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Week of March 30, 2020

New in Paperback

Week of March 30, 2020

Paperback releases for the week of March 30th include THE BETTER SISTER, another twisty tale of domestic noir from Alafair Burke, which revolves around the murder of a prominent Manhattan lawyer, and the two estranged sisters --- one the dead man’s widow, the other his ex --- who must set aside mistrust and old resentments; MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE, a provocative novel about time, memory, desire and the imagination from Siri Hustvedt, who tells the story of a young Midwestern woman’s first year in New York City in the late 1970s and her obsession with her mysterious neighbor; EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE, a final volume of essays that showcase Oliver Sacks' broad range of interests --- from his passion for ferns, swimming and horsetails, to his final case histories exploring schizophrenia, dementia and Alzheimer's; and THE SUMMER GUESTS by Mary Alice Monroe, which is about the bonds and new beginnings that are born from disasters and how, even during the worst of circumstances --- or perhaps because of them --- we discover what is most important in life.

The Better Sister by Alafair Burke - Psychological Thriller

March 31, 2020

Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be the one in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky --- always restless and more than a little reckless --- was the opposite of her ambitious little sister. For a while, it seemed that both sisters had found happiness. But now, more than 15 years later, their lives are drastically different. When Chloe’s husband, Adam (who used to be married to Nicky), is murdered by an intruder, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenage stepson’s biological mother, Nicky, back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father’s death, the two sisters are forced to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past.

Chumps to Champs: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the '90s Dynasty by Bill Pennington - Sports

March 31, 2020

The New York Yankees have won 27 world championships and 40 American League pennants, both world records. They have 26 members in the Hall of Fame. Yet some 25 years ago, from 1989 to 1992, the Yankees were a pitiful team at the bottom of the standings, sitting on a 14-year World Series drought and a 35 percent drop in attendance. To make the statistics worse, their mercurial, bombastic owner was banned from baseball. But out of these ashes emerged a modern Yankees dynasty, a juggernaut built on the sly, a brilliant mix of personalities, talent and ambition. In CHUMPS TO CHAMPS, award-winning sportswriter Bill Pennington reveals a grand tale of revival.

Confessions of an Innocent Man by David R. Dow - Legal Thriller

March 31, 2020

Rafael Zhettah relishes the simplicity and freedom of his life. He is the owner and head chef of a promising Houston restaurant. A pilot with open access to the boundless Texas horizon. A bachelor, content with having few personal or material attachments that ground him. Then lightning strikes. When he finds Tieresse --- billionaire, philanthropist, sophisticate, bombshell --- sitting at one of his tables, he also finds his soul mate and his life starts again. And just as fast --- when she is brutally murdered in their home, when he is convicted of the crime, when he is sentenced to die --- it is all ripped away. But for Rafael Zhettah, death row is not the end; it is only the beginning. Now, he will stop at nothing to deliver justice to those who stole everything from him.

The DNA of You and Me by Andrea Rothman - Fiction

March 31, 2020

Emily Apell arrives in Justin McKinnon’s renowned research lab with the single-minded goal of making a breakthrough discovery. But a colleague in the lab, Aeden Doherty, has been working on a similar topic, and his findings threaten to compete with her research. To Emily’s surprise, her rational mind is unsettled by Aeden. And when they end up working together, their animosity turns to physical passion, followed by love. Emily eventually allows herself to envision a future with Aeden, but when he decides to leave the lab, it becomes clear to her that she must make a choice. It is only years later, when she is about to receive a prestigious award for the work they did together, that Emily is able to unravel everything that happened between them.

The End of the End of the Earth: Essays by Jonathan Franzen - Essays

March 31, 2020

In THE END OF THE END OF THE EARTH, which gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes --- both human and literary --- that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at the global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we’ve come to expect from Franzen. Taken together, these essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day, made more pressing by the current political milieu.

Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales by Oliver Sacks - Science/Essays

March 31, 2020

Oliver Sacks, scientist and storyteller, is beloved by readers for his neurological case histories and his fascination and familiarity with human behavior at its most unexpected and unfamiliar. EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE is a celebration of Sacks' myriad interests --- from his passion for ferns, swimming and horsetails, to his final case histories exploring schizophrenia, dementia and Alzheimer's --- told with his characteristic compassion and erudition, and in his luminous prose.

