Helen Plum Library

A mind-bending, relentlessly paced science-fiction thriller, in which an ordinary man is kidnapped, knocked unconscious--and awakens in a world inexplicably different from the reality he thought he knew One night after an evening out, Jason Dessen, forty-year-old physics professor living with his wife and son in Chicago, is kidnapped at gunpoint by a masked man, driven to an abandoned industrial site and injected with a powerful drug. As he wakes,...

"Summer begins with Mary Kay Andrews, in this delightful summer read about flipping houses, and finding true love. Hattie Kavanaugh went to work helping clean up restored homes for Kavanaugh & Son Restorations at eighteen; married the boss's son at twenty; and was only twenty-five when her husband, Hank, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Broken hearted, but determined to continue the business of their dreams, she takes the life insurance money,...

"A blockbuster new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lincoln Child, centered on a dominant tech company-Chrysalis-whose groundbreaking virtual reality technology is redefining the way we live . . . and possibly introducing a catastrophic danger to the world. Like millions of people around the world, Jeremy Logan (famed enigmalogist, or investigator of unexplained things) has grown to rely on his incredible new tech device. Made by...

"When asked simple questions about global trends--what percentage of the world's population live in poverty; why the world's population is increasing; how many girls finish school -- we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. Professor and TED presenter Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators,...

Discusses the history of virtual reality, its uses, and the impact it has made on society.

"Every summer for the past ten years, six awe-struck bakers have descended on the grounds of Grafton, the Vermont estate that is not only the filming site for Bake Week but also the childhood home of the show's famous host, celebrated baker Betsy Martin. The author of numerous bestselling cookbooks and hailed as "America's Grandmother," Betsy Martin isn't as warm off-screen as on, though no one needs to know that but her. She has always demanded perfection,...

While attending a New Hampshire culinary academy, North Carolina high schooler Nora suspects someone of sabotaging the academy's televised cooking competition

"A 1980s cultural assessment of the fantastical future of online behavior continues the story that began in the internationally best-selling futuristic novel, Ready Player One, that inspired a blockbuster Steven Spielberg film"-- Days after winning control of OASIS, the immersive virtual reality environment in which most of humanity chooses to live, Wade Watts discovers a world-changing technological advancement and draws the attention of a merciless...

In a strange world of the near future, where virtual reality encompasses all aspects of society and boundaries are limited only by the power of the imagination, a dark conspiracy involving the world's most powerful individuals threatens to destroy everything

Tom, a fourteen-year-old genius at virtual reality games, is recruited by the United States Military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do the actual fighting off-planet