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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of August 2nd and August 9th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for August, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Reese's Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and more.
This is your last newsletter reminder to enter our very special contest for LIGHTNING STRIKE, a powerful prequel to William Kent Krueger's acclaimed Cork O’Connor novels. Written in the same vein as ORDINARY GRACE and THIS TENDER LAND, it's a great stepping stone into Kent's beloved series. We are giving 25 readers the opportunity to win an advance copy of the book, which releases on August 24th. In addition, one Grand Prize winner will receive signed copies of all 18 Cork O’Connor mysteries! To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, August 6th at noon ET.
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, August 4th at 7pm ET: Books Are Magic: Join Andrea Bartz for the virtual launch of her new novel, WE WERE NEVER HERE, which is this month's Reese's Book Club pick. She will be in conversation with Caroline Kepnes.
Wednesday, August 4th 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 Lauren Willig, whose most recent novel is BAND OF SISTERS.
Thursday, August 5th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Megan Abbott for a live virtual event to celebrate the release of her new novel, THE TURNOUT (this month's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club pick), as part of their Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Megan will be in conversation with Jonathan Lethem.
Thursday, August 5th at 7pm ET: An Unlikely Story Bookstore and Café: Megan Abbott joins An Unlikely Story for a virtual event to introduce her new irresistible thriller, THE TURNOUT. She will be in conversation with internationally bestselling author Alafair Burke.
Thursday, August 5th at 7pm ET: Watermark Books & Café: Watermark Books & Café invites you to attend a virtual event with Ash Davidson, who will talk to Sarah Smarsh about her debut novel, DAMNATION SPRING.
Thursday, August 5th at 8pm ET: St. Louis County Library: Megan Abbott will discuss her latest thriller, THE TURNOUT, with Paula Hawkins, whose upcoming novel is A SLOW FIRE BURNING.
Thursday, August 5th at 8pm ET: Women & Children First: Join Women & Children First for a joint virtual reading with Katie Kitamura (INTIMACIES) and Dana Spiotta (WAYWARD) introducing their new novels.
Monday, August 9th at 8pm ET: Blue Willow Bookshop: Chandler Baker and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore will appear in conversation with their editor, Christine Kopprasch, to celebrate the release of their new books, THE HUSBANDS (this month's "Good Morning America" Book Club pick) and FIERCE LITTLE THING.
Monday, August 9th at 8pm ET: Boswell Books and Elm Grove Library: In conjunction with Boswell Books, the Elm Grove Library proudly welcomes Andrea Bartz, celebrating the release of her latest twisty thriller, WE WERE NEVER HERE. She will be in conversation with Jennifer Hillier, author of LITTLE SECRETS and JAR OF HEARTS.
Tuesday, August 10th at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book: Edgar Award-winning author Naomi Hirahara will be in conversation with Cara Black about her new mystery, CLARK AND DIVISION.
Tuesday, August 10th at 8pm ET: The Novel Neighbor: Join Allison Larkin, author of THE PEOPLE WE KEEP, in conversation with Therese Anne Fowler.
Tuesday, August 10th at 9pm ET: Skylight Books: Megan Abbott will discuss her new novel, THE TURNOUT, with Ivy Pochoda, the critically acclaimed author of WONDER VALLEY, VISITATION STREET and THESE WOMEN.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for August
Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads, as well as the Target Book Club title and Costco's "Buyer's Pick." We also feature a number of other prominent picks, including Oprah’s Book Club, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Reese's Book Club, Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites.
Below is a preview of August's "Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks." For the complete Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, as well as additional links pertaining to this month's selections, please click here.
Indie Next
#1 Pick: ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES by Charlotte McConaghy
DAMNATION SPRING by Ash Davidson
NIGHTBITCH by Rachel Yoder
SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by Shelley Parker-Chan
THE MANNINGTREE WITCHES by A.K. Blakemore
LibraryReads
Top Pick: IF THE SHOE FITS: A Meant to Be Novel by Julie Murphy
BATTLE ROYAL by Lucy Parker
DARK ROADS by Chevy Stevens
THE LAST CHANCE LIBRARY by Freya Sampson
MRS. MARCH by Virginia Feito
Target Book Club
THE NIGHT SWIM by Megan Goldin
Costco's "Buyer's Pick"
THE OTHER PASSENGER by Louise Candlish
Barnes & Noble Book Club
THE GUILT TRIP by Sandie Jones
Reese's Book Club
WE WERE NEVER HERE by Andrea Bartz
Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
THE TURNOUT by Megan Abbott
"Good Morning America" Book Club
THE HUSBANDS by Chandler Baker
Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites
YOURS CHEERFULLY by AJ Pearce
On Sale the Week of August 2nd in Hardcover
August 3rd
AFTERPARTIES: Stories by Anthony Veasna So (Fiction/Short Stories)
AFTERPARTIES offers an expansive portrait of the lives of Cambodian-Americans. A high school badminton coach and failing grocery store owner tries to relive his glory days by beating a rising star teenage player. Two drunken brothers attend a wedding afterparty and hatch a plan to expose their shady uncle’s snubbing of the bride and groom. A queer love affair sparks between an older tech entrepreneur trying to launch a “safe space” app and a disillusioned young teacher obsessed with MOBY-DICK. And in the sweeping final story, a nine-year-old child learns that his mother survived a racist school shooter.
Ecco | 9780063049901
AGATHA CHRISTIE: First Lady of Crime edited by H. R. F. Keating (Essays)
Agatha Christie was not only the most successful author of detective stories the world has ever known, she was also a mystery in herself, giving only the rarest interviews --- declining absolutely to become any sort of public figure --- and a mystery, too, in the manner in which she achieved her astonishing success. Distinguished crime novelist (and acclaimed critic) H. R. F. Keating brings together a dozen noted writers from both sides of the Atlantic to throw light on the ever-intriguing Dame Agatha. Some essays analyze Christie’s art itself; others explain the reasons for her success --- not just the books, but also in film and theater.
Pegasus Books | 9781643137360
ALL'S WELL by Mona Awad (Fiction)
The accident that ended Miranda Fitch’s burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating, chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s “All’s Well That Ends Well,” she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging “Macbeth” instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers. That’s when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda’s past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what’s coming to them, and the invisible, doubted pain that’s kept her from the spotlight is made known.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982169664
AMERICANALAND: Where Country & Western Met Rock 'n' Roll by John Milward and Margie Greve (Music/History)
With a claim on artists from Jimmie Rodgers to Jason Isbell, Americana can be hard to define, but you know it when you hear it. John Milward’s AMERICANALAND is filled with the enduring performers and vivid stories that are at the heart of Americana. At base a hybrid of rock and country, Americana is also infused with folk, blues, R&B, bluegrass and other types of roots music. Performers like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles and Gram Parsons used these ingredients to create influential music that took well-established genres down exciting new roads. The name Americana was coined in the 1990s to describe similarly inclined artists like Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and Wilco. Today, Brandi Carlile and I’m With Her are among the musicians carrying the genre into the 21st century.
University of Illinois Press | 9780252043918
BAD SCENE: A Colleen Hayes Mystery by Max Tomlinson (Mystery)
When PI and ex-con Colleen Hayes learns that a local neo-Nazi group is talking about shooting the mayor, she thinks it’s just another rumor --- until her source, a humble street newspaper vendor, winds up in SF General, beaten to a pulp. To add to her grief, she discovers that her runaway daughter, Pamela, might have joined a shadowy religious group, building a church in South America near a volcano that is about to erupt. Death is the path to perfection according to the charismatic young preacher --- and the date is fast approaching. Colleen is desperate to find a way to stop her daughter from making the ultimate mistake before she --- along with hundreds of others --- lose their lives.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608093458
BILLY SUMMERS by Stephen King (Thriller)
Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong? How about everything.
Scribner | 9781982173616
BLIND MAN'S BLUFF: A Memoir by James Tate Hill (Memoir)
At age 16, James Tate Hill was diagnosed with Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy, a condition that left him legally blind. When friends stopped calling and a disability counselor advised him to aim for C’s in his classes, he tried to escape the stigma by pretending he could still see. In BLIND MAN’S BLUFF, Hill discloses the tricks he employed to pass for sighted. For 15 years, Hill hid his blindness from friends, colleagues and lovers, even convincing himself that if he stared long enough, his blurry peripheral vision would bring the world into focus. At 30, faced with a stalled writing career, a crumbling marriage, and a growing fear of leaving his apartment, he began to wonder if there was a better way.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393867176
BLIND TIGER by Sandra Brown (Historical Thriller)
On the day that Thatcher Hutton, a war-weary soldier, arrives in Foley, Texas, a local woman goes missing. Thatcher, the only stranger in town, is suspected of her abduction, and worse. Standing between him and exoneration are a corrupt mayor, a crooked sheriff, a notorious cathouse madam, a sly bootlegger, feuding moonshiners…and a young widow whose soft features conceal an iron will. What was supposed to be a fresh start for Laurel Plummer turns to tragedy. Left destitute but determined to dictate her own future, Laurel plunges into the lucrative regional industry, much to the dislike of the good ol’ boys, who have ruled supreme. Her success quickly makes her a target for cutthroat competitors, whose only code of law is reprisal.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538751961
BREATHE by Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
A married couple from Cambridge, MA takes residency at a distinguished academic institute. When the husband is stricken with a mysterious illness, misdiagnosed at first, their lives are uprooted and husband and wife each embarks upon a nightmare journey. At 37, Michaela faces the terrifying prospect of widowhood --- and the loss of Gerard, whose identity has greatly shaped her own. She cares desperately for him in his final days as she comes to realize that her love for her husband, however fierce and selfless, is not enough to save him and that his death is beyond her comprehension. A love that refuses to be surrendered at death --- is this the blessing of a unique married love, or a curse that must be exorcized?
