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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 $38,974 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.
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Thank you again for your consideration and your donation.
Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)
Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Sadeqa Johnson,
whose new novel, YELLOW WIFE, will be a Bets On pick.
Click on the image above for the video and here for the podcast.
In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 1st and February 8th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our Valentine's Day contest. Five of you will win seven recently published or soon-to-be-released titles for yourself or that special someone in your life: MEET ME IN BOMBAY by Jenny Ashcroft, THE POWER COUPLE by Alex Berenson, THE RETURN by Nicholas Sparks, SHIPPED by Angie Hockman, THE SOULMATE EQUATION by Christina Lauren, TOKYO EVER AFTER by Emiko Jean, and WHEN HARRY MET MINNIE: A True Story of Love and Friendship by Martha Teichner. All you have to do is enter here by Friday, February 12th at noon ET for your chance to win these irresistible love-themed books.
Also, we are sharing Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Sadeqa Johnson, whose new novel, YELLOW WIFE, will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. This harrowing story follows an enslaved woman who is forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia. Sadeqa talked to Carol about her inspiration for writing YELLOW WIFE, how she tackled the serious topics that are addressed here, the relationship that her children have with the novel, and how working with J. K. Rowling as her publicist helped pave the way for her career as an author. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
Finally, we are spotlighting THE SURVIVORS, which is now in stores. Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets in this thrilling mystery by New York Times bestselling author Jane Harper, whose previous novels are THE DRY, FORCE OF NATURE and THE LOST MAN. Carol will be chatting with Jane next week for a "Bookreporter Talks To" interview!
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
Now Available: THE SURVIVORS by Jane Harper
THE SURVIVORS by Jane Harper (Mystery/Thriller)
Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets in THE SURVIVORS, a thrilling mystery by New York Times bestselling author Jane Harper.
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.
Click here to read more about the book and order your copy.
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, February 3rd 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 Ann Napolitano, whose most recent novel is DEAR EDWARD.
Wednesday, February 3rd at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book Virtual Event: Jane Harper will be in conversation with YOU ARE NOT ALONE co-author Greer Hendricks about her new thriller, THE SURVIVORS.
Wednesday, February 3rd at 9pm ET: Warwick's Virtual Event: Warwick's will host Kristin Hannah, in conversation with Harlan Coben, as she discusses her new book, THE FOUR WINDS.
Thursday, February 4th at 7pm ET: Watermark Books & Café Virtual Event: Watermark Books & Café invites you to attend a virtual event with bestselling authors Lauren Fox and Christina Baker Kline! Christina Baker Kline will be in virtual conversation with Lauren Fox discussing her new novel, SEND FOR ME, one of this month's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club picks.
Thursday, February 4th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore Virtual Event: Jane Harper, the author of such international bestsellers as THE DRY, FORCE OF NATURE and THE LOST MAN, will discuss her new novel, THE SURVIVORS.
Thursday, February 4th at 9pm ET: Old Firehouse Books Virtual Event: Old Firehouse Books is beyond excited to welcome Kristin Hannah to their virtual event space to celebrate THE FOUR WINDS. They will be hosting Kristin in conversation with fellow #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult.
Thursday, February 4th at 9:15pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore Virtual Event: John Hart will discuss his latest novel, THE UNWILLING, with special guest host (and fellow New York Times bestselling author) Tami Hoag.
Friday, February 5th at 12pm ET: Bookmarks Virtual Event: Bookmarks is excited to host one of their favorite authors, Kristin Hannah, in conversation with a past favorite Festival author, Elin Hilderbrand, about THE FOUR WINDS.
Friday, February 5th at 7pm ET: One More Pages Books Virtual Event: One More Pages Books is thrilled to host an online conversation between Jane Harper and David Baldacci for the release of her new mystery, THE SURVIVORS, along with co-hosts the Embassy of Australia, Fairfax County Public Library and Fall for the Book.
Friday, February 5th at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book Virtual Event: John Hart will be in conversation with THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW author A.J. Finn about his new thriller, THE UNWILLING.
