Peak Picks Current Titles Book List
A complete list of current Peak Picks titles.
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Nobody's Girl
NEW FOR DECEMBER! Adult Nonfiction. "When Giuffre first fell into the orbit of [Jeffrey] Epstein and his partner/aide de camp, Ghislaine Maxwell, she was a teenager who’d already had long experience with sexual abuse. In 2000, her father was working at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and helped her get a job at the spa there. That’s where, she writes, she met Maxwell and Epstein, who, offering promises of massage training, forced her into a two-year hell of sexual service. With the assistance of collaborator Amy Wallace, she’s delivered a composed yet righteously infuriated account of how Epstein manipulated and abused her, then shared her with others. A valuable document of abuse, and the strength required to counter it.” Kirkus Reviews.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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A Guardian and A Thief
NEW FOR DECEMBER! Adult Fiction. "Majumdar spins a luminous story of a family facing climate catastrophe and food scarcity in near-future Kolkata. It revolves around a mother known only as Ma, who manages a shelter between caring for her aging father and two-year-old daughter, Mishti. The three of them have obtained highly coveted ‘climate visas’ and are preparing to join Mishti's father in Ann Arbor, Mich… All is hopeful until the household is visited by a young thief named Boomba, who followed Ma home from the shelter suspecting (correctly) that she is siphoning food from her workplace. The plot thickens when Boomba makes off with the family's passports… As Ma and her family struggle to reclaim the passports, Majumdar unspools Boomba's backstory, crafting a complex antagonist who gradually gains the reader's sympathy. There's no clear-cut villain here, just people attempting to survive and protect their own.” PW
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Flesh
NEW FOR DECEMBER! Adult Fiction. "Teenaged Istvâan lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbor--a married woman close to his mother's age…--as his only companion. But as these periodical encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that Istvâan himself can barely understand, his life soon spirals out of control... What follows is a rocky trajectory that sees Istvâan emigrate from Hungary to London, where he moves from job to job… At each juncture, his life is affected by the goodwill or self-interest of strangers. Through it all, Istvâan is a calm, detached observer of his own life, and through his eyes we experience a tragic twist on an immigrant ‘success story,’ brightened by moments of sensitivity, softness, and Szalay's keen observation.” - Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Best Offer Wins
NEW FOR NOVEMBER! Adult Fiction. “18 months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, 37-year-old publicist Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband Ian… Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it’s publicly listed… A little stalking? Harmless. A bit of trespassing? Necessary. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners’ lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged… You’ll root for her, even as you gasp in disbelief.” Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Cursed Daughters
NEW FOR NOVEMBER! Adult Fiction. “…[T]he Falodun women live under a curse: ‘No man will call your house, home. And if they try, they will not have peace.’ It has plagued them for generations, causing them to seek solace in each other rather than with men. Eniiyi, believed to be the reincarnation of her deceased cousin, has sidestepped the curse by avoiding romance altogether. But when she rescues a man from drowning and can't get him out of her head, breaking the curse becomes front of mind. Can she succeed where generations of her family have failed? This is a page-turner…” Booklist
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Dead and Alive
NEW FOR NOVEMBER! Adult Nonfiction. “Smith brings an incisive eye and keen wit to art, music, fiction, politics, and more in this wide-ranging essay collection. Whether analyzing the misogyny faced by female muses; celebrating the work of a generational novelist, such as Toni Morrison; or pointedly commenting on the political and cultural tumult of the current moment, Smith delivers original insights couched in sly, artful prose. Standout essays abound, but ‘Some Notes on Mediated Time’ shines as an era-defining summation of how technology impedes the ability to be present. Readers will be rewarded by this unforgettable collection.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Family of Spies
NEW FOR NOVEMBER! Adult Nonfiction. “Kuehn debuts with a fast-paced account of the role her German family played as spies for the Axis powers during World War II. Kuehn learned that her Aunt Ruth, who was half-Jewish, became romantically involved with Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels. When Goebbels discovered her heritage, he sent the entire family to Hawai'i, where they supplied information that facilitated Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Kuehn's meticulously researched and well-written account is personal and deeply suspenseful, blending family memoir with World War II espionage intrigue.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: On order
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The Man of Many Fathers
NEW FOR NOVEMBER! Adult Nonfiction. “Growing up as a latchkey kid in the South, Wood--the former Daily Show correspondent and current host of CNN's Have I Got News for You--thought he could get by without help from adults. In this alternately tenderhearted and uproarious memoir of his pre-fame years, addressed to his son, he writes, ‘My father came in and out of my life like the next-door neighbor on a wacky sitcom.’ Like the best of comedians, Wood is a keen observer. But his varied experiences--waiting tables, working in radio, getting arrested for stealing credit cards--aren't simply fodder; it's clear that he's learned from them.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Overthinker's Guide to Making Decisions
NEW FOR NOVEMBER! Adult Nonfiction. “Your brain is wired to overthink decisions--not because something's wrong with you, but because you care deeply about making the right choice. The Overthinker's Guide to Making Decisions breaks new ground where ‘just trust your gut’ advice has failed you. Unlike traditional approaches that leave you stranded between endless analysis and vague intuition, this book provides a counterintuitive system that bypasses the overthinking loop entirely. This isn't about making perfect choices. It's about making aligned ones from a place of clarity instead of chaos.” Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Palaver
NEW FOR NOVEMBER! Adult Fiction. “At the outset, the unnamed protagonist… gets an unexpected visit from his mother in Tokyo, where he’s spent the past 12 years teaching English. She’s curious to know more about his life, but they struggle to connect beyond small talk, and the son remains embittered at her failure to support him when he came out as gay many years earlier. During a sightseeing trip with his mother, the pair finally put it all on the table, but struggle to find resolution… Washington’s nuanced portrait of the gulf between mother and son and their difficulties bridging it offers keen insights into human relationships.” Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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