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January 12, 2016 |
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Find Out What's Releasing This Week and Next Week --- and More Bonus News!
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Here you will find books releasing the weeks of January 11th and January 18th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers.
As we noted last week, we're adding to the "On Sale This Week" newsletter a Bonus News feature, where we call out something we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar. This week, we are calling attention to our first two Author Spotlights and Contests of 2016. Be sure to enter for your chance to win two fabulous upcoming titles and give us your feedback on them.
As always, more book news can be found in our Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletters. If you are not already signed up to receive these newsletters in your inbox every Friday, please click here and do so now.
Know a friend who you think may enjoy this newsletter? Then please forward it on to them!
Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)
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This Week's Bonus News: Two Author Spotlights & Contests --- THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE by Melanie Benjamin and PLATINUM DOLL by Anne Girard
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Historical Fiction Author Spotlight & Contest
We have 25 copies of THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE by Melanie Benjamin to give away to readers who would like to read the book, which releases on January 26th, and share their comments on it. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, January 21st at noon ET.
THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE by Melanie Benjamin (Historical Fiction)
Of all the glamorous stars of New York high society, none blazes brighter than Babe Paley. Her flawless face regularly graces the pages of Vogue, and she is celebrated and adored for her ineffable style and exquisite taste. But beneath this elegantly composed exterior dwells a passionate woman who is desperately longing for true love and connection. Enter Truman Capote. This diminutive golden-haired genius with a larger-than-life personality explodes onto the scene, setting Babe and her circle of Swans aflutter.
-Click here to read more in our Historical Fiction Author Spotlight and enter the contest.
Women's Fiction Author Spotlight & Contest
We have 25 copies of PLATINUM DOLL by Anne Girard to give away to readers who would like to read the book, which releases on January 26th, and share their comments on it. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, January 21st at noon ET.
PLATINUM DOLL by Anne Girard (Historical Fiction)
It's the Roaring Twenties, and 17-year-old Harlean Carpenter McGrew has run off to Beverly Hills. There, she has everything a girl could want, except an outlet for her talent. But everything changes when a dare pushes her to embrace her true ambition --- to be an actress on the silver screen. With her timeless beauty and striking shade of platinum-blond hair, Harlean becomes Jean Harlow. And as she's thrust into the limelight, Jean learns that this new world of opportunity comes with its own set of burdens.
-Click here to read more in our Women's Fiction Author Spotlight and enter the contest.
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On Sale the Week of January 11th in Hardcover
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January 11th
LET THE PEOPLE RULE: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary by Geoffrey Cowan (History/Politics)
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt came out of retirement to challenge his close friend and handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican Party nomination. To overcome the power of the incumbent, TR seized on the idea of presidential primaries, telling bosses everywhere to “Let the People Rule.” The cheers and jeers of rowdy supporters and detractors echo from Geoffrey Cowan’s pages as he explores TR’s fight-to-the-finish battle to win popular support.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393249842
January 12th
AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE: Stories by Helen Ellis (Fiction/Short Stories)
Meet the women of AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE. They wear lipstick, pearls and sunscreen, even when it's cloudy. They casserole. They pinwheel. They pump the salad spinner like it's a CPR dummy. And then they kill a party crasher, carefully stepping around the body to pull cookies out of the oven. Helen Ellis’ 12 stories take us from a haunted prewar Manhattan apartment building to the set of a rigged reality television show; from the unique initiation ritual of a book club to the getaway car of a pageant princess on the lam; from the gallery opening of a tinfoil artist to the fitting room of a legendary lingerie shop.
Doubleday * 9780385541039
AND AGAIN by Jessica Chiarella (Dystopian/Science Fiction)
Four terminally ill patients have been selected for the SUBlife pilot program, which will grant them brand-new, genetically perfect bodies that are exact copies of their former selves --- without a single imperfection. But the fresh start they’ve been given is anything but perfect. Without their old bodies, their new physical identities have been lost. As each tries to re-enter their previous lives and relationships, they are faced with the question: How much of your identity rests not just in your mind, but in your heart?
Touchstone * 9781501116100
BESIDE MYSELF by Ann Morgan (Psychological Thriller)
Six-year-old Helen and Ellie are identical twins. But Helen is smarter, more popular and their mother's favorite, while Ellie requires special instruction at school, is friendless and is punished at every turn. Until they decide to swap places for a day, and Ellie refuses to switch back. The girl who used to be Helen loses her sense of self and withdraws into a spiral of behavioral problems, delinquency and mental illness. Twenty-five years later, she receives a call that threatens to pull her back into her sister's dangerous orbit. Will she take this chance to face her past?
Bloomsbury USA * 9781632864338
THE BITTER SEASON by Tami Hoag (Psychological Thriller)
Detective Sam Kovac is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a prominent university professor and his wife, bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Detective Nikki Liska’s case --- the unsolved murder of a decorated sex crimes detective --- is less of a distraction: Twenty five years later, there is little hope of finding the killer who got away. As the trails of two crimes a quarter of a century apart twist and cross, Kovac and Liska race to find answers before a killer strikes again.
