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David Mitchell, author of Slade House

Down the road from a working-class British pub, along the brick wall of a narrow alley, if the conditions are exactly right, you’ll find the entrance to Slade House. A stranger will greet you by name and invite you inside. At first, you won’t want to leave. Later, you’ll find that you can’t. Every nine years, the house’s residents --- an odd brother and sister --- extend a unique invitation to someone who’s different or lonely. But what really goes on inside Slade House? For those who find out, it’s already too late.

Elizabeth George, author of A Banquet of Consequences: A Lynley Novel

As Inspector Thomas Lynley investigates the London angle of an ever more darkly disturbing case, his partner, Barbara Havers, is looking behind the peaceful façade of country life to discover a twisted world of desire and deceit. The suicide of William Goldacre is devastating to those left behind who will have to deal with its unintended consequences. Could there be a link between the young man’s leap from a Dorset cliff and a horrific poisoning in Cambridge?

November 2015

In paperback titles this month, we have INKBLOT by Rebecca Langston-George, which shares examples and prompts for four creative writing genres; THE ROOKIE BOOKIE by L. Jon Wertheim and Tobias J.

Patricia Cornwell, author of Depraved Heart: A Scarpetta Novel

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece Lucy. But how can it be? It’s clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost 20 years ago. The diabolical presence behind what unfolds seems obvious --- but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that’s the message they send when they raid Lucy’s estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life.

November 2015

This month’s cool and new roundup includes WINTER, the conclusion to Marissa Meyer’s bestselling fantasy series that adds a futuristic, robotic twist to classic fairytales; DA VINCI’S TIGER by L. M.

Editorial Content for My Life on the Road

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Maya Gittelman

Gloria Steinem’s MY LIFE ON THE ROAD traces her life’s journey and, with it, a timeline of the Women’s Rights Movement in America. A frontrunner of the movement, Steinem’s peripatetic life lends itself beautifully to a memoir interwoven with the emerging revelations of intersectional feminism. Read More

Teaser


Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. Every fall, her father would pack the family into the car and they would drive across the country, in search of their next adventure. Steinem would spend much of her life on the road, as a journalist, organizer, activist and speaker. In vivid stories that span an entire career, Steinem writes about her time on the campaign trail; her early exposure to social activism in India; organizing ground-up movements in America; and the infinite contrasts, the “surrealism in everyday life” that Steinem encountered as she traveled back and forth across the country.

Promo

Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. Every fall, her father would pack the family into the car and they would drive across the country, in search of their next adventure. Steinem would spend much of her life on the road, as a journalist, organizer, activist and speaker. In vivid stories that span an entire career, Steinem writes about her time on the campaign trail; her early exposure to social activism in India; organizing ground-up movements in America; and the infinite contrasts, the “surrealism in everyday life” that Steinem encountered as she traveled back and forth across the country.

About the Book

Gloria Steinem --- writer, activist, organizer and inspiring leader --- now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of her life as a traveler, a listener and a catalyst for change. Includes “Secrets,” a new chapter!

When people ask me why I still have hope and energy after all these years, I always say: Because I travel. Taking to the road --- by which I mean letting the road take you --- changed who I thought I was. The road is messy in the way that real life is messy. It leads us out of denial and into reality, out of theory and into practice, out of caution and into action, out of statistics and into stories --- in short, out of our heads and into our hearts.

Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. When she was a young girl, her father would pack the family in the car every fall and drive across country searching for adventure and trying to make a living. The seeds were planted: Gloria realized that growing up didn’t have to mean settling down. And so began a lifetime of travel, of activism and leadership, of listening to people whose voices and ideas would inspire change and revolution.

MY LIFE ON THE ROAD is the moving, funny and profound story of Gloria’s growth and also the growth of a revolutionary movement for equality --- and the story of how surprising encounters on the road shaped both. From her first experience of social activism among women in India to her work as a journalist in the 1960s; from the whirlwind of political campaigns to the founding of Ms. magazine; from the historic 1977 National Women’s Conference to her travels through Indian Country --- a lifetime spent on the road allowed Gloria to listen and connect deeply with people, to understand that context is everything, and to become part of a movement that would change the world.

