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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 11th and February 18th 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 "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com, where three book groups will win 12 paperback copies of AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by Tayari Jones. The deadline for your entries is Wednesday, March 6th at noon ET.
Also, please click on the covers above for our reviews of three books that released last week: CONNECTIONS IN DEATH, book #48 in J. D. Robb's In Death series featuring homicide cop Eve Dallas, who fights to save the innocent --- and serve justice to the guilty --- on the streets of New York; THE WEDDING GUEST by Jonathan Kellerman, which finds psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis unraveling a shocking crime at a raucous wedding reception; and THE LOST MAN, a new stand-alone novel from Jane Harper, in which two brothers meet in the remote Australian outback when the third brother is found dead.
Finally, we are spotlighting FINDING DOROTHY, which is now in stores. In her latest novel, Elizabeth Letts tells the story behind THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ --- the book that inspired the iconic film --- through the eyes of author L. Frank Baum’s intrepid wife, Maud.
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
Now Available: FINDING DOROTHY by Elizabeth Letts
This richly imagined novel tells the story behind THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, the book that inspired the iconic film, through the eyes of author L. Frank Baum’s intrepid wife, Maud.
The author of two New York Times bestselling nonfiction books, THE EIGHTY-DOLLAR CHAMPION and THE PERFECT HORSE, Elizabeth Letts is a master at discovering and researching a rich historical story and transforming it into a page-turner. FINDING DOROTHY is the result of Letts’ journey into the amazing lives of Frank and Maud Baum. Written as fiction but based closely on the truth, Letts’ new book tells a story of love, loss, inspiration and perseverance, set in America’s heartland.
Click here to read more about the book.
This Week's Bonus News: February's "What's Your
Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest
on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.
Our latest prize book is AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by Tayari Jones, an Oprah's Book Club selection that is now available in paperback. This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, March 6th at noon ET.
AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by Tayari Jones (Fiction)
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit.
Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.
This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward --- with hope and pain --- into the future.
- Click here to read a review.
- Click here to read Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of February 11th in Hardcover
February 12th
THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS: Essays by Ross Gay (Essays)
Ross Gay’s THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS is a genre-defying book of essays --- some as short as a paragraph, some as long as five pages --- that records the small joys that occurred in one year, from birthday to birthday, and that we often overlook in our busy lives. His is a meditation on delight that takes a clear-eyed view of the complexities, even the terrors, in his life, including living in America as a black man; the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture; and the loss of those he loves. More than any other subject, though, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world --- his garden, the flowers in the sidewalk, the birds, the bees, the mushrooms and the trees.
Algonquin Books | 9781616207922
THE BURNING ISLAND by Hester Young (Gothic Mystery)
Journalist Charlie Cates has always believed in facts, which is why she has never truly accepted the supernatural visions that guide her to children in danger. After her work on a high-profile missing-child case brings unwanted fame, she reluctantly flees to the lush Big Island of Hawaii with her best friend, Rae. Determined to avoid her disturbing visions, Charlie begins writing what seems to be a harmless interview of a prominent volcanologist, Victor Nakagawa. But her hopes for a peaceful vacation are soon dashed by haunting dreams of a local girl who went missing six weeks earlier. In order to find the teenager and stop a dangerous predator from striking again, Charlie is forced to embrace the gift she has always tried to conceal.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399174025
CARELESS LOVE: A DCI Banks Novel by Peter Robinson (Mystery/Thriller)
Two suspicious deaths challenge Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his crack investigative team. A young local student’s body is found in an abandoned car on a lonely country road. The death looks like suicide, but there are too many open questions for Banks and his team to rule out foul play. Meanwhile, a man in his 60s is found dead in a gully up on the wild moorland. Post mortem findings indicate that he died from injuries sustained during a fall. Was it an accident? Or was he pushed? As the inconsistencies multiply and the mysteries surrounding these two cases proliferate, a source reveals a piece of information that shocks the team and impacts the investigations.
William Morrow | 9780062847522
THE CITY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT by Charlie Jane Anders (Science Fiction)
January is a dying planet --- divided between a permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other. Humanity clings to life, spread across two archaic cities built in the sliver of habitable dusk. But life inside the cities is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside. Sophie, a student and reluctant revolutionary, is supposed to be dead, after being exiled into the night. Saved only by forming an unusual bond with the enigmatic beasts who roam the ice, Sophie vows to stay hidden from the world, hoping she can heal. But fate has other plans --- and Sophie's ensuing odyssey and the ragtag family she finds will change the entire world.
Tor Books | 9780765379962
EARLY RISER by Jasper Fforde (Fantasy/Humor)
Your name is Charlie Worthing, and it's your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses. You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams that you dismiss as nonsense. When the dreams start to kill people, it's unsettling. When you get the dreams too, it's weird. When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity. But teasing truth from the Winter is never easy. You have to avoid the Villains and their penchant for murder, kidnapping and stamp collecting; ensure you aren't eaten by Nightwalkers, whose thirst for human flesh can only be satisfied by comfort food; and sidestep the increasingly less-than-mythical WinterVolk.
Viking | 9780670025039
FINDING DOROTHY by Elizabeth Letts (Historical Fiction)
As soon as she learns that MGM is adapting her late husband’s masterpiece for the screen, Maud Gage Baum sets about trying to finagle her way onto the set. Nineteen years after Frank’s passing, Maud is the only person who can help the producers stay true to the spirit of the book. But the moment she hears Judy Garland rehearsing the first notes of “Over the Rainbow,” Maud recognizes the yearning that defined her own life story. Judy reminds Maud of a young girl she cared for and tried to help in South Dakota, a dreamer who never got her happy ending. Now, with the young actress under pressure from the studio as well as her ambitious stage mother, Maud resolves to protect her --- the way she tried so hard to protect the real Dorothy.
