Peak Picks Current Titles Book List
A complete list of current Peak Picks titles.
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The Poet Empress
Adult Fiction. “In the final years of the Azalea Dynasty, Yin Wei, a peasant girl desperate to save her starving family, volunteers as concubine... This act of survival pulls her into a labyrinth of palace intrigue and rebellion, where each written word contains magic that can shape a person's destiny, but where female literacy is illegal. Against the lush backdrop of Tao's lyrical worldbuilding, which draws from Chinese history and myth to craft a court defined by both beauty and brutality, Wei's transformation from naive villager to calculating courtesan is expertly rendered.” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Two Women Living Together
Adult Nonfiction. “Uninterested in marriage but feeling they'd outgrown living alone, [Hana & Sunwoo] opted to elevate their online friendship and move in together, when both were in their 40s. Though much of [their] arrangement sounds idyllic, they're blunt about navigating their divergent perspectives on debt and cleanliness, and how ‘the way we fought led to even more fights.’ They've always reconciled, however; as Hwang explains, ‘It is precisely because, as we grow older, we see more of the world's ugliness and meet more cynics and pessimists that we're intent on staying positive.’ This is a winning testament to the power of friendship." Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Vigil
Adult Fiction. “A ghost attempts to guide an unrepentant oil executive toward redemption and the afterlife in the staggering latest from Saunders. The story takes place over the course of one night, when the spirit of Jill Blaine descends to Earth and takes on human form at the home of K.J. Boone, her latest ‘charge.’ As opposed to the hundreds of others Jill has visited… the terminally ill Boone is uninterested in finding peace or reckoning with his misdeeds. As more of Boone's transgressions are revealed, Jill decides she hates him, and the novel barrels into gleefully absurd territory while posing weighty questions...” Publishers Weekly
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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When Trees Testify
Adult Nonfiction. “Plant biologist Montgomery…analyzes the historical and cultural roles of tree species that had particular significance to enslaved Africans in the U.S., as well as their descendants. The pecan tree was domesticated by an enslaved man, poplars were historically associated with lynchings, the willow bore medicinal bark, and cotton was the basis of an economy of enslavement. Oak trees, by their long lives, often became landmarks and gathering places, while sycamores marked the way for people escaping enslavement. Montgomery eloquently analyzes the cultural and historical strains in the Black South in this beautifully written work of history, natural history, and memoir.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Nobody's Girl
Adult Nonfiction. "When Giuffre first fell into the orbit of [Jeffrey] Epstein and his partner/aide de camp, Ghislaine Maxwell, she was a teenager who’d already had long experience with sexual abuse. In 2000, her father was working at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and helped her get a job at the spa there. That’s where, she writes, she met Maxwell and Epstein, who, offering promises of massage training, forced her into a two-year hell of sexual service. With the assistance of collaborator Amy Wallace, she’s delivered a composed yet righteously infuriated account of how Epstein manipulated and abused her, then shared her with others. A valuable document of abuse, and the strength required to counter it.” Kirkus Reviews.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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A Guardian and A Thief
Adult Fiction. "Majumdar spins a luminous story of a family facing climate catastrophe and food scarcity in near-future Kolkata. It revolves around a mother known only as Ma, who manages a shelter between caring for her aging father and two-year-old daughter, Mishti. The three of them have obtained highly coveted ‘climate visas’ and are preparing to join Mishti's father in Ann Arbor, Mich… All is hopeful until the household is visited by a young thief named Boomba, who followed Ma home from the shelter suspecting (correctly) that she is siphoning food from her workplace. The plot thickens when Boomba makes off with the family's passports… As Ma and her family struggle to reclaim the passports, Majumdar unspools Boomba's backstory, crafting a complex antagonist who gradually gains the reader's sympathy. There's no clear-cut villain here, just people attempting to survive and protect their own.” PW
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Flesh
Adult Fiction. "Teenaged Istv?an lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. Shy and new in town, he is a stranger to the social rituals practiced by his classmates and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbor--a married woman close to his mother's age…--as his only companion. But as these periodical encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that Istv?an himself can barely understand, his life soon spirals out of control... What follows is a rocky trajectory that sees Istv?an emigrate from Hungary to London, where he moves from job to job… At each juncture, his life is affected by the goodwill or self-interest of strangers. Through it all, Istv?an is a calm, detached observer of his own life, and through his eyes we experience a tragic twist on an immigrant ‘success story,’ brightened by moments of sensitivity, softness, and Szalay's keen observation.” - Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Best Offer Wins
Adult Fiction. “18 months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, 37-year-old publicist Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband Ian… Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it’s publicly listed… A little stalking? Harmless. A bit of trespassing? Necessary. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners’ lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged… You’ll root for her, even as you gasp in disbelief.” Publisher
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Cursed Daughters
Adult Fiction. “…[T]he Falodun women live under a curse: ‘No man will call your house, home. And if they try, they will not have peace.’ It has plagued them for generations, causing them to seek solace in each other rather than with men. Eniiyi, believed to be the reincarnation of her deceased cousin, has sidestepped the curse by avoiding romance altogether. But when she rescues a man from drowning and can't get him out of her head, breaking the curse becomes front of mind. Can she succeed where generations of her family have failed? This is a page-turner…” Booklist
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Family of Spies
Adult Nonfiction. “Kuehn debuts with a fast-paced account of the role her German family played as spies for the Axis powers during World War II. Kuehn learned that her Aunt Ruth, who was half-Jewish, became romantically involved with Nazi leader Joseph Goebbels. When Goebbels discovered her heritage, he sent the entire family to Hawai'i, where they supplied information that facilitated Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Kuehn's meticulously researched and well-written account is personal and deeply suspenseful, blending family memoir with World War II espionage intrigue.” Library Journal
Format: Book
Availability: Available