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After not securing an NHL contract with the Seattle Rainiers, Jaylen “JJ” Jones decides to bid the city farewell with a final night of fun, blowing off steam with an anonymous one-night stand. But when a last-minute roster spot opens up on the Rainiers, he connects his luck to the girl he spent the night with. Superstitious Jaylen is desperate to keep her around; his career depends on it. Aspiring tattoo artist Lucy Ross isn’t so sure about the proposition to remain Jaylen’s lucky charm. But stuck in a career slump, Lucy has everything to gain. Hoping for an apprenticeship hasn’t offered much stability, and Jaylen is willing to pay any price to get Lucy to agree. So maybe sending him a routine text message before each game won’t be too hard. What starts as an agreement to trade favors quickly turns into sizzling chemistry that’s too delicious to deny.

Lilian Estrada is part of a family of fiercely loyal and exceptional women, all bound together by an extraordinary secret. The Estrada women each possess a unique power, and Lily shines with the rare gift to manipulate memories. Yet not even her mystical abilities can shield her from a harrowing event at the hospital, one that sends her powers --- and her confidence --- spiraling out of control. Seeking solace, Lily retreats to her family's ancestral home in Mexico, only to find herself face to face with a ghost from her past --- Sam, the first love she never forgot. Nearly a decade since she last saw him, Sam is hardly the boy she once knew. As old flames spark to life, Lily must navigate the mysteries of their shared history and the depths of her own heart if she hopes to control her unpredictable magic.

“They’re not going to catch us,” Dan Aykroyd, as Elwood Blues, tells his brother Jake, played by John Belushi. “We’re on a mission from God.” So opens the musical action comedy The Blues Brothers, which hit theaters on June 20, 1980. Much delayed and vastly over budget, beset by mercurial and oft-drugged-out stars, the film opened to outraged reviews. However, in the 45 years since, it has been acknowledged a classic. Based on original research and dozens of interviews probing the memories of principals from director John Landis and producer Bob Weiss to Aykroyd himself, THE BLUES BROTHERS illuminates an American masterpiece while vividly portraying the creative geniuses behind modern comedy.

Clayton Stumper might be in his 20s, but he dresses like your grandpa and fusses like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution. When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton’s life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. So begins Clay’s quest to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth, secrets that will change Clay --- and the Fellowship --- forever.

Celebrity cooking show host Marni McGuire has been married twice, widowed and divorced. Now in her mid-50s, she’s single. Happily so. She just needs to convince her pregnant daughter, Bella, of this fact. And maybe convince herself, too. Especially after Marni’s efforts to humor her determined daughter result in a series of disastrous dates that somehow prompt Marni to wonder if maybe the right man for her is still out there after all. Similarly single, Marni’s best friend and colleague is confident she’s content without a man, but both older women soon find themselves leading by example as the young intern on their show appears caught in a toxic relationship --- and Bella reveals her own marriage maybe isn’t built to withstand the stresses of the baby on the way. Suddenly, all four women find themselves at a crossroads.

When the narrator of THE HEARING TEST, an artist in her late 20s, awakens one morning to a deep drone in her right ear, she is diagnosed with Sudden Deafness but is offered no explanation for its cause. As the specter of total deafness looms, she keeps a record of her year --- a score of estrangement and enchantment, of luck and loneliness, of the chance occurrences to which she becomes attuned --- while living alone in a New York City studio apartment with her dog. Through a series of fleeting and often humorous encounters --- with neighbors, an ex-lover, doctors, strangers, family members, faraway friends, and with the lives and works of artists, filmmakers, musicians and philosophers --- making meaning becomes a form of consolation and curiosity, a form of survival.

Outside the island, there is nothing. The world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island, it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists are living in peaceful harmony. Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island --- and everyone on it. But the security system also has wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer --- and they don't even know it. And the clock is ticking.

From Mo’orea, a tiny volcanic island off the coast of Tahiti, a French biologist obsessed with saving Polynesia’s imperiled coral reefs sends her 15-year-old daughter, Pia, to live with her ex-husband, Stephen, and his new wife, Kate, in New York. A schoolteacher, Kate struggles to connect with a teenager whose capacity for destruction seems exceeded only by her privilege. Meanwhile, one of her 16-year-old students is already caring for a toddler full time. Athyna’s love for her nephew, Marcus, is a burden that becomes heavier as she struggles to finish her senior year online. Just as her fear of what is waiting for her outside her Staten Island community feels insupportable, an incident at home makes her desperate to leave. When their lives collide, Pia and Athyna spiral toward parallel but inescapably different tragedies.

