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February 2, 2016

February 2, 2016
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Here you will find books releasing the weeks of February 1st and February 8th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar. This week, we are calling attention to a Sneak Peek contest and two Author Spotlight giveaways on Bookreporter.com.

We also share details about Signature-Reads.com's "Winter Reading Essentials" Sweepstakes, which gives readers the opportunity to win five buzzworthy books and other fabulous prizes.

Know a friend or family member who you think may enjoy this newsletter? Then please forward it on to them!

Enter for a Chance to Win Your Own Cozy Winter Reading Essentials from Signature!
Signature, the latest news with a literary slant, wants you to bundle up and hunker down with your very own set of cozy reading essentials, including:

  • 5 buzzworthy books
  • A cotton herringbone blanket from Kaufmann Mercantile
  • A pair of Warby Parker glasses ($95)
  • A $25 Starbucks gift card
Enter for your chance to win today!
This Week's Bonus News: THREE Contests on Bookreporter.com --- Enter to Win New and Upcoming Novels and Share Your Comments on Them
Sneak Peek Feature and Contest
Our latest Sneak Peek Feature spotlights THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER by Phaedra Patrick, a poignant and curiously charming debut about a lovable widower who embarks on a life-changing adventure. The book doesn’t release until May 3rd, but we have 35 advance copies to give away to readers who can commit to previewing it and sharing their comments on it by Friday, April 1st. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, February 11th at noon ET.

THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER by Phaedra Patrick (Fiction)
Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple life. But on the one-year anniversary of his wife Miriam’s death, something changes. Sorting through Miriam’s possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he’s never seen before. What follows is a surprising and unforgettable odyssey that takes Arthur from London to Paris and as far as India in an epic quest to find out the truth about his wife’s secret life before they met --- a journey that leads him to find hope, healing and self-discovery in the most unexpected places.

-Click here to read more in our Sneak Peek feature and enter the contest.


Debut Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight & Contest
We have 35 copies of THE WIDOW by Fiona Barton to give away to readers who would like to read the book, which releases on February 16th, and share their comments on it. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, February 11th at noon ET.

THE WIDOW by Fiona Barton (Psychological Thriller)
There's a lot Jean hasn't said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment. Now her husband is dead, and there's no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything.


-Click here to read more in our Debut Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight and enter the contest.


Women's Fiction Author Spotlight & Contest
We have 25 copies of THE THINGS WE KEEP by Sally Hepworth to give away to readers who would like to read the book, which is now in stores, and share their comments on it. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, February 4th at noon ET.

THE THINGS WE KEEP by Sally Hepworth (Fiction)
Anna Forster, in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease at only 38 years old, resides in Rosalind House, an assisted living facility. There, she meets fellow resident Luke, and a relationship develops between the two. When Eve Bennett is suddenly thrust into the role of single mother, she finds herself putting her culinary training to use at Rosalind House. When she meets Anna and Luke, she is moved by the bond the pair has forged. But when a tragic incident leads Anna's and Luke's families to separate them, Eve finds herself questioning what she is willing to risk to help them.


-Click here to read more in our Women's Fiction Author Spotlight and enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of February 1st in Hardcover

February 1st

THE GOLDEN LAD: The Haunting Story of Quentin and Theodore Roosevelt by Eric Burns (History)
More than a century has passed since Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, but he still continues to fascinate. He became a war hero, reformed the NYPD, busted the largest railroad and oil trusts, passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, created national parks and forests, won the Nobel Peace Prize and built the Panama Canal --- to name just a few. Yet it was the cause he championed the hardest --- America's entry into World War I --- that would ultimately divide and destroy him, when his youngest son, Quentin, died in an air fight.
Pegasus * 9781605989518


February 2nd

THE ART OF WAR by Stephen Coonts (Thriller/Adventure)
As the Chinese military begins to prey on neighbors in the South China Sea, attacking fishing vessels and scheming to seize natural resources, the US goes on high alert. But a far more ominous danger lurks closer to home: a Chinese sleeper cell has planted a nuclear weapon in the harbor at Norfolk, Virginia, the biggest naval base on the planet. The target: a secret rendezvous of the Atlantic Fleet aircraft carriers and their battle groups. When the CIA director is assassinated and Jake Grafton is appointed to take his place, he gets wind of the conspiracy, but has no idea when or where the attack will occur.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250041999

BE FRANK WITH ME by Julia Claiborne Johnson (Fiction)
After falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, reclusive literary legend M. M. “Mimi” Banning must write a new book for the first time in decades. When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion to monitor her progress, she’s put to work right away --- as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old son. As she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank’s father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation --- and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.
William Morrow * 9780062413710

THE BLACK CALHOUNS: From Civil War to Civil Rights with One African American Family by Gail Lumet Buckley (Memoir/History)
Beginning with her great-great grandfather, Moses Calhoun, a house slave who used the rare advantage of his education to become a successful businessman in post-war Atlanta, Gail Lumet Buckley follows her family’s two branches: one that stayed in the South, and the other that settled in Brooklyn. Through the lens of her relatives’ momentous lives, Buckley examines major events throughout American history --- from Atlanta during Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow, to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance, and then from World War II to the Civil Rights Movement.
Atlantic Monthly Press * 9780802124548

BREAKDOWN: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman (Psychological Thriller)
Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware meets actress Zelda Chase when called upon to evaluate her five-year-old son, Ovid. Years later, he is unexpectedly reunited with Zelda when she is involuntarily committed after a bizarre psychotic episode. Shortly after her release, she is discovered dead on the grounds of a palatial Bel Air estate. Alex turns to his friend, LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis, for help in finding out who ended Zelda’s broken life. At the same time, he is caught up in another quest: the search for her missing son. And when other victims vanish from the same upscale neighborhood, worry turns to terror.
Ballantine Books * 9780345541406

BROTHERHOOD IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Thriller)
Just as Dennis Mira is about to confront his cousin Edward about selling the West Village brownstone that belonged to their grandfather, he gets a shock: Edward is in front of him, bruised and bloody…and then everything goes black. When Dennis comes to, Edward is gone. Luckily Dennis’ wife is a top profiler for the NYPSD --- and a close colleague of Lieutenant Eve Dallas. Now Eve is determined to uncover the secrets of Edward Mira, but whoever is behind this disappearance, Edward is not going to be their last victim.
Berkley * 9780399170898

THE CELLAR by Minette Walters (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
On the day Mr. and Mrs. Songoli’s young son fails to come home from school, 14-year-old Muna’s fortunes change for the better. Until then, her bedroom was a dank windowless cellar, her activities confined to cooking and cleaning. Now that Scotland Yard has swarmed the Songoli house to investigate the disappearance of the son, Muna is given a real bedroom and clothing, yet her world remains confined. Before long, though, it becomes clear that young Muna is far more clever --- and her plans more terrifying --- than the Songolis, or anyone else, can ever imagine.
Mysterious Press * 9780802124517

DOG LOVE by Ann DeVito (Art/Pets)
From Schnauzers to Chihuahuas, Mastiffs to Maltipoos, crime-sniffing Blood Hounds to chic Bichons, dogs have charmed humans across the world for centuries with their lovable quirks and appealing personalities. In DOG LOVE, Ann DeVito brings man’s best friend to life with a collection of vibrant illustrations and snappy descriptions that pay loving homage to pups from all walks of life --- no pun intended --- from sophisticated, recognized breeds to lovable mutts and everything in between.
Penguin Books * 9780143107835

THE FIREBRAND AND THE FIRST LADY: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice by Patricia Bell-Scott (History/Politics)
THE FIREBRAND AND THE FIRST LADY is a groundbreaking book --- two decades in the works --- that tells the story of how a brilliant writer-turned-activist, granddaughter of a mulatto slave, and the first lady of the United States, whose ancestry gave her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, forged an enduring friendship that changed each of their lives and helped to alter the course of race and racism in America.
Knopf * 9780679446521

