NEW BOOKS
JANUARY 2021
The Last of the Moon Girls Barbara Davis fiction paperback
A novel of secrets, memory, family, and forgiveness by the bestselling author of When Never Comes. Lizzy Moon never wanted Moon Girl Farm. Eight years ago, she left the land that nine generations of gifted healers had tended, determined to distance herself from the whispers about her family's strange legacy. But when her beloved grandmother Althea dies, Lizzy must return and face the tragedy still hanging over the farm's withered lavender fields: the unsolved murders of two young girls, and the cruel accusations that followed Althea to her grave. Lizzy wants nothing more than to sell the farm and return to her life in New York, until she discovers a journal Althea left for her, a Book of Remembrances meant to help Lizzy embrace her own special gifts. When she reconnects with Andrew Greyson, one of the few in town who believed in Althea's innocence, she resolves to clear her grandmother's name. But to do so, she'll have to decide if she can accept her legacy and whether to follow in the footsteps of all the Moon women who came before her.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life Jane Sherron DeHart bio paperback
In this comprehensive, revelatory biography—fifteen years of interviews and research in the making—historian Jane Sherron De Hart explores the central experiences that crucially shaped Ginsburg’s passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, and her meticulous jurisprudence.
At the heart of her story and abiding beliefs is her Jewish background, specifically the concept of tikkun olam, the Hebrew injunction to “repair the world,” with its profound meaning for a young girl who grew up during the Holocaust and World War II.
Ruth’s journey begins with her mother, who died tragically young but whose intellect inspired her daughter’s feminism. It stretches from Ruth’s days as a baton twirler at Brooklyn’s James Madison High School to Cornell University to Harvard and Columbia Law Schools; to becoming one of the first female law professors in the country and having to fight for equal pay and hide her second pregnancy to avoid losing her job; to becoming the director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights
Project and arguing momentous anti-sex discrimination cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
All this, even before being nominated in 1993 to become the second woman on the Court, where her crucial decisions and dissents are still making history. Intimately, personably told, this biography offers unprecedented insight into a pioneering life and legal career whose profound mark on American jurisprudence, American society, and our American character and spirit will reverberate deep into the twenty-first century and beyond.
An Indigenous People’s History of the U.S. Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne YA nonfiction paperback
Going beyond the story of America as a country discovered by a few brave men in the New World. Indigenous human rights advocate Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reveals the roles that settler colonialism and policies of American Indian genocide played in forming our national identity. The original academic text is fully adapted by renowned curriculum experts Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, for middle-grade and young adult readers to include discussion topics, archival images, original maps, recommendations for further reading, and other materials to encourage students, teachers, and general readers to think critically about their own place in history.
The Sentinel Lee Child mystery hardcover
As always, Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. One morning he ends up in a town near Pleasantville, Tennessee. But there’s nothing pleasant about the place. In broad daylight Reacher spots a hapless soul walking into an ambush. “It was four against one” . . . so Reacher intervenes, with his own trademark brand of conflict resolution.
The man he saves is Rusty Rutherford, an unassuming IT manager, recently fired after a cyberattack locked up the town’s data, records, information . . . and secrets. Rutherford wants to stay put, look innocent, and clear his name. Reacher is intrigued. There’s more to the story. The bad guys who jumped Rutherford are part of something serious and deadly, involving a conspiracy, a cover-up, and murder—all centered on a mousy little guy in a coffee-stained shirt who has no idea what he’s up against.
FEBRUARY 2021
This Is Your Time Ruby Bridges (juvenile)
Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges shares her story for children.
The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop Fannie Flag (fiction)
Bud Threadgoode returns to his home town of Whistle Stop, home of the
famous "Fried Green Tomatoes." He makes some new discoveries about his town and sets off a series of events that change his life and the life of those around him. The story leads you to wonder: can you go home again?
Wild Flowers of Maine Islands Mittelhauser, Glen (non-fiction)
A guide to identifying local wild flowers, researched and written by a local author and scientist. Great photos and descriptions.
MARCH 2021
Caste: The Origins of our Discontent Isabel Wilkerson (non-fiction)
Examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.
The Hidden Life of Trees Peter Wohleben (non-fiction)
Are trees social beings? The author convincingly makes the case
that, yes, the forest is indeed a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to prove his case.
The Road Back to Sweetgrass Linda LeGarde Grover (fiction)
Set in northern Minnesota, this story follows the lives of three Native American women observing their coming of age as they navigate love,
economic hardship, loss, and changing family dynamics.
The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett (historical fiction)
A stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who
ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.