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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 8th and May 15th 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 Summer Reading Contests and Feature, a series of 24-hour giveaways that are taking place on select days through mid-August. Enter for your chance to win titles that we think will be great summer book picks. The first contest is now up, and two more will follow at noon ET on Wednesday and Thursday!
For our latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview, Kate Morton joined Carol from Australia to talk about her New York Times bestseller, HOMECOMING, which is a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. During the early days of the pandemic, Kate headed to Australia with her family for what was to be an Easter visit. As they realized that their time there was going to be longer than planned, Kate put aside a manuscript that she was working on. Inspired by the Australian landscape and the idea of her own homecoming, she began this book. In this interview, Kate shares how the story evolved. Beautiful homes, places and landscapes draw her eye (as witnessed on her Instagram page). From there, the characters and plot take shape.
There is also a book within the book here --- a true crime book that sparks the characters to learn more. Carol forgot to ask if Kate wrote this true crime story first, so she circled back to her in email. Kate replied: “I made notes for Daniel Miller’s book in its entirety and knew from the start that it would have two basic parts: the Turner family’s activities on the last day of their lives, and the investigation afterwards. In concept, I thought the second part would be longer than it was. But as I progressed, I realized that I didn’t need to show the investigation via Daniel Miller, because Jess’ research provided so much of the necessary information. I wrote the first part, covering the Turner family’s final day, in one fell swoop; the rest I wrote as it appears in the book.”
Carol and Kate cover a lot of ground in their conversation. HOMECOMING is worth the five-year wait since Kate’s last book, THE CLOCKMAKER’S DAUGHTER. Click here to watch the video or here to listen to the podcast.
This is your last newsletter reminder to sign up for this month’s “Bookaccino Live” book preview event, which will take place TOMORROW, Wednesday, May 10th at 2pm ET. The focus will be on titles releasing between now and June 6th, in addition to a few from July, that Carol would like to get on your radar. Click here to register. Those attending the live event will be asked to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading and will be eligible to win a prize.
We are hosting our 12th Annual Book Group Speed Dating event this Friday, May 12th from 1pm to 2:15pm ET, where 10 publishers will be sharing some of the titles that they think will resonate with book clubs over the next six months. If you are a bookseller, librarian or book group leader who runs multiple book groups, you will not want to miss this event. Drop Carol a note at Carol@bookreporter.com and tell her about yourself, and she can send you the link to sign up. This is a trade-only event, so it's not open to the public. We will share the video and some additional materials with you later this month.
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
Below are five upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.
Wednesday, May 10th at 2pm ET: "Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books": Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between May 9th and June 6th, along with a few from July, that she would like to get on your radar.
Wednesday, May 10th 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 Jennifer Robson and Martha Hall Kelly about their latest historical novels: Jennifer's CORONATION YEAR and Martha's THE GOLDEN DOVES.
Monday, May 15th at 7pm ET: Books & Books: Books & Books is thrilled to present an evening with J. Ryan Stradal and Katie Taylor discussing Stradal's SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE LAKESIDE SUPPER CLUB, a story of a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota.
Monday, May 15th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Marc Cameron will talk about his fifth Arliss Cutter adventure, BREAKNECK, in which a train ride through the austere beauty of Alaska’s icy wilderness becomes a harrowing fight for survival at the Gateway to the Arctic.
Tuesday, May 16th at 7pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Helena Fox, Kathleen Glasgow, Jennifer Niven and Nic Stone for a live virtual event for Mental Health Awareness Month with a panel discussion of all things mental health, where the writers will discuss their personal experiences and how it influences their writing --- both past and present. The panel will be moderated by Andrea Beatriz Arango, the Newbery Honor winner for IVELIZ EXPLAINS IT ALL.
This Week's Bonus News:
Bookreporter.com's 19th Annual
Summer Reading Contests and Feature
Summer will be here before you know it! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Contests and Feature. We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days through mid-August, so you will have to check the site each day to see the featured prize book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.
This year’s featured titles include:
Click here to read all the contest details
and learn more about our featured titles.
On Sale the Week of May 8th in Hardcover
May 9th
ATALANTA by Jennifer Saint (Historical Fiction/Mythology)
When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing. Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. The Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves herself equal to the men she fights alongside. As she is swept into a passionate affair, she begins to question the goddess's true intentions.
Flatiron Books | 9781250855572
THE COLLECTED REGRETS OF CLOVER by Mikki Brammer (Fiction)
From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of PETER RABBIT, Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process. Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a trip across the country to uncover a forgotten love story --- and perhaps her own happy ending.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250284396
THE DADDY DIARIES: The Year I Grew Up by Andy Cohen (Memoir/Humor)
One of Andy Cohen’s most momentous years starts off with a hangover the morning after an epic New Year’s Eve broadcast. But Andy doesn’t have time to dwell on the drama, as his role as media mogul is now matched with the responsibilities, joys and growing pains of parenthood. With a three-year-old son, Ben, and a daughter, Lucy, born in May, stories of late-night parties are replaced by early mornings with Ben, drama at the playground, and the musings of a single dad trying to navigate having it all. All this is set against the backdrop of constant "Housewives" drama, hijinks behind the scenes at "Watch What Happens Live," a revolving door of famous faces, and a worried mother (and newly minted grandmother) in St. Louis.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250890924
FEHERTY: The Remarkably Funny and Tragic Journey of Golf's David Feherty by John Feinstein (Sports/Biography)
John Feinstein, who has spent four decades finding intriguing sports characters and narratives and turning them into classic books, chronicles the life and career of David Feherty. The two have known each other for years, beginning with Feinstein’s work on A GOOD WALK SPOILED, which was researched and written at a time when Feherty was an excellent player who won five times in Europe and was on the '91 Ryder Cup team, but also was a functioning alcoholic. In retirement from the game, Feherty has sobered up, while his golf world persona has only grown in stature. Feherty is now a grand ambassador for golf, a man who is feted by US Presidents and respected by every big name in the game.
Hachette Books | 9780306830006
FIRE WITH FIRE by Candice Fox (Thriller)
Following their daughter's mysterious disappearance, Ryan and Elsie Delaney have taken the LAPD forensic lab hostage and given law enforcement an ultimatum: Find their daughter, Tilly, or they will destroy all the evidence they can find to other cold cases. Detective Charlie Hoskins has been undercover in a deadly motorcycle gang for five years. With his cover blown, he has no choice but to find Tilly himself or lose everything he's worked for as the lab burns. Lynette Lamb was a police officer --- until yesterday, when she was fired before her first beat. Figuring out what happened to Tilly is her one and only chance at rejoining the career she's prepared her whole life for. Hoskins and Lamb will have to team up to solve this cold case before the situation explodes.
