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Latest Update on Our GoFundMe Campaign
Thank you to those of you who have donated to our GoFundMe campaign. So far, with online and snail mail donations, we have raised $38,754 of our $50,000 goal.
You can read about our plans and donate here. If you would prefer donating via check, please send to:
The Book Report, Inc.
16 Mt. Bethel Road, Suite 365
Warren, NJ 07059
Thank you again for your consideration and your donation.
Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)
Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Lisa Gardner,
whose new stand-alone thriller is BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED.
Click on the image above for the video and here for the podcast.
Last Thursday night, we hosted our second "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event.
Our guest was William Kent Krueger, who talked to Carol about THIS TENDER LAND.
Kent also answered questions from four readers who joined them "on stage,"
as well as from other members of the audience.
Click on the image above to watch the event and here to listen to the podcast.
Our third “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event will take place on Thursday, March 25th at 8pm ET.
Our guest will be Kim Michele Richardson, who will talk about
THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK. Click on the image above to sign up.
On Wednesday, February 10th at 2pm ET, we will host our next "Bookaccino Live" afternoon event.
Carol will present a number of books releasing between February 9th and March 9th
that she would like to get on your radar, along with a few from April. Click on the image above to sign up.
In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of January 25th and February 1st 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 two new contests on Bookreporter, both of which have a deadline of Thursday, February 4th at noon ET for your entries.
First, we have 25 advance copies of Gabriela Garcia's debut novel, OF WOMEN AND SALT, to give away to those who would like to read the book, which releases on March 30th and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. Click here to enter.
In our second contest, which is part of our Historical Fiction Author Spotlight, we are awarding a copy of MASQUE OF HONOR: A Historical Novel of the American South by first-time novelist Sharon Virts to 25 readers. Releasing on February 9th, it will be a Bets On pick as well. Click here to enter.
Also, we are sharing Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Lisa Gardner, whose new thriller, BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED, is now in stores. Frankie Elkin is a middle-aged woman and a recovering alcoholic who spends her life tracking down those who live in marginalized communities. In her newest case, Frankie is searching for a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Even though she gets resistance from the police and the victim's family, Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means putting her own life in danger. In the interview, Lisa talked in-depth about her unique protagonist, who is tied between average life and crime. She also discussed some of the challenges she had in researching and writing the modern-day aspects of this stand-alone thriller. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
Last Thursday night, we hosted our second “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event with William Kent Krueger as our guest. It was such a fun evening as Carol and Kent discussed THIS TENDER LAND in depth. Four readers joined them "on stage" to ask questions as well. Click here to watch the event and here to listen to the podcast.
Our Next "Bookaccino Live" Book Group Event:
Thursday, March 25th at 8pm ET
Our next “Bookaccino Live” Book Group guest will be Kim Michele Richardson, who will join us on Thursday, March 25th at 8pm ET to talk about THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK. We selected this book for discussion as it has been a top pick for many months on ReadingGroupGuides.com in our “What’s Your Book Group Reading This Month?” feature. Click here to sign up. If you would like to be one of our featured audience guests and ask Kim Michele a question on camera, please send Carol an email with the subject line “Question for Kim Michele.”
Our Next "Bookaccino Live" Afternoon Event:
Wednesday, February 10th at 2pm ET
On Wednesday, February 10th at 2pm ET, we will be hosting our next "Bookaccino Live" afternoon event. Carol will present titles releasing between February 9th and March 2nd, along with a few from April, that she thinks will be of interest to our readers. Click here to sign up. Those attending the live event will be asked to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading and will be eligible to win prizes.
If you missed the January 13th event, where Carol talked about books coming out from January 12th to February 2nd, along with seven March releases, you can watch it here and see a list of the featured titles here.
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
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
As so many book and author events are happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register.
Tuesdays at 7:30pm ET: "Talking ETERNAL with Lisa Scottoline": Join Lisa Scottoline every Tuesday night at 7:30pm ET on Facebook as she premieres a new episode from her video series, "Behind the Book: Talking ETERNAL," which reveals behind-the-scenes looks at the inspirations of her upcoming historical fiction book, ETERNAL, releasing on March 23rd. And stay tuned because immediately following each video premiere, Lisa hosts a Facebook Live to talk about the video.
Wednesday, January 27th at 5pm ET: Lewes Public Library Virtual Event: Join Lewes Public Library for a live online conversation with Sadeqa Johnson, author of YELLOW WIFE, who will be joined by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kate Quinn.
Wednesday, January 27th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry and Mary Alice Monroe --- will talk to Marisa de los Santos, whose most recent novel is I'D GIVE ANYTHING.
Wednesday, January 27th at 7pm ET: Harvard Book Store Virtual Event: Harvard Book Store's virtual event series welcomes beloved, bestselling writer Simon Winchester for a discussion of his latest, highly anticipated book, LAND: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World. He will be joined in conversation by Pulitzer Prize–winning legal journalist Linda Greenhouse.
Wednesday, January 27th at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book Virtual Event: Gregg Hurwitz will talk about the latest installment in his Orphan X thriller series, PRODIGAL SON. Gregg will be joined by two experts he turns to for research: Bret Nelson, an ER doctor, and Brian Shiers, a mixed martial arts expert and mindful awareness therapist.
Thursday, January 28th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore Virtual Event: Gregg Hurwitz will discuss his new Orphan X novel, PRODIGAL SON, in a virtual event hosted by award-winning author Isabella Maldonado.
Monday, February 1st at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore Virtual Event: The husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Kellerman and Faye Kellerman will be in conversation about their latest novels, SERPENTINE: An Alex Delaware Novel and THE LOST BOYS: A Decker/Lazarus Novel.
Tuesday, February 2nd at 6pm ET: Politics & Prose Virtual Event: New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah will discuss her new book, THE FOUR WINDS, with Jess Walter, whose most recent novels are the national bestseller THE COLD MILLIONS and the #1 New York Times bestseller BEAUTIFUL RUINS.
Tuesday, February 2nd at 7pm ET: Barnes & Noble Virtual Book Club Event: Barnes & Noble will host a Facebook Live discussion for their January book club pick, BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME, featuring Julia Claiborne Johnson in conversation with fellow author Julie Schumacher.
Tuesday, February 2nd at 7pm ET: Bookmarks Virtual Event: John Hart will be in conversation with fellow New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell about his new thriller, THE UNWILLING.
Tuesday, February 2nd at 7pm ET: Warwick's Virtual Event: Warwick's will host Susan Meissner, in conversation with Kate Quinn, as she discusses her new book, THE NATURE OF FRAGILE THINGS.
Tuesday, February 2nd at 8pm ET: Raven Book Store Virtual Event: Join Raven Book Store as they welcome back Australian mystery master Jane Harper in celebration of her new stand-alone thriller, THE SURVIVORS. Harper will be in conversation with Michael Koryta, the author of 13 bestselling crime novels.
Tuesday, February 2nd at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore Virtual Event: Walter Mosley, one of the most versatile and admired writers in America, will discuss his new Easy Rawlins novel, BLOOD GROVE.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Special Contest for
OF WOMEN AND SALT by Gabriela Garcia
and Our Historical Fiction Author Spotlight & Contest for
MASQUE OF HONOR by Sharon Virts
Special Contest: Win an Advance Copy of OF WOMEN AND SALT by Gabriela Garcia
OF WOMEN AND SALT, Gabriela Garcia's debut novel, is about a daughter's fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born. The book doesn't release until March 30th, but we're happy to award an advance copy to 25 readers. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, February 4th at noon ET.
OF WOMEN AND SALT by Gabriela Garcia (Fiction)
In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction. Daughter of Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, she is determined to learn more about her family history from her reticent mother and makes the snap decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Carmen, still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, must process her difficult relationship with her own mother while trying to raise a wayward Jeanette. Steadfast in her quest for understanding, Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and reckon with secrets from the past destined to erupt.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here to read Gabriela Garcia's bio.
- Click here to visit Gabriela Garcia's website.
- Connect with Gabriela Garcia on Twitter and Instagram.
Click here to enter the contest.
Historical Fiction Author Spotlight & Contest: Win a Copy of MASQUE OF HONOR by Sharon Virts
In a coming-of-age tale set in early 19th-century America, two sons of the Virginia aristocracy risk it all to defend their dreams and determine their own destinies. We have 25 copies of Sharon Virts' debut novel, MASQUE OF HONOR, to give away to those who would like to read the book, which releases on February 9th. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, February 4th at noon ET.
MASQUE OF HONOR: A Historical Novel of the American South by Sharon Virts (Historical Fiction)
General Armistead Mason and John “Jack” Mason McCarty are brothers-in-law, second cousins and descendants of founding father George Mason IV. Ambitious and headstrong, together they set out to find love, acceptance and honor on their own merit. Armistead --- by nature a politician --- demands respect and strives for perfection. Jack --- by inclination a rover --- looks to forge his own path. When Armistead is challenged by corruption in the political machine and is denied a seat in the US Congress, the two become embroiled in a bitter dispute that sets in motion an irrevocable chain of events, leading them to the dueling grounds and an outcome that changes everything.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to read Sharon Virts' bio.
- Click here to visit Sharon Virts' website.
- Connect with Sharon Virts on Facebook and Instagram.
