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Week of March 2, 2020

New in Paperback

Week of March 2, 2020

LILAC GIRLS, Martha Hall Kelly's runaway bestseller, introduced the real-life heroine Caroline Ferriday. LOST ROSES, set a generation earlier and also inspired by true events, features Caroline's mother, Eliza, and follows three equally indomitable women from St. Petersburg to Paris under the shadow of World War I. Other paperback releases for the week of March 2nd include Preston & Child's OLD BONES, which brings the true story of the ill-fated Donner Party to new life in a thrilling novel of archaeology, history, murder and suspense; MACHINES LIKE ME by Ian McEwan, a powerful portrayal of two lovers who will be tested beyond their understanding, set in an uncanny alternative 1982 London --- where Britain has lost the Falklands War, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power, and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence; and WOMEN TALKING, in which Miriam Toews envisions a small community of women, scarred by trauma but tentatively daring to imagine a new kind of future.

The Altruists by Andrew Ridker - Fiction

March 3, 2020

A middling professor at a Midwestern college, Arthur Alter can't afford his mortgage, he's exasperated his much-younger girlfriend, and his kids won't speak to him. And then there's the money --- the small fortune his late wife Francine kept secret, which she bequeathed directly to his children. Those children are Ethan, an anxious recluse living off his mother's money on a choice plot of Brooklyn real estate; and Maggie, a would-be do-gooder trying to fashion herself a noble life of self-imposed poverty. On the verge of losing the family home, Arthur invites his children back to St. Louis under the guise of a reconciliation. But in doing so, he unwittingly unleashes a Pandora's box of age-old resentments and long-buried memories.

Daisy Cooper's Rules for Living by Tamsin Keily - Fiction

March 3, 2020

Daisy Cooper’s life has been pretty uneventful --- until the moment it suddenly ends. Unfortunately, her death is --- literally --- an accident: Daisy wasn’t meant to die for another 50 years. One terrible, embarrassing clerical error is behind it, and Death himself is to blame. As Daisy battles against her new reality, she starts to realize that letting go isn’t just a challenge faced by those left behind. And while she learns how to survive this impossible time, friendship, hope and even love begin to come alive in the most unexpected ways.

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold - History

March 3, 2020

For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that Jack the Ripper preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time --- but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman.

Forget You Know Me by Jessica Strawser - Psychological Thriller

March 3, 2020

Molly and Liza have always been enviably close. Even after Molly married Daniel, the couple considered Liza an honorary family member. But after Liza moved away, things grew more strained than anyone wanted to admit --- in the friendship and the marriage. When Daniel goes away on business, Molly and Liza plan to reconnect with a nice long video chat after the kids are in bed. But then Molly leaves the room to check on a crying child. What Liza sees next will change everything. Only one thing is certain: Molly needs her. Liza drives all night to be at Molly’s side --- but when she arrives, the reception is icy, leaving Liza baffled and hurt. She knows there’s no denying what she saw. Or is there?

Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi - Fiction

March 3, 2020

Perdita Lee and her mother, Harriet, might not be as normal as you think. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there's the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it's very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (or, according to many sources, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee's early youth. The world's truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread, however, is Harriet's charismatic childhood friend, Gretel Kercheval --- a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met. Decades later, when teenage Perdita sets out to find her mother's long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet's story.

The Grace Kelly Dress by Brenda Janowitz - Fiction

March 3, 2020

Paris, 1958: Rose, a seamstress at a fashionable atelier, has been entrusted with sewing a Grace Kelly look-alike gown for a wealthy bride-to-be. But when, against better judgment, she finds herself falling in love with the bride’s handsome brother, Rose must make an impossible choice. Sixty years later, tech CEO Rachel, who goes by the childhood nickname “Rocky,” has inherited the dress for her upcoming wedding in New York City. But there’s just one problem: Rocky doesn’t want to wear it. A family heirloom dating back to the 1950s, the dress just isn’t her. She knows this admission will break her mother Joan’s heart. But what she doesn’t know is why Joan insists on the dress --- or the heartbreaking secret that changed her mother’s life decades before, as she herself prepared to wear it.

