Library News

A graphic of an orange cookbook with a measuring cup and a wooden spoon.
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Recipe Club and Potluck: July 2025

This month's Recipe Club and Potluck program celebrated the flavors of summer! Attendees exchanged recipes for fresh salads, delicious dips, indulgent desserts, and more!

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The Library of Things logo, featuring a ukulele, microscope, telescope, and the CDL gold book/lamp/sun logo.
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Outdoor Fun with the Library of Things!

Summer is in full swing, and these hot, sunny days call for extra outdoor fun!

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A loaf of sourdough bread on a small wooden cutting board, next to a sprig of rosemary.
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Sourdough Recipe Roundup: Our Favorite Recipes, Plus Cookbooks!

Six months ago, one Cromaine staff member gifted a sourdough starter to another.

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New at Cromaine

Book cover for "Taste of Home Made From Scratch"

Taste of Home Made From Scratch

Rediscover the joy of cooking with the Taste of Home Made From Scratch cookbook, featuring over 275 heartwarming recipes designed to bring families together. From time-tested heirloom dishes to your favorite restaurant-style copycat recipes, this collection has something for everyone. 

Over 275 homemade recipes featuring copycat favorites and heirloom dishes.

  • Includes 30 recipes for pantry staples to save money and reduce food waste.
  • Covers breakfast to desserts with easy-to-follow steps and vibrant photos.
  • Recipes come with nutrition facts to support healthy meal planning.
  • Perfect for lovers of traditional cooking with whole, fresh ingredients.

    Each recipe is carefully curated, complete with step-by-step instructions and vivid photos to make sure even novice cooks succeed. Explore chapters covering every meal and occasion, including Breakfast and Brunch, Soups and Stews, Main Courses, Sides and Salads, and Desserts and Sweets. Whether you're making handmade biscuits, hearty casseroles, or decadent pies, these recipes will help you cook meals that taste better from scratch. 

    Need pantry staples? The cookbook includes 30 creative, money-saving recipes for homemade essentials like broth, sauces, and spice blends that reduce food waste while keeping your meals all-natural. 

    Stay informed with nutrition facts provided for every recipe, allowing you to seamlessly plan healthy meals for you and your loved ones. All recipes celebrate the magic of whole, quality ingredients, making this cookbook an essential for every kitchen. 

    Whether you’re perfecting family favorites or exploring new cuisines, the Taste of Home Made From Scratch cookbook will inspire countless culinary memories. Start your cooking adventure today!
Book cover for "The Ambition Trap"

The Ambition Trap

The anti-hustle guide to getting what you really want

AN OPEN FIELD PUBLICATION FROM MARIA SHRIVER

Most of us think ambition means doing everything in our power to get what we want. But this approach costs us our health and wellbeing, and ultimately upholds oppressive systems. In The Ambition Trap, leadership coach Amina AlTai shows you how to break the cycle of overwork once and for all—and finally create the greatest, most joy-filled work of your life.

The thing is, what most of us really want isn’t money or accolades, but acceptance, security, and belonging. When we use external metrics to fulfill these internal wounds and desires nothing ends up being enough, so we work harder and longer in a never-ending cycle—and therein lies the ambition trap. It turns out, we get to have more of what we want when we anchor our ambition to our purpose and not our pain.

Drawing on her work with Fortune 500 leaders, Olympic gold medalists, start-up founders, and former “girlbosses,” AlTai guides you through the process of reconciling your ambition, starting with healing the core wounds and insecurities currently driving you. Along the way, she introduces actionable strategies for aligning your work with your deepest “why,” leaning into your most natural gifts, nourishing yourself in the long-term pursuit of your goals, setting a sustainable pace, and allowing contentment to guide the way.

It turns out, ambition isn’t a dirty word but an invitation to design your life with even greater purpose, meaning, and joy.

Book cover for "Bochica"

Bochica

“An absolutely stunning debut!” —Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Vanishing Daughters

A real-life Latin American haunted mansion. A murky labyrinth of family secrets. A young, aristocratic woman desperate to escape her past. This haunting debut “introduces a powerful new voice in gothic horror” (Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author) and is perfect for fans of Mexican Gothic and The Shining.

