New Books for the New Year - January 2016 New Books part 1

A 52-Hertz Whale by Bill Sommer

Contemporary Fiction 

Reveals, through emails from various people, the growing connection between sixteen-year-old James, who is obsessed with the fate of a juvenile humpback whale he adopted, and Darren, a would-be filmmaker who once did community service in James's Special Education classroom.

97 Things To Do Before You Finish High School by Steven Jenkins

Nonfiction 

Discover new places, new people, new hobbies, and open your eyes to the world. Learn about the stuff they don't teach you in high school like how to host a film festival, plan your first road trip, make a podcast, spend a day in silence, or shut down a house party before the police do. Interest, amuse and educate yourself--because your life doesn't stop at 3 PM each day, it just gets started.

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett

Contemporary Fiction 

Sparks fly when Beatrix Adams, seventeen, who strives to be a medical illustrator, meets Jack, one of San Francisco's most notorious graffiti artists, but even as Beatrix begins to uncover the secrets that have left Jack so wounded, her own family secrets threaten to tear them apart.

The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen by Katherine Howe

Paranormal

It's July in New York City, and aspiring filmmaker Wes Auckerman has just arrived to start his summer term at NYU. While shooting a séance at a psychic's in the East Village, he meets a mysterious, intoxicatingly beautiful girl named Annie. As they start spending time together, Wes finds himself falling for her, drawn to her rose-petal lips and her entrancing glow. There's just something about her that he can't put his finger on, something faraway and otherworldly that compels him to fall even deeper. Annie's from the city, and yet she seems just as out of place as Wes feels. Lost in the chaos of the busy city streets, she's been searching for something--a missing ring. And now Annie is running out of time and needs Wes's help. As they search together, Annie and Wes uncover secrets lurking around every corner, secrets that will reveal the truth of Annie's dark past. 

Assassin by Anna Myers

Historical Fiction 

Would you betray your president to win the heart of America's most celebrated actor? Bella isn't evil. But even people with good intentions can end up doing bad things. Especially when they meet people with the power to persuade them to do almost anything, like John Wilkes Booth--the most charismatic and famous actor of his time. So when Booth sets his sights on Bella, an assistant seamstress to Mary Todd Lincoln, to help with his plot to kidnap President Lincoln, he is able to persuade her to betray her president and even turn her back on the boy she has loved her entire life. Bella believes Booth is only trying to force the North to release Southern war prisoners, and will not harm her dear friend Mr. Lincoln. But the kidnapping plot fails, and now Booth will stop at nothing--even if it means harming Bella in the process. 

New Books ~ August 2014 ~ Part 2

Dragonball vol 1 by Akira Toriyama

Dragon Ball, a wry update on the Chinese "Monkey King" myth, introduces us to Son Goku, a young monkey-tailed boy whose quiet life is turned upside-down when he meets Bulma, a girl determined to collect the seven "Dragon Balls." If she gathers them all, an incredibly powerful dragon will appear and grant her one wish. But the precious orbs are scattered all over the world, and to get them she needs the help of a certain super-strong boy...

One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth

In a near future world of heat, greed, and hunger, Devin earns a coveted spot in a home for abandoned children that promises unlimited food and toys and the hope of finding a new family, but Devin discovers the home's horrific true mission when he investigates its intimidating Administrator and the zombie-like sickness that afflicts some children.

Conversion by Katherine Howe

When girls start experiencing strange tics and other mysterious symptoms at Colleen's high school, her small town of Danvers, Massachusetts, falls victim to rumors that lead to full-blown panic, and only Colleen connects their fate to the ill-fated Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago.

The Body in the Woods by April Henry

While helping the Portland County Sheriff's Search and Rescue to seek a missing autistic man, teens Alexis, Nick, and Ruby find, instead, a body and join forces to find the girl's murderer, forming an unlikely friendship, as well.

Women in Space: 23 Stories of First Flights, Scientific Missions, and Gravity Breaking Adventures by Karen Bush Gibson

An engaging collection profiles 23 women from 10 different countries whose careers span half a century of human spaceflight in a volume that includes coverage of such heroines as Sally Ride, Peggy Whitson, Mae Jemison and the women of Mercury 13.