May 1, 2018

May 1, 2018

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of April 30th and May 7th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our review of LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain, which releases today and is our latest Women's Fiction Author Spotlight title. Don't miss our interview with Paula in the May 4th Bookreporter.com newsletter and Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary in the May 11th newsletter.

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 about the number of books that are on your to-be-read list right now.

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:
Our Review of LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain
A Women's Fiction Author Spotlight Title
and a Bookreporter.com Bets On Pick

LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain (Historical Fiction)
In 1937, 28-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It’s the adventure she’s been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly --- and uncontrollably --- falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend.

In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the turbulent backdrops of Madrid and Cuba, Martha and Ernest’s relationship and their professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife, or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that could force her to break his heart, and hers.

Heralded by Ann Patchett as “the new star of historical fiction,” Paula McLain brings Gellhorn’s story richly to life and captures her as a heroine for the ages: a woman who will risk absolutely everything to find her own voice.

You can read our interview with Paula McLain in the May 4th Bookreporter.com newsletter, and don't miss Carol Fitzgerald's Bets On commentary in the May 11th newsletter.

- Click here to read more in our Women's Fiction Author Spotlight.

Click here to read the review.

On Sale the Week of April 30th in Hardcover

May 1st

THE ABBOT'S TALE by Conn Iggulden (Historical Fiction)
In the year 937, the new king of England, a grandson of Alfred the Great, readies himself to go to war in the north. His dream of a united kingdom of all England will stand or fall on one field --- on the passage of a single day. At his side is the priest Dunstan of Glastonbury, full of ambition and wit (perhaps enough to damn his soul). His talents will take him from the villages of Wessex to the royal court, to the hills of Rome --- from exile to exaltation. Through Dunstan's vision, by his guiding hand, England will either come together as one great country or fall back into anarchy and misrule.
Pegasus Books | 9781681777306

ADJUSTMENT DAY by Chuck Palahniuk (Fiction/Satire)
People pass the word only to those they trust most: Adjustment Day is coming. They’ve been reading a mysterious book and memorizing its directives. They are ready for the reckoning. In ADJUSTMENT DAY, his first novel in four years, Chuck Palahniuk skewers the absurdities in our society. Smug, geriatric politicians bring the nation to the brink of a third world war in an effort to control the burgeoning population of young males; working-class men dream of burying the elites; and professors propound theories that offer students only the bleakest future. When Adjustment Day arrives, it fearlessly makes real the logical conclusion of every separatist fantasy, alternative fact and conspiracy theory lurking in the American psyche.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393652598

ALTER EGO by Brian Freeman (Mystery/Thriller)
When a freak auto accident kills a driver on the remote roads outside Duluth, Jonathan Stride is disturbed to discover that the victim appears to be a "ghost," with a false identity and no evidence to suggest who he really was. Alarmingly, a gun is found in the car --- and the gun has recently been fired. The next day, Stride learns that a Duluth college student has also vanished, and he worries that the two incidents are related. His investigation of the girl's disappearance leads him into the midst of a film crew in Duluth, where a movie is being made based on a case in his own past. The actor playing Stride is Hollywood royalty, but Stride soon hears whispers that his cinematic alter ego has a dark side.
Quercus | 9781681441290

BAD LIES: A Story of Libel, Slander, & Professional Golf by Tony Jacklin and Shelby Yastrow (Legal Thriller)
Eddie Bennison is at the top of his game, one of the most successful and popular golfers out there, until Tee Time, a national golf magazine, publishes a story that destroys his reputation. Now Eddie, championed by cunning lawyer Charlie Mayfield, must defend himself in court. But proving libel is extremely difficult, and the truth has a way of coming out, especially when the trial becomes a national spectacle. Eddie and Charlie are in for the fight of their lives, proving that what was written in that article was nothing but bad lies.
Mascot Books | 9781684016020

BEAUTY IN THE BROKEN PLACES: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience by Allison Pataki (Memoir)
When Allison Pataki's husband suffers a stroke, he wakes up with a complete loss of memory. At five months pregnant, Allison has lost the Dave she knew and loved. Within a few months, she found herself caring for both a newborn and a sick husband, struggling with the fear of what was to come. As a way to make sense of the pain and chaos of their new reality, Allison started to write daily letters to Dave. Not only would she work to make sense of the unfathomable experiences unfolding around her, but her letters would provide Dave with the memories he could not make on his own. She was writing to preserve their past, protect their present, and fight for their future. Those letters became the foundation for this beautiful, intimate memoir.
Random House | 9780399591655

THE CACTUS by Sarah Haywood (Fiction)
Susan Green has a flat that is ideal for one, a job that suits her passion for logic, and an “interpersonal arrangement” that provides cultural and other, more intimate, benefits. But suddenly confronted with the loss of her mother and the news that she is about to become a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is realized. She is losing control. When she learns that her mother’s will inexplicably favors her indolent brother, Edward, Susan’s already dismantled world is sent flying into a tailspin. As Susan’s due date draws near and her family problems become increasingly difficult to ignore, Susan finds help and self-discovery in the most unlikely of places.
Park Row | 9780778318996

THE ELECTRIC WOMAN: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts by Tessa Fontaine (Memoir)
For three years, Tessa Fontaine lived in a constant state of emergency as her mother battled stroke after stroke. But hospitals, wheelchairs and loss of language couldn’t hold back such a woman; she and her husband would see Italy together, come what may. Thus Fontaine became free to follow her own piper, a literal giant inviting her to “come play” in the World of Wonders, America’s last traveling sideshow. How could she resist? Transformed into an escape artist, a snake charmer and a high-voltage Electra, Fontaine witnessed the marvels of carnival life. Through these, she trained her body to ignore fear and learned how to keep her heart open in the face of loss.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374158378

THE FORGOTTEN ROAD by Richard Paul Evans (Fiction)
Chicago celebrity and successful pitchman Charles James is supposed to be dead. Everyone believes he was killed in a fiery plane crash. But thanks to a remarkable twist of fate, he’s very much alive and ready for a second chance at life --- and love. The last time he was truly happy was when he was married to his ex-wife Monica, before their connection was destroyed by his ambition and greed. Charles decides to embark on an epic quest: He will walk the entire length of Route 66, from Chicago to California, where he hopes to convince Monica to give him another shot. Along the way, Charles is immersed in the deep and rich history of one of America’s most iconic highways.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501111792

HE by John Connolly (Historical Fiction)
Stan Laurel followed in the wake of Charlie Chaplin, who blazed a trail from the vaudeville stages of England to the dynamic, if often seedy and highly volatile, movie studios of Los Angeles in the early 20th century. Awed like everyone else by Chaplin's genius (and ambition and cruelty), Laurel despaired of ever finding his own path to success --- or happiness. But success and happiness did find Laurel, following the inspired decision by impresario Hal Roach to put him and Oliver Hardy together on screen. Initially a calculated marriage of opposites in an era of highly disposable short films, the partnership bloomed into a professional and personal relationship of lifelong depth.
Quercus | 9781635060577

I'M JUST HAPPY TO BE HERE: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering by Janelle Hanchett (Memoir)
Pregnant at 21 by a man she'd known three months, Janelle Hanchett embraced motherhood with the determined optimism of the recklessly self-confident. After giving birth, she found herself bored, directionless and seeking relief in wine. Over time, her questionable drinking habit spiraled into full-blown dependence, until life became bedtime stories and splitting hangovers, cubicles and multi-day drug binges --- and eventually, an inconceivable separation from her children. For 10 years, Hanchett grappled with the unyielding progression of addiction, bouncing from rehab to therapy to the occasional hippie cleansing ritual on her quest for sobriety, before finding it in a way she never expected.
Hachette Books | 9780316503778

IN DUST AND ASHES: A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel by Anne Holt (Mystery)
In 2001, three-year-old Dina is killed in a tragic car accident. Not long thereafter, Dina’s mother dies under mysterious circumstances, and Dina’s father Jonas is convicted of her murder. Now it’s 2016, and the cold case ends up on the desk of Detective Henrik Holme, who tries to convince his mentor Hanne Wilhelmsen that Jonas might have been wrongly convicted. Holme and Wilhelmsen discover that the case could be connected to the suicide of an eccentric blogger, as well as the kidnapping of the grandson of a EuroJackpot millionaire.
Scribner | 9781501174780

THE JUDGE HUNTER by Christopher Buckley (Historical Fiction/Humor)
London, 1664. Twenty years after the English revolution, the monarchy has been restored and Charles II sits on the throne. The men who conspired to kill his father are either dead or disappeared. Baltasar “Balty” St. Michel is 24 and has no skills and no employment. He gets by on handouts from his brother-in-law, Samuel Pepys, an officer in the king’s navy. Fed up with his needy relative, Pepys offers Balty a job in the New World. He is to track down two missing judges who were responsible for the execution of the last king, Charles I. When Balty’s ship arrives in Boston, he finds a strange country filled with fundamentalist Puritans, saintly Quakers, warring tribes of Indians, and rogues of every stripe.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501192517

