December 2020 Adult Top 10 Picks

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  1. Relax, Dammit!
    by Timothy Caulfield Canada
    Allen Lane
    Dec 01, 2020
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture
    Hardback
    Relax, Dammit!
    by Timothy Caulfield Canada
    Allen Lane
    Dec 01, 2020
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture
    Hardback
    WINNER of the 2021 Science Writers and Communicators of Canada Book Award

    WINNER of the 2021 Alberta Literary Awards' Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction

    "Will vaccinate you against misinformation!"--Dr. Jen Gunter, renowned gynecologist and author of The Vagina Bible

    An entertaining and practical guide to getting through the day with less stress and better health, from the host of the hit TV series A User's Guide to Cheating Death.

    We make a ridiculous number of decisions every day--possibly even thousands. We make decisions about when to wake up, how to brush our teeth, what to have for breakfast, how to get our kids to school, the amount of coffee to drink, and on and on.

    Making so many decisions is tough. It can cause stock analysts to perform progressively worse over the course of a day. It can lead us to make poor decisions about the food we eat--the more brain fatigue we experience, the more junk food we consume. And the more deliberate the decision--that is, the more we need to think about it--the more fatiguing the process. There are many social forces at work that make how and what we choose an unnecessarily anxious process. But it doesn't have to be.

    In Relax, Dammit!, health policy expert Timothy Caulfield takes us through a regular day--from the moment we wake up to when we go to sleep--and shows the underlying science behind our actions and habits. What he reveals is that we make decisions that are based, to a lesser or greater extent, on misinformation. Whether he's studying cell phone use, bike commuting, or raw-milk cheese consumption, Caulfield shows that many of the things we believe to be healthier, safer, or just better, simply aren't. With solid grounding in current and reliable scientific findings, the author points to a less stressful way forward--which means we can all afford to relax a lot more.

    Insightful, sometimes controversial, and always entertaining, Relax, Dammit! is a surprising and liberating guide to modern life.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  2. The Dark Archive
    by Genevieve Cogman
    Ace
    Dec 29, 2020
    FICTION / Science Fiction / Time Travel
    Paperback / softback
    The Dark Archive
    by Genevieve Cogman
    Ace
    Dec 29, 2020
    FICTION / Science Fiction / Time Travel
    Paperback / softback
    A professional spy for a mysterious Library which harvests fiction from different realities, Irene faces a series of assassination attempts that threaten to destroy her and everything she has worked for.

    Irene is teaching her new assistant the fundamentals of a Librarian's job, and finding that training a young Fae is more difficult than she expected. But when they're the targets of kidnapping and assassination attempts, she decides that learning by doing is the only option they have left ...

    In order to protect themselves, Irene and her friends must do what they do best: search for information to defeat the overwhelming threat they face and identify their unseen enemy. To do that, Irene will have to delve deeper into her own history than she ever has before, face an ancient foe, and uncover secrets that will change her life and the course of the Library forever.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  3. Lazarus
    by Lars Kepler
    McClelland & Stewart
    Dec 01, 2020
    FICTION / Crime
    Paperback / softback
    Lazarus
    by Lars Kepler
    McClelland & Stewart
    Dec 01, 2020
    FICTION / Crime
    Paperback / softback
    INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
    15 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE

    The seventh gripping thriller in Lars Kepler's bestselling series featuring Joona Linna.


    Sweden's most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, was shot and killed years ago. The police moved on and managed to forget the darkness that had tainted their lives.

    Now, a mysterious killer is brutally murdering Europe's most loathsome criminals. When police discover that two of the victims have connections to Detective Joona Linna, it's clear that somebody is trying to send him a message. As the body count rises, the evidence seems to point to a ghost from Joona's past . . . the most terrifying villain he's ever had to face.

    Joona is convinced that his worst nightmare is about to become a reality: Jurek Walter, the man who tore apart his family, has returned to finish the job.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  4. Red Hands
    by Christopher Golden
    St. Martin's Press
    Dec 08, 2020
    FICTION / Thrillers / Supernatural
    Hardback
    Red Hands
    by Christopher Golden
    St. Martin's Press
    Dec 08, 2020
    FICTION / Thrillers / Supernatural
    Hardback

    In bestselling author Christopher Golden's supernatural thriller Red Hands, sometimes a story is a warning. Sometimes the warning comes too late

    When a mysterious and devastating bioweapon causes its victims to develop Red Hands, the touch of death, weird science expert Ben Walker is called to investigate.

