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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of November 1st and November 8th 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 November, 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.
For our latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview, Carol had such fun catching up with Wade Rouse about his new novel, THE SECRET OF SNOW, which he wrote under the pen name Viola Shipman (his grandmother’s name). Set in Northern Michigan, it’s the story of a Palm Springs meteorologist who heads back to her frigid hometown after she’s replaced by a virtual meteorologist that will never age, gain weight or renegotiate its contract. Now she has to confront her past --- and try to move forward in the town she ran from years ago.
In the interview, Wade explains how deeply personal this book was for him. He talks about Ginger Zee, the chief meteorologist for “Good Morning America” and ABC News; the history of snowmen; winter sports; and his snowbird life in Palm Springs. He also reveals what’s next for him in fiction, writing as Viola Shipman --- THE EDGE OF SUMMER, releasing next July --- and in nonfiction with a new memoir, MAGIC SEASON: A Son’s Story, which will be available next May. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
Our “10 ½ Annual” Book Group Speed Dating event will take place on Friday, November 12th from 1pm ET to 3pm ET. Representatives from 17 publishers will present books that will be published from November 2021 to May 2022 that they think will be perfect for book groups to discuss.
If you have not joined us before --- and you are a librarian, bookseller or book club leader of multiple book groups --- and would like to attend this program virtually, please send Carol an email with the subject line "Speed Dating" and tell her about your trade affiliation so we can add you to the signup list.
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, November 3rd at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Patti Callahan Henry --- will talk to Zibby Owens, the creator and host of the award-winning podcast "Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books."
Wednesday, November 3rd at 7pm ET: Oblong Books: Gary Shteyngart will be in conversation with Darin Strauss about his new novel, OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS, in which a group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic in March 2020.
Wednesday, November 3rd at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book: Nicole Baart will be in conversation with Kimberly Belle about her latest novel, EVERYTHING WE DIDN'T SAY, in which a mother must confront the dark summer that changed her life forever in order to reclaim the daughter she left behind.
Thursday, November 4th at 6pm ET: Northshire Bookstore: Northshire Bookstore is delighted to partner with Print: A Bookstore, RJ Julia Booksellers and Wellesley Books to present a virtual evening with bestselling author Amor Towles in honor of his new novel, THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY. Towles will be in conversation with Richard Russo.
Thursday, November 4th at 7:30pm ET: Howard County Library System: Mitch Albom will be in conversation with Professor Tara Hart about his captivating and thought-provoking new novel, THE STRANGER IN THE LIFEBOAT.
Thursday, November 4th at 8pm ET: Magic City Books: Magic City Books is thrilled to welcome bestselling author Gary Shteyngart for an exclusive virtual event in celebration of his brand new novel, OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS.
Saturday, November 6th at 12pm ET: Rakestraw Books: Rakestraw Books is thrilled to celebrate the publication of Sarah Winman's STILL LIFE, this month's "Good Morning America" Book Club pick. Sarah will be joined in conversation by Sarah Blake, author of THE GUEST BOOK.
Monday, November 8th at 1pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Michael Connelly will discuss his new novel, THE DARK HOURS, in which LAPD detective Renée Ballard joins forces with Harry Bosch to find justice in a city scarred by fear and social unrest after a methodical killer strikes on New Year’s Eve.
Tuesday, November 9th at 2pm ET: Rakestraw Books: Rakestraw Books, Third Place Books, Warwick's and Bookshop Santa Cruz are pleased to present a virtual event with beloved historical novelist Ken Follett for the release of his latest thriller, NEVER.
Tuesday, November 9th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble Book Club: Barnes & Noble will host a Facebook Live discussion for their October Book Club selection, THE DEATH OF JANE LAWRENCE, featuring Caitlin Starling in conversation with Victoria Lee.
Tuesday, November 9th at 8pm ET: Parnassus Books: Parnassus is pleased to present a virtual event for Louise Erdrich, in conversation with Ann Patchett, for Erdrich's new book, THE SENTENCE.
