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What’s Happening At the Library!
The library board enlisted the professional services of Allstate Consultants an engineering firm to do an on-site inspection that took place on May 3, 2022.
NEW BOOK ARRIVALS
In April 1912, twenty-three-year-old Lady Victoria Oldbrooke is traveling with her beloved father from England on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. But when the ship strikes an iceberg and lifeboats are lowered with women and children first, Lord Alfred gives his place to another, and they are separated. Before he goes down with the ship, he asks his friend Bert Banning, a mill owner from Manchester, to promise he’ll marry his daughter and care for her.
Devastated by the loss of Lord Alfred, Victoria and Bert take comfort in their growing friendship. Bert accepts his role as her guardian but, as friendship turns to deeper feelings, hesitates to propose. Not only is he forty years her senior, but her marrying an industrialist will cause Victoria to be ostracized by the aristocratic world she comes from. But she marries Bert and—cruelly shunned by everyone she knows, even family friends—moves to his home in Manchester.
Isolated from her familiar universe and peers, she becomes fascinated by Bert’s business and learns all she can about it. When he meets a tragic end, she steps into his shoes and applies everything she has learned, in spite of opposition from all sides. Taking on the risks, the hard decisions, and the responsibilities, Victoria has the sheer grit that it takes to make a difference in a man’s world and change the limitations women have had to face and defy for centuries.
My name was Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive.
Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle. Her charming farmhouse is rustic, her husband a handsome cowboy, her six children each more delightful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers behind the scenes, her kitchen hiding industrial-grade fridges and ovens, her husband the Republican equivalent of a Kennedy? What Natalie’s followers—all 8 million of them—don’t know won’t hurt them. And The Angry Women? The privileged, Ivy League, coastal elite haters who call her an antifeminist iconoclast? They’re sick with jealousy. Because Natalie isn’t simply living the good life, she’s living the ideal—and just so happens to be building an empire from it.
Until one morning she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Her kitchen is warmed by a sputtering fire rather than electricity, her children are dirty and strange, and her soft-handed husband is suddenly a competent farmer. Just yesterday Natalie was curating photos of homemade jam for her Instagram, and now she’s expected to haul firewood and handwash clothes until her fingers bleed. Has she become the unwitting star of a brutal reality show? Could it really be time travel? Is she being tested by God? By Satan? When Natalie suffers a brutal injury in the woods, she realizes two things: This is not her beautiful life, and she must escape by any means possible.
The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman—now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition.
You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.
Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.
Two years after writing the memoir of Judge Sara Hastings, 31-year-old Diane Montgomery finds herself at a crossroads. In the quiet solitude of her Kitty Hawk beach house, she contemplates the decisions that have brought her here: the choice to abandon her career in journalism to write a novel, the decision to move her and her daughter halfway across the state, and the ultimate decision—moving on from the loss of her husband.
But when she meets Nathan Garner, a 37-year-old artist who has recently opened a gallery near the beach, she is taken aback by the stirring of something familiar in her heart. Something that whispers of second chances and sunlit futures. That is, until Sara Hastings passes away, leaving Diane to grapple with a grief that is both new and hauntingly reminiscent of the past.
Can Diane gather the fragments of her heart and put them back together, or will she allow herself to be consumed by the tide of sorrow?
Jax has a slight issue with control—as in, she needs it. Always. Too bad she has power only over the Painted Lady Bookstore, the Victorian mansion turned bookshop she inherited. No one else listens to a word she says. Her ex gets engaged for questionable reasons. Her beloved sister, Ryleigh, wants to move away to find a husband. And the handsome contractor Jax has chosen to convince Ryleigh to stay is only interested in Jax.
Still, she’s living the bookworm dream—until an unhappy accident erases the names from the bookshop lockboxes where the town keeps their diaries. Which means the only way to find a diary’s owner is…to read it.
As secrets spill and scandals surface, life at the Painted Lady Bookstore gets a lot more colorful and chaotic. But for a woman who’s always had to take charge, Jax will see that losing control—especially with the right wrong guy—can set you free.
Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.
Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.
Handsome, talented, and beloved by (almost) everyone, Sebastian Laurent is used to being on top. The heir to a culinary empire, his sharp instincts and effortless charm have made him a legend.
What people don't see are the demons lurking beneath his golden-boy facade. There's only one person who's come close to knowing the real him―Maya Singh, his childhood rival and secret obsession.
She's also the only one who's ever successfully challenged him. He can't stand her, but if that's true…why can't he stop thinking about her?
***
Smart, witty, and competitive to a fault, top marketing executive Maya Singh is used to winning―unless her opponent is Sebastian. It's something that's infuriated and motivated her her entire life.
So when a series of unfortunate events forces her to work with her sworn enemy, she's determined to one-up him and show the world who's the best once and for all.
What she didn't count on? Not hating their time together. To her horror, she might even…like it.
There may be a thin line between love and hate, but that's one line she'll never cross. Not with him. Not ever.
Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him. He has nothing left to lose and with long, rigorous training under his belt the gentle and sensitive Nash has transformed into something he never thought he’d be: a physically imposing man with lethal skills. And now he has only goal left in life: taking down Victoria Steers.
In order to succeed, he’s going to need to cross enemy lines and work the job from the inside. But Steers is shrewd and only brings those with her complete trust into her inner circle. Nash must rely on every ounce of his hard-earned skills in order to prove himself an ally to Steers if he’s ever going to get close enough to decimate her criminal empire.
Yet, despite hating the woman for destroying his life, Nash finds himself oddly drawn to Steers in ways that he never could’ve imagined. And what he ultimately discovers will turn all he believed upside down, forcing Nash to do something truly unfathomable.
So, will the truth set Nash free?
It Happened in Nashville #1
I have found rock bottom. It’s here, moving in with my older brother because I’m too broke to afford to live on my own. It’s okay though, because we’ve always been close and I think I’m going to have fun living with him again.
That is until I meet Cooper…
Turns out, my brother has very strong opinions on the idea of me dating his best friend and is dead set against it. According to him, Cooper is everything I should stay away from: flirtatious, adventurous, non-committal, and freaking hot. (I added that last part because I feel like you need the whole picture.) My brother is right—I should stay away from Cooper James and his pretty blue eyes. He’s the opposite of what I need right now.
Nah—who am I kidding? I’m going for it.
A mother and daughter unpack a lifetime's secrets while on vacation in Paris.
Every daughter has her own distinctive voice, her inimitable style, and her secrets.
Laurie Ormson is an artist, a collector of experiences. She travels the world with a worn beige duffel bag.
Every mother has her own distinctive voice, her inimitable style, and her secrets.
Laurie’s mother is the famous “Dr. Liz.” An elegant perfectionist. She travels the world with a matched set of suitcases.
When Laurie invites her mother on a trip to Paris and Norway, she sees an unexpected sparkle in her mother’s eyes.
There are two kinds of people no one ever expects to be murderers: little girls and old ladies.
Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old. She's lived on her idyllic street for sixty years—longer than anyone else. Aside from being a curmudgeon who minds everyone else's business, few would suspect that Elsie has a past she's worked exceedingly hard at concealing—because when it comes to murder, no one ever suspects little girls or old ladies. And Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, once a little girl and now an old lady, has a strange history of people in her life coming to a foul end.
Brecks Kennedy has spent years writing the story of her life, but there’s one chapter that never quite closed… Jamie Shaw.
It all started with a jog, a clumsy collision, and an instant crush. But while B’s heart skipped a beat, Jamie’s eyes found her best friend instead. And just like that, her crush became her closest friend. Bound by shared moments of music, surfing, and secrets, their connection is undeniable, even as they desperately try to fight it.
But between college campuses, chance encounters, and stolen moments, fate has a way of bringing them together when they least expect it, time and time again.
As they wrestle with their feelings and the choices that have kept them apart, both B and Jamie must decide if they are finally willing to risk everything for the love that’s always been just out of reach. Sometimes, love isn’t about finding the right person, it’s about the moment when everything aligns. But what if that moment never comes?
Heart-wrenching and addictive, this is a story of love, loss, and the years it takes to finally get it right.
The Talisman #2
Twenty years ago, a boy named Jack Sawyer traveled to a parallel universe called the Territories to save his mother and her Territories “Twinner” from an agonizing death that would have brought cataclysm to the other world. Now Jack is a retired Los Angeles homicide detective living in the nearly nonexistent hamlet of Tamarack, Wisconsin. He has no recollection of his adventures in the Territories, and was compelled to leave the police force when an odd, happenstance event threatened to awaken those memories.
When a series of gruesome murders occur in western Wisconsin that are reminiscent of those committed several decades ago by a madman named Albert Fish, the killer is dubbed “the Fishman,” and Jack’s buddy, the local chief of police, begs Jack to help the inexperienced force find him. But are these new killings merely the work of a disturbed individual, or has a mysterious and malignant force been unleashed in this quiet town? What causes Jack’s inexplicable waking dreams—if that is what they are—of robins’ eggs and red feathers? It’s almost as if someone is trying to tell him something. As this cryptic message becomes increasingly impossible to ignore, Jack is drawn back to the Territories and to his own hidden past, where he may find the soul-strength to enter a terrifying house at the end of a deserted tract of forest, there to encounter the obscene and ferocious evils sheltered within it.
Spirited Zina and her secretive grandmother, Baba Valya, own a tearoom on rue Daru in Paris, where they have lived quietly since Zina’s mother’s untimely death. By day, the women serve tea, mostly to members of the bustling Russian émigré community, but when dusk falls, they divine fortunes and perform séances for their loyal clientele.
Then the charming Princess Olga and her brother arrive, searching for knowledge about the disappearance of their father, the exiled Grand Duke, cousin of the last Tsar of Russia. Zina, eager to learn more about the spirit world and her powers, performs the séance. She is able to summon the Grand Duke, but to her horror, he starts to haunt the shop, and he seems to know something sinister about her mother’s death.