LIMELIGHT by Amy Poeppel (Fiction/Humor)
Allison Brinkley discovers that a carefully weighed decision to pack up and move her family from suburban Dallas to the glittery chaos of Manhattan may have been more complicated than she and her husband initially thought. After a humiliating call from the principal’s office and the loss of the job she was counting on, Allison begins to accept that New York may not suit her after all. When Allison has a fender-bender, she is led to the penthouse apartment of a luxurious Central Park West building and encounters Carter Reid, a famous pop star who has been cast in a new Broadway musical. Through this brush with stardom, Allison embraces a unique and unexpected opportunity that helps her find her way in the heart of Manhattan.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501176371

LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain (Historical Fiction)
In 1937, 28-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It’s the adventure she’s been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with Ernest Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend. When Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife, or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer.
Ballantine Books | 9781101967386

THE MAP OF SALT AND STARS by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar (Fiction)
In the summer of 2011, just after Nour loses her father to cancer, her mother moves Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria to be closer to their family. In order to keep her father’s spirit as she adjusts to her new home, Nour tells herself their favorite story --- the tale of Rawiya, a 12th-century girl who disguised herself as a boy in order to apprentice herself to a famous mapmaker. When a stray shell destroys Nour’s house and almost takes her life, she and her family are forced to choose: stay and risk more violence, or flee across seven countries of the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety --- along the very route Rawiya and her mapmaker took 800 years before in their quest to chart the world.
Touchstone | 9781501169038

THE MARS ROOM by Rachel Kushner (Fiction)
It’s 2003 and Romy Hall is at the start of two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, deep in California’s Central Valley. Outside is the world from which she has been severed: the San Francisco of her youth and her young son, Jackson. Inside is a new reality: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive; the bluffing and pageantry and casual acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike; and the deadpan absurdities of institutional living.
Scribner | 9781476756554

MISS SUBWAYS by David Duchovny (Fantasy/Humor)
Emer is just a woman living in New York City who takes the subway, buys ice cream from the bodega on the corner, has writerly aspirations, and lives with her boyfriend, Con. But is this life she lives the only path she’s on? Taking inspiration from the myth of Emer and Cuchulain, and featuring an all-star cast of mythical figures from all over the world, David Duchovny’s MISS SUBWAYS is one woman’s trippy, mystical journey down parallel tracks of time and love. On the way, Emer will battle natural and supernatural forces to find her true voice, power and destiny.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374210403

MOTHERHOOD by Sheila Heti (Fiction)
In her late 30s, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of MOTHERHOOD considers if she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781627790772

MR. FLOOD'S LAST RESORT by Jess Kidd (Mystery/Humor)
Maud Drennan is a dedicated caregiver whose sunny disposition masks a deep sadness, as a tragic childhood event left her haunted. She keeps to herself, finding solace in her work and in her humble existence --- until she meets Mr. Flood. The lone occupant of a Gothic mansion, Cathal Flood has been waging war against his son’s attempts to put him into an old-age home. Maud is this impossible man’s last chance: if she can help him get the house in order, he just might be able to stay. So the unlikely pair begins to cooperate. Still, shadows are growing in the cluttered corners of the mansion, hinting at buried family secrets, and reminding Maud that she doesn’t really know this man at all.
Atria Books | 9781501180637

MURDER, SHE WROTE: A DATE WITH MURDER by Jessica Fletcher, Donald Bain and Jon Land (Mystery)
Jessica Fletcher takes up the case of her good friend, Barbara "Babs" Wirth, after Babs' husband, Hal, suffers a fatal heart attack that Jessica has reason to believe was actually murder. At the heart of her suspicions lies a sinister dating site Hal had used while he and Babs were having marital issues, a site that may be complicit in somehow swindling him out of millions. Jessica's investigation reveals that Hal was far from the only victim, and when his former business partner is also killed, a deadly pattern emerges. Jessica teams up with a brilliant young computer hacker to follow the trail, but as she gets closer to the truth, two near misses force her to realize that she may very well be the next victim.
Berkley | 9780451489272

THE OPTIMISTIC DECADE by Heather Abel (Fiction)
Framed by the oil shale bust and the real estate boom, by protests against Reagan and against the Gulf War, THE OPTIMISTIC DECADE takes us into the lives of five unforgettable characters. There is Caleb Silver, the beloved founder of the back-to-the-land camp Llamalo, who is determined to teach others to live simply. There are the ranchers, Don and son Donnie, who gave up their land to Caleb, having run out of options after Exxon came and went and left them bankrupt. There is Rebecca Silver, determined to become an activist like her father and undone by the spell of Llamalo and new love. And there is David, a teenager who has turned Llamalo into his personal religion.
Algonquin Books | 9781616206307

OVERKILL: An Alex Hawke Novel by Ted Bell (Thriller/Adventure)
On a ski vacation in the Swiss Alps, Alex Hawke and his young son, Alexei, are thrust into danger when the tram carrying them to the top of the mountain bursts into flames. Before he can reach Alexei, the boy is snatched from the burning cable car by unknown assailants in a helicopter. Meanwhile, high above the skies of France, Vladimir Putin is aboard his presidential jet after escaping a bloodless coup in the Kremlin. When two flight attendants collapse and slip into unconsciousness, the Russian leader realizes the danger isn’t over. Killing the pilots, he grabs a parachute, steps out of the plane…and disappears. Hawke has led his share of dangerous assignments, but none with stakes this high.
William Morrow | 9780062684516

THE PERFECT MOTHER by Aimee Molloy (Psychological Thriller)
They call themselves the May Mothers --- a group of new moms whose babies were born in the same month. Twice a week, they get together in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for some much-needed adult time. When the women go out for drinks at the hip neighborhood bar, they are looking for a fun break from their daily routine. But on this hot Fourth of July night, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is taken from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but her fellow May Mothers insisted everything would be fine. Now he is missing. What follows is a heart-pounding race to find Midas, during which secrets are exposed, marriages are tested and friendships are destroyed.
Harper | 9780062696793

THE PISCES by Melissa Broder (Fiction)
Lucy has been writing her dissertation on Sappho for nine years when she and her boyfriend break up in a dramatic flameout. After she bottoms out in Phoenix, her sister in Los Angeles insists Lucy dog-sit for the summer. But Lucy can find little relief from her anxiety --- not in the Greek chorus of women in her love addiction therapy group, not in her frequent Tinder excursions, not even in Dominic the foxhound's easy affection. Everything changes when Lucy becomes entranced by an eerily attractive swimmer while sitting alone on the beach rocks one night. But when Lucy learns the truth about his identity, their relationship, and Lucy’s understanding of what love should look like, take a very unexpected turn.
Hogarth | 9781524761554

RISING STAR, SETTING SUN: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and the Presidential Transition that Changed America by John T. Shaw (History/Politics)
After winning the presidency by a razor-thin victory on November 8, 1960 over Richard Nixon, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s former vice president, John F. Kennedy, became the 35th president of the United States. But beneath the stately veneers of both Ike and JFK, there was a complex and consequential rivalry. In RISING STAR, SETTING SUN, John T. Shaw focuses on the intense 10-week transition between JFK’s electoral victory and his inauguration on January 20, 1961. In just over two months, America would transition into a new age, and nowhere was it more marked than in the generational and personal difference between these two men and their dueling visions for the country they led.
Pegasus Books | 9781681777320

ROBERT B. PARKER'S OLD BLACK MAGIC: A Spenser Novel by Ace Atkins (Mystery)
The heist was legendary, still talked about 20 years after the priceless paintings disappeared from one of Boston's premier art museums. Most thought the art was lost forever. But when paint chips from the most valuable piece stolen, Gentlemen in Black by a Spanish master, arrives at the desk of a Boston journalist, the museum finds hope and enlists Spenser's help. Soon the cold art case thrusts Spenser into the shady world of black market art dealers, aged Mafia bosses and old vendettas. A five-million-dollar-reward by the museum's top benefactor sets Spenser and pals Vinnie Morris and Hawk onto a trail of hidden secrets, jailhouse confessions and decades-old murders.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399177019

THE SEASONS OF MY MOTHER: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers by Marcia Gay Harden (Memoir)
One of five lively children born to two Texas natives --- Beverly, a proper Dallas lady, and Thad, a young naval officer --- Marcia Gay Harden always had a knack for storytelling, role-playing and adventure. As a military family, the Hardens moved often, and their travels eventually took them to Yokohama, off the coast of Japan, during the Vietnam War era. It was here that Beverly found her own self-expression in ikebana, the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging. Using the philosophy of ikebana as her starting point, Marcia intertwines the seasons of her mother’s life with her own journey from precocious young girl to budding artist in New York City to Academy Award-winning actress.
Atria Books | 9781501135705

SORORITY by Genevieve Sly Crane (Fiction)
Margot is dead. There’s a rumor she died because she couldn’t take the pressure of being a pledge. You may not ask what happened to her. It’s not your business. But it wasn’t a suicide, if you’re wondering. Spring Fling will not be cancelled. The deposit is non-refundable. And Margot would have wanted the sisterhood to continue in her absence, if only to protect her sisters’ secrets: Shannon is the thinnest girl in the house, Kyra has slept with 29 boys since she started college, Amanda is a virgin, and while half the sisters are too new to have known Margot, Deirdre remembers her --- she always remembers.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501187476

YOU ME EVERYTHING by Catherine Isaac (Fiction)
Jess and her 10-year-old son, William, set off to spend the summer at Château de Roussignol, deep in the rich, sunlit hills of the Dordogne. There, Jess’ ex-boyfriend --- and William’s father --- Adam, runs a beautiful hotel in a restored castle. Jess is bowled over by what Adam has accomplished, but she’s in France for a much more urgent reason: to make Adam fall in love with his own son. But Adam has other ideas, and another girlfriend --- and he doesn’t seem inclined to change the habits of a lifetime just because Jess and William have appeared on the scene. Jess, though, can’t allow Adam to let their son down; she is tormented by a secret of her own, one that nobody --- especially William --- must discover.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780735224537

May 2nd

THE BOMB SHELTER: A David Mapstone Mystery by Jon Talton (Mystery)
Forty years ago, a Phoenix reporter was killed by a car bomb in one of America's most notorious crimes. Three men went to prison. But was there more to the story of Charles Page's assassination? More than three low-level players? Did a kingpin order the hit and get away with it? And what was the real motive? Despite the work of teams of journalists and law and legal professionals, no one yet knows why. It's a case custom-made for David Mapstone, the historian-turned-sheriff's deputy. And suddenly Mapstone's boss, newly re-elected Sheriff Mike Peralta, promises to reopen the investigation into the only murder of an American journalist, in the US, in modern times. Why? The promise triggers new murders.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464209574

THE OTTER OF DEATH: A Gunn Zoo Mystery by Betty Webb (Mystery)
While taking the yearly "otter count" at a marsh near Gunn Landing Harbor, California, zookeeper Theodora Bentley sees Maureen, her favorite otter, swimming around clutching someone's expensive smartphone. When Teddy rescues the device, she discovers a photograph of a murder-in-progress. A hasty search soon turns up the still-warm body of Stuart Booth, PhD, a local Marine Biology instructor. Booth was a notorious sexual harasser of young female students, so the list of suspects is long enough to make Teddy wonder if the crime will ever be solved. But when her friend, Lila, one of Booth's original accusers, is arrested and charged with his murder, Teddy begins to investigate.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464209901

SINS OF THE FATHER: A Countess of Prague Mystery, Book Two by Stephen Weeks (Historical Mystery)
Hapsburg Emperor Franz Josef I tasks Beatrix von Falklenburg with probing the "murder/suicide" in 1889 at Crown Prince Rudolf's hunting lodge at Mayerling. Did Rudolf murder Baroness Marie Vetsera and shoot himself? And might there remain something that would reveal "the dreaded secret" that could topple the Hapsburg dynasty, as rumor had long hinted? Something that has survived to 1905? But before Trixie is handed her assignment, a terrible murder occurs on a snowy Prague funicular railway. The only clue to the identity of the decapitated corpse is a tiny slip of paper in his waistcoat pocket --- a piece of paper with Trixie's telephone number on it.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464209949

On Sale the Week of April 30th in Paperback 

May 1st

BARELY LEGAL: A Herbie Fisher Novel Featuring Stone Barrington by Stuart Woods and Parnell Hall (Thriller/Adventure)
Under the tutelage of Stone Barrington, Herbie Fisher has transformed from a bumbling sad sack into the youngest partner at the white-shoe law firm Woodman & Weld, and a man whose company is in high demand both because of his professional acumen and his savoir faire. But even his newly won composure and finely honed skills can't prepare him for the strange escapade he's unwittingly pulled into, and which --- unbeknownst to him --- has put him at the center of a bull's-eye. In the city that never sleeps there are always devious schemes afoot, and Herbie will have to be quick on his feet to stay one step ahead of his enemies...and they're closing in.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735217249

CHUCK KLOSTERMAN X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century by Chuck Klosterman (Popular Culture/Essays)
Chuck Klosterman has created an incomparable body of work in books, magazines, newspapers and on the Web. His writing spans the realms of culture and sports, while also addressing interpersonal issues, social quandaries and ethical boundaries. He has written nine previous books, and contributed profiles and essays to outlets such as GQ, Esquire, Billboard, The A.V. Club and The Guardian. Klosterman’s 10th book collects his most intriguing of those pieces, accompanied by fresh introductions and new footnotes throughout. He presents many of the articles in their original form, featuring previously unpublished passages and digressions.
Penguin Books | 9780399184161

THE BROKEN ROAD by Richard Paul Evans (Fiction)
Chicago celebrity Charles James can’t shake the nightmare that wakes him each night. He sees himself walking down a long, broken highway, the sides of which are lit in flames. Where is he going? Why is he walking? What is the wailing he hears around him? By day, he wonders why he’s so haunted and unhappy when he has all he ever wanted. But now, at the pinnacle of his career, he’s started to wonder if he’s wanted the wrong things. When he learns that one of his customers has committed suicide because of financial ruin, Charles is shaken. Then a twist of fate changes everything. Charles is granted something very remarkable: a second chance. The question is: What will he do with it?
Simon & Schuster | 9781501111778

D’ARC by Robert Repino (Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)
In the aftermath of the War With No Name, the Colony has been defeated, its queen lies dead, and the world left behind will never be the same. In her madness, the queen used a strange technology to uplift the surface animals, turning dogs and cats, bats and bears, pigs and wolves into intelligent, highly evolved creatures who rise up and kill their oppressors. And now, after years of bloodshed, these sentient beasts must learn to live alongside their sworn enemies --- humans. Far removed from this newly emerging civilization, a housecat turned war hero named Mort(e) lives a quiet life with the love he thought he had lost, a dog named Sheba. But before long, the chaos that they escaped comes crashing in around them.
Soho Press | 9781616958978

THE DEVIL’S REWARD written by Emmanuelle de Villepin, translated by C. Jon Delogu (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Christiane, 86 years old with a vibrant sense of humor, lives alone in a large apartment in the heart of Paris. Her daughter, Catherine, is her total opposite: sullen and uptight, filled with resentment toward her unfaithful Milanese husband. After discovering yet another affair, Catherine takes refuge in Paris at her mother’s home, accompanied by her own daughter, Luna. Christiane --- who, in spite of occasional dalliances on both sides, lived a beautiful love story with her late husband --- uses all of her freethinking charm in an effort to change Catherine’s rigid, self-pitying attitude.
Other Press | 9781590518687

A DOG’S WAY HOME by W. Bruce Cameron (Fiction)
Lucas Ray is shocked when an adorable puppy jumps out of an abandoned building and into his arms. Though the apartment he shares with his mother, a disabled veteran, doesn’t allow dogs, Lucas can’t resist taking Bella home. After Bella is picked up by Animal Control because pit bulls are banned in Denver, Lucas has no choice but to send her to a foster home until he can figure out what to do. But Bella, distraught over the separation, doesn’t plan to wait. With 400 miles of dangerous Colorado wilderness between her and her person, Bella sets off on a seemingly impossible and completely unforgettable adventure home.
Forge Books | 9780765374660

EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWS by Meg Little Reilly (Psychological Suspense)
Paperback Original
Around midnight, three friends take their partying from bar to boat on a misty fall evening. Just as the weather deteriorates, one of them suddenly and confusingly goes overboard. Is it an accident? The result of an unwanted advance? His body disappears quickly, silently, into the dark water. The circumstances are murky, but what is clear is that the other two need to notify the authorities. Minutes become hours become days as they hesitate, caught up in their guilt and hope that their friend has somehow made it safely to shore. As valuable time passes, they find themselves deep in a moral morass with huge implications as they struggle to move forward and live with their dark secret.
Mira | 9780778364146

G-MAN: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel by Stephen Hunter (Thriller/Adventure)
Bob Lee Swagger has finally decided to sell the family homestead, but when the developers begin to tear down the house, they uncover a strongbox hidden in the foundation. Enclosed is an array of memorabilia dating back to 1934 --- a much-corroded federal lawman’s badge, a .45 automatic, a mysterious gun part, and a cryptic diagram --- all belonging to Charles Swagger, a World War I hero and sheriff of Polk County, Arkansas. Fascinated and puzzled by these newly discovered artifacts, Bob is determined to find out what happened to his grandfather. But he soon learns that someone is following him and shares his obsession with finding out what Charles Swagger really left behind.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399574610

A GAME OF GHOSTS: A Charlie Parker Thriller by John Connolly (Supernatural Thriller)
It is deep winter, and the darkness is unending. A private detective named Jaycob Eklund has vanished, and Charlie Parker is assigned to track him down. Parker’s employer, Edgar Ross, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has his own reasons for wanting Eklund found. Eklund is no ordinary investigator --- he is obsessively tracking a series of homicides and disappearances, each linked to reports of hauntings. Now Parker is drawn into Eklund’s world: a realm in which the monstrous Mother rules a crumbling criminal empire, in which men strike bargains with angels, and in which the innocent and guilty alike are pawns in a game of ghosts.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501171901

GLASS HOUSES by Louise Penny (Mystery)
When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. From the moment its shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec, suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized. But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied. Months later, as the trial for the accused begins, Chief Superintendent Gamache continues to struggle with actions he set in motion, from which there is no going back.
Minotaur Books | 9781250181589

GONE TO DUST: A Detective Nils Shapiro Novel by Matt Goldman (Mystery)
Suburban divorcee Maggie Somerville was found murdered in her bedroom, her body covered with the dust from hundreds of emptied vacuum cleaner bags, all potential DNA evidence obscured by the calculating killer. Digging into Maggie’s cell phone records, private detective Nils Shapiro finds that the most frequently called number belongs to a mysterious young woman whose true identity could shatter the Somerville family. But could she be guilty of murder? After the FBI demands that Nils drop the case, Nils and neighboring Edina Police Detective Anders Ellegaard are forced to take their investigation underground. Is this a strange case of domestic violence or something with far-reaching, sinister implications?
Forge Books | 9780765391308

HERE AND GONE by Haylen Beck (Thriller)
It begins with a woman fleeing through Arizona with her kids in tow, trying to escape an abusive marriage. When she's pulled over by an unsettling local sheriff, things soon go awry and she is taken into custody. But when she gets to the station, her kids are gone. And then the cops start saying they never saw any kids with her; if they're gone, she must have done something with them. Meanwhile, halfway across the country, a man hears the frenzied news reports about the missing kids, which are eerily similar to events in his own past. As the clock ticks down on the search for the lost children, he, too, is drawn into the desperate fight for their return.
Broadway Books | 9780451499585

HILLBILLY ELEGY: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J. D. Vance (Memoir)
HILLBILLY ELEGY is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis --- that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than 40 years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062300553

A HOUSE AMONG THE TREES by Julia Glass (Fiction)
A HOUSE AMONG THE TREES begins just after the sudden death of world-renowned children’s book author Mort Lear, who leaves behind a wholly unexpected will, an idyllic country house, and difficult secrets about a childhood far darker than those of the beloved characters he created for young readers of all ages. Left to grapple with the consequences of his final wishes are Tommy Daulair, his longtime live-in assistant; Merry Galarza, a museum curator betrayed by those wishes; and Nick Greene, a beguiling actor preparing to play Lear in a movie. When Nick pays a visit to Lear’s home, he and Tommy confront what it means to be entrusted with the great writer’s legacy and reputation.
Anchor | 9781101873595

INTO THE WATER by Paula Hawkins (Psychological Thriller)
A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged. Left behind is a lonely 15-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from --- a place to which she vowed she'd never return.
Riverhead Books | 9780735211223

IT’S ALWAYS THE HUSBAND by Michele Campbell (Psychological Suspense/Mystery)
Kate, Aubrey and Jenny first met as college roommates and soon became inseparable, despite being as different as three women can be. As an unlikely friendship formed, the three of them swore they would always be there for each other. But 20 years later, one of them is standing at the edge of a bridge, and someone is urging her to jump. How did it come to this? Kate married the gorgeous party boy, Aubrey married up, and Jenny married the boy next door. But how can these three women love and hate each other? Can feelings this strong lead to murder? When one of them dies under mysterious circumstances, will everyone assume, as is often the case, that it’s always the husband?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250081810

THE LAST CASTLE: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan (History)
Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House --- the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore --- and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy.
Touchstone | 9781476794051

A LEGACY OF SPIES by John le Carré (Thriller)
Peter Guillam, a staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications.
Penguin Books | 9780735225138

MacARTHUR’S SPIES: The Soldier, the Singer, and the Spymaster Who Defied the Japanese in World War II by Peter Eisner (History)
On January 2, 1942, Japanese troops marched into Manila unopposed by U.S. forces. Manila was a strategic port, a romantic American outpost and a jewel of a city. Tokyo saw its conquest of the Philippines as the key in its plan to control all of Asia, including Australia. Thousands of soldiers surrendered and were sent on the notorious 80-mile Bataan Death March. But thousands of other Filipinos and Americans refused to surrender and hid in the Luzon hills above Bataan and Manila. MacARTHUR’S SPIES is the story of three of them, and how they successfully foiled the Japanese for more than two years, sabotaging Japanese efforts and preparing the way for MacArthur’s return.
Penguin Books | 9780143128847

MEN WITHOUT WOMEN: Stories written by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen (Fiction/Short Stories)
Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are lovesick doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders and even Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, brought together to tell stories that speak to us all. In MEN WITHOUT WOMEN, Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic, marked by the same wry humor and pathos that have defined his entire body of work.
Vintage | 9781101974520

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.
Vintage | 9780525434818

MISS KOPP’S MIDNIGHT CONFESSIONS: A Kopp Sisters Novel by Amy Stewart (Historical Mystery)
Constance Kopp is back --- with a badge and a taste for justice. She has finally earned her deputy sheriff’s badge and is ready to tackle a new kind of case: defending independent young women brought into the Hackensack jail on dubious charges of waywardness, incorrigibility and moral depravity. Such were the laws --- and morals --- of 1916. Constance uses her authority as deputy sheriff, and occasionally exceeds it, to investigate and support these women when no one else will. But it’s her sister Fleurette --- who runs away from their sleepy farm to join the glamorous world of vaudeville --- who puts Constance’s beliefs to the test. Is there a wayward girl in her own family?
Mariner Books | 9781328497611

MOCKINGBIRD SONGS: My Friendship with Harper Lee by Wayne Flynt (Memoir)
The violent racism of the American South drove Wayne Flynt away from his home state of Alabama, but the publication of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Harper Lee’s classic novel about courage, community and equality, inspired him to return in the early 1960s and craft a career documenting and teaching Alabama history. His writing resonated with many Alabamians, in particular three sisters: Louise, Alice and Nelle Harper Lee. Beginning with their first meeting in 1983, a mutual respect and affection for the state’s history and literature matured into a deep friendship between two families who can trace their roots there back more than five generations.
Harper Perennial | 9780062660091

MOTHER LAND by Paul Theroux (Fiction)
To those in her Cape Cod town, Mother is an exemplar of piety, frugality and hard work. To her husband and seven children, she is the selfish, petty tyrant of Mother Land. She excels at playing her offspring against each other. Her favorite, Angela, died in childbirth; only Angela really understands her, she tells the others. The others include the officious lawyer, Fred; the uproarious professor, Floyd; a pair of inseparable sisters whose devotion to Mother has consumed their lives; and JP, the narrator, a successful writer whose work she disparages. As she lives well past the age of 100, her brood struggles with and among themselves to shed her viselike hold on them.
Eamon Dolan/Mariner Books | 9781328915825

MRS. FLETCHER by Tom Perrotta (Fiction)
A 46-year-old divorcee whose beloved only child has just left for college, Eve Fletcher is struggling to adjust to her empty nest when one night her phone lights up with a text message. Sent from an anonymous number, the mysterious sender tells Eve, “U R my MILF!” Over the months that follow, that message comes to obsess Eve, who can’t curtail her interest in MILFateria.com, which features the erotic exploits of ordinary, middle-aged women like herself. Meanwhile, Eve’s son Brendan discovers that his new campus isn’t nearly as welcoming to his hard-partying lifestyle as he had imagined. Both mother and son find themselves enmeshed in morally fraught situations that come to a head on one fateful November night.
Scribner | 9781501144035

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 | 9780399184024

NOT THAT BAD: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay (Gender Studies/Essays)
Paperback Original
Cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence and aggression they face, and where they are “routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied” for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers and critics, including actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union and writers Amy Jo Burns, Lyz Lenz and Claire Schwartz.
Harper Perennial | 9780062413512

PAPI: My Story by David Ortiz with Michael Holley (Sports/Memoir)
David “Big Papi” Ortiz is a baseball icon and one of the most popular figures ever to play the game. A key part of the Boston Red Sox for 15 years, Ortiz helped to win three World Series, bringing back a storied franchise from “never wins” to “always wins.” He helped upend the doubters, the naysayers and the nonbelievers, and, as he launched balls into the stands again and again and again, he captured the imagination of millions of fans. Ortiz made Boston and the Red Sox his home, his place of work and his legacy. In PAPI, his ultimate memoir, Ortiz opens up as never before.
Mariner Books | 9781328915849

