Library Closure

The Town of Cecilton is paving the Library’s parking lot. The Cecilton Library will be closed Wednesday, 4/17 - Sunday, 4/20, and will reopen on Monday, 4/21. The bookdrop will be closed during this time. Please visit the Chesapeake City Branch Library or the Elkton Branch Library. For assistance, please call (410) 996-5600.

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Book Lists

The Boy Is Back

Meg Cabot

In this brand-new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, a scandal brings a young man back home to the small town, crazy family, and first love he left behind.

Reed Stewart thought he’d left all his small town troubles—including a broken heart—behind when he ditched tiny Bloomville, Indiana, ten years ago to become rich and famous on the professional golf circuit.  Then one tiny post on the Internet causes all of those troubles to return . . . with a vengeance.

Becky Flowers has worked hard to build her successful senior relocation business, but she’s worked even harder to forget Reed Stewart ever existed. She has absolutely no intention of seeing him when he returns—until his family hires her to save his parents.

Now Reed and Becky can’t avoid one another—or the memories of that one fateful night.  And soon everything they thought they knew about themselves (and each other) has been turned upside down, and they—and the entire town of Bloomville—might never be the same, all because The Boy Is Back.

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Who's Your Caddy?

Rick Reilly

The funniest and most popular sportswriter in America abandons his desk to caddy for some of the world’s most famous golfers—and some celebrity duffers—with hilarious results in this New York Times bestseller.
 
Who knows a golfer best? Who’s with them every minute of every round, hears their muttering, knows whether they cheat? Their caddies, of course. So sportswriter Rick Reilly figured that he could learn a lot about the players and their game by caddying, even though he had absolutely no idea how to do it. Amazingly, some of the best golfers in the world—including Jack Nicklaus, David Duval, Tom Lehman, John Daly, Jill McGill of the LPGA tour, and Casey Martin—agreed to let Reilly carry their bags at actual PGA and LPGA Tour events. To round out his portrait of the golfing life, Reilly also persuaded Deepak Chopra and Donald Trump to take him on as a caddy, accompanied the four highest-rolling golf hustlers in Las Vegas around the course, and carried the bag for a blind golfer.

Between his hilarious descriptions of his own ineptitude as a caddy and his insight into what makes the greats of golf so great, Reilly’s wicked wit and an expert’s eye provide readers with the next best thing to a great round of golf.

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Tales from Q School

John Feinstein

It is the tournament that separates champions from mortals. It is the starting point for the careers of future legends and can be the final stop on the down escalator for fading stars. The annual PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is one of the most grueling competitions in any sport. Every fall, veterans and talented hopefuls sweat through six rounds of hell at Q school, as the tournament is universally known, to get a shot at the PGA Tour, vying for the 30 slots available. The grim reality: If you don't make it through Q school, you're not on the PGA tour. You're out. And those who make it to the sixday finals are the lucky ones: hundreds more players fail to get through the equally grueling first two stages of the event. John Feinstein tells the story of the players who compete for these coveted positions in the 2005 Q school as only he can. With arresting accounts from the players, established winners, rising stars, the defeated, and the endlessly hopeful, America's favorite sportswriter unearths the inside story behind the PGA Tour's brutal all-ornothing competition.

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The Legend of Bagger Vance

Steven Pressfield

The time: 1931. The place: the golf links at Krewe Island off Savannah's windswept Atlantic shore. The event: a mesmerizing thirty-six-hole match in which Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, legends of golf in their own time, are joined by an unsung opponent, the troubled war hero Rannulph Junah. The key to the outcome lies not with these titans of the game but with Bagger Vance, a caddie who carries the secret of the Authentic Swing. His mysterious powers guide the play and leave a lasting imprint, not only on the lives he touches on that day so long ago, but also--sixty years later--on the future of a brilliant but discouraged young medical student.

Once in a great while comes a book different from all the rest. You long to compare it to something great that went before, and yet no comparison truly holds. Such is The Legend of Bagger Vance. Readers have likened it to Bernard Malamud's The Natural or to Golf in the Kingdom, they mystical classic by Michael Murphy. Although Steven Pressfield's work has a kindship with both, it is a true original, a page turner, a spellbinder, an inspiration for golfers and nongolfers alike--a story in which the search for the Authentic Swing becomes a metaphor for the search for the Authentic Self.

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The Music of what Happens

Bill Konigsberg

Max: Chill. Sports. Video games. Gay and not a big deal, not to him, not to his mom, not to his buddies. And a secret: An encounter with an older kid that makes it hard to breathe, one that he doesn't want to think about, ever.

Jordan: The opposite of chill. Poetry. His "wives" and the Chandler Mall. Never been kissed and searching for Mr. Right, who probably won't like him anyway. And a secret: A spiraling out of control mother, and the knowledge that he's the only one who can keep the family from falling apart.

Throw in a rickety, 1980s-era food truck called Coq Au Vinny. Add in prickly pears, cloud eggs, and a murky idea of what's considered locally sourced and organic. Place it all in Mesa, Arizona, in June, where the temp regularly hits 114. And top it off with a touch of undeniable chemistry between utter opposites.

Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they're willing to risk -- to get the thing they want the most.

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Can't Stop Won't Stop (Young Adult Edition)

Jeff Chang

From award-winning author Jeff Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop is the story of hip-hop, a generation-defining movement and the music that transformed American politics and culture forever.

Hip hop is one of the most dominant and influential cultures in America, giving new voice to the younger generation. It defines a generation's worldview. Exploring hip hop's beginnings up to the present day, Jeff Chang and Dave "Davey D" Cook provide a provocative look into the new world that the hip hop generation has created.

Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip hop's forebears, founders, mavericks, and present day icons, this book chronicles the epic events, ideas and the music that marked the hip hop generation's rise.

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Songs of America: Young Reader's Edition

Jon Meacham

Songs of America explores the music of important times in our history—the stirring pro- and anti-war music of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War; the folk songs and popular music of the Great Depression, the fight for women’s rights, and the Civil Rights movement; and the music of both beloved and lesser-known poets, musicians, and songwriters from Colonial times to the twenty-first century. Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham and Grammy Award–winning artist Tim McGraw present the songs of patriotism and protest that gave voice to the politicians and activists who moved the country forward, seeking to fulfill America’s destiny as the land of liberty and justice for all.
Readers will recognize pages from the American songbook—examples include “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “We Shall Overcome,” and “Born in the U.S.A.”—and will be introduced to lesser-known but equally important works that have inspired Americans to hold on to the tenets of freedom at the roots of our nation.
Adapted from the adult bestseller, Songs of America: Young Readers Edition highlights the unique role music has played in uniting and shaping a nation.

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Spin

Lamar Giles

When rising star Paris Secord (aka DJ ParSec) is found dead on her turntables, it sends the local music scene reeling. No one is feeling that grief more than her shunned pre-fame best friend, Kya, and ParSec's chief groupie, Fuse -- two sworn enemies who happened to be the ones who discovered her body.

