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Week of June 19, 2023

New in Paperback

Week of June 19, 2023

Paperback releases for the week of June 19th include THE 6:20 MAN, a brilliant thriller from David Baldacci in which a cryptic murder pulls a former soldier turned financial analyst deep into the corruption and menace that prowl beneath the opulent world of finance; COLD, COLD BONES, Kathy Reichs' 21st novel of suspense featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who, after receiving a box containing a human eyeball, uncovers a series of gruesome killings eerily reenacting the most shocking of her prior cases; BITTERSWEET by Susan Cain, an Oprah's Book Club pick that explores the power of the bittersweet personality, revealing a misunderstood side of mental health and creativity while offering a roadmap to facing grief in order to live life to the fullest; and Ron Shelton's THE CHURCH OF BASEBALL, the extremely entertaining behind-the-scenes story of the making of the cult classic Bull Durham --- courtesy of the award-winning screenwriter and director of the film --- and an insightful primer on the art and business of moviemaking.

The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci - Thriller

June 20, 2023

Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city's most prestigious investment firm. Then one morning, Devine's tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead. Sara Ewes, Devine's coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building, prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn't enough, before the day is out, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm.

Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain - Psychology/Personal Growth

June 20, 2023

With QUIET, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an un­tapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she em­ploys the same mix of research, storytelling and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity, con­nection and transcendence. Cain shows how a bittersweet state of mind is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain, whether from a death or breakup, addiction or illness. If we don’t acknowledge our own heartache, she says, we can end up inflicting it on others via abuse, domination or neglect. But if we realize that all humans know --- or will know --- loss and suffering, we can turn toward one another.

The Bullet That Missed: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman - Mystery

June 20, 2023

It is an ordinary Thursday, and things finally should be returning to normal. Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club is concerned. A decade-old cold case --- their favorite kind --- leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers. Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill or be killed. Suddenly the cold case has become red hot. While Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim chase down the clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham by Ron Shelton - Performing Arts/Sports

June 20, 2023

Bull Durham, the breakthrough 1988 film about a minor league baseball team, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, Ron Shelton was a first-time director, and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball --- especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner’s leading-man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. But something miraculous happened, and THE CHURCH OF BASEBALL attempts to capture why. From organizing a baseball camp for the actors and rewriting key scenes while on set, to dealing with a short production schedule and overcoming the challenge of filming the sport, Shelton brings to life the making of this beloved American movie.

Cold, Cold Bones: A Temperance Brennan Novel by Kathy Reichs - Mystery/Thriller

June 20, 2023

Freed from a heavy work schedule, Tempe Brennan is content to dote on her daughter, Katy, finally returning to civilian life from the army. But when mother and daughter meet at Tempe’s place one night, they find a box on the back porch with a very fresh human eyeball in it. GPS coordinates etched into the eyeball lead to a Benedictine monastery where an equally macabre discovery awaits. Soon after, Tempe examines a mummified corpse in a state park. There seems to be no pattern to the subsequent killings uncovered, except that each mimics in some way a homicide that a younger Tempe had been called in to analyze. Could this elaborately staged skein of mayhem be the prelude to a twist that is even more shocking?

Daphne by Josh Malerman - Thriller/Horror

June 20, 2023

It’s the last summer for Kit Lamb: The last summer before college. The last summer with her high school basketball team, and with Dana, her best friend. The last summer before her life begins. But the night before the big game, one of the players tells a ghost story about Daphne, a girl who went to their school many years ago and died under mysterious circumstances. Some say she was murdered, others that she died by her own hand. And some say that Daphne is a murderer herself. They also say that she is still out there and will appear to kill again anytime someone thinks about her. After Kit hears the story, her teammates vanish, one by one, and she begins to suspect that the stories about Daphne are real…and fears that her own mind is conjuring the killer.

Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century by Roseanne Montillo - True Crime/History

June 20, 2023

When Ann Woodward shot her husband, banking heir Billy Woodward, in the middle of the night in 1955, her life changed forever. Though she claimed she thought he was a prowler, few believed the woman who had risen from charismatic showgirl to popular socialite. Everyone had something to say about the scorching scandal afflicting one of the most rich and famous families of New York City, but no one was more obsessed with the tale than Truman Capote. Capote decided that the story of Ann’s turbulent marriage would be the basis of his masterpiece --- a novel about the dysfunction and sordid secrets revealed to him by his high society “swans” --- never thinking that it eventually would lead to Ann’s suicide and his own scandalous downfall.

