It’s Tuesday, and that means brand new books at Springfield Township Library! Check out our new fiction, and nonfiction selections below.
As always, if you would like to place an item on hold, click on the link in each item’s description to view that item in our library catalog.
If you are having trouble placing holds, or have questions in regards to your account, please call a friendly staff member at 248-846-6550. Happy reading!
NEW IN GENERAL FICTION
THE LOST APOTHECARY BY SARAH PENNER
Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.
Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate–and not everyone will survive.
With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time.
If you wish to check The Lost Apothecary out, click here!
THE SOWING SEASON BY KATIE POWNER
After he’s forced to sell the family farm he’s labored on his whole life, 63-year-old Gerrit Laninga doesn’t know what to do with himself. He sacrificed everything for the land–his time, his health, his family–with nothing to show for it but bitterness, regret, and two grown children who want nothing to do with him.
Fifteen-year-old Rae Walters has growing doubts and fears about The Plan–the detailed blueprint for high school that will help her follow in her lawyer father’s footsteps. She’s always been committed to The Plan, but now that the pressure to succeed is building, what was supposed to unite her family in purpose, may end up tearing it apart.
When their paths cross just as they each need a friend the most, Gerrit’s and Rae’s lives begin to change in unexpected ways. Can they discover together what really matters in life and learn it’s never too late for a second chance.
If you wish to check Sowing Season out, click here!
LATER BY STEPHEN KING
The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mother urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn.
But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine — as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.
Later is Stephen King at his finest, a terrifying and touching story of innocence lost and the trials that test our sense of right and wrong. With echoes of King’s classic novel It, Later is a powerful, haunting, unforgettable exploration of what it takes to stand up to evil in all the faces it wears.
If you wish to check Later out, click here!
WE HEAR VOICES BY EVIE GREEN
Kids have imaginary friends. Rachel knows this. So when her young son, Billy, miraculously recovers from a horrible flu that has proven fatal for many, she thinks nothing of Delfy, his new invisible friend. After all, her family is healthy and that’s all that matters.
But soon Delfy is telling Billy what to do, and the boy is acting up and lashing out in ways he never has before. As Delfy’s influence is growing stranger and more sinister by the day, and rising tensions threaten to tear Rachel’s family apart, she clings to one purpose: to protect her children at any cost–even from themselves.
We Hear Voices is a gripping near-future horror novel that tests the fragility of family and the terrifying gray area between fear and love.
If you wish to check We Hear Voices out, click here!
CONSTANT RABBIT BY JASPER FFORDE
England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-size rabbits living in the UK. They wear clothes and can walk, talk and drive cars, the result of an inexplicable Spontaneous Anthropomorphizing Event fifty-five years earlier.
A family of rabbits is about to move into Much Hemlock, a cozy little village in Middle England where life revolves around summer fetes, jam making, gossipy corner stores, and the oh-so-important Spick & Span awards for the best-kept village. No sooner have the rabbits arrived than the villagers decide they must depart, citing their propensity to burrow and breed, and their shameless levels of veganism.
But Mrs Constance Rabbit is made of sterner stuff, and she and her family decide they are to stay. Unusually, their neighbors–longtime resident Peter Knox and his daughter, Pippa–decide to stand with them . . . and soon discover that you can be a friend to rabbits or to humans, but not both.
With a blossoming romance, acute cultural differences, enforced rehoming to a MegaWarren in Wales and the full power of the ruling United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party against them, Peter and Pippa are about to question everything they had ever thought about their friends, their nation, and their species.
If you wish to check The Constant Rabbit out, click here!
YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER BY SARAH HOGLE
Naomi Westfield has the perfect fianc, Nicholas Rose holds doors open for her, remembers her restaurant orders, and comes from the kind of upstanding society family any bride would love to be a part of. They never fight. They’re preparing for their lavish wedding that’s three months away. And she is miserably and utterly sick of him.
Naomi wants out, but there’s a catch: whoever ends the engagement will have to foot the nonrefundable wedding bill. When Naomi discovers that Nicholas, too, has been feigning contentment, the two of them go head-to-head in a battle of pranks, sabotage, and all-out emotional warfare.
But with the countdown looming to the wedding that may or may not come to pass, Naomi finds her resolve slipping. Because now that they have nothing to lose, they’re finally being themselves–and having fun with the last person they expect: each other.
