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This Week's Bonus News:
Bookreporter.com's Coming Soon Feature for June
In this newsletter, you will find some of the hardcovers and paperbacks that will be available the first week of June. But since we always love looking ahead --- and there are lots of noteworthy books to look forward to in June --- we want to give you a sneak peek at the entire month's worth of releases. Below are some highlights, but for a much more comprehensive list, take a look at June's Coming Soon feature here.
Hardcovers:
Paperbacks:
Click here for more June hardcovers and paperbacks.
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
On Sale the Week of June 5th in Hardcover
June 6th
THE ANSWERS by Catherine Lacey (Fiction)
Mary is a young woman living in New York City and struggling to cope with a body that has betrayed her. All but paralyzed with pain, she seeks relief from a New Agey treatment called Pneuma Adaptive Kinesthesia, PAKing for short. And, remarkably, it works. But PAKing is prohibitively expensive and Mary is dead broke. So she scours Craigslist for fast-cash jobs and finds herself applying for the “Girlfriend Experiment,” the brainchild of an eccentric actor, Kurt Sky, who is determined to find the perfect relationship --- even if that means paying different women to fulfill distinctive roles. Mary is hired as the “Emotional Girlfriend” and pulled into Kurt’s ego-driven and messy attempt at human connection.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374100261
BEFORE WE WERE YOURS by Lisa Wingate (Fiction)
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge --- until strangers arrive in force, and the children are thrown into an orphanage. Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all. But when she returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family's long-hidden history, on a path that ultimately will lead either to devastation or to redemption.
Ballantine Books | 9780425284681
BLACKOUT by Marc Elsberg (Thriller)
When the lights go out one night, no one panics. Not yet. The lights always come back on soon, don't they? Surely it's a glitch, a storm, a malfunction. But something seems strange about this night. Across Europe, controllers watch in disbelief as electrical grids collapse. There is no power, anywhere. A former hacker and activist, Piero investigates a possible cause of the disaster. The authorities don't believe him, and he soon becomes a prime suspect himself. With the United States now also at risk, Piero goes on the run with Lauren Shannon, a young American CNN reporter based in Paris, desperate to uncover who is behind the attacks. After all, the power doesn't just keep the lights on --- it keeps us alive.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492654414
BLOOD FOR WINE: A Cal Claxton Oregon Mystery by Warren C. Easley (Mystery)
When former prosecutor Cal Claxton’s neighbor, Jim Kavanaugh, the owner and gifted vintner of an up-and-coming winery, is accused of murdering his wife, his freedom --- and the grape harvest --- is suddenly in jeopardy along with his reputation, and his business begins to slide. No gentleman farmer, this puts the rugged winemaker's property, his only financial asset, in play. When a blackmail plot is hatched against the owner of adjacent land, it begins to look like a brutal game of real-life Monopoly is underway. Cal agrees to defend Jim, a good friend, which pulls him reluctantly into the blackmail plot and might well make him the next target of a vicious, cunning killer.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464208386
THE BRIGHT HOUR: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs (Memoir)
Nina Riggs was just 37 years old when initially diagnosed with breast cancer. Within a year, the mother of two sons received the devastating news that her cancer was terminal. How does one live each day, “unattached to outcome”? How does one approach the moments, big and small, with both love and honesty? Exploring motherhood, marriage, friendship and memory, even as she wrestles with the legacy of her great-great-great grandfather, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nina Riggs’ memoir continues the urgent conversation that Paul Kalanithi began in WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR. She asks: What makes a meaningful life when one has limited time?
Simon & Schuster | 9781501169359
CAMINO ISLAND by John Grisham (Thriller)
A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a secure vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts. Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block. A generous offer of money convinces her to go undercover and infiltrate Cable’s circle of literary friends, ideally getting close enough to him to learn his secrets. But eventually Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise.
Doubleday | 9780385543026
A DARK SO DEADLY by Stuart MacBride (Mystery/Thriller)
Welcome to the Misfit Mob. It’s where Police Scotland dumps the officers it can’t get rid of, but wants to: the outcasts, the troublemakers, the compromised. Officers like DC Callum MacGregor, lumbered with all the boring go-nowhere cases. So when an ancient mummy turns up at the Oldcastle tip, it’s his job to find out which museum it’s been stolen from. But then Callum uncovers links between his ancient corpse and three missing young men, and life starts to get a lot more interesting. No one expects the Misfit Mob to succeed, but right now they’re the only thing standing between the killer’s victims and a slow, lingering death. The question is, can they prove everyone wrong before he strikes again?
HarperCollins | 9780007494682
DEFECTORS by Joseph Kanon (Historical Thriller)
In 1949, Frank Weeks of the newly formed CIA was exposed as a Communist spy and fled the country to vanish behind the Iron Curtain. Now, 12 years later, he has written his memoirs and has asked his brother Simon, a publisher, to come to Moscow to edit the manuscript. At first Frank is still Frank --- the same charm, the same jokes, the same bond of affection that transcends ideology. Then Simon begins to glimpse another Frank, still capable of treachery, still actively working for “the service.” He finds himself dragged into the middle of Frank’s new scheme, caught between the KGB and the CIA in a fatal cat and mouse game that only one of the brothers is likely to survive.
Atria Books | 9781501121395
DIS MEM BER and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates (Mystery/Short Stories)
At the heart of this collection are girls and women confronting the danger around them, and the danger hidden inside their turbulent selves. In the title story, a precocious 11-year-old named Jill is in thrall to an older male relative, the mysterious, attractive black sheep of the family. Without telling her parents, Jill climbs into his sky-blue Chevy to be driven to an uncertain, and unforgettable, fate. In “The Drowned Girl,” a university transfer student becomes increasingly obsessed with the drowning/murder of another female student, as her own sense of self begins to deteriorate. And in the final story, “Welcome to Friendly Skies,” a trusting group of bird-watchers is borne to a remote part of the globe, to a harrowing fate.
