Check this out, at the library this week
An important deadline coming up is the 2020 Census, the last day to submit your response to the census is September 30. You can fill out the census online at 2020census.gov or give them a call at 844330-2020, make Howard County count for the next ten years. “The results of the 2020 Census will help determine how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding flow into communities every year, no matter the size, no matter location.”- 2020census. gov. Take the time to remind friends and family to respond to the census. We have dedicated computers at the library to help you respond to the census, no appointment or library card is needed and there is still time to get your name in for a drawing for a Walmart gift card.
There was a bit of a mix up with the dates for the book sale, the Friends of the Library will be having their Fall Book Sale Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, both days from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. We will post updates on our webpage and Facebook page as the dates near. This week on Thursday, Oct. 1, the library will be closed from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for staff training, we will open promptly at 2 p.m.
This week’s reviews include fiction titles in audiobook format.
As the holidays approach in “The 19th Christmas” (AUCD F PAT J) by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, Detective Lindsay Boxer and her friends in the Women’s Murder Club have much to celebrate. Crime is down. The medical examiner’s office is quiet. Even the courts are showing some Christmas spirit. And the news cycle is so slow that journalist Cindy Thomas is on assignment to tell a story about the true meaning of the season for San Francisco. Then a fearsome criminal known only as “Loman” seizes control of the headlines. He is planning a deadly surprise for Christmas morning. And he has commissioned dozens of criminal colleagues to take actions that will mask his plans.
All that Lindsay and the SFPD can figure out is that Loman’s greed, for riches, for bloodshed, for attention, is limitless. Solving crimes never happens on schedule, but as this criminal mastermind unleashes credible threats by the hour, the month of December is upended for the Women’s Murder Club. Avoiding tragedy is the only holiday miracle they seek.
FBI Agent Atlee Pine’s life was never the same after her twin sister Mercy was kidnapped, and likely killed, thirty years ago in “A Minute to Midnight” (AUCD F BAL D) by David Baldacci, Brittany Pressley and Kyf Brewer (Narrators).
After a lifetime of torturous uncertainty, Atlee’s unresolved anger finally gets the better of her on the job, and she finds she has to deal with the demons of her past if she wants to remain with the FBI. She and her assistant, Carol Blum, head back to Atlee’s rural hometown in Georgia to see what they can uncover about the traumatic night Mercy was taken and Atlee was almost killed.
But soon after Atlee begins her investigation, a local woman is found ritualistically murdered, her face covered with a wedding veil, and the first killing is quickly followed by a second bizarre murder. Atlee is determined to continue her search for answers, but now she must also set her sights on finding a potential serial killer before another victim is claimed. But in a small town full of secrets, some of which could answer the questions that have plagued Atlee her entire life, digging deeper into the past could be more dangerous than she realizes.
Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case in “The Night Fire” (AUCD F CON M) by Michael Connelly.
Now that mentor, John Jack Thompson, is dead, and his widow gives Bosch a murder book, one that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD twenty years before, the unsolved killing of a troubled young man. Bosch takes the murder book to Detective Renée Ballard and asks her to help him discover what about this crime lit Thompson’s fire all those years ago.
As she begins her inquiries, while still working her own cases on the midnight shift, Ballad finds aspects of the initial investigation that just don’t add up. The bond between Bosch and Ballard tightens as they become a formidable investigation team. And they soon arrive at a disturbing question: Did Thompson steal the murder book to work the case in retirement, or to make sure it never got solved?
Reacher is on a Greyhound bus, minding his own business, with no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there in “Blue Moon” (AUCD F CHI L) by Lee Child.
Then he steps off the bus to help an old man who is obviously just a victim waiting to happen. But you know what they say about good deeds. Now Reacher wants to make it right. An elderly couple have made a few wellmeaning mistakes, and now they owe big money to some very bad people. One brazen move leads to another, and suddenly Reacher finds himself a wanted man in the middle of a brutal turf war between rival Ukrainian and Albanian gangs.
Reacher has to stay one step ahead of the loan sharks, the thugs, and the assassins. He teams up with a fedup waitress who knows a little more than she’s letting on, and sets out to take down the powerful and make the greedy pay. It’s a long shot. The odds are against him. But Reacher believes in a certain kind of justice, the kind that comes along once in a blue moon.
“…sit back. Relax. Kick off your shoes, put up your feet, and get your ear buds in. It’s audiobook time!” -David Radtke
Howard County Library is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, for Grab & Go access to the library. Customers have 30 minutes to browse the shelves, checkout items, make copies and send a fax, an appointment is still required to use a computer. Please visit our website at http://howard-county.ploud.net and our Facebook page at www.facebook. com/howardcolibrary for more information.
You may reach us at 432-264-2260 and our fax number is 432-264-2263.