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May 17, 2016

May 17, 2016
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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 16th and May 23rd 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 contests for BEHIND CLOSED DOORS by B. A. Paris and THE NEW NEIGHBOR by Leah Stewart, along with our ReadingGroupGuides.com giveaway for BEACH TOWN by Mary Kay Andrews (whose latest novel, THE WEEKENDERS, is now in stores).

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This Week's Bonus News: Special Contests for BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, THE NEW NEIGHBOR and BEACH TOWN
Enter to Win One of 35 Advance Copies of BEHIND CLOSED DOORS by B. A. Paris
We are celebrating the August 9th release of BEHIND CLOSED DOORS by B. A. Paris --- a debut psychological thriller that exposes the realities of a "perfect marriage" ---with a special contest that will give 35 readers the opportunity to win an advance copy of the book. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, May 26th at noon ET.


BEHIND CLOSED DOORS by B. A. Paris (Psychological Thriller)
Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace: he has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. Picture this: a dinner party at their perfect home, the conversation and wine flowing. They appear to be in their element while entertaining. And Grace's friends are eager to reciprocate with lunch the following week. Grace wants to go, but knows she never will. Her friends call --- so why doesn't Grace ever answer the phone? And how can she cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim? And why are there bars on one of the bedroom windows?

-Click here to enter the contest.


Enter to Win One of 10 Paperback Copies of THE NEW NEIGHBOR by Leah Stewart
We are celebrating the June 28th paperback release of THE NEW NEIGHBOR by Leah Stewart --- in which an old woman’s curiosity turns into a dangerous obsession as she becomes involved in her mysterious new neighbor’s complicated life --- with a special contest that will give 10 readers the opportunity to win a copy of the book. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, May 26th at noon ET.

THE NEW NEIGHBOR by Leah Stewart (Psychological Thriller)
Ninety-year-old Margaret Riley is content hiding from the world. She rarely leaves her Tennessee home, finding comfort in the mystery novels that keep her company. Her new neighbor, Jennifer Young, is also looking to hide. On the run from her old life, she and her young son have moved to a quiet town where no one from her past can find her. In Jennifer, Margaret sees a potential companion for her loneliness and a mystery to be solved. But when Jennifer refuses to befriend her, Margaret crosses more and more boundaries in pursuit of the truth, threatening to unravel the life Jennifer has so painstakingly created --- and reveal some secrets of her own.

-Click here to enter the contest.


"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest: Enter to Win 12 Copies of BEACH TOWN by Mary Kay Andrews for Your Book Group
This month's prize book is BEACH TOWN, Mary Kay Andrews' charming tale of an unlikely romance between a stubborn, environmentalist mayor and the determined film location scout who would like to set her big-budget movie in his idyllic beach town. To enter to win 12 copies of the book (which is now available in paperback) for your book group, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, June 1st at noon ET. And be sure to check out Mary Kay's latest novel, THE WEEKENDERS, which is now available.

BEACH TOWN by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)

Greer Hennessy, a movie location scout, must find the perfect undiscovered beach town for a big budget movie. She zeroes in on a sleepy Florida panhandle town but finds a formidable obstacle in the town mayor, Eben Thibadeaux. A born-again environmentalist, he has seen massive damage done to the town by a huge paper company and has no intention of letting anybody screw with his town again. The only problem is that he finds Greer way too attractive for his own good, and knows that her motivation is in direct conflict with his.

-Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of May 16th in Hardcover

May 17th

THE AFTER PARTY by Anton DiSclafani (Historical Fiction)
Joan Fortier is the epitome of Texas glamour and the center of the 1950s Houston social scene. Every man who sees her seems to want her; every woman just wants to be her. The money may flow as freely as the oil, but the freedom and power all belong to the men. What happens when a woman of indecorous appetites and desires like Joan wants more? What does it do to her best friend? Devoted to Joan since childhood, Cece Buchanan is either her chaperone or her partner in crime, depending on whom you ask. But as Joan’s radical behavior escalates, Cece’s perspective shifts --- forcing one provocative choice to appear the only one there is.
Riverhead Books * 9781594633164

AT THE EDGE OF SUMMER by Jessica Brockmole (Historical Fiction)
Clare Ross, a 15-year-old Scottish girl grieving over her parents’ fate, finds solace in her connection to Luc Crépet, and she in turn inspires him in ways he never thought possible. Following her sudden departure, Luc begins to write letters to Clare, whose memory of the summer they shared keeps her grounded. Years later, in the wake of World War I, Clare returns to France to help create facial prostheses for wounded soldiers. One of the wary veterans who comes to the studio is none other than Luc. After war and so many years apart, can Clare and Luc recapture how they felt at the edge of that long-ago summer?
Ballantine Books * 9780345547897

