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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 22nd and May 29th 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 Father's Day contest, which we've brought back for a 12th year. From now through Monday, June 19th at noon ET, readers can enter to win one of our five prize packages, which includes all 12 of our featured titles. Click here to read more about the books and enter the contest.
On ReadingGroupGuides.com, May's "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest book is HOMEGOING, Yaa Gyasi's award-winning debut novel that is now available in paperback. In a book group? Then tell us what your group is currently reading to be eligible to win. Three winners will be selected, and each will be awarded 12 copies of the book for their group. The deadline for your entries is Thursday, June 8th at noon ET.
And on Bookreporter.com, our latest New Release Spotlight title is RISE AND SHINE, BENEDICT STONE, a novel about family, forgiveness and one man's second chance at happiness. The author is Phaedra Patrick, whose debut novel was the critically acclaimed THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News:
Bookreporter.com's 12th Annual Father's Day Contest
Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the men in our lives who have raised and loved us. Why not show him your appreciation by inspiring him with a great book? In our 12th annual "Best Books for Dad" contest, we have a selection of books that are perfect gift-giving suggestions for Dad, keeping him busy through the rest of the year. Five readers will be awarded a copy of each of our featured titles. To enter, please fill out this form by Monday, June 19th at noon ET.
This year's featured titles are:
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of May 22nd in Hardcover
May 23rd
BLACK MAD WHEEL by Josh Malerman (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
The Danes are a washed-up band, eager to once again have a number one hit. That is, until an agent from the US Army approaches them. Will they travel to an African desert and track down the source of a mysterious and malevolent sound? So they embark on a harrowing journey through the scorching desert --- a trip that takes their front man, Philip Tonka, into the heart of an ominous and twisted conspiracy. Meanwhile, a nurse named Ellen tends to a patient recovering from a near-fatal accident. The circumstances that led to his injuries are mysterious --- and his body heals at a remarkable rate. Ellen will do the impossible for this enigmatic patient, who reveals more about his accident with each passing day.
Ecco | 9780062259684
CHEMISTRY by Weike Wang (Fiction)
Three years into her graduate studies at a demanding Boston university, our unnamed narrator finds that her one-time love for chemistry is more hypothesis than reality. But there's another, nonscientific question looming: the marriage proposal from her devoted boyfriend, a fellow scientist, whose path through academia has been relatively free of obstacles, and with whom she can't make a life before finding success on her own. Eventually, the pressure mounts so high that she must leave everything she thought she knew about her future, and herself, behind. And for the first time, she's confronted with a question she won't find the answer to in a textbook: What do I really want?
Knopf | 9781524731748
DRAGON TEETH by Michael Crichton (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
In 1876, two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars. Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled William Johnson, a Yale student who has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But when the paranoid and secretive Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edward Drinker Cope, he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice. William is forced to join forces with Cope and soon stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions.
Harper | 9780062473356
ENEMY OF THE GOOD by Matthew Palmer (Thriller)
Katarina “Kate” Hollister is a second-generation Foreign Service officer, recently assigned to Kyrgyzstan. U.S. authorities have been negotiating with the Kyrgyz president on the lease of a massive airbase that would significantly expand the American footprint in Central Asia. The negotiations are controversial in the U.S. because of the Kyrgyz regime’s abysmal human-rights record. Amid these events, Kate’s uncle assigns her to infiltrate an underground democracy movement that has been sabotaging Kyrgyz security services and regime supporters. But it soon becomes clear that nothing about Kate’s mission is as it seems --- and that she might need to lay her life on the line for what she knows is right.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399175022
THE FROZEN HOURS: A Novel of the Korean War by Jeff Shaara (Historical Fiction)
The North Korean army invades South Korea in June 1950, intent on uniting the country under Communist rule. In response, the United States mobilizes a force to defend the overmatched South Korean troops, and together they drive the North Koreans back to their border with China. But several hundred thousand Chinese troops have entered Korea, laying massive traps for the Allies. In November 1950, the Chinese spring those traps. Allied forces, already battling stunningly cold weather, find themselves caught completely off guard as the Chinese advance around the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. A force that once stood on the precipice of victory now finds itself on the brink of annihilation.
Ballantine Books | 9780345549228
A GOOD COUNTRY by Laleh Khadivi (Fiction)
Laguna Beach, California, 2010. Alireza Courdee, a 14-year-old straight-A student and chemistry whiz, takes his first hit of pot. In as long as it takes to inhale and exhale, he is transformed from the high-achieving son of Iranian immigrants into a happy-go-lucky stoner. For the first time, Reza --- now Rez --- feels like an American teen. But then he changes again, falling out with the bad boy surfers and in with a group of kids more awake to the world around them, who share his background, and whose ideas fill him with a very different sense of purpose. Within a year, Reza and his girlfriend are making their way to Syria to be part of a Muslim nation rising from the ashes of the civil war.
Bloomsbury USA | 9781632865847
THE HEIRS by Susan Rieger (Fiction)
Six months after Rupert Falkes dies, leaving a grieving widow and five adult sons, an unknown woman sues his estate, claiming she had two sons by him. The Falkes brothers are pitched into turmoil, at once missing their father and feeling betrayed by him. In disconcerting contrast, their mother, Eleanor, is cool and calm, showing preternatural composure. Struggling to reclaim their identity, the brothers find Eleanor’s sympathy toward the woman and her sons confounding. Widowhood has let her cast off the rigid propriety of her stifling upbringing, and the brothers begin to question whether they knew either of their parents at all.
