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Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt

Can’t make it downtown to catch the Art Institute of Chicago’s current exhibit: Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt? Check out your Bensenville Library’s beautifully illustrated tomes on the Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt!

About the exhibit: Experience over 3,000 years of arts from ancient Egypt in a dynamic new gallery. The transformed space explores aspects of life and the afterlife in the Nile Valley with the first new installation of works from the museum’s historic collection of ancient Egyptian art in a quarter-century. Striking artifacts—displayed along one wall of the gallery in a series of innovative cases that promote viewing from multiple vantage points—provide insight into the beliefs and practices of this illustrious North African culture.

Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Reference to the Myths, Religions, Pyramids and Temples of the Land of the Pharaohs

by Lorna Oakes

This beautiful volume is a fascinating guide to the myths, religions, pyramids, temples, and more that make up the allure of ancient Egypt. Readers will gain a unique understanding of this captivating culture through breathtaking, full-color illustrations, in-depth text, detailed maps, and comprehensive chronologies.

The Art of Ancient Egypt

by Gay Robins

From the awesome grandeur of the Great Pyramids to the delicacy of a face etched on an amulet, the spellbinding power of ancient Egyptian art persists to this day. Spanning three thousand years, this beautifully illustrated history offers a thorough and delightfully readable introduction to the artwork.

The Pharaohs: Master-Builders

by Henri Stierlin

This is a popular account of Egyptian architecture which discusses building techniques and technologies before examining the great monuments of Egypt in roughly chronological succession, ending with the temples at Philae. Very attractively illustrated in colour, this remains a serious book which juxtaposes glossy (and some unusual) photos with temple plans and other pictorial sources for reconstructing the architects and builders lives.

Tutankhamun: the Golden King and the Great Pharaohs

by Zahi Hawass

Mysterious boy king Tutankhamun returns to the U.S. in 2008, bringing rare treasures never before seen outside Egypt. For the millions of fans wanting a keepsake and chronicle of this magnificent new exhibition, this book will delight. Created by world-renowned art historians under the guidance of Zahi Hawass–director of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and a well-known media personality–it surveys 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history by focusing on the lives and lifestyles of great pharaohs.

The Golden King: the World of Tutankhamun

by Zahi Hawass

These books make palpable the excitement, beauty, riches, and mysteries of ancient Egypt. Zahi Hawass brings these fabled figures and their tumultuous, astonishing age to life, with an authoritative text highlighted by scores of stunning photographs, including archival images from the first great era of Egyptian archaeology, when Carter and other Westerners reawakened the world to the golden glory of the ancient civilization explored in this dazzling book.

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You can check out all of our online booklists (for kids and for adults), or reach out to us! Our staff is ready and willing to make reading, listening, or viewing recommendations to you! Email us at reference@benlib.org or contact us via our online form!

If You Liked… Ken Burns’ Benjamin Franklin

By bcplweb Booklists, Booklists, If You Liked...

Ken Burns’s two-part, four-hour documentary, Benjamin Franklin, explores the revolutionary life of one of the 18th century’s most consequential and compelling personalities, whose work and words unlocked the mystery of electricity and helped create the United States. Franklin’s 84 years (1706-1790) spanned an epoch of momentous change in science, technology, literature, politics, and government — fields he himself advanced through a lifelong commitment to societal and self-improvement.

All of the titles featured here in this booklist are available in our catalog. To see if an item is available to check out or place on hold, click the cover image or button to the right of the description.

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

by Walter Isaacson

Benjamin Franklin is the Founding Father who winks at us… the one who seems made of flesh and blood rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders.

Young Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity

by Nick Bunker

From his early career as a printer and journalist to his scientific work and role as a founder of a new republic, Benjamin Franklin has always been ab embodiment of American ingenuity. But in his youth, he had to make his way through an often harsh, colonial world where he fought many battles with his rivals, and also with his own wayward emotions in trying to balance virtue against ambition. This volume chronicles that story.

Writings

by Benjamin Franklin

One of 17 children, Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He ended his formal education at the age of 10 and began working as an apprentice at a newspaper. Running away to Philadelphia at 17, he worked for a printer, later opening his own print shop. As a man of many talents and interests, as a writer, publisher, scientist, inventor, diplomat and politician he authored many works during his 84 years that are collected in this volume.

Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings

by Benjamin Franklin

This Library of America collection of Franklin’s works begins with letters sent from London describing events and diplomacy preceding the Revolutionary War, political satires, bagatelles, pamphlets, and letters written in Paris where he represented the revolutionary United States at the court of Louis XVI, as well as his speeches given in the Constitutional Convention… including his last published article, a searing satire against slavery. Also included are his shrewd prefaces to Poor Richard’s Almanack with their worldly, pungent maxims and finally, the classic Autobiography, Franklin’s last word on his greatest literary creation–his own invented personality—completely faithful to Franklin’s own manuscript.

Poor Richard's Almanack: Being the Choicest Morsels of Wit and Wisdom

by Benjamin Franklin

A collection of maxims, arranged in approximately thirty categories, selected from various editions of Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack.”

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If You Like… Julian Fellowe’s The Gilded Age

By bcplweb Booklists, Booklists, If You Liked...

Enjoying Julian Fellowe’s HBO original drama series, The Gilded Age?

If you’re interested the times and social milieu of this era, check out this booklist!

The American Gilded Age was a period of immense economic change, of great conflict between the old ways and brand new systems, and of huge fortunes made and lost.