BEYOND THE ICE LIMIT: A Gideon Crew Novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
Five years ago, the mysterious and inscrutable head of Effective Engineering Solutions, Eli Glinn, led a mission to recover a gigantic meteorite from a remote island off the coast of South America. The mission ended in disaster when their ship foundered in a vicious storm and broke apart, sinking to the ocean floor. The tragedy revealed something truly terrifying: the meteorite they tried to retrieve was not simply a rock. Instead, it was a complex organism from the deep reaches of space. That organism has now implanted itself in the sea bed two miles below the surface --- and it’s growing. As Gideon Crew and his colleagues soon discover, the "meteorite" has a mind of its own and has no intention of going quietly.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455525867

BLOOD FLAG: A Paul Madriani Novel by Steve Martini (Legal Thriller)
Paul Madriani and Harry Hinds have a new client: Emma Brauer, a woman accused in the “mercy killing” of her aged father, Robert Brauer. Digging into Robert’s military history, Madriani discovers that other members of the Army unit Robert served with have recently died --- under similarly suspicious circumstances. When he finds that a box sent to Brauer shortly before he entered the hospital relates to a mysterious talisman that went missing at the end of World War II --- a feared Nazi relic known as the “Blood Flag” --- Madriani and Hinds realize they are in for the fight of their lives.
William Morrow * 9780062328960

BOAR ISLAND: An Anna Pigeon Novel by Nevada Barr (Mystery)
Elizabeth Jarrod is driven to despair by the disgusting rumors spreading online and bullying texts. When Heath finds her teenage daughter in the midst of an unsuccessful suicide attempt, she reaches out to her aunt Gwen and her friend, Anna Pigeon. Since Anna is about to start her new post as Acting Chief Ranger at Acadia National Park in Maine, the three will join her and stay at a house on the cliff of a small island near the park, Boar Island. But the stalker has followed them east. And Heath (a paraplegic) and Elizabeth aren't alone on the otherwise deserted island. At the same time, Anna has barely arrived at Acadia before a brutal murder is committed by a killer uncomfortably close to her.
Minotaur Books * 9781250064691

A COUNTRY ROAD, A TREE by Jo Baker (Historical Fiction)
Paris, 1939. The pavement rumbles with the footfall of Nazi soldiers marching along the Champs-Élysées. A young, unknown writer --- Samuel Beckett --- recently arrived from Ireland to make his mark, smokes one last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. Soon he will put them both in mortal danger by joining the Resistance. Through it all, we are witness to the workings of a uniquely brilliant mind struggling to create a language that will express this shattered world. Here is a remarkable story of survival and determination, and a portrait of the extremes of human experience alchemized into one man’s timeless art.
Knopf * 9781101947180

DON'T YOU CRY by Mary Kubica (Psychological Thriller)
In downtown Chicago, a young woman named Esther Vaughan disappears from her apartment without a trace. A haunting letter addressed to My Dearest is found among her possessions, leaving her friend and roommate, Quinn Collins, to wonder where Esther is and whether or not she's the person Quinn thought she knew. Meanwhile, in a small Michigan harbor town an hour outside Chicago, a mysterious woman appears in the quiet coffee shop where 18-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher. He is immediately drawn to her charm and beauty, but what starts as an innocent crush quickly spirals into something far more dark and sinister than he ever expected.
Mira * 9780778319054

DRIVE!: Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age by Lawrence Goldstone (History)
In 1900, the Automobile Club of America sponsored the nation’s first car show in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Among the spectators was an obscure would-be automaker named Henry Ford, who walked the floor speaking with designers and engineers, trying to gauge public enthusiasm for what was then a revolutionary invention. His conclusion: the automobile was going to be a fixture in American society, both in the city and on the farm --- and would make some people very rich. None, he decided, more than he. Lawrence Goldstone tells the fascinating story of how the internal combustion engine, a “theory looking for an application,” evolved into an innovation that would change history.
Ballantine Books * 9780553394184

THE FIREMAN by Joe Hill (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies --- before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected, and blazes erupt everywhere. A mysterious and compelling stranger straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted…and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.
William Morrow * 9780062200631

GIRLS ON FIRE by Robin Wasserman (Thriller)
On Halloween in 1991, a popular high school basketball star ventures into the woods and disappears. Three days later, he’s found with a bullet in his head and a gun in his hand. In the wake of this incident, bright but lonely Hannah Dexter is befriended by the charismatic, seductive Lacey Champlain. Lacey forges a fast, intimate bond with the impressionable Dex, making her over in her own image and unleashing a fierce defiance that neither girl expected. But as Lacey gradually lures Dex away from her safe life into a feverish spiral of obsession, rebellion and ever greater risk, an unwelcome figure appears on the horizon --- and Lacey’s secret history collides with Dex’s worst nightmare.
Harper * 9780062415486