As Zina delves into her family’s hidden past, dark secrets are unearthed, threatening the home and tearoom Zina and her grandmother have worked so hard to build, not to mention their very lives.
Downsized, broke, and dumped, 38-year-old Marley sneaks home to her childhood bedroom in the town she couldn’t wait to escape twenty years ago. Not much has changed in Culpepper. The cool kids are still cool. Now they just own car dealerships and live in McMansions next door. Oh, and the whole town is still talking about that Homecoming she ruined her senior year.
Desperate for a new start, Marley accepts a temporary teaching position. Can the girl banned from all future Culpepper High Homecomings keep the losing-est girls soccer team in school history from killing each other and prevent carpal tunnel in a bunch of phone-clutching gym class students?
Maybe with the help of Jake Weston, high school bad boy turned sexy good guy. When the school rumor mill sends Marley to the principal’s office to sign an ethics contract, the tattooed track coach, dog dad, and teacher of the year becomes her new fake boyfriend and alibi—for a price. The Deal: He’ll teach her how to coach if she teaches him how to be in a relationship.
Who knew a fake boyfriend could deliver such real orgasms? But it’s all temporary. The guy. The job. The team. There’s too much history. Rock bottom can’t turn into a foundation for happily ever after. Can it?
NEW MOVIE ARRIVALS
Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd) have been best friends AUS since they were kids, and have always dreamed of remaking their all-time favorite movie: the cinematic "classic," Anaconda. When a midlife crisis pushes them to finally go for it, they head deep into the Amazon to start filming. But things get real when an actual giant anaconda appears, turning their comically chaotic movie set into a deadly situation. The movie they're dying to make? It might just get them killed.
Based on the bestselling book, after a devastating accident threatens to tear their family apart, Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) and her daughter Clara (Mckenna Grace) must confront family secrets, redefine love, and discover what matters most.
THE HOUSEMAID is a wildly entertaining thriller starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, based on the best- selling book. From director Paul Feig, the film plunges audiences into a twisted world where perfection is an illusion, and nothing is as it seems. Trying to escape her past, Millie (Sweeney) accepts a job as a live-in housemaid for the wealthy Nina (Seyfried) and Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar). But what begins as a dream job quickly unravels into something far more dangerous — a sexy, seductive game of secrets, scandal, and power. Behind the Winchesters' closed doors lies a world of shocking twists that will leave you guessing until the very end.
The shocking true story of a group of outsiders (Jude Law, Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, Sydney Sweeney) who settle on a remote island only to discover their greatest threat isn’t the brutal climate or deadly wildlife, but each other.
From Stephen Kings official site: In the near future, where America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. The game is simple - maintain a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings, and you're out - permanently.
Witness the birth of England as you've never seen in the acclaimed series The Last Kingdom from the makers of Downton Abbey.
At the end of the 9th century, many of the separate kingdoms, which we now call England, have fallen in bloody conflict with invading Danes. Against this turbulent backdrop lives our hero, Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon).
Born the son of a Saxon nobleman, he is captured by the Danes and raised as one of their own. For many years fate binds him to Alfred (David Dawson), Saxon King of Wessex. Uhtred must fight for Alfred's dream of uniting the kingdoms. Suffering great personal tragedy, Uhtred is torn between the country of his birth and the people of his upbringing.
After his father's death, the turbulent reign of the new King Edward threatens Alfred's dream more than ever. When faced with old enemies and fresh heartbreak, Uhtred finds his own fate tied to the future of the nation…Destiny Is All!
Elphaba and Glinda are now estranged, each living with the consequences of their choices. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), now demonized as The Wicked Witch of the West, lives in exile, continuing her fight to expose The Wizard. Meanwhile, Glinda (Ariana Grande) has become a glamorous symbol of Goodness, basking in the perks of fame and popularity. As the angry citizens of Oz rise up against the Wicked Witch, Glinda and Elphaba must reunite and truly see each other-if they are to change themselves, and all of Oz. Bring home the adventure and prepare to be changed... for good.
Rookie cops Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde find themselves on the twisting trail of a great mystery when Gary De’Snake arrives in Zootopia and turns the animal metropolis upside down. To crack the case, Judy and Nick must go undercover to unexpected new parts of town, where their growing partnership is tested like never before.
2025 Academy Award Nominee
Washed-up revolutionary Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). When his evil nemesis (Sean Penn) resurfaces after 16 years and she goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her, father and daughter both battling the consequences of his past.
Five years after their dangerous journey across the post-pandemic United States, Ellie and Joel have settled down in Jackson, Wyoming. Living amongst a thriving community of survivors has allowed them peace and stability, despite the constant threat of the infected and other, more desperate survivors. When a violent event disrupts that peace, Ellie embarks on a relentless journey to carry out justice and find closure. As she hunts those responsible one by one, she is confronted with the devastating physical and emotional repercussions of her actions.
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