If you wish to check You Deserve Each Other out, click here!
THE UPSTAIRS HOUSE BY JULIA FINE
There’s a madwoman upstairs, and only Megan Weiler can see her.
Ravaged and sore from giving birth to her first child, Megan is mostly raising her newborn alone while her husband travels for work. Physically exhausted and mentally drained, she’s also wracked with guilt over her unfinished dissertation–a thesis on mid-century children’s literature.
Enter a new upstairs neighbor: the ghost of quixotic children’s book writer Margaret Wise Brown–author of the beloved classic Goodnight Moon–whose existence no one else will acknowledge. It seems Margaret has unfinished business with her former lover, the once-famous socialite and actress Michael Strange, and is determined to draw Megan into the fray. As Michael joins the haunting, Megan finds herself caught in the wake of a supernatural power struggle–and until she can find a way to quiet these spirits, she and her newborn daughter are in terrible danger.
If you wish to check The Upstairs House out, click here!
MAN AT ARMS BY STEVEN PRESSFIELD
Jerusalem and the Sinai desert, first century AD. In the turbulent aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus, officers of the Roman Empire acquire intelligence of a pilgrim bearing an incendiary letter from a religious fanatic to insurrectionists in Corinth.
The content of this letter could bring down the empire.The Romans hire a former legionary, the solitary man-at-arms, Telamon of Arcadia, to intercept the letter and capture its courier. Telamon operates by a dark code all his own, with no room for noble causes or lofty beliefs.
But once he overtakes the courier, something happens that neither he nor the empire could have predicted.In his first novel of the ancient world in thirteen years, the best-selling author of Gates of Fire and Tides of War returns with a gripping saga of conquest and rebellion, bloodshed and faith.
If you wish to check Man at Arms out, click here!
LAKEWOOD BY MEGAN GIDDINGS
When Lena Johnson’s beloved grandmother dies, and the full extent of the family debt is revealed, the black millennial drops out of college to support her family and takes a job in the mysterious and remote town of Lakewood, Michigan.
On paper, her new job is too good to be true. High paying. No out of pocket medical expenses. A free place to live. All Lena has to do is participate in a secret program-and lie to her friends and family about the research being done in Lakewood. An eye drop that makes brown eyes blue, a medication that could be a cure for dementia, golden pills promised to make all bad thoughts go away.
The discoveries made in Lakewood, Lena is told, will change the world-but the consequences for the subjects involved could be devastating. As the truths of the program reveal themselves, Lena learns how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the sake of her family.
Provocative and thrilling, Lakewood is a breathtaking novel that takes an unflinching look at the moral dilemmas many working-class families face, and the horror that has been forced on black bodies in the name of science.
If you wish to check Lakewood out, click here!
THE BADDEST GIRL ON THE PLANET BY HEATHER FRESE
Evie Austin, native of Hatteras Island, North Carolina and baddest girl on the planet, has not lived her life in a straight line. There have been several detours–career snafus, bad romantic choices, a loved but unplanned child–not to mention her ill-advised lifelong obsession with boxer Mike Tyson.
Evie is not plucky, but when life’s changes smash over her like the rough surf of the local shoreline, she muddles through–until that moment of loss and longing when muddling will no longer suffice. This is the story of what the baddest girl on the planet must find in herself when a bag of pastries, a new lover, orquick trip to Vegas won’t fix anything, and when something more than casual haplessness is required.
The Baddest Girl on the Planet is inventive, sharp, witty, and poignant. Readers will want to jump in and advise this baddest girl on the planet–or at least just give her a shake or a hug–at every fascinating turn.
If you wish to check The Baddest Girl on the Planet out, click here!
JUBILEE BY JENNIFER GIVHAN
When Bianca appears late one night at her brother’s house in Santa Ana, she is barely conscious, though not alone. Jubilee, wrapped in a fuzzy pink romper, is buckled into a car seat. Jubilee, who Bianca feeds and clothes and bathes and loves. Jubilee, who Bianca could not leave behind. Jubilee, a doll in her arms.
Told in alternating points of view, Jubilee reveals both the haunting power of our lived experiences and the surreal possibility of the present to heal the past.
The first thread, “Before Jubilee,” follows Bianca in her girlhood home on the Mexicali border as she struggles with her high school sweetheart, Gabe, and a secret they’ve shared since she was fifteen.
The second thread, “With Jubilee,” is told from the point of view of her new love, Joshua, who, along with Bianca’s family, helps her cope with a mysterious trauma by accepting Jubilee as part of the family. As Joshua’s love for Bianca grows, he fears that Jubilee has the power to tear his tiny family apart.
Alternating chapters give readers a unique perspective on Bianca’s present and on her relationship with Jubilee as her past life with Gabe comes to a catastrophic end.
Jubilee is at once a darkly suspenseful psychological drama and a luminous reflection on how beauty emerges from even the most traumatic of experiences.
If you wish to check Jubilee out, click here!
MEET ME IN PARADISE BY LIBBY HUBSCHER
Ever since her journalist mother died on assignment, Marin has played it safe, refusing to set foot outside the state of Tennessee. Her wild-child younger sister, Sadie, has trotted the globe as a photographer, living off of art and adrenaline.
When Sadie returns from a tough assignment abroad and looks a little worse for wear, Marin reluctantly agrees to a sisters’ spa weekend on the tropical island of Saba. But her lifelong fear of travel is affirmed when Sadie misses the flight, Marin’s luggage gets mixed up with another passenger’s, and an episode of turbulence sends her hurtling into the lap of Lucas Tsai, the handsome stranger who stole her sister’s seat.
For the first time in a long time, Marin has to step outside of her comfort zone as she explores the island with Lucas and learns what she’s been missing out on. With each breathtaking new experience, Marin gets closer to her real self, the man she’s falling for, and the heart-wrenching truth about why she’s there in the first place.
If you wish to check Meet Me in Paradise out, click here!
BARBADOS BOUND BY LINDA COLLISON
Portsmouth, England,1760. Patricia Kelley, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy Barbadian sugarcane planter, falls from her imagined place in the world when her absent father unexpectedly dies.
Raised in a Wiltshire boarding school sixteen-year-old Patricia embarks on a desperate crossing on a merchantman bound for Barbados, where she was born, in a brash attempt to claim an unlikely inheritance.
Aboard a merchantman under contract with the British Navy to deliver gunpowder to the West Indian forts, young Patricia finds herself pulled between two worlds — and two identities — as she charts her own course for survival in the war-torn 18th century.
If you wish to check Barbados Bound, click here!
NEW IN NON-FICTION
THE CONFIDENCE CODE BY KATTY KAY & CLAIRE SHIPMAN
Confidence. We want it. We need it. But it can be maddeningly enigmatic and out of reach. The authors of the New York Times bestseller Womenomics deconstruct this essential, elusive, and misunderstood quality and offer a blueprint for bringing more of it into our lives.
Is confidence hardwired into the DNA of a lucky few, or can anyone learn it Is it best expressed by bravado, or is there another way to show confidence Which is more important: confidence or competence Why do so many women, even the most successful, struggle with feelings of self-doubt Is there a secret to channeling our inner confidence
In The Confidence Code, journalists Katty Kay and Claire Shipman travel to the frontiers of neuroscience on a hunt for the confidence gene and reveal surprising new research on its roots in our brains. They visit the world’s leading psychologists who explain how we can all choose to become more confident simply by taking action and courting risk, and how those actions change our physical wiring. They interview women leaders from the worlds of politics, sports, the military, and the arts to learn how they have tapped into this elemental resource. They examine how a lack of confidence impacts our leadership, success, and fulfillment.
If you wish to check The Confidence Code out, click here!
POWER PLATES BY GENA HAMSHAW
Healthy eating isn’t just a matter of choosing healthier foods. It’s the art of creating complete meals that deliver sustained energy and nourishment for a well-balanced lifestyle.
In Power Plates, nutritionist and blogger Gena Hamshaw has crafted one hundred delicious and satisfying vegan recipes-each with a mix of healthy fats, complex carbohydrates, and hearty plant-based proteins-that provide you with the macronutrients you need in every meal.
The recipes, which include such vibrant offerings as Smoky Red Lentil Stew with Chard, Falafel Bowls with Freekeh and Cauliflower, and Stuffed Peppers with Farro, Herbs, and Tempeh Sausage, make wholesome meal planning feel intuitive and fun.
