Washoe County Library System

"From veteran true crime master Harold Schechter comes Murderabilia, a history of crime told through the dark objects left behind. The false teeth of a female serial killer from 1908, the cut-and-paste confession of the Black Dahlia killer, the newly cracked cipher of the Zodiac killer, the shotgun used in the Clutter family murders, which were made famous by Truman Capote's true crime classic In Cold Blood-these are more than simple artifacts that...

"Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Meanwhile, Monk struggles...

"Three interlocking stories focusing on the residents of a town called Sam Dent, the undercurrent of the Trump movement in America, and a series of local tragedies"-- "A husband sells property to a mysterious, temperamental stranger, and is hounded on social media when he publicly questions the man's character. A couple grows concerned when an enigmatic family moves next door, and the children start sneaking over to beg for help. Two dangerous criminals...

"The myth of an epic, public life--its triumphs and tragedies--is a particularly American obsession. ROAR is a metafictional exploration of such a life and attendant fame of an extraordinary, and completely made up, man"-- "A new novel by Hollywood's "master of satire." The myth of an epic, public life—its triumphs and tragedies—is a particularly American obsession. ROAR is a metafictional exploration of such a life and attendant fame of an...

''A fascinating look at the most destructive wildfires in American history, the impact of climate change, and what we're doing right and wrong to manage forest fire, from a National Book Award finalist. Perfect for young fans of disaster stories and national history. Wildfires have been part of the American landscape for thousands of years. Forests need fire--it's as necessary to their well-being as soil and sunlight. But some fires burn out of...

A collection of the year’s top food writing, selected by prolific food writer and author of How to Cook Everything Mark Bittman. "In almost any culture, at any time, you can find food writing,” writes guest editor Mark Bittman in his introduction. “Food means growing and hardship, and health and medicine, and work and holiday. In its abundance it is a gift and a joy, and in its absence a curse and a tragedy. If a culture has writing, that culture...

"In this “courageous and compelling … essential and critically important” book (Bryan Stevenson), an award-winning scholar of white supremacy tackles her toughest research assignment yet: the unsolved murder of a Black man in rural Mississippi while her grandfather was the local sheriff—a cold case that sheds new light on the hidden legacy of racial terror in America. Grace Hale was home from college when she first heard the family...

"In THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT, they played the ultimate game of love, lust, and death. Now, in MEMORIES OF MIDNIGHT, the survivors meet to play one last time... Shadowed by tragedy and burdened by amnesia, a beautiful woman desperately tries to return to reality. She is Catherine Douglas, destined to once again challenge the cruel, charismatic power of Constantin Demiris, the Greek shipping tycoon who murdered Catherine's husband. Now, in the glittering...

"There once was a time when longhorns bawled and cowboys hollered on the dusty Chisholm trail . . . When wild young men toting six-shooters danced with saloon girls and dreamed of the mother lode . . . When Comanches on the warpath drenched the plains in blood . . . And one hard, hurting cowboy began a legendary trek across the American west . . . Magnificent, sprawling, and impeccably researched, Brules captures the exhilarating romance of a...

"In September 1838, a twenty-five-year-old tutor at Harvard named Jones Very stood before his beginning Greek class and proclaimed himself the Second Coming. Relieved of his teaching duties, Very spent the next two years writing more than four hundred sonnets, all of which he claimed were delivered to him, as though through dictation, by the Holy Spirit. He was examined by the dean of romantic Unitarianism, William Ellery Channing, and strove to "convert"...