New Release Spotlight

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. There’s a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an 87-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you have the worst group of hostages in the world.

One by One by Ruth Ware

Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers...each with something to gain, something to lose and something to hide.

The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream by Heather Cabot

From gleaming dispensaries stocked with elegantly wrapped edibles to the array of CBD lotions and oils for sale at your local drugstore to tastemaker Martha Stewart cooking up marijuana munchies on prime-time television, one thing is clear: Pot has fully shed its stoner image.

In this deeply reported journey into the new world of legal cannabis, award-winning reporter Heather Cabot takes readers on the road with Snoop Dogg and his business partner, Ted Chung, as they roll out the star’s own brand of bud; to California wine country, where chefs and vintners are ushering in a new age of elevated dining; on wild adventures with marijuana mogul Beth Stavola, for whom fending off shady characters is just another day at the office; and to rural Canada to meet the Willy Wonka of Weed.

One Year of Ugly by Caroline Mackenzie

Having escaped crumbling, socialist Venezuela, Yola Palacio hopes she and her family can finally settle into a peaceful new life in Trinidad. And so what if they’re there illegally --- them and half the island! But life for the Palacios is never quiet, and when Yola’s formidable Aunt Celia dies, the family once again find themselves living on the edge. For Celia had been keeping a very big secret --- a local criminal called Ugly to whom Celia owes an awful lot of money. Without the funds to pay him off, Ugly forces the entire family to do his bidding until Celia’s debt is settled. What Ugly says, the Palacios do, otherwise death could lurk on the other side.

The Engineer's Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood

Emily Warren Roebling refuses to live conventionally --- she knows who she is and what she wants, and she's determined to make change. But then her husband, Wash, asks the unthinkable: give up her dreams to make his possible.

The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward

When 70-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the “Become a Jetsetter” contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist who can’t seem to find a partner; and Regan, a harried mother who took it all wrong when Charlotte bought her a Weight Watchers gift certificate for her birthday. Charlotte yearns for the years when her children were young, when she was a single mother who meant everything to them.

When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald

A heart-swelling debut for fans of THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

Sometimes life isn’t as simple as heroes and villains.

Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant by Anne Gardiner Perkins

In the winter of 1969, from big cities to small towns, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating "one thousand male leaders" each year had finally decided to open its doors to the nation's top female students. The landmark decision was a huge step forward for women's equality in education.

Or was it?

The Summer of Sunshine and Margot by Susan Mallery

The Baxter sisters come from a long line of women with disastrous luck in love. But this summer, Sunshine and Margot will turn disasters into destiny.

As an etiquette coach, Margot teaches her clients to fit in. But she’s never faced a client like Bianca, an aging movie star who gained fame --- and notoriety --- through a campaign of shock and awe. Schooling Bianca on the fine art of behaving like a proper diplomat’s wife requires intensive lessons, forcing Margot to move into the monastery turned mansion owned by the actress’s intensely private son. Like his incredible home, Alec’s stony exterior hides secret depths Margot would love to explore. But will he trust her enough to let her in?

Bluff by Jane Stanton Hitchcock

One-time socialite Maud Warner polishes up the rags of her once-glittering existence and bluffs her way into a signature New York restaurant on a sunny October day. When she walks out again, a man will have been shot.

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