PRIESTDADDY: A Memoir by Patricia Lockwood (Memoir)
Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met --- a man who lounges in boxer shorts, loves action movies, and constantly jams on the guitar. His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the Church’s country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents’ rectory, their two worlds collide. In PRIESTDADDY, Patricia Lockwood interweaves emblematic moments from her childhood and adolescence with scenes that chronicle the eight-month adventure she and her husband had in her parents’ household after a decade of living on their own.
Riverhead Books | 9780399573262

THE RESURRECTION OF JOAN ASHBY by Cherise Wolas (Fiction)
Joan Ashby is a brilliant and intense literary sensation acclaimed for her explosively dark and singular stories. When she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, she is stunned by Martin’s delight, his instant betrayal of their pact (“work is paramount, absolutely no children”). She then makes a fateful, selfless decision to embrace her unintentional family. Challenged by raising two precocious sons, it is decades before she finally completes her masterpiece novel. Poised to reclaim the spotlight, to resume the intended life she gave up for love, a betrayal of Shakespearean proportion forces her to question every choice she has made.
Flatiron Books | 9781250185198

RICH PEOPLE PROBLEMS by Kevin Kwan (Fiction)
When Nicholas Young hears that his grandmother, Su Yi, is on her deathbed, he rushes to be by her bedside. The entire Shang-Young clan has convened from all corners of the globe to stake claim on their matriarch’s massive fortune. As her relatives fight over heirlooms, Astrid Leong is at the center of her own storm, desperately in love with her old sweetheart Charlie Wu, but tormented by her ex-husband --- a man hell bent on destroying Astrid’s reputation and relationship. Meanwhile, Kitty Pong, married to China’s second richest man, billionaire Jack Bing, still feels second best next to her new step-daughter, famous fashionista Colette Bing.
Anchor | 9780525432371

ROBERT B. PARKER’S LITTLE WHITE LIES: A Spenser Novel by Ace Atkins (Mystery)
Connie Kelly thought she’d found her perfect man on an online dating site. She fell so hard for M. Brooks Welles that she wrote him a check for almost $300,000, hoping for a big return on her investment. But within weeks, both Welles and her money are gone. Enter Spenser, who quickly discovers that everything about Welles is phony. But uncovering the truth won’t be easy, as he’ll have to keep the mystery man alive long enough to get back his client’s money. As the trail winds from Boston to backroads Georgia, Spenser will need help from trusted allies Hawk and Teddy Sapp to make sure Welles’ next con is his last.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9781101982457

THE SHADOW DISTRICT by Arnaldur Indridason (Mystery/Thriller)
In wartime Reykjavik, Iceland, a young woman is found strangled in “the shadow district,” a rough and dangerous area of the city. An Icelandic detective and a member of the American military police are on the trail of a brutal killer. A 90-year-old man is discovered dead on his bed, smothered with his own pillow. Konrad, a former detective now bored with retirement, finds newspaper cuttings reporting the WWII shadow district murder in the dead man’s home. It’s a crime that Konrad remembers, having grown up in the same neighborhood. Why, after all this time, would an old crime resurface? Did the police arrest the wrong man? Will Konrad's link to the past help him solve the case and finally lay the ghosts of WWII Reykjavik to rest?
Picador | 9781250138170

SHATTERED by Allison Brennan (Mystery/Thriller)
Over a span of 20 years, four boys have been kidnapped from their bedrooms, suffocated and buried nearby in a shallow grave. Serial killer or coincidence? That’s the question investigative reporter Maxine Revere sets out to answer when an old friend begs her to help exonerate his wife, who has been charged with their son’s recent murder. But Max can do little to help because the police and D.A. won’t talk to her --- they think they have the right woman. Instead, Max turns her attention to three similar cold cases. If she can solve them, she might be able to help her friend.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250146441

SINCE WE FELL by Dennis Lehane (Psychological Thriller)
SINCE WE FELL follows Rachel Childs, a former journalist who, after an on-air mental breakdown, now lives as a virtual shut-in. In all other respects, however, she enjoys an ideal life with an ideal husband. Until a chance encounter on a rainy afternoon causes that ideal life to fray. As does Rachel’s marriage. As does Rachel herself. Sucked into a conspiracy thick with deception, violence and possibly madness, Rachel must find the strength within herself to conquer unimaginable fears and mind-altering truths.
Ecco | 9780062129390

THE SISTERS CHASE by Sarah Healy (Fiction)
The hardscrabble Chase women --- Mary, Hannah and their mother Diane --- have been eking out a living running a tiny seaside motel that has been in the family for generations, inviting trouble into their lives for just as long. But when Diane dies in a car accident, Mary discovers the motel is worth less than the back taxes they owe. With few options, Mary’s finely tuned instincts for survival kick in. As the sisters begin a cross-country journey in search of a better life, she will stop at nothing to protect Hannah. But Mary wants to protect herself, too, for the secrets she promised she would never tell --- but now may be forced to reveal --- hold the weight of unbearable loss.
Mariner Books | 9781328915863

A STITCH OF TIME: The Year a Brain Injury Changed My Language and Life by Lauren Marks (Memoir)
Lauren Marks was 27, touring a show in Scotland with her friends, when an aneurysm ruptured in her brain and left her fighting for her life. She woke up in a hospital soon after with serious deficiencies to her reading, speaking and writing abilities, and an unfamiliar diagnosis: aphasia. The way she perceived her environment and herself had profoundly changed, her entire identity seemed crafted around a language she could no longer access. She returned to her childhood home to recover, grappling with a muted inner monologue and fractured sense of self. Soon after, Lauren began a journal, to chronicle her year following the rupture. A STITCH OF TIME is the remarkable result.
Simon & Schuster | 9781451697605

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 | 9780399583339

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.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455524174

TWO STEPS FORWARD by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist (Fiction)
Paperback Original
The Chemin, also known as the Camino de Santiago, is a centuries-old pilgrim route that ends in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain. Every year, thousands of walkers follow the route that wends through quaint small villages and along busy highways alike. Zoe, who’s still reeling from her husband’s sudden death, has impulsively decided to walk the Camino, hoping to find solace and direction. Martin is road-testing a cart of his own design and recovering from a messy divorce. Strangers and circumstances force Zoe to confront not just recent loss, but long-held beliefs. For Martin, the pilgrimage is a test of his skills and endurance but also of his willingness to trust others --- and himself --- again.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062843111

THE UNQUIET GRAVE by Sharyn McCrumb (Historical Fiction)
The Greenbrier Ghost is renowned in American folklore, but Sharyn McCrumb is the first author to look beneath the legend to unearth the facts. Using a century of genealogical material and other historical documents, McCrumb reveals new information about the story and brings to life the personalities in the trial: the prosecutor, a former Confederate cavalryman; the defense attorney, a pro-Union bridgeburner, who nevertheless had owned slaves; and the mother of the murdered woman, who doggedly sticks to her ghost story --- all seen through the eyes of a young black lawyer on the cusp of a new century, with his own tragedies yet to come.
Atria Books | 9781476772882

WALKING ON MY GRAVE: A Death on Demand Mystery by Carolyn Hart (Mystery)
Annie Darling’s friend and fellow shop owner Ves Roundtree is a very wealthy woman. Her rich brother entrusted her with his estate, and upon her death, his fortune is to be divided. Several cash-strapped islanders are in line to collect life-changing inheritances. The problem is that Ves is very much alive and hosts a dinner for the prospective beneficiaries. Not long after, she suffers a bad fall that was no accident. Everyone at the table had a motive, but not a shred of evidence was left behind. When one of the suspects is found floating in the harbor and Ves disappears, Annie and her husband Max spring into action to catch a calculating killer before greed takes another life.
Berkley | 9780451488558

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 two women of remarkable intellect: 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. When Helen is summoned by a former student to view a cache of newly discovered 17th-century Jewish documents, she enlists the help of Aaron Levy, an American graduate student as impatient as he is charming, and embarks on one last project: to determine the identity of the documents' scribe, the elusive "Aleph."
Mariner Books | 9781328915788

WICKED RIVER by Jenny Milchman (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Six million acres of Adirondack forest separate Natalie and Doug Larson from civilization. For the newlyweds, an isolated backcountry honeymoon seems ideal. But just as Natalie and Doug begin to explore the dark interiors of their own hearts, as well as the depths of their love for each other, it becomes clear that they are not alone in the woods. As they struggle with the worst the wilderness has to offer, a man watches them, wielding the forest like a weapon. He wants something from them more terrifying than death. And once they are near his domain, he will do everything in his power to make sure they never walk out again.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492658993

