Adult

Running a one-man law practice in the heart of Oregon's wine country, Cal Claxton hires a young, undocumented man as an assistant. Timoteo Fuentes is a bright, hardworking student by day and Cal's legal clerk by night. When one of Timoteo's family members is brutally murdered, the migrant community is reluctant to cooperate with the police investigation for fear of deportation. Devastated by the loss and nervous about engaging with the legal system, the family turns to Cal for help. With Timoteo protected as a "Dreamer" from deportation, the two begin a dangerous investigation of ruthless people who leverage the fear of a vulnerable population for profit and an assassin who is as cunning as he is deadly.

Thomas and Viv Adler are the envy of their neighbors. Until one morning, when they wake up to find their porch has been pelted with eggs. Thomas insists it’s a prank. But when a smoke bomb is tossed on their front lawn, and their car’s tires are punctured, the family begins to worry. Surveillance cameras show nothing but grainy images of shadowy figures in hoodies. And the police dismiss the attacks, insisting they’re just the work of bored teenagers. Unable to identify the perpetrators, the Adlers are helpless as the assaults escalate into violence, and worse. And each new violation brings with it a growing fear. Because everyone in the Adler family is keeping a secret --- not just from the outside world, but from each other.

Grace Steele and Eliza Jones may be from completely different backgrounds, but when it comes to the army, specifically the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), they are both starting from the same level. Not only will they be among the first class of female officers the army has even seen, they are also the first Black women allowed to serve. As these courageous women help to form the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, they are dealing with more than just army bureaucracy --- everyone is determined to see this experiment fail. For two northern women, learning to navigate their way through the segregated army may be tougher than boot camp.

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life after losing his beloved wife. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too.

As a teen, Anna Qu is sent by her mother to work in her family's garment factory in Queens. At home, she is treated as a maid and suffers punishment for doing her homework at night. Her mother wants to teach her a lesson: she is Chinese, not American. But instead of acquiescing, Qu alerts the Office of Children and Family Services, an act with consequences that impact the rest of her life. Nearly 20 years later, estranged from her mother and working at a Manhattan start-up, Qu requests her OCFS report. When it arrives, key details are wrong. Faced with this false narrative, Qu looks once more at her life's truths, from abandonment to an abusive family to seeking dignity and meaning in work.

Cindy loves shoes. As a fashion-obsessed plus-size woman, she can never find designer clothes that work on her body, but a special pair of shoes always fits just right. With a shiny new design degree but no job in sight, Cindy moves back in with her stepmother, Erica Tremaine, the executive producer of the world’s biggest dating reality show. When a contestant on “Before Midnight” bows out at the last minute, Cindy is thrust into the spotlight. Being the first and only fat contestant on the show turns her into a viral sensation, and a body-positivity icon, overnight. To make it to the end, Cindy will have to take a leap of faith and hope that her heels --- and her heart --- don’t break in the process.

Walli Beckwith is a model astronaut. She graduated at the top of her class from the Naval Academy, had a successful career flying fighter jets, and has spent more than 300 days in space. So when she refuses to leave her post aboard the International Space Station following an accident that forces her fellow astronauts to evacuate, her American and Russian colleagues are mystified. For Walli, the matter at hand feels all too clear and terrifying for her to be worried about ruining her career. She is stuck in a race against time to save a part of the world that seems to have been forgotten, and also the life of the person she loves the most. She will go to any length necessary, using the only tool she has, to accomplish what she knows is right.

Agatha Christie was not only the most successful author of detective stories the world has ever known, she was also a mystery in herself, giving only the rarest interviews --- declining absolutely to become any sort of public figure --- and a mystery, too, in the manner in which she achieved her astonishing success. Distinguished crime novelist (and acclaimed critic) H. R. F. Keating brings together a dozen noted writers from both sides of the Atlantic to throw light on the ever-intriguing Dame Agatha. Some essays analyze Christie’s art itself; others explain the reasons for her success --- not just the books, but also in film and theater.

AFTERPARTIES offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian-Americans. A high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle’s snubbing of the bride and groom. A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a “safe space” app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed with MOBY-DICK. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.

With BURNING BOY, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age 28. Auster’s probing account of this singular life tracks Crane as he rebounds from one perilous situation to the next.