Urban City

Willow Rhoswen is finally coming to terms with the fact that Talisen - the healer she thought was the love of her life - has left town and is trying to move on when a rogue vampire poisons three of Allcot's guards. With his most trusted security team on the verge of death, the notorious Cryrique leader orders Willow to bring Talisen back to New Orleans before it's too late. But when she gets to her hometown of Eureka, California, Willow once again finds herself the target of her brother's murderer.

Shy socialite Breanna is used to being overlooked, minimized, and ignored. She's grown up in the suffocating household of her old-money parents and done her best to please them, agreeing to marry a man of their choosing. Just weeks before the wedding, she runs away. As she flees to her friend in Canada, she wrecks her car in the mountains. Rafe, the man who rescues her, is a bear-shifter wintering in his cabin. Snowed in together, the passion flares between them, and he soon realizes she is his mate.

Conceived in the Gilded Age, the Ferry Building opened in 1898 as San Francisco's portal to the world—the terminus of the transcontinental railway and a showcase of civic ambition. In silent films and World's Fair postcards, nothing said "San Francisco" more than its soaring clock tower. But as acclaimed architectural critic John King recounts, the rise of the automobile and double-deck freeways severed the city from its beloved structure. King's narrative spans the rise and fall and rebirth of the Ferry Building, introducing colorful figures who fought to preserve its character.

One phone call. Two lives. Their darkest secrets. Lana needs to sell a holiday, fast. Stuck in Tenerife, in a dead end job, she never expected a response quite like Liam’s. Thousands of miles away a phone rings. Liam never intended to pick up - he’s too busy choosing the quickest way to die. But at least someone should know the truth before he goes, even if that someone is a stranger. As time runs out both are drawn to the other, expressing thoughts they never imagined they would share. When you’re about to die, will your secrets even matter?

A missing family member sends Lawson on a trip to New York City only to run smack into vampire organized crime. Now they've got Lawson right where they want him - and they want him to switch sides and betray the Balance. But Lawson's got more than one play in his book, and if he has to go to the wall to rescue his cousin and stop the Syndicate from unleashing a new synthetic drug on the masses, that's just what he'll do.

All Eddie wants is to find a way out of the dangerous life he's living, where his friends are lost in a world of drugs and violence. Even his aunt wants to give him a gun so he can avenge the death of her son. But no matter how hard he works, Eddie can't seem to pull himself away from the sweltering sadness of the city. It's as if giant onions had been buried beneath him, Eddie thinks, releasing shimmering vapors off the black asphalt all around.

Told with equal parts raw honesty and unbridled compassion, All Day recounts a year in Liza Jessie Peterson's classroom at Island Academy, the high school for inmates detained at New York City's Rikers Island. A poet and an actress who had done occasional workshops at the correctional facility, Peterson was ill prepared for a full-time stint teaching in the GED program for the incarcerated youths.

Nichelle Tramble's first novel, The Dying Ground, was named a Best Book of 2001 by the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. In this follow-up work, Maceo returns home after drifting for two years. He finds his friends tangled up in a murder case, and he must act fast to save them.

Maddy Hamilton is at sea with her life. Her world was turned upside down when she discovered a message on her boyfriend's phone from a woman who was definitely not her. Then, when she thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, her boss delivered a second blow - there were cutbacks at work and Maddy was one of the unlucky ones. Six weeks after the break up, Maddy moves into Maxwell House to live by herself for the first time in 36 years. Lonely, heartbroken, and in desperate need of something, she finds a very unruly, very unloved patch of garden.

In the spring of 1981, Parker City is rocked by a series of brutal murders. Unthinkable crimes the likes of which are unheard of in the close-knit community. Under great pressure from the powers-that-be, it is made clear to newly minted Parker City Police Detectives Ben Winters and Tommy Mason that their first case could very well be their last if they can't catch the killer. Decades later, after distinguished careers in law enforcement, Ben and Tommy find themselves on the eve of retirement. But in their final days on the job, their very first case comes back to haunt them.

When Rodney Mason, an ex-con drug dealer from Newark's rough South Ward, was shot and paralyzed, he vowed to turn his life around. A former high-school pitching ace with a 93-mph fastball, Mason decided to form a Little League team to help boys avoid the street life that had claimed his youth and mobility. Predictably, the players struggle but through the fists and tears, lopsided losses and rare victories, this bunch of misfits becomes a team, and in doing so gives the community something to root for.

