April 2017 Adult Top 10 Picks

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  1. The Last Neanderthal
    by Claire Cameron Canada
    Doubleday Canada
    Apr 25, 2017
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback
    The Last Neanderthal
    by Claire Cameron Canada
    Doubleday Canada
    Apr 25, 2017
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback
    **Finalist for the 2017 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
    **Winner of the 2018 Evergreen Award
    **National Bestseller
    **A National Post Best Book of 2017

    From the bestselling author of The Bear, the enthralling story of two women separated by millennia, but linked by an epic journey that will transform them both



    40,000 years in the past, the last family of Neanderthals roams the earth. After a crushingly hard winter, their numbers are low, but Girl, the oldest daughter, is just coming of age and her family is determined to travel to the annual meeting place and find her a mate.
    But the unforgiving landscape takes its toll, and Girl is left alone to care for Runt, a foundling of unknown origin. As Girl and Runt face the coming winter storms, Girl realizes she has one final chance to save her people, even if it means sacrificing part of herself.
    In the modern day, archaeologist Rosamund Gale works well into her pregnancy, racing to excavate newly found Neanderthal artifacts before her baby comes. Linked across the ages by the shared experience of early motherhood, both stories examine the often taboo corners of women's lives.
    Haunting, suspenseful, and profoundly moving, The Last Neanderthal asks us to reconsider all we think we know about what it means to be human.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  2. Beartown
    by Fredrik Backman
    Simon & Schuster
    Apr 25, 2017
    FICTION / Literary
    Paperback / softback
    Beartown
    by Fredrik Backman
    Simon & Schuster
    Apr 25, 2017
    FICTION / Literary
    Paperback / softback
    The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream—and the price required to make it come true.

    People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

    Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

    Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  3. Within the Sanctuary of Wings
    by Marie Brennan
    Tor Books
    Apr 25, 2017
    FICTION / Fantasy / Dragons & Mythical Creatures
    Hardback
    Within the Sanctuary of Wings
    by Marie Brennan
    Tor Books
    Apr 25, 2017
    FICTION / Fantasy / Dragons & Mythical Creatures
    Hardback

    Within the Sanctuary of Wings is the conclusion to Marie Brennan's thrilling Lady Trent Memoirs

    After nearly five decades (and, indeed, the same number of volumes), one might think they were well-acquainted with the Lady Isabella Trent--dragon naturalist, scandalous explorer, and perhaps as infamous for her company and feats of daring as she is famous for her discoveries and additions to the scientific field.

    And yet--after her initial adventure in the mountains of Vystrana, and her exploits in the depths of war-torn Eriga, to the high seas aboard The Basilisk, and then to the inhospitable deserts of Akhia--the Lady Trent has captivated hearts along with fierce minds. This concluding volume will finally reveal the truths behind her most notorious adventure--scaling the tallest peak in the world, buried behind the territory of Scirland's enemies--and what she discovered there, within the Sanctuary of Wings.


    The Lady Trent Memoirs
    1. A Natural History of Dragons
    2. The Tropic of Serpents
    3. Voyage of the Basilisk
    4. In the Labyrinth of Drakes
    5. Within the Sanctuary of Wings

    View this title on BNC CataList
  4. Everything Is Awful and You're a Terrible Person
    by Daniel Zomparelli Canada
    Arsenal Pulp Press
    Apr 01, 2017
    FICTION / LGBTQ+ / Gay
    Paperback / softback
    Everything Is Awful and You're a Terrible Person
    by Daniel Zomparelli Canada
    Arsenal Pulp Press
    Apr 01, 2017
    FICTION / LGBTQ+ / Gay
    Paperback / softback

    Winner, ReLit Award; Finalist, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (BC Book Prizes)

    A YouTube star becomes famous after he documents his breakup online. An anxious, lactose-intolerant office worker obsesses over a stranger who says "Nice shorts, bro" to him in passing. A couple wants to open up their relationship to a ghost. A monster just wants to find love in his human skin.

