Library News

A graphic of an orange cookbook with a measuring cup and a wooden spoon.
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Recipe Club and Potluck: March 2026

Get recipes from this month's Recipe Club & Potluck program-- including pasta salad, homemade crackers, and lots of cookies-- and register for April's Recipe Club program taking place on Friday, April 10 @ 1:00 pm!
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Michelle and her Mom at Ale Together Now
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Ale Together Now: NA Beers!

If a beer doesn't contain alcohol, does it still offer the same flavor and complexity as a regular beer? Our most recent Ale Together Now program evaluates the many flavors and styles of non-alcoholic beer, and dives into the interesting process of brewing an NA beer, too!
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A child posing next to the new sensory/manipulative toys in the Youth department.
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Learn about the Friends of Cromaine, and the Incredible Impact They Make on Our Library and In Our Community!

The Friends of Cromaine formed in 1976 to serve the Library and the Hartland community through fundraising and volunteerism. Learn about the many projects that the Friends have taken on over the years, the tremendous impact they've had on our Library, and how easy it is to get involved!
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New at Cromaine

Book cover for "Ruby Falls"

Ruby Falls

One body. Five suspects. Total darkness.

A tense, claustrophobic historical mystery set almost entirely underground at the onset of the Great Depression about the discovery of a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain, the unthinkable crime that happens in its caves, and a woman who's never felt more alive.

In 1928, a Chattanooga man disappears down a hole in the ground and discovers a 150-foot waterfall in the middle of a mountain that he names after his wife: Ruby Falls. Within months, visitors can buy tickets to see the falls for themselves. Ada Smith has been sneaking into the caves at night, entranced by the natural wonders around her and the freedom granted by this new underground world.

But it's tough timing for a natural wonder. As the country flounders in the Great Depression, a shrewd public relations ploy seems like the only way to save Ruby Falls. A famous mind reader and mystic agrees to launch himself into the Ruby Falls caverns where he will attempt to locate a hidden hatpin using only his psychic abilities. He'll be joined by five others: his manager, his wife, a guide, a Chattanooga businessman, and a reporter from the Chicago Times. But they're not alone in the caverns. Ada and another guide, Quinton, have been asked to follow the mind reader's party at a distance, staying out of sight. They are a safety net, in case of a broken leg or busted flashlights.

One of them will be dead before the end of the day.

Faced with a corpse and the stark reality that one of the people in her midst is a killer, Ada needs to get everyone--the murderer and the innocents--back aboveground before their light runs out.

Ruby Falls is both a unique twist on the locked-room mystery and an exploration of loss and what it means to start over. It's a heart-racing story of survival and a testament to the threads that bind strangers together. Set against the true story of the discovery of Ruby Falls, the novel also draws on the memoirs of Katie Stabler, a female guide at Wind Caves in South Dakota.

Book cover for "Too Blessed to Stress"

Too Blessed to Stress

For fans of Bad Summer People and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, four influencers begin to suspect their mega-church's new pastor isn't as devoted as he seems, and must decide if exposing him is worth revealing their own secrets.

"A delightful satire full of tenderness and heart. Alli has the ears of a journalist and the gentle touch of a friend." --Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author

"Alli Hoff Kosik's debut is a triumph." --Meg Cabot, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Camryn, Savannah, Trishy, and Kristin are #blessed. As influencers at the hottest megachurch in town, Moving Word, the quartet is committed to sharing everything from modest (but on-trend!) style tips to advice on finding the godliest man possible. Across platforms (#synergy), they show just how easy it is to be a modern, Christian woman--especially if you use their discount codes. 

But behind their veneer (and veneers), the truth isn't quite so picture perfect. Despite her popular lifestyle videos, Camryn is barely making ends meet. Savannah struggles to break free of her reality TV upbringing and start a family of her own, while Trishy attempts to leave her less-than-holy past behind. And Kristin, the group's youngest member, isn't finding it as easy to fit in as their color-coordinated outfits make it seem. 

When Moving Word's charming leader, Pastor Kyle, and his ridiculously perfect wife, Cassidy, decide to host a lavish fundraiser to put the megachurch further on the map, Camryn, Savannah, Trishy, and Kristin find themselves knee deep in the most important event since the Last Supper. But the brighter the spotlight, the darker the shadows--and when the women discover an incendiary secret at the heart of Moving Word, they are forced to confront questions of hypocrisy, exposure, and how to wield one's power for good.

Book cover for "The Invincible Brain"

The Invincible Brain

A USA TODAY Bestseller

In just 12 weeks, you can take major steps to prevent and reverse cognitive decline, boost memory, and enhance mental sharpness at any age. A leading neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University unveils a groundbreaking glimpse into the remarkable, resilient brain, and offers a science-backed plan to unlock its true potential.

