Tuesday, December 24, 2019

New Books in Biography

BIOGRAPHY
Reading about other people, those in modern times or those from the past, can always be interesting. We have one of each of those categories added to our collection this month.

Image result for Catherine the Great: last empress of Russia by Michael W. Simmons Born an obscure German princess who suffered under the control of a domineering, narcissistic mother, the fourteen-year-old Princess Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst seemed to be destined for a minor marriage and a forgettable career. Destiny had other plans for her: summoned to Russia, then considered by most Europeans to be a vast, primitive wasteland, devoid of culture or sophistication, she became the Grand Duchess Ekaterina, wife of the future emperor Peter III.

What followed her short, unhappy marriage was a legendary rise to supreme power. At the age of 33, the Grand Duchess Catherine became the Empress Catherine II, ruler in her own right of the largest empire on earth.

In this book, you will learn how, during Catherine’s lonely years as a neglected wife in the court of the Empress Elisabeth, she bided her time and amassed the necessary political and military support to overthrow the heir to the Romanov dynasty and seize his throne. You will also learn why, over the course of her 34-year reign, which saw rebellions, foreign wars, popular uprisings, and a string of jealous lovers vying for her favor, she came to be remembered by history under the name conferred upon her by her own people: Catherine the Great.
Life is magic by Jon Dorenbos    

Image result for Life is magic by Jon Dorenbos
               You might recognize him as an NFL All-Pro or as an elite magician who made the finals of Amer­ica’s Got Talent and regularly appears on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. But Jon Dorenbos says that what he does is not who he is. Who he is, is someone forced, at the most tender of ages, to coach himself into turning tragedy to triumph.

One morning in August 1992, when Jon was twelve years old and living a seemingly idyllic childhood in suburban Seattle, he woke up for baseball camp. His dad waved good-bye. Later that day, Jon heard the news: his father had murdered his mother in the family’s three-car garage. In an instant, his life had shattered. He’d been essentially orphaned.
Thrust into foster care while his father stood trial for murder, Jon struggled.

Left to himself, he discovered an unlikely escape performing magic tricks. If you found a way to alter your reality after your dad—your hero—killed your mom, wouldn’t you cling to it too? Then came football, which provided a release for all of Jon’s pent-up anger. Together, magic and football saved him, leading to fourteen NFL seasons on the gridiron and raucous sleight-of-hand perfor­mances to packed houses across the globe.

In 2017, after being traded to the New Orleans Saints, Jon was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition. He had a choice: break down, or—as he’d long by now taught himself—bounce back. “Talk to yourself, don’t listen to yourself,” Dorenbos advises for those moments when the inner voice of self-doubt screams.

Monday, December 23, 2019

New CD-Books at the Library


New in our CD-Books!
We have added to our CD-Books! Great offerings for our patrons that enjoy listening to books instead of reading. Perfect for the commuter or on the road traveler.

The Guy Who Died Twice: A Detective D.D. Warren Story by Lia Gardner (CD book)

The Guy Who Died Twice               Sergeant Detective D. D. Warren confronts the strangest case of her career in this exclusive eBook short story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner. A USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller! D. D. Warren was pretty sure she'd seen it all. Then a man walks into police headquarters, attempting desperately to convince the squad that he's dead. Explaining to him that he's very much alive, they finally send him on his way...and then hours later, he turns up actually dead. And it's on D. D. Warren to figure out how and why the dead man died...twice.
The Notebook by Nicolas Sparks (CD)

Image result for The Notebook by Nicolas Sparks cd               In 1932, two North Carolina teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love. Spending one idyllic summer together in the small town of New Bern, Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson do not meet again for 14 years. Noah has returned from WWII to restore the house of his dreams, having inherited a large sum of money. Allie, programmed by family and the "caste system of the South" to marry an ambitious, prosperous man, has become engaged to powerful attorney Lon Hammond. When she reads a newspaper story about Noah's restoration project, she shows up on his porch step, re-entering his life for two days. Will Allie leave Lon for Noah?


The House Husband by James Patterson (CD)

Image result for The House Husband by James Patterson (CD)               Darien Marshall is the best dad, the best husband...well, maybe not. Detective Teaghan Beaumont is getting closer and closer to discovering the truth about Darien Marshall. But there's a twist that she--and you, dear reader--will never see coming.



              DEEP DOWN - Jack Reacher must track down a spy in soldier’s clothing—by matching wits with four formidable females. Three are clean—but the fourth may prove fatal.
 Summoned by Military Intelligence to Washington, D.C., Reacher is sent undercover. The assignment: The army is meeting with its Capitol Hill paymasters for classified talks on a new sniper rifle for U.S. forces. But vital details about the weapon are leaking—straight from the Capitol and probably into the hands of unidentified foreign arms dealers. That’s where Reacher comes in. His task: infiltrate the top-secret proceedings and smoke out the mole. His target: a quartet of high-powered Army political liaison officers—all of them fast-track women on their way to the top. According to his bosses, it’s a zero-danger mission. But Reacher knows that things are rarely what they seem. And he’s learned the hard way never to underestimate an opponent. Or four.

SECOND SON - A young Jack Reacher knows how to finish a fight so it stays finished. And, in one of his earliest challenges, he knows that his analytical brain is just as important as his impressive brawn.
 Okinawa, 1974. Even at thirteen, Jack Reacher knows how to outwit and overpower anyone who stands in his way. His family has come to the Pacific with his father, who’s preparing for a top-secret Marine Corps operation. After receiving a rude welcome from the local military brats, Reacher and his older brother intend to teach them a lesson they won’t forget. But it’s soon clear that there’s more at stake than pride. When his family’s future appears to come crumbling down, it’s the youngest Reacher who rises to the occasion with all the decisive cunning and bravura that will one day be his deadly trademark.

HIGH HEAT - In the midst of a savage heat wave and an infamous murder spree, a blackout awakens the dark side of the city that never sleeps—and a young Jack Reacher takes action as only he can.
 July 1977. Jack Reacher is almost seventeen, and he stops in New York City on the way to visit his brother at West Point. The summer heat is suffocating, the city is bankrupt, and the mad gunman known as Son of Sam is still on the loose. Reacher meets a woman with a problem and agrees to help her . . . but then the power grid fails, and the lights go out, plunging the lawless city into chaos. What does a visiting teenager do in the dark? If that visiting teenager is Jack Reacher, the answer is plenty.

JACK REACHER'S RULES - Jack Reacher’s Rules is the ultimate fan’s guide to the World of Reacher! Featuring selections from all seventeen electrifying Jack Reacher novels and an introduction from Lee Child himself, this one-of-a-kind audiobook compiles timeless advice from maverick former army cop Jack Reacher.



              
MIDNIGHT IN DEATH – Eve’s name has made a Christmas list, but it’s not for being naughty or nice. It’s for putting a serial killer behind bars. Now the escaped madman has her in his sights. With her husband, Roarke, at her side, Eve must stop the man from exacting his bloody vengeance—or die trying…

INTERLUDE IN DEATH – In early spring of 2059, Lieutenant Eve Dallas is called off planet to face a grueling ordeal – giving a seminar at the largest police conference of the year, to be held in a swanky resort. A resort which just happens to be owned by her husband, Roarke, of course.
Even though Eve can’t quite see it that way, it’s supposed to be at least partly a vacation. But work intrudes in the form of a bloody homicide, and Eve is off and running. The case is complicated by Eve’s personal history with the victim – and by the killer’s history with Roarke. As danger closes in and the body count rises, Eve must find a way to stop the cycle of violence and revenge and shove the past back where it belongs.

HAUNTED IN DEATH – Number 12 is an urban legend in 2060 New York City. The hot club in the 1960s, it is now reported to be haunted…and cursed. Lieutenant Eve Dallas is called there to investigate the apparent murder of Radcliff Hopkins, its new owner and the grandson of the man who made Number 12 a cultural icon. Several bullets from a banned gun end his dream of returning the building to its former glory.
With everyone around her talking about the supernatural, pragmatic Eve won’t let rumors of ghosts distract her from hard evidence. The case becomes even more bizarre when it appears to be linked to the suspicious disappearance of a rock star eighty-five years ago. As Eve searches for the connection, logic clashes with the unexplainable. She may be forced to face the threat of something more dangerous than a flesh-and-blood killer.

