Month: March 2020

The Alliance Public Library RB Digital collection can be accessed at centralnebraskane.rbdigital.com where patrons may use their patron number found on the back of their card (ie: P54896) and their personal email to register for an account. An RB Digital mobile app is also available to download for most devices. For help with accessing Alliance Public Library’s digital services, please call the library at 308-762-1387.

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown: In this captivating dual narrative novel, a modern-day woman finds inspiration in hidden notes left by her home’s previous owner, a quintessential 1950s housewife. As she discovers remarkable parallels between this woman’s life and her own, it causes her to question the foundation of her own relationship with her husband—and what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal society.

Cesare by Jerome Charyn: Seventeen-year-old Cesare stumbles upon a gang beating up a tramp, whose life he saves and is none other than spymaster Wilhelm Canaris, chief of the Abwehr, German military intelligence. Canaris is a man of contradictions who, while serving the regime, seeks to undermine the Nazis and helps Cesare hide Berlin’s Jews from the Gestapo. When the woman Cesare loves, a member of the Jewish underground, is captured and sent to Auschwitz, Cesare must find a way to rescue her.

The Sword of Kings by Bernard Cornwell: It is a time of political turmoil once more as the fading King Edward begins to lose control over his successors and their supporters. There are two potential heirs—possibly more—and doubt over whether the once separate states of Wessex and Mercia will hold together. Political alliances and loyalties throughout the land result in a battle for kingship—and England’s fate.

The Innocents by Michael Crummey: A brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland’s northern coastline. Still children with only the barest notion of the outside world, they have nothing but the family’s boat and the little knowledge passed on haphazardly by their mother and father to keep them. Muddling through years of meagre catches and storms and ravaging illness, it is their fierce loyalty to each other that motivates and sustains them. But as seasons pass and they wade deeper into the mystery of their own natures, even that loyalty will be tested.

The Other Windsor Girl by Georgia Blalock: In a historical debut evoking the style of The Crown, the daughter of an impoverished noble is swept into the fame and notoriety of the royal family and Princess Margaret’s fast-living friends when she is appointed as Margaret’s second Lady-in-Waiting. But while Margaret, as a member of the Royal Family, is not free to act on her desires, Vera soon wants the freedom to pursue her own dreams. As time and Princess Margaret’s scandalous behavior progress, both women will be forced to choose between status, duty, and love.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara: In a sprawling Indian city, three friends venture into the most dangerous corners to find their missing classmate. In a chaotic and cramped urban neighborhood, the unfolding of a tragedy is seen through the eyes of a child as he has his first perilous collisions with an unjust and complicated wider world. It captures the fierce warmth, resilience, and bravery that can emerge in times of trouble and carries the reader headlong into a community that, once encountered, is impossible to forget.

On Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl: A lonely newlywed and her wayward brother-in-law follow divergent and dangerous paths through the postwar American West. Muriel is newly married and restless, but the limits of her new life seem to be closing in. She begins slipping off to the Del Mar racetrack to bet and eavesdrop, learning the language of horses and risk. Meanwhile, Julius is testing his fate in Las Vegas, working at a local casino where tourists watch atomic tests from the roof. On Swift Horses is a debut of astonishing power: a story of love and luck, of two people trying to find their place in a country that is coming apart even as it promises them everything.

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher: When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother’s house, she stumbles across her grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants until she encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself. Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors—because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real, and they’re looking for you

The Alliance Public Library RB Digital collection can be accessed at https://centralnebraskane.rbdigital.com where patrons may use their patron number found on the back of their card (ie: P54896) and their personal email to register for an account. An RB Digital mobile app is also available to download for most devices. For help with accessing Alliance Public Library’s digital services, please call the library at 308-762-1387.

Weather by Jenny Offill: Sylvia has become famous for her prescient podcast, Hell and High Water, and wants to hire librarian Lizzie to answer the mail she receives: from left-wingers worried about climate change and right-wingers worried about the decline of western civilization. As Lizzie dives into this polarized world, she is forced to address the limits of her own experience—but still she tries to save everyone, using everything she’s learned from her years of wandering the library stacks.

