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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 6th and May 13th 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 Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight of Kaira Rouda's new psychological thriller, THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER, which releases on May 21st and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Thirty readers will win a copy of the book and give us their feedback on it. The deadline for your entries is Thursday, May 16th at noon ET.
Also, we've updated our Books on Screen feature for this month. May's roundup includes the feature films Aladdin, A Dog's Journey and The Professor and the Madman; the series finale of HBO's "Game of Thrones," along with the premieres of such limited series as "The Spanish Princess" on Starz, SundanceTV's "The Name of the Rose" and "Good Omens" on Amazon Prime; and the DVD releases of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Ashes in the Snow, The Upside and Lords of Chaos.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight & Contest for
THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER by Kaira Rouda
We have 30 copies of THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER by Kaira Rouda --- a gripping novel of psychological suspense set in an upscale Southern California community --- to give away to those who would like to read the book, which releases on May 21st, and share their comments on it. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, May 16th at noon ET.
THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER by Kaira Rouda (Psychological Thriller)
Jane Harris lives in a sparkling home in an oceanfront gated community in Orange County. It’s a place that seems too beautiful to be touched by sadness. But exactly one year ago, Jane’s oldest daughter, Mary, died in a tragic accident, and Jane has been grief-stricken ever since. Lost in a haze of anti-depressants, she’s barely even left the house. Now that’s all about to change.
It’s time for Jane to reclaim her life and her family. Jane’s husband, David, has planned a memorial service for Mary; three days later, their youngest daughter, Betsy, graduates high school. Yet as Jane reemerges into the world, it’s clear her family has changed without her. Her husband has been working long days --- and nights --- at the office. Her daughter seems distant, even secretive. And her beloved Mary was always such a good girl --- dutiful and loving. But does someone know more about Mary, and about her last day, than they’ve revealed?
The bonds between mothers and daughters, and husbands and wives, should never be broken. But you never know how far someone will go to keep a family together.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to read Kaira Rouda's bio.
- Click here to visit Kaira Rouda's website.
- Connect with Kaira Rouda on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Click here to read more in our Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight
and enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of May 6th in Hardcover
May 7th
ALL THE WAY: My Life in Four Quarters by Joe Namath, with Sean Mortimer and Don Yaeger (Sports/Memoir)
Three days before the 1969 Super Bowl, Joe Namath promised the nation that he would lead the New York Jets to a victory against the seemingly invincible Baltimore Colts. When the final whistle blew, that promise had been kept. But beneath the eccentric yet charismatic personality was a player plagued by injury and addiction, both sex and substance. When failing knees permanently derailed his career, he turned to Hollywood and endorsements, not to mention a tumultuous marriage and fleeting bouts of sobriety, to try and find purpose. Now 74, Namath is ready to open up, brilliantly using the four quarters of Super Bowl III as the narrative backbone to a life that was anything but charmed.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316421102
AT HOME WITH MUHAMMAD ALI: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Forgiveness by Hana Ali (Memoir)
Athlete. Activist. Champion. Ambassador. Icon. Father. The greatest, Muhammad Ali, is all of these things. In this candid family memoir, Hana Ali illuminates this momentous figure as only a daughter can. As Ali approached the end of his astonishing boxing career, he embraced a new purpose and role, turning his focus to his family and friends. Dedicated to preserving his family’s unique history, he began recording a series of audio diaries in the 1970s, which his daughter later inherited. Through these private tapes, as well as personal journals, love letters, cherished memories and many never-before-seen photographs, Hana reveals a complex man devoted to keeping all nine of his children united, and to helping others.
Amistad | 9780062917393
BECOMING DR. SEUSS: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination by Brian Jay Jones (Biography)
Dr. Seuss is a classic American icon. Whimsical and wonderful, his work has defined our childhoods and the childhoods of our own children. Theodor Geisel, however, had a second, more radical side. It is there that the allure and fascination of his Dr. Seuss alter ego begins. He had a successful career as an advertising man and then as a political cartoonist, his personal convictions appearing, not always subtly, throughout his books. Remember the environmentalist of THE LORAX? Geisel was a complicated man on an important mission. He introduced generations to the wonders of reading while teaching young people about empathy and how to treat others well.
Dutton | 9781524742782
THE BIG KAHUNA: A Fox and O'Hare Novel by Janet Evanovich and Peter Evanovich (Mystery)
FBI Agent Kate O'Hare has been assigned to find a Silicon Valley billionaire, known as the Big Kahuna, who has mysteriously disappeared. But no one seems particularly keen on helping. His 26-year-old adult actress wife-turned Instagram model wife and his shady Czech business partner are more interested in gaining control of his company. The only lead Kate and her partner, Nicholas Fox, have is the Kahuna's drop-out son, who's living the dream in Hawaii. To get close to him, Kate and Nick go undercover as a married couple in the big wave, bohemian, surfer community of Paia, Maui. If they don't catch a break soon, waves aren't the only thing Kate is going to be shredding (or bedding).
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525536642
BLACK DEATH AT THE GOLDEN GATE: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague by David K. Randall (History)
The passing of Chinese immigrant Wong Chut King would have been unremarkable if a city health officer hadn’t noticed a swollen black lymph node on his groin --- a sign of bubonic plague. Empowered by racist pseudoscience, officials rushed to quarantine Chinatown while doctors examined Wong’s tissue for telltale bacteria. If the devastating disease was not contained, San Francisco would become the American epicenter of an outbreak that had already claimed 10 million lives worldwide. As a cover-up was mounted to obscure the threat, ending the career of one of the most brilliant scientists in the nation in the process, it fell to federal health officer Rupert Blue to save a city that refused to be rescued.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393609455
BLESSING IN DISGUISE by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
As a young intern at an art gallery in Paris, Isabelle McAvoy meets Putnam Armstrong, who is wealthy, gentle, older and secluded from the world. Her relationship with him is a dream, but it turns real when she becomes pregnant, for she knows that marriage is out of the question. When she returns to New York, she enters a new relationship but soon realizes that she has made a terrible mistake and again finds herself a single mother. With two young daughters and no husband, Isabelle finally and unexpectedly finds happiness and a love that gives her a third child, a baby as happy as her beloved father. And yet, once again, life brings dramatic changes.
Delacorte Press | 9780399179327
THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michele Richardson (Historical Fiction)
The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything --- everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome has its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. Cussy's not only a book woman, however; she’s also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy’s family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492691631
CHUMPS TO CHAMPS: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the '90s Dynasty by Bill Pennington (Sports)
The New York Yankees have won 27 world championships and 40 American League pennants, both world records. They have 26 members in the Hall of Fame. Yet some 25 years ago, from 1989 to 1992, the Yankees were a pitiful team at the bottom of the standings, sitting on a 14-year World Series drought and a 35 percent drop in attendance. To make the statistics worse, their mercurial, bombastic owner was banned from baseball. But out of these ashes emerged a modern Yankees dynasty, a juggernaut built on the sly, a brilliant mix of personalities, talent and ambition. In CHUMPS TO CHAMPS, award-winning sportswriter Bill Pennington reveals a grand tale of revival.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328849854
THE DAUGHTER'S TALE by Armando Lucas Correa (Historical Fiction)
Berlin, 1939. The dreams that Amanda Sternberg and her husband, Julius, had for their daughters are shattered when the Nazis descend on Berlin, burning down their beloved family bookshop and sending Julius to a concentration camp. Desperate to save her children, Amanda flees toward the south of France, where the widow of an old friend of her husband’s has agreed to take her in. Along the way, a refugee ship headed for Cuba offers another chance at escape. There, at the dock, Amanda is forced to make an impossible choice that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Once in Haute-Vienne, her brief respite is interrupted by the arrival of Nazi forces, and Amanda finds herself in a labor camp where once again she must make a heroic sacrifice.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501187933
DRAWING HOME by Jamie Brenner (Fiction)
Summer has started in idyllic Sag Harbor, and for Emma Mapson that means greeting guests at the front desk of The American Hotel. But when artist Henry Wyatt dies suddenly, Emma learns he has mysteriously left his waterfront home to her teenage daughter, Penny. Legendary art patron Bea Winstead, Henry’s lifelong friend and former business partner, is determined to reclaim the house and preserve Henry's legacy. While Emma fights to defend her daughter's inheritance, Bea discovers that Henry left a treasure trove of sketches scattered around town. With Penny's reluctant help, Bea pieces them together to find a story hidden in plain sight: an illustration of their shared history with an unexpected twist that will change all of their lives.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316476799
THE EAST END by Jason Allen (Literary Thriller)
Corey Halpern, a local high schooler with a troubled home life, is desperate to leave the Hamptons and start anew somewhere else. His last summer before college, he settles for the escapism he finds in sneaking into neighboring mansions. One night, just before Memorial Day weekend, he breaks into the wrong home at the wrong time: the Sheffield estate, where he and his mother, Gina, work. Under the cover of darkness, Leo Sheffield --- a billionaire CEO, patriarch and the owner of the vast lakeside manor --- arrives unexpectedly with a companion. After a shocking poolside accident, everything depends on Leo burying the truth before his family and friends arrive for the holiday weekend.
Park Row | 9780778308393
EXHALATION: Stories by Ted Chiang (Science Fiction/Short Stories)
From the acclaimed author of STORIES OF YOUR LIFE AND OTHERS --- the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film Arrival --- comes a groundbreaking new collection of short fiction. These are tales that tackle some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only Ted Chiang could imagine. In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In “Exhalation,” an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom,” the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.
Knopf | 9781101947883
THE FARM by Joanne Ramos (Fiction)
Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity --- and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. For someone else. Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines, is in desperate search of a better future when she commits to being a “Host” at Golden Oaks --- or the Farm, as residents call it. But now pregnant, fragile and consumed with worry for her family, Jane is determined to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm, or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on the delivery of her child.
Random House | 9781984853752
THE FARMER'S SON: Calving Season on a Family Farm by John Connell (Memoir)
Farming has been in John Connell's family for generations, but he never intended to follow in his father's footsteps. Until, one winter, after more than a decade away, he finds himself back on the farm. Connell records the hypnotic rhythm of the farming day --- cleaning the barns, caring for the herd, tending to sickly lambs, helping the cows give birth. Alongside the routine events, there are the unforeseen moments when things go wrong: when a calf fails to thrive, when a sheep goes missing, when illness breaks out, when an argument between father and son erupts and things are said that cannot be unsaid.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328577993
THE FLIGHT PORTFOLIO by Julie Orringer (Historical Fiction)
In 1940, Varian Fry --- a Harvard-educated American journalist --- traveled to Marseille carrying $3,000 and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to rescue within a few weeks. Instead, he ended up staying in France for 13 months, working under the veil of a legitimate relief organization to procure false documents, amass emergency funds and set up an underground railroad. Among his many clients were Hannah Arendt, Franz Werfel, André Breton, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp and Marc Chagall. THE FLIGHT PORTFOLIO opens at the Chagalls' ancient stone house in Gordes, France, as the novel's hero desperately tries to persuade them of the barbarism and tragedy descending on Europe.
Knopf | 9780307959409
FURIOUS HOURS: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep (True Crime/Biography)
Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell's murderer was acquitted. Sitting in the audience during the vigilante's trial was Harper Lee, who spent a year in town reporting and many more years working on her own version of the case. Now Casey Cep brings this story to life, from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South. At the same time, she offers a deeply moving portrait of Lee and her struggle with fame, success and the mystery of artistic creativity.
Knopf | 9781101947869
THE GUARDED GATE: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America by Daniel Okrent (History)
A forgotten, dark chapter of American history with implications for the current day, THE GUARDED GATE tells the story of the scientists who argued that certain nationalities were inherently inferior, providing the intellectual justification for the harshest immigration law in American history. Brandished by the upper class Bostonians and New Yorkers --- many of them progressives --- who led the anti-immigration movement, the eugenic arguments helped keep hundreds of thousands of Jews, Italians and other unwanted groups out of the US for more than 40 years.
Scribner | 9781476798035
THE GUEST BOOK by Sarah Blake (Fiction)
While Kitty Milton and her husband, Ogden, summer on their island in Maine, anchored as they are to the way things have always been, the winds of change are beginning to stir. In 1959 New York City, two strangers enter the Miltons’ circle. One captures the attention of Kitty’s daughter, while the other makes each of them question what the family stands for. This new generation insists the times are changing. And in one night, everything does. So much so that in the present day, the third generation of Miltons doesn’t have enough money to keep the island in Maine. Evie Milton’s mother has just died, and as Evie digs into her mother’s and grandparents’ history, what she finds is a story as unsettling as it is inescapable, the story that threatens the foundation of the Milton family myth.
Flatiron Books | 9781250110251
HOW WE DISAPPEARED by Jing-Jing Lee (Historical Fiction)
Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked, leaving only two survivors and one tiny child. In a neighboring village, 17-year-old Wang Di is strapped into the back of a troop carrier and shipped off to a Japanese military brothel where she is forced into sexual slavery as a “comfort woman.” After 60 years of silence, what she saw and experienced still haunts her. In the year 2000, 12-year-old Kevin is sitting beside his ailing grandmother when he overhears a mumbled confession. He sets out to discover the truth, wherever it might lead, setting in motion a chain of events he never could have foreseen.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335953759
LAKE OF THE OZARKS: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America by Bill Geist (Memoir)
Before there was "tourism" and souvenir ashtrays became "kitsch," the Lake of the Ozarks was a Shangri-La for middle-class Midwestern families on vacation, complete with man-made beaches, Hillbilly Mini Golf and feathered rubber tomahawks. It was there that author Bill Geist spent summers in the ’60s during his school and college years working at Arrowhead Lodge --- a small resort owned by his bombastic uncle --- in all areas of the operation, from cesspool attendant to bellhop. In LAKE OF THE OZARKS, the Emmy Award-winning “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent reflects on his coming of age in the American Heartland and traces his evolution as a man and a writer.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538729809
THE LAST TIME I SAW YOU by Liv Constantine (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Dr. Kate English has it all. Not only is she the heiress to a large fortune, she has a gorgeous husband and daughter, a high-flying career, and a beautiful home anyone would envy. But all that changes the night Kate’s mother, Lily, is found dead, brutally murdered in her own home. Heartbroken and distraught, Kate reaches out to her estranged best friend, Blaire Barrington, who rushes to her side for the funeral. That evening, Kate’s grief turns to horror when she receives an anonymous text: You think you’re sad now, just wait. By the time I’m finished with you, you’ll wish you had been buried today. Once Blaire decides to take the investigation into her own hands, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems in Baltimore high society.
Harper | 9780062868817
LIGHT FROM OTHER STARS by Erika Swyler (Fiction)
Eleven-year-old Nedda Papas is obsessed with becoming an astronaut. In 1986 in Easter, a small Florida Space Coast town, her dreams seem almost within reach --- if she can just grow up fast enough. Theo, the scientist father she idolizes, is consumed by his own obsessions. Laid off from his job at NASA and still reeling from the loss of Nedda's newborn brother several years before, Theo turns to the dangerous dream of extending his living daughter's childhood just a little longer. The result is an invention that alters the fabric of time. Amidst the chaos that erupts, Nedda must confront her father and his secrets, the ramifications of which will irrevocably change her life, her community and the entire world.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635573169
MIDDLEGAME by Seanan McGuire (Fantasy)
Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story. Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math. Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realize it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet. Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own. Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.
Tor.com | 9781250195524
MY DAD, YOGI: A Memoir of Family and Baseball by Dale Berra with Mark Ribowsky (Sports/Memoir)
Everyone knows Yogi Berra, the American icon. He was the backbone of the New York Yankees through 10 World Series Championships, managed the National League Champion New York Mets in 1973, and had an ingenious way with words that remains an indelible part of our lexicon. But no one knew him like his family did. MY DAD, YOGI is Dale Berra's chronicle of his unshakeable bond with his father, as well as an intimate portrait of one of the great sports figures of the 20th century.
Hachette Books | 9780316525459
THE PALE-FACED LIE: A True Story by David Crow (Memoir)
Growing up on the Navajo Indian Reservation, David Crow and his siblings idolized their dad. But as time passed, David discovered the other side of Thurston Crow, the ex-con with his own code of ethics that justified cruelty, violence, lies --- even murder. A shrewd con artist with a genius IQ, Thurston intimidated David with beatings to coerce him into doing his criminal bidding. David's mom, too mentally ill to care for her children, couldn't protect him. One day, Thurston packed up the house and took the kids, leaving her nothing. When David finally found the courage to stop helping his father with his criminal activities, he unwittingly triggered a plot of revenge that would force him into a showdown with Thurston Crow.
Sandra Jonas Publishing House | 9780997487176
THE PARIS DIVERSION by Chris Pavone (Thriller)
American expat Kate Moore drops her kids at the international school, makes her shopping rounds, and meets her husband Dexter at their regular café. Across the Seine, tech CEO Hunter Forsyth stands on his balcony, perplexed that his police escort just departed, and frustrated that his cell service has cut out; Hunter has important calls to make, not all of them technically legal. And on the nearby rue de Rivoli, Mahmoud Khalid climbs out of an electrician’s van, and elbows his way into the crowded courtyard of the world’s largest museum, in the epicenter of Western civilization. He sets down his metal briefcase and removes his windbreaker. That’s when people start to scream.
Crown | 9781524761509
THE PIONEERS: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West by David McCullough (History)
As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education and, most importantly, the prohibition of slavery.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501168680
RABBITS FOR FOOD by Binnie Kirshenbaum (Fiction/Dark Humor)
It’s New Year’s Eve, the holiday of forced fellowship, mandatory fun and paper hats. While dining out with her husband and their friends, Binnie Kirshenbaum’s protagonist --- an acerbic, mordantly witty and clinically depressed writer --- fully unravels. Her breakdown lands her in the psych ward of a prestigious New York hospital, where she refuses all modes of recommended treatment. Instead, she passes the time chronicling the lives of her fellow “lunatics” and writing a novel about what brought her there. Her story is a hilarious and harrowing deep dive into the disordered mind of a woman who sees the world all too clearly.
Soho Press | 9781641290531
THE ROAD HOME by Richard Paul Evans (Fiction)
Chicago celebrity and pitchman Charles James is supposed to be dead. Everyone believes he was killed in a fiery plane crash, a flight he narrowly missed. But thanks to that remarkable twist of fate, he’s very much alive and ready for a second chance at life and love. Escaping death has brought Charles some clarity. In this conclusion to the riveting Broken Road trilogy, Charles is still on his pilgrimage across the iconic Route 66. He intends to finish his trek from Amarillo to Santa Monica, despite learning that his ex-wife is now planning to marry another man. With the initial reason for his trip in jeopardy, he still has lessons to learn along the way before he discovers --- and arrives at --- his true destination.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501111822
ROBERT B. PARKER'S BUCKSKIN by Robert Knott (Historical Mystery/Western)
When gold is discovered in the foothills just outside of Appaloosa, it sets off a fight between two shrewd local business operations as their hired gun hands square off over the claim. First a young miner disappears, then another. And then one of the businessmen himself is killed, right on his front doorstep. Meanwhile, as Cole and Hitch try to put a stop to the escalating violence, another killer is making his way toward town in pursuit of a long-lost dream, and a mission of vengeance. Cole and Hitch will have their work cut out for them to keep the peace, especially when all these ruffians converge at the huge Appaloosa Days festival, where hundreds of innocent souls might get caught in the crossfire.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735218277
THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA by Juliet Grames (Historical Fiction)
For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents. Even Stella’s own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted. Stella uses her peculiar toughness to protect her slower, plainer baby sister Tina from life’s harshest realities. But she also provokes the ire of her father, who demands subservience from women. When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina must come of age side-by-side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them. In present-day Connecticut, one family member tells this heartrending story, determined to understand the persisting rift between the now-elderly Stella and Tina.
Ecco | 9780062862822
SIDNEY SHELDON'S THE SILENT WIDOW by Tilly Bagshawe (Thriller)
Charlotte Clancy, a young American au pair, vanishes without a trace in Mexico City. The case is left cold, but its legacy will be devastating. A decade later, Los Angeles is shaken by a spate of violent murders. Psychologist Nikki Roberts is the common link between the victims, her patients at the heart of this treacherous web. When someone makes an attempt on Nikki’s life, it’s clear she is a marked woman. With the police at a dead end, Nikki drafts in Derek Williams, a PI who isn’t afraid to put his hand into the hornet’s nest. Williams was thwarted in the notorious Charlotte Clancy case all those years ago, but what he unearths in LA --- and the mention of one name in particular --- leaves him cold, and takes him on a dangerous path into the past.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781643850931
SUNSET BEACH by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
Out of a job and down on her luck, Drue Campbell’s life doesn’t seem to be getting any better when her estranged father, a flamboyant personal injury attorney, shows up at her mother’s funeral after a 20-year absence. Worse, he’s remarried --- to Drue’s eighth grade frenemy, Wendy, now his office manager. And they’re offering her a job. It seems like the job from hell, but the offer is sweetened by the news of her inheritance: her grandparents’ beach bungalow in the sleepy town of Sunset Beach. With no other prospects, Drue begrudgingly joins the firm. But when a suspicious death at an exclusive beach resort nearby exposes possible corruption at her father’s firm, she is drawn into a case that may --- or may not --- involve her father.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250126108
TEN INNINGS AT WRIGLEY: The Wildest Ballgame Ever, with Baseball on the Brink by Kevin Cook (Sports)
It was a Thursday at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, mostly sunny with the wind blowing out. Nobody expected an afternoon game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs on May 17, 1979, to be much more than a lazy early-season contest matching two teams heading in opposite directions --- the first-place Phillies and the Cubs, those lovable losers --- until they combined for 13 runs in the first inning. “The craziest game ever,” one player called it. “And then the second inning started.” TEN INNINGS AT WRIGLEY is Kevin Cook’s vivid account of a game that only could have happened at this ballpark, in this era, with this colorful cast of heroes and heels.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250182036
THINGS MY SON NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD by Fredrik Backman (Humor/Essays)
THINGS MY SON NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD collects the personal dispatches from the front lines of one of the most daunting experiences any man can face: fatherhood. As he conveys his profound awe at experiencing all the “firsts” that fill him with wonder and catch him completely unprepared, Fredrik Backman doesn’t shy away from revealing his own false steps and fatherly flaws, tackling issues both great and small, from masculinity and mid-life crises to practical jokes and poop. In between the sleep-deprived lows and wonderful highs, Backman takes a step back to share the true story of falling in love with a woman who is his complete opposite, and learning to live a life that revolves around the people you care about unconditionally.
Atria Books | 9781501196867
WAR AND PEACE: FDR's Final Odyssey: D-Day to Yalta, 1943-1945 by Nigel Hamilton (History)
Nigel Hamilton's celebrated trilogy culminates with a story of triumph and tragedy. Just as FDR was proven right by the D-Day landings he had championed, so was he found to be mortally ill in the spring of 1944. He was the architect of a victorious peace that he would not live to witness. Using hitherto unpublished documents and interviews, Hamilton rewrites the famous account of World War II strategy given by Winston Churchill in his memoirs. Seventy-five years after the D-Day landings, we finally get to see, close-up and in dramatic detail, who was responsible for rescuing, and insisting upon, the great American-led invasion of France in June 1944, and why the invasion was led by Eisenhower.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544876804
WHERE THE LIGHT ENTERS: Building a Family, Discovering Myself by Jill Biden (Memoir)
"How did you get this number?" Those were the first words Jill Biden spoke to U.S. senator Joe Biden when he called her out of the blue to ask her on a date. Growing up, Jill had wanted two things: a marriage like her parents' and a career. An early heartbreak had left her uncertain about love, until she met Joe. But as they grew closer, Jill faced difficult questions: How would politics shape her family and professional life? And was she ready to become a mother to Joe's two young sons? This is the story of how Jill built a family --- and a life --- of her own. From the pranks she played to keep everyone laughing to the traditions she formed that would carry them through tragedy, hers is the spirited journey of a woman embracing many roles.
Flatiron Books | 9781250182326
THE YANKEE WIDOW by Linda Lael Miller (Historical Fiction)
THE YANKEE WIDOW is the story of Caroline, the young wife and childhood sweetheart of Jacob, who together live on a farm raising their daughter, Rachel, just outside of Gettysburg. When Jacob joins the Northern army to do his duty and help save the Union, no one anticipates he will not return. Caroline gets news that he is wounded and has been taken to Washington, DC, with his regiment, and so she must find her way there and navigate the thousands of other wounded soldiers to find him. Thus begins this novel that focuses on the strong women and men of both sides and both races who sacrificed so much and loved so well during this critical juncture in American history.
Mira | 9780778316411
On Sale the Week of May 6th in Paperback
May 7th
THE 7½ DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE by Stuart Turton (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
There are three rules of Blackheath House: 1) Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00pm; 2) There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit; 3) We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let's begin. Evelyn Hardcastle will die. She will die every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. Some of his hosts are helpful, and others only operate on a need-to-know basis.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492670124
ADJUSTMENT DAY by Chuck Palahniuk (Fiction/Satire)
ADJUSTMENT DAY is an ingenious, darkly comic work in which Chuck Palahniuk does what he does best: skewer the absurdities in our society. Geriatric politicians bring the nation to the brink of a third world war to control the burgeoning population of young males, while working-class men dream of burying the elites. When Adjustment Day arrives, it fearlessly makes real the logical conclusion of every separatist fantasy, alternative fact and conspiracy theory lurking in the American psyche.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393357073
BABY, YOU’RE GONNA BE MINE: Stories by Kevin Wilson (Fiction/Short Stories)
BABY, YOU’RE GONNA BE MINE is Kevin Wilson’s first story collection in nearly a decade. “Wildfire Johnny” is the story of a man who discovers a magic razor that allows him to travel back in time. “Scroll Through the Weapons” is about a couple taking care of their underfed and almost feral nieces and nephews. “Signal to the Faithful” follows a boy as he takes a tense road trip with his priest. And “Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine,” the title story, is about a narcissistic rock star who moves back home during a rough patch. These stories all build on each other in strange and remarkable ways.
