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November 3, 2015 |
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The following are lists of books releasing the weeks of November 2nd and November 9th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers.
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On Sale the Week of November 2nd in Hardcover
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November 3rd
ALONG THE INFINITE SEA by Beatriz Williams (Historical Romance)
When Pepper Schuyler fixes up a beautiful and rare vintage Mercedes and sells it at auction, she thinks she's finally found a way to take care of herself and the baby she carries, the result of an affair with a married, legendary politician. But the car's new owner turns out to have secrets of her own, and as the glamorous and mysterious Annabelle Dommerich takes pregnant Pepper under her wing, the startling provenance of this car comes to light: a Nazi husband, a Jewish lover, a flight from Europe and a love so profound it transcends decades. The two women must come together to face down the shadows of their complicated pasts.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399171314
AMAZING FANTASTIC INCREDIBLE: A Marvelous Memoir by Stan Lee, Peter David and Colleen Doran (Graphic Memoir)
In this gorgeously illustrated, full-color graphic memoir, Stan Lee --- comic book legend and co-creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, the Incredible Hulk, and a legion of other Marvel superheroes --- shares his iconic legacy and the story of how modern comics came to be. Moving from his impoverished childhood in Manhattan to his early days writing comics, through his military training films during World War II and the rise of the Marvel empire in the 1960s to the current resurgence in movies, AMAZING FANTASTIC INCREDIBLE documents the life of a man and the legacy of an industry and career.
Touchstone * 9781501107726
AVENUE OF MYSTERIES by John Irving (Fiction)
Fourteen-year-old Juan Diego, who was born and grew up in Mexico, has a 13-year-old sister. Her name is Lupe, and she is a mind reader. Regarding what has happened as opposed to what will, Lupe is usually right about the past; without your telling her, she knows all the worst things that have happened to you. What might a teen girl be driven to do if she thought she could change the future? As an older man, Juan Diego will take a trip to the Philippines, but what travels with him are his dreams and memories; he is most alive in his childhood and early adolescence in Mexico.
Simon & Schuster * 9781451664164
THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS: Stories by Stephen King (Thriller/Short Stories)
Since his first collection, NIGHTSHIFT, published 35 years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection, he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it. There are thrilling connections between stories: themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past.
Scribner * 9781501111679
THE CLOUD COLLECTOR by Brian Freemantle (Thriller)
When Western intelligence services recognize that a global jihadist attack has been initiated, the United States and the United Kingdom lead a desperate counteroffensive. Sally Hanning, a brilliant British MI5 agent, must help the CIA task force hunt down the enemy mastermind along an intricately disguised online trail. To do so, she entails the services of Jack Irvine, a guilt-burdened NSA code cracker. As Sally and Jack prepare to head off a major, potentially devastating attack, they realize that the plot is far more sinister than they had ever thought possible.
Thomas Dunne Books * 9781250066237
THE COMEDIANS: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff (History/Entertainment)
In THE COMEDIANS, comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff brings to life a century of American comedy with real-life characters, forgotten stars, mainstream heroes and counterculture iconoclasts. Based on over 200 original interviews and extensive archival research, Nesteroff’s groundbreaking work is a narrative exploration of the way comedians have reflected, shaped and changed American culture over the past 100 years.
Grove Press * 9780802123985
THE CROSSING: A Bosch Novel by Michael Connelly (Thriller)
Detective Harry Bosch has retired from the LAPD, but his half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller, needs his help. A woman has been brutally murdered in her bed, and all evidence points to Haller's client, a former gang member turned family man. The murder rap seems ironclad, but Haller is sure it's a setup. Though it goes against all his instincts, Bosch reluctantly takes the case. Soon his investigation leads him inside the police department, where he realizes that the killer he's been tracking also has been tracking him.
Little, Brown and Company * 9780316225885
THE GOLD EATERS by Ronald Wright (Historical Fiction)
Kidnapped at sea by conquistadors seeking the golden land of Peru, a young Inca boy named Waman is the everyman thrown into extraordinary circumstances. Forced to become Francisco Pizarro's translator, he finds himself caught up in one of history's great clashes of civilizations: the Spanish invasion of the Incan Empire of the 1530s. To survive, he must not only learn political gamesmanship but also discover who he truly is, and in what country and culture he belongs. Only then can he be reunited with the love of his life and begin the search for his shattered family.
Riverhead Books * 9781594634628
THE GOLEM OF PARIS by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman (Supernatural Thriller)
It’s been more than a year since LAPD detective Jacob Lev learned the remarkable truth about his family, and he’s not coping well. He’s back to drinking, he’s not talking to his father, the LAPD Special Projects Department continues to shadow him, and the memory of a woman named Mai haunts him day and night. While Jacob has tried to build a bridge to his mother, she remains a stranger to him, imprisoned inside her own tattered mind. Then he comes across the file for a gruesome unsolved murder that brings the two halves of his life into startling collision.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399171734
GREAT IS THE TRUTH: Secrecy, Scandal, and the Quest for Justice at the Horace Mann School by Amos Kamil, with Sean Elder (True Crime)
In June 2012, Amos Kamil's New York Times Magazine cover story, "Prep-School Predators," caused a shock wave that is still rippling. In his piece, Kamil detailed a decades-long pattern of sexual abuse at the highly prestigious Horace Mann School in the Bronx. While the article revealed the misdeeds of three teachers, this was just the beginning: an extraordinary 22 former Horace Mann teachers and administrators have since been accused of abuse. In GREAT IS THE TRUTH, Kamil and co-author Sean Elder tell the riveting story of how one of the country's leading schools was beset by scandal.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux * 9780374166625
THE GROWNUP: A Story by the Author of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Psychological Thriller)
A canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud. On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama injection. However, when the "psychic" visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan’s terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore.
Crown * 9780804188975
THE IMPROBABILITY OF LOVE by Hannah Rothschild (Fiction)
At a neglected secondhand shop, Annie McDee purchases a painting that happens to be a lost masterpiece by one of the most important French painters of the 18th century. But who painted this masterpiece is not clear at first. Soon Annie finds herself pursued by interested parties who would do anything to possess her picture. In her search for the painting’s identity, Annie will unwittingly uncover some of the darkest secrets of European history --- as well as the possibility of falling in love again.
Knopf * 9781101874141
THE JAPANESE LOVER by Isabel Allende (Historical Fiction)
In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco’s parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family’s Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart as Ichimei and his family are declared enemies and forcibly relocated to internment camps run by the United States government.
Atria Books * 9781501116971
JOHN LE CARRE: The Biography by Adam Sisman (Biography)
In this definitive biography, blessed by John le Carré himself, Adam Sisman reveals the man behind the bestselling persona. He probes his unusual upbringing, abandoned by his mother at the age of five and raised by his con man father (when not in prison), and explores his background in British intelligence, as well as his struggle to become a writer, and his personal life. Sisman has benefited from unfettered access to le Carré’s private archive, talked to the most important people in his life, and interviewed the man himself at length.
Harper * 9780062106278
THE LION OF SABRAY: The Afghani Warrior Who Defied the Taliban and Saved the Life of Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell by Patrick Robinson (Biography)
Patrick Robinson helped Marcus Luttrell bring his harrowing story of survival in LONE SURVIVOR to the page and the big screen. But the Afghani man who saved his life was always shrouded in mystery. Now, with THE LION OF SABRAY, Robinson reveals the amazing backstory of Mohammed Gulab --- the brave man who forever changed the course of life for his Afghan family, his village and himself when he discovered Luttrell badly injured and barely conscious on a mountainside in the Hindu Kush just hours after the firefight that killed the rest of Luttrell’s team.
Touchstone * 9781501117985
LIVING WITH A SEAL: 31 Days Training with the Toughest Man on the Planet by Jesse Itzler (Memoir)
Entrepreneur Jesse Itzler will try almost anything. He brazenly pretended to be an established hip-hop artist to secure a meeting with a studio head --- and it led to a record deal. He convinced a bunch of successful business executives to invest in an unprecedented business plan --- and it turned into Marquis Jet. He sincerely offered to run a 100-mile race in Spanx to get the attention of the beautiful founder of the company --- and ended up marrying her. But when Jesse felt himself drifting on autopilot, he hired a rather unconventional trainer to live with him for a month --- an accomplished Navy SEAL widely considered to be "the toughest man on the planet."
Center Street * 9781455534678
THE MARE by Mary Gaitskill (Fiction)
Velveteen Vargas is 11 years old, a Fresh Air Fund kid from Brooklyn. Her host family is a couple in upstate New York: Ginger, a failed artist and shakily recovered alcoholic, and her academic husband, Paul, who wonder what it will mean to “make a difference” in such a contrived situation. Author Mary Gaitskill illuminates their shifting relationship with Velvet over several years, as well as Velvet’s encounter with the horses at the stable down the road --- especially with an abused, unruly mare called Fugly Girl.
Pantheon * 9780307379740
THE MARRIAGE PACT by M.J. Pullen (Fiction)
Marci Thompson thought she always knew what life would be like by her 30th birthday. But the reality is that she lives alone in 480 square feet of converted motel space next to a punk rock band, hundreds of miles from her friends and family. Then the reappearance of an old friend with whom she had made a drunken marriage pact 10 years earlier opens a long-forgotten door. The lines between right and wrong, heartache and happiness are all about to get very blurry, as Marci faces the most difficult choices of her life.
Thomas Dunne Books * 9781250070937
MISS RUFFLES INHERITS EVERYTHING by Nancy Martin (Mystery)
Rich and flamboyant Honeybelle Hensley, the most colorful character in Mule Stop, Texas, dies a suspicious death and enrages the whole town by leaving her worldly fortune to her dog. The incorrigible Miss Ruffles is a Texas Cattle Cur, not a cuddly lapdog, and when Honeybelle was alive, Miss Ruffles liked nothing better than digging up Honeybelle's famous rose garden after breakfast, chasing off the UPS man before lunch and terrorizing the many gentleman callers who came knocking at cocktail hour. But now Miss Ruffles is in danger, and it's up to Sunny McKillip, the unwilling dogsitter, to keep her safe.
Minotaur Books * 9780312573744
THE MURALIST by B. A. Shapiro (Mystery)
When Alizée Benoit, a young American painter working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), vanishes in New York City in 1940, no one knows what happened to her. Not her Jewish family living in German-occupied France. Not her arts patron and political compatriot, Eleanor Roosevelt. Not her close-knit group of friends and fellow WPA painters. And, some 70 years later, not her great-niece, Danielle Abrams, who, while working at Christie’s auction house, uncovers enigmatic paintings hidden behind works by those now-famous Abstract Expressionist artists. Do they hold answers to the questions surrounding her missing aunt?
Algonquin Books * 9781616203573
MY ADVENTURES WITH YOUR MONEY: George Graham Rice and the Golden Age of the Con Artist by T.D. Thornton (Biography)
Master swindler George Graham Rice operated at the zenith of America's golden age of con artistry with plenty of illicit competition, but he stood apart from all others thanks to the sheer audacity, pure nerve and nefarious brilliance of his scams. Against the dark rise of American greed in the early 20th century into the Roaring Twenties, the dapper but devious "GG" feasted on a nation of gullible prey with the flair of circus showman P.T. Barnum and on a financial scale comparable to modern fraudster Bernie Madoff.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250054371
NO MORE CHAMPAGNE: Churchill and His Money by David Lough (History/Politics)
David Lough uses Winston Churchill's own most private records, many never researched before, to chronicle his family's chronic shortage of money, his own extravagance, and his recurring losses from gambling or trading in shares and currencies. Throughout the story, he highlights the threads of risk, energy, persuasion and sheer willpower to survive that link Churchill's private and public lives. He shows how constant money pressures often tempted him to short-circuit the ethical standards expected of public figures in his day before usually pulling back to put duty first --- except where the taxman was involved.
Picador * 9781250071262
NUMERO ZERO written by Umberto Eco, translated by Richard Dixon (Fiction)
A newspaper committed to blackmail and mud slinging. A paranoid editor reconstructing 50 years of history against the backdrop of a plot involving the cadaver of Mussolini's double. The murder of Pope John Paul I, the CIA, and events that seem outlandish until the BBC proves them true. A fragile love story between two born losers, a failed ghost writer, and a vulnerable girl, who specializes in celebrity gossip yet cries over the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh. And then a dead body that suddenly appears in a back alley in Milan. Set in 1922, NUMERO ZERO foreshadows the mysteries and follies of the following 20 years.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780544635081
ONE MAN'S FLAG: A Novel of Espionage During the First World War by David Downing (Historical Thriller)
Jack McColl, a spy for His Majesty’s Secret Service, is stationed in India, charged with defending the Empire against Bengali terrorists and their German allies. In England, meanwhile, suffragette journalist Caitlin Hanley begins the business of rebuilding her life after the execution of her brother --- an IRA sympathizer whose terrorist plot was foiled by Caitlin’s own ex-lover, the very same Jack McColl. The threat of a Rising in Dublin alarms McColl’s bosses as much as it dazzles Caitlin. If another Irish plot brings them back together, will it be as enemies or lovers?
Soho Crime * 9781616952709
TENACITY by J.S. Law (Thriller)
Suicide must be investigated. Especially when a Royal Navy sailor kills himself on a nuclear submarine, only days after his wife's brutal murder. Now Lieutenant Danielle Lewis, the Navy's finest Special Branch investigator, must interrogate the tight-knit, male crew of HMS Tenacity to determine if there's a link. Isolated, and standing alone in the face of extreme hostility, Dan soon realizes that she may have to choose between the truth and her own survival. Justice must be served, but with a possible killer on board, the pressure is rising and her time is running out.
Henry Holt and Co. * 9781627794565
THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE TRIPOLI PIRATES: The Forgotten War That Changed American History by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger (History)
When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly. But its merchant ships were under attack by pirates from North Africa’s Barbary coast who routinely captured American sailors and held them as slaves. In response, Jefferson sent the U.S. Navy’s new warships and a detachment of marines to blockade Tripoli --- launching the Barbary Wars and beginning America’s journey toward future superpower status.
Sentinel * 9781591848066
TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE by Oscar Hijuelos (Historical Fiction)
Oscar Hijuelos was fascinated by the 37-year friendship between famed writer and humorist Mark Twain and legendary explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley. So he began researching and writing a novel that used the scant historical record of their relationship as a starting point for a more detailed fictional account. It was a labor of love for Hijuelos, who worked on the project for more than 10 years and was still revising the manuscript the day before his sudden passing in 2013. The resulting novel blends correspondence, memoir and third-person omniscience to explore the intersection of these Victorian giants in a long-vanished world.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455561490
WOODY: The Biography by David Evanier (Biography)
In this first biography of Woody Allen in over a decade, David Evanier discusses key movies, plays and prose as well as Allen's personal life. Evanier tackles the themes that Allen has spent a lifetime sorting through in art: morality, sexuality, Judaism, the eternal struggle of head and heart. WOODY will be the definitive word on a major American talent as he begins his ninth decade, and his sixth decade of making movies.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250047267
YAPPY HOUR by Diana Orgain (Cozy Mystery)
Every Friday night, the Roundup Crew, a group of dog-loving friends, meets at a neighborhood wine bar for Yappy Hour. When Rachel, the owner, mysteriously leaves town and asks her sister, Maggie, to run the bar in her absence, things get complicated fast. Maggie arrives to open up and finds a body sprawled on the floor, along with an incriminating letter with Rachel's name on it nearby. On impulse, she hides the letter from the hunky detective, Officer Brad Brooks, who is dispatched to the scene. When Rachel is declared the top suspect by the police, Maggie decides to investigate on her own.
Minotaur Books * 9781250069115 |
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On Sale the Week of November 2nd in Paperback
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November 2nd
SEVERED: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found by Frances Larson (History/Anthropology)
From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues, from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Frances Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads.
Liveright * 9781631490996
November 3rd
ACTS OF GOD: Stories by Ellen Gilchrist (Fiction/Short Stories)
Ellen Gilchrist’s first collection of short stories since 2005 consists of 10 pieces that take place in the American South, mainly in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Her characters are good-hearted Southerners, many of them wealthy, who are forced to confront life’s toughest challenges --- from natural disasters to terrorist threats to multiple sclerosis and untimely death --- and who emerge from each experience with a renewed belief in the goodness of human nature.
Algonquin Books * 9781616205720
ALL THE OLD KNIVES by Olen Steinhauer (Thriller)
Six years ago in Vienna, terrorists took over a hundred hostages, and the rescue attempt went terribly wrong. The CIA’s Vienna station was witness to this tragedy, gathering intel from its sources during those tense hours, assimilating facts from the ground and from an agent on the inside. So when it all went wrong, the question had to be asked: Had their agent been compromised, and how?
Picador * 9781250045430
CRASH & BURN by Lisa Gardner (Thriller)
Nicole Frank shouldn’t have been able to survive the car accident, much less crawl up the steep ravine. But one thought allows her to defy the odds and flag down help: Vero. Sergeant Wyatt Foster is frustrated when even the search dogs can’t find any trace of the mysterious missing child. Until Nicky’s husband, Thomas, arrives with a host of shattering revelations: Nicole Frank suffers from a rare brain injury, and the police shouldn’t trust anything she says.
Signet * 9780451475688
ENTER PALE DEATH: A Joe Sandilands Investigation by Barbara Cleverly (Historical Mystery)
Scotland Yard Detective Joe Sandilands suspects foul play in the violent death of Lady Truelove. He enlists old friend and former constable Lily Wentworth to trail the now-widower Sir James Truelove, and finds an ally in a fellow police officer familiar with the Truelove estate. But as the investigation yields surprising secrets about one of England’s most powerful families, Joe discovers how little he knows about the gilded lives of the moneyed.
Soho Crime * 9781616956172
HAVANA STORM: A Dirk Pitt Adventure by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler (Thriller/Adventure)
While investigating a toxic outbreak in the Caribbean Sea that may ultimately threaten the United States, Dick Pitt unwittingly becomes involved in something even more dangerous --- a post-Castro power struggle for the control of Cuba. Meanwhile, Pitt’s children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, are on an investigation of their own, which brings them both to Cuba as well --- and squarely into harm’s way.
Berkley * 9780425279168
THE HUMAN BODY written by Paolo Giordano, translated by Anne Milano Appel (Fiction)
A platoon of young men and one female soldier leaves Italy for one of the most dangerous places on earth: Forward Operating Base (FOB) in the Gulistan district of Afghanistan. Each member in the platoon manages the toxic mix of boredom and fear that is life at the FOB in his own way. But when a much-debated mission goes devastatingly awry, the soldiers find their lives changed in an instant.
Penguin Books * 9780143127734
IRENE written by Pierre Lemaitre, translated by Frank Wynne (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Camille Verhoeven has reached an unusually content (for him) place in life. He is respected by his colleagues, and he and his lovely wife, Irene, are expecting their first child. But when a new murder case hits his desk --- a double torture-homicide so extreme that even the most seasoned officers are horrified --- Verhoeven is overcome with a sense of foreboding. As links emerge between the bloody set-piece and at least one past unsolved murder, it becomes clear that a calculating serial killer is at work.
MacLehose Press * 9781623656645
JACQUELINE BOUVIER KENNEDY ONASSIS: The Untold Story by Barbara Leaming (Biography)
Barbara Leaming’s biography is the first book to document Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ brutal, lonely and valiant 31-year struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that followed JFK’s assassination. Here is the woman as she has never been seen before. In heartrending detail, we witness a struggle that unfolded at times before our own eyes, but that we failed to understand.
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250070258
LIVING COURAGEOUSLY: You Can Face Anything, Just Do It Afraid by Joyce Meyer (Christian Living/Inspirational)
Fear commonly affects our ability to live fully, holding us back from what enriches our lives and the lives of others. But our quality of life will improve when we learn how to be courageous in the face of fear. In LIVING COURAGEOUSLY, Joyce Meyer explains how, as Christians, we can overcome the paralyzing power of fear by calling upon the Lord. "Fear not" is written throughout the Bible. God knows His children will be confronted with fear, but He can help us resist it.
FaithWords * 9781455517497
THE MARAUDERS by Tom Cooper (Crime Fiction)
When the BP oil spill devastates the Gulf coast, those who made a living by shrimping find themselves in dire straits. For those who inhabit the town of Jeannette, these desperate circumstances serve as the catalyst that pushes them to enact whatever risky schemes they can dream up to reverse their fortunes. Gus Lindquist, a pill-addicted, one-armed treasure hunter, is obsessed with finding the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. His quest brings him into contact with a wide array of memorable characters who ultimately find themselves on a collision course with each other.
Broadway Books * 9780804140584
THE MURDER OF HARRIET KROHN by Karin Fossum (Psychological Suspense)
On a wet night in November, Charlo Torp, a former gambler, makes his way through the slush to Harriet Krohn’s apartment. Certain that paying off his debt is the only path to winning his daughter’s forgiveness, Charlo plans to rob the wealthy old woman’s antique silver collection. The following morning Harriet is found dead, her silver missing, and the only clue Inspector Sejer finds is an abandoned bouquet.
Mariner Books * 9780544570191
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 Paperbacks * 9780062325877
PLAYING DAYS by Benjamin Markovits (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In print for the first time in the United States, acclaimed novelist Benjamin Markovits’ PLAYING DAYS is a mostly autobiographical narrative concerning the author’s season playing minor league professional basketball in Germany and the love affair with another player’s estranged wife that ushers him into adulthood.
Harper Perennial * 9780062376633
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 * 9780345545893
SKYLIGHT by José Saramago (Fiction)
Publishers rejected this early novel by the 1998 Nobel laureate when he submitted it to them in 1953. SKYLIGHT, now appearing in English translation for the first time, dramatizes the overlapping stories of more than a dozen tenants who live in a run-down apartment complex in late 1940s Lisbon. The book is less philosophical than José Saramago’s later works, but the sly wit and left-wing politics for which he became famous are here in abundance.
Mariner Books * 9780544570375
SWEET NOTHING: Stories by Richard Lange (Thriller/Short Stories)
Included in Richard Lange’s latest short story collection, SWEET NOTHING, are edge-of-your-seat tales: A prison guard must protect an inmate being tried for heinous crimes. A father and son set out to rescue a young couple trapped during a wildfire. An ex-con trying to make good as a security guard stumbles onto a burglary plot. A young father must submit to blackmail to protect the fragile life he's built.
Mulholland Books * 9780316327589
TIGHTROPE by Simon Mawer (Historical Thriller)
Paperback Original
As Allied forces close in on Berlin in spring 1945, a solitary figure emerges from the wreckage that is Germany. It is Marian Sutro, whose existence was last known to her British controllers in autumn 1943 in Paris. Returned to an England she barely knows and a postwar world she doesn’t understand, Marian searches for something on which to ground the rest of her life. When the mysterious Major Fawley, the man who hijacked her wartime mission to Paris, draws her into the ambiguities and uncertainties of the Cold War, she sees a way to make amends for the past and to find the identity that has never been hers.
Other Press * 9781590517239 |
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On Sale the Week of November 9th in Hardcover
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November 9th
ALONE ON THE WALL by Alex Honnold, with David Roberts (Sports/Memoir)
A 30-year-old climbing phenomenon, Alex Honnold pushes the limits of free soloing beyond anything previously attempted, as he climbs without a rope, without a partner, and without any gear to attach himself to the wall. If he falls, he dies. In ALONE ON THE WALL, Honnold recounts the seven most astonishing achievements thus far in his meteoric career, including free-soloing Sendero Luminoso in Mexico and climbing the Fitz Traverse in Patagonia. Each chapter narrates the drama of one climb, along with reflective and introspective passages that get at what makes Honnold tick.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393247626
KNITTING PEARLS: Writers Writing About Knitting edited by Ann Hood (Essays/Crafts & Hobbies)
In KNITTING PEARLS, two dozen writers write about the transformative and healing powers of knitting. Lily King remembers the year her family lived in Italy, and a knitted hat that helped her daughter adjust to her new home. Laura Lippman explores how converting to Judaism changed not only Christmas but also her mother’s gift of a knitted stocking. Jodi Picoult remembers her grandmother and how, through knitting, she felt that everlasting love. These personal stories by award-winning writers celebrate the moments of loss and love intertwined in the rhythm, ritual and pleasure of knitting.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393246087
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard (History)
Ancient Rome was an imposing city even by modern standards, a sprawling imperial metropolis of more than a million inhabitants that served as the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spain to Syria. Yet how did all this emerge from what was once an insignificant village in central Italy? In SPQR, world-renowned classicist Mary Beard narrates the unprecedented rise of a civilization that even 2,000 years later still shapes many of our most fundamental assumptions about power, citizenship, responsibility, political violence, empire, luxury and beauty.
Liveright * 9780871404237
November 10th
ALEX HALEY: And the Books That Changed a Nation by Robert J. Norrell (Biography)
It is difficult to think of two 20th-century books by one author that have had as much influence on American culture when they were published as Alex Haley's monumental bestsellers, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X (1965) and ROOTS (1976). They changed the way white and black America viewed each other and the country's history. This first biography of Haley follows him from his childhood in relative privilege in deeply segregated small-town Tennessee to fame and fortune in high-powered New York City.
