December 27, 2024 By Karelisa

Celebrating the Most Checked-Out Titles of the Year!

As we approach the new year, we’re celebrating the most checked-out titles of 2024 across different age groups. This year – gripping thrillers, historical sagas, a heartfelt local author, and box-office hits ranked among your favorites. We also had several nontraditional items rank near the top. We love to provide you with all kinds of items that you wouldnt expect to see at a library. Have an idea for our collection? Let us know! We are always accepting suggestions.

Cheers to a great year, and happy reading!

Most Checked-Out Titles of 2024

Adults

Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand
The 24th Hour by James Patterson
Mind Games by Nora Roberts
Eruption by Michael Crichton
The Women by Kristin Hannah
The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
The Road to Resilience by Billy Keenan
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
The Summer Book Club by Susan Mallery

Young Adults

One Piece by Eiichirō Oda

Children’s Books

Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea by Dav Pilkey
Very Hungry Caterpillar at the Bakeshop by Eric Carle
Cat Kid Comic Club by Dav Pilkey
Dog Man – Book 6 by Dav Pilkey
Harry and the Guinea Pig by Nancy Lambert
The Baby-Sitters Club by Cynthia Yuan Cheng
Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House series) by Mary Pope Osborne
Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland
Bluey by Penguin Young Readers Group

Movies

In the Land of Saints and Sinners
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning
Belgravia (TV series)
Inside Man (2-movie collection)
Little Letters
Sleeping Dogs
Force of Nature
The Fabulous Four
End of the Rope
Wednesday (TV series)

Non Book Items

The New Yorker (magazine)
Prevention (magazine)
Children’s Discovery Kits (Library of Things)
Looms (Library of Things)

Have you explored any of these top picks? If not, now’s the perfect time to dive into these beloved titles. Check out our Catalog to browse and place holds on anything from this list.

November 8, 2024 By Karelisa

Featured Event

Join us to learn about local history: Rockland’s Fight for Independence! The Baylor Massacre

Joseph Amster presents an engaging talk on this lesser known but important event that occurred in the Hudson Valley during the Revolutionary War.

The Baylor Massacre occurred in the early morning hours of September 28, 1778 by forces under British General Sir Charles Grey against a detachment of the 3^rd Regiment of Continental Light Dragoons, commanded by Colonel George Baylor. It occurred in the present day town of River Vale, New Jersey, about thirty miles north east of New York City, at the time called Old Tappan. It is directly west of the Hudson River, approximately fifteen miles, where at the time a large British force under General Charles Cornwallis was foraging. It was the reason the American dragoons were in the region, to keep an eye on the British and harass them if and when the opportunity arose.

Don’t miss this special event hosted by Rose Memorial Library. Free and open to the public. No registration needed.

General Washington’s staff (by Henry Alexander Ogden.) Washington appointed George Baylor on Aug. 15, 1775 – the son of a close friend, Baylor was 23 at the time.

Above: Continental Army Dragoons. (Photo by Ken Borhrer at American Revolution Photos). On January 9, 1777, the 3rd Light Dragoon Regiment was formed. It was led by Colonel George Baylor.

Saturday, November 9, 2 pm – 4 pm

Patriot Hills Community Center
19 Clubhouse Lane, Stony Point, NY 10980
in the Board Room

July 13, 2024 By helpdesk1

July’s New Releases (Beach Reads Are Here!)

Every month we try to share the new releases headed to our shelves, and July’s newest books include some perfect beach reads. If you’re looking to really dive into Summer, these titles have seaside settings, summer romance, and two are set in swampy Florida! To place holds and see additional new releases, check out our July Booklist.

Summer Vibes

An incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself.

Sullivan weaves a narrative that’s fascinating and thought-provoking. I literally could not put this book down.—Ann Napolitano, best-selling author of Hello Beautiful

The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan

On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother. Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine with her career and her marriage in crisis, to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable.

With a rich setting and secrets shimmering at the core of the narrative, Jenny Lecoat offers up everything we seek in historical fiction

Beyond Summerland by Jenny Lecoat

The German occupation is over. The Channel Islands, the only captured territory within the British Isles, are finally liberated. But the people are left as scarred as the landscape. No longer a “summerland” holiday paradise, the island now boils with tension as locals seek revenge on anyone suspected of collaborating with the enemy during the war. Nineteen-year-old Jean Parris, still adjusting to this fractious peace, is shocked to learn that Hazel, a teacher, may be responsible for her father’s wartime arrest, and sets out to find the truth.

