Passionate, candid, iconoclastic and gifted both on and off the court, Charles Barkley has made a lasting impact on not only the world of basketball but pop culture at large. Yet few people know the real Charles. Raised by his mother and grandmother in Leeds, Alabama, he struggled in his early years to fit in until he found a sense of community and purpose in basketball. In the NBA he went toe-to-toe with the biggest legends in the game, from Magic to Michael to Hakeem to Shaq. But in the years since, he has become a bold agitator for social change, unafraid to grapple --- often brashly --- with even the thorniest of cultural issues facing our nation today.

In Blackwater Falls, Colorado, veteran police officer Harry Cooper is hot on the heels of some local vandals when the situation turns deadly. Believing one of them has a gun, Harry opens fire and Duante Young, a young Black man, is killed. The "gun" in his hands was a bottle of spray paint. Meanwhile, in nearby Denver, a drug raid goes south and a Latino teen, Mateo Ruiz, is also killed. The Denver Police force is spread thin between the two cases, and protests on both sides begin. Detective Inaya Rahman and her boss, Lieutenant Waqas Seif, have their work cut out for them to consider the guilt of the perpetrators and their victims. While Inaya is forced to reckon with her own prejudices and work through those of her colleagues, she must discover the truth of what really happened on one fateful night in Blackwater Walls.

Sixteenth-century Europe was a hostile world dominated by court politics and patriarchal structures. Yet against all odds, two women rose to power: Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici. Much has been written about these shrewd and strategic sovereigns, but though their legacies have been heavily scrutinized, nothing has been said of their complicated relationship --- 30 years of camaraderie, competition and conflict that forever changed the face of Europe. In BLOOD, FIRE & GOLD, historian Estelle Paranque offers a new way of looking at two of history's most powerful women: through the eyes of the other. Whether engaged in bloody battles or peaceful accords, Elizabeth and Catherine admired the force and resilience of the other, while never forgetting that they were, first and foremost, each other's true rival.

THE BURROW brings together a family trying to find their way forward in the wake of a devastating loss. Parents Jin and Amy Lee adopt a rabbit for their daughter, Lucie, in the hopes of restoring a bit of joy to their home in the Australian suburbs. At first, each family member benefits from the distraction of a new creature in need of care. However, things are upended when the arrival of Amy’s estranged mother breaks their fragile sense of peace. The family is forced to confront the terrible circumstances surrounding their tragedy and to ask themselves whether opening their hearts to the rabbit will help them to heal or only invite further sorrow.

1994, the summer leading up to the ceasefire between Britain and the IRA. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent activity protesting British rule, a community plays out its end game. Francie, a hardened yet troubled IRA man, has authorized the murder of a policeman by two teenage henchmen. The Widow Donnelly protests in the town square because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her. And pathological Handy Byrnes, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control. Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes.

To the framers of the Constitution, political parties were a fatal threat to republican virtues. They had suffered the consequences of partisan politics in Britain before the American Revolution, and they wanted nothing similar for America. Yet parties emerged even before the Constitution was ratified, and they took firmer root in the following decade. In FOUNDING PARTISANS, master historian H. W. Brands has crafted a fresh and lively narrative of the early years of the republic as the Founding Fathers fought one another with competing visions of what our nation would be.

Stranded in the Welsh mountains, seven reality show contestants have no idea what they've signed up for. Each of these strangers has a secret. If another player can guess the truth, they won't just be eliminated --- they'll be exposed live on air. The stakes are higher than they'd ever imagined, and they're trapped. The disappearance of a contestant wasn't supposed to be part of the drama. Detective Ffion Morgan has to put aside what she's watched on screen and find out who these people really are --- knowing she can't trust any of them. And when a murderer strikes, Ffion knows every one of her suspects has an alibi…and a secret worth killing for.

I’ve been in this life for 50 years, been trying to work out its riddle for 42, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last 35. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me. Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far.

The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town’s biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts and, of course, the second largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event. But their fun is suddenly cut short when a dead body is found in the middle of the maze…and an unconscious Adeena lies next to it, clutching a bloody knife. The body is discovered to be a local politician’s wife, and all signs point to Adeena as the culprit. But Lila knows her best friend couldn’t have done this, so she and her crew put on their sleuthing caps yet again to find the killer who framed Adeena and show them what happens when they mess with a Brew-ha.

