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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.

Please note we have not included every book that is coming out, but rather some that caught our eye --- and that we thought should catch yours as well.

October 2021

Hardcover

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow - Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction

Tordotcom | 9781250765352 | Published October 5, 2021

It's Zinnia Gray's 21st birthday, which is extra special because it's the last birthday she'll ever have. When she was young, an industrial accident left Zinnia with a rare condition. Not much is known about her illness, just that no one has lived past 21. Her best friend Charm is intent on making Zinnia's last birthday special with a full sleeping beauty experience, complete with a tower and a spinning wheel. But when Zinnia pricks her finger, something strange and unexpected happens, and she finds herself falling through worlds, with another sleeping beauty, just as desperate to escape her fate.

An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed: Stories written by Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy - Fiction, Humor, Short Stories

Soho Crime | 9781641291675 | Published October 5, 2021

Just when things have finally cooled down for 88-year-old Maud after the disturbing discovery of a dead body in her apartment in Gothenburg, a couple of detectives return to her doorstep. Though Maud dodges their questions with the skill of an Olympic gymnast a fifth of her age, she wonders if suspicion has fallen on her. The truth is, ever since Maud was a girl, death has seemed to follow her. In these six interlocking stories, memories of unfortunate incidents from Maud’s past keep bubbling to the surface. Meanwhile, certain Problems in the present require immediate attention. Luckily, Maud is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands, even if it means she has to get a little blood on them in the process.

Once Upon a Time in Queens: An Oral History of the 1986 Mets by Nick Davis - History, Nonfiction, Sports

Hyperion Avenue | 9781368077651 | Published October 5, 2021

October 2021 marks the 35th anniversary of the 86 Mets’ World Series win. ESPN recently aired a multi-part "30 for 30" documentary series on the subject, which was produced by ESPN Films, Jimmy Kimmel, Cousin Sal Iacono and Major League Baseball and directed by Nick Davis. The show features never-before-seen footage, as well as remembrances from almost all of the key players. This tie-in book is an oral history with new contributions from Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Lenny Dykstra and many others. Also included are unique photographs of the team and the era. A foreword by Kimmel, discussing what the Mets and their triumph means to him, rounds out this fantastic package.

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci - Memoir, Nonfiction

Gallery Books | 9781982168018 | Published October 5, 2021

Stanley Tucci grew up in an Italian American family that spent every night around the kitchen table. He shared the magic of those meals with us in THE TUCCI COOKBOOK and THE TUCCI TABLE, and now he takes us beyond the savory recipes and into the compelling stories behind them. TASTE is a reflection on the intersection of food and life, filled with anecdotes about his growing up in Westchester, New York; preparing for and shooting the foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia; falling in love over dinner; and teaming up with his wife to create meals for a multitude of children. Each morsel of this gastronomic journey through good times and bad, five-star meals and burned dishes is as heartfelt and delicious as the last.

The Last Guest by Tess Little - Fiction, Mystery, Women's Fiction

Ballantine Books | 9780593238073 | Published October 5, 2021

When Elspeth Bell attends the 50th birthday party of her ex-husband, Richard Bryant, the Hollywood director who launched her acting career, all she wants is to pass unnoticed through the glamorous crowd in his sprawling Los Angeles mansion. Instead, there are only seven other guests and his pet octopus, Persephone. Come morning, Richard is dead --- and all of them are suspects. Dark stories from Richard's past begin to surface, colliding with memories of their marriage that Elspeth vowed never to revisit. She begins to wonder not just who killed Richard, but why these eight guests were invited --- and what sort of man would desire to possess a creature as mysterious and unsettling as Persephone.

The OC: A Jake Longly Thriller by D.P. Lyle - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094608 | Published October 5, 2021

Restaurant owner and former professional baseball player Jake Longly is hoping for a few weeks of fun with Nicole Jamison in the warm Orange County, CA sun. After that, they’ll be on their way to LA for the filming of Nicole’s sure-to-be-a-hit screenplay. On arrival, they discover that Nicole’s friend Megan Weatherly, a local TV reporter, has picked up an anonymous stalker. Megan downplays any real danger, but her new intern Abby, as well as Jake and Nicole, don’t agree. Bit by bit, as the harassment escalates and the shadowy man invades Megan’s world, Jake calls in the big guns from back home in Alabama: Ray and Pancake. But will Ray’s military black ops experience and Pancake’s technical skills be enough to expose the predator in time?