Crown | 9781101904718
ISADORA by Amelia Gray (Historical Fiction)
In 1913, the restless world sat on the brink of unimaginable suffering. But for one woman, the darkness of a new era had already made itself at home. Isadora Duncan would come to be known as the mother of modern dance, but in the spring of 1913 she was a grieving mother, after a freak accident in Paris resulted in the drowning death of her two young children. The accident cracked Isadora’s life in two: on one side, the brilliant young talent who captivated audiences the world over; on the other, a heartbroken mother spinning dangerously on the edge of sanity.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374279981
THE LONG DROP by Denise Mina (Historical/Psychological Thriller)
In 1950s Glasgow, a household of women were found slaughtered in their beds. The father, William Watt, had a cast iron alibi, but police were convinced he was guilty. Determined to clear his name, Watt let it be known that he would pay for information. Step forward career criminal Peter Manuel, with compelling details only the murderer could know. Watt agreed to meet him. They spent 12 hours together, driving and drinking in Glasgow pubs and clubs. No one knows what happened that night. The next time they met was in the High Court where Manuel was defending himself against the murder charges. He called Watt as a witness and quizzed him about their long, shady night together.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316380577
THE ONLY CHILD by Andrew Pyper (Gothic Horror/Thriller)
Dr. Lily Dominick has evaluated the mental states of some of the country’s most dangerous psychotics. But the strangely compelling client she interviewed today struck her as somehow different from the others, despite the two impossible claims he made. First, that he is more than 200 years old and personally inspired Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson and Bram Stoker in creating the three novels of the 19th century that define the monstrous in the modern imagination. Second, that he’s Lily’s father. To discover the truth --- behind her client, her mother’s death and herself --- Dr. Dominick must embark on a journey that will threaten her career, her sanity and ultimately her life.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476755212
RICH PEOPLE PROBLEMS by Kevin Kwan (Fiction)
When Nicholas Young hears that his grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed, he rushes to be by her bedside. The entire Shang-Young clan has convened from all corners of the globe to stake claim on their matriarch’s massive fortune. As her relatives fight over heirlooms, Astrid Leong is at the center of her own storm, desperately in love with her old sweetheart Charlie Wu, but tormented by her ex-husband --- a man hell bent on destroying Astrid’s reputation and relationship. Meanwhile, Kitty Pong, married to China’s second richest man, billionaire Jack Bing, still feels second best next to her new step-daughter, famous fashionista Colette Bing.
Doubleday | 9780385542234
SHADOW MAN by Alan Drew (Psychological Suspense)
Detective Ben Wade has returned to his hometown of Rancho Santa Elena in search of a quieter life and to try to save his marriage. Suddenly the community, with its peaceful streets and excellent public schools, finds itself at the mercy of a serial killer who slips through windows and screen doors at night. As Ben and forensic specialist Natasha Betencourt struggle to stay one step ahead of the killer --- and deal with painful episodes in the past --- Ben’s own world is rocked again by violence. He must decide how far he is willing to go, and Natasha how much she is willing to risk, to protect their friendship and themselves to rescue the town from a psychotic murderer and a long-buried secret.
Random House | 9781400067800
May 25th
SHORTGRASS: A Novel of World War II by John J. Dwyer (Historical Fiction)
Mennonite farm boy Lance Roark’s faith is as big as the challenges he faces on his family’s drought-ravaged Dust Bowl spread on the old Chisholm Trail. He can also run over, around and away from people on the football field and is a natural-born aviator. As war clouds gather across the seas, Lance is drawn into the dangerous world of America First, the Lindbergh-led organization that opposes the popular Roosevelt’s covert drive toward American involvement in World War II. When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Lance faces his ultimate decision --- whether or not to accept command of a B-17 Flying Fortress in which he would face, and inflict, mass slaughter in Nazi-occupied Europe amidst history’s most fearsome war.
Oghma Creative Media | 9781633732032
On Sale the Week of May 22nd in Paperback
May 23rd
ALLIE AND BEA by Catherine Ryan Hyde (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Bea barely has been scraping by since her husband died. After falling for a telephone scam, she loses everything and is forced to abandon her trailer. With only two-thirds of a tank in her old van, she heads toward the Pacific Ocean with her cat --- on a mission to reclaim what’s rightfully hers, even if it means making others pay for what she lost. When 15-year-old Allie’s parents are jailed for tax fraud, she is sent to a group home. But when her life is threatened by another resident, she knows she has to get out. She escapes only to find she has nowhere to go --- until fate throws Allie in Bea’s path.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781477819715
BREAKING ROCKEFELLER: The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire by Peter B. Doran (History)
Marcus Samuel, Jr. is an unorthodox Jewish merchant trader. Henri Deterding is a take-no-prisoners oilman. In 1889, John D. Rockefeller is at the peak of his power. Having annihilated all competition and possessing near-total domination of the market, even the U.S. government is wary of challenging the great “anaconda” of Standard Oil. The Standard never loses --- that is until Samuel and Deterding team up to form Royal Dutch Shell. BREAKING ROCKEFELLER traces Samuel’s rise from outsider to the heights of the British aristocracy, Deterding’s conquest of America, and the collapse of Rockefeller’s monopoly.