In 1923 Soacha, Colombia, La Casona—an opulent mansion perched above the legendary Salto del Tequendama waterfall—was once home to Antonia and her family, who settle in despite their constant nightmares and the house’s malevolent spirit. But tragedy strikes when Antonia’s mother takes a fatal fall into El Salto and her father, consumed by grief, attempts to burn the house down with Antonia still inside.

Three years later, haunted by disturbing dreams and cryptic journal entries from her late mother, Antonia is drawn back to her childhood home when it is converted into a luxurious hotel. As Antonia confronts her fragmented memories and the dark history of the estate, she wrestles with unsettling questions she can no longer ignore: Was her mother’s death by her own hands, or was it by someone else’s?

In a riveting quest for answers, Antonia must navigate the shadows of La Casona as she unearths its darkest secrets in this “delicately told story of how the past always finds us—and how people can be haunted just as surely as places can” (Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author).

Book cover for "Awake in the Floating City"

Awake in the Floating City

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK FROM PEOPLE MAGAZINE • An utterly transporting debut novel about the unexpected relationship between an artist and the 130-year-old woman she cares for—two of the last people living in a flooded San Francisco of the future, the home neither is ready to leave.

"An astonishing work of art...This is the kind of book that changes you, that leaves you seeing more vividly, and living more fully, in its wake." —Rachel Khong, author of Real Americans

Bo knows she should go. Years of rain have drowned the city and almost everyone else has fled. Her mother was carried away in a storm surge and ever since, Bo has been alone. She is stalled: an artist unable to make art, a daughter unable to give up the hope that her mother may still be alive. Half-heartedly, she allows her cousin to plan for her escape—but as the departure day approaches, she finds a note slipped under her door from Mia, an elderly woman who lives in her building and wants to hire Bo to be her caregiver. Suddenly, Bo has a reason to stay.

Mia can be prickly, and yet still she and Bo forge a connection deeper than any Bo has had with a client. Mia shares stories of her life that pull Bo back toward art, toward the practice she thought she’d abandoned. Listening to Mia, allowing her memories to become entangled with Bo’s own, she’s struck by how much history will be lost as the city gives way to water. Then Mia’s health turns, and Bo determines to honor their disappearing world and this woman who’s brought her back to it, a project that teaches her the lessons that matter most: how to care, how to be present, how to commemorate a life and a place, soon to be lost forever.

Book cover for "Quilting the National Parks"

Quilting the National Parks

Quilt unique pieces inspired by the jaw-dropping landscapes from twenty of the United States’ most beloved and scenic National Parks.

Capture the beauty and majesty of the most beautiful places in the National Parks and create a spectacular piece of quilt art with Quilting the National Parks. Master quilter and owner of Bookends Quilting, Stephanie Forster, presents twenty original quilting patterns, each one inspired by the most beloved places in our National Parks, from the Grand Canyon to the Indiana Dunes. From pillows to wall hangings, throws to bed quilts, there is a project for every area of your home and skill level. With clear and concise pattern instructions, glorious images of the finished quilts, and full-size removable templates for the fabric pieces, this book will have you creating a modern masterpiece of some of the most classic landscapes our National Parks have to offer.

WIDE VARIETY OF PATTERNS: More than just quilts, you can make pillow covers, wall hangings and more – something for every space in your home.

FULL-SIZE TEMPLATES: Quilting the National Parks features removable, full-size fabrics templates for every pattern so you can get started on your project right away!

WIDE RANGE OF SKILL: Quilting the National Parks presents detailed yet easy-to-read instructions that appeal to a wide variety of skill levels. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned pro, you can find patterns you’ll love.

INSPIRING IMAGES: Enjoy stunning images of the national park landmarks that inspired these quilt designs.

