In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 23rd and May 30th 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 Father's Day contest, which we have brought back for a 17th year. From now through Friday, June 17th at noon ET, readers can enter to win one of our five prize packages, which includes all 12 of our featured titles. Click here to read more about the books and enter the contest.
Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Kim Michele Richardson, whose new novel, THE BOOK WOMAN'S DAUGHTER, is the highly anticipated follow-up to 2019’s THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK. This time, readers are introduced to Honey Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome book woman, Cussy Mary Carter. Honey picks up the same pack horse library trail as her mother, but she still has countless struggles as she brings the books where they need to go.
In the interview, Kim Michele talks to Carol about the success of THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK and why she decided to continue the story. She also discusses sequels, extraordinary women and the value of books. Click here to listen to the podcast.
On May 13th, we hosted our 11th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event for booksellers, librarians and book club leaders. Representatives from 14 publishers presented more than 60 titles perfect for book groups that will be published between now and October. You can watch the event here. Please note that we have timestamped the video, so if you would like to hear from a specific publisher, you easily can do that!
If you would like to know more about the books, click here to access a PDF of the PowerPoint presentation of the featured titles, as well as an Excel spreadsheet that lists the books both by publisher and alphabetically by title, along with a sheet to take notes.
This is your last newsletter reminder to sign up for this month’s “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event, which will take place TOMORROW, Wednesday, May 25th at 8pm ET.
Our guest will be Janet Skeslien Charles, and we will be talking about her instant New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today bestseller, THE PARIS LIBRARY, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now available in paperback. Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family and the power of literature to bring us together.
You can register for the event by clicking here. If you would like to ask Janet a question on camera during the event and chat with her in our “backstage green room” before the event, please email Carol with your question using the subject line “Question for Janet” by Wednesday at noon ET. Those who are camera shy can send their questions via the Q&A feature on Zoom.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
As so many book and author events are happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register.
Wednesday, May 25th 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 Tia Williams and T. J. Newman about the paperback releases of their novels, SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE and FALLING.
Wednesday, May 25th at 8pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Group: Carol Fitzgerald will talk to Janet Skeslien Charles about her novel, THE PARIS LIBRARY, which is now in paperback. Janet also will answer questions from guests who will be "on stage," as well as from other members of the audience. If you would like to be one of our featured audience guests and ask Janet a question on camera, please send Carol an email with the subject line “Question for Janet” by Wednesday the 25th at noon ET.
Wednesday, May 25th at 8pm ET: Books & Books: Books & Books and Miami Book Fair will present a virtual event with Chanel Cleeton, who will talk about her latest historical novel, OUR LAST DAYS IN BARCELONA.
Thursday, May 26th at 12pm ET: Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites: Jennifer Weiner will join members of the Simon & Schuster team to discuss her new novel, THE SUMMER PLACE, which is May's pick for S&S's Book Club Favorites.
Thursday, May 26th at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book: James Lee Burke will be in conversation with fellow bestselling author Ace Atkins about his new thriller, EVERY CLOAK ROLLED IN BLOOD, which is a continuation of his epic Holland family saga.
Tuesday, May 31st at 5pm ET: Community Bookstore: Nell Zink joins Community Bookstore to present her new novel, AVALON, the irresistible story of one teenager’s reckoning with society at large and her search for a personal utopia. She will be in conversation with Emily Gould.
This Week's Bonus News:
Bookreporter.com's 17th Annual
Father's Day Contest: Best Books for Dad
Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the men in our lives who have raised and loved us. Why not show him your appreciation by inspiring him with a great book? In our 17th annual "Best Books for Dad" contest, we have a selection of books that are perfect gift-giving suggestions for Dad, keeping him busy through the rest of the year. Five readers will be awarded a copy of each of our 12 featured titles. To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, June 17th at noon ET.
This year's prize books are:
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of May 23rd in Hardcover
May 24th
AVALON by Nell Zink (Fiction)
Bran’s Southern California upbringing is anything but traditional. After her mother joins a Buddhist colony, Bran is raised by her “common-law stepfather” on Bourdon Farms --- a plant nursery that doubles as a cover for a biker gang. She spends her days tending plants, slogging through high school, and imagining what life could be if she had been born to a different family. And then she meets Peter, a beautiful, troubled and charming train wreck of a college student from the East Coast, who launches his teaching career by initiating her into the world of literature and aesthetics. As the two begin a volatile and ostensibly doomed long-distance relationship, Bran searches for meaning in her own surroundings.
Knopf | 9780593534892
CITY OF ORANGE by David Yoon (Fiction)
A man wakes up in an unknown landscape, injured and alone. He used to live in a place called California, but how did he wind up here with a head wound and a bottle of pills in his pocket? He navigates his surroundings, one rough shape at a time. Here lies a pipe, there a reed that could be carved into a weapon, beyond a city he once lived in. He could swear his daughter’s name began with a J, but what was it, exactly? Then he encounters an old man, a crow and a boy --- and realizes that nothing is what he thought it was, neither the present nor the past. He can’t even recall the features of his own face, and wonders: who am I?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593422168
CLIVE CUSSLER'S DARK VECTOR: A Novel from the NUMA Files by Graham Brown (Thriller/Adventure)
A freighter carrying top-secret computers of unparalleled capability disappears in the Western Pacific. While searching for a lost treasure that once belonged to the famous Chinese pirate queen, Ching Shih, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala are redirected to look for the missing vessel. Discovering that the sinking of the ship is just part of an intricate web of deception, they find themselves in the middle of a cyber-war between rival groups of hackers. With no allies except a group of pirates who operate under their own crude laws, Kurt and Joe must rescue a colleague held hostage --- while keeping the computers out of Russian or Chinese hands and the world’s digital information safe from the hackers.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593419670
THE EVENING HERO by Marie Myung-Ok Lee (Fiction)
Dr. Yungman Kwak is in the twilight of his life. Every day for the last 50 years, he has headed to Horse Breath’s General Hospital, where he treats the women and babies of the small rural Minnesota town he chose to call home. He immigrated from Korea after the Korean War, forced to leave his family, ancestors, village and all that he knew behind. But his life is built on a lie. And one day, a letter arrives that threatens to expose it. His life is thrown into chaos --- the hospital abruptly closes, his wife refuses to spend time with him, and his son is busy investing in a struggling health start-up. Yungman faces a choice --- he must choose to hide his secret from his family and friends, or confess and potentially lose all he’s built.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476735078
EVERY CLOAK ROLLED IN BLOOD by James Lee Burke (Thriller)
Novelist Aaron Holland Broussard is shattered when his daughter, Fannie Mae, dies suddenly. As he tries to honor her memory by saving two young men from a life of crime amid their opioid-ravaged community, he is drawn into a network of villainy that includes a violent former Klansman, a far-from-holy minister, a biker club posing as evangelicals, and a murderer who has been hiding in plain sight. Aaron’s only ally is state police officer Ruby Spotted Horse, a no-nonsense woman who harbors some powerful secrets in her cellar. Despite the air of mystery surrounding her, Ruby is the only one Aaron can trust. That is, until the ghost of Fannie Mae shows up, guiding her father through a tangled web of the present and past.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982196592
HIDE by Kiersten White (Supernatural Thriller)
The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught. The prize: Enough money to change everything. Even though everyone is desperate to win --- to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past --- Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that. It’s the reason she’s alive and her family isn’t. But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.
