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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.

May 2023

Hardcover

Road to Nowhere: The Early 1990s Collapse and Rebuild of New York City Baseball by Chris Donnelly - History, Nonfiction, Sports

University of Nebraska Press | 9781496221421 | Published May 1, 2023

After the chaos of the 1980s, the New York Yankees finally bottomed out in 1990. The team finished in last place, enduring one of their worst seasons ever. Setting out to rebuild the franchise, Gene Michael made shrewd trades and free agent signings, and he allowed the team’s prospects to develop in the Minor Leagues before getting to the Bronx. Meanwhile, the Mets, beloved for their intensity and hard-partying ways in the 1980s, became everything that had driven fans away from the Yankees. They made bad trades and questionable signings, fired managers seemingly every year, and were a powder keg of never-ending controversy. But by 1996, despite their record, the Mets were already making moves that would return them to relevance and set them on a path to the ultimate showdown with the Yankees.

A History of Burning by Janika Oza - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Grand Central Publishing | 9781538724248 | Published May 2, 2023

In 1898, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labor for the British on the East African Railway. Far from home, he commits a brutal act in the name of survival that will haunt him and his family for years to come. Pirbhai’s children are born in Uganda during the waning days of British colonial rule, and as the country moves toward independence, his granddaughters come of age in a divided nation. In 1972, the entire family is forced to flee under Idi Amin’s military dictatorship. Pirbhai’s grandchildren are now scattered across the world, struggling to find their way back to each other. One day a letter arrives with news that makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy, to secure their own place in the world.

Below the Line: A Hollywood Crime Novel by Lowell Cauffiel - Fiction, Hard-boiled Crime Fiction, Hard-boiled Mystery, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Arcade Crimewise | 9781956763485 | Published May 2, 2023

Former Detroit homicide detective Edwin Blake broke into show business as a script consultant on cop movies. Now living in Los Angeles five years later, Blake is suffering from clinical depression, is no longer in demand in film and TV --- and money is short. But things look up when Blake gets a call from wealthy, oddball producer Jason “JP” Perry, telling him he wants to hire him for a future cable TV series. But there’s a catch. First he wants Blake to locate the missing ex-wife of a “friend of a friend” from Chicago. However, Blake is not the only one on the case. Hired gun Warren Poole also has been contracted to find the woman. When a corrupt Hollywood producer, an ex-cop with a conscience, and a career criminal without one all have the same quarry, trouble is bound to ensue.

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

Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095520 | Published May 2, 2023

Jake Longly is back where he belongs: relaxing on the beach in front of his restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama. His peace is interrupted, however, when he receives a call from his private investigator father. April Wilkerson has gone missing from Lindemann Farms, the rustic yet posh resort built by self-help and financial guru Jonathon Lindemann. Lindemann, founder of The Lindemann Method (TLM), recruits wealthy people to join his program, charging a hefty entry fee but in return promising huge financial gains and self-enlightenment. Jake’s celebrity status makes him the best person for the case. When Jake and his girlfriend, Nicole, go on an undercover visit to Lindemann Farms, some suspicious activity makes them wonder about the legitimacy of TLM.

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister - Fiction, Women's Fiction

St. Martin's Press | 9781250284372 | Published May 2, 2023

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives. Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways.

Pinstripes by the Tale: Half a Century In and Around Yankees Baseball by Marty Appel - Nonfiction, Sports

Triumph Books | 9781637272787 | Published May 2, 2023

When 19-year-old Marty Appel got a job as a mail clerk for the New York Yankees, assigned to spend the summer of '68 answering Mickey Mantle’s fan letters, he couldn't have known it was just the start of over a half-century entwined with the Bronx Bombers. As a PR director, television producer, writer and historian, Appel never missed an opportunity to get to know the main characters --- and supporting cast --- of Yankees lore. The result is an unparalleled trove of colorful stories featuring a seemingly unending parade of characters, including Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson, Derek Jeter, George Steinbrenner and everyone in between.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Grove Press | 9780802162175 | Published May 2, 2023

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, THE COVENANT OF WATER is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: In every generation, at least one person dies by drowning --- and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a 12-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her 40-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl --- and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi --- will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph, as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

The Girl by the Bridge: A Detective Konrad Novel by Arnaldur Indridason - Fiction, Mystery

Minotaur Books | 9781250892607 | Published May 2, 2023

An elderly couple are worried about their granddaughter. They know she's been smuggling drugs, and now she's gone missing. Looking for help, they turn to Konrad, a former policeman whose reputation precedes him. Always absent-minded, he constantly ruminates on the fate of his father, who was stabbed to death decades ago. But digging into the past reveals much more than anyone set out to discover, and a little girl who drowned in the Reykjavik city pond unexpectedly captures everyone's attention.

The Humble Lover by Edmund White - Fiction, Humor

Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639730889 | Published May 2, 2023

Aldwych West, an 80-year-old modern-day aristocrat living alone in his Manhattan townhouse, is used to having what he wants. And when he sets eyes on August Dupond, a strong, stunningly beautiful soloist in the New York City Ballet, he decides he must have him. Soon they strike up a closeness that falls between the blurry lines of friendship, sponsorship and love, and August moves in with Aldwych. But eventually August starts bringing home other men, and a formidable woman in Aldwych's circle named Ernestine also takes a deep interest in the young, enchanting star. Messy entanglements and fierce rivalries ensue.

The Night Flowers by Sara Herchenroether - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Tin House Books | 9781953534866 | Published May 2, 2023

In 1983, deep in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, the bodies of a young woman and two children were found. Who were they? How did they get there? Thirty years later, two women find themselves drawn to the cold case. Librarian Laura MacDonald begins her own investigation as a way to distract herself from breast cancer treatments and becomes consumed by her search for answers. Jean Martinez is a veteran detective determined to keep working cold cases for the Sierra County police force even as her family begs her to retire. With only fragments from dusty case files and a witness who doesn’t want to remember, this unlikely duo is determined --- no matter the cost --- to uncover the truth behind the murders.

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw - Fantasy, Fiction, Horror

Tor Nightfire | 9781250830913 | Published May 2, 2023

You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood and the three “saints” who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.

The Twenty by Sam Holland - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Crooked Lane Books | 9781639102563 | Published May 2, 2023

When DCI Adam Bishop arrives at the crime scene in the dead of night, the sight of the body is bad enough. But what Adam notices next chills him to his core. More bodies surface. And the spray-painted numbers daubed above the corpses reveal the horrific truth: the killer is counting down. But to what end? Adam has no idea, until Dr. Romilly Cole knocks on his door with damning evidence pointing to a series of murders 25 years earlier --- a case she knows intimately from her past. Now it’s personal --- and the next knock on his door could be fatal.

You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America by Paul Kix - History, Nonfiction

Celadon Books | 9781250807694 | Published May 2, 2023

It’s one of the iconic photographs of American history: a Black teenager, a policeman and his lunging German Shepherd. Birmingham, Alabama, May 1963. In May 2020, as reporter Paul Kix stared at a different photo --- that of a Minneapolis police officer suffocating George Floyd --- he kept returning to the other photo taken half a century earlier, haunted by its echoes. What, Kix wondered, was the full legacy of the Birmingham photo? And of the campaign it stemmed from? In YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO DIE BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN TO LIVE, Paul Kix takes the reader behind the scenes as he tells the story of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s pivotal 10-week campaign in 1963 to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.

Atalanta by Jennifer Saint - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mythology

Flatiron Books | 9781250855572 | Published May 9, 2023

When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing. Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. The Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves herself equal to the men she fights alongside. As she is swept into a passionate affair, she begins to question the goddess's true intentions.

Fixit: An IQ Novel by Joe Ide - Fiction, Mystery

Mulholland Books | 9780316531085 | Published May 9, 2023

Danger has always followed Isaiah Quintabe, a reality he’s keenly aware of as he’s laid up in a hospital bed, recovering from injuries sustained in his last case. So he’s unaware that Grace, the love of his life, has been abducted by his sworn enemy, the professional hitman Skip Hanson. Now, Isaiah and his sometimes partner, ex-hustler Juanell Dodson, must track scant clues through L.A.’s perilous landscape as Grace’s predicament grows more uncertain. A complication arises in the form of Winnie Hando, a homicide detective with something to prove. Stubborn and effective, Winnie sees his efforts as an obstruction to the investigation. As the desperate hunt winds on, Isaiah fears that even if he can bring Grace home alive, things between them will never be the same.

Independence Square: Arkady Renko in Ukraine by Martin Cruz Smith - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Simon & Schuster | 9781982188306 | Published May 9, 2023

It’s June 2021, and Arkady Renko knows that Russia is preparing to invade and subsequently annex Ukraine as it did Crimea in 2014. He is, however, preoccupied with other grievances. His longtime lover, Tatiana Petrovna, has deserted him for her work as an investigative reporter. And he is having trouble with his dexterity and balance. A visit to his doctor reveals that these are symptoms for Parkinson’s disease. Rather than dwell on his diagnosis, he throws himself into another case. An acquaintance has asked him to find his daughter, Karina, an anti-Putin activist who has disappeared. In the course of the investigation, Arkady falls for Karina's roommate, Elena, a Tatar from Ukraine. Later, in Crimea, Tatiana reemerges to complicate Arkady’s new romance.

Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino" by Héctor Tobar - Nonfiction, Social Sciences

MCD | 9780374609900 | Published May 9, 2023

"Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. OUR MIGRANT SOULS assembles the Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar's personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latinx students to offer a spirited rebuke to racist ideas about Latino people. It decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and seeks to give voice to the angst and anger of young Latino people who have seen latinidad transformed into hateful tropes about "illegals" and have faced insults, harassment and division based on white insecurities and economic exploitation.

