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September 8, 2015 |
The following are lists of books releasing the weeks of September 7th and September 14th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers.
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On Sale the Week of September 7th in Hardcover
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September 8th
ABOVE THE WATERFALL by Ron Rash (Fiction)
Les, a long-time sheriff just three weeks from retirement, contends with the ravages of crystal meth and his own duplicity in his small Appalachian town. Becky, a park ranger with a harrowing past, finds solace amid the lyrical beauty of this patch of North Carolina. When an irascible elderly local is accused of poisoning a trout stream, Les and Becky are plunged into deep and dangerous waters, forced to navigate currents of disillusionment and betrayal that will force them to question themselves, test their tentative bond --- and threaten to carry them over the edge.
Ecco * 9780062349316
BLACK MAN IN A WHITE COAT: A Doctor's Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy, M.D. (Memoir)
BLACK MAN IN A WHITE COAT examines the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine. As Damon Tweedy transforms from student to practicing physician, he discovers how often race influences his encounters with patients. Through their stories, he illustrates the complex social, cultural and economic factors at the root of most health problems in the black community. These issues take on greater meaning when Tweedy himself is diagnosed with a chronic disease far more common among black people.
Picador * 9781250044631
BREAM GIVES ME HICCUPS: And Other Stories by Jesse Eisenberg (Fiction/Short Stories)
Taking its title from a group of stories that begin the book, BREAM GIVES ME HICCUPS moves from contemporary LA to the dorm rooms of an American college to ancient Pompeii, throwing the reader into a universe of social misfits, reimagined scenes from history, and ridiculous overreactions. In one piece, a tense email exchange between a young man and his girlfriend is taken over by the man’s sister, who is obsessed with the Bosnian genocide; in another, a college freshman forced to live with a roommate is stunned when one of her ramen packets goes missing.
Grove Press * 9780802124043
DANCE OF THE BONES: A J. P. Beaumont and Brandon Walker Novel by J. A. Jance (Mystery)
Amos Warren, a prospector, was gunned down years ago, and Sheriff Brandon Walker made the arrest in the case. Now retired, he is called in when the alleged killer, John Lassiter, refuses to accept a plea deal and demands that Brandon find the "real" killer. Upon discovering that there are links between Lassiter’s case and an unsolved case in Seattle, he comes to J.P. Beaumont for help. Those two cases suddenly become hot when two young boys from the reservation, one of them with close ties to the Walker family, go missing.
William Morrow * 9780062297662
THE DEBT OF TAMAR by Nicole Dweck (Fiction)
In 2002, 32-year-old Selim Osman, the last descendant of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, flees Istanbul for New York. In a twist of fate he meets Hannah, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and an artist striving to understand a father she barely knows. Unaware that the connection they share goes back centuries, the two feel an immediate pull to one another. But as their story intertwines with that of their ancestors, the heroic but ultimately tragic decision that bound two families centuries ago ripples into the future, threatening to tear Hannah and Selim apart.
Thomas Dunne Books * 9781250065681
DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg (Fiction)
On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke --- her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor. Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak.
Gallery/Scout Press * 9781476798172
FEAR OF DYING by Erica Jong (Fiction)
Vanessa Wonderman watches her parents age, attends doctor appointments with her pregnant daughter, and sits by the hospital bed of her husband, Asher, 15 years her senior. With her best years as an actress behind her, she's discovering that beginnings are easy, but endings can be hard. Could her fountain of youth fantasies be fulfilled on zipless.com? A site inspired by the writings of her best friend, Isadora Wing, it promises "no strings attached" encounters --- and Vanessa is so restless that she's willing to try anything.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250065919
GIRL IN THE WOODS: A Memoir by Aspen Matis (Memoir)
On her second night of college, Aspen Matis was raped by a fellow student. Dealing with a problem that has sadly become all too common on college campuses around the country, she stumbled through her first semester --- a challenging time made even harder by the coldness of her college's "conflict mediation" process. Her desperation growing, she made a bold decision: She would seek healing in the freedom of the wild, on the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail leading from Mexico to Canada.
William Morrow * 9780062291066
THE HANGING GIRL: A Department Q Novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Carl Mørck has no choice but to lead Department Q into the tragic cold case of a vivacious 17-year-old girl who vanished from school, only to be found dead hanging high up in a tree. The investigation will take them from the remote island of Bornholm to a strange sun-worshipping cult, where Carl, Assad, Rose and newcomer Gordon attempt to stop a string of new murders and a skilled manipulator who refuses to let anything --- or anyone --- get in the way.
Dutton * 9780525954941
THE HUMMINGBIRD by Stephen P. Kiernan (Fiction)
Deborah Birch is a seasoned hospice nurse whose daily work requires courage and compassion. But her skills and experience are tested in new and dramatic ways when her easygoing husband, Michael, returns from his third deployment to Iraq haunted by nightmares, anxiety and rage. At the same time, Deborah’s primary patient is Barclay Reed, a retired history professor and expert in the Pacific Theater of World War II. He tells her stories from that long-ago war, which help her find a way to assist her husband in battling his demons.
William Morrow * 9780062369543
THE LOST LANDSCAPE: A Writer's Coming of Age by Joyce Carol Oates (Memoir)
In THE LOST LANDSCAPE, Joyce Carol Oates explores the world through the eyes of her younger self, an imaginative girl eager to tell stories about the world and the people she meets. While reading ALICE IN WONDERLAND changed a young Joyce forever and inspired her to view life as a series of endless adventures, growing up on a farm taught her harsh lessons about sacrifice, hard work and loss. Oates transports us to a forgotten place and time while reminding us of the forgotten landscapes of our own earliest lives.
Ecco * 9780062408679
MAKE ME: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child (Thriller)
Mother’s Rest is a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes Jack Reacher for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal. Before long, Reacher is plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco, and ultimately back to Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.
Delacorte Press * 9780804178778
THE PERFECT COMEBACK OF CAROLINE JACOBS by Matthew Dicks (Fiction)
A rare outburst from Caroline Jacobs has awakened something in her --- a realization that the roots of her tirade can be traced back to when her best friend very publicly betrayed her. So Caroline decides to go back to her home town and tell off her childhood friend. She busts her daughter out of school, and the two set off to deliver the perfect comeback…some 25 years later. But nothing goes as planned. Long-buried secrets rise to the surface, and Caroline finds that she has to face much more than one old, bad best friend.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250006301
QUIXOTE: The Novel and the World by Ilan Stavans (Cultural History)
The year 2015 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the complete DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA. The novel has spawned ballets and operas, poems and plays, movies and video games, and even shapes the identities of entire nations. In QUIXOTE, Ilan Stavans explores these many manifestations. Training his eye on the tumultuous struggle between logic and dreams, he reveals the ways in which a work of literature is a living thing that influences and is influenced by the world around it.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393083026
ROBERT B. PARKER'S THE DEVIL WINS: A Jesse Stone Novel by Reed Farrel Coleman (Mystery)
Three bodies are discovered in the rubble of an abandoned factory building in an industrial part of Paradise known as The Swap. Found within feet of a man’s body are the skeletal remains of two teenage girls who had gone missing 25 years earlier. Not only does that crime predate Jesse Stone’s arrival in Paradise, but the dead girls were close friends of Jesse’s right hand, Officer Molly Crane. And things become even more complicated when one of the dead girls’ mothers returns to Paradise to bury her daughter and is promptly murdered.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399169465
THIS IS YOUR LIFE, HARRIET CHANCE! by Jonathan Evison (Fiction)
Seventy-eight-year-old Harriet Chance impulsively sets sail on an ill-conceived Alaskan cruise that her late husband, Bernard, had planned. There, between the imagined appearances of Bernard and the very real arrival of her estranged daughter midway through the cruise, Harriet is forced to take a long look back, confronting the truth about pivotal events that changed the course of her life. In the process, she discovers that she’s been living the better part of that life under entirely false assumptions.
Algonquin Books * 9781616202613
TRIGGER MORTIS: A James Bond Novel by Anthony Horowitz (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
Incorporating original, never-before-published material from 007 creator Ian Fleming, Anthony Horowitz returns James Bond to his 1950s heyday. The world's most famous spy has just returned victorious from his showdown with Auric Goldfinger in Fort Knox. By his side is the glamorous and streetwise Pussy Galore, who played no small part in his success. As they settle down in London, the odds of Galore taming the debonair bachelor seem slim --- but she herself is a creature not so easily caught.
Harper * 9780062395108
TWO YEARS EIGHT MONTHS AND TWENTY-EIGHT NIGHTS by Salman Rushdie (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Once upon a time, in a world just like ours, there came “the time of the strangenesses.” A simple gardener began to levitate, and a powerful djinn raised an army composed entirely of her semi-magical great-great-great-grandchildren. A baby was born with the ability to see corruption in the faces of others. The ghosts of two philosophers, long dead, began arguing once more. And a battle for the kingdom of Fairyland was waged throughout our world for 1,001 nights --- or, to be more precise, for two years, eight months and 28 nights.
Random House * 9780812998917
UNDERGROUND IN BERLIN: A Young Woman's Extraordinary Tale of Survival in the Heart of Nazi Germany written by Marie Jalowicz Simon, translated by Anthea Bell (Memoir/History)
In 1941, Marie Jalowicz Simon, a 19-year-old Berliner, made an extraordinary decision. All around her, Jews were being rounded up for deportation, forced labor and extermination. Marie took off her yellow star, turned her back on the Jewish community and vanished into the city. In the years that followed, Marie lived under an assumed identity, forced to accept shelter wherever she found it. Always on the run, never certain whom she could trust, Marie moved between almost 20 different safe-houses, living with foreign workers, staunch communists and even committed Nazis.
Little, Brown and Company * 9780316382090
VIGILANCE: My Life Serving America and Protecting Its Empire City by Ray Kelly (Memoir)
Two-time New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly grew up on New York City's Upper West Side. He entered the police academy and served as a marine in Vietnam, living and fighting by the values that would carry him through a half century of leadership --- justice, decisiveness, integrity, courage and loyalty. In VIGILANCE, Kelly takes us inside 50 years of law enforcement leadership, offering chilling stories of terrorist plots after 9/11, and sharing his candid insights into the challenges and controversies cops face today.
Hachette Books * 9780316383813 |
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On Sale the Week of September 7th in Paperback
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September 7th
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 * 9781631491108
September 8th
13 HOURS: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi by Mitchell Zuckoff, with the Annex Security Team (Current Affairs)
13 HOURS presents, for the first time ever, the true account of the events of September 11, 2012, when terrorists attacked the US State Department Special Mission Compound and a nearby CIA station called the Annex in Benghazi, Libya. A team of six American security operators fought to repel the attackers and protect the Americans stationed there. This is their personal account, never before told, of what happened during the 13 hours of that now-infamous attack.
Twelve * 9781455582280
THE ART OF CRASH LANDING by Melissa DeCarlo (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When she gets news of a possible inheritance left by a grandmother she’s never met, a broke and knocked-up Mattie Wallace jumps at this one last chance to turn her life around and drives 800 miles to her mother’s birthplace. But before long, it becomes clear that something terrible happened to her mother. The harder Mattie digs for answers, the more obstacles she encounters. Giving up isn’t an option. Uncovering what started her mother’s downward spiral might be the only way to stop her own.
Harper Paperbacks * 9780062390547
BETRAYED: A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel by Lisa Scottoline (Mystery)
When Judy Carrier begins an investigation into the murder of Iris, the housekeeper and best friend of Judy's beloved Aunt Barb, she discovers a shocking truth that confounds her expectations and leads her in a completely different direction. Before she knows it, she finds herself plunged into a shadowy world of people who are so desperate that they cannot go to the police. Judy finds strength within herself to try to get justice for Iris and her aunt --- but it comes at a terrible price.
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250074362
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS by Marlon James (Historical Fiction)
On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert, gunmen stormed his house, machine guns blazing. The attack nearly killed the Reggae superstar, his wife and his manager, and injured several others. A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS is the fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time and its bloody aftermath.
Riverhead Books * 9781594633942
DR. MUTTER’S MARVELS: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz (Biography/Medicine)
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz chronicles the life of Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter, a Philadelphia plastic surgeon who revolutionized the face of American surgery and founded a museum of medical oddities. An eccentric innovator, Mütter pioneered the use of ether as anesthesia, the sterilization of surgical tools, and a compassion-based vision for helping the severely deformed. DR. MUTTER'S MARVELS offers both a biography of this unconventional doctor and a revealing portrait of 19th-century medicine.
Avery * 9781592409259
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 * 9781439172575
FOR THE DEAD: A Poke Rafferty Thriller by Timothy Hallinan (Thriller)
After seven years in Bangkok, American travel writer Poke Rafferty finally feels settled. All that is endangered when his adopted daughter, Miaow, helps her boyfriend buy a stolen iPhone that contains photographs of two murdered police officers. As Miaow’s carefully constructed personal life falls apart, Rafferty discovers that the murders are part of a conspiracy that reaches the top rungs of Bangkok law enforcement and beyond.
Soho Crime * 9781616956165
THE GIRL WITHOUT A NAME by Sandra Block (Psychological Suspense)
Paperback Original
In what passes for an ordinary day in a psych ward, Dr. Zoe Goldman is stumped when a highly unusual case arrives. A young African American girl, found wandering the streets of Buffalo in a catatonic state, is brought in by police. No one has come forward to claim her, and all leads have been exhausted, so Zoe's treatment is the last hope to discover the girl's identity. When drugs prove ineffective and medical science seems to be failing, Zoe takes matters into her own hands to track down Jane Doe's family and piece together their checkered history.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455583775
GUTENBERG’S APPRENTICE by Alix Christie (Historical Fiction)
Johann Gutenberg has devised a revolutionary method of bookmaking: a machine he calls a printing press. Johann Fust is financing Gutenberg’s workshop and orders his adopted son, Peter, to become Gutenberg’s apprentice. As Peter’s skill grows, so, too, does his admiration for Gutenberg and his dedication to their daring venture: copies of the Holy Bible. But mechanical difficulties and the crushing power of the Catholic Church threaten their work.
Harper Perennial * 9780062336026
MALICE by Keigo Higashino (Mystery)
Bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he’s planning to relocate to Vancouver. His body is discovered by his wife and his best friend, both of whom seem to have rock solid alibis. But the question before Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga isn't necessarily who or how, but why. In MALICE, the detective and the killer battle over the truth of the past and how events that led to the murder really unfolded.
Minotaur Books * 9781250070326
THE PAYING GUESTS by Sarah Waters (Historical Fiction)
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers. With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways.
Riverhead Books * 9781594633928
THE PLOUGHMEN by Kim Zupan (Fiction)
Two men --- a killer awaiting trial and a troubled young deputy --- sit across from each other, talking through the bars of a county jail cell. With a disintegrating marriage further collapsing under the strain of his night duty, Valentine Millimaki finds himself seeking counsel from a man whose troubled past shares something essential with his own. Their uneasy friendship takes a startling turn with a brazen act of violence that yokes together two haunted souls by the secrets they share.
Picador * 9781250074782
REBELLION: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution by Peter Ackroyd (History)
The third volume of Peter Ackroyd's The History of England covers the Stuart dynasty, which brought together England and Scotland, during a period marked by civil war and the killing of a king. Ackroyd tells the story of the turbulent 17th century, in which England suffered through three civil wars --- two fought between Parliament and both Charles I and Charles II, and, finally, the "Glorious Rebellion of 1688," which saw Charles II’s brother James deposed and sent into exile.
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250070241
SHE’S NOT THERE by P.J. Parrish (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
She knows her name is Amelia, but after waking up in a hospital battered and bruised with just the clothes on her back, it’s all she knows. Unable to piece together her shattered memory, she’s haunted by a vision: menacing faces and voices implying her nightmare is far from over. Relying only on her wits and her will to live, Amelia becomes a fugitive from a mysterious man, and a life she can’t even remember. But the past she’s fleeing has no intention of letting her go.
Thomas & Mercer * 9781503945043
WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE by T. Geronimo Johnson (Fiction)
UC Berkley freshman D’aron Davenport is uncertain about his place until one disastrous party brings him three idiosyncratic best friends. But everything changes in the group’s alternative history class when D’aron lets slip that his hometown hosts an annual Civil War reenactment, recently rebranded “Patriot Days.” His announcement is met with righteous indignation and inspires one of his friends to suggest a “performative intervention” to protest the reenactment.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062302137
YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television by Al Michaels, with L. Jon Wertheim (Sports/Memoir)
No sportscaster has covered more major sporting events than Al Michaels. He is the only play-by-play commentator to have covered all four major sports championships: the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Final. Michaels has also witnessed firsthand some of the most memorable events in modern sports, and in this highly personal and revealing account, he brings them vividly to life.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062314970 |
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On Sale the Week of September 14th in Hardcover
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September 14th
THE SCRIBE by Matthew Guinn (Historical Mystery)
After leaving Atlanta in disgrace three years before, detective Thomas Canby is called back to the city on the eve of Atlanta's 1881 International Cotton Exposition to partner with Atlanta's first African American police officer, Cyrus Underwood. The case they're assigned is chilling: a serial murderer who seems to be violently targeting Atlanta's wealthiest black entrepreneurs. The killer's method is both strange and unusually gruesome. On each victim's mutilated body is inscribed a letter of the alphabet, beginning with "M."
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393239294
September 15th
THE ART OF MEMOIR by Mary Karr (Literary Criticism)
Mary Karr’s THE LIARS’ CLUB was credited with sparking the current memoir explosion. For 30 years, Karr has also taught the form, winning graduate teaching prizes for her highly selective seminar at Syracuse, where she mentored such future hit authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen and Koren Zailckas. In THE ART OF MEMOIR, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form.
Harper * 9780062223067
THE BLUE GUITAR by John Banville (Fiction)
Equally self-aggrandizing and self-deprecating, Oliver Otway Orme is a painter of some renown and a petty thief. But as he pushes 50, he has stopped painting, and his last act of thievery has been discovered. The fact that the purloined possession was the wife of the man who, perhaps, was his best friend has compelled him to run away and sequester himself in the house where he was born. There, Olly reveals the very essence of a man who, in some way, has always been waiting to be rescued from himself.
Knopf * 9780385354264
CORRIDORS OF THE NIGHT: A William Monk Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
The monomaniacal Rand brothers are ruthless in their pursuit of a cure for what was then known as the fatal “white-blood disease.” In London’s Royal Naval Hospital annex, nurse Hester Monk is tending one of the brothers’ dying patients when she stumbles upon three terrified young children and learns that they’ve been secretly purchased and imprisoned by the Rands for experimental purposes. Before Hester can reveal the truth, she too becomes a prisoner; the brothers are too close to a miracle cure to allow their experiments to be exposed.
Ballantine Books * 9780553391381
DEVOTED IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Thriller)
Ella-Loo and her boyfriend, Darryl, hit the road now that Darryl’s sentence has been served. When their car breaks down, they make plans to take someone else’s. Then things get messy, and they wind up killing someone --- an experience that stokes a fierce, wild desire in Ella-Loo. A desire for Darryl. And a desire to kill again. With her husband, Roarke, at her side, Lieutenant Eve Dallas has every intention of hunting these two down and giving them what they truly deserve.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399170881
DISHING THE DIRT: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton (Mystery)
When therapist Jill Davent moved to the village of Carsely, Agatha Raisin was not a fan. Not only was she romancing Agatha's ex-husband, she dug up details of Agatha's not-too-glamorous origins. Jill also counsels a woman who Agatha firmly believes assisted her son in some grisly murders. Not one to keep her feelings to herself, Agatha tells anyone who would listen that Jill is a charlatan and better off dead. So when Jill is found strangled to death in her office, Agatha becomes the prime suspect.
Minotaur Books * 9781250057426
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF LILIANE by Lily Tuck (Fiction)
As the child of a German movie producer father who lives in Italy and a beautiful, artistically talented mother who resides in New York, Liliane’s life is divided between those two very different worlds. A shy and observant only child with a vivid imagination, Liliane uncovers the stories of family members as diverse as Moses Mendelssohn, Mary Queen of Scots and an early Mexican adventurer, and pieces together their vivid histories, through both World Wars and across continents.
Atlantic Monthly Press * 9780802124029
THE DROWNING by Camilla Läckberg (Mystery/Thriller)
Christian Thydell’s dream has come true. His debut novel, The Mermaid, has been published to rave reviews. So why is he as distant and unhappy as ever? When crime writer Erica Falk, who helped Christian discover and develop his talents, learns he has been receiving anonymous threats, she investigates not just the messages but also the young author’s mysterious past. Then, one of Christian’s closet friends, Magnus, goes missing. Erica’s husband, Detective Patrik Hedström, has his worst suspicions confirmed as the mind games aimed at Christian become a disturbing reality.
Pegasus * 9781605988566
THE END GAME: A Brit in the FBI Novel by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison (Thriller)
FBI agent Nicholas Drummond and his partner, Mike Caine, are deep into an investigation of COE --- Celebrants of the Earth --- a violent group known for widespread bombings of power grids and oil refineries across the country. COE has been infiltrated by a deep-cover counterterrorism agent named Vanessa Grace. A bomb-making expert, Vanessa must leave COE and join forces with Nicholas and Mike to stop the organization’s devious plan to assassinate the President.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399173806
FATES AND FURIES by Lauren Groff (Fiction)
Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of FATES AND FURIES, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of 24 years. At age 22, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed.
Riverhead Books * 9781594634475
FINALE: A Novel of the Reagan Years by Thomas Mallon (Historical Fiction)
FINALE captures the crusading ideologies, blunders and glamour of the still-hotly-debated Ronald Reagan years, taking readers to the political gridiron of Washington, the wealthiest enclaves of Southern California, and the volcanic landscape of Iceland, where the president engages in two almost apocalyptic days of negotiation with Mikhail Gorbachev. At the center of it all --- but forever out of reach --- is Reagan himself, whose genial remoteness confounds his subordinates, his children and the citizens who elected him.
Pantheon * 9780307907929
THE GIRL WHO WROTE LONELINESS by Kyung-Sook Shin (Historical Fiction)
Homesick and alone, a teenaged girl has just arrived in Seoul to work in a factory. Her family, still in the countryside, is too impoverished to keep sending her to school. So she works long days on a stereo-assembly line, struggling through night school every evening in order to achieve her dream of becoming a writer. THE GIRL WHO WROTE LONELINESS is set against the backdrop of Korea’s industrial sweatshops of the 1970s, and takes on the extreme exploitation, oppression and urbanization that helped catapult Korea’s economy out of the ashes of war.
Pegasus * 9781605988634
HOUSE OF THIEVES by Charles Belfoure (Historical Fiction)
In 1886 New York, a respectable architect shouldn't have any connection to the notorious gang of thieves and killers that rules the underbelly of the city. When John Cross' son racks up an unfathomable gambling debt to Kent's Gents, Cross must pay it back himself. All he has to do is use his inside knowledge of high society mansions and museums to craft a robbery even the smartest detectives won't solve. But Cross' entire life has become a balancing act, and it will only take one mistake for it all to come crashing down --- and for his family to go down too.
Sourcebooks Landmark * 9781492617891
INJUSTICE by Lee Goodman (Legal Thriller)
Someone close to Nick Davis is murdered. Investigators see it as either a case of mistaken identity or the work of a jealous fiancé. As a federal prosecutor, Nick tries shepherding the case to a swift conclusion, but it keeps slipping away. Meanwhile, Nick’s relationship with his wife, Tina, hangs by the thinnest of threads. She is also a lawyer, working to vindicate a young man convicted of killing a child eight years previously. When old DNA evidence is uncovered in the murder case, its analysis hurls Nick’s universe into upheaval.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books * 9781476728032
THE KILLING KIND by Chris Holm (Thriller)
Once a covert operative for a false-flag unit of the US military, Michael Hendricks was presumed dead after a mission in Afghanistan went sideways. He left behind his old life --- and beloved fiancée --- and set out on a path of redemption...or perhaps one of willful self-destruction. Now Hendricks makes his living as a hitman entrepreneur of sorts --- he only hits other hitmen. Not a bad way for a guy with his skill-set to make a living, but a great way to make himself a target.
Mulholland Books * 9780316259538
THE LAST SEASON: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime of College Football by Stuart Stevens (Memoir)
Stuart Stevens built a successful career as a writer and political consultant. But in the fall of 2012, the presidential campaign he’d worked on suffered a painful defeat. Grappling with a profound sense of loss and mortality, he began asking himself some tough questions, not least about his relationship with his father. He made a resolution: to invite his father to attend a season of Ole Miss football games together. This allows them to take stock of their lives as father and son, and as individuals, reminding themselves of their unique, complicated, precious bond.
Knopf * 9780385353021
THE LAST SEPTEMBER by Nina de Gramont (Psychological Thriller)
Brett had been in love with Charlie from the day she laid eyes on him in college. When Charlie is found murdered, Brett is devastated. But, if she is honest with herself, their marriage had been hanging by a thread for quite some time. Though all clues point to Charlie’s brother Eli, who’s been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years, any number of people might have been driven to slit the throat of Charlie Moss --- a handsome, charismatic man who unwittingly damaged almost every life he touched.
Algonquin Books * 9781616201333
MINUTE ZERO by Todd Moss (Thriller)
Fresh off the harrowing events of THE GOLDEN HOUR, State Department crisis manager Judd Ryker is suddenly thrown into a quickly developing emergency in Zimbabwe, where a longtime strongman is being challenged for the presidency. Rumors are flying furiously: armed gangs, military crackdowns, shady outside money pouring in, and, most disturbing for the United States, reports of highly enriched uranium leaking into the market. And that’s all before Ryker even lands in the country. It gets much worse after that.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399168680
THE MISTAKE I MADE by Paula Daly (Psychological Thriller)
After the dissolution of her marriage, Roz’s business has gone under, debts are racking up, the rent is late (again), and she's struggling to provide for her nine-year-old son. At her sister’s birthday party, Roz meets Scott Elias, who makes her an offer to spend the night with him --- for money. With that kind of cash, she could clear her debts and get her life back on track. But as the situation spirals out of her control, Roz is forced to do things she never thought herself capable of. Can she ever set things right again?