Ecco | 9780062450678
BEAUTY IN THE BROKEN PLACES: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience by Allison Pataki (Memoir)
When Allison Pataki's husband suffers a stroke, he wakes up with a complete loss of memory. At five months pregnant, Allison has lost the Dave she knew and loved. Within a few months, she found herself caring for both a newborn and a sick husband, struggling with the fear of what was to come. As a way to make sense of the pain and chaos of their new reality, Allison started to write daily letters to Dave. Not only would she work to make sense of the unfathomable experiences unfolding around her, but her letters would provide Dave with the memories he could not make on his own. She was writing to preserve their past, protect their present and fight for their future. Those letters became the foundation for this beautiful, intimate memoir.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780399591679
THE BOOKSHOP OF YESTERDAYS by Amy Meyerson (Fiction)
Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s 12th birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear about him again until 16 years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy, and one final scavenger hunt. Miranda soon finds herself drawn into a journey where she meets people from Billy’s past, people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda’s mother has kept hidden --- and the terrible secret that tore her family apart.
Park Row | 9780778369080
THE CACTUS by Sarah Haywood (Fiction)
Susan Green has a flat that is ideal for one, a job that suits her passion for logic, and an “interpersonal arrangement” that provides cultural and other, more intimate, benefits. But suddenly confronted with the loss of her mother and the news that she is about to become a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is realized. She is losing control. When she learns that her mother’s will inexplicably favors her indolent brother, Edward, Susan’s already dismantled world is sent flying into a tailspin. As her due date draws near and her family problems become increasingly difficult to ignore, Susan finds help and self-discovery in the most unlikely of places.
Park Row | 9780778369073
CENSUS by Jesse Ball (Dystopian Fiction)
When a widower receives notice from a doctor that he doesn’t have long left to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for his adult son, who has Down syndrome. With no recourse in mind, and with a desire to see the country on one last trip, the man signs up as a census taker for a mysterious governmental bureau and leaves town with his son. Traveling into the country, through towns named only by ascending letters of the alphabet, the man and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. As they approach “Z,” the man must confront a series of questions: What is the purpose of the census? Is he complicit in its mission? And just how will he learn to say goodbye to his son?
Ecco | 9780062676146
THE COLORS OF ALL THE CATTLE: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (19) by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
When Mma Potokwane suggests to Mma Ramotswe that she run for a seat on the Gaborone City Council, Mma Ramotswe is at first reluctant. But when she learns that developers plan to build the flashy Big Fun Hotel next to a graveyard, she allows herself to be persuaded. Her opponent is none other than Mma Makutsi’s old nemesis, Violet Sephotho, who is in the pocket of the hotel developers. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe has acquired a new client: one of her late father’s old friends, who was the victim of a hit-and-run accident. Charlie volunteers to be the lead investigator in the case to prove he’s ready to be more than an apprentice, as well as to impress a new girlfriend.
Anchor | 9780525564263
DEAR MRS. BIRD by AJ Pearce (Historical Fiction)
Emmeline Lake dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent, and when she spots a job advertisement in the newspaper, she seizes her chance. But after a rather unfortunate misunderstanding, she finds herself typing letters for the formidable Henrietta Bird, renowned advice columnist of Woman’s Friend magazine. Mrs. Bird is very clear: letters containing any Unpleasantness must go straight into the bin. But as Emmy reads the desperate pleas from women who many have Gone Too Far with the wrong man, or can’t bear to let their children be evacuated, she begins to secretly write back to the readers who have poured out their troubles.
Scribner | 9781501170072
THE ELECTRIC WOMAN: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts by Tessa Fontaine (Memoir)
For three years, Tessa Fontaine lived in a constant state of emergency as her mother battled stroke after stroke. But hospitals, wheelchairs and loss of language couldn’t hold back such a woman; she and her husband would see Italy together, come what may. Thus Fontaine became free to follow her own piper, a literal giant inviting her to “come play” in the World of Wonders, America’s last traveling sideshow. How could she resist? Transformed into an escape artist, a snake charmer and a high-voltage Electra, Fontaine witnessed the marvels of carnival life. Through these, she trained her body to ignore fear and learned how to keep her heart open in the face of loss.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374538408
THE GRAY GHOST: A Sam and Remi Fargo Adventure by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell (Thriller/Adventure)
In 1906, a groundbreaking Rolls-Royce prototype known as the Gray Ghost vanishes from the streets of Manchester, England, and it is only the lucky intervention of an American detective named Isaac Bell that prevents it from being lost forever. However, not even he can save the good name of Marcus Peyton, the man wrongly blamed for the theft. More than a hundred years later, it is his grandson who turns to Sam and Remi Fargo to help prove his grandfather's innocence. But there is even more at stake than any of them know. For the car has vanished again, and in it is an object so rare that it has the capacity to change lives.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735218987
GUILTY by Laura Elliott (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
On a warm summer's morning, 13-year-old school girl Constance Lawson is reported missing. A few days later, Constance's uncle, Karl Lawson, suddenly finds himself swept up in a media frenzy created by journalist Amanda Bowe implying that he is the prime suspect. Six years later, Karl's life is in ruins. His marriage is over, and his family is destroyed. But the woman who took everything away from him is thriving. With a successful career, husband and gorgeous baby boy, Amanda's world is complete. Until the day she receives a phone call. In a heartbeat, she is plunged into every mother's worst nightmare.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538764275
A HIGHER LOYALTY: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey (Memoir)
In A HIGHER LOYALTY, former FBI director James Comey shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions. His journey provides an unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in what makes an effective leader.
Flatiron Books | 9781250192479
THE HOUSE SWAP by Rebecca Fleet (Thriller)
When Caroline and Francis receive an offer to house swap --- from their city apartment to a house in an upscale London suburb --- they jump at the chance for a week away from home, their son, and the tensions that have pushed their marriage to the brink. As the couple settles in, the old problems that permeate their marriage start bubbling to the surface. But while they attempt to mend their relationship, their neighbor is showing a little too much interest in their activities. Meanwhile, Caroline slowly begins to uncover some signs of life in the stark house --- signs of her life. It seems the person they have swapped with is someone who knows her, someone who knows the secrets she's desperate to forget.
Penguin Books | 9780143133254
I’M KEITH HERNANDEZ: A Memoir by Keith Hernandez (Sports/Memoir)
During his illustrious career with the World Series-winning St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets, Keith Hernandez was a perennial fan favorite, earning 11 consecutive Gold Gloves, a National League co-MVP Award, and a batting title. But it was his unique blend of intelligence, humor and talent --- not to mention his unflappable leadership, playful antics and competitive temperament --- that transcended the sport and propelled him to a level of renown that few other athletes have achieved. Now, with a striking mix of candor and self-reflection, Hernandez takes us along on his journey to baseball immortality.
Back Bay Books | 9780316395755
JANE SEYMOUR, THE HAUNTED QUEEN by Alison Weir (Historical Fiction)
Ever since she was a child, Jane has longed for a cloistered life as a nun. But her large noble family has other plans, and as an adult, Jane is invited to the King’s court to serve as lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine of Aragon. The devout Katherine shows kindness to all her ladies, which makes rumors of Henry’s lustful pursuit of Anne Boleyn --- also lady-in-waiting to the queen --- all the more shocking. But once Henry disavows Katherine and secures Anne as his new queen --- forever altering the religious landscape of England --- he turns his eye to another: Jane herself. Urged to return the King’s affection and earn favor for her family, Jane is drawn into a dangerous political game that pits her conscience against her desires.
Ballantine Books | 9781101966563
LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng (Fiction)
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson. Enter Mia Warren, who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter and rents a house from the Richardsons. But Mia carries a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this community. When family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that divides the town --- and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.
Penguin Books | 9780735224315
THE MARS ROOM by Rachel Kushner (Fiction)
It’s 2003 and Romy Hall, named after a German actress, is at the start of two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, deep in California’s Central Valley. Outside is the world from which she has been severed: her young son, Jackson, and the San Francisco of her youth. Inside is a new reality: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive; the bluffing and pageantry and casual acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike; and the deadpan absurdities of institutional living.
Scribner | 9781476756585
MILK!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas by Mark Kurlansky (History)
Before the industrial revolution, it was common for families to keep dairy cows and produce their own milk. But during the 19th century, mass production and urbanization made milk safety a leading issue of the day, with milk-borne illnesses a common cause of death. Pasteurization slowly became a legislative matter. And today milk is a test case in the most pressing issues in food politics, from industrial farming and animal rights to GMOs, the locavore movement, and advocates for raw milk, who controversially reject pasteurization. Tracing the liquid's diverse history from antiquity to the present, historian Mark Kurlansky details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics and economics.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781632863836
MISS KOPP JUST WON’T QUIT: A Kopp Sisters Novel by Amy Stewart (Historical Mystery)
After a year on the job, New Jersey’s first female deputy sheriff has collared criminals, demanded justice for wronged women, and gained notoriety nationwide for her exploits. But on one stormy night, everything falls apart. While transporting a woman to an insane asylum, Deputy Kopp discovers something deeply troubling about her story. Before she can investigate, another inmate bound for the asylum breaks free and tries to escape. In both cases, Constance runs instinctively toward justice. But the fall of 1916 is a high-stakes election year, and any move she makes could jeopardize Sheriff Heath’s future --- and her own. Although Constance is not on the ballot, her controversial career makes her the target of political attacks.
