The following is a list of books recently added to the Brooke County Public Library’s collection:
ADULT FICTION
THE SECRETS WE LEFT BEHIND by Soraya Lane. Occupied France, 1940. When the staff at a field hospital draw straws to find out who will join the evacuation from Dunkirk, Nurse Cate is left behind. But when the Nazis arrive to claim prisoners of war, she takes her chance and flees into the night, taking one patient with her. Fifty miles away, the surrendering soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment are shot dead by the advancing Germans. Beneath the pile of bodies two men survive, crawling to the safety of a nearby farmhouse, where sisters Elise and Adelaide risk their lives to take them in. When Cate, too, arrives at their door with her injured soldier, the pressure mounts. The sisters are risking everything to keep their visitors safe. But with the Nazis coming ever closer and relationships in the farmhouse intensifying, they must all question the sacrifices they are willing to make for the lives of others. How far will they go for family, friendship, and love?
THE BEACH HOUSE by Jane Green. Known in Nantucket as the crazy woman who lives in the rambling house atop the bluff, Nan doesn’t care what people think. At sixty-five-years old, her husband died twenty years ago, her beauty has faded, and her family has flown. If her neighbors are away, why shouldn’t she skinny dip in their swimming pools and help herself to their flowers? But when she discovers the money she thought would last forever is dwindling and she could lose her beloved house, Nan knows she has to make drastic changes. So Nan takes out an ad: Rooms to rent for the summer in a beautiful old Nantucket home with water views and direct access to the beach. Slowly, people start moving into the house, filling it with noise, with laughter, and with tears. As the house comes alive again, Nan finds her family expanding. Her son comes home for the summer, and then an unexpected visitor turns all their lives upside-down.
THE BONE JAR by S. W. Kane. The body of an elderly woman has been found in the bowels of a derelict asylum on the banks of the Thames. As Detective Lew Kirby and his partner begin their investigation, another body is discovered in the river nearby. How are the two murders connected?
Before long, the secrets of Blackwater Asylum begin to reveal themselves. There are rumours about underground bunkers and secret rooms, unspeakable psychological experimentation, and a dark force that haunts the ruins, trying to pull back in all those who attempt to escape. Urban explorer Connie Darke, whose sister died in a freak accident at the asylum, is determined to help Lew expose its grisly past. Meanwhile Lew discovers a devastating family secret that threatens to turn his life upside down.
As his world crumbles around him, Lew must put the pieces of the puzzle together to keep the killer from striking again. Only an eccentric former patient really knows the truth–but will he reveal it to Lew before it’s too late?
ADULT NON-FICTION
SHRINER’S CHILDREN’S by Bradford Verter. Members of the Shriners fraternity established Shriners Children’s because they wanted to make a difference. They wanted to make the world a better place. At the time, a polio epidemic was threatening the lives of children across the U.S., and many children were without proper care. In response, the Shriners chose to establish a children’s hospital to deliver specific care for children with polio at no cost. Today, Shriners Children’s is one of the largest sub-specialty healthcare systems in the world and has cared for more than 1.5 million children with orthopedic conditions, spinal cord injuries, burns and cleft lip and palate, regardless of the families’ ability to pay. Through these 100 years of pediatric care, Shriners Children’s has created a healthcare system dedicated to providing the most expert care, advanced research and medical education for the next generation of medical professionals. What began as one hospital in 1922 is now a world-renowned healthcare system providing multiple access points around the globe to bring hope and healing for families and their children.
KILLING THE WITCHES by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. Killing the Witches revisits one of the most frightening and inexplicable episodes in American history: the events of 1692 and 1693 in Salem Village, Massachusetts. What began as a mysterious affliction of two young girls who suffered violent fits and exhibited strange behavior soon spread to other young women. Rumors of demonic possession and witchcraft consumed Salem. Soon three women were arrested under suspicion of being witches–but as the hysteria spread, more than 200 people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, twenty were executed, and others died in jail or their lives were ruined. Killing the Witches tells the dramatic history of how the Puritan tradition and the power of early American ministers shaped the origins of the United States, influencing the founding fathers, the American Revolution, and even the Constitutional Convention. The repercussions of Salem continue to the present day, notably in the real-life story behind The Exorcist and in contemporary “witch hunts” driven by social media.
EASY/JUVENILE/YOUNG ADULT/GRAPHIC NOVEL
THE MYSTERIOUS WOODS OF WHISTLE ROOT by Christopher Pennell. Eleven-year-old Carly Bean Bitters, an orphan, can only sleep during the day and feels very lonely until she meets a rat, Lewis, and sets off on an adventure to figure out what is threatening the woods and its inhabitants.
JUST GRANDMA AND ME by Mercer Mayer. Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter is spending a day at the beach with his grandma in this classic, funny, and heartwarming book.