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Latest Update on Our GoFundMe Campaign
Thank you to those of you who have donated to our GoFundMe campaign. So far, with online and snail mail donations, we have raised $34,190 of our $50,000 goal.
You can read about our plans and donate here. If you would prefer donating via check, please send to:
The Book Report, Inc.
16 Mt. Bethel Road, Suite 365
Warren, NJ 07059
Thank you again for your consideration and your donation.
Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)
In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 6th and July 13th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our Sounding Off on Audio contest for July. This month's prizes are the audio versions of Brad Thor's NEAR DARK, read by Armand Schultz, and Kristin Harmel's THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES, read by Madeleine Maby. Submit your comments about the audiobooks you've listened to by Monday, August 3rd at noon ET, and you'll be in the running to win both these audio titles.
We also are featuring ONE YEAR OF UGLY by Caroline Mackenzie in our New Release Spotlight, and THE WEDDING THIEF by Mary Simses in our Paperback Spotlight. Click on the covers above for about the book descriptions, excerpts and author info for each title.
Below we continue to feature a number of upcoming online book and author events that you may want to have on your radar. In our previous poll, we wanted to know if you attend these kinds of events. Here’s the breakdown of what you virtually attend: Author events (36%), Bookstore events (20%), Publisher-sponsored events (19%), Library events (17%), Book festivals (13%). We also asked what platforms you use to attend these events. Here are your top four preferences: Zoom (36%), Facebook Live (25%), YouTube Live (12%), Crowdcast (10%). Click here for all the results.
BIG NEWS: Our First Live Virtual Reader Event
The Book Report Network Presents:
Bookaccino Live – A Lively Talk About Books
Wednesday, July 15th at 2pm ET
Thanks to all of you who answered our question about the best timing for our first live virtual reader event. We are looking forward to your joining us next Wednesday, July 15th at 2pm ET. We will introduce some of the staff, and then Carol will give a presentation on some great books for summer reading --- and a quick sneak peek into fall. Sign up here for the link to attend via Zoom. You will be sent the login instructions in advance! We are looking forward to “seeing you” there.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
As so many book and author events are happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register.
Wednesday, July 8th at 6pm ET: Virtual Happy Hour with Cara Wall: Join Square Books for a Virtual Happy Hour with Cara Wall for a discussion of her novel, THE DEARLY BELOVED.
Wednesday, July 8th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": Every Wednesday, Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry and Mary Alice Monroe talk books and writing on their "Friends and Fiction" Facebook group page.
Wednesday, July 8th at 8pm ET: Blue Willow Bookshop Virtual Event: Megan Miranda will discuss her latest novel, THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS. This event will take place on Blue Willow's Facebook Live stream.
Thursday, July 9th at 11am ET: Carmel Clay Public Library Virtual Author Visit: Beatriz Williams joins the Carmel Clay Public Library for a virtual author conversation via Facebook Live about her latest novel, HER LAST FLIGHT.
Thursday, July 9th at 12pm ET: Lunch & Learn with Megan Miranda: Join Browseabout Books for a live virtual event with Megan Miranda, who will talk about THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS.
Thursday, July 9th at 1pm ET: Celadon Book Club Live on Instagram: The very first Celadon Book Club discussion will be about SAINT X, with author Alexis Schaitkin, live on Instagram.
Thursday, July 9th at 8pm ET: Left Bank Books Virtual Event: Left Bank Books welcomes international bestselling, award-winning author Susan Wiggs, who will discuss her new novel, THE LOST AND FOUND BOOKSHOP, on Facebook Live.
Friday, July 10th at 12pm ET: Forensic Anthropologist Kathy Reichs: A Novel Approach to Crime Fiction: Smithsonian Associates presents novelist Karin Slaughter in conversation with Kathy Reichs, author of the bestselling Temperance Brennan series, including the most recent installment, A CONSPIRACY OF BONES.
Friday, July 10th at 5pm ET: East End Books Ptown Virtual Book Event: East End Books Ptown is happy to welcome Alex George, author of THE PARIS HOURS, for an exciting evening where you’ll be transported to Paris and a time in the past.
Tuesday, July 14th at 7pm ET: Decatur Book Festival Virtual Event: Join New York Times bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson for a live author conversation with Mary Kay Andrews and Mary Alice Monroe about their books, HELLO, SUMMER and ON OCEAN BOULEVARD, respectively.
Wednesday, July 15th at 2pm ET: The Book Report Network Presents: Bookaccino Live – A Lively Talk About Books: Carol Fitzgerald will give a presentation on some great books for summer reading --- and a quick sneak peek into fall.
This Week's Bonus News:
July's Sounding Off on Audio Contest
Tell us about the audiobooks you’ve finished listening to with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for both the performance and the content. During the contest period from July 1st to August 3rd at noon ET, one lucky reader will be randomly chosen to win the audio versions of Brad Thor's NEAR DARK, read by Armand Schultz, and Kristin Harmel's THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES, read by Madeleine Maby.
To make sure other readers will be able to find the audiobook, please include the full title and correct author names (your entry must include these to be eligible to win). For complete rules and guidelines, click here.
- To see reader comments from previous contest periods, click here.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of July 6th in Hardcover
July 7th
ALICE KNOTT by Blake Butler (Fiction)
Alice Knott lives alone, a reclusive heiress haunted by memories of her deceased parents and mysterious near-identical brother. Much of her family’s fortune has been spent on a world-class collection of artwork, which she stores in a vault in her lonely, cavernous house. One day, she awakens to find the artwork destroyed, the act of vandalism captured in a viral video that soon triggers a rash of copycat incidents. As more videos follow and the world’s most priceless works of art are destroyed one by one, Alice finds that she has become the chief suspect in an international conspiracy --- even as her psyche becomes a shadowed landscape of childhood demons and cognitive disorder.
Riverhead Books | 9780525535218
ANTKIND by Charlie Kaufman (Fiction)
B. Rosenberger Rosenberg, a neurotic and underappreciated film critic, stumbles upon a hitherto unseen film made by an enigmatic outsider --- a film he’s convinced will change his career trajectory and rock the world of cinema to its core. His hands on what is possibly the greatest movie ever made --- a three-month-long stop-motion masterpiece that took its reclusive auteur 90 years to complete --- B. knows that it is his mission to show it to the rest of humanity. The only problem: The film is destroyed, leaving him the sole witness to its inadvertently ephemeral genius. All that’s left of this work of art is a single frame from which B. must somehow attempt to recall the film that just might be the last great hope of civilization.
Random House | 9780399589683
ARTIFACT by Arlene Heyman (Fiction)
Born in Michigan in the early 1940s to a taciturn mother and embittered father, Lottie Kristin is independent from the start, fascinated with the mysteries of nature and the human body. By age 16, she and her sweetheart, cheerful high school sports hero Charlie Hart, have been through a devastatingly traumatic pregnancy. When an injury ends Charlie's football career four years later, the two move to Texas hoping for a fresh start. There, torn between the vitality of the antiwar movement and her family's traditional values, Lottie discovers the joys of motherhood, and reconnects with her interest in biology and experimentation, taking a job as a lab technician. While Charlie's depression pervades their home, Lottie's instinct is toward life.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635574715
A BEAUTIFULLY FOOLISH ENDEAVOR by Hank Green (Science Fiction/Humor)
The Carls disappeared the same way they appeared, in an instant. While the robots were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction with only their presence. Part of their maelstrom was the sudden viral fame and untimely death of April May: a young woman who stumbled into Carl’s path, giving them their name, becoming their advocate, and putting herself in the middle of an avalanche of conspiracy theories. Months later, April’s friends are trying to find their footing in a post-Carl world. Just as it is starting to seem like the gang may never learn the real story behind the events that changed their lives forever, a series of clues arrive --- mysterious books that seem to predict the future and control the actions of their readers --- all of which seems to suggest that April could be very much alive.
Dutton | 9781524743475
THE BEAUTY IN BREAKING: A Memoir by Michele Harper (Memoir)
Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn't move with her. In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, she came to understand that each of us is broken. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process. THE BEAUTY IN BREAKING is the poignant true story of Harper's journey toward self-healing.
Riverhead Books | 9780525537380
BECOMING DUCHESS GOLDBLATT: A Memoir by Anonymous (Memoir)
BECOMING DUCHESS GOLDBLATT is two stories: that of the reclusive real-life writer who created a fictional character out of loneliness and thin air, and that of the magical Duchess Goldblatt herself, a bright light in the darkness of social media. Fans around the world are drawn to Her Grace’s voice, her wit, her life-affirming love for all humanity, and the fun and friendship of the community that has sprung up around her. @DuchessGoldblat (81-year-old literary icon, author of AN AXE TO GRIND) brought people together in her name, and, along the way, brought real friends home --- foremost among them, Lyle Lovett.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358216773
THE BEGINNING OR THE END: How Hollywood — and America — Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb by Greg Mitchell (Film Criticism/History)
Soon after atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, MGM set out to make a movie that studio chief Louis B. Mayer called “the most important story” he would ever film: a big-budget dramatization of the Manhattan Project and the invention and use of the revolutionary new weapon. Over at Paramount, Hal B. Wallis was ramping up his own film version. His screenwriter: the novelist Ayn Rand, who saw in physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer the model for a character she was sketching for ATLAS SHRUGGED. Greg Mitchell’s THE BEGINNING OR THE END chronicles the first efforts of American media and culture to process the Atomic Age.
The New Press | 9781620975732
BEYOND THE MASK: How My Tragedy Sparked an Incredible Life: Lessons I Might Never Have Learned by Brian P. Walsh (Autobiography)
Minutes before then-teenager Brian Walsh was called to help put out another fire, he was on top of the world. An hour later, he had suffered such profound burns to his face that he was unidentifiable to his fellow firefighters. Nearly everyone expected him to die that night. He did not. Boldly forging a path forward with courage, grace and determination, Brian silenced his doubters and defied all expectations. Decades later, Brian is an extraordinarily successful and renowned financial planner, family man, community fixture, philanthropist, motivational speaker and industry leader. In BEYOND THE MASK, he tells his incredible story, sharing the lessons that only tragedy could teach and how they helped him --- and can help anyone --- achieve greater success, inside and out.
