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Quick Note from Carol: We are trying something new in this newsletter, breaking up the opener text with photos instead of putting them on top with captions. We thought it might make the reading experience more interesting. Let me know what you think!
Carol had the pleasure of chatting with Alexandra recently for a “Bookreporter Talks To” interview. Alexandra talked about her career decisions that inspired the book, along with her writing process, which included changes that unfolded over the course of developing the story. But don’t worry, she gives nothing away! Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
Rescheduled Event Date! Sometimes life gets in the way of plans. Last Wednesday, Kim Michele Richardson, author of THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK, broke the news that she would not be able to join us for the “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event that was to take place last Thursday night due to a dental emergency. Thus we have decided to reschedule the event for Thursday, April 22nd at 8pm ET. If you already signed up for the session, there is no need to do so again. If you haven’t and would be interested in attending, you can register here. Also, if you have a question for Kim Michele that you would like to ask on camera, please send Carol an email with the subject line “Question for Kim Michele.”
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
As so many book and author events are happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register.
Wednesday, March 31st at 7pm ET: Barnes & Noble: B&N welcomes renowned actress Sharon Stone for a live virtual event to discuss her memoir, THE BEAUTY OF LIVING TWICE. She will be in conversation with Jess Cagle, an entertainment journalist and the former Editor in Chief of People Magazine.
Wednesday, March 31st 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 Stephanie Dray and Kate Quinn about their latest historical novels, THE WOMEN OF CHATEAU LAFAYETTE and THE ROSE CODE.
Wednesday, March 31st at 7pm ET: The Mark Twain House & Museum: In this latest edition of the "Mark My Words" series, Lisa Scottoline will be in conversation with iHeartMedia’s Renee DiNino about her first historical novel, ETERNAL.
Wednesday, March 31st at 8pm ET: Book Passage: Martha Hall Kelly will talk about her new novel, SUNFLOWER SISTERS, with USA Today bestselling author Meg Donohue.
Thursday, April 1st at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors will talk to Lisa Scottoline about her latest book, ETERNAL.
Thursday, April 1st at 7pm ET: An Unlikely Story Bookstore & Café: Martha Hall Kelly will share her stunning new work of historical fiction, SUNFLOWER SISTERS, as she will be in conversation with Pam Jenoff, whose upcoming novel is THE WOMAN WITH THE BLUE STAR.
Thursday, April 1st at 7pm ET: Word Up Community Bookshop: Join Word Up for a reading and discussion about Gabriela Garcia's first novel, OF WOMEN AND SALT, featuring fellow author Roxane Gay. There will be a DJ set before the event and a Q&A after the discussion.
Tuesday, April 6th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble Virtual Book Club Event: Barnes & Noble will host a Facebook Live discussion for their March book club pick, WE BEGIN AT THE END, featuring Chris Whitaker in conversation with A. J. Finn.
Tuesday, April 6th at 7pm ET: Parnassus Books: Parnassus Books is pleased to welcome Martha Hall Kelly to celebrate her new novel, SUNFLOWER SISTERS. She will be in conversation with ETERNAL author Lisa Scottoline.
Tuesday, April 6th at 7pm ET: Warwick's: This Couch Surfing Book Tour event features Donna Freitas as she discusses her new book, THE NINE LIVES OF ROSE NAPOLITANO, in conversation with Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke.
This Week's Bonus News: Our Latest
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?"
Contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Enter to Win 12 Copies of WHO IS MAUD DIXON?
by Alexandra Andrews for Your Group
Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.
Our latest prize book is WHO IS MAUD DIXON? by Alexandra Andrews, a taut, twisty and character-driven psychological thriller about a famous novelist and a small-town striver locked in a struggle for fortune and fame. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, April 7th at noon ET.
WHO IS MAUD DIXON? by Alexandra Andrews (Psychological Thriller)
Florence Darrow is a low-level publishing employee who believes that she's destined to be a famous writer. When she stumbles into a job as the assistant to the brilliant, enigmatic novelist known as Maud Dixon --- whose true identity is a secret --- it appears that the universe is finally providing Florence’s big chance.
The arrangement seems perfect. Maud Dixon (whose real name, Florence discovers, is Helen Wilcox) can be prickly, but she is full of pointed wisdom --- not only on how to write, but also on how to live. Florence quickly falls under Helen’s spell and eagerly accompanies her to Morocco, where Helen’s new novel is set. Amidst the colorful streets of Marrakesh and the windswept beaches of the coast, Florence’s life at last feels interesting enough to inspire a novel of her own.
But when Florence wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car accident, with no memory of the previous night --- and no sign of Helen --- she’s tempted to take a shortcut. Instead of hiding in Helen’s shadow, why not upgrade into Helen's life? Not to mention her bestselling pseudonym.
Taut, twisty and viciously entertaining, WHO IS MAUD DIXON? is a stylish psychological thriller about how far into the darkness you’re willing to go to claim the life you always wanted.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to read Carol's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Alexandra Andrews.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of March 29th in Hardcover
March 29th
THE RED BOOK: A Black Book Thriller by James Patterson and David Ellis (Thriller)
When a drive-by shooting on Chicago's west side turns political, Detective Billy Harney leads the way to a quick solve. But his instincts --- his father was once chief of detectives, and his twin sister, Patti, is also on the force --- run deep. As a population hungry for justice threatens to riot, he realizes that the three known victims are hardly the only casualties. When Harney starts asking questions about who's to blame, the easy answers prove to be the wrong ones. On the flip side, the less he seems to know, the longer he can keep his clandestine investigation going…until Harney's quest to expose the evil that's rotting the city from the inside out takes him to the one place he vowed never to return: his own troubled past.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316499408
March 30th
THE AGITATORS: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights by Dorothy Wickenden (History)
Harriet Tubman --- no-nonsense, funny, uncannily prescient and strategically brilliant --- was one of the most important conductors on the underground railroad and hid the enslaved men, women and children she rescued in the basement kitchens of Martha Wright, Quaker mother of seven, and Frances Seward, wife of Governor, then Senator, then Secretary of State William H. Seward. Beginning two decades before the Civil War, when Tubman was still enslaved and Martha and Frances were young women bound by law and tradition, THE AGITATORS ends two decades after the war, in a radically changed United States.
Scribner | 9781476760735
ANIMALS by Will Staples (Thriller)
When rhino poachers kill two of his fellow rangers in Kruger Park, South African Defense Force veteran Cobus Venter reaches his breaking point. Quitting his job, he embarks on a vigilante mission to take down the animal-trafficking syndicate from the inside. Meanwhile, in Florida, insurance investigator Randall Knight is called to a private roadside zoo, where a new tiger cub of suspect lineage brought a virus that wiped out all the zoo's tigers. The disease is just one species jump away from erupting into a deadly global human pandemic. What starts as a simple insurance claim leads Knight to discover a shocking new evolution in the business of illicit animal trafficking. Both men must stay alive long enough to stop a vicious international triad from ending wildlife as we know it.
Blackstone Publishing | 9781094065885
THE BEAUTY OF LIVING TWICE by Sharon Stone (Memoir)
She was one of the most renowned actresses in the world --- until a massive stroke cost her not only her health, but her career, family, fortune and global fame. In THE BEAUTY OF LIVING TWICE, Sharon Stone chronicles her efforts to rebuild her life, and the slow road back to wholeness and health. In an industry that doesn’t accept failure, in a world where too many voices are silenced, Stone found the power to return, the courage to speak up, and the will to make a difference in the lives of women and children around the globe.
Knopf | 9780525656760
COMEBACK SEASON: My Unlikely Story of Friendship with the Greatest Living Negro League Baseball Players by Cam Perron with Nick Chiles (Sports)
At the age of 12, Cam Perron started writing letters to former Negro League players, asking for their autographs and a few words about their careers. He got back much more than he expected. By the time Cam finished middle school, letters had turned into phone calls, and he was spending hours a day talking with the players. In these conversations, many of the players revealed that their careers had been unrecognized over time, and they’d fallen out of touch with their former teammates. So Cam, along with a small group of fellow researchers, organized the first annual Negro League Players Reunion in Birmingham, Alabama in 2010. At the celebratory, week-long event, 15-year-old Cam and the players --- who were in their 70s, 80s and 90s --- finally met in person. They quickly became family.
Gallery Books | 9781982153601
ELEANOR IN THE VILLAGE: Eleanor Roosevelt's Search for Freedom and Identity in New York's Greenwich Village by Jan Jarboe Russell (Memoir)
Hundreds of books have been written about FDR and Eleanor, both together and separately, yet she remains a compelling and elusive figure. And not much is known about why in 1920, Eleanor suddenly abandoned her duties as a mother of five and moved to Greenwich Village, then the symbol of all forms of transgressive freedom --- communism, homosexuality, interracial relationships and subversive political activity. Now, in ELEANOR IN THE VILLAGE, Jan Jarboe Russell pulls back the curtain on Eleanor’s life to reveal the motivations and desires that drew her to the Village and how her time there changed her political outlook.
Scribner | 9781501198151
ELIZABETH & MARGARET: The Intimate World of the Windsor Sisters by Andrew Morton (Biography)
They were the closest of sisters and the best of friends. But when their uncle Edward Vlll decided to abdicate the throne, the dynamic between Elizabeth and Margaret was dramatically altered. Elizabeth would always look upon her younger sister's antics with a kind of stoical amusement, but Margaret's struggle to find a place and position inside the royal system --- and her fraught relationship with its expectations --- was often a source of tension. From the idyll of their cloistered early life, through their hidden wartime lives, into the divergent paths they took following their father's death and Elizabeth's ascension to the throne, Andrew Morton's book explores their relationship over the years.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538700464
THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV by Dawnie Walton (Fiction)
Coming of age in Detroit, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar’s amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington Records. In early ’70s New York City, just as she’s finding her niche as part of a flamboyant and funky creative scene, a rival band signed to her label brandishes a Confederate flag at a promotional concert. Decades later, as Opal considers a 2016 reunion with Nev, music journalist S. Sunny Shelton seizes the chance to curate an oral history about her idols. But as her interviews dig deeper, a nasty new allegation from an unexpected source threatens to blow up everything.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982140168
THE FIVE WOUNDS by Kirstin Valdez Quade (Fiction)
It’s Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and 33-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his 15-year-old daughter, Angel, shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans for personal redemption. With weeks to go until her due date, tough, ebullient Angel has fled her mother’s house, setting her life on a startling new path. THE FIVE WOUNDS spans the baby’s first year as five generations of the Padilla family converge: Amadeo’s mother, Yolanda, reeling from a recent discovery; Angel’s mother, Marissa, to whom Angel isn’t speaking; and disapproving Tíve, Yolanda’s uncle and keeper of the family’s history.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393242836
GIRLHOOD by Melissa Febos (Essays)
When her body began to change at 11 years old, Melissa Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions and by the romantic relationships she threw herself into headlong. Over time, Febos increasingly questioned the stories she'd been told about herself and the habits and defenses she'd developed over years of trying to meet others' expectations. The values she and so many other women had learned in girlhood did not prioritize their personal safety, happiness or freedom, and she set out to reframe those values and beliefs. In GIRLHOOD, Febos charts how she and others like her have reimagined relationships and made room for the anger, grief, power and pleasure that women have long been taught to deny.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635572520
THE HIDING PLACE: A Mercy Carr Mystery by Paula Munier (Mystery)
When her late grandfather’s dying deputy calls Mercy to his side, she and Elvis inherit the cold case that haunted him --- and may have killed him. But finding Beth Kilgore 20 years after she disappeared is more than a lost cause. It’s a Pandora’s box releasing a rain of evil on the very people Mercy and Elvis hold most dear. The timing couldn’t be worse when the man who murdered her grandfather escapes from prison and a fellow Army vet turns up claiming that Elvis is his dog, not hers. With her grandmother Patience gone missing, and Elvis’ future uncertain, Mercy faces the prospect of losing her most treasured allies, the only ones she believes truly love and understand her. She needs help, and that means forgiving Vermont Game Warden Troy Warner long enough to enlist his aid.
Minotaur Books | 9781250153074
LIBERTIE by Kaitlyn Greenidge (Historical Fiction)
Coming of age as a freeborn Black girl in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, Libertie Sampson is all too aware that her purposeful mother, a practicing physician, has a vision for their future together: Libertie is to go to medical school and practice alongside her. But Libertie, drawn more to music than science, feels stifled by her mother’s choices and is hungry for something else. When a young man from Haiti proposes to Libertie and promises she will be his equal on the island, she accepts, only to discover that she is still subordinate to him and all men. As she tries to parse what freedom actually means for a Black woman, Libertie struggles with where she might find it --- for herself and for generations to come.
Algonquin Books | 9781616207014
LURKERS by Sandi Tan (Fiction)
The residents of Santa Claus Lane do their best to stay out of each other’s way, but desire, fury and mischief too often propel these suburban neighbors to collide. Precocious Korean American sisters Mira and Rosemary find their world rocked by a suicide, and they must fight to keep their home; a charismatic and creepy drama teacher grooms his students; a sardonic gay horror novelist finds that aging is more terrifying than any monster; and a white hippie mom and her adopted Vietnamese daughter realize that their anger binds them rather than pushes them apart.
Soho Press | 9781641292559
OF WOMEN AND SALT by Gabriela Garcia (Fiction)
In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction. She is determined to learn more about her family history from her reticent mother, a Cuban immigrant named Carmen, and makes the snap decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, Carmen must process her difficult relationship with her own mother while trying to raise a wayward Jeanette. Steadfast in her quest for understanding, Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and reckon with secrets from the past destined to erupt.
Flatiron Books | 9781250776686
OUR TEAM: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball by Luke Epplin (Sports/History)
OUR TEAM traces the story of the integration of the Cleveland Indians and their quest for a World Series title through four key participants: Bill Veeck, an eccentric and visionary owner adept at exploding fireworks on and off the field; Larry Doby, a soft-spoken, hard-hitting pioneer whose major-league breakthrough shattered stereotypes that so much of white America held about Black ballplayers; Bob Feller, a pitching prodigy from the Iowa cornfields who set the template for the athlete as businessman; and Satchel Paige, a legendary pitcher from the Negro Leagues whose belated entry into the majors whipped baseball fans across the country into a frenzy.
Flatiron Books | 9781250313799
THE PATH TO SUNSHINE COVE by RaeAnne Thayne (Fiction)
Jessica Clayton has made a career out of helping others downsize --- because she’s learned the hard way that the less “stuff,” the better, a policy she applies equally to her relationships. But a new client is taking Jess back to Cape Sanctuary, a town she once called home…and that her little sister, Rachel, still does. The years apart haven’t made a dent in the guilt Jess still carries after a handgun took the lives of both their parents and changed everything between them. With the demands of her youngest child’s disability, Rachel’s marriage has begun to fray at the seams. Against her judgment, Jess finds herself becoming attached --- to her sister and her family, even to her client’s interfering son, Nate --- and it’s time to put everything on the line.
HQN | 9781335665430
SUNFLOWER SISTERS by Martha Hall Kelly (Historical Fiction)
The 2016 bestseller LILAC GIRLS introduced readers to Caroline Ferriday. Now, in SUNFLOWER SISTERS, Martha Hall Kelly tells the story of Ferriday’s ancestor Georgeanna Woolsey, a Union nurse during the Civil War whose calling leads her to cross paths with Jemma, a young enslaved girl who is sold off and conscripted into the army, and Anne-May Wilson, a Southern plantation mistress whose husband enlists. Inspired by true accounts, the novel provides a vivid, detailed look at the Civil War experience --- from the barbaric and inhumane plantations, to a war-torn New York City, to the horrors of the battlefield. It’s a sweeping story of women caught in a country on the brink of collapse, in a society grappling with nationalism and unthinkable racial cruelty.
Ballantine Books | 9781524796402
TELL NO LIES by Allison Brennan (Mystery/Thriller)
Something mysterious is killing the wildlife in the mountains just south of Tucson. When a college intern turned activist sets out to collect her own evidence, she, too, ends up dead. Local law enforcement is slow to get involved. That’s when the mobile FBI unit goes undercover to infiltrate the town and its copper refinery in search of possible leads. Detective Kara Quinn and FBI agent Matt Costa find themselves scouring the desolate landscape, which keeps revealing clues to something much darker. As the body count adds up, it’s clear they have stumbled onto much more than they bargained for. Now they must figure out who is at the heart of this mayhem and stop them before more innocent lives are lost.
Mira | 9780778331469
WHEN I RAN AWAY by Ilona Bannister (Fiction)
As the Twin Towers collapse, Gigi Stanislawski flees her office building and escapes lower Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry. She finds someone she recognizes --- Harry Harrison, a regular at her favorite coffee shop --- and brings him to her parents' house as she waits for the phone call that will never come: the call from Frankie, her younger brother. Ten years later, Gigi, now a single mother, meets Harry (again by chance), and they fall deeply in love. But their move to London and their new baby leave her feeling isolated, raw and alone with her grief. As Gigi comes face-to-face with the anguish of her brother's death and her rage at the unspoken pain of motherhood, she must somehow find the light amid all the darkness.
Doubleday | 9780385546171
THE WOMEN OF CHATEAU LAFAYETTE by Stephanie Dray (Historical Fiction)
1774. Gently bred noblewoman Adrienne Lafayette works with her husband, the Marquis de Lafayette, in the fight for American independence. But when their idealism sparks revolution in France, Adrienne must renounce the complicated man she loves or risk her life for a legacy that will inspire generations to come. 1914. After witnessing the devastation in France firsthand, New York socialite Beatrice Chanler takes on the challenge of a lifetime: convincing America to fight for what's right. 1940. French schoolteacher and aspiring artist Marthe Simone wants nothing to do with war. But as the realities of Nazi occupation transform her life in the isolated castle where she came of age, she makes a discovery that calls into question who she is and who she is willing to become.
Berkley | 9781984802125
April 2nd
THE MOONSHINER POPCORN SUTTON by Neal Hutcheson (Biography)
Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton was raised in a Southern Appalachian community steeped in tradition. He learned to make moonshine at an early age and continued to pursue the perfection of the craft throughout his life. At the same time, he honed a natural talent for performance and came to fill not only the role but the appearance of the master moonshiners he had known as a child. Ultimately appearing in documentaries, television shows and heritage events, he brought the traditional craft of a secret brotherhood into the light. Now remembered as a folk hero who would literally live free or die, THE MOONSHINER POPCORN SUTTON captures the true story of the man behind the myth in a celebration of craft, heritage and irrepressible character.
Reliable Archetype | 9780578654140
On Sale the Week of March 29th in Paperback
March 30th
THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by Andrea Stewart (Fantasy)
The emperor's reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire's many islands. Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognize her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic. Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright --- and save her people.