The Survivors by Alex Schulman - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Doubleday | 9780385547567 | Published October 5, 2021

Three estranged brothers return to the Swedish lakeside cottage where, more than two decades before, an unspeakable accident forever altered their family and changed the course of their lives. There is Nils, who couldn't escape his suffocating home soon enough, and Pierre, easily bullied and quick to lash out. And then there is Benjamin, always the family's nerve center, perpetually on the lookout for triggers and trap doors in a volatile home where the children were left to fend for themselves, competing for their father's favor and their mother's elusive love. But as the years have unfolded, Benjamin has grown increasingly untethered from reality. And among the brothers a dangerous current now vibrates. What really happened that summer day when everything was blown to pieces?

Wolf Point: An Ashe Cayne Novel by Ian K. Smith - Fiction, Mystery

Thomas & Mercer | 9781542027861 | Published October 5, 2021

A Cadillac, a pistol and a corpse make for another morning in Chicago. The body belongs to Walter Griffin, a prominent Black Chicagoan insider hailing from the city’s West Side. He ascended to the upper echelons of the mayor’s office only to meet his end in a watery grave at Wolf Point. Forensics finds his prints on the gun; it’s ruled a suicide. But grizzled private investigator Ashe Cayne knows better. Griffin’s children plead with a reluctant Ashe to hunt their father’s killer. She decides to take on the case and navigate a city rotting with corruption, racial tensions and sketchy backroom deals. On the bleak streets of Chicago, it’s every man for himself --- and that makes everyone a suspect.

All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told by Douglas Wolk - History, Memoir, Nonfiction, Popular Culture

Penguin Press | 9780735222168 | Published October 12, 2021

The superhero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961 are, as Douglas Wolk notes, the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created. The Marvel story is a gigantic mountain smack in the middle of contemporary culture. Thousands of writers and artists have contributed to it. Everyone recognizes its protagonists. Eighteen of the hundred highest-grossing movies of all time are based on parts of it. Yet not even the people telling the story have read the whole thing. So, of course, that’s what Wolk did: he read all 27,000+ comics that make up the Marvel Universe thus far. And then he made sense of it --- seeing into the ever-expanding story, in its parts and as a whole, and seeing through it, as a prism through which to view the landscape of American culture.

Along the Saltwise Sea by A. Deborah Baker - Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction

Tordotcom | 9781250768285 | Published October 12, 2021

After climbing OVER THE WOODWARD WALL and making their way across the forest, Avery and Zib found themselves acquiring some extraordinary friends in their journey through the Up-and-Under. After staying the night, uninvited, at a pirate queen’s cottage in the woods, the companions find themselves accountable to its owner and reluctantly agree to work off their debt as her ship sets sail, bound for lands unknown. But the queen and her crew are not the only ones on board, and the monsters at sea aren’t all underwater. The friends will need to navigate the stormy seas of obligation and honor on their continuing journey along the improbable road.

MacArthur Park by Judith Freeman - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pantheon | 9780593315958 | Published October 12, 2021

Jolene and Verna share complicated ties that have crystallized over time. Beginning when they were girls discovering their needs and desires, their ongoing stories have been inextricably linked. But when Verna marries Vincent, Jolene’s ex-husband, their paths may have finally, permanently diverged. A successful and provocative feminist artist, Jolene travels the world, attracting attention wherever she goes. Verna, a writer, works from her home near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, where she and Vincent plan to spend the rest of their lives in a contemplative, intimate routine. Then Jolene asks one more favor of Verna --- to take a road trip with her to their small hometown in Utah.

Oscar Wilde: A Life by Matthew Sturgis - Biography, Nonfiction

Knopf | 9780525656364 | Published October 12, 2021

Drawing on material that has come to light in the past 30 years, including newly discovered letters, documents, first draft notebooks, and the full transcript of the libel trial, Matthew Sturgis meticulously portrays the key events and influences that shaped Oscar Wilde's life, returning the man "to his times, and to the facts," giving us his own experience as he experienced it. Here, fully and richly portrayed, is Wilde's Irish childhood; his years at Oxford and arrival in London; his 10-year marriage to Constance Lloyd, who unwittingly welcomed young men into the household who became Oscar's lovers; his development as a playwright; and, in later years, his irresistible pull toward another --- double --- life, and the tragic story of his fall that sent him to prison for two years of hard labor.

Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - Fiction, Magical Realism

Hanover Square Press | 9781335630988 | Published October 12, 2021

In a back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than a hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee --- the chance to travel back in time. With faces both familiar and new, TALES FROM THE CAFÉ follows the story of four patrons who visit to take advantage of café Funiculi Funicula's time-traveling offer and revisit moments with family, friends and lovers. Each one must face up to the past to move on with their lives.

Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World by Wil Haygood - History, Nonfiction, Performing Arts

Knopf | 9780525656876 | Published October 19, 2021

Beginning in 1915 with D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation --- which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and became Hollywood's first blockbuster --- Wil Haygood gives us an incisive, fascinating, little-known history, spanning more than a century, of Black artists in the film business, on-screen and behind the scenes. He makes clear the effects of changing social realities and events on the business of making movies and on what was represented on the screen. He considers the films themselves, including Imitation of Life, Gone with the Wind and Do The Right Thing. And he brings to new light the careers and significance of a wide range of historic and contemporary figures: Sidney Poitier, Alex Haley, Billy Dee Willliams, Richard Pryor, Halle Berry, Ava DuVernay and Jordan Peele, among many others.

Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan Henry, writing as Patti Callahan - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Harper Muse | 9780785251729 | Published October 19, 2021

Megs Devonshire is brilliant with numbers and equations, on a scholarship at Oxford, and dreams of solving the greatest mysteries of physics. She prefers the dependability of facts --- except for one: the younger brother she loves with all her heart doesn’t have long to live. When George becomes captivated by THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and begs her to find out where Narnia came from, there’s no way she can refuse. Despite her timidity about approaching the famous author, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with the Oxford don and his own brother, imploring them for answers. Why won’t Mr. Lewis just tell her plainly what George wants to know? The answer will reveal to Meg many truths that science and math cannot.

Renegades: Born in the USA by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen - History, Music, Nonfiction, Popular Culture, Social Sciences

Crown | 9780593236314 | Published October 26, 2021

RENEGADES is a candid, revealing and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders --- one Black and one white --- looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity and community with the American story itself.

What the Amish Teach Us: Plain Living in a Busy World by Donald B. Kraybill - Cultural Studies, History, Nonfiction

Johns Hopkins University Press | ‎9781421442174 | Published October 26, 2021

It sounds audacious, but it's true: the Amish have much to teach us. It may seem surreal to turn to one of America's most traditional groups for lessons about living in a hyper-tech world --- especially a horse-driving people who resist "progress" by snubbing cars, public grid power and high school education. Still, their wisdom confirms that even when they seem so far behind, they're out ahead of the rest of us. Having spent four decades researching Amish communities, Donald B. Kraybill is in a unique position to share important lessons from these fascinating Plain people. In this inspiring book, we learn intriguing truths about community, family, education, faith, forgiveness, aging and death from real Amish men and women.

Paperback

The Chaos Kind by Barry Eisler - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Thomas & Mercer | 9781542005593 | Published October 1, 2021

Assistant US Attorney Alondra Diaz is determined to put one of America’s most powerful financiers, Andrew Schrader, in prison forever for his crimes against children. But Schrader has videos implicating some of the most powerful members of the US national security state. To eliminate Diaz, the powers that be bring in a contractor: Marvin Manus, an implacable assassin. Enter former Marine sniper Dox and black-ops veteran Daniel Larison with an unusual assignment: not to kill Diaz, but to keep her alive. A lot of players are determined to acquire the videos and the blackmail power they represent. But with Seattle sex-crimes detective Livia Lone, “natural causes” killer John Rain, and ex-Mossad honey-trap specialist Delilah, the good guys just might have a chance.

2 Sisters Detective Agency by James Patterson and Candice Fox - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Grand Central Publishing | 9781538704585 | Published October 5, 2021

Attorney Rhonda Bird returns home after a long estrangement when she learns her father has died. There she makes two important discoveries: her father stopped being an accountant and had opened up a private detective agency, and she has a teenage half sister named Baby. Baby brings in a client to the detective agency, a young man who claims he was abducted. During the course of the investigation, Rhonda and Baby become entangled in a dangerous case involving a group of overprivileged young adults who break laws for fun, their psychopath ringleader, and an ex-assassin victim who decides to hunt them down for revenge.