Post Hill Press | 9781642934182
THE BONES OF WOLFE: A Border Noir by James Carlos Blake (Noir Thriller)
Rudy and Frank Wolfe are engaging in routine miscellaneous business for their family when they stumble upon a stash of high-quality pornographic films in a raid. The plot thickens when their Aunt Catalina, the family matriarch aged 115, recognizes a resemblance to her long-lost sister in one of the young performers. Catalina tasks the boys with tracking the girl down, however improbable a connection may be. Soon, Rudy and Frank find themselves moving away from the world of porn and towards the upper echelons of the Sinaloa drug cartel, where the mysterious woman has become a particular favorite of the head narco. For their aunt, the woman and themselves, Frank and Rudy must find a way to extract her from the cartel.
Mysterious Press | 9780802156884
BONNIE by Christina Schwarz (Historical Fiction)
Born in a small town in the desolate reaches of western Texas and shaped by her girlhood in an industrial wasteland on the outskirts of Dallas, Bonnie Parker was a natural performer and a star student. She dreamed of being a movie star or a singer or a poet. But her dramatic nature, contorted by her limited opportunities and her overwhelming love for Clyde Barrow, pushed her into a course from which there was no escape but death. Christina Schwarz's novel follows Bonnie from her bright, promising youth to her final month of shoot-outs, kidnappings and desperate car chases through America’s hinterland in the grip of the Great Depression, as the noose of the law tightened around her.
Atria Books | 9781476745459
THE BRIGHT LANDS by John Fram (Supernatural Thriller)
When star quarterback Dylan Whitley goes missing, an unremitting fear grips the town of Bentley, Texas. Joel Whitley was shamed out of conservative Bentley 10 years ago, and while he’s finally made a life for himself as a gay man in New York, his younger brother’s disappearance soon brings him back to a place he thought he’d escaped for good. He and a group of unlikely allies will stir up secrets their town has long tried to ignore, drawing the attention of dangerous men who will stop at nothing to see that their crimes stay buried. But no one is quite prepared to face the darkness that’s begun to haunt their nightmares, whispering about a place long thought to be nothing but an urban legend: an empty night, a flicker of light on the horizon --- The Bright Lands.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335836625
BRIGHT PRECIOUS THING: A Memoir by Gail Caldwell (Memoir)
Gail Caldwell traces a path from her west Texas girlhood through her emergence as a young daredevil, then as a feminist --- a journey that reflected seismic shifts in the culture itself. Caldwell’s travels took her to California and Mexico and dark country roads, and the dangers she encountered were rivaled only by the personal demons she faced. BRIGHT PRECIOUS THING is the captivating story of a woman’s odyssey, her search for adventure giving way to something more profound: the evolution of a writer and a woman, a struggle to embrace one’s life as a precious thing.
Random House | 9780525510055
THE COLD VANISH: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands by Jon Billman (True Crime/Nature)
These are the stories that defy conventional logic. The proverbial vanished without a trace incidences, which happen a lot more (and a lot closer to your backyard) than almost anyone thinks. These are the missing whose situations are the hardest on loved ones left behind. The cases that are an embarrassment for park superintendents, rangers and law enforcement charged with Search & Rescue. The ones that baffle the volunteers who comb the mountains, woods and badlands. The stories that should give you pause every time you venture outdoors.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538747575
THE COLOR OF AIR by Gail Tsukiyama (Fiction)
Daniel Abe, a young doctor in Chicago, is finally coming back to Hawai'i. He has his own reason for returning to his childhood home, but it is not to revisit the past, unlike his Uncle Koji. Koji lives with the memories of Daniel’s mother, Mariko, the love of his life, and the scars of a life hard-lived. He can’t wait to see Daniel, who he’s always thought of as a son, but he knows the time has come to tell him the truth about his mother, as well as his father. But Daniel’s arrival coincides with the awakening of the Mauna Loa volcano, and its dangerous path toward their village stirs both new and long-ago passions in their community.
HarperVia | 9780062976192
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America's Soul by A. J. Baime (Politics/History)
On the eve of the 1948 election, America was a fractured country. Racism was rampant, foreign relations were fraught, and political parties were more divided than ever. Americans were certain that President Harry S. Truman’s political career was over. The only man in the world confident that Truman would win was Mr. Truman himself. And win he did. 1948 was a fight for the soul of a nation. In DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN, A. J. Baime sheds light on one of the most action-packed six months in American history, as Truman not only triumphs, but oversees watershed events --- the passing of the Marshall plan, the acknowledgement of Israel as a new state, the careful attention to the origins of the Cold War, and the first desegregation of the military.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328585066
FLORENCE ADLER SWIMS FOREVER by Rachel Beanland (Historical Fiction)
Atlantic City, 1934. Every summer, Esther and Joseph Adler rent their house out to vacationers and move into the small apartment above their bakery. Despite the cramped quarters, this is the apartment where they raised their two daughters, Fannie and Florence, and it always feels like home. Now Florence has returned from college, determined to spend the summer training to swim the English Channel, and Fannie, pregnant again after recently losing a baby, is on bed rest for the duration of her pregnancy. After Joseph insists they take in a mysterious young woman whom he recently helped emigrate from Nazi Germany, the apartment is bursting at the seams. When tragedy strikes, Esther pulls the family into an elaborate web of secret-keeping and lies, bringing long-buried tensions to the surface.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982132460
FRATERNITY: Stories by Benjamin Nugent (Fiction/Short Stories)
In a Massachusetts college town stands a dilapidated colonial: Delta Zeta Chi. Here, we meet Newton, the beloved chapter president; Oprah, the sensitive reader; Petey, the treasurer, loyal to a fault; Claire, the couch-surfing dropout who hopes to sell them drugs; and a girl known, for unexpected reasons, as God. Though the living room reeks of sweat and spilled beer, the brothers know that to be inside is everything. FRATERNITY celebrates the debauched kinship of boys and girls straddling adolescence and adulthood: the drunken antics, solemn confessions and romantic encounters that mark their first years away from home. Beneath each episode lies the dread of exclusion.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374158606
THE GOLDEN CAGE written by Camilla Läckberg, translated by Neil Smith (Psychological Thriller)
Faye has loved Jack since they were students at business school. Jack, the perpetual golden boy, grew up wealthy, unlike Faye, who has worked hard to bury a dark past. When Jack needs help launching a new company, Faye leaves school to support him, waitressing by day and working as his strategist by night. With the business soaring, Faye and Jack have a baby, and Faye finds herself at home, caring for their daughter, wealthier than she ever imagined. But none of the perks of wealth make up for the fact that Jack has begun to treat her coldly, undermining her intelligence and forgetting all she sacrificed for his success. When Faye discovers that he's having an affair, the polished façade of their life cracks wide open.
Knopf | 9780525657972
THE HEIR AFFAIR by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (Romantic Comedy)
After a scandalous secret turns their fairy-tale wedding into a nightmare, Rebecca "Bex" Porter and her husband, Prince Nicholas, are in self-imposed exile. Cutting themselves off from friends and family, and escaping the world's judgmental eyes, feels like the best way to protect their fragile, all-consuming romance. But when a crisis forces the new Duke and Duchess back to London, the Band-Aid they'd placed over their problems starts to peel at the edges. Now, as old family secrets and new ones threaten to derail her new royal life, Bex has to face the emotional wreckage she and Nick left behind: with the Queen, with the world, and with Nick's brother Freddie, whose sins may not be so easily forgotten --- or forgiven.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538715918
HURRY HOME by Roz Nay (Psychological Thriller)
Alexandra Van Ness has the perfect life. She lives in an idyllic resort town tucked away in the Rocky Mountains, shares a designer loft with her handsome boyfriend, Chase, and has her dream job working in child protection. Every day, Alex goes above and beyond to save children at risk. But when her long-lost sister, Ruth, unexpectedly shows up at her door, Alex's perfect life is upended. Growing up, Ruth was always the troublemaker, pulling Alex into her messes, and this time will be no different. Still, Alex will help Ruth under one condition: we will never, ever, talk about the past. But when trouble befalls a local child, both women are forced to confront the secrets they've promised to keep buried.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781643854793
LAST ONE OUT SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS: Stories by Stephanie Soileau (Fiction/Short Stories)
The 11 stories in LAST ONE OUT SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS feature characters struggling to find a foothold in a world that is forever washing out from under them, people who must reckon with their ambivalence about belonging to a place so continually in flux. We meet a reluctant teenage mother who stows her baby in a closet to steal a night out; a spiteful retiree who sabotages his neighbor in the wake of a hurricane; a Pentecostal singer in a children's theater company who confronts the cultish leader of her troupe; a community of elderly Cajuns who conspire with a family of Sudanese immigrants to hide an escaped cow from the authorities; and a desperate young woman who tries to drag her brother to Mexico for surgery, determined to save his life and her own.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316423403
THE LOST AND FOUND BOOKSHOP by Susan Wiggs (Fiction)
In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits her mother’s charming but financially strapped bookshop in San Francisco. She also becomes caretaker for her ailing grandfather Andrew, who has begun displaying signs of decline. Natalie thinks it’s best to move him to an assisted living facility to ensure the care he needs. To pay for it, she plans to close the bookstore and sell the derelict but valuable building on historic Perdita Street, which is in need of constant fixing. There’s only one problem --- Grandpa Andrew owns the building and refuses to sell. To Natalie’s surprise, her sorrow begins to dissipate as her life becomes an unexpected journey of new connections, discoveries and revelations --- from unearthing artifacts hidden in the bookshop’s walls, to discovering the truth about her family, her future and her own heart.
William Morrow | 9780062914095
MOTHER DAUGHTER WIDOW WIFE by Robin Wasserman (Fiction)
Who is Wendy Doe? The woman, found on a Peter Pan Bus to Philadelphia, has no money, no ID, and no memory of who she is, where she was going, or what she might have done. She’s assigned a name and diagnosis by the state: dissociative fugue, a temporary amnesia that could lift at any moment --- or never at all. When Dr. Benjamin Strauss invites her to submit herself for experimental observation at his Meadowlark Institute for Memory Research, she feels like she has no other choice. To Dr. Strauss, Wendy is a female body, subject to his investigation and control. To Strauss’ ambitious student, Lizzie Epstein, she’s an object of fascination, a mirror of Lizzie’s own desires, and an invitation to wonder: Once a woman is untethered from all past and present obligations of womanhood, who is she allowed to become?
