October 26, 2021

October 26, 2021

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of October 25th and November 1st 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 review of SMILE: The Memoir of a Face, the extraordinary story of Sarah Ruhl's 10-year medical and metaphysical odyssey that brought her physical, creative, emotional and spiritual healing. According to our reviewer Sarah Rachel Egelman, "Ruhl is an honest storyteller who is unafraid to share the intimate and the humorous particulars of her life with Bell’s palsy. In the end, the book transcends this diagnosis and becomes a rumination on the wisdom found in literature and in friendship, the force of religious belief and spiritual seeking, the magic of long-lasting romantic love, the fragile, powerful joy of motherhood, and the importance of being kind and loving to oneself."

Austin Ruh, our media producer, joined Carol to talk to Sarah Ruhl about SMILE for our latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview. Sarah is a playwright, essayist and poet, as well as a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award nominee. Austin is a huge admirer of her playwriting, so he was excited to be on board to discuss this aspect of her work.

SMILE is the story of Sarah’s decade-long journey with Bell's palsy, as well as her experiences as a mother and an artist. After surviving a high-risk pregnancy, half of her face is left paralyzed. She is told that most patients recover within a few days, but her face doesn't go back to normal. Her life is roses to the public, with a play opening on Broadway and her family growing, but she struggles with happiness, both in what others can see on her face and what she reflects on internally.

In the interview, Sarah discusses how people feel emotion, especially how external expressions have the power to control our own feelings. She also talks about her writing, how her story grew into a memoir, how certain writing projects are handled differently, and what she's working on next. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.

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, October 27th at 4pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Emmy Award-winning TV host and journalist Tamron Hall for a live, virtual event to celebrate the release of the first in a thrilling new series, AS THE WICKED WATCH, as part of the B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Tamron will be in conversation with bestselling author Alafair Burke.

Wednesday, October 27th 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 Richard Paul Evans, whose upcoming novel is THE CHRISTMAS PROMISE.

Wednesday, October 27th at 7pm ET: McLean & Eakin Booksellers: Join McLean & Eakin Booksellers, in partnership with Books & Company and Boswell Book Company, for a free virtual event with Viola Shipman and Susan Mallery. They will discuss their new books, THE SECRET OF SNOW and THE CHRISTMAS WEDDING GUEST.

Wednesday, October 27th at 7pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's will host Tamron Hall as she discusses her new book, AS THE WICKED WATCH: The First Jordan Manning Novel, with Laura Dave.

Thursday, October 28th at 8:30pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's, in partnership with Penguin Random House, will host Lee Child and Andrew Child as they discuss their new Jack Reacher novel, BETTER OFF DEAD, with moderator Jake Tapper.

Friday, October 29th at 10am ET: Buxton Books: Join Buxton Books and Karen White virtually to celebrate the final book in her Tradd Street series, THE ATTIC ON QUEEN STREET.

Monday, November 1st at 7:30pm ET: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center: Mitch Albom will join the Streicker Center to discuss his new work, THE STRANGER IN THE LIFEBOAT. A group of shipwrecked passengers pull a strange man from the sea. He claims to be “the Lord.” And he says he can only save them if they all believe in him.

Tuesday, November 2nd at 12pm ET: Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites: Anthony Doerr will join members of the Simon & Schuster team for a Facebook Live Book Club chat about CLOUD CUCKOO LAND, which is October's pick for S&S's Book Club Favorites.

Tuesday, November 2nd at 8pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's, in partnership with William Morrow, will host Alison Gaylin as she discusses her new novel, THE COLLECTIVE, with Laura Lippman.

Tuesday, November 2nd at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Janet Evanovich will discuss GAME ON, the 28th installment in her series starring Stephanie Plum, who returns to hunt down a master cyber-criminal operating out of Trenton.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Review of SMILE by Sarah Ruhl

SMILE: The Story of a Face by Sarah Ruhl (Memoir)
With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralyzed. She is assured that 90 percent of Bell’s palsy patients see spontaneous improvement and experience a full recovery. Like Ruhl’s own mother. But Sarah is in the unlucky 10 percent. And for a woman, wife, mother and artist working in theater, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior bring significant and specific challenges. So Ruhl begins an intense decade-long search for a cure while simultaneously grappling with the reality of her new face --- one that, while recognizably her own, is incapable of accurately communicating feelings or intentions.

In a series of piercing, witty and lucid meditations, Ruhl chronicles her journey as a patient, wife, mother and artist. She explores the struggle of a body yearning to match its inner landscape, the pain of postpartum depression, the story of a marriage, being a playwright and working mom to three small children, and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness.

- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Sarah Ruhl.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.

Click here to read our review.

On Sale the Week of October 25th in Hardcover

October 26th

AS THE WICKED WATCH: The First Jordan Manning Novel by Tamron Hall (Mystery/Thriller)
When crime reporter Jordan Manning leaves her hometown in Texas to take a job at a television station in Chicago, she’s one step closer to her dream: a coveted anchor chair on a national network. She is smart and aggressive, with unabashed star-power, and often the only woman of color in the newsroom. Again and again, she is called to cover the murders of Black women --- many of them sexually assaulted, most brutalized and all of them quickly forgotten. All until Masey James, a 15-year-old girl whose body was found in an abandoned lot. Putting the rest of her work and her (fraying) personal life aside, Jordan does everything she can to give the story the coverage it desperately requires, and that Black children rarely receive.
William Morrow | 9780063037038

BAGGAGE: Tales from a Fully Packed Life by Alan Cumming (Memoir)
Much of BAGGAGE chronicles my life in Hollywood and how, since I recovered from a nervous breakdown at 28, work has repeatedly whisked me away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. It is also about marriage(s): starting with the break-up of my first (to a woman) and ending with the ascension to my second (to a man) with many kissed toads in between! But in everything, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X-Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), in every bad decision or moment of sensual joy I have endeavored to show what I have learned and how I’ve become who I am today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage.
Dey Street Books | 9780062435781

BETTER OFF DEAD: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Thriller)
Reacher is heading west, walking under the merciless desert sun --- until he comes upon a curious scene. A Jeep has crashed into the only tree for miles around. A woman is slumped over the wheel. Dead? No, nothing is what it seems. The woman is Michaela Fenton, an army veteran turned FBI agent trying to find her twin brother, who might be mixed up with some dangerous people. Most of them would rather die than betray their terrifying leader, who has burrowed his influence deep into the nearby border town. The mysterious Dendoncker rules from the shadows, out of sight and under the radar, keeping his dealings in the dark. Bringing him down will be the riskiest job of Reacher's life.
Delacorte Press | 9781984818508

BURNING BOY: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane by Paul Auster (Biography)
With BURNING BOY, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age 28. Auster’s probing account of this singular life tracks Crane as he rebounds from one perilous situation to the next.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250235831

THE CHANCELLOR: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton (Biography)
Famously private, the Angela Merkel who emerges in THE CHANCELLOR is a role model for anyone interested in gaining and keeping power while holding onto one’s moral convictions --- and for anyone looking to understand how to successfully bridge huge divisions within society. No modern leader has so ably confronted Russian aggression, provided homes to over a million refugees, and calmly unified Europe at a time when other countries are becoming more divided. But acclaimed biographer Kati Marton also describes Merkel’s many challenges, such as her complicated relationship with President Obama, who she refused to speak to at one point.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501192623

