June 29, 2021

June 29, 2021

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of June 28th and July 5th 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 "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com, where three book groups will win up to 12 copies of Kate Moore’s THE WOMAN THEY COULD NOT SILENCE: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear. This unputdownable story is about Elizabeth Packard, a housewife and mother of six who courageously fought for her own freedom --- and in so doing freed millions more. The deadline for your entries is Wednesday, July 7th at noon ET.

Last Thursday night, we hosted our fifth "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event. Our guest was Julie Clark, whose most recent novel, THE LAST FLIGHT, is a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now in paperback. It was such fun for Carol to catch up with Julie as THE LAST FLIGHT was a favorite among our readers when it released in hardcover last year. Julie also shared news about her next book, which is coming in June 2022. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast. Note: This video/podcast has spoilers; when we do these book group events, we assume that people have read the book, and this is noted up front. There are many spoilers here, so if you have not read the book, please do that first. And if you want to see an interview with Julie sans spoilers, check out our "Bookreporter Talks To" video and podcast from last year where we spilled no secrets.

With so many people traveling for vacations, we too are going to give our "Bookaccino Live" Book Group event a two-month break and pick up in late September. We have some authors in mind for fall events, but would love to hear who you would like us to have as guests. Send Carol an email with the subject line “Fall Book Group Author Guest,” and we will consider these ideas. Ideally the author will have written a book that is either out in paperback and has been widely read, or was such a massive success in hardcover that a number of people have read it already.

Our 10th Annual Book Group Speed Dating Event --- Individual Publisher Videos Now Available!
As many of you know, we hosted our 10th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event for booksellers, librarians and book club leaders back in May. Representatives from 21 publishers (all of whom were terrific) presented more than 75 titles perfect for book groups that are being published between June and November of this year. You can watch the full event here, but for your convenience, we now have broken out the presentations by publisher and included links to their individual videos on this page. Here you also can access various materials from the event, including a PowerPoint and an Excel spreadsheet with all the featured titles.

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, June 30th at 7pm ET: Books & Books: Books & Books presents a virtual event with Lisa Taddeo, author of ANIMAL. Lisa will be in conversation with Elin Hilderbrand, whose latest novel is GOLDEN GIRL.

Wednesday, June 30th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry and Mary Alice Monroe --- will talk to Kristan Higgins (PACK UP THE MOON) and Colleen Oakley (THE INVISIBLE HUSBAND OF FRICK ISLAND).

Wednesday, June 30th at 7pm ET: Hudson Library & Historical Society: The Hudson Library & Historical Society will host a live virtual streaming event with Kate White, author of THE FIANCÉE.

Wednesday, June 30th at 9pm ET: {pages} a bookstore: {pages} is pleased to present Joshua Henkin, author of MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, for a virtual event. Joshua will be in conversation with Rachel Beanland, author of FLORENCE ADLER SWIMS FOREVER.

Wednesday, June 30th at 9pm ET: Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Riley Sager will discuss his latest novel, SURVIVE THE NIGHT, with special guest host May Cobb.

Thursday, July 1st at 7pm ET: Avon Free Public Library: Join Kate White for a virtual event celebrating her riveting new stand-alone thriller, THE FIANCÉE.

Thursday, July 1st at 7pm ET: Bookmarks: Let's Talk Historical Fiction is back! Bookmarks will be exploring the popular genre of historical fiction with Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN) and Chanel Cleeton (THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN CUBA).

Thursday, July 1st at 7pm ET: Reads & Company: Reads & Company and libraries from across the Chester County Library System have joined forces to host Riley Sager, author of SURVIVE THE NIGHT, for a virtual in-conversation event with Jeffery Deaver.

Thursday, July 1st at 9pm ET: Elliott Bay Book Company: Francine Prose will read from and discuss her new novel, THE VIXEN, with novelist Margot Livesey.

Monday, July 5th at 10pm ET: Changing Hands Bookstore: Former Changing Hands bookseller and local author T. J. Newman will present her debut novel, FALLING. She will be in conversation with Don Winslow. Please note: This also will be an in-person event.

Tuesday, July 6th at 10pm ET: Poisoned Pen Bookstore: T.J. Newman will discuss her debut novel, FALLING, with Barbara Peters.

This Week's Bonus News:
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?"
Contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Enter to Win Up to 12 Copies of THE WOMAN THEY
COULD NOT SILENCE by Kate Moore for Your Group

On Sale the Week of June 28th in Hardcover

June 29th

HEATWAVE by Victor Jestin (Fiction)
Seventeen-year-old Leo is sitting in an empty playground at night, listening to the sound of partying and pop music filtering in from the beach, when he sees another, more popular boy strangle himself with the ropes of the swings. Then, in a panic, Leo drags him to the beach and buries him. Over the next 24 hours, Leo wanders around the campsite like a sleepwalker, haunted by guilt and fear, and distracted by his desire for a girl named Luce. Meanwhile, the teenage summer rituals continue all around him --- the fighting and flirting, the smell of salt and sunscreen, the tinny announcements from the loudspeaker, and above all, the crushing, relentless heat.
Scribner | 9781982143480

HELL OF A BOOK by Jason Mott (Fiction)
A Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives HELL OF A BOOK and is the scaffolding of something much larger and urgent. Jason Mott’s novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. While this book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it’s also about the nation’s reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America. Who has been killed? Who is The Kid? Will the author finish his book tour, and what kind of world will he leave behind?
Dutton | 9780593330968

THE KEEPERS: A Mace Reid K-9 Mystery by Jeffrey B. Burton (Mystery)
Mason “Mace” Reid lives on the outskirts of Chicago and specializes in human remains detection --- that is, he trains dogs to hunt for dead bodies. He calls his pack of cadaver dogs The Finders, and his prize pupil is a golden retriever named Vira. When Mace Reid and Vira are called in to search Washington Park at 3:00 in the morning, what they find has them running for their very lives. The trail of murder and mayhem Mace and CPD Officer Kippy Gimm have been following leads them to uncover treachery and corruption at the highest level, and their discoveries do not bode well for them…nor for the Windy City itself.
Minotaur Books | 9781250244567

THE NIGHT HAWKS: A Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths (Mystery)
Ruth Galloway is back as head of archaeology at the University of North Norfolk when a group of local metal detectorists --- the so-called Night Hawks --- uncovers Bronze Age artifacts on the beach, alongside a recently deceased body, just washed ashore. Not long after, the same detectorists uncover a murder-suicide --- a scientist and his wife found at their farmhouse, long thought to be haunted by the Black Shuck, a humongous black dog, a harbinger of death. The further DCI Nelson probes into both cases, the more intertwined they become, and the closer they circle to David Brown, the new lecturer Ruth has recently hired, who seems always to turn up wherever Ruth goes.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358237051

THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (Historical Fiction)
In her 20s, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection. But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white --- her complexion is dark because she is African American.
Berkley | 9780593101537

ROCK THE BOAT by Beck Dorey-Stein (Fiction)
When Kate Campbell’s life in Manhattan suddenly implodes, she is forced to return to Sea Point, the small town full of quirky locals, quaint bungalows and beautiful beaches where she grew up. Meanwhile, Miles Hoffman has also returned home to prove to his mother that he’s capable of taking over the family business, and he’s promised to help his childhood best friend, Ziggy Miller, with his own financial struggles at the same time. Kate, Miles and Ziggy converge in Sea Point as the town faces an identity crisis when a local developer tries to cash in on its potential. White lies and long-buried secrets threaten to forever erode not only the bonds between the three friends but also the landscape of the beachside community they call home.
The Dial Press | 9780525509158

SURVIVE THE NIGHT by Riley Sager (Psychological Thriller)
Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?
Dutton | 9780593183168

THE VIXEN by Francine Prose (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1953, and Simon Putnam has just been hired by a distinguished New York publishing firm. But his first assignment --- editing The Vixen, the Patriot and the Fanatic, a lurid bodice-ripper improbably based on the recent trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg --- makes him question the cost of admission. Simon has a secret that, at the height of the Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings, he cannot reveal: his beloved mother was a childhood friend of Ethel Rosenberg’s. As the confluence of sex, money, politics and power spirals out of Simon’s control, he must face what he’s lost by exchanging the loving safety of his middle-class Jewish parents’ Coney Island apartment for the witty, whiskey-soaked orbit of his charismatic boss.
Harper | 9780063012141

