Staff Picks_0623


Showing 1 - 20 of 27  There are a total of 62 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "21 lessons for the 21st century"
Star rating for 21 lessons for the 21st century
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children? As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Yuval Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important...
Book cover for "Alanna"
Star rating for Alanna
Series:
Average Rating:
4.7 stars
Description:
Eleven-year-old Alanna, who aspires to be a knight even though she is a girl, disguises herself as a boy to become a royal page, learning many hard lessons along her path to high adventure. "From now on I'm Alan of Trebond, the younger twin. I'll be a knight." And so young Alanna of Trebond begins the journey to knighthood. Though a girl, Alanna has always craved the adventure and daring allowed only for boys; her twin brother, Thom, yearns to learn...
Book cover for "The Briar Club"
Star rating for The Briar Club
Author:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"The New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye and The Rose Code returns with a haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse during the McCarthy era"-- "Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation's capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious...
Book cover for "The Buddhist on death row"
Star rating for The Buddhist on death row
Author:
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Boy explores the transformation of Jarvis Jay Masters who became one of America's most respected Buddhist practitioners during his two decades in solitary confinement in San Quentin"--
Book cover for "Challenger deep"
Star rating for Challenger deep
Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
Caden Bosch is caught between two worlds: one as an artist on a ship heading for the deepest point on Earth and the other as a brilliant high-school student. His powerful story shares the journey of a teenage boy struggling with schizophrenia -- Publisher.
Book cover for "Clockwork angel"
Star rating for Clockwork angel
Series:
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
When sixteen-year-old orphan Tessa Gray's older brother suddenly vanishes, her search for him leads her into Victorian-era London's dangerous supernatural underworld, and when she discovers that she herself is a Downworlder, she must learn to trust the demon-killing Shadowhunters if she ever wants to learn to control her powers and find her brother.
Book cover for "The Count of Monte Cristo"
Star rating for The Count of Monte Cristo
Average Rating:
3.6 stars
Description:
Overview: Alexandre Dumas's novel of justice, retribution, and self-discovery - one of the most enduringly popular adventure tales ever written - appears here in a newly revised translation. "This novel tells the story of Edmond Dantes, wrongfully imprisoned for life in the supposedly impregnable sea fortress the Chateau d'If. After a daring escape, and after unearthing a hidden treasure revealed to him by a fellow prisoner, he devotes the rest...
Book cover for "The darkness outside us"
Star rating for The darkness outside us
Series:
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
Earth's population is divided between only two existing countries which cannot manage to cooperate in any way, until a distress signal arrives from Titan's first settler and neither can afford to rescue her on their own if they act separately. Ambrose wakes up on board with successfully reaching his sister the primary thought in his mind until he notices several strange circumstances: he doesn't remember the launch, the ship's OS is voiced by his...
Book cover for "Fablehaven"
Star rating for Fablehaven
Series:
Fablehaven volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
When Kendra and Seth go to stay at their grandparents' estate in Connecticut, they discover that it is a sanctuary for magical creatures and that a battle between good and evil is looming.
Book cover for "Fight Club"
Star rating for Fight Club
Average Rating:
4.9 stars
Description:
The rise of a terrorist organization, led by a waiter who enjoys spitting in people's soup. He starts a fighting club, where men bash each other, and the club quickly gains in popularity. It becomes the springboard for a movement devoted to destruction for destruction's sake. Overview: The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club. Chuck Palahniuk's outrageous and startling debut novel that exploded American literature and...
Book cover for "The four winds"
Star rating for The four winds
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman's only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she...
Book cover for "Good omens"
Star rating for Good omens
Author:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter -the world's only _totally reliable_ guide to the future - the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea. Which means that Armageddon will happen on a Saturday night. There will be seas of fire, rains of fish, the moon turning to blood and the massed armies of Heaven and Hell will sort it outonce and for all. Which is a major problem for Crowley, Hell's most approachable...
Book cover for "The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy"
Star rating for The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
Series:
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
It's an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent...until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur's best friend has just announched that he's an alien. After that, things get much, much worse. With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite...
Book cover for "Knowing what we know"
Star rating for Knowing what we know
Description:
Examining such disciplines as education, journalism, encyclopedia creation, museum curation, photography and broadcasting, an award-winning writer explores how humans have attained, stored, and disseminated knowledge. "From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes--this is award winning writer Simon Winchester's brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass...
Book cover for "Margo's got money troubles"
Star rating for Margo's got money troubles
Author:
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet's always known she'd have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can't imagine how she'll ever make a living. She's still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor--and while the affair is brief, it isn't brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone's advice, she decides to...
Book cover for "The picture of Dorian Gray and other stories"
Star rating for The picture of Dorian Gray and other stories
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
A remarkably handsome youth, Dorian Gray, meets Lord Henry Wotton and is corrupted into a life of terrible evil. Granted eternal youth, Dorian Gray lives a wild, dissipated life while his portrait grows old and haggard. Oscar Wilde's story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is one of his most popular works. Written in Wilde's characteristically dazzling manner, full of stinging epigrams and shrewd observations,...
Book cover for "Princess Academy"
Star rating for Princess Academy
Series:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her homeland.
Book cover for "Prodigal summer"
Star rating for Prodigal summer
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Wildlife biologist Deanna is caught off guard by an intrusive young hunter, while bookish city wife Lusa finds herself facing a difficult identity choice, and elderly neighbors find attraction at the height of a long-standing feud.
Book cover for "Remarkably bright creatures"
Star rating for Remarkably bright creatures
Average Rating:
4.2 stars
Description:
"For fans of A Man Called Ove, a luminous debut novel about a widow's unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium-and the truths she finally uncovers about her son's disappearance 30 years ago"-- After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old...
Book cover for "Round up the usual peacocks"
Star rating for Round up the usual peacocks
Series:
Description:
"New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews first introduced us to Meg Langslow as a crime-solving bridesmaid. In her 31st mystery, Round Up the Usual Peacocks, Meg returns to her roots, juggling cold cases and wedding guests. Kevin, Meg's cyber-savvy nephew who lives in the basement, comes to her with a problem. He's become involved as the techie for a true-crime podcast, one that focuses on Virginia cold cases and unsolved crimes. And he thinks...