Ecco | 9780063085473
BULLET TRAIN by Kotaro Isaka (Thriller)
Nanao, nicknamed Lady Bird --- the self-proclaimed “unluckiest assassin in the world” --- boards a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with one simple task: grab a suitcase and get off at the next stop. Unbeknownst to him, the deadly duo Tangerine and Lemon are also after the very same suitcase --- and they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard. Satoshi, “the Prince,” is also in the mix and has history with some of the others. Risk fuels him as does a good philosophical debate...like, is killing really wrong? Chasing the Prince is another assassin with a score to settle for the time the Prince casually pushed a young boy off of a roof, leaving him comatose. When the five assassins discover they are all on the same train, they realize their missions are not as unrelated as they first appear.
Harry N. Abrams | 9781419756337
CLARK AND DIVISION by Naomi Hirahara (Historical Mystery)
Twenty-year-old Aki Ito and her parents have just been released from Manzanar, where they have been detained by the US government since the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, together with thousands of other Japanese Americans. The life in California the Itos were forced to leave behind is gone; instead, they are being resettled 2,000 miles away in Chicago, where Aki’s older sister, Rose, was sent months earlier and moved to the new Japanese American neighborhood near Clark and Division streets. But on the eve of the Ito family’s reunion, Rose is killed by a subway train, and officials are ruling it a suicide. Aki’s instinct tells her there is much more to the story, and she knows she is the only person who could ever learn the truth.
Soho Crime | 9781641292498
CLASS ACT: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
After a rocky jaunt in Maine, Stone Barrington is settling back in New York City when an old client reaches out for help with a delicate matter. A feud they thought was put to rest long ago has reemerged with a vengeance, and reputations --- and money --- are now on the line. As Stone sets out to unravel a tangled web of crime and secrets, his mission becomes even more complicated when he makes an irresistible new acquaintance. In both the underbelly and upper echelons of New York, everyone has something to hide --- and if Stone has learned anything, it’s that history has a way of repeating itself.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593331668
DAMNATION SPRING by Ash Davidson (Fiction)
For generations, Rich Gundersen’s family has chopped a livelihood out of the redwood forest along California’s rugged coast. Now Rich and his wife, Colleen, are raising their own young son near Damnation Grove, a swath of ancient redwoods on which Rich’s employer, Sanderson Timber Co., plans to make a killing. In 1977, with most of the forest cleared or protected, a grove like Damnation --- and beyond it 24-7 Ridge --- is a logger’s dream. So when the opportunity arises to buy 24-7 Ridge, Rich grabs it. Colleen has lost several pregnancies. And she isn’t alone. As a midwife, Colleen has seen it with her own eyes. For decades, the herbicides the logging company uses were considered harmless. But what if these miscarriages aren’t isolated strokes of bad luck?
Scribner | 9781982144401
DARK ROADS by Chevy Stevens (Thriller)
For decades, young women traveling the Cold Creek Highway have gone missing. And no killer or abductor who has stalked the highway has ever been brought to justice. One day, teenager Hailey McBride vanishes into the mountainous terrain, hoping everyone will believe she’s left town. Rumors spread that she was taken by the highway killer. One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek, where her sister Amber lived --- and was murdered. Estranged from her parents and seeking closure, Beth takes a waitressing job at the local diner, desperate to understand what happened to her and why. But Beth’s search for answers puts a target on her back --- and threatens to reveal the truth behind Hailey’s disappearance.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250133571
DOWN RANGE: A Garrett Kohl Novel by Taylor Moore (Thriller/Adventure)
As a decorated undercover DEA special agent, Garrett Kohl has traveled the world --- and fought in most of it --- but it’s the High Plains of northwest Texas he calls home and dreams of returning to one day. Kohl is in the middle of an assignment in Afghanistan when his commander orders him back to Texas on a short mission expected to take a week at most. The once-peaceful ranching community he loves is under attack by a band of criminals who have infiltrated law enforcement and corrupted local businesses, and are now terrorizing Kohl’s own family. Hoping to prevent bloodshed, Kohl tries to resolve matters peacefully. But when the group strikes first, he has no choice but to go on the attack.
William Morrow | 9780063066502
GHOSTS by Dolly Alderton (Romantic Comedy)
Nina Dean is about to publish her second book. She has a great relationship with her ex-boyfriend, and enough friends to keep her social calendar full. When she downloads a dating app, she does the seemingly impossible: She meets a great guy on her first date. Max is handsome and built like a lumberjack; he has floppy blond hair and a stable job. More surprising than anything else, Nina and Max have chemistry. But when Max ghosts her, Nina is forced to deal with everything she's been trying so hard to ignore: her father's Alzheimer's is getting worse, and so is her mother's denial of it; her editor hates her new book idea; and her best friend from childhood is icing her out.
Knopf | 9780593319857
THE GIRLS WHO STEPPED OUT OF LINE: Untold Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of World War II by Major General Mari K. Eder (U.S. Army, Retired) (History)
THE GIRLS WHO STEPPED OUT OF LINE are the heroes of the Greatest Generation that you hardly ever hear about. These women who did extraordinary things didn't expect thanks and shied away from medals and recognition. Despite their amazing accomplishments, they've gone mostly unheralded and unrewarded. No longer. These are the women of World War II who served, fought, struggled and made things happen --- in and out of uniform. Retired U.S. Army Major General Mari K. Eder wrote this book because she knew their stories needed to be told --- and the sooner the better. For theirs is a legacy destined to embolden generations of women to come.
Sourcebooks | 9781728230924
THE GUILT TRIP by Sandie Jones (Psychological Thriller)
Rachel and Jack. Paige and Noah. Will and Ali. Five friends who’ve known each other for years. And Ali, Will’s new fiancée. The three couples travel to Portugal for Ali and Will’s destination wedding. Arriving at the gorgeous clifftop villa, the weekend away is a chance to relax and get to know Ali a little better. A newcomer to their group, she seems perfectly nice, and Will seems happy after years of bad choices. But when Rachel discovers a shocking secret about Ali, everything changes. As the wedding weekend unfolds, the secrets each of them holds begin to spill, and friendships and marriages threaten to unravel.
Minotaur Books | 9781250265586
HER HEART FOR A COMPASS by Sarah Ferguson (Historical Fiction)
Queen Victoria’s close friend, the Scottish Duke of Buccleuch, Lady Margaret Montagu Scott is expected to make an advantageous marriage. But Margaret is an impulsive and outspoken girl in a repressive society where women are caged in corsets and required to conform. When Lady Margaret’s parents arrange a society marriage for her, she tries to reconcile herself to the match. But shortly before her betrothal is announced, Margaret flees. Banished from polite society, she throws herself into charitable work and finds strength in a circle of female friends like herself --- women intent on breaking the mold, including Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise.
William Morrow | 9780062976529
HOLDOUT by Jeffrey Kluger (Thriller)
Walli Beckwith is a model astronaut. She graduated at the top of her class from the Naval Academy, had a successful career flying fighter jets, and has spent more than 300 days in space. So when she refuses to leave her post aboard the International Space Station following an accident that forces her fellow astronauts to evacuate, her American and Russian colleagues are mystified. For Walli, the matter at hand feels all too clear and terrifying for her to be worried about ruining her career. She is stuck in a race against time to save a part of the world that seems to have been forgotten, and also the life of the person she loves the most. She will go to any length necessary, using the only tool she has, to accomplish what she knows is right.
Dutton | 9780593184691
THE HUSBANDS by Chandler Baker (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Nora Spangler is a successful attorney, but when it comes to domestic life, she packs the lunches, schedules the doctor appointments, knows where the extra paper towel rolls are, and designs and orders the holiday cards. Her husband works hard, too...but why does it seem like she is always working so much harder? When the Spanglers go house hunting in Dynasty Ranch, an exclusive suburban neighborhood, Nora meets a group of high-powered women with enviably supportive husbands. When she agrees to help with a resident’s wrongful death case, she is pulled into the lives of the women there. As the case unravels, Nora uncovers a plot that may explain the secret to having it all. One that’s worth killing for.
Flatiron Books | 9781250319517
IF THE SHOE FITS: A Meant to Be Novel by Julie Murphy (Romantic Comedy)
Cindy loves shoes. As a fashion-obsessed plus-size woman, she can never find designer clothes that work on her body, but a special pair of shoes always fits just right. With a shiny new design degree but no job in sight, Cindy moves back in with her stepmother, Erica Tremaine, the executive producer of the world’s biggest dating reality show. When a contestant on “Before Midnight” bows out at the last minute, Cindy is thrust into the spotlight. Being the first and only fat contestant on the show turns her into a viral sensation, and a body-positivity icon, overnight. To make it to the end, Cindy will have to take a leap of faith and hope that her heels --- and her heart --- don’t break in the process.