Del Rey | 9780593359235
THE LION: A Novel of Ancient Athens by Conn Iggulden (Historical Fiction)
After the gods, after the myths and legends, came the world of men --- and in the front rank stood Pericles. Enter Pericles, the Lion of Athens. Behind him lies the greatest city of the ancient world. Before him stands the ferocious Persian army. Both sides are spoiling for war. But Pericles knows one thing: to fight a war you must first win the peace. It’s time for a hero to rise. For his enemies to tremble. And for a city to shine like a beacon.
Pegasus Books | 9781639362226
NERUDA ON THE PARK by Cleyvis Natera (Fiction)
The Guerreros have lived in Nothar Park, a predominantly Dominican part of New York City, for 20 years. When demolition begins on a neighboring tenement, Eusebia, an elder of the community, takes matters into her own hands by devising an increasingly dangerous series of schemes to stop construction of the luxury condos. Meanwhile, Eusebia’s daughter, Luz, a rising associate at a top Manhattan law firm, becomes distracted by a sweltering romance with the handsome white developer at the company her mother so vehemently opposes. As Luz’s father, Vladimir, secretly designs their retirement home in the Dominican Republic, mother and daughter collide, ramping up tensions in Nothar Park and racing toward a near-fatal climax.
Ballantine Books | 9780593358481
NIGHTWORK by Nora Roberts (Romantic Suspense)
Harry Booth started stealing at the age of nine to keep a roof over his ailing mother’s head. When she finally succumbed to cancer, he left Chicago --- but kept up his nightwork, developing into a master thief with a code of honor and an expertise in not attracting attention...or getting attached. Until he meets Miranda Emerson, and the powerful bond between them upends all his rules. But along the way, Booth has made some dangerous associations, including the ruthless Carter LaPorte. Knowing LaPorte will leverage any personal connection, Booth abandons Miranda for her own safety and disappears. But the bond between Miranda and Booth is too strong, pulling them inexorably back together. Now Booth must face LaPorte, to truly free himself and Miranda once and for all.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250278197
OMEGA RULES: An Evan Ryder Novel by Eric Van Lustbader (Thriller/Adventure)
Evan Ryder was once a field agent for a black-ops arm of the Department of Defense. Now she works for Parachute, a cutting-edge quantum-computing firm whose private espionage network exceeds any government spy agency. But her mission remains the same: seek out and destroy Omega, a fanatical global cult intent on destroying democracy. The fight against Omega has already cost Evan dearly, but she will not stop until she has torn out the conspiracy by its roots, no matter the risk. In OMEGA RULES, the assassination of a Parachute agent in Vienna sets Evan on a dangerous, world-wide hunt for answers and on a collision course with forces so powerful they may be beyond her abilities to annihilate.
Forge Books | 9781250839107
THE SHORE by Katie Runde (Fiction)
Brian and Margot Dunne live year-round in Seaside with their daughters, Liz and Evy. The Dunnes run a real estate company, but their future becomes quite precarious when Brian develops a brain tumor. Amidst the chaos and new caretaking responsibilities, Liz still seeks out summer adventure and flirting with a guy she should know better than to pursue. Her younger sister, Evy, works in a candy shop, falls in love with her friend Olivia, and secretly adopts the persona of a middle-aged mom in an online support group, where she discovers her own mother’s most vulnerable confessions. Meanwhile, Margot faces an impossible choice driven by grief, impulse and the ways that small-town life in Seaside has shaped her.
Scribner | 9781982180171
SLEEPWALK by Dan Chaon (Literary Thriller)
At 50 years old, Will Bear has been living off the grid for over half his life. A good-natured henchman with a complicated and lonely past and a passion for LSD microdosing, he spends his time hopscotching across state lines in his beloved camper van, running sometimes shady, often dangerous errands for a powerful and ruthless operation. Out of the blue, one of Will's many burner phones heralds a call from a 20-year-old woman claiming to be his biological daughter. She’s entrenched in a widespread and nefarious plot involving Will’s employers, and for Will to continue to have any contact with her increasingly fuzzes the line between the people he's working for and the people he’s running from.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250175212
SWING AND A HIT: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me by Paul O'Neill and Jack Curry (Sports/Memoir)
In SWING AND A HIT, All-Star Yankee and five-time World Series champion Paul O’Neill elaborates on his most important hitting principles, lessons and memories --- exploring those elements across 10 chapters (to align with the nine innings of a baseball game and one extra inning). Here, O’Neill describes what he did as a hitter, how he adjusted to pitchers, how he boosted his confidence, how he battled with umpires (and water coolers), and what advice he would give to current hitters. O’Neill has always been a tough out at the plate. Recalling how he started to swing a bat as a two-year-old and kept swinging it professionally until he was 38, O’Neill provides constant insights into the beauty and frustration of playing baseball.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538709610
TALES OF AL: The Water Rescue Dog by Lynne Cox (Memoir)
Lynne Cox is internationally famous for swimming the world’s most difficult waterways without a wet suit. When she saw a video of a Newfoundland dog leaping from an airborne helicopter into Italian waters to save someone from drowning, she was transfixed by the rescue, and captivated by the magnificence, physicality and daring of the dog. TALES OF AL is the moving, inspiring story of Cox’s adventures on Italy’s picturesque Lake Idroscalo, as witness to the rigorous training of one of these spectacular dogs at SICS, the famed school that has taught hundreds of dog owners how to train their dogs --- Newfoundlands, German shepherds and golden retrievers --- for this rescue operation.