The Fall of Shannara: The Stiehl Assassin by Terry Brooks - Fantasy

March 31, 2020

The Skaar have arrived in the Four Lands, determined to stop at nothing less than all-out conquest. But perhaps the Skaar victory is not quite the foregone conclusion everyone assumes. The Druid Drisker Arc has freed both himself and Paranor from their involuntary exile. Drisker’s student, Tarsha Kaynin, has been reunited with Dar, chief defender of what is left of the Druid order, and is learning to control her powerful wishsong magic. If they can only survive Tarsha’s brother, Tavo, and the Druid who betrayed Drisker Arc, they might stand a chance of defeating the Skaar. But that is a very big if. Tavo now carries the Stiehl --- one of the most powerful weapons in all the Four Lands --- and is hellbent on taking his revenge on everyone he feels has wronged him.

Like Lions by Brian Panowich - Thriller

March 31, 2020

Clayton Burroughs is a small-town Georgia sheriff, a new father and, improbably, the heir apparent of Bull Mountain’s most notorious criminal family. As he tries to juggle fatherhood, his job, and his recovery from being shot in the confrontation that killed his two criminally inclined brothers last year, he’s doing all he can just to survive. Yet after years of carefully toeing the line between his life in law enforcement and his family, he finally has to make a choice. When a rival organization makes a first foray into Burroughs' territory, leaving a trail of bodies and a whiff of fear in its wake, Clayton is pulled back into the life he so desperately wants to leave behind.

Lost and Found by Danielle Steel - Fiction

March 31, 2020

It all starts with a fall from a ladder, in a firehouse in New York City. The firehouse has been converted into a unique Manhattan home and studio where renowned photographer Madison Allen works and lives after raising three children on her own. But the accident, which happens while Maddie is sorting through long-forgotten personal mementos and photos, results in more than a broken ankle. Spurred by old memories, the forced pause in her demanding schedule, and an argument with her daughter that leads to a rare crisis of confidence, Maddie embarks on a road trip. She sets off to reconnect with three very different men to know once and for all if the decisions she made long ago were the right ones.

Lost and Wanted by Nell Freudenberger - Fiction

March 31, 2020

As a professor of physics at MIT, Helen Clapp disdains notions of the supernatural in favor of rational thought and proven ideas. So it’s perhaps especially vexing when, on an otherwise unremarkable Wednesday in June, she gets a phone call from a friend who has just died. That friend was Charlotte Boyce, Helen’s roommate at Harvard. The two women once confided in each other about everything: Helen’s struggles as a young woman in science, Charlie’s as a black screenwriter in Hollywood, their shared challenges as parents. But as the years passed, they gradually grew apart. And now Charlie is permanently, tragically gone. Drawn back into her friend’s orbit, Helen is forced to question the laws of the universe that have always steadied her mind and heart.

Memories of the Future by Siri Hustvedt - Fiction

March 31, 2020

A young woman, S.H., moves to New York City in 1978 to look for adventure and write her first novel, but finds herself distracted by her mysterious neighbor, Lucy Brite. As S.H. listens to Lucy through the thin walls of her dilapidated building, she carefully transcribes the woman’s bizarre monologues about her daughter’s violent death and her need to punish the killer. Forty years later, S.H. stumbles upon the journal she kept that year and writes a memoir, Memories of the Future, in which she juxtaposes the notebook’s texts, drafts from her unfinished comic novel, and her commentaries on them to create a dialogue among selves over the decades. As the book unfolds, you witness S.H. write her way through vengeance and into freedom.

Mercy River by Glen Erik Hamilton - Thriller

March 31, 2020

When his friend Leo Pak is arrested on suspicion of murder and armed robbery, Van Shaw journeys to a remote Oregon county to help his fellow Ranger. The victim --- the owner of a local gun shop where Leo worked part time --- was dealing in stolen heroin-grade opiates. Worse, the town has a dark history that includes white supremacists who are threatening to turn Mercy River into their private enclave. The cops have damning evidence linking Leo to the murder, and Van knows that backwaters like Mercy River are notorious for protecting their own. His quest to clear Leo’s name will stir up old grudges and dark secrets beneath the surface of this fearful small town, pit his criminal instincts against his loyalties to his brothers-in-arms, and force him to question his own belief in putting justice above the letter of the law.