Penguin Books | 9780143130000
CROSS THE LINE by James Patterson (Thriller)
Shots ring out in the early morning hours in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. When the smoke clears, a prominent police official lies dead, leaving the city's police force scrambling for answers. Under pressure from the mayor, Alex Cross steps into the leadership vacuum to crack the case. But before Cross can make any headway, a brutal crime wave sweeps across the region. The deadly scenes share only one common thread --- the victims are all criminals. As Cross pursues an adversary who has appointed himself judge, jury and executioner, he must take the law back into his own hands before the city he's sworn to protect descends into utter chaos.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455585311
CURIOUS MINDS: A Knight and Moon Novel by Janet Evanovich and Phoef Sutton (Mystery/Thriller)
Emerson Knight is introverted, eccentric, and has little to no sense of social etiquette. Good thing he’s also brilliant, rich and (some people might say) handsome, or he’d probably be homeless. Riley Moon has just graduated from Harvard Business and Harvard Law. Her aggressive Texas spitfire attitude has helped her land her dream job as a junior analyst with mega-bank Blane-Grunwald. At least Riley Moon thought it was her dream job, until she is given her first assignment: babysitting Emerson Knight. What starts off as an inquiry about missing bank funds in the Knight account leads to inquiries about a missing man, missing gold, and a life-and-death race across the country.
Bantam | 9780553392708
FOREIGN AGENT by Brad Thor (Thriller)
As a child, Sacha Baseyev endured an unimaginable horror. Today, he lives and breathes for only one reason --- to kill. And he will kill as many Americans as it takes to accomplish his mission. When a clandestine American operations team is ambushed near Syria, all signs point toward a dangerous informant in Brussels. But as Scot Harvath searches for the man, he uncovers another actor --- a rogue player hell-bent on forcing America’s hand and drawing it into a confrontation deadlier than anyone could have imagined.
Pocket Books | 9781476789361
THE GRAVEYARD OF THE HESPERIDES: A Flavia Albia Novel by Lindsey Davis (Historical Mystery)
In first-century Rome, Flavia Albia, the daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken up her father's former profession as an informer. Her beloved, the plebeian Manlius Faustus, has recently moved in and decided that they should get married in a big, showy ceremony as part of beginning a proper domestic life together. Also, his contracting firm has been renovating a rundown dive bar called The Garden of the Hesperides, only to uncover human remains buried in the backyard. In the choice between planning a wedding and looking into a crime from long ago, Albia would much rather investigate a possible murder. Or murders, as more and more remains are uncovered, revealing that something truly horrible has been going on at the Hesperides.
Minotaur Books | 9781250131157
THE ISLAND HOUSE by Nancy Thayer (Fiction)
Courtney Hendricks will never forget the magical summers she spent on Nantucket with her college roommate, Robin Vickerey, and Robin’s charismatic, turbulent, larger-than-life family in their gorgeous island house. Now a college English professor in Kansas City, Courtney is determined to experience one more summer in this sun-swept paradise. Her reason for going is personal: Courtney needs to know if Robin’s brother, James, shares the feelings she’s secretly had for him. Time with the Vickerey family always involves love and laughter, and this season is no different.
Ballantine Books | 9781101967058
THE LADY TRAVELERS GUIDE TO SCOUNDRELS AND OTHER GENTLEMEN by Victoria Alexander (Historical Romance)
Paperback Original
When Derek Saunders' favorite elderly aunt and her ill-conceived --- and possibly fraudulent --- Lady Travelers Society loses one of their members, what's a man to do but step up to the challenge? Now he's escorting the world's most maddening woman to the world's most romantic city to find her missing relative. While India Prendergast only suspects his organization defrauds gullible travelers, she's certain a man with as scandalous a reputation as Derek Saunders cannot be trusted any farther than the distance around his very broad shoulders. Instead of finding a lost lady traveler, India just may lose her head, her luggage and her heart.
HQN Books | 9780373803989
THE LAST DAYS OF NIGHT by Graham Moore (Historical Thriller)
New York, 1888. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history --- and a vast fortune. A young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul’s client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country? As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812988925
LEONARD: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man by William Shatner with David Fisher (Biography)
Thanks to the “Star Trek” TV and movie franchise, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner grew to know each other more than most friends could ever imagine. Over the course of half a century, they saw each other through personal and professional highs and lows. In LEONARD, Shatner tells the story of a man who was his friend for five decades, recounting anecdotes and untold stories of their lives on and off set, as well as gathering stories from others who knew Nimoy well, to present a full picture of a rich life.
A Thomas Dunne Book for St. Martin’s Griffin | 97812500864
MacARTHUR AT WAR: World War II in the Pacific by Walter R. Borneman (History)
World War II changed the course of history. Douglas MacArthur changed the course of World War II. MacARTHUR AT WAR goes deeper into this transformative period of his life than previous biographies, drilling into the military strategy that Walter R. Borneman is so skilled at conveying, and exploring how personality and ego translate into military successes and failures. This in-depth study of the most critical period of his career shows how MacArthur's influence spread far beyond the war-torn Pacific.
