Editorial Content for An Ordinary Sort of Evil: A Rip Through Time Novel
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
AN ORDINARY SORT OF EVIL is the gripping and engaging fifth book in Kelley Armstrong’s Rip Through Time series. Mallory Mitchell (Atkinson) is the first-person narrator, which helps us understand her thoughts as she recognizes the necessity of behaving like a 19th-century housemaid-turned-assistant, even though she's really a 21st-century homicide detective. Read More
Teaser
Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Mitchell has grown accustomed to life in Victorian Scotland after traveling 150 years into the past into the body of a housemaid. Even though she works as an assistant to forensic-science pioneer Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie, she considers them true friends. Late one night, Gray and Mallory are summoned urgently to the home of Lady Adler, a patron of Gray’s undertaking business. They arrive in the midst of a seance with a ghost demanding Gray's presence. The ghost is Lady Adler's former maid, who had gone missing but now requests that Gray investigate her murder. Unsure if there's been a murder or not, Gray and Mallory are once again drawn into a mystery much more puzzling --- and more dangerous --- than it first seems.
Promo
Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Mitchell has grown accustomed to life in Victorian Scotland after traveling 150 years into the past into the body of a housemaid. Even though she works as an assistant to forensic-science pioneer Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie, she considers them true friends. Late one night, Gray and Mallory are summoned urgently to the home of Lady Adler, a patron of Gray’s undertaking business. They arrive in the midst of a seance with a ghost demanding Gray's presence. The ghost is Lady Adler's former maid, who had gone missing but now requests that Gray investigate her murder. Unsure if there's been a murder or not, Gray and Mallory are once again drawn into a mystery much more puzzling --- and more dangerous --- than it first seems.
About the Book
New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong returns to Victorian Scotland in the latest in the genre-blending Rip Through Time series.
Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Mitchell has grown accustomed to life in Victorian Scotland after travelling 150 years into the past into the body of a housemaid. She’s built a new life for herself. Even though she works as an assistant to forensic-science pioneer Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie, she considers them true friends. And with Gray in particular, perhaps, someday, something more.
Late one night, Gray and Mallory are summoned urgently to the home of Lady Adler, a patron of Gray’s undertaking business, and they assume there's been a death in the household. But instead, they arrive in the midst of a seance with a ghost demanding Gray's presence. The ghost is Lady Adler's former maid, who had gone missing but now requests that Gray investigate her murder. Although Gray and Mallory are skeptical, they agree to look into the matter, whether she's dead or alive.
But unsure if there's been a murder or not, unable to call out the medium as a fraud and concerned for the fate of the young maid, Gray and Mallory are once again drawn into a mystery much more puzzling --- and more dangerous --- than it first seems.
Audiobook available, read by Kate Handford
Editorial Content for A Course Called Home: Adventures of an Accidental Golf Course Owner
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Many people have a vision of golf that’s shaped by what they see when they watch CBS's reverential coverage of The Masters each spring and luxuriate in a vision of the azaleas, dogwoods, and meticulously manicured fairways and greens of the ultra private Augusta National Golf Club. But the world in which most golfers reside couldn’t bear less resemblance to the pristine beauty and privilege of that iconic course. Read More
Teaser
Tom Coyne, the New York Times bestselling author of A COURSE CALLED AMERICA and numerous other contemporary classics of golf literature, has spent his career traveling the world and playing legendary courses from St. Andrews to Shinnecock. One day, at the urging of a course superintendent who is hoping to save his local nine-hole gem from shuttering just shy of its 100th anniversary, Coyne pays a visit to Sullivan County Golf & Country Club in upstate New York. When he arrives, the course is buried under ice and snow, and what he can see of the clubhouse is falling apart. By the time he leaves, all he can see is his next adventure: discovering how owning a course is vastly different from playing one.
Promo
Tom Coyne, the New York Times bestselling author of A COURSE CALLED AMERICA and numerous other contemporary classics of golf literature, has spent his career traveling the world and playing legendary courses from St. Andrews to Shinnecock. One day, at the urging of a course superintendent who is hoping to save his local nine-hole gem from shuttering just shy of its 100th anniversary, Coyne pays a visit to Sullivan County Golf & Country Club in upstate New York. When he arrives, the course is buried under ice and snow, and what he can see of the clubhouse is falling apart. By the time he leaves, all he can see is his next adventure: discovering how owning a course is vastly different from playing one.
