Daily Archives: September 26, 2020

Influenceby Stuart Johnstone

Knowledge is power, but too much is dangerous. The dark heart of an occult secret society beats in the bowels of Oxford’s prestigious university and someone, or something, is searching for an ancient text which can open the most terrible of doors. Seventeen year old Lizzie Dean is only just beginning to reassemble the shattered pieces of her life; and being in her last year of school it is more important than ever to get it together. But the discovery of the mutilated body of her brilliant, if rather odd, friend threatens to unravel it all once more. The subsequent police investigation is not going well. Without any apparent motive or forensic evidence the case is going very cold, and Lizzie must take matters into her own hands. Lizzie’s investigations will uncover shadowy secrets of the world around her, those close to her and even herself.

The Useful Book: 201 Life Skills They Used to Teach in Home Ec and Shopby David Bowers

“Master everyday tasks and take on a variety of projects and repairs around the house [with] this DIY encyclopedia” (The Buffalo News).

A modern and energetically designed reference with everything you need to know to roll up your sleeves and cook it, build it, sew it, clean it, or repair it yourself. In other words, everything you would have learned from your shop and home ec teachers, if you’d had them.

The Useful Book features 138 practical projects and how-tos, with step-by-step instructions and illustrations, relevant charts, sidebars, lists, and handy toolboxes. There’s a kitchen crash course, including the must-haves for a well-stocked pantry; how to boil an egg (and peel it frustration-free); how to grill, steam, sauté, and roast vegetables. There’s Sewing 101, plus how to fold a fitted sheet, tie a tie, mop a floor, make a bed, and set the table for a formal dinner.

Next up: a twenty-first-century shop class. The tools that everyone should have, and dozens of cool projects that teach fundamental techniques. Practice measuring, cutting, and nailing by building a birdhouse. Make a bookshelf or a riveted metal picture frame. Plus: do-it-yourself plumbing; car repair basics; and home maintenance, from priming and painting to refinishing wood floors.

“Married couple Sharon Bowers and David Bowers serve as mom-and-pop guides through the never-ending task of housekeeping in this handy book of how-tos . . . Readers learning to live on their own will want to have this book on hand.” —Publishers Weekly

“Anyone who studiously read the book cover to cover would become the paragon jack of all trades.”–Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Taking Tuscany: A Novelby Renee Riva

A. J. Degulio loved the idea of a visit to the Old Country–until her family decided to stay.

Now it's 1972 and she's turning fourteen in a crumbling castle on a hill in Tuscany, wishing she were back in Idaho with her beloved dog, Sailor. In Italy, her fair complexion and blonde hair make her stick out like a vanilla wafer in a box of chocolate biscotti, and she's so lonely her best friend is a nun from the local convent. What's worse, her grandma's losing her marbles and Mama's going crazy over Uncle Nick's ugly blue villa, which she can see from every window.

The challenges of roots and relatives are nothing new to A. J. but factor in language, culture shock, and a bad case of homesickness, and A. J.'s going to need more than the famous Degulio sense of humor to survive. It will take a catastrophe–and a few wise words from a friend–for A. J. to understand that sometimes the only thing you can change is your perspective.

The Burnin’by Estevan Medrano

On April 23, 1940, a fire broke out at a night club in the segregated town of Natchez, Mississippi. It remains one the deadliest building fires in U.S. history, resulting in the deaths of over two hundred men and women–all of them African American. THE BURNIN’ is a novel about the aftermath of the tragedy from the accounts of a coroner, a nurse, and an arson detective.
Herb Jones, a local black coroner, receives a call in the middle of the night from a fireman informing him that a terrible fire has occurred at a dance hall in the town’s “negro district.” Herb drives over to the charred night club where some victims are burned beyond recognition. In addition to the strenuous process of transporting and embalming the bodies, Mississippi segregation laws only permit black coroners to handle black corpses, limiting the help available to him. As the town reeks of death and the funeral firm faces bankruptcy because of its financial obligations to the dead, he attempts to identify the bodies of neighbors, friends, and even relatives.
Meanwhile, Eliza, Herb’s wife, is a nurse caring for the scores of burned and injured at the only black hospital in town. The conventional treatment for critical burns involves a meticulous skin removal process known as the “tannic acid-silver nitrate treatment.”
Julian Winters, a brilliant but smug arson detective, is sent from Jackson to determine the cause of the fire and help draft safety codes to prevent a reoccurrence of a similar disaster. When a few locals that escaped the blaze describe a drunken man threatening to burn the place down that night, he tries to determine if the fire was a terrible accident or a mass murder.