Looking for a good book to read?
Take a break and browse the Mines Library’s Popular Reading Collection. It offers the latest print bestsellers and hot titles in fiction and non-fiction. The collection is located in the lobby of the main entrance, conveniently next to the Book & Brew Coffee Shop.
All That Is Wicked by
Acclaimed crime historian, podcaster, and author of American Sherlock Kate Winkler Dawson tells the thrilling story of Edward Rulloff--a serial murderer who was called "too intelligent to be killed"--and the array of 19th century investigators who were convinced his brain held the key to finally understanding the criminal mind. Edward Rulloff was a brilliant yet utterly amoral murderer--some have called him a "Victorian-era Hannibal Lecter"--whose crimes spanned decades and whose victims were chosen out of revenge, out of envy, and sometimes out of necessity. From his humble beginnings in upstate New York to the dazzling salons and social life he established in New York City, at every turn Rulloff used his intelligence and regal bearing to evade detection and avoid punishment. He could talk his way out of any crime...until one day, Rulloff's luck ran out. By 1871 Rulloff sat chained in his cell--a psychopath holding court while curious 19th-century "mindhunters" tried to understand what made him tick. From alienists (early psychiatrists who tried to analyze the source of his madness) to neurologists (who wanted to dissect his brain) to phrenologists (who analyzed the bumps on his head to determine his character), each one thought he held the key to understanding the essential question: is evil born or made? Eventually, Rulloff's brain would be placed in a jar at Cornell University as the prize specimen of their anatomy collection...where it still sits today, slowly moldering in a dusty jar. But his story--and its implications for the emerging field of criminal psychology--were just beginning. Expanded from season one of her hit podcast on the Exactly Right network (7 million downloads and growing), in All That Is Wicked Kate Winkler Dawson draws on hundreds of source materials and never-before-shared historical documents to present one of the first glimpses into the mind of a serial killer--a century before the term was coined--through the scientists whose work would come to influence criminal justice for decades to come.
ISBN: 9780593420065Publication Date: 2022-10-04
Boldly Go by
The beloved star of Star Trek, recent space traveler, and living legend William Shatner reflects on the interconnectivity of all things, our fragile bond with nature, and the joy that comes from exploration in this inspiring, revelatory, and exhilarating collection of essays. Long before Gene Roddenberry put him on a starship to explore the galaxy, long before he actually did venture to space, William Shatner was gripped by his own quest for knowledge and meaning. Though his eventful life has been nothing short of extraordinary, Shatner is still never so thrilled as when he experiences something that inspires him to simply say, "Wow." Within these affecting, entertaining, and informative essays, he demonstrates that astonishing possibilities and true wonder are all around us. By revealing stories of his life--some delightful, others tragic--Shatner reflects on what he has learned along the way to his ninth decade and how important it is to apply the joy of exploration to our own lives. Insightful, irreverent, and with his signature wit and dramatic flair, Boldly Go is an unputdownable celebration of all that our miraculous universe holds for us.
ISBN: 9781668007327Publication Date: 2022-10-04
Deadly Breed by
New York Times bestselling coauthors Sharon Moalem and Daniel Kraus's terrifying sci-fi horror thriller takes place in a future that is much nearer than you think. It is a world where scientific experimentation is exploited for commercial profit and under-supervised cutting-edge technology creates a menace that threatens the very fabric of our existence. Wrath is the story of Sammy, a lab rat instilled with human genes whose supersized intelligence helps him to engineer his escape into the world outside the lab: a world vastly ill-equipped to deal with the menace he represents. Modified through advances that have boosted his awareness of humankind's cruelty in the name of science, and endowed with a rat's natural proclivity to procreate regularly, Sammy has the potential to sire a rodent army capable of viciously overwhelming the human race. The key to Sammy's capture and humanity's salvation may be ten-year-old Dallas Underhill, whom Sammy temporarily adopts. But while Dallas and Sammy bond, time is running out for humankind: once Sammy sires his progeny, the exponential proliferation of his kind could spell the end of the world. Hardcover with dust jacket; 320 pages; 9 in H by 6 in W.