Hyperion Avenue | 9781368050388
IN MY DREAMS I HOLD A KNIFE by Ashley Winstead (Psychological Thriller)
Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to Duquette University. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see --- confident, beautiful, indifferent. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby's murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she'd been closest to since freshman year. But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette 10 years ago, and not everyone can let Heather's murder go unsolved. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night --- and the years' worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728229881
LADYPARTS: A Memoir by Deborah Copaken (Memoir)
Twenty years after her iconic memoir SHUTTERBABE, Deborah Copaken is at her darkly comedic nadir: battered, broke, divorcing, dissected and dying --- literally --- on sexism’s battlefield as she scoops up what she believes to be her internal organs into a glass container before heading off to the hospital…in an UberPool. LADYPARTS is her irreverent inventory of both the female body and the body politic of womanhood in America, the story of one woman brought to her knees by the 1-2-12 punch of divorce, solo motherhood, healthcare Frogger, unaffordable childcare, shady landlords, her father’s death, college tuitions, sexual harassment, corporate indifference, ageism, sexism and plain old bad luck.
Random House | 9781984855473
MADE IN CHINA: A Memoir of Love and Labor by Anna Qu (Memoir)
As a teen, Anna Qu is sent by her mother to work in her family's garment factory in Queens. At home, she is treated as a maid and suffers punishment for doing her homework at night. Her mother wants to teach her a lesson: she is Chinese, not American. But instead of acquiescing, Qu alerts the Office of Children and Family Services, an act with consequences that impact the rest of her life. Nearly 20 years later, estranged from her mother and working at a Manhattan start-up, Qu requests her OCFS report. When it arrives, key details are wrong. Faced with this false narrative, Qu looks once more at her life's truths, from abandonment to an abusive family to seeking dignity and meaning in work.
Catapult | 9781646220342
MONSTER HUNTER BLOODLINES by Larry Correia (Urban Fantasy/Adventure)
The chaos god Asag has been quiet since the destruction of the City of Monsters, but Monster Hunter International knows that he is still out there. When Owen and the MHI team discover that one of Isaac Newton's Ward Stones is being auctioned off by Reptoids who live deep beneath Atlanta, they decide to steal the magical superweapon and use it to destroy Asag once and for all. But before the stone can be handed off, it is stolen by a mysterious thief with ties to MHI and the Vatican's Secret Guard. It's a race against time, the Secret Guard, a spectral bounty hunter and a whole bunch of monsters to acquire the Ward Stone and use it against Asag. For as dangerous as the chaos god is, there is something much older --- and infinitely more evil --- awakening deep in the jungles of South America.
Baen | 9781982125493
ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES by Charlotte McConaghy (Fiction)
Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing 14 gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska. Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept that her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect?
Flatiron Books | 9781250244147
PALM BEACH by Mary Adkins (Fiction)
Rebecca and her husband, Mickey, typify struggling, 30-something New Yorkers --- he’s an actor, and she’s a freelance journalist. But after the arrival of their baby son, the couple decides to relocate to Palm Beach, where Mickey has been offered a sweet deal managing the household of a multimillionaire Democratic donor. Once there, he quickly doubles his salary by going to work for venture capitalist Cecil Stone. Rebecca, a writer whose beat is economic inequality, is initially horrified: she pillories men like Stone, a ruthless businessman famous for crushing local newspapers. So no one is more surprised than her when she accepts a job working for Cecil’s wife as a ghostwriter. As she and Mickey are pulled deeper into this topsy-turvy household, they become increasingly dependent on their problematic benefactors.
Harper | 9780063011373
THE PEOPLE WE KEEP by Allison Larkin (Fiction)
April Sawicki is living in a motorless motorhome that her father won in a poker game. Failing out of school and picking up shifts at Margo’s diner, she’s left fending for herself in a town where she’s never quite felt at home. When she “borrows” her neighbor’s car to perform at an open mic night, she realizes her life could be much bigger than where she came from. After a fight with her dad, April packs her stuff and leaves for good, setting off on a journey to find a life that’s all hers. Driving without a chosen destination, she stops to rest in Ithaca. As she looks for work, she finds a kindred sense of belonging at Cafe Decadence, the local coffee shop. Still, somehow, it doesn’t make sense to her that life could be this easy.
Gallery Books | 9781982171292
THE PERFUME THIEF by Timothy Schaffert (Historical Fiction)
Clementine is a 72-year-old reformed con artist. Her life of crime has led her from the uber-wealthy perfume junkies of belle epoque Manhattan, to the scented butterflies of Costa Rica, to the spice markets of Marrakech, and finally to the bordellos of Paris, where she settles down in 1930 and opens a shop bottling her favorite extracts for the ladies of the cabarets. Now it's 1941, and Clem's favorite haunt, Madame Boulette's, is crawling with Nazis, while her people --- the outsiders, the artists and the hustlers who used to call it home --- are disappearing. Clem believes she's too old to put up a fight. But when the cabaret's prize songbird, Zoe St. Angel, recruits her to steal the recipe book of a now-missing famous Parisian perfumer, she can't say no.
Doubleday | 9780385545747
THE PRESIDENT AND THE FROG by Carolina De Robertis (Fiction)
The former president of an unnamed Latin American country receives a journalist in his famed gardens to discuss his legacy and the dire circumstances that threaten democracy around the globe. Once known as the Poorest President in the World, his reputation is the stuff of myth: a former guerilla who was jailed for inciting revolution before becoming the face of justice, human rights and selflessness for his nation. Now, as he talks to the journalist, he wonders if he should reveal the strange secret of his imprisonment: while held in brutal solitary confinement, he survived, in part, by discussing revolution, the quest for dignity, and what it means to love a country, with the only creature who ever spoke back --- a loud-mouth frog.
Knopf | 9780593318416
RABBIT HOLE by Mark Billingham (Thriller)
Alice Armitage is a police officer. Or she was. Following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. Though convinced that she doesn’t really belong there, she finds companionship with the other patients in the ward despite their challenging and often intimidating issues. So when one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice feels personally compelled to launch an investigation from within the ward. Soon, she becomes convinced that she has identified the killer and that she can catch them. But Alice’s life begins to unravel as she realizes that she cannot trust anyone in the ward, least of all herself.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802158703
RADIANT FUGITIVES by Nawaaz Ahmed (Fiction)
Working as a consultant for Kamala Harris’ attorney general campaign in Obama-era San Francisco, Seema has constructed a successful life for herself in the West, despite still struggling with her father’s long-ago decision to exile her from the family after she came out as lesbian. Now, nine months pregnant and estranged from the Black father of her unborn son, Seema seeks solace in the company of those she once thought lost to her: her ailing mother, Nafeesa, and her devoutly religious sister, Tahera. But instead of a joyful reconciliation anticipating the birth of a child, the events of this fateful week unearth years of betrayal, misunderstanding and complicated layers of love.
Counterpoint | 9781640094048
THE READING LIST by Sara Nisha Adams (Fiction)
Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life after losing his beloved wife. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too.
William Morrow | 9780063025288
SAVAGE TONGUES by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi (Fiction)
It’s summer when Arezu, an Iranian American teenager, goes to Spain to meet her estranged father at an apartment he owns there. He never shows up, instead sending her a weekly allowance, care of his step-nephew, Omar, a 40-year-old Lebanese man. As the weeks progress, Arezu is drawn into a mercurial, charged and ultimately catastrophic affair with Omar, a relationship that shatters her just at the cusp of adulthood. Two decades later, Arezu inherits the apartment. She returns with her best friend, Ellie, an Israeli-American scholar devoted to the Palestinian cause, to excavate the place and finally put to words a trauma she’s long held in silence.
Mariner Books | 9780358315063
SONGBIRDS by Christy Lefteri (Fiction)
Nisha works as a nanny and maid for a wealthy widow on the island of Cyprus. Yiannis is a poacher, trapping the tiny protected songbirds that stop in Cyprus as they migrate each year from Africa to Europe and selling them on the illegal market. He dreams of finding a new way of life, and of marrying Nisha. But one night, Nisha makes dinner for the family who pays her: Petra and her daughter, Aliki. Then, after she cleans the kitchen and tucks Aliki into bed, Nisha goes out on a mysterious errand and vanishes. When the police refuse to pursue the case, Petra takes on the investigation herself, a path that leads her to Nisha’s friends --- other workers in the neighborhood --- and to the darker side of a migrant’s life.
Ballantine Books | 9780593238042
SONGS FOR THE FLAMES: Stories by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Fiction/Short Stories)
The characters in SONGS FOR THE FLAMES are men and women touched by violence --- sometimes directly, sometimes only in passing --- but whose lives are changed forever, consumed by fire and by unexpected encounters and unyielding forces. A photographer becomes obsessed with the traumatic past that an elegant woman, a fellow guest staying at a countryside ranch, would rather leave behind. A military reunion forces a soldier to confront a troubling history, both personal and on a larger scale. And the search for a book leads a writer to the fascinating story of why a woman is buried next to a graveyard, rather than in it --- and the remarkable account of her journey from France to Colombia as a child orphan.