Mother Country by Irina Reyn - Fiction

March 31, 2020

Nadia's daily life in south Brooklyn is filled with small indignities. As a senior home attendant, she is always in danger of being fired; as a part-time nanny, she is forced to navigate the demands of her spoiled charge and the preschooler's insecure mother; and as an ethnic Russian, she finds herself feuding with western Ukrainian immigrants who think she is a traitor. The war back home is always at the forefront of her reality. Nadia internalizes notions of "union" all around her, but the one reunion she has been waiting six years for --- with her beloved daughter --- is being eternally delayed by the Department of Homeland Security. When Nadia finds out that her daughter has lost access to the medicine she needs to survive, she takes matters into her own hands.

Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi with Joshua David Stein - Memoir

March 31, 2020

By the time he was 27, Kwame Onwuachi had opened --- and closed --- one of the most talked-about restaurants in America. He had sold drugs in New York and been shipped off to rural Nigeria to “learn respect.” He had launched his own catering company with $20,000 made from selling candy on the subway and starred on "Top Chef." Through it all, Onwuachi’s love of food and cooking remained a constant, even when, as a young chef, he was forced to grapple with just how unwelcoming the food world can be for people of color. In this inspirational memoir about the intersection of race, fame and food, he shares the remarkable story of his culinary coming-of-age.

The Summer Guests by Mary Alice Monroe - Fiction

March 31, 2020

When a hurricane threatens the coasts of Florida and South Carolina, an eclectic group of evacuees flees for the farm of their friends Grace and Charles Phillips in North Carolina: the Phillips’ daughter Moira and her rescue dogs, famed equestrian Javier Angel de la Cruz, makeup artist Hannah McLain, horse breeder Gerda Klug and her daughter Elise, and island resident Cara Rutledge. They bring with them only the few treasured possessions they can fit in their vehicles. During the course of one of the most challenging weeks of their lives, relationships are put to the test as the evacuees are forced to confront the unresolved issues they have with themselves and with each other.

They Bled Blue: Fernandomania, Strike-Season Mayhem, and the Weirdest Championship Baseball Had Ever Seen: The 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers by Jason Turbow - Sports

March 31, 2020

THEY BLED BLUE is the rollicking yarn of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ crazy 1981 season. That it culminated in an unlikely World Series win --- during a campaign split by the longest player strike in baseball history --- is not even the most interesting thing about this team. The Dodgers were led by Tommy Lasorda, who unyieldingly proclaimed devotion to the franchise through monologues about bleeding Dodger blue and worshiping the “Big Dodger in the Sky.” Steve Garvey, the All-American, All-Star first baseman, had anchored the most durable infield in major league history. The season’s real story, however, was one that nobody expected at the outset: a 20-year-old chubby lefthander, nearly straight out of Mexico, with a wild delivery and a screwball as his flippin’ out pitch.

When All Is Said by Anne Griffin - Fiction

March 31, 2020

At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He’s alone, as usual --- though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story. Over the course of this evening, he will raise five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him. Through these stories --- of unspoken joy and regret, a secret tragedy kept hidden, a fierce love that never found its voice --- the life of one man will be powerful and poignantly laid bare.

White by Bret Easton Ellis - Essays

March 31, 2020

WHITE is Bret Easton Ellis' first work of nonfiction. Already the bad boy of American literature, from LESS THAN ZERO to AMERICAN PSYCHO, Ellis has also earned the wrath of right-thinking people everywhere with his provocations on social media, and here he escalates his admonishment of received truths as expressed by today's version of "the left." Eschewing convention, he embraces views that will make many in literary and media communities cringe, as he takes aim at the relentless anti-Trump fixation, coastal elites, corporate censorship, Hollywood, identity politics, Generation Wuss, "woke" cultural watchdogs, the obfuscation of ideals once both cherished and clear, and the fugue state of American democracy.