On the shelves - May 5

The books listed below are now available for checkout at the Clovis-Carver Public Library. The library is open to the public, but patrons can still visit the online catalog at cloviscarverpl.booksys.net/opac/ccpl or call 575-769-7840 to request a specific item for curbside pickup.

“Just for the Summer” by Melody Carlson. Ginny Masters manages a popular boutique hotel in Seattle and manages it with aplomb. But the daily challenges and irritations of a fast-paced job and a demanding boss are starting to get to her. Jacqueline Potter manages her grandfather’s fishing lodge in Idaho because it was the only job she could find after graduating with her hospitality degree. She’s grateful for the work but longs for a more sophisticated and cosmopolitan life. The solution to both their problems seems obvious. Just for the summer, they’ll swap jobs and lifestyles. But they never anticipated swapping love interests.

“The Library of Borrowed Hearts” by Lucy Gilmore. Librarian Chloe Sampson has been struggling. She’s just about at the end of her rope when she stumbles across a rare edition of a book at the local flea market. Deciding it’s a sign of her luck turning, she takes it home with her―only to be shocked when her cranky hermit of a neighbor swoops in and offers to buy it. Intrigued, Chloe takes a closer look at the book only to find notes scribbled in the margins between two young lovers, one of whom is almost definitely Jasper Holmes, the curmudgeon next door. When she begins following the clues left behind, she discovers this isn’t the only old book in town filled with romantic marginalia. This kickstarts a literary scavenger hunt that Chloe is determined to see through to the end.

“A Short Walk Through a Wide World” by Douglas Westerbeke. Paris, 1885: Aubry Tourvel, a spoiled and stubborn nine-year-old girl, comes across a wooden puzzle ball on her walk home from school. She tosses it over the fence, only to find it in her backpack that evening. Days later, she starts to bleed to death. When medical treatment only makes her worse, she flees to the outskirts of the city, where she realizes that it is this very act of movement that keeps her alive. So begins her lifelong journey on the run from her condition, which won’t allow her to stay anywhere for longer than a few days. From the scorched dunes of the Calashino Sand Sea to the snow-packed peaks of the Himalayas, we follow Aubry as she learns what it takes to survive and ultimately, to truly live. But the longer Aubry wanders, the clearer it becomes that the world she travels through may not be quite the same as everyone else’s.

“Low & No Alcohol Cocktails” by Matthias Giroud. Low- and No-alcohol Cocktails contains 60 alcohol-free or low-alcohol recipes that are sure to tantalize tastebuds and get tongues wagging. Each cocktail is an experience built on flavor and scent and can be enjoyed throughout the day. This book promises low- or no-alcohol beverages that truly deliver on taste.

“Amazing Train Journeys” by Lonely Planet. Each of the featured itineraries provides an illustrated route map, breathtaking images, and a handy infographic showing key stops and moments. This is the ultimate book of train travel inspiration for anyone wishing to embark on a sustainable expedition and delight in the people and places encountered along the way.

“In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl” by Merilee Grindle. Where do human societies come from? The drive to answer this question took on a new urgency in the nineteenth century, when a generation of archaeologists began to look beyond the bible for the origins of different cultures and civilizations. A child of the San Francisco Gold Rush whose mother was born in Mexico City, Zelia Nuttall threw herself into the study of Aztec customs. Proud, disciplined, as prickly as she was independent, Zelia Nuttall was the first person to accurately decode the Aztec calendar stone. In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl captures the appeal and contradictions that riddled the life of this trailblazing woman, who contributed so much to the new field of anthropology.

— Summaries provided by library staff