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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 24th and October 1st 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 the hardcovers and paperbacks releasing in October, which you can find in our Coming Soon feature.
We also 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 whether or not you look at the New York Times bestseller lists.
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Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News:
Bookreporter.com's Coming Soon Feature for October
In this newsletter, you will find some of the hardcovers and paperbacks that will be available the first week of October. But since we always love looking ahead --- and there are lots of noteworthy books to look forward to in October --- we want to give you a sneak peek at the entire month's worth of releases. Below are some highlights, but for a much more comprehensive list, take a look at October's Coming Soon feature here.
Hardcovers:
Paperbacks:
Click here for more October hardcovers and paperbacks.
On Sale the Week of September 24th in Hardcover
September 25th
AN ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE THING by Hank Green (Science Fiction/Humor)
The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at 3am, 23-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship, April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day, April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world, and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight. Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.
Dutton | 9781524743444
BELICHICK: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time by Ian O'Connor (Sports/Biography)
Bill Belichick is perhaps the most fascinating figure in the NFL --- the infamously dour face of one of the winningest franchises in sports. As head coach of the New England Patriots, he’s led the team to five Super Bowl championship trophies. In Ian O’Connor’s revelatory biography, readers will come to understand and see Belichick’s full life in football --- from watching college games as a kid with his father, a Naval Academy scout, to orchestrating two Super Bowl–winning game plans as defensive coordinator for the Giants, to his dramatic leap to New England, where he has made history.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544785748
THE CAREGIVER by Samuel Park (Fiction)
With no other family or friends her own age, Ana eclipses her little girl Mara’s entire world. They take turns caring for each other --- in ways big and small. However, their arrangement begins to unravel when Ana becomes involved with a civilian rebel group attempting to undermine the city's torturous Police Chief, who rules over 1980s Rio de Janeiro with terrifying brutality. Ana makes decisions that indelibly change their shared life. When Mara is forced to escape, she emigrates to California where she finds employment as a caregiver to a young woman dying of stomach cancer. It’s here that she begins to grapple with her turbulent past and starts to uncover vital truths --- about her mother, herself, and what it means to truly take care of someone.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501178771
CHRISTMAS CAKE MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Holiday Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
With her dream of opening The Cookie Jar taking shape, Hannah Swensen’s life matches the hectic December hustle and bustle in Lake Eden --- especially when she agrees to help recreate a spectacular Christmas Ball from the past in honor of Essie Granger, an elderly local in hospice care. But instead of poring over decadent dessert recipes for the merry festivities, she instantly becomes enthralled by Essie’s old notebooks and the tale of a woman escaping danger on the streets of New York. Hannah is surprised by Essie’s secret talent for penning crime fiction. She’s even more surprised when the story turns real.
Kensington | 9781617732324
THE FABULOUS BOUVIER SISTERS: The Tragic and Glamorous Lives of Jackie and Lee by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger (Biography)
When 64-year-old Jackie Kennedy Onassis died in her Fifth Avenue apartment, her younger sister Lee wept inconsolably. Then Jackie’s 38-page will was read. Lee discovered that substantial cash bequests were left to family members, friends and employees --- but nothing to her. "I have made no provision in this my Will for my sister, Lee B. Radziwill, for whom I have great affection, because I have already done so during my lifetime," read Jackie’s final testament. Drawing on the authors’ candid interviews with Lee Radziwill, THE FABULOUS BOUVIER SISTERS explores their complicated relationship, placing them at the center of 20th-century fashion, design and style.
Harper | 9780062364982
HIPPIE by Paulo Coelho (Fiction)
Paulo is a young, skinny Brazilian man who wants to become a writer and sets off on a journey in search of a deeper meaning for his life: first on the famous “Death Train” to Bolivia, then on to Peru, later hitchhiking through Chile and Argentina. Paulo’s travels take him farther to the famous Dam Square in Amsterdam, where he meets Karla, a Dutch woman who has been waiting to find the ideal companion to accompany her on the fabled hippie trail to Nepal. As they travel together, Paulo and Karla explore their own relationship: a life-defining love story that awakens them on every level and leads to choices and decisions that will set the course for their lives thereafter.
Knopf | 9780525655619
THE POISON SQUAD: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Deborah Blum (History)
By the end of the 19th century, food was dangerous. Lethal, even. Food manufacturers had rushed to embrace the rise of industrial chemistry, and were knowingly selling harmful products. Unchecked by government regulation, basic safety or even labeling requirements, they put profit before the health of their customers. But even as protective measures were enacted in Europe, American corporations blocked even modest regulations. Then, in 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the agriculture department, and the agency began methodically investigating food and drink fraud, even conducting shocking human tests on groups of young men who came to be known as "The Poison Squad."
Penguin Press | 9781594205149
RED WAR: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills (Political Thriller)
When Russian president Maxim Krupin discovers that he has inoperable brain cancer, he’s determined to cling to power. His first task is to kill or imprison any of his countrymen who can threaten him. Soon, though, his illness becomes serious enough to require a more dramatic diversion --- war with the West. Upon learning of Krupin’s condition, CIA director Irene Kennedy understands that the US is facing an opponent who has nothing to lose. The only way to avoid a confrontation that could leave millions dead is to send Mitch Rapp to Russia under impossibly dangerous orders. With the Kremlin’s entire security apparatus hunting him, he must find and kill a man many have deemed the most powerful in the world.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501190599
THE SHAPE OF THE RUINS by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Political Thriller)
When a man is arrested at a museum for attempting to steal the bullet-ridden suit of a murdered Colombian politician, few notice. But soon this thwarted theft takes on greater meaning as it becomes a thread in a widening web of popular fixations with conspiracy theories, assassinations and historical secrets. And it haunts those who feel that only they know the real truth behind these killings.
Riverhead Books | 9780735211148
THE THREE ESCAPES OF HANNAH ARENDT: A Tyranny of Truth by Ken Krimstein (Graphic Biography)
One of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century and a hero of political thought, the largely unsung and often misunderstood Hannah Arendt is best known for her landmark 1951 book on openness in political life, THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM, which, with its powerful and timely lessons for today, has become newly relevant. She led an extraordinary life. This was a woman who endured Nazi persecution firsthand, survived harrowing "escapes" from country to country in Europe, and finally had to give up her unique genius for philosophy, and her love of a very compromised man --- the philosopher and Nazi-sympathizer Martin Heidegger --- for what she called "love of the world."
