Book Spotlight: Daughter of the King

Daughter of the King: Growing Up in Gangland
 by Sandra Lansky and William Stadiem

 
Sandi Lansky Lombardo grew up the only daughter of Meyer Lansky. Lansky known as the “Mobs Accountant” developed a gambling empire which stretched from Las Vegas, to Cuba and the Bahamas to London.  For decades he was thought to be one of the most powerful individuals in the country. 

Sandi was raised in upper-class Jewish splendor, first at the Majestic Hotel and then at the Beresford, she attended at finishing schools and fancy stables. She partied till dawn at El Morocco and the Stork Club and was the Paris Hilton of her day, dating the biggest celebrities of the era. Her life was not without heartbreak and tragedy, including the insanity of her mother, and the crippling handicap of her baby brother.

Tyson

 

Book Spotlight: Red Rising

Red Rising
 by Pierce Brown

  A new adult novel set in a dystopian society for readers who liked The Hunger Games and Divergent. Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. 

Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow and Reds like him, are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class. 

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power.He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies, even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

Tyson

Book Spotlight: Trapped Under the Sea

Trapped under the Sea: One Engineering Marvel Five Men, and a Disaster Ten Miles into the Darkness
 
by Neil Swidey

The harrowing story of five men who were sent into a dark, airless, miles-long tunnel, hundreds of feet below the ocean, to do a nearly impossible job with deadly results. Twenty five years ago, Boston had the dirtiest harbor in America. The city had been dumping sewage into it for generations, coating the seafloor with a layer of "black mayonnaise." Fisheries collapsed, wildlife fled, and locals referred to floating tampon applicators as "beach whistles.

 In the 1990s, work began on a state-of-the-art treatment plant and a 10-mile-long tunnel,its endpoint stretching farther from civilization than the earth's deepest ocean trench, to carry waste out of the harbor. With this impressive feat of engineering, Boston was poised to show the country how to rebound from environmental ruin. But when bad decisions and clashing corporations endangered the project, a team of commercial divers was sent on a perilous mission to rescue the stymied cleanup effort. 

   What is the true cost of these large-scale construction projects, as designers and builders, emboldened by new technology and pressured to address a growing population's rapacious needs, push the limits of the possible? This is a story about human risk how it is calculated, discounted, and transferred and the institutional failures that can lead to catastrophe.  

Tyson

New Mystery and Fiction for April

What's coming out in Mystery and Fiction for April?  Here are a few titles:

Destroyer Angel: An Anna Pigeon Novel by Nevada Barr
A vacation trip to the Iron Range in Minnesota goes wrong and US Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is on the case.

To Dwell in Darkness by Deborah Crombie
Married London detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are off on another case.  This time there's been a deadly bombing at a London train station.

Death on Blackheath: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel by Anne Perry
Another Victorian era historical mystery from Anne Perry.  Thomas Pitt, commander of the Special Branch, investigates a murder case which may put national security at risk.

Keep Quiet by Lisa Scottoline
A man makes a split-second decision to protect his son and serious consequences follow.

hoopla is Here!

hoopla's Here!!!

 

 

                   

          

 Why are we so excited?

Beginning this month, Wellesley Free Library Card holders will have access to thousands of movies (at least 2 years old), television shows, music  

albums and audiobooks -- all available for mobile and online access -- through hoopla. 


You may stream on your computer or use the hoopla app to view and listen on your phone or tablet.  AND most importantly, there is no waiting.  The titles are ALWAYS available!  
 

 It's easy to do:

• Have your Wellesley Library Card out and sign up at http://www.hoopladigital.com

• If you are using a mobile device (phone, tablet, etc.) download the app at the bottom of the hoopla page or from the Apple App Store or Google play Store.  (If you are using a computer, the file will simply stream so no need for an app).

• Log in to Hoopla on your mobile device or PC

• Browse, borrow, and enjoy 5 digital videos, music or audiobooks per library card each month.

• Borrowed titles will be automatically returned when your lending period is over. 

Lending Periods are:

• Movies and TV content are available for 72 hours (3 days)
• Music albums are available for 7 days
• Audiobooks are available for 21 days

For more information and assistance, visit the library, sign up for the class on March 25th, or simply stop by an Open Lab (Mondays 1 PM to 4 PM and Tuesdays 6 PM to 8 PM)

Have fun and tell us how you like hoopla ! 

SH

  

Book Spotlight: The Sixth Extinction

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
by Elizabeth Kolbert

Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. Except this time around, the culprit is not an asteroid, it is us.

In The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino.

Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human. A powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes. 
 

Tyson