Ballantine Books | 9780525622109
THE GOOD LIE by Tom Rosenstiel (Political Thriller)
When a shadowy American diplomatic complex is attacked in North Africa, the White House is besieged by accusations of incompetence and wild conspiracy theories. Eager to learn the truth, the president and his staff turn to Peter Rena and his partner, Randi Brooks. The investigators dive headfirst into the furtive world of foreign intelligence and national security, hoping to do it quietly. That becomes impossible, though, when it blows up into an all-out public scandal: Congress opens hearings, and a tireless national security reporter publishes a bombshell exposé. Now, Rena and Brooks are caught in the middle.
Ecco | 9780062475398
THE HEAVENS by Sandra Newman (Fiction)
At a party hosted by a wealthy young activist in late summer 2000, Ben meets Kate --- and they begin to fall in love. From their first meeting, Ben knows Kate is unworldly and fanciful, so at first he isn’t that concerned when she tells him about the recurring dream she’s had since childhood. In the dream, she’s transported to the past, where she lives a second life as Emilia, the mistress of a nobleman in Elizabethan England. But for Kate, the dream becomes increasingly real and compelling until it threatens to overwhelm her life. And soon she’s waking from it to find the world changed. As she tries to make sense of what’s happening, Ben worries that the woman he’s fallen in love with is losing her grip on reality.
Grove Press | 9780802129024
THE HUNTING PARTY by Lucy Foley (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students 10 years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands. They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world. Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear.
William Morrow | 9780062868909
KILLER THRILLER by Lee Goldberg (Thriller)
Everybody loves Ian Ludlow’s action novels --- especially the CIA --- because the spies know something the public doesn’t: his fictional plots have a frightening tendency to come true. Ian is in Hong Kong with his resourceful assistant, Margo French, to research his wildest story yet --- a deadly global conspiracy by Chinese intelligence to topple the United States. What Ian doesn’t know is that his horrifying scenario is happening and that the Chinese mistakenly believe he’s an undercover superspy assigned to foil their scheme. Now Ian is trapped in his own terrifying thriller, on the run from assassins, and racing against time to prevent an epic disaster.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503903562
LEADING MEN by Christopher Castellani (Historical Fiction)
In July 1953, at a glittering party thrown by Truman Capote in Portofino, Italy, Tennessee Williams and his longtime lover Frank Merlo meet Anja Blomgren, a mysteriously taciturn young Swedish beauty and aspiring actress. Their encounter will go on to alter all of their lives. Ten years later, Frank revisits the tempestuous events of that fateful summer from his deathbed in Manhattan, where he waits anxiously for Tennessee to visit him one final time. Anja, now legendary film icon Anja Bloom, lives as a recluse in the present-day U.S., until a young man connected to the events of 1953 lures her reluctantly back into the spotlight after he discovers she possesses the only surviving copy of Williams' final play.
Viking | 9780525559054
LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE by Valeria Luiselli (Fiction)
A mother and father set out with their two children, driving from New York to Arizona in the heat of summer. Their destination: Apacheria, the place the Apaches once called home. Why Apaches? asks the 10-year-old son. Because they were the last of something, answers his father. In their car, they play games and sing along to music. But on the radio, there is news about an "immigration crisis": thousands of kids trying to cross the southwestern border into the United States, but getting detained --- or lost in the desert along the way. As the family drives, we sense they are on the brink of a crisis of their own. A fissure is growing between the parents, one the children can almost feel beneath their feet.
Knopf | 9780525520610
THE MOROCCAN GIRL by Charles Cumming (Thriller)
Renowned author Kit Carradine is approached by an MI6 officer with a seemingly straightforward assignment: to track down a mysterious woman hiding somewhere in the exotic, perilous city of Marrakesh. Lara Bartok is a leading figure in Resurrection, a violent revolutionary movement whose brutal attacks on prominent right-wing public figures have spread hatred and violence across the world. Caught between increasingly dangerous forces who want Bartok dead, Carradine soon faces an awful choice: to abandon this brilliant, beautiful and profoundly complex woman to her fate, or to risk everything trying to save her.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250129956
THE NIGHT TIGER by Yangsze Choo (Historical Fiction)
Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for. Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever. As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths racks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren’s increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms and ghostly dreamscapes.
Flatiron Books | 9781250175458
PARKLAND: Birth of a Movement by Dave Cullen (Social Science/Current Affairs)
Dave Cullen unfolds the story of Parkland through the voices of key participants whose diverse personalities and outlooks comprise every facet of their grassroots #neveragain movement. Instead of taking us into the minds of the killer, he takes us into the hearts of the Majory Stoneman Douglas students as they cope with the common concerns of high school students everywhere --- awaiting college acceptance letters, studying for mid-term exams, competing against their athletic rivals, putting together the yearbook, staging the musical "Spring Awakening," enjoying prom and graduation --- while moving forward from a horrific event that has altered them forever.
Harper | 9780062882943
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TIME TRAVEL by Kate Mascarenhas (Science Fiction/Mystery)
In 1967, four female scientists worked together to build the world’s first time machine. But just as they are about to debut their creation, one of them suffers a breakdown, putting the whole project --- and the future of time travel --- in jeopardy. To protect their invention, one member is exiled from the team, erasing her contributions from history. Fifty years later, time travel is a big business. Twenty-something Ruby Rebello knows that her beloved grandmother, Granny Bee, was one of the pioneers, though no one will tell her more. But when Bee receives a mysterious newspaper clipping from the future reporting the murder of an unidentified woman, Ruby becomes obsessed: Could it be Bee? Can her murder be stopped?
Crooked Lane Books | 9781683319443
THE RECKONING by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (Mystery/Thriller)
Vaka sits on the cold steps of her new school. Her father appears to have forgotten to pick her up, her mother has forgotten to give her this week’s pocket money, and the school is already locked for the day. With no way to call home, she resigns herself to waiting on the steps until her father remembers her. When a girl approaches, Vaka recognizes her immediately from class, and from her unusual appearance: two of her fingers are missing. The girl lives at the back of the school, and Vaka asks to call her father from the girl's house. That afternoon is the last time anyone sees Vaka. Detective Huldar and child psychologist Freyja are called in and soon find themselves at the heart of another shocking case.
Minotaur Books | 9781250136282
THE SECRETARY by Renée Knight (Psychological Thriller)
From her first day as Personal Assistant to the celebrated Mina Appleton, Christine Butcher understands what is expected of her. For 20 years, she has been a most devoted servant, a silent witness to everything in Mina’s life. Day after day, year after year, Christine has been there, invisible --- watching, listening, absorbing all the secrets floating around her. Keeping them safe. Christine is trusted. But those years of loyalty and discretion come with a high price. And eventually Christine will pay. But it would be a mistake to underestimate such a steadfast woman as Christine. Because as everyone is about to discover, there’s a dangerous line between obedience and obsession.
Harper | 9780062362353
SEPARATE: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation by Steve Luxenberg (History)
Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court case synonymous with “separate but equal,” created remarkably little stir when the justices announced their near-unanimous decision on May 18, 1896. Yet it is one of the most compelling and dramatic stories of the 19th century, whose outcome embraced and protected segregation, and whose reverberations are still felt into the 21st. SEPARATE spans a striking range of characters and landscapes, bound together by the defining issue of their time and ours --- race and equality. Award-winning author Steve Luxenberg draws from letters, diaries and archival collections to tell the story of Plessy v. Ferguson through the eyes of the people caught up in the case.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393239379
THE SOURCE OF SELF-REGARD: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations by Toni Morrison (Essays)
THE SOURCE OF SELF-REGARD is brimming with all the elegance of mind and style, the literary prowess and moral compass that are Toni Morrison's inimitable hallmark. It is divided into three parts: the first is introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11, the second by a searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., and the last by a heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. In the writings and speeches included here, Morrison takes on contested social issues: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, "black matter(s)" and human rights. And here, too, is piercing commentary on her own work and that of others.
Knopf | 9780525521037
TOGETHER: A Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap by Judy Goldman (Memoir)
When Judy Goldman's husband of almost four decades reads a newspaper ad for an injection to alleviate back pain, the outpatient procedure sounds like the answer to his longtime backaches. But rather than restoring his tennis game, the procedure leaves him paralyzed from the waist down. Overnight, Goldman's world is turned upside down. Though she has always thought of herself as the polite, demure wife opposite her strong, brave husband, Goldman finds herself thrown into a new role as his advocate, navigating byzantine hospital policies, demanding and refusing treatments, seeking solutions to help him win back his independence.
Nan A. Talese | 9780385543941
TRIGGER by David Swinson (Mystery)
Ostracized by his family after a botched case that led to the death of his baby cousin, Jeffrey, Frank Marr was on a collision course with rock bottom. Now clean and clinging hard to sobriety, Frank passes the time --- and tests himself --- by robbing the houses of local dealers, taking their cash and flushing their drugs down the toilet. When an old friend from his police days needs Frank's help to prove he didn't shoot an unarmed civilian, Frank is drawn back into the world of dirty cops and suspicious drug busts, running in the same circles that enabled his addiction those years ago.
Mulholland Books | 9780316264259
THE VICTORY GARDEN by Rhys Bowen (Historical Fiction)
As the Great War continues to take its toll, headstrong 21-year-old Emily Bryce is determined to contribute to the war effort. She is convinced by a cheeky and handsome Australian pilot that she can do more, and it is not long before she falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage. When he is sent back to the front, Emily volunteers as a “land girl,” tending to the neglected grounds of a large Devonshire estate. It’s here that Emily discovers the long-forgotten journals of a medicine woman who devoted her life to her herbal garden. The journals inspire Emily, and in the wake of devastating news, they are her saving grace.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542040129
THE WILD BUNCH: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film by W.K. Stratton (Entertainment/History)
Sam Peckinpah's film The Wild Bunch is the story of a gang of outlaws who are one big steal from retirement. When their attempted train robbery goes awry, the gang flees to Mexico and falls in with a brutal general of the Mexican Revolution, who offers them the job of a lifetime. Conceived by a stuntman, directed by a blacklisted director, and shot in the sand and heat of the Mexican desert, the movie seemed doomed. Instead, it became an instant classic with a dark, violent take on the Western movie tradition. In THE WILD BUNCH, W.K. Stratton tells the fascinating history of the making of the movie and documents for the first time the extraordinary contribution of Mexican and Mexican-American actors and crew members to the film's success.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781632862129
On Sale the Week of February 11th in Paperback
February 12th
ALL THE PIECES MATTER: The Inside Story of The Wire by Jonathan Abrams (Performing Arts)
Since its final episode aired in 2008, HBO’s acclaimed crime drama "The Wire" has only become more popular and influential. The issues it tackled, from the failures of the drug war and criminal justice system to systemic bias in law enforcement and other social institutions, have become more urgent and central to the national conversation. But while there has been a great deal of critical analysis of the show and its themes, until now there has never been a definitive, behind-the-scenes take on how it came to be made. With unparalleled access to all the key actors and writers involved in its creation, Jonathan Abrams tells the astonishing, compelling and complete account of "The Wire," from its inception and creation through its end and powerful legacy.
