In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of October 23rd and October 30th 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 Carol Fitzgerald's most recent Bookreporter.com Bets On selection, THE DIRTY BOOK CLUB by Lisi Harrison, which also is our latest New Release Spotlight title.
Also, we encourage you to enter our Word of Mouth and Sounding Off on Audio contests for an opportunity to win some fabulous hardcovers and audiobooks. And please be sure to vote in our latest poll, where we ask if you are currently in a book club.
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 Bets On
THE DIRTY BOOK CLUB by Lisi Harrison
THE DIRTY BOOK CLUB by Lisi Harrison (Fiction)
Confession: When I first heard the title of this book, THE DIRTY BOOK CLUB, by Lisi Harrison, I was hesitant. Would this be for me? I am happy to say it completely is!
At the start, a book group tossed aside “serious reading” a few decades ago and picked up books that were “against the rules” that governed their society-ordered worlds. They talked honestly about love and real life --- and, yes, sex --- against the backdrop of these books, which included FEAR OF FLYING. These women guided each other through the messy parts of life --- you know, the ones where things happen to people instead of the sanitized ones that are all over social media --- with a trust among them. What happens at the book club stays at the book club.
Flash forward, and they are ready to move on --- literally. The club members head off to Paris, permanently, just as they always promised they would do when the last of their spouses died. But before they do, they identify young women to pick up the mantle of the club and read the books that they did, decades later. Tucked into each of the titles is a book commentary written by a member of the older generation that passes on wisdom that is relevant to the younger generation. What these women saw in the books that they read is as important as the friendships they formed for meeting as a club.
THE DIRTY BOOK CLUB is original, dishy and smart, which I know is a very rare combo. It’s also funny and witty. For those in book groups, we have a guide. This would be a really great --- and different --- discussion book.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read more in our New Release Spotlight.
Click here for more books we're betting you'll love.
On Sale the Week of October 23rd in Hardcover
October 24th
THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World by A. J. Baime (History)
Chosen as FDR’s fourth term Vice President for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman was the prototypical ordinary man. That is, until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR’s sudden death. During the climactic months of the Second World War, Truman had to play judge and jury, pulling America to the forefront of the global stage. THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during this tumultuous, history-making 120 days, when the stakes were high and the challenge even higher.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544617346
ACT OF BETRAYAL: A Will Cochrane Novel by Matthew Dunn (Thriller)
Three years ago, intelligence officer Will Cochrane was brought in by a Delta Force colonel to assassinate a terrorist financier in Berlin. After the job, the commander vanished and hasn’t been heard from since. The details don’t quite add up, and one of the CIA agents who was involved has been investigating the mission. He reaches out to Will for help, but before they can connect, the CIA man is poisoned. Will is determined to uncover the truth about Berlin, even if it means putting himself in the crosshairs. Framed for multiple murders, the skilled former spy has gone deep underground to evade his enemies and the feds. But honor and loyalty to his old colleague thrust him into danger once again.
William Morrow | 9780062427229
AN AMERICAN FAMILY: A Memoir of Hope and Sacrifice by Khizr Khan (Memoir)
In fewer than 300 words, Khizr Khan electrified viewers around the world when he took the stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. And when he offered to lend Donald Trump his own much-read and dog-eared pocket Constitution, his gesture perfectly encapsulated the feelings of millions. But who was that man, standing beside his wife, extolling the promises and virtues of the U.S. Constitution? In this urgent and timeless immigrant story, we learn that Khizr Khan has been many things: a loving father, a patriot, and a fierce advocate for the rights, dignities and values enshrined in the American system.
Random House | 9780399592492
ANDREW JACKSON AND THE MIRACLE OF NEW ORLEANS: The Battle That Shaped America's Destiny by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger (History)
The War of 1812 saw America threatened on every side. Encouraged by the British, Indian tribes attacked settlers in the West, while the Royal Navy terrorized the coasts. By mid-1814, President James Madison’s generals had lost control of the war in the North, losing battles in Canada. Then British troops set the White House ablaze, and a feeling of hopelessness spread across the country. Into this dire situation stepped Major General Andrew Jackson. A native of Tennessee who had witnessed the horrors of the Revolutionary War and Indian attacks, he was glad America had finally decided to confront repeated British aggression. But he feared that President Madison’s men were overlooking the most important target of all: New Orleans.
Sentinel | 9780735213234
CHRISTMAS: A Biography by Judith Flanders (Biography/History)
Thirty years after the first recorded Christmas, the Pope was already warning that too many people were spending the day, not in worship, but in partying and eating to excess. By 1616, the playwright Ben Jonson was nostalgically remembering Christmas in the old days, certain that it had been better then. In CHRISTMAS: A Biography, bestselling author and acclaimed social historian Judith Flanders casts a sharp eye on myths, legends and history, deftly moving from the origins of the holiday in the Roman empire, through Christmas trees in central Europe, to what might be the first appearance of Santa Claus --- in Switzerland --- to draw a picture of the season as it has never been seen before.