THE FLOOD GIRLS by Richard Fifield (Fiction)
In Quinn, Montana, nearly all of the volunteer firemen are named Jim, the only bar in town refuses to serve mixed drinks (too much work), the locals hate the newcomers (then again, they hate the locals, too), and the town softball team has never even come close to having a winning season. Until now. Rachel Flood has snuck back into town after leaving behind a trail of chaos nine years prior. She’s here to make amends, though nobody wants to hear it, especially her mother, Laverna. But with the help of a local boy named Jake and a little soul-searching, she just might make things right.
Gallery Books * 9781476797380

THE FORGETTING TIME by Sharon Guskin (Fiction)
One day, the preschool office calls and says Janie needs to come in to talk about her four-year-old son, Noah. And life as she knows it stops. For Jerome Anderson, life as he knows it has stopped. A deadly diagnosis has made him realize he is approaching the end of his life. He spent his life searching for that something else. And with Noah, he thinks he's found it. Soon Noah, Janie and Anderson will find themselves knocking on the door of a mother whose son has been missing for eight years --- and when that door opens, all of their questions will be answered.
Flatiron Books * 9781250076427

A FRIEND OF MR. LINCOLN by Stephen Harrigan (Historical Fiction)
It is Illinois in the 1830s and 1840s. Abraham Lincoln is a circuit-riding lawyer, a member of the state legislature, a man of almost ungovernable ambition. To his friends he is also a beloved figure, by turns charmingly awkward and mesmerizingly self-possessed. Among his friends and political colleagues are Joshua Speed, William Herndon, Stephen Douglas and many others who have come to the exploding frontier town of Springfield to find their futures. It is through another friend, fictional poet Cage Weatherby, that we will come to know Lincoln in his 20s and 30s, as a series of formative, surprising incidents unfolds.
Knopf * 9780307700674

THE GOD'S EYE VIEW by Barry Eisler (Thriller)
NSA director Theodore Anders has a simple goal: collect every phone call, email and keystroke tapped on the Internet. He knows unlimited surveillance is the only way to keep America safe. Evelyn Gallagher just wants to keep her head down and manage the NSA’s camera network and facial recognition program so she can afford private school for her deaf son, Dash. But when Evelyn discovers the existence of an NSA program code-named God’s Eye, and connects it with the mysterious deaths of a string of journalists and whistleblowers, her doubts put her and Dash in the crosshairs of a pair of government assassins.
Thomas & Mercer * 9781503951518

THE GOOD LIAR by Nicholas Searle (Literary Suspense)
Veteran con artist Roy spots an obvious easy mark when he meets Betty, a wealthy widow, online. In no time at all, he has moved into Betty’s lovely cottage and is preparing to accompany her on a romantic trip to Europe. Betty’s grandson disapproves of their blossoming relationship, but Roy is sure this scheme will be a success. He knows what he’s doing. As this remarkable feat of storytelling weaves together Roy’s and Betty’s futures, it also unwinds their pasts.
Harper * 9780062407498

THE HIGH MOUNTAINS OF PORTUGAL by Yann Martel (Fantasy/Magical Realism)
In 1904, a young man named Tomás sets out in search of an extraordinary artifact that would redefine history. Thirty-five years later, a Portuguese pathologist devoted to the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie finds himself at the center of a mystery of his own and drawn into the consequences of Tomás’ quest. Fifty years on, a Canadian senator takes refuge in his ancestral village in northern Portugal, grieving the loss of his beloved wife. But he arrives with an unusual companion: a chimpanzee. And there the century-old quest will come to an unexpected conclusion.
Spiegel & Grau * 9780812997170

THE KILLING FOREST by Sara Blaedel (Thriller)
Following an extended leave, Louise Rick returns to work at the Special Search Agency, an elite unit of the National Police Department. She's assigned a case involving a 15-year-old who vanished a week earlier. When Louise realizes that the missing teenager is the son of a butcher from Hvalsoe, she seizes the opportunity to combine the search for the teen with her personal investigation of her boyfriend's long-ago death. As she moves through the small town's cramped network of deadly connections, Louise unearths toxic truths left unspoken and dangerous secrets.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455581542

MISSING PIECES by Heather Gudenkauf (Thriller)
Sarah Quinlan's husband, Jack, has been haunted for decades by the untimely death of his mother when he was just a teenager. The case rocked the small farm town of Penny Gate, Iowa, where Jack was raised, and for years Jack avoided returning home. But when his beloved aunt Julia is in an accident, Jack and Sarah are forced to confront the past that they have long evaded. Caught in a flurry of unanswered questions, Sarah dives deep into the puzzling rabbit hole of Jack's past. But the farther in she climbs, the harder it is for her to get out. And soon she is faced with a deadly truth she may not be prepared for.
Mira * 9780778318651

THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S WIFE by Suzanne Joinson (Historical Fiction)
In 1920s Jerusalem, 11-year-old Prudence watches her architect father launch an ambitious plan to redesign the Holy City by importing English parks to the desert. He employs a British pilot, William Harrington, to take aerial photographs of the city, and soon Prue becomes uncomfortably aware of the attraction flaring between Harrington and Eleanora, the young English wife of a famous Jerusalem photographer. Years later, Prue is an artist living a reclusive life by the sea when Harrington pays her a surprise visit. What he reveals unravels her world, and she must follow the threads that lead her back to secrets long-ago buried in Jerusalem.
Bloomsbury USA * 9781620408308

ROBERT B. PARKER’S BLACKJACK by Robert Knott (Historical Mystery/Western)
Appaloosa, the hometown of Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, continues to prosper, but with prosperity comes a slew of new trouble: carpetbaggers, gamblers, migrants, peddlers, drifters, thieves and whores. And there’s a new menace in town: Boston Bill Black, the owner of Appaloosa’s new casino who is wanted for a series of murders. As they set out to track him down, Cole and Hitch find themselves back in Appaloosa --- where one woman in particular may, or may not, prove to be the apple of Boston Bill’s eye.
Putnam * 9781101982532

SAVING JASON by Michael Sears (Thriller)
Jason Stafford used to be a hot Wall Street trader, went too far, and paid for it in prison. Now a financial investigator, he’s been asked to look into rumors of a hostile takeover of his firm, but he has no idea it will turn his whole life upside down. Suddenly embroiled in a grand jury investigation of Mob-related activities on Wall Street, and threatened by some very serious men, he is thrust into witness protection with his young autistic son. And then his son disappears. Stafford has no choice but to come out of hiding and risk everything to save his son, his firm, his pregnant girlfriend --- and himself.
G. P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399166723

SWEETGIRL by Travis Mulhauser (Fiction)
As a blizzard bears down, Percy James sets off to find her troubled mother, Carletta. Fearing she is strung out on meth and that she won’t survive the storm, Percy heads for Shelton Potter’s cabin. Searching the house, she finds the two-bit criminal and his girlfriend drugged into oblivion --- and a crying baby girl. Percy knows she must save her --- a split-second decision that is the beginning of a dangerous odyssey in which she must battle the elements and evade Shelton and a small band of desperate criminals, hell-bent on getting that baby back.
Ecco * 9780062400826

THIS WAS NOT THE PLAN by Cristina Alger (Fiction)
Widowerhood at 33 and 12-hour workdays have left a gap in Charlie Goldwyn’s relationship with his quirky five-year-old son, Caleb. The only thing Charlie has going for him is his job at a prestigious law firm, where he is finally close to becoming a partner. But when a slight lapse in judgment at an office party leaves him humiliatingly unemployed, stuck at home with Caleb for the summer, and forced to face his own estranged father, Charlie starts to realize that there’s more to fatherhood than financially providing for his son, and more to being a son than overtaking his father’s successes.
Touchstone * 9781501103759

THE VEGETARIAN by Han Kang (Psychological Suspense/Horror)
Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams --- invasive images of blood and brutality --- torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that’s become sacred to her.
Hogarth * 9780553448184