Scribner | 9781982139490
MUZZLED: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Andy Carpenter is a lawyer who would rather not practice law. He'd prefer to spend his time working with the Tara Foundation, his dog rescue organization, and be with his family and his two dogs, Tara and Sebastian. But when a friend asks him for a favor that involves both dogs and his lawyerly expertise, he can't say no. Andy's friend, Beth, has found a stray that seems to have belonged to a murder victim --- in fact, the man and two of his colleagues died in an explosion a few weeks ago. But when the murdered man contacts Beth, asking for his dog back, Andy knows there must be more to the story. The man claims his life is in danger, and that's why he disappeared.
Minotaur Books | 9781250257116
NOTES ON A SILENCING: A Memoir by Lacy Crawford (Memoir)
When the elite St. Paul's School came under state investigation after extensive reports of sexual abuse on campus, Lacy Crawford thought she'd put behind her the assault she'd suffered decades before, when she was 15. With her criminal case file reopened, she saw for the first time evidence that corroborated her memories. Now a wife, mother and writer living on the other side of the country, Crawford learned that police had uncovered astonishing proof of an institutional silencing years before, and that unnamed powers were still trying to block her case. This revelation launched Crawford on an extraordinary inquiry into the ways that gender, privilege and power shaped her experience as a girl at the gates of America's elite.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316491556
OF MUTTS AND MEN: A Chet & Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn (Mystery)
When Chet the dog and his partner, PI Bernie Little of the desert-based Little Detective Agency, arrive to a meeting with hydrologist Wendell Nero, they are in for a shocking sight --- Wendell has come to a violent and mysterious end. What did the hydrologist want to see them about? Is his death a random robbery, or something more? Bernie might be the only one who thinks the police have arrested the wrong man, including the perp’s own defense attorney. Chet and Bernie begin to look into Wendell’s work, a search that leads to a struggling winemaker who has received an offer he can’t refuse. Meanwhile, Chet is smelling water where there is no water, and soon Chet and Bernie are in danger like never before.
Forge Books | 9781250297693
ONE YEAR OF UGLY by Caroline Mackenzie (Fiction/Humor)
Having escaped crumbling, socialist Venezuela, Yola Palacio hopes she and her family can finally settle into a peaceful new life in Trinidad. And so what if they’re there illegally --- them and half the island! But life for the Palacios is never quiet, and when Yola’s formidable Aunt Celia dies, the family once again find themselves living on the edge. For Celia had been keeping a very big secret --- a local criminal called Ugly to whom Celia owes an awful lot of money. Without the funds to pay him off, Ugly forces the entire family to do his bidding until Celia’s debt is settled. But in the midst of the turmoil strolls Roman --- Ugly’s distractingly gorgeous right-hand man. And although she knows it’s a terrible idea and a dangerous betrayal of her family’s predicament, Yola just can’t help herself.
37 Ink | 9781982128913
OUTSIDER by Linda Castillo (Mystery/Thriller)
While enjoying a sleigh ride with his children, Amish widower Adam Lengacher discovers a car stuck in a snowdrift and an unconscious woman inside. He calls upon Chief of Police Kate Burkholder for help, and she is surprised to recognize the driver: fellow cop and her former friend, Gina Colorosa. Years before, Kate and Gina were best friends at the police academy and patrol officers in Columbus, but time and distance have taken them down two very different paths. Now, Gina reveals a shocking story of betrayal and revenge that has forced her to run for her life. She’s desperate for protection, and the only person she can trust is Kate. But can Kate trust her? Or will Gina’s dark past put them all in danger?
Minotaur Books | 9781250142894
THE PARTY UPSTAIRS by Lee Conell (Fiction)
Ruby has a strange relationship to privilege. She grew up the super's daughter in the basement of an Upper West Side co-op that gets more gentrified with each passing year. Her close childhood friendship with Caroline, the daughter of affluent tenants, and the mere fact of living in such a wealthy neighborhood brought her certain advantages, even expectations. Ruby took out loans to attend a prestigious small liberal arts college and explore her interest in art. But now she has been forced by circumstances to move back in with her parents. And Caroline is throwing one of her parties tonight, in her father's glorious penthouse apartment, a party that Ruby looks forward to and dreads in equal measure.
Penguin Press | 9781984880277
THE PATIENT by Jasper DeWitt (Psychological Thriller/Supernatural Horror)
In a series of online posts, Parker H., a young psychiatrist, chronicles the harrowing account of his time working at a dreary mental hospital in New England. Through this internet message board, Parker hopes to communicate with the world his effort to cure one bewildering patient --- a 40-year-old man who was originally admitted to the hospital at age six. This patient has no known diagnosis, and his symptoms seem to evolve over time. Every person who has attempted to treat him has been driven to madness or suicide. Parker takes it upon himself to discover what ails this mystery patient and finally cure him. Facing a possibility beyond his wildest imaginings, Parker is forced to question everything he thought he knew.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358181767
ROCKAWAY: Surfing Headlong into a New Life by Diane Cardwell (Memoir)
Unmoored by a failed marriage and disconnected from her high-octane life in the city, Diane Cardwell finds herself staring at a small group of surfers coasting through mellow waves toward shore --- and senses something shift. ROCKAWAY is the story of one woman’s reinvention --- beginning with Cardwell taking the A Train to Rockaway, a neglected spit of land dangling off New York City into the Atlantic Ocean. She finds a teacher, buys a tiny bungalow, and throws herself headlong into learning the inner workings and rhythms of waves and the muscle development and coordination needed to ride them. As Cardwell begins to find her balance in the water and out, superstorm Sandy hits, sending her into the maelstrom in search of safer ground.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358067788
SENSATION MACHINES by Adam Wilson (Fiction)
Michael and Wendy Mixner are a Brooklyn-based couple whose marriage is failing in the wake of a personal tragedy. Michael, a Wall Street trader, is meanwhile keeping a secret: he lost the couple’s life savings when a tanking economy caused a major market crash. And Wendy, a digital marketing strategist, has been hired onto a data-mining project of epic scale, whose mysterious creator has ambitions to solve a national crisis of mass unemployment and reshape America’s social and political landscapes. When Michael’s best friend is murdered, the evidence leads back to Wendy’s client, setting off a dangerous chain of events that will profoundly change the couple --- and the country.
Soho Press | 9781641291651
THE SHADOWS by Alex North (Thriller)
Twenty-five years ago, teenager Charlie Crabtree committed a murder so shocking that it inspired more than one copycat. Paul Adams remembers the case all too well: Crabtree and his victim were Paul’s friends. Paul has slowly put his life back together but comes back home after his mother, who is suffering from dementia, takes a turn for the worse. Meanwhile, Detective Amanda Beck is investigating another copycat that has struck in the nearby town of Featherbank. Paul’s mother is distressed, insistent that there's something in the house. And someone is following him. Which reminds him of the most unsettling thing about that awful day 25 years ago. It wasn't just the murder. It was the fact that Crabtree was never seen again.
Celadon Books | 9781250318039
THE SON OF GOOD FORTUNE by Lysley Tenorio (Fiction)
Excel knows that his family is far from normal. His mother, Maxima, was once a Filipina B-movie action star who now makes her living scamming men online. The old man they live with is Maxima’s lifelong martial arts trainer. And years ago, on Excel’s 10th birthday, Maxima revealed a secret that he must keep forever: he is undocumented, and one accidental slip could uproot his entire life. Excel joins his girlfriend, Sab, on a journey south to a ramshackle desert town called Hello City, which offers him a chance to forge his own path for the first time. But after so many years of trying to be invisible, who does he want to become? And is it possible to put down roots in a country that has always considered you an outsider?
Ecco | 9780062059574
SURVIVOR SONG by Paul Tremblay (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
In a matter of weeks, Massachusetts has been overrun by an insidious rabies-like virus that is spread by saliva. Those infected quickly lose their minds and are driven to bite and infect as many others as they can before they inevitably succumb. Dr. Ramola "Rams" Sherman receives a frantic phone call from Natalie, a friend who is eight months pregnant. Natalie's husband has been killed --- viciously attacked by an infected neighbor --- and Natalie, too, has been bitten. Her only chance of survival is to get to a hospital as quickly as possible to receive a rabies vaccine. The clock is ticking for her and for her unborn child. Natalie’s fight for life becomes a desperate odyssey as she and Rams make their way through a hostile landscape filled with dangers beyond their worst nightmares.
William Morrow | 9780062679161
TRUE LOVE by Sarah Gerard (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Nina is a struggling writer, a college drop-out, a liar and a cheater. More than anything, she wants love. She deserves it. From the burned-out suburbs of Florida to the anonymous squalor of New York City, she eats through an incestuous cast of characters in search of it: her mother, a narcissistic lesbian living in a nudist polycule; Odessa, a single mom with even worse taste in men than Nina; Seth, an artist whose latest show is comprised of three Tupperware containers full of trash; Brian, whose roller-coaster affair with Nina is the most stable “relationship” in his life; and Aaron, an aspiring filmmaker living at home with his parents, with whom Nina begins to write her magnum opus.
Harper | 9780062937438
WANT by Lynn Steger Strong (Fiction)
Elizabeth is tired. Years after coming to New York to try to build a life, she has found herself with two kids, a husband, two jobs, a PhD --- and now they’re filing for bankruptcy. As she tries to balance her dream and the impossibility of striving toward it while her work and home lives feel poised to fall apart, she wakes at ungodly hours to run miles by the icy river, struggling to quiet her thoughts. When she reaches out to Sasha, her long-lost childhood friend, it feels almost harmless --- one of those innocuous ruptures that exist online, in texts. But her timing is uncanny. Sasha is also facing a crisis, and perhaps after years apart, their shared moments of crux can bring them back into each other’s lives.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250247544
On Sale the Week of July 6th in Paperback
July 7th
AKIN by Emma Donoghue (Fiction)
Noah Selvaggio is a retired chemistry professor and widower living on the Upper West Side, but born in the South of France. He is days away from his first visit back to Nice since he was a child, bringing with him a handful of puzzling photos he's discovered from his mother's wartime years. But he receives a call from social services: Noah is the closest available relative of an 11-year-old great-nephew he's never met, who urgently needs someone to look after him. Out of a feeling of obligation, Noah agrees to take Michael along on his trip. Both come to grasp the risks people in all eras have run for their loved ones, and find they are more akin than they knew.