Forge Books | 9781250875969
FIXIT: An IQ Novel by Joe Ide (Mystery)
Danger has always followed Isaiah Quintabe, a reality he’s keenly aware of as he’s laid up in a hospital bed, recovering from injuries sustained in his last case. So he’s unaware that Grace, the love of his life, has been abducted by his sworn enemy, the professional hitman Skip Hanson. Now, Isaiah and his sometimes partner, ex-hustler Juanell Dodson, must track scant clues through L.A.’s perilous landscape as Grace’s predicament grows more uncertain. A complication arises in the form of Winnie Hando, a homicide detective with something to prove. Stubborn and effective, Winnie sees his efforts as an obstruction to the investigation. As the desperate hunt winds on, Isaiah fears that even if he can bring Grace home alive, things between them will never be the same.
Mulholland Books | 9780316531085
THE HOUSE ON PRYTANIA: A Royal Street Novel by Karen White (Mystery)
Nola Trenholm may not be psychic herself, but she has spent enough time around people who are to know when ghosts are present, and there are definitely a few lingering spirits in her recently purchased Creole cottage in New Orleans. But with the sudden return of Sunny Ryan, Beau Ryan’s long-lost sister, Nola has plenty to distract her from her ghostly housemates. Especially when Beau, wanting to mete out justice to those he blames for Sunny’s kidnapping, asks Nola for a favor that threatens to derail her hard-won recovery and send her hurtling backward. Torn between helping Beau and protecting herself, Nola doesn’t realize until it’s almost too late why the ghosts are haunting her house --- a startling revelation that will throw her and Beau together to fight a common enemy.
Berkley | 9780593334621
INDEPENDENCE SQUARE: Arkady Renko in Ukraine by Martin Cruz Smith (Thriller)
It’s June 2021, and Arkady Renko knows that Russia is preparing to invade and subsequently annex Ukraine as it did Crimea in 2014. He is, however, preoccupied with other grievances. His longtime lover, Tatiana Petrovna, has deserted him for her work as an investigative reporter. And he is having trouble with his dexterity and balance. A visit to his doctor reveals that these are symptoms for Parkinson’s disease. Rather than dwell on his diagnosis, he throws himself into another case. An acquaintance has asked him to find his daughter, Karina, an anti-Putin activist who has disappeared. In the course of the investigation, Arkady falls for Karina's roommate, Elena, a Tatar from Ukraine. Later, in Crimea, Tatiana reemerges to complicate Arkady’s new romance.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982188306
THE LEAVING SEASON: A Memoir in Essays by Kelly McMasters (Memoir/Essays)
Kelly McMasters found herself in her mid-30s living her fantasy: she’d moved with her husband from New York City to rural Pennsylvania, where their children roamed idyllic acres. The pastoral landscape and the bookshop they opened were restorative at first, for her and her marriage. But soon she was quietly plotting her escape. In THE LEAVING SEASON, McMasters chronicles the heady rush of falling in love and carving out a life in the city, the slow dissolution of her relationship in an isolated farmhouse, and the complexities of making a new home for herself and her children as a single parent. She delves into the tricky and often devastating balance between seeing and being seen; loss and longing; desire and doubt; and the paradox of leaving what you love in order to survive.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393541052
THE MAKING OF ANOTHER MAJOR MOTION PICTURE MASTERPIECE written by Tom Hanks, illustrated by R. Sikoryak (Fiction)
Part One of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew and then disappears for 23 years. Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books, reconnects with his uncle and --- remembering the comic book he saw when he was five --- draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero. Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie. Cue the cast: We meet the film’s extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.
Knopf | 9780525655596
THE NIGHTINGALE AFFAIR by Tim Mason (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
In 1855, Britain and France are fighting to keep the Russians from snatching the Crimean Peninsula from the Ottoman Empire, and Florence Nightingale has made it her mission to improve the wretched conditions in the British military hospitals in Turkey. When young women start turning up dead, their mouths sewn shut with embroidered fabric roses, Inspector Charles Field is sent from England to find the killer among the doctors, military men, journalists and others swarming Turkey’s famous Barrack Hospital. When the prime suspect takes his own life, the case is closed. Or is it? Twelve years later, women again start turning up dead, their mouths covered by that telltale embroidered rose. Did Field suspect the wrong man before, or is he dealing with a deviant copycat?
Algonquin Books | 9781643750392
OUR MIGRANT SOULS: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino" by Héctor Tobar (Social Science/Ethnic Studies)
"Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. OUR MIGRANT SOULS assembles the Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar's personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latinx students to offer a spirited rebuke to racist ideas about Latino people. It decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and seeks to give voice to the angst and anger of young Latino people who have seen latinidad transformed into hateful tropes about "illegals" and have faced insults, harassment and division based on white insecurities and economic exploitation.
MCD | 9780374609900
PIECES OF BLUE by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Fiction)
When Paul Hill drowns in a surfing accident, his broken-hearted wife, Lindsey, and their three children are left in huge financial trouble. Once Paul’s life insurance finally comes through, Lindsey impulsively uses the money to buy a charmingly ramshackle motel in Hawaii. Teenage Olivia quickly develops a crush on a handsome but monosyllabic skateboarder. Twelve-year-old Carlos reinvents himself as a popular kid named Carl. And Sena, the youngest, will do whatever it takes to protect her beloved motel chickens. But while the kids adjust, Lindsey is flailing. Then a handsome stranger rolls into the motel parking lot, and she’s surprised to feel a long-dormant part of herself stirring. She accepts his offer to help, unaware that he may have secrets of his own.
Flatiron Books | 9781250847300
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SPIES AND THE EXQUISITE ART OF GETTING EVEN: Stories of Espionage and Revenge by Alexander McCall Smith (Fiction/Short Stories)
In this dual collection of short stories, Alexander McCall Smith brings his trademark humor and warmth to inventive tales of spying and vengeance. In one story, a spy dropped deep into enemy territory manages to disguise himself --- quite convincingly --- as a nun. In another, an invitation to join the Vatican Secret Service sends a prospective operative down a rabbit hole of controversy and confusion. A third story finds an author, on the brink of public ruin, seeing the error of his ways after an act of kindness saves the day. A keen observer of humanity imbued with a sparkling imagination, Smith illustrates throughout that transparency is paramount and forgiveness is restorative.