DOWN THE HATCH: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Mystery)
Private detective Agatha Raisin, having recently taken up power-walking, is striding along a path in Mircester Park during her lunch break when she hears a cry for help. Rushing over, she finds an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Swinburn, in the middle of the green --- with the body of an old man lying at their feet. The man, who the coroner determines died by poisoning, was known as "the Admiral," a gardener notorious for his heavy drinking, and Chief Inspector Wilkes writes the death off as an accident caused by the consumption of weedkiller stored in a rum bottle. Agatha is not convinced that anyone would mistake weedkiller for rum but carries on with her work at Raisin Investigations, until she receives an anonymous tip that the Admiral’s death was no accident.
Minotaur Books | 9781250816139

FIVE DECEMBERS by James Kestrel (Hard-boiled Historical Thriller)
December 1941. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever. Because the trail of murder he uncovers will lead him across the Pacific, far from home and the woman he loves. And though the U.S. doesn't know it yet, a Japanese fleet is already steaming toward Pearl Harbor.
Hard Case Crime | 9781789096118

GATED PREY by Lee Goldberg (Thriller)
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detective Eve Ronin and her soon-to-retire partner, Duncan Pavone, are running a 24-7 sting in a guard-gated enclave of palatial homes in Calabasas. Their luxury McMansion is a honey trap, set to lure in the violent home invaders terrorizing the community. The trap works, leaving three intruders dead, a body count that nearly includes Eve and Duncan. Eve’s bosses are eager to declare the case closed, but there are too many unanswered questions for her to let go. Was the trap actually for her, bloody payback for Eve’s very public takedown of a clique of corrupt deputies? Or is there an even deadlier secret lurking behind those opulent gates?
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542029346

GOING THERE by Katie Couric (Memoir)
For more than 40 years, Katie Couric has been an iconic presence in the media world. In her brutally honest, hilarious and heartbreaking memoir, she reveals what was going on behind the scenes of her sometimes tumultuous personal and professional life --- a story she’s never shared, until now. Of the medium she loves, the one that made her a household name, she says, “Television can put you in a box; the flat-screen can flatten. On TV, you are larger than life but smaller, too. It is not the whole story, and it is not the whole me. This book is.”
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316535861

GRAVE RESERVATIONS by Cherie Priest (Mystery)
Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley's Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s flight, her life changes in ways she couldn’t have predicted. After watching his original plane blow up from the safety of the airport, Grady realizes that Leda’s special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can’t crack. Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees for a secret reason: her fiancé’s murder remains unsolved. Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer --- and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected.
Atria Books | 9781982168896

HER HONOR: My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It by LaDoris Hazzard Cordell (Memoir)
Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court of Northern California, knows firsthand how prejudice has permeated our legal system. And yet, she believes in the system. From ending school segregation to legalizing same-sex marriage, its progress relies on legal professionals and jurors who strive to make the imperfect system as fair as possible. HER HONOR is an entertaining and provocative look into the hearts and minds of judges. Cordell takes you into her chambers where she haggles with prosecutors and defense attorneys, and into the courtroom during jury selection and sentencing hearings. She uses real cases to highlight how judges make
difficult decisions, all the while facing outside pressures.
Celadon Books | 9781250269607

THE MEMOIRS OF STOCKHOLM SVEN by Nathaniel Ian Miller (Historical Fiction)
In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves a restless life in Stockholm to seek adventure in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where darkness reigns four months of the year. He might witness the splendor of the Northern Lights one night and be attacked by a polar bear the next. But his time as a miner ends when an avalanche nearly kills him, leaving him disfigured, and Sven flees even further, to an uninhabited fjord. There, with the company of a loyal dog, he builds a hut and lives alone, testing himself against the elements. Years into his routine isolation, the arrival of an unlikely visitor salves his loneliness, sparking a chain of surprising events that will bring Sven into a family of fellow castoffs and determine the course of the rest of his life.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316592550

THE NAMELESS ONES by John Connolly (Supernatural Thriller)
In Amsterdam, four bodies, violently butchered, are discovered in a canal house, the remains of friends and confidantes of the assassin known only as Louis. The men responsible for the murders are Serbian war criminals. They believe they can escape retribution by retreating to their homeland. They are wrong. For Louis has come to Europe to hunt them down: five killers to be found and punished before they can vanish into thin air. There is just one problem. The sixth.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982176976

ON GIRLHOOD: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim (Fiction/Short Stories)
Since founding the beloved Well-Read Black Girl book club in 2015, Glory Edim has emerged as a literary tastemaker for a new generation. Continuing her life’s work to brighten and enrich American reading lives through the work of legendary Black authors, she now launches her Well-Read Black Girl Library Series with ON GIRLHOOD. This meticulously selected anthology features a wide range of unique voices, finally illuminating a distinctly robust sector of contemporary literature: groundbreaking short stories that explore the thin yet imperative line between Black girlhood and womanhood.
Liveright | 9781631497698

RENEGADES: Born in the USA by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen (Social Science/Popular Culture)
RENEGADES is a candid, revealing and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders --- one Black and one white --- looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity and community with the American story itself.
Crown | 9780593236314

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE THREE WINTER TERRORS by James Lovegrove (Historical Mystery)
1889. The First Terror. At a boys’ prep school in the Kent marshes, a pupil is found drowned in a pond. Could this be the fulfilment of a witch’s curse from over 200 years earlier? 1890. The Second Terror. A wealthy man dies of a heart attack at his London townhouse. Was he really frightened to death by ghosts? 1894. The Third Terror. A body is discovered in the dark woods near a Surrey country manor, hideously ravaged. Is the culprit a cannibal, as the evidence suggests? These three chilling and strangely linked crimes test Sherlock Holmes’ deductive powers, and his scepticism about the supernatural, to the limit.
Titan Books | 9781789096712

THE WANDERING EARTH by Cixin Liu (Science Fiction/Short Stories)
The 10 stories in THE WANDERING EARTH, including five Chinese Galaxy Award winners, are a blazingly original ode to planet Earth, its pasts and its futures. Cixin Liu's fiction takes the reader to the edge of the universe and the end of time, to meet stranger fates than we ever could have imagined. With a melancholic and keen understanding of human nature, Liu's stories show humanity's attempts to reason, navigate and, above all, survive in a desolate cosmos.
Tor Books | 9781250796837

WHAT THE AMISH TEACH US: Plain Living in a Busy World by Donald B. Kraybill (Cultural Studies/History)
It sounds audacious, but it's true: the Amish have much to teach us. It may seem surreal to turn to one of America's most traditional groups for lessons about living in a hyper-tech world --- especially a horse-driving people who resist "progress" by snubbing cars, public grid power and high school education. Still, their wisdom confirms that even when they seem so far behind, they're out ahead of the rest of us. Having spent four decades researching Amish communities, Donald B. Kraybill is in a unique position to share important lessons from these fascinating Plain people. In this inspiring book, we learn intriguing truths about community, family, education, faith, forgiveness, aging and death from real Amish men and women.
Johns Hopkins University Press | 9781421442174

WHERE THEY WAIT by Scott Carson (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Recently laid-off from his newspaper and desperate for work, war correspondent Nick Bishop takes a humbling job: writing a profile of a new mindfulness app called Clarity. It’s easy money, and a chance to return to his hometown for his first visit in years. The app itself seems like a retread of old ideas, but then there are the “Sleep Songs.” A woman’s hauntingly beautiful voice sings a ballad that is anything but soothing --- it’s disturbing, more of a warning than a relaxation --- but it works. Deep, refreshing sleep follows. So do nightmares. Vivid and chilling, they feature a dead woman who calls Nick by name and whispers guidance --- or are they threats? And soon her voice follows him long after the song is done.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982104627

On Sale the Week of October 25th in Paperback

October 26th

ALL THAT GLITTERS by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Nicole “Coco” Martin has been given every opportunity in life. Having inherited her mother’s stunning beauty and creativity, along with her father’s work ethic and diligence, she has the world at her feet. Her graduation from Columbia is fast approaching, and with it the summer job of her dreams working at a magazine. Between work, leisurely weekends at her family’s home in Southampton, and spending as much time as possible with her best friend, Sam, life couldn’t be better --- until tragedy strikes. Coco’s beloved parents are killed in a terrorist attack while on vacation in France. Now devastated and alone, Coco must find a way to move forward and make her way in the world without the family she loved.
Dell | 9780399179709

BATTLE GROUND: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy)
Harry Dresden has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders. But this time it’s different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennium is coming. And she’s bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago, and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way. Harry’s mission is simple but impossible: Save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry’s life, Chicago and the mortal world forever.
Ace | 9780593199312

BLINK OF AN EYE by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen (Mystery/Thriller)
Delilah Winter is one of the hottest pop stars on the planet, so how in the world was she kidnapped right in the middle of a show at the famous Hollywood Bowl? If anyone can figure it out, it's Dr. Kendra Michaels, who works with local and federal authorities on only the most impossible cases. She agrees to lead the race to rescue the young singer before time runs out. Joined by Jessie Mercado, the singer's former bodyguard and a military hero, Kendra closes in on the hideout location but not before casualties mount up. Desperate for leads, Kendra must set aside her personal feelings when agent-for-hire Adam Lynch also volunteers his special skills to aid in the search. But as the abductor's true purpose becomes clear, the trio uncover a plot they never could have imagined --- leading to a showdown they won't soon forget.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538762851

BLOOD RUNS COAL: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley (True Crime/History)
In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 1969, in the small soft coal mining borough of Clarksville, Pennsylvania, longtime trade union insider Joseph “Jock” Yablonski and his wife and daughter were brutally murdered in their old stone farmhouse. Behind the assassination was the corrupt president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), Tony Boyle, who had long embezzled UMWA funds, silenced intra-union dissent, and served the interests of Big Coal companies --- and would do anything to maintain power. The most infamous crimes in the history of American labor unions, the Yablonski murders catalyzed the first successful rank-and-file takeover of a major labor union in modern US history.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393868395

BRITAIN AT BAY: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941 by Alan Allport (History)
Here is the many-faceted, world-historically significant story of Britain at war. In looking closely at the military and political dimensions of the first crucial years of World War II, Alan Allport tackles pressing questions such as whether the war could have been avoided, how it could have been lost, how well the British lived up to their own values, and ultimately, what difference the war made to the fate of the nation. In answering these questions, he reexamines our assumptions and paints a vivid portrait of the ways in which the Second World War transformed British culture and society. BRITAIN AT BAY gives us a fresh look at the opening years of the war, and illuminates the integral moments that, for better or for worse, made Britain what it is today.
Vintage | 9781101974698

CHRISTMAS IN PEACHTREE BLUFF by Kristy Woodson Harvey (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When the Murphy women are in trouble, they always know they can turn to their mother, Ansley. So when eldest daughter Caroline and her husband, James, announce they are divorcing --- and 15-year-old daughter Vivi acts out in response --- Caroline, at her wit's end, can’t think of anything to do besides leave her with Ansley in Peachtree Bluff for the holidays. After all, how much trouble can one teenager get into on a tiny island? Quite a lot, as it turns out. As the “storm of the century” heads toward Peachtree Bluff, Ansley and her husband, Jack, with Vivi in tow, are grateful they’re planning to leave for the trip of a lifetime. But Vivi’s recklessness forces the trio to shelter in place during the worst hurricane Peachtree has ever seen.
Gallery Books | 9781982185206

CROSSINGS by Alex Landragin (Fiction)
On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence. The first piece is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250796721

D (A TALE OF TWO WORLDS) by Michel Faber (Fantasy)
It all starts on the morning the letter D disappears from language. First, it vanishes from Dhikilo’s parents’ conversation at breakfast, then from the road signs outside and from her school dinners. Soon the local dentist and the neighbor’s dalmatian are missing, and even the Donkey Derby has been called off. Though she doesn’t know why, Dhikilo is summoned to the home of her old history teacher Professor Dodderfield and his faithful Labrador, Nelly Robinson. And this is where our story begins.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335474797

FIND YOU FIRST by Linwood Barclay (Psychological Thriller)
Tech millionaire Miles Cookson recently has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and there is a 50 percent chance that it can be passed on to the next generation. Two decades ago, a young, struggling Miles was a sperm donor. Somewhere out there, he has nine kids, and they might be about to inherit both the good and the bad from him. Aspiring film documentarian Chloe Swanson embarks on a quest to find her biological father, armed with the knowledge that 22 years ago, her mother used a New York sperm bank to become pregnant. When Miles and Chloe eventually connect, their excitement at finding each other is overshadowed by a series of mysterious and terrifying events. One by one, Miles’ other potential heirs are vanishing --- every trace of them wiped, like they never existed at all.
William Morrow | 9780062993878

GOLEM GIRL: A Memoir by Riva Lehrer (Memoir)
In 1958, amongst the children born with spina bifida is Riva Lehrer. At the time, most such children are not expected to survive. Her parents and doctors are determined to "fix" her, sending the message over and over again that she is broken. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured. Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of artists, writers and performers who are building Disability Culture. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits --- inventing an intimate and collaborative process that will transform the way she sees herself, others and the world.
One World | 9781984820327

HENCH by Natalie Zina Walschots (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy? As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured. So, of course, then she gets laid off. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks. It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062978585

I’LL BE SEEING YOU: A Memoir by Elizabeth Berg (Memoir)
Elizabeth Berg’s father was an Army veteran who was a tough man in every way but one: He showed a great deal of love and tenderness to his wife. Berg describes her parents’ marriage as a romance that lasted for nearly 70 years. But then her father developed Alzheimer’s disease, and her parents were forced to leave the home they loved and move into a facility that could offer them help. It was time for their children to offer practical advice, emotional support and direction, to the best of their abilities. The mix of emotions on everyone’s part could make every day feel like walking through a minefield. Then came redemption.
Ballantine Books | 9780593134689

MAD AT THE WORLD: A Life of John Steinbeck by William Souder (Biography)
The first full-length biography of the Nobel laureate to appear in a quarter century, MAD AT THE WORLD illuminates what has made the work of John Steinbeck an enduring part of the literary canon: his capacity for empathy. Pulitzer Prize finalist William Souder explores Steinbeck’s long apprenticeship as a writer struggling through the depths of the Great Depression, and his rise to greatness with masterpieces such as THE RED PONY, OF MICE AND MEN and THE GRAPES OF WRATH.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393868326

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH: A Robin Lockwood Novel by Phillip Margolin (Legal Thriller)
Joe Lattimore, homeless and trying desperately to provide for his young family, agrees to fight in a no-holds-barred illegal bout, only to have his opponent die. Lattimore now finds himself at the mercy of the fight's organizers, who blackmail him into burglarizing a house. However, when he breaks in, he finds a murdered woman on the floor, and the police have received an anonymous tip naming him the murderer. Robin Lockwood, an increasingly prominent young attorney and former MMA fighter, agrees to take on his defense. The murdered woman's husband, Judge Anthony Carasco, has an alibi, and Lattimore's fingerprints are discovered at the scene. But Lockwood is convinced that her client has been framed.
Minotaur Books | 9781250802163

