On the Shelves — Jan. 4

These books are available at the Clovis-Carver Public Library:

Rewire: Change Your Brain to Break Bad Habits, Overcome Addictions, Conquer Self-Destructive Behavior by Richard O’Connor reveals why our bad habits die so hard and how we can train our automatic self to make wiser decisions that will interrupt our reflexive responses before they get us into trouble.

Support and Defend by Mark Greaney sends FBI Agent Dominic Caruso in pursuit of Ethan Ross, assistant director for the National Security Council who has fled with a micro-drive that contains enough information to jeopardize America’s future; but Caruso is up against formidable foes who want to lay their hands on it at any cost.

The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter by Susan Pinker blends the new field of social neuroscience with human stories to explore the impact that personal connection with other human beings exerts on us from cradle to grave, tying families together, healing us, helping us learn, extending our lives, and making us happier.

Sight Unseen by Iris Johansen centers on Kendra Michaels, a therapist and consultant sought by law enforcement for her powers of observation and deduction, who now must deal with an apparent copycat serial killer who replicates some of the murders she helped solve in the past.

The Price of Silence: A Mom’s Perspective on Mental Illness by Liza Long examines, in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings, our failure to address mental health, especially in children who are funneled through a system of education, mental health care, and juvenile detention that leads far too often to prison or to repeated, devastating acts of mass violence.

Phantom Instinct by Meg Gardiner draws two survivors of a nightclub fire together in their search for one of the three gunmen who started the blaze, but no one in the LA Police Department believes that the third shooter exists.

The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee by Marja Mills distills the conversations between a Chicago journalist and the deeply private but world-famous author of the classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” who shared, over a period of 18 months, her love of history, literature and the Southern way of life.

— Summaries by library staff

These books are available at the Portales Public Library:

Robert B. Parker’s The Bridge, by Robert Knott: Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have returned once again to Appaloosa, where life seems to be relatively quiet. Virgil has settled down with his wife, Allie, and for the time being law enforcement is slow, until a 300-foot bridge that is under construction is destroyed after a huge storm hits town. A band of night riders has also arrived at the Rio Blanco camp near the bridge, and when Sheriff Sledge Driskill and his deputies go to investigate, they all end up missing. As Virgil and Everett get to work on finding the missing men and solving the mystery of how and why the bridge’s construction was sabotaged, a theatrical troupe led by Beauregard Beauchamp rolls into Appaloosa to entertain the town. With the troupe is a mysterious woman who tells fortunes, and she immediately determines to save Everett from a coming danger, just as a gang of shady soldiers arrive next in town, bringing even more confusion and destruction to the mix.

Rain on the Dead, by Jack Higgins: In the latest installment in Higgins’ Sean Dillon series, black ops specialist and ex-IRA gunman Dillon faces a terrorist threat that may come from the al-Qaida organization itself when two Chechen brothers attempt to kill Jake Cazalet, the former president of the United States. The mercenary brothers attack Cazalet’s home on Nantucket, but luckily for Cazalet, Sean Dillon and fellow agent Capt. Sara Gideon are visiting the president with the head of their British anti-terrorist unit, Gen. Charles Ferguson. The agents thwart the brothers easily, but more attacks on Cazalet are soon to follow, and Dillon wonders just how the Chechens were able to sneak onto Nantucket in the first place, and as he digs deeper, he uncovers a name from his past that alerts Dillon to the realization that the assassination attempt is part of something much bigger.

Saving Grace, by Jane Green: Grace and Ted Chapman have been married for nearly 25 years, and on the surface they appear to be the perfect couple. Ted is a successful author while beautiful, fashionable Grace seems to be a carefree stay-at-home wife. But at home, behind closed doors, Ted’s mood swings cause the normally loving husband to have terrible rages, while Grace passively holds onto the memories of the good moments from her marriage until Ted calms down again. When Ted’s longtime personal assistant leaves, Grace fears that her carefully balanced relationship with Ted will finally crumble, until a new assistant, Beth, walks into their lives and is amazingly able to handle Ted’s behavior without any problems. At first Grace thinks that Beth is the perfect addition to their home, until she begins to suspect that Beth is perhaps a little too perfect, and just might be the thing that finally does break apart her marriage.

— Summaries by library staff