Riverhead Books | 9780593190135
TIN CAMP ROAD by Ellen Airgood (Fiction)
Laurel Hill and her precocious daughter, Skye, live on Lake Superior, where the local school has classes of just four children, and the nearest hospital is a helicopter ride away. But on one otherwise normal afternoon, their landlord decides to evict them in favor of a more profitable summer rental; without any warning, they are pushed farther to the margins. Suddenly it feels like the independence that has defined them is a liability. And when a dangerous incident threatens to separate them, Laurel and Skye must forever choose: Will they leave the place they love and the hardscrabble life they've built to move closer to civilization, or risk everything to embrace the emptiness and wildness that has defined them?
Riverhead Books | 9780399163364
THE TURNOUT by Megan Abbott (Thriller)
With their long necks and matching buns and pink tights, Dara and Marie Durant have been dancers since they can remember. Growing up, they were homeschooled and trained by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents' death in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters began running the school together, along with Charlie, Dara's husband and once their mother's prized student. Circling around one another, the three have perfected a dance, six days a week, that keeps the studio thriving. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school's annual performance of "The Nutcracker," an interloper arrives and threatens the sisters' delicate balance.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593084908
WE ARE THE BRENNANS by Tracey Lange (Fiction)
When 29-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, bruised and battered after a drunk driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. Sunday is determined to rebuild her life back on the east coast, even if it does mean tiptoeing around resentful brothers and an ex-fiancé. The longer she stays, however, the more she realizes they need her just as much as she needs them. When a dangerous man from her past brings her family’s pub business to the brink of financial ruin, the only way to protect them is to upend all their secrets --- secrets that have damaged the family for generations and will threaten everything they know about their lives.
Celadon Books | 9781250796226
WE WERE NEVER HERE by Andrea Bartz (Psychological Thriller)
Emily is in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend.
Ballantine Books | 9781984820464
WHERE THE TRUTH LIES by Anna Bailey (Thriller)
When 17-year-old Abigail goes missing, her best friend Emma, compelled by the guilt of leaving her alone at a party in the woods, sets out to discover the truth about what happened. The police initially believe Abi ran away, but Emma doesn't believe that her friend would leave without her. When officers find disturbing evidence in the nearby woods, the festering secrets and longstanding resentment of both Abigail’s family and the people of Whistling Ridge, Colorado, begin to surface with devastating consequences. But Abi had secrets, too, and the closer Emma grows to unraveling the past, the farther she feels from her friend.
Atria Books | 9781982157166
On Sale the Week of August 2nd in Paperback
August 3rd
AFTERSHOCKS: A Memoir by Nadia Owusu (Memoir)
Young Nadia Owusu followed her father, a United Nations official, from Europe to Africa and back again. Just as she and her family settled into a new home, he would tell them it was time to say their goodbyes. The instability wrought by Nadia’s nomadic childhood was deepened by family secrets and fractures, both lived and inherited. After her father’s passing, Nadia’s stepmother weighed her down with a revelation that was either a bombshell secret or a lie, rife with shaming innuendo. Nadia arrived in New York feeling uncertain about her future, yet eager to find her own identity. What followed, however, were periods of depression in which she struggled to hold herself and her siblings together.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982111236
THE BARRISTER AND THE LETTER OF MARQUE by Todd M. Johnson (Historical Mystery/Legal Thriller)
Paperback Original
Lady Madeleine Jameson, a struggling heiress, arrives at the door of Barrister William Snopes in a last-ditch effort to save her faltering estate. She invested in the acquisition of a merchant brig, the Padget, allowed by a letter of marque from the king's regent to legally capture cargo from French traders operating illegally in the Indian Sea. Yet when the ship returns to the London harbor, it's met by constables and soldiers ready to seize its goods, accusing the sailors of piracy. And the letter proving their legality has disappeared. William Snopes cautiously takes the case. But as he gets deeper into the mystery and prepares for trial, he learns that the forces arrayed against Lady Jameson, and now himself, are even more powerful than he'd imagined.
Bethany House Publishers | 9780764212369
BEING LOLITA: A Memoir by Alisson Wood (Memoir)
A lonely and vulnerable high school senior, Alisson finds solace only in her writing --- and in a young, charismatic English teacher. Mr. North gives Alisson a copy of LOLITA to read, telling her it is a beautiful story about love. The book soon becomes the backdrop to a connection that blooms from a simple crush into a forbidden romance. But as Mr. North’s hold on her tightens, Alisson is forced to evaluate how much of their narrative is actually a disturbing fiction. In the wake of what becomes a deeply abusive relationship, Alisson is faced again and again with the story of her past, from rereading LOLITA in college to working with teenage girls to becoming a professor of creative writing.
Flatiron Books | 9781250217233
DARK SKY: A Joe Pickett Novel by C. J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
The governor of Wyoming gives Joe Pickett the thankless assignment of taking a tech baron on an elk-hunting trip. Unbeknownst to them, as they trek farther into the wilderness, a manhunter is hot on their heels. Finding himself without a weapon, a horse or a way to communicate, Joe must rely on his wits and his knowledge of the outdoors to protect himself and his charge. Meanwhile, when Joe's closest friend, Nate Romanowski, and his own daughter Sheridan learn of the threat to his life, they follow him into the woods to try and rescue him before it's too late.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525538301
DID I SAY YOU COULD GO by Melanie Gideon (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Ruth, a wealthy divorcée, offers to host a kindergarten meet-and-greet, she hopes this will be a fresh start for her and her introverted daughter, Marley. Instead, the parents are turned off by Ruth’s ostentatious wealth, and Ruth and Marley become outcasts. The last guest to arrive at the meet-and-greet is Gemma, a widow and a single mother to her daughter, Bee. Ruth sets her sights on them, and soon the two families are inseparable. But when Ruth’s affair with a married Hillside dad is exposed, Gemma severs ties with Ruth. Six years later, Gemma finds herself embroiled in a scandal of her own, and Ruth comes to her defense. Soon, though, Gemma starts to feel trapped as Ruth grows more and more obsessed with their relationship.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982142124
THE DIVINE MISS MARBLE: A Life of Tennis, Fame, and Mystery by Robert Weintraub (Biography)
In her public life, she was the biggest tennis star of the pre-war era. She also was a fashion designer and trendsetter, a contributor to a pioneering new comic called Wonder Woman --- and friend to the biggest names in Hollywood and society. She helped integrate tennis with her support of Althea Gibson, and even coached two young women who became stars in their own right: Billie Jean King and Sally Ride. Yet her private life provoked constant speculation while she was alive, and her own memoirs added layers of legend upon stories. In THE DIVINE MISS MARBLE, bestselling author Robert Weintraub traveled the country to uncover her fascinating story. And the more he learned about her, the more her mysteries and contradictions deepened.
Dutton | 9781524745370
THE EIGHTH DETECTIVE by Alex Pavesi (Mystery)
There are rules for murder mysteries. There must be a victim. A suspect. A detective. Grant McAllister, an author of crime fiction and professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked them all out, publishing seven perfect detective stories to demonstrate the rules of murder. But that was 30 years ago. Now Grant lives in seclusion on a remote Mediterranean island --- until Julia Hart, a sharp, ambitious editor, knocks on his door. His early work is being republished, and together the two of them must revisit those old stories. But as she reads the stories, Julia is unsettled to realize that there are parts that don't make sense. Intricate clues seem to reference a real murder --- one that's remained unsolved for 30 years. If Julia wants answers, she must triumph in a battle of wits with a dangerously clever adversary.
Picador | 9781250798473
THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed. But as the champagne is popped and the festivities get underway, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And, perhaps more importantly, why?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062868947
HIS ONLY WIFE by Peace Adzo Medie (Fiction)
Afi Tekple is a young seamstress in Ghana. Smart and pretty, she also has been convinced by her mother to marry a man she doesn’t know: a wealthy businessman named Elikem. His family has chosen Afi in the hopes that she will distract him from a current relationship they disapprove of. When Afi is moved from her small hometown to live in Accra, Ghana’s gleaming capital full of wealth and sophistication, she is not prepared for the way her life will change. But she has agreed to this marriage in order to give her mother the financial security she desperately needs, and so Afi must see it through. Or must she?
Algonquin Books | 9781643751467
KEPT ANIMALS by Kate Milliken (Fiction)
It’s 1993, and Rory Ramos works as a ranch hand at the stable her stepfather manages in Topanga Canyon, California, a dry, dusty place reliant on horses and hierarchies. There she rides for the rich clientele, including twins June and Wade Fisk. While Rory draws the interest of out-and-proud June, she’s more intrigued by Vivian Price, the beautiful girl with the movie-star father who lives down the hill. Rory keeps largely separate from the likes of the Prices --- but, perched on her bedroom windowsill, she steals glimpses of Vivian swimming in her pool nearly every night. After Rory’s stepfather is involved in a tragic car accident, the lives of Rory, June and Vivian become inextricably bound together.
