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Anxious people / by Backman, Fredrik,1981-author.; Smith, Neil(Neil Andrew),translator.;
"This is a story about a hostage drama. But more than that, it’s a story about idiots. That’s why, from the very outset, I need to say that it is always very easy to declare people idiots, but only if you forget that it is also almost always idiotically difficult to be human. Anxious People is an unreasonably riotous comedy about a hostage drama during an open house that all begins when a failed bank robber locks himself in with six strangers who have come to view the apartment. In captivity we meet Roger and Anna-Lena, a recently retired couple who are on a manic hunt for fixer-uppers because they don’t know how to fix their own marriage. They have the distinction of shopping at every Ikea in Sweden—and those are some of the most romantic moments they ever shared. Then there is Zara, a wealthy director of a bank who has never cared for poor people or their problems (and isn’t shy about saying so). But when tragedy strikes in her life, she becomes addicted to visiting real-estate open houses to see how the middle-classes live – and possibly to find a suitable place to commit suicide. Julia and Danijela are a young lesbian couple with a newborn baby who can’t agree on anything. Their opposite and idiosyncratic home preferences are making them increasingly anxious about their chances of spending a lifetime together. And Estelle, an eighty year-old woman who has lived long enough to be unimpressed by some bank robber waving a gun in her face. Despite the story she tells them all, Estelle hasn’t really come to the apartment to view it for her daughter, and her husband really isn’t outside parking the car. As police surround the premises and television channels are broadcasting live, the pressure of an increasingly tense situation mounts, causing each person to reveal more and more about themselves to each other. Before long, the robber must decide which is the more terrifying prospect: going out to face the police, or staying in the apartment with this group of impossible people. In the end, the hostages are released, but when the police storm the apartment to capture the robber, it is...empty. In a series of interviews afterwards, the witnesses all tell their version of what happened that day, whereupon it becomes clear to the police that one person is lying, and that none of the others are telling the whole truth. This is a story about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and a group of very anxious people who experience the same events in wildly different ways."--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Detective and mystery fiction.; Humorous fiction.; Bank robberies; Thieves; Hostage negotiations; Witnesses; Small cities; Bank robberies.; Hostage negotiations.; Small cities.; Thieves.; Witnesses.;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Dragonfly summer / by Moncrieff, J.H.,author.;
Jo Carter never thought she'd return to Clear Springs, Minnesota. But when the former journalist receives a cryptic note about the disappearance of her friend 20 years before, she's compelled to find out what really happened. During her investigation, she learns another high school friend has died in a mysterious accident. Jo must probe Clear Springs' darkest corners and her own painful memories to discover the truth--and save herself from the killer who could still be on the hunt.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Homecoming; Missing persons; Secrecy; Small cities;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Christmas tree farm / by Gilmore, Laurie,author.;
Kira North hates Christmas. Which is unfortunate since she just bought a Christmas tree farm in a town that's too cute for its own good. Bennett Ellis is on vacation in Dream Harbor taking a break from his life in California. And most importantly, taking a break from his latest run of disastrous dates. After a run in with Kira in her fields, Ben has no intention of offering to help the grumpy owner set up her tree farm, despite the fact she's clearly got no idea what she's doing. Kira knows she should stop being so stubborn, but her farm is not all cute and cozy like people always show on social media, it's borderline dangerous with no heating, and she'd rather no one saw it. But somehow fate finds Ben at Kira's farm once more, and as Kira watches him swing an ax at the first tree, she finds herself appreciating his strength and questionning why she refused help in the first place.
Subjects: Christmas fiction.; Romance fiction.; Erotic fiction.; Novels.; Christmas stories; Man-woman relationships; Small cities; Tree farms;
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Fog and fury : a thriller / by Hall, Rachel Howzell,author.;
She's a new PI in a beautiful seaside town. It's dirtier than it looks--and more dangerous too--in a twisting novel of suspense by the Anthony Award-nominated author of These Toxic Things. After ten years on the force, LAPD cop Sonny Rush relocates with her elderly mother to peaceful Haven, California, to join her godfather's burgeoning PI business. What crimes could possibly happen in a town nicknamed "Mayberry by the Sea"? Sonny's first case: find Figgy, a missing goldendoodle last seen sporting a Versace collar. At least scouting out a dognapper gives Sonny a chance to get to know her new neighbors. Forty-eight hours in town and Figgy's disappearance entangles Sonny in an unwelcome reunion with her ex, one of Haven's wealthiest citizens. And when the body of a teenage boy is found along a popular hiking trail, Sonny is drawn into a web of strange beyond anything she ever saw in LA. Then comes a local's warning: question everything. Haven hides secrets that could destroy its idyllic façade. Or destroy Sonny first.
