August 20, 2019

August 20, 2019

Latest Update on Our GoFundMe Campaign
to Expand The Book Report Network:
Thanks to Our Donors, We've Raised Close to $30,000!

Thank you to those of you who already have donated to our GoFundMe campaign. So far, with online donations and checks that have been sent to our office, we have raised $29,860 of our $50,000 goal. Just $140 to reach $30,000!

In addition to your contributions, we are loving the comments that have been shared with donations about how you enjoy this newsletter and Bookreporter.com. Here are a couple of snail mail messages we received this week:

Patricia: “Thank you so much for the two contest books that I received in the mail. You really made my month! I can’t wait to read them. I read Bookreporter --- every email. You have no idea how valuable that is to me --- the books you report. You made an old lady (82) very happy!! When I finish the books, I will pass them on to my old lady friends to read, hehehe.”

Janice: “I have been reading your weekly newsletter every week since 2008. It is my early Saturday morning treat to myself. Thank you for all you do. It is a great gift.”

You can read more about our plans and donate here. If you would rather donate via check, our address is:

The Book Report, Inc.
850 Seventh Avenue - Suite 901
New York, NY 10019

Thank you again for your consideration and your donation.

Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)

Please note: There will be no "On Sale This Week" newsletter on August 27th as we take our annual summer break, thus we are covering releases for the next three weeks in this edition. Our next "On Sale This Week" newsletter will be sent on Tuesday, September 3rd.

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of August 19th, August 26th and September 2nd that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com, where three book groups will win 12 paperback copies of THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM by Marie Benedict, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. The deadline for your entries is Monday, September 9th at noon ET.

Help Us Select Our "Bookreporter Talks To" Podcast Logo Art!

As part of our expansion of The Book Report Network, we are excited about launching our new "Bookreporter Talks To" podcast, where we will be interviewing authors about their latest books. We are at the point where we are selecting logo art for the podcast. Above are three color selections for you to weigh in on. Vote here to let us know which you like best! Feedback is welcome until Thursday, August 22nd at noon ET.

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

Special Preview of Friday's Bookreporter Update

As you may know, as part of our expansion, Carol has been shooting videos each week to promote what you will see on the site on Friday. You can watch a video preview of the August 23rd Weekly Update newsletter here. We hope you enjoy it!

Click here to see all of our videos on
The Book Report Network YouTube channel.

Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

This Week's Bonus News: August's "What's Your
Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest
on ReadingGroupGuides.com

Each month on ReadingGroupGuides.com, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.

Our latest prize book is THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM by Marie Benedict, which is now available in paperback --- a powerful novel based on the incredible true story of Hedy Lamarr, the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Monday, September 9th at noon ET.

THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM by Marie Benedict (Historical Fiction)
She possessed a stunning beauty. She also possessed a stunning mind. Could the world handle both?

Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.

But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she knew a few secrets about the enemy. She had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis...if anyone would listen to her.

- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read a review.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to read Carol's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary.

Click here to enter the contest.

On Sale the Week of August 19th in Hardcover

August 20th

CARNEGIE HILL by Jonathan Vatner (Fiction/Humor)
At age 33, Penelope “Pepper” Bradford has no career, no passion and no children. Moving into the Chelmsford Arms with her fiancé Rick, an up-and-coming financier, and joining the co-op board give her some control over her life --- until her parents take a gut dislike to Rick and urge Pepper to call off the wedding. When, the week before the wedding, she glimpses a trail of desperate text messages from Rick’s obsessed female client, Pepper realizes that her parents might be right. She looks to her older neighbors in the building to help decide whether to stay with Rick, not realizing that their marriages are in crisis, too. To her surprise, Pepper’s best model for love may be a clandestine gay romance between Caleb and Sergei, a black porter and a Russian doorman.
Thomas Dunne Books | 9781250174765

THE COLD WAY HOME by Julia Keller (Mystery)
Deep in the woods just outside Acker's Gap, West Virginia, rises a ragged chunk of what was once a high stone wall. This is all that remains of Wellwood, a psychiatric hospital for the poor that burned to the ground decades ago. And it is here that Bell Elkins --- prosecutor turned private investigator --- makes a grim discovery while searching for a missing teenager: a dead body, marred by a ghastly wound that can only mean murder. To solve the mystery of what happened in these woods, Bell and her partners --- former sheriff Nick Fogelsong and former deputy Jake Oakes --- must confront the tangled history of Wellwood and its dark legacy, while each grapples with a private torment.
Minotaur Books | 9781250191229

GOING DUTCH by James Gregor (Fiction)
Exhausted by dead-end forays in the gay dating scene, surrounded constantly by friends but deeply lonely in New York City, and drifting into academic abyss, twenty-something graduate student Richard has plenty of sources of anxiety. But at the forefront is his crippling writer’s block. Enter Anne: his brilliant classmate who offers to “help” Richard write his papers in exchange for his company, despite Richard’s fairly obvious sexual orientation. What begins as an initially transactional relationship blooms gradually into something more complex. But then a one-swipe-stand with an attractive, successful lawyer becomes serious, and Richard suddenly finds himself unable to detach from Anne.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982103194

THE LAST WIDOW by Karin Slaughter (Mystery/Thriller)
On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast --- followed by another seconds later. One of Atlanta’s busiest and most important neighborhoods has been bombed. Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rush to the scene --- and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy. When the assailants abduct Sara, Will goes undercover to save her and prevent a massacre --- putting his own life on the line for the woman and the country he loves.
William Morrow | 9780062858085

MIDDLE ENGLAND by Jonathan Coe (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Beginning nine years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by chain retail, and London, where both frenzied riots and Olympic fever plague the streets, MIDDLE ENGLAND tracks a brilliantly vivid cast of characters through the transformation of their society. There are newlyweds Ian and Sophie, who disagree about England's future and, possibly, their relationship; Doug, the political commentator who writes impassioned columns about austerity from his Chelsea townhouse, while his radical, teenage daughter undertakes a relentless quest for universal justice; Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age; and his father Colin, whose last wish is to vote LEAVE in the Brexit referendum.
Knopf | 9780525656470

THE MURDER LIST by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Psychological Thriller)
Law student Rachel North is the ultimate reliable narrator --- she will tell you, without hesitation, what she knows to be true. She's smart, she's a hard worker, she does the right thing. She's successfully married to a faithful and devoted husband, a lion of Boston's defense bar. And her internship with the powerful District Attorney's office is her ticket to a successful future. The problem is, she's wrong.  And in this cat-and-mouse game, the battle for justice becomes a battle for survival.
Forge Books | 9781250197214

NIGHTS IN WHITE CASTLE: A Memoir by Steve Rushin (Memoir)
It begins in Bloomington, Minnesota, with a 13-year-old kid staging his own author photo that he hopes will someday grace the cover of a book jacket. And it ends at a desk in the legendary Time & Life building, with that same boy --- now in his early 20s and writing professionally --- reflecting on how he got there from what seems like a distant universe. In between, Steve Rushin whisks us along on an extraordinarily funny and tender journey. From a menial summer job at suburban Bennigan's, to first-time college experiences in Milwaukee, to surviving early adulthood in seedy New York City, NIGHTS IN WHITE CASTLE will remind any reader of those special moments when they too went from innocence to experience.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316419437

OLD BONES by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
Young curator Nora Kelly is approached by historian Clive Benton with a once-in-a-lifetime proposal: to lead a team in search of the so-called "Lost Camp" of the tragic Donner Party. This was a group of pioneers who became snow-bound in the California mountains in 1847, their fate unknown until the first skeletonized survivors stumbled out of the wilderness, raving about starvation, murder --- and cannibalism. Benton tells Kelly he has come across an amazing find: the long-sought diary of one of the victims, which has an enigmatic description of the Lost Camp. Nora agrees to lead an expedition to locate and excavate it. But as they uncover old bones, they expose the real truth of what happened, one that is far more shocking and bizarre than mere cannibalism.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538747223

POLITE SOCIETY by Mahesh Rao (Fiction/Humor)
Beautiful, clever and more than a little bored, Ania Khurana has Delhi wrapped around her finger. Having successfully found love for her spinster aunt, she sets her sights on Dimple: her newest, sweetest and most helpless friend. But when her aunt's handsome nephew arrives from America, the social tides in Delhi begin to shift. Surrounded by old money and new; relentless currents of gossip; and an unforgettable cast of socialites, journalists, gurus and heirs, Ania discovers that her good intentions are no match for the whims and intrigues of Delhi's high society --- or for her own complicated feelings toward her cherished childhood friend, Dev.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525539940

THE RECKLESS OATH WE MADE by Bryn Greenwood (Fiction)
Zee is nobody's fairy tale princess. Almost six feet tall, with a redhead's temper and a shattered hip, she has a long list of worries: never-ending bills, her beautiful, gullible sister, her five-year-old nephew, her housebound mother, and her drug-dealing boss. Zee may not be a princess, but Gentry is an actual knight. Two years ago, the voices he hears called him to be Zee's champion. Both shy and autistic, he's barely spoken to her since, but he has kept watch, ready to come to her aid. When an abduction tears Zee's family apart, she turns to the last person she ever imagined --- Gentry --- and sets in motion a chain of events that will not only change both of their lives, but bind them to one another forever.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525541844

TIDELANDS by Philippa Gregory (Historical Fiction)
Midsummer’s Eve, 1648, England is in the grip of a civil war between renegade king and rebellious parliament. The struggle reaches every corner of the kingdom, even the remote tidelands --- the marshy landscape of the south coast. Alinor, a descendant of wisewomen, trapped in poverty and superstition, waits in the graveyard under the full moon for a ghost who will declare her free from her abusive husband. Instead, she meets James, a young man on the run, and shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marsh, not knowing that she is leading disaster into the heart of her life. Suspected of possessing dark secrets in superstitious times, Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her out from her neighbors.
Atria Books | 9781501187155