Three Rivers Press | 9780451498151
ALL ROADS END HERE by David Moody (Science Fiction/Horror)
Paperback Original
It’s taken Matthew Dunne almost three months to get home. Never more than a few meters from the Haters at any time, every single step has been fraught with danger. But he’s made it. In his absence, his home city has become a sprawling, walled-off refugee camp. But the camp --- and the entire world beyond its borders --- is balanced on a knife-edge. During his time in the wilderness, Matt developed a skill that is in high demand: the ability to anticipate and predict Hater behavior. It’s these skills that will thrust him into a web of subterfuge and danger. As the pressure mounts inside the camp, he finds himself under scrutiny from all sides.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250206275
ANY MEANS NECESSARY: A Leona Lindberg Thriller by Jenny Rogneby (Hard-boiled Thriller)
Paperback Original
A man blows himself up outside the Parliament House in Stockholm, but miraculously survives. Was he a lone wolf, or are there more heinous acts to follow? Leona Lindberg is put on the case. But Leona, who has barely escaped her trials from the last case, is focused on other things. Her family is shattered, she is living under threat and desperately needs liquid assets. It's lucky, then, that she can think outside the box like no other detective. With one foot on each side of the law, she mounts a special operation of grand proportions. And the higher the risk, the higher the rewards.
Other Press | 9781590518847
CLOSER THAN YOU KNOW by Brad Parks (Thriller)
One Tuesday evening, Melanie Barrick goes to pick up her son, Alex, from childcare only to discover he's been removed by Social Services. Her nightmare mushrooms when she arrives home to learn her house has been raided by sheriff's deputies, who have found enough cocaine to send Melanie to prison for years. Meanwhile, assistant commonwealth's attorney Amy Kaye --- who has been assigned Melanie's case --- has her own troubles. She's been dogged by a cold case no one wants her to pursue: a serial rapist who has avoided detection by wearing a mask and whispering his commands. Over the years, he has victimized dozens of women. Including Melanie. Yet now her attacker might be the key to her salvation…or her undoing.
Dutton | 9781101985632
IN THE SHADOW OF AGATHA CHRISTIE: Classic Crime Fiction by Forgotten Female Writers: 1850-1917 edited by Leslie S. Klinger (Mystery/Short Stories)
Agatha Christie burst onto the literary scene in 1920, with THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES; her last novel was published in 1976, a career longer than even Arthur Conan Doyle’s 40-year span. The truth is that it was due to the success of writers like Anna Katherine Green in America; L. T. Meade, C. L. Pirkis, the Baroness Orczy and Elizabeth Corbett in England; and Mary Fortune in Australia that the doors were finally opened for female crime writers. So, while Agatha Christie may still reign supreme, it is important to remember that she did not ascend that throne except on the shoulders of the women who came before her --- and inspired her --- and who are now removed from her shadow once and for all.
Pegasus Books | 9781643130460
IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH: Love, Disability, and a Quest to Understand the Perils and Pleasures of Interabled Romance by Ben Mattlin (Memoir)
IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH is more than an “inspiring” story of how a man born with spinal muscular atrophy --- a congenital and incurable neuromuscular condition --- survived childhood, graduated from Harvard, married an able-bodied woman, built a family and established a successful career in journalism. As Ben Mattlin considers the many times his relationship has been met with surprise or speculation by outsiders, he issues a challenge to readers: Why should the idea of an “interabled” couple be regarded as either tragic or noble? Through conversations with more than a dozen other couples of varying abilities, ethnic backgrounds and orientations, Mattlin sets out to understand if these pairings are as unusual as onlookers seem to think.
Beacon Press | 9780807063422
THE KISS: Intimacies from Writers edited by Brian Turner (Essays)
In this wide-ranging collection of essays, stories, graphic memoir and cross-genre work, writers explore the deeply human act of kissing and share their thoughts on a specific kiss --- the unexpected and unforgettable, the sublime and the ambiguous, the devastating and the regenerative. Selections from beloved authors “tantalize with such grace that they linger sweetly in your mind for days” (New York Times Book Review), as they explore the messy and complicated intimacies that exist in our actual lives, as well as in the complicated landscape of the imagination.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393356885
THE LOST GIRLS OF CAMP FOREVERMORE by Kim Fu (Fiction)
At Forevermore, a sleepaway camp in the Pacific Northwest, campers are promised adventures in the woods, songs by the fire and lifelong friends. Bursting with excitement and nervous energy, five girls set off on an overnight kayaking trip to a nearby island. But before the night is over, they find themselves stranded, with no adults to help them survive or guide them home. THE LOST GIRLS OF CAMP FOREVERMORE follows Nita, Andee, Isabel, Dina and Siobhan beyond this fateful trip, showing us the lives of the haunted and complex women these girls become.