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Novels.; Murder; Secrecy; Small cities; Women private investigators;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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Bucket of stars / by Rosen, Suri.;
A story of two kids trying to save the world they know and heal the families they have. It's the summer of 2003 and thirteen-year-old astronomer Noah Cooper has just moved to Queensport, a small town with a vast amateur sky full of stars. There he meets Tara Dhillon, a lonely girl and aspiring filmmaker. When the two team up to produce an astronomy movie and enter a film contest, they discover a secret plan to turn their rural hamlet into a huge subdivision. Noah and Tara must use their unique skills to identify the culprits who plan on paving over the historic county -- and try to save the infinite beauty of the stars. As if that's not enough to have at stake, Noah needs to win the prize money to buy a new telescope for his unemployed father -- an ex-astronomer who's almost given up on the stars, as well as life on earth. Touching on themes of activism, environmental anxiety and mental health, A Bucket of Stars will have readers cheering for Noah, a boy whose head is in the stars, and Tara, a girl who lives in a world of digital images -- and their special bond that just might mend the world around them.
Subjects: Astronomers; Independent filmmakers; Small cities; Urbanization;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The haunting of Velkwood / by Kiste, Gwendolyn,author.;
The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared behind a near-impenetrable veil that only three survivors could enter--and only one has in the past twenty years, until now. Talitha Velkwood has avoided anything to do with the tragedy that took her mother and eight-year-old sister, drifting from one job to another, never settling anywhere or with anyone, feeling as trapped by her past as if she was still there in the small town she so desperately wanted to escape from. When a new researcher tracks her down and offers to pay her to come back to enter the vicinity, Talitha claims she's just doing it for the money. Of all the crackpot theories over the years, no one has discovered what happened the night Talitha, her estranged, former best friend Brett, and Grace, escaped their homes twenty years ago. Will she finally get the answers she's been looking for all these years, or is this just another dead end? Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste has created a suburban ghost story about a small town that trapped three young women who must confront the past if they're going to have a future.
Subjects: Ghost stories.; Horror fiction.; Gothic fiction.; Novels.; Female friendship; Ghosts; Guilt; Neighborhoods; Secrecy; Small cities;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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When in Rome : a novel / by Adams, Sarah,1991-author.;
"A burnt-out pop star stranded in small-town Kentucky can't help falling for her unlikely knight in shining armor--the notoriously grumpy owner of the local pie shop--in this charming slice of romance from the author of the TikTok sensation The Cheat Sheet. Amelia Rose, known as Rae Rose to her fans, is burnt out from years of maintaining her "princess of pop" image. Inspired by her favorite Audrey Hepburn film Roman Holiday, and desperate for a getaway from the music business, she drives off in the middle of the night for a respite in Rome ... Rome, Kentucky, that is. When Noah Walker finds Amelia on his front lawn in her broken-down car, he makes it clear he doesn't have the time or patience for celebrity problems. He's too busy running the pie shop his grandmother left him and reminding his nosy but lovable neighbors to mind their own damn business. But his heart softens when it becomes clear that years in the public eye have left Amelia lonely and isolated. Soon she'll have to return to her glamorous life on tour, but until then Noah will show Amelia all the charming small-town experiences she's been missing and she'll show him how to open his heart to more. Amelia can't resist falling for Rome and her grumpy tour guide, but she keeps reminding herself that even Audrey had to go back to her real life in the end..."--
Subjects: Romance fiction.; Novels.; Bakers; Man-woman relationships; Singers; Small cities;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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A town called solace / by Lawson, Mary,1946-author.;