Knopf | 9780593319376
TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON by Chris Pavone (Thriller)
Ariel Pryce wakes up in Lisbon, alone. Her husband is gone --- no warning, no note, not answering his phone. Something is wrong. She starts with hotel security, then the police, then the American embassy, at each confronting questions she can’t fully answer: What exactly is John doing in Lisbon? Why would he drag her along on his business trip? Who would want to harm him? And why does Ariel know so little about her new --- much younger --- husband? The clock is ticking. Ariel is increasingly frustrated and desperate, running out of time, and the one person in the world who can help is the one person she least wants to ask.
MCD | 9780374604769
WHAT THE ERMINE SAW: The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo da Vinci's Most Mysterious Portrait by Eden Collinsworth (Art/History)
Five hundred and thirty years ago, a young woman sat before a Grecian-nosed artist known as Leonardo da Vinci. Her name was Cecilia Gallerani, and she was the young mistress of Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan. Sforza was a brutal and clever man who was mindful that Leonardo’s genius would not only capture Cecilia’s beguiling beauty but also reflect the grandeur of his title. But when the portrait was finished, Leonardo’s brush strokes had conveyed something deeper by revealing the essence of Cecilia’s soul. No records of The Woman with an Ermine have been found for the 250 years that followed Gallerani’s death. Readers of THE HARE WITH THE AMBER EYES will marvel at Eden Collinsworth’s dexterous story that illuminates the eventual history of this unique masterpiece.
Doubleday | 9780385546119
WITH A MIND TO KILL: A James Bond Novel by Anthony Horowitz (Thriller/Adventure)
Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use James Bond in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion's den. But whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives? In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.
Harper | 9780063078413
YOU MADE A FOOL OF DEATH WITH YOUR BEAUTY by Akwaeke Emezi (Romance)
Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be alive again. It’s been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life. Feyi isn’t ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she never could have imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and a major curator who wants to launch her art career. She’s even started dating the perfect guy, but their new relationship might be sabotaged before it has a chance by the overwhelming desire Feyi feels every time she locks eyes with the one person in the house who is most definitely off-limits --- his father.
Atria Books | 9781982188702
On Sale the Week of May 23rd in Paperback
May 24th
AUTOPSY: A Scarpetta Novel by Patricia Cornwell (Mystery/Thriller)
Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta has come almost full circle, returning to Virginia as the chief medical examiner, the state where she launched her storied career. Just weeks on the job, she’s called to a scene by railroad tracks where a woman’s body has been shockingly displayed, her throat cut down to the spine. At the same time, a catastrophe occurs in a top-secret laboratory in outer space, endangering at least two scientists aboard. Appointed to the highly classified Doomsday Commission that specializes in sensitive national security cases, Scarpetta is summoned to the White House and tasked with finding out exactly what happened. But even as she works the first potential crime scene in space remotely, an apparent serial killer strikes again very close to home.
William Morrow | 9780063112216
BATH HAUS by P. J. Vernon (Psychological Thriller)
Oliver Park, a recovering addict from Indiana, finally has everything he ever wanted: sobriety and a loving, wealthy partner in Nathan, a prominent DC trauma surgeon. Despite their difference in age and disparate backgrounds, they've made a perfect life together. With everything to lose, Oliver shouldn't be visiting Haus, a gay bathhouse. But through the entrance he goes, and it's a line crossed. Inside, he follows a man into a private room, and it's the final line. Everything goes wrong, terribly wrong, and Oliver barely escapes with his life. He races home in full-blown terror as the hand-shaped bruise grows dark on his neck. The truth will destroy Nathan and everything they have together, so Oliver does the thing he used to do so well: he lies.
Anchor | 9780593311318
CENTERSTAGE: My Most Fascinating Interviews — from A-Rod to Jay-Z by Michael Kay (Sports/Entertainment)
Emmy Award–winning television announcer and interviewer Michael Kay’s 18 years as host of “CenterStage” have given him access to many remarkable figures in sports and entertainment. Now, this selection of the best, most revealing --- and often surprising --- interviews are available in one collection, including some behind-the-scenes stories that didn’t appear on camera. Among the interviews featured in the book are those with Red Auerbach, Charles Barkley, Mike Tyson, Bobby Orr, Sly Stallone, Jay-Z, Lorne Michaels, Paul Simon, John McEnroe, Rob Reiner, Seth Meyers, Serena Williams, Alan Alda, David Halberstam, Larry David, Bob Costas, Billy Crystal, Lindsey Vonn, Chris Evert and Quentin Tarantino.
Scribner | 9781982152048
COMPLICATIONS by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
The Hotel Louis XVI has been the most lauded boutique hotel in all of Paris for decades, attracting an international clientele of the rich and famous. Now, after four years of renovations and the death of its legendary and beloved manager, it is set to reopen its doors at last. An esteemed group of loyal returning guests will descend upon the hotel, joined by a number of new faces who have managed to secure coveted bookings in the wake of last-minute cancellations. Awaiting them all is the Louis XVI’s new manager, Olivier Bateau, and his level-headed assistant manager, Yvonne Philippe. But they quickly realize that anything can happen at any moment, and on one cool September evening, everything does.
Dell | 9781984821515
THE ECHO WIFE by Sarah Gailey (Domestic Thriller/Science Fiction)
Martine is a genetically cloned replica made from Evelyn Caldwell’s award-winning research. She’s patient and gentle and obedient. She’s everything Evelyn swore she’d never be. And she’s having an affair with Evelyn’s husband. Now, the cheating bastard is dead, and both Caldwell wives have a mess to clean up. Good thing Evelyn Caldwell is used to getting her hands dirty.