About the Book
Globe-trotting golf writer Tom Coyne is ready to put down roots.
For a fanatic like Coyne, that means living out every golfer’s dream --- or nightmare? --- and buying his very own golf course.
It also involves Bill Murray and Jason Kelce, for some reason.
Tom Coyne, the New York Times bestselling author of A COURSE CALLED AMERICA and numerous other contemporary classics of golf literature, has spent his career traveling the world and playing legendary courses from St. Andrews to Shinnecock. One day, at the urging of a course superintendent who is hoping to save his local nine-hole gem from shuttering just shy of its 100th anniversary, Coyne pays a visit to Sullivan County Golf & Country Club in upstate New York. When he arrives, the course is buried under ice and snow, and what he can see of the clubhouse is falling apart. By the time he leaves, all he can see is his next adventure: discovering how owning a course is vastly different from playing one.
A COURSE CALLED HOME is Coyne’s most personal and profound book yet: a heartfelt and often humorous chronicle of restoration, resilience and finding purpose in unexpected places. It’s a story about digging in --- literally and figuratively --- as Coyne trades tee times for mower hours, learning how to contour a fairway, water a green, and revive a course rich in history but fading from memory.
The Sullivan golf community that Coyne joins is unlike the pristine, manicured version of the game you see on TV, played by millionaires in matching polos. The course is run by a tight-knit crew of groundskeepers who work long hours --- not for prestige but for pride. It’s frequented by lifelong regulars who pay in cash and play in jeans, and it’s welcoming to visitors and first-timers who quickly become part of the fold. Sullivan’s crew becomes more like a family, united in their affection for this scrappy, enduring place. Yet decades of declining tourism and economic downturn have left the club struggling to survive, and fighting for its future will require an unprecedented team effort.
Coyne rallies the golfing faithful to uplift this course that represents how the game can bring generations together. Players from around the world answer the call, purchasing memberships for a tiny Catskills course they may never visit. Companies offer steeply discounted mowers and carts. Friends swoop in to help dig bunkers, plant flowers and cut holes. And, yes, some of those helpful friends have names like Bill Murray, Jason Kelce and Mike Madden.
In the tradition of his beloved golf travel trilogy, Coyne again taps into what makes the game timeless and transformative. But this round, he doesn’t have to travel far: just down the road from Woodstock, to a century-old nine-holer that embraces all comers. A COURSE CALLED HOME is a love letter to golf, to community, and to the places that still matter.
Audiobook available, read by Jacques Roy
Editorial Content for The Rolling Stones: The Biography
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Bob Spitz has produced the definitive book on The Rolling Stones. THE ROLLING STONES: THE BIOGRAPHY is a 600+ page telling of the truly wild story of the musical group that was in trouble more often than not but managed to become one of the greatest live bands of all time. Even to this day, the Stones are kicking it on stages all across the world. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have survived a lot of otherworldly experiences, despite many attempts to take them down. Read More
Teaser
All great music is a threat. What left is there to say about The Rolling Stones? A hell of a lot, it turns out. Bob Spitz has brought his indefatigable energy and five decades of experiences in the fields and hollows of rock 'n’ roll to bear on his five-year journey to reexamine one of popular music’s greatest stories. There are myriad revisions to the conventional narrative that underscore just how in control of that narrative the band has been up to now. But, as with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, Spitz’s greatest gift is for the big picture. He knows where the magic is, and why it is. He is as clear-eyed a connoisseur of the show business, the spectacle and the collateral damage of this whirlwind as anyone alive. But the ultimate goal is to connect with a creative force whose power shows no signs of fading, over 60 years on.