Mysterious Press | 9780802126528
DO NOT BECOME ALARMED by Maile Meloy (Thriller)
When Liv and Nora decide to take their husbands and children on a holiday cruise, everyone is thrilled. But when they all go ashore for an adventure in Central America, a series of minor misfortunes and miscalculations leads the families farther from the safety of the ship. One minute the children are there, and the next they’re gone. The disintegration of the world the families knew --- told from the perspectives of both the adults and the children --- is riveting and revealing. The parents, accustomed to security and control, turn on each other and blame themselves, while the seemingly helpless children discover resources they never knew they possessed.
Riverhead Books | 9780735216525
EVERYBODY'S SON by Thrity Umrigar (Fiction)
During a terrible heat wave in 1991, 10-year-old Anton has been locked in an apartment in the projects alone for seven days. Hot, hungry and desperate, he shatters a window and climbs out. Juanita, his mother, is discovered in a crack house less than three blocks away, nearly unconscious and half-naked. Though the bond between mother and son is extremely strong, Anton is placed with child services while Juanita goes to jail. Desperate to have a child in the house again after the tragic death of his teenage son, Judge David Coleman uses his power and connections to keep his new foster son, Anton, with him and his wife --- actions that will have devastating consequences in the years to come.
Harper | 9780062442246
FLY ME by Daniel Riley (Historical Fiction)
The year is 1972, and the beaches of Los Angeles are the center of the world. Dropping into the embers of the drug and surf scene is Suzy Whitman, who has tossed her newly minted Vassar degree aside to follow her older sister into open skies and the borderless adventures of stewardessing for Grand Pacific Airlines. In Sela del Mar, California --- a hedonistic beach town in the shadow of LAX --- Suzy skateboards, suntans, and flies daily and nightly across the country. Motivated by a temporary escape from her past, and a new taste for danger and belonging, Suzy falls into a drug-trafficking scheme that clashes perilously with the skyjacking epidemic of the day.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316362139
GIVE UP THE DEAD: A Jay Porter Novel by Joe Clifford (Mystery/Thriller)
Three years have passed since estate-clearing handyman Jay Porter almost lost his life following a devastating accident on the thin ice of Echo Lake. The traumatic, uncredited events cost him his wife and his son, and left him with a permanent leg injury. Jay is just putting his life back together when a mysterious stranger stops by with an offer too good to be true: a large sum of cash in exchange for finding a missing teenage boy who may have been abducted by a radical recovery group. Skeptical of gift horses and weary of reenlisting in the local drug war, Jay passes on the offer. The next day his boss is found beaten and left for dead, painting Jay the main suspect. As clues begin to tie the two cases together, Jay finds himself back on the job and back in the line of fire.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608092048
GOING DEEP: John Philip Holland and the Invention of the Attack Submarine by Lawrence Goldstone (History)
Like Henry Ford and the Wright brothers, John Philip Holland was completely self-taught, a brilliant man raised in humble circumstances, earning his living as a schoolteacher and choirmaster. But all the while he was obsessed with creating a machine that could successfully cruise beneath the waves. His struggle to unlock the mystery behind controlled undersea navigation would take three decades. But his indestructible belief in himself and his ideas led him to finally succeed where so many others had failed. GOING DEEP is a vivid chronicle of the fierce battles not only under the water, but also in the back rooms of Wall Street and the committee rooms of Congress.
Pegasus Books | 9781681774299
GRIEF COTTAGE by Gail Godwin (Fiction)
After his mother's death, 11-year-old Marcus moves in with his great aunt, a reclusive painter with a haunted past. Aunt Charlotte points out a ruined cottage, telling Marcus she had visited it regularly after she'd moved there 30 years ago because it matched the ruin of her own life. The islanders call it "Grief Cottage," because a boy and his parents disappeared from it during a hurricane 50 years before. While Aunt Charlotte is in her studio painting, Marcus visits the cottage, building up his courage by coming ever closer, even after the ghost of the boy who died seems to reveal himself. He courts the ghost boy, never certain whether the ghost is friendly or follows some sinister agenda.
Bloomsbury USA | 9781632867049
THE GYPSY MOTH SUMMER by Julia Fierro (Fiction)
It is the summer of 1992, and a gypsy moth invasion blankets Avalon Island. It is also the summer Leslie Day Marshall --- the only daughter of Avalon's most prominent family --- returns with her husband, a botanist, and their children to live in "The Castle," the island's grandest estate. Leslie's husband Jules is African-American, their children are bi-racial, and islanders from both sides of the tracks form fast and dangerous opinions about the new arrivals. Maddie Pencott LaRosa falls in love with Brooks, their son, and that love feels as urgent to Maddie as the questions about the new and deadly cancers showing up across the island. Could Grudder Aviation, the pride of the island --- and its patriarch, the Colonel --- be to blame?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250087515
HE SAID/SHE SAID by Erin Kelly (Psychological Thriller)
In the summer of 1999, Kit and Laura travel to a festival in Cornwall to see a total eclipse of the sun. Young and in love, they are certain this will be the first of many they’ll share. But in the hushed moments after the shadow passes, Laura interrupts a man and a woman. She knows that she saw something terrible. The man denies it. The victim seems grateful. Months later, the woman turns up on their doorstep like a lonely stray. As her gratitude takes a twisted turn, Laura begins to wonder if she trusted the wrong person. Fifteen years later, Kit and Laura are living under new names and are completely off the digital grid. As the truth catches up to them, they realize they can no longer keep the past in the past.