The police have few leads, and when the trail quickly turns cold, the authorities don't seem to be pushing too hard to investigate further. But nobody counted on Paris's deeply loyal fans, ParSec Nation, or the outrage that would drive Fuse and Kya to work together. As ParSec Nation takes to social media and the streets in their crusade for justice, Fuse and Kya start digging into Paris's past, stumbling across a deadly secret. With new info comes new motives. New suspects. And a fandom that will stop at nothing in their obsessive quest for answers, not even murder...

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Somewhere Only We Know

Maurene Goo

10:00 p.m.: Lucky is the biggest K-pop star on the scene, and she’s just performed her hit song “Heartbeat” in Hong Kong to thousands of adoring fans. She’s about to debut on The Tonight Show in America, hopefully a breakout performance for her career. But right now? She’s in her fancy hotel, trying to fall asleep but dying for a hamburger.

11:00 p.m.: Jack is sneaking into a fancy hotel, on assignment for his tabloid job that he keeps secret from his parents. On his way out of the hotel, he runs into a girl wearing slippers, a girl who is single-mindedly determined to find a hamburger. She looks kind of familiar. She’s very cute. He’s maybe curious.

12:00 a.m.: Nothing will ever be the same.

With her trademark humor and voice, Maurene Goo delivers a sparkling story of taking a chance on love—and finding yourself along the way.

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Rick Riordan Presents Ballad and Dagger (an Outlaw Saints Novel)

Daniel José Older

Almost sixteen years ago, Mateo Matisse's island homeland disappeared into the sea. Weary and hopeless, the survivors of San Madrigal's sinking escaped to New York.

While the rest of his tight-knit Brooklyn diaspora community dreams of someday finding a way back home, Mateo--now a high school junior and piano prodigy living with his two aunts (one who's alive, the other not so much)--is focused on one thing: getting the attention of locally-grown musical legend Gerval. Mateo finally gets his chance on the night of the Grand Fete, an annual party celebrating the blended culture of pirates, Cuban Santeros, and Sephardic Jews that created San Madrigal all those centuries ago.

But the evil that sank their island has finally caught up with them, and on the night of the celebration, Mateo's life is forever changed when he witnesses a brutal murder by a person he thought he knew.

Suddenly Mateo is thrust into an ancient battle that spans years and oceans. Deadly secrets are unraveled and Mateo awakens a power within himself--a power that not only links him to the killer but could also hold the key to unlocking the dark mystery behind his lost homeland.

 

 

 

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The Sound of Stars

Alechia Dow

Can a girl who risks her life for books and an Ilori who loves pop music work together to save humanity?

When a rebel librarian meets an Ilori commander...

Two years ago, a misunderstanding between the leaders of Earth and the invading Ilori resulted in the death of one-third of the world's population. Today, seventeen-year-old Ellie Baker survives in an Ilori-controlled center in New York City. All art, books and creative expression are illegal, but Ellie breaks the rules by keeping a secret library.

When young Ilori commander Morris finds Ellie's illegal library, he's duty-bound to deliver her for execution. But Morris isn't a typical Ilori...and Ellie and her books might be the key to a desperate rebellion of his own.
 

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If I Ever Get Out of Here

Eric L. Gansworth

Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation in 1975: the joking, the Fireball games, the snow blowing through his roof. What he's not used to is white people being nice to him -- people like George Haddonfield, whose family recently moved to town with the Air Force. As the boys connect through their mutual passion for music, especially the Beatles, Lewis has to lie more and more to hide the reality of his family's poverty from George. He also has to deal with the vicious Evan Reininger, who makes Lewis the special target of his wrath. But when everyone else is on Evan's side, how can he be defeated? And if George finds out the truth about Lewis's home -- will he still be his friend?

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Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish

"Legendary recording artist Billie Eilish shares an intimate inside look at her life - both on and off the stage - in this stunning, photo-filled book. Billie Eilish is a phenomenon. With distinctive visual flare and darkly poignant lyrics that are unparalleled among music icons of the 21st century, Billie is a musician who stands out from the crowd. Between her record-shattering award-winning music and her uncompromising and unapologetic attitude, it's no surprise that her fanbase continues to grow by millions month after month. She is that rare combination of wildly popular and highly respected for her prodigious talent, a once in a generation superstar. Now in this stunning visual narrative journey through her life, she is ready to share more with her devoted audience for the first time, including hundreds of never-before-seen photos. This gorgeous book will capture the essence of Billie inside and out, offering readers personal glimpses into her childhood, her life on tour, and more. A must-have for any fan."--Provided by publisher.

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The Celebrants

Steven Rowley

It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.

But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.

A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.

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How Far the Light Reaches

Sabrina Imbler

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature, including:

  • the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs,
  • the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams,
  • the bizarre, predatory Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena),
  • the common goldfish that flourishes in the wild,
  • and more.

Imbler discovers that some of the most radical models of family, community, and care can be found in the sea, from gelatinous chains that are both individual organisms and colonies of clones to deep-sea crabs that have no need for the sun, nourished instead by the chemicals and heat throbbing from the core of the Earth. Exploring themes of adaptation, survival, sexuality, and care, and weaving the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family, relationships, and coming of age, How Far the Light Reaches is a shimmering, otherworldly debut that attunes us to new visions of our world and its miracles.




 

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Better Living Through Birding

Christian Cooper

Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.

In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his extraordinary life leading up to the now-infamous incident in Central Park and shows how a life spent looking up at the birds prepared him, in the most uncanny of ways, to be a gay, Black man in America today. From sharpened senses that work just as well at a protest as in a park to what a bird like the Common Grackle can teach us about self-acceptance, Better Living Through Birding exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself.

Equal parts memoir, travelogue, and primer on the art of birding, this is Cooper’s story of learning to claim and defend space for himself and others like him, from his days at Marvel Comics introducing the first gay storylines to vivid and life-changing birding expeditions through Africa, Australia, the Americas, and the Himalayas. Better Living Through Birding recounts Cooper’s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen.

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Lavender House

Lev AC Rosen

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—his calendar is wide open. And his secret is the kind of secret the Lamontaines understand.

Andy had never imagined a world like Lavender House. He's seduced by the safety and freedom found behind its gates, where a queer family lives honestly and openly. But that honesty doesn't extend to everything, and he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge, and jealousy—and Irene’s death is only the beginning.

When your existence is a crime, everything you do is criminal, and the gates of Lavender House can’t lock out the real world forever. Running a soap empire can be a dirty business.

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The LGBTQ + History Book

DK

Exploring and explaining the most important ideas and events in LGBTQ+ history and culture, this book showcases the breadth of the LGBTQ+ experience. This diverse, global account explores the most important moments, movements, and phenomena, from the first known lesbian love poetry of Sappho to the Kinseys' modern sexuality studies, and features biographies of key figures from Anne Lister to Allen Ginsberg.

The LGBTQ+ History Book celebrates the victories and untold triumphs of LGBTQ+ people throughout history, such as the Stonewall Riots and first transgender surgeries, as well as commemorating moments of tragedy and persecution, from the Renaissance Italian “Night Police” to the 20th century “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy. The book also includes major cultural cornerstones—the secret language of polari, Black and Latinx ballroom culture, and the many flags of the community—and the history of LGBTQ+ spaces, from 18th-century “molly houses” to modern “gayborhoods.”