The Drowning Sea: A Maggie D'arcy Mystery by Sarah Stewart Taylor - Mystery

June 20, 2023

For the first time in her adult life, former Long Island homicide detective Maggie D’arcy is unemployed. But her summer vacation on a remote West Cork peninsula takes a dangerous turn when human remains wash up below the steep cliffs of Ross Head. When construction worker Lukas Adamik disappeared months ago, everyone assumed he had gone home to Poland. Now that his body has been found, the guards seem to think he threw himself from the cliffs. But as Maggie gets to know the residents of the nearby village and learns about the history of the peninsula and its abandoned Anglo Irish manor house, once home to a famous Irish painter who died under mysterious circumstances, she starts to think there's something else going on. Something deadly.

Flying Solo by Linda Holmes - Fiction

June 20, 2023

Smarting from her recently canceled wedding and about to turn 40, Laurie Sassalyn returns to her Maine hometown of Calcasset to handle the estate of her great-aunt Dot, a spirited adventurer who lived to be 93. Alongside boxes of Polaroids and pottery, a mysterious wooden duck shows up at the bottom of a cedar chest. Laurie’s curiosity is piqued, especially after she finds a love letter to the never-married Dot that ends with the line “And anyway, if you’re ever desperate, there are always ducks, darling.” Laurie is told that the duck has no financial value. But after it disappears under suspicious circumstances, she feels compelled to figure out why anyone would steal a wooden duck --- and why Dot kept it hidden away in the first place.

Gods of Want: Stories by K-Ming Chang - Fiction/Short Stories

June 20, 2023

In “Auntland,” a steady stream of aunts adjust to American life by sneaking surreptitious kisses from women at temple, buying tubs of vanilla ice cream to prepare for citizenship tests, and hatching plans to name their daughters “Dog.” In “Xífù,” a mother-in-law tortures a wife in increasingly unsuccessful attempts to rid the house of her. In “Mariela,” two girls explore one another’s bodies for the first time in the belly of a plastic shark. And in “Resident Aliens,” a former slaughterhouse serves as a residence to a series of widows, each harboring her own calamitous secrets. With each tale, K-Ming Chang gives us her own take on a surrealism that mixes myth and migration, corporeality and ghostliness, queerness and the quotidian.

The Happiness Plan by Susan Mallery - Fiction

June 20, 2023

Heather has a successful business, a cute but contemptuous cat, and best friends Daphne and Tori. So why does she feel crushed when her ex gets serious about someone new? More connections will hold her together while her world falls apart, so she finally reaches out to the stranger who might be her dad. Daphne isn’t having an emotional affair, despite what her husband believes. He started the rift in their marriage when he said they weren’t ready for a baby. Can they find their way back to one another before it’s too late? When Tori forms an inconvenient crush on Daphne’s brother-in-law, she suppresses her feelings. Until her apartment floods, and she moves in with the dog-loving doctor. If things go wrong, she could lose her friends. But if they go right, she could lose her heart.

The Ink Black Heart: A Cormoran Strike Novel by Robert Galbraith - Mystery

June 20, 2023

When a frantic Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The cocreator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity. Robin decides that the agency can’t help with this --- and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart. Robin and her business partner, Cormoran Strike, find themselves embroiled in a case that threatens them in new and horrifying ways.

Joan: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Katherine J. Chen - Historical Fiction

June 20, 2023

1412. France is mired in a losing war against England. Its people are starving. Its king is in hiding. From this chaos emerges a teenage girl who will turn the tide of battle and lead the French to victory, becoming an unlikely hero whose name will echo across the centuries. This meticulously researched novel is a sweeping narrative of Joan of Arc's life, from a childhood steeped in both joy and violence, to her meteoric rise to fame at the head of the French army, where she navigates the perils of the battlefield and the equally treacherous politics of the royal court. Many are threatened by a woman who leads, and Joan draws wrath and suspicion from all corners, while her first taste of fame and glory leaves her vulnerable to her own powerful ambition.

Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair by June Gervais - Fiction

June 20, 2023

Introvert Gina Mulley is determined to become a tattoo artist, and to find somewhere she belongs in her conventional Long Island town. But this is 1985, when tattooing is still a gritty, male-dominated fringe culture, and Gina’s funky flash is not exactly mainstream tattoo fare. The good news is that her older brother Dominic owns a tattoo shop, and he reluctantly agrees to train her. Gina has a year to prove herself, but her world is turned upside down when a mysterious psychic and his striking assistant, Anna, arrive on the scene. With Anna’s help, Gina recognizes that the only way she has a shot at becoming a professional tattoo artist is to embrace her quirkiness both in her art and her life.