Minotaur Books | 9781250113696
HOW TO SURVIVE A SUMMER by Nick White (Fiction)
Grad student Will Dillard has largely buried memories of the summer he spent at a camp intended to “cure” homosexuality. But when he finds out that a horror movie based on the camp is hitting theaters, he’s forced to face his past --- and his role in another camper’s death. As he recounts the events surrounding his “failed rehabilitation,” Will strikes out on an impromptu road trip back home to Mississippi, eventually returning to the abandoned campgrounds to solve the mysteries of that pivotal summer.
Blue Rider Press | 9780399573682
IF I UNDERSTOOD YOU, WOULD I HAVE THIS LOOK ON MY FACE?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating by Alan Alda (Science/Personal Growth)
Alan Alda has been on a decades-long journey to discover new ways to help people communicate and relate to one another more effectively. IF I UNDERSTOOD YOU, WOULD I HAVE THIS LOOK ON MY FACE? is the warm, witty and informative chronicle of how Alda found inspiration in everything from cutting-edge science to classic acting methods. His search began when he was host of PBS’s "Scientific American Frontiers," where he interviewed thousands of scientists and developed a knack for helping them communicate complex ideas in ways a wide audience could understand --- and Alda wondered if those techniques held a clue to better communication for the rest of us.
Random House | 9780812989144
INDECENT EXPOSURE: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
As an eligible bachelor, man-about-town, and mover in the highest social echelons, Stone Barrington has always been the subject of interest and gossip. But when he’s unwittingly thrust into the limelight, he finds himself scrambling to take cover. Before too long, Stone is fending off pesky nuisances left and right, and making personal arrangements so surreptitiously it would take a covert operative to unearth them. Unfortunately, Stone soon discovers that these efforts only increase the persistence of the most troublesome pests…and when he runs afoul of a particularly tenacious lady, he’ll be struggling to protect not just his reputation, but his life.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735217119
KENNEDY AND KING: The President, the Pastor, and the Battle Over Civil Rights by Steven Levingston (History)
KENNEDY AND KING traces the emergence of two of the 20th century's greatest leaders, their powerful impact on each other and on the shape of the civil rights battle between 1960 and 1963. These two men from starkly different worlds profoundly influenced each other's personal development. Kennedy's hesitation on civil rights spurred King to greater acts of courage, and King inspired Kennedy to finally make a moral commitment to equality.
Hachette Books | 9780316267397
THE LOST HISTORY OF STARS by Dave Boling (Historical Fiction)
In turn-of-the-century South Africa, 14-year-old Lettie, her younger brother and her mother are Dutch Afrikaner settlers who have been taken from their farm by British soldiers and are being held in a concentration camp. It is early in the Boer War, and Lettie’s father, grandfather and brother are off fighting the British as thousands of Afrikaner women and children are detained. The camps are cramped and disease-ridden; the threat of illness and starvation are ever present. Determined to dictate their own fate, Lettie and her family give each other strength and hope as they fight to survive amid increasingly dire conditions.
Algonquin Books | 9781616204174
LOVE STORY: The Baxter Family, Book 1 by Karen Kingsbury (Romance)
John and Elizabeth's whirlwind romance started when they were young college students and lasted nearly 30 years --- until Elizabeth died of cancer. When John is asked to relive his long-ago love story with Elizabeth for his grandson Cole’s heritage project, he reluctantly agrees and allows his heart and soul to go places they haven’t gone in decades. At the same time, Baxter family friend Cody Coleman is working through the breakup of his complicated relationship with Andi Ellison. He is determined to move on when a chance sighting changes his plans --- and heart. Can Cody convince Andi to give their love another try, or is it time for them to say goodbye for good?
Howard Books | 9781451687590
MAGPIE MURDERS by Anthony Horowitz (Mystery/Thriller)
When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. Conway’s latest tale has Atticus investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition and murder.
Harper | 9780062645227
MILES OFF COURSE: A Rowland Sinclair Novel by Sulari Gentill (Historical Mystery)
It is early in 1933, and wealthy bohemian Rowland Sinclair and his companions --- a poet, a painter and a sculptress who also models nude --- are ensconced in the superlative luxury of The Hydro Majestic-Medlow Bath. But Rowland, try as he might to lead the boho life in Sydney in the family mansion or in a luxury spa, can't dismiss the responsibilities of being a Sinclair. Most of them rest upon his conservative elder brother, Wilfred. And Wil now makes two claims on Rowly. One is to appear at an important upcoming board meeting of a firm where Rowly, pressured by Wil, serves as a director. The other is to hustle up into the high country where a longtime family stockman appears to have gone missing --- and find him.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464206856
THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS by Arundhati Roy (Fiction)
THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS begins with Anjum --- who used to be Aftab --- unrolling a threadbare Persian carpet in a city graveyard she calls home. We encounter the odd, unforgettable Tilo and the men who loved her --- including Musa, sweetheart and ex-sweetheart, lover and ex-lover; their fates are as entwined as their arms used to be and always will be. We meet Tilo’s landlord, a former suitor, now an intelligence officer posted to Kabul. And then we meet the two Miss Jebeens: the first a child born in Srinagar and buried in its overcrowded Martyrs’ Graveyard; the second found at midnight, abandoned on a concrete sidewalk in the heart of New Delhi.
Knopf | 9781524733155
MURDER IN SAINT-GERMAIN: An Aimée Leduc Investigation by Cara Black (Mystery)
Private investigator Aimée Leduc is walking through Saint-Germain when she is accosted by Suzanne Lesage, a Brigade Criminelle agent on an elite counterterrorism squad. Suzanne has just returned from the former Yugoslavia, where she was hunting down dangerous war criminals for the Hague. Back in Paris, Suzanne is convinced she’s being stalked by a ghost --- a Serbian warlord her team took down. She’s suffering from PTSD and her boss thinks she’s imagining things. She begs Aimée to investigate; is it possible Mirko Vladić could be alive and in Paris with a blood vendetta?
