TCPL Closed - Monday, January 26 - Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Taylor County Public Library is closed on Monday, January 26 - Wednesday, January 28, 2026 due to inclement weather. We will keep you updated here and on Instagram and Facebook with further updates. 

New Books at TCPL

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The Correspondent

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Discover the word-of-mouth hit hailed by Ann Patchett as “A cause for celebration”—an intimate novel about the transformative power of the written word and the beauty of slowing down to reconnect with the people we love.

The Correspondent is this year’s breakout novel no one saw coming.”—The Wall Street Journal

“I cried more than once as I witnessed this brilliant woman come to understand herself more deeply.”—Florence Knapp, author of The Names

LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE AND THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Elle, Christian Science Monitor, She Reads

“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”

Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.

Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.

Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.

Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.

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Cells

For fans of The Song of the Cell—a profusely, creatively illustrated journey through the origins and evolution of the building blocks of life, from an award-winning biologist and illustrator

In the fifteenth century, as astronomers charted the skies and explorers mapped the globe, the nature of life itself remained a mystery. It wasn’t until the seventeenth century that Robert Hooke, looking through one of the earliest microscopes, coined the term cell. Nearly two centuries later, biologists established that all living organisms—from animals and plants to algae and fungi—are composed of cells. Around the same time, Charles Darwin introduced his theory of evolution, proposing that all life on Earth shares a common origin. Today, the scientific community has defined that origin as LUCA—the Last Universal Common Ancestor.

Unraveling how LUCA—the ancestral cell—emerged billions of years ago and gradually evolved into the vast diversity of life-forms we see today is a fascinating journey through history, biology, and the essence of what it means to be alive. Blending art with science, biologist Christian Sardet takes you on an exploration of DNA, RNA, proteins, protists, viruses, cell reproduction, aging, death, and more.

Written in clear, accessible language and accompanied by artful illustrations, Cells: The Illustrated Story of Life offers an authoritative and visually captivating overview of the building blocks of life. Designed for visual learners and curious minds alike, this immersive exploration of life and evolution brings readers up to date with the latest discoveries—revealing how cells function, how they have evolved, and why they fascinate us.

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The Black Wolf

The 20th mystery in the #1 New York Times-bestselling Armand Gamache series.

Somewhere out there, in the darkness, a black wolf is feeding.

Several weeks ago, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his team uncovered and stopped a domestic terrorist attack in Montréal, arresting the person behind it. A man they called the Black Wolf.

But their relief is short-lived. In a sickening turn of events, Gamache has realized that plot, as horrific as it was, was just the beginning. Perhaps even a deliberate misdirection. One he fell into. Something deeper and darker, more damaging, is planned. Did he in fact arrest the Black Wolf, or are they still out there? Armand is appalled to think his mistake has allowed their conspiracy to grow, to gather supporters. To spread lies, manufacture enemies, and feed hatred and division.

Still recovering from wounds received in stopping the first attack, Armand is confined to the village of Three Pines, leading a covert investigation from there. He must be careful not to let the Black Wolf know he has recognized his mistake. In a quiet church basement, he and his senior agents Beauvoir and Lacoste, pore over what little evidence they have. Two notebooks. A few mysterious numbers on a tattered map of Québec. And a phrase repeated by the person they had called the Grey Wolf. A warning...

In a dry and parched land where there is no water.

Gamache and his small team of supporters realize that for the Black Wolf to have gotten this far, they must have powerful allies, in law enforcement, in industry, in organized crime, in the halls of government.

From the apparent peace of his little village, Gamache finds himself playing a lethal game of cat and mouse with an invisible foe who is gathering forces and preparing to strike.

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Between Good and Evil

In the tradition of Studs Lonigan and A Stone for Danny Fisher, a transporting historical saga about three young men coming-of-age on New York City’s rapidly changing, vibrant, challenging, sometimes heartless Upper West Side as they walk a fine line between right and wrong amid the turbulence and scandals of the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Kenny, Frankie, Ray. For these best friends, life on the Upper West Side during the upheaval of the 1960s showed undreamed-of possibilities—and temptations. Moved by visionaries like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcom X, Kenny risks the draft as he plunges into civil rights activism. With surprising business savvy, Frankie expands his grandfather's Harlem underworld empire to feed the growing demand for drugs—and his hunger to be the city's biggest kingpin. Ray dreams of being a doctor, but his near-addictive desires lead him to a near-fatal confrontation . . . and a different sort of healing.