Pantheon | 9780593700693
THE QUANTUM SOLUTION: An Evan Ryder Novel by Eric Van Lustbader (Thriller/Adventure)
Evan Ryder is an extraordinary intelligence field agent now working for the security arm of Parachute, a private company and the world’s leader in the application of quantum technology. In the past, Ryder has done lethal battle in the modern global wars of power politics, extremist ideology, corrosive disinformation and outrageous greed. But now she finds herself in a battle arena whose dangers, while less obvious, are greater than anything the world has seen before --- the present and future war of weaponized quantum technology. When an elite Russian scientist and the American Secretary of Defense die, at the same time half a world apart, of inexplicable sudden catastrophic brain damage, the world’s intelligence services realize that the quantum war has truly begun.
Forge Books | 9781250839138
RED MEMORY: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan (History)
“It is impossible to understand China today without understanding the Cultural Revolution,” Tania Branigan writes. During this decade of Maoist fanaticism between 1966 and 1976, children turned on parents, students condemned teachers, and as many as two million people died for their supposed political sins, while tens of millions were hounded, ostracized and imprisoned. Yet in China this brutal and turbulent period exists, for the most part, as an absence; official suppression and personal trauma have conspired in national amnesia. RED MEMORY uncovers 40 years of silence through the stories of individuals who lived through the madness.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324051954
RETROSPECTIVE written by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated by Anne McLean (Fiction)
Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera is in Barcelona for a retrospective of his work. It's a hard time for him: his father, actor Fausto Cabrera, has just died; his marriage is in crisis; and his home country has rejected peace agreements that might have ended more than 50 years of war. In the course of a few intense days, as his films are on exhibit, Sergio recalls the events that marked his family's unusual and dramatic lives. From the Spanish Civil War to the exile of his family to Latin America, and from the Cultural Revolution in China to the guerrilla movements of 1960s Colombia, Sergio and his family's experience is extraordinary by any standards. RETROSPECTIVE reveals the story of one man and his family, and a devastating portrait of the forces that shaped their lives and turned the world upside down.
Riverhead Books | 9780593539613
STAN LEE'S THE DEVIL'S QUINTET: THE SHADOW SOCIETY by Jay Bonansinga (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Ever since THE ARMAGEDDON CODE, the Devil’s Quintet have been using their demonic powers to fight evil and protect the world, while remaining nothing but an urban legend to the general public. But the Devil is not about to let them keep using his powers for good. Created by Satan himself to counter the Quintet, the Shadow Society are five saintly men and women who have been secretly (and strategically) possessed by five of Hell’s most powerful demons. Granted supernatural powers of their own, they are part of a literally diabolical plot to strike at the very heart of the Quintet --- and destroy humanity’s last hope!
Tor Books | 9781250776853
On Sale the Week of May 8th in Paperback
May 9th
ADRIFT by Lisa Brideau (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Ess wakes up alone on a sailboat in the remote Pacific Northwest with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She finds a note, but it's more warning than comfort: Start over. Don't make yourself known. Don't look back. Ess must have answers. She sails over a turbulent ocean to a town hundreds of miles away that she hopes might offer insight. The chilling clues she uncovers point to a desperate attempt at erasing her former life. But why? And someone is watching her…someone who knows she must never learn her truth. In Ess' world, the earth is precariously balanced at a climate tipping point, and she is perched at the edge of a choice. Which life does she want? The one taken from her --- and the dangerous secret that was buried --- or the new one she can make for herself?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728265681
THE BOYFRIEND CANDIDATE by Ashley Winstead (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Alexis Stone, a shy school librarian, meets Logan at a hotel bar. Audacious and filterless, Logan is Alexis’ opposite. Just as she’s about to fulfill her hookup wish, the hotel catches fire in a freak lightning storm. In their rush to escape, Logan is discovered carrying her into the street, where people are waiting with cameras. Alexis is bewildered until suddenly pictures of her and Logan escaping the fire are all over the internet. It turns out Logan is none other than Logan Arthur, the hotshot candidate challenging the Texas governor’s seat. The salacious scandal is poised to sink his career --- and jeopardize Alexis’ job --- until a solution is proposed: he and Alexis could pretend to be in a relationship until Election Day…in two months. What could possibly go wrong?
Graydon House | 9781525804960
DISAPPEARED by Bonnar Spring (Mystery/Thriller)
Julie Welch’s sister, Fay Lariviere, disappears from their hotel in Morocco. Although she leaves a note that she’ll be back in two days, Fay doesn’t return. Julie’s anger shifts to worry --- and to fear when she discovers a stalker. Then, an attack meant for Julie kills another woman. Searching Fay’s luggage and quizzing the hotel staff, Julie discovers Fay’s destination --- a remote village in the Saharan desert. Convinced her sister is in danger and propelled by her own jeopardy, Julie rushes to warn Fay. By the time she reaches the village, Julie finds that Fay has traveled deeper into the desert. With a villager as her guide, Julie follows, only to be stranded in the Sahara when the guide abandons her. Julie is eventually reunited with Fay --- in a prison cell --- and learns the reasons for Fay’s secrecy.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095605
DRAGONS OF DECEIT: Dragonlance Destinies, Volume 1 by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (Fantasy/Adventure)
Destina Rosethorn believes herself to be a favored child of destiny. But when her father dies in the War of the Lance, she watches her carefully constructed world come crashing down. She loses not only her beloved father but also the legacy he has left her: the family lands and castle. To save her father, she hatches a bold plan --- to go back in time and prevent his death. First, she has to secure the Device of Time Journeying. But to change time, she’ll need another magical artifact --- the most powerful and dangerous artifact ever created. Destina’s quest sets in motion a chain of disastrous events that threaten to divert the course of the River of Time, alter the past and forever change the future.
Random House Worlds | 9781984819390
ESCAPE: A Billy Harney Thriller by James Patterson and David Ellis (Thriller)
As Chicago PD’s special-ops leader, Detective Billy Harney knows well that money is not the only valuable currency. The filthy rich man he’s investigating is down to his last 20 million. He’s also being held in jail. For now. Billy’s unit is called in when an escape plan results in officers down and inmates vanished. In an empty lot, Billy spots two Kevlar vests. Two helmets. Two assault rifles. And a handwritten note: Hi, Billy, Are you having fun yet?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538752920
FELLOWSHIP POINT by Alice Elliott Dark (Fiction)
Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy --- to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels and permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly Wister, who exalts in creating beauty and harmony in her home, in her friendships and in her family. Polly soon finds her loyalties torn between the wishes of her best friend and the wishes of her three sons. But what is it that Polly wants herself?