Promo
All great music is a threat. What left is there to say about The Rolling Stones? A hell of a lot, it turns out. Bob Spitz has brought his indefatigable energy and five decades of experiences in the fields and hollows of rock 'n’ roll to bear on his five-year journey to reexamine one of popular music’s greatest stories. There are myriad revisions to the conventional narrative that underscore just how in control of that narrative the band has been up to now. But, as with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, Spitz’s greatest gift is for the big picture. He knows where the magic is, and why it is. He is as clear-eyed a connoisseur of the show business, the spectacle and the collateral damage of this whirlwind as anyone alive. But the ultimate goal is to connect with a creative force whose power shows no signs of fading, over 60 years on.
About the Book
From the award-winning, bestselling author of classic histories of the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, a groundbreaking reckoning with the world’s greatest rock 'n' roll band.
All great music is a threat.
What left is there to say about The Rolling Stones? A hell of a lot, it turns out.
Bob Spitz has brought his indefatigable energy and five decades of experiences in the fields and hollows of rock 'n’ roll to bear on his five-year journey to reexamine one of popular music’s greatest stories. There are myriad revisions to the conventional narrative that underscore just how in control of that narrative the band has been up to now. Small example: no, Muddy Waters was not mopping the floors at Chess Records when the Stones showed up.
But in a larger sense, as with the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, Spitz’s greatest gift is for the big picture. He knows where the magic is, and why it is. He is as clear-eyed a connoisseur of the show business, the spectacle and the collateral damage of this whirlwind as anyone alive, and that lucid gaze pierces a lot of incrusted bullshit. But the ultimate goal is to connect with a creative force whose power shows no signs of fading, over 60 years on.
At its heart the story is about two boys, Mick and Keith, and their unique, fraught, alchemical bond, often tested, never sundered. The Glimmer Twins. The bandmates, like Charlie Watts, who found their groove in relation to this double star made the trip intact, while those who struggled, like Brian Jones and Mick Taylor, were chewed up and spit out. This is a story with many dark corners, including a surprising number of deaths. But whether Jagger and Richards sold their souls to the devil is at the crossroads for blues greatness or just squeezed their heroes for every drop of inspiration, in the end their connection to their music and to each other put them in a category of one, where they very much remain.
Audiobook available, read by MacLeod Andrews
Editorial Content for The Visionaries: Bretton Woods, the Marshall Plan, and the Making of the Post-World War II Order
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
James Holland may not be familiar to many American readers. In addition to writing numerous World War II histories, Holland hosts (along with British comedian Al Murray) “We Have Ways of Making You Talk,” a WWII podcast that boasts an audience of more than two million in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States. Clearly he knows his subject. Read More
Teaser
James Holland’s deep knowledge of WWII gives him unique insight and appreciation for its historic aftermath. THE VISIONARIES chronicles the prelude to the Marshall Plan --- from Franklin Roosevelt’s historic “four freedoms” speech and “Good Neighbor Policy” towards Central and South America to the landmark Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944, which established the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, pillars of world stability. But it was Truman who pushed for the Marshall Plan, which in 1948 kickstarted via economic assistance the fastest period of growth in European history. However, Holland warns that we in the West have become complacent, less willing to safeguard the freedoms that extended prosperity has allowed.
Promo
James Holland’s deep knowledge of WWII gives him unique insight and appreciation for its historic aftermath. THE VISIONARIES chronicles the prelude to the Marshall Plan --- from Franklin Roosevelt’s historic “four freedoms” speech and “Good Neighbor Policy” towards Central and South America to the landmark Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944, which established the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, pillars of world stability. But it was Truman who pushed for the Marshall Plan, which in 1948 kickstarted via economic assistance the fastest period of growth in European history. However, Holland warns that we in the West have become complacent, less willing to safeguard the freedoms that extended prosperity has allowed.
About the Book
From the preeminent WWII historian, an ardent chronicle of the unprecedented and far-sighted U.S. postwar decision to aid its enemies as well as its allies via the Marshall Plan, which led to eight decades of peace and prosperity in the West that could be upended in an “America First” environment.
On March 12, 1947, less than two years after the end of World War II, President Harry S. Truman gave a seminal speech before Congress, in response to a European crisis: Greece was facing economic collapse and encroaching Soviet ambition, and Truman felt the U.S. had to give financial aid to a free people resisting attempted subjugation, which, he emphasized, would promote “economic stability and orderly political processes.”