An uplifting and emotionally resonant novel set in a Delaware beach town about a local restaurant owner at a turning point

The Same Bright Stars by Ethan Joella

Three generations of Schmidts have run their family’s beachfront restaurant and Jack has been at the helm since the death of his father. Jack puts the demands of the restaurant above all else, with a string of failed relationships, no hobbies, and no days off as proof of his commitment to the place. He can’t remember the last time he sat on the beach, or even enjoyed a moment to himself. Meanwhile, the DelDine group has been gradually snapping up beloved eateries along this stretch of coast and are pursuing Jack with a very generous offer.

For fans of Sally Rooney, a stunning debut that follows a vibrant multi-generational cast of characters through a London heatwave

Evenings & Weekends by Oisin McKenna

Summer in London stops for no one…It’s June 2019, and everyone has converged on the city’s parks, beer gardens, and street corners to revel in the collective joys of being alive. Everyone but Maggie. She’s 30, pregnant, and broke. Boyfriend, Ed, meanwhile, is trying to run from his past with Maggie’s best friend Phil and harboring secret dreams of his own. Phil hates his office job and is living for the weekend, while falling for his housemate, Keith. Then there’s Rosaleen, Phil’s mother, who’s tired of feeling like a side character in her own life. As Saturday night approaches, all their lives are set to change forever.Temperatures are soaring and the weekend is about to begin…

An Apple Best Book of July, Most Anticipated Book by TIME, Oprah Daily, Esquire, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, ELLE, Bustle, and Lit Hub

State of Paradise by Laura Van den Berg

It’s another summer in a small Florida town. After an illness that vanishes as mysteriously as it arrived, everything appears to be getting back to normal: soul-crushing heat, torrential downpours, sinkholes swallowing the earth, ominous cats, a world-bending virtual reality device being handed out by a company called ELECTRA, and an increasing number of posters dotting the streets with the faces of missing citizens. Living in her mother’s home, a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author tracks the eerie changes. On top of everything else, she’s contending with family secrets…

Murder, a love triangle, and small-town secrets in Tallahassee, Florida…an unputdownable read. —The New York Times

Guilty Creatures by Mikita Brottman

Mike & Denise Williams had a tight knit, seemingly unbreakable bond with childhood friends, Brian & Kathy Winchester. The two couples were devout, hardworking Baptists who lived perfect, quintessentially Southern lives. Their friendship seemed ironclad. That is, until December 16, 2000, when Denise’s husband Mike disappeared while duck hunting on Lake Seminole. After no body was found, everyone assumed Mike had drowned in a tragic accident, his body eaten by alligators. But things took an unexpected turn when Brian Winchester divorced his wife & married Denise. It took another 12 years for the truth to come out—and when it did, it was unimaginable.

In the wake of tragedy, a group of friends makes a pact that will cause them to reunite a decade later and embark upon a life-changing adventure together—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Meant to Be

The Summer Pact by Emily Giffin

Four freshmen arrive at college from completely different worlds: Lainey, a California party girl with a flair for drama; Tyson, a brilliant scholar and aspiring lawyer from Washington, D.C.; Summer, an ambitious, recruited athlete from the Midwest; and Hannah, a mild-mannered southerner who is content to quietly round out the circle of big personalities. Ten years later the group reunites to take a time out from lives headed in wrong directions, and embark on a journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and acceptance.

December 27, 2023 By Karelisa

Booklist: January New Adult Books

New year, new books! These books are hot off the press – all published in January 2024 and headed our way. Advance holds are strongly encouraged as many are well-reviewed and/or anticipated best-sellers. Click the link to place a hold in our Catalog. Happy reading!

ARGYLLE
CONWAY, ELLY

The globe-trotting spy thriller that inspired the upcoming action blockbuster Argylle (February 2024), featuring a star-studded cast including Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Cena.

One Russian magnate’s dream of restoring a nation to greatness has set in motion a chain of events which will take the world to the brink of chaos. Only Frances Coffey, the CIA’s most legendary spymaster, can prevent it. But to do so, she needs someone special. Enter Argylle, a troubled agent with a tarnished past who may just have the skills to take on one of the most powerful men in the world.