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781982131821
JUST LIKE MOTHER by Anne Heltzel (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
The last time Maeve saw her cousin was the night she escaped the cult in which they were raised. For the past two decades, Maeve has worked hard to build a normal life in New York City, where she keeps everything --- and everyone --- at a safe distance. When Andrea suddenly reappears, Maeve regains the only true friend she’s ever had. The more Maeve immerses herself in Andrea’s world, the more disconnected she feels from her life back in the city --- and the cousins’ increasing attachment triggers memories Maeve has fought hard to bury. But confronting the terrors of her childhood may be the only way for Maeve to transcend the nightmare still to come.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250787521
THE LITTLE FLOWER SHOP by Lori Foster (Romance)
Paperback Original
Since her divorce, Emily Lucretia has been focused on her flower shop and taking care of her aging aunt and uncle. Saul Culver, the town’s favorite bachelor and owner of the local barbecue joint, has been interested in Emily for a while. But as much as Emily knows about flowers, she can be a little oblivious to her own appeal. Saul is determined to show her just how special she is, but he isn’t the only one trying to get Emily out of her shell. Well-meaning locals have started tagging photos of Emily with #theflowerlady on social media --- and now the entire town is involved in finding her Mr. Right. Saul won't give up easily. He has finally caught her attention and is determined to convince Emily --- and the town --- that this is the real deal and not just some passing trend.
Canary Street Press | 9781335506382
LOCAL GONE MISSING by Fiona Barton (Mystery/Thriller)
Elise King is a successful and ambitious detective --- or she was before a medical leave left her unsure if she'd ever return to work. She now spends most days watching the growing tensions in her small seaside town of Ebbing --- the weekenders renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes. The conflicts boil over when a newcomer wants to put the town on the map with a weekend music festival, and two teenagers overdose on drugs. When a man disappears the first night of the festival, Elise starts digging for answers. Ebbing is a small town, but it's full of secrets and hidden connections that run deeper and darker than Elise ever could have imagined.
Berkley | 9781984803061
THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig (Fiction)
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe, there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Confronted with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
Penguin Books | 9780525559498
THE MURDER RULE by Dervla McTiernan (Psychological Thriller)
First Rule: Make them like you. Second Rule: Make them need you. Third Rule: Make them pay. They think I’m a young, idealistic law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system. They think I’m working hard to impress them. They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row. They're wrong. I’m going to bury him.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063042216
NO ONE NEEDS TO KNOW by Lindsay Cameron (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
On UrbanMyth, an anonymous discussion board grouped by zip code, the residents of Manhattan’s exclusive Upper East Side disclosed it all --- things they would never share with their friends or their spouses. So when a “hacktivist” group breaks into the forum and exposes the real identity of each poster, the repercussions echo down Park Avenue with a force that none could have anticipated. And someone ends up dead. Is the murderer Heather, the outsider who would do anything to get her daughter into the elite’s good graces and into their even better schools? Norah, the high-powered executive failing to balance work with the emotional responsibilities of motherhood? Or Poppy, whose perfect-on-the-outside façade conceals more than her share of secrets?
Bantam | 9780593159101
SEASONAL FEARS by Seanan McGuire (Dark Fantasy)
Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul. Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world. So, when a new road is laid out in front of them --- a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together --- walking down it seems to be the only option. But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts. It looks like Destiny has a plan for them after all.
Tordotcom | 9781250768292
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 | 9780063072169
TAKE NO NAMES by Daniel Nieh (Thriller)
Victor Li is a man without a past. To his new employer, Mark, he’s just an anonymous hired hand to help with the dirty work. Together, they break into storage units that contain the possessions of the recently deported, pocketing whatever is worth selling. Only Victor and his sister, Jules, know that he’s a wanted man. Amid the backpacks and suitcases, Victor makes the find of a lifetime: a gem rare and valuable enough to change his fortunes in an instant. Thankfully, its former owner, a woman named Song Fei, also left a book of cryptic notes --- including the name of a gemstone dealer in Mexico City. When Victor and Mark cross the southern border, they quickly realize that this gem is wrapped up in a much larger scheme than they imagined.
Ecco | 9780062886682
TRAILED: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles (True Crime)
In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. During their final days in the park, they descended the narrow remnants of a trail and pitched their tent in a hidden spot. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found a scene of horror at their campsite --- their tent slashed open, their beloved dog missing and both women dead in their sleeping bags. The unsolved murders of Winans and Williams continue to haunt all who had encountered them or knew their story. When award-winning journalist and outdoors expert Kathryn Miles begins looking into the case, she discovers conflicting evidence, mismatched timelines and details that just don’t add up.
Algonquin Books | 9781643753874
THE UNSINKABLE GRETA JAMES by Jennifer E. Smith (Fiction)
Right after the sudden death of her mother and just before the launch of her high-stakes sophomore album, Greta James falls apart on stage. The footage quickly goes viral and she stops playing, her career suddenly in jeopardy --- the kind of jeopardy her father, Conrad, has always predicted. Months later, Greta reluctantly agrees to accompany Conrad on the Alaskan cruise her parents had booked to celebrate their 40th anniversary. It could be their last chance to heal old wounds in the wake of shared loss. But the trip will also prove to be a voyage of discovery for them both, and for Ben Wilder, a charming historian, onboard to lecture about THE CALL OF THE WILD, who is struggling with a major upheaval in his own life.
Ballantine Books | 9780593358290
On Sale the Week of May 15th in Hardcover
May 16th
BANANA BALL: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas by Jesse Cole with Don Yaeger (Sports/Memoir)
For his entire childhood, Jesse Cole dreamed of pitching in the Majors. Now, he has a life in baseball that he could have only imagined. He met the love of his life in the industry; they shaped Savannah, Georgia’s professional team into the league champion Savannah Bananas; and now the Bananas have restyled baseball itself into something all their own: Banana Ball, which is fast, fun and outrageously entertaining. But the reason this team is on the forefront of a movement is less about the play on the field and more about the atmosphere that the team culture creates. For the first time in this book, Jesse reveals the ideas and experiences that allowed him to reimagine America’s oldest sport by creating a phenomenon that is helping fans fall in love with the game all over again.