Orbit | 9780316541435
THE BUSINESS OF LOVERS by Eric Jerome Dickey (Romance)
Unlike their younger brother, André, whose star as a comedian is rising, neither Dwayne nor Brick Duquesne is having luck with his career --- and they’re unluckier still in love. Former child star Dwayne has just been fired from his latest acting role and barely has enough money to get by after paying child support to his spiteful former lover. Brick struggles to return to his uninspiring white-collar job after suffering the dual blows of a health emergency and a nasty breakup with the woman he still loves. Neither brother is looking to get entangled with a woman anytime soon, but love --- and lust --- has a way of twisting the best-laid plans.
Dutton | 9781524745219
A DANGEROUS BREED by Glen Erik Hamilton (Thriller)
An invitation addressed to his long-dead mother sparks Van Shaw’s curiosity about the woman he barely knew. As he digs into young Moira Shaw's past, he uncovers startling details about her life, including her relationship to a boy named Sean Burke. Could he be the biological father who abandoned Van before he was born? Van has more immediate problems, though. His friend Hollis is in a jam, and helping him out accidentally steers Van into the path of a master extortionist named Bilal Nath. Nath demands that the talented thief mastermind a daring heist targeting a Seattle biotechnology firm, or the blackmailer will destroy the lives of people Van loves. Will Van be forced to steal a viral weapon with the potential to kill thousands?
William Morrow | 9780062978523
DEAD LAND: A V.I. Warshawski Novel by Sara Paretsky (Mystery)
Chicago may be the city of broad shoulders, but its political law is “Pay to Play.” Money changes hands in the middle of the night, and by morning, buildings and parks are replaced by billion-dollar projects. Chicago PI V.I. Warshawski gets pulled into one of these clandestine deals through her impetuous goddaughter, Bernie Fouchard. Bernie tries to rescue Lydia Zamir, a famed singer-songwriter now living on the streets; Zamir’s life fell apart when her lover was murdered next to her in a mass shooting at an outdoor concert. Not only does Bernie plunge her and V.I. headlong into the path of some ruthless developers, they lead to the murder of the young man Bernie is dating.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063070493
DIRT: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking by Bill Buford (Memoir)
What does it take to master French cooking? This is the question that drives Bill Buford to abandon his perfectly happy life in New York City and (with a wife and three-year-old twin sons in tow) move to Lyon, the so-called gastronomic capital of France. But what was meant to be six months in a new and very foreign city turns into a wild five-year digression from normal life, as Buford apprentices at Lyon’s best boulangerie, studies at a legendary culinary school, and cooks at a storied Michelin-starred restaurant, where he discovers the exacting (and incomprehensibly punishing) rigueur of the professional kitchen.
Vintage | 9780307455802
THE FRIENDSHIP LIST by Susan Mallery (Fiction)
Single mom Ellen Fox couldn’t be more content --- until she overhears her son saying he can’t go to his dream college because she needs him too much. If she wants him to live his best life, she has to convince him she’s living hers. So Unity Leandre, her best friend since forever, creates a list of challenges to push Ellen out of her comfort zone. Unity will complete the list, too, but not because she needs to change. What’s wrong with a thirtysomething widow still sleeping in her late husband’s childhood bed? The Friendship List begins as a way to make others believe they’re just fine. But somewhere between “wear three-inch heels” and “have sex with a gorgeous guy,” Ellen and Unity discover that life is meant to be lived with joy and abandon.
HQN | 9781335652966
GODSHOT by Chelsea Bieker (Fiction)
Drought has settled on the town of Peaches, California. The area of the Central Valley where 14-year-old Lacey May and her alcoholic mother live was once an agricultural paradise. Now it’s an environmental disaster, a place of cracked earth and barren raisin farms. In their desperation, residents have turned to a cult leader named Pastor Vern for guidance. But then Lacey May’s mother, exiled from the community for her sins, leaves her daughter and runs off with a man she barely knows. As Lacey May endures the increasingly appalling acts of men who want to write all the rules and begins to uncover the full extent of Pastor Vern’s shocking plan to bring fertility back to the land, she decides she must go on a quest to find her mother no matter what it takes.
Catapult | 9781646220557
A GOOD MARRIAGE by Kimberly McCreight (Psychological Thriller)
Grueling hours are standard at elite law firms like Young & Crane, but they’d be easier to swallow if Lizzie Kitsakis was there voluntarily. Until recently, she’d been a happily underpaid federal prosecutor. With that job and her brilliant, devoted husband, Sam, she had everything she’d ever wanted. And then it all fell apart. The last thing Lizzie needs right now is a call from an inmate at Rikers asking for help --- even if Zach Grayson is an old friend. His wife, Amanda, has been found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their Brooklyn brownstone. And Zach is the primary suspect. As Lizzie is drawn into the dark heart of idyllic Park Slope, she learns that Zach and Amanda weren’t what they seemed --- and that their friends might be protecting troubling secrets of their own.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062367693
HEX by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight (Fiction)
Nell Barber, an expelled PhD candidate in biological science, is exploring the fine line between poison and antidote, working alone to set a speed record for the detoxification of poisonous plants. Her mentor, Dr. Joan Kallas, is the hero of Nell's heart. Nell frequently finds herself standing in the doorway to Joan's office despite herself, mesmerized by Joan's elegance, success and spiritual force. Surrounded by Nell's ex, her best friend, her best friend's boyfriend and Joan's buffoonish husband, the two scientists are tangled together at the center of a web of illicit relationships, grudges and obsessions. All six are burdened by desire and ambition, and as they collide on the university campus, their attractions set in motion a domino effect of affairs and heartbreak.
Penguin Books | 9781984877390
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: A Detective William Warwick Novel by Jeffrey Archer (Fiction)
William Warwick has been promoted to Detective Sergeant, but his promotion means that he and the rest of his team have been reassigned to the Drugs Squad. They are immediately tasked with apprehending Khalil Rashidi, a notorious drug dealer, who operates his extensive network out of South London. As the investigation progresses, William runs into enemies old and new. Meanwhile, he and his fiancée Beth enjoy making preparations for their upcoming wedding, though an unpleasant surprise awaits them at the altar. As William’s team closes the net around a criminal network like none they have ever faced before, he devises a trap they would never expect, one that is hidden in plain sight.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250797124
HIS & HERS by Alice Feeney (Psychological Thriller)
When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.
Flatiron Books | 9781250266095
I WANT YOU TO KNOW WE’RE STILL HERE: A Post-Holocaust Memoir by Esther Safran Foer (Memoir)
Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak of. The child of parents who were each the sole survivors of their respective families, for Esther the Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt but never discussed. The result was a childhood marked by painful silences and continued tragedy. Even as she built a successful career, married and raised three children, Esther always felt herself searching. So when Esther’s mother casually mentions an astonishing revelation --- that her father had a previous wife and daughter, both killed in the Holocaust --- Esther resolves to find out who they were, and how her father survived.
Crown | 9780525575993
THE JETSETTERS by Amanda Eyre Ward (Fiction)
When 70-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the “Become a Jetsetter” contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children. She yearns for the years when they were young, when she was a single mother who meant everything to them. When Charlotte wins the contest, the family packs their baggage --- both literal and figurative --- and spends 10 days traveling from sun-drenched Athens through glorious Rome to tapas-laden Barcelona on an over-the-top cruise ship, the Splendido Marveloso. As lovers new and old join the adventure, long-buried secrets are revealed and old wounds are reopened, forcing the Perkins family to confront the forces that drove them apart and the defining choices of their lives.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181917
MASKED PREY: A Lucas Davenport Novel by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller)
Clayton Deese looks like a small-time criminal, muscle for hire when his loan shark boss needs to teach someone a lesson. Now, seven months after a job that went south and landed him in jail, Deese has skipped out on bail, and the U.S. Marshals come looking for him. They don't much care about a low-level guy --- it's his boss they want --- but Deese might be their best chance to bring down the whole operation. Then they step onto a dirt trail behind Deese's rural Louisiana cabin and find a jungle full of graves. Now Lucas Davenport is on the trail of a serial killer who has been operating for years without notice. His quarry is ruthless, and --- as Davenport will come to find --- full of surprises.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525539544
THE NEMESIS MANIFESTO by Eric Van Lustbader (Thriller/Adventure)
Evan Ryder is a lone wolf, a field agent for a black-ops arm of the DOD, who has survived unspeakable tragedy and dedicated her life to protecting her country. When her fellow agents begin to be systematically eliminated, Evan must unravel the thread that ties them all together...and before her name comes up on the kill list. The list belongs to a mysterious cabal known only as Nemesis, a hostile entity hell-bent on tearing the United States apart. As Evan tracks them from Washington, D.C. to the Caucasus Mountains, from Austria to a fortress in Germany where her own demons reside, she unearths a network of conspirators far more complex than anyone could have imagined. Can Evan uproot them before Nemesis forces bring democracy to its knees?
Forge Books | 9781250751188
NETWORK EFFECT: A Murderbot Novel by Martha Wells (Science Fiction/Adventure)
You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot. Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century. When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action. Drastic action it is, then.
Tordotcom | 9781250229854
PAYBACK by Lorenzo Carcaterra (Thriller)
Detective Eddie Kenwood is a dirty cop. He has the highest signed-confession rate in the NYPD and a distinguished career built on putting men behind bars --- whether they’re guilty or not doesn’t matter much to him. When Tank Rizzo’s partner, Pearl, tells him about an old family friend Kenwood put in jail for a murder he didn’t commit, Tank and Pearl vow to take Kenwood down. Also in need of a takedown: the money-laundering accounting firm where Tank’s brother used to work --- before he mysteriously died, leaving Tank the sole guardian of his nephew, Chris. Chris smells a rat and enlists Tank’s help to bring the men who had his father killed to justice.
Ballantine Books | 9780399177613
THE PERFECT FATHER: The True Story of Chris Watts, His All-American Family, and a Shocking Murder by John Glatt (True Crime)
In the early morning hours of August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts was dropped off at home by a colleague after returning from a business trip. It was the last time anyone would see her alive. By the next day, Shanann and her two young daughters, Bella and Celeste, had been reported missing, and her husband, Chris Watts, was pleading for his family’s safe return. But less than 24 hours later, Watts made a shocking confession to police: he had strangled his pregnant wife to death and smothered their daughters, dumping their bodies at a nearby oil site. In this first major account of the case, John Glatt reveals the truth behind the tragedy and constructs a chilling portrait of one of the most shocking family annihilator cases of the 21st century.
St. Martin's Paperbacks | 9781250782687
REDHEAD BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD by Anne Tyler (Fiction)
Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit. A self-employed tech expert, superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building, cautious to a fault behind the steering wheel, he seems content leading a steady, circumscribed life. But one day his routines are blown apart when his woman friend (he refuses to call anyone in her late 30s a "girlfriend") tells him she's facing eviction, and a teenager shows up at Micah's door claiming to be his son. These surprises, and the ways they throw Micah's meticulously organized life off-kilter, risk changing him forever.
Vintage | 9780593080948
ROBERT B. PARKER’S GRUDGE MATCH: A Sunny Randall Novel by Mike Lupica (Mystery)
When PI Sunny Randall's longtime gangster associate Tony Marcus comes to her for help, Sunny is surprised. After all, she double-crossed him on a recent deal, and their relationship is on shakier ground than ever. Tony's trusted girlfriend and business partner has vanished, appearing to have left in a hurry, and he has no idea why. He just wants to talk to her, but first he needs Sunny to track her down. But when a witness is murdered hours after speaking to Sunny, it's clear there's more at stake than just Tony's love life. Someone --- maybe even Tony himself --- doesn't want this woman on the loose...and will go to any lengths to make sure she stays silent.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525539339
THREE HOURS IN PARIS by Cara Black (Historical Thriller)
Kate Rees, a young American markswoman, has been recruited by British intelligence to drop into Paris with a dangerous assignment: assassinate the Führer. Wrecked by grief after a Luftwaffe bombing killed her husband and infant daughter, she is armed with a rifle, a vendetta and a fierce resolve. But other than rushed and rudimentary instruction, she has no formal spy training. Thrust into the red-hot center of the war, a country girl from rural Oregon finds herself holding the fate of the world in her hands. When she misses her mark and the plan unravels, Kate is on the run for her life --- all the time wrestling with the suspicion that the whole operation was a setup.
Soho Crime | 9781641292580
TOM CLANCY FIRING POINT: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel by Mike Maden (Thriller/Adventure)
While on vacation in Barcelona, Jack Ryan, Jr. is surprised to run into Renee Moore, an old friend, at a small café. After making plans to meet later, Jack leaves, and the café is destroyed by a suicide bomber. A desperate Jack plunges back into the ruins to save his friend, but it's too late. As she dies in his arms, she utters one word: "Sammler." When the police show up, they are initially suspicious of Jack until they are called off by a member of the Spanish Intelligence Service. This mysterious sequence of events sends the young Campus operative on an unrelenting search to find out the reason behind Renee's death. Along the way, he discovers that his old friend had secrets of her own --- and some of them may have gotten her killed.
Berkley | 9780593188071
A WALK ALONG THE BEACH by Debbie Macomber (Fiction)
After their mother died and their father was lost in grief, Willa had no choice but to raise her sister, Harper, and their brother, Lucas. Then, as an adult, she put her own life on hold to nurse Harper through a terrifying illness. Now that Harper is better and the sisters are living as roommates, Willa has realized her dream of running her own bakery and coffee shop. Harper, on the other hand, is always on the go. Overcoming a terrible illness has given her a new lease on life, and she does not intend to waste it. When Harper announces her plan to summit Mount Rainier, Willa fears she may be pushing herself too far. Harper, for her part, urges Willa to stop worrying and do something outside of her comfort zone --- like taking a chance on love with a handsome new customer.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181382
THE WEDDING DRESS by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
The Parisian design houses in 1928, the crash of 1929, the losses of war, the drug culture of the 1960s --- history holds many surprises, and lives are changed forever. For richer or for poorer, in cramped apartments and grand mansions, the treasured wedding dress made in Paris in 1928 follows each generation into their new lives, and represents different hopes for each of them, as they marry very different men. From inherited fortunes at the outset to self-made men and women, the wedding dress remains a cherished constant for the women who wear it in each generation and forge a destiny of their own. It is a symbol of their remaining traditions and the bond of family they share in an ever-changing world.
Dell | 9780399179617
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens (Fiction)
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life --- until the unthinkable happens.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735219106
April 1st
THE PERFECT MARRIAGE by Adam Mitzner (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
James and Jessica Sommers are celebrating their first blissful year together, an unexpected second chance at true love. Unfortunately, their newfound shot at happiness is not without collateral damage. There’s Jessica’s ex-husband. He pretends for all the world that he’s resilient and strong. If only for the sake of their teenage son, profoundly vulnerable in his own way. James’ ex has taken a different road. Bitter, vengeful and threatening, she wants only the worst for the happy couple. Are they truly as in love as they seem? When James enters into an extraordinarily profitable, if shady, transaction with a beautiful art dealer, Jessica and James’ seemingly perfect marriage takes a dark and tragic turn.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542005760
On Sale the Week of April 5th in Hardcover
April 6th
ANIMAL INSTINCT: A K Team Novel by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, a German shepherd named Simon Garfunkel, are recently retired police officers turned private investigators. Along with fellow former cop Laurie Collins and her investigating partner, Marcus, they call themselves the K Team. Their latest case gives Corey a chance to solve "the one that got away." Corey knew the murder victim from his time on the force, when he was unable to protect her in a domestic dispute. Now, he is convinced the same abusive boyfriend is responsible for her murder. With some help from Laurie’s lawyer husband, Andy Carpenter, the K Team is determined to prove what the police could not. What they uncover is much more sinister than they could have imagined.
Minotaur Books | 9781250257208
ANYWHERE FOR YOU by Abbie Greaves (Fiction)
Mary O’Connor appears at Ealing Broadway station every day and holds out a sign bearing a heartrending message: Come Home Jim. While others pass her by without a thought, Alice, a junior reporter at the Ealing Bugle, asks Mary to tell her story. Many years ago, Mary met the charming and romantic Jim Whitnell. She was certain she’d found her other half, until one day he vanished without any explanation. But Mary believes that Jim truly loved her and will return --- especially because she’s recently received grainy phone calls from him saying he misses her. Alice quietly begins her own investigation into Jim’s disappearance, unraveling a decade-long story filled with desire, heartbreak and hope.
William Morrow | 9780062933874
ASTRID SEES ALL by Natalie Standiford (Fiction)
Phoebe Hayes is in search of excitement and adventure. But the recent death of her father has so devastated her that her mother wants her to remain home in Baltimore to recover. Phoebe wants to return to New York, not only to chase the glamorous life she so desperately craves but also to confront Ivan, the older man who painfully wronged her. With her best friend Carmen, she escapes to the East Village, disappearing into an underworld haunted by artists, It Girls and lost souls. Carmen juggles her junkie-poet boyfriend and a sexy painter, while, as Astrid the Star Girl, Phoebe tells fortunes in a nightclub and plots her revenge on Ivan. When the intoxicating brew of sex, drugs and self-destruction leads Phoebe to betray her friend, Carmen disappears, and Phoebe begins an unstoppable descent into darkness.
Atria Books | 9781982153656
BEESWING: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975 by Richard Thompson with Scott Timberg (Memoir)
Known for his brilliant songwriting, his extraordinary guitar playing and his haunting voice, Richard Thompson is considered one of the top 20 guitarists of all time, in the songwriting pantheon alongside Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Randy Newman. Now, in his long-awaited memoir, the British folk musician takes us back to the late 1960s, a period of great change and creativity --- both for him and for the world at large.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208950
THE BOHEMIANS by Jasmin Darznik (Historical Fiction)
In 1918, a young and bright-eyed Dorothea Lange steps off the train in San Francisco, where a disaster kick-starts a new life. Her friendship with Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, gives Dorothea entrée into Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art and politics. She also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. Dorothea and Caroline eventually create a flourishing portrait studio, but a devastating betrayal pushes their friendship to the breaking point and alters the course of their lives.
Ballantine Books | 9780593129425
BROKEN (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson (Humor/Essays)
As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In BROKEN, she brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way. With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. From the business ideas that she wants to pitch to “Shark Tank” to the reason why she can never go back to the post office, BROKEN leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. And, of course, Jenny’s long-suffering husband Victor --- the Ricky to Jenny’s Lucille Ball --- is present throughout.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250077035
CAUL BABY by Morgan Jerkins (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Laila desperately wants to become a mother, so she turns to the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family known for their caul, a precious layer of skin that is the secret source of their healing power. When a deal for Laila to acquire a piece of caul falls through, she is heartbroken, but when the child is stillborn, she is overcome with grief and rage. What she doesn’t know is that a baby will soon be delivered in her family --- by her niece, Amara --- and delivered to the Melancons to raise as one of their own. Hallow is born with a caul, and their matriarch, Maman, predicts the girl will restore the family’s prosperity. As the Melancons’ thirst to maintain their status grows, Amara, now a successful lawyer running for district attorney, looks for a way to avenge her longstanding grudge against the family.