THE WAREHOUSE by Rob Hart (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Paxton never thought he’d be working for Cloud, the giant tech company that’s eaten much of the American economy. Much less that he’d be moving into one of the company’s sprawling live-work facilities. But compared to what’s left outside, Cloud’s bland chainstore life of gleaming entertainment halls, open-plan offices and vast warehouses…well, it doesn’t seem so bad. It’s more than anyone else is offering. Zinnia never thought she’d be infiltrating Cloud. But now she’s undercover, inside the walls, risking it all to ferret out the company’s darkest secrets. And Paxton, with his ordinary little hopes and fears? He just might make the perfect pawn. If she can bear to sacrifice him.
Crown | 9781984823793

THE WHISPER MAN by Alex North (Thriller)
After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes that a fresh start will help him and his young son, Jake, heal. But the town of Featherbank has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed "The Whisper Man," for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night. Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Carter's crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late. And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window...
Celadon Books | 9781250317995

THE WORLD DOESN'T REQUIRE YOU: Stories by Rion Amilcar Scott (Fiction/Short Stories)
Established by the leaders of the country’s only successful slave revolt in the mid-19th century, Cross River still evokes the fierce rhythms of its founding. Among its residents are David Sherman, a struggling musician who just happens to be God’s last son; Tyrone, a ruthless PhD candidate, whose dissertation about a childhood game ignites mayhem in the neighboring, once-segregated town of Port Yooga; and Jim, an all-too-obedient robot who serves his Master. As the book builds to its finish with Special Topics in Loneliness Studies, a fully realized novella, two unhinged professors grapple with hugely different ambitions, and the reader comes to appreciate the intricacy of the world Rion Amilcar Scott has created --- one where fantasy and reality are eternally at war.
Liveright | 9781631495380

On Sale the Week of August 19th in Paperback

August 20th

ARTHUR ASHE: A Life by Raymond Arsenault (Biography)
Raymond Arsenault chronicles tennis superstar Arthur Ashe’s rise to stardom on the court. But much of the book explores his off-court career as a human rights activist, philanthropist, broadcaster, writer, businessman and celebrity. In the 1970s and ’80s, Ashe gained renown as an advocate for sportsmanship, education, racial equality and the elimination of apartheid in South Africa. But from 1979 on, he was forced to deal with a serious heart condition that led to multiple surgeries and blood transfusions, one of which left him HIV-positive. Five years after being diagnosed with AIDS, Ashe passed away at the age of 49, leaving an inspiring legacy of dignity, integrity and active citizenship.
Simon & Schuster | 9781439189054

BLOOD COMMUNION: A Tale of Prince Lestat by Anne Rice (Paranormal Thriller/Fantasy)
Lestat, rebel outlaw, addresses the tribe of vampires, telling the mesmerizing story of the formation of the Blood Communion and how he became Prince of the vampire world, the true ruler of this vast realm, and how his vision for all the Children of the Universe to thrive as one came to be. The tale spills from Lestat's heart, as he speaks first of his new existence as reigning monarch --- and then of his fierce battle of wits and words with the mysterious Rhoshamandes, a demon spirit who refuses to live in harmony at the Court of Prince Lestat and threatens all that Lestat has dreamt of.
Anchor | 9780525433927

THE CHOCOLATE MAKER’S WIFE by Karen Brooks (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Sir Everard Blithman, a canny merchant, offers Rosamund Tomkins --- the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman --- an “opportunity like no other,” becoming the linchpin that will drive the success of his fledgling business: a luxurious London chocolate house where wealthy and well-connected men come to see and be seen. Rosamund adapts and thrives in her new surroundings, quickly becoming the most talked-about woman in society. But she knows nothing of the mortal peril that comes with her new title, nor of the forces spinning a web of conspiracy buried in the past, until she meets a man whose return tightens their grip upon her, threatening to destroy everything she loves and damn her to a dire fate.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062686596

HOUSE OF GOLD by Natasha Solomons (Historical Fiction)
It's 1911, and Greta Goldbaum is forced to move from glittering Vienna to damp England to wed Albert, a distant cousin. The Goldbaum family is one of the wealthiest in the world, with palaces across Europe, but as Jews and perpetual outsiders they know that strength lies in family. At first defiant and lonely, slowly Greta softens toward Albert, and as the wild paths and untamed beauty of Greta's new English garden begin to take shape, so too does their love begin to blossom. But World War I looms, and even the influential Goldbaums cannot alter its course. For the first time in 200 years, the family will find itself on opposing sides, and Greta will have to choose: the family she's created, or the one she left behind.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735212985

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE YOURSELF by JM Holmes (Historical Fiction)
Bound together by shared experience but pulled apart by their changing fortunes, four young friends coming of age in the postindustrial enclave of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, struggle to liberate themselves from the legacies left to them as black men in America. JM Holmes’ debut follows a decade in the lives of Dub, Rolls, Rye and Gio as they each grapple with the complexity of their family histories, the newfound power of sex and drugs, and the ferocity of their desires.
Back Bay Books | 9780316514859

INSURRECTO by Gina Apostol (Fiction)
Two women, a Filipino translator and an American filmmaker, go on a road trip in Duterte’s Philippines, collaborating and clashing in the writing of a film script about a massacre during the Philippine-American War. Chiara is working on a film about an incident in Balangiga, Samar, in 1901, when Filipino revolutionaries attacked an American garrison, and in retaliation American soldiers created “a howling wilderness” of the surrounding countryside. Magsalin reads Chiara’s film script and writes her own version. INSURRECTO contains within its dramatic action two rival scripts from the filmmaker and the translator --- one about a white photographer, the other about a Filipino schoolteacher.
Soho Press | 9781641290920

NO GOOD DEED by James Swain (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A disturbing missing-person case reunites ex-Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster and FBI Agent Beth Daniels. Skye is just one of a dozen young women who have disappeared from Florida without a trace. Beth can do more than just imagine their fear. She was a victim herself --- a trauma that’s strengthened her fight for justice. Then Lancaster uncovers a scrap of evidence, and the mystery begins to unravel. But the lead comes with a personal sting: the involvement of his estranged brother, Logan, an ex-con recruited into the shepherding of human trade. The only way for Logan to shed his demons is to come clean. For Lancaster and Daniels, that means being drawn, secret by secret, into a dangerous underground world.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542040488

OUR HOMESICK SONGS by Emma Hooper (Fiction)
The Connor family is one of the few that is still left in their idyllic fishing village, Big Running. After the fish mysteriously disappeared, most families had no choice but to relocate and find work elsewhere. Aidan and Martha Connor now spend alternate months of the year working at an energy site up north to support their children, Cora and Finn. But soon the family fears they’ll have to leave Big Running for good. And as the months go on, plagued by romantic temptations new and old, the emotional distance between the once blissful Aidan and Martha only widens. Between his accordion lessons and reading up on Big Running’s local flora and fauna, 11-year-old Finn Connor develops an obsession with solving the mystery of the missing fish.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501124501

SMALL ANIMALS: Parenthood in the Age of Fear by Kim Brooks (Memoir/Sociology)
One morning, Kim Brooks made a split-second decision to leave her four-year-old son in the car while she ran into a store. What happened would consume the next several years of her life and spur her to investigate the broader role America’s culture of fear plays in parenthood. In SMALL ANIMALS, Brooks asks: Of all the emotions inherent in parenting, is there any more universal or profound than fear? Why have our notions of what it means to be a good parent changed so radically? In what ways do these changes impact the lives of parents, children and the structure of society at large? And what, in the end, does the rise of fearful parenting tell us about ourselves?
Flatiron Books | 9781250089571

VIRGIL WANDER by Leif Enger (Fiction)
Midwestern movie house owner Virgil Wander is “cruising along at medium altitude” when his car flies off the road into icy Lake Superior. Virgil survives, but his language and memory are altered. Awakening in this new life, he begins to piece together his personal history and the lore of his broken town, with the help of a cast of affable and curious locals --- from Rune, a twinkling, pipe-smoking, kite-flying stranger investigating the mystery of his disappeared son; to Nadine, the reserved, enchanting wife of the vanished man, to Tom, a journalist and Virgil’s oldest friend; and various members of the Pea family who must confront tragedies of their own. Into this community returns a shimmering prodigal son who may hold the key to reviving their town.
Grove Press | 9780802147127

On Sale the Week of August 26th in Hardcover

August 27th

THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO by Christy Lefteri (Fiction)
Nuri is a beekeeper, and Afra, his wife, is an artist. Mornings, Nuri rises early to hear the call to prayer before driving to his hives in the countryside. On weekends, Afra sells her colorful landscape paintings at the open-air market. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the hills of the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo --- until the unthinkable happens. When all they love is destroyed by war, Nuri knows they have no choice except to leave their home. But escaping Syria will be no easy task: Afra has lost her sight, leaving Nuri to navigate her grief as well as a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece toward an uncertain future in Britain.
Ballantine Books | 9781984821218

A BETTER MAN: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny (Mystery)
It’s Gamache’s first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Flood waters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil, a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter. As crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos, and realizes the search for Vivienne Godin should be abandoned. But with a daughter of his own, he finds himself developing a profound, and perhaps unwise, empathy for her distraught father. As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught against Gamache becomes crueler, a body is discovered. And in the tumult, mistakes are made.
Minotaur Books | 9781250066213

BOTTLE GROVE by Daniel Handler (Fiction/Humor)
This is a story about two marriages. Or is it? It begins with a wedding, held in the small San Francisco forest of Bottle Grove --- bestowed by a wealthy patron for the public good, back when people did such things. Here is a cross section of lives, a stretch of urban green where ritzy guests, lustful teenagers, drunken revelers and forest creatures all wait for the sun to go down. The girl in the corner slugging vodka from a cough-syrup bottle is Padgett --- she's keeping something secreted in the woods. The couple at the altar are the Nickels --- the bride is emphatic about changing her name, as there is plenty about her old life she is ready to forget.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781632864277

