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Friday Family Storytime!

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New & Noteworthy

From the Blog

With the coming general election, the public will have the opportunity to elect Library District trustees from six districts. 

Petitions from interested candidates from these six districts are now solicited:

Staff Recommendations

Image for "The Last Bookstore on Earth"

The Last Bookstore on Earth

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two teen girls fall in love and fight for survival in an abandoned bookstore weeks before another cataclysmic storm threatens to bring about the end of the world in this unforgettable YA debut. Perfect for fans of Station Eleven and The Last of Us.

“A thoroughly original, intimate, and sometimes harrowing meditation on survival, forgiveness, and learning how to love again at the almost end of the world.”Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author

The world is about to end. Again.

Ever since the first Storm wreaked havoc on civilization as we know it, seventeen-year-old Liz Flannery has been holed up in an abandoned bookstore in suburban New Jersey where she used to work, trading books for supplies with the few remaining survivors. It’s the one place left that feels safe to her.

Until she learns that another earth-shattering Storm is coming . . . and everything changes.

Enter Maeve, a prickly and potentially dangerous out-of-towner who breaks into the bookstore looking for shelter one night. Though the two girls are immediately at odds, Maeve has what Liz needs—the skills to repair the dilapidated store before the next climate disaster strikes—and Liz reluctantly agrees to let her stay.

As the girls grow closer and undeniable feelings spring up between them, they realize that they face greater threats than the impending Storm. And when Maeve’s secrets and Liz’s inner demons come back to haunt them both, they find themselves fighting for their lives as their world crumbles around them.

“A hauntingly beautiful story of love, loss, and the raw fight for survival.” —Jarrod Shusterman, New York Times bestselling author of Dry

“Hopeful, thrilling, and twisty…the snarky sapphic dystopian of our dreams.” Jennifer Dugan, author of Some Girls Do

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Turning to Birds

Eye-opening essays about searching for peace in the cacophony of birds and discovering a world of meaning in small moments—from award-winning actor Lili Taylor.

“By turns introspective, inquisitive, and funny, the book is a love letter to nature and the solace it can provide.”—The New Yorker

Most people don’t really know birds—or rather, they aren’t aware of them. Lili Taylor used to be one of those people. She knew birds existed. She thought about them, maybe even more than the average person. But she didn’t know them. And then something happened. 

During a much-needed break from her work as an actor, Lili sought silence and instead found the bustling, symphonic world of birds that had always existed around her. Since then, she has kept a keen eye pressed to her binoculars in search of vivid stories that elevate the everyday, if only one pays attention. 

Through a series of beautifully crafted essays, Taylor shares her intimate encounters with the birds that have captured her heart and imagination—from tracking flitting woodpeckers through oak trees to spotting majestic blue jays perched on a Manhattan fire escape; from the exhilaration of witnessing a migratory flock from the top of the Empire State Building to the quiet joy of observing a nest of hatchlings in her own backyard. Through simply paying attention to birds, Lili has been shown a parallel world that is wider and deeper, one of constant change and movement, full of life and the will to survive.

Throughout Turning to Birds, Taylor encourages mindfulness, inviting readers to be present and fully engaged with the world around them. Taylor's lyrical prose and thoughtful meditations on both the art we make and the art we discover around us create a sense of intimacy and wonder, inviting readers to see the world through new eyes and to find joy in the most unexpected places.

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The Rescuers

This book profiles some of the handful of people who rescued significant cultural treasures that would or may have been otherwise lost to humankind. Some, like Dr. Assad, were on a noble mission, but that is not always the case. Some are motivated by profit, fame, gratitude, or personal advancement. The act of rescue may not be straightforward: even the most heroic ones can be tainted, suspect, illegal, or ethically equivocal.

The ten stories in The Rescuers include a variety of objects, motivations, locations and historic periods. They include a Scottish prehistoric site; Soviet-era seed banking; mid-20th century photographic masterworks; African American and immigrant folk music; Alaskan Native ceremonial and cultural objects; and a German language, Czech author whose manuscripts now reside in an Israeli archive. 

While each is a unique story, it is also representative of similar cases. Chapters explore some of the most controversial issues facing society today: appropriation, repatriation, indigenous rights, copyright law, racism, and the impact of tourism on fragile cultural sites.

What does the act of rescue mean? What is the psychology of those who commit these acts? Should the imperatives of society trump the rights of individuals to control their own legacy? Is more ethical for a museum to preserve cultural treasures or to return them to a tribe that might destroy them? What are the trade offs between economic development and historic preservation? These are the conundrums of today, the challenges of the future.


The stories included cover: 
The Monuments Officers’ recovery of cultural treasures stolen by NazisThe saving of Skara Brae in Scotland by the Laird of BrecknessThe rescue of the Iraqi Jewish Archive by Harold Rhode and Doris HamburgTom Cade’s preservation of Peregrine falconsLouis Shotridge and George B. Gordon’s saving of Alaska’s Tlingit cultureThe preservation of American folk songs by John Lomax

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Vera Miles

Captivating, talented, and beautiful, Vera Miles was destined for fame. Within a few years of making her way to Hollywood in 1949, she starred in such films as The Rose Bowl Story (1952), Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (1955), and Wichita (1955). Her frequent television performances so enthralled Alfred Hitchcock that he chose her to be Grace Kelly's successor for roles in The Wrong Man (1956) and the iconic film Psycho (1960). She also starred in John Ford's The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Miles's illustrious film and television career spanned nearly fifty years in Hollywood, and yet she is still considered one of the most unsung film actresses of her era.

Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away is the first full-length biography of the talented performer's life and extensive body of work. Integrating historical interviews and archival materials, author Christopher McKittrick reveals the struggles Miles faced as a working mother in the 1950s and 1960s and why she was compelled to step away from the lead role in Vertigo--a choice that irrevocably sundered her relationship with Hitchcock. Yet Miles would go on to appear in nearly two hundred television shows, including The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Ironside, and The Virginian, as well as numerous Disney films. She would work with some of the most talented actors in Hollywood--John Wayne, Bob Hope, and James Stewart among them--and would receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. By highlighting Miles as the lead in her own story, McKittrick amplifies the voice of this remarkable and prolific actress who was far more than just a footnote in Hitchcock's film legacy.

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Arcana Academy

“Magical from nail-biting beginning to shocking end!”—Danielle L. Jensen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Fate Inked in Blood

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A woman who wields magical tarot cards lands herself in a false engagement with the headmaster of a mysterious academy in this first installment of an enthralling fantasy romance series from the bestselling author of A Deal with the Elf King.

The dazzling first edition hardcover of Arcana Academy will feature gold foil page edges, designed endpapers, two interior black-and-white maps, a custom-stamped case, and a premium dust jacket with foil—while supplies last!

Clara Graysword has survived the underworld of Eclipse City through thievery, luck, and a whole lot of illegal magic. After a job gone awry, Clara is sentenced to a lifetime in prison for inking tarot cards—a rare power reserved for practitioners at the elite Arcana Academy.

Just when it seems her luck has run dry, the academy’s enigmatic headmaster, Prince Kaelis, offers her an escape—for a price. Kaelis believes that Clara is the perfect tool to help him steal a tarot card from the king and use it to re-create an all-powerful card long lost to time.

In order to conceal her identity and keep her close, Kaelis brings Clara to Arcana Academy, introducing her as the newest first-year student and his bride-to-be.

Thrust into a world of arcane magic and royal intrigue, where one misstep will send her back to prison or worse, Clara finds that the prince she swore to hate may not be what he seems. But can she risk giving him power over the world—and her heart? Or will she take it for herself?

Book One of The Arcana Academy Series