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Catherine Newman, author of Wreck

If you loved Rocky and her family on vacation on Cape Cod, wait until you join them at home two years later. (And if this is your first meeting with this crew, get ready to laugh and cry --- and relate.) Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband, Nick, and their daughter, Willa, who's back home after college. Their son, Jamie, has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky’s widowed father, has moved in. It all couldn’t be more ridiculously normal…until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them --- and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won’t affect them at all.

Salman Rushdie, author of The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories

Salman Rushdie turns his extraordinary imagination to life’s final act with a quintet of stories that span the three countries in which he has made his work: India, England and America. “In the South” introduces a pair of quarrelsome old men and their private tragedy at a moment of national calamity. In “The Musician of Kahani,” a musical prodigy from the Mumbai neighborhood featured in MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN uses her magical gifts to wreak devastation on the wealthy family she marries into. In “Late,” the ghost of a Cambridge don enlists the help of a lonely student to enact revenge upon the tormentor of his lifetime. “Oklahoma” plunges a young writer into a web of deceit and lies as he tries to figure out whether his mentor killed himself or faked his own death. And “The Old Man in the Piazza” is a powerful parable for our times about freedom of speech.

John Irving, author of Queen Esther

Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine. Her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther. In fact, he won’t find any family who’ll adopt her. When Esther is 14, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren’t Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther’s gratitude for the Winslows is unending. Even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, Esther Nacht is 76.

Editorial Content for Cursed Daughters

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Rebecca Munro

Following the 2018 release of her smash hit, MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER, Oyinkan Braithwaite returns with CURSED DAUGHTERS, a heady mix of superstition and reality set in glittering Lagos, Nigeria. Read More

Teaser

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin, Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end. There is also the matter of the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...” which causes three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof. But when Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. She ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all?

Promo

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin, Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end. There is also the matter of the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...” which causes three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof. But when Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. She ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all?

About the Book

A young woman must shake off a family curse and the widely held belief that she is the reincarnation of her dead cousin in this wickedly funny, brilliantly perceptive novel about love, female rivalry and superstition from the author of the smash hit MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER.

When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day they bury her cousin, Monife, there is no denying the startling resemblance between the child and the dead woman. So begins the belief, fostered and fanned by the entire family, that Eniiyi is the actual reincarnation of Monife, fated to follow in her footsteps in all ways, including that tragic end.

There is also the matter of the family curse: “No man will call your house his home. And if they try, they will not have peace...” which has been handed down from generation to generation, breaking hearts and causing three generations of abandoned Falodun women to live under the same roof.

When Eniiyi falls in love with the handsome boy she saves from drowning, she can no longer run from her family’s history. As several women in her family have done before, she ill-advisedly seeks answers in older, darker spiritual corners of Lagos, demanding solutions. Is she destined to live out the habitual story of love and heartbreak? Or can she break the pattern once and for all, not only avoiding the spiral that led Monife to her lonely death, but liberating herself from all the family secrets and unspoken traumas that have dogged her steps since before she could remember?

CURSED DAUGHTERS is a brilliant cocktail of modernity and superstition, vibrant humor and hard-won wisdom, romantic love and familial obligation. With its unforgettable cast of characters, it asks us what it means to be given a second chance and how to live both wisely and well with what we’ve been given.

Audiobook available; read by Diana Yekinni, Nnei Opia Clark and Weruche Opia

Editorial Content for Vagabond: A Memoir

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Philip Zozzaro

Tim Curry knows how to make a role his own, whether as an unhinged Transylvanian doctor attempting to create the perfect male specimen or a butler who must keep a mansion tidy despite the number of bodies that keep dropping. Before his near-fatal stroke in 2012, Curry had performed in the theater, on television and in motion pictures, playing parts that cemented his legacy in pop culture. Despite his enormous success, he always stayed true to his decision to move on from a project when he felt that the time was right. Read More

Teaser

There are few stars in Hollywood today who can boast the kind of resume that Tony award-nominated actor Tim Curry has built over the past five decades. From his breakout role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to his iconic depiction as the sadistic clown Pennywise in It to his critically acclaimed role as the original King Arthur in both the Broadway and West End versions of Spamalot, Curry redefined what it meant to be a “character actor,” portraying heroes and villains alike with complexity, nuance and a genuine understanding of human darkness. Now, in his memoir, Curry takes readers behind the scenes of his rise to fame --- from his early beginnings as a military brat to his formative years in boarding school and university, to the moment when he hit the stage for the first time.

