Peak Picks Current Titles Book List
A complete list of current Peak Picks titles.
-
Daughters Of The Sun And Moon
NEW FOR JUNE! Adult Fiction. “See’s stirring novel interweaves the stories of three Chinese immigrants in 19th-century Los Angeles. In 1870, the small, dirty city is home to just 180 Chinese residents, including 30-odd women. That year, Dove’s scholarly Cantonese father earns a large ‘bride price’ by arranging her marriage to an elderly Los Angeles merchant… After Petal’s starving peasant family sells her into servitude, she’s forced to perform sex work… Dove and Petal meet Moon, a happily married woman trying to get pregnant... Without minimizing the period’s racism and misogyny, See offers an inspiring vision of female resilience.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Daughters Of The Sun And Moon -
Dead But Dreaming Of Electric Sheep
NEW FOR JUNE! Adult Fiction. “[S]emi-pro gamer Julia is offered a job by her estranged mother, a Silicon Valley exec whose company is testing a groundbreaking technology. They have implanted AI bots in the body of a man in a vegetative state, and Julia agrees to chaperone him from California to his family in Rhode Island. The novel is told in alternating… narrations by Julia and ‘You,’ the voice of what is left of the man's body, whom Julia nicknames ‘Bernie.’ Julia contemplates the ethics of her task, while Bernie… struggles to remember who he was. This masterpiece of storytelling… forces readers to take a critical look at AI's encroachment.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Dead But Dreaming Of Electric Sheep -
Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways To Create Like A Kid Again
NEW FOR JUNE! Adult Nonfiction. “Kleon draws inspiration from his kids' freewheeling approach to making art for these cheery, upbeat lessons on creativity. He writes that having rigid expectations of what art should be amplifies self-criticism and stymies creativity; readers would be better served abandoning those hang-ups and embracing a beginner's mindset. He also expounds on the benefits of not being afraid to make decisions that seem strange or foolish, since they can open the door to ‘our most wild, daring creative work...’” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways To Create Like A Kid Again -
I Eat The Stars: How To Live Fully And Beautifully In A Collapsing World
NEW FOR JUNE! Adult Nonfiction. “These striking essays…find [Wilson] moving from the vigorous hope of 2020's This One Wild and Precious Life toward a bracing reckoning with what she characterizes as civilization's impending collapse. But most of the account is spent investigating what it means to cultivate a holistic approach to impending disaster by connecting with one's community, living deeply, and engaging in the sometimes-difficult project of making meaning amid chaos. Challenging and rewarding, this will stick in readers' minds.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View I Eat The Stars: How To Live Fully And Beautifully In A Collapsing World -
Land
NEW FOR JUNE! Adult Fiction. “In 1865, with his wife and daughters in Dublin, Tomás works for Britain's Ordnance Survey on a remote western Irish peninsula and quietly ensures that landmarks from the Great Hunger are documented. His 10-year-old son, Liam, unwillingly accompanies him. A mystical experience within an unmapped cluster of trees deeply affects the reserved Tomás… Through stories… we follow the multistranded plot forward from Ireland to Canada and India as well as backward into prehistory and Tomás's repressed childhood memories. This wonderfully expansive yet intimate saga… offers a sense of empathetic harmony between author and subject.” Booklist
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Land -
A Resistance History Of The United States
NEW FOR JUNE! . Adult Nonfiction. “Stoermer debuts with an unflinching look at 18th- and 19th-century resistance movements in the U.S. He discusses the framework of lessons that resistance movements and the individuals who comprise them have needed to learn and follow to succeed in resisting abusive authority. He draws examples from American history, such as the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, the Black Loyalists in 1783, the Underground Railroad in 1850, and the Reconstruction era that began in 1863. …[t]he result is an honest portrayal that sheds light on what can truly be learned and applied.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View A Resistance History Of The United States -
Sublimation
NEW FOR JUNE! Adult Fiction. “In the world of Sublimation, when a person crosses a border with the intention to leave, they ‘instance.’ Two versions of them… appear. One stays, and the other moves on. In this world, Soyoung's grandfather just died in South Korea, and her instance, the one who left for the U.S. at a young age, is coming to Seoul for the funeral. When it's revealed that her grandfather left the house either to Rose, or the two of them reintegrated into each other, Soyoung starts wondering whether a merge could be just the perfect thing. Kim's debut is a tantalizing novel about immigration, desire, regret, and our struggle to know ourselves.” Booklist
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Sublimation -
Transcendent: A Memoir
NEW FOR JUNE! Adult Nonfiction. “Laverne Cox is a powerhouse in the fight for transgender rights and representation--but her path from a struggling trans actress to a cultural movement was anything but easy. Surviving a childhood full of trauma, dealing with depression, and working at a drag restaurant in New York City for seven years, Laverne was turning forty and felt it was time to throw in the towel when it came to being a Hollywood star--then she booked the character of Sophia Burset in Orange is the New Black. Her world changed overnight. And she's only getting started.” Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Transcendent: A Memoir -
Villa Coco
NEW FOR JUNE! Adult Fiction. “…Greer takes readers on a charming Italian sojourn in which nothing is precisely what it seems. A young archivist accepts a position as an assistant to a baroness at a Tuscan villa. He believes his duties will mainly consist of cataloging the villa's art and artifacts. But he soon becomes enmeshed in the household's daily drama, which includes avoiding a wild marten, searching for a fix for an ailing septic system, and entertaining his employer's friends and family. While the twists and turns of the plot will keep readers smiling, a deeper theme emerges about finding one's place in the world.” Library journal
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Villa Coco -
Whistler
NEW FOR JUNE! Adult Fiction. “Patchett probes the profound relationship between Daphne (an English teacher and the daughter of a thrice-married woman) and the man who was briefly her stepfather when she was nine, until Daphne's mother's divorce harshly severed the bond. Now 54, Daphne runs into Eddie at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and rekindles their warm bond. Meeting Eddie opens up Daphne's feelings for her father, who was mercilessly disparaged by her mother. But Eddie knew and liked him… …[T]his novel resolutely focuses on observing humans as they suffer loss and betrayal yet manage to love and forgive.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: On order
View Whistler