Mariner Books | 9781328614216
MISS SUBWAYS by David Duchovny (Fantasy/Humor)
Emer is just a woman living in New York City who takes the subway, buys ice cream from the bodega on the corner, has writerly aspirations, and lives with her boyfriend, Con. But is this life she lives the only path she’s on? Taking inspiration from the myth of Emer and Cuchulain, and featuring an all-star cast of mythical figures from all over the world, David Duchovny’s MISS SUBWAYS is one woman’s trippy, mystical journey down parallel tracks of time and love. On the way, Emer will battle natural and supernatural forces to find her true voice, power and destiny.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374538378
MOTHERHOOD by Sheila Heti (Fiction)
In her late 30s, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of MOTHERHOOD considers if she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home.
Picador | 9781250214782
MURDER ON THE LEFT BANK: An Aimée Leduc Investigation Set in Paris by Cara Black (Mystery)
A dying man enters the office of Éric Besson, a lawyer in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. He is carrying a dilapidated notebook full of meticulous investment records. For decades, he has been helping a cadre of dirty cops launder stolen money. The notebook contains his full confession. He is adamant that Besson get the notebook into the hands of La Proc, Paris’s chief prosecuting attorney, so the corruption can finally be brought to light. But en route to La Proc, Besson’s courier --- his assistant and nephew --- is murdered, and the notebook disappears. Private investigator Aimée Leduc is reluctant to get involved, as her father was a cop and was murdered by the same dirty syndicate the notebook implicates.
Soho Crime | 9781641290265
MY EX-LIFE by Stephen McCauley (Fiction)
David Hedges’ life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents’) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. The last person he expects to hear from is Julie Fiske. It’s been decades since they’ve spoken, and he’s relieved to hear she’s recovered from her brief, misguided first marriage. To him. Julie would like David’s help organizing college plans for her 17-year-old daughter, Mandy. When David flies east, they find themselves living under the same roof (one David needs to repair). David and Julie pick up exactly where they left off 30 years ago. But there’s one broken bit between them that no amount of home renovations will fix.
Flatiron Books | 9781250122445
OUR KIND OF CRUELTY by Araminta Hall (Psychological Thriller)
Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely, life before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love; in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He’s found the perfect home, the perfect job; he’s sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they’ll be blissfully happy together. It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been returning his emails or phone calls. It doesn’t matter that she says she’s marrying Angus. It’s all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he’ll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move, he’ll know just when to come to her rescue.
Picador | 9781250214935
PAPER GHOSTS by Julia Heaberlin (Psychological Thriller)
Years ago, her sister Rachel vanished. Now she is almost certain the man who took Rachel sits in the passenger seat beside her. He claims to have dementia and no memory of murdering girls across Texas in a string of places where he shot eerie pictures. To find the truth, she proposes a dangerous idea: a 10-day road trip with a possible serial killer to examine cold cases linked to his haunting photographs. Is he a liar or a broken old man? Is he a pathological con artist --- or is she? You won’t see the final, terrifying twist spinning your way until the very last mile.
Ballantine Books | 9780804178044
THE PERFECTIONISTS: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester (History)
The rise of manufacturing could not have happened without an attention to precision. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in 18th-century England, standards of measurement were established, giving way to the development of machine tools --- machines that make machines. Eventually, the application of precision tools and methods resulted in the creation and mass production of items from guns and glass to mirrors, lenses and cameras --- and eventually gave way to further breakthroughs, including gene splicing, microchips and the Hadron Collider. Simon Winchester takes us back to the origins of the Industrial Age, to England where he introduces the scientific minds that helped usher in modern production.
Harper Perennial | 9780062652560
POINTS NORTH: Stories by Howard Frank Mosher (Fiction/Short Stories)
In POINTS NORTH, completed just weeks before his death, Howard Frank Mosher presents a collection of stories that center around the Kinneson family, ranging over decades of their history in Vermont’s fabled Northeast Kingdom. From a loquacious itinerant preacher who beguiles the reticent farmers and shopkeepers of a small New England town, to a proposed dam that threatens the river that Kinneson men have fished for generations, the scandalous secret of a romance and its violent consequences, and a young man’s seemingly fruitless search for love, POINTS NORTH is a full-hearted and gently comic last gift to those who treasure Howard Frank Mosher.
Picador | 9781250310439
ROBERT B. PARKER’S OLD BLACK MAGIC: A Spenser Novel by Ace Atkins (Mystery)
The heist was legendary, still talked about 20 years after the priceless paintings disappeared from one of Boston's premier art museums. Most thought the art was lost forever. But when paint chips from the most valuable piece stolen, Gentlemen in Black by a Spanish master, arrives at the desk of a Boston journalist, the museum finds hope and enlists Spenser's help. Soon the cold art case thrusts Spenser into the shady world of black market art dealers, aged Mafia bosses and old vendettas. A five-million-dollar-reward by the museum's top benefactor sets Spenser and pals Vinnie Morris and Hawk onto a trail of hidden secrets, jailhouse confessions and decades-old murders.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9781101982464
SEVERANCE by Ling Ma (Post-Apocalyptic Satire)
Candace Chen is a first-generation American who manages the overseas production of specially designed Bibles. She’s so dedicated to her work that she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions begins sweeping the globe. When her free-spirited boyfriend announces that he’s leaving New York, she moves into her abandoned office, sending taskmaster emails in an attempt to fulfill a lucrative contract. But as Shen Fever spreads, she eventually flees her decimated city, joining a small band of fellow survivors led by a power-hungry IT expert named Bob. Sustained by foraged junk food and Xanax, they encounter the wrenching sight of fever-stricken zombies who are trapped in repetitive, mundane acts of daily life.
Picador | 9781250214997
SHELTER IN PLACE by Nora Roberts (Romantic Suspense)
It was a typical evening at a mall outside Portland, Maine, until the shooters arrived. The chaos and carnage lasted only eight minutes before the killers were taken down. But for those who lived through it, the effects would last forever. In the years that followed, one would dedicate himself to a law enforcement career. Another would close herself off, until she finally found a way to pour her emotions into her art. But one person wasn't satisfied with the shockingly high death toll at the DownEast Mall. And as the survivors slowly heal, find shelter and rebuild, they will discover that another conspirator is lying in wait --- and this time, there might be nowhere safe to hide.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250161604
A SHOUT IN THE RUINS by Kevin Powers (Historical Fiction)
Spanning over 100 years, from the antebellum era to the 1980s, A SHOUT IN THE RUINS examines the fates of the inhabitants of Beauvais Plantation outside of Richmond, Virginia. When war arrives, the master of Beauvais, Anthony Levallios, foresees that dominion in a new America will be measured not in acres of tobacco under cultivation by his slaves, but in industry and capital. A grievously wounded Confederate veteran loses his grip on a world he no longer understands, and his daughter finds herself married to Levallois, an arrangement that feels little better than imprisonment. And two people enslaved at Beauvais plantation, Nurse and Rawls, overcome impossible odds to be together, only to find that the promise of coming freedom may not be something they will live to see.
Back Bay Books | 9780316556491
SPINNING SILVER by Naomi Novik (Fantasy)
Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father’s inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty --- until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk --- grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh --- Miryem’s fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike.
Del Rey | 9780399180996
SUCH A PERFECT WIFE by Kate White (Mystery)
Paperback Original
On a sunny morning in late September, Shannon Blaine sets off for a jog along the rural roads near her home in Lake George, New York. It’s her usual a.m. routine, her “me time” after dropping the kids off at school…except on this day she never returns. Is her husband lying when he says he has no clue where she is? Could Shannon have split on her own, overwhelmed by the pressures of her life? Or is she the victim of a sexual predator who had been prowling the area and snatched her before she knew what was happening? True crime writer Bailey Weggins heads north from New York City to report on the mysterious disappearance. An anonymous tip soon leads her to a grisly, bone-chilling discovery.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062747495
THERE THERE by Tommy Orange (Fiction)
THERE THERE follows 12 characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to each other in ways they may not yet realize. There is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and working to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, who is pulling his life back together after his uncle’s death, has come to work at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil has come to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American --- grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.
Vintage | 9780525436140
TREEBORNE by Caleb Johnson (Fiction)
Janie Treeborne lives on an orchard at the edge of Elberta, Alabama, and in time, she has become its keeper. Elberta has seen fierce battles, violent storms and frantic change --- and when the town is once again threatened from without, Janie realizes it won’t withstand much more. So she tells the story of its people: of Hugh, her granddaddy, determined to preserve Elberta’s legacy at any cost; of his wife, Maybelle, the postmaster, whose sudden death throws the town into chaos; of her lover, Lee Malone, a black orchardist harvesting from a land where he is less than welcome; of the time when Janie kidnapped her own Hollywood-obsessed aunt and tore the wrong people apart.