THE HIGHWAYMAN: A Longmire Story by Craig Johnson (Mystery)
When Wyoming highway patrolman Rosey Wayman is transferred to the beautiful and imposing landscape of the Wind River Canyon, an area the troopers refer to as no-man's-land because of the lack of radio communication, she starts receiving “officer needs assistance” calls. The problem? They're coming from Bobby Womack, a legendary Arapaho patrolman who met a fiery death in the canyon almost a half-century ago. With an investigation that spans this world and the next, Sheriff Walt Longmire and Henry Standing Bear take on a case that pits them against a legend: The Highwayman.
Viking * 9780735220898

LOST AND GONE FOREVER: A Novel of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad by Alex Grecian (Historical Mystery)
Many changes have happened to the Murder Squad. Rash actions have cost Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith his job, and in response he has set up his own private detective agency. Inspector Walter Day has been missing for a year, and no one knows where he is --- though there is a strong suspicion that Saucy Jack has him. Hammersmith has made finding Day his primary case, and he has company --- a pair of bounty hunters, a man and a woman. It is only gradually that he has come to realize that they are not what they seem.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399176104

MERCY by Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer (Medical Thriller)
Dr. Julie Devereux is an outspoken advocate for the right to die --- until a motorcycle accident leaves her fiancé, Sam Talbot, a quadriplegic. Sam begs to end his life, but Julie sees hope in a life together. When he passes away from an unexpected heart attack, an autopsy reveals that Sam died of an unusual heart defect, one seen only in those under extreme stress. As Julie investigates similar cases, she finds a frightening pattern…and finds herself the target of disturbing threats. The more cases Julie discovers, the more the threats escalate, until she is accused of a mercy killing of her own. To clear her name and save her career, she must track down whoever is behind these mysterious deaths.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250030849

THE POLITICIANS AND THE EGALITARIANS: The Hidden History of American Politics by Sean Wilentz (History/Politics)
“There are two keys to unlocking the secrets of American politics and American political history.” So begins THE POLITICIANS AND THE EGALITARIANS, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz’s bold new work of history. First, America is built on an egalitarian tradition. At the nation’s founding, Americans believed that extremes of wealth and want would destroy their revolutionary experiment in republican government. Second, partisanship is a permanent fixture in America, and America is the better for it. With these two insights, Wilentz offers a crystal-clear portrait of American history, told through politicians and egalitarians --- a portrait that runs counter to current political and historical thinking.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393285024

PORCELAIN: A Memoir by Moby (Memoir)
At once bighearted and remorseless in its excavation of a lost world, PORCELAIN is both a chronicle of a city and a time and a deeply intimate exploration of finding one’s place during the most gloriously anxious period in life --- when you are on your own and betting on yourself, but have no idea how the story ends, and so you live with the honest dread that you’re one false step from being thrown out on your face. Moby’s voice resonates with honesty, wit and, above all, an unshakable passion for his music that steered him through some very rough seas.
Penguin Press * 9781594206429

THE SECOND LIFE OF NICK MASON by Steve Hamilton (Thriller)
Nick Mason has already spent five years inside a maximum security prison when an offer comes that will grant his release 20 years early. He accepts, but the deal comes with a terrible price. Whenever his cell phone rings, day or night, he must answer it and follow whatever order he is given. It’s the deal he made with Darius Cole, a criminal mastermind serving a double-life term who runs an empire from his prison cell. Forced to commit increasingly more dangerous crimes, hunted by the relentless detective who put him behind bars, and desperate to go straight and rebuild his life with his daughter and ex-wife, Nick ultimately will have to risk everything to finally break free.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399574320

TALL TAIL: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown (Mystery)
At any moment, a perfect summer day in Crozet, Virginia might turn stormy and tempestuous, as Harry knows too well when a squall suddenly sweeps in. In a blink, Harry’s pickup nearly collides with a careening red car that then swerves into a ditch. Harry recognizes the dead driver slumped over the vehicle’s steering wheel: Barbara Leader was nurse and confidante to former Virginia governor Sam Holloway. Though Barbara’s death is ruled a heart attack, dissenting opinions abound. A baffling break-in at a local business leads Harry to further suspect that a person with malevolent intent lurks just out of sight: Something evil is afoot.
Bantam * 9780553392463

THE WEEKENDERS by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
Riley Griggs has a season of good times with friends and family ahead of her on the idyllic island of Belle Isle, North Carolina, when things take an unexpected turn. While waiting for her husband to arrive on the ferry one Friday afternoon, Riley is confronted by a process server who thrusts papers into her hand. And her husband is nowhere to be found. So she turns to her island friends for help and support, but it turns out that each of them has their own secrets. The clock is ticking as the mystery deepens...in a murderous way. Riley must find a way to investigate the secrets of Belle Island, the husband she might not really know, and the summer that could change everything.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250065940

ZIGZAG: A Nameless Detective Collection by Bill Pronzini (Mystery)
ZIGZAG includes two novellas and two short stories featuring Bill Pronzini's iconic Nameless Detective. “Zigzag” is an original novella, in which a safe and simple accident investigation becomes the unraveling of a twisted murder scheme. “Grapplin” deals with the kind of missing person case that can end in only one of two ways: closure or heartbreak. In the second short, “Nightscape,” readers discover how, indeed, one thing just leads to another. The final work, “Revenant,” is another original novella and entangles Nameless in a weird crime with fearful occult overtones.
Forge Books * 9780765381033
On Sale the Week of May 16th in Paperback

