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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of March 23rd and March 30th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com, where three book groups will win 12 copies of THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN by Lisa See, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now available in paperback. The deadline for your entries is Wednesday, April 8th at noon ET.
We also encourage you to enter our Word of Mouth and Sounding Off on Audio contests for an opportunity to win some fabulous books and audio titles. And please be sure to vote in our latest poll: Have your reading habits changed during these uncertain times?
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
This Week's Bonus News: March's
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?"
Contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.
Our latest prize book is THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN by Lisa See. This Bookreporter.com Bets On title, which is now available in paperback, is an evocative tale of two best friends whose bonds are both strengthened and tested over decades by forces beyond their control. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, April 8th at noon ET.
THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN by Lisa See (Historical Fiction)
Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility but also danger.
Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook’s differences are impossible to ignore. THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN is an epoch set over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War and its aftermath, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for the women divers. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, and she will forever be marked by this association. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers in their village. Little do the two friends know that after surviving hundreds of dives and developing the closest of bonds, forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point.
“This vivid…thoughtful and empathetic” novel (The New York Times Book Review) illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge and the men take care of the children. “A wonderful ode to a truly singular group of women” (Publishers Weekly), THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN is a “beautiful story…about the endurance of friendship when it’s pushed to its limits, and you…will love it” (Cosmopolitan).
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to read Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary.
Click here to enter the contest.
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
On Sale the Week of March 30th in Hardcover
March 30th
TEXAS OUTLAW by James Patterson and Andrew Bourelle (Thriller/Western)
Texas Ranger Rory Yates is not keen for hero status. But it's unavoidable once his girlfriend, country singer Willow Dawes, writes a song about his bravery. Rory escapes his newfound fame when he's sent to the remote West Texas town of Rio Lobo, a municipality with two stoplights. And now, according to the Chief of Police, it has one too many Texas Rangers. Rio Lobo Detective Ariana Delgado is the one who requested Rory, and the only person who believes that a local councilwoman's seemingly accidental death is a murder. Then Rory begins to uncover a tangle of small-town secrets, favors and lies as crooked as Texas law is straight. To get to the truth before more people die, Rory is forced to take liberties with the investigation.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316428163
March 31st
AFTER SUNDOWN by Linda Howard and Linda Jones (Romantic Suspense)
Sela Gordon, the shy owner of a Tennessee general store, finds safety in solitude. But if anyone can pierce her protective shell, it’s the handsome, mysterious ex-military man living alone in the wilds of Cove Mountain. For two years, Ben Jernigan has kept his distance --- until the day he appears to warn her that a catastrophic solar storm capable of taking down the power grid is coming. Now, Sela must find the courage to become the leader Wears Valley needs. As panic spreads, Sela and Ben discover that in the dark, cut off from the outside world, there’s no more playing it safe --- in life or in love.
William Morrow | 9780062842633
CODE NAME HÉLÈNE by Ariel Lawhon (Historical Fiction)
It is 1936, and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. When the Germans invade France, she becomes Lucienne Carlier, who smuggles people and documents across the border. Nancy earns a new nickname from the Gestapo for her remarkable ability to evade capture: the White Mouse. With a five million franc bounty on her head, Nancy is forced to escape France and leave Henri behind. When she enters training with the Special Operations Executives in Britain, she is told to use the name Hélène with her comrades. And finally, with mission in hand, Nancy is airdropped back into France as the deadly Madam Andrée, where she claims her place as one of the most powerful leaders in the French Resistance.
Doubleday | 9780385544689
DAYS OF DISTRACTION by Alexandra Chang (Fiction)
As a staff writer at a prestigious tech publication, our 24-year-old narrator reports on the achievements of smug Silicon Valley billionaires and start-up bros, while her own request for a raise gets bumped from manager to manager. And when her longtime boyfriend, J, decides to move to a quiet upstate New York town for grad school, she sees an excuse to cut and run. Moving is supposed to be a grand gesture of her commitment to J and a way to reshape her sense of self. But in the process, she finds herself facing misgivings about her role in an interracial relationship. Captivated by the stories of her ancestors and other Asian Americans in history, she must confront a question at the core of her identity: What does it mean to exist in a society that does not notice or understand you?