A VOICE FROM THE FIELD by Neal Griffin (Thriller)
Gunther Kane and his white supremacist group are using forced prostitution to finance the purchase of automatic weapons. Kane snatches young women off the streets and sells them to hundreds of men. When a victim is used up, she's killed and dumped. Physically recovered from being shot but struggling with PTSD, Tia Suarez almost doesn't believe her eyes when she glimpses a Hispanic teenager bound and gagged in the back of Kane's van. The look of terror on the woman's face makes Tia desperate to rescue her, and nothing will stop her.
Forge Books * 9780765338518

WHILE THE CITY SLEPT: A Love Lost to Violence and a Young Man's Descent into Madness by Eli Sanders (True Crime)
On a summer night in 2009, three lives intersected in one American neighborhood. Two people newly in love --- Teresa Butz and Jennifer Hopper, who spent many years trying to find themselves and eventually found each other --- and a young man on a dangerous psychological descent: Isaiah Kalebu, the son of a distant, authoritarian father and a mother with a family history of mental illness. All three paths forever altered by a violent crime, all three stories a wake-up call to the system that failed to see the signs.
Viking * 9780670015719

THE YID by Paul Goldberg (Historical Fiction)
A week before Stalin's death, his final pogrom is in full swing. Three government goons arrive in the middle of the night to arrest Solomon Shimonovich Levinson, an actor from the defunct State Jewish Theater. But Levinson is a veteran of past wars, and his shocking response to the intruders sets in motion a series of events both zany and deadly as he proceeds to assemble a ragtag group to help him enact a mad-brilliant plot: the assassination of a tyrant. While the setting is Soviet Russia, the backdrop is Shakespeare: A mad king has a diabolical plan to exterminate and deport his country's remaining Jews.
Picador * 9781250079039

YOUNGBLOOD by Matt Gallagher (Fiction)
The US military is preparing to withdraw from Iraq, and newly minted lieutenant Jack Porter struggles to accept how it’s happening --- through alliances with warlords who have Arab and American blood on their hands. His world is disrupted by the arrival of veteran Sergeant Daniel Chambers, whose aggressive style threatens to undermine the fragile peace that the troops have worked hard to establish. As Iraq plunges back into chaos and bloodshed, and Chambers’ influence over the men grows stronger, Jack becomes obsessed with a strange, tragic tale of reckless love between a lost American soldier and Rana, a local sheikh’s daughter.
Atria Books * 9781501105746
On Sale the Week of February 1st in Paperback

February 1st

LINCOLN’S GREATEST CASE: The River, the Bridge, and the Making of America by Brian McGinty (History)
In the early hours of May 6, 1856, the steamboat Effie Afton barreled into a pillar of the Rock Island Bridge --- the first railroad bridge ever to span the Mississippi River. Soon after, the newly constructed vessel, crowded with passengers and livestock, erupted into flames and sank in the river below, taking much of the bridge with it. As lawyer and Lincoln scholar Brian McGinty dramatically reveals in LINCOLN'S GREATEST CASE, no one was killed, but the question of who was at fault cried out for an answer.
Liveright * 9781631491474


February 2nd

AFTER BIRTH by Elisa Albert (Fiction)
A year has passed since Ari gave birth to Walker, though it went so badly awry she has trouble calling it “birth” and still can't locate herself in her altered universe. When Mina, a one-time cult musician --- older, self-contained, alone and nine-months pregnant --- moves to town, Ari sees the possibility of a new friend, despite her unfortunate habit of generally mistrusting women. Soon they become comrades-in-arms, and the previously hostile terrain seems almost navigable.
Mariner Books * 9780544582910

BALM by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Historical Fiction)
The Civil War has ended, and Madge, Sadie and Hemp have each come to Chicago in search of a new life. Born with magical hands, Madge has the power to discern others’ suffering, but she cannot heal her own damaged heart. Sadie can commune with the dead, but until she makes peace with her father, she, too, cannot fully engage her gift. Searching for his missing family, Hemp arrives in this northern city that shimmers with possibility. But redemption cannot be possible until he is reunited with those taken from him.
Amistad * 9780062318664

BELIEVER: My Forty Years in Politics by David Axelrod (Memoir/Politics)
Whether as a young journalist investigating city corruption, a campaign consultant guiding underdog candidates against entrenched orthodoxy, or as senior adviser to the president during one of the worst crises in American history, David Axelrod held fast to his faith in the power of stories to unite diverse communities and ignite transformative political change. Now this legendary strategist, the mastermind behind Barack Obama’s historic election campaigns, shares a wealth of stories from his 40-year journey through the inner workings of American democracy.
Penguin Books * 9780143128359

BETTYVILLE: A Memoir by George Hodgman (Memoir)
When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself --- an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook --- in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. As these two unforgettable characters try to bring their different worlds together, Hodgman reveals the challenges of Betty’s life and his own struggle for self-respect, moving readers from their small town --- crumbling but still colorful --- to the star-studded corridors of Vanity Fair.
Penguin Books * 9780143107880

CITY OF SAVAGES by Lee Kelly (Dystopian Thriller/Fantasy)
It’s been nearly two decades since the Red Allies first attacked New York, and Manhattan is now a prisoner-of-war camp. For Skyler Miller, Manhattan is a cage that keeps her from the world beyond the city’s borders. But for Sky’s younger sister, Phee, the POW camp is a dangerous playground of possibility, and the only home she’d ever want. When Sky and Phee discover their mom’s hidden journal from the war’s outbreak, they both realize there’s more to Manhattan --- and their mother --- than either of them had ever imagined.
Saga Press * 9781481410311

COMPULSION by Allison Brennan (Thriller)
Investigative reporter Maxine Revere has a theory: that the five New York City murders for which Adam Bachman is being tried are just part of his killing spree. In probing the disappearance of a retired couple who vanished the prior summer, Max uncovers striking similarities to Bachman's MO and develops a theory that Bachman wasn't working alone. She wins a coveted pre-trial interview with the killer, whose disarming composure in the face of her questions is combined with uncomfortable knowledge of her own past.
Minotaur Books * 9781250038036

CUBA STRAITS: A Doc Ford Novel by Randy Wayne White (Thriller/Adventure)
Doc Ford’s old friend, General Juan Garcia, has gone into the lucrative business of smuggling Cuban baseball players into the U.S. He is also feasting on profits made by buying historical treasures for pennies on the dollar. He prefers what dealers call HPC items --- high-profile collectibles --- but when he manages to obtain a collection of letters written by Fidel Castro between 1960 and 1962 to a secret girlfriend, it’s not a matter of money anymore. Garcia has stumbled way out of his depth.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780425280096

DISCLAIMER by Renée Knight (Psychological Thriller)
Finding a mysterious novel at her bedside plunges documentary filmmaker Catherine Ravenscroft into a living nightmare. Though ostensibly fiction, The Perfect Stranger recreates in vivid, unmistakable detail the terrible day she became hostage to a dark secret, a secret that only one other person knew --- and that person is dead. Now that the past is catching up with her, Catherine’s world is falling apart. Her only hope is to confront what really happened on that awful day…even if the shocking truth might destroy her.
Harper Paperbacks * 9780062362261

DISCONTENT AND ITS CIVILIZATIONS: Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London by Mohsin Hamid (Essays)
Mohsin Hamid’s stories are at once timeless and of-the-moment, and his themes are universal: love, language, ambition, power, corruption, religion, family and identity. In DISCONTENT AND ITS CIVILIZATIONS, he explores this terrain from a different angle in essays that deftly counterpoise the personal and the political, and are shot through with the same passion, imagination and breathtaking shifts of perspective that gives his fiction its unmistakable electric charge.
Riverhead Books * 9781594634031

EMPIRE: The Chronicles of the Invaders, Book 2 by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard (Science Fiction/Adventure)
In EMPIRE, John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard continue the journey of Syl and Paul as they fight to regain planet Earth from a ruthless alien species. Light years from Earth and millions of miles apart, the two must find a way to reveal the horrifying truth behind the Empire and save all that they hold dear from the hunger of the Others.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books * 9781476757162

