Adult

Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman, or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Ron Chernow shows in his biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.

While at Donnelly’s for his usual pint, Victor Forde is approached by a man in shorts and a pink shirt. He seems to know Victor’s name and to remember him from secondary school. His name is Fitzpatrick. Victor dislikes him on sight, and also dislikes the memories that Fitzpatrick stirs up of five years being taught by the Christian Brothers. He prompts other memories --- of Rachel, his beautiful wife who became a celebrity, and of Victor’s own small claim to fame, as the man who would say the unsayable on the radio. But it’s the memories of school, and of one particular brother, that Victor cannot control and that eventually threaten to destroy his sanity.

Virgil Flowers knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt --- and, as it turned out, homicidal --- local school board, and now the town is back in view with more alarming news: A woman has been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. There’s a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of 20 years ago that has a mid-winter reunion coming up, so Virgil begins to dig into 20 years’ worth of traumas, feuds and bad blood. In the process, one thing becomes increasingly clear to him. It’s true what they say: High school is murder.

A smartly dressed man has been found unconscious at the local racecourse and is rushed to the hospital, where he subsequently dies. But who is he? Where does he come from? Doctor Chris Rankin, a specialist who treated the deceased --- and who struggles with mental health issues --- is intrigued by the nameless dead man and starts asking questions. However, someone doesn't want the questions answered and will go to any lengths to prevent it, including an attempted murder. But when no one will believe that someone tried to kill Chris, the doctor is left with no option but to discover who the nameless man was and why he died…preferably before following him into an early grave.

It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, Olivia, a doctor, has been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family. For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity and forced into each other’s orbits. In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive.

Imagine a world in which classes are divided not by wealth or religion but by how much each group can remember. Monos, the majority, have only one day's worth of memory; elite Duos have two. In this stratified society, where Monos are excluded from holding high office and demanding jobs, Claire and Mark are a rare mixed marriage, a shining example of a new vision of tolerance and equality. Until a beautiful woman is found dead. The woman is Mark's mistress, and he is the prime suspect in her murder. The detective investigating the case has secrets of his own. So did the victim. And when both the investigator's and the suspect's memories are constantly erased, how can anyone learn the truth?

When a slam-bang of a crime brings a beautiful new client into Stone Barrington’s office, little does he know his association with her will pull him into a far more serpentine mystery in the exclusive world of art. It’s a business where a rare find could make a career --- and a collection --- and mistakes in judgment are costly. And under its genteel and high-minded veneer lurks an assortment of grifters and malfeasants eager to cash in on the game. In the upscale world of New York City’s luxury penthouses and grand Hamptons estates, it will take a man of Stone Barrington’s careful discernment and well-honed instincts to get to the truth without ruffling the wrong feathers.

When the British fought the young United States during the War of 1812, they knew that taking the mouth of the Mississippi River was the key to crippling their former colony. Capturing the city of New Orleans and stopping trade up the river sounded like a simple task --- New Orleans was far away from Washington, out of sight and out of mind for the politicians. What the British didn't count on was the power of General Andrew Jackson.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds, or been more different in temperament. They worked closely in the crucible of revolution, crafting the Declaration of Independence and leading, with Franklin, the diplomatic effort that brought France into the fight. But ultimately, their profound differences would lead to a fundamental crisis, in their friendship and in the nation writ large, as they became the figureheads of two entirely new forces, the first American political parties. It was a bitter breach, lasting through the presidential administrations of both men, and beyond. But late in life, something remarkable happened: these two men were nudged into reconciliation.

Migration. Betrayal. Family secrets. Doomed love. Uncertain futures. In Daniel Alarcón’s hands, these are transformed into deeply human stories with high stakes. In "The Thousands," people are on the move and forging new paths; hope and heartbreak abound. A man deals with the fallout of his blind relatives' mysterious deaths and his father's mental breakdown and incarceration in "The Bridge." A gang member discovers a way to forgiveness and redemption through the haze of violence and trauma in “The Ballad of Rocky Rontal.” And in "The Auroras," a man severs himself from his old life and seeks to make a new one in a new city, only to find himself seduced and controlled by a powerful woman.