Pieces of Blue by Holly Goldberg Sloan - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Flatiron Books | 9781250847300 | Published May 9, 2023

When Paul Hill drowns in a surfing accident, his broken-hearted wife, Lindsey, and their three children are left in huge financial trouble. Once Paul’s life insurance finally comes through, Lindsey impulsively uses the money to buy a charmingly ramshackle motel in Hawaii. Teenage Olivia quickly develops a crush on a handsome but monosyllabic skateboarder. Twelve-year-old Carlos reinvents himself as a popular kid named Carl. And Sena, the youngest, will do whatever it takes to protect her beloved motel chickens. But while the kids adjust, Lindsey is flailing. Then a handsome stranger rolls into the motel parking lot, and she’s surprised to feel a long-dormant part of herself stirring. She accepts his offer to help, unaware that he may have secrets of his own.

Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan - History, Nonfiction

W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324051954 | Published May 9, 2023

“It is impossible to understand China today without understanding the Cultural Revolution,” Tania Branigan writes. During this decade of Maoist fanaticism between 1966 and 1976, children turned on parents, students condemned teachers, and as many as two million people died for their supposed political sins, while tens of millions were hounded, ostracized and imprisoned. Yet in China this brutal and turbulent period exists, for the most part, as an absence; official suppression and personal trauma have conspired in national amnesia. RED MEMORY uncovers 40 years of silence through the stories of individuals who lived through the madness.

The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even: Stories of Espionage and Revenge by Alexander McCall Smith - Fiction, Humor, Short Stories

Pantheon | 9780593700693 | Published May 9, 2023

In this dual collection of short stories, Alexander McCall Smith brings his trademark humor and warmth to inventive tales of spying and vengeance. In one story, a spy dropped deep into enemy territory manages to disguise himself --- quite convincingly --- as a nun. In another, an invitation to join the Vatican Secret Service sends a prospective operative down a rabbit hole of controversy and confusion. A third story finds an author, on the brink of public ruin, seeing the error of his ways after an act of kindness saves the day. A keen observer of humanity imbued with a sparkling imagination, Smith illustrates throughout that transparency is paramount and forgiveness is restorative.

Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas by Jesse Cole with Don Yaeger - Memoir, Nonfiction, Sports

Dutton | 9780593473412 | Published May 16, 2023

For his entire childhood, Jesse Cole dreamed of pitching in the Majors. Now, he has a life in baseball that he could have only imagined. He met the love of his life in the industry; they shaped Savannah, Georgia’s professional team into the league champion Savannah Bananas; and now the Bananas have restyled baseball itself into something all their own: Banana Ball, which is fast, fun and outrageously entertaining. But the reason this team is on the forefront of a movement is less about the play on the field and more about the atmosphere that the team culture creates. For the first time in this book, Jesse reveals the ideas and experiences that allowed him to reimagine America’s oldest sport by creating a phenomenon that is helping fans fall in love with the game all over again.

Killing Me by Michelle Gagnon - Fiction, Humor, Suspense, Thriller

G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593540749 | Published May 16, 2023

Amber Jamison can’t believe she’s about to become the latest victim of a serial killer. When she gets pushed into a white windowless van, she's more angry than afraid. Things get even weirder when she’s miraculously saved by a mysterious woman…who promptly disappears. Who was she? And why is she hunting serial killers? You’d think escaping one psychopath would be enough, but Amber’s problems are just beginning. Her close call has law enforcement circling a past she’s tried to outrun. She’s forced to flee across the country, ending up at a seedy motel in Las Vegas with a noir-obsessed manager and a sex worker as her unlikely companions…and danger right behind. She’s landed in the crosshairs of the world’s most prolific killer, caught up in a deadly game that’s been going on for years.

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig - Biography, History, Nonfiction

Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374279295 | Published May 16, 2023

Jonathan Eig’s KING: A LIFE is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. --- and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. The bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins, as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father and fellow activists. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma and Memphis, Eig dramatically recreates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father --- as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.

Lincoln's God: How Faith Transformed a President and a Nation by Joshua Zeitz - History, Nonfiction

Viking | 9781984882219 | Published May 16, 2023

Abraham Lincoln, unlike most of his political brethren, kept organized Christianity at arm’s length. He never joined a church and only sometimes attended Sunday services with his wife. But as he came to appreciate the growing political and military importance of the Christian community, and when death touched the Lincoln household in an awful, intimate way, the erstwhile skeptic effectively evolved into a believer and harnessed the power of evangelical Protestantism to rally the nation to arms. The war, he told Americans, was divine retribution for the sin of slavery. This is the story of that transformation and the ways in which religion helped millions of Northerners interpret the carnage and political upheaval of the 1850s and 1860s.

Liquid Shades of Blue by James Polkinghorn - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095506 | Published May 16, 2023

When hungover ex-lawyer and Key West bar owner Jack Girard groggily wakes up one morning, he’s greeted by a beautiful woman lying next to him and a shrill, ringing telephone. Seeing the call is from his father, Claude “The Duke” Girard, he answers. Within seconds, Jack learns that his mother is dead in an apparent suicide, so he hits the road, heading back to his childhood home in Miami to face his tyrannical father. The death of his mother brings up haunting memories from his past --- memories of his brother Bobby’s suicide when they were in college together. But things grow more complicated when The Duke suggests that his estranged wife’s alleged suicide may have been a murder. As Jack begins to uncover the truth about his mother’s death, he finds himself in imminent danger.