May 17th

COUP DE FOUDRE: A Novella and Stories by Ken Kalfus (Fiction/Short Stories)
Ken Kalfus’ latest collection of short fiction is a mix of experimental works and stories that borrow from recent news items. The piece that likely will receive the most attention is the title novella, in which a figure based on Dominique Strauss-Kahn has a sexual encounter with a housekeeper from Guinea at New York’s Sofitel hotel. Other stories in this provocative book touch upon topics like the Iraq War, the Large Hadron Collider, and execution by lethal injection.
Bloomsbury USA * 9781632863805

DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg (Fiction)
On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke --- her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor. Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak.
Gallery/Scout Press * 9781476798189

THE GODDESS POSE: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West by Michelle Goldberg (Biography)
When Indra Devi was born in Russia in 1899, yoga was virtually unknown outside of India. By the time of her death, in 2002, it was being practiced around the world. Here, Michelle Goldberg tells the globetrotting story of the incredible woman who helped usher in a craze that continues unabated to this day. A sweeping picture of the 20th century that travels from the cabarets of Berlin to the Mysore Palace to Golden Age Hollywood and beyond, THE GODDESS POSE brings the Devi’s little known but extraordinary adventures vividly to life.
Vintage * 9780307477446

THE GOVERNOR’S WIFE by Michael Harvey (Mystery)
It’s been two years since disgraced Illinois governor Ray Perry disappeared from a federal courthouse in Chicago moments after being sentenced to 37 years in prison on corruption charges. P.I. Michael Kelly gets an anonymous email offering to pay him nearly a quarter of a million dollars if he will find Perry. Kelly’s investigation begins with the woman Perry left behind --- his wife, Marie. Ostracized by her former friends and hounded by the feds, Marie tells Kelly she has no idea where her husband is. Like everyone else, Kelly doesn’t believe her.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard * 9780307948847

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR: Untold Tales from Yorktown to Fallujah by Kenneth C. Davis (History)
Multi-million-copy bestselling historian Kenneth C. Davis sets his sights on war stories in THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF AMERICA AT WAR. He brings to life six emblematic battles, revealing untold tales that span our nation's history, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq. Along the way, he illuminates why we go to war, who fights, the grunt's-eye view of combat, and how these conflicts reshaped our military and national identity.
Hachette Books * 9780316348355

HOW TO START A FIRE by Lisa Lutz (Fiction)
When college roommates Anna and Kate find Georgiana Leoni passed out on a lawn, they wheel her to their dorm in a shopping cart. Twenty years later, they gather around a campfire at a New England mansion. What came between --- the wild adventures, unspoken jealousies and one night that changed everything --- is the witty, poignant story of our strongest friendships, the people who know us better than we know ourselves. Anna is the de facto leader, as fearless as she is reckless. Quirky Kate is the loyal sidekick, until she’s pushed too far. And stunning George is always desired but just as frequently dumped.
Mariner Books * 9780544705180

I REFUSE written by Per Petterson, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett (Fiction)
Per Petterson weaves a tale of two men whose accidental meeting one morning recalls their boyhood 35 years ago. Back then, Tommy was separated from his sisters after he stood up to their abusive father. Jim was by Tommy's side through it all. But one winter night, a chance event on a frozen lake forever changed the balance of their friendship. Now Jim fishes alone on a bridge as Tommy drives by in a new Mercedes, and it's clear their fortunes have reversed. Over the course of the day, the life of each man will be irrevocably altered.
Graywolf Press * 9781555977405

IN THE CLEARING by Robert Dugoni
(Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Detective Tracy Crosswhite has a skill, and a soft spot, for tackling unsolved crimes. Having lost her own sister to murder at a young age, she has dedicated her career to bringing justice and closure to the families and friends of victims of crime. So when Jenny, a former police academy classmate and protégé, asks Tracy to help solve a cold case that involves the suspicious suicide of a Native American high school girl 40 years earlier, she agrees. Following up on evidence Jenny’s detective father collected when he was the investigating deputy, Tracy probes one small town’s memory and finds dark, well-concealed secrets hidden within the community’s fabric.
Thomas & Mercer * 9781503953574

IT’S A LONG STORY: My Life by Willie Nelson with David Ritz (Autobiography)
Having recently turned 80, Willie Nelson is ready to shine a light on all aspects of his life, including his drive to write music, the women in his life, his collaborations, and his biggest lows and highs --- from his bankruptcy to the founding of Farm Aid. Nelson and his music have found their way into the hearts and minds of fans the world over, winning 10 Grammys and receiving the Kennedy Center Honors. Now it's time to hear the last word about his life --- from the man himself.
Back Bay Books * 9780316403542