Ghosts of the Missing by Kathleen Donohoe: In the vein of The Lovely Bones and The Little Friend, Ghosts of the Missing follows the mysterious disappearance of a twelve-year-old girl during a town parade and the reverberations of this tragedy throughout the town. With her “knack for capturing heartbreaking moments with a gripping simplicity,” Kathleen Donohoe lures us into a haunting world of secrets and obsessions and shows just how far people will go in search of the truth.

The King at the Edge of the World by Arthur Phillips: Queen Elizabeth’s spymasters recruit an unlikely agent—the only Muslim in England—for an impossible mission in a mesmerizing novel from “one of the best writers in America.” Arthur Phillips returns with a unique and thrilling novel that will leave readers questioning the nature of truth at every turn.

Out of the Attic by V.C. Andrews: The twisted, beloved Dollanganger legend began two generations before Corrine Foxworth locked away her children in Flowers in the Attic. The second book in a new prequel story arc, Out of the Attic explores the Dollanganger family saga by traveling back decades to when the clan’s wicked destiny first took root.

Rope Burn by William W. Johnstone: Those Jensen boys, Ace and Chance, find themselves on the wrong side of the law—and the raw end of justice—inside the meanest, dirtiest prison in the Arizona territory. When a barroom brawl lands Ace and Chance Jensen in jail, it’s just the beginning of a nightmare that will never end.

The Illness Lesson by Claire Beams: At their newly founded school, Samuel Hood and his daughter Caroline promise a groundbreaking education for young women. When a mysterious flock of red birds descends on the town, the students begin to manifest bizarre symptoms: rashes, seizures, headaches, verbal tics, night wanderings. As the men around her continue to dictate, disastrously, all terms of the girls’ experience, Caroline’s body too begins to betray her. To save herself and her young charges, she will have to defy every rule that has governed her life, her mind, her body, and her world.

Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West: When a devoted teacher comes under pressure for her progressive curriculum and a helicopter mom goes viral on social media, two women at odds with each other find themselves in similar predicaments, having to battle back from certain social ruin. The Liston Heights High student body will need more than a strong sense of school spirit to move past these campus dramas in an engrossing debut novel that addresses parents behaving badly and teenagers speaking up, even against their own families.

The Traitor by V.S. Alexander: Drawing on the true story of the White Rose—the resistance movement of young Germans against the Nazi regime—The Traitor tells of one woman who offers her life in the ultimate battle against tyranny, during one of history’s darkest hours. Natalya risks everything in an effort to resist, but even among those she trusts most, there is no guarantee of safety—and when danger strikes, she must take an extraordinary gamble in her own personal struggle to survive.

New DVDs

A Million Little Pieces: An alcoholic and a drug addict, 23 year-old James has two options: treatment or death. After waking up on a plane with a smashed up face and no memory of the past few weeks, he heads to rehab where he discovers much more than detox and therapy. As James endures the white-knuckle journey of mending his broken body, he heals his broken soul by connecting with other kindred spirits who also yearn and fight for a better life.

Hustlers: Inspired by a true story, Hustlers follows Destiny, a young stripper struggling to make ends meet. That is, until she meets Ramona, the club’s savvy top earner, who shows her the way toward making big bucks. But when the 2008 economic collapse hits their Wall Street clientele hard, Destiny and Ramona concoct a plan with their fellow strippers to turn the tables on these greedy power players.

It: Chapter Two: Twenty-seven years after the Losers’ Club defeated Pennywise, IT has returned. Now adults, the Losers have long since gone their separate ways, but with people disappearing again in Derry, Maine. Mike calls the others back home. Damaged by their past experiences, they must conquer their deepest fears to destroy Pennywise – who has become deadlier that ever – once and for all.

The Addams Family: Get ready to snap your fingers! The Addams Family is back with their first animated comedy about the kookiest family on the block. Funny, outlandish, and completely iconic, The Addams Family redefines what it means to be a good neighbor.

