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The SEKnFind Newsletter
December 2025
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We hope you enjoy this newsletter sent as a courtesy to adult patrons of a southeast Kansas library using the SEKnFind catalog.
This selection of titles are NEW at a SEKnFind library and available for a hold.
Need assistance? Your local librarian can show you how!
Happy Reading!
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Best Offer Wins
by Marisa Kashino
A desperate buyer on the edge. In Marisa Kashino’s darkly humorous debut novel, Best Offer Wins, the white picket fence becomes the ultimate symbol of success–and obsession. How far would you go for the house of your dreams? Eighteen months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, 37-year-old publicist Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband Ian — and in turn, get their marriage, plan to have a baby, and whole life back on track — Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it’s publicly listed and the masses descend (with unbeatable, all-cash offers in hand). A little stalking? Harmless. A bit of trespassing? Necessary. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners’ lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged–but just when she thinks she’s won them over, she hits a snag in her plan. Undeterred, Margo will prove again and again that there’s no boundary she won’t cross to seize the dream life she’s been chasing. The most unsettling part? You’ll root for her, even as you gasp in disbelief. Dark, biting, and laugh-out-loud funny, Best Offer Wins is a propulsive debut and a razor-sharp exploration of class, ambition, and the modern housing crisis.
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Peter Pulaski Must Pay
by Jen Lancaster
Call to order the Friday Night Doom Crew. They’re an eclectic group of true-crime enthusiasts–a forensic psychologist, historian, and popular Instagram presence among them–dedicated to sleuthing out nefarious offenders and doing whatever it takes to set things right. But when dark secrets threaten one of their own, the Doom Crew grapples with how far they are willing to go to protect her Diana Pulaski is the crew’s meticulously organized beating heart whose physician husband, Peter, is secretly a swindler behind an illegal pill mill, not to mention a loathsome cheater involved in an online romance. When they discover the truth, the amateur vigilantes have a plan to make Peter pay. Unfortunately, the closer Diana’s friends are to hunting Peter down, the closer they get to discovering a secret Diana has been hiding–
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The Wrong Sister
by Claire Douglas
In this sensational thriller from the number-one internationally bestselling author, two sisters discover that the secrets they keep from each other prove to be deadly.–Provided by publisher.
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The Forget-Me-Not Library
by Heather Webber
Juliet Nightingale is lucky to be alive. Months after a freak accident involving lightning, she’s fully recovered but is left feeling that something is missing from her life. Something big. Impulsively, she decides to take a solo summer road trip, hoping that the journey will lead her down a path that will help her discover exactly what it is that she’s searching for. Newly single mom Tallulah Byrd Mayfield is hanging by a thread after her neat, tidy world was completely undone when her husband decided that their marriage was over. In the aftermath of the breakup, she and her two daughters move in with her eighty-year-old grandfather. Tallulah starts a new job at the Forget-Me-Not Library, where old, treasured memories can be found within the books-and where Lu must learn to adapt to the many changes thrown her way. When a road detour leads Juliet to Forget-Me-Not, Alabama, and straight into Tallulah’s life, the two women soon discover there’s magic in between the pages of where you’ve been and where you still need to go. And that happiness, even when lost, can always be found again–
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Dead Ringer
by Chris Hauty
Set in present-day, a disgraced former Secret Service [officer] and a Jesuit professor join forces to delve into the mysteries surrounding the events of November 22, 1963. Fixated on deciphering the conspiracies behind the history-changing assassination, they are oblivious to the fact that the cabal is still active–and may face an end as bloody as the carnage in Dealey Plaza. Will they be able to uncover the truth in time? Or will they become two more footnotes in history?–
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Second Chance Romance: A Harlot’s Bay Novel
by Olivia Dade
Karl and Molly were never together. There was a time, right after high school, where it seemed like they might finally cross the line from friends to lovers–but instead, a foolish misunderstanding meant they never spoke again. Molly went to LA and got married. Karl stayed in Harlot’s Bay and bought a bakery. The only connection the pair has shared over the years is painfully one-sided: now divorced, Molly narrates monster romance audiobooks, and Karl is an ever-diligent listener, clinging to his only piece of the one that got away. Still, Molly hasn’t totally left Harlot’s Bay behind. When she hears that Karl’s obituary has run in the local paper, unexpected grief prompts her to hop on the next flight to Maryland–where she finds Karl very much alive, the victim of nothing but an accidental obituary–
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It Was Her House First
by Cherie Priest
Venita Rost, a former silent film star, has stayed put for the last century-fuming and raging, luring investors and ambitious DIYers to their doom in her haunted home on the cliff. But her nemesis also remains: a once-famous detective she blames for the death of her daughter. Inspector Bartholomew Sloan blames himself, too. He couldn’t save Priscilla any more than he could save his best friend from the noose. Or save himself from Venita’s wrath. Now all he can do is watch as Venita lures each new owner to their death, trapped in this house of horror he helped create and unable to do anything to stop it–
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I, Medusa
by Ayana Gray
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – From New York Times bestselling author Ayana Gray comes a captivating villain origin story (People Book of the Week), reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents–both gods, albeit minor ones–she dreams of leaving her family’s island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home. In the colorful market streets of Athens and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena’s favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, the course of Meddy’s promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered. When her locs are transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity–not as a victim, but as a vigilante–and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth. Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the crosscurrents between her heart’s deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play.