JOAN OF ARC: A History by Helen Castor (Biography/History)
Helen Castor tells afresh the gripping story of the peasant girl from Domremy who hears voices from God, leads the French army to victory, is burned at the stake for heresy, and eventually becomes a saint. But unlike the traditional narrative, a story already shaped by the knowledge of what Joan would become and told in hindsight, Castor’s book takes us back to 15th-century France and tells the story forwards. Instead of an icon, she gives us a living, breathing woman confronting the challenges of faith and doubt.
Harper Perennial * 9780062384409

NUMERO ZERO written by Umberto Eco, translated by Richard Dixon (Fiction)
A newspaper committed to blackmail and mud slinging. A paranoid editor reconstructing 50 years of history against the backdrop of a plot involving the cadaver of Mussolini's double. The murder of Pope John Paul I, the CIA, and events that seem outlandish until the BBC proves them true. A fragile love story between two born losers, a failed ghostwriter, and a vulnerable girl, who specializes in celebrity gossip yet cries over the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh. And then a dead body that suddenly appears in a back alley in Milan. Set in 1922, NUMERO ZERO foreshadows the mysteries and follies of the following 20 years.
Mariner Books * 9780544811836

REAGAN: The Life by H.W. Brands (Biography)
H. W. Brands establishes Ronald Reagan as one of the two great presidents of the 20th century, a true peer to Franklin Roosevelt. REAGAN conveys how the confident force of Reagan’s personality and the unwavering nature of his beliefs enabled him to engineer a conservative revolution in American politics and play a crucial role in ending communism in the Soviet Union. He shut down the age of liberalism, Brands shows, and ushered in the age of Reagan, whose defining principles are still powerfully felt today.
Anchor * 9780307951144

THE SCARLET GOSPELS by Clive Barker (Horror/Dark Fantasy)
THE SCARLET GOSPELS takes readers back many years to the early days of two of Clive Barker's most iconic characters in a battle of good and evil as old as time. The long-beleaguered detective Harry D'Amour, investigator of all supernatural, magical and malevolent crimes, faces off against his formidable and intensely evil rival, Pinhead, the priest of hell. Barker's horror will make your worst nightmares seem like bedtime stories. The Gospels are coming. Are you ready?
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250056177

SEVENEVES by Neal Stephenson (Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction)
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature threaten the intrepid pioneers until only a handful of survivors remain. Five thousand years later, their progeny embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown…to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062334510

SWEET CARESS by William Boyd (Historical Fiction)
When Amory Clay was born, her disappointed father gave her an androgynous name and announced the birth of a son. But this daughter was not one to let others define her; Amory became a woman who accepted no limits to what that could mean, and, from the time she picked up her first camera, one who would record her own version of events. Moving freely between London and New York, between photojournalism and fashion photography, and between the men who love her on complicated terms, Amory establishes her reputation as a risk taker and a passionate life traveler.
Bloomsbury USA * 9781632863331

TY COBB: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen (Biography)
Ty Cobb is baseball royalty. His lifetime batting average is still the highest of all time, and when he retired in 1928, he held more than 90 records. But the numbers don’t tell half of Cobb’s tale. Setting the record straight, Charles Leerhsen pushed aside the myths and re-traced Cobb’s journey, from the shy son of a professor and state senator who was progressive on race for his time, to America’s first true sports celebrity. In the process, he tells of a life overflowing with incident and a man who cut his own path through his times.
Simon & Schuster * 9781451645798

UNLIKELY: Setting Aside Our Differences to Live Out the Gospel by Kevin Palau (Christian Life/Religious Studies)
In 2007, Kevin Palau and a few dozen pastors approached Portland’s mayor and posed the question: How can we serve you with no strings attached? Officials identified five initial areas of need and began a partnership, CityServe, between the city and a band of churches seeking to live out the gospel message. Since then, the CityServe model has inspired communities across the country to take up the cause in their own cities. UNLIKELY not only tells the story of the inception of CityServe, but also challenges readers to evaluate their understanding of the gospel.
Howard Books * 9781476797267

WILDFLOWER by Drew Barrymore (Memoir/Humor)
WILDFLOWER is a portrait of Drew Barrymore's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges and incredible experiences of her earlier years. It includes tales of living on her own at 14 (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck in a gas station overhang on a cross country road trip, saying goodbye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more adventures and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy and healthy place she is today. It is the first book Drew has written about her life since the age of 14.
Dutton * 9781101983812
On Sale the Week of May 23rd in Hardcover

May 24th

THE 100 YEAR MIRACLE by Ashley Ream (Fiction)
Once a century, for only six days, the bay around a small Washington island glows like a water-bound aurora. Dr. Rachel Bell knows a secret about the phenomenon that inspired the region’s myths and folklore: the rare green water may contain a power that could save Rachel's own life (and change the world). When Rachel connects with Harry and Tilda, a divorced couple cohabiting once again as Harry enters the last stages of a debilitating disease, Harry is pulled into Rachel's obsession and hope as they both grasp at this once-in-a-lifetime chance to save themselves.
Flatiron Books * 9781250082220