Promo

There are few stars in Hollywood today who can boast the kind of resume that Tony award-nominated actor Tim Curry has built over the past five decades. From his breakout role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to his iconic depiction as the sadistic clown Pennywise in It to his critically acclaimed role as the original King Arthur in both the Broadway and West End versions of Spamalot, Curry redefined what it meant to be a “character actor,” portraying heroes and villains alike with complexity, nuance and a genuine understanding of human darkness. Now, in his memoir, Curry takes readers behind the scenes of his rise to fame --- from his early beginnings as a military brat to his formative years in boarding school and university, to the moment when he hit the stage for the first time.

About the Book

This memoir is a celebration of Tim Curry's life’s work and a testament to his profound impact on the entertainment industry as we know it today.

There are few stars in Hollywood today who can boast the kind of resume that Tony award-nominated actor Tim Curry has built over the past five decades. From his breakout role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to his iconic depiction as the sadistic clown Pennywise in It to his critically acclaimed role as the original King Arthur in both the Broadway and West End versions of Spamalot, Curry redefined what it meant to be a “character actor,” portraying heroes and villains alike with complexity, nuance and a genuine understanding of human darkness.

Now, in his memoir, Curry takes readers behind the scenes of his rise to fame --- from his early beginnings as a military brat to his formative years in boarding school and university, to the moment when he hit the stage for the first time. He goes in-depth about what it was like to work on some of the most emblematic works of the 20th century, constantly switching between a camera and a live audience. He also explores the voicework that defined his later career and provided him with a chance to pivot after surviving a catastrophic stroke in 2012 that nearly took his life. 

With the upcoming 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the 40th anniversary of Clue, there’s never been a better time for Tim to share his story with the world.  

Audiobook available, read by Tim Curry

Editorial Content for After That, the Dark: A Cameron Winter Mystery

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Andrew Klavan has long been a superior writer of crime fiction and psychological thrillers, with some of his books being turned into feature films. Recently, his terrific series starring former spy turned college English professor Cameron Winter has given us stellar stories told in classic hard-boiled style. AFTER THAT, THE DARK is no exception. Read More

Teaser

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a solid citizen named Owen McKay suddenly went mad and killed his wife and child. Locked in a padded cell and monitored on video, he was nonetheless discovered dead from a projectile fired into his head. As Cameron Winter begins to ask questions, he finds that Tulsa officials have been intimidated into silence by a killer who once tried to attack Winter during his days as a government assassin. What’s more, another mysterious death --- just like McKay’s --- has taken place in Connecticut. And both murders seem linked to a sinister billionaire who once clashed with Winter’s old mentor, the Recruiter. Winter’s past and present are coming together in a single dangerous conspiracy.

Promo

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a solid citizen named Owen McKay suddenly went mad and killed his wife and child. Locked in a padded cell and monitored on video, he was nonetheless discovered dead from a projectile fired into his head. As Cameron Winter begins to ask questions, he finds that Tulsa officials have been intimidated into silence by a killer who once tried to attack Winter during his days as a government assassin. What’s more, another mysterious death --- just like McKay’s --- has taken place in Connecticut. And both murders seem linked to a sinister billionaire who once clashed with Winter’s old mentor, the Recruiter. Winter’s past and present are coming together in a single dangerous conspiracy.

About the Book

In this newest entry in Andrew Klavan’s USA Today bestselling Cameron Winter series, the ex-spy turned English professor finds love --- and murder.

