeles, pregnant with a baby her husband doesn't want, while her Russian grandmother and favorite person in the world is dying on the opposite coast. She's deeply disconnected from herself and her desires when she gets a strange call from Paul, a psychic medium who usually specializes in channeling dead pets, with a message from the other side. Zhenia's great-grandmother Irina, a Russian Revolutionary, has approached him from a cloud of ancestral grief, desperate to tell her story and receive absolution from Zhenia.
As Irina begins her confession with the help of a purgatorial chorus of grieving Russian ghosts, Zhenia awakens to aspects of herself she hadn't been willing to confront. But does either woman have what the other needs to understand their predicament? Or will Irina be stuck in limbo, with Zhenia plagued by ancestral trauma, and her children after her?
Ferociously funny and deeply moving, Mother Doll forces us to look at how painful secrets stamp themselves from one generation to the next. Katya Apekina's second novel is a family epic and a meditation on motherhood, immigration, identity, and war. -
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
A Most-Anticipated Book of 2024: LitHub, Polygon, Apple, Goodreads
⭐ "Wiswell raises the bar on the outcast as protagonist . . . the ultimate monster slayer story, if the monster is just a misunderstood creature searching for love.” — Kristi Chadwick, Library Journal (starred review)
Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell
Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love.
Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.
However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.
Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?
Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.
And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life. -
Real Americans
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA’S MAY BOOK CLUB PICK • From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures?
"Mesmerizing"—Brit Bennett • "A page turner.”—Ha Jin • “Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft"—Andrew Sean Greer • "Traverses time with verve and feeling."—Raven LeilaniReal Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.
In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.
In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.
Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made? And if we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome? -
A Girl Called Samson
"In 1760, Deborah Samson is born to Puritan parents in Plympton, Massachusetts. When her father abandons the family and her mother is unable to support them, Deborah is bound out as an indentured servant. From that moment on, she yearns for a life of liberation and adventure. Twenty years later, as the American colonies begin to buckle in their battle for independence, Deborah, impassioned by the cause, disguises herself as a soldier and enlists in the Continental army. Her impressive height and lanky build make her transformation a convincing one, and it isn't long before she finds herself confronting the horrors of war head-on. But as Deborah fights for her country's freedom, she must contend with the secret of who she is - and, ultimately, a surprising love she can't deny" --
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James
"From Percival Everett-a recipient of the NBCC Lifetime Achievement Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize, and numerous PEN awards-comes James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river's banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin...), Jim's agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light. Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a "cult literary icon" (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature"--
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Still See You Everywhere
"No man truly fears a woman. Not even one who is her father's daughter. The case was sensational. Kaylee Pierson had confessed from the very beginning, waived all appeals. She had called herself "death," but people called her the devil. Despite the media's chronicling of her tragic circumstances-the childhood spent with a violent father-no one could find sympathy for "the Beautiful Butcher" who had led eighteen men home from bars before viciously slitting their throats. Now, with only twenty-one days left to live, Pierson has finally received a lead on the whereabouts of the sister who was kidnapped over a decade ago, and she needs Frankie's help to find her. The Beautiful Butcher's offer: When was the last time your search ended with finding the living? Unable to resist the chance for a rescue, Frankie takes on Pierson's request. Twelve years ago, five-year old Leilani went missing in Hawaii. The main suspect? Pierson's tech mogul ex-boyfriend, Sanders MacManus. Now, on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific-the site of MacManus's latest vanity project-fresh evidence has appeared. In order to learn the truth and possibly save a young woman's life, Frankie must go undercover at the isolated base camp. Her challenge: A dozen strangers. Countless dangerous secrets. Zero means of calling for help. And then the storm rolls in..."--