Book cover for "Amplify"

Amplify

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A blueprint for boosting your activism and building support for the causes you care about, featuring fan-building tactics from the music industry and the voices of today’s most passionate change-makers

“This book shines a light on a wealth of new strategies to help reach people in ways that are both authentic and resonant.”—John Kerry

From stadium acts to indie singer-songwriters, musicians have pioneered ways of sparking passion, building awareness, and catalyzing engagement. Now imagine if social movements—from the fight to protect the planet to campaigns promoting global health or LGBTQIA+ rights—had the same fervent support as your favorite artists.

Adam Met, climate advocate, educator, and member of the multiplatinum band AJR, gained firsthand experience growing an audience from the ground up as the band progressed from playing in living rooms to selling out arenas. With award-winning journalist Heather Landy, Met shows how to apply fan-building strategies to social movements in exciting, inventive ways. Amplify is a playbook for developing passionate supporters (i.e., fans) utilizing the art and science of engagement, collaboration, and authentic connection, with tactics that will inspire people to carry your message to the world and spur others to act.

Amplify’s innovative tool kit will help you find your voice and maximize your impact in the world of social progress to create the change you want to see.

This movement-building manifesto includes cutting-edge research and strategies from today’s most effective organizers, engagers, and thinkers, including extensive interviews with 

Adam Grant (Wharton professor) on embracing disagreement within a movement
Christiana Figueres (Paris Climate Agreement architect) on finding a path to solutions
Andrew Yang (former U.S. presidential candidate) on becoming the front person for your ideas
David Hogg (March for Our Lives co-founder) on the challenges of building a youth-led movement
Chi Ossé (youngest-ever NYC council member) on working outside the box but within the system
Sue Doster (NYC Pride co-chair) on keeping movements nimble and relevant
Glenn Beck (conservative commentator) on finding common ground
Jim Gaffigan (comedian) on setting and achieving goals
Bill Nye (scientist and entertainer) on communication that connects with people
Ben Folds (musician) on staying in sync with your audience
Jamie Drummond (ONE Campaign co-founder) on the beauty of purposeful compromise
Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo (hip-hop scholar) on the intersection of activism and history
Wendy Laister (Duran Duran manager) on harnessing the energy of live events
Clyde Lawrence and Jordan Cohen (of the band Lawrence) on pressing your argument
MAX (musician) on the power of collaboration
Sam Hollander (songwriter) on aligning different perspectives
Astro Teller (co-founder of Alphabet’s X division) on taking moonshots

Book cover for "Sleep"

Sleep

ONE OF “THE BEST SUMMER READS OF 2025” – OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB
ONE OF REAL SIMPLE'S BEST BOOKS OF 2025 

“Incredibly moving." – Ann Patchett

“Propulsive and funny and heartbreaking.” —J. Courtney Sullivan

"An exceptionally moving novel. Jones takes her cues from writers like John Cheever, Richard Yates and Virginia Woolf."—The New York Times

"Profoundly beautiful."— NPR

From a dazzling new talent, the story of a newly divorced young mother forced to reckon with the secrets of her own childhood when she brings her daughters back to the big house where she was raised.

Every parent exists inside of two families simultaneously – the one she was born into, and the one she has made. 

Ten-year-old Margaret hides beneath a blackberry bush in her family’s verdant backyard while her brother hunts for her in a game of flashlight tag. Hers is a childhood of sunlit swimming pools and Saturday morning pancakes and a devoted best friend, but her family life requires careful maintenance. Her mother can be as brittle and exacting as she is loving, and her father and brother assume familiar, if uncomfortable, models of masculinity. Then late one summer, everything changes. After a series of confusing transgressions, the simple pleasures of girlhood, slip away. 

Twenty-five years later, Margaret hides under her parents’ bed, waiting for her young daughters to find her in a game of hide and seek. She’s newly divorced and navigating her life as a co-parent, while discovering the pleasures of a new lover. But some part of her is still under the blackberry bush, punched out of time. Called upon to be a mother to her daughters, and a daughter to her mother, she must reckon with the echoes and refractions between the past and the present, what it means to keep a child safe, and how much of our lives are our own, alone.

Warm and generous, unflinchingly human, and ultimately joyful and empowering, SLEEP is about the cycles of motherhood and childhood, the cost of secrets and the burden of love, and what’s on the other side of silence: the world, rich in possibility.