Amanda Cole is a brilliant young CIA officer following in the footsteps of her father, who was a spy during the Cold War. One hot summer day, a Russian defector warns of the imminent assassination of a US senator. Though Amanda takes the warning seriously, her superiors don’t. Twenty-four hours later, the senator is dead. And the assassination is just the beginning. Corporate blackmail, covert manipulation, corrupt oligarchs: the Kremlin has found a dangerous new way to wage war. Teaming up with Kath Frost, a fearless older woman and legendary spy, Amanda races to unravel the international conspiracy. But as she gets closer and closer to the truth, a central question haunts her: Why was her father’s name written down in the senator’s notes? What does Charlie Cole really know about the Kremlin plot?

Jackie Stinson’s best friend is dead, and everyone knows who killed her. Jackie is an ex–emotional eater and mother of four who finally has lost the weight she long yearned to be free of. In her new, sharp-edged body, she goes by Jacqueline. But leaving her old self behind proves harder than she ever imagined. And while she believes she should be happier, misery still chases her, and motherhood threatens to subsume what little is left of her. Jacqueline’s only salve is her best friend, Theresa, whose seemingly perfect life she desperately covets. Since they met in the maternity ward 15 years earlier, the two have survived the trials of motherhood side by side. Their bond is tight, but it is not enough to keep Jacqueline from stealing a bit of Theresa’s perfect life.

Fast-talking, warm-hearted and endlessly rewatchable, “Gilmore Girls” has bonded real-life mothers and daughters since 2000, when its iconic pilot introduced us to Lorelai, Rory and their idyllic Connecticut town of Stars Hollow. More than 20 years later, it has become one of the most-streamed TV shows ever. In an anthology as intimate and quick-witted as “Gilmore Girls” itself, Ann Hood invites 15 writers to investigate their personal relationships to the show. Joanna Rakoff considers how Emily Gilmore helped her understand her own mother; Sanjena Sathian sees herself --- and Asian American defiance --- in Lane Kim; Freya North connects with her son through the show; Francesco Sedita discovers an antidote to pandemic loneliness; and Nina de Gramont offers a comic ode to the unreality of Stars Hollow.

San Diego private investigator Rick Cahill’s wife, Leah, has fled with their daughter, Krista, to her parents’ home in Santa Barbara. She fears Rick’s violent outbursts brought on by his potentially fatal brain disorder, CTE. Rick desperately wants to reunite his family and help provide for Krista’s future --- one he fears he won’t be alive to see. A jumpstart toward that future appears in the form of Peter Stone, Rick’s longtime enemy. Stone offers Rick $50,000 to find a woman he claims can save his life with a kidney transplant. Rick can’t pass up the chance to buttress Krista’s future. When what seems like a simple missing person case spirals out of control into cryptocurrency machinations, dead bodies and an outgunned faceoff, Rick is forced to battle evil from his past.

The 1986 New York Giants are legendary. A championship team coached by Bill Parcells and his wunderkind assistant Bill Belichick, featuring future Hall of Famers and All-Pros like Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, Mark Bavaro and Harry Carson. They were dominant on the field and formed a unique and lasting bond off of it. More than 30 years later, it's the friendships that have proved more important --- a matter of life and death. In ONCE A GIANT, bestselling football writer Gary Myers tells the story of that team and what became of it. Gridiron glory eventually faded; chronic pain, addiction and, in some cases, crimes have followed. Many football players face these harsh realities, but the Giants have confronted and survived them together.

Since the publication of the groundbreaking BAD FEMINIST and HUNGER, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle big issues embroiling society --- state-sponsored violence and mass shootings, women’s rights post-Dobbs, online disinformation, and the limits of empathy --- alongside more individually personalized matters: Can I tell my co-worker her perfume makes me sneeze? Is it acceptable to schedule a daily 8am meeting? In her role as a New York Times opinion section contributor and the publication’s “Work Friend” columnist, she reaches millions of readers with her wise voice and sharp insights. OPINIONS is a collection of her best nonfiction pieces from the past 10 years.

Meg Bloomberg is in a pickle. When Meg’s ex turns out to be a total player, she and her bestie take off for a mood-lifting pickleball excursion to Bainbridge Island. It’s supposed to be an easy lob, a way to heal, not the opening serve to a new courtside romance that’s doomed to spin out. No matter how Meg tries, she can’t shake her feelings for Ethan Fine. A charismatic environmental consultant and Bainbridge local, Ethan seems like the real dill. But when Meg discovers that Ethan is sabotaging her home court, she decides the match is over. It’s time for Meg to take control of her own game. And maybe, just maybe, love will bounce back.