Click here to read more in our Historical Fiction Author Spotlight
and enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of January 25th in Hardcover
January 25th
THE RUSSIAN: A Detective Michael Bennett Thriller by James Patterson and James O. Born (Thriller)
Weeks before NYPD Detective Michael Bennett is to marry his longtime love, Mary Catherine, an assassin announces his presence in the city with a string of grisly murders. Each victim is a young woman. And each has been killed in a manner as precise as it was gruesome. Tasked with working alongside the FBI, Bennett and his gung-ho new partner uncover multiple cold-case homicides across the country that fit the same distinctive pattern --- proving the perpetrator they seek is as experienced at ending lives as he is at evading detection. Bennett promises Mary Catherine that the case won't affect their upcoming wedding, but the killer has a lethal vow of his own to fulfill.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316420389
January 26th
EVERY WAKING HOUR by Joanna Schaffhausen (Mystery/Thriller)
After surviving a serial killer’s abduction as a young teenager, Ellery Hathaway is finally attempting a normal life. She has a new job as a rookie Boston detective and a fledgling relationship with Reed Markham, the FBI agent who rescued her years ago. But when a 12-year-old girl disappears on Ellery’s watch, the troubling case opens deep wounds that never fully healed. Chloe Lockhart walked away from a busy street fair and vanished into the crowd. Maybe she was fleeing the suffocating surveillance her parents put on her from the time she was born, or maybe the evil from her parents’ past finally caught up to her. For Chloe, as Ellery learns, is not the first child Teresa Lockhart has lost.
Minotaur Books | 9781250249654
FAYE, FARAWAY by Helen Fisher (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Faye is a 37-year-old happily married mother of two young daughters. But one day, her life is turned upside down when she finds herself in 1977, the year before her mother died. Suddenly, she has the chance to reconnect with her long-lost mother, and even meets her own younger self, a little girl she can barely remember. Jeanie doesn’t recognize Faye as her daughter, of course, even though there is something eerily familiar about her. As the two women become close friends, they share many secrets --- but Faye is terrified of revealing the truth about her identity. Will it prevent her from returning to her own time and her beloved husband and daughters? What if she’s doomed to remain in the past forever?
Gallery Books | 9781982142674
THE GOOD AMERICAN: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's Greatest Humanitarian by Robert D. Kaplan (Biography)
In his long career as an acclaimed journalist covering the “hot” moments of the Cold War and its aftermath, Robert D. Kaplan often found himself crossing paths with Bob Gersony, a consultant for the U.S. State Department whose quiet dedication and consequential work made a deep impression on Kaplan. Gersony, a high school dropout later awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam, conducted on-the-ground research for the U.S. government in virtually every war and natural-disaster zone in the world. Kaplan saw in Gersony a powerful example of how American diplomacy should be conducted. Set during the State Department’s golden age, THE GOOD AMERICAN is a story about the loneliness, sweat and tears, and the genuine courage, that characterized Gersony’s work in far-flung places.
Random House | 9780525512301
IDA B. THE QUEEN: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells by Michelle Duster (Biography)
Ida B. Wells committed herself to the needs of those who did not have power. In the eyes of the FBI, this made her a “dangerous negro agitator.” In the annals of history, it makes her an icon. IDA B. THE QUEEN tells the awe-inspiring story of an inspirational woman who was often overlooked and underestimated --- a woman who refused to exit a train car meant for white passengers; a woman who brought to light the horrors of lynching in America; a woman who cofounded the NAACP. Written by Wells’ great-granddaughter Michelle Duster, this book is a unique visual celebration of Wells’ life and of the Black experience.
Atria/One Signal Publishers | 9781982129811
IF I DISAPPEAR by Eliza Jane Brazier (Psychological Thriller)
Sera loves true crime podcasts. They give her a sense of control in a world where women just like her disappear daily. She’s sure they’re preparing her for something. So when Rachel, her favorite podcast host, goes missing, Sera knows it's time to act. Rachel has always taught her to trust her instincts. Sera follows the clues hidden in the episodes to an isolated ranch outside Rachel's small hometown to begin her search. She's convinced her investigation will make Rachel so proud. But the more Sera digs into this unfamiliar world, the more off things start to feel. Because Rachel is not the first woman to vanish from the ranch, and she won't be the last. Rachel did try to warn her.
Berkley | 9780593198223
JUST AS I AM: A Memoir by Cicely Tyson with Michelle Burford (Memoir)
"JUST AS I AM is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. In these pages, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.” –Cicely Tyson
HarperCollins Publishers | 9780062931061
LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I MEAN by Joan Didion (Essays)
These 12 pieces from 1968 to 2000, never before gathered together, offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary figure. Here, Joan Didion touches on topics ranging from newspapers ("the problem is not so much whether one trusts the news as to whether one finds it"), to the fantasy of San Simeon, to not getting into Stanford. In "Why I Write," Didion ponders the act of writing: "I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means." From her admiration for Hemingway's sentences to her acknowledgment that Martha Stewart's story is one "that has historically encouraged women in this country, even as it has threatened men," these essays are acutely and brilliantly observed.
Knopf | 9780593318485
THE MASK FALLING: A Bone Season Novel by Samantha Shannon (Dystopian/Urban Fantasy)
Dreamwalker Paige Mahoney has eluded death again. Snatched from the jaws of captivity and consigned to a safe house in the Scion Citadel of Paris, she finds herself caught between those factions that seek Scion's downfall and those who would kill to protect the Rephaim's puppet empire. The mysterious Domino Program has plans for Paige, but she has ambitions of her own in this new citadel. With former enemy Arcturus Mesarthim at her side, she embarks on an adventure that will lead her from the catacombs of Paris to the glittering hallways of Versailles. Her risks promise high reward: the Parisian underworld could yield the means to escalate her rebellion to outright war.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635570328
MY BRILLIANT LIFE written by Ae-ran Kim, translated by Chi-Young Kim (Fiction)
Areum lives life to its fullest, vicariously through the stories of his parents, conversations with Little Grandpa Jang --- his 60-year-old neighbor and best friend --- and through the books he reads to visit the places he otherwise would never see. For several months, Areum has been working on a manuscript, piecing together his parents’ often embellished stories about his family and childhood. He hopes to present it on his birthday, as a final gift to his mom and dad --- their own falling-in-love story. Through it all, Areum and his family will have you laughing and crying, for all the right reasons.
Forge Books | 9781250750556
THE NARROWBOAT SUMMER by Anne Youngson (Fiction)
Eve has left her 30-year career to become a Free Spirit; Sally has waved goodbye to her indifferent husband and two grown-up children; and Anastasia, a defiantly independent narrowboat-dweller is suddenly landlocked and vulnerable. Before they quite know what they’ve done, Sally and Eve agree to drive Anastasia’s narrowboat on a journey through the canals of England, as she awaits a life-saving operation. As they glide through the countryside, the eccentricities and challenges of narrowboat life draw them inexorably together, and a tender and unforgettable story unfolds. At summer’s end, all three women must decide whether to return to the lives they left behind, or forge a new path forward.
Flatiron Books | 9781250764614
NO HEAVEN FOR GOOD BOYS by Keisha Bush (Fiction)
When six-year-old Ibrahimah is approached in his rural village one day by Marabout Ahmed, a seemingly kind stranger and highly regarded teacher, the tides of his life turn forever. Ibrahimah is sent to the capital city of Dakar to join his cousin, Étienne, in studying the Koran under Marabout Ahmed for a year. But instead of the days of learning that Ibrahimah’s parents imagine, the young boys, called Talibé, are forced to beg in the streets in order to line their teacher’s pockets. To make it back home, Étienne and Ibrahimah must help each other survive both the dangers posed by their Marabout, and the darker sides of Dakar: threats of black-market organ traders, rival packs of Talibé, and mounting student protest on the streets.
Random House | 9780399591969
THE PARADISE AFFAIR: A Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery by Bill Pronzini (Historical Mystery)
John Quincannon’s pursuit of two con men who have absconded to Hawaii with a considerable sum of his employer’s assets dovetails nicely with Sabina Carpenter’s vision of a second honeymoon. But neither is wont to stay out of trouble, and Sabina inadvertently becomes involved in a locked room/dying message murder in Honolulu.
Forge Books | 9781250216502
PRODIGAL SON: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
The highest power in the country has made Evan Smoak a tempting offer --- in exchange for an unofficial pardon, he must stop his clandestine activities as The Nowhere Man. But then he gets a call for help from a woman claiming to have given him up for adoption. Her unlikely request: help Andrew Duran, a man whose life has gone off the rails and who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, bringing him to the deadly attention of very powerful figures. Now a brutal brother and sister assassination team are after him. With no one to turn to, and no safe place to hide, Evan is Duran’s only option. But when the hidden cabal catches on to what Evan is doing, everything he has fought for is on the line --- including his own life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250252289
SOPHOMORES by Sean Desmond (Fiction)
It's fall 1987, and life as normal is ending for the Malone family. With their sterile Dallas community a far cry from the Irish-American Bronx of their youth, Pat and Anne Malone have reached a breaking point. Pat, faced with a debilitating MS diagnosis, has fallen into his drinking. Anne, his devoutly Catholic wife, is selected as a juror for a highly publicized attempted murder trial, one that raises questions --- about God, and about men in power --- she has buried her entire life. Together, they try to raise their only son, Daniel, a bright but unmotivated student who is shocked into actual learning by an enigmatic English teacher. For once, Dan is unable to fly under the radar, and is finally asked to consider what he might want to make of his life.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525542681
THE SWALLOWED MAN by Edward Carey (Historical Fantasy)
A lonely woodcarver longs for the companionship of a son. One day, Giuseppe --- better known as Geppetto --- carves for himself a pinewood boy, a marionette he hopes to take on tour worldwide. But when his handsome new creation comes magically to life, Geppetto screams…and the boy, Pinocchio, escapes into the night. Though he returns the next day, the wily boy torments his father, challenging his authority and making up stories --- whereupon his nose, the very nose his father carved, grows before his eyes. When the boy disappears after one last fight, the father follows a rumor to the coast and out into the sea, where he is swallowed by a great fish. He hunkers in the creature’s belly awaiting the day when he will reconcile with the son he drove away.
