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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 6th and May 13th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for May, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, Oprah's Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, Reese's Book Club, and the Target Book Club.
Our latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Mary Kay Andrews, whose new book, SUMMERS AT THE SAINT, will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick.
Mary Kay talks about the resort that she modeled The Saint after and how she conducted research there while spending time with a friend. She also touches on the many storylines that are woven so well into the plot and points out that the novel originally had a different beginning. It is said that “summer begins with MKA,” and Mary Kay explains exactly why this book deserves that moniker and to be read wherever readers are this summer.
SUMMERS AT THE SAINT is our latest Summer Reading prize book, and the 24-hour contest for it is now up. So be sure to enter for your chance to win one of five copies of the book. The deadline for your entries is TOMORROW, Wednesday, May 8th at noon ET.
Our Mother's Day Author Blogs are back for a 15th year! Between now and this Friday, May 10th, we will be sharing pieces from authors who reminisce about reading books with their moms, or with their own children, and talk about how their moms influenced them to become readers and writers.
This year's contributors are
Next Monday, May 13th at noon ET is the deadline to submit your entries for our 19th annual Mother's Day contest. Five readers will receive 11 fabulous books that we think moms will love.
This year's prize books are:
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 8th at 2pm ET.
The focus will be on titles releasing between now and June 4th, in addition to a few from July, that we would like to tell you about. 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.
P.S. For those of you who shop online, if you use the store links that appear on our site for shopping, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and IndieBound. As you read our reviews and features, we would appreciate your considering this as you buy!
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
Here are six 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 8th at 2pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Preview: Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between May 7th and June 4th, along with a few from July, that she would like to get on your radar.
Wednesday, May 8th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble Book Club: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Leif Enger for a live virtual event to discuss I CHEERFULLY REFUSE, April's B&N Book Club pick. Leif will be in conversation with Shannon DeVito, the Sr. Director of Book Strategy and Customer Experience at B&N, and Miwa Messer, the host and Executive Producer of B&N's “Poured Over” podcast.
Wednesday, May 8th 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 Ruth Ware about her latest high-tension thriller, ONE PERFECT COUPLE.
Thursday, May 9th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Mona Awad for a live virtual discussion of ROUGE, which is now available in paperback, as part of their Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Mona will be in conversation with the international bestselling author of THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET, Catriona Ward.
Thursday, May 9th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Harlan Coben will discuss his latest book featuring Myron Bolitar, THINK TWICE, a thriller of secrets, lies and dangerous conspiracies that threaten to cover up the truth when a man presumed dead is suddenly wanted for murder.
Thursday, May 9th at 9:30pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Linwood Barclay will discuss his latest thriller, I WILL RUIN YOU, in which a teacher’s act of heroism inadvertently makes him the target of a dangerous blackmailer who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for May
On Sale the Week of May 6th in Hardcover
May 6th
THE 24th HOUR by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer, Medical Examiner Claire Washburn, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano and crime writer Cindy Thomas gather at one of San Francisco’s finest restaurants to celebrate exciting news: Cindy is getting married. Before they can raise their glasses, there’s a disturbance in the restaurant. A woman has been assaulted. Claire examines the victim. Lindsay makes an arrest. Yuki takes the case. Cindy covers it. The legal strategy is complicated by gaps in the plaintiff’s memory --- and the shocking reason behind her ever-changing testimony. As Yuki leads the prosecution, Lindsay chases down a high-society killer whose target practice may leave the Women’s Murder Club short a bridesmaid…or two.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316403085
May 7th
ALL THE GLIMMERING STARS by Mark Sullivan (Historical Fiction)
Anthony Opoka and Florence Okori are coming of age in Uganda in the 1990s. Outstanding students, they believe in being good humans before they are kidnapped and forced into the fanatical Lord’s Resistance Army. In a legion of young recruits, no one gets closer than Anthony to powerful messianic warlord Joseph Kony and his darkest secrets. To stay sane as he spirals through chaos, Anthony clings to his childhood lessons about being a good human. Florence’s upbringing grounds her, too, helping her keep her dreams alive even as she’s pulled deeper into the insanity of Kony’s war. At the lowest points of their lives, Anthony and Florence meet by chance, fall in love and begin to dream of surviving their captivity. They devote their lives to helping their fellow child soldiers escape bondage and return to their families and redemption by following the stars.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542038126
CLIVE CUSSLER THE HEIST: An Isaac Bell Adventure by Jack Du Brul (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
1914: As America’s century of dominance dawns, the country’s greatest detective, Van Dorn agent Isaac Bell, is pitted against a master thief and his assassin accomplice. They’re plotting to pull off the greatest heist in America’s history: the theft of a billion dollars from the newly created Federal Reserve. When an aerial attack is launched against Woodrow Wilson’s yacht during a meeting among the Federal Reserve’s branch leaders, Bell thwarts it, only to find that the strike was just the opening of an even deadlier gambit. It’s up to Bell to find the link between the attack, the mysterious death of a Newport heiress, and growing evidence of an unimaginably audacious heist. Double-cross and betrayal are Bell’s stock and trade, but the deeper he delves into this puzzle, the less he seems to understand.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593713587
DAUGHTERS OF SHANDONG by Eve J. Chung (Historical Fiction)
In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother --- abused by the family for failing to birth a boy --- finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen. As the Communist army closes in on their town, the rest of the prosperous household flees, leaving behind the girls and their mother because they view them as useless mouths to feed. Without an Ang male to punish, the land-seizing cadres choose Hai to stand trial for her family’s crimes. She barely survives their brutality. Realizing the worst is yet to come, the women plan their escape, embarking on a thousand-mile journey to confront the family that abandoned them.
Berkley | 9780593640531
THE DEEPEST LAKE by Andromeda Romano-Lax (Psychological Thriller)
Rose, the mother of aspiring writer Jules, has waited three months for answers about her daughter’s death. Why was she swimming alone when she feared the water? Why did she stop texting days before she was last seen? When the official investigation rules the death an accidental drowning, an unsatisfied Rose travels to the memoir-writing workshop herself. She hopes to draw her own conclusion and find closure. When Rose arrives, she is swept into the curious world created by her daughter’s literary hero, the famous writing teacher Eva Marshall, a charismatic woman known for her candid --- and controversial --- memoirs. As Rose uncovers details about the days leading up to Jules’ disappearance, she begins to suspect that this glamorous retreat package is hiding ugly truths.
Soho Crime | 9781641295604
DISTURBING THE DEAD: A Rip Through Time Novel by Kelley Armstrong (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. But inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray and is developing true friends --- and feelings --- in this century. So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn't that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body.
Minotaur Books | 9781250321282
ELLA by Diane Richards (Historical Fiction)
When Ella Fitzgerald’s mother dies at the height of the Depression, the 15-year-old goes to work for the mob to support herself and her family. When the law finally catches up, the “ungovernable” adolescent is incarcerated in the New York Training School for Girls in upstate New York --- a wicked prison infamous for its harsh treatment of inmates, especially Black ones. Determined to be free, Ella escapes and makes her way back to Harlem, where she is forced to dance for pennies on the street. Looking for a break into show business, Ella draws straws to appear at the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night. Rather than perform a dance routine directly after “The World Famous Edwards Sisters” number, the homeless Ella risks everything when she decides to sing Judy instead. Four years later, at barely 21, Ella Fitzgerald has become the bestselling female vocalist in America.
Amistad | 9780063338654
THE HAZELBOURNE LADIES MOTORCYCLE AND FLYING CLUB by Helen Simonson (Historical Fiction)
It is the summer of 1919. Now that all the men have returned from the front, Constance Haverhill has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. She is sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after rescuing the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy, from a social faux pas. Poppy runs a ladies’ motorcycle club, to which she plans to add flying lessons. She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.
The Dial Press | 9781984801319
HOW TO READ A BOOK by Monica Wood (Fiction)
Violet Powell, a 22-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving 22 months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher. Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest. Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed. When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland --- Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman --- their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.
Mariner Books | 9780063243675
I WILL RUIN YOU by Linwood Barclay (Psychological Thriller)
English teacher Richard Boyle certainly never thought he would find himself talking down a former student intent on harming others. But when Mark LeDrew shows up at Richard’s school with a bomb strapped to his chest, Richard immediately jumps into action. Thanks to some quick thinking, he averts a major tragedy and is hailed as a hero. However, Richard’s brief moment in the spotlight puts him in the sights of a deranged blackmailer with a score to settle. The situation rapidly spirals out of control, drawing Richard into a fraught web of salacious accusations and deadly secrets. As he tries to uncover the truth, he discovers that there’s something deeply wrong in the town --- something that ties together Mark, the blackmailer and a gang of ruthless drug dealers, and Richard has landed smack in the middle of it. What price will he pay for one good deed?
William Morrow | 9780063276314
THE INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS by John Connolly (Supernatural Thriller)
In Maine, Colleen Clark stands accused of the worst crime a mother can commit: the abduction and possible murder of her child. Everyone --- ambitious politicians in an election season, hardened police, ordinary folk --- has an opinion on the case, and most believe she is guilty. But most is not all. Defending Colleen is the lawyer Moxie Castin, and working alongside him is the private investigator Charlie Parker, who senses the tale has another twist --- one involving a husband too eager to accept his wife’s guilt, a group of fascists arming for war, a disgraced psychic seeking redemption, and an old, twisted house deep in the Maine woods, a house that never should have been built. A house, and what dwells beneath.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668022313
THE JAZZMEN: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America by Larry Tye (Music/History)
This is the story of three revolutionary American musicians --- Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie --- the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of 20th-century America. What is far less known about these groundbreakers is that they were bound not just by their music or even the discrimination that they, like nearly all Black performers of their day, routinely encountered. Each defied and ultimately overcame racial boundaries by opening America’s eyes and souls to the magnificence of their music. In the process they wrote the soundtrack for the civil rights movement. Based on more than 250 interviews, THE JAZZMEN brings alive the history of Black America in the early-to-mid-1900s through the singular lens of the country’s most gifted, engaging and enduring African-American musicians.
Mariner Books | 9780358380436
THE LAST OF HIS KIND: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness by Andy McCullough (Sports/Biography)
Clayton Kershaw has embodied the burden of athletic greatness, the prizes and perils that await those who strive for it all. He is a three-time Cy Young award winner, the first pitcher to win National League MVP since Bob Gibson, and a surefire, first-ballot Hall of Famer. In an age when baseball became more impersonal, a sport altered by adherence to algorithms and actuarial tables, Kershaw personified the game’s lingering humanity. THE LAST OF HIS KIND traces Kershaw’s path from a boyhood fractured by divorce to his development as one of the most heralded pitching prospects in Texas history to his emergence in Los Angeles as the spiritual heir to Sandy Koufax. But the book also charts Kershaw’s place in baseball’s changing landscape, as his own stubbornness butted against the game’s evolution.