Thomas Dunne Books | 9781250118349
DARE NOT LINGER: The Presidential Years by Nelson Mandela and Mandla Langa (Memoir)
In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first president of democratic South Africa. Five years later, he stood down. In that time, he and his government wrought the most extraordinary transformation, turning a nation riven by centuries of colonialism and apartheid into a fully functioning democracy in which all South Africa’s citizens, black and white, were equal before the law. DARE NOT LINGER is the story of Mandela’s presidency, drawing heavily on the memoir he began to write as he prepared to finish his term as president, but was unable to finish. Now the acclaimed South African writer Mandla Langa has completed the task using Mandela’s unfinished draft, detailed notes that Mandela made as events were unfolding, and a wealth of previously unseen archival material.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374134716
DYING TO LIVE: A Detective Kubu Mystery by Michael Stanley (Mystery)
A Bushman is discovered dead near the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Africa. Although the man looks old enough to have died of natural causes, the police suspect foul play, and the body is sent to Gaborone for an autopsy. Pathologist Ian MacGregor confirms the cause of death as a broken neck, but is greatly puzzled by the man’s physiology. Although he’s obviously very old, his internal organs look remarkably young. He calls in Assistant Superintendent David “Kubu” Bengu. When the Bushman’s corpse is stolen from the morgue, suddenly the case takes on a new dimension.
Minotaur Books | 9781250070906
THE FIRST DAY by Phil Harrison (Fiction)
Outside an east Belfast mission hall, pastor and family man Samuel Orr meets Anna, a young Beckett scholar. They embark on an intense, passionate affair, their connection fueled by their respective love of Christ and Beckett. When Anna falls pregnant, the affair is revealed. The repercussions are slow to emerge but inescapable, and the fallout when it finally comes is shocking, cruel and violent. Over 30 years later, their son Sam is in New York, living a steady, guarded life, his childhood and family safely abandoned. But the sins of the fathers are visited often on their children, and the past crashes into his life as violently as in his youth. He is forced to confront the fears he has kept close all these years.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328849663
THE FIRST MAJOR: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup by John Feinstein (Sports)
Coming into 2016, the Americans had lost an astounding six out of the last seven Ryder Cup matches, and tensions were running high for the showdown that took place in October 2016 in Hazeltine, Minnesota, just days after American legend Arnold Palmer had died. What resulted was one of the most raucous and heated three days in the Cup's long history. Award-winning author John Feinstein takes readers behind the scenes, providing an inside view of the dramatic stories as they unfolded.
Doubleday | 9780385541091
FRIENDS DIVIDED: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood (History)
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds, or been more different in temperament. They worked closely in the crucible of revolution, crafting the Declaration of Independence and leading, with Franklin, the diplomatic effort that brought France into the fight. But ultimately, their profound differences would lead to a fundamental crisis, in their friendship and in the nation writ large, as they became the figureheads of two entirely new forces, the first American political parties. It was a bitter breach, lasting through the presidential administrations of both men, and beyond. But late in life, something remarkable happened: these two men were nudged into reconciliation.
Penguin Press | 9780735224711
HANK AND JIM: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart by Scott Eyman (Biography/Entertainment)
Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood for 40 years. They got along famously, with a shared interest in elaborate practical jokes and model airplanes, among other things. Fonda was a liberal Democrat, Stewart a conservative Republican, but after one memorable blow-up over politics, they agreed never to discuss that subject again. For HANK AND JIM, biographer and film historian Scott Eyman spoke with Fonda’s widow and children as well as three of Stewart’s children, plus actors and directors who had worked with the men --- in addition to doing extensive archival research to get the full details of their time together.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501102172
IN SHOCK: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope by Rana Awdish (Medicine/Memoir)
IN SHOCK is a riveting first-hand account from a young critical care physician, who in the passage of a moment is transfigured into a dying patient. This transposition, coincidentally timed at the end of her medical training, instantly lays bare the vast chasm between the conventional practice of medicine and the stark reality of the prostrate patient. This book allows the reader to transform alongside her, and watch what she discovers in our carefully cultivated yet often misguided standard of care. The author comes to understand the fatal flaws in her profession and in her own past actions as a physician. She also achieves, through unflinching presence, a crystalline vision of a new and better possibility.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250119216
MIND GAME by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
Scotland holds a treasure that Jane MacGuire has been hunting for years. But as she scours the highlands in search of it, she’s plagued by dreams of a girl in danger. Who is this girl, and what is she trying to tell Jane? And will Jane figure it out before it’s too late --- for her and the mysterious young woman? Things are further complicated when Seth Caleb comes back into Jane’s life. This time, Jane finds herself pulled unexpectedly into his world as she fights to save him. But Caleb isn’t the only person sweeping her up into startling developments. When Eve Duncan surprises Jane with news of her own, Jane comes face to face with stunning changes in the lives of those she loves most.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250075857
QUICK & DIRTY: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
When a slam-bang of a crime brings a beautiful new client into Stone Barrington’s office, little does he know his association with her will pull him into a far more serpentine mystery in the exclusive world of art. It’s a business where a rare find could make a career --- and a collection --- and mistakes in judgment are costly. And under its genteel and high-minded veneer lurks an assortment of grifters and malfeasants eager to cash in on the game. In the upscale world of New York City’s luxury penthouses and grand Hamptons estates, it will take a man of Stone Barrington’s careful discernment and well-honed instincts to get to the truth without ruffling the wrong feathers.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735217140
THE RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS by Oliver Sacks (Science)
Oliver Sacks, a scientist and a storyteller, is beloved by readers for the extraordinary neurological case histories in which he introduced and explored many now familiar disorders --- autism, Tourette's syndrome, face blindness, savant syndrome. He was also a memoirist who wrote with honesty and humor about the remarkable and strange encounters and experiences that shaped him. THE RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS is one of two books Sacks was working on up to his death, and it reveals his ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless project to understand what makes us human.
