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Week of February 10, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of February 10th include A CALAMITY OF SOULS by David Baldacci, a courtroom drama set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, where a racially charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully accused Black client; Vanessa Chan's THE STORM WE MADE, a spellbinding novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII --- and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family; THE SECRET LIVES OF BOOKSELLERS AND LIBRARIANS by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, a compilation of stories from various booksellers and librarians who talk about the book business; and SLOW NOODLES, a haunting memoir from Chantha Nguon, a Cambodian refugee who lost her country and her family during Pol Pot's genocide in the 1970s but found hope by reclaiming the recipes she tasted in her mother's kitchen.

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David Baldacci, author of A Calamity of Souls

Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a fractious and unwieldy partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth. Yet DuBose is also aware that powerful outside forces are at work to blunt the victories achieved by the Civil Rights era. 

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