Ecco | 9780062951809
DEVOTED by Dean Koontz (Thriller)
Woody Bookman hasn’t spoken a word in his 11 years of life. Not when his father died in a freak accident. Not when his mother, Megan, tells him she loves him. For Megan, keeping her boy safe and happy is what matters. But Woody believes a monstrous evil was behind his father’s death and now threatens him and his mother. And he’s not alone in his thoughts. An ally unknown to him is listening. A uniquely gifted dog, Kipp is devoted beyond reason to people. When he hears the boy who communicates like he does, without speaking, Kipp knows he needs to find him before it’s too late. Woody’s fearful suspicions are taking shape. A man driven by a malicious evil has set a depraved plan into motion. And he’s coming after Woody and his mother.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542019507
THE FAMILIAR DARK by Amy Engel (Mystery/Thriller)
Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, THE FAMILIAR DARK opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life, having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose lessons Eve tried not to pass on to her own daughter. But Eve may need her mother's cruel brand of strength if she's going to face the reality about her daughter's death and about her own true nature. Her quest for justice takes her from the seedy underbelly of town to the quiet woods and, most frighteningly, back to her mother's trailer for a final lesson.
Dutton | 9781524745950
GODSHOT by Chelsea Bieker (Fiction)
Drought has settled on the town of Peaches, California. The area of the Central Valley where 14-year-old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise. Now it’s an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms. In their desperation, residents have turned to a cult leader named Pastor Vern for guidance. But then Lacey May’s mother, exiled from the community for her sins, leaves her daughter and runs off with a man she barely knows. As Lacey May endures the increasingly appalling acts of men who want to write all the rules and begins to uncover the full extent of Pastor Vern’s shocking plan to bring fertility back to the land, she decides she must go on a quest to find her mother no matter what it takes.
Catapult | 9781948226486
HEX by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight (Fiction)
Nell Barber, an expelled PhD candidate in biological science, is exploring the fine line between poison and antidote, working alone to set a speed record for the detoxification of poisonous plants. Her mentor, Dr. Joan Kallas, is the hero of Nell's heart. Nell frequently finds herself standing in the doorway to Joan's office despite herself, mesmerized by Joan's elegance, success and spiritual force. Surrounded by Nell's ex, her best friend, her best friend's boyfriend and Joan's buffoonish husband, the two scientists are tangled together at the center of a web of illicit relationships, grudges and obsessions. All six are burdened by desire and ambition, and as they collide on the university campus, their attractions set in motion a domino effect of affairs and heartbreak.
Viking | 9781984877376
HOUR OF THE ASSASSIN by Matthew Quirk (Political Thriller)
As a Secret Service agent, Nick Averose spent a decade protecting the most powerful men and women in America and developed a unique gift: the ability to think like an assassin. Now, he uses that skill in a little-known but crucial job. As a “red teamer,” he poses as a threat, testing the security around our highest officials to find vulnerabilities --- before our enemies can. He is a mock killer, capable of slipping past even the best defenses. His latest assignment is to assess the security surrounding the former CIA director at his DC-area home. But soon after he breaches the man’s study, Nick finds himself entangled in a vicious crime that will shake Washington to its foundations --- as all the evidence points to Nick. Nick knows he’s the perfect scapegoat. But who is framing him, and why?
William Morrow | 9780062875495
I WANT YOU TO KNOW WE'RE STILL HERE: A Post-Holocaust Memoir by Esther Safran Foer (Memoir)
Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt but never discussed. The result was a childhood marked by painful silences and continued tragedy. Even as she built a successful career, married and raised three children, Esther always felt herself searching. So when Esther’s mother casually mentions an astonishing revelation --- that her father had a previous wife and daughter, both killed in the Holocaust --- Esther resolves to find out who they were, and how her father survived.