Knopf | 9780385352567
THE ROOSTER BAR by John Grisham (Legal Thriller)
Mark, Todd and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three know they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam. But maybe there's a way out. Maybe there’s a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process.
Doubleday | 9780385541176
SISTERS FIRST: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush (Memoir)
Born into a political dynasty, Jenna and Barbara Bush grew up in the public eye. As small children, they watched their grandfather become president; just 12 years later they stood by their father's side when he took the same oath. They spent their college years watched over by Secret Service agents and became fodder for the tabloids, with teenage mistakes making national headlines. But the tabloids didn't tell the whole story. In SISTERS FIRST, Jenna and Barbara take readers on a revealing, thoughtful and deeply personal tour behind the scenes of their lives, as they share stories about their family, their unexpected adventures, their loves and losses, and the sisterly bond that means everything to them.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538711415
STRANGE WEATHER: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill (Thriller/Horror)
In STRANGE WEATHER, a collection of four chilling novels, Joe Hill deftly exposes the darkness that lies just beneath the surface of everyday life. A Silicon Valley adolescent finds himself threatened by "The Phoenician," a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories. A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump…and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud. On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails --- splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. And a mall security guard courageously stops a mass shooting, but under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it.
William Morrow | 9780062663115
TELL TALE: Stories by Jeffrey Archer (Fiction/Short Stories)
Nearly a decade after his last volume of short stories was published, Jeffrey Archer returns with TELL TALE, giving us fascinating insight into the people he has met, the stories he has come across, and the countries he has visited during the past 10 years. Find out what happens to the hapless young detective from Naples who travels to an Italian hillside town to find out "Who Killed the Mayor?" and the pretentious schoolboy in "A Road to Damascus," whose discovery of the origins of his father’s wealth changes his life in the most profound way. Revel in the stories of the 1930s woman who dares to challenge the men at her Ivy League University in "A Gentleman and a Scholar," while another young woman who thumbs a lift gets more than she bargained for in "A Wasted Hour."
St. Martin's Press | 9781250066923
THE USUAL SANTAS: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers foreword by Peter Lovesey (Mystery/Short Stories)
Nine mall Santas must find the imposter among them. An elderly lady seeks peace from her murderously loud neighbors at Christmastime. A young woman receives a mysterious invitation to Christmas dinner with a stranger. Sherlock Holmes' one-time nemesis, Irene Adler, finds herself in an unexpected tangle in Paris while on a routine espionage assignment. Jane Austen searches for the Dowager Duchess of Wilborough’s stolen diamonds. These and other adventures in this collection of 18 holiday stories will whisk readers away to Christmases around the globe --- from a Korean War POW camp to a Copenhagen refugee squat, from a palatial hotel in 1920s Bombay to a crumbling mansion in Havana.
Soho Crime | 9781616957759
THE WAY IT WAS: My Life with Frank Sinatra by Eliot Weisman and Jennifer Valoppi (Memoir)
Eliot Weisman worked with Frank Sinatra from 1975 up until Sinatra's death in 1998, and became one of the singer's most trusted confidantes and advisers. In THE WAY IT WAS, Weisman tells the story of the final years of the iconic entertainer from within his exclusive inner circle. The book features original photos and is filled with scintillating revelations that fans of all Sinatra stages --- from the crooner to the Duets --- will love.
Hachette Books | 9780316470087
On Sale the Week of October 23rd in Paperback
October 24th
BELLEVUE: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America’s Most Storied Hospital by David Oshinsky (Medicine/History)
Bellevue Hospital, on New York City's East Side, occupies a colorful and horrifying place in the public imagination: a den of mangled crime victims, vicious psychopaths, assorted derelicts, lunatics and exotic-disease sufferers. In its two and a half centuries of service, there was hardly an epidemic or social catastrophe --- or groundbreaking scientific advance --- that did not touch Bellevue. David Oshinsky chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and, in so doing, also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution.