Hannah's War by Jan Eliasberg - Historical Fiction

March 3, 2020

Berlin, 1938. Groundbreaking physicist Dr. Hannah Weiss is on the verge of the greatest discovery of the 20th century: splitting the atom. She believes the weapon's creation will secure an end to future wars, but as a Jewish woman living under the harsh rule of the Third Reich, her research is belittled, overlooked and eventually stolen by her German colleagues. New Mexico, 1945. Someone in the top-secret nuclear lab at Los Alamos has been leaking encoded equations to Hitler's scientists. Chief among Major Jack Delaney’s suspects is Hannah Weiss, an exiled physicist lending her talent to J. Robert Oppenheimer's mission. All signs point to Hannah as the traitor, but over three days of interrogation, Jack will realize they have more in common than either one bargained for.

Hide Away by Jason Pinter - Mystery/Thriller

March 1, 2020

After an unspeakable crime shatters her life, Rachel Marin changes her identity and moves to a small town in Illinois, hoping to spare her children from further trauma…or worse. But crime follows her everywhere. When the former mayor winds up dead, Rachel can’t help but get involved. Where local detectives see suicide, she sees murder. But her investigative genius may be her undoing: the deeper she digs, the harder it is to keep her own secrets buried. Her persistence makes her the target of both the cops and a killer. Meanwhile, the terrifying truth about her past threatens to come to light, and Rachel learns the hard way that she can’t trust anyone.

The Hidden Things by Jamie Mason - Thriller

March 3, 2020

In less than half a minute, a home-security camera captures the hidden resolve in 14-year-old Carly Liddell as she fends off a vicious attack just inside her own front door. The video of her heroic escape appears online and goes viral. As the view count climbs, the lives of four desperate people will be forever changed by what’s just barely visible in the corner of the shot. Carly’s stepfather is spurred to protect his darkest secret: how a stolen painting --- 400 years old, by a master of the Dutch Golden Age --- has come to hang in his suburban foyer. The art dealer, left for dead when the painting vanished, sees a chance to buy back her life. And the double-crossed enforcer renews the hunt to deliver the treasure to his billionaire patrons --- even if he has to kill to succeed.

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

March 3, 2020

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students 10 years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands. They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world. Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear.

The Inn by James Patterson and Candice Fox - Thriller

March 3, 2020

The Inn at Gloucester stands alone on the rocky shoreline. Its seclusion suits former Boston police detective Bill Robinson, novice owner and innkeeper. As long as the dozen residents pay their rent, Robinson doesn't ask any questions. Neither does Sheriff Clayton Spears, who lives on the second floor. Then Mitchell Cline arrives, with a deadly new way of doing business. His crew of local killers break laws, deal drugs and bring violence to the doors of the Inn. That's when Robinson realizes, with the help of journalist Susan Solie, that leaving the city is no escape from the reality of evil --- or the responsibility for action. Teaming up with Sheriff Spears and two fearless residents --- Army veteran Nick Jones and groundskeeper Effie Johnson --- Robinson begins a risky defense.

Into the Jungle by Erica Ferencik - Thriller

March 3, 2020

Lily Bushwold thought she’d found the antidote to endless foster care and group homes --- a teaching job in Cochabamba, Bolivia --- but unfortunately that gig falls through. Tired of hustling and already world-weary, crazy love finds her in the form she least expected: Omar, a savvy, handsome local man who’d abandoned his life as a hunter to try his hand at city life. When Omar learns that a jaguar has killed his four-year-old nephew in Ayachero, he gives Lily a choice: Stay alone in the unforgiving city, or travel to the last in a string of ever-more-isolated river towns in the jungles of Bolivia. She follows Omar to this ruthless new world of lawless poachers, bullheaded missionaries, and desperate indigenous tribes driven to the brink of extinction.

