January 5, 2018 | by Michelle Queen

Check Out: What Montgomery County Was Reading in December

Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL) maintain an extensive collection of materials for county residents to check out. Have you ever wondered what the county’s library visitors are reading? We turned to our county’s librarians to determine the most popular titles in December.

For the month of December, the most read books by genre are:

 

Juvenile Fiction

  • Miguel y la Gran Armonia by Matt de la Peña
    A Spanish-language edition of Miguel and the Grand Harmony.
    This jacketed picture book pairs Newbery Winner Matt de la Peña and Pixar artist Ana Ramírez with the highly anticipated Pixar Studios film, Coco. Featuring a beautiful original story based on the characters of the film, as well as vibrant stylized artwork, this title is sure to appeal to readers of all ages. The spirit of Music details her role in a Mexican town and describes how she discovered Miguel, a budding musician in a family that hates music, and helped him begin to realize his part in the great harmony that surrounds the town.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • Doubles Trouble by Jake Maddox
    In order to play tennis with his local rec team, Deion agrees to play doubles, even though it feels like a different game to him–but he has the nagging feeling that he is holding his partner, Cole, back until they both accept help from Deion’s stepfather who turns out to have wicked aim.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • The Kid from Planet Z, vol. 1, Crash! by Nancy E. Krulik
    When Zeke Zander’s spaceship crashes on Earth, he and his family must pretend to be humans until they can fix the ship and return home to Planet Z. But with antennae on their heads and a talking cat named Zeus, fitting in is easier said than done!
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk
    From the bestselling author of Newbery Honor-winner Wolf Hollow, Beyond the Bright Sea is an acclaimed best book of 2017!
    The moving story of an orphan, determined to know her own history, who discovers the true meaning of family.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries.


Juvenile Non-Fiction

 

Young Adult

  • Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu
    Before he was Batman, he was Bruce Wayne. A reckless boy willing to break the rules for a girl who may be his worst enemy.
    The Nightwalkers are terrorizing Gotham City, and Bruce Wayne is next on their list.
    The city’s elites are being taken out one by one as their mansions’ security systems turn against them, trapping them like prey. Meanwhile, Bruce is about to become eighteen and inherit his family’s fortune, not to mention the keys to Wayne Industries and all the tech gadgetry that he loves. But on the way home from his birthday party, he makes an impulsive choice and is sentenced to community service at Arkham Asylum, the infamous prison that holds the city’s most nefarious criminals.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air Series) by Holly Black
    Jude, seventeen and mortal, gets tangled in palace intrigues while trying to win a place in the treacherous High Court of Faerie, where she and her sisters have lived for a decade.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • Expelled by James Patterson
    One viral photo.Theo’s resigned to a life of misery working at the local mini-mart when a miracle happens: Sasha Ellis speaks to him. Sasha Ellis knows his name. She was also expelled for a crime she didn’t commit, and now he has the perfect way to get her attention: find out who set them up. To uncover the truth, Theo has to get close to the suspects: the hacker, the quarterback, the mean girl, the vice principal, and his own best friend. What secrets are they hiding? And how can Theo catch their confessions on camera?
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 

  • Dear Martin by Nic Stone
    Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League–but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can’t escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates.
    Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.
    Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up– way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it’s Justyce who is under attack.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries.

