Arcadia Public Library

"From the celebrated author of book club favorite The Violin Conspiracy: A gripping page-turner about a professor who uncovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time-that his music was stolen from a young Black composer named Josephine Reed. Determined to uncover the truth and right history's wrongs, Bern Hendricks will stop at nothing to finally give Josephine the recognition she deserves. Bern Hendricks has just received...

It's an incendiary moment for St Oswald's school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls. Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered. Rebecca will bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before.

"A marriage of convenience between a Mexican heiress and a shrewd London politician makes for a scandalous Victorian bargain--and a love that will eclipse the burdens of ambition and duty. Ana María Luna Valdés has strived to be the perfect daughter, the perfect niece, and the perfect representative of the powerful Luna familia. So, when Ana María is secretly sent to London with her sisters to seek refuge during the French occupation of Mexico,...

Leo Painter is the CEO of Earth Global, a large energy, mining, and real-estate development firm. By request of the State Department, he and a party of company executives travel to Botswana. Sekoa is a male lion who shares with many of his bipedal enemies a form of HIV/AIDS. Weakened by the disease, he loses his place as the alpha male in his pride and now, dying and harassed by a pack of hyenas, seeks only a place to rest in peace. Like the lion,...

Aspiring writer Maurice Swift, whose desire for fame exceeds his talent, uses a chance meeting with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann in a West Berlin hotel in 1988 to obtain secrets about Ackermann's wartime activities, which becomes material for his first novel. Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan...

"Molly Bit doesn't believe she's destined for success - she knows it. This certainly helps her get through the countless auditions featuring actors who look and dress just like she does; helps her swallow the indignity of less talented actors landing roles; even helps her endure the industry's aggressive over-sexualizing of young women. When Molly is offered a lead role in a major film, she knows, too, that to seize this opportunity she must sacrifice...

After years of struggling in the Chicago theater scene, ambitious actress Kira Rascher finally lands the role of a lifetime. The catch? Starring in Temper means working with Malcolm Mercer, a mercurial director who's known for pushing his performers past their limits--onstage and off. Kira's convinced she can handle Malcolm, but the theater's cofounder Joanna Cuyler is another story. Joanna sees Kira as a threat--to her own thwarted artistic aspirations,...

"Fate explored in the fall and rise of two twentieth-century American families. Victoria Shorr's remarkable gift for depicting the inner lives of complex characters shines in two powerful explorations of family, ambition, class, and status. In "Great Uncle Edward," a family gathers for dinner. At 93, Great Uncle Edward commands the table in his three-piece suit; Cousin Russell attended both Harvard and Yale but is now reduced to selling off the family...

"This deliciously sharp novel captures the relentless ambitions and fears that animate parents and their children in modern America, exploring the conflicts between achievement and potential, talent and privilege. Set in the fictional town of Crystal, Colorado, The Gifted School is a keenly entertaining novel that observes the drama within a community of friends and parents as good intentions and high ambitions collide in a pile-up with long-held...