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January 13, 2015 |
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The following are lists of books releasing the weeks of January 12th and January 19th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers.
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On Sale the Week of January 12th in Hardcover
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January 13th
AMNESIA by Peter Carey (Fiction)
When Gaby Baillieux releases the Angel Worm into Australia’s prison computer system, hundreds of asylum-seekers walk free. And because the Americans run the prisons, the doors of some 5,000 jails in the United States also open. Is this a mistake, or a declaration of cyber war? Felix Moore, known to himself as “our sole remaining left-wing journalist,” is determined to write Gaby’s biography in order to find the answers. But how can he get Gaby --- on the run, scared, confused and angry --- to cooperate?
Knopf * 9780385352772
AN APPETITE FOR VIOLETS by Martine Bailey (Historical Fiction)
Forced to accompany her new mistress to Italy, under-cook Biddy Leigh documents her adventures and culinary discoveries in an old household book of recipes. In London, she finds herself attracted to her mistress’s younger brother. In France, she discovers her mistress’s dark secret. At last, in Italy, Biddy becomes embroiled in a murderous conspiracy, knowing that the secrets she holds could be the key to a better life --- or her downfall.
Thomas Dunne Books * 9781250056917
BONITA AVENUE by Peter Buwalda (Fiction)
Siem Sigerius is a beloved, brilliant professor of mathematics with a promising future in politics. But there are elements of Siem's past that threaten to upend the peace and stability that he has achieved. When he stumbles upon a deception that’s painfully close to home, things begin to fall apart. A cataclysmic explosion in a fireworks factory, the advent of Internet pornography, and the reappearances of a discarded, dangerous son all play a terrible role in the spectacular fragmentation of the Sigerius clan.
Hogarth * 9780553417852
COLD COLD HEART by Tami Hoag (Psychological Thriller)
Dana Nolan was a promising young TV reporter until a notorious serial killer tried to add her to his list of victims. Struggling with the torment of post-traumatic stress syndrome, Dana returns to her hometown in an attempt to begin to put her life back together. Her harrowing story and return to small town life have rekindled police and media interest in the unsolved case of her childhood best friend, Casey Grant, who disappeared without a trace the summer after their graduation from high school.
Dutton Adult * 9780525954545
THE DEEP by Nick Cutter (Horror)
A strange plague called the ’Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget, and then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily. But now, far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, a heretofore unknown substance hailed as “ambrosia” has been discovered --- possibly a universal healer. It’s up to a brave few to descend through the lightless fathoms in hopes of unraveling the mysteries lurking at those crushing depths…and perhaps to encounter an evil blacker than anything one could possibly imagine.
Gallery Books * 9781476717739
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW by Elisabeth de Mariaffi (Literary Thriller)
Rookie crime beat reporter Evie Jones is haunted by the unsolved murder of her best friend, Lianne Gagnon, who was killed in 1982, back when both girls were 11. The suspected killer, a repeat offender named Robert Cameron, was never arrested, leaving Lianne’s case cold. Now 21 and living alone for the first time, Evie is obsessively drawn to finding out what really happened to Lianne. She leans on another childhood friend, David Patton, for help --- but every clue they uncover seems to lead to an unimaginable conclusion.
Touchstone * 9781476779089
DONE IN ONE by Grant Jerkins and Jan Thomas (Thriller)
SWAT sniper Jake Denton and his wife, his department-ordered psychiatrist, are beginning to question just how these sanctioned kills are affecting Jake’s mental health. Nobody wants him to end up like Lee Staley, his mentor and ex-partner --- now out on permanent psych leave and the prime suspect in a series of shootings that have paralyzed Northern California. Jake doesn't believe that Staley is guilty, but when their job has taught them to kill, how easy would it be for his friend to cross over to the other side? How easy would it be for Jake?
Thomas Dunne Books * 9781250054869
THE FIRST BAD MAN by Miranda July (Fiction)
Cheryl is haunted by a baby boy she met when she was six, who sometimes recurs as other people’s babies. She is also obsessed with Phillip, a philandering board member at the women’s self-defense nonprofit where she works. She believes they’ve been making love for many lifetimes, though they have yet to consummate in this one. When Cheryl’s bosses ask if their 21-year-old daughter, Clee, can move into her house for a little while, Cheryl’s eccentrically ordered world explodes.
Scribner * 9781439172568
THE GIRL FROM HUMAN STREET: Ghosts of Memory in a Jewish Family by Roger Cohen (Memoir)
Award-winning New York Times columnist Roger Cohen turns a compassionate yet discerning eye on the legacy of his own forebears. As he follows them across continents and decades, mapping individual lives that diverge and intertwine, vital patterns of struggle and resilience, valued heritage and evolving loyalties (religious, ethnic and national) converge into a resonant portrait of cultural identity in the modern age.
Knopf * 9780307594662
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins (Psychological Thriller)
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. Their life --- as she sees it --- is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything has changed.
Riverhead Hardcover * 9781594633669
THE ICE QUEEN by Nele Neuhaus (Mystery)
Ninety-two-year-old Jossi Goldberg, a Holocaust survivor and an American citizen, is found shot to death execution-style in his house near Frankfurt. The autopsy reveals an old and unsuccessfully covered tattoo on the body’s arm --- a blood type marker once used by Hitler's SS. Two more, similar murders happen, and slowly the connections between the victims become evident: All of them were lifelong friends with Vera von Kaltensee --- baroness, well-respected philanthropist, and head of an old, rich family that she rules with an iron fist.
Minotaur Books * 9780312604264
IN SOME OTHER WORLD, MAYBE by Shari Goldhagen (Fiction)
In December 1992, three groups of teenagers head to the theater to see the movie version of the famed Eons & Empires comic books. For Adam, it's a last-ditch effort to connect with a girl before he leaves town for good. Sharon skips school so she can fully appreciate the flick without interruption from her vapid almost-friends. And Phoebe and Ollie simply want to have a nice first date and maybe fool around in the dark, if everyone they know could just stop getting in the way. Over the next two decades, these characters criss-cross the globe, becoming entwined by friendship, sex, ambition, fame and tragedy.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250047991
THE LAST AMERICAN VAMPIRE by Seth Grahame-Smith (Horror)
In Reconstruction-era America, vampire Henry Sturges is searching for renewed purpose in the wake of his friend Abraham Lincoln's shocking death. It will be an expansive journey that will send him first to England for an unexpected encounter with Jack the Ripper, then to New York City for the birth of a new American century, the dawn of the electric era of Tesla and Edison, and the blazing disaster of the 1937 Hindenburg crash.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455502127
LILLIAN ON LIFE by Alison Jean Lester (Fiction)
Born in the Midwest in the 1930s, Lillian lives, loves and works in Europe in the ’50s and early ’60s. She settles in New York and pursues the great love of her life in the ’60s and ’70s. Now it’s the early ’90s, and she’s taking stock. Throughout her life, walking the unpaved road between traditional and modern choices for women, Lillian grapples with parental disappointment and societal expectations, wins and losses in love, and develops her own brand of wisdom.
Putnam Adult * 9780399168895
THE MAGICIAN’S LIE by Greer Macallister (Historical Mystery)
The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden's husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear, and she has only one night to convince a small-town policeman of her innocence.
Sourcebooks Landmark * 9781402298684
MIRACLE ON VOODOO MOUNTAIN: A Young Woman's Remarkable Story of Pushing Back the Darkness for the Children of Haiti by Megan Boudreaux (Memoir)
MIRACLE ON VOODOO MOUNTAIN is the inspirational memoir of an accomplished and driven 24-year-old who quit her job, sold everything and moved to Haiti by herself --- all without a clear plan of action. Megan Boudreaux had visited Haiti on a few humanitarian trips, but each trip multiplied the sense that someone needed to address the devastation --- especially with the children, many of whom were kept as household slaves on the poverty-stricken and earthquake-devastated Caribbean island.
Thomas Nelson * 9780529110947
OUTLINE by Rachel Cusk (Fiction)
OUTLINE is a novel in 10 conversations that follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing during one oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her students in storytelling exercises, meets other visiting writers for dinner and discourse, and goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her neighbor from the plane. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast --- a portrait of a woman learning to face a great loss.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux * 9780374228347
PUBLISHING: A Writer's Memoir by Gail Godwin (Memoir)
PUBLISHING is a personal story of a writer's hunger to be published, the pursuit of that goal, and then the long haul --- for Gail Godwin, 45 years of being a published writer and all that goes with it. The book reflects on the influence of her mother's writing hopes and accomplishments, and recalls her experiences with teachers Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Coover; John Hawkins, her literary agent for five decades; John Irving and other luminaries; and her editors and publishers.
Bloomsbury USA * 9781620408247
RESILIENCE: Two Sisters and a Story of Mental Illness by Jessie Close with Pete Earley (Memoir)
Jessie Close first started to exhibit symptoms of severe bipolar disorder as a child. She embarked on a series of destructive marriages as the condition worsened, and her mental illness was passed on to her son, Calen. It wasn't until Calen entered McLean's psychiatric hospital that Jessie herself was diagnosed. In RESILIENCE, she and her sister, actress Glenn Close, share their story of triumphing over her illness.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455548828
SAINT ODD: An Odd Thomas Novel by Dean Koontz (Supernatural Thriller)
Two years after the cataclysmic events that sent him journeying into mystery, Odd Thomas has traveled full circle, back to his beloved hometown of Pico Mundo and the people he loves. Odd has come to save them --- and perhaps humanity --- from the full flowering of evil. He prepares to confront the terrible forces arrayed against him and possibly to journey still farther, to his long-awaited reunion with his lost love, Stormy Llewellyn.