Dutton * 9780525954552
THE CROOKED HOUSE by Christobel Kent (Psychological Thriller)
Alison lives her life under the radar. She has no ties, no home, and she spends her days at a backroom publishing job. Which is how she wants it. Because Alison used to be a teenager named Esme, who was the only survivor in a brutal attack on her family. In order to escape from the horror she witnessed, she moved away from her village, changed her name and cut herself off from her past. But soon Alison realizes that that night's events have left a terrible mark on everyone in the village, and she begins to suspect they are all somehow implicated in her family's murder.
Sarah Crichton Books * 9780374131821
THE DEFENDER: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America by Ethan Michaeli (History)
Giving voice to the voiceless, the Chicago Defender condemned Jim Crow, catalyzed the Great Migration and focused the electoral power of black America. Robert S. Abbott founded The Defender in 1905, smuggled hundreds of thousands of copies into the most isolated communities in the segregated South, and was dubbed a "Modern Moses," becoming one of the first black millionaires in the process. Drawing on dozens of interviews and extensive archival research, Ethan Michaeli brings to life the reporters who braved lynch mobs and policemen’s clubs to do their jobs.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780547560694
DICTATOR by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
At the age of 48, Cicero --- the greatest orator of his time --- is in exile, separated from his wife and children, tormented by his sense of failure, his great power sacrificed on the altar of his principles. And yet, in the words of one of his most famous aphorisms, “While there is life, there is hope.” By promising to support Caesar --- his political enemy --- he is granted return to Rome, where he fights his way back to prominence. Even so, no public figure, however brilliant and cunning, is completely safeguarded against the unscrupulous ambition and corruption of others.
Knopf * 9780307957948
THE DOGS OF LITTLEFIELD by Suzanne Berne (Fiction)
Littlefield, Massachusetts, named one of the Ten Best Places to Live in America, is proud of its fine schools, girls’ soccer teams, leafy streets and charming village center. Yet no sooner has sociologist Dr. Clarice Watkins arrived to study the elements of “good quality of life” than someone begins poisoning the town’s dogs. Are the poisonings in protest to an off-leash proposal for Baldwin Park --- the subject of much town debate --- or the sign of a far deeper disorder? Certainly these types of things don’t happen in Littlefield.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476794242
THE DRESSMAKER'S WAR by Mary Chamberlain (Historical Fiction)
In London, 1939, Ada Vaughan is a young woman with an unusual dressmaking skill and dreams of a better life for herself. That life seems to arrive when Stanislaus, an Austrian aristocrat, sweeps Ada off her feet and brings her to Paris. When war breaks out, Stanislaus vanishes and Ada is taken prisoner by the Germans, she must do everything she can to survive: by becoming dressmaker to the Nazi wives. Abandoned and alone as war rages, the choices Ada makes will come back to haunt her years later, as the truth of her experience is twisted and distorted after the war.
Random House * 9780812997378
THE DRIFTER by Nicholas Petrie (Thriller)
Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: the buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming in nature. But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man’s widow with some home repairs. Under her dilapidated porch, he finds a Samsonite suitcase stuffed with cash and explosives. As Ash begins to investigate this unexpected discovery, he finds himself at the center of a plot that is far larger than he could have imagined.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399174568
EVEN THE DEAD: A Quirke Novel by Benjamin Black (Historical Mystery)
Quirke’s daughter, Phoebe, gets a mysterious visit from an acquaintance: the woman, who admits to being pregnant, says she fears for her life, though she won't say why. When the woman later disappears, Phoebe asks her father for help, and Quirke in turn seeks the assistance of his old friend Inspector Hackett. Before long, the two men find themselves untangling a twisted string of events that takes them deep into a shadowy world where one of the city's most powerful men uses the cover of politics and religion to make obscene profits.
Henry Holt and Co. * 9781627790666
THE EXPATRIATES by Janice Y.K. Lee (Fiction)
Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate, is adrift, undone by a terrible incident in her recent past. Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her struggle to have a child, something she believes could save her foundering marriage. Meanwhile, Margaret, once a happily married mother of three, questions her maternal identity in the wake of a shattering loss. As each woman struggles with her own demons, their lives collide in ways that have irreversible consequences for them all.
Viking * 9780525429470
FALLEN LAND by Taylor Brown (Historical Fiction)
Callum, a seasoned horse thief at 15 years old, came to America from his native Ireland as an orphan. Ava, her father and brother lost to the war, hides in her crumbling home until Callum determines to rescue her from the bands of hungry soldiers pillaging the land. Ava and Callum have only each other in the world and their remarkable horse, Reiver, who carries them through the destruction that is the South. Pursued relentlessly by a murderous slave hunter, tracking dogs and ruthless ex-partisan rangers, the couple race through a beautiful but ruined land, surviving on food they glean from abandoned farms and the occasional kindness of strangers.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250077974
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S JOURNEY: The President Forges a New Nation by T.H. Breen (History)
During his first term as president, George Washington decided that the only way to fulfill the Revolution was to take the new federal government directly to the people. He organized an extraordinary journey carrying him to all 13 states. If the nation fragmented, as it had almost done after the war, it could never become the strong, independent nation for which Washington had fought. In scores of communities, he communicated a powerful and enduring message --- that America was now a nation, not a loose collection of states. And the people responded to his invitation in ways that he never could have predicted.
