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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of April 5th and April 12th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for April, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Reese's Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and more.
We also are spotlighting THE GIRLS IN THE STILT HOUSE, which is now in stores. Perfect for readers of WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING and IF THE CREEK DON'T RISE, this debut Southern novel by Kelly Mustian weaves a beautiful and harrowing story of two teenage girls cast in an unlikely partnership through murder.
Carol had the pleasure of chatting with Nadia Hashimi recently about her new novel, SPARKS LIKE STARS, which is a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. The book centers on an Afghan American woman who returns to Kabul to learn the truth about her family and the tragedy that destroyed their lives. Nadia talked about the troubled history of American war and politics, and how questionable behavior from certain countries tread a gray line of morality. She also discussed the effects that war has had on culture in unexpected ways and what that means for changing personal decisions as people move on. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Now Available:
THE GIRLS IN THE STILT HOUSE
by Kelly Mustian
THE GIRLS IN THE STILT HOUSE by Kelly Mustian (Historical Fiction)
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. And she knows there will be a price to pay with her father.
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.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read Kelly Mustian's bio.
- Click here to visit Kelly Mustian's website.
- Connect with Kelly Mustian on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Click here to read more about the book.
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, April 7th 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 Joshilyn Jackson about her new psychological thriller, MOTHER MAY I.
Thursday, April 8th at 7:30pm ET: DIESEL, A Bookstore: Join DIESEL for a virtual event with Flynn Berry, in conversation with Elizabeth Wetmore, as they discuss NORTHERN SPY, which is this month's Reese's Book Club pick.
Thursday, April 8th at 7:30pm ET: HarperCollins: Join the New York Times bestselling author of THE NEST, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, in conversation with actor, singer and writer Kate Flannery. This will be a lively talk between friends to mark the publication of Sweeney’s highly anticipated second novel, GOOD COMPANY, which is this month's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club pick.
Thursday, April 8th at 8pm ET: Powell's Books: Powell’s presents a virtual event with Dawnie Walton, author of THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV, who will be joined in conversation by Nadia Owusu, author of AFTERSHOCKS.
Friday, April 9th at 6pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson for a live virtual event to discuss BROKEN (in the best possible way), her most personal book yet. She will be in conversation with actress and author Felicia Day.
Monday, April 12th at 7pm ET: Cuyahoga County Public Library: This is the first event on Paula McLain’s virtual book tour for WHEN THE STARS GO DARK! She will be in conversation with Kristin Hannah.
Monday, April 12th at 7pm ET: Porter Square Books: Porter Square Books is pleased to present a virtual event with Dawnie Walton for her debut novel, THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV. She will be joined in conversation by Curtis Sittenfeld.
Monday, April 12th at 8pm ET: Magic City Books: Magic City Books is proud to welcome Kirstin Valdez Quade for a virtual event in celebration of her new novel, THE FIVE WOUNDS, which is this month's Barnes & Noble Book Club pick. Joining Kirstin in conversation will be Maggie Shipstead, author of SEATING ARRANGEMENTS, ASTONISH ME and the forthcoming GREAT CIRCLE.
Tuesday, April 13th at 6pm ET: "Adriana Ink": In the latest episode of her weekly Facebook Live show, "Adriana Ink," Adriana Trigiani will talk to Martha Hall Kelly about her new historical novel, SUNFLOWER SISTERS.
Tuesday, April 13th at 7pm ET: Wellesley Books: Paula McLain presents WHEN THE STARS GO DARK, an atmospheric novel of intertwined destinies and heart-wrenching suspense. Paula will be in conversation with Dani Shapiro, author of INHERITANCE.
Tuesday, April 13th at 9pm ET: Poisoned Pen Bookstore: John Sandford will discuss his latest novel, OCEAN PREY, featuring fan-favorite heroes Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for April
Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads, as well as the Target Book Club title and Pennie's Pick for Costco. We also feature a number of other prominent picks, including Oprah’s Book Club, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Reese's Book Club, Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, the PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club, and Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites.
Below is a preview of April's "Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks." For the complete Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, as well as additional links pertaining to this month's selections, please click here.
Indie Next
#1 Pick: LIBERTIE by Kaitlyn Greenidge
BROKEN (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson
OF WOMEN AND SALT by Gabriela Garcia
THE NIGHT ALWAYS COMES by Willy Vlautin
RAFT OF STARS by Andrew J. Graff
LibraryReads
Top Pick: THE INTIMACY EXPERIMENT by Rosie Danan
BROKEN (in the best possible way) by Jenny Lawson
DIAL A FOR AUNTIES by Jesse Q. Sutanto
LIFE'S TOO SHORT by Abby Jimenez
MALICE by Heather Walter
Target Book Club
PRETTY THINGS by Janelle Brown
Pennie's Pick for Costco
REMEMBER: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting, by Lisa Genova
Barnes & Noble Book Club
THE FIVE WOUNDS by Kirstin Valdez Quade
Reese's Book Club
NORTHERN SPY by Flynn Berry
Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
GOOD COMPANY by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
"Good Morning America" Book Club
OF WOMEN AND SALT by Gabriela Garcia
PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club
NOMADLAND: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, by Jessica Bruder
Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites
BIG SUMMER by Jennifer Weiner
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
On Sale the Week of April 12th in Hardcover
April 13th
ALL THAT FALL by Kris Calvin (Mystery/Thriller)
When Emma Lawson, the youngest lead government ethics investigator in California's capital, takes a day off to help her best friend, Kate, prepare for the opening of her new business, Rainbow Alley Preschool, the morning takes a shocking turn. The school's most high-profile enrollee --- Vivian Lange, the governor's granddaughter --- is kidnapped, at the same time Kate's teenage son, Luke, goes missing. Emma is quickly drawn to a web of clues that point toward sordid secrets and a cold-case murder in a shadow world of bigotry and hate. Over a desperate and harrowing 48 hours, Emma races against the clock to solve the most important investigation of her life.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781643856889
ANTIQUITIES by Cynthia Ozick (Fiction)
Lloyd Wilkinson Petrie, one of the seven elderly trustees of the now-defunct (for 34 years) Temple Academy for Boys, is preparing a memoir of his days at the school, intertwined with the troubling distractions of present events. As he navigates, with faltering recall, between the subtle anti-Semitism that pervaded the school's ethos and his fascination with his own family's heritage --- in particular, his illustrious cousin, the renowned archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie --- he reconstructs the passions of a childhood encounter with the oddly named Ben-Zion Elefantin, a mystifying older pupil who claims descent from Egypt's Elephantine Island.
Knopf | 9780593318829
DEATH OF A SHOWMAN by Mariah Fredericks (Historical Mystery)
Lady’s maid Jane Prescott is back in New York with the Tylers after a glittering society wedding in Europe. On their return, Jane learns that her old dancing partner, Leo Hirschfeld, has married a chorus girl in his new Broadway musical. Jane and Louise Tyler are pulled into the sparkling and scandalous world of Broadway, as a starstruck Louise invests in Leo's show, and Jane chaperones her at rehearsals. But when the show's abusive producer, Sidney Warburton, is murdered, the list of suspects is long. Was it the comedic star or her gambler boyfriend? The disgruntled costume designer? The beautiful, blond dancer, her jealous husband? Or was it Leo himself, who had more reason than anyone to hate Sidney Warburton?
Minotaur Books | 9781250210906
DEATH WITH A DOUBLE EDGE: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
Junior barrister Daniel Pitt is summoned to the scene of a murder in the London district known as Mile End. The victim is a senior barrister from the same firm. The firm’s head, Marcus fford Croft, may know more than he admits, but his memory is not what it used to be. Daniel and Kitteridge’s inquiries lead them to a local brothel and to an opium den, but also to a wealthy shipbuilder crucial to Britain’s effort to build up its fleet, which may soon face the fearsome naval might of Germany. Daniel finds his path blocked by officials at every turn, and even his father receives a chilling warning from a powerful source. Suddenly, not just Daniel but his whole family --- including his beloved mother, Charlotte --- is in danger.
Ballantine Books | 9780593159330
THE DEVIL'S HAND by Jack Carr (Political Thriller)
It’s been 20 years since 9/11. Two decades since the United States was attacked on home soil and embarked on 20 years of war. The enemy has been patient, learning and adapting….and is ready to strike again. A new president offers hope to a country weary of conflict. He’s a young, popular, self-made visionary…but he’s also a man with a secret. Halfway across the globe, a regional superpower struggles with sanctions imposed by the Great Satan and her European allies, a country whose ancient religion spawned a group of ruthless assassins. Faced with internal dissent and extrajudicial targeted killings by the United States and Israel, the Supreme Leader puts a plan in motion to defeat the most powerful nation on earth.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982123741
EARLY MORNING RISER by Katherine Heiny (Fiction)
Jane falls in love with Duncan easily. Unfortunately, he has slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan, and she sees his old girlfriends everywhere. His ex-wife, Aggie, still has Duncan mow her lawn. His coworker, Jimmy, comes and goes from his apartment at the most inopportune times. Sometimes Jane wonders if a relationship can even work with three people in it --- never mind four. Five if you count Aggie's eccentric husband, Gary. But any notion Jane had of love and marriage changes with one terrible car crash. Soon her life is permanently intertwined with Duncan's, Aggie's and Jimmy's, and she knows she will never have Duncan to herself. But could it be possible that a deeper kind of happiness is right in front of Jane's eyes?
Knopf | 9780525659341
EMPIRE OF PAIN: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (True Crime/Biography)
The Sackler name adorns the walls of many storied institutions --- Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and the sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged that the Sacklers were responsible for making and marketing a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for the opioid crisis. EMPIRE OF PAIN chronicles the multiple investigations of the Sacklers and their company, and the scorched-earth legal tactics that the family has used to evade accountability.
Doubleday | 9780385545686
THE GOOD SISTER by Sally Hepworth (Psychological Thriller)
Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister, Rose, three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible. Fern has a carefully structured life, and disrupting her routine can be...dangerous. When Rose discovers that she cannot get pregnant, Fern sees her chance to pay her sister back for everything Rose has done for her. Fern can have a baby for Rose. She just needs to find a father. Simple. Fern's mission will shake the foundations of the life she has carefully built for herself and stir up dark secrets from the past.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250120953
IN THE COMPANY OF KILLERS by Bryan Christy (Thriller)
Tom Klay is a celebrated investigative wildlife reporter for the esteemed magazine The Sovereign. But his reporting is cover for an even more dangerous job: CIA agent. Klay's press credentials make him a perfect spy. But while on assignment in Kenya, he is attacked and his closest friend is murdered. Soon his carefully constructed double life unravels as his ambition turns to revenge. Klay is offered a devil's bargain to capture the man who killed his friend by infiltrating the offices of the woman he once loved, South Africa's special prosecutor Hungry Khoza. But Klay soon discovers that he and Hungry are part of a larger, more lethal game --- one that involves a ruthless mercenary and a global superpower.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593187920
LOW COUNTRY: A Southern Memoir by J. Nicole Jones (Memoir)
J. Nicole Jones is the only daughter of a prominent South Carolina family, a family that grew rich building the hotels and seafood restaurants that draw tourists to Myrtle Beach. But at home, she is surrounded by violence and capriciousness: a grandfather who beats his wife, a barman father who dreams of being a country music star. At one time, Jones' parents can barely afford groceries; at another, her volatile grandfather presents her with a fur coat. After a girlhood of extreme wealth and deep debt, of ghosts and folklore, of cruel men and unwanted spectacle, Jones finds herself face to face with an explosive possibility concerning her long-abused grandmother that she can neither speak nor shake.
Catapult | 9781948226868
OCEAN PREY: A Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller)
An off-duty Coast Guardsman is fishing with his family when he calls in some suspicious behavior from a nearby boat. It’s a snazzy craft, slick and outfitted with extra horsepower, and it’s zipping along until it slows to pick up a surfaced diver…a diver who was apparently alone, without his own boat, in the middle of the ocean. None of it makes sense unless there's something hinky going on, and his hunch is proved right when all three Guardsmen who come out to investigate are shot and killed. When the FBI's investigation stalls out, they call in Lucas Davenport. And when his case turns lethal, Davenport will need to bring in every asset he can claim, including a detective with a fundamentally criminal mind: Virgil Flowers.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593087022
ONE GOT AWAY by S.A. Lelchuk (Thriller)
Nikki Griffin, a private investigator when she isn’t running her small bookstore, is on a case. The matriarch of one of the wealthiest San Francisco families has been defrauded by a con-man, and her furious son enlists Nikki to find the money and the con-man. Nikki’s secret mission, born of revenge and trauma, is to do everything she can to remove women from dangerous situations --- and to punish the men responsible. As Nikki follows the trail toward the con-man, she realizes that no one involved is telling her the whole truth. When the case overlaps with her attempt to protect a woman in trouble, and Nikki’s own life is put in danger, Nikki has to make terrible choices about who to save --- and how to keep herself alive.