Bantam * 9780345545879
THE UNDERTAKER’S DAUGHTER: A Memoir by Kate Mayfield (Memoir)
After Kate Mayfield was born, she was taken directly to a funeral home. Her father was an undertaker, and for 13 years the family resided in a place nearly synonymous with death. A place where the living and the dead entered their house like a vapor. The place where Kate would spend the entirety of her childhood. In a memoir that reads like a Harper Lee novel, the author draws the reader into a world of Southern mystique and ghosts.
Gallery Books * 9781476757285
THE UNQUIET DEAD by Ausma Zehanat Khan (Mystery)
Detective Rachel Getty is asked by her boss, Esa Khattak, to look into the death of Christopher Drayton, who may have been a war criminal with ties to the Srebrenica massacre of 1995. But as Rachel and Khattak dig deeper into Drayton’s life and death, every question seems to lead only to more questions. Had the specters of Srebrenica returned to haunt Drayton at the end, or had he been keeping secrets of an entirely different nature?
Minotaur Books * 9781250055118
WEST OF SUNSET by Stewart O'Nan (Historical Fiction)
In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long over. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood. By December 1940, he would be dead of a heart attack. Those last three years of Fitzgerald’s life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O’Nan’s new novel.
Viking Adult * 9780670785957 |
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On Sale the Week of January 12th in Paperback
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January 13th
APPLE TREE YARD by Louise Doughty (Psychological Thriller)
Yvonne Carmichael, a renowned geneticist, public authority and mother of two, has become involved in an affair. So thrilled and absorbed is she in her newfound sexual power that she fails to notice the real danger about to blindside her from a seemingly innocuous angle. Then, reeling from an act of violence, Yvonne discovers that her desire for justice and revenge has already been compromised. Everything hinges on one night in a dark little alley called Apple Tree Yard.
Picador * 9781250062031
DIVINE APPLAUSE: Secrets and Rewards of Walking with an Invisible God by Jeff Anderson (Christian Life/Spiritual Growth)
Paperback Original
How do we have a relationship with a God we can’t see? There must be more to the Christian life than silence, and more to God than a vacant stare. DIVINE APPLAUSE weaves together biblical insights and personal stories that illustrate the surprising ways God connects with us. Let Jeff Anderson show you how to use your spiritual senses to experience God.
Multnomah Books * 9781601425300
THE EMPIRE OF NECESSITY: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World by Greg Grandin (History)
Drawing on research on four continents, THE EMPIRE OF NECESSITY explores the multiple forces that culminated in a remarkable slave rebellion one morning in 1805. Historian Greg Grandin uses the dramatic happenings of that day to map a new transnational history of slavery in the Americas, capturing the clash of peoples, economies and faiths that was the New World in the early 1800s.
Picador * 9781250062109
THE EXILES RETURN by Elisabeth de Waal (Historical Fiction)
Vienna is demolished by war, the city an alien landscape of ruined castles, a fractured ruling class, and people picking up the pieces. THE EXILES RETURN is the postwar story of Austria’s fallen aristocrats, unrepentant Nazis, and a culture degraded by violence. Elisabeth de Waal’s novel follows a number of exiles, each returning under very different circumstances, who must come to terms with a city in painful recovery.
Picador * 9781250063748
FROM THE DEAD: A Tom Thorne Novel by Mark Billingham (Mystery)
A decade ago, Alan Langford’s charred remains were discovered in his burnt-out car. His wife, Donna, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder her husband and sentenced to 10 years in prison. But before she is released, Donna receives a nasty shock: an anonymous letter containing a photo of her husband. How is it possible that he’s still alive? Where is he? Who sent the picture, and why?
Grove Press * 9780802122919
THE HOUSEMAID’S DAUGHTER by Barbara Mutch (Historical Fiction)
When Cathleen Harrington leaves her home in Ireland in 1919 to travel to South Africa, she knows that she does not love the man she is to marry there. Her only real companions are her diary and her housemaid, and later the housemaid's daughter, Ada. When Ada disappears one day, scorned by her own community, Cathleen must make a choice: Should she conform to society, or search for the girl who has become closer to her than her own daughter?