Back Bay Books | 9780316491969
AMERICA’S RELUCTANT PRINCE: The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. by Steven M. Gillon (Biography)
Through the lens of their decades-long friendship and including exclusive interviews and details from previously classified documents, noted historian Steven M. Gillon examines John F. Kennedy Jr.’s life and legacy from before his birth to the day he died. Gillon covers the highs, the lows and the surprising incidents, viewpoints and relationships that John never discussed publicly, revealing the full story behind JFK Jr.’s complicated and rich life. In the end, Gillon proves that John’s life was far more than another tragedy --- rather, it’s the true key to understanding both the Kennedy legacy and how America’s First Family continues to shape the world we live in today.
Dutton | 9781524742409
BARK OF NIGHT: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Truman, a healthy French bulldog, was dropped off at the veterinarian’s office days ago with instructions to be euthanized by a man everyone thought was his owner. But now the owner is nowhere to be found. Defense lawyer Andy Carpenter is furious. Who would want to euthanize a perfectly healthy dog with no explanation? He is willing to whisk Truman away to the Tara Foundation, the dog-rescue organization that is Andy’s true passion. They will find a home for Truman. But thanks to Truman’s chip, it’s discovered that the man wasn’t Truman’s owner at all. Truman's real owner has been murdered. It’s now up to Andy --- with help from his loyal sidekick Tara, Truman and the rest of the gang --- to solve this case.
Minotaur Books | 9781250133106
CAPE MAY by Chip Cheek (Historical Fiction)
Arriving for their honeymoon in Cape May, New Jersey, from Georgia during the off season, Henry and Effie are startled to find the beach town deserted. The abandoned homes and desolate beaches make them shy of each other, so they decide to cut their trip short. But before they leave, they encounter their glamorous, sensual neighbors and become swept up by their drama. Slowly and agonizingly, these deeply flawed characters pull Henry and Effie out of themselves and expose them to a side of desire they never expected. While they discover new truths in each other and in their marriage, the empty beach town becomes their playground. And as they sneak into the vacant summer homes, go sailing and make love, Henry and Effie slip from innocence into betrayal, with irrevocable consequences.
Celadon Books | 9781250297464
CHANCES ARE… by Richard Russo (Fiction)
One beautiful September day, three men in their late 60s convene on Martha's Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college in the ’60s. They couldn't have been more different then, or even today --- Lincoln is a commercial real estate broker, Teddy is a tiny-press publisher, and Mickey is a musician beyond his rockin' age. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has ever stopped puzzling over since a Memorial Day weekend right here on the Vineyard in 1971. Now, 45 years later, three lives and that of a significant other are put on display while the distant past confounds the present in a relentless squall of surprise and discovery.
Vintage | 9781101971994
THE CODE: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America by Margaret O'Mara (History)
Long before Margaret O'Mara became one of our most consequential historians of the American-led digital revolution, she worked in the White House of Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the earliest days of the commercial Internet. There she saw firsthand how deeply intertwined Silicon Valley was with the federal government --- and always had been --- and how shallow the common understanding of the secrets of the Valley's success actually was. Now, after almost five years of pioneering research, O'Mara has produced the definitive history of Silicon Valley for our time, the story of mavericks and visionaries, but also of powerful institutions creating the framework for innovation, from the Pentagon to Stanford University.
Penguin Books | 9780399562204
COPPERHEAD by Alexi Zentner (Fiction)
Jessup's stepfather gave him almost everything good in his life --- a sober mother, a sister, a sense of home and the game of football. But during the years that David John spent in prison for his part in a brutal hate crime, Jessup came to realize that his stepfather is also a source of lethal poison for his family. Now it's Jessup's senior year, and all he wants to do is lay low until he can accept one of the football scholarships that will be his ticket out of town. So when his stepfather is released from prison, Jessup is faced with an impossible choice: condemn the man who saved his family or accept his part in his family's legacy of bigotry. Before he can choose a side, Jessup will cause a terrible accident and cover it up --- a mistake with the power to ruin them all.
Penguin Books | 9781984877307
DANCING IN THE NARROWS: A Mother-Daughter Odyssey Through Chronic Illness by Anna Penenberg (Memoir)
Paperback Original
A mother’s love and persistence are put to the test when her teen daughter is stricken with a mysterious, debilitating illness. As time goes on, Dana’s condition drives everyone away --- everyone, that is, except for her mother, Anna. Finally, desperate to improve Dana’s health, the two hit the road in search of a cure. Dana’s chronic symptoms require endless supplements, pharmaceuticals and dietary restrictions, evoking a heroine’s journey. Full of humor, blind hope and alternative medicine, DANCING IN THE NARROWS is a poignant chronicle of Anna and Dana’s multiyear odyssey toward healing from trauma.
She Writes Press | 9781631528385
THE DEARLY BELOVED by Cara Wall (Fiction)
Charles is destined to succeed his father as an esteemed professor of history at Harvard, until an unorthodox lecture about faith leads him to ministry. How, then, can he fall in love with Lily after she tells him with certainty that she will never believe in God? James, the youngest son in a hardscrabble Chicago family, spent much of his youth angry at his alcoholic father and avoiding his anxious mother. Nan grew up in Mississippi, the devout and beloved daughter of a minister and a debutante. James' escape from his desperate circumstances leads him to Nan, and, despite his skepticism of hope in all its forms, her gentle, constant faith changes the course of his life. In THE DEARLY BELOVED, we follow these two couples through decades of love and friendship, jealousy and understanding, forgiveness and commitment.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982104535
THE DOLL FACTORY by Elizabeth Macneal (Psychological/Historical Thriller)
In 1850s London, the Great Exhibition is being erected in Hyde Park. Among the crowd watching the dazzling spectacle, two people meet by happenstance. For Iris, an arrestingly attractive aspiring artist, it is a brief and forgettable moment. But for Silas, a curiosity collector enchanted by all things strange and beautiful, the meeting marks a new beginning. When Iris is asked to model for Pre-Raphaelite artist Louis Frost, she agrees on the condition that he will also teach her to paint. Suddenly, her world begins to expand beyond her wildest dreams --- but she has no idea that evil is waiting in the shadows. Silas has only thought of one thing since that chance meeting, and his obsession is darkening by the day.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982106775
DRAGONFLY by Leila Meacham (Historical Fiction)
At the height of World War II, a handful of idealistic young Americans receive a mysterious letter from the government, asking them if they are willing to fight for their country. The men and women from very different backgrounds all answer the call of duty, but each for a secret reason of her or his own. They bond immediately, in a group code-named Dragonfly. Thus begins a dramatic cat-and-mouse game, as the group seeks to stay under the radar until a fatal misstep leads to the capture and the firing-squad execution of one of their team. But is everything as it seems, or is this one more elaborate act of spycraft?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538732236
THE ESCAPE ROOM by Megan Goldin (Psychological Thriller)
Invited to participate in an escape room as a team-building exercise, four ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high-rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival. Trapped in the dark, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues to break free. But as the game begins to reveal the team’s darkest secrets, they realize there’s a price to be paid for the terrible deeds they committed in their ruthless climb up the corporate ladder.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250219664
EVERYTHING INSIDE: Stories by Edwidge Danticat (Fiction/Short Stories)
A romance unexpectedly sparks between two wounded friends. A marriage ends for what seem like noble reasons, but with irreparable consequences. A young woman holds on to an impossible dream even as she fights for her survival. Two lovers reunite after unimaginable tragedy, both for their country and in their lives. A baby’s christening brings three generations of a family to a precarious dance between old and new. A man falls to his death in slow motion, reliving the defining moments of the life he is about to lose. The eight stories in EVERYTHING INSIDE explores with quiet power and elegance the forces that pull us together or drive us apart, sometimes in the same searing instant.
Vintage | 9780525563051
AN EXQUISITE CORPSE: An Art of Murder Mystery by Helen A. Harrison (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
When the acclaimed Cuban painter Wifredo Lam turns up dead in his Greenwich Village studio, officers Juanita Diaz and Brian Fitzgerald of the NYPD must investigate the crime. But what they find is much more gruesome than they ever could have imagined. Suspicion soon falls on a tight-knit circle of Surrealist refugees who fled Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II, and Diaz and Fitzgerald must traverse the city, from Chinatown's underworld to Spanish Harlem's gangland, to find the truth. Did one of the artists' bizarre parlor games turn deadly? Or is there something even more sinister afoot?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728214009
FAST GIRLS: A Novel of the 1936 Women's Olympic Team by Elise Hooper (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the 1928 Olympics, Chicago’s Betty Robinson competes as a member of the first-ever women’s delegation in track and field. But a nearly fatal airplane crash threatens to end everything. Outside of Boston, Louise Stokes is one of the few black girls in her town. Eager to prove that she has what it takes to be a champion, she risks everything to join the Olympic team. From Missouri, Helen Stephens is considered an outcast by her schoolmates, but she dreams of escaping the hardships of her farm life through athletic success. As tensions bring the United States and Europe closer and closer to the brink of war, Betty, Louise and Helen must fight for the chance to compete as the fastest women in the world amidst the pomp and pageantry of the Nazi-sponsored 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062937995
THE GHOST CLAUSE by Howard Norman (Fiction)
It’s been several months since Simon Inescort keeled over the rail of a Nova Scotia–bound ferry, a massive heart attack to blame. Simon's widow, Lorca Pell, has sold their farmhouse to newlyweds Zachary and Muriel --- after revealing that the deed contains a “ghost clause,” an actual legal clause allowing for reimbursement if a recently purchased home turns out to be haunted. In fact, Simon finds himself still at home. He spends time replaying his marriage in his own mind, as if in poignant reel-to-reel, while also engaging in occasionally intimate observation of the new homeowners. But soon the crisis of a missing child threatens the tenuous domestic equilibrium, as the weight of the case falls to a rookie private detective.