Soho Crime | 9781616957704
ODD NUMBERS: A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel by Anne Holt (Mystery)
On an early April afternoon, a bomb goes off in the Islamic Cooperation Council’s offices in Oslo, killing 23 people. The Police and Security Service suspect an extremist organization to be responsible for the attack, a suspicion that grows stronger when threats of yet another, bigger explosion during the planned celebration of the Norwegian constitution reach the authorities. Hanne Wilhelmsen is approached by her long-lost friend, Billy T., whose son Linus has undergone some disturbing changes recently. As the mood of the city darkens, Hanne tries to help Billy T. reach out to Linus and realizes that Oslo is up against forces far more terrible and menacing than ever before.
Scribner | 9781451634730
THE PARTY by Robyn Harding (Psychological Suspense)
Sweet sixteen. It’s an exciting coming of age, a milestone, and a rite of passage. Jeff and Kim Sanders plan on throwing a party for their daughter, Hannah --- a sweet girl with good grades and nice friends. Rather than an extravagant, indulgent affair, they invite four girls over for pizza, cake, movies and a sleepover. What could possibly go wrong? But things do go wrong, horrifically so. After a tragic accident occurs, Jeff and Kim’s flawless life in a wealthy San Francisco suburb suddenly begins to come apart. In the ugly aftermath, friends become enemies, dark secrets are revealed in the Sanders’ marriage, and the truth about their perfect daughter, Hannah, is exposed.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501161247
PENDULUM by Adam Hamdy (Thriller)
Solitary photojournalist John Wallace struggles to consciousness to find he has been bound and blindfolded by a masked man who is preparing to hang him in his own living room. He gets lucky and manages to escape his apartment, just ahead of his assailant. Bloody, barefoot and with at least one broken rib, he has no choice but to run for his life. With no idea who would want to kill him, he makes it to the hospital and files a police report, but it soon becomes clear that as far as the authorities are concerned the only threat to Wallace's life is himself, and he is placed under suicide watch. When his would-be killer strikes again, Wallace realizes he will have to figure out who is hunting him and stop him on his own.
Quercus | 9781681441351
THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING by Grant Ginder (Fiction)
Paul and Alice’s half-sister, Eloise, is getting married. There will be fancy hotels, dinners at “it” restaurants, and a reception at a country estate. They couldn’t hate it more. THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING is the story of a less than perfect family. Donna, the clan’s mother, is now a widow living in the Chicago suburbs. Alice is stuck in a dead-end job where she is mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable, affair with her married boss. Her brother Paul lives in Philadelphia with his tenured track professor boyfriend who eyes undergrads. And then there’s Eloise, who has spent her school years at the best private boarding schools and a post-college life cushioned by a fat, endless trust fund. To top it off, she’s infuriatingly kind and decent.
Flatiron Books | 9781250095206
PERENNIALS by Mandy Berman (Fiction)
Rachel Rivkin and Fiona Larkin used to treasure their summers together as campers at Camp Marigold. Now, reunited as counselors after their first year of college, their relationship is more complicated. Rebellious Rachel has been losing patience with her best friend’s insecurities, while Fiona envies Rachel’s popularity with their campers and fellow counselors. For the first time, the two friends start keeping secrets from each other. Through them, as well as from the perspectives of their fellow counselors, their campers and their mothers, we witness the tensions of the turbulent summer build to a tragic event, which forces Rachel and Fiona to confront their pasts --- and the adults they’re becoming.
Random House | 9780399589317
RETURN TO GLORY: The Story of Ford's Revival and Victory in the Toughest Race in the World by Matthew DeBord (Business/Transportation)
In January 2015 at the Detroit Auto Show, Ford unveiled a new car and the automotive world lost its collective mind. Onto the stage rolled a supercar, a carbon-fiber GT powered by a mid-mounted six-cylinder Ecoboost engine that churned out over 600 horsepower. It was sexy and jaw-dropping, but, more than that, it was historic, a callback to the legendary Ford GT40 Mk IIs that stuck it to Ferrari and finished 1-2-3 at Le Mans in 1966. Detroit was back, and Ford was going back to Le Mans. Journalist Matthew DeBord has been covering the auto industry for years, and in RETURN TO GLORY he tells the recent story of Ford.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802126504
SHE RIDES SHOTGUN by Jordan Harper (Thriller)
Eleven-year-old Polly McClusky is unexpectedly reunited with her father, Nate, fresh out of jail and driving a stolen car. He takes her from the front of her school into a world of robbery, violence and the constant threat of death. And he does it to save her life. Nate made dangerous enemies in prison; a gang called Aryan Steel has put out a bounty on his head, counting on its members on the outside to finish him off. They’ve already murdered his ex-wife, Polly’s mother. And Polly is their next target. Nate and Polly’s lives soon become a series of narrow misses, of evading the bad guys and the police, of sleepless nights in motels. Will they ever be able to live an honest life, free of fear?
Ecco | 9780062394408
SHIVER HITCH: A Jane Bunker Mystery by Linda Greenlaw (Mystery)
Jane Bunker thought she’d escaped the pollution, noise and dead bodies of the big city when she left her job as a Miami homicide detective and moved back to the idyllic town of Green Haven, Maine. Through her work as a marine insurance investigator, it appears she has left behind the bustle of the city, but not the murder. When Jane is called to the remote Acadia Island to assess the damages from a house fire, she also finds a badly burned body in the charred rubble. The victim just happens to be one of the most hated women in town. As Jane investigates further, she becomes embroiled in a plot that involves convicted felons, a real estate scam, and the deep conflicts between the locals and the summer folks.
Minotaur Books | 9781250107565
THE SONGS by Charles Elton (Fiction)
Iz Herzl is a famed political activist and protest singer. Now, at 80 and estranged from everyone who has ever loved him, his refusal to look back on his extraordinary life leaves his teenage children, the brilliant Rose and her ailing younger brother, Huddie, adrift in myths and uncertainty that cause them to retreat into a secret world of their own. Iz's other child, Joseph, a faltering Broadway songwriter 40 years older than Rose and Huddie, is on a shocking and violent path to self-destruction. When the disparate members of the Herzl family begin to converge, the ambiguities at the heart of Iz Herzl's life begin to surface in a way that will change all of them.