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250054463
RED 1-2-3 by John Katzenbach (Psychological Thriller)
When three red-haired women receive chilling letters in the mail from a killer known only as the Wolf, their lives are upended as they spend every waking moment fearing that their lives could be snuffed out at any time. The Wolf is stalking them, biding his time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to complete his master plan. Yet the one thing this cunning and devious killer didn't plan for is the Reds discovering each other.
Mysterious Press * 9780802122988
A THING OF BEAUTY by Lisa Samson (Romance)
Paperback Original
When former child star Fiona Hume's money finally runs out, she decides to rent out the maid’s quarters to a local blacksmith named Josia Yeu. Josia is everything Fiona isn’t: gregarious, peaceful, in control without controlling...in short, happy. As the light from the maid’s quarters begins to permeate the dank rooms of Fiona’s world, something else begins to transform as well --- something inside Fiona. Something even she can see is beautiful.
Thomas Nelson * 9781595545473
UNLUCKY 13 by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Mystery/Thriller)
San Francisco Detective Lindsay Boxer is loving her life as a new mother. Then the FBI sends Lindsay a photo of a killer from her past, and her happy world is shattered. The picture captures a beautiful woman at a stoplight. But all Lindsay sees is the psychopath behind those seductive eyes: Mackie Morales, the most deranged and dangerous mind the Women's Murder Club has ever encountered.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455516001
UNREMARRIED WIDOW: A Memoir by Artis Henderson (Memoir)
In her memoir, Artis Henderson not only recounts the unlikely love story she shared with her husband, Miles, and her unfathomable recovery in the wake of his death --- from the dark hours following the military notification to the first fumbling attempts at new love --- but also reveals how Miles’ death mirrored her father’s death in a plane crash, which Artis survived when she was five years old and left her own mother a young widow.
Simon & Schuster * 9781451649291
WHERE MONSTERS DWELL by Jørgen Brekke (Mystery)
A murder at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, bears a close resemblance to one in Trondheim, Norway. Richmond homicide detective Felicia Stone and Trondheim police inspector Odd Singsaker find themselves working on similar murder cases, committed the same way, but half a world away. And both murders are somehow connected to a 16th-century palimpsest book that appears to be a journal of a serial murderer back in 1529 Norway, a book bound in human skin.
Minotaur Books * 9781250060808
WHY I READ: The Serious Pleasure of Books by Wendy Lesser (Literary Criticism)
In WHY I READ, Wendy Lesser draws on a lifetime of pleasure reading and decades of editing to describe a life lived in and through literature. As Lesser examines work from such perspectives as “Character and Plot,” “Novelty,” “Grandeur and Intimacy” and “Authority,” the reader will discover a definition of literature that is as broad as it is broad-minded. In addition to novels and stories, Lesser explores plays, poems and essays, along with mysteries, science fiction and memoirs.
Picador * 9781250062093 |
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On Sale the Week of January 19th in Hardcover
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January 19th
GATEWAY TO FREEDOM: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad by Eric Foner (History)
Building on fresh evidence --- including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York --- Eric Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by "practical abolition" --- person by person, family by family.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393244076
SWEETLAND by Michael Crummey (Fiction)
The scarcely populated town of Sweetland rests on the shore of a remote Canadian island. Its slow decline finally reaches a head when the mainland government offers each islander a generous resettlement package --- the sole stipulation being that everyone must leave. Fierce and enigmatic Moses Sweetland, whose ancestors founded the village, is the only one to refuse. As he watches his neighbors abandon the island, he recalls the town’s rugged history and its eccentric cast of characters.
Liveright * 9780871407900
January 20th
A BAD CHARACTER by Deepti Kapoor (Romance)
She is 20 and restless in New Delhi. Her mother has died, and her father has left for Singapore. He is a few years older, just back to India from New York. When they meet in a café one afternoon, she --- lonely, hungry for experience, yearning to break free of tradition --- casts aside her fears and throws herself headlong into a love affair, one that takes her where she has never been before.
Knopf * 9780385352741
BLACK RIVER by S. M. Hulse (Western)
When Wes Carver returns to Black River, he carries two things in the cab of his truck: his wife’s ashes and a letter from the prison parole board. The convict who held him hostage during a riot 20 years ago is being considered for release. How can a man who once embodied evil ever come to good? How can he pay for such crimes with anything but his life? As Wes considers his own choices and grieves for all he’s lost, he must decide what he believes and if he can let Bobby Williams walk away.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780544309876
THE BOOK OF LOVE: Improvisations on a Crazy Little Thing by Roger Rosenblatt (Love & Romance)
In THE BOOK OF LOVE, Roger Rosenblatt explores love in all its moods and variations --- romantic love, courtship, battle, mystery, marriage, heartbreak, fury, confusion, melancholy, delirium, ecstasy; love of family, of friends; love of home, of country, of work, of writing, of solitude, of art; love of nature; love of life itself. Rosenblatt is on a quest to illuminate this elusive and essential emotion, to define this thing called love.