Adult Fiction

  • Woman in the Window: A Novel by A. J. Finn
    It isn’t paranoia if it’s really happening . . .
    Anna Fox lives alone–a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.
    Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble–and its shocking secrets are laid bare.
    What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one–and nothing–is what it seems.
    Twisty and powerful, ingenious and moving, The Woman in the Window is a smart, sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • The Wanted by Robert Crais
    Investigator Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike take on the deadliest case of their lives in the new masterpiece of suspense from #1 New York Times -bestselling author Robert Crais.
    It seemed like a simple case–before the bodies started piling up…
    When single-mother Devon Connor hires Elvis Cole, it’s because her troubled teenage son Tyson is flashing cash and she’s afraid he’s dealing drugs. But the truth is devastatingly different. With two others, he’s been responsible for a string of high-end burglaries, a crime spree that takes a deadly turn when one of them is murdered and Tyson and his girlfriend disappear.
    They stole the wrong thing from the wrong man, and, determined to get it back, he has hired two men who are smart and brutal and the best at what they do.
    To even the odds, Cole brings in his friend Joe Pike, but even the two of them together may be overmatched. The police don’t want them anywhere near the investigation, the teenagers refuse to be found, and the hired killers are leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Pretty soon, they’ll find out everything they need to know to track the kids down–and then nothing that Elvis or Joe can do may make any difference. It might even get them killed.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • The Music Shop: A Novel by Rachel Joyce
    A love story and a journey through music, the exquisite and perfectly pitched new novel from the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.
    It is 1988. On a dead-end street in a run-down suburb there is a music shop that stands small and brightly lit, jam-packed with records of every kind. Like a beacon, the shop attracts the lonely, the sleepless, and the adrift; Frank, the shop’s owner, has a way of connecting his customers with just the piece of music they need. Then, one day, into his shop comes a beautiful young woman, Ilse Brauchmann, who asks Frank to teach her about music. Terrified of real closeness, Frank feels compelled to turn and run, yet he is drawn to this strangely still, mysterious woman with eyes as black as vinyl. But Ilse is not what she seems, and Frank has old wounds that threaten to reopen, as well as a past it seems he will never leave behind. Can a man who is so in tune with other people’s needs be so incapable of connecting with the one person who might save him? The journey that these two quirky, wonderful characters make in order to overcome their emotional baggage speaks to the healing power of music–and love–in this poignant, ultimately joyful work of fiction.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • The Quantum Spy: A Thriller by David Ignatius
    A hyper-fast quantum computer is the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb; whoever possesses one will be able to shred any encryption and break any code in existence. The winner of the race to build the world’s first quantum machine will attain global dominance for generations to come. The question is, who will cross the finish line first: the U.S. or China?In this gripping cyber thriller, the United States’ top-secret quantum research labs are compromised by a suspected Chinese informant, inciting a mole hunt of history-altering proportions. CIA officer Harris Chang leads the charge, pursuing his target from the towering cityscape of Singapore to the lush hills of the Pacific Northwest, the mountains of Mexico, and beyond. The investigation is obsessive, destructive, and–above all–uncertain. Do the leaks expose real secrets, or are they false trails meant to deceive the Chinese? The answer forces Chang to question everything he thought he knew about loyalty, morality, and the primacy of truth.Grounded in the real-world technological arms race, The Quantum Spy presents a sophisticated game of cat and mouse cloaked in an exhilarating and visionary thriller.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries.

 

Adult Non-fiction

  • The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict was Fought and Won by Victor Hanson
    World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. Hanson examines how combat unfolded in the air, at sea, and on land to show how distinct conflicts among disparate combatants coalesced into one interconnected global war. He argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war’s origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • Alone: Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat into Victory by Michael Korda
    An epic of remarkable originality, Alone captures the heroism of World War II as movingly as any book in recent memory. Bringing to vivid life the world leaders, generals, and ordinary citizens who fought on both sides of the war, Michael Korda, the best-selling author of Clouds of Glory, chronicles the outbreak of hostilities, recalling as a prescient young boy the enveloping tension that defined pre-Blitz London, and then as a military historian the great events that would alter the course of the twentieth century. It is this pivotal turning point in world history that Korda captures with such immediacy. A work that triumphantly demonstrates that even the most calamitous defeats can become the most legendary victories.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison
    America’s foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, thedesire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid?
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries. 
  • Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything by Kelly Weinersmith
    What will the world of tomorrow be like? How does progress happen? And why do we not have a lunar colony already? What is the hold-up?
    In this smart and funny book, celebrated cartoonist Zach Weinersmith and noted researcher Dr. Kelly Weinersmith give us a snapshot of what’s coming next — from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters. By weaving their own research, interviews with the scientists who are making these advances happen, and Zach’s trademark comics, the Weinersmiths investigate why these technologies are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.
    Click here to see availability at Montgomery County Public Libraries.
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