THE DARK SIDE by Danielle Steel (Psychological Thriller)
Zoe Morgan’s childhood was marked by her younger sister’s tragic illness, watching as her parents dedicated themselves completely to her final days and then divorced. As a young woman driven by these painful memories, Zoe sets the bar high for herself, studying hard and pursuing a career in the nonprofit world, where her deep compassion for disadvantaged children finds a focus. When Zoe falls in love and has her own child, she is determined to be a perfect mother as well. But before long, old scars long dormant begin to pull Zoe to the edge of an abyss too terrifying to contemplate.
Delacorte Press | 9780399179419

A DOOR IN THE EARTH by Amy Waldman (Fiction)
College senior Parveen Shams feels pulled between her charismatic and mercurial anthropology professor and the comfortable but predictable Afghan-American community in her Northern California hometown. When she discovers a bestselling book called Mother Afghanistan, a memoir by humanitarian Gideon Crane that has become a bible for American engagement in the country, she is inspired. Galvanized by Crane's experience, Parveen travels to a remote village in the land of her birth to join the work of his charitable foundation. When she arrives, however, Crane's maternity clinic is mostly unstaffed. The villagers do not exhibit the gratitude she expected to receive. And Crane's memoir appears to be littered with mistakes, or outright fabrications.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316451574

DOXOLOGY by Nell Zink (Fiction)
Struggling to scrape together enough cash and musical talent to make it as a punk rock band on the Lower East Side, Pam, Daniel and Joe are waylaid by surprising arrivals --- a daughter for Pam and Daniel, and a solo hit single for Joe. As the ’90s wane, they work together to elevate Joe’s superstardom and raise baby Flora. On September 11, 2001, the city’s unfathomable devastation coincides with a shattering personal loss for the trio. In the aftermath, Flora comes of age, navigating a charged political landscape and discovering a love of the natural world. But when the country faces an astonishing new threat, Flora’s family will have no choice but to look to the past --- both to examine wounds that have never healed, and to rediscover strengths they have long forgotten.
Ecco | 9780062877789

EVERYTHING INSIDE: Stories by Edwidge Danticat (Fiction/Short Stories)
EVERYTHING INSIDE explores the forces that pull us together, or drive us apart, sometimes in the same searing instant. In these eight emotionally absorbing stories, a romance unexpectedly sparks between two wounded friends; a marriage ends for what seem like noble reasons, but with irreparable consequences; a young woman holds on to an impossible dream even as she fights for her survival; two lovers reunite after unimaginable tragedy, both for their country and in their lives; a baby's christening brings three generations of a family to a precarious dance between old and new; and a man falls to his death in slow motion, reliving the defining moments of the life he is about to lose.
Knopf | 9780525521273

FIVE DAYS GONE: The Mystery of My Mother's Disappearance as a Child by Laura Cumming (Memoir)
In the fall of 1929, when Laura Cumming’s mother was three years old, she was kidnapped from a beach. When she turned up again in a nearby village several days later, she was found in perfect health and happiness. No one was ever accused of a crime. The incident quickly faded from her memory, and her parents never discussed it. To the contrary, they deliberately hid it from her, and she did not learn of it for half a century. For many years, while raising her in draconian isolation and protectiveness, they also hid the fact that she’d been adopted, and that shortly after the kidnapping, her name was changed from Grace to Betty. In FIVE DAYS GONE, Cumming unspools the tale of her mother’s life and unravels the multiple mysteries at its core.
Scribner | 9781501198717

THE GIRL WHO LIVED TWICE: A Lisbeth Salander Novel by David Lagercrantz (Thriller)
Lisbeth Salander --- the fierce, unstoppable girl with the dragon tattoo --- has disappeared. She's sold her apartment in Stockholm. She's gone silent electronically. She's told no one where she is. And no one is aware that at long last she has her primal enemy, her twin sister, Camilla, squarely in her sights. Mikael Blomkvist is trying to reach Lisbeth. He needs her help unraveling the identity of a man who lived and died on the streets in Stockholm --- a man who does not exist in any official records and whose garbled last words hinted at possible damaging knowledge of people in the highest echelons of government and industry. In his pocket was a crumpled piece of paper with Blomkvist's phone number on it.
Knopf | 9780451494344

THE GOLDEN WOLF by Linnea Hartsuyker (Historical Fantasy)
A growing rebellion pits Ragnvald and his sons against enemies old and new, and a looming tragedy threatens to divide the hardened warrior from Harald and all who care for him. Across the sea, Svanhild, too, wrestles with a painful decision, risking the dissolution of her fragile new family as she desperately tries to save it. Yet as old heroes fall, new heroes arise. For years, Ragnvald and Svanhild pursued the destinies bestowed by their ancient gods. Though the journey has cost them much, their sacrifices and dreams will be honored by the generations that follow, beginning with Freydis and Einar. Emerging from their parents’ long shadows, they have begun to carry on the family’s legacy while pursuing their own glorious fates.
Harper | 9780062563743

LAST ONES LEFT ALIVE by Sarah Davis-Goff (Dystopian Fiction)
Raised in isolation by her mother and Maeve on a small island off the coast of a post-apocalyptic Ireland, Orpen’s life has revolved around training to fight a threat she’s never seen. More and more she feels the call of the mainland, and the prospect of finding other survivors. But that is where danger lies, too, in the form of the flesh-eating menace known as the skrake. Then disaster strikes. Alone, pushing an unconscious Maeve in a wheelbarrow, Orpen decides her last hope is abandoning the safety of the island and journeying across the country to reach the legendary banshees, the rumored all-female fighting force that battles the skrake. But the skrake are not the only threat.
Flatiron Books | 9781250235220

THE OTHER'S GOLD by Elizabeth Ames (Fiction)
Assigned to the same suite during their freshman year at Quincy-Hawthorn College, Lainey, Ji Sun, Alice and Margaret quickly become inseparable. The leafy green campus they move through together, the idyllic window seat they share in their suite, and the passion and ferocity that school and independence awakens in them ignite an all-encompassing love with one another. But they soon find that their bonds --- forged in joy and fused by fear --- must weather threats that originate from beyond the dark forests of their childhoods, and come at them from institutions, from one another and, ultimately, from within themselves.
Viking | 9781984878496

OVERTHROW by Caleb Crain (Fiction)
One autumn night, as a grad student named Matthew is walking home from the subway, a handsome skateboarder catches his eye. Leif invites Matthew to meet his friends, who are experimenting with tarot cards. It's easier to know what's in other people's minds than most people realize, the friends claim. Matthew soon finds himself falling in love with Leif and entangled with Leif's group as they visit the Occupy movement's encampment across the river, where they hope their ideas about radical empathy will help heal a divided world and destabilize the 1%. When the group falls afoul of a security contractor freelancing for the government, the news coverage, internet outrage and legal repercussions damage the romances and alliances that hold the friends together.
Viking | 9780525560456

THE PASSENGERS by John Marrs (Science Fiction/Thriller)
You’re riding in your self-driving car when suddenly the doors lock, the route changes and you have lost all control. Then a mysterious voice tells you, “You are going to die.” Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in this terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man. From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, "Which of these people should we save?” “Who should we kill first?"
Berkley | 9781984806970

SHULA: The Coach of the NFL's Greatest Generation by Mark Ribowsky (Sports/Biography)
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997, Don Shula remains the winningest coach of all time with 347 career victories and the only undefeated season in NFL history. But before he became the architect of the Dolphins dynasty, Shula was a hardworking kid selling fish on the banks of Lake Erie, the eldest of six children born during the Depression to Hungarian immigrant parents. As acclaimed sports biographer Mark Ribowsky shows, Shula met serious resistance at home when he asked to play high school football. But when his parents finally relented, they discovered that their son, though perhaps short on the physical gifts of the truly blessed, had an unmatched mind for the game’s strategy and a stomach for its brutality.
Liveright | 9781631494604

TIN BADGES by Lorenzo Carcaterra (Thriller)
As one of the NYPD’s most trusted “tin badges” --- retired detectives brought in to solve cases that are beyond the reach of the everyday force --- Tank Rizzo has faced off against some of the city’s toughest criminals without breaking a sweat. To tackle a case involving a dangerous kingpin known as Gonzo, Tank turns to his best friend and ex-partner, Pearl; a former mobster living out a seemingly quiet retirement as the owner of Tank’s favorite Italian restaurant; and a team of expert misfits he would trust with his life. But Gonzo will stop at nothing to defend the empire he's built, and he won't hesitate to make it personal.
Ballantine Books | 9780345483928

THE TURN OF MIDNIGHT by Minette Walters (Historical Fiction)
As the year 1349 approaches, the Black Death continues its devastating course across England. In Dorseteshire, the quarantined people of Develish --- guided by their beloved young mistress, Lady Anne --- question whether they are the only survivors. Thaddeus Thurkell, a freethinking, educated serf, and his companions quickly throw off the shackles of serfdom and set their minds to ensuring Develish’s future --- and freedom for its people. But what use is freedom that cannot be gained lawfully? When Lady Anne and Thaddeus conceive an audacious plan to secure her people’s independence, neither foresees the life-threatening struggle over power, money and religion that follows.
Mira | 9780778308836

THE VENTRILOQUISTS by E.R. Ramzipoor (Historical Thriller)
Brussels, 1943. Twelve-year-old street orphan Helene survives by living as a boy and selling copies of the country’s most popular newspaper, Le Soir, now turned into Nazi propaganda. Helene’s world changes when she befriends a rogue journalist, Marc Aubrion, who draws her into a secret network that publishes dissident underground newspapers. The Nazis track down Aubrion’s team and give them an impossible choice: turn the resistance newspapers into a Nazi propaganda bomb that will sway public opinion against the Allies, or be killed. While pretending to do the Nazis’ bidding, they will instead publish a fake edition of Le Soir that pokes fun at Hitler and Stalin. The ventriloquists have agreed to die for a joke, and they have only 18 days to tell it.
Park Row | 9780778308157

WHO ARE YOU, CALVIN BLEDSOE? by Brock Clarke (Fiction)
Calvin Bledsoe’s journey begins with the death of his mother. An internationally known theologian and an expert on all things John Calvin, she had been the dominant force in her son’s existence. At her funeral, Calvin is introduced to his aunt Beatrice, who whisks him off to Europe for a grand adventure. As they traverse the continent, it becomes apparent that her clandestine behavior is leading him into danger. Facing a menagerie of antiquities thieves, secret agents, religious fanatics, and an ex-wife who is stalking him, Calvin begins to suspect there might be some meaning behind the madness. But first, he has to figure out why he has been kidnapped, why his aunt has disappeared, and who the hell burned down his house in Maine.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208219

On Sale the Week of August 26th in Paperback

August 27th

ALL THE DIRTY PARTS by Daniel Handler (Fiction)
Cole is a boy in high school. He runs cross country, he sketches, he jokes around with friends. But none of this quite matters next to the allure of sex. He fantasizes about whomever he's looking at. He consumes and shares pornography. And he sleeps with a lot of girls, which is beginning to earn him a not-quite-savory reputation around school. This leaves him adrift with only his best friend for company, and then something startling starts to happen between them that might be what he's been after all this time. And then he meets Grisaille.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781632868053
 
BAD MAN by Dathan Auerbach (Horror)
Eric disappeared when he was three years old. Ben looked away for only a second at the grocery store, but that was all it took. His brother was gone. Five years later, Ben still looks for Eric. Now 20 and desperate for work, he takes a night stock job at the only place that will have him: the store that blinked Eric out of existence. He can feel that there's something wrong there. With the people. With his boss. With the graffitied baler that shudders and moans and beckons. There's something wrong with the air itself. He knows he's in the right place now. That the store has much to tell him. So he keeps searching, but misses the most important message of all: That he should have stopped looking.
Anchor | 9780525435266
 
A BORROWING OF BONES by Paula Munier (Mystery)
After their last deployment, when she got shot, her fiancé Martinez got killed and his bomb-sniffing dog Elvis got depressed, soldier Mercy Carr and Elvis were both sent home. Together the two former military police march off their grief mile after mile in the beautiful remote Vermont wilderness. Even on the Fourth of July weekend, it’s just another walk in the woods for Mercy and Elvis --- until the dog alerts to explosives and they find a squalling baby abandoned near a shallow grave filled with what appear to be human bones. U.S. Game Warden Troy Warner and his search and rescue Newfoundland Susie Bear respond to Mercy’s 911 call, and the four must work together to track down a missing mother, solve a cold-case murder, and keep the citizens of Northshire safe.
Minotaur Books | 9781250229489
 
DARK TRIBUTE: An Eve Duncan Novel by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
Despite her tragic childhood, violin prodigy Cara Delaney has finally found peace in her career as a professional musician and stability in her relationship with her guardians, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan and ex-Navy SEAL Joe Quinn. If only Jock Gavin, Cara's lifelong friend and a man with his own twisted history, would come back into her life, everything would be perfect. But the carefully constructed world Cara has built for herself is suddenly threatened when she is kidnapped by a mysterious man trying to settle a score against her family, setting off a violent chain of events that puts everyone Cara loves in danger.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250075956
 
DEAD MAN RUNNING: An Alex McKnight Novel by Steve Hamilton (Thriller)
On the Mediterranean Sea, a vacationer logs on to the security-camera feed from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Rewinding through the feed, he sees an intruder. When he shifts to the bedroom camera, he sees the dead body. Martin T. Livermore is the key suspect in the abduction and murder of at least five women, but he's never been this sloppy before. When the FBI finally catches him in Scottsdale, he declares he'll only talk to one person: Alex McKnight. Livermore means nothing to McKnight, but it soon becomes clear that McKnight means something to Livermore...and that Livermore's capture was only the beginning of an elaborate, twisted plot with McKnight at the center.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399574467
 
DEPTH OF WINTER: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (Mystery)
Winter is creeping closer, but for Sheriff Walt Longmire, this one is looking to be harsh in a way to which he is wholly unaccustomed. He has found himself in the remotest parts of the northern Mexican desert, a lawless place where no horse or car can travel, where no one speaks his language or trusts an outsider, far from his friends and his home turf back in Wyoming. But desperate times call for desperate measures. Tomas Bidarte, the head of one of the most vicious drug cartels in Mexico, has kidnapped Walt's beloved daughter, Cady. The American government is of limited help and the Mexican one even less so. Armed with his trusty Colt .45 and a father's intuition, Walt must head into the 110-degree heat of the desert, one man against an army.
Penguin Books | 9780525522492
 
THE FERAL DETECTIVE by Jonathan Lethem (Mystery)
Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a shabby trailer on the eastern edge of Los Angeles. She’s looking for her friend’s missing daughter, Arabella, and hires Heist to help. A laconic loner who keeps his pet opossum in a desk drawer, Heist intrigues the sarcastic and garrulous Phoebe. Reluctantly, he agrees to help. The unlikely pair navigate the enclaves of desert-dwelling vagabonds and find that Arabella is in serious trouble --- caught in the middle of a violent standoff that only Heist, mysteriously, can end. Phoebe’s trip to the desert was always going to be strange, but it was never supposed to be dangerous.
Ecco | 9780062859075
 
THE GOLDEN TRESSES OF THE DEAD: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley (Historical Mystery)
Although it is autumn in the small English town of Bishop’s Lacey, the chapel is decked with exotic flowers. Yes, Flavia de Luce’s sister, Ophelia, is at last getting hitched. An expert in the chemical nature of poisons, Flavia has solved many mysteries, sharpening her considerable detection skills to the point where she had little choice but to turn professional. So Flavia and dependable Dogger, estate gardener and sounding board extraordinaire, set up shop at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, eager to serve. Little does she know that their first case will be extremely close to home, beginning with an unwelcome discovery in Ophelia’s wedding cake: a human finger.
Bantam | 9780345540034
 
GUESS WHO by Chris McGeorge (Mystery)
At 11 years old, Morgan Sheppard solved the murder of a teacher at his school. The publicity surrounding the case launched him to fame as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. Until, that is, Sheppard wakes up handcuffed to a bed in an unfamiliar hotel room. Around him, five strangers are slowly waking up as well. Soon they discover a corpse in the bathtub. But which one of them is the murderer? Now Sheppard must put his deductive skills to the test --- or face certain death.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335080868
 
HERE AND NOW AND THEN by Mike Chen (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Kin Stewart is an everyday family man. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career…as a time-traveling secret agent from 2142. Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, despite the increasing blackouts and memory loss affecting his time-traveler’s brain. Until one afternoon, his “rescue” team arrives --- 18 years too late. Their mission: return Kin to 2142, where another family is waiting for him. A family he can’t remember. Torn between two lives, Kin is desperate for a way to stay connected to both. But when his best efforts threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself, his daughter’s very existence is at risk.
Mira | 9780778308980
 
IF YOU LEAVE ME by Crystal Hana Kim (Fiction)
When the communist-backed army from the north invades her home, 16-year-old Haemi Lee, along with her widowed mother and ailing brother, is forced to flee to a refugee camp along the coast. For a few hours each night, she escapes her family’s makeshift home and tragic circumstances with her childhood friend, Kyunghwan. Focused on finishing school, Kyunghwan doesn’t realize that his older and wealthier cousin, Jisoo, has his sights set on the beautiful and spirited Haemi --- and is determined to marry her before joining the fight. But as Haemi becomes a wife and then a mother, her decision to forsake the boy she always loved for the security of her family sets off a dramatic saga that will have profound effects for generations to come.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062645180
 
THE MOSCOW DECEPTION by Karen Robards (Thriller)
Still navigating the fallout from a shocking revelation that’s left a network of assassins’ crosshairs trained on her, Bianca St. Ives is ready to take fate into her own hands. But as Bianca races to outmaneuver her tireless pursuers, her father loops her in on a job that just might do the trick: recover King Priam’s Treasure, a collection of heavily guarded, priceless artifacts stolen by the Russians during World War II, and return it to Germany. Impossible? Maybe for some, but a high-risk heist is all in a day’s work for Bianca St. Ives, especially when there’s intel on the line --- intel that could finally bring down the shadowy forces seeking to bury Bianca for good.
Mira | 9780778369417
 
PANDEMIC by Robin Cook (Medical Thriller)
When a young, seemingly healthy woman collapses suddenly on a New York City subway car and dies upon reaching the hospital, her case is chalked up to a virulent strain of influenza. That is, until she ends up on veteran medical examiner Jack Stapleton's autopsy table, where Jack discovers some striking anomalies: First, that the young woman has had a heart transplant, and second, that her DNA matches that of the transplanted heart. After two other victims succumb to a similar rapid death, Jack fears the city is facing an unprecedented pandemic. But the facts aren't adding up, and now Jack must race against the clock to determine what kind of virus can wreak such terrifying havoc.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525535355
 
QUARTERBACK: Inside the Most Important Position in Professional Sports by John Feinstein (Sports)
In the National Football League, one player becomes the face of a franchise, one player receives all the accolades and all the blame, and one player's hand will guide the rise or fall of an entire team's season --- and the dreams of millions of fans. There are 32 starting quarterbacks in the NFL on any given Sunday, and their lives are built around pressure, stardom and incredible talent. Legendary bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein shows readers what it's really like to play the glory position and to live that life --- mapping out a journey that runs from college stardom to the NFL draft to taking command of the huddle and marching a team down the field with a nation of fans cheering.
Anchor | 9780525435532
 
RED WAR: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills (Political Thriller)
When Russian president Maxim Krupin discovers that he has inoperable brain cancer, he’s determined to cling to power. His first task is to kill or imprison any of his countrymen who can threaten him. Soon, though, his illness becomes serious enough to require a more dramatic diversion --- war with the West. Upon learning of Krupin’s condition, CIA director Irene Kennedy understands that the US is facing an opponent who has nothing to lose. The only way to avoid a confrontation that could leave millions dead is to send Mitch Rapp to Russia under impossibly dangerous orders. With the Kremlin’s entire security apparatus hunting him, he must find and kill a man many have deemed the most powerful in the world.
Pocket Books | 9781501190605
 