Power Plates shows how simple techniques and fresh ingredients can yield beautiful, energizing plates for any day of the week.
If you wish to check Power Plates out, click here!
NOTES FROM THE BATHROOM LINE BY AMY SOLOMON
More than four decades ago, the groundbreaking book Titters: The First Collection of Humor by Women showcased the work of some of the leading female comedians of the 1970s like Gilda Radner, Candice Bergen, and Phyllis Diller. The book became an essential time capsule of an era, the first of its kind, that opened doors for many more funny women to smash the comedy glass-ceiling.
Today, brilliant women continue to push the boundaries of just how funny–and edgy–they can be in a field that has long been dominated by men. In Notes from the Bathroom Line, Amy Solomon brings together all-new material from some of the funniest women in show business today–award-winning writers, stand-up comedians, actresses, cartoonists, and more.
Notes from the Bathroom Line proves there are no limits to how funny, bad-ass, and revolutionary women can–and continue–to be.
If you wish to check Notes from the Bathroom Line out, click here!
MODERN FLEXITARIAN BY LUCY GWENDOLINE TAYLOR
Transition to a plant-based diet without giving up meat and dairy completely.
If you’re concerned about your health and the environment but aren’t quite ready to commit to a fully vegetarian or vegan lifestyle, a flexitarian diet will work for you.
Modern Flexitarian features 100 healthy, adaptable veg-based recipes alongside quick twists and suggestions that give you the freedom to enjoy meat, fish, or dairy from time to time.
Complete with tips for getting started, nutritional and dietary advice, and a sample weekly menu, Modern Flexitarian will inspire and help you to embrace a mostly vegetarian or vegan diet with ease.
If you wish to check Modern Flexitarian out, click here!
HOW TO SURVIVE A PANDEMIC BY MICHAEL GREGER
From tuberculosis to bird flu and HIV to coronavirus, these infectious diseases share a common origin story: human interaction with animals. Otherwise known as zoonotic diseases for their passage from animals to humans, these pathogens–both pre-existing ones and those newly identified–emerge and re-emerge throughout history, sparking epidemics and pandemics that have resulted in millions of deaths around the world.
How did these diseases come about? And what–if anything–can we do to stop them and their fatal march into our countries, our homes, and our bodies? In How to Survive a Pandemic, Dr. Michael Greger, physician and internationally-recognized expert on public health issues, delves into the origins of some of the deadliest pathogens the world has ever seen. Tracing their evolution from the past until today, Dr. Greger spotlights emerging flu and coronaviruses as he examines where these pathogens originated, as well as the underlying conditions and significant human role that have exacerbated their lethal influence to large, and even global, levels.
As the world grapples with the devastating impact of the novel coronavirus 2019, Dr. Greger reveals not only what we can do to protect ourselves and our loved ones during a pandemic, but also what human society must rectify to reduce the likelihood of even worse catastrophes in the future.
If you wish to check How to Survive a Pandemic out, click here!
THE ART OF TAKING IT EASY BY BRIAN KING
Dr. Brian King got a degree in psychology before becoming a world-touring comic and the host of humor therapy seminars attended by more than ten thousand people each year. In this brilliant guide he presents hands-on techniques for managing stress by rewiring our brains to approach potentially difficult situations through a lens of positivity.
To do so, Dr. King explores what stress is, where it comes from, and what it does to our bodies and brains. He delves deep into how to address everyday stress–as well as anxiety, insecurities, repression, and negativity–and gives insight into resulting ailments such as anxiety disorders, depression, hypertension, obesity, substance abuse disorders, and more.
Dr. King’s techniques are chemical and cost free, and embrace humor, resilience, relaxation, optimism, gratitude, and acceptance. Instead of a dry medical approach to dealing with stress, this unique volume is filled with life-changing tips and instructions presented with humor and a wealth of memorable, smile-inducing anecdotes.
If you wish to check The Art of Taking it Easy out, click here!
NO PAIN, NO GAINES BY CHIP GAINES
Not networking in the traditional sense anyway. It’s not about how to leverage your interactions with everyone you meet in an all-out sprint to get ahead. It’s about how to find a group of real people who will stand beside you as you bust your butt, who believe that authentic human connection is more important than any other earthly thing, and who bet on each other instead of the status quo. People with beating hearts and passions who live and love and try and fail and try again. People who lift you up and give your life meaning.