Riverhead Books | 9780593188873
A THOUSAND SHIPS by Natalie Haynes (Historical Fiction)
In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen. From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.
Harper | 9780063065390
TROPIC OF STUPID by Tim Dorsey (Mystery/Humor)
Serge Storms has decided to investigate his own history using one of those DNA services from late-night TV. Excited to construct a family tree, he and Coleman hit the road to meet his kin. Serge is thrilled to discover he may be related to a notorious serial killer who’s terrorized the state for 20 years and never been caught. Which of his newfound relatives will be the one to help him hunt down this deranged maniac? Serge doesn’t know that a dogged investigator from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is also hot on the trail. Then he meets a park ranger who’s also longing to make a family reconnection. But all is not as it appears on the surface, and Serge’s newfound friendship in the mysterious swamps of Florida may lead to deadly results.
William Morrow | 9780062967503
WE COULD BE HEROES by Mike Chen (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Jamie woke up in an empty apartment with no memory and only a few clues to his identity, but with the ability to read and erase other people’s memories --- a power he uses to hold up banks to buy coffee, cat food and books. Zoe is also searching for her past, and using her abilities of speed and strength…to deliver fast food. And she’ll occasionally put on a cool suit and beat up bad guys, if she feels like it. When the archrivals meet in a memory-loss support group, they realize the only way to reveal their hidden pasts might be through each other. As they uncover an ongoing threat, suddenly much more is at stake than their fragile friendship.
Mira | 9780778331391
On Sale the Week of January 25th in Paperback
January 25th
INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH BLUEGRASS: Southwestern Ohio’s Musical Legacy edited by Fred Bartenstein and Curtis W. Ellison (Music/History)
Paperback Original
In the 20th century, Appalachian migrants seeking economic opportunities relocated to southwestern Ohio, bringing their music with them. Between 1947 and 1989, they created an internationally renowned capital for the thriving bluegrass music genre, centered on the industrial region of Cincinnati, Dayton, Hamilton, Middletown and Springfield. Fred Bartenstein and Curtis W. Ellison edit a collection of eyewitness narratives and in-depth analyses that explore southwestern Ohio’s bluegrass musicians, radio broadcasters, recording studios, record labels and performance venues, along with the music’s contributions to religious activities, community development and public education.
University of Illinois Press | 9780252085604
January 26th
AGENCY by William Gibson (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Verity Jane, gifted app whisperer, takes a job as the beta tester for a new product: a digital assistant, accessed through a pair of ordinary-looking glasses. “Eunice,” the disarmingly human AI in the glasses, manifests a face, a fragmentary past and a canny grasp of combat strategy. Meanwhile, a century ahead in London, Wilf Netherton works amid plutocrats and plunderers, survivors of the slow and steady apocalypse known as the jackpot. His boss, the enigmatic Ainsley Lowbeer, can look into alternate pasts and nudge their ultimate directions. Verity and Eunice are her current project. Wilf can see what Verity and Eunice can’t: their own version of the jackpot, just around the corner, and the roles they both may play in it.
Berkley | 9781101986943
THE BODY: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson (Science/Humor)
Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body --- how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Brysonesque anecdotes, THE BODY will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular.
Anchor | 9780804172721
BRIDE OF THE SEA by Eman Quotah (Fiction)
Paperback Original
During a snowy Cleveland February, newlywed university students Muneer and Saeedah are expecting their first child, and he is harboring a secret: the word divorce is whispering in his ear. Soon, their marriage will end, and Muneer will return to Saudi Arabia, while Saeedah remains in Cleveland with their daughter, Hanadi. Consumed by a growing fear of losing her daughter, Saeedah disappears with the little girl, leaving Muneer to desperately search for his daughter for years. The repercussions of the abduction ripple outward, not only changing the lives of Hanadi and her parents, but also their interwoven family and friends --- those who must choose sides and hide their own deeply guarded secrets.
Tin House Books | 9781951142452
COCONUT LAYER CAKE MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
When Hannah Swensen learns that her sister Michelle’s boyfriend, Detective Lonnie Murphy, is the prime suspect in a murder case, she goes straight from a movie studio sound stage to the Los Angeles airport. Back in frigid Minnesota, she discovers that proving Lonnie’s innocence will be harder than figuring out what went wrong with a recipe. Lonnie remembers only parts of the night he went out to a local bar and ended up driving a very impaired woman home. He knows he helped her to her bedroom, but he doesn’t recall anything else until he woke up on her couch the following morning. When he went to the bedroom to check on her, he was shocked to discover she was dead. Hannah doesn’t know what to believe --- only that exonerating a suspect who can’t remember is almost impossible.
Kensington | 9781496718907
DANCE AWAY WITH ME by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Romance)
When life throws her one setback too many, midwife and young widow Tess Hartsong takes off for Runaway Mountain. In this small town high in the Tennessee mountains, surrounded by nature, she hopes to outrun her heartbreak and find the solace she needs to heal. But instead of peace and quiet, she encounters an enigmatic artist with a craving for solitude, a fairy-tale sprite with too many secrets, a helpless infant, a passel of curious teens, and a town suspicious of outsiders, especially one as headstrong as Tess. Just as headstrong is Ian North, a difficult, gifted man with a tortured soul --- a man who makes Tess question everything.
Avon | 9780062973078
EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS by Peter Swanson (Psychological Thriller)
Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders --- which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders” --- chosen from among the best of the best. But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. A killer is out there, watching his every move --- a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062838193
EMPIRE CITY by Matt Gallagher (Fiction)
Thirty years after its great triumph in Vietnam, the United States has again become mired in an endless foreign war overseas. Stories of super soldiers known as the Volunteers tuck in little American boys and girls every night. Yet domestic politics are aflame. Violent protests erupt throughout the nation. An ex-military watchdog group clashes with police, while radical terrorists threaten to expose government experiments within the veteran rehabilitation colonies. Halfway between war and peace, the Volunteers find themselves waiting for orders in the vast American city-state, Empire City. There they encounter a small group of civilians who know the truth about their powers. Through it all, a controversial retired general emerges as a frontrunner in the presidential campaign, promising to save the country from itself.
Washington Square Press | 9781501177804
HI FIVE: An IQ Novel by Joe Ide (Mystery)
Cristiana is the daughter of the biggest arms dealers on the West Coast, Angus Byrne. She's also the sole witness and number one suspect in the murder of her boyfriend, found dead in her Newport Beach boutique. Isaiah Quintabe is coerced into taking the case to prove her innocence. If he can't, Angus will harm the brilliant PI's new girlfriend, ending her career. The catch: Christiana has multiple personalities. Five radically different ones. Among them, a naïve, beautiful shopkeeper, an obnoxious drummer in a rock band, and a wanton seductress. Isaiah's dilemma: no one personality saw the entire incident. To find out what really happened the night of the murder, Isaiah must piece together clues from each of the personalities --- before the cops catch up.
Mulholland Books | 9780316509541
THE JERUSALEM ASSASSIN: A Marcus Ryker Novel 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. | 9781496437853
KINGDOMTIDE by Rye Curtis (Fiction)
The sole survivor of a plane crash, 72-year-old Cloris Waldrip finds herself lost and alone in the unforgiving wilderness of Montana's rugged Bitterroot Range, exposed to the elements with no tools beyond her wits and ingenuity. Intertwined with her narrative is the story of Debra Lewis, a park ranger struggling with addiction and a recent divorce who is galvanized by her mission to find and rescue Cloris. As Cloris wanders mountain forests and valleys, subsisting on whatever she can find, her hold on life ever more precarious, Ranger Lewis and her motley group of oddball rescuers follow the trail of clues she's left behind. Days stretch into weeks, and hope begins to fade. But with nearly everyone else giving up, Ranger Lewis stays true until the end.
Back Bay Books | 9780316420112
THE LAST TRIAL by Scott Turow (Legal Thriller)
At 85 years old, Alejandro "Sandy" Stern, a brilliant defense lawyer with his health failing but spirit intact, is on the brink of retirement. But when his old friend Dr. Kiril Pafko, a former Nobel Prize winner in Medicine, is faced with charges of insider trading, fraud and murder, his entire life's work is put in jeopardy, and Stern decides to take on one last trial. In a case that will be the defining coda to both men's accomplished lives, Stern probes beneath the surface of his friend's dazzling veneer as a distinguished cancer researcher. As the trial progresses, he will question everything he thought he knew about his friend. Despite Pafko's many failings, is he innocent of the terrible charges laid against him? How far will Stern go to save his friend, and --- no matter the trial's outcome --- will he ever know the truth?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748091
THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones (Horror)
Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in violent, vengeful ways.
Gallery/Saga Press | 9781982136468
REMEMBRANCE by Rita Woods (Historical Fiction)
Remembrance… It’s a rumor, a whisper passed in the fields and veiled behind sheets of laundry. A hidden stop on the underground road to freedom, a safe haven protected by more than secrecy…if you can make it there. Ohio, present day. An elderly woman who is more than she seems warns against rising racism as a young woman grapples with her life. Haiti, 1791, on the brink of revolution. When the slave Abigail is forced from her children to take her mistress to safety, she discovers New Orleans has its own powers. 1857 New Orleans --- a city of unrest: Following tragedy, house girl Margot is sold just before her 18th birthday and her promised freedom. Desperate, she escapes and chases a whisper... Remembrance.