Flatiron Books | 9781250170279
THE SOUVENIR MUSEUM: Stories by Elizabeth McCracken (Fiction/Short Stories)
In these stories, the mysterious bonds of family are tested, transformed, fractured and fortified. A recent widower and his adult son ferry to a craggy Scottish island in search of puffins. An actress who plays a children’s game-show villainess ushers in the New Year with her deadbeat half-brother. A mother, pining for her children, feasts on loaves of challah to fill the void. A new couple navigates a tightrope walk toward love. And on a trip to a Texas water park with their son, two fathers each confront a personal fear. Elizabeth McCracken traces how our closely held desires --- for intimacy, atonement, comfort --- bloom and wither against the indifferent passing of time.
Ecco | 9780062971289
STARGAZER: A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel by Anne Hillerman (Mystery)
What begins as a typical day for Officer Bernadette Manuelito takes an unexpected twist when she’s called to help find an old friend. Years ago, Bernie and Maya were roommates, but time and Maya’s struggles with addiction drove them apart. Now Maya’s brother asks Bernie to find out what happened to his sister. Tracing Maya’s whereabouts, Bernie learns that her old friend had confessed to the murder of her estranged husband, a prominent astronomer. But the details don’t align. Suspicious, Bernie takes a closer look at the case only to find that nothing is as it seems. Uncovering new information about the astronomer’s work leads Bernie to a remote spot on the Navajo Nation and a calculating killer.
Harper | 9780062908339
TURN A BLIND EYE: A Detective William Warwick Novel by Jeffrey Archer (Mystery)
Newly promoted to Detective Inspector, William Warwick is tasked to go undercover and expose corruption at the heart of the Metropolitan Police Force. His team is focused on following Detective Jerry Summers, whose lifestyle exceeds his income. But the investigation risks being compromised when Nicky falls for Summers. Meanwhile, notorious drug baron Assem Rashidi goes on trial; the prosecutors are William’s father, Sir Julian, and his sister, Grace. William’s wife, Beth, makes a surprising new friend in Christina Faulkner --- the ex-wife of William’s former rival, criminal financier Miles --- who has a new-found source of income when Faulkner dies suddenly of a heart attack and she stands to be sole inheritor of his estate.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250200808
THE TWELVE LIVES OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense by Edward White (Biography)
In THE TWELVE LIVES OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK, Edward White explores the Hitchcock phenomenon --- what defines it, how it was invented, what it reveals about the man at its core, and how its legacy continues to shape our cultural world. The book’s 12 chapters illuminate different aspects of Hitchcock’s life and work: “The Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up”; “The Murderer”; “The Auteur”; “The Womanizer”; “The Fat Man”; “The Dandy”; “The Family Man”; “The Voyeur”; “The Entertainer”; “The Pioneer”; “The Londoner”; “The Man of God.” Each of these angles reveals something fundamental about the man he was and the mythological creature he has become, presenting not just the life Hitchcock lived but also the various versions of himself that he projected, and those projected on his behalf.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324002390
UNDER THE WAVE AT WAIMEA by Paul Theroux (Fiction)
Now in his 60s, big-wave surfer Joe Sharkey has passed his prime and is losing his “stoke.” The younger surfers around the breaks on the north shore of Oahu still idolize the Shark, but his sponsors are looking elsewhere. One night, while driving home from a bar after one too many, Joe accidentally kills a stranger near Waimea, a tragedy that sends his life out of control. As the repercussions of the accident spiral ever wider, Joe's devoted girlfriend, Olive, throws herself into uncovering the dead man’s identity and helping Joe find vitality and refuge in the waves again.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358446286
THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK by Rhys Bowen (Historical Fiction)
Caroline Grant is struggling to accept the end of her marriage when she receives an unexpected bequest. Her beloved great-aunt Lettie leaves her a sketchbook, three keys and a final whisper…Venice. Caroline’s quest: to scatter Juliet “Lettie” Browning’s ashes in the city she loved and to unlock the mysteries stored away for more than 60 years. It’s 1938 when art teacher Juliet Browning arrives in romantic Venice. She has a chance to reconnect with Leonardo Da Rossi, the man she loves whose future is already determined by his noble family. However star-crossed, nothing can come between them. Until the threat of war closes in on Venice and they’re forced to fight, survive and protect a secret that will bind them forever.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542027120
WHAT COMES AFTER by JoAnne Tompkins (Mystery)
Isaac lives alone with his dog, grieving the recent death of his teenage son. Next door, Lorrie, a working single mother, struggles with a heinous act committed by her own teenage son. The two parents are emotionally stranded, isolated by their great losses --- until an unfamiliar 16-year-old girl shows up, bridges the gap and changes everything. Evangeline’s arrival at first feels like a blessing, but she is also clearly hiding something. When Isaac, who has retreated into his Quaker faith, isn’t equipped to handle her alone, Lorrie forges her own relationship with the girl. Soon all three characters are forced to examine what really happened in their overlapping pasts, and what it all possibly means for a shared future.