Anchor | 9780307386717
THE BLACK BOOK by James Patterson and David Ellis (Thriller)
Being a cop runs in Billy Harney's family. The son of Chicago's Chief of Detectives, there's nothing Billy won't give up for the job --- including his life. Left for dead alongside his tempestuous former partner and a hard-charging assistant district attorney out for blood, Billy miraculously survives. But he remembers nothing about the events leading up to the shootout. Charged with double murder and desperate to clear his name, Billy retraces his steps to get to the bottom of what happened. When he discovers the existence of a little black book that everyone who's anyone in Chicago will stop at nothing to get their hands on, Billy suspects it contains the truth that will either set him free...or confirm his worst fears.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455542673
THE EASTERN SHORE by Ward Just (Historical Fiction)
Ned Ayres has never wanted anything but a newspaper career. His defining moment comes early, when Ned is city editor of his hometown paper. One of his beat reporters fields a tip: William Grant, the town haberdasher, married to the bank president’s daughter and the father of two children, once served six years in Joliet. The story runs, and Ned offers no resistance to his publisher’s argument that the public has a right to know. The consequences, swift and shocking, haunt him throughout a long career until eventually, as the editor of a major newspaper in post-Kennedy-era Washington, DC, Ned has reason to return to the question of privacy and its many violations.
Mariner Books | 9781328745576
FIELDS WHERE THEY LAY: A Junior Bender Mystery by Timothy Hallinan (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Junior Bender, divorced father of one and burglar extraordinaire, finds himself stuck inside the Edgerton Mall, and not just as a last-minute shopper. The murderous Russian mobster who owns the place has decided it takes a thief to catch a thief and hires Junior --- under threat --- to solve the mall’s shoplifting problem for him. But Junior’s surveillance operation doesn’t go well: as Christmas Eve approaches, two people are dead, and it’s obvious that shoplifting is the least of the mall’s problems. To prevent further deaths, possibly including his own, Junior must confront his dread of Christmas --- both present and past.
Soho Crime | 9781616958640
GUNSLINGER: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre by Jeff Pearlman (Sports/Biography)
In GUNSLINGER, Jeff Pearlman tells Brett Favre’s story for the first time, charting his unparalleled journey from a rough rural childhood and lackluster high school football career to landing the last scholarship at Southern Mississippi, to a car accident that nearly took his life, and eventually to the NFL and Green Bay, where he restored the Packers to greatness and inspired a fan base as passionate as any in the game. Yet he struggled with demons: addiction, infidelity, the loss of his father, and a fraught, painfully prolonged exit from the game he loved, a game he couldn’t bear to leave.
Mariner Books | 9781328745682
HITLER: Ascent, 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich (Biography)
Volker Ullrich's HITLER, the first in a two-volume biography, has changed the way scholars and laypeople alike understand the man who has become the personification of evil. Drawing on previously unseen papers and new scholarly research, Ullrich charts Hitler's life from his childhood through his experiences in the First World War and his subsequent rise as a far-right leader. Focusing on the personality behind the policies, Ullrich creates a vivid portrait of a man and his megalomania, political skill and horrifying worldview.
Vintage | 9781101872055
HOMEWARD BOUND: The Life of Paul Simon by Peter Ames Carlin (Biography)
The grandchild of Jewish immigrants from Hungary, Paul Simon has not only sold more than 100 million records, won 15 Grammy Awards and been installed into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame twice, but has also animated the meaning --- and flexibility --- of personal and cultural identity in a rapidly shrinking world. He has lived one of the most vibrant lives of modern times --- a story replete with tales of Carrie Fisher, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Shelley Duvall, Nelson Mandela, drugs, depression, marriage, divorce and more. Peter Ames Carlin's HOMEWARD BOUND is the first major biography of one of the most influential popular artists in American history.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250145697
INDELIBLE INK: The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America’s Free Press by Richard Kluger (History)
When Britain began colonizing the New World, strict censorship was the iron rule and any words that disparaged the government were a punishable crime. So when a small newspaper, the New-York Weekly Journal, printed scathing articles assailing the new British governor, William Cosby, as corrupt and abusive, it was the paper’s publisher, John Peter Zenger, who took the fall. Although Zenger was merely a front man for Cosby’s true adversaries, he was jailed for the better part of a year and faced a jury in a proceeding matched in importance during the colonial period only by the Salem Witch Trials.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393354850
IRON DAWN: The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle that Changed History by Richard Snow (History)
No single sea battle has had more far-reaching consequences than the one fought in the harbor at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1862. The Confederacy, with no fleet of its own, built an iron fort containing 10 heavy guns on the hull of a captured Union frigate named the Merrimack. The North got word of the project when it was already well along, and, in desperation, commissioned an eccentric inventor named John Ericsson to build the Monitor, an entirely revolutionary iron warship. Historian Richard Snow brings to vivid life the tensions of the time, explaining how wooden and ironclad ships worked, maneuvered, battled and sank.