ARCHITECTURE'S ODD COUPLE: Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson by Hugh Howard (History)
Differing radically in their views on architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson shared a restless creativity, enormous charisma and an outspokenness that made each man irresistible to the media. Often publicly at odds, they were the 20th century's flint and steel; their repeated encounters consistently set off sparks. Yet, as acclaimed historian Hugh Howard shows, their rivalry was also a fruitful artistic conversation, one that yielded new directions for both men. It was not despite but rather because of their contentious --- and not always admiring --- relationship that they were able to influence history so powerfully.
Bloomsbury Press * 9781620403754

A BLADE OF BLACK STEEL by Alex Marshall (Fantasy)
After 500 years, the Sunken Kingdom has returned and brought with it a monstrous secret that threatens to destroy every country on the Star. As an inhuman army gathers on its shores, poised to invade the Immaculate Isles, the members of the Cobalt Company face an ugly choice: abandon their dreams of glory and vengeance to combat a menace from another realm, or pursue their ambitions and hope the Star is still there when the smoke clears.
Orbit * 9780316340663

BREAKING ROCKEFELLER: The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire by Peter B. Doran (History)
Marcus Samuel, Jr. is an unorthodox Jewish merchant trader. Henri Deterding is a take-no-prisoners oilman. In 1889, John D. Rockefeller is at the peak of his power. Having annihilated all competition and possessing near-total domination of the market, even the U.S. government is wary of challenging the great “anaconda” of Standard Oil. The Standard never loses --- that is until Samuel and Deterding team up to form Royal Dutch Shell. BREAKING ROCKEFELLER traces Samuel’s rise from outsider to the heights of the British aristocracy, Deterding’s conquest of America, and the collapse of Rockefeller’s monopoly.
Viking * 9780525427391

THE CHILDREN by Ann Leary (Fiction)
Charlotte Maynard rarely leaves her mother’s home, the sprawling Connecticut lake house that belonged to her late stepfather, Whit Whitman, and the generations of Whitmans before him. While Charlotte and her sister, Sally, grew up at “Lakeside,” their stepbrothers, Spin and Perry, were welcomed as weekend guests. Now the grown boys own the estate. When Spin brings his fiancé home for the summer, the entire family is intrigued. The beautiful and accomplished Laurel Atwood breathes new life into this often comically rarefied world. But as the wedding draws near, and flaws surface in the family’s polite veneer, an array of simmering resentments and unfortunate truths is exposed.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250045379

THE CITY OF MIRRORS by Justin Cronin (Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)
The Twelve have been destroyed, and the terrifying hundred-year reign of darkness that descended upon the world has ended. The survivors are stepping outside their walls, determined to build society anew. But far from them, in a dead metropolis, he waits: Zero. The First. Father of the Twelve. The anguish that shattered his human life haunts him, and the hatred spawned by his transformation burns bright. His fury will be quenched only when he destroys Amy --- humanity’s only hope, the Girl from Nowhere who grew up to rise against him.
Ballantine Books * 9780345505002

DINNER WITH EDWARD: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship by Isabel Vincent (Memoir)
When Isabel meets Edward, both are at a crossroads: he wants to follow his late wife to the grave, and she is ready to give up on love. As they gather each week for the glorious dinners that Edward prepares, he shares so much more than his recipes for apple galette or the perfect martini, or even his tips for deboning poultry. Edward is teaching Isabel the luxury of slowing down and taking the time to think through everything she does, to deconstruct her own life, cutting it back to the bone and examining the guts, no matter how messy that proves to be.
Algonquin Books * 9781616204228

A GAME FOR ALL THE FAMILY by Sophie Hannah (Psychological Thriller)
You thought you knew who you were. A stranger knows better. You’ve left the city --- and the career that nearly destroyed you --- for a fresh start on the coast. But trouble begins when your daughter withdraws, after her new best friend, George, is unfairly expelled from school. You beg the principal to reconsider, only to be told that George hasn’t been expelled. Because there is, and was, no George. Who is lying? Who is real? Who is in danger? Who is in control? As you search for answers, the anonymous calls begin --- a stranger, who insists that you and she share a traumatic past and a guilty secret. And then the caller threatens your life.
William Morrow * 9780062388292

HAPPY FAMILY by Tracy Barone (Fiction)
Trenton, New Jersey, 1962: A pregnant girl staggers into a health clinic, gives birth and flees. A foster family takes the baby in, and an unlikely couple, their lives unspooling from a recent tragedy, hastily adopts her. Forty years and many secrets and lies later, Cheri Matzner is all grown up and falling apart. She's a former cop-turned-disgruntled academic, a frustrated wife trying to get pregnant, an iconoclastic daughter bearing war-wounds from her overbearing mother and the deeply flawed but well-meaning father who has been dead for several years. Thrust into an odyssey of acceptance, Cheri discovers that sometimes it takes half a lifetime to come of age.
Lee Boudreaux Books * 9780316342605