Simon & Schuster * 9781451675429
THE GILDED RAZOR: A Memoir by Sam Lansky (Memoir)
By the age of 17, Sam Lansky was an all-star student with Ivy League aspirations in his final year at an elite New York City prep school. But a nasty addiction to prescription pills spiraled rapidly out of control, compounded by a string of reckless affairs with older men, leaving his bright future in jeopardy. After a terrifying overdose, he tried to straighten out. Yet as he journeyed from the glittering streets of Manhattan, to a wilderness boot camp in Utah, to a psych ward in New Orleans, he only found more opportunities to create chaos --- until finally, he began to face himself.
Gallery Books * 9781476776149
THE GIRLS SHE LEFT BEHIND: A Lizzie Snow Novel by Sarah Graves (Mystery/Thriller)
After 10 years as a captive of kidnapper Henry Gemmerle, Joan Crimmins eludes the media and spurns the family who failed to search for her. Instead, she settles in the remote Maine town of Bearkill. But when Gemmerle flees a prison clinic and a 16-year-old Bearkill girl vanishes, Aroostook County Sheriff’s deputy Lizzie Snow knows that Joan’s painful past has just become another young woman’s horrifying future.
Bantam * 9780553390438
THE GOOD GOODBYE by Carla Buckley (Psychological Suspense)
Natalie Falcone gets a phone call every mother dreads: It’s from a hospital emergency room in the town where her daughter, Arden, attends college. Arden has been in a fire, along with Natalie’s niece, Rory --- her estranged brother-in-law's daughter and Arden’s best friend. Natalie rushes to the hospital and learns that both Arden and Rory lie unconscious, and that another student has died in the blaze. The case unearths a portrait of a complex friendship, a love triangle, a fight, and a girl who was struggling more than anyone realized.
Ballantine Books * 9780553390582
HUNTERS IN THE DARK by Lawrence Osborne (Literary Thriller)
Adrift in Cambodia and eager to side-step a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher, 28-year-old Englishman Robert Grieve decides to go missing. As he crosses the border from Thailand, he tests the threshold of a new future. And on that first night, a small windfall precipitates a chain of events --- involving a bag of “jinxed” money, a suave American, a trunk full of heroin, a hustler taxi driver, and a rich doctor’s daughter --- that changes Robert’s life forever.
Hogarth * 9780553447347
I AM YOUR JUDGE written by Nele Neuhaus, translated by Steven T. Murray (Mystery)
An elderly woman has been shot and killed while walking her dog. A short while later, another murder is committed, and the modus operandi is eerily similar. Two more murders follow in short order. None of the victims had enemies, and no one knows why they were singled out. As fear of the Taunus Sniper grows among the local residents, the pressure rises on Police Detective Pia Kirchhoff. She and her partner, Oliver von Bodenstein, search for a suspect who appears to murder at will, but as the investigation progresses, the police officers uncover a human tragedy.
Minotaur Books * 9781250071682
THE LIGHTKEEPERS by Abby Geni (Mystery)
Miranda is a nature photographer who travels to the Farallon Islands, an exotic and dangerous archipelago off the coast of California, for a one-year residency capturing the landscape. Her only companions are the scientists studying there, odd and quirky refugees from the mainland living in rustic conditions. Shortly after her arrival, Miranda is assaulted by one of the inhabitants of the islands. A few days later, her assailant is found dead, perhaps the result of an accident. When more violence occurs, each member of this strange community falls under suspicion.
Counterpoint * 9781619026001
THE LONGEST NIGHT by Andria Williams (Historical Fiction)
In 1959, Nat Collier moves with her husband, Paul, and their two young daughters to Idaho Falls, a remote military town. An Army Specialist, Paul is stationed there to help oversee one of the country’s first nuclear reactors --- an assignment that seems full of opportunity. Then, on his rounds, Paul discovers that the reactor is compromised, placing his family and the entire community in danger. Worse, his superiors set out to cover up the problem rather than fix it. Paul can’t bring himself to tell Nat the truth, but his lies only widen a growing gulf between them.
Random House * 9780812997743
THE LOST TUDOR PRINCESS: The Life of Lady Margaret Douglas by Alison Weir (Biography)
THE LOST TUDOR PRINCESS is the first biography of Margaret Douglas, the beautiful, cunning niece of Henry VIII of England who used her sharp intelligence and covert power to influence the succession after the death of Elizabeth I. Drawing on decades of research and myriad original sources --- including many of Margaret’s surviving letters --- Alison Weir brings this captivating character out of the shadows and presents a strong, capable woman who operated effectively and fearlessly at the very highest levels of power.
Ballantine Books * 9780345521392
MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON by Elizabeth Strout (Fiction)
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, and her love for her two daughters.