Tim Duggan Books | 9780525575986
IT'S NOT ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE by Terry McMillan (Fiction)
On the eve of her 68th birthday, Loretha Curry has a booming beauty-supply empire, a gaggle of lifelong friends, and a husband whose moves still surprise. True, she’s carrying a few more pounds than she should be, but Loretha is not one of those women who think her best days are behind her --- and she’s determined to prove wrong her mother, her twin sister and everyone else with that outdated view of aging. It’s not all downhill from here. But when an unexpected loss turns her world upside down, Loretha will have to summon all her strength, resourcefulness and determination to keep on thriving, pursue joy, heal old wounds and chart new paths. With a little help from her friends, of course.
Ballantine Books | 9781984823748
THE OTHER BENNET SISTER by Janice Hadlow (Historical Fiction)
What if Mary Bennet’s life took a different path from that laid out for her in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? What if the frustrated intellectual of the Bennet family --- the marginalized middle daughter, the plain girl who takes refuge in her books --- eventually found the fulfillment enjoyed by her prettier, more confident sisters? This is the plot of Janice Hadlow's debut novel, THE OTHER BENNET SISTER, in which Mary’s destiny diverges from that of her sisters. It does not involve broad acres or landed gentry. But it does include a man; and, as in all Austen novels, Mary must decide if he is truly the one for her.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250129413
PROVIDENCE by Max Barry (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Seven years after first contact, Providence Five launches. It is an enormous and deadly warship, built to protect humanity from its greatest threat ever. On board is a crew of just four --- tasked with monitoring the ship and reporting the war's progress to a mesmerized global audience by way of social media. But while pursuing the enemy across space, Gilly, Talia, Anders and Jackson confront the unthinkable: their communications are cut, their ship decreasingly trustworthy and effective. To survive, they must win a fight that is suddenly and terrifyingly real.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593085172
THE SECOND LIFE OF TIGER WOODS by Michael Bamberger (Sports/Biography)
Tiger Woods’ long descent into a personal and professional hell reached bottom in the early hours of Memorial Day in 2017. Woods’ DUI arrest that night came on the heels of a desperate spinal surgery, just weeks after he told close friends he might never play tournament golf again. Instead of sinking beneath the public disgrace of drug abuse and the private despair of a battered and ailing body, Woods embarked on the long road to redeeming himself. In THE SECOND LIFE OF TIGER WOODS, Michael Bamberger draws upon his deep network of sources to tell the true and inspiring story of the legend’s return. Packed with new information and graced by insight, Bamberger’s story reveals how this iconic athlete clawed his way back to the top.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982122829
SWING KINGS: The Inside Story of Baseball's Home Run Revolution by Jared Diamond (Sports/History)
The 2019 season saw the most home runs ever, obliterating a record set just two years before. It is a shift that has transformed the way the game is played, contributing to more strikeouts, longer games and what feels like the logical conclusion of the analytics era. In SWING KINGS, Wall Street Journal national baseball writer Jared Diamond reveals that the secret behind this unprecedented shift isn’t steroids or the stitching of the baseballs, it’s the most elemental explanation of all: the swing. In this lively narrative romp, he tracks a group of baseball’s biggest stars --- including Aaron Judge, J.D. Martinez and Justin Turner --- who remade their swings under the tutelage of a band of renegade coaches, and remade the game in the process.
William Morrow | 9780062872104
VALENTINE by Elizabeth Wetmore (Fiction)
It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow. In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, 14-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field --- an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law. When justice is evasive, the stage is set for a showdown with potentially devastating consequences.
