Popular Reading Collection - Health Sciences Libraries: PRC - VetMed Library

Title: 22 Seconds

Authors: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Summary - "22 seconds...until Lindsay Boxer loses her badge--or her life. SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer has guns on her mind. There's buzz of a last-ditch shipment of drugs and weapons crossing the Mexican border ahead of new restrictive gun laws. Before Lindsay can act, her top informant tips her to a case that hits disturbingly close to home. Former cops. Professional hits. All with the same warning scrawled on their bodies: You talk, you die. Now it's Lindsay's turn to choose"-- Publisher's website.

Title: Burn it down: power, complicity, and a call for change in Hollywood

Author: Maureen Ryan

Summary - "An exposé of patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood, the grassroots reforms underway, and the labor and activist revolutions that recent scandals have ignited"-- Provided by publisher."Abuse and exploitation of workers are baked into the very foundations of the entertainment industry. To break the cycle and make a change that sticks, it's important to stop looking at headline-making stories as individual events. Instead, one must look closely at the bigger picture, to see how abusers are created, fed, rewarded, allowed to persist, and, with the right tools, how they can be excised. In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that. She draws on decades of experience to connect the dots and illuminate the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood's corrosive culture. Fresh reporting sheds light on problematic situations at companies like Lucasfilm and shows like Lost, Saturday Night Live, The Goldbergs, Sleepy Hollow, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and more. Interviews with actors and famous creatives like Evan Rachel Wood, Harold Perrineau, Damon Lindelof, and Orlando Jones abound. Ryan dismantles, one by one, the myths that the entertainment industry promotes about itself, which have allowed abusers to thrive and the industry to avoid accountability--myths about Hollywood as a meritocracy, what it takes to be creative, the value of human dignity, and more." -- Amazon.com.

Title: Drunk on Love

Authors: Jasmine Guillory

Summary - "Margot Noble needs some relief from the stress of running the family winery with her brother. Enter Luke: sexy, charming, and best of all in the too-small world of Napa, a stranger. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and Margot is delighted that she lucked into the perfect one-night stand she'll never have to see again. That is until the winery's newest hire, Luke, walks in the next morning." -- Provided by publisher.

Title: Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster

Author: Andrea Mosqueda

Summary - As her little sister's quinceañera approaches, Maggie Gonzalez has a brilliant plan to solve the dilemma of which crush she will choose to be her official escort: bff, ex-bf, or new girl. When it causes chaos instead of calm, however, she has to consider that diving right into the disaster may be the best way out.

Title: Seeing gender: an illustrated guide to identity and expression

Author: Iris Gottlieb

Summary - Seeing Gender is an of-the-moment investigation into how we express and understand the complexities of gender today. Deeply researched and fully illustrated, this book demystifies an intensely personal--yet universal--facet of humanity. Illustrating a different concept on each spread, queer author and artist Iris Gottlieb touches on history, science, sociology, and her own experience. This book is an essential tool for understanding and contributing to a necessary cultural conversation, bringing clarity and reassurance to the sometimes confusing process of navigating ones' identity. Whether LGBTQ+, cisgender, or nonbinary, Seeing Gender is a must-read for intelligent, curious, want-to-be woke people who care about how we see and talk about gender and sexuality in the 21st century.

Title: Sex cult nun : Breaking Away from the Children of God, a wild, radical religious cult

Author: Faith Jones

Summary: In a story of liberation and self-empowerment, the author shares her hauntingly intimate coming-of-age narrative of growing up in and escaping from the Children of God, an oppressive, extremist religious cult. Growing up on an isolated farm in Macau, Jones was raised to be part a religious army preparing for the End Times. Thousands of members strong, the cult followers of the Children of God looked to her grandfather as their guiding light. Over decades the Children of God became notorious for its alarming sex practices and allegations of abuse and exploitation. When Jones broke away, at age twenty-three, she left behind everything she knew to forge her own path in America. Her memoir reflects our societal norms of oppression and abuse while providing an exploration of spiritual manipulation and our rights in our bodies. -- adapted from jacket

Title: Six Crimson Cranes

Author: Elizabeth Lim

Summary: The exiled Princess Shiori must unravel the curse that turned her six brothers into cranes, and she is assisted by her spurned betrothed, a capricious dragon, and a paper bird brought to life by her own magic.Shiori, princess of Kiata, has a secret: Forbidden magic runs through her veins. On the morning of her betrothal ceremony, she loses control, and it forestalls the wedding she never wanted-- but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother. Using a dark magic of her own, Raikama banishes the princess, turns her brothers into cranes, and warns Shiori that with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die. Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers-- and uncovers a conspiracy to overtake the throne. Now she must embrace the magic she's been taught all her life to contain. -- adapted from jacket

Title: The Foxglove King

Author: Hannah Whitten

Summary: "When Lore was thirteen, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. And in the ten years since, she's lived by one rule: don't let them find you. Easier said than done, when her death magic ties her to the city. Mortem, the magic born from death, is a high-priced and illicit commodity in Dellaire, and Lore's job running poisons keeps her in food, shelter, and relative security. But when a run goes wrong and Lore's power is revealed, she's taken by the Presque Mort, a group of warrior-monks sanctioned to use Mortem working for the Sainted King. Lore fully expects a pyre, but King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what's happening and who in the King's court is responsible, or die. Lore is thrust into the Sainted King's glittering court, where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted. Guarded by Gabriel, a duke-turned-monk, and continually running up against Bastian, August's ne'er-do-well heir, Lore tangles in politics, religion, and forbidden romance as she attempts to navigate a debauched and opulent society. But the life she left behind in the catacombs is catching up with her. And even as Lore makes her way through the Sainted court above, they might be drawing closer than she thinks"-- Provided by publisher.