Tor Books | 9781250174673
GIRLHOOD by Melissa Febos (Essays)
When her body began to change at 11 years old, Melissa Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions and by the romantic relationships she threw herself into headlong. Over time, Febos increasingly questioned the stories she'd been told about herself and the habits and defenses she'd developed over years of trying to meet others' expectations. The values she and so many other women had learned in girlhood did not prioritize their personal safety, happiness or freedom, and she set out to reframe those values and beliefs. In GIRLHOOD, Febos charts how she and others like her have reimagined relationships and made room for the anger, grief, power and pleasure that women have long been taught to deny.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635579314
THE GIRL WHO DIED by Ragnar Jonasson (Mystery/Thriller)
Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. As darkness descends throughout the bleak winter in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar, Una finds herself more often than not in her rented attic space --- the site of a local legendary haunting --- drinking her loneliness away. She is plagued by nightmares of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. And when a sudden tragedy echoes an event long buried in Skálar’s past, the villagers become even more guarded, leaving a suspicious Una seeking to uncover a shocking truth that’s been kept secret for generations.
Minotaur Books | 9781250830586
HEAL YOUR LIVING: The Joy of Mindfulness, Sustainability, Minimalism, and Wellness by Youheum Son (Self-Help/Personal Growth)
Paperback Original
HEAL YOUR LIVING is about more than just getting rid of your stuff. It's a holistic approach to a more fulfilling life, in harmony with your deepest aspirations. Youheum Son, the founder of the YouTube lifestyle channel with over 250,000 subscribers, identifies four areas that comprise the Heal Your Living approach: 1) Mindfulness: Meditation and insight, 2) Sustainability: Low-waste, eco-friendly lifestyle, 3) Minimalism: Simple living, and 4) Wellness: Self-care and healing. Separated into these four sections, this guide contains easy-to-use daily reflections for emotional and physical decluttering, as well as journaling prompts, planners, checklists, affirmations and mantras. With Youheum's guidance, you can recognize a better way of living and arrive at a turning point to release negative habits.
Parallax Press | 9781952692154
THE HEATHENS: A Quinn Colson Novel by Ace Atkins (Thriller)
Before he was an Army Ranger who came home to become Tibbehah County Sheriff and take down a corrupt system, Quinn Colson was a kid who got into a lot of trouble. So when juvenile delinquent TJ Byrd insists that she doesn’t know who killed her mother --- an unreliable addict who has disappeared --- Quinn is inclined to believe her. But no one else does. When she senses she’s about to take the fall for her mother’s murder, TJ, her boyfriend, her best friend and her nine-year-old brother go on the run. As Quinn’s friend and former deputy, U.S. Marshal Lillie Virgil, tracks the kids across a trail of burglaries, stolen cars and even a kidnapping, intent on bringing TJ to justice, Quinn sets out to find the truth back in Tibbehah.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593328408
THE HONEYMOON COTTAGE by Lori Foster (Romance)
Paperback Original
When it comes to creating the perfect happily-ever-after, Yardley Belanger is a bona fide miracle worker. But when it comes to her own love life, she’s completely clueless. The 31-year-old has poured her heart and soul into her business and doesn’t have time for anything --- or anyone --- else. And that’s something not even the gorgeous older brother of her newest client can change. Right? All Travis Long wanted was to give his little sister, Sheena, the wedding of her dreams. Ever since the tragic death of their parents, he’s done everything he can to make her feel loved and give her everything she needs. Yardley seems to know exactly what to do and how to do it --- and Travis finds himself falling for her a little more each day.
HQN | 9781335506368
THE HOUR OF FATE: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism by Susan Berfield (History)
In the summer of 1901, J.P. Morgan was assembling his next mega-deal: Northern Securities, an enterprise that would affirm his dominance in America's most important industry --- the railroads. Then a bullet from an anarchist's gun put an end to the business-friendly presidency of William McKinley. A new chief executive bounded into office: Theodore Roosevelt. By March 1902, battle lines were drawn: the government sued Northern Securities for antitrust violations. But as the case ramped up, the coal miners' union went on strike, and the anthracite pits that fueled Morgan's trains and heated the homes of Roosevelt's citizens went silent. With millions of dollars on the line and revolution in the air, it was a crisis that neither man alone could solve.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635578447
IMPOSTER SYNDROME by Kathy Wang (Thriller/Satire)
In 2006, Julia Lerner is recruited by Russia’s largest intelligence agency. By 2018, she’s in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of America’s most famous technology companies. In between her executive management, self-promotion and work in gender equality, she funnels intelligence back to the motherland. But now Russia is asking for more, and Julia is getting nervous. Alice Lu is a first generation Chinese American whose parents are delighted she’s working at Tangerine. One afternoon, Alice discovers some unusual activity, and now she’s burdened with two powerful but distressing suspicions: Tangerine’s privacy settings aren’t as rigorous as the company claims they are, and the person abusing this loophole might be Julia Lerner herself.
Mariner Books | 9780062855299
THE MADNESS OF CROWDS by Louise Penny (Mystery)
Professor Abigail Robinson will be giving a lecture at a nearby university, and Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is asked to provide security for it. He discovers an agenda so repulsive that he begs the university to cancel the lecture. They refuse, citing academic freedom, and accuse Gamache of censorship and intellectual cowardice. Before long, Professor Robinson’s views start seeping into conversations so that truth and fact, reality and delusion, are so confused it’s nearly impossible to tell them apart. When a murder is committed, it falls to Gamache, his second-in-command Jean-Guy Beauvoir and their team to investigate the crime, as well as this extraordinary popular delusion. And the madness of crowds.
Minotaur Books | 9781250145277
THE MAIDENS by Alex Michaelides (Psychological Thriller)
A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Edward Fosca is adored by staff and students alike --- particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. She becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships.
Celadon Books | 9781250304469
MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS by Joshua Henkin (Fiction)
Ohio-born Pru Steiner arrives in New York in 1976. When she falls in love with and marries Spence Robin, her hotshot young Shakespeare professor, her life takes a turn she couldn’t have anticipated. Thirty years later, something is wrong with Spence. With their daughter, Sarah, away at medical school, Pru must struggle on her own to care for him. One day, feeling especially isolated, Pru meets a man, and the possibility of new romance blooms. Meanwhile, Spence’s estranged son from his first marriage has come back into their lives. Arlo, a wealthy entrepreneur who invests in biotech, may be his father’s last, best hope.