Scribner | 9781476794198
THE IT GIRLS by Karen Harper (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Sisters Elinor and Lucy Sutherland are at once each other’s fiercest supporters and most vicious critics. Lucy transformed herself into Lucile, the daring fashion designer who revolutionized the industry with her flirtatious gowns and brazen self-promotion. And when she married Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, her life seemed to be a fairy tale. But then came the fateful night of April 14, 1912 and the scandal that followed. Elinor’s novels titillate readers. Her work pushes the boundaries of what’s acceptable, and her foray into the glittering new world of Hollywood turns her into a world-wide phenomenon. But although she writes of passion, the true love she longs for eludes her.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062567772
THE MISTLETOE MURDER: And Other Stories by P. D. James (Mystery/Short Stories)
Throughout her illustrious career as the Queen of Crime, P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas. Now, for the first time, four of the best are collected here. In “The Twelve Clues of Christmas,” Adam Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is pure Agatha Christie. In “A Very Commonplace Murder,” a respectable clerk’s secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a terrible crime. “The Boxdale Inheritance” finds Dalgliesh reinvestigating a notorious murder at the insistence of his godfather --- only to uncover the darkest of family secrets. And in the title story, a bestselling crime novelist describes the crime in which she herself was involved some 50 years ago.
Vintage | 9781101973806
NOBODY’S SON: A Memoir by Mark Slouka (Memoir)
Born in Czechoslovakia, Mark Slouka’s parents survived the Nazis only to have to escape the Communist purges after the war. Smuggled out of their own country, the newlyweds joined a tide of refugees moving from Innsbruck to Sydney to New York, dragging with them a history of blood and betrayal that their son would be born into. From World War I to the present, Slouka pieces together a remarkable story of refugees and war, displacement and denial --- admitting into evidence memories, dreams, stories, the lies we inherit, and the lies we tell --- in an attempt to reach his mother, the enigmatic figure at the center of the labyrinth.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393354751
ODESSA SEA: A Dirk Pitt Novel by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler (Thriller/Adventure)
Dirk Pitt, the director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, is on the Black Sea, helping to locate a lost Ottoman shipwreck, when he responds to an urgent Mayday from a nearby freighter. But when he and his colleague Al Giordino arrive, there is nobody there --- just dead bodies and a smell of sulfur in the air. The more the two of them search for the secret of the death ship, the deeper they descend into an extraordinary series of discoveries. Meanwhile, Pitt’s two children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, are exploring a mysterious shipwreck of their own, when they are catapulted into his orbit. The three of them are used to perilous situations --- but this time, they may have found their match.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399575532
PERFECT LITTLE WORLD by Kevin Wilson (Fiction)
When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she’s fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother, but without any money or relatives to help, she’s left searching. Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a “perfect little world” --- to study what would happen when 10 children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it The Infinite Family Project, and he wants Izzy and her son to join. This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families disintegrates.
Ecco | 9780062450340
THE PRINCESS DIARIST by Carrie Fisher (Memoir)
When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved --- plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Today, her fame as an author, actress and pop-culture icon is indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a (sort-of) regular teenager. With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, THE PRINCESS DIARIST is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time --- and what developed behind the scenes.
Blue Rider Press | 9780399185793
TELL THE TRUTH, SHAME THE DEVIL by Melina Marchetta (Thriller)
When Bish Ortley, a suspended cop, receives word that a bus carrying his daughter has been bombed, he rushes to be by her side. A suspect has already been singled out: a 17-year-old girl who has since disappeared from the scene. Thirteen years earlier, her grandfather set off a suicide bomb in a grocery store, a bomb her mother confessed to building. Has the girl decided to follow in their footsteps? To find her, Bish must earn the trust of her friends and family, including her infamous mother, now serving a life sentence in prison. But even as he delves into the deadly bus attack that claimed five lives, the ghosts of older crimes become impossible to ignore.
Mulholland Books | 9780316349307
On Sale the Week of October 30th in Hardcover
October 31st
BOBBY KENNEDY: A Raging Spirit by Chris Matthews (Biography)
Overlooked by his father and overshadowed by his war-hero brother, Bobby Kennedy was the perpetual underdog. When he had the chance to become a naval officer like Jack, Bobby turned it down, choosing instead to join the Navy as a common sailor. It was a life-changing experience that led him to connect with voters from all walks of life. They were the people who turned out for him in his 1968 campaign. RFK would prove himself to be the rarest of politicians --- both a pragmatist who knew how to get the job done and an unwavering idealist who could inspire millions. Drawing on extensive research and interviews, Chris Matthews pulls back the curtain on the public and private worlds of Robert Francis Kennedy.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501111860
CRAZY LIKE A FOX by Rita Mae Brown (Mystery)
Sister Jane Arnold takes a scenic drive up the Blue Ridge Mountains for a board meeting at the Museum of Hounds and Hunting. Brimming with colorful stories and mementos from hunts of yore, the mansion is plunged into mystery when a venerable hunting horn is stolen right out of its case. The only clue, on a left-behind cell phone, is what seems to be a “selfie” video of the horn’s original owner, Wesley Carruthers --- deceased since 1954. Odder still, Wesley’s body was never found. When Sister makes a discovery that may explain his unsolved disappearance, it leads her back to the Jefferson Hunt at midcentury. But as the clues quickly mount, Sister is no longer sure if she’s pursuing a priceless artifact, a thief, Wesley’s killer…or a ghost.