Picador | 9781250169105
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LULULEMONS by Lauren Weisberger (Fiction/Humor)
Welcome to Greenwich, Connecticut, where everyone has something to say about the infamous new neighbor. After leaving Miranda Priestly, Emily Charlton has been working in Hollywood as an image consultant to the stars, but recently, Emily has lost a few clients. She’s hopeless with social media. The new guard is nipping at her heels. She needs a big opportunity, and she needs it now. When Karolina Hartwell, a gorgeous former supermodel, is arrested for a DUI, her fall from grace is merciless. Her senator-husband leaves her, her Beltway friends disappear, and the tabloids pounce. In Karolina, Emily finds her comeback opportunity. But she quickly learns that Greenwich is a world apart and this comeback needs a team approach.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476778457
THE WORD IS MURDER by Anthony Horowitz (Mystery)
Diana Cowper, the wealthy mother of a famous actor, enters a funeral parlor to plan her own service. Six hours later she is found dead, strangled with a curtain cord in her own home. Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric investigator. Hawthorne needs a ghost writer to document his life and chooses Anthony Horowitz. Drawn in against his will, Horowitz soon finds himself at the center of a story he cannot control. Hawthorne is brusque, temperamental and annoying, but his latest case --- with its many twists and turns --- proves irresistible. The writer and the detective form an unusual partnership. At the same time, it soon becomes clear that Hawthorne is hiding some dark secrets of his own.
Harper Perennial | 9780062676801
On Sale the Week of May 13th in Hardcover
May 14th
AMERICA WAS HARD TO FIND by Kathleen Alcott (Historical Fiction)
Ecuador, 1969: An American expatriate, Fay Fern, sits in the corner of a restaurant. She and her young son, Wright, turned away from the television where Vincent Kahn becomes the first man to walk on the moon. Years earlier, Fay and Vincent meet at a pilots’ bar in the Mojave Desert. Their casual affair ends quickly, but its consequences linger. Though their lives split, their senses of purpose deepen in tandem, each becoming heroes to different sides of the political spectrum of the 1960s and ’70s. With her last public appearance, a demonstration that frames the Apollo program as a vehicle for distracting the American public from its country’s atrocities, Fay leaves Wright to contend with her legacy, his own growing apathy, and the misdeeds of both his mother and his country.
Ecco | 9780062662521
ANNA OF KLEVE, THE PRINCESS IN THE PORTRAIT by Alison Weir (Historical Fiction)
Newly widowed and the father of an infant son, Henry VIII realizes he must marry again to ensure the royal succession. Forty-six, overweight and suffering from gout, Henry is soundly rejected by some of Europe's most eligible princesses. Anna of Kleve, from a small German duchy, is 24 and has a secret she is desperate to keep hidden. Henry commissions her portrait from his court painter, who depicts her from the most flattering perspective. Entranced by the lovely image, Henry is bitterly surprised when Anna arrives in England and he sees her in the flesh. Some think her attractive, but Henry knows he can never love her. What follows is the fascinating story of an awkward royal union that somehow had to be terminated.
Ballantine Books | 9781101966570
THE BEHAVIOR OF LOVE by Virginia Reeves (Fiction)
A passionate, ambitious behavioral psychiatrist, Ed Malinowski is now the superintendent of a mental institution and finally turning the previously crumbling hospital around. He also has a home he can be proud of, and a fiercely independent, artistic wife Laura, whom he hopes will soon be pregnant. But into this perfect vision of his life comes Penelope, a beautiful, young epileptic who never should have been placed in his institution and whose only chance at getting out is Ed. She is intelligent, charming and slowly falling in love with her charismatic, compassionate doctor. As their relationship grows more complicated, Ed must weigh his professional responsibilities against his personal ones, and find a way to save both his job and his family.
Scribner | 9781501183508
A BEND IN THE STARS by Rachel Barenbaum (Historical Fiction)
In Russia, in the summer of 1914, as war with Germany looms and the Czar's army tightens its grip on the local Jewish community, Miri Abramov and her brilliant physicist brother, Vanya, are facing an impossible decision. With fierce, headstrong Miri on the verge of becoming one of Russia's only female surgeons, and Vanya hoping to solve the final puzzles of Einstein's elusive theory of relativity, can they bear to leave the homeland that has given them so much? Before they have time to make their choice, war is declared and Vanya goes missing, along with Miri's fiancé. Miri braves the firing squad to go looking for them both. Not only the safety of Miri's own family but the future of science itself hangs in the balance.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538746264
A BRIGHTNESS LONG AGO by Guy Gavriel Kay (Historical Fantasy)
In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school, even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count --- and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast. Danio's fate changed the moment he saw and recognized Adria Ripoli as she entered the count's chambers one autumn night --- intending to kill. Born to power, Adria had chosen, instead of a life of comfort, one of danger --- and freedom. Which is how she encounters Danio in a perilous time and place.
Berkley | 9780451472984
THE BRITISH ARE COMING: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson (History)
Rick Atkinson has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy, he recounts the first 21 months of America’s violent war for independence. From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. It is a gripping saga alive with astonishing characters. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more compelling.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781627790437
BROTHERS DOWN: Pearl Harbor and the Fate of the Many Brothers Aboard the USS Arizona by Walter R. Borneman (History)
The surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 remains one of the most traumatic events in American history. Few realize that aboard the iconic, ill-fated USS Arizona were an incredible 79 blood relatives. Tragically, in an era when family members serving together was an accepted, even encouraged, practice, 63 of the Arizona's 1,177 dead turned out to be brothers. In BROTHERS DOWN, acclaimed historian Walter R. Borneman returns to that critical week of December, masterfully guiding us on an unforgettable journey of sacrifice and heroism, all told through the lives of these brothers and their fateful experience on the Arizona.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316438889
DISAPPEARING EARTH by Julia Phillips (Literary Thriller)
One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two young sisters go missing. In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women. Taking us through a year in Kamchatka, DISAPPEARING EARTH transports readers to vistas of rugged beauty and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused.
Knopf | 9780525520412
FULL COUNT: The Education of a Pitcher by David Cone and Jack Curry (Sports/Memoir)
During his 17-year career, David Cone became a master of the mechanics and mental toughness a pitcher needs to succeed in the major leagues. A five-time All-Star and five-time World Champion now gives his full count --- balls and strikes, errors and outs --- of his colorful life in baseball. From the pitchers he studied to the hitters who infuriated him, FULL COUNT takes readers inside the mind of a thoughtful pitcher, detailing Cone's passion, composure and strategies. The book is also filled with never-before-told stories from the memorable teams Cone played on --- ranging from the infamous late '80s Mets to the Yankee dynasty of the '90s.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748848
A GOOD AMERICAN FAMILY: The Red Scare and My Father by David Maraniss (Biography/History)
Elliott Maraniss, David’s father, a WWII veteran who had commanded an all-black company in the Pacific, was spied on by the FBI, named as a communist by an informant, called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, fired from his newspaper job, and blacklisted for five years. Yet he never lost faith in America and emerged on the other side with his family and optimism intact. In a sweeping drama that moves from the Depression and Spanish Civil War to the HUAC hearings and end of the McCarthy era, Maraniss weaves his father’s story through the lives of his inquisitors and defenders as they struggle with the vital 20th-century issues of race, fascism, communism and first amendment freedoms.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501178375
IF SHE WAKES by Michael Koryta (Thriller)
As college senior Tara Beckley drives to deliver a visiting professor to a conference, a horrific car accident kills the professor and leaves Tara in a vegetative state. Or so her doctors think. In fact, she's a prisoner of locked-in syndrome: fully alert but unable to move a muscle. Trapped in her body, she learns that someone powerful wants her dead. But why? And what can she do, lying in a hospital bed, to stop them? Abby Kaplan, an insurance investigator, is hired by the college to look into Tara's case. When she starts asking questions, things quickly spin out of control, leaving Abby on the run and a mysterious young hit man named Dax Blackwell hard on her heels.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316294003
THE NEVER GAME by Jeffery Deaver (Thriller)
A young woman has gone missing in Silicon Valley, and her father has hired Colter Shaw to find her. The son of a survivalist family, Shaw is an expert tracker. Now he makes a living as a "reward seeker," traveling the country to help police solve crimes and private citizens locate missing persons. But what seems a simple investigation quickly thrusts him into the dark heart of America's tech hub and the cutthroat billion-dollar video-gaming industry. When another victim is kidnapped, the clues point to one video game with a troubled past --- The Whispering Man. In that game, the player has to survive after being abandoned in an inhospitable setting with five random objects. Is a madman bringing the game to life?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525535942
THE NIGHT BEFORE by Wendy Walker (Psychological Thriller)
Devastated by the end of her last relationship, Laura Lochner fled her Wall Street job and New York City apartment for her sister’s home in the Connecticut suburb where they both grew up. Though still haunted by the tragedy that’s defined her entire life, Laura is determined to take one more chance on love with a man she’s met on an Internet dating site. Rosie Ferro has spent most of her life worrying about her troubled sister. Fearless but fragile, Laura has always walked an emotional tightrope. So when Laura does not return home the following morning from her blind date, Rosie fears the worst. As she begins a desperate search to find her sister, she is not just worried about what this man might have done to Laura. She’s worried about what Laura may have done to him.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250198679
THE NIGHT WINDOW: A Jane Hawk Novel by Dean Koontz (Thriller)
A visionary young filmmaker hunted for sport across a vast Colorado ranch by the celebrated billionaire at the heart of a monstrous cabal. A brilliant computer hacker slipping through top-secret databases a whisper ahead of security trackers, gathering the facts to fight the all-powerful perpetrators of mass murder. A Vegas mob boss teamed with a homicidal sociopath, circling a beloved boy and his protectors, aiming to secure him as leverage against his fugitive mother. And that fugitive mother herself, ex-agent Jane Hawk, closing in on the malevolent architects of ruin she has stalked as they stalk her. These are some of the people and circumstances of THE NIGHT WINDOW, the stunning conclusion to Dean Koontz’s acclaimed Jane Hawk series.