THE REMOVES by Tatjana Soli (Historical Fiction)
Spanning the years of the first great settlement of the West, THE REMOVES tells the intertwining stories of 15-year-old Anne Cummins, frontierswoman Libbie Custer, and Libbie’s husband, the Civil War hero George Armstrong Custer. When Anne survives a surprise attack on her family’s homestead, she is thrust into a difficult life she never anticipated --- living among the Cheyenne as both a captive and, eventually, a member of the tribe. Libbie, too, is thrown into a brutal, unexpected life when she marries Custer. But when what Anne and Libbie have come to know is suddenly altered through tragedy and loss, they realize how indelibly shaped they are by life on the treacherous, extraordinary American plains.
Picador | 9781250215031
 
ROBERT B. PARKER’S COLORBLIND: A Jesse Stone Novel by Reed Farrel Coleman (Mystery)
Jesse Stone is back on the job after a stint in rehab, and the road to recovery is immediately made bumpy by a series of disturbing and apparently racially motivated crimes, beginning with the murder of an African American woman. Then, Jesse's own deputy Alisha --- the first black woman hired by the Paradise police force --- becomes the target of a sophisticated frame-up. At the same time, a mysterious young man named Cole Slayton rolls into town with a chip on his shoulder and a problem with authority --- namely, Jesse. Yet something about the angry twenty-something appeals to Jesse, and he takes Cole under his wing. But there's more to him than meets the eye, and his secrets might change Jesse's life forever.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399574962
 
THE SECRET LIFE OF SAM HOLLOWAY by Rhys Thomas (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
Sam Holloway is a survivor, but he’s not really living. His meticulous routines and quiet lifestyle keep everything nice and safe --- with just one exception. Three nights a week, Sam dons his superhero costume and patrols the streets. It makes him feel invincible, but his unlikely heroics are getting him into some sticky situations. Then a girl comes along and starts to shatter the walls Sam has built around himself. Now he needs to decide if he’s brave enough to take off the mask and confront the grief he’s been avoiding for so long.
Park Row | 9780778308713
 
SHADOW TYRANTS: A Novel of the Oregon Files by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison (Thriller/Adventure)
Nearly 2,000 years ago, an Eastern emperor charged a small group with safeguarding secrets powerful enough to change the history of mankind. They went down in legend as the Nine Unknown Men --- and now two rival factions of their descendants are fighting a mighty battle. Both sides think they are saving the world, but their tactics could very well bring about the end of humankind. Soon, Juan Cabrillo and his team of expert operatives aboard the Oregon find themselves trapped between two power-hungry adversaries, both of whom are willing to use shocking means to accomplish their goals.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735219083

TRINITY by Louisa Hall (Historical Fiction)
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a brilliant scientist, a champion of liberal causes, and a complex and often contradictory character. He loyally protected his Communist friends, only to later betray them under questioning. He repeatedly lied about love affairs. And he defended the use of the atomic bomb he helped create, before ultimately lobbying against nuclear proliferation. Through narratives that cross time and space, a set of characters bears witness to the life of Oppenheimer. As these men and women fall into the orbit of a brilliant but mercurial mind at work, all consider his complicated legacy while also uncovering deep and often unsettling truths about their own lives.
Ecco | 9780062851970

On Sale the Week of September 2nd in Hardcover

September 1st

THE MAN WITH NO BORDERS by Richard C. Morais (Fiction)
Nearing the end of a long and tumultuous life, José María Álvarez --- an aristocratic Spanish banker living in a Swiss village with his American wife --- is overcome by hallucinatory memories of the past. Among his most cherished memories are those of his boyhood in 1950s Franco-era Spain and the bucolic afternoons he spent salmon fishing with his father, uncle and much-loved younger brother. But these fond reveries are soon eclipsed by something greater. José’s regrets and dark family secrets are flooding back, as is the devastating tragedy that drove José into exile and makes him bear the burden of a soul-deep guilt. Now, as his three estranged sons return to their father’s side, José hopes to outpace death long enough to finally put his house in order and exorcise its demons.
Little A | 9781542093828

September 3rd

AFTER THE FLOOD by Kassandra Montag (Dystopian Fiction/Adventure)
A little more than a century from now, our world has been utterly transformed. After years of slowly overtaking the continent, rising floodwaters have obliterated America’s great coastal cities and then its heartland, leaving nothing but an archipelago of mountaintop colonies surrounded by a deep expanse of open water. For seven years, Myra has grieved the loss of her oldest daughter, Row, who was stolen by her father after a monstrous deluge overtook their home in Nebraska. Then, in a violent confrontation with a stranger, Myra suddenly discovers that Row was last seen in a far-off encampment near the Arctic Circle. She and her younger daughter, Pearl, embark on a perilous voyage into the icy northern seas, hoping against hope that Row will still be there.
William Morrow | 9780062889362

ALL THAT'S DEAD: A Logan McRae Novel by Stuart MacBride (Thriller)
Inspector Logan McRae is looking forward to a nice simple case --- something to ease him back into work after a year off on the sick. But the powers-that-be have other ideas. The high-profile anti-independence campaigner, Professor Wilson, has gone missing, leaving nothing but bloodstains behind. There’s a war brewing between the factions for and against Scottish Nationalism. Infighting in the police ranks. And it’s all playing out in the merciless glare of the media. Logan’s superiors want results, and they want them now. Someone out there is trying to make a point, and they’re making it in blood. If Logan can’t stop them, it won’t just be his career that dies.
HarperCollins | 9780008328467

A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO JAPAN: Observations and Provocations by Pico Iyer (Travel/History)
After 32 years in Japan, Pico Iyer can use everything from anime to Oscar Wilde to show how his adopted home is both hauntingly familiar and the strangest place on earth. He draws on readings, reflections and conversations with Japanese friends to illuminate an unknown place for newcomers, and to give longtime residents a look at their home through fresh eyes. Iyer's adventures and observations as he travels from a meditation-hall to a love-hotel, from West Point to Kyoto Station, make for a constantly surprising series of provocations guaranteed to pique the interest and curiosity of those who don't know Japan, and to remind those who do of the wide range of fascinations the country and culture contain.
Knopf | 9780451493958

CANTORAS by Carolina De Robertis (Fiction)
In 1977 Uruguay, a military government has crushed political dissent with ruthless force. In an environment where citizens are kidnapped, raped and tortured, homosexuality is a dangerous transgression. And yet, Romina, Flaca, Anita "La Venus," Paz and Malena --- five cantoras, women who "sing" --- somehow, miraculously, find one another and then discover an isolated, nearly uninhabited cape, Cabo Polonio, which they claim as their secret sanctuary. Over the next 35 years, their lives move back and forth between Cabo Polonio and Montevideo, the city they call home. And throughout, again and again, the women will be tested --- by their families, lovers, society and one another --- as they fight to live authentic lives.
Knopf | 9780525521693

CHASING THE BEAR: How Bear Bryant and Nick Saban Made Alabama the Greatest College Football Program of All Time by Lars Anderson (Sports/Biography)
Both Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are undeniable kings of college football, two coaches at Alabama who have each won more national championships --- six apiece --- than anyone else in the history of the game. CHASING THE BEAR examines how they did it, revealing along the way their similarities in style, background, football philosophy and recruiting methods, while providing readers a rare inside look at two of the greatest leaders in the history of sports.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538716489

THE CHESTNUT MAN by Søren Sveistrup (Mystery/Thriller)
A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen. His calling card is a “chestnut man” --- a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts --- which he leaves at each bloody crime scene. Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery --- a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago. A tragic coincidence, or something more twisted? To save innocent lives, a pair of detectives must put aside their differences to piece together the Chestnut Man’s gruesome clues. Because it’s clear that the madman is on a mission that is far from over. And no one is safe.
Harper | 9780062895363

COLD STORAGE by David Koepp (Science Fiction/Thriller)
When Pentagon bioterror operative Roberto Diaz was sent to investigate a suspected biochemical attack, he found something far worse: a highly mutative organism capable of extinction-level destruction. He contained it and buried it in cold storage deep beneath a little-used military repository. Now, after decades of festering in a forgotten sub-basement, the specimen has found its way out and is on a lethal feeding frenzy. Only Diaz knows how to stop it. He races across the country to help two unwitting security guards --- one an ex-con, the other a single mother. Over one harrowing night, the unlikely trio must figure out how to quarantine this horror again. All they have is luck, fearlessness and a mordant sense of humor. Will that be enough to save all of humanity?
Ecco | 9780062916433

CONDÉ: The Man and His Empire: A Biography by Susan Ronald (Biography)
Condé Nast’s life and career was as high profile and glamorous as his magazines. Moving to New York in the early 20th century with just the shirt on his back, he soon became the highest paid executive in the United States, acquiring Vogue in 1909 and Vanity Fair in 1913. Alongside his editors, he built the first-ever international magazine empire, introducing European modern art, style and fashions to an American audience. Written with the cooperation of his family on both sides of the Atlantic and a dedicated team at Condé Nast Publications, critically acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald reveals the life of an extraordinary American success story.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250180025

THE DEVIL'S SLAVE by Tracy Borman (Historical Fiction)
Catholics have gone underground in the new Puritan regime of King James I, and yet whispers of conspiracies continue to echo behind closed doors and down the halls of the royal palaces. Against this perilous backdrop, accompanied by her son George and her husband Sir Thomas Tyringham --- whom she married conveniently to mask the true identity of her son’s father --- Frances Gorges reunites with her former mistress, the Princess Elizabeth, now of marriageable age, as well as other less friendly members of the court. With more lives than merely her own on the line, Frances soon finds herself caught in a spider’s web of secrets, promises and plots.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802129451

