On the shelves - Nov. 20

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.

“The Guns of C.C. Ellis” by Ralph Cotton. After pulling off their latest train robbery, outlaw leader C.C. Ellis and his unruly gang of long riders set their sights on a new target, a rich mining operation. There are only two men who can stand in their way. Sheriff Max Boyd, a lawman who doesn’t always play by the rules, and Colonel Randolph Doss, the brutal security chief of the Colorado Western Express R.R. Co. Doss pursues Ellis like Ahab pursued the white whale, while Boyd pursues his aim of keeping the town standing. There will be plenty of hot lead on the road to a final showdown.

“Rock Paper Scissors” by Alice Feeney. Things have been wrong with Mr. and Mrs. Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife. Every anniversary the couple exchanges traditional gifts - paper, cotton, pottery, tin - and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.

“Titans of War” by Wilbur Smith. For over fifty years Egypt has known nothing but war and devastation at the hands of the Hyksos, a bloodthirsty barbarian people from the distant east who continue to advance, crushing armies in their wake. Times are desperate, but throughout the conflict, a brave resistance fights on under the great Taita. Piay, entrusted into Taita’s care by his parents at the age of just five, has been trained to become a great spy, unmatched by any other. Determined to prove his worth, he embarks on a dangerous mission to the north - to Mycenae and through the heart of Hyksos land and across the great sea - to find allies to help defend Egypt. As the situation becomes increasingly precarious, and the fate of the kingdom is hanging in the balance, can Piay succeed in his quest or will this mean the end of the glory that is Egypt once and for all?

“In Search of Common Ground” by Bastian Berbner. Is there nothing we can do? This is the question that inspired award-winning journalist Bastian Berbner to embark on this book as he surveyed the political arenas in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere across Europe, compelled by what he describes as “something akin to political fear.” What he found in the course of his reporting are people who, despite significant differences in their worldviews and ideas, were able to trust, listen to, and be open with one another.

“License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport” by Patrick Bixby. In “License to Travel,” Patrick Bixby takes the reader on a captivating journey from pharaonic Egypt and Han-dynasty China to the passport controls and crowded refugee camps of today. With unexpected discoveries at every turn, License to Travel exposes the passport as both an instrument of personal freedom and a tool of government surveillance powerful enough to define our very humanity.

“Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States” by Felipe Fernández-Armesto. The United States is still typically conceived of as an offshoot of England, with our history unfolding east to west beginning with the first English settlers in Jamestown. This view overlooks the significance of America’s Hispanic past. With the profile of the United States increasingly Hispanic, the importance of recovering the Hispanic dimension to our national story has never been greater. The United States clearly has a Hispanic present and future. And here is its Hispanic past, presented with characteristic insight and wit by one of our greatest historians.

— Summaries provided by library staff