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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of November 11th and November 18th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to a very special contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com for Therese Anne Fowler's upcoming novel, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD, which releases on February 4th and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. We’re giving 50(!) book groups the chance to win up to 12 advance digital copies of the audiobook, which is read by Adenrele Ojo. Enter here by Monday, December 2nd at noon ET.
Now that Thanksgiving is fast approaching, many of you may be thinking about what to give your family and friends for the holidays. Simon & Schuster is here to help! Their “Books I Love to Give” gift guide has plenty of options for your bookish loved ones, with categories such as “Best in Fiction,” “Home, Heart, and Health,” “For the History Buff,” “Thrillers, Mysteries and Suspense” and many more. Click here to take a look at their varied selections.
Also, please click on the covers above for our reviews of three books that we featured in last Friday's Weekly Update newsletter: THE STARLESS SEA, Erin Morgenstern's long-awaited second novel (following her nationally bestselling debut, THE NIGHT CIRCUS), a timeless love story set in a secret underground world --- a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars and ships that sail upon a starless sea; THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS, this month's Barnes & Noble Book Club pick and another page-turning novel of psychological suspense from Lisa Jewell, which tells the story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets; and Mary Higgins Clark’s new thriller, KISS THE GIRLS AND MAKE THEM CRY, which revolves around allegations of sexual misconduct at a high-profile television news network --- and the ensuing deaths of two of the accusers.
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
Simon & Schuster’s “Books I Like to Give” Gift Guide
The holiday season is upon us, and that means it’s time to find a present for everyone on your list.
Whether you’re searching for a story that your friends can read at book club, a book for your brother who can’t stop bingeing the history channel, or your sister who loves a dark mystery, we’ve got you covered!
Visit Simon & Schuster’s #BooksILikeToGive gift guide
to find presents for all of your loved ones.
Special Preview of Friday's Bookreporter Update
Carol Fitzgerald shares a video preview of what you will see in the November 15th Weekly Update newsletter here. We hope you enjoy it!
Click here to see all of our videos on
The Book Report Network YouTube channel,
including our "Bookreporter Talks To" author interviews.
Our most recent interview with Heather Morris
is available on video and podcast.
Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Click here to listen to our podcasts.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our ReadingGroupGuides.com Contest for the
Audiobook Edition of A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD
by Therese Anne Fowler
ReadingGroupGuides.com is proud to host a very special audiobook contest for A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler, an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that examines the American dream through the lens of two families living side by side in an idyllic neighborhood, and the one summer that changes their lives irrevocably. Fifty book groups will win up to 12 advance digital copies of the audiobook, which is read by Adenrele Ojo and releases on February 4th. To enter, please fill out this form by Monday, December 2nd at noon ET.
We strongly encourage all winners to share their listening experiences on social media, including reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and Bookreporter.com’s “Sounding Off on Audio” feature.
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD Audiobook written by Therese Anne Fowler, read by Adenrele Ojo (Fiction)
In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son. Xavier is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door --- an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter.
Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he's made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. Their new house is more than she ever imagined for herself, and who wouldn't want to live in Oak Knoll?
But with little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.
Told in multiple points of view, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD asks big questions about life in America today --- What does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye? --- as it explores the effects of class, race and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to listen to an excerpt.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of November 11th in Hardcover
November 11th
THE WRONG GIRL: The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse by Donis Casey (Historical Mystery)
Blanche Tucker longs to escape her drop-dead dull life in tiny Boynton, Oklahoma. Then dashing Graham Peyton roars into town. Posing as a film producer, he convinces the ambitious but naive teenager to run away with him to a glamorous new life. Instead, Graham uses her as cruelly as a silent picture villain. Yet by luck and by pluck, taking charge of her life, she makes it to Hollywood. Six years later, Blanche has transformed into the celebrated Bianca LaBelle, the reclusive star of a series of adventure films, and Graham's remains are discovered on a Santa Monica beach. Is there a connection?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781492699187
November 12th
THE ANDROMEDA EVOLUTION by Michael Crichton and Daniel H. Wilson (Science Fiction/Technothriller)
Deep inside Fairchild Air Force Base, Project Eternal Vigilance has continued to watch and wait for the Andromeda Strain to reappear. On the verge of being shut down, the project has registered no activity --- until now. A Brazilian terrain-mapping drone has detected a bizarre anomaly of otherworldly matter in the middle of the jungle and, worse yet, the tell-tale chemical signature of the deadly microparticle. With this shocking discovery, the next-generation Project Wildfire is activated, and a diverse team of experts hailing from all over the world is dispatched to investigate the potentially apocalyptic threat. If they can’t reach the quarantine zone, enter the anomaly and figure out how to stop it, this new Andromeda Evolution will annihilate all life as we know it.
