On the shelves — June 14

The following books are available for checkout at:

Clovis-Carver Public Library

True Love by Jennifer Lopez explores one of the most defining periods in the life of a pop music icon: The transformative two-year journey in which she confronted her greatest challenges, identified her biggest fears, and ultimately emerged a stronger person than she has ever been.

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion continues where “The Rosie Project” left off, as newly-weds Don and Rosie Tillman discover that a baby is on the way and that their regimented and orderly life will have to adapt if it is to survive.

Aging Wisely: Strategies for Baby Boomers and Seniors by Robert Levine explains that much of what happens to our minds and bodies as we grow older depends on our approach to life and our feelings about ourselves, offering strategies to maintain the quality of our lives and to find satisfaction and pleasure at any age.

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby tells the story of a young woman who makes the leap from beauty queen to the darling of television comedy, only to learn that the mess of real life will always intrude in spite of the apparently inexhaustible fringe benefits that television stardom seems to offer.

Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family, and Life by Miriam Liss provides a wise guide to negotiating the complexities of modern life, focuses on what it means to have it all, and explains how to achieve true contentment, enjoyment, and happiness at home and on the job.

Lost and Found by Brooke Davis unites three unlikely allies: Millie, a 7-year-old girl who is abandoned in a department store by her mother; Agatha, a reclusive widow who has not left her house in years; and Karl, an 87-year-old escapee from a nursing home, who together embark upon a road trip to find Millie’s mother.

The Train to Crystal City: FDR’s Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America’s only Family Internment Camp During World War II by Jan Russell reconstructs daily life in a small Texas town where Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants and their American-born children were held during World War II: The vast majority of whom were deeply loyal to the U.S., were never charged with any crime, and did not understand why they had been forced to leave their homes.

Portales Public Library

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

Morris Bellamy is obsessed with Jimmy Gold, the famous fictional character created by author John Rothstein, but his love of Rothstein’s books become eclipsed by Morris’s frustration over the fact that Rothstein hasn’t published a single book for decades. Morris wants more Gold, and hates that Rothstein left his character in literary limbo, stuck as a boring career man in advertising. Morris takes his vengeance by killing Rothstein and taking all of the money from his safe and unknowingly unearthing multiple notebooks full of Gold storylines, enough for one more book.

Although Morris hides both the cash and the notebooks, he gets caught by the police for an unrelated crime and ends up locked away for thirty-five years. Now, someone else has found the hidden treasure — Pete Saubers, a young boy who falls under the crazed eye of Morris once he is finally released from prison. Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney and Jerome Robinson — characters first introduced in King’s novel Mr. Mercedes — must do what they can to protect Pete and his parents from Morris before it’s too late, and before Morris once again gets his hands on Jimmy Gold.

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

Everyone knows the names Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright, the two brothers responsible for creating the first flying machine — what they called an airplane. In this brand new in-depth look at the Wrights by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough, we learn who they really were, from their childhood and relationship with their father Milton, to their careers as bicycle mechanics, to their trials and tribulations, and eventual success, in engineering and testing their self-built machine that would take flight one cold day in 1903 in North Carolina.

Largely influenced by their highly religious father, who was a minister, then bishop, of the United Brethren Church in Christ, both Wilber and Orville, along with their other siblings, were raised to respect not only all people, regardless of background, race or gender, but also science and intellect, despite the fact that neither brother continued their education through high school.

As adults, Wilber proved to be the most intelligent of the pair, whereas Orville quickly became a genius with mechanics, making the two of them the perfect match to work together, while neither of them set out to make a name for themselves or build a technological empire.

Their sole purpose what to teach the world to fly — even though they both knew that each time they tested one of their creations, they could die. In this detailed biography, McCullough pulls from notebooks, diaries, letters, scrapbooks, and the Wright Papers to present a full view of the Wrights and the extent of their contribution to history and science.

Blueprints by Barbara Delinsky

56-year-old Caroline MacAfee is a renowned carpenter famous for hosting Gut It!, a home construction television show centered on her family. But when the show’s network decides to replace her with her own daughter Jamie as host, Caroline feels not only hurt and betrayed, but suddenly old as well and out of place.

Jamie, on the other hand, is a skilled architect in her own right and fully capable of taking over the show, but soon after the news is announced, her father and his second wife are killed in a car accident and leave behind their two-year-old son for Jamie to take care of.

Jamie’s carefully constructed world is turned upside down with this new addition, especially when her fiancé has no intention of raising the child, on top of the new pressure of taking the reins on Gut It! and ensuring that the show’s future remains intact.

Meanwhile, the death of Caroline’s ex-husband leaves her with a new addition as well: Her elderly ex-father-in-law, who now has no one else to care for him other than Caroline. As both women learn to adjust to the changes in their lives, they must also learn to rebuild their fraying relationship, while both also deal with attention from new and different men.

— Summaries by library staff