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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 25th and March 4th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to Carol Fitzgerald's latest Bookreporter.com Bets On selection: THE GOWN, Jennifer Robson's enthralling historical novel about one of the most famous wedding dresses of the 20th century --- Queen Elizabeth’s wedding gown --- and the fascinating women who made it. Carol is looking forward to interviewing Jennifer at the Tucson Festival of Books this Sunday, March 3rd. Also, Melanie, who edits our Word of Mouth feature, says that this book is trending in reader comments.
Also, please click on the covers above for our reviews of three books that we featured in last week's Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter: NEVER TELL by Lisa Gardner, an unpredictable thriller that puts fan favorites D.D. Warren and Flora Dane on a shocking new case that begins with a vicious murder and gets darker from there; Tara Conklin's much-talked-about book, THE LAST ROMANTICS, which is the Barnes & Noble Book Club pick for February and was a Bets On title; and LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE, Valeria Luiselli’s new novel about a family whose road trip across America collides with an immigration crisis at the southwestern border.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News: Bookreporter.com "Bets On"
THE GOWN by Jennifer Robson
THE GOWN: A Novel of the Royal Wedding by Jennifer Robson (Historical Fiction)
THE GOWN by Jennifer Robson is a novel that will delight royal watchers, including all those who enjoy Netflix’s “The Crown.”
It opens in 1947 in London. The war has ended, but the residual damage remains, and people’s spirits are still feeling the war’s effect. Then it is announced that Princess Elizabeth will be married, which stirs excitement and a sense of fanfare. The Mayfair fashion house of Norman Hartnell wins the commission for the gown. Two young women, Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin, are the embroiders who are assigned to create the brilliant design work for the piece. While they are two fictional characters, Jennifer did extensive research with a seamstress who had worked on the gown, thus the storytelling feels so very authentic.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here to read a review.
Click here to read more of Carol's commentary.
On Sale the Week of February 25th in Hardcover
February 26th
THE BORDER by Don Winslow (Thriller)
Art Keller’s obsession to defeat the world’s most powerful, wealthy and lethal kingpin --- the godfather of the Sinaloa Cartel, Adán Barrera --- has left him bloody and scarred, and cost him the people he loves. Now Keller is elevated to the highest ranks of the DEA, only to find that in destroying one monster he has created 30 more that are wreaking even more chaos and suffering in his beloved Mexico. But Barrera’s final legacy is the heroin epidemic scourging America. Throwing himself into the gap to stem the deadly flow, Keller finds himself surrounded by men who want to kill him and an incoming administration that’s in bed with the very drug traffickers Keller is trying to bring down.
William Morrow | 9780062664488
CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
When The Cookie Jar becomes the setting of a star-studded TV special about movies filmed in Minnesota, Hannah Swensen hopes to shine the spotlight on her bakery --- not the unsavory scandal swirling around her personal life. But that’s practically impossible with a disturbing visit from the shifty character she once believed was her one and only love, a group of bodyguards following her every move, and a murder victim in her bedroom. Now, swapping the crime scene in her condo for her mother Delores’ penthouse, Hannah and an old flame team up to solve a case that’s messier than an upended chocolate cream pie.
Kensington | 9781496718860
DANNEMORA: Two Escaped Killers, Three Weeks of Terror, and the Largest Manhunt Ever in New York State by Charles A. Gardner (True Crime)
In June 2015, two vicious convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in New York’s North Country, launching the most extensive manhunt in state history. Aided by prison employee Joyce Mitchell, double murderer Richard Matt and cop-killer David Sweat slipped out of their cells. For three weeks, the residents of local communities were virtual prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement from across the nation swept the rural wilderness near the Canadian border. Charles A. Gardner --- a lifelong resident of the community and a former corrections officer who began his training at Clinton --- tells the whole story from an insider's point of view.
Citadel | 9780806539249
DEAD MEN'S TROUSERS by Irvine Welsh (Fiction/Humor)
Mark Renton is finally a success. He now makes significant money managing DJs, but the constant travel, airport lounges, soulless hotel rooms and broken relationships have left him dissatisfied with life. Then he runs into his old partner in crime, Frank Begbie, from whom he'd been hiding for years. But the psychotic Begbie appears to have reinvented himself as a celebrated artist in Los Angeles and doesn't seem interested in revenge. Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh, Sick Boy and Spud are intrigued to learn that their old friends are back in town and concoct a new scheme for them all. Which is when things start to go horribly wrong.
Melville House | 9781612197555
HUNTING GAME written by Helene Tursten, translated by Paul Norlen (Mystery)
Embla Nyström has been plagued by chronic nightmares and racing thoughts ever since she can remember. She has learned to channel most of her anxious energy into her position as Detective Inspector in the mobile unit in Gothenburg, Sweden, and into sports. A talented hunter and prize-winning Nordic welterweight, she is glad to be taking a vacation from her high-stress job to attend the annual moose hunt with her family and friends. But a string of unsettling incidents culminate in the disappearance of two hunters. Embla takes charge of the search, and they soon find one of the missing men floating face down in the nearby lake. With the help of local reinforcements, Embla delves into the dark pasts of her fellow hunters in search of a killer.
Soho Crime | 9781616956509
I.M.: A Memoir by Isaac Mizrahi (Memoir)
Isaac Mizrahi offers a poignant, candid and touching look back on his life so far. Growing up gay in a sheltered Syrian Jewish Orthodox family, Isaac had unique talents that ultimately drew him into fashion and later into celebrity circles that read like a who’s who of the 20th and 21st centuries: Richard Avedon, Audrey Hepburn, Anna Wintour, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey, to name only a few. In I.M., Isaac delves into his lifelong battles with weight, insomnia and depression. He tells what it was like to be an out gay man in a homophobic age and to witness the ravaging effects of the AIDS epidemic.
Flatiron Books | 9781250074089
A JUSTIFIED MURDER: A Medlar Mystery by Jude Deveraux (Mystery)
The small town of Lachlan, Florida, was rocked last year when two bodies were uncovered in the roots of a fallen tree. Despite their lack of investigative experience, Sara Medlar; her niece, Kate; and Jack Wyatt found themselves at the center of the mystery, working together to reveal the truth behind a decades-old secret in the sleepy town. They vowed to never again involve themselves in something so dangerous --- until Janet Beeson is murdered. The sweet little old woman has been shot, stabbed and poisoned, but no one can imagine who would want to harm one of the town’s kindest, most helpful residents. It isn’t long before Sara, Kate and Jack begin to see that there are more secrets buried in quiet Lachlan than anyone could have imagined.
Mira | 9780778308294
LAST NIGHT by Karen Ellis (Thriller)
One of the few black kids on his Brighton Beach block, Titus "Crisp" Crespo was raised by his white mother and his Russian grandparents. Crisp has always been the odd kid out, but a fundamentally good kid, with a bright future. But one impulsive decision triggers a horrible domino effect --- an arrest, no reason not to accompany his richer, whiter friend Glynnie on a visit to her weed dealer, and a trip onto his father's old home turf where he'll face certain choices he's always strived to avoid. As Detective Lex Cole tries to unravel the clues from Crisp's night out, they both find that what you don't know about your past can still come back to haunt you.
Mulholland Books | 9780316505697
THE LOST NIGHT by Andrea Bartz (Psychological Thriller)
In 2009, Edie had New York’s social world in her thrall. Mercurial and beguiling, she was the shining star of a group of recent graduates living in a Brooklyn loft and treating New York like their playground. When Edie’s body was found near a suicide note at the end of a long, drunken night, no one could believe it. A decade later, Lindsay has come a long way from the drug-addled world of Calhoun Lofts. She has devoted best friends, a cozy apartment and a thriving career as a magazine’s head fact-checker. But when a chance reunion leads Lindsay to discover an unsettling video from that hazy night, she starts to wonder if Edie was actually murdered --- and, worse, if she herself was involved.
