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Arc of a Scythe Series

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Arc of a Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Teens, Adults

In a distant future, disease, hunger, and war are things of the past – humanity has conquered death. A benevolent AI called the Thunderhead holds all human knowledge, watches over the population (literally), prevents crime, alerts the ambu-drones in case of accidental ‘death’ (leaving a person ‘deadish,’ which is reversible), and generally prevents poverty and other issues in society. Scythes have taken on the responsibility of culling the population to sustainable levels. If killed by a Scythe, death is permanent. The only area in which the Thunderhead does not intervene is Scythe business.

Teenagers Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a Scythe. They are trained to glean compassionately. But there is a new order of Scythes in the Scythedom – those who take pleasure in killing and don’t appreciate the restrictions placed on them. The conflict between the traditional Scythes and the new order follows Citra and Rowan throughout the trilogy. The dichotomy between the Scythedom and the Thunderhead is an important angle to the story as well. Another teenager, Grayson, becomes an important part of the Thunderhead’s story in the second book.

Citra, Rowan, and Grayson travel around the world over the course of the trilogy, leading to a final confrontation in the Land of Nod between the old order and the new, and the Thunderhead and Scythedom.

For fans of Shusterman’s Unwind and Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies, or anyone who enjoys a good trilogy (all three books have been released – no waiting years for the next installment)!

Series Order:
Book 1: Scythe
Book 2: Thunderhead
Book 3: The Toll

Find all the books in the catalog.

The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: An Oral History

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The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: An Oral History by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman
Format: Audiobook, Book
Who it’s for: Adults

You may know Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman from their roles on Will and Grace and Parks and Recreation, but did you know they’ve been married for 18 years? In The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, the pair covers any and every subject, from books to puzzles to fashion to dating to Hollywood. They talk about their very different childhoods and the paths that led them to acting and to each other. These are two funny people, so there are lots of laugh out loud moments and improvisations. 

This is a book to be listened to. The print version just can’t replicate the quirky, quick conversation between this celebrity couple. There are impromptu jokes and asides and the two finish each other’s sentences frequently. The print book does contain a selection of photos of the two which you can’t see with the audio version, but Mullally and Offerman do an excellent job of describing these photos to their listeners.

If you’ve enjoyed Nick Offerman’s other books, or other memoirs from Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, or Mindy Kaling, you might enjoy The Greatest Love Story Ever Told. Just make sure to get the audio version!

Find it in the catalog.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes

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The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith
Who it’s for: Adults
Format: Book, eBooks, Audiobook on CD, eAudio

Scandi-noir is big these days – Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbo, and Peter Hoeg are just a few of the authors known for this crime fiction genre set in any one of the Nordic countries. Scandi-noir is known for being dark, moody, and often grisly. Alexander McCall Smith’s newest series about a Swedish police department assigned to investigate crimes that are a bit too quirky for the rest of the police force is a bit of a different take on the genre. The series deals with crime in a Nordic country, but it lacks the bleakness typically associated with Scandi-noir. McCall Smith refers to it as “Scandi-blanc,” defined as “Scandinavian crime fiction without much crime and without any bodies.”

The cases the title team takes on are strange, but not so bleak and gory as typical Scandi-noir: a man stabbed in the back of the knee and the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend are just the start. The complicated lives and relationships of Detective Ulf Varg and his team are also explored: Will Ulf and Anna admit their feelings for each other? Will Varg’s deaf dog Martin overcome his depression?

Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will enjoy his familiar writing style, while fans of Scandi-noir might just like this tongue-in-cheek play on the genre.

Do you prefer listening to digital audiobooks? The eAudio version of The Department of Sensitive Crimes is only available through RBdigital, so create an account with your St. Mary’s County Library card and download the app to get started listening!

Find The Department of Sensitive Crimes in the catalog.

Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide

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Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony Horwitz
Format: Book, eBook
Who it’s for: Adults

In the 1850s, Frederick Law Olmsted (future architect of Central Park and many other landscapes and parks) set out on a journey through the American South as a correspondent for the New York Times, writing about his travels under the pseudonym “Yeoman.” Olmsted wrote about the people, places, and cultures he encountered, and later turned his dispatches into three books.

