November 1, 2016

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of October 31st and November 7th 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 our Sounding Off on Audio contest for November. This month's prizes are the audio versions of Wally Lamb's I'LL TAKE YOU THERE, performed by George Guidall, and Michael Chabon's MOONGLOW, performed by George Newbern.

We also are spotlighting THE SLOW WALTZ OF TURTLES by Katherine Pancol, the international bestselling follow-up to THE YELLOW EYES OF CROCODILES, which is now available in the US. Click on the image above for more info about the book.

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November 1st

AS CLOSE TO US AS BREATHING by Elizabeth Poliner (Fiction)
In 1948, sisters Ada, Vivie and Bec assemble at their beloved family cottage in Woodmont, Connecticut. Ada is unimpeded by her strict, religious husband. Vivie is the family diplomat and an increasingly inventive chef. Unmarried Bec finds herself forced to choose between a family-centric life and a passion-filled life with a married man. But when a terrible accident occurs on the sisters' watch, the girls’ lives are changed forever. Seen through the eyes of Molly, who was 12 years old when she witnessed the accident, this is the story of a tragedy and its aftermath. Can Molly, decades after the event, draw from her aunt Bec's wisdom and free herself from the burden that destroyed so many others?
Lee Boudreaux/Back Bay Books * 9780316384131

AWAY IN A MANGER: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
It's Christmastime in 1905 New York City. While listening to carolers in the street, Molly Murphy Sullivan meets two siblings who have come from England. Their mother has disappeared, and they're living with an aunt who mistreats them terribly. Molly quickly realizes that these children are not the usual city waifs. They are well-spoken and clearly used to better things. So who are they? And what's happened to their mother? As Molly looks for a way to help them and for the answers to these questions, she gets drawn into an investigation that will take her up to the highest levels of New York society.
Minotaur Books * 9781250052063

BOYS IN THE TREES: A Memoir by Carly Simon (Memoir)
BOYS IN THE TREES reveals Carly Simon’s remarkable life, beginning with her storied childhood as the third daughter of Richard L. Simon, the co-founder of publishing giant Simon & Schuster. It was a childhood enriched by music and culture, but also one shrouded in secrets that eventually would tear her family apart. Simon captures moments of creative inspiration, the sparks of songs, and the stories behind writing "Anticipation" and "We Have No Secrets," among many others.
Flatiron Books * 9781250095916

THE BURNING ISLE by Will Panzo (Dark Fantasy/Adventure)
Paperback Original
The mage Cassius has just arrived on the island of Scipio. Five miles of slum on the edge of 50 miles of jungle, Scipio is a lawless haven for criminals, pirates and exiles. The city is split in two, each half ruled by a corrupt feudal lord. Both of them answer to a mysterious general who lives deep in the jungle with his army, but they still constantly battle for power. If a man knows how to turn their discord to his advantage, he might also turn a profit. But trained on the Isle of Twelve, Cassius is no ordinary spellcaster, and his goal is not simply money. This is a treacherous island where the native gods are restless and anything can happen.
Ace * 9781101988107

FISHBOWL by Bradley Somer (Fiction)
A goldfish named Ian is falling from the 27th-floor balcony on which his fishbowl sits. He's longed for adventure, so when the opportunity arises, he escapes from his bowl, clears the balcony railing and finds himself airborne. Plummeting toward the street below, Ian witnesses the lives of the Seville on Roxy residents.
St. Martin's Griffin * 9781250105882

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 * 9781476797397

THE GEOGRAPHY OF GENIUS: Lessons from the World's Most Creative Places by Eric Weiner (Travel/Memoir)
In THE GEOGRAPHY OF GENIUS, acclaimed travel writer Eric Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. He explores the history of places --- like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley --- to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity. And he walks the same paths as the geniuses who flourished in these settings to see if the spirit of what inspired figures like Socrates, Michelangelo and Leonardo remains.
Simon & Schuster * 9781451691672

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 * 9780399576058

HIDDEN BODIES by Caroline Kepnes (Psychological Thriller)
Joe Goldberg is no stranger to hiding bodies. In the past 10 years, this thirty-something has buried four of them, collateral damage in his quest for love. Now he’s heading west to Los Angeles, determined to put his past behind him. But the problem with hidden bodies is that they don’t always stay that way. They re-emerge, like dark thoughts, multiplying and threatening to destroy what Joe wants most: true love. And when he finds it in a darkened room in Soho House, he’s more desperate than ever to keep his secrets buried.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books * 9781476785639

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 Trade Paperbacks * 9780812986624

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 Paperbacks * 9780062106285

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 * 9780393353259

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 * 9781455534685

MEANTIME by Katharine Noel (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Claire has never had a typical family. When she was nine, her father fell in love with a married woman, and the two households agreed to live under one roof. They were infamous in the community for their eccentric, free-spirited lifestyle. Now, her stepsister Nicole has set her mind to having a baby on her own, and Claire's husband is enthusiastic about starting a family as well. But Claire wants to avoid an ordinary existence at all costs. Then Jeremy becomes seriously ill, and his high-school sweetheart Gita is a bit too eager to lend a hand in his recovery. Faced with Nicole's pregnancy and Jeremy's increasing closeness with his ex, Claire must decide what she's willing to sacrifice for independence.
Grove Press/Black Cat * 9780802125491

NAUGHTIER THAN NICE by Eric Jerome Dickey (Romance)
The lives of Frankie, Tommie and Olivia (Livvy) haven’t turned out quite as planned. Frankie has a pair of stalkers. The life that Tommie had dreamed of having with Blue has become anything but perfect, and Olivia, despite her efforts, hasn’t been able to get over the psychological barrier caused by her husband’s affair in NAUGHTY OR NICE. Though the sisters are as close as any sisters could be, none wants the other two to know the dark secrets she is hiding.
Dutton * 9780451476722

NO ONE KNOWS by J.T. Ellison (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Aubrey Hamilton has been mourning her missing husband for five years, despite being even while she was considered the prime suspect in his murder. But when he is officially declared dead, there are still more questions than answers: Why didn’t Josh show up at his friend’s bachelor party? Was he murdered, or did he run away? And who is the new, mysterious and strangely familiar figureman suddenly appearing in Aubrey’s life? And has she finally lost her mind after years of loneliness and confusion?
Gallery Books * 9781501118487

ORPHAN X by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets --- i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear. Now, however, someone is on his tail and determined to eliminate him.
St. Martin's Paperbacks * 9781250097200

THE OTHER SIDE OF INFAMY: My Journey Through Pearl Harbor and the World of War by Jim Downing with James Lund (Memoir)
Paperback Original
The natural human impulse is to run from attack. Jim Downing --- along with countless other soldiers and sailors at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 --- ran toward it, fighting to rescue his fellow navy men, to protect loved ones and civilians on the island, and to find the redemptive path forward from a devastating war. We are protected from war these days, but there was a time when war was very present in our lives. In THE OTHER SIDE OF INFAMY, we learn from a veteran of Pearl Harbor and World War II what it means to follow Jesus into and through every danger, toil and snare.
NavPress * 9781631466274

THE OTHER SISTER by Dianne Dixon (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Would life be better without twin sister Ali? Probably. At least then people might think about Morgan. Ali has always gotten everything --- she doesn't even realize how much Morgan resents her. Ali also doesn't realize that when she shuts Morgan out entirely, she will unleash a chain of events that show just how dangerous the underside of love really is. As their lives spin toward something neither one of them can control, a terrifying crime reveals how those who know us best can destroy us...or save us.
Sourcebooks Landmark * 9781492633549

THE PORTABLE VEBLEN by Elizabeth McKenzie (Fiction/Humor)
THE PORTABLE VEBLEN is set in and around Palo Alto, amid the culture clash of new money and old (antiestablishment) values, and with the specter of our current wars looming across. A young couple on the brink of marriage --- the charming Veblen and her fiancé Paul, a brilliant neurologist --- find their engagement in danger of collapse. Along the way they weather everything from each other’s dysfunctional families, to the attentions of a seductive pharmaceutical heiress, to an intimate tête-à-tête with a very charismatic squirrel.
Penguin Books * 9781101981597

THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT by Alexander Chee (Historical Fiction)
THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT tells the mesmerizing story of Lilliet Berne, an orphan who left the American frontier for Europe and was swept into the glamour and terror of Second Empire France. She became a sensation of the Paris Opera, with every accolade but an original role --- her chance at immortality. When one is offered to her, she finds the libretto is based on her deepest secret, something only four people have ever known. But who betrayed her? Alexander Chee shares Lilliet’s cunning transformation from circus rider to courtesan to legendary soprano, retracing the path that led to the role that could secure her reputation --- or destroy her with the secrets it reveals.
Mariner Books * 9780544925472

THE SLOW WALTZ OF TURTLES written by Katherine Pancol, translated by William Rodarmor (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Fortysomething mother of two Joséphine Cortès is at a crossroads. She has just moved to a posh new apartment in Paris after the success of the historical novel she ghostwrote for her sister, Iris. Still struggling with her divorce, she is now entangled in a messy lie orchestrated by her sister. And just when things seem they can’t get any more complicated, people start turning up dead in her neighborhood. As Joséphine struggles to find her voice and her confidence amidst a messy web of relationships and a string of murders, she and those around her must learn to push on with determination, like headstrong little turtles learning to dance slowly in a world that’s too violent and moving too fast.
Penguin Books * 9780143128175

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 * 9780062400833

TOM CLANCY COMMANDER IN CHIEF: A Jack Ryan Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller/Adventure)
When Russian President Valeri Volodin’s ambitions are foiled in Dagestan, he faces a difficult choice. The oligarchs who support him expect a constant flow of graft, but with energy prices cratering, the Russian economy sputters to a virtual halt. Unable to grow the Russian market at home, his hold on power relies on expansion abroad --- a plan that has been thwarted by the United States in the past. But this time, Volodin has determined that an indirect approach is the best. Only one man recognizes an ominous pattern in the reports of terror from around the globe. U.S. President Jack Ryan sees a guiding hand in the worldwide chaos, but before he can act, he needs proof.
Berkley * 9781101988817

WARHEART: Sword of Truth: The Conclusion by Terry Goodkind (Fantasy)
All is lost. Evil will soon consume the D'Haran Empire. Richard Rahl lies on his funeral bier. It is the end of everything. Except what isn't lost is Kahlan Amnell. Following an inner prompting beyond all reason, the last Confessor will wager everything on a final desperate gambit, and in so doing, she will change the world forever. WARHEART is the direct sequel to, and the conclusion of, the story begun in THE OMEN MACHINE, THE THIRD KINGDOM and SEVERED SOULS.
Tor Fantasy * 9780765383099

WHAT DOESN'T KILL HER by Carla Norton (Thriller)
Daryl Wayne Flint is safely locked up in Olshaker Psychiatric Hospital. It seems that he is still suffering the effects of the head injury he sustained in the car crash that freed Reeve LeClaire seven years ago. But when Flint makes a clean getaway from the hospital, Reeve is shocked out of her new life by her worst nightmare come true. When Flint evades capture, baffling authorities and leaving a bloody trail, Reeve suddenly realizes that she is the only one who can stop him.
St. Martin's Paperbacks * 9781250096586

THE WILD HARMONIC by Beth W. Patterson (Paranormal Thriller)
Paperback Original
New Orleans musician and werewolf Birch "Buzz" MacKinlay thinks she's alone in the world until the mysterious and captivating Rowan welcomes her into his pack. Her new pack mates take her through a crash course on the use of her werewolf gifts as she learns all about other shape-shifters in the world. But she also discovers that there is a dark and growing danger to her new world as other "shifters" around her begin to die and disappear. With the menace closing in, her pack must work together with the rest of the “shifter” world to learn who --- or what --- is behind the threat before they are all destroyed.
Hidden World Books * 9781943052387

November 8th

15th AFFAIR by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
As she settles into motherhood and a happy marriage, Lindsay Boxer thinks she has found domestic bliss. But when a beautiful, alluring blonde woman with links to the CIA disappears from the scene of a brutal murder at a downtown luxury hotel, Lindsay's life begins to unravel. Before she can track down the woman for questioning, a plane crash plunges San Francisco into chaos and Lindsay's husband Joe vanishes. The deeper she digs, the more Lindsay suspects that Joe shares a secret past with the mystery blonde. Thrown into a tailspin and questioning everything she thought she knew, Lindsay turns to the Women's Murder Club for help as she tries to uncover the truth.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455585274

THE BOB WATSON by Greg Bardsley (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Rick Blanco is no different from any other office slave --- he hates stupid office meetings. What makes him special is that he’s done something about it. Following in the footsteps of Bob Watson --- a former colleague and office illusionist --- he’s perfected the art of ditching meetings. Now, Rick wants to pull off his most important Bob Watson yet --- skipping out of work to go on a date with the woman he’s chased for years. All she requires is that he first treat his precocious young nephew to his own Bob Watson and give him a break from a life filled with stress, college prep and mandatory overachievement. The day is as exciting as Rick could have wanted, but not in the way he had hoped.
Harper Perennial * 9780062304797

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 * 9780802125682

DAYS WITHOUT NUMBER by Robert Goddard (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Nick Paleologus, a coolly efficient Englishman, is summoned home to resolve a dispute that threatens to tear his family apart. His father, Michael, is a retired archaeologist and supposed descendent of the last Emperors of Byzantium. Michael has received a hugely generous offer for the family estate in Cornwall, but refuses to sell --- and refuses to divulge why. Soon the stalemate between Nick’s siblings and their father is tragically broken, and only then do they discover why their father was bound to protect the house at all costs. Their desperate efforts to conceal the truth drag them into a deadly conflict with an unseen and unknown enemy.
Mysterious Press * 9780802125729

THE JEKYLL REVELATION by Robert Masello (Thriller)
Paperback Original
While on routine patrol in the tinder-dry Topanga Canyon, environmental scientist Rafael Salazar expects to find animal poachers, not a dilapidated antique steamer trunk. Inside the peculiar case, he discovers a journal, written by the renowned Robert Louis Stevenson, which divulges ominous particulars about his creation of THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. It also promises to reveal a terrible secret --- the identity of Jack the Ripper. Meanwhile, though, a mysterious flask containing the last drops of the grisly potion that inspired JEKYLL AND HYDE and spawned London’s most infamous killer has gone missing. And it has definitely fallen into the wrong hands.
47North * 9781503951198

THE LION OF SABRAY: The Afghan 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 * 9781501117992

THE NEVER-OPEN DESERT DINER by James Anderson (Mystery/Romance)
Ben Jones is on the verge of losing his small trucking company when he is drawn into a love affair with a mysterious woman named Claire. Her appearance, seemingly out of nowhere, reignites a decades-old tragedy at a roadside café referred to by the locals as The Never-Open Desert Diner. As he faces bankruptcy and the possible loss of everything that matters to him, he finds himself at the heart of a horrific crime that was committed 40 years earlier and now threatens to destroy the lives of those left in its wake.
Broadway Books * 9781101906903

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 * 9781616957643

THE RISE OF GERMANY, 1939-1941: The War in the West, Volume 1 by James Holland (History)
In THE RISE OF GERMANY, the first of a major new three-part history of World War II in the West, James Holland weaves together the experiences of dozens of individuals --- from civilians and infantrymen, to line officers, military strategists, diplomats and heads of state --- as well as war strategy, tactics, and the economic, political and social aspects of the war to create a captivating book that redefines and enhances our understanding of one of the most significant conflicts in history.
Atlantic Monthly Press * 9780802125668

TRICKY TWENTY-TWO: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
Ken Globovic (aka Gobbles), hailed as the Supreme Exalted Zookeeper of the animal house known as Zeta fraternity, has been arrested for beating up the dean of students at Kiltman College. Gobbles has missed his court date and gone into hiding. People have seen him on campus, but no one will talk. Things just aren’t adding up, and Stephanie Plum can’t shake the feeling that something funny is going on at the college. As much as people love Gobbles, they hate Doug Linken. When Linken is gunned down in his backyard, it’s good riddance, and the list of possible murder suspects is long.
Bantam * 9780345542977

WHAT SHE LEFT by T.R. Richmond (Psychological Thriller)
On a snowy February morning, the body of 25-year-old journalist Alice Salmon washes up on a riverbank south of London. Professor Jeremy Cooke, who taught Alice, embarks on a final project --- a book documenting Alice’s life through the digital and paper trails that survive her. Bit by bit, the real Alice --- a complicated and vulnerable young woman --- springs fully formed from the pages of his book…along with a labyrinth of misunderstandings, lies and secrets that cast suspicion on everyone in her circle --- including Jeremy himself.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476773902

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 * 9781101903285