Dutton | 9780593473412
BLUE SKIES by T.C. Boyle (Thriller/Satire)
Denied a dog, a baby and even a faithful fiancé, Cat suddenly craves a snake: a glistening, writhing creature that can be worn like “jewelry, living jewelry” to match her black jeans. But when the budding social media star promptly loses the young “Burmie” she buys from a local pet store, she inadvertently sets in motion a chain of increasingly dire and outrageous events that comes to threaten her very survival. In BLUE SKIES, T.C. Boyle transports us to water-logged and heat-ravaged coastal America, where Cat and her hapless, nature-loving family is struggling to adapt to the “new normal,” in which once-in-a-lifetime natural disasters happen once a week and drinking seems to be the only way to cope.
Liveright | 9781324093022
DYKETTE by Jenny Fran Davis (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Sasha and Jesse are professionally creative, erotically adventurous and passionately dysfunctional twentysomethings making a life together in Brooklyn. When a pair of older, richer lesbians invites Sasha and Jesse to their country home for the holidays, they’re quick to accept. Even if the trip includes a third couple: Jesse’s best friend, Lou, and their cool-girl flame, Darcy. As the late December afternoons blur together in a haze of debaucherous homecooked feasts and sweaty sauna confessions, so too do the guests’ secret and shifting motivations. When Jesse and Darcy collaborate on an ill-fated livestream performance, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges, sending Sasha down a spiral of destructive rage that threatens each couple’s future.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250843135
THE ENCHANTED HACIENDA by J.C. Cervantes (Fiction/Magical Realism)
When Harlow Estrada is abruptly fired from her dream job and her boyfriend proves to be a jerk, her world turns upside down. She flees New York City to the one place she can always call home --- the enchanted Hacienda Estrada. The Estrada family farm in Mexico houses an abundance of charmed flowers cultivated by Harlow’s mother, sisters, aunt and cousins. By harnessing the magic in these flowers, they can heal hearts, erase memories and interpret dreams. But not Harlow. So when her mother and aunt give her a special task involving the family’s magic, she panics. How can she rise to the occasion when she is magicless? But maybe it’s not magic she’s missing, but belief in herself.
Park Row | 9780778334057
FRACTAL NOISE: A Fractalverse Novel by Christopher Paolini (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
July 25, 2234: The crew of the Adamura discovers the anomaly. On the seemingly uninhabited planet Talos VII: a circular pit, 50 kilometers wide. Its curve not of nature, but design. Now, a small team must land and journey on foot across the surface to learn who built the hole and why. But they all carry the burdens of lives carved out on disparate colonies in the cruel cold of space. For some the mission is the dream of a lifetime, for others a risk not worth taking, and for one it is a desperate attempt to find meaning in an uncaring universe. Each step they take toward the mysterious abyss is more punishing than the last. And the ghosts of their past follow.
Tor Books | 9781250862488
THE GOD OF GOOD LOOKS by Breanne Mc Ivor (Fiction)
Bianca Bridge has always dreamt of becoming a writer. But Trinidadian society can be unforgiving, and having an affair with a married government official is a surefire way to ruin your prospects. So when Obadiah Cortland, a notoriously tyrannical entrepreneur in the island’s beauty scene, offers her a job, Bianca accepts. As she begins to embrace her power and creative voice, she starts to suspect Obadiah is not the elite tyrant he seems. She’s right. Born in one of the poorest parts of Trinidad, Obadiah has clawed partway up society’s ladder and built his company around his meticulously crafted persona. He’s not about to let anyone, especially Bianca, see past his façade. When Bianca’s ex-lover threatens everything she’s rebuilt, she’s surprised to find support from the most unlikely ally.
William Morrow | 9780063278813
THE GUEST by Emma Cline (Psychological Thriller)
Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome. A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she’s been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city. With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways and sun-blasted dunes of a rarefied world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake.
Random House | 9780812998627
KILLING ME by Michelle Gagnon (Thriller/Humor)
Amber Jamison can’t believe she’s about to become the latest victim of a serial killer. When she gets pushed into a white windowless van, she's more angry than afraid. Things get even weirder when she’s miraculously saved by a mysterious woman…who promptly disappears. Who was she? And why is she hunting serial killers? You’d think escaping one psychopath would be enough, but Amber’s problems are just beginning. Her close call has law enforcement circling a past she’s tried to outrun. She’s forced to flee across the country, ending up at a seedy motel in Las Vegas with a noir-obsessed manager and a sex worker as her unlikely companions…and danger right behind. She’s landed in the crosshairs of the world’s most prolific killer, caught up in a deadly game that’s been going on for years.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593540749
KING: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Biography)
Jonathan Eig’s KING: A LIFE is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. --- and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. The bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins, as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father and fellow activists. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma and Memphis, Eig dramatically recreates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father --- as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374279295
THE LIE MAKER by Linwood Barclay (Thriller)
Your dad’s not a good person. Your dad killed people, son. These are some of the last words that Jack Givins’ father spoke to him before he was whisked away by witness protection, leaving Jack and his mother to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives as best they could. Years later, Jack is a talented but struggling author. So when the U.S. Marshals approach him with a lucrative opportunity, he’s in no position to turn them down. They’re recruiting writers like Jack to create false histories for people in witness protection. Jack soon realizes this may be a chance to find his dad. But Jack’s father hasn’t made contact with his handlers recently, and they have no idea where he is. He could be in serious danger, and Jack may be the only one who can find him.
William Morrow | 9780063276246
LIFE B: Overcoming Double Depression by Bethanne Patrick (Memoir)
Plagued by depression her entire life, it wasn’t until her early 50s that writer and book critic Bethanne Patrick, advocating for her own care, received a medical diagnosis that would set her on the path to wellness and stability. Recognizing the intergenerational effects of trauma and mental health struggles, Patrick unearths the stories of her past in order to forge a better future for herself and her two daughters, dismantling the stigmas surrounding mental health challenges that can plague families into silence and resignation. LIFE B is an intimate portrait we haven’t yet seen --- of a lifelong struggle with depression, of midlife diagnosis and newly found strength. Most important, it’s a life-affirming blueprint of how to accept and transcend the limitations of mental illness.