Grove Press * 9780802124098
ONCE IN A GREAT CITY: A Detroit Story by David Maraniss (History)
It’s 1963, and Detroit is on top of the world. The auto industry was selling more cars than ever before and inventing the Mustang. Motown was capturing the world with its amazing artists. The progressive labor movement was rooted in Detroit with the UAW. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech there two months before he made it famous in the Washington march. ONCE IN A GREAT CITY shows that the shadows of collapse were evident even then.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476748382
PATRIOT: An Alex Hawke Novel by Ted Bell (Thriller/Adventure)
In corrupt Russia, an erratic Vladimir Putin is determined to forge his country into a formidable superpower once again. He intends to redraw the map of Europe and will go to impossible extremes to realize his fantasies. Kremlin scientists have developed a radical new weapon that could forever alter modern warfare. NATO, locked in a tense standoff over Ukraine, Poland and Estonia, knows Putin will not hesitate to use it. But there is one man who can bring the world back from the brink: Britain’s foremost intelligence asset, Lord Alexander Hawke.
William Morrow * 9780062279415
QUICKSAND by Steve Toltz (Fiction)
Liam is a struggling writer and a failing cop. Aldo, his best friend and muse, is a haplessly criminal entrepreneur with an uncanny knack for disaster. As Aldo’s luck worsens, Liam is inspired to base his next book on his best friend’s exponential misfortunes and hopeless quest to win back his one great love: his ex-wife, Stella. What begins as an attempt to make sense of Aldo’s mishaps spirals into a profound story of faith and friendship.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476797823
THE SCAM: A Fox and O'Hare Novel by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (Mystery/Thriller)
Evan Trace is running a money-laundering operation through his casino in Macau. Some of his best customers are mobsters, dictators and global terrorists. Nicolas Fox and Kate O’Hare will have to go deep undercover as high-stakes gamblers, wagering millions of dollars --- and their lives --- in an attempt to topple Trace’s empire. Their only backup: a self-absorbed actor, a Somali pirate, and Kate’s father, an ex-soldier who believes a rocket launcher is the best way to solve every problem. What could possibly go wrong?
Bantam * 9780345543165
SCRAPPER by Matt Bell (Fiction)
Detroit has descended into ruin. Kelly scavenges for scrap metal from the hundred thousand abandoned buildings in a part of the city known as “the zone,” an increasingly wild landscape where one day he finds something far more valuable than the copper he’s come to steal: a kidnapped boy, crying out for rescue. Briefly celebrated as a hero, Kelly secretly avenges the boy’s unsolved kidnapping, a task that will take him deeper into the zone and into a confrontation with his own past and long-buried traumas.
Soho Press * 9781616955212
SO YOU DON'T GET LOST IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD written by Patrick Modiano, translated by Euan Cameron (Mystery/Psychological Suspense)
In the stillness of his Paris apartment, Jean Daragane has built a life of total solitude. Then a surprising phone call shatters the silence of an unusually hot September, and the threatening voice on the other end of the line leaves Daragane wary but irresistibly curious. Almost at once, he finds himself entangled with a shady gambler and a beautiful, fragile young woman, who draw him into the mystery of a decades-old murder. The investigation will force Daragane to confront the memory of a trauma he had all but buried.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780544635067
SPEAK THE DEAD by Grant McKenzie (Supernatural Thriller/Mystery)
Twenty-five years after her mother was murdered and her father mysteriously disappeared, Sally has found a modicum of peace as a mortician’s beautician, able to take solace from the voices of the dead that trailed her for years wherever she went. Yet a grisly murder reawakens her “gift,” forcing her to turn to Jersey Castle --- homicide detective by day, punk rock drummer by night. But what Sally doesn’t know is that someone has been hunting for her all this time.
Polis Books * 9781940610542
SWEET CARESS by William Boyd (Historical Fiction)
When Amory Clay was born, her disappointed father gave her an androgynous name and announced the birth of a son. But this daughter was not one to let others define her; Amory became a woman who accepted no limits to what that could mean, and, from the time she picked up her first camera, one who would record her own version of events. Moving freely between London and New York, between photojournalism and fashion photography, and between the men who love her on complicated terms, Amory establishes her reputation as a risk taker and a passionate life traveler.
Bloomsbury USA * 9781632863324
UNDERMAJORDOMO MINOR by Patrick deWitt (Mystery/Adventure)
Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for producing brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts employment assisting the Majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux. While tending to his new post as Undermajordomo, Lucy soon discovers that the place harbors many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle’s master, Baron Von Aux.
Ecco * 9780062281203
WHERE THE BODIES WERE BURIED: Whitey Bulger and the World That Made Him by T. J. English (True Crime)
For 16 years, Whitey Bulger eluded the long reach of the law. But finally, in 2011, he was arrested in southern California and returned to Boston, where he was tried and convicted of racketeering and murder. T. J. English covered the trial at close range, interviewing Bulger’s associates as well as lawyers, former federal agents, and even members of the jury in the backyards and barrooms of Whitey’s world. In WHERE THE BODIES WERE BURIED, English offers a startlingly revisionist account of Bulger’s story.