Harper | 9780062473271
ANYTHING FOR YOU by Saul Black (Thriller)
On a hot summer night, a watchful neighbor locks eyes with an intruder and unwittingly alerts the police to a vicious crime scene next door: a lavish master bedroom where a man lies dead. Next to him, his wife is bleeding out onto the hardwood floor, clinging to life. The victim, Adam Grant, was a well-known San Francisco prosecutor --- a man whose connection to homicide detective Valerie Hart brings her face-to-face with a life she’s long since left behind. Adam’s career made him an easy target, and forensic evidence points towards an ex-con he put behind bars years ago. But while Adam’s wife and daughter grapple with their tragic loss, Valerie uncovers devastating clues that point in a more ominous direction.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250199911
BOWIE'S BOOKSHELF: The Hundred Books that Changed David Bowie's Life by John O'Connell (Essays)
Three years before David Bowie died, he shared a list of 100 books that changed his life. His choices span fiction and nonfiction, literary and irreverent, and include timeless classics alongside eyebrow-raising obscurities. In 100 short essays, music journalist John O’Connell studies each book on Bowie’s list and contextualizes it in the artist’s life and work. How did the power imbued in a single suit of armor in THE ILIAD impact a man who loved costumes, shifting identity and the siren song of the alter-ego? How did the poems of T.S. Eliot and Frank O’Hara, the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and Anthony Burgess, and the groundbreaking politics of James Baldwin influence Bowie’s lyrics, sound and artistic outlook? How did the 100 books on this list influence one of the most influential artists of a generation?
Gallery Books | 9781982112547
CARRIE FISHER: A Life on the Edge by Sheila Weller (Biography)
Sheila Weller traces Carrie Fisher’s life from her Hollywood royalty roots to her untimely and shattering death after Christmas 2016. Her mother was the spunky and adorable Debbie Reynolds; her father, the heartthrob crooner Eddie Fisher. When Eddie ran off with Elizabeth Taylor, the scandal thrust little Carrie Frances into a bizarre spotlight, gifting her with an irony and an aplomb that would resonate throughout her life. Weller sympathetically reveals the conditions that Fisher lived with: serious bipolar disorder and an inherited drug addiction. Still, despite crises and overdoses, her life’s work --- as an actor, a novelist and memoirist, a script doctor, a hostess and a friend --- was prodigious and unique.
Sarah Crichton Books | 9780374282233
THE DOG I LOVED by Susan Wilson (Fiction)
After spending years in prison for a crime she didn’t intend to commit, Rose Collins is suddenly free. Someone who knows about the good work she has done --- training therapy dogs while serving time --- has arranged for her early release. This mysterious benefactor has even set her up with a job in the coastal Massachusetts community of Gloucester. There she works to rebuild her life with the help of Shadow, a stray dog who appears one rainy night. Meghan Custer is a wheelchair-bound war veteran who used to be hopeless, too. But ever since she was matched with a service dog named Shark, who was trained in a puppy-to-prisoner rehabilitation program, Meghan has a brand-new outlook. Finally, she can live on her own, go to work and maybe even find love again.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250078148
ECHOES OF THE FALL by Hank Early (Mystery)
After losing a hotly contested sheriff's race to the lackey of corrupt politician Jeb Walsh, Earl Marcus has had the worst summer of his life. But worst turns deadly when a body turns up on Earl's front lawn, accompanied by a cryptic letter. Earl finds a cell phone in the victim's car and tracks it to The Harden School, an old, isolated campus surrounded by barbed wire and locked gates, and catches a sneak peek at a file labeled complaints, where he finds a familiar name: Jeb Walsh. Jeb's ex-wife, Eleanor, had lodged multiple complaints against the school on behalf of her son, and when he contacts Eleanor, the horrifying truth begins to emerge. Desperate to make a connection between the school and the dead man, Earl journeys into a world where nothing is sacred.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781643851815
THE INNOCENTS by Michael Crummey (Historical Fiction)
A brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland's northern coastline. Their home is a stretch of rocky shore governed by the feral ocean, by a relentless pendulum of abundance and murderous scarcity. Still children with only the barest notion of the outside world, they have nothing but the family's boat and the little knowledge passed on haphazardly by their mother and father to keep them alive. Muddling through the severe round of the seasons, through years of meager catches and storms and ravaging illness, it is their fierce loyalty to each other that motivates and sustains them. But as seasons pass and they wade deeper into the mystery of their own natures, even that loyalty will be tested.