Saturday, February 6th at 12pm ET: SuperBook II: A Virtual Adventure by the Book: Adventures by the Book presents the second annual Super Book Adventure! Three great teams of 12 superstar authors, captained by three superstar bookstagramers, will give book enthusiasts and reading fans the experience of a lifetime. Janet Skeslien Charles will be featured and will discuss her book, THE PARIS LIBRARY.
Saturday, February 6th at 2pm ET: Murder By The Book Virtual Event: Michael Koryta will be in conversation with fellow New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown about his new thriller, NEVER FAR AWAY.
Monday, February 8th at 7pm ET: Bookmarks Winter Book Club Social: Join Bookmarks for their quarterly book club gathering to learn about new books coming out soon, new releases and older book club favorites with Simon & Schuster Publishers. Bookmarks is thrilled to be joined by Sadeqa Johnson, author of YELLOW WIFE. Sadeqa will be in conversation with her editor, Lashanda Anakwah.
Monday, February 8th at 7pm ET: Buxton Books Virtual Event: Buxton Books is happy to welcome John Hart for his new book, THE UNWILLING. John will be in conversation with Ace Atkins.
Monday, February 8th at 7pm ET: Watermark Books & Café Virtual Event: Watermark Books & Café invites you to join bestselling authors Kristin Hannah and William Kent Krueger for a special in-conversation event! During the event, Kristin will be discussing her newest book, THE FOUR WINDS.
This Week's Bonus News:
Bookreporter.com's 16th Annual Valentine's Day Contest
Enter to Win Books for Yourself or Your Valentine!
Valentine's Day is only a few heartbeats away. We can't think of a better way to celebrate this special day than to cuddle up with your loved one...and a good book, of course!
We're giving five readers the chance to win six love-themed books in our 16th annual Valentine's Day contest. Be sure to enter between now and Friday, February 12th at noon ET for your opportunity to be a lucky (and beloved!) winner.
If you're feeling frisky, share with us your all-time book character crush. Don't be shy, we've all got 'em! We'll post the top 10 literary loves and lusts --- along with the five winners --- shortly after the contest ends.
This year's Valentine’s Day prize titles are:
Click here to enter the contest.
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
On Sale the Week of February 8th in Hardcover
February 8th
WALK IN MY COMBAT BOOTS: True Stories from America's Bravest Warriors by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, with Chris Mooney (Biography)
WALK IN MY COMBAT BOOTS is a powerful collection crafted from hundreds of original interviews by James Patterson and First Sergeant US Army (Ret.) Matt Eversmann, part of the Ranger unit portrayed in the movie Black Hawk Down. These are the brutally honest stories usually only shared amongst comrades in arms. Here, in the voices of the men and women who have fought overseas from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, is a rare eye-opening look into what wearing the uniform, fighting in combat, losing friends and coming home is really like. Readers who next thank a military member for their service will finally have a true understanding of what that thanks is for.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316429092
February 9th
THE ABSOLUTE BOOK by Elizabeth Knox (Fantasy)
Taryn Cornick believes that the past --- her sister's violent death and her own ill-conceived revenge --- is behind her, and she can get on with her life. She has written a successful book about the things that threaten libraries: insects, damp, light, fire, carelessness and uncaring…but not all of the attention it brings her is good. A policeman, Jacob Berger, questions her about a cold case. Then there are questions about a fire in the library at her grandparents' house and an ancient scroll box known as the Firestarter, as well as threatening phone calls and a mysterious illness. Finally, a shadowy young man named Shift appears, forcing Taryn and Jacob toward a reckoning felt in more than one world.
