Author Archives: Akron Public Library

Imagine … growing up in an unfinished geodesic dome home with no heat or running water, wearing the same clothes to school every day, and eating breakfast cereal with warm goat milk. In this whimsical, poetic, and gripping autobiographical account, Jennifer Asbenson describes her abusive, dysfunctional, and chaotic upbringing, her abduction and escape from a serial killer, her years in and out of mental hospitals, her decision to heal herself, and ultimately, her path to wholeness. Jennifer tells how, from her youngest years, she learned to retreat into her imagination to develop the ability to survive. The Girl in the Treehouse is a profoundly compelling story, told with humor, honesty, and without self-pity, of Jennifer’s emergence from mental illness and despair to happiness, through the power of forgiveness and self-love.

Source:: New Materials

“In this stirring new novel, acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels delves into the remarkable ways in which moments of crises can lead to our greatest acts of courage . . . When Carol Ann “CJ” Jansen lost her beloved older brother, Kick, in a boating accident, she came adrift. Kick had taken on the role of caring for his little sister after their parents were killed in a car crash. Inheriting half his fortune has left CJ financially secure–yet needing a purpose. As administrative assistant to powerful congressman Snapper Lewis, she’s immersed herself in the exciting and often tumultuous world of politics. But suddenly, the career that anchors her life is threatened. CJ stumbles upon information that could implicate her boss in corruption. When the congressman goes missing, the closer CJ gets to uncovering the truth, exposing one shocking secret after another, the more she wonders if she’s also in jeopardy. Moving to a small New England town for her own protection, CJ gradually begins to engage with her new surroundings. Her blossoming friendship with the owner of a charter fishing boat offers the promise of much more. But before she can claim happiness, CJ must navigate a course through all her doubts and fears, and trust that this time, the water that took so much from her might just lead her safely home”–Jacket flap.

Source:: New Materials

Presents an inspiring collection of stories of Americans who have persevered over adversity and built extraordinary lives after loss, hardship, and setbacks, showcasing the resilience of the American spirit.
Kyle and DeFelice have collected true stories of suffering, survival, and triumph from people across America. In embodying the ‘American spirit’ of resilience, faith and togetherness that has built the nation, these anecdotes profile how love, passion, and service can combine to help us persevere over personal pain and heal our communities. The stories these individuals tell can teach us how to find purpose, no matter the difficulties we face. — adapted from jacket

Source:: New Materials

“One secret, one nightmare, one lie. You guess which is which. 1. I have the scar of a gunshot wound on my forehead. 2. I have willfully misrepresented my identity to the US military. 3. I’m the new mother of a seven-year-old girl. Kellen Adams suffers from a yearlong gap in her memory. A bullet to the brain will cause that. But she’s discovering the truth, and what she learns changes her life, her confidence and her very self. She finds herself in the wilderness, on the run, unprepared, her enemies unknown–and she is carrying a priceless burden she must protect at all costs. The consequences of failure would break her. And Kellen Adams does not break. What doesn’t kill her…had better start running”

Source:: New Materials

When Lily Ross learns that her husband, Daniel Ross, the town’s widely respected sheriff, is killed while transporting a prisoner, she is devastated and vows to avenge his death. Hours after his funeral, a stranger appears at her door. Marvena Whitcomb, a coal miner’s widow, is unaware that Daniel has died, and begs to speak with him about her missing daughter. From miles away but worlds apart, Lily and Marvena’s lives collide as they realize that Daniel was not the man that either of them believed him to be–and that his murder is far more complex than either of them could have imagined. Inspired by the true story of Ohio’s first female sheriff, this is a powerful debut about two women’s search for justice as they take on the corruption at the heart of their community.

Source:: New Materials

“The remarkable new account of an essential piece of American mythology–the trial of Lizzie Borden–based on twenty years of research and recently unearthed evidence. The Trial of Lizzie Borden tells the true story of one of the most sensational murder trials in American history. When Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892, the arrest of the couple’s younger daughter Lizzie turned the case into international news and her trial into a spectacle unparalleled in American history. Reporters flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone–rich and poor, suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars and laypeople–had an opinion about Lizzie Borden’s guilt or innocence. Was she a cold-blooded murderess or an unjustly persecuted lady? Did she or didn’t she? The popular fascination with the Borden murders and its central enigmatic character has endured for more than one hundred years. Immortalized in rhyme, told and retold in every conceivable genre, the murders have secured a place in the American pantheon of mythic horror, but one typically wrenched from its historical moment. In contrast, Cara Robertson explores the stories Lizzie Borden’s culture wanted and expected to hear and how those stories influenced the debate inside and outside of the courtroom. Based on transcripts of the Borden legal proceedings, contemporary newspaper accounts, unpublished local accounts, and recently unearthed letters from Lizzie herself, The Trial of Lizzie Borden offers a window onto America in the Gilded Age, showcasing its most deeply held convictions and its most troubling social anxieties”–

Source:: New Materials

Alicia Berenson is a famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, living in a posh area of London. One evening, her husband Gabriel returns home late. Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then never speaks another word.

Source:: New Materials

“From New York Times bestselling authors Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison comes a riveting thriller pitting special agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine against the head of a private space agency who has the power to end the world as we know it. It’s Bastille Day in France, and the private French space agency Galactus–France’s answer to Space X, owned by the eccentric treasure hunter Jean-Pierre Broussard–has just sent a satellite payload into orbit. Billed as a “communications” satellite, it harbors a frightening reality: a nuclear electromagnetic pulse has been hidden aboard. In days, when the satellite is in position, Galactus’s head and Broussard’s second in command, Dr. Neveah Patil, will have the power to lay waste to the world with her EMP, and create her own immortality with the Holy Grail–the stones of the heavens and the very treasure Broussard has spent his life searching for. The countdown has begun, and Special Agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine will go down to the wire to stop this heinous attack. With their signature “nonstop action with enough realism to keep you thinking and scare the daylights out of you at the same time” (Suspense Magazine), Coulter and Ellison have created a thriller to take you on a breakneck and breathtaking journey”–

Source:: New Materials

“Sally Grissom is a top secret service agent in charge of the Presidential Protection team. She knows that something is amiss when she is summoned to a private meeting with the President and his Chief of Staff without any witnesses. But she couldn’t have predicted that she’d be forced to take on an investigation surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the First Lady with strict orders to keep it a secret. The First Lady’s absence comes in the wake of the scandalous, public revelation of the president’s affair, so at first it seems as though she is simply cutting off all contact as she recuperates at a horse farm in Virginia. What begins as an innocent respite quickly reveals itself as a twisted case when the White House receives a ransom note along with the First Lady’s finger”–

Source:: New Materials

Texas sheriff Dan Rhodes tackles a final mystery involving an unidentified victim at a school demolition site, a band of dimwitted hoodlums, and a paranoid detective.

Source:: New Materials