Ecco * 9780062349422
CANE AND ABE by James Grippando (Thriller)
A woman’s body is discovered dumped in the Everglades, and Abe Beckham is called upon to monitor the investigation. The FBI is tracking a killer in South Florida they call “Cutter” because his brutal methods harken back to Florida’s dark past, when machete-wielding men cut sugarcane by hand in the blazing sun. But when the Feds discover that Abe had a brief encounter with the victim after his first wife’s death, and when his current wife goes missing, the respected attorney finds himself under fire.
Harper * 9780062295392
ETTA AND OTTO AND RUSSELL AND JAMES by Emma Hooper (Fiction)
Otto finds a note left by his wife in the kitchen of their farmhouse in windswept Saskatchewan. Eighty-three-year-old Etta will be walking 3,200 kilometers to see the ocean, but somehow, Otto understands. He took his own journey once before, to fight in a faraway land. With Etta gone, Otto struggles with his demons of war, while their friend Russell initially pursues the woman he has loved from afar. And James --- well, James you have to meet on the page.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476755670
FEAR THE DARKNESS by Becky Masterman (Thriller)
After her sister-in-law dies, retired FBI agent Brigid Quinn’s niece, Gemma Kate, comes to live with her and her husband, Carlo. There's always been something unsettling about Gemma Kate, but family is family. Meanwhile, Brigid agrees to help a local couple by investigating the death of their son --- until dangerous things start to happen. As the menace comes closer and closer to home, Brigid begins to wonder if she can trust anyone.
Minotaur Books * 9780312622954
A FIFTY-YEAR SILENCE: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond Mouillot (Memoir/History)
A FIFTY-YEAR-SILENCE is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot's journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife's name aloud after she left him. To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda moves to their stone house; immerses herself in letters, archival materials and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent grandparents.
Crown * 9780804140645
FIRST FROST by Sarah Addison Allen (Fiction)
Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley’s Candies, though it’s costing her the everyday joys of her family. With each passing day, her half-sister, Sydney, longs more for a baby, while her daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she knows it belongs to…if only he could see it, too. When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250019837
GLOW by Ned Beauman (Fiction)
Twenty-two-year-old Raf spends his days walking Rose, a bull terrier who guards the transmitters for a pirate radio station, and his nights at raves in warehouses and launderettes. When his friend Theo vanishes without a trace, Raf’s efforts to find him will lead straight into the heart of a global corporate conspiracy. Meanwhile, he’s falling in love with a beautiful young woman he met at one of those raves, but he’ll soon discover that there is far more to Cherish than meets the eye.
Knopf * 9780385352604
GUANTANAMO DIARY written by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, edited by Larry Siems (Memoir)
Since 2002, Mohamedou Slahi has been imprisoned at the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. A federal judge ordered his release in March 2010, but the U.S. government fought that decision, and there is no sign that the United States plans to let him go. Three years into his captivity, Slahi began a diary, recounting his life before he disappeared into U.S. custody, "his endless world tour" of imprisonment and interrogation, and his daily life as a Guantánamo prisoner.
Little, Brown and Company * 9780316328685
IF I FALL, IF I DIE by Michael Christie (Fiction)
Will has never been outside, at least not since he can remember. And he has certainly never gotten to know anyone other than his mother, a fiercely loving yet wildly eccentric agoraphobe who drowns in panic at the thought of opening the front door. But Will’s thirst for adventure can’t be contained. Clad in a protective helmet and unsure of how to talk to other kids, he finally ventures outside and is thrust headfirst into the throes of early adulthood and the dangers that everyday life offers.
Hogarth * 9780804140805
THE MAN WHO COULDN’T STOP: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought by David Adam (Memoir)
David Adam, an editor at Nature and an accomplished science writer, has suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder for 20 years, and THE MAN WHO COULDN’T STOP is his unflinchingly honest attempt to understand the condition and his experiences. Drawing on the latest research on the brain, as well as historical accounts of patients and their treatments, this is a book that will challenge the way you think about what is normal and what is mental illness.
Sarah Crichton Books * 9780374223953
MORT(E) by Robert Repino (Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)
Former housecat turned war hero, Mort(e) is famous for taking on the most dangerous missions and fighting the dreaded human bio-weapon EMSAH. But the true motivation behind his recklessness is his ongoing search for a pre-transformation friend --- a dog named Sheba. When he receives a mysterious message from the dwindling human resistance claiming Sheba is alive, he begins a journey that will take him from the remaining human strongholds to the heart of the Colony, where he will discover the source of EMSAH and the ultimate fate of all of earth's creatures.