Back Bay Books | 9780316405331
THE MIRACLE ON MONHEGAN ISLAND by Elizabeth Kelly (Fiction)
When Spark --- the rakish prodigal son --- returns unannounced to the dilapidated family home, his arrival launches an unforgettable summer on Monhegan Island. During his absence, his gentle brother and shrewd, fork-tongued father, Pastor Ragnar, have been caring for Spark’s son, Hally. A temperamental adolescent emboldened by tales of his father’s mischief, Hally is careening through an identity crisis when he stuns his family by claiming to have had a spiritual vision. Though Spark is permanently dubious, Pastor Ragnar pounces on the chance to revitalize his flagging church. Hally is shoved into the spotlight, and in the frenzy that follows, this fragile family is pushed to the brink.
Liveright | 9781631492976
PAPER: A World History by Mark Kurlansky (History)
Paper is one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to produce it in ever more efficient ways has supported the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce and art; it has formed the foundation of civilizations, promoting revolutions and restoring stability. By tracing paper’s evolution from antiquity to the present, with an emphasis on the contributions made in Asia and the Middle East, Mark Kurlansky challenges common assumptions about technology’s influence, affirming that paper is here to stay.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393353709
THE PERFECT HORSE: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis by Elizabeth Letts (History)
In the chaotic last days of World War II, a small troop of battle-weary American soldiers captures a German spy and makes an astonishing find --- his briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful white horses that have been stolen and kept on a secret farm behind enemy lines. Hitler has stockpiled the world’s finest purebreds in order to breed the perfect military machine --- an equine master race. But with the starving Russian army closing in, the animals are in imminent danger of being slaughtered for food. With only hours to spare, one of the Army’s last great cavalrymen, American colonel Hank Reed, makes a bold decision --- with General George Patton’s blessing --- to mount a covert rescue operation.
Ballantine Books | 9780345544827
THE POLITICIANS AND THE EGALITARIANS: The Hidden History of American Politics by Sean Wilentz (History/Politics)
“There are two keys to unlocking the secrets of American politics and American political history.” So begins THE POLITICIANS AND THE EGALITARIANS, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz’s bold new work of history. First, America is built on an egalitarian tradition. At the nation’s founding, Americans believed that extremes of wealth and want would destroy their revolutionary experiment in republican government. Second, partisanship is a permanent fixture in America, and America is the better for it. With these two insights, Wilentz offers a crystal-clear portrait of American history, told through politicians and egalitarians --- a portrait that runs counter to current political and historical thinking.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393354133
ROUGH RIDERS: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy Regiment, and the Immortal Charge Up San Juan Hill by Mark Lee Gardner (History)
Two months after the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in February 1898, Congress authorized President McKinley to recruit a volunteer army to drive the Spaniards from Cuba. From this army emerged the legendary “Rough Riders,” a mounted regiment drawn from America’s western territories and led by the indomitable Theodore Roosevelt. Mark Lee Gardner synthesizes previously unknown primary accounts, as well as period newspaper articles, letters and diaries from public and private archives in Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Boston and Washington, DC, to produce this authoritative chronicle.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062312099
SECURITY by Gina Wohlsdorf (Thriller)
Manderley Resort is a gleaming, new 20-story hotel on the California coast. It’s about to open its doors, and the world --- at least those with the means to afford it --- will be welcomed into a palace of opulence and unparalleled security. But someone is determined that Manderley will never open. The staff has no idea that their every move is being watched, and over the next 12 hours they will be killed off, one by one.
Algonquin Books | 9781616206932
A TIME OF TORMENT: A Charlie Parker Thriller by John Connolly (Thriller)
Jerome Burnel was once a hero. He intervened to prevent multiple killings, but destroyed himself in the process. In his final days, he tells his story to private detective Charlie Parker. He speaks of the girl who was marked for death, but was saved; of the ones who tormented him, and an entity that hides in a ruined stockade. Parker is not like other men. He died and was reborn. He is ready to wage war. Now he will descend upon a strange, isolated community called the Cut, and face down a force of men who rule by terror, intimidation and murder. All in the name of the being they serve. All in the name of the Dead King.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501118333
On Sale the Week of May 29th in Hardcover
May 30th
AL FRANKEN, GIANT OF THE SENATE by Al Franken (Memoir)
AL FRANKEN, GIANT OF THE SENATE is a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is pretty funny in retrospect. It's a book about what happens when the nation's foremost progressive satirist gets a chance to serve in the United States Senate and, defying the low expectations of the pundit class, actually turns out to be good at it. It's a book about our deeply polarized, frequently depressing, occasionally inspiring political culture, written from inside the belly of the beast.