    A car plows through the crowd at a July 4th parade. The driver climbs out, sick and stumbling, reaching out…and everyone he touches drops dead within seconds. Maeve Sinclair watches in horror as people she loves begin to die and she knows she must take action. But in the aftermath of this terror, it’s Maeve who possesses that killing touch. Fleeing into the mountains, struggling with her own grief and confusion, Maeve faces the dawning realization that she will never be able to touch another human being again.

    "Weird s**t expert” Ben Walker is surprised to get a call from Alena Boudreau, director of the newly restructured Global Science Research Coalition. There’s an upheaval in the organization and she needs to send someone she can trust to Jericho Falls. Whoever finds Maeve Sinclair first will unravel the mystery of her death touch, and many are willing to kill her for that secret.

    Walker’s assignment is to get her off the mountain alive. But as Maeve searches for a hiding place, hunted and growing sicker by the moment, she begins to hear an insidious voice in her head, and the yearning, the need… the hunger to touch another human being continues to grow. When Walker and Maeve meet at last, they will unravel a stunning legacy of death and betrayal, and a malignant secret as old as history.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  5. Mediocre
    by Ijeoma Oluo
    Seal Press
    Dec 01, 2020
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination
    Hardback
    Mediocre
    by Ijeoma Oluo
    Seal Press
    Dec 01, 2020
    SOCIAL SCIENCE / Discrimination
    Hardback
    From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race, an “illuminating” (New York Times Book Review) history of white male identity.

    What happens to a country that tells generation after generation of white men that they deserve power? What happens when success is defined by status over women and people of color, instead of by actual accomplishments?

    Through the last 150 years of American history -- from the post-reconstruction South and the mythic stories of cowboys in the West, to the present-day controversy over NFL protests and the backlash against the rise of women in politics -- Ijeoma Oluo exposes the devastating consequences of white male supremacy on women, people of color, and white men themselves. Mediocre investigates the real costs of this phenomenon in order to imagine a new white male identity, one free from racism and sexism.

    As provocative as it is essential, this book will upend everything you thought you knew about American identity and offers a bold new vision of American greatness.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  6. The Last Days of John Lennon
    by James Patterson
    Little, Brown and Company
    Dec 07, 2020
    TRUE CRIME / Murder / General
    Hardback
    The Last Days of John Lennon
    by James Patterson
    Little, Brown and Company
    Dec 07, 2020
    TRUE CRIME / Murder / General
    Hardback

    Discover one of the greatest true crime stories in music history, as only James Patterson can tell it.

    With the Beatles, John Lennon surpasses his youthful dreams, achieving a level of superstardom that defies classification. “We were the best bloody band there was,” he says. “There was nobody to touch us.” Nobody except the original nowhere man, Mark David Chapman. Chapman once worshipped his idols from afar—but now harbors grudges against those, like Lennon, whom he feels betrayed him. He’s convinced Lennon has misled fans with his message of hope and peace. And Chapman’s not staying away any longer.

    By the summer of 1980, Lennon is recording new music for the first time in years, energized and ready for it to be “(Just Like) Starting Over.” He can’t wait to show the world what he will do.

    Neither can Chapman, who quits his security job and boards a flight to New York, a handgun and bullets stowed in his luggage.

    The greatest true-crime story in music history, as only James Patterson can tell it. Enriched by exclusive interviews with Lennon’s friends and associates, including Paul McCartney, The Last Days of John Lennon is the thrilling true story of two men who changed history: One whose indelible songs enliven our world to this day—and the other who ended the beautiful music with five pulls of a trigger.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  7. Perestroika in Paris
    by Jane Smiley
    Knopf
    Dec 01, 2020
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback
    Perestroika in Paris
    by Jane Smiley
    Knopf
    Dec 01, 2020
    FICTION / Literary
    Hardback
    NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animalsand a young boywhose lives intersect in Paris in this "feel-good escape” (The New York Times).

    Paras, short for "Perestroika," is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon at dusk, she finds the door of her stall open andshe's a curious fillywanders all the way to the City of Light. She's dazzled and often mystified by the sights, sounds, and smells around her, but she isn't afraid.

    Soon she meets an elegant dog, a German shorthaired pointer named Frida, who knows how to get by without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians. Paras and Frida coexist for a time in the city's lush green spaces, nourished by Frida's strategic trips to the vegetable market. They keep company with two irrepressible ducks and an opinionated raven. But then Paras meets a human boy, Etienne, and discovers a new, otherworldly part of Paris: the ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly-one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother live in seclusion.

