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Week of June 13, 2022

New in Paperback

Week of June 13, 2022

Paperback releases for the week of June 13th include WISH YOU WERE HERE by Jodi Picoult, a deeply moving novel about the resilience of the human spirit in a moment of crisis; SUCH A QUIET PLACE, a riveting thriller from Megan Miranda about a mysterious murder in an idyllic and close-knit neighborhood; TALK TO ME, a lively, thought-provoking novel that asks us what it would be like if we could really talk to the animals; THE WOMEN'S MARCH, Jennifer Chiaverini's enthralling historical novel of the woman’s suffrage movement inspired by three courageous women who bravely risked their lives and liberty in the fight to win the vote; and THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS, a brilliantly inventive work of fiction from Booker Prize finalist Ruth Ozeki about a boy who hears the voices of objects all around him; a mother drowning in her possessions; and a Book that might hold the secret to saving them both.

The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry - Speculative Psychological Thriller

June 14, 2022

"I love you. In every world." Young real estate agent Madison May is shocked when a client at an open house says these words to her. The man, a stranger, seems to know far too much about her, and professes his love --- shortly before he murders her. To journalist Felicity Staples, the crime seems random and the suspect is in the wind. That is, until Felicity spots the killer on the subway, right before he vanishes. Soon, Felicity senses that her entire universe has shifted. No one remembers Madison May, or Felicity's encounter with the mysterious man. And her cat is missing. Felicity realizes that in her pursuit of Madison's killer, she followed him into a different dimension --- one where everything about her existence is slightly altered.

All the Colors Came Out: A Father, a Daughter, and a Lifetime of Lessons by Kate Fagan - Memoir

June 14, 2022

Kate Fagan and her father forged their relationship on the basketball court, bonded by sweaty high fives and a dedication to the New York Knicks. But as Kate got older, her love of the sport and her closeness with her father grew complicated. The formerly inseparable pair drifted apart. The lessons that her father instilled in her about the game, and all her memories of sharing the court with him over the years, were a distant memory. When Chris Fagan was diagnosed with ALS, Kate decided that something had to change. Leaving a high-profile job at ESPN to be closer to her mother and father and take part in his care, Kate spent the last year of her father’s life determined to return to him the kind of joy they once shared on the court.

All Together Now by Matthew Norman - Fiction

June 14, 2022

At just 35, reclusive billionaire Robbie Malcolm is a renowned financial prognosticator, a celebrated philanthropist and a mathematical genius. Also, he’s dying, which is a fact he’s carefully concealing from the world. As he takes stock, Robbie realizes that his wealth means nothing if he can’t help the people who matter most. So he invites his oldest friends --- Blair, Cat and Wade --- to their beloved Fenwick Island on the coast of Delaware to share his secret and to reveal plans for each of them that he believes will change their lives forever. However, Robbie isn’t the only one with secrets. His plans may look good on paper, but are they any match for the utter disaster that is real life?

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki - Fiction/Magical Realism

June 14, 2022

One year after the death of his beloved musician father, 13-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices that belong to the things in his house. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous. Benny tries to ignore them, but the voices follow him outside the house, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library. There, Benny discovers a strange new world. He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many. And he meets his very own Book --- a talking thing --- who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter.

The Damage by Caitlin Wahrer - Psychological Suspense

June 14, 2022

Tony has always looked out for his younger brother, Nick. So when he's called to a hospital bed where Nick is lying battered and bruised after a violent sexual assault, a white-hot rage begins to build. As a small-town New England lawyer, Tony's wife, Julia, has cases involving kids all the time. When Detective Rice gets assigned to this one, Julia feels they're in good hands. Especially because she senses that Rice, too, understands how things can quickly get complicated. After all, one moment Nick was having a drink with a handsome stranger; the next, he was at the center of an investigation threatening to tear not only him, but his entire family, apart. And now his attacker, out on bail, is disputing Nick's version of what happened.

