New Reads – Straight to Your Inbox

New Reads – Straight to Your Inbox

Looking for the newest library titles in your preferred genres or by your favorite authors? Get lists of titles added to the Allegheny County Library collections straight to your inbox with Select Reads!

Sign up for receive free monthly email notifications so you never miss another great pick. Choose from a variety of topics like Fiction, Non-Fiction, Entertainment, Graphic Novels, Home & Garden, Large Print, Romance, Teen, Age groups (4-8 & 9-12) and so many more.

Wth Select Reads, you can be up-to-date with the latest titles and authors that are available in the library catalog.

Find this resource on the county’s eLibrary page at elibrary.einetwork.net.

Page to Screen

Page to Screen

There are a ton of books that have been recently turned into films or TV series. Check out the titles & where you can watch them below!


Now Showing

Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus

Brie Larson (Captain Marvel) stars in and executive produces the series adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’ bestselling historical fiction novel about a chemist who becomes the unwitting star of a popular cooking show in early 1960s California.

Where to watch: New episodes of Lessons in Chemistry stream weekly on Apple TV+.

 

 

Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI
by David Grann

Presents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history

Where to watch: In Theaters Now

 

 

Pain Hustlers: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup
by Evan Hughes

Chris Evans (Captain America) and Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) lead the film adaptation of journalist Evan Hughes’ true crime book about controversial pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics.

Where to watch: Catch Pain Hustlers on Netflix.

 

 

Fellow Travelers
by Thomas Mallon

Matt Bomer (The Boys in the Band) and Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton) star as a pair of lovers navigating a decades-long romance in mid-20th century Washington, D.C. in the miniseries adaptation of Thomas Mellon’s political thriller.

Where to watch: Catch new episodes of Fellow Travelers weekly on Showtime.

 

 

 

The Fall of the House of Usher: And Other Stories That Inspired the Netflix Series
by Edgar Allan Poe

Filmmaker Mike Flanagan is back with another miniseries adaptation of classic horror tales — this time, Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 titular short story and other works.

Where to watch: The Fall of the House of Usher is streaming on Netflix.

 

 

 

Black Cake
by Charmaine Wilkerson

An ensemble cast stars in the series adaptation of Charmaine Wilkerson’s bestselling saga about a Caribbean American family caught up in a murder mystery. Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films co-produced the series.

Where to watch: Black Cake is streaming on Hulu.

 

 

 


Coming Soon

The Marsh King’s Daughter
by Karen Dionne

Daisy Ridley stars as a woman confronting her troubled past after her father escapes from prison in the thriller film adaptation of Karen Dionne’s international bestseller.

Where to watch: The Marsh King’s Daughter hits theaters on November 3rd.

 

 

 

Elvis and Me
by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley

Academy Award-winning director Sofia Coppola helms Priscilla, the film adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s memoir chronicling her tumultuous marriage to Elvis Presley.

Where to watch: Priscilla hits theaters on November 3rd.

 

 

 

 

The Complete The Killer
by Matz; illustrated by Luc Jacamon

Michael Fassbender stars as titular assassin The Killer in David Fincher’s film adaptation of the French neo-noir graphic novel series.

Where to watch: Following a limited theatrical release, The Killer premieres on Netflix on November 10th.

 

 

 

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
by Ibram X. Kendi

The documentary adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi’s National Book Award-winning history features appearances from Brittney Cooper, Angela Davis, Imani Perry, and more.

Where to watch: Premieres in theaters on November 10th.

 

 

 

 

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence returns to direct the film adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, the prequel to Suzanne Collins’ dystopian Hunger Games trilogy starring a teenage Coriolanus Snow, the future president of Panem.

Where to watch: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes premieres in theaters on November 17th.

For Fans of the Movie Oppenheimer

Learn more about the history of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird

The inspiration for the major motion picture Oppenheimer, this is the definitive biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb for his country in a time of war and who later found himself confronting the moral consequences of scientific progress.

Get it NOW with NO WAIT on hoopla!

 

Brotherhood of the Bomb: the Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller by Gregg Herken

The story of these three men, builders of the bombs, is fundamentally about loyalty-to country, to science, and to each other-and about the wrenching choices that had to be made when these allegiances came into conflict. Gregg Herken gives us the behind-the-scenes account based upon a decade of research, interviews, and newly released Freedom of Information Act and Russian documents.

 

Trinity: a Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

Trinity , the debut graphic book by the gifted illustrator Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, depicts in vivid detail the dramatic history of the race to build and the decision to drop the first atomic bomb. This sweeping historical narrative traces the spark of invention from the laboratories of nineteenth-century Europe to the massive industrial and scientific efforts of the Manhattan Project.

 

Bomb: the Race to Build– and Steal– the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

Recounts the scientific discoveries that enabled atom splitting, the military intelligence operations that occurred in rival countries, and the work of brilliant scientists hidden at Los Alamos.

 

The First War of Physics: the Secret History of the Atom Bomb, 1939-1949 by J. E. Baggott

The First War of Physics is a grand and frightening story of scientific ambition, intrigue, and genius: a tale barely believable as fiction, which just happens to be historical fact. Rich in personality, action, confrontation, and deception, The First War of Physics is the first fully realized popular account of the race to build humankind’s most destructive weapon.

 

Fallout: the Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the Worldby Lesley M. M. Blume

New York Times bestselling author Lesley M.M. Blume reveals how one courageous American reporter uncovered one of the deadliest cover-ups of the 20th century–the true effects of the atom bomb–potentially saving millions of lives. Fallout is an engrossing detective story, as well as an important piece of hidden history that shows how one heroic scoop saved–and can still save–the world.

 

The Manhattan Project by Daniel Cohen

Discusses the personalities and events involved in the research, development and detonation of the atomic bombs built by the United States in the 1940s.

 

 

: the Secret Story of America’s Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy by Joseph

In a book that will force the revision of fifty years of scholarship and reporting on the Cold War, award-winning journalists Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel reveal for the first time a devastatingly effective Soviet spy network that infiltrated the Manhattan Project and ferried America’s top atomic secrets to Stalin.  At the heart of the network was Ted Hall, who was so secret an operative that even Klaus Fuchs, his fellow Manhattan Project scientist and Soviet agent, had no idea they were comrades. For forty years only a few Russians knew what Ted Hall really did.  Now Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel reveal the astonishing true story of the atomic spies who got away.  Bombshell is history at its most explosive.

Novels Set in Western PA

Novels Set in Western PA

Pittsburgh Novels interactive map example

Example of the interactive map feature

We are excited to announce that the Penn State University Libraries’ Open Publishing program has launched “The Pittsburgh Novel: Western Pennsylvania in Fiction and Drama, 1792–2022.” This online annotated bibliography compiled by Peter Oresick and Jake Oresick includes all known fiction with a significant geographical setting in any of Pennsylvania’s 26 westernmost counties published between 1792 and 2022 – more than 1,500 works.

The searchable bibliography organizes content using keywords, genres and place settings and includes abstracts and notes for each entry. Places are nested in each entry by county, municipality, neighborhood, sub-neighborhood and landmark. A unique feature of the bibliography is the interactive map. Clicking on a region in the map provides a list of titles associated with that region or zone with links to that title in the bibliography.

The bibliography includes national bestsellers, award-winning films and screenplays of popular motion pictures, children’s and young adult works, scripts of plays and television series, and obscure and self-published titles.

Read more about this project here:  Penn State University Libraries launches online bibliography of western Pa. fiction (PSU News – January 31, 2023)

Search the database here.

Haunting Tales: Selections for Your Halloween Reading

Haunting Tales: Selections for Your Halloween Reading

From mysteries to supernatural stories, folklore to the macabre – we’ve got titles old & new to spark your spooky-bone this Halloween season!