Tuesday, November 9th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Beatriz Williams will discuss THE WICKED WIDOW, the third installment in her Wicked City series featuring audacious Appalachian flapper Geneva “Gin” Kelly.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for November
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 November'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: THE MEMOIRS OF STOCKHOLM SVEN by Nathaniel Ian Miller
FIVE TUESDAYS IN WINTER: Stories by Lily King
OH WILLIAM! by Elizabeth Strout
A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by Freya Marske
NOTHING BUT BLACKENED TEETH by Cassandra Khaw
LibraryReads
Top Pick: ALL HER LITTLE SECRETS by Wanda M. Morris
THE DONUT TRAP by Julie Tieu
THE FASTEST WAY TO FALL by Denise Williams
GUILD BOSS: A Harmony Novel, by Jayne Castle
JUST HAVEN'T MET YOU YET by Sophie Cousens
Target Book Club
SINGLE BLACK FEMALE by Tracy Brown
Costco's "Buyer's Pick"
BETTER OFF DEAD: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child
Barnes & Noble Book Club
OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS by Gary Shteyngart
Reese's Book Club
THE ISLAND OF MISSING TREES by Elif Shafak
Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
THE FAMILY by Naomi Krupitsky
"Good Morning America" Book Club
STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman
Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites
THE LAST GARDEN IN ENGLAND by Julia Kelly
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
On Sale the Week of November 8th in Hardcover
November 9th
A BLIZZARD OF POLAR BEARS by Alice Henderson (Thriller)
Fresh off her wolverine study in Montana, wildlife biologist Alex Carter lands a job studying a threatened population of polar bears in the Canadian Arctic. Embedded with a small team of Arctic researchers, she tracks the majestic bears by air, following them over vast, snowy terrain, spending days leaning precariously out of a helicopter with a tranquilizer gun, until she can get down on the ice to examine them up close. But as her study progresses, and she gathers data on the health of individual bears, things start to go awry. Her helicopter pilot quits unexpectedly, equipment goes missing, and a late-night intruder breaks into her lab and steals the samples she’s collected. Someone doesn’t want her to complete her study, but Alex is not easily deterred.
William Morrow | 9780062982100
A CHRISTMAS LEGACY by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
After leaving her position with Charlotte and Thomas Pitt to get married, Gracie thought her days as a maid were behind her. But when her good friend’s daughter, Millie, turns up on her doorstep just before the holidays, frantic because things are going missing from the kitchen in the household she serves, Gracie knows she has to find out what is happening. Millie can’t risk being accused of theft and getting thrown out on the street, with no character references for a new position. So Gracie takes on Millie’s job herself, claiming Millie is sick and needs a few days to recuperate. She soon begins to realize that Granny is suffering from neglect --- and rather than helping her, the husband and wife have decided she isn’t dying fast enough.
Ballantine Books | 9780593159392
COMFORT ME WITH APPLES by Catherynne M. Valente (Domestic Thriller/Fantasy)
Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect. It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband, and everything is perfect. But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze. But everything is perfect. Isn't it?
Tordotcom | 9781250816214
THE DARK HOURS: A Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch Novel by Michael Connelly (Thriller)
There’s chaos in Hollywood at the end of the New Year’s Eve countdown. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD detective Renée Ballard waits out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air. Only minutes after midnight, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party. Ballard quickly concludes that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky and that it is linked to another unsolved murder --- a case at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch. At the same time, Ballard hunts a fiendish pair of serial rapists, the Midnight Men, who have been terrorizing women and leaving no trace.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316485647
FINAL SPIN by Jocko Willink (Thriller)
It’s a hamster wheel existence. Stocking warehouse store shelves by day, drinking too much whiskey and beer by night. In between, Johnny lives in his childhood home, making sure his alcoholic mother hasn’t drunk herself to death, and looking after his idiosyncratic older brother Arty, whose world revolves around his laundromat job. Rinse and repeat. Then Johnny’s monotonous life takes a tumble. The laundromat where Arty works, and the one thing that gives him happiness, is about to be sold. Johnny doesn't want that to happen, so he takes measures into his own hands. Johnny and his friend, Goat, come up with a plan to get the money to buy the laundromat. But things don’t always go as planned.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250276858
FIVE TUESDAYS IN WINTER: Stories by Lily King (Fiction/Short Stories)
Told in the intimate voices of complex, endearing characters, FIVE TUESDAYS IN WINTER --- Lily King's first book of short fiction --- intriguingly subverts expectations as it explores desire, loss, jolting violence and the inexorable tug toward love at all costs. A reclusive bookseller begins to feel the discomfort of love again. Two college roommates have a devastating middle-aged reunion. A proud old man rages powerlessly in his granddaughter's hospital room. A writer receives a visit from all the men who have tried to suppress her voice.
