Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling and young --- young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In AUDITION, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day --- partner, parent, creator, muse --- and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately.

When Iris Yvonne Bialosky died in an assisted care facility on March 29, 2020, it unleashed a torrent of emotions in her daughter, Jill Bialosky. Grief, of course, but also guilt, confusion and doubt, all of which were compounded by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it impossible for Jill to be with her mother as she was dying and to attend her mother’s funeral. Starting with her mother’s end and the physical/cognitive decline that led her to a care home, THE END IS THE BEGINNING explores Iris’ battle with depression, the tragedy of a daughter’s suicide, a failed second marriage, the death of her beloved first husband only five years into their young marriage, her joyful teenage years, and the trauma of losing her own mother at just eight years old.

It’s November 5th, and a woman awakens to a nightmare. Bound and gagged, she lies trapped in the heart of a towering bonfire. As the smoke thickens, panic sets in; she’s moments away from being engulfed in flames. How did it come to this? Rewind 11 months. Margot, a faded TV star, and her long-suffering friend, Anna, watch as glamorous Liv and her flawless family move into their street. The three women soon fabricate the perfect pretense of friendship, but each harbors her own deadly secret --- and newcomer Liv senses something is terribly wrong beneath the polished exteriors. As cracks widen in the veneer of perfection and lies escalate out of control, tension ignites. Bonfire Night is approaching, and someone is set to burn. But who will it be?

For decades, Amy Griffin ran. Through the dirt roads of Amarillo, Texas, where she grew up; to the campus of the University of Virginia, as a student athlete; on the streets of New York, where she built her adult life; through marriage, motherhood and a thriving career. To outsiders, it all looked, in many ways, perfect. But Amy was running from something --- a secret she was keeping not only from her family and friends, but unconsciously from herself. “You’re here, but you’re not here,” her daughter said to her one night. “Where are you, Mom?” So began Amy’s quest to solve a mystery trapped in the deep recesses of her own memory --- a journey that would take her into the burgeoning field of psychedelic therapy, to the limits of the judicial system, and, ultimately, home to the Texas panhandle, where her story began.

Edge, a shadow organization made up of the most powerful figures in Galway society, exists to rid the city of criminals and abusers who have evaded the law. Long wary of the organization, the Vatican is not pleased when rumors start swirling that one of the Catholic Church’s own priests has joined its ranks. An envoy to the Archdiocese shows up at private detective Jack Taylor’s door, asking him to go speak to a priest named Kevin Whelan and dissuade him from any involvement with Edge. Jack accepts the mission, but the next day Father Whelan is found dead. As more Edge members are murdered, the Vatican grows alarmed that someone even worse will take their place. It’s up to Jack Taylor to nail the culprit before Edge is dissolved completely and Galway is thrown into chaos.

In her second story collection, Curtis Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long-held beliefs are overturned. In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel PREP a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.

After more than 70 years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir. As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship. With her trademark honesty and humor, CHER traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century. It follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono --- and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous but eventually drove them apart.

Rufus Leung Gresham, future Earl of Greshambury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel, has a problem: the legendary Gresham Trust has been depleted by decades of profligate spending, resulting in a gargantuan mountain of debt. The only solution is for Rufus to attend his sister’s wedding at a luxury eco-resort and seduce a woman with money. Should he marry Solène de Courcy, a French hotel heiress with honey blond tresses and a royal bloodline? Should he pursue Martha Dung, the tattooed venture capital genius who passes out billions like lollipops? Or should he follow his heart, betray his family, squander his legacy, and finally confess his love to the humble daughter of a doctor? When a volcanic eruption burns through the nuptials and a hot mic exposes a secret tryst, the Gresham family plans --- and their reputation --- go up in flames.

In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, beloved actor Tom Selleck brings readers on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes, and, over time, his well-earned success. Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories. “Magnum P.I.” fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that easily could have gone on for years longer. Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In YOU NEVER KNOW, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy.

Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how one of Towles’ most beloved characters, the indomitable Evelyn Ross from RULES OF CIVILITY, crafts a new future for herself --- and others --- in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows and dive bars of 1930s Los Angeles.