Scribner | 9781501188596
THE LAST MRS. SUMMERS: A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
Georgie’s best friend, Belinda, inherits a spooky house in Cornwall and asks Georgie to go with her to inspect the property. When they arrive, they meet Rose, a woman Belinda knew as a child when she spent her summers with her grandmother in Cornwall. Rose is now married to Tony Summers, Belinda’s childhood crush, but confides that she thinks Tony killed his first wife. She asks Georgie and Belinda to observe Tony’s behavior and their surroundings. But during a thunderstorm, the lights go out and Tony is found dead. All clues point to Belinda as the prime suspect. Now Georgie must uncover the secrets that led to Tony’s death and find out if he was villain or victim before Belinda takes the fall for his murder.
Berkley | 9780451492883
MILK FED by Melissa Broder (Fiction/Humor)
Rachel is 24, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, through obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting --- until her therapist encourages her to take a 90-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting. Rachel soon meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam, and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk and honey.
Scribner | 9781982142506
MUST I GO by Yiyun Li (Fiction)
Lilia Liska has shrewdly outlived three husbands, raised five children and seen the arrival of 17 grandchildren. Now she has turned her keen attention to the diary of a long-forgotten man named Roland Bouley, with whom she once had a fleeting affair. Increasingly obsessed with Roland's intimate history, Lilia begins to annotate the diary with her own rather different version of events, revealing the surprising, long-held secrets of her past. She returns inexorably to the memory of her daughter, Lucy. This is a novel about life in all its messy glory, and of a life lived, by the extraordinary Lilia, absolutely on its own terms. Yiyun Li navigates the twin poles of grief and resilience, loss and rebirth, that compass a human heart.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780399589133
THE NIGHT SINGER by Johanna Mo (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Police detective Hannah Duncker didn’t expect to return to her native Öland. She fled after her father’s murder conviction and returns to make peace with her shame. She has a new job with the local police and a nosy new partner. A 15-year-old’s death catapults her into a murder investigation that resurrects ghosts from her previous life. As she hunts for the truth, she must confront the people she abandoned. Not all are pleased to see her back home, and she soon learns that digging through the past comes with consequences.
Penguin Books | 9780143136682
THE NIGHT SWIM by Megan Goldin (Psychological Thriller)
The new season of Rachel Krall's true-crime podcast has brought her to a small town being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. A local golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season 3 a success, Rachel throws herself into her investigation --- but she keeps receiving mysterious letters. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases --- and a revelation that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250219695
RELENTLESS: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
Intelligence operatives around the world are disappearing. When a missing American agent reappears in Venezuela, Court Gentry, the Gray Man, is dispatched to bring him in, but a team of assassins has other ideas. Court escapes with his life and a vital piece of intelligence. Meanwhile, CIA agent Zoya Zakharova is in Berlin. Her mission: to infiltrate a private intelligence firm with some alarming connections. The closer she gets to answers, the less likely she is to get out alive. Court and Zoya are just two pieces on this international chessboard, and they're about to discover one undeniable truth --- sometimes capturing a king requires sacrificing some pawns.
Berkley | 9780593098974
THE SAFE PLACE by Anna Downes (Psychological Thriller)
Emily Proudman just lost her acting agent, her job and her apartment in one miserable day. Scott Denny, a successful and charismatic CEO, has a problem that neither his business acumen nor vast wealth can fix. Until he meets Emily. Scott offers Emily a summer job as a housekeeper on his remote, beautiful French estate. Enchanted by his lovely wife, Nina, and his eccentric young daughter, Aurelia, Emily falls headlong into this oasis of wine-soaked days by the pool. But soon Emily realizes that Scott and Nina are hiding dangerous secrets, and if she doesn't play along, the consequences could be deadly.
Minotaur Books | 9781250264817
SISTERS IN ARMS: A Novel of the Daring Black Women Who Served During World War II by Kaia Alderson (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Grace Steele and Eliza Jones may be from completely different backgrounds, but when it comes to the army, specifically the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), they are both starting from the same level. Not only will they be among the first class of female officers the army has even seen, they are also the first Black women allowed to serve. As these courageous women help to form the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, they are dealing with more than just army bureaucracy --- everyone is determined to see this experiment fail. For two northern women, learning to navigate their way through the segregated army may be tougher than boot camp.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062964588
SIX DAYS IN AUGUST: The Story of Stockholm Syndrome by David King (True Crime)
On the morning of August 23, 1973, a man wearing a wig, makeup and a pair of sunglasses walked into the main branch of Sveriges Kreditbank, a prominent bank in central Stockholm. He ripped out a submachine gun, fired it into the ceiling and shouted, "The party starts!" This was the beginning of a six-day hostage crisis --- and media circus --- that would mesmerize the world. Complicated emotional relationships developed between captors and captives that would launch a remarkable new concept into the realm of psychology, hostage negotiation and popular culture. SIX DAYS IN AUGUST captures the surreal events in their entirety, on an almost minute-by-minute basis, and forces us to consider "Stockholm syndrome" in an entirely new light.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393867541
THE SLEEPING NYMPH: A Teresa Battaglia Novel written by Ilaria Tuti, translated by Ekin Oklap (Mystery/Thriller)
A decades-old murder investigation has landed on Superintendent Teresa Battaglia's desk. DNA analysis has revealed that a painting from the final days of World War II contains matter from a human heart. Teresa is able to trace the evidence to Val Resia, one of Italy’s most isolated, untouched regions. When Teresa’s investigation hits too close to the truth, a fresh human heart is hung at the valley’s entrance, a warning not to cross its threshold. As she hunts a ruthless killer, Teresa must face down her own rapidly deteriorating physical and cognitive abilities, as well as someone she hoped never to see again --- a man who has just become her supervisor.
Soho Crime | 9781641292894
THE SMALLEST LIGHTS IN THE UNIVERSE: A Memoir by Sara Seager (Science/Memoir)
Sara Seager has always been in love with the stars. Now a pioneering planetary scientist, she searches for exoplanets --- especially that distant, elusive world that sustains life. But with the unexpected death of Seager’s husband, the purpose of her own life becomes hard for her to see. Suddenly, at 40, she is a widow and the single mother of two young boys. For the first time, she feels alone in the universe. As she struggles to navigate her life after loss, Seager takes solace in the alien beauty of exoplanets and the technical challenges of exploration. At the same time, she discovers earthbound connections that feel every bit as wondrous, when strangers and loved ones alike reach out to her across the space of her grief.
Crown | 9780525576266
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman (Mystery)
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes. Together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?
Penguin Books | 9781984880987
TRUE STORY by Kate Reed Petty (Fiction)
2015. A gifted and reclusive ghostwriter, Alice Lovett makes a living helping other people tell their stories. But she is haunted by the one story she can't tell: the story of "the things that happened while I was asleep." 1999. Nick Brothers and his lacrosse teammates return for their senior year at their wealthy Maryland high school as the reigning state champions. They're on top of the world --- until two of his friends drive a passed-out girl home from one of the team's "legendary" parties, and a rumor about what happened in the backseat spreads through the town like wildfire. Nick descends into alcoholism, and Alice builds a life in fits and starts, underestimating herself and placing her trust in the wrong people. When she finally gets the opportunity to confront a past that she can't remember, will she take it?
Penguin Books | 9781984877703
V2: A Novel of World War II by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
It's November 1944. Willi Graf, a German rocket engineer, is launching Nazi Germany's V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland. Kay Connolly, once an actress, now a young English Intelligence officer, ships out for Belgium to locate the launch sites and neutralize the threat. But when rumors of a defector circulate through the German ranks, Graf becomes a suspect. Unknown to each other, Graf and Connolly find themselves on opposite sides in the hunt for the saboteur. Their twin stories play out against the background of the German missile campaign, one of the most epic and modern but least explored episodes of the Second World War. Their destinies are on a collision course.
Vintage | 9780525567097
THE WEEKEND by Charlotte Wood (Fiction)
Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three. Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather at Sylvie's old beach house to clean it out before it is sold. Can they survive together without her? Without Sylvie to maintain the group's delicate equilibrium, frustrations build and painful memories press in. Fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface --- and threatens to sweep away their friendship for good.