Riverhead Books | 9780593085998
WHEN THE STARS GO DARK by Paula McLain (Literary Thriller)
Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns that a local teenage girl has gone missing. The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna’s childhood, when the unsolved murder of a young girl touched Mendocino and changed the community forever. As past and present collide, Anna realizes that she has been led to this moment.
Ballantine Books | 9780593237892
On Sale the Week of April 12th in Paperback
April 13th
ALL ADULTS HERE by Emma Straub (Fiction)
When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident in the center of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she'd been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence? Astrid's youngest son is drifting and unfocused, making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is pregnant yet struggling to give up her own adolescence. And her eldest seems to measure his adult life according to standards no one else shares. But who gets to decide, so many years later, which long-ago lapses were the ones that mattered? Who decides which apologies really count?
Riverhead Books | 9781594634703
THE ANCESTOR by Danielle Trussoni (Gothic Mystery/Thriller)
After a DNA test reveals that Alberta “Bert” Monte is the sole heir of a wealthy noble family in the Italian Alps, she leaves New York to visit the family estate: Montebianco Castle, a centuries-old compound isolated in the mountains. What appeared to be a fairy tale inheritance, however, soon turns into a nightmare as Bert begins to uncover the dark legacy of her family: the truth about the abandoned village at the base of the castle; the whispers of stolen children; and the rumors of a legendary monster in the mountains. As Bert unravels the truth, she learns that her true inheritance lies not in a noble title or ancestral treasures, but in her very genes. Now she must choose between preserving a secret centuries in the keeping or abandoning it forever.
Custom House | 9780062912770
THE ANTHILL by Julianne Pachico (Horror/Satire)
Sent away from Colombia to England after her mother's death 20 years before, Lina is searching for the one person who can tell her about their shared past. Matty, her childhood friend and protector, now runs The Anthill, a daycare refuge for the street kids of Medellín. Lina begins volunteering there, but her reunion with Matty is not what she hoped for. She no longer recognizes Medellin, now rebranded as a tourist destination, nor the person Matty has become: a guarded man uninterested in reliving the past she thought they both cherished. As Lina begins to confront her memories and the country's traumatic history, strange happenings start taking place, including mysterious sightings of a small, dirty boy with pointy teeth. Is this a vision of the boy Lina once knew, or something more sinister?
Anchor | 9781984899880
BECOMING DUCHESS GOLDBLATT by Anonymous (Memoir)
BECOMING DUCHESS GOLDBLATT is two stories: that of the reclusive real-life writer who created a fictional character out of loneliness and thin air, and that of the magical Duchess Goldblatt herself, a bright light in the darkness of social media. Fans around the world are drawn to Her Grace’s voice, her wit, her life-affirming love for all humanity, and the fun and friendship of the community that has sprung up around her. @DuchessGoldblat (81-year-old literary icon, author of AN AXE TO GRIND) brought people together in her name, and, along the way, brought real friends home --- foremost among them, Lyle Lovett.