Over 150 years later, Tony Horwitz set out on an Amtrak train to follow Olmsted’s path and document what he found. He traveled through western Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas, meeting locals at bars and restaurants, convenience stores, and shops. Horowitz (who passed away in May, just after the publication of Spying on the South) was an easy conversationalist who made most people he met feel at ease in speaking openly about their political, social, religious, and economic thoughts and beliefs. He boarded a coal barge and rode down the Ohio River, visited former plantations now housing museums or wedding venues, rode a mule through part of Texas with a guide seemingly immune to Horwitz’s charm, and spent time in a Texas border town. 

Horwitz observed an American South much changed from the one Olmsted saw. Once bustling towns are now characterized by deserted storefronts and an area of Texas once populated with free-thinking, anti-slavery Germans is now home to their more commercially minded descendants, but parallels remain. Throughout his journey, Horwitz encountered divisions similar to those recorded by Olmsted in the antebellum South – “extreme polarization, racial strife, demonizing of the other side, embrace of enflamed opinion over dialogue and debate.” Horwitz didn’t disparage or belittle the people he met on his journey, even if he ultimately disagreed with them. Every interaction was characterized by his desire to understand what’s going on in the hearts and minds of the people of a town or city.

Horwitz ultimately felt optimistic about the future. Spying on the South ends with a discussion of his two days spent wandering Central Park, Olmsted’s first urban landscaped park. Olmsted intended his parks to be gathering places that could overcome the barriers thrown up in society. In the park, Horwitz observed people of all races, languages, and socioeconomic statuses enjoying themselves outside of the hustle of New York City. 

Horwitz’s work in general is recommended for those who enjoy travelogues and history. In addition to Spying on the South, he is the author of Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes, A Voyage Long and Strange, and Midnight Rising.

Find Spying on the South in the catalog.

The Lion in the Living Room

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The Lion in the Living Room: How House Cats Tamed Us and Took Over The World by Abigail Tucker
Who it’s for: Adults
Format: Book

What have cats ever done for humans? They don’t provide food, they aren’t pack animals, they don’t protect our homes. So why are there nearly 100 million house cats in the US alone (and almost a billion worldwide)? In this well-researched and fascinating book, Abigail Tucker explores the history of the house cat, an animal that adapted to humans and essentially domesticated itself.

Unlike dogs and other domesticated animals, house cats haven’t physically evolved over the centuries. They are built to survive outdoors on their own, but they can also survive in a small apartment if necessary. They have, however, evolved their behaviors to influence us. Cats share some facial characteristics with human babies (round heads, front-facing eyes, small nose), and they’ve learned to use familiar sounds to get our attention. Many house cats have purrs and meows that sound suspiciously like a baby’s cry.

Tucker also addresses the impact cats have on environments around the world. Cats are hypercarnivorous and they do quite a bit of damage to ecosystems. Over the centuries, cats have been transported to new environments regularly, and they often destroy them by preying on native species. Yet we continue to live side by side with them, watch videos of them online, and follow them on Instagram.

Find The Lion in the Living Room in our catalog.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

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An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults

23-year-old designer April May lives and works in New York City. Leaving work in the middle of the night, she discovers a 10-foot-tall, Transformers-like statue on the sidewalk outside a Chipotle. She calls her friend and they make a video of April interviewing the statue she names Carl. By the next morning, she’s gone viral and Carls have appeared in more than 60 other cities around the world. What follows is a treatise on the nature of celebrity in the age of social media, and a discussion of humanity in a society rife with polarizing rhetoric. April establishes herself as a brand and struggles to maintain her own humanity, while the world tries to figure out what The Carls are, why they’re here, and what they mean for humanity.

There is a science fiction element to this story. The Carls are not your average street art. You’ll want to know how they got here and what their purpose is, but the bigger questions are about today’s society and culture and how fame, the internet, and the 24-hour news cycle impact all of us and our relationships with one another. Ending in a cliffhanger, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing leaves room for a sequel, which Green is reportedly working on.

Find it in the catalog.