Here are new items we have added to the Curtis collection. Click on the title to check availability and request!
NONFICTION
The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron Howard & Clint Howard
The award-winning filmmaker and his brother, an audience-favorite actor, share their unusual family story of navigating and surviving life as sibling child actors.
Shelf Life: The Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef
The warm and winning story of starting a bookstore where there were none, Shelf Life recounts Nadia Wassef’s troubles and triumphs as founder and manager of Cairo-based Diwan.
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
Join Mary Roach on an investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet. What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A grizzly bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? As she discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer
In Cuba, the passing of Fidel Castro from this world and of Raúl Castro from power have raised urgent questions about the island’s political future. In the United States, Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba, the reversal of that policy during Donald Trump’s administration, and Joseph Biden’s apparent willingness to reinitiate open relations have made the nature of the historic relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more. In both countries, the time is ripe for a new reckoning with Cuba’s history and its relationship to the United States. Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an ambitious and moving chronicle of more than five hundred years of Cuban history, reconceived and written for a moment when history itself seems up for grabs.
The Family Roe: An American Story by Joshua Prager
Reports on the Supreme Court’s most divisive case, Roe v. Wade, and the unknown lives at its heart.
All Things Must Pass Away: Harrison, Clapton, and Other Assorted Love Songs by Kenneth Womack & Jason Kruppa
George Harrison and Eric Clapton embarked upon a singular personal and creative friendship that impacted rock’s unfolding future in resounding and far-reaching ways. All Things Must Pass Away: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Other Assorted Love Songs will trace the emergence of their relationship from 1968 though the early 1970s.
A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003 – 2020) by David Sedaris
In this follow-up to his previous volume of diaries, Theft by Finding, the award-winning humorist chronicles the years 2003-2020, charting the years of his rise to fame with his trademark misanthropic charm and wry wit.
Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes: Essays by Phoebe Robinson
Author, comedian, actress, and producer Phoebe Robinson is back with a new essay collection that is equal parts thoughtful, hilarious, and sharp about human connection, race, hair, travel, dating, Black excellence, and more. Written in Phoebe’s unforgettable voice and with her unparalleled wit, Robinson’s latest collection, laced with spot-on pop culture references, takes on a wide range of topics. From the values she learned from her parents (including, but not limited to, advice on not bringing outside germs onto your clean bed) to her and her boyfriend, lovingly known as British Baekoff, deciding to have a child-free union, to the way the Black Lives Matter movement took center stage in America, and, finally, the continual struggle to love her 4C hair, each essay is packed with humor and humanity.
Poet Warrior: A Memoir by Joy Harjo
Poet Laureate Joy Harjo offers a vivid, lyrical, and inspiring call for love and justice in this contemplation of her trailblazing life. In the second memoir from the first Native American to serve as US poet laureate, Joy Harjo invites us to travel along the heartaches, losses, and humble realizations of her “poet-warrior” road. She explores her grief at the loss of her mother and sheds light on the rituals that nourish her as an artist, mother, wife, and community member. Moving fluidly among prose, song, and poetry, Poet Warrior is a luminous journey of becoming that sings with all the jazz, blues, tenderness, and bravery that we know as distinctly Joy Harjo.
Running Smart: How Science Can Improve Your Endurance and Performance by Mariska van Sprundel
A runner and science journalist seeks to find the scientific basis for much of the commonly transmitted wisdom that exists in the running community.
Committed: Dispatches From a Psychiatrist in Training by Adam Stern
Grey’s Anatomy meets One L in this psychiatrist’s funny and moving memoir about his residency at Harvard Medical School.