K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches by Tyler Kepner - Sports/History

March 3, 2020

The baseball is an amazing plaything. We can grip it and hold it so many different ways, and even the slightest calibration can turn an ordinary pitch into a weapon to thwart the greatest hitters in the world. Each pitch has its own history, evolving through the decades as the masters pass it down to the next generation. From the earliest days of the game, when Candy Cummings dreamed up the curveball while flinging clamshells on a Brooklyn beach, pitchers have never stopped innovating. In K, Tyler Kepner traces the colorful stories and fascinating folklore behind the 10 major pitches. Each chapter highlights a different pitch, from the blazing fastball to the fluttering knuckleball to the slippery spitball.

The Last Act by Brad Parks - Thriller

March 3, 2020

Tommy Jump is an out-of-work stage actor approached by the FBI with the role of a lifetime: Go undercover at a federal prison, impersonate a convicted felon, and befriend a fellow inmate --- a disgraced banker named Mitchell Dupree, who knows the location of documents that can be used to bring down a ruthless drug cartel…if only he’d tell the FBI where they are. Using a false name and backstory, Tommy enters the low-security prison and begins the process of befriending Dupree. But he soon realizes he’s underestimated the enormity of his task and the terrifying reach of the cartel. The FBI isn’t the only one looking for the documents, and if Tommy doesn’t play his role to perfection, it just may be his last act.

Let's Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub, the Life of Ernie Banks by Ron Rapoport - Sports/Biography

March 3, 2020

Ernie Banks, the first-ballot Hall of Famer and All-Century Team shortstop, is remembered best for his signature phrase "Let's play two," which has entered the American lexicon and exemplifies the enthusiasm that endeared him to fans everywhere. But his public display of good cheer was a mask that hid a deeply conflicted, melancholy and often quite lonely man. LET’S PLAY TWO is based on numerous conversations with Banks and on interviews with more than a hundred of his family members, teammates, friends and associates, as well as oral histories, court records, and thousands of other documents and sources. Together, they explain how Banks was so different from the caricature he created for the public.

Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T Kira Madden - Memoir

March 3, 2020

Acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden's debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight. As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, but under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls.

Lost at Sea by Erica Boyce - Fiction

March 3, 2020

When beloved fisherman John Staybrook vanishes in the night, his loss stirs up more than grief. His daughter, Ella, is convinced he's still alive and vows to bring him home. But as she searches the small Massachusetts town, secrets throughout the community begin to bubble to the surface. As the pieces fall into place of what really happened, everyone from the babysitter to the local librarian are swept into a more urgent question: Why would someone go out in the middle of a deadly storm?

Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly - Historical Fiction

March 3, 2020

It is 1914, and Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia's imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortuneteller's daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their household. On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. But when Sofya's letters suddenly stop coming, she fears the worst for her best friend.

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan - Speculative Fiction

March 3, 2020

MACHINES LIKE ME takes place in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first synthetic humans and --- with Miranda's help --- designs Adam's personality. The near-perfect human that emerges is beautiful, strong and clever. It isn't long before a love triangle soon forms, and these three beings confront a profound moral dilemma.

Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson - Biography

March 3, 2020

In 1941, a 31-year-old Frenchwoman became the leader of a vast intelligence organization --- the only woman to serve as a chef de résistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent and a lifelong rebel against her country’s conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Although Fourcade, the mother of two young children, moved her headquarters every few weeks, constantly changing her hair color, clothing and identity, she was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escape and continued to hold her network together, even as it repeatedly threatened to crumble around her.

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing - Psychological Thriller

February 7, 2023

Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored. We look like a normal couple. We're your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances you keep meaning to get dinner with. We all have our secrets to keeping a marriage alive. Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.

Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thomson - Historical Fiction

March 3, 2020

In the years preceding World War I, two young women meet in a provincial town in France. Suzanne Malherbe, a shy 17-year-old with a talent for drawing, is completely entranced by the brilliant but troubled Lucie Schwob, who comes from a family of wealthy Jewish intellectuals. They embark on a clandestine love affair, but then, in an astonishing twist of fate, the mother of one marries the father of the other. As “sisters” they are finally free of suspicion and move to Paris at a moment when art, literature and politics blend in an explosive cocktail. In the 1930s, with the rise of anti-Semitism and threat of fascism, they leave Paris for Jersey, creating a campaign of propaganda against Hitler’s occupying forces that will put their lives in jeopardy.

