Peak Picks Current Titles Book List
New titles from the Peak Picks collection that are currently in rotation. Stop by any branch to see what's available today!
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How to Raise An Antiracist
Adult Nonfiction. “Kendi lays out an antiracism plan for care-givers in this knockout combination of memoir and parenting guide. Kendi challenges the notion that not talking about race protects children; [to] that end, he suggests, parents should…train critical thinkers by asking such questions as ‘Why do you think there aren't more picture books with dark people on the covers?’; and cultivate empathy by making sure not to ‘dismiss feelings, judge their feelings, or [sic] hostile to their feelings.’ This will be an invaluable resource for any parent or teacher who want to set kids on the path to antiracism early.” – Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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On Rotation: A Novel
Adult Fiction. “After Angie Appiah’s boyfriend dumps her on the way to meet her parents for the first time, she finds a quiet place to cry in a public garden. There she meets the incredibly handsome Ricky, who sketches a portrait of her and flirts with her, only to tell her he has a girlfriend. Angie barely has time to date—she’s juggling a punishing medical school schedule, the demands of her Ghanaian American family, and drama with her friends—but then Ricky breaks up with his girlfriend. A funny, emotional page-turner that will have readers rooting for Angie.” – Booklist
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels, and Crooks
Adult Nonfiction. “Keefe has garnered prizes… for his meticulously-reported, hypnotically-engaging work on the many ways people behave badly. Rogues brings together a dozen of his most celebrated articles from The New Yorker. Keefe brilliantly explores the intricacies of forging $150,000 vintage wines, examines whether a whistleblower who dared to expose money laundering at a Swiss bank is a hero or a fabulist, chronicles the quest to bring down a cheerful international black market arms merchant, and profiles a passionate death penalty attorney who represents the ‘worst of the worst,’ among other bravura works of literary journalism.” – Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: On order
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Tracy Flick Can't Win: A Novel
Adult Fiction. “Tracy Flick is back and, once again, the iconic protagonist of Perrotta’s Election, is determined to take high school politics by storm. [She] is a hardworking assistant principal at a public high school in suburban New Jersey. Still ambitious but feeling a little stuck and underappreciated in midlife, Tracy gets a jolt of good news when the longtime principal abruptly announces his retirement... Energized by the prospect of her long-overdue promotion, Tracy throws herself into her work with renewed zeal, determined to prove her worth… while also managing her personal life—a 10-year-old daughter, a needy doctor boyfriend, and a burgeoning meditation practice.” – Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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What your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health
Adult Nonfiction. “Geologist Montgomery and biologist Biklé bemoan the loss of soil nutrients in this insightful look at regenerative farming. Produce is significantly less nutrient-dense than in the past, and while consumers believe that organic farming yields more nutritious results than conventional agriculture, ‘what's typically missing from the framing of dietary choices,’ the authors write, ‘is how we grow what we eat.’ The authors offer a bevy of ideas for reviving soil, namely no-till planting, the usage of cover crops, and crop rotation. The result is a deep dive that's convincing and well reported.” – Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Woman of Light: A Novel
Adult Fiction. “Luz ‘Little Light’ Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego… is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors’ origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion. A dazzling epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West.” – Publisher description
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Book Lovers
Adult Fiction. “Literary agent Nora is tired of always playing the ambitious big-city ice queen whose boyfriends leave her for new lives (and new relationships) in small-town America. That's why, when Nora's sister insists on taking her on a trip to a little town that's straight out of one of her authors' novels, and imposes a list of romance tropes to experience, Nora is doubtful she can find her happily-ever-after. Cue Charlie, an editor and Nora's nemesis from New York who mysteriously shows up in town… [T]his novel will delight readers of smart, sexy, and funny romances with emotional depth and storylines featuring family dynamics.” – LJ
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change
Adult Nonfiction. “Weathering the COVID-19 crisis made space for Garbes to honor care work in all its forms, including mothering. She begins each chapter…with a brief personal narrative drawn from her identity as a daughter of Filipinx immigrant parents who are both care workers, before reflecting on the power that mothering holds in creating a better world, one which respects care as the critical infra-structure making all institutions possible. Garbes thoughtfully but not bitterly critiques the twin forces of capitalism and colonialism that render care work invisible, especially devaluing the women and people of color who shoulder so much of it in and out of the home.” – Booklist
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Happy-go-lucky
Adult Nonfiction. “Back when…wearing a mask−or not−was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he's stuck in lockdown. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, to no longer to be someone's son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America. In Happy-Go-Lucky, Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals…and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all.” – Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
Adult Nonfiction. “A scientific panorama of our well-being and how it can be sustained in our current tumultuous times and beyond. Smil…explores the science behind essential contemporary topics: energy generation, food production, material dependence, globalization, large-scale risks, responses to environmental threats, and predictive uncertainty. The author aims to combat the widespread ‘comprehension deficit’ about basic scientific facts, and he seeks to ‘explain some of the most fundamental ruling realities governing our survival and our prosperity.’ An exceptionally lucid, evenhanded study of the scientific basis of our current and future lives.” – Kirkus
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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