FRICTION by Sandra Brown (Thriller)
Following the death of his wife four years ago, Crawford Hunt fell into a downward spiral and lost custody of his five-year-old daughter, Georgia, to her grandparents. But he has cleaned up his act and met all the court-imposed requirements, and now the fate of his family lies with Judge Holly Spencer. When a masked gunman barges into the courtroom during the custody hearing, Crawford saves Holly from a bullet. After uncovering a horrifying truth about the gunman, he realizes that the unknown person behind the shooting remains at large…and a threat.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455581184

FUNNY GIRL by Nick Hornby (Historical Fiction)
Set in 1960s London, FUNNY GIRL is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters. Insightful and humorous, Nick Hornby's latest does what he does best: endears us to a cast of characters who are funny, if flawed, and forces us to examine ourselves in the process.
Riverhead Books * 9781101983355

IN WILDERNESS by Diane Thomas (Psychological Suspense)
In the winter of 1966, Katherine Reid moves to an isolated cabin deep in Georgia’s Appalachian Mountains, where she plans to spend her time in peaceful solitude. Twenty-year-old Vietnam veteran Danny lives not far from Katherine’s cabin. Haunted by war and enclosed by walls of moldering books, he becomes fixated on Katherine. What starts as cautious observation grows to obsession. When these two souls collide, the passion that ignites between them is all-consuming --- and increasingly dangerous.
Bantam * 9780804176972

LONG WAY DOWN by Michael Sears (Thriller)
Two years in a federal prison has changed Jason Stafford, but one thing it has taught him as a financial investigator is how to detect a lie. He doesn’t think Philip Haley is lying. An engineer on the verge of a biofuel breakthrough, Haley has been indicted for insider trading on his own company, and Stafford believes him when he says he’s been set up. It does make him dangerous to be around, though. The deeper Stafford investigates, the more secrets he starts to uncover --- secrets people would kill for.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780425276532

THE MAN WHO COULDN’T STOP: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought by David Adam (Memoir)
David Adam, an editor at Nature and an accomplished science writer, has suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder for 20 years, and THE MAN WHO COULDN’T STOP is his unflinchingly honest attempt to understand the condition and his experiences. Drawing on the latest research on the brain, as well as historical accounts of patients and their treatments, this is a book that will challenge the way you think about what is normal and what is mental illness.
Picador * 9781250083180

OF IRISH BLOOD by Mary Pat Kelly (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1903, and Nora Kelly falls for an attractive but dangerous man who sends her running back to the Old World her family had fled. She takes on Paris, mixing with couturiers, artists and "les femmes Americaines" of the Left Bank, such as Gertrude Stein and Sylvia Beach. But when Nora stumbles into the centuries-old Collège des Irlandais, a good-looking scholar, an unconventional priest and Ireland’s revolutionary women challenge her to honor her Irish blood and join the struggle to free Ireland.
Forge Books * 9780765367419

PARIS, HE SAID by Christine Sneed (Fiction)
Jayne Marks is questioning the choices she has made in the years since college when she is given the opportunity to move to Paris with her wealthy lover and benefactor, Laurent Moller, who owns and operates two art galleries. He offers her the time and financial support she needs to begin her career as a painter and also challenges her to see who and what she will become if she meets her artistic potential. Laurent, however, seems to have other women in his life. Jayne, too, has an ex-boyfriend, much closer to her own age, for whom she still has feelings.
Bloomsbury USA * 9781620406939

THE PARIS WINTER by Imogen Robertson
(Historical Fiction)
Maud Heighton came to Lafond's famous Academie to paint and to flee the constraints of her small English town. It took all of her courage to escape, but Paris is no place for a light purse. While her fellow students enjoy the dazzling decadence of the Belle Epoque, Maud slips into poverty. Quietly starving and dreading another cold Paris winter, Maud is hired by Christian Morel as a companion to his beautiful, young sister, Sylvie. As Maud is drawn further into the Morels' world of elegant luxury, their secrets become hers.
St. Martin's Griffin * 9781250074447

PRETTY BABY by Mary Kubica (Psychological Thriller)
Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home. Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger.
Mira * 9780778318743

PUBLISHING: A Writer’s Memoir by Gail Godwin (Memoir)
PUBLISHING is a personal story of a writer's hunger to be published, the pursuit of that goal, and then the long haul --- for Gail Godwin, 45 years of being a published writer and all that goes with it. The book reflects on the influence of her mother's writing hopes and accomplishments, and recalls her experiences with teachers Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Coover; John Hawkins, her literary agent for five decades; John Irving and other luminaries; and her editors and publishers.
Bloomsbury USA * 9781620408254

REMEMBRANCE: A Mediator Novel by Meg Cabot (Paranormal Romance)
Paperback Original
All Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and since becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva). But when she’s hired as a guidance counselor at her alma mater, she stumbles across a decade-old murder, and soon ancient history isn’t all that’s coming back to haunt her. Old ghosts as well as new ones are coming out of the woodwork --- some to test her, some to vex her --- and it isn’t only because she’s a mediator, gifted with second sight.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062379023

ROMANTIC OUTLAWS: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon (Biography/History)
Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley have each been the subject of numerous biographies, yet no one has ever examined their lives in one book --- until now. In ROMANTIC OUTLAWS, Charlotte Gordon reunites the trailblazing author who wrote A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN and the Romantic visionary who gave the world FRANKENSTEIN --- two courageous women who should have shared their lives, but instead shared a powerful literary and feminist legacy.
Random House Trade Paperbacks * 9780812980479

TINY LITTLE THING by Beatriz Williams (Historical Romance)
In the summer of 1966, Christina Hardcastle (“Tiny” to her illustrious family) stands on the brink of a breathtaking future. Together she and her husband, Frank, make the ultimate power couple. But as the season gets underway at the family estate on Cape Cod, three unwelcome visitors appear in Tiny’s perfect life: her volatile sister, Pepper; an envelope containing an incriminating photograph; and the intimidating figure of Frank’s cousin, Vietnam war hero Caspian, who knows more about Tiny’s rich inner life than anyone else.
Berkley * 9780425278864

AN UNDISTURBED PEACE by Mary Glickman (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
A trio of outsiders linked by unrequited and rekindled love, Abrahan Bento Sassaporta Naggar, Dark Water of the Mountains, and a black slave named Jacob find themselves surrounded by the escalating horrors of President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act. As the US government implements the appalling logistics of transporting the Native American tribes of the South to the western side of the Mississippi River, Abe tries desperately to intervene --- and Jacob and Dark Water fight for their lives.
Open Road Media * 9781504018340

WATER FROM MY HEART by Charles Martin (Fiction)
Charlie Finn earned a life-changing scholarship to Harvard, where he learned how to survive and thrive on the outskirts of privileged society. That skill served him well in the cutthroat business world, as it does in more lucrative but dangerous ventures he now operates off the coast of Miami. Charlie tries to separate relationships from work. But when his choices produce devastating consequences, he sets out to right wrongs. He travels to Central America where he will meet those who have paid for his actions, including a woman and her young daughter.
Center Street * 9781455554683

WHERE ALL LIGHT TENDS TO GO by David Joy (Thriller)
Jacob McNeely’s father runs a methodically organized meth ring, with local authorities on the dime to turn a blind eye to his dealings. Having dropped out of high school and cut himself off from his peers, Jacob has been working for his father for years, all on the promise that his payday will come eventually. But when a fatal mistake changes everything, he’s faced with a choice: stay and appease his father, or leave the mountains with the girl he loves.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons * 9780425279793

WICKED SEXY LIAR by Christina Lauren (Romance)
Paperback Original
When three besties meet three hot guys in Vegas, anything could --- and does --- happen. Moving from college into the real world has never been so crazy...or fun. Let the Wild Seasons begin. The romance heats up between Mia's ex-boyfriend, Luke, and Lorelei's roommate, London, in this raucous conclusion to the Wild Seasons series.
Gallery Books * 9781476777986

 
On Sale the Week of February 8th in Hardcover


February 8th

NELLY DEAN: A Return to Wuthering Heights
by Alison Case (Fiction)
Young Nelly Dean has been Hindley’s closest companion for as long as she can remember, living freely at the great house, Wuthering Heights. But when the benevolence of the master brings a wild child into the house, Nelly learns she must give herself over completely to the demands of the Earnshaw family. As death, illness and passion sweep through the house, Nelly suffers heartache and betrayals at the hands of those she cherishes most, tempting her to leave it all behind. But when a new heir is born, a reign of violence begins that will test even Nelly’s formidable spirit as she finds out what it is to know true sacrifice.
Pegasus * 9781605989617

PIECE OF MIND by Michelle Adelman (Fiction)
At 27, Lucy knows everything about coffee, comic books and Gus (the polar bear at the Central Park Zoo), and she possesses a rare gift for drawing. But since she suffered a traumatic brain injury at the age of three, she has had trouble relating to most people. When unexpected circumstances force her out of the comfortable and protective Jewish home where she was raised and into a cramped studio apartment in New York City with her college-age younger brother, she must adapt to an entirely different life --- one with no safety net.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393245707


February 9th

ARCADIA
by Iain Pears (Supernatural Thriller/Fantasy)
In 1960s Oxford, Professor Henry Lytten is attempting to write a fantasy novel that forgoes the magic of his predecessors, J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. He finds an unlikely confidante in his quick-witted, inquisitive young neighbor, Rosie. One day, while chasing Lytten’s cat, Rosie encounters a doorway in his cellar. She steps through and finds herself in an idyllic, pastoral land where Storytellers are revered above all others. There she meets a young man who is about to embark on a quest of his own --- and may be the one chance Rosie has of returning home. These breathtaking adventures ultimately intertwine with the story of an eccentric psychomathematician whose breakthrough discovery will affect all of these different lives and worlds.
Knopf * 9781101946824

THE ARRANGEMENT by Ashley Warlick (Historical Fiction)
Los Angeles, 1934. Mary Frances is young, restlessly married, and returning from her first sojourn in France. She is hungry, and not just for food: she wants Tim, her husband Al’s charming friend, who encourages her writing and seems to understand her better than anyone. After a night’s transgression, it’s only a matter of time before Mary Frances claims what she truly desires, plunging all three of them into a tangled triangle of affection that will have far-reaching effects on their families, their careers and their lives.
Viking * 9780525429661

THE BATTLE FOR ROOM 314: My Year of Hope and Despair in a New York City High School by Ed Boland (Memoir/Education)
In a fit of idealism, Ed Boland left a 20-year career as a non-profit executive to teach in a tough New York City public high school. But his hopes quickly collided headlong with the appalling reality of his students' lives and a hobbled education system unable to help them. In the end, Boland isn't hoisted on his students' shoulders and no one passes AP anything. This is no urban fairy tale of at-risk kids saved by a Hollywood hero, but a searing indictment of schools that claim to be progressive but still fail their students.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455560615

BLACK RABBIT HALL by Eve Chase (Fiction)
Amber Alton knows that the hours pass differently at Black Rabbit Hall, her London family’s country estate, where no two clocks read the same. More than three decades later, Lorna is determined to be married within the grand, ivy-covered walls of Pencraw Hall, known as Black Rabbit Hall among the locals. But as she’s drawn deeper into the overgrown grounds, half-buried memories of her mother begin to surface. Lorna soon finds herself ensnared within the manor’s labyrinthine history, overcome with an insatiable need for answers about her own past and that of the once-happy family whose memory still haunts the estate.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399174124

BREAKING WILD by Diane Les Becquets (Mystery/Adventure)
It is the last weekend of the season for Amy Raye Latour to get away. But her venture into a remote area presents a different set of dangers than she has planned for, and she finds herself on the verge of the precarious edge that she’s flirted with her entire life. When Amy Raye doesn’t return to camp, ranger Pru Hathaway responds to the missing person’s call. Even after an unexpected snowfall turns the operation into a search and recovery, Pru’s discoveries lead her to suspect that Amy Raye is still alive. Her search becomes an obsession for a woman whose life is just as mysterious as the clues she has left behind.
Berkley * 9780425283783

FIND HER by Lisa Gardner (Thriller)
Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora Dane was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, she learned just how much one person can endure. Miraculously alive after her ordeal, she has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the rhythms of normal life. When Boston detective D. D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime --- a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him --- she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante?
Dutton * 9780525954576

THE FIRST CONGRESS: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government by Fergus M. Bordewich (History/Politics)
The First Congress was the most important in US history, says prize-winning author and historian Fergus Bordewich, because it established how our government would actually function. Had it failed, it’s possible that the United States as we know it would not exist today. The Constitution was a broad set of principles. It was left to the members of the First Congress and President George Washington to create the machinery that would make the government work. Fortunately, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and others less well known today rose to the occasion.
Simon & Schuster * 9781451691931

GEORGIA: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe by Dawn Tripp (Historical Fiction)
In 1916, Georgia O’Keeffe is a young, unknown art teacher when she travels to New York to meet Alfred Stieglitz, the famed photographer and art dealer, who has discovered O’Keeffe’s work and exhibits it in his gallery. O’Keeffe is quickly drawn into Stieglitz’s sophisticated world, becoming his mistress, protégé and muse, as their attraction deepens into an intense and tempestuous relationship and his photographs of her create a sensation. Yet as her own creative force develops, Georgia begins to push back against what critics and others are saying about her and her art. And soon she must make difficult choices to live a life she believes in.
Random House * 9781400069538

THE GIRL BEHIND THE DOOR: A Father’s Quest to Understand His Daughter’s Suicide by John Brooks (Memoir)
Early one Tuesday morning, John Brooks went to his teenage daughter’s room to make sure she was getting up for school and found her room dark and “neater than usual.” Casey was gone, but he found a note: The car is parked at the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m sorry. Several hours later, a security video was found that showed Casey stepping off the bridge. Brooks spent months after Casey’s suicide trying to understand what led his 17-year-old daughter to take her life. In THE GIRL BEHIND THE DOOR, Brooks shares what he learned and asks, “What did everyone miss? What could have been done differently?”
Scribner * 9781501128349

THE HEART written by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Sam Taylor (Fiction)
Just before dawn on a Sunday morning, three teenage boys go surfing. Returning home, exhausted, the driver lets the car drift off the road into a tree. Two of the boys are wearing seat belts; one is sent through the windshield. He is declared brain-dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. His heart is still beating. THE HEART takes place over the 24 hours surrounding that fatal accident and the resulting heart transplant as life is taken from a young man and given to a woman close to death. The book examines the deepest feelings of everyone involved as they navigate decisions of life and death.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux * 9780374240905

HOSTILE WITNESS: A Kate Ford Mystery by Leigh Adams (Mystery)
When single mom and computer security specialist Kate Ford is suddenly and mysteriously put on administrative leave, she finds herself drawn into the drama of a lurid kidnapping case with ties to her company. Kate has enough on her plate dealing with a condition that leaves her extra-sensitive to stimuli, but the case is too juicy to leave untouched. However, what begins as simple curiosity quickly leads her to the country’s darkest corners of power and leaves her and her family the target of a ruthless network of war profiteers, who will stop at nothing to protect their billion-dollar interests.
Crooked Lane Books * 9781629531991

ICE CHEST by J. D. Rhoades (Comic Crime Fiction)
Clarissa Cartwright is about to take the stage wearing a fortune in jewels. In the wings, a motley crew of bumbling crooks is scheming to make off with the biggest heist of their careers: five and a half million dollars in precious stones. When the robbers find themselves pursued by both the intimidating ex-cop tasked with protecting the world’s most valuable piece of lingerie and Clarissa's insanely jealous and mobbed-up ex-boyfriend, things get ugly. Especially when Clarissa decides she's had quite enough of being an object and resolves to turn the tables on both the crooks and the fashion world.
Polis Books * 9781940610801

IN EUROPE'S SHADOW: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond by Robert D. Kaplan (History)
Robert Kaplan first visited Romania in the 1970s, when he was a young journalist and the country was a bleak Communist backwater. It was one of the darkest corners of Europe, but few Westerners were paying attention. What ensued was a lifelong obsession with a critical, often overlooked country --- a country that, today, is key to understanding the current threat that Russia poses to Europe. Through the lens of one country, Kaplan examines larger questions of geography, imperialism, the role of fate in international relations, the Cold War, the Holocaust and more.
Random House * 9780812996814

IN OTHER WORDS written by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated by Ann Goldstein (Memoir)
Jhumpa Lahiri’s love for the Italian language first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery always eluded her. Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for “a trial by fire, a sort of baptism” into a new language and world. There, she begins to read, and to write --- initially in her journal --- solely in Italian. Presented in a dual-language format, IN OTHER WORDS investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice.
Knopf * 9781101875551

INCARCERATION NATIONS: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World by Baz Dreisinger (Social Science/Penology)
Beginning in Africa and ending in Europe, INCARCERATION NATIONS is a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Professor, journalist and founder of the Prison-to-College-Pipeline, Baz Dreisinger looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a rethinking of one of America’s most far-reaching global exports: the modern prison complex.
Other Press * 9781590517277

INTO OBLIVION: An Icelandic Thriller by Arnaldur Indridason (Thriller)
A woman swims in a remote, milky-blue lagoon. Steam rises from the water, and as it clears, a body is revealed in the ghostly light. Miles away, a vast aircraft hangar rises behind the perimeter fence of the US military base. A sickening thud is heard as a man's body falls from a high platform. Many years before, a schoolgirl went missing. The world has forgotten her, but Erlendur has not. Erlendur is a newly promoted detective with a battered body, a rouge CIA operative, and America's troublesome presence in Iceland to contend with.
Minotaur Books * 9781250077349

LIAR: A Memoir by Rob Roberge (Memoir)
When Rob Roberge learns that he's likely to have developed a progressive memory-eroding disease from years of hard living and frequent concussions, he’s terrified by the prospect of becoming a walking shadow. In a desperate attempt to preserve his identity, he sets out to (somewhat faithfully) record the most formative moments of his life. But the process of trying to remember his past only exposes just how fragile the stories that lay at the heart of our self-conception really are. As LIAR twists and turns through Roberge’s life, it turns the familiar story of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll on its head.
Crown * 9780553448061

THE LION’S MOUTH: A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel by Anne Holt (Mystery)
Less than six months after taking office, the Norwegian Prime Minister is found dead. Was it a politically motivated assassination or personal revenge? Hanne Wilhelmsen, Chief Inspector of the Norwegian Police, is on leave in California, but when this death shakes the country to its core, she knows she can’t remain on the sidelines of such a crucial investigation. When secrets begin to unravel from the Prime Minister’s past, Hanne and her partner, Billy T., must piece together the crime before a private tragedy becomes a public outcry.
Scribner * 9781501123238

MY FATHER, THE PORNOGRAPHER: A Memoir by Chris Offutt (Memoir)
When Andrew Offutt died, his son, Chris, inherited a desk, a rifle and 1,800 pounds of porn. Andrew had been considered the “king of 20th century smut,” a career that began as a strategy to pay for his son’s orthodontic needs and soon took on a life of its own, peaking during the ’70s when the commercial popularity of the erotic novel was at its height. Over one long summer in his hometown, helping his mother move out of the house, Chris began to examine his deceased father’s possessions and realized he finally had an opportunity to come to grips with the mercurial man he always feared but never understood.
Atria * 9781501112461

PACIFIC BURN: A Jim Brodie Thriller by Barry Lancet (Thriller)
In recognition for his role in solving the Japantown murders in San Francisco, antiques dealer and sometime-PI Jim Brodie has just been brought on as the liaison for the mayor’s new Pacific Rim Friendship Program. He recruits his friend, the renowned Japanese artist Ken Nobuki, who ends up being shot by a sniper and lies comatose in the hospital. Brodie soon realizes that, with the suspicious and untimely death of Nobuki’s oldest son a week earlier in Napa Valley, someone may be targeting his friend’s family --- and killing them off one by one.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476794884

THE RAMBLERS by Aidan Donnelley Rowley (Fiction)
Clio Marsh, whose bird-watching walks through Central Park are mentioned in New York Magazine, is taking her first tentative steps towards a relationship while also looking back to the secrets of her broken childhood. Her best friend, Smith Anderson, the seemingly perfect daughter of one of New York’s wealthiest families, organizes the lives of others as her own has fallen apart. And Tate Pennington has returned to the city, heartbroken but determined to move ahead with his artistic dreams. Rambling through the emotional chaos of their lives, this trio learns to let go of the past and make room for the future.
William Morrow * 9780062413314

SHUTTER MAN by Richard Montanari (Mystery)
Killing is in Billy's bloodline, as a member of Philadelphia's dangerous Farren crime family. Plagued with a rare disease that prevents him from recognizing faces, Billy carries a photograph in his pocket that is his only way of identifying his next target. Killing is in Billy's bloodline, as a member of Philadelphia's dangerous Farren crime family. While Billy stalks Philadelphia, Detective Kevin Byrne is assigned to a series of bizarre home-invasion cases and is joined by his former partner-turned-assistant district attorney, Jessica Balzano. Their investigations circle Byrne's childhood neighborhood of Devil's Pocket, and they find themselves revisiting a crime from Byrne's past that has haunted him for decades.
Mulholland Books * 9780316244770

SUDDEN DEATH written by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer (Fiction)
SUDDEN DEATH begins with a brutal tennis match between the bawdy Italian painter Caravaggio and the loutish Spanish poet Quevedo that could decide the fate of the world. In England, Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII behead Anne Boleyn, and her crafty executioner transforms her legendary locks into the most sought-after tennis balls of the time. Across the ocean in Mexico, conquistador Hernán Cortés and his Mayan translator and lover, La Malinche, scheme and conquer, not knowing that their domestic comedy will change the world. And in a remote Mexican colony, a bishop reads Thomas More’s UTOPIA and thinks it’s a manual.
Riverhead Books * 9781594633461

THE VATICAN PRINCESS: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia by C. W. Gortner (Historical Fiction)
Glamorous and predatory, the Borgias fascinated and terrorized 15th-century Renaissance Italy, and Lucrezia Borgia, beloved daughter of the pope, was at the center of the dynasty’s ambitions. Slandered as a heartless seductress who lured men to their doom, was she in fact the villainess of legend, or was she trapped in a familial web, forced to choose between loyalty and survival? THE VATICAN PRINCESS is the first novel to describe Lucrezia’s coming-of-age in her own voice.
Ballantine Books * 9780345533975

VIOLENT CRIMES: An Amanda Jaffe Novel by Phillip Margolin (Thriller)
Dale Masterson has become wealthy and successful representing the interests of oil and coal companies. But when his colleague is found dead, his business practices are put under surveillance and a lower-level employee stands accused. The controversy surrounding the firm is magnified when Dale is found beaten to death in his mansion. His son, Brandon, confesses to killing him on behalf of all the people whose lives are being destroyed by his questionable clients. Veteran lawyer Amanda Jaffe is hired to represent Brandon, but what seems like an open-and-shut case quickly begins to unravel.
Harper * 9780062266552

WAYS TO DISAPPEAR
by Idra Novey (Fiction)
Deep in gambling debt, the celebrated Brazilian writer Beatriz Yagoda abruptly vanishes. In Pittsburgh, her American translator Emma hears the news and flies immediately to Brazil. There, in the sticky, sugary heat of Rio, Emma and her author's children conspire to solve the mystery of Yagoda's curious disappearance and staunch the colorful demands of her various outstanding affairs: the rapacious loan shark with a zeal for severing body parts, and the washed-up and disillusioned editor who launched Yagoda's career years earlier.
Little, Brown and Company * 9780316298490