Twelve | 9781455540419
COME SUNDOWN by Nora Roberts (Romantic Suspense)
The Bodine ranch and resort in western Montana is a family business that is kept running by Bodine Longbow with the help of a large staff, including new hire Callen Skinner. There was another member of the family once: Bodine’s aunt, Alice, who ran off before Bodine was born. She never returned, and the Longbows don’t talk about her much. The younger ones, who never met her, quietly presume she’s dead. So when Alice suddenly reappears, the Longbows are shocked. The twisted story she has to tell about the past --- and the threat that follows in her wake --- will test the bonds of this strong family, and thrust Bodine into a darkness she never could have imagined.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250123077
EDGE OF TRUTH by Brynn Kelly (Romantic Suspense)
As journalist Tess Newell is being held hostage by the terrorist group she’s investigating, her salvation --- and temptation --- arrives in the form of another prisoner. Flynn is a French Foreign Legionnaire with a sinful smile and too many secrets to be anything but dangerous. Yet she knows he’s her only hope of surviving. When a mission goes south and Flynn is captured, it’s not the enemy that worries him, but the brazen, alluring reporter whose prying questions threaten to bring down his world --- and the walls he’s built around his heart. After a daring escape, Flynn must risk it all and go on the run with Tess to retrieve the evidence she needs.
HQN Books | 9780373799480
A HISS BEFORE DYING: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown (Mystery)
The clamorous barking of beagles signals the annual rabbit chase through the central Virginia hills. But the last thing the local beaglers and their hounds expect to flush out is a dead body. Disturbingly, it’s the second corpse to turn up, after that of a missing truck driver too disfigured to identify. The deaths seem unrelated --- until Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen picks up a trail of clues dating back to the state’s post-Revolutionary past. The echoes of the Shot Heard Round the World pale in comparison to the dangerous shootout Harry narrowly escapes unscathed. Next time, it may be the killer who gets lucky. But not if Harry’s furry friends Mrs. Murphy, Pewter and Tucker can help it.
Bantam | 9780553392494
NIGHTHAWK: A Kurt Austin Adventure by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown (Thriller/Adventure)
When the most advanced aircraft ever designed vanishes over the South Pacific, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are drawn into a deadly contest to locate the fallen machine. But they know what others don’t --- that the X-37 is carrying a dangerous secret, a payload of exotic matter, extracted from the upper reaches of the atmosphere and stored at a temperature near absolute zero. As long as it remains frozen, the cargo is inert, but if it thaws, it will unleash a catastrophe of nearly unthinkable proportions. The entire NUMA team will risk everything in an effort to avert disaster…but they may be caught in a race that no one can win.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399184017
THEFT BY FINDING: Diaries (1977-2002) by David Sedaris (Humor/Essays)
David Sedaris has kept a diary for 40 years. In them, he has recorded everything that has captured his attention --- overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and with them he has honed his self-deprecation and learned to craft his cunning, surprising sentences. Now, for the first time, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. This is the first-person account of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness for the International House of Pancakes and a chronic inability to hold down a real job became one of the funniest people on the planet.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316154727
TOUCH by Courtney Maum (Fiction)
Sloane Jacobsen is one of the world's most powerful trend forecasters. Her recent forecasts on the family are unwavering: the world is over-populated, and having children is an extravagant indulgence. So it’s no surprise when the tech giant Mammoth hires Sloane to lead their groundbreaking annual conference, celebrating the voluntarily childless. But not far into her contract, Sloane begins to sense the undeniable signs of a movement against electronics that will see people embracing compassion, empathy and “in-personism” again. Despite the risks to her professional reputation, Sloane is nevertheless convinced that her instincts are the right ones, and goes on a quest to defend real-life human interaction.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735212121
TROPHY SON by Douglas Brunt (Fiction)
Anton Stratis is groomed to be one thing only: the #1 tennis player in the world. Trained relentlessly by his obsessive father, a former athlete who plans every minute of his son’s life, Anton both aspires to greatness and resents its all-consuming demands. Lonely and isolated, Anton explodes from nowhere onto the professional scene and soon becomes one of the top-ranked players in the world. But as Anton struggles to find a balance between stardom and family, he begins to make compromises --- first with himself, then with his health, and finally with the rules of tennis, a mix that will threaten to destroy everything he has worked for.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250114808
THE WHITE ROAD by Sarah Lotz (Thriller)
Desperate to attract subscribers to his fledgling website, ex-adrenalin junkie and slacker Simon Newman hires someone to guide him through the notorious Cwm Pot caves, so that he can film the journey and put it on the internet. After a brutal struggle for survival, Simon barely escapes with his life, but predictably, the gruesome footage he managed to collect goes viral. Simon then latches onto another escapade that has that magic click-bait mix of danger and death --- a trip to Everest. But he'll need more than his dubious morals and wits to guide him, especially when he uncovers the truth behind a decade-old tragedy --- a truth that means he might not be coming back alive.
Mulholland Books | 9780316396608
YOU WILL PAY by Lisa Jackson (Thriller)
Lucas Dalton, a senior detective with the sheriff’s department, is investigating the discovery of human remains in a cavern at what used to be Camp Horseshoe. His father, a preacher, ran the camp, and Lucas worked there that infamous summer when two girls went missing. Seven former female counselors are coming back to the small Oregon town --- among them, Bernadette Alsace, the woman Lucas has never forgotten. Each one knows something about that terrible night. Each promised not to tell. And as they reunite, a new horror unfolds. First come texts containing a personal memento and a simple, terrifying message: YOU WILL PAY. Then the murders begin.