Forge Books | 9781250298461
SALT RIVER: A Doc Ford Novel by Randy Wayne White (Thriller/Adventure)
Marine biologist and former government agent Doc Ford is sure he's beyond the point of being surprised by his longtime pal Tomlinson's madcap tales of his misspent youth. But he's stunned anew when avowed bachelor Tomlinson reveals that as a younger man strapped for cash, he'd unwittingly fathered multiple children via for-profit sperm bank donations. Thanks to genealogy websites, Tomlinson's now-grown offspring have tracked him down, seeking answers about their roots --- but Doc quickly grows suspicious that one of them might be planning something far more nefarious than a family reunion. With recent history on his mind, Doc is unsurprised when his own dicey past is called into question.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735212732
THE SEA GLASS COTTAGE by RaeAnne Thayne (Fiction)
Olivia Harper's 16-hour workdays are unfulfilling, and so are things with her ex-fiancé, who suddenly wants to take up where they left off. Then her estranged mother, Juliet, is seriously injured in a car accident, forcing Liv to head home to beautiful Cape Sanctuary on the Northern California coast. But as she gets closer to home, the painful memories start flooding back: Natalie, her vibrant older sister who spiraled into addiction. The endless arguments with her mother, who enabled her sister at every turn. The overdose that took Natalie, leaving her daughter, Caitlin, an orphan. As Liv tries to balance her own needs with those of her injured mother and resentful 15-year-old niece, it becomes clear that all three Harper women must come clean about the heartbreaking secrets they’ve been keeping from each other.
HQN | 9781335502964
THE TRUANTS by Kate Weinberg (Literary Thriller)
Jess Walker has come to a concrete campus under the flat gray skies of East Anglia for one reason: to be taught by the mesmerizing and rebellious Dr. Lorna Clay, whose seminars soon transform Jess' thinking on life, love and Agatha Christie. Swept up in Lorna's thrall, Jess falls in with a tightly knit group of rule-breakers --- until the dynamic among the friends begins to darken. When a tragedy shatters their friendships and love affairs and reveals a terrible secret, Jess must face the question she fears most: What is the true cost of an extraordinary life?
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525541974
THE UNSPOKEN NAME by A. K. Larkwood (Fantasy/Adventure)
What if you knew how and when you will die? Csorwe does --- she will climb the mountain, enter the Shrine of the Unspoken, and gain the most honored title: sacrifice. But on the day of her foretold death, a powerful mage offers her a new fate. Leave with him, and live. Turn away from her destiny and her god to become a thief, a spy, an assassin --- the wizard's loyal sword. Topple an empire, and help him reclaim his seat of power. But Csorwe will soon learn that gods remember, and if you live long enough, all debts come due.
Tor Books | 9781250238924
THE VANISHED BIRDS by Simon Jimenez (Science Fiction/Adventure)
A ship captain, unfettered from time. A mute child, burdened with unimaginable power. A millennia-old woman, haunted by lifetimes of mistakes. In this captivating debut of connection across space and time, these outsiders will find in each other the things they lack: A place of love and belonging. A safe haven. A new beginning. But the past hungers for them, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart.
Del Rey | 9780593129005
WESTERING WOMEN by Sandra Dallas (Historical Fiction)
It's February 1852, and all around Chicago, Maggie sees postings soliciting "eligible women" to travel to the gold mines of Goosetown. A young seamstress with a small daughter, she has nothing to lose. She joins 43 other women and two pious reverends on the dangerous 2,000-mile journey west. None are prepared for the hardships they face on the trek or for the strengths they didn't know they possessed. Maggie discovers she’s not the only one looking to leave dark secrets behind. And when her past catches up with her, it becomes clear a band of sisters will do whatever it takes to protect one of their own.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250781413
THE WIFE STALKER by Liv Constantine (Psychological Thriller)
When gorgeous thirtysomething Piper Reynard meets lawyer Leo Drakos, the wedding ring on his finger is the only thing she doesn’t like about him. Joanna has been waiting patiently for her husband to re-emerge from the severe depression that has engulfed him. Though thankful when Leo returns to his charming, energetic self, she is shocked to discover that it’s not her loving support that has sparked his renewed happiness. Leo has fallen head over heels for the flaky, New Age-y newcomer and is more than willing to leave his wife behind. As a devastated Joanna digs deeper into Piper’s past, she begins to unearth disturbing secrets and fears for the lives of her ex-husband and children. Can she find the proof she needs in time to save them?
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062967299
On Sale the Week of February 1st in Hardcover
February 1st
THE SHADOW BOX by Luanne Rice (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
After artist Claire Beaudry Chase is attacked and left for dead in her home on the Connecticut coast, she doesn’t know who she can trust. But her well-connected husband, Griffin --- who is running for governor --- is her prime suspect. Just before the attack, Claire was preparing for an exhibit of her shadow boxes, one of which clearly accuses Griffin of a violent crime committed 25 years ago. If the public were to find out who her husband is, his political career would be over. Claire is certain her husband and his powerful supporters would kill her to stop the truth from getting out. When one of Claire’s acquaintances is murdered, the authorities suspect the homicide is linked to the attack on Claire.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542025188
February 2nd
ANNIE AND THE WOLVES by Andromeda Romano-Lax (Historical/Speculative Fiction)
Ruth McClintock is obsessed with Annie Oakley and is convinced that a scarring childhood event was the impetus for her crusade to arm every woman in America. She has managed to hunt down what may be a journal of Oakley’s midlife struggles, including secret visits to a psychoanalyst and the desire for vengeance against the “Wolves,” or those who have wronged her. As she attempts to establish the journal’s provenance, she has begun to have jarring out-of-body episodes parallel to Annie’s own lived experiences. As she solves Annie’s mysteries, Ruth confronts her own truths, including the link between her teenage sister’s suicide and an impending tragedy in her Minnesota town that Ruth can still prevent.
Soho Press | 9781641291699
THE BAD MUSLIM DISCOUNT by Syed M. Masood (Fiction)
It is 1995, and Anvar Faris is doing his best to grow up in Karachi, Pakistan. As fundamentalism takes root within the social order, his family decides to start life over in California. Ironically, Anvar's deeply devout mother and his model-Muslim brother adjust easily to life in America, while his fun-loving father can't find anyone he relates to. For his part, Anvar fully commits to being a bad Muslim. At the same time, Safwa, a young girl living in war-torn Baghdad with her grief-stricken, conservative father, will find a very different and far more dangerous path to America. When Anvar and Safwa's worlds collide as two remarkable, strong-willed adults, their contradictory, intertwined fates will rock their community --- and families --- to their core.
Doubleday | 9780385545259
BENEATH THE KEEP: A Novel of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (Fantasy/Adventure)
The Tearling, founded as a utopia, has collapsed and reverted to feudalism. As the gap between rich and poor widens and famine threatens the land, rumors of a prophecy begin to spread: a great hope, a True Queen who will ascend and save the kingdom. But rumors will not help Lazarus, a boy on the verge of manhood, trapped in the clandestine underworld known as the Creche. Enlisted from his earliest days to kill without mercy, he has never seen sun or sky, not until a quest for vengeance propels him above ground. There he finds a calling amid a royal court rife with intrigue and danger, where he meets Niya, Princess Elyssa’s handmaid, who is not what she appears to be and whose true identity will spell death if revealed.
Dutton | 9781524742720
BLINK OF AN EYE by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen (Mystery/Thriller)
Delilah Winter is one of the hottest pop stars on the planet, so how in the world was she kidnapped right in the middle of a show at the famous Hollywood Bowl? If anyone can figure it out, it's Dr. Kendra Michaels, who works with local and federal authorities on only the most impossible cases. She agrees to lead the race to rescue the young singer before time runs out. Joined by Jessie Mercado, the singer's former bodyguard and a military hero, Kendra closes in on the hideout location but not before casualties mount up. Desperate for leads, Kendra must set aside her personal feelings when agent-for-hire Adam Lynch also volunteers his special skills to aid in the search. But as the abductor's true purpose becomes clear, the trio uncover a plot they never could have imagined --- leading to a showdown they won't soon forget.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538762882
BLOOD GROVE: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley (Mystery)
Easy Rawlins, the Black private detective whose small agency finally has its own office, gets a visit from a white Vietnam veteran. He and his lover were attacked in a citrus grove at the city’s outskirts. He may have killed a man, and the woman and his dog are now missing. Inclined to turn down what sounds like nothing but trouble, Easy takes the case when he realizes how damaged the young vet is from his war experiences. Meanwhile, Easy’s adopted daughter Feather’s white uncle shows up uninvited, raising questions and unsettling the life Easy has long forged for the now young woman. Where Feather sees a family reunion, Easy suspects something else, something that will break his heart.
Mulholland Books | 9780316491181
CITY OF A THOUSAND GATES by Rebecca Sacks (Fiction)
Hamid, a college student, has entered Israeli territory illegally for work. Rushing past soldiers, he bumps into Vera, a German journalist headed to Jerusalem to cover the story of Salem, a Palestinian boy beaten into a coma by a group of revenge-seeking Israeli teenagers. On her way to the hospital, Vera runs in front of a car that barely avoids hitting her. The driver is Ido, a new father traveling with his American wife and their baby. Ido is distracted by thoughts of a young Jewish girl murdered by a terrorist who infiltrated her settlement. Ori, a 19-year-old soldier from a nearby settlement, is guarding the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem through which Samar --- Hamid’s professor --- must pass.