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh - Historical Fantasy

June 20, 2023

Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, believes his mother died giving birth to him. One of Marek’s few consolations is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina. For some people, Ina’s ability to receive transmissions of sacred knowledge from the natural world is a godsend. For others, Ina’s home in the woods is a godless place. The people’s desperate need to believe that there are powers that be who have their best interests at heart is put to a cruel test by their depraved lord and governor, especially in this year of record drought and famine. But when fate brings Marek into violent proximity to the lord’s family, new and occult forces arise to upset the old order. By year’s end, the veil between blindness and sight, life and death, and the natural world and the spirit world will prove to be very thin indeed.

The Men by Sandra Newman - Science Fiction

June 20, 2023

Deep in the California woods, Jane Pearson is camping with her husband, Leo, and their five-year-old son, Benjamin. As dusk sets in, she drifts softly to sleep in a hammock strung outside the tent where Leo and Benjamin are preparing for bed. At that moment, every single person with a Y chromosome vanishes around the world. Leo and Benjamin are gone. After the Disappearance, Jane forces herself to enter a world she barely recognizes, one where women must create new ways of living. Meanwhile, strange video footage called “The Men” is being broadcast online showing images of the vanished men marching through barren, otherworldly landscapes. Is this just a hoax, or could it hold the key to the Disappearance?

More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez - Literary Thriller/Mystery

June 20, 2023

In 1985, Lore Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City, even though she is already married to Fabian Rivera in Laredo, Texas, and they share twin sons. Through her career as an international banker, Lore splits her time between two countries and two families --- until the truth is revealed and one husband is arrested for murdering the other. In 2017, struggling true-crime writer Cassie Bowman encounters an article on the internet detailing that tragic final act. Cassie is immediately enticed by what is not explored: Why would a woman --- a mother --- risk everything for a secret double marriage? But the more time she spends with Lore, the more Cassie questions the facts surrounding the murder itself.

Mr. Breakfast by Jonathan Carroll - Fiction/Magical Realism

June 20, 2023

Graham Patterson’s life has hit a dead end. His career as a comedian is failing. The love of his life recently broke up with him, and he literally has no idea what to do next. With nothing to lose, he buys a new car and hits the road, planning to drive across the country and hopefully figure out his next moves before reaching California. But along the way, Patterson does something his old self would never have even considered: he gets tattooed by a brilliant tattoo artist in North Carolina. The decision sets off a series of extraordinary events that changes his life forever. Among other things, Patterson is gifted with the ability to see in real time three different lives that are available to him. The choice is his: The life he is leading right now, or two very different ones.

Sister Mother Warrior by Vanessa Riley - Historical Fiction

June 20, 2023

Vanessa Riley, the acclaimed author of ISLAND QUEEN, brings readers a vivid, sweeping novel of the Haitian Revolution based on the true-life stories of two extraordinary women: Marie-Claire Bonheur, the first Empress of Haiti, and Gran Toya, a West African-born warrior who helped lead the rebellion that drove out the French and freed the enslaved people of Haiti. SISTER MOTHER WARRIOR tells the often-overlooked history of the most successful Black uprising in history. Riley celebrates the tremendous courage and resilience of the revolutionaries, and the formidable strength and intelligence of Toya, Marie-Claire and the countless other women who fought for freedom.

Summer's Gift by Jennifer Ryan - Fiction

June 20, 2023

All her life, Summer Sutherland felt like the missing piece in a puzzle, left out and looking for the place she truly belongs. And when an at-home DNA test reveals her selfish mother and well-meaning grandfather lied about her father, Summer sets out to discover the truth. Her new instant family comes with two half-sisters: one who accepts her with open arms, the other resistant to the stranger staying in their house. Somehow Summer senses this is where she is meant to be, so she settles into her father’s Carmel home. But while her newfound parent is thrilled to get to know Summer --- and her romantic connection to his business partner, Cody, heats up --- tensions rise within the family. Will she ever fit in? Or should she return to her other life before tearing all their lives apart?

The Zero Night: A Jonathan Stride Novel by Brian Freeman - Mystery/Thriller

June 20, 2023

After nearly dying of a gunshot wound, Jonathan Stride has been on leave from the Duluth Police for more than a year. When his partner, Maggie Bei, gets called about a suspicious abduction involving a local lawyer, she tells Stride it's time for him to come back. Attorney Gavin Webster says he paid $100,000 in ransom money to the men who kidnapped his wife. Now they've disappeared with the cash, and she's still missing. Gavin claims to be desperate to find her --- but Stride discovers that the lawyer had plenty of motive to be the mastermind behind the crime. Even as Stride digs for the truth about Gavin Webster and his wife, he also must deal with a crisis in his own marriage.