Viking | 9780593296738
BLACK WIDOWS by Cate Quinn (Mystery/Thriller)
Polygamist Blake Nelson built a homestead on a hidden stretch of land --- a raw paradise in the wilds of Utah --- where he lived with his three wives: Rachel, the first wife, obedient and doting to a fault, with a past she'd prefer to keep quiet; Tina, the rebel wife, everything Rachel isn't, straight from rehab and the Vegas strip; and Emily, the young wife, naïve and scared, estranged from her Catholic family. The only thing that they had in common was Blake. Until all three are accused of his murder. When Blake is found dead under the desert sun, all three wives become suspect --- not only to the police, but to each other. As the investigation draws them closer, each wife must decide who can be trusted.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728220468
THE BONA FIDE LEGEND OF COOL PAPA BELL: Speed, Grace, and the Negro Leagues by Lonnie Wheeler (Sports/Biography)
James “Cool Papa” Bell was a legend in Black baseball, a lightning fast switch hitter elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. In THE BONA FIDE LEGEND OF COOL PAPA BELL, experienced baseball writer and historian Lonnie Wheeler recounts the life of this extraordinary player, a key member of some of the greatest Negro League teams in history. Born to sharecroppers in Mississippi, Bell was part of the Great Migration, and in St. Louis, baseball saved Bell from a life working in slaughterhouses. Wheeler charts Bell’s ups and downs in life and in baseball, in the United States, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, where he went to escape American racism and MLB’s color line.
Harry N. Abrams | 9781419750489
THE BURNING GIRLS by C. J. Tudor (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
A dark history lingers in Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, Protestant martyrs were betrayed --- then burned. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And a few weeks ago, the vicar of the local parish hanged himself in the nave of the church. Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a 14-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping for a fresh start. Instead, Jack finds a town rife with conspiracies and secrets, and is greeted with a strange welcome package: an exorcism kit and a note that warns, “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.”
Ballantine Books | 9781984825025
COMES THE WAR by Ed Ruggero (Historical Thriller)
April 1944, the 55th month of the war in Europe. The entire island of Britain fairly buzzes with the coiled energy of a million men poised to leap the Channel to France, the first, riskiest step in the Allies’ long slog to the heart of Germany and the end of the war. Lieutenant Eddie Harkins is tasked to investigate the murder of Helen Batcheller, an OSS analyst. Harkins is assigned a British driver, Private Pamela Lowell, to aid in his investigation. Soon a suspect is arrested, and Harkins is ordered to stop digging. Suspicious, he continues his investigation only to find himself trapped in a web of Soviet secrets. As bombs fall, Harkins must solve the murder and reveal the spies before it is too late.
Forge Books | 9781250312877
FAITHLESS IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Mystery/Thriller)
The scene in the West Village studio appears to be a classic crime of passion: two wine glasses by the bed, music playing, and a young sculptor named Ariel Byrd with the back of her head bashed in. But when Eve Dallas tracks down the wealthy Upper East Side woman who called 911, the details don’t add up. Gwen Huffman is wealthy, elegant and comforted by her handsome fiancé as she sheds tears over the trauma of finding the body. But why did it take an hour to report it? And why is she lying about little things? As Eve and her team look into Gwen, her past and the people around her, they find that the lies are about more than murder. Soon they’re getting the FBI involved in a case that involves a sinister, fanatical group and a stunning criminal conspiracy.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250272744
GEORGE WASHINGTON: The Political Rise of America's Founding Father by David O. Stewart (Biography)
George Washington's rise constitutes one of the greatest self-reinventions in history. In his mid-20s, this third son of a modest Virginia planter had ruined his own military career thanks to an outrageous ego. But by his mid-40s, that headstrong, unwise young man had evolved into an unassailable leader chosen as the commander in chief of the fledgling Continental Army. By his mid-50s, he was unanimously elected the nation's first president. How did Washington emerge from the wilderness to become the central founder of the United States of America? Award-winning historian David O. Stewart unveils the political education that made Washington a master politician --- and America's most essential leader.
Dutton | 9780451488985
THE LOVE PROOF by Madeleine Henry (Romance)
Sophie Jones is a physics prodigy on track to unlock the secrets of the universe. But when she meets Jake Kristopher during their first week at Yale, they instantly feel a deep connection, as if they’ve known each other before. Quickly, they become a couple. Slowly, their love lures Sophie away from school. When a shocking development forces Sophie into a new reality, she returns to physics to make sense of her world. She grapples with life’s big questions, including how to cope with unexpected change and loss. Inspired by her connection with Jake, Sophie throws herself into her studies, determined to prove that true loves belong together in all realities.
Atria Books | 9781982142964
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.
