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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of March 16th and March 23rd 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 Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for March, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club, the Jenna Bush Hager "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and more.
Also, please click on the covers above for our reviews of three books that we featured in last Friday's Weekly Update newsletter: MY DARK VANESSA, Kate Elizabeth Russell's debut novel that explores the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher; THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT, which brings to a triumphant close Hilary Mantel's trilogy that began with her Booker Prize-winning novels, WOLF HALL and BRING UP THE BODIES; and A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler, an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that explores the effects of class, race and heartrending love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.
Ideas for Book Buying During the COVID-19 Crisis
Here's a piece from Publishers Weekly, "10 Ways to Support Your Indie Bookstore Through Coronavirus and Beyond." We also recommend buying audiobooks from Libro.fm. Did you know that you can buy audiobooks and support the independent bookstore of your choice? You can! Also, we are seeing library closures in some areas, but do keep in mind that both e-books and digital audio can be borrowed even if a library is closed.
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
Carol Fitzgerald shares a video preview of what you will see in the March 20th Weekly Update newsletter here. We hope you enjoy it!
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This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for March
Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads, as well as the Target Book Club title and Pennie's Pick for Costco. We also feature a number of other prominent picks, including Oprah’s Book Club, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club, Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, the PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club, and Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites.
Below is a preview of March's "Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks." For the complete Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, as well as additional links pertaining to this month's selections, please click here.
Indie Next
#1 Pick: MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell
WRITERS & LOVERS by Lily King
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler
SAINT X by Alexis Schaitkin
IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle
LibraryReads
LibraryReads Top Pick: MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell
DARLING ROSE GOLD by Stephanie Wrobel
THE GLASS HOTEL by Emily St. John Mandel
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler
IF I NEVER MET YOU by Mhairi McFarlane
Target Book Club
THE HUNTING PARTY by Lucy Foley
Pennie's Pick (Costco)
LOST BOY FOUND by Kirsten Alexander
Barnes & Noble Book Club
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD by Therese Anne Fowler
Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club
THE JETSETTERS by Amanda Eyre Ward
Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
WRITERS & LOVERS by Lily King
"Good Morning America" Book Club
IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle
PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club
INHERITANCE: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro
Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites
THE WINEMAKER’S WIFE by Kristin Harmel
On Sale the Week of March 16th in Hardcover
March 17th
88 NAMES by Matt Ruff (Science Fiction/Technothriller)
John Chu is a “sherpa,” a paid guide to online role-playing games like the popular Call to Wizardry. His new client, the pseudonymous Mr. Jones, claims to be a “wealthy, famous person” with powerful enemies, and he’s offering a ridiculous amount of money for a comprehensive tour of the world of virtual-reality gaming. For Chu, this is a dream assignment, but as the tour gets underway, he begins to suspect that Mr. Jones is really North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. He also has to worry about “Ms. Pang,” who may or may not be an agent of the People’s Republic of China, and his angry ex-girlfriend, Darla Jean Covington, who isn’t the type to let an international intrigue get in the way of her own plans for revenge.
Harper | 9780062854674
ARE SNAKES NECESSARY? by Brian De Palma and Susan Lehman (Thriller)
When the beautiful young videographer offered to join his campaign, Senator Lee Rogers should've known better. But saying no would have taken a stronger man than Rogers, with his ailing wife and his robust libido. Enter Barton Brock, the senator's fixer. He's already gotten rid of one troublesome young woman. How hard could this new one turn out to be? Pursued from Washington, D.C. to the streets of Paris, 18-year-old Fanny Cours knows her reputation and budding career are on the line. But what she doesn't realize is that her life might be as well.
Hard Case Crime | 9781789091205
BEHELD by TaraShea Nesbit (Historical Fiction)
Ten years after the Mayflower pilgrims arrived on rocky, unfamiliar soil, Plymouth is not the land its residents had imagined. Seemingly established on a dream of religious freedom, in reality the town is led by fervent puritans who prohibit the residents from living, trading and worshipping as they choose. By the time an unfamiliar ship, bearing new colonists, appears on the horizon one summer morning, Anglican outsiders have had enough. In BEHELD, TaraShea Nesbit reframes the story of the pilgrims in the previously unheard voices of two women of very different status and means.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635573220
THE BOY FROM THE WOODS by Harlan Coben (Thriller)
Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. Now an adult, he still doesn't know where he comes from, and another child has gone missing. No one seems to take Naomi Pine's disappearance seriously, not even her father --- with one exception. Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, knows through her grandson that Naomi was relentlessly bullied at school. Hester asks Wilde, with whom she shares a tragic connection, to use his unique skills to help find Naomi. In order to find Naomi, Wilde must venture back into the community where he has never fit in, a place where the powerful are protected even when they harbor secrets that could destroy the lives of millions.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748145
A CONSPIRACY OF BONES: A Temperance Brennan Novel by Kathy Reichs (Mystery/Thriller)
It’s sweltering in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Temperance Brennan, still recovering from neurosurgery following an aneurysm, is battling nightmares, migraines and what she thinks might be hallucinations when she receives a series of mysterious text messages, each containing a new picture of a corpse that is missing its face and hands. Immediately, she’s anxious to know who the dead man is, and why the images were sent to her. An identified corpse soon turns up, only partly answering her questions. To win answers to the others, including the man’s identity, she must go rogue, working mostly outside the system. But the more Tempe uncovers, the darker and more twisted the picture becomes.