Grove Press | 9780802158765
HEARD IT IN A LOVE SONG by Tracey Garvis Graves (Romance)
Layla Hilding is 35 and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past --- her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a 10-year marriage to a man who never put her first --- Layla’s newly found independence feels a lot like loneliness. Then there's Josh, the single dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where Layla teaches music. Recently separated, he's still processing the end of his 20-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He chats with Layla every morning at school and finds himself thinking about her more and more. They decide to be friends with the potential for something more. But when two people are on the rebound, is it heartbreak or happiness that’s a love song away?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250235688
THE HIDDEN by Melanie Golding (Psychological Thriller)
One dark December night, a little girl is found abandoned. When her mother finally arrives, authorities release the pair. Gregor is found bludgeoned and left for dead in his apartment, but the discovery of children's toys raises more questions than answers. Every night, Ruby gazes into Gregor’s apartment, leading to the discovery of his secret family: his unusually silent daughter and his mentally unstable wife, Constance. DS Joanna Harper's investigation into Gregor’s assault leads her to CCTV footage of the mother-daughter pair from town. Harper realizes she knows the woman almost as well as she knows herself: it's her estranged daughter, Ruby. No matter the depth of Ruby’s involvement, she knows she will choose her daughter over her career.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781643852973
THE LAST KING OF AMERICA: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts (Biography)
The best-known modern interpretation of George III is Jonathan Groff's preening, spitting and pompous take in “Hamilton.” But this deeply unflattering characterization is rooted in the prejudiced and brilliantly persuasive opinions of 18th-century revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, who needed to make the king appear evil in order to achieve their own political aims. After combing through hundreds of thousands of pages of never-before-published correspondence, award-winning historian Andrew Roberts has uncovered the truth: George III was in fact a wise, humane and even enlightened monarch who was beset by talented enemies, debilitating mental illness, incompetent ministers and disastrous luck.
Viking | 9781984879264
LED ZEPPELIN: The Biography by Bob Spitz (Biography)
Rock star. Whatever that term means to you, chances are it owes a debt to Led Zeppelin. No one before or since has lived the dream quite like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. From the opening notes of their first album, the band announced itself as something different --- a collision of grand artistic ambition and brute primal force, of English folk music and African American blues. That record sold over 10 million copies, and it was just the beginning. Led Zeppelin's albums have sold over 300 million certified copies worldwide, and the dust has never settled. The band is notoriously guarded, and previous books provided more heat than light. But Bob Spitz's authority is undeniable and irresistible.
Penguin Press | 9780399562426
LOOK FOR ME AND I'LL BE GONE: Stories by John Edgar Wideman (Fiction/Short Stories)
In his sixth story collection, John Edgar Wideman revisits themes that have infused his work for the duration of his career: family, loss, the penal system, Pittsburgh, physical and emotional life, art and memory. Stories include “Separation,” which begins with a boy standing alone beside his grandfather’s coffin, progressing to a scene with the narrator’s grandmother paying the funeral director weekly installments for the price of the casket. “Atlanta Murders” contemplates James Baldwin’s EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN, written about the Atlanta child murders from 1979 to 1981, beginning with a riff on a “why-did-the chicken-cross-the-road” joke that takes a dark turn.
Scribner | 9781982148942
NEVER by Ken Follett (Thriller)
“Every catastrophe begins with a little problem that doesn’t get fixed.” So says Pauline Green, president of the United States, in Ken Follett’s nerve-racking drama of international tension. A shrinking oasis in the Sahara Desert; a stolen US Army drone; an uninhabited Japanese island; and one country’s secret stash of deadly chemical poisons --- all these play roles in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Struggling to prevent the outbreak of world war are a young woman intelligence officer; a spy working undercover with jihadists; a brilliant Chinese spymaster; and Pauline herself, beleaguered by a populist rival for the next presidential election.