In prose that is revealing and rich, Gloria reminds us that living in an open, observant, and “on the road” state of mind can make a difference in how we learn, what we do, and how we understand each other.

Editorial Content for The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (16)

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Amie Taylor

At the urging of her friends, family and co-workers, Precious Ramotswe, the owner of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, decides to take her first vacation ever since she opened the establishment that's done so much good in sorting out the muddled affairs of others. Instead of looking forward to her holiday with glee, however, she is apprehensive about leaving her business in the hands of Mma Makutsi, her co-director, and concerned about how she will occupy herself when she can't go to work. After all, Mma Ramotswe is happiest when she's helping others. Read More

Teaser

Business is slow at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency --- so slow, in fact, that for the first time in her estimable career, Precious Ramotswe has reluctantly agreed to take a holiday. The promise of a week of uninterrupted peace is short-lived, however, when she meets a young boy named Samuel, a troublemaker who is in some trouble himself. Once she learns more about Samuel’s sad story, Mma Ramotswe feels compelled to step in and help him find his way out of a bad situation.

Promo

Business is slow at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency --- so slow, in fact, that for the first time in her estimable career, Precious Ramotswe has reluctantly agreed to take a holiday. The promise of a week of uninterrupted peace is short-lived, however, when she meets a young boy named Samuel, a troublemaker who is in some trouble himself. Once she learns more about Samuel’s sad story, Mma Ramotswe feels compelled to step in and help him find his way out of a bad situation.

About the Book

In this latest installment of the beloved and bestselling series, Mma Ramotswe must contend with her greatest challenge yet --- a vacation!
 
Business is slow at the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, so slow in fact that for the first time in her estimable career Precious Ramotswe has reluctantly agreed to take a holiday. The promise of a week of uninterrupted peace is short-lived, however, when she meets a young boy named Samuel, a troublemaker who is himself in some trouble. Once she learns more about Samuel’s sad story, Mma Ramotswe feels compelled to step in and help him find his way out of a bad situation.
 
Despite this unexpected diversion, Mma Ramotswe still finds herself concerned about how the agency is faring in her absence. Her worries grow when she hears that Mma Makutsi is handling a new and rather complicated case. A well-respected Botswanan politician is up for a major public honor, and his reputation is now being called into question by his rivals. The man’s daughter has contacted the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency to investigate these troubling claims, but, as in so many cases, all is not as it seems. In the end, the investigation will affect everyone at the agency and will also serve as a reminder that ordinary human failings should be treated with a large helping of charity and compassion.

Editorial Content for Find a Way

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Miriam Tuliao

“Take every minute, one at a time. Don’t be fooled by a perfect sea at any given moment. Accept and rise to whatever circumstance presents itself. Be in it full tilt, your best self. Summon your courage, your true grit. When the body fades, don’t let negative edges of despair creep in. Allowing flecks of negativity leads to a Pandora’s box syndrome. You can’t stop the doubts once you consent to let them seep into your tired, weakened brain. You must set your will. Set it now. Let nothing penetrate or cripple it.” Read More

Teaser

When Diana Nyad arrived on the shore of Key West after 53 hours of grueling swimming across an epic ocean, she not only set a world record --- becoming the first person to swim the shark-infested waters between Cuba and Florida with no cage for protection --- she also succeeded in fulfilling a dream she first chased at age 28 and at long last achieved when she was 64. Now, in a riveting memoir, Diana shares a spirited account of what it takes to face one’s fears, engage one’s passions, and never ever give up.

Promo

When Diana Nyad arrived on the shore of Key West after 53 hours of grueling swimming across an epic ocean, she not only set a world record --- becoming the first person to swim the shark-infested waters between Cuba and Florida with no cage for protection --- she also succeeded in fulfilling a dream she first chased at age 28 and at long last achieved when she was 64. Now, in a riveting memoir, Diana shares a spirited account of what it takes to face one’s fears, engage one’s passions, and never ever give up.