Doubleday | 9780385545426
LIFE ISN’T EVERYTHING: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends by Ash Carter and Sam Kashner (Biography)
The work of Mike Nichols pervades American cultural consciousness --- from The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to Angels in America, The Birdcage, Working Girl and Primary Colors, not to mention his string of hit plays, including Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. If that weren’t enough, he was also one half of the timelessly funny duo Nichols & May, as well as a founding member of the original improv troupe. Most fans, however, know very little of the person behind it all. Here, for the first time, Ash Carter and Sam Kashner offer an intimate look behind the scenes of Nichols' life, as told by the stars, moguls, playwrights, producers, comics and crew members who stayed loyal to Nichols for years.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250112873
MARGARET THATCHER: HERSELF ALONE: The Authorized Biography by Charles Moore (Biography)
How did Margaret Thatcher change and divide Britain? How did her model of combative female leadership help shape the way we live now? How did the woman who won the Cold War and three general elections in succession find herself pushed out by her own MPs? Charles Moore's full account, based on unique access to Margaret Thatcher herself, her papers and her closest associates, tells the story of her last period in office, her combative retirement, and the controversy that surrounded her even in death. It includes the fall of the Berlin Wall, which she had fought for, and the rise of the modern EU that she feared. It lays bare her growing quarrels with colleagues and reveals the truth about her political assassination.
Knopf | 9781101947203
NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS by Allen Eskens (Mystery)
Boady Sanden is the new kid at St. Ignatius High School. When Thomas Elgin moves in across the road, Boady's life begins to twist and turn. Coming to know the Elgins, a black family, forces Boady to rethink his understanding of the world he's taken for granted. Secrets hidden in plain sight begin to unfold, the biggest of which is the disappearance of Lida Poe, the African-American woman who keeps the books at the local plastics factory. Word has it that Ms. Poe left town, along with a hundred thousand dollars of company money. As the mystery of her fate plays out, Boady begins to see the stark lines of race and class that both bind and divide this small town --- and he will be forced to choose sides.
Mulholland Books | 9780316509725
PARISIAN LIVES: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me: A Memoir by Deirdre Bair (Memoir)
In 1971, Deirdre Bair was a journalist and recently minted Ph.D. who managed to secure access to Nobel Prize-winning author Samuel Beckett. He agreed that she could write his biography despite never having written --- or even read --- a biography herself. The next seven years of intimate conversations, intercontinental research and peculiar cat-and-mouse games resulted in SAMUEL BECKETT: A Biography, which went on to win the National Book Award and propel Deirdre to her next subject: Simone de Beauvoir. The catch? De Beauvoir and Beckett despised each other --- and lived essentially on the same street. Her seven-year relationship with the domineering and difficult de Beauvoir required a radical change in approach, yielding another groundbreaking literary profile.
Nan A. Talese | 9780385542456
QUEEN OF BONES: A Havana Mystery by Teresa Dovalpage (Mystery)
Juan, a Cuban construction worker who has settled in Albuquerque, returns to Havana for the first time since fleeing Cuba by raft 20 years ago. He is traveling with his American wife, Sharon, and hopes to reconnect with Victor, his best friend from college --- and, unbeknownst to Sharon, he also hopes to discover what has become of two ex-girlfriends, Elsa and Rosita. Juan is surprised to learn that Victor has become Victoria and runs a popular drag show. Elsa has married a wealthy foreigner, and Rosita, still single, works at the Havana cemetery. When one of these women turns up dead, it will cost Padrino, a Santería priest and former detective on the Havana police force, more than he expects to untangle the group’s lies and hunt down the killer.
Soho Crime | 9781641290159
TRACKING GAME: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima (Mystery)
An explosion outside a community dance sends Mattie Cobb and Cole Walker reeling into the night, where they discover a burning van and beside it the body of outfitter Nate Fletcher. But the explosion didn't kill Nate --- it was two gunshots to the heart. The investigation leads them to the home of rancher Doyle Redman, whose daughter is Nate's widow, and the object of one of their suspect's affection. But before they can make an arrest, they receive an emergency call from a man who's been shot in the mountains. Mattie and her K-9 partner, Robo, rush to the scene, only to be confronted by the ominous growl of a wild predator. They journey into the cold, misty mountains to track the animal --- but discover something even more deadly.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781643851358
TWISTED TWENTY-SIX: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
Grandma Mazur has decided to get married again --- this time to a local gangster named Jimmy Rosolli. If Stephanie has her doubts about this marriage, she doesn't have to worry for long, because the groom drops dead of a heart attack 45 minutes after saying "I do." A sad day for Grandma Mazur turns into something far more dangerous when Jimmy's former "business partners" are convinced that his new widow is keeping the keys to a financial windfall all to herself. But the one thing these wise guys didn't count on was the widow's bounty hunter granddaughter, who will do anything to save her.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399180194
WHAT WE WILL BECOME: A Mother, a Son, and a Journey of Transformation by Mimi Lemay (Memoir)
From the age of two-and-a-half, Jacob, born “Em,” adamantly told his family he was a boy. While his mother, Mimi, struggled to understand and come to terms with the fact that her child may be transgender, she experienced a sense of déjà vu --- the journey to uncover the source of her child’s inner turmoil unearthed ghosts from Mimi’s past and her own struggle to live an authentic life. As a young woman, she wrestled with the demands of her ultra-Orthodox Jewish faith and eventually made the painful decision to leave her religious community and the strict gender roles it upheld. Having risen from the ashes of her former life, Mimi was prepared to help her son forge a new one --- at a time when there was little consensus on how best to help young transgender children.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544965836
On Sale the Week of November 11th in Paperback
November 12th
BROTHER by David Chariandy (Fiction)
One sweltering summer in the Park, a housing complex outside of Toronto, Michael and Francis are coming of age and learning to stomach the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry. Propelled by the beats and styles of hip hop, Francis dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635573541
ELEVATION by Stephen King (Fiction)
Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis. In the small town of Castle Rock, Scott is engaged in a low-grade --- but escalating --- battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. They are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a gay married couple. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face --- including his own --- he tries to help.