Random House * 9781400067695
ORCHARD GROVE by Vincent Zandri (Thriller)
Orchard Grove is a town like any other, with quiet neighborhoods and apple groves…though Ethan, the depressed screenplay writer, and his secretive wife, Susan, would tell you differently. So would the seductive serial killer living next door. The apple trees are fertilized with evil, and the backyard fences aren’t enough to stop the manipulative mind games and dangerous lies. The lines between good and evil are blurred, and then erased, as Ethan does what it takes to survive.
Polis Books * 9781940610788
THE OTHER ME by Saskia Sarginson (Fiction)
1986, London. Klaudia is about to start high school. She's embarrassed by her German father, never knowing what he may or may not have done during the war. In 1995 Leeds, Eliza is a young woman in love --- with her life as a dance student, and with her boyfriend Cosmo. She’s living a lie, though, running away from a past of which she was always ashamed. When her mother dies and she’s called home, Eliza can no longer deny her roots, even if it will cost her everything.
Flatiron Books * 9781250089137
ROSALIE LIGHTNING: A Graphic Memoir by Tom Hart (Graphic Memoir)
ROSALIE LIGHTNING is Eisner-nominated cartoonist Tom Hart's beautiful and touching graphic memoir about the untimely death of his young daughter, Rosalie. His heartbreaking and emotional illustrations strike readers to the core, and take them along his family's journey through loss. Hart uses the graphic form to articulate his and his wife's ongoing search for meaning in the aftermath of Rosalie's death, exploring themes of grief, hopelessness, rebirth and eventually finding hope again.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250049940
SCANDALOUS BEHAVIOR: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller)
After a series of nonstop adventures, Stone Barrington is eager for some peace and quiet in a rustic British setting. But no sooner does he land in England than he’s beset by an outrageous demand from a beautiful lady, and an offer he can’t refuse. Unfortunately, Stone quickly learns that his new acquisition comes with some undesired strings attached --- namely, a deadly mystery involving the complex relationships of the local gentry, and a relentless adversary who raises the stakes with every encounter.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399174681
SUPERNOTES written by Agent Kasper and Luigi Carletti, translated by John Cullen (Thriller)
While investigating Mafia money laundering in Phnom Penh, Agent Kasper is approached by the CIA to track down the source of the so-called supernotes --- illegal U.S. banknotes counterfeited so perfectly that they are undetectable, even by sophisticated machines --- that are flooding Southeast Asia. With patience, skill and courage, Kasper uncovers the explosive secret behind them and is badly burned by the truth. Meanwhile, back in Rome, a sharp, scrappy lawyer named Barbara Belli has been hired by Kasper’s family to work for his release.
Nan A. Talese * 9780385540070
THIS CENSUS-TAKER by China Miéville (Paranormal/Urban Fantasy)
In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries --- and fails --- to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend, enemy…or something else altogether?
Del Rey * 9781101967324
WHAT SHE LEFT by T.R. Richmond (Psychological Thriller)
On a snowy February morning, the body of 25-year-old journalist Alice Salmon washes up on a riverbank south of London. Professor Jeremy Cooke, who taught Alice, embarks on a final project --- a book documenting Alice’s life through the digital and paper trails that survive her. Bit by bit, the real Alice --- a complicated and vulnerable young woman --- springs fully formed from the pages of his book…along with a labyrinth of misunderstandings, lies and secrets that cast suspicion on everyone in her circle --- including Jeremy himself.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476773841
WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR by Paul Kalanithi (Memoir)
At the age of 36, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
Random House * 9780812988406
YOUR HEART IS A MUSCLE THE SIZE OF A FIST by Sunil Yapa (Fiction)
On a rainy, cold day in November, young Victor sets out to sell as much marijuana as possible to the throng of WTO demonstrators determined to shut down the city. With the proceeds, he plans to buy a plane ticket and leave Seattle forever, but it quickly becomes clear that the history-making 50,000 anti-globalization protestors are testing the patience of the police, and what started out as a peaceful protest is threatening to erupt into violence. Over the course of one life-altering afternoon, the fates of seven people will change forever.
Lee Boudreaux Books * 9780316386531
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On Sale the Week of January 11th in Paperback
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January 11th
THE ANIMALS by Christian Kiefer (Literary Thriller)
Bill Reed manages a wildlife sanctuary in rural Idaho, caring for injured animals that are unable to survive in the wild. Seemingly rid of his troubled past, Bill hopes to marry the local veterinarian and live a quiet life together, the promise of which is threatened when a childhood friend is released from prison. Suddenly forced to confront the secrets of his criminal youth, Bill battles fiercely to preserve the shelter that protects these wounded animals and to keep hidden his turbulent, even dangerous, history.
Liveright * 9781631491498
January 12th
THE 8th CIRCLE by Sarah Cain (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A year ago, Danny Ryan lost his wife and son in a car accident. He's still reeling from the tragedy when Michael Cohen, his friend and fellow journalist, drives into the pond in front of his house with a bullet through his gut. With Michael's death ruled a murder, Danny must work to get his name crossed off the list of suspects, and that means digging into Michael's last article, an exposé of the twisted side of Philadelphia politics. But powerful people are ready to kill to protect what Michael was about to uncover. If Danny isn’t careful, he'll be next.