WALKING THROUGH NEEDLES by Heather Levy (Psychological Thriller)
Like any young girl, Sam Mayfair developed infatuations and lust --- but her desires were always tinged with darkness. Then, when Sam was 16, her life was shattered by an abuser close to her. And she made one shocking decision whose ramifications would reverberate throughout her life. Now, 15 years later, Sam learns that her abuser has been murdered. But when her stepbrother, Eric, becomes the prime suspect, Sam is flung back into the hell of her rural Oklahoma childhood. As Sam tries to help exonerate Eric, she must hide terrifying truths of their past from investigators. Yet as details of the murder unravel, Sam quickly learns that some people, including herself, will do anything to keep their secrets buried deep.
Polis Books | 9781951709389

WHEN STARS COLLIDE: A Chicago Stars Novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Mystery/Romance)
Thaddeus Walker Bowman Owens is a team player, a talented sideline coach, an occasional male underwear model, and a man with a low tolerance for Divas. International opera superstar Olivia Shore is a driven diva with a passion for perfection, a craving for justice, too many secrets --- and a monumental grudge against the egotistical, lowbrow jock she’s been stuck with. It’s Mozart meets Monday Night Football as the temperamental soprano and stubborn jock embark on a nationwide tour promoting a luxury watch brand. Threatening letters, haunting photographs and a series of dangerous encounters complicate their lives. Is it the work of an overzealous fan or something more sinister?
William Morrow | 9780062973085
 

July 1st

CHOOSE ME by Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver (Mystery)
Taryn Moore is young, beautiful and brilliant. So why would she kill herself? When Detective Frankie Loomis arrives on the scene to investigate the girl’s fatal plunge from her apartment balcony, she knows in her gut there’s more to the story. Her instincts are confirmed when surprise information is revealed that could have been reason enough for Taryn’s suicide --- or a motive for her murder. To English professor Jack Dorian, Taryn was the ultimate fantasy: intelligent, adoring and completely off limits. But there was also a dark side to Taryn, a dangerous streak that threatened those to whom she turned her affections --- including Jack. And now that she’s dead, his problems are just beginning. After Frankie uncovers a trove of sordid secrets, it becomes clear that Jack may know the truth.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542026154

HER LAST BREATH by Hilary Davidson (Psychological Thriller)
When her beloved sister Caroline dies suddenly, Deirdre is heartbroken. However, her sorrow turns to bone-chilling confusion when she receives a message Caroline sent days earlier warning that her death would be no accident. It claimed that Caroline’s husband, Theo, killed his first wife and got away with it. Reeling from the news, Deirdre confronts Theo on the way to the cemetery, and he reveals both his temper and his suspicion that Deirdre’s “perfect” sister was having an affair. Paranoid and armed with just enough information to make her dangerous, Deirdre digs into the disturbing secrets buried with Caroline. But as she gets closer to the truth, she realizes that her own life may be at risk…and that there may be more than one killer in the family.
Thomas & Mercer | ‎9781542028691

On Sale the Week of June 28th in Paperback

June 29th

ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny (Mystery)
On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Armand knows is no accident. When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession, it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, deep into the secrets that Armand’s godfather has kept for decades. A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized. Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit.
Minotaur Books | 9781250145246

BAD MOON RISING: A Bad Axe County Novel by John Galligan (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Sheriff Heidi Kick has a dead body on her hands, a homeless young man last seen alive miles from the Bad Axe. Chillingly, the medical examiner confirms what Sheriff Kick has been experiencing in her own reoccurring nightmares of late: the victim was buried alive. As the relentless summer heat bears down and more bodies are discovered, Sheriff Kick also finds herself embroiled in a nasty reelection campaign. These days her detractors call her “Sheriff Mommy,” and as her family troubles become public, vicious rumors threaten to sway the electorate and derail her investigation. Vietnam veteran Leroy Fanta, editor-in-chief of the local paper, believes that Heidi’s strange case might be tied to a reclusive man writing deranged letters to the opinions section for years.
Atria Books | 9781982166533

THE BEAUTY IN BREAKING: A Memoir by Michele Harper (Memoir)
Michele Harper is a female, African American emergency room physician in a profession that is overwhelmingly male and white. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia, when he told her he couldn't move with her. In the ensuing years, as Harper learned to become an effective ER physician, she came to understand that each of us is broken. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process. THE BEAUTY IN BREAKING is the poignant true story of Harper's journey toward self-healing.
Riverhead Books | 9780525537397

BLACK SUN by Rebecca Roanhorse (Historical Fantasy)
In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man’s mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain.
Gallery/Saga Press | 9781534437685

THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS by Lisa Wingate (Historical Fiction)
From the bestselling author of BEFORE WE WERE YOURS comes a new historical novel: the dramatic story of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives. Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away.
Ballantine Books | 9781984819901

A BURNING by Megha Majumdar (Literary Thriller)
Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely --- an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth, hope and humor --- has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.
Vintage | 9780593081259

DADDY: Stories by Emma Cline (Fiction/Short Stories)
An absentee father collects his son from boarding school after a shocking act of violence. A nanny to a celebrity family hides out in Laurel Canyon in the aftermath of a tabloid scandal. A young woman sells her underwear to strangers. A notorious guest arrives at a placid, not-quite rehab in the Southwest. In DADDY, Emma Cline portrays moments when the ordinary is disturbed, when daily life buckles, revealing the perversity and violence pulsing under the surface. She explores characters navigating the edge, the limits of themselves and those around them. They want connection, but what they provoke is often closer to self-sabotage. What are the costs of one’s choices? Of the moments when we act, or fail to act?
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812988048

THE DAUGHTERS OF FOXCOTE MANOR by Eve Chase (Fiction)
When the Harrington family discovers an abandoned baby deep in the woods, they decide to keep her a secret and raise her as their own. But within days a body is found in the grounds of their house, and their perfect new family implodes. Years later, Sylvie, seeking answers to nagging questions about her life, is drawn into the wild beautiful woods where nothing is quite what it seems. Will she unearth the truth? And dare she reveal it?
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525542391

THE EVENING AND THE MORNING by Ken Follett (Historical Fiction)
It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns. In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined. Thirty years ago, Ken Follett published his most popular novel, THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH. Now, his new prequel, THE EVENING AND THE MORNING, takes us on an epic journey into a historical past rich with ambition and rivalry, death and birth, love and hate, that will end where THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH begins.
Penguin Books | 9780451478016

THE FIANCÉE by Kate White (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Summer is looking forward to a break from hustling for acting work in Manhattan when she, her husband Gabe, and Gabe’s nine-year-old son arrive at the annual family get-together at her in-laws’ sprawling estate. But this year, Gabe’s brother Nick has invited his new flame Hannah, whom Summer immediately recognizes from a few years before. Oddly, her brother-in-law’s girlfriend claims not to know her. Yet she charms the other family members, and after Nick announces that he’s proposed to Hannah, Summer doesn’t have much choice but to grin and bear it. Then the reunion is rocked by tragedy when a family member is found dead. Though the doctors attribute the loss to natural causes, a grieving Summer fears that the too-good-to-be-true Hannah is involved, even as Gabe dismisses her suspicions.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062945419

THE FINDERS by Jeffrey B. Burton (Mystery)
Mason "Mace" Reid lives on the outskirts of Chicago and specializes in human remains detection. He trains dogs to hunt for the dead. Reid is coming off a taxing year --- mourning the death of a beloved springer spaniel, as well as the dissolution of his marriage. He adopts a rescue dog with a mysterious past --- a golden retriever named Vira. And when Reid begins training Vira as a cadaver dog, he comes to realize just how special the newest addition to his family truly is. Suddenly, Reid and his prize pupil find themselves hurled into a taxing murder case, which will push them to their very limits. Paired with determined Chicago Police Officer Kippy Gimm, Mace must put all his trust in Vira's abilities to thwart a serial killer who has now set his sights on Mace himself.
Minotaur Books | 9781250796714

HALF MOON BAY by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman (Mystery/Thriller)
Clay Edison has his hands full. He has a new baby who won't sleep and is working the graveyard shift. Then comes the first call. Workers demolishing a local park have made a haunting discovery: the decades-old skeleton of a child. But whose? And how did it get there? No sooner has Clay begun to investigate than he receives a second call --- this one from a local businessman, wondering if the body could belong to his sister. She went missing fifty years ago, the man says. Or at least I think she did. It’s a little complicated. Clay’s relentless search for answers will unearth a history of violence and secrets, revolution and betrayal. Because in this town, the past isn’t dead. It’s very much alive. And it can be murderous.
Ballantine Books | 9780525620105

IT TAKES TWO TO MANGO: A Tropical Island Cozy Mystery by Carrie Doyle (Cozy Mystery)
Paperback Original
After Plum Lockhart's job as a travel magazine editor is eliminated in corporate cuts, she decides she's sick of cold winters in NYC and fruitless swiping on dating apps --- what she needs is a dramatic change of scenery. On a whim, she accepts a job as a villa broker and moves to a beautiful Caribbean island. However, paradise isn't as perfect as it seems: the slow pace of island life, the language barrier and a cutthroat office rival make Plum question leaving her old life behind. But when a client is found dead in the jacuzzi of Casa Mango --- a property Plum manages --- she knows she's really in a jam. With a killer loose on the island, Plum will have to deal with a stonewalling police chief, a string of baffling clues and a handsome Director of Security to solve this deadly case.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728232331

LADY SUNSHINE by Amy Mason Doan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the summer of 1979, Jackie Pierce spent three months of infinite freedom at her bohemian uncle’s sprawling estate on the California coast. She and her cousin Willa fell into a fast friendship…until the summer abruptly ended in tragedy, and Willa silently slipped away into the night. Twenty years later, Jackie unexpectedly inherits The Sandcastle and returns there to ready it for sale. It turns out that before her estranged aunt’s death, she had promised an up-and-coming producer he could record a tribute album to her late uncle at the property’s studio. When a piece of the past resurfaces and sparks new questions about Willa’s disappearance, Jackie must discover if the dark secret she’s kept ever since is even the truth at all.
Graydon House | 9781525804670

LOST RIVER by J. Todd Scott (Thriller)
When the small town of Angel, Kentucky, is rocked by the vicious killing of an entire infamous local crime family, the bloody aftermath brings together three people already struggling with Angel's opioid epidemic: Trey, a young medic-in-training with secrets to hide; Special Agent Casey Alexander, a DEA agent who won't let the local law or small-town way of doing things stand in her way; and Paul Mayfield, a former police chief who's had to watch his own young wife succumb to addiction. Over the course of 24 hours, loyalties are tested, the corrupt are exposed, and the horrible truth of the largest drug operation in the region is revealed.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735212961

MARAUDER: A Novel of the Oregon Files by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison (Thriller/Adventure)
While interrupting an attack on a Kuwaiti oil tanker, Juan Cabrillo and his team discover something even more dangerous: a ruthless billionaire's dying wish has allowed a paralyzing chemical to end up in the hands of a terrorist group. When an Oregon crew member falls victim to the poison, Juan Cabrillo will stop at nothing to find an antidote before it is too late. He and his team must connect an ancient mystery with a cunning modern enemy in order to save millions of innocent lives, including their own.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593331859

MRS. LINCOLN’S SISTERS by Jennifer Chiaverini (Historical Fiction)
In May 1875, Elizabeth Todd Edwards reels from news that her younger sister Mary, former First Lady and widow of President Abraham Lincoln, has attempted suicide. Mary’s shocking act followed legal proceedings arranged by her eldest and only surviving son that declared her legally insane. Although they have long been estranged, Elizabeth knows Mary’s tenuous mental health has deteriorated through decades of trauma and loss. Yet is her suicide attempt truly the impulse of a deranged mind, or the desperate act of a sane woman terrified to be committed to an asylum? And --- if her sisters can put past grievances aside --- is their love powerful enough to save her?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062975980

NOTHING CAN HURT YOU by Nicola Maye Goldberg (Thriller)
On a cold day in 1997, student Sara Morgan was killed in the woods surrounding her liberal arts college in upstate New York. Her boyfriend, Blake Campbell, confessed, his plea of temporary insanity raising more questions than it answered. In the wake of his acquittal, the case comes to haunt a strange and surprising network of community members, from the young woman who discovers Sara's body to the junior reporter who senses its connection to convicted local serial killer John Logan. Others are looking for retribution or explanation: Sara's half-sister, stifled by her family's bereft silence about Blake, poses as a babysitter and seeks out her own form of justice, while the teenager Sara used to babysit starts writing to Logan in prison.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635577761

SHAKEUP: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
Upon returning from a dangerous coastal adventure, Stone Barrington is looking forward to some normalcy with the leading lady in his life. But when a grisly crime arrives on his doorstep, along with some suspicious new clients eager for his help, Stone realizes peace and quiet are no longer an option. As it turns out, the mastermind behind the malfeasance rocking New York City and the nation's capital wields a heavy hand of influence. And when Stone is unable to recruit those closest to the case to his side, he is left with few leads and a handful of dead-ends. But with the help of important people in high places --- and the expertise of alluring new friends --- Stone is more than ready to rise to the occasion.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593188330

STEALTH ATTACK: A Jonathan Grave Thriller by John Gilstrap (Political Thriller)
Paperback Original
El Paso, Texas, is a battleground. It’s an open market for Mexican drug cartels to sell their wares. It’s also a destination for teens looking for fun. Venice Alexander’s 13-year-old son, Roman, was there on a school trip. Now, he and a fellow student have vanished without a trace. Assuming the kidnapping is retaliation for his past incursions against Mexico’s underworld, Jonathan Grave leads his covert operatives to rescue their teammate’s son. But the trail Jonathan follows leads him down unexpected paths where he ends up in the crossfire of a deadly vendetta.
Pinnacle | 9780786045549

A TIME FOR MERCY: A Jake Brigance Novel by John Grisham (Legal Thriller)
Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid 16-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. His fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security and the safety of his family on the line.
Bantam | 9780593157824

TO SIR, WITH LOVE by Lauren Layne (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
When Gracie Cooper’s father dies, she sets aside her dreams of pursuing her passion for art to take over his Midtown Manhattan champagne shop. She soon finds out that the store’s profit margins are being squeezed perilously tight, and a giant corporation headed by the impossibly handsome but irritatingly arrogant Sebastian Andrews is proposing a buyout. But Gracie can’t bear the thought of throwing away her father’s dream like she did her own. So she seeks advice and solace from someone she’s never met --- the faceless “Sir,” with whom she connected on a blind dating app. Although Gracie finds herself slowly falling for Sir online, she has no idea she’s already met him in real life…and they can’t stand each other.
Gallery Books | 9781982152819

TRUE LOVE by Sarah Gerard (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Nina is a struggling writer, a college drop-out, a liar and a cheater. More than anything, she wants love. She deserves it. From the burned-out suburbs of Florida to the anonymous squalor of New York City, she eats through an incestuous cast of characters in search of it: her mother, a narcissistic lesbian living in a nudist polycule; Odessa, a single mom with even worse taste in men than Nina; Seth, an artist whose latest show is comprised of three Tupperware containers full of trash; Brian, whose roller-coaster affair with Nina is the most stable “relationship” in his life; and Aaron, an aspiring filmmaker living at home with his parents, with whom Nina begins to write her magnum opus.
Harper Perennial | 9780062937414

WHEN SHE WAS GOOD by Michael Robotham (Psychological Thriller)
Who is Evie Cormac, the girl with no past, running from? She was discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Her ability to tell when someone is lying helped criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven crack an impenetrable case in GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL. Now, the closer Cyrus gets to uncovering answers about Evie’s dark history, the more he exposes Evie to danger, giving her no choice but to run. Ultimately, both will have to decide if some secrets are better left buried and some monsters should never be named.
Scribner | 9781982103644