Hachette Books | 9780306832598
LEFT FOR DEAD: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World by Eric Jay Dolin (History)
In LEFT FOR DEAD, Eric Jay Dolin tells the true story of a wild and fateful encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig and a British warship in the Falkland archipelago during the War of 1812. Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailors and two Americans, including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard, abandoned in the barren, windswept and inhospitable Falklands for a year and a half. With deft narrative skill and unequaled knowledge of the very pith of the seafaring life, Dolin describes in vivid and harrowing detail the increasingly desperate existence of the castaways during their 18-month ordeal --- an all-too-common fate in the Great Age of Sail.
Liveright | 9781324093084
A LETHAL QUESTION by Mark Rubinstein (Thriller)
Manhattan psychiatrist Bill Madrian takes pride in the level of trust he establishes with his patients. For a patient to open up, they must truly believe that everything said in a therapy session remains confidential. But Bill has never realized the complications this confidentiality could present --- until he treats Alex Bronzi. One day, in a session with Alex, the young man asks, “Hey Doc, ya wanna know who clipped Boris Levenko?” Boris Levenko was a major crime boss who had been executed a few days prior. The question gives Bill information he desperately did not want to hear. With this knowledge, Bill’s life is upended, and he begins a fight for survival that takes him and his loved ones on a nightmarish journey far beyond the realm of anything he ever could have imagined.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095742
LONG ISLAND by Colm Tóibín (Historical Fiction)
Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island, with their wives and children and Tony’s parents. It is the spring of 1976, and Eilis has no one to rely on in this still-new country. Though her ties to Ireland remain stronger than those that hold her to her new land and home, she has not returned in decades. One day, when Tony is at his job and Eilis is in her home office, an Irishman comes to the door asking for her by name. He tells her that his wife is pregnant with Tony’s child and that he will not raise the baby but instead deposit it on Eilis’ doorstep. It is what Eilis does --- and what she refuses to do --- in response to this stunning news that makes LONG ISLAND so riveting.
Scribner | 9781476785110
LOVE IS A BURNING THING: A Memoir by Nina St. Pierre (Memoir)
Ten years before Nina was born, her mother lit herself on fire in a dual suicide attempt. During her recovery in the burn-unit, a nurse initiated her into Transcendental Meditation. From that day on, her mother's pain became intertwined with the pursuit of enlightenment. Growing up, Nina longed for a normal life; instead, she and her brother were at the whims of their mother, who chased ascension up and down the state of California, swapping out spiritual practices as often as apartments. When they finally settled at the foot of a mountain --- reputed to be cosmic --- in Northern California, Nina hoped life would stabilize. But after another fire, and a tragic fallout, she was forced to confront the shadow side of her mother's mystical narratives. With obsessive dedication, Nina began to knit together the truth that eventually would release her.
Dutton | 9780593473825
THE MINISTRY OF TIME by Kaliane Bradley (Science Fiction/Romance)
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and shortly afterward is told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to determine if time travel is feasible --- for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting and monitoring the expat known as “1847,” or Commander Graham Gore. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668045145
THE MOTHER OF ALL THINGS by Alexis Landau (Fiction)
Kept busy by her obligations as a wife and mother, art history professor Ava Zaretsky has little time to devote to her research and writing. Now tagging along on her film-producer husband’s shoot in Bulgaria for the summer, where she’s mostly solo parenting her sweet son and rebellious budding tween daughter, she has a chance encounter with her fierce feminist mentor from college, which changes everything. Ava is swept up into a circle of women who reenact ancient Greco-Roman mystery rites of initiation, bringing her research to life and illuminating the story of a 5th-century-BC mother-daughter pair whose sense of female loyalty to each other and connection to the divine feminine guides Ava in her exploration of the eternal stages of womanhood.
Pantheon | 9780593700792
NONNA MARIA AND THE CASE OF THE LOST TREASURE by Lorenzo Carcaterra (Mystery)
As Nonna Maria’s longtime pal and sometimes colleague, Captain Murino, who is in charge of the local carabinieri, never wanted to see harm brought to the doorstep of everyone’s favorite amateur sleuth. But when you live a long life, you’re bound to make a few enemies. And when those enemies come calling, you have to rely on friends. Faced with an assassin seeking revenge for a decades-old grudge, Captain Murino has no choice but to turn to Maria, who must use all her neighborly resources, clever faculties and web of connections to save him from his perilous predicament. On the other side of the island, a second mystery begins to unfold at the deathbed of another of Maria’s old friends, as he hands his granddaughter a yellowed map and tells her of a treasure to be found in one of Ischia’s secret caverns. However, there are traps and pitfalls.
Bantam | 9780593499214
PHANTOM ORBIT by David Ignatius (Thriller)
Ivan Volkov is a Russian student in Beijing who discovers an unsolved puzzle in the writings of the 17th-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. He takes the puzzle to a senior scientist in the Chinese space program and declares his intention to solve it. Volkov returns to Moscow and continues his secret work. The puzzle holds untold consequences for space warfare. The years pass, and they are not kind to Volkov. After the loss of his son, a prosecutor who had been too tough on corruption, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Volkov makes the fraught decision to contact the CIA. He writes: Satellites are your enemies, especially your own.... Hidden codes can make time stop and turn north into south.... If you are smart, you will find me.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324050919
RED SIDE STORY: A Shades of Grey Novel by Jasper Fforde
(Dystopian Fantasy/Humor)
Welcome to Chromatacia, where life is strictly regulated by one’s limited color perception. Civilization has been rebuilt after an unspoken “Something that Happened” 500 years before. Society is now color vision–segregated, everything dictated by an individual’s visual ability and governed by the shadowy National Color in far-off Emerald City. Twenty-year-old Eddie Russett, a Red, is about to go on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, and he’s pretty certain to be sent on a one-way trip to the Green Room for execution by soporific color exposure. Meanwhile, he’s engaged in an illegal relationship with his co-defendant, a Green, the charismatic and unpredictable Jane Grey. Negotiating the narrow boundaries of the Rules within their society, they search for a loophole --- some truth of their world that has been hidden from its hyper-policed citizens.
Soho Press | 9781641296281
THE RETURN OF ELLIE BLACK by Emiko Jean (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
It’s been 20 years since Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s sister vanished when they were teenagers, and ever since she’s been searching: for signs, for closure, for other missing girls. But happy endings are rare in Chelsey’s line of work. Then a glimmer: local teenager Ellie Black, who disappeared without a trace two years earlier, has been found alive in the woods of Washington State. But something is not right with Ellie. She won’t say where she’s been, or who she’s protecting, and it’s up to Chelsey to find the answers. She needs to get to the bottom of what happened to Ellie: for herself, and for the memory of her sister, but mostly for the next girl who could be taken --- and who, unlike Ellie, might never return.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668023938
SIPSWORTH by Simon Van Booy (Metaphysical Fiction)
Following the loss of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. She retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit: “Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle --- as though even for death there is a queue.” Then, one cold winter night, a chance encounter with a mouse sets Helen on a surprising journey. SIPSWORTH is a reminder that there can be second chances. No matter what we have planned for ourselves, sometimes life has plans of its own.
David R. Godine, Publisher | 9781567927948
SKIN & BONES by Renée Watson (Fiction)
At 40, Lena Baker is at a steady and stable moment in life. Between wine nights with her two best friends and her wedding just weeks away, she’s happy in love and in friendship until a confession on her wedding day shifts her world. Unmoored and grieving a major loss, Lena finds herself trying to teach her daughter self-love while struggling to do so herself. Lena questions everything she’s learned about dating, friendship and motherhood. Through it all, she works tirelessly to bring the oft-forgotten Black history of Oregon to the masses, sidestepping her well-meaning co-workers who don’t understand that their good intentions are often offensive and hurtful.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316570886
THE STOLEN CHILD by Ann Hood (Historical Fiction)
For decades, Nick Burns has been haunted by a decision he made as a young soldier in World War I, when a French artist he’d befriended thrust both her paintings and her baby into his hands --- and disappeared. In 1974, with only months left to live, Nick enlists Jenny, a college dropout desperate for adventure, to help him unravel the mystery. The journey leads them from Paris galleries and provincial towns to a surprising place: the Museum of Tears, the life’s work of a lonely Italian craftsman. Determined to find the baby and the artist, hopeless romantic Jenny and curmudgeonly Nick must reckon with regret, betrayal and the lives they’ve left behind.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393609806
SUMMERS AT THE SAINT by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
Traci Eddings was one of those outsiders whose family wasn’t rich enough or connected enough to vacation at St. Cecelia. But she could work there. One fateful summer she did, and she married the boss’s son. Now, she’s the widowed owner of the hotel, determined to see it return to its glory days, even as staff shortages and financial troubles threaten to ruin it. Plus, her greedy and unscrupulous brother-in-law wants to make sure she fails. Enlisting a motley crew of recently hired summer help --- including the daughter of her estranged best friend --- Traci has one summer season to turn it around. But new information about a long-ago drowning at the hotel threatens to come to light, and the tragic death of one of their own brings Traci to the brink of despair.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250278388
THEIR DIVINE FIRES by Wendy Chen (Fiction)
In 1917, at the dawn of the Chinese revolution, Yunhong is growing up in the southern China countryside and falls deeply in love with the son of a wealthy landlord. On the night of her wedding, her brother destroys the marriage, irrevocably changing the shape of Yunhong’s family to come: her daughter, Yuexin, will never know her father. Haunted by a history that she does not understand, Yuexin passes on those memories to her daughters Hongxing and Yonghong, who come of age in the years following Mao’s death, battling the push and pull of political forces as they forge their own paths. Each generation guards its secrets, leaving Emily, great-granddaughter of Yunhong and living in contemporary America, to piece together what actually happened between her mother and her aunt, and the weight of their shared ancestry.