But as the 1970s unwind, Kenny dedicates himself to revenge as well as social work—forming a dangerous alliance that puts him at an inescapable crossroads. Used to sexual playgrounds like Studio 54, Frankie falls for the one woman he shouldn't want. And Ray embarks on a dangerous double life that throws him into conflict with his deepest convictions.

With its relentless materialism, the 1980s will take these friends from a scandal-ridden Gracie Mansion mayoral campaign to wrenching urban change that will alter their old neighborhood forever. Kenny, Frankie, and Ray must decide how far they will pursue dreams that can guarantee success—or disaster. And each must come to terms with the kind of man he wants to be—no matter the consequences . . .

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Best Brain Ever

Unleash the full potential of your brain with Best Brain Ever! This engaging guide helps kids discover the secrets to creativity, focus, friendship, stress management, and thriving in a tech-filled world. Designed as a children's version of Sharp: 14 Simple Ways to Improve Your Life with Brain Science, this book is packed with tools, tips, and myth-busting facts that even grown-ups get wrong.

  • Unlock Your Potential: Discover how to embrace challenges with a growth mindset and bust common myths about your brain, like the idea of being "left-brained" or "right-brained." (Your whole brain is on your team!)
  • Harness Creativity: Find out how constraints can actually make you more creative.
  • Master Focus: Learn how exercise can sharpen your focus and how to manage ADHD effectively (and even turn it into a superpower).
  • Build Better Connections: Strengthen your social intelligence--your ability to understand what others are feeling--and make lasting friendships.
  • Find Calm: Learn stress-busting techniques that will help you feel better even during tough times.
  • Thrive in a Tech-Filled World: Understand how your brain handles texting, posting, and screen time--and why it's important to take control of your tech use.
     

Best Brain Ever is packed with actionable tips and backed by science that's made understandable thanks to author Therese Huston. Whether you're boosting your creativity, building friendships, or navigating technology, this book will help you think sharper, feel better, and become the best version of yourself.

Start your journey to a smarter, happier brain today!

Mayo Clinic Press Kids creates empowering health and wellness content in partnership with pediatric experts. Proceeds from the sale of every book go to benefit important medical research and education at Mayo Clinic.

Coming Soon - Adults

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Language as Liberation

Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Beloved Toni Morrison investigates Black characters in the American literary canon and the way they shaped the nation’s collective unconscious.

In a dazzling series of lectures from her tenure as a professor at Princeton University, Toni Morrison interrogates America’s most famous works and authors, drawing a direct line from the Black bodies that built the nation to the Black characters that many of the country’s canonical white writers imagined in their work. Morrison sees these fictions as a form of creation and projection, arguing that they helped manufacture American racialidentity—these “Africanist” presences are “the shadow that makes light possible,” as Morrison writes, and the reflections of their authors’ own deepest fears, insecurities, and longings.

With profound erudition and wit, Morrison breaks wide open the American conception of race with energetic, enlivening readings of the nation’s canon, revealing that our liberation from these diminishing notions comes through language. “How,” Morrison wonders, “could one speak of profit, of economy, of labor, or progress, of suffragism, or Christianity, of the frontier, of the formation of new states, the acquisition of new lands . . . of practically anything a new nation concerns itself with—without having as a referent, at the heart of the discourse or defining its edges, the presence of Africans and/or their descendants?”

To read these lectures, collected here for the first time, is to encounter Morrison, not just the writer but also the teacher, in the most penetrating and subversive way yet. With a foreword by her son Ford Morrison and an introduction by her Princeton comparative literature colleague Claudia Brodsky, Language as Liberation is a revelatory collection that promises to redefine the American canon.