Written for anyone who believes that relationships are more than transactions, and who is looking to build a network of people they can count on, No Pain, No Gaines will coach you.
Chip Gaines has been building that kind of network his whole life, and he can tell you, it doesn’t come easy. The good stuff never does. It requires faith in people. It requires hope. And it requires a willingness to grow even when it hurts. In No Pain, No Gaines, through hard-won lessons and personal stories, Chip will coach you on how to build a network of your own that will make your life rich and your relationships run deep.
If you wish to check No Pain, No Gaines out, click here!
I HAD A MISCARRIAGE BY JESSICA ZUCKER
Sixteen weeks into her second pregnancy, psychologist Jessica Zucker miscarried at home, alone. Suddenly, her career, spent specialising in reproductive and maternal mental health, was rendered corporeal, no longer just theoretical.
Navigating this nascent transition amid her own grief became a catalyst for Jessica to bring voice to this ubiquitous experience. She embarked on a mission to upend the strident trifecta of silence, shame, and stigma that surrounds reproductive loss – and the result is her striking memoir meets manifesto.
If you wish to check I Had a Miscarriage out, click here!
BREATHWORK BY NATHALIA WESTMACOTT-BROWN
New science has revealed the effectiveness of breathwork to balance the body, relieve stress, control anxiety, boost self-esteem, and more.
In a beautifully illustrated package, Breathwork gives you 50 step-by-step practices that you can use at home, each with expert advice on body position, depth of breath, speed of breath, visualization, duration, and repetition. Techniques include conscious connected breathing, pranayama, and qigong breathwork.
With internationally renowned author and teacher Nathalia Westmacott-Brown, you’ll learn how to breathe mindfully and with control, using different breath practices for targeted outcomes – from overcoming insomnia to releasing anger or relieving depression.
Breathing with purpose can help you to heal – and become the healthiest and happiest you can be.
If you wish to check Breathwork out, click here!
MYTHOLOGY BY EDITH HAMILTON
Since its original publication by Little, Brown and Company in 1942, Edith Hamilton’s Mythology has sold millions of copies throughout the world and established itself as a perennial bestseller.
For more than seven decades readers have chosen this book above all others to discover the enchanting world of mythology — from Odysseus’s adventure-filled journey to the Norse god Odin’s effort to postpone the final day of doom.
This deluxe, hardcover edition is fully-illustrated throughout with all-new, specially commissioned art, making it a true collector’s item.
If you wish to check Mythology out, click here!
CRUCIBLE BY CHARLES EMMERSON
In Petrograd, a fire is lit. The Tsar is packed off to Siberia. A rancorous Russian exile returns to proclaim a workers’ revolution. In America, black soldiers who have served their country in Europe demand their rights at home. An Austrian war veteran trained by the German army to give rousing speeches against the Bolshevik peril begins to rail against the Jews.
A solar eclipse turns a former patent clerk into a celebrity. An American reporter living the high life in Paris searches out a new literary style.
Lenin and Hitler, Josephine Baker and Ernest Hemingway, Rosa Luxemburg and Mustafa Kemal–these are some of the protagonists in this dramatic panorama of a world in turmoil. Revolutions and civil wars erupt across Europe. A red scare hits America. Women win the vote. Marching tunes are syncopated into jazz. The real becomes surreal.
Encompassing both tragedy and humor, the celebrated author of 1913 brings immediacy and intimacy to this moment of deep historical transformation that molded the world we would come to inherit.
If you wish to check Crucible out, click here!
V IS FOR VEGETABLES BY MICHAEL ANTHONY
V IS FOR VEGETABLES is personal, accessible, and beautiful. Its charming A to Z format celebrates vegetables in richly detailed illustrations, glorious food photographs, and lots of helpful how to do it techniques. Recipes include crispy composed salads, fresh herb sauces, satisfying warm gratins, vibrant stews, simple sauteed greens over a bowl of grains, and veggies with meat and fish, too.
V IS FOR VEGETABLES delivers the tools to transform and conquer the vegetables in a CSA basket, from the farmers market, and even the grocery store. It is an eye-opening book for vegetarians and omnivores alike.
If you wish to check V is for Vegetables out, click here!
What's New at Springfield 