Counterpoint | 9781640091290
LINCOLN'S GOD: How Faith Transformed a President and a Nation by Joshua Zeitz (History)
Abraham Lincoln, unlike most of his political brethren, kept organized Christianity at arm’s length. He never joined a church and only sometimes attended Sunday services with his wife. But as he came to appreciate the growing political and military importance of the Christian community, and when death touched the Lincoln household in an awful, intimate way, the erstwhile skeptic effectively evolved into a believer and harnessed the power of evangelical Protestantism to rally the nation to arms. The war, he told Americans, was divine retribution for the sin of slavery. This is the story of that transformation and the ways in which religion helped millions of Northerners interpret the carnage and political upheaval of the 1850s and 1860s.
Viking | 9781984882219
A LINE IN THE SAND by Kevin Powers (Thriller)
One early morning on a Norfolk beach in Virginia, a dead body is discovered by a man taking his daily swim. After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman Bajalan has been given lonely sanctuary in the US. Convinced that the body is connected to his past, he knows he is still not safe. Seasoned detective Catherine Wheel and her newly minted partner have little to go on beyond a bus ticket in the dead man’s pocket. It leads them to Sally Ewell, a local journalist who is investigating a corporation on the cusp of landing a multi-billion-dollar government defense contract. As victims mount around Arman, they find themselves in a race, committed to unraveling the truth and keeping Arman alive --- even if it costs them absolutely everything.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316507127
LIQUID SHADES OF BLUE by James Polkinghorn (Mystery/Thriller)
When hungover ex-lawyer and Key West bar owner Jack Girard groggily wakes up one morning, he’s greeted by a beautiful woman lying next to him and a shrill, ringing telephone. Seeing the call is from his father, Claude “The Duke” Girard, he answers. Within seconds, Jack learns that his mother is dead in an apparent suicide, so he hits the road, heading back to his childhood home in Miami to face his tyrannical father. The death of his mother brings up haunting memories from his past --- memories of his brother Bobby’s suicide when they were in college together. But things grow more complicated when The Duke suggests that his estranged wife’s alleged suicide may have been a murder. As Jack begins to uncover the truth about his mother’s death, he finds himself in imminent danger.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095506
LOVE BETRAYAL MURDER by Adam Mitzner (Legal Thriller)
Matthew Brooks and Vanessa Lyons are a perfect love match, both attorneys at a powerful New York City law firm. But there’s a hitch: Matt just made partner, and Vanessa is coming up for partner next year. And Vanessa’s husband, the profligate Bradley Lyons, has his suspicions. Vanessa is assigned to the biggest case at the firm, the one that will determine her future. Unfortunately, Matt has been working the case for years, leaving him no choice but to supervise his lover in violation of firm policy. When Vanessa is denied her partnership, she can only assume that her affair with Matt was the reason. Then, on a crowded Manhattan street corner, a knife flashes in the midday sun, leaving behind a scene of horror. But with so many having been betrayed, will the murderer be brought to justice?
Blackstone Publishing | 9798212179867
MEET ME TONIGHT IN ATLANTIC CITY: A Memoir by Jane Wong (Memoir)
In the late 1980s on the Jersey shore, Jane Wong watches her mother shake ants from an MSG bin behind the family’s Chinese restaurant. She is a hungry daughter frying crab rangoon for lunch, a child sneaking naps on bags of rice, a playful sister scheming to trap her brother in the freezer before he traps her first. She is part of a family staking their claim to the American dream, even as this dream crumbles. Beneath Atlantic City’s promise lies her father’s gambling addiction, which causes him to disappear for days and leads to the loss of the restaurant. In her debut memoir, Wong tells a new story about Atlantic City, about making do with what you have --- and what you don’t. What does it mean to be both tender and angry? What is strength without vulnerability --- and humor?
Tin House Books | 9781953534675
THE OLD LION: A Novel of Theodore Roosevelt by Jeff Shaara (Historical Fiction)
From the waning days of the rugged frontier of a young country to the emergence of a modern, industrial nation exerting its power on the world stage, Theodore Roosevelt embodied both the myth and reality of the country he loved and led. From his upbringing in the rarefied air of New York society of the late 19th century to his time in the rough-and-tumble world of the Badlands in the Dakotas, from his rise from political obscurity to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, from national hero as the leader of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War to his accidental rise to the Presidency itself, Roosevelt embodied the complex, often contradictory, image of America itself. In THE OLD LION, Jeff Shaara tells the story of the man who both defined and created the modern United States.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250279941
ONLY THE DEAD by Jack Carr (Political Thriller)
In 1980, a freshman congressman was gunned down in Rhode Island, sending shockwaves through Washington that are still reverberating over four decades later. Now, with the world on the brink of war and a weakened United States facing rampant inflation, political division and shocking assassinations, a secret cabal of global elites is ready to assume control. And with the world’s most dangerous man locked in solitary confinement, the conspirators believe the final obstacle to complete domination has been eliminated. They’re wrong. With the odds stacked against him, James Reece is on a mission generations in the making. He is on the warpath. And when James Reece picks up his tomahawk and sniper rifle, no one is out of range.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982181697
THE POSTCARD written by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover (Historical Fiction)
January 2003. Together with the usual holiday cards, an anonymous postcard is delivered to the Berest family home. On the front, a photo of the Opéra Garnier in Paris. On the back, the names of Anne Berest’s maternal great-grandparents, Ephraïm and Emma, and their children, Noémie and Jacques --- all killed at Auschwitz. Fifteen years after the postcard is delivered, Anne, the heroine of this novel, is moved to discover who sent it and why. Aided by her chain-smoking mother, family members, friends, associates, a private detective, a graphologist and many others, she embarks on a journey to discover the fate of the Rabinovitch family: their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine and Paris.
Europa Editions | 9781609458386
THE TIME HAS COME by Will Leitch (Fiction/Humor)
Lindbergh’s Pharmacy is an Athens, Georgia, institution --- the type of beloved mom and pop shop that once dotted every American town but has mostly disappeared. But Lindbergh’s has recently become the object of attention of a local fourth grade teacher, Tina Lamm. Tina is certain that something very, very bad is happening behind its famous black door, and she intends to do something about it. Her suspicions --- and the drastic actions she plans --- are the unlikely glue that will connect her to a group of six employees and customers inside the pharmacy one hot Georgia evening. The fates of these individuals --- and their fateful encounter with Tina Lamm --- become intertwined in a story that is by turns funny, touching and tense.