Algonquin Books | 9781643755151
THRONES OF GRACE: A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure, and the Bloody Conquest of the American West by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (History)
It is the early 19th century, and the land recently purchased by President Thomas Jefferson stretches west for thousands of miles. Who inhabits this vast new garden of Eden? What strange beasts and natural formations can be found? Thus was the birth of Manifest Destiny and the resulting bloody battles with Indigenous tribes encountered by white explorers. Also in this volatile mix are the grizzled fur trappers and mountain men, waging war against the Native American tribes whose lands they traverse. This is the setting of THRONES OF GRACE, and the guide to this epic narrative is arguably America’s greatest yet most unsung pathfinder, Jedediah Smith. His explorations into the forested frontiers on both sides of the Rocky Mountains and all the way to the West Coast would become the stuff of legend.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250285836
WHALE FALL by Elizabeth O'Connor (Historical Fiction)
In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island's shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister (to whom she has reluctantly but devotedly become a mother following the death of their own mother years prior), Manod can't shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations. So the arrival of two English ethnographers who hope to study the island culture feels like a boon to her. The longer the ethnographers stay, the more she feels herself pulled towards them, reckoning with a sensual awakening inside herself, despite her misgivings that her community is being misconstrued and exoticized.
Pantheon | 9780593700914
WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST by Alina Grabowski (Fiction)
Nashquitten, MA, is a decaying coastal enclave that not even tourist season can revive, full of locals who have run the town’s industries for generations. When a young woman dies at a house party, the circumstances around her death suspiciously unclear, the tight-knit community is shaken. As a mother grieves her daughter, a teacher her student, a best friend her confidante, the events around the tragedy become a lightning rod: blame is cast, secrets are buried deeper. Some are left to pick up the pieces, while others turn their backs. And all the while, a truth about that dreadful night begins to emerge.
Zando – SJP Lit | 9781638930785
THE YEAR OF LIVING CONSTITUTIONALLY: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution's Original Meaning by A.J. Jacobs (Memoir)
A.J. Jacobs tries to get inside the minds of the Founding Fathers by living as closely as possible to the original meaning of the Constitution. He asserts his right to free speech by writing his opinions on parchment with a quill and handing them out to strangers in Times Square. He consents to quartering a soldier, as is his Third Amendment right. He turns his home into a traditional 1790s household by lighting candles instead of using electricity, boiling mutton, and --- because women were not allowed to sign contracts --- feebly attempting to take over his wife’s day job, which involves a lot of contract negotiations. The book blends unforgettable adventures --- delivering a handwritten petition to Congress, battling redcoats as part of a Revolutionary War reenactment group --- with dozens of interviews from constitutional experts from both sides.
Crown | 9780593136744
YOU NEVER KNOW: A Memoir by Tom Selleck with Ellis Henican (Memoir)
In his own voice and uniquely unpretentious style, beloved actor Tom Selleck brings readers on his uncharted but serendipitous journey to the top in Hollywood, his temptations and distractions, his misfires and mistakes, and, over time, his well-earned success. Along the way, he clears up an armload of misconceptions and shares dozens of never-told stories. “Magnum P.I.” fans will be fascinated to learn how Selleck put his career on the line to make Thomas Magnum a more imperfect hero and explains why he walked away from a show that easily could have gone on for years longer. Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way. In YOU NEVER KNOW, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy.
Dey Street Books | 9780062945761
On Sale the Week of May 6th in Paperback
May 7th
THE 1998 YANKEES: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever by Jack Curry (Sports)
The visiting clubhouse in San Diego was soggy, sweaty and sticky after the 1998 Yankees swept the Padres in four games and celebrated winning their 24th World Series title. The players raised bottles of champagne, sprayed the bubbly on each other, and reveled in a baseball season that might have been more memorable than any in history. Jack Curry was part of that unforgettable scene as a reporter, navigating around the clubhouse to ask the same, pertinent question. After winning an unprecedented 125 games and pummeling teams along the way, were these Yankees the best team ever? Twenty five years later, Curry revisits that season to discuss how that team was built and why the Yankees were such a talented, refreshing and successful club.
Twelve | 9781538722985
THE APOLOGY by Jimin Han (Fiction/Magical Realism)
In South Korea, a 105-year-old woman receives a letter. Ten days later, she has been thrust into the afterlife, fighting to head off a curse that will otherwise devastate generations to come. Hak Jeonga has always shouldered the burden of upholding the family name. When she sent her daughter-in-law to America to cover up an illegitimate birth, she was simply doing what was needed to preserve the reputations of her loved ones. How could she have known that, decades later, this decision would return to haunt her --- threatening to tear apart her bond with her beloved son, her relationship with her infuriatingly insolent sisters, and the future of the family she has worked so hard to protect?
Back Bay Books | 9780316367202
BAD SUMMER PEOPLE by Emma Rosenblum (Domestic Thriller/Humor)
None of them would claim to be a particularly good person. But who among them is actually capable of murder? Jen Weinstein and Lauren Parker rule the town of Salcombe, Fire Island, every summer. They hold sway on the beach and the tennis court, and are adept at manipulating people to get what they want. Their husbands, Sam and Jason, have summered together on the island since childhood, despite lifelong grudges and numerous secrets. Their one single friend, Rachel Woolf, is looking to meet her match, whether he’s the tennis pro --- or someone else’s husband. But even with plenty to gossip about, this season starts out as quietly as any other. Until a body is discovered, face down, off the side of the boardwalk.
Flatiron Books | 9781250887023
THE BEST LIFE BOOK CLUB by Sheila Roberts (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Karissa Newcomb is ready for a new start in a new neighborhood, as far away as she can get from Seattle, where her husband cheated on her with the neighbor who was supposed to be her best friend. She and her nine-year-old daughter are moving on to the city of Gig Harbor on the bay in Puget Sound. She even has a new job as an assistant at a small publishing company right in Gig Harbor. Her new boss seems like a bit of a curmudgeon, but a job is a job, and she loves to read. Meanwhile, her new neighbors, Alice and Margot, are dealing with their own crises. Alice is still grieving her late husband and hasn’t been able to get behind the wheel of a car since a close call after his death. Margot is floundering after getting divorced and laid off in quick succession. They all could use a distraction, and a book club seems like just the ticket.
Mira | 9780778305484
BETWEEN TWO MOONS by Aisha Abdel Gawad (Fiction)
It’s the holy month of Ramadan, and twin sisters Amira and Lina are about to graduate high school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. On the precipice of adulthood, they plan to embark on a summer of teenage revelry, trying on new identities, and testing the limits of what they can get away with while still under their parents’ roof. But the twins' expectations of a summer of freedom collide with their older brother's return from prison, whose mysterious behavior threatens to undo the delicate family balance. Meanwhile, a storm is brewing in Bay Ridge. A raid on a local business sparks a protest that brings the Arab community together, and a senseless act of violence threatens to tear them apart. Everyone’s motives are called into question as an alarming sense of disquiet pervades the neighborhood.
Vintage | 9780593467824
BEWARE THE WOMAN by Megan Abbott (Psychological Thriller)
Newly married and with a baby on the way, Jacy and her husband, Jed, embark on their first road trip together to visit his father, Dr. Ash. The moment they arrive at the cottage, snug within the lush woods, Jacy feels bathed in love by the warm and hospitable Dr. Ash. But their Edenic first days take a turn when Jacy has a health scare. Swiftly, vacation activities are scrapped, and all eyes are on Jacy’s condition. Suddenly, whispers about Jed’s long-dead mother seem to eerily impinge upon the present, and Jacy begins to feel trapped in the cottage. But are her fears founded? Or is it paranoia, or cabin fever, or --- as is suggested to her --- a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside?
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593084953
BEYOND THAT, THE SEA by Laura Spence-Ash (Historical Fiction)
As German bombs fall over London in 1940, working-class parents Millie and Reginald Thompson make an impossible choice: they decide to send their 11-year-old daughter, Beatrix, to America. Bea arrives in Boston to meet the Gregorys. Mr. and Mrs. G, and their sons William and Gerald, fold Bea seamlessly into their world. As Bea comes into herself and relaxes into her new life, the girl she had been begins to fade away…until she is called home to London when the war ends. Desperate as she is not to leave this life behind, Bea dutifully retraces her trip across the Atlantic back to her new, old world. As she returns to post-war London, the memory of her American family stays with her, always pulling on her heart as she tries to move on and pursue love and a life of her own.
Celadon Books | 9781250854391
THE BREAKAWAY by Jennifer Weiner (Fiction)
Thirty-three-year-old Abby Stern is mostly at peace with her plus-size body and is on track to marry her childhood sweetheart, Mark. Yet Abby can’t escape the feeling that something isn’t right…or the memories of one mind-blowing night spent with a man named Sebastian two years ago. So when Abby gets a last-minute call to lead a group bike trip, she’s happy to have time away from Mark and a chance to make up her mind. But on the first day, Abby is shocked to see Sebastian in the tour group. And then there’s a last-minute addition to the trip --- Abby’s mother, Eileen, whom Abby blames for a lifetime of insecurities she’s still trying to undo. Over the next two weeks, strangers become confidantes, hidden truths come to light, and a teenage girl with a secret will unite all the riders in surprising ways.
Atria Books | 9781668033432
CAMERA GIRL: The Coming of Age of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy by Carl Sferrazza Anthony (Biography)
CAMERA GIRL brings to cinematic life Jackie Bouvier Kennedy’s years as a young, single woman trying to figure out who she wanted to become. Chafing at the expectations of her family and the societal limitations placed on women in that era, Jackie pursued her dream career as a writer. Set primarily during the years of 1949 to 1953, when Jackie was in her early 20s, the book recounts in heretofore unrevealed detail the story of her late college years and her early adulthood as a working woman.
Gallery Books | 9781982141882
CENTRAL PARK WEST by James Comey (Legal Thriller)
When a years-long case against a powerful mobster finally cracks and an unimpeachable witness takes the stand, federal prosecutor Nora Carleton is looking forward to putting the defendant away for good. The mobster, though, has other plans. As the witness’s testimony concludes, a note is passed to the prosecution offering up information into the assassination of a disgraced former New York governor, murdered in his penthouse apartment just days before. It’s enough to blow the case wide open, and to send Nora into a high-stakes investigation of conspiracy, corruption and danger.