MARLENE by C.W. Gortner (Historical Fiction)
Raised in genteel poverty after the First World War, Maria Magdalena Dietrich dreams of a life on the stage. With her sultry beauty, smoky voice, seductive silk cocktail dresses and androgynous tailored suits, Marlene performs to packed houses and becomes entangled in a series of stormy love affairs. For the beautiful, desirous Marlene, neither fame nor marriage and motherhood can cure her wanderlust. Setting sail for America, she quickly becomes one of Hollywood’s leading ladies. C. W. Gortner’s novel reveals the inner life of a woman of grit, glamour and ambition who defied convention, seduced the world, and forged her own path on her own terms.
William Morrow * 9780062406064

THE PROGENY by Tosca Lee (Supernatural Thriller)
Emily Porter is the descendant of a serial killer. Now she’s become the hunted. She’s on a quest that will take her to the secret underground of Europe and the inner circles of three ancient orders --- one determined to kill her, one devoted to keeping her alive, and one she ultimately must save. THE PROGENY is the present-day saga of a 400-year-old war between the uncanny descendants of “Blood Countess” Elizabeth Bathory, the most prolific female serial killer of all time, and a secret society dedicated to erasing every one of her descendants.
Howard Books * 9781476798691

THE SORCERER'S DAUGHTER: The Defenders of Shannara by Terry Brooks (Fantasy)
The mysterious, magic-wielding Druid order has existed for long ages, battling any evil that threatens the Four Lands --- and struggling to be understood and accepted by outsiders. But their hopes of building goodwill are dashed when a demon’s murderous rampage at a peace summit leaves their political opponents dead --- casting new suspicions upon the Druids and forcing them to flee from enemies both mortal and monstrous. Paxon Leah, the order’s appointed protector, knows that blame lies with Arcannen Rai, the vile sorcerer he has battled and defeated before. But Arcannen is playing a deeper game than Paxon realizes.
Del Rey * 9780345540829

TRIBE: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger (Social Science)
Combining history, psychology and anthropology, Sebastian Junger’s latest book explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that --- for many veterans as well as civilians --- war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. TRIBE explains why we are stronger when we come together, and how that can be achieved even in today's divided world.
Twelve * 9781455566389

THE WOLF OF SARAJEVO by Matthew Palmer (Thriller)
Twenty years after the Srebrenica massacre that claimed the life of his friend and colleague, Eric Petrosian is back in Sarajevo at the American embassy. The Bosnian Serb leader, who for a time had been seeking a stable peace, has turned back to his nationalist roots and is threatening to pull Bosnia apart in a bloody struggle for control…and behind him is a shadowy mafia figure pulling the strings. As Eric is dragged deeper into the political maelstrom and uncovers a plot of blackmail and ruthless ambitions, he is faced with an impossible choice: use the information he’s uncovered to achieve atonement for the past or use it to shape the future.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399175015
On Sale the Week of May 23rd in Paperback

May 24th

BEST BOY by Eli Gottlieb (Fiction)
Sent to a “therapeutic community” for autism at the age of 11, Todd Aaron, now in his 50s, is the “Old Fox” of Payton LivingCenter. A joyous man who rereads the encyclopedia compulsively, he is unnerved by the sudden arrivals of a menacing new staffer and a disruptive, brain-injured roommate. His equilibrium is further worsened by Martine, a one-eyed new resident who has romantic intentions and convinces him to go off his meds to feel “normal” again. Undone by these pressures, Todd attempts an escape to return “home” to his younger brother and to a childhood that now inhabits only his dreams.
Liveright * 9781631491924

THE BILL OF RIGHTS: The Fight to Secure America’s Liberties by Carol Berkin (History)
Revered today for articulating America’s founding principles, the first 10 amendments was in fact a political stratagem executed by James Madison to preserve the Constitution, the Federal government, and the latter’s authority over the states. In the hands of award-winning historian Carol Berkin, the story of the Founders’ fight over the Bill of Rights comes alive in a gripping drama of partisan politics, acrimonious debate and manipulated procedure.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476743806

CODE OF CONDUCT by Brad Thor (Thriller)
Hidden deep within one of the world’s most powerful organizations is a secret committee with a devastating agenda. Its members are afforded incredible protections --- considered elites, untouchables. But when four seconds of video is captured halfway around the world and anonymously transmitted to D.C., covert wheels are set in motion, and counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath is tapped to undertake the deadliest assignment of his career.
Pocket Books * 9781476717166

