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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 10th and May 17th 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 special contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com for Sharon Virts' debut novel, MASQUE OF HONOR, which is a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Three groups will win up to 12 copies of the book AND a Zoom chat with Sharon. The deadline for your entries is Thursday, May 20th at noon ET.
This is your last newsletter reminder to sign up for this month's "Bookaccino Live” afternoon event, which will take place via Zoom TOMORROW, Wednesday, May 12th at 2pm ET. Carol will present titles releasing between May 11th and June 1st, along with a few from July, that she would like to get on your radar. Attendees of the live event will be invited to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading. Those who do will be eligible to win a prize! Be sure to register here by 1pm ET on Wednesday, and we will send you a list of the featured titles before the event.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
As so many book and author events are happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register.
Wednesday, May 12th at 2pm ET: "Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books": Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between May 11th and June 1st, along with a few from July, that she would like to get on your radar.
Wednesday, May 12th at 6:30pm ET: Square Books: Chris Bohjalian and Gin Phillips will discuss their work, why they do what they do, and --- of course --- their new books, HOUR OF THE WITCH and FAMILY LAW.
Wednesday, May 12th 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 Alice's new book, THE SUMMER OF LOST AND FOUND.
Wednesday, May 12th at 7pm ET: Midtown Scholar Bookstore: Join #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner for a live discussion of her new novel, THAT SUMMER, with Vogue’s Emma Specter.
Thursday, May 13th at 7pm ET: BookHampton: Join BookHampton for an evening of dizzying plot twists and family drama as Laura Dave will be in conversation with THE LAST FLIGHT author Julie Clark about her latest novel, THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME, which is Reese's Book Club pick for this month.
Thursday, May 13th at 8pm ET: Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Jean Hanff Korelitz will talk to fellow New York Times bestselling author Joseph Finder about her latest novel, THE PLOT.
Monday, May 17th at 7pm ET: BookHampton: BookHampton presents a virtual event with Mary Alice Monroe, author of THE SUMMER OF LOST AND FOUND. She will be in conversation with Patti Callahan, whose latest novel is SURVIVING SAVANNAH.
Tuesday, May 18th at 8pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's will host Julie Clark as she discusses the new paperback edition of her book, THE LAST FLIGHT (this month's Target Book Club pick), with Chandler Baker.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our ReadingGroupGuides.com Contest & Author Chat Opportunity for MASQUE OF HONOR by Sharon Virts
A Bookreporter.com Bets On Title
In MASQUE OF HONOR, a coming-of-age tale set in early 19th-century America, two sons of the Virginia aristocracy risk it all to defend their dreams and determine their own destinies. We are giving three groups the chance to win up to 12 copies of this Bookreporter.com Bets On pick, plus the opportunity to chat with its author, Sharon Virts, via Zoom. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, May 20th at noon ET.
MASQUE OF HONOR: A Historical Novel of the American South by Sharon Virts (Historical Fiction)
General Armistead Mason and John “Jack” Mason McCarty are brothers-in-law, second cousins and descendants of founding father George Mason IV. Ambitious and headstrong, together they set out to find love, acceptance and honor on their own merit. Armistead --- by nature a politician --- demands respect and strives for perfection. Jack --- by inclination a rover --- looks to forge his own path. When Armistead is challenged by corruption in the political machine and is denied a seat in the US Congress, the two become embroiled in a bitter dispute that sets in motion an irrevocable chain of events, leading them to the dueling grounds and an outcome that changes everything.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here for the enhanced book club guide, which includes "Behind the Book" material, food and drink recipes, and more.
- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to read Carol's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Sharon Virts.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here to enter the contest.
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
On Sale the Week of May 17th in Hardcover
May 18th
ALL THE COLORS CAME OUT: A Father, a Daughter, and a Lifetime of Lessons by Kate Fagan (Memoir)
Kate Fagan and her father forged their relationship on the basketball court, bonded by sweaty high fives and a dedication to the New York Knicks. But as Kate got older, her love of the sport and her closeness with her father grew complicated. The formerly inseparable pair drifted apart. The lessons that her father instilled in her about the game, and all her memories of sharing the court with him over the years, were a distant memory. When Chris Fagan was diagnosed with ALS, Kate decided that something had to change. Leaving a high-profile job at ESPN to be closer to her mother and father and take part in his care, Kate spent the last year of her father’s life determined to return to him the kind of joy they once shared on the court.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316706919
THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green (Essays)
The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale --- from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar. Funny, complex and rich with detail, the reviews chart the contradictions of contemporary humanity. As a species, we are both far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough, a paradox that came into sharp focus as we faced a global pandemic that both separated us and bound us together.
Dutton | 9780525555216
THE BETRAYALS by Bridget Collins (Historical Fantasy/Magical Realism)
At Montverre, an ancient and elite academy hidden high in the mountains, society’s best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu --- an arcane and mysterious competition that combines music, art, math, poetry and philosophy. Léo Martin once excelled at Montverre but lost his passion for scholarly pursuits after a violent tragedy. Now he has been exiled back to Montverre. Once the exclusive bastion of men, Montverre’s most prestigious post is now held by a woman: Claire Dryden, the head of the great game. As the legendary Midsummer Game approaches --- the climax of the academy’s year --- long-buried secrets rise to the surface and centuries-old traditions are shockingly overturned.
William Morrow | 9780062838124
BETTER, NOT BITTER: Living on Purpose in the Pursuit of Racial Justice by Yusef Salaam (Memoir)
No one's life is the sum of the worst things that happened to them, and during Yusef Salaam's seven years of wrongful incarceration as one of the Central Park Five, he grew from child to man, and gained a spiritual perspective on life. Yusef learned that we're all "born on purpose, with a purpose." Despite having confronted the racist heart of America while being "run over by the spiked wheels of injustice," Yusef channeled his energy and pain into something positive, not just for himself but for other marginalized people and communities. BETTER, NOT BITTER is the first time that one of the now Exonerated Five is telling his individual story, in his own words.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538705001
FREEDOM by Sebastian Junger (Political Science/Memoir)
Sebastian Junger examines the tension that lies at the heart of what it means to be human. For much of a year, Junger and three friends --- a conflict photographer and two Afghan War vets --- walked the railroad lines of the East Coast. It was an experiment in personal autonomy, but also in interdependence. Dodging railroad cops, sleeping under bridges, cooking over fires, and drinking from creeks and rivers, the four men forged a unique reliance on one another. In FREEDOM, Junger weaves his account of this journey together with primatology and boxing strategy, the history of labor strikes and Apache raiders, the role of women in resistance movements, and the brutal reality of life on the Pennsylvania frontier.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982153410
GOBLIN: A Novel in Six Novellas by Josh Malerman (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Goblin seems like any other ordinary small town. But with Josh Malerman as your tour guide, you’ll discover the secrets that hide behind its closed doors. These six novellas tell the story of a place where the rain is always falling, nighttime is always near, and your darkest fears and desires await.
Del Rey | 9780593237809
THE HUNTING WIVES by May Cobb (Psychological Thriller)
Sophie O'Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. There she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie finds herself completely drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world of late-night target practice and dangerous partying. As Sophie's curiosity gives way to full-blown obsession, she slips farther away from the safety of her family and deeper into this nest of vipers. When the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.
Berkley | 9780593101131
LOCAL WOMAN MISSING by Mary Kubica (Psychological Thriller)
Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold. Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they'll find.
Park Row | 9780778389446
PARADOX LAKE by Vincent Zandri (Psychological Thriller)
Sculptor and single mom Rose Conley is haunted by her tragic past and anxious about her uncertain future. She needs to get away from it all. On sabbatical from the college where she teaches art, she and her daughter rent a house for three months in the Adirondack lakeside community of Paradox. Rose desperately needs time alone with her 12-year-old daughter before the teenage years hit. In the wake of the premature deaths of her oldest daughter, Allison, and her husband, Charlie, Rose wants nothing more than to nurture Anna every moment she can. But idyllic Paradox Lake transforms into a nightmare when a monster from the past invades Rose’s retreat --- and targets her daughter for his special brand of horror.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094189
PHASE SIX by Jim Shepard (Apocalyptic Thriller)
In a tiny settlement on the west coast of Greenland, 11-year-old Aleq and his best friend, frequent trespassers at a mining site exposed to mountains of long-buried and thawing permafrost, carry what they pick up back into their village. PHASE SIX follows Aleq, one of the few survivors of the initial outbreak, through his identification and radical isolation as the likely index patient. While he shoulders both a crushing guilt for what he may have done and the hopes of a world looking for answers, we also meet two Epidemic Intelligence Service investigators dispatched from the CDC --- Jeannine, an epidemiologist and daughter of Algerian immigrants, and Danice, an M.D. and lab wonk. As they attempt to head off the cataclysm, Jeannine does what she can to sustain Aleq.
Knopf | 9780525655459
PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS: A Memoir by Brian Broome (Memoir)
Brian Broome’s early years growing up in Ohio as a dark-skinned Black boy harboring crushes on other boys propel forward PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODS. Brian’s recounting of his experiences --- in all their cringe-worthy, hilarious and heartbreaking glory --- reveal a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in. Indiscriminate sex and escalating drug use help to soothe his hurt, young psyche, usually to uproarious and devastating effect. A no-nonsense mother and broken father play crucial roles in our misfit’s origin story. But it is Brian’s voice in the retelling that shows the true depth of vulnerability for young Black boys that is often quietly near to bursting at the seams.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358439103
THE QUIET BOY by Ben H. Winters (Legal Thriller/Mystery)
In 2008, a cheerful ambulance-chasing lawyer named Jay Shenk persuades the grieving Keener family to sue a private LA hospital. Their son Wesley has been transformed by a routine surgery into a kind of golem, absent all normal functioning or personality, walking in endless empty circles around his hospital room. In 2019, Shenk --- still in practice but a shell of his former self --- is hired to defend Wesley Keener’s father when he is charged with murdering the expert witness from the 2008 hospital case. Shenk’s adopted son, a fragile teenager in 2008, is a wayward adult, though he may find his purpose when he investigates what really happened to the murdered witness.
Mulholland Books | 9780316505444
THE SOULMATE EQUATION by Christina Lauren (Romantic Comedy)
Single mom Jess Davis is a data and statistics wizard, but no amount of number crunching can convince her to step back into the dating world. But then she hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that is predicted to change dating forever. Her test shows an unheard-of 98% compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. This stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. However, she slowly begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist --- and the science behind a soulmate --- than she thought.
Gallery Books | 9781982123963
TOKYO EVER AFTER by Emiko Jean (Romantic Comedy)
Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in --- it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. But then she discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity…and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. In a whirlwind, Izumi travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she always dreamed of. But being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight. She soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairy tale, happily ever after?
Flatiron Books | 9781250766601
UNSETTLED GROUND by Claire Fuller (Fiction)
At 51 years old, twins Jeanie and Julius still live with their mother, Dot, in rural isolation in the English countryside. The cottage they have shared their entire lives is their only protection against the modernizing world around them. Inside its walls, they make music, and in its garden, they grow everything they need to survive. To an outsider, it looks like poverty; to them, it is home. But when Dot dies unexpectedly, the world they’ve so carefully created begins to fall apart. The cottage they love, and the security it offered, is taken back by their landlord, exposing the twins to harsh truths and even harsher realities.
Tin House Books | 9781951142483
THE VANISHING POINT by Elizabeth Brundage (Literary Thriller)
Julian Ladd and Rye Adler cross paths as photography students in the exclusive Brodsky Workshop. Both men are fascinated with their beautiful and talented classmate, Magda, whose captivating images of her Polish neighborhood set her apart. Twenty years later, Rye is at the top of his field. When Magda reenters his life, asking for help only he can give, Rye finds himself in a broken landscape of street people and addicts, and his search for a missing boy becomes his own desperate fight to survive. Months later, when Julian discovers Rye’s obituary, the paper makes it sound like a suicide. Julian attends the funeral, where there is no casket and no body. This sudden reentry into a world he thought he left behind forces Julian to question not only Rye’s death, but the very foundations of his life.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316430371
WAR ON THE BORDER: Villa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion by Jeff Guinn (History)
Jeff Guinn, chronicler of the Southwestern US and of American undesirables, tells the riveting story of Pancho Villa’s bloody raid on a small US border town that sparked a violent conflict with the US. The “Punitive Expedition” was launched in retaliation under Pershing’s command and brought together the Army, National Guard and Texas Rangers --- who were little more than organized vigilantes with a profound dislike of Mexicans on both sides of the border. Opposing this motley military brigade was Villa, a guerrilla fighter who commanded an ever-changing force of conscripts in northern Mexico.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982128869
WHERE THE GRASS IS GREEN AND THE GIRLS ARE PRETTY by Lauren Weisberger (Fiction)
A seat at the anchor desk of the most-watched morning show. An adoring husband and a Princeton-bound daughter. Peyton is that woman. She has it all. Skye, her sister, is a stay-at-home mom living in a glitzy suburb of New York. But she’s looking for something real and dreams of a life beyond the PTA and pickup. Max, Peyton’s bright and quirky 17-year-old daughter, is poised to kiss her fancy private school goodbye and head off to pursue her dreams in film. She’s waited her entire life for this opportunity. One little lie. That’s all it takes. For the illusions to crack. For resentments to surface. Suddenly the grass doesn’t look so green. And they’re left wondering: Will they have what it takes to survive the truth?
Random House | 9781984855565
THE WINDOW SEAT: Notes from a Life in Motion by Aminatta Forna (Essays)
In this collection of new and previously published essays, Aminatta Forna writes intimately about displacement, trauma and memory, love, and how we coexist and encroach on the non-human world. Movement is a constant here. In the title piece, “The Window Seat,” she reveals the unexpected enchantments of commercial air travel. In “The Last Vet,” time spent shadowing Dr. Jalloh, the only veterinarian in Sierra Leone, as he works with the street dogs of Freetown, becomes a meditation on what a society’s treatment of animals tells us about its principles. In “Crossroads,” Forna examines race in America from an African perspective, and in “Power Walking,” she describes what it means to walk in the world in a Black woman’s body.
Grove Press | 9780802158581
On Sale the Week of May 17th in Paperback
May 17th
COLLECTIBLES edited by Lawrence Block (Mystery/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
Those who have the collecting bug care passionately --- sometimes violently --- about the objects of their obsession. No one covets like a collector, and as you will find in the pages of this new anthology from MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block, a truly dedicated collector will ignore the other nine commandments, too, in his quest for his personal Holy Grail. From Joyce Carol Oates' tale of the ultimate Marilyn Monroe collectible to Dennis Lehane's bookseller with a penchant for other people's tragic correspondence, and culminating in Block's own classic story of a killer with a unique approach to choosing his victims, COLLECTIBLES illustrates the range of the collecting impulse and the lengths people will go to in their hunger to possess the perfect piece.
LB Productions | 9781954762084
May 18th
AUNTIE POLDI AND THE LOST MADONNA written by Mario Giordano, translated by John Brownjohn (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Strange dealings are afoot in the Apostolic Palace --- a nun leapt to her death shortly after participating in a seemingly routine exorcism. But when a priest clad in Gammarelli and a Vatican commissario with an almost unholy level of sex appeal turn up at her door, Auntie Poldi is shocked to hear that she’s a suspect in their case. She will need all the help she can get to clear her name, but her nephew has been distracted by a love affair gone sour, someone in the town has been spraying graffiti death threats on her front door, and her local friends seem to be avoiding her. And even Vito Montana balks when Poldi discovers that the case hinges on a lost Madonna statue, stolen years ago from the pope himself.
Mariner Books | 9780358446279
BEASTLY THINGS: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon (Mystery)
When the body of a man is found in a canal, damaged by the tides, carrying no wallet and wearing only one shoe, Commissario Guido Brunetti has little to work with. No local has filed a missing-person report, and no hotel guests have disappeared. With Inspector Vianello, Brunetti canvasses shoe stores and winds up on the mainland in Mestre, outside his usual sphere, where they learn that the man had a kindly way with animals. Meanwhile, animal rights and meat consumption are quickly becoming preoccupying issues at the Venice Questura, as well as in Brunetti’s home. With the help of Signorina Elettra, Brunetti and Vianello are able to identify the man and understand why someone wanted him dead.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802146113
BEHIND THE RED DOOR by Megan Collins (Psychological Thriller)
When Fern Douglas sees the news about Astrid Sullivan, a 34-year-old missing woman from Maine, she is positive that she knows her. And when Astrid appears in Fern’s recurring nightmare --- one in which a girl reaches out to her, pleading --- Fern fears that it’s not a dream at all, but a memory. Returning to her childhood home to help her father pack for a move, Fern purchases a copy of Astrid’s recently published memoir and discovers more evidence that she has an unsettling connection to the missing woman. With the help of her psychologist father, Fern digs deeper, hoping to find evidence that her connection to Astrid can help the police locate her. But when Fern discovers more about her own past than she ever bargained for, the disturbing truth will change both of their lives forever.
Atria Books | 9781982130404
BOOK OF THE LITTLE AXE by Lauren Francis-Sharma (Historical Fiction)
In 1796 Trinidad, young Rosa Rendón quietly but purposefully rebels against the life others expect her to lead. She sees no reason why she should learn to cook and keep house, for it is obvious her talents lie in running the farm that she, alone, views as her birthright. But when her homeland changes from Spanish to British rule, it becomes increasingly unclear whether its free Black property owners --- Rosa’s family among them --- will be allowed to keep their assets, their land and, ultimately, their freedom. By 1830, Rosa is living among the Crow Nation in Bighorn, Montana, with her children and her husband, Edward Rose, a Crow chief. Her son, Victor, is of the age where he must seek his vision and become a man. But his path forward is blocked by secrets Rosa has kept from him.
Grove Press | 9780802158543
BOYS OF ALABAMA by Genevieve Hudson (Fiction)
Newly arrived in Alabama, teenager Max already expects some of the raucous behavior of his new, American friends, but he doesn’t anticipate the comradery --- or how quickly he would be welcomed into their world of basement beer drinking. In his new canvas pants and thickening muscles, Max feels like he’s “playing dress-up.” That is until he meets Pan, the school “witch,” in Physics class. Suddenly, Max feels seen, and the pair embarks on a consuming relationship: Max tells Pan about his supernatural powers, and Pan tells Max about the snake poison initiations of the local church. The boys, however, aren’t sure whose past is darker, and what is more frightening --- their true selves, or staying true in Alabama.
Liveright | 9781631499029
THE BOYS’ CLUB by Erica Katz (Fiction)
Alex Vogel has always been a high achiever who lived her life by the book. Accepting a dream offer at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, she promises her sweet and supportive longtime boyfriend that the job won’t change her. Yet Alex is seduced by the firm’s money and energy…and by her cocksure male colleagues. But as her clients’ expectations and demands on her increase, and Alex finds herself magnetically drawn to a handsome coworker, she begins to question everything. When something happens that reveals the dark reality of the firm, Alex can no longer stand by silently --- even if doing what’s right means putting everything on the line to expose the shocking truth.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062961495
THE BREAK-UP BOOK CLUB by Wendy Wax (Fiction)
Paperback Original
On paper, Jazmine, Judith, Erin and Sara have little in common --- they’re very different people leading very different lives. And yet at book club meetings in an historic carriage house turned bookstore, they bond over a shared love of reading (and more than a little wine), as well as the growing realization that their lives are not turning out like they expected. Former tennis star Jazmine is a top sports agent balancing a career and single motherhood. Judith is an empty nester questioning her marriage and the supporting role she chose. Erin’s high school sweetheart and fiancé develops a bad case of cold feet, and Sara’s husband takes a job out of town, saddling Sara with a difficult mother-in-law who believes her son could have done better --- not exactly the roommate most women dream of.
Berkley | 9780440001454
CATHERINE HOUSE by Elisabeth Thomas (Gothic/Literary Thriller)
Catherine House is a school of higher learning like no other. Hidden deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, this crucible of reformist liberal arts study has produced some of the world’s best minds. But acceptance comes with a price. Students are required to give the House three years completely removed from the outside world. In return, the school promises a future of sublime power and prestige, and that its graduates can become anything or anyone they desire. But when tragedy strikes, Ines Murillo --- a member of this year’s incoming class --- begins to suspect that the school might be hiding a dangerous agenda within the secretive, tightly knit group of students selected to study its most promising and mysterious curriculum.
Custom House | 9780062905673
THE CLOVER GIRLS by Viola Shipman (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Elizabeth, Veronica, Rachel and Emily met at Camp Birchwood in 1985, where over four summers they were the Clover Girls --- inseparable for those magical few weeks of freedom --- until the last summer that pulled them apart. Now approaching middle age, the women are facing struggles with their marriages, children and careers. Then Liz, V and Rachel each receive a letter from Emily with devastating news. She implores the girls who were once her best friends to reunite at Camp Birchwood one last time and repair the relationships they’d allowed to sour. But the women are not the same idealistic, confident girls who once ruled Camp Birchwood, and perhaps some friendships aren’t meant to last forever.
Graydon House | 9781525896002
THE END OF THE DAY by Bill Clegg (Fiction)
A retired widow in rural Connecticut wakes to an unexpected visit from her childhood best friend whom she hasn’t seen in 49 years. A man arrives at a Pennsylvania hotel to introduce his estranged father to his newborn daughter and finds him collapsed on the floor of the lobby. A 67-year-old taxi driver in Kauai receives a phone call from the mainland that jars her back to a traumatic past. These seemingly disconnected lives come together as half-century-old secrets begin to surface. It is in this moment that Bill Clegg reminds us how choices --- to connect, to betray, to protect --- become our legacy.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781476798219
FINDING CHIKA: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom (Memoir)
Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to the Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Mitch Albom operates in Port Au Prince. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, “No one in Haiti can help you with.” Mitch and Janine bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and their lives, as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062952400
GOLF’S HOLY WAR: The Battle for the Soul of a Game in an Age of Science by Brett Cyrgalis (Sports/Technology)
The world of golf is at a crossroads. As technological innovations displace traditional philosophies, the golfing community has splintered into two deeply combative factions: the old-school teachers and players who believe in feel, artistry and imagination, and the technical-minded who want to remake the game around data. In GOLF’S HOLY WAR, Brett Cyrgalis takes readers inside the heated battle playing out from weekend hackers to PGA Tour pros. But this is more than just a book about golf --- it’s a story about modern life and how we are torn between resisting and embracing the changes brought about by the advancements of science and technology. It’s also an exploration of historical legacies, the enriching bonds of education, and the many interpretations of reality.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781476707600
HAMNET: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O’Farrell (Historical Fiction)
England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young alike. The end of days is near, but life always goes on. A young Latin tutor --- penniless and bullied by a violent father --- falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman. Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is just taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
Vintage | 9781984898876
THE HEART REMEMBERS by Jan-Philipp Sendker (Romance)
Paperback Original
Twelve-year-old Ko Bo Bo lives with his uncle U Ba in Kalaw, a town in Burma. An unusually perceptive child, Bo Bo can read people’s emotions in their eyes. This acute sensitivity only makes his unconventional home life more difficult: His father comes to visit him once a year, and he can hardly remember his mother, who, for unclear reasons, keeps herself away from her son. Everything changes when Bo Bo discovers the story of his parents’ great love, which threatens to break down in the whirlwind of political events, and of his mother’s mysterious sickness. Convinced that he can heal her and reunite their family, Bo Bo decides to set out in search of his parents.
Other Press | 9781590518410
I’D GIVE ANYTHING by Marisa de los Santos (Fiction)
While the town cheers on their high school football team, someone sets the school’s auditorium ablaze. Gray Marsden’s father, a firefighter, dies in the blaze. While many believe that a notoriously troubled local teen set the fire, Gray’s best friend, Ginny Beale, makes a shattering discovery that casts blame on the person she trusts most in the world --- but she tells no one. Over the next two decades, Ginny distances herself from the past and nearly everyone in it. But when her husband, Harris, becomes embroiled in a scandal, Ginny’s carefully controlled life crumbles. Just when she believes she is regaining her bearings, the secret she’s kept for 20 years emerges and threatens to destroy her hopes for the future.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062844491
KATHERYN HOWARD, THE SCANDALOUS QUEEN by Alison Weir (Historical Fiction)
In the spring of 1540, Henry VIII is desperate to be rid of his unappealing German queen, Anna of Kleve, and casts an amorous eye on a pretty 19-year-old brunette, Katheryn Howard. Like her cousin Anne Boleyn, Katheryn is a niece of the Duke of Norfolk, England’s premier Catholic peer, who is scheming to replace Anna of Kleve with a good Catholic queen. A fun-loving, eager participant in the life of the royal court, Katheryn readily succumbs to the king’s attentions when she is intentionally pushed into his path by her ambitious family. But Katheryn has a past of which Henry knows nothing, and which comes back increasingly to haunt her. What happens next to this naïve and much-wronged girl is one of the saddest chapters in English history.
Ballantine Books | 9781101966624
LAST SUMMER AT THE GOLDEN HOTEL by Elyssa Friedland (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
In its heyday, The Golden Hotel was the crown jewel of the hotter-than-hot Catskills vacation scene. For more than 60 years, the Goldman and Weingold families have presided over this glamorous resort that served as a second home for well-heeled guests and celebrities. But the Catskills are not what they used to be --- and neither is the relationship between the Goldmans and the Weingolds. As the facilities and management begin to fall apart, a tempting offer to sell forces the two families together again to make a heart-wrenching decision. Can they save their beloved Golden, or is it too late? Long-buried secrets emerge, new dramas and financial scandal erupt, and everyone from the traditional grandparents to the millennial grandchildren wants a say in the hotel’s future.
Berkley | 9780593199725
LITTLE SECRETS by Jennifer Hillier (Psychological Thriller)
Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They are admired in their community and are a loving family --- until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken. A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. Permanently.
Minotaur Books | 9781250797087
LOU GEHRIG: The Lost Memoir by Alan D. Gaff (Sports/Memoir)
At the tender age of 24, Lou Gehrig decided to tell the remarkable story of his life and career. He was one of the most famous athletes in the country, in the midst of a record-breaking season with the legendary 1927 World Series-winning Yankees. In an effort to grow Lou’s star, pioneering sports agent Christy Walsh arranged for Lou’s tale of baseball greatness to syndicate in newspapers across the country. Until now, those columns were largely forgotten and lost to history. Lou comes alive in this inspiring memoir. It is a heartfelt rags-to-riches tale about a dirt poor kid from New York who became one of the most revered baseball players of all time.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982132408
MALORIE: A Bird Box Novel by Josh Malerman (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Twelve years after Malorie and her children rowed up the river to safety, a blindfold is still the only thing that stands between sanity and madness. One glimpse of the creatures that stalk the world will drive a person to unspeakable violence. All Malorie can do is survive --- and impart her fierce will to do so on her children. But then comes what feels like impossible news. And with it, the first time Malorie has allowed herself to hope. Someone very dear to her, someone she believed dead, may be alive. Malorie has a harrowing choice to make: to live by the rules of survival that have served her so well, or to venture into the darkness and reach for hope once more.
Del Rey | 9780593156872
THE SHAPELESS UNEASE: A Year of Not Sleeping by Samantha Harvey (Memoir)
In 2016, Samantha Harvey began to lose sleep. She tried everything to appease her wakefulness: from medication to therapy, changes in her diet to changes in her living arrangements. Nothing seemed to help. THE SHAPELESS UNEASE is Harvey’s darkly funny and deeply intelligent anatomy of her insomnia, an immersive interior monologue of a year without one of the most basic human needs. Original and profound, and narrated with a lucid breathlessness, this is a startlingly insightful exploration of memory, writing and influence, death and the will to survive.