    In these unconventional, interconnected stories--the first work of fiction by acclaimed poet Daniel Zomparelli, editor-in-chief of Poetry Is Dead magazine--gay men look for love in any way possible. From social media, to finding someone within a dream, the ways in which these characters search for joy becomes both limitless and overwhelming. With wry abandon and a beguiling heart, Everything Is Awful is a deadpan, tragicomic exploration of love, desire, and dysfunction in the twenty-first century.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  5. Gone
    by Min Kym
    Crown
    Apr 25, 2017
    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs
    Hardback
    Gone
    by Min Kym
    Crown
    Apr 25, 2017
    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs
    Hardback
    The spellbinding memoir of a violin virtuoso who loses the instrument that had defined her both on stage and off -- and who discovers, beyond the violin, the music of her own voice

    Her first violin was tiny, harsh, factory-made; her first piece was “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.” But from the very beginning, Min Kym knew that music was the element in which she could swim and dive and soar. At seven years old, she was a prodigy, the youngest ever student at the famed Purcell School. At eleven, she won her first international prize; at eighteen, violinist great Ruggiero Ricci called her “the most talented violinist I’ve ever taught.” And at twenty-one, she found “the one,” the violin she would play as a soloist: a rare 1696 Stradivarius. Her career took off. She recorded the Brahms concerto and a world tour was planned.

    Then, in a London café, her violin was stolen. She felt as though she had lost her soulmate, and with it her sense of who she was. Overnight she became unable to play or function, stunned into silence.

    In this lucid and transfixing memoir, Kym reckons with the space left by her violin’s absence. She sees with new eyes her past as a child prodigy, with its isolation and crushing expectations; her combustible relationships with teachers and with a domineering boyfriend; and her navigation of two very different worlds, her traditional Korean family and her music. And in the stark yet clarifying light of her loss, she rediscovers her voice and herself.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  6. This Accident of Being Lost
    by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Canada
    Astoria
    Apr 08, 2017
    FICTION / Short Stories
    Paperback / softback
    This Accident of Being Lost
    by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Canada
    Astoria
    Apr 08, 2017
    FICTION / Short Stories
    Paperback / softback

    A knife-sharp new collection of stories and songs from award-winning Nishnaabeg storyteller and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson that rebirths a decolonized reality, one that circles in and out of time and resists dominant narratives or comfortable categorization.

    This Accident of Being Lost is the knife-sharp new collection of stories and songs from award-winning Nishnaabeg storyteller and writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. These visionary pieces build upon Simpson's powerful use of the fragment as a tool for intervention in her critically acclaimed collection Islands of Decolonial Love.

    A crow watches over a deer addicted to road salt; Lake Ontario floods Toronto to remake the world while texting “ARE THEY GETTING IT?”; lovers visit the last remaining corner of the boreal forest; three comrades guerrilla-tap maples in an upper middle-class neighbourhood; and Kwe gets her firearms license in rural Ontario. Blending elements of Nishnaabeg storytelling, science fiction, contemporary realism, and the lyric voice, This Accident of Being Lost burns with a quiet intensity, like a campfire in your backyard, challenging you to reconsider the world you thought you knew.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  7. The Golden Legend
    by Nadeem Aslam
    Knopf
    Apr 18, 2017
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback
    The Golden Legend
    by Nadeem Aslam
    Knopf
    Apr 18, 2017
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback
    A brave, timely, searingly beautiful novel from the acclaimed author of The Blind Man's Garden: set in contemporary Pakistan, the story of a Muslim widow and her Christian neighbors whose community is consumed by violent religious intolerance

    When shots ring out on the Grand Trunk Road, Nargis's life begins to crumble around her. Her husband, Massud--a fellow architect--is caught in the cross fire and dies before she can confess her greatest secret to him. Now under threat from a powerful military intelligence officer, who demands that she pardon her husband's American killer, Nargis fears that the truth about her past will soon be exposed. For weeks someone has been broadcasting people's secrets from the minaret of the local mosque, and, in a country where even the accusation of blasphemy is a currency to be bartered, the mysterious broadcasts have struck fear in Christians and Muslims alike. When the loudspeakers reveal a forbidden romance between a Muslim cleric's daughter and Nargis's Christian neighbor, Nargis finds herself trapped in the center of the chaos tearing their community apart. In his characteristically luminous prose, Nadeem Aslam has given us a lionhearted novel that reflects Pakistan's past and present in a single mirror, a story of corruption, resilience, and the disguises that are sometimes necessary for survival--a revelatory portrait of the human spirit.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  8. Killers of the Flower Moon
    by David Grann
    Doubleday
    Apr 18, 2017
    TRUE CRIME / Murder / General
    Hardback
    Killers of the Flower Moon
    by David Grann
    Doubleday
    Apr 18, 2017
    TRUE CRIME / Murder / General
    Hardback
    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, “one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."—New York Magazine • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NOW A MARTIN SCORSESE PICTURE

    “A shocking whodunit…What more could fans of true-crime thrillers ask?”—USA Today


    “A masterful work of literary journalism crafted with the urgency of a mystery.” —The Boston Globe

    In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

    Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.

    As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

    Look for David Grann’s latest bestselling book, The Wager!
    View this title on BNC CataList
  9. I Love My Computer Because My Friends Live in It
    by Jess Kimball Leslie
    Running Press Adult
    Apr 25, 2017
    HUMOR / Form / Essays
    Paperback / softback
    I Love My Computer Because My Friends Live in It
    by Jess Kimball Leslie
    Running Press Adult
    Apr 25, 2017
    HUMOR / Form / Essays
    Paperback / softback
    "Get off your phone and read Jess Kimball Leslie's funny book!"
    -- Andy Cohen, host of Bravo's Watch What Happens LiveI

    Love My Computer Because My Friends Live in it is a hilarious memoir of growing up in the early days of the Internet and celebrating technology's role in our lives.


    Coming of age in suburban Connecticut in the late '80s and early '90s, Jess Kimball Leslie looked to the nascent Internet to find the tribes she couldn't find IRL: fellow Bette Midler fans; women who seemed impossibly sure of their sexuality; interns trudging through similarly soul-crushing media jobs. Through effortlessly comedic storytelling and looks at tech through the ages (with photos!), Jess takes you on a journey through the hilarious times that technology and the Internet changed her life.

    From accounts of the lawless chat rooms of early AOL to the perpetual high school reunions that are modern-day Facebook and Instagram, Jess's essays paint a clear picture: That each of us has a much more twisted, meaningful, emotional relationship with the online world than we realize or let on.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  10. Death in a Darkening Mist
    by Iona Whishaw Canada
    TouchWood Editions
    Apr 11, 2017
    FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Historical
    Paperback / softback
    Death in a Darkening Mist
    by Iona Whishaw Canada
    TouchWood Editions
    Apr 11, 2017
    FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Historical
    Paperback / softback

    The second instalment in the Lane Winslow mystery series; for fans of the Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford series.

    On a snowy day in December 1946, Lane Winslow—a former British intelligence agent who’s escaped to the rural Canadian community of King’s Cove in pursuit of a tranquil life—is introduced to the local hot springs. While there she overhears nearby patrons speaking Russian. When one of those patrons is found dead in the change room, Lane’s linguistic and intelligence experience is of immeasurable value to the local police force in solving the murder.

    The investigation points to the Soviet Union, where Stalin’s purges are eliminating enemies, and the reach of Stalin’s agent snakes all the way into a harmless Doukhobor community. Winslow’s complicated relationship with the local police inspector, Darling, is intensified by the perils of the case—and by the discovery of her own father’s death during the war.

    The case comes to a frantic and shocking end with a perilous nighttime journey along treacherous snow-covered roads.

    “Iona Whishaw is an exciting addition to Canada’s fine roster of mystery writers. I’m already planning to read [Killer in King’s Cove] again, and this time I’ll read the teaser for Whishaw’s next novel provided at the end. A debut mystery by an author destined for awards.” –Don Graves, Canadian Mystery Reviews blog

    View this title on BNC CataList

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