Harper | 9780063011472
FAKE ACCOUNTS by Lauren Oyler (Fiction)
On the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration, a young woman snoops through her boyfriend's phone and makes a startling discovery: he's an anonymous internet conspiracy theorist. Already fluent in internet fakery, irony and outrage, she is not exactly shocked by the revelation and plots to end their floundering relationship while on a trip to the Women's March in DC. But this is only the first in a series of bizarre twists that expose a world in which truths are shaped by online lies. Suddenly left with no reason to stay in New York and increasingly alienated from her friends and colleagues, our unnamed narrator flees to Berlin, embarking on her own cycles of manipulation in the deceptive spaces of her daily life.
Catapult | 9781948226929
FINLAY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT by Elle Cosimano (Mystery/Humor)
Finlay Donovan is a stressed-out single mom of two and struggling novelist. The new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors. When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she is mistaken for a contract killer and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet. Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.
Minotaur Books | 9781250241702
THE FOUR WINDS by Kristin Hannah (Historical Fiction)
Texas, 1921. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. By 1934, millions are out of work, and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive. In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa --- like so many of her neighbors --- must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves, or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250178602
GIRL A by Abigail Dean (Psychological Thriller)
Lex Gracie doesn't want to think about her family. She doesn't want to think about growing up in her parents' House of Horrors. And she doesn't want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It's been easy enough to avoid her parents --- her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can't run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the home into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings --- and with the childhood they shared.
Viking | 9780593295847
GOOD NEIGHBORS by Sarah Langan (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
When the Wilde family moves to the suburbs of Long Island, they trigger their neighbors’ worst fears. Dad Arlo is a gruff has-been rock star with track marks. Mom Gertie has a thick Brooklyn accent, with high heels and tube tops to match. Their weird kids cuss like sailors. They don’t fit with the way Maple Street sees itself. Though Maple Street’s Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder, welcomed Gertie and her family at first, relations went south during one spritzer-fueled summer evening, when the new best friends shared too much. The Wildes are now outcasts. As tensions mount, a sinkhole opens in a nearby park, and Rhea’s daughter Shelly falls inside. The search for Shelly brings a shocking accusation against the Wildes.
Atria Books | 9781982144364
A HISTORY OF WHAT COMES NEXT: A Take Them to the Stars Novel by Sylvain Neuvel (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Over 99 identical generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars, making brutal, wrenching choices and sacrificing countless lives. Her turn comes at the dawn of the age of rocketry. Her mission: to lure Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazi party and into the American rocket program, and secure the future of the space race. But Mia’s family is not the only group pushing the levers of history. An even more ruthless enemy lurks behind the scenes.
Tordotcom | 9781250262066
HOW THE ONE-ARMED SISTER SWEEPS HER HOUSE by Cherie Jones (Fiction)
In Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, Lala’s grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It’s a cautionary tale, about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter’s Tunnels. When she’s grown, Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven into the Tunnels by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom --- and their lives.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316536981
THE KINDEST LIE by Nancy Johnson (Fiction)
Ruth Tuttle, an Ivy League-educated Black engineer, is married to a kind and successful man. He’s eager to start a family, but she's uncertain. She has never gotten over the baby she gave birth to --- and was forced to leave behind --- when she was a teenager. Returning home, Ruth discovers that the Indiana factory town of her youth is plagued by unemployment, racism and despair. As she begins digging into the past, she unexpectedly befriends Midnight, a young white boy who is also adrift and looking for connection. Just as Ruth is about to uncover a burning secret her family desperately wants to keep hidden, a traumatic incident strains the town’s already searing racial tensions, sending Ruth and Midnight on a collision course that could upend both their lives.
William Morrow | 9780063005631
LANDSLIDE by Susan Conley (Fiction)
After a fishing accident leaves her husband hospitalized across the border in Canada, Jill is left to look after her teenage boys --- "the wolves" --- alone. Nothing comes easy in their remote corner of Maine: money is tight; her son, Sam, is getting into more trouble by the day; her eldest, Charlie, is preoccupied with a new girlfriend; and Jill begins to suspect her marriage isn't as stable as she once believed. As one disaster gives way to the next, she begins to think that it's not enough to be a caring wife and mother anymore --- not enough to show up when needed, to nudge her boys in the right direction, to believe everything will be okay. But how to protect this life she loves, this household, this family?
Knopf | 9780525657132
LONE STARS by Justin Deabler (Fiction)
LONE STARS follows the arc of four generations of a Texan family in a changing America. Julian Warner, a father at last, wrestles with a question his husband posed: What will you tell our son about the people you came from, now that they're gone? Finding the answers takes Julian back in time to Eisenhower's immigration border raids, an epistolary love affair during the Vietnam War, crumbling marriages, queer migrations to Cambridge and New York, up to the disorienting polarization of Obama's second term. And in these answers lies a hope: that by uncloseting ourselves --- as immigrants, smart women, gay people --- we find power in empathy.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250256102
LOVE IS AN EX-COUNTRY: A Memoir by Randa Jarrar (Memoir)
As an American raised for a time in Egypt, and finding herself captivated by the story of a celebrated Egyptian belly dancer's journey across the United States in the 1940s, Randa Jarrar sets off from her home in California to her parents' in Connecticut. Coloring this road trip are journeys abroad and recollections of a life lived with daring. Reclaiming her autonomy after a life of survival --- domestic assault as a child and, later, as a wife; threats and doxxing after her viral tweet about Barbara Bush --- Jarrar offers a bold look at domestic violence, single motherhood and sexuality through the lens of the punished-yet-triumphant body. On the way, she schools a rest-stop racist, destroys Confederate flags in the desert, and visits the Chicago neighborhood where her immigrant parents first lived.
Catapult | 9781948226585
MILK BLOOD HEAT: Stories by Dantiel W. Moniz (Fiction/Short Stories)
MILK BLOOD HEAT depicts the sultry lives of Floridians in intergenerational tales that contemplate human connection, race, womanhood, inheritance and the elemental darkness in us all. A 13-year-old meditates on her sadness and the difference between herself and her white best friend when an unexpected tragedy occurs; a woman recovering from a miscarriage finds herself unable to let go of her daughter --- whose body parts she sees throughout her daily life; a teenager resists her family’s church and is accused of courting the devil; servers at a supper club cater to the insatiable cravings of their wealthy clientele; and two estranged siblings take a road trip with their father’s ashes and are forced to face the troubling reality of how he continues to shape them.
Grove Press | 9780802158154
MILK FED by Melissa Broder (Fiction/Humor)
Rachel is 24, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, by way of obsessive food rituals. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting --- until her therapist encourages her to take a 90-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting. Early in the detox, Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam, and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk and honey.
Scribner | 9781982142490
MY YEAR ABROAD by Chang-rae Lee (Fiction)
Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese American entrepreneur who sees something intriguing in Tiller beyond his bored exterior and takes him under his wing. When Pong brings him along on a boisterous trip across Asia, Tiller is catapulted from ordinary young man to talented protégé, and pulled into a series of ever more extreme and eye-opening experiences that transform his view of the world, of Pong and of himself. The narrative alternates between Tiller’s outlandish, mind-boggling year with Pong and the strange, riveting, emotionally complex domestic life that follows it, as Tiller processes what happened to him abroad and what it means for his future.
Riverhead Books | 9781594634574
THE NATURE OF FRAGILE THINGS by Susan Meissner (Historical Fiction)
Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant who answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a San Francisco widower named Martin Hocking, a man she knows nothing about. She quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right. Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. The fates of Sophie and two other women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake of 1906, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear.
Berkley | 9780451492180
ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE TREADSTONE EXILE by Joshua Hood (Thriller/Adventure)
After the revival of Operation Treadstone, former agent Adam Hayes has retreated to Africa, determined to leave behind the black-ops CIA program for good. But his quiet life in Africa changes irrevocably when, while attempting to complete a charitable mission in Burkina Faso, Hayes is attacked by extremists. Forced to make an unexpected landing, his plane is damaged. In order to get back in the air, Hayes agrees to transport a passenger --- Zoe Cabot, the daughter of a tech baron --- to a small coastal city. But just after Hayes completes his flight, Zoe is kidnapped. During his search for Zoe, Hayes funs afoul of multiple enemies, including a rogue Treadstone operative, all of whom are searching for him.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525542629
RUN FOR COVER by Michael Ledwidge (Mystery/Thriller)
Fresh from a lethal entanglement with some of the deepest and darkest players in the global intelligence services, Michael Gannon heads to the ranch of one of his oldest and closest war buddies. But when his friend’s brother is found dead, Gannon realizes there are some things more important than keeping your head down. Is his death just one in a string of grisly murders mysteriously occurring around national parks --- or a part of something even more sinister? Flushed from cover, Gannon soon finds himself teamed up with tenacious FBI agent Kit Hagen on the trail of a dangerous mystery and a head-on collision course with a ruthless killer whose skills at war are as deadly as they come.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335141460
THE SANATORIUM by Sarah Pearse (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel. Elin Warner has taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge --- there's something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593296677
SEND FOR ME by Lauren Fox (Historical Fiction)
Annelise is a dreamer: imagining her future while working at her parents' popular bakery in Feldenheim, Germany. There are rumors that anti-Jewish sentiment is on the rise, but Annelise and her parents can't quite believe that it will affect them. But as Annelise falls in love, marries and gives birth to her daughter, the dangers grow closer. Luckily Annelise and her husband are given the chance to leave for America, but they must go without her parents, whose future and safety are uncertain. Two generations later, Annelise's granddaughter, Clare, is a young woman newly in love. But when she stumbles upon a trove of her grandmother's letters from Germany, she sees the history of her family's sacrifices in a new light.