About the Book

When Diana Nyad arrived on the shore of Key West after 53 hours of grueling swimming across an epic ocean, she not only set a world record --- becoming the first person to swim the shark-infested waters between Cuba and Florida with no cage for protection --- she also succeeded in fulfilling a dream she first chased at age 28 and at long last achieved when she was 64.  

Now, in a riveting memoir, Diana shares a spirited account of what it takes to face one’s fears, engage one’s passions, and never ever give up. For no matter what life may throw at you, or how many times you may have experienced defeat, it is always possible --- as long as you commit to living life to the nth degree, no regrets --- to “find a way."

Editorial Content for Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Stuart Shiffman

The comedian Dick Gregory once pointed out, “We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn't think it was fair in the history books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre.” George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were our nation’s most noteworthy example of Gregory’s observation. In late June 1876, five of the 12 companies of Custer’s total forces were destroyed on the battlefield commemorated as Little Bighorn. Read More

Teaser

T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Gen. George Armstrong Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a volatile, contradictory, intense person --- capable yet insecure, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (he was court-martialed twice in six years).

Promo

T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Gen. George Armstrong Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a volatile, contradictory, intense person --- capable yet insecure, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (he was court-martialed twice in six years).

About the Book

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History

In this magisterial biography, T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a capable yet insecure man, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (court-martialed twice in six years) and the new corporate economy, a wartime emancipator who rejected racial equality. Stiles argues that, although Custer was justly noted for his exploits on the western frontier, he also played a central role as both a wide-ranging participant and polarizing public figure in his extraordinary, transformational time --- a time of civil war, emancipation, brutality toward Native Americans, and, finally, the Industrial Revolution --- even as he became one of its casualties.

Intimate, dramatic and provocative, this biography captures the larger story of the changing nation. It casts surprising new light on one of the best-known figures of American history, a subject of seemingly endless fascination.

Editorial Content for Sweet Caress

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Amory Clay, a British photographer, was born in 1908 and died in 1983 at her own hand. During her 75 years of life, she overcame many obstacles --- from a maniacally oppressive father to extreme male chauvinism in a field traditionally dominated by men.

It's no wonder that Amory chose a profession that would force her to butt heads with the opposite sex to make a name for herself. Her life started with a controversial birth whereby her given name of Amory, albeit an androgynous one, was selected by her father, who insisted she was a boy. Read More

Teaser

When Amory Clay was born, her disappointed father gave her an androgynous name and announced the birth of a son. But this daughter was not one to let others define her; Amory became a woman who accepted no limits to what that could mean, and, from the time she picked up her first camera, one who would record her own version of events. Moving freely between London and New York, between photojournalism and fashion photography, and between the men who love her on complicated terms, Amory establishes her reputation as a risk taker and a passionate life traveler.

Promo

When Amory Clay was born, her disappointed father gave her an androgynous name and announced the birth of a son. But this daughter was not one to let others define her; Amory became a woman who accepted no limits to what that could mean, and, from the time she picked up her first camera, one who would record her own version of events. Moving freely between London and New York, between photojournalism and fashion photography, and between the men who love her on complicated terms, Amory establishes her reputation as a risk taker and a passionate life traveler.

About the Book

When Amory Clay was born, in the decade before the Great War, her disappointed father gave her an androgynous name and announced the birth of a son. But this daughter was not one to let others define her; Amory became a woman who accepted no limits to what that could mean, and, from the time she picked up her first camera, one who would record her own version of events.

Moving freely between London and New York, between photojournalism and fashion photography, and between the men who love her on complicated terms, Amory establishes her reputation as a risk taker and a passionate life traveler. Her hunger for experience draws her to the decadence of Weimar Berlin and the violence of London's blackshirt riots, to the Rhineland with Allied troops and into the political tangle of war-torn Vietnam. In her ambitious career, the seminal moments of the 20th century will become the unforgettable moments of her own biography, as well.

In SWEET CARESS, Amory Clay comes wondrously to life, her vibrant personality enveloping the reader from the start. And, running through the novel, her photographs over the decades allow us to experience this vast story not only with Amory's voice but with her vision. William Boyd's SWEET CARESS captures an entire lifetime unforgettably within its pages. It captivates.