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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 3rd and May 10th 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 May, 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.
Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Mark Sullivan, whose newly released novel, THE LAST GREEN VALLEY, will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. The book opens in Ukraine in 1944, where the Martel family is offered two options: wait for Stalin to arrive, or run with the Nazis who will protect them. Neither is a great choice, but they decide to do the latter. As ethnic Germans, they embark on a trek to travel as far west as they can. Mark explains how he came upon their story in his hometown of Bozeman, Montana; talks about his research trip to Ukraine with the two Martel brothers, who are now in their late 70s and 80s; and discusses pacing and what he learned from years of co-writing with James Patterson. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
Our Mother's Day Author Blogs are back for a 12th year! Once again, we are excited to be sharing pieces from authors who reminisce about reading books with their moms, or with their own children, and talk about how their moms influenced them to become readers and writers. So far, we have heard from Laura Munson (WILLA’S GROVE), Lea Geller (THE TRUTH AND OTHER HIDDEN THINGS), Elizabeth Brundage (THE VANISHING POINT), Andrea Lee (RED ISLAND HOUSE), Deborah Goodrich Royce (RUBY FALLS), and Mary Dixie Carter (THE PHOTOGRAPHER). Still to come this week are contributions from Wendy Francis (SUMMERTIME GUESTS), Nancy Thayer (FAMILY REUNION), Virginia Hume (HAVEN POINT), and Elin Hilderbrand (GOLDEN GIRL).
We also are spotlighting THE NATURE OF A LADY, the opening installment in Christy Award-nominated author Roseanna M. White's historical romance series, The Secrets of the Isles. The book is set on the Isles of Scilly, during the summer and autumn of 1906, and features pirate tales, treasure hunts, mistaken identities, new love, old love and hometown rivalries.
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 NATURE OF A LADY
by Roseanna M. White
THE NATURE OF A LADY: The Secrets of the Isles, Book 1 by Roseanna M. White (Historical Romance)
Lady Elizabeth “Libby” Sinclair, with her love of microscopes and nature, isn’t favored in society. She flees to the beautiful Isles of Scilly for the summer and stumbles onto the dangerous secrets left behind by her holiday cottage’s former occupant, also named Elizabeth, who mysteriously vanished.
Oliver Tremayne --- gentleman and clergyman --- is determined to discover what happened to his sister, with the help of the girl now living in what should have been Beth’s summer cottage...especially when he realizes it’s the curious young lady he met briefly two years ago, who shares his love of botany and biology. But the hunt for his sister involves far more than nature walks, and he can’t quite believe all the secrets Beth had been keeping from him.
As Libby and Oliver work together, they uncover ancient legends, pirate wrecks, betrayal, and the most mysterious phenomenon of all: love.
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, May 5th 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 throw a launch party for Mary Kay's new book, THE NEWCOMER.
Wednesday, May 5th at 7pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's will host Chris Bohjalian as he discusses his new book, HOUR OF THE WITCH --- which is this month's Barnes & Noble Book Club pick --- in conversation with Jeniffer Thompson.
Thursday, May 6th at 6pm ET: Arapahoe Libraries: Join two award-winning authors, Chris Bohjalian and Alice Hoffman, ​in conversation with one another about their latest fictional works, HOUR OF THE WITCH and MAGIC LESSONS.
Thursday, May 6th at 7pm ET: Books & Books: Patrick Radden Keefe will be in conversation with HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD author Robert Kolker about his new book, EMPIRE OF PAIN: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty.
Thursday, May 6th at 7pm ET: BookTowne: Join BookTowne on Zoom for a virtual event featuring Mary Kay Andrews in conversation with Harlan Coben about her latest novel, THE NEWCOMER.
Thursday, May 6th at 7pm ET: Gramercy Books: Join #1 bestselling author Lisa Scottoline to learn about her first historical novel, ETERNAL. She will be in conversation with Gramercy Books owner and historical novelist Linda Kass.
Thursday, May 6th at 7pm ET: Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Mike Lupica will discuss ROBERT B. PARKER'S PAYBACK, his latest Sunny Randall mystery, with special guest host Carl Hiaasen.
Sunday, May 9th at 5pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": For this special Mother's Day episode, the "Friends and Fiction" authors will talk to the Satellite Sisters: Julie, Liz, Sheila, Monica and Lian Dolan.
Monday, May 10th at 7pm ET: Harvard Book Store: Harvard Book Store's virtual event series welcomes award-winning, New York Times bestselling novelists Maggie Shipstead and J. Courtney Sullivan for a discussion of their latest books --- the newly published GREAT CIRCLE, which is this month's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club pick, and FRIENDS AND STRANGERS, which is now in paperback.
Monday, May 10th at 8pm ET: Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Jeffery Deaver will talk about the third installment in his Colter Shaw thriller series, THE FINAL TWIST.
Tuesday, May 11th at 6pm ET: "Adriana Ink": In the latest episode of her weekly Facebook Live show, "Adriana Ink," Adriana Trigiani will talk to Stacey Swann, whose debut novel, OLYMPUS, TEXAS, is this month's "Good Morning America" Book Club pick.
Tuesday, May 11th at 6pm ET: Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookshop & Café: Chris Bohjalian will be in conversation with Wally Lamb about his new book, HOUR OF THE WITCH. Chris and Wally also will be discussing the HBO adaptations of their novels, THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT and I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for May
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, and Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites.
Below is a preview of May'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: GREAT CIRCLE by Maggie Shipstead
PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir
PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by Emily Henry
CRYING IN H MART: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME by Laura Dave
LibraryReads
Top Pick: PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by Emily Henry
ARSENIC AND ADOBO: A Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery by Mia P. Manansala
THE BOOKSHOP OF SECOND CHANCES by Jackie Fraser
THE GUNCLE by Steven Rowley
THE INVISIBLE HUSBAND OF FRICK ISLAND by Colleen Oakley
Target Book Club
THE LAST FLIGHT by Julie Clark
Pennie's Pick for Costco
WHEN THE APRICOTS BLOOM by Gina Wilkinson
Barnes & Noble Book Club
HOUR OF THE WITCH by Chris Bohjalian
Reese's Book Club
THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME by Laura Dave
Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
GREAT CIRCLE by Maggie Shipstead
"Good Morning America" Book Club
OLYMPUS, TEXAS by Stacey Swann
Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites
SUMMER DARLINGS by Brooke Lea Foster
On Sale the Week of May 3rd in Hardcover
May 3rd
21st BIRTHDAY by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
When young wife and mother Tara Burke goes missing with her baby girl, all eyes are on her husband, Lucas. He paints her not as a missing person but as a wayward wife --- until a gruesome piece of evidence turns the investigation criminal. While Chronicle reporter Cindy Thomas pursues the story and M.E. Claire Washburn harbors theories that run counter to the SFPD’s, ADA Yuki Castellano sizes Lucas up as a textbook domestic offender…who suddenly puts forward an unexpected suspect. If what Lucas tells law enforcement has even a grain of truth, there isn't a woman in the state of California who's safe from the reach of an unspeakable threat.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316499347
May 4th
ARIADNE by Jennifer Saint (Historical Fiction)
Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne’s decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?
Flatiron Books | 9781250773586
DEAD OF WINTER by Stephen Mack Jones (Mystery/Thriller)
Authentico Foods Inc. has been a part of Detroit’s Mexicantown for over 30 years, grown from a home kitchen business to a city-blocklong facility that supplies Mexican tortillas to restaurants throughout the Midwest. Detroit ex-cop and Mexicantown native August Snow has been invited for a business meeting at Authentico Foods. Its owner, Ronaldo Ochoa, is dying and is being blackmailed into selling the company to an anonymous entity. Worried about his employees, Ochoa wants August to buy it. August has no interest in running a tortilla empire, but he does want to know who’s threatening his neighborhood. His investigation quickly takes a devastating turn, and he and his loved ones find themselves ensnared in a dangerous net of ruthless billionaire developers.
Soho Crime | 9781641291026
A DOG'S COURAGE: A Dog's Way Home Novel by W. Bruce Cameron (Fiction)
Bella was once a lost dog, but now she lives happily with her people, Lucas and Olivia, only occasionally recalling the hardships in her past. Then a weekend camping trip turns into a harrowing struggle for survival when the Rocky Mountains are engulfed by the biggest wildfire in American history. The raging inferno separates Bella from her people, and she is lost once more. Alone in the wilderness, Bella unexpectedly finds herself responsible for the safety of two defenseless mountain lion cubs. Now she’s torn between two equally urgent goals. More than anything, she wants to find her way home to Lucas and Olivia, but not if it means abandoning her new family to danger. Can Bella ever get back to where she truly belongs?
Forge Books | 9781250257628
EVERYBODY: A Book About Freedom by Olivia Laing (Biography & Memoir/Cultural Studies)
The body is a source of pleasure and of pain, at once hopelessly vulnerable and radiant with power. In her sixth book, Olivia Laing charts an electrifying course through the long struggle for bodily freedom, using the life of the renegade psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich to explore gay rights and sexual liberation, feminism and the civil rights movement. Drawing on her own experiences in protest and alternative medicine, and traveling from Weimar Berlin to the prisons of McCarthy-era America, Laing grapples with some of the most significant and complicated figures of the past century --- among them Nina Simone, Christopher Isherwood, Andrea Dworkin, Sigmund Freud, Susan Sontag and Malcolm X.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393608779
FAMILY LAW by Gin Phillips (Fiction)
Set in Alabama in the early '80s, FAMILY LAW follows a young lawyer, Lucia, who is making a name for herself at a time when a woman in a courtroom is still a rarity. When her mother's pending divorce brings teenaged Rachel into Lucia's orbit, Rachel finds herself captivated not only with Lucia, but with the change Lucia represents. Rachel is outspoken and curious, and she chafes at the rules her mother lays down as the bounds of acceptable feminine behavior. In Lucia, Rachel sees the potential for a new path into womanhood. When a moment of violence --- a threat made good --- puts Rachel in danger, Lucia has to decide how much her work means to her and what she's willing to sacrifice to keep moving forward.
Viking | 9781984880628
FAMILY REUNION by Nancy Thayer (Fiction)
Eleanor Sunderland loves living on Nantucket, in a gorgeous cliffside home that has been in her family for decades. Yet this year she can’t help but feel a bit isolated, even as the island begins to come alive with summer tourists and travelers. Fresh off the heels of her college graduation, Eleanor’s dear granddaughter, Ari, has just ended an engagement that felt less like true love and more like a chore. Taking advantage of her newfound freedom, she heads to Nantucket to clear her head before graduate school, moving in with her grandmother and taking a job at the local beach camp. But just as grandmother and granddaughter fall into a carefree routine, a few shocking discoveries throw them off course, and their ideas of the future seem suddenly uncertain.
Ballantine Books | 9781524798789
FIND YOU FIRST by Linwood Barclay (Psychological Thriller)
Tech millionaire Miles Cookson recently has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and there is a 50 percent chance that it can be passed on to the next generation. Two decades ago, a young, struggling Miles was a sperm donor. Somewhere out there, he has nine kids, and they might be about to inherit both the good and the bad from him. Aspiring film documentarian Chloe Swanson embarks on a quest to find her biological father, armed with the knowledge that 22 years ago, her mother used a New York sperm bank to become pregnant. When Miles and Chloe eventually connect, their excitement at finding each other is overshadowed by a series of mysterious and terrifying events. One by one, Miles’ other potential heirs are vanishing --- every trace of them wiped, like they never existed at all.
William Morrow | 9780062678317
THE GIRL WHO DIED by Ragnar Jónasson (Mystery/Thriller)
Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. As darkness descends throughout the bleak winter in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar, Una finds herself more often than not in her rented attic space --- the site of a local legendary haunting --- drinking her loneliness away. She is plagued by nightmares of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. And when a sudden tragedy echoes an event long buried in Skálar’s past, the villagers become even more guarded, leaving a suspicious Una seeking to uncover a shocking truth that’s been kept secret for generations.
Minotaur Books | 9781250793737
GREAT CIRCLE by Maggie Shipstead (Historical Fiction)
After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There, Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At 14, she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles. A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds alongside Marian's own story, as the two women's fates collide.
Knopf | 9780525656975
HOUR OF THE WITCH by Chris Bohjalian (Historical Thriller)
Boston, 1662. Mary Deerfield is the second wife of Thomas Deerfield, a man as cruel as he is powerful. When Thomas drives a three-tined fork into the back of Mary's hand, she resolves that she must divorce him to save her life. But in a world where every neighbor is watching for signs of the devil, a woman like Mary --- who harbors secret desires and finds it difficult to tolerate the brazen hypocrisy of so many men in the colony --- soon becomes herself the object of suspicion and rumor. When tainted objects are discovered buried in Mary's garden, when a boy she has treated with herbs and simples dies, and when their servant girl runs screaming in fright from her home, Mary must fight to escape not only her marriage, but also the gallows.
Doubleday | 9780385542432
THE HUMMINGBIRDS' GIFT: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery (Nature)
As one of the most beautiful and intriguing birds found in nature, hummingbirds fascinate people around the world. The lightest birds in the sky, hummingbirds are capable of incredible feats, such as flying backwards, diving at speeds of 61 MPH, and beating their wings more than 60 times a second. Miraculous creatures, they are also incredibly vulnerable when they first emerge from their eggs. With tenderness and patience, Brenda Sherburn rescues abandoned hummingbirds and nurses them back to health until they can fly away and live in the wild. In THE HUMMINGBIRDS' GIFT, the extraordinary care that Brenda provides her peanut-sized patients is revealed and, in the process, shows us just how truly amazing hummingbirds are.
Atria Books | 9781982176082
KILLING THE MOB: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard (True Crime/History)
Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard trace the brutal history of 20th-century organized crime in the United States, and plumb the history of this nation’s most notorious serial robbers, conmen, murderers and mob family bosses. Covering the period from the 1930s to the 1980s, they trace the Prohibition-busting bank robbers of the Depression Era, such as John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby-Face Nelson. In addition, they highlight the creation of the Mafia Commission, the power struggles within the “Five Families,” the growth of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, the mob battles to control Cuba, Las Vegas and Hollywood, as well as the personal war between the U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250273659
THE LAST GREEN VALLEY by Mark Sullivan (Historical Fiction)
In late March 1944, as Stalin’s forces push into Ukraine, young Emil and Adeline Martel must make a terrible decision: Do they wait for the Soviet bear’s intrusion and risk being sent to Siberia? Or do they reluctantly follow the wolves --- murderous Nazi officers who have pledged to protect “pure-blood” Germans? The Martels are one of many families of German heritage whose ancestors have farmed in Ukraine for more than a century. But after already living under Stalin’s horrifying regime, Emil and Adeline decide they must run in retreat from their land with the wolves they despise to escape the Soviets and go in search of freedom.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781503958760
THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME by Laura Dave (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s 16-year-old daughter, Bailey. As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a US marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity --- and why he really disappeared. Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they’re also building a new future --- one neither of them could have anticipated.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501171345
MADHOUSE AT THE END OF THE EARTH: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton (History)
In August 1897, the young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the good ship Belgica with dreams of glory. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the icy continent of Antarctica. But de Gerlache’s plans to be first to the magnetic South Pole would swiftly go awry. After a series of costly setbacks, the commandant faced two bad options: turn back in defeat and spare his men the devastating Antarctic winter, or recklessly chase fame by sailing deeper into the freezing waters. De Gerlache sailed on, and soon the Belgica was stuck fast in the icy hold of the Bellingshausen Sea. The ship’s occupants were plagued by a mysterious illness and descended into madness. In this epic tale, Julian Sancton unfolds a story of adventure and horror for the ages.
Crown | 9781984824332
MONKEY BOY by Francisco Goldman (Fiction)
Francisco Goldberg, an American writer, has been living in Mexico when, because of a threat provoked by his journalism, he flees to New York City, hoping to start afresh. His last relationship ended devastatingly five years before, and now he finally may be on the cusp of a new love with a young Mexican woman he meets in Brooklyn. But Francisco is soon beckoned back to his childhood home outside Boston by a high school girlfriend who witnessed his youthful humiliations, and to visit his Guatemalan mother, Yolanda, whose intermittent lucidity unearths forgotten pockets of the past.
Grove Press | 9780802157676
THE MYSTERIES by Marisa Silver (Fiction)
Miggy Brenneman is a wild and reckless seven-year-old with a fierce imagination, hellbent on pushing against the limits of childhood. Ellen is polite, cautious and drawn to her friend's bright flame. While the adults around them adjust to unstable times and fractured relationships, the girls respond with increasingly dangerous play. When tragedy strikes, all the novel's characters grapple with questions of fate and individual responsibility --- none more so than Miggy, who must make sense of a swiftly disappearing past and a radically transformed future.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635576443
THE NEWCOMER by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
After discovering her sister Tanya dead on the floor of her fashionable New York City townhouse, Letty Carnahan is certain that the culprit is Tanya’s ex: sleazy real estate entrepreneur Evan Wingfield. So she grabs Tanya’s Mercedes and hits the road with her four-year-old niece, Maya. Letty sheds her old life and checks into an uncertain future at The Murmuring Surf Motel, the winter home of a close-knit flock of retirees and snowbirds who regard this odd-duck newcomer with suspicion and downright hostility. As Letty settles into the motel’s former storage room, she tries to heal Maya’s heartache and unravel the key to her sister’s shady past, all while dodging the attention of the owner’s dangerously attractive son Joe, who just happens to be a local police detective.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250256966
THE NINE: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany by Gwen Strauss (History)
THE NINE follows the true story of the author’s great aunt Hélène Podliasky, who led a band of nine female resistance fighters as they escaped a German forced labor camp and made a 10-day journey across the front lines of WWII from Germany back to Paris. Arrested by French police, they were interrogated and tortured by the Gestapo. They were subjected to a series of French prisons and deported to Germany. The group formed along the way, meeting at different points --- in prison, in transit and at Ravensbrück. By the time they were enslaved at the labor camp in Leipzig, they were a close-knit group of friends. During the final days of the war, forced onto a death march, the nine chose their moment and made a daring escape.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250239297
OLYMPUS, TEXAS by Stacey Swann (Fiction)
The Briscoe family is once again the talk of their small town when March returns to East Texas two years after he was caught having an affair with his brother's wife. His mother, June, hardly welcomes him back with open arms. Her husband's own past affairs have made her tired of being the long-suffering spouse. Is it, perhaps, time for a change? Within days of March's arrival, someone is dead, marriages are upended, and even the strongest of alliances are shattered. In the end, the ties that hold them together might be exactly what drag them all down.
Doubleday | 9780385545211
PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission --- and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. But he can’t remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery --- and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he has to do it all alone. Or does he?
Ballantine Books | 9780593135204
ROBERT B. PARKER'S PAYBACK: A Sunny Randall Novel by Mike Lupica (Mystery)
PI Sunny Randall has often relied on the help of her best friend, Spike, in times of need. When Spike's restaurant is taken over under a predatory loan agreement, Sunny has a chance to return the favor. She begins digging into the life of the hedge fund manager who screwed Spike over, and soon finds this new enemy may have the backing of even badder criminals. At the same time, Sunny's cop contact Lee Farrell asks her to intervene with his niece, a college student who reported being the victim of a crime but seems to know more than she's telling police. What appear to be two disparate cases are united by a common factor, and the picture becomes even more muddled.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593087855
RUBY FALLS by Deborah Goodrich Royce (Psychological Thriller)
On a brilliantly sunny July day, six-year-old Ruby is abandoned by her father in the suffocating dark of a Tennessee cave. Twenty years later, transformed into soap opera star Eleanor Russell, she is fired under dubious circumstances. Fleeing to Europe, she marries a glamorous stranger named Orlando Montague and keeps her past closely hidden. Together, Eleanor and Orlando start afresh in LA. Setting up house in a storybook cottage in the Hollywood Hills, Eleanor is cast in a dream role --- the lead in a remake of REBECCA. As she immerses herself in that eerie gothic tale, Orlando’s personality changes, ghosts of her past re-emerge, and Eleanor fears she is not the only person in her marriage with a secret.
Post Hill Press | 9781642937091
SECOND PLACE by Rachel Cusk (Fiction)
A woman invites a famous artist to use her guesthouse in the remote coastal landscape where she lives with her family. Powerfully drawn to his paintings, she believes his vision might penetrate the mystery at the center of her life. But as a long, dry summer sets in, his provocative presence itself becomes an enigma --- and disrupts the calm of her secluded household. SECOND PLACE is a study of female fate and male privilege, the geometries of human relationships, and the moral questions that animate our lives. It reminds us of art’s capacity to uplift --- and to destroy.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374279226
THE SIREN by Katherine St. John (Thriller)
In the midst of a sizzling hot summer, some of Hollywood's most notorious faces are assembled on the idyllic Caribbean island of St. Genesius to film The Siren. Three very different women arrive on set, each with her own motive. Stella, an infamously unstable actress, is struggling to reclaim the career she lost in the wake of multiple, very public breakdowns. Taylor, a fledgling producer, is anxious to work on a film she hopes will turn her career around after her last job ended in scandal. And Felicity, Stella's mysterious new assistant, harbors designs of her own that threaten to upend everyone's plans. With a hurricane brewing offshore, each woman finds herself trapped on the island, united against a common enemy. But as deceptions come to light, misplaced trust may prove more perilous than the storm itself.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538733684
SIX WEEKS TO LIVE by Catherine McKenzie (Psychological Thriller)
Jennifer Barnes never expected the shocking news she received at a routine doctor’s appointment: she has a terminal brain tumor --- and only six weeks left to live. While stunned by the diagnosis, the 48-year-old mother decides to spend what little time she has left with her family close by her side. But when she realizes she was possibly poisoned a year earlier, she’s determined to discover who might have tried to get rid of her. Separated from her husband and with a contentious divorce in progress, Jennifer focuses her suspicions on her soon-to-be ex. But with her daughters doubting her campaign against their father, she can’t help but wonder if the poisoning is all in her head --- or if there’s someone else who wanted her dead.
Atria Books | 9781982159214
SORROWLAND by Rivers Solomon (Gothic Fiction)
Vern --- seven months pregnant and desperate to escape the strict religious compound where she was raised --- flees for the shelter of the woods. There, she gives birth to twins and plans to raise them far from the influence of the outside world. Forced to fight back against the community that refuses to let her go, she unleashes incredible brutality far beyond what a person should be capable of, her body wracked by inexplicable and uncanny changes. To understand her metamorphosis and to protect her small family, Vern has to face the past and, more troublingly, the future --- outside the woods. Finding the truth will mean uncovering the secrets of the compound she fled but also the violent history in America that produced it.
MCD | 9780374266776
STRANGER CARE: A Memoir of Loving What Isn't Ours by Sarah Sentilles (Memoir)
After their decision not to have a biological child, Sarah Sentilles and her husband, Eric, decide to adopt via the foster care system. Despite knowing that the system’s goal is the child’s reunification with the birth family, Sarah opens their home to a flurry of social workers who question them, evaluate them, and ultimately prepare them to welcome a child into their lives. After years of starts and stops, and endless navigation of the complexities and injustices of the foster care system, a phone call finally comes: a three-day-old baby girl named Coco, in immediate need of a foster family. A love letter to Coco and to the countless children like her, STRANGER CARE chronicles Sarah’s discovery of what it means to mother --- in this case, not just a vulnerable infant but the birth mother who loves her, too.
Random House | 9780593230039
SUNSHINE GIRL: An Unexpected Life by Julianna Margulies (Memoir)
As an apple-cheeked bubbly child, Julianna Margulies was bestowed with the family nickname “Sunshine Girl.” Raised in fairly unconventional ways in various homes in Paris, England, New York and New Hampshire, Julianna found that her role among the surrounding turmoil and uncertainty was to comfort those around her, seeking organization among the disorder, making her way in the world as a young adult and eventually an award-winning actress. Throughout, there were complicated relationships, difficult choices and overwhelming rejections. But there were also the moments where fate, faith and talent aligned.
Ballantine Books | 9780525480259
THINGS WE LOST TO THE WATER by Eric Nguyen (Fiction)
When Huong arrives in New Orleans with her two young sons, she is jobless, homeless and worried about her husband, Cong, who remains in Vietnam. With time, Huong realizes she will never see him again. While she attempts to come to terms with this loss, her sons, Tuan and Binh, grow up in their absent father's shadow, haunted by a man and a country trapped in their memories and imaginations. As they push forward, the three adapt to life in America in different ways. Their search for identity threatens to tear them apart, until disaster strikes the city they now call home and they are suddenly forced to find a new way to come together and honor the ties that bind them.
Knopf | 9780593317952
TINY TALES: Stories of Romance, Ambition, Kindness, and Happiness written by Alexander McCall Smith, illustrated by Iain McIntosh (Fiction/Short Stories)
In TINY TALES, Alexander McCall Smith explores romance, ambition, kindness and happiness in 30 short stories accompanied by 30 witty cartoons designed by Iain McIntosh. Here we meet the first Australian pope, who hopes to finally find some peace and quiet back home in Perth; a psychotherapist turned motorcycle racetrack manager; and an aspiring opera singer who gets her unlikely break onstage. And, of course, we spend time in McCall Smith’s beloved Scotland, where we are introduced to progressive Vikings, a group of housemates with complex romantic entanglements, and a couple of globe-trotting dentists. These tales and illustrations depict the full scope of human experience and reveal the rich tapestry of life --- painted in miniature.
Pantheon | 9780593316009
On Sale the Week of May 3rd in Paperback
May 4th
ARSENIC AND ADOBO: A Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery by Mia P. Manansala (Cozy Mystery)
Paperback Original
When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case. With the cops treating her like she's the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila is left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation.
Berkley | 9780593201671
BEFORE SHE WAS HELEN by Caroline B. Cooney (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
When Clemmie goes next door to check on her difficult and unlikable neighbor, Dom, he isn't there. But something else is. Something stunning, beautiful and inexplicable. Clemmie photographs the wondrous object on her cell phone and makes the irrevocable error of forwarding it. As the picture swirls over the internet, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a grip on her own personal network of secrets. Can 50 years of careful hiding under names not her own be ruined by one careless picture? And although what Clemmie finds is a work of art, what the police find is a body...and she was the last person at the crime scene, where she left her fingerprints. Suddenly thrown into the heart of a twisted investigation, Clemmie finds herself the uncomfortable subject of intense scrutiny.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728239743
BLUE TICKET by Sophie Mackintosh (Dystopian Fiction)
Calla knows how the lottery works. On the day of your first bleed, you report to the station to learn what kind of woman you will be. A white ticket grants you marriage and children. A blue ticket grants you a career and freedom. You are relieved of the terrible burden of choice. And once you've taken your ticket, there is no going back. But what if the life you're given is the wrong one? When Calla, a blue ticket woman, begins to question her fate, she must go on the run. But her survival will be dependent on the very qualities the lottery has taught her to question in herself and on the other women the system has pitted against her. Pregnant and desperate, Calla must contend with whether or not the lottery knows her better than she knows herself and what that might mean for her child.
Anchor | 9781984898906
THE BOOKSHOP OF SECOND CHANCES by Jackie Fraser (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Thea Mottram is having a bad month. She has been let go from her office job with no notice, and her husband of nearly 20 years has decided to leave her for one of her friends. When she learns that a distant great uncle in Scotland has passed away, leaving her his home and a hefty antique book collection, Thea decides to leave Sussex for a few weeks. Almost instantly, she becomes enamored with the quaint cottage, comforted by its cozy rooms and lovely but neglected garden. The locals are just as warm, quirky and inviting. The only person she can’t seem to win over is bookshop owner Edward Maltravers, to whom she hopes to sell her uncle’s book collection. But bickering with Edward proves oddly refreshing and exciting, leading Thea to develop feelings she hasn’t experienced in a long time.
Ballantine Books | 9780593355657
THE COLOR OF AIR by Gail Tsukiyama (Fiction)
Daniel Abe, a young doctor in Chicago, is finally coming back to Hawai'i. He has his own reason for returning to his childhood home, but it is not to revisit the past, unlike his Uncle Koji. Koji lives with the memories of Daniel’s mother, Mariko, the love of his life, and the scars of a life hard-lived. He can’t wait to see Daniel, who he’s always thought of as a son, but he knows the time has come to tell him the truth about his mother, as well as his father. But Daniel’s arrival coincides with the awakening of the Mauna Loa volcano, and its dangerous path toward their village stirs both new and long-ago passions in their community.
HarperVia | 9780062976208
THE DEAD HUSBAND by Carter Wilson (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
Twenty years ago, an unspeakable tragedy rocked Rose Yates' small, affluent hometown…and only Rose and her family know the truth about what happened. Haunted by guilt, Rose escaped into a new life. Now she seems to have it all: a marriage, a son, a career. And then her husband is found dead. As far as Detective Colin Pearson is concerned, Rose is guilty. Her marriage wasn't as happy as she'd led everyone to believe, and she's connected to a 20-year-old cold case. Grieving her husband and struggling to make ends meet, Rose returns home, hoping to finally confront her domineering father and unstable sister. But memories of a horrific crime echo through the house, and Rose soon learns that she can't trust anyone, especially not the people closest to her.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728225081
A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik (Fantasy)
Every sorcerer has a gift: a talent for transformation, a taste for combat magic. And mastering their gifts in a unique magical academy means a chance of being invited into the enclaves, the world’s magical elite. El Higgins’ talent is for mass destruction. She protects herself from the scorn of the other magicians with her mordant wit and defiant spirit. But she also hopes that one day she will join a prestigious enclave, and that means ingratiating herself with the powerful and the privileged. That includes Orion Lake: rich, beloved and the most celebrated magician of his generation. But what she comes to learn about Orion opens her eyes to some shocking truths about herself, the school and their world.
Del Rey | 9780593128503
FASTER: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best by Neal Bascomb (Sports/History)
As Nazi Germany launched its campaign of racial terror and pushed the world toward war, three unlikely heroes --- a driver banned from the best European teams because of his Jewish heritage, the owner of a faltering automaker company, and the adventurous daughter of an American multimillionaire --- banded together to challenge Hitler’s dominance at the Grand Prix, the apex of motorsport. Bringing to life this glamorous era and the sport that defined it, FASTER chronicles one of the most inspiring, death-defying upsets of all time: a symbolic blow against the Nazis during history’s darkest hour.
Mariner Books | 9780358508120
FORTUNE AND GLORY: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
When Stephanie Plum’s beloved Grandma Mazur's new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair…and the keys to a life-changing fortune. But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli’s treasure, they discover that they’re not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their way --- along with a new adversary who’s even more formidable: Gabriela Rose, a dark-eyed beauty from Little Havana with a taste for designer clothes. She’s also a soldier of fortune, a gourmet cook, an expert in firearms and mixed martial arts --- and someone who’s about to give Stephanie a real run for her money.
Atria Books | 9781982154851
FUNNY WEATHER: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing (Art & Culture)
FUNNY WEATHER brings together a career’s worth of Olivia Laing’s writing about art and culture, examining their role in our political and emotional lives. She profiles Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georgia O’Keeffe, reads Maggie Nelson and Sally Rooney, writes love letters to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, and explores loneliness and technology, women and alcohol, sex and the body. With characteristic originality and compassion, she celebrates art as a force of resistance and repair, an antidote to a frightening political time. We’re often told that art can’t change anything. Laing argues that it can. Art changes how we see the world. It makes plain inequalities, and it offers fertile new ways of living.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393867398
GIRLS OF SUMMER by Nancy Thayer (Romance)
Lisa Hawley is perfectly satisfied living on her own. As the owner of a popular boutique on Nantucket, she’s built a fulfilling life for herself on the island where she grew up. With her beloved house in desperate need of repair, she calls on Mack Whitney, a local contractor, to do the work. The two begin to grow close, and Lisa is stunned to realize that she might be willing to open up again after all. Her children, Juliet and Theo, worry that Mack will only break their mother’s heart. Both stuck in ruts of their own, they each hope that a summer on Nantucket will provide them with the clarity they’ve been searching for. As the season unfolds, a storm threatens to shatter the peace of the golden island, forcing Lisa, Juliet and Theo to decide whether their summer romances are destined for something more profound.
Ballantine Books | 9781524798772
THE GIVER OF STARS by Jojo Moyes (Historical Fiction)
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically. The leader, and soon Alice's greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who's never asked a man's permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Horseback Librarians of Kentucky. What happens to them --- and to the men they love --- becomes a classic drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion.
Penguin Books | 9780399562495
THE GLORIOUS GUINNESS GIRLS by Emily Hourican (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Descendants of the founder of the Guinness beer empire, they were the toast of 1920s high society, darlings of the press, with not a care in the world. But Felicity knows better. Sent to live with them as a child because her mother could no longer care for her, she grows up as the sisters’ companion. Both an outsider and a part of the family, she witnesses the complex lives upstairs and downstairs, sees the compromises and sacrifices beneath the glamorous surface. Then, at a party one summer’s evening, something happens that sends shock waves through the entire household.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538720233
THE GOLDEN CAGE written by Camilla Läckberg, translated by Neil Smith (Psychological Thriller)
Faye has loved Jack since they were students at business school. Jack, the perpetual golden boy, grew up wealthy, unlike Faye, who has worked hard to bury a dark past. When Jack needed help launching a new company, Faye left school to support him, waitressing by day and working as his strategist by night. When the business took off, Faye stayed home and cared for their daughter. Now, she is wealthier than she ever imagined, but more and more removed from the excitement of the business world. And none of the perks of wealth make up for the fact that Jack has begun to treat her coldly. When Faye discovers that he's having an affair, the polished façade of their life cracks wide open.
Vintage | 9781984899286
HER LAST FLIGHT by Beatriz Williams (Historical Romance)
In 1947, photographer and war correspondent Janey Everett arrives at a remote surfing village on the Hawaiian island of Kauai to research a planned biography of forgotten aviation pioneer Sam Mallory, who joined the loyalist forces in the Spanish Civil War and never returned. Obsessed with Sam’s fate, Janey has tracked down Irene Lindquist, the owner of a local island-hopping airline, who she believes might actually be the legendary Irene Foster, Mallory’s onetime student and flying partner. Foster’s disappearance during a round-the-world flight in 1937 remains one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries. At first, the flinty Mrs. Lindquist denies any connection to Foster. But Janey informs her that the wreck of Sam Mallory’s airplane has recently been discovered in a Spanish desert, and piece by piece, the details of Foster’s extraordinary life emerge.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062834799
HIDEAWAY by Nora Roberts (Romantic Suspense)
Caitlyn Sullivan had come from a long line of Hollywood royalty. At nine, she was already a star --- yet still an innocent child who loved to play hide and seek with her cousins. It was during one of those games that she disappeared. Some may have considered her a pampered princess, but Cate was a smart, scrappy fighter who managed to escape her abductors. Her ordeal, though, was far from over. First came the discovery of a shocking betrayal that would send someone she’d trusted to prison. Then there were years spent away in western Ireland. Finally, she would return to Los Angeles, gathering the courage to act again. What she didn’t yet know was that two seeds had been planted that long-ago night --- one of a great love, and one of a terrible vengeance.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250207111
HIEROGLYPHICS by Jill McCorkle (Fiction)
After many years in Boston, Lil and Frank have retired to North Carolina. The two of them married young, having bonded over how they both lost a parent when they were children. Now, Lil has become determined to leave a history for their own kids. She sifts through letters and notes and diary entries, uncovering old stories --- and perhaps revealing more secrets than Frank wants their children to know. Meanwhile, Frank has become obsessed with the house he lived in as a boy on the outskirts of town, where a young single mother, Shelley, is now raising her son. For Shelley, Frank’s repeated visits begin to trigger vivid memories of her own family.
Algonquin Books | 9781643751382
THE IMPERFECTS by Amy Meyerson (Fiction)
The Millers are far from perfect. When their grandmother passes away, estranged siblings Beck, Ashley and Jake find themselves under one roof with their eccentric mother, Deborah, forced to confront old resentments and betrayals. But their lives are turned upside down when they discover a secret inheritance --- the 137-carat Florentine Diamond, which went missing from the Austrian Empire a century ago. As the Millers race to determine if they are the rightful heirs to the diamond and the fortune it promises, they uncover a secret past that forever changes their connection to their heritage and each other.
Park Row | 9780778389316
IT HAD TO BE YOU by Georgia Clark (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
For the past 20 years, Liv and Eliot Goldenhorn have run In Love in New York, Brooklyn’s beloved wedding-planning business. When Eliot dies unexpectedly, he even more unexpectedly leaves half of the business to his younger, blonder girlfriend, Savannah. Liv and Savannah are not a match made in heaven, to say the least. But what starts as a personal and professional nightmare transforms into something that even savvy, cynical Liv Goldenhorn couldn’t begin to imagine.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982133191
JAMES MONROE: A Life by Tim McGrath (Biography)
James Monroe lived a life defined by revolutions. From the battlefields of the War for Independence, to his ambassadorship in Paris in the days of the guillotine, to his own role in the creation of Congress's partisan divide, he was a man who embodied the restless spirit of the age. He was never one to back down from a fight --- whether it be with Alexander Hamilton, with whom he nearly engaged in a duel (prevented, ironically, by Aaron Burr), or George Washington, his hero turned political opponent. Critically acclaimed author Tim McGrath has consulted an extensive array of primary sources, many rarely seen since Monroe's own time, to conjure up this fascinating portrait of an essential American statesman and president.
Dutton | 9780451477279
THE LAST FLIGHT by Julie Clark (Psychological Thriller)
Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of 10, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems, and she has worked for months on a plan to vanish. A chance meeting in an airport bar brings Claire together with Eva, whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets, believing that the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when one of the flights goes down, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. With the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity --- and, along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728234229
THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY: The Secret Plot to Kill America's 16th President — and Why It Failed by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch (History)
Everyone knows the story of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, but few are aware of the original conspiracy to kill him four years earlier in 1861, literally on his way to Washington, D.C., for his first inauguration. The conspirators were part of a pro-Southern secret society that didn’t want an antislavery President in the White House. They planned an elaborate scheme to assassinate the brand new President in Baltimore as Lincoln’s inauguration train passed through en route to the Capitol. The plot was investigated by famed detective Allan Pinkerton, who infiltrated the group with undercover agents. Had the assassination succeeded, there would have been no Lincoln presidency, and the course of the Civil War and American history would have been forever altered.
Flatiron Books | 9781250805898
THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT by Hilary Mantel (Historical Fiction)
With THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, WOLF HALL and BRING UP THE BODIES. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.
Picador | 9781250182494
THE MIST by Ragnar Jonasson (Mystery/Thriller)
1987. An isolated farm house in the east of Iceland. The snowstorm should have shut everybody out. But it didn't. The couple should never have let him in. But they did. An unexpected guest, a liar, a killer. Not all will survive the night. And Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdóttir will be haunted forever. THE MIST is the final nail-biting installment in Ragnar Jonasson's critically acclaimed Hidden Iceland series.
Minotaur Books | 9781250768131
MONOGAMY by Sue Miller (Fiction)
Graham and Annie have been married for nearly 30 years, and their seemingly effortless devotion has long been the envy of their circle of friends and acquaintances. Lucas, Graham’s son with his first wife, Frieda, works in New York. Annie and Graham’s daughter, Sarah, lives in San Francisco. Though Frieda is an integral part of this far-flung, loving family, Annie feels confident in the knowledge that she is Graham’s last and greatest love. When Graham suddenly dies, Annie is lost. What is the point of going on without him? Then, while she is still mourning him intensely, she discovers that Graham had been unfaithful to her. She spirals into darkness, wondering if she ever truly knew the man who loved her.
Harper Perennial | 9780062969668
MORE THAN LOVE: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood by Natasha Gregson Wagner (Memoir)
Natasha Gregson Wagner’s mother, Natalie Wood, was a child actress who became a legendary movie star. She and Natasha’s stepfather, the actor Robert Wagner, were a Hollywood it-couple twice over --- first in the 1950s, and then again when they remarried in the '70s. But Natalie’s sudden death by drowning off Catalina Island at the age of 43 devastated her family, turned Robert Wagner into a person of interest, and transformed a vibrant wife, mother and actress into a figure of tragedy. The weekend has long been shrouded in rumors and scandalous tabloid speculation, but until now there has never been an account of how the events and their aftermath were experienced by Natalie’s beloved eldest daughter. Here, for the first time, Natasha addresses the questions surrounding that night to clear her beloved stepfather’s name.
Scribner | 9781982111199
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN CUBA by Chanel Cleeton (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Unjustly imprisoned in a notorious Havana women's jail, 18-year-old Evangelina Cisneros dreams of a Cuba free from Spanish oppression. When William Randolph Hearst learns of her plight and splashes her image on the front page of his paper, she becomes a rallying cry for American intervention in the battle for Cuban independence. With the help of Marina Perez, a courier secretly working for the Cuban revolutionaries in Havana, journalist Grace Harrington and Hearst's staff attempt to free Evangelina. But when Cuban civilians are forced into reconcentration camps and the explosion of the USS Maine propels the United States and Spain toward war, the three women must risk everything in their fight for freedom.
Berkley | 9780593197813
MURDER, SHE WROTE: MURDER IN SEASON by Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land (Mystery)
With work on the reconstruction of her beloved home almost complete, Jessica Fletcher is in high holiday spirits. The only thing dampening the holiday cheer is the discovery of two sets of bones on Jessica’s property: one set ancient, the other only about a year old. It’s concluded that they were both placed there during the reconstruction, and Jessica suspects that, despite the centuries between them, the remains might be connected. Soon tabloid reporter Tad Hollenbeck arrives in Cabot Cove to write a story about what he calls “the murder capital of the country.” But when Tad himself is murdered, Jessica speculates that his arrival, his death and the discovery of the bones are all somehow linked.
Berkley | 9781984804372
THE NATURE OF A LADY: The Secrets of the Isles, Book 1 by Roseanna M. White (Historical Romance)
Paperback Original
Lady Elizabeth “Libby” Sinclair, with her love of microscopes and nature, isn’t favored in society. She flees to the beautiful Isles of Scilly for the summer and stumbles onto the dangerous secrets left behind by her holiday cottage’s former occupant, also named Elizabeth, who mysteriously vanished. Oliver Tremayne --- gentleman and clergyman --- is determined to discover what happened to his sister, with the help of the girl now living in what should have been Beth’s summer cottage...especially when he realizes it’s the curious young lady he met briefly two years ago, who shares his love of botany and biology. But the hunt for his sister involves far more than nature walks, and he can’t quite believe all the secrets Beth had been keeping from him.
Bethany House Publishers | 9780764237188
OF MUTTS AND MEN: A Chet & Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn (Mystery)
When Chet the dog and his partner, PI Bernie Little of the desert-based Little Detective Agency, arrive to a meeting with hydrologist Wendell Nero, they are in for a shocking sight --- Wendell has come to a violent and mysterious end. What did the hydrologist want to see them about? Is his death a random robbery, or something more? Bernie might be the only one who thinks the police have arrested the wrong man, including the perp’s own defense attorney. Chet and Bernie begin to look into Wendell’s work, a search that leads to a struggling winemaker who has received an offer he can’t refuse. Meanwhile, Chet is smelling water where there is no water, and soon Chet and Bernie are in danger like never before.
Forge Books | 9781250297709
ONE BY ONE by Ruth Ware (Psychological Thriller)
When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. However, the storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hadn’t made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit. As each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further…one by one.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501188824
THE PARIS HOURS by Alex George (Historical Fiction)
Camille was the maid of Marcel Proust, and she has a secret: when she was asked to burn her employer’s notebooks, she saved one for herself. Now she is desperate to find it before her betrayal is revealed. Souren, an Armenian refugee, performs puppet shows for children that are nothing like the fairy tales they expect. Lovesick artist Guillaume is running from a debt he cannot repay --- but when Gertrude Stein walks into his studio, he wonders if this is the day everything could change. And Jean-Paul is a journalist who tells other people’s stories, because his own is too painful to tell. When the quartet’s paths finally cross in THE PARIS HOURS, which is told over the course of a single day in 1927, each discovers if they will find what they are looking for.
Flatiron Books | 9781250307200
PIZZA GIRL by Jean Kyoung Frazier (Fiction)
Eighteen years old, pregnant and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban Los Angeles, our charmingly dysfunctional heroine is deeply lost and in complete denial about it all. She's grieving the death of her father (with whom she has more in common than she'd like to admit), avoiding her supportive mom and loving boyfriend, and flagrantly ignoring her future. Her world is further upended when she becomes obsessed with Jenny, a stay-at-home mother new to the neighborhood, who comes to depend on weekly deliveries of pickled-covered pizzas for her son's happiness. As one woman looks toward motherhood and the other toward middle age, the relationship between the two begins to blur in strange, complicated and ultimately heartbreaking ways.
Anchor | 9781984899002
PROVIDENCE by Max Barry (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Seven years after first contact, Providence Five launches. It is an enormous and deadly warship, built to protect humanity from its greatest threat ever. On board is a crew of just four --- tasked with monitoring the ship and reporting the war's progress to a mesmerized global audience by way of social media. But while pursuing the enemy across space, Gilly, Talia, Anders and Jackson confront the unthinkable: their communications are cut, their ship decreasingly trustworthy and effective. To survive, they must win a fight that is suddenly and terrifyingly real.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593085196
THE SECRET BRIDESMAID by Katy Birchall (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
As a professional bridesmaid, Sophie Breeze is hired by London brides to be their right-hand woman, posing as a friend but working behind the scenes to help plan the perfect wedding and ensure their big day goes off without a hitch. When she’s hired by Lady Victoria Swann for the society wedding of the year, it should be a chance for Sophie to prove just how talented she is. Of course, it’s not ideal that the bride, Lady Victoria’s daughter, Cordelia, is an absolute diva and determined to make Sophie’s life a nightmare. It’s also a bit inconvenient that Sophie finds herself drawn to Cordelia’s posh older brother, who is absolutely off limits. But when a rival society wedding is announced for the very same day, things start to get…well, complicated.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250795793
SEVEN PERFECT THINGS by Catherine Ryan Hyde (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Thirteen-year-old Abby Hubble lives in an unhappy home in the Sierra Nevada foothills where her father makes life miserable for her and her mother, Mary. One day, Abby witnesses a man dump a litter of puppies into the nearby river. Diving in to rescue all seven, she knows she won’t be able to bring them home. Afraid for their fate at the pound, she takes them to an abandoned cabin, where all she can offer is a promise that she’ll be back the next day. To grieving widower Elliot Colvin, life has lost meaning. Looking for solace, he retreats to the hunting cabin he last visited years ago, before his wife’s illness. What he discovers is not at all what he expected: seven puppies and one determined girl with an indomitable heart.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542021548
SHINER by Amy Jo Burns (Fiction)
Fifteen-year-old Wren Bird lives in a cloistered mountain cabin with her parents. They have no car, no mailbox and no visitors --- except for her mother's lifelong best friend. Every Sunday, Wren's father delivers winding sermons in an abandoned gas station, where he takes up serpents and praises the Lord for his blighted white eye, proof of his divinity and key to the hold he has over the community, over Wren and her mother. But over the course of one summer, a miracle performed by Wren's father quickly turns to tragedy. As the order of her world begins to shatter, Wren must uncover the truth of her father's mysterious legend and her mother's harrowing history and complex bond with her best friend.
Riverhead Books | 9780525533658
THE SILENT PATIENT by Alex Michaelides (Psychological Thriller)
One evening, Alicia Berenson, a famous painter, shoots her husband Gabriel, an in-demand fashion photographer, five times in the face. Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander --- a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London. Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations --- a search for the truth that threatens to consume him.
Celadon Books | 9781250301703
TAKE ME APART by Sara Sligar (Psychological Thriller)
When the famed photographer Miranda Brand died mysteriously at the height of her career, it sent shock waves through Callinas, California. Decades later, old wounds are reopened when her son Theo hires the ex-journalist Kate Aitken to archive his mother’s work and personal effects. As Kate sorts through the vast maze of material and contends with the vicious rumors and shocking details of Miranda's private life, she pieces together a portrait of a vibrant artist buckling under the pressures of ambition, motherhood and marriage. But Kate has secrets of her own, including a growing attraction to the enigmatic Theo, and when she stumbles across Miranda's diary, her curiosity spirals into a dangerous obsession.
Picador | 9781250787415
UNDER THE MAGNOLIAS by T. I. Lowe (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Magnolia, South Carolina, 1980. Austin Foster is barely a teenager when her mama dies giving birth to twins, leaving her to pick up the pieces while holding her six siblings together and doing her best to stop her daddy from retreating into his personal darkness. When a few random acts of kindness help to ease the Fosters’ hardships, Austin finds herself relying upon some of Magnolia’s most colorful citizens for friendship and more. But it’s next to impossible to hide the truth about the goings-on at Nolia Farms, and Austin’s desperate attempts to save face all but break her. Just when it seems she might have something more waiting for her --- with the son of a wealthy local family who she’s crushed on for years --- her father makes a choice that will crack wide open the family’s secrets and lead to a public reckoning.
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. | 9781496453617
UTOPIA AVENUE by David Mitchell (Dystopian/Science Fiction)
Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you’ve never heard of. Emerging from London’s psychedelic scene in 1967, it embarked on a meteoric journey from the seedy clubs of Soho, a TV debut on “Top of the Pops,” the cusp of chart success, glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome, and a fateful American sojourn in the Chelsea Hotel, Laurel Canyon and San Francisco during the autumn of ’68. David Mitchell’s novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue’s turbulent life and times; of fame’s Faustian pact and stardom’s wobbly ladder; of the families we choose and the ones we don’t; of voices in the head, and the truths and lies they whisper; of music, madness and idealism. Can we really change the world, or does the world change us?
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812987218
THE WOMAN WITH THE BLUE STAR by Pam Jenoff (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Sadie Gault is 18 and living with her parents in the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous tunnels beneath the city. One day, Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers. Ella Stepanek is an affluent Polish girl living a life of relative ease with her stepmother. While on an errand in the market, she catches a glimpse of something moving beneath a grate in the street and realizes it’s a girl hiding. Ella begins to aid Sadie, and the two become close. But as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds.
Park Row | 9780778389385
On Sale the Week of May 10th in Hardcover
May 11th
CHINA: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd (Historical Fiction)
The story begins in 1839, at the dawn of the First Opium War, and follows Chinese history through Mao's Cultural Revolution and up to the present day. Edward Rutherfurd chronicles the rising and falling fortunes of members of Chinese, British and American families, as they negotiate the tides of history. Along the way, in his signature style, Rutherfurd provides a deeply researched portrait of Chinese history and society, its ancient traditions and great upheavals, and China's emergence as a rising global power. As always, we are treated to romance and adventure, heroines and scoundrels, grinding struggle and incredible fortunes.
Doubleday | 9780385538930
THE DEVIL MAY DANCE by Jake Tapper (Historical/Political Thriller)
Attorney General Robert Kennedy needs Charlie and Margaret Marder to look into a potential threat not only to the presidency, but to the security of the United States itself. At the center of their investigation is Frank Sinatra, a close friend of President John F. Kennedy and a rumored mob crony, whom Charlie and Margaret must befriend to get the inside scoop. Drinks by the pool at the Sands and late-night adventures with the Rat Pack soon lead to a body in the trunk of their car. As the Academy Awards loom, and someone near and dear to Margaret goes missing, Charlie and Margaret find that the clock is not only ticking but running out. Someone out there knows what they’ve uncovered and can’t let them leave alive.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316530231
THE FINAL TWIST: A Colter Shaw Novel by Jeffery Deaver (Thriller)
Colter Shaw finds himself in San Francisco, where he has taken on the mission his father began years ago: finding a missing courier bag containing evidence that will bring down a corporate espionage firm responsible for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of deaths. Following the enigmatic clues his father left behind, Shaw plays cat and mouse with the company's sadistic enforcers, as he speeds from one gritty neighborhood in the City by the Bay to another. Suddenly, the job takes on a frightening urgency: Only by finding the courier bag can he expose the company and stop the murder of an entire family, slated to die in 48 hours. With the help of an unexpected figure from his past, Shaw narrows in on the truth --- and learns that the bag contains a secret that could only be described as catastrophic.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525539131
THE HOUSE OF ALWAYS by Jenn Lyons (Fantasy)
In the aftermath of the Ritual of Night, everything has changed. The Eight Immortals have catastrophically failed to stop Kihrin's enemies, who are moving forward with their plans to free Vol Karoth, the King of Demons. Kihrin has his own ideas about how to fight back, but even if he's willing to sacrifice everything for victory, the cost may prove too high for his allies. Now they face a choice: Can they save the world while saving Kihrin, too? Or will they be forced to watch as he becomes the very evil they have all sworn to destroy.
Tor Books | 9781250175670
HOW LUCKY by Will Leitch (Fiction)
Daniel leads a rich life in the university town of Athens, Georgia. He has a steady paycheck working for a regional airline and, for a few glorious days each fall, college football tailgates. He considers himself to be a mostly lucky guy --- despite the fact that he’s suffered from a debilitating disease since he was a small child, one that has left him unable to speak or to move without a wheelchair. Largely confined to his home, Daniel spends the hours he’s not online communicating with irate air travelers observing his neighborhood from his front porch. One young woman passes by so frequently that spotting her out the window has almost become part of his daily routine. Until the day he’s almost sure he sees her being kidnapped.
Harper | 9780063073098
KATHARINE PARR, THE SIXTH WIFE by Alison Weir (Historical Fiction)
Having sent his much-beloved but deceitful young wife Katheryn Howard to her beheading, King Henry fixes his lonely eyes on a more mature woman: 30-year-old, twice-widowed Katharine Parr. She, however, is in love with Sir Thomas Seymour, brother to the late Queen Jane. Aware of his rival, Henry sends him abroad, leaving Katharine no choice but to become Henry’s sixth queen in 1543. The king is no longer in any condition to father a child, but Katharine is content to mother his three children: Mary, Elizabeth, and the longed-for male heir, Edward. Four years into the marriage, Henry dies, leaving England’s throne to nine-year-old Edward, and Katharine's life takes a more complicated turn.
Ballantine Books | 9781101966631
MARY JANE by Jessica Anya Blau (Fiction)
In 1970s Baltimore, 14-year-old Mary Jane is glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. The doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job --- helping a famous rock star dry out. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in. Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be.
Custom House | 9780063052291
A MASTER OF DJINN by P. Djèlí Clark (Historical Fantasy)
When someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 40 years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. Alongside her Ministry colleagues and a familiar person from her past, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city --- or face the possibility that he could be exactly who he seems.
Tordotcom | 9781250267689
NOTES ON GRIEF by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Memoir)
As the COVID-19 pandemic raged around the world, and kept Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and her family members separated from one another, her father succumbed unexpectedly to complications of kidney failure. Expanding on her original New Yorker piece, Adichie shares how this loss shook her to her core. She writes about being one of the millions of people grieving this year, the familial and cultural dimensions of grief, and the loneliness and anger that are unavoidable in it. With signature precision of language, and glittering, devastating detail on the page --- and never without touches of rich, honest humor --- Adichie weaves together her own experience of her father’s death with threads of his life story.
Knopf | 9780593320808
THE PLOT by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Psychological Thriller)
Once a promising young novelist, Jacob Finch Bonner is now teaching in a third-rate MFA program. Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing. Jake braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel, but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that. In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an email arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.
Celadon Books | 9781250790767
A SPECIAL PLACE FOR WOMEN by Laura Hankin (Fiction)
For years, rumors have swirled about an exclusive, women-only social club where the elite tastemakers of New York City meet. People in the know whisper all sorts of claims: Membership dues cost $1,000 a month. Last time Rihanna was in town, she stopped by and got her aura read. The women even handpicked the city's first female mayor. But no one knows for sure. That is, until journalist Jillian Beckley decides she's going to break into the club. But the deeper she gets into this new world, the more she learns that bad things happen to those who dare to question the club's motives or giggle at its outlandish rituals. The select group of women who populate the club may be far more powerful than she ever imagined. And far more dangerous too.
Berkley | 9781984806260
THE SUMMER OF LOST AND FOUND by Mary Alice Monroe (Fiction)
The coming of spring usually means renewal, but for Linnea Rutledge, spring 2020 threatens stagnation. Linnea faces another layoff, this time from the aquarium she adores. For her --- and her family --- finances, emotions and health teeter at the brink. To complicate matters, her new love interest, Gordon, struggles to return to the Isle of Palms from England. Meanwhile, her old flame, John, turns up from California and is quarantining next door. She tries to ignore him, but when he sends her plaintive notes in the form of paper airplanes, old sparks ignite. When Gordon at last reaches the island, Linnea wonders: Is it possible to love two men at the same time?
Gallery Books | 9781982148348
A SUMMER TO REMEMBER by Erika Montgomery (Fiction)
For 30-year-old Frankie Simon, selling movie memorabilia in the shop she opened with her late mother on Hollywood Boulevard is more than just her livelihood --- it’s an enduring connection to the only family she has ever known. But when a mysterious package arrives containing a photograph of her mother and famous movie stars Glory Cartwright and her husband at a coastal film festival the year before Frankie’s birth, her life begins to unravel in unimaginable ways. What begins is a journey along a path revealing buried family secrets, betrayals between lovers, and bonds between friends. And for Frankie, as the past unlocks the present, the chance to learn that memories define who we are, and that they can show us the meaning of home and the magic of true love.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250274083
SWIMMING BACK TO TROUT RIVER by Linda Rui Feng (Fiction)
In the summer of 1986 in a small Chinese village, 10-year-old Junie receives a momentous letter from her parents, who had left for America years ago: her father promises to return home and collect her by her 12th birthday. What Junie doesn’t know is that her parents, Momo and Cassia, are newly estranged from one another in their adopted country, each holding close private tragedies and histories from the tumultuous years of their youth during China’s Cultural Revolution. In order for Momo to fulfill his promise, he must make one last desperate attempt to reunite all three members of the family before Junie’s birthday --- even if it means bringing painful family secrets to light.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982129392
THAT SUMMER by Jennifer Weiner (Fiction)
With a thriving cooking business, a full schedule of volunteer work, and a beautiful home, Daisy Shoemaker should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful, her husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has no real friends. While Daisy tries to identify the root of her dissatisfaction, she’s also receiving misdirected emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling, whose email address is just one punctuation mark away from her own. Diana’s glamorous, sophisticated, single-lady life is miles away from Daisy’s simpler existence. When an apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends. But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not completely accidental.
Atria Books | 9781501133541
A THEATER FOR DREAMERS by Polly Samson (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1960, and the world teeters on the edge of cultural, political, sexual and artistic revolution. On the Greek island of Hydra, a proto-commune of poets, painters and musicians revel in dreams at the feet of their unofficial leaders, the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled queen and king of bohemia. At the center of this circle of misfit artists are the captivating and inscrutable Axel Jensen, his magnetic wife Marianne Ihlen, and a young Canadian ingenue poet named Leonard Cohen. When 18-year-old Erica stumbles into their world, she’s fresh off the boat from London. Among these artists, she will find an unraveling utopia where everything is tested --- the nature of art, relationships and her own innocence.
Algonquin Books | 9781643751498
WHILE JUSTICE SLEEPS by Stacey Abrams (Legal Thriller)
Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk for the legendary Justice Howard Wynn, is doing her best to hold her life together. When the shocking news breaks that Justice Wynn has slipped into a coma, Avery’s life turns upside down. She is immediately notified that Justice Wynn has left instructions for her to serve as his legal guardian and power of attorney. Plunged into an explosive role she never anticipated, Avery finds that Justice Wynn had been secretly researching one of the most controversial cases before the court --- a proposed merger between an American biotech company and an Indian genetics firm, which promises to unleash breathtaking results in the medical field. She also discovers that Wynn suspected a dangerously related conspiracy that infiltrates the highest power corridors of Washington.
Doubleday | 9780385546577
On Sale the Week of May 10th in Paperback
May 11th
ALL THE WAY TO THE TIGERS: A Memoir by Mary Morris (Memoir)
In February 2008, a casual afternoon of ice skating derailed the trip of a lifetime. Mary Morris was on the verge of a well-earned sabbatical, but instead she endured three months in a wheelchair, two surgeries and extensive rehabilitation. One morning, when she was supposed to be in Morocco, Morris was lying on the sofa reading DEATH IN VENICE, casting her eyes over these words again and again: "He would go on a journey. Not far. Not all the way to the tigers." Disaster shifted to possibility, and Morris made a decision. When she was well enough to walk again (and her doctor wasn't sure she ever would), she would go "all the way to the tigers." So begins a three-year odyssey that takes Morris to India on a tiger safari in search of the world’s most elusive apex predator.
Anchor | 9780593081020
COUNTDOWN 1945 : The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World by Chris Wallace, with Mitch Weiss (History)
April 12, 1945: After years of bloody conflict in Europe and the Pacific, America is stunned by news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death. In an instant, Vice President Harry Truman, who has been kept out of war planning and knows nothing of the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop the world’s first atomic bomb, must assume command of a nation at war on multiple continents --- and confront one of the most consequential decisions in history. COUNTDOWN 1945 tells the gripping true story of the turbulent days, weeks and months to follow, leading up to August 6, 1945, when Truman gives the order to drop the bomb on Hiroshima.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982143350
DAUGHTERS OF SMOKE AND FIRE by Ava Homa (Fiction)
Set primarily in Iran, Ava Homa's debut novel weaves 50 years of modern Kurdish history through a story of a family facing oppression and injustices all too familiar to the Kurds. Leila dreams of making films to bring the suppressed stories of her people onto the global stage, but obstacles keep piling up. Her younger brother, Chia, influenced by their father’s past torture, imprisonment and his deep-seated desire for justice, begins to engage with social and political affairs. But his activism grows increasingly risky, and one day he disappears in Tehran. Seeking answers about her brother’s whereabouts, Leila fears the worst and begins a campaign to save him. But when she publishes Chia’s writings online, she finds herself in grave danger as well.
The Overlook Press | 9781419746604
THE DIRTY SOUTH by John Connolly (Mystery/Thriller)
It is 1997, and someone is slaughtering young women in Burdon County, Arkansas. But no one in the Dirty South wants to admit it. In an Arkansas jail cell sits a former NYPD detective, stricken by grief. He is mourning the death of his wife and child, and searching in vain for their killer. Obsessed with avenging his lost family, his life is about to take a shocking turn. Witness the dawning of a conscience. Witness the birth of a hunter. Witness the becoming of Charlie Parker.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982127558
DJINN PATROL ON THE PURPLE LINE by Deepa Anappara (Mystery/Suspense)
Nine-year-old Jai drools outside sweet shops, watches too many reality police shows, and considers himself to be smarter than his friends Pari (though she gets the best grades) and Faiz (though Faiz has an actual job). When a classmate goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from TV to find him. He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit. But what begins as a game turns sinister as other children start disappearing from their neighborhood. Jai, Pari and Faiz have to confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force and rumors of soul-snatching djinns. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will never be the same again.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593129289
DON’T MAKE ME TURN THIS LIFE AROUND by Camille Pagán (Fiction)
Paperback Original
It’s been 13 years since doctors declared Libby Ross-Velasquez a goner. Yet here she is, cancer free. So why doesn’t she feel more alive? Sure, Libby’s husband, Shiloh, has been distant. One of their daughters has a serious health condition. And her father’s death hovers over Libby like a rain cloud. Still, this eternal optimist knows she’s the winner of the existential lottery. But when her forced cheer isn’t enough to keep her family from catching her blahs, she decides to fly them all to Vieques. The Puerto Rican island is where she and Shiloh fell in love --- and where she decided to fight for her life after her cancer diagnosis. Then a tropical storm strikes. Libby pretends everything is fine, even as she fears she has doomed her family.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542026475
THE FALLING WOMAN by Richard Farrell (Fiction)
First, it’s just a barely believable rumor: one person may have survived the midair explosion of a passenger jet on a cross-country course from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. But soon she becomes a national media sensation when “the Falling Woman,” as the press dubs her, is said to have been taken to a Wichita hospital --- and then to have disappeared without a trace. As a dedicated National Transportation Safety Bureau agent joins the search for clues, he becomes drawn into the woman’s moving and personal fight to keep secret the story of her survival, even from her own family, and possibly at risk to his own career.
Algonquin Books | 9781643751399
THE FIRST TEN YEARS: Two Sides of the Same Love Story by Meg Bashwiner and Joseph Fink (Memoir)
Paperback Original
In 2009, 22-year-old Joseph Fink was juggling odd jobs to pay the rent and volunteering with a theater company in the East Village so he could snag free tickets to their shows. Meg Bashwiner, a 22-year-old aspiring performer and playwright, was living with her parents in New Jersey, working a desk job and commuting to her internship with that same East Village theater company. Joseph and Meg's stories meet when they both find themselves selling tickets in a cramped box office. They quickly became friends. Within a year, they were a couple. In this candid, soul-baring memoir, Joseph and Meg recount their first 10 years together, each telling their story as they remember it, without having consulted the other.
Harper Perennial | 9780063027251
A GOOD MOTHER by Lara Bazelon (Legal Thriller)
Paperback Original
When a soldier is found stabbed through the heart at a US Army base, there is no doubt that his wife, Luz, is to blame. But was it an act of self-defense? An attempt to save her infant daughter? Or the cold-blooded murder of an innocent man? Ambitious public defender Abby is determined to win at all costs. As a new mother herself, she wants to keep Luz out of prison and with her daughter. But when the surprises stack up and shocking new evidence emerges, Abby realizes the task proves far more difficult than she suspected and will require a terrible sacrifice. As the trial hurtles toward an outcome no one expects, Abby, Luz and a captivated jury are forced to answer the question that will decide everything: What does it mean to be a good mother?
Hanover Square Press | 9781335916099
THE HOLDOUT by Graham Moore (Legal Thriller)
Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar real estate fortune, vanishes on her way home from school, and her teacher, Bobby Nock, a 25-year-old African American man, is the prime suspect. It’s an open-and-shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed --- until Maya Seale, convinced of Nock’s innocence, persuades her fellow jurors to return the verdict of not guilty. Flash forward 10 years. A true-crime docuseries reassembles the jury, with particular focus on Maya, now a defense attorney herself. When one of the jurors is found dead in Maya’s hotel room, all evidence points to her as the killer. Now, she must prove her own innocence --- by getting to the bottom of a case that is far from closed.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780399591792
LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL by Ronan Hession (Fiction)
Popular Irish musician Ronan Hession tells the story of two single, thirty-something men who still live with their parents and who are…nice. They take care of their parents and play board games together. They like to read. They take satisfaction from their work. They are resolutely kind. And they realize that none of this is considered…normal. LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL is the story of two friends struggling to protect their understanding of what’s meaningful in life.
Melville House | 9781612199085
MORE MIRACLE THAN BIRD by Alice Miller (Historical Fiction)
On the eve of World War I, 21-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees meets the acclaimed poet W. B. Yeats at a soirée in London. Although Yeats is famously eccentric and many years her senior, Georgie is drawn to him, and when he extends a cryptic invitation to a secret society, her life is forever changed. As Georgie finds purpose tending to injured soldiers in a makeshift hospital, she befriends the wounded and heartbroken Lieutenant Pike, who might need more from her than she is able to give. At night, she escapes with Yeats into a darker world, becoming immersed in the Order, a clandestine society of ritual and magic. As forces --- both of this world and the next --- pull Yeats and Georgie closer together and then apart, Georgie uncovers a secret that threatens to undo it all.
Tin House Books | 9781951142513
THE MOTION OF THE BODY THROUGH SPACE by Lionel Shriver (Fiction)
After an ignominious early retirement, Remington announces to his wife, Serenata, that he’s decided to run a marathon. This from a sedentary man in his 60s who’s never done a lick of exercise in his life. As Remington joins the cult of fitness that increasingly consumes the Western world, Serenata’s once-modest husband burgeons into an unbearable narcissist. Ignoring all his other obligations, he engages a saucy, sexy personal trainer named Bambi, who treats Serenata with contempt. When Remington sets his sights on the legendarily grueling triathlon, MettleMan, Serenata is sure he’ll end up injured or dead. And even if he does survive, their marriage may not.
Harper Perennial | 9780062328298
OUR SYMPHONY WITH ANIMALS: On Health, Empathy, and Our Shared Destinies by Aysha Akhtar, M.D. (Social History/Medicine)
OUR SYMPHONY WITH ANIMALS is the first book by a physician to show how deeply the well-being of humans and animals are entwined. Interwoven throughout is Dr. Aysha Akhtar’s own story of being a young girl who was bullied in school and sexually abused by her uncle. Feeling abandoned by humanity, it was only when she met Sylvester, a dog who also had been abused, that she found strength for both of them. Against the backdrop of her inspiring story, Dr. Akhtar asks: What do we gain when we recognize our kinship with animals? She travels around the country to tell the stories of a varied cast of characters --- including a former mobster, an industrial chicken farmer and a Marine veteran --- and comes face to face with a serial killer.
Pegasus Books | 9781643136004
PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by Emily Henry (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, Poppy and Alex are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart, but every summer, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. She decides to convince Alex to take one more vacation together --- lay everything on the table and make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
Berkley | 9781984806758
SQUEEZE ME by Carl Hiaasen (Mystery/Humor)
At the height of Palm Beach’s charity ball season, Kiki Pew Fitzsimmons, a prominent member of geriatric high society, suddenly vanishes during a swank gala. Kiki Pew was a founding member of the Potussies, a group of women dedicated to supporting the President, who spends half the year at the “Winter White House” just down the road. Meanwhile, Angie Armstrong, wildlife wrangler extraordinaire, is called to the island to deal with a monster-sized Burmese python that has taken residency in a tree. But the President is focused on the disappearance of Kiki Pew, immediately declaring her a victim of rampaging immigrant hordes. This, it turns out, is far from the truth, which now lies in the middle of the road, where a bizarre discovery brings the First Lady’s motorcade to a grinding halt.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard | 9780525435280
SUMMER by Ali Smith (Fiction)
In the present, Sacha knows the world is in trouble. Her brother, Robert, just is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile, the world is in meltdown --- and the real meltdown hasn’t even started yet. In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they’re living on borrowed time. This is a story about people on the brink of change. They’re family, but they think they’re strangers. So: Where does family begin? And what do people who think they have nothing in common have in common? Summer.
Anchor | 9781101969977
THREE SINGLE WIVES by Gina LaManna (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
When Anne Wilkes, Eliza Tate and Penny Sands arrive at book club bearing bottles of wine, none of them are plotting to kill. But when the subject of a philandering husband arises, revenge is in the air. By the end of the night, someone is dead. Two women with rings on their fingers and one with stars in her eyes. All of them are hiding something. All of them are lying. What really happened that night? Only the guilty knows. Did one woman take everything too far, or is the truth really more twisted than fiction?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728234212
WHILE NOBODY IS WATCHING by Michelle Dunne (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A semi-inflated football and a curious little girl. They called it peacekeeping. For Corporal Lindsey Ryan, it was anything but. It’s been three years since that bright day in the Golan Heights and the explosion that killed two and changed the survivors forever. Now Lindsey deals with the many problems of the city’s troubled youth, to distract her from her own. But as damp days turn to night, the kids return home --- or somewhere like it --- and she returns to her own private war. Certain that she’s being watched and certain that she’s losing her mind, Lindsey battles with the demons of post-traumatic stress, while a very real threat edges ever closer until she finds herself face to face with someone who wants nothing more than to finally help her to die. And it’s the last person she ever could have seen coming.
Polis Books | 9781951709396
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