Crown | 9780525574712
MOTHER COUNTRY by Irina Reyn (Fiction)
Nadia's daily life in south Brooklyn is filled with small indignities. As a senior home attendant, she is always in danger of being fired; as a part-time nanny, she is forced to navigate the demands of her spoiled charge and the preschooler's insecure mother; and as an ethnic Russian, she finds herself feuding with western Ukrainian immigrants who think she is a traitor. The war back home is always at the forefront of her reality. Nadia internalizes notions of "union" all around her, but the one reunion she has been waiting six years for --- with her beloved daughter --- is being eternally delayed by the Department of Homeland Security. When Nadia finds out that her daughter has lost access to the medicine she needs to survive, she takes matters into her own hands.
Thomas Dunne Books | 9781250076045
THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE by Samantha Shannon (Fantasy)
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction --- but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635570298
SAY NOTHING: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (True Crime/History)
In December 1972, Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible, but no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress. Patrick Radden Keefe's book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with.
Doubleday | 9780385521314
VACUUM IN THE DARK by Jen Beagin (Fiction/Humor)
Mona is 26 and cleans houses for a living in Taos, New Mexico. Her boyfriend, Dark, happens to be married to one of her clients. But Dark and his wife aren’t the only complicated clients on Mona’s roster. There’s also the Hungarian artist couple who --- with her addiction to painkillers and his lingering stares --- reminds Mona of troubling aspects of her childhood, and some of the underlying reasons her life had to be restarted in the first place. As she tries to get over the heartache of her affair and the older pains of her youth, Mona winds up on an eccentric, moving journey of self-discovery that takes her back to her beginnings where she attempts to unlock the key to having a sense of home in the future.
Scribner | 9781501182143
WE MUST BE BRAVE by Frances Liardet (Historical Fiction)
In the disorderly evacuation of Southampton, England, newly married Ellen Parr finds a small child asleep on the backseat of an empty bus. No one knows who little Pamela is. Ellen professed not to want children with her older husband, and when she takes Pamela into her home and rapidly into her heart, she discovers that this is true: Ellen doesn't want children. She wants only Pamela. Three golden years pass as the Second World War rages on. Then one day Pamela is taken away, screaming. Ellen is no stranger to sorrow, but when she returns to the quiet village life she's long lived, she finds herself asking: In a world changed by war, is it fair to wish for an unchanged heart?
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735218864
On Sale the Week of February 25th in Paperback
February 26th
AMERICAN DUCHESS: A Novel of Consuelo Vanderbilt by Karen Harper (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Bullied into marrying the aloof Duke of Marlborough by her indomitable mother, Alva, heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt loves another. But a deal was made, trading some of the vast Vanderbilt wealth for a title and prestige, and Consuelo, bred to obey, realizes she must make the best of things. At Blenheim Palace, Consuelo is confronted with an overwhelming list of duties, including producing an “heir and a spare,” but her relationship with the duke quickly disintegrates. Consuelo finds an inner strength, charming everyone from debutantes to diplomats including Winston Churchill, as she fights for women’s suffrage. And when she takes a scandalous leap, can she hope to attain love at last?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062748331
THE BRIGHTEST SUN by Adrienne Benson (Fiction)
Leona, an isolated American anthropologist, gives birth to a baby girl in a remote Maasai village and must decide how she can be a mother, in spite of her own grim childhood. Jane, a lonely expat wife, follows her husband to the tropics and learns just how fragile life is. Simi, a barren Maasai woman, must confront her infertility in a society in which females are valued by their reproductive roles. In this affecting debut novel, these three very different women grapple with motherhood, recalibrate their identities, and confront unforeseen tragedies and triumphs.
Park Row | 9780778307761
CALIFORNIA GIRLS by Susan Mallery (Fiction)
Paperback Original
The California sunshine is not quite so bright for three sisters who get dumped in the same week. Finola, a popular LA morning-show host, is famously upbeat until she’s blindsided on live TV by the news that her husband is sleeping with a young pop sensation. Zennie’s breakup is no big loss. Although the world insists she pair up, she’d rather be surfing. So agreeing to be the surrogate for her best friend is a no-brainer. But when everyone else thinks she’s making a huge mistake, being pregnant is a lot lonelier than she imagined. Ali is used to being overlooked, but when her fiancé sends his disapproving brother to call off the wedding, it’s a new low. And yet Daniel continues to turn up “for support,” making Ali wonder if maybe someone sees her in a way no one ever has.
Mira | 9780778351252
CARIBBEAN RIM: A Doc Ford Novel by Randy Wayne White (Thriller/Adventure)
Marine biologist Doc Ford’s old pal, Carl Fitzpatrick, has been chasing sunken wrecks most of his life, but now he's run afoul of the Florida Division of Historical Resources. Its director, Leonard Nickelby, despises amateur archaeologists, and now he and his young "assistant" have disappeared --- along with Fitzpatrick's impounded cache of rare Spanish coins and the list of uncharted wreck sites Fitz spent decades putting together. Some of Fitz's own explorations have been a little...dicey, so he can't go to the authorities. Doc is his only hope. But greed makes people do terrible things. With stakes this high, there's no way the thieves will go quietly --- and Doc has just put himself in their crosshairs.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735212794
DON’T SKIP OUT ON ME by Willy Vlautin (Fiction)
Horace Hopper has spent most of his life on a Nevada sheep ranch, but dreams of something bigger. Mr. and Mrs. Reese took him in and treated him like a son, intending to leave the ranch in his hands. But Horace feels as if he doesn’t belong on the ranch, or anywhere, and decides to leave the only loving home he’s known to prove his worth as a championship boxer. Reinventing himself as Hector Hildago, a scrappy Mexican boxer, he heads to Tucson and begins training and entering fights. His journey brings him to boxing rings across the Southwest and Mexico, and finally to the streets of Las Vegas, where Horace learns he can’t change who he is or outrun his destiny.
Harper Perennial | 9780062684479
DOUBLE BLIND by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen (Mystery/Thriller)
Kendra Michaels, formerly blind and now a hired gun for law enforcement agencies who relies on her razor-sharp powers of observation, is reluctant to help the FBI with the most recent case they’ve brought to her. But then she hears the details: the body was found just blocks away from Kendra’s condo. The young woman was carrying an envelope with Kendra’s name on it, and inside was an SD card with what appears to be an innocuous video of a wedding reception. The woman died trying to get the video to Kendra, but for what purpose? Before Kendra and the FBI can answer that question, the bride is abducted from her suburban home. And so the hunt is on for a killer whose nightmarish plan is slowly becoming clear.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250076021
DOWN THE RIVER UNTO THE SEA by Walter Mosley (Mystery)
Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators, until, dispatched to arrest a well-heeled car thief, he is framed for assault by his enemies within the NYPD, a charge that lands him in solitary at Rikers Island. A decade later, King is a private detective, running his agency with the help of his teenage daughter, Aja-Denise. Broken by the brutality he suffered and committed in equal measure while behind bars, his work and his daughter are the only light in his solitary life. When he receives a card in the mail from the woman who admits she was paid to frame him those years ago, King realizes that he has no choice but to take his own case: figuring out who on the force wanted him disposed of --- and why.
Mulholland Books | 9780316509633
EAT THE APPLE: A Memoir by Matt Young (Memoir)
Matt Young joined the Marine Corps at age 18 after a drunken night culminating in wrapping his car around a fire hydrant. The teenage wasteland he fled followed him to the training bases charged with making him a Marine. Matt survived the training, and then not one, not two, but three deployments to Iraq, where the testosterone, danger and stakes for him and his fellow grunts were dialed up a dozen decibels. EAT THE APPLE drops us unarmed into Marine Corps culture and lays bare the absurdism of 21st-century war, the manned-up vulnerability of those on the front lines, and the true, if often misguided, motivations that drove a young man to a life at war.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781632869517
THE ENGLISH WIFE by Lauren Willig (Historical Mystery)
Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil live a charmed life in New York. Yes, there are rumors that she's having an affair with the architect, but rumors are rumors and people will gossip. But then Bayard is found dead with a knife in his chest on the night of their Twelfth Night Ball, and Annabelle goes missing, presumed drowned. Bay's sister, Janie, forms an unlikely alliance with a reporter to uncover the truth, convinced that Bay would never have killed his wife, but the more she learns about her brother and his wife, the more everything she thought she knew about them starts to unravel. Who were her brother and his wife, really? And why did her brother die with the name George on his lips?