What Would Mrs. Astor Do? The Essential Guide to Manners and Mores of the Gilded Age

by Cecilia Tichi

A beautifully illustrated tour of the Gilded Age, transporting readers to New York at its most fashionable. A colorful tapestry of fun facts and true tales presenting a vivid portrait of this remarkable time of social metamorphosis.

The Gilded Age: 1876-1912 — Overture to the American Century

by Alan Axelrod

The Gilded Age–the name coined by Mark Twain to refer to the period of rapid economic growth in America between the 1870s and 1900–offers some intriguing parallels to our own time. As, truly, the overture of the ‘American Century, the author also looks at how it presaged our current time, which many are calling the “Second Gilded Age.” Photographs, political cartoons, engravings, news clippings, help bring this fascinating period into focus.

An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew

by Annejet van der Zijl

Born to a pioneering family in Upstate New York in the late 1800s, Allene Tew was beautiful, impetuous, and frustrated by the confines of her small hometown. At eighteen, she met Tod Hostetter at a local dance, heir to one of the wealthiest families in America. From the vantage point of the American upper class, Allene embodied the tumultuous Gilded Age. And from the hopes of a young girl from Jamestown, New York, Allene Tew would become the epitome of both a pursuer and survivor of the American Dream.

The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home

by Denise Kiernan

The fascinating true story behind the magnificent Gilded Age mansion Biltmore–the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States by railroad/shipping magnate George Vanderbilt.

The Husband Hunters: American Heiresses Who Married Into the British Aristocracy

by Anne de Courcy

A deliciously told group biography of the young, rich, American heiresses who crossed The Pond and married into the impoverished British aristocracy at the turn of the twentieth century.

Gilded: How Newport Became America’s Richest Resort

by Deborah Davis

Gilded takes you along as you explore the fascinating heritage of the Newport elite, from its first gilded residents the Astors, the Vanderbilts, Edith Wharton and others to the newest of its new millennium millionaires in a narrative filled with colorful characters and lively tales.

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January is National Tea Month

By bcplweb Booklists, Booklists, What's New

After water, tea is the most popular drink in the world. Whether you’re enjoying it in a steaming mug at morning break, a quiet afternoon respite cuppa, or a soothing moment at day’s end taken from a delicate porcelain cup… tea is a delicious indulgence. This popular beverage can be enjoyed hot or cold, and though mostly grow in Asia, tea is enjoyed and celebrated in many forms and in many countries. From chai, mate, Earl Grey, matcha or bubble… Tea is always a good idea!

All of the titles featured here in this booklist we have in our catalog or in our eBook collections. To see if an item is available to check out or place on hold, click the cover image or button to the right of the description.

Victoria, the Essential Tea Companion

Serves up history and lore, advice on brewing the perfect pot and best of all, menus for eight themed parties, from a children’s tea to a bridal shower. More than 100 recipes cover sandwiches, scones, tarts, cakes, savories, breads, and biscuits, as well as flavored teas both hot and iced, and honeys, spreads, and jams.

The Afternoon Tea Collection

Afternoon tea is a celebration of all things delightful, delectable, and tastefully appealing. This beautifully illustrated book features everything that makes the afternoon teatime experience special: lovely small sandwiches, yummy scones, delicate tarts, and other tasty treats.

Making Your Own Gourmet Tea Drinks: Black Teas, Green Teas, Scented Teas, Herb Teas, Iced Teas, and More

Offering more than 100 heart-warming recipes that include such tasty delights as Raspberry Tea. Apricot Iced Tea, Strawberry Tea Shake, Cinnamon-Cranberry Iced Tea, Rum-Cider Tea, Grand Marnier Tea, Cocoa-Mint Tea Shake, and Iced Creme de Menthe Tea. Now you can enjoy all of the best gourmet tea drinks right in the comfort of your own home.

The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook

In this authoritative guide, veteran tea professionals Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss provide decades of expertise on understanding tea and its origins, the many ways to buy tea, and how to explore and enjoy the six classes of tea (green, yellow, white, oolong, black, and Pu-erh). Additional advice on steeping the perfect cup and storing tea at home, alongside a gallery of more than thirty-fi ve individual teas with tasting notes and descriptions make The Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook a singular source of both practical information and rich detail about this fascinating beverage.

Tea & Treachery

by Vicky Delany

In this charming new cozy mystery series from national bestselling author Vicki Delany, a New York City expat-turned-Cape Cod tea shop owner must solve the murder of a local real estate developer to help her feisty grandmother out of a jam . . .

A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

by Laura Taylor Namey

For Lila Reyes, a summer in England was never part of the plan. The plan was 1) take over her abuela’s role as head baker at their panadería, 2) move in with her best friend after graduation, and 3) live happily ever after with her boyfriend. But then the Trifecta happened, and everything, including Lila herself, fell apart. Worried about Lila’s mental health, her parents make a new plan for her: Spend three months with family friends in Winchester, England, to relax and reset. But with the lack of sun, a grumpy inn cook, and a small town lacking Miami flavor (both in food and otherwise), what would be a dream trip for some feels more like a nightmare to Lila…until she meets Orion Maxwell. A teashop clerk with troubles of his own, Orion is determined to help Lila out of her funk, and appoints himself as her personal tour guide.

For All the Tea in China How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History

by Sarah Rose

A dramatic historical narrative of the man who stole the secret of tea from China

In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China—territory forbidden to foreigners—to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture and manufacturing. For All the Tea in China is the remarkable account of Fortune’s journeys into China—a thrilling narrative that combines history, geography, botany, natural science, and old-fashioned adventure.