Cameron Winter is falling in love. After finally working up the courage to contact the attractive therapist Gwendolyn Lord, he finds himself immersed in a passion that feels heaven-sent. When Gwendolyn tells him about a true-life “locked room mystery,” Winter feels compelled to investigate.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a solid citizen named Owen McKay suddenly went mad and killed his wife and child. Locked in a padded cell and monitored on video, he was nonetheless discovered dead from a projectile fired into his head. As Winter begins to ask questions, he finds that Tulsa officials have been intimidated into silence by a killer who once tried to attack Winter during his days as a government assassin. What’s more, another mysterious death, just like McKay’s, has taken place in Connecticut. And both murders seem linked to a sinister billionaire who once clashed with Winter’s old mentor, the Recruiter.

Winter’s past and present are coming together in a single dangerous conspiracy. And though Winter desperately wants to escape his career as an assassin, his love for Gwendolyn is deepening quickly, and he will do anything --- and kill anyone --- to protect her.

Audiobook available, read by Adam Barr

Editorial Content for The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Harvey Freedenberg

Joseph J. Ellis --- winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History for FOUNDING BROTHERS: The Revolutionary Generation and the National Book Award for AMERICAN SPHINX: The Character of Thomas Jefferson --- has long been regarded as one of the foremost contemporary scholars of the Revolutionary Era. Read More

Teaser

On the eve of the American Revolution, half a million enslaved African Americans were embedded in the North American population. The slave trade was flourishing, even as the 13 colonies armed themselves to defend against the idea of being governed without consent. This paradox gave birth to what Joseph J. Ellis calls the “great contradiction”: How could a government that had been justified and founded on the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence institutionalize slavery? How could it permit a tidal wave of western migration by settlers who understood the phrase “pursuit of happiness” to mean the pursuit of Indian lands? In THE GREAT CONTRADICTION, Ellis addresses the questions that lie at America’s twisted roots --- questions that turned even the sharpest minds of the Revolutionary generation into mental contortionists.

Promo

On the eve of the American Revolution, half a million enslaved African Americans were embedded in the North American population. The slave trade was flourishing, even as the 13 colonies armed themselves to defend against the idea of being governed without consent. This paradox gave birth to what Joseph J. Ellis calls the “great contradiction”: How could a government that had been justified and founded on the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence institutionalize slavery? How could it permit a tidal wave of western migration by settlers who understood the phrase “pursuit of happiness” to mean the pursuit of Indian lands? In THE GREAT CONTRADICTION, Ellis addresses the questions that lie at America’s twisted roots --- questions that turned even the sharpest minds of the Revolutionary generation into mental contortionists.

About the Book

A major new history from our most trusted voice on the Revolutionary era, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning FOUNDING BROTHERS and the National Book Award winner AMERICAN SPHINX, and featured in The American Revolution, a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, on PBS.

An astounding look at how America’s founders --- Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Adams --- regarded the issue of slavery as they drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. A daring and important work that ultimately reckons with the two great failures of America’s founding: the failure to end slavery and the failure to avoid Indian removal.

On the eve of the American Revolution, half a million enslaved African Americans were embedded in the North American population. The slave trade was flourishing, even as the 13 colonies armed themselves to defend against the idea of being governed without consent. This paradox gave birth to what Joseph J. Ellis calls the “great contradiction”: How could a government that had been justified and founded on the principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence institutionalize slavery? How could it permit a tidal wave of western migration by settlers who understood the phrase “pursuit of happiness” to mean the pursuit of Indian lands?

With narrative grace and a flair for irony and paradox, Ellis addresses the questions that lie at America’s twisted roots --- questions that turned even the sharpest minds of the Revolutionary generation into mental contortionists. He discusses the first debates around slavery and the treatment of Native Americans, from the Constitutional Convention to the Treaty of New York, revealing the thinking and rationalizations behind Jay, Hamilton and Madison’s revisions of the Articles of Confederation, and highlights the key role of figures like Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet and Creek chief Alexander McGillivray.

Ellis writes with candor and deftness, his clarion voice rising above presentist historians and partisans who are eager to make the founders into trophies in the ongoing culture wars. Instead, Ellis tells a story that is rooted in the coexistence of grandeur and failure, brilliance and blindness, grace and sin.