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250056436
THE FALL OF SHANNARA: THE SKAAR INVASION by Terry Brooks (Fantasy)
The Four Lands are under siege. Wielding a magical ability virtually impossible to combat, mysterious invaders defeat the most fearsome Troll armies, then focus their savagery on the Druid order. Dar Leah, once the High Druid’s Blade, has crossed paths --- and swords --- with their ruthless leader before. So he knows that if any hope exists, it rests in the hands of the Druid Drisker Arc, now trapped inside vanished Paranor. As Drisker races to find the ancient knowledge that could free him, Dar goes in search of Tarsha Kaynin, whose magic could draw Drisker back into the world of the living. But little do they know that what appeared to be a formidable invading force may only be the forerunner of a much larger army --- one intent on nothing less than total conquest.
Del Rey | 9780553391534
THE HOMECOMING by Andrew Pyper (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
After the death of their absentee father, Aaron and Bridge Quinlan travel to a vast rainforest property in the Pacific Northwest to hear the reading of his will. There, they meet up with their mother and troubled sister, Franny, and are shocked to discover the will’s terms: in order to claim their inheritance, they all must remain at the estate for 30 days without any contact with the outside world. Despite their concerns, they agree. The Quinlans soon come to learn their family has more secrets than they ever imagined. Why does Bridge have faint memories of the estate? Why did their father want them to be sequestered there together? And what is out there they feel pulling them into the dark heart of the woods?
Simon & Schuster | 9781982108977
THE HUNTRESS by Kate Quinn (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
When the Nazis attack the Soviet Union, Nina Markova risks everything to join the legendary Night Witches, an all-female night bomber regiment. When she is stranded behind enemy lines, Nina becomes the prey of a lethal Nazi murderess known as the Huntress. Transformed by the horrors he witnessed, British war correspondent Ian Graham has become a Nazi hunter. Yet one target eludes him: a vicious predator known as the Huntress. To find her, the fierce, disciplined investigator joins forces with the only witness to escape the Huntress alive: the brazen, cocksure Nina. But a shared secret could derail their mission unless Ian and Nina force themselves to confront it.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062740373
THE HUSH by John Hart (Thriller)
It’s been 10 years since the events that changed Johnny Merrimon’s life and rocked his hometown to the core. Since then, Johnny has fought to maintain his privacy, but books have been written of his exploits. Living alone on 6,000 acres of once-sacred land, Johnny’s only connection to normal life is his old friend, Jack. But Jack sees danger in the wild places Johnny calls home; he senses darkness and hunger, an intractable intent. Johnny will discuss none of it, but there are the things he knows, the things he can do. A lesser friend might accept such abilities as a gift, but Jack has felt what moves in the swamp: the cold of it, the unspeakable fear.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250012289
I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (True Crime/Memoir)
For more than 10 years, a mysterious and violent predator committed 50 sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated 10 sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area. Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
Harper Perennial | 9780062319791
I’VE GOT MY EYES ON YOU by Mary Higgins Clark (Mystery/Thriller)
After a party when her parents are away, 18-year-old Kerry Dowling is found fully dressed at the bottom of the family pool. The immediate suspect is her boyfriend, who had a bitter argument with her at the party. Then there is a 20-year-old neighbor who was angry because she didn’t invite him to the party. Or is there someone else who has not yet been seen on the radar? Kerry’s older sister Aline, a 28-year-old guidance counselor, is determined to assist the Prosecutor's Office in learning the truth. She does not realize that now she is putting her own life in danger.
Pocket Books | 9781501171765
LYING IN WAIT by Liz Nugent (Psychological Thriller)
On the surface, Lydia Fitzsimons's life seems idyllic. Her husband, Andrew, is a prosperous, respected judge; they live in the spacious, comfortable, well-appointed house where she was raised. And she is utterly, obsessively devoted to her son, Laurence --- her adored only child, her pride and joy. But Andrew's murder of Annie Doyle, accidental or not, sets into motion a dark downward spiral. It doesn’t take long for Laurence to suspect that something is very, very wrong in the Fitzsimons household --- and he is determined to discover the truth.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501178474
A MEASURE OF DARKNESS by Jonathan Kellerman (Mystery/Thriller)
A wild party in a gentrifying East Bay neighborhood. A heated argument that spills into the street. Gunshots. Chaos. For Clay Edison and his fellow coroners, it’s the start of a long night and the first of many to come. The victims keep piling up. Then the smoke clears and the real mystery emerges --- one victim’s death doesn’t match the others. And it falls to Clay to give her a name and a voice. Haunted by the cruelty of her death, he embarks upon a journey into the bizarre, entering a hidden world where innocence and perversity meet and mingle. There, his relentless pursuit of the truth opens the gateway to a dark and baffling past --- and brings him right into the line of fire.
Ballantine Books | 9780399594656
ONE GOAL: A Coach, a Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together by Amy Bass (Sports/Sociology)
When thousands of Somali refugees resettled in Lewiston, Maine, a struggling, overwhelmingly white town, longtime residents grew uneasy. Then the mayor wrote a letter asking Somalis to stop coming, which became a national story. While scandal threatened to subsume the town, its high school's soccer coach integrated Somali kids onto his team, and their passion began to heal old wounds. Taking readers behind the tumult of this controversial team --- and onto the pitch where the teammates vied to become state champions and achieved a vital sense of understanding --- ONE GOAL is a timely story about overcoming the prejudices that divide us.
Hachette Books | 9780316396554
THE OTHER WOMAN by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
In an isolated village in the mountains of Andalusia, a mysterious Frenchwoman begins work on a dangerous memoir. It is the story of a man she once loved in the Beirut of old, and a child taken from her in treason’s name. The woman is the keeper of the Kremlin’s most closely guarded secret. Long ago, the KGB inserted a mole into the heart of the West --- a mole who stands on the doorstep of ultimate power. Only one man can unravel the conspiracy: Gabriel Allon, the legendary art restorer and assassin who serves as the chief of Israel’s vaunted secret intelligence service. Gabriel and the Russians will engage in a final epic showdown, with the fate of the postwar global order hanging in the balance.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062834942
THE SHADOW AGENT by Daniel Judson (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Hunted for more than 20 years by a mysterious terrorist known as the Benefactor, former Navy Seabee Tom Sexton is done running. Working with his girlfriend, Stella, for a private-sector spec ops team, he has a plan to eliminate the elusive stranger who murdered his family. But Tom didn’t just emerge from deep cover. He might have been lured. A former colleague gone rogue has warned Tom of a shadow agent hiding in plain sight. If Tom trusts the intel, that means he can’t trust anyone else. Over the next 72 hours, Tom will be fighting for his life --- and Stella’s --- and to expose the traitor. And he may be walking into more than one trap.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503959156
STAR OF THE NORTH by D. B. John (Thriller)
STAR OF THE NORTH opens in 1988, when a Korean American teenager is kidnapped from a South Korean beach by North Korean operatives. Twenty-two years later, her brilliant twin sister, Jenna, is still searching for her and ends up on the radar of the CIA. When evidence that her sister may still be alive in North Korea comes to light, Jenna will do anything possible to rescue her. Her story is braided together with two other narrative threads. In one, a North Korean peasant woman finds a forbidden international aid balloon and uses the valuables inside to launch a dangerously lucrative black-market business. In the other, a high-ranking North Korean official discovers that he may be descended from a traitor, a fact that could mean his death if it is revealed.
Broadway Books | 9780525573852
TO DIE BUT ONCE: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear (Historical Mystery)
During the months following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany, Maisie Dobbs investigates the disappearance of a young apprentice working on a hush-hush government contract. As news of the plight of thousands of soldiers stranded on the beaches of France is gradually revealed to the general public, another young man beloved by Maisie makes a terrible decision that will change his life forever. Maisie’s investigation leads her from the countryside of rural Hampshire to the web of wartime opportunism exploited by one of the London underworld’s most powerful men. Yet when a final confrontation approaches, she must acknowledge the potential cost to her future --- and the risk of destroying a dream she wants very much to become reality.