RosettaBooks | 9781948122702
NEVER FAR AWAY by Michael Koryta (Thriller)
Nina Morgan’s bloodstained car was found a decade ago on a lonely Florida road. Forensic evidence suggested she’d been murdered, although her body was never found. Her disappearance left her infant children to the care of their father. A witness to a gruesome crime, Nina had to flee her old life to save her family. She reinvented herself as Leah Trenton, a guide in the Allagash Wilderness in northern Maine. She never expected to see her children again, but now tragedy has returned them to her --- only they have no idea that she’s their mother --- and delivered all of them back into danger. “Aunt Leah” will need some help, and an old ally has a suggestion: an enigmatic young hitman named Dax Blackwell.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316535939
THE (OTHER) YOU: Stories by Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction/Short Stories)
In THE (OTHER) YOU, Joyce Carol Oates ponders alternate destinies: the other lives we might have led if we’d made different choices. An accomplished writer returns to her childhood home of Yewville, but the homecoming stirs troubled thoughts about the person she might have been if she’d never left. A man in prison contemplates the gravity of his irreversible act. A student’s affair with a professor results in a pregnancy that alters the course of her life forever. Even the experience of reading is investigated as one that can create a profound transformation: “You could enter another time, the time of the book.”
Ecco | 9780063035201
THE PARIS LIBRARY by Janet Skeslien Charles (Historical Fiction)
Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal. Montana, 1983: Lily is a lonely teenager looking for adventure in small-town Montana. Her interest is piqued by her solitary, elderly neighbor. As Lily uncovers more about her neighbor’s mysterious past, she finds that they share a love of language, the same longings and the same intense jealousy, never suspecting that a dark secret from the past connects them.
Atria Books | 9781982134198
POSSESSION by Katie Lowe (Psychological Thriller)
Ten years ago, Hannah’s husband was brutally murdered in their home, and she (conveniently) doesn’t remember a thing about that night. But the police charged someone else --- a stranger --- and put him away for life. And Hannah packed up her six-year-old daughter and left London behind. But now her hard-won countryside peace is threatened. “Conviction,” a viral true crime podcast known for getting cases reopened and old verdicts overturned, has turned its attention to Hannah’s husband’s murder for its new season. They say police framed the man who was found guilty, and that Hannah has more suspicious secrets than just her memory loss.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250200280
THE POWER COUPLE by Alex Berenson (Thriller)
Rebecca and Brian Unsworth appear to have it all: a nice house in the suburbs of Washington, DC, two well-behaved, healthy teenage children, and important government jobs. However, their marriage isn’t as perfect as it seems. After two decades together, they’ve drifted apart, talking little and having sex even less. Seeking to revive their strained relationship, they decide for their 20th wedding anniversary to take their two kids, Kira and Tony, on a European getaway. They have a blast…until one night in Barcelona when Kira doesn’t come home from a dance club. She’s gone. Abducted. Over the course of a single weekend, the Unsworths will do everything possible to find her --- as Kira herself discovers just how far she’ll go to break free of the trap that’s been set for her.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982103699
THE PRINCESS SPY: The True Story of World War II Spy Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones by Larry Loftis (Biography)
As the US enters the Second World War, college graduate Aline Griffith is desperate to aid in the war effort, but no one is interested in a bright-eyed young woman whose only career experience is modeling clothes. Aline’s life changes when, at a dinner party, she meets a man named Frank Ryan and reveals how desperately she wants to do her part for her country. Within a few weeks, he helps her join the Office of Strategic Services --- forerunner of the CIA. With a code name and expert training under her belt, she is sent to Spain to be a coder, but is soon given the additional assignment of infiltrating the upper echelons of society, mingling with high-ranking officials, diplomats and titled Europeans, any of whom could be an enemy agent.
Atria Books | 9781982143862
THE ROPE: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP by Alex Tresniowski (True Crime)
In Asbury Park, New Jersey, 10-year-old schoolgirl Marie Smith is brutally murdered. Small town officials, unable to find the culprit, call upon the young manager of a New York detective agency for help. It is the detective’s first murder case, and now, the specifics of the investigation and daring sting operation that caught the killer is captured for the first time. Occurring exactly halfway between the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the formal beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in 1954, the brutal murder and its highly covered investigation sits at the historic intersection of sweeping national forces --- religious extremism, class struggle, the infancy of criminal forensics, and America’s Jim Crow racial violence.