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Cold Eternity
by S. A. Barnes
Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth’s most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago… The cryo program, created by trillionaire tech genius Zale Winfeld, is long defunct, and the AI hologram hosts, ghoulishly created in the likeness of Winfeld’s three adult children, are glitchy. The ship feels like a crypt, and the isolation gets to Halley almost immediately. She starts to see figures crawling in the hallways, and there’s a constant scraping, slithering, and rattling echoing in the vents. It’s not long before Halley realizes she may have gotten herself trapped in an even more dangerous situation than the one she was running from…–Provided by publisher.
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Pariah
by Dan Fesperman
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2025 – An adrenaline-fueled thriller about a disgraced comedian-turned-politician who takes on the role of a lifetime: infiltrating a corrupt Eastern European country to spy on their brutal dictator.
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Wild Instinct
by T. Jefferson Parker
The hunt for the truth is the deadliest game. Lew Gale, a former Marine sniper, now an Orange County California Sheriff’s detective, is assigned to track and shoot a mountain lion that has killed a man in Caspers Park, located in the rugged country east of Laguna Beach, California. The victim is Bennet Tarlow, a rich developer and man-about-town in upscale coastal Orange County. The investigation takes a chilling turn when Lew and his new partner, Daniela Mendez, discover that Bennet was dead long before the lion got to him. And while Bennet might have been the first to die, he certainly will not be the last–
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The Pride of Texas
by Dusty Richards
Twin brothers Andrew and Jackson Franks have lived and worked under the iron fist of their father, Prior, for as long as they can remember. But when a petty household argument turns violent and Prior shoots and kills their mother before turning the gun upon himself, the boys are left with nothing but each other and the family’s hardscrabble South Texas ranch. Andrew’s a planner and a thinker, while Jackson’s a workhorse with a stubborn streak a couple miles wide. They’ve both got dreams of climbing out of the dust to become real Texas cattleman, but they’ll need a hell of a lot more than hope to make it happen. They’ll need luck, too, a whole damn heap of it… and it comes in a form they never imagined.
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The Tin Men
by Nelson DeMille
At a top-secret Army training facility in the Mojave Desert, Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor plunge into a deadly web of military intrigue, AI technology, and robot soldiers as they unravel the shocking murder of a senior scientist in this gripping thriller from New York Times bestselling authors Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille.
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Evil Bones
by Kathy Reichs
Kathy Reichs returns with a twisty, magnetic thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who finds herself enmeshed in a series of grisly animal killings that escalate into something far more sinister.
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The Tortoise’s Tale
by Kendra Coulter
Snatched from her ancestral lands, a giant tortoise finds herself in an exclusive estate in southern California where she becomes an astute observer of societal change. Her journey is one of discovery, as she learns to embrace the music of jazz and the warmth of human connection. Through each era, the tortoise remains a refreshingly honest, humble, and endearing narrator.
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Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books
by Hwang Bo-Reum
From the author of the international bestseller Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, a heartfelt invitation to reflect on your relationship with reading and celebrate the joys of books.
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The Best True Crime Stories of the Year 2025
by Book Author
Bestselling author Douglas Preston selects the best true crime writing from the past year, aided by series editor Pete Crooks, to produce an eclectic collection of intriguing, mysterious, and exciting true tales.
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Gardenista: The Low-Impact Garden: A Guide to Creating Sustainable Outdoor Spaces
by Kendra Wilson
In Gardenista The Low Impact Garden, author Kendra Wilson covers everything you need to know to create a garden that’s good for the planet, and to create beautiful and well designed outdoor spaces. This comprehensive guide to eco conscious gardening features in depth garden tours of all sorts, from a wildflower prairie in the Midwest to an indoor outdoor garden in London, a forest garden in Vancouver to a permaculture garden in Australia. There are breakouts on specific garden types, like front yards and rooftop gardens, as well as practical advice on green approaches to key garden elements, lawns, soil, trees and shrubs, water, and even pools. With three hundred and fifty full color photographs, a round up of standout eco conscious garden tools, expert advice, resources, and more, Gardenista The Low Impact Garden is the ultimate handbook for creating sustainable outdoor spaces– Provided by publisher.