Other Press | 9781590517994
THE SUNSHINE SISTERS by Jane Green (Fiction)
Ronni Sunshine left London for Hollywood to become a beautiful, charismatic star of the silver screen. But at home, she was a narcissistic, disinterested mother who alienated her three daughters. Still, when Ronni discovers she has a serious illness, she calls her now-adult girls home to fulfill her final wishes. And though Nell, Meredith and Lizzy have never been close, their mother’s illness draws them together to confront the old jealousies and secret fears that have threatened to tear these sisters apart. As they face the loss of their mother, they will discover if blood might be thicker than water after all.
Berkley | 9780399583315
SWELL by Jill Eisenstadt (Fiction)
When Sue Glassman's family needs a new home, Sue relents and agrees to convert to Judaism. In return, Sue's father-in-law, Sy, buys the family a capacious but ramshackle beachfront house in Rockaway, Queens. The catch? Sy is moving in, too. And the house is haunted. On the weekend of Sue's conversion party, 90-year-old Rose, who (literally) got away with murder on the premises years earlier, shows up uninvited and seems intent on moving back in. Enter neighbor Tim --- a former lifeguard, former firefighter and reformed alcoholic --- who feels, for reasons even he can't explain, inordinately protective of the Glassmans.
Lee Boudreaux Books | 9780316316903
THE TRIAL OF ADOLF HITLER: The Beer Hall Putsch and the Rise of Nazi Germany by David King (History)
On the evening of November 8, 1923, 34-year-old Adolf Hitler stormed into a beer hall in Munich, fired his pistol in the air and proclaimed a revolution. Seventeen hours later, all that remained of his bold move was a trail of destruction. Hitler was on the run from the police. His career seemed to be over. THE TRIAL OF ADOLF HITLER tells the true story of the monumental criminal proceeding that followed when Hitler and nine other suspects were charged with high treason.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393241693
THE TUNNEL by Carl-Johan Vallgren (Thriller)
When his former drug dealer, Ramón, dies from an apparent overdose and Ramón's girlfriend, Jenny, disappears without a trace, Danny Katz suspects that something is amiss. He decides to investigate, enlisting the help of prosecutor Eva Westin to find the missing young woman. It isn't long before the line between Katz's current and former lives begins to blur, raising many questions about his own troubled youth. Katz's inquiries lead him to the darkest corners of Stockholm's black market, and he quickly finds his old addiction threatening to reassert its grip on his life. It also becomes clear that someone is willing to do whatever it takes to keep him from discovering the answers to his questions.
Quercus | 9781681441870
THE WEIGHT OF INK by Rachel Kadish (Fiction)
Set in London of the 1660s and of the early 21st century, THE WEIGHT OF INK is the interwoven tale of Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history. Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of 17th-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation. Enlisting the help of Aaron Levy, an American graduate student as impatient as he is charming, and in a race with another fast-moving team of historians, Helen embarks on one last project: to determine the identity of the documents’ scribe, the elusive “Aleph.”
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544866461
THE WHOLE WAY HOME by Sarah Creech (Fiction)
Country singer and fiddler Jo Lover is poised to become a one-name Nashville star like her idols, Loretta, Reba and Dolly. But the stage persona she’s built is threatened when her independent label merges with big-time Capitol Records, bringing Nashville heartthrob JD Gunn --- her first love --- back into her life. Long ago Jo played with JD’s band. But they parted ways and took their own crooked roads to stardom. When the label reunites them for a show, the old sparks fly, the duet they sing goes viral, and fans begin clamoring for more. All too soon, the painful secret Jo has been hiding is uncovered, a shocking revelation that threatens to destroy her reputation and her dreams.
William Morrow | 9780062409294
WOLF ON A STRING by Benjamin Black (Historical Mystery)
Christian Stern, an ambitious young scholar and alchemist, arrives in Prague intent on making his fortune at the court of the eccentric Rudolf II. The night of his arrival, he stumbles upon the body of a young woman whose throat has been slashed. Christian quickly finds himself entangled in the machinations of several ruthless courtiers, and before long he comes to the attention of the Emperor himself. Rudolf sets Christian the task of solving the mystery of the woman’s murder. But Christian soon realizes that he has blundered into the midst of a power struggle that threatens to subvert the throne itself. And as he gets ever nearer to the truth of what happened that night, he finally sees that his own life is in grave danger.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781627795173
WOULD EVERYBODY PLEASE STOP?: Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas by Jenny Allen (Humor/Essays)
In Jenny Allen's debut essay collection, the longtime humorist and performer declares no subject too sacred, no boundary impassable. One moment she’s flirting shamelessly --- and unsuccessfully --- with a younger man at a wedding; the next she’s stumbling upon X-rated images on her daughter’s computer. She ponders the connection between her ex-husband’s questions about the location of their silverware, and the divorce that came a year later. While undergoing chemotherapy, she experiments with being a “wig person.” And she considers those perplexing questions that we never pause to ask: Why do people say “It is what it is”? What’s the point of fat-free half-and-half ? And haven’t we heard enough about memes?
Sarah Crichton Books | 9780374118327
YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR by Hallie Ephron (Psychological Suspense/Mystery)
Seven-year-old Lissie and her four-year-old sister, Janey, were playing with their porcelain dolls in the front yard when a puppy scampered by. Lissie chased after the pup as it ran down the street. When she returned to the yard, Janey and her precious doll were gone. Every year on the anniversary of her disappearance, Lis and Janey’s mother places an ad in the local paper with a picture of the toy Janey had with her that day, offering a generous cash reward for its return. For years, there’s been no response. But this year, the doll came home. It is the first clue in a decades-old mystery that is about to turn into something far more sinister --- endangering Lis and the lives of her mother and daughter as well.