Mysterious Press | 9781613165461
CLIVE CUSSLER CONDOR’S FURY: A Novel from the NUMA Files by Graham Brown (Thriller/Adventure)
On a NUMA training mission in the Caribbean, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala catch a distress call from a nearby freighter. Leaping into action, they locate a damaged vessel and a dead captain clutching a shotgun. While searching the freighter for clues, Kurt and Joe are ambushed by crew members who seem terrified and disoriented, almost brainwashed. The trawler they were hauling has vanished, taken --- the men say --- by baffling lights that circled the ship. Kurt and Joe deduce that the men are suffering from Havana Syndrome, which deepens the mystery and raises the stakes. Soon they’re confronting Cuban mercenaries who plan to use magnificent modern airships to hijack a nuclear submarine --- culminating in a life-or-death showdown in the skies.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593716731
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.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250890917
THE DAYDREAMS by Laura Hankin (Fiction)
Back in 2004, The Daydreams had it all: a cast of innocent-seeming teenagers acting and singing their hearts out, amazing ratings, and a will-they-or-won’t-they romance that steamed up fan fiction forums. Then, during the live season two finale, it all imploded, leaving everyone scrambling to understand why. Afterward, the four stars went down very different paths. Now, though, the fans are demanding a reunion special. The stars all have private reasons to come back. But as they tentatively rediscover the magic of the original show, old secrets threaten to resurface --- including the real reason behind their downfall. Will this reunion be a chance to make things right? Or will it be the biggest mess the world has ever seen? No matter what, the ratings will be wild.
Berkley | 9780593438190
DEATH VALLEY by Melissa Broder (Fiction/Magical Realism)
A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow --- for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike. Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.
Scribner | 9781668024867
A DISAPPEARANCE IN FIJI by Nilima Rao (Historical Mystery)
1914, Fiji: Akal Singh would rather be anywhere but this tropical paradise. After a promising start to his police career in Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and grumpy, Akal plods through his work and dreams of getting back to Hong Kong or his native India. When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and Fiji’s newspapers scream “kidnapping,” the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case. Akal, eager to achieve redemption, agrees --- but soon finds himself far more invested than he ever could have expected. Not only is he now investigating a disappearance, he is confronting the brutal realities of the indentured workers’ existence and the racism of the British colonizers in Fiji.
Soho Crime | 9781641295703
FAIR ROSALINE by Natasha Solomons (Historical Fiction)
The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet, he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo's attentions, but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life. Soon, though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo's gaze to turn towards her cousin, 13-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realizes that it is not only Juliet's reputation at stake, but her life. With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728299891
THE FERRYMAN by Justin Cronin (Dystopian Thriller/Science Fiction)
The islands of Prospera lie in a vast ocean, in splendid isolation from the rest of humanity --- or whatever remains of it. Citizens of the main island enjoy privileged lives. They are attended to by support staff who live on a cramped neighboring island, where whispers of revolt are brewing. But for the Prosperans, life is perfection. And when the end of life approaches, they’re sent to a mysterious third island, where their bodies are refreshed, their memories are wiped away, and they return to start life anew. Proctor Bennett is a ferryman, whose job it is to enforce the retirement process when necessary. He never questions his work, until the day he receives a cryptic message: “The world is not the world.” These simple words unlock something he has secretly suspected. They give him the unshakable feeling that someone is trying to tell him something important.
Ballantine Books | 9780525619499
GATHERING BLOSSOMS UNDER FIRE: The Journals of Alice Walker, 1965-2000 written by Alice Walker, edited by Valerie Boyd (Literary Collection)
For the first time, the edited journals of Alice Walker are gathered together to reflect the complex, passionate, talented and acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winner. In an unvarnished and singular voice, she explores an astonishing array of events: marching in Mississippi with other foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement; her marriage to a Jewish lawyer; an early miscarriage; writing her first novel; the trials and triumphs of the Women’s Movement; erotic encounters and enduring relationships; the ancestral visits that led her to write THE COLOR PURPLE; winning the Pulitzer Prize; being admired and maligned, sometimes in equal measure, for her work and her activism; and burying her mother.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476773162
THE GLASS CHÂTEAU by Stephen P. Kiernan (Historical Fiction)
One month after the end of World War II, there are throngs of people in France stunned by the recovery work ahead. Asher lost his family during the war, and in revenge he served as an assassin in the Resistance. Burdened by grief and guilt, he wanders through the blasted countryside, stunned by what has become of his life. When he arrives at le Chateau Guerin, all he seeks is a decent meal. Instead he finds a sanctuary, an oasis despite being filled with people every bit as damaged as him. But they are calming themselves, and recovering inch by inch, by turning sand into glass, and glass into windows for the bombed cathedrals of France. As the secrets of the chateau’s residents become known one by one, they experience more heated conflict and greater challenges.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063227309
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 Trade Paperbacks | 9780812988031
HAPPINESS FALLS by Angie Kim (Mystery/Thriller)
Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical 20-year-old daughter of a biracial Korean American family in Virginia, has an explanation for everything --- which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother, Eugene, don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak. What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance.
Hogarth | 9780593448229
HELL IF WE DON’T CHANGE OUR WAYS: A Memoir by Brittany Means (Memoir)
Brittany Means’ childhood was a blur of highways and traumas that collapsed any effort to track time. Riding shotgun as her mother struggled to escape abusive relationships, Brittany didn’t care where they were going as long as they were together. But every so often, her mom would surprise her --- and leave. As Brittany grew older and questioned her own complicated relationships and the poverty, abuse and instability that enveloped her, she began to recognize that hell wasn’t only the place she read about in the Bible; it was the cycle of violence that entrapped her family. While untangling the web of her most painful memories, Brittany crafts a tale of self-preservation, resilience and hope with a unique narrative style --- a sparkling example of the human ability to withstand the most horrific experiences and still thrive.
Zibby Books | 9781958506554
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 | 9780593334638
IDENTITY by Nora Roberts (Romantic Suspense)
Former Army brat Morgan Albright has finally planted roots in a friendly neighborhood near Baltimore. Her friend and roommate, Nina, helps her make the mortgage payments, as does her job as a bartender. But after she and Nina host their first dinner party --- attended by Luke, the flirtatious IT guy --- her carefully built world is shattered. The back door glass is broken, cash and jewelry are missing, her car is gone, and Nina lies dead on the floor. A horrific truth soon emerges: "Luke" is actually a cold-hearted con artist named Gavin who targets a particular type of woman, steals her assets and identity, and then commits his ultimate goal: murder. It turns out that Nina wasn't his type. Morgan is. Nina was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. And Morgan's nightmare is just beginning.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250321190
KILLINGLY by Katharine Beutner (Historical Mystery)
Massachusetts, 1897: Bertha Mellish, “the most peculiar, quiet, reserved girl” at Mount Holyoke College, is missing. As a search team dredges the pond where Bertha might have drowned, her panicked father and sister arrive desperate to find some clue to her fate or state of mind. Bertha’s best friend, Agnes, a scholarly loner studying medicine, might know the truth, but she is being unhelpfully tight-lipped, inciting the suspicions of Bertha’s family, her classmates, and the private investigator hired by the Mellish family doctor. As secrets from Agnes’ and Bertha’s lives come to light, so do the competing agendas driving each person who is searching for Bertha. Where did Bertha go? Who would want to hurt her? And could she still be alive?
Soho Crime | 9781641295710
THE KING’S PLEASURE: A Novel of Henry VIII by Alison Weir (Historical Fiction)
Young Henry began his rule as a magnificent and chivalrous Renaissance prince who embodied every virtue. He had all the qualities to make a triumph of his kingship, yet we remember only the violence. Henry famously broke with the pope, founding the Church of England and launching a religious revolution that divided his kingdom. He beheaded two of his wives and cast aside two others. He died a suspicious, obese, disease-riddled tyrant. His reign is remembered as one of dangerous intrigue and bloodshed --- and yet the truth is far more complex. THE KING’S PLEASURE brings to life the idealistic monarch who expanded Parliament, founded the Royal Navy, modernized medical training, composed music and poetry, and patronized the arts.
Ballantine Books | 9780593355084
THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Siddhartha Deb (Fiction)
Delhi, the near future: Bibi, a low-ranking employee of a global consulting firm, is tasked with finding a man long thought to be dead but who now appears to be the source of a vast collection of documents. Bhopal, 1984: An assassin tracks his prey through an Indian city that will shortly be the site of the worst industrial disaster in the history of the world. Calcutta, 1947: A veterinary student’s life and work connect him to an ancient Vedic aircraft that might stave off genocide. And in 1859, a British soldier rides with his detachment to the Himalayas in search of the last surviving leader of an anti-colonial rebellion. These timelines interweave, and each protagonist must come to terms with the buried truths of their times, as well as the parallel universe that connects them all.
Soho Press | 9781641295734
LITTLE MONSTERS by Adrienne Brodeur (Fiction)
Ken and Abby Gardner lost their mother when they were small. Their father, Adam, is a brilliant oceanographer who raised them mostly on his own. Ken is now a successful businessman with political ambitions and a picture-perfect family, and Abby is a talented visual artist who depends on her brother’s goodwill, in part because he owns the studio where she lives and works. As the novel opens, Adam is approaching his 70th birthday. He has always managed his bipolar disorder with medication, but he is determined to make one last scientific breakthrough. So he has secretly stopped taking his pills. Meanwhile, Abby and Ken are both harboring secrets of their own, and there is a new person on the periphery of the family --- Steph, who doesn’t make her connection known.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982198114
LOVE, LIES, AND CHERRY PIE by Jackie Lau (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of hearing about the great Mark Chan, the son of her parents’ friends. He’s just a boring, sweater-vest-wearing engineer, and when they’re forced together at Emily’s sister’s wedding, it’s obvious he thinks he’s too good for her. But now that Emily is her family’s last single daughter, her mother is fixated on getting her married, and she has her sights on Mark. There’s only one solution, clearly: convince Mark to be in a fake relationship with her long enough to put an end to her mom’s meddling. He reluctantly agrees. Unfortunately, lying isn’t enough. Family friends keep popping up at their supposed dates, so they’ll have to spend more time together to make their relationship look real. With each fake date, though, Emily realizes that Mark is not quite what she assumed.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668030769
MADAME RESTELL: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist by Jennifer Wright (Biography)
An industrious immigrant who built her business from the ground up, Madame Restell was a self-taught surgeon on the cutting edge of healthcare in pre-Gilded Age New York. Her bustling “boarding house” provided birth control, abortions and medical assistance to thousands of women --- rich and poor alike. Unfortunately for Madame Restell, her rise to the top of her field coincided with a campaign to curtail women’s power by restricting their access to both healthcare and careers of their own. By unraveling the misogynistic and misleading lies that put women’s lives in jeopardy, Jennifer Wright simultaneously restores Restell to her rightful place in history and obliterates the faulty reasoning underlying the very foundation of what has since been dubbed the “pro-life” movement.