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THE BOOK OF FIRE
LEFTERI, CHRISTY

In present-day Greece, deep in an ancient forest, lives a family: Irini, a musician, who teaches children to read and play music; her husband, Tasso, who paints pictures of the forest, his greatest muse; and Chara, their young daughter, whose name means joy. On the fateful day that will forever alter the trajectory of their lives, flames chase fleeing birds across the sky. The wildfire that will consume their home, and their lives as they know it, races toward them.

Gorgeously written, sweeping in scope and intimate in tone, The Book of Fire is a masterful work about the search for meaning in the wake of tragedy, as well as the universal ties that bind people together, and to the land that they call home.

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THE BULLET SWALLOWER
GONZALEZ JAMES, ELIZABETH

A dazzling magical realism western in the vein of Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel García Márquez, The Bullet Swallower follows a Mexican bandido as he sets off for Texas to save his family, only to encounter a mysterious figure who has come, finally, to collect a cosmic debt generations in the making.

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THE CLINIC
QUINN, CATE

From the critically acclaimed author of Black Widows comes a thriller set in a remote rehab clinic on the Pacific Northwest coast, in which the death of a woman inside prompts her sister to enter the clinic as a patient in order to find the truth.

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COME AND GET IT
REID, KILEY

It’s 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie’s starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardized by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks, and illicit intrigue.

A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption, and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior.

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COME TOGETHER THE SCIENCE (AND ART!) OF CREATING LASTING SEXUAL CONNECTIONS
NAGOSKI, EMILY

From the New York Times bestselling author of Come as You Are and co-author of Burnout comes an illuminating exploration of how to maintain a happy sex life in a long-term relationship.

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DIVA
GOODWIN, DAISY

In the glittering and ruthlessly competitive world of opera, Maria Callas was known simply as la divina: the divine one. But her fame was hard won: Raised in Nazi-occupied Greece by a mother who mercilessly exploited her golden voice, she learned early in life to protect herself from those who would use her for their own ends.

When she met the fabulously rich Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, she believed she’d found someone who saw the woman within the legendary soprano. And then suddenly, it was over. The international press announced that Aristotle Onassis would marry the most famous woman in the world, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, leaving Maria to pick up the pieces.

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THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS
KHAN, SHUBNUM

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a haunting, a love story, and a mystery, all twined beautifully into one young girl’s search for belonging. Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Nearly a century later, it stands in ruins: an isolated boardinghouse for eclectic misfits, seeking solely to disappear into the mansion’s dark corridors. Except for Sana. Unlike the others, she is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion: To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects—and to the door at its end, locked for decades.

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FAMILY FAMILY
FRANKEL, LAURIE

“Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?” India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero. Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do — she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie. But that’s where it gets really messy because India’s not just an adoptive mother…

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FETISHIST
MIN, KATHERINE

The Fetishist is the story of three people—Kyoko, a Japanese American punk-rock singer full of rage and grief; Daniel, a philandering violinist forced to confront the wreckage of his past; and Alma, the love of Daniel’s life, a Korean American cello prodigy long adored for her beauty, passion, and talent, but who spends her final days examining if she was ever, truly, loved.

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FIRST LIE WINS
ELSTON, ASHLEY

“Buckle up. First Lie Wins features some of the best cat and mouse suspense I’ve read in years, while serving up plenty of heart along this wild ride.”—Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One Step Too Far

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FRONT SIGHT: THREE SWAGGER NOVELLAS
HUNTER, STEPHEN

This collection of three interconnected novellas follows each generation of the iconic Swagger family—grandfather Charles, father Earl, and fan favorite hero Bob Lee—from New York Times bestselling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and “true master at the pinnacle of his craft” (Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Stephen Hunter.

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THE FURY
MICHAELIDES, ALEX

A masterfully paced thriller about a reclusive ex–movie star and her famous friends whose spontaneous trip to a private Greek island is upended by a murder — from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient

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HARBOR LIGHTS
BURKE, JAMES LEE

These eight stories move from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons, and trailer parks across the South, weaving together love, friendship, violence, survival, and revenge.

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HARD BY A GREAT FOREST
VARDIASHVILI, LEO

After fleeing the former Soviet republic of Georgia as a child and being forced to leave his mother behind, Saba returns to their beautiful, decaying homeland to search for his brother who went missing while searching for their father.

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HEIRESS
HAWKINS, RACHEL

New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins returns with a twisted new gothic suspense about an infamous heiress and the complicated inheritance she left behind. There’s nothing as good as the rich gone bad.