WEST OF EDEN: An American Place by Jean Stein (History)
Jean Stein transformed the art of oral history in her groundbreaking book EDIE: American Girl, an indelible portrait of Andy Warhol “superstar” Edie Sedgwick, which was edited with George Plimpton. Now, in WEST OF EDEN, she turns to Los Angeles, the city of her childhood. Stein vividly captures a mythic cast of characters: their ambitions and triumphs as well as their desolation and grief. These stories illuminate the bold aspirations of five larger-than-life individuals and their families.
Random House * 9780812998405

THE WOLVES: A John Wells Novel by Alex Berenson (Thriller)
John Wells has just barely managed to stop an operation designed to drive the United States and Iran into war, but the instigator himself disappeared behind an impenetrable war of security. Now it’s time for him to pay, and Wells has made it his personal mission. But the White House doesn’t want anybody stirring the pot; his old CIA bosses have their own agendas; and other countries are starting to sniff around, sensing something unusual. It is when Russia and China enter the mix, however, that the whole affair is set to combust. With alarming speed, Wells is once again on his own…and the wolves are closing in.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399176142

WRECK AND ORDER by Hannah Tennant-Moore (Fiction)
Elsie has a tumultuous relationship with an abusive boyfriend, a dead-end job at a newspaper, and a sharp intelligence that’s constantly at odds with her many bad decisions. When her initial attempts to improve her life go awry, Elsie decides that a dramatic change is the only solution. So she travels to Paris and Sri Lanka, hoping to accumulate experiences, create connections, and discover a new way to live. Along the way, she meets men and women who challenge and provoke her towards the change she genuinely hopes to find. But in the end, she must still come face-to-face with herself.
Hogarth * 9781101903261

On Sale the Week of February 8th in Paperback

February 8th

LINCOLN’S BODY: A Cultural History by Richard Wightman Fox (History)
The very roughness of Lincoln's appearance made him seem all the more common, one of us ---- as did his sense of humor about his own awkward physical nature. Nineteenth-century African Americans felt deep affection for their "liberator" as a "homely" man who did not hold himself apart. During Reconstruction, Southerners felt a nostalgia for the humility of Lincoln, whom they envisioned as a "conciliator." Later, teachers glorified Lincoln as a symbol of nationhood that would appeal to poor immigrants.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393352634


February 9th

17 CARNATIONS: The Royals, the Nazis, and the Biggest Cover-Up in History by Andrew Morton (History)
Andrew Morton tells the story of the feckless Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor; his American wife, Wallis Simpson; and the bizarre wartime Nazi plot to make him a puppet king after the invasion of Britain and the attempted cover-up by Churchill, General Eisenhower and King George VI of the duke's relations with Hitler. From the alleged affair between Simpson and the German foreign minister to the discovery of top secret correspondence about the man dubbed "the traitor king" and the Nazi high command, 17 CARNATIONS is a saga of intrigue, betrayal and deception.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455527106

AS CHIMNEY SWEEPERS COME TO DUST: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley (Historical Mystery)
Shortly after 12-year-old Flavia de Luce arrives at Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy boarding school, a charred and mummified body tumbles out of a bedroom chimney. Now, while attending classes, making friends (and enemies), and assessing the school’s stern headmistress and faculty (one of whom is an acquitted murderess), Flavia is on the hunt for the victim’s identity and time of death, as well as suspects, motives and means.
Bantam * 9780345539946

BEFORE HE FINDS HER by Michael Kardos (Thriller)
Everyone in the quiet Jersey Shore town of Silver Bay knows the story: on a Sunday evening in September 1991, Ramsey Miller threw a blowout block party, then murdered his beautiful wife and three-year-old daughter. But everyone is wrong. The daughter got away, has lived 15 years in the Witness Protection Program, and is coming back to reconcile her past. In the quest to find her father before he finds her, Melanie’s story becomes one about love, faith and fear --- and how the most important things can become terribly distorted when we cling to them too fiercely.
Mysterious Press * 9780802124708

A BLINK OF THE SCREEN: Collected Shorter Fiction by Terry Pratchett (Fantasy/Short Stories)
The first career-spanning collection of short fiction by Sir Terry Pratchett --- one of the most beloved and bestselling writers of our time --- A BLINK OF THE SCREEN charts the development of Pratchett’s creative vision throughout his prolific career, from his early writings in school to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series. Along the way, we are introduced to the first published pieces from Pratchett’s stint as a young journalist, the experimental stories that originated his later works, and the lyrics to the national anthem of Ankh-Morpork, among other treats.
Anchor * 9780804169219

CITY OF ROSE by Rob Hart
(Noir Mystery)
Paperback Original
Between his own violent tendencies, the shadow cast by his father's death, and a self-destructive revenge quest, Ash McKenna made a mess of his life in NYC. He is now in Portland, where he has taken a job as a bouncer in a vegan strip club. When one of the club's dancers asks Ash for help finding her daughter, he declines. But soon he is held at gunpoint by a man in a chicken mask and told to keep away from the girls. As Ash navigates an unfamiliar city, he finds himself embroiled in a labyrinthine plot involving a ruthless drug cartel and a scandal that could reach one of the most powerful men in Portland.
Polis Books * 9781940610511

THE DAMNED by Andrew Pyper (Supernatural Thriller)
Despite surviving a fire that claimed the life of his twin sister, Ashleigh, Danny Orchard has never been able to enjoy his second chance at life. Ash had been a budding psychopath who privately terrorized her family --- and death hasn’t changed her wicked ways. She has haunted her brother for 20 years, and now, just when he’s met the love of his life, she wants more than ever to punish him for being alive. So she sets her sights on Danny’s new wife and stepson.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476755120

GET IN TROUBLE: Stories by Kelly Link (Fiction/Short Stories)
Kelly Link’s story collection presents nine tales of the fantastic and the bizarre. The protagonists, most of them young women, include a teenager who hears voices in her head, an actress from a ghost-hunting reality show, a 15-year-old gamer who travels from Iowa to New York to meet an older man she met online, and a woman who departs from a bar in the company of a man who claims to be a wolfman.
Random House Trade Paperbacks * 9780812986495

THE INVENTION OF FIRE by Bruce Holsinger (Historical Thriller)
London, 1386: A mass murder has taken place within the city walls. Sixteen corpses have been dumped where they are sure to be found, bearing wounds like none seen before. John Gower, middling poet and expert trader in secrets, is summoned to investigate the killings even as the ruthless mayor of London seeks to thwart an open inquiry for reasons unknown. Gower learns that the men have fallen victim to handgonnes, new and terrifying weapons that threaten to change the future of war.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062356468

THE LIFE OF ELVES written by Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson
(Fiction)
Paperback Original
Maria lives in a remote village in Burgundy, where she learns that she has a gift for communicating with nature. Hundreds of miles away in Italy, Clara discovers that she possesses a stunning musical genius and is sent from the countryside to Rome to develop her preternatural abilities. THE LIVES OF THE ELVES tells the story of two children whose extraordinary talents will bring them into contact with magical worlds and malevolent forces. If, against all odds, they can be brought together, their meeting may shape the course of history.
Europa Editions * 9781609453152

MAKING NICE by Matt Sumell (Fiction)
Our hero Alby flails wildly against the world around him --- he punches his sister (she deserved it), "unprotectos" broads (they deserved it and liked it), gets drunk and picks fights (all deserved), defends defenseless creatures both large and small, and spews insults at children, slow drivers, old ladies, and every single surviving member of his family. In each of these stories, Alby distills the anguish, terror, humor and strange grace --- or lack of --- he experiences in the aftermath of his mother’s death.
Picador * 9781250081582

THE MAPMAKER’S CHILDREN by Sarah McCoy (Historical Fiction)
When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children. But as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.
Broadway Books * 9780385348928