Harper | 9780062873088
THE DICTIONARY OF LOST WORDS by Pip Williams (Historical Fiction)
Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. One day, a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath their sorting table. Esme rescues the slip, and when she learns that the word means “slave girl,” she begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men. As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so, she must venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages.
Ballantine Books | 9780593160190
THE DROWNING KIND by Jennifer McMahon (Supernatural Thriller)
When Jax receives nine missed calls from Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. Jax learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property --- and discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she ever could have imagined. In 1929, 37-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. Her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a natural spring is showcased by the newest and most modern hotel in the Northeast. Once there, Ethel learns that the water is rumored to grant wishes, never suspecting that the spring takes in equal measure to what it gives.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982153922
ENDINGS by Linda L. Richards (Psychological Thriller)
What would it take for you to kill someone for money? And if you did, who --- or what --- would you have become? These are the questions one woman faces when she loses everyone she loves and everything she has. When the opportunity arrives to reinvent herself as a killer for hire, she takes it. She’s good at it --- and if she doesn’t do it, someone else will. Then everything changes when she learns about a serial killer so horrible she vows to find him and kill him until --- overcome by self-doubt --- she seeks redemption rather than vengeance.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094202
EVA AND EVE: A Search for My Mother’s Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind by Julie Metz (Memoir/History)
To Julie Metz, her mother, Eve, was the quintessential New Yorker. Eve rarely spoke about her childhood, and it was difficult to imagine her living anywhere else except Manhattan, where she could be found attending Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera or inspecting a round of French triple crème at Zabar’s. In truth, Eve had endured a harrowing childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna. After her mother passed, Julie discovered a keepsake book filled with farewell notes from friends and relatives addressed to a 10-year-old girl named Eva. This long-hidden memento was the first clue to the secret pain that Julie’s mother had carried as a refugee and immigrant, shining a light on a family that had to persevere at every turn to escape the antisemitism and xenophobia that threatened their survival.
Atria Books | 9781982127985
FINDING FREEDOM: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch by Erin French (Memoir)
Long before The Lost Kitchen became a world dining destination with every seating filled the day the reservation book opens each spring, Erin French was a girl roaming barefoot on a 25-acre farm, a teenager falling in love with food while working the line at her dad’s diner, and a young woman finding her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th-century mill. This singular memoir --- a classic American story --- invites readers to Erin's corner of her beloved Maine to share the real person behind the “girl from Freedom” fairytale, and the not-so-picture-perfect struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and that make Erin’s life triumphant.
Celadon Books | 9781250312341
FIRST PERSON SINGULAR: Stories written by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (Fiction/Short Stories)
The eight stories in FIRST PERSON SINGULAR are all told in the first person by a classic Haruki Murakami narrator. From memories of youth, meditations on music, and an ardent love of baseball, to dreamlike scenarios and invented jazz albums, together these stories challenge the boundaries between our minds and the exterior world. Occasionally, a narrator may or may not be Murakami himself. Is it memoir or fiction? The reader decides.
Knopf | 9780593318072
FIRST, BECOME ASHES by K.M. Szpara (Fantasy/Adventure)
For 30 years, the Fellowship of the Anointed isolated its members, conditioning them to believe that pain is power and magic is suffering. But when their leader is arrested, all her teachings come into question. How will they adjust to the world they were taught to fear, and how will they relate to the cult's last crusader, Lark? For Kane, survival means rejecting the magic he and his lover suffered for. For Deryn, the cult's collapse is an opportunity to prove they are worth as much as their Anointed brother. For Calvin, lark is the alluring embodiment of the magic he's been seeking his entire life. But for Lark, the Fellowship isn’t over. Before he can begin to discover himself and heal a lifetime of traumas, he has a monster to slay.
Tordotcom | 9781250216182
GOLD DIGGERS by Sanjena Sathian (Fiction/Magical Realism)
A floundering second-generation teenager growing up in the Bush-era Atlanta suburbs, Neil Narayan is authentic, funny and smart. He just doesn't share the same drive as everyone around him. He has his sights set on his neighbor across the cul-de-sac, Anita Dayal. But Anita has a secret: she and her mother, Anjali, have been brewing an ancient alchemical potion from stolen gold that harnesses the ambition of the jewelry's original owner. Anjali's own mother in Bombay didn't waste the precious potion on her daughter, favoring her sons instead. Anita, on the other hand, just needs a little boost to get into Harvard. But when Neil joins in the plot, events spiral into a tragedy that rips their community apart.
Penguin Press | 9781984882035
GOOD COMPANY by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney (Fiction)
Flora Mancini has been happily married for more than 20 years. But everything she thought she knew about herself, her marriage and her relationship with her best friend, Margot, is upended when she stumbles upon an envelope containing her husband’s wedding ring --- the one he claimed he lost one summer when their daughter, Ruby, was five. Flora and Julian struggled for years, scraping together just enough acting work to raise Ruby in Manhattan and keep Julian’s small theater company --- Good Company --- afloat. A move to Los Angeles brought their first real career successes and a reunion with Margot, now a bona fide television star. But has their new life been built on lies? What happened that summer all those years ago? And what happens now?
Ecco | 9780062876003
THE HARD CROWD: Essays 2000-2020 by Rachel Kushner (Essays)
Rachel Kushner gathers a selection of her writing from over the course of the last 20 years that addresses the most pressing political, artistic and cultural issues of our times --- and illuminates the themes and real-life terrain that underpin her fiction. In 19 razor-sharp essays, THE HARD CROWD spans literary journalism, memoir, cultural criticism and writing about art and literature, including pieces on Jeff Koons, Denis Johnson and Marguerite Duras. Kushner takes us on a journey through a Palestinian refugee camp, an illegal motorcycle race down the Baja Peninsula, 1970s wildcat strikes in Fiat factories, her love of classic cars, and her young life in the music scene of her hometown, San Francisco.
Scribner | 9781982157692
HEAVEN'S A LIE by Wallace Stroby (Thriller)
Struggling to afford her mother's sky-high medical bills and also keep the lights on in her trailer home, Joette Harper needs a break. So when she spies a bag full of money amongst the wreckage of a fiery car accident, she knows she can't just let it be. Inside is a bounty better than she could have dreamed --- just shy of $300,000 --- which is enough to pay off her debts, give her mother the care she deserves, and maybe even help out a few of her friends. But the missing briefcase didn't go unnoticed by its original owner, Travis Clay, a ruthless dealer who will stop at nothing to get back what's his. Joette is way out of her depth, but can't seem to stop herself from participating in this cat-and-mouse chase.
Mulholland Books | 9780316540605
HUMMINGBIRD SALAMANDER by Jeff VanderMeer (Speculative Thriller)
Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control. Soon, Jane and her family are in danger, with few allies to help her make sense of the true scope of the peril. Is the only way to safety to follow in Silvina’s footsteps? Is it too late to stop? As she desperately seeks answers about why Silvina contacted her, time is running out --- for her and possibly for the world.
MCD | 9780374173548
I HAVE BEEN BURIED UNDER YEARS OF DUST: A Memoir of Autism and Hope by Valerie Gilpeer and Emily Grodin (Memoir)
“I have been buried under years of dust and now I have so much to say.” These were the first words 25-year-old Emily Grodin ever wrote. Born with nonverbal autism, Emily’s only means of communicating for a quarter of a century had been only one-word responses or physical gestures. Her parents, Valerie and Tom, sought every therapy possible in the hope that Emily would one day be able to reveal herself. When this miraculous breakthrough occurred, Emily was finally able to give insight into the life, frustrations and joys of a person with autism. I HAVE BEEN BURIED UNDER YEARS OF DUST highlights key moments of Emily’s childhood that led to her communication awakening --- and how her ability rapidly accelerated after she wrote that first sentence.
William Morrow | 9780062984340
THE LIGHT OF DAYS: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos by Judy Batalion (History)
Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and neighbors and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland helped transform the Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis. These “ghetto girls” paid off Gestapo guards, hid revolvers in loaves of bread and jars of marmalade, and helped build systems of underground bunkers. They flirted with German soldiers, bribed them with wine, whiskey and home cooking, used their Aryan looks to seduce them, and shot and killed them. They bombed German train lines and blew up a town’s water supply. They also nursed the sick and taught children. THE LIGHT OF DAYS at last tells the true story of these incredible women whose courageous yet little-known feats have been eclipsed by time.
William Morrow | 9780062874214
MOTHER MAY I by Joshilyn Jackson (Psychological Thriller)
Marrying into a family with wealth, power and connections, Bree Cabbat has all a woman could ever dream: a loving lawyer husband, two talented young teenage daughters, a new baby boy, a gorgeous home, and every opportunity in the world. Until the day Bree awakens and sees a witch peering into her bedroom window, an old gray-haired woman all dressed in black who vanishes as quickly as she appears. Later that day, she spies the old woman again, in the parking lot of her daughters’ private school...just minutes before Bree’s baby son vanishes. To get him back, Bree must complete one small --- but critical --- task. It seems harmless enough, but her action comes with a devastating price, making her complicit in a tangled web of tragedy and shocking secrets that will destroy everything she loves.
William Morrow | 9780062855343
THE NIGHT ALWAYS COMES by Willy Vlautin (Fiction)
Barely 30, Lynette is exhausted. Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobs, some illegally, she’s been diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled brother, Kenny. Portland’s housing prices have nearly quadrupled in 15 years, and the owner is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it’s their last best chance to own their own home --- and obtain the security they’ve never had. While she has enough for the down payment, she needs her mother to cover the rest of the asking price. But a week before they’re set to sign the loan papers, her mother gets cold feet and reneges on her promise, pushing Lynette to her limits to find the money they need.