Dr. Majid Fotuhi, MD, PhD, world-renowned neurologist and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins, is leading the charge in revolutionizing how we understand human intelligence, brain health, and age-related cognitive decline. In this pioneering book, he reveals the true wonder of how the brain works and its infinite potential for growth and change. Supported by over 35 years of original research, The Invincible Brain demonstrates how targeted lifestyle changes can prevent, treat, and even reverse mild cognitive impairment, early Alzheimer's disease, dementia, ADHD, and concussion symptoms.

Dr. Fotuhi's 12-week program is backed by extraordinary clinical results, published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, showing that more than 80% of patients achieve exceptional improvements in memory, focus, and other cognitive functions. In elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment, MRIs show a 3% increase in the volume of the hippocampus, the key brain region for learning and memory.

This actionable guide provides a step-by-step formula for unlocking your brain's hidden potential, building resilience, and maximizing mental acuity at any age. In this book, you'll discover:

  • The Five Pillars of Brain Health: The most essential strategies to optimize fitness, sleep, nutrition, mindset, and brain training for lifelong cognitive vitality.
  • A New Understanding of Alzheimer's: The truth about dementia and Alzheimer's, including the latest in testing and treatment.
  • Customizable Brain Exercises: Fun, scalable techniques to enhance memory, problem-solving, and focus.
  • A Brain-Boosting Diet Plan: A nutrient-rich plan that can reduce markers of Alzheimer's disease and keep your brain up to 18 years younger.
  • Stress Management Tools: DIY biofeedback and mindfulness practices that can boost heart rate variability to build a calmer and more resilient brain.
  • Sleep Optimization Techniques: Proven methods to boost deep sleep for overnight brain detoxification and renewal.

The Invincible Brain delivers everything you need to empower your brain to thrive--in as little as 12 weeks. Your smarter, sharper future begins now.

Book cover for "Gems and the New Science"

Gems and the New Science

The first book-length history of gems in early modern science offers a thought-provoking new take on the Scientific Revolution.

In Gems and the New Science, Michael Bycroft argues that gems were connected to major developments in the "new science" between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. As he explains, precious and semiprecious stones were at the center of dramatic shifts in natural knowledge in early modern Europe. They were used to investigate luminescence, electricity, combustion, chemical composition, and more. They were collected by naturalists; measured by mathematicians; and rubbed, burned, and dissolved by experimental philosophers. This led to the demise of the traditional way of classifying gems--which grouped them by transparency, color, and locality--and the turn to density, refraction, chemistry, and crystallography as more reliable guides for sorting these substances.

The science of gems shows that material evaluation was as important as material production in the history of science. It also shows the value of seeing science as the product of the interaction between different material worlds. The book begins by bringing these insights to bear on five themes of the Scientific Revolution. Each of the subsequent chapters deals with a major episode in early modern science, from the expansion of natural history in the sixteenth century to the emergence of applied science early in the nineteenth century. This important work is not only the first book-length history of the science of gems but also a fresh interpretation of the Scientific Revolution and an argument for using a new form of materialism to understand the evolution of science.

Book cover for "Starry and Restless"

Starry and Restless

"Read this book and be enthralled." —The New York Times

A Parade Most-Anticipated Book of the Year

The page-turning story of three women reporters and the way they changed the world, work, and journalism. 

She hid on a Red Cross boat to reach Omaha Beach on D-Day. She walked the abandoned streets of Hong Kong to take food to her daughter’s father, a prisoner of war. She fought off the advances of overzealous Yugoslavian diplomats, found overlooked details of world history in a dentist’s kitchen in Sarajevo. She traveled alone to Mexico. She traveled alone to Congo. She traveled alone to the American South. She married Hemingway. She married a Chinese poet-playboy-publisher, then married a British war hero. She fell in love with H. G. Wells. She gave birth and raised a child on her own. She landed on the front page of the newspaper. She wrote for the great magazines of her time—Vogue, The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar. She wrote a play. She wrote a memoir. She wrote a genre-breaking travel narrative. She wrote bestsellers. She wrote and wrote and wrote. She changed the very way we think about writing and the way journalists craft stories—which sources are viable, which details are important—and the way women move and work in the world.

She was Martha Gellhorn. She was Emily “Mickey” Hahn. She was Rebecca West. Each woman was starry-eyed for success, for adventure, and helped ensure that other starry and restless women could make unforgettable lives for themselves. They fought for their lives and their work. They were praised and criticized for it all. 

