Peak Picks Current Titles Book List
New titles from the Peak Picks collection that are currently in rotation. Stop by any branch to see what's available today!
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Autocracy, Inc
Adult Nonfiction. "'A world in which autocracies work together to stay in power, work together to promote their system, and work together to damage democracies is not some distant dystopia,' writes Applebaum. 'That world is the one we are living in right now.' In the meantime, she notes, democracies, as if paralyzed, accommodate both the lawlessness of the autocrats and the violence they incite: Witness, for instance, the growing myth that Jan. 6, 2021, was acceptable political expression. Whereas autocrats once worked singly, today they’re shored up by an international kleptocracy and shared understandings - don’t criticize my oppressiveness, and I won’t criticize yours - that make allies of disparate rulers from Washington to Budapest to Harare. Central to any discussion of modern totalitarianism." Kirkus Reviews.
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The Briar Club
Adult Fiction. "Quinn's compelling story of women's friendships, set against the frightening days of McCarthyism, combines personal stories with real history. In 1954, a Thanksgiving gathering at a Washington, DC, women's boardinghouse is disrupted. The result is two dead bodies and 17 suspects. The boardinghouse residents and their guests worry about what the police will uncover, because Briarwood House has harbored secrets for at least four years. Mrs. Nilsson, the owner and landlady at Briarwood House, is disliked by all the residents. However, beginning in 1950, when a widow named Grace Marsh moves in, the atmosphere slowly changes. Every Thursday, when Mrs. Nilsson is out, Grace invites everyone to dinner in her tiny room. The women all have a chance to talk about their past while still keeping secrets, but the lives they've made might come crashing down as friendships are tested." Library Journal.
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The Coin
Adult Fiction. "A wealthy young woman drifts through New York in a stupor of designer clothes and high-end beauty products. Though stunningly unqualified, she teaches (barely) at a private school for 'underprivileged' boys while mocking American child rearing. She floats between two singularly unimpressive men and joins a pyramid scam selling designer purses. Yet her rootlessness is not without cause, for she is Palestinian, and displacement is endemic to the Palestinian experience. 'I come from a land that is a graveyard,' she muses, a place where 'the women in my family placed a lot of importance on being clean, perhaps because there was little else they could control in their lives.' First-time novelist Zaher wields her journalist's eye to elevate the callous distance from everyday horror...Brilliant." Booklist.
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The Color of Everything
Adult Nonfiction. "Growing up in the mountains of Utah, Cory Richards was constantly surrounded by the outdoors. His father, a high school teacher and a ski patroller, spent years teaching Richards and his brother how to ski, climb, mountaineer, and survive in the wild. Despite a seemingly idyllic childhood, the Richards home was fraught with violence, grief, and mental illness. After being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and dropping out of high school, Richards subsumed himself in the worlds of photography and climbing, seeking out the farthest reaches of the world to escape the darkness. Then, in the midst of a wildly successful career in adventure photography, a catastrophic avalanche changed everything, forcing Richards to confront the trauma of his past, evaluate his own mental health, and learn to rewrite his story." Publisher description
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Evenings and Weekends
Adult Fiction. "Summer in London stops for no one. Not the half-naked drunks and stoners, the bachelorette parties glugging from bejewelled bottles, the drag queens puffing on hurried cigarettes. It's June 2019, and everyone has converged...to revel in the collective joys of being alive. Everyone but Maggie. She's 30, pregnant, and broke...wondering if having a baby with boyfriend Ed will be the last spontaneous act of her life. Ed, meanwhile, is trying to run from his past with Maggie's best friend Phil and harboring secret dreams of his own. Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. As Saturday night approaches, all their lives are set to change forever. ...Oisin McKenna's debut is a mesmerizing dive into the soul of a city and a searing look at what it takes to build a life there." Publisher description.
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Loud
Adult Nonfiction. "Afualo never intended to become famous on TikTok. Her goal had been to become a football reporter because football was home to many members of her Samoan community. Then, dismissal from her dream job, followed in quick succession by the Covid-19 pandemic, changed her plans. 'The reality of it going down the drain so quickly and aggressively crushed my spirit in ways I had never anticipated,' she writes. The author joined TikTok and posted humorous tirades against 'awful men who attack marginalized people on the internet for no reason,' and she went viral. In her debut book, Afualo continues her mission to uproot the internalized biases actively cultivated by patriarchy, most of which harm gender minorities. An unapologetically energizing reading experience." Kirkus Reviews.
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Someone Like Us
Adult Fiction. "In the beautiful latest from Mengestu (All Our Names), a journalist pieces together the mysteries of his early life in the wake of his biological father's death. The story takes place over three days after Mamush travels from Paris to the Ethiopian community outside Washington, DC, where he spent the latter half of his childhood. Upon his arrival, he learns from his mother that Samuel, whom Mamush knew growing up as a family friend and later found out was his father, has just been found dead in his garage. After Mamush pays condolences to Samuel's wife, he heads to Chicago, where he was born shortly after his mother emigrated from Ethiopia, hoping to find answers about Samuel and his mother's early relationship. Mengestu shifts fluidly between fabulism and realism, and the narrative is full of wisdom related to Samuel's disillusionment with the American dream." Publishers Weekly.
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Amrikan
Adult Nonfiction. "Shah injects an electric and irresistible energy into the story of Indian food. From the savory and bold flavors of Achari Paneer Pizza to the ultimate home-cooked comfort meal, a pot of Spinach Tadka Dal with rice, Khushbu's recipes are flavor-packed, party-pleasing, and wonderfully surprising. Khushbu makes it easy to dive in, equipping home cooks with a list of simple-to-find pantry staples alongside vibrant images, clever tips and tricks, and illuminating essays that introduce a thrilling voice in American food." Publisher description
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Bear
Adult Fiction. "Sam and Elena dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works on the ferry...while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can't earn enough to get by...Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it's time to leave the island. Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Bear is a propulsive, mythical, richly imagined novel..." Publisher description
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Code Dependent
Adult Nonfiction. "On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience - unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency and shatter our illusion of free will." Publisher description
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