Harper Perennial | 9780062436641
TURBULENCE: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
Stone Barrington and several friends are vacationing in Florida when an extreme weather event puts a damper on their trip. Even worse, the hurricane-force winds blow a powerful, noxious politician straight onto Stone's doorstep. Though they part ways before long, Stone soon learns that he hasn't seen the last of his new acquaintance. It turns out that this official has some shady associates who may have destructive plans afoot, and Stone needs an entrée to the inside to figure out their scheme. With the fate of nations at stake, Stone must summon all of his fearless daring to put an end to the audacious plot…but this time he may be in over his head.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735219205
On Sale the Week of March 4th in Hardcover
March 5th
THE ALTRUISTS by Andrew Ridker (Fiction)
A middling professor at a Midwestern college, Arthur Alter can't afford his mortgage, he's exasperated his much-younger girlfriend, and his kids won't speak to him. And then there's the money --- the small fortune his late wife Francine kept secret, which she bequeathed directly to his children. Those children are Ethan, an anxious recluse living off his mother's money on a choice plot of Brooklyn real estate; and Maggie, a would-be do-gooder trying to fashion herself a noble life of self-imposed poverty. On the verge of losing the family home, Arthur invites his children back to St. Louis under the guise of a reconciliation. But in doing so, he unwittingly unleashes a Pandora's box of age-old resentments and long-buried memories.
Viking | 9780525522713
AUNTIE POLDI AND THE VINEYARDS OF ETNA written by Mario Giordano, translated by John Brownjohn (Cozy Mystery)
When Prosecco-loving Auntie Poldi retired to Sicily from Germany, she never dreamed her tranquil days would be interrupted by murder. But Sicily had other plans, and Poldi found herself honor-bound to solve the disappearance of her beloved (and cute) handyman. Now she’s finally ready for some peace and quiet --- interrupted by romantic encounters with Chief Inspector Montana, of course --- when the water supply to her neighborhood is cut off and a dear friend’s dog is poisoned, telltale signs that a certain familial organization is flexing its muscles. Poldi soon finds a body in a vineyard, tangles with the Mafia, and yet again makes herself unpopular in the pursuit of justice.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328919021
THE BAGGAGE HANDLER by David Rawlings (Magical Realism)
A hothead businessman coming to the city for a showdown meeting to save his job. A mother of three hoping to survive the days at her sister's house before her niece’s wedding. And a young artist pursuing his father’s dream so he can keep his own alive. When David, Gillian and Michael each take the wrong suitcase from baggage claim, the airline directs them to retrieve their bags at a mysterious facility in a deserted part of the city. There they meet the enigmatic Baggage Handler, who shows them there is more in their baggage than what they have packed, and carrying it with them is slowing them down in ways they can’t imagine. And they must deal with it before they can leave.
Thomas Nelson | 9780785224938
BEAUTIFUL BAD by Annie Ward (Psychological Thriller)
Maddie and Ian's love story began with a chance encounter at a party overseas; he was serving in the British army, and she was a travel writer visiting her best friend, Jo. Now almost two decades later, married with a beautiful son, Charlie, they are living the perfect suburban life in Middle America. But when a camping accident leaves Maddie badly scarred, she begins attending writing therapy, where she gradually reveals her fears about Ian's PTSD; her concerns for the safety of their young son; and the couple’s tangled and tumultuous past with Jo. Sixteen years of love and fear, adventure and suspicion culminate in The Day of the Killing, when a frantic 911 call summons the police to the scene of a shocking crime.
Park Row | 9780778369103
BEFORE SHE KNEW HIM by Peter Swanson (Psychological Thriller)
Hen and her husband, Lloyd, have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder, and finally has some stability and peace. But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college? When she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot one night, she realizes that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape.
William Morrow | 9780062838155
CALL ME EVIE by J.P. Pomare (Psychological Thriller)
For the past two weeks, 17-year-old Kate Bennet has lived against her will in an isolated cabin in a remote beach town --- brought there by a mysterious man named Bill. Part captor, part benefactor, Bill calls her Evie and tells her he's hiding her to protect her. That she did something terrible one night back home in Melbourne --- something so unspeakable that he had no choice but to take her away. The trouble is, Kate can't remember the night in question. As she tries to reconcile the girl she thought she'd been with the devastating consequences Bill claims she's responsible for, Kate will unearth secrets about herself and those closest to her that could change everything.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525538141
CEMETERY ROAD by Greg Iles (Thriller)
When Marshall McEwan left his Mississippi hometown at 18, he vowed never to return. The trauma that drove him away spurred him to become one of the most successful journalists in Washington, D.C. But as the ascendancy of a chaotic administration lifts him from print fame to television stardom, Marshall discovers that his father is terminally ill, and he must return home to face the unfinished business of his past. On arrival, he finds Bienville, Mississippi very much changed. The exclusive Poker Club has taken a town on the brink of extinction and offered it salvation, in the form of a billion-dollar Chinese paper mill. But on the verge of the deal being consummated, two murders rock Bienville to its core, threatening far more than the city’s economic future.
William Morrow | 9780062824615
DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Fiction)
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late '60s, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s 20, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
Ballantine Books | 9781524798628
THE DEVIL ASPECT by Craig Russell (Historical Thriller)
Prague, 1935: Psychiatrist Viktor Kosárek arrives at the infamous Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane, which houses the country's six most treacherous killers --- known to the staff as The Woodcutter, The Clown, The Glass Collector, The Vegetarian, The Sciomancer and The Demon. Viktor hopes to use a new medical technique to prove that these patients share a common archetype of evil, a phenomenon known as The Devil Aspect. Meanwhile, fear grips the city as a phantom serial killer (dubbed Leather Apron in the newspapers) emerges in the dark alleys. Police investigator Lukas Smolak turns to the doctors at Hrad Orlu for their expertise with the psychotic criminal mind, though he worries that Leather Apron might have some connection to the six inmates in the asylum.
Doubleday | 9780385544368
ERA OF IGNITION: Coming of Age in a Time of Rage and Revolution by Amber Tamblyn (Social Science/Memoir)
In her late 20s, Amber Tamblyn experienced a crisis of character while trying to break out of the confines of the acting career she'd forged as a child in order to become the writer and director she dreamed of being as an adult. After a particularly low period fueled by rejection and disillusionment, she grabbed hold of her own destiny and entered into what she calls an Era of Ignition --- namely, the time of self-reflection that follows in the wake of personal upheaval and leads to a call to action and positive change. In the process of undergoing this metaphysical metamorphosis, she realized that our country was going through an Era of Ignition of its own.
Crown Archetype | 9781984822987
GINGERBREAD by Helen Oyeyemi (Fiction)
Perdita Lee and her mother, Harriet, might not be as normal as you think. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there's the gingerbread they make. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it's very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (or, according to many sources, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee's early youth. The world's truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread, however, is Harriet's charismatic childhood friend, Gretel Kercheval --- a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met. Decades later, when teenage Perdita sets out to find her mother's long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet's story.
Riverhead Books | 9781594634659
HER FATHER'S SECRET by Sara Blaedel (Thriller)
After suddenly inheriting a funeral home from her father --- who she hadn't heard from in decades --- Ilka Jensen has impulsively abandoned her quiet life in Denmark to visit the small town in rural Wisconsin where her father lived. There, she's devastated to discover her father's second family: a stepmother and two half-sisters she never knew existed and who aren't the least bit welcoming, despite Ilka's efforts to reach out. Then a local woman is killed, seemingly the unfortunate victim of a home invasion turned violent. But when Ilka learns that the woman knew her father, it becomes increasingly clear that she may not have been a completely random victim after all.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538763254
THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN by Lisa See (Historical Fiction)
Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger. Little do they know that after surviving hundreds of dives and developing the closest of bonds, forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point.
Scribner | 9781501154850
THE LAST WOMAN IN THE FOREST by Diane Les Becquets (Psychological Thriller)
Marian Engström has found her true calling: working with rescue dogs to help protect endangered wildlife. Her first assignment takes her to northern Alberta, where she falls in love with her mentor, the daring and brilliant Tate. After they’re separated from each other on another assignment, Marian is shattered to learn of Tate’s tragic death. Worse still is the aftermath in which Marian discovers disturbing inconsistencies about Tate’s life, and begins to wonder if the man she loved could have been responsible for the unsolved murders of at least four women. As Marian relives her relationship with Tate and circles ever closer to the truth, evil stalks her every move.