Scribner | 9781982102326
EVERY DAY IS EXTRA by John Kerry (Memoir)
EVERY DAY IS EXTRA is John Kerry’s candid personal story. A Yale graduate, Kerry enlisted in the US Navy in 1966 and served in Vietnam. He returned home highly decorated but disillusioned, and he testified powerfully before Congress as a young veteran opposed to the war. Kerry was elected to the Senate in 1984, eventually serving five terms. In 2004 he was the Democratic presidential nominee and came within one state --- Ohio --- of winning. He succeeded Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State in 2013. In that position he tried to find peace in the Middle East; dealt with the Syrian civil war while combating ISIS; and negotiated the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501178979
HUNTING GAME written by Helene Tursten, translated by Paul Norlen (Mystery)
Embla Nyström has been plagued by chronic nightmares and racing thoughts ever since she can remember. She has learned to channel most of her anxious energy into her position as Detective Inspector in the mobile unit in Gothenburg, Sweden, and into sports. A talented hunter and prize-winning Nordic welterweight, she is glad to be taking a vacation from her high-stress job to attend the annual moose hunt with her family and friends. But a string of unsettling incidents culminate in the disappearance of two hunters. Embla takes charge of the search, and they soon find one of the missing men floating face down in the nearby lake. With the help of local reinforcements, Embla delves into the dark pasts of her fellow hunters in search of a killer.
Soho Crime | 9781641290975
IN SEARCH OF MARY SHELLEY: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Fiona Sampson (Biography)
We know the facts of Mary Shelley’s life in some detail. But there has been no literary biography written this century, and previous books have ignored the real person, despite the fact that Mary and her group of second-generation Romantics were extremely interested in the psychological aspect of life. In this probing narrative, Fiona Sampson pursues Mary Shelley through her turbulent life, much as Victor Frankenstein tracked his monster across the arctic wastes. Sampson has written a book that finally answers the question of how it was that a 19-year-old came to write a novel so dark, mysterious, anguished and psychologically astute that it continues to resonate two centuries later.
Pegasus Books | 9781643132426
JEEVES AND THE KING OF CLUBS: A Novel in Homage to P.G. Wodehouse by Ben Schott (Fiction/Humor)
The misadventures of Bertie Wooster and his incomparable personal gentleman, Jeeves, have delighted audiences for nearly a century. Now bestselling author Ben Schott brings this odd couple back to life in a madcap new adventure full of the hijinks, entanglements, imbroglios and Wodehousian wordplay that readers love. The Junior Ganymede Club (an association of England's finest butlers and valets) is revealed to be an elite arm of the British secret service. Jeeves must ferret out a Fascist spy embedded in the highest social circles, and only his hapless employer, Bertie, can help. Unfolding in the background are school-chum capers, affairs of the heart, antics with aunts and sartorial set-tos.
Back Bay Books | 9780316524599
KILLING QUARRY by Max Allan Collins (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Paperback Original
Quarry, star of 13 previous novels, a comic book and the acclaimed Cinemax TV series, returns in an all-new assignment that takes the hitman's hitman into uncharted territory, when he finds out that for the first time someone has taken out a hit on him. Is the mysterious killer assigned to hit the hitman someone from Quarry's past? Maybe even a past lover?
Hard Case Crime | 9781785659454
THE LAST SECOND: A Brit in the FBI Thriller by Catherine Coulter and J.T. Ellison (Thriller)
Galactus, France’s answer to SpaceX, has just launched a communications satellite into orbit, but the payload actually harbors a frightening weapon: a nuclear-triggered electromagnetic pulse. When the satellite is in position, Galactus’s second-in-command, Dr. Nevaeh Patel, will have the power to lay waste to the world with an EMP. A former astronaut, Patel believes she is following the directions of the Numen, aliens who saved her life when she space-walked outside the International Space Station. Special Agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine must stop the EMP that would wreak havoc on communication and electronic systems on Earth, resulting in chaos and anarchy.
Gallery Books | 9781501196393
MAD, BAD, DANGEROUS TO KNOW: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce by Colm Toibin (Biography)
Colm Tóibín begins MAD, BAD, DANGEROUS TO KNOW with a walk through the Dublin streets where he went to university and where three Irish literary giants also came of age. Oscar Wilde, writing about his relationship with his father, William Wilde, stated: “Whenever there is hatred between two people there is bond or brotherhood of some kind…you loathed each other not because you were so different but because you were so alike.” W.B. Yeats wrote of his father, painter John Butler Yeats: “It is this infirmity of will which has prevented him from finishing his pictures. The qualities I think necessary to success in art or life seemed to him egotism.” John Stanislaus Joyce, James’ father, was widely loved, garrulous, a singer and drinker with a volatile temper, who drove his son from Ireland.
Scribner | 9781476785189
THE PURSUIT OF WILLIAM ABBEY by Claire North (Supernatural/Historical Thriller)
Paperback Original
South Africa in the 1880s. A young and naive English doctor by the name of William Abbey witnesses the lynching of a local boy by the white colonists. As the child dies, his mother curses William. William begins to understand what the curse means when the shadow of the dead boy starts following him across the world. It never stops, never rests. It can cross oceans and mountains. And if it catches him, the person he loves most in the world will die.
Orbit | 9780316316842
RUN AWAY by Harlan Coben (Thriller)
You've lost your daughter. She's addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she's made it clear that she doesn't want to be found. Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park. But she's not the girl you remember. This woman is living on the edge, frightened and clearly in trouble. You don't stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home. She runs. And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line. And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748442
SING TO IT: New Stories by Amy Hempel (Fiction/Short Stories)
These 15 exquisitely honed stories reveal Amy Hempel at her most compassionate and spirited, as she introduces characters, lonely and adrift, searching for connection. In “A Full-Service Shelter,” a volunteer at a dog shelter tirelessly, devotedly cares for dogs on a list to be euthanized. In “Greed,” a spurned wife examines her husband’s affair with a glamorous, older married woman. And in “Cloudland,” the longest story in the collection, a woman reckons with the choice she made as a teenager to give up her newborn infant. Quietly dazzling, these stories are replete with moments of revelation and transcendence and with Hempel’s singular, startling, inimitable sentences.
Scribner | 9781982109127
YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY YOU LOVE ME: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie (Memoir)
Family relationships are never simple. But Sherman Alexie's bond with his mother, Lillian, was more complex than most. She plunged her family into chaos with a drinking habit, but shed her addiction when it was on the brink of costing her everything. She survived a violent past, but created an elaborate facade to hide the truth. She wanted a better life for her son, but it was only by leaving her behind that he could hope to achieve it. When she passed away, the incongruities that defined his mother shook Sherman and his remembrance of her. Grappling with the haunting ghosts of the past in the wake of loss, he responded the only way he knew how: he wrote.
Back Bay Books | 9780316270748
On Sale the Week of November 18th in Hardcover
November 19th
THE CAPTAIN AND THE GLORY: An Entertainment by Dave Eggers (Fiction/Humor)
When the decorated Captain of a great ship descends the gangplank for the final time, a new leader, a man with a yellow feather in his hair, vows to step forward and solemnly swears to shake things up. Together with his band of petty thieves and confidence men known as the Upskirt Boys, the Captain thrills his passengers, writing his dreams and notions on the cafeteria wipe-away board, boasting of his exemplary anatomy, devouring cheeseburgers, and tossing overboard anyone who displeases him. Until one day a famous pirate, long feared by passengers of the Glory but revered by the Captain for how phenomenally masculine he looked without a shirt while riding a horse, appears on the horizon.
Knopf | 9780525659082
THE CONFESSION CLUB by Elizabeth Berg (Fiction)
When a group of friends in Mason, Missouri, decide to start a monthly supper club, they get more than they bargained for. The plan for congenial evenings abruptly changes course one night when one of the women reveals something startlingly intimate. The supper club then becomes Confession Club, and the women gather weekly to share not only dinners but embarrassing misdeeds, deep insecurities and long-held regrets. They invite Iris Winters and Maddy Harris to join, and their timing couldn't be better. Iris is conflicted about her feelings for a charming but troubled man, and Maddy has come back home from New York to escape a problem too big to handle alone. The club offers exactly the kind of support they need to help them make some difficult decisions.