Ballantine Books | 9780399178344
THE DEAL OF A LIFETIME by Fredrik Backman (Fiction)
It all begins with a father telling a story to his son on Christmas Eve. But this isn’t your typical Christmas story. The father admits to his son that he’s taken a life, but he won’t say whose --- not yet. One week earlier, in a hospital late at night, the man met a five-year-old girl with cancer. She’s smart enough to know that she won’t beat cancer by drawing with crayons all day, but it seems to make the adults happy, so she keeps doing it. The man is given the unexpected chance to do something selfless that could change the destiny of this little girl. But before he can make the deal of a lifetime, he needs to find out what his own life has actually been worth in the eyes of his son. And so he seeks him out and tells him this story.
Atria Books | 9781501193491
HIDDENSEE: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker by Gregory Maguire (Historical Fantasy)
Having brought his legions of devoted readers to Oz in WICKED and to Wonderland in AFTER ALICE, Gregory Maguire now takes us to the realms of the Brothers Grimm and E. T. A. Hoffmann --- the enchanted Black Forest of Bavaria and the salons of Munich. HIDDENSEE imagines the backstory of the Nutcracker, revealing how this entrancing creature came to be carved and how he guided an ailing girl named Klara through a dreamy paradise on a Christmas Eve. At the heart of Hoffmann's mysterious tale hovers Godfather Drosselmeier --- the ominous, canny, one-eyed toy maker made immortal by Petipa and Tchaikovsky's fairy tale ballet --- who presents the once and future Nutcracker to Klara, his goddaughter.
William Morrow | 9780062684387
IN THE MIDST OF WINTER by Isabel Allende (Fiction)
Richard Bowmaster, a 60-year-old human rights scholar, hits the car of Evelyn Ortega --- a young, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala --- in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn. What at first seems just a small inconvenience takes an unforeseen and far more serious turn when Evelyn turns up at the professor’s house seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant Lucia Maraz --- a 62-year-old lecturer from Chile --- for her advice. These three very different people are brought together in a mesmerizing story that moves from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil, sparking the beginning of a long overdue love story between Richard and Lucia.
Atria Books | 9781501178139
THE KING IS ALWAYS ABOVE THE PEOPLE: Stories by Daniel Alarcón (Fiction/Short Stories)
Migration. Betrayal. Family secrets. Doomed love. Uncertain futures. In Daniel Alarcón’s hands, these are transformed into deeply human stories with high stakes. In "The Thousands," people are on the move and forging new paths; hope and heartbreak abound. A man deals with the fallout of his blind relatives' mysterious deaths and his father's mental breakdown and incarceration in "The Bridge." A gang member discovers a way to forgiveness and redemption through the haze of violence and trauma in “The Ballad of Rocky Rontal.” And in "The Auroras," a man severs himself from his old life and seeks to make a new one in a new city, only to find himself seduced and controlled by a powerful woman.
Riverhead Books | 9781594631726
MR. DICKENS AND HIS CAROL by Samantha Silva (Historical Fiction)
Charles Dickens is not feeling the Christmas spirit. His newest book is an utter flop, the critics have turned against him, and relatives near and far hound him for money. While his wife plans a lavish holiday party for their ever-expanding family and circle of friends, Dickens has visions of the poor house. But when his publishers try to blackmail him into writing a Christmas book to save them all from financial ruin, he refuses. And a serious bout of writer’s block sets in. Frazzled and filled with self-doubt, Dickens seeks solace in his great palace of thinking, the city of London itself. On one of his long night walks, in a once-beloved square, he meets the mysterious Eleanor Lovejoy, who might be just the muse he needs.
Flatiron Books | 9781250154040
PARTING SHOT by Linwood Barclay (Thriller)
After a tragedy rocks the community of Promise Falls, Cal Weaver is asked to investigate the threats being made to the accused's family. He's heard all about it on the news: the young man who drank too much, stole a Porsche and killed a girl, and who claimed afterwards not to remember a single thing. The whole town is outraged that he got off lightly, but for reasons Cal can't explain, he accepts the job. Then he finds himself caught up in a vicious revenge plot, chasing someone set on delivering retribution. In Cal's experience, it's only ever a matter of time before threats turn into action.
Doubleday Canada | 9780385690232
THE QUEEN'S PROPHET by Dawn Patitucci (Historical Fiction)
When the Countess of Walther dies at her German estate, her loyal dwarfess Maria-Barbara is forced to work as a prophet for a traveling magician, who betrays her by selling her to the Queen of Spain. At the royal court in Madrid, Mari finds herself in a bizarre, enchanted world, a society culturally splendid but intellectually isolated. There she becomes Maribarbola, prophet to the Queen, and, her survival at stake, endeavors to outsmart the Spaniards. Mari's wits and loyalties are tested as she becomes embroiled in palace intrigue alongside the politically embattled Queen. But even as she survives and thrives at the Spanish court, the loss of identity Mari suffers from living a lie makes her question whether she is really surviving at all.
