Fiction
House of names
Colm Tóibín
eAUDIO
Fiction
From the thrilling imagination of bestselling, award-winning Colm Tóibín comes a retelling of the story of Clytemnestra—a spectacularly audacious, violent, vengeful, lustful, and instantly compelling queen of Greek mythology—and her children. "I have been acquainted with the smell of death." So begins Clytemnestra's tale of her own life in ancient Mycenae, the legendary Greek city from which her husband King Agamemnon left when he set sail with his army for Troy. Clytemnestra rules Mycenae now, along with her new lover Aegisthus, and together they plot the bloody murder of Agamemnon on the day of his return after nine years at war. Judged, despised, cursed by gods she has long since lost faith in, Clytemnestra reveals the tragic saga that led to these bloody actions: how her husband deceived her eldest daughter Iphigeneia with a promise of marriage to Achilles, only to sacrifice her because that is what he was told would make the winds blow in his favor and take him to Troy; how she seduced and collaborated with the prisoner Aegisthus, who shared her bed in the dark and could kill; how Agamemnon came back with a lover himself; and how Clytemnestra finally achieved her vengeance for his stunning betrayal—his quest for victory, greater than his love for his child. In House of Names, Colm Tóibín brings a modern sensibility and language to an ancient classic, and gives this extraordinary character new life, so that we not only believe Clytemnestra's thirst for revenge, but applaud it. He brilliantly inhabits the mind of one of Greek myth's most powerful villains to reveal the love, lust, and pain she feels. Told in fours parts, this is a fiercely dramatic portrait of a murderess, who will herself be murdered by her own son, Orestes. It is Orestes' story, too: his capture by the forces of his mother's lover Aegisthus, his escape and his exile. And it is the story of the vengeful Electra, who watches over her mother and Aegisthus with cold anger and slow calculation, until, on the return of her brother, she has the fates of both of them in her hands.
One breath away
Heather Gudenkauf
FICTION Gudenkau Heather
Fiction
In the midst of a sudden spring snowstorm, an unknown man armed with a gun walks into an elementary school classroom. Outside the school, the town of Broken Branch watches and waits. Officer Meg Barrett holds the responsibility for the town's children in her hands. Will Thwaite, reluctantly entrusted with the care of his two grandchildren by the daughter who left home years earlier, stands by helplessly and wonders if he has failed his child again. Trapped in her classroom, Evelyn Oliver watches for an opportunity to rescue the children in her care. And thirteen-year-old Augie Baker, already struggling with the aftermath of a terrible accident that has brought her to Broken Branch, will risk her own safety to protect her little brother. As tension mounts with each passing minute, the hidden fears and grudges of the small town are revealed as the people of Broken Branch race to uncover the identity of the stranger who holds their children hostage.
Added by Melody
Shelter in Place.
Nora Roberts
FICTION/Roberts Nora
Fiction
It was a typical evening at a mall outside Portland, Maine. Three teenage friends waited for the movie to start. A boy flirted with the girl selling sunglasses. Mothers and children shopped together, and the manager at the video-game store tended to customers. Then the shooters arrived. The chaos and carnage lasted only eight minutes before the killers were taken down. But for those who lived through it, the effects would last forever. In the years that followed, one would dedicate himself to a law enforcement career. Another would close herself off, trying to bury the memory of huddling in a ladies' room, hopelessly clutching her cell phone--until she finally found a way to pour her emotions into her art. But one person wasn't satisfied with the shockingly high death toll at the DownEast Mall. And as the survivors slowly heal, find shelter, and rebuild, they will discover that another conspirator is lying in wait--and this time, there might be nowhere safe to hide.
Added by Melody
If we had known
Elise Juska
FICTION Juska Elise
Fiction
English professor Maggie Daley and her college-student daughter struggle with guilt, fear, and the dangerous bonds of family in the aftermath of a mass shooting in their small New England town. When it is revealed that the gunman had been one of Maggie's students, she questions whether the dark, violence-tinged essay he wrote in her freshman comp seminar have been a warning. Should-- or could-- she have done something?
Added by Melody
How to be safe : a novel
Tom McAllister
FICTION Mcallist Tom
Fiction
Recently suspended for a so-called outburst, high school English teacher Anna Crawford is stewing over the injustice at home when she is shocked to see herself named on television as a suspect in a shooting at the school where she works. Though she is quickly exonerated, and the actual teenage murderer identified, her life is nevertheless held up for relentless scrutiny and judgment as this quiet town descends into media mania. This is a piercing feminist howl written in trenchant prose, a compulsively readable, darkly funny expos? of the hypocrisy that ensues when illusions of peace are shattered.
Added by Melody
Nineteen minutes
Jodi Picoult
FICTION Picoult, Jodi
Fiction
"New superiour court judge Alex Cormier is assigned to preside over the case of the alleged Sterling High School shooter. Lawyer Jordan McAffee represents Peter--the boy who, on the day of the shooting, was found in the corner of the gymnasium holding a gun to his head with a shaky hand. Detective Patrick DuCharme has one star witness, but her story keeps changing. And then there's the biggest problem of all--the star witness happens to be Judge Cormier's daughter."--From container.
Added by Melody
Only child
Rhiannon Navin
FICTION Navin Rhiannon
Fiction
Surviving a horrific school shooting, a six-year-old boy retreats into the world of books and art while making sobering observations about his mother's determination to prosecute the shooter's parents and the wider community's efforts to make sense of the tragedy.
Added by Melody
We need to talk about Kevin
Lionel Shriver
FICTION Shriver, Lionel
Fiction
Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
Find the e-book on OverDrive/Libby https://icpl.overdrive.com/media/602781 -Melody
The dog stars
Peter Heller
FICTION Heller Peter
Fiction
A thoughtful man and his faithful dog survive in the post-apocalyptic mountain west. The language is beautiful and the characters are worth knowing. I was sad to finish this one. -Tom
IQ
Joe Ide
FICTION Ide Joe
Fiction, Mystery
"A resident of one of LA's toughest neighborhoods uses his blistering intellect to solve the crimes the LAPD ignores. East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can't or won't touch. They call him IQ. He's a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he's forced to take on clients that can pay. This time, it's a rap mogul whose life is in danger. As Isaiah investigates, he encounters a vengeful ex-wife, a crew of notorious cutthroats, a monstrous attack dog, and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. The deeper Isaiah digs, the more far reaching and dangerous the case becomes"--
This first book in what I hope is a very long series of crime/detective fiction by author Joe Ide. I started with the print copy and was grabbed quickly by the story. However there is a lot of East LA dialect in this book that slowed me down, so I checked out a copy of the e-aduio and I'm so glad I did. Actor Sullivan Jones brought the characters to life in ways my imagination couldn't. After listening to a few chapters the characters are firmly in my brain and I hear their voices when I read the text. Isaiah Quintabe (IQ) is my new favorite private investigator. He sees things other people miss. Things that aren't where they're supposed to be, or shouldn't be where they are, or things that just don't make sense. Author Joe Ide masterfully weaves together two stories - Isaiah's own rough teenage years and the current case he's been hired to solve - to introduce us to a great new character in detective fiction. The second book in the series is "Righteous" and the third "Wrecked" is due out in October 2018. -Beth
If you like Madeline Miller or other Greek stories reinterpreted (and haven't had the pleasure of reading on of Toibin's other books), you'll like this one. The audiobook (read by Juliet Stevenson, Charlie Anson, and Pippa Nixon) is fantastic. -Anne M