Audiobook available, read by Kimberly Farr 

Editorial Content for Lightbreakers

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Sarah Rachel Egelman

Aja Gabel’s new novel returns again and again to a photograph of a woman standing on the edge. Perhaps she is falling or is about to jump, or she is bringing herself back from the brink of danger. The image is understood by characters in various ways, through differing lenses of art and science, personal experience and analysis. The book itself is at the edge of genres: a domestic drama flirting with sci-fi and speculative fiction. Read More

Teaser

Maya, an artist, and Noah, a quantum physicist, share an insatiable curiosity about the world. But their happy marriage has a shadow over it: Serena, the child Noah had with his first wife, who died before she turned four. When Noah is invited by the Janus Project to unravel the secrets of time travel, he jumps at the opportunity. At a laboratory deep in the Texas desert, he begins participating in a dangerous experiment that could result in something he thought impossible: seeing his daughter again. Meanwhile, Maya embarks on a journey back to her own past in Japan, and to a formative lover who once shattered her heart. As Noah and Maya grapple with hope and despair, new information emerges that the experiments might not be exactly what they seem.

Promo

Maya, an artist, and Noah, a quantum physicist, share an insatiable curiosity about the world. But their happy marriage has a shadow over it: Serena, the child Noah had with his first wife, who died before she turned four. When Noah is invited by the Janus Project to unravel the secrets of time travel, he jumps at the opportunity. At a laboratory deep in the Texas desert, he begins participating in a dangerous experiment that could result in something he thought impossible: seeing his daughter again. Meanwhile, Maya embarks on a journey back to her own past in Japan, and to a formative lover who once shattered her heart. As Noah and Maya grapple with hope and despair, new information emerges that the experiments might not be exactly what they seem.

About the Book

What would you give to relive the past?

Maya, an artist, and Noah, a quantum physicist, share an insatiable curiosity about the world. But their happy marriage has a shadow over it: Serena, the child Noah had with his first wife, who died before she turned four.

When Noah is invited by the Janus Project to unravel the secrets of time travel, he jumps at the opportunity. At a laboratory deep in the Texas desert, he begins participating in a dangerous experiment that could result in something he thought impossible: seeing his daughter again.

Meanwhile, Maya embarks on a journey back to her own past in Japan, and to a formative lover who once shattered her heart. As Noah and Maya grapple with hope and despair, new information emerges that the experiments might not be exactly what they seem.

A heartachingly moving novel, LIGHTBREAKERS plumbs the mysteries of human connection, and explores how to love in a world where time is both a healer and a thief.

Audiobook available; read by Ina Barrón, Jay Myers and Mirai

Editorial Content for Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ron Kaplan (www.RonKaplansBaseballBookshelf.com)

What am I saying here, and how do you know?

For that, we must exclaim, “Thank you, dictionary.”

But even that isn’t quite sufficient. Read More

Teaser

Words are the currency of culture --- and never more than today. From selfie to doomscrolling to rizz, our hyper-connected digital world coins and spreads new words with lightning speed and locks them into mainstream consciousness with unprecedented influence. Journalist and bestselling author Stefan Fatsis embedded as a lexicographer-in-training at America’s most famous dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, to learn how words get into the dictionary, where they come from, who decides what they mean, and how we write and think about them. As he recounts in UNABRIDGED, he discovered the history and fascinating subculture of the dictionary and of those who curate and revere “one of the most basic features of our collective humanity.”

Promo

Words are the currency of culture --- and never more than today. From selfie to doomscrolling to rizz, our hyper-connected digital world coins and spreads new words with lightning speed and locks them into mainstream consciousness with unprecedented influence. Journalist and bestselling author Stefan Fatsis embedded as a lexicographer-in-training at America’s most famous dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, to learn how words get into the dictionary, where they come from, who decides what they mean, and how we write and think about them. As he recounts in UNABRIDGED, he discovered the history and fascinating subculture of the dictionary and of those who curate and revere “one of the most basic features of our collective humanity.”

About the Book

From the author of the New York Times bestseller WORD FREAK, a vibrant, lively and illuminating journey through the exotic world of Merriam-Webster, dictionaries and language, at a time of rapid-fire change in the way we create, consume, define and use words.

