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Week of September 7, 2020

New in Paperback

Week of September 7, 2020

Paperback releases for the week of September 7th include FULL THROTTLE, a collection of 13 relentless tales of supernatural suspense from Joe Hill, including “In the Tall Grass,” one of two stories cowritten with Stephen King and the basis for the terrifying feature film from Netflix; DEATH IN FOCUS by Anne Perry, the start of an all-new mystery series set in pre–World War II Europe, in which an intrepid young photographer carries her dead lover’s final, world-shattering message into the heart of Berlin as Hitler ascends to power; CILKA’S JOURNEY, a novel based on a riveting true story of love and resilience, from the author of the multi-million-copy bestseller THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ, Heather Morris; and two books commemorating September 11, 2001 --- FALL AND RISE, Mitchell Zuckoff's mesmerizing, minute-by-minute account of that terrible day that masterfully weaves together multiple strands of the events in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; and THE ONLY PLANE IN THE SKY by Garrett M. Graff, the first comprehensive oral history of 9/11, deftly woven and told in the voices of ordinary people grappling with extraordinary events.

All the Way: My Life in Four Quarters by Joe Namath, with Sean Mortimer and Don Yaeger - Sports/Memoir

September 8, 2020

Three days before the 1969 Super Bowl, Joe Namath promised the nation that he would lead the New York Jets to a victory against the seemingly invincible Baltimore Colts. When the final whistle blew, that promise had been kept. But beneath the eccentric yet charismatic personality was a player plagued by injury and addiction, both sex and substance. When failing knees permanently derailed his career, he turned to Hollywood and endorsements, not to mention a tumultuous marriage and fleeting bouts of sobriety, to try and find purpose. Now Namath is ready to open up, brilliantly using the four quarters of Super Bowl III as the narrative backbone to a life that was anything but charmed.

The Bones Remember: An Alexa Glock Forensics Mystery by Sara E. Johnson - Mystery

September 8, 2020

At first, Alexa Glock's initial case as a traveling forensic investigator seems straightforward --- her expertise in teeth helps her identify the skeletal remains of a hunter found on the remote Stewart Island in New Zealand. But when she realizes that the bullet lodged in his skull was not self-inflicted, and then a second, shark-ravaged body washes up on Ringaringa Beach, it's clear that something dangerous is lurking in the beautiful waters surrounding the island. Tensions between cagers and locals mount as Alexa dives into the harrowing case. While measuring bite patterns, she makes a shocking discovery that just might lead her to who --- or what --- is behind both deaths.

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup - Mystery/Thriller

September 8, 2020

A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a “chestnut man” --- a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts --- which he leaves at each bloody crime scene. Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery --- a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago. A tragic coincidence, or something more twisted? To save innocent lives, a pair of detectives must put aside their differences to piece together the Chestnut Man’s gruesome clues. Because it’s clear that the madman is on a mission that is far from over. And no one is safe.

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris - Historical Fiction

September 8, 2020

Cilka is just 16 years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was sent to Auschwitz when she was still a child? In Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she meets a kind female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions.

Death in Focus: An Elena Standish Novel by Anne Perry - Historical Mystery

September 8, 2020

On vacation from London on the beautiful Italian coast, 28-year-old Elena Standish and her older sister, Margot, have finally been able to move on from the lasting trauma of the Great War, in which the newly married Margot lost her husband and the sisters their beloved brother. Touring with her camera in hand, Elena has found new inspiration in the striking Italian landscape, and she’s met an equally striking man named Ian. When Ian has to leave unexpectedly, Elena finds she’s not ready to part from him, and the two share a spontaneous train trip home to England. But a shocking sequence of events disrupts their itinerary, forcing Elena to personally deliver a message to Berlin on Ian’s behalf, one that could change the fate of Europe.

Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior - Romance

September 8, 2020

Dan Hollis lives a happy, solitary life carving exquisite Celtic harps in his barn in the countryside of the English moors. Here he can be himself, away from social situations that he doesn’t always get right or completely understand. On the anniversary of her beloved father’s death, Ellie Jacobs takes a walk in the woods and comes across Dan’s barn. She is enchanted by his collection. Dan gives her a harp made of cherrywood to match her cherry socks. He stores it for her, ready for whenever she’d like to take lessons. Ellie begins visiting Dan almost daily and quickly learns that he isn’t like other people. She soon realizes that he isn’t just different; in many ways, his world is better, and he gives her a fresh perspective on her own life.

Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 by Mitchell Zuckoff - Modern History

September 8, 2020

In the days and months after 9/11, Mitchell Zuckoff, then a reporter for the Boston Globe, wrote about the attacks, the victims and their families. After further years of meticulous reporting, Zuckoff has filled FALL AND RISE with voices of the lost and the saved --- an out-of-work actor stuck in an elevator in the North Tower of the World Trade Center; the heroes aboard Flight 93 deciding to take action; a veteran trapped in the inferno in the Pentagon; the fire chief among the first on the scene in sleepy Shanksville; a team of firefighters racing to save an injured woman and themselves; and the men, women and children flying across the country to see loved ones or for work who suddenly faced terrorists bent on murder.

Full Throttle: Stories by Joe Hill - Supernatural Thriller/Short Stories

September 8, 2020

A little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in “Faun.” A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in “Late Returns.” And tension shimmers in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert as a faceless trucker finds himself caught in a sinister dance with a tribe of motorcycle outlaws in “Throttle,” co-written with Stephen King. Replete with shocking chillers, including two previously unpublished stories written expressly for this volume (“Mums” and “Late Returns”) and another appearing in print for the first time (“Dark Carousel”), FULL THROTTLE is a darkly imagined odyssey through the complexities of the human psyche.