The Eternal Audience of One by Rémy Ngamije - Fiction

June 14, 2022

Séraphin is a playlist-maker, nerd-jock hybrid, self-appointed merchant of cool, Rwandan, stifled and living in Windhoek, Namibia. Soon he will leave the confines of his family life for the cosmopolitan city of Cape Town, in South Africa, where loyal friends, hormone-saturated parties, adventurous conquests and race controversies await. More than that, his long-awaited final year in law school promises to deliver a crucial puzzle piece of the Great Plan immigrant: a degree from a prestigious university. But a year is more than the sum of its parts, and en route to the future, the present must be lived through and even the past must be survived.

Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy by Anne Sebba - Biography

June 14, 2022

In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a couple with two young sons, were led separately from their prison cells on Death Row and electrocuted moments apart. Both had been convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the US government was aware that the evidence against Ethel was shaky at best and based on the perjury of her own brother. This book is the first to focus on one half of that couple for more than 30 years, and much new evidence has surfaced since then.

Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage by Eleanor Henderson - Memoir

June 14, 2022

This is the true story of Eleanor Henderson’s 20-year marriage, which was defined by her husband Aaron’s chronic illness. One day, out of nowhere, a rash appeared on Aaron’s arms. Soon, it had morphed into painful lesions covering his body. Eleanor was as baffled as the doctors. There was no obvious diagnosis, let alone a cure. And as years passed and the lesions gave way to Aaron’s increasingly disturbed concerns about the source of his sickness, the husband she loved seemed to unravel before her eyes. A new fissure ruptured in their marriage, and new questions piled onto old ones: Where does physical illness end and mental illness begin? Where does one person end and another begin? And how do we exist alongside someone else’s suffering?

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix - Psychological Thriller/Horror

June 14, 2022

Lynette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized --- someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night or how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

The Fugitivities by Jesse McCarthy - Fiction

June 14, 2022

A young Black American raised in France and living in New York City, Jonah Winters tries on a couple of careers only to find that nothing feels right. And as Jonah struggles to envision his future, he feels pressured by his friends and family to put the struggles of his community before his search for self. But then a chance encounter with an ex-NBA player with his own regrets inspires Jonah to take his life into his own hands. Deciding to leave the country entirely, he sets off for Brazil. As he makes and breaks friendships on the way, reflects on his past relationships and learns to rely on himself, Jonah slowly forms an understanding of self, community and freedom that is rarely afforded to young Black men.

Girl One by Sara Flannery Murphy - Supernatural Thriller

June 14, 2022

Josephine Morrow is Girl One, the first of nine Miracle Babies conceived without male DNA on an experimental commune known as the Homestead. The Girls were raised in the shadow of controversy --- plagued by zealots calling them aberrations and their mothers demons --- until a devastating fire at the Homestead claimed the lives of three people, leaving the survivors to scatter across the United States. Years later, upon learning that her mother has gone missing, Josie sets off on a desperate road trip, tracking down the only people who might help: her estranged sisters. Tracing clues her mother left behind, Josie joins forces with two of the Girls, and they journey back through their past, uncovering secrets about their origins and unlocking devastating abilities they never knew they had.

Hard Like Water written by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas - Fiction

June 14, 2022

After a service in the Army, Gao Aijun is on his way back to his ancestral village. Close to his arrival, he sees a strikingly attractive woman walking barefoot alongside a railway track, and he is instantly smitten. She is Xia Hongmei and lives up to her name of “beautiful flower.” Hiding their relationship from their spouses, the pair hurl themselves into the struggle to bring revolution to their backwater village. Emboldened by encouragement from the Party, the couple dig a literal “tunnel of love” between their homes, where their revolutionary and sexual fervor reaches a boiling point. But when their torrid relationship is finally discovered, and they have to answer to Hongmei’s husband, their dreams of a bright future together begin to fray.

Home Stretch by Graham Norton - Fiction

June 14, 2022

It is 1987, and a small Irish community is preparing for a wedding. The day before the ceremony, a group of young friends, including the bride and groom, are involved in an accident. Three survive. Three are killed. The lives of the families are shattered, and the rifts between them ripple throughout the small town. Connor survived, but living among the angry and the mourning is almost as hard as carrying the shame of having been the driver. He leaves the only place he knows for another life, taking his secrets with him. Eventually he makes a home for himself in New York, where he finds shelter and the possibility of forging a new life. But the secrets will not be silenced, and Connor will have to confront his past.

Island Queen by Vanessa Riley - Historical Fiction

June 14, 2022

Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom --- and that of her sister and her mother --- from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent. Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.