Using the “Big Ideas” series’ trademark combination of authoritative, accessible text and bold graphics, The LGBTQ+ History Book celebrates the long, proud—and often hidden—history of LGBTQ+ people, cultures, and places from around the world.


 

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The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Becky Chambers

Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space—and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe—in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

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Through the Groves

Anne Hull

A richly evocative coming-of-age memoir set in the Florida orange groves of the 1960s by a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist

Anne Hull grew up in rural Central Florida, barefoot half the time and running through the orange groves her father’s family had worked for generations. The ground trembled from the vibrations of bulldozers and jackhammers clearing land for Walt Disney World. “Look now,” her father told her as they rode through the mossy landscape together. “It will all be gone.” But the real threat was at home, where Hull was pulled between her idealistic but self-destructive father and her mother, a glamorous outsider from Brooklyn struggling with her own aspirations. All the while, Hull felt the pressures of girlhood closing in. She dreamed of becoming a traveling salesman who ate in motel coffee shops, accompanied by her baton-twirling babysitter. As her sexual identity took shape, Hull knew the place she loved would never love her back and began plotting her escape.

Here, Hull captures it all—the smells and sounds of a disappearing way of life, the secret rituals and rhythms of a doomed family, the casual racism of the rural South in the 1960s, and the suffocating expectations placed on girls and women.

Vividly atmospheric and haunting, Through the Groves will speak to anyone who’s ever left home to cut a path of their own.

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Just as You Are

Camille Kellogg

The only thing worse than hating your boss? Being attracted to her.

Liz Baker and her three roommates work at the Nether Fields, a queer magazine in New York that’s on the verge of shutting down—until it’s bought at the last minute by two wealthy lesbians. Liz knows she’s lucky to still have a paycheck but it’s hard to feel grateful with minority investor Daria Fitzgerald slashing budgets, cancelling bagel Fridays, and password protecting the color printer to prevent “frivolous use.” When Liz overhears Daria scoffing at her listicles, she knows that it’s only a matter of time before her impulsive mouth gets herself fired.

But as Liz and Daria wind up having to spend more and more time together, Liz starts to see a softer side to Daria—she’s funny, thoughtful, and likes the way Liz’s gender presentation varies between butch and femme. Despite the evidence that Liz can’t trust her, it’s hard to keep hating Daria—and even harder to resist the chemistry between them.

This page-turning, sexy, and delightfully funny rom-com celebrates queer culture, chosen family, and falling in love against your better judgment.

 

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Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion

Bushra Rehman

Razia Mirza grows up amid the wild grape vines and backyard sunflowers of Corona, Queens, with her best friend, Saima, by her side. When a family rift drives the girls apart, Razia’s heart is broken. She finds solace in Taslima, a new girl in her close-knit Pakistani-American community. They embark on a series of small rebellions: listening to scandalous music, wearing miniskirts, and cutting school to explore the city.

When Razia is accepted to Stuyvesant, a prestigious high school in Manhattan, the gulf between the person she is and the daughter her parents want her to be, widens. At Stuyvesant, Razia meets Angela and is attracted to her in a way that blossoms into a new understanding. When their relationship is discovered by an Aunty in the community, Razia must choose between her family and her own future.

Punctuated by both joy and loss, full of ’80s music and beloved novels, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a new classic: a fiercely compassionate coming-of-age story of a girl struggling to reconcile her heritage and faith with her desire to be true to herself.

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Small Joys

Elvin James Mensah

An unexpected friendship saves a young man's life in this moving, utterly charming debut about chosen family, the winding road to happiness, and the grace of second chances.

Could I one day inspire happiness in others, the same way he seemed to do in me?

It’s 2005 and Harley has dropped out of college to move home, back to rural England where he works a dead-end job at a movie theater. Estranged from his father and finding every attempt at happiness futile, he is on the verge of making a devastating final decision. Fortunately for him, things don’t go according to plan, and his attempt on his own life is interrupted by his new roommate, Muddy.

Muddy is everything Harley is not: white, ostensibly heterosexual, freewheeling, confident in his masculinity. Despite their differences, a deep friendship blossoms between them when Muddy takes Harley under his wing and shows him everything that, in his eyes, makes life worth living: birdwatching, karaoke, rugby, and the band Oasis.

But this newfound friendship is complicated. It has enormous repercussions for the pair’s romantically entangled friend group—with Chelsea, an overbearing striver whose generosity they begrudgingly rely on; with Finlay, her raffish and uncouth boyfriend; and with Noria, who despite her simmering confidence is smarting from a series of unreturned affections. And then there’s the violent affair with an older man that Harley finds himself slipping back into . . .

As secrets and jealousies endanger all that Harley has come to rely on, he finds himself faltering once again, even though he finally has something—and someone—to live for. Soul-stirring and witty, full of hope and peopled with characters who feel like close friends, Small Joys explores a young man’s turbulent journey toward happiness and announces the arrival of an exciting voice in fiction.

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Glassworks

Olivia Wolfgang-Smith

In 1910, Agnes Carter makes the wrong choice in marriage. After years as an independent woman of fortune, influential with the board of a prominent university because of her financial donations, she is now subject to the whims of an abusive, spendthrift husband. But when Bohemian naturalist and glassblower Ignace Novak reignites Agnes's passion for science, Agnes begins to imagine a different life, and she sets her mind to getting it.

Agnes's desperate actions breed secrecy, and the resulting silence echoes into the future. Her son, Edward, wants to be a man of faith but struggles with the complexities of the mortal world while apprenticing at a
stained-glass studio.

In 1986, Edward's child, Novak-just Novak-is an acrobatic window washer cleaning Manhattan high-rises, who gets caught up in the plight of Cecily, a small town girl remade as a gender-bending Broadway ingénue.

And in 2015, Cecily's daughter Flip-a burned-out stoner trapped in a bureaucratic job firing cremains into keepsake glass ornaments-resolves to break the cycle of inherited secrets, reaching back through the generations in search of a family legacy that feels true.

 

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The Gulf

Rachel Cochran

In this electrifying debut literary thriller, set on the gulf coast of Texas in the 1970s at the height of the women's liberation movement, a closeted young woman attempts to solve her surrogate mother's murder in a tight-knit, religious small town.

In Parson, Texas, a small town ravaged by a devastating hurricane and the Vietnam War, twenty-nine-year-old Lou is diligently renovating a decaying old mansion for Miss Kate, the elderly neighbor who has always been like a mother to her. Mourning her brother's death in Vietnam, Lou dreams of enjoying a more peaceful future in Parson. But those hopes are crushed when Miss Kate is murdered, and no one but Lou seems to care about finding the killer.

The situation becomes complicated when Joanna, Miss Kate's long-estranged daughter and Lou's first love, arrives in Parson--not to learn more about her mother's death but for the house. Her arrival unearths sinister secrets involving the history of the town and its residents . . . revelations that may be the key to helping Lou discover the truth about Miss Kate's death and her killer.