The Glass Woman by Caroline Lea - Historical Thriller

September 8, 2020

Rósa has always dreamed of living a simple life alongside her Mamma in their remote village in Iceland. But after her father dies abruptly and her Mamma becomes ill, Rósa marries herself off to a visiting trader in exchange for a dowry. Rósa follows her new husband, Jón, across the treacherous countryside to his remote home near the sea. He forbids her to interact with the locals in the nearby settlement and tells her to stay away from his attic. When Rósa begins to hear strange noises from upstairs, she turns to the local woman in an attempt to find solace. But the villager’s words are even more troubling --- confirming many of the rumors about Jón’s first wife, Anna, including that he buried her body alone in the middle of the night.

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding - Psychological Thriller

September 8, 2020

Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own...creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. A month passes. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. But when they’re found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley --- to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.

The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott - Psychological Thriller

September 8, 2020

Ailsa Calder has inherited half of a house. The other half belongs to a man who disappeared without a trace 27 years ago --- her father. Leaving London behind to settle the inheritance, Ailsa returns to the manor, nestled amongst the craggy peaks of the Scottish Highlands, joined by the half-sister who's practically a stranger to her. Ailsa can't escape the claustrophobic feeling that the house itself watches her --- as if her dramatic past hungers to consume her. When the first nighttime intruder shows up and the locals in the isolated community pry into her plans for the manor, Ailsa grows terrified that escaping the beautiful old home will cost her everything.

Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing by Elissa Altman - Memoir

September 8, 2020

After surviving a traumatic childhood in 1970s New York and young adulthood living in the shadow of her flamboyant mother, Rita, a makeup-addicted former television singer, Elissa Altman has managed to build a very different life, settling in Connecticut with her wife of nearly 20 years. After much time, therapy and wine, Elissa is at last in a healthy place. Then she is confronted with the unthinkable: Rita suffers an incapacitating fall, leaving her completely dependent upon her daughter. Now Elissa is forced to finally confront their profound differences, Rita’s yearning for beauty and glamour, her view of the world through her days in the spotlight, and the money that has mysteriously disappeared in the name of preserving youth.

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff - Oral History

September 8, 2020

Of all the books about 9/11, one has been missing until now --- a panoramic narrative from the men and women caught up in the unprecedented human drama of that terrible day. THE ONLY PLANE IN THE SKY is nothing less than the first comprehensive oral history of September 11th, deftly woven and told in the voices of ordinary people grappling with extraordinary events. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, and original interviews and stories from nearly 500 government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends and family members, historian Garrett M. Graff skillfully tells the story of the day as it was lived.

Robert B. Parker's The Bitterest Pill: A Jesse Stone Novel by Reed Farrel Coleman - Mystery

September 8, 2020

When a popular high school cheerleader dies of a suspected heroin overdose, it becomes clear that the opioid epidemic has spread even to the idyllic town of Paradise. It will be up to police chief Jesse Stone to unravel the supply chain and unmask the criminals behind it, and the investigation has a clear epicenter: Paradise High School. But when it comes to drugs, the very people Jesse is trying to protect are often those with the most to lose. As he digs deeper into the case, he finds himself battling self-interested administrators, reluctant teachers, distrustful schoolkids and overprotective parents. At the end of the line are the true bad guys, the ones with a lucrative business they'd kill to protect.

The Saint of Wolves and Butchers by Alex Grecian - Thriller

September 8, 2020

Travis Roan and his dog, Bear, are hunters, traveling the world pursuing evildoers in order to bring them to justice. They have now come to Kansas on the trail of Rudolph Bormann, a Nazi doctor and concentration camp administrator who snuck into the U.S. under the name Rudy Goodman in the 1950s and has at last been identified. Travis quickly learns that Goodman has powerful friends who will go to any length to protect the Nazi. What he doesn't know is that Goodman has furtively continued his diabolical work, amassing a congregation of followers who believe he possesses Godlike powers.

Supernova Era written by Cixin Liu, translated by Joel Martinsen - Science Fiction/Adventure

September 8, 2020

Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of 13 will die. And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running. But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to continue the legacy left to them. And in shaping the future however they want, will the children usher in an era of bright beginnings or final mistakes?

We, the Survivors by Tash Aw - Fiction

December 22, 2020

Born and raised in a Malaysian fishing village, Ah Hock favors stability above all, a preference at odds with his rapidly modernizing surroundings. So what brings him to kill a man? This question leads a young, privileged journalist to Ah Hock’s door. While the victim has been mourned and the killer has served time for the crime, Ah Hock's motive remains unclear, even to himself. His vivid confession unfurls over extensive interviews with the journalist, herself a local whose life has taken a very different course. The process forces both the speaker and his listener to reckon with systems of power, race and class in a place where success is promised to all yet delivered only to its lucky heirs.

You've Been Volunteered: A Class Mom Novel by Laurie Gelman - Fiction/Humor

September 8, 2020

If you’ve ever been a room parent or school volunteer, Jen Dixon is your hero. She says what every class mom is really thinking, whether in her notoriously frank emails or standup-worthy interactions with the micromanaging PTA President and the gamut of difficult parents. Luckily, she has the charm and wit to get away with it --- most of the time. Jen is sassier than ever but dealing with a whole new set of challenges, in the world of parental politics and at home. She’s been roped into room-parenting yet again, for her son Max’s third grade class. But as her husband buries himself in work, her older daughters navigate adulthood, and Jen’s own aging parents start to need some parenting themselves, Jen gets pulled in more directions than any one mom, or superhero, can handle.