Mariner Books | 9781328467690
OUR LITTLE SECRET by Roz Nay (Psychological Thriller)
The police have been interrogating Angela Petitjean for hours, asking about Saskia Parker. Saskia is the wife of Angela’s high school sweetheart, HP, and the mother of his child --- and she has vanished. Homicide Detective J. Novak believes Angela knows what happened to Saskia. But Angela has a different story to tell. It began more than a decade ago when she and HP met in high school. They became friends, fell in love and dated senior year. Everything changed when Angela went to college and Saskia entered the picture. Detective Novak needs to stop asking questions and listen to what Angela is telling him. And once he understands everything, he’ll have the truth he so desperately wants.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250308368
THE PERFECT COUPLE by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
The Otis-Winbury wedding promises to be an event to remember: the groom's wealthy parents have spared no expense to host a lavish ceremony at their oceanfront estate. But it's going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons after tragedy strikes: a body is discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony --- and everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. As Chief of Police Ed Kapenash interviews the bride, the groom, the groom's famous mystery-novelist mother, and even a member of his own family, he discovers that every wedding is a minefield --- and no couple is perfect.
Back Bay Books | 9780316375252
SADNESS IS A WHITE BIRD by Moriel Rothman-Zecher (Fiction)
The story begins in an Israeli military jail, where Jonathan recalls the series of events that led him there. Two years earlier: Moving back to Israel after several years in Pennsylvania, Jonathan is ready to fight to preserve and defend the Jewish state. But he is also conflicted about the possibility of having to monitor the occupied Palestinian territories, a concern that grows deeper and more urgent when he meets Nimreen and Laith --- the twin daughter and son of his mother’s friend. From that morning on, the three become inseparable. But then that fateful day arrives, the one that lands Jonathan in prison and changes his relationship with the twins forever.
Washington Square Press | 9781501176272
THE SISTERS HEMINGWAY by Annie England Noblin (Fiction)
Paperback Original
The Hemingway Sisters of Cold River, Missouri are local legends. Raised by a mother obsessed with Ernest Hemingway, they were named after the author’s four wives: Hadley, Pfeiffer, Martha and Mary. The sisters couldn’t be more different --- or more alike. Now they’re back in town, reunited to repair their fractured relationships. Together, they must stay in their childhood home, faced with a puzzle that may affect all their futures. As they learn the truth of what happened to their mother --- and their youngest sister, Mary --- they rekindle the bonds they had as children, bonds that have long seemed broken.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062674517
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 | 9780062742711
A TREACHEROUS CURSE: A Veronica Speedwell Mystery by Deanna Raybourn (Historical Mystery)
Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell can’t resist the allure of an exotic mystery --- particularly one involving her enigmatic colleague, Stoker. His former expedition partner has vanished from an archaeological dig with a priceless diadem unearthed from the newly discovered tomb of an Egyptian princess. This disappearance is just the latest in a string of unfortunate events that have plagued the controversial expedition, and rumors abound that the curse of the vengeful princess has been unleashed as the shadowy figure of Anubis himself stalks the streets of London. But the perils of an ancient curse are not the only challenges Veronica must face as sordid details and malevolent enemies emerge from Stoker’s past.
Berkley | 9780451476180
WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?: Essays by Marilynne Robinson (Essays)
Marilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including LILA, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and GILEAD, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection, she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America like Emerson and Tocqueville inform our political consciousness, or discussing the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson’s peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display.
Picador | 9781250310385
THE WHICH WAY TREE by Elizabeth Crook (Western)
Early one morning, a panther savagely attacks a family of homesteaders, mauling a young girl named Samantha and killing her mother. Samantha and her half-brother, Benjamin, survive, but she is left traumatized. THE WHICH WAY TREE is the story of Samantha's unshakeable resolve to stalk and kill the infamous panther and avenge her mother's death. In their quest, she and Benjamin enlist a charismatic Tejano outlaw and a haunted, compassionate preacher with an aging but relentless tracking dog. As the members of this unlikely posse hunt the panther, they are in turn pursued by a hapless but sadistic Confederate soldier with troubled family ties to the preacher and a score to settle.
Back Bay Books | 9780316434942
On Sale the Week of February 18th in Hardcover
February 19th
AMERICAN HEROIN by Melissa Scrivner Love (Thriller)
It took sacrifice, pain and more than a few dead bodies, but Lola has clawed her way to the top of her South Central Los Angeles neighborhood. Her gang has grown beyond a few trusted soldiers into a full-fledged empire, and the influx of cash has opened up a world that she has never known. But with great opportunity comes great risk, and as Lola ascends the hierarchy of the city's underworld, she attracts the attention of a dangerous new cartel who sees her as their greatest obstacle to dominance. Soon Lola finds herself sucked into a deadly all-out drug war that threatens to destroy everything she's built. But even as Lola readies to go to war, she learns that the greatest threat may not be a rival drug lord but a danger far closer to home: her own brother.
Crown | 9780525573128
BANGKOK WAKES TO RAIN by Pitchaya Sudbanthad (Fiction)
A missionary doctor pines for his native New England even as he succumbs to the vibrant chaos of 19th-century Siam. A post-WWII society woman marries, mothers and holds court, little suspecting her solitary future. A jazz pianist in the age of rock, haunted by his own ghosts, is summoned to appease the resident spirits. A young woman tries to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in New Krungthep, savvy teenagers row tourists past landmarks of the drowned old city they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these stories collide and converge, linked by the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibious, ever-morphing capital itself.
