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Held at Fairmount Park, in Philadelphia, the Great Centennial Exhibition of 1876 attracted 10 million Americans and visitors from around the world. On display were inventions that signaled the changing landscape of American life, from the typewriter to the telephone to Heinz Tomato Ketchup. This celebration of America’s first century came at a moment when its future seemed more precarious than ever. Looming over the fair was the presidential race of 1876 --- a highly contested election that would determine the fate of Reconstruction and permanently shape the Republican party as we know it today. Fergus Bordewich animates these converging crises through the lives of four protagonists: Rutherford B. Hayes, Alexander Graham Bell, railroad magnate Tom Scott, and sculptor Edmonia Lewis.
Facing the global threat of a rising Communist world power in the aftermath of World War II, the U.S. employed hundreds of Black Americans to speed read Russian communications and gather essential information on their most dangerous nuclear rival. The result was the creation of a segregated civilian codebreaking unit known as the Traffic Processing Division --- The Plantation. Its 100 college-educated Black women made invaluable breakthroughs in the country’s Soviet intelligence, even as the Red Scare and the backlash against civil rights eroded their democratic freedoms at home. Their underappreciated top-secret work led directly to victory over the USSR and the end of the Cold War 30 years later. In DECODING THE DEVIL, Sarah Valentine tells their remarkable story in full for the first time.
Lady Genevieve Burnsby, her pet piglet and her septuagenarian husband travel to a haunted abbey in the Scottish Highlands. Evie is excited to meet a ghost, but she didn’t expect the funny, quirky guests to become the friends she’s never had. And she certainly didn’t imagine meeting Sir Godric Everly, a sardonic, witty solicitor who loathes her husband. Yet as secrets and lies turn Evie’s world upside down, Sir Godric becomes the one person she can trust. When ghosts, multiple wills and a shocking marriage certificate bring Lord Burnsby’s past crashing into his present, Burnsby promptly dies, leaving Evie free to remarry. More importantly, she has to figure out whose identity is false, whose vows are dishonorable, whose truths could destroy her reputation --- and where her heart belongs.
Special Agent Daniel Stansfield is ready for a change. Burnt out and defeated by the job, it’s his last day with the FBI. But before he can turn in his badge, he’s summoned back to Denver, the city he ran from four years ago, with a chilling message: it's happening again. Seemingly innocent people are waking up on the side of the highway, with no memory of how they got there, wearing the skin of victims they've allegedly never met. And they each share one haunting detail: a strand of a stranger’s hair is tied around their tongue. Now Daniel will have to confront the ghosts of his traumatic childhood and face what’s been hunting him all along --- before he and the people he loves become the next victims.
In September 2022, the unthinkable happened: 19-year-old American chess prodigy Hans Niemann defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in a stunning face-to-face match. Within days, Carlsen accused Niemann of cheating --- a bombshell allegation that rocked the chess world. As the scandal spiraled, Chess.com --- the dominant force in online chess --- launched a high-stakes investigation igniting a global media firestorm. But CHECKMATE is about more than a cheating scandal. It’s the story of a teenager willing to risk everything to rise to the top; a reclusive genius suddenly fighting to protect his legacy; and a centuries-old game transforming into a billion-dollar industry fueled by streaming, sponsorships and Silicon Valley power players.
Marion has stolen money from the Manhattan ad agency where she works in a desperate bid to help her sister escape an abusive marriage, but the bus breaks down before she can make it to Saratoga Springs. The only place with vacancies is an old set of cabins on the outskirts of town. She ends up chatting with Norm, the young innkeeper who's a touch hung-up on his elderly mother. Back in her room, she steps into the shower when the curtain is pulled back. Norm Billings is there with a knife. He raises his arm to strike, but before he does, Marion knees him, grabs the knife, and stabs the life out of him. Now she's covered in blood, and she's a woman on the run. Where will she go? How will she save both herself and her sister? And what mysteries will she uncover as she does?
Emily Brontë (1818–1848) was only 27 years old when she began work on one of the most important novels in the English language. Two years later in 1847, she completed WUTHERING HEIGHTS. It took the world almost a century to catch up to Brontë’s masterpiece, and it has taken even longer to know Brontë --- an elusive figure, with a ghostly legacy provoked by her early death and the loss (and likely destruction) of almost all her personal papers. Drawing on formerly inaccessible notebooks and manuscripts, THIS DARK NIGHT constructs a portrait of Brontë, her famous writing sisters Charlotte and Anne, and the effect of their sisters’ and mother’s tragic deaths.
1933. America was still reeling from the crash. Optimism was fading --- and baseball was in trouble, too. Owners slashed budgets, and fans stayed home. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt offered hope, but just days before his inauguration, five shots rang out --- missing the president-elect, killing the mayor of Chicago, and setting in motion a chain of events that eventually would bring together the world’s best ballplayers for the first All-Star Game. At a moment when some feared the national pastime would not survive the decade, Chicago would host the ballgame as the highlight of the 1933 World’s Fair. The city hoped to shed its reputation as a haven for gamblers and gangsters and help restore America’s standing on the world stage. But dark clouds were gathering abroad.
Anne of Brittany was a child when France invaded and drove her royal father to his death. Now she is the sovereign duchess of an occupied realm, and France means to crown their conquest by marrying her to their king. Such an alliance would put her title, her lands and her body forever in the hands of her enemies. Anne’s only hope of resisting conquest is another alliance sealed with marriage, so she arranges a daring last gambit: a secret betrothal to Charles of France’s greatest rival. The forest of Brocéliande was once the haunt of Merlin the Enchanter and the long-lost faerie queen. But magic is long gone from Broceliande, except for the occasional sight of a unicorn. While pretending compliance with France, Anne plans a unicorn hunt in Brocéliande. It’s a diversion so she can wed in secret. Or so she thinks.
Tasked with hunting down arcane artifacts for the council of immortal peris, Amina al-Sirafi can savor the occasional rollicking adventure on the high seas with her cherished criminal companions while still returning home to raise her beloved daughter, Marjana. But when Raksh, the spirit of discord with whom she is reluctantly wed, provokes the council’s wrath, Amina is charged with a seemingly impossible quest: steal a spindle capable of rewriting fate from a mysterious sorceress on an island no one can escape. Forced to leave Marjana, Amina finds her mission almost immediately thrown into peril. But deadly storms, an erratic poison mistress and old enemies are the least of her worries. For the peris’ story is unraveling, hinting at a far deadlier game whose rules Amina must swiftly puzzle out.