Mariner Books | 9780358305620
GROWING THINGS AND OTHER STORIES by Paul Tremblay (Psychological Suspense/Short Stories)
GROWING THINGS is a chilling collection of psychological suspense and literary horror from the multiple award-winning author of THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD and A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS. In “The Teacher,” a student is forced to watch a disturbing video that will haunt and torment her and her classmates’ lives. Four men rob a pawn shop at gunpoint only to vanish, one by one, as they speed away from the crime scene in “The Getaway.” In “Swim Wants to Know If It’s as Bad as Swim Thinks,” a meth addict kidnaps her daughter from her estranged mother as their town is terrorized by a giant monster…or not. Joining these haunting works are stories linked to Tremblay’s previous novels.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062906687
HOLLOW KINGDOM by Kira Jane Buxton (Fiction/Humor)
S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures --- hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle's wild crows, and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos. But when Big Jim's eyeball falls out of his head, S.T. starts to think something is not quite right. He is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he suddenly discovers that the neighbors are devouring one other. Local wildlife is abuzz with rumors of Seattle's dangerous new predators. Humanity's extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a cowardly crow whose only knowledge of the world comes from TV. What could possibly go wrong?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538745830
HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES: A Memoir by Saeed Jones (Memoir)
Haunted and haunting, Saeed Jones’ memoir tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence --- into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, into passing flings with lovers, friends and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another --- and to one another --- as we fight to become ourselves.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501132742
IF: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years by Christopher Benfey (Biography)
At the turn of the 20th century, Rudyard Kipling towered over not just English literature, but the entire literary world. At the height of his fame in 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming its youngest winner. His influence on figures --- including the likes of Freud and William James --- was vast and profound. But in recent decades, Kipling’s reputation has suffered a strange eclipse. Though his body of work still looms large, and his monumental poem “If—” is quoted and referenced by politicians, athletes and professors, he himself is treated with profound unease as a man on the wrong side of history. In IF, scholar Christopher Benfey brings this fascinating writer to life and gives full attention to his intense engagement with the United States.
Penguin Books | 9780735221451
IF YOU WANT TO MAKE GOD LAUGH by Bianca Marais (Fiction)
In a squatter camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg, 17-year-old Zodwa lives in desperate poverty, under the shadowy threat of a civil war and a growing AIDS epidemic. Eight months pregnant, Zodwa carefully guards secrets that jeopardize her life. Across the country, wealthy socialite Ruth appears to have everything her heart desires, but it's what she can't have that leads to her breakdown. Meanwhile, in Zaire, a disgraced former nun, Delilah, grapples with a past that refuses to stay buried. When these personal crises send both middle-aged women back to their rural hometown to heal, the discovery of an abandoned newborn baby upends everything, challenging their lifelong beliefs about race, motherhood and the power of the past.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735219335
KILLING WITH CONFETTI: A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery by Peter Lovesey (Mystery)
As a New Year begins in Bath, Ben Brace proposes to his long-term girlfriend, Caroline, the daughter of notorious crime baron Joe Irving, who is coming to the end of a prison sentence. The problem is that Ben’s father, George, is the Deputy Chief Constable. A wedding in the Abbey and reception in the Roman Baths are arranged before the career-obsessed DCC can step in. Peter Diamond, Bath’s head of CID, is appalled to be put in charge of security on the day. Will the photo session be a literal shoot? Will Joe Irving’s speech as father of the bride be his last words? Can Diamond pull off a miracle, avert a tragedy and send the happy couple on their honeymoon?
Soho Crime | 9781641291873
LADY CLEMENTINE by Marie Benedict (Historical Fiction)
In 1909, Clementine steps off a train with her new husband, Winston. An angry woman emerges from the crowd to attack, shoving him in the direction of an oncoming train. Just before he stumbles, Clementine grabs him by his suit jacket. This will not be the last time Clementine Churchill will save her husband. LADY CLEMENTINE is the ferocious story of the ambitious woman beside Winston Churchill, the story of a partner who did not flinch through the sweeping darkness of war, and who would not surrender either to expectations or to enemies.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492666936
THE LAST WIFE by Karen Hamilton (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Nina and Marie were best friends --- until Nina was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Before she died, Nina asked Marie to fulfill her final wishes. But her mistake was in thinking Marie was someone she could trust. What Nina didn’t know was that Marie always wanted her beautiful life, and that Marie has an agenda of her own. She’ll do anything to get what she wants. Marie thinks she can keep her promise to her friend’s family on her own terms. But what she doesn’t know is that Nina was hiding explosive secrets of her own.
Graydon House | 9781525831744
LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS: A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
Georgie is excited when Darcy announces out of the blue that they are flying to Kenya for their extended honeymoon. It is only after they arrive that she suspects he has actually been sent there on an assignment. Darcy finally confides that there have been some spectacular robberies in London and Paris, and it is suspected that the thief was a member of the aristocracy and may have fled to Kenya. One of the leading lights in the community, Lord Cheriton, makes a play for Georgie. She rebuffs him. Then he is found dead along a lonely stretch of road. At first it seems to be a lion attack. But why was he on that stretch of road, alone, late at night? As Georgie and Darcy investigate, almost everyone has a motive to want Lord Cheriton dead.
Berkley | 9780451492852
MEMBERS ONLY by Sameer Pandya (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Raj Bhatt is often unsure of where he belongs. Having moved to America from Bombay as a child, he knew few Indian kids. Now middle-aged, he lives mostly happily in California, with a job at a university. Still, his white wife seems to fit in better than he does at times, especially at their tennis club, a place he’s cautiously come to love. But it’s there that, in one week, his life unravels. It begins at a meeting for potential new members: Raj is thrilled to find an African American couple on the list, as he dreams of a more diverse club. But in an effort to connect, he makes a racist joke. The committee turns on him, no matter the years of prejudice he’s put up with. And worse still, he soon finds his job is in jeopardy after a group of students report him as a reverse racist, thanks to his alleged “anti-Western bias.”
Mariner Books | 9780358379928
THE NAME OF ALL THINGS by Jenn Lyons (Fantasy)
Since he destroyed the Stone of Shackles and set demons free across Quur, Kihrin D'Mon has been on the run from the wrath of an entire empire. His attempt to escape brings him into the path of Janel Theranon, a mysterious Joratese woman who claims to know Kihrin. Janel's plea for help pits Kihrin against all manner of dangers: a secret rebellion, a dragon capable of destroying an entire city, and Kihrin's old enemy, the wizard Relos Var. Janel believes that Relos Var possesses one of the most powerful artifacts in the world --- the Cornerstone called the Name of All Things. And if Janel is right, then there may be nothing in the world that can stop Relos Var from getting what he wants. And what he wants is Kihrin D'Mon.
Tor Books | 9781250175519
THE NEED by Helen Phillips (Speculative Thriller)
When Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. But then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement. Suddenly she finds herself face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. She slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood --- the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence --- as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982113179
NIGHT BOAT TO TANGIER by Kevin Barry (Fiction)
In the dark waiting room of the ferry terminal in the sketchy Spanish port of Algeciras, two aging Irishmen --- Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond, longtime partners in the lucrative and dangerous enterprise of smuggling drugs --- sit at night, none too patiently. The pair are trying to locate Maurice’s estranged daughter, Dilly, whom they’ve heard is either arriving on a boat coming from Tangier or departing on one heading there. This nocturnal vigil will initiate an extraordinary journey back in time to excavate their shared history of violence, romance, mutual betrayals and serial exiles.
Anchor | 9781101911341
ONE TO WATCH by Kate Stayman-London (Romance)
Paperback Original
Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show "Main Squeeze." But she is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television? Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: "Main Squeeze" wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition --- under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful beauty standards and inspire women across America. But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9780525510444
OPEN SECRETS by Sheila Kohler (Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Michel, a Swiss banker, discovers his wife Alice's betrayal, he turns for help to a Russian client who leads him into unknown territory, endangering not only his own life but that of Alice, and above all, his 14-year-old daughter, Pamela. Their charmed life --- a beautiful house on the French Riviera, elegant vacations and boarding school in Switzerland for Pamela --- is not all that it seems. As the repercussions of Michel's illicit deals move closer in around them, Alice finds herself in Amagansett with her artist sister who is having a crisis of her own, while the danger circles around Pamela.
Penguin Books | 9780143135180
PRETTY GUILTY WOMEN by Gina LaManna (Mystery/Thriller)
Something has gone terribly wrong at the Banks wedding. A man is dead. Four different women rush to offer confessions, each insisting that they committed the crime --- alone. Ginger is holding her family together by a thread, and this wedding weekend is not the fabulous getaway she anticipated. Kate has enough money to buy her way out of anything. Well, almost anything. Emily can’t shake her reputation or her memories, and she’s planning to drown this whole vacation in a bottle. Lulu has ex-husbands to spare, and another on the way --- as soon as she figures out what the devil the current husband is up to behind her back. Why would they confess to the same murder? Only they know --- and they’re not telling.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728210834
SCORPIONFISH by Natalie Bakopoulos (Fiction)
Paperback Original
After the unexpected deaths of her parents, academic Mira returns to her childhood home in Athens. On her first night back, she encounters a new neighbor, a longtime ship captain who has found himself no longer at sea for the first time in years. As one summer night tumbles into another, Mira and the Captain’s voices drift across the balconies of their apartments, disclosing details and stories: of careers, of families, of love. For Mira, love has so often meant Aris, an ex-boyfriend and rising Greek politician who has recently become engaged to a movie star. There is, too, her love for her dear friend Nefeli --- a well-known artist who came of age during the military dictatorship --- as well as Dimitra and Fady, a couple caring for a young refugee boy.
Tin House Books | 9781947793750
STEALTH: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
Stone Barrington is trying to enjoy some downtime at his English retreat when he's unceremoniously sent off to the remote reaches of the UK and into a deadly snare. As it turns out, this is only the first volley by a rival power, one that has its eyes set on disrupting the peace of the nation. With the help of two brilliant and stunning women, Stone must leverage a new position of power to capture a villain with a lethal agenda. But the closer he comes to nabbing the culprit, the more he realizes there's a bigger plan at work, and a true mastermind who's a force to be reckoned with.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593083178
SUMMERLINGS by Lisa Howorth (Historical Fiction)
It’s the summer of 1959 in the seemingly tranquil suburbs of Washington, D.C. But our young narrator, John, and his best friends, Ivan and Max, know the truth: every door on their street could be hiding an escaped Nazi or a spy with secrets about the A-bomb. The entire city is being plagued by an inexplicable spider infestation --- surely evidence of “insect warfare” by the Russians! So when a rare vinegaroon --- a whip scorpion --- is discovered on Capitol Hill and sequestered for study at the Smithsonian, the boys, along with their tomboy accomplice, Beatriz, hatch a risky midnight plan to steal the deadly creature for their own devious purposes. Yet it’s the shocking and tragic events stemming from a well-intentioned community-building potluck party that change their lives forever.
