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Week of May 15, 2023

New in Paperback

Week of May 15, 2023

Paperback releases for the week of May 15th include THIS TIME TOMORROW, in which Emma Straub --- with her celebrated humor, insight and heart --- offers her own twist on traditional time-travel tropes and a different kind of love story; JAMES PATTERSON BY JAMES PATTERSON, a memoir that poses the question: How did a kid whose dad lived in the poorhouse become the most successful storyteller in the world?; THE LOST SUMMERS OF NEWPORT by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White, a novel of money and secrets set among the famous summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, spanning over a century from the Gilded Age to the present day; Bob Harig's TIGER & PHIL, an in-depth chronicle of the decades-long rivalry that drove the success of golf's two biggest stars, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson; and the paperback original BETWEEN TWO STRANGERS by Kate White, a twisty and addictive psychological thriller about a woman who receives a bewildering inheritance that may have something to do with her past.

Between Two Strangers by Kate White - Psychological Thriller

May 16, 2023

Struggling artist Skyler Moore is flabbergasted when she receives a suspicious phone call from a lawyer she’s never met regarding a “private matter.” It turns out she’s the recipient of a large inheritance, a life-changing sum that will allow her to realize her long-held dream of becoming a mother. But who was her benefactor, Christopher Whaley? The late man’s name means nothing to Skyler, and she has no idea why he would leave her such an enormous bequest. Looking into his background, Skyler finally realizes they met once at a hotel bar and shared a one-night stand. But they never exchanged numbers, or even last names, and that was over a decade ago. She wonders if the inheritance is meant to be a message of some kind, but she can’t imagine what it might be.

The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker - Gothic Fiction

May 16, 2023

Iris Chapel and her five elegant sisters, all of them heiresses to the Chapel firearms fortune, live cloistered in a lavish Victorian mansion. Neglected by both a distant, workaholic father and a mentally troubled mother --- who believes their home is haunted by the victims of Chapel weapons --- the sisters have grown up with only each other for company. They long to escape the eerie fairy tale of their childhood and move forward into the modern world, but for young women in 1950s Connecticut, the only way out is through marriage. Yet it soon becomes clear that for the Chapel sisters, marriage equals death. When the eldest sister walks down the aisle, tragedy strikes. This is just the beginning of a chain of disasters that will make each woman wonder if true love will kill her, too.

The Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee - Fiction

May 16, 2023

Dr. Yungman Kwak is in the twilight of his life. Every day for the last 50 years, he has headed to Horse Breath’s General Hospital, where he treats the women and babies of the small rural Minnesota town he chose to call home. He immigrated from Korea after the Korean War, forced to leave his family, ancestors, village and all that he knew behind. But his life is built on a lie. And one day, a letter arrives that threatens to expose it. His life is thrown into chaos --- the hospital abruptly closes, his wife refuses to spend time with him, and his son is busy investing in a struggling health start-up. Yungman faces a choice --- he must choose to hide his secret from his family and friends, or confess and potentially lose all he’s built.

James Patterson by James Patterson: The Stories of My Life by James Patterson - Memoir

May 16, 2023

How did a kid whose dad lived in the poorhouse become the most successful storyteller in the world? James Patterson's best stories are the stories of his life. On the morning he was born, he nearly died. He worked at a mental hospital in Massachusetts, where he met the singer James Taylor and the poet Robert Lowell. While he toiled in advertising hell, he wrote the ad jingle line “I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid.” He once watched James Baldwin and Norman Mailer square off to trade punches at a party. He’s only been in love twice. Both times are amazing. Dolly Parton sang “Happy Birthday” to him over the phone. He has always wanted to write the kind of novel that would be read and reread so many times that the binding breaks and the book literally falls apart. As he says, “I’m still working on that one.”

Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure by Rinker Buck - Memoir/History

May 16, 2023

Rinker Buck returns to chronicle his latest incredible adventure: building a wooden flatboat from the bygone era of the early 1800s and journeying down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. A modern-day Huck Finn, Buck casts off down the river on the flatboat Patience accompanied by an eccentric crew of daring shipmates. Over the course of his voyage, he steers his fragile wooden craft through narrow channels dominated by massive cargo barges, rescues his first mate gone overboard, sails blindly through fog, breaks his ribs not once but twice, and camps every night on sandbars, remote islands and steep levees. As he charts his own journey, he also delivers a richly satisfying work of history that brings to life a lost era.