Island Time by Georgia Clark - Romantic Comedy

June 14, 2022

The Kellys are messy, loud, loving Australians. The Lees are sophisticated, aloof, buttoned-up Americans. They have nothing in common…except for the fact that their daughters are married. When a nearby volcano erupts during their short vacation to a remote tropical island off the coast of Queensland, the two families find themselves stranded together for six weeks. With only two island employees making up the rest of their party, everyone is forced to question what --- or who --- they really want.

The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson - Mystery/Thriller

June 14, 2022

On the day she returns to active duty with the Serial Crimes Unit, Detective Inspector Anjelica Henley is called to a crime scene. Dismembered body parts from two victims have been found by the river. The modus operandi bears a striking resemblance to Peter Olivier, the notorious Jigsaw Killer, who has spent the past two years behind bars. When he learns that someone is co-opting his grisly signature --- the arrangement of victims’ limbs in puzzle-piece shapes --- he decides to take matters into his own hands. As the body count rises, DI Henley is faced with an unspeakable new threat. Can she apprehend the copycat killer before Olivier finds a way to get to him first? Or will she herself become the next victim?

Midnight, Water City by Chris McKinney - Noir Science Fiction/Thriller

June 14, 2022

Year 2142: Earth is 40 years past a near-collision with the asteroid Sessho-seki. Akira Kimura, the scientist responsible for eliminating the threat, has reached heights of celebrity approaching deification. But now, Akira feels her safety is under threat, so after years without contact, she reaches out to her former head of security, who has since become a police detective. When he arrives at her deep-sea home and finds Akira methodically dismembered, this detective will risk everything --- his career, his family, even his own life --- and delve back into his shared past with Akira to find her killer.

Miseducated: A Memoir by Brandon P. Fleming - Memoir

June 14, 2022

Brandon P. Fleming grew up in an abusive home and was shuffled through school, his passing grades a nod to his skill on the basketball court, not his presence in the classroom. He turned to the streets and drug deals by 14, saved only by the dream of basketball stardom. When he suffered a career-ending injury during his first semester at a Division I school, he dropped out of college, toiling on an assembly line, until depression drove him to the edge. Miraculously, his life was spared. Returning to college, Fleming was determined to reinvent himself as a scholar --- to replace illiteracy with mastery over language, to go from being ignored and unseen to commanding attention.

Mrs. March by Virginia Feito - Psychological Thriller

June 14, 2022

George March’s new novel is a smash. No one could be prouder than his dutiful wife, Mrs. March, who revels in his accolades. But one morning, the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that her husband’s latest protagonist --- a detestable character named Johanna --- is based on Mrs. March herself. What could have merited this humiliation? That one casual remark robs Mrs. March of the belief that she knew everything about her husband --- and herself --- thus sending her on an increasingly paranoid journey. While snooping in George’s office, Mrs. March finds a newspaper clipping about a missing woman. Did George have anything to do with her disappearance?

One's Company by Ashley Hutson - Fiction

June 14, 2022

Bonnie Lincoln just wants to be left alone. To come home from work, shut out the voice that reminds her of some devastating losses, and unwind in front of the nostalgic, golden glow of her favorite TV show, “Three’s Company.” When Bonnie wins the lottery, a more grandiose vision --- to completely shuck off her own troublesome identity --- takes shape. She plans a drastic move to an isolated mountain retreat where she can recreate the iconic apartment set of “Three’s Company” and slip into the lives of its main characters: no-nonsense Janet Wood, pleasantly airheaded Chrissy Snow, and confident Jack Tripper. While her best friend, Krystal, tries to drag her back to her old life, Bonnie is determined to transcend pain, trauma and the baggage of her past by immersing herself in the ultimate binge-watch.

Privacy by Nina Sadowsky - Psychological Thriller

June 14, 2022

Dr. Laina Landers is good at her job. She’s an accomplished therapist, dedicated and compassionate. When she is summoned by a panicked patient who is being held hostage by her husband, she intervenes and dissuades him. Laina becomes a media sensation. But as her star rises, a target is placed on her back. Not everyone is impressed by Laina’s achievements. Someone has it in for her and is targeting what matters to her most: her patients. One by one, Laina’s patients spiral after they receive unsettling gifts that mock their deepest fears and hidden traumas. Liana’s own home is targeted, in a mysterious break-in where nothing is taken, but left behind is the same message sent to her patients: Watching you.

Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

June 14, 2022

Hollow’s Edge used to be a quiet place. But then came the murder of Brandon and Fiona Truett. A year and a half later, Hollow’s Edge is simmering. The residents are trapped, unable to sell their homes, confronted daily by the empty Truett house, and suffocated by their trial testimonies that implicated one of their own. Ruby Fletcher. And now, Ruby’s back. With her conviction overturned, Ruby waltzes right back to Hollow’s Edge, and into the home she once shared with Harper Nash. It’s increasingly clear that not everyone told the truth about the night of the Truett murders. And when Harper begins receiving threatening notes, she realizes she has to uncover the truth before someone else becomes the killer’s next victim.

A Summer to Remember by Erika Montgomery - Fiction

June 14, 2022

For 30-year-old Frankie Simon, selling movie memorabilia in the shop she opened with her late mother on Hollywood Boulevard is more than just her livelihood --- it’s an enduring connection to the only family she has ever known. But when a mysterious package arrives containing a photograph of her mother and famous movie stars Glory Cartwright and her husband at a coastal film festival the year before Frankie’s birth, her life begins to unravel in unimaginable ways. What begins is a journey along a path revealing buried family secrets, betrayals between lovers, and bonds between friends. And for Frankie, as the past unlocks the present, the chance to learn that memories define who we are, and that they can show us the meaning of home and the magic of true love.

Talk to Me by T.C. Boyle - Fiction

June 14, 2022

When animal behaviorist Guy Schermerhorn demonstrates on a TV game show that he has taught Sam, his juvenile chimp, to speak in sign language, Aimee Villard, an undergraduate at Guy's university, is so taken with the performance that she applies to become his assistant. A romantic and intellectual attachment soon morphs into an interspecies love triangle that pushes hard at the boundaries of consciousness and the question of what we know and how we know it. What if it were possible to speak to the members of another species --- to converse with them, not just give commands or coach them but to really have an exchange of ideas and a meeting of minds?

We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange - Fiction

June 14, 2022

When 29-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, bruised and battered after a drunk driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. Sunday is determined to rebuild her life back on the east coast, even if it does mean tiptoeing around resentful brothers and an ex-fiancé. The longer she stays, however, the more she realizes they need her just as much as she needs them. When a dangerous man from her past brings her family’s pub business to the brink of financial ruin, the only way to protect them is to upend all their secrets --- secrets that have damaged the family for generations and will threaten everything they know about their lives.

Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult - Fiction

June 14, 2022

Diana O’Toole is an associate specialist at Sotheby’s, and her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows that her boyfriend Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos. But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her. It turns out the whole island is now under quarantine, and Diana is stranded until the borders reopen. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt written by Natsuko Imamura, translated by Lucy North - Psychological Thriller

June 14, 2022

Almost every afternoon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt sits on the same park bench. Unbeknownst to her, she is being watched --- by the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who is always perched just out of sight. From a distance, the Woman in the Purple Skirt looks like a schoolgirl, but there are age spots on her face. She is single, lives in a small apartment and is short on money --- just like the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan, who lures her to a job as a housekeeper at a hotel, where she too is a housekeeper. Soon, the Woman in the Purple Skirt is having an affair with the boss, and all eyes are on her. But no one knows or cares about the Woman in the Yellow Cardigan. That's the difference between her and the Woman in the Purple Skirt.

The Women's March: A Novel of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession by Jennifer Chiaverini - Historical Fiction

June 14, 2022

Twenty-five-year-old Alice Paul returns to her native New Jersey after several years on the front lines of the suffrage movement in Great Britain. Nine states have already granted women voting rights, but only a constitutional amendment will secure the vote for all. To inspire support for the campaign, Alice organizes a magnificent procession down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, the day before the inauguration of President-elect Woodrow Wilson, a firm anti-suffragist. On March 3, 1913, the glorious march commences, but negligent police allow vast crowds of belligerent men to block the parade route --- jeering, shouting threats, assaulting the marchers --- endangering not only the success of the demonstration but the women’s very lives.