A gorgeously written, gripping story of forbidden love and devastating secrets that is a surprising twist on the traditional small-town story, The Gulf is a riveting and unsettling mystery that holds up a mirror to the values--and failures--of America.

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All This Could Be Different

Sarah Thankam Mathews

Graduating into the long maw of an American recession, Sneha is one of the fortunate ones. She’s moved to Milwaukee for an entry-level corporate job that, grueling as it may be, is the key that unlocks every door: she can pick up the tab at dinner with her new friend Tig, get her college buddy Thom hired alongside her, and send money to her parents back in India. She begins dating women—soon developing a burning crush on Marina, a beguiling and beautiful dancer who always seems just out of reach.

But before long, trouble arrives. Painful secrets rear their heads; jobs go off the rails; evictions loom. Sneha struggles to be truly close and open with anybody, even as her friendships deepen, even as she throws herself headlong into a dizzying romance with Marina. It’s then that Tig begins to draw up a radical solution to their problems, hoping to save them all.

A beautiful and capacious novel rendered in singular, unforgettable prose, All This Could Be Different is a wise, tender, and riveting group portrait of young people forging love and community amidst struggle, and a moving story of one immigrant’s journey to make her home in the world.

 

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This Song Will Save Your Life

Leila Sales

Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski's strong suit. All throughout her life, she's been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing.
Told in a refreshingly genuine and laugh-out-loud funny voice, Leila Sales' THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE is an exuberant novel about identity, friendship, and the power of music to bring people together.

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I Say Ooh You Say Aah

John Kane

A madcap call-and-response picture book; this is interactive storytelling at its best. Ooh the donkey has lost his pants. Readers must help him find them! In this picture book, young readers help to tell the story by responding to simple verbal or visual cues. This hilarious book is perfect for reading aloud and is fun for the whole family.

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The Book That Did Not Want to Be Read

David Sundin

Beware! This picture book will do anything in its power to stay unread in this fun, interactive, and irresistibly silly read-aloud book!

WARNING! Stop what you’re doing! Don’t you know that this book does not want to be read?

If you try, all sorts of unfortunate things will happen. It will turn into a steering wheel! Letters will go missing! The book will act up and squirm around and grow wings and try to fly away! It will even insert a bunny that has absolutely nothing to do with anything.

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Got Your Nose!

Alan Katz

Becky loves Grandpa Max. When he visits, they have a lot of fun together. But when Grandpa Max pulls his favorite prank on Becky, he accidentally takes her nose--for real!

 

 

OH NO!

Now Becky and Grandpa Max have to chase Becky's runny nose all over town--or else, who nose what will happen!

 

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A Pizza with Everything on It

Kyle Scheele

It's a tale as old as time: a kid wants to make a pizza with his dad, but not just any pizza . . . he wants a pizza with everything on it. That's right, everything. But as the toppings pile on, this father-son duo accidentally create a pizza so delicious, so extravagant, so over-the-top, that it destroys the universe--and the cosmos go as dark as burnt crust. Will anyone enjoy pizza ever again? At turns heartwarming, hilarious, and completely out of this world, Kyle Scheele and Andy J. Pizza deliver a riotous adventure that will melt readers minds and hearts and leave them calling for a second helping.

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My Weirdtastic School #1: Miss Banks Pulls Lots of Pranks!

Dan Gutman

A.J. and his friends are starting fourth grade. A new school year means a new teacher, and Miss Banks may be their weirdest one yet.

 

 

She won't stop playing practical jokes on the class, and A.J. has reached his breaking point. Will he and the gang learn to not fall for their teacher's tricks Or will Miss Banks prevail as the ultimate prankster?

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Jacky Ha-Ha Gets the Last Laugh

James Patterson

Jacky Hart finally knows the thrill of having people laugh with her (not at her). She tries to put her comedy and theater skills to use in her summer job, but the boardwalk crowds aren't exactly adoring. So Jacky jumps at the opportunity of a lifetime: an all-expense paid trip to theater camp!

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Laugh Out Loud

James Patterson

In this hilarious story filled with clever references to children's book favorites, the story shows young readers that anything can be achieved if you believe in yourself no matter what!

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Laugh-Out-Loud Adventure Jokes for Kids

Rob Elliott

Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids series reaches hilarious new heights with this collection of adventure-themed jokes, puns, and gut-busting gags. A great activity book for kids, including anyone looking for a boredom buster when home from school.

Jump into page after page of adrenaline-pumping puns and sweat-inducing zingers that will take you high up in the sky, deep down inside caves, beneath the ocean, and out into space.

Risk these jokes, riddles, and puns on your own or challenge your fellow adventurers.

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Laugh-Out-Loud: Belly Laughs: a My First LOL Book

Rob Elliott

Brings the giggles for baby's very first belly laughs with this beautifully illustrated, hilariously funny board book!

 

 

The board book format creates perfect comedic format for little ones! With each joke is a hilarious drawing to match the punchline, making the book visually fun and perfect for non-readers.

 

 

 

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We Laugh Alike / Juntos nos reímos

Carmen T. Bernier-Grand

Six kids are ready to play: three speak English. Y tres hablan español [and three speak Spanish]. But all of them laugh alike and together! This clever playground adventure weaves together bilingual Spanish and English conversations, so two groups of children can express similar thoughts in their own languages.

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Silly Lullaby

Sandra Boynton

What’s the best way to say good night? With a silly bedtime lullaby story! Giggle along with the rhymes in this book.

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I Totally Funniest

James Patterson

Jamie Grimm is back and better than ever. After scoring big on national TV in the semifinals contest, everyone back home is jumping on the Jamie Grimm bandwagon, and all the attention might be going to his head. Not only are his friendships starting to suffer, but the pressure of coming up with his best material ever for the ultimate standup act to snag the final win in Hollywood is pushing Jamie to the brink. Suddenly, life isn't looking very funny anymore. Can Jamie take the grand prize without pushing away his fans, friends and family?

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Finding Yvonne

Brandy Colbert

Since she was seven years old, Yvonne has had her trusted violin to keep her company, especially in those lonely days after her mother walked out on their family. But with graduation just around the corner, she is forced to face the hard truth that she just might not be good enough to attend a conservatory after high school.
Full of doubt about her future, and increasingly frustrated by her strained relationship with her successful but emotionally closed-off father, Yvonne meets a street musician and fellow violinist who understands her struggle. He's mysterious, charming, and different from Warren, the familiar and reliable boy who has her heart. But when Yvonne becomes unexpectedly pregnant, she has to make the most difficult decision yet about her future.
 

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A Small Kindness

Stacy McAnulty

Teach the importance of goodwill with this impactful picture book with a solid pay-it-forward message to encourage kindness in young children.

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Goodnight Love

Sumi Loundon Kim

Share love with yourself, your people, and the world (alongside fun sloths) in this big-hearted bedtime meditation for children.

