2023 Acquisitions

AFRICAN AMERICAN ISSUES
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith. Recognizing that history as taught in America is white-centered, Smith takes the reader on a tour of sites such as Monticello and Angola Prison to better understand how each presents slavery and show how slavery in America is hidden in plain sight.

ANTHROPOLOGY/SOCIOLOGY
Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder. Kidder spent parts of five years shadowing Dr. Jim O’Connell who spent his career creating a community of care for Boston’s homeless—the “rough sleepers.” Kidder shows readers the individuals O’Connell serves and their daily struggles.

BIOGRAPHY
Accidental Czar: The Life and Lies of Vladimir Putin by Andrew S. Weiss and Brian “Box” Brown. A fascinating graphic novel biography chronicling Putin’s rise from a mid-level KGB officer to the autocratic strongman of Russia. Shatters the myth of Putin as a cunning political mastermind and exposes the man behind the facade.
Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper. Cooper—a science and comics writer/editor, host of “Extraordinary Birder” on National Geographic, and the Central Park birder—offers this memoir on his journey of birding world over, learning what birds teach us about life.
Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt’s Ancient Temples from Destruction by Lynne OIson. Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, a pre-World War II French Egyptologist and Louvre curator, evacuated works from Paris, worked for the resistance, and rescued Egyptian artifacts from the Aswan Dam flooding, doing her last field work at age 70.
Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights by Samuel G. Freedman. In 1945, HHH, “an exceptional white liberal for his time,” was elected mayor of notoriously anti-Jewish and anti-Black Minneapolis, giving him a national profile that led to his famous 1948 Democratic convention civil rights speech and the Dixiecrats’ walkout.
The Joy of Politics: Surviving Cancer, a Campaign, a Pandemic, an Insurrection, and Life’s Other Unexpected Curveballs by Amy Klobuchar. Our well-known Minnesota Senator offers her candid, honest, and bitingly funny memoir of unprecedented times in our socio-political landscape. She shares insider stories from recent historic moments, while inviting readers into her personal life.
Never Give Up: A Prairie Family’s Story by Tom Brokaw. In this memoir, broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw offers a portrait of the resilience and respect for others at the heart of his American family’s story. A reviewer considers his book inspirational in our fractured times.
Spring Rain: A Life Lived in Gardens by Marc Hamer. In this memoir, readers find what Hamer has learned from his gardens—from a difficult/violent home life as a boy to his autumn years. He reflects on reconciling one’s childhood with where we end up.

BIOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS
Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I: The Mother and Daughter Who Forever Changed British History by Tracy Borman. Piecing together evidence from original documents and artifacts, Borman tells the story of Anne Boleyn's relationship with, and influence over her daughter Elizabeth, shedding new light on two very powerful women of Tudor England.

CHILDREN/TEENS
The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander. Alexander has written the first book of a breathtaking trilogy about a boy, a village, and the odyssey of an African family. The “door” is an arch in Ouidah, Benin, from where the enslaved Africans were taken to the Americas.
Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson. In this middle-grade novel two enslaved children escape from a plantation to find freedom. Winner of the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award, this is an inspiring story of survival, love, and courage.
 