THE WICKED SISTER by Karen Dionne (Psychological Thriller)
For a decade and a half, Rachel Cunningham has chosen to lock herself away in a psychiatric facility, tortured by gaps in her memory and the certainty that she is responsible for her parents' deaths. But when she learns new details about their murders, Rachel returns, in a quest for answers, to the place where she once felt safest: her family's sprawling log cabin in the remote forests of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. As Rachel begins to uncover what really happened on the day her parents were murdered, she learns --- as her mother did years earlier --- that home can be a place of unspeakable evil, and that the bond she shares with her sister might be the most poisonous of all.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735213043

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU by Caroline Leavitt (Fiction)
Stella is a nurse who has long suppressed her own needs and desires to nurture the dreams of her partner, Simon, the bass player for a rock band that has started to lose its edge. But when Stella falls into a coma just as Simon is headed to a gig that could revive his career, Simon must learn the meaning of sacrifice, while Stella’s best friend, Libby, a doctor who treats Stella, must also make a difficult choice as the coma wears on. When Stella at last awakes from her two-month sleep, she emerges into a striking new reality where Simon and Libby have formed an intense bond, and where she has acquired a startling artistic talent of her own: the ability to draw portraits of people in which she captures their innermost feelings and desires.
Algonquin Books | 9781643751436

On Sale the Week of July 5th in Hardcover

July 6th

THE 22 MURDERS OF MADISON MAY by Max Barry (Speculative Psychological Thriller)
"I love you. In every world." Young real estate agent Madison May is shocked when a client at an open house says these words to her. The man, a stranger, seems to know far too much about her, and professes his love --- shortly before he murders her. To journalist Felicity Staples, the crime seems random and the suspect is in the wind. That is, until Felicity spots the killer on the subway, right before he vanishes. Soon, Felicity senses that her entire universe has shifted. No one remembers Madison May, or Felicity's encounter with the mysterious man. And her cat is missing. Felicity realizes that in her pursuit of Madison's killer, she followed him into a different dimension --- one where everything about her existence is slightly altered.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593085202

AN AMBUSH OF WIDOWS by Jeff Abbott (Psychological Thriller)
Henry North is a down-on-his-luck cybersecurity expert from New Orleans. Adam Zhang is the cofounder of one of Austin’s most successful venture capitalist firms. These two men didn’t know each other. Yet they died together, violently, in a place neither had any business being. When Henry doesn’t return from a business trip, his wife, Kirsten, gets an anonymous phone call: “Your husband is dead in Austin.” Flora Zhang knew her husband was keeping secrets. She suspected an affair, but she had decided she could forgive him for his weakness --- until he ended up dead. And with no explanation for her husband’s murder, the police begin to suspect her. Together, these two widows will face a powerful foe determined to write a false narrative about the murders.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538719145

BETWEEN TWO KINGS: A Sequel to The Three Musketeers written by Alexandre Dumas, translated by Lawrence Ellsworth (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
This brand-new translation of BETWEEN TWO KINGS immediately picks up the story and themes of BLOOD ROYAL, where d’Artagnan tries to thwart destiny by saving England’s Charles I. Now, he will be instrumental in the restoration of his son, Charles II, the first of the two kings of the title. Disappointed in the irresolution of young Louis XIV, d’Artagnan takes a leave of absence from the King’s Musketeers and ventures to England with a bold plan to hoist Charles II onto his throne, a swashbuckling escapade in which he is unwittingly assisted by his old comrade Athos. D’Artagnan returns triumphant to France, where he is recalled to service by the second king, Louis XIV, who is now finally ready to take full advantage of the extraordinary talents of his officer of musketeers.
Pegasus Books | 9781643137506

THE BONE CODE: A Temperance Brennan Novel by Kathy Reichs (Thriller)
On the way to hurricane-ravaged Isle of Palms, a barrier island off the South Carolina coast, Tempe receives a call from the Charleston coroner. The storm has tossed ashore a medical waste container. Inside are two decomposed bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting and bound with electrical wire. Tempe recognizes many of the details as identical to those of an unsolved case she handled in Quebec years earlier. With a growing sense of foreboding, she travels to Montreal to gather evidence. Meanwhile, health authorities in South Carolina become increasingly alarmed as a human flesh-eating contagion spreads. Someone is protecting a dark secret --- and willing to do anything to keep it hidden.
Scribner | 9781982139964

BUILD YOUR HOUSE AROUND MY BODY by Violet Kupersmith (Fiction/Magical Realism)
1986: The teenage daughter of a wealthy Vietnamese family loses her way in an abandoned rubber plantation while fleeing her angry father and is forever changed. 2011: A young, unhappy Vietnamese American woman disappears from her new home in Saigon without a trace. The fates of these two women are inescapably linked, bound together by past generations, by ghosts and ancestors, by the history of possessed bodies and possessed lands. Each new character and timeline brings us one step closer to understanding what binds them all.
Random House | 9780812993325

THE COVER WIFE by Dan Fesperman (Thriller)
When CIA agent Claire Saylor is told that she’ll be going undercover in Hamburg to pose as the wife of an academic who has published a controversial interpretation of the Quran’s promise to martyrs, she assumes the job is a punishment for past unorthodox behavior. But when she discovers her team leader is Paul Bridger, another Agency maverick, she realizes there may be more to this mission than meets the eye --- and not just for professional reasons. Meanwhile, across town in Hamburg, Mahmoud, a recent Moroccan émigré, begins to fall under the sway of a group of radicals at his local mosque. The deeper he’s drawn into the group, the greater the danger he faces, and he is soon torn between his obligations to them and his feelings toward a beautiful westernized Muslim woman.
Knopf | 9780525657835

DEAR MISS METROPOLITAN by Carolyn Ferrell (Fiction)
Fern seeks refuge from her mother’s pill-popping and boyfriends via “Soul Train”; Gwin finds salvation in the music of Prince much to her congregation’s dismay; and Jesenia, miles ahead of her classmates at her gifted and talented high school, is a brainy and precocious enigma. None of this matters to Boss Man, the monster who abducts them and holds them captive in a dilapidated house in Queens. On the night they are finally rescued, throngs line the block gawking and claiming ignorance. Among them is lifetime resident Miss Metropolitan, advice columnist for the local weekly. But how could anyone who fancies herself a “newspaperwoman” have missed a horror story unfolding right across the street? And why is it that only two of the three girls --- now women --- were found.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250793614

DOG EAT DOG: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his wife, Laurie, enjoy walking their dogs, Tara and Sebastian. When out for one of their strolls, their simple ritual isn’t so simple anymore. Across the street, a man is mistreating his dog. Three things happen at once: Andy yells, Laurie runs to stop the abuse, and so does a closer passerby, who so thoroughly beats the owner that both are arrested when the cops arrive. Andy scoops up the dog and takes him to the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization that’s always been his true passion. Meanwhile, at the police station, the passerby is identified as Matthew Jantzen, and he’s wanted for murder. Andy and Laurie are struck by the fact that Jantzen, a man on the run, would nevertheless intervene to help a dog, and decide to find out more.
Minotaur Books | 9781250257123

THE EMPIRE'S RUIN by Brian Staveley (Fantasy)
The Annurian Empire is disintegrating. The advantages it used for millennia have fallen to ruin. The ranks of the Kettral have been decimated from within, and the kenta gates, granting instantaneous travel across the vast lands of the empire, can no longer be used. In order to save the empire, one of the surviving Kettral must voyage beyond the edge of the known world through a land that warps and poisons all living things to find the nesting ground of the giant war hawks. Meanwhile, a monk turned con-artist may hold the secret to the kenta gates. But time is running out. Deep within the southern reaches of the empire, an ancient god-like race has begun to stir. What they discover will change them and the Annurian Empire forever. If they can survive.
Tor Books | 9780765389909

EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL SOMEDAY BE DEAD by Emily Austin (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Gilda, a twenty-something atheist and an animal-loving lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about death. Alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church. Assuming she’s there for a job interview, Father Jeff hires her to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace. Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.
Atria Books | 9781982167356

FALLEN by Linda Castillo (Mystery/Thriller)
When a young woman is found murdered in a Painters Mill motel, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is shocked to discover she once knew the victim. Rachael Schwartz was a charming but troubled Amish girl who left the fold years ago and fled Painters Mill. Why was she back in town? And who would kill her so brutally? Kate remembers Rachael as the only girl who was as bad at being Amish as Kate was --- and those parallels dog her. But the more Kate learns about Rachael's life, the more she's convinced that her dubious reputation was deserved. As the case heats to a fever pitch and long-buried secrets resurface, a killer haunts Painters Mill. Someone doesn’t want Rachael’s past --- or the mysteries she took with her to the grave --- coming to light.
Minotaur Books | 9781250142924

FALLING by T. J. Newman (Thriller)
You just boarded a flight to New York. There are 143 other passengers onboard. What you don’t know is that 30 minutes before the flight, your pilot’s family was kidnapped. For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die. The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane. Enjoy the flight.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982177881

THE FOREST OF VANISHING STARS by Kristin Harmel (Historical Fiction)
After being stolen from her wealthy German parents and raised in the unforgiving wilderness of eastern Europe, a young woman finds herself alone in 1941 after her kidnapper dies. Her solitary existence is interrupted, however, when she happens upon a group of Jews fleeing the Nazi terror. Stunned to learn what’s happening in the outside world, she vows to teach the group all she can about surviving in the forest --- and in turn, they teach her some surprising lessons about opening her heart after years of isolation. But when she is betrayed and escapes into a German-occupied village, her past and present come together in a shocking collision that could change everything.
Gallery Books | 9781982158934

FOX AND I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven (Memoir)
When Catherine Raven finished her PhD in biology, she built herself a tiny cottage on an isolated plot of land in Montana. She viewed it as a way station, a temporary rest stop where she could gather her nerves and fill out applications for what she hoped would be a real job that would help her fit into society. In the meantime, she taught remotely and led field classes in nearby Yellowstone National Park. Then one day she realized that a mangy-looking fox was showing up on her property every afternoon at 4:15 p.m. She sat as close to him as she dared and began reading to him from THE LITTLE PRINCE. Her scientific training had taught her not to anthropomorphize animals, yet as she grew to know him, his personality revealed itself and they became friends.
Spiegel & Grau | 9781954118003

HALF SICK OF SHADOWS by Laura Sebastian (Fantasy)
Everyone knows the legend. Of Arthur, destined to be a king. Of the beautiful Guinevere, who will betray him with his most loyal knight, Lancelot. Of the bitter sorceress, Morgana, who will turn against them all. But Elaine alone carries the burden of knowing what is to come --- for Elaine of Shalott is cursed to see the future. On the mystical isle of Avalon, Elaine runs free and learns of the ancient prophecies surrounding her and her friends --- countless possibilities, almost all of them tragic. When their future comes to claim them, Elaine, Guinevere, Lancelot and Morgana accompany Arthur to take his throne in stifling Camelot, where magic is outlawed, the rules of society chain them, and enemies are everywhere. Yet the most dangerous threats may come from within their own circle.
Ace | 9780593200513

AN IRISH HOSTAGE: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd (Historical Mystery)
The Great War is over --- but in Ireland, in the wake of the bloody 1916 Easter Rising, anyone who served in France is now considered a traitor, including nurse Eileen Flynn and former soldier Michael Sullivan, who only want to be married in the small, isolated village where she grew up. Even her grandmother is against it, and Eileen’s only protection is her cousin Terrence, who was a hero of the Rising and is still being hunted by the British. Bess Crawford had promised to be there for the wedding. And in spite of the danger to her, she keeps that promise --- only to be met with the shocking news that the groom has vanished. Eileen begs for her help, but how can Bess hope to find him when she doesn’t know the country, the people or where to put her trust?
William Morrow | 9780062859853

ISLAND QUEEN by Vanessa Riley (Historical Fiction)
Born into slavery on the tiny Caribbean island of Montserrat, Doll bought her freedom --- and that of her sister and her mother --- from her Irish planter father and built a legacy of wealth and power as an entrepreneur, merchant, hotelier and planter that extended from the marketplaces and sugar plantations of Dominica and Barbados to a glittering luxury hotel in Demerara on the South American continent. Vanessa Riley’s novel brings Doll to vivid life as she rises above the harsh realities of slavery and colonialism by working the system and leveraging the competing attentions of the men in her life: a restless shipping merchant, Joseph Thomas; a wealthy planter hiding a secret, John Coseveldt Cells; and a roguish naval captain who will later become King William IV of England.
William Morrow | 9780063002845

NINE LIVES by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
After a carefree childhood, Mary Margaret Kelly came of age in the shadow of grief. Her father, a dashing daredevil Air Force pilot, died when she was nine, and she saw her mother struggle to put their lives back together. Maggie married a dependable, kind man who was a reliable husband and successful accountant. Together they had a son and found happiness in a conventional suburban life. Until tragedy struck. Now on her own, Maggie decides to face her fears, setting off on a whirlwind trip. But when her travels reconnect her with the very same irresistible, thrill-seeking man she’s spent 30 years trying to forget, Maggie becomes terrified that rushing into love and sharing his life may very well end in disaster.
Delacorte Press | 9781984821430

THE PAPER PALACE by Miranda Cowley Heller (Fiction)
Elle, a 50-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace” --- the family summer place that she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: Last night, Elle and her oldest friend, Jonas, crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next 24 hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives. As Miranda Cowley Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity.
Riverhead Books | 9780593329825

PHOSPHORESCENCE: A Memoir of Finding Joy When Your World Goes Dark by Julia Baird (Memoir)
After surviving a difficult heartbreak and battle with cancer, acclaimed author and columnist Julia Baird began thinking deeply about how we, as people, persevere through the most challenging circumstances. She started to wonder, when we are overwhelmed by illness, loss or pain, or a tragedy outside our control: How can we keep putting one foot in front of the other? Baird went in search of the magic that fuels the light within --- our own phosphorescence. In PHOSPHORESCENCE, she reflects on the things that lit her way through the darkness, especially the surprising strength found in connecting with nature and not just experiencing awe and wonder about the world around her, but deliberately hunting it, daily.
Random House | 9780593236918

RAZORBLADE TEARS by S. A. Cosby (Mystery/Thriller)
Ike Randolph has been out of jail for 15 years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid. The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss. Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed that his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy. Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge.
Flatiron Books | 9781250252708

SHOULDER SEASON by Christina Clancy (Fiction)
Nineteen-year-old Sherri Taylor plays the organ at the local church and has never felt comfortable in her own skin. But when her parents die in quick succession, she leaves the only home she’s ever known for the chance to be part of a glamorous slice of history. In the winter of 1981, Sherri joins the daughters of dairy farmers and factory workers for the defining experience of her life. Living in the “bunny hutch” --- Playboy’s version of a college dorm --- Sherri gets her education in the joys of sisterhood, the thrill of financial independence, the magic of first love, and the heady effects of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But as spring gives way to summer, Sherri finds herself caught in a romantic triangle --- and the tragedy that ensues will haunt her for the next 40 years.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250239631

SILVER TEARS written by Camilla Läckberg, translated by Ian Giles (Thriller)
Faye Adelheim is living a delicious lie. Wealthy beyond imagination, she is the Chairman of her self-made global cosmetics brand, and her ex-husband, the monster who killed her beloved daughter Julienne, is living out the remainder of his days behind bars. But unbeknownst to journalists, police officers and investors, and even the lovers she occasionally invites to her bed, Faye has a secret: her daughter is, in fact, alive and well and so is her mother, the woman Faye’s father was sentenced for allegedly killing years ago. Together, three generations of women have survived in hiding from the men who sought to destroy them. But unfortunately for Faye, cages are meant to be opened, pillow talk can lead to betrayal, and secrets always end in tears.
Knopf | 9780525657996