Waves: Tyler is a high school wrestler on the verge of a full college scholarship under tremendous pressure from his domineering father. When Tyler is pushed to the brink, his actions threaten to tear his close-knit family apart, deeply affecting his younger sister, who is navigating her own path of growing up and falling in love.

Rambo: Last Blood: Almost four decades after he drew first blood, Sylvester Stallone is back as one of the greatest action heroes of all time, John Rambo. Now, Rambo must confront his past and unearth his ruthless combat skills to exact revenge in a final mission. A deadly journey of vengeance, Rambo: Last Blood marks the last chapter of the legendary series.

Abominable: When mischievous friends Yi, Jin, and Peng discover a young yeti on their roof, they name him Everest and embark on a thrilling adventure to reunite the magical creature with his family. On the journey of their lifetimes, Everest helps Yi, Jin and Peng unlock an inner bravery they didn’t know they had. As they travel across China to return the magical creature to his home, Everest will help them discover where they truly belong, too.

Terminator: Dark Fate: Decades after Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, a lethal new Terminator is sent to eliminate the future leader of the resistance. In a fight to save mankind, battle-hardened Sarah Connor teams up with and unexpected ally and an enhanced super soldier to stop the deadliest Terminator yet.

Big Little Lies: Complete Second Season: Trouble returns to Monterey, CA as relationships unravel, loyalties erode, and the potential for emotional and bodily injury still looms large, the HBO smash-hit series is back. In Season 2, the “Monterey Five” – Madeline, Caleste, Jane, Ronata and Bonnie – look to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives – just as Perry’s mother arrives looking for answers.

Hunter Killer by Brad Taylor: While Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill prepare to join their team on a counter-terrorist mission in the triple frontier– the lawless tri-border region where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet — they are entangled in a scheme involving Brazilian politics and a cut-throat battle for control of offshore oil fields.

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano: A twelve-year-old boy struggles with the worst kind of fame–as the sole survivor of a notorious plane crash.

Witch’s Oath by Terry Goodkind: The Children of D’Hara picks up immediately after the conclusion of the Sword of Truth series. The story will be told in installments, as novella-length episodes published every three months. Witch’s Oath is the fourth novella.

The Small Town by Thomas Perry: Twelve convicts plan and execute a mass prison break that results in a small town destroyed. After two years with no capture of the masterminds, Leah Hawkins, a six-foot, two-inch former star basketball player and resident good cop, is sent to track the infamous twelve. And kill them. Soon, the surviving fugitives realize what she is up to, and a race to kill or be killed ensues

Our Last Goodbye by Shirley Dickson: 1943, England: On a foggy night during the blackout, twenty-five-year-old May Robinson’s mother is tragically killed. Heartbroken, May isn’t sure she has the strength to harbor the secret she has kept for so many years – a secret her mother devoted her life to hiding, that would tear their broken family further apart. When the shocking truth of May’s secret comes to light, just as the war comes too close to home, can their love survive the impossible?

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell: When Libby learns the identity of her birth parents and inherits their abandoned mansion worth millions, everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well–and she is on a collision course to meet them. In The Family Upstairs, Lisa Jewell brings us a can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

The Peacock Emporium by JoJo Moyes: Athene Forster embraced the Sixties like few others. She was spoiled, beautiful, and out of control. Thirty-five years on, Suzanna Peacock finds refuge from her mother’s shameful legacy in her shop, the Peacock Emporium where she discovers not just friendship, and an escape from her troubled marriage, but the first real passion of her life. But the specter of her mother still haunts Suzanna, and only by confronting the past will she finally be able to face the future.

Cleaning the Gold by Karin Slaughter and Lee Child: Will Trent is undercover at Fort Knox. His assignment: to investigate a twenty-two-year-old murder. His suspect’s name: Jack Reacher. Jack Reacher is in Fort Knox on his own mission: to bring down a dangerous criminal ring operating at the heart of America’s military. Except now Will Trent is on the scene. But there’s a bigger conspiracy at play. And the only option is for Jack Reacher and Will Trent to team up and play nicely. If they can.

Beating about the Bush by M.C. Beaton: When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems.