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Week of September 19, 2022

New in Paperback

Week of September 19, 2022

Paperback releases for the week of September 19th include VANDERBILT, a collaboration between journalist Anderson Cooper and historian Katherine Howe, who chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty --- his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts; THE BOYS, a nostalgic, heartwarming and harrowing memoir from award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard and audience-favorite actor Clint Howard, who frankly and fondly share their unusual family story of navigating and surviving life as sibling child actors; BROTHERS AND WIVES, the long-awaited follow-up to Christopher Andersen's DIANA'S BOYS, which explores the last 20 years in the lives of Princes William and Harry and the evolution of their relationship as adults; and FEMLANDIA by Christina Dalcher, a chilling look into an alternate near future where a woman and her daughter seek refuge in a women-only colony, only to find that the safe haven they were hoping for is the most dangerous place they could be.

Acid for the Children: A Memoir by Flea - Memoir

September 20, 2022

In ACID FOR THE CHILDREN, Flea takes readers on a deeply personal and revealing tour of his formative years. Through hilarious anecdotes, poetical meditations and occasional flights of fantasy, the iconic bassist and co-founder of the Red Hot Chili Peppers deftly chronicles the experiences that forged him as an artist, a musician and a young man. His dreamy, jazz-inflected prose makes the Los Angeles of the 1970s and ’80s come to gritty, glorious life. It is here that young Flea, looking to escape a turbulent home, found family in a community of musicians, artists and junkies who also lived on the fringe. He spent most of his time partying and committing petty crimes. But it was in music where he found a higher meaning, a place to channel his frustration, loneliness and love.

The American Adventuress by C. W. Gortner - Historical Fiction

September 20, 2022

The daughter of New York financier Leonard Jerome, Jennie Jerome Churchill was born into wealth --- and scandal. Upon her parents’ separation, her mother took Jennie and her sisters to Paris, where Mrs. Jerome was determined to marry her daughters into the most elite families. Fleeing to Queen Victoria’s England after Paris fell to revolt, Jennie soon caught the eye of aristocrat Randolph Spencer-Churchill, son of the Duke of Marlborough. It was love at first sight, their unconventional marriage driven by mutual ambition and the birth of two sons. She brashly carried on a lifelong intimate friendship with Edward, Prince of Wales, and had two later marriages to younger men. When her son Winston launched his brilliant political career, Jennie guided him to success, his most vocal and valuable supporter.

The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron Howard and Clint Howard - Memoir

September 20, 2022

“What was it like to grow up on TV?” Ron Howard has been asked this question throughout his adult life. In THE BOYS, he and his younger brother, Clint, examine their childhoods in detail for the first time. For Ron, playing Opie on "The Andy Griffith Show" and Richie Cunningham on "Happy Days" offered fame, joy and opportunity --- but also invited stress and bullying. For Clint, a fast start on such programs as "Gentle Ben" and "Star Trek" petered out in adolescence, with some tough consequences and lessons. With the perspective of time and success --- Ron as a filmmaker, producer and Hollywood A-lister, Clint as a busy character actor --- the Howard brothers delve deep into an upbringing that seemed normal to them yet was anything but.

Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan by Christopher Andersen - Biography

September 20, 2022

DIANA’S BOYS revealed the powerful bond between Princes William and Harry, and how it strengthened even more in the wake of their mother’s tragic death. Now, 20 years later, Queen Elizabeth II is in her mid-90s, Prince Charles is in his 70s, and all eyes are turned increasingly toward William and Harry again. Christopher Andersen picks up where he left off, covering everything that has happened to the brothers as they have grown up, gotten married to two remarkable women, and had children --- all while facing continual waves of controversy and questions about the ways their relationship has shifted.

Drunk on Love by Jasmine Guillory - Romance

September 20, 2022

Margot Noble needs some relief from the stress of running the family winery with her brother. Enter Luke Williams: sexy, charming and, best of all in the too-small world of Napa, a stranger. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and Margot is delighted that she lucked into the perfect one-night stand she’ll never have to see again. That is, until the winery’s newest hire, Luke, walks in the next morning. Margot is determined to keep things purely professional, but when their every interaction reminds her of the attraction still bubbling between them, it proves to be much more challenging than she expects.

Dune: The Lady of Caladan by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson - Science Fiction/Space Opera

September 20, 2022

Lady Jessica, mother of Paul and consort to Leto Atreides. The choices she made shaped an empire, but first the Lady of Caladan must reckon with her own betrayal of the Bene Gesserit. She has already betrayed her ancient order, but now she must decide if her loyalty to the Sisterhood is more important than the love of her own family. Meanwhile, events in the greater empire are accelerating beyond the control of even the Reverend Mother, and Lady Jessica's family is on a collision course with destiny.

The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang - Literary Mystery

September 20, 2022

The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao restaurant’s delicious Americanized Chinese food for 35 years, content to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. Whether or not Big Leo Chao is honest, or his wife, Winnie, is happy, their food tastes good and their three sons earned scholarships to respectable colleges. But when the brothers reunite in Haven, the Chao family’s secrets and simmering resentments erupt at last. Before long, brash, charismatic and tyrannical patriarch Leo is found dead --- presumed murdered --- and his sons find that they’ve drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town. The ensuing trial brings to light potential motives for all three brothers.

Femlandia by Christina Dalcher - Dystopian Thriller

September 20, 2022

Miranda Reynolds always thought she would rather die than live in Femlandia. But that was before the country sank into total economic collapse and her husband walked out, leaving her and her 16-year-old daughter with nothing. The streets are full of looting, robbing and killing, and Miranda and Emma no longer have much choice --- either starve and risk getting murdered, or find safety. And so they set off to Femlandia, the women-only colony that Miranda's mother established decades ago. There are no men allowed in the colony, but babies are being born --- and they're all girls. Miranda discovers just how the all-women community is capable of enduring, and it leads her to question how far her mother went to create this perfect, thriving, horrifying society.

In the Shadow of the Empress: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters by Nancy Goldstone - History

September 20, 2022

Out of the thrilling and tempestuous 18th century comes the sweeping family saga of beautiful Maria Theresa, a sovereign of uncommon strength and vision, the only woman ever to inherit and rule the vast Habsburg Empire in her own name, and three of her remarkable daughters: lovely, talented Maria Christina, governor-general of the Austrian Netherlands; spirited Maria Carolina, the resolute queen of Naples; and the youngest, Marie Antoinette, the glamorous, tragic queen of France, and perhaps the most famous princess in history. This epic history of Maria Theresa and her daughters is a tour de force of desire, adventure, ambition, treachery, sorrow and glory.

The Killing Kind by Jane Casey - Thriller

September 20, 2022

As a barrister, Ingrid Lewis is used to dealing with tricky clients, but no one has ever come close to John Webster. After Ingrid defended Webster against a stalking charge, he then turned on her --- following her, ruining her relationship, even destroying her home. Now, Ingrid believes she has finally escaped his clutches. But when one of her colleagues is run down on a busy London road, Ingrid is sure she was the intended victim. And then Webster shows up at her door. Webster claims Ingrid is in danger --- and that only he can protect her. Stalker or savior? Murderer or protector? The clock is ticking for Ingrid to decide. Because the killer is ready to strike again.

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward - Psychological Thriller/Horror

September 20, 2022

In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.

Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival by Tom Clavin - History

September 20, 2022

On August 13, 1944, Joe Moser set off on his 44th combat mission over occupied France. Soon, he would join almost 170 other Allied airmen as prisoners in Buchenwald, one of the most notorious and deadly of Nazi concentration camps. Tom Clavin's LIGHTNING DOWN tells this largely untold and riveting true story. Moser was just 22 years old, a farm boy from Washington State who fell in love with flying. During the War he realized his dream of piloting a P-38 Lightning, one of the most effective weapons the Army Air Corps had against the powerful German Luftwaffe. But on that hot August morning, he had to bail out of his damaged, burning plane. Captured immediately, Moser’s journey into hell began.

The Magician by Colm Tóibín - Historical Fiction

September 20, 2022

THE MAGICIAN opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the 20th century, where the boy, Thomas Mann, hides his artistic aspirations from his father and his homosexual desires from everyone. He is infatuated with one of the richest, most cultured Jewish families in Munich, and marries the daughter Katia. They have six children. On a holiday in Italy, he longs for a boy he sees on a beach and writes the story DEATH IN VENICE. He is the most successful novelist of his time, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. He is expected to lead the condemnation of Hitler, whom he underestimates. His oldest daughter and son, leaders of Bohemianism and of the anti-Nazi movement, share lovers. He flees Germany for Switzerland, France and, ultimately, America, living first in Princeton and then in Los Angeles.

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian - Psychological Thriller

September 20, 2022

Chloe Sevre is a freshman honor student, a legging-wearing hot girl next door who also happens to be a psychopath. She spends her time on yogalates, at frat parties and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her. Chloe is one of seven students at her DC-based college who are part of an unusual clinical study of psychopaths --- students like herself who lack empathy and can’t comprehend emotions like fear or guilt. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements. When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey.