Viking | 9780593300015
O BEAUTIFUL by Jung Yun (Fiction)
Former model Elinor Hanson is struggling to reinvent herself as a freelance writer when she receives an unexpected assignment. Her mentor from grad school offers her a chance to write for a prestigious magazine about the Bakken oil boom in North Dakota. Elinor grew up near the Bakken and returns to a landscape she hardly recognizes. Surrounded by roughnecks seeking their fortunes in oil and residents worried about their changing community, Elinor experiences a profound sense of alienation and grief. The longer she pursues this potentially career-altering assignment, the more her past intertwines with the story she’s trying to tell, revealing disturbing new realities that will forever change her and the way she looks at the world.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250274328
OUR FIRST CIVIL WAR: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution by H. W. Brands (History)
What causes people to forsake their country and take arms against it? What prompts their neighbors, hardly distinguishable in station or success, to defend that country against the rebels? That is the question H. W. Brands answers in his powerful new history of the American Revolution. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were the unlikeliest of rebels. Washington in the 1770s stood at the apex of Virginia society. Franklin was more successful still, having risen from humble origins to world fame. John Adams might have seemed a more obvious candidate for rebellion, being of cantankerous temperament. Even so, he revered the law. Yet all three men became rebels against the British Empire that fostered their success.
Doubleday | 9780385546515
THE RETURN OF THE PHARAOH: From the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer (Historical Mystery)
In 1910, Dr. John Watson travels to Egypt with his wife, Juliet. Her tuberculosis has returned, and her doctor recommends a stay at a sanitarium in a dry climate. But while his wife undergoes treatment, Dr. Watson bumps into an old friend --- Sherlock Holmes. An English Duke with a penchant for Egyptology has disappeared, leading to enquiries from his wife and the Home Office. Holmes has discovered that the missing duke has indeed vanished from his lavish rooms in Cairo and that he was on the trail of a previous undiscovered and unopened tomb. With the help of Howard Carter, Holmes and Watson are on the trail of something much bigger, more important and more sinister than an errant lord.
Minotaur Books | 9781250788207
THE SENTENCE by Louise Erdrich (Fiction)
Louise Erdrich's latest novel, THE SENTENCE, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention," must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation and furious reckoning.
Harper | 9780062671127
TENDERNESS by Alison MacLeod (Historical Fiction)
Alison MacLeod brilliantly recreates the origins of LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER and boldly imagines its journey to freedom through the story of Jackie Kennedy, who was known to be an admirer. In MacLeod's telling, Jackie --- in her last days before becoming First Lady --- learns that publishers are trying to bring D.H. Lawrence's long-censored novel to American and British readers in its full form. The U.S. government has responded by targeting the postal service for distributing obscene material. Enjoying what anonymity she has left, determined to honor a novel she loves, Jackie attends the hearing incognito. But there she is quickly recognized, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover takes note of her interest and her outrage.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635576108
WHAT JUST HAPPENED: Notes on a Long Year by Charles Finch (Memoir)
In March 2020, at the request of the Los Angeles Times, Charles Finch became a reluctant diarist: As California sheltered in place, he began to write daily notes about the odd ambient changes in his own life and in the lives around him. The result is WHAT JUST HAPPENED, where Finch brings us into his own world: taking long evening walks near his home in L.A., listening to music, and keeping virtual connections with friends across the country as they each experience the crisis. And drawing on his remarkable acuity as a cultural critic, he chronicles one endless year with delightful commentary on current events, and the things that distract him from current events: Murakami’s novels, reality television, the Beatles.
Knopf | 9780593319079
WOODROW ON THE BENCH: Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog by Jenna Blum (Memoir)
Since she adopted him as a puppy 15 years earlier, Jenna Blum and Woodrow have been inseparable. Known to many as “the George Clooney of dogs” for his good looks and charm, Woodrow and his “Mommoo” are fixtures in their Boston neighborhood. But Woodrow is aging. As he begins to fail, the true nature of his extraordinary relationship with Jenna is revealed. Jenna may be the dog parent, but it is Woodrow, with his amazing personality and trusting nature, who has much to teach her. A divorcée who has experienced her share of sadness and loss, Jenna discovers, over the months she spends caring for her ailing dog, what it is to be present in the moment, and what it truly means to love.
Harper | 9780063113183
On Sale the Week of November 8th in Paperback
November 9th
ALL THE YOUNG MEN: A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South by Ruth Coker Burks with Kevin Carr O'Leary (Memoir)
In 1986, 26-year-old Ruth Coker Burks visits a friend at the hospital when she notices that the door to one of the hospital rooms is painted red. She witnesses nurses drawing straws to see who would tend to the patient inside, all of them reluctant to enter the room. Out of impulse, Ruth herself enters the quarantined space and immediately begins to care for the young man who cries for his mother in the last moments of his life. Before she can even process what she’s done, word spreads in the community that Ruth is the only person willing to help these young men afflicted by AIDS and is called upon to nurse them. As she forges deep friendships with the men she helps, she works tirelessly to find them housing and jobs, even searching for funeral homes willing to take their bodies.
Grove Press | 9780802157256
FIRST PRINCIPLES: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country by Thomas E. Ricks (History)
On the morning after the 2016 presidential election, Thomas Ricks awoke with a few questions on his mind: What kind of nation did we now have? Is it what was designed or intended by the nation’s founders? Trying to get as close to the source as he could, Ricks decided to go back and read the philosophy and literature that shaped the founders’ thinking, and the letters they wrote to each other debating these crucial works --- among them the Iliad, Plutarch’s Lives, and the works of Xenophon, Epicurus, Aristotle, Cato and Cicero. Although much attention has been paid to the influence of English political philosophers like John Locke, the founders were far more immersed in the literature of the ancient world.
Harper Perennial | 9780062997463
HEAD WOUNDS: A Kevin Kerney Novel by Michael McGarrity (Mystery)
Given a chance to salvage his law enforcement career, Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Detective Clayton Istee catches a bizarre late-night double homicide at a Las Cruces hotel. Both victims have been scalped with their throats cut. The murders show all the signs of a signature hit, but national and state crime databases reveal no similar profiles. Digging into the victims’ backgrounds, Clayton discovers that six months prior the couple had walked out of a nearby casino with $200,000 of a high-stakes gambler’s money. He also learns the crime had been hushed up by an undercover federal DEA agent, who resurfaces and recruits Clayton for a dangerous mission to seize the Mexican drug lord responsible for the killings.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393868425
IF I DISAPPEAR by Eliza Jane Brazier (Psychological Thriller)
Sera loves true crime podcasts. They give her a sense of control in a world where women just like her disappear daily. She’s sure they’re preparing her for something. So when Rachel, her favorite podcast host, goes missing, Sera knows it's time to act. Rachel has always taught her to trust her instincts. Sera follows the clues hidden in the episodes to an isolated ranch outside Rachel's small hometown to begin her search. She's convinced her investigation will make Rachel so proud. But the more Sera digs into this unfamiliar world, the more off things start to feel. Because Rachel is not the first woman to vanish from the ranch, and she won't be the last. Rachel did try to warn her.
Berkley | 9780593198230
IS THIS ANYTHING? by Jerry Seinfeld (Entertainment/Humor)
Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a 21-year-old college student in the fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.” For this book, Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. Readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982112721
JUST HAVEN’T MET YOU YET by Sophie Cousens (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Lifestyle reporter Laura’s business trip to the Channel Islands isn’t off to a great start. After an embarrassing encounter with the most attractive man she’s ever seen in real life, she arrives at her hotel and realizes she’s grabbed the wrong suitcase from the airport. Her only consolation is its irresistible contents, each of which intrigues her more and more. The owner of this suitcase is clearly Laura’s dream man. What are the odds that she’d find The One on the same island where her parents first met and fell in love, especially as she sets out to write an article about their romance? But as Laura’s mystery man proves difficult to track down --- and as she uncovers family secrets --- she may have to reimagine the life, and love, she always thought she wanted.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593331521
THE LADIES OF THE SECRET CIRCUS by Constance Sayers (Historical Fantasy/Romance)
Paris, 1925: To enter the Secret Circus is to enter a world of wonder. It's the only world Cecile Cabot knows until she meets a charismatic young painter and embarks on a passionate affair that could cost her everything. Virginia, 2004: Lara Barnes is on top of the world, until her fiancé disappears on their wedding day. When her desperate search for answers unexpectedly leads to her great-grandmother’s journals, Lara is swept into a story of a dark circus and ill-fated love. Soon secrets about Lara’s family history begin to come to light, revealing a curse that has been claiming payment from the women in her family for generations. A curse that might be tied to her fiancé’s mysterious disappearance.