CROSS JUSTICE by James Patterson (Thriller)
When his cousin is accused of a heinous crime, Alex Cross returns to his North Carolina hometown for the first time in over three decades. As he tries to prove his cousin's innocence, Cross unearths a family secret that forces him to question everything he's ever known. Chasing a ghost he believed was long dead, Cross gets pulled into a case that has local cops needing his help: a grisly string of socialite murders. Now he's hot on the trail of both a brutal killer and the truth about his own past --- and the answers he finds might be fatal.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455585120

DANGEROUS WHEN WET: A Memoir of Booze, Sex, and My Mother by Jamie Brickhouse (Memoir)
From the age of five, all Jamie Brickhouse wanted was to be at a party with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other, and all Mama Jean wanted was to keep him at that age, her Jamie doll forever. A Texan Elizabeth Taylor with the split personality of Auntie Mame and Mama Rose, always camera-ready and flamboyantly outspoken, Mama Jean haunted him his whole life, no matter how far away he went or how deep in booze he swam.
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250080363

DIETLAND by Sarai Walker (Fiction)
Plum Kettle does her best not to be noticed --- because when you’re fat, to be noticed is to be judged, mocked, or worse. With her job answering fan mail for a popular teen girls’ magazine, she is biding her time until her weight-loss surgery. Then, when a mysterious woman starts following her, Plum finds herself falling down a rabbit hole and into an underground community of women who live life on their own terms. There Plum agrees to a series of challenges that force her to deal with her past, her doubts, and the real costs of becoming “beautiful.”
Mariner Books * 9780544704831

DISCOVERING YOU: A Whiskey Creek Novel by Brenda Novak
(Romance)
Paperback Original
India Sommers once had the perfect family --- until an ex-boyfriend broke in and shot her husband. Just after moving to Whiskey Creek with her little girl, Cassia, to start over, she’s learned that her ex-boyfriend’s trial ended in a hung jury. He’s getting out of jail; he could try to find her again. And that’s not all that scares her. She’s extremely attracted to her next-door neighbor, but Rod Amos is the handsome “bad boy” type that’s given her so much trouble in the past. If she got involved with him, her in-laws would sue for custody of Cassia. India has to keep her distance from Rod --- but the more she gets to know him, the more difficult that becomes.
Mira * 9780778318804

THE FOUR-NIGHT RUN by William Lashner (Thriller)
Paperback Original
J.D. Scrbacek has just won the biggest trial of his career, but even as he crows to the press, his entire life blows sky-high. Was the bomb meant for him, or for his mobster client? In this seaside casino town where the tables run hot and the tensions run high, the odds say the attorney is a marked man. Alone and on the run, Scrbacek flees into the city’s forgotten underbelly, a ruined corridor called Crapstown, where he is forced to confront the ghosts of his past, his present and his future. Somewhere in the sordid stream of his own existence lie the answers he needs. But in order to emerge from the depths of Crapstown, Scrbacek must argue for his life before a jury of the forgotten and the damned.
Thomas & Mercer * 9781503933248

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB: A Lisbeth Salander Novel by David Lagercrantz (Thriller)
A genius hacker who has always been an outsider. A journalist with a penchant for danger. She is Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. He is Mikael Blomkvist, crusading editor of Millennium. One night, Blomkvist receives a call from a source who claims to have been given information vital to the United States by a young female hacker. Blomkvist, always on the lookout for a story, reaches out to Salander for help. She, as usual, has plans of her own. Together they are drawn into a ruthless underworld of spies, cybercriminals and government operatives --- some of whom are willing to kill to protect their secrets.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard * 9781101872000

SERPENTS IN THE COLD by Thomas O’Malley and Douglas Graham Purdy (Historical Thriller)
Cal O'Brien and Dante Cooper are struggling to find their identities after World War II. Cal has built a mildly promising life for himself as an employee of a company providing private security. A heroin addict, Dante feels the call to do good after he discovers that his sister-in-law was the latest victim of a serial killer targeting disadvantaged women. Cal and Dante take it upon themselves to track the killer --- but their daunting quest takes on dangerous consequences when the trail leads them to the highest ranks of city government.
Mulholland Books * 9780316323451

SHADOW PLAY: An Eve Duncan Novel by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
When a sheriff in California contacts Eve Duncan with a request for help on the reconstruction of the skull of a girl whose body has been buried for eight years, his fierce investment in the case puzzles her. But when Eve finds herself experiencing an unusual connection with the girl she calls Jenny, she becomes entangled in the case more intensely than she ever could have imagined. Not since her daughter Bonnie has Eve had such an experience, and suddenly she finds herself determined to solve the murder and bring closure to the crime.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks * 9781250075819

SUMMER SECRETS by Jane Green (Fiction)
When a shocking family secret is revealed, twenty-something journalist Cat Coombs finds herself falling into a dark spiral. Wild, glamorous nights out in London and raging hangovers the next day become her norm, leading to a terrible mistake one night while visiting family in America. When she returns home, she confronts the unavoidable reality of her life and knows it's time to grow up. As the years pass, Cat grows into her 40s, a struggling single mother, coping with a new-found sobriety and determined to finally make amends.
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250047403

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