Title: The inheritance of Orquídea Divina: a novel

Author: Zoraida Cordova

Summary: "Perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Isabel Allende, and Sarah Addison Allen, this is a gorgeously written novel about a family searching for the truth hidden in their past and the power they've inherited, from the author of the acclaimed and "giddily exciting" (The New York Times Book Review) Brooklyn Brujas series"-- Provided by publisher. The stars have shifted. The earth has turned. The time is here. I am dying. Come and collect your inheritance. The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won't ever leave their home in Four Rivers--not for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held on to so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed into a ceiba tree, her limbs stretching into roots and branches, leaving them with more questions than answers. Seven years later, her gifts have manifested in different ways for Marimar, Rey, and Rhiannon, granting them unexpected blessings and powers. But soon, a hidden figure begins to tear through their family tree, picking them off one by one as it seeks to destroy Orquídea's line. Determined to save what's left of their family and uncover the truth behind their inheritance, her descendants travel to Ecuador--to the place where Orquídea buried her secrets and broken promises and never looked back. -- From dust

Title: The ones who don't say they love you: stories

Author: Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Summary: "Maurice Carlos Ruffin has an uncanny ability to create spaces. These perspectival, character-driven stories center on the margins and are deeply rooted in New Orleanian culture. In "Beg Borrow Steal," a boy relishes time spent helping his father find work after just coming home from prison; in "Ghetto University," a couple who have been struggling financially turn to crime after hitting rock bottom; in "Before I Let You Go," a woman who's been in NOLA for generations fights to keep her home; in "Fast hands, Fast Feet," an army vet and a runaway teen find companionship while sleeping under a bridge; in "Mercury Forges," a flash fiction piece among several in the collection, a group of men hurriedly make their way to a home where an elderly gentleman lives, trying to reach him before the water from Hurricane Katrina does; and in the title story, a young man works the street corners of the French Quarter, trying to achieve a freedom not meant for him"-- Provided by publisher

Title: The School for Good Mothers: a novel

Author: Jessamine Chan

Summary: "Set in near-future America, 'The School for Good Mothers' introduces readers to a government-run reform program where bad mothers are retrained using robot doll children with artificial intelligence. Protagonist Frida Liu, a 39-year-old Chinese-American single mother in Philadelphia, loses custody of her 18-month-old daughter, Harriet, after she leaves Harriet home alone for two hours on one very bad day. To regain custody, Frida must spend a year at a newly-created institution, where she practices parenting with bad mothers from all over the county. There, she learns to love an uncannily life-like toddler girl doll in order to demonstrate her maternal instincts and prove to her family court judge that she deserves a second chance. Frida is an outsider in every way: better educated, more affluent, and the only Asian. The mothers, whose transgressions range from benign to horrific, are under constant surveillance. If they don't pass all the school's tests, their parental rights will be terminated. Inspired by dystopian classics such as '1984', 'Never let me go', and 'The handmaid's tale', the novel eviscerates the dominant American parenting culture, while highlighting the tragedy of state-sponsored family separation. Is there one right way to mother? Can a bad mother ever be redeemed? With warmth, heart, and dark humor, the novel tells a timeless story of a mother fighting to win back her child, and her struggle to hold onto her integrity while being indoctrinated."-- Provided by publisher.

Title: The Sea Elephants

Author: Shastri Akella

Summary: "For fans of Shuggie Bain and A Burning, a queer coming-of-age novel set in 1990s India, about a young man who joins a traveling theater troupe. Shagun knows he will never be the kind of son his father demands. After the sudden deaths of his beloved twin sisters, Shagun flees his own guilt, his mother's grief, and his father's violent disapproval by enrolling at an all-boys boarding school. But he doesn't find true belonging until he encounters a traveling theater troupe performing the Hindu myths of his childhood. Welcomed by the other storytellers, Shagun thrives, easily embodying mortals and gods, men and women, and living on the road, where his father can't catch him. When Shagun meets Marc, a charming photographer, he seems to have found the love he always longed for, too. But not even Marc can save him from his lingering shame, nor his father's ever-present threat to send him to a conversion center. As Shagun's past begins to engulf him once again, he must decide if he is strong enough to face what he fears most and to boldly claim his own happiness. Utterly immersive and spellbinding, The Sea Elephants is both dark and beautiful, harrowing and triumphant. An ode to the redemptive joys of art, Shastri Akella's debut novel is a celebration of hard-won love--of others and for ourselves"-- Provided by the publisher.

Title: Transcendent kingdom

Author: Yaa Gyasi

Summary: "A novel about faith, science, religion, and family that tells the deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression addiction, and grief, narrated by a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford school of Medicine studying the neural circuits of reward-seeking behavior in mice"--Provided by publisher. Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. Even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith, and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised.-- adapted from jacket

Title: You're not supposed to die tonight

Author: Kalynn Bayron

Summary: "Charity has the summer job of her dreams, playing the "final girl" at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. The more realistic the fear, the better for business. But on the last weekend of the season, Charity's co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity's role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. If Charity and her girlfriend, Bezi, hope to survive the night, they'll need figure out what this killer is after. As they unravel the bloody history of the real Mirror Lake, Charity discovers that there may be more to the story than she ever suspected..."-- Dust jacket flap

Title: Zero days

Author: Ruth Ware

Summary: "Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect--her. Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer in this unputdownable and heart-pounding mystery from an author whose "propulsive prose keeps readers on the hook and refuses to let anyone off until all has been revealed" (Shelf Awareness)"-- Provided by publisher