Harper | 9780063035089
THE NINE LIVES OF ROSE NAPOLITANO by Donna Freitas (Fiction)
Rose Napolitano is fighting with her husband, Luke, about prenatal vitamins. She promised she'd take them, but didn't. Their marriage has come to rest on this one question: Can Rose find it in herself to become a mother? Rose is a successful professor and academic. She's never wanted to have a child. The fight ends, and with it their marriage. But then Rose has a fight with Luke about the vitamins --- again. This time the fight goes slightly differently, and so does Rose's future as she grapples with whether she can indeed give up the one thing she thought she knew about herself. Can she reimagine her life in a completely new way? That reimagining plays out again and again in each of Rose's nine lives, just as it does for each of us as we grow into adulthood.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9781984880598
NORTHERN HEIST by Richard O'Rawe (Historical Thriller)
Nobody robs banks in Belfast without the IRA getting a cut --- not even former Provo James “Ructions” O'Hare. But when word gets around that O'Hare may be up to something, the pressure from the IRA begins. Ructions trusts his crack squad of former paramilitary compadres, and has full confidence in his audacious plan: To literally empty the biggest bank in Belfast by kidnapping the families of two employees --- known as a "tiger" kidnapping --- in order to force them to help Ructions and his crew get into the bank's vault. But keeping the plan --- and the money --- from the IRA is another plan entirely, one requiring all of Ructions' cunning and skill.
Melville House | 9781612199030
NORTHERN SPY by Flynn Berry (Thriller)
A producer at the BBC and mother to a new baby, Tessa is at work in Belfast one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. Bomb threats, security checkpoints and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the news reporter requests the public's help in locating those responsible for the robbery, security footage reveals Tessa's sister, Marian, pulling a black ski mask over her face. The police believe Marian has joined the IRA, but Tessa is convinced she must have been abducted or coerced. When the truth about Marian comes to light, Tessa is faced with impossible choices that will test the limits of her ideals, the bonds of her family, her notions of right and wrong, and her identity as a sister and a mother.
Viking | 9780735224995
OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN by R.J. Hoffmann (Fiction)
Gail and Jon Durbin moved to the Chicago suburbs to set up house as soon as Gail got pregnant. But then she miscarried…three times. Determined to expand their family, the Durbins turn to adoption. When several adoptions fall through, Gail’s desire for a child overwhelms her. Carli is a pregnant teenager from a blue-collar town nearby, with dreams of going to college and getting out of her mother’s home. When she makes the gut-wrenching decision to give her baby up for adoption, she chooses the Durbins. But Carli’s mother, Marla, has other plans for her grandbaby.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982159092
PEACES by Helen Oyeyemi (Fiction/Magical Realism)
When Otto and Xavier Shin declare their love, an aunt gifts them a trip on a sleeper train to mark their new commitment --- and to get them out of her house. Setting off with their pet mongoose, Otto and Xavier arrive at their sleepy local train station, but quickly deduce that The Lucky Day is no ordinary locomotive. Their trip on this former tea-smuggling train has been curated beyond their wildest imaginations, complete with mysterious and welcoming touches, like ingredients for their favorite breakfast. They seem to be the only people onboard, until Otto discovers a secretive woman who issues a surprising message. As further clues and questions pile up, Otto and Xavier begin to see connections to their own pasts that now bind them together.
Riverhead Books | 9780593192337
PHILIP ROTH: The Biography by Blake Bailey (Biography)
Appointed by Philip Roth and granted independence and complete access, Blake Bailey spent years poring over Roth’s personal archive, interviewing his friends, lovers and colleagues, and engaging Roth himself in breathtakingly candid conversations. The result is an indelible portrait of an American master and of the postwar literary scene. Bailey shows how Roth emerged from a lower-middle-class Jewish milieu to achieve the heights of literary fame, how his career was nearly derailed by his catastrophic first marriage, and how he championed the work of dissident novelists behind the Iron Curtain. Bailey also examines Roth’s rivalrous friendships with Saul Bellow, John Updike and William Styron, and reveals the truths of his florid love life, culminating in his almost-20-year relationship with actress Claire Bloom.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393240726
TOWER OF BABEL by Michael Sears (Mystery/Thriller)
Ted Molloy was once a high-powered Manhattan lawyer, but after a spectacular fall from grace, he has found himself back on his home turf in Queens, scraping by as a foreclosure profiteer. It’s a grubby business, but a safe one --- until Ted’s case sourcer, a mostly reformed small-time conman named Richie Rubiano, turns up murdered shortly after tipping Ted off to an improbably lucrative lead. With Richie’s widow on his back and shadows of the past popping up at every turn, Ted realizes he has gotten himself embroiled in a murder investigation. His quest for the truth will take him all over Queens, plunging him into the machinations of greedy developers, mobsters, enraged activists, old litigator foes and old-school New York City operators.
Soho Crime | 9781641291958
THE WIDOW QUEEN by Elzbieta Cherezinska (Historical Fiction)
The bold one, they call her --- too bold for most. To her father, the great duke of Poland, Swietoslawa and her two sisters represent three chances for an alliance. Three marriages on which to build his empire. But Swietoslawa refuses to be simply a pawn in her father's schemes; she seeks a throne of her own, with no husband by her side. The gods may grant her wish, but crowns sit heavy, and power is a sword that cuts both ways.
Forge Books | 9781250218001
YOU LOVE ME: A You Novel by Caroline Kepnes (Psychological Thriller)
Joe Goldberg is done with the cities. He’s done with the muck and the posers, done with Love. Now he’s saying hello to nature, to simple pleasures on a cozy island in the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in a long time, he can just breathe. He gets a job at the local library, and that’s where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe won’t meddle, he will not obsess. He’ll win her the old-fashioned way…by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, they’ll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after. The trouble is, Mary Kay already has a life. She’s a mother. She’s a friend. She’s…busy. Hopefully, with Joe’s encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him.
Random House | 9780593133781
YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU: Selected Stories, 1981-2018 by John Edgar Wideman (Fiction/Short Stories)
When John Edgar Wideman won the PEN Malamud Award in 2019, he joined a list of esteemed writers --- from Eudora Welty to George Saunders --- all of whom are acknowledged masters of the short story. Wideman’s commitment to short fiction has been lifelong, and here he gathers a representative selection from throughout his career, stories that challenge what defines, separates and unites us; dare to push form and defy convention; and, to quote Wideman, seek to “deconstruct the given formulas of African American culture and life.”
Scribner | 9781982148911
On Sale the Week of April 5th in Paperback
April 6th
AFTERLIFE by Julia Alvarez (Fiction)
Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of AFTERLIFE, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves --- lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack --- but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.
Algonquin Books | 9781643751368
THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF AUGUST MARCH by Aaron Jackson (Fiction)
Abandoned as an infant by his actress mother in her theater dressing room, August March was raised by an ancient laundress. Highly intelligent and a tad feral, August is a true child of the theater. But like all productions, August’s wondrous time inside the theater comes to a close, and he finds himself in the wilds of postwar New York City, where he quickly rises from pickpocket street urchin to star student at the stuffiest boarding school in the nation. To survive, August must rely upon the kindness of strangers, only some of whom have his best interests at heart. As he grows up, his heart begins to yearn for love --- which he may or may not finally find in Penny, a clever and gifted con artist.
Harper Perennial | 9780062939371
THE BEAUTY OF YOUR FACE by Sahar Mustafah (Fiction)
Afaf Rahman, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, is the principal of Nurrideen School for Girls, a Muslim school in the Chicago suburbs. One morning, a shooter --- radicalized by the online alt-right --- attacks the school. As Afaf listens to his terrifying progress, we are swept back through her memories: the bigotry she faced as a child, her mother’s dreams of returning to Palestine, and the devastating disappearance of her older sister that tore her family apart. Still, there is the sweetness of the music from her father’s oud, and the hope and community Afaf finally finds in Islam.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393542042
BIG SUMMER by Jennifer Weiner (Fiction)
Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favor to ask. Daphne hasn’t spoken one word to Drue in all this time, so when Drue asks if she will be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless. Letting glamorous, seductive Drue back into her life is risky, but it comes with an invitation to spend a weekend in a waterfront Cape Cod mansion. When Drue begs and pleads and dangles the prospect of cute single guys, Daphne finds herself powerless as ever to resist her friend’s siren song.