SLEEPING BEAR by Connor Sullivan (Thriller)
After her young husband’s untimely death, Army veteran Cassie Gale decides to take a few days of solitude in the Alaska wilderness before she starts her new job. But when she fails to show up on her first day and her dog is discovered injured at her wrecked campsite, her father knows that this is much more than a camping trip gone awry. As it turns out, Cassie is not the first person to disappear without a trace in Alaska’s northern interior. But not all disappearances can be explained. Cassie’s is one of them, along with a number of other outdoor enthusiasts who have vanished in recent years. Regaining consciousness in a Russian prison, Cassie finds herself trapped in a system designed to ensure that no one ever escapes alive.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982166397

THE STRANGER IN THE MIRROR by Liv Constantine (Psychological Thriller)
Addison is about to get married but is not looking forward to the big day. She doesn't know who she really is. A few years ago, a kind driver found her bleeding next to a New Jersey highway and rescued her. While her physical wounds healed, Addison’s memory never returned. She doesn’t know her real name. Or how she ended up injured on the side of a road. Or why she can’t shake the notion that she may have done something very, very bad. In a posh home in the Boston suburbs, Julian tries to figure out what happened to his loving, caring wife, Cassandra, who disappeared without a trace two years ago. She never would have left him and their seven-year-old daughter Valentina of her own free will. Or would she?
Harper | 9780062967329

TENDER IS THE BITE: A Chet & Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn (Mystery)
Chet and Bernie are contacted by a terribly scared young woman who seems to want their help. Before she can even tell them her name, she flees in panic. But in that brief meeting Chet sniffs out an important secret about her, a secret at the heart of the mystery he and Bernie set out to solve. It's a case with no client and no crime and yet great danger, with the duo facing a powerful politician who has a lot to lose. Their only hope lies with a ferret named Griffie who adores Bernie. Is there room for a ferret in the Chet and Bernie relationship? That's the challenge Chet faces, the biggest of his career. Hanging in the balance are the lives of two mistreated young women and the future of the whole state.
Forge Books | 9781250770240

TOGETHER WE WILL GO by J. Michael Straczynski (Fiction)
Mark Antonelli, a failed young writer looking down the barrel at 30, is planning a cross-country road trip. He buys a beat-up old tour bus. He hires a young army vet to drive it. He puts out an ad for others to join him along the way. But this will be a road trip like no other: His passengers are all fellow disheartened souls who have decided that this will be their final journey. Upon arrival in San Francisco, they will find a cliff with an amazing view of the ocean at sunset, hit the gas and drive out of this world. We get to know them through access to their texts, emails, voicemails and the daily journal entries they write as the price of admission for this trip.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982142582

TREJO: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood by Danny Trejo, with Donal Logue (Memoir)
On screen, Danny Trejo the actor is a baddie who has been killed at least a hundred times. Off screen, he’s a hero beloved by recovery communities and obsessed fans alike. But the real Danny Trejo is much more complicated than the legend. Raised in an abusive home, Danny struggled with heroin addiction and stints in some of the country’s most notorious state prisons from an early age before starring in such modern classics as Heat, From Dusk till Dawn and Machete. Now, in this funny, painful and suspenseful memoir, Danny takes us through the incredible ups and downs of his life, including meeting one of the world’s most notorious serial killers in prison and working with legends like Charles Bronson and Robert De Niro.
Atria Books | 9781982150822

THE WAR NURSE by Tracey Enerson Wood (Historical Fiction)
Superintendent of Nurses Julia Stimson must recruit 65 nurses to relieve the battle-worn British, months before American troops are ready to be deployed. She knows that the young nurses serving near the front lines will face a challenging situation, but nothing could have prepared her for the chaos that awaits when they arrive at British Base Hospital 12 in Rouen, France. When trainloads of soldiers stricken by a mysterious respiratory illness arrive one after the other, overwhelming the hospital's limited resources and threatening the health of her staff, Julia faces an unthinkable choice --- to step outside the bounds of her profession and risk the career she has fought so hard for, or to watch the people she cares for most die in her arms.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492698166

WAYWARD by Dana Spiotta (Fiction)
On the heels of the 2016 election, Samantha Raymond's life begins to come apart: her mother is ill, her teenage daughter is increasingly remote, and at 52 she finds herself staring into "the Mids" --- that hour of supreme wakefulness between three and four in the morning in which women of a certain age suddenly find themselves contemplating motherhood, mortality and, in this case, the state of our unraveling nation. When she falls in love with a beautiful, decrepit house in a hardscrabble neighborhood in Syracuse, she buys it on a whim and flees her suburban life --- and her family --- as she grapples with how to be a wife, a mother and a daughter, in a country that is coming apart at the seams.
Knopf | 9780593318737

THE WONDER TEST by Michelle Richmond (Thriller)
Escaping New York City and the espionage case that made her question everything, recently widowed FBI Agent Lina Connerly returns home to sell the house she has inherited in tony Greenfield, California. Adrift and battling insomnia, she discovers that her father's sleepy hometown has been transformed into a Silicon Valley suburb on steroids, obsessed with an annual exam called The Wonder Test. When students at her son's high school go missing, reappearing under mysterious circumstances on abandoned beaches, Lina must summon her strength and her investigative instincts, pushing her own ethical boundaries to the limits in order to solve the crimes. Meanwhile, an old espionage case called Red Vine keeps calling her back into the fold.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802158505

On Sale the Week of July 5th in Paperback

July 6th

ANTKIND by Charlie Kaufman (Fiction)
B. Rosenberger Rosenberg, a neurotic and underappreciated film critic, stumbles upon a hitherto unseen film made by an enigmatic outsider --- a film he’s convinced will change his career trajectory and rock the world of cinema to its core. His hands on what is possibly the greatest movie ever made --- a three-month-long stop-motion masterpiece that took its reclusive auteur 90 years to complete --- B. knows that it is his mission to show it to the rest of humanity. The only problem: The film is destroyed, leaving him the sole witness to its inadvertently ephemeral genius. All that’s left of this work of art is a single frame from which B. must somehow attempt to recall the film that just might be the last great hope of civilization.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780399589690

ANXIOUS PEOPLE by Fredrik Backman (Fiction)
Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them --- the bank robber included --- desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.
Washington Square Press | 9781501160844

THE BIG GOODBYE: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson (Entertainment/Biography)
In Sam Wasson’s THE BIG GOODBYE, the story of Chinatown becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. Here is Jack Nicholson at the height of his powers, as compelling a movie star as there has ever been, embarking on his great, doomed love affair with Anjelica Huston. Here is director Roman Polanski, both predator and prey, haunted by the savage death of his wife, returning to Los Angeles, the scene of the crime, where the seeds of his own self-destruction are quickly planted. Here is the fevered dealmaking of “The Kid” Robert Evans, the most consummate of producers. Here too is Robert Towne’s fabled script, widely considered the greatest original screenplay ever written.
Flatiron Books | 9781250266293

THE BRIGHT LANDS by John Fram (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
The town of Bentley holds two things dear: its football and its secrets. When star quarterback Dylan Whitley goes missing, fear grips this remote corner of Texas. Dylan’s brother, Joel, a gay man with secrets of his own, is convinced there is more to the disappearance than meets the eye, as does Sheriff’s Deputy Starsha Clark. But their search for answers will bring them to the dark truth behind an urban legend whispered about in the locker rooms and bleachers of this All-American town: The Bright Lands.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335457738

THE COLD VANISH: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wilderness by Jon Billman (True Crime/Nature)
These are the stories that defy conventional logic. The proverbial vanished without a trace incidences, which happen a lot more (and a lot closer to your backyard) than almost anyone thinks. These are the missing whose situations are the hardest on loved ones left behind. The cases that are an embarrassment for park superintendents, rangers and law enforcement charged with Search & Rescue. The ones that baffle the volunteers who comb the mountains, woods and badlands. The stories that should give you pause every time you venture outdoors.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538747582