37 Ink | 9781982114022
SORROW AND BLISS by Meg Mason (Fiction)
Martha Friel just turned 40. Once she worked at Vogue and planned to write a novel. Now she creates internet content. She used to live in a pied-à-terre in Paris. Now she lives in a gated community in Oxford, in a house she hates but cannot bear to leave. But she must leave, now that her husband Patrick has just moved out. There’s something wrong with Martha, and has been for a long time. When she was 17, a little bomb went off in her brain and she was never the same. But countless doctors, endless therapy and every kind of drug later, she still doesn’t know what’s wrong. And she has nowhere to go except her childhood home: a bohemian (dilapidated) townhouse in a romantic (rundown) part of London.
Harper | 9780063049581
SUPER HOST by Kate Russo (Fiction)
Bennett Driscoll is a Turner Prize-nominated artist who was once a rising star. Now, at age 55, his wife has left him, he hasn't sold a painting in two years, and his gallery wants to stop selling his work, claiming they'll have more value retrospectively...when he's dead. So, left with a large West London home and no income, he's forced to move into his artist's studio in the back garden and list his house on a popular vacation rental site. A stranger now in his own home, with his daughter, Mia, off at art school, and any new relationships fizzling out at best, Bennett struggles to find purpose in his day-to-day. That all changes when three different guests unwittingly unlock the pieces of himself that have been lost to him for too long.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593187708
THE VINEYARD AT PAINTED MOON by Susan Mallery (Fiction)
Mackenzie Dienes seems to have it all: a beautiful home, close friends and a successful career as an elite winemaker with the family winery. There’s just one problem --- it’s not her family, it’s her husband’s. So when she and her husband admit their marriage is over, her pain goes beyond heartbreak. She’s on the brink of losing everything. Her job, her home, her friends and, worst of all, her family. Staying is an option. She can continue to work at the winery, be friends with her mother-in-law, hug her nieces and nephews --- but as an employee, nothing more. Or she can surrender every piece of her heart in order to build a legacy of her own. If she can dare to let go of the life she thought she wanted, she might discover something even more beautiful waiting for her beneath a painted moon.
HQN | 9781335912794
WE RUN THE TIDES by Vendela Vida (Fiction)
Teenage Eulabee and her magnetic best friend, Maria Fabiola, own the streets of Sea Cliff, their foggy oceanside San Francisco neighborhood. They know Sea Cliff’s homes and beaches, its hidden corners and eccentric characters --- as well as the upscale all-girls’ school they attend. One day, walking to school with friends, they witness a horrible act. Or do they? Eulabee and Maria Fabiola vehemently disagree on what happened, and their rupture is followed by Maria Fabiola’s sudden disappearance --- a potential kidnapping that shakes the quiet community and threatens to expose unspoken truths.
Ecco | 9780062936233
ZORRIE by Laird Hunt (Fiction)
After losing both her parents, Zorrie moved in with her aunt, whose own death orphaned Zorrie all over again, casting her off into the perilous realities and sublime landscapes of rural, Depression-era Indiana. Drifting west, Zorrie survived on odd jobs, sleeping in barns and under the stars, before finding a position at a radium processing plant. At the end of each day, the girls at her factory glowed from the radioactive material. But when Indiana calls Zorrie home, she finally finds the love and community that have eluded her in and around the small town of Hillisburg. And yet, even as she tries to build a new life, Zorrie discovers that her trials have only begun.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635575361
On Sale the Week of February 8th in Paperback
February 9th
28 SUMMERS by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020, and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming presidential election. There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other? Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother's bachelor party. Cooper's friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere --- until Mallory learns she's dying.