Bantam | 9780525484707
ONCE MORE WE SAW STARS: A Memoir by Jayson Greene (Memoir)
As the book opens, two-year-old Greta Greene is sitting with her grandmother on a park bench on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A brick crumbles from a windowsill overhead, striking her unconscious, and she is immediately rushed to the hospital. But although it begins with this event and with the anguish Jayson and his wife, Stacy, confront in the wake of their daughter's trauma and the hours leading up to her death, ONCE MORE WE SAW STARS quickly becomes a narrative that is as much about hope and healing as it is about grief and loss. Jayson recognizes, even in the midst of his ordeal, that there will be a life for him beyond it --- that if only he can continue moving forward, from one moment to the next, he will survive what seems unsurvivable.
Knopf | 9781524733537
ORANGE WORLD AND OTHER STORIES by Karen Russell (Fiction/Short Stories)
In “Bog Girl," a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a 2,000-year-old girl who he’s extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In “The Prospectors,” two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. In the title story, a new mother desperate to ensure her infant’s safety strikes a diabolical deal, agreeing to breastfeed the devil in exchange for his protection. The landscape in which these and five other stories unfold is a feral, slippery, purgatorial space, bracketed by the void --- yet within it, Karen Russell captures the exquisite beauty and tenderness of ordinary life.
Knopf | 9780525656135
OUT EAST: Memoir of a Montauk Summer by John Glynn (Memoir)
They call Montauk the end of the world, a spit of land jutting into the Atlantic. The house was a ramshackle split-level set on a hill, and each summer 31 people would sleep between its thin walls and shag carpets. Against the moonlight the house's octagonal roof resembled a bee's nest. It was dubbed The Hive. In 2013, John Glynn joined the share house. Packing his duffel for that first Memorial Day weekend, he prayed for clarity. At 27, he was crippled by an all-encompassing loneliness, a feeling he had carried in his heart for as long as he could remember. OUT EAST is the portrait of a summer, of the Hive and the people who lived in it, and John's own reckoning with a half-formed sense of self.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538746653
RESISTANCE WOMEN by Jennifer Chiaverini (Historical Fiction)
After Wisconsin graduate student Mildred Fish marries brilliant German economist Arvid Harnack, she accompanies him to his German homeland, where a promising future awaits. In the thriving intellectual culture of 1930s Berlin, the newlyweds create a rich new life filled with love, friendships and rewarding work --- but the rise of a malevolent new political faction inexorably changes their fate. As Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party wield violence and lies to seize power, Mildred, Arvid and their friends resolve to resist. For years, Mildred’s network stealthily fights to bring down the Third Reich from within. But when Nazi radio operatives detect an errant Russian signal, the Harnack resistance cell is exposed, with fatal consequences.
William Morrow | 9780062841100
RULES FOR VISITING by Jessica Francis Kane (Fiction)
At 40, May Attaway is more at home with plants than people. Over the years, she's turned inward, finding pleasure in language, her work as a gardener, and keeping her neighbors at arm's length while keenly observing them. But when she is unexpectedly granted some leave from her job, May is inspired to reconnect with four once-close friends. She knows they will never have a proper reunion, so she goes, one by one, to each of them. A student of the classics, May considers her journey a female Odyssey. What might the world have had if, instead of waiting, Penelope had set out on an adventure of her own?
Penguin Press | 9780525559221
THE SATAPUR MOONSTONE: A Perveen Mistry Novel by Sujata Massey (Historical Mystery)
India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Sahyadri mountains, where the princely state of Satapur is tucked away. A curse seems to have fallen upon Satapur’s royal family, whose maharaja died of a sudden illness shortly before his teenage son was struck down in a tragic hunting accident. Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s only female lawyer, is determined to bring peace to the royal house and make a sound recommendation for the young crown prince’s future, but she arrives to find that the Satapur palace is full of cold-blooded power plays and ancient vendettas. Too late, she realizes she has walked into a trap. But whose? And how can she protect the royal children from the palace’s deadly curse?
Soho Crime | 9781616959098
WILD CARD: A Buddy Steel Mystery by Michael Brandman (Mystery)
When San Remo County Acting Sheriff Buddy Steel is deputized by the California Coastal Commission to investigate a reclusive Russian billionaire who has repeatedly violated state law by obstructing public access to his vast beachfront property, he makes a shocking discovery. He also learns that the politicos will not back up enforcement. This makes Buddy dig in his heels and face down the Russian's imported goon squad. At the same time, a string of random murders in the county's normally sleepy town of Freedom, a wealthy enclave up the coast from Los Angeles, places the Sheriff's Department on high alert as it seeks to apprehend a serial killer whose crimes are so perfectly executed they leave no forensic evidence.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464211584
On Sale the Week of May 13th in Paperback
May 14th
BROKEN GROUND: A Jay Porter Novel by Joe Clifford (Mystery/Thriller)
At an AA meeting, handyman and part-time investigator Jay Porter meets a recovering addict who needs his help. Amy Lupus’ younger sister, Emily, has gone missing from the Coos County Center, the newly opened rehab run by Jay’s old nemeses, Adam and Michael Lombardi. When Jay learns of a “missing” hard drive, he is flung back to five years ago when his own junkie brother, Chris, found a hard drive belonging to Lombardi Construction. For years, Jay assumed that the much-sought-after hard drive contained incriminating photos of Adam and Michael’s father, which contributed to Chris’ death. But now he believes that hard drive may have harbored a secret far more sinister, which the missing Lupus sister may have unwittingly discovered.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608093489
DAMNATION ISLAND: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York by Stacy Horn (History)
Conceived as the most modern, humane incarceration facility the world had ever seen, New York’s Blackwell’s Island, site of a lunatic asylum, two prisons, an almshouse and a number of hospitals, quickly became, in the words of a visiting Charles Dickens, "a lounging, listless madhouse." Digging through city records, newspaper articles and archival reports, Stacy Horn tells a gripping narrative through the voices of the island’s inhabitants. We also hear from the era’s officials, reformers and journalists, including the celebrated undercover reporter Nellie Bly. DAMNATION ISLAND shows how far we’ve come in caring for the least fortunate among us --- and reminds us how much work still remains.
Algonquin Books | 9781616209353
THE DESERT SKY BEFORE US by Anne Valente (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Billie is released from a correctional facility in Decatur, her sister Rhiannon is there to meet her. Painful secrets and numerous unspoken betrayals linger between them --- but most agonizing is the sudden passing of their mother, a renowned paleontologist. Rhiannon and Billie must overcome their differences as they set off on a road trip west, following the breadcrumb-trail of their late mother’s scavenger hunt, a sort of second funeral she planned in her final days. The sisters know the trail will end in Utah at the famous Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, where their mother spent her career researching dinosaur fossils. But the seemingly endless days on the road soon take their toll, forcing Rhiannon and Billie to confront their hostilities and revisit old memories --- both good and bad.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062749871
FIGURES IN A LANDSCAPE: People and Places by Paul Theroux (Travel/Essays)
Paul Theroux’s latest collection of essays leads the reader through a dazzling array of sights, characters and experiences, as Theroux applies his signature searching curiosity to a life lived as much in reading as on the road. Travel essays take us to Ecuador, Zimbabwe and Hawaii, to name a few. Gems of literary criticism reveal fascinating depth in the work of Henry David Thoreau, Graham Greene, Joseph Conrad and Hunter Thompson. And in a series of breathtakingly personal profiles, we take a helicopter ride with Elizabeth Taylor, go surfing with Oliver Sacks, eavesdrop on the day-to-day life of a Manhattan dominatrix, and explore New York with Robin Williams.