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635571882
TRANSCRIPTION by Kate Atkinson (Historical Fiction)
In 1940, 18-year-old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever. Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316176637
WAITING FOR EDEN by Elliot Ackerman (Fiction)
Eden Malcom lies in a bed, unable to move or speak, imprisoned in his own mind. His wife, Mary, spends every day on the sofa in his hospital room. He has never even met their young daughter. And he will never again see the friend and fellow soldier who didn't make it back home --- and who narrates the novel. But on Christmas, the one day Mary is not at his bedside, Eden's re-ordered consciousness comes flickering alive. As he begins to find a way to communicate, some troubling truths about his marriage --- and about his life before he went to war --- come to the surface. Is Eden the same man he once was: a husband, a friend, a father-to-be? What makes a life worth living?
Knopf | 9781101947395
YOUR DUCK IS MY DUCK: Stories by Deborah Eisenberg (Fiction/Short Stories)
Each of the six stories in YOUR DUCK IS MY DUCK, Deborah Eisenberg’s first collection since 2006, has the heft and complexity of a novel. With her own inexorable but utterly unpredictable logic and her almost uncanny ability to conjure the strange states of mind and emotion that constitute our daily consciousness, Eisenberg pulls us as if by gossamer threads through her characters --- a tormented woman whose face determines her destiny; a group of film actors shocked to read a book about their past; a privileged young man who unexpectedly falls into a love affair with a human rights worker caught up in an all-consuming quest that he doesn't understand.
Ecco | 9780062688774
On Sale the Week of September 24th in Paperback
September 25th
BIRDING WITHOUT BORDERS: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World by Noah Strycker (Memoir)
In 2015, Noah Strycker set himself a lofty goal: to become the first person to see half the world’s birds in one year. For 365 days, with a backpack, binoculars and a series of one-way tickets, he traveled across 41 countries and all seven continents, eventually spotting 6,042 species --- by far the biggest birding year on record. This is no travelogue or glorified checklist. Noah ventures deep into a world of blood-sucking leeches, chronic sleep deprivation, airline snafus, breakdowns, mudslides, floods, war zones, ecologic devastation, conservation triumphs, common and iconic species, and scores of passionate bird lovers around the globe.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328494634
CHILDREN OF THE FLEET by Orson Scott Card (Science Fiction)
Ender Wiggin won the Third Formic war, ending the alien threat to Earth. Afterwards, all the terraformed Formic worlds were open to settlement by humans, and the International Fleet became the arm of the Ministry of Colonization, run by Hirum Graff. MinCol now runs Fleet School on the old Battle School station, and still recruits very smart kids to train as leaders of colony ships, and colonies. Dabeet Ochoa is a very smart kid. Top of his class in every school. But he doesn’t think he has a chance at Fleet School, because he has no connections to the Fleet. That he knows of. At least until the day that Colonel Graff arrives at his school for an interview.
Tor Science Fiction | 9780765377050
THE CHRISTMAS SISTERS by Sarah Morgan (Romance)
Paperback Original
Suzanne McBride's three adopted daughters are coming home for the holidays, but tensions are running high. Hannah knows she can’t avoid spending the holidays with her family two years in a row. But it’s not the weight of their expectations that’s panicking her --- it’s the life-changing secret she’s hiding. All Beth wants for Christmas is time to decide if she’s ready to return to work. Seeing everyone was supposed to help her stress levels, not increase them! Posy isn’t sure she’s living her best life, but with her parents depending on her, making a change seems risky --- but not as risky as falling for gorgeous new neighbor Luke. As Suzanne’s dreams of the perfect McBride Christmas unravel, she must rely on the magic of the season to bring her daughters together.
HQN | 9781335946478
A DEATH IN LIVE OAK: A Jack Swyteck Novel by James Grippando (Legal Thriller)
When the body of Jamal Cousin, president of the preeminent black fraternity at Florida's flagship university, is discovered hogtied in the Stygian water swamps of the Suwanee River Valley, the death sets off a firestorm that threatens to rage out of control when a fellow student, Mark Towson, the president of a prominent white fraternity, is accused of the crime. Contending with rising political tensions, racial unrest and a sensational media, Townson’s defense attorney, Jack Swyteck, knows that the stakes could not be higher. The evidence against his client, which includes a threatening text message referencing "strange fruit" on the river, seems overwhelming. Then Jack gets a break that could turn the case.
Harper | 9780062657817
DEEP FREEZE: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller)
Virgil Flowers knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt --- and, as it turned out, homicidal --- local school board, and now the town is back in view with more alarming news: A woman has been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. There’s a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of 20 years ago that has a mid-winter reunion coming up, so Virgil begins to dig into 20 years’ worth of traumas, feuds and bad blood. In the process, one thing becomes increasingly clear to him. It’s true what they say: High school is murder.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399573781
DUEL TO THE DEATH: An Ali Reynolds Mystery by J.A. Jance (Mystery/Thriller)
After taking down the man responsible for his best friend’s death, Stuart Ramey thinks the case is finally closed. That is, until Stu finds himself left with a multimillion dollar fortune in Bitcoin in a desperate bid by Frigg, a rogue A.I. program created by the killer, to keep itself from being fully deactivated. To sort out his situation and take Frigg down for good, Stu enlists the help of Ali Reynolds and the rest of his cyber security colleagues at High Noon Enterprises. But they are not the only ones who know about Frigg’s existence. Graciella Miramar is the right-hand woman to El Pescado, the leader of a dangerous drug cartel, and she’ll do anything to get her hands on that program.
Pocket Books | 9781501150999
ENDURANCE: My Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly (Memoir)
The veteran of four spaceflights and the American record holder for consecutive days spent in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have. Now, he takes us inside a sphere utterly hostile to human life. He describes navigating the extreme challenge of long-term spaceflight: the devastating effects on the body; the isolation from everyone he loves and the comforts of Earth; the catastrophic risks of colliding with space junk; and the still more haunting threat of being unable to help should tragedy strike at home --- an agonizing situation Kelly faced when, on a previous mission, his twin brother's wife, American Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was shot while he still had two months in space.
Vintage | 9780525432432
FEAR by Dirk Kurbjuweit (Psychological Thriller)
Randolph Tiefenthaler insists he had a normal childhood, though he grew up with a father who kept 30 loaded guns in the house. A modestly successful architect with a wonderful family and a beautiful home, he soon finds his life compromised when his father, a man Randolph loves yet has always feared, is imprisoned for murder. FEAR is the story of the twisted events leading up to his father’s incarceration.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062678355
FIVE-CARAT SOUL by James McBride (Fiction/Short Stories)
The stories in FIVE-CARAT SOUL --- none of them ever published before --- spring from the place where identity, humanity and history converge. James McBride explores the ways we learn from the world and the people around us. An antiques dealer discovers that a legendary toy commissioned by Civil War General Robert E. Lee now sits in the home of a black minister in Queens. Five strangers find themselves thrown together and face unexpected judgment. An American president draws inspiration from a conversation he overhears in a stable. And members of The Five-Carat Soul Bottom Bone Band recount stories from their own messy and hilarious lives.
Riverhead Books | 9780735216709
FOOLS’ RIVER: A Poke Rafferty Thriller by Timothy Hallinan (Thriller)
The two most difficult days in Bangkok writer Poke Rafferty’s life begin with an emergency visit from Edward Dell, the almost-boyfriend of Poke’s teenage daughter, Miaow. The boy’s father, Buddy, a late-middle-aged womanizer who has moved to Bangkok for happy hunting, has disappeared, and money is being siphoned out of his bank and credit card accounts. It soon becomes apparent that Buddy is in the hands of a pair of killers who prey on Bangkok’s “sexpats”; when his accounts are empty, he’ll be found, like a dozen others before him, floating facedown in a Bangkok canal. His money is almost gone. Over 48 frantic hours, Poke does everything he can to locate Buddy before it’s too late.
Soho Crime | 9781616959722
GRANT by Ron Chernow (Biography)
Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman, or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Ron Chernow shows in his biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.
Penguin Books | 9780143110637
JERUSALEM by Alan Moore (Fiction)
In JERUSALEM, Alan Moore channels both the ecstatic visions of William Blake and the theoretical physics of Albert Einstein through the hardscrabble streets and alleys of his hometown of Northampton, UK. In the half a square mile of decay and demolition that was England’s Saxon capital, eternity is loitering between the firetrap housing projects. Embedded in the grubby amber of the district’s narrative among its saints, kings, prostitutes and derelicts, a different kind of human time is happening, a soiled simultaneity that does not differentiate between the petrol-colored puddles and the fractured dreams of those who navigate them.
Liveright | 9781631494727
KILLING PATTON: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (History)
General Patton died under mysterious circumstances in the months following the end of World War II. For almost 70 years, there has been suspicion that his death was not an accident --- and may very well have been an act of assassination. KILLING PATTON takes readers inside the final year of the war and recounts the events surrounding Patton's tragic demise, naming the many powerful people who wanted him dead.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250070746
MIND GAME: An Eve Duncan Novel by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
Scotland holds a treasure that Jane MacGuire has been hunting for years. But as she scours the highlands in search of it, she’s plagued by dreams of a girl in danger. Who is this girl, and what is she trying to tell Jane? And will Jane figure it out before it’s too late --- for her and the mysterious young woman? Things are further complicated when Seth Caleb comes back into Jane’s life. This time, Jane finds herself pulled unexpectedly into his world as she fights to save him. But Caleb isn’t the only person sweeping her up into startling developments. When Eve Duncan surprises Jane with news of her own, Jane comes face to face with stunning changes in the lives of those she loves most.
St. Martin's Paperbacks | 9781250075925
THE OTHER GIRL by Erica Spindler (Thriller)
Officer Miranda Rader of the Harmony, Louisiana PD is known for her honesty, integrity and steady hand in a crisis --- but that wasn’t always so. Miranda comes from the town of Jasper, and her side of the tracks was the wrong one. She’s worked hard to earn the respect of her co-workers and the community. When Miranda and her partner are called to investigate the murder of one of the town’s most beloved college professors, they’re unprepared for the brutality of the scene. This murder is unlike any they’ve ever investigated, and just when Miranda thinks she’s seen the worst of it, she finds a piece of evidence that chills her to the core: a faded newspaper clipping about that terrible night 15 years ago.
St. Martin's Paperbacks | 9781250191052
PARADISE VALLEY: A Highway Novel by C.J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
For three years, Investigator Cassie Dewell has been on the hunt for a serial killer known as the Lizard King, whose hunting grounds are the highways and truck stops where runaways and prostitutes are most likely to vanish. Working for the Bakken County, North Dakota sheriff's department, Cassie has lured him and his truck to a depot. But her plan goes horribly wrong, and consequently she loses her job. At the same time, Kyle Westergaard, a troubled kid whom Cassie has taken under her wing, has disappeared after telling people that he’s going off on a long-planned adventure. Kyle's grandmother begs Cassie to find him, and Cassie agrees --- all the while hunting the truck driver.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250051066
SEASON OF WONDER: A Haven Point Novel by RaeAnne Thayne (Romance)
Paperback Original
While in high school, Dani Capelli fell hard for the wrong boy, and found herself pregnant and married by graduation. Two daughters later, she realized her mistake, filed for divorce and enrolled in vet school. Things were finally looking up…until her ex-husband became her late husband, in the most notorious way possible. So when the retiring Haven Point veterinarian offers Dani a chance to settle in the small Idaho town and take over his practice, she jumps at it. But adjusting to the charming mountain community isn’t easy; 13-year-old Silver begins acting out, while six-year-old Mia is growing too attached to their next-door-neighbor, Deputy Sheriff Ruben Morales. Dani can’t blame her. Ruben is everything she’s secretly wanted --- and everything she can’t bear to risk loving…and losing.
HQN | 9781335947932
THE SECRETS WE CARRIED: A Butternut Lake Novel by Mary McNear (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Quinn LaPointe grew up on beautiful Butternut Lake. But after a high school tragedy, she left for college and never looked back. Becoming a successful writer in Chicago, she worked to keep out the dark memories of an accident that upended her life. But now, after 10 years, she’s finally returned home. Determined to come to terms with the tragedy and rebuild old relationships, Quinn settles into Loon Bay Cabins, a rustic but cozy lakeside resort, where she begins writing down her memories of the year before the accident. Her journey through the past leads her to some surprising discoveries about the present. As secrets are revealed and a new love emerges, Quinn finds that understanding the past is the key to the future.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062699275
A TWIST OF THE KNIFE by Becky Masterman (Thriller)
Ex-FBI agent Brigid Quinn, now happily settled in Tucson, doesn’t visit her family in Florida much. But her former partner on the force, Laura Coleman --- a woman whose life she has saved and who has saved her life in turn --- is living there now. So when Laura calls about a case that is not going well, Brigid doesn’t hesitate to get on a plane. On leave from the Bureau, Laura has been volunteering for a legal group trying to prove the innocence of a man who is on death row for killing his family. Laura is firmly convinced that he didn’t do it, while Brigid isn’t so sure. But the date for his execution is coming up so quickly that they’ll have to act fast to find any evidence that may absolve him before it’s too late.
Minotaur Books | 9781250160713
On Sale the Week of October 1st in Hardcover
October 1st
THE RAGGED EDGE OF NIGHT by Olivia Hawker (Historical Fiction)
Germany, 1942. Franciscan friar Anton Starzmann is stripped of his place in the world when his school is seized by the Nazis. He relocates to a small German hamlet to wed Elisabeth Herter, a widow who seeks a marriage to a man who can help raise her three children. As Anton struggles to adapt to the roles of husband and father, he learns of the Red Orchestra, an underground network of resisters plotting to assassinate Hitler. Despite Elisabeth’s reservations, Anton joins this army of shadows. But when the SS discovers his schemes, Anton will embark on a final act of defiance that may cost him his life --- even if it means saying goodbye to the family he has come to love more than he ever believed possible.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781503900905
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE by Matthew Farrell (Mystery/Thriller)
When a mutilated body is found hanging in a seedy motel, forensics specialist Liam Dwyer assumes the crime scene will be business as usual. Instead, the victim turns out to be a woman he’d had an affair with before breaking it off to save his marriage. But there’s a bigger problem: Liam has no memory of where he was or what he did on the night of the murder. Panicked, Liam turns to his brother, Sean, a homicide detective. From fingerprints to DNA, everything points to Liam, who must race against time and his department to uncover the truth --- even if that truth is his own guilt. Yet as he digs deeper, dark secrets come to light, and Liam begins to suspect the killer might actually be Sean.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503902404
October 2nd
ALASKAN HOLIDAY by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
Before beginning her dream job as sous chef in one of Seattle’s hottest new restaurants, Josie Avery takes a summer position cooking at a lakeside lodge in the remote Alaskan town of Ponder. Josie falls for the rustic charms of the local community --- in particular, famed master swordsmith Palmer Saxon, who would like nothing more than to make Josie his wife. But Josie can’t imagine abandoning her mother and sacrificing her career to stay in this isolated town --- not even for a man she’s quickly coming to love. Fate has other plans, though. Josie misses the last boat out of town before winter sets in, stranding her in Ponder and putting her dream job at risk. As the holidays approach, Josie and Palmer must grapple with the complications that arise when dreams confront reality.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181283
ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW: A Memoir by Nicole Chung (Memoir)
Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parents had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hope of giving her a better life, that forever feeling slightly out of place was her fate as a transracial adoptee. But as Nicole grew up --- facing prejudice her adoptive family couldn’t see, finding her identity as an Asian American and as a writer, becoming ever more curious about where she came from --- she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth.
Catapult | 9781936787975
BECOMING MRS. LEWIS by Patti Callahan (Historical Fiction)
When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis --- known as Jack --- she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and --- against all odds --- finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.
Thomas Nelson | 9780785224501
BLOOD COMMUNION: A Tale of Prince Lestat by Anne Rice (Paranormal Thriller/Fantasy)
Lestat, rebel outlaw, addresses the tribe of vampires, telling the mesmerizing story of the formation of the Blood Communion and how he became Prince of the vampire world, the true ruler of this vast realm, and how his vision for all the Children of the Universe to thrive as one came to be. The tale spills from Lestat's heart, as he speaks first of his new existence as reigning monarch --- and then of his fierce battle of wits and words with the mysterious Rhoshamandes, a demon spirit who refuses to live in harmony at the Court of Prince Lestat and threatens all that Lestat has dreamt of.
Knopf | 9781524732646
BOOK OF THE JUST: Book Three of the Bohemian Trilogy by Dana Chamblee Carpenter (Supernatural Thriller)
Hiding among a tribe of the Martu in the isolation of the Australian outback near the edges of Lake Disappointment, Mouse and her lover, Angelo, have seemingly evaded at least one of the predators hunting them. Carefully dropping bogus breadcrumbs across Europe, they misdirect the Novus Rishi, a ruthless cult that wants Mouse as the ultimate weapon in their battle against evil. But when unnerving dreams start to plague Angelo, and the ancient beings of the Martu’s Dreaming send prophetic warnings that include visions of Mouse at her father’s side, the two lovers realize it’s time to act. With nowhere left to run, Mouse and Angelo prepare for a last showdown with their enemies.
Pegasus Books | 9781681778587
CONSUMED by J.R. Ward (Romantic Suspense)
Firefighter Anne Ashburn was fearless and loved the thrill of fighting fires, pushing herself to be the best. But when one risky decision at a warehouse fire changes her life forever, she must reinvent not only her job, but her whole self. Now an arson investigator, Anne doesn't believe she will ever feel that same all-consuming passion for her job again --- until she encounters a string of suspicious fires setting her beloved city ablaze. Danny McGuire is the best fireman in the county, but is in the midst of a personal meltdown. He is taking risks like never before and seems to have a death wish, until he teams up with Anne to find the fire starter. But Danny may be more than a distraction, and as Anne narrows in on her target, the arsonist begins to target her.
Gallery Books | 9781501194900
THE DEAD RINGER: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton (Mystery)
Agatha Raisin convinces lawyer Julian Brody to hire her to investigate the mystery of Bishop Peter Salver-Hinkley’s ex-fiancée, who went missing years ago and whose body was never found. Meanwhile, the bodies just keep on piling up. The corpse of Larry Jensen, a local policeman, is discovered in the crypt. Millicent Dupin, one of a pair of bell-ringing identical twins, is murdered near the church of St. Ethelred. And Terry Fletcher, a journalist and (briefly) Agatha’s lover, is found dead in her sitting room. Agatha widens her investigation, and very soon her main suspect is the handsome Bishop himself. But could he really be behind this series of violent killings, or is it someone who wants to bring him --- and his reputation --- down?
Minotaur Books | 9781250157690
DEVIL'S DAY by Andrew Michael Hurley (Gothic Horror/Thriller)
Every autumn, John Pentecost returns to the farm where he grew up, to help gather the sheep down from the moors for the winter. Very little changes in the Endlands, but this year, his grandfather --- the Gaffer --- has died and John's new wife, Katherine, is accompanying him for the first time. Each year, the Gaffer would redraw the boundary lines of the village, with pen and paper but also through the remembrance of tales and timeless communal rituals, which keep the sheep safe from the Devil. But as the farmers of the Endlands bury the Gaffer and prepare to gather the sheep, they begin to wonder if they've let the Devil in after all.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328489883
DRACUL by Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker (Supernatural Thriller/Gothic Horror)
It is 1868, and a 21-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night. A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents' Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behavior by Ellen --- a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen --- and that the nightmare they've thought long ended is only beginning.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735219342
A DREAM CALLED HOME: A Memoir by Reyna Grande (Memoir)
When Reyna Grande was nine years old, she walked across the US–Mexico border in search of a home, desperate to be reunited with her parents. What she found instead was an indifferent mother, an abusive, alcoholic father, and a school system that belittled her heritage. With so few resources at her disposal, Reyna finds refuge in words, and it is her love of reading and writing that propels her to rise above until she achieves the impossible and is accepted to the University of California, Santa Cruz. The actual experience of American college life is intimidating and unfamiliar for someone like Reyna, but she holds fast to her vision of becoming a writer, only to discover she knows nothing about what it takes to make a career out of a dream.
Atria Books | 9781501171420
THE DREAM DAUGHTER by Diane Chamberlain (Fiction)
When Carly Sears, a young woman widowed by the Vietnam War, receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated. It is 1970, and she is told that nothing can be done to help her child. But her brother-in-law, a physicist with a mysterious past, tells her that perhaps there is a way to save her baby. What he suggests is something that will shatter every preconceived notion that Carly has. Something that will require a kind of strength and courage she never knew existed. Something that will mean an unimaginable leap of faith on Carly's part. And all for the love of her unborn child.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250087300
AN EASY DEATH by Charlaine Harris (Dark Fantasy/Thriller)
Battered by a run across the border to Mexico, Lizbeth Rose takes a job offer from a pair of Russian wizards to be their local guide and gunnie. They’re searching through the small border towns near Mexico, trying to locate a low-level magic practitioner, Oleg Karkarov. The wizards believe Oleg is a direct descendant of Grigori Rasputin, and that Oleg’s blood can save the young tsar’s life. As the trio journey through an altered America, shattered into several countries by the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression, they’re set on by enemies. It’s clear that a powerful force does not want them to succeed in their mission. Lizbeth Rose is a gunnie who has never failed a client, but her oath will test all of her skills and resolve to get them all out alive.
Saga Press | 9781481494922
GONE SO LONG by Andre Dubus III (Fiction)
Daniel Ahearn lives a quiet, solitary existence in a seaside New England town. Forty years ago, following a shocking act of impulsive violence on his part, his daughter, Susan, was ripped from his arms by police. Now in her 40s, Susan still suffers from the trauma of a night she doesn’t remember, as she struggles to feel settled, to love a man and create something that lasts. Lois, her maternal grandmother who raised her, tries to find peace in her antique shop in a quaint Florida town but cannot escape her own anger, bitterness and fear.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393244106
THE GREATEST LOVE STORY EVER TOLD: An Oral History by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman (Memoir)
The year: 2000. The setting: Los Angeles. A gorgeous virtuoso of an actress agreed to star in a random play, and a basement-dwelling scenic carpenter said he would assay a supporting role in the selfsame pageant. At the first rehearsal, she surveyed her fellow cast members, determining if any of the men might qualify to provide her with a satisfying fling. Her gaze fell upon the carpenter, and like a bolt of lightning the thought struck her: no dice. Moving on. Yet, unbeknownst to our protagonists, Cupid had merely set down his bow and picked up a rocket launcher…that fired a love rocket (not a euphemism). The players were Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, and the resulting romance, once ignited, was…epic. Beyond epic. It resulted in a coupling that has endured to this day.
Dutton | 9781101986677
THE KENNEDY DEBUTANTE by Kerri Maher (Historical Fiction)
Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy moves in rarified circles. Eager to escape the watchful eye of her strict mother, Rose, the antics of her older brothers, Jack and Joe, and the erratic behavior of her sister Rosemary, Kick is ready to strike out on her own and is soon swept off her feet by Billy Hartington, the future Duke of Devonshire. But their love is forbidden, as Kick's devout Catholic family and Billy's staunchly Protestant one would never approve their match. When war breaks like a tidal wave across her world, Billy is ripped from her arms as the Kennedys are forced to return to the States. Kick gets work as a journalist and joins the Red Cross to get back to England, where she will have to decide where her true loyalties lie --- with family or with love.
Berkley | 9780451492043
ON DESPERATE GROUND: The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle by Hampton Sides (History)
On October 15, 1950, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of UN troops in Korea, convinced President Harry Truman that the Communist forces of Kim Il-sung would be utterly defeated by Thanksgiving. The Chinese, he said with near certainty, would not intervene in the war. As he was speaking, 300,000 Red Chinese soldiers began secretly crossing the Manchurian border. Led by some 20,000 men of the First Marine Division, the Americans moved deep into the snowy mountains of North Korea, toward the trap Mao had set for the vainglorious MacArthur along the frozen shores of the Chosin Reservoir. What followed was one of the most heroic --- and harrowing --- operations in American military history, and one of the classic battles of all time.
Doubleday | 9780385541152
ON SUNSET: A Memoir by Kathryn Harrison (Memoir)
Kathryn Harrison always understood that her family was beyond eccentric. She was largely raised by her grandparents in an outsized Tudor confection of a house on the periphery of Bel Air, which she thought of as "Sunset." Harry Jacobs had been a fur trapper in Alaska, a soldier in the trenches of the Great War, a traveling salesman in a Model T. Margaret Sassoon had lived a privileged life as a member of a Jewish merchant family in Shanghai, turning down offers of marriage from Russian princes exiled by the Revolution. Kathryn grew up in an almost mythical realm of their letters, artifacts and stories --- until declining finances forced them to sell the house on Sunset in 1971, and night fell fast. ON SUNSET seeks to recover that childhood, that place, those lives.
Doubleday | 9780385542678
REAGAN: An American Journey by Bob Spitz (Biography)
Bob Spitz's REAGAN is an absorbing, richly detailed, even revelatory chronicle of the full arc of Ronald Reagan's epic life --- giving full weight to the Hollywood years, his transition to politics and rocky but ultimately successful run as California governor, and, of course, his iconic presidency, filled with storm and stress but climaxing with his peace talks with the Soviet Union that would serve as his greatest legacy. It is filled with fresh assessments and shrewd judgments, and doesn't flinch from a full reckoning with the man's strengths and limitations.
Penguin Press | 9781594205316
A SPARK OF LIGHT by Jodi Picoult (Fiction)
The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center --- a women’s reproductive health services clinic --- its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage. After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages, he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his 15-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic. But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters.
Ballantine Books | 9780345544988
THE STRANGER GAME by Peter Gadol (Psychological Thriller)
Rebecca’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, Ezra, has gone missing. The police suspect he has been playing the “stranger game,” a viral hit in which players start following others in real life, as they might otherwise do on social media. As the game spreads, however, the rules begin to change, and disappearances are reported across the country. Curious about this popular new obsession, and hoping that she might be able to track down Ezra, Rebecca tries the game for herself. She also meets Carey, who is willing to take the game further than she imagined possible. As her relationship with Carey and involvement in the game deepen, she begins to uncover an unsettling subculture that has infiltrated the world around her.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335943910
THERE WILL BE NO MIRACLES HERE: A Memoir by Casey Gerald (Memoir)
Casey Gerald's story begins at the end of the world: Dallas, New Year's Eve 1999, when he gathers with the congregation of his grandfather's black evangelical church to see which of them will be carried off. His beautiful, fragile mother disappears frequently and mysteriously; for a brief idyll, he and his sister live like Boxcar Children on her disability checks. When Casey --- following in the footsteps of his father, a gridiron legend --- is recruited to play football at Yale, he enters a world he's never dreamed of. But even as he attains the inner sanctums of power, Casey sees how the world crushes those who live at its margins. He sees how the elite perpetuate the salvation stories that keep others from rising. And he sees, most painfully, how his own ascension is part of the scheme.
Riverhead Books | 9780735214200
VALLEY FORGE by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (History)
Eighteen months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, some 12,000 members of America’s beleaguered Continental Army stagger into a small Pennsylvania encampment. The starving and half-naked force is reeling from a string of demoralizing defeats at the hands of King George III’s army. Their commander in chief, George Washington, is at the lowest ebb of his military career. Determined to keep the rebel cause alive through sheer force of will, Washington sets out to breathe new life into his military force. Against all odds, they manage to turn a bobtail army of citizen soldiers into a professional fighting force that will change the world forever. VALLEY FORGE is the story of how that metamorphosis occurred.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501152719
VIRGIL WANDER by Leif Enger (Fiction)
Midwestern movie house owner Virgil Wander is “cruising along at medium altitude” when his car flies off the road into icy Lake Superior. Virgil survives, but his language and memory are altered. Awakening in this new life, he begins to piece together his personal history and the lore of his broken town, with the help of a cast of affable and curious locals --- from Rune, a twinkling, pipe-smoking, kite-flying stranger investigating the mystery of his disappeared son; to Nadine, the reserved, enchanting wife of the vanished man, to Tom, a journalist and Virgil’s oldest friend; and various members of the Pea family who must confront tragedies of their own. Into this community returns a shimmering prodigal son who may hold the key to reviving their town.
Grove Press | 9780802128782
WAR OF THE WOLF by Bernard Cornwell (Historical Fiction)
While Uhtred of Bebbanburg might have regained his family’s fortress, it seems that a peaceful life is not to be --- as he is under threat from both an old enemy and a new foe. The old enemy comes from Wessex, where a dynastic struggle will determine who will be the next king. And the new foe is Sköll, a Norseman, whose ambition is to be King of Northumbria and who leads a frightening army of wolf-warriors, men who fight half-crazed in the belief that they are indeed wolves. Uhtred, believing he is cursed, must fend off one enemy while he tries to destroy the other. In this new chapter of the Saxon Tales series, Uhtred returns to fight once again for the destiny of England.
Harper | 9780062563170
ZERO SUM GAME by S. L. Huang (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight, and she'll take any job for the right price. As far as Cas knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower...until she discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Möbius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master. Cas should run, like she usually does, but for once she's involved. There’s only one problem: she doesn’t know which of her thoughts are her own anymore.
Tor Books | 9781250180254
On Sale the Week of October 1st in Paperback
October 1st
LET THESE BONES LIVE AGAIN: A Christopher Worthy and Father Fortis Mystery by David Carlson (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Allyson Worthy, daughter of the renowned homicide detective Christopher Worthy, has landed a dream internship with the Venice police. On her first day, she is assigned to assist with a bizarre case --- the apparent suicides of two wealthy Americans in the city. Linking the two persons are their similar cancer diagnoses and strange incisions on their bodies. The family of the second victim doubt the suicide verdict and hire Christopher Worthy to look into the death. After speaking at a conference in Rome, Father Nicholas Fortis is asked by the Vatican to look into the recent theft of relics, bones of saints, from Venetian churches. As clues fall into place, Allyson is unexpectedly put in danger as she unknowingly agrees to rendezvous with the killer.
Coffeetown Press | 9781603813938
October 2nd
THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World by A. J. Baime (History)
Chosen as FDR’s fourth term Vice President for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman was the prototypical ordinary man. That is, until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR’s sudden death. During the climactic months of the Second World War, Truman had to play judge and jury, pulling America to the forefront of the global stage. THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during this tumultuous, history-making 120 days, when the stakes were high and the challenge even higher.
Mariner Books | 9781328505682
ALI: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Biography)
Muhammad Ali was one of the 20th century’s greatest radicals and most compelling figures. At his funeral in 2016, eulogists said Ali had transcended race and united the country, but they got it wrong. Race was the theme of Ali’s life. He insisted that America come to grips with a black man who wasn’t afraid to speak out or break the rules. He didn’t overcome racism. He called it out. Ali went from being one of the most despised men in the country to one of the most beloved. But until now, he has never been the subject of a complete, unauthorized biography. Jonathan Eig breaks new ground and radically reshapes our understanding of the slippery figure who was Muhammad Ali.
Mariner Books | 9781328505699
ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL by Sarah Vaughan (Thriller)
Sophie Whitehouse has a lovely home, two adorable children, and a handsome, successful husband. But everything changes the night James comes home and confesses an indiscretion. It turns out that his revelation is just the tip of the iceberg: a larger scandal is about to explode. James stands accused of a terrible crime, and their family is shoved into the spotlight as his trial begins. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, another woman is working to destroy Sophie’s husband. Sophie remains convinced of James’ innocence and is desperate to protect her precious family from the rumors that threaten to rip them apart. Is James the guilty perpetrator or an innocent victim of a toxic agenda?
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501172175
BLACKFISH CITY by Sam J. Miller (Dystopian Fantasy/Thriller)
After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle. Its denizens have become accustomed to a roughshod new way of living, but crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside direst poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called “the breaks” is ravaging the population. When a strange new visitor arrives --- a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side --- the city is entranced. The “orcamancer,” as she’s known, very subtly brings together four people to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves.
Ecco | 9780062684875
CARNEGIE'S MAID by Marie Benedict (Historical Fiction)
Clara Kelley is not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh's grandest households. She's a poor farmer's daughter with nowhere to go and nothing in her pockets. But the other woman with the same name has vanished, and pretending to be her just might get Clara some money to send back home. Serving as a lady's maid in the household of Andrew Carnegie requires skills he doesn't have, answering to an icy mistress who rules her sons and her domain with an iron fist. What Clara does have is a strong resolve coupled with an uncanny understanding of business, and Andrew begins to rely on her. But Clara can't let her guard down, not even when Andrew becomes something more than an employer.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492662709
CODE GIRLS: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy (History)
Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than 10,000 women served as code breakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history. Now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service and scientific accomplishment.