Scribner | 9781982138882
DARLING ROSE GOLD by Stephanie Wrobel (Psychological Thriller)
For the first 18 years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. But no matter how many doctors, tests or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with her. It turns out that her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar. After serving five years in prison, Patty gets out with nowhere to go and begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes. Patty insists all she wants is to reconcile their differences. Unfortunately for Patty, Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling, and she's waited such a long time for her mother to come home.
Berkley | 9780593100066
THE EIGHTH GIRL by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung (Psychological Thriller)
Meet Alexa Wú, a brilliant yet darkly self-aware young woman whose chaotic life is manipulated and controlled by a series of alternate personalities. Only three people know about their existence: her shrink Daniel; her stepmother Anna; and her enigmatic best friend Ella. When Ella gets a job at a high-end gentleman’s club, she catches the attention of its shark-like owner and is gradually drawn into his inner circle. As Alexa’s world becomes intimately entangled with Ella’s, she soon finds herself the unwitting keeper of a nightmarish secret. With no one to turn to and lives at stake, she follows Ella into London’s cruel underbelly on a daring rescue mission.
William Morrow | 9780062931122
FASTER: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler’s Best by Neal Bascomb (Sports/History)
They were the unlikeliest of heroes. Rene Dreyfus, a former top driver on the international racecar circuit, had been banned from the best European teams --- and fastest cars --- by the mid-1930s because of his Jewish heritage. Charles Weiffenbach, head of the down-on-its-luck automaker Delahaye, was desperately trying to save his company as the world teetered toward the brink. And Lucy Schell, the adventurous daughter of an American multi-millionaire, yearned to reclaim the glory of her rally-driving days. As Nazi Germany launched its campaign of racial terror and pushed the world toward war, these three misfits banded together to challenge Hitler’s dominance at the apex of motorsport: the Grand Prix.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328489876
HIT LIST: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
When Stone Barrington finds his name on a hit list, he plans to lie low until the culprit is caught. But when this foe shows no signs of stopping until his deadly objective is realized in full, Stone is left with no choice but to face the problem head-on. Armed and alert, Stone joins forces with his most savvy connections to catch the perpetrator before the next strike. But it turns out this scum is an expert at evasion in more ways than one, and the international cat-and-mouse hunt that ensues has Stone questioning if he has become the predator or the prey.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593083222
THE JERUSALEM ASSASSIN by Joel C. Rosenberg (Political Thriller)
President Andrew Clarke is determined to announce his historic peace plan from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. But when senior American officials who support the plan begin violently dying, Clarke orders Marcus Ryker and his team of CIA operatives to hunt down those responsible and bring the killing spree to an end. When the Palestinians denounce the American plan, the Saudis signal they may be ready to forge a historic treaty with Israel. Could the Saudi king’s support be the missing ingredient that will lead to peace at long last? Ryker soon uncovers a chilling plot to kill the American president. With all eyes on Jerusalem and the president in the crosshairs, it’s up to Ryker to eliminate the terrible evil that’s been set in motion.
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. | 9781496437846
MIKE HAMMER: MASQUERADE FOR MURDER by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Hard-boiled Mystery)
After Mike Hammer witnesses Wall Street superstar Vincent Colby getting clipped by a speeding red Ferrari, the shaken victim's stockbroker father hires Hammer to find the driver. But the toughest private eye of them all soon is caught up in a series of bizarre, seemingly unconnected slayings marked by a forbidden martial arts technique. What do a lovely redhead, a short-tempered bartender, an exotic call girl, a murdered police inspector and a movie stuntman have to do with a scheme that might have transformed young Colby into a psychological time bomb?
Titan Books | 9781785655562
THE MOUNTAINS SING by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (Historical Fiction)
THE MOUNTAINS SING tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Trần family, set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Trần Diệu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Nội, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that tore apart not just her beloved country, but her family as well.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208189
THE NEW LIFE OF HUGO GARDNER by Louis Begley (Fiction)
After four decades of what he believes to be a happy, healthy partnership, Hugo Gardner's world is overturned when he learns that his wife, Valerie, is not only requesting a divorce but has left him for a younger, more vital man. Hugo, an octogenarian political writer and retired journalist for Time, must rethink the way he's lived, and reassess how he'd like to spend his remaining years. With an ominous oncologist's report hanging over his head, Hugo decides to get away for a bit, to a conference in Paris. A new romance blooms there, and Hugo finds himself wondering if growing old in Paris might be the perfect antidote to the drama he left behind in New York.
Nan A. Talese | 9780385545624
PRIDE OF EDEN by Taylor Brown (Fiction)
Retired racehorse jockey and Vietnam veteran Anse Caulfield rescues exotic big cats, elephants and other creatures for Little Eden, a wildlife sanctuary near the abandoned ruins of a failed development on the Georgia coast. But when Anse’s prized lion escapes, he becomes obsessed with replacing her --- even if the means of rescue aren’t exactly legal. Anse is joined by Malaya, a former soldier who hunted rhino and elephant poachers in Africa; Lope, whose training in falconry taught him to pilot surveillance drones; and Tyler, a veterinarian who has found a place in Anse’s obsessive world. Together they battle an underworld of smugglers, gamblers, breeders, trophy hunters and others who exploit exotic game.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250203816
THE RED LOTUS by Chris Bohjalian (Thriller)
The first time Alexis saw Austin, it was a Saturday night. Not in a bar, but in the emergency room where Alexis sutured a bullet wound in Austin's arm. Six months later, on the brink of falling in love, they travel to Vietnam on a bike tour so that Austin can show her his passion for cycling and he can pay his respects to the place where his father and uncle fought in the war. But as Alexis sips white wine and waits at the hotel for him to return from his solo ride, two men emerge from the tall grass and Austin vanishes into thin air. As Alexis grapples with this bewildering loss, she uncovers a series of strange lies that force her to wonder: Where did Austin go? Why did he really bring her to Vietnam? And how much danger has he left her in?