Washington Square Press | 9781501133527
BROKEN FAITH: Inside One of America's Most Dangerous Cults by Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr (True Crime/Religion)
In 1979, a fiery preacher named Jane Whaley attracted a small group of followers with a promise that she could turn their lives around. In the years since, Whaley’s following has expanded to include thousands of congregants across three continents. In their eyes she’s a prophet. And to disobey her means eternal damnation. The control Whaley exerts is absolute: she decides what her followers study, where they work, whom they can marry --- even when they can have sex. Based on hundreds of interviews, secretly recorded conversations and thousands of pages of documents, BROKEN FAITH is a terrifying portrait of life inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, and the harrowing account of one family who escaped after two decades.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335266750
BUZZ SAW: The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series by Jesse Dougherty (Sports)
By May 2019, the Washington Nationals had one of the worst records in the majors. Yet by blending an old-school brand of baseball with modern analytics, they managed to sneak into the playoffs and put together the most unlikely postseason run in baseball history. Not only did they beat the Houston Astros to claim the franchise’s first championship, they won all four games in Houston, making them the first club to ever win four road games in a World Series. Washington Post beat writer Jesse Dougherty followed the Nationals more closely than any other writer in America, and in BUZZ SAW he recounts the dramatic year in vivid detail, taking readers inside the dugout, the clubhouse, the front office, and ultimately the championship parade.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982152277
A DEADLY TWIST: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery by Jeffrey Siger (Mystery)
Paperback Original
When Athens journalist Nikoletta Elia disappears while on assignment on the island of Naxos, her editor calls on Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis to investigate. Sent to report on the conflict between preservationists and advocates for expanded tourism, Nikoletta is approached by a fan who takes credit for several suspicious deaths she'd reported on in the past. The assassin claims to have abandoned that life, and convinces the reporter to write about him and his murderous exploits for hire. Kaldis sends his deputy, Yianni, to look into her disappearance when an unidentified body is found at the base of a cliff. Who is the mysterious corpse, and where is Nikoletta?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464214264
ELIZA STARTS A RUMOR by Jane L. Rosen (Fiction)
When Eliza Hunt created The Hudson Valley Ladies’ Bulletin Board 15 years ago, she was happily entrenched in her picture-perfect suburban life. Now, with an empty nest and a crippling case of agoraphobia, the once-fun hobby has become her lifeline. So when a rival parenting forum threatens the site’s existence, she doesn’t think twice before fabricating a salacious rumor to spark things up a bit. It doesn’t take long before that spark becomes a flame. Across town, new mom and site devotee Olivia York is thrown into a tailspin by what she reads on the Bulletin Board. Allison Le is making cyber friends with a woman who isn’t quite who she says she is. And Amanda Cole, Eliza’s childhood friend, may just hold the key to unearthing why Eliza can’t step out of her front door.
Berkley | 9780593102091
THE GIRLS IN THE STILT HOUSE by Kelly Mustian (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Ada promised herself she would never go back to the Trace, to her hard life on the swamp and her harsh father. But now, after running away to Baton Rouge and briefly knowing a different kind of life, she finds herself with nowhere to go but back home. Matilda, daughter of a sharecropper, is from the other side of the Trace. Doing what she can to protect her family from the whims and demands of some particularly callous locals is an ongoing struggle. She forms a plan to go north, to pack up the secrets she's holding about her life in the South and hang them on the line for all to see in Ohio. As the two girls are drawn deeper into a dangerous world of bootleggers and moral corruption, they must come to terms with the complexities of their tenuous bond and a hidden past that links them in ways that could cost them their lives.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728217710
THE HENNA ARTIST by Alka Joshi (Historical Fiction)
Escaping from an abusive marriage, 17-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist --- and confidante --- to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own. Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow --- a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly, the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened.
Mira | 9780778331476
HID FROM OUR EYES: A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Mystery)
1952. Millers Kill Police Chief Harry McNeil is called to a crime scene where a woman in a party dress has been murdered with no obvious cause of death. 1972. Millers Kill Police Chief Jack Liddle is called to a murder scene of a woman that's very similar to one he worked as a trooper in the ’50s. The only difference is that they have a suspect this time. Young Vietnam War veteran Russ van Alstyne found the body while riding his motorcycle and is quickly pegged as the prime focus of the investigation. Present-day. Millers Kill Police Chief Russ van Alstyne gets a 911 call that a young woman has been found dead in a party dress, the same MO as the crime he was accused of in the ’70s. The pressure is on for Russ to solve the murder before he's removed from the case.
Minotaur Books | 9780312606886
HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD by C Pam Zhang (Historical Fiction)
Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints and the specters of a ravaged landscape, as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry and glimpses of a different kind of future.
Riverhead Books | 9780525537212
THE INSIDE GAME: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves by Keith Law (Sports)
Baseball is a sport of decisions. Some are so small and routine they become the building blocks of the game itself --- what pitch to throw or when to swing away. Others are so huge they dictate the future of franchises --- when to make a strategic trade for a chance to win now, or when to offer millions and a multi-year contract for a 28-year-old star. These decisions have long shaped the behavior of players, managers and entire franchises. But as those choices have become more complex and data-driven, knowing what’s behind them has become key to understanding the sport. THE INSIDE GAME explores as never before the essential question: What were they thinking?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062942739
THE INTIMACY EXPERIMENT by Rosie Danan (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
After the sex-positive start-up that Naomi Grant cofounded becomes an international sensation, she wants to extend her educational platform to live lecturing. Unfortunately, higher ed won't hire her. Recently LA Mag nominated Ethan Cohen as one of the city's hottest bachelors, and he became rabbi of his own synagogue. Low on both funds and congregants, the executive board has given him three months to turn things around, or else they'll close the doors of his synagogue for good. Naomi and Ethan join forces to host a buzzy seminar series on Modern Intimacy, the perfect solution to their problems until they discover a new one --- their growing attraction to each other.
Berkley | 9780593101629
JACK by Marilynne Robinson (Fiction)
Marilynne Robinson’s mythical world of Gilead, Iowa --- the setting of her novels GILEAD, HOME and LILA --- and its beloved characters have illuminated and interrogated the complexities of American history, the power of our emotions and the wonders of a sacred world. JACK is the fourth novel in this now-classic series. In it, Robinson tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the prodigal son of Gilead’s Presbyterian minister, and his romance with Della Miles, a high school teacher who is also the child of a preacher. Their deeply felt, tormented, star-crossed interracial romance resonates with all the paradoxes of American life, then and now.
Picador | 9781250832917
THE LAST BOOKSHOP IN LONDON: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to the city, but the bunkers and drawn curtains that she finds on her arrival are not what she expected. And she certainly never imagined she’d wind up working at Primrose Hill, a dusty old bookshop nestled in the heart of London. Through blackouts and air raids as the Blitz intensifies, Grace discovers the power of storytelling to unite her community in ways she never dreamed --- a force that triumphs over even the darkest nights of the war.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335284808
THE LAST TAXI DRIVER by Lee Durkee (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Lee Durkee takes readers on a high-stakes cab ride through an unforgettable shift. Meet Lou --- a lapsed novelist, struggling Buddhist and UFO fan --- who drives for a ramshackle taxi company that operates on the outskirts of a north Mississippi college town. With Uber moving into town and his way of life vanishing, his girlfriend moving out, and his archenemy dispatcher suddenly returning to town on the lam, Lou must finish his bedlam shift by aiding and abetting the host of criminal misfits haunting the back seat of his disintegrating Town Car. Lou is forced to decide how much he can take as a driver, and if keeping his job is worth madness and heartbreak.
Tin House Books | 9781951142681
LIFE’S TOO SHORT by Abby Jimenez (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
When Vanessa Price quit her job to pursue her dream of traveling the globe, she wasn't expecting to gain millions of YouTube followers who shared her joy of seizing every moment. But after her half-sister suddenly leaves Vanessa with custody of her baby daughter, life goes from "daily adventure" to "next-level bad." The last person Vanessa expects to show up offering help is the hot lawyer next door, Adrian Copeland. No one warned her that he was the Secret Baby Tamer or that she'd be spending a whole lot of time with him and his geriatric Chihuahua. Now she's feeling things she's vowed not to feel. Because the only thing worse than falling for Adrian is finding a little hope for a future she may never see.
Forever | 9781538715666
A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA by Isabel Allende (Historical Fiction)
In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires. Together with 2,000 other refugees, they embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile. As unlikely partners, they embrace exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war.
Ballantine Books | 9780593157497
THE MEMORY OF SOULS by Jenn Lyons (Fantasy)
Now that Relos Var’s plans have been revealed and demons are free to rampage across the empire, the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies --- and the end of the world --- is closer than ever. To buy time for humanity, Kihrin needs to convince the king of the Manol vané to perform an ancient ritual that will strip the entire race of their immortality, but it’s a ritual that certain vané will do anything to prevent. Including assassinating the messengers. Worse, Kihrin must come to terms with the horrifying possibility that his connection to the king of demons, Vol Karoth, is growing steadily in strength. How can he hope to save anyone when he might turn out to be the greatest threat of them all?
Tor Books | 9781250175557
MIRACLE AT ST. ANDREWS by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge (Fiction)
Though nobody has ever identified a single secret --- no universally accepted truth --- to the sport of golf, every real player searches for one. Travis McKinley is one such seeker. A former professional golfer who feels like he's an amateur at the rest of life, he makes a pilgrimage to the mythical greens at St. Andrews. On the course where golf was born, every link, hole, fairway --- even the gorse --- feels like sacred ground. Ground that can help an ordinary player, an ordinary man, achieve a higher plane.
Back Bay Books | 9780316490627
THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD by Claire Lombardo (Fiction)
Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest. Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator turned stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she's not sure she wants by a man she's not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. With the unexpected arrival of young Jonah Bendt --- a child placed for adoption by one of the daughters 15 years before --- the Sorensons will be forced to reckon with the rich and varied tapestry of their past.
Anchor | 9780525564232
ONE FATAL FLAW: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
When a desperate woman comes to Daniel Pitt seeking a lawyer for her boyfriend, Rob Adwell, Daniel is convinced of the young man’s innocence. Adwell has been accused of murder and of setting a fire to conceal the body, but Daniel is sure that science can absolve him --- and Miriam fford Croft is the best scientist he knows. Miriam connects Daniel with her former teacher, Sir Barnabas Saltram, an expert in arson. Together, they reveal Adwell’s innocence by proving that an accidental fire caused the victim’s death. But it’s not long before Adwell is killed in the same fiery fashion. If these deaths are, in fact, murders, what essential clue could Daniel and Miriam have missed?