YOUNG JANE YOUNG by Gabrielle Zevin (Fiction)
Aviva Grossman, an ambitious congressional intern in Florida, makes the mistake of having an affair with her boss --- and blogging about it. When the affair comes to light, the beloved congressman doesn’t take the fall. But Aviva does, and her life is over before it hardly begins. She sees no way out but to change her name and move to a remote town in Maine. This time, she tries to be smarter about her life and strives to raise her daughter, Ruby, to be strong and confident. But when Aviva decides to run for public office herself, that long-ago mistake trails her via the Internet and catches up. It’s only a matter of time until Ruby finds out who her mother was and is forced to reconcile that person with the one she knows.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208691

On Sale the Week of May 7th in Hardcover

May 8th

BLACKOUT: A Pete Fernandez Mystery by Alex Segura (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Startling new evidence in a cold case that has haunted Pete Fernandez drags the exiled PI back to his hometown of Miami. But as Pete and his partner, Kathy Bentley, delve deeper into the unsolved murder, they become entangled in Miami’s obsession with a charismatic and dangerous cult leader and his even more menacing followers. At the same time, the detectives find themselves at odds with a Florida politician’s fixation on wealth, fame and power. It all converges in the heart of the Magic City, and Pete is left scrambling to pick up the pieces --- or die trying.
Polis Books | 9781947993044

THE CROOKED STAIRCASE: A Jane Hawk Novel by Dean Koontz (Thriller)
Battling the strange epidemic of murder-suicides that claimed Jane Hawk’s husband, and is escalating across the country, has made the rogue FBI agent a wanted fugitive. Jane’s ruthless pursuers can’t stop her from drawing a bead on her prey: a cunning man with connections in high places, a twisted soul of unspeakable depths with an army of professional killers on call. Propelled by her righteous fury and implacable insistence on justice, Jane will confront head-on the lethal forces arrayed against her. But nothing can prepare her for the chilling truth that awaits when she descends the crooked staircase to the dark and dreadful place where her long nightmare was born.
Bantam | 9780525483427

THE DESTINY THIEF: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life by Richard Russo (Essays)
In these nine essays, Richard Russo provides insight into his life as a writer, teacher, friend and reader. From a commencement speech he gave at Colby College, to the story of how an oddly placed toilet made him reevaluate the purpose of humor in art and life, to a comprehensive analysis of Mark Twain's value, to his harrowing journey accompanying a dear friend as she pursued gender-reassignment surgery, THE DESTINY THIEF reflects the broad interests and experiences of one of America's most beloved authors.
Knopf | 9781524733513

FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE: People and Places by Paul Theroux (Travel/Essays)
Paul Theroux’s latest collection of essays leads the reader through a dazzling array of sights, characters and experiences, as Theroux applies his signature searching curiosity to a life lived as much in reading as on the road. Travel essays take us to Ecuador, Zimbabwe and Hawaii, to name a few. Gems of literary criticism reveal fascinating depth in the work of Henry David Thoreau, Graham Greene, Joseph Conrad and Hunter Thompson. And in a series of breathtakingly personal profiles, we take a helicopter ride with Elizabeth Taylor, go surfing with Oliver Sacks, eavesdrop on the day-to-day life of a Manhattan dominatrix, and explore New York with Robin Williams.
Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544870307

FOR THOSE WHO KNOW THE ENDING by Malcolm Mackay (Mystery)
Martin Sivok finds himself tied to a chair inside a deserted warehouse. For now his best hope is figuring out who put him here --- and staying conscious long enough to confront them. To stay awake, he reviews the past year of his life: evading the law in the Czech Republic by running to Glasgow, settling into a borderline respectable relationship with his landlady, and getting back into the life at the very bottom of the criminal ladder, alongside Usman Kassar, a cocky, goofy kid anxious to prove himself. The job should be simple: smash heads, grab cash, run. The trouble with being two outsiders is, you don't always know whose heads are too dangerous to crack, or whose cash is too hot to handle.
Mulholland Books | 9780316556071

GALE FORCE by Owen Laukkanen (Thriller/Adventure)
McKenna Rhodes has never been able to get the sight of her father's death out of her mind. A freak maritime accident has made her the captain of the salvage boat Gale Force, but it's also made her cautious, sticking closer to the Alaska coastline. She and her crew are just scraping by, when the freighter Pacific Lion founders 200 miles out in a storm. This job is their last chance --- but there is even more at stake than they know. Unlisted on any manifest, the Lion's crew includes a man on the run carrying 50 million dollars in stolen Yakuza bearer bonds. The Japanese gangsters and the thief's associates want the money. Another salvage ship, far bigger and more powerful than Gale Force, is racing to the rendezvous as well.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735212633

GIVE-A-DAMN JONES: A Novel of the West by Bill Pronzini (Mystery/Western)
Give-a-Damn Jones, a free-spirited itinerant typographer, hates his nickname almost as much as the rumors spread about him. He’s a kind soul who keeps finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s what happened in Box Elder, a small Montana town. Tensions are running high, and anything (or anyone) could be the fuse to ignite them: a recently released convict trying to prove his innocence, a prominent cattleman who craves respect at any cost, a wily traveling dentist at odds with a violent local blacksmith, or a firebrand of an editor who is determined to unlock the town’s secrets. Jones walks into the middle of it all, and this time, he may be the hero that this town needs.
Forge Books | 9780765394392

THE HIGH TIDE CLUB by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
Ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons attorney Brooke Trappnell to her 20,000-acre barrier island home. She is hiring Brooke for two reasons: first, to protect her island from those who would despoil her land, and second, to help her make amends with the heirs of the women who were her closest friends, the girls of The High Tide Club. To fulfill a dying woman’s wishes, Brooke must find Josephine’s friends’ descendants and bring them together on Talisa for a reunion of women who've actually never met. But in doing so, Brooke unleashes the makings of a scandal that could make someone rich beyond their wildest dreams…or cause them to be in the crosshairs of a murderer.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250126061

KING OF ASHES: Book One of The Firemane Saga by Raymond E. Feist (Fantasy)
For centuries, the five greatest kingdoms of North and South Tembria, twin continents on the world of Garn, have coexisted in peace. But the balance of power is destroyed when four of the kingdoms violate an ancient covenant and betray the fifth: Ithrace, the Kingdom of Flames, ruled by Steveren Langene, known as "the Firemane" for his brilliant red hair. As war engulfs the world, Ithrace is destroyed and the Greater Realms of Tembria are thrust into a dangerous struggle for supremacy. As a Free Lord, Baron Daylon Dumarch owes allegiance to no king. When an abandoned infant is found hidden in Daylon’s pavilion, he realizes that the child must be the missing heir of the slain Steveren.
Harper Voyager | 9780061468452

THE MERCY SEAT by Elizabeth H. Winthrop (Historical Fiction)
On the eve of his execution, 18-year-old Willie Jones sits in his cell in New Iberia awaiting his end. Across the state, a truck driven by a convict and his keeper carries the executioner’s chair closer. On a nearby highway, Willie’s father Frank lugs a gravestone on the back of his fading, old mule. In his office, the DA who prosecuted Willie reckons with his sentencing, while at their gas station at the crossroads outside of town, married couple Ora and Dale grapple with their grief and their secrets. As various members of the township consider and reflect on what Willie’s execution means, an intricately layered and complex portrait of a Jim Crow-era Southern community emerges.
Grove Press | 9780802128188

MILK!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas by Mark Kurlansky (History)
Before the industrial revolution, it was common for families to keep dairy cows and produce their own milk. But during the 19th century, mass production and urbanization made milk safety a leading issue of the day, with milk-borne illnesses a common cause of death. Pasteurization slowly became a legislative matter. And today milk is a test case in the most pressing issues in food politics, from industrial farming and animal rights to GMOs, the locavore movement, and advocates for raw milk, who controversially reject pasteurization. Tracing the liquid's diverse history from antiquity to the present, historian Mark Kurlansky details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics and economics.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781632863829

MY EX-LIFE by Stephen McCauley (Fiction)
David Hedges’ life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents’) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. The last person he expects to hear from is Julie Fiske. It’s been decades since they’ve spoken, and he’s relieved to hear she’s recovered from her brief, misguided first marriage. To him. Julie would like David’s help organizing college plans for her 17-year-old daughter, Mandy. When David flies east, they find themselves living under the same roof (one David needs to repair). David and Julie pick up exactly where they left off 30 years ago. But there’s one broken bit between them that no amount of home renovations will fix.
Flatiron Books | 9781250122438

OUR KIND OF CRUELTY by Araminta Hall (Psychological Thriller)
Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely, life before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love; in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He’s found the perfect home, the perfect job; he’s sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they’ll be blissfully happy together. It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been returning his emails or phone calls. It doesn’t matter that she says she’s marrying Angus. It’s all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he’ll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move, he’ll know just when to come to her rescue.
MCD | 9780374228194

