Peak Picks Current Titles Book List
A complete list of current Peak Picks titles.
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What Will People Think?
Adult Fiction. "This beautifully written debut tackles serious issues...using stand-up comedy as a framing device. Mia is a second-generation Palestinian American who has lived with her traditional grandparents since she lost her parents. She and her father shared a love of stand-up, and Mia has been working on her own comedy act in secret. Her heritage is great fodder for her comedy, but her work as a magazine fact-checker pays the bills. When a reporting job opens up...her best friend submits a writing sample for her, along with a video of her stand-up that goes viral. [Mia] is terrified that her new notoriety may lead to [her grandparents'] deportation." Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Audition
Adult Fiction. "Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She's an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He's attractive, troubling, young---young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day - partner, parent, creator, muse - and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately. Taut and hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best." Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Book of Alchemy
Adult Nonfiction. "After being diagnosed with leukemia at 22, Jaouad was inspired by Michael Bierut, a design professor who'd asked his graduate students to perform 'one creative act for 100 days,' to start a daily journaling practice in hopes of finding meaning in her illness. With this as a model, she gathers prompts from 100 novelists, journalists, and artists who invite readers to begin their own journaling practice. The prompts are varied enough to appeal to devoted diarists and newbies alike, and Jaouad poignantly interweaves her own intimate meditations on creativity, pain, and art." Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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A Grain, A Green, A Bean
Adult Nonfiction. "Dietician Hamshaw has written a timely volume supporting the growing interest in plant-based cooking. Using a basic formula to mix grains, greens, and beans, the book is broken down into sections covering bowls, salads, sandwiches, and stovetop and oven recipes, with an emphasis on making quick yet flavorful and balanced meals. Standouts include red-wine braised mushrooms and French lentils with farro. Rounding out the well-organized sections, there are basic recipes for dips, hummus, and vegan sauces." Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Say You'll Remember Me
Adult Fiction. "When Samantha brings her new kitten to attractive veterinarian Xavier, their first interaction does not go well. Xavier instantly puts his foot in his mouth but redeems himself at Samantha's next vet visit and asks her out. Unfortunately, after the world's most perfect, never-ending date, Xavier discovers that Samantha is moving across the country the next day. [T]he book deftly tackles challenges, such as early-onset dementia and caring for a parent, in between sweet and sexy scenes. Samantha and Xavier's story will resonate with anyone who has ever experienced long-distance romance..." Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Sirens
Adult Fiction. "In 19th-century Ireland, sisters Mary and Eliza were declared convicts and shipped to Australia. As they endured horrific conditions, they held on to hope and to each other. In 2019, recurring childhood nightmares continue to afflict first-year journalism student Lucy Martin. After waking up from a traumatic sleepwalking incident, Lucy escapes to her artist sister Jess's house in Comber Bay on the coast of New South Wales. Then Lucy discovers that her sister is missing... Comber Bay, known for its dark events from shipwrecks to missing men, piques Lucy's journalistic interest, and she begins to research while waiting for Jess to return. ...[A] lyrical story, intricately blending family dynamics with the magic of folklore." Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Wild in Seattle
Adult Nonfiction. "For award-winning natural history writer David B. Williams, to be connected to a place you need to pause and look deeply at it. Wild in Seattle is Williams' delightful journey of discovery in this city where not only is nature all around, it's also written in the stones of the urban landscape. Williams' lively essays woven with Elizabeth Person's engaging illustrations will fire up the curiosity of both residents and visitors alike, inspiring all to take a fresh look at the Emerald City." Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Abundance
Adult Nonfiction. "Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren't interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side's 'pathologies.' Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous 'goals, standards, and rules.' Instead, they envision 'a politics of abundance' that would remake travel, work, and health. This won't happen without 'changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.' Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges." Kirkus
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Dream Hotel
Adult Fiction. "Lalami delivers a stirring dystopian tale of dwindling privacy and freedom in the digital age. In the late 2030s, Sara T. Hussein, 38, a Muslim American art archivist, is detained by officials from the Risk Assessment Administration, who claim data recorded by her Dreamsaver implant, which was originally developed to treat sleep apnea, predicts she will murder her husband. She's held at a repurposed elementary school for 'observation,' which stretches on for nearly a year... This surreal story feels all too plausible." Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Everything Is Tuberculosis
Adult Nonfiction. "YA author Green writes that he became 'obsessed' with tuberculosis after a chance meeting at a Sierra Leone hospital with a charming young patient, Henry Reider, who was sick with drug-resistant TB. Green weaves Henry's moving story of illness and recovery together with a social history of the disease, explaining that tuberculosis once killed rich and poor indiscriminately, but after the late-19th-century advent of germ theory, it became a 'disease of the poor and marginalized.' Green contends that, today, injustice...is the 'root cause' of all tuberculosis, and urges that since 'we are the cause... we must also be the cure.'" Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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