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Week of March 9, 2020

New in Paperback

Week of March 9, 2020

Lisa See's THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN is about female friendship and family secrets on a small Korean island. It is an epoch set over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War and its aftermath, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for female divers. Other paperback releases for the week of March 9th include THE MOTHER-IN-LAW by Sally Hepworth, a twisty, compelling novel about one woman's complicated relationship with her mother-in-law that ends in death; THE UNWINDING OF THE MIRACLE, a powerful, honest and inspirational memoir from Julie Yip-Williams, a young mother who, at the age of 37, was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer; and Cara Robertson's THE TRIAL OF LIZZIE BORDEN, which tells the true story of one of the most sensational murder trials in American history, and is based on 20 years of research and recently unearthed evidence.

And They Called It Camelot: A Novel of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis by Stephanie Marie Thornton - Historical Fiction

March 10, 2020

Few of us can claim to be the authors of our fate. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy knows no other choice. With the eyes of the world watching, Jackie uses her effortless charm and keen intelligence to carve a place for herself among the men of history and weave a fairy tale for the American people, embodying a senator’s wife, a devoted mother, a First Lady --- a queen in her own right. But all reigns must come to an end. Once JFK travels to Dallas and the clock ticks down those thousand days of magic in Camelot, Jackie is forced to pick up the ruined fragments of her life and forge herself into a new identity that is all her own, that of an American legend.

The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World's Greatest Library by Edward Wilson-Lee - Biography

March 10, 2020

THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS tells the story of the first and greatest visionary of the print age, a man who saw how the explosive expansion of knowledge and information generated by the advent of the printing press would entirely change the landscape of thought and society. He also happened to be Christopher Columbus’ illegitimate son. At the peak of the Age of Exploration, while his father sailed across the ocean to explore the boundaries of the known world, Hernando Colón sought to surpass Columbus’ achievements by building a library that would encompass the world and include “all books, in all languages and on all subjects.”

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend by Jenny Colgan - Fiction/Humor

March 10, 2020

Sophie Chesterton is London’s “It Girl”. She knows all the right people, goes to all the right parties, and wears all the right clothes…and her rich parents pay for everything. But deep down she suspects that her best “friends” --- and her posh lifestyle --- are nothing but shallow fakes. Then one evening Sophie’s life takes a shocking, drastic turn, and her father decides it’s high time for the party girl to make her own way in the world. Forced to earn a meager living as a lowly assistant to a “glamour” photographer, live in a shabby flat with four smelly boys, and eat baked beans from the can --- Sophie is desperate to get her old life back, at any cost. But does a girl really need diamonds to be happy?

Footprints in the Dust: Nursing, Survival, Compassion, and Hope with Refugees Around the World by Roberta Gately - Memoir

March 10, 2020

Roberta Gately is a nurse and humanitarian aid worker who has served in war zones ranging from Africa to Afghanistan aiding refugees. Just the word refugee sparks conversation and fuels emotion. There are more than 22 million refugees worldwide and another 65 million who have been forcibly displaced. But who are these people? Images filter into our consciousness via dramatic photographs --- but these photos only offer a glimpse into their stories. FOOTPRINTS IN THE DUST aims to share the real stories of refugees around the world in hopes of revealing the truth about their experience.

Girl Can't Help It: A Krista Larson Mystery by Max Allan Collins - Mystery/Thriller

March 10, 2020

No sooner do Hot Rod and the Pistons reunite for their induction into the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame than two band members take a final bow. Both alleged suicides. With replacements at the ready, the Pistons are back on home turf to headline the first ever Rock and Country Music Fest. Police Chief Krista Larson and her father, Keith, suspect that there may be more to the band members’ untimely deaths than anyone else can see. As Krista and Keith navigate the investigation, a dark picture of the band’s rocky history begins to take center stage. As betrayal, revenge and blackmail start playing out in the present, the father-daughter team fear that this encore may be the band’s finale.

Glimpse by Jonathan Maberry - Supernatural Thriller/Horror

March 10, 2020

Rain Thomas is a young woman trying to rebuild her life after years of drug addiction and abuse. Ten years ago, at age 16, she gave up her baby after the father, her first love, died in Iraq. Now, three years clean and on the way to a job interview, Rain borrows a pair of reading glasses from an old lady on a Brooklyn train. The lenses are cracked, and through the crack she catches a glimpse of a little boy running and screaming. The boy looks so much like Rain’s dead lover --- like their son must look now. But how does a recovering junkie fight supernatural monsters? And how far will one woman go to save her lost son?