MEMORIAL by Bryan Washington (Fiction)
Benson and Mike have been together for a few years, but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. When Mike finds out that his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan, he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike's immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it.
Riverhead Books | 9780593087282

A NEW WORLD BEGINS: The History of the French Revolution by Jeremy Popkin (History)
The French Revolution’s principles of liberty and equality still shape our ideas of a just society --- even if, after more than 200 years, their meaning is more contested than ever before. In A NEW WORLD BEGINS, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the reader in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society. We meet Mirabeau, Robespierre and Danton in all their brilliance and vengefulness; we witness the failed escape and execution of Louis XVI; we see women demanding equal rights and Black slaves wresting freedom from revolutionaries who hesitated to act on their own principles; and we follow the rise of Napoleon out of the ashes of the Reign of Terror.
Basic Books | 9781541620179

NIGHT IN TEHRAN by Philip Kaplan (Thriller)
Based on real events, NIGHT IN TEHRAN places an idealistic American diplomat in a turbulent, US-hating Tehran in the days leading up to the Iranian Revolution. Backed by the CIA, and trailed by a beautiful and engaging French journalist he suspects is a spy, David Weiseman's mission is to ease the Shah of Iran out of power and find the best alternative between the military, religious extremists and the political ruling class --- many of whom are simultaneously trying to kill him.
Melville House ‎| 9781612199443

THE NIGHT OF THE FIRE by Kjell Eriksson (Mystery)
Police inspector Ann Lindell has left the Uppsala police and is living a quiet life, producing local cheese in a small town in Uppland. But life in the country is not as idyllic as it seems. On New Year’s Eve, someone sets fire to the former village school that is now a home for asylum seekers, and three people are killed. Ann Lindell’s investigative instincts come back to life, and soon she takes on the case. She is contacted by a person who has been involved in a previous investigation and wants to warn her. His message is short and clear: Many will die. A few weeks later, a bomb explodes in a suburb of Stockholm.
Minotaur Books | 9781250804174

ROBERT B. PARKER’S SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME: A Spenser Novel by Ace Atkins (Mystery)
Ten years ago, Spenser helped a teenage girl named Mattie Sullivan find her mother's killer and take down an infamous Southie crime boss. Now Mattie is a college student with a side job working for the tough but tender private eye. Her first big case involves a 15-year-old girl assaulted by a much older man at one of Boston's most prestigious private clubs. The girl, Chloe Turner, only wants the safe return of her laptop and backpack. But like her mentor and boss, Mattie has a knack for asking the right questions of the wrong people. Soon Spenser and Mattie find ties between the exploitation of dozens of other girls from working class families to an eccentric billionaire and his sadistic henchwoman.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525536864

RHYTHM OF WAR: Book Four of The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy)
After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar’s crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move. Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin’s scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength.
Tor Books | 9781250757302

SAVAGE ROAD: A Hayley Chill Thriller by Chris Hauty (Political Thriller)
When a series of devastating cyber attacks rock the United States, Hayley Chill is tasked by the “deeper state” to track down their source. NSA analysts insist that Moscow is the culprit, but that accusation brings plenty of complications with Hayley directing the president as a double agent against the Russians. With increasing pressure on the president to steer him towards a devastating war, it’s up to Hayley to stop the mysterious computer hacker and prevent World War III --- while also uncovering some shocking truths about her own life.
Pocket Books | 9781982126629

THE SECRET OF SNOW by Viola Shipman (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Sonny Dunes, a SoCal meteorologist, is replaced by a virtual meteorologist that will never age, gain weight or renegotiate its contract, the only station willing to give the 50-year-old another shot is the very place she has been avoiding since the day she left for college --- her northern Michigan hometown. Sonny grudgingly returns and finds her past blindsiding her everywhere. She throws herself headfirst into covering every small-town winter event to woo a new audience, made more bearable by a handsome widower with optimism to spare. But with someone trying to undermine her efforts to rebuild her career, Sonny must make peace with who she used to be and allow her heart to thaw if she’s ever going to find a place she can truly call home.
Graydon House | 9781525899812

SERPENTINE: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman (Psychological Thriller)
The LAPD pressures homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis to cater to the demands of a mogul: a hard-to-fathom, megarich young woman who is obsessed with reopening the coldest of cases --- the decades-old death of the mother she never knew. A mysterious woman was found with a bullet in her head in a torched Cadillac that has overturned on infamously treacherous Mulholland Drive. No physical evidence, no witnesses, no apparent motive. And a slew of detectives have already worked the case and failed. But as Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware begin digging, the mist begins to lift. Too many coincidences. Facts turn out to be anything but. And, as they soon discover, very real threats lurking in the present.
Ballantine Books | 9780525618577

SURVIVAL INSTINCTS by Jen Waite (Psychological Thriller)
Twenty-something Anne meets the man of her dreams right out of college, but after they get married, Anne notices that her husband begins acting differently. Why is Ethan suddenly so moody? And will their marriage endure? Ten years later, Anne and her 12-year-old daughter, Thea, are safely living in Vermont. When Thea takes to brooding and showing classic signs of teen angst, a trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire --- accompanied by Anne’s mother, Rose --- seems like the perfect chance to bond. But a man follows the three women on a hike at a nature reserve and drags them at gunpoint to an abandoned cabin in the woods. Just like that, their peaceful weekend away turns into a fight for survival.
Dutton | 9781524745844

THE UNHEARD by Nicci French (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Maybe Tess is overprotective, but passing her daughter off to her ex and his new young wife fills her with a sense of dread. It hurts to see him enjoying married life with someone else. Still, she owes it to her daughter Poppy to make this arrangement work. But Poppy returns from the weekend tired and withdrawn. And when she shows Tess a crayon drawing --- an image so simple and violent that Tess can hardly make sense of it --- Poppy can only explain with the words, “He did kill her.” Jason insists the weekend went off without a hitch. Doctors advise that Poppy may be reacting to her parents’ separation. And as the days go on, even Poppy’s disturbing memory seems to fade. But a mother knows her daughter, and Tess is determined to discover the truth.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063137745

THE USUAL SANTAS: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers foreword by Peter Lovesey (Mystery/Short Stories)
Nine mall Santas must find the imposter among them. An elderly lady seeks peace from her murderously loud neighbors at Christmastime. A young woman receives a mysterious invitation to Christmas dinner with a stranger. Sherlock Holmes' one-time nemesis, Irene Adler, finds herself in an unexpected tangle in Paris while on a routine espionage assignment. Jane Austen searches for the Dowager Duchess of Wilborough’s stolen diamonds. These and other adventures in this collection of 18 holiday stories will whisk readers away to Christmases around the globe --- from a Korean War POW camp to a Copenhagen refugee squat, from a palatial hotel in 1920s Bombay to a crumbling mansion in Havana.
Soho Crime | 9781641293181

VERITY by Colleen Hoover (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Jeremy Crawford, the husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh to complete the remaining books in a successful series that his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read --- page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538724736