ISBN: 9781454945222Publication Date: 2022-10-11
Fairy Tale by
Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher--for that world or ours. Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself--and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it. Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world. King's storytelling in Fairy Tale soars. This is a magnificent and terrifying tale in which good is pitted against overwhelming evil, and a heroic boy--and his dog--must lead the battle. Early in the Pandemic, King asked himself: "What could you write that would make you happy?" "As if my imagination had been waiting for the question to be asked, I saw a vast deserted city--deserted but alive. I saw the empty streets, the haunted buildings, a gargoyle head lying overturned in the street. I saw smashed statues (of what I didn't know, but I eventually found out). I saw a huge, sprawling palace with glass towers so high their tips pierced the clouds. Those images released the story I wanted to tell."
ISBN: 9781668002179Publication Date: 2022-09-06
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical--and accessible--plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions--suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.
ISBN: 9780385546133Publication Date: 2021-02-16
The Marriage Portrait by
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * The author of Hamnet--New York Times best seller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner--brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court. "O'Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her station ... You may know the history, and you may think you know what's coming, but don't be so sure." --The Washington Post Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess's future hangs entirely in the balance. Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman's battle for her very survival.
ISBN: 9780593320624Publication Date: 2022-09-06
The Mountain in the Sea by
Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future. Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them. The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA's team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world's first android. The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses' advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves. But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it. A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler's The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind's legacy.
ISBN: 9780374605957Publication Date: 2022-10-04
Popular Digital Magazines
Popular Print Journals - In The Browsing Room
Have a Title Suggestion or a Comment?
Have a book you would like to see in the Popular Reading Collection? Or, do you have a comment about the collection? If so, tell us about it!
Virtual Options
- Culinary Arts (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to academic journals and magazines on all aspects of cooking and nutrition. The database includes thousands of searchable recipes, restaurant reviews, and industry information. - Gardening and Horticulture (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Focuses on the practical aspects and the scientific theory of horticulture studies. - Popular Magazines (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Gale OneFile: Popular Magazines includes the most searched magazines focusing on current events, sports, science and health issues. - News (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to more than 1,100 major U.S. regional, national and local newspapers as well as leading titles from around the world. It also includes thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts, and transcripts. - Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Newspaper Source Plus includes more than 860 full-text newspapers, providing more than 35 million full-text articles. In addition, the database features more than 857,000 television and radio news transcripts. - Book Review Index (Gale Literature) This link opens in a new window
An online guide to book reviews that includes more than five million review citations from thousands of publications, with links to thousands of full-text reviews.
Genres & Formats in the Book Stacks
Literature is not housed in one central location; however, you'll find them on the 3rd floor in PA - PZ.
Note: most fiction is PZ e.g. Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone
Biography books are integrated throughout the collection according to subject. A number of biographies are available as ebooks. The best way to locate a biography is to search the catalog for the name of the person and "biography."
- Biography (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window Search for biographies based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, gender, or other keywords.
- Biography and Genealogy Master Index This link opens in a new window This index contains citations that point to over 20 million biographies on nearly 6 million people, living and deceased, from all time periods, geographical locations, and fields of endeavor.
Poetry is not housed in one central location; however, there are some groupings that you may want to explore:
- Collections of General Poetry: PN 6099-6110
- English Poetry: PR 500-614
- Collections of English Poetry: PR 1170-1228
- American Poetry: PS 301-326
- Collections of American Poetry: PS 580-619
- LitFinder This link opens in a new window LitFinder provides access to literary works and authors throughout history and includes more than 150,000 full-text poems and 800,000+ poetry citations, as well as short stories, speeches, and plays. The database also includes secondary materials like biographies, images, and more.
Other Places for Good Books
If our library does not have what you're looking for you'll likely be able to find it in one of our regional public libraries systems.
- Prospector This link opens in a new window Prospector is a unified catalog of academic, public and special libraries in Colorado and Wyoming. Through Prospector you have access to 30 million books, journals, DVDs, CDs, videos and other materials held in these libraries. With a single search you can identify and borrow materials from the collections and have them delivered to your local library.