As the day comes to a close, Goodnight Love helps children connect to the warmth of their hearts through the power of loving kindness. We foster self-compassion by sending care to ourselves. We share kindness by wishing good things for our families and friends. And we cultivate unconditional love by radiating the wish for happiness and peace on Earth.

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Your Pal Fred

Michael Rex

In a brutal world far in the future where only the savage survive, a life-size toy suddenly activates. Fred was built to be a best buddy, and his relentless kindness never fades, even when everyone else is rude. Determined to make the world a better place, he has the bright idea to talk the two most powerful and battle-hungry warlords, Lord Bonkers and Papa Mayhem, into being friends. It's a mission doomed to fail, unless Fred can find a way to inspire everyone to play nice!

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I Feel Kind

DK

What have you done that is kind, little one?
This colorful picture book teaches children what kindness is, how it feels and how to show it to other people. Cheerful and beautifully illustrated, the story follows a bright, kind flower who learns how to spread kindness.  
 

 

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Kindness Is a Golden Heart

Jessica Kluthe

This poetic board book full of metaphor is a how-to on treating others with kindness.

From sunrise to sunset, a young child has opportunities to demonstrate kindness--to their parent, their pet and themself--and to receive kindness as well. 

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The Best Kind of Mooncake

Pearl AuYeung

The special mooncake seems like the only excitement on an otherwise boring day in the market where nothing changes... until an exhausted stranger falls to his knees right in the street! He ran through forests, swam through rivers, and even stowed away on a ship, all to get to Hong Kong. Now at the end of his journey, all he needs is a bite to eat, but no one seems willing to help—not even the girl, if it means giving up her prized treat.

The girl’s ultimate decision has surprising, far-reaching consequences in this mostly true story that reminds us that even the smallest acts of kindness hold the power to change lives, for the giver as much as the receiver.

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Art with Heart

Rachele Alpine

Someone is writing mean messages about Emelyn and other kids in her grade on pieces of paper and sticking them to lockers and bathroom walls. When Emelyn discovers a classmate hiding in the bathroom crying about the mean words written about her, Emelyn brings this problem to The Invincible Girls. Together, they decide to fight the negativity with positivity!

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Something

Natalee Creech

Read about being a positive force in the world with this encouraging picture book that teaches kids that no matter how small an action may be, there is always something they can do to make the world a better place.

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Mermaid and Pirate

Tracey Baptiste

Mermaid and Pirate cannot understand each other. They speak different languages and come from different worlds. But they’re quick to lend a hand, or a tail, when the sky grows stormy and waters get rough, and a friendship is born. Sometimes kindness and generosity speak louder than words.

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I Am a Kindness Hero

Jennifer Adams

Follow the adventures of a young boy as he practices kindness throughout his day, from rescuing a puppy to standing up to bullies to helping his young sister tie her shoe. I Am a Kindness Hero celebrates gentleness and vulnerability in boys, and shows that true strength and leadership come from treating those around you with love and respect.

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Twelve Days of Kindness

Irene Latham

There are many ways to be kind. Follow one girl as she expresses gratitude through kind deeds all her own—a smile or encouraging word or even shared snacks—and discovers one act of kindness inspires another. In this heartwarming lyrical text, twelve acts of everyday kindness are set to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Along with vibrant and warm illustrations, this joyous read-aloud celebrates how small acts of kindness can be practiced at any age.

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Have You Eaten?

Su Youn Lee

A charming, heartfelt picture book that celebrates one of the many ways we show love, by sharing food.

Inspired by a Korean greeting, this heartwarming story offers a fresh take on friendship and kindness.

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On the Come Up

Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least win her first battle. As the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died right before he hit big, Bri’s got massive shoes to fill.

But it’s hard to get your come up when you’re labeled a hoodlum at school, and your fridge at home is empty after your mom loses her job. So Bri pours her anger and frustration into her first song, which goes viral…for all the wrong reasons.

Bri soon finds herself at the center of a controversy, portrayed by the media as more menace than MC. But with an eviction notice staring her family down, Bri doesn’t just want to make it—she has to. Even if it means becoming the very thing the public has made her out to be.  

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Idol Gossip

Alexandra Leigh Young

Every Friday after school, seventeen-year-old Alice Choy and her little sister, Olivia, head to Myeongdong to sing karaoke. Back in San Francisco, when she still had friends and earthly possessions, Alice took regular singing lessons. But since their diplomat mom moved them to Seoul, her only musical outlet is vamping it up in a private karaoke booth to an audience of one: her loyal sister. Then a scout for Top10 Entertainment, one of the biggest K-pop companies, hears her and offers her a spot at their Star Academy. Can Alice navigate the culture clashes, egos, and extreme training practices of K-pop to lead her group onstage before a stadium of 50,000 chanting fans—and just maybe strike K-pop gold? Not if a certain influential blogger and the anti-fans get their way . . .
 

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Kiss & Tell

Adib Khorram

Hunter never expected to be a boy band star, but, well, here he is. He and his band Kiss & Tell are on their first major tour of North America, playing arenas all over the United States and Canada (and getting covered by the gossipy press all over North America as well). Hunter is the only gay member of the band, and he just had a very painful breakup with his first boyfriend--leaked sexts, public heartbreak, and all--and now everyone expects him to play the perfect queer role model for teens.

But Hunter isn't really sure what being the perfect queer kid even means. Does it mean dressing up in whatever The Label tells him to wear for photo shoots and pretending never to have sex? (Unfortunately, yes.) Does it mean finding community among the queer kids at the meet-and-greets after K&T's shows? (Fortunately, yes.) Does it include a new relationship with Kaivan, the drummer for the band opening for K&T on tour? (He hopes so.) But when The Label finds out about Hunter and Kaivan, it spells trouble—for their relationship, for the perfect gay boy Hunter plays for the cameras, and, most importantly, for Hunter himself.

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Swing

Kwame Alexander

When America is not so beautiful, or right, or just, it can be hard to know what to do. Best friends Walt and Noah decide to use their voices to grow more good in the world, but first they've got to find cool.

Walt is convinced junior year is their year, and he has a plan to help them woo the girls of their dreams and become amazing athletes. Never mind that he and Noah failed to make the high school baseball team yet again, and Noah's love interest since third grade, Sam, has him firmly in the friend zone. Noah soon finds himself navigating the worlds of jazz, batting cages, the strange advice of Walt's Dairy Queen-employed cousin, as well as Walt's "Hug Life" mentality. Status quo seems inevitable until Noah stumbles on a stash of old love letters. Each page contains the words he's always wanted to say to Sam, and he begins secretly creating artwork using the lines that speak his heart. But when his private artwork becomes public, Noah has a decision to make: continue his life in the dugout and possibly lose the girl forever, or take a swing and finally speak out?

At the same time, numerous American flags are being left around town. While some think it's a harmless prank and others see it as a form of peaceful protest, Noah can't shake the feeling something bigger is happening to his community. Especially after he witnesses events that hint divides and prejudices run deeper than he realized.