Hachette Books | 9780316352543
FALL FROM GRACE by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Sydney Wells’ perfect life with her wealthy, devoted husband vanishes when he dies suddenly in an accident. Widowed at 49, she discovers he has failed to include her in his will. With Andrew’s vicious daughters in control of his estate, and no home or money, Sydney finds a job in fashion, despite her own designer daughters’ warnings. Naïve, out of her element, and alone in a world of shady international deals and dishonest people, she is set up by her boss and finds herself faced with criminal prosecution. What happens when you lose everything? Faced with prison, Sydney must rebuild her life from the bottom to the top again, with honor, resourcefulness and dignity.
Dell | 9781101884027
FALSE WITNESS by Andrew Grant (Mystery/Thriller)
A woman disappears on her 21st birthday. The following day her body is found, wrapped neatly like a gift. What does Detective Cooper Devereaux have to go on? Very little. Then another victim is discovered. Again, she was killed on her 21st birthday. Again, her body was wrapped like a gift. By the third murder the tabloids have dubbed the homicidal monster the Birthday Killer --- and Devereaux is under the gun. While Devereaux’s own violent and mysterious past nips at his heels, and his fragile home life threatens to unravel, he can’t afford to be anything but totally obsessed with the frantic search through the many layers of this city, from its wealthy enclaves to its dark criminal underbelly.
Ballantine Books | 9780399594359
THE FLOATING WORLD by C. Morgan Babst (Fiction)
THE FLOATING WORLD takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina with the story of the Boisdorés, whose roots stretch back nearly to the foundation of New Orleans. Though the storm is fast approaching the Louisiana coast, Cora, the family’s fragile elder daughter, refuses to leave the city, forcing her parents, Joe Boisdoré, an artist descended from a freed slave who became one of the city’s preeminent furniture makers, and his white “Uptown” wife, Dr. Tess Eshleman, to evacuate without her, setting off a chain of events that leaves their marriage in shambles and Cora catatonic --- the victim or perpetrator of some violence mysterious even to herself.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208639
FRESH COMPLAINT: Stories by Jeffrey Eugenides (Fiction/Short Stories)
Ranging from the bitingly reproductive antics of “Baster” to the dreamy, moving account of a young traveler’s search for enlightenment in “Air Mail,” Jeffrey Eugenides’ first collection of short fiction presents characters in the midst of personal and national emergencies. We meet a failed poet who, envious of other people’s wealth during the real-estate bubble, becomes an embezzler; a clavichordist whose dreams of art founder under the obligations of marriage and fatherhood; and, in “Fresh Complaint,” a high school student whose wish to escape the strictures of her immigrant family leads her to a drastic decision that upends the life of a middle-aged British physicist.
Picador | 9781250192721
THE GLASS FOREST by Cynthia Swanson (Historical/Literary Thriller)
In the autumn of 1960, Angie Glass is living an idyllic life in her Wisconsin hometown. At 21, she is married to charming, handsome Paul and has just given birth to a baby boy. But when Paul’s niece, Ruby, reports that her father, Henry, has committed suicide and that her mother, Silja, is missing, Angie and Paul drop everything and fly to the small upstate town of Stonekill, New York, to be by Ruby’s side. Angie thinks they’re coming to the rescue of Paul’s grief-stricken young niece, but Ruby is a composed and enigmatic 17-year-old who resists Angie’s attempts to nurture her. As Angie learns more about the complicated Glass family, she begins to question the very fabric of her own marriage.
Touchstone | 9781501172106
HARDCORE TWENTY-FOUR: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
Trouble comes in bunches for Stephanie Plum. First, professional grave robber and semi-professional loon, Simon Diggery, won’t let her take him in until she agrees to care for his boa constrictor, Ethel. Events take a dark turn when headless bodies start appearing across town. At first, it’s just corpses from a funeral home and the morgue that have had the heads removed. But when a homeless man is murdered and dumped behind a church, Stephanie knows that she’s the only one with a prayer of catching this killer. If all that’s not enough, Diesel is back in town. Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, isn’t pleased at this unexpected arrival nor is Ranger, the high-powered security consultant who has his own plans for Stephanie.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399179211
IT’S ALL RELATIVE: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree by A.J. Jacobs (Memoir/Humor)
A.J. Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest: “You don’t know me, but I’m your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database.” Who are these people, he wondered, and how do I find them? So began A.J.’s three-year adventure to help build the biggest family tree in history. His journey would take him to all seven continents. He drank beer with a US president, found himself singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and unearthed genetic links to Hollywood actresses and real-life scoundrels. After all, we can choose our friends, but not our family.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476734507
LEONARDO DA VINCI by Walter Isaacson (Biography)
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501139161
LOOK FOR ME by Lisa Gardner (Mystery/Thriller)
The home of a family of five is now a crime scene: four of them savagely murdered, one --- a 16-year-old girl --- missing. Was she lucky to have escaped? Or is her absence evidence of something sinister? Detective D. D. Warren is on the case --- but so is survivor-turned-avenger Flora Dane. Seeking different types of justice, they must make sense of the clues left behind by a young woman who, whether as victim or suspect, is silently pleading, Look for me.
Dutton | 9781524742072
MARTIN LUTHER: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World by Eric Metaxas (Biography)
On All Hallow’s Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a document he hoped would spark an academic debate, but that instead ignited a conflagration that would forever destroy the world he knew. Five hundred years after Luther’s now famous Ninety-five Theses appeared, Eric Metaxas paints a startling portrait of the wild figure whose adamantine faith cracked the edifice of Western Christendom and dragged medieval Europe into the future. MARTIN LUTHER tells the searing tale of a humble man who, by bringing ugly truths to the highest seats of power, caused the explosion whose sound is still ringing in our ears.
Penguin Books | 9781101980026
MODERN GODS by Nick Laird (Fiction)
Still stuck in the small Northern Irish town where she was born, Alison Donnelly hopes to pick up the pieces and get her life back together. Her sister Liz, a fiercely independent college professor, is about to return to Ulster for Alison’s second wedding, before heading to an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea to make a TV show about the world’s newest religion. Both sisters’ lives are about to be shaken apart. Alison wakes up the day after her wedding to find that her new husband has a past neither of them can escape. Liz finds herself becoming increasingly entangled in the eerie, charged world of Belef, the subject of her show, a charismatic middle-aged woman who is the leader of a cargo cult.
Penguin Books | 9780143110569
THE NIGHT IN QUESTION by Nic Joseph (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Paula picks up her last passenger of the night, all she sees is a few more dollars to put toward her husband's medical bills. That's before she recognizes the quiet stranger in her back seat as a world-famous musician and realizes the woman waiting at his destination is not his equally famous wife. So, Paula does what any down-on-her-luck woman would do. She asks for money in exchange for silence. But when a woman is murdered in the same building days later, Paula discovers she is the only witness to the secret affair --- an affair that incriminates the musician. Now, Paula's silence comes at a much more dangerous price.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492668008
POETRY WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE: A Memoir by Jill Bialosky (Memoir)
For Jill Bialosky, certain poems stand out like signposts at pivotal moments in a life: the death of a father, adolescence, first love, leaving home, the suicide of a sister, marriage, the birth of a child, the day in New York City the Twin Towers fell. As Bialosky narrates these moments, she illuminates the ways in which particular poems offered insight, compassion and connection, and shows how poetry can be a blueprint for living. In POETRY WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE, Bialosky recalls when she encountered each formative poem, and how its importance and meaning evolved over time, allowing new insights and perceptions to emerge.
