Adult

In the mid-19th century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or “human computers,” to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates. The “glass universe” of half a million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decades enabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim.

Christine Steinmeyer thought the anonymous suicide note she found in her mailbox on Christmas Eve wasn’t meant for her. But the man calling in to her radio show seems convinced otherwise. Bit by bit, her life is turned upside down. Martin Servaz is on leave in a clinic for depressed cops, haunted by his childhood sweetheart’s kidnapping by his psychopathic nemesis. One day, he receives a key card to a hotel room --- the room where an artist committed suicide a year earlier. Servaz soon uncovers evidence of a truly terrifying crime. Could someone really be cruelly, consciously hounding women to death?

Baptiste Molino has devoted his life to other people’s happiness. Moored on his houseboat, he helps his clients navigate the waters of contentment, whilst remaining careful never to make waves of his own. Unlike those who come to him for help, Baptiste is more concerned with his past than his future: particularly the mysterious circumstances of his birth and the identity of his birth mother. However Baptiste’s new client, Amandine Rousseau, is fast becoming a puzzle he longs to solve and  may end up being the one to change his perspective. And when his mother’s legacy finally reveals itself he finds himself torn between pursuing his own happiness and safeguarding that of the one he loves.

In 1994, Marko Novak’s world is torn apart by the death of his best friend, Kemal, a young soldier in the darkest days of the Bosnian war. After the funeral, Marko flees to England, hoping to put his broken homeland, and the part he played in the loss of his friend, behind him. In 2004, human rights researcher Anya Teal is following a tenuous lead in the hunt for a Bosnian man with blood on his hands. What nobody knows is that a disaster as destructive as a war is approaching, detonated in the seabed of the Indian Ocean, one that will connect the fates of Marko, William, and Anya, across the years and continents. In its wake, everything Marko thought he knew will be overturned.

Kate Pearson finds herself dumped, out of luck, and out of steam. It seems as if her characteristic ambition and smarts have taken a break. Her friends are at a loss, while her practical sister, Angela, pushes every remedy she can think of. Miraculously Kate lands a job in the admissions department at the prestigious Hudson Day school, and learns there’s no time for self-pity or nonsense during the height of the admission season. Meanwhile, Kate’s sister and her closest friends find themselves keeping secrets, hiding boyfriends, dropping bombshells, and fighting each other on how to keep Kate on her feet --- and Kate’s oddly charming and irritatingly handsome neighbor is more than he seems.

On a cold winter’s day, a pre-school teacher is shot to death in front of parents and children at the Jewish Congregation in Stockholm. Just a few hours later, two Jewish boys go missing on their way to tennis practice, and an unexpected blizzard destroys any trace of the perpetrator. As investigative analyst Fredrika Bergman and police superintendent Alex Recht struggle to pin down a lead, someone or something called the Paper Boy --- a mysterious old Israeli legend of a nighttime killer --- keeps popping up in the police investigation. But who was the Paper Boy really? And how could he have resurfaced in Stockholm?

For thirty-three years, Charles Johnson, author of Middle Passage, taught and mentored students in the art and craft of creative writing. THE WAY OF THE WRITER is his record of those years, and the coda to a kaleidoscopic, boundary-shattering career. Organized into six accessible, easy-to-navigate sections, THE WAY OF THE WRITER is both a literary reflection on the creative impulse and a utilitarian guide to the writing process.

Shortly before Christmas, four people are found shot dead at the home of the Stahlbergs, a wealthy family of shipping merchants notorious for their miserliness and infighting. Three of the victims are members of the family, and the fourth is an outsider, seemingly out of place. As Hanne Wilhelmsen investigates the case alongside her longtime police partner, Billy T., motives for the murders emerge in abundance; each surviving member of the Stahlberg family had good reason to want the victims dead. As she searches for the killer, Hanne will once again risk everything to find out the truth. But this time, will she go too far?

The United States boasts a culturally and ethnically diverse population that makes for a continually changing culinary landscape. But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG and Sriracha. In EIGHT FLAVORS, Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table.

Broadway legend Lucy Merchant has tragically succumbed to early onset Alzheimer’s. At age 56, she’s tucked away in the dementia care unit of the ultra-exclusive Manhattan care facility Park Manor. When she falls asleep and doesn’t wake up, her billionaire husband is ready for the funeral, but her daughter demands an investigation. Only three months back on the job after cancer treatment, NYPD Detective Claire Codella finds herself at the center of a high-profile case that nearly everyone wants to shut down. But the forensic evidence raises alarming questions, and Codella needs answers. To find them, she will have to crack the defenses of slippery administrators, frightened caregivers and unobliging family members, all while unlocking some of her own dark memories.