Riverhead Books | 9780593086445
WHEN ALL LIGHT FAILS: A Ryan DeMarco Mystery by Randall Silvis (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
There's not much that would convince retired police sergeant Ryan DeMarco to take on another private investigation case, but he can't refuse a nine-year-old Michigan girl begging for help finding her biological father. The road trip to the Upper Peninsula promises DeMarco and his partner, Jayme, a chance to heal from their last case, which ended in a traumatic brush with death for DeMarco. But things aren't as they first appear in the woods of Michigan, and the seemingly simple paternity investigation soon morphs into something deadly. The deeper DeMarco, Jayme and the rest of their team dig, the more ugly truths they reveal, all while doing their best to keep one member of their team from falling prey to her own kind of darkness.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728223582
THE WOMAN IN RED by Diana Giovinazzo (Historical Fiction)
Destiny toys with us all, but Anita Garibaldi is a force to be reckoned with. Forced into marriage at a young age, Anita feels trapped in a union she does not want. But when she meets the leader of the Brazilian resistance, Giuseppe Garibaldi, in 1839, everything changes. Swept into a passionate affair with the idolized mercenary, Anita's life is suddenly consumed by the plight to liberate Southern Brazil from Portugal --- a struggle that would cost thousands of lives and span almost 10 bloody years. Little did she know that this first taste of revolution would lead her to cross oceans, traverse continents and alter the course of her entire life --- and the world.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538717431
THE WONDER BOY OF WHISTLE STOP by Fannie Flagg (Fiction)
Bud Threadgoode grew up in the bustling little railroad town of Whistle Stop with his mother, Ruth, and his Aunt Idgie. Together they ran the town’s popular Whistle Stop Cafe, known far and wide for its fun and famous fried green tomatoes. But sadly, as the railroad yards shut down and Whistle Stop became a ghost town, nothing was left but boarded-up buildings and memories of a happier time. Then one day, Bud decides to take one last trip, just to see what has become of his beloved Whistle Stop. In so doing, he discovers new friends, as well as surprises about Idgie’s life and the town itself. He also sets off a series of events that change his life and the lives of his daughter and many others.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593133866
On Sale the Week of August 9th in Hardcover
August 10th
THE ALMOST LEGENDARY MORRIS SISTERS: A True Story of Family Fiction by Julie Klam (Memoir)
Ever since she was young, Julie Klam has been fascinated by the Morris sisters, cousins of her grandmother. According to family lore, early in the 20th century, the sisters’ parents decided to move the family from Eastern Europe to Los Angeles so their father could become a movie director. On the way, their pregnant mother went into labor in St. Louis, where the baby was born and where their mother died. The father left the children in an orphanage and promised to send for them when he settled in California --- a promise he never kept. The stories of these independent women intrigued Klam, but as she delved into them to learn more, she realized that the tales were almost completely untrue.
Riverhead Books | 9780735216426
AMERICAN ESTRANGEMENT: Stories by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh (Fiction/Short Stories)
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh has been hailed by Philip Gourevitch as "a masterful storyteller working from deep in the American grain." His new collection of stories --- some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review and the Best American Short Stories --- is set in a contemporary America full of the kind of emotionally bruised characters familiar to readers of Denis Johnson and George Saunders. These are people contending with internal struggles --- a son’s fractured relationship with his father, the death of a mother, the loss of a job, drug addiction --- even as they are battered by larger, often invisible, economic, political and racial forces of American society.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393541236
CUL-DE-SAC by Joy Fielding (Psychological Thriller)
Someone on this quiet, unassuming cul-de-sac will be shot dead in the middle of a sultry July night. Will it be Maggie, the perfectionist wife, or Craig, the husband who can’t quite live up to her expectations? Maybe it will be Nick, a highly respected oncologist, or his wife, Dani, a successful dentist, both with well-kept secrets of their own. Or Julia, an elderly widow, whose troubled grandson has recently moved in with her. Then there’s Olivia and her husband, Sean. Having lost his job at a prestigious advertising agency, Sean is depressed, resentful of his working wife and drinking heavily. And what of the newlyweds, Aiden and Heidi, whose marriage is already on the rocks? Matters aren’t helped when Heidi befriends Julia’s grandson, setting the stage for a major blowup.
Ballantine Books | 9781984820259
THE ETERNAL AUDIENCE OF ONE by Rémy Ngamije (Fiction)
Séraphin is a playlist-maker, nerd-jock hybrid, self-appointed merchant of cool, Rwandan, stifled and living in Windhoek, Namibia. Soon he will leave the confines of his family life for the cosmopolitan city of Cape Town, in South Africa, where loyal friends, hormone-saturated parties, adventurous conquests and race controversies await. More than that, his long-awaited final year in law school promises to deliver a crucial puzzle piece of the Great Plan immigrant: a degree from a prestigious university. But a year is more than the sum of its parts, and en route to the future, the present must be lived through and even the past must be survived.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982164423
EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS: A Marriage by Eleanor Henderson (Memoir)
This is the true story of Eleanor Henderson’s 20-year marriage, which was defined by her husband Aaron’s chronic illness. One day, out of nowhere, a rash appeared on Aaron’s arms. Soon, it had morphed into painful lesions covering his body. Eleanor was as baffled as the doctors. There was no obvious diagnosis, let alone a cure. And as years passed and the lesions gave way to Aaron’s increasingly disturbed concerns about the source of his sickness, the husband she loved seemed to unravel before her eyes. A new fissure ruptured in their marriage, and new questions piled onto old ones: Where does physical illness end and mental illness begin? Where does one person end and another begin? And how do we exist alongside someone else’s suffering?
Flatiron Books | 9781250787941
GONE FOR GOOD by Joanna Schaffhausen (Mystery)
The Lovelorn Killer murdered seven women, ritually binding them and leaving them for dead before penning them gruesome love letters in the local papers. Then he disappeared, and there hasn’t been a trace of him in 20 years. Grace Harper, who uses her snooping skills as part of an amateur sleuth group, believes that the Lovelorn Killer is still living in the same neighborhoods in which he hunted. If she can figure out how he selected his victims, she will have the key to his identity. Detective Annalisa Vega lost someone she loved to the killer. Now she's at a murder scene with the worst kind of déjà vu: Grace Harper lies bound and dead on the floor, surrounded by clues to the biggest murder case that Chicago homicide never solved.
Minotaur Books | 9781250264602
THE HUMAN ZOO by Sabina Murray (Fiction)
Filipino-American Christina “Ting” Klein has just traveled from New York to Manila, both to escape her imminent divorce, and to begin research for a biography of Timicheg, an indigenous Filipino brought to America at the start of the 20th century to be exhibited as part of a "human zoo." It has been one year since Procopio “Copo” Gumboc swept the elections in an upset and took power as president. Arriving unannounced at her aging aunt’s aristocratic home, Ting quickly falls into upper-class Manila life. To make her way, she must balance the aristocratic traditions of her extended family, seemingly at odds with both situation and circumstance, as well as temper her stance towards a regime her loved ones are struggling to survive.
Grove Press | 9780802157508
ICE AND STONE: A Sharon McCone Mystery by Marcia Muller (Mystery)
When the bodies of two Indigenous women are found in the wilderness of northern California, it is only the latest horrific development in a string of similar crimes in the area. Despite all evidence to the contrary, officials rule the deaths isolated incidents, which soon join the ranks of countless other unsolved cases quickly dismissed by law enforcement. In a town where too many injustices are tolerated or brushed under the rug, only a few people remain who refuse to let a killer walk free. But Private Investigator Sharon McCone is one of those few. She is hired by an organization called Crimes Against Indigenous Sisters to go undercover in Meruk County --- a community rife with secrets, lies and corruption --- to expose the truth.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538733165
IN THE COUNTRY OF OTHERS by Leila Slimani (Fiction)
Mathilde, a spirited young Frenchwoman, falls in love with Amine, a handsome Moroccan soldier in the French army during World War II. After the war, the couple settles in Morocco. While Amine tries to cultivate his family farm's rocky terrain, Mathilde feels her vitality sapped by the isolation, the harsh climate, the lack of money, and the mistrust she inspires as a foreigner. Left increasingly alone to raise her two children in a world whose rules she does not understand, Mathilde goes from being reduced to a farmer's wife to defying the country's chauvinism and repressive social codes by offering medical services to the rural population. As tensions mount between the Moroccans and the French colonists, Amine finds himself caught in the crossfire.
Penguin Books | 9780143135975
THE KING OF INFINITE SPACE by Lyndsay Faye (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Ben Dane’s Broadway theater baron father is dead --- but by purpose or by accident? Unable to face alone his mother's ghastly remarriage to his uncle, he turns to his dearest friend, Horatio Patel, whom he hasn't seen since their relationship changed forever from platonic to something...other. Horatio is on the first flight to NYC when he finds himself next to a sly tailor who portends inevitable disaster and seems ominously like an architect of mayhem himself. Meanwhile, Ben's ex-fiancé Lia has been drawn into the fold of three florists from New Orleans --- seemingly ageless sisters who teach her the language of flowers, and whose magical bouquets hold both curses and cures. For a price. On one explosive night these kinetic forces will collide, and the only possible outcome is death.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525535898
MRS. MARCH by Virginia Feito (Psychological Thriller)
George March’s new novel is a smash. No one could be prouder than his dutiful wife, Mrs. March, who revels in his accolades. But one morning, the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that her husband’s latest protagonist --- a detestable character named Johanna --- is based on Mrs. March herself. What could have merited this humiliation? That one casual remark robs Mrs. March of the belief that she knew everything about her husband --- and herself --- thus sending her on an increasingly paranoid journey. While snooping in George’s office, Mrs. March finds a newspaper clipping about a missing woman. Did George have anything to do with her disappearance?
Liveright | 9781631498619
THE OPHELIA GIRLS by Jane Healey (Fiction)
In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth’s house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks. Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and 17-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth’s childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary?
