All Andrew wants is to be normal. That's why his coworkers believe he has the perfect wife and two children waiting at home for him after a long day. But the truth is, his life isn't exactly as people think...and his little white lie is about to catch up with him. Because in all of Andrew's efforts to fit in, he's forgotten one important thing: how to really live. And maybe, it's finally time for him to start.
In the 1980s, famed New Yorker writer Henry Grey and his poet wife Tillie throw Cape Cod’s most unmissable party each summer’s end, a legendary fête for the literary elite. Twenty-five-year-old aspiring writer Eve Rosen finagles her way into this Gatsbyesque orbit, which is completely different from her conventional, Jewish upbringing. But moving into one sphere means leaving another behind, and as Eve tries to negotiate the differences between her family values and this glittering world, she learns the risks of unbridled ambition and the importance of making her own choices about who she wants to be.
After years of petty crime, Sami is training to be a chef. But when a business deal suddenly goes sideways, he is left wondering how he'll ever provide for his newborn daughter. Michel and his family fled a bloody civil war in Lebanon. He's trying to turn over a new leaf, but the past just won't let him go. Niklas has traveled the world and made an effort to become the sort of person people talked about, but no good has come of it. Zoran is a businessman who knows everyone and seals a deal with a handshake. And Alexandra? She's the reason that the four men found themselves plotting to rob a Stockholm cash depot in September 2009. At first, the plan seems foolproof. But not everyone is who they seem. What secrets does each man hold?
The Skaar have arrived in the Four Lands, determined to stop at nothing less than all-out conquest. But perhaps the Skaar victory is not quite the foregone conclusion everyone assumes. The Druid Drisker Arc has freed both himself and Paranor from their involuntary exile. Drisker’s student, Tarsha Kaynin, has been reunited with Dar, chief defender of what is left of the Druid order, and is learning to control her powerful wishsong magic. If they can only survive Tarsha’s brother, Tavo, and the Druid who betrayed Drisker Arc, they might stand a chance of defeating the Skaar. But that is a very big if. Tavo now carries the Stiehl --- one of the most powerful weapons in all the Four Lands --- and is hellbent on taking his revenge on everyone he feels has wronged him.
Former Special Forces operative Sam Dryden is the target of an unsuccessful attempted abduction. Using his attacker's cell phone, he learns that another person, a woman named Danica Ellis, is also being targeted. Dryden arrives just in time to save Danica from the assault team sent after her. But neither of them recognize the other, or have any idea why they are being targeted. The only clue is a heavily redacted, official-looking document given to Danica by her stepfather before he was killed. It refers to witnesses to a secret military site in Ashland, Iowa, in 1989. Dryden and Danica lived in Ashland in 1989, when they were both 12 years old, though neither of them has any memory of the other. Now it’s up to them to piece together the details of their past --- and elude the forces that are after them in the present-day.
If you’ve ever been a room parent or school volunteer, Jen Dixon is your hero. She says what every class mom is really thinking, whether in her notoriously frank emails or standup-worthy interactions with the micromanaging PTA President and the gamut of difficult parents. Luckily, she has the charm and wit to get away with it --- most of the time. Jen is sassier than ever but dealing with a whole new set of challenges, in the world of parental politics and at home. She’s been roped into room-parenting yet again, for her son Max’s third grade class. But as her husband buries himself in work, her older daughters navigate adulthood, and Jen’s own aging parents start to need some parenting themselves, Jen gets pulled in more directions than any one mom, or superhero, can handle.
Jacob, a middle-aged architect living in Copenhagen, is in the alcohol-soaked throes of a bitter divorce when he receives an unexpected call from his great-uncle Anton. In his 90s and still living with his brother on their rural Jutland farm --- a place Jacob hasn’t visited since the summer of 1978 --- Anton remains haunted by a single question: What happened to Ellen? To find out, Jacob must return to the farm and confront what took place that summer --- one defined by his teenage obsession with Ellen, a beautiful young hippie from the local commune, and the unsolved disappearance of a local girl. In revisiting old friends and rivals, Jacob discovers the tragedies that have haunted him for over 40 years were not what they seemed.
Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world --- a place of love, betrayal, ambition and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that challenges the limits of her heart and imagination.
After years of struggling in the Chicago theater scene, ambitious actress Kira Rascher finally lands the role of a lifetime. The catch? Starring in Temper means working with Malcolm Mercer, a mercurial director who’s known for pushing his performers past their limits --- onstage and off. Kira is convinced she can handle Malcolm, but the theater’s cofounder Joanna Cuyler is another story. Joanna sees Kira as a threat --- to her own thwarted artistic aspirations, her twisted relationship with Malcolm, and the shocking secret she’s keeping about the upcoming production. But as opening night draws near, Kira and Joanna both start to realize that Malcolm’s dangerous extremes are nothing compared to what they're capable of themselves.
Rick Montoya, who is eager to experience more of his Italian mother's culture, heads to Rome to start his own translation business. He's armed with curiosity and an appetite for local food and wine. Rick's maternal uncle is a Roman cop with one eye to his nephew's welfare and another to how Rick might be useful, perhaps widen his career choices. So Commissario Piero Fontana pulls Rick into an investigation: the murder of Count Umberto Zimbardi. The wealthy count enjoyed indulging a circle of convivial friends and a hobby collecting oral histories by interviewing residents in the city's centro storico. After heading home from such an afternoon, he was found dead on a bridge over the Tiber.
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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.
December's Books on Screen roundup includes the films The Housemaid, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw, 100 Nights of Hero,The Chronology of Water and Not Without Hope; the series premiere of Paramount+'s "Little Disasters"; the season premiere of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" on Disney+ and Hulu; the season finales of HBO's "IT: Welcome to Derry" and Apple TV+'s "Down Cemetery Road"; the midseason finales of "Tracker" and "Watson" on CBS; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of Karen Kingsbury's The Christmas Ring and Black Phone 2.