Disguised in Mandarin robes, Fortune ventured deep into the country, confronting pirates, hostile climate, and his own untrustworthy men as he made his way to the epicenter of tea production, the remote Wu Yi Shan hills. One of the most daring acts of corporate espionage in history, Fortune’s pursuit of China’s ancient secret makes for a classic nineteenth-century adventure tale, one in which the fate of empires hinges on the feats of one extraordinary man.

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We miss you, Betty!

By bcplweb Booklists, Booklists, What's New

Born on January 17, 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois, Betty White is best known for playing Rose Nylund on the popular TV series The Golden Girls, but is also recognized for her roles on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Hot in Cleveland.

With eight decades of working in the entertainment industry both in front of and behind the camera, Betty was and will forever be a pioneer and legend.

All of the titles featured here in this booklist we have in our collection. To see if an item is available to check out or place on hold, click the cover image or button to the right of the description.

Betty White: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life

by Ray Richmond

A photography-rich retrospective of the most significant events and achievements of one of America’s most loved and endearing stars.

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Betty White: 100 Years of Wisdom from the First Lady of Television

by Juliana Sharaf

Betty White provides answers to the questions we all face with gentle wisdom and the occasional kick in the pants.

Betty & Friends: My Life at the Zoo

by Betty White

A lifelong animal welfare advocate, Betty White offered intimate and funny stories about her animal friends at the zoo with wonderful anecdotal photos.

Here We Go Again: My Life In Television

by Betty White

One of the hardest-working actresses of any era, her sense of humor and perennial optimism saw her through half a century of industry changes and delighted millions of fans.

If You Ask Me (and of Course You Won’t)

by Betty White

Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White’s wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackled topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity.

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New Historical Fiction

By bcplweb Booklists, Booklists, What's New

Radar Girls

by Sara Ackerman

An extraordinary story inspired by the real Women’s Air Raid Defense, where an unlikely recruit and her sisters-in-arms forge their place in WWII history.

Daisy Wilder prefers the company of horses to people, bare feet and salt water to high heels and society parties. Then, in the dizzying aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Daisy enlists in a top secret program, replacing male soldiers in a war zone for the first time. Under fear of imminent invasion, the WARDs guide pilots into blacked-out airstrips and track unidentified planes across Pacific skies.

This inspiring and uplifting tale of pioneering, unsung heroines vividly transports the reader to wartime Hawaii, where one woman’s call to duty leads her to find courage, strength and sisterhood.

The Show Girl

by Nicola Harrison

Nicola Harrison’s The Show Girl gives a glimpse of the glamorous world of the Ziegfeld Follies, through the eyes of a young midwestern woman who comes to New York City to find her destiny as a Ziegfeld Follies star.

It’s 1927 when Olive McCormick moves from Minneapolis to New York City determined to become a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. Extremely talented as a singer and dancer, it takes every bit of perseverance to finally make it on stage. And once she does, all the glamour and excitement is everything she imagined and more―even worth all the sacrifices she has had to make along the way.

Then she meets Archie Carmichael. Handsome, wealthy―the only man she’s ever met who seems to accept her modern ways―her independent nature and passion for success. But once she accepts his proposal of marriage he starts to change his tune, and Olive must decide if she is willing to reveal a devastating secret and sacrifice the life she loves for the man she loves.

Basil's War

by Stephen Hunter

Basil St. Florian is an accomplished agent in the British Army, tasked with dozens of dangerous missions for crown and country across the globe. But his current mission, going undercover in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, might be his toughest assignment yet. He will be searching for an ecclesiastic manuscript that doesn’t officially exist, one that genius professor Alan Turing believes may hold the key to a code that could prevent the death of millions and possibly even end the war.

St. Florian isn’t the classic British special agent with a stiff upper lip―he is a swashbuckling, whisky-drinking cynic and thrill-seeker who resents having to leave Vivien Leigh’s bed to set out on his crucial mission. Despite these proclivities, though, Basil’s Army superiors know he’s the best man for the job, carrying out his espionage with enough charm and quick wit to make any of his subjects lower their guards.

The Women of Troy

by Pat Barker

A daring and timely feminist retelling of The Iliad from the perspective of the women of Troy who endured it–an extraordinary follow up to The Silence of the Girls from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Regeneration Trilogy.

Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with the spoils of an endless war–including the women of Troy themselves. They await a fair wind for the Aegean.

It does not come, because the gods are offended. The body of King Priam lies unburied and desecrated, and so the victors remain in suspension, camped in the shadows of the city they destroyed as the coalition that held them together begins to unravel. Old feuds resurface and new suspicions and rivalries begin to fester.

Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles’s slave, now belonging to his companion Alcimus, quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can, with Priam’s aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.

Her Heart for a Compass

by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

From one of the most famous former members of the British royal family, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York —a mesmerizing novel of a young noblewoman’s coming-of-age that richly details both high society and low in Victorian England.

Queen Victoria’s close friend, the Scottish Duke of Buccleuch, Lady Margaret Montagu Scott is expected to make an advantageous marriage. But Margaret is an impulsive and outspoken girl in a repressive society where women are, quite literally, caged in corsets and required to conform.

When Lady Margaret’s parents arrange a society marriage for her, she tries to reconcile herself to the match. But shortly before her betrothal is announced, Margaret flees, leaving her parents to explain her sudden absence to an opulent ballroom stuffed with two hundred distinguished guests.

Banished from polite society, Margaret throws herself into charitable work and finds strength in a circle of female friends like herself—women intent on breaking the mold, including Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Louise. Margaret resolves to follow her heart—a journey of self-discovery that will take her to Ireland, America, and then back to Britain where she finds the life she was always meant to lead.