The U.S. was the richest nation in the world, but Truman believed that shared prosperity among the democracies would make them politically more stable and long-term peace much more likely. His momentous proposition that the U.S. bail out Greece led in turn to the unprecedented and radical Marshall Plan itself: the decision to aid not only U.S. allies but --- for the first time in history --- our former enemies as they all rebuilt from the ruins of the calamitous war. Indeed, with this aid Germany and Japan became economic powerhouses and, with most of Europe, staunch allies of the U.S. --- and almost 80 years on the benefits of this extraordinary decision are still being felt.
James Holland’s deep knowledge of WWII gives him unique insight and appreciation for its historic aftermath. In tight and vivid prose, THE VISIONARIES chronicles the prelude to the Marshall Plan --- from Franklin Roosevelt’s historic “four freedoms” speech and “Good Neighbor Policy” towards Central and South America to the landmark Bretton Woods Conference of July 1944, which established the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, pillars of world stability.
But it was Truman who pushed for the Marshall Plan, which in 1948 kickstarted via economic assistance the fastest period of growth in European history. Its low-tariff environment encouraged trade and brought prosperity and longstanding peace throughout most of Europe and the Americas, including in the United States. However, Holland warns that we in the West have become complacent, less willing to safeguard the freedoms that extended prosperity has allowed. And he makes clear that the remarkably far-sighted decisions made in the wake of WWII stand in stark contrast to our transactional approach to the world today.
Audiobook available, read by Al Murray
Editorial Content for Dead Weight
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
I’ve always wanted to go to Reykjavik. Everyone else in the family has been there (unfair). My daughter brought me back a vivid red-flowered Marimekko pouch; my husband, a handsome black stone and silver necklace. I imagine the mystical steam of the Blue Lagoon’s thermal baths at night, the glory of the northern lights --- all the touristy clichés that are duly pictured on Instagram. Although I hate being cold, there’s something clean and strong and organized about the culture that attracts me. Read More
Teaser
Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door. When she tracks down the cat’s wayward owner, she finds a young woman just as lost and in need of help. Like a gust of cold air in a Reykjavík night, Ásta and her pet slip into Unnur’s life. It’s unexpected, but welcome. Unnur likes the company, and she begins to rely on Ásta in turn. But like a black cat, trouble has been tailing her new friend, and Unnur is the only one there for Ásta when things take a violent turn. The two women quickly learn: nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.
Promo
Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door. When she tracks down the cat’s wayward owner, she finds a young woman just as lost and in need of help. Like a gust of cold air in a Reykjavík night, Ásta and her pet slip into Unnur’s life. It’s unexpected, but welcome. Unnur likes the company, and she begins to rely on Ásta in turn. But like a black cat, trouble has been tailing her new friend, and Unnur is the only one there for Ásta when things take a violent turn. The two women quickly learn: nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.
About the Book
An Icelandic night may hide secrets and affairs --- or even bodies --- in this gruesomely cathartic horror thriller from the author of THE NIGHT GUEST.
Unnur was living a normal, if lonely, life until a black cat showed up at her door.
When she tracks down the cat’s wayward owner, she finds a young woman just as lost and in need of help. Like a gust of cold air in a Reykjavík night, Ásta and her pet slip into Unnur’s life.
It’s unexpected, but welcome. Unnur likes the company, and she begins to rely on Ásta in turn. But like a black cat, trouble has been tailing her new friend, and Unnur is the only one there for Ásta when things take a violent turn.
The two women quickly learn: nothing tests a friendship like blood on your hands.
Audiobook available, read by Mary Robinette Kowal
Editorial Content for Glyph
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Ali Smith's latest novel, GLYPH (not to be confused with her 2025 book, GLIFF; more on that later), opens with two stories of historical war, both of which were told by older relatives to sisters Petra and Patch when they were girls and have become part of their shared memories ever since. Read More
Teaser
It all starts when Petra and her little sister, Patch, hear a horrifying story from the past and find themselves making up a ghost. Is it imaginary? Is it real? Then it all starts again 30 years later when Petra, now estranged from Patch, finds a phantom horse kicking the furniture to pieces in her bedroom. What to do? She phones her sister. In a chiarascuro dance through our increasingly antagonistic era, GLYPH asks if we’re attending to the history that’s made us and to the history we’re making.