Mariner Books | 9780358569831
DEADLY ANNIVERSARIES: A Collection of Stories from Crime Fiction's Top Authors edited by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini (Mystery/Thriller Anthology)
An anniversary can honor many things: a birth, a wedding and sometimes even a death. In DEADLY ANNIVERSARIES, editors Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini present new stories from some of the best contemporary authors to honor the diamond jubilee of the Mystery Writers of America, an organization founded on the principle that “Crime Doesn’t Pay --- Enough.” Each author puts his or her own unique spin on what it means to recognize a certain day or event each year. These 19 stories travel across a wide range of historical and contemporary settings and remind readers of how broad the mystery writing tradition can be, encompassing detective tales, domestic intrigue, psychological suspense, black humor and thrilling action.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335044945
HOMEGROWN: How the Red Sox Built a Champion from the Ground Up by Alex Speier (Sports)
The 2018 season was a coronation for the Boston Red Sox. The best team in Major League Baseball --- indeed, one of the best teams ever --- the Sox won 108 regular season games and then romped through the postseason, going 11-3 against the three next-strongest teams baseball had to offer. As Boston Globe baseball reporter Alex Speier reveals, the Sox’s success wasn’t a fluke --- nor was it guaranteed. It was the result of careful, patient planning and shrewd decision-making that allowed Boston to develop a golden generation of prospects --- and then build upon that talented core to assemble a juggernaut.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062943569
THE HOUSE OF DEEP WATER by Jeni McFarland (Fiction)
River Bend, Michigan, is the kind of small town most can't imagine leaving, but three women couldn't wait to escape. When each must return --- Linda Williams, never sure what she wants; her mother, Paula, always too sure; and Beth DeWitt, one of River Bend's only Black daughters, now a mother of two who had planned to raise her own children anywhere else --- their paths collide under Beth's father's roof. As one town struggles to contain all of their love affairs and secrets, a local scandal forces Beth to confront her own devastating past.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525542360
IF I HAD YOUR FACE by Frances Cha (Fiction)
Kyuri is an achingly beautiful woman with a hard-won job at a Seoul “room salon,” an exclusive underground bar where she entertains businessmen while they drink, but an impulsive mistake threatens her livelihood. Kyrui’s roommate, Miho, is a talented artist who finds herself in a precarious relationship with the heir to one of Korea’s biggest conglomerates. Down the hall lives Ara, a hairstylist whose two preoccupations sustain her: an obsession with a boy-band pop star, and a best friend who is saving up for extreme plastic surgery. And Wonna, one floor below, is a newlywed trying to have a baby that she and her husband have no idea how they can afford to raise in Korea’s brutal economy.
Ballantine Books | 9780593129487
THE IMMORTALS OF TEHRAN by Ali Araghi (Fiction/Magical Realism)
As a child living in his family's apple orchard, Ahmad Torkash-Vand treasures his great-great-great-great grandfather's every mesmerizing word. On the day of his father's death, Ahmad listens closely as the seemingly immortal elder tells him the tale of a centuries-old family curse…and the boy's own fated role in the story. Ahmad grows up to suspect that something must be interfering with his family, as he struggles to hold them together through decades of famine, loss and political turmoil in Iran. As the world transforms around him, each turn of Ahmad's life is a surprise. These lives, and the many unforgettable stories alongside his, converge and catch fire at the center of the Revolution.
Melville House | 9781612199078
THE INDEX OF SELF-DESTRUCTIVE ACTS by Christopher Beha (Fiction)
On the day Sam Waxworth arrives in New York to write for the Interviewer, a street-corner preacher declares that the world is coming to an end. A data journalist and recent media celebrity --- he correctly forecast every outcome of the 2008 election --- Sam knows a few things about predicting the future. His first assignment for the Interviewer is a profile of disgraced political columnist Frank Doyle, known to Sam for the sentimental works of baseball lore that first sparked his love of the game. When Sam meets Frank at Citi Field for the Mets’ home opener, he finds himself unexpectedly ushered into Doyle’s crumbling family empire. While their lives seem inextricable, none of them know how close they are to losing everything, including each other.
Tin House Books | 9781951142698
JUST GET HOME by Bridget Foley (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Beegie is riding the bus when the quake hits. The teenager was heading back to her unhappy foster home, but then she’s thrown into a broken world. Roads crumble, storefronts shatter and people run wild. Dessa, a single mom, is enjoying a rare night out when it strikes. Cell towers are down, so without even knowing if her three-year-old daughter is dead or alive, she races to get back across town. As danger escalates in the chaotic streets, Beegie and Dessa meet by a twist of fate. The two form a fragile partnership, relying on each other in ways they never thought possible, and learn who they really are when there’s only one goal: just get home.