Evie Hudson should be grieving her dead husband, but since the car crash that claimed his life and landed her in the hospital, she can’t remember him at all. The only person who can help her piece her past together is her high school best friend, Drew Kennedy. When snippets of her memory start falling into place, Evie wonders exactly how she ended up in a life that couldn’t be further from the one she dreamed of. This time around, she’s seeing all the things she missed --- and the life she gets to choose...again.

Ethan Haddock is discovered in his apartment, dead, apparently by his own hand. His professor, Dr. Verena Sobek, has been taken in for questioning, and there are rumors his death is the result of a bad romance. A former detective turned research assistant, Marlitt Kaplan misses the excitement of her old job, but most of all the friendship of her partner, Teddy. When her mother, a colleague of the accused professor, asks for her help, she finds herself in the impossible position of proving something didn't happen. Without the credentials to interview suspects or access phone records, she will have to get closer to a victim's life than ever before. And she quickly finds herself in his apartment, having dinner with his roommates, even sleeping in his bed. But is she too close to see the truth?

Maggie Blount, a divorced mother of two and a California physician, puts her private practice on hold when disaster strikes. Doctors on Wheels takes her and Alex --- Maggie’s professional and romantic partner --- wherever they’re needed. After rolling into rural Louisiana in the wake of a category five hurricane, Maggie immediately bonds with two sisters and their puppy, all orphaned by the storm. Feeling blessed and looking forward to their new foster home in affluent Vista del Mar --- a world apart from the one they’ve known --- Jean and Rose are polite, appreciative and humble. Frankly, they're the polar opposite of Maggie’s own self-involved teenage daughters, Willa and Gemma, who resist this intrusion by strangers into their privileged lives. Soon enough, Maggie’s new blended family is in chaos.

A woman welcomes a parasite into her body. A teenager longs for perfect skin. A scientist tends to fragile alien flora. A young man takes the night into his own hands. Unsettling, revelatory and laced with her signature dark humor, Eliza Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.

Leah has been living with akinetopsia, or motion blindness, since she was a child. For the last 20 years, she hasn’t been able to see movement. But she does see a good deal, and with her acute senses of smell and hearing, very little escapes her notice. When Alice moves into the apartment next door, Leah can immediately smell the anxiety wafting off her. Worse, she can’t help but hear Alice and a late-night visitor engage in a violent fight. Then one night, Leah wakes up to someone in her apartment. She blacks out and in the morning is left wondering if she dreamt the episode. Yet the scent of the intruder follows her everywhere. And when she hears Alice through the wall pleading for her help, Leah makes a decision that will test her courage, her strength and ultimately her sanity.

For as long as we have looked to the skies, the question of whether life on Earth is the only life to exist has been at the core of the human experience, driving scientific debate and discovery, shaping spiritual belief, and prompting existential thought across borders and generations. And yet, the idea of extraterrestrial intelligence has been largely seen as a joke, banished to the realm of fantasy and conspiracy. Now, for the first time, the full story of our national obsession with UFOs --- and the covert, decades-long search by scientists, the United States military, and the CIA for proof of alien life --- is told by bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff in a deeply reported and researched history.

UHTRED’S FEAST offers rich background on the books of Bernard Cornwell’s Last Kingdom series, presenting a fascinating, detailed view of Anglo-Saxon life in all its splendor, danger and beauty. With his narrative flair, Cornwell explores every aspect of this historical period, from the clothes to weapons to food, offering beautifully crafted recipes of early Anglo-Saxon fare, created by renowned UK chef Suzanne Pollak. In addition, he has written three new stories exclusive to this book that reveal the man behind the shield --- Uhtred as a young boy, as Alfred’s advisor, and as prince.

The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm --- and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors. It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. But she is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own. After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for?

The year is 2050. Ava and her girlfriend live in what's left of Brooklyn. Although they love each other, it's hard to find happiness while the effects of climate change rapidly eclipse their world. Soon, it won't be safe outside at all. The only people guaranteed survival are the ones whose applications are accepted to The Inside Project, a series of weather-safe, city-sized structures around the world. When Ava is accepted to live Inside and her girlfriend isn’t, she’s forced to go alone. But her heartbreak is quickly replaced with a feeling of belonging: Inside seems like it’s the safe space she’s been searching for...most of the time. Other times she can’t shake the feeling that something is deeply off.