THE COMEBACK by Ella Berman (Fiction)
Grace Turner was one movie away from Hollywood’s A-List. So no one understood why, at the height of her career and on the eve of her first Golden Globe nomination, she disappeared. Now, one year later, Grace is back in Los Angeles and ready to reclaim her life on her own terms. When Grace is asked to present a lifetime achievement award to director Able Yorke --- the man who controlled her every move for eight years --- she knows there’s only one way she’ll be free of the secret that’s already taken so much from her.
Berkley | 9780593099520

DEMON IN WHITE: The Sun Eater, Book Three by Christopher Ruocchio (Space Opera/Fantasy)
For almost a hundred years, Hadrian Marlowe has served the Empire in its war against the Cielcin, a vicious alien race bent on humanity’s destruction. Rumors of a new king amongst the Cielcin have reached the Imperial throne. To make matters worse, a cult of personality has formed around Hadrian, spurred on by legends of his having defied death itself. Hadrian’s rise to prominence proves dangerous to himself and his team, as pressures within the Imperial government distrust or resent his new influence. And above it all, there is the mystery of the Quiet. Hadrian did defy death. He did return. But the keys to the only place in the universe where Hadrian might find the answers he seeks lie in the hands of the Emperor himself.
DAW ‎| 9780756413071

THE DEVIL AND THE DARK WATER by Stuart Turton (Historical Mystery/Supernatural Thriller)
It's 1634, and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Traveling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is determined to prove his friend innocent. Among the other guests is Sara Wessel, a noblewoman with a secret. But no sooner is their ship out to sea than devilry begins to blight the voyage. A strange symbol appears on the sail. A dead leper stalks the decks. Livestock dies in the night. And then the passengers hear a terrible voice, whispering to them in the darkness, promising three unholy miracles, followed by a slaughter. With Pipps imprisoned, only Arent and Sara can solve a mystery that stretches back into their past and now threatens to sink the ship, killing everybody on board.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728234298

THE EXILES by Christina Baker Kline (Historical Fiction)
Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early 19th-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. Months later, she is sentenced to Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, including Mathinna, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land.
Custom House | 9780062356338

FINAL CUT by S. J. Watson (Psychological Thriller)
Blackwood Bay. An ordinary place, home to ordinary people. It used to be a buzzing seaside destination. But now, ravaged by the effects of dwindling tourism and economic downturn, it’s a ghost town --- and the perfect place for filmmaker Alex to shoot her new documentary. But the community is deeply suspicious of her intentions. After all, nothing exciting ever happens in Blackwood Bay. Or does it?
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062382160

THE GRANDMOTHER PLOT by Caroline B. Cooney (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Freddy leads a life of little responsibility. His mother is dead, his sisters are far-flung across the globe, and he can't quite work up enough motivation to find himself a girlfriend. He has been forced to place his beloved grandmother, now deep in dementia, in a nursing home. Freddy visits her often, cherishing and also hating the time he spends with the grandmother he always adored, now a ghost of her former self. When a fragile old woman already close to death is murdered in that nursing home, Freddy panics. His sources of income are iffy, as are his friends. He has to keep his grandmother safe, keep himself anonymous, and keep the police out of his life --- or the complications could become deadly.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728205151

INCENSE AND SENSIBILITY by Sonali Dev (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Yash Raje, California’s first Indian-American gubernatorial candidate, attributes his success to a simple mantra: control your feelings and you can control the world. But when a hate crime at a rally critically injures his friend, Yash’s easy life suddenly feels like a lie. When he tries to get back on the campaign trail, he blacks out with panic. Desperate to keep Yash’s condition from leaking to the media, his family turns to the one person they trust --- his sister’s best friend, India Dashwood, California’s foremost stress management coach. Yash has spent a lifetime repressing everything to succeed, including their one magical night 10 years ago --- a too brief, too bright passion that if rekindled threatens to destroy the dream he’s willingly shouldered for his family and community…until now.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063051805

THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY by Natalie Jenner (Historical Fiction)
Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable. One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people --- a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor and a movie star, among others --- could not be more different, yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250797179

KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS by David Bell (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
After years of struggling to write following the deaths of his wife and son, English professor Connor Nye publishes his first novel, a thriller about the murder of a young woman. There’s just one problem: Connor didn’t write the book. His missing student did. And then she appears on his doorstep, alive and well, threatening to expose him. Connor’s problems escalate when the police insist details in the novel implicate him in an unsolved murder from two years ago. Soon Connor discovers the crime is part of a disturbing scandal on campus and faces an impossible dilemma --- admit he didn’t write the book and lose his job, or keep up the lie and risk everything. When another murder occurs, Connor must clear his name by unraveling the horrifying secrets buried in his student’s manuscript.   
Berkley | 9780593198674

THE LANTERN MEN: A Ruth Galloway Mystery by Elly Griffiths (Mystery)
Ruth Galloway has a new job, home and partner, and she is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried --- but only if Ruth will do the digging. March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travelers to their deaths. Is Ivor March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk? What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it? And are the killings really over?
Mariner Books | 9780358522454

THE LOST BOOK OF ADANA MOREAU by Michael Zapata (Fiction)
In 1929 in New Orleans, a Dominican immigrant named Adana Moreau writes a science fiction novel. The novel earns rave reviews, and Adana begins a sequel. Then she falls gravely ill. Just before she dies, she destroys the only copy of the manuscript. Decades later in Chicago, Saul Drower is cleaning out his dead grandfather’s home when he discovers a mysterious manuscript written by none other than Adana Moreau. With the help of his friend Javier, Saul tracks down an address for Adana’s son in New Orleans, but as Hurricane Katrina strikes, they must head to the storm-ravaged city for answers.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335147356

LOST AND FOUND FAMILY by Jennifer Ryan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Sara Anderson knows she’s on an impossible quest to make peace with the one person who truly hates her. For years, Sara has hidden the truth about her late husband’s lies from their children and their grandmother. When her mother-in-law, Margaret, threatens her with legal action to see the boys, Sara strikes a bargain: she’ll bring them for a six-week visit, hoping the boys will find connection and happiness with their extended family. It doesn’t help that attorney and part-time rancher Luke Thompson lives right next door, and as an old friend of the family’s, he’s agreed to investigate Sara’s past. Luke doesn’t feel comfortable poking around in the very successful tech CEO’s private life. What he finds is a truth very different from the one he’s been led to believe.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063003514

MIGRATIONS by Charlotte McConaghy (Fiction)
Franny Stone has always been the kind of woman who is able to love but unable to stay. Leaving behind everything but her research gear, she arrives in Greenland with a singular purpose: to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what might be their final migration to Antarctica. Franny talks her way onto a fishing boat, and she and the crew set sail, traveling ever further from shore and safety. But as Franny’s history begins to unspool --- a passionate love affair, an absent family, a devastating crime --- it becomes clear that she is chasing more than just the birds. When Franny's dark secrets catch up with her, how much is she willing to risk for one more chance at redemption?
Flatiron Books | 9781250204035

MUZZLED: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Andy Carpenter is a lawyer who would rather not practice law. He'd prefer to spend his time working with the Tara Foundation, his dog rescue organization, and be with his family and his two dogs, Tara and Sebastian. But when a friend asks him for a favor that involves both dogs and his lawyerly expertise, he can't say no. Andy's friend, Beth, has found a stray that seems to have belonged to a murder victim --- in fact, the man and two of his colleagues died in an explosion a few weeks ago. But when the murdered man contacts Beth, asking for his dog back, Andy knows there must be more to the story. The man claims his life is in danger, and that's why he disappeared.
Minotaur Books | 9781250796158

NANTUCKET PENNY: A Henry Kennis Mystery by Steven Axelrod (Mystery)
Paperback Original
When people begin disappearing from the island, Nantucket Police Chief Henry Kennis is baffled. The victims are not random --- they're all Nantucket High School alumni. And the only clues left behind are pennies dropped at the sites of the kidnappings. Has someone come back to the island with a sinister grudge to settle? Sippy Bascomb and Doug Fraker were childhood best friends --- bonded as fellow victims of bullying at the hands of their classmates. The two men hadn't seen each other in years, but when Sippy comes across Doug's blog airing grievances from the past, the two reconnect and hatch a plan to return to the island. Both seek revenge, but Doug wants their tormentors to face a tribunal and appoints himself judge, jury and executioner.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464214165