Doubleday | 9780385544801
THE SEA GLASS COTTAGE by RaeAnne Thayne (Fiction)
When Olivia Harper hears that her estranged mother, Juliet, has been seriously injured in a car accident, she heads home to beautiful Cape Sanctuary on the Northern California coast. But then the painful memories start flooding back: Natalie, her vibrant, passionate older sister who downward-spiraled into addiction. The fights with her mother who enabled her sister at every turn. The overdose that took Natalie, leaving her now-teenaged daughter, Caitlin, an orphan. As Liv tries to balance her own needs with those of her injured mother and an obstinate, resentful 15-year-old, it becomes clear that all three Harper women have been keeping heartbreaking secrets from one another.
HQN | 9781335045164
THE SHAPE OF FAMILY by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (Fiction)
The Olander family embodies the modern American Dream in a globalized world. Jaya, the cultured daughter of an Indian diplomat, and Keith, an ambitious banker, meet in a London pub in 1988 and make a life together in suburban California. Their strong marriage is built on shared beliefs and love for their two children: headstrong teenager Karina and young son Prem. But love and prosperity cannot protect them from sudden, unspeakable tragedy, and the family’s foundation cracks as each member struggles to seek a way forward. When Karina heads off to college for a fresh start, her search for identity and belonging leads her down a dark path, forcing her and her family to reckon with the past, the secrets they’ve held and the weight of their choices.
William Morrow | 9780062933225
THE WOMAN IN THE MIRROR by Rebecca James (Gothic Thriller)
In 1947, Londoner Alice Miller accepts a post as governess at Winterbourne Hall, looking after Captain Jonathan de Grey’s twin children. Falling under the de Greys’ spell, Alice believes the family will heal her own past sorrows. But then the twins’ adoration becomes deceitful and taunting. Their father, ever distant, turns spiteful and cruel. The manor itself seems to lash out. In present-day New York, art gallery curator Rachel Wright has learned she is a descendant of the de Greys and heir to Winterbourne. Adopted as an infant, she never knew her birth parents or her lineage. At long last, Rachel will find answers to questions about her identity that have haunted her entire life. But what she finds in Cornwall is a devastating tragic legacy that has afflicted generations of de Greys.
Minotaur Books | 9781250230058
On Sale the Week of March 16th in Paperback
March 17th
AFTER ME COMES THE FLOOD by Sarah Perry (Gothic Thriller)
Paperback Original
One hot summer’s day, John Cole decides to shut his bookshop early, and possibly forever, and drives out of London to see his brother. When his car breaks down on an isolated road, he goes looking for help and finds a dilapidated house. As he approaches, a laughing woman he’s never seen before walks out, addresses him by name and explains she’s been waiting for him. Entering the home, John discovers an enigmatic clan of residents, all of whom seem to know who he is, and also claim they have been awaiting his arrival. They seem to be waiting for something else, too --- something final.
Custom House | 9780062666406
AFTER THE MIRACLE: The Lasting Brotherhood of the '69 Mets by Art Shamsky and Erik Sherman (Sports/History)
When the 1969 season began, fans of the New York Mets weren’t expecting much from “the Lovable Losers.” But as the season progressed, the Mets inched closer to first place and then eventually clinched the National League pennant. They were underdogs against the Baltimore Orioles, but beat them in five games to become world champions. Playing right field for the ’69 Mets was Art Shamsky, who had stayed in touch with his former teammates over the years. He organized a visit to ailing star pitcher Tom Seaver's home in California, accompanied by the #2 pitcher, Jerry Koosman, outfielder Ron Swoboda and shortstop Bud Harrelson. Together they recalled the highlights of that amazing season as they reminisced about what changed the Mets’ fortunes in 1969.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501176531
ALL THAT YOU LEAVE BEHIND: A Memoir by Erin Lee Carr (Memoir)
A celebrated journalist, bestselling author and recovering addict, David Carr was in the prime of his career when he suffered a fatal collapse in the newsroom of The New York Times in 2015. Shattered by his death, his daughter Erin Lee Carr, an up-and-coming documentary filmmaker at age 27, began combing through the entirety of their shared correspondence. What started as an exercise in grief quickly grew into an active investigation: Did her father's writings contain the answers to the questions of how to move forward in life and work without her biggest champion by her side? How could she fill the space left behind by a man who had come to embody journalistic integrity, rigor and hard reporting, whose mentorship meant everything not just to her, but to the many who served alongside him?
Ballantine Books | 9780399178993
AMERICAN SPY by Lauren Wilkinson (Thriller)
It’s 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She’s brilliant, but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys’ club. Her career has stalled out, she’s overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso --- whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention --- she says yes. In the year that follows, Marie will observe Sankara, seduce him and ultimately have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister and a good American.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812988284
CROSS HER HEART by Melinda Leigh (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
For more than 25 years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents’ murder-suicide…until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished. Bree knows how explosive the line between love and hate can be, yet the evidence against her troubled brother-in-law isn’t adding up. Teaming up with Justin’s old friend, former sheriff’s investigator and K-9 handler Matt Flynn, Bree vows to uncover the secrets of her sister’s life and death, as she promised Erin’s children. But as her investigation unfolds, the danger hits close to home.
