On the shelves - Oct. 2

The books listed below are now available for checkout at the Clovis-Carver Public Library. The library is open to the public, but patrons can still visit the online catalog at cloviscarverpl.booksys.net/opac/ccpl or call 575-769-7840 to request a specific item for curbside pickup.

“Back Roads of the Southwest” by David Skernick. This book was given in memoriam of Mary Ruth Burns. Join landscape photographer David Skernick as he travels the remote back roads of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada—a region so rich in natural beauty that much of it has been preserved by the national park system. Panoramic images place the viewer directly into landscapes containing ranches, wolves, wild horses, and stunning geological formations. Interwoven with this rugged scenery are glimpses of civilization—working grain elevators, old hotels, and the occasional abandoned gas station.

“Rebel with a Clause” by Ellen Jovin. When Ellen Jovin first walked outside her Manhattan apartment building and set up a folding table with a “Grammar Table” sign, it took about 30 seconds to get her first visitor. Everyone had a question for her. In Rebel with a Clause, Jovin tackles what is most on people’s minds, grammatically speaking—from the Oxford comma to the places prepositions can go, the likely lifespan of whom, semicolon-phobia, and more. Punctuated with linguistic debates from tiny towns to our largest cities, this grammar romp will delight anyone wishing to polish their prose or revel in our age-old, universal fascination with language.

”At the Gates of Rome: The Fall of the Eternal City, AD 410” by Don Hollway. It took little more than a single generation for the centuries-old Roman Empire to fall. In those critical decades, while Christians and pagans, legions and barbarians, generals and politicians squabbled over dwindling scraps of power, two men – former comrades on the battlefield – rose to prominence on opposite sides of the great game of empire. Battling each other to a standstill, these two warriors ultimately overcame their differences in order to save the empire from enemies on all sides. And when one of them fell, the other took such vengeance as had never been seen in history.

“Disturbing the Peace” by Terrence McCauley. Ruthless and clever, Ed Zimmerman would have become the leader of one of the west’s deadliest and hell-bent outlaw gangs. Zimmerman has offered a generous bounty to every desperado willing to put a bullet through the U.S. Deputy Marshal’s heart. A death sentence won’t stop Halstead from enforcing the law. The sheriff of Battle Brook needs a hand dealing with some hell-raising badmen in the surrounding hills, threatening to take over the frontier town. Zimmerman has joined the outlaws in the hills, waiting to catch Halstead in his sights.

“The Librarian Spy” by Madeline Martin. Ava thought her job as a librarian at the Library of Congress would mean a quiet, routine existence. But an unexpected offer from the U.S. military has brought her to Lisbon with a new mission: posing as a librarian while working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence. Meanwhile, in occupied France, Elaine has begun an apprenticeship at a printing press run by members of the Resistance. As the battle in Europe rages, Ava and Elaine find themselves connecting through coded messages and discovering hope in the face of war.

“Girl, Forgotten” by Karin Slaughter. A small town hides a big secret. Who killed Emily Vaughn? Longbill Beach, 1982: Emily Vaughn gets ready for the prom. For an athlete, who is smart, pretty and well-liked, this night that should be the highlight of her high school career. But Emily has a secret. And by the end of the evening, that secret will be silenced forever. Forty years later, Emily’s murder remains a mystery.  But all that’s about to change. US Marshal Andrea Oliver arrives in Longbill Beach on her first assignment: to protect a judge receiving death threats. But the killer is still out there—and Andrea must discover the truth before she gets silenced, too.

— Summaries provided by library staff