    As the cold weather nears, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom. But how long can a runaway horse stay undiscovered in Paris? How long can a boy keep her hidden and all to himself? Jane Smiley's beguiling new novel is itself an adventure that celebrates curiosity, ingenuity, and the desire of all creatures for true love and freedom.
    View this title on BNC CataList
  8. The Blade Between
    by Sam J. Miller
    Ecco
    Dec 01, 2020
    Hardback
    The Blade Between
    by Sam J. Miller
    Ecco
    Dec 01, 2020
    Hardback

    A Recommended Book from CrimeReads and Alma

    From Nebula Award winner Sam J. Miller comes a frightening and uncanny ghost story about a rapidly changing city in upstate New York and the mysterious forces that threaten it.

    Ronan Szepessy promised himself he’d never return to Hudson. The sleepy upstate town was no place for a restless gay photographer. But his father is ill and New York City’s distractions have become too much for him. He hopes that a quick visit will help him recharge.


    Ronan reconnects with two friends from high school: Dom, his first love, and Dom’s wife, Attalah. The three former misfits mourn what their town has become—overrun by gentrifiers and corporate interests. With friends and neighbors getting evicted en masse and a mayoral election coming up, Ronan and Attalah craft a plan to rattle the newcomers and expose their true motives. But in doing so, they unleash something far more mysterious and uncontainable.


    Hudson has a rich, proud history and, it turns out, the real-state developers aren’t the only forces threatening its well-being: the spirits undergirding this once-thriving industrial town are enraged. Ronan’s hijinks have overlapped with a bubbling up of hate and violence among friends and neighbors, and everything is spiraling out of control. Ronan must summon the very best of himself to shed his own demons and save the city he once loathed.

    View this title on BNC CataList
  9. The Wrong Family
    by Tarryn Fisher
    Graydon House
    Dec 29, 2020
    FICTION / Thrillers / Domestic
    Hardback
    The Wrong Family
    by Tarryn Fisher
    Graydon House
    Dec 29, 2020
    FICTION / Thrillers / Domestic
    Hardback
    From the #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Never Never, co-written with Colleen Hoover!

    From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Wives comes another twisted psychological thriller guaranteed to turn your world upside down—an instant bestseller!

    Have you ever been wrong about someone?

    Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch.

    Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage, the perfect son—the perfect life. Only now that she’s living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore.

    Still, she isn’t one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno overhears a chilling conversation between Winnie and Nigel…

    She shouldn’t get involved.

    She really shouldn’t.

    But this could be her chance to make a few things right.

    Because if you thought Juno didn’t have a secret of her own, then you were wrong about her, too.

    From the wickedly dark mind of bestselling author Tarryn Fisher, The Wrong Family is a taut new thriller that’s riddled with twists in all the right places.

    The Wrong Family is your new obsession. It’s full of twists you’ll never see coming and you’ll be breathless until the end. Trust me: you’ve never read anything like this.”—Colleen Hoover, #1 New York Times bestselling author

    How far will one twin go to uncover where her “good half” has gone? Find out in Good Half Gone, #1 New York Times Bestselling author Tarryn Fisher’s next twisty psychological thriller!


    Looking for more captivating reads by Tarryn Fisher? Don't miss:
    • Never Never
    • The Wives
    • An Honest Lie

    View this title on BNC CataList
  10. Layla
    by Colleen Hoover
    Montlake
    Dec 08, 2020
    FICTION / Romance / Contemporary
    Paperback / softback
    Layla
    by Colleen Hoover
    Montlake
    Dec 08, 2020
    FICTION / Romance / Contemporary
    Paperback / softback

    A Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller.

    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love.

    When Leeds meets Layla, he’s convinced he’ll spend the rest of his life with her—until an unexpected attack leaves Layla fighting for her life. After weeks in the hospital, Layla recovers physically, but the emotional and mental scarring has altered the woman Leeds fell in love with. In order to put their relationship back on track, Leeds whisks Layla away to the bed-and-breakfast where they first met. Once they arrive, Layla’s behavior takes a bizarre turn. And that’s just one of many inexplicable occurrences.

    Feeling distant from Layla, Leeds soon finds solace in Willow—another guest of the B&B with whom he forms a connection through their shared concerns. As his curiosity for Willow grows, his decision to help her find answers puts him in direct conflict with Layla’s well-being. Leeds soon realizes he has to make a choice because he can’t help both of them. But if he makes the wrong choice, it could be detrimental for all of them.

    View this title on BNC CataList

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