William Morrow * 9780062290984
YES, MY ACCENT IS REAL: And Some Other Things I Haven't Told You by Kunal Nayyar (Humor/Essays)
In this revealing collection of essays written in his irreverent, hilarious and self-deprecating voice, Kunal Nayyar (Raj from “The Big Bang Theory”) traces his journey from a little boy in New Delhi who mistakes an awkward first kiss for a sacred commitment, gets nosebleeds chugging Coca-Cola to impress other students, and excels in the sport of badminton, to the confident, successful actor on the set of TV’s most-watched sitcom since “Friends.”
Atria Books * 9781476761824 |
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On Sale the Week of September 14th in Paperback
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September 14th
THE HUMAN AGE: The World Shaped By Us by Diane Ackerman (Social Science)
In THE HUMAN AGE, Diane Ackerman confronts the unprecedented reality that one prodigiously intelligent and meddlesome creature, Homo sapiens, is now the dominant force shaping the future of planet Earth. She takes us on an exhilarating journey through our new reality, introducing us to many of the people and ideas now creating --- perhaps saving --- our future and that of our fellow creatures.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393351644
September 15th
BALLROOM by Alice Simpson (Fiction)
Nearly 40 and still single, Sarah Dreyfus is desperate for love and sure she’ll find it with debonair Gabriel Katz. Tired of the bachelor life, Joseph believes that his yearning for a wife and family will be fulfilled --- if only he can get Sarah to notice him. Besotted with beautiful young Maria Rodriguez, elderly dance instructor Harry Korn knows they can find happiness together. Maria has a dream of her own, a passion her broken-hearted father refuses to accept or understand.
Harper Paperbacks * 9780062323040
BEFORE THE FIRST SHOTS ARE FIRED: How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield by General Tony Zinni and Tony Koltz (Current Affairs)
Drawing on his vast experience --- from combat in Vietnam to peacekeeping in Somalia, to war games in Washington, DC and negotiations with former rebels in the Philippines --- retired four-star General Tony Zinni argues that the US has a lot of work to do to make the process of going to war (or not) more clear-eyed and ultimately successful.
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250075055
BLOOD ON THE WATER: A William Monk Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
William Monk is witness to the terrible bombing of an afternoon pleasure boat on the river that leaves 200 people dead. An Egyptian man is quickly caught, tried and sentenced to death --- and then just as swiftly murdered in prison. When evidence surfaces that proves the dead man innocent, the case is handed to Monk, who now must rely on his own memory of the event to help piece together what really happened.
Ballantine Books * 9780345548450
A CROWN FOR COLD SILVER by Alex Marshall (Fantasy/Adventure)
Twenty years ago, feared general Cobalt Zosia led her five villainous captains and mercenary army into battle, wrestling monsters and toppling an empire. Now the peace she carved for herself after retiring has been shattered by the unprovoked slaughter of her village. Seeking bloody vengeance, Zosia heads for battle once more, but to find justice she must confront grudge-bearing enemies, once-loyal allies, and an unknown army that marches under a familiar banner.
Orbit * 9780316379410
THE DEMON’S BROOD: A History of the Plantagenet Dynasty by Desmond Seward (History)
The Plantagenets reigned over England longer than any other family --- from Henry II to Richard III. Four kings were murdered, two came close to deposition, and another was killed in a battle by rebels. Shakespeare wrote plays about six of them, further entrenching them in the national myth. Based on major contemporary sources and recent research, acclaimed historian Desmond Seward provides, in one volume, the first readable overview of the whole extraordinary dynasty.
Pegasus * 9781605988696
EMBATTLED REBEL: Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Civil War by James M. McPherson (History)
Many Americans in Jefferson Davis’ own time and in later generations considered him an incompetent leader, if not a traitor. Not so, argues James M. McPherson. In EMBATTLED REBEL, McPherson shows us that Davis might have been on the wrong side of history, but it is too easy to diminish him because of his cause’s failure. In order to understand the Civil War and its outcome, it is essential to give Davis his due as a military leader and as the president of an aspiring Confederate nation.
Penguin Books * 9780143127758
FAMILY FURNISHINGS: Selected Stories, 1995-2014 by Alice Munro (Fiction/Short Stories)
FAMILY FURNISHINGS brings us 24 of Alice Munro’s most accomplished, most powerfully affecting stories, many of them set in the territory she has so brilliantly made her own: the small towns and flatlands of southwestern Ontario. These stories illuminate the quotidian yet extraordinary particularity in the lives of men and women, parents and children, friends and lovers as they discover sex, fall in love, part, quarrel, suffer defeat, set off into the unknown or find a way to be in the world.
Vintage * 9781101872352
HER FINAL BREATH by Robert Dugoni (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
A serial killer known as the Cowboy is killing young women in cheap motels in North Seattle. Even after a stalker leaves a menacing message for Tracy Crosswhite, suggesting the killer or a copycat could be targeting her personally, the homicide detective is charged with bringing the murderer to justice. With clues scarce and more victims dying, Tracy realizes that the key to solving the murders may lie in a decade-old homicide investigation that others, including her captain, Johnny Nolasco, would prefer to keep buried.