Nice Girls by Catherine Dang - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

September 20, 2022

Mary used to be such a nice girl. She was the resident whiz kid of Liberty Lake, Minnesota --- the quiet, chubby teen with the scholarship to an Ivy League school. But three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back --- a thinner, cynical, restless failure who was kicked out of Cornell at the beginning of her senior year and won’t tell anyone why. Then rising social media star Olivia Willand goes missing. Once Olivia’s best friend, Mary knows better than anyone that behind the Instagram persona hides a willful, manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the town obsesses over perfect, lovely Olivia, Mary wonders if her disappearance might be tied to another missing person: 19-year-old DeMaria Jackson, whose case has been widely dismissed as a runaway.

The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany by Gwen Strauss - History

September 20, 2022

THE NINE follows the true story of Gwen Strauss' great aunt Hélène Podliasky, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labor camp and made a 10-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany back to Paris. Arrested by French police, they were interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo. They were subjected to a series of French prisons and deported to Germany. The group formed along the way, meeting at different points --- in prison, in transit and at Ravensbrück. By the time they were enslaved at the labor camp in Leipzig, they were a close-knit group of friends. During the final days of the war, forced onto a death march, the nine chose their moment and made a daring escape.

A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti - Fiction

September 20, 2022

Jaryk Smith, a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, and Lucy Gardner, a southerner, are in the first bloom of love when they receive word that Jaryk's oldest friend has died under mysterious circumstances in eastern India. Traveling there alone to collect his friend's ashes, Jaryk soon finds himself enmeshed in the chaos of local politics and efforts to stage a play in protest against the government --- the same play that he performed as a child in Warsaw as an act of resistance against the Nazis. Torn between the survivor's guilt he has carried for decades and his feelings for Lucy (who, unbeknownst to him, is pregnant with his child), Jaryk must decide how to honor both the past and the present, and how to accept a happiness he is not sure he deserves.

The Road to Christmas by Sheila Roberts - Romance

September 20, 2022

Michelle and Max are not planning on a happy holiday. Their marriage is in shambles, and the D word has entered their vocabulary. But now their youngest daughter, Julia, wants everyone to come to her new house in Idaho for Christmas. Their other daughters, Audrey and Shyla, are driving up from California and hoping to meet a sexy rancher for Audrey along the way. What they don’t plan on is getting stranded on a ranch when the car breaks down. The ones with the shortest drive are Grandma and Grandpa. They have a reliable car --- and snow tires and chains if they need them. They’ll be fine. Surprises lie in store for all three sets of intrepid travelers as they set out on three very different adventures, all leading to one memorable family Christmas.

Snowed In for Christmas by Sarah Morgan - Romance

September 20, 2022

This Christmas the Miller siblings have one goal --- to avoid their well-meaning family’s endless stream of prying questions. Ross, Alice and Clemmie have secrets that they don’t intend to share, and they are relying on each other to deflect attention. Lucy Clarke is facing a Christmas alone and the prospect of losing her job. Unless she can win a major piece of business from Ross Miller, the season promises to be anything but festive. She’ll just deliver her proposal to his family home and then leave. When Lucy appears on the Miller family’s snow-covered Highland doorstep, she's mistaken for Ross’ girlfriend. By the time the confusion is cleared up, they're snowed in. She can’t leave, even if she wants to! But does she want to?

Things I Have Withheld: Essays by Kei Miller - Essays

September 20, 2022

In a deeply moving, critical and lyrical collection of interconnected essays, award-winning writer Kei Miller explores the silences in which so many important things are kept. He examines the experience of discrimination through this silence and what it means to breach it --- "to risk words, to risk truth; and through the body and the histories those bodies inherit" the crimes that haunt them, and how the meanings of our bodies can shift as we move through the world, variously assuming privilege or victimhood. Through letters to James Baldwin, encounters with Soca, Carnival, family secrets, love affairs, questions of aesthetics and more, Miller powerfully and imaginatively recounts everyday acts of racism and prejudice from a black, male, queer perspective.

Triple Cross by Tom Bradby - Thriller

September 20, 2022

Attempting to rebuild her shattered life on vacation in the South of France, former MI6 operative Kate Henderson receives an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from an old adversary: the UK Prime Minister. He has an extraordinary story to tell --- and he needs her help. A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It's run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose alone: to process the intelligence from “Agent Dante,” a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London. Against her better judgment, Kate is forced back into the fray in a top-secret, deeply flawed and dangerous investigation. But now she's damaged goods.

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe - History

September 20, 2022

When 11-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the 19th century, no one could have imagined that one day he would build two empires --- one in shipping and another in railroads --- that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. Now, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson, Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence.