Peak Picks Current Titles Book List
A complete list of current Peak Picks titles.
-
Backtalker
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Nonfiction. “UCLA law professor Crenshaw, who coined the term intersectionality, details in her outstanding debut memoir the experiences that moved her to articulate why ‘the racial burden of Black girlness and Black womanhood mattered--and ought to matter--to anyone concerned with fairness, justice, and the fulfillment of the promise of America.’ Throughout, she writes in an accessible, unadorned style that vibrates with authority. The result is an entertaining and invaluable account of personal triumph and political awakening.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Backtalker -
Enormous Wings
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Fiction. “At 77, Pepper Mills is too old to be a stranger in a strange land. She didn't choose the Vista View Retirement Community of Austin, Texas--that would be her three grown children--but when she grudgingly moves in, she not only makes new friends, she falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. She fears it's cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: She's pregnant. As word gets out, everyone wants a piece of her: the press and paparazzi, activists and medical researchers, belly-rubbers and rubber-neckers all descending on Vista View while Pepper struggles to determine her next move...” Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Enormous Wings -
Ghalen: A Romance In Black
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Fiction. “Mosley stacks a distinctive coming-of-age narrative onto a tender love story. The novel begins in 1999 Los Angeles, where Jamilah Fenestra and Robert Horton meet while shopping at a farmers market... A scientist and a cook, respectively, their differences complement each other - and they raise a precocious son, Ghalen, whose world is rocked in fifth grade, when Jamilah is diagnosed with liver cancer... Mosley is particularly effective at rendering the father and son’s bond in her absence, and he adds grit and heartache to his depiction of Ghalen finding his way as a young man.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Ghalen: A Romance In Black -
The Girl With A Thousand Faces
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Fiction. “Mercy Chan mysteriously washes up on Hong Kong's shore in 1942, during the Japanese occupation. Joining first the resistance, and later a criminal syndicate, she uses her ability to speak to ghosts to earn a living. Siu Yin, trapped as a spirit, also arrives in Hong Kong but devises a much more destructive agenda. Watching over both is the goddess of mercy and compassion, who tries to stop the feud… before it can devastate the ghost-filled Kowloon Walled City district. In the midst of the entertaining drama, serious meditation on the nature of revenge and its effect on its seeker makes a heartfelt argument for the power of forgiveness.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View The Girl With A Thousand Faces -
Homebound
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Fiction. “It's 1983 and Becks can't wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. She's 19, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle… is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half-finished game to complete--one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness. Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection--and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space…” Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Homebound -
The Land And Its People: Essays
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Nonfiction. “The 28 essays collected here are a welcome return to form for the much-awarded and much-loved humorist. These essays find the author back to thinking about his signature material: the little weirdnesses of living; his relationship with his husband, Hugh; the odd things people say and do; manners, bad and good; his travels and observations thereof; his quirky friendships; and his practice of walking 10,000 Apple Watch–monitored steps per day—all in his signature key of delightfully petty and wonderfully peevish. Sedaris remains a national treasure.” Kirkus Reviews
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View The Land And Its People: Essays -
Make Believe
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Nonfiction. “Two weeks into his tenure as the Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Barnett did the most sensible next thing. He wrote a book for adults. Full of wit and piercing insights, [Barnett] shows adults that they need to reframe how they think about literature made for kids…a worthy form of art for small humans who experience deep emotions and thoughts. It will have readers laughing out loud, reminiscing about their own childhood books, examining their approach to reading with kids, and perhaps even rethinking their stance on Goodnight Moon.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Make Believe -
Mother Tongue: A Memoir
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Nonfiction. “In this moving and powerful memoir, novelist Novic (True Biz) shares her journey of gradual hearing loss in childhood and her entry into the deaf community as an adult. As a deaf-rights activist, she challenges narratives that frame deafness as a loss or limitation, arguing that her deafness has been a profound gift, granting her access, community, and self-determination. [H]er voice is strongest when she reflects on the lives of her two young sons--one deaf and one hearing--whose experiences about power, choice, and how language shapes family life across generations broaden her thinking.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Mother Tongue: A Memoir -
Seek Immediate Shelter
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Fiction. “A chilling message flashes across the cell phones of the residents of Beckitt, a small Massachusetts town: ‘Missile threat! Seek immediate shelter! This is not a drill!’ Yu's debut novel is a series of interconnected short stories united by the shared terror of the incoming missile... In an instant, ordinary lives are thrown into chaos. …[A]s everyone believes that death is imminent, each person must make impossible choices that will reverberate long after the false alarm is revealed. The intertwined stories of this largely Asian American community unfold through the characters' raw, impulsive reactions.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Seek Immediate Shelter -
Take Me To Your Leader: Perspectives On Your First Alien Encounter
NEW FOR MAY! Adult Nonfiction. “Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry)…thinks that when it comes to aliens, we suffer from a lack of imagination. Writing in his usual breezy style, the author draws endless examples from science fiction and pop culture, his physics punctuated with all the trademarks his readers have come to expect: an unwavering belief in rationality, a disdain for belief in general, well-timed humor, the obligatory Pluto diss. A fun romp through the possibilities of alien lifeforms and the physics that might allow them to land in our backyards.” Kirkus
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Take Me To Your Leader: Perspectives On Your First Alien Encounter