Hachette Books | 9780306826818
THE MAN ON THE TRAIN by Debbie Babitt (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Linda Haley has no idea that her husband has been living a secret life. Now Guy is the prime suspect in a brutal murder that could derail Linda’s high-powered career and may be connected to a cold case. And Guy has disappeared. With a warrant out for her husband’s arrest, Linda sets out to prove his innocence accompanied by an ex-cop who harbors a secret affection for her. Together, they travel to the scene of a 40-year-old unsolved murder and a night of violence that shattered the serenity of a small fishing hamlet just past the Hamptons. But as the manhunt intensifies and she begins to uncover the shocking truth --- and the past Guy has buried deep --- Linda must decide if the stranger she married is innocent or guilty. And if he truly deserves to be saved.
Scarlet | 9781613164136
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 | 9781643756288
THE OVERNIGHTS: An Ashe Cayne Novel by Ian K. Smith (Mystery)
Someone wants Morgan Shaw dead --- or so the hugely popular evening news anchor of top-rated Chicago TV station WLTV believes. Fearing for her safety, she turns to P.I. Ashe Cayne for protection. Though he sympathizes, Ashe turns her down --- he’s not a bodyguard. But when Morgan’s car tires are slashed and she’s threatened again, he agrees to help her. Meanwhile, Morgan refuses to lose to her crosstown rival in the ratings and will risk everything to stay on top, including an audacious investigation into the suspicious shooting of an unarmed African American man by a white cop. The explosive case and her discoveries boost her ratings --- and create powerful enemies eager to protect their secrets.
Amistad | 9780063253728
OWNER OF A LONELY HEART: A Memoir of Motherhood and Absence by Beth Nguyen (Memoir)
At the end of the Vietnam War, when Beth Nguyen was eight months old, she and her father, sister, grandmother and uncles fled Saigon for America. Beth’s mother stayed --- or was left --- behind, and they did not meet again until Beth was 19. Over the course of her adult life, she and her mother have spent less than 24 hours together. OWNER OF A LONELY HEART is a memoir about parenthood, absence and the condition of being a refugee: the story of Beth’s relationship with her mother. Framed by a handful of visits over the course of many years --- sometimes brief, sometimes interrupted, sometimes with her mother alone and sometimes with her sister --- Beth tells a coming-of-age story that spans her own Midwestern childhood, her first meeting with her mother, and becoming a parent herself.
Scribner | 9781982196356
PENANCE by Eliza Clark (Fiction)
On a beach in a run-down seaside town on the Yorkshire coastline, 16-year-old Joan Wilson is set on fire by three other schoolgirls. Nearly a decade after the horrifying murder, journalist Alec Z. Carelli has written the definitive account of the crime, drawn from hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research and, most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves. The result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil. But how much of the story is true?
Harper Perennial | 9780063327863
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. Years after the postcard is delivered, the heroine of this novel is moved to discover who sent it and why. What emerges is a moving saga of a family devastated by the travails of the 20th century and partly restored through the power of storytelling.
Europa Editions | 9798889660354
THE QUIET TENANT by Clémence Michallon (Psychological Thriller)
Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a somewhat beloved figure in the small upstate town where he lives. He’s also a kidnapper and serial killer. Aidan has murdered eight women, and there’s a ninth he has earmarked for death: Rachel, who is imprisoned in a backyard shed. When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his 13-year-old daughter, Cecilia, are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend” who needs a place to stay. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia’s orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan’s secret.
Vintage | 9780593467862
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 | 9780593539620
ROUGE by Mona Awad (Gothic Horror/Dark Humor)
When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror --- and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781982169701
SAVE WHAT’S LEFT by Elizabeth Castellano (Fiction/Humor)
Kathleen Deane’s husband, Tom, tells her he's no longer happy with his life and their marriage. With Tom off finding himself, Kathleen starts to think about what she wants. And her thoughts lead her to a small beach community on the east coast, a town called Whitbey that has always looked lovely in the Christmas letters her childhood friend Josie sends every year. It turns out, though, that life in Whitbey is nothing like Josie’s letters. Worst of all is the Sugar Cube, the monstrosity masquerading as a holiday home that Kathleen’s absentee neighbors are building next door to her quaint (read: tiny) cottage. As Kathleen gets more and more involved in the fight against the Sugar Cube and town politics overall, she realizes that Whitbey may not be a fairy tale, but it just might be exactly what she needs.
Vintage | 9780593469194
SUMMER ON SAG HARBOR by Sunny Hostin (Fiction)
Hard-working and accomplished, Olivia Jones has blazed an enviable career path in the finance world. But behind the veneer of her success, she is mourning several devastating losses and betrayals. Untethered from her life in New York City, Olivia moves to a summer home in The Hamptons. Here, she finds a close-knit community of African American elites who escape New York City for the beautiful beaches of the Hamptons. Since the 1930s, very few have known about this Historically Black Beachfront Community, and the residents like it that way. That is, until real estate developers discover the hidden gem. And now, the residents must fight for the soul of this HBBC. As the summer stretches on, Olivia teams up with her new friends to protect their community and, in doing so, discovers who she really is.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062994226
THE SUMMER SWAP by Sarah Morgan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Cecilia Lapthorne always vowed she’d never go back to Dune Cottage. So no one is more surprised than Cecilia to find herself escaping her 75th birthday party to return to the remote Cape Cod cottage, which is filled with both good and bad memories. After dropping out of medical school, aspiring artist Lily is cleaning houses on the Cape to get by. Unoccupied for years, Dune Cottage seems the perfect place to hide away and lick her wounds --- until Cecilia unexpectedly arrives. Despite an awkward beginning, Lily accepts Cecilia’s invitation to stay on as her guest, and a flicker of kinship ignites. Then Todd, Cecilia’s grandson --- and Lily’s unrequited crush --- shows up, sending a shock wave through their unlikely friendship. Will Lily find the courage to live the life she wants? Can Cecilia finally let go of the past to find a new future?
Canary Street Press | 9781335009319
SWAMP STORY by Dave Barry (Fiction/Humor)
Jesse Braddock is trapped in a tiny cabin deep in the Everglades with her infant daughter and ex-boyfriend, a wannabe reality TV star. She stumbles across a long-lost treasure that could solve all her problems. But some very bad men are also looking for the treasure, and they know Jesse has it. Meanwhile, Ken Bortle of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer has hatched a scheme to lure tourists to his failing store by making viral videos of the “Everglades Melon Monster.” Incredibly, this plan actually works, inspiring a horde of TikTokers to swarm into the swamp in search of the monster at the same time villains are on the hunt for Jesse’s treasure. Amid this mayhem, a presidential hopeful arrives in the Everglades to start his campaign. Needless to say, it does not go as planned.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982191344
THE TRAP by Catherine Ryan Howard (Mystery/Thriller)
One year ago, Lucy’s sister, Nicki, left to meet friends at a pub in Dublin and never came home. The third Irish woman to vanish inexplicably in as many years, the agony of not knowing what happened that night has turned Lucy’s life into a waking nightmare. So she’s going to take matters into her own hands. Angela works as a civilian paper-pusher in the Missing Persons Unit, but wants nothing more than to be a fully fledged member of An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force. With the official investigation into the missing women stalled, she begins pulling on a thread that could break the case wide open --- and destroy her chances of ever joining the force. A nameless man drives through the night, his latest victim in the back seat. He’s going to tell her everything, from the beginning.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798212630832
THE WATER OUTLAWS by S. L. Huang (Fantasy/Adventure)
Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor's soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow. Unlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job. Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully built life away. Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan. Mountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice --- for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They’re also murderers, thieves, smugglers and cutthroats.
Tordotcom | 9781250847980
WHEN CICADAS CRY by Caroline Cleveland (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
A white woman has been bludgeoned to death with an altar cross in a rural church on Cicada Road in Walterboro, South Carolina. Sam Jenkins, a Black man, is found covered in blood, kneeling over the body. In a state already roiling with racial tension, this is not only a murder case, but a powder keg. Two young women are murdered on quiet Edisto Beach, an hour southeast of Walterboro, and the killer disappears without a trace. Thirty-four years later, the mystery remains unsolved. Could there be a connection to Stander's case? Stander takes on Jenkins' defense, but he's up against a formidable solicitor with powerful allies. Worse, his client is hiding a bombshell secret. When Addie Stone reopens the cold case, she discovers more long-buried secrets in this small town. Would someone kill again to keep them?
Union Square & Co. | 9781454952312
WHEN SHE WAS ME by Marlee Bush (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Ever since that night, twin sisters Cassie and Lenora have been inseparable. As the sole permanent residents of Cabin Two, their refuge on an isolated Tennessee campground, they manage to stay away from prying eyes, probing questions and true crime junkies. The peace and quiet is almost enough to make them forget what happened all those years ago. Almost. Until a teenage girl camping at the neighboring cabin goes missing, and the memories come rushing back. As the crime becomes ever more recognizable, each sister suspects the other knows more than she's letting on. Trapped in the isolating, claustrophobic wilderness, Cassie and Lenora must piece together the truth of what happened --- and the sinister truth lurking in their own pasts --- before it's too late.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728289533
On Sale the Week of May 13th in Hardcover
May 14th
ALL FOURS by Miranda July (Fiction)
A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from Los Angeles to New York. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey. With Miranda July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, ALL FOURS tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic and domestic life of a 45-year-old female artist, the book transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman.
Riverhead Books | 9780593190265
ANIMALS I WANT TO SEE: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Projects and Defying the Odds by Tom Seeman (Memoir)
On Bronson Street, in the projects of Toledo, Ohio, in a crowded house occupied by a family of 14, Tom Seeman starts a very important list. Just as the trash-strewn field in his backyard is home to a treasure trove of wild animals, Tom’s list, “Animals I Want To See One Day,” is home to dreams of adventure in places far away from the downtrodden neighborhood where he lives. But for all its hardship and crime, Bronson Street is also something of a mythical street, populated by unforgettable people who share food, protect each other, and give surprising gifts of beauty and merriment, proving that the bonds of community and friendship (often across racial and social lines) can bridge any divide and transcend what many of us are taught to believe about each other.
Post Hill Press | 9798888453568
APRIL MAY JUNE JULY by Alison B. Hart (Fiction)
April, May, June and July Barber don’t have much in common anymore. An upcoming family wedding will place the four siblings in the same room for the first time in years. But shortly before, when April spots their father, who went missing while serving overseas a decade ago, their reunion becomes entirely more complicated. While the siblings’ search for the truth about their father forces them back into each other’s lives, it also intensifies their private dramas. April loves her husband but seeks excitement outside their marriage. May had big dreams for the future, but she’s still stuck living at home. June is eager to marry her girlfriend, so why does she need a drink at every wedding-related event? And then there’s baby brother July, whose unrequited love for his straight roommate has him more confused than ever.
Graydon House | 9781525804274
BLUE RUIN by Hari Kunzru (Fiction)
Once, Jay was an artist. After graduating from art school in London, he was tipped for greatness, a promising career taking shape before him. That was not to happen. Now, undocumented in the United States, having survived COVID, he lives out of his car and barely makes a living as an essential worker, delivering groceries in a wealthy area of upstate New York. One day, as Jay attempts to make a delivery at a house surrounded by acres of woods, he is confronted by his destructive past: Alice, a former lover from his art school days, and the friend she left him for. Recognizing Jay’s dire circumstances, Alice invites him to stay on their property --- where an erratic gallery owner and his girlfriend are isolating as well --- setting in motion a reckoning that has been decades in the making.
Knopf | 9780593801376
BREAKING GLASS: Tales from the Witch of Wall Street by Patricia Walsh Chadwick (Memoir)
Patricia Walsh Chadwick grew up in a religious community-turned-cult in the Boston area. At the age of 17, she was forced out of her home, leaving behind her entire family. From her first job as a receptionist at a brokerage firm, she clawed her way up the ladder in that bastion of male chauvinism: Wall Street. By going to college at night, she achieved her degree in economics from Boston University and headed to New York City. With a drive that earned her the moniker “Witch of Wall Street,” she rose from the ranks of research analyst to portfolio manager. A turning point in her life was giving birth to twins at the age of 45, and she continued forward in her career, becoming a global partner at Invesco. At the turn of the millennium, she left Wall Street behind and embarked on a second career as a corporate board director.
Post Hill Press | 9798888452868
A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V.E. Schwab (Historical Fantasy/Adventure)
Kell is one of the last Antari --- magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons. Kell was raised in Arnes --- Red London --- and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see. Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand. After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces him to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Tor Books | 9781250344182
EVERY TIME WE SAY GOODBYE by Natalie Jenner (Historical Fiction)
In 1955, Vivien Lowry’s latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not impressed, and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry's last chance for a dramatic career. At the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome. There she finds a vibrant movie making scene in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy. As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250285188
LAST HOUSE by Jessica Shattuck (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1953, and for Nick Taylor, a WWII veteran turned company lawyer, oil is the key to the future. Nick comes from humble origins, but thanks to his work for American Oil, he can provide every comfort for his family, including Last House, a secluded country escape. Deep in the Vermont mountains, the Taylors are free from the stresses of modern life. It’s 1968, and America is on the brink of change. Protestors fill the streets to challenge everything from the Vietnam War to racism in the wake of MLK’s shooting --- to the country's reliance on Big Oil. As Nick’s daughter, Katherine, makes her first forays into adult life, she’s caught up in the current of the time and struggles to reconcile her ideals with the stable and privileged childhood her parents worked so hard to provide. But when the Movement shifts in a more radical direction, each member of the Taylor family will be forced to reckon with the consequences of the choices they’ve made for the causes they believed in.
William Morrow | 9780062979896
LOVERS AND LIARS by Amanda Eyre Ward (Fiction)
Once upon a time, the Peacock sisters were little girls who combed each other’s tangled hair. But decades of secrets have led them to separate lives --- and to telling lies. Sylvie, a librarian and widow, has caught the attention of Simon Rampling, a mysterious, wealthy man. She’s ready to love again. Or is she? Cleo, a successful criminal defense lawyer with the perfect boyfriend, is immediately suspicious of Simon. She heads to Mumberton Castle telling herself she will expose Simon and save her sister from more heartbreak. But who is she really trying to save? Emma is living a lie. She can’t afford this fancy trip --- and she definitely can’t tell her husband and sons why. When their toxic mother shows up, the sisters assume the roles they fell into to survive their childhood. But they just might find the courage to make new choices.
Ballantine Books | 9780593500293
THE PARADISE PROBLEM by Christina Lauren (Romantic Comedy)
Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed. Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck, while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his $100 million inheritance. There’s just one catch. Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years, and pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse. He has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents --- his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.
Gallery Books | 9781668017722
REDNECKS by Taylor Brown (Historical Fiction)
REDNECKS dramatizes the 1920 to 1921 events of the West Virginia Mine Wars --- from the Matewan Massacre through the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest armed conflict on American soil since the Civil War, when some one million rounds were fired, bombs were dropped on Appalachia, and the term “redneck” would come to have an unexpected origin story. In a land where the coal companies use violence and intimidation to keep miners from organizing, “Doc Moo" Muhanna, a Lebanese-American doctor, toils amid the blood and injustice of the mining camps. When Frank Hugham, a Black World War I veteran and coal miner, takes dramatic steps to lead a miners' revolt with a band of fellow veterans, Doc Moo risks his life and career to treat sick and wounded miners, while Frank's grandmother, Beulah, fights her own battle to save her home and grandson.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250329332
THE SHADOW OF WAR: A Novel of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Jeff Shaara (Historical Fiction)
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy inherited an ill-conceived, poorly executed invasion of Cuba that failed miserably and set in motion the events that put the U.S. and the Soviet Union on a collision course that nearly started a war that would have enveloped much of the world. THE SHADOW OF WAR brings to life the many threads that lead to the building crisis between the Soviet Union and the United States in 1962. It is told from a multitude of perspectives and voices --- from the Russian engineer attempting the nearly impossible task of building the missile launch facilities in Cuba, to the U.S. Navy commanders whose ships are sent to "quarantine" Cuba, to the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, desperately trying to maintain a challenging balancing act between the conflicting demands of various powerful forces.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250279965
THE SITUATION ROOM: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis by George Stephanopoulos with Lisa Dickey (Politics/History)
No room better defines American power and its role in the world than the White House Situation Room. And yet, none is more shrouded in secrecy and mystery. Created under President Kennedy, the Sit Room has been the epicenter of crisis management for presidents for more than six decades. Time and again, the decisions made within the Sit Room complex affect the lives of every person on this planet. Detailing close calls made and disasters narrowly averted, THE SITUATION ROOM will take readers through dramatic turning points in a dozen presidential administrations. It’s the definitive, past-the-security-clearance look at the room where it happened, and the people --- the famous and those you've never heard of --- who have made history within its walls.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538740767
THINK TWICE by Harlan Coben (Thriller)
Three years ago, sports agent Myron Bolitar gave a eulogy at the funeral of his client, renowned basketball coach Greg Downing. Myron and Greg had history: initially as deeply personal rivals, and later as unexpected business associates. Myron made peace and moved on --- until now, when two federal agents walk into his office, demanding to know where Greg Downing is. According to the agents, Greg is still alive --- and has been placed at the scene of a double homicide, making him their main suspect. Shocked, Myron needs answers. Myron and Win, longtime friends and colleagues, set out to find the truth, but the more they discover about Greg, the more dangerous their world becomes.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538756317
THIS STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY by Claire Messud (Historical Fiction)
Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state --- separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. THIS STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife, Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family’s strangeness; of François’ union with Barbara, a woman so culturally different they can barely comprehend one another; and of Chloe, the result of that union, who believes that telling these buried stories will bring them all peace.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393635041
VERY BAD COMPANY by Emma Rosenblum (Mystery/Dark Humor)
Every year, executives at the trendy tech startup Aurora gather the company’s top employees for an exclusive retreat in Miami, and this year Caitlin Levy --- Aurora’s newest hire --- is joining the team as head of events. The benefits are outstanding: a seven-figure salary, stock shares, a discretionary bonus, limitless vacation days. What could possibly go wrong? When a fellow high-level executive vanishes after the first night, the disappearance has the potential to derail the future of the company’s sale and cost everyone on the team millions. Now more than ever, Caitlin and her colleagues must continue the charade --- partaking in team-building exercises, group brainstorms, dinners --- in order to keep the future of Aurora afloat amid all the fatal speculations.
Flatiron Books | 9781250906557
WHEN AMONG CROWS by Veronica Roth (Fantasy)
Pain is Dymitr’s calling. His family is one in a long line of hunters who sacrifice their souls to slay monsters. Now he’s tasked with a deadly mission: find the legendary witch Baba Jaga. To reach her, Dymitr must ally with the ones he’s sworn to kill. Pain is Ala’s inheritance. A fear-eating zmora with little left to lose, Ala awaits death from the curse she carries. When Dymitr offers her a cure in exchange for her help, she has no choice but to agree. Together they must fight against time and the wrath of the Chicago underworld. But Dymitr’s secrets --- and his true motives --- may be the thing that actually destroys them.
Tor Books | 9781250855480
THE WITCHES OF BELLINAS by J. Nicole Jones (Gothic Fiction)
Tansy and her husband, Guy, are the newest arrivals in Bellinas, a lush oasis tucked into the coast of northern California where a reclusive, creative community is beginning to take shape. Helmed by Guy’s cousin Mia, a famous model-turned-wellness-luminary, and her tech mogul husband, the group renounces the outside world in pursuit of purity, fashioning their own rules about what to eat and how to live. Everything seems perfect in Bellinas: food is abundant, flowers are always in bloom, and nearby wildfires leave the town remarkably unscathed. While Guy is happy in their new lives, Tansy becomes more and more suspicious of the community and increasingly desperate to save her already-fragile marriage. And as lonely women have throughout the ages, she wants to believe in what may only be a beautiful lie.
Catapult | 9781646221806
WIVES LIKE US by Plum Sykes (Fiction)
Welcome to the rose-strewn county of Oxfordshire and the tony Cotswold villages of Little Bottom, Middle Bottom, Great Bottom and Monkton Bottom, recently annexed by a glittering new breed of female: the Country Princess. Following a ghastly row about a missing suite of diamonds, Tata Hawkins has flounced out of Monkton Bottom Manor with her daughter, Minty, and Executive Butler Ian Palmer in tow, decamping to The Old Coach House to teach her husband, Bryan, a lesson. But things don’t go according to plan: Bryan disappears to Venice with a bikini designer; Selby Fairfax, the glamorous American divorcée who has inherited the beautiful estate next door, is refusing Tata’s overtures of friendship; Tata’s best friends are distracted by their own heartache, and the posh Pennybacker-Hoare sisters are plotting to prevent Tata from regaining her crown as Queen of the Bottoms.