Random House | 9781984855176
GREAT SOCIETY: A New History by Amity Shlaes (History/Politics)
Many Americans are attracted to socialism and economic redistribution, while opponents of those ideas argue for purer capitalism. In the 1960s, Americans sought the same goals many seek now: an end to poverty, higher standards of living for the middle class, a better environment, and more access to health care and education. Then, too, we debated socialism and capitalism, public sector reform versus private sector advancement. Ironically, Shlaes argues, the costs of entitlement commitments made a half century ago preclude the very reforms that Americans will need in coming decades. In GREAT SOCIETY, Shlaes shows that in fact there was scant difference between two presidents we consider opposites: Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
Harper | 9780061706424
GUILTY NOT GUILTY: A Dick Francis Novel by Felix Francis (Thriller)
Bill Russell is acting as a volunteer steward at Warwick races when he confronts his worst nightmare --- the violent death of his much-loved wife. But the aftermath proves much worse when he is accused of killing her and then hounded mercilessly by the media. Losing his job and in danger of losing his home too, Bill's life begins to unravel completely. Even his best friends turn against him, thinking him guilty of the heinous crime, despite the lack of any compelling evidence. As Bill sets out to clear his name, he finds that proving one's innocence isn't easy. He believes he can track down the true culprit, but can he prove it before he becomes the murderer's next victim?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525536796
MARY TOFT; OR, THE RABBIT QUEEN by Dexter Palmer (Historical Fiction)
Surgeon’s apprentice Zachary Walsh knows that his master, John Howard, prides himself on his rationality. But John cannot explain how or why Mary Toft, the wife of a local journeyman, has managed to give birth to a dead rabbit. When this singular event becomes a regular occurrence, John and Zachary realize that nothing in their experience as rural physicians has prepared them to deal with a situation like this. When King George I learns of Mary’s plight, she and her doctors are summoned to London, where Zachary experiences a world far removed from his small-town existence and is exposed to some of the darkest corners of the human soul.
Pantheon | 9781101871935
A MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT: An Atlee Pine Thriller by David Baldacci (Thriller)
FBI Agent Atlee Pine's life was never the same after her twin sister, Mercy, was kidnapped --- and likely killed --- 30 years ago. After a lifetime of torturous uncertainty, Atlee's unresolved anger finally gets the better of her on the job, and she finds she has to deal with the demons of her past if she wants to remain with the FBI. Atlee and her assistant, Carol Blum, head back to Atlee's rural hometown in Georgia to see what they can uncover about the traumatic night Mercy was taken and Pine was almost killed. But soon after Atlee begins her investigation, a local woman is found ritualistically murdered, her face covered with a wedding veil --- and the first killing is quickly followed by a second bizarre murder.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538761601
MURDER OFF THE PAGE: A 42nd Street Library Mystery by Con Lehane (Mystery)
A note from bartender Brian McNulty, Raymond Ambler’s friend, confidant and sometimes adviser, sets the librarian sleuth off on a murder investigation, one that he pursues reluctantly until a second murder upends the world as he knows it. The second victim is a lady friend of McNulty’s --- and the prime suspect is McNulty himself. As Ambler pursues his investigation, he discovers that the murdered woman had a double life. While Ambler looks into the past of Dr. Sandra Dean to understand the murder of Shannon Darling in the present, NYPD homicide detective Mike Cosgrove investigates the men in Darling’s life. Yet, no matter which way he turns, McNulty emerges as a suspect.
Minotaur Books | 9781250317926
ROBERT B. PARKER'S ANGEL EYES: A Spenser Novel by Ace Atkins (Mystery)
Gabby Leggett left her Boston family with dreams of making it big as a model/actress in Hollywood. Two years later, she disappears from her apartment. Her family, former boyfriend, friends --- and the police --- have no idea where she is and no leads. Leggett's mother hires Spenser to find her, with help from his former apprentice, Zebulon Sixkill, now an L.A. private eye. Spenser barely has time to unpack before the trail leads to a powerful movie studio boss, the Armenian mob, and a shadowy empowerment group some say might be a dangerous cult. It's soon clear that Spenser and Sixkill may be outgunned this time, and series favorites Chollo and Bobby Horse ride to the rescue to provide backup.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525536826
THE SECOND SLEEP by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artifacts --- coins, fragments of glass, human bones --- which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death? Fairfax becomes determined to discover the truth. Over the course of the next six days, everything he believes --- about himself, his faith and the history of his world --- will be tested to destruction.
Knopf | 9780525656692
THE SHIP OF DREAMS: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era by Gareth Russell (History)
In April 1912, six notable people were among those privileged to experience the height of luxury --- first-class passage on “the ship of dreams,” the RMS Titanic. Using previously unpublished sources, deck plans, journal entries and surviving artifacts, Gareth Russell peers through the portholes of these first-class travelers to immerse us in a time of unprecedented change in British and American history. Through their intertwining lives, he examines social, technological, political and economic forces, such as the nuances of the British class system, the explosion of competition in the shipping trade, the birth of the movie industry, the Irish Home Rule Crisis, and the Jewish-American immigrant experience, while also recounting their intimate stories of bravery, tragedy and selflessness.