Harper | 9780062913265
On Sale the Week of March 30th in Paperback
March 31st
THE BETTER SISTER by Alafair Burke (Psychological Thriller)
Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be the one in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky --- always restless and more than a little reckless --- was the opposite of her ambitious little sister. For a while, it seemed that both sisters had found happiness. But now, more than 15 years later, their lives are drastically different. When Chloe’s husband, Adam (who used to be married to Nicky), is murdered by an intruder, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenage stepson’s biological mother, Nicky, back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father’s death, the two sisters are forced to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062853349
CHUMPS TO CHAMPS: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the '90s Dynasty by Bill Pennington (Sports)
The New York Yankees have won 27 world championships and 40 American League pennants, both world records. They have 26 members in the Hall of Fame. Yet some 25 years ago, from 1989 to 1992, the Yankees were a pitiful team at the bottom of the standings, sitting on a 14-year World Series drought and a 35 percent drop in attendance. To make the statistics worse, their mercurial, bombastic owner was banned from baseball. But out of these ashes emerged a modern Yankees dynasty, a juggernaut built on the sly, a brilliant mix of personalities, talent and ambition. In CHUMPS TO CHAMPS, award-winning sportswriter Bill Pennington reveals a grand tale of revival.
Mariner Books | 9780358331834
CONFESSIONS OF AN INNOCENT MAN by David R. Dow (Legal Thriller)
Rafael Zhettah relishes the simplicity and freedom of his life. He is the owner and head chef of a promising Houston restaurant. A pilot with open access to the boundless Texas horizon. A bachelor, content with having few personal or material attachments that ground him. Then lightning strikes. When he finds Tieresse --- billionaire, philanthropist, sophisticate, bombshell --- sitting at one of his tables, he also finds his soul mate and his life starts again. And just as fast --- when she is brutally murdered in their home, when he is convicted of the crime, when he is sentenced to die --- it is all ripped away. But for Rafael Zhettah, death row is not the end; it is only the beginning. Now, he will stop at nothing to deliver justice to those who stole everything from him.
Dutton | 9781524743895
THE DNA OF YOU AND ME by Andrea Rothman (Fiction)
Emily Apell arrives in Justin McKinnon’s renowned research lab with the single-minded goal of making a breakthrough discovery. But a colleague in the lab, Aeden Doherty, has been working on a similar topic, and his findings threaten to compete with her research. To Emily’s surprise, her rational mind is unsettled by Aeden. And when they end up working together, their animosity turns to physical passion, followed by love. Emily eventually allows herself to envision a future with Aeden, but when he decides to leave the lab, it becomes clear to her that she must make a choice. It is only years later, when she is about to receive a prestigious award for the work they did together, that Emily is able to unravel everything that happened between them.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062857828
THE END OF THE END OF THE EARTH: Essays by Jonathan Franzen (Essays)
In THE END OF THE END OF THE EARTH, which gathers essays and speeches written mostly in the past five years, Jonathan Franzen returns with renewed vigor to the themes --- both human and literary --- that have long preoccupied him. Whether exploring his complex relationship with his uncle, recounting his young adulthood in New York, or offering an illuminating look at the global seabird crisis, these pieces contain all the wit and disabused realism that we’ve come to expect from Franzen. Taken together, these essays trace the progress of a unique and mature mind wrestling with itself, with literature, and with some of the most important issues of our day, made more pressing by the current political milieu.
Picador | 9781250234896
EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE: First Loves and Last Tales by Oliver Sacks (Science/Essays)
Oliver Sacks, scientist and storyteller, is beloved by readers for his neurological case histories and his fascination and familiarity with human behavior at its most unexpected and unfamiliar. EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE is a celebration of Sacks' myriad interests --- from his passion for ferns, swimming and horsetails, to his final case histories exploring schizophrenia, dementia and Alzheimer's --- told with his characteristic compassion and erudition, and in his luminous prose.
Vintage | 9781101972328
THE FALL OF SHANNARA: THE STIEHL ASSASSIN by Terry Brooks (Fantasy)
The Skaar have arrived in the Four Lands, determined to stop at nothing less than all-out conquest. But perhaps the Skaar victory is not quite the foregone conclusion everyone assumes. The Druid Drisker Arc has freed both himself and Paranor from their involuntary exile. Drisker’s student, Tarsha Kaynin, has been reunited with Dar, chief defender of what is left of the Druid order, and is learning to control her powerful wishsong magic. If they can only survive Tarsha’s brother, Tavo, and the Druid who betrayed Drisker Arc, they might stand a chance of defeating the Skaar. But that is a very big if. Tavo now carries the Stiehl --- one of the most powerful weapons in all the Four Lands --- and is hellbent on taking his revenge on everyone he feels has wronged him.