As the personal and social tensions increase around them, Noah and Walt must decide what is really true when it comes to love, friendship, sacrifice, and fate.

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Portrait of a Thief

Grace D. Li

History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now. 

Will Chen plans to steal them back.

A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents' American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago. 

His crew is every heist archetype one can imag­ine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they've cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down. 

Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they've dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted at­tempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.

Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, Portrait of a Thief is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary cri­tique of the lingering effects of colonialism.

 

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The Trackers

Charles Frazier

Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he's landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.

A wealthy art lover named John Long and his wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a western swing band. Long holds shady political aspirations, but was once a WWI sniper--and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a vestige of the violent old west. Val quickly finds himself entranced by their lives.

One day, Eve flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road with a mission of tracking her down. Journeying from ramshackle Hoovervilles to San Francisco nightclubs to the swamps of Florida, Val's search for Eve narrows, and he soon turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them.

In The Trackers, singular American writer Charles Frazier conjures up the lives of everyday people during an extraordinary period of history that bears uncanny resemblance to our own. With the keen perceptions of humanity and transcendent storytelling that have made him beloved for decades, Frazier has created a powerful and timeless new classic.

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What the Ermine Saw

Eden Collinsworth

Five hundred and thirty years ago, a young woman sat before a Grecian-nosed artist known as Leonardo da Vinci. Her name was Cecilia Gallerani, and she was the young mistress of Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan. Sforza was a brutal and clever man who was mindful that Leonardo’s genius would not only capture Cecilia’s beguiling beauty but also reflect the grandeur of his title. But when the portrait was finished, Leonardo’s brush strokes had conveyed something deeper by revealing the essence of Cecilia’s soul. Even today, The Woman with an Ermine manages to astonish.

Despite the work's importance in its own time, no records of it have been found for the two hundred and fifty years that followed Gallerani’s death. Readers of The Hare with the Amber Eyes will marvel at Eden Collinsworth’s dexterous story of illuminates the eventual history of this unique masterpiece, as it journeyed from one owner to the next–from the portrait’s next recorded owner, a Polish noblewoman, who counted Benjamin Franklin as an admirer, to its exile in Paris during the Polish Soviet War, to its return to WWII-era Poland where—in advance of Germany’s invasion—it remained hidden behind a bricked-up wall by a housekeeper who defied Hitler’s edict that it be confiscated as one of the Reich’s treasures. Fans of Anne-Marie O’Connor’s The Lady in Gold will treasure the story of this criss-crossing journey and the enigmatic woman at its heart.

 

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The Grand Affair

Paul Fisher


A great American artist, John Singer Sargent is also an abiding enigma. While dressing like a businessman and crafting a highly respectable persona, he scandalized viewers on both sides of the Atlantic with the frankness and sensuality of his work. He charmed the nouveaux riches as well as the old money, but he reserved his greatest sympathies for Bedouins, Spanish dancers, and the gondoliers of Venice. At the height of his renown in Britain and America, he quit his lucrative portrait-painting career to concentrate on allegorical murals with religious themes—and on nude drawings of male models that he kept to himself.

In The Grand Affair, the historian Paul Fisher offers a vivid life of the buttoned-up artist and his unbuttoned work. Sargent’s nervy, edgy portraits exposed illicit or dark feelings in himself and his sitters—feelings that high society on both sides of the Atlantic found fascinating and off-putting. Fisher traces Singer’s life from his wandering trans-European childhood to the salons of Paris, and the scandals and enthusiasms he caused, and on to London. There he mixed with eccentrics and aristocrats, and the likes of Henry James and Oscar Wilde, while at the same time forming a close relationship with a lightweight boxer who became his model, valet, and traveling partner. In later years, Sargent met up with his friend and patron Isabella Stewart Gardner around the world and devoted himself to a new model, the African American elevator operator and part-time contortionist Thomas McKeller, who would become the subject of some of Sargent’s most daring and powerful work.
 

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Portrait of a Murder

Michael Jecks

Nick Morris is your classic struggling artist. He paints pet portraits to pay the bills but is always just one big commission away from a more comfortable life. Which is why he agrees to paint the reluctant, hot-tempered hotelier, Jason Robart. But Nick gets more than he bargained for when he finds Jason dead from a shotgun blast to the head in an apparent suicide.

No one seems upset about his death except for his girlfriend Elizabeth, and Nick, who has lost the income from the commission. It turns out Jason owed money to everyone - including some unsavoury Russians.

When Elizabeth goes missing, Nick is concerned, but so is Jason's unpleasant business partner and those persuasive Russians who threaten Nick to reveal everything he knows . . . or else. Nick is knee deep in trouble and to escape he must find Elizabeth, uncover the truth of Jason's death, and stay alive! If only he had stuck to painting cats . . .

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Picasso's War

Hugh Eakin


In January 1939, Pablo Picasso was renowned in Europe but disdained by many in the United States. One year later, Americans across the country were clamoring to see his art. How did the controversial leader of the Paris avant-garde break through to the heart of American culture?

The answer begins a generation earlier, when a renegade Irish American lawyer named John Quinn set out to build the greatest collection of Picassos in existence. His dream of a museum to house them died with him, until it was rediscovered by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., a cultural visionary who, at the age of twenty-seven, became the director of New York’s new Museum of Modern Art.

Barr and Quinn’s shared goal would be thwarted in the years to come—by popular hostility, by the Depression, by Parisian intrigues, and by Picasso himself. It would take Hitler’s campaign against Jews and modern art, and Barr’s fraught alliance with Paul Rosenberg, Picasso’s persecuted dealer, to get Picasso’s most important paintings out of Europe. Mounted in the shadow of war, the groundbreaking exhibition Picasso: Forty Years of His Art would launch Picasso in America, define MoMA as we know it, and shift the focus of the art world from Paris to New York.

P

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Dual Memory

Sue Burke



Antonio Moro lost everything to the Leviathan League. Now he's alone in a city on an Arctic island fighting the ruthless, global pirates with the chance to be the artist he always wanted to be. Unfortunately, he thinks it’s a cover story for his real purpose—spying on sympathizers.

When things look bleak, he discovers an unusual ally. His new personal assistant program, Par Augustus. It’s insolent, extroverted, moody, and a not-quite-legal nascent A. I.

Together they create a secret rebellion from unlikely recruits to defend the island from ideological pirates with entitlement and guns, and capitalist pirates with entitlement and money.

 

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Chasing Me to My Grave

Winfred Rembert

Winfred Rembert grew up in a family of Georgia field laborers and joined the Civil Rights Movement as a teenager. He was arrested after fleeing a demonstration, survived a near-lynching at the hands of law enforcement, and spent seven years on chain gangs. During that time he met the undaunted Patsy, who would become his wife. Years later, at the age of fifty-one and with Patsy’s encouragement, he started drawing and painting scenes from his youth using leather tooling skills he learned in prison.