Turner | 9781683366836
STALIN: WAITING FOR HITLER, 1929-1941 by Stephen Kotkin (Biography)
In 1929, Joseph Stalin, having already achieved dictatorial power over the vast Soviet Empire, formally ordered the systematic conversion of the world’s largest peasant economy into “socialist modernity,” otherwise known as collectivization, regardless of the cost. What it cost, and what Stalin ruthlessly enacted, transformed the country and its ruler in profound and enduring ways. Building and running a dictatorship, with life and death power over hundreds of millions, made Stalin into the uncanny figure he became. Stephen Kotkin’s STALIN: WAITING FOR HITLER, 1929–1941 is the story of how a political system forged an unparalleled personality and vice versa.
Penguin Press | 9781594203800
TWIN PEAKS: THE FINAL DOSSIER by Mark Frost (Supernatural Thriller)
The return of “Twin Peaks” is one of the most anticipated events in the history of television. Featuring all the characters we know and love from the first series, as well as a list of high-powered actors in new roles, the show will be endlessly debated, discussed and dissected. While THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS served to expand the mysteries of the town and place the unexplained phenomena that unfolded there into a vastly layered, wide-ranging history, TWIN PEAKS: THE FINAL DOSSIER tells us what happened to key characters in the 25 years in between the events of the first series and the second, offering details and insights fans will be clamoring for.
Flatiron Books | 9781250163301
TWO KINDS OF TRUTH: A Bosch Novel by Michael Connelly (Thriller)
Harry Bosch is back as a volunteer working cold cases for the San Fernando Police Department and is called out to a local drug store where a young pharmacist has been murdered. Bosch and the town's three-person detective squad sift through the clues, which lead into the dangerous, big business world of pill mills and prescription drug abuse. Meanwhile, an old case from Bosch's LAPD days comes back to haunt him when a long-imprisoned killer claims Bosch framed him, and seems to have new evidence to prove it. The two unrelated cases wind around each other like strands of barbed wire. Along the way, Bosch discovers that there are two kinds of truth: the kind that sets you free and the kind that leaves you buried in darkness.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316225908
On Sale the Week of October 30th in Paperback
October 31st
AL CAPONE: His Life, Legacy, and Legend by Deirdre Bair (Biography)
At the height of Prohibition, Al Capone loomed large as Public Enemy Number One: his multimillion-dollar Chicago Outfit dominated organized crime, and law enforcement was powerless to stop him. But then came the fall: a legal noose tightened by the FBI, a conviction on tax evasion, a stint in Alcatraz. After his release, he returned to his family in Miami a much diminished man, living quietly until the ravages of his neurosyphilis took their final toll. Now, through rigorous research and exclusive access to Capone’s family, National Book Award–winning biographer Deirdre Bair cuts through the mythology, uncovering a complex character who was flawed and cruel but also capable of nobility.
Anchor | 9780345804518
THE ART OF WAR by Stephen Coonts (Thriller/Adventure)
As the Chinese military begins to prey on neighbors in the South China Sea, attacking fishing vessels and scheming to seize natural resources, the US goes on high alert. But a far more ominous danger lurks closer to home: a Chinese sleeper cell has planted a nuclear weapon in the harbor at Norfolk, Virginia, the biggest naval base on the planet. The target: a secret rendezvous of the Atlantic Fleet aircraft carriers and their battle groups. When the CIA director is assassinated and Jake Grafton is appointed to take his place, he gets wind of the conspiracy, but has no idea when or where the attack will occur.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250042880
CAN'T LET GO: The Original Heartbreakers, Book 5 by Gena Showalter (Romance)
Paperback Original
With trust issues a mile long, Ryanne Wade has sworn off men. Then Jude Laurent walks into her bar, and all bets are off. The former army ranger has suffered unimaginably --- first being maimed in battle, then losing his wife and daughters to a drunk driver. Making the brooding widower smile is priority one. Resisting him? Impossible. For Jude, Ryanne is off-limits. And yet the beautiful bartender who serves alcohol to potential motorists tempts him like no other. When a rival bar threatens her livelihood --- and her life --- he can’t turn away. She triggers something in him he thought long buried, and he’s determined to protect her, whatever the cost.
HQN | 9780373803675
EVEN IF IT KILLS HER: A Bailey Weggins Mystery by Kate White (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Bailey Weggins’ new friend in college, Jillian Lowe, had everything going for her. All of that dramatically changed during her sophomore year, when a neighbor became unhinged and murdered her family. Now, 16 years later, Bailey is shocked to see Jillian at her book event. The man accused of murdering her family is on the brink of being cleared of the crime through new DNA evidence. With the real killer walking free, Jillian is desperate for Bailey’s help to identify him and allow her the closure she yearns for. As the two uncover deeply guarded secrets, so shocking that they make Jillian rethink her entire relationship to her family, Bailey and Jillian find themselves in great peril.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062448873
THE FLAME BEARER by Bernard Cornwell (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
Britain is in a state of uneasy peace. Northumbria’s Viking ruler, Sigtryggr, and Mercia’s Saxon Queen Aethelflaed have agreed to a truce. And so England’s greatest warrior, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, at last has the chance to take back the home his traitorous uncle stole from him so many years ago. But the enemies Uhtred has made and the oaths he has sworn combine to distract him from his dream of recapturing Bebbanburg. New enemies enter into the fight for England’s kingdoms, and Britain’s precarious peace threatens to turn into a war of annihilation. But Uhtred is determined that nothing, neither the new enemies nor the old foes who combine against him, will keep him from his birthright.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062250803
THE GLASS UNIVERSE: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel (Science/History)
In the mid-19th century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or “human computers,” to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates. The “glass universe” of half a million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decades enabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim.