Del Rey | 9780553391565
LIKE LIONS by Brian Panowich (Thriller)
Clayton Burroughs is a small-town Georgia sheriff, a new father and, improbably, the heir apparent of Bull Mountain’s most notorious criminal family. As he tries to juggle fatherhood, his job, and his recovery from being shot in the confrontation that killed his two criminally inclined brothers last year, he’s doing all he can just to survive. Yet after years of carefully toeing the line between his life in law enforcement and his family, he finally has to make a choice. When a rival organization makes a first foray into Burroughs’ territory, leaving a trail of bodies and a whiff of fear in its wake, Clayton is pulled back into the life he so desperately wants to leave behind.
Minotaur Books | 9781250248251
LOST AND FOUND by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
It all starts with a fall from a ladder, in a firehouse in New York City. The firehouse has been converted into a unique Manhattan home and studio where renowned photographer Madison Allen works and lives after raising three children on her own. But the accident, which happens while Maddie is sorting through long-forgotten personal mementos and photos, results in more than a broken ankle. Spurred by old memories, the forced pause in her demanding schedule, and an argument with her daughter that leads to a rare crisis of confidence, Maddie embarks on a road trip. She sets off to reconnect with three very different men to know once and for all if the decisions she made long ago were the right ones.
Dell | 9780399179495
LOST AND WANTED by Nell Freudenberger (Fiction)
As a professor of physics at MIT, Helen Clapp disdains notions of the supernatural in favor of rational thought and proven ideas. So it’s perhaps especially vexing when, on an otherwise unremarkable Wednesday in June, she gets a phone call from a friend who has just died. That friend was Charlotte Boyce, Helen’s roommate at Harvard. The two women once confided in each other about everything: Helen’s struggles as a young woman in science, Charlie’s as a black screenwriter in Hollywood, their shared challenges as parents. But as the years passed, they gradually grew apart. And now Charlie is permanently, tragically gone. Drawn back into her friend’s orbit, Helen is forced to question the laws of the universe that have always steadied her mind and heart.
Vintage | 9780804170963
MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE by Siri Hustvedt (Fiction)
A young woman, S.H., moves to New York City in 1978 to look for adventure and write her first novel, but finds herself distracted by her mysterious neighbor, Lucy Brite. As S.H. listens to Lucy through the thin walls of her dilapidated building, she carefully transcribes the woman’s bizarre monologues about her daughter’s violent death and her need to punish the killer. Forty years later, S.H. stumbles upon the journal she kept that year and writes a memoir, Memories of the Future, in which she juxtaposes the notebook’s texts, drafts from her unfinished comic novel, and her commentaries on them to create a dialogue among selves over the decades. As the book unfolds, you witness S.H. write her way through vengeance and into freedom.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982102845
MERCY RIVER by Glen Erik Hamilton (Thriller)
When his friend Leo Pak is arrested on suspicion of murder and armed robbery, Van Shaw journeys to a remote Oregon county to help his fellow Ranger. The victim --- the owner of a local gun shop where Leo worked part time --- was dealing in stolen heroin-grade opiates. Worse, the town has a dark history that includes white supremacists who are threatening to turn Mercy River into their private enclave. The cops have damning evidence linking Leo to the murder, and Van knows that backwaters like Mercy River are notorious for protecting their own. His quest to clear Leo’s name will stir up old grudges and dark secrets beneath the surface of this fearful small town, pit his criminal instincts against his loyalties to his brothers-in-arms, and force him to question his own belief in putting justice above the letter of the law.
