Russell Green has it all: a stunning wife, a lovable six-year-old daughter, a successful career and an expansive home. But underneath the shiny surface of this perfect existence, fault lines are beginning to appear...and no one is more surprised than Russ when he finds every aspect of the life he took for granted turned upside down. In a matter of months, Russ finds himself without a job or wife, caring for his young daughter while struggling to adapt to a new and baffling reality. Throwing himself into the wilderness of single parenting, Russ embarks on a journey at once terrifying and rewarding --- one that will test his abilities and his emotional resources beyond anything he ever imagined.
George and Willie Muse were two little boys born to a sharecropper family. One day, a white man offered them a piece of candy, setting off events that would take them around the world and change their lives forever. Captured into the circus, the Muse brothers performed for royalty at Buckingham Palace and headlined over a dozen sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. But the very root of their success was in the color of their skin and in the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume. Through hundreds of interviews and decades of research, Beth Macy explores a central and difficult question: Where were the brothers better off? On the world stage as stars, or in poverty at home?
Eleanor knows she's a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action, life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office, but not Eleanor, that he's on vacation. Just when it seems like things can't go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir, the dramatic tale of which threatens to reveal a buried family secret.
It is 1994, and in the desert near Tillman, Arizona, a grand experiment involving the future of humanity is underway. As climate change threatens the earth, eight scientists dubbed the "Terranauts" have been selected to live under glass in E2, a prototype of a possible off-earth colony. Closely monitored by an all-seeing Mission Control, this New Eden is the brainchild of ecovisionary Jeremiah Reed, for whom the project is both an adventure in scientific discovery and a momentous publicity stunt. His young, strapping Terranauts must impress watchful visitors and a skeptical media curious to see if E2’s environment will somehow be compromised, forcing the Ecosphere’s seal to be broken --- and ending the mission in failure.
When Bish Ortley, a suspended cop, receives word that a bus carrying his daughter has been bombed, he rushes to be by her side. A suspect has already been singled out: a 17-year-old girl who has since disappeared from the scene. Thirteen years earlier, her grandfather set off a suicide bomb in a grocery store, a bomb her mother confessed to building. Has the girl decided to follow in their footsteps? To find her, Bish must earn the trust of her friends and family, including her infamous mother, now serving a life sentence in prison. But even as he delves into the deadly bus attack that claimed five lives, the ghosts of older crimes become impossible to ignore.
First published in 1897, DRACULA has had a long and multifaceted afterlife --- one rivaling even its immortal creation --- yet Bram Stoker has remained a hovering specter in this pervasive mythology. In SOMETHING IN THE BLOOD, David J. Skal exhumes the inner world and strange genius of the writer who birthed an undying cultural icon, painting an astonishing portrait of the age in which Stoker was born --- a time when death was no metaphor but a constant threat easily imagined as a character existing in flesh and blood.
Former operative Will Cochrane wakes up in New York’s Waldorf Astoria and is horrified to see blood on his hands. When