Ballantine Books | 9780593129548
THE OTHER BENNET SISTER by Janice Hadlow (Historical Fiction)
What if Mary Bennet’s life took a different path from that laid out for her in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? What if the frustrated intellectual of the Bennet family --- the marginalized middle daughter, the plain girl who takes refuge in her books --- eventually found the fulfillment enjoyed by her prettier, more confident sisters? This is the plot of Janice Hadlow's debut novel, THE OTHER BENNET SISTER, in which Mary’s destiny diverges from that of her sisters. It does not involve broad acres or landed gentry. But it does include a man; and, as in all Austen novels, Mary must decide if he is truly the one for her.
Picador | 9781250787620
PRETTY THINGS by Janelle Brown (Thriller)
Nina once bought into the idea that her fancy liberal arts degree would lead to a fulfilling career. When that dream crashed, she turned to stealing from rich kids in L.A. alongside her wily Irish boyfriend, Lachlan. Vanessa is a privileged young heiress who wanted to make her mark in the world. Instead she becomes an Instagram influencer. But behind the covetable façade is a life marked by tragedy. After a broken engagement, Vanessa retreats to her family’s sprawling mountain estate, Stonehaven: a mansion of dark secrets not just from Vanessa’s past, but from that of a lost and troubled girl named Nina. Nina’s, Vanessa’s and Lachlan’s paths collide here, on the cold shores of Lake Tahoe, where their intertwined lives give way to a winter of aspiration and desire, duplicity and revenge.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780525479178
THE ROXY LETTERS by Mary Pauline Lowry (Fiction/Humor)
Bridget Jones penned a diary; Roxy writes letters. Specifically, she writes letters to her hapless, rent-avoidant ex-boyfriend --- and current roommate --- Everett. This charming and funny twenty-something is under-employed (and under-romanced), and she’s decidedly fed up with the indignities she endures as a deli maid at Whole Foods (the original), and the dismaying speed at which her beloved Austin is becoming corporatized. When a new Lululemon pops up at the intersection of Sixth and Lamar where the old Waterloo Video used to be, Roxy can stay silent no longer. As her letters to Everett become less about overdue rent and more about the state of her life, Roxy realizes she’s ready to be the heroine of her own story.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982121440
SIMON THE FIDDLER by Paulette Jiles (Historical Fiction)
In March 1865, the long and bitter War Between the States is winding down. Until now, 23-year-old Simon Boudlin has evaded military duty. But following a barroom brawl in Victoria, Texas, he finds himself conscripted into the Confederate Army. Luckily his talent with a fiddle gets him a comparatively easy position in a regimental band. Weeks later, Simon and his bandmates are called to play for officers and their families from both sides of the conflict. There the quick-thinking, audacious fiddler can’t help but notice Doris Mary Dillon, an indentured girl from Ireland, who is governess to a Union colonel’s daughter. After the Confederate surrender, they go their separate ways. But Simon cannot forget the fair Irish maiden, and vows that someday he will find her again.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062966759
STREET MUSIC: A Poke Rafferty Thriller by Timothy Hallinan (Thriller)
Eight years ago, Poke Rafferty, an American travel writer, and his Thai wife, Rose, adopted a Bangkok street child named Miaow, forming an unconventional intercultural family. But now that family is in jeopardy. The birth of Poke and Rose’s newborn son has littered their small apartment with emotional land mines, forcing Poke to question his identity as a dad and Miaow to question her identity as a daughter. At the same time, the most cantankerous member of the small gang of Old Bangkok Hands who hang out at the Expat Bar suddenly goes missing under suspicious circumstances. Engaged in the search for the missing American, Poke is caught completely off-guard when someone he thought was gone forever resurfaces --- and she has the power to tear the Raffertys apart.
Soho Crime | 9781641292597
STRONGHEART: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill by Jim Fergus (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In 1873, a Cheyenne chief offers President Grant the opportunity to exchange 1,000 horses for 1,000 white women, in order to marry them with his warriors and create a lasting peace. These women, "recruited" by force in the penitentiaries and asylums of the country, gradually integrate the way of life of the Cheyenne, at the time when the great massacres of the tribes begin. After the battle of Little Big Horn, some female survivors decide to take up arms against the United States, which has stolen from the Native Americans their lands, their way of life, their culture and their history. This ghost tribe of rebellious women will soon go underground to wage an implacable battle, which will continue from generation to generation.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250303677
SUMMERTIME GUESTS by Wendy Francis (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When someone falls tragically to her death at The Seafarer, a glamorous Boston hotel, the event ripples through the lives of four very different people. Bride-to-be Riley is at the hotel to plan her wedding. Her bossy mother-in-law has taken charge, and her fiancé hasn’t seemed to notice. Jean-Paul, the hotel’s manager, must devote all his energy to this latest scandal at work. Claire, recently widowed, comes to town to connect with a long-lost love, but has too much changed in the last 30 years? And then there’s Jason, whose romantic getaway with his girlfriend has not exactly gone the way he'd hoped. Over three sun-drenched days, as the truth about the woman who died --- and the secret she was hiding --- is uncovered, these four strangers become linked in the most unexpected of ways.
Graydon House | 9781525895982
THE SWEENEY SISTERS by Lian Dolan (Fiction)
Maggie, Eliza and Tricia Sweeney grew up as a happy threesome in the idyllic seaside town of Southport, Connecticut. But their mother’s death from cancer 15 years ago tarnished their golden-hued memories, and the sisters drifted apart. Their one touchstone is their father, Bill Sweeney, an internationally famous literary lion and college professor. When Bill dies unexpectedly, his shell-shocked daughters return to their childhood home and throw an Irish wake like no other. As guests pay their respects and reminisce, one stranger crashes the party. When journalist Serena Tucker had her DNA tested, she learned that she had a 50% genetic match with her childhood neighbor, Maggie. It seems that Serena’s chilly WASP mother, Birdie, had a history with Bill --- one that has remained totally secret until now.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062909053
A TENDER THING by Emily Neuberger (Historical Fiction)
In love with musical theater from a young age, Eleanor O'Hanlon memorized every show album she could get her hands on. So when she discovers an open call for one of her favorite productions, she runs off to New York City and auditions. Raw and untrained, she catches the eye of famed composer Don Mannheim, who catapults her into the leading role of his new work, "A Tender Thing," a provocative love story between a white woman and black man. As word of the production gets out, an outpouring of protest whips into a fury. When explosive secrets threaten to shatter the delicate balance of the company, and the possibility of the show itself, Eleanor must face a new reality and ultimately decide what it is she truly wants.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593084892
WHAT WE CARRY: A Memoir by Maya Shanbhag Lang (Memoir)
Maya Shanbhag Lang grew up idolizing her mother, an accomplished physician who immigrated to the United States from India and completed her residency, all while raising her children. Maya’s mother had always been a source of support --- until Maya became a mother herself. Then the parent who had once been so capable and attentive became suddenly and inexplicably unavailable. Struggling to understand this abrupt change, Maya searches for answers and soon learns that her mother is living with Alzheimer’s. Unable to remember or keep track of the stories she once told her daughter, Maya’s mother divulges secrets about her past that force Maya to reexamine their relationship. It becomes clear that Maya never really knew her mother, despite their close bond.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9780525512417
WHY FISH DON’T EXIST: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller (Science/Biography & Memoir)
David Starr Jordan was a taxonomist who would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. But his specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. In an instant, his life’s work was shattered. He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world. When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool. But what she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality and the world beneath her feet.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501160349
YOGI: A Life Behind the Mask by Jon Pessah (Sports/Biography)
Lawrence "Yogi" Berra was never supposed to become a major league ballplayer. That's what his immigrant father told him. That's what Branch Rickey told him, too --- right to his face. Yet baseball was his lifeblood. Berra couldn't allow a constant stream of ridicule about his appearance, taunts about his speech, and scorn about his perceived lack of intelligence to keep him from becoming one of the best to ever play the game --- at a position requiring the very skills he was told he did not have. Drawing on more than 100 interviews and four years of reporting, Jon Pessah delivers a transformational portrait of how Berra handled his hard-earned success --- on and off the playing field --- as well as his failures.
Back Bay Books | 9780316310970
YOU BELONG HERE NOW by Dianna Rostad (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Montana, 1925: An Irish boy orphaned by Spanish flu, a tiny girl who won’t speak, and a volatile young man who lies about his age to escape Hell’s Kitchen are paraded on train platforms across the Midwest to work-worn folks. Fate guides them toward the ranch of a family stricken by loss. Nara, the daughter of a successful cattleman, has grown into a brusque spinster who refuses the kids on sight. She works them without mercy, hoping they’ll run off, but they buck up and show spirit. And though Nara will never be motherly, she begins to take to them. So when Charles is jailed for freeing wild horses that were rounded up for slaughter, and an abusive mother from New York shows up to take the youngest, Nara does the unthinkable, risking everything she holds dear to change their lives forever.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063027893
YOUR INNER HEDGEHOG: A Professor Dr von Igelfeld Entertainment by Alexander McCall Smith (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
Professor Dr. Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld and his colleagues at the University of Regensburg's Institute of Romance Philology pride themselves on their unwavering commitment to intellectual excellence. So when a new deputy librarian, Dr. Hilda Schreiber-Ziegler, threatens to drag them all down a path of progressive inclusivity, they are determined to stop her in the name of scholarship --- even if that requires von Igelfeld to make the noble sacrifice of running for director of the Institute. Alas, politics is never easy, and in order to put his best foot forward, von Igelfeld will be required to take up a visiting fellowship at Oxford and cultivate the attentions of a rather effusive young American scholar.
Anchor | 9780593312674
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