Peak Picks Current Titles Book List
A complete list of current Peak Picks titles.
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This Story Might Save your Life
Adult Fiction. “Joy Moore and Benny Abbott have been BFFs for 13 years, the last four of which they've cohosted a chart-topping ‘comedy survival’ podcast about people's near-death experiences. The pair has spent months negotiating a lucrative distribution deal, so it's a shock when Joy invites Benny over one evening and announces she needs a break from the show. She promises to explain why later, but when Benny returns the next morning, Joy and her husband are gone. By turns hilarious, harrowing, heartbreaking, and profound, Crum's mystery ticks every box.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Upward Bound
Adult Fiction. “The residents and staff of an underfunded adult care center in Los Angeles form the core of Brown's singular debut novel. Chief among them is narrator Walter, who, like the author, is nonspeaking and autistic. Though he has graduated with honors from community college, he can't be left on his own. When his father dies and his mom has to return to work, he is forced to spend his days at Upward Bound. Readers meet others at the facility through Walter's eyes and the characters' own… ‘The story of my people isn't being told, or it's being told wrong,’ Walter thinks, and he sets out to remedy that situation.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Whidbey
Adult Fiction. “Birdie Chang arrives on Washington's Whidbey Island for a summer of escape and healing. Unbeknownst to her girlfriend, Trace, Birdie carries contraband: the buzzy new memoir My Turn. Its author, Linzie King, revealed on a popular dating show that she had survived child sex abuse by Calvin Boyer--the same man who abused nine-year-old Birdie, and, now a registered sex offender living in a halfway house, still won't give her peace. Linzie and her book are everywhere… When Birdie sees Linzie is speaking at a Seattle book shop, she can't stay away.” Booklist
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Wolf Worm
Adult Fiction. “Kingfisher adds a heaping helping of Cronenberg's style to her signature blend of humor and horror in this striking Southern gothic set in 1885. Illustrator Sonia Wilson once worked with her naturalist father, but after his death, she ekes out a miserable living… So she leaps at the chance to once again work as a scientific illustrator for Dr. Matthias Halder, even if the position means painting screwworms and blowfly maggots… On her arrival to Halder's decaying mansion in the woods, she's greeted with a warning from one of the neighbors that the ‘Devil walks these woods at night.,” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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World Cup Fever
Adult Nonfiction. “Kuper provides an in-depth and personal chronicle of the world's most followed sporting event. It opens with Kuper's youthful pilgrimage to Italy for the 1990 World Cup. From there, he traces soccer's evolution from a semi-parochial pastime to a multi-billion-dollar global entertainment industry. Kuper searches for ‘the heart of soccer,’ those moments of joy and connection that the World Cup continues to inspire. It's a difficult task, as recent tournaments have become an uneasy mix of wealth, exploitation, and spectacle. He reflects on encounters with soccer icons, journalists, fans, and others.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Blood Countess
Adult Nonfiction. “In this deeply researched, revelatory biography, Puhak shatters the horrific centuries-old legend surrounding the Hungarian noblewoman Elizabeth Bathory. Instead of ‘the Blood Countess’ who tortured and murdered hundreds of servant girls, bathing in their blood to preserve her youth, Puhak discovers a shrewd, strong-willed widow whose vast landholdings and religious convictions made her a target for ambitious men. Puhak's level-headed analysis of the evidence, grounded in historical context, exposes the tragic ease with which a powerful woman may be attacked through innuendo and misinformation.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Eradication
Adult Fiction. “Miles offers an incisive novel of a melancholy man's ill-fated attempt to make a change in his life and a difference in the world. Adi, a former schoolteacher in an unnamed city, is at loose ends after the death of his young son, Jairo, 11 months earlier and the subsequent collapse of his marriage. Seeking an escape, he finds a job listing from a mysterious foundation to rescue a Pacific island's endangered flora and fauna from an invasive goat population, and lands the gig. …Miles leavens the grim material with moments of dark comedy and shepherds the plot to a series of poignant revelations…” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Forest on the Edge of Time
Adult Fiction. “Recruited by the mysterious Project Kairos to change history and save the future from ecological disaster, Echo and Hazel are transported through time to opposite worlds. Echo works as a healer's assistant in Ancient Athens, embroiled in dangerous politics and wild philosophy. Hazel is the last human alive, in a laboratory on a polluted island with nothing but tiny robots and an untrustworthy AI for company. Both women suffer from amnesia, but when they fall asleep, their consciousnesses transcend time and they meet in their dreams. Together, they start to uncover their past…” Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Grow Great Vegetables in Washington
Adult Nonfiction. “Expert gardener Forkner shares tips and techniques tailored to the Emerald State, empowering readers with trusted, solid vegetable gardening knowledge. Start off on the best foot in your quest to grow an irresistible, edible bounty year after year with thorough detailing of gardening basics, localized gardening information tailored to each month of the year, handy planting and harvesting charts, and 38 thoughtfully… detailed plant profiles.” Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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How to Live A Meaningful Life
Adult Nonfiction. “Burnett and Evans, the ‘empowering’ visionaries behind Stanford's renowned Life Design Lab, have already inspired millions of readers to use design thinking principles to craft lives and careers they love. Now… they take on the most profound design problem of all: how to make a life rich with meaning and purpose. Evolving their revolutionary framework, Burnett and Evans present the latest research on what makes life worth living, showing us how to bring wonder, coherence, flow, and community into our everyday experiences.” Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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