William Morrow | 9780062473615
On Sale the Week of June 5th in Paperback
June 6th
AMERICAN ULYSSES: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White (Biography)
In his time, Ulysses S. Grant was routinely grouped with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the “Trinity of Great American Leaders.” But the battlefield commander–turned–commander-in-chief fell out of favor in the 20th century. In AMERICAN ULYSSES, Ronald C. White argues that we need to once more revise our estimates of him in the 21st. He shows Grant to be a generous, curious, introspective man and leader --- a willing delegator with a natural gift for managing the rampaging egos of his fellow officers. His wife, Julia Dent Grant, long marginalized in the historic record, emerges in her own right as a spirited and influential partner.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812981254
BEFORE THE FALL by Noah Hawley (Thriller)
On a foggy summer night, 11 people --- 10 privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter --- depart Martha's Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs --- the painter --- and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul's family. With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members, the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455561797
BLOOD WEDDING by Pierre Lemaitre (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Normally happy and well-adjusted Sophie Duguet doesn't understand what's happening to her: she has become forgetful and was even detained by the police for shoplifting --- a crime she has no memory whatsoever of having committed. As she slowly sinks deeper into dementia and depression, things go from troubling to alarming when she finds herself connected to the deaths of several people around her. In a desperate attempt to evade the law, a confused Sophie changes her name and relocates, hoping to outrun the demons now plaguing her. It soon becomes clear, however, that the real nightmare has only just begun.
MacLehose Press | 9781681445298
BROKEN TRUST : A Badge of Honor Novel by W. E. B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV (Thriller/Adventure)
Having investigated his share of gruesome murders, Philadelphia Homicide Sergeant Matt Payne is beginning to think nothing can shock him --- until the case of a young socialite’s death lands on his desk. The Camilla Rose Morgan he’d known as a teenager was beautiful and brilliant. How was it possible she’d jumped to her death from her own balcony? Her brother tells Payne she’d tragically been battling a lifetime of mental demons, and there is plenty of evidence of it, but still…something just doesn’t sit right. The more Payne digs, the more complications he discovers. Reputations are on the line here, and lives --- and if Payne doesn’t tread carefully, one of them may be his own.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780515155679
THE CHILDREN by Ann Leary (Fiction)
Charlotte Maynard rarely leaves her mother’s home, the sprawling Connecticut lake house that belonged to her late stepfather, Whit Whitman, and the generations of Whitmans before him. While Charlotte and her sister, Sally, grew up at “Lakeside,” their stepbrothers, Spin and Perry, were welcomed as weekend guests. Now the grown boys own the estate. When Spin brings his fiancé home for the summer, the entire family is intrigued. The beautiful and accomplished Laurel Atwood breathes new life into this often comically rarefied world. But as the wedding draws near, and flaws surface in the family’s polite veneer, an array of simmering resentments and unfortunate truths is exposed.
Picador | 9781250045386
CLOSED CASKET : A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Sophie Hannah (Mystery)
As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady Athelinda Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny and leave her vast fortune to an invalid who has only weeks to live. Among her visitors are the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited --- until Poirot begins to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder. But why does she seem so determined to provoke a killer? And why --- when the crime is committed despite Poirot's best efforts to stop it --- does the identity of the victim make no sense at all?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062458834
DARKTOWN by Thomas Mullen (Historical Thriller)
Responding to orders from on high, the Atlanta Police Department is forced to hire its first black officers, including war veterans Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith. The newly minted policemen are met with deep hostility by their white peers. When a black woman who was last seen in a car driven by a white man turns up dead, Boggs and Smith suspect that white cops are behind it. Their investigation sets them up against a brutal cop, Dunlow, who has long run the neighborhood as his own, and his partner, Rakestraw, a young progressive who may or may not be willing to make allies across color lines.
Atria/37 INK | 9781501133879
DEAR MR. M written by Herman Koch, translated by Sam Garrett (Psychological Thriller)
Once a celebrated writer, M had his greatest success with a suspense novel based on a real-life disappearance. It told the story of a history teacher who went missing one winter after having a brief affair with a beautiful student of his. The teacher was never found. Upon publication, M's novel was a runaway bestseller, one that marked his international breakthrough. That was years ago, and now M's career is fading. But not when it comes to his bizarre, seemingly timid neighbor who keeps a close eye on him and his wife. Why?
Hogarth | 9781101903346
THE END OF TEMPERANCE DARE by Wendy Webb (Gothic Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Eleanor Harper becomes the director of a renowned artists’ retreat, she knows nothing of Cliffside Manor’s dark past as a tuberculosis sanatorium, a “waiting room for death.” After years of covering murder and violence as a crime reporter, she hopes that being around artists and writers in this new job will be a peaceful retreat for her as much as for them. But from her first fog-filled moments on the manor’s grounds, Eleanor is seized by a sense of impending doom and realizes there’s more to the institution than its reputation of being a haven for creativity. As the chilling mysteries of Cliffside Manor unravel and the eerie sins of the past are exposed, she must fight to save the new fellows --- and herself --- from sinister forces.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781477824115
THE GATEKEEPER: Missy LeHand, FDR, and the Untold Story of the Partnership That Defined a Presidency by Kathryn Smith (Biography)
Widely considered the first --- and only --- female presidential chief of staff, Marguerite “Missy” LeHand was the right-hand woman to FDR for more than 20 years. Although her official title as personal secretary was relatively humble, her power and influence were unparalleled. She was one of his most trusted advisors, affording her a unique perspective on the president that no one else could claim. With unprecedented access to Missy’s family and original source materials, journalist Kathryn Smith tells the captivating and forgotten story of the intelligent, loyal and clever woman who had a front-row seat to history in the making.