Promo
It all starts when Petra and her little sister, Patch, hear a horrifying story from the past and find themselves making up a ghost. Is it imaginary? Is it real? Then it all starts again 30 years later when Petra, now estranged from Patch, finds a phantom horse kicking the furniture to pieces in her bedroom. What to do? She phones her sister. In a chiarascuro dance through our increasingly antagonistic era, GLYPH asks if we’re attending to the history that’s made us and to the history we’re making.
About the Book
From a literary master, a novel of ghosts and history and family legacy, of the unexpected acts of care that shine light into our dark.
Ghosts don't exist.
They don't. End of.
Story, however.
It is haunting.
Everything tells it.
It all starts when Petra and her little sister, Patch, hear a horrifying story from the past and find themselves making up a ghost.
Is it imaginary? Is it real?
Then it all starts again 30 years later when Petra, now estranged from Patch, finds a phantom horse kicking the furniture to pieces in her bedroom.
What to do? She phones her sister.
In a chiarascuro dance through our increasingly antagonistic era, GLYPH asks if we’re attending to the history that’s made us and to the history we’re making.
A funny, warm and clear-eyed take on where we are now, GLYPH is about what our imaginations are for and how, in a broken, brutal and divided time, we rekindle care, solidarity, resistance and openness. This anti-war novel, Ali Smith’s most soulful, playful and vital yet, is a work of lightness that goes deep to counter the forces currently flattening the modern world.
Audiobook available, read by Lesley Sharp
Editorial Content for You Can Tell Me
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Melinda Leigh's latest mystery kicks off a new series set in upstate New York, where many of her novels take place. In YOU CAN TELL ME, there are some characters from her Morgan Dane series. But if, like me, you haven't read those books, don't worry. You won't feel lost at all. Read More
Teaser
On the three-year anniversary of true crime writer Olivia Cruz’s horrific kidnapping, she’s scheduled to walk her podcaster friend, Zoe March, through the crime scene, but Zoe fails to show. Zoe’s husband, who claims she never came home the night before, has reported her missing. But marital conflicts make the police suspect she has left him. Olivia thinks otherwise. Retracing her friend’s last steps, she finds Zoe’s phone and a text with one chilling word: Run. It soon becomes apparent that Zoe has been keeping secrets, and with her true crime podcast, there’s no telling what she has unearthed. To find her, Olivia must dig into her friend’s past. Did Zoe vanish to escape a killer, and is Olivia walking into a deadly trap?
Promo
On the three-year anniversary of true crime writer Olivia Cruz’s horrific kidnapping, she’s scheduled to walk her podcaster friend, Zoe March, through the crime scene, but Zoe fails to show. Zoe’s husband, who claims she never came home the night before, has reported her missing. But marital conflicts make the police suspect she has left him. Olivia thinks otherwise. Retracing her friend’s last steps, she finds Zoe’s phone and a text with one chilling word: Run. It soon becomes apparent that Zoe has been keeping secrets, and with her true crime podcast, there’s no telling what she has unearthed. To find her, Olivia must dig into her friend’s past. Did Zoe vanish to escape a killer, and is Olivia walking into a deadly trap?
About the Book
Crime writer Olivia Cruz is drawn into the dark secrets of a missing friend in a terrifying novel of suspense by #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh.
On the three-year anniversary of true crime writer Olivia Cruz’s horrific kidnapping, she’s scheduled to walk her podcaster friend Zoe March through the crime scene, but Zoe fails to show. Olivia knows Zoe would never stand her up --- not today.
Zoe’s husband, who claims she never came home the night before, has reported her missing. But marital conflicts make the police suspect she has left him. Olivia thinks otherwise. The police aren’t looking for Zoe, so Olivia begins her own investigation. Retracing her friend’s last steps, she finds Zoe’s phone and a text with one chilling word: Run.
It soon becomes apparent that Zoe has been keeping secrets, and with her true crime podcast, there’s no telling what she has unearthed. To find her, Olivia must dig into her friend’s past. Did Zoe vanish to escape a killer, and is Olivia walking into a deadly trap?
Audiobook available, read by Mandy Figueroa
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