Mira | 9780778331599
LITTLE PIECES OF ME by Alison Hammer (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Paige Meyer gets an email from a DNA testing website announcing that her father is a man she never met, she is convinced there must be a mistake. But as she digs deeper into her mother’s past, Paige begins to question everything she thought she knew. Back in 1975, Betsy Kaplan, Paige’s mom, is a sophomore at the University of Kansas. When her boyfriend disappoints her, Betsy decides she wants more out of life. Enter Andy Abrams, the golden boy on campus with a potentially devastating secret. After their night together has unexpected consequences, Betsy is determined to bury the truth and rebuild a stable life for her unborn child, whatever the cost. When Paige can’t get answers from her mother, she goes looking for the only other person who was there that night.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062934871
MUSICAL CHAIRS by Amy Poeppel (Fiction)
For three decades, Bridget and Will have nurtured their baby, the Forsyth Trio --- a chamber group they created as students with their Juilliard classmate, Gavin Glantz. In the intervening years, Gavin has gone on to become one of the classical music world’s reigning stars, while Bridget and Will have learned to embrace the warm reviews and smaller venues that accompany modest success. Bridget has been dreaming of spending the summer at her well-worn Connecticut country home with her boyfriend, Sterling. But her plans are upended when Sterling, dutifully following his ex-wife’s advice, breaks up with her over email and her twin twenty-somethings arrive unannounced, filling her empty nest with their big dogs, dirty laundry and respective crises.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501176425
MY MOTHER’S HOUSE by Francesca Momplaisir (Literary Thriller)
When Lucien flees Haiti with his wife, Marie-Ange, and their three children to New York City's South Ozone Park, he does so hoping for reinvention, wealth and comfort. He buys a rundown house in a community that is quickly changing from an Italian enclave of mobsters to a haven for Haitian immigrants, and begins life anew. But as a severely emotionally damaged man emigrating from a country whose evils he knows to one whose evils he doesn't, Lucien soon falls into his worst habits and impulses. What he can't even begin to fathom is that the house is watching, passing judgment and deciding to put an end to all the sins it has been made to hold. But only after it has set itself aflame will frightened whispers reveal Lucien's ultimate evil.
Vintage | 9781984898012
NEAR YOU by Mary Burton (Romantic Suspense/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Forensic psychologist and single mother Ann Bailey has joined forces with Montana Highway Patrol officer Bryce McCabe. An expert in untangling the motives of depraved minds, Ann is tasked to help solve the mystery of two murdered women doused with gasoline and set aflame. It’s not hard for Ann to be reminded of the charismatic Elijah Weston, who served a decade in prison for arson --- a crime that nearly cost Ann her life. The deeper Ann and Bryce’s investigation goes, the nearer they get to each other and to danger. After another murder hits close to home, Ann fears a clue is hidden in her own past. Only one thing terrifies her more than the reveal of her long-held secret. It’s that the secret itself has put Ann into a killer’s line of fire.
