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Jen Pace Dickenson

Shelf Life

 

The library has been closed for quite a while now and while I hope you found some ebooks to read on the NC Digital Library, I am happy to report that you can now check out materials via our curbside pickup service! Visit https://polklibrary.org/curbside/ for details. Here are some new books for you to place on hold, that were released in March or April 2020.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, this is a captivating novel of money, beauty, white-collar crime, ghosts, and moral compromise. A woman disappears from a container ship off the coast of Mauritania and a massive Ponzi scheme implodes in New York, dragging countless fortunes with it. I recently read and enjoyed Station Eleven, and have heard good things about this one as well.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

2000: Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, 15-year-old Vanessa becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob, her magnetic and guileful 42-year-old English teacher. 2017: Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Jacob has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past.

The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward

When Charlotte submits an essay to the “Become a Jetsetter” contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children. When she wins the cruise, the family packs all their baggage – literal and figurative – and spends ten days traveling from Athens through Rome to Barcelona on an over-the-top ship. As lovers new and old join the adventure, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the Perkins family is forced to confront the defining choices in their lives.

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

A supernatural thriller set in South Carolina in the ‘90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious stranger who turns out to be a real monster. I read and enjoyed this one recently! Although I did get upset for the main character several times throughout the book. I felt sorry for her and her friends because they were so helpless and had such controlling husbands!

The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate

From the New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a new novel inspired by little-known historical events: a dramatic story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its vital connection to her own students’ lives.

The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben

The man known as Wilde is a mystery to everyone, including himself. Decades ago, he was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. After the police concluded an exhaustive hunt for the child’s family, which was never found, he was turned over to the foster system. Now, thirty years later, Wilde still doesn’t know where he comes from, and he’s back living in the woods on the outskirts of town, content to be an outcast. When a local girl goes missing, famous TV lawyer Hester Crimstein – with whom Wilde shares a tragic connection – asks him to use his unique skills to help find her.

Jen Pace Dickenson is the youth services librarian for Polk County Public Libraries. For information about the library’s resources, programs, and other services, visit polklibrary.org or call 828-894-8721.