Back Bay Books | 9780316428644
THE AGE OF WITCHES by Louisa Morgan (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
In 1692, Bridget Bishop was hanged as a witch. Two hundred years later, her legacy lives on in the scions of two very different lines: one dedicated to using their powers to heal and help women in need; the other, determined to grasp power for themselves by whatever means necessary. This clash will play out in the fate of Annis, a young woman in Gilded Age New York who finds herself a pawn in the family struggle for supremacy. She'll need to claim her own power to save herself --- and resist succumbing to the darkness that threatens to overcome them all.
Redhook | 9780316419543
AMNESTY by Aravind Adiga (Fiction)
Danny is an illegal immigrant in Sydney, Australia, denied refugee status after he fled from Sri Lanka. For three years he’s been trying to create a new identity for himself. And now, with his beloved vegan girlfriend, Sonja, he is as close as he has ever come to living a normal life. But then one morning, Danny learns that a female client of his has been murdered. The deed was done with a knife, at a creek he’d been to with her before; and a jacket was left at the scene, which he believes belongs to another of his clients --- a doctor with whom Danny knows the woman was having an affair. Suddenly Danny is confronted with a choice: Come forward with his knowledge about the crime and risk being deported. Or say nothing, and let justice go undone.
Scribner | 9781982127305
BONNIE by Christina Schwarz (Historical Fiction)
Born in a small town in the desolate reaches of western Texas and shaped by her girlhood in an industrial wasteland on the outskirts of Dallas, Bonnie Parker was a natural performer and a star student. She dreamed of being a movie star or a singer or a poet. But her dramatic nature, contorted by her limited opportunities and her overwhelming love for Clyde Barrow, pushed her into a course from which there was no escape but death. Christina Schwarz's novel follows Bonnie from her bright, promising youth to her final month of shoot-outs, kidnappings and desperate car chases through America’s hinterland in the grip of the Great Depression, as the noose of the law tightened around her.
Washington Square Press | 9781476745466
BOYS & SEX: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity by Peggy Orenstein (Social Science/Gender Studies)
Drawing on comprehensive interviews with young men, psychologists, academics and experts in the field, BOYS & SEX dissects so-called locker room talk; how the word “hilarious” robs boys of empathy; pornography as the new sex education; boys’ understanding of hookup culture and consent; and their experience as both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence. By surfacing young men’s experience in all its complexity, Peggy Orenstein is able to unravel the hidden truths, hard lessons and important realities of young male sexuality in today’s world.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062666987
DEADLOCK by Catherine Coulter (Thriller)
A young wife is forced to confront a decades-old deadly secret when a medium connects her to her dead grandfather. A vicious psychopath wants ultimate revenge against Savich, but first, she wants to destroy what he loves most --- his family. A series of three red boxes are delivered personally to Savich at the Hoover Building, each one containing puzzle pieces of a town only FBI agent Pippa Cinelli recognizes. Savich sends in Cinelli to investigate undercover, but someone knows who she is. Can Savich and Sherlock figure out the red box puzzle and the young wife’s secret before it’s too late?
Gallery Books | 9781501193712
DEVOLUTION: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined...until now. The journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing --- and too earth-shattering in its implications --- to be forgotten. In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it. If what Kate saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us --- and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.
Del Rey | 9781984826800
THE END OF THE OCEAN written by Maja Lunde, translated by Diane Oatley (Dystopian Fiction)
In 2019, 70-year-old Signe sets sail alone on a hazardous voyage across the ocean in a sailboat. On board is a cargo that can change lives. Signe is haunted by memories of the love of her life, whom she’ll meet again soon. In 2041, David and his young daughter, Lou, flee from a drought-stricken Southern Europe that has been ravaged by thirst and war. Separated from the rest of their family and desperate to find them, they discover an ancient sailboat in a dried-out garden, miles away from the nearest shore. Signe’s sailboat. As David and Lou discover Signe’s personal effects, her long-ago journey becomes inexorably linked to their own.