Chasing Me to My Grave presents Rembert’s breathtaking body of work alongside his story, as told to Tufts Philosopher Erin I. Kelly. Rembert calls forth vibrant scenes of Black life on Cuthbert, Georgia’s Hamilton Avenue, where he first glimpsed the possibility of a life outside the cotton field. As he pays tribute, exuberant and heartfelt, to Cuthbert’s Black community and the people, including Patsy, who helped him to find the courage to revisit a traumatic past, Rembert brings to life the promise and the danger of Civil Rights protest, the brutalities of incarceration, his search for his mother’s love, and the epic bond he found with Patsy.

 

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Open Water

Caleb Azumah Nelson

In a crowded London pub, two young people meet. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists--he a photographer, she a dancer--and both are trying to make their mark in a world that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence, and over the course of a year they find their relationship tested by forces beyond their control.

Narrated with deep intimacy, Open Water is at once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity that asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body; to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength; to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, and blistering emotional intelligence, Caleb Azumah Nelson gives a profoundly sensitive portrait of romantic love in all its feverish waves and comforting beauty.

 

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The Secret Life of Sunflowers

Marta Molnar

When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law.

Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28 year old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent's legacy to the world.

The inspiration couldn't come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?

 

 

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The Tiffany Girls

Shelley Noble

 

It's 1899, and Manhattan is abuzz. Louis Comfort Tiffany, famous for his stained-glass windows, is planning a unique installation at the Paris World's Fair, the largest in history. At their fifth-floor studio on Fourth Avenue, the artists of the Women's Division of the Tiffany Glass Company are already working longer shifts to finish the pieces that Tiffany hopes will prove that he is the world's finest artist in glass. Known as the "Tiffany Girls," these women are responsible for much of the design and construction of Tiffany's extraordinary glassworks, but none receive credit.

Emilie Pascal, daughter of an art forger, has been shunned in Paris art circles after the unmasking of her abusive father. Wanting nothing more than a chance to start a new life, she forges a letter of recommendation in hopes of fulfilling her destiny as an artist in the one place where she will finally be free to live her own life.

Grace Griffith is the best copyist in the studio, spending her days cutting glass into floral borders for Tiffany's religious stained-glass windows. But none of her coworkers know her secret: she is living a double life as a political cartoonist under the pseudonym of G.L. Griffith--hiding her identity as a woman.

As manager of the women's division, Clara Driscoll is responsible for keeping everything on schedule and within budget. But in the lead-up to the most important exhibition of her career, not only are her girls becoming increasingly difficult to wrangle, she finds herself obsessed with a new design: a dragonfly lamp that she has no idea will one day become Tiffany's signature piece.

Brought together by chance, driven by their desire to be artists in one of the only ways acceptable for women in their time, these "Tiffany Girls" will break the glass ceiling of their era and for working women to come.

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A Forgery of Roses

Jessica S. Olson



From the author of Sing Me Forgotten comes a lush new fantasy novel with art-based magic, romance, and murder...

Myra has a gift many would kidnap, blackmail, and worse to control: she's a portrait artist whose paintings alter people's bodies. Guarding that secret is the only way to keep her younger sister safe now that their parents are gone. But one frigid night, the governor's wife discovers the truth and threatens to expose Myra if she does not complete a special portrait that would resurrect the governor's dead son.

Once she arrives at the legendary stone mansion, however, it becomes clear the boy's death was no accident. A killer stalks these halls--one disturbingly obsessed with portrait magic. Desperate to get out of the manor as quickly as possible, Myra turns to the governor's older son for help completing the painting before the secret she spent her life concealing makes her the killer's next victim.

 

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The Brushstrokes of Life

Anne Neilson

Here's a secret: God has deposited a gift inside of you. Acclaimed angel artist Anne Neilson wants to help you find yours as she shares her personal story of passion and purpose and how faith radiates from every canvas of her life. The Brushstrokes of Life will help you see there are no coincidences with God.

Anne Neilson believes that each of us begins our life as a blank canvas: clean and fresh and ready to find texture in our experiences. Each trial, each joy, each heartache, and each hope leaves an explosion of color and sweeping brushstrokes that shape us. When we allow God to take over as the Master artist, we will find that He carefully adds dimension and highlights to create a beautiful masterpiece in us. Often, though, it's hard to find the beauty when we are wading through mess.

In this beautiful memoir, Anne shares personal stories about why her faith is so important to her and resonates in all her work. In The Brushstrokes of Life, you will learn how to:

  • Open your hands to God's possibilities
  • Connect your trials from today into hope for tomorrow
  • Trust God's role in your story

 

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Haven

Megan Wagner Lloyd

When her cherished Ma Millie falls ill, a timid housecat ventures into the wild to seek help in this adventure about love, loss, and finding the truest version of ourselves.

A warm, cozy lap. The toasty smell of baking bread. Tasty food served in a bright-blue bowl. These make Haven’s life as an indoor pet heaven. All thanks to her beloved human and rescuer, Ma Millie. But when Ma Millie becomes too sick to care for her, the cat’s cozy life is turned upside down, and Haven decides she must seek out another human for help. Anything for Ma Millie! Her vow pulls her out of her safe nest into the shadowy forest and down unfamiliar and dangerous roads. When her first plan fails, Haven meets a wilderness-savvy fox who volunteers as an ally, and their perilous journey together brings some victories. But Haven finds herself pitted against creatures far wilder than she ever could be, testing her strength and spirit to their limits. Will her loyalty to Ma Millie—and her newfound confidence in herself—be enough to help Haven see the quest through to its conclusion? Can she stand up against the fierce predator that is tracking her every move?

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The Secret Explorers and the Ice Age Adventure

SJ King

Meet the Secret Explorers--a band of brainiac kids from all around the world. Everyone in this diverse group of young experts has a specialty, from outer space to dinosaurs, and each story follows a character who gets chosen for a "secret exploration."

In this fun, fact-filled children's book, Tamiko the dinosaur fanatic and Ollie the rainforest expert travel back in time to the ice age to lead a group of woolly mammoths away from a dangerous avalanche!

Let's explore!


 

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Run for the Hills, Geronimo! (Geronimo Stilton #47)

Geronimo Stilton

Finally, I was about to leave for a relaxing vacation all by myself. I was ready to kick back and connect with nature. But somehow, my peaceful trip turned into a crazy treasure hunt in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota with the entire Stilton clan in tow! Our journey even included a hot-air balloon ride to Mount Rushmore. Holey cheese! This was one adventure I'd truly remember.

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Treasure Hunters: The Ultimate Quest

James Patterson

Dodge missiles, map undersea caves, outrun secret agents, and uncover the ultimate treasure? That's a day in the life of the Kidds!

The Kidd family is on an exciting new mission: use the augmented reality gear their parents created to uncover long-lost treasure. But then their ship, The Lost, explodes in a ball of fire! Now Bick, Beck, Tommy, and Storm are stranded on a raft in the Mediterranean Sea, and their parents have been kidnapped by maniacal treasure hunters. It's up to the Kidd siblings to follow clues around the globe to uncover an ancient treasure and save their parents . . . before they lose everything!