Crooked Lane Books * 9781629534855
AQUARIUM by David Vann (Fiction)
Caitlin lives alone with her mother in subsidized housing next to an airport in Seattle. Each day, while waiting to be picked up after school, she visits the local aquarium to study the fish. Gazing at the creatures within the watery depths, she accesses a shimmering universe beyond her own. When she befriends an old man at the tanks one day, who seems as enamored of the fish as she, Caitlin cracks open a dark family secret and propels her once-blissful relationship with her mother toward a precipice of terrifying consequence.
Grove Press * 9780802124791
DEATH OF A KING: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year by Tavis Smiley, with David Ritz (History)
Martin Luther King, Jr. died in one of the most shocking assassinations the world has known, but little is remembered about the life he led in his final year. New York Times bestselling author and award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley recounts the final 365 days of King's life, revealing the minister's trials and tribulations, all of which he had to rise above in order to lead and address the racism, poverty and militarism that threatened to destroy our democracy.
Back Bay Books * 9780316332774
DOCTOR DEATH: A Madeleine Karno Mystery by Lene Kaaberbøl (Historical Mystery)
When 17-year-old Cecile Montaine is found dead, her family will not permit a full post-mortem autopsy. Madeleine Karno and her pathologist father are left with a single mysterious clue: in the dead girl’s nostrils is a type of parasite normally seen only in dogs. Soon after, the priest who held vigil by the dead girl’s corpse is brutally murdered. The thread that connects these two events is a tangled one, and as the death toll mounts, Madeleine must seek knowledge in odd places.
Atria Books * 9781476731391
DOUBLE DOUBLE: A Dual Memoir of Alcoholism by Martha Grimes and Ken Grimes (Memoir)
People who suffer from alcoholism as well as their families and friends know that while it is possible to get sober, there is no one “right” way to do this. Now, award-winning mystery writer Martha Grimes and her son, Ken Grimes, offer two points of view on their struggles with alcoholism. In alternating chapters, they share their stories --- stories of drinking, recovery, relapse, friendship, travel, work, success and failure.
Scribner * 9781476724102
EARLY WARNING by Jane Smiley (Historical Fiction)
EARLY WARNING opens in 1953 with the Langdon family at a crossroads. Their stalwart patriarch, Walter, has suddenly died, leaving their five children, now adults, looking to the future. As the country moves out of post-World War II optimism through the darker landscape of the Cold War and the social and sexual revolutions of the 1960s and ’70s, and then into the unprecedented wealth (for some) of the early 1980s, the Langdon children each follow a different path in a rapidly changing world.
Anchor * 9780307744814
A GOD IN RUINS by Kate Atkinson (Historical Fiction)
Kate Atkinson's LIFE AFTER LIFE explored the possibility of infinite chances and the power of choices, following Ursula Todd as she lived through the turbulent events of the last century over and over again. A GOD IN RUINS tells the dramatic story of the 20th century through Ursula's beloved younger brother, Teddy --- would-be poet, heroic pilot, husband, father and grandfather --- as he navigates the perils and progress of a rapidly changing world.
Back Bay Books * 9780316176507
INSIDE A SILVER BOX by Walter Mosley (Speculative Fiction)
Two people brought together by a horrific act are united in a common cause by the powers of the Silver Box. They join to protect humanity from destruction by an alien race, the Laz, hell-bent on regaining control over the Silver Box, the most destructive and powerful tool in the universe. The Silver Box will stop at nothing to prevent its former master from returning to being, even if it means finishing the earth itself.
Tor Books * 9780765375223
KILLER, COME HITHER by Louis Begley (Thriller)
A horrified and incredulous Jack Dana digs into the facts surrounding the death of his uncle Harry of an apparent suicide. Aided by Harry’s most trusted associate, Kerry Black, and by his college friend Scott Prentice, who now works for the CIA, Jack discovers that Harry had pierced the secret of his most important client, Abner Brown, a right-wing multibillionaire notorious for backing extremist causes. The stakes and dangers are huge. Harry’s death now seems anything but a suicide.
Ballantine Books * 9780553392449
LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME by Alexandra Fuller (Memoir)
LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME begins with the dreadful first years of the American financial crisis when Alexandra Fuller’s delicate balance --- between American pragmatism and African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox marriage --- irrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambia, Fuller struggles to understand her younger self as she overcomes her current misfortunes. She soon realizes what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father.
Penguin Books * 9780143128427
THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND by Colette McBeth (Mystery/Thriller)
Six years ago, Melody Pieterson was attacked and left for dead. Her neighbor and close friend, David Alden, was found guilty of the crime and imprisoned. Soon after David is released from prison, Eve Elliot is murdered in an attack almost identical to Melody’s. But as she learns more about Eve's murder, Melody starts to wonder if perhaps David hadn’t betrayed her after all...if perhaps the killer is someone else entirely, someone who’s still out there, preparing to strike again.