Touchstone | 9781501114977
GENEROUS FRUITS: A Survey of American Homesteading by Barbara Bamberger Scott (History)
Paperback Original
In GENEROUS FRUITS, the first comprehensive chronicle of American homesteading from earliest settlement to the current day, author Barbara Bamberger Scott quickly establishes her voice as a passionate urban homesteader and accomplished writer. Scott’s personal, "I’ve-been-there" approach to the subject --- its roots and branches, its past and future --- targets both the avid practitioner and the armchair philosopher.
Mascot Books | 9781684012381
GRUNT : The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach (Social Science)
GRUNT tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries --- panic, exhaustion, heat, noise --- and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393354379
THE HAMILTON AFFAIR by Elizabeth Cobbs (Historical Fiction)
Hamilton was a bastard and an orphan, raised in the Caribbean and desperate for legitimacy, who became one of the American Revolution’s most dashing --- and improbable --- heroes. Admired by George Washington, scorned by Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton was a lightning rod: the most controversial leader of the new nation. Elizabeth was the wealthy, beautiful, adventurous daughter of the respectable Schuyler clan --- and a pioneering advocate for women. Together, the unlikely couple braved the dangers of war, the perils of seduction, the anguish of infidelity, and the scourge of partisanship that menaced their family and the country itself.
Arcade Publishing | 9781628728552
HERE COMES THE SUN by Nicole Dennis-Benn (Fiction)
At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman. As they face the impending destruction of their community, each woman --- fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves --- must confront long-hidden scars.
Liveright | 9781631492945
HERE I AM by Jonathan Safran Foer (Fiction)
Unfolding over four tumultuous weeks in present-day Washington, D.C., Jonathan Safran Foer’s first novel in 11 years is the story of a fracturing family in a moment of crisis. As Jacob and Julia Bloch and their three sons are forced to confront the distances between the lives they think they want and the lives they are living, a catastrophic earthquake sets in motion a quickly escalating conflict in the Middle East. At stake is the meaning of home --- and the fundamental question of how much aliveness one can bear.
Picador | 9781250135759
HUNGRY HEART : Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner (Essays)
Jennifer Weiner is many things: a bestselling author, a Twitter phenomenon, and an “unlikely feminist enforcer” (The New Yorker). She’s also a mom, a daughter and a sister, a former rower and current clumsy yogini, a wife, a friend, and a reality-TV devotee. In her first essay collection, she takes the raw stuff of her life and spins it into a collection of tales of modern-day womanhood. Born in Louisiana, raised in Connecticut, educated at Princeton, Jennifer spent years feeling like an outsider before finding her people in newsrooms, and her voice as a novelist, activist and New York Times columnist.
Washington Square Press | 9781476723426
THE INNOCENTS: A Quinn Colson Novel by Ace Atkins (Thriller)
When a former high school cheerleader is found walking a back road completely engulfed in flames, the entire state of Mississippi focuses on Tibbehah county, wanting answers. The light soon shines on several people: the girl’s father, a worthless drunk; a pair of teenage thugs with grand ambitions to control north Mississippi; and a red-headed truck stop madam who has her own problems. As Quinn Colson and acting Sheriff Lillie Virgil uncover old secrets and new lies, the entire town turns against them, and they learn that the most dangerous enemies may be the ones you trust most.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399185472
IRENA’S CHILDREN: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto by Tilar J. Mazzeo (Biography)
In 1942, social worker Irena Sendler was granted access to the Warsaw ghetto as a public health specialist. While there, she reached out to the trapped Jewish families, going from door to door and asking the parents to trust her with their young children. She started smuggling them out of the walled district, convincing her friends and neighbors to hide them. Driven to extreme measures and with the help of a network of local tradesmen, ghetto residents, and her star-crossed lover in the Jewish resistance, Irena ultimately smuggled thousands of children past the Nazis. In IRENA’S CHILDREN, Tilar Mazzeo tells the incredible story of this courageous and brave woman who risked her life to save innocent children from the Holocaust.
Gallery Books | 9781476778518
JONATHAN UNLEASHED by Meg Rosoff (Romantic Comedy)
Jonathan Trefoil’s boss is unhinged, his relationship baffling, and his apartment just the wrong side of legal. His girlfriend wants to marry someone just like him --- only richer and with a different sense of humor. He doesn’t remember life being this confusing, back before everyone expected him to act like a grown-up. When his brother asks him to look after his dogs, Jonathan's world view begins to shift. Could a border collie and a cocker spaniel hold the key to life, the universe and everything? Their sly maneuvering on daily walks and visits to the alluring vet suggest that human emotional intelligence may not be top dog after all.
Penguin Books | 9781101980927
MARROW ISLAND by Alexis M. Smith (Mystery)
Twenty years ago, the May Day Quake set loose catastrophic waves along the west coast, shattering thousands of lives. At that time, Lucie Bowen’s father disappeared in an explosion at the Marrow Island oil refinery, which destroyed the island’s ecosystem. Now, Lucie's old friend, Katie, writes with strange and miraculous news. Marrow Island is no longer uninhabitable. She is part of a community, a mysterious Colony, that has conjured life again from Marrow’s soil. Lucie's journalist instincts tell her there’s more to the Colony and their charismatic leader --- a former nun with an all-consuming plan --- than its members want her to know.
Mariner Books | 9781328710345
MELVILLE IN LOVE: The Secret Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby-Dick by Michael Shelden (Biography)
Herman Melville’s epic novel, MOBY-DICK, was a spectacular failure when it was published in 1851. Because he was neglected by academics for so long and made little effort to preserve his legacy, we know very little about Melville, and even less about what he called his “wicked book.” Scholars still puzzle over what drove him to invent Captain Ahab's mad pursuit of the great white whale. Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Shelden sheds light on this literary mystery to tell a story of Melville’s affair with a married woman named Sarah Morewood, whose libertine impulses encouraged and sustained his own.
