FICTION
The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield
In 1768, Charlotte, daughter of the Habsburg Empress, arrives in Naples to marry a man she has never met. Her sister Antoine is sent to France, and in the mirrored corridors of Versailles they rename her Marie Antoinette. The sisters are alone, but they are not powerless. When they were only children, they discovered a book of spells – spells that work, with dark and unpredictable consequences.
The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian
Set in 1920s Mississippi, this debut Southern novel weaves a beautiful and harrowing story of two teenage girls cast in an unlikely partnership through murder. Ada promised herself she would never go back to the Trace, to her hard life on the swamp and her harsh father. But now, after running away to Baton Rouge and briefly knowing a different kind of life, she finds herself with nowhere to go but back home. And she knows there will be a price to pay with her father.
Assassin’s Edge by Ward Larsen
A U.S. spy plane crashes off the northern coast of Russia at the same time that a Mossad operative is abducted from a street in Kazakhstan. The two events seem unrelated, but as suspicions arise, the CIA calls in its premier operative, David Slaton. When wreckage from the aircraft is discovered on a remote Arctic island, Slaton and a team are sent on a clandestine mission to investigate. While they comb a frigid Russian island at the top of the world, disaster strikes yet again: a U.S. Navy destroyer sinks in the Black Sea.
Forbidden City by Vanessa Hua
On the eve of China’s Cultural Revolution and her sixteenth birthday, Mei dreams of becoming a model revolutionary. When the Communist Party recruits girls for a mysterious duty in the capital, she seizes the opportunity to escape her impoverished village. It is only when Mei arrives at the Chairman’s opulent residence—a forbidden city unto itself—that she learns that the girls’ job is to dance with the Party elites. Ambitious and whip-smart, Mei beelines toward the Chairman.
NONFICTION
The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age by Amy Sohn
Anthony Comstock, special agent to the U.S. Post Office, was one of the most important men in the lives of 19th-century women. His eponymous law, passed in 1873, penalized the mailing of contraception and obscenity with long sentences and steep fines. Between 1873 and Comstock’s death in 1915, eight remarkable women were charged with violating state and federal Comstock laws. These “sex radicals” supported contraception, sexual education, gender equality, and women’s right to pleasure.
The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time: The Arctic Mission to the Epicenter of Climate Change by Markus Rex
Rex vividly describes one year aboard the Polarstern, a powerful ice-breaker ship that journeyed deep into the Arctic in 2019, carrying more than 100 scientists and crew known as the MOSAiC Expedition. Hailing from across the world, they would become the largest expedition to ever survive a polar winter. Their purpose? To understand — and predict — the impacts of climate change on the Arctic.
The Forever Dog: Surprising New Science to Help Your Canine Companion Live Younger, Healthier, and Longer by Rodney Habib
Like their human counterparts, dogs have been getting sicker and dying prematurely over the past few decades. Why? Scientists are beginning to understand that the chronic diseases afflicting humans—cancer, obesity, diabetes, organ degeneration, and autoimmune disorders—also beset canines. As a result, our beloved companions are vexed with preventable health problems throughout much of their lives and suffer shorter life spans.
Persians: The Age of the Great Kings by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
The Achaemenid Persian kings ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. From the palace city of Persepolis, Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes, and their heirs reigned supreme for centuries until the conquests of Alexander of Macedon brought the empire to a swift and unexpected end in the late 330s BCE.
CHILDREN’S
Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free: The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth by Alice Fay Duncan
When Opal Lee was 12, angry neighbors burned down her family’s Texas home because of the color of their skin. From that day forward, Opal vowed to dedicate her life to speaking up for equality. Opal became a teacher, community leader and civil rights activist, telling children the stories of their history that should never be forgotten. One of her favorite stories was about the holiday called Juneteenth, which marks the day—June 19, 1865—when the last enslaved people in America finally received the news that they were free. Juneteenth was observed in Texas and other states, but not nationally. When she was 89 years old, Opal walked from her home in Texas to Washington D.C. to petition Congress to make Juneteenth a national holiday in the United States. Her dream came true last year as this was signed into law by President Joe Biden. Ms. Lee is now 95 and in 2022 will celebrate the realization of her dream that all Americans reflect on what this day means to civil rights.
Ages: 4-10