Old Bones by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child - Thriller

March 3, 2020

Young curator Nora Kelly is approached by historian Clive Benton with a once-in-a-lifetime proposal: to lead a team in search of the so-called "Lost Camp" of the tragic Donner Party. This was a group of pioneers who became snow-bound in the California mountains in 1847, their fate unknown until the first skeletonized survivors stumbled out of the wilderness, raving about starvation, murder --- and cannibalism. Benton tells Kelly he has come across an amazing find: the long-sought diary of one of the victims, which has an enigmatic description of the Lost Camp. Nora agrees to lead an expedition to locate and excavate it. But as they uncover old bones, they expose the real truth of what happened, one that is far more shocking and bizarre than mere cannibalism.

The Panda of Death: A Gunn Zoo Mystery by Betty Webb - Mystery

March 3, 2020

California zookeeper Theodora Bentley is now happily married to Sheriff Joe Rejas. The Gunn Zoo is celebrating the arrival of Poonya, an adorable red panda, who forms a strong bond with Teddy. All appears fairy tale blissful in the small Monterey Bay village of Gunn Landing until Teddy's mother-in-law, mystery writer Colleen Rejas, has discovered through DNA testing that Joe has sired a son he knew nothing about. Eighteen-year-old Dylan Coyle arrives to meet his biological family, and then is arrested for murder. By the end of the book, besides solving the crime, Teddy and Colleen have learned that the term "family" does not always mean blood kin. It often includes those who --- although no blood relationship --- are still held close in our hearts.

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam - Fiction

March 3, 2020

Professor Chandra is an internationally renowned economist, divorced father of three children, and recent victim of a bicycle hit-and-run. In the moments after the accident, Professor Chandra doesn’t see his life flash before his eyes but his life’s work. He’s just narrowly missed the Nobel Prize (again), and even though he knows he should get straight back to his pie charts, his doctor has other ideas. All this work, all this success, all this stress is killing him. He needs to take a break and start enjoying himself. In short, says his doctor, he should follow his bliss. Professor Chandra doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.

Radicalized: Four Tales of Our Present Moment by Cory Doctorow - Science Fiction

March 3, 2020

RADICALIZED is comprised of four sci-fi novellas connected by social, technological and economic visions of today and what America could be in the near, near future. “Unauthorized Bread” is a tale of immigration, the toxicity of economic and technological stratification, and the young and downtrodden fighting to survive and prosper. In “Model Minority,” a Superman-like figure attempts to rectifiy police corruption, only to find his efforts adversely affecting their victims. “Radicalized” is a story of a darkweb-enforced violent uprising against insurance companies told from the perspective of a man desperate to secure funding for an experimental drug that could cure his wife's terminal cancer. The fourth story, “Masque of the Red Death,” takes on issues of survivalism versus community.

The River by Peter Heller - Fiction/Adventure

March 3, 2020

Wynn and Jack have been best friends since college orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books and fishing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. One night, with the fire advancing, they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank; the next day, a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the same man they heard? And if he is, where is the woman?

Rogue Strike: A Jake Keller Thriller by David Ricciardi - Thriller

March 3, 2020

CIA agent Jake Keller and his partner, Curt Roach, are in Yemen on an important mission. They've been tipped off to a secret meeting of top al Qaeda leaders. The plan is to interrupt the meeting with a pair of Hellfire missiles from an orbiting drone. But the drone stops responding to their signals and soon disappears over the horizon. When next seen, the drone is attacking innocent pilgrims in Mecca. Jake and Curt are staggered. The U.S. government is desperate to disavow this atrocity. Who better to blame than a couple of rogue CIA agents? With all the governments of the Middle East looking for them and no help from their own side, they are in a desperate race to stay ahead of the mob and find out who's actually behind the crime.