Montlake Romance | 9781542006927
THE DAMASCUS ROAD: A Novel of Saint Paul by Jay Parini (Historical Fiction)
In the years after Christ's crucifixion, Paul of Tarsus, a prosperous tentmaker and Jewish scholar, took it upon himself to persecute the small groups of his followers that sprung up. But on the road to Damascus, he had some sort of blinding vision, a profound conversion experience that transformed Paul into the most effective and influential messenger Christianity has ever had. In THE DAMASCUS ROAD, novelist Jay Parini brings this fascinating and ever-controversial figure to full human life, capturing his visionary passions and vast contradictions.
Anchor | 9780307386205
DEATH OF A NEW AMERICAN by Mariah Fredericks (Historical Mystery)
In 1912, as New York reels from the news of the Titanic disaster, ladies’ maid Jane Prescott travels to Long Island with the Benchley family. Their daughter, Louise, is to marry William Tyler at their uncle and aunt’s mansion. Jane quickly befriends the Tyler children’s nanny, Sofia, a young Italian-American woman, who ends up being a murder victim. She is asked to help with the investigation by her friend, journalist Michael Behan, who knows that she is uniquely placed to see what other tensions may simmer just below the surface in this wealthy, secretive household. Was Sofia’s murder fallout from the social tensions rife in New York, or could it be a much more personal crime?
Minotaur Books | 9781250252357
HALIBUT ON THE MOON by David Vann (Fiction)
Middle-aged and deeply depressed, Jim arrives in California from Alaska and surrenders himself to the care of his brother Gary, who intends to watch over him. Swinging unpredictably from manic highs to extreme lows, Jim wanders ghost-like through the remains of his old life attempting to find meaning in his tattered relationships with family and friends. As sessions with his therapist become increasingly combative and his connections to others seem ever more tenuous, Jim is propelled forward by his thoughts, which have the potential to lead him, despairingly, to his end.
Grove Press | 9780802148315
THE HONEY BUS: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees by Meredith May (Memoir)
Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split, and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus in the yard. That first close encounter was at once terrifying and exhilarating for May. Everything she needed to know about life and family was right before her eyes, in the secret world of bees. May turned to her grandfather and the art of beekeeping as an escape from her troubled reality. The bees became a guiding force in May’s life, teaching her about family and survival, and it was during this pivotal time in May’s childhood that she learned to take care of herself.
Park Row | 9780778309758
IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE by Jesse Blackadder (Fiction)
The Brennans --- parents Finn and Bridget, and their sons, Jarrah and Toby --- have made a sea change, from chilly Hobart, Tasmania, to subtropical Murwillumbah, New South Wales. Feeling like foreigners in this land of sun and surf, they're still adjusting to work, school and life in a sprawling purple clapboard house, when tragedy strikes one morning. In the devastating aftermath, the questions fly. What really happened? And who's to blame? Determined to protect his family, Finn finds himself under the police and media spotlight. Guilty and enraged, Bridget spends nights hunting answers in the last place imaginable. Jarrah --- his innocence lost --- faces a sudden and frightening adulthood where nothing is certain.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250252944
LESS THAN A MOMENT: A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Posadas County has enjoyed a surge in visitors, jobs and prosperity since rancher Miles Waddell used much of his inherited half billion to create an internationally renowned astronomy complex atop Torrance Mesa. Benefits include a narrow gauge train linking the village of Posadas to NightZone. A ripple of unease is felt across the county with the arrival of developer --- no, speculator --- Kyle Thompson. Why did he and his wife quietly purchase a large scrubby acreage to the north of NightZone? Unease grows with a drive-by shoot-up at the Posadas Register, its 25 shots wounding a reporter and the paper's editor. Sheriff Bob Torrez and Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman see a connection to NightZone...and worse, a connection with Torrez's own nephew. Why? And then murder strikes.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781492699095
LOT: Stories by Bryan Washington (Fiction/Short Stories)
In the city of Houston --- a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America --- the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, weathering his brother's blows, resenting his older sister's absence. And discovering he likes boys. Around him, others live and thrive and die in Houston's myriad neighborhoods: a young woman whose affair detonates across an apartment complex, a ragtag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, hurricane survivors, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, a reluctant chupacabra.
Riverhead Books | 9780525533689
THE OTHER AMERICANS by Laila Lalami (Mystery)
Late one spring night in California, Driss Guerraoui --- father, husband, business owner, Moroccan immigrant --- is hit and killed by a speeding car. The aftermath of his death brings together a diverse cast of characters: Guerraoui's daughter, Nora, a jazz composer returning to the small town in the Mojave she thought she'd left for good; her mother, Maryam, who still pines for her life in the old country; Efraín, an undocumented witness whose fear of deportation prevents him from coming forward; Jeremy, an old friend of Nora’s and an Iraqi War veteran; Coleman, a detective who is slowly discovering her son’s secrets; Anderson, a neighbor trying to reconnect with his family; and the murdered man himself. As these characters tell their stories, connections among them emerge.
Vintage | 9780525436034
THE PAPER WASP by Lauren Acampora (Fiction)
Once a bright student on the cusp of a promising art career, Abby Graven now languishes in her childhood home, trudging to and from her job as a supermarket cashier. Each day she is taunted from the magazine racks by the success of her former best friend Elise, a rising Hollywood starlet. When Abby encounters Elise again at their high school reunion, she is surprised that Elise still considers her not only a friend but a brilliant storyteller and true artist. Elise’s unexpected faith in Abby reignites in her a dormant hunger, and when Elise offhandedly tells Abby to look her up if she’s ever in LA, Abby soon arrives on her doorstep. There, Abby discovers that although Elise is flourishing professionally, behind her glossy magazine veneer she is lonely and disillusioned.