THE WICKED WIDOW: A Wicked City Novel by Beatriz Williams (Historical Romance)
Paperback Original
June 1925: Audacious Appalachian flapper Geneva “Gin” Kelly prepares to trade her high-flying ways for respectable marriage to Oliver Anson Marshall. But just as wedding bells chime, the head of the notorious East Coast rum-running racket turns up murdered at a society funeral, and their short-lived honeymoon bliss goes up in a spectacular blaze. June 1998: When Ella Dommerich’s ninetysomething society queen aunt Julie ropes her into digging up dirt on Senator (and Presidential candidate) Franklin Hardcastle, she couldn’t be less enthusiastic. But then the Hardcastle secrets lead to a web of shady dealings Ella has uncovered in her job as a financial analyst, and the bodies start to tumble out of the venerable woodwork.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063142442

On Sale the Week of November 1st in Hardcover

November 1st

BEFORE BROOKLYN: The Unsung Heroes Who Helped Break Baseball’s Color Barrier by Ted Reinstein (Sports/History)
In April 1945, exactly two years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, liberal Boston City Councilman Izzy Muchnick persuaded the Red Sox to try out three Black players in return for a favorable vote to allow the team to play on Sundays. The Red Sox got the councilman’s much-needed vote, but the tryout was a sham; the three players would get no closer to the major leagues. It was a lost battle in a war that was ultimately won by Robinson in 1947. BEFORE BROOKLYN tells the story of the little-known heroes who fought segregation in baseball, from communist newspaper reporters to the Pullman car porters who saw to it that Black newspapers espousing integration in professional sports reached the homes of Blacks throughout the country.
Lyons Press | 9781493051212

November 2nd

THE ATTIC ON QUEEN STREET by Karen White (Mystery)
Melanie Trenholm’s husband, Jack, has asked for a separation. But their relationship issues are pushed aside when longtime nemesis Marc Longo comes to them with a proposition: allow their Tradd Street house to be used as the filming location for the movie adaptation of Marc’s bestselling book, and he will help Jack reestablish his stalled writing career. Despite Melanie’s hesitation, Jack jumps at the chance. But Melanie’s doubts soon prove to be well founded when she uncovers ulterior reasons for Marc wanting to be back in their house --- reasons that include a hidden gem so brilliant that legend links it to the most infamous jewel of all, the Hope Diamond.
Berkley | 9780451475251

THE BLOODLESS BOY by Robert J. Lloyd (Historical Thriller/Mystery)
The City of London, 1678. When the body of a young boy drained of his blood is discovered on the snowy bank of the Fleet River, Robert Hooke, the Curator of Experiments at the just-formed Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge, and his assistant Harry Hunt are called in to explain such a ghastly finding. Meanwhile, that same morning, Henry Oldenburg, the Secretary of the Royal Society, blows his brains out, and a disgraced Earl is released from the Tower of London, bent on revenge against the King, Charles II. Wary of the political hornet’s nest they are walking into --- and using scientific evidence rather than paranoia in their pursuit of truth --- Hooke and Hunt must discover why the boy was murdered and why his blood was taken.
Melville House | 9781612199399

BOTH/AND: A Life in Many Worlds by Huma Abedin (Memoir)
The daughter of Indian and Pakistani intellectuals and advocates, Huma Abedin grew up in the United States and Saudi Arabia and traveled widely. BOTH/AND grapples with family, legacy, identity, faith, marriage, motherhood and work. Abedin launched full steam into a college internship in the office of the First Lady in 1996, never imagining that her work at the White House would blossom into a career in public service, nor that her career would become an all-consuming way of life. Her relationship with Hillary Clinton has seen both women through extraordinary personal and professional highs, as well as unimaginable lows. Here, for the first time, is a deeply personal account of Clinton as mentor, confidante and role model.
Scribner | 9781501194801

BURNTCOAT by Sarah Hall (Dystopian Fiction)
In an unnamed British city, a deadly global virus is spreading, and like everyone else, the celebrated sculptor Edith Harkness retreats inside. She isolates herself in her immense studio, Burntcoat, with Halit, the lover she barely knows. As life outside changes irreparably, inside Burntcoat, Edith and Halit find themselves changed as well: by the histories and responsibilities each carries and bears, by the fears and dangers of the world outside, and by the progressions of their new relationship. And Burntcoat will be transformed, too, into a new and feverish world, a place in which Edith comes to an understanding of how we survive the impossible --- and what is left after we have.
Custom House | 9780062657107

CARRY THE DOG by Stephanie Gangi (Fiction)
Bea Seger has spent a lifetime running from her childhood. The daughter of a famous photographer, she and her brothers were the subjects of an explosive series of images in the 1960s known as the Marx Nudes. Disturbing and provocative, the photographs shadowed the family long past the public outcry and media attention. Now, decades later, both the Museum of Modern Art and Hollywood have come calling, eager to cash in on Bea’s mother’s notoriety. Twice divorced from but still entangled with aging rock star Gary Going, Bea lives in Manhattan with her borrowed dog, Dory, and sort-of sister, Echo. After years of avoiding her past, Bea must make a choice: let the world in --- and be compensated for the trauma of her childhood --- or leave it all locked away in a storage unit forever.
Algonquin Books | 9781643751276

COKIE: A Life Well Lived by Steven V. Roberts (Biography)
Through her visibility and celebrity, Cokie Roberts was an inspiration and a role model for innumerable women and girls. A fixture on national television and radio for more than 40 years, she also wrote five bestselling books focusing on the role of women in American history. In this loving tribute, Cokie’s husband of 53 years, Steve Roberts, reflects not only on her many accomplishments, but on how she lived each day with a devotion to helping others. For Steve, Cokie’s private life was as significant and inspirational as her public one. Her commitment to celebrating and supporting other women was evident in everything she did, and her generosity and passion drove her personal and professional endeavors.
Harper | 9780062851475

THE COLLECTIVE by Alison Gaylin (Psychological Thriller)
Camille Gardener is a grieving --- and angry --- mother who, five years after her daughter’s death, is still obsessed with the privileged young man she believes to be responsible. When her rash actions draw the attention of a secret group of women --- the collective --- Camille is drawn into a dark web where these mothers share their wildly different stories of loss, as well as their desire for justice in a world where privilege denies accountability. Fueled by mutual rage, the collective members devise and act out retribution fantasies via precise, anonymous, highly coordinated revenge killings. As Camille struggles to comprehend whether this is a role-playing exercise or a terrifying reality, she must decide if these women are truly avenging angels or monsters.
William Morrow | 9780063083158

THE CORRESPONDENTS: Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II by Judith Mackrell (History)
On the front lines of the Second World War, a contingent of female journalists were bravely waging their own battle: Martha Gellhorn, who got the scoop on Ernest Hemingway on D-Day by traveling to Normandy as a stowaway on a Red Cross ship; Lee Miller, who went from being a Vogue cover model to the magazine’s official war correspondent; Sigrid Schultz, who hid her Jewish identity and risked her life by reporting on the Nazi regime; Virginia Cowles, a “society girl columnist” turned combat reporter; Clare Hollingworth, the first English journalist to break the news of World War II; and Helen Kirkpatrick, the first woman to report from an Allied war zone with equal privileges to men. In Judith Mackrell's THE CORRESPONDENTS, these six women are captured in all their complexity.
Doubleday | 9780385547666

THE FAMILY by Naomi Krupitsky (Historical Fiction)
Sofia Colicchio is a free spirit, loud and untamed. Antonia Russo is thoughtful, ever observing the world around her. Best friends since birth, they live in the shadow of their fathers’ unspoken community: the Family. But the disappearance of Antonia’s father drives a whisper-thin wedge between the girls as they grow into women, wives, mothers and leaders. Their hearts expand in tandem with Red Hook and Brooklyn around them, as they push against the boundaries of society’s expectations and fight to preserve their complex but life-sustaining friendship. One fateful night their loyalty to each other and the Family will be tested. Only one of them can pull the trigger before it’s too late.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525541998