Vintage | 9780525566632
OUR LAST DAYS IN BARCELONA by Chanel Cleeton (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Barcelona, 1964. Exiled from Cuba after the revolution, Isabel Perez goes to Spain in search of her missing sister, Beatriz. But it’s an unearthed piece of family history that ultimately transforms her life. Barcelona, 1936. Alicia Perez arrives in Barcelona after a difficult voyage from Cuba, her marriage in jeopardy and her young daughter, Isabel, in tow. When Cubans journey to Spain to join the International Brigades, Alicia’s past comes back to haunt her as she is unexpectedly reunited with the man who once held her heart. Alicia and Isabel’s lives intertwine, and the past and present collide, as a mother and daughter are forced to choose between their family’s expectations and following their hearts.
Berkley | 9780593197820
PARADOX LAKE by Vincent Zandri (Psychological Thriller)
Sculptor and single mom Rose Conley is haunted by her tragic past and anxious about her uncertain future. She needs to get away from it all. On sabbatical from the college where she teaches art, she and her daughter rent a house for three months in the Adirondack lakeside community of Paradox. Rose desperately needs time alone with her 12-year-old daughter before the teenage years hit. In the wake of the premature deaths of her oldest daughter, Allison, and her husband, Charlie, Rose wants nothing more than to nurture Anna every moment she can. But idyllic Paradox Lake transforms into a nightmare when a monster from the past invades Rose’s retreat --- and targets her daughter for his special brand of horror.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094981
PHASE SIX by Jim Shepard (Apocalyptic Thriller)
In a tiny settlement on the west coast of Greenland, 11-year-old Aleq and his best friend, frequent trespassers at a mining site exposed to mountains of long-buried and thawing permafrost, carry what they pick up back into their village. PHASE SIX follows Aleq, one of the few survivors of the initial outbreak, through his identification and radical isolation as the likely index patient. While he shoulders both a crushing guilt for what he may have done and the hopes of a world looking for answers, we also meet two Epidemic Intelligence Service investigators dispatched from the CDC --- Jeannine, an epidemiologist and daughter of Algerian immigrants, and Danice, an M.D. and lab wonk. As they attempt to head off the cataclysm, Jeannine does what she can to sustain Aleq.
Vintage | 9780525565031
A SPECIAL PLACE FOR WOMEN by Laura Hankin (Fiction)
For years, rumors have swirled about an exclusive, women-only social club where the elite tastemakers of New York City meet. People in the know whisper all sorts of claims: Membership dues cost $1,000 a month. Last time Rihanna was in town, she stopped by and got her aura read. The women even handpicked the city's first female mayor. But no one knows for sure. That is, until journalist Jillian Beckley decides she's going to break into the club. But the deeper she gets into this new world, the more she learns that bad things happen to those who dare to question the club's motives or giggle at its outlandish rituals. The select group of women who populate the club may be far more powerful than she ever imagined. And far more dangerous too.
Berkley | 9781984806277
TALL MEN, SHORT SHORTS: The 1969 NBA Finals: Wilt, Russ, Lakers, Celtics, and a Very Young Sports Reporter by Leigh Montville (Sports)
It's 1969, and the greatest basketball player of all time --- Bill Russell --- and his juggernaut Boston Celtics squeak through one more playoff run and land in the NBA Finals again. Russell’s opponent is the fearsome seven-foot, one-inch next-generation superstar, Wilt Chamberlain, recently traded to the Los Angeles Lakers to form the league’s first dream team. Covering this epic series is a wide-eyed young sportswriter named Leigh Montville, who would go on to become an award-winning legend himself at The Boston Globe and Sports Illustrated, and who is sent to L.A. (for the first time!) to write about his luminous heroes, the biggest of big men. What follows is a raucous, colorful, joyous account of one of the greatest seven-game series in NBA history.
Anchor | 9780525567318
WAR ON THE BORDER: Villa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion by Jeff Guinn (History)
Jeff Guinn, chronicler of the Southwestern US and of American undesirables, tells the riveting story of Pancho Villa’s bloody raid on a small US border town that sparked a violent conflict with the US. The “Punitive Expedition” was launched in retaliation under Pershing’s command and brought together the Army, National Guard and Texas Rangers --- who were little more than organized vigilantes with a profound dislike of Mexicans on both sides of the border. Opposing this motley military brigade was Villa, a guerrilla fighter who commanded an ever-changing force of conscripts in northern Mexico.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982128876
On Sale the Week of May 30th in Hardcover
May 31st
DEEP WATER by Emma Bamford (Psychological Thriller)
When a Navy vessel comes across a yacht in distress in the middle of the vast Indian Ocean, Captain Danial Tengku orders his ship to rush to its aid. On board the yacht is a British couple: a horribly injured man, Jake, and his traumatized wife, Virginie, who breathlessly confesses, “It’s all my fault. I killed them.” Trembling with fear, she reveals their shocking story to Danial, and it will be up to him to determine just how truthful she is. But when his crew makes a shocking discovery, Danial realizes that if he doesn’t act soon, they could all fall under the dark spell of the island.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982170363
THE FAVOR by Nora Murphy (Domestic Thriller)
Leah and McKenna have never met, though they have parallel lives. They don’t --- ever --- find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or the coffee shop. They don’t --- ever --- discuss their problems and find common ground. They don’t --- ever --- acknowledge to each other that although their lives have all the trappings of success, wealth and happiness, they are, in fact, trapped. Leah understands that what’s inside a home can be far more dangerous than what’s outside. So when she notices someone else who may be starting down the same path she’s on, she pays attention. She watches over McKenna from afar. Until one night she sees more than she bargained for.