FICTION
Be Mine by Richard Ford. In traveler Frank Bascombe, Ford has created an unforgettable character who, at the end of his life, has the sorrowful role of caring for his ALS son. A winter trip to Mount Rushmore brings them face to face with mortality in this profound, funny, poignant book.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. This Booker Prize-winning author has written a gripping psychological thriller about conflict in New Zealand between a gardening guerilla group and an American billionaire. It is listed on Barack Obama’s summer reading list.
The Bookbinder by Pip Williams. In World War II Britain, intelligent young women have jobs but not access to college. Two sisters, employed binding books at Oxford University Press, find their horizons expand when an influx of Belgian refugees and wounded soldiers arrive on the scene.
The Cloisters by Katie Hays. A group of scholars studying artifacts at the Cloisters—a branch of the New York Metropolitan Museum—delve into fortune-telling and the occult, looking to the past in order to predict the future. A medieval atmosphere pervades this tense, tragedy-ridden drama.
The English Experience by Julie Schumacher. Readers are in for some crazy academic ups and downs as Professor Jason Fitger takes on the chaperonage of eleven undergrads in the three-week “Experience: Abroad” program. This follow-up to Dear Committee Members combines hilarity and satire.
Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke. Written in wondrous prose, this is a Civil War (1863) story that bears witness to race issues today.
Good Night, Irene: A Novel by Luis Alberto Urrea. This historical novel about heroism and friendship between women in World War II was inspired by the author’s mother’s own experience serving in the Red Cross.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See. This is the latest historical novel from a best-selling author. Lisa See was inspired by the true story of a 15th-century Chinese woman who became a physician despite the restrictions placed on women at the time.
The Librarianist by Patrick De Witt. The gripping tale of a reclusive retired librarian and reader who, in telling his story at the senior center where he volunteers, finds new interest in life. This is a lively and compassionate look into the lives of elders.
Lone Women by Victor Lavalle. The unforgiving Montana landscape of 1915 is the setting for this “horror-western” (Booklist), where a lone Black woman, a locked trunk, and a family curse create a captivating drama.
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult. Murder, physical abuse, and transgender issues figure in the plot of Picoult’s latest. Teenager Asher McAfee, accused of killing his girlfriend Lily, goes to court, with his uncle Jordan as his defender.
Maureen by Rachel Joyce. Years after Harold Fry has returned home, his wife Maureen embarks on her own journey northward. She feels compelled to see for herself the garden Queenie created in memory of Maureen and Harold’s dead son, David.
The Measure by Nikki Erlick. This novel follows eight individuals who, like everyone else in the world, have received a box containing a unique piece of string cut to the length of years remaining in each person’s life. The question: how to live out one’s remaining days.
The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict. Six sisters, two of whom lean strongly toward Fascism and Germany prior to World War II, take sides, with novelist Nancy needing to intervene to prevent catastrophe and save Britain from the Nazis.
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger. The body of a wealthy landowner is found in the Alabaster River on Memorial Day as the people of Jewel, Minnesota, remember the sons who have died in the two World Wars. This is the third of Krueger’s “stand-alone” novels.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. The author of Rodham creates another complicated woman—a writer for an SNL-type comedy show—who is definitely not looking for romance. Guess what? COVID’s intervention notwithstanding, and aided by email, this comedy is romantic.
Small Mercies by Dennis LeHane. The author of Mystic River has once again concocted a page-turner featuring the Irish of Boston in 1974. Mary Pat Fennessey is a tough mother ready to turn her world upside down to find her missing daughter.
Somebody’s Fool by Richard Russo. Russo’s wise and witty drama of small-town life and an unsolved murder is a good, old-fashioned comic novel full of heart and incredible storytelling.
Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes. A woman enjoying the globetrotting life of the very wealthy is suddenly cut off when her husband divorces her. A story of mix-ups, mess-ups, second chances, and a six-inch pair of crocodile shoes will delight readers.
The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane. In 1883, in a small town in the southern Australian outback, a six-year-old boy has gone missing. With many voices and taking many sides, the town responds to the search. “It is brilliant, fresh, and compulsively readable.” Ann Patchett
This Other Eden by Paul Harding. An enslaved man and his Irish wife find an island off the coast of Maine where they can make a life together away from the hostile mainland. This true story is a harrowing tale of Paradise Lost and people trying to get by over the centuries.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. The COVID pandemic brings a family together to sequester at the parents’ cherry orchard, where the daughters learn about their mother, Lara’s, past, and reconsider their own lives. Patchett draws us in with her beautiful writing and vivid storytelling.

LARGE PRINT
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King. Popular writer King, in these ten short stories, manages to invest her characters with “the stuff of real life” (Booklist).
I Will Find You by Harlan Coben. Once again, we have a fugitive on the run. Innocent, accused of murdering his son, and in prison, David discovers son Matthew may still be alive. At all costs, David needs to find him.