Grove Press | 9780802148834
THE SUMMER HOUSE by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (Thriller)
Once a luxurious southern getaway on a rustic lake, then reduced to a dilapidated crash pad, the Summer House is now the grisly scene of a nighttime mass murder. Eyewitnesses point to four Army Rangers --- known as the Night Ninjas --- recently returned from Afghanistan. To ensure that justice is done, the Army sends Major Jeremiah Cook, a veteran and former NYPD cop, to investigate. As Cook and his squad struggle to uncover the truth behind the condemning evidence, the pieces just won't fit --- and forces are rallying to make certain that damning secrets die alongside the victims in the murder house. With his own people in the crosshairs, Cook takes a desperate gamble to find answers --- even if it means returning to a hell of his own worst nightmares.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538752838
THE SUMMER SEEKERS by Sarah Morgan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
After 80-year-old Kathleen has a run-in with an intruder, her daughter wants her to move into a residential home. But she’s not having any of it. What she craves --- what she needs --- is adventure. Liza is drowning in the daily stress of family life. The last thing she needs is her mother jetting off on a wild holiday, making Liza long for a solo summer of her own. Martha is having a quarter-life crisis. Unemployed, unloved and uninspired, she just can’t get her life together. When Martha sees Kathleen’s advertisement for a driver and companion with whom to share an epic road trip across America, she decides this job might be the answer to her prayers. As these women embark on the journey of a lifetime, they all discover it's never too late to start over.
HQN | 9781335180926
THIS IS HOW I SAVE MY LIFE: Searching the World for a Cure: A Lyme Disease Memoir by Amy B. Scher (Memoir)
By the time Amy B. Scher was 28 years old, she had lived through almost a decade of misdiagnoses, excruciating pain, brain lesions, bone marrow biopsies, blood transfusions and multiple hospital stays to treat her late-stage, chronic Lyme disease. When the best physicians in America labeled her condition incurable and potentially terminal, it was up to Amy to blaze her own path forward. Then, in a stroke of serendipity, she heard about an experimental treatment only available in India --- human embryonic stem cell therapy --- which had as much probability of killing her as it did of curing her. She boarded a plane with no idea of what awaited her: culture shock, radical medical treatment and, most surprising of all, life-affirming love.
Gallery Books | 9781982177263
TO WAKE THE GIANT: A Novel of Pearl Harbor by Jeff Shaara (Historical Fiction)
In 1941, the Japanese have waged an aggressive campaign against China, and they now begin to expand their ambitions to other parts of Asia. Their enemies know that Japan’s ultimate goal is total conquest over the region, especially when the Japanese align themselves with Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, who wage their own war of conquest across Europe. Meanwhile, the British stand nearly alone against Hitler, and there is pressure in Washington to transfer America’s powerful fleet of warships from Hawaii to the Atlantic to join the fight against German U-boats that are devastating shipping. But despite deep concerns about weakening the Pacific fleet, no one believes that the main base at Pearl Harbor is under any real threat.
Ballantine Books | 9780593129647
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE by Meg Mitchell Moore (Fiction)
Truth: Sherri Griffin and her daughter, Katie, have recently moved to the idyllic beach town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Rebecca Coleman, former leader of the Newburyport Mom Squad, has made a surprising effort to include these newcomers in typically closed-group activities. Rebecca’s teenage daughter, Alexa, has even been spotted babysitting Katie. Truth: Alexa has time on her hands because of a recent falling-out with her longtime best friends for reasons no one knows --- but everyone suspects have to do with Alexa’s highly popular and increasingly successful YouTube channel. Lie: Rebecca Coleman doesn’t have a new man in her life. Alexa is not seeing anyone new herself and is planning on shutting down her YouTube channel in advance of attending college in the fall. Sherri Griffin’s real name is Sherri Griffin, and a bad divorce is all she’s running from.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062840103
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