Knopf | 9781101947807
SERPENTINE: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman (Psychological Thriller)
The LAPD pressures homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis to cater to the demands of a mogul: a hard-to-fathom, megarich young woman who is obsessed with reopening the coldest of cases --- the decades-old death of the mother she never knew. A mysterious woman was found with a bullet in her head in a torched Cadillac that has overturned on infamously treacherous Mulholland Drive. No physical evidence, no witnesses, no apparent motive. And a slew of detectives have already worked the case and failed. But as Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware begin digging, the mist begins to lift. Too many coincidences. Facts turn out to be anything but. And, as they soon discover, very real threats lurking in the present.
Ballantine Books | 9780525618553
SMALLTIME: A Story of My Family and the Mob by Russell Shorto (Memoir)
SMALLTIME is a riveting American immigrant story that travels back to Risorgimento Sicily, to the ancient, dusty, hill-town home of Antonino Sciotto, Russell Shorto’s great-grandfather, who leaves his wife and children in grinding poverty for a new life --- and wife --- in a Pennsylvania mining town. It’s a tale of Italian Americans living in squalor and prejudice, and of the rise of Russ, who, like thousands of other young men, created a copy of the American establishment that excluded him. The book draws an intimate portrait of a mobster and his wife, sudden riches, and the toll a lawless life takes on one family. But SMALLTIME is something more. The author enlists his ailing father --- Tony, the mobster’s son --- as his partner in the search for their troubled patriarch.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393245585
SURVIVING THE WHITE GAZE: A Memoir by Rebecca Carroll (Memoir)
Rebecca Carroll grew up the only Black person in her rural New Hampshire town. Adopted at birth by artistic parents who believed in peace, love and zero population growth, her early childhood was loving and idyllic --- and yet she couldn’t articulate the deep sense of isolation she increasingly felt as she grew older. Everything changed when she met her birth mother, a young white woman, who consistently undermined Carroll’s sense of her Blackness and self-esteem. Carroll’s childhood became harrowing, and her memoir explores the tension between the aching desire for her birth mother’s acceptance, the loyalty she feels toward her adoptive parents, and the search for her racial identity.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982116255
THE SURVIVORS by Jane Harper (Mystery/Thriller)
Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences. The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home. Kieran's parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn. When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl and questions that have never washed away.
Flatiron Books | 9781250232427
THIS CLOSE TO OKAY by Leesa Cross-Smith (Fiction)
On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing at the edge of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett. Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. What she doesn’t realize is that Emmett isn’t the only one who needs healing --- and they both are harboring secrets.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538715376
THE THREE MOTHERS: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs (Biography)
Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King and Louise Little were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. These three extraordinary women passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning --- from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. They used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced.
Flatiron Books | 9781250756121
TRULY LIKE LIGHTNING by David Duchovny (Fiction)
For the past 20 years, Bronson Powers, former Hollywood stuntman and converted Mormon, has been homesteading deep in the uninhabited desert outside Joshua Tree with his three wives and 10 children. Bronson and his wives, Yalulah, Mary and Jackie, have been raising their family away from the corruption and evil of the modern world. Their insular existence --- controversial, difficult but Edenic --- is upended when the ambitious young developer Maya Abbadessa stumbles upon their land. Hoping to make a profit, she crafts a wager with the family that sets in motion a deadly chain of events.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374277741
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice by Ellen McGarrahan (True Crime/Memoir)
In 1990, Ellen McGarrahan was a young reporter for the Miami Herald when she covered the execution of Jesse Tafero, a man convicted of murdering two police officers. When it later emerged that Tafero may have been innocent, McGarrahan was appalled by her unquestioning acceptance of the state’s version of events. The revelation propelled her into a new career as a private investigator. Decades later, McGarrahan finally decides to find out the truth of what really happened in Florida. Her investigation plunges her back into the Miami of the 1960s and 1970s, a dangerous world of nightclubs, speed boats and cartels, all awash in violence. But even as McGarrahan circles closer to the truth, the story of guilt and innocence becomes more complex, and she gradually discovers that she hasn’t been alone in her need for closure.
Random House | 9780812998665
UNTIL WE ARE LOST by Leslie Archer (Psychological Thriller)
When Tara Peary’s twin sister Sophie goes missing, Tara dives into New York’s underbelly to find her. But Tara’s childhood memories are threatening to overwhelm her emotions and derail the hunt for Sophie. A psychotherapist keeps her afloat, but when Tara begins dating her therapist’s young tech-millionaire neighbor, she risks losing the only lifelines she has left. The more Tara uncovers about her sister’s disappearance and the dark side of the rich elite, the less certain of the truth she becomes. As Tara reaches the center of the mystery, spanning from her childhood home in Georgia to a Southern California beach, she has to decide whether the truth is a price she’s willing to pay.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542019439
THE UNWILLING by John Hart (Historical Thriller)
Gibby's brother, Jason, won't speak of the war or of his time behind bars, but he wants a relationship with the younger brother he hasn't known for years. Determined to make that connection, he coaxes Gibby into a day at the lake with some older women. But the day turns ugly when they encounter a prison transfer bus on a stretch of empty road. One of the women taunts the prisoners, leading to a riot on the bus. The woman finds it funny in the moment, but is savagely murdered soon after. Given his violent history, suspicion turns first to Jason. But when the second woman is kidnapped, the police suspect Gibby, too. Determined to prove Jason innocent, Gibby must avoid the cops and dive deep into his brother's hidden life. What he discovers is a truth more disturbing than he ever could have imagined.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250167729
WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU: A Life with Chronic Illness - Lessons from a Body in Revolt by Tessa Miller (Memoir)
Tessa Miller was an ambitious twentysomething writer in New York City when, on a random fall day, her stomach began to seize up. At first, she toughed it out through searing pain, taking sick days from work, unable to leave the bathroom or her bed. But when it became undeniable that something was seriously wrong, Miller gave in to family pressure and went to the hospital --- beginning a yearslong nightmare of procedures, misdiagnoses and life-threatening infections. Once she was finally correctly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, Miller faced another battle: accepting that she will never get better.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250751454
WHEN HARRY MET MINNIE: A True Story of Love and Friendship by Martha Teichner (Memoir)
There’s a special camaraderie among early-morning dog walkers. Gathering at dog runs in the park, or strolling through the farmer's market at Union Square before the bustling crowd appears, fellow pet owners become familiar --- as do the personalities of their beloved animals. In this special space and time, a chance encounter with an old acquaintance changed Martha Teichner’s world. As fate would have it, her friend knew someone who was dying of cancer, from exposure to toxins after 9/11, and desperate to find a home for her dog, Harry. He was a Bull Terrier --- the same breed as Martha’s dear Minnie. What begins as a transaction involving a dog becomes a deep and meaningful friendship between two women with complicated lives and a love of Bull Terriers in common.
Celadon Books | 9781250212535
WINTER'S ORBIT by Everina Maxwell (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
A famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor's least favorite grandchild, Prince Kiem is summoned before the Emperor and commanded to renew the empire's bonds with its newest vassal planet. The prince must marry Count Jainan, the recent widower of another royal prince of the empire. But Jainan suspects his late husband’s death was no accident. And Prince Kiem discovers Jainan is a suspect himself. But broken bonds between the Empire and its vassal planets leave the entire empire vulnerable, so together they must prove that their union is strong while uncovering a possible conspiracy. Their successful marriage will align conflicting worlds. Their failure will be the end of the empire.
Tor Books | 9781250758835
On Sale the Week of February 1st in Paperback
February 2nd
ACTRESS by Anne Enright (Fiction)
Katherine O’Dell is an Irish theater legend. Every moment of her life is a performance, with her daughter, Norah, standing in the wings. However, with age, alcohol and dimming stardom, Katherine’s grip on reality grows fitful. Fueled by a proud and long-simmering rage, she commits a bizarre crime. As Norah’s role gradually changes to Katherine’s protector, caregiver and, finally, legacy-keeper, she revisits her mother’s life of fiercely kept secrets. In turn, Norah confronts the secrets of her own sexual and emotional coming-of-age.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393541458
APEIROGON by Colum McCann (Fiction)
Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their lives --- from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their children attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate. But their lives, however circumscribed, are upended one after the other: first, Rami’s 13-year-old daughter, Smadar, becomes the victim of suicide bombers; a decade later, Bassam’s 10-year-old daughter, Abir, is killed by a rubber bullet. Rami and Bassam had been raised to hate one another. And yet, when they learn of each other’s stories, they recognize the loss that connects them. Together they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace --- and, with their one small act, start to permeate what has for generations seemed an impermeable conflict.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812981933
BAD HABITS by Amy Gentry (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Claire “Mac” Woods --- a professor enjoying her newfound hotshot status at an academic conference --- finally has the acceptance and admiration she has long craved. But at the conference's hotel bar, Mac is surprised to run into a face from a past she'd rather forget: Gwendolyn Whitney, her foil, rival and former best friend. Mac was admitted into the same elite graduate program as Gwen, but then they become entangled with the department’s power-couple professors and compete head-to-head for a life-changing fellowship. The more twisted the track toward success becomes, the more Mac has to contort herself to stay one step ahead. Which deception signals the point of no return?