MEDICINE AND HEALTH
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia. This operating manual for longevity draws on the latest science for innovative nutritional interventions and tools to optimize exercise and sleep, as well as emotional and mental health. Reviews say this stands a notch above other books of this type.
Vagina Obscura by Rachel E. Gross. A myth-busting voyage into the female body, with unparalleled access to labs and the latest research. Gross clears away the linguistic and scientific shroud from one of the least investigated and most misunderstood structures in the human body.

MILITARY HISTORY
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann. In 1742, the British man-of-war HMS Wager shipwrecked in Chile. The survivors were feted as heroes until the captain reappeared in England, accusing them of mutiny. A fascinating story of life at sea.

MYSTERY/SPY
After That Night by Karin Slaughter. A Will Trent thriller. Dr. Sara Linton relives her own violent attack, 15 years ago, while attending a broken young woman who has suffered an assault uncannily similar to her own.
Collateral Damage by J.A. Jance. An unputdownable thriller about one man’s search for revenge. The “collateral damage” occurs when death, injury, or other damages occur as an incidental result of an act.
The Girl by the Bridge: A Detective Konrad Novel by Arnaldur Indridason. One girl is missing. Another is found dead. Detective Konrad is hired by an elderly couple to solve this compelling mystery with deep themes and a complex plot written by a famous Icelandic author.
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai. This novel is a stirring investigation into collective memory and a dramatic look at one woman’s past. A successful film producer returns to her boarding school to investigate the murder of her former roommate. Is the killer still out there?
Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey. Perveen Mistry, female solicitor of previous Bombay mysteries, fights the case of a dutiful servant wrongly accused, which spirals, like the fires that drive the story, into family, class, and gender issues.
Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry. Barry has written a beautiful story about a retired policeman adjusting to his quiet life overlooking the Irish Sea. In this haunting novel nothing is what it seems as Tom Kettles comes to terms with a decades-old case.
Racing the Light by Robert Crais The publisher says it “delivers Elvis Cole’s most dangerous case yet,” as he hunts for a missing podcaster who is also being trailed by thugs in the pay of dirty politicians.
To Catch a Storm by Mindy Mejia. Physics professor meets psychic in this page-turner as Eve Roth, evading police, searches for her husband. Only Jonah Kendrick, who has dreamed of the missing man, has a vision she must believe in. 
Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz. Once again narrator/protagonist Horowitz needs the help of his now ex-partner, Detective Hawthorne, in finding the killer of the drama critic whose murder is blamed on Horowitz.
Zero Days by Ruth Ware. This highly suspenseful mystery has the protagonist, who is also a suspect, on the run as she hunts for her husband’s killer in a milieu where she dares trust no one.
The Zero Night by Brian Freeman. Jonathan Stride, Duluth P.D., has returned to work to solve a kidnapping crime.

NATURE/ENVIRONMENT
The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth by Elizabeth Rush. In this account of a 2019 scientific expedition to the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, Rush follows scientists investigating catastrophic changes in the Glacier while reflecting on whether to bring a child into this world.
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams. A fascinating exploration of the science behind our connection to nature. Learn how spending time in nature can improve your health, creativity, and happiness. Williams takes the reader through the natural world, from the forests of Japan to the beaches of California.

POETRY
The Age of Phillis by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Jeffers’ stunningly insightful book focuses on 18th-century African American poet Phillis Wheatley. Its total is greater than the individual poems; the deeper one reads into it, the better it gets. Contains footnotes.
frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this memoir told in sonnets depicts a harsh life, death, and weirdness prevail, yet there’s tenderness and humor: “At birth, all of our little hearts / break like little acorns…”
Then the War and Selected Poems, 2007-2020 by Carl Phillips. This Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection deals with our complex times. What is truth? He writes, “I’m a song, changing. I’m a light / rain falling through a vast / darkness toward a different / darkness.”