Can you believe it’s been a whole year since Peter White started offering Hoopla?

For those of you scratching your heads and going “What’s Hoopla?” — Hoopla is an online media resource not unlike Libby. Using your library card you can create a free account and get four checkouts per month. Hoopla offers a wide selection of ebooks, audiobooks, music, television and more. For this week’s What’s New at Peter White, here are four new ebooks you can check out right now with your library card!

“The Battle Cry of the Siamese Kitten” by Philipp Schott (Nonfiction)

The third book in his series of veterinary anecdotes, Dr. Philip Schott asks us to step into his office for the day-to-day adventures that come with taking care of our furry friends. Schott’s style of writing is humble and down to earth. His stories are brief and some are definitely more engrossing than others, but each one is personal to Schott, which makes them personal to us. “The Battle Cry of the Siamese Kitten” is less the be-all-end-all on veterinary medicine, and feels more like we’ve been invited into Dr. Schott’s home and he’s telling us interesting tidbits over a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Through laughter and heartache, for better or worse, he’s right there with us. Read on to find out how a dog gets drunk, how to ultrasound a fish, and why Dr. Schott is terrified of parrots.

“The World of Pondside” by Mary Helen Stephaniak (Mystery)

Pondside Manor is an underfunded, understaffed nursing home filled with a number of eclectic characters and personalities. One of those characters is Robert Kallman, an ALS patient who spends his days creating a virtual reality game with the help of a young kitchen worker. This is the titular World of Pondside, where residents can relive old memories or fulfill lost dreams all through their computer screen. Until Robert Kallman ends up dead, his wheelchair submerged in the lake, and the Pondside server goes missing. While the police are set to rule Robert’s death as suicide, the other Pondside residents aren’t so sure. There’s more to his death than meets the eye, and it’s up to the seniors and staff to figure out what. A great choice for fans of cozy mysteries looking for something new to sink their teeth into.

“When the Angels Left the Old Country” by Sacha Lamb (Fiction)

An angel and a demon walk into a synagogue, and spend the next 200 years arguing over religion. This isn’t a setup for a joke but the opening to Sacha Lamb’s “When the Angels Left the Old Country.” Uriel and Little Ash have been living in a village so small it has no name for as long as they can remember, and it feels like they always will. But when the baker’s daughter goes missing on her way to America, they know they are the only ones with the means to leave home and find her. The world outside their village is much bigger than either of them imagine, and they’ll need to rely on each other more than ever to complete their quest. For fans of Good Omens and The Good Place, “When the Angels Left the Old Country” is a heartfelt book about the best and the worst of humans, demons and angels.

“Christmas at the Palace: A Cookbook” by Carolyn Robb (Cookbook)

Written by a former royal chef, Christmas at the Palace is the perfect place to find new recipes to make your holidays just a little more special. Chef Carolyn Robb divides each section to compliment a famous British castle or manor house, and included alongside the recipes are beautiful pictures of each location. For breakfast, go sweet with ricotta pancakes and blackberries, or savory with tomato and goat cheese mini frittatas. If you’re looking for a unique homemade gift, Robb includes a section of perfect stocking stuffers, from white chocolate raspberry fudge to a number of flavored salts. And of course, it would hardly be a British Christmas without an afternoon tea. Included are recipes for miniature ginger cakes, raspberry-almond shortbread, and chestnut cream filled brandy snaps. With even more bakes fit for royalty, “Christmas at the Palace” is a great place to start planning your holiday festivities.

By Cat Shattuck,

Reference Assistant