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358106418
SHE WOULDN'T CHANGE A THING by Sarah Adlakha (Fiction)
When 39-year-old Maria Forssmann wakes up in her 17-year-old body, she doesn’t know how she got there. All she does know is that she has to get back: to her home in Bienville, Mississippi, to her job as a successful psychiatrist and, most importantly, to her husband, daughters and unborn son. But she also knows that, in only a few weeks, a devastating tragedy will strike her husband, a tragedy that will lead to their meeting each other. Can she change time and still keep what it’s given her?
Forge Books | 9781250774552
THE SHIMMERING STATE by Meredith Westgate (Dystopian Fiction)
Lucien moves to Los Angeles to be with his grandmother as she undergoes an experimental memory treatment for Alzheimer’s using a new drug, Memoroxin. An emerging photographer, he’s also running from the sudden death of his mother. Sophie has just landed the lead in the upcoming performance of La Sylphide with the Los Angeles Ballet. She still waitresses during her off-hours at the Chateau Marmont, witnessing the recreational use of Memoroxin --- or Mem --- among the Hollywood elite. When Lucien and Sophie meet at the Center, they have no memory of how they got there --- or why they feel so inexplicably drawn to one another. Is it attraction, or something they cannot remember from “before”?
Atria Books | 9781982156718
THE SHOW GIRL by Nicola Harrison (Historical Fiction)
It's 1927 when Olive McCormick moves from Minneapolis to New York City determined to become a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. Extremely talented as a singer and dancer, it takes every bit of perseverance to finally make it on stage. And once she does, all the glamour and excitement is everything she imagined and more. Then she meets Archie Carmichael. Handsome and wealthy, Archie is the only man she has ever met who seems to accept her modern ways --- her independent nature and passion for success. But once she accepts his proposal of marriage, he starts to change his tune. Olive must decide if she is willing to reveal a devastating secret and sacrifice the life she loves for the man she loves.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250200150
THIS WILL ALL BE OVER SOON: A Memoir by Cecily Strong (Memoir)
Cecily Strong had a special bond with her cousin, Owen. And so she was devastated when, in early 2020, he passed away at age 30 from the brain cancer glioblastoma. Before Strong could attempt to process her grief, another tragedy struck: the coronavirus pandemic. Following a few harrowing weeks in the virus epicenter of New York City, Strong relocated to an isolated house in the woods upstate. Here, trying to make sense of Owen’s death and the upended world, she spent much of the ensuing months writing. The result is THIS WILL ALL BE OVER SOON --- a raw, unflinching memoir about loss, love, laughter and hope.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982168315
TOKYO REDUX by David Peace (Historical/Noir Mystery)
Starting in American-occupied Tokyo, where tension and confusion reign, American detective Harry Sweeney leads the missing-person investigation for General MacArthur's GHQ. Fifteen years later, as Tokyo prepares for the global spotlight as host of the summer Olympics, private investigator Murota Hideki --- who was a policeman during the Occupation --- is confronted by this very same case, and is forced to address something he's been hiding for more than a decade. And 20-plus years after that, as Emperor Shōwa lays dying, Donald Reichenbach, an aging American eking out a living in Japan teaching and translating, discovers that the final reckoning of the greatest mystery of the era is now in his hands.
Knopf | 9780307263766
VORTEX: An FBI Thriller by Catherine Coulter (Thriller)
Seven years ago, Mia Briscoe was at a college frat rave with her best friend, Serena, when a fire broke out. Everyone was accounted for except Serena, who was never seen or heard from again. Now an investigative journalist covering the political scene in New York City, Mia discovers old photos taken the night of Serena’s disappearance and begins to uncover a sinister string of events going all the way back to that disastrous party. Working with Sherlock, the secrets begin to unravel. But some very powerful --- and very dangerous --- people will do anything to keep them from learning the truth.
William Morrow | 9780063004085
YOURS CHEERFULLY by AJ Pearce (Historical Fiction)
Following the departure of the formidable Henrietta Bird from Woman’s Friend magazine, things are looking up for Emmeline Lake as she takes on the challenge of becoming a young wartime advice columnist. Her relationship with boyfriend Charles (now stationed back in the UK) is blossoming, while Emmy’s best friend Bunty, still reeling from the very worst of the Blitz, is bravely looking to the future. The Ministry of Information calls on Britain’s women’s magazines to help recruit desperately needed female workers to the war effort. But when Emmy and Bunty meet a young woman who shows them the very real challenges that women war workers face, Emmy must tackle a life-changing dilemma between doing her duty and standing by her friends.
Scribner | 9781501170096
On Sale the Week of August 9th in Paperback
August 10th
1st CASE by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts (Thriller)
Angela's graduate school days at MIT come to an abrupt end when she uses her hacking skills on another student's computer. Yet her mentor, Eve Abajian, arranges a new beginning for her --- as an intern in the FBI's Boston field office. Her new supervisor, Assistant Special Agent in Charge William Keats, sees in Angela a fellow prodigy. But Angela's skills come with a natural curiosity, which is also a dangerous liability. With little training, Angela is quickly plunged into a tough case: tracking murderous brothers who go by the Poet and the Engineer. When Keats tells her to "watch and listen," Angela's mind kicks into overdrive. The obsessive thinking that earned her A’s on campus can prove fatal in the field.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538714973
AFTERLAND by Lauren Beukes (Dystopian Thriller/Science Fiction)
Twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence --- and pursued by Cole's own ruthless sister, Billie --- all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won't be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home. To get there, Cole and Miles must journey across a changed America in disguise as mother and daughter. From a military base in Seattle to a luxury bunker, from an anarchist commune in Salt Lake City to a roaming cult that's all too ready to see Miles as the answer to their prayers, the two race to stay ahead at every step…even as Billie and her sinister crew draw closer.
Mulholland Books | 9780316267854
THE BRIGHT SIDE SANCTUARY FOR ANIMALS by Becky Mandelbaum (Fiction)
It’s late 2016 when Ariel discovers that her mother Mona’s animal sanctuary in Western Kansas has not only been the target of anti-Semitic hate crimes, but that it’s also for sale, due to hidden financial ruin. Estranged from her mother for six years, Ariel knows she has to return to her childhood home --- especially since her own past may have played a role in the attack on the sanctuary. Ariel expects tension, maybe even fury, but she doesn’t anticipate that her first love, a ranch hand named Gideon, will still be working at the Bright Side. Meanwhile, Ariel’s charming but hapless fiancé, Dex, grows paranoid about her sudden departure. After uncovering Mona’s address, he sets out to confront Ariel, but instead finds her grappling with the life she’s abandoned.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982112998
BROKEN by Don Winslow (Thriller)
In six intense short novels connected by the themes of crime, corruption, vengeance, justice, loss, betrayal, guilt and redemption, BROKEN is #1 international bestseller Don Winslow at his nerve-shattering, heart-stopping, heartbreaking best. Here, he creates a world of high-level thieves and low-life crooks, obsessed cops struggling with life on and off the job, private detectives, dope dealers, bounty hunters and fugitives, the lost souls driving without headlights through the dark night on the American criminal highway.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062988898
COBBLE HILL by Cecily von Ziegesar (Fiction)
Welcome to Cobble Hill. In this eclectic Brooklyn neighborhood, private storms brew amongst four married couples and their children. There’s ex-groupie Mandy, so underwhelmed by motherhood and her current physical state that she fakes a debilitating disease to get the attention of her husband, Stuart. There’s the unconventional new school nurse, Peaches, on whom Stuart has an unrequited crush, and her disappointing husband Greg, who wears noise-cancelling headphones everywhere. Roy, a newly transplanted British novelist, has lost the thread of his next novel and his marriage to Wendy. Around the corner, Tupper, a nervous, introverted industrial designer, struggles to pin down his elusive artist wife, Elizabeth.
Atria Books | 9781982147044
FALLOUT: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World by Lesley M.M. Blume (History)
Just days after the United States decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. But even before the surrender, the U.S. government and military had begun a secret propaganda and information suppression campaign to hide the devastating nature of these experimental weapons. The cover-up intensified as Occupation forces closed the atomic cities to Allied reporters, preventing leaks about the horrific long-term effects of radiation that would kill thousands during the months after the blast. For nearly a year the cover-up worked --- until New Yorker journalist John Hersey got into Hiroshima and managed to report the truth to the world.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982128531
HANGING FALLS: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima (Mystery)
Officer Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner, Robo, stumble upon a body floating at the edge of a lake. Robo catches human scent, which leads to an enigmatic forest-dweller who quickly becomes the prime suspect. Mattie identifies the victim and discovers an odd religious cult whose dress and manners harken back to the 19th century. As the list of suspects grows, an unexpected visit from members of Mattie's long-lost family sheds new light on her childhood as they help Mattie piece together details of the fateful night when she was abducted at age two. The tangled threads of the investigation and family dynamics begin to intertwine --- but darkness threatens to claim a new victim before Mattie and Robo can track down the killers.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781643858098
HERE WE ARE by Graham Swift (Historical Fiction)
It is 1959 in Brighton, England, and the theater at the end of the famous pier is having its best summer season in years. Ronnie, a brilliant young magician, and Evie, his dazzling assistant, are top of the bill, drawing a full house every night. And Jack is everyone’s favorite master of ceremonies, holding the whole show together. But as the summer progresses, the drama among the three begins to overshadow their success onstage, setting in motion events that will reshape their lives.