DOMINICANA by Angie Cruz (Historical Fiction)
Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year’s Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan’s free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay. As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan comes back to protect his family’s assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.
Flatiron Books | 9781250205933

ELEMENTS OF FICTION by Walter Mosley (Writing/Reference)
In his essential writing guide, THIS YEAR YOU WRITE YOUR NOVEL, Walter Mosley supplied aspiring writers with the basic tools to write a novel in one year. In this complementary follow-up, he guides the writer through the elements of not just any fiction writing, but the kind of writing that transcends convention and truly stands out. In a series of instructive and conversational chapters, Mosley demonstrates how to master fiction's most essential elements: character and character development, plot and story, voice and narrative, context and description, and more. The result is a vivid depiction of the writing process from the blank page to the first draft to rewriting and rewriting again.
Grove Press | 9780802147639

FENTANYL, INC.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic by Ben Westhoff (Social Science/Current Affairs)
A deeply human story, FENTANYL, INC. is the first deep-dive investigation of a hazardous and illicit industry that has created a worldwide epidemic, ravaging communities and overwhelming and confounding government agencies that are challenged to combat it. Drugs like fentanyl, K2 and Spice --- and those with arcane acronyms like 25i-NBOMe --- were all originally conceived in legitimate laboratories for proper scientific and medicinal purposes. Their formulas were then hijacked and manufactured by rogue chemists, largely in China, who change their molecular structures to stay ahead of the law, making the drugs’ effects impossible to predict. Westhoff has infiltrated this shadowy world.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802127433

FLY ALREADY: Stories by Etgar Keret (Fiction/Short Stories)
In "Arctic Lizard," a young boy narrates a post-apocalyptic version of the world where a youth army wages an unending war, rewarded by collecting prizes. A father tries to shield his son from the inevitable in "Fly Already." In "One Gram Short," a guy just wants to get a joint to impress a girl and ends up down a rabbit hole of chaos and heartache. And in the masterpiece "Pineapple Crush," two unlikely people connect through an evening smoke down by the beach, only to have one of them imagine a much deeper relationship. The thread that weaves these pieces together is our inability to communicate, to see so little of the world around us and to understand each other even less.
Riverhead Books | 9781594633270

THE GLASS WOMAN by Caroline Lea (Historical Thriller)
Rósa has always dreamed of living a simple life alongside her Mamma in their remote village in Iceland. But after her father dies abruptly and her Mamma becomes ill, Rósa marries herself off to a visiting trader in exchange for a dowry. Rósa follows her new husband, Jón, across the treacherous countryside to his remote home near the sea. He forbids her to interact with the locals in the nearby settlement and tells her to stay away from his attic. When Rósa begins to hear strange noises from upstairs, she turns to the local woman in an attempt to find solace. But the villager’s words are even more troubling --- confirming many of the rumors about Jón’s first wife, Anna, including that he buried her body alone in the middle of the night.
Harper | 9780062935106

THE GOOD COP by Peter Steiner (Historical Mystery)
Munich, 1920. Detective Willi Geismeier has a problem: How do you uphold the law when the law goes bad? The First World War has been lost, and Germany is in turmoil. The new government in Berlin is weak. The police and courts are corrupt. Fascists and Communists are fighting in the streets. People want a savior, someone who can make Germany great again. To many, Adolf Hitler seems perfect for the job. When the offices of a Munich newspaper are bombed, Willi Geismeier investigates, but as it gets political, he is taken off the case. Willi continues to ask questions, but when his pursuit of the truth itself becomes a crime, his career --- and his life --- are in grave danger.
Severn House Publishers | 9780727889430

THE GRAMMARIANS by Cathleen Schine (Fiction)
Laurel and Daphne Wolfe are identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. As adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but this love, which has always bound them together, begins instead to push them apart. Daphne, copy editor and grammar columnist, devotes herself to preserving the dignity and elegance of Standard English. Laurel, who gives up teaching kindergarten to write poetry, is drawn to the polymorphous, chameleon nature of the written and spoken word. Their fraying twinship finally shreds completely when the sisters go to war over custody of their most prized family heirloom: Merriam Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition.
Sarah Crichton Books | 9780374280116

THE LONG CALL by Ann Cleeves (Mystery)
In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his estranged father’s funeral takes place. On the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too. Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. The case calls Matthew back to the people and places of his past, as deadly secrets hidden at their hearts are revealed, and his new life is forced into a collision course with the world he thought he’d left behind.
Minotaur Books | 9781250204448

MISSING PERSON by Sarah Lotz (Mystery/Thriller)
Reclusive bookseller Shaun Ryan has always believed that his uncle Teddy died in a car accident 20 years ago. Then he learns the truth: Teddy fled his home in Catholic, deeply conservative County Wicklow, Ireland, for New York and hasn't been heard from since. Shaun’s search for his uncle is unsuccessful until he's contacted by Chris Guzman, a woman who runs a website dedicated to matching missing-persons cases with unidentified bodies. Chris and her team of cold-case obsessives suspect that Shaun is looking for the "Boy in the Dress," one victim in a series of gay men murdered by the same killer. But who are these internet fanatics really, and how do they know so much about a case that has stumped police for decades?
Mulholland Books | 9780316396646

NOTHING VENTURED by Jeffrey Archer (Fiction)
William Warwick has always wanted to be a detective and decides to join London’s Metropolitan Police Force. Investigating the theft of a priceless Rembrandt painting from the Fitzmolean Museum, William meets Beth Rainsford, a research assistant at the gallery who he falls hopelessly in love with, even as Beth guards a secret of her own that she’s terrified will come to light. While following the trail of the missing masterpiece, he comes up against suave art collector Miles Faulkner and his brilliant lawyer, Booth Watson QC, who are willing to bend the law to the breaking point to stay one step ahead of William. Meanwhile, Miles Faulkner’s wife, Christina, befriends William. But whose side is she really on?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250200761

NOW YOU SEE ME by Chris McGeorge (Mystery)
Six students went into the Standedge Tunnel, the longest canal tunnel in England, on a private boat. Two and a half hours later, the boat reappeared carrying only one of the students, Matthew. He had been knocked unconscious and has no memory of what took place. The police suspect he killed his friends, hid the bodies and later moved them to an undisclosed location. When a jailed Matthew contacts a famous author asking him for help in return for information he claims to possess about the author’s long-lost wife, it’s an offer that can’t be refused. But before the author can prove Matthew’s innocence, he must first answer a far more unusual question: How did five bodies disappear into thin air?
Hanover Square Press | 9781335080875

OVERTIME: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College Football by John U. Bacon (Sports)
For the past year, John U. Bacon has received unprecedented access to Jim Harbaugh’s University of Michigan football team: coaches, players and staffers, in closed-door meetings, locker rooms, meals and classes. OVERTIME captures this storied program at the crossroads, as the sport’s winningest team battles to reclaim its former glory. But what if the price of success today comes at the cost of your soul? Do you pay it, or compete without compromising?
William Morrow | 9780062886941

PRETTY GUILTY WOMEN by Gina LaManna (Mystery/Thriller)
Something has gone terribly wrong at the Banks wedding. A man is dead. Four different women rush to offer confessions, each insisting that they committed the crime --- alone. Ginger is holding her family together by a thread, and this wedding weekend is not the fabulous getaway she anticipated.  Kate has enough money to buy her way out of anything. Well, almost anything. Emily can’t shake her reputation or her memories, and she’s planning to drown this whole vacation in a bottle. Lulu has ex-husbands to spare, and another on the way --- as soon as she figures out what the devil the current husband is up to behind her back. Why would they confess to the same murder? Only they know --- and they’re not telling.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492694069

PRINCE ALBERT: The Man Who Saved the Monarchy by A. N. Wilson (Biography)
For more than six decades, Queen Victoria ruled a great Empire at the height of its power. Beside her for more than 20 of those years was the love of her life, her trusted husband and father of their nine children, Prince Albert. But while Victoria is seen as the embodiment of her time, its values and its paradoxes, it was Prince Albert, A. N. Wilson expertly argues, who was at the vanguard of Victorian Britain’s transformation as a vibrant and extraordinary center of political, technological, scientific and intellectual advancement. Far more than just the product of his age, Albert was one of its influencers and architects. It is impossible to understand 19th-century England without knowing the story of this gifted visionary leader, Wilson contends.
Harper | 9780062749550

QUICHOTTE by Salman Rushdie (Fiction)
Inspired by the Cervantes classic, Sam DuChamp, mediocre writer of spy thrillers, creates Quichotte, a courtly, addled salesman obsessed with television who falls in impossible love with a TV star. Together with his (imaginary) son Sancho, Quichotte sets off on a picaresque quest across America to prove worthy of her hand, gallantly braving the tragicomic perils of an age where “Anything-Can-Happen.” Meanwhile, his creator, in a midlife crisis, has equally urgent challenges of his own. Just as Cervantes wrote DON QUIXOTE to satirize the culture of his time, Salman Rushdie takes the reader on a wild ride through a country on the verge of moral and spiritual collapse.
Random House | 9780593132982

THE SECRETS WE KEPT by Lara Prescott (Historical Thriller)
At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle DOCTOR ZHIVAGO out of the USSR, where no one dare publish it, and help Pasternak's magnum opus make its way into print around the world. Glamorous and sophisticated Sally Forrester is a seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit all over the world --- using her magnetism and charm to pry secrets out of powerful men. Irina is a complete novice, and under Sally's tutelage quickly learns how to blend in, make drops and invisibly ferry classified documents.
Knopf | 9780525656159

THE SWEETEST FRUITS by Monique Truong (Historical Fiction)
A Greek woman tells of how she willed herself out of her father's cloistered house, married an Irish officer in the British Army, and came to Ireland with her two-year-old son in 1852, only to be forced to leave without him soon after. An African American woman, born into slavery on a Kentucky plantation, makes her way to Cincinnati after the Civil War to work as a boarding house cook, where in 1872 she meets and marries an up-and-coming newspaper reporter. In Matsue, Japan, in 1891, a former samurai's daughter is introduced to a newly arrived English teacher, and becomes the mother of his four children and his unsung literary collaborator. In THE SWEETEST FRUITS, these three women tell the story of their time with Lafcadio Hearn, a globetrotting writer best known for his books about Meiji-era Japan.
Viking | 9780735221017