Your Life Depends on It: What You Can Do to Make Better Choices About Your Health by Tayla Miron-Shatz
Medicine used to be a paternalistic affair: a doctor’s job was to make all the decisions, and a patient’s job was to obey them. But technological, economic, and cultural changes over the last century have given us unprecedented control over our own healthcare. We have been turned into healthcare consumers, expected to work with doctors on complicated medical decisions. But just how capable are we of making those decisions? Your Life Depends on It offers an unsparing yet sympathetic diagnosis of the ways of thinking that lead to bad medical choices, shines a light on how the medical system fails and sometimes even capitalizes on patients’ ignorance, and maps a new model for creating effective doctor-patient relationships. This book offers a new take on the science of making good decisions and is a vital guide to the choices that matter most, the choices your life depends on.
FICTION & MYSTERIES
Bloodless by Douglas Preston, Pendergast Novel #20
On the evening of November 24, 1971, D. B. Cooper hijacked Flight 305 — Portland to Seattle — with a fake bomb, collected a ransom of $200,000, and parachuted into the night. In 2021 bodies are found completely drained of blood in Savannah. Pendergast and his partner, Agent Coldmoon, race to understand how these murders are connected to the most mystifying hijacking in American history.
In the Country of Others by Leila Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor
After marrying a handsome Moroccan soldier during World War II, a young Frenchwoman is torn as tensions mount between the locals and the French colonists.
Her Perfect Life by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Everyone knows Lily Atwood–and that may be her biggest problem. The beloved television reporter has it all-fame, fortune, Emmys, an adorable seven-year-old daughter, and the hashtag her loving fans created: PerfectLily. To keep it all she has to do is protect one life-changing secret. Her own. Lily has an anonymous source who feeds her story tips–but suddenly, the source begins telling Lily inside information about her own life. How does he–or she–know the truth? Lily understands that no one reveals a secret unless they have a reason. Now she’s terrified someone is determined to destroy her world–and with it, everyone and everything she holds dear. How much will she risk to keep her perfect life?
We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza
Jen and Riley have been best friends since kindergarten. Jen married young, and is finally pregnant while Riley is poised to become one of the first Black female anchors of the top news channel in their hometown of Philadelphia. But, the deep bond they share is severely tested when Jen’s husband, a city police officer, is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager.
Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara
Released from a Japanese internment camp in 1944, Aki Ito moves to Chicago to be with her sister, Rose, only to lose her in subway train accident on the event of their reunion and vows to learn what really happened.
Murder Most Fowl by Donna Andrews, Meg Langslow mystery #29
Meg Langslow is in for a busy summer. Her husband is directing a production of Macbeth, and most of the cast and crew are occupying spare bedrooms in their house. And then there’s Damien Goodwin, a filmmaker who has been hanging around, trying to document the production. When Goodwin hosts a showing of some of the footage he’s taken, he manages to embarrass or offend just about everyone. The next morning Meg isn’t exactly surprised to find that someone has murdered him. But who?
Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham
Following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. Though convinced that she doesn’t really belong there, she finds companionship with the other patients in the ward despite their challenging and often intimidating issues. So when one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice feels personally compelled to launch an investigation from within the ward. Soon, she becomes convinced that she has identified the killer and that she can catch them. Ignored by the police, she must gather proof on her own, relying on the few contacts she has on the outside that still take her calls. But when her prime suspect becomes the second victim, Alice’s life begins to unravel as she realizes that she cannot trust anyone in the ward, least of all herself. Having lost her conviction and with her investigative confidence shattered, she comes dangerously close to a psychological point of no return.
One for the Hooks by Betty Hechtman, Crochet mystery #14
While Molly Pink knits together an idea for a new project, Miami Wilson busily converts a house she inherited into a rental property. Then Sloan Renner, the woman helping her clean out the house, ends up dead under a pile of smelly seafood. A large drone had flown over the property discarding mollusk shells all over the backyard. Was it an accident? An ill-fated prank by neighbors up in arms about a rental house in their cul-de-sac? When Molly learns about Sloan’s seafood allergy, she suspects that the woman’s death was no accident.
If you need more reading recommendations, call us at 725-5242 or email helpdesk@curtislibrary.com. We are always happy to help!