Minotaur Books * 9781250041234
MISSOULA: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (True Crime)
Jon Krakauer chronicles the searing experiences of several women in Missoula --- the nights when they were raped; their fear and self-doubt in the aftermath; the way they were treated by the police, prosecutors and defense attorneys; the public vilification and private anguish; their bravery in pushing forward and what it cost them. Krakauer’s dispassionate, carefully documented account of what these ladies endured cuts through the abstract ideological debate about campus rape.
Anchor * 9780804170567
WRITTEN IN FIRE: Book Three of The Brilliance Trilogy by Marcus Sakey (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Paperback Original
For 30 years, humanity struggled to cope with the brilliants, the one percent of people born with remarkable gifts. Now the White House is a smoking ruin. Madison Square Garden is an internment camp. In Wyoming, an armed militia of thousands marches toward a final, apocalyptic battle. Nick Cooper has spent his life fighting for his children and his country. Now, as the world staggers on the edge of ruin, he must risk everything he loves to face his oldest enemy --- a brilliant terrorist so driven by his ideals that he will sacrifice humanity’s future to achieve them.
Thomas & Mercer * 9781477827642
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On Sale the Week of January 18th in Hardcover
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January 19th
BLUE by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Ginny Carter was once a rising star in TV news, married to a top anchorman, with a three-year-old son and a full and happy life in Beverly Hills --- until her whole world dissolved in a single instant on the freeway two days before Christmas. In the aftermath, she pieces her life back together and tries to find meaning in her existence as a human rights worker in the worst areas around the globe. Then, on the anniversary of the fateful accident --- and wrestling with the lure of death herself --- she meets a boy who will cause her life to change forever yet again.
Delacorte Press * 9780345531056
EVEN DOGS IN THE WILD by Ian Rankin (Mystery)
Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke is investigating the death of a senior government prosecutor, David Minton, while Malcolm Fox is helping a surveillance team track a notorious Glasgow crime family. John Rebus gets a call from his old nemesis, "Big Ger" Cafferty; someone just fired a bullet through his front window, and the only man he trusts with his life is Rebus. As the cases collide, it's up to Clarke, Fox and Rebus to connect the dots and save their unlikely ally, whose past harbors a shocking secret that implicates Minton's friends in an unspeakable crime.
Little, Brown and Company * 9780316342513
THE FORGOTTEN ROOM by Karen White, Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig (Historical Fiction)
When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in 1945, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion. Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?
NAL * 9780451474629
THE MAN WITHOUT A SHADOW by Joyce Carol Oates (Psychological Suspense)
In 1965, neuroscientist Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes --- the “man without a shadow” --- whose devastated memory, unable to store new experiences or to retrieve the old, will make him the most famous and studied amnesiac in history. Over the course of the next 30 years, Margot herself becomes famous for her experiments with E. H. --- and inadvertently falls in love with him, despite the ethical ambiguity of their affair. Though he remains forever elusive and mysterious to her, she is haunted by mysteries of the past.
Ecco * 9780062416094
ORPHAN X by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets --- i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear. Now, however, someone is on his tail and determined to eliminate him.
Minotaur Books * 9781250067845
THE PORTABLE VEBLEN by Elizabeth McKenzie (Fiction/Humor)
THE PORTABLE VEBLEN is set in and around Palo Alto, amid the culture clash of new money and old (antiestablishment) values, and with the specter of our current wars looming across. A young couple on the brink of marriage --- the charming Veblen and her fiancé Paul, a brilliant neurologist --- find their engagement in danger of collapse. Along the way they weather everything from each other’s dysfunctional families, to the attentions of a seductive pharmaceutical heiress, to an intimate tête-à-tête with a very charismatic squirrel.
Penguin Press * 9781594206856
RIVER ROAD by Carol Goodman (Psychological Thriller)
Nan Lewis, a creative writing professor, hits a deer while driving home from a faculty holiday party. But when she gets out of her car to look for it, the deer is nowhere to be found. The next morning, Nan is informed that one of her students was killed in a hit-and-run the night before. And because of the damage to her car, Nan is a suspect. In the days following the accident, Nan finds herself shunned by the same community that rallied around her when her own daughter was killed in an eerily similar accident. When she begins to find disturbing tokens that recall the death of her daughter, Nan suspects that the two accidents are connected.
Touchstone * 9781501109904
THE ROAD TO LITTLE DRIBBLING: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson (Travel/Memoir)
In 1995, Bill Bryson got into his car and took a weeks-long farewell motoring trip about England before moving his family back to the United States. The book about that trip, NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, is uproarious and endlessly endearing. Two decades later, he set out again to rediscover that country, and the result is THE ROAD TO LITTLE DRIBBLING. Nothing is funnier than Bill Bryson on the road, so prepare for the total joy and multiple episodes of unseemly laughter.
Doubleday * 9780385539289
A SONG FOR THE BROKENHEARTED: A Breen and Tozer Mystery by William Shaw (Mystery)
After being wounded in the line of duty, Detective Sergeant Breen recuperates on the family farm of his former partner, Helen Tozer. To fill the long and empty hours, he reviews the open case file for a murder that has haunted Helen for years: that of her younger sister. Breen discovers that the teenage victim had been having a secret affair with James Fletchet, the son of an affluent local landowner. Breen and Tozer return to London's Criminal Investigation Division, where their questions about Fletchet's past are met with resistance and suspicion.