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Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter

A woman who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montréal turns to a grouchy but charming magician to help save her shelter in this heartwarming cozy fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series.

“Absolutely magnificent! Full of cats and magic, this is the kind of book you want to instantly reread. I loved every character, every cat, and every moment with all my heart!”—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop

Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life, and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for stray cats.

Now it’s the shelter that needs a new home. And the only landlord who will rent a space to a cat rescue is a mysterious man called Havelock—who also happens to be the world’s most infamous magician, running an illegal magic shop out of his basement. Havelock is cantankerous and eccentric, but not not handsome, and no, Agnes absolutely does not feel anything but disdain for him. After all, rumors swirl about his shadowy past—including whispers that his dark magic once almost brought about the apocalypse.

Then one day a glamorous magician comes looking for Havelock, putting the magic shop—and the cat shelter—in jeopardy. To save the shelter, Agnes will have to team up with the magician who nearly ended the world . . . and may now be trying to steal her heart.

Havelock is everything Agnes thinks she doesn’t need in her life: chaos, mischief, and a little too much adventure. But as she gets to know him, she discovers that he’s more than the dark magician of legend, and that she may be ready for a little intrigue—and romance—in her life. After all, second chances aren’t just for rescue cats. . . .

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After The Fall

Part alien invasion story, part buddy comedy, and part workplace satire, After The Fall by Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7 (inspiration for the film Mickey 17), asks an important question: would humans really make great pets?

Humans must be silent. Humans must be obedient. Humans must be good.

All his life, John has tried to live by those rules. Most days, it’s not too difficult. A hundred and twenty years after The Fall, and a hundred years after the grays swept in to pick the last dregs of humanity out of the wreckage of a ruined world, John has found himself bonded to Martok Barden nee Black Hand, one of the "good" grays. Sure, Martok is broke, homeless, and borderline manic, but he’s always treated John like an actual person, and sometimes like a friend. It’s a better deal than most humans get.

But when Martok puts John’s bond up as collateral against an abandoned house in the woods that he hopes to turn into a wilderness retreat for wealthy grays, John learns that there are limits to Martok’s friendship. Soon he finds himself caught between an underworld boss who thinks Martok is something that he very much is not, a girl who was raised by feral humans and has nothing but contempt for pets like John, and Martok himself, whose delusions of grandeur seem to be finally catching up with him. 

Also, not for nothing, something in the woods has been killing people.

John has sixty days before Martok’s loan comes due to unravel the mystery of how humans wound up holding the wrong end of the domestication stick and find a way to turn Martok’s half-baked plans into profit enough to buy back his life, all while avoiding getting butchered by feral humans or having his head crushed by an angry gray. Easy peasy, right?

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Throne of Secrets

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Two rivals torn apart by a dark memory reunite on a deadly hunt--and in an irresistibly twisted fairy tale--in the next steamy standalone fantasy romance from New York Times bestselling sensation Kerri Maniscalco.

A wicked prince determined to save his kingdom.

Gabriel Axton--infamous as the Prince of Gluttony, the self-proclaimed rake of rakes--has always lived for indulgence: in delicious food, in tantalizing women, and most of all, in the thrill of the hunt, where his love of danger can take over. But when his favorite adventure takes a deadly turn, he realizes something is very wrong in his demon court. With the clock ticking, he must turn to the only one who might uncover the truth: a journalist he has spent a decade avoiding...

A reporter hell-bent on finding the truth.

Adriana Saint Lucent has been on the hunt for years--if she could just report something damning enough about that no-good scoundrel Gabriel Axton, she knows others would finally see the demon as she does. But she never expected to turn up a rumor too terrifying to be believed: could the ice dragons to the north be growing restless? Drawn into the secrets of the Underworld, Adriana's investigation leads her into the place she dreads most...Axton's infamous court. 

A dangerous rivalry--and deliciously twisted fairy tale.

To stop darkness from falling over their kingdom, Axton and Adriana will have to unite against an escalating danger. But with each holding tight to their own secrets, can they find the truth before it's too late? And what will they do with an equally troubling rumor: that they might not actually hate one another, after all?