"As Solace opens, we meet a Northern Ontario family in crisis: their rebellious teenage daughter, Rose, has disappeared. Weeks have passed with no word, but still Rose's little sister, Clara, keeps a daily vigil at the living-room window, hoping that Rose will come back. Feisty and fierce, Clara is not only missing Rose; she is also missing her elderly friend and next-door neighbour, Mrs. Orchard, a retired schoolteacher who is away in hospital. While standing at the window, Clara keeps an eye out for Rose and an eye on Mrs. Orchard's house. Then, one afternoon, a strange young man in a strange car pulls into Mrs. Orchard's driveway and proceeds to move into the house as if he owns the place. Which it turns out he does: Mrs. Orchard has died and left it to him. Soon we discover that Clara's beloved Mrs. Orchard has a complicated and tragic past, and the real mystery at the heart of this novel is what happened between her and Liam, the man in the car. Solace is told in three distinct, compelling voices--Clara's, Mrs. Orchard's, and Liam's--cutting back and forth to carefully uncover the layers of grief, remorse, and love that connect families, both the ones we're born into and the ones we choose, and steadily building towards an assured, heart-wrenching and (despite its losses) uplifting ending. A beautifully written, masterful, suspenseful and deeply humane novel by one of our great storytellers."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Domestic fiction.; Bildungsromans.; Psychological fiction.; Missing children; Sisters; Families; Neighbors; Grief; Small cities;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Christmas at Corgi Cove : a novel / by Noblin, Annie England,author.;
Rosie Reynolds had come to lakeside Corgi Cove as a lost, lonely girl abandoned by her own mother, but there she discovered a true place to call home. She loves her Corgis, Bonnie and Clyde; loves the lakeside life; and loves her aunt and uncle most of all. But when she discovers their struggling inn is about to be bought out by some big city chain, she hatches a plan: to win a contest naming theirs the best Christmas-themed inn in the USA. It's a long shot, but she knows if the whole town pulls together that they can do it. But she didn't count on Everett St Claire, who emerged from his gleaming, black BMW, straightening his tie and asking himself how did a big-city guy like him find himself in a speck on the map like Corgi Cove? And how fast could he get back to the city? After all, it couldn't be that difficult to convince one elderly couple to take the money to retire. He didn't count on getting sucked into life on the lake. Sure, the people might be ... eccentric, and Rosie might seem like a pain in the backside, but there is something alluring about the place. And with the holidays nearing, and the deadline looming, Rosie and Everett are about to discover the magic of a Christmas at Corgi Cove.
Subjects: Christmas fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Novels.; Christmas stories; Christmas; Dogs; Man-woman relationships; Small cities;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Christmas in Blue Dog Valley : a novel / by Noblin, Annie England,author.;
When Goldie McKenzie, DVM, vet to the L.A. pet stars, arrives from Los Angeles to Blue Dog Valley she realizes three things. Never agree to upend your life when you're hungover. Pot-belly pigs are not true farm animals. She's going to need a warmer coat. At first Goldie is nothing more than a fish out of water, with few clients and few friends. But after a less than pleasant encounter with a man whose dog is suffering from a possibly fatal case of bloat, she's finally earning the trust and goodwill from her fellow Blue Dog Valley citizens. Her clientele grows to include the many farm animals in the town, including a horse named Large Marge, a cape-wearing therapy alpaca, and a yardful of sweater-wearing goats. Add in Kevin, the "worst sheepdog in Blue Dog Valley," and a Sphinx cat named Airport, and Goldie is having the best time a vet can have ... aside from the annoying attractive town grump, Cohen, who seems intent on making sure she always feels like an outsider. With her newfound goodwill, Goldie comes up with an idea to reinvigorate the once flourishing Blue Dog Valley: a Christmas carnival. A petting zoo, pictures with Santa, a baking contest, what more could they want? After only some brief resistance from Cohen and his father, they begin the great plan to reinvigorate Blue Dog Valley. Will Christmas be enough to salvage this dying town--and be enough to bring Goldie closer to a certain grumpy man?
Subjects: Christmas fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Recipes.; Novels.; Animals; Man-woman relationships; Small cities; Women veterinarians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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