On the shelves - Oct. 29

The following are available for checkout at:

Clovis-Carver Public Library

Korea Reborn: A Grateful Nation honors War Veterans for 60 Years of Growth presents a retrospective look at the Korean War and the years of prosperity that followed. The photos and text tell the story from the perspective of both U.S. veterans who served and the Koreans who prospered from the freedom left in their wake, resulting in the ultimate transformation of a war-torn country into a vibrant, prosperous nation worth fighting for.

Spoken Through Clay: Native Pottery of the Southwest by Charles S. King captures the depth and dimension of nearly three hundred pottery vessels covering a wide range of contemporary artists and a few significant historic pieces. The importance of the potters and their work is captured in the portraits and voices of renowned Native artists, the majority of which are Pueblo, speaking about their artistry and technique, families, culture, and traditions.

Toxic Friendships by Suzanne Degges-White & Judy Pochel Van Tieghem explores what happens when good and healthy friendships, crucial to a woman's well-being at every stage of her life, turns toxic - when a friend hurts, mistreats, or abandons another in a time of need. The authors explain and illustrate the various rules of friendship and reveal what it takes to be a good friend, how to identify bad friends, and how to move forward when friendships sour.

Dead, to Begin With by Bill Crider tasks small town Sheriff Dan Rhodes to deal with the suspicious fatal fall of a wealthy recluse, people fighting over baseball cards at a yard sale, and the Clearview Ghost Hunters who believe that the old theater is haunted. A satisfying mix of cozyish policing, wit, and humor reveals there's never a shortage of excitement in Clearview.

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrick Backman renders an exquisitely moving portrait of a grandpa and young grandson, just big enough to how the world works but still young enough to refuse to accept it. Through their shared love of mathematics, grandpa tries to define what is happening to him, struggling to hold onto his most precious memories, while his family endeavors to care for him, even as they must find a way to let go.

Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan offers rich storytelling, fraught with intense struggle about the hope, sacrifice, and love between two sisters - responsible, shy, and serious Nora who years later becomes the matriarch of a big Catholic family, and Theresa, once boisterous but now a cloistered nun living in an abbey in rural Vermont. After decades of silence, a sudden death forces Nora and Theresa to confront the choices they made so long ago.

Beyond Fort North by Peter Dawson plunges Captain Dan Gentry, court-martialed and disgraced, into the heart of a maelstrom of deadly perils after he finds pretty Faith Tipton, wounded and unconscious, the sole survivor of an Apache raid. In love with this girl, the ex-soldier tries to protect her from the sinister designs of greedy and furtive Caleb Ash, then unexpectedly finds himself first the hunter, then the hunted.

Portales Public Library

Origin by Dan Brown

In Dan Brown's newest novel about Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, Langdon goes to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend an announcement from Edmond Kirsch that could viably change science, and the way the world views religion, forever. Kirsch is a billionaire who has devoted his life to creating high-tech inventions, and his advancements and predictions for the future of science and technology has made him renowned worldwide, but he also happens to be one of Langdon's former students from Harvard. During the event, Langdon and the rest of the guests are floored by the new and controversial information that Kirsch reveals, but when the presentation is disrupted by a dangerous attack that threatens the survival of not only the guests, but Kirsch's discoveries as well, Langdon escapes Bilbao with Ambra Vidal, the director of the museum who personally worked with Kirsch to plan and stage the event, and together they travel to Barcelona on a journey to unlock Kirsch's secrets before they are lost forever.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

In John Green's long awaited return to writing five years after the release of his bestseller The Fault in Our Stars, Aza is sixteen-years-old and trying her best to cope with extreme obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety, while also striving to be a good daughter, student and friend, and possibly even a good detective as well. When famous billionaire Russell Pickett goes missing and a one-hundred-thousand-dollar reward is put out for solving the mystery of his disappearance, Aza's best friend Daisy encourages Aza to put her detective skills to work to find him. This, in turn, puts Aza in the path of Davis, Russell's son, whom Aza had attended camp with years ago, who is as different from Aza and Daisy as possible, and the three join forces to find Davis's father. As Aza and Davis get closer and she discovers a world outside of her own fears that she might actually like, she constantly struggles to keep her mental illness at bay as her down-spiraling thoughts threaten any chances of finding Russell, and finding her own happiness.

Lilac Lane by Sherryl Woods

Kiera Malone is a single mother who has spent her adult life struggling to raise her three children in a small town on the Ireland coast, but when she finally falls in love again and prepares to get married, fiancé tragically dies from a heart attack. Devastated, Kiera goes to visit both her father, Dillon O'Malley, and her daughter, Moira O'Brien, in Chesapeake Shores, where she knows that a job will be waiting for her at her son-in-law's Irish pub, O'Brien's. Once she has moved across the ocean and settles in Chesapeake Shores, in a lovely cottage on Lilac Lane, she discovers that she is living right next door to Bryan Laramie, the surly chef at O'Brien's. Kiera and Bryan don't get along and don't agree on the way to do anything in the kitchen at work, but the town's matchmaker's, however, believe that the two opposites may just be perfect for each other.

— Summaries by library staff