Penguin Books | 9780143111344
THE INHERITANCE: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch (Historical Mystery)
Charles Lenox has received a cryptic plea for help from an old Harrow schoolmate, Gerald Leigh, but when he looks into the matter, he finds that his friend has suddenly disappeared. As boys they had shared a secret: a bequest from a mysterious benefactor had smoothed Leigh’s way into the world after the death of his father. Lenox, already with a passionate interest in detective work, made discovering the benefactor's identity his first case --- but was never able to solve it. Now, years later, Leigh has been the recipient of a second, even more generous bequest. Is it from the same anonymous sponsor? Or is the money poisoned by ulterior motives?
Minotaur Books | 9781250130198
MY HUSBAND’S WIFE by Jane Corry (Psychological Thriller)
When young lawyer Lily marries Ed, she’s determined to make a fresh start and leave the secrets of the past behind. But then she takes on her first murder case and meets Joe, a convicted murderer to whom she is strangely drawn and for whom she will soon be willing to risk almost anything. Lily is not the only one with secrets, however. Her next-door neighbor Carla may be only nine, but she already has learned that secrets are powerful things. When Lily finds Carla on her doorstep 16 years later, a chain of events is set in motion that can end only one way.
Penguin Books | 9780735220966
NEVERTHELESS: A Memoir by Alec Baldwin (Memoir)
In NEVERTHELESS, Alec Baldwin transcends his public persona, making public facets of his life he has long kept private. He introduces us to the Long Island child who felt burdened by his family’s financial strains and his parents’ unhappy marriage; the Washington, DC, college student gearing up for a career in politics; the self-named "Love Taxi" who helped friends solve their romantic problems while neglecting his own; the young soap actor learning from giants of the theater; the addict drawn to drugs and alcohol who struggles with sobriety; the husband and father who acknowledges his failings and battles to overcome them; and the consummate professional for whom the work is everything.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062409713
THE NOWHERE MAN: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
Taken from a group home when he was young, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as an Orphan, an off-the-books black box program designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence asset: an assassin. Evan was Orphan X --- until he used everything he’d learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man. But now, his new life has been interrupted by a surprise attack from an unlikely source. Captured, drugged and spirited off to a remote location, Evan finds himself heavily guarded from everything he knows. His captors think they have him trapped and helpless in a virtual cage, but they do not know that they’re dealing with one of the deadliest, most resourceful men on earth.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250136473
THE SILENT CORNER by Dean Koontz (Thriller)
“I very much need to be dead.” These are the chilling words left behind by a man who had everything to live for, but took his own life. In the aftermath, his widow, Jane Hawk, is determined to find the truth, no matter what. People of talent and accomplishment, people admired and happy and sound of mind, have been committing suicide in surprising numbers. When Jane seeks to learn why, she becomes the most-wanted fugitive in America. Her powerful enemies are protecting a secret so important --- so terrifying --- that they will exterminate anyone in their way. But all their power and viciousness may not be enough to stop a woman as clever as they are cold-blooded, as relentless as they are ruthless.
Bantam | 9780345546791
SOMETHING IN THE BLOOD: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote Dracula by David J. Skal (Biography)
First published in 1897, DRACULA has had a long and multifaceted afterlife --- one rivaling even its immortal creation --- yet Bram Stoker has remained a hovering specter in this pervasive mythology. In SOMETHING IN THE BLOOD, David J. Skal exhumes the inner world and strange genius of the writer who birthed an undying cultural icon, painting an astonishing portrait of the age in which Stoker was born --- a time when death was no metaphor but a constant threat easily imagined as a character existing in flesh and blood.
Liveright | 9781631493867
TO CAPTURE WHAT WE CANNOT KEEP by Beatrice Colin (Historical Fiction)
In February 1887, Caitriona Wallace and Émile Nouguier meet in a hot air balloon, floating high above Paris, France --- a moment of pure possibility. But back on firm ground, their vastly different social strata become clear. Cait is a widow who, because of her precarious financial situation, is forced to chaperone two wealthy Scottish charges. Émile is expected to take on the bourgeois stability of his family's business and choose a suitable wife. As the Eiffel Tower rises, a marvel of steel and air and light, the subject of extreme controversy and a symbol of the future, Cait and Émile must decide what their love is worth.
Flatiron Books | 9781250138774
TOM CLANCY TRUE FAITH AND ALLEGIANCE: A Jack Ryan Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller/Adventure)
A massive data breach has compromised the personal information of millions of American military officers and intelligence agents. After several deadly attacks on off-duty personnel and their families, President Jack Ryan faces one of the greatest challenges of his career. Can he find the hackers and cap the flow of information before it’s too late?
Berkley | 9781101988831
|