Riverhead Books | 9780525534761
BLOOD ECHO: A Burning Girl Thriller by Christopher Rice (Thriller)
Enabled by a superpower drug, Charlotte Rowe is partnered with a shadowy pharmaceutical company to hunt down and eliminate society’s most depraved human predators. When her latest mission goes off the rails in a horrifying way, she wants some time to retreat. But something sinister is evolving in Altamira, California --- a massive network of domestic terrorists with ties to Charlotte’s influential and corrupt employers. As a vast and explosive criminal conspiracy grows, the fate of Charlotte’s hometown hangs in the balance. With everyone she cares about in danger, Charlotte has no choice but to bring her powers home.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503904354
BLOOD ORANGE by Harriet Tyce (Psychological Thriller)
Alison has it all: a doting husband, an adorable daughter and a career on the rise --- she's just been given her first murder case to defend. But Alison drinks too much. She's neglecting her family. And she's having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle. Alison's client doesn't deny that she stabbed her husband --- she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself. But someone knows Alison's secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she's done, and who won't stop until she's lost everything.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538762738
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF RAVENOUSLY HUNGRY GIRLS by Anissa Gray (Fiction)
The Butler family has had their share of trials --- as sisters Althea, Viola and Lillian can attest --- but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives. Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with, and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband, Proctor, are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters.
Berkley | 9781984802439
CHEROKEE AMERICA by Margaret Verble (Historical Fiction)
It’s the early spring of 1875 in the Cherokee Nation West. A baby, a black hired hand, a bay horse, a gun, a gold stash and a preacher have all gone missing. Cherokee America Singer, known as “Check,” a wealthy farmer, mother of five boys and soon-to-be widow, is not amused. In CHEROKEE AMERICA, several plots intertwine around the heroic and resolute Check: her son is caught in a compromising position that results in murder; a neighbor disappears; another man is killed. The tension mounts and the violence escalates as Check’s mixed-race family, friends and neighbors come together to protect their community --- and painfully expel one of their own.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328494221
DEAR GEORGE, DEAR MARY: A Novel of George Washington's First Love by Mary Calvi (Historical Fiction)
Did unrequited love spark a flame that ignited a cause that became the American Revolution? Never before has this story about George Washington been told. Crafted from hundreds of letters, witness accounts and journal entries, DEAR GEORGE, DEAR MARY explores George’s relationship with his first love, New York heiress Mary Philipse, the richest belle in Colonial America. Dramatic portraits of the two main characters unveil a Washington on the precipice of greatness, using the very words he spoke and wrote, and his ravishing love, whose outward beauty and refinement disguise a complex inner struggle.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250162946
THE FAMILIARS by Stacey Halls (Historical Fiction)
Young Fleetwood Shuttleworth is with child again. As the mistress of Gawthorpe Hall, she is anxious to provide her husband with an heir. But none of her previous pregnancies have come to term. Then she discovers a hidden letter from her physician that warns her husband that she will not survive another pregnancy. Distraught over the frightening revelation, Fleetwood wanders the woods of Pendle Hill, where she meets a young local woman named Alice Gray. A midwife, Alice promises Fleetwood she can help her deliver a healthy baby. But soon Alice is drawn into the frenzied accusations of witchcraft sweeping the countryside. Can Fleetwood trust that Alice is really who she says she is?
Mira | 9780778369189
LANDFALL by Thomas Mallon (Fiction)
LANDFALL is set during the tumultuous middle of the George W. Bush years, amid the twin catastrophes of the Iraq insurgency and Hurricane Katrina. The president possesses a personality whose high-speed alternations between charm and petulance, resoluteness and self-pity, continually energize and mystify the panoply of characters around him. They include his acerbic, crafty mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush; his desperately correct and eager-to-please secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice; the gnomic and manipulative Donald Rumsfeld; foreign leaders from Tony Blair to Vladimir Putin; and the caustic one-woman chorus of Ann Richards, Bush's predecessor as governor of Texas.
Pantheon | 9781101871058
MISSION CRITICAL: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
Court Gentry's flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley. When they land in an isolated airbase in the U.K., they are attacked by a hostile force who kidnaps the prisoner. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers, but what can one operative do against a trained team of assassins? A lot, when that operative is the Gray Man.
Berkley | 9780451488947
NEVER TELL by Lisa Gardner (Mystery/Thriller)
A man is dead, shot three times in his home office. When the cops arrive, his pregnant wife is holding the gun. D.D. Warren arrives on the scene and recognizes the woman --- Evie Carter --- from a case many years back. Evie's father was killed in a shooting that was ruled an accident. But for D.D., two coincidental murders is too many. Flora Dane sees the murder of Conrad Carter on the TV news and immediately knows his face. She remembers a night when she was still a victim --- a hostage --- and her captor knew this man. Overcome with guilt that she never tracked him down, Flora is now determined to learn the truth of Conrad's murder. But D.D. and Flora are about to discover that in this case the truth is a devilishly elusive thing.
Dutton | 9781524742089
THE NEXT TO DIE by Sophie Hannah (Psychological Thriller)
A psychopath the police have dubbed “Billy Dead Mates” is targeting pairs of best friends, and killing them one by one. Before they die, each victim is given a small white book. For months, detectives have failed to catch Billy, or figure out what the white books symbolize and why the killer leaves them behind. Then a woman, scared by what she’s seen on the news, comes forward. What she reveals shocks the investigators and adds another troubling layer to an already complex case. Stand-up comedian Kim Tribbeck has one of Billy’s peculiar little books. A stranger gave it to her at a gig she did last year. Was the stranger Billy, and is he targeting her --- or is it something more nefarious?