Atria Books | 9781501176722
TOM CLANCY CODE OF HONOR: A Jack Ryan Novel by Marc Cameron (Thriller/Adventure)
Father Pat West, S.J. was a buddy of the young Jack Ryan when they were both undergraduates at Boston College. Father West left a comfortable job in the philosophy department at Georgetown to work with the poor in Indonesia. Now he's been arrested and accused of blasphemy against Islam. President Ryan is desperate to rescue his old friend, but he can't move officially against the Indonesians. Instead he relies on the Campus team to find out who is framing the priest. There's one other twist to the story. President Ryan discovers a text on his private cell phone from the priest warning about a coming attack against America.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525541721
TWENTY-ONE TRUTHS ABOUT LOVE by Matthew Dicks (Fiction)
Daniel Mayrock's life is at a crossroads. He knows the following to be true: 1) He loves his wife, Jill, more than anything. 2) He only regrets quitting his job and opening a bookshop a little (maybe more than a little). 3) Jill is ready to have a baby. 4) The bookshop isn’t doing well. Financial crisis is imminent. Dan doesn't know how to fix it. 5) Dan hasn’t told Jill about their financial trouble. 6) Then Jill gets pregnant. This heartfelt story is about the lengths to which one man will go and the risks he will take to save his family. But Dan doesn’t just want to save his failing bookstore and his family’s finances: 1) Dan wants to do something special. 2) He’s a man who is tired of feeling ordinary. 3) He’s sick of feeling like a failure. 4) He doesn't want to live in the shadow of his wife’s deceased first husband.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250103482
On Sale the Week of November 18th in Paperback
November 19th
BIG WEEK: The Biggest Air Battle of World War II by James Holland (History)
During the third week of February 1944, the combined Allied air forces based in Britain and Italy launched their first round-the-clock bomber offensive against Germany. Their goal: to smash the main factories and production centers of the Luftwaffe while also drawing German planes into an aerial battle of attrition to neutralize the Luftwaffe as a fighting force prior to the cross-channel invasion, planned for a few months later. Officially called Operation ARGUMENT, this aerial offensive quickly became known as “Big Week,” and it was one of the turning-point engagements of World War II. In BIG WEEK, acclaimed World War II historian James Holland chronicles the massive air battle through the experiences of those who lived and died during it.
Grove Press | 9780802147783
CHOKEHOLD by David Moody (Science Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
A series of nuclear strikes has left huge swathes of the country uninhabitable. It’s a level playing field now: both Hater and Unchanged alike have to fight to stay alive. Both have retreated to their camps to regroup, less than 20 miles away from each other. It’s here that the last major battle of the final war will inevitably be fought, but neither side has any idea what’s waiting for them just around the corner. Both armies are ready to fight to the death, each of their leaders hell-bent on victory. Their tactics are uniformly simple: strike first, get the enemy in a chokehold, then strangle the life out of them.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250229519
THE DAY THE SUN DIED written by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas (Fiction)
In a little village nestled in the Balou mountains, 14-year-old Li Niannian and his parents run a funeral parlor. One evening, he notices a strange occurrence. Instead of preparing for bed, more and more neighbors appear in the streets and fields, carrying on with their daily business as if the sun hadn’t already set. Li Niannian watches, mystified. As hundreds of residents are found dreamwalking, they act out the desires they’ve suppressed during waking hours. Before long, the community devolves into chaos, and it’s up to Li Niannian and his parents to save the town before sunrise.
Grove Press | 9780802147738
THE HEAVENS by Sandra Newman (Fiction)
At a party hosted by a wealthy young activist in late summer 2000, dozens of idealistic twenty-somethings have impassioned conversations over takeout dumplings and champagne. The evening shines with the heady optimism of a progressive new millennium. A young man, Ben, meets a young woman, Kate --- and they begin to fall in love. Kate lives with her head in the clouds, so at first Ben isn’t that concerned when she tells him about the recurring dream she’s had since childhood. In the dream, she’s transported to the past, where she lives a second life as Emilia, the mistress of a nobleman in Elizabethan England. But for Kate, the dream becomes increasingly real, to the point where it threatens to overwhelm her life. As she tries to make sense of what’s happening, Ben worries that the woman he’s fallen in love with is losing her grip on reality.
Grove Press | 9780802147974
HER FATHER'S SECRET by Sara Blaedel (Thriller)
After suddenly inheriting a funeral home from her father --- who she hadn't heard from in decades --- Ilka Jensen has impulsively abandoned her quiet life in Denmark to visit the small town in rural Wisconsin where her father lived. There, she's devastated to discover her father's second family: a stepmother and two half-sisters she never knew existed and who aren't the least bit welcoming, despite Ilka's efforts to reach out. Then a local woman is killed, seemingly the unfortunate victim of a home invasion turned violent. But when Ilka learns that the woman knew her father, it becomes increasingly clear that she may not have been a completely random victim after all.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538763261
LABYRINTH written by Burhan Sönmez, translated by Umit Hussein (Fiction)
Paperback Original
A blues singer, Boratin, attempts suicide by jumping off the Bosphorus Bridge, but opens his eyes in the hospital. He has lost his memory and can't recall why he wished to end his life. He remembers only things that are unrelated to himself, but confuses their timing. He knows that the Ottoman Empire fell, and that the last sultan died, but has no idea when. His mind falters when remembering civilizations, while life, like a labyrinth, leads him down different paths. From the confusion of his social and individual memory, he is faced with two questions. Does physical recognition provide a sense of identity? Which is more liberating for a man, or a society: knowing the past, or forgetting it?