Police inspector Cecilie Mars is a different kind of cop. She has a heavy cocaine habit, fantasizes about vigilante violence, and constantly falls in love with men she shouldn’t. Late one night, while tailing a suspect, Mars makes an ill-fated choice that has far-reaching consequences. Unluckily for her, her misstep has been observed and filmed. Now, an anonymous foe is threatening to reveal the truth unless she submits to his terrifying agenda.

Liz McAllister is looking forward to a much-needed spring break. But when she travels home to Clearfield, Pennsylvania, she discovers that something strange is happening around her sleepy little hometown. The peace is abruptly shattered as earthquakes split the ground and falling satellites burn across the sky. Hordes of vicious monsters materialize across the world and the Earth is engulfed in chaos. Cut off from the outside world, Liz teams up with Mike and their small group of friends.

Elijah Branton, part-time professor, part-time monster, is struggling to get a grip on his powers while integrating more fully to life in Pittsburgh. But a mysterious death brings last year's tragedy into the spotlight, forcing Elijah to question how much control he really has. Meanwhile, Willa Weil is on a one-woman revenge mission in pursuit of demons from her family's history. She must uncover the truth about her past in order to save the future, but can she save it from herself?

Beginning in the mid-1990s, American cities experienced an astonishing drop in violent crime. By 2014, the United States was safer than it had been in 60 years. Sociologist Patrick Sharkey gathered data from across the country to understand why this happened. Sharkey puts forth an entirely new approach to confronting violence and urban poverty. At a time when inequality, complacency, and conflict all threaten a new rise in violent crime, and the old methods of policing are unacceptable, the ideas in this book are indispensable.

Exploring the power of naming to shape experience and our sense of place, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro traces the ways in which native Lenape, Dutch settlers, British invaders, and successive waves of immigrants have left their marks on New York City’s map. He excavates the roots of many names, from Brooklyn to Harlem, that have gained iconic meaning worldwide. He interviews the last living speakers of Lenape, visits the harbor’s forgotten islands, lingers on street corners named for ballplayers and saints, and meets linguists who study the estimated 800 languages now spoken in New York.

Eight-year-old TC skips school to explore the city’s overgrown, forgotten corners. Sophia, 78, watches with concern as he slips past her window, through the little park she loves. She’s writing to her granddaughter, Daisy, whose privileged upbringing means she exists in a different world from TC - though the two children live less than a mile apart.

"Quella di cui godevo in quei giorni afosi, camminando sui larghi marciapiedi di viale Manzoni e di via Merulana al riparo del fogliame dei platani, era indubbiamente una felicità partorita da un'illusione: l'illusione di un piccolo numero di strade e incroci capace di suggerirmi la sensazione, razionalmente insana, che esistesse per me, come di farmi sentire a casa, qualunque disastro fosse in corso o mi pendesse sulla testa..."

La luce lo sveglia. Per un attimo pensa di essere a casa, poi sente la gamba informicolita e la maglietta incollata alla schiena dal sudore freddo. È disteso su tre poltroncine. Alza gli occhi, la discoteca è sgombra. Un estuario di luce l'empie dalla porta di sicurezza spalancata. In mezzo alla pista, un ometto, impegnato a lustrare il finto alabastro con uno spazzolone, vede questo tipo che si sveglia sconvolto, che si gratta la testa: "Buongiorno, eh!" gli ride di laggiù. Il Mella si alza, si stira, che è successo, già le sei, le sette?

"Si sorprende di scorgere la punta di un timpano di Santa Croce che si conficca nel cielo nero, abbassa gli occhi come a riparare lo sguardo nella pace di un lembo di piazza e intanto pensa che davvero Firenze è infinita, e si potrebbe andare avanti e girarla in lungo e in largo per giorni, con la certezza che di Sante Croci ce ne sono almeno cento (e di punti da cui sbirciarla, mille) e chissà quante vie dei Pepi ancora da scoprire, una babele di marmo e torri dalla testa mozza." E dopo Santa Croce c'è San Miniato, il Cimitero degli Inglesi e il Forte Belvedere, borgo Pinti.