Adult

A woman is beheaded in a park outside Rome, and her six-year-old son goes missing. The chief of Rome’s major crimes unit secretly lures to the case two of Italy’s top analytical minds: Deputy Captain Colomba Caselli, a fierce, warrior-like detective still reeling from having survived a bloody catastrophe, and Dante Torre, a man who spent his childhood trapped inside a concrete silo while being fed by the gloved hand of a masked kidnapper who called himself “the Father.” All evidence suggests that the Father is back and active after being dormant for decades. But when Colomba and Dante begin following the ever-more-bizarre trail of clues, they grasp that what’s really going on is darker than they ever imagined.

Kate and her husband, Ron, attend a dinner party where they meet another couple, Peter and Jill. Kate and Peter only exchange a few pleasant words, but Kate is suddenly overcome with a burning desire for Peter. Her fixation on him results in an intense, passionate encounter between the two. Confident that her life can now go back to normal, Kate never considers that Peter may not be so willing to move on. Not long after their affair, a masked man barges into the café Kate is sitting in with her best friend, firing an assault weapon indiscriminately into the crowd. This tragedy is the first in a series of horrifying events that will show Kate just how grave the consequences of one mistake can be.

High school senior Hattie Hoffman has spent her whole life playing many parts: the good student, the good daughter, the good citizen. When she’s found brutally stabbed to death on the opening night of her high school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of her small-town community. Local sheriff Del Goodman vows to find her killer, but trying to solve her murder yields more questions than answers. It seems that Hattie’s acting talents ran far beyond the stage. Told from three points of view --- Del, Hattie, and the new English teacher whose marriage is crumbling --- EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE weaves the story of Hattie’s last school year and the events that drew her ever closer to her death.

After 30 years at St. Oswald’s Grammar in North Yorkshire, England, Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go. But every so often there’s a boy who doesn’t quite fit the mold. A troublemaker. A boy with darkness inside. With insolvency and academic failure looming, a new headmaster arrives at the venerable school, bringing with him new technology, sharp suits and even girls to the dusty corridors. But while Straitley does his sardonic best to resist these steps toward the future, a shadow from his past begins to stir again. A boy who still haunts Straitley’s dreams 20 years later. A boy capable of terrible things.

In 1955, a 14-year-old black boy named Emmett Till was murdered by a group of white men. He had gone into a small country store a few days earlier and made flirtatious remarks to a white woman, 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant; Bryant’s husband and brother-in-law were two of Till’s attackers. THE BLOOD OF EMMETT TILL revises the history of the Till case, not only changing the specifics that we thought we knew, but showing how the murder ignited the modern civil rights movement. Timothy Tyson uses a wide range of new sources, including the only interview ever given by Carolyn Bryant; the transcript of the murder trial, missing since 1955 and only recovered in 2005; and a recent FBI report on the case.

Anne-Marie Slaughter offers her vision for what true equality between men and women really means, and how we can get there.

From its humble agrarian origins to its present-day artisanal glory, butter has a fascinating story to tell. With tales about the ancient butter bogs of Ireland, the pleasure dairies of France, and the sacred butter sculptures of Tibet, former pastry chef Elaine Khosrova details butter’s role in history, politics, economics, nutrition, and even spirituality and art. Readers will also find the essential collection of core butter recipes, including beurre manié, croissants, pâte brisée, and the only buttercream frosting anyone will ever need, as well as practical how-tos for making various types of butter at home --- or shopping for the best.

In this deeply personal reflection, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri explores the art of the book jacket from the perspectives of both reader and writer. Probing the complex relationships between text and image, author and designer, and art and commerce, Lahiri delves into the role of the uniform; explains what book jackets and design have come to mean to her; and how, sometimes, “the covers become a part of me.”

Nick Paleologus, a coolly efficient Englishman, is summoned home to resolve a dispute that threatens to tear his family apart. His father, Michael, is a retired archaeologist and supposed descendent of the last Emperors of Byzantium. Michael has received a hugely generous offer for the family estate in Cornwall, but refuses to sell --- and refuses to divulge why. Soon the stalemate between Nick’s siblings and their father is tragically broken, and only then do they discover why their father was bound to protect the house at all costs. Their desperate efforts to conceal the truth drag them into a deadly conflict with an unseen and unknown enemy.