Soho Press * 9781616954277
MY FATHER’S WIVES by Mike Greenberg (Fiction)
Jonathan Sweetwater has been blessed with money, a fulfilling career and a beautiful family. But there’s one thing he never had: a relationship with his late father. On his quest for understanding --- about himself, about manhood, about marriage --- Jonathan decides to track down his father’s five ex-wives. His journey will take him from cosmopolitan cities to the mile-high mountains to a tropical island --- and ultimately back to confront the one thing Jonathan has that his father never did: home.
William Morrow * 9780062325860
THE SAME SKY by Amanda Eyre Ward (Fiction)
Alice and her husband, Jake, have a loving marriage and thriving business, but Alice still feels that something is missing. Carla is a strong-willed young girl who is acting as caretaker to her six-year-old brother, Junior. Years ago, her mother left the family behind in Honduras to make the arduous, illegal journey to Texas. But when her grandmother dies, Carla takes fate into her own hands. The lives of Alice and Carla will intersect in a profound and surprising way.
Ballantine Books * 9780553390506
SEE HOW SMALL by Scott Blackwood (Fiction)
Two strangers walk into an ice cream shop shortly before closing time. They bind up the three teenage girls who are working the counter, set fire to the shop and disappear. SEE HOW SMALL tells the stories of the survivors who must endure in the wake of atrocity. Justice remains elusive in their world, human connection tenuous. Hovering above the aftermath of their deaths are the three girls, who try to connect with and prod to life those they left behind.
Little, Brown and Company * 9780316373807
SERPENTS IN THE COLD by Thomas O'Malley and Douglas Graham Purdy (Historical Thriller)
Cal O'Brien and Dante Cooper are struggling to find their identities after World War II. Cal has built a mildly promising life for himself as an employee of a company providing private security. A heroin addict, Dante feels the call to do good after he discovers that his sister-in-law was the latest victim of a serial killer targeting disadvantaged women. Cal and Dante take it upon themselves to track the killer --- but their daunting quest takes on dangerous consequences when the trail leads them to the highest ranks of city government.
Mulholland Books * 9780316323505
A SMALL INDISCRETION by Jan Ellison (Fiction)
At 19, Annie Black trades a bleak future in her washed-out hometown for a London winter of drinking and abandon. Some two decades later, in San Francisco, she is a successful lighting designer married to a good man and the mother of three children. Then, one June morning, a photograph arrives in her mailbox, igniting an old longing and setting off a chain of events that threaten to overturn her family’s hard-won happiness.
Random House * 9780812995442
THE SWEET SPOT: How to Find Your Groove at Home and Work by Christine Carter, Ph.D. (Self-Help/Sociology)
Christine Carter, a happiness expert at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, shares the combination of practices that transformed her life from overwhelmed and exhausting to joyful, relaxed and productive. From instituting daily micro-habits that save time to bigger picture shifts that convert stress into productive and creative energy, THE SWEET SPOT shows us how to say “no” strategically and when to say “yes” with abandon, stop multitasking and gain efficiency, and much more.
Ballantine Books * 9780553392043
THE SWEETHEART by Angelina Mirabella (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1953, and 17-year-old Leonie Putzkammer is cartoonishly tall and curvaceous, destined to spend the rest of her life waiting tables and living with her widowed father in their Philadelphia row house. Until the day a legendary wrestling promoter walks into the local diner and offers her the chance of a lifetime. When Leonie becomes The Sweetheart, one of America’s most infamous female wrestlers, she attracts the fans she desires but complicates all of her relationships.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476733876
WHIPPING BOY: The Forty-Year Search for My Twelve-Year-Old Bully by Allen Kurzweil (Memoir)
WHIPPING BOY chronicles prize-winning author Allen Kurzweil’s search for his 12-year-old nemesis, a bully named Cesar Augustus. The obsessive inquiry, which spans some 40 years, takes Kurzweil all over the world --- from a Swiss boarding school (where he endures horrifying cruelty) to the slums of Manila, from the Park Avenue boardroom of the world’s largest law firm to a federal prison camp in Southern California.
Harper * 9780062269485
January 22nd
DIRTY CHICK: Adventures of an Unlikely Farmer by Antonia Murphy (Memoir)
DIRTY CHICK chronicles Antonia Murphy’s first year of life as an artisan farmer. Having bought into the myth that farming is a peaceful, fulfilling endeavor that allows one to commune with nature and live the way humans were meant to live, Antonia soon realized that the reality is far dirtier and way more disgusting than she ever imagined.
