Staff Picks – January 2022

Thesaurus Rex
by Laya Steinberg

“Encourage children to explore synonyms with the loveably cheeky Thesaurus Rex, who has an irresistible way with words. Action-verb and noun synonyms feature throughout Laya Steinberg s energetic text which, paired with award-winning Debbie Harter s vibrant watercolors, will engage boys and girls alike. The alliteration, repetition and rhyme featured in this delightful book will also help to foster speaking and listening skills.” -amazon.com

Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Alan Poe
by Edgar Alan Poe

“Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic and is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country’s earliest practitioners of the short story. He is also generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Poe was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.” – wikipedia.com

Winnie-the-Pooh
by A.A. Milne

“The adventures of Pooh and Piglet, Kanga and tiny Roo, Owl, Rabbit, and the ever doleful Eeyore are timeless treasures of childhood. In this beautiful edition of Winnie-the-Pooh, each of Ernest H. Shepard’s beloved original illustrations has been meticulously hand painted. Bright in color and elegant in design, this lovely volume of Milne’s classic tales welcomes friends old and new into the most enchanted of places, the Hundred Acre Wood.” -amazon.com

Cinder
by Marissa Meyer

As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.

The Madness of Crowds
by Louise Penny

While the residents of the Québec village of Three Pines take advantage of the deep snow to ski and toboggan, to drink hot chocolate in the bistro and share meals together, the Chief Inspector finds his holiday with his family interrupted by a simple request. He’s asked to provide security for what promises to be a non-event. A visiting Professor of Statistics will be giving a lecture at the nearby university. While he is perplexed as to why the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec would be assigned this task, it sounds easy enough. That is until Gamache starts looking into Professor Abigail Robinson and discovers an agenda so repulsive he begs the university to cancel the lecture. They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations. Spreading and infecting. So that truth and fact, reality and delusion are so confused it’s near impossible to tell them apart. Discussions become debates, debates become arguments, which turn into fights. As sides are declared, a madness takes hold. When a murder is committed it falls to Armand Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and their team to investigate the crime as well as this extraordinary popular delusion.

The Best of Isaac Asimov
by Issac Asimov

“Twelve stories by the modern master of science fiction represent the evolution of his writing over a period of thirty-three years.” -amazon.com

Stories: Marooned Off Vesta (1939); Nightfall (1941); The C-Chute (1951); The Martian Way (1952); The Deep (1952); The Fun They Had (1951); The Last Question (1956); The Dead Past (1956); The Dying Night (1956); Anniversary (1959); The Billiard Ball (1967); Mirror Image (1972).

All Systems Red
by Martha Wells

In a corporate-dominated space- faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by company-supplied security robots, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

The Four Agreements
by Miguel Ruiz

“…reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.” – amazon.com

Tularosa
by Michael McGarrity

Former Santa Fe detective Kevin Kerney probes the murder of a friend’s son, an officer on a missile base in New Mexico. Kerney teams up with the woman leading the base’s own investigation and they uncover a racket, men smuggling antique weapons and gold coins across the border.