The Lifestyle by Taylor Hahn - Fiction/Humor

May 16, 2023

Georgina Wagman has it all --- a great marriage, a great job at a prestigious law firm, and great friends. Until, that is, she walks in on her husband Nathan in a compromising position with a junior associate. Divorce is not a part of the five-year plan, so she comes up with an idea to save her marriage and recapture the spark. She and Nathan are going to become swingers. Georgina won't embark on this adventure alone, though. Her friends, Felix and Norah, and their respective partners decide to tag along for the ride. Her plan is foolproof, until she runs into a college ex at her first swingers’ party. When they reconnect, Georgina will find herself torn between her head and her heart, with her very happiness hanging in the balance.

The Lost Summers of Newport by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White - Historical Mystery

May 16, 2023

From the New York Times bestselling team of Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White comes a novel of money and secrets set among the famous summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, spanning over a century from the Gilded Age to the present day.

Mothers' Instinct written by Barbara Abel, translated by Susan Pickford - Domestic Thriller

May 16, 2023

David and Laetitia Brunelle, and Sylvain and Tiphaine Geniot, are inseparable friends and next-door neighbors in a pretty, tranquil suburb. Their sons Milo and Maxime, born in the same year, grow up together as close as brothers. But when Maxime is killed in an accident, their idyllic world shatters. Maxime's parents, Sylvain and Tiphaine, are consumed by grief and bitterness, while David and Laetitia are wracked with guilt for their role in the tragedy. Soon the couples are barely speaking, although they maintain a polite façade. Then a mysterious series of “accidents” begins to happen to Milo, raising Laetitia’s suspicions. Are their former best friends trying to punish them by threatening their son?

Overboard: A V.I. Warshawski Novel by Sara Paretsky - Mystery

May 16, 2023

On her way home from an all-night surveillance job, V.I. Warshawski is led by her dogs on a mad chase that ends when they discover a badly injured teen hiding in the rocks along Lake Michigan. The girl only regains consciousness long enough to utter one enigmatic word. V.I. helps bring her to a hospital, but not long after, she vanishes before anyone can discover her identity. As V.I. attempts to find her, the detective uncovers an ugly consortium of Chicago powerbrokers and mobsters who are prepared to kill the girl. And now V.I.’s own life is in jeopardy as well.

Payback: An Anonymous Justice Novel by Nancy Allen - Legal Thriller

May 16, 2023

Someone murdered Kate Stone’s father. Then they came for her. And now that Kate has left her job as an assistant district attorney, she’s finally free to hunt down the perpetrator. Kate suspects that Wall Street financier Ian Templeton is behind the vicious and violent attacks against her and the people she cares about. The D.A. warns Kate that Templeton is untouchable, but she remains convinced that the best way to bring him down is to expose his latest fraudulent scheme --- a new cryptocurrency scam. But while she is tracking Templeton, someone is also tracking her. Kate believes that her pursuers were hired by Templeton to stop her. However, they may be working for someone with a larger agenda instead.

Quietly Hostile: Essays by Samantha Irby - Humor/Essays

May 16, 2023

Samantha Irby’s career has taken her to new heights. She dodges calls from Hollywood and flop sweats on the red carpet at premieres (well, one premiere). But nothing is ever as it seems online, where she can crop out all the ugly parts. Irby got a lot of weird emails about Carrie Bradshaw, and not only is there diarrhea to avoid, but now --- anaphylactic shock. She is turned away from restaurants for being inappropriately dressed and looks for the best ways to cope, i.e., reveling in the offerings of QVC and adopting a deranged pandemic dog. QUIETLY HOSTILE makes light as Irby takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes.

Rock of Ages: A Junior Bender Mystery by Timothy Hallinan - Mystery

May 16, 2023

Four of Irwin Dressler's old gangster colleagues have put together a national tour of once-popular rock bands they own a piece of: three nights of concerts by guys (and a few gals) who were big shots back in the 1960s and 1970s, and who are now hoping for one more gasp of glory with this nostalgia exhibition. But it turns out that someone --- one of Dressler’s own colleagues --- is using the tour as a front to steal Dressler's money. Now the tour has pulled into LA, and Junior Bender has one weekend to figure out who's to blame --- a weekend that begins with his tires being slashed, threatening notes left on his car, and a theatrical backdrop falling on a drummer during the truly terrible first set of the first concert.