Berkley | 9780399587047
LITTLE FAITH by Nickolas Butler (Fiction)
Lyle Hovde is living a mostly content life in rural Wisconsin with his wife, Peg; daughter, Shiloh; and six-year-old grandson, Isaac. After a troubled adolescence and subsequent estrangement from her parents, Shiloh has finally come home. But in Shiloh’s absence, she has become deeply involved with an extremist church, and the devout pastor courting her is convinced that Isaac has the spiritual ability to heal the sick. While reckoning with his own faith --- or lack thereof --- Lyle soon finds himself torn between his unease about the church and his desire to keep his daughter and grandson in his life. But when the church’s radical belief system threatens Isaac’s safety, Lyle is forced to make a decision from which the family may not recover.
Ecco | 9780062469717
LONG LIVE THE TRIBE OF FATHERLESS GIRLS: A Memoir by T Kira Madden (Memoir)
Acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden's debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight. As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, but under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635571851
MADAME FOURCADE'S SECRET WAR: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Lynne Olson (Biography)
In 1941, a 31-year-old Frenchwoman became the leader of a vast intelligence organization --- the only woman to serve as a chef de résistance during the war. Strong-willed, independent and a lifelong rebel against her country’s conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. Although Fourcade, the mother of two young children, moved her headquarters every few weeks, constantly changing her hair color, clothing and identity, she was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escape and continued to hold her network together, even as it repeatedly threatened to crumble around her.
Random House | 9780812994766
THE MALTA EXCHANGE by Steve Berry (Thriller)
Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone is at Lake Como, Italy, on the trail of legendary letters between Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini that disappeared in 1945 and could rewrite history. But someone else seems to be after the same letters, and when Malone obtains then loses them, he’s plunged into a hunt that draws the attention of the legendary Knights of Malta. They are now a global humanitarian organization, but within their ranks lurks trouble --- the Secreti --- an ancient sect intent on affecting the coming papal conclave. With the help of Magellan Billet agent Luke Daniels, Malone races the rogue cardinal, the knights, the Secreti and the clock to find what has been lost for centuries.
Minotaur Books | 9781250140265
OUTER ORDER, INNER CALM: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness by Gretchen Rubin (Self-Help/Personal Growth)
For most of us, outer order contributes to inner calm. And for most of us, a rigid, one-size-fits-all solution doesn't work. The fact is, when we tailor our approach to suit our own particular challenges and habits, we're then able to create the order that will make our lives happier, healthier, more productive and more creative. Gretchen Rubin has found that getting control of our stuff makes us feel more in control of our lives. By getting rid of things we don't use, don't need or don't love, we free our minds (and our shelves) for what we truly value.
Harmony | 9781984822802
THE PARTING GLASS by Gina Marie Guadagnino (Historical Fiction)
By day, Mary Ballard is lady’s maid to Charlotte Walden, wealthy and accomplished belle of New York City high society. But on her nights off, Mary sheds this persona to reveal her true self: Irish exile Maire O’Farren. She finds release from her frustration in New York’s gritty underworld --- in the arms of a prostitute and as drinking companion to a decidedly motley crew consisting of a barkeeper and members of a dangerous secret society. Meanwhile, Charlotte has a secret of her own --- she’s having an affair with a stable groom, unaware that her lover is actually Mary’s own brother. When the truth of both women’s double lives begins to unravel, Mary is left to face the consequences.
Atria Books | 9781501198410
THE PERFECT ALIBI by Phillip Margolin (Thriller)
A young woman accuses a prominent local college athlete of rape, which leads to a conviction with the help of indisputable DNA evidence. Not long after, there's another rape and the DNA test shows that the same person committed both rapes. Now, the convicted athlete is granted a new trial and bail. Shortly thereafter, his original lawyer disappears and his law partner is murdered. Robin Lockwood is representing the victim of the first rape for her civil lawsuit against her rapist, who is now convinced that the rapist is stalking her and trying to intimidate her. At the same time, another client is up on a murder charge --- one that should be dismissed as self-defense --- but the D.A. trying the case is determined to bring it to trial.
Minotaur Books | 9781250117526
THE REAL WALLIS SIMPSON: A New History of the American Divorcée Who Became the Duchess of Windsor by Anna Pasternak (Biography)
When Prince Edward fell in love with Wallis Simpson, no one thought the affair would last. But when the prince became king, he announced that he wanted to marry the American divorcee, and Wallis was accused of entrapping the prince in a seductive web in order to achieve her audacious ambition to be queen. After declaring that he could not rule without the woman he loved at his side, the king gave up his throne, and his family banished him and his new wife from England. The couple spent the rest of their days in exile, but happy in their devoted love for each other. Now, Anna Pasternak’s THE REAL WALLIS SIMPSON tells a different story: that Wallis was the victim of the abdication, not the villain.
Atria Books | 9781501198441
THE RIVER by Peter Heller (Fiction/Adventure)
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books and fishing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But the next day, a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? If so, where is the woman?
Knopf | 9780525521877
SILENT NIGHT by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Paige Watts is the ultimate stage mother. The daughter of Hollywood royalty, Paige channels her acting dreams into making her own daughter, Emma, a star. By the age of nine, Emma is playing a central role in a hit TV show. Then everything is shattered by unforeseeable tragedy. Now Emma is living with her aunt Whitney, who had chosen a very different path from her sister’s. Whitney was always the studious older sister, hating the cult of celebrity that enveloped their childhood. Instead, she is a psychiatrist who lives for her work and enjoys a no-strings-attached love affair with a wealthy venture capitalist. But at a moment’s notice, Whitney drops everything to help her niece.
Delacorte Press | 9780399179389
THE SILK ROAD by Kathryn Davis (Fiction)
THE SILK ROAD begins on a mat in yoga class, deep within a labyrinth on a settlement somewhere in the icy north, under the canny guidance of Jee Moon. When someone fails to arise from corpse pose, the Astronomer, the Archivist, the Botanist, the Keeper, the Topologist, the Geographer, the Iceman and the Cook remember the paths that brought them there --- paths on which they still seem to be traveling. The novel also begins in rivalrous skirmishing for favor, in the protected Eden of childhood, and it ends in the harrowing democracy of mortality, in sickness and loss and death.
Graywolf Press | 9781555978297
THE STRANGER DIARIES by Elly Griffiths (Gothic Mystery/Thriller)
Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare’s colleagues and closest friends is found dead, with a line from Holland’s most famous story, “The Stranger,” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with the storylines of her favorite literature. To make matters worse, the police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her closest confidant: her diary. Then one day she notices writing that isn't hers, left on the page of an old diary: Hallo Clare. You don’t know me. “The Stranger” has come to terrifying life. But can the ending be rewritten in time?
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328577856
SURVIVAL MATH: Notes on an All-American Family by Mitchell S. Jackson (Memoir)
Mitchell S. Jackson candidly explores his tumultuous youth in the other America. SURVIVAL MATH takes its name from the calculations Mitchell and his family made to keep safe --- to stay alive --- in their community, a small black neighborhood in Portland, Oregon blighted by drugs, violence, poverty and governmental neglect. Mitchell explores the Portland of his childhood, tracing the ways in which his family managed their lives in and around drugs, prostitution, gangs and imprisonment as members of a tiny black population in one of the country’s whitest cities. He discusses sex work and serial killers, gangs and guns, near-death experiences, composite fathers, the concept of “hustle,” and the destructive power of drugs and addiction on family.
Scribner | 9781501131707
THIS CHAIR ROCKS: A Manifesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite (Sociology)
In our youth-obsessed culture, we’re bombarded by media images and messages about the despairs and declines of our later years. Beauty and pharmaceutical companies work overtime to convince people to purchase products that will retain their youthful appearance and vitality. Wrinkles are embarrassing. Gray hair should be colored and bald heads covered with implants. Older minds and bodies are too frail to keep up with the pace of the modern working world. Ashton Applewhite once held these beliefs too until she realized where this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. THIS CHAIR ROCKS traces her journey from apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks myth after myth about late life.