Anchor | 9780525565482
THREE WOMEN by Lisa Taddeo (Biography)
In suburban Indiana, we meet Lina, the homemaker and mother of two whose marriage, after a decade, has lost its passion. Starved for affection, Lina battles daily panic attacks and, after reconnecting with an old flame through social media, embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming. In North Dakota, we meet Maggie, the 17-year-old high school student who allegedly has a clandestine physical relationship with her handsome, married English teacher; the ensuing criminal trial will turn their quiet community upside down. Finally, in the northeast, we meet Sloane, the successful, refined restaurant owner whose husband enjoys watching her have sex with other men and women.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781451642308
THE WEDDING THIEF by Mary Simses (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Sara is a Type-A, career-focused event planner, and her younger sister Mariel is the opposite: bohemian, semi-employed and recently engaged. When Sara's mother lures her back to Connecticut under false pretenses, she is perturbed to discover that Mariel is eager to reconcile their relationship. The two sisters haven't spoken since the night Sara realized something was going on between Mariel and Sara's boyfriend, Carter Pryce. And now Mariel is about to marry Carter, who Sara still loves. When Mariel asks Sara to stand in for a bridesmaid who has to cancel at the last minute, Sara realizes it's the perfect cover to unravel the nuptials and win Carter back. Will Sara realize what a bridesmaid-zilla she's become in time to fix the damage before Mariel's big day?
Back Bay Books | 9780316421621
WHISPER NETWORK by Chandler Baker (Mystery/Thriller)
Sloane, Ardie, Grace and Rosalita have worked at Truviv, Inc. for years. The sudden death of Truviv’s CEO means that their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Each of the women has a different relationship with Ames, who has always been surrounded by whispers about how he treats women. Those whispers have been ignored, but the world has changed, and the women are watching this promotion differently. This time, when they find out that Ames is making an inappropriate move on a colleague, they aren’t willing to let it go. Sloane and her colleagues’ decision to take a stand sets in motion a catastrophic shift in the office. Lies will be uncovered. Secrets will be exposed. And not everyone will survive.
Flatiron Books | 9781250205360
WILD GAME: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur (Memoir)
On a hot July night on Cape Cod when Adrienne was 14, her mother, Malabar, woke her at midnight with five simple words that would set the course of both of their lives for years to come: Ben Souther just kissed me. Adrienne instantly became her mother’s confidante and helpmate, blossoming in the sudden light of her attention, and from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband’s closest friend. The affair would have calamitous consequences for everyone involved, impacting Adrienne’s life in profound ways, driving her into a precarious marriage of her own and then into a deep depression. Only years later will she find the strength to embrace her life --- and her mother --- on her own terms.
Mariner Books | 9780358361329
THE WOMEN OF THE COPPER COUNTRY by Mary Doria Russell (Historical Fiction)
In July 1913, 25-year-old Annie Clements has seen enough of the world to know that it’s unfair. She’s spent her whole life in the mining town of Calumet, Michigan, where men risk their lives for meager salaries --- and have barely enough to put food on the table for their families. The women labor in the houses of the elite, and send their husbands and sons deep underground each day, dreading the fateful call of the company man telling them their loved ones aren’t coming home. So, when Annie decides to stand up for the entire town of Calumet, nearly everyone believes she may have taken on more than she is prepared to handle. Yet as Annie struggles to improve the future of her town, her husband becomes increasingly frustrated with her growing independence. She faces the threat of prison while also discovering a forbidden love.
Atria Books | 9781982109592
On Sale the Week of July 13th in Hardcover
July 14th
AGE OF CONSENT by Amanda Brainerd (Fiction)
It’s 1983, and Justine and Eve are stuck at Griswold Academy, a Connecticut boarding school. Griswold is a far cry from Justine's bohemian life in New Haven, where her parents run a theater and struggle to pay the bills. Eve, the sophisticated daughter of status-obsessed Park Avenue parents, also feels like an outsider amidst Griswold's preppy jocks and debutantes. Despite their differences, they form a deep friendship. After a tumultuous school year, Eve and Justine spend the summer in New York City where they join Eve's childhood friend, India. All three are affected by their sexual relationships with older men and the power adults hold over them, even as the young women begin to assert their independence.
Viking | 9781984879523
BLACKTOP WASTELAND by S. A. Cosby (Thriller)
Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast. He thought he'd left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can't-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver's seat. Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland...or die trying.
Flatiron Books | 9781250252685
CROOKED HALLELUJAH by Kelli Jo Ford (Fiction)
It’s 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and 15-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated and loyal women presided over by her mother, Lula, and Granny. After Justine’s father abandoned the family, Lula became a devout member of the Holiness Church --- a community that Justine at times finds stifling and terrifying. But Justine does her best as a devoted daughter until an act of violence sends her on a different path forever. CROOKED HALLELUJAH tells the stories of Justine --- a mixed-blood Cherokee woman --- and her daughter, Reney, as they move from Eastern Oklahoma’s Indian Country in the hopes of starting a new, more stable life in Texas amid the oil bust of the 1980s.
Grove Press | 9780802149121
A DANGEROUS BREED by Glen Erik Hamilton (Thriller)
An invitation addressed to his long-dead mother sparks Van Shaw’s curiosity about the woman he barely knew. As he digs into young Moira Shaw's past, he uncovers startling details about her life, including her relationship to a boy named Sean Burke. Could he be the biological father who abandoned Van before he was born? Van has more immediate problems, though. His friend Hollis is in a jam, and helping him out accidentally steers Van into the path of a master extortionist named Bilal Nath. Nath demands that the talented thief mastermind a daring heist targeting a Seattle biotechnology firm, or the blackmailer will destroy the lives of people Van loves. Will Van be forced to steal a viral weapon with the potential to kill thousands?
William Morrow | 9780062978516
THE DIVINE MISS MARBLE: A Life of Tennis, Fame, and Mystery by Robert Weintraub (Biography)
In her public life, she was the biggest tennis star of the pre-war era. She also was a fashion designer and trendsetter, a contributor to a pioneering new comic called Wonder Woman --- and friend to the biggest names in Hollywood and society. She helped integrate tennis with her support of Althea Gibson, and even coached two young women who became stars in their own right: Billie Jean King and Sally Ride. Yet her private life provoked constant speculation while she was alive, and her own memoirs added layers of legend upon stories. In THE DIVINE MISS MARBLE, bestselling author Robert Weintraub traveled the country to uncover her fascinating story. And the more he learned about her, the more her mysteries and contradictions deepened.
Dutton | 9781524745363
FILTHY BEASTS: A Memoir by Kirkland Hamill (Memoir)
Following a rancorous split from New York’s upper-class society, newly divorced Wendy Hamill and her three sons are exiled from the East Coast elite circle. Wendy’s middle son, Kirk, is eight when she moves the family to her native Bermuda, leaving the three young boys to fend for themselves as she chases after the highs of her old life: alcohol, a wealthy new suitor and other indulgences. After eventually leaving his mother’s dysfunctional orbit for college in New Orleans, Kirk begins to realize how different his family and upbringing is from that of his friends and peers. Split between extreme privilege and bare survival, Kirk is used to keeping up appearances and burying his inconvenient truths from the world, until he’s 18 and falls in love for the first time.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982122768
THE LANTERN MEN by Elly Griffiths (Mystery)
Ruth Galloway has a new job, home and partner, and she is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried --- but only if Ruth will do the digging. March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travelers to their deaths. Is Ivor March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk? What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it? And are the killings really over?
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358237044
MAKE RUSSIA GREAT AGAIN by Christopher Buckley (Fiction/Satire)
Herb Nutterman never intended to become Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff. Herb served the Trump Organization for 27 years, holding jobs in everything from a food and beverage manager at the Trump Magnifica to being the first general manager of the Trump Bloody Run Golf Course. And when his old boss asks “his favorite Jew” to take on the daunting role of chief of staff, Herb, spurred on by loyalty, agrees. But being the chief of staff is a lot different from being a former hospitality expert. Soon, Herb finds himself deeply involved in Russian intrigue, deflecting rumors about Mike Pence’s high school involvement in a Satanic cult, and leading President Trump’s reelection campaign.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982157463
MIRACLE COUNTRY: A Memoir by Kendra Atleework (Memoir)
Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and in drought years measures closer to zero. After Kendra’s mother died of a rare autoimmune disease when Kendra was just 16, her once-beloved desert world came to feel empty and hostile, as climate change, drought and wildfires intensified. The Atleework family fell apart, even as her father tried to keep them together. Kendra escaped to Los Angeles, and then Minneapolis, a land of tall trees, full lakes and water everywhere you look. But after years of avoiding her troubled hometown, she realized that she needed to come to terms with its past and present and had to go back.
Algonquin Books | 9781616209988
MOTHER LAND by Leah Franqui (Fiction)
When Rachel Meyer, a thirtysomething foodie from New York, agrees to move to Mumbai with her Indian-born husband, Dhruv, she knows some culture shock is inevitable. But the ex-pat American’s sense of adventure is sorely tested when her mother-in-law, Swati, suddenly arrives from Kolkata with an even more shocking announcement: she has left her husband of more than 40 years and is moving in with them. When Dhruv is called away on business, these two strong-willed women from such very different backgrounds, who see life so differently, are alone together in a home that each is determined to run in her own way --- a situation that ultimately brings into question the very things in their lives that had seemed perfect and permanent…with results neither of them expect.
William Morrow | 9780062938848
NEVER ASK ME by Jeff Abbott (Psychological Thriller)
In the wealthy Austin suburb of Lakehaven, the body of Danielle Roberts is discovered on a park bench. Danielle was an adoption consultant who delivered the joy of parenthood to a number of local families. Perhaps no other family is as crushed as the Pollitts, and her death becomes the catalyst for a maelstrom of suspicion and intrigue. You have been told a huge lie, an anonymous email charges the son, Grant. No one can learn the truth now, thinks the father, Kyle. Never ask me what I'd do to protect my family, resolves the wife, Iris. I'll do whatever it takes to save him, vows the daughter, Julia, of Danielle's grieving teenage son. When each begins to suspect the others of the unimaginable, the strength of their bonds will be tested in extraordinary new ways.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538733158
THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones (Horror)
Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.
Gallery/Saga Press | 9781982136451
THE ORDER by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
When Pope Paul VII dies suddenly, Gabriel Allon is summoned to Rome by the Holy Father’s loyal private secretary, Archbishop Luigi Donati. A billion Catholic faithful have been told that the pope died of a heart attack. Donati, however, has two good reasons to suspect his master was murdered. The Swiss Guard who was standing watch outside the papal apartments the night of the pope’s death is missing. So, too, is the letter the Holy Father was writing during the final hours of his life. A letter that was addressed to Gabriel. While researching in the Vatican Secret Archives, I came upon a most remarkable book… The book is a long-suppressed gospel that calls into question the accuracy of the New Testament’s depiction of one of the most portentous events in human history.
Harper | 9780062834843
OTHER PEOPLE'S PETS by R.L. Maizes (Fiction)
La La Fine relates to animals better than she does to other people. Abandoned by a mother who never wanted a family, raised by a locksmith-turned-thief father, La La looks to pets when it feels like the rest of the world conspires against her. La La’s world stops being whole when her mother abandons her twice. First, when La La falls through thin ice on a skating trip, and again when the accusations of “unfit mother” feel too close to true. Left alone with her father, La La is denied a regular life. She becomes her father’s accomplice, calming the watchdog while he strips families of their most precious belongings. When her father’s luck runs out and he is arrested for burglary, everything La La has painstakingly built unravels.
Celadon Books | 9781250304131
PEACE TALKS: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy)
When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, joins the White Council's security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed, when dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago --- and all he holds dear?
Ace | 9780451464415
QUEEN OF STORMS: Book Two of The Firemane Saga by Raymond E. Feist (Fantasy)
Hatushaly and his young wife, Hava, have arrived in the prosperous trading town of Beran’s Hill to restore and reopen the fire-damaged Inn of the Three Stars. They are also preparing for the popular midsummer festival, where their friends Declan and Gwen will be wed. But Hatu and Hava are only posing as inkeepers; in fact, they are assassins from the mysterious island of Coaltachin, home to the powerful and lethal Nocusara, the fearsome “Hidden Warriors.” Hatu conceals an even more dangerous secret. He is the last remaining member of the legendary Firemanes, the ruling family of Ithrace. Hatu works hard to hide his true identity from all who would seek to use or to destroy him, as fate has other plans for the noble warrior.
Harper Voyager | 9780062315816
THE REVELATORS: A Quinn Colson Novel by Ace Atkins (Thriller)
Shot up and left for dead, Sheriff Quinn Colson has revenge on his mind. With the help of his new wife Maggie, rehabilitation and sheer force of will, he's walking again, eager to resume his work as a southern lawman and track down those responsible for his attempted murder. But someone is standing in his way: an interim sheriff, appointed by the newly elected Governor Vardaman, the man who Quinn knows ordered his murder. Vardaman sits at the top of the state's power structure --- both legal and criminal --- and little does he know that Quinn is still working to take him down. Now, as a bustling factory shuts down, a labor leader ends up dead, and Quinn's own nephew goes missing, everything looks to be unraveling.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525539490
THE SAFE PLACE by Anna Downes (Psychological Thriller)
Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job and her apartment in one miserable day. Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily. Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife, Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly.
Minotaur Books | 9781250264800
STRANGER IN THE SHOGUN'S CITY: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley (History)
The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces --- and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval --- she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak. With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate.
Scribner | 9781501188527
SURVIVAL INSTINCTS by Jen Waite (Psychological Thriller)
Twenty-something Anne meets the man of her dreams right out of college, but after they get married, Anne notices that her husband begins acting differently. Why is Ethan suddenly so moody? And will their marriage endure? Ten years later, Anne and her 12-year-old daughter, Thea, are safely living in Vermont. When Thea takes to brooding and showing classic signs of teen angst, a trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire --- accompanied by Anne’s mother, Rose --- seems like the perfect chance to bond. But a man follows the three women on a hike at a nature reserve and drags them at gunpoint to an abandoned cabin in the woods. Just like that, their peaceful weekend away turns into a fight for survival.
Dutton | 9781524745837
UTOPIA AVENUE by David Mitchell (Dystopian/Science Fiction)
Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you’ve never heard of. Emerging from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, it embarked on a meteoric journey from the seedy clubs of Soho, a TV debut on “Top of the Pops,” the cusp of chart success, glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome, and a fateful American sojourn in the Chelsea Hotel, Laurel Canyon and San Francisco during the autumn of ’68. David Mitchell’s novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue’s turbulent life and times; of fame’s Faustian pact and stardom’s wobbly ladder; of the families we choose and the ones we don’t; of voices in the head, and the truths and lies they whisper; of music, madness and idealism. Can we really change the world, or does the world change us?
Random House | 9780812997439
A VERY PUNCHABLE FACE: A Memoir by Colin Jost (Memoir/Essays)
If there’s one trait that makes someone well suited to comedy, it’s being able to take a punch --- metaphorically and, occasionally, physically. From growing up in a family of firefighters on Staten Island to commuting three hours a day to high school and “seeing the sights” (like watching a Russian woman throw a stroller off the back of a ferry), to attending Harvard while Facebook was created, "Saturday Night Live" head writer and Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost shares how he has navigated the world like a slightly smarter Forrest Gump. For every accomplishment (hosting the Emmys), there is a setback (hosting the Emmys). And for every absurd moment (watching paramedics give CPR to a raccoon), there is an honest, emotional one (recounting his mother’s experience on the scene of the Twin Towers’ collapse on 9/11).
Crown | 9781101906323
A WALK ALONG THE BEACH by Debbie Macomber (Fiction)
The Lakey sisters are perfect opposites. After their mother died and their father was lost in grief, Willa had no choice but to raise her sister, Harper, and their brother, Lucas. Then, as an adult, she put her own life on hold to nurse Harper through a terrifying illness. Now that Harper is better and the sisters are living as roommates, Willa has realized her dream of running her own bakery and coffee shop, bringing her special brand of caretaking to the whole Oceanside community. Harper, on the other hand, is always on the go. Overcoming a terrible illness has given her a new lease on life, and she does not intend to waste it. When Harper announces her plan to summit Mount Rainier, Willa fears she may be pushing herself too far. Harper, for her part, urges Willa to stop worrying and do something outside of her comfort zone --- like taking a chance on love with a handsome new customer.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181368
WHAT YOU WISH FOR by Katherine Center (Fiction)
Samantha Casey is a school librarian who loves her job, the kids and her school family with passion and joy for living. But she wasn’t always that way. Duncan Carpenter is the new school principal who lives by rules and regulations, guided by the knowledge that bad things can happen. But he wasn’t always that way. And Sam knows it. Because she knew him before --- at another school, in a different life. Back then, she loved him --- but she was invisible. To him. To everyone. Even to herself. She escaped to a new school, a new job, a new chance at living. And then Duncan, of all people, gets hired as the new principal there. He is now a suit-and-tie-wearing, rule-enforcing tough guy so hell-bent on protecting the school that he’s willing to destroy it.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250219367
WONDERLAND by Zoje Stage (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
After years of city life, Orla and Shaw Bennett are ready for the quiet of New York's Adirondack mountains --- or at least, they think they are. Settling into the perfect farmhouse with their two children, they are both charmed and unsettled by the expanse of their land, the privacy of their individual bedrooms, and the isolation of life a mile from any neighbor. But none of the Bennetts could expect what lies waiting in the woods, where secrets run dark and deep. When something begins to call to the family --- from under the earth, beneath the trees and within their minds --- Orla realizes she might be the only one who can save them…if she can find out what this force wants before it's too late.
Mulholland Books | 9780316458498
On Sale the Week of July 13th in Paperback
July 14th
THE BURNING CHAMBERS by Kate Mosse (Historical Thriller)
France, 1562. War sparks between the Catholics and Huguenots, dividing neighbors, friends and family. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Minou Joubert receives an anonymous letter at her father’s bookshop. Sealed with a distinctive family crest, it contains just five words: She knows that you live. Before Minou can decipher the mysterious message, she meets a young Huguenot convert, Piet Reydon, who will need Minou’s help if he is to stay alive. Soon, they find themselves on opposing sides, as forces beyond their control threaten to tear them apart. As the religious divide deepens, Minou and Piet find themselves trapped in Toulouse, facing new dangers as tensions ignite across the city --- and a feud that will burn across generations begins to blaze.
Minotaur Books | 9781250619723
COSTALEGRE by Courtney Maum (Historical Fiction)
It is 1937, and Europe is on the brink of war. Hitler is circulating a most-wanted list of artists, writers and thinkers whose work is deemed a threat to the new regime. To prevent the destruction of her favorite art (and artists), American heiress and modern art collector Leonora Calaway begins swiftly chartering boats and planes for an elite group of surrealists to Costalegre, a mysterious resort in the Mexican jungle, where she has a home. The story of what happens to these artists is told by Lara, Leonora’s neglected 15-year-old daughter, who has been pulled out of school to follow her mother to Mexico. Inspired by the beautiful and talented Charlotte, alongside an eccentric menagerie of other surrealists, Lara begins to discover herself as an artist.
Tin House Books | 9781951142018
COVENTRY: Essays by Rachel Cusk (Essays)
Rachel Cusk redrew the boundaries of fiction with the Outline Trilogy, whose narrator, Faye, perceives the world with a glinting, unsparing intelligence while remaining opaque to the reader. Now, in COVENTRY, Cusk gathers a selection of her nonfiction writings that both offers new insights on the themes at the heart of her fiction and forges a startling critical voice on some of our most urgent personal, social and artistic questions. The book encompasses memoir, cultural criticism and writing about literature with pieces on family life, gender and politics, and on D. H. Lawrence, Françoise Sagan and Kazuo Ishiguro.
Picador | 9781250619587
FULL COUNT: The Education of a Pitcher by David Cone and Jack Curry (Sports/Memoir)
During his 17-year career, David Cone became a master of the mechanics and mental toughness a pitcher needs to succeed in the major leagues. A five-time All-Star and five-time World Champion now gives his full count --- balls and strikes, errors and outs --- of his colorful life in baseball. From the pitchers he studied to the hitters who infuriated him, FULL COUNT takes readers inside the mind of a thoughtful pitcher, detailing Cone's passion, composure and strategies. The book is also filled with never-before-told stories from the memorable teams Cone played on --- ranging from the infamous late '80s Mets to the Yankee dynasty of the '90s.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748831
GIDEON THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds, she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection. But no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die. Of course, some things are better left dead.