William Morrow | 9780062388353
RUN COLD: An Edna Ferber Mystery by Ed Ifkovic (Historical Mystery)
Edna Ferber, not completely satisfied with her forthcoming novel ICE PALACE, has just returned to Alaska for further research and is fascinated by Jack Mabie and his wild tales. Plus the previous summer, young Athabascan lawyer Noah West --- bent on bettering the lives of Alaskan Natives --- had sharpened Edna's sense of a corner of the territory she'd ignored. When Jack is found beaten to death, Noah becomes a suspect. Two violent deaths follow. Edna, Noah's advocate, decides she needs to clear his name, believing the murders are connected. As debates over potential statehood rage, Edna begins unearthing scandals and sordid stories hidden in Fairbanks but also dating back to village life in Fort Yukon and down into the Lower 48.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464211133
THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LANGUAGES by Lindsay Stern (Fiction)
Ivan is a tightly wound philosophy professor. His wife, Prue, is quite the opposite: a pioneer in the emerging field of biolinguistics, she is bold and vibrant, full of life and feeling. Thus far, they have managed to weather their differences. But lately, an odd distance has settled in between them. Might it have something to do with the arrival of the college's dashing but insufferable new writer-in-residence, whose novel Prue always seems to be reading? Into this delicate moment barrels Ivan's unstable father-in-law, Frank, in town to hear Prue deliver a lecture on birdsong that is set to cement her tenure application. But the talk doesn't go as planned, unleashing a series of crises that force Ivan to finally confront the problems in his marriage.
Viking | 9780525557432
THE VANISHING MAN: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch (Historical Mystery)
Having earned some renown by solving a case that baffled Scotland Yard, young Charles Lenox is called upon by the Duke of Dorset, one of England’s most revered noblemen, for help. A painting of the Duke’s great-grandfather has been stolen from his private study. But the Duke’s concern is not for his ancestor’s portrait. Hiding in plain sight nearby is another painting of infinitely more value, one that holds the key to one of the country’s most famous and best-kept secrets. Dorset believes the thieves took the wrong painting and may return when they realize their error --- and when his fears result in murder, Lenox must act quickly to unravel the mystery behind both paintings before tragedy can strike again.
Minotaur Books | 9781250311368
THE WHITE BOOK by Han Kang (Fiction)
While on a writer's residency, a nameless narrator wanders the twin white worlds of the blank page and snowy Warsaw. THE WHITE BOOK becomes a meditation on the color white, as well as a fictional journey inspired by an older sister who died in her mother's arms, a few hours old. The narrator grapples with the tragedy that has haunted her family, an event she colors in stark white --- breast milk, swaddling bands, the baby's rice cake-colored skin --- and, from here, visits all that glows in her memory: from a white dog to sugar cubes.
Hogarth | 9780525573067
On Sale the Week of February 18th in Paperback
February 19th
A-LIST: A Jake Longly Thriller by D.P. Lyle (Mystery/Thriller)
PI Jake Longly and Nicole Jemison head to New Orleans at the behest of Nicole's uncle, movie producer Charles Balfour, when his megastar, A-list actor Kirk Ford, awakens in his hotel bed with the body of Kristi Guidry, a local college coed. Ford, in the Big Easy for a location shoot, remembers little of the evening and nothing of the murder. And, to make matters worse, Kristi is the niece of a local mafioso-type who will do whatever is necessary to avenge her death. Surrounded by glitzy Hollywood stars and intimidated by seedy underworld characters, Jake and Nicole encounter nothing but obstacles. The clock is ticking as they struggle to decipher who's lying, who's telling the truth, and exactly who schemed to murder Kristi.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608093335
THE CHATEAU by Paul Goldberg (Fiction/Humor)
Fired from his job as a science reporter for The Washington Post, Bill learns that his college roommate has fallen to his death under salacious circumstances. With nothing to lose, Bill boards a flight for Florida’s Gold Coast, ready to begin his own investigation. There’s just one catch: Bill’s father, Melsor, is angling for control of the condo board at the Château Sedan Neuve, a crumbling high-rise populated mostly by Russian Jewish immigrants. The current board is filled with fraudsters levying “special assessments” on residents, and Melsor will use any means necessary to win the board election. And who better to help him than his estranged son?
Picador | 9781250116116
GODS OF HOWL MOUNTAIN by Taylor Brown (Historical Fiction)
Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory Docherty runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted '40 Ford coupe. In the mill town at the foot of the mountains, Rory is bewitched by the mysterious daughter of a snake-handling preacher. His grandmother opposes this match for her own reasons, believing that "some things are best left buried." A folk healer whose powers are rumored to rival those of a wood witch, she concocts potions and cures for the people of the mountains while harboring an explosive secret about Rory’s mother. When Rory's life is threatened, Granny must decide whether to reveal what she knows or protect her only grandson from the past.
Picador | 9781250311580
IN THE DARK by Cara Hunter (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
A woman and child are found locked in a basement, barely alive and unidentifiable. The confused, elderly man who owns the house claims he has never seen them before. As the police grow desperate for a lead, Detective Inspector Adam Fawley stumbles across a breakthrough, a link to a case he worked years before about another young woman and child gone missing. When he realizes the missing woman’s house is directly adjacent to the house in this case, he thinks he might have found the connection that could bring justice for both women. But there’s something not quite right about the little boy from the basement, and the truth will send shockwaves through the force that Fawley never could have anticipated.
Penguin Books | 9780143131069
IN THE ENEMY’S HOUSE: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies by Howard Blum (History)
In 1946, genius linguist and codebreaker Meredith Gardner discovered that the KGB was running an extensive network of strategically placed spies inside the United States, whose goal was to infiltrate American intelligence and steal the nation’s military and atomic secrets. Over the course of the next decade, he and young FBI supervisor Bob Lamphere worked together on Venona, a top-secret mission to uncover the Soviet agents and protect the Holy Grail of Cold War espionage --- the atomic bomb. But they began to suspect that a mole buried deep in the American intelligence community was feeding Moscow Center information on Venona. They raced to unmask the traitor and prevent the Soviets from fulfilling Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s threat: "We shall bury you!"