Kensington | 9781617734663
June 1st
BEREN AND LUTHIEN written by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien, with illustrations by Alan Lee (Fantasy)
In this book, Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Lúthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded. But that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father's own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328791825
THE FABRICATIONS by Baret Magarian (Fiction)
When Bloch, a popular London novelist, starts writing a fictionalized story featuring his unremarkable friend Oscar, the invented details from the story start to come true. Gradually, Oscar embarks on a surreal odyssey into fame, while Bloch descends into the dark places of his soul. Oscar falls in love with Najette, a bewitching painter, but their relationship hangs in the balance as his myth balloons out of all proportion. At the center of the hype and spin stands the demon-like publicist Ryan Rees, whose power enables him to manufacture the truth.
Pleasure Boat Studio | 9780912887494
On Sale the Week of May 29th in Paperback
May 30th
ANOTHER BROOKLYN by Jacqueline Woodson (Fiction)
Running into a long ago friend sets memory in motion for August, a woman who once lived in a Brooklyn where friendship was everything --- until it wasn’t anymore. For August and her girls, Brooklyn was a place where they believed as they walked the streets and confided in each other, that they were beautiful, talented, brilliant --- a part of a future that belonged to them. But beneath the veneer, there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where men reached for them in dark hallways, where ghosts haunted their nights and mothers disappeared. A world where madness was just a sunset away and fathers found hope in religion.
Amistad | 9780062359995
ARROWOOD by Laura McHugh (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Arrowood, the most ornate and grand of the historical houses that line the Mississippi River, has a mystery it has never revealed: It’s where Arden Arrowood’s younger twin sisters vanished on her watch 20 years ago, never to be seen again. After the twins’ disappearance, Arden’s parents divorced and the Arrowoods left the big house that had been in their family for generations. Arden has held on to the hope that her sisters are still alive, and it seems she can’t move forward until she finds them. When her father dies and she inherits Arrowood, Arden returns to her childhood home determined to discover what really happened to her sisters that traumatic summer.
Spiegel & Grau | 9780812986419
THE BEAUTY OF THE END by Debbie Howells (Psychological Thriller)
Ex-lawyer Noah Calaway is haunted by the memory of the beguiling young woman who left him at the altar 16 years earlier. Then one day, he receives a troubling phone call. April, the woman he once loved, lies in a coma, the victim of an apparent overdose --- and the lead suspect in a brutal murder. While Noah searches for evidence that will clear April's name, a teenager named Ella begins to sift through the secrets of her own painful family history. The same age that April was when Noah first met her, Ella harbors a revelation that could be the key to solving the murder. As the two stories converge, there are shocking consequences when the truth emerges at last. Or so everyone believes…
Kensington | 9781496712950
THE BOY IN THE SHADOWS by Carl-Johan Vallgren (Thriller)
Joel, whose older brother was kidnapped years earlier, goes missing under suspicious circumstances. His frantic wife turns to Danny Katz --- an old friend with a troubled past --- for help. A brilliant computer programmer and recovering heroin addict, Katz is also the divorced father of two young girls. Before long, he discovers he isn't the only one trying to find Joel. The deeper Katz digs, the more upsetting the secrets he uncovers about the wealthy and powerful family at the heart of the investigation. Chillingly, the case takes a violent turn that reveals a disorienting connection to Katz's own troubled childhood.
Quercus | 9781681444390
BRIGHT, PRECIOUS DAYS by Jay McInerney (Fiction)
Russell and Corrine Calloway seem to be living the dream: a calendar filled with high-society parties; jobs they care about and enjoy; twin children, a boy and a girl whose birth was truly miraculous; a loft in TriBeCa and summers in the Hamptons. But beneath the glossy surfaces, things are simmering. Russell, editor-in-chief of a boutique publisher, has cultural clout but is on the edge financially, and feels compelled to pursue an audacious --- and potentially ruinous --- opportunity. Meanwhile, Corrine’s world is turned upside down when the man with whom she’d had an ill-fated affair in the wake of 9/11 suddenly reappears, and the Calloways find themselves tested more severely than they ever could have imagined.
Vintage | 9781101972267
THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR by Shari Lapena (Psychological Thriller)
Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all --- a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story. Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they've kept for years.
Penguin Books | 9780735221109
DAUGHTERS OF THE BRIDE by Susan Mallery (Romance)
As the awkward one, Courtney Watson may not be as together as her sisters, but she excels at one thing: keeping secrets, including her white-hot affair with a sexy music producer. Planning Mom's wedding exposes her startling hidden life, changing her family's view of her forever. When Sienna's boyfriend proposes in front of her mom and sisters, he takes her by surprise. Should she say "I do" even if she's not sure she does? Rachel thought love would last forever…right up until her divorce. As Mom's wedding day draws near and her ex begs for a second chance, she's forced to acknowledge some uncomfortable truths about why her marriage failed and decide if she'll let pride stand in the way of her own happily-ever-after.
HQN Books | 9781335008565
FORGIVE ME by Daniel Palmer (Thriller)
Angie DeRose strives to find and rescue endangered runaways. But in the wake of her mother's sudden death, she makes a life-altering discovery. Hidden among the mementos in her parents' attic is a photograph of a little girl, with a code and a handwritten message on the back: "May God forgive me." Angie has no idea what it means or how to explain other questionable items among her mother's possessions. The lies she unearths will bring her past and present together with terrifying force. And everything she cherishes will be threatened by the repercussions of one long-ago choice --- and an enemy who will kill to keep a secret hidden forever.
