New items are available at the Hancock County Public Library.
The following items are available at the Hancock County Public Library, 900 W. McKenzie Road. For more information on the library’s collection or to reserve a title, visit hcplibrary.org.
Adult Fiction
“The Gifted School,” by Bruce Holsinger
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Set in the fictional town of Crystal, Colorado, “The Gifted School” observes the drama within a community of friends and parents as good intentions and high ambitions collide in a pile-up with long-held secrets and lies. Seen through the lens of four families who’ve been a part of one another’s lives since their kids were born more than a decade ago, the story reveals not only the lengths that some adults are willing to go to get ahead, but the effect on the group’s children, sibling relationships, marriages and careers, as simmering resentments come to a boil and long-buried, explosive secrets surface and detonate. It’s a humorous, keenly observed, timely take on ambitious parents, willful kids, and the pursuit of prestige, no matter the cost. “The Gifted School” captures the relentless ambitions and fears that animate parents and their children in modern America, exploring the conflicts between achievement and potential, talent and privilege.
Adult Nonfiction
“Jerome Robbins, by Himself: Selections from His Letters, Journals, Drawings, Photographs, and an Unfinished Memoir,” by Jerome Robbins and Amanda Vail
He was famous for reinventing the Broadway musical, creating a vernacular American ballet, pushing the art form where it had never gone before, integrating dance seamlessly with character, story and music and partnered with George Balanchine, shaping the New York City Ballet for more than five decades through his choreography in ballet’s classical idiom. He was known as the king of Broadway, the most sought-after director-choreographer and show doctor who gave shape to “On the Town” (1944), “The King and I” (1951), “Peter Pan” (1954), “West Side Story” (1957), “Gypsy” (1959), “Funny Girl” (1964) and “Fiddler on the Roof” (1964), winning four Tony Awards, two Oscars and an Emmy. He shocked and betrayed those he loved and worked with by naming names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. (“I betrayed my manhood, my Jewishness, my parents, my sister,” he wrote in a diary. “I can’t undo it.”) Amanda Vaill, Jerome Robbins’ biographer and authority, draws on Robbins’ archives to put together a selection of his writings and a revealing glimpse into the mind and heart of this cultural giant.