St. Martin's Press * 9781137279606
A CHRISTMAS ESCAPE by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
Lonely Charles Latterly arrives at his small hotel hoping that the island’s blue skies and gentle breezes will brighten his spirits. Unfortunately, there’s no holiday cheer to be found among his fellow guests, who include a pompous novelist, a stuffy colonel, a dangerously ill-matched married couple, and an ailing old man. The one charming exception is orphaned teenager Candace Finbar, who takes Charles under her wing and introduces him to the island’s beauty. But when a body is found, Charles quickly realizes that the killer must be among the group of guests.
Ballantine Books * 9780553391411
CRIMSON SHORE by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast, together with his ward Constance Greene, travels to the quaint seaside village of Exmouth, Massachusetts, to investigate the theft of a priceless wine collection. But inside the wine cellar, they find something considerably more disturbing: a bricked-up niche that once held a crumbling skeleton. Pendergast and Constance soon learn that Exmouth is a town with a very dark and troubled history, and this skeleton may be only the first hint of an ancient transgression, kept secret all these years. But they will discover that the sins of the past are still very much alive.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455525928
DEAR MR. YOU by Mary-Louise Parker (Memoir/Letters)
DEAR MR. YOU renders the singular arc of a woman’s life through letters Mary-Louise Parker composes to the men, real and hypothetical, who have informed the person she is today. Beginning with the grandfather she never knew, the letters range from a missive to the beloved priest from her childhood to remembrances of former lovers to an homage to a firefighter she encountered to a heartfelt communication with the uncle of the infant daughter she adopted.
Scribner * 9781501107832
DESTINY AND POWER: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham (Biography)
Drawing on President Bush’s personal diaries, the diaries of his wife, Barbara, and extraordinary access to the 41st president and his family, Jon Meacham paints an intimate and surprising portrait of an intensely private man who led the nation through tumultuous times. From the Oval Office to Camp David, from his study in the private quarters of the White House to Air Force One, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the first Gulf War to the end of Communism, DESTINY AND POWER charts the thoughts, decisions and emotions of a modern president who may have been the last of his kind.
Random House * 9781400067657
THE GIRL IN THE ICE: A Konrad Simonsen Thriller written by Lotte and Søren Hammer, translated by Paul Norlen (Mystery/Thriller)
Under the heartless vault of Greenland's arctic sky, the body of a girl is discovered. Half-naked and tied up, buried hundreds of miles from any signs of life, she has lain alone for 25 years. When Detective Chief Superintendent Konrad Simonsen is flown in to investigate this horrific murder and he sees how she was attacked, it triggers a dark memory and he realizes this was not the killer's only victim. As Simonsen's team works to discover evidence that has long since been buried, they unearth truths that certain people would prefer stayed forgotten.
Bloomsbury USA * 9781632862976
HOME BY NIGHTFALL: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch (Historical Mystery)
It's London in 1876, and the whole city is abuzz with the enigmatic disappearance of a famous foreign pianist. Charles Lenox is ready to investigate, until his grieving brother asks him to come down to Sussex. Something strange is afoot in Markethouse: small thefts, books, blankets, animals and, more alarmingly, a break-in at the house of a local insurance agent. Lenox realizes that something very strange and serious indeed may be happening, more than just local mischief. Soon he's racing to solve two cases at once before either turns deadly.
Minotaur Books * 9781250070418
HOTELS OF NORTH AMERICA by Rick Moody (Fiction)
Reginald Edward Morse is one of the top reviewers on RateYourLodging.com, where his many reviews reveal more than just details of hotels around the globe --- they tell his life story. The puzzle of Reginald's life comes together through reviews that comment upon his motivational speaking career, the dissolution of his marriage, the separation from his beloved daughter, and his devotion to an amour known only as "K." But when Reginald disappears, we are left with the fragments of a life --- or at least the life he has carefully constructed --- that writer Rick Moody must make sense of.
Little, Brown and Company * 9780316178556
THE MAGIC STRINGS OF FRANKIE PRESTO by Mitch Albom (Fiction)
At nine years old, Frankie Presto --- a war orphan raised by a blind music teacher in a small Spanish town --- is sent to America in the bottom of a boat. His only possession is an old guitar and six precious strings. But Frankie’s talent is touched by the gods, and his amazing journey weaves him through the musical landscape of the 20th century. Frankie becomes a pop star himself but soon realizes that, through his music, he can actually affect people’s futures. At the height of his popularity, Frankie vanishes. Only decades later does he reappear --- just before his spectacular death --- to change one last life.
Harper * 9780062294418
MAKE 'EM LAUGH: Short-Term Memories of Longtime Friends by Debbie Reynolds and Dorian Hannaway (Memoir/Essays)
From her acclaimed performances to her headline-making divorce from Eddie Fisher, raising a famous daughter to hitting the road with a successful one-woman show, Debbie Reynolds has been in the spotlight for decades. In this fabulous personal tour, she recalls wonderful moments with the greats of the entertainment world, sharing stories that shed new light on her life and career and the glittering world of Hollywood then and now. Debbie has plenty to tell --- and in MAKE ’EM LAUGH, she dishes it in the warm, down-to-earth voice her fans adore.