Grove Press | 9780802148810
THE PARADE by Dave Eggers (Fiction)
An unnamed country is leaving the darkness of a decade at war, and to commemorate the armistice, the government commissions a new road connecting two halves of the state. Two men, foreign contractors from the same company, are sent to finish the highway. While one is flighty and adventurous, wanting to experience the nightlife and people, the other wants only to do the work and go home. But both men must eventually face the absurdities of their positions, and the dire consequences of their presence.
Vintage | 9780525564676
THE PERFECT LIAR by Thomas Christopher Greene (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Susannah, a young widow and single mother, has remarried well: to Max, a charismatic artist and popular speaker whose career took her and her 15-year-old son out of New York City and to a quiet Vermont university town. One morning, though, she finds a note on her door: I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. Max dismisses the note as a prank. But days after a neighborhood couple comes to dinner, the husband mysteriously dies in a tragic accident while on a run with Max. Soon thereafter, a second note appears on their door: DID YOU GET AWAY WITH IT? Both Susannah and Max are keeping secrets from the world and from each other --- secrets that could destroy their family and everything they have built.
Picador | 9781250251312
UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon (Mystery)
Count Orazio Falier urges his son-in-law, Guido Brunetti, to investigate --- and preferably intervene in --- the seemingly innocent plan of the Count’s best friend, the elderly Gonzalo Rodríguez de Tejada, to adopt a much younger man as his son. Under Italian inheritance laws, this man would then be heir to Gonzalo’s entire fortune, a prospect Gonzalo’s friends find appalling. Gonzalo unexpectedly drops dead on the street, and one of his friends who just arrived in Venice for the memorial service is strangled in her hotel room. Now with an urgent case to solve, Brunetti reluctantly untangles the long-hidden mystery in Gonzalo’s life that ultimately led to murder --- a resolution that brings him way more pain than satisfaction.
Grove Press | 9780802148384
THE WALL by John Lanchester (Dystopian Fiction)
Ravaged by the Change, an island nation in a time very much like our own has built the Wall --- an enormous concrete barrier around its entire coastline. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls who are trapped amid the rising seas outside and are a constant threat. Failure will result in death or a fate perhaps worse: being put to sea and made an Other himself. Beset by cold, loneliness and fear, Kavanagh tries to fulfill his duties to his demanding Captain and Sergeant, even as he grows closer to his fellow Defenders. A dark part of him wonders if it would be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if he had to fight for his life.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393357776
THE WINEMAKER’S WIFE by Kristin Harmel (Historical Fiction)
Champagne, 1940: Inès has just married Michel, the owner of storied champagne house Maison Chauveau, when the Germans invade. As the danger mounts, Michel turns his back on his marriage to begin hiding munitions for the Résistance. Inès fears they’ll be exposed, but for Céline, the French-Jewish wife of Chauveau’s chef de cave, the risk is even greater --- rumors abound of Jews being shipped east to an unspeakable fate. When Céline recklessly follows her heart in one desperate bid for happiness, and Inès makes a dangerous mistake with a Nazi collaborator, they risk the lives of those they love --- and the vineyard that ties them together.
Gallery Books | 9781982112301
On Sale the Week of March 23rd in Hardcover
March 24th
BUZZ SAW: The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series by Jesse Dougherty (Sports)
By May 2019, the Washington Nationals had one of the worst records in the majors. Yet by blending an old-school brand of baseball with modern analytics, they managed to sneak into the playoffs and put together the most unlikely postseason run in baseball history. Not only did they beat the Houston Astros to claim the franchise’s first championship, they won all four games in Houston, making them the first club to ever win four road games in a World Series. Washington Post beat writer Jesse Dougherty followed the Nationals more closely than any other writer in America, and in BUZZ SAW he recounts the dramatic year in vivid detail, taking readers inside the dugout, the clubhouse, the front office, and ultimately the championship parade.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982152260
THE CITY WE BECAME by N. K. Jemisin (Urban Fantasy)
Every great city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She has six. But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs in the halls of power, threatening to destroy the city and her six newborn avatars unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.
Orbit | 9780316509848
ENTER THE AARDVARK by Jessica Anthony (Political Satire)
It's early one morning on a hot day in August, and millennial congressman Alexander Paine Wilson (R), planning his first reelection campaign and in deep denial about his sexuality, receives a mysterious, over-sized FedEx delivery on his front stoop. Inside is a gigantic taxidermied aardvark. ENTER THE AARDVARK hurtles between contemporary Washington, D.C., where Wilson tries to get rid of the unsightly beast before it destroys his career, and Victorian England --- where we meet Titus Downing, the taxidermist who stuffed the aardvark, and Richard Ostlet, the naturalist who hunted her. Our present world, we begin to see, has been shaped in profound and disturbing ways by the secret that binds these men.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316536158
THE EVERLASTING by Katy Simpson Smith (Historical Fiction)
Spanning 2,000 years, THE EVERLASTING follows four characters whose struggles resonate across the centuries: an early Christian child martyr, a medieval monk on crypt duty in a church, a Medici princess of Moorish descent, and a contemporary field biologist conducting an illicit affair. Outsiders to a city layered and dense with history, this quartet separated by time grapple with the physicality of bodies, the necessity for sacrifice, and the power of love to sustain and challenge faith. Their small rebellions are witnessed and provoked by an omniscient, time-traveling Satan who, though incorporeal, nonetheless suffers from a heart in search of repair. As their dramas unfold amid the brick, marble and ghosts of Rome, they each must decide what it means to be good.