GAME ON: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
When Stephanie Plum is woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of footsteps in her apartment, she wishes she didn’t keep her gun in the cookie jar in her kitchen. And when she finds out the intruder is fellow apprehension agent Diesel, six feet of hard muscle and bad attitude who she hasn’t seen in more than two years, she still thinks the gun might come in handy. It turns out Diesel and Stephanie are on the trail of the same fugitive: Oswald Wednesday, an international computer hacker as brilliant as he is ruthless. Unsure if Diesel is her partner or her competition in this case, she’ll need to watch her back every step of the way as she sets the stage to draw Wednesday out from behind his computer and into the real world.
Atria Books | 9781982154875

THE GOOD KINGS: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World by Kara Cooney (History)
In a new era when democracies around the world are threatened or crumbling, bestselling author Kara Cooney turns to five ancient Egyptian pharaohs --- Khufu, Senwosret III, Akenhaten, Ramses II and Taharqa --- to understand why many so often give up power to the few, and what it can mean for our future. As the first centralized political power on earth, the pharaohs and their process of divine kingship can tell us a lot about the world's politics, past and present. Every animal-headed god, every monumental temple, every pyramid, every tomb offers extraordinary insight into a culture that combined deeply held religious beliefs with uniquely human schemes to justify a system in which one ruled over many.
National Geographic | 9781426221965

THE HUSH by Sara Foster (Thriller)
Lainey’s friend, Ellis, is missing. And she’s not the only one. In the six months since the first case of a terrifying new epidemic --- when a healthy baby wouldn’t take a breath at birth --- the country has been thrown into turmoil. The government has passed sweeping new laws to monitor all citizens. And several young pregnant women have vanished without a trace. As a midwife, Lainey’s mum, Emma, is determined to be there for those who need her. But when 17-year-old Lainey finds herself in trouble, this dangerous new world becomes very real. The one person who might help is Emma’s estranged mother, but reaching out to her will put them all in jeopardy.
Blackstone Publishing | 9781665106856

THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES by Elif Shafak (Fiction)
Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof that bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings, and eventually to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he's searching for lost love.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635578591

THE LEAST OF US: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth by Sam Quinones (Social Science)
Sam Quinones traveled from Mexico to main streets across the US to create DREAMLAND, a groundbreaking portrait of the opioid epidemic. As the nation struggled to put back the pieces, Quinones was among the first to see the dangers that lay ahead. In fentanyl, traffickers landed a painkiller a hundred times more powerful than morphine, causing tens of thousands of deaths. At the same time, Mexican traffickers made methamphetamine cheaper and more potent than ever, creating swaths of mental illness and a surge in homelessness across the United States. Quinones hit the road to investigate these new threats, discovering how addiction is exacerbated by consumer-product corporations.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635574357

LIGHTNING DOWN: A World War II Story of Survival by Tom Clavin (History)
On August 13, 1944, Joe Moser set off on his 44th combat mission over occupied France. Soon, he would join almost 170 other Allied airmen as prisoners in Buchenwald, one of the most notorious and deadly of Nazi concentration camps. Tom Clavin's LIGHTNING DOWN tells this largely untold and riveting true story. Moser was just 22 years old, a farm boy from Washington State who fell in love with flying. During the War he realized his dream of piloting a P-38 Lightning, one of the most effective weapons the Army Air Corps had against the powerful German Luftwaffe. But on that hot August morning, he had to bail out of his damaged, burning plane. Captured immediately, Moser’s journey into hell began.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250151261

A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by Freya Marske (Historical Fantasy)
Robin Blyth is the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known. Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it --- not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles --- and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.
Tordotcom | 9781250788870

MURDER AT GREYSBRIDGE: An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter (Mystery)
Summer has arrived in Inishowen, and solicitor Benedicta (Ben) O'Keeffe is greatly tempted by a job offer from a law firm in America. Yet, before making any life-changing decisions, there is her assistant Leah's wedding to attend at the newly restored Greysbridge Hotel. Tragically, the festivities are cut short when a young American drowns in full view of the wedding guests. And when a second death is discovered the same evening, Ben finds herself embroiled in a real country-house-murder-mystery, where all the guests are suspects. A deadly conspiracy is unfolding on this tiny North Atlantic island, fueled by the ruthless pursuit of money, careening toward disaster for the inhabitants --- and for Ben.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094288

MURDER, SHE WROTE: DEBONAIR IN DEATH by Jessica Fletcher and Terrie Farley Moran (Mystery)
When Nelson Penzell, the co-owner of a local art and treasure store in Cabot Cove, is murdered, the nail tech from Jessica Fletcher's favorite beauty parlor is the main suspect. After all, she's the one who ran out of the store screaming, covered in blood and holding the murder weapon. Jessica is positive that Coreen can't possibly be guilty and is determined to prove it. When Michael Haggerty, a handsome MI-6 agent and Jessica's old friend, is caught snooping around the victim’s home, it's quickly apparent to her that she was right. Nelson has always had a bit of a reputation for being a rake, but Haggerty is sure his sins go far beyond what anyone in town imagined.
Berkley | 9780593333624

NEW YORK, MY VILLAGE by Uwem Akpan (Fiction)
From a suspiciously cheap Hell’s Kitchen walk-up, Nigerian editor and winner of a Toni Morrison Publishing Fellowship Ekong Udousoro is about to learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry from its incandescent epicenter. While his sophisticated colleagues meet him with kindness and hospitality, he is soon exposed to a colder, ruthlessly commercial underbelly, not the least of which is a bedrock of white cultural superiority and racist assumptions about Africa, its peoples and, worst of all, its food. Reckoning with the recent history of the devastating and brutal Biafran War, in which his people were a minority of a minority caught up in the mutual slaughter of majority tribes, Ekong’s life in New York becomes a saga of unanticipated strife.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393881424

OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS by Gary Shteyngart (Fiction/Humor)
It’s March 2020, and a calamity is unfolding. A group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family.
Random House | 9781984855121

STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman (Fiction)
Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amidst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses' life for the next four decades. As Ulysses returns home to London, he carries his time in Italy with him. And when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593330753

THE STRANGER IN THE LIFEBOAT by Mitch Albom (Fiction)
Adrift in a raft after a deadly ship explosion, nine people struggle for survival at sea. Three days pass. Short on water, food and hope, they spot a man floating in the waves. They pull him in. “Thank the Lord we found you,” a passenger says. “I am the Lord,” the man whispers. Is this strange and quiet man really who he claims to be? What actually happened to cause the explosion? Are the survivors already in heaven, or are they in hell? The story is narrated by Benji, one of the passengers, who recounts the events in a notebook that is later discovered --- a year later --- when the empty life raft washes up on the island of Montserrat. It falls to the island’s chief inspector, Jarty LeFleur, a man battling his own demons, to solve the mystery of what really happened.
Harper | 9780062888341

WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES by Andrew Klavan (Mystery)
Colorful Christmas lights dapple the family homes in the idyllic lakeside town of Sweet Haven when Jennifer Dean, a young librarian at the local elementary school, is brutally murdered. There are witnesses, and her boyfriend, Travis Blake, confesses to the crime…but something doesn’t quite add up. Blake is a third-generation Army Ranger, awarded the Silver Star for his heroism in Afghanistan. How could a beloved son of this tight-knit burgh commit such a grisly deed? In steps Cameron Winter, a rugged and lonesome English professor haunted by the ghosts of his own Christmas past, whose former lover asks him to prove Blake innocent. If he can solve this small-town mystery, just maybe he can find peace from his inner demons as well.
Mysterious Press | 9781613162408

WOKE UP THIS MORNING: The Definitive Oral History of The Sopranos by Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, with Philip Lerman (Performing Arts/Oral History)
Inspired by the incredibly successful “Talking Sopranos” podcast, “The Sopranos” stars Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) and Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccalieri) will finally reveal all the Soprano family secrets in a surprising, funny and honest new book. WOKE UP THIS MORNING will be the definitive behind-the-scenes history of the groundbreaking HBO series that became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, ushered in a new Golden Age of Television, and to this day continues to be one of the most binged shows of all time. Expanding on the podcast with exclusive interviews with the cast, crew, producers, writers, directors and, of course, the series creator David Chase, Michael and Steve will tell all the incredible stories that "The Sopranos" fans have been waiting to hear for over 20 years.
William Morrow | 9780063090026

On Sale the Week of November 1st in Paperback

November 1st

HER PERFECT FAMILY by Teresa Driscoll (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
It’s their daughter’s graduation, and Rachel and Ed Hartley are expecting it to be one of their family’s happiest days. But when she stumbles and falls on stage during the ceremony, a beautiful moment turns to chaos: Gemma has been shot and is fighting for her life. A cryptic message Gemma received earlier in the day suggests someone close to her was about to be exposed. But who? As PI Matthew Hill starts to investigate, he finds more and more layers obscuring the truth. He even begins to suspect the Hartleys are hiding something big. While Gemma lies in the hospital in a coma, her would-be killer is still out there. Can Matthew unravel the family’s secrets before the attacker strikes again?
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542028752

STAR MOTHER by Charlie N. Holmberg (Fantasy/Romance)
Paperback Original
When a star dies, a new one must be born. The Sun God chooses the village of Endwever to provide a mortal womb. The birthing of a star is always fatal for the mother, and Ceris Wenden sacrifices herself to secure her family’s honor. But after her star child is born, Ceris does what no other star mother has: she survives. When Ceris returns to Endwever, it’s not nine months later --- it’s 700 years later. Inexplicably displaced in time, Ceris is determined to seek out her descendants. Being a woman traveling alone brings its own challenges, until Ceris encounters a mysterious --- and desperate --- godling. Ristriel is the only being who can guide Ceris safely to her destination. Now, as Ceris traverses realms both mortal and beyond, her journey truly begins.
47North | 9781542030465

November 2nd

AFTER SHE FALLS by Carmen Schober (Romance)
Paperback Original
Strong-willed Adri Rivera nearly achieved her goal of being a professional mixed martial artist, but then she fell in love with a man who knocked all the fight out of her. When their abusive, tumultuous relationship finally comes to a head, Adri flees with their young daughter to her small hometown in the mountains of Pennsylvania. There, she must face the people she left behind and put her broken life back together again. A hardened Max Lyons can't believe Adri is back in town after abruptly cutting him and everyone else off years ago. Despite the distance that grew between them, he feels compelled to help her regain her independence and offers her a job at his gym. But regaining each other's trust is another matter, made even more complicated by the lingering spark between them.
Bethany House Publishers | 9780764239298

AGAINST THE LOVELESS WORLD by Susan Abulhawa (Fiction)
As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely knows. Born in Kuwait in the ’70s to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children and possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she’s forced to prostitute herself, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in Palestine, where she finally makes a home, falls in love and her destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation.
Washington Square Press | 9781982137045

ALL HER LITTLE SECRETS by Wanda M. Morris (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Ellice Littlejohn seemingly has it all: an Ivy League law degree, a well-paying job as a corporate attorney in midtown Atlanta, great friends, and a “for fun” relationship with a rich, charming executive who just happens to be her white boss. But everything changes one cold January morning when Ellice arrives in the executive suite and finds him dead with a gunshot to his head. And then she walks away like nothing has happened. Instead of grieving this tragedy, people are gossiping, the police are getting suspicious, and Ellice, the company’s lone Black attorney, is promoted to replace her boss. When she uncovers shady dealings inside the company, Ellice is trapped in an impossible ethical and moral dilemma.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063082465

BLACK WIDOWS by Cate Quinn (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Polygamist Blake Nelson built a homestead on a hidden stretch of land --- a raw paradise in the wilds of Utah --- where he lived with his three wives: Rachel, the first wife, obedient and doting to a fault, with a past she'd prefer to keep quiet; Tina, the rebel wife, everything Rachel isn't, straight from rehab and the Vegas strip; and Emily, the young wife, naïve and scared, estranged from her Catholic family. The only thing that they had in common was Blake. Until all three are accused of his murder. When Blake is found dead under the desert sun, all three wives become suspect --- not only to the police, but to each other. As the investigation draws them closer, each wife must decide who can be trusted.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728234236

CARY GRANT: A Brilliant Disguise by Scott Eyman (Biography)
Born Archibald Leach in 1904, Cary Grant came to America as a teenaged acrobat to find fame and fortune, but he was always haunted by his past. His father was a feckless alcoholic, and his mother was committed to an asylum when Archie was 11. He believed her to be dead until he was informed she was alive when he was 31. Because of this experience, Grant would have difficulty forming close attachments throughout his life. He married five times and had numerous affairs. Despite a remarkable degree of success, Grant remained deeply conflicted about his past, his present, his basic identity, and even the public that worshipped him. Drawing on Grant’s own papers, extensive archival research, and interviews with family and friends, this is the definitive portrait of a movie immortal.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501191398

THE COTTAGE by Daniel Judson (Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Kate Burke is awakened one night by a sound outside her window, her PTSD is triggered. She still lives with the dreadful memories of her husband’s murder during a seemingly random home invasion two years before. When she discovers the unsettling ways her property has been vandalized the next day, Kate is forced to conclude the worst: someone is watching her. She decides to rent out her estranged sister’s one-time cottage, which sits on her property, for the summer. But the vandalism is escalating. So are the anonymous late-night calls and texts, each one more disturbing and violating than the last. Whoever is targeting Kate, whatever their motive or terrifying endgame, the footsteps in the dark are getting closer.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542010016

DEARLY: New Poems by Margaret Atwood (Poetry)
In DEARLY, her first collection of poetry in over a decade, Margaret Atwood addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature, and --- zombies. Her new poetry is introspective and personal in tone, but wide-ranging in topic. In poem after poem, she casts her unique imagination and unyielding, observant eye over the landscape of a life carefully and intuitively lived.
Ecco | 9780063032507

THE DONUT TRAP by Julie Tieu (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
With no boyfriend or job prospects, Jasmine Tran returns home to work at her parents’ donut shop. She wants to break free from her daily grind, but when a hike in rent threatens the survival of their shop, her parents rely on her more than ever. Help comes in the form of an old college crush, Alex Lai. Not only is he successful and easy on the eyes, to her parents’ delight, he’s also Chinese. He’s everything she should wish for, until a disastrous dinner reveals Alex isn’t as perfect as she thinks. Worse, he doesn’t think she’s perfect either. Jasmine must scheme to find a solution that satisfies her family’s expectations and can get her out of the donut trap once and for all.
Avon | 9780063069800

