Adult

In THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS, award-winning poet Ross Gay offers up a genre-defying volume of lyric essays written over one tumultuous year. His first nonfiction book is a record of the small joys we often overlook in our busy lives. Among Gay’s funny, poetic, philosophical delights: a friend’s unabashed use of air quotes, cradling a tomato seedling aboard an airplane, the silent nod of acknowledgment between the only two Black people in a room. But Gay never dismisses the complexities, even the terrors, of living in America as a Black man, the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture, or the loss of those he loves. More than anything else, though, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world --- his garden, the flowers peeking out of the sidewalk, the hypnotic movements of a praying mantis.

A man blows himself up outside the Parliament House in Stockholm, but miraculously survives. Was he a lone wolf, or are there more heinous acts to follow? Leona Lindberg is put on the case. But Leona, who has barely escaped her trials from the last case, is focused on other things. Her family is shattered, she is living under threat and desperately needs liquid assets. It's lucky, then, that she can think outside the box like no other detective. With one foot on each side of the law, she mounts a special operation of grand proportions. And the higher the risk, the higher the rewards.

It’s taken Matthew Dunne almost three months to get home. Never more than a few meters from the Haters at any time, every single step has been fraught with danger. But he’s made it. In his absence, his home city has become a sprawling, walled-off refugee camp. But the camp --- and the entire world beyond its borders --- is balanced on a knife-edge. During his time in the wilderness, Matt developed a skill that is in high demand: the ability to anticipate and predict Hater behavior. It’s these skills that will thrust him into a web of subterfuge and danger. As the pressure mounts inside the camp, he finds himself under scrutiny from all sides.

Exactly one year ago, Jane Harris’ oldest daughter, Mary, died in a tragic accident. Lost in a haze of anti-depressants, Jane barely has even left the house. Now that’s all about to change. It’s time for Jane to reclaim her life and her family. Jane’s husband, David, has planned a memorial service for Mary; three days later, their youngest daughter, Betsy, graduates high school. Yet as Jane reemerges into the world, it’s clear her family has changed without her. Her husband has been working long days --- and nights --- at the office. Her daughter seems distant, even secretive. And her beloved Mary was always such a good girl. But does someone know more about Mary, and about her last day, than they’ve revealed?

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead.

More than 15 years after the events of THE HANDMAID'S TALE, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third: Aunt Lydia. Her complex past and uncertain future unfold in surprising and pivotal ways. With THE TESTAMENTS, Margaret Atwood opens up the innermost workings of Gilead, as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

When two 18-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft and frantic with worry. What were the girls up to before they disappeared? Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth --- and this time is no exception. But she can’t help but think of her own son, whom she hasn’t seen in two years, since he left home to go travelling. As the case of the missing girls unfolds, they all will find that even this far away, danger can lie closer to home than you might think.

Since Fixie Farr's dad passed away, she spends all her time picking up the slack from her siblings. When a handsome stranger in a coffee shop asks her to watch his laptop for a moment, she not only agrees, but ends up saving it from certain disaster. To thank Fixie, the computer’s owner, Sebastian, an investment manager, scribbles an IOU on a coffee sleeve and attaches his business card. But then Fixie’s childhood crush, Ryan, comes back into her life. His lack of a profession pushes all of Fixie’s buttons, and she’d love Seb to give Ryan a job. No sooner has Seb agreed than the tables are turned once more and a new series of IOUs between Seb and Fixie ensues. Soon Fixie, Ms. Fixit for everyone else, is torn between her family and the life she really wants.

IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH is more than an “inspiring” story of how a man born with spinal muscular atrophy --- a congenital and incurable neuromuscular condition --- survived childhood, graduated from Harvard, married an able-bodied woman, built a family and established a successful career in journalism. As Ben Mattlin considers the many times his relationship has been met with surprise or speculation by outsiders, he issues a challenge to readers: Why should the idea of an “interabled” couple be regarded as either tragic or noble? Through conversations with more than a dozen other couples of varying abilities, ethnic backgrounds and orientations, Mattlin sets out to understand if these pairings are as unusual as onlookers seem to think.

Spanning the years 1930 to 2014, DROPS OF CERULEAN chronicles the lives of Ilona, the daughter of a Greek restaurateur, who marries into a prominent Houston family; her son, Cadmus, who becomes a professor and then moves into a retirement home after his husband passes away; and Delphina, an anxiety-ridden woman with a mysterious recurring dream. Ilona and Cadmus have a falling out when Cadmus is a young man, and before they are able to reconcile, Ilona dies. Cadmus is plagued with guilt and feels responsible for the death of his mother. Two worlds collide when, years later, Delphina comes to understand that she had been Ilona, Cadmus' mother, in her previous life.