Harper | 9780062873644
THE FACELESS OLD WOMAN WHO SECRETLY LIVES IN YOUR HOME: A Welcome to Night Vale Novel by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (Fantasy/Horror)
In the town of Night Vale, there’s a faceless old woman who secretly lives in everyone’s home, but no one knows how she got there or where she came from...until now. Told in a series of eerie flashbacks, the story of The Faceless Old Woman goes back centuries to reveal an initially blissful and then tragic childhood in the early 19th century, her rise in the criminal underworld of Europe, a nautical adventure with a mysterious organization of smugglers, her plot for revenge on the ones who betrayed her, and ultimately her death and its aftermath, as her spirit travels the world for decades until settling in modern-day Night Vale. Interspersed throughout is a present-day story in Night Vale, as The Faceless Old Woman guides, haunts and sabotages a man named Craig.
Harper Perennial | 9780062889003
THE GLASS HOTEL by Emily St. John Mandel (Mystery)
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: "Why don't you swallow broken glass." High above Manhattan, a greater crime is committed: Alkaitis is running an international Ponzi scheme, moving imaginary sums of money through clients' accounts. When the financial empire collapses, it obliterates countless fortunes and devastates lives. Vincent, who had been posing as Jonathan's wife, walks away into the night. Years later, a victim of the fraud is hired to investigate a strange occurrence: a woman has seemingly vanished from the deck of a container ship between ports of call.
Knopf | 9780525521143
THE HERD by Andrea Bartz (Psychological Thriller)
THE HERD is the name of the elite women-only coworking space in New York that prides itself on mentorship and empowerment. Among the hopefuls is Katie Bradley, who has an in, thanks to her sister, Hana, an original Herder and the best friend of Eleanor Walsh, the Herd’s charismatic founder. As head of PR, Hana is working around the clock to prepare for a huge announcement from Eleanor --- one that will change the trajectory of the Herd forever. But on the night of the glitzy Herd news conference, Eleanor vanishes without a trace. As Hana struggles to figure out what her friend was hiding and Katie chases the story of her life, the sisters must face the secrets they’ve been keeping from each other.
Ballantine Books | 9781984826367
HOUSE OF GLASS: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family by Hadley Freeman (Memoir)
Hadley Freeman knew her grandmother Sara lived in France just as Hitler started to gain power, but rarely did anyone in her family talk about it. Long after her grandmother’s death, she found a shoebox tucked in the closet containing photographs of her grandmother with a mysterious stranger, a cryptic telegram from the Red Cross, and a drawing signed by Picasso. This discovery sent Freeman on a decade-long quest to uncover the significance of these keepsakes, taking her from Picasso’s archives in Paris to a secret room in a farmhouse in Auvergne to Long Island to Auschwitz. Freeman pieces together the puzzle of her family’s past, discovering more about the lives of her grandmother and her three brothers.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501199158
THE K TEAM by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, Simon Garfunkel, have recently retired from the police force. Not ready to give up the life yet, they come up with a proposal for fellow former cop Laurie Carpenter and her investigating partner, Marcus. Laurie and Marcus --- who help out Laurie’s lawyer husband, Andy, on cases --- have been chafing to jump back into investigating on their own, so they are in. They call themselves the K Team, in honor of Simon. Their first job as private investigators comes to them from Judge Henry Henderson, who is being blackmailed and extorted, and he doesn't want to involve the police. He needs the K Team to figure out why.
Minotaur Books | 9781250257192
THE LAST ODYSSEY by James Rollins (Thriller/Adventure)
In the frozen tundra of Greenland, a group of modern-day researchers stumble on a shocking find: a medieval ship buried a half-mile below the ice. Inside the captain’s cabin is a clockwork gold map embedded with an intricate silver astrolabe. Once activated, the moving map traces the path of Odysseus’ famous ship as it sailed away from Troy. But the route detours as the map opens to reveal a fiery river leading to a hidden realm underneath the Mediterranean Sea. It is the subterranean world of Tartarus, the Greek name for Hell. The phantasmagoric horrors found in Homer’s tales are all too real --- and could be unleashed upon the world. Now, Sigma Force must go where humans fear to tread. To prevent a tyrant from igniting a global war, they must cross the very gates of Hell.
William Morrow | 9780062892898
THE LAST TOURIST by Olen Steinhauer (Thriller)
In AN AMERICAN SPY, reluctant CIA agent Milo Weaver thought he had finally put “Tourists” --- CIA-trained assassins --- to bed. A decade later, Milo is hiding out in Western Sahara when a young CIA analyst arrives to question him about a series of suspicious deaths and terrorist chatter linked to him. Their conversation is soon interrupted by a new breed of Tourists intent on killing them both, forcing them to run. As he tells his story, Milo is joined by colleagues and enemies from his long history in the world of intelligence, and the young analyst wonders what to believe. He wonders, too, if he’ll survive this encounter.
Minotaur Books | 9781250036216
MARGUERITE by Marina Kemp (Fiction)
Marguerite Demers is 25 when she leaves Paris for the sleepy southern village of Saint Sulpice to take up a job as a live-in nurse. Her charge is Jerome Lanvier --- once one of the most powerful men in the village, now dying alone in his large and secluded house surrounded by rambling neglected gardens. Brigitte Brochon, pillar of the community and local busybody, finds her arrogant and mysterious, and is desperate to find a reason to have her fired. Local farmer Henri Brochon, Brigitte’s husband, wants to protect her from the villagers' intrusive gossip and speculation (but Henri has a secret of his own that would scandalize his neighbors, if only they knew). The sudden arrival of Jerome's three sons will upend the rhythm of their days, changing their lives forever.