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Every Single Secret
"In an isolated lighthouse on the California coast, Rowan Winterbourne lives a solitary life with only her secrets for company. For she has a mission that drives her -- to avenge herself against Gregory Torval, the powerful drug and arms dealer who murdered her mother and vowed to eliminate everyone in her family. Then Joe Grantham arrives at her door and, for the first time, Rowan lets her guard down -- a dangerous mistake when he blackmails her to go with him to Torval's private island. There Torval's decadent birthday celebration rages, and while Joe pursues his own agenda, she'll provide the perfect distraction. On Raptor Island, Torval's will is law and Joe, the closest she has to an ally, is an enigma she can't trust. One false move, one careless word, and Rowan will die. As dark truths are uncovered, one by one, Rowan recognizes her last chance for the revenge has come. But is it worth everything she must sacrifice to get out alive?"--
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Can't We Be Friends
"One woman was recognized as the premiere singer of her era with perfect pitch and tireless ambition. One woman was the most glamorous star in Hollywood, a sex symbol who took the world by storm. And their friendship was fast and firm... 1952: Ella Fitzgerald is a renowned jazz singer whose only roadblock to longevity is society's attitude toward women and race. Marilyn Monroe's star is rising despite ongoing battles with movie studio bigwigs and boyfriends. When she needs help with her singing, she wants only the best-and the best is the brilliant Ella Fitzgerald. But Ella isn't a singing teacher and declines-then the two women meet, and to everyone's surprise but their own, they become fast friends. On the surface, what could they have in common? Yet each was underestimated by the men in their lives-husbands, managers, hangers-on. And both were determined to gain. Each fought for professional independence and personal agency in a time when women were expected to surrender control to those same men. This novel reveals and celebrates their surprising bond over a decade and serves as a poignant reminder of how true friendship can cross differences to bolster and sustain us through haunting heartbreak and wild success"--
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The Extinction of Irena Rey
From the International Booker Prize–winning translator and Women's Prize finalist, a propulsive, beguiling novel about eight translators and their search for a world-renowned author who goes missing in a primeval Polish forest.
Eight translators arrive at a house in a forest on the border of Belarus. It belongs to the world-renowned author Irena Rey, and they are there to translate her magnum opus, Gray Eminence. But within days of their arrival, Irena disappears without a trace.
The translators, who hail from eight different countries but share the same reverence for their beloved author, begin to investigate where she may have gone while proceeding with work on her masterpiece. They explore this ancient wooded refuge with its intoxicating slime molds and lichens, and study her exotic belongings and layered texts for clues. But doing so reveals secrets — and deceptions — of Irena Rey's that they are utterly unprepared for. Forced to face their differences as they grow increasingly paranoid in this fever dream of isolation and obsession, soon the translators are tangled up in a web of rivalries and desire, threatening not only their work but the fate of their beloved author herself.
This hilarious, thought-provoking second outing by award-winning translator and author Jennifer Croft is a brilliant examination of art, celebrity, the natural world, and the power of language. It is an unforgettable, unputdownable adventure with a small but global cast of characters shaken by the shocks of love, destruction, and creation in one of Europe’s last great wildernesses. -
The Unquiet Bones
"When human bones are found beneath an old chapel in the woods, evidence suggests the remains could be linked to the decades-old case of missing teen Annalise Jansen. Homicide detective Jane Munro -- pregnant and acutely attuned to the preciousness of life -- hopes the grim discovery will finally bring closure to the girl's family. But for a group of Annalise's old friends, once dubbed the Shoreview Six by the media, it threatens to expose a terrible pledge made on an autumn night forty-seven years ago. The friends are now highly respected, affluent members of their communities, and none of them ever expected the dark chapter in their past to resurface. But as Jane and forensic anthropologist Dr. Ella Quinn peel back the layers of secrets, the group begins to fracture. Will one cave? Will they turn on each other? The investigation takes a sharp turn when Jane discovers a second body, that of the boy long blamed for Annalise's disappearance. As the bones tell their story, the group learns just how far each will go to guard their own truth."