Pinnacle | 9780786033850
GUILTY MINDS by Joseph Finder (Thriller)
The chief justice of the Supreme Court is about to be defamed, his career destroyed, by a powerful gossip website that specializes in dirt on celebs and politicians. Their top reporter has written an exposé claiming that he had liaisons with an escort, a young woman prepared to tell the world her salacious tale. Intelligence operative Nick Heller has just 48 hours to disprove the story. But when the call girl is found murdered, Nick resolves to find the mastermind behind the conspiracy before anyone else falls victim to the maelstrom of political scandal and ruined reputations predicated upon one long-buried secret.
Dutton | 9780451472588
HARD COLD WINTER: A Van Shaw Novel by Glen Erik Hamilton (Thriller)
When an old crony of Van Shaw’s late grandfather calls in a favor, the recently discharged Ranger embarks on a dangerous journey to the Olympic Mountains, in search of a missing girl tied to Van’s own criminal past. What he finds instead is a brutal murder scene, including a victim from one of Seattle’s most influential families. But the dead bodies are only the start of Van’s troubles. A fellow Ranger from Afghanistan turns up at Van’s doorstep, seeking support from his former sergeant even as Van wrestles with his own reemerging symptoms of PTSD. The murder investigation leads to heavy pressure, with a billionaire businessman on one side and vicious gangsters on the other, each willing to play dirty to get what they want.
William Morrow | 9780062344595
HEAVEN’S DITCH: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal by Jack Kelly (History)
The technological marvel of its age, the Erie Canal grew out of a sudden fit of inspiration. Proponents didn't just dream; they built a 360-mile waterway entirely by hand and largely through wilderness. As excitement crackled down its length, the canal became the scene of the most striking outburst of imagination in American history. It made New York the financial capital of America and brought the modern world crashing into the frontier. Men and women saw God face to face, gained and lost fortunes, and reveled in a period of intense spiritual creativity. HEAVEN’S DITCH illuminates the spiritual and political upheavals along this "psychic highway" from its opening in 1825 through 1844.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250131522
HERO OF THE EMPIRE: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard (History)
At the age of 24, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England. He arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels and jumpstart his political career. But just two weeks later, Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape --- traversing hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate and his wits to guide him.
Anchor | 9780307948786
THE HOPEFULS by Jennifer Close (Fiction)
A New York newlywed, Beth was supportive when her husband, Matt, decided to follow his political dreams all the way to Washington. Yet soon after they move to D.C., Beth realizes that she hates everything about it --- most of all, the lonely dinner parties where anyone who doesn’t work in politics is politely ignored. Things start to change when the couple meets a charismatic White House staffer named Jimmy and his wife, Ashleigh. The four become inseparable, coordinating brunches, birthdays and long weekends away. But as Jimmy’s star rises higher and higher, the couples’ friendship --- and Beth’s relationship with Matt --- is threatened by jealousy, competition and rumors.
Vintage | 9781101911457
HOUSE OF NAILS: A Memoir of Life on the Edge by Lenny Dykstra (Memoir)
For the first time, former world champion, multimillionaire entrepreneur and imprisoned felon Lenny Dykstra tells all about his tumultuous career --- from battling through crippling pain to steroid use and drug addiction, to a life of indulgence and excess, followed by an epic plunge and the long road back to redemption. Was Lenny's hard-charging, risk-it-all nature responsible for his success in baseball and business and his precipitous fall from grace? What lessons, if any, has he learned now that he has had time to think and reflect?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062407375
LILY AND THE OCTOPUS by Steven Rowley (Fiction)
Ted, a gay, single, struggling writer, is stuck: unable to open himself up to intimacy except through the steadfast companionship of Lily, his elderly dachshund. When Lily’s health is compromised, Ted vows to save her by any means necessary. By turns hilarious and poignant, an adventure with spins into magic realism and beautifully evoked truths of loss and longing, LILY AND THE OCTOPUS reminds us how it feels to love fiercely, how difficult it can be to let go, and how the fight for those we love is the greatest fight of all.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501126239
MISCHLING by Affinity Konar (Historical Fiction)
In 1944, twin sisters Pearl and Stasha Zagorski arrive in Auschwitz and become part of the experimental population of twins known as Mengele's Zoo. That winter, at a concert orchestrated by Mengele, Pearl disappears and Stasha is left in the Zoo alone, clinging to hope that her twin remains alive. After the Red Army liberates the camp, Stasha and her companion, Feliks --- who has also lost his twin to Mengele's Zoo --- travel through a devastated Poland, undeterred by injury, starvation or the chaos around them. As the young survivors discover what has become of the world, they must try to imagine a future within it.
Lee Boudreaux/Back Bay Books | 9780316308090
MODERN LOVERS by Emma Straub (Fiction)
Friends and former college bandmates Elizabeth, Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities of their youth. But nothing ages them like having to suddenly pass the torch to their own offspring. Now nearing 50, they all live within shouting distance in the same neighborhood deep in gentrified Brooklyn. The summer that their children reach maturity (and start sleeping together), the fabric of the adult lives suddenly begins to unravel, and the secrets and revelations that are finally let loose can never be reclaimed.
Riverhead Books | 9781594634680
NOT A SOUND by Heather Gudenkauf (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
When a tragic accident leaves nurse Amelia Winn deaf, she spirals into a depression that ultimately causes her to lose everything that matters. Now, two years later and with the help of her hearing dog, she is finally getting back on her feet. But when she discovers the body of a fellow nurse in the dense bush by the river, deep in the woods near her cabin, she is plunged into a disturbing mystery that could shatter the carefully reconstructed pieces of her life all over again. As clues begin to surface, Amelia finds herself swept into an investigation that hits all too close to home. But how much is she willing to risk in order to uncover the truth and bring a killer to justice?
Park Row Books | 9780778319955
NUTSHELL by Ian McEwan (Psychological Thriller)
Trudy has been unfaithful to her husband, John. What’s more, she has kicked him out of their marital home, a valuable old London town house, and in his place is his own brother, the profoundly banal Claude. The illicit couple have hatched a scheme to rid themselves of her inconvenient husband forever. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy’s womb. As Trudy’s unborn son listens, bound within her body, to his mother and his uncle’s murderous plans, he gives us a truly new perspective on our world, seen from the confines of his.
Anchor | 9780525431947
PING-PONG HEART: A Sueño and Bascom Mystery Set in South Korea by Martin Limón (Historical Mystery)
South Korea, 1974. US Army CID Sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom are assigned an underwhelming case of petty theft: Major Frederick M. Schulz has accused Miss Jo Kyong-ja, an Itaewon bar girl, of stealing 25,000 won from him --- a sum equaling less than 50 US dollars. After two very divergent accounts of what happened, Miss Jo is attacked, and Schulz is found hacked to death only days later. Did tensions simply escalate to the point of murder?
Soho Crime | 9781616958091
PRECIOUS AND GRACE: No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (17) by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
Mma Makutsi, who has recently been promoted to co-director, has been encouraging Mma Ramotswe to update to more modern office practices. An unusual case, however, will require both of them to turn their attention firmly to the past. A young Canadian woman who spent her early childhood in Botswana requests the agency’s help in recalling her life there. Precious and Grace set out to locate the house that the woman lived in and the caretaker who looked after her many years ago. But when the journey takes an unexpected turn, they are forced to consider whether some things are better left in the past.
Anchor | 9781101972816
PRINCE LESTAT AND THE REALMS OF ATLANTIS: The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice (Paranormal Mystery/Thriller)
The indomitable vampire hero, Lestat de Lioncourt, returns...caught up in an urgent and fundamental quest to understand the origins of the Undead and the deeper meanings of existence for both mortals and immortals. Now Lestat, Prince of the vast tribe of the undead, finds himself at war with a strange, ancient, otherworldly form that has somehow taken possession of his immortal body and spirit, and it is through this perilous and profound struggle that we come to be told the hypnotic tale of a great sea power of ancient times: a mysterious heaven on earth situated on a boundless continent in the Atlantic Ocean.
Anchor | 9780804173148
SURRENDER, NEW YORK by Caleb Carr (Psychological Thriller)
In rural, impoverished Burgoyne County, New York, a pattern of strange deaths begins to emerge: adolescent boys and girls are found murdered, their corpses left hanging in gruesome, ritualistic fashion. Senior law enforcement officials are quick to blame a serial killer, but their efforts to apprehend this criminal are peculiarly ineffective. Meanwhile, in the county's small town of Surrender, Trajan Jones, a psychological profiler, and Michael Li, a trace evidence expert, teach online courses in profiling and forensic science from Jones' family farm. Alone and armed mainly with their wits, protected only by farmhands and Jones' unusual ''pet,'' the outcast pair are secretly called in to consult on the case.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780399591556
WITHOUT MERCY: A Body Farm Novel by Jefferson Bass (Mystery/Thriller)
Forensic anthropologist Bill Brockton has spent 25 years solving brutal murders, but none so bizarre and merciless as his latest case. A ravaged set of skeletal remains is found chained to a tree on a remote mountainside. As Brockton and his assistant, Miranda, dig deeper, they uncover warning signs of a deadly eruption of hatred and violence. But the shocking case is only the beginning of Brockton’s trials. Mid-case, the unthinkable happens: The deadliest criminal Brockton has ever foiled --- the sadistic serial killer Nick Satterfield --- escapes from prison, bent on vengeance. But simply killing Brockton isn’t enough. Satterfield wants to make him suffer first, by destroying everything he holds dear.
William Morrow | 9780062363213
June 1st
DEAD CERTAIN by Adam Mitzner (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
By day, Ella Broden works as a buttoned-up attorney on some of the city’s most grueling cases. By night, she pursues her passion for singing in the darkest clubs of Manhattan. No one knows her secret, not even her younger sister, Charlotte. But it seems she’s not the only one in the family with something to hide. When Charlotte announces she’s sold her first novel, Ella couldn’t be more thrilled…until she gets a call that her sister has gone missing. Ella starts investigating with the help of Detective Gabriel Velasquez, an old flame in the NYPD, and what she finds is shocking. If art imitates life, then Charlotte's novel may contain details of her real-life affairs. And any one of her lovers could be involved in her disappearance.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781477822593
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