Words are the currency of culture --- and never more than today. From selfie to doomscrolling to rizz, our hyper-connected digital world coins and spreads new words with lightning speed and locks them into mainstream consciousness with unprecedented influence. Journalist and bestselling author Stefan Fatsis embedded as a lexicographer-in-training at America’s most famous dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, to learn how words get into the dictionary, where they come from, who decides what they mean, and how we write and think about them. As he recounts in UNABRIDGED, he discovered the history and fascinating subculture of the dictionary and of those who curate and revere “one of the most basic features of our collective humanity.”

Fatsis reveals the little-known story of how the brothers George and Charles Merriam acquired Noah Webster’s original American dictionary and reshaped the business of language forever. Merriam-Webster became America’s most successful and enduring compendium of words, withstanding intense competition and cultural controversies --- only to be threatened by the power of Google and artificial intelligence today.

Delving into Merriam’s legendary archives and parsing its arcane rules, Fatsis learns the painstaking precision required for writing good definitions. He examines how the dictionary has handled the most explosive slurs and the revolutionary change in pronouns. He votes on the annual Word of the Year, travels to the legendary Oxford English Dictionary, and visits the world’s greatest private dictionary collection in a Greenwich Village apartment stuffed with more than 20,000 books. Fatsis demonstrates how words are weaponized in our polarized political culture --- from liberal to woke to DEI --- and, in a time of insurrections and pandemics, how they can be a literal matter of life and death. Along the way, he manages to write a few definitions that crack the code and are enshrined in the pixelated dictionary.

“I fell in love with the dictionary on my eleventh birthday,” Fatsis writes about the full-color college lexicon he received on that day. “The dictionary projects permanence, but the language is Jell-O, slippery and mutable and forever collapsing on itself.” UNABRIDGED takes readers to the heart of an industry in flux, celebrating as it does the sheer thrill and wonder of words.

Audiobook available, read by Kevin R. Free

Editorial Content for Helm

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

In the back matter of Sarah Hall’s HELM is a maker’s mark that reads “HUMAN WRITTEN,” emphasizing that this book was not produced by artificial intelligence. I certainly appreciate this clarification. But honestly, in the case of this almost assertively creative novel, there’s really no doubt that it is the product of a human mind, and a vigorously inventive one at that.  Read More

Teaser

Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind --- a subject of folklore and awe, part-elemental god, part-aerial demon blasting through the sublime landscape of Northern England since the dawn of time. Through the stories of those who’ve obsessed over Helm, an extraordinary history is formed: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate Helm, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish Helm, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture Helm --- and the farmer’s daughter who fiercely loved Helm. But now Dr. Selima Sutar, surrounded by infinite clouds and measuring instruments in her observation hut, fears that human pollution is killing Helm.

Promo

Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind --- a subject of folklore and awe, part-elemental god, part-aerial demon blasting through the sublime landscape of Northern England since the dawn of time. Through the stories of those who’ve obsessed over Helm, an extraordinary history is formed: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate Helm, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish Helm, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture Helm --- and the farmer’s daughter who fiercely loved Helm. But now Dr. Selima Sutar, surrounded by infinite clouds and measuring instruments in her observation hut, fears that human pollution is killing Helm.

About the Book

From the twice-Booker-nominated writer of BURNTCOAT, a bold and astonishing literary masterpiece that explores faith, connection and our relationship to the natural world.

Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind --- a subject of folklore and awe, part-elemental god, part-aerial demon blasting through the sublime landscape of Northern England since the dawn of time.

Through the stories of those who’ve obsessed over Helm, an extraordinary history is formed: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate Helm, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish Helm, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture Helm --- and the farmer’s daughter who fiercely loved Helm. But now Dr. Selima Sutar, surrounded by infinite clouds and measuring instruments in her observation hut, fears that human pollution is killing Helm.

Rich, wild and vital, HELM is the story of a singular life force, and of the relationship between nature and people, neither of whom can weather life without the other.

Audiobook available, read by Louise Brealey