PAUL SIMON: The Life by Robert Hilburn (Biography)
For more than 50 years, Paul Simon has spoken to us in songs about alienation, doubt, resilience and empathy in ways that have established him as one of the most beloved artists in American pop music history. But Simon is a deeply private person who has resisted speaking to us outside of his music. He has said he will not write an autobiography or memoir, and he has refused to talk to previous biographers. Finally, Simon has opened up --- for more than 100 hours of interviews --- to Robert Hilburn. The result is a deeply human account of the challenges and sacrifices of a life in music at the highest level.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501112126

THE PERFECTIONISTS: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester (History)
The rise of manufacturing could not have happened without an attention to precision. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in 18th-century England, standards of measurement were established, giving way to the development of machine tools --- machines that make machines. Eventually, the application of precision tools and methods resulted in the creation and mass production of items from guns and glass to mirrors, lenses and cameras --- and eventually gave way to further breakthroughs, including gene splicing, microchips and the Hadron Collider. Simon Winchester takes us back to the origins of the Industrial Age, to England where he introduces the scientific minds that helped usher in modern production.
Harper | 9780062652553

SEND DOWN THE RAIN by Charles Martin (Fiction)
Allie is still recovering from the loss of her family’s beloved waterfront restaurant when she loses her second husband to a highway accident. Meanwhile, Joseph has been adrift for many years, unable to come to terms with the trauma of his Vietnam War experiences. When he discovers a mother and her two small children lost in the forest, he helps them get back to their home in Florida. There he will return to his own hometown --- and witness the accident that launches a bittersweet reunion with his childhood sweetheart, Allie. When Joseph offers to help Allie rebuild her restaurant, it seems the flame may reignite --- until a 45-year-old secret from the past begins to emerge, threatening to destroy all hope for their second chance at love.
Thomas Nelson | 9780718084745

SHADOW CHILD by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto (Historical Fiction)
Twin sisters Hana and Kei grew up in a tiny Hawaiian town in the 1950s and 1960s, so close that they shared the same nickname. Raised in dreamlike isolation by their loving but unstable mother, they were fatherless, mixed-race and utterly inseparable, devoted to one another. But when their cherished threesome with Mama is broken, and then further shattered by a violent, nearly fatal betrayal that neither young woman can forgive, it seems their bond may be severed forever --- until, six years later, Kei arrives on Hana's lonely Manhattan doorstep with a secret that will change everything.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538711453

SIDE LIFE by Steve Toutonghi (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Vin, a down-on-his-luck young tech entrepreneur forced out of the software company he started, takes a job house-sitting an ultra-modern Seattle mansion whose owner has gone missing. There he discovers a secret basement lab with an array of computers and three large, smooth caskets. Inside one he finds a woman in a state of suspended animation. There is also a dog-eared notebook filled with circuit diagrams, beautiful and intricate drawings of body parts, and pages of code. When Vin decides to enter one of the caskets himself, his reality begins to unravel, and he finds himself on a terrifying journey that raises fundamental questions about reality, free will and the meaning of a human life.
Soho Press | 9781616958893

THE SOUL OF AMERICA: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham (History/Politics)
Our current climate of partisan fury is not new, and in THE SOUL OF AMERICA, Jon Meacham shows us how what Abraham Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature” have repeatedly won the day. Painting surprising portraits of Lincoln and other presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, and illuminating the courage of such influential citizen activists as Martin Luther King, Jr., early suffragettes Alice Paul and Carrie Chapman Catt, civil rights pioneers Rosa Parks and John Lewis, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Army-McCarthy hearings lawyer Joseph N. Welch, Meacham brings vividly to life turning points in American history.
Random House | 9780399589812

SPRING by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Fiction)
You don’t know what air is, and yet you breathe. You don’t know what sleep is, yet you sleep. You don’t know what night is, yet you lie in it. You don’t know what a heart is, yet your own heart beats steadily in your chest, day and night, day and night, day and night. So begins SPRING, the recommencement of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s literary project of assembling a personal encyclopedia of the world addressed directly to his newly born daughter. But here Knausgaard must also tell his daughter the story of what happened during the time when her mother was pregnant, and explain why he now has to attend appointments with child services. In order to keep his daughter safe, he must tell a terrible story.
Penguin Press | 9780399563362

THAT KIND OF MOTHER by Rumaan Alam (Fiction)
Struggling to juggle the demands of motherhood with her own aspirations, Rebecca Stone reaches out to the only person at the hospital who offers her any real help --- Priscilla Johnson --- and begs her to come home with them as her son’s nanny. Priscilla’s presence quickly does as much to shake up Rebecca’s perception of the world as it does to stabilize her life. Rebecca is white, and Priscilla is black, and through their relationship, Rebecca finds herself confronting, for the first time, the blind spots of her own privilege. When Priscilla dies unexpectedly in childbirth, Rebecca steps forward to adopt the baby. But she is unprepared for what it means to be a white mother with a black son.
Ecco | 9780062667601

A THEORY OF LOVE by Margaret Bradham Thornton (Fiction)
Helen Gibbs, a British journalist on assignment on the west coast of Mexico, meets Christopher Delavaux, an intriguing half-French, half-American lawyer-turned-financier who has come alone to surf. Living lives that never stop moving, Helen and Christopher must decide how much they exist for themselves and how much they exist for each other. In an effort to build his firm, Christopher leads a life full of speed and ambition with little time for Helen and even less when he suspects his business partner of illegal activity. Meanwhile, Helen searches far and wide for reporting work that will “take a bite out of her soul” --- refugees in Calais, a mountain climber in Chamonix, an orphaned circus performer in Cuba.
Ecco | 9780062742704

WARLIGHT by Michael Ondaatje (Historical Fiction)
In 1945, just after World War II, 14-year-old Nathaniel and his older sister, Rachel, stay behind in London when their parents move to Singapore, leaving them in the care of a mysterious figure named The Moth. They suspect he might be a criminal, and they grow both more convinced and less concerned as they come to know his eccentric crew of friends. But are they really what and who they claim to be? And what does it mean when the siblings' mother returns after months of silence without their father, explaining nothing, excusing nothing? A dozen years later, Nathaniel begins to uncover all that he didn't know and understand in that time.
Knopf | 9780525521198

WEST LIKE LIGHTNING: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express by Jim DeFelice (History)
On the eve of the Civil War, three American businessmen launched an audacious plan to create a financial empire by transforming communications across the hostile territory between the nation’s two coasts. In the process, they created one of the most enduring icons of the American West: the Pony Express. Daring young men galloped over a vast and unforgiving landscape, etching an irresistible tale that passed into myth almost instantly. Equally an improbable success and a business disaster, the Pony Express came and went in just 18 months, but not before uniting and captivating a nation on the brink of being torn apart. WEST LIKE LIGHTNING is the first major history of the Pony Express to put its birth, life and legacy into the full context of the American story.
William Morrow | 9780062496768

On Sale the Week of May 7th in Paperback 

May 8th

BAD DREAMS AND OTHER STORIES by Tessa Hadley (Fiction/Short Stories)
In these short stories from the award-winning author of THE PAST, it’s the ordinary things that turn out to be most extraordinary. Two sisters quarrel over an inheritance and a new baby; a child awake in the night explores the familiar rooms of her home, made strange by the darkness; a housekeeper caring for a helpless old man uncovers secrets from his past. The first steps into a turning point and a new life are made so easily and carelessly. Each of these stories illuminate crucial moments of transition, often imperceptible to the protagonists.
Harper Perennial | 9780062476678
 
THE BOOK OF SUMMER by Michelle Gable (Fiction)
For the first time in four years, physician Bess Codman visits Cliff House, the compound her great-grandparents built almost a century before. But due to erosion, the once-grand home will soon fall into the sea. It’s not just memories of her family home Bess must face, though, but also an old love that might hold new possibilities. In the midst of packing, Bess rediscovers the forgotten family guest book. Ruby, Bess’ grandmother and primary keeper of the book, always said Cliff House was a house of women, and by the very last day of the very last summer at Cliff House, Bess will understand the truth of her grandmother’s words in ways she never imagined.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250137401
 
DANGEROUS MINDS: A Knight and Moon Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
Buddhist monk Wayan Bagus lost his island of solitude and wants to get it back. The island was about 200 miles northeast of Samoa. It had a mountain, beaches, a rain forest and a volcano. And now it’s gone. Vanished without a trace. Brilliant and boyishly charming Emerson Knight likes nothing better than solving an unsolvable, improbable mystery. When clues lead to a dark and sinister secret that is being guarded by the National Park Service, Emerson will need to assemble a crack team for help. Since a crack team isn’t available, he enlists Riley Moon and his cousin Vernon. Together, this ragtag, mismatched trio will embark on a worldwide investigation that will expose a conspiracy 100 years in the making.
Bantam | 9780553392760
 