Viking | 9781984877833
NOBODY'S CHILD: A Tragedy, a Trial, and a History of the Insanity Defense by Susan Vinocour (Criminal Law/History)
When a three-year-old child was found with a head wound and other injuries, it looked like an open-and-shut case of second-degree murder. Psychologist and attorney Susan Vinocour agreed to evaluate the defendant, the child's mentally ill and impoverished grandmother, to determine if she was competent to stand trial. Even if she had caused the child's death, had she realized at the time that her actions were wrong, or was she legally "insane"? What followed was anything but an open-and-shut case. NOBODY'S CHILD traces the legal definition of "insanity" back to its inception in Victorian Britain nearly 200 years ago, from when our understanding of the human mind was in its infancy, to today, when questions of race, class and ability so often determine who is legally "insane" and who is criminally guilty.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393651928
THE RETURN by Rachel Harrison (Horror/Thriller)
Julie is missing, and no one believes she will ever return --- except Elise. Elise knows Julie better than anyone, and feels it in her bones that her best friend is out there and that one day Julie will come back. She’s right. Two years to the day that Julie went missing, she reappears with no memory of where she’s been or what happened to her. Along with Molly and Mae, their two close friends from college, the women decide to reunite at a remote inn. But the second Elise sees Julie, she knows something is wrong --- she’s emaciated, with sallow skin and odd appetites. And as the weekend unfurls, it becomes impossible to deny that the Julie who vanished two years ago is not the same Julie who came back. But then who --- or what --- is she?
Berkley | 9780593098660
STEALING HOME: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between by Eric Nusbaum (Sports/History)
Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant Mexican American communities. In the early 1950s, those communities were condemned to make way for a utopian public housing project. Then, in a remarkable turn, public housing in the city was defeated amidst a Red Scare conspiracy. Instead of getting their homes back, the remaining residents saw the city sell their land to Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now L.A. would be getting a different sort of utopian fantasy --- a glittering, ultra-modern stadium. But before Dodger Stadium could be built, the city would have to face down the neighborhood's families.
PublicAffairs | 9781541742215
On Sale the Week of March 23rd in Paperback
March 24th
THE AMERICAN AGENT: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear (Historical Mystery)
When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs, news of her death is concealed by British authorities. Serving as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the Secret Service, Robert MacFarlane pays a visit to Maisie Dobbs. He is accompanied by Mark Scott, an agent from the US Department of Justice who helped Maisie escape Hitler’s Munich in 1938. MacFarlane asks Maisie to work with Scott to uncover the truth about Saxon’s death. As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the British Isles, Maisie must balance the demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect Anna, the young evacuee she has grown to love and wants to adopt.
Harper Perennial | 9780062436672
AUTUMN LIGHT: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer (Memoir)
Returning to his longtime home in Japan after his father-in-law’s sudden death, Pico Iyer picks up the steadying patterns of his everyday rites: going to the post office and engaging in furious games of ping-pong every evening. But in a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honoring the dead, he comes to reflect on changelessness in ways that anyone can relate to: parents age, children scatter, and Iyer and his wife turn to whatever can sustain them as everything falls away. As the maple leaves begin to turn and the heat begins to soften, Iyer shows us a Japan we have seldom seen before, where the transparent and the mysterious are held in a delicate balance, and where autumn reminds us to take nothing for granted.
Vintage | 9781101973462
BECOMING MRS. LEWIS by Patti Callahan (Historical Fiction)
When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis --- known as Jack --- she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and --- against all odds --- finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.
Thomas Nelson | 9780785218098
FLOWERS OVER THE INFERNO: A Teresa Battaglia Novel written by Ilaria Tuti, translated by Ekin Oklap (Mystery/Thriller)
Superintendent Teresa Battaglia has fought for nearly four decades to earn rank and respect on a testosterone-heavy Italian police force. When she’s called to investigate a gruesome murder near a mountainside town, she’s paired with a young male inspector she’s not sure she trusts. But she has no choice. In this remote town full of secrets, eerie folktales and primal instincts, the killer seems drawn to a group of local children, who may be in grave danger. As Teresa inches closer to the truth, she must confront the possibility that her faculties, no longer what they once were, may fail her before the chase is over.
Soho Crime | 9781641291255
THE GONE DEAD by Chanelle Benz (Fiction)
Billie James' inheritance isn't much: a little money and a shack in the Mississippi Delta. The house once belonged to her father, a renowned black poet who died unexpectedly when she was four years old. Though Billie was there when the accident happened, she has no memory of that day --- and she hasn't been back to the South since. Thirty years later, Billie returns, but her father's home is unnervingly secluded: her only neighbors are the McGees, the family whose history has been entangled with hers since the days of slavery. As Billie encounters the locals, she hears a strange rumor: that she herself went missing on the day her father died. As the mystery intensifies, she finds out that this forgotten piece of her past could put her in danger.
Ecco | 9780062490735
IF SHE WAKES by Michael Koryta (Thriller)
As college senior Tara Beckley drives to deliver a visiting professor to a conference, a horrific car accident kills the professor and leaves Tara in a vegetative state. Or so her doctors think. In fact, she's a prisoner of locked-in syndrome: fully alert but unable to move a muscle. Trapped in her body, she learns that someone powerful wants her dead. But why? And what can she do, lying in a hospital bed, to stop them? Abby Kaplan, an insurance investigator, is hired by the college to look into Tara's case. When she starts asking questions, things quickly spin out of control, leaving Abby on the run and a mysterious young hit man named Dax Blackwell hard on her heels.