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Rooted in Fire: A Celebration of Native American and Mexican Cooking
by Pyet DeSpain
Next Level Chef winner Pyet De Spain celebrates her Mexican and Native American heritage in this collection of mouthwatering recipes, a vibrant fusion that ties us to the land and to one another.Star chef Pyet DeSpain rose to prominence as the first winner of Gordon Ramsey’s Fox television show Next Level Chef. Now, in her debut cookbook, she shares the joy of cooking fueled by her burning passion for Native American and Mexican American cuisine. Rooted in Fire: A Celebration of Native American and Mexican Cooking is a tribute to her dual heritage–a gorgeously crafted celebration of the diversity of food and the stories, traditions, culture, and profound philosophies of Indigenous people that season each meal.Pyet shows you how to incorporate a delicious range of key ingredients–from venison, dandelion greens, to sunchokes, bison, and native berries–into more than sixty fusion dishes. Family and friends will be excited to gather around the table to enjoy sweet and savory food such as: Three Sisters SaladBison and Sweet Corn SoupFry BreadMexican Chocolate & Mezcal CakeCorn Silk and Honey TeaWojapi BBQ SauceIn addition to her inventive and palate pleasing recipes, Pyet invites home cooks to honor the seasons on our beautiful Earth and connect with essential foodways. This is more than just a cookbook, Pyet writes. It’s giving a voice to Indigenous people, while also highlighting the fusion of my two cultures with fire and purpose.
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Scrap Quilts from Crumbs, Strips and Strings: Use Up Every Last Piece with 15 Scrap Quilt Patterns
by Emily Bailey
Every piece must go with this practical guide to quilt making by using even the tiniest pieces of scrap fabric from your stash. No piece is too small when you follow author Emily Bailey’s advice on how to turn all your fabric crumbs, strips and string scraps into beautiful patchwork quilts and quilted projects.Includes step-by-step instructions for how to turn fabric scraps into pieces of patch-worked fabric to use in quilted projects.Author Emily Bailey explains how to use modern cutting techniques like the AccuQuilt cutter to make scrap quilting quicker and easier.Includes 15 patterns for quilted projects including full-size bed quilts, through to smaller projects for quicker makes. This is the ultimate zero waste guide to patchwork and quilting, designed to get you raiding your stash and turning your scraps into beautiful finished makes.
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Dog Only Knows: The Dog Portraits of Alison Friend
by Alison Friend
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER Dog Only Knows is the perfect gift for dog lovers, featuring over 125 irresistible portraits by acclaimed artist Alison Friend–each uniquely mischievous, funny, and full of personality. Meet Midge, who keeps her mind sharp with a Rubik’s Cube. Alan, who looks like a million dollars in his new harness. Lola, whose motto is People to see, bums to sniff. Chupa Chops–how did he unwrap that lollipop? The oh-so-earnest Clive, who does everything–biscuit eating, squirrel chasing, ball fetching–with a single-minded focus. Irrepressible Debbie, who loves cocktail night, and Little Louis, a chain-smoking existentialist who can’t stop chewing over the canine condition. Usually with an espresso. Welcome to Alison Friend’s world of dogs, a singular and very special place created by an artist with a unique gift for depicting that ineffable thing we call character–dog characters, actually–using oil paint, empathy, techniques of the Old Masters, and an imagination like no other. With their big expressive eyes and Mona Lisa smiles, charming habits and childlike pleasures, the subjects of these portraits seem all too human yet fantastically doglike. Perfectly capturing–as Little Louis would tell you–the canine condition, like you’ve never seen it before.
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Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone
by Mark Lee Gardner
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday: legendary gunfighters and friends who gained immortality because of a thirty-second shootout near a livery stable called the O.K. Corral. Their friendship actually began three years before that iconic 1881 gunfight, in the rollicking cattle town of Dodge City. Wyatt, an assistant city marshal, was surrounded by armed, belligerent cowboys. Doc saw Wyatt’s predicament from a monte table in the Long Branch saloon and burst out the door with two leveled revolvers shouting, ‘Throw up your hands!’ The startled cowboys did, and Wyatt and Doc led them off to jail. Wyatt credited Doc with saving his life, and thus began their lasting–and curious–friendship. In this … dual biography, … the lives of these two men, one a sometime lawman and the other a sometime dentist, are chronicled in a swirling tableau of saloons, brothels, gambling dens, stage holdups, arrests, manhunts, and revenge killings–
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Even more reading suggestions
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NextReads Sneak Peek
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