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Adult

by Lev AC Rosen - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene’s recipes for her signature scents are a well-guarded secret, but it's not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they've needed to keep others out. And now they're worried they're keeping a murderer in. Irene’s widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired from the San Francisco police after being caught in a raid on a gay bar, is happy to accept. However, he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge and jealousy --- and Irene’s death is only the beginning.

by Margaret Sullivan - Memoir, Nonfiction

In NEWSROOM CONFIDENTIAL, Margaret Sullivan chronicles her years in the trenches battling sexism and throwing elbows in a highly competitive newsroom. In 2012, Sullivan was appointed the public editor of the New York Times, the first woman to hold that important role. She was in the unique position of acting on behalf of readers to weigh the actions and reporting of the paper's staff, parsing potential lapses in judgment, unethical practices and thorny journalistic issues. Sullivan recounts how she navigated the paper’s controversies, from Hillary Clinton's emails to the need for greater diversity in the newsroom. In 2016, Sullivan left for the Washington Post, where she had a front-row seat to the rise of Donald Trump in American media and politics.

by Alan Moore - Fiction, Short Stories

In his first-ever short story collection, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different characters who discover --- and in some cases even make and unmake --- the various uncharted parts of existence. In "A Hypothetical Lizard," two concubines in a brothel of fantastical specialists fall in love with tragic ramifications. In "Not Even Legend," a paranormal study group is infiltrated by one of the otherworldly beings they seek to investigate. In "Illuminations," a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the novella "What We Can Know About Thunderman," Moore charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry's major players over the last 75 years.

by David Rosenfelt - Fiction, Mystery

Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his golden retriever, Tara, are surrounded by holiday cheer. It’s even spread to the Tara Foundation. The dog rescue organization, not used to having puppies, has their hands full with a recent litter. Eight puppies are a lot to handle, and Andy is relieved when his co-worker, Chris Myers, agrees to foster them. Myers, a newer employee at the Tara Foundation, did time for a crime he swears he didn’t commit. When Myers discovers a key witness against him lied on the stand, he goes to Andy to ask for representation in getting the conviction overturned. Myers thinks they can have this wrapped up by Christmas. But when the witness is murdered, and Myers is arrested for the crime, things go from bad to worse.

written by Nicolás Ferraro, translated by Mallory N. Craig-Kuhn - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Tomás Cruz swore he would never be like his father, an abusive cocaine junkie whose gangland exploits are notorious throughout the underbelly of northern Argentina. When Samuel Cruz is sentenced to 13 years in prison, he leaves a laundry list of unfinished cartel business. Seba, Tomás’ revered older brother, has no choice but to abandon his straight life and take over his father’s underworld debt. Now 15 years has passed, Seba has been arrested, and the ruthless cartel boss is holding his wife and daughter as collateral --- just in time for the holidays. Tomás is forced to choose between protecting his family and his soul as he assumes the to-do list where Seba left off, plunging into the shocking depravity of the cartel to track a drug deal gone wrong.

by Lee Child and Andrew Child - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In Gerrardsville, Colorado, a woman dies under the wheels of a moving bus. The death is ruled a suicide. But Jack Reacher saw what really happened: A man in a gray hoodie and jeans, moving stealthily, pushed the victim to her demise --- before swiftly grabbing the dead woman’s purse and strolling away. When another homicide is ruled an accident, Reacher knows this is no coincidence. With a killer on the loose, Reacher has no time to waste to track down those responsible. But Reacher is unaware that these crimes are part of something much larger and more far-reaching: an arsonist out for revenge, a foster kid on the run, a cabal of powerful people involved in a secret conspiracy with many moving parts.

by Jon Meacham - Biography, History, Nonfiction

Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents --- a remote icon --- or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln --- an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.

by Siddhartha Mukherjee - History, Medicine, Nonfiction

In the late 1600s, a distinguished English polymath, Robert Hooke, and an eccentric Dutch cloth-merchant, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, looked down their handmade microscopes. What they saw introduced a radical concept that swept through biology and medicine, touching virtually every aspect of the two sciences and altering both forever. It was the fact that complex living organisms are assemblages of tiny, self-contained, self-regulating units. Our organs, our physiology, our selves --- hearts, blood, brains --- are built from these compartments. Hooke christened them “cells.” In THE SONG OF THE CELL, Siddhartha Mukherjee tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans.

by Catherine Steadman - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Harriet Reed, a novelist on the brink of literary stardom, is newly engaged to Edward Holbeck, the heir of an extremely powerful family. And even though Edward has long tried to sever ties with them, news of the couple’s marital bliss has the Holbecks inching back into their lives. As Harriet is drawn into their lavish world, the family seems perfectly welcoming. So when Edward’s father, Robert, hands Harriet a tape of a book he’s been working on, she is desperate to listen. But as she presses play, it’s clear that this isn’t just a novel. It’s a confession. A confession to a grisly crime. A murder. And, suddenly, the game is in motion. Feeling isolated and confused, Harriet must work out if this is part of a plan to test her loyalty. Or something far darker.

by John Irving - Fiction

In Aspen, Colorado, in 1941, Rachel Brewster is a slalom skier at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she manages to get pregnant. Back home, in New England, Little Ray becomes a ski instructor. Her son, Adam, grows up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past. Years later, looking for answers, Adam will go to Aspen. In the Hotel Jerome, where he was conceived, Adam will meet some ghosts. In THE LAST CHAIRLIFT, they aren’t the first or the last ghosts he sees.