In language as lively and nimble, in passages as intimate and adventurous, and with conviction as fierce and indefatigable as her subjects’ own, Julia Cooke’s Starry and Restless plays out the stories of three women across three decades and five continents. Martha, Mickey, Rebecca—journalists, authors, mothers, lovers, friends. These women didn’t just bear witness to the great changes of the twentieth century; their curiosity, grit, ambition, and stories changed the world.

Book cover for "The Old Fire"

The Old Fire

“Vivid and intriguing...Evokes unresolved family history with subtle heat.” —The New York Times

From National Book Award–winning Elisa Shua Dusapin, a subtle yet powerful portrayal of family, secrets, and silence set against the backdrop of a crumbling house in the French countryside—perfect for readers of Katie Kitamura and Elena Ferrante.

“A bewitching meditation on tenderness and violence, intimacy and estrangement, The Old Fire will transport you to an ancient and wild place, immersing you in its temperatures and rainfalls, its grief and grace and sound and silence. You won’t be the same when you leave it.” —Tess Gunty, National Book Award–winning author of The Rabbit Hutch

Through the window, I can see a light inside.

Agathe leaves New York and returns to her home in the French countryside, after fifteen years away.

She and her sister Véra have not seen each other in all those years, and they carry the weight of their own complicated lives. But now their father has died, and they must confront their childhood home on the outskirts of a country estate ravaged by a nearby fire before it is knocked down. They have nine days to empty it. As the pair clean and sift through a lifetime’s worth of belongings, old memories, and resentments surface.

Tender and tense, haunting and evocative, The Old Fire is Elisa Shua Dusapin’s most personal and moving novel yet. An exploration of time and memory, of family and belonging, it is also a graceful and profound look at the unsaid and the unanswered, the secrets that remain, and whether you can ever really go home again.

“A touching, mysterious novel, imbued with the beauty and strangeness of a fairy tale.” —Aysegül Savas, author of The Anthropologists

“Dusapin has a rare and ferocious gift for pinning the quick, slippery, liveness of feeling to the page: Her talent is a thrill to behold.” —Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

Book cover for "Super Nintendo"

Super Nintendo

An exuberant, behind-the-scenes look at the designers and the company that brought us Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, and so much more, illuminating Nintendo's singular ethos, its massive cultural impact, and the innovative solutions behind its creative triumphs

“Comprehensive but never too dense, informative but approachable, and packed with an unwavering passion for Nintendo that I'd wager even the company's biggest detractors would find infectious. In short, if you want to learn about Nintendo, this is the book to do it.” —Jim Norman, Nintendo Life

What magical mushroom could have turned an unassuming playing card company into one of the dominant cultural forces of the twenty-first century?

In Super Nintendo, lifelong gamer and a renowned video games journalist Keza MacDonald traces Nintendo back to its quirky beginnings in 1889. Leaping from game to game, she tells the remarkable story of the people who brought us Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and more—not to mention the SNES, N64, Game Boy, Wii, Switch, and a host of other wacky gizmos—and charts the delights they’ve offered over the decades. 

MacDonald draws on private interviews with icons like Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, who continues to leave his stamp on the company, and takes readers on a trip to the secretive Nintendo HQ—making her one of the few Western journalists to have set foot inside the building. Along the way, she provides a close-up look at the company's willingness to take risks and place long-term success over short-term profits.

A carousel of wonders, Super Nintendo whisks you back to the couch in the den, a controller in your hands for the very first time, staring up at a screen of infinite possibilities.

Book cover for "Plant This, Not That"

Plant This, Not That

A comprehensive guide to creating a native plant garden anywhere in the contiguous United States, with an easy-to-follow, "this, not that" format.

"A timely, ever-so-useful guide" --Douglas W. Tallamy, author of Nature's Best Hope

These days, home gardeners know that many traditional, non-native garden plants--like English ivy, barberry, and burning bush--don't support our bees, butterflies, birds, and other creatures. And that native plants are more likely to thrive, because they evolved as part of the local ecology, so they often require less fussy maintenance and don't depend on pesticides and fertilizers. But gardeners ready to make the switch may ask: Where do I begin? And how do I find the best native plants for my landscape?

Plant This, Not That considers some of the most common non-native (and often, invasive) plants in North American gardens and suggests substitutions for more beneficial and equally beautiful natives. Each native plant listing includes a full-color photo, along with sun, water, and soil requirements; ornamental features (including bloom time and color and whether the plant has berries, fruit, and/or fall color); and the pollinators known to depend on and support that plant. Accompanying maps show every plant's locally native range, down to the county level. The book also features an overview of how native plants contribute to our local ecosystems, where to shop for them, advice on maintaining a mostly native garden, and resources to learn more about native planting.