Ecco | 9780062419040
MERCURY by Margot Livesey (Psychological Thriller)
Donald is sure that he and his wife, Viv, who runs the local stables, are both devoted to their two children and to each other. Then Mercury --- a gorgeous young thoroughbred with a murky past --- arrives at Windy Hill, and everything changes. Mercury’s owner, Hilary, is a newcomer to town who has enrolled her daughter in riding lessons. When she brings Mercury to board at Windy Hill, everyone is struck by his beauty and prowess, particularly Viv. As she rides him, Viv begins to dream of competing again, embracing the ambitions that she had harbored, yet relinquished, as a young woman. Her daydreams soon morph into consuming desire, and her infatuation with the thoroughbred escalates to obsession.
Harper Perennial | 9780062437518
MILLER’S VALLEY by Anna Quindlen (Fiction)
For generations, the Millers have lived in Miller’s Valley. Mimi Miller tells about her life with intimacy and honesty. As Mimi eavesdrops on her parents and quietly observes the people around her, she discovers more and more about the toxicity of family secrets, the dangers of gossip, the flaws of marriage, the inequalities of friendship, and the risks of passion, loyalty and love. Home, as Mimi begins to realize, can be “a place where it’s just as easy to feel lost as it is to feel content.”
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812985900
THE SINGLES GAME by Lauren Weisberger (Fiction)
When America’s sweetheart, Charlotte “Charlie” Silver, makes a pact with the devil --- the infamously brutal tennis coach Todd Feltner --- she finds herself catapulted into a world of celebrity stylists, private parties, charity matches aboard mega-yachts, and secret dates with Hollywood royalty. Under Todd’s new ruthless regime, Charlie the good girl is out. Todd wants “Warrior Princess” Charlie all the way. Celebrity mags and gossip blogs go wild for Charlie as she jets around the globe chasing Grand Slam titles and Page Six headlines. But as the Warrior Princess’s star rises on and off the court, it comes at a cost.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476778396
SIRACUSA by Delia Ephron (Fiction)
New Yorkers Michael, a famous writer, and Lizzie, a journalist, travel to Italy with their friends from Maine --- Finn; his wife, Taylor; and their daughter, Snow. “From the beginning,” says Taylor, “it was a conspiracy for Lizzie and Finn to be together.” Told Rashomon-style in alternating points of view, the characters expose and stumble upon lies and infidelities past and present. Snow, 10 years old and precociously drawn into a far more adult drama, becomes the catalyst for catastrophe as the novel explores collusion and betrayal in marriage.
Blue Rider Press | 9780735212329
SO SAY THE FALLEN by Stuart Neville (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Henry Garrick, a local car dealer who was maimed in an accident five months before, has apparently taken his own life. A simple case, it should be wrapped up in a few days. But something doesn’t feel right to Belfast detective Serena Flanagan, despite the fact that there is no evidence of foul play. As she investigates, Flanagan interviews Roberta Garrick, Henry’s widow, who is comforted in her grief by Reverend Peter McKay, rector of the local church and a close family friend. But with the secrets McKay is keeping, he is in no position to help anyone. As Flanagan picks at the threads of the dead man’s life, a disturbing picture emerges, and she realizes that Roberta is not what she seems.
Soho Crime | 9781616958350
TAKEDOWN: A Small-Town Cop's Battle Against the Hells Angels and the Nation's Biggest Drug Gang by Jeff Buck, with Jon Land and Lindsay Preston (True Crime)
Twenty years working undercover in the netherworld of drugs has left Jeff Buck burned out and grateful to assume the quiet job of police chief in the small town of Reminderville, Ohio. That is, until a simple domestic assault case turns out to have links to the murder of a drug runner in upstate New York and a syndicate smuggling billions of dollars in drugs across the US-Canada border. As Buck reluctantly plunges back into his old world of death and deceit, he uncovers a complex chain linking the Hells Angels to the Russian Mafia in a plot to use Native American tribal land to smuggle their deadly wares into the United States.
Forge Books | 9780765338105
THEY MAY NOT MEAN TO, BUT THEY DO by Cathleen Schine (Fiction)
Joy Bergman is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace that her children, Molly and Daniel, would prefer. Her marriage to their father, Aaron, has lasted through health and dementia, as well as some phenomenally lousy business decisions. The Bergman clan has always stuck together, growing as it incorporated in-laws, ex-in-laws and same-sex spouses. But families don't just grow, they grow old. Cathleen Schine's novel is an intergenerational story about searching for where you belong as your family changes with age.
Picador | 9781250132123
VALLEY OF THE MOON by Melanie Gideon (Fiction)
Lux is a single mom struggling to make her way in the world when she stumbles across an idyllic community in the Sonoma valley, where she feels instantly at home. It seems like a place from another time --- until she realizes it actually is. One night in 1906, an earthquake left Greengage stuck in the past. Lux must keep one foot in her world, raising her son as well as she can with the odds stacked against her. But every day she is more strongly drawn in by the sweet simplicity of life in Greengage, and by the irresistible connection she feels with a man born decades before her time. Soon she finds herself torn between her ties to the modern world and the first place she has ever felt truly at home.
Ballantine Books | 9780345539304
THE WANGS VS. THE WORLD by Jade Chang (Fiction)
Charles Wang, a brash, lovable businessman who built a cosmetics empire and made a fortune, has just lost everything in the financial crisis. So he rounds up two of his children from schools that he can no longer afford and packs them into the only car that wasn’t repossessed. Together with their wealth-addicted stepmother, Barbra, they head on a cross-country journey from their foreclosed Bel-Air home to the upstate New York retreat of the eldest Wang daughter, Saina. The trip brings them together in a way money never could.
Mariner Books | 9781328745538
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