Thomas & Mercer * 9781503945029
HIGH AS THE HORSES’ BRIDLES by Scott Cheshire (Fiction)
It’s 1980 at a crowded amphitheater in Queens, and 12-year-old Josiah is about to step to the stage while thousands of believers wait to hear him. Suddenly, Josiah’s words come rushing out, his whole body fills to the brim with the certainty of a strange apocalyptic vision. But is it true prophecy, or just a young believer’s imagination running wild? Decades later, when Josiah (now Josie) is grown and has long since left the church, he returns to Queens to care for his father who, day by day, is losing his grip on reality.
Picador * 9781250074683
MEMORY MAN by David Baldacci (Thriller)
Amos Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare --- his wife, young daughter and brother-in-law had been murdered. His family destroyed, their killer's identity as mysterious as the motive behind the crime, and unable to forget a single detail from that horrible night, Decker finds his world collapsing around him. But over a year later, a man turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders. Decker must endure the memories he would much rather forget --- and may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455559817
MONDAY, MONDAY by Elizabeth Crook (Historical Fiction)
On an oppressively hot Monday in August of 1966, a student and former marine named Charles Whitman hauled a footlocker of guns to the top of the University of Texas tower and began firing on pedestrians below. Before it was over, 16 people had been killed and 32 wounded. It was the first mass shooting of civilians on a campus in American history. Elizabeth Crook's latest novel, MONDAY, MONDAY, follows three students caught up in the massacre.
Picador * 9781250069221
NEIL PATRICK HARRIS: Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris (Autobiography/Humor)
In this revolutionary, Joycean experiment in light celebrity narrative, Neil Patrick Harris lets you, the reader, live his life. And at each critical juncture of your life, you will choose how to proceed. You will decide whether to try out for “Doogie Howser, M.D.” and whether to spend years struggling with your sexuality. Choose correctly and you’ll find fame, fortune and true love. Choose incorrectly and you’ll find misery, heartbreak and a hideous death by piranhas.
Three Rivers Press * 9780385347013
NOT FADE AWAY: A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found by Rebecca Alexander, with Sascha Alper (Memoir)
Rebecca Alexander is a psychotherapist, a spin instructor, a volunteer and an athlete. She is also almost completely blind, with significantly deteriorated hearing. In NOT FADE AWAY, Rebecca charts her journey from a teenager who tried to hide her disabilities to a woman who is able to face the world exactly as she is. Even though Rebecca inhabits a gradually darkening world, she refuses to let that stop her from living life with joy and enthusiasm.
Avery * 9781592409419
ON IMMUNITY: An Inoculation by Eula Biss (Social Science)
Upon becoming a new mother, Eula Biss addresses a chronic condition of fear --- fear of the government, the medical establishment, and what is in your child's air, food, mattress, medicine and vaccines. She finds that you cannot immunize your child, or yourself, from the world. In ON IMMUNITY, Biss investigates the metaphors and myths surrounding our conception of immunity and its implications for the individual and the social body.
Graywolf Press * 9781555977207
RICKEY & ROBINSON: The True, Untold Story of the Integration of Baseball by Roger Kahn (Sports/History)
Legendary sportswriter Roger Kahn at last reveals the true, unsanitized account of the integration of baseball, a story that for decades has relied on inaccurate, second-hand reports. This story contains exclusive reporting and personal reminiscences that no other writer can produce, including revelatory material he’d buried in his notebooks in the '40s and '50s, back when sportswriters were still known to "protect" players and baseball executives.
Rodale Books * 9781623366018
ROOMS by Lauren Oliver (Supernatural Mystery)
Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His estranged family has arrived for their inheritance, but they are not alone. Alice and Sandra, long-dead former residents, linger within the house. The living and dead are each haunted by painful truths. When a new ghost appears, and Richard’s troubled son, Trenton, communicates with her, the spirit and human worlds collide.
Ecco * 9780062223203
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.
Back Bay Books * 9780316373944
A SUDDEN LIGHT by Garth Stein (Supernatural Mystery)
In the summer of 1990, 14-year-old Trevor Riddell gets his first glimpse of Riddell House. The legendary mansion is built of giant, whole trees, and Trevor’s father --- in a trial separation with his wife --- wants to sell it. Trevor soon discovers the ghost burdened by the final wishes of the Riddell patriarch, Elijah: that the mansion is returned to untamed forestland as penance for the trees harvested by the Riddell Timber Company. Trevor’s willingness to face the past holds the key to his family’s future.
Simon & Schuster * 9781439187043
’TIL THE WELL RUNS DRY by Lauren Francis-Sharma (Historical Fiction)
Young Marcia Garcia, a gifted and smart-mouthed 16-year-old seamstress, lives alone, raising two small boys and guarding a family secret. When she meets Farouk Karam, an ambitious young policeman, the risks and rewards in Marcia’s life amplify forever. The novel follows Marcia and Farouk from their amusing and passionate courtship through personal and historical events that threaten Marcia’s secret, entangle the couple and their children in a scandal, and endanger the future for all of them.
Picador * 9781250074676
THE WHITE VAN by Patrick Hoffman (Thriller)
At a dive bar in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, drug-hustling Emily Rosario is looking for an escape from her desperate lifestyle. When she is approached by a Russian businessman, she thinks she might have found her exit. A week later --- drugged, disoriented and wanted for robbery --- she finds herself on the run for her life. When cop Leo Elias hears about an unsolved bank robbery, he takes the case into his own hands, hoping to find Emily and the money before anyone else does.
Grove Press * 9780802124203 |
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