Minotaur Books | 9781250822420
THE FOUNDLING by Ann Leary (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1927, and 18-year-old Mary Engle is hired to work as a secretary at a remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women. She’s immediately in awe of her employer, Dr. Agnes Vogel, who runs one of the largest and most self-sufficient public asylums for women in the country. Mary deeply admires how dedicated the doctor is to the poor and vulnerable women under her care. Soon after she’s hired, Mary learns that a girl from her childhood orphanage, Lillian, is one of the inmates. When Lillian begs Mary to help her escape, alleging the asylum is not what it seems, Mary is faced with a terrible choice. Should she trust her troubled friend with whom she shares a dark childhood secret?
Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781982120382
HALF-BLOWN ROSE by Leesa Cross-Smith (Fiction)
At 44, Vincent enjoys strolling the streets of Paris and teaching at the modern art museum; she has a vibrant group of friends; and she’s even caught the eye of a young, charismatic man named Loup. But Vincent is also in Paris to escape a painful betrayal. Her husband, Cillian, has published a bestselling book divulging secrets about their marriage and his own past, hinting that when he was a teenager, he may have had a child with a young woman back in Dublin --- before he moved to California and never returned. Now estranged from her husband, Vincent has agreed to see Cillian again at their son’s wedding the following summer, but Loup introduces new complications.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538755167
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY by David Sedaris (Humor/Essays)
Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask --- or not --- was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger’s teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone’s son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316392457
HOW TO BE EATEN by Maria Adelmann (Fiction)
In present-day New York City, five women meet in a basement support group to process their traumas. Bernice grapples with the fallout of dating a psychopathic, blue-bearded billionaire. Ruby, once devoured by a wolf, now wears him as a coat. Gretel questions her memory of being held captive in a house made of candy. Ashlee, the winner of a “Bachelor”-esque dating show, wonders if she really got her promised fairy tale ending. And Raina's love story will shock them all. Though the women start out wary of one another, gradually they begin to realize that they may have more in common than they supposed. What really brought them here? What secrets will they reveal? And is it too late for them to rescue each other?
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316450843
THE LATECOMER by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Fiction)
THE LATECOMER follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. As children, the three siblings --- Harrison, Lewyn and Sally --- feel no strong familial bond and cannot wait to go their separate ways, even as their father becomes more distanced and their mother more desperate. When the triplets leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to have a fourth child. What role will the “latecomer” play in this fractured family?
Celadon Books | 9781250790798
MEANT TO BE by Emily Giffin (Fiction)
The Kingsley family is beloved for their military heroics and political service. In 1967, after Joseph S. Kingsley, Jr. is killed in a tragic accident, his charismatic son inherits the weight of that legacy. But despite his best intentions, Joe III has trouble meeting the expectations of a nation. Cate Cooper also grew up fatherless, and after her mother marries an abusive man, she is forced to fend for herself. After being discovered by a model scout, Cate decides that her looks may be her only ticket out of the cycle of disappointment that her mother has always inhabited. When Joe and Cate unexpectedly cross paths one afternoon, their connection is instant and intense. But can their relationship survive the glare of the spotlight and the so-called Kingsley curse?
Ballantine Books | 9780425286647
AN OLIVE GROVE IN ENDS by Moses McKenzie (Fiction)
Sayon Hughes longs to escape the volatile Bristol neighborhood known as Ends, the tight-knit but sometimes lawless world in which he was raised, and forge a better life with Shona, the girl he’s loved since grade school. With few paths out, he is drawn into dealing drugs alongside his cousin, the unpredictable but fiercely loyal Cuba. Sayon is on the cusp of making a clean break when an altercation with a rival dealer turns deadly and an expected witness threatens blackmail, upending his plans. Sayon’s loyalties are torn. If Shona learns the secret of his crime, he will lose her forever. But if he doesn’t escape Ends now, he may never get another chance.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316420143
ON GIN LANE by Brooke Lea Foster (Historical Fiction)
Everleigh “Lee” Farrows thinks she finally has life all figured out: a handsome fiancé named Roland, a trust in her name, and a house in Bronxville waiting for her to fill it with three adorable children. That is, until Roland brings her out to the Hamptons for a summer that will change everything. Most women could only dream of the engagement present Roland unexpectedly bestows on Lee --- a beachside hotel on the prized Gin Lane --- but Lee’s delight is clouded by unpleasant memories of another hotel, the Plaza, where she grew up in the shadow of her mother’s mental illness. When tragedy strikes on the hotel’s opening weekend, the cracks in Lee’s picture-perfect future slowly begin to reveal themselves.
Gallery Books | 9781982174439
REBELS AT SEA: Privateering in the American Revolution by Eric Jay Dolin (History)
The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America’s first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation’s character ---- above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos. In REBELS AT SEA, bestselling historian Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission and contends that privateers, as they were called, were in fact critical to the American victory.
Liveright | 9781631498251
A RIP THROUGH TIME by Kelley Armstrong (Mystery/Thriller)
May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She is drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness. May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she had been strangled and left for dead...exactly 150 years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot. When Mallory wakes up in Catriona's body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland.
Minotaur Books | 9781250820006
THE SEAMSTRESS OF NEW ORLEANS by Diane C. McPhail (Historical Fiction)
Desperate to make a living for herself and the child she carries after her husband’s abrupt disappearance, Alice Butterworth offers sewing lessons at a New Orleans orphanage. Constance Halstead, a young widow reeling with shock under the threat of her late husband’s gambling debts, has thrown herself into charitable work. Meeting Alice at the orphanage, she offers lodging in exchange for Alice’s help creating a gown for the Leap Year ball of Les Mysterieuses, the first all-female krewe of Mardi Gras. Piece by piece, the breathtaking gown takes shape, becoming a symbol of strength for both women, reflecting their progress toward greater independence. But Constance carries a burden that makes it impossible to feel truly free.
A John Scognamiglio Book | 9781496738158
SPARRING PARTNERS by John Grisham (Crime Fiction)
In John Grisham’s first collection of novellas, law is a common thread --- but he has several surprises in store. “Homecoming” marks the return of Jake Brigance, but he’s not in the courtroom. He’s called upon to help an old friend, Mack Stafford, a former lawyer who stole money from his clients. In “Strawberry Moon,” Cody Wallace is only three hours away from execution, and he has one final request. The “Sparring Partners” are the Malloy brothers, Kirk and Rusty, two successful young lawyers who inherited a once prosperous firm when its founder, their father, was sent to prison. As the firm disintegrates, the resulting fiasco falls into the lap of Diantha Bradshaw, the only person the partners trust.