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See - Historical Fiction

March 10, 2020

Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger. Little do they know that after surviving hundreds of dives and developing the closest of bonds, forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point.

The Keeper by Jessica Moor - Literary Thriller/Mystery

March 10, 2020

When Katie Straw's body is pulled from the waters of the local suicide spot, the police are ready to write it off as a standard-issue female suicide. But the residents of the domestic violence shelter where Katie worked disagree. These women have spent weeks or even years waiting for the men they're running from to catch up with them. They know immediately: This was murder. Still, Detective Dan Whitworth and his team expect an open-and-shut case --- until they discover evidence that suggests Katie wasn't who she appeared.

Marching Toward Madness: How to Save the Games You Always Loved by John LeBar and Allen Paul - Sports

March 9, 2020

Impelled by runaway spending and rampant corruption, America’s much-beloved games of college basketball and football have not been so threatened since the widespread cheating scandals in the early 1950s. The specter of billion-dollar sums being showered on imperial coaches, voracious athletic directors, hordes of support staff, and lavish comforts for fat-cat fans has led to a near-deafening roar to pay the players. The injustice of such sums being amassed, in the main, from the labor of young men of color --- many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds --- cannot be justified. But MARCHING TOWARD MADNESS cites 21 reasons why the pro-pay position is wrong, while presenting comprehensive reforms to end cheating and corruption in college sports, put academics first, and end the peonage of non-white athletes once and for all.

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

March 10, 2020

From the moment Lucy met her husband’s mother, she knew she wasn’t the wife Diana had envisioned for her perfect son. Exquisitely polite, friendly and always generous, Diana nonetheless kept Lucy at arm’s length despite her desperate attempts to win her over. That was five years ago. Now, Diana is dead, a suicide note found near her body claiming that she longer wanted to live because of the cancer wreaking havoc inside her body. But the autopsy finds no cancer. It does find traces of poison, and evidence of suffocation. Who could possibly want Diana dead? Why was her will changed at the 11th hour to disinherit both of her children and their spouses? And what does it mean that Lucy isn’t exactly sad she’s gone?

The Peacock Feast by Lisa Gornick - Fiction

March 10, 2020

In June 1916, eccentric glass genius Louis C. Tiffany dynamites the breakwater at Laurelton Hall --- his fantastical Oyster Bay mansion --- so as to foil the town from reclaiming the beach for public use. The explosion shakes both the apple crate where Prudence, the daughter of Tiffany’s prized gardener, is sleeping and the rocks where Randall, her seven-year-old brother, is playing. Nearly a century later, Prudence receives an unexpected visit from Grace, a hospice nurse and Randall’s granddaughter. The mementos Grace carries from her grandfather’s house stir Prudence’s long-repressed memories and bring her to a new understanding of the choices she made in work and love, and what she faces now in her final days.

Recursion by Blake Crouch - Science Fiction/Thriller

March 10, 2020

At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery --- and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself. In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth --- and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery...and the tools for fighting back. Together, Barry and Helena will have to confront their enemy --- before they, and the world, are trapped in a loop of ever-growing chaos.

The Satapur Moonstone: A Mystery of 1920s India by Sujata Massey - Historical Mystery

March 10, 2020

India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Sahyadri mountains, where the princely state of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur’s royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic hunting accident. Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s only female lawyer, is determined to bring peace to the royal house and make a sound recommendation for the young crown prince’s future, but she arrives to find that the Satapur palace is full of cold-blooded power plays and ancient vendettas. Too late, she realizes she has walked into a trap. But whose? And how can she protect the royal children from the palace’s deadly curse?

Schrödinger's Dog written by Martin Dumont, translated by John Cullen - Fiction

March 10, 2020

Yanis’ world is Pierre, the son he raised as a single parent. For nearly 20 years, Yanis spent his nights as a cab driver with Pierre always at his side, so as not to miss a moment in each other’s company. Yanis and Pierre also share a love of diving --- in pursuit of that magical moment when they lose themselves in the deep sea. When enveloped by the natural world, father and son relish an escape from life’s pressures. But for some time, Pierre has been tired. Too tired. Despite how attentively Yanis watched him, Yanis missed the early signs of illness. Faced with the harsh reality of his son’s numbered days, Yanis struggles to invent a life his son won’t have the time to live.

