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RECOMMENDATIONS

STAFF PICKS

FICTION
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FICTION

FICTION

The Boat People

by Bala Sharon 

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When a ship carrying Mahindan and 500 fellow refugees from Sri Lanka's civil war reaches Vancouver, the young father thinks he and his son can finally start a new life. Instead, they are thrown into a detention processing center, as rumor spreads that some may be terrorists. While the other refugees are interrogated, Mahindan begins to fear that a desperate act taken to fund their escape may now jeopardize his and his son's chance for asylum.

The Fever

by Megan Abbott

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The Nash family is close-knit. Tom is a popular teacher, father of two teens: Eli, a hocky star and girl magnet, and Deenie, a diligent student. Their seeming stability is thrown into chaos when Deenie's best friend is struck by a terrifying, unexplained seizure in class. Rumors of a hazardous outbreak spread through the community. As hysteria and contagion swell, a series of secrets emerges, threatening to unravel friendships, families and the town's fragile idea of security

NON-FICTION

NON-FICTION

When They Call You a Terrorist

by Khan-Cullors, Patrisse

A memoir by the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement explains the movement's position of love, humanity, and justice, challenging perspectives that have negatively labeled the movement's activists while calling for essential political changes.

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Lovable, Livable Home

by Sherry Petersik

Sherry and John Petersik are the duo who chronicled their home improvement adventures on the hit DIY blog Young House Love, which spawned a bestselling book of the same name. Their new book, Lovable Livable Home, is packed with thoughtful advice, doable DIY projects, and inspired spaces to help you create a home filled with beauty and meaning that works for everyone.

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Factfulness

by Hans Rosling

When asked simple questions about global trends, we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently us. This book offers a radical explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective, from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse). 

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No Access New York City

by Jamie McDonald

A collection of the hidden places and little-known facts about New York. These are the secret gems of the city and most are completely off limits to the public. Through these pages explore the secret train station below the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the gold vault at the Federal Reserve, burial sites, tucked away establishments, secret tunnels, and so much more. All of these spots evoke a secret metropolis that is lost in time and harboring deep mysteries!

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Quiet Girl in a Noisy World

by Debbie Tung

Presented in a loose narrative style, this book spans three years of Debbie Tung's life, from the end of college to the present day. In the early years of her adulthood, Debbie slowly but finally discovered that there is a name for her lifelong need to be alone: she's an introvert. Ultimately, Quiet Girl sends a positive, pro-introvert message: our heroine learns to embrace her introversion and finds ways to thrive in the world while fulfilling her need for quiet.

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Why Not Me?

by Mindy Kaling

Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it's falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you're constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

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Fascism: a Warning

by Madeleine Albright

The former U.S. secretary of state presents a timely, considered, and personal look at the history and current resurgence of fascism and the virulent threat it poses to international freedom, prosperity, and peace.

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CHILDRENS

CHILDRENS

The Wind in the Willows

by Kenneth Grahame

When Mole goes boating with the Water Rat instead of spring-cleaning, he discovers a new world. As well as the river and the Wild Wood, there is Toad's craze for fast travel and motor-cars that leads them all on a timeless adventure.

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YOUNG ADULT

YOUNG ADULT

The Cruel Prince

by Holly Black

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Jude was 7 when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the High Court of Faerie. 10 years later, Jude wants to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him--and face the consequences. As war threatens, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

Children of Blood and Bone

by Tomi Adeyemi

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Seventeen-year-old Zélie, her older brother Tzain, and rogue princess Amari fight to restore magic to the land and activate a new generation of magi, but they are ruthlessly pursued by the crown prince, who believes the return of magic will mean the end of the monarchy.

The Scorpio Races

by Maggie Stiefvater

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Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas

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Starr Carter moves between the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between the two is shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. As Khalil's death becomes a national headline, some call him a thug, drug dealer or gang banger while others take to the streets in his name. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person who can answer that is Starr. 

To All the Boys I've Loved Before

by Jenny Han

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What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them...all at once? Lara keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved--five in all. When she writes, she  says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

Long Way Down

by Jason Reynolds

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There are three rules in the neighborhood: Don't cry ; Don't snitch ; Get revenge. Will takes his dead brother Shawn's gun, and gets in the elevator on the 7th floor. As the elevator stops on each floor, someone connected to Shawn gets on. Someone already dead. Dead by teenage gun violence. And each has something to share with Will.

AUDIO

AUDIO

AUDIO

AUDIO

AUDIO

AUDIO

AUDIO

Animal

by Sara Pascoe

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Women have so much going on, what with boobs and jealousy and menstruating and broodiness and sex and infidelity and pubes and wombs and jobs and memories and emotions and the past and the future and themselves and each other. Here's a book that deals with all of it. Animal combines autobiography and evolutionary history to create a funny, fascinating insight into the forces that mould and affect modern women. It's a laugh-out-loud investigation to help us understand and forgive our animal urges and insecurities.

Hamilton the Revolution

by Lin-Manuel Miranda

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The Tony Award-winning composer-lyricist-star takes readers behind the scenes of his groundbreaking hit musical, which is filled with romance, drama, violence, patriotism and adventure and details the many dramatic episodes in Alexander Hamilton's life.

Nomadland

by Jessica Bruder

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From beet fields to wilderness campgrounds to an Amazon warehouse, people who once might have kicked back to enjoy their sunset years are hard at work. In debt or finding that Social Security comes up short, they're forming a community of nomads: RV and van-dwelling laborers. Jessica Bruder follows one such RVer, Linda, between taxing seasonal jobs and reunions of her new van-dweller family, or "vanily." A compelling, eye-opening tale of the economy's dark underbelly and the extraordinary resilience, creativity, and hope of these hardworking, quintessential Americans.

Dr. Mutter's Marvels

by Cristin O'Keefe

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A biography of the medical innovator who revolutionized surgery by pioneering the use of anesthesia, sterilization, and a compassion-based vision.  He was brilliant, outspoken, brazenly handsome, and flamboyant in every aspect of his life.  Dr. Mütter's Marvels interweaves an eye-opening portrait of 19th medicine with the biography of a man once described as the "P.T. Barnum of the surgery room".

The Lightning Men

by Thomas Mullen

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Officers Denny Rakestraw, Lucius Boggs, and Tommy Smith have their hands full in a rapidly changing Atlanta. It's 1950 and racial tensions are simmering as black families begin moving into formerly all-white neighborhoods. When a scheme is hatched to rally the Ku Klux Klan to "save" their neighborhood, things spiral out of control, forcing Denny to choose between loyalty to family or the law. Across town, Boggs and Smith try to shut down the supply of drugs into their territory, finding themselves up against more powerful foes than they'd expected. 

The Shadow Land

by Elizabeth Kostova

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Alexandra Boyd has traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria, hoping that life abroad will help her heal after the loss of her brother. Soon after arriving, however, she helps an elderly couple into a taxi--and realizes too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. Raising the lid, she discovers an urn filled with human ashes. As Alexandra sets out to locate the family and return the item, she will first have to uncover the secrets of a musician who was shattered by oppression--and may discover that some knowledge is fraught with its own danger.

DVD

DVD

800 Words

Television Series

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George Turner, a recent widower, quits his job as a popular 800-word columnist for a Sydney newspaper. On an impulse, he buys a house online in a remote seaside town in New Zealand. He then has to break the news to his two teenage kids, Shay and Arlo, who just lost their mom and now face an even more uncertain future. When the family arrives in their new home, the colorful and inquisitive locals ensure Turner's dream of a fresh start does not go according to plan.

Desk Set

Movie

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At the Federal Broadcasting Network, Bunny Watson is in charge of the reference library, which is responsible for research. Watson has been involved for years with network executive Mike Cutler, with no marriage in sight.

The network is negotiating a merger with another company, and to help the employees with the extra work that will result, two computers are ordered. Responsible for them is Engineer Richard Sumner, who is brought in to see how the library functions. As he gets to know Bunny, he is surprised to discover that she is every bit his match.

The Heart Guy

Television Series

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Hugh Knight is a renowned heart surgeon in Sydney, who believes he can live outside the rules. But after an incident involving drugs and alcohol, he is banned from surgery. Forced to work as a local doctor, Hugh retreats to rural Wyhope, his rarely visited hometown, which, he assumes, will be distraction-free. He couldn't be more wrong.

Sharp Objects

Television Series

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Crime reporter Camille Preaker, suffering from alcoholism and recently discharged from a psychiatric hospital after years of self-harming, returns to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, to investigate the murders of two young girls. The assignment takes her back to her childhood home under the critical eye of her mother, Adora, a small-town socialite, which forces Preaker to confront some personal demons

The Crown

Television Series

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The British Empire is in decline, the political world is in disarray, and a young woman takes the throne... a new era is dawning. Queen Elizabeth II is a 25-year-old newlywed faced with the daunting prospect of leading the world's most famous monarchy while forging a relationship with legendary Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

The Detectorists

Television Series

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Alexandra Boyd has traveled to Sofia, Bulgaria, hoping that life abroad will help her heal after the loss of her brother. Soon after arriving, however, she helps an elderly couple into a taxi--and realizes too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. Inside she finds an box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov. Raising the lid, she discovers an urn filled with human ashes. As Alexandra sets out to locate the family and return the item, she will first have to uncover the secrets of a musician who was shattered by oppression--and may discover that some knowledge is fraught with its own danger.

People of Earth

Television Series

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People of Earth centers on skeptical journalist Ozzie Graham, who investigates a support group to write about the members's supposed alien encounters. The more he digs into their oddball claims, however, the more he recognizes a semblance of truth to their stories and, possibly, even signs that point to his own alien abduction.

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