Mariner Books | 9780358408574
BEFORE AND AFTER: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate (True Crime/History)
From the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a black-market baby business at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis. She offered up more than 5,000 orphans tailored to the wish lists of eager parents --- hiding the fact that many weren’t orphans at all, but stolen sons and daughters of poor families, desperate single mothers, and women told in maternity wards that their babies had died. The publication of Lisa Wingate’s novel, BEFORE WE WERE YOURS, brought new awareness of Tann’s lucrative career in child trafficking. Encouraged by their contact with Wingate and award-winning journalist Judy Christie, who documented the stories of 15 adoptees in this book, many determined Tann survivors set out to trace their roots and find their birth families.
Ballantine Books | 9780593156704
BLOWOUT: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow (Political Science/Geopolitics)
In 2010, the words “earthquake swarm” entered the lexicon in Oklahoma. That same year, a trove of Michael Jackson memorabilia --- including his iconic crystal-encrusted white glove --- was sold at auction for over $1 million to a guy who was, officially, just the lowly forestry minister of the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea. And in 2014, Ukrainian revolutionaries raided the palace of their ousted president and found a zoo of peacocks, gilded toilets and a floating restaurant modeled after a Spanish galleon. Unlikely as it might seem, there is a thread connecting these events, and Rachel Maddow follows it to its crooked source: the unimaginably lucrative and equally corrupting oil and gas industry.
Crown | 9780525575481
THE CACTUS LEAGUE by Emily Nemens (Fiction)
Jason Goodyear is the star outfielder for the Los Angeles Lions, stationed with the rest of his team in the punishingly hot Arizona desert for their annual spring training. Handsome, famous and talented, Goodyear is nonetheless coming apart at the seams. And the coaches, writers, wives, girlfriends, petty criminals and diehard fans following his every move are eager to find out why --- as they hide secrets of their own. Narrated by a sportscaster, Goodyear’s story is interspersed with tales of Michael Taylor, a batting coach trying to stay relevant; Tamara Rowland, a resourceful spring-training paramour, looking for one last catch; and Herb Allison, a legendary sports agent grappling with his decline.
Picador | 9781250785763
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.
Anchor | 9780525565499
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. A 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 | 9781982138899
DARK CURRENTS by Doug Burgess (Mystery)
Paperback Original
When David left home three years ago, he never looked back. Now, the only connection to his tiny New England hometown is his grandmother Maggie, whose mind is unraveling as she slowly succumbs to dementia. But when her best friend turns up dead and she may be the sole witness to the crime, David has no choice but to return to a place that never accepted his trans-identity and only ever wanted him gone. Maggie's testimony is shrouded in doubt; in between moments of lucidity she talks about things that never happened, about apparitions, disappearances and murders. But are they really only stories? After a man's death sets off a hauntingly familiar chain of events, it seems there's some truth to Maggie's words.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728223216
DEACON KING KONG by James McBride (Historical Fiction)
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range. James McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood's Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters --- caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York --- overlap in unexpected ways.
Riverhead Books | 9780735216730
DEAR EDWARD by Ann Napolitano (Fiction)
One summer morning, 12-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor. His story captures the attention of the nation, yet he struggles to find a place in a world without his family. But then he makes an unexpected discovery --- one that will lead him to the answers of some of life’s most profound questions: When you’ve lost everything, how do you find the strength to put one foot in front of the other? How do you learn to feel safe again? How do you find meaning in your life?
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9781984854803
THE ENGINEER’S WIFE by Tracey Enerson Wood (Historical Fiction)
Emily Roebling refuses to live conventionally --- she knows who she is and what she wants, and she's determined to make change. But then her husband asks the unthinkable: give up her dreams to make his possible. Emily's fight for women's suffrage is put on hold, and her life transformed when her husband Washington Roebling, the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge, is injured on the job. Untrained for the task, but under his guidance, she assumes his role, despite stern resistance and overwhelming obstacles. But as the project takes shape under Emily's direction, she wonders whose legacy she is building --- hers or her husband's. As the monument rises, Emily's marriage, principles and identity threaten to collapse.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728226255
FACEBOOK: The Inside Story by Steven Levy (Biography)
As a college sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network. Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from its first, modest iteration. In light of recent controversies surrounding election-influencing “fake news” accounts, the handling of its users’ personal data, and growing discontent with the actions of its founder and CEO --- who has enormous power over what the world sees and says --- never has a company been more central to the national conversation. Based on hundreds of interviews from inside and outside Facebook, Steven Levy’s sweeping narrative of incredible entrepreneurial success and failure digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.
Blue Rider Press | 9780735213173
FAIR WARNING by Michael Connelly (Legal Thriller/Mystery)
Veteran reporter Jack McEvoy has taken down killers before, but when a woman he had a one-night stand with is murdered in a particularly brutal way, McEvoy realizes he might be facing a criminal mind unlike any he's ever encountered. Jack investigates --- against the warnings of the police and his own editor --- and makes a shocking discovery that connects the crime to other mysterious deaths across the country. Undetected by law enforcement, a vicious killer has been hunting women, using genetic data to select and stalk his targets. Uncovering the murkiest corners of the dark web, Jack races to find and protect the last source who can lead him to his quarry. But the killer has already chosen his next target, and he's ready to strike.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538736333
THE FAMILY by Louise Jensen (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Laura is grieving after the sudden death of her husband. Struggling to cope emotionally and financially, she is grateful when a local community offers her and her 17-year-old daughter, Tilly, a home. But as Laura and Tilly settle into life with their new "family," sinister things begin to happen. When one of the community dies under suspicious circumstances, Laura wants to leave, but Tilly, enthralled by the charismatic leader, Alex, refuses to go. Desperately searching for a way to save her daughter, Laura uncovers a horrifying secret. But just as Laura has been digging into their past, they've been digging into hers. She discovers the terrifying reason they invited her and Tilly in, and why they'll never let them leave.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538736364
FRANKLIN & WASHINGTON: The Founding Partnership by Edward J. Larson (Biography)
Theirs was a three-decade-long bond that, more than any other pairing, would forge the United States. Benjamin Franklin, an abolitionist freethinker from the urban north, and George Washington, a slaveholding general from the agrarian south, were the indispensable authors of American independence and the two key partners in the attempt to craft a more perfect union at the Constitutional Convention. Yet their teamwork has been little remarked upon in the centuries since. Illuminating Franklin and Washington’s relationship with striking new detail and energy, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson shows that theirs was truly an intimate working friendship that amplified the talents of each for collective advancement of the American project.
Custom House | 9780062880161
THE GIRL FROM THE CHANNEL ISLANDS by Jenny Lecoat (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Summer 1940: Hedy Bercu fled Vienna two years ago. Now she watches the skies over Jersey for German planes, convinced that an invasion is imminent. When it finally comes, there is no counterattack from Allied forces --- the Channel Islands are simply not worth defending. Most islanders and occupying forces settle into an uneasy coexistence, but for Hedy, the situation is perilously different. For Hedy is Jewish --- a fact that could mean deportation, or worse. With no means of escape, she hides in plain sight, working as a translator for the Germans while silently working against them. Soon, Hedy's survival will depend not just on her own courage but on the community she has come to cherish and a man who should be her enemy.
Graydon House | 9781525806414
GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Stanford alerts Seattle's Elliott Bay Academy that it's allotting only one spot to the school for their incoming class, three mothers discover that the competition is more cutthroat than they could have imagined. Tech giant Alicia turns to her fortune and status to fight for her reluctant daughter's place at the top. Kelly, a Stanford alum, leverages her PTA influence and insider knowledge to bulldoze the path for her high-strung daughter. And Maren makes three: single, broke and ill-equipped to battle the elite school community aligning to bring her superstar down. That's when, days before applications are due, one of the girls suffers a near-fatal accident, one that doesn't appear to be an accident at all.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728216461
GROWN UPS by Emma Jane Unsworth (Fiction)
Jenny McLaine’s life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She’s just lost her column at The Foof because she isn’t the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny’s mother is about to move in. Having left home at 18 to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her 30s, and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood. Told in live-wire prose, texts, emails, script dialogue and social media messages, GROWN UPS is a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982141943
I’M FINE…AND OTHER LIES by Whitney Cummings (Humor/Essays)
After getting her start as a stand-up comic and then breaking out with her wildly successful CBS sitcom "2 Broke Girls" (she's the creator, writer and executive producer), Whitney Cummings has seen a few things and is turning to the written word to tell us all the stuff she doesn't say on stage. This book contains some delicious schadenfreude in which Whitney recalls such humiliating debacles as breaking her shoulder while trying to impress a guy, coming very close to spending her life in a Guatemalan prison, and having her lacerated ear sewn back on by a deaf guy after losing it in a torrid love affair.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735212619
LAND OF BIG NUMBERS: Stories by Te-Ping Chen (Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
LAND OF BIG NUMBERS traces the journeys of the diverse and legion Chinese people, their history, their government, and how all of that has tumbled into the present. Te-Ping Chen’s stories coalesce into a portrait of a people striving for openings where mobility is limited. Twins take radically different paths: one becomes a professional gamer, the other a political activist. A woman moves to the city to work at a government call center and is followed by her violent ex-boyfriend. A man is swept into the high-risk, high-reward temptations of China’s volatile stock exchange. And a group of people sit, trapped for no reason, on a subway platform for months, waiting for official permission to leave.
