Adult

Mary and Eddie are meant for each other---but love is no guarantee, not in these suburbs. Like all children, they exist in an eternal present; time is imminent, and the adults of the street live in their assorted houses like numbers on a clock. Meanwhile, ominous rumors circulate, and the increasing agitation of the neighbors points to a future in which all will be lost. Soon a sorcerer’s car will speed down Mary’s street, and as past and future fold into each other, the resonant parenthesis of her girlhood will close forever.

On Ash Wednesday, 2012, Sara Miles and her friends left their church buildings and carried ashes to the buzzing city streets. They marked the foreheads of neighbors and strangers, sharing blessings with waitresses and drunks, believers and doubters alike. CITY OF GOD narrates the events of the day in vivid detail, exploring the profound implications of touching strangers with a reminder of common mortality.

Detective Inspector Irene Huss hasn’t seen Sophie Malmborg for over 15 years, but she’s still haunted by the strange young ballerina’s role in the fire that killed her stepfather. All her questions resurface when Sophie disappears, and the charred remains of a dancer are found in an abandoned warehouse. Irene has a startling realization that could shed light on the case that has been lingering in the back of her mind since the beginning of her career.

Recovering from the severe mental and physical wounds inflicted from his recent past, former cop Jack Taylor has finally found a modicum of peace. Yet this fragile existence is threatened when a vigilante killer begins targeting the scum of Galway, signing mysterious notes with the moniker “C 33.” The killer addresses these cryptic letters to Jack, trying to goad him into joining the murderous spree.

War correspondent and American spy Christopher Marlowe Cobb is charged with following German intellectual and possible covert SS agent Brauer onto the decks of the Lusitania. On board is gorgeous actress Selene Bourgani, who might be working with German intelligence. But as Cobb tracks Brauer and Bourgani from London to Istanbul (after the scurrilous U-Boat attack on the ship), he realizes that Bourgani’s intentions are more complicated than imagined.

Outrageous, rich, and remarkable, PASTRIX turns spiritual memoir on its ear in this sardonically irreverent and beautifully honest page-turner. Nadia Bolz-Weber takes no prisoners as she reclaims the term "pastrix" (pronounced "pas-triks," a term used by some Christians who refuse to recognize female pastors) in her messy, beautiful, prayer-and-profanity laden narrative about an unconventional life of faith.

Joyce Carol Oates offers four chilling tales of love gone horribly wrong, showing the lengths people will go to find love, keep it and sometimes end it. In the title story, we meet Mariana, the young fourth wife of a prominent intellectual. When her husband's brazen first wife visits one night, Mariana learns a terrible secret that threatens her marriage and sanity.