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Graysen Foxx and the Treasure of Principal Redbeard

J. Scott Savage

A young treasure hunter must decipher clues, solve puzzles, and search his school for a long-lost chest filled with decades of confiscated toys.

Ordinary Elementary is anything but ordinary. Below the classrooms are winding, abandoned, underground passages filled with lost treasures. Fifth-grader Graysen Foxx, aka The Gray Fox--finder of secrets, solver of mysteries, and explorer of the unknown--is hot on the trail of the legendary treasure of long-since-retired Principal Redbeard, which includes a decades' worth of confiscated gadgets, rare comic books, first-edition Pokemon trading cards, an original Rubik's Cube, and a retro football handheld video game.

It's a battle between courage and cunning, smarts and shrewdness, charity and cheating. With the treasure on the line, can Graysen trust his rival--or is it just another one of her traps? May the best treasure hunter win!
 

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The Chickentown Mystery

Albert Arrayás

The competition to crown the chicken of the year is in jeopardy!

A few days before the famous Golden Feather competition, the hens of Chickentown begin to mysteriously vanish. With each disappearance, a new clue... But who is behind all this? Be on the alert; sometimes facts can be deceiving! In this fantastically illustrated book, your child will learn to use his/her imagination to bring to life all the talents these chickens have to present in order to win this prestigious award.

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Roxie Loves Adventure

Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

Roxie the pug lives a life of luxury. She loves fizzy drinks and fluffy pillows. She keeps her treats and chew toys close and never has to lift a paw.

One night, Roxie's humans are fast asleep when she has to GO! She scurries out of her doggy door to do her business, only to find . . . the door has locked behind her. Will Roxie be stuck outside forever? Without toys, treats, and tummy rubs?! Soon enough, Roxie finds her grit and finds her way back inside. A changed pup, she dreams sweet dreams of the adventures tomorrow might hold.

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Sophie Johnson, Unicorn Expert, Is a Detective Genius

Morag Hood

The ever-oblivious Sophie Johnson returns to solve a terrible crime using her keen skills of observation…or so she thinks!

Meet Sophie Johnson, Unicorn Expert and Detective Genius, ready to solve any and all crimes. Sophie Johnson studied hard to become a detective, and it’s a good thing she did as there has been an awful crime! Someone has stolen Lion’s tail. Unfortunately, Sophie doesn’t have time to train her new (and not very good) assistant puppy, Bella. But while Sophie’s busy rounding up and interrogating suspects, is it possible she misses that Bella may be a better crimefighter than she thinks?

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Nate the Great and the Missing Tomatoes

Andrew Sharmat

A friendly competition to grow the best organic garden is underway. The prize is tempting . . . a ribbon, a photo and article in the newspaper, AND some all-you-can eat favorites from Ned’s Diner!

Esmeralda, Annie, Oliver, and Rosamond are among the competitors. Just a few days before contest judging, some of Rosamond’s tomatoes go missing and Nate and Sludge are called to investigate.

Who is eager for tomatoes, and why? Nate and Sludge are on the case and what they find surprises all but makes perfect sense!

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Kudo Kids: The Mystery in Manhattan

Alex Shibutani


When the Kudo Kids travel to New York City for the first time, they're ready to hit the ground running and see the sights. But the siblings quickly realize that they're excited for very different reasons--Mika wants to take photos of iconic landmarks and visit a famous camera store, while Andy can't wait to try out an escape room that one of his friends told him about.

Both of their plans get shaken up when they learn that Aunt Kei is in desperate need of assistance as she prepares for an important fashion presentation. Not wanting to pass up an opportunity to explore, Andy and Mika enthusiastically volunteer to help run errands with their cousin, Jenny.

When a very special dress, the centerpiece of Aunt Kei's collection, goes missing, they find themselves on a chase around the city to find it in another unforgettable mystery that will leave readers guessing until the very end.

 

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The Impossible Crime

Mac Barnett

Mac B. is back... and this time, a new enemy is after the Crown Jewels! Will Mac solve this locked-room mystery in time?

The Crown Jewels are in danger... again! When the jewels go missing from inside a locked room, Mac's spy skills are put to the test. How did the thief break in? Where did the jewels go? And will Mac be able to solve this locked room mystery before the thief escapes? This mystery isn't just a who-dunit... it's a how-dunit! 

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Wildflower

Melanie Brown

A moving picture book for ages 3 to 8 about a daisy who is told she's "just a weed"--and embarks on a journey to find her place in the garden.

 

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Don't Touch That Flower!

Alice Hemming

Spring is here and today a flower has sprung to life. But when Squirrel becomes too protective of it, Bird shows Squirrel the right way to let flowers blossom and grow.

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Twinkle and the Fairy Flower Garden

Katharine Holabird

The fairies at The Fairy School of Magic and Music are planting a class garden. All the fairies love tending to their pretty flowers, except Twinkle. Her plant isn’t growing any flowers, just boring leaves. With a little patience, Twinkle discovers a very special surprise.

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Parker Grows a Garden

Parker Curry

Parker is growing her own backyard garden! She plants tulips with Nana and herbs and vegetables with Mom Mom. After patiently waiting all winter long, Parker sees her garden bloom! This story celebrates Parker’s relationships with her two grandmothers and the joy of nurturing plants in the garden, and the backmatter features Parker’s love of taking nature walks in her neighborhood.

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Bug

Maggie Li

Meet Bug, a small, wiggly caterpillar. Follow along as Bug transforms into a butterfly in this beautifully illustrated board book for the very young.
 

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Seed

Maggie Li

Meet Pip, a tiny apple seed. Follow along as it transforms from seed to sprout to tree in this beautifully illustrated board book for the very young.

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My First Nature: Let's Go Exploring!

DK

Let's go outside and discover everything nature has to offer!

How many legs does a spider have? Can you help spot the nighttime animals? From ferny, forest floors to white, sandy beaches, babies and toddlers will love journeying through the different environments to discover the variety of wildlife that lives in our surroundings.


 

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My First Garden

Livi Gosling

A beautifully illustrated children’s guide to growing plants, from vegetables to wildflower meadows.

This is a gardening book for kids who like to get their hands dirty, plant whatever they like, create indoor jungles, and go on sneaky wildflower missions.
 

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Logan's Greenhouse

JaNay Brown-Wood

Logan searches for carrots in his wheelchair-accessible greenhouse in this vibrant exploration of gardening and healthy eating, from the Where in the Garden? picture book series.

Logan is organizing a pet playdate at his greenhouse for all of his friends, and his treats won’t be the same without his carrots. He’s searched and searched, but his greenhouse is filled with plenty of plants and Logan needs our help to identify them. What do we know about carrots? They’re long, orange, and have bushy leaves at the top—and, wait a moment, is that a carrot? No, that’s a turnip. Where, oh, where could those carrots be? Can you help Logan find them in time for his playdate?

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Uncle John's City Garden

Bernette Ford

Visiting the city from her home in the suburbs, an African American girl sees how a few packets of seeds, some helping hands, and hard work transform an empty lot in a housing project into a magical place where vegetables grow and family gathers. It’s the magic of nature in the heart of the city!

 

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