Redhook | 9780316493680
LAZARUS: A Killer Instinct Novel written by Lars Kepler, translated by Neil Smith (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
All across Europe, the most ruthless criminals are suffering gruesome deaths. At first, it seems coincidental that their underworld affiliations are finally catching up to them. But when two of the victims are found to have disturbing connections to Detective Joona Linna, it becomes clear that there’s a single killer at work. Still, police are reluctant to launch an investigation. If a mysterious vigilante is making their jobs easier, why stand in his way? Joona, however, is convinced that these deaths serve a much darker purpose. Desperate for help, he turns to Saga Bauer. If his hunch is correct, she’s one of the few people who stands a chance at bringing this criminal mastermind down. But Saga is fighting her own demons --- and the killer knows just how to use them to his advantage.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard | 9780593310830
THE LIAR’S DICTIONARY by Eley Williams (Fiction/Humor)
In the final year of the 19th century, Peter Winceworth is toiling away at the letter S for Swansby’s multivolume Encyclopaedic Dictionary. But his disaffection with his colleagues compels him to assert some individual purpose and artistic freedom, and he begins inserting unauthorized, fictitious entries. In the present day, Mallory, the publisher’s young intern, starts to uncover these mountweazels in the process of digitization and through them senses their creator’s motivations, hopes and desires. More pressingly, she’s also been contending with a threatening, anonymous caller who wants Swansby’s staff to “burn in hell.” As these two narratives coalesce, Winceworth and Mallory, separated by 100 years, must discover how to negotiate the complexities of life’s often untrustworthy, hoax-strewn and undefinable path.
Anchor | 9780593311868
THE MIRROR MAN by Jane Gilmartin (Science Fiction/Thriller)
The offer is too tempting: be part of a scientific breakthrough, step out of his life for a year, and be paid hugely for it. When ViMed Pharmaceutical asks Jeremiah to be part of an illegal cloning experiment, he sees it as a break from an existence he feels disconnected from. No one will know he’s been replaced --- not the son who ignores him, not his increasingly distant wife --- since a revolutionary drug called Meld can transfer his consciousness and memories to his copy. From a luxurious apartment, he watches the clone navigate his day-to-day life. But soon Jeremiah discovers that examining himself from an outsider’s perspective isn’t what he thought it would be, and he watches in horror as “his” life spirals out of control.
Mira | 9780778331964
NEVER FALL FOR YOUR FIANCÉE by Virginia Heath (Historical Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
The last thing Hugh Standish, Earl of Fareham, ever wants is a wife. Unfortunately for him, his mother is determined to find him one. So Hugh invents a fake fiancée to keep her matchmaking ways at bay. But when Hugh learns that she is on a ship bound for England, he realizes his ruse is about to implode. Until he collides with a beautiful woman. Minerva Merriwell has had to struggle to support herself and her two younger sisters ever since their feckless father abandoned them. So when Hugh asks Minerva to pose as his fiancée while his mother is visiting, she knows that the offer is too good to pass up. Once Minerva and her sisters arrive at Hugh's estate, of course nothing goes according to his meticulous plan.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250787767
THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS: A Novella and Stories by Danielle Evans (Fiction/Short Stories)
With THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS, Danielle Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief --- all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history --- about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight.