MORT(E) by Robert Repino (Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)
Former housecat turned war hero, Mort(e) is famous for taking on the most dangerous missions and fighting the dreaded human bio-weapon EMSAH. But the true motivation behind his recklessness is his ongoing search for a pre-transformation friend --- a dog named Sheba. When he receives a mysterious message from the dwindling human resistance claiming Sheba is alive, he begins a journey that will take him from the remaining human strongholds to the heart of the Colony, where he will discover the source of EMSAH and the ultimate fate of all of earth's creatures.
Soho Press * 9781616956219

A MURDER OF MAGPIES by Judith Flanders (Mystery)
It’s just another day at the office for London book editor Samantha “Sam” Clair. Checking jacket copy for howlers, wondering how to break it to her star novelist that her latest effort is utterly unpublishable, lunch scheduled with gossipy author Kit Lowell, whose new book will dish the juicy dirt on a recent fashion industry scandal. Little does she know the trouble Kit’s book will cause before it even goes to print. Someone doesn't want Kit's manuscript published, and unless Sam can put the pieces together in time, they'll do anything to stop it.
Minotaur Books * 9781250080943

OUTLINE by Rachel Cusk (Fiction)
OUTLINE is a novel in 10 conversations that follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing during one oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her students in storytelling exercises, meets other visiting writers for dinner and discourse, and goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her neighbor from the plane. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast --- a portrait of a woman learning to face a great loss.
Picador * 9781250081544

PRUDENCE by David Treuer (Fiction)
On a sweltering day in August 1942, Frankie Washburn returns to his family’s rustic Minnesota resort for one last visit before he joins the war as a bombardier. But before the homecoming can be celebrated, the search for a German soldier, escaped from the POW camp across the river, explodes in a shocking act of violence, with consequences that will reverberate years into the future for all of them and that will shape how each of them makes sense of their lives.
Riverhead Books * 9781594634079

THE REVOLVING DOOR OF LIFE: A 44 Scotland Street Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Things are looking up for seven-year-old Bertie Pollock. The arrival of his spirited grandmother and the absence of his meddlesome mother bring unforeseen blessings: no psychotherapy, no Italian lessons and no yoga classes. Meanwhile, surprises await Scotland Street’s grown-ups. Matthew makes a discovery that could be a major windfall for his family, but also presents a worrisome dilemma. Pat learns a secret about her father’s fiancée that may shake up her family, unless she can convince the perpetually narcissistic Bruce to help her out. And the Duke of Johannesburg finds himself in sudden need of an explanation --- and an escape route --- when accosted by a determined guest at a soirée.
Anchor * 9781101971918

THE RUMOR by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
Madeline King and Grace Pancik are best friends and the envy of Nantucket for their perfect marriages, their beautiful kids, and their Sunday night double dates with their devoted husbands. But this summer, something's changed, and if there's anything Nantucket likes better than cocktails on the beach at sunset, it's a good rumor. As the gossip escalates, and they face the possible loss of the happy lives they've worked so hard to create, Grace and Madeline try mightily to set the record straight --- but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it.
Back Bay Books * 9780316334518

SEASON OF FEAR by Brian Freeman (Psychological Thriller)
As a fierce tropical storm swirls toward the Florida coast, the state's powerful political circles are experiencing turbulence of their own. The leading candidate for governor, Diane Fairmont, has received a death threat that promises to repeat a massacre from 10 years before. Bad weather and bad blood await Detective Cab Bolton, who must withstand the malevolent cyclone in order to stop this murderous cycle.
Quercus * 9781623657185

A SMALL INDISCRETION by Jan Ellison (Fiction)
At 19, Annie Black trades a bleak future in her washed-out hometown for a London winter of drinking and abandon. Some two decades later, in San Francisco, she is a successful lighting designer married to a good man and the mother of three children. Then, one June morning, a photograph arrives in her mailbox, igniting an old longing and setting off a chain of events that threaten to overturn her family’s hard-won happiness.
Random House Trade Paperbacks * 9780812985429

SMALL MERCIES by Eddie Joyce (Fiction)
Ten years after the loss of Bobby --- the Amendola family’s youngest son --- everyone is still struggling to recover from the firefighter’s unexpected death. Bobby’s mother Gail; his widow Tina; his older brothers Peter, the corporate lawyer, and Franky, the misfit; and his father Michael have all dealt with their grief in different ways. But as the family gathers together for Bobby Jr.’s birthday party, they each must find a way to accept a new man in Tina’s life while reconciling their feelings for their lost loved one.
Penguin Books * 9780143107873

THE STRANGER by Harlan Coben (Thriller)
The Stranger appears out of nowhere. His identity is unknown, and his motives are unclear. But his information is undeniable. He whispers a few words in your ear and disappears, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world. Adam Price has a lot to lose: a comfortable marriage to a beautiful woman, two wonderful sons, and all the trappings of the American Dream. Then he runs into the Stranger. When he learns a devastating secret about his wife, he confronts her, and the mirage of perfection disappears as if it never existed at all.
Dutton * 9780451414137

WASHINGTON’S CIRCLE: The Creation of the President by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler (History/Politics)
In 1789, as George Washington became the first president of the United States, the world was all but certain that the American experiment in liberty and representative government would founder. More than a few Americans feared that the world was right. In WASHINGTON’S CIRCLE, we see how Washington and his trusted advisers, close friends and devoted family defied the doomsayers to lay the foundation for an enduring constitutional republic.
Random House Trade Paperbacks * 9780812981599

WASHINGTON’S REVOLUTION: The Making of America's First Leader by Robert Middlekauff (History)
George Washington was famously unknowable, a man of deep passions hidden behind a facade of rigid self-control. Yet before he was a great general and president, Washington was a young man prone to peevishness and a volcanic temper. His greatness as a leader evolved over time, the product of experience and maturity but also a willed effort to restrain his wilder impulses. Focusing on Washington’s early years, Robert Middlekauff penetrates his mystique, revealing his all-too-human fears, values and passions.
Vintage * 9781101872390

WHAT THE WAVES KNOW by Tamara Valentine (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
Paperback Original
Tillings Island witnessed the biggest event of Izabella Rae Haywood's life. For it was there, on Iz's sixth birthday, that her father left...and took her voice with him. Eight years later in the summer of 1974, Iz’s mother is through with social workers, psychiatrists and her daughter's silence. In one last attempt to return Iz’s voice, the motley pair board the ferry to Tillings in hopes that the journey will help Izabella heal herself by piecing together splintered memories of the day her words fled. But heartbreak is a difficult puzzle to solve, and everyone in Tillings seems to know something Iz does not.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062413857

WHISPERING SHADOWS by Jan-Philipp Sendker (Mystery/Thriller)
American expat Paul Leibovitz was once an ambitious advisor, dedicated father and loving husband. But after living for nearly 30 years in Hong Kong, personal tragedy strikes and Paul’s marriage unravels in the fallout. Now Paul is living as a recluse on an outlying island of Hong Kong. When he makes a fleeting connection with Elizabeth, a distressed American woman on the verge of collapse, his life is thrown into turmoil. Less than 24 hours later, Elizabeth’s son is found dead, and Paul sets out to investigate the murder on his own.
Atria/37 Ink * 9781476793658

THE WHITES by Richard Price (Crime Fiction/Mystery)
When Sergeant Billy Graves is called to a 4:00 a.m. fatal slashing of a man in Penn Station, his investigation of the crime moves beyond the usual handoff. And when he discovers that the victim was once a suspect in the unsolved murder of a 12-year-old boy, the bad old days are back in Billy's life with a vengeance, tearing apart enduring friendships forged in the urban trenches and even threatening the safety of his family.
Picador * 9780312621308

THE WONDER GARDEN by Lauren Acampora (Fiction)
A man strikes an under-the-table deal with a surgeon to spend a few quiet seconds closer to his wife than he's ever been; a young soon-to-be mother looks on in paralyzing astonishment as her husband walks away from a 20-year career in advertising at the urging of his spirit animal; an elderly artist risks more than he knows when he's commissioned by his newly arrived neighbors to produce the work of a lifetime. In her debut collection, Lauren Acampora brings to the page the myriad lives of a suburban town and lays them bare.
Grove Press * 9780802124814

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