OTHER PEOPLE’S PETS by R.L. Maizes (Fiction)
La La Fine relates to animals better than she does to other people. Abandoned by a mother who never wanted a family, raised by a locksmith-turned-thief father, La La looks to pets when it feels like the rest of the world conspires against her. La La’s world stops being whole when her mother abandons her twice. First, when La La falls through thin ice on a skating trip, and again when the accusations of “unfit mother” feel too close to true. Left alone with her father, La La is denied a regular life. She becomes her father’s accomplice, calming the watchdog while he strips families of their most precious belongings. When her father’s luck runs out and he is arrested for burglary, everything La La has painstakingly built unravels.
Celadon Books | 9781250304162

OUT OF DARKNESS, SHINING LIGHT by Petina Gappah (Historical Fiction)
“This is how we carried out of Africa the poor broken body of Bwana Daudi, the Doctor, David Livingstone, so that he could be borne across the sea and buried in his own land.” So begins Petina Gappah's novel of exploration and adventure in 19th-century Africa --- the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried explorer and missionary Dr. Livingstone's body, his papers and maps, 1,500 miles across the continent of Africa, so his remains could be returned home to England and his work preserved there. Narrated by Halima, the doctor's sharp-tongued cook, and Jacob Wainwright, a rigidly pious freed slave, this is a story that encompasses all of the hypocrisy of slavery and colonization, while celebrating resilience, loyalty and love.
Scribner | 9781982110345

THE PARTY UPSTAIRS by Lee Conell (Fiction)
Ruby has a strange relationship to privilege. She grew up the super's daughter in the basement of an Upper West Side co-op that gets more gentrified with each passing year. Her close childhood friendship with Caroline, the daughter of affluent tenants, and the mere fact of living in such a wealthy neighborhood brought her certain advantages, even expectations. Ruby took out loans to attend a prestigious small liberal arts college and explore her interest in art. But now she has been forced by circumstances to move back in with her parents. And Caroline is throwing one of her parties tonight, in her father's glorious penthouse apartment, a party that Ruby looks forward to and dreads in equal measure.
Penguin Books | 9781984880291

THE PATIENT by Jasper DeWitt (Psychological Thriller/Supernatural Horror)
In a series of online posts, Parker H., a young psychiatrist, chronicles the harrowing account of his time working at a dreary mental hospital in New England. Through this internet message board, Parker hopes to communicate with the world his effort to cure one bewildering patient --- a 40-year-old man who was originally admitted to the hospital at age six. This patient has no known diagnosis, and his symptoms seem to evolve over time. Every person who has attempted to treat him has been driven to madness or suicide. Parker takes it upon himself to discover what ails this mystery patient and finally cure him. Facing a possibility beyond his wildest imaginings, Parker is forced to question everything he thought he knew.
Mariner Books | 9780358561828

THE PULL OF THE STARS by Emma Donoghue (Historical Fiction)
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease in 1918, nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders: Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other's lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.
Back Bay Books | 9780316499033

THE STRANGER BEHIND YOU by Carol Goodman (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Joan Lurie has written a seething article exposing a notorious newspaper tycoon as a sexual predator. But after getting brutally attacked on the night it goes live, she moves into a highly secure apartment in Manhattan called the Refuge. Joan should be safe here, so how can she explain the cryptic incidents that are happening? Lillian Day is Joan’s new 96-year-old neighbor at the Refuge. In 1941, Lillian witnessed a murder that sent her into hiding, and she hasn’t come out since. Melissa Osgood has burning questions about her husband’s recent death. When she discovers a suspicious paper trail that he left behind, she realizes how little she knew about her marriage. As their lives intersect, each woman must stay one step ahead of those who are desperate to make sure the truth is never uncovered.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063020665

STRANGER IN THE SHOGUN’S CITY: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley (History)
The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces --- and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval --- she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak. With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate.
Scribner | 9781501188534

SURVIVOR SONG by Paul Tremblay (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
In a matter of weeks, Massachusetts has been overrun by an insidious rabies-like virus that is spread by saliva. Those infected quickly lose their minds and are driven to bite and infect as many others as they can before they inevitably succumb. Dr. Ramola "Rams" Sherman receives a frantic phone call from Natalie, a friend who is eight months pregnant. Natalie's husband has been killed --- viciously attacked by an infected neighbor --- and Natalie, too, has been bitten. Her only chance of survival is to get to a hospital as quickly as possible to receive a rabies vaccine. The clock is ticking for her and for her unborn child. Natalie’s fight for life becomes a desperate odyssey as she and Rams make their way through a hostile landscape filled with dangers beyond their worst nightmares.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062679178

THE SWALLOWS by Lisa Lutz (Fiction)
When Alexandra Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, she’s hoping to put a painful past behind her. Then one of her creative writing assignments generates some disturbing responses from students. Before long, Alex is immersed in an investigation of the students atop the school’s social hierarchy --- and their connection to something called the Darkroom. She soon inspires the girls who’ve started to question the school’s “boys will be boys” attitude and incites a resistance. But just as the movement is gaining momentum, Alex attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows a little too much about her --- and what brought her to Stonebridge in the first place.
Ballantine Books | 9781984818256

THE TASTE OF SUGAR by Marisel Vera (Historical Fiction)
It is 1898, and groups of starving Puerto Ricans, los hambrientos, roam the parched countryside and dusty towns begging for food. Under the yoke of Spanish oppression, the Caribbean island is forced to prepare to wage war with the United States. Up in the mountainous coffee region of Utuado, Vicente Vega and Valentina Sanchez labor to keep their small farm from the creditors. When the Spanish-American War and the great San Ciriaco Hurricane of 1899 bring devastating upheaval, the young couple is lured, along with thousands of other puertorriquenos, to the sugar plantations of Hawaii --- another US territory --- where they are confronted by the hollowness of America’s promises of prosperity.
Liveright | 9781631499043

TOO GOOD TO BE REAL by Melonie Johnson (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
While her friends wish for meet-cutes worthy of their favorite rom-coms, Julia is ready to give up on love. A writer for a popular website, love becomes the last thing on her mind when impending layoffs threaten her job. As Julia searches for the ultimate pitch to impress her boss, she stumbles upon a resort offering guests a chance to live out their romantic comedy dreams. She literally falls into a not-quite-meet-cute involving an aggressive seagull and an adorably awkward guy named Luke, who is also participating in the rom-com experience. Julia hides the fact that she is there to do a story, but Luke harbors a few secrets of his own. Their feelings deepen quickly. But could their love be real when they haven't been honest about their true identities?
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250768803

TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM by Yaa Gyasi (Fiction)
Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.
Vintage | 9781984899767

WANT by Lynn Steger Strong (Fiction)
Elizabeth is tired. Years after coming to New York to try to build a life, she has found herself with two kids, a husband, two jobs, a PhD --- and now they’re filing for bankruptcy. As she tries to balance her dream and the impossibility of striving toward it while her work and home lives feel poised to fall apart, she wakes at ungodly hours to run miles by the icy river, struggling to quiet her thoughts. When she reaches out to Sasha, her long-lost childhood friend, it feels almost harmless --- one of those innocuous ruptures that exist online, in texts. But her timing is uncanny. Sasha is also facing a crisis, and perhaps after years apart, their shared moments of crux can bring them back into each other’s lives.
Picador | 9781250801074

WINTER COUNTS by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Thriller)
Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop. They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity.
Ecco | 9780062968951

YALE NEEDS WOMEN: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant by Anne Gardiner Perkins (History)
In the winter of 1969, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating "one thousand male leaders" each year had finally decided to open its doors to the nation's top female students. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the privileges an elite education was supposed to offer, many of the first girls found themselves immersed in an overwhelmingly male culture they were unprepared to face. YALE NEEDS WOMEN is the story of how these young women fought against the backward-leaning traditions of a centuries-old institution and created the opportunities that would carry them into the future.
Sourcebooks | 9781728234618

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