Other Press | 9781590510988
NEWCOMER by Keigo Higashino (Mystery)
A woman is found murdered in her new apartment in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Living a quiet life, with nothing remarkable in her past and no known enemies, this newcomer’s murder is as baffling as it is unlikely. Detective Kyochiro Kaga of the Tokyo Police Department is also a newcomer to the area. Assigned to the task force investigating the murder, Kaga interviews the various local people somehow connected to the victim. But the more he pulls on the loose threads of a simple life, the greater the number of potential suspects emerge. To prevent the murderer from eluding justice, Kaga must unravel all the secrets of the local residents, finding out the truth behind their interactions with the victim. Buried somewhere in the woman’s seemingly uncomplicated life is the one clue that will lead to the murderer.
Minotaur Books | 9781250235404
THE NEXT TO DIE by Sophie Hannah (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
A psychopath the police have dubbed “Billy Dead Mates” is targeting pairs of best friends, and killing them one by one. Before they die, each victim is given a small white book. For months, detectives have failed to catch Billy, or figure out what the white books symbolize and why the killer leaves them behind. Then a woman, scared by what she’s seen on the news, comes forward. What she reveals shocks the investigators and adds another troubling layer to an already complex case. Stand-up comedian Kim Tribbeck has one of Billy’s peculiar little books. A stranger gave it to her at a gig she did last year. Was the stranger Billy, and is he targeting her --- or is it something more nefarious?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062388360
NOT OF THIS FOLD: A Linda Wallheim Mystery Set in Mormon Utah by Mette Ivie Harrison (Mystery)
Draper, Utah: Now that all five of her sons have left home, Mormon bishop’s wife Linda Wallheim has quite a bit of time on her hands. She has befriended Gwen Ferris, a woman in her ward who is quickly losing faith in the church. Gwen has a calling in Draper’s local “Spanish ward,” which is made up of both legal and undocumented immigrants who Gwen feels don’t always get the support they need from their bishop. When Gabriela Gonzalez, an undocumented mother of three, is found strangled at a gas station, Gwen decides the police aren’t doing enough and resolves to track down the killer herself. Fearing for her young friend’s safety, Linda reluctantly joins her, but what they find during their vigilante investigation may put them both in danger.
Soho Crime | 9781641290937
ONE TO GO by Mike Pace (Paranormal Thriller)
Texting while driving across Memorial Bridge, Tom Booker loses control and crashes into an oncoming minivan carrying his own daughter and three of her friends. A young couple approaches and offers him a rewind. The crash would be averted, the children saved. All he must do is kill someone every two weeks. A moment later, Tom is back in his spinning car but avoids the deadly crash. He laughs about the hallucination, attributing it to bumping his head on the steering wheel when his car came to an abrupt stop. But his encounter wasn’t a hallucination. Two weeks later, the minivan driver is brutally murdered. Tom receives a text: one down, four to go. He has never shot --- much less owned --- a gun in his life, and now must turn himself into a serial killer or his daughter and her friends will die.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608093748
SLOWHAND: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton by Philip Norman (Biography)
For half a century, Eric Clapton has been acknowledged to be one of music's greatest virtuosos, the unrivalled master of an indispensable tool, the solid-body electric guitar. Winner of 17 Grammys, the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's only three-time inductee, he is an enduring influence on every other star soloist who ever wielded a pick. Now, with Clapton's consent and access to family members and close friends, rock music's foremost biographer returns to the heroic age of British rock and follows Clapton through his distinctive and scandalous childhood, early life of reckless rock 'n' roll excess, and twisting and turning struggle with addiction in the ’60s and ’70s.
Back Bay Books | 9780316560467
WYOMING by JP Gritton (Fiction)
Paperback Original
It’s 1988, and Shelley Cooper is in trouble. He’s broke, he’s been fired from his construction job, and his ex-wife has left him for their next-door neighbor and a new life in Kansas City. The only opportunity on his horizon is 50 pounds of his brother’s high-grade marijuana, which needs to be driven from Colorado to Houston and exchanged for a lockbox full of cash. The delivery goes off without a hitch, but getting home with the money proves to be a different challenge altogether. Fueled by a grab bag of resentments and self-punishment, Shelley becomes a case study in the question of whether it’s possible to live without accepting yourself, and the dope money is the key to a lock he might never find.
Tin House Books | 9781947793446
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