Shelter from the Machine: Homesteaders in the Age of Capitalism by Jason G. Strange - History & Culture/Anthropology

March 10, 2020

In SHELTER FROM THE MACHINE, Jason Strange shows where homesteaders fit, and don't fit, within contemporary America. Blending history with personal stories, Strange visits pig roasts and bohemian work parties to find people engaged in a lifestyle that offers challenge and fulfillment for those in search of virtues like self-employment, frugality, contact with nature, and escape from the mainstream. He also lays bare the vast differences in education and opportunity that leave some homesteaders dispossessed, while charting the tensions that arise when people seek refuge from the ills of modern society --- only to find themselves indelibly marked by the system they dreamed of escaping.

Tomorrow There Will Be Sun by Dana Reinhardt - Fiction

March 10, 2020

Two families arrive in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. Jenna has organized the trip to celebrate her husband's 50th birthday. However, as the families settle into their vacation routines, their best friends suddenly seem like annoying strangers, and even Jenna's reliable husband, Peter, is sharing clandestine phone calls with someone. But who? Jenna's teenage daughter, Clem, is spending an awful lot of time with Malcolm, whose questionable rep got him expelled from school. Jenna's dream of the ultimate celebration begins to crack and eventually crumbles completely, leaving her wondering whom she can trust, and whether her privileged life is about to be changed forever.

The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Story by Cara Robertson - True Crime/History

March 10, 2020

When Andrew and Abby Borden were brutally hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts, in August 1892, the arrest of the couple’s younger daughter Lizzie turned the case into international news and her murder trial into a spectacle unparalleled in American history. Reporters flocked to the scene. Well-known columnists took up conspicuous seats in the courtroom. The defendant was relentlessly scrutinized for signs of guilt or innocence. Everyone --- rich and poor, suffragists and social conservatives, legal scholars and laypeople --- had an opinion about Lizzie Borden’s guilt or innocence. Was she a cold-blooded murderess or an unjustly persecuted lady? Did she or didn’t she?

Triple Jeopardy: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry - Historical Mystery

March 10, 2020

Daniel Pitt, along with his parents, Charlotte and Thomas, is delighted that his sister, Jemima, and her family have returned to London from the States for a visit. But the Pitts soon learn of a harrowing incident: In Washington, D.C., one of Jemima’s good friends has been assaulted and her treasured necklace stolen. The perpetrator appears to be a man named Philip Sidney, a British diplomat stationed in America’s capital who, in a cowardly move, has fled to London, claiming diplomatic immunity. But that claim doesn’t cover his other crimes. When Sidney winds up in court on a separate charge of embezzlement, it falls to Daniel to defend him.

Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams - Romantic Comedy

March 10, 2020

Liv Papandreas has a dream job as a sous chef at Nashville’s hottest restaurant. Too bad the celebrity chef owner is less than charming behind kitchen doors. After she catches him harassing a young hostess, she confronts him and gets fired. Liv vows revenge, but she’ll need assistance to take on the powerful chef. Unfortunately, that means turning to Braden Mack. When Liv is blackballed from the restaurant scene, the charismatic nightclub entrepreneur offers to help expose her ex-boss, but she is suspicious of his motives. He’ll need to call in reinforcements: the Bromance Book Club. Inspired by the romantic suspense novel they’re reading, the book club assists Liv in setting up a sting operation to take down the chef.

The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After by Julie Yip-Williams - Memoir

March 10, 2020

Born blind in Vietnam, Julie Yip-Williams narrowly escaped euthanasia at the hands of her grandmother, only to flee with her family the political upheaval of her country in the late 1970s. Loaded into a rickety boat with 300 other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon at UCLA gave her partial sight. She would go on to become a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family and a life she had once assumed would be impossible. Then, at age 37, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began. THE UNWINDING OF THE MIRACLE is the story of a vigorous life refracted through the prism of imminent death.

The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman - Historical Fiction

March 10, 2020

Two estranged sisters, raised in Brooklyn and each burdened with her own shocking secret, are reunited at the Springfield Armory in the early days of WWII. While one sister lives in relative ease on the bucolic Armory campus as an officer’s wife, the other arrives as a war widow and takes a position in the Armory factories as a “soldier of production.” Resentment festers between the two, and secrets are shattered when a mysterious figure from the past reemerges in their lives.