EVERYTHING WE DIDN’T SAY by Nicole Baart (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Juniper Baker had just graduated from high school and was deep in the throes of a summer romance when Cal and Beth Murphy, a childless couple who lived on a neighboring farm, were brutally murdered. When her younger brother became the prime suspect, June’s world collapsed, and everything she loved that summer fell away. She left, promising never to return to tiny Jericho, Iowa. Until now. Officially, she’s back in town to help an ill friend manage the local library. But really, she’s returned to repair her relationship with her teenage daughter --- and to solve the infamous Murphy murders once and for all. She knows the key to both lies in the darkest secret of that long-ago summer night, one that’s haunted her for nearly 15 years.
Atria Books | 9781982115081

LOCAL WOMAN MISSING by Mary Kubica (Psychological Thriller)
Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold. Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they'll find.
Park Row | 9780778311669

THE LONDON HOUSE by Katherine Reay (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Caroline Payne receives a call from Mat Hammond, an old college friend and historian. Mat has uncovered a scandalous secret kept buried for decades. In World War II, Caroline’s British great-aunt betrayed family and country to marry her German lover. Determined to find answers and save her family’s reputation, Caroline flies to her family’s ancestral home in London. She and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her grandmother and great-aunt were known as the “Waite sisters.” They came of age during the interwar years, a time of peace and luxury filled with dances, jazz clubs and romance. Each letter brings more questions. Was Caroline’s great-aunt actually a traitor and Nazi collaborator, or is there a more complex truth buried in the past?
Harper Muse ‎| 9780785290209

THE MONTH OF BORROWED DREAMS by Felicity Hayes-McCoy (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Beginning with the film adaptation of BROOKLYN, Hanna Casey is starting a cinema club, showing movies based on popular novels her friends and neighbors love. But an unexpected twist leaves Hanna’s daughter, Jazz, reeling and may send her back to London. Aideen worries that her relationship with Conor won't survive the pressures of their planned double wedding with overbearing Eileen and manipulative Joe. Saira Khan throws herself into helping a troubled new arrival to Finfarran. Hanna enjoys getting closer to Brian until her ex-husband Malcolm returns, threatening her newfound contentment. As the club prepares for the first meeting of the summer, they’ll all face difficult choices. But will they get the happy endings they deserve?
Harper Perennial | 9780062889522

PAPER BULLETS: Two Women Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis by Jeffrey H. Jackson (History)
PAPER BULLETS is the first book to tell the history of an audacious anti-Nazi campaign undertaken by an unlikely pair: two French women, Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, who drew on their skills as Parisian avant-garde artists to write and distribute “paper bullets” --- wicked insults against Hitler, calls to rebel, and subversive fictional dialogues designed to demoralize Nazi troops occupying their adopted home on the British Channel Island of Jersey. Hunted by the secret field police, Lucy and Suzanne were finally betrayed in 1944, when the Germans imprisoned them. But even in jail, they continued to fight the Nazis by reaching out to other prisoners and spreading a message of hope.
Algonquin Books | 9781643752051

PERESTROIKA IN PARIS by Jane Smiley (Fiction)
Paras, short for "Perestroika," is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon, she finds the door of her stall open and wanders all the way to the City of Light. Soon she meets an elegant dog, a German shorthaired pointer named Frida, and they keep company with two irrepressible ducks and an opinionated raven. But then Paras meets a human boy, Etienne, and discovers a new, otherworldly part of Paris: the ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly 100-year-old great-grandmother live in seclusion. As the cold weather and Christmas near, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom. But how long can a runaway horse stay undiscovered in Paris? How long can a boy keep her hidden and all to himself?
Anchor | 9780525436096

QUEENS OF THE CRUSADES: England's Medieval Queens Book Two by Alison Weir (History)
The Plantagenet queens of England played a role in some of the most dramatic events in our history. Crusading queens, queens in rebellion against their king, seductive queens, learned queens, queens in battle, queens who enlivened England with the romantic culture of southern Europe --- these determined women often broke through medieval constraints to exercise power and influence, for good and sometimes for ill. This second volume of Alison Weir’s history of the queens of medieval England now moves into a period of even higher drama, from 1154 to 1291: years of chivalry and courtly love, dynastic ambition, conflict between church and throne, baronial wars, and the ruthless interplay between the rival monarchs of Britain and France.
Ballantine Books | 9781101966716

THE SEARCHER by Tana French (Mystery/Thriller)
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After 25 years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.
Penguin Books | 9780735224674

TO BE A MAN: Stories by Nicole Krauss (Fiction/Short Stories)
Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles and South America, the stories in TO BE A MAN feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all.
Harper Perennial | 9780062431042

WE WERE MADE FOR THESE TIMES: Ten Lessons on Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption by Kaira Jewel Lingo (Self-Help/Spirituality)
Paperback Original
We all go through times when it feels like the ground is being pulled out from under us. What we relied on as steady and solid may change or even appear to vanish. In this era of global disruption, threats to our individual, social and planetary safety abound, and at times life can feel overwhelming. Not only are loss and separation painful, but even positive changes can cause great stress. In WE WERE MADE FOR THESE TIMES, the extraordinary mindfulness teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo imparts accessible advice on navigating difficult times of transition, drawing on Buddhist teachings on impermanence to help you establish equanimity and resilience.
Parallax Press ‎| 9781946764928

THE WICKED HOUR: A Natalie Lockhart Novel by Alice Blanchard (Mystery)
The day after Burning Lake’s notorious, debauched Halloween celebration, Detective Natalie Lockhart uncovers a heartbreaking scene --- a young woman, dead and lying in a dumpster. There’s no clue to who she is, save for a mystifying tattoo on her arm and a callus underneath her chin. As Natalie retraces the victim’s steps leading up to her death, she uncovers a deeper, darker horror: a string of murders and disappearances, seemingly unconnected, that may have ties to each other --- and explain the abrupt disappearance of her best friend years ago. As she digs deeper within the mind of the hunter, Natalie finds a darkness she never could have imagined.
Minotaur Books ‎| 9781250771131

THE WIFE UPSTAIRS by Rachel Hawkins (Domestic Thriller)
Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates, the kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester, Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend. As Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie’s heart before her past --- or his --- catches up to her?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250245502

WIN ME SOMETHING by Kyle Lucia Wu (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Growing up as a biracial Chinese American girl in New Jersey, Willa Chen felt both hypervisible and unseen, too Asian to fit in at her mostly white school, and too white to speak to the few Asian kids around. After her parents’ early divorce, they both remarried and started new families, and Willa grew up feeling outside of their new lives, too. For years, Willa does her best to stifle her feelings of loneliness, drifting through high school and then college as she tries to quiet the unease inside her. But when she begins working for the Adriens --- a wealthy white family in Tribeca --- as a nanny for their daughter, Bijou, Willa is confronted with all of the things she never had, and she finds herself questioning who she is.
Tin House Books | 9781951142735

YOU LOVE ME: A You Novel by Caroline Kepnes (Psychological Thriller)
Joe Goldberg is done with the cities. He’s done with the muck and the posers, done with Love. Now he’s saying hello to nature, to simple pleasures on a cozy island in the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in a long time, he can just breathe. He gets a job at the local library, and that’s where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe won’t meddle, he will not obsess. He’ll win her the old-fashioned way…by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, they’ll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after. The trouble is, Mary Kay already has a life. She’s a mother. She’s a friend. She’s…busy. Hopefully, with Joe’s encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593133798

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