Eamon Dolan/Mariner Books | 9781328592781
HER PRETTY FACE by Robyn Harding (Psychological Thriller)
Frances Metcalfe is struggling to stay afloat. A stay-at-home mom whose troubled son is her full-time job, she thought that the day he got accepted into the elite Forrester Academy would be the day she started living her life. Overweight, insecure and lonely, she is desperate to fit into Forrester’s world. But after a disturbing incident at the school leads the other children and their families to ostracize the Metcalfes, she feels more alone than ever before. Until she meets Kate Randolph. As the two bond over their disdain of the Forrester snobs and the fierce love they have for their sons, a startling secret threatens to tear them apart. Because one of these women is not who she seems. Her real name is Amber Kunik. And she’s a murderer.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501174254
THE HIGH SEASON by Judy Blundell (Fiction)
In a beach town overrun with vacationers and newly colonized by socialites, Ruthie Beamish will go to extreme lengths when the life she loves is upended. Ruthie's house is her nest egg, recently renovated and located by the sea in a quiet village two ferry rides from the glitzier Hamptons. But to afford the house, she must rent it during the summer --- and this year to Adeline Clay, who is elegant, connected and accompanied by a “gorgeous satellite” stepson. Adeline forces herself into Ruthie's life, and when she's on the verge of losing everything, Ruthie discovers a new talent for pushing back. Nothing will be the same.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780525508731
LIFE OF DAVID HOCKNEY written by Catherine Cusset, translated by Teresa Fagan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Born in 1937 in a small town in the north of England, David Hockney had to fight to become an artist. After leaving his home in Bradford for the Royal College of Art in London, his career flourished, but he continued to struggle with a sense of not belonging, because of his homosexuality, which had yet to be decriminalized, and his inclination for a figurative style of art not sufficiently “contemporary” to be valued. Trips to New York and California --- where he would live for many years and paint his iconic swimming pools --- introduced him to new scenes and new loves, beginning a journey that would take him through the fraught years of the AIDS epidemic.
Other Press | 9781590519837
LIMELIGHT by Amy Poeppel (Fiction/Humor)
Allison Brinkley discovers that a carefully weighed decision to pack up and move her family from suburban Dallas to the glittery chaos of Manhattan may have been more complicated than she and her husband initially thought. After a humiliating call from the principal’s office and the loss of the job she was counting on, Allison begins to accept that New York may not suit her after all. When Allison has a fender-bender, she is led to the penthouse apartment of a luxurious Central Park West building and encounters Carter Reid, a famous pop star who has been cast in a new Broadway musical. Through this brush with stardom, Allison embraces a unique and unexpected opportunity that helps her find her way in the heart of Manhattan.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501176388
LITTLE PANIC: Dispatches from an Anxious Life by Amanda Stern (Memoir)
Growing up in the 1970s and ’80s in New York, Amanda Stern experiences the magic and madness of life through the filter of unrelenting panic. Plagued with fear that her friends and family will be taken from her if she's not watching, Amanda treats every parting as her last. Shuttled between a barefoot bohemian life with her mother in Greenwich Village, and a sanitized, stricter world of affluence uptown with her father, Amanda has little she can depend on. And when Etan Patz disappears down the block from their MacDougal Street home, she can't help but believe that all her worst fears are about to come true.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538711941
MY EX-BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING by Wendy Wax (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Prized and stored away for safekeeping, the timeless ivory wedding dress sits gently folded in its box. To Kendra, Brianna and Lauren, it’s a reminder of what could have been. Once closer than sisters, Lauren and Bree have grown up and grown apart. A successful author, Lauren returns home to the Outer Banks, fiancé in tow, to claim the dress she never thought she’d wear. Bree, a bookstore owner, grapples with the realities of life after you marry the handsome prince. Now on the eve of her daughter Lauren’s wedding, Kendra struggles with a secret she’s kept for far too long. And vows to make sure the dress will finally bring Lauren and Bree back together --- knowing they'll need each other to survive the coming storm.
Berkley | 9780440001430
PLUM RAINS by Andromeda Romano-Lax (Science Fiction)
In 2029, Angelica Navarro, a Filipina nurse, works as caretaker for Sayoko Itou, who is about to turn 100 years old. One day, Sayoko receives a cutting-edge robot “friend” that will teach itself to anticipate Sayoko’s every need. Angelica wonders if she is about to be forced out of her much-needed job by an inanimate object --- one with a preternatural ability to uncover the most deeply buried secrets of the humans around it. The old woman has been hiding secrets of her own for almost a century. What she reveals is a hundred-year saga of forbidden love, hidden identities, and the horrific legacy of WWII and Japanese colonialism --- a confession that will tear apart her own life and Angelica’s.
Soho Press | 9781641290258
ROBIN by Dave Itzkoff (Biography)
From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in “Mork & Mindy” and his Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative and beloved entertainer. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations --- all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed. But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams’ comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt.
Picador | 9781250214812
TARGET: ALEX CROSS by James Patterson (Thriller)
A leader has fallen, and Alex Cross joins the procession of mourners from Capitol Hill to the White House. Then a sniper's bullet strikes a target in the heart of DC. Alex Cross' wife, Bree Stone, newly elevated chief of DC detectives, must solve the case or lose her position. The Secret Service and the FBI deploy as well in the race to find the shooter. Alex is tasked by the new President to lead an investigation unprecedented in scale and scope. But is the sniper's strike only the beginning of a larger attack on the nation?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538713761
AN UNWANTED GUEST by Shari Lapena (Psychological Thriller)
It's winter in the Catskills, and Mitchell's Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing weekend away. So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity --- and all contact with the outside world --- the guests settle in for the long haul. Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead --- it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic. Within the snowed-in paradise, something --- or someone --- is picking off the guests one by one. And there's nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm --- and one another.
Penguin Books | 9780525557647
VISIBLE EMPIRE by Hannah Pittard (Historical Fiction)
On a humid summer day, the phones begin to ring: disaster has struck. Chateau de Sully, a Boeing 707 chartered to ferry home more than 100 of Atlanta’s most prominent citizens from a European jaunt, crashed in Paris shortly after takeoff. Overnight, the city of Atlanta changes. Left behind are children, spouses, lovers and friends faced with renegotiating their lives --- the hedonism of the ’60s and the urgency of the civil rights movement at the city’s doorstep.
Mariner Books | 9781328588791
WE BEGIN OUR ASCENT by Joe Mungo Reed (Fiction)
Sol and Liz are a couple on the cusp. He’s a professional cyclist in the Tour de France, a workhorse but not yet a star. She’s a geneticist on the brink of a major discovery, either that or a loss of funding. They’ve just welcomed their first child into the world, and their bright future lies just before them --- if only they can reach out and grab it. But as Liz’s research slows, as Sol starts doping, their dreams grow murkier and the risks graver. Over the whirlwind course of the Tour, they enter the orbit of an extraordinary cast of conmen and aspirants, who draw the young family ineluctably into the depths of an illegal drug smuggling operation.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501169229
WEST LIKE LIGHTNING: The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express by Jim DeFelice (History)
On the eve of the Civil War, three American businessmen launched an audacious plan to create a financial empire by transforming communications across the hostile territory between the nation’s two coasts. In the process, they created one of the most enduring icons of the American West: the Pony Express. Daring young men galloped over a vast and unforgiving landscape, etching an irresistible tale that passed into myth almost instantly. Equally an improbable success and a business disaster, the Pony Express came and went in just 18 months, but not before uniting and captivating a nation on the brink of being torn apart. WEST LIKE LIGHTNING is the first major history of the Pony Express to put its birth, life and legacy into the full context of the American story.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062496782
THE WOMAN IN THE WOODS by John Connolly (Mystery/Thriller)
In the beautiful Maine woods, a partly preserved body is discovered. Investigators realize that the dead young woman gave birth shortly before her death. But there is no sign of a baby. Private detective Charlie Parker is hired by a lawyer to shadow the police investigation and find the infant, but Parker is not the only searcher. Someone else is following the trail left by the woman, someone with an interest in much more than a missing child…someone prepared to leave bodies in his wake. And in a house by the woods, a toy telephone begins to ring and a young boy is about to receive a call from a dead woman.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501171932
YOU WERE MADE FOR THIS by Michelle Sacks (Psychological Thriller)
Merry, Sam and Conor are the perfect family in the perfect place. Merry adores the domestic life. Sam, formerly an academic, is pursuing a new career as a filmmaker. When Merry's childhood friend Frank visits their Swedish paradise, she immediately becomes part of the family. She befriends the neighbors, and even finds herself embracing the domesticity she's always seemed to scorn. All their lives, Frank and Merry have been more like sisters than best friends. And that's why Frank soon sees the things others might miss --- treacherous things, which are almost impossible to believe when looking at this perfect family. But Frank, of all people, knows that the truth is rarely what you want the world to see.
Back Bay Books | 9780316475419
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