When British twenty-somethings Ruth and Adam are offered the chance to spend the summer housesitting in New York, they can’t say no. Young, in love and on the cusp of professional success, they feel as if luck is finally on their side. So the moment that Eden turns up on the doorstep, drenched from a summer storm, it seems only right to share a bit of that good fortune. Beautiful and charismatic, Eden claims to be a friend of the homeowners, who told her she could stay whenever she was in New York. They know you’re not supposed to talk to strangers --- let alone invite them into your home --- but after all, Eden is only a stranger until they get to know her. As suspicions creep in that Eden may not be who she claims to be, they begin to wonder if they’ve made a terrible mistake.
On the eve of World War I, 21-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees meets the acclaimed poet W. B. Yeats at a soirée in London. Although Yeats is famously eccentric and many years her senior, Georgie is drawn to him, and when he extends a cryptic invitation to a secret society, her life is forever changed. As Georgie finds purpose tending to injured soldiers in a makeshift hospital, she befriends the wounded and heartbroken Lieutenant Pike, who might need more from her than she is able to give. At night, she escapes with Yeats into a darker world, becoming immersed in the Order, a clandestine society of ritual and magic. As forces --- both of this world and the next --- pull Yeats and Georgie closer together and then apart, Georgie uncovers a secret that threatens to undo it all.
Iraqi war vet and former railway cop Sydney Parnell is now the youngest homicide detective in Denver’s Major Crimes Unit. In the past, gut instinct has served her and her K9 partner, Clyde, well. But it’s not a trait that Len Bandoni, her old nemesis turned reluctant mentor, admires. Not until Sydney’s instincts lead to their first case: a man tortured and beaten to death, then left in a refrigerated train car with cryptic messages carved into his body. The victim is a well-liked member of an elite club called the Superior Gentlemen. At first glance, the club appears harmless. But beneath its refined surface swim darker currents. As Sydney, Clyde and Bandoni investigate the grisly murder, the three develop a bond that carries them through a shocking series of crimes and a horrifying conspiracy.
Elizabeth Carlyle’s prestigious New York law firm is working on the most high-stakes case in company history, defending a prominent bank. When Elizabeth gets the news that one of her junior associates has lost his phone --- and the secret documents that were on it --- she desperately needs help. Enter ex-CIA officer Valencia Walker, a high-priced fixer who gets called in when governments, corporations and plutocrats need their problems solved discretely. But things get complicated when the missing phone is retrieved: somebody has already copied the documents, and now they’re blackmailing the firm. The situation gets murkier still when stories about the documents start appearing in the press and a tragic suicide seems staged, hinting that darker forces may be churning below the surface.
Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely --- an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth, hope and humor --- has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.
ALL OF US is a riveting thriller with six compelling protagonists --- who all share one body. Though legally she is Carolyn Grand, in practice she is Martha, a homemaker who cooks and cleans for her “family”; Victoria, a put-together people person; Serena, a free spirit; Kirk, a heterosexual man; Eleni, a promiscuous risk-taker; and Tina, a manifestation of what is left of Carolyn after years of childhood sexual abuse. As they jockey for control of their body, all the personalities also work together to avoid being committed to a psychiatric facility. However, Carolyn’s tenuous normal is shattered when Hank Grand, the man who abused her and leased her out to pedophiles, is released from prison. And when Hank is killed in a seedy hotel room, Carolyn is immediately a prime suspect. But are any of her personalities capable of murder?
Bobby Saxon lives in a world that isn't quite ready for him. He's the only white musician in an otherwise all-black swing band at the famous Club Alabam in Los Angeles during World War II --- and that isn't the only unique thing about him. And if that isn't enough to deal with, in order to get a permanent gig with the band, Bobby must first solve a murder that one of the band members is falsely accused of in that racially prejudiced society.
For the modern major league team, player evaluation is a complex, multi-pronged, high-tech pursuit. But far from becoming obsolete in this environment --- as Michael Lewis' MONEYBALL once forecast --- the role of the scout in today's game has evolved and even expanded. Rather than being the antithesis of a data-driven approach, scouting now represents an essential analytical component in a team's arsenal. FUTURE VALUE is a thorough dive into the world of the contemporary scout --- a world with its own language, methods, metrics and madness.
In 2016, comedian Mike Birbiglia and poet Jennifer Hope Stein took their 14-month-old daughter, Oona, to the Nantucket Film Festival. When the festival director picked them up at the airport, she asked Mike if he would perform at the storytelling night. She said, "The theme of the stories is jealousy." Jen quipped, "You're jealous of Oona. You should talk about that." And so Mike began sharing some of his darkest and funniest thoughts about the decision to have a child. Over the next couple of years, these stories evolved into a Broadway show, and the more Mike performed it, the more he heard how it resonated --- not just with parents but also with people who resist all kinds of change. So he pored over his journals, dug deeper and created this book.
When asked simple questions about global trends --- what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school --- we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates and investment bankers. In FACTFULNESS, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the 10 instincts that distort our perspective --- from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).
Tell us about the books you’ve finished reading with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars. During the contest period from June 6th to June 20th at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of KING OF ASHES by S. A. Cosby and THE RIVER IS WAITING by Wally Lamb.
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Coming Soon
Curious about what books will be released in the months ahead so you can pre-order or reserve them? Then click on the months below.
June's Books on Screen roundup includes the series premieres of Prime Video's "We Were Liars" and Netflix's "The Survivors"; the season premieres of "Grantchester" on PBS "Masterpiece" and "The Buccaneers" on Apple TV+; the season finale of "The Walking Dead: Dead City" on AMC; the continuation of Hulu's "Nine Perfect Strangers" and Max's "And Just Like That..."; the films The Life of Chuck and How to Train Your Dragon in theaters and Pie to Die For: A Hannah Swensen Mystery on Hallmark Mystery; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of Snow White, The Friend, The Monkey, In the Lost Lands and A Working Man.