A bold and thoughtful story about a rebellious woman finding herself and her voice in an age of astounding technological change and great social unrest, Her Heart for a Compass is a delicious costume drama rich in atmosphere, history, and color.

The Kitchen Front

by Jennifer Ryan

From the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir comes an unforgettable novel of a BBC-sponsored wartime cooking competition and the four women who enter for a chance to better their lives.

Two years into World War II, Britain is feeling her losses: The Nazis have won battles, the Blitz has destroyed cities, and U-boats have cut off the supply of food. In an effort to help housewives with food rationing, a BBC radio program called The Kitchen Front is holding a cooking contest—and the grand prize is a job as the program’s first-ever female co-host. For four very different women, winning the competition would present a crucial chance to change their lives.

Strongheart: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill

by Jim Fergus

In 1873, a Cheyenne chief offers President Grant the opportunity to exchange one thousand horses for one thousand white women, in order to marry them with his warriors and create a lasting peace. These women, “recruited” by force in the penitentiaries and asylums of the country, gradually integrate the way of life of the Cheyenne, at the time when the great massacres of the tribes begin.

After the battle of Little Big Horn, some female survivors decide to take up arms against the United States, which has stolen from the Native Americans their lands, their way of life, their culture and their history. This ghost tribe of rebellious women will soon go underground to wage an implacable battle, which will continue from generation to generation.

In this final volume of the One Thousand White Women trilogy, Jim Fergus mixes with rare mastery the struggle of women and Native Americans in the face of oppression, from the end of the 19th century until today. With a vivid sense of the 19th century American West, Fergus paints portraits of women as strong as they are unforgettable.

A Peculiar Combination

by Ashley Weaver

The first in the Electra McDonnell series from Edgar-nominated author Ashley Weaver, set in England during World War II, A Peculiar Combination is a delightful mystery filled with spies, murder, romance, and the author’s signature wit.

FIRST RULE: DON’T LOSE YOUR CONCENTRATION.
Electra McDonnell and her family earn their living outside the law. Breaking into the homes of the rich and picking the locks on their safes may not be condoned by British law enforcement, but with World War II in full swing, Uncle Mick’s locksmith business just can’t pay the bills anymore.

SECOND RULE: DON’T MAKE MISTAKES.
So when Uncle Mick receives a tip about a safe full of jewels in an empty house, he and Ellie can’t resist. All is going as planned―until the pair is caught red-handed. But instead of arresting them, government official Major Ramsey has an offer: either Ellie agrees to help him break into a safe and retrieve blueprints crucial to the British war effort, or he turns her over to the police.

THIRD RULE: DON’T GET CAUGHT.
Ellie doesn’t care for the major’s imperious manner, but she has no choice. However, when they break into the house, they find the safe open and empty, and a German spy dead on the floor. Soon, Ellie and Major Ramsey are forced to put aside their differences to unmask the double agent, and stop Allied plans from falling into enemy hands.

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New Thriller and Suspense

By bcplweb Booklists, Booklists, What's New

Bullet Train

by Kotaro Isaka

A dark, satirical thriller by the bestselling Japanese author, following the perilous train ride of five highly motivated assassins.

A massive bestseller in Japan, Bullet Train is an original and propulsive thriller that fizzes with an incredible energy and surprising humor as its complex net of double-crosses and twists unwind. Award-winning author Kotaro Isaka takes readers on a tension packed journey as the bullet train hurtles toward its final destination. Who will make it off the train alive—and what awaits them at the last stop?

Survive the Night

by Riley Sager

It’s November 1991. Nirvana’s in the tape deck, George H. W. Bush is in the White House, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the shocking murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father—or so he says.

The longer she sits in the passenger seat, the more Charlie notices there’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t want her to see inside the trunk. As they travel an empty, twisty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly anxious Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s jittery mistrust merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?

One thing is certain—Charlie has nowhere to run and no way to call for help. Trapped in a terrifying game of cat and mouse played out on pitch-black roads and in neon-lit parking lots, Charlie knows the only way to win is to survive the night.

The Turnout

by Megan Abbott

With their long necks and matching buns and pink tights, Dara and Marie Durant have been dancers since they can remember. Growing up, they were homeschooled and trained by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents’ death in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters began running the school together, along with Charlie, Dara’s husband and once their mother’s prized student.

Taut and unnerving, The Turnout is Megan Abbott at the height of her game. With uncanny insight and hypnotic writing, it is a sharp and strange dissection of family ties and sexuality, femininity and power, and a tale that is both alarming and irresistible.

Sleeping Bear

by Connor Sullivan

Perfect for fans of Brad Thor and Vince Flynn, this white-knuckled debut thriller follows a former Army veteran seeking solitude in the Alaskan wilderness after her husband’s death—only to find herself a pawn in a deadly game with Russia.

After her young husband’s untimely death, Army veteran Cassie Gale decides to take a few days of solitude in the Alaska wilderness before she starts her new job. But when she fails to show up on her first day and her dog is discovered injured at her wrecked campsite, her father knows that this is much more than a camping trip gone awry.

As it turns out, Cassie’s not the first person to disappear without a trace in Alaska’s northern interior. Bears. Wolves. Avalanches. Frostbite. Starvation. There are many ways to die in here. But not all disappearances can be explained. Cassie’s is one of them, along with a number of other outdoor enthusiasts who have vanished in recent years.