Harper | 9780063238510
THE TRUE LOVE EXPERIMENT by Christina Lauren (Romantic Comedy)
Ironically, beloved romance novelist Felicity “Fizzy” Chen has never really been in love. Connor Prince, a documentary filmmaker and a single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass --- unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on “The True Love Experiment” begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.
Gallery Books | 9781982173432
THE WORLD: A Family History of Humanity by Simon Sebag Montefiore (History)
Around 950,000 years ago, a family of five walked along the beach and left behind the oldest family footprints ever discovered. For award-winning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, these poignant, familiar fossils serve as an inspiration for a new kind of world history --- one that is genuinely global, spans all eras and all continents, and focuses on the family ties that connect every one of us. In THE WORLD, Montefiore chronicles the world’s great dynasties across human history through palace intrigues, love affairs and family lives, linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion and technology to the people at the heart of the human drama.
Knopf | 9780525659532
YELLOWFACE by R. F. Kuang (Fiction)
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But while Athena is a literary darling, June is literally nobody. When June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song --- complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her.
William Morrow | 9780063250833
On Sale the Week of May 15th in Paperback
May 16th
BETWEEN TWO STRANGERS by Kate White (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Struggling artist Skyler Moore is flabbergasted when she receives a suspicious phone call from a lawyer she’s never met regarding a “private matter.” It turns out she’s the recipient of a large inheritance, a life-changing sum that will allow her to realize her long-held dream of becoming a mother. But who was her benefactor, Christopher Whaley? The late man’s name means nothing to Skyler, and she has no idea why he would leave her such an enormous bequest. Looking into his background, Skyler finally realizes they met once at a hotel bar and shared a one-night stand. But they never exchanged numbers, or even last names, and that was over a decade ago. She wonders if the inheritance is meant to be a message of some kind, but she can’t imagine what it might be.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063247369
THE CHERRY ROBBERS by Sarai Walker (Gothic Fiction)
Iris Chapel and her five elegant sisters, all of them heiresses to the Chapel firearms fortune, live cloistered in a lavish Victorian mansion. Neglected by both a distant, workaholic father and a mentally troubled mother --- who believes their home is haunted by the victims of Chapel weapons --- the sisters have grown up with only each other for company. They long to escape the eerie fairy tale of their childhood and move forward into the modern world, but for young women in 1950s Connecticut, the only way out is through marriage. Yet it soon becomes clear that for the Chapel sisters, marriage equals death. When the eldest sister walks down the aisle, tragedy strikes. This is just the beginning of a chain of disasters that will make each woman wonder if true love will kill her, too.
Harper Perennial | 9780063271586
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 | 9781476735085
JAMES PATTERSON BY JAMES PATTERSON: The Stories of My Life by James Patterson (Memoir)
How did a kid whose dad lived in the poorhouse become the most successful storyteller in the world? James Patterson's best stories are the stories of his life. On the morning he was born, he nearly died. He worked at a mental hospital in Massachusetts, where he met the singer James Taylor and the poet Robert Lowell. While he toiled in advertising hell, he wrote the ad jingle line “I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid.” He once watched James Baldwin and Norman Mailer square off to trade punches at a party. He’s only been in love twice. Both times are amazing. Dolly Parton sang “Happy Birthday” to him over the phone. He has always wanted to write the kind of novel that would be read and reread so many times that the binding breaks and the book literally falls apart. As he says, “I’m still working on that one.”
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538709702
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI: An Epic American Adventure by Rinker Buck (Memoir/History)
Rinker Buck returns to chronicle his latest incredible adventure: building a wooden flatboat from the bygone era of the early 1800s and journeying down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. A modern-day Huck Finn, Buck casts off down the river on the flatboat Patience accompanied by an eccentric crew of daring shipmates. Over the course of his voyage, he steers his fragile wooden craft through narrow channels dominated by massive cargo barges, rescues his first mate gone overboard, sails blindly through fog, breaks his ribs not once but twice, and camps every night on sandbars, remote islands and steep levees. As he charts his own journey, he also delivers a richly satisfying work of history that brings to life a lost era.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781501106385
THE LIFESTYLE by Taylor Hahn (Fiction/Humor)
Georgina Wagman has it all --- a great marriage, a great job at a prestigious law firm, and great friends. Until, that is, she walks in on her husband Nathan in a compromising position with a junior associate. Divorce is not a part of the five-year plan, so she comes up with an idea to save her marriage and recapture the spark. She and Nathan are going to become swingers. Georgina won't embark on this adventure alone, though. Her friends, Felix and Norah, and their respective partners decide to tag along for the ride. Her plan is foolproof, until she runs into a college ex at her first swingers’ party. When they reconnect, Georgina will find herself torn between her head and her heart, with her very happiness hanging in the balance.
Vintage | 9780593315118
THE LOST SUMMERS OF NEWPORT by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White (Historical Mystery)
From the New York Times bestselling team of Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White comes a novel of money and secrets set among the famous summer mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, spanning over a century from the Gilded Age to the present day.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063040755
MOTHERS’ INSTINCT written by Barbara Abel, translated by Susan Pickford (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
David and Laetitia Brunelle, and Sylvain and Tiphaine Geniot, are inseparable friends and next-door neighbors in a pretty, tranquil suburb. Their sons Milo and Maxime, born in the same year, grow up together as close as brothers. But when Maxime is killed in an accident, their idyllic world shatters. Maxime's parents, Sylvain and Tiphaine, are consumed by grief and bitterness, while David and Laetitia are wracked with guilt for their role in the tragedy. Soon the couples are barely speaking, although they maintain a polite façade. Then a mysterious series of “accidents” begins to happen to Milo, raising Laetitia’s suspicions. Are their former best friends trying to punish them by threatening their son?