Vintage | 9781984899521
JANE AUSTEN AT HOME: A Biography by Lucy Worsley (Biography)
Take a trip back to Jane Austen's world and the many places she lived as historian Lucy Worsley visits Austen's childhood home, her schools, her holiday accommodations, the houses --- both grand and small --- of the relations upon whom she was dependent, and the home she shared with her mother and sister towards the end of her life. In places like Steventon Parsonage, Godmersham Park, Chawton House and a small rented house in Winchester, Worsley discovers a Jane Austen very different from the one who famously lived a "life without incident." She examines the rooms, spaces and possessions that mattered to her, and the varying ways in which homes are used in her novels as both places of pleasure and as prisons.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250799968
LIFE IN A COLD CLIMATE: NANCY MITFORD: The Biography by Laura Thompson (Biography)
Nancy Mitford was, in the words of her sister Lady Diana Mosley, “very complex.” Her highly autobiographical early work, the biographies and novels of her more mature French period, her journalism, and the vast body of letters to her family, to friends such as Evelyn Waugh, and to the great love of her life, Gaston Palewski, all tell an intriguing story. Drawing from these, as well as conversations with Mitford’s two surviving sisters, acquaintances and colleagues, prize-winning author Laura Thompson has fashioned a portrait of a contradictory and courageous woman.
Pegasus Books | 9781643137728
THE LIGHT OF LUNA PARK by Addison Armstrong (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
New York City, 1926. Nurse Althea Anderson's heart is near breaking when she witnesses another premature baby die at Bellevue Hospital. So when she reads an article detailing the amazing survival rates of babies treated in incubators in an exhibit at Luna Park, Coney Island, it feels like the miracle she has been searching for. But the doctors at Bellevue dismiss Althea and this unconventional medicine, forcing her to make a choice between a baby's life and the doctors' wishes that will change everything. Twenty-five years later, Stella Wright is falling apart. Her mother has just passed, she quit a job she loves, and her marriage is struggling. Then she discovers a letter that brings into question everything she knew about her mother, and everything she knows about herself.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593328040
NEVER TURN BACK by Christopher Swann (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Ethan Faulkner is a precocious child with a brilliant but troublesome sister, a war vet for a father, and a weary mother trying to manage their family. One night a young woman rings their doorbell, desperate to hide from two men who are pursuing her, when one of the two barges in after her. The struggle leaves both of Ethan's parents dead. Years later, Ethan hasn't quite followed through on his promise to his dying father --- to take care of his sister. Quite frankly, he wants her to suffer for preventing him from getting to his dad before he died all those years ago. When news of a brutal murder breaks with evidence pointing to Ethan as the prime suspect, all the painful memories of his past come rushing to meet him.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781643858081
THE NIGHT WE BURNED by S. F. Kosa (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Dora is always aware of the line between fact and fiction. As a fact checker at an online magazine, her job depends on it. And as a woman outrunning her secrets, so does her life. But when a colleague decides to pursue a story about a murder in her hometown, one linked to a deadly fire at a cult compound 20 years prior, suddenly all of Dora's carefully spun deceptions are at risk. And if she can't stop the story, her entire life is on the line. As Dora works with her colleague, altering facts to hide her past along the way, she's thrown back into a world she tried desperately to leave behind. As her lies pile up, so do the murders. Until Dora realizes she won't be lucky enough to escape twice.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728215594
ONE YEAR GONE by Avery Bishop (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
“Sometimes teenagers run away…. Give her a few days. She’ll be back.” That’s what the police tell Jessica Moore when her 17-year-old daughter, Wyn, vanishes. All signs point to this being true. But days become weeks. Weeks become months. And Jessica begins to fear the terrible truth --- that she may never see her daughter again. Then, one year later, Jessica gets a flurry of text messages from Wyn that freeze her blood: mom. please help. i think he’s going to kill me. But Wyn’s terrified plea comes with a warning not to call the police. Her kidnapper wears a badge. Delving into the months leading up to Wyn’s disappearance, Jessica stumbles upon information that could put her own life in danger.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542018708
THE PERFECT FAMILY by Robyn Harding (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Thomas and Viv Adler are the envy of their neighbors. Until one morning, when they wake up to find their porch has been pelted with eggs. Thomas insists it’s a prank. But when a smoke bomb is tossed on their front lawn, and their car’s tires are punctured, the family begins to worry. Surveillance cameras show nothing but grainy images of shadowy figures in hoodies. And the police dismiss the attacks, insisting they’re just the work of bored teenagers. Unable to identify the perpetrators, the Adlers are helpless as the assaults escalate into violence, and worse. And each new violation brings with it a growing fear. Because everyone in the Adler family is keeping a secret --- not just from the outside world, but from each other.
Gallery Books | 9781982169398
THE RETURN by Nicholas Sparks (Romance)
Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he'd inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any. Trevor isn't prepared to fall in love with a local. Yet, from their very first encounter, he feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can't ignore. But she remains frustratingly distant, making him wonder what she's hiding. Trevor hopes that Callie, a sullen teenage girl who lives down the road, can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather's death. She offers few clues --- until a crisis triggers a race to uncover the true nature of her past.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538728581
SHADOW HILL: A Geneva Chase Crime Reporter Mystery by Thomas Kies (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Just days before an oil executive is scheduled to give a pseudo-scientific report to Congress, aiming to delay crucial action on climate change for decades, he and his wife are found shot to death in their Greenwich, Connecticut home. It's ruled a murder-suicide, but their son refuses to accept this conclusion and hires Geneva Chase, ex-journalist-turned-detective, to prove otherwise. With the report still due to Congress, the lead scientist of the study gone missing, climate activists turning violent, and members of the executive's family seeking revenge, Geneva races to find answers, stay alive and stop the report from reaching Washington.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464214400
THE SOCRATES EXPRESS: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers by Eric Weiner (Philosophy/Essays)
We turn to philosophy for the same reasons we travel: to see the world from a different perspective, to unearth hidden beauty, and to find new ways of being. We want to learn how to embrace wonder. Face regrets. Sustain hope. Eric Weiner combines his twin passions for philosophy and global travel in a pilgrimage that uncovers surprising life lessons from great thinkers around the world, from Rousseau to Nietzsche, Confucius to Simone Weil. Traveling by train (the most thoughtful mode of transport), he journeys thousands of miles, making stops in Athens, Delhi, Wyoming, Coney Island, Frankfurt and points in between to reconnect with philosophy’s original purpose: teaching us how to lead wiser, more meaningful lives.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781501129025
THIS IS THE NIGHT OUR HOUSE WILL CATCH FIRE: A Memoir by Nick Flynn (Memoir)
When Nick Flynn was seven years old, his mother set fire to their house. The event loomed large in his imagination for years, but it’s only after having a child of his own that he understands why. He returns with his young daughter to the landscape of his youth, reflecting on how his feral childhood has him still in its reins, and forms his memories into lyrical bedtime stories populated by the both sinister and wounded Mister Mann. THIS IS THE NIGHT OUR HOUSE WILL CATCH FIRE unravels the story of the fire that Flynn had to escape, and the ways in which, as an adult, he has carried that fire with him until it threatens to burn down his own house.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393867428
TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH by Gilly Macmillan (Psychological Thriller)
Lucy Harper’s talent for writing bestselling novels has given her fame, fortune and millions of fans. It’s also given her Dan, her needy, jealous husband whose own writing career has gone precisely nowhere. Now Dan has vanished. But this isn’t the first time that someone has disappeared from Lucy’s life. Three decades ago, her little brother Teddy also went missing and was never found. Lucy, the only witness, helplessly spun fantasy after fantasy about Teddy’s disappearance. But now Lucy is a grown woman who can’t hide behind fiction any longer. The world is watching, and her whole life is under intense scrutiny. Could she have hurt Teddy? Did she kill Dan? Finally, now, Lucy Harper is going to tell the truth.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062875594
TROUBLE THE SAINTS by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Historical Fantasy)
Amid the whir of city life, a young woman from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear among its most dangerous denizens. Ten years later, Phyllis LeBlanc has given up everything --- not just her own past, and Dev, the man she loved, but even her own dreams. Still, the ghosts from her past are always by her side --- and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she keeps in her heart. And so Phyllis will have to make a harrowing choice, before it’s too late. Is there ever enough blood in the world to wash clean generations of injustice?
Tor Books | 9781250175359
WHERE I COME FROM: Stories from the Deep South by Rick Bragg (Essays)
In this irresistible collection of wide-ranging and endearingly personal columns culled from his best-loved pieces in Southern Living and Garden & Gun, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Rick Bragg muses on everything from his love of Tupperware to the decline of country music; from the legacy of Harper Lee to the metamorphosis of the pickup truck; and from the best way to kill fire ants to why any self-respecting Southern man worth his salt should carry a good knife. WHERE I COME FROM celebrates “a litany of great talkers, blue-green waters, deep casseroles, kitchen-sink permanents, lying fishermen, haunted mansions, and dogs that never die, things that make this place more than a dotted line on a map or a long-ago failed rebellion, even if only in some cold-weather dream.”
Vintage | 9780593310809
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