Celadon Books | 9781250311481
UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon (Mystery)
Count Orazio Falier urges his son-in-law, Guido Brunetti, to investigate --- and preferably intervene in --- the seemingly innocent plan of the Count’s best friend, the elderly Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejada, to adopt a much younger man as his son. Under Italian inheritance laws, this man would then be heir to Gonzalo’s entire fortune, a prospect Gonzalo’s friends find appalling. Gonzalo unexpectedly drops dead on the street, and one of his friends who just arrived in Venice for the memorial service is strangled in her hotel room. Now with an urgent case to solve, Brunetti reluctantly untangles the long-hidden mystery in Gonzalo’s life that ultimately led to murder --- a resolution that brings him way more pain than satisfaction.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802129116
THE VOLUNTEER by Salvatore Scibona (Fiction)
A small boy speaking an unknown language is abandoned by his father at an international airport, with only the clothes on his back and a handful of money jammed in the pocket of his coat. So begins THE VOLUNTEER. But in order to understand this heartbreaking and indefensible decision, the story must return to the moment, decades earlier, when a young man named Vollie Frade, almost on a whim, enlists in the United States Marine Corps to fight in Vietnam. Breaking definitively from his rural Iowan parents, Vollie puts in motion an unimaginable chain of events, which sees him go to work for insidious people with intentions he cannot yet grasp.
Penguin Press | 9780525558521
THE WALL by John Lanchester (Dystopian Fiction)
Ravaged by the Change, an island nation in a time very much like our own has built the Wall --- an enormous concrete barrier around its entire coastline. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls who are trapped amid the rising seas outside and are a constant threat. Failure will result in death or a fate perhaps worse: being put to sea and made an Other himself. Beset by cold, loneliness and fear, Kavanagh tries to fulfill his duties to his demanding Captain and Sergeant, even as he grows closer to his fellow Defenders. A dark part of him wonders if it would be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if he had to fight for his life.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324001638
WE WERE RICH AND WE DIDN'T KNOW IT: A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood by Tom Phelan (Memoir)
Tom Phelan, who was born and raised in County Laois in the Irish midlands, spent his formative years working with his wise and demanding father as he sought to wrest a livelihood from a farm that was often wet, muddy and back-breaking. It was a time before rural electrification, the telephone and indoor plumbing; a time when the main modes of travel were bicycle and animal cart; a time when small farmers struggled to survive and turkey eggs were hatched in the kitchen cupboard; a time when the Church exerted enormous control over Ireland. WE WERE RICH AND WE DIDN’T KNOW IT recounts Tom’s upbringing in an isolated, rural community from the day he was delivered by the local midwife.
Gallery Books | 9781501197093
WHEN ALL IS SAID by Anne Griffin (Fiction)
At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He’s alone, as usual --- though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story. Over the course of this evening, he will raise five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him. Through these stories --- of unspoken joy and regret, a secret tragedy kept hidden, a fierce love that never found its voice --- the life of one man will be powerful and poignantly laid bare.
Thomas Dunne Books | 9781250200587
WHILE YOU SLEEP by Stephanie Merritt (Gothic Thriller)
On a remote Scottish island, the McBride house stands guard over its secrets. A century ago, a young widow and her son died mysteriously there. Just last year, a local boy, visiting for a dare, disappeared without a trace. For Zoe Adams, newly arrived from America, the house offers a refuge from her failing marriage. But her peaceful retreat is disrupted by strange and disturbing events: nighttime intrusions, unknown voices, a constant sense of being watched. The locals want her to believe that these incidents are echoes of the McBrides’ dark past. Zoe is convinced the danger is closer at hand, and all too real. But can she uncover the truth before she is silenced?
Pegasus Books | 9781643130057
THE WOLF AND THE WATCHMAN by Niklas Natt och Dag (Historical Thriller)
One morning in the autumn of 1793, watchman Mikel Cardell is awakened from his drunken slumber with reports of a body seen floating in the Larder, once a pristine lake on Stockholm’s Southern Isle, now a rancid bog. Efforts to identify the bizarrely mutilated corpse are entrusted to incorruptible lawyer Cecil Winge, who enlists Cardell’s help to solve the case. But time is short: Winge’s health is failing, the monarchy is in shambles, and whispered conspiracies and paranoia abound. Winge and Cardell become immersed in a brutal world of guttersnipes and thieves, mercenaries and madams.
Atria Books | 9781501196775
WOMAN 99 by Greer Macallister (Historical Thriller)
When Charlotte Smith's wealthy parents commit her beloved sister Phoebe to the infamous Goldengrove Asylum, Charlotte knows there's more to the story than madness. She risks everything and follows her sister inside, surrendering her real identity as a privileged young lady of San Francisco society to become a nameless inmate, Woman 99. The longer she stays, the more she realizes that many of the women of Goldengrove aren't insane, merely inconvenient --- and that her search for the truth threatens to dig up secrets that some very powerful people would do anything to keep.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492665335
A WOMAN IS NO MAN by Etaf Rum (Fiction)
Palestine, 1990. Seventeen-year-old Isra finds herself quickly betrothed and married. She struggles to adapt to the expectations of her oppressive mother-in-law Fareeda and strange new husband Adam, a pressure that intensifies as she begins to have children --- four daughters instead of the sons Fareeda tells Isra she must bear. Brooklyn, 2008. Eighteen-year-old Deya, Isra’s oldest daughter, must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother Fareeda’s insistence. She can’t help but wonder if her options would have been different had her parents survived the car crash that killed them when she was only eight. Soon, however, Deya will find herself on an unexpected path that leads her to shocking truths about her family.
Harper | 9780062699763
On Sale the Week of March 4th in Paperback
March 5th
AFTER ANNA by Lisa Scottoline (Thriller)
Dr. Noah Alderman has remarried a wonderful woman, Maggie Ippolitti. Despite her longing for the daughter she hasn’t seen since she was a baby, Maggie is happy too, and she’s even more overjoyed when she unexpectedly gets another chance to be a mother to the child she thought she'd lost forever: her only daughter, Anna. But events take a heartbreaking turn when Anna is murdered, and Noah is accused and tried for the heinous crime. Maggie must face not only the devastation of losing her daughter, but the realization that Anna's murder may have been at the hands of a husband she loves. In the wake of this tragedy, new information drives Maggie to search for the truth, leading her to discover something darker than she ever could have imagined.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250099662
AWAYLAND: Stories by Ramona Ausubel (Fiction/Short Stories)
Ramona Ausubel’s stories span the globe and beyond, from small-town America and sunny Caribbean islands to the Arctic Ocean and the very gates of Heaven itself. And though some of the stories are steeped in mythology, they remain grounded in universal experiences. Crisscrossing the pages of AWAYLAND are travelers and expats, shadows and ghosts. A girl watches as her homesick mother slowly dissolves into literal mist. The mayor of a small Midwestern town offers a strange prize, for stranger reasons, to the parents of any baby born on Lenin's birthday. A chef bound for Mars begins an even more treacherous journey much closer to home. And a lonely heart searches for love online --- never mind that he's a Cyclops.
Riverhead Books | 9781594634918
BARBED WIRE HEART by Tess Sharpe (Thriller)
Duke McKenna has run more guns, cooked more meth and killed more men than anyone around. His daughter, Harley, has been working for him since she was 16 --- collecting debts, sweet-talking her way out of trouble, and dreading the day he'd deem her ready to rule the rural drug empire he's built. The Springfields, her family's biggest rivals, are moving in. Years ago, they were responsible for her mother's death, and now they're coming for her. Harley is forced to confront the truth: that her father's violent world will destroy her. If she wants to survive and protect the people she loves, she must take out Duke's operation and the Springfields.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538744116
CADDYSHACK: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story by Chris Nashawaty (Entertainment/History)
Caddyshack is one of the most beloved comedies of all time, a classic snobs vs. slobs story of working class kids and the white collar buffoons who make them haul their golf bags in the hot summer sun. It has sex, drugs and one very memorable candy bar, but the movie we all know and love didn’t start out that way. In CADDYSHACK: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story, Chris Nashawaty goes behind the scenes of the iconic film, chronicling the rise of comedy’s greatest deranged minds as they form The National Lampoon, turn the entertainment industry on its head, and ultimately blow up both a golf course and popular culture as we know it.