Harper | 9780062429087
On Sale the Week of May 13th in Paperback
May 14th
THE ADULT by Bronwyn Fischer (Fiction)
Eighteen-year-old Natalie has just arrived at her first year of university in Toronto. Everyone she encounters seems to know exactly who they are. She reads advice listicles, watches videos online and thinks about how to fit in, how to really become someone, whoever that might be. And then she meets Nora, an older woman who takes an unexpected interest in her. She begins spending more and more of her time at Nora’s perfect, tidy home in her beautiful, quiet world. Natalie lies to her floormates about her absence, inventing a fake off-campus boyfriend, and carefully protects this sacred, adult relationship. This only deepens her obsession, even as she comes to suspect that Nora is hiding something.
Algonquin Books | 9781643756295
BLOOD ON THE TIDE by Katee Robert (Fantasy/Romance)
Paperback Original
As a bloodline vampire, Lizzie has never had a problem taking what she wants, and right now what she wants are the family heirlooms that were stolen from her and a portal home. Too bad even that short list is impossible to accomplish on her own --- and her allies have bigger things to worry about. When they rescue a selkie from captivity, it’s the perfect solution to her problem. Lizzie needs a guide through Threshold, and the selkie needs someone to help her get her skin back. Maeve didn’t choose to give up her skin --- it was stolen from her. Now she’s in an uneasy partnership with a dangerous woman who seems more apt to kill than to share a kind word. Even though she knows it will end in heartbreak, Maeve can’t help being drawn to Lizzie and her all-too-pleasurable vampire bite. Unfortunately, the danger to Maeve’s heart is the least of her worries.
Berkley | 9780593639108
BLOOD RED SUMMER by Eryk Pruitt (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Hot on the heels of her podcast debut, Jess Keeler looks for another unsolved crime to investigate --- this time with a documentary crew in tow. But she can’t seem to find the right case…until a handsome stranger approaches her in a bar in Lake Castor, Virginia, with an incredible story about wrongful conviction. The Lake Castor sniper struck in 1984. Terrorizing the historically Black part of the old mill town, the killer claimed five lives. No one seemed worried about the first four victims. But when journalist Hal Broadstreet was killed, the police were suddenly interested. They arrested a suspect two days later. But did they get the right man? As evidence emerges pointing to a false confession and a murky connection to three bootleggers’ murders, Jess closes in on the truth --- and risks landing in the sights of the true sniper.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662514562
CROSS DOWN: An Alex Cross and John Sampson Thriller by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (Thriller)
The brilliant crime-solving duo of Washington, DC’s Metro PD and the FBI has a proven MO: Detective Alex Cross makes his own rules. Detective John Sampson enforces them. When military-style attacks erupt, brutally sidelining Cross, Sampson is sent reeling. The patterns are too random --- Sampson’s friend, his partner, his brother --- have told him. Don’t trust anyone. As a shadow force advances on the nation’s capital, Sampson alone must protect the Cross family, his own young daughter and every American, including the president.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538710746
THE DETECTIVE UP LATE: A Sean Duffy Novel by Adrian McKinty (Mystery/Thriller)
Slamming the door on the hellscape of 1980s Belfast, Detective Inspector Sean Duffy hopes that the 1990s are going to be better for him and the people of Northern Ireland. As a Catholic cop in the mainly Protestant RUC, he still has a target on his back. With a steady girlfriend and a child, the stakes couldn't be higher. After handling a mercurial triple agent, and surviving the riots and bombings and assassination attempts, all Duffy wants to do now is live. But in his final days in charge of Carrickfergus CID, a missing persons report captures his attention. A 15-year-old traveler girl has disappeared, and no one seems to give a damn about it. Duffy begins to dig and uncovers a disturbing underground of men who seem to know her very well. The deeper he digs, the more sinister it all gets.
Blackstone Publishing | 9781504762632
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT KITTY KARR? by Crystal Smith Paul (Fiction)
When Kitty Karr Tate, a white icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters --- three young, wealthy Black women --- it prompts questions. Lots of questions. A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could --- and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty. The truth behind Kitty's ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed and debatable crimes that could unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250349026
DROP: Making Great Decisions by Dr. Helen McKibben (Self-Help/Personal Growth)
Paperback Original
Use neuroscience to retrain your brain and make better life choices. Dr. Helen McKibben's approach combines the study of the body, the brain, and the interaction between emotion and memory. She enables us to tap into the biomechanics of emotions, resolve triggered feelings and make better life choices. DROP is filled with interviews that illustrate how real people have applied this method to their lives. Dr. McKibben guides us through her revolutionary and innovative self-help technique of dropping to the blank screen to learn how to manage triggered feelings and to understand why we feel the way we do. By monitoring neuromuscular signals that indicate unconscious triggered emotions, we can work with the brain rather than against it. She teaches us a practical, self-reliant method to retrain our brains and change our responses to life's stressors.
Feelings Management Press | 9798986388908
THE DROWNING WOMAN by Robyn Harding (Psychological Thriller)
Early one morning, Lee Gulliver sees a sobbing woman throw herself into the ocean. She hauls the woman back to the surface, but instead of appreciation, she is met with fury. Hazel tells her that she wanted to die, that she’s trapped in a toxic, abusive marriage, that she’s a prisoner in her own home. Out of options, Hazel retreats to her gilded cage, and Lee thinks she’s seen the last of her --- until her unexpected return the next morning. Bonded by disparate but difficult circumstances, the women soon strike up a close and unlikely friendship. And then one day, Hazel makes a shocking request: she wants Lee to help her disappear. It’ll be easy, Hazel assures her, but Lee soon learns that nothing is as it seems and Hazel may not be the friend Lee thought she was.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538726778
EMPIRE: A Novel of the Golden Age by Conn Iggulden (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
Pericles returns home more than a hero: he's the leader of Athens, the empire's beacon of light. But even during times of peace, the threat of Sparta --- Athens's legendary rival --- looms large on the horizon. When a sudden catastrophe brings Sparta to its knees, Pericles sees a golden opportunity to forever shift the balance of power in his city's favor. For sometimes, the only way to win lasting peace is to wage war. Sparta may be weak, but their power is far from extinguished. Soon a ruthless young boy steps forward to lead the Spartans back to greatness. As the drums of battle draw closer, can Pericles rise to victory once more --- or will the world's greatest empire fall under his watch?
Pegasus Books | 9781639366927
THE FAVOR by Adele Griffin (Fiction)
At I'll Have Seconds, a high-end fairy tale vintage dress shop in Manhattan, Nora Hammond loves nothing better than pairing a rare find with the perfect client. At home, Nora grapples with the bleaker reality of enormous debt, a tiny apartment, and an ever-dwindling hope that she and her husband, Jacob, will have a family of their own. When socialite Evelyn Elliot charges into Nora's life, the women spark an immediate connection, and Nora is jettisoned into the heady whirl of New York's moneyed elite. As Evelyn's stylist and confidante, Nora needs to learn all-new rules of engagement for the uber-wealthy. But it isn't until Evelyn decides her next cause is to carry a baby for Nora that these rules --- and this unlikely friendship --- are tested.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728282121
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 | 9780306830013
GIRLS AND THEIR HORSES by Eliza Jane Brazier (Psychological Thriller)
When the nouveau riche Parker family moves to an exclusive community in the heart of Southern California, they believe it’s their chance at a fresh start. Heather Parker is determined to give her daughters the life she never had. So she signs them up for riding lessons at Rancho Santa Fe Equestrian, where horses are a lifestyle. Heather becomes a “Barn Mom,” part of a group of wealthy women who hang at the stables, drink wine and prepare their daughters for competition. It’s not long before the Parker family is fully enmeshed in the horse world. With the end-of-summer horse show fast approaching, these mothers will stop at nothing to give their daughters everything they deserve. Before the summer is over, lies will turn lethal, accidents will happen --- and someone will end up dead.
Berkley | 9780593438893
GONE TONIGHT by Sarah Pekkanen (Domestic Thriller)
When Ruth Sterling was a teenager, she slipped away one night, desperate to escape an abusive home and a troubling boyfriend. Pregnant, alone and prepared to do anything to survive, she eventually makes a life for herself --- and soon, for her newborn daughter, Catherine. For more than 20 years, Ruth has lived quietly and has provided for her daughter. But she is always ready to run at a moment’s notice and never allows either of them to put down roots too deeply. Now, Catherine is grown and craves a life for herself. This is something her mother will do anything to prevent. It has always been just the two of them against the world. But how well do they really know each other? When Ruth’s deeply held quest to keep Catherine by her side reveals cracks in her carefully constructed world, both mother and daughter begin a dance of deception.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250336163
THE HOUSE THAT HORROR BUILT by Christina Henry (Dark Fantasy/Gothic Horror)
Paperback Original
Harry Adams has always loved horror movies, so it’s not a total coincidence that she took the job cleaning house for movie director Javier Castillo. His forbidding graystone Chicago mansion, Bright Horses, is filled from top to bottom with terrifying props and costumes, as well as glittering awards from his career making films that thrilled audiences --- until family tragedy and scandal forced him to vanish from the industry. Javier values discretion, and Harry has always tried to clean the house immaculately and keep her head down. But then she starts hearing noises from behind a locked door. They sound remarkably like a human voice calling for help, even though Javier lives alone and never has visitors. Harry knows that not asking questions is a vital part of working for Javier, but she soon finds that the sinister house may be home to secrets she can’t ignore.
Berkley | 9780593638217
I DIDN’T DO IT by Jaime Lynn Hendricks (Mystery/Thriller)
Murderpalooza, the premier thriller writers conference, is meant to be an exciting celebration of the genre and its preeminent writers. But when bestselling author and industry favorite Kristin Bailey is found dead in her hotel room, four rival authors --- a midlister, an egomaniac, a has-been and a newbie --- also get targeted by an anonymous social media account and wonder if they’re next. First, they find themselves bonding to try to find out who’s behind it. As the account taunts them, it slowly reveals secrets that each of them have connected to Kristin --- secrets that make them a suspect in each other’s eyes. Soon, they are turning on each other and silently accusing each as a killer. Time is running out until the awards ceremony, where the social media account has promised a big reveal.
Scarlet | 9781613165492
THE LAGOS WIFE by Vanessa Walters (Literary Thriller/Mystery)
Previously published as THE NIGERWIFE
Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband; a palatial house in the heart of glittering Lagos, Nigeria; and a glamorous group of friends. She left gloomy London and a troubled family past behind for sunny, moneyed Lagos, becoming part of the Nigerwives --- a community of foreign women married to Nigerian men. But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her so-called perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her auntie Claudine decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with only a cell phone and a plane ticket to Nigeria, she digs into her niece’s life and uncovers a hidden side filled with dark secrets, isolation and even violence. But the more she discovers about Nicole, the more Claudine’s own buried history threatens to come to light.
