Peak Picks Current Titles Book List
New titles from the Peak Picks collection that are currently in rotation. Stop by any branch to see what's available today!
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A Dangerous Business
NEW FOR DECEMBER! Adult Fiction. “Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind… and Eliza has attained… financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can't resist confronting. Side by side with her friend Jean, and inspired by her reading, especially by Edgar Allan Poe’s detective Dupin, Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer." Publisher description
Format: Equipment
Availability: Available
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The Light Pirate
NEW FOR DECEMBER! Adult Fiction. “Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town... Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm… A hopeful, sweeping story of survival and resilience spanning one extraordinary woman's lifetime.” Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Why We Meditate: The Science and Practice of Clarity and Compassion
NEW FOR DECEMBER! Adult Nonfiction. “Both deeply personal and methodologically sound, this book by Goleman (Emotional Intelligence) and Tibetan Buddhist meditation master Rinpoche offers a framework for meditation that draws on the spiritual and scientific. Each chapter explains the why behind an aspect of meditation, offers an exercise that immediately gives readers a way into the practice, and examines scientific reasons for the benefits. The coauthors draw on their combined experiences in ways that make meditation psychologically and personally relevant.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Afterlives
Adult Fiction. “The latest novel from Nobel laureate Gurnah resists categorization. As a breathtaking historical account, this underscores decades-long horrors of war, displacement, slavery, and colonial conquest. Yet Gurnah also intimately captures luminous facets of humanity through unique characters, each with a rich personal background and attention-grabbing, often humorous, sometimes disturbing idiosyncrasies. Absorbing, powerful, and enduring, Afterlives is an extraordinary reading experience by one of the great writers of our time.” Booklist,
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
Adult Nonfiction. “A coming-of-age graphic memoir from Beaton best known for her decade-long webcomic Hark! A Vagrant. After graduating from college burdened with student debt in 2005, Beaton left her hometown…to embark upon what eventually became a two-year stint working a mining job in Northern Canada's Athabasca oil sands. Beaton encounters a succession of idiosyncratic employees who open her eyes to the physical and mental tolls of performing grueling labor in harsh conditions..but it's her depiction of how a victim of long-term abuse internalizes their trauma…that lingers beyond the last page.” Library Journal
Format: Graphic Novel
Availability: Available
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I'm Glad My Mom Died
Adult Nonfiction. “Former iCarly star McCurdy recounts a harrowing childhood directed by her emotionally abusive stage mother, Debra, who pushed her daughter into acting at age six. McCurdy chronicles her efforts to break free from her mother's machinations, her struggles with bulimia and alcohol abuse, and a horrific stint dating a schizophrenic, codependent boyfriend. Despite the provocative title, McCurdy shows remarkable sympathy for her mother. McCurdy's narrative reveals a strong woman who triumphs over unimaginable pressure to emerge whole on the other side.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Lessons in Chemistry
Adult Fiction. “It's the 1960s, and chemist Elizabeth Zott is getting pushback from her male-only colleagues at the Hastings Research Institute—except from misanthropic Nobel Prize contender Calvin Evans, who's enchanted by her mind. Meanwhile, Elizabeth has a surprise second calling; she becomes star of a hit TV cooking show called Supper at Six, mixing in chemistry (‘combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride’) as she subtly signals that women needn't accept things as they are.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Shrines of Gaiety: A Novel
Adult Fiction. “1926, in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within.” Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Butts: A Backstory
Adult Nonfiction. “This whip-smart history charts the changing symbolism and meanings associated with the female bottom in ‘mainstream, hegemonic, Western culture’ over the past two centuries. Radiolab reporter Radke delves into the eugenicist under-pinnings of Sarah Baartman's performances as the ‘Hottentot Venus’ in 19th-century London and the giant faux posteriors of Victorian bustles…to Jane Fonda's butt-centered aerobics and the ‘lineage of butts in mainstream hip-hop.’ Marked by Radke's vivacious writing, candid self-reflections, and sophisticated cultural analyses, this is an essential study of ‘ideas and prejudices’ about the female body. Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family
Adult Nonfiction. “Born in Pakistan and raised in the U.S., Chaudry was subject to myths of American nutritional supremacy that favored processed foods. ‘The abundance of America strained at our skin and clothing,’ writes Chaudry, ‘and our relatives were torn between embarrassment... and mild jealousy.’ Chaudry refreshingly eschews conventional narratives about weight loss, as well as fat acceptance. That joy is contagious in descriptions of Pakistani street burgers, the rainbow hues of Punjabi daal, and 50 pages worth of delectable recipes. Victory is sweet and savory in this ebullient tale of self-acceptance.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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