Cover Image Marple: Twelve New Mysteries by Agatha Christie

Legendary sleuth Jane Marple returns to solve twelve baffling cases in this brand-new collection, penned by a host of acclaimed authors skilled in the fine art of mystery and murder.

 

 

Cover Image Devil House by John Darnielle

True crime writer Gague Chandler, the protagonist of Darnielle’s Devil House, jumps at the opportunity to live at the “Devil House” a building where two gruesome, possibly satanic murders took place in 1986. At once a magnetic thriller and an intriguing look at the true crime genre, Darnielle’s novel is filled with rich themes, including the slippery nature of crime reporting and the demands of the artistic process.

 

 

Cover ImageThistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

This tale explores Slavic folklore and magical realism through the lives of estranged siblings Bellatine and Isaac Yaga who couldn’t be more different in their personalities and their mysterious abilities. When they reunite to collect a family inheritance, it’s to discover their great-great-grandmother, Baba Yaga, has left them Thistlefoot, a sentient cottage with chicken legs. This story explores the folktales surround Baba Yaga – a magical crone, hidden deep in the forests of Eastern Europe, who -depending on her mood – can be friend or foe.

 

Cover ImageJackal by Erin A. Adams

A young Black girl goes missing in the woods outside her white rust belt town. But she’s not the first-and she may not be the last. . .  Adams transcends the typical hometown mystery with an effective blend of social and supernatural terrors. The author skillfully presents changing theories about the possible humans involved as characters struggle with who to trust and navigate dreamscapes that seem increasingly real. The first-person narration draws readers in as they sympathize with the character’s plight.

 

 

Cover ImageA Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782 , deep in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont. Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar’s depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in the All Souls Series.

 

 

Cover ImageNettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Nettle & Bone is the kind of book that immediately feels like an old friend. Fairytale mythic resonance meets homey pragmatism in this utterly delightful story. It’s creepy, funny, heartfelt, and full of fantastic characters.

 

 

 

Cover ImageAll the Living and the Dead: from Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work by Haley Campbell

A deeply compelling exploration of the death industry and the people–morticians, detectives, crime scene cleaners, embalmers, executioners–who work in it and what led them there. A dazzling work of cultural criticism, All the Living and the Dead weaves together reportage with memoir, history, and philosophy, to offer readers a fascinating look into the psychology of Western death.

 

 

Cover ImageOver My Dead Body : Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries by Greg Melville

Melville’s Over My Dead Body is a lively (pun intended) and wide-ranging history of cemeteries, places that have mirrored the passing eras in history but have also shaped it. Cemeteries have given birth to landscape architecture and famous parks, as well as influenced architectural styles. They’ve inspired and motivated some of our greatest poets and authors–Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson. They’ve been used as political tools to shift the country’s discourse and as important symbols of the United States’ ambition and reach. Over My Dead Body explores everything–history, sustainability, land use, and more–and what it really means to memorialize.

 

Remembering Her Majesty The Queen

Remembering Her Majesty The Queen

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (April 21, 1926 – September 8, 2022) was the longest-reigning Monarch in British history. Discover more about her life, family, and impact on the world with these titles.


Biographies & Non-Fiction

Cover ImageThe last queen : Elizabeth II’s seventy year battle to save the House of Windsor
by Clive Irving

B ELIZABETH II 2021

 

 

Cover Image Queen of our times : the life of Queen Elizabeth II
by Robert Hardman

B ELIZABETH II 2022

 

 

Cover Image Our rainbow queen : a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and her colorful wardrobe
by Sali Hughes

746.92 HUG 2019

 

 

Cover ImageQueen of the world
by Robert Hardman

B ELIZABETH II 2019

 

 

Cover ImageYoung Elizabeth : the making of the Queen
by Kate Williams

B ELIZABETH II 2015

 

 

Cover ImageMonarch : the life and reign of Elizabeth II
by Robert Lacey

B ELIZABETH II 2002

 

 

Cover ImagePhilip & Elizabeth : portrait of a royal marriage
by Gyles Daubeney Brandreth