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HOLMES, MARPLE & POE
PATTERSON, JAMES

In New York City, three intriguing, smart, and stylish private investigators open ‘Holmes, Marple & Poe Investigations’. Who are these detectives with famous names and mysterious, untraceable pasts?

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HOUSE OF FLAME AND SHADOW
MAAS, SARAH J

In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas’s Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt’s world is brought to the brink of collapse-with its future resting on their shoulders.

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MIDNIGHT
MCCULLOCH, AMY

In this pulse-pounding thriller, a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Antarctica—to camp beneath the legendary midnight sun—becomes a desperate battle for survival against a killer determined to follow their prey to the ends of the earth.

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NO ONE CAN KNOW
MARSHALL, KATE ALICE

Three sisters, two murders, and too many secrets to count. Fourteen years ago, the Palmer sisters—Emma, Juliette, and Daphne—left their home in Arden Hills and never returned. But when Emma discovers she’s pregnant and her husband loses his job, she has no option but to return to the house that she and her estranged sisters still own . . . and where their parents were murdered.

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ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS
HALL, ARAMINTA

Desperate to escape the ghosts of his failed marriage, Cole upends his life. He leaves London behind for a remote stretch of coast, relishing the respite from the noise, drama, and relentless careerism that curdled his relationship and mental health. Leonora has made the same move for similar reasons. She’s living a short walk from Cole’s seaside cottage, preparing for her latest art exhibition. Though Cole still can’t figure out what went wrong with his marriage, and Leonora is having trouble acclimating to the hostile landscape, the pair forges a connection on the eroding bluff they call home.

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ONLY IF YOU’RE LUCKY
WILLINGHAM, STACY

A sharp and twisty exploration of female friendship from the New York Times bestselling author of A Flicker in the Dark and All the Dangerous Thing

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RABBIT HOLE
BRODY, KATE

Conspiracy theories from Reddit seduce a disaster-prone woman into an obsession with solving her older sister’s cold-case disappearance.

A twisty debut exploring the dark side of true crime fandom and the blurry lines of female friendship, perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, My Favorite Murder, and Fleabag.

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RANDOM IN DEATH: AN EVE DALLAS NOVEL
ROBB, J D

In this crime thriller from #1 New York Times-bestselling J.D. Robb, a small and easily concealed weapon wreaks havoc, and the killer is just a face in the crowd.

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RIVER EAST, RIVER WEST
LESCURE, AUBE REY

In a stunning reversal of the east-to-west immigrant narrative and set against China’s political history and economic rise, River East, River West is an intimate family drama and a sharp social novel.

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STORM WE MADE
CHAN, VANESSA

A spellbinding, sweeping novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII—and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family.

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TWENTY-SEVEN MINUTES
TATE, ASHLEY

Perfect for fans of Jane Harper and Celeste Ng, Tate’s literary suspense Twenty-Seven Minutes is a gripping debut about what happens when grief becomes unbearable and dark secrets are unearthed in a hometown that is all too giddy to eat it up.

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UPSIDE DOWN
STEEL, DANIELLE

In Upside Down, Danielle Steel tells an unforgettable story of bold choices, second chances, and the hope of reconciliation.

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WHERE YOU END
KAHLER, ABBOTT

When 22-year-old Kat Bird wakes up from a coma, she sees her mirror image: Jude, her twin sister. Jude’s face and name are the only memories Kat has from before her accident. As Kat tries to relearn her history and identity, she trusts Jude will provide all the answers. But as the months progress, Kat begins to fear that, maybe, Jude has been lying to her.

Growing up in a sophisticated New Age cult, isolated from society, the girls studied poetry and literature—but also played dangerous games of cunning and savagery, games with dark lessons that followed them into adulthood. Now, with Kat’s mind as a blank slate, Jude invents an idyllic childhood in the hope of erasing this history, and all the threats it still holds.

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YOU DREAMED OF EMPIRES
ENRIGUE, ALVAROL

From a visionary Mexican author, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story that reimagines the fall of Tenochtitlan.

November 11, 2023 By helpdesk1

Booklist: Veterans Voices

Happy Veterans Day! Thank you to all those who have, and currently serve. Let’s lift the voices of veterans and celebrate their bravery by checking out some books authored by Vets themselves, or telling their epic stories of bravery. Books about our Veterans aren’t just limited to nonfiction battle accounts! There are lots of emotional memoirs, as well as sweeping fiction stories with heroic characters – including a few by best selling authors. Also included are some thought provoking takes on war and the military industrial complex. We recommed: