Six Book Sunday!

Due to some scheduling changes this week, beloved patrons, we weren’t able to bring you our typical Five Book Friday post–and for that, our apologies.

As a way of making amends, we offer you this, our Six Book Sunday selection, which brings you a sensational sampling of the books that have sidled onto our shelves this week, and cannot wait to begin the week in your company!

Tempest: Beverly Jenkins is a master of historical romance, and redefined the genre as one that could represent the lives and stories of Black women and men with beauty, passion, and dignity.  And this new book continues to cement her legacy as one of the most important romance writers of our generation.  What kind of mail-order bride greets her intended with a bullet instead of a kiss? One like Regan Carmichael—an independent spirit equally at home in denims and dresses. Shooting Dr. Colton Lee in the shoulder is an honest error, but soon Regan wonders if her entire plan to marry a man she’s never met is a mistake. Colton, who buried his heart along with his first wife, insists he only wants someone to care for his daughter. Yet Regan is drawn to the unmistakable desire in his gaze. Regan’s far from the docile bride Colton was expecting. Still, few women would brave the wilds of Wyoming Territory for an uncertain future with a widower and his child. The thought of having a bold, forthright woman like Regan in his life—and in his arms—begins to inspire a new dream. And despite his family’s disapproval and an unseen enemy, he’ll risk all to make this match a real union of body and soul.  Publisher’s Weekly gave this book a starred review, cheering that “Legendary historical romance author Jenkins brilliantly touches on painful, significant historical and cultural references… the amusing dialogue, lively characters, and vivid descriptions of the Old West make this even-paced romance a winner.”

Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationships With Food: Acclaimed neuroscientist Rachel Herz, whose concentration in emotions and perception, has the power to make even the most complex mental processes understandable and fascinating, and in this book, she brings all her power to bear to help us understand precisely why we consume and crave the edibles that we do; for example: why bringing reusable bags to the grocery store encourages us to buy more treats, how our beliefs can affect how many calories we burn, why TV influences how much we eat, and how what we see and hear changes how food tastes.  She also discusses useful techniques for improving our experience of food, such as how aromas can help curb cravings and tips on how to resist repeated trips to the buffet table.  A book for foodies, science buffs, and those with New Years’ Resolutions to keep, this book will also help you understand how and why you taste what you taste, as well as how you can get even more out of the food you eat.  As Kirkus Reviews points out, “One of Herz’s major strengths is her skill at creating catchy phrasing to convey complicated scientific theories and experiments.”

Two Girls Down: We’ve already received some stellar staff reviews for Louisa Luna’s thriller, which echoes the rave reviews it’s been receiving from critics across the country.  When two young sisters disappear from a strip mall parking lot in a small Pennsylvania town, their devastated mother hires an enigmatic bounty hunter, Alice Vega, to help find the girls. Immediately shut out by a local police department already stretched thin by budget cuts and the growing OxyContin and meth epidemic, Vega enlists the help of a disgraced former cop, Max Caplan. Cap is a man trying to put the scandal of his past behind him and move on, but Vega needs his help to find the girls, and she will not be denied.   With little to go on, Vega and Cap will go to extraordinary lengths to untangle a dangerous web of lies, false leads, and complex relationships to find the girls before time runs out, and they are gone forever.  At once a police procedural and a gripping thriller, this book is full of vivid characters and gripping suspense that earned a starred review from Booklist, who hailed it as “An outstanding neo-noir, introducing enigmatic bounty hunter Alive Vega, a perfect female incarnation of Jack Reacher…Vega springs to life in the hands of this immensely talented writer…This is a must-read for fans of strong female protagonists”

A State of FreedomNeel Mukherjee is a powerfully talented novelist, who digs into some truly complex philosophical theories while still producing books that are entirely accessible, deeply meaningful, and throughly fascinating.  In this newest release, he takes on the issues of displacement and migration, with a story of five intertwined lives, from a domestic cook in Mumbai, to a vagrant and his dancing bear, to a girl who escapes terror in her home village for a new life in the city.  Set in contemporary India and moving between the reality of this world and the shadow of another, this novel of multiple narratives―formally daring, fierce, but full of pity―delivers a devastating and haunting exploration of the unquenchable human urge to strive for a different life.  A haunting description of displacement, as well as an uplifting story about life and redemption, The Wall Street Journal called this novel “Exquisitely written, cleverly structured, powerfully resonant to the very last line. . . . A profoundly intelligent and empathetic novel of privilege and poverty, advancement and entrapment.”

The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape TomorrowCharles C. Mann is making a career for himself writing sweeping, yet accessible histories–and this book is another feather in his cap.  In this book, Mann turns his focus to Norman Borlaug and William Vogt, two twentieth-century scientists who were both focused on how the earth and its human population would survive together into the twenty-first century.  Mann identifies two branches of thought, which he coins “wizards”, like Norman Borlaug and his followers, whose research centered on how technology would produce modern high-yield crops that then saved millions from starvation.  The other are the ‘Prophets’, like William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using more than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin. Mann delves into these diverging viewpoints to assess the four great challenges humanity faces–food, water, energy, climate change–grounding each in historical context and weighing the options for the future.   As much a look to the future as it is an assessment of the past, Mann’s book is a well-balanced consideration of our place on the planet that earned a starred review from Library Journal, who called it “A sweeping, provocative work of journalism, history, science and philosophy.”

The Infinite Future:  Are there other readers out there who hear that the premise of a new book involves lost masterpieces, mysterious authors, heroic librarians, writers, and historians, and simply must sit down and read this book right the heck immediately?  If so, this book is absolutely for you.  In the first part of this book, we meet Danny, a writer who’s been scammed by a shady literary award committee; Sergio, journalist turned sub-librarian in São Paulo; and Harriet, an excommunicated Mormon historian in Salt Lake City, who years ago corresponded with the reclusive Brazilian writer named Salgado-MacKenzie.  These three misfits ban together, determined to determine the identity of this legendary writer, and whether his fabled masterpiece–never published–actually exists. Did his inquiries into the true nature of the universe yield something so enormous that his mind was blown for good?  In the second half, Wirkus gives us the lost masterpiece itself–the actual text of The Infinite Future, Salgado-MacKenzie’s wonderfully weird magnum opus that resonates in the most unexpected ways with the characters’ quest.  Part science-fiction, part academic satire, and part book-lover’s quest, this wholly original novel captures the heady way that stories inform and mirror our lives.  There are a number of authors drawing comparisons between Tim Wirkus’ book and Ursula K. Le Guin, with the incredible Paul Tremblay saying ” I’m having a difficult time being clever in the shadow of having read Tim Wirkus’s magnificently audacious The Infinite Future. How about this: it’s a book about the power and melancholy magic of the stories we tell and of the stories we live.”

 

Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!