923.1 BRA 2005

 

 

Cover ImageGame of crowns : Elizabeth, Camilla, Kate, and the throne
by Christopher P. Andersen

941.085 AND 2016

 

 

Cover ImageThe crown : the official companion
by Robert Lacey

941.085 LAC 2017 v.1

 

 


Documentary DVDs

Cover Image Queen Elizabeth II

DVD B ELIZABETH II 2015

 

 

Cover ImageThe Queen’s palaces

DVD 728.82 QUE 2012

 

 

 


Fiction

Cover ImageThe royal governess : a novel of Queen Elizabeth II’s childhood
by Wendy Holden

F HOL

 

 

Cover ImageThe queen’s secret : a novel of England’s World War II queen
by Karen Harper

F HAR

 

 

Cover ImageThe gown : a novel of the royal wedding
by Jennifer Robson

F ROB

 

 

Cover ImageThe crown. The complete first season

DVD CRO SEA.1

Movies Filmed Locally

Movies Filmed Locally

You may have heard that Pittsburgh has been a choice locale lately for the filming industry. But did you know that Sewickley is the backdrop of many feature films and TV shows, as well?

Movies/TV Shows Filmed in Sewickley

 

Amazon.com: Foxcatcher [DVD] [2015] : Movies & TVFoxcatcher (2014) – U.S. Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz join “Team Foxcatcher”, led by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont, as they train for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but John’s self-destructive behavior threatens to consume them all.  Filmed in Fall 2012 and starring Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum. The filming includes scenes shot at Wilpen Hall in Sewickley Heights.

 


Happiest Season DVD Release Date

Happiest Season (2020) – A holiday romantic comedy that captures the range of emotions tied to wanting your family’s acceptance, being true to yourself, and trying not to ruin Christmas by revealing a nasty secret. The film features shots of Beaver Street in Sewickley, as well as many other scenes shot around the Pittsburgh region.

 

 


Houseguest (1995) - IMDbHouseguest (1995) – In hot water with the mob over an unpaid debt, a con man poses as a family friend in an affluent Pennsylvania suburb. Starring Sinbad and Phil Hartman and shot in many locations throughout Sewickley – including the McDonald’s ?! (Get the details here.)

 

 

 


Jack Reacher (2012) - IMDbJack Reacher (2012) – A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper responsible for a mass shooting.  This Tom Cruise film based on Lee Child’s popular book series features the former Sewickley Country Inn on Route 65, as well as other Pittsburgh locales.

 

 


The Lifeguard - Rotten TomatoesThe Lifeguard (2013) – A former valedictorian quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home in Connecticut. She gets work as a lifeguard and starts a dangerous relationship with a troubled teenager. Filmed in the summer of 2012 and features actors Kristen Bell and Martin Starr. Shots feature scenes at Sewickley Cemetery, Wolcot Park and Beaver Street.

 

 


Cover ImageLove the Coopers (2015) – The intertwined stories of four generations of Coopers unfold right before the annual family reunion on Christmas Eve. Can they survive the most beautiful time of the year?  Filmed in 2015 and features exterior shots of a home on Grove Street, as well as actors Diane Keaton and John Goodman.

 

 

 


Amazon.com: Roommates : Peter Falk, D.B. Sweeney, Julianne Moore, Ellen Burstyn, Jan Rubes, Joyce Reehling, Ernie Sabella, John Cunningham, Noah Fleiss, Lisa Davis, Rohn Thomas, Karl Mackey, Peter Yates, Adam Leipzig, IraRoommates (1995) – An elderly yet young-at-heart man moves in with his grandson and both their lives turn upside-down.  Filmed in several places throughout Pittsburgh, including the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, at a diner in Polish Hill, a tavern in Shadyside, and in Sewickley Heights.

 

 


The Chair (TV Series 2021– ) - IMDbThe Chair (TV) (Netflix*) – At a major university, the first woman of color to become chair tries to meet the dizzying demands and high expectations of a failing English department. Filming includes scenes on Beaver Street and at the Borough Building on Thorn Street.