Regaining consciousness in a Russian prison, Cassie finds herself trapped in a system designed to ensure that no one ever escapes alive. It will require all her grit and skills to survive. Meanwhile, her father rushes to outrun the clock, scouring thousands of acres, only to realize she’s been taken by a far more nefarious adversary—one with the power of the Eastern Bloc behind it. Ties to his past life, one full of secrets, threaten to surface. He knows there’s a price to be paid, but he’s determined it won’t be his daughter.

Version Zero

by David Yoon

From the brilliant mind of New York Times bestselling author David Yoon comes a lightning-fast and scorchingly observant thriller about how we can save ourselves from the very real perils of a virtual world.

Max, a data whiz at the social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he questions what his company does with the data they collect, he’s fired…then black-balled across Silicon Valley.

With time on his hands and revenge on his mind, Max and his longtime friend (and secretly the love of his life) Akiko, decide to get even by rebooting the internet. After all, in order to fix things, sometimes you have to break them. But when Max and Akiko join forces with a reclusive tech baron, they learn that breaking things can have unintended–and catastrophic—consequences.

Take It Back

by Kia Abdullah

From author Kia Abdullah, Take It Back is a harrowing and twisting courtroom thriller that keeps you guessing until the last page is turned.

Zara Kaleel, one of London’s brightest legal minds, shattered the expectations placed on her by her family and forged a brilliant legal career. But her decisions came at a high cost, and now, battling her own demons, she has exchanged her high profile career for a job at a sexual assault center, helping victims who need her the most. Victims like Jodie Wolfe.

When Jodie, a sixteen-year-old girl with facial deformities, accuses four boys in her class of an unthinkable crime, the community is torn apart. After all, these four teenage defendants are from hard-working immigrant families and they all have proven alibis. Even Jodie’s best friend doesn’t believe her.

But Zara does―and she is determined to fight for Jodie―to find the truth in the face of public outcry. And as issues of sex, race and social justice collide, the most explosive criminal trial of the year builds to a shocking conclusion.

A Man Named Doll

by Jonathan Ames

From the creator of HBO’s Bored to Death, a deliciously noir novel about idiosyncratic private detective Happy Doll and his quest to help a dying friend in a sun-blinded Los Angeles as “quirky, edgy, charming, funny and serious” as its protagonist.

Happy Doll is a charming, if occasionally inexpert, private detective living just one sheer cliff drop beneath the Hollywood sign with his beloved half-Chihuahua half-Terrier, George. A veteran of both the Navy and LAPD, Doll supplements his meager income as a P.I. by working through the night at a local Thai spa that offers its clients a number of special services. Armed with his sixteen-inch steel telescopic baton, biting dry humor, and just a bit of a hero complex, the ex-cop sets out to protect the women who work there from clients who have trouble understanding the word “no.”

Doll gets by just fine following his two basic rules: bark loudly and act first. But when things get out-of-hand with one particularly violent patron, even he finds himself wildly out of his depth, and then things take an even more dangerous twist when an old friend from his days as a cop shows up at his door with a bullet in his gut.

A Man Named Doll is more than just a fascinating introduction to one truly singular character, it is a highly addictive and completely unpredictable joyride through the sensuous and violent streets of LA.

The Wedding Night

by Harriet Walker

After ending her engagement, a woman decides to go on a much-needed getaway with her friends to clear her head—but she soon realizes her secret may be the one thing she can’t get away from.

When Lizzie calls off her wedding in the south of France only a week before the big day, not even her closest friends know why. But since the château is already paid for, they figure it’s the perfect place to take Lizzie and get her mind off her suddenly single state.

When the group arrives, it’s as if the wedding is waiting for them.

The next day, Lizzie wakes to find her friends have drunkenly reveled in the wedding-that-wasn’t—but not all their antics were benign. Someone is set on tormenting Lizzie, and she can’t figure out who.

The more the friends try to piece together exactly what happened that night, the more secrets start to come out.

The biggest secret of all—the one that must not be revealed—is Lizzie’s. But as intimidating messages appear around the château, it seems that someone intends to pursue her until it is. Will Lizzie ever be able to escape her past, or will it destroy more than one life on this trip?

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Hispanic Heritage Month / Mes de la Herencia Hispana: Part 2

By bcplweb Booklists, Booklists

Each year, we observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15 by celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. During National Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrate Hispanic and Latino Americans who have positively influenced and enriched our nation and society.

We’ve put together a selection of adult books and stories in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Reunimos una selección de libros e historias para adultos en honor al Mes de la Herencia Hispana.

In the Dream House: A Memoir

by Carmen Maria Machado

In this memoir Machado tackles difficult and dark subjects with wit and a bold attitude. Using her lyrical writing skills, Machado articulates the complexities of abuse in queer relationships. She embeds cultural criticism and theory into her story, by explaining the ways in which abuse especially among women and lesbians are not represented.

This Thing Between Us

by Gus Moreno

Moreno writes an original horror novel about grief, loneliness and the creepy intrusiveness of technology. Thiago Alvarez suffers the loss of his wife in a tragic murder. The story reads like it’s a letter to his deceased wife Vera, a story recounting their life together and the strange paranormal experiences that ignored. He moves to a remote cabin to escape everything except, he can’t escape the evil that’s chasing him.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

by Julia Alvarez

Alvarez writes a fictional novel of four sisters in a autobiographical account of Alverez’s early childhood in the Dominican Republic and immigrating to New York due to the dictatorship of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. The book gives an in depth look at the immigrant experience and the strong family ties that these sisters and their parents go through from 1989 to 1956.

Passions and Impressions

by Pablo Neruda

100 short prose writing by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The essays and prose poems cover many topics; Chilean history, politics and geography. This is a sequel of Neruda’s memoirs and mostly a testament for his love for Chile.