Flatiron Books | 9781250105967
CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX by Jordy Rosenberg (Speculative Historical Fiction)
Jack Sheppard and Edgeworth Bess were the most notorious thieves, jailbreakers and lovers of 18th-century London. Yet no one knows the true story; their confessions have never been found. Until now. Reeling from heartbreak, a scholar named Dr. Voth discovers a long-lost manuscript --- a gender-defying exposé of Jack and Bess’ adventures. Is Confessions of the Fox an authentic autobiography or a hoax? As Dr. Voth is drawn deeper into Jack and Bess’ tale of underworld resistance and gender transformation, it becomes clear that their fates are intertwined --- and only a miracle will save them all.
One World | 9780399592287
EVERYBODY’S SON by Thrity Umrigar (Fiction)
During a terrible heat wave in 1991, 10-year-old Anton has been locked in an apartment in the projects alone for seven days. Hot, hungry and desperate, he shatters a window and climbs out. Juanita, his mother, is discovered in a crack house less than three blocks away, nearly unconscious and half-naked. Though the bond between mother and son is extremely strong, Anton is placed with child services while Juanita goes to jail. Desperate to have a child in the house again after the tragic death of his teenage son, Judge David Coleman uses his power and connections to keep his new foster son, Anton, with him and his wife --- actions that will have devastating consequences in the years to come.
Harper Perennial | 9780062912930
FIRST PERSON by Richard Flanagan (Fiction)
Kif Kehlmann, a young, penniless writer, thinks he’s finally caught a break when he’s offered $10,000 to ghostwrite the memoir of Siegfried “Ziggy” Heidl, the notorious con man and corporate criminal. Ziggy is about to go to trial for defrauding banks for $700 million; they have six weeks to write the book. But Ziggy is easily distracted by his still-running “business concerns” --- which Kif worries may involve hiring hitmen from their shared office. Worse, Kif finds himself being pulled into an odd, hypnotic and ever-closer orbit of all things Ziggy. As the deadline draws near, Kif becomes increasingly unsure if he is ghostwriting a memoir, or if Ziggy is rewriting him --- his life, his future and the very nature of the truth.
Vintage | 9780525435778
FLY GIRLS: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O'Brien (History)
Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. While male pilots were lauded as heroes, the few women who dared to fly were more often ridiculed --- until a cadre of women pilots banded together to break through the entrenched prejudice. FLY GIRLS weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcée; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at her blue blood family’s expectations; and Louise Thaden, a young mother of two. Together, they fought for the chance to fly and race airplanes --- and in 1936, one of them would triumph, beating the men in the toughest air race of them all.
Eamon Dolan/Mariner Books | 9781328592798
THE FRENCH GIRL by Lexie Elliott (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
They were six university students from Oxford spending an idyllic week together in a French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway...until they met Severine, the girl next door. But after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate Channing knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can't forgive. And there are some people you can't forget...like Severine, who was never seen again. A decade later, the case is reopened when Severine's body is found behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she's worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts all around her.
Berkley | 9780399586972
GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER by Shobha Rao (Fiction)
Poornima and Savitha have three strikes against them: they are poor, they are ambitious, and they are girls. After her mother’s death, Poornima has very little kindness in her life. She is left to care for her siblings until her father can find her a suitable match. So when Savitha enters their household, Poornima is intrigued by the joyful, independent-minded girl. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond arranged marriage. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend.
Flatiron Books | 9781250309501
GOD SAVE TEXAS: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright (History)
GOD SAVE TEXAS is a journey through the most controversial state in America. It is a red state, but the cities are blue and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king, but Texas now leads California in technology exports. Low taxes and minimal regulation have produced extraordinary growth, but also striking income disparities. Texas looks a lot like the America that Donald Trump wants to create. Bringing together the historical and the contemporary, the political and the personal, Texas native Lawrence Wright gives us a colorful, wide-ranging portrait of a state that reflects our country not only as it is, but as it may become --- and shows how the battle for Texas’s soul encompasses us all.
Vintage | 9780525435907
GOING INTO TOWN: A Love Letter to New York by Roz Chast (Graphic Memoir)
New Yorker cartoonist and New York Times bestselling author Roz Chast, native Brooklynite-turned-suburban commuter deemed the quintessential New Yorker, has always been intensely alive to the glorious spectacle that is Manhattan --- the daily clash of sidewalk racers and dawdlers, the fascinating range of dress codes, and the priceless, nutty outbursts of souls from all walks of life. Told through Chast's singularly zany, laugh-out-loud, touching and true cartoons, GOING INTO TOWN is part New York stories (the "overheard and overseen" of the island borough), part personal and practical guide to walking, talking, renting and venting --- an irresistible, one-of-a-kind love letter to the city.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781632869777
HEAVY: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon (Memoir)
In HEAVY, Kiese Laymon writes about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to his trek to New York as a young college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing and ultimately gambling. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon asks himself, his mother, his nation and us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this country actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free.
Scribner | 9781501125669
HOLD BACK THE DARK: A Bishop/Special Crimes Unit Novel by Kay Hooper (Supernatural Thriller)
Trapped in a nightmare they can't escape, the residents of Prosperity are killing one another, waking up with no memory of the monstrous acts they've committed --- or the reasons why. Chief Deputy Katie Cole knows that whatever evil is afoot is beyond her expertise, and beyond the understanding of Sheriff Jackson Archer. They need help. The Special Crimes Unit is called in for its specific brand of investigation, to aid the Chosen as well as the once-peaceful mountain town. It will take all the agents' training, all their experience, and every extra sense they can call on to get to the bottom of things in Prosperity.
Berkley | 9780515156058
THE HOUSE OF BROKEN ANGELS by Luis Alberto Urrea (Fiction)
In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly 100, passes away, leading to a farewell doubleheader in a single weekend. Among the guests is Big Angel's half brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life. Across two bittersweet days, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore.
Back Bay Books | 9780316154895
THE HUNGER by Alma Katsu (Supernatural/Historical Thriller)
Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the isolated travelers to the brink of madness. Though they dream of what awaits them in the West, long-buried secrets begin to emerge, and dissent among them escalates to the point of murder and chaos. They cannot seem to escape tragedy...or the feelings that someone --- or something --- is stalking them. As members of the group begin to disappear, the survivors start to wonder if there really is something disturbing, and hungry, waiting for them in the mountains.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735212534
THE ITALIAN PARTY by Christina Lynch (Historical Fiction)
Newly married, Scottie and Michael are seduced by Tuscany's famous beauty. But the secrets they are keeping from each other force them beneath the splendid surface to a more complex view of ltaly, America and each other. When Scottie’s Italian teacher --- a teenager with secrets of his own --- disappears, her search for him leads her to discover other, darker truths about herself, her husband and her country. Michael’s dedication to saving the world from communism crumbles as he begins to see that he is a pawn in a much different game. Driven apart by lies, Michael and Scottie must find their way through a maze of history, memory, hate and love to a new kind of complicated truth.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250151421
THE ITALIAN TEACHER by Tom Rachman (Fiction)
Conceived while his father, Bear, cavorted around Rome in the 1950s, Pinch learns quickly that Bear's genius trumps all. After Bear abandons his family, Pinch strives to make himself worthy of his father's attention --- first trying to be a painter himself; then resolving to write his father's biography; eventually settling, disillusioned, into a job as an Italian teacher in London. But when Bear dies, Pinch hatches a scheme to secure his father's legacy --- and make his own mark on the world.
Penguin Books | 9780735222700
THE LIEUTENANT’S NURSE by Sara Ackerman (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
November, 1941. Newly enlisted as an Army Corps nurse, Eva Cassidy is stunned by the splendor she experiences aboard the steamship SS Lurline --- and even more so by Lt. Clark Spencer, a man she is drawn to but who clearly has secrets of his own. But Eva’s past, and the future she’s trying to create, means that she’s not free to follow her heart. Clark is a navy intelligence officer, and he warns her that the United States won’t be able to hold off joining the war for long, but nothing can prepare them for the surprise attack that will change the world they know. Amid the chaos and heartbreak, Eva will have to decide whom to trust and how far she will go to protect those she loves.