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A Grave Robbery
"Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Tussaud's. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes a gruesome discovery: this is no wax figure. The mannequin is the beautifully preserved body of a young woman who was once very much alive. But who would do such a dreadful thing, and why? Sleuthing out the answer to this question sets Veronica and Stoker on their wildest adventure yet. From the underground laboratories of scientists experimenting with electricity to resurrect the dead in the vein of Frankenstein to the traveling show where Stoker once toured as an attraction, the gaslit atmosphere of London in October is the perfect setting for this investigation into the unknown. Through it all, the intrepid pair is always one step behind the latest villain--a man who has killed once and will stop at nothing to recover the body of the woman he loved. Will they unmask him in time to save his next victim? Or will they become the latest figures to be immortalized in his collection of horrors?"--
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In the Shadow of the Greenbrier
"Nestled in the hills of West Virginia lies White Sulphur Springs, home to the Greenbrier Resort. Long a playground for presidents and film stars, the Greenbrier has its own gravitational pull. Over ten decades, four generations of the Zelner family must grapple with their place in its shadow . . . and within their own family. In 1942, young mother Sylvia is desperate to escape her stifling marriage, especially when it means co-running Zelner's general store with her husband. When the Greenbrier is commandeered for use as a luxury prison, Sylvia finds her fidelity strained and her heart on the line. Seventeen years later, Sylvia's daughter, Doree, struggles to fit in, eagerly awaiting the day she'll leave for college and meet a nice Jewish boy. But when a handsome stranger comes to town and her brother Alan's curiosity puts him and Sylvia at risk, Doree is torn between loyalty and desire. An immersive family saga rich with historical detail, In the Shadow of the Greenbrier explores the inevitable clash between past and future and the extraordinary moments in ordinary lives"--
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Glorious Exploits
"Set in Syracuse, Sicily, during the Peloponnesian War but told in contemporary Irish dialect, Glorious Exploits follows Lampo and Gelon, best friends since childhood. Thrilled to have survived the Athenians' recent invasion and as shocked by the Syracusan victory as everyone else, these unemployed potters are in a mood to celebrate. Of course, they hate the Athenians. Still, that doesn't mean you can't love the theatre of their great playwright Euripides, does it? Realizing that if the Athenians are as doomed as everyone says, this might be their last chance to hear Euripides's poetry, they go down to the quarry where the Athenian prisoners are being held and offer extra rations to any prisoner who can recite his work, a decision that sets into motion an extraordinary series of events. A novel that asks big questions about war and its aftermath, Glorious Exploits is a story as hopeful and playful as it is tragic"--
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The Haunting of Velkwood
"From Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a chilling novel about three childhood friends who miraculously survive the night everyone in their suburban neighborhood turned into ghosts—perfect for fans of Yellowjackets.
The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared behind a near-impenetrable veil that only three survivors could enter—and only one has in the past twenty years, until now.
Talitha Velkwood has avoided anything to do with the tragedy that took her mother and eight-year-old sister, drifting from one job to another, never settling anywhere or with anyone, feeling as trapped by her past as if she was still there in the small town she so desperately wanted to escape from. When a new researcher tracks her down and offers to pay her to come back to enter the vicinity, Talitha claims she’s just doing it for the money. Of all the crackpot theories over the years, no one has discovered what happened the night Talitha, her estranged, former best friend Brett, and Grace, escaped their homes twenty years ago. Will she finally get the answers she’s been looking for all these years, or is this just another dead end?
Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste has created a suburban ghost story about a small town that trapped three young women who must confront the past if they’re going to have a future." -
Three Kinds of Lucky
"Petra Grady has known since adolescence that she has no talent for magic-and that's never going to change. But as a sweeper first-class, she's parlayed her rare ability to handle dross--the damaging, magical waste generated by her more talented kin's spellwork--into a decent life working at the mages' university. Except Grady's relatively predictable life is about to be upended. When the oblivious, sexy, and oh-so-out-of-reach Benedict Strom needs someone with her abilities for a research project studying dross and how to render it harmless, she's stuck working on his team-whether she wants to or not. Only Benedict doesn't understand the characteristics of dross like Grady does. After an unthinkable accident, she and Benedict are forced to go on the run to seek out the one person who might be able to help: an outcast exiled ten years ago for the crime of using dross to cast spells. Now Grady must decide whether to stick with the magical status quo or embrace her own hidden talents . . . and risk shattering their entire world."--
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The #1 Lawyer
Stafford Lee Penney is a small-town lawyer with a big-time reputation for winning every case he tries. In his sharp suits and polished Oxford shoes, Penney is Biloxi, Mississippi's #1 Lawyer and top local celebrity. Just as Penney notches his latest courtroom victory, his wife is scandalously killed. He spirals into a legal and personal losing streak, damaging his reputation and ruining his career. That's when Penney makes a bold decision. He stops trading on his power-lawyer identity and creates a new one: lawyer lifeguard. Moonlighting at the beach, showing up to court in flip-flops, mentoring a law student, the new Penney is at first unrecognizable. It's said that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. But when Penney is accused of murder, the #1 Lawyer will find a way to triumph.