 

 


Mindhunter (TV Series 2017–2019) - IMDbMindhunter (TV) (Netflix*) – In the late 1970s two FBI agents expand criminal science by delving into the psychology of murder and getting uneasily close to all-too-real monsters. Mindhunter filmed scenes at the Sewickley Borough building and across the river at the old Coraopolis Police Station among additional Pittsburgh-regions.

 

 


Sweet Magnolias (TV Series 2020– ) - IMDbSweet Magnolias (TV) (Netflix*) – Three South Carolina women, best friends since high school, shepherd one another through the complexities of romance, career, and family. A few scenes from Sweet Magnolias were filmed at the intersection of Broad Street and Beaver Street.

 

 


*No Netflix? No problem! Borrow one of the Roku devices from SPL’s equipment library which includes use of Netflix!

And if you’re a Hallmark Christmas movie fan, keep an eye out for scenes of Sewickley and other Pittsburgh-area shots!


Movies/TV Shows Filmed in Pittsburgh and Surrounding Areas

 

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are even more movies filmed in the Steel City! Check out the Filmography from the Pittsburgh Film Office for an even bigger list!

Discover more with the Summer Sampler

New this summer! Discover library programs and highlights from all over the county with the adult Summer Sampler! The weekly Summer Sampler features booklists, recipes, area attractions to enjoy and lots of other fun activities for the summer. Additionally, the sampler highlights events specifically for adults happening at libraries throughout Allegheny County.

Find copies printed each week in the Reference Department at Sewickley Public Library.


The Summer Sampler is provided by the Allegheny County Library Association and participating libraries.

Summer Reading Returns June 6

Summer Reading Returns June 6

The Summer Reading Program at the Sewickley Public Library is for more than just kids! Adults can get in on this fun, summer reading challenge, too. Discover Oceans of Possibilities with us as we navigate a summer of fun for all-ages from June 6 – August 6.

The point of summer reading is to enjoy reading for pleasure. You can set your own reading goals for the summer or see what you can accomplish without limits. The summer reading program offers incentives and benchmarks to keep you motivated. Plus, when you log the minutes you read, you earn chances to win awesome prizes! Here’s a breakdown of the treasures we have up for grabs this year:

  • REGISTRATION PRIZE: Just for signing up for Summer Reading, you’ll be entered to win a $25 gift card to Mediterra Cafe. (Must be registered by Monday, June 6th to be eligible.)
  • WEEKLY PRIZES: Each week, we’ll draw the name of one person who has logged minutes during that week. The more minutes you log, the more chances you have to win prizes. Winner can select a $50 gift card to the local business of your choice.
  • COMPLETION PRIZENew this year! If you read for 50 hours this summer and unlock all 11 logging badges, you earn a special prize for being a dedicated reader and completing the challenge! You’ll have your choice of $5 gift card to one of the following businesses: Sewickley Confectionery, Crazy Mocha, OR Ultimate Pastry Shop
  • GRAND PRIZE: At the end of the program, we’ll choose a GRAND PRIZE winner from all participants. Even if you’ve won a weekly prize, you are still eligible to win the grand prize! The Grand Prize winner will receive a $150 gift card to any business of their choice.

How do you get started? Just sign up! Register for the Summer Reading Program here. If you register by June 6, you’ll be eligible for the early registration prize! Even if you sign up and forget to log daily, or even every week (we get it, life’s busy!) – you’ll still be eligible for the weeks you do log and for the grand prize drawing at the end of the summer.

PLUS – back by popular demand is the 2022 Summer Reading BINGO game! Step out of your comfort zone when you aim to read through the suggested categories to get a BINGO and win a prize. Everyone who earns a bingo will get to pick a free book from our prize cart! Pick up a BINGO card at the library or print one out here.

Questions? Try our Summer Reading FAQ or view our video tutorials!

Happy *summer* reading!

Have You Read Me Yet?