The Sea of Lost Girls by Carol Goodman - Psychological Thriller

March 3, 2020

Tess has worked hard to keep her past buried. Now she’s the wife to a respected professor at an elite boarding school, where she also teaches. Her 17-year-old son, Rudy, whose dark moods and complicated behavior she’s long worried about, seems to be thriving. But one morning she gets a text from Rudy, asking for help. When she picks him up, she finds him drenched and shivering, with a dark stain on his sweatshirt. Four hours later, Tess learns that Lila Zeller, Rudy’s girlfriend, has been found dead on the beach, not far from where she found Rudy just hours before. As the investigation into Lila’s death escalates, Tess finds her family attacked on all sides. What first seemed like a tragic accidental death is turning into something far more sinister.

Serenade for Nadia written by Zülfü Livaneli, translated by Brendan Freely - Fiction

March 3, 2020

Istanbul, 2001. Maya Duran is a single mother struggling to balance a demanding job at Istanbul University with the challenges of raising a teenage son. Her worries increase when she is tasked with looking after the enigmatic Maximilian Wagner, an elderly German-born Harvard professor visiting the city at the university's invitation. Although he is distant at first, Maya gradually learns of the tragic circumstances that brought him to Istanbul 60 years before, and the dark realities that continue to haunt him.

This Terrible Beauty by Katrin Schumann - Historical Fiction

March 1, 2020

World War II has ended, and Germany is torn apart. Longing for a family, Bettina Heilstrom marries Werner, an older bureaucrat who adores her. But after joining the fledgling secret police, he is drawn deep into its dark mission and becomes a dangerous man. When Bettina falls in love with an idealistic young renegade, Werner discovers her infidelity and forces her to make a terrible choice: spend her life in prison or leave her home forever. Ten years later, Bettina has reinvented herself as a celebrated photographer, but she’s never stopped yearning for the baby she left behind. Surprised by an unexpected visitor from her past, she resolves to return to her ravaged homeland to reclaim her daughter and uncover her beloved’s fate.

The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona - Fiction

March 3, 2020

A small boy speaking an unknown language is abandoned by his father at an international airport, with only the clothes on his back and a handful of money jammed in the pocket of his coat. So begins THE VOLUNTEER. But in order to understand this heartbreaking and indefensible decision, the story must return to the moment, decades earlier, when a young man named Vollie Frade, almost on a whim, enlists in the United States Marine Corps to fight in Vietnam. Breaking definitively from his rural Iowan parents, Vollie puts in motion an unimaginable chain of events, which sees him go to work for insidious people with intentions he cannot yet grasp.

We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White - Fiction

March 3, 2020

Eve Whalen, privileged child of an old-money Atlanta family, meets Daniella Gold in the fall of 1962, on their first day at Belmont College. Paired as roommates, the two become fast friends. Daniella, raised in Georgetown by a Jewish father and a Methodist mother, has always felt caught between two worlds. Their expanding awareness of the South’s systematic injustice forces them to question everything they thought they knew about the world and their places in it. Eve veers toward radicalism, a choice that pragmatic Daniella cannot fathom. After a tragedy, Eve returns to Daniella for help in beginning anew, hoping to shed her past. But the past isn’t so easily buried, as they discover when their daughters are endangered by secrets meant to stay hidden.

We Were Rich and We Didn't Know It: A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood by Tom Phelan - Memoir

March 3, 2020

Tom Phelan, who was born and raised in County Laois in the Irish midlands, spent his formative years working with his wise and demanding father as he sought to wrest a livelihood from a farm that was often wet, muddy and back-breaking. It was a time before rural electrification, the telephone and indoor plumbing; a time when the main modes of travel were bicycle and animal cart; a time when small farmers struggled to survive and turkey eggs were hatched in the kitchen cupboard; a time when the Church exerted enormous control over Ireland. WE WERE RICH AND WE DIDN’T KNOW IT recounts Tom’s upbringing in an isolated, rural community from the day he was delivered by the local midwife.

Women Talking by Miriam Toews - Fiction

March 3, 2020

One evening, eight Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For the past two years, each of them has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm. While the men of the colony are off in the city, these women --- all illiterate, without any knowledge of the world outside their community and unable even to speak the language of the country in which they live --- have very little time to make a choice: Should they stay in the only world they've ever known, or should they dare to escape?