DRIVING MISS NORMA: One Family's Journey Saying "Yes" to Living by Tim Bauerschmidt and Ramie Liddle (Memoir)
When Miss Norma was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she was advised to undergo surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. But instead of confining herself to a hospital bed for what could be her last stay, Miss Norma --- newly widowed after nearly seven decades of marriage --- rose to her full height of five feet and told the doctor, “I’m ninety years old. I’m hitting the road.” And so Miss Norma took off on an unforgettable around-the-country journey in a 36-foot motor home with her retired son Tim, his wife Ramie, and their dog Ringo. With each passing mile (and one educational visit to a cannabis dispensary), Miss Norma’s health improves and conversations that had once been taboo begin to unfold.
HarperOne | 9780062664389
 
THE FACT OF A BODY: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (True Crime/Memoir)
Before Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich begins a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, she thinks her position is clear. The child of two lawyers, she is staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment convicted murderer Ricky Langley’s face flashes on the screen as she reviews old tapes, she is overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die. Shocked by her reaction, she digs deeper and deeper into the case. As Alexandria pores over the facts of the murder, she finds herself thrust into the complicated narrative of Ricky’s childhood. And by examining the details of Ricky’s case, she is forced to face her own story, to unearth long-buried family secrets, and reckon with a past that colors her view of Ricky's crime.
Flatiron Books | 9781250080554
 
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 Publishing | 9781632867056
 
HOLDING by Graham Norton (Mystery)
The remote Irish village of Duneen has known little drama, and yet its inhabitants are troubled: Sergeant P.J. Collins hasn’t always been this overweight; Brid Riordan, a mother of two, hasn’t always been an alcoholic; and elegant Evelyn Ross hasn’t always felt that her life was a total waste. So when human remains --- suspected to be those of Tommy Burke, a former lover of both Brid and Evelyn --- are discovered on an old farm, the village’s dark past begins to unravel. As a frustrated P.J. struggles to solve a genuine case for the first time in his professional life, he unearths a community’s worth of anger and resentments, secrets and regrets.
Washington Square Press | 9781501173271
 
I LIKED MY LIFE by Abby Fabiaschi (Fiction)
Maddy is a devoted stay-at-home wife and mother. She is the cornerstone of her family, a true matriarch...until she commits suicide, leaving her husband Brady and teenage daughter Eve heartbroken and reeling. As they sift through details of her last days, trying to understand the woman they thought they knew, Brady and Eve are forced to come to terms with unsettling truths. Maddy, however, isn’t ready to leave her family forever. Watching from beyond, she tries to find the perfect replacement for herself. Will the mystery of Maddy ever come to rest? And can her family make peace with their history and begin to heal?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250161062
 
ISADORA by Amelia Gray (Historical Fiction)
In 1913, the restless world sat on the brink of unimaginable suffering. But for one woman, the darkness of a new era had already made itself at home. Isadora Duncan would come to be known as the mother of modern dance, but in the spring of 1913 she was a grieving mother, after a freak accident in Paris resulted in the drowning death of her two young children. The accident cracked Isadora’s life in two: on one side, the brilliant young talent who captivated audiences the world over; on the other, a heartbroken mother spinning dangerously on the edge of sanity.
Picador | 9781250183095
 
MISTER MEMORY by Marcus Sedgwick (Historical Mystery)
In Paris in the year 1899, Marcel Després is arrested for the murder of his wife and transferred to the famous Salpetriere Asylum. The doctor assigned to his care soon realizes this is no ordinary patient: Marcel Després, Mister Memory, is a man who cannot forget. And the policeman assigned to his case soon realizes that something else is at stake: For why else would the criminal have been hurried off to the hospital, and why are his superiors so keen for the whole affair to be closed? This crime involves something bigger and stranger than a lovers' fight, something with links to the highest and lowest establishments in France. The policeman and the doctor between them must unravel the mystery, but the answers lie inside Marcel's head.
Pegasus Books | 9781681777337
 
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 | 9781616959005
 
NO ONE CAN PRONOUNCE MY NAME by Rakesh Satyal (Fiction)
Harit, a lonely Indian immigrant in his mid-40s, lives with his mother, who can no longer function after the death of Harit’s sister, Swati. In a misguided attempt to keep both himself and his mother sane, Harit has taken to dressing up in a sari every night to pass himself off as his sister. Meanwhile, Ranjana, also an Indian immigrant in her mid-40s, has just seen her only child, Prashant, off to college. Worried that her husband has begun an affair, she seeks solace by writing paranormal romances in secret. When Harit and Ranjana’s paths cross, they begin a strange yet necessary friendship that brings to light their own passions and fears.
Picador | 9781250112125
 
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 | 9781451634747
 
THE ONES WE CHOOSE by Julie Clark (Fiction)
Paperback Original
The powerful forces of science and family collide when geneticist Paige Robson finds her world in upheaval: Her eight-year-old son, Miles, is struggling to fit in at his new school and begins asking questions about his biological father that Paige can’t answer --- until fate thrusts the anonymous donor she used into their lives. Paige’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel as the truth of Miles’ paternity threatens to destroy everything she has grown to cherish. As Paige slowly opens herself up, she realizes that breakthroughs aren’t only for the lab. But when tragedy strikes, she must face the consequences of sharing a secret only she knows.
Gallery Books | 9781501184475
 
THE PURPLE SWAMP HEN AND OTHER STORIES by Penelope Lively (Fiction/Short Stories)
In the title story, a Mediterranean purple swamp hen chronicles the secrets and scandals of Quintus Pompeius’ villa, culminating with his narrow escape from the lava and ash of Vesuvius. “Abroad” captures the low point of an artist couple’s tumultuous European road trip, trapped in a remote Spanish farmhouse and forced to paint a family mural and pitch in with chores to pay for repairs to their broken-down car. Other stories in Penelope Lively’s first story collection in decades reveal friends and lovers in fateful moments of indiscretion, discovery and even retribution --- as in “The Third Wife,” when a woman learns her husband is a serial con artist and turns a house-hunting trip into an elaborately staged revenge trap.
Penguin Books | 9780735222052
 
REGRETS ONLY by Erin Duffy (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Claire walks in on her husband canoodling with their realtor, her seemingly perfect life comes crashing down. But how can she move on when she’s still stuck in the orbit of her husband’s world? For starters, she can get rid of her soon-to-be ex’s possessions by dumping them onto the curb…until complaints from the neighbors get the police involved. Now Claire is busy dodging the mean mommies at story hour and hiding from her ex-husband’s girlfriend in the grocery store. But as Claire soon learns, suburbia still has a few surprises in store for her --- surprises that will make her question her choices from the past, send her down an unexpected road to self-discovery, and maybe even lead to new love.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062698247
 
THE ROAD TO CAMELOT: Inside JFK's Five-Year Campaign by Thomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie (History/Politics)
John F. Kennedy and his young warriors invented modern presidential politics. They turned over accepted wisdom that his Catholicism was a barrier to winning an election and plotted a successful course to that constituency. The last-minute invitation to Lyndon B. Johnson for vice president in 1956 surprised them only because they had failed to notice that he wanted it. They invented The Missile Gap in the Cold War and out-glamoured Richard Nixon in the TV debates. Now acclaimed, award-winning journalists Tom Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie provide the most comprehensive account, based on a depth of personal reporting, interviews and archives.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501105579
 
SING, UNBURIED, SING by Jesmyn Ward (Fiction)
Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she’s high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie’s children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.
Scribner | 9781501126079
 
WATCH ME DISAPPEAR by Janelle Brown (Mystery/Thriller)
It’s been a year since Billie Flanagan went on a solo hike in Desolation Wilderness and vanished from the trail. Her husband and teenage daughter have been coping with Billie’s death the best they can: Jonathan drinks as he works on a loving memoir about his marriage; Olive grows remote, from both her father and her friends at the all-girls school she attends. But then Olive starts having strange visions of her mother, still alive. Jonathan worries about Olive’s emotional stability, until he starts unearthing secrets from Billie’s past that bring into question everything he thought he understood about his wife. Together, Olive and Jonathan embark on a quest for the truth.
Spiegel & Grau | 9780812989489
 
THE WINDFALL by Diksha Basu (Fiction)
For the past 30 years, Mr. and Mrs. Jha's lives have been defined by cramped spaces, cut corners, gossipy neighbors, and the small dramas of stolen yoga pants and stale marriages. They thought they'd settled comfortably into their golden years, pleased with their son’s acceptance into an American business school. But then Mr. Jha comes into an enormous and unexpected sum of money, and moves his wife from their housing complex in East Delhi to the super-rich side of town, where he becomes eager to fit in as a man of status. The move sets off a chain of events that rock their neighbors, their marriage, and their son, who is struggling to keep a lid on his romantic dilemmas and slipping grades, and brings unintended consequences.
Broadway Books | 9780451498922

Please visit the other websites in TheBookReportNetwork.com: 20SomethingReads.com, ReadingGroupGuides.com, GraphicNovelReporter.com, Teenreads.com, Kidsreads.com and AuthorsOnTheWeb.com.

And be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.