Doubleday | 9780385549325
SWEET SWEET REVENGE LTD written by Jonas Jonasson, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Meet Ole Mbatian Jr., a Maasai warrior; Kevin, his sort-of-son; Agneta, a wronged and penniless ex-wife; and Johan, an unscrupulous Stockholm ad-man whose company specializes in revenge services. As Agneta and Kevin seek revenge against the gallery owner who has wronged them, this madcap, funny and philosophical novel takes off on a madcap journey that spans five continents and whirls around a colorful cast of characters, including a goat called Molly and the Pope. As he’s done in his previous novels, Jonas Jonasson acts as a travel guide through time, drops in a few lessons on colonialism and art history, and pokes fun at capitalism and the art world, with plenty of laughs along the way.
HarperVia | 9780063072152
THE WEDDING DRESS SEWING CIRCLE by Jennifer Ryan (Historical Fiction)
After renowned fashion designer Cressida Westcott loses both her home and her design house in the London Blitz, she has nowhere to go but the family manor house she fled decades ago. Her niece, Violet Westcott, is thrilled that her famous aunt is coming to stay. But just as Cressida arrives, so does Violet’s conscription letter. How will she ever find a suitably aristocratic husband if she has to spend her days wearing a frumpy uniform and doing war work? Meanwhile, the local vicar’s daughter, Grace Carlisle, is trying in vain to repair her mother’s gown, her only chance of a white wedding. When Cressida appears at the local Sewing Circle meeting, Grace asks for her help --- but Cressida has much more to teach the ladies than just simple sewing skills.
Ballantine Books | 9780593158838
YERBA BUENA by Nina LaCour (Fiction)
When Sara Foster runs away from home at 16, she leaves behind the girl she once was, capable of trust and intimacy. Years later, in Los Angeles, she is a sought-after bartender, renowned as much for her brilliant cocktails as for the mystery that clings to her. Across the city, Emilie Dubois is in a holding pattern, yearning for the beauty and community her Creole grandparents cultivated but unable to commit. On a whim, she takes a job arranging flowers at the glamorous restaurant Yerba Buena and embarks on an affair with the married owner. The morning Emilie and Sara first meet at Yerba Buena, their connection is immediate. But the damage both women carry, and the choices they have made, pulls them apart again and again.
Flatiron Books | 9781250810465
On Sale the Week of May 30th in Paperback
May 31st
ANIMAL by Lisa Taddeo (Fiction)
Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruelties of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan unravels the horrific event she witnessed as a child --- that has haunted her every waking moment --- while forging the power to finally strike back.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982122133
THE BOARDWALK BOOKSHOP by Susan Mallery (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When fate brings three strangers to a charming space for lease on the California coast, the Boardwalk Bookshop is born. But while their business is thriving, their personal lives are not. Bree, wounded by brilliant but cold parents and her late husband's ultimate betrayal, has sworn to protect her heart at all costs. Even from Ashley's brother, a writer and adventurer who has inspired millions. Mikki has this divorce thing all figured out; she has stayed friends with her ex and her in-laws…until a new man changes how everyone looks at her and how she sees herself. Meanwhile, Ashley discovers that the love of her life never intends to marry. Can she live without being a wife if it means she can have everything else she has ever wanted?
Mira | 9780778386087
A CARIBBEAN HEIRESS IN PARIS by Adriana Herrera (Historical Romance)
Paperback Original
Luz Alana set sail from Santo Domingo armed with 300 casks of rum, her two best friends and one simple rule: under no circumstances is she to fall in love. In the City of Lights, she intends to expand the rum business her family built over three generations, but buyers and shippers alike can’t imagine doing business with a woman…never mind a woman of color. Enter James Evanston Sinclair, Earl of Darnick, who has spent a decade looking for purpose outside of his father’s dirty money and dirtier dealings. Ignoring his title, he’s built a whisky brand that’s his biggest --- and only --- passion. That is, until he’s confronted with a Spanish-speaking force of nature who turns his life upside down.
HQN | 9781335639844
CAROLINA MOONSET by Matt Goldman (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Joey Green has returned to Beaufort, South Carolina, to look after his ailing father, who is succumbing to dementia. Marshall Green’s short-term memory has all but evaporated, but his oldest memories are more vivid than ever. His mind keeps slipping backwards in time, retreating into long-ago yesterdays of growing up in Beaufort as a boy. But Joey grows increasingly anxious as his hallucinatory arguments with figures from his youth begin to hint at deadly secrets, scandals and suspicions long buried and forgotten. Resurfacing from decades past are mysteries that still have the power to shatter lives --- and change everything Joey thought he knew. Especially when a new murder brings the police to his door.
Forge Books | 9781250810144
DOUBLE BLIND by Edward St. Aubyn (Fiction)
When Olivia meets a new lover just as she is welcoming her best friend, Lucy, back from New York, her dedicated academic life expands precipitously. Her connection to Francis, a committed naturalist living off the grid, is immediate and startling. Eager to involve Lucy in her joy, Olivia introduces the two --- but Lucy has received shocking news of her own that binds the trio unusually close. Over the months that follow, Lucy’s boss, Hunter, Olivia’s psychoanalyst parents, and a young man named Sebastian are pulled into the friends’ orbit, and not one of them will emerge unchanged.
Picador | 9781250849410
GODS AT PLAY: An Eyewitness Account of Great Moments in American Sports by Tom Callahan (Sports/History)
As a columnist for Time magazine, among many other publications, Tom Callahan witnessed an extraordinary number of defining moments in American sport across four decades. He takes us from Roberto Clemente clinching his 3,000th, and final, regular-season hit in Pittsburgh; to ringside for the Muhammad Ali–George Foreman fight in Zaire; and to Arthur Ashe announcing, at a news conference, that he’d tested positive for HIV. There are also little-known private moments: Joe Morgan whispering thank you to a virtually blind Jackie Robinson on the field at the 1972 World Series, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar saying he was more interested in being a good man than in being the greatest basketball player.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324021971
GOERING’S GOLD: A Ructions O'Hare Novel by Richard O'Rawe (Historical Thriller)
Paperback Original
When WWII ended, the allies discovered that a huge amount of gold bullion plundered by Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering had gone missing. Some believed the gold had been hidden in a train box car in Poland. Others that it was secreted in Lake Toplitz in the Austrian Alps. And a few thought it was buried in the Republic of Ireland, which was neutral during the war. When ex-IRA soldier Ructions O'Hare stumbles on a piece of Nazi memorabilia once owned by Goering, he begins to think that those who suspect the gold was in Ireland just might be on to something. But for Ructions to return to Ireland is easier said than done.