Gotham * 9781592409051
FROG by Mo Yan (Fiction)
FROG opens with a playwright nicknamed Tadpole, who plans to write about his aunt. In her youth, Gugu --- the beautiful daughter of a famous doctor and staunch Communist --- is revered for her skill as a midwife. But when her lover defects, Gugu’s own loyalty to the Party is questioned. She decides to prove her allegiance by strictly enforcing the one-child policy, keeping tabs on the number of children in the village, and performing abortions on women as many as eight months pregnant.
Viking Adult * 9780525427988
LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME by Alexandra Fuller (Memoir)
LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME begins with the dreadful first years of the American financial crisis when Alexandra Fuller’s delicate balance --- between American pragmatism and African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox marriage --- irrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambia, Fuller struggles to understand her younger self as she overcomes her current misfortunes. She soon realizes what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father.
The Penguin Press * 9781594205866
UNBECOMING by Rebecca Scherm (Psychological Thriller)
In Garland, Tennessee, two young men have just been paroled. Both were jailed for a crime that Grace planned in exacting detail. The heist went bad, but not before she was on a plane to Prague with a stolen canvas rolled in her bag. And so, in Paris, begins a cat-and-mouse waiting game as Grace’s web of deception and lies unravels --- and she becomes another young woman entirely.
Viking Adult * 9780525427506
WATCH ME GO by Mark Wisniewski (Noir Thriller)
Douglas “Deesh” Sharp has managed to stay out of trouble living in the Bronx, paying his rent by hauling junk for cash. But on the morning Deesh and two pals head upstate to dispose of a sealed oil drum whose contents smell and weigh enough to contain a human corpse, he becomes mixed up in a serious crime. When his plans for escape spiral terribly out of control, Deesh quickly finds himself a victim of betrayal --- and the prime suspect in the murders of three white men.
Putnam Adult * 9780399172120 |
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On Sale the Week of January 19th in Paperback
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January 20th
ALL IN: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life by Mark Batterson (Christian Living/Spiritual Growth)
The Gospel costs nothing, but it demands that we go “all in,” putting all that we have into God’s hands. And that’s where we get stuck --- in spiritual no man's land. We’re afraid that if we go all in, we might miss out on what this life has to offer. It’s not true. The only thing you’ll miss out on is everything God has to offer. And the good news is this: if you don't hold out on God, then God won't hold out on you.
Zondervan * 9780310341826
ALL JOY AND NO FUN: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior (Parenting/Sociology)
Thousands of books have examined the effects of parents on their children. But almost none have thought to ask: What are the effects of children on their parents? In ALL JOY AND NO FUN, award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior analyzes the many ways children reshape their parents' lives. She argues that changes in the last half century have radically altered the roles of today's mothers and fathers, making their mandates at once more complex and far less clear.
Ecco * 9780062072245
BLACK MOON by Kenneth Calhoun (Dystopian Fiction)
Somehow the world has stopped sleeping. Words are slurred, eyes are red-rimmed, and people are starting to lose their grip. Matt Biggs, however, is one of the few who can still sleep. His marriage is now at a crossroads: Carolyn has succumbed to the sleeplessness, gone mad and run away. Desperate to find his wife, save his marriage and preserve his sanity, he ventures out into the bizarre new world in which he lives.
Hogarth * 9780804137164
CAUGHT by Lisa Moore (Literary Adventure)
David Slaney has escaped from prison, where he was locked up on charges of marijuana possession. A trucker who is a friend of his sister transports him to a strip bar, where he survives his first night of freedom. But Slaney intends to track down his old partner, Hearn, and get back into the drug business. Along the way, Slaney's fugitive journey across Canada rushes vibrantly to life as he visits an old flame and adopts numerous guises to outpace authorities.
Grove Press * 9780802122957
CITY OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
Molly and Daniel Sullivan are settling happily into the new routines of parenthood, but their domestic bliss is shattered the night a gang retaliates against Daniel for making a big arrest. Daniel wants his family safely out of New York City as soon as possible, so Molly agrees to take their young son, Liam, on the long journey to Paris to stay with her friends. But upon arriving in the City of Lights, nothing goes as planned.
Minotaur Books * 9781250051608
THE DAYS OF ANNA MADRIGAL by Armistead Maupin (Fiction)
THE DAYS OF ANNA MADRIGAL, the ninth and final novel in Armistead Maupin’s classic Tales of the City series, follows one of modern literature’s most beloved and indelible characters --- Anna Madrigal, the legendary transgender landlady of 28 Barbary Lane --- as she embarks on a road trip that will take her deep into her complicated past.
