Adult

Jodi Picoult’s poignant #1 New York Times bestselling novels about family and love tackle hot-button issues head on. In THE STORYTELLER, Sage Singer befriends Josef Weber, a beloved Little League coach and retired teacher. But then Josef asks Sage for a favor she never could have imagined --- to kill him. After Josef reveals the heinous act he committed, Sage feels he may deserve that fate. But would his death be murder or justice?

Jacob McNeely’s father runs a methodically organized meth ring, with local authorities on the dime to turn a blind eye to his dealings. Having dropped out of high school and cut himself off from his peers, Jacob has been working for his father for years, all on the promise that his payday will come eventually. But when a fatal mistake changes everything, he’s faced with a choice: stay and appease his father, or leave the mountains with the girl he loves.

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.

Spanning 30 years, THE GREEN ROAD tells the story of Rosaleen, matriarch of the Madigans, a family on the cusp of either coming together or falling irreparably apart. As they grow up, Rosaleen's four children leave the west of Ireland for lives they never could have imagined. In her early old age, their mother announces that she’s decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds. Her adult children come back for a last Christmas, with the feeling that their childhoods are being erased, their personal history bought and sold.

Kirstin Valdez Quade's stories plunge us into the fierce, troubled hearts of characters defined by the desire to escape the past or else to plumb its depths. The deadbeat father of a pregnant teenager tries to transform his life by playing the role of Jesus in a bloody penitential Passion. A young man discovers that his estranged father and a boa constrictor have been squatting in his grandmother’s empty house. One girl attempts to uncover the mystery of her cousin's violent past, while another young woman finds herself at an impasse when she is asked to hear her priest's confession.

Looking beyond the familiar Little Italys and stereotypes fostered by The Godfather and “The Sopranos,” Maria Laurino reveals surprising, fascinating lives: Italian-Americans working on sugar-cane plantations in Louisiana to those who were lynched in New Orleans; the banker who helped rebuild San Francisco after the great earthquake; and families interned as “enemy aliens” in World War II. This book is both an exploration and celebration of the rich legacy of Italian-American life.

Ruby Wax --- comedian, writer and mental health advocate --- has been on a tough but ultimately enlightening journey that has taken her from battling depression to achieving a Masters Degree from Oxford University in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy. In SANE NEW WORLD, Ruby helps us all understand why we sabotage our sanity, how our brains work, and how we can rewire our thinking --- often through simple mindfulness techniques --- to find calm in a frenetic world.

Public defender Rachel Wainwright is struggling to reopen a decades-old case, convinced that the wrong man is in prison. Homicide detective Deke Morgan doesn't want to agree. But if Rachel's hunch is correct, whoever fatally bludgeoned young, beautiful Annie Dawson 30 years ago could be the source of a new string of brutal slayings. Rachel's investigation is about to reveal answers --- but at a price she never thought to pay.

Jeremy Best, a Manhattan-based trusts and estates lawyer, has a second life as the poet Jinx Bell. To Spaulding, his boss’s daughter, 33-year-old Jeremy is, at first, already halfway to dead. When Spaulding, an aspiring 19-year-old writer, discovers Mr. Best’s alter writerly ego, the two become bound by a devotion to poetry. Their budding relationship offers them the possibility of enduring love --- or the threat of tragic loss.

Rita Jansen's mother is healing from a stroke but facing a long recovery. Without being able to run their family-owned salon, she could lose the business. Rita decides to help, but only has until Valentine's Day to come up with a plan. She finds herself renewing friendships with her childhood best friend, Marley, as well as her classmate Johnny. Though Rita believes Johnny is only being kind, with romance kindling in the air, their friendship may just fall into something more.