Seeking Fortune Elsewhere: Stories by Sindya Bhanoo - Fiction/Short Stories

May 16, 2023

Traveling from Pittsburgh to Eastern Washington to Tamil Nadu, these haunting stories about dislocation and dissonance see immigrants and their families confront the costs of leaving and staying, identifying sublime symmetries in lives growing apart. In “Malliga Homes,” a widow in a retirement community glimpses her future while waiting for her daughter to visit from America. In "No. 16 Model House Road," a woman long subordinate to her husband makes a choice of her own after she inherits a house. In "Nature Exchange," a mother grieving in the wake of a school shooting finds an unusual obsession. In "A Life in America," a professor finds himself accused of having exploited his graduate students.

Shmutz by Felicia Berliner - Fiction

May 16, 2023

Like the other women in her Brooklyn Hasidic community, Raizl expects to find a husband through an arranged marriage. Unlike the other women, Raizl has a secret. With a hidden computer to help her complete her college degree, she falls down the slippery slope of online pornography. As Raizl dives deeper into the world of porn at night, her daytime life begins to unravel. Between combative visits with her shrink to complicated arranged dates, Raizl must balance her growing understanding of her sexuality with the more conventional expectations of the family she loves.

Swing and a Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me by Paul O'Neill and Jack Curry - Sports/Memoir

May 16, 2023

In SWING AND A HIT, All-Star Yankee and five-time World Series champion Paul O’Neill elaborates on his most important hitting principles, lessons and memories --- exploring those elements across 10 chapters (to align with the nine innings of a baseball game and one extra inning). Here, O’Neill describes what he did as a hitter, how he adjusted to pitchers, how he boosted his confidence, how he battled with umpires (and water coolers), and what advice he would give to current hitters. O’Neill has always been a tough out at the plate. Recalling how he started to swing a bat as a two-year-old and kept swinging it professionally until he was 38, O’Neill provides constant insights into the beauty and frustration of playing baseball.

There Are No Rules for This by JJ Elliott - Fiction

May 16, 2023

People like Feeney Simms don’t commit suicide. Beautiful, charismatic, mother of two, wife to a handsome, successful husband, beloved by her friends --- this is not the typical picture of a tortured soul. But one summer night, Feeney drives to the beach and swallows a handful of pills. No note, no explanation, nothing. Just like that, she’s gone. Faced with this loss, Ali, Max and Liddy, Feeney’s closest friends, are left reeling, grappling with the devastating cocktail of grief, guilt and anger that’s left in the wake of a suicide. In a desperate attempt to avoid further loss, the three women make the unorthodox (and very Feeney-like) decision to hold their own funerals while they are still alive --- and the experience changes each of them in ways they couldn’t have imagined.

They Can't Take Your Name by Robert Justice - Thriller

May 16, 2023

Langston Brown is running out of time and options for clearing his name and escaping death row. Wrongfully convicted of the gruesome Mother's Day Massacre, he prepares to face his death. His final hope for salvation lies with his daughter, Liza, an artist who dreamed of a life of music and song but left the prestigious Juilliard School to pursue a law degree with the intention of clearing her father's name. Just as she nears success, it's announced that Langston will be put to death in 30 days. In a desperate bid to find freedom for her father, Liza enlists the help of Eli Stone, a jazz club owner. Devastated by the tragic loss of his wife, Eli is trying to find solace by reviving his club…while also wrestling with the longing to join her in death.

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub - Fiction

May 16, 2023

On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status and her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush --- it’s her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?

Tiger & Phil: Golf's Most Fascinating Rivalry by Bob Harig - Sports

May 16, 2023

For more than two decades, there have been two golfers who have captivated, bemused, inspired, frustrated, fascinated and entertained us, and in doing so have demanded our attention --- Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Even with all the ink that has been spilled on Tiger, no one has ever written about his relationship with Phil and how their careers have been inextricably intertwined. Furthermore, very little has been written about Phil Mickelson, who is more than just an adversary. He is a fascinating Hall of Fame golfer in his own right. These two biggest names (and draws) in golf have, for better and for worse, been the ultimate rivals. But it is so much more complicated than that.

Treasure State: A Cassie Dewell Novel by C. J. Box - Mystery/Thriller

May 16, 2023

Private Investigator Cassie Dewell’s business is thriving, and her latest case puts her on the hunt for a slippery con man who has disappeared somewhere in the “treasure state.” A wealthy Florida widow has accused him of absconding with her fortune, and she wants Cassie to find him and get it back. As the case develops, Cassie begins to wonder if her client is telling her everything. Meanwhile, a poem that promises buried treasure to one lucky adventurer has led to a cutthroat competition and five deaths among treasure-hunters. But Cassie’s client doesn’t want the treasure. Instead, he claims to be the one who hid the gold and wrote the poem. And he’s hired Cassie to try to find him. Between the two cases, Cassie has her hands full.