Mulholland Books * 9780316246910
THE STARGAZER'S SISTER by Carrie Brown (Historical Fiction)
William Herschel, the great composer and astronomer, rescues his sister, Caroline, from a life of drudgery in Germany and brings her to England and a world of music making and stargazing. Lina, as Caroline is known, serves as William’s assistant and the captain of his exhilaratingly busy household. William is generous, wise and charismatic, an obsessive genius whom Lina adores and serves with the fervency of a beloved wife. But when William suddenly announces that he will be married, Lina watches her world collapse.
Pantheon * 9780804197939
THEIR PROMISED LAND: My Grandparents in Love and War by Ian Buruma (Social History)
During the almost six years England was at war with Nazi Germany, Winifred and Bernard Schlesinger, Ian Buruma’s grandparents, and the film director John Schlesinger's parents, were, like so many others, thoroughly sundered from each other. Their only recourse was to write letters back and forth. And write they did, often every day. Now, in a labor of love that is also a powerful act of artistic creation, Buruma has woven his own voice in with theirs to provide the context and counterpoint necessary to bring to life not just a remarkable marriage, but a class and an age.
Penguin Press * 9781594204388
THE THINGS WE KEEP by Sally Hepworth (Fiction)
Anna Forster, in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease at only 38 years old, resides in Rosalind House, an assisted living facility. There, she meets fellow resident Luke, and a relationship develops between the two. When Eve Bennett is suddenly thrust into the role of single mother, she finds herself putting her culinary training to use at Rosalind House. When she meets Anna and Luke, she is moved by the bond the pair has forged. But when a tragic incident leads Anna's and Luke's families to separate them, Eve finds herself questioning what she is willing to risk to help them.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250051905
THOMAS MURPHY by Roger Rosenblatt (Fiction)
Trying his best to weasel out of an appointment with the neurologist his only child, Máire, has cornered him into, the poet Thomas Murphy contemplates his sunset years. Máire worries that Murph is losing his memory, while Murph wonders what to do with the rest of his life. Into his world comes the lovely Sarah, a blind woman less than half his age, who sees into his heart as he sees into hers. Brought together under the most unlikely circumstance, Murph and Sarah begin in friendship and wind up in impossible possible love.
Ecco * 9780062394569
WARRIORS OF THE STORM by Bernard Cornwell (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
A fragile peace reigns in Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia. King Alfred’s son, Edward, and formidable daughter, Aethelflaed, rule the kingdoms. But all around the restless Northmen, eyeing the rich lands and wealthy churches, are mounting raids. Uhtred of Bebbanburg, the kingdoms’ greatest warrior, controls northern Mercia from the strongly fortified city of Chester. But forces are gathering against him. Northmen allied to the Irish, led by the fierce warrior Ragnall Ivarson, are soon joined by the Northumbrians, and their strength could prove overwhelming.
Harper * 9780062250940
WHAT BELONGS TO YOU by Garth Greenwell (Fiction)
On an unseasonably warm autumn day, an American teacher enters a public bathroom beneath Sofia’s National Palace of Culture. There he meets Mitko, a charismatic young hustler, and pays him for sex. He returns to Mitko again and again over the next few months and finds himself ensnared in a relationship in which lust leads to mutual predation, and tenderness can transform into violence. As he struggles to reconcile his longing with the anguish it creates, he’s forced to grapple with his own fraught history.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux * 9780374288228
THE WINTER GIRL by Matt Marinovich (Psychological Thriller)
Scott and his wife, Elise, have come to the Hamptons to be with Elise’s terminally ill father. Every night at precisely 11, the lights in their neighbor's bedroom turn off. There's something about that light that Scott can't let go of. So one day he breaks in --- and feels a jolt of excitement he hasn't felt in a long time. Soon he enlists his wife as a partner in crime. Their one simple transgression quickly sends husband and wife down a deliriously wicked spiral of bad decisions, infidelities, escalating violence and absolutely shocking revelations.
Doubleday * 9780385539975 |
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On Sale the Week of January 18th in Paperback
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January 18th
GATEWAY TO FREEDOM: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad by Eric Foner (History)
Building on fresh evidence --- including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York --- Eric Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by "practical abolition" --- person by person, family by family.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393352191
January 19th
THE BOOK OF LOVE: Improvisations on a Crazy Little Thing by Roger Rosenblatt (Love & Romance)
In THE BOOK OF LOVE, Roger Rosenblatt explores love in all its moods and variations --- romantic love, courtship, battle, mystery, marriage, heartbreak, fury, confusion, melancholy, delirium, ecstasy; love of family, of friends; love of home, of country, of work, of writing, of solitude, of art; love of nature; love of life itself. Rosenblatt is on a quest to illuminate this elusive and essential emotion, to define this thing called love.
