Harlem Library

Merry Christmas from the Harlem Public Library! The library will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. We will be closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

The Book Challenge for December is to read a play. Let us know the title of the play you read and your name will be entered into a drawing for a gift certificate from a local business. Keep watching for the new book challenge for 2016.

The used book sale continues through the month of December. Remember the proceeds support the children’s summer reading program.

Stop by a pick up some wonderful holiday reading from the Christmas Book Tree. On these cold winter nights, curl up with a great book that will be sure to warm your heart.

There are many new books ready for check out. “The Secret Chord” is by Geraldine Brooks. This novel explores the life of King David of Israel as he moves from shepherd to soldier, hero to traitor, and young tyrant to remorseful old age. The story is told through the eyes of Nathan, David’s courtier.

The new Heather Graham work is “The Hidden,” the latest of the Krewe of Hunter series. Shortly after the Civil War, Nathan Kendall and his wife were murdered in Estes Park, Colorado, leaving behind a young son. This crime was never solved. Scarlet Bartow is now working at a small museum, the same building where the murders occurred. She is recently divorced from FBI agent Diego McCullough, who works for the Krewe of Hunters. When the statues of historic people, including Nathan Kendall, start talking to Scarlet she calls in Diego to help solve this bizarre case.

Two new nonfiction works include the biography of Frank Sinatra titled “Sinatra: The Chairman” by James Kaplan and “Tough as Nails” by SSG Travis Mills, who shares his story of becoming a quadruple amputee while serving in Afghanistan.

JoJo Moyes has written “After You.” Louisa Clark has returned home to her family after losing her love, Will Traynor, and to recover from an extraordinary accident. She joins the Moving On support group where she meets paramedic Sam Fielding. A figure from Will’s past appears and all her plans are disrupted.

Margaret Holloway is rear-ended and trapped in the worst pileup in London history. Just before her car is engulfed in flames, Margaret is pulled from the car by a disfigured stranger who then disappears. Following the crash, Margaret suffers from flashbacks to the accident that also dredge fragments of childhood events that have been wiped from her memory. Somehow these memories she chose to forget have something to do with the man who saved her. Don’t miss “Everything She Forgot” by Lisa Ballantyne.

Bestselling author Robin Cook’s latest work is “Host.” Lynn Peirce is a fourth-year medical student at South Carolina’s Mason-Dixon University. Her boyfriend, Carl, enters the hospital for routine surgery but fails to return to consciousness after the procedure, and an MRI confirms brain death. Convinced there’s more to the story, Lynn hunts down evidence of medical error or malpractice. What she uncovers leads to death threats and a desperate race to find answers.

Three new inspirational novels include “Luther and Katharina” by Jody Hedlund, “Ties That Bind” by Cindy Woodsmall, and “Irish Meadows” by Susan Anne Mason.