Atria Books | 9781982104825
RED ALERT: An NYPD Mystery by James Patterson and Marshall Karp (Mystery/Thriller)
The richest of New York's rich gather at The Pierre's Cotillion Room to raise money for those less fortunate. A fatal blast rocks the room, stirring up horrifying memories of 9/11. Is the explosion an act of terrorism --- or a homicide? A big-name female filmmaker is the next to die, in a desolate corner of New York City. Detectives Zach Jordan and Kylie MacDonald investigate. But the crimes keep escalating as a shadowy killer masterfully plays out his vendetta --- and threatens to take down NYPD Red in the bargain.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455542659
RED CLOCKS by Leni Zumas (Fiction)
Abortion is once again illegal in America, in-vitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers. Ro, a single high-school teacher, is trying to have a baby on her own, while also writing a biography of Eivør, a little-known 19th-century female polar explorer. Susan is a frustrated mother of two, trapped in a crumbling marriage. Mattie is the adopted daughter of doting parents and one of Ro's best students, who finds herself pregnant with nowhere to turn. And Gin is the gifted, forest-dwelling herbalist, or "mender," who brings all their fates together when she's arrested and put on trial in a frenzied modern-day witch hunt.
Back Bay Books | 9780316434782
THE SADNESS OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS: Stories by Simon Van Booy (Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
Over the past decade, Simon Van Booy has been listening to people’s stories. With these personal accounts as a starting point, he has crafted a new collection of short fiction that takes readers into the innermost lives of everyday people. From a family saved from ruin by a mysterious benefactor, to a downtrodden boxer who shows unexpected kindness to a mugger, these tales reveal not only the precarious balance maintained between grief and happiness in our lives, but also how the echoes of personal tragedy can shape us for the better.
Penguin Books | 9780143133049
THIS COULD HURT by Jillian Medoff (Fiction)
Rosa Guerrero beat the odds as she rose to the top of the corporate world. A leader who wields power with grace and discretion, she has earned the devotion and loyalty of her staff. No one admires Rosa more than her doting lieutenant Leo Smalls, a benefits vice president whose whole world is Ellery. While Rosa is consumed with trying to address the needs of her staff within the ever-constricting limits of the company’s bottom line, her associate director, Rob Hirsch, a happily married father of two, finds himself drawing closer to his "work wife," Lucy Bender, an enterprising single woman searching for something to fill the vacuum in her personal life. For Kenny Verville, a senior manager with an MBA, Ellery is a temporary stepping-stone to bigger and better places --- that is, if his high-powered wife has her way.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062660770
UNDER MY SKIN by Lisa Unger (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
It’s been a year since Poppy’s husband, Jack, was brutally murdered during his morning run through Manhattan’s Riverside Park. In the immediate aftermath, Poppy spiraled into an oblivion of grief, disappearing for several days only to turn up ragged and confused. Those lost days have never stopped haunting her. Poppy starts having nightmares and blackouts --- there are periods of time she can’t remember, and she’s unable to tell the difference between what is real and what she’s imagining. When she begins to sense that someone is following her, Poppy is plunged into a game of cat and mouse, determined to unravel the mystery around her husband’s death. But can she handle the truth about what really happened?
Park Row | 9780778369783
THE WAYS OF WOLFE: A Border Noir by James Carlos Blake (Noir Thriller)
Twenty years ago, college student Axel Prince Wolfe --- heir apparent to his Texas family's esteemed law firm and its "shade trade" criminal enterprises --- teamed up with his best friend, Billy, and a Mexican stranger in a high-end robbery that went wrong. Abandoned by his partners, he was captured and imprisoned, his family disgraced, his wife absconded, his infant daughter Jessie left an orphan. Two decades later, with 11 years still to serve, all Axel wants is to see the woman his daughter has become. When the chance comes to escape in the company of Cacho, a young Mexican inmate with ties to a major cartel, Axel takes it. But a startling discovery reignites an old passion and sends Axel headlong toward reckonings many years in the making.
Mysterious Press | 9780802128713
WHEN THE MEN WERE GONE by Marjorie Herrera Lewis (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Football is the heartbeat of Brownwood, Texas. Every Friday night, for as long as assistant principal Tylene Wilson can remember, the entire town has gathered in the stands, cheering their boys on. But the war has changed everything. Most of the Brownwood men over 18 and under 45 are off fighting. Could this mean a season without football? No one counted on Tylene, who knows more about the game than most men and does the unthinkable, convincing the school to let her take on the job of coach. Faced with extreme opposition, Tylene remains resolute. And when her boys rally around her, she leads the team --- and the town --- to a Friday night and a subsequent season they will never forget.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062836052
WHITE CHRYSANTHEMUM by Mary Lynn Bracht (Historical Fiction)
Korea, 1943. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. As a haenyeo, a female diver of the sea, she enjoys an independence that few other Koreans can still claim. Until the day Hana saves her younger sister from a Japanese soldier and is herself captured and transported to Manchuria. There she is forced to become a “comfort woman” in a Japanese military brothel. But haenyeo are women of power and strength. She will find her way home. South Korea, 2011. Emi has spent more than 60 years trying to forget the sacrifice her sister made, but she must confront the past to discover peace. Seeing the healing of her children and her country, can Emi move beyond the legacy of war to find forgiveness?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735214446
WOLF’S REVENGE: A Leo Maxwell Mystery by Lachlan Smith (Mystery)
Attorney-detective Leo Maxwell seeks an exit strategy from his family’s deepening entanglement with a ruthless prison-based gang. Caught between the criminals and the FBI, Leo charts his own path in defending a young woman who was manipulated into brazenly murdering a member of the Aryan Brotherhood in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. When the consequences strike heartbreakingly close to home, Leo, his brother Teddy, and the rest of the family are forced into a winner-takes-all confrontation with men who don’t care how many innocents they harm in achieving their goals.
Mysterious Press | 9780802128720
YEAR ONE: Chronicles of the One, Book 1 by Nora Roberts (Dystopian Fantasy)
It began on New Year’s Eve. The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered, law and government collapsed --- and more than half of the world’s population was decimated. As the power of science and technology receded, magick rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere. In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250122964
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