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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Wandering Stars
Adult Fiction. “Star, a young survivor of 1864's Sand Creek Massacre (in present-day Colorado), is held at the Fort Marion Prison Castle and compelled to eschew his language and heritage by a brutal prison guard—as is Star's son Charles a generation later, at the Carlisle Industrial School for Indians. Charles survives with the help of fellow student Opal Viola, whose own story brings us to 2018 Oakland and events in Orange's Pulitzer Prize finalist, mega-award-winning There There.” Library Journal
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Availability: Available
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Be A Revolution
Adult Nonfiction. “Bestseller Oluo affirms that ‘everyone has different roles in this revolution’ in these enlightening profiles of people who've put their anti-racist values into action. Each chapter highlights the tie between racial justice and some other topic—such as gender, disability, policing, education, and the arts—through detailed life stories of activists that center their changing understanding of the world and how they managed challenges. She also admirably demonstrates how she continues to grow through self-education and reflection. Readers will find inspiration and clarity.” Publishers Weekly
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Availability: Available
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Behind You Is the Sea
Adult Fiction. “A pregnant teen girl is ostracized by her family. A Palestinian American cop has divided loyalties. Refugees and their children alternately worship ‘America’s glory . . . Macy’s One-Day Sale!’ and chafe at the rejection they experience. In this episodic debut novel, Darraj portrays the joys, resentments, and yearnings of three generations of a tight-knit Palestinian American community. The elders… struggle to maintain their cultural values, including ethnocentrism and sexism, and pass them on to children who either prefer assimilation or who resist the refugee legacy… Marvelous and moving.” Booklist
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Availability: Available
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Break the Cycle
Adult Nonfiction. “Drawing on wisdom gleaned from years of professional experience as a psychologist as well as her own troubled family history, Buqué presents a ‘comprehensive recipe to shedding intergenerational trauma and an immersive orientation into how to do this work.’ With the proper tools and a courageous commitment to recovery, the author explains, one will discover that ‘every problem is survivable’ and that longstanding patterns of dysfunction can be re-formed into healthier alternatives. A field-tested, practical guidebook for reclaiming health in the face of intergenerational trauma.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Come and Get It
Adult Fiction. “It's 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie's starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardized by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks, and illicit intrigue. A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption, and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior…” Publisher description
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Availability: Available
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Come Together
Adult Nonfiction. “’Solving sex problems isn't all therapy and feelings,’ stresses sex educator Nagoski. Writing that long-term sexual satisfaction relies less on a ‘spark’ than fostering a ‘context that makes it easier to access pleasure,’ Nagoski focuses on such practical tools as creating ‘mental floorplans’ to map out emotional states and how to navigate through them to reach ‘a sexy state of mind.’ Nagoski's prose is spry and inviting as she marshals research and anecdotes (many featuring nonbinary couples) to dispel notions of ‘normal’ sex, ban sexual expectations and judgments, and advocate ‘live with confidence and joy’ in one's body.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Cold Victory
Adult Fiction. “The year is 1947. Louise Koski… accompanies her attaché husband, Arnie, on a posting to Helsinki, where a fragile calm hides deep fissures. Her foil is Natalya Bobrova, the reserved, wary wife of Red Army officer Mikhail. When the men’s drunken boasting prompts an endurance challenge—a frigid week-long trek across northern Finland—Louise and Natalya reach a tentative détente and find common cause in raising money for a cash-strapped orphanage. But Louise’s well-intentioned plan to use the ski race as a fundraising vehicle collides with the Stalin regime’s ruthlessness, and terrible things will happen if Mikhail loses the race.” Booklist
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Availability: Available
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The Djinn Waits A Hundred Years
Adult Fiction. “Trying to cope with the loss of her mother, Sana and her father move from the farm she grew up on to the coast of South Africa and into the manor house Akbar Manzil. The dilapidated manor house… is inhabited by eccentric tenants, abandoned rooms, and secrets lurking behind locked doors. While her father navigates his grief, 15-year-old Sana is left to her own devices. Sana roams the house uncovering artifacts of the past owners and their mysteries, but Sana has secrets of her own, ghosts that haunt her just as the past haunts this house.” Booklist
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Availability: Available
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Family Family
Adult Fiction. “India Allwood has been a talented, determined actress from a young age. She works her way from stage plays in college to Broadway and finally to a TV role in Hollywood. After starring in a melodramatic movie about adoption, India tells a reporter that she believes the film misrepresents adoption; as an adoptive mother herself, India knows firsthand that not every such story is tragic. The media feedback to India's interview is ruthless, and soon secrets from her past come to light. Suddenly her career is at risk, and India must decide if she wants to save face or continue defending her choices.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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I Survived Capitalism and All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt
Adult Nonfiction. “Pendleton, founder of the clothing company Tunnel Vision, shines in her idiosyncratic debut memoir-cum-finance guide. She is a penetrating critic of economic injustice and the shortcomings of traditional personal finance programs, noting that it's ‘intrinsically impossible for everyone’ to follow such common suggestions as becoming a landlord. Her substantial guidance on ‘how to run an equitable business’ is a refreshing alternative to the lip service found in other manuals (‘Be radically transparent about all things financial’; ‘Pay everyone equally for their labor’). This stands out from the pack.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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