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Carol had the pleasure of chatting with Gabriela Garcia for a "Bookreporter Talks To" interview. Gabriela shared her personal journey to write the book, discussed many of the timely cultural topics that are addressed in her prose, and explained how she worked to blend her female characters' voices together. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
This Month's "Bookaccino Live" Afternoon Event: This is your last newsletter reminder to sign up for our next "Bookaccino Live” event, which will take place via Zoom TOMORROW, Wednesday, April 14th at 2pm ET. Carol will present titles releasing between April 13th and May 4th, along with a few from June, that she would like to get on your radar. Attendees of the live event will be invited to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading. Those who do will be eligible to win prizes! Be sure to register here by 1pm ET on Wednesday to get a list of the featured titles sent to you before the event.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
As so many book and author events are happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register.
Wednesday, April 14th at 2pm ET: "Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books": Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between April 13th and May 4th, along with a few from June, that she would like to get on your radar.
Wednesday, April 14th at 2pm ET: Murder By The Book: Flynn Berry will be in conversation with GIRL A author Abigail Dean about her latest thriller, NORTHERN SPY, which is Reese's Book Club pick for April.
Wednesday, April 14th 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 celebrate their show's official first birthday with special guest Jodi Picoult.
Wednesday, April 14th at 7pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's will host Paula McLain as she discusses her new book, WHEN THE STARS GO DARK, in conversation with Christina Baker Kline.
Thursday, April 15th at 6pm ET: Square Books: Join Square Books for an evening with Martha Hall Kelly and Lisa Wingate as they discuss Kelly's newest book, SUNFLOWER SISTERS.
Thursday, April 15th at 6:30pm ET: Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library: Lisa Scottoline will visit the library as part of their "Between the Lines" author series to discuss her new novel, ETERNAL.
Sunday, April 18th at 6pm ET: Adventures by the Book: An Exclusive Fireside Chat Adventure: Karen White will celebrate the VIP pre-launch of her much-heralded WWII historical novel, THE LAST NIGHT IN LONDON. Join Adventures by the Book for their exclusive inaugural Fireside Chat, where you can chat live with Karen to discuss her new book, ask questions and converse with her “on stage.”
Monday, April 19th at 8pm ET: Dallas Museum of Art: Gabriela Garcia and Kaitlyn Greenidge will talk about their highly anticipated new novels, OF WOMEN AND SALT (this month's "Good Morning America" Book Club pick) and LIBERTIE (this month's #1 Indie Next pick), with author Mira Jacob.
Tuesday, April 20th at 6:30pm ET: FoxTale Book Shoppe: Karen White will join FoxTale Book Shoppe for a discussion of her latest novel, THE LAST NIGHT IN LONDON, the first stop on her virtual book tour.
Tuesday, April 20th at 7pm ET: Bards Alley: For the first stop on his event circuit for A GAMBLING MAN, David Baldacci will be joined by Angie Kim, author of MIRACLE CREEK, for an in-conversation event that is sure to inform and entertain.
Tuesday, April 20th at 7pm ET: Porter Square Books: Porter Square Books is pleased to present a virtual talk with bestselling author Patrick Radden Keefe (SAY NOTHING) for his latest book, EMPIRE OF PAIN: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. He will be joined in conversation by award-winning reporter Pamela Colloff.
Tuesday, April 20th at 7pm ET: Warwick's: This Couch Surfing Book Tour event will feature Kristy Woodson Harvey as she discusses her new book, UNDER THE SOUTHERN SKY, in conversation with Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke.
Tuesday, April 20th at 8pm ET: Powell's Books: Paula McLain will talk about her new novel, WHEN THE STARS GO DARK, with fellow bestselling author Sue Monk Kidd.
Tuesday, April 20th at 9pm ET: Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Robert Dugoni will discuss his new Tracy Crosswhite novel, IN HER TRACKS, with special guest host Luanne Rice.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our ReadingGroupGuides.com Contest for
OF WOMEN AND SALT by Gabriela Garcia
April's "Good Morning America" Book Club Pick
and a Bookreporter.com Bets On Title
OF WOMEN AND SALT, Gabriela Garcia's debut novel, is about a daughter's fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born. We are giving five groups the chance to win up to 12 copies of the book, which is April's "Good Morning America" Book Club pick and a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. To enter, please fill out this form by Wednesday, May 5th at noon ET.