Harper Perennial * 9780062196279
KINDER THAN SOLITUDE by Yiyun Li (Fiction)
In 1989, three teenage friends are among the residents of a Beijing quadrangle in which all the neighbors know one another. It’s four months after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Twenty-two-year-old Shaoai, one of the residents, was among the Tiananmen protesters. One day, the friends discover that someone has poisoned Shaoai. This mystery is the backdrop of a novel about jealousy and the ways in which the traumas of adolescence can devastate one’s adulthood.
Random House Trade Paperbacks * 9780812980165
THE LAND OF STEADY HABITS by Ted Thompson (Fiction)
Anders Hill, entering his early 60s and seemingly ensconced in the "land of steady habits," abandons his career and family for a new condo and a new life. Stripped of the comforts of his previous identity, Anders turns up at a holiday party full of his ex-wife's friends and is surprised to find that the very world he rejected may be one he needs. Thus Anders embarks on a clumsy, hilarious and heartbreaking journey to reconcile his past with his present.
Back Bay Books * 9780316186575
MARCH: Book Two written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell (Graphic Memoir/History)
Paperback Original
Congressman John Lewis, an American icon and one of the key figures of the civil rights movement, continues his award-winning graphic novel trilogy with co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell. After the success of the Nashville sit-in campaign, Lewis is more committed than ever to changing the world through nonviolence --- but as he and his fellow Freedom Riders board a bus into the vicious heart of the deep south, they will be tested like never before.
Top Shelf Productions * 9781603094009
OUT OF THE WOODS: A Memoir of Wayfinding by Lynn Darling (Memoir)
When her college-bound daughter leaves home, Lynn Darling, widowed over a decade earlier, finds herself alone and utterly lost, with no idea of what she wants or even who she is. Searching for answers, she leaves New York for the solitary woods of Vermont. Removed from the familiar, cocooned in the natural world, her only companions a new dog and a compass, she hopes to develop a sense of direction --- both in the woods and in her life.
Harper Perennial * 9780061710230
THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY: A Journey to Intimate Friendship With God by Dutch Sheets (Christian Life/Spiritual Growth)
There's just something about people who are close to God. Through the ups and downs of life, they remain secure and hopeful. If you want a more rewarding spiritual life, if you want the pleasure of knowing your Creator's heart, this soul-lifting book is for you. Learn from Dutch Sheets as he shares his life lessons for cultivating an intimate relationship with God.
Bethany House Publishers * 9780764213335
ROMANCING YOUR BETTER HALF: Keeping Intimacy Alive in Your Marriage by Rick Johnson (Love & Marriage)
Paperback Original
If you've been married more than a few years, you probably know how it goes. You start out in the throes of passionate romance only to have the fire cool over the years --- especially when kids come along or life gets too busy. But keeping the romance alive is easier than most people think. Now the author of BECOMING YOUR SPOUSE'S BETTER HALF shares the secrets of pursuing romance that won't quit.
Revell * 9780800722340
ROOSEVELT’S BEAST by Louis Bayard (Historical Thriller)
Plagued by hunger and suffering the lingering effects of malaria, Theodore Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and the other members of the now-ravaged Roosevelt-Rondon scientific expedition are traveling deeper and deeper into the jungle. When Kermit and Teddy are kidnapped by a never-before-seen Amazonian tribe, the great hunters are asked one thing in exchange for their freedom: find and kill a beast that leaves no tracks and that no member of the tribe has ever seen.
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250053114
SHE’S LEAVING HOME by William Shaw (Historical Mystery)
Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen believes that the victim of a strangulation may be one of the many Beatles fans who regularly camp outside Abbey Road Studios. With his reputation tarnished by an inexplicable act of cowardice, this is Breen's last chance to prove he's up to the job. Both he and Helen Tozer, a young policewoman assisting him with the case, navigate a world where conservative tradition gives way to frightening new freedoms --- and troubling new crimes.
Mulholland Books * 9780316246859
THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC: A Piper Donovan Mystery by Mary Jane Clark (Mystery)
Piper Donovan has barely arrived in New Orleans to perfect her pastry skills at a renowned French Quarter bakery when a ghastly murder rocks the magical city. Intrigued by the case, Piper can’t help but look for the “Hoodoo Killer” among the faces around her. When the murderer strikes again, she thinks she can unmask the killer. But Piper will have to conjure up some old black magic of her own if she hopes to live long enough to reveal the truth.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062135483
THE TRANSCRIPTIONIST by Amy Rowland (Fiction)
When Lena, the transcriptionist for the Record, a New York City newspaper, reads a shocking piece about a Jane Doe mauled to death by a lion, she is surprised to see that she recognizes the woman, having met her on the bus a few days before. Obsessed with understanding what caused the woman to deliberately climb into the lion's den, Lena begins a campaign for the truth that will destroy the Record's complacency and shake the venerable institution to its very foundation.
Algonquin Books * 9781616204501 |
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