Ecco * 9780062349439
BROOKLYN ON FIRE: A Mary Handley Mystery by Lawrence H. Levy (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
After closing a case with the Brooklyn Police Department, Mary Handley is determined to become an official detective in her own right. And when Emily Worsham shows up at her new office --- convinced that her uncle John Worsham was murdered and desperate for answers --- Mary’s second assignment begins. As she investigates the curious circumstances surrounding John’s death, Mary soon finds herself entangled in a high-stakes family scandal, a series of interconnected murders, political corruption, untrustworthy sources, and an unexpected romance with a central member of New York's elite.
Broadway Books * 9780553418941
CANARY by Duane Swierczynski (Thriller)
Honors student Sarie Holland is busted by the local police while doing a favor for her boyfriend. Unwilling to betray him but desperate to avoid destroying her future, she has no choice but to become a "CI" --- a confidential informant. Sarie turns out to be the perfect CI but soon enough is hunted by crooked cops and killers alike with nothing to save her --- except what she's learned during her harrowing weeks as an informant. Which is bad news for the police and the underworld.
Mulholland Books * 9780316403191
DELICIOUS FOODS by James Hannaham (Fiction)
Darlene, once an exemplary wife and a loving mother to her young son, Eddie, finds herself devastated by the unforeseen death of her husband. Unable to cope with her grief, she turns to drugs and quickly forms an addiction. One day she disappears without a trace. Unbeknownst to 11-year-old Eddie, now left behind in a panic-stricken search for her, Darlene has been lured away with false promises of a good job and a rosy life. A shady company named Delicious Foods shuttles her to a remote farm, where she is held captive.
Back Bay Books * 9780316284936
A FIFTY-YEAR SILENCE: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond Mouillot (Memoir/History)
A FIFTY-YEAR-SILENCE is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot's journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife's name aloud after she left him. To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda moves to their stone house; immerses herself in letters, archival materials and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent grandparents.
Broadway Books * 9780804140669
FROG written by Mo Yan, translated by Howard Goldblatt (Fiction)
FROG opens with a playwright nicknamed Tadpole, who plans to write about his aunt. In her youth, Gugu --- the beautiful daughter of a famous doctor and staunch Communist --- is revered for her skill as a midwife. But when her lover defects, Gugu’s own loyalty to the Party is questioned. She decides to prove her allegiance by strictly enforcing the one-child policy, keeping tabs on the number of children in the village, and performing abortions on women as many as eight months pregnant.
Penguin Books * 9780143128380
LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS: A Remarkable Story of True Love Conquering All by Nick Vujicic, with Kanae Vujicic (Memoir/Personal Growth)
Even though he was born without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic created a “ridiculously good life.” But after dating disappointments and a failed relationship, he reached his mid-20s worried that he would never find a woman to love him and share his life. Then he met Kanae and everything changed. In LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS, Nick and Kanae tell how they improbably found each other, fell in love, and then fought to overcome skepticism from others about their relationship.
WaterBrook Press * 9781601426185
ORHAN’S INHERITANCE by Aline Ohanesian (Fiction)
When Orhan’s brilliant and eccentric grandfather is found dead in a vat of dye, Orhan inherits his decades-old business. Kemal has left the family estate to a stranger thousands of miles away, an aging woman in a retirement home in Los Angeles. Intent on righting this injustice, Orhan boards a plane to LA. There, he will unearth the story that 87-year-old Seda so closely guards --- the story that, if told, has the power to undo the legacy upon which Orhan’s family is built, the story that could unravel Orhan’s own future.
Algonquin Books * 9781616205300
PRODIGAL SON by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Twin boys grow up in the same family and in the same town. Dramatically different, they become bitter enemies, even as children. One leaves his peaceful hometown, but when all else fails, the prodigal son returns 20 years later. The reunion of brothers, sweet and healing at first, exposes shattering revelations of good and evil. Danielle Steel tells a story of suspicion, betrayal and a life-and-death struggle for survival. Which twin is good and which is evil, as the tables turn again and again?
Dell * 9780440245186
RADIANT ANGEL: A John Corey Novel by Nelson DeMille (Thriller/Adventure)
After a showdown with the notorious Yemeni terrorist known as The Panther, John Corey has left the Anti-Terrorist Task Force and returned home to New York City, taking a job with the Diplomatic Surveillance Group. Although Corey's new assignment with the DSG --- surveilling Russian diplomats working at the U.N. Mission --- is thought to be "a quiet end," he is more than happy to be out from under the thumb of the FBI and free from the bureaucracy of office life. But Corey realizes something the U.S. government doesn't: the all-too-real threat of a newly resurgent Russia.
Grand Central Publishing * 9780446699624
THE READERS OF BROKEN WHEEL RECOMMEND by Katarina Bivald (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her book-loving pen pal. When she arrives, however, she finds Amy's funeral guests just leaving. The residents of Broken Wheel are happy to look after their bewildered visitor --- not much else to do in a small town that's almost beyond repair. They just never imagined that she'd start a bookstore. Or that books could bring them together --- and change everything.
Sourcebooks Landmark * 9781492623441 |
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