THIS TENDER LAND by William Kent Krueger (Historical Fiction)
1932, Minnesota. The Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own. Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds.
Atria Books | 9781476749297

THREE HOURS by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström (Thriller)
Stockholm, Sweden: Seventy-three refugees have been found dead, suffocated in a container at Varta harbor. Niamey, Niger: Ewert Grens arrives in a city he's never heard of, in search of a man he never thought he would see again. Piet Hoffmann has again got himself in too deep, infiltrating a West African trafficking ring. He thinks he has two weeks to extricate himself, but will learn that his life --- and that of countless defenseless people --- now hangs on his actions during three desperate hours.
Quercus | 9781681443386

TO THE LIONS by Holly Watt (Thriller)
Tipped off by an overheard conversation at an exclusive London nightclub, Casey Benedict --- star reporter at the Post --- begins to investigate the apparent suicide of a wealthy young British man whose death has left his fiancée and family devastated. The young man's death, however, is only the tipping point of a much more sinister and dangerous scandal involving the world's most powerful leaders and magnates --- men who are gathering in northern Africa for an extreme and secret hunt. With fellow reporter Miranda and combat veteran Ed by her side, Casey's determined hunt for the truth will take her from the glitz of St. Tropez to the deserts of Libya and on to the very darkest corners of the human mind.
Dutton | 9781524745455

TREACHEROUS STRAND: An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter (Mystery)
A woman’s body washes up on a remote beach on the Inishowen Peninsula. She is identified as Marguerite Etienne, a French woman who has been living in the area. When local sergeant Tom Molloy dismisses Marguerite’s death as the suicide of a disturbed and lonely woman, solicitor Ben (Benedicta) O’Keeffe cannot let it lie. Disturbed by what appears to be chilling local indifference to Marguerite’s death, Ben pieces together the last few weeks of the French woman’s life in Inishowen. What she discovers causes her to question the fragile nature of her own position in the area, and she finds herself crossing boundaries --- both personal and professional --- to unearth local secrets long buried.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608093045

VENDETTA IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Mystery/Thriller)
She calls herself Lady Justice. Once she has chosen a man as her target, she makes herself as alluring and seductive as possible to them. And once they are in her grasp, they are powerless. The first victim is wealthy businessman Nigel McEnroy. His company’s human resources department has already paid out settlements to a couple of his young victims --- but they don’t know that his crimes go far beyond workplace harassment. Lady Justice knows. And in one shocking night of brutality, she makes him pay a much steeper price. Now Eve Dallas and her husband, Roarke, are combing through the evidence of McEnroy’s secret life. His compulsive need to record his misdeeds provides them with a wide range of suspects, but the true identity of Lady Justice remains elusive.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250207173

WE, THE SURVIVORS by Tash Aw (Fiction)
Born and raised in a Malaysian fishing village, Ah Hock favors stability above all, a preference at odds with his rapidly modernizing surroundings. So what brings him to kill a man? This question leads a young, privileged journalist to Ah Hock’s door. While the victim has been mourned and the killer has served time for the crime, Ah Hock's motive remains unclear, even to himself. His vivid confession unfurls over extensive interviews with the journalist, herself a local whose life has taken a very different course. The process forces both the speaker and his listener to reckon with systems of power, race and class in a place where success is promised to all yet delivered only to its lucky heirs.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374287245

On Sale the Week of September 2nd in Paperback

September 3rd

ANNELIES: A Novel of Anne Frank by David R. Gillham (Historical Fiction)
The year is 1945, and Anne Frank is 16 years old. Having survived the concentration camps, but lost her mother and sister, she reunites with her father, Pim, in newly liberated Amsterdam. But it’s not as easy to fit the pieces of their life back together. Anne is adrift, haunted by the ghosts of the horrors they experienced, while Pim is fixated on returning to normalcy. Her beloved diary has been lost, and her dreams of becoming a writer seem distant and pointless now. As Anne struggles to overcome the brutality of memory and build a new life for herself, she grapples with heartbreak, grief and ultimately the freedom of forgiveness.
Penguin Books | 9780735215313

THE BLUE KINGFISHER: A Kat Stone Novel by Erica Wright (Mystery)
On a desolate morning in Fort Washington Park, private investigator Kat Stone discovers the body of her building’s French expat maintenance man atop the Jeffrey’s Hook Lighthouse. The NYPD is quick to dismiss his death as suicide, another lost soul leaping from the bridge overhead. Kat is less than convinced, especially when she learns about his dangerous side hustle --- finding jobs for immigrant members of their community. Her investigation turns up unexpected connections to Manhattan’s tony art world, not to mention a host of dark superstitions. Will she find his killer before her past drags her under?
Polis Books | 9781947993792

CRUDO by Olivia Laing (Fiction)
Kathy is a writer. Kathy is getting married. It’s the summer of 2017, and the whole world is falling apart. CRUDO unfolds in real time from the full-throttle perspective of a commitment-phobic artist who may or may not be Kathy Acker. From a Tuscan hotel for the superrich to a Brexit-paralyzed United Kingdom, Kathy spends the first summer of her 40s adjusting to the idea of a lifelong commitment. But it’s not only Kathy who’s changing. Fascism is on the rise, truth is dead, the planet is heating up, and Trump is tweeting the world ever-closer to nuclear war. How do you make art, let alone a life, when one rogue tweet could end it all?
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393357417

DEAR AMERICA: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas (Memoir)
“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book --- at its core --- is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home. After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.”
Dey Street Books | 9780062851345

THE ESCAPE ARTISTS: A Band of Daredevil Pilots and the Greatest Prison Break of the Great War by Neal Bascomb (History)
In the winter trenches and flak-filled skies of World War I, soldiers and pilots alike might avoid death, only to find themselves imprisoned in Germany’s archipelago of POW camps, often in abominable conditions. The most infamous was Holzminden, a land-locked Alcatraz of sorts that housed the most troublesome, escape-prone prisoners. Its commandant was a boorish, hate-filled tyrant named Karl Niemeyer, who swore that none should ever leave. Desperate to break out of “Hellminden” and return to the fight, a group of Allied prisoners led by ace pilot (and former Army sapper) David Gray hatch an elaborate escape plan. Their plot demands a risky feat of engineering as well as a bevy of disguises, forged documents, fake walls and steely resolve.
Mariner Books | 9780358118220

THE FALL OF GONDOLIN written by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien and illustrated by Alan Lee (Fantasy)
In the Tale of THE FALL OF GONDOLIN are two of the greatest powers in the world. There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angband. Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwë, chief of the Valar: he is called the Lord of Waters, of all seas, lakes and rivers under the sky. But he works in secret in Middle-earth to support the Noldor, the kindred of the Elves among whom were numbered Húrin and Túrin Turambar. Central to this enmity of the gods is the city of Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable.
Mariner Books | 9780358131458

A GIRL NAMED ANNA by Lizzy Barber (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Anna has always been taught that her mamma’s rules are the only path to follow. But on her 18th birthday, she defies her mamma for the first time in her life and goes to Astroland. She’s never been allowed to visit Florida’s biggest theme park, so why does everything about it seem so familiar? And is there a connection to the mysterious letter she receives that same day --- a letter addressing her by a different name? Rosie has grown up in the shadow of the missing sister she barely remembers, her family fractured by years of searching without leads. Now, on the 15th anniversary of her sister’s disappearance, the media circus resumes as the funds dedicated to the search dry up, and Rosie vows to uncover the truth herself.
Mira | 9780778308997

THE GOLDEN STATE by Lydia Kiesling (Fiction)
Daphne flees her sensible but strained life in San Francisco for the high desert of Altavista with her toddler. Bucking under the weight of being a single parent, she takes refuge in a mobile home left to her by her grandparents. Over the next 10 days, Daphne wanders the town looking for anyone and anything to punctuate the long hours alone with the baby. Among others, she meets Cindy, a neighbor who is active in a secessionist movement, and befriends the elderly Alice, who has traveled to Altavista as she approaches the end of her life. When her relationships with these women culminate in a dangerous standoff, Daphne must reconcile her inner narrative with the reality of a deeply divided world.
Picador | 9781250238115

THE GREATEST LOVE STORY EVER TOLD: An Oral History by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman (Memoir)
The year: 2000. The setting: Los Angeles. A gorgeous virtuoso of an actress agreed to star in a random play, and a basement-dwelling scenic carpenter said he would assay a supporting role in the selfsame pageant. At the first rehearsal, she surveyed her fellow cast members, determining if any of the men might qualify to provide her with a satisfying fling. Her gaze fell upon the carpenter, and like a bolt of lightning the thought struck her: no dice. Moving on. Yet, unbeknownst to our protagonists, Cupid had merely set down his bow and picked up a rocket launcher…that fired a love rocket (not a euphemism). The players were Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman, and the resulting romance, once ignited, was…epic. Beyond epic. It resulted in a coupling that has endured to this day.
Dutton | 9781101986691

HEARTLAND: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh (Memoir)
During Sarah Smarsh’s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, she enjoyed the freedom of a country childhood, but observed the painful challenges of the poverty around her --- untreated medical conditions for lack of insurance or consistent care, unsafe job conditions, abusive relationships, and limited resources and information that would provide for the upward mobility that is the American Dream. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves with clarity and precision but without judgment, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country.
Scribner | 9781501133107

HOME AFTER DARK by David Small (Graphic Novel)
Thirteen-year-old Russell Pruitt, abandoned by his mother, follows his father to sun-splashed California in search of a dream. Suddenly forced to fend for himself, Russell struggles to survive in Marshfield, a dilapidated town haunted by a sadistic animal killer and a ring of malicious boys who bully Russell for being “queer.” Rescued from his booze-swilling father by Wen and Jian Mah, a Chinese immigrant couple who long for a child, Russell betrays their generosity by running away with their restaurant’s proceeds.
Liveright | 9781631496271

