New titles from the Peak Picks collection that are currently in rotation. Stop by any branch to see what's available today!
The Happy Couple
Adult Fiction. “Meet Celine and Luke. For all intents and purposes, the happy couple. Luke (a serial cheater) and Celine (more interested in piano than domestic life) plan to marry in a year. Archie (the best man) should be moving on from his love for Luke… but he finds himself utterly stuck. Phoebe (the bridesmaid and Celine’s sister) just wants to get to the bottom of Luke’s frequent unexplained disappearances. As the wedding approaches and their… lives intersect, these characters will each look for a path to the happily ever after—but does it lie at the end of an aisle?” Pub description,
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Availability: Available
View The Happy CoupleHow to Be the Love You Seek
Adult Nonfiction. “After a string of failed romantic relationships, LePera realized that her inability to ‘connect emotionally with myself’ had led her to suppress her ‘authentic needs,’ lean on unhealthy coping mechanisms, and emotionally retreat from relationships. Readers facing similar roadblocks can develop a healthier self-regard by practicing ‘body consciousness’; recognizing harmful ‘ego stories’; and rewiring those ego stories with upbeat affirmations. Those eager to tackle their relationship struggles will be gratified.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: No Longer Available
View How to Be the Love You SeekThe Liberators
Adult Fiction. “At the height of the military dictatorship in South Korea, Insuk and Sungho are arranged to be married. The couple soon moves to San Jose, California, with an infant and Sungho’s overbearing mother-in-law. Adrift in a new country, Insuk grieves the loss of her past and her divided homeland, finding herself drawn into an illicit relationship that sets into motion a dramatic saga and echoes for generations to come. The Liberators is an elegantly wrought family saga of memory, trauma, and empathy, and a stunning testament to the consequences and fortunes of inheritance.” Pub description
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Availability: Available
View The LiberatorsThe Seattle Book of Dates
Adult Nonfiction. “From the authors of the bestselling Portland Book of Dates comes this cheeky insider's guide to the coolest spots in Seattle and Washington State. Authors (and married couple) Eden Dawn and Ashod Simonian seek out the obscure and fascinating, and the date descriptions are motivating enough to prompt even the most dedicated Netflix-and-chillers to head out the door. The book is an essential resource and armchair read for Seattle's couples of all ages (and singles with friends) interested in learning about off-the-beaten-path things to do, see, and taste.” Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Seattle Book of DatesA True Account
Adult Fiction. “In Boston, as the Golden Age of Piracy comes to a bloody close, Hannah Masury – bound out to service at a waterfront inn since childhood – is ready to take her life into her own hands. When a man is hanged for piracy in the town square and whispers of a treasure in the Caribbean spread, Hannah is forced to flee for her life, disguising herself as a cabin boy in the pitiless crew of the notorious pirate Edward ‘Ned’ Low. Meanwhile, Professor Marian Beresford pieces Hannah’s story together in 1930, seeing her own lack of freedom reflected back at her as she watches Hannah's transformation.” Pub description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View A True AccountThe Vulnerables
Adult Fiction. “In Nunez’s latest, set against the early days of New York City’s Covid lockdowns, a woman finds unlikely—and uneasy—companionship in a troubled college student and his parents’ friends’ parrot. …Nunez’s subject is the core business of being alive: the tenuous beauty of human connection, the nature of memory, the purpose of writing, the passage of time. Spare and understated and often quite funny, the experience is less like reading fiction than like eavesdropping on someone else’s brain.” Kirkus
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The VulnerablesWe Must Not Think of Ourselves
Adult Fiction. “The novel from Grodstein tells the story of Adam Paskow and the efforts of the historical Oneg Shabbat group to keep a record of those living in occupied Warsaw's Jewish ghetto. Adam is a Jewish educator with relentless optimism in spite of the Nazi invasion. Having been swindled by his father-in-law, he finds himself living in a small apartment with nine other people, all of whom have been relocated to Poland's old Jewish district and locked in. Emanuel Ringelblum, the real-life archivist behind Oneg Shabbat, finds Adam teaching children English in secret and recruits him to start documenting his life and the lives of those around him.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View We Must Not Think of OurselvesThe Worlds I See
“Wired called Dr. Fei-Fei Li ‘one of a tiny group of scientists—a group perhaps small enough to fit around a kitchen table—who are responsible for AI's recent remarkable advances.’ Known to the world as the creator of ImageNet, a key catalyst of modern artificial intelligence, Dr. Li has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the field. But her career in science was improbable from the start. As immigrants, her family faced a difficult transition from China's middle class to American poverty. The Worlds I See is a story of science in the first person, documenting one of the century's defining moments from the inside.” Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Worlds I SeeKung Food
Adult Nonfiction. “In his debut cookbook, Kung capitalizes on his TikTok fame to bring his cooking philosophy to the page. Kung refers to himself and his kitchen as ‘third-culture,’ which defines how he straddles both his parents' Chinese heritage and his Canadian American influences and how all this defines his food. On his journey, he explores the Asian diaspora in the U.S. with classics like orange chicken while also inventing a fusion that blurs the rules of cuisines and incorporates a variety of flavors from a range of cultures. The author's personality shines strongly throughout in recipe introductions, helpful tips, and personal stories.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Kung FoodAbsolution
Adult Fiction. “The opening cocktail party in McDermott’s sublime ninth novel is a marvel of emotional, sensual, and social acuity as a young, shy, recently married woman from Yonkers tries to find her footing in the brash, moneyed American expat circle in early 1960s Saigon. Blueblood Charlene quickly enlists Tricia in a fundraising scheme to help Vietnamese orphans and leprosy patients sequestered at a coastal retreat. McDermott is a resplendent writer… illuminating shades of good and evil within a bubble of Western privilege and prejudice in a country on the brink of war… ” Booklist
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Availability: Available
View Absolution