Tor.com | 9781250313188
HOW COULD SHE by Lauren Mechling (Fiction)
After a devastating break-up with her fiancé, Geraldine is struggling to get her life back on track in Toronto. Her two old friends, Sunny and Rachel, left ages ago for New York, where they've landed good jobs, handsome husbands and unfairly glamorous lives (or at least so it appears to Geraldine). Sick of watching from the sidelines, Geraldine moves to New York City. After she arrives, though, and zigzags her way through the downtown art scene and rooftop party circuit, she discovers how hard it is to find her footing in a world of influencers and media darlings. Plus, the magazine where Sunny and Rachel work is on the brink of folding. Rachel is struggling to juggle her life as a writer, wife and new mother.
Penguin Books | 9780525559405
HOW TO SAVE A LIFE by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Dom bumps into Mia, his ex-fiancée whom he hasn’t seen in almost a decade, he believes they’ve been given a second chance and asks her out. When Mia dies tragically on their date, Dom makes a desperate wish: to be given the chance to save her life. And when he wakes the next morning to the shock that she’s alive, he thinks his wish may have been granted. But day after day, no matter what he changes about their time together, she still meets a terrible fate. Dom frantically searches for answers to save his beloved Mia and rekindle their former love. But the further he digs, the more obsessed he becomes, making him realize that slowing down time may be the only way to see things clearly.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542005098
JUST MAKE BELIEVE: A Lady Adelaide Mystery by Maggie Robinson (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
Gloucestershire, 1925. When the hostess of a week-long house party in the country is found dead on the conservatory floor, Lady Adelaide knows just who to call: Detective Inspector Devenand Hunter of Scotland Yard. Dev may not want to kiss Addie again, but he's anxious to solve the crime. Who would want to kill Pamela, the beautiful wife of one of Britain's greatest Great War heroes? Certainly not her devoted and wheelchair-bound husband, Sir Hugh Fernald. The other guests seem equally innocent and improbable. But despite all appearances, something is very wrong at Fernald Hall --- there's a body buried in the garden, and the governess has fallen down the stairs to her death. Who's next?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781492699439
LAKE OF THE OZARKS: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America by Bill Geist (Memoir)
Before there was "tourism" and souvenir ashtrays became "kitsch," the Lake of the Ozarks was a Shangri-La for middle-class Midwestern families on vacation, complete with man-made beaches, Hillbilly Mini Golf and feathered rubber tomahawks. It was there that author Bill Geist spent summers in the ’60s during his school and college years working at Arrowhead Lodge --- a small resort owned by his bombastic uncle --- in all areas of the operation, from cesspool attendant to bellhop. In LAKE OF THE OZARKS, the Emmy Award-winning “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent reflects on his coming of age in the American Heartland and traces his evolution as a man and a writer.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538729823
THE LAST WIDOW by Karin Slaughter (Mystery/Thriller)
On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast --- followed by another seconds later. One of Atlanta’s busiest and most important neighborhoods has been bombed. Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rush to the scene --- and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy. When the assailants abduct Sara, Will goes undercover to save her and prevent a massacre --- putting his own life on the line for the woman and the country he loves.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062858900
THE LOST GIRLS OF DEVON by Barbara O'Neal (Mystery)
Paperback Original
It’s been years since Zoe Fairchild has been to the small Devon village of her birth, but the wounds she suffered there still ache. When she learns that her old friend and grandmother’s caretaker has gone missing, Zoe and her 15-year-old daughter return to England to help. Zoe dreads seeing her estranged mother, who left when Zoe was seven to travel the world. As the four generations of women reunite, the emotional pain of the past is awakened. And to complicate matters further, Zoe also must confront the ex-boyfriend she betrayed many years before. Anxieties spike when tragedy befalls another woman in the village. As the mystery turns more sinister, new grief melds with old betrayal.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542020725
MIDDLE ENGLAND by Jonathan Coe (Fiction/Dark Humor)
MIDDLE ENGLAND is a piercing and provocative novel about a country in crisis. From the frenzy of the 2012 Olympics to the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, here Jonathan Coe chronicles the story of modern Britain by way of a cast of characters whose world is being upended. There are newlyweds who disagree about the country’s future and, possibly, their relationship; a political commentator who writes impassioned columns about austerity from his lavish town house while his radical teenage daughter undertakes a relentless quest for universal justice; and Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father, whose last wish is to vote to leave the European Union.
Vintage | 9780525566847
THE PASSENGERS by John Marrs (Science Fiction/Thriller)
You’re riding in your self-driving car when suddenly the doors lock, the route changes and you have lost all control. Then a mysterious voice tells you, “You are going to die.” Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in this terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man. From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, "Which of these people should we save?” “Who should we kill first?"
Berkley | 9780593098769
RAISED IN CAPTIVITY: Fictional Nonfiction by Chuck Klosterman (Fiction/Short Stories)
A man flying first class discovers a puma in the lavatory. A new coach of a small-town Oklahoma high school football team installs an offense comprised of only one, very special, play. A college professor discusses with his friend his difficulties with the new generation of students. A woman interviews a hit man about killing her husband but is shocked by the method he proposes. Fair warning: RAISED IN CAPTIVITY does not slot into a smooth preexisting groove. If Saul Steinberg and Italo Calvino had adopted a child from a Romanian orphanage and raised him on Gary Larsen and Thomas Bernhard, he would still be nothing like Chuck Klosterman. They might be good company, though.
Penguin Books | 9780735217935
THE RETREAT by Sherri Smith (Psychological Thriller)
Katie Manning was a beloved child star until her mid-teens when her manager attacked and permanently scarred her face, effectively ending her career. Now 27, Katie wants a better answer to those clickbait “Where Are They Now?” articles that float around online. It’s an answer she hopes to find when her brother’s too-good-to-be-true fiancée invites her to a wellness retreat upstate. Together with her two best friends, Katie will try to find the inner peace promised at the tranquil retreat. But finding oneself just might drudge up more memories than Katie is prepared to deal with. Each woman has come to the retreat for different reasons. Each has her secrets to hide. And at the end of this weekend, only one will be left standing.
Forge Books | 9780765386748
TELL ME EVERYTHING by Cambria Brockman (Psychological Thriller)
In her first weeks at Hawthorne College, Malin is swept up into a tight-knit circle that will stick together through all four years. But Malin isn’t like the rest of her friends. She’s an expert at hiding her troubled past. She acts as if she shares the preoccupations of those around her, all while using her extraordinary insight to detect their deepest vulnerabilities and weaknesses. By Senior Day, Malin’s secrets --- and those of her friends --- are revealed. While she scrambles to maintain her artfully curated image, her missteps set in motion a devastating chain of events that ends in a murder. And as fragile relationships hang in the balance and close alliances shift, Malin must test the limits of what she’s capable of to stop the truth from coming out.
Ballantine Books | 9781984817235
TELL ME WHO WE WERE: Stories by Kate McQuade (Fiction/Short Stories)
It begins with a drowning. One day, Mr. Arcilla, the romance-language teacher at Briarfield, an all-girls boarding school, is found dead at the bottom of Reed Pond. Young and handsome, the object of much fantasy and fascination, he was adored by his students. For Lilith and Romy, Evie and Claire, and Nellie and Grace, he was their first love, and their first true loss. In TELL ME WHO WE WERE, Kate McQuade explores the ripple effect of one transformative moment on six lives, witnessed at a different point in each girl’s future.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062869807
THINGS YOU SAVE IN A FIRE by Katherine Center (Fiction)
As one of the only female firefighters in her Texas firehouse, Cassie Hanwell has seen her fair share of emergencies, and she's a total pro at other people's tragedies. But when her estranged and ailing mother asks her to give up her whole life and move to Boston, Cassie suddenly has an emergency of her own. The tough, old-school Boston firehouse is as different from Cassie's old job as it could possibly be. The firemen aren't exactly thrilled to have a "lady" on the crew --- except for the infatuation-inspiring rookie, who doesn't seem to mind having Cassie around. She can't think about that, though. Because love is girly, and it’s not her thing. But Cassie can feel her resolve slipping...and it means risking it all.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250622129
THE VEXATIONS by Caitlin Horrocks (Historical Fiction)
Erik Satie begins life with every possible advantage. But after the dual blows of his mother's early death and his father's breakdown upend his childhood, Erik and his younger siblings --- Louise and Conrad --- are scattered. Later, as an ambitious young composer, Erik flings himself into the Parisian art scene, aiming for greatness but achieving only notoriety. As the years, then decades, pass, he alienates those in his circle as often as he inspires them. Only Louise and Conrad are steadfast allies. But in a journey that will take her from Normandy to Paris to Argentina, Louise is rocked by a severe loss that ultimately forces her into a reckoning with how Erik --- obsessed with his art and hungry for fame --- will never be the brother she's wished for.
Back Bay Books | 9780316316941
WE KNOW YOU KNOW by Erin Kelly (Psychological Thriller)
Marianne was 17 when she fled her home in Nusstead --- leaving behind her family, her boyfriend, Jesse, and the body they buried. Now, 30 years later, forced to return in order to help care for her sick mother, she can feel the past closing around her. And Jesse, who never forgave her for leaving in the first place, is finally threatening to expose the truth. Marianne will do anything to protect the life she's built, the husband and daughter who must never know what happened all those years ago. Even if it means turning to her worst enemy for help. But Marianne may not know the whole story --- and she isn't the only one with secrets they'd kill to keep.
Minotaur Books | 9781250248237
WHO ARE YOU, CALVIN BLEDSOE? by Brock Clarke (Fiction)
Calvin Bledsoe has never grown up. His mother, an internationally known theologian, was the dominant force in his life. Now she is gone, and at her funeral, Calvin meets an aunt he never knew existed, who immediately takes charge of his life and whisks him off to Europe for a grand adventure. As Calvin and his aunt traverse the continent, it becomes apparent that her clandestine behavior is leading him into danger. Facing a menagerie of antiquities thieves, secret agents and religious fanatics, as well as an ex-wife who is stalking him, Calvin begins to suspect there might be some meaning behind the madness. But there’s little time for soul-searching, as Calvin first has to figure out why he has been kidnapped, why his aunt has disappeared, and who the hell burned down his house in Maine.
Algonquin Books | 9781643750781
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