Harper Perennial | 9780062458261
THE LIFE LIST OF ADRIAN MANDRICK by Chris White (Fiction)
Adrian Mandrick seems to have his life in perfect order with an excellent job in a Colorado hospital, a wife and two young children he loves deeply, and a serious passion for birding. His life list comprises 863 species correctly identified and cataloged. But Adrian holds dark secrets about his childhood --- secrets that threaten to consume him after he’s contacted by his estranged mother, and subsequently relapses into an addiction to painkillers. In the midst of his downward spiral, the legendary birder with the region’s second-longest life list dies suddenly, and Adrian receives an anonymous tip that could propel him to the very top.
Atria Books | 9781501174315
THE OBJECT OF YOUR AFFECTIONS by Falguni Kothari (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Paris Kahn Fraser has it all --- a successful career as an assistant district attorney, a beautiful home in New York City, and a handsome, passionate husband. Neal’s dream of fatherhood might have been the only shadow in their otherwise happy life…until Paris’ best friend comes to town. Naira Dalmia never thought she’d be a widow before 30. Left reeling in the aftermath of her husband’s death, all she wants is to start over. She trades Mumbai for New York, and rigid family expectations for the open acceptance of her best friend. But when Paris asks Naira to be their surrogate, they’ll learn if their friendship has what it takes to defy society, their families and even their own biology.
Graydon House | 9781525823534
THE PHILOSOPHER’S FLIGHT by Tom Miller (Historical Fantasy)
Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy --- an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. When a deadly accident puts his philosophical abilities to the test, Robert wins a scholarship to study at Radcliffe College, an all-women’s school. He falls hard for Danielle Hardin, a disillusioned young war hero turned political radical. However, Danielle’s activism and Robert’s recklessness attract the attention of the same fanatical anti-philosophical group that Robert’s mother fought years before. Robert and Danielle band together to fight for Robert’s place among the next generation of empirical philosophers --- and for philosophy’s very survival against the men who would destroy it.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476778167
THE SECRET OF CLOUDS by Alyson Richman (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Katya, a rising ballerina, and Sasha, a graduate student, are young and in love when an unexpected tragedy befalls their native Kiev. Years later, after the couple has safely emigrated to America, the consequences of this incident cause their son, Yuri, to be born with a rare health condition that isolates him from other children. Maggie, a passionate and dedicated teacher, agrees to tutor Yuri at his home, even though she is haunted by her own painful childhood memories. As the two forge a deep and soulful connection, Yuri's boundless curiosity and unique wisdom inspires Maggie to make difficult changes in her own life. She'll never realize just how strong Yuri has made her until she needs that strength the most.
Berkley | 9780451490773
SHARP: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean (Literary Criticism/Cultural History)
The 10 brilliant women who are the focus of SHARP came from different backgrounds and had vastly divergent political and artistic opinions. But they all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of America and ultimately changed the course of the 20th century, in spite of the men who often undervalued or dismissed their work. These women --- Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler and Janet Malcolm --- are united by what Dean calls “sharpness,” the ability to cut to the quick with precision of thought and wit.
Grove Press | 9780802129246
THE TESTAMENT OF LOKI by Joanne M. Harris (Fantasy)
The end of the world has occurred, and Loki has been trapped in a seemingly endless purgatory until he finds a way to escape. Back in the ninth world (Earth), Loki finds himself sharing the mind of a teenage girl named Jumps, who is a bit of a mess. She’s also not happy about Loki sneaking his way into her mind, since she was originally calling on Thor. Worse, her friends have also been co-opted by the gods: Odin, Jump’s one-eyed best friend in a wheelchair, and Freya, the pretty one. Thor escapes the netherworld as well and shares the mind of a dog, and he finds that it suits him. Odin has a plan to bring back the Norse gods' ascendancy, but Loki has his own ideas on how things can go --- and nothing goes according to plan.
Saga Press | 9781481449502
THAT KIND OF MOTHER by Rumaan Alam (Fiction)
Like many first-time mothers, Rebecca Stone finds herself both deeply in love with her newborn son and deeply overwhelmed. Struggling to juggle the demands of motherhood with her own aspirations, she 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. 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 | 9780062667618
THE WATERGATE: Inside America’s Most Infamous Address by Joseph Rodota (History)
Watergate residents --- an intriguing cast of politicians, journalists, socialites and spies --- have been at the center of America's political storms for half a century. Writer and political consultant Joseph Rodota unlocks the mysteries of the Watergate, including why Elizabeth Taylor refused to move into a Watergate apartment with her sixth husband; reveals a surprising connection between the Watergate and Ronald Reagan; and unravels how the Nixon break-in transformed the Watergate's reputation and spawned generations of "-gate" scandals, from Koreagate to Deflategate.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062476647
A WILLING MURDER: A Medlar Mystery by Jude Deveraux (Mystery)
Retired romance author Sara Medlar finds herself back in her hometown of Lachlan, Florida, remodeling the grand old mansion she admired as a child. Then her niece, Kate, is offered a job in Lachlan --- a start in what could be a very successful career in real estate. She accepts immediately, but with so little saved up, she’ll have to approach her estranged yet incredibly famous aunt for a place to stay. Jackson Wyatt already has his own room at the mansion and irritates Kate to no end. However, when two skeletons are accidentally uncovered in the quiet town, this unlikely trio is suddenly thrust together by a common goal: to solve a mystery everyone else seems eager to keep under wraps.
Mira | 9780778308195
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