William Morrow * 9780062416636
PETTY: The Biography by Warren Zanes (Biography)
Born in Gainesville, Florida, with more than a little hillbilly in his blood, Tom Petty was a kid without a whole lot of promise. Rock and roll made it otherwise. His story has all the drama of a rock-and-roll epic. Now in his mid-60s, still making records and touring, Petty --- known for his reclusive style --- has shared with Warren Zanes his insights and arguments, his regrets and lasting ambitions, and the details of his life on and off the stage.
Henry Holt and Co. * 9780805099683
THE PROMISE: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais (Thriller)
When Elvis Cole is secretly hired to find a grief-stricken mother, he's led to an ordinary house on a rainy night in Echo Park. Only the house isn't ordinary, and the people hiding inside are a desperate fugitive and a murderous criminal with his own dangerous secrets. LAPD K-9 Officer Scott James and his German shepherd, Maggie, track the fugitive to this same house, coming face-to-face with Mr. Rollins, a killer who leaves behind a brutally murdered body and enough explosives to destroy the neighborhood. Scott is now the only person who can identify him, but Mr. Rollins has a rule: Never leave a witness alive.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399161490
SIDNEY SHELDON’S RECKLESS: A Tracy Whitney Novel by Tilly Bagshawe (Thriller)
The world faces a new terror threat from a group of global hackers intent on the collapse of capitalism and private wealth and the creation of a new world order. When this group turns to violence, with deadly effect, the mysterious woman pulling their strings becomes the CIA’s public enemy number one. Only one clever and ruthless woman is capable of tracking down the terrorist: Tracy Whitney. Hampered by corruption and enemies masked as allies, Tracy will be pushed to the brink, where she must face her darkest demons. But just how reckless will a person become when she has nothing left to lose?
William Morrow * 9780062304056
THE WHITE ROAD: Journey into an Obsession by Edmund de Waal (Memoir/History)
Edmund de Waal gives us an intimate narrative history of his lifelong obsession with porcelain, or "white gold." A potter who has been working with porcelain for more than 40 years, de Waal describes how he set out on five journeys to places where porcelain was dreamed about, refined, collected and coveted --- and that would help him understand the clay's mysterious allure. His search eventually takes him around the globe and reveals more than a history of cups and figurines; rather, he is forced to confront some of the darkest moments of 20th-century history.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux * 9780374289263
A WILD SWAN: And Other Tales written by Michael Cunningham, with illustrations by Yuko Shimizu (Fairy Tales)
A poisoned apple and a monkey's paw with the power to change fate; a girl whose extraordinarily long hair causes catastrophe; a man with one human arm and one swan's wing; and a house deep in the forest, constructed of gumdrops and gingerbread, vanilla frosting and boiled sugar. In A WILD SWAN, the people and the talismans of lands far, far away --- the mythic figures of our childhoods and the source of so much of our wonder --- are transformed by Michael Cunningham into stories of sublime revelation.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux * 9780374290252
YEAR OF YES: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes (Memoir)
With three hit television shows and three children at home, the uber-talented Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say NO when an unexpected invitation arrived. Then Shonda’s sister laid down a challenge: just for one year, try to say YES to the unexpected invitations that come your way. She reluctantly agreed --- and the result was nothing short of transformative. In YEAR OF YES, Shonda chronicles the powerful impact saying YES had on every aspect of her life --- and how we can all change our lives with that one little word.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476777092 |
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On Sale the Week of November 9th in Paperback
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November 10th
AT THE WATER’S EDGE by Sara Gruen (Historical Fiction)
After disgracing themselves at a high society New Year’s Eve party in Philadelphia in 1944, Madeline Hyde and her husband, Ellis, are cut off financially by his father, a former army colonel who is already ashamed of his son’s inability to serve in the war. When Ellis and his best friend, Hank, decide that the only way to regain the Colonel’s favor is to succeed where the Colonel very publicly failed --- by hunting down the famous Loch Ness monster --- Maddie reluctantly follows them across the Atlantic, leaving her sheltered world behind.
Spiegel & Grau * 9780385523240
EMPIRE OF COTTON: A Global History by Sven Beckert (History)
Cotton is so ubiquitous as to be almost invisible, yet understanding its history is key to understanding the origins of modern capitalism. Sven Beckert’s rich, fascinating book tells the story of how, in a remarkably brief period, European entrepreneurs and powerful statesmen recast the world’s most significant manufacturing industry, combining imperial expansion and slave labor with new machines and wage workers to change the world.
Vintage * 9780375713965
EMPIRE’S CROSSROADS: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day by Carrie Gibson (History)
Ever since Christopher Columbus stepped off the Santa Maria onto what is today San Salvador, in the Bahamas, and announced that he had arrived in the Orient, the Caribbean has been a stage for projected fantasies and competition between world powers. In EMPIRE'S CROSSROADS, British American historian Carrie Gibson traces the story of this coveted area from the northern rim of South America up to Cuba, and from discovery through colonialism to today.
