New Titles Coming to the Free Library in December – Blog

Wake Up, Moon! by Lita Judge

A playful squirrel defies bedtime, delighting in a playful snow romp with forest friends, until drowsy eyes and sleepy yawns signal the time for a cozy rest.

Mallory in Full Color by Elisa Stone Leahy

Mallory Marsh is an expert at molding into whatever other people want her to be. Her true thoughts and feelings only come out in her sci-fi webcomic, which she publishes anonymously as Dr. BotGirl. But juggling all the versions of herself gets tricky, especially when Mal’s mom signs her up for the swim team. Instead of being honest about hating competitive swimming, Mal skips out on practice and secretly joins the library’s comic club. There Mal meets Noa, a cute Enby kid who is very sure of who they are. As she helps Noa plan a drag queen storytime, Mal tries to be the person she thinks Noa wants her to be — by lying about her stage fright. Then Mal’s webcomic goes viral, and kids at school start recognizing the unflattering characters based on Mal’s real-life friends. With negative pushback threatening the drag queen storytime and Dr. BotGirl’s identity getting harder to hide, Mallory must reckon with the lies she has told. If she reveals her full self, will her friends, her parents, and her new crush accept the real Mallory Marsh?

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

After suffering devastating loss and making drastic decisions, Zetian finds herself in the seat of power in Huaxia, but she has also learned that her world is not as it seems. Revelations about an enemy who dangles one of her loved ones as a hostage force Zetian to share power with a dangerous man she cannot simply depose. Despite their mutual dislike and distrust, the two must work together to take down their common enemy and stoke a revolution against the systems of exploitation that plague their world. However, power is not so easy to wield once seized, and a revolution is not so easy to control once unleashed. As Huaxia’s former elites strike back and the common people’s fervor for justice turns bloody and paranoid, can Zetian remain a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence and succumb to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance and liberation?

Rental House by Weiki Wang

Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,” says her father), while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign” wife. Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions. How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together?

How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days by Kari Leibowitz

This is a blend of mindset science, original research, and cultural insights into cultivating a positive “wintertime mindset,” to cure winter blues and learn to find joy and comfort in dark times year-round. Do you dread the end of Daylight Savings each year and grouch about the long, chilly season of gray skies and ice? Do you reach for a lightbox to get you through January and February each year? What if there were a way to rethink this time of year? Psychologist and winter expert Kari Leibowitz’s galvanizing How to Winter uses mindset science to help readers embrace winter as a season to be enjoyed, not endured-and in turn, learn powerful lessons that can impact our mental well-being throughout the year. Kari Leibowitz traveled to the places on earth with the coldest, darkest, longest, and most intense winters, expecting to research the season’s negative effects on mental health, only to find that inhabitants actually looked forward to it with vigor and enthusiasm. In Earth’s most intense winters, Leibowitz discovered the power of the “wintertime mindset” — impactful adaptations that can teach us not just about braving the dark, cold months of the year, but also the darker and more difficult seasons of life.