Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

On the shelves - March 15

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

“One Final Breath” by Lynn H: Blackburn. When investigator Gabriel Chavez had his cover blown by an aggressive reporter, the silver lining was being able to rejoin the dive team. The downside? Dive team captain Anissa Bell — a woman who both fascinates and frustrates him. When Anissa's fractured past collides with Gabe's investigation into the tragic shooting death of a teenage boy in Lake Porter, they'll have to put their complicated history with each other aside in order to uncover the identity of a killer.

“Scarlet Fever” by Rita Mae Brown: Frigid February air has settled into the bones of the Blue Ridge Mountains, making for a slow foxhunting season, though Jane Arnold's enthusiasm is not so easily deterred. With the winter chill come tweed coats, blazing fireplaces — and perhaps another to share the warmth with, as the bold hunting scarlets worn by the men in Sister Jane's hunting club make the hearts of women flutter — until someone's stops entirely.

“The Sound of Distant Thunder” by Jan Drexler: Katie Stuckey and Jonas Weaver are both romantics. Seventeen-year-old Katie is starry-eyed, in love with the idea of being in love, and does not want to wait to marry Jonas until she is 18, despite her parents' insistence. Jonas, 20, is taken in by the romance of soldiering. When his married brother's name comes up in the draft list, he volunteers to take his brother's place. But can the commitment Katie and Jonas have made to each other survive the separation?

“Meditation” by Patrick J. Harbula, DD: Meditation is an ancient practice that has brought peace and clarity to people from every time, culture, and place. Its benefits — a sense of calm, greater knowledge of self, better health — are as appealing to the modern world as they were to the ancient. In this beginner's guide to meditation, author Patrick Harbula provides readers with everything they need to know in order to experience deep meditation.

“Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee” by Casey Cep: Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Sitting in the audience during the vigilante's trial was Harper Lee. Lee spent a year reporting and many more years working on her own version of the case portrait of one of the country's most beloved writers and her struggle with fame, success, and the mystery of artistic creativity.

“The Story of Painting: How Art Was Made” by Ross King covers the evolution of painting from the first pigments and frescos to linear perspective in Renaissance paintings, the influence of photography, Impressionism, and the birth of modern art. King gloriously reveals how materials, techniques, and ideas have developed over the centuries, inspiring artists and giving them the means to create their most celebrated works.

These books are available at the Portales Public Library:

“The Stranger” by Harlan Coben: Now a Netflix Original Series, Harlan Coben's “The Stranger” is the story of Adam Price, a loving husband and father who learns a terrible truth — if it is indeed true — about his wife from the titular nameless stranger, a person he does not know or has ever seen before. Adam has had a good life with a good job and a good marriage to his wife Corinne, and they are happy raising their two sons, but when Adam is approached one day out of the blue by the stranger who tells him a shocking secret about Corrine, he must decide what to do with the information and if he should trust a mere stranger to be telling the truth at all. Regardless of what is fact or fiction, the secret destroys Adam's image of Corinne and the life they have built together, and when he confronts her and demands answers, Corinne then disappears, leaving Adam wondering if the stranger was right and his own growing suspicions are correct. As he and the police search for Corinne's whereabouts, their sons also get pulled in the investigation and secret, and Adam realizes that even if he finds his wife, their marriage will be left in ruins.

“The Numbers Game” by Danielle Steel: Eileen Jackson has never minded having to set aside her own dreams because she has always been happy in her life married to her husband Paul and living in Connecticut raising their children. But when she discovers that Paul's recent late nights “working” in the city are really her husband covering up an affair with a younger woman, she realizes that her seemingly perfect life has been an illusion and her identity and purpose as a wife has been shattered. At nearly 40 and having to start over, Eileen leaves Paul in Connecticut to raise their kids by himself while she chases her own dreams for once, traveling to Paris to attend Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, hoping that a new adventure will give new meaning to her life. Meanwhile, as Paul is forced contemplate his decisions and parent in his wife's absence, his new girlfriend Olivia is in Manhattan trying to decide what to do with her own life, struggling to grow under the shadow of her famous actress mother and her artist grandmother. When she decides to expand her art gallery business, Olivia must decide if she wants to be the “other woman” or if she should follow her own path before fully committing to someone else.

“Above the Bay of Angels” by Rhys Bowen: When Isabella Waverly comes across a dying woman on the streets of London, her only intention is to be a comfort to the stranger in her final moments. But when the woman shoves a letter into Bella's hand, she is intrigued to discover that the letter is an offer of employment to work in the kitchens of Buckingham Palace, something that Bella, as an aspiring chef, desperately dreams of doing. Deciding to use the letter as a means to escape her current life as a lowly servant, Bella takes the job in the stranger's stead, taking the dead woman's name, Helen Barton, and soon her culinary skills please Queen Victoria herself, who chooses Bella to accompany her on a visit to Nice. But when a member of the queen's party becomes ill and dies after eating a last meal served to her by Bella, all fingers point to Bella as the murderer, and although she knows she is innocent, she realizes that an investigation into the death will reveal that she is not Helen Barton. And not only will her charade and her wonderful new job be over, but, if she can't clear her name, her life as well.

— Summaries provided by library staff