THE INFINITE BLACKTOP by Sara Gran (Noir Mystery)
As a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, Claire DeWitt (now a private investigator) and her two best friends, Tracy and Kelly, solved many cases together --- until the day Tracy vanished without a trace. Later, in her 20s, Claire is trying to get her PI license by taking on a cold case that has stumped the LAPD. Today, Claire is on her way to Las Vegas from San Francisco when she’s almost killed by a homicidal driver. In a haze of drugs and injuries, she struggles off the scene, determined to find her would-be killer’s identity --- but the list of people who would be happy to see her dead is not a short one. As these three narratives converge, some mysteries are solved and others continue to haunt.
Washington Square Press | 9781501165726

INVISIBLE by Andrew Grant (Mystery/Thriller)
As a young man, Paul McGrath rebelled against his pacifist father by becoming a standout Army recruit and the star of his military intelligence unit. But lingering regrets about their relationship make him return home, only to find his father dead, seemingly murdered. When the case ends in a mistrial, something doesn’t smell right to McGrath. So he puts his arsenal of skills to work to find out just how corrupt the legal system is. And to keep digging, he gets a job at the courthouse as a janitor. While McGrath knows that nothing he discovers can undo his past wrongs or save his father, he finds his new calling brings him something else: the chance to right current wrongs and save others --- that is, if the powerful and corrupt don’t kill him first.
Ballantine Books | 9780525619611

LOOK ALIVE TWENTY-FIVE: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
There's nothing like a good deli, and the Red River Deli in Trenton is one of the best. It’s world-famous for its pastrami, cole slaw and disappearing managers. Over the last month, three have vanished from the face of the earth, and the only clue in each case is one shoe that's been left behind. The police are baffled. Lula is convinced that it's a case of alien abduction. Whatever it is, they'd better figure out what's going on before they lose their new manager, Ms. Stephanie Plum.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399179242

THE MAN I NEVER MET: A Memoir by Adam Schefter with Michael Rosenberg (Memoir)
On September 11, 2001, Joe Maio went to work in the north tower of the World Trade Center. He never returned, leaving behind a wife, Sharri, and 15-month-old son, Devon. Five years later, Sharri remarried, and Devon welcomed a new dad into his life. For thousands, the whole country really, 9/11 is a day of grief. For Adam and Sharri Maio Schefter and their family, it’s not just a day of grief, but also hope. This is a story of 9/11, but it’s also the story of 9/12 and all the days after. Life moved on. Pieces were picked up. New dreams were dreamed. The Schefters are the embodiment of that.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250236760

MOLTEN MUD MURDER: An Alexa Glock Mystery by Sara E. Johnson (Mystery)
Paperback Original
When a body is found half-submerged in a molten mud pot in one of Rotorua's famous geothermal wonderlands, forensics expert Alexa Glock spots a way to prolong her stay in New Zealand, which she has been visiting for work. Teeth are her expertise, and the investigation needs her help, as other ways of identifying the body may have melted away. Joining Detective Inspector Bruce Horne and his team, Alexa discovers that the murder victim, a city councilman, had trespassed on an island sacred to the Maori. The ancient punishment for such a transgression is disaster, demonic possession or death. Alexa doesn't believe in ancient spirits returning to exact revenge, and when another victim turns up dead, she begins to wonder if the real threat is something --- or someone --- much closer to home.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464211232

MY LOVE STORY by Tina Turner (Memoir)
From her early years in Nutbush, Tennessee, to her rise to fame alongside Ike Turner to her phenomenal success in the 1980s and beyond, Tina Turner candidly examines her personal history, from her darkest hours to her happiest moments and everything in between. MY LOVE STORY is an explosive and inspiring story of a woman who dared to break any barriers put in her way. Emphatically showcasing Tina’s signature blend of strength, energy, heart and soul, this is a gorgeously wrought memoir as enthralling and moving as any of her greatest hits.
Atria Books | 9781501198250

NOT OUR KIND by Kitty Zeldis (Historical Fiction)
Two years after the end of World War II, a minor traffic accident brings together Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy. Eleanor, a teacher and recent Vassar graduate, needs a job. Patricia’s difficult 13-year-old daughter Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a private tutor. Though she feels out of place in the Bellamys’ rarefied and elegant Park Avenue milieu, Eleanor forms an instant bond with Margaux. Invited to keep Margaux company at the Bellamys’ country home, Eleanor meets Patricia’s unreliable, bohemian brother, Tom. The spark between them is instant and intense. As the summer wears on, the two women’s friendship grows. Until a line is crossed, and both Eleanor and Patricia will have to make important decisions --- choices that will reverberate through their lives.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062844248

ON SUNSET: A Memoir by Kathryn Harrison (Memoir)
Born in Los Angeles at the dawn of the 1960s to parents who quickly departed, Kathryn Harrison was received by her maternal grandparents as a late-life child. Harry Jacobs and Margaret Sassoon had emigrated to L.A. after leading whirlwind lives in Shanghai, London, Alaska, Russia and beyond. Harrison grew up in their fading Tudor mansion on Sunset Boulevard, a kingdom inhabited by gleaming memories from their extraordinary past. Their photos, letters and souvenirs sparked endless family stories that spanned cultures, dynasties and continents --- until declining finances forced them to sell the house in 1971, and night fell fast. ON SUNSET seeks to recover a foundational time in Harrison’s life.
Anchor | 9780525434085

PAPER CHAINS by Nicola Moriarty (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Hannah has been running --- literally and figuratively --- from her life back in Australia. Whenever she’s not working, she’s pounding London’s streets, putting the past behind her. Then she meets a fellow Australian named India, and Hannah is entranced. India is confident, exotic and charming --- qualities that Hannah feels she’s desperately lacking. India has a secret, too. It is currently sealed in a love letter and is making its journey across Europe in the most unconventional way --- through the hands of strangers as they pass on the street. Before the letter with India’s deepest, darkest secret reaches its destination, can the women find the connection that will take each of them exactly where they need to go?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062413543

THE RED ADDRESS BOOK by Sofia Lundberg (Fiction)
Meet Doris, a 96-year-old woman living alone in her Stockholm apartment. She has few visitors, but her weekly Skype calls with Jenny --- her American grandniece, and her only relative --- give her great joy. When Doris was a girl, she was given an address book by her father, and ever since she has carefully documented everyone she met and loved throughout the years. Looking through the little book now, Doris sees the many crossed-out names of people long gone and is struck by the urge to put pen to paper. In writing down the stories of her colorful past, can she help Jenny unlock the secrets of their family and finally look to the future? And whatever became of Allan, the love of Doris’ life?
Mariner Books | 9780358108542

RUSH: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father by Stephen Fried (Biography)
By the time he was 30, Dr. Benjamin Rush had signed the Declaration of Independence, edited Common Sense, toured Europe as Benjamin Franklin’s protégé and become John Adams’ confidant, and was soon to be appointed Washington’s surgeon general. And as with the greatest Revolutionary minds, Rush was only just beginning his role in 1776 in the American experiment. As the new republic coalesced, he became a visionary writer and reformer; a medical pioneer whose insights and reforms revolutionized the treatment of mental illness; an opponent of slavery and prejudice by race, religion or gender; an adviser to, and often the physician of, America’s first leaders; and “the American Hippocrates.”
Broadway Books | 9780804140089

SHE WOULD BE KING by Wayétu Moore (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
Wayétu Moore’s debut novel reimagines the dramatic story of Liberia’s early years through three characters who share an uncommon bond. Gbessa, exiled from the West African village of Lai, is starved, bitten by a viper and left for dead, but still she survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, can fade from sight when the earth calls him. When the three meet in the settlement of Monrovia, their gifts help them salvage the tense relationship between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes, as a new nation forms around them.
Graywolf Press | 9781644450017

THE STYLIST TAKES MANHATTAN by Rosie Nixon (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
London stylist Amber Green has rebounded nicely since escaping the clutches of a Hollywood boss from hell. She has a dream job designing windows for Selfridge’s and her dream man in sweetly sexy boyfriend, Rob. But when Rob is hired to produce a reality series about the iconic Angel Wear lingerie fashion show, he breaks the news that he’s moving to New York…and invites Amber along on the adventure. Ensconced in a Williamsburg sardine tin and in touch with a hotshot agent who advises she boost her social media presence, Amber hits Instagram hard, posting unintentional gossip fuel that culminates in pics of a mysterious new acquaintance who turns out to be a scandal unto himself.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062863904

WAITING FOR EDEN by Elliot Ackerman (Fiction)
Eden Malcom lies in a bed, unable to move or speak, imprisoned in his own mind. His wife, Mary, spends every day on the sofa in his hospital room. He has never even met their young daughter. And he will never again see the friend and fellow soldier who didn't make it back home --- and who narrates the novel. But on Christmas, the one day Mary is not at his bedside, Eden's re-ordered consciousness comes flickering alive. As he begins to find a way to communicate, some troubling truths about his marriage --- and about his life before he went to war --- come to the surface. Is Eden the same man he once was: a husband, a friend, a father-to-be? What makes a life worth living?
Vintage | 9781101971567

WHAT UNITES US: Reflections on Patriotism by Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner (Political Science/Essays)
With this collection of original essays, venerated journalist Dan Rather reminds us of the principles upon which the United States was founded. Looking at the freedoms that define us --- from the vote to the press; the values that have transformed us, from empathy to inclusion to service; the institutions that sustain us, such as public education; and the traits that helped form our young country, such as the audacity to take on daunting challenges in science and medicine --- Rather brings to bear his decades of experience on the frontlines of the world’s biggest stories. As a living witness to historical change, he offers up an intimate view of history, tracing where we have been in order to help us chart a way forward and heal our bitter divisions.
Algonquin Books | 9781616209940

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

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