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December 5, 2023

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of December 4th and December 11th 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 December, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, Reese's Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and more.

Signal Fires Book Group Event

RGG Speed Dating November 2023 Event

Jillian Cantor, author of The Fiction Writer

The once-rising literary star Olivia Fitzgerald is down on her luck. Her most recent novel --- a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s REBECCA --- was a flop, her boyfriend of nine years just dumped her, and she’s battling a bad case of writer’s block. So when her agent calls her with a high-paying ghostwriting opportunity, Olivia is all too willing to sign the NDA. At first, the write-for-hire job seems too good to be true. All she has to do is interview Henry “Ash” Asherwood, a reclusive mega billionaire, twice named People’s Sexiest Man Alive, who wants her help in writing a book that reveals a shocking secret about his late grandmother and Daphne du Maurier. But when Olivia arrives at his Malibu estate, nothing is as it seems --- and before she knows it, she’s trapped in a gothic mystery of her own.

Sigrid Nunez, author of The Vulnerables

Elegy plus comedy is the only way to express how we live in the world today, says a character in Sigrid Nunez’s ninth novel. THE VULNERABLES offers a meditation on our contemporary era, as a solitary female narrator asks what it means to be alive at this complex moment in history and considers how our present reality affects the way a person looks back on her past. Humor, to be sure, is a priceless refuge. Equally vital is connection with others, who here include an adrift member of Gen Z and a spirited parrot named Eureka. This book reveals what happens when strangers are willing to open their hearts to each other and how far even small acts of caring can go to ease another’s distress.

Jeffery Deaver, author of The Watchmaker's Hand: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel

When a New York City construction crane mysteriously collapses, causing mass destruction and injury, forensic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme and detective Amelia Sachs are on the case. A political group claims responsibility for the sabotage and threatens another attack in 24 hours, unless its demands are met. Then a clue reveals to Rhyme that his nemesis, known as the Watchmaker, has come to town to fulfill his promise of murdering the criminalist. Now Rhyme and Sachs have to dodge his brilliant scheme to destroy them both, while racing against time to stop the construction site terrorists. With New York in a panic, Rhyme and his team must unravel a handful of plots as tightly wound as a timepiece --- before more cranes fall, raining down death and destruction from above.

Lauren Grodstein, author of We Must Not Think of Ourselves

In November 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of the city are cut off from their former lives and held captive by Nazi guards. Weeks later, he is approached by a mysterious figure with a surprising request: Will he join a secret group of archivists working to preserve the truth of what is happening inside these walls? Adam agrees and begins taking testimonies from his students, friends and neighbors. One of the people Adam interviews is his flatmate Sala Wiskoff, who is married with two children. Over the months of their confinement, in the presence of her family, Adam and Sala fall in love. But when Adam discovers a possible escape from the Ghetto, he is faced with an unbearable choice: Whom can he save, and at what cost?

Nita Prose, author of The Mystery Guest: A Maid Novel

With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, Molly Gray has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J. D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead on the hotel’s tearoom floor. When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know: Who killed J. D. Grimthorpe? As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows that she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago she knew J. D. Grimthorpe.

Editorial Content for The Future

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

What exactly is the distinction between utopia and dystopia? What is the line between deception and protection? Is it possible to destroy the world to save it? And is it right to destroy a wicked and doomed world if there are 50 righteous people in it? What if there is just one? Naomi Alderman’s thrilling new novel, THE FUTURE, explores these themes, adding a healthy dose of high tech and more than a splash of romance. Read More

Teaser

When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. If the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon are starting to come true, how much future is actually left? Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, an internet-famous survivalist named Lai Zhen flees from an assassin. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future? Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion.

Promo

When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. If the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon are starting to come true, how much future is actually left? Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, an internet-famous survivalist named Lai Zhen flees from an assassin. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future? Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion.

About the Book

The bestselling, award-winning author of THE POWER delivers a dazzling tour de force where a handful of friends plot a daring heist to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know it.

When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. Now, she’s surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics and covert weaponry, while spouting technological prophecy. Martha may have left the cult, but if the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon --- once a parable to her --- are starting to come true, how much future is actually left?

Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin. She’s cornered, desperate and --- worst of all --- might die without ever knowing what's going on. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future?

Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha’s relentless drive and Zhen’s insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful or the cataclysmic end of civilization.

By turns “playful, incisive, horribly relevant, and surprisingly hopeful” (Lauren Beukes, New York Times bestselling author of THE SHINING GIRLS), THE FUTURE unfolds at breakneck speed, highlighting how power corrupts the few who have it and what it means to stand up to them. The future is coming. The Future is here.

Audiobook available, read by a full cast with the author

Editorial Content for The Last Outlaws: The Desperate Final Days of the Dalton Gang

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Stuart Shiffman

I visit Tucson, Arizona, every March for the Tucson Festival of Books, a wonderful two-day extravaganza of books and authors. The discussions range far and wide, but one subject I always enjoy exploring is the history of the American West. Studying the West requires separating heroes from villains and myth from reality. But it is genuinely an important aspect of American culture as it continues to influence much of our contemporary life. Read More

Teaser

The dreaded Dalton Gang consisted of three brothers and their rotating cast of colorful accomplices who saw themselves as descended from the legendary James brothers. They soon became legends themselves, beginning their career as common horse thieves before graduating to robbing banks and trains. On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang attempted their boldest and bloodiest raid yet: robbing two banks in broad daylight in Coffeyville, Kansas, simultaneously. For the first time ever, the full story of the Dalton Gang's life of crime, culminating in one of the Wild West’s most violent events, are chronicled in detail --- a last gruesome gasp of the age of gunfights.

Promo

The dreaded Dalton Gang consisted of three brothers and their rotating cast of colorful accomplices who saw themselves as descended from the legendary James brothers. They soon became legends themselves, beginning their career as common horse thieves before graduating to robbing banks and trains. On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang attempted their boldest and bloodiest raid yet: robbing two banks in broad daylight in Coffeyville, Kansas, simultaneously. For the first time ever, the full story of the Dalton Gang's life of crime, culminating in one of the Wild West’s most violent events, are chronicled in detail --- a last gruesome gasp of the age of gunfights.

About the Book

The definitive account of the Dalton Gang and the most brazen bank heist in history, by the multiple New York Times bestselling author.

THE LAST OUTLAWS is the thrilling true story of the last of one of the greatest outlaw gang. The dreaded Dalton Gang consisted of three brothers and their rotating cast of colorful accomplices who saw themselves as descended from the legendary James brothers. They soon became legends themselves, beginning their career as common horse thieves before graduating to robbing banks and trains.

On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang attempted their boldest and bloodiest raid yet: robbing two banks in broad daylight in Coffeyville, Kansas, simultaneously. As Grat, Bob, and Emmett Dalton and Bill Power and Dick Broadwell crossed the plaza to enter the two buildings, the outlaws were recognized by townspeople, who raised the alarm. Citizens armed themselves with shotguns and six-shooters from nearby hardware stores and were locked and loaded when the thieves emerged from the banks. The ensuing gun battle was a lead-filled firefight of epic proportions. As the smoke cleared, eight men lay dead --- including four of the five members of the doomed Dalton Gang.

For the first time ever, the full story of the Dalton Gang's life of crime, culminating in one of the Wild West’s most violent events, are chronicled in detail --- a last gruesome gasp of the age of gunfights.

Audiobook available, read by George Newbern