Grove Press * 9780802124319
THE FORGERS by Bradford Morrow (Literary Thriller)
The rare book world is stunned when a reclusive collector, Adam Diehl, is found on the floor of his home with his hands severed. Adam’s sister, Meghan, and her lover, Will --- a convicted if unrepentant literary forger --- struggle to come to terms with the seemingly incomprehensible murder. But when Will begins receiving threatening handwritten letters, he understands that his own life is also on the line --- and attempts to forge a new beginning for himself and Meg.
Mysterious Press * 9780802124272
THE HIDDEN MAN by Charles Cumming (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Christopher Keen, once a master spy, is murdered in cold blood. His sons Mark and Benjamin, though they hadn't seen their father for over 20 years, are now drawn into the legacy of his life as a spy as they set out to discover the truth and avenge their father's death. But as their search proceeds, more questions arise. Is Christopher's death connected to his past life in MI6? Was his eldest son involved in a conspiracy that links him to Moscow, Afghanistan and the Russian mafia?
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9780312366384
HOSTAGE by Kristina Ohlsson (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Shortly after a crowded New York-bound Boeing 747 takes off from Stockholm, a bomb threat is found in one of the aircraft’s lavatories. Police superintendent Alex Recht teams up with the energetic and often abrasive Eden Lundell from the security service’s counterterrorism unit to deal with the hijacking. Fredrika Bergman, who is currently working at the Justice Department, returns to the police force to act as a liaison between the government and the police. The investigation team soon realizes that the plot behind the hijacking is far more complex than they initially thought.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books * 9781476734033
I STAND CORRECTED: How Teaching Western Manners in China Became Its Own Unforgettable Lesson by Eden Collinsworth (Memoir/Cultural History)
In I STAND CORRECTED, Eden Collinsworth tells the entertaining and insightful story of the year she spent living among the Chinese while writing a book featuring advice on such topics as the non-negotiable issue of personal hygiene, the rules of the handshake, and making sense of foreigners. Scrutinizing the kind of etiquette that has guided her own business career, Collinsworth creates a counterpart that explains Chinese practices and reveals much about our own Western culture.
Anchor * 9780804170468
LIVES IN RUINS: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble by Marilyn Johnson (Social Science/Archaeology)
Pompeii, Machu Picchu, the Valley of the Kings, the Parthenon --- the names of these legendary archaeological sites conjure up romance and mystery. The news is full of archaeology: treasures found and treasures lost. Where are the archaeologists behind these stories? What kind of work do they actually do, and why does it matter? Marilyn Johnson’s LIVES IN RUINS is an absorbing and entertaining look at the lives of contemporary archaeologists as they sweat under the sun for clues to the puzzle of our past.
Harper Perennial * 9780062127198
THE NEWS SORORITY: Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Christiane Amanpour --- and the (Ongoing, Imperfect, Complicated) Triumph of Women in TV News by Sheila Weller (Biography)
For decades, women battered the walls of the male fortress of television journalism. After fierce struggles, three women --- Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric and Christiane Amanpour --- broke into the newsroom’s once impenetrable “boys’ club.” Drawing on exclusive interviews with their colleagues and intimates from childhood on, THE NEWS SORORITY reveals the hard struggles and inner strengths that shaped these women and powered their success.
Penguin Books * 9780143127772
RESPECT: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz (Biography)
Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, has evolved ever since her hit single "Respect," amidst personal tragedy, surprise Grammy performances and career reinventions. Again and again, Aretha stubbornly finds a way to triumph over troubles, even as they continue to build. Her hold on the crown is tenacious, and in RESPECT, David Ritz gives us the definitive life of one of the greatest talents in all American culture.
Back Bay Books * 9780316196819
A ROYAL EXPERMIENT: Love and Duty, Madness and Betrayal -- The Private Lives of King George III and Queen Charlotte by Janice Hadlow (Biography)
In the U.S., Britain's George III, the protagonist of A ROYAL EXPERIMENT, is known as the king from whom Americans won their independence and as "the mad king." But in Janice Hadlow’s biography, he is another character altogether --- compelling and relatable. The struggle of King George --- along with his wife, Queen Charlotte, and their 15 children --- to pursue a passion for family will surprise history buffs and delight a broad swath of biography readers and royal watchers.
Picador * 9781250075147
TALES OF ACCIDENTAL GENIUS: Stories by Simon Van Booy (Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
In his first book of short stories since LOVE BEGINS IN WINTER, Simon Van Booy offers a collection of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassion. Through characters including an eccentric film director, an aging Cockney bodyguard, the teenage child of Nigerian immigrants, a divorced amateur magician from New Jersey, and a Beijing street vendor who becomes an overnight billionaire, TALES OF ACCIDENTAL GENIUS contemplates individuals from different cultures and races, and reveals how faith and yearning for connection helps us all transcend darkness of fear and misfortune.
Harper Perennial * 9780062408976
THE WORLD OF RAYMOND CHANDLER: In His Own Words edited by Barry Day (Literature/History)
Raymond Chandler never wrote a memoir or an autobiography. The closest he came to writing either was in --- and around --- his novels, shorts stories and letters. There have been books that describe and evaluate Chandler’s life, but to find out what he himself felt about his life and work, Barry Day has chosen from Chandler’s writing, as well as the many interviews he gave over the years as he achieved cult status, to weave together an illuminating narrative that reveals the man, the work and the worlds he created.
Vintage * 9780804170482 |
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