Riverhead Books | 9780593189450
READY PLAYER TWO by Ernest Cline (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything. Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous --- and addictive --- than even Wade dreamed possible. With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest --- a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize. And an unexpected, impossibly powerful and dangerous new rival awaits, one who will kill millions to get what he wants. Wade’s life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance.
Ballantine Books | 9781524761349
THE SECRET NEXT DOOR by Rebecca Taylor (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Alyson Tinsdale is giving her son the childhood she never had: a stable family, a loving home and a great school in a safe neighborhood. Bonnie Sloan is the neighborhood matriarch. With her oldest son headed to Yale, and her youngest starting kindergarten, Bonnie is now pursuing her own long-held political aspirations despite private family struggles. When the open space behind some of the most expensive homes gets slated for development into an amusement facility, the neighborhood becomes deeply divided. The personal pressures and community conflicts ratchet with every passing day, but it's when a 13-year-old is found dead beside the neighborhood lake that simmering tensions boil over into panic.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728206684
SET MY HEART TO FIVE by Simon Stephenson (Science Fiction/Humor)
Set in a 2054 where humans have locked themselves out of the internet and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon, SET MY HEART TO FIVE is the hilarious yet profoundly moving story of one android’s emotional awakening. One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared notices a strange sensation around his eyes. Bots are not permitted to have feelings, but as the theater lights come on, he discovers he is crying. Soon overwhelmed by powerful emotions, Jared heads west, determined to find others like himself. But a bot with feelings is a dangerous proposition, and Jared’s new life could come to an end before it truly begins. Unless, that is, he can somehow change the world for himself and all of his kind.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335910233
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE BEAST OF THE STAPLETONS by James Lovegrove (Historical Mystery)
1894. The monstrous Hound of the Baskervilles has been dead for five years, along with its no less monstrous owner, the naturalist Jack Stapleton. Sir Henry Baskerville is living contentedly at Baskerville Hall with his new wife, Audrey, and their three-year-old son, Harry. Until, that is, Audrey's lifeless body is found on the moors, drained of blood. It would appear that some fiendish creature is once more at large on Dartmoor and, like its predecessor, has targeted the unfortunate Baskerville family. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are summoned to Sir Henry's aid, and our heroes must face a marauding beast that is the very stuff of nightmares. It seems that Stapleton may not have perished in the Great Grimpen Mire after all, as Holmes believed, and is hell-bent on revenge.
Titan Books | 9781789094718
A THOUSAND SHIPS by Natalie Haynes (Historical Fiction)
In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen. From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.
Harper Perennial | 9780063065406
THREE WOMEN DISAPPEAR by James Patterson and Shan Serafin (Thriller)
Accountant Anthony Costello has a talent for manipulating both numbers and people, turning losses into profits, enemies into allies --- and vice versa. When Costello is found murdered in his own home, three suspects had motive. All three had access to his home. And all three women are missing. Are they in the wind --- or in the grave? Eyes are on Detective Sean Walsh, whose personal connection to the case is stronger than leads to solve it. Neither the powerful bankroll behind Costello nor Walsh's vengeful superior officer can budge the investigation, yet as Walsh continues to dig, he uncovers even more reasons the women have to stay hidden --- from the law, and from each other.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538715451
UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH A BLACK MAN by Emmanuel Acho (Social Issues/Ethnicity & Race)
“You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have.” So begins Emmanuel Acho in his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all 50 states. In UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATIONS WITH A BLACK MAN, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask --- yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation and “reverse racism.” In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both.
Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book | 9781250800473
UNRESTRICTED ACCESS: New and Classic Short Fiction by James Rollins (Thriller/Short Stories)
In his first-ever anthology, James Rollins brings together 12 stories that dig a little deeper into his creative stomping grounds and open vistas into new landscapes and characters. At the center of the book is the never-before-published novella "Sun Dogs.” While trekking through the Sonora desert, a gunshot thrusts Tucker and Kane into an adventure that challenges their considerable skills. The discovery of secrets known only to the native tribes of Arizona threatens to unleash an ancient force that could irreparably alter the future. It also forces Tucker to make a terrible choice that will shatter his relationship with his soul-bonded companion, Kane. As these partners learn, nothing remains buried forever and old debts must be paid, no matter the cost.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062686817
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