William Morrow | 9780062567444
MOTHER COUNTRY by Irina Reyn (Fiction)
Nadia's daily life in south Brooklyn is filled with small indignities. As a senior home attendant, she is always in danger of being fired; as a part-time nanny, she is forced to navigate the demands of her spoiled charge and the preschooler's insecure mother; and as an ethnic Russian, she finds herself feuding with western Ukrainian immigrants who think she is a traitor. The war back home is always at the forefront of her reality. Nadia internalizes notions of "union" all around her, but the one reunion she has been waiting six years for --- with her beloved daughter --- is being eternally delayed by the Department of Homeland Security. When Nadia finds out that her daughter has lost access to the medicine she needs to survive, she takes matters into her own hands.
Picador | 9781250300898
NOTES FROM A YOUNG BLACK CHEF: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi (Memoir)
By the time he was 27, Kwame Onwuachi had opened --- and closed --- one of the most talked-about restaurants in America. He had sold drugs in New York and been shipped off to rural Nigeria to “learn respect.” He had launched his own catering company with $20,000 made from selling candy on the subway and starred on "Top Chef." Through it all, Onwuachi’s love of food and cooking remained a constant, even when, as a young chef, he was forced to grapple with just how unwelcoming the food world can be for people of color. In this inspirational memoir about the intersection of race, fame and food, he shares the remarkable story of his culinary coming-of-age.
Vintage | 9780525433910
THE SUMMER GUESTS by Mary Alice Monroe (Fiction)
When a hurricane threatens the coasts of Florida and South Carolina, an eclectic group of evacuees flees for the farm of their friends Grace and Charles Phillips in North Carolina: the Phillips’ daughter Moira and her rescue dogs, famed equestrian Javier Angel de la Cruz, makeup artist Hannah McLain, horse breeder Gerda Klug and her daughter Elise, and island resident Cara Rutledge. They bring with them only the few treasured possessions they can fit in their vehicles. During the course of one of the most challenging weeks of their lives, relationships are put to the test as the evacuees are forced to confront the unresolved issues they have with themselves and with each other.
Gallery Books | 9781501193637
THEY BLED BLUE: Fernandomania, Strike-Season Mayhem, and the Weirdest Championship Baseball Had Ever Seen: The 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers by Jason Turbow (Sports)
THEY BLED BLUE is the rollicking yarn of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ crazy 1981 season. That it culminated in an unlikely World Series win --- during a campaign split by the longest player strike in baseball history --- is not even the most interesting thing about this team. The Dodgers were led by Tommy Lasorda, who unyieldingly proclaimed devotion to the franchise through monologues about bleeding Dodger blue and worshiping the “Big Dodger in the Sky.” Steve Garvey, the All-American, All-Star first baseman, had anchored the most durable infield in major league history. The season’s real story, however, was one that nobody expected at the outset: a 20-year-old chubby lefthander, nearly straight out of Mexico, with a wild delivery and a screwball as his flippin’ out pitch.
Mariner Books | 9780358358930
WHEN ALL IS SAID by Anne Griffin (Fiction)
At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He’s alone, as usual --- though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story. Over the course of this evening, he will raise five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him. Through these stories --- of unspoken joy and regret, a secret tragedy kept hidden, a fierce love that never found its voice --- the life of one man will be powerful and poignantly laid bare.
Picador | 9781250251336
WHITE by Bret Easton Ellis (Essays)
WHITE is Bret Easton Ellis' first work of nonfiction. Already the bad boy of American literature, from LESS THAN ZERO to AMERICAN PSYCHO, Ellis has also earned the wrath of right-thinking people everywhere with his provocations on social media, and here he escalates his admonishment of received truths as expressed by today's version of "the left." Eschewing convention, he embraces views that will make many in literary and media communities cringe, as he takes aim at the relentless anti-Trump fixation, coastal elites, corporate censorship, Hollywood, identity politics, Generation Wuss, "woke" cultural watchdogs, the obfuscation of ideals once both cherished and clear, and the fugue state of American democracy.
Vintage | 9780525566373
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