Atria Books | 9781668011096
THE LAST TIME SHE SAW HIM by Kate White (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
As Kiki Reed heads out to a party at a friend’s house in the Connecticut countryside, she’s more than a little nervous. Her ex-fiancé, Jamie, will be attending, and she hasn’t seen him since she broke his heart a few months earlier. But when they come face to face, their exchange is brief and pleasant, which is a huge relief. Then, as the party is winding down, a noise pierces the night. The last few guests run outside to find Jamie inside his car, dead from a gunshot wound. Shocked and grieving, Kiki learns that the police believe Jamie took his own life, but she knows he was moving on from the breakup and just doesn’t believe it. Determined to find the truth, she searches for any evidence that will get the police to take her seriously. But as she peels away the layers, she uncovers something far more sinister than she’d imagined --- and it may be her life on the line next.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063247390
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 | 9781640096448
LIFE, LOSS, AND PUFFINS by Catherine Ryan Hyde (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Ru Evans taught herself euclidean geometry at age seven, has an eidetic memory, and is about to enter college at 13 years old. Boarding at a house near campus 150 miles from home, Ru meets 17-year-old Gabriel, an outsider himself who, like Ru, has trouble making friends --- until they form a fast sibling-like bond. Finding a relatable someone in the world to talk to is a first for both of them. But when Ru’s mother dies and the threat of living with her miserable aunt looms, Ru hatches an escape. It’s an impulsive road trip that takes Ru and Gabriel from California to Canada, where Ru can fulfill her ultimate dream: to see Atlantic puffins in the glorious wild. Mile by mile, Ru discovers the joy of friendship, found family, dark night skies and the aurora borealis, and she basks in going from being a smart person to just a person.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662504433
LIQUID, FRAGILE, PERISHABLE by Carolyn Kuebler (Fiction)
Paperback Original
May has arrived in the tiny hamlet of Glenville, Vermont, bringing with it currents of rejuvenation and rebirth. For three families, though, the year ahead will prove to be a roller coaster of life-changing events, promises and tragedies. LIQUID, FRAGILE, PERISHABLE unspools via a chorus of unforgettable voices: an old-school Christian beekeeping family and newly transplanted New Yorkers; a trio of teenage girls and a deeply rooted family of ne’er-do-wells; and one woman who just wants to live alone in the woods. The shifting set of relations among the citizens of this community encompasses teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, poverty --- and a cavalcade of thwarted dreams, young love in bloom and poignant missed connections.
Melville House | 9781685891091
LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE by Terah Shelton Harris (Fiction)
Paperback Original
All four Solomon siblings must return to North Carolina to save the Kingdom, their ancestral home and 200 acres of land, from a development company that has their sights set on turning the valuable waterfront property into a luxury resort. The siblings also must save themselves from the secrets they've been holding onto. Junior, who is married to his wife for 11 years, is secretly in love with another man. Mance can't control his temper, which has landed him in prison more than once. CeCe, a lawyer, has embezzled thousands of dollars from her firm's clients. Tokey wonders why she doesn't seem to fit into this family, which has left an aching hole in her heart that she tries to fill in harmful ways. As the Solomons come together to fight for the Kingdom, each of their façades begins to crumble and collide in unexpected ways.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728265773
THE LOVER by Bee Sacks (Fiction)
The story of Allison and Eyal unfolds primarily in Tel Aviv where Allie, a thoughtful and intelligent academic searching for a sense of where she belongs in the world, falls deeply and unexpectedly in love with a young Israeli doing his military service. Their love story is filled with pleasure, longing, fear, moments of deep connection, failures of communication, and ultimately, a quiet and devastating betrayal. When he is away on military missions, they write love letters; when he returns home for weekends, they are inseparable. Allie is embraced by Eyal’s family, and their acceptance is very important to her. But when Eyal returns home from an invasion of Gaza, to which he has a surprising emotional response, Allie has changed so radically that her betrayal of her lover feels both shocking and tragic.
Harper Perennial | 9780063284241
THE MARRIAGE ACT by John Marrs (Dystopian Thriller)
Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills --- the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single. But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives --- monitoring every word, every minor disagreement…and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honor and obey.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335012548
THE MIDNIGHT NEWS by Jo Baker (Historical Fiction)
It is 1940, and 20-year-old Charlotte Richmond watches from her attic window as enemy planes fly over London. Still grieving her beloved brother, who never returned from France, she is trying to keep herself out of trouble: holding down a typist job at the Ministry of Information, sharing gin and confidences with her best friend, Elena, and dodging her overbearing father. On her way to work, she often sees the boy who feeds the birds --- a source of unexpected joy amid the rubble of the Blitz. But every day brings new scenes of devastation, and after yet another heartbreaking loss, Charlotte has an uncanny sense of foreboding. Someone is stalking the darkness, targeting her friends. And now he’s following her. As grief and suspicion consume her, Charlotte’s nerves become increasingly frayed.
Vintage | 9780593468265
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 Griffin | 9781250320834
ON HER WATCH by Melinda Leigh (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
A pair of hikers find a tarp-wrapped body in a clearing in the woods. When a search in the surrounding area yields two more, Sheriff Bree Taggert knows they’ve stumbled onto a serial killer’s dumping ground. With the help of investigator Matt Flynn, Bree works the case. They go to interview Jana, the best friend of one of the victims. But when they arrive at her apartment, it’s been ransacked and set on fire. And Jana is missing. It’s clear the killer is escalating. To make matters worse, he threatens Bree’s family and a young mother vanishes. Will Bree and Matt uncover the link between the victims before more women die?
Montlake | 9781542038690
PAGEBOY: A Memoir by Elliot Page (Memoir)
“Can I kiss you?” It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back. With Juno’s massive success, Elliot became one of the world’s most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent. Until enough was enough.
Flatiron Books | 9781250878373
PAPER NAMES by Susie Luo (Fiction)
Set in New York and China over three decades, PAPER NAMES explores what it means to be American from three different perspectives. There’s Tony, a Chinese-born engineer turned Manhattan doorman, who immigrated to the United States to give his family a better life. His daughter, Tammy, who we meet at age nine and follow through adulthood, grapples with the expectations of a first-generation American and her own personal desires. Finally, there’s Oliver, a handsome white lawyer with a dark family secret who lives in the building where Tony works. A violent attack causes their lives to intertwine in ways that will change them forever.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335012401
THE PARIS DAUGHTER by Kristin Harmel (Historical Fiction)
Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change. When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life --- her young daughter, playmate to Juliette’s own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette’s Librairie des Rêves. When a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette’s world is destroyed along with it. When the war finally ends, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend’s bookstore reduced to rubble --- and Juliette nowhere to be found.
Gallery Books | 9781982191719
THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS by Vajra Chandrasekera (Urban Fantasy)
Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. He walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen. Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.
Tordotcom | 9781250847409
THE STELLAR DEBUT OF GALACTICA MacFEE: A 44 Scotland Street Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
Angus Lordie is approached in the park by a shadowy, Deep Throat-like figure with government secrets to share, who mistakes him for a journalist. Now Angus is privy to some controversial plans of the Scottish Parliament. But just what is he meant to do about it? Elsewhere, Big Lou’s husband, Bob, hires a personal trainer who changes his entire outlook on life, much to Lou’s dismay. At the schoolhouse, young Bertie Pollock’s class has a new ringleader, Galactica MacFee, who quickly comes between Bertie and Olive. All this proves too much for Bertie to bear, and he flees to Glasgow with best friend Ranald Braveheart MacPherson in tow. And the indomitable Irene again finds herself in Edinburgh...and it looks like there might be romance in the air.
Vintage | 9780593688298
THE SUMMER OF 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West by Chris Wimmer (History)
The summer of 1876 was a key time period in the development of the mythology of the Old West. Many individuals who are considered legends by modern readers were involved in events that began their notoriety or turned out to be the most famous --- or infamous --- moments of their lives. Those individuals were Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok and Jesse James. THE SUMMER OF 1876 weaves together the timelines of the events that made these men legends to demonstrate the overlapping context of their stories and to illustrate the historical importance of that summer, all layered with highlights of significant milestones in 1876.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250843470
SUMMER STAGE by Meg Mitchell Moore (Fiction)
Amy Trevino, a high school teacher and occasional theater director, has stayed close to her Rhode Island hometown, while her famous brother, Timothy, pursued and achieved his Hollywood dreams. When Timothy returns to Block Island to direct a summer play, Amy agrees to be the production manager in an effort to mend rifting family relationships. Sam, Amy’s daughter, was a Disney child star who continued her pursuit for fame in a Manhattan TikTok house. Now she also has returned home unexpectedly but refuses to open up to her mother, deciding instead to live with her uncle for the summer. As they work together to ensure the production is a success, Amy, Sam and Timothy are forced to grapple with their desires for recognition and fortune, stand up for what they believe art and fame actually mean, and discover what they really want out of life.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063026179
TELL ME EVERYTHING: A Memoir by Minka Kelly (Memoir)
Fans know her as the spoiled, rich cheerleader Lyla Garrity on “Friday Night Lights” or as the affluent, mysterious Samantha on the HBO megahit “Euphoria.” But as revealed for the first time in these pages, Minka Kelly’s life has been anything but easy. Raised by a single mother who worked as a stripper and struggled with addiction, Minka spent years waking up in strange apartments as she and her mom bounced around the country, relying on friends and relatives to take them in. She reconnected with her father, Aerosmith’s Rick Dufay, and eventually made her way to Los Angeles, where she landed the role of a lifetime on “Friday Night Lights.” Now an established actress and philanthropist, Minka takes this next step in her career as a writer.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250339454
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 Perennial | 9780063238527
THE WHISPERS by Ashley Audrain (Domestic Thriller)
On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighborhood couples and their children gather for a catered barbecue as the summer winds down. Drinks continue late into the night. Everything is fabulous until the picture-perfect hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. Everyone at the party hears her exquisite veneer crack --- loud and clear. Before long, that same young boy falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night. And then, his mother can only sit by his hospital bed, where she refuses to speak to anyone, and his life hangs in the balance. What happens next, over the course of a tense three days, as each of these women grapple with what led to that terrible night?
Penguin Books | 9781984881717
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