THOUGHTS ON THIS 'n THAT

  Love comes home for the challah-days in this sparkling romance. Snow is falling, holiday lights are twinkling, and Abby Cohen is  pissed . For one thing, her most annoying customer, Seth, has been coming into her café every morning with his sunshiny attitude, determined to break down her carefully constructed emotional walls. And, as the only Jew on the tourism board of her Vermont town, Abby's been charged with planning their fledgling Hanukkah festival. Unfortunately, the local vendors don’t understand that the story of Hanukkah cannot be told with light-up plastic figures from the Nativity scene, even if the Three Wise Men wear yarmulkes. Desperate for support, Abby puts out a call for help online and discovers she was wrong about being the only Jew within a hundred miles. There's one Seth. As it turns out, Seth’s parents have been badgering him to bring a Nice Jewish Girlfriend home to New York City for Hanukkah, and if Abby can survive his incessant, irritatingly handsom

  East House is the oldest and least desirable dorm on campus, but it has a draw for lonely university freshman Aleeza Kassam: Jay Hoque, the hot and broody student who vanished from East House five months ago without a trace. It’s irresistible to an aspiring investigative journalist like Aleeza. But when she starts receiving texts from Jay, the mystery takes an unexpected turn. To put it mildly. His messages are coming not only from Aleeza’s own dorm room but from the  past ―only weeks before he disappeared. Sharing space, if not time, Aleeza and Jay are living the impossible, and they start working together to prevent his inevitable disappearance. Causing a temporal paradox that could blow up the universe is a risk they’re going to have to take. Aleeza digs through Jay’s suspicious friends, enemies, and exes, determined to find out what happened to him. Or what  will  happen to him. But it’s becoming more than a mystery. Aleeza is catching feelings for her charming new roommate. Wher

  b A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • From one of the world’s most distinguished anthropologists, an important and timely work of cultural history that looks at the origins and much debated future of anthropology museums Ironically, announced this week, the United States is returning nearly 300 smuggled artifacts to India. Prime Minister Modi accepted the artifacts trafficking from India. The United States has returned nearly 600 cultural artifacts to India since 2016. In this deeply researched, immersive history, Adam Kuper tells the story of how foreign and prehistoric peoples and cultures were represented in Western museums of anthropology. Originally created as colonial enterprises, their halls were populated by displays of plundered art, artifacts, dioramas, bones, and relics. Kuper reveals the politics and struggles of trying to build these museums in Germany, France, and England in the mid-19th century, and the dramatic encounters between the very colorful and eccentric collectors, cura

  Planning a wedding is so romantic . . . except when it’s not yours, and you’re planning it with the guy you’re secretly crushing on.   Scottish schoolteacher Liv Holland has a secret. She’s been carrying a torch for Arran Adebayo, her brother’s best friend, for years. A blind date gone wrong cements in Liv’s mind that Arran has no romantic interest in her whatsoever. But then, with her brother set to marry her own best friend, she and Arran are enlisted to help plan the festivities… After being left at the altar by his ex, single father Arran is having trouble managing his growing feelings towards the woman who is both his best friend’s sister and his son’s teacher: Liv. Then his mind is blown when fate thrusts them together for an unexpected blind date, but he messes up his chance to tell her how he feels.   As the big day approaches and Liv and Arran’s connection intensifies, their chemistry chafes against their checkered romantic histories. Risking everything for love could mean l

  “A powerful novel about how our family history shapes us.  Swift River  broke my heart, and then offered me hope.”  — Ann Napolitano,  New York Times  bestselling author of  Hello Beautiful In SWIFT RIVER (Simon&Schuster) a new novel by Essie Chamers, it’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: she’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so that they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on. But when Diamond receives a letter from a relative she’s never met, key elements of Pop’s life are uncovered, and she is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, whose lives span the 20th centu

  The highly anticipated return of "irresistible" ( New York Times)  private eye Jackson Brodie in the newest installment of the bestselling series by Kate Atkinson, hailed as "unputdownable" by  Time. Welcome to Rook Hall. The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be found out. In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom and malaise. His only case is the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But Jackson soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that lead him down a dizzying spiral of disguise and deceit to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends. As paying guests, impecunious aristocrats and old friends collide, we are treated to author, Kate Atkinson’s most charming and fiendishly clever mystery yet, one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers to the modern era of