A Song for the Dark Times: An Inspector Rebus Novel by Ian Rankin - Fiction, Mystery

Back Bay Books | 9780316479240 | Published October 5, 2021

When his daughter, Samantha, calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days. Rebus fears the worst --- and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect. He wasn’t the best father --- the job always came first --- but now his daughter needs him more than ever. But is he going as a father or a detective? As he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast --- and a small town with big secrets --- he wonders if this might be the first time in his life where the truth is the one thing he doesn’t want to find.

Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow - Fiction, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Tor Books | 9781250757517 | Published October 5, 2021

In her day job as a counterterrorism wizard for a transnational cybersecurity firm, Masha Maximow made the hacks that allowed repressive regimes to spy on dissidents and manipulate their every move. The perks were fantastic, and the pay was obscene. Just for fun, and to piss off her masters, Masha sometimes used her mad skills to help those same troublemakers evade detection, if their cause was just. When her targets were strangers in faraway police states, it was easy to compartmentalize, to ignore the collateral damage of murder, rape and torture. But when it hits close to home, and the hacks and exploits she’s devised are directed at her friends and family, Masha realizes she has to choose. And whatever choice she makes, someone is going to get hurt.

Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime by Debora Harding - Memoir, Nonfiction

Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635577846 | Published October 5, 2021

When Debora Harding was just 14, she was abducted at knifepoint from a church parking lot. She was thrown into a van, assaulted, held for ransom and left to die. Debora survived. She identified her attacker to the police and then returned to her teenage life in a dysfunctional home where she was expected to simply move on. Denial became the family coping strategy offered by her fun-loving, conflicted father and her cruelly resentful mother. It wasn't until decades later --- when beset by the symptoms of PTSD --- that Debora undertook a radical project: she met her childhood attacker face-to-face in prison and began to reconsider and reimagine his complex story.

Daughter of Black Lake by Cathy Marie Buchanan - Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance

Riverhead Books | 9780735216174 | Published October 5, 2021

It's the season of Fallow, in the era of iron. In a northern misty bog surrounded by woodlands and wheat fields, a settlement lies far beyond the reach of the Romans invading hundreds of miles to the southeast. A girl named Devout comes of age, sweetly flirting with the young man she's tilled alongside all her life, and envisions a future of love and abundance. Seventeen years later, though, the settlement is a changed place. Famine has brought struggle, and outsiders have arrived at the doorstep. For Devout's young daughter, life is more troubled than her mother ever anticipated. But this girl has an extraordinary gift. As worlds collide and peril threatens, it will be up to her to save her family and community.

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan - Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Washington Square Press | 9781982144371 | Published October 5, 2021

When the Wilde family moves to the suburbs of Long Island, they trigger their neighbors’ worst fears. Dad Arlo is a gruff has-been rock star with track marks. Mom Gertie has a thick Brooklyn accent, with high heels and tube tops to match. Their weird kids cuss like sailors. They don’t fit with the way Maple Street sees itself. Though Maple Street’s Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder, welcomed Gertie and her family at first, relations went south during one spritzer-fueled summer evening, when the new best friends shared too much. The Wildes are now outcasts. As tensions mount, a sinkhole opens in a nearby park, and Rhea’s daughter Shelly falls inside. The search for Shelly brings a shocking accusation against the Wildes.

In Another Light by A. J. Banner - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Lake Union Publishing | 9781542031103 | Published October 5, 2021

Three years ago, mortuary cosmetologist Phoebe Glassman lost her husband in a tragic accident. No longer the hopeful wife and mother she once was, Phoebe is disappearing into her grief and into the quietude of her job --- restoring to the dead the illusion of life. Then the body of a woman named Pauline Steele arrives in the mortuary, and for Phoebe, everything changes. Pauline is unmistakably Phoebe’s mirror image and bears an alarmingly familiar tattoo. Even more startling is that among Pauline’s effects is a faded photograph of Phoebe. Aided by an eccentric colleague, her curiosity sparked, Phoebe investigates her doppelgänger’s life and death --- and uncovers surprising clues to a shared past.