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ADULT
Butler to the World: How Britain Helps the World’s Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes and Get Away with Anything by Oliver Bullough This book, named as one of the Best Books of 2022 by the Economist and the New Yorker, Bullough, a Welsh financial journalist, shows how the United Kingdom took the role as center of the offshore economy by serving the world’s oligarchs. This book lays bare how “London has deliberately undercut U.S. regulations for decades” while calling into question the extent that the UK can be considered a “reliable ally.”
Review: kirkusreviews. com/book-reviews/oliverbullough/ butler-to-theworld
Who Can Hold the Sea: the U.S. Navy in the Cold War, 1945-1960 by James D. Hornfischer For fans of military history, this expert account of the U.S. Navy in the cold war combines history with the stirring scenes of adventure, both on and under, the high seas. As with all Hornfischer’s works, the events of the Navy’s rise to its crucial postwar role unfolds in riveting detail. This story of the “Cold War at sea is ultimately the Story of America’s victorious contest to protect the free world.”
Review: kirkusreviews. com/book-reviews/jamesd- hornfischer/who-canhold- the-sea
The Wives by Tarryn Fisher In Fisher’s psychological thriller, three women, married to the same man, have never met, until one day, his Thursday wife discovers the name of one of Seth’s other wives. This novel twists and turns as the two women begin meeting in secret and sharing details of their lives. The narrator, the Thursday wife, asks, “Who exactly is my husband?” The reader is taken along as she asks herself how far will she go to find the truth — and who is his mysterious third wife?”
Review: kirkusreviews. com/book-reviews/tarryn- fisher/the-wives
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
Hutching’s debut novel pays homage to the classic space opera with a modern, progressive flair. A smuggler, who is fleeing the final days of a generations- long war with the alien race, Felen, encounters a stranded ship that claims to be 152 years in the future. “With their ships running out of power in the rift, more than the lives of both crews may be at stake.” This science fiction novel brings together a “cast of flawed characters and a plot with many moving parts.”
Review: publisherswe e k l y. com/ 978- 178618-592-1
YOUNG ADULT
Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima
Since Ragnarok — the great war between the gods and the forces of chaos — the human realm of the Midlands has become a desperate and dangerous place, bereft of magic. Sixteen-year-old Eiric Halvorsen is among the luckier ones—his family has remained prosperous. But he stands to lose everything when he's wrongly convicted by a rigged jury of murdering his modir and stepfadir. Also at risk is Eiric's halfsystir, Liv, who's under suspicion for her interest in seidr, or magic. Then a powerful jarl steps in: he will pay the blood price if Eiric will lead a mission to the fabled Temple at the Grove — the rich stronghold of the wyrdspinners, the last practitioners of sorcery. Spellsinger, musician and runecaster Reginn Eiklund has spent her life performing at alehouses for the benefit of her master, Asger, a fire demon she is desperate to escape. After one performance that amazes even herself, two wyrdspinners in the audience make Reginn an irresistible offer: return with them to the Temple to be trained in seidr, forever free of Asger. Eiric's, Liv's and Reginn's journeys converge in New Jotunheim, a paradise fueled by magic and the site of the Temple. They soon realize that a great evil lurks beneath the dazzling surface and that old betrayals and long-held grudges may fuel another cataclysmic war. It will require every gift and weapon at their command to prevent it.
Review: publ i s h e r s w e e k l y . com/9780063018686
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh A love letter to Syria and its people, As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow is a speculative novel set amid the Syrian Revolution, burning with the fires of hope, love, and possibility. Perfect for fans of The Book Thief and Salt to the Sea. Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life. Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sisterin- law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe. But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all. Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.
Review: kirkusreviews. com/book-reviews/zoulfa- katouh/as-long-as-thelemon- trees-grow
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy The Passage meets Ender's Game in the first book in an epic series by award-winning author Rick Yancey. After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the un lucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother-or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.
Review: publ i s h e r s w e e k l y . com/9780399162411
Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton Rusty-James is the number one tough guy among the junior high kids who hang out and shoot pool at Benny's. He's proud of his reputation, but what he wants most of all is to be just like his older brother, the Motorcycle Boy. Whenever Rusty-James gets in over his head, the Motorcycle Boy has always been there to bail him out. Then one day Rusty-James' world comes apart, and the Motorcycle boy isn't around to pick up the pieces. What now? Like Hinton's groundbreaking classic The Outsiders, Rumble Fish was adapted into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola and remains as relevant as ever in its exploration of sibling relationships, the importance of role models, and the courage to think independently.
Review: kirkusreviews. com/book-reviews/sehinton/ rumble-fish CHILDREN’S
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
Enjoy the beauty and wonder of winter by sharing this wordless picture book from the 1970s. Your eyes and heart will be amazed as the “story” turns a child’s snow fantasy into dreams of adventure that do not end until the snowman sadly melts! Misty frame-byframe illustrations guide you through a story you won’t forget.
Review: kirkusreviews. com/book-reviews/a/raymond- illus-briggs-2/thesnowman- 4
The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss You know of Anne Frank and the holocaust. Now, experience this true autobiography of a young girl during that same time. The Upstairs Room was published nearly fifty years ago but it is as moving now as they day “Annie” wrote her story. Experience this extraordinary story of survival during the German occupation of Holland in World War II. Annie was only ten years old, but because she was Jewish, she and a sister were forced to leave their family, home, and everything they knew.
Review: kirkusreviews. com/book-reviews/a/ johanna-reiss-2/the-upstairs- room-2
There’s an Alien in Your Book by Tom Fletcher, illustrated by Greg Abbott Enjoy this silly interactive picture book that is filled with “out of this world fun” as the reader is encouraged to launch the alien back into space! Will he stay or will he go, who knows? Alien is book four in the “In Your Book” series.
Review: kirkusreviews. com/book-reviews/tomfletcher/ theres-an-alienin- your-book
Pug's Snow Day by Kyla May Bella and Bub, a kid and a pug, what a wonderful combination in this First Chapter book that is perfect for newly independent readers. Don’t miss the lively plot along with illustrations that hold the attention of young readers. Pug’s Snow Day is part of the Diary of a Pug series.
Review: kirkusreviews. com/book-reviews/kylamay/ pugs-snow-day