After being expelled from their ancestral home in a not-so-distant future, Silvia and her mother finally settle at the Morningside, a crumbling luxury tower where Silvia’s aunt Ena serves as the superintendent. Silvia knows almost nothing about the place where she was born and spent her early years, nor does she fully understand why she and her mother had to leave. But in Ena, Silvia finds a person willing to give glimpses into the folktales of her demolished homeland. Enchanted by Ena’s stories, Silvia begins seeing the world with magical possibilities and becomes obsessed with Bezi Duras, the mysterious older woman who lives in the penthouse of the Morningside. Silvia’s mission to unravel the truth about this woman’s life, and her own haunted past, may end up costing her everything.

While reporting on a Tijuana animal shelter, journalist Bettina Blazak falls in love with one of her story’s subjects --- an adorable Mexican street dog who is being treated for a mysterious gunshot wound. Bettina impulsively adopts the dog, who she names Felix after the veterinarian who saved him. In investigating Felix’s past, Bettina discovers that his life is nothing like what she assumed. For one thing, he’s not a Mexican street dog at all. A former DEA drug-sniffing dog, Felix has led a very colorful, dangerous and profitable life. With Bettina’s story going viral, some interesting people are looking for Felix, making him a target --- again. Bettina soon finds herself drawn into a deadly criminal underworld from which she and her beloved dog may not return.

While on a writer's residency, a nameless narrator wanders the twin white worlds of the blank page and snowy Warsaw. THE WHITE BOOK becomes a meditation on the color white, as well as a fictional journey inspired by an older sister who died in her mother's arms, a few hours old. The narrator grapples with the tragedy that has haunted her family, an event she colors in stark white --- breast milk, swaddling bands, the baby's rice cake-colored skin --- and, from here, visits all that glows in her memory: from a white dog to sugar cubes.

When tragedy forces Delphine Auber, an aspiring writer on the cusp of adulthood, from her home in postwar Paris, she seizes the opportunity to embark on the journey she's long dreamed of: finding the father she has never known. But her quest --- spanning from Paris to New York’s Harlem, to Havana and Key West --- is complicated by the fact that she believes him to be famed luminary Ernest Hemingway, a man just as elusive as he is iconic. She desperately yearns for his approval, as both a daughter and a writer, convinced that he holds the key to who she's truly meant to be. But what will happen if she's wrong, or if her real story falls outside of the legend of her parentage that she’s revered all her life?

In WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL, Joe Posnanski writes of major moments that created legends, and of forgotten moments almost lost to time. It's Willie Mays’ catch, Babe Ruth’s called shot and Kirk Gibson’s limping home run; the slickest steals; the biggest bombs; and the most triumphant no-hitters. But these are also moments raw with the humanity of the game, the unheralded heroes and the mesmerizing mistakes drenched in pine tar. Every story, from the immortal to the obscure, is told from a unique perspective. Whether of a real fan who witnessed it, or the pitcher who gave up the home run, the umpire, the coach, the opposing player --- these are fresh takes on moments so powerful they almost feel like myth.

Neighbors Gwen, Aimee and Lisa share more than playdates and coffee mornings on their tranquil street in East Bethesda. They confide their deepest secrets, navigate the challenges of motherhood together, and provide a support system that seems unbreakable. But when Gwen’s husband is found murdered after one of their weekly Friday night dinners, the peaceful quiet of their cul-de-sac shatters. As the police investigate, the veneer of friendship begins to crack, revealing hidden tensions, clandestine affairs, and long-buried jealousies among the three women. With suspicions mounting and the neighborhood gripped by fear, Gwen, Aimee and Lisa must confront the chilling truth about their husbands, and the sinister undercurrents in their own friendship.

In the years since the mysterious deaths of his wife and child, police detective P.T. Marsh has faced demons --- both professional and personal. But when he is called to the scene of a school shooting, the professional and personal become intertwined, and he suspects that whoever is behind the crime may be connected to his own family tragedy. As Marsh and his partner, Remy, investigate the shooting, they discover that it is far from straightforward, and their search for answers leads them to a conspiracy at the highest levels of local government --- including within the police force. The stakes in the case become increasingly high, culminating in a showdown that has Marsh questioning everything he knows.

In the near-future United States, where advanced technology can create egg or sperm from any person’s cells, celebrities face the alarming potential of meeting biological children they never conceived. Famous singer Trace Thorne is tired of being targeted by the Vault, a black market site devoted to stealing DNA. Sick of paying ransom money for his own cell matter, he hires bio-security guard Ember Ryan to ensure his biological safety. Ember will do anything she can to protect her clients. She knows all the Vault’s tricks and has prevented countless DNA thefts. Working for Thorne, her focus becomes split when she begins to fall for him, but she knows she hasn’t let anything slip --- love or not, his DNA is safe. But then she and Thorne are confronted by a pregnant woman who claims that Thorne is the father of her baby, and all bets are off.

Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century. When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love. But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. Neither knows it yet, but over the next 20 years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.

Mercer Mann, a popular writer from Camino Island, is back on the beach, marrying her boyfriend, Thomas, in a seaside ceremony. Bruce Cable, the infamous owner of Bay Books, performs the wedding. Afterward, Bruce tells Mercer that he has stumbled upon an incredible story. Mercer desperately needs an idea for her next novel, and Bruce now has one. The true story is about Dark Isle, a sliver of a barrier island not far off the North Florida coast. It was settled by freed slaves 300 years ago, and their descendants lived there until 1955, when the last one --- Lovely Jackson --- was forced to leave. But now Tidal Breeze, a huge, ruthless corporate developer, wants to build a resort and casino on the island, which Lovely knows is rightfully hers. She also knows something about the island that could seriously cloud the dollar signs in the developer’s eyes: the island is cursed.

When Hazel Sharp, the daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town --- and people --- she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel is not the only relic of the past to return. A drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

Lucky Salerno’s dream is to own a bakery. To earn enough money to achieve it, she has secured a lucrative job as chief stewardess on a superyacht cruising the Mediterranean. Aboard the ship, there’s one unbreakable rule: no hookups among the crew. The last thing Lucky has time for is a man. Then she meets Hunter Smith, the gorgeous new deckhand sharing her cabin. Who needs the drama that comes with a relationship? Not Hunter. Who can ignore a witty, beautiful bunkmate like Lucky? Also not Hunter. There’s something just as enticing for Lucky: a tantalizing mystery behind Hunter’s piercing blue eyes she can’t wait to solve. But at what risk? As they get to know each other, a secret romance buds at sea, and Lucky has to choose. Abide by the rules to make her career dreams come true, or pursue her love for Hunter.

In the company of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his circle of enlightened friends, Margaret Fuller becomes “the radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalists. However, Margaret’s soul yearns for more than poetry and drama. From hosting a women-only literary salon in Boston to becoming the first woman permitted entry to Harvard’s library, Margaret defies societal conventions as an activist for women’s rights and a champion for humanity. On the gritty New York streets, she spars with Edgar Allan Poe and reports on the work of Frederick Douglass. And when offered an assignment in Europe by editor Horace Greeley, Margaret becomes the first female foreign news correspondent. In Rome, she embarks on a passionate love affair with a Roman count, causing an international scandal. As a mother and a countess, Margaret enters a new fight for Italy’s unification.

When Emma meets Matthew, a kind, handsome widower, he seems to be just what she needs. Yet as their relationship moves fast, Emma’s friends worry that she might be exploited. She’s a rich woman after all. Emma doesn’t care that Matthew has no money. But as the memory of his perfect first wife hangs over them, Emma does have one tiny doubt. If Matthew’s wife hadn’t died, he wouldn’t be with her. And Emma wonders if she’s second best. Can she ever fill the dead woman’s shoes? As jealousy and suspicion blossom between Emma and Matthew, events take a darker, dangerous turn. Suddenly Emma doesn’t know who she can trust. Her friends? Her husband? Or even herself?

Acclaimed science writer David Toomey takes us on a fast-paced and entertaining tour of playful animals and the scientists who study them. From octopuses on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to meerkats in the Kalahari Desert to brown bears on Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, we follow adventurous researchers as they design and conduct experiments seeking answers to new, intriguing questions: When did play first appear in animals? How does play develop the brain, and how did it evolve? Are the songs and aerial acrobatics of birds the beginning of avian culture? Is fairness in dog play the foundation of canine ethics? And does play direct and possibly accelerate evolution? Through a close examination of both natural selection and play, Toomey argues that life itself is fundamentally playful.

Before Jodie Rattler became a star, she was a girl growing up in St. Louis. One day in 1955, when she was just six years old, her uncle Drew took her to the racetrack, where she got lucky --- and that roll of two-dollar bills she won has never since left her side. Jodie thrived in the warmth of her extended family, and then --- through a combination of hard work and serendipity --- she started a singing career, which catapulted her from St. Louis to New York City, from the English countryside to the tropical beaches of St. Thomas, from Cleveland to Los Angeles, and back again. Jodie comes of age in recording studios, backstage and on tour, and she tries to hold her own in the wake of Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell. Yet it feels like something is missing. Could it be true love? Or is that not actually what Jodie is looking for?

In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong and Ellen Ng are teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. They envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity. By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet’s early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time, their friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.