HarperVia | 9780062951380
GONE BY MIDNIGHT: A Crimson Lake Novel by Candice Fox (Mystery/Thriller)
When Sara Farrow’s son goes missing from a locked hotel room, she frantically turns for help to Crimson Lake’s unlikeliest private investigators --- disgraced cop Ted Conkaffey and convicted killer Amanda Pharrell. Just the sort of twisted puzzle that gets Amanda’s blood pumping, the disappearance couldn’t have come at a worse time for Ted. He has just this one week with Lillian, the daughter he barely knows…but the clock is ticking for the lost boy. Amanda and Ted’s search dredges up the area’s worst characters, and the danger they uncover could well put Ted’s own child in deadly peril.
Forge Books | 9781250317599
GOOD CITIZENS NEED NOT FEAR: Stories by Maria Reva (Historical Fiction/Short Stories)
A bureaucratic glitch omits an entire building, along with its residents, from municipal records. So begins Maria Reva's GOOD CITIZENS NEED NOT FEAR, nine stories that span the chaotic years leading up to and immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union. But even as the benighted denizens of 1933 Ivansk Street weather the official neglect of the increasingly powerless authorities, they devise ingenious ways to survive.
Anchor | 9781984897589
HIT LIST: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
When Stone Barrington finds his name on a hit list, he plans to lie low until the culprit is caught. But when this foe shows no signs of stopping until his deadly objective is realized in full, Stone is left with no choice but to face the problem head-on. Armed and alert, Stone joins forces with his most savvy connections to catch the perpetrator before the next strike. But it turns out this scum is an expert at evasion in more ways than one, and the international cat-and-mouse hunt that ensues has Stone questioning if he has become the predator or the prey.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593083239
INDELICACY by Amina Cain (Fiction)
In INDELICACY, a cleaning woman at a museum of art nurtures aspirations to do more than simply dust the paintings around her. She dreams of having the liberty to explore them in writing, and so must find a way to win herself the time and security to use her mind. She escapes her lot by marrying a rich man, but having gained a husband, a house, high society and a maid, she finds that her new life of privilege is no less constrained. Not only has she taken up different forms of time-consuming labor --- social and erotic --- but she is now, however passively, forcing other women to clean up after her. Perhaps another and more drastic solution is necessary?
Picador | 9781250785718
IT’S NOT ALL DOWNHILL FROM HERE by Terry McMillan (Fiction)
On the eve of her 68th birthday, Loretha Curry has a booming beauty-supply empire, a gaggle of lifelong friends, and a husband whose moves still surprise. True, she’s carrying a few more pounds than she should be, but Loretha is not one of those women who think her best days are behind her --- and she’s determined to prove wrong her mother, her twin sister and everyone else with that outdated view of aging. It’s not all downhill from here. But when an unexpected loss turns her world upside down, Loretha will have to summon all her strength, resourcefulness and determination to keep on thriving, pursue joy, heal old wounds and chart new paths. With a little help from her friends, of course.
Ballantine Books | 9781984823755
LADIES OF THE HOUSE: A Modern Retelling of Sense and Sensibility by Lauren Edmondson (Fiction)
Paperback Original
No surprise is a good surprise. At least according to 34-year-old Daisy Richardson. So when it’s revealed in dramatic fashion that her esteemed father had been involved in a public scandal before his untimely death, Daisy’s life becomes complicated --- and fast. For one, the Richardsons must now sell the family home in Georgetown they can no longer afford, and Daisy’s mother is holding on with an iron grip. Her younger sister, Wallis, is ready to move on to bigger and better things but falls fast and hard for the most inconvenient person possible. And then there’s Atlas, Daisy’s best friend. She’s always wished they could be more, but now he’s writing an exposé on the one subject she’s been desperate to avoid: her father.
Graydon House | 9781525895968
MASKED PREY: A Lucas Davenport Novel by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller)
The daughter of a U.S. Senator is monitoring her social media presence when she finds a picture of herself on a strange blog. And there are other pictures…of the children of other influential Washington politicians, walking or standing outside their schools, each identified by name. Surrounding the photos are texts of vicious political rants from a motley variety of radical groups. It's obviously alarming. Is there an unstable extremist tracking the loved ones of powerful politicians with deadly intent? But when the FBI is called in, there isn't much the feds can do. With nowhere else to turn, influential Senators decide to call in someone who can operate outside the FBI's constraints: Lucas Davenport.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593328576
THE NUMBERS GAME by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Eileen Jackson was happy to set aside her own dreams to raise a family with her husband, Paul. Together they built an ordinary life in a Connecticut town, the perfect place for their kids to grow up. But when Eileen discovers that Paul’s late nights in the city are hiding an affair with a younger woman, she begins to question all those years of sacrifice and compromise. On the brink of 40 and wondering what she’s going to do with the rest of her life, is it too late for her to start over? Ultimately, Eileen decides to chase her own dreams and attend Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. What awaits is an adventure that reinvents her life and redefines her.
Dell | 9780399179587
OONA OUT OF ORDER by Margarita Montimore (Fiction)
It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn 19, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens 32 years in the future in her 51-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. Hopping through decades, pop culture fads and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside.
Flatiron Books | 9781250236616
THE SECRETS OF LOVE STORY BRIDGE by Phaedra Patrick (Fiction)
Mitchell Fisher has said a firm goodbye to romance. He relishes his job cutting off the padlocks that couples fasten to his hometown’s famous “love story” bridge. Only his young daughter, Poppy, knows that behind his prickly veneer, Mitchell is deeply lonely --- and he still grieves the loss of Poppy’s mother. Then one hot summer’s day, everything changes when Mitchell bravely rescues a woman who falls from the bridge into the river. He’s surprised to feel an unexpected connection to her, but then she disappears. Desperate to find the mysterious woman, Mitchell teams up with her spirited sister, Liza, to see if she’s left any clues behind. There’s just one --- a secret message on the padlock she left on love story bridge.
Park Row | 9780778389439
WASHINGTON’S END: The Final Years and Forgotten Struggle by Jonathan Horn (History)
Beginning where most biographies of George Washington leave off, WASHINGTON'S END opens with the first president exiting office after eight years and entering what would become the most bewildering stage of his life. Embittered by partisan criticism and eager to return to his farm, Washington assumed a role for which there was no precedent at a time when the kings across the ocean yielded their crowns only upon losing their heads. In a different sense, Washington would lose his head, too. Popular historian and former White House speechwriter Jonathan Horn reveals that the quest to surrender power proved more difficult than Washington imagined and brought his life to an end he never expected.
Scribner | 9781501154249
THE WIFE AND THE WIDOW by Christian White (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Set against the backdrop of an eerie island town in the dead of winter, THE WIFE AND THE WIDOW is an unsettling thriller told from two perspectives: Kate, a widow whose grief is compounded by what she learns about her dead husband’s secret life; and Abby, an island local whose world is turned upside down when she’s forced to confront the evidence of her husband’s guilt. But nothing on this island is quite as it seems, and only when these women come together can they discover the whole story about the men in their lives.
Minotaur Books | 9781250781635
WITHOUT SANCTION: A Matt Drake Thriller by Don Bentley (Political Thriller)
Defense Intelligence Agency operative Matt Drake broke a promise. A promise that cost three people their lives and crippled his best friend. Three months later, he's paralyzed by survivor's guilt and haunted by the memories of the fallen. Matt may have left Syria, but Syria hasn't left him. In the midst of his self-imposed exile, Matt is dragged back into the world of espionage and assets that he tried to forget. A Pakistani scientist working for an ISIS splinter cell has created a terrifying weapon of mass destruction. The scientist offers to defect with the weapon, but he trusts just one man to bring him out of Syria alive: Matt Drake. It’s a suicide mission --- one man against an army of terrorists. Still, with stakes this high, Matt has no choice but to try.
Berkley | 9781984805126
February 14th
THE SADNESS OF THE KING GEORGE by Shaun Hand (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Paperback Original
Welcome to The King George. You know it. Your old local. Back in the day. The stink of beer and urine, sticky carpets, nicotine stains on the ceiling, soggy bar towels, and the chance of a punch-up on a Saturday night --- or anytime for that matter. And in amongst it all an awkward 20-year-old, trapped behind the bar, with nothing to do but pull pints and wait for the next fag break. Until he finds Amy. And life. And an escape --- if he dares.
BAD PRESS iNK | 9781916084575
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