Have You Read Me Yet?

With so many good titles to come out in recent years, it could be easy to miss many great stories. Have you read these enthralling works of fiction yet?


Cover ImageThese Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card

Stanford Solomon’s shocking, thirty-year-old secret is about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford has done something no one could ever imagine. He is a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley. And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead.

 

Cover ImageHighfire by Eoin Colfer

For centuries, he struck fear in hearts far and wide as Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie—now he goes by Vern. However…he has survived, unlike the rest. He is the last of his kind, the last dragon. Still, no amount of vodka can drown the loneliness in his molten core. Vern’s glory days are long gone. Or are they?

 

 

Cover ImageAmerican Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy―two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

 

Cover ImageKingdomtide by Rye Curtis

The sole survivor of a plane crash, seventy-two-year-old Cloris Waldrip is lost and alone in the unforgiving wilderness of Montana’s rugged Bitterroot Range, exposed to the elements with no tools beyond her wits and ingenuity. Intertwined with her story is Debra Lewis, a park ranger struggling with addiction and a recent divorce who is galvanized by her new mission to find and rescue Cloris.

 

 

Cover ImageGood Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison

Perched atop a hill in the tiny town of Marchburg, Virginia, The Goode School is a prestigious prep school known as a Silent Ivy. The boarding school of choice for daughters of the rich and influential, it accepts only the best and the brightest. Its elite status, long-held traditions and honor code are ideal for preparing exceptional young women for brilliant futures at Ivy League universities and beyond. But a stranger has come to Goode, and this ivy has turned poisonous.

 

Cover ImageThe Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation” bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination” that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run”?

 

Cover ImageThe Fifth Avenue Story Society by Rachel Hauck

When five New Yorkers receive an anonymous, mysterious invitation to the Fifth Avenue Story Society, they suspect they’re victims of a practical joke. No one knows who sent the invitations or why. No one has heard of the literary society. And no one is prepared to reveal their deepest secrets to a roomful of strangers. Yet curiosity and loneliness bring them back week after week to the old library. And it’s there they discover the stories of their hearts, and the kind of friendship and love that heals their souls.

 

Cover ImageThe Girl with the Leica by Helena Janeczk

Gerda Taro was a German-Jewish war photographer, anti-fascist activist, artist and innovator who, together with her partner, the Hungarian Endre Friedmann, was one half of the alias Robert Capa, widely considered to be the twentieth century’s greatest war and political photographer. She was killed while documenting the Spanish Civil War and tragically became the first female photojournalist to be killed on a battlefield.

 

Cover ImageThe King’s Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal

London, December 1943. As the Russian army repels German forces from Stalingrad, Maggie Hope takes a much-needed break from spying to defuse bombs in London. But Maggie herself is an explosion waiting to happen. Traumatized by her past, she finds herself living dangerously—taking huge risks, smoking, drinking, and speeding through the city streets on a motorbike. The last thing she wants is to get entangled in another crime.

 

Cover ImageThe Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

In this captivating story of crisis and survival, Emily St. John Mandel takes readers through often hidden landscapes: campgrounds for the near-homeless, underground electronica clubs, service in luxury hotels, and life in a federal prison. Rife with unexpected beauty, The Glass Hotel is a captivating portrait of greed and guilt, love and delusion, ghosts and unintended consequences, and the infinite ways we search for meaning in our lives.

 

Cover ImageMy Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past.

 

Cover ImageHave You Seen Me? by Kate White

On a cold, rainy morning, finance journalist Ally Linden arrives soaked to the bone at her Manhattan office, only to find that she’s forgotten her keycard. When her boss shows, he’s shocked to see her—because, he explains, she hasn’t worked there in five years.

Ally knows her name, but is having trouble coming up with much beyond that, though after a trip to the psychiatric ER, she begins to piece together important facts: she lives on the Upper West Side; she’s now a freelance journalist; she’s married to a terrific man named Hugh. More memories materialize and yet she still can’t recall anything about the previous two days.