Mira | 9780778307914
MEMENTO PARK by Mark Sarvas (Fiction)
After receiving an unexpected call from the Australian consulate, Matt Santos becomes aware of a painting that he believes was looted from his family in Hungary during the Second World War. To recover the painting, he must repair his strained relationship with his harshly judgmental father, uncover his family history, and restore his connection to his own Judaism. Along the way to illuminating the mysteries of his past, Matt is torn between his doting girlfriend, Tracy, and his alluring attorney, Rachel, with whom he travels to Budapest to unearth the truth about the painting and, in turn, his family.
Picador | 9781250310354
THE NEW ME by Halle Butler (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Thirty-year-old Millie just can't pull it together. Misanthropic and morose, she spends her days killing time at a thankless temp job until she can return home to her empty apartment, where she oscillates wildly between self-recrimination and mild delusion, fixating on all the little ways she might change her life. Then she watches TV until she drops off to sleep, and the cycle begins again. When the possibility of a full-time job offer arises, it seems to bring the better life she's envisioning --- one that involves nicer clothes, fresh produce, maybe even financial independence --- within reach. But with it also comes the paralyzing realization, lurking just beneath the surface, of just how hollow that vision has become.
Penguin Books | 9780143133605
THE ONLY STORY by Julian Barnes (Fiction)
One summer in the ’60s, 19-year-old Paul comes home from university and is urged by his mother to join the tennis club. There he is partnered with Susan Macleod, a fine player who is married with two nearly adult daughters. She is a warm companion, her bond with Paul immediate. And soon, inevitably, they are lovers. Basking in the glow of one another, they set up house together in London. Decades later, Paul looks back at how they fell in love and how everything fell apart. As he turns over his only story in his mind, examining it from different vantage points, he finds himself confronted with the contradictions and slips of his own memory --- and the ways in which our narratives and our lives shape one another.
Vintage | 9780525563068
THE PHARAOH KEY by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
Gideon Crew --- brilliant scientist, master thief, intrepid adventurer --- is shocked when his former employer, Eli Glinn, vanishes without a trace, and Glinn's high-tech lab Effective Engineering Solutions shuts down seemingly overnight. Fresh off a diagnosis that gives him only months to live, Crew is contacted by one of his former coworkers at EES, Manuel Garza, who has a bead on one final treasure hinted at in EES's final case, the long-awaited translation of a centuries-old stone tablet of a previously undiscovered civilization: The Phaistos Disc. What lies at the end of the trail will either save Gideon's life or bring it to a sudden, shocking close.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455525812
A PLACE FOR US by Fatima Farheen Mirza (Fiction)
As an Indian wedding gathers a family back together, parents Rafiq and Layla must reckon with the choices their children have made. There is Hadia: their headstrong, eldest daughter, whose marriage is a match of love and not tradition. Huda, the middle child, determined to follow in her sister’s footsteps. And lastly, their estranged son, Amar, who returns to the family fold for the first time in three years to take his place as brother of the bride. What secrets and betrayals have caused this close-knit family to fracture? Can Amar find his way back to the people who know and love him best?
SJP for Hogarth | 9781524763565
THE QUINTLAND SISTERS by Shelley Wood (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Reluctant midwife Emma Trimpany is just 17 when she assists at the harrowing birth of the Dionne quintuplets: five tiny miracles born to French farmers in hardscrabble Northern Ontario in 1934. Emma cares for them through their perilous first days, and when the government decides to remove the babies from their francophone parents, she signs on as their nurse. Over 6,000 daily visitors come to ogle the identical “Quints” playing in their custom-built playground; at the height of the Great Depression, the tourism and advertising dollars pour in. As the fight over custody and revenues turns increasingly explosive, Emma is torn between the fishbowl sanctuary of Quintland and the wider world, now teetering on the brink of war.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062839091
THE RISING SEA: A Kurt Austin Adventure by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown (Thriller/Adventure)
An alarming rise in the world's sea levels sends Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala and the rest of the NUMA scientific team rocketing around the globe in search of answers. What they find at the bottom of the East China Sea, however, is even worse than they imagined: a diabolical plan to upset the Pacific balance of power --- and in the process displace as many as a billion people. A rare alloy unlike anything else on earth, a pair of 500-year-old Japanese talismans, an assassin so violent even the Yakuza has disowned him, an audacious technological breakthrough that will become a very personal nightmare for Kurt Austin --- the NUMA team must risk everything to head off the coming catastrophe.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735215559
SMALL COUNTRY by Gaël Faye (Fiction)
Burundi, 1992. For 10-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister Ana is something close to paradise. These are carefree days of laughter and adventure --- sneaking Supermatch cigarettes and gorging on stolen mangoes --- as he and his mischievous gang of friends transform their tiny cul-de-sac into their kingdom. But dark clouds are gathering over this small country, and soon their peaceful existence will shatter when Burundi, and neighboring Rwanda, are brutally hit by civil war and genocide.
Hogarth | 9781524759889
SPEAK NO EVIL by Uzodinma Iweala (Fiction)
Raised by two attentive parents, Niru is a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard in the fall, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer --- an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except Meredith, his best friend and the one person who seems not to judge him. When his father accidentally discovers Niru is gay, the fallout is brutal and swift. As Niru and Meredith struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding toward a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine.
Harper Perennial | 9780061284939
TOM CLANCY LINE OF SIGHT: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel by Mike Maden (Thriller/Adventure)
Twenty-six years ago, Dr. Cathy Ryan restored the eyesight of a young Bosnian girl who had been injured during an attack in the Bosnian War. Today, her son, Jack Ryan Jr., has agreed to track down the young woman and deliver a letter from his mother. What he finds shocks them both. The helpless child has grown into a remarkable woman. Aida Curic is a self-possessed beauty with a big heart and an even bigger secret who runs a controversial refugee agency near Sarajevo. Jack is deeply drawn to both her and her country, but soon finds himself in the crosshairs of the seething ethnic tensions and ancient blood feuds of the Balkans, the region of Europe where empires go to die.
Berkley | 9780735215948
UNMASKED: A Memoir by Andrew Lloyd Webber (Memoir)
One of the most successful and distinguished artists of our time, Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned over the musical theatre world for nearly five decades. The winner of numerous awards, including multiple Tonys and an Oscar, Lloyd Webber has enchanted millions worldwide with his music and numerous hit shows, including "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Evita," "Cats," "The Phantom of the Opera" --- Broadway’s longest running show --- and, most recently, "School of Rock." In UNMASKED, the revered, award-winning composer takes stock of his achievements, the twists of fate and circumstance that brought him both success and disappointment, and the passions that inspire and sustain him.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062424211
US AGAINST YOU by Fredrik Backman (Fiction)
Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don’t expect life to be easy or fair. No matter how difficult times get, they’ve always been able to take pride in their local ice hockey team. So it’s a cruel blow when they hear that Beartown ice hockey might soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team, take in that fact. But then a newcomer arrives who gives Beartown hockey a surprising new coach and a chance at a comeback. As the big game approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt intensifies. By the time the last goal is scored, a resident of Beartown will be dead.
Washington Square Press | 9781501160806
THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by A. J. Finn (Psychological Thriller)
Anna Fox lives alone --- a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times...and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, mother and their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble --- and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, no one --- and nothing --- is what it seems.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062678423
THE WOMAN’S HOUR: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss (History/Politics)
Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have approved the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote. One last state --- Tennessee --- is needed for women's voting rights to be the law of the land. The suffragists face vicious opposition from politicians, clergy, corporations and racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis" --- women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing that suffrage will bring about the nation's moral collapse. And in one hot summer, they all converge for a confrontation, replete with booze and blackmail, betrayal and courage.
Penguin Books | 9780143128991
WOMEN IN SUNLIGHT by Frances Mayes (Fiction)
Kit Raine, an American writer living in Tuscany, is working on a biography of her close friend, a complex woman who continues to cast a shadow on Kit’s own life. Her work is waylaid by the arrival of three women --- Julia, Camille and Susan --- all of whom have launched a recent and spontaneous friendship that will uproot them completely and redirect their lives. Susan, the most adventurous of the three, has enticed them to subvert expectations of staid retirement by taking a lease on a big, beautiful house in Tuscany. With Kit’s friendship and guidance, the three friends launch themselves into Italian life, pursuing passions long-forgotten --- and with drastic and unforeseeable results.
Broadway Books | 9780451497673
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