Postcolonial Love Poem

by Natalie Diaz

Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry Natalie Diaz, Diaz shares her indigenous heritage and observations of human nature through her second collection of poetry, Postcolonial Love Poem. She speaks on the issues of justice, race, and the environment.

Open Veins of Latin America

by Eduardo Galeano

Uruguayan journalist Galeano explores political and economic conflict in Latin America through a Marxist perspective. He discusses centuries of Latin American history focusing on the genocide, abuse and exploitation that began with Spanish conquistadors and colonization. He discusses in depth how dictators were imposed and supported by the CIA during the 20th century.

Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America

by Maria Hinojosa

Emmy award winning journalist Maria Hinojosa’s memoir relates history of US immigration policy and her intimate experience growing up on the south side of Chicago. Hinojosa describes the behind the scenes of intersectional and humanized storytelling.

Mexican Gothic

by Silva Moreno-Garcia

This novel takes places in 1950’s Mexico. Socialite, Noemi Taboada is sent off to a small mountain mining town to check up on her ill cousin who has been married to a mysterious and handsome Englishmen. Noemi investigates the town and dig deep as she unearths stories of violence, madness and death

Bless me, Ultima

by Rudolfo A. Anaya

Six-year-old Antonio meets Ultima a curandera, a woman who heals using herbs and magic. Together they try to end the war between good and evil that is getting out of control in their village during World War two.

Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies

by Laura Esquivel

This novel takes place during the Mexican revolution and centers around the La Garza family. The story is told through recipes and home remedies, using metaphors, figurative language and magical realism. The book takes place over a twenty-year period.

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Hispanic Heritage Month / Mes de la Herencia Hispana: Part 1

By bcplweb Booklists, Booklists, Booklists

We’ve put together a selection of youth and teen books and stories in both English and Spanish in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Reunimos una selección de libros e historias para jóvenes y adolescentes tanto en inglés como en español en honor al Mes de la Herencia Hispana.

Mango, Abuela, and Me by Meg Medina

Mango, Abuela, y Yo por Meg Medina

Mia’s abuela has left her sunny house with parrots and palm trees to live with Mia and her parents in the city. While they cook, Mia helps Abuela learn English, and Mia learns some Spanish, too, but it’s still hard for Abuela to learn enough words to tell Mia her stories. Then Mia sees a parrot in the pet-shop window and has the perfecto idea for how to help them all communicate a little better. Here is an endearing tale that speaks loud and clear about the love that binds families across the generations.

La abuela de Mia viene a vivir con Mia y sus padres. Cuando Mia eomparte con ella su cuento favorito a la hora de dormir, descubre que la abuela no entiende inglés. Mia la ayuda con el inglés y a la vez ella aprende algunas palabras en español. Pero la abuela no conoce suficientes palabras en inglés para compartir las historias de familia con su nieta. Un dia, Mia ve un loro en una tienda de mascotas y descubre la manera de ayudar a su abuela.

Thank you, Omu! by Oge Mora

¡Gracias, Omu! por Oge Mora

When the aroma of Omu’s homemade stew fills the air, her neighbors arrive, one by one, for a taste until all is gone except for her generous spirit.

¡Todos en el vecindario sueñan con probar el delicioso guiso de Omu! Uno por uno, siguen sus narices hacia el delicioso aroma. Y uno por uno, Omu ofrece una porción de su comida. Pronto la olla está vacía. ¿Ha sido tan generosa que ya no le queda nada?

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales

Soñadores por Yuyi Morales

Dreamers is a celebration of making your home with the things you always carry: your resilience, your dreams, your hopes and history. It’s the story of finding your way in a new place, of navigating an unfamiliar world and finding the best parts of it. In dark times, it’s a promise that you can make better tomorrows.

Soñadores es un homenaje a los migrantes y a todo lo que traen con ellos, y aportan, cuando dejan sus países. Es una historia de familia. Una historia que nos recuerda que todos somos soñadores que llevamos nuestros propios regalos donde quiera que vayamos. Bella y poderosa en todo momento, pero especialmente de una urgente premura hoy en día en que el futuro de los dreamers es incierto, esta es una historia actual y eterna.

Be Bold! Be Brave! 11 Latinas Who Made U.S. History by Naibe Reynoso

¡Sé audaz, sé valiente! : 11 Latinas que hicieron historia en Estados Unidos por Naibe Reynoso

A bilingual book that highlights 11 Latinas who excelled in their professions and made U.S. History by accomplishing something that hadn’t been done before in various fields including medicine, science, sports, art and politics.

Un libro bilingüe que destaca a 11 latinas que sobresalieron en sus profesiones e hicieron historia en los Estados Unidos al lograr algo que no se había hecho antes en varios campos, incluidos la medicina, la ciencia, los deportes, el arte y la política.

Carmela Full of Wishes by Matt de La Peña

Los Deseos de Carmela por Matt de La Peña

When Carmela wakes up on her birthday, her wish has already come true–she’s finally old enough to join her big brother as he does the family errands. Together, they travel through their neighborhood, past the crowded bus stop, the fenced-off repair shop, and the panadería, until they arrive at the Laundromat, where Carmela finds a lone dandelion growing in the pavement. But before she can blow its white fluff away, her brother tells her she has to make a wish. If only she can think of just the right wish to make…

Hasta ahora el cumpleaños de Carmela no puede ser mejor. Hoy es lo suficientemente mayor para acompañar a su hermano en su recorrido por la ciudad. Y la tarde que pasan juntos se llena con la magia de lo que ven a su alrededor: desde el brillante sol de los campos hasta las golosinas en la vidriera de la panadería. Pero cuando recoge un diente de león que crece en el concreto, se pregunta qué otra cosa podría desear…y decide entonces salir en busca del deseo perfecto.

Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal

Alma y Cómo Obtuvo Su Nombre por Juana Martinez-Neal

If you ask her, Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela has way too many names: six! How did such a small person wind up with such a large name? Alma turns to Daddy for an answer and learns of Sofia, the grandmother who loved books and flowers; Esperanza, the great-grandmother who longed to travel; José, the grandfather who was an artist; and other namesakes, too. As she hears the story of her name, Alma starts to think it might be a perfect fit after all — and realizes that she will one day have her own story to tell.

Si le preguntas, Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela tiene demasiados nombres: ¡seis! ¿Cómo acabó una persona tan pequeña con un nombre tan grande? Alma se dirige a papá en busca de una respuesta y se entera de Sofía, la abuela que amaba los libros y las flores; Esperanza, la bisabuela que anhelaba viajar; José, el abuelo que fue artista; y otros homónimos también. A medida que escucha la historia de su nombre, Alma comienza a pensar que, después de todo, podría encajar perfectamente y se da cuenta de que algún día tendrá su propia historia que contar.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Esperanza Renace por Pam Muñoz Ryan

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

Esperanza Ortega tiene todos los tesoros que una chica pueda desear: hermosos vestidos, una linda casa llena de sirvientes en México, y la promesa de que un día llegará a presidir el Rancho como su mamá. Pero una tragedia inesperada destruye ese sueño, obligando a Esperanza y a su madre a escapar a California dónde tendrán que trabajar en una finca junto a otros mexicanos. Allí tendrá que olvidar su pasado y enfrentarse a las nuevas realidades de su vida: trabajo duro, aceptación y dificultades económicas. Esperanza descubrirá que la verdadera riqueza está en la familia y la comunidad.

Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de La Peña

Pocho por Matt de La Peña

Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California.

Danny, de dieciséis años, busca su identidad en medio de la confusión de ser mitad mexicano y mitad blanco mientras pasa un verano con su primo y nuevos amigos en los campos de béisbol y callejones del condado de San Diego, California.

Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez

Senderos Frontizeros by Francisco Jimenez

Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his education.

Venido de México a California hace diez años, Francisco todavía trabaja en los campos, pero a la edad de catorce ya está luchando para mejorar su vida y para terminar su educación.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez

Yo No Soy Tu Perfecta Hija Mexicana por Erika Sanchez

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed. But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first kiss, first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal

Julia no es la hija mexicana perfecta. Ese era el rol de su hermana Olga. Olga no fue a la universidad, se quedo en casa para cuidar a sus padres, limpiar la casa y trabajar a medio tiempo. Julia tiene grandes suenos y no quiere formar parte del camino de su hermana mayor. Pero un solo error, que ocurre mientras enviaba un mensaje de texto al mismo tiempo que cruzaba la calle mas concurrida de Chicago, resulta en la muerte de Olga, dejando atras a Julia para ocuparse de las secuelas. Sus padres, quienes inmigraron ilegalmente a Chicago desde Mexico en busca de una vida mejor, estan inconsolables. La madre de Julia parece canalizar su dolor para senalar de todas las maneras posibles que Julia no es la hija mexicana perfecta que Olga era. Pero Julia pronto descubre que Olga puede haber tenido secretos, tambien. Con la ayuda de su mejor amiga Lorena, Julia esta decidida a descubrirlo. ¿Era Olga realmente lo que parecia? ¿O habia algo mas en la historia de su hermana? Y de cualquier manera, ¿como puede Julia incluso intentar vivir a la altura de un ideal aparentemente imposible.

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New Memoirs & Biography | August 2021

By bcplweb Booklists, Booklists

All of the titles featured here in this booklist we have in our collection! To see if an item is available to check out or to place a hold, click on the cover image or button to the right of the description.

Steve Kerr: A Life

by Scott Howard-Cooper

Few individuals have had a career as storied, and improbable, as Steve Kerr. He has won eight NBA titles—five as a player and three as a coach—for three different franchises. He played alongside the best players of a generation, from Michael Jordan to Shaquille O’Neal to Tim Duncan, and learned the craft of basketball under four legendary coaches. He was an integral part of two famed NBA dynasties. Perhaps no other figure in basketball history has had a hand in such greatness.

The only coach other than Red Auerbach to lead a team to the Finals five consecutive seasons, Kerr seems destined for the Basketball Hall of Fame. Steve Kerr is his incredible story, offering insights into the man and what it takes to be—and make—a champion. Drawing upon Scott Howard-Cooper’s years covering Warriors, deep archival research, and original interviews with more than one hundred of the central characters in Kerr’s life, this is basketball biography at its finest.

Madam C.J. Walker: The Making of an American Icon

by Erica L. Ball

Madam C. J. Walker—reputed to be America’s first self-made woman millionaire—has long been celebrated for her rags-to-riches story. Born to former slaves in the Louisiana Delta in the aftermath of the Civil War, married at fourteen, and widowed at twenty, Walker spent the first decades of her life as a laundress, laboring in conditions that paralleled the lives of countless poor and working-class African American women. By the time of her death in 1919, however, Walker had refashioned herself into one of the most famous African American figures in the nation: the owner and president of a hair-care empire and a philanthropist wealthy enough to own a country estate near the Rockefellers in the prestigious New York town of Irvington-on-Hudson. In this biography, Erica Ball places this remarkable and largely forgotten life story in the context of Walker’s times. Ball analyzes Walker’s remarkable acts of self-fashioning, and explores the ways that Walker (and the Walker brand) enabled a new generation of African Americans to bridge the gap between a nineteenth-century agrarian past and a twentieth-century future as urban-dwelling consumers.

Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property
and Nazi Treasure

by Menachem Haiser

From a gifted young writer, the story of his quest to reclaim his family’s apartment building in Poland—and of the astonishing entanglement with Nazi treasure hunters that follows

Menachem Kaiser’s brilliantly told story, woven from improbable events and profound revelations, is set in motion when the author takes up his Holocaust-survivor grandfather’s former battle to reclaim the family’s apartment building in Sosnowiec, Poland. Soon, he is on a circuitous path to encounters with the long-time residents of the building, and with a Polish lawyer known as “The Killer.” A surprise discovery—that his grandfather’s cousin not only survived the war, but wrote a secret memoir while a slave laborer in a vast, secret Nazi tunnel complex—leads to Kaiser being adopted as a virtual celebrity by a band of Silesian treasure seekers who revere the memoir as the indispensable guidebook to Nazi plunder. Propelled by rich original research, Kaiser immerses readers in profound questions that reach far beyond his personal quest. What does it mean to seize your own legacy? Can reclaimed property repair rifts among the living? Plunder is both a deeply immersive adventure story and an irreverent, daring interrogation of inheritance—material, spiritual, familial, and emotional.

House of Sticks

by Ly Tran

An intimate, beautifully written coming-of-age memoir recounting a young girl’s journey from war-torn Vietnam to Ridgewood, Queens, and her struggle to find her voice amid clashing cultural expectations.

Ly Tran is just a toddler in 1993 when she and her family immigrate from a small town along the Mekong river in Vietnam to a two-bedroom railroad apartment in Queens. Ly’s father, a former lieutenant in the South Vietnamese army, spent nearly a decade as a POW, and their resettlement is made possible through a humanitarian program run by the US government. Soon after they arrive, Ly joins her parents and three older brothers sewing ties and cummerbunds piece-meal on their living room floor to make ends meet.

Told in a spare, evocative voice that, with flashes of humor, weaves together her family’s immigration experience with her own fraught and courageous coming of age, House of Sticks is a timely and powerful portrait of one girl’s struggle to reckon with her heritage and forge her own path.

The Great Peace

by Mena Suvari

The Great Peace is a harrowing, heartbreaking coming-of-age story set in Hollywood, in which young teenage model-turned-actor Mena Suvari lost herself to sex, drugs and bad, often abusive relationships even as blockbuster movies made her famous. It’s about growing up in the 90s, with a soundtrack ranging from The Doors to Deee-Lite, fashion from denim to day-glo, and a woman dealing with the lasting psychological scars of abuse, yet knowing deep inside she desires so much more from life.

Within these vulnerable pages, Mena not only reveals her own mistakes, but also the lessons she learned and her efforts to understand and grow rather than casting blame. As such, she makes this a timeless story of girl empowerment and redemption, of somebody using their voice to rediscover their past, seek redemption, and to understand their mistakes, and ultimately come to terms with their power as an individual to find a way and a will to live—and thrive. Poignant, intimate, and powerful, this book will resonate with anyone who has found themselves lost in the darkness, thinking there’s no way out. Ultimately, Mena’s story proves that, no matter how hopeless it may seem, there’s always a light at the end.

Mike Nichols: A Life

by Mark Harris

A magnificent biography of one of the most protean creative forces in American entertainment history, a life of dazzling highs and vertiginous plunges–some of the worst largely unknown until now–by the acclaimed author of Pictures at a Revolution and Five Came Back

Mike Nichols burst onto the scene as a wunderkind: while still in his twenties, he was half of a hit improv duo with Elaine May that was the talk of the country. Next he directed four consecutive hit plays, won back-to-back Tonys, ushered in a new era of Hollywood moviemaking with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and followed it with The Graduate, which won him an Oscar and became the third-highest-grossing movie ever. At thirty-five, he lived in a three-story Central Park West penthouse, drove a Rolls-Royce, collected Arabian horses, and counted Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor, Leonard Bernstein, and Richard Avedon as friends.

Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight

by Julia Sweig

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A magisterial portrait of Lady Bird Johnson, and a major reevaluation of the profound yet underappreciated impact the First Lady’s political instincts had on LBJ’s presidency.

In the spring of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson had a decision to make. Just months after moving into the White House under the worst of circumstances—following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy—he had to decide whether to run to win the presidency in his own right. He turned to his most reliable, trusted political strategist: his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. The strategy memo she produced for him, emblematic of her own political acumen and largely overlooked by biographers, is just one revealing example of how their marriage was truly a decades-long political partnership.

Broken Horses

by Brandi Carlile

Brandi Carlile was born into a musically gifted, impoverished family on the outskirts of Seattle and grew up in a constant state of change, moving from house to house, trailer to trailer, fourteen times in as many years. Though imperfect in every way, her dysfunctional childhood was as beautiful as it was strange, and as nurturing as it was difficult. At the age of five, Brandi contracted bacterial meningitis, which almost took her life, leaving an indelible mark on her formative years and altering her journey into young adulthood.

As an openly gay teenager, Brandi grappled with the tension between her sexuality and her faith when her pastor publicly refused to baptize her on the day of the ceremony. Shockingly, her small town rallied around Brandi in support and set her on a path to salvation where the rest of the misfits and rejects find it: through twisted, joyful, weird, and wonderful music.

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