Montlake | 9781542021371
PERFECT LITTLE CHILDREN by Sophie Hannah (Psychological Thriller)
All Beth has to do is drive her son to his soccer game, watch him play and then return home. Just because she knows her ex-best friend lives near the field, that doesn’t mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her. Why would Beth do that and risk dredging up painful memories? Nevertheless, she parks outside the open gates of Newnham House, watches from across the road as Flora arrives, and calls to her children, Thomas and Emily, to get out of the car. But there’s something terribly wrong. Flora looks the same, only older. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily were five and three years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then. Why haven’t they grown? How is it possible that they haven’t grown up?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062978219
PERFECT TUNES by Emily Gould (Fiction)
Laura has arrived in New York City’s East Village in the hopes of recording her first album. A songwriter with a one-of-a-kind talent, she’s just beginning to book gigs with her beautiful best friend when she falls hard for a troubled but magnetic musician whose star is on the rise. Their time together is stormy and short-lived, but will reverberate for the rest of Laura’s life. Fifteen years later, Laura’s teenage daughter is asking questions about her father, questions that Laura does not want to answer. Laura has taken pains to close the door on what was and what might have been. But neither her best friend, now a famous musician who relies on Laura’s songwriting skills, nor her depressed and searching daughter will let her give up on her dreams.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781501197505
RANDOM ROAD: A Geneva Chase Crime Reporter Mystery by Thomas Kies (Mystery)
Veteran reporter Geneva Chase is at the end of her professional rope. Battling alcoholism and bad choices, she's lost every major news job she's had. Working at her hometown newspaper is her last chance to redeem herself --- and now the paper's future is in doubt. Then she lands the story of a lifetime: Six nude bodies are found hacked to pieces in a Queen Anne mansion on the coast of Long Island Sound. The sensational headline is picked up by the metro papers, and Geneva is back in the game, using her reporter's nose to sniff out the secrets of Sheffield's rich and entitled citizens. As her investigation leads her deeper into dangerous waters, her toxic affair with a married man and her inability to get sober threaten to undo everything she has worked so hard to achieve.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464214707
SECOND FIRST IMPRESSIONS by Sally Thorne (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Position Vacant: Two ancient old women residing at Providence Retirement Villa seek male assistant for casual exploitation and good-natured humiliation. The salary is generous and the employers are 90 years old, so how hard could the job be? Ruthie Midona will work in Providence’s front office, and be at the beck and call of the wealthy and eccentric Parloni Sisters, forever. Teddy Prescott devotes his life to sleeping, tattooing and avoiding seriousness. When Teddy needs a place to crash, he makes a deal with his developer dad. Teddy can stay in one of Providence’s on-site maintenance cottages but only if he works there and starts to grow up. An unimpressed Ruthie knows how this sweetly selfish rich boy can earn his keep --- and be out of her hair in under a week. After all, there is a position vacant.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062912855
SIN EATER by Megan Campisi (Historical Fiction)
For the crime of stealing bread, 14-year-old May receives a life sentence: she must become a Sin Eater --- a shunned woman, brutally marked, whose fate is to hear the final confessions of the dying, eat ritual foods symbolizing their sins as a funeral rite, and thereby shoulder their transgressions to grant their souls access to heaven. Orphaned and friendless, apprenticed to an older Sin Eater who cannot speak to her, May must make her way in a dangerous and cruel world she barely understands. When a deer heart appears on the coffin of a royal governess who did not confess to the dreadful sin it represents, the older Sin Eater refuses to eat it. She is taken to prison, tortured and killed. To avenge her death, May must find out who placed the deer heart on the coffin and why.
Atria Books | 9781982124113
THESE WOMEN by Ivy Pochoda (Literary Thriller)
Five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish are connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There’s Dorian, still adrift after her daughter’s murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.
Ecco | 9780062656391
TO DIE IN TUSCANY: A Rick Montoya Italian Mystery by David P. Wagner (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Translator Rick Montoya is looking forward to a quiet weekend away with his girlfriend, Betta, an art fraud investigator for the Italian Culture Ministry. Their destination: the beautiful village of Urbino, home to Renaissance masters Rafael and the lesser-known Piero della Francesca. While Betta does have official business to attend to --- namely, collecting a priceless Piero drawing from a wealthy Spanish collector on the ministry's behalf --- she asks Rick to join her "in case she needs an interpreter," but with other, less-official intentions in mind. When the Spaniard is found murdered and the drawing stolen, Betta must shift back into art cop mode, and Rick's official services are required after all.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464214332
WHY WE SWIM by Bonnie Tsui (Sports & Recreation/Social Science)
We swim in freezing Arctic waters and piranha-infested rivers to test our limits. We swim for pleasure, for exercise, for healing. But humans, unlike other animals that are drawn to water, are not natural-born swimmers. We must be taught. Our evolutionary ancestors learned for survival; now, in the 21st century, swimming is one of the most popular activities in the world. WHY WE SWIM is propelled by stories of Olympic champions, a Baghdad swim club that meets in Saddam Hussein’s palace pool, modern-day Japanese samurai swimmers, and even an Icelandic fisherman who improbably survives a wintry six-hour swim after a shipwreck. Bonnie Tsui, a swimmer herself, investigates what about water --- despite its dangers --- seduces us and why we come back to it again and again.
Algonquin Books | 9781643751375
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