Backlash by Lisa Jackson (CD)

 
              The ranch country of Montana is beautiful, unforgiving, and for Colton and Denver McLean, filled with a whole lot of bad memories. It’s been seven years since a fire claimed their parents’ lives and drove both brothers away. Now their uncle’s death has brought them back to a place where loyalty and love runs deep—but so do grudges.
Suspicion still swirls about what caused that tragic fire. It created a rift between Denver and the foreman’s daughter, Tessa Kramer. Now Tessa hopes to buy the ranch, if Denver and Colton will agree to sell, but the property is beset by problems. A prized stallion disappears. Other horses start falling sick. Someone seems determined to disrupt—or destroy—the McLean family’s legacy by any means necessary. And finding answers will turn this homecoming into a time of reckoning with enemies past and present . . .

You Don't Own Me by Mary Higgins Clark (CD)

Television producer Laurie Moran recently became engaged to her investigative television show’s former host, Alex Buckley, and since then, the two have been happily planning a summer wedding, preparing for Alex’s confirmation to a federal judicial appointment, and searching for the perfect New York City home for their new life together.
But then Laurie is approached by Robert and Cynthia Bell, parents of Dr. Martin Bell, a physician who was shot dead as he pulled into the driveway of his Greenwich Village carriage house five years ago. The Bells are sure that Martin’s disgraced and erratic wife, Kendra, carried out the murder. Determined to prove Kendra’s guilt and win custody over their grandchildren, they plead with Laurie to feature their son’s case on Under Suspicion, ensuring her that Kendra is willing to cooperate.
As Laurie dives into the case, she learns that Martin wasn’t the picture-perfect husband, father, and doctor he appeared to be and was carrying secrets of his own. And what does the web of lies ensnaring the Bell family have to do with a dangerous stranger, who gazes at Laurie from afar and thinks, She is actually quite a lovely girl, I’m sure she’s going to be missed…?

Hostage by Robert Crais (CD)


              
Jeff Talley was a good husband, a fine father, and a frontline negotiator with LAPD's SWAT unit. But the high stress, unforgiving job took an irreparable toll on his psyche. After a despondent father murders his wife and son and takes his own life, Talley hits bottom. His marriage ends, he resigns from SWAT, and he struggles to escape from his former life by taking the chief-of-police job in a sleepy, affluent bedroom community far from the chaos and crime of Los Angeles. But Talley's pursuit of peaceful small-town life is about to change when three young men, fleeing the robbery of a mini mart, invade a tightly secured home, and take the family hostage. Plunged back into the high-pressure world that he has desperately been trying to put behind him, Talley finds his nightmare has barely begun, because this isn't just any house. It belongs to a brilliant white-collar criminal who launders money for L.A.'s renegade franchise of La Cosa Nostra. And the accountant's records of the incriminating money trail that lie within will put L.A.'s most lethal and volatile crime lord, Sonny Benza, behind bars. As Talley desperately tries to save the innocents inside, the full weight of Benza's wrath descends on him, putting Talley and his own family at risk. Soon, all involved are held hostage by the exigencies of fate and the only one capable of diffusing the crisis is the least stable of them all.

On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah


               
Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school abroad. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Alone in the house that is no longer a home, Annie comes to the painful realization that for years she has been slowly disappearing. Lonely and afraid, she retreats to Mystic, the small Washington town where she grew up, hoping that there she can reclaim the woman she once was—the woman she is now desperate to become again.
In Mystic, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, a recent widower unable to cope with his grieving, too-silent six-year-old daughter, Izzie. Together, the three of them begin to heal, and, at last, Annie learns that she can love without losing herself. But just when she has found a second chance at happiness, her life is turned upside down again, and Annie must make a choice no woman should have to make. . .

Updated 9/11/2020 to include permalinks to the catalog.