Mariner Books | 9780358272557
A MURDEROUS RELATION: A Veronica Speedwell Mystery by Deanna Raybourn (Historical Mystery)
Veronica Speedwell and her colleague, Stoker, are asked by Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk to stop a potential scandal so explosive it threatens to rock the monarchy. Prince Albert Victor is a regular visitor to the most exclusive private club in London, and the proprietress, Madame Aurore, has received an expensive gift that can be traced back to the prince. Lady Wellie would like Veronica and Stoker to retrieve it from the club before scandal can break. Worse yet, London is being terrorized by what would become the most notorious and elusive serial killer in history, Jack the Ripper --- and Lady Wellie suspects the prince may be responsible. Veronica and Stoker reluctantly agree to go undercover at Madame Auroreʼs high-class brothel, where a body soon turns up.
Berkley | 9780451490759
MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell (Fiction)
2000. Bright, ambitious and yearning for adulthood, 15-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful 42-year-old English teacher. 2017. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager --- and who professed to worship only her --- may be far different from what she has always believed?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062941510
ON CHAPEL SANDS: The Mystery of My Mother's Disappearance as a Child by Laura Cumming (Memoir)
In the fall of 1929, when Laura Cumming’s mother was three years old, she was kidnapped from a beach. When she turned up again in a nearby village several days later, she was found in perfect health and happiness. No one was ever accused of a crime. The incident quickly faded from her memory, and her parents never discussed it. To the contrary, they deliberately hid it from her, and she did not learn of it for half a century. For many years, while raising her in draconian isolation and protectiveness, they also hid the fact that she’d been adopted, and that shortly after the kidnapping, her name was changed from Grace to Betty. In ON CHAPEL SANDS, Cumming unspools the tale of her mother’s life and unravels the multiple mysteries at its core.
Scribner | 9781501198724
THE PRIZED GIRL by Amy K. Green (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Days after a young pageant queen named Jenny is found murdered, her small town grieves the loss alongside her picture-perfect parents. At first glance, Jenny's tragic death appears clear-cut for investigators. The most obvious suspect is one of her fans, an older man who may have gotten too close for comfort. But Jenny's half-sister, Virginia --- the sarcastic black sheep of the family --- isn't so sure of his guilt and takes matters into her own hands to find the killer. But for Jenny's case and Virginia's investigation, there's more to the story. Virginia, still living in town and haunted by her own troubled teenage years, suspects that a similar darkness lay beneath the sparkling veneer of Jenny's life.
Dutton | 9781524745127
PROCESSED CHEESE by Stephen Wright (Dark Humor/Satire)
A bag of money drops out of the sky, literally, into the path of a cash-starved citizen named Graveyard. He carries it home to his wife, Ambience, and they embark on the adventure of their lives, finally able to have everything they've always deserved: cars, guns, games, jewels, clothes --- and, of course, sex, travel, and time with friends and family. There is no limit except their imagination and the hours in the day, and even those seem to be subject to their control. Of course, the owner of the bag is searching for it, and will do whatever is necessary to get it back. And of course, these new riches change everything --- and nothing at all.
Back Bay Books | 9780316043380
RACE AGAINST TIME: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era by Jerry Mitchell (True Crime/Memoir)
On June 21, 1964, more than 20 Klansmen murdered three civil rights workers. The killings, in what would become known as the “Mississippi Burning” case, were among the most brazen acts of violence during the civil rights movement. And even though the killers’ identities, including the sheriff’s deputy, were an open secret, no one was charged with murder in the months and years that followed. It took 41 years before the mastermind was brought to trial and finally convicted for the three innocent lives he took. Investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell takes readers on the twisting, pulse-racing road that led to the reopening of four of the most infamous killings from the days of the civil rights movement, decades after the fact.
Simon & Schuster | 9781451645149
RECIPE FOR A PERFECT WIFE by Karma Brown (Fiction)
When Alice Hale moves to the New York suburbs with her husband, she finds a vintage cookbook buried in a box in her new house’s basement and becomes captivated by the book’s previous owner --- 1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the cookbook’s pages, Nellie left clues about her life --- including a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to her mother. When she uncovers a more sinister side to Nellie’s marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with the mounting pressures in her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own.
Dutton | 9781524744953
THE SCIENTIST AND THE SPY: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage by Mara Hvistendahl (True Crime)
In September 2011, sheriff’s deputies in Iowa encountered three ethnic Chinese men near a field where a farmer was growing corn seed under contract with Monsanto. What began as a simple trespassing inquiry mushroomed into a two-year FBI operation in which investigators bugged the men’s rental cars, used a warrant intended for foreign terrorists and spies, and flew surveillance planes over corn country --- all in the name of protecting trade secrets of corporate giants Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer. Mara Hvistendahl gives a gripping account of this unusually far-reaching investigation, which pitted a veteran FBI special agent against Florida resident Robert Mo, who after his academic career foundered took a questionable job with the Chinese agricultural company DBN --- and became a pawn in a global rivalry.
Riverhead Books | 9780735214293
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.
Custom House | 9780062933232
THE SILENCED WOMEN: A Violent Crime Investigations Team Mystery by Frederick Weisel (Mystery)
Paperback Original
When a young woman is found strangled to death and left on a park bench in Santa Rosa, California, Detective Eddie Mahler and his Violent Crime Investigations (VCI) Team are called to the scene. The crime immediately thrusts Mahler back to two unsolved homicides --- young women who were also strangled --- at this same location a couple of years earlier. His inability to find evidence against the man he knows was responsible for their deaths has haunted him since. Now suffering from chronic migraines that affect his vision, Mahler has secretly lost faith in the investigation process, and must rely more than ever on his team.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464214189
TWENTY-ONE TRUTHS ABOUT LOVE by Matthew Dicks (Fiction)
Daniel Mayrock's life is at a crossroads. He knows the following to be true: 1) He loves his wife, Jill, more than anything. 2) He only regrets quitting his job and opening a bookshop a little (maybe more than a little). 3) Jill is ready to have a baby. 4) The bookshop isn’t doing well. Financial crisis is imminent. Dan doesn't know how to fix it. 5) Dan hasn’t told Jill about their financial trouble. 6) Then Jill gets pregnant. This heartfelt story is about the lengths to which one man will go and the risks he will take to save his family. But Dan doesn’t just want to save his failing bookstore and his family’s finances: 1) Dan wants to do something special. 2) He’s a man who is tired of feeling ordinary. 3) He’s sick of feeling like a failure. 4) He doesn't want to live in the shadow of his wife’s deceased first husband.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250782939
VALENTINO WILL DIE: The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse by Donis Casey (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
Though Bianca LaBelle and Rudolph Valentino have been friends for years, in the summer of 1926 they are making their first picture together. One evening after dinner at Bianca's fabulous Beverly Hills estate, a troubled Rudy confesses that he has received anonymous death threats. In a matter of days, filming comes to an abrupt halt when Rudy falls deathly ill. Could it be poison? As Rudy lies dying, Bianca promises him that she will find out who is responsible. Was it one of his many lovers? A delusional fan? Or perhaps Rudy had run afoul of a mobster whose name Bianca knows all too well? She calls on P.I. Ted Oliver to help her investigate the end of what had seemed to be the charmed life of Valentino.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464213502
VERGE: Stories by Lidia Yuknavitch (Fiction/Short Stories)
Lidia Yuknavitch is a writer of rare insight into the jagged boundaries between pain and survival. Her characters are scarred by the unchecked hungers of others and themselves, yet determined to find salvation within lives that can feel beyond their control. In novels such as THE SMALL BACKS OF CHILDREN and THE BOOK OF JOAN, she has captivated readers with stories of visceral power. Now, she offers a shard-sharp mosaic portrait of human resilience on the margins. The landscape of VERGE is peopled with characters who are innocent and imperfect, wise and endangered: an eight-year-old black-market medical courier, a restless lover haunted by memories of his mother, a teenage girl gazing out her attic window at a nearby prison, all of them wounded but grasping toward transcendence.
Riverhead Books | 9780525534884
YOU ARE NOT ALONE by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen (Psychological Thriller)
Shay Miller wants to find love, but it eludes her. She wants to be fulfilled, but her job is a dead end. She wants to belong, but her life is increasingly lonely. Until Shay meets the Moore sisters. Cassandra and Jane live a life of glamorous perfection, and always get what they desire. When they invite Shay into their circle, everything seems to get better. Shay would die for them to like her. She may have to.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250310965
YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe (Biography)
Young George Washington was raised by a struggling single mother, demanded military promotions, caused an international incident and never backed down. But after he married Martha, everything changed. He took up arms against the British only when there was no other way, though he lost more battles than he won. After an unlikely victory in the Revolutionary War cast him as the nation's hero, he was desperate to retire, but the founders pressured him into the presidency --- twice. When he returned to his plantation upon his retirement, the man who fought for liberty must confront his greatest hypocrisy --- what to do with the men, women and children he owns --- before he succumbs to death.
Penguin Books | 9780735224117
February 5th
OUT OF PLACE by Milree Latimer (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In 1913, 15-year-old Martha is sent from an orphanage in Dublin to relatives she has never met in Canada --- her cousin, Anna, a kindred spirit, and her aunt, who loathes her. Here Martha uncovers a tragic family history. When World War I occurs, Anna voyages to France to care for the wounded soldiers and loses herself in shell shock. Martha leaves the emptiness of her adopted family and becomes a wartime farmerette. Her life is as a farmer, mother and wife to Charlie coming home from war, broken. In 1938, Simon Lansky, a German Jewish professor, asks for help to save his daughters from a dreadful fate. Martha and Anna, hardened to war and its torments, travel to Europe to rescue the girls.
Luminare Press | 9781643885087
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