HarperVia | 9780063306318
OVERBOARD: A V.I. Warshawski Novel by Sara Paretsky (Mystery)
On her way home from an all-night surveillance job, V.I. Warshawski is led by her dogs on a mad chase that ends when they discover a badly injured teen hiding in the rocks along Lake Michigan. The girl only regains consciousness long enough to utter one enigmatic word. V.I. helps bring her to a hospital, but not long after, she vanishes before anyone can discover her identity. As V.I. attempts to find her, the detective uncovers an ugly consortium of Chicago powerbrokers and mobsters who are prepared to kill the girl. And now V.I.’s own life is in jeopardy as well.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063010895
PAYBACK: An Anonymous Justice Novel by Nancy Allen (Legal Thriller)
Paperback Original
Someone murdered Kate Stone’s father. Then they came for her. And now that Kate has left her job as an assistant district attorney, she’s finally free to hunt down the perpetrator. Kate suspects that Wall Street financier Ian Templeton is behind the vicious and violent attacks against her and the people she cares about. The D.A. warns Kate that Templeton is untouchable, but she remains convinced that the best way to bring him down is to expose his latest fraudulent scheme --- a new cryptocurrency scam. But while she is tracking Templeton, someone is also tracking her. Kate believes that her pursuers were hired by Templeton to stop her. However, they may be working for someone with a larger agenda instead.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538719190
QUIETLY HOSTILE: Essays by Samantha Irby (Humor/Essays)
Paperback Original
Samantha Irby’s career has taken her to new heights. She dodges calls from Hollywood and flop sweats on the red carpet at premieres (well, one premiere). But nothing is ever as it seems online, where she can crop out all the ugly parts. Irby got a lot of weird emails about Carrie Bradshaw, and not only is there diarrhea to avoid, but now --- anaphylactic shock. She is turned away from restaurants for being inappropriately dressed and looks for the best ways to cope, i.e., reveling in the offerings of QVC and adopting a deranged pandemic dog. QUIETLY HOSTILE makes light as Irby takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes.
Vintage | 9780593315699
ROCK OF AGES: A Junior Bender Mystery by Timothy Hallinan (Mystery)
Four of Irwin Dressler's old gangster colleagues have put together a national tour of once-popular rock bands they own a piece of: three nights of concerts by guys (and a few gals) who were big shots back in the 1960s and 1970s, and who are now hoping for one more gasp of glory with this nostalgia exhibition. But it turns out that someone --- one of Dressler’s own colleagues --- is using the tour as a front to steal Dressler's money. Now the tour has pulled into LA, and Junior Bender has one weekend to figure out who's to blame --- a weekend that begins with his tires being slashed, threatening notes left on his car, and a theatrical backdrop falling on a drummer during the truly terrible first set of the first concert.
Soho Crime | 9781641294591
SEEKING FORTUNE ELSEWHERE: Stories by Sindya Bhanoo (Fiction/Short Stories)
Traveling from Pittsburgh to Eastern Washington to Tamil Nadu, these haunting stories about dislocation and dissonance see immigrants and their families confront the costs of leaving and staying, identifying sublime symmetries in lives growing apart. In “Malliga Homes,” a widow in a retirement community glimpses her future while waiting for her daughter to visit from America. In "No. 16 Model House Road," a woman long subordinate to her husband makes a choice of her own after she inherits a house. In "Nature Exchange," a mother grieving in the wake of a school shooting finds an unusual obsession. In "A Life in America," a professor finds himself accused of having exploited his graduate students.
Catapult | 9781646221738
SHMUTZ by Felicia Berliner (Fiction)
Like the other women in her Brooklyn Hasidic community, Raizl expects to find a husband through an arranged marriage. Unlike the other women, Raizl has a secret. With a hidden computer to help her complete her college degree, she falls down the slippery slope of online pornography. As Raizl dives deeper into the world of porn at night, her daytime life begins to unravel. Between combative visits with her shrink to complicated arranged dates, Raizl must balance her growing understanding of her sexuality with the more conventional expectations of the family she loves.
Washington Square Press | 9781982177638
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 | 9781538709627
THERE ARE NO RULES FOR THIS by JJ Elliott (Fiction)
Paperback Original
People like Feeney Simms don’t commit suicide. Beautiful, charismatic, mother of two, wife to a handsome, successful husband, beloved by her friends --- this is not the typical picture of a tortured soul. But one summer night, Feeney drives to the beach and swallows a handful of pills. No note, no explanation, nothing. Just like that, she’s gone. Faced with this loss, Ali, Max and Liddy, Feeney’s closest friends, are left reeling, grappling with the devastating cocktail of grief, guilt and anger that’s left in the wake of a suicide. In a desperate attempt to avoid further loss, the three women make the unorthodox (and very Feeney-like) decision to hold their own funerals while they are still alive --- and the experience changes each of them in ways they couldn’t have imagined.
She Writes Press | 9781647424855
THEY CAN’T TAKE YOUR NAME by Robert Justice (Thriller)
Langston Brown is running out of time and options for clearing his name and escaping death row. Wrongfully convicted of the gruesome Mother's Day Massacre, he prepares to face his death. His final hope for salvation lies with his daughter, Liza, an artist who dreamed of a life of music and song but left the prestigious Juilliard School to pursue a law degree with the intention of clearing her father's name. Just as she nears success, it's announced that Langston will be put to death in 30 days. In a desperate bid to find freedom for her father, Liza enlists the help of Eli Stone, a jazz club owner. Devastated by the tragic loss of his wife, Eli is trying to find solace by reviving his club…while also wrestling with the longing to join her in death.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639103447
THIS TIME TOMORROW by Emma Straub (Fiction)
On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status and her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush --- it’s her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?
Riverhead Books | 9780525539018
TIGER & PHIL: Golf's Most Fascinating Rivalry by Bob Harig (Sports)
For more than two decades, there have been two golfers who have captivated, bemused, inspired, frustrated, fascinated and entertained us, and in doing so have demanded our attention --- Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Even with all the ink that has been spilled on Tiger, no one has ever written about his relationship with Phil and how their careers have been inextricably intertwined. Furthermore, very little has been written about Phil Mickelson, who is more than just an adversary. He is a fascinating Hall of Fame golfer in his own right. These two biggest names (and draws) in golf have, for better and for worse, been the ultimate rivals. But it is so much more complicated than that.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250830210
TREASURE STATE: A Cassie Dewell Novel by C. J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
Private Investigator Cassie Dewell’s business is thriving, and her latest case puts her on the hunt for a slippery con man who has disappeared somewhere in the “treasure state.” A wealthy Florida widow has accused him of absconding with her fortune, and she wants Cassie to find him and get it back. As the case develops, Cassie begins to wonder if her client is telling her everything. Meanwhile, a poem that promises buried treasure to one lucky adventurer has led to a cutthroat competition and five deaths among treasure-hunters. But Cassie’s client doesn’t want the treasure. Instead, he claims to be the one who hid the gold and wrote the poem. And he’s hired Cassie to try to find him. Between the two cases, Cassie has her hands full.
Minotaur Books | 9781250889553
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