Melville House | 9781612199658
LOVE AND FURY: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft by Samantha Silva (Historical Fiction)
Midwife Parthenia Blenkinsop has delivered countless babies, but nothing prepares her for the experience that unfolds when she arrives at Mary Wollstonecraft’s door. Over the 11 harrowing days that follow, as Mrs. Blenkinsop fights for the survival of both mother and newborn, Mary Wollstonecraft recounts the life she dared to live amidst the impossible constraints and prejudices of the late 18th century, rejecting the tyranny of men and marriage, risking everything to demand equality for herself and all women. She weaves her riveting tale to give her fragile daughter a reason to live, even as her own strength wanes.
Flatiron Books | 9781250159120
THE MESSY LIVES OF BOOK PEOPLE by Phaedra Patrick (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Mother of two Liv Green barely scrapes by as a maid to make ends meet, often finding escape in a good book while daydreaming of becoming a writer herself. So she can't believe her luck when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero, megabestselling author Essie Starling. The last thing Liv expected was to be the only person Essie talks to, which leads to a tenuous friendship. When Essie passes away suddenly, Liv is astonished to learn that her dying wish was for Liv to complete her final novel. But to do so, Liv will have to step into Essie’s shoes. As Liv begins to write, she uncovers secrets from the past that reveal a surprising connection between the two women --- one that will change Liv’s own story forever.
Park Row | 9780778312000
REALITY AND OTHER STORIES by John Lanchester (Supernatural Fiction/Short Stories)
In 2017, inspired in part by Henry James’ THE TURN OF THE SCREW, the acclaimed English novelist John Lanchester published a ghost story in The New Yorker. "Signal," an eerie story of contemporary life and the perils of technology, was a sensation among readers --- and since then Lanchester has written several more. REALITY AND OTHER STORIES gathers the best of these, taking readers to an uncanny world familiar to fans of “The Twilight Zone” or “Black Mirror.” Household gizmos with a mind of their own. Mysterious cell phone calls from unknown numbers. Reality TV shows and the creeping suspicion that none of this is real.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324020158
THE SCIENCE OF MURDER: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine (Science/True Crime)
Paperback Original
Agatha Christie is the bestselling novelist of all time, and nearly every story she ever wrote involves one --- or, more commonly, several --- dead bodies. And the cause of death, the motives behind violent crimes, the clues that inevitably are left behind, and the people who put the pieces together to solve the mystery invite the reader to analyze the evidence and race to find the answer before the detective does. Christie wouldn't have talked of "forensics" as it is understood today, but in each tale she harnesses the power of human observation, ingenuity and scientific developments of the era. A fascinating, science-based deep dive, THE SCIENCE OF MURDER examines the use of fingerprints, firearms, handwriting, blood spatter analysis, toxicology and more in Christie's beloved works.
Sourcebooks | 9781728251844
THE SECRET LIFE OF ALBERT ENTWISTLE by Matt Cain (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
Albert Entwistle is a private man with a quiet, simple life in his northern England village. He lives alone with his cat, Gracie. And he’s a postman. At least he was a postman until, three months before his 65th birthday, he receives a letter from the Royal Mail thanking him for decades of service and stating he is being forced into retirement. At once, Albert’s sole connection with his world unravels. Rather than continue his lonely existence, Albert forms a brave plan to start truly living. It’s finally time to be honest about who he is. To seek the happiness he’s always denied himself. And to find the courage to look for George, the man who, many years ago, he loved and lost --- but has never forgotten.
A John Scognamiglio Book | 9781496737755
TRAVELS WITH GEORGE: In Search of Washington and His Legacy by Nathaniel Philbrick (History/Travel Memoir)
When George Washington became president in 1789, the United States of America was still a loose and quarrelsome confederation and a tentative political experiment. Washington undertook a tour of the ex-colonies to talk to ordinary citizens about his new government, and to imbue in them the idea of being one thing --- Americans. In the fall of 2018, Nathaniel Philbrick embarked on his own journey into what Washington called "the infant woody country" to see for himself what America had become in the 229 years since. Writing in a thoughtful first person about his own adventures with his wife Melissa and their dog Dora, Philbrick follows Washington's presidential excursions.
Penguin Books | 9780525562191
WHERE THE TRUTH LIES by Anna Bailey (Thriller)
When 17-year-old Abigail Blake disappears after a party, her best friend Emma is left with questions no one else can answer. The police initially believe Abi ran away, but Emma doesn’t believe that her friend would leave without her. When disturbing evidence is discovered nearby, the festering secrets and longstanding resentment of both Abigail’s family and the people of Whistling Ridge begin to surface with devastating consequences. But Abi has secrets of her own, and the closer Emma grows to unraveling them, the further she feels from her friend. And in a tinderbox of small-town rage, all it will take is just one spark --- the truth of what really happened that night --- to change their community forever.
Atria Books | 9781982157173
WITH TEETH by Kristen Arnett (Fiction)
If she’s being honest, Sammie Lucas is scared of her son. Working from home in the close quarters of their Florida house, she lives with one wary eye peeled on Samson, a sullen, unknowable boy who resists her every attempt to bond with him. Uncertain in her own feelings about motherhood, she tries her best while growing increasingly resentful of Monika, her confident but absent wife. As Samson grows from feral toddler to surly teenager, Sammie’s life begins to deteriorate into a mess of unruly behavior, and her struggle to create a picture-perfect queer family unravels. When her son’s hostility finally spills over into physical aggression, Sammie must confront her role in the mess --- and the possibility that it will never be clean again.
Riverhead Books | 9780593191521
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