Back Bay Books | 9780316293976
INSIDE THE EMPIRE: The True Power Behind the New York Yankees by Bob Klapisch and Paul Solotaroff (Sports)
Using the 2018 baseball season as the backdrop, INSIDE THE EMPIRE gives readers the real, unvarnished “straight-from-the-gut” truth from Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone, Giancarlo Stanton, C.C. Sabathia --- even Hal Steinbrenner and Randy Levine --- and many more. This is baseball’s version of HBO’s award-winning NFL series “Hard Knocks.” Bob Klapisch and Paul Solotaroff take you deep into the Yankees clubhouse, their dugout and the front office, and pull back the curtain so that every fan can see what really goes on.
Mariner Books | 9780358299240
A LABYRINTH OF SCIONS AND SORCERY: Book Two in the Risen Kingdoms by Curtis Craddock (Historical Fantasy)
Isabelle des Zephyrs has always been underestimated throughout her life, but after discovering the well of hidden magic within her, unveiling a centuries-long conspiracy, and stopping a war between rival nations, she has gained a newfound respect amongst the cutthroat court. All that is quickly taken away when Isabelle is unfairly convicted of breaking the treaty she helped write and has her political rank and status taken away. Now bereft, she nevertheless finds herself drawn into a mystery when her faithful musketeer Jean-Claude uncovers a series of gruesome murders by someone calling themselves the Harvest King.
Tor Books | 9780765389633
LATE-LIFE LOVE: A Memoir by Susan Gubar (Memoir)
On Susan Gubar’s 70th birthday, she receives a beautiful ring from her husband. As she contemplates their sustaining relationship, she begins to consider how older lovers differ from their youthful counterparts --- and from ageist stereotypes. While her husband confronts age-related disabilities that effectively ground them, Susan dawdles over the logistics of moving from their cherished country house to a more manageable place in town and starts seeking out literature on the changing seasons of desire. Throughout the complications of devoted caregiving, her own ongoing cancer treatments, apartment hunting, the dismantling of a household, and perplexity over the breakdown of a treasured friendship, Susan finds consolation in books and movies.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393357639
THE LIGHT YEARS: A Memoir by Chris Rush (Memoir)
Chris Rush was born into a prosperous, fiercely Roman Catholic, New Jersey family. But underneath the gleaming mid-century house, the flawless hostess mom and the thriving businessman dad ran an unspoken tension that, amid the upheaval of the late 1960s, was destined to fracture their precarious facade. His older sister Donna introduces him to the charismatic Valentine, who places a tab of acid on 12-year-old Rush’s tongue, proclaiming: “This is sacrament. You are one of us now.” After an unceremonious ejection from an experimental art school, Rush heads to Tucson to make a major drug purchase and, still barely a teenager, disappears into the nascent American counterculture. Given what Rush confronts on his travels, it is a miracle he is still alive.
Picador | 9781250251190
THE NEVER GAME by Jeffery Deaver (Thriller)
A young woman has gone missing in Silicon Valley, and her father has hired Colter Shaw to find her. The son of a survivalist family, Shaw is an expert tracker. Now he makes a living as a "reward seeker," traveling the country to help police solve crimes and private citizens locate missing persons. But what seems a simple investigation quickly thrusts him into the dark heart of America's tech hub and the cutthroat billion-dollar video-gaming industry. When another victim is kidnapped, the clues point to one video game with a troubled past --- The Whispering Man. In that game, the player has to survive after being abandoned in an inhospitable setting with five random objects. Is a madman bringing the game to life?
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525535959
THE SCAR: A Personal History of Depression and Recovery by Mary Cregan (Memoir)
At the age of 27, Mary Cregan gives birth to her first child, a daughter she names Anna. But it’s apparent that something is terribly wrong, and two days later, Anna dies --- plunging Cregan into suicidal despair. Decades later, sustained by her work, a second marriage and a son, Cregan reflects on this pivotal experience and attempts to make sense of it. She weaves together literature and research with details from her own ordeal --- and the still-visible scar of her suicide attempt --- while also considering her life as part of the larger history of our understanding of depression.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393357851
THE SUMMER OF SUNSHINE AND MARGOT by Susan Mallery (Fiction)
Etiquette coach Margot Baxter knows precisely how to manage wayward clients…until she comes face-to-exquisite-face with Bianca, an aging movie star notorious for her shock-and-awe tactics. Schooling Bianca on the fine art of behaving like a diplomat’s wife is the greatest challenge of Margot’s career. Soon secrets unravel that bring them closer together and force Margot to confront the truth: change doesn’t just happen. She has to be brave enough to demand the life --- and love --- she’s always wanted. For years, Sunshine has been the good-time sister, abandoning jobs to chase after dreams that will never come true. No more. This time, she’ll finish college and dedicate herself to her future. And she will not let her life get derailed by a man again…no matter how tempting that man may be.
HQN | 9781335080479
THEY SAID IT COULDN’T BE DONE: The '69 Mets, New York City, and the Most Astounding Season in Baseball History by Wayne Coffey (Sports/History)
The story of the 1969 New York Mets’ season has long since entered sports lore as one of the most remarkable of all time. But beyond the “miracle” is a compelling narrative of an unlikely collection of players and the hallowed manager who inspired them to greatness. Future Hall of Fame ace Tom Seaver snagged the biggest headlines, but the enduring richness of the story lies in the core of a team comprised of untested youngsters, lightly regarded veterans, and four Southern-born African-American stalwarts who came of age in the shadow of Jackie Robinson. Renowned sports journalist Wayne Coffey brings to life a moment when a championship could descend on a city like magic, and when a baseball legend was authored one inning at a time.
Broadway Books | 9781524760892
A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell (Biography)
Virginia Hall was a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and --- despite her prosthetic leg --- helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall --- an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance and personal triumph over shocking adversity.
Penguin Books | 9780735225312
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