OF WOMEN AND SALT by Gabriela Garcia (Fiction)
In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction. She is determined to learn more about her family history from her reticent mother, a Cuban immigrant named Carmen, and makes the snap decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, Carmen must process her difficult relationship with her own mother while trying to raise a wayward Jeanette. Steadfast in her quest for understanding, Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and reckon with secrets from the past destined to erupt.
From 19th-century cigar factories to present-day detention centers, from Cuba to Mexico, Gabriela Garcia's OF WOMEN AND SALT is a kaleidoscopic portrait of betrayals --- personal and political, self-inflicted and those done by others --- that have shaped the lives of these extraordinary women. A haunting meditation on the choices of mothers, the legacy of the memories they carry, and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their stories despite those who wish to silence them, this is more than a diaspora story; it is a story of America’s most tangled, honest, human roots.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to read Carol's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Gabriela Garcia.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
- Click here to see why the book is April's "GMA" Book Club pick.
Click here to enter the contest.
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
On Sale the Week of April 19th in Hardcover
April 20th
BLOOD AND TREASURE: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (Biography)
It is the mid-18th century, and in the 13 colonies founded by Great Britain, anxious colonists desperate to conquer and settle North America’s “First Frontier” beyond the Appalachian Mountains commence a series of bloody battles. These violent conflicts are waged against the Native American tribes whose lands they covet, the French, and finally against the mother country itself in an American Revolution destined to reverberate around the world. This is the setting of BLOOD AND TREASURE, and the guide to this epic narrative is America’s first and arguably greatest pathfinder, Daniel Boone --- the Revolutionary War hero whose explorations into the forested frontier beyond the great mountains would become the stuff of legend.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250247131
THE CAPTAIN & ME: On and Off the Field with Thurman Munson by Ron Blomberg and Dan Epstein (Sports/Memoir)
As back-to-back No. 1 draft picks for the New York Yankees, Ron Blomberg and Thurman Munson made for an odd couple. One was a good-looking, gregarious kid from Atlanta who cheerfully talked anyone’s ear off at the slightest provocation; the other was a dumpy, grumpy dude from the Midwest rust belt who was about as fond of making idle chit-chat as he was of shaving. Despite the surface differences, the two men would form a close attachment as they ignited a youth movement with the 1970s Yankees. Now, over 40 years after Munson's shocking death in a plane crash at age 32, Blomberg opens up to author Dan Epstein about the beloved Yankees captain in an extraordinary memoir that reaches far beyond baseball.
Triumph Books | 9781629378541
CRYING IN H MART: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner (Memoir)
With humor and heart, Michelle Zauner tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band --- and meeting the man who would become her husband --- her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language and history that her mother had given her.
Knopf | 9780525657743
A GAMBLING MAN by David Baldacci (Historical Thriller)
In dire need of a fresh start, Aloysius Archer arrives in Bay Town, California. His first stop is a P.I. office where he is hoping to apprentice with a legendary private eye and former FBI agent named Willie Dash. He lands the job and immediately finds himself in the thick of a potential scandal: a blackmail case involving a wealthy well-connected politician running for mayor that soon spins into something even more sinister. As bodies begin falling, Archer and Dash must infiltrate the world of brothels, gambling dens, drug operations and long-hidden secrets, descending into the rotten bones of a corrupt town that is selling itself as the promised land --- but might actually be the road to perdition, and Archer’s final resting place.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538719671
GIRL, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Elle Castillo hosts a popular true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases of missing and abducted children. After four seasons of successfully solving these cases in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Elle decides to tackle her white whale: The Countdown Killer. Twenty years ago, TCK was terrorizing the community, kidnapping and ritualistically murdering three girls over seven days, each a year younger than the last. Then, after he took his 11-year-old victim, the pattern --- and the murders --- abruptly stopped. When Elle follows up on a listener tip only to discover the man’s dead body, she feels at fault. Then, within days, a child is abducted --- a young girl who seems to fit suspiciously into the TCK sequence halted decades before.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358418931
HOT STEW by Fiona Mozley (Fiction)
In the middle of the bustle of Soho sits a building that young millionaire Agatha Howard wants to convert into luxury condos as soon as she can kick out all the tenants. However, the building in question houses a brothel, and Precious and Tabitha, two of the women who live and work there, are not going to go quietly. The fight over this piece of property also draws in the men who visit, including Robert, a one-time member of a far-right group and enforcer for Agatha’s father; Jackie, a policewoman intent on making London a safer place for all women; Bastian, a rich and dissatisfied party boy who pines for an ex-girlfriend; and a collection of vagabonds and strays who occupy the basement.
Algonquin Books | 9781643751559
I AM A GIRL FROM AFRICA: A Memoir by Elizabeth Nyamayaro (Memoir)
When a severe drought hit her village in Zimbabwe, Elizabeth, then eight, had no idea that this moment of utter devastation would come to define her life purpose. Unable to move from hunger, she encountered a United Nations aid worker who gave her a bowl of warm porridge and saved her life. This transformative moment inspired Elizabeth to become a humanitarian, and she vowed to dedicate her life to giving back to her community, her continent and the world. Grounded by the African concept of ubuntu --- “I am because we are” --- I AM A GIRL FROM AFRICA charts Elizabeth’s quest in pursuit of her dream from the small village of Goromonzi to Harare, London, New York and beyond.
Scribner | 9781982113018
THE LAST NIGHT IN LONDON by Karen White (Historical Fiction)
London, 1939. Eva Harlow and her best friend, Precious Dubose, are trying to make their way as fashion models. When Eva falls in love with Graham St. John, an aristocrat and Royal Air Force pilot, she can’t believe her luck. Then the Blitz devastates her world, and Eva finds herself slipping into a web of intrigue, spies and secrets. All it takes is one unwary moment to change their lives forever. London, 2019. American journalist Maddie Warner, whose life has been marked by the tragic loss of her mother, travels to London to interview Precious about her life in pre-WWII London. She finds herself drawn to both Precious and to Colin, her enigmatic surrogate nephew. As Maddie gets closer to her, she begins to unravel Precious’ haunting past.
Berkley | 9780451492012
MARGREETE'S HARBOR by Eleanor Morse (Historical Fiction)
Eleanor Morse's book begins with a fire. A fiercely independent, thrice-widowed woman living on her own in a rambling house near the Maine coast forgets a hot pan on the stovetop and nearly burns her place down. When Margreete Bright calls her daughter Liddie to confess, Liddie realizes that she can no longer live alone. Liddie, her husband Harry, and their children Eva and Bernie move from a settled life in Michigan across the country to Margreete’s isolated home, and begin a new life. MARGREETE'S HARBOR tells the story of 10 years in the history of a family: a novel of small moments, intimate betrayals, arrivals and disappearances that coincide with America during the late 1950s through the turbulent 1960s.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250271549
MIRRORLAND by Carole Johnstone (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Cat lives in Los Angeles, far away from 36 Westeryk Road, the imposing gothic house in Edinburgh where she and her estranged twin sister, El, grew up. As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs full of pirates, witches and clowns. These days Cat rarely thinks about their childhood home, or the fact that El now lives there with her husband, Ross. But when El mysteriously disappears after going out on her sailboat, Cat is forced to return to 36 Westeryk Road, which has scarcely changed in 20 years. The grand old house is still full of shadowy corners, and at every turn Cat finds herself stumbling on long-held secrets and terrifying ghosts from the past.
Scribner | 9781982136352
THE PERFECT DAUGHTER by D.J. Palmer (Psychological Thriller)
Sixteen-year-old Penny Francone is a murderer. Will she be found not guilty by reason of insanity? Or will she get a life sentence in a maximum-security prison? Already reeling after the sudden passing of her beloved husband, Grace is grateful that Massachusetts doesn't allow the death penalty. As Penny awaits trial in a state mental hospital, she is treated by Dr. Mitchell McHugh, a psychiatrist battling demons of his own. Grace’s determination to understand the why behind her daughter’s terrible crime fuels Mitch’s resolve to help the Francone family. Together, they set out in search of the truth about Penny, but discover instead a shocking hidden history of secrets, lies and betrayals that threatens to consume them all.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250267924
THE SON OF MR. SULEMAN by Eric Jerome Dickey (Romance)
Professor Pi Suleman is a Black man from Memphis with a lot to endure. He is constantly forced to bite his tongue in the face of one of his tenured colleague’s prejudices and microaggressions. At the same time, Pi is being blackmailed by a powerful white professor who threatens to claim he assaulted her, when in fact the truth is just the opposite. When he meets Gemma Buckingham, a sophisticated entrepreneur who has just moved to Memphis to escape a deep heartbreak, things begin to look up. But Pi’s whirlwind romance is interrupted when his absentee father passes away, and Pi is called to Los Angeles to both collect his inheritance and learn about the man who never acknowledged him.
Dutton | 9781524745233
THREE-MARTINI AFTERNOONS AT THE RITZ: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton by Gail Crowther (Biography)
Introduced at a workshop in Boston University led by the acclaimed and famous poet Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton formed a friendship that would soon evolve into a fierce rivalry, colored by jealousy and respect in equal terms. In the years that followed, these two women would not only become iconic figures in literature, but also lead curiously parallel lives haunted by mental illness, suicide attempts, self-doubt and difficult personal relationships. With weekly martini meetings at the Ritz to discuss everything from sex to suicide, theirs was a relationship as complex and subversive as their poetry.
Gallery Books | 9781982138394
WHEN A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN edited by Michael Koryta (Mystery/Short Stories)
It’s been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories --- a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there’s something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. No matter how or where they appear, strangers are walking mysteries, complete unknowns in once-familiar territories who disrupt our lives with unease and wonder. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers such as Michael Connelly, Dean Koontz and Joe Hill.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335141477
April 23rd
AMERICA'S GAME IN THE WILD-CARD ERA: From Strike to Pandemic by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte (Sports)
In AMERICA'S GAME IN THE WILD-CARD ERA, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte provides a compelling examination of Major League Baseball since the 1994 players’ strike. He reveals how the last quarter century has been the most dynamic in MLB history and argues that bringing wild-card teams and the division-series round into the postseason mix have fundamentally changed how dynasties should be perceived. Following the major storylines for all 30 teams, along with the division races and state of dynasties over the past 25 years, AMERICA'S GAME IN THE WILD-CARD ERA is a captivating look into a new age of baseball.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | 9781538145937
THE RESHAPING OF AMERICA'S GAME: Major League Baseball After the Players' Strike by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte (Sports)
In THE RESHAPING OF AMERICA'S GAME, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte reflects on the factors and challenges that have changed Major League Baseball since the 1994-1995 players’ strike. He examines the consolidation of power in the Commissioner’s Office, the influx of Latin and Asian players, the boom in new stadiums, the influence of analytics in reshaping how rosters are constructed, the relationship between managers and the front office, and the rise of the power-game between pitchers and batters that has led to unprecedented strikeout and home run totals.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | 9781538145951
On Sale the Week of April 19th in Paperback
April 20th
108 STITCHES: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game by Ron Darling (Sports)
In 108 STITCHES, Ron Darling offers his own take on the "six degrees of separation" game and knits together a collection of wild, wise and wistful stories reflecting the full arc of a life in and around our national pastime. Darling has played with or reported on just about everybody who has put on a uniform since 1983, and they in turn have played with or reported on just about everybody who put on a uniform in a previous generation. Through relationships with baseball legends on and off the field, like Yale coach Smoky Joe Wood, Willie Mays, Bart Giamatti, Tom Seaver and Mickey Mantle, Darling's reminiscences reach all the way back to Babe Ruth and other turn-of-the-century greats.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250252913
BRAISED PORK by An Yu (Fiction)
One autumn morning, Jia Jia walks into the bathroom of her lavish Beijing apartment to find her husband dead. One minute she was breakfasting with him and packing for an upcoming trip, the next, she finds him motionless in their half-full bathtub. Like something out of a dream, next to the tub Jia Jia discovers a pencil sketch of a strange watery figure, an image that swims into her mind and won’t leave. The mysterious drawing launches Jia Jia on an odyssey across contemporary Beijing as her path crosses some of the people who call the city home. Unencumbered by a marriage that had constrained her, Jia Jia travels into her past to try to discover things that were left unsaid by the people closest to her.
Grove Press | 9780802148728
DIVER’S PARADISE: A Roscoe Conklin Mystery by Davin Goodwin (Mystery)
After 25 years on the job, Detective Roscoe Conklin moves to Bonaire, a small island nestled in the southern Caribbean. But when his longtime police buddy and friend back home is murdered, Conklin calls his old department, trolling for information. It’s slow going. No surprise, there. After all, it’s an active investigation, and his compadres back home aren’t saying a word. When a suspicious mishap lands his significant other, Arabella, in the hospital, the island police conduct, at best, a sluggish investigation, stonewalling progress. Conklin questions the evidence and challenges the department’s methods. Something isn’t right. Arabella wasn’t the intended target. He was.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094363
FURMIDABLE FOES: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown (Mystery)
Spring arrives in northern Virginia, and the women of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church prepare for a Homecoming celebration like no other. Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen, Susan Tucker and their friends are busy planting flowers and trimming hedges to get the church grounds in shape for the big day. But a note of a menace mars the beautiful spring: The brewery owned by Janice Childs and Mags Nielsen, two members of the gardening committee, gets robbed, with hundreds of dollars in merchandise taken off their delivery trucks. When Jeannie Cordle drops dead at a charity auction, poisoned by a fatal weed, Harry’s worst suspicions are confirmed: a killer lurks in their midst, one with a keen understanding of poisonous plants.
Bantam | 9780593130056
THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD by Alena Dillon (Fiction)
Paperback Original
For Sera Wheeler, the Olympics is the reason for everything. It’s why she trains 30 hours a week and starves herself to under 100 pounds. For her mother, Charlene --- hungry for glory she never had --- it’s why she rises before dawn to drive Sera to practice in a different state. It’s why, when Sera’s best friend reports the gymnastics doctor to the authority who selects the Olympic Team, Sera denies what she knows about his treatments, thus preserving favor. Their friendship shatters. Sera doubles down, taping broken toes, numbing torn muscles and pouring her family’s resources into the sport. Soon she isn’t training for the love of gymnastics. She’s training to make her disloyalty worthwhile. No matter the cost.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063019041
HE STARTED IT by Samantha Downing (Psychological Thriller)
Beth, Portia and Eddie Morgan haven't all been together in years. And for very good reasons --- we'll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and --- more importantly --- secure their inheritance. But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone. It's even harder when you're all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory, a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won't stop following your car --- and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there's a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons. But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.
Berkley | 9780451491763
HER THREE LIVES by Cate Holahan (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Jade Thompson is an up-and-coming social media influencer whose fiancé, Greg, is a successful architect. To Greg’s children, his divorce from their mother and his new life can only mean a big mid-life crisis. To Jade, his suburban Connecticut upbringing isn’t an easy match with her Caribbean roots. A savage home invasion leaves Greg house-bound with a traumatic brain injury and glued to the live feeds from his ubiquitous security cameras. As the police investigate the crime, Jade begins to wonder what he may know about their attackers. And whether they are coming back. As Greg watches Jade’s comings and goings, he becomes convinced that her behavior is suspicious and that she’s hiding a big secret.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538736340
IN HER TRACKS by Robert Dugoni (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Detective Tracy Crosswhite has been reassigned to the Seattle PD’s cold case unit and is immediately drawn to her first file: the abduction of a five-year-old girl whose parents, embattled in a poisonous divorce, were once prime suspects. While reconstructing the days leading up to the girl’s disappearance, Tracy is brought into an active investigation with former partner Kinsington Rowe. A young woman has vanished on an isolated jogging trail in North Seattle. To find two missing persons, Tracy will have to follow more than clues, which are both long cold and unsettlingly fresh. Given her own traumatic past, Tracy also must follow her instincts --- to whatever dark and dangerous places they may lead.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542008372
THE KINDRED SPIRITS SUPPER CLUB by Amy E. Reichert (Romance)
Paperback Original
For Sabrina Monroe, moving back home to the Wisconsin Dells means returning to the Monroe family curse: the women in her family can see spirits who come to them for help with unfinished business. Molly, a bubbly rom-com-loving ghost, stuck by Sabrina's side all through her lonely childhood. Her personal life starts looking up when Ray, the new local restaurateur, invites Sabrina to his supper club, where he flirts with her over his famous Brandy Old-Fashioneds. He's charming and handsome, but Sabrina tells herself she doesn't have time for romance --- she needs to focus on finding a job. Except the longer she's in the Dells, the harder it is to resist her feelings for Ray.
Berkley | 9780593197776
THE LAST WATCH: A Novel of the Divide by J. S. Dewes (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Paperback Original
The Divide. It’s the edge of the universe. Now it’s collapsing --- and taking everyone and everything with it. The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels --- the recruits, exiles and court-martialed dregs of the military. At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms --- nothing, except for the soldiers whom no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer --- genius and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather's genetic facility for “reasons.” She knows they’re humanity's last chance.
Tor Books | 9781250236340
LOST by James Patterson and James O. Born (Thriller)
The city of Miami is Detective Tom Moon's backyard. He's always kept it local, attending University of Miami on a football scholarship, and, as a Miami PD officer, protecting the city's most vulnerable. Now, as the new leader of an FBI task force called "Operation Guardian," it's his mission to combat international crime. Moon's investigative team discovers that the opportunistic "Blood Brothers" --- Russian nationals Roman and Emile Rostoff --- have evaded authorities while building a vast, powerful and deadly crime syndicate throughout Europe and metropolitan Miami. Moon played offense for U of M, but he's on the other side of the field this time. And as the Rostoffs zero in on a target dear to Tom, they're not playing by anyone's rules.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538750063
MAGGIE FINDS HER MUSE by Dee Ernst (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
All Maggie Bliss needs to do is write. Forty-eight years old and newly single (again!), she ventures to Paris in a last-ditch effort to finish her manuscript. With a marvelous apartment at her fingertips and an elegant housekeeper to meet her every need, a finished book --- and her dream of finally taking her career over the top --- is surely within her grasp. After all, how could she find anything except inspiration in Paris, with its sophistication, food and romance in the air? But the clock is running out, and between her charming ex-husband arriving in France for vacation and a handsome Frenchman appearing one morning in her bathtub, Maggie’s previously undisturbed peace goes by the wayside.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250768339
METROPOLITAN STORIES by Christine Coulson (Fiction)
Hidden behind the Picassos and Vermeers, the Temple of Dendur and the American Wing, exists another world: the hallways and offices, conservation studios, storerooms and cafeteria that are home to the museum's devoted and peculiar staff of 2,200 people --- along with a few ghosts. A surreal love letter to this private side of the Met, METROPOLITAN STORIES unfolds in a series of amusing and poignant vignettes in which we discover larger-than-life characters, the downside of survival, and the powerful voices of the art itself.
Other Press | 9781635420937
THE MOMENT OF TENDERNESS by Madeleine L'Engle (Fiction/Short Stories)
This powerful collection of short stories traces an emotional arc inspired by Madeleine L'Engle's early life and career, from her lonely childhood in New York to her life as a mother in small-town Connecticut. In a selection of 18 stories discovered by one of her granddaughters, we see how L'Engle's personal experiences and abiding faith informed the creation of her many cherished works. Some of these stories have never been published; others were refashioned into scenes for her novels and memoirs. Almost all were written in the 1940s and '50s, from L'Engle's college years until just before the publication of A WRINKLE IN TIME.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538717837
MY RIDE OR DIE by Leslie Cohen (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
Fall in love. Get married. Turn to your female friends to be truly understood. Amanda and Sophie decide it’s time to flip the script. Why not spend their lives with each other and keep men on the side for fun, sex and occasionally fixing things around the house? They will rely on each other and give men the secondary role that they deserve. And much to their surprise, it actually works. They fix up a run-down brownstone and create the home they’ve always wanted. Soon, they have love and emotional support, as well as a wide variety of male “crushes” on the side. But when one of their crushes becomes something more, Amanda and Sophie must reconsider the life they’ve begun to build and how far they’re willing to go to keep it.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062966780
THE SILENT WIFE by Karin Slaughter (Mystery/Thriller)
Investigating the killing of a prisoner during a riot inside a state penitentiary, GBI investigator Will Trent is confronted with disturbing information. One of the inmates claims that he is innocent of a brutal attack for which he has always been the prime suspect. The man insists that he was framed by a corrupt law enforcement team led by Jeffrey Tolliver and that the real culprit is still out there. If Will reopens the investigation and implicates the dead police officer with a hero’s reputation of wrongdoing, the opportunistic convict is willing to provide the information GBI needs about the riot murder. Only days ago, another young woman was viciously murdered in a state park in northern Georgia. Is it a fluke, or could there be a serial killer on the loose?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062858931
THE SOCIAL GRACES by Renée Rosen (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
1876. In the glittering world of Manhattan's upper crust, women are valued by their pedigree, dowry and, most importantly, connections. They have few rights and even less independence --- what they do have is society. The more celebrated the hostess, the more powerful the woman. And none is more powerful than Caroline Astor --- the Mrs. Astor. But times are changing. Alva Vanderbilt has recently married into one of America's richest families. But what good is dizzying wealth when society refuses to acknowledge you? Alva, who knows what it is to have nothing, will do whatever it takes to have everything.
Berkley | 9781984802811
SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid (Fiction)
Alix Chamberlain is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young Black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, and a bystander films everything. At 25, Emira is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525541912
THEY NEVER LEARN by Layne Fargo (Psychological Thriller)
Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder. Every year, she searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself --- but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Scarlett insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge, Dr. Mina Pierce. Everything is going according to her master plan…until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982132033
A THOUSAND MOONS by Sebastian Barry (Fiction)
Winona Cole, an orphaned child of the Lakota Indians, finds herself growing up in an unconventional household on a farm in west Tennessee. Raised by her adoptive parents, John Cole and Thomas McNulty, whose story Sebastian Barry told in his acclaimed previous novel, DAYS WITHOUT END, she forges a life for herself beyond the violence and dispossession of her past. Tennessee is a state still riven by the bitter legacy of the Civil War, and the fragile harmony of her family is soon threatened by a further traumatic event --- one that Winona struggles to confront, let alone understand.
Penguin Books | 9780735223110
UNDER THE SOUTHERN SKY by Kristy Woodson Harvey (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When journalist Amelia Buxton discovers that a cluster of embryos belonging to her childhood friend Parker and his late wife Greer have been deemed “abandoned,” she’s put in the unenviable position of telling Parker --- and dredging up old wounds in the process. Parker has been unable to move forward since the loss of his beloved wife three years ago. He has all but forgotten about the frozen embryos. But once Amelia reveals her discovery, he knows that if he ever wants to get a part of Greer back, he’ll need to accept his fate as a single father and find a surrogate. Each dealing with their own private griefs, Parker and Amelia slowly begin to find solace in one another as they navigate an uncertain future against the backdrop of the pristine waters of their childhood home, Buxton Beach.
Gallery Books | 9781982117726
WARHOL by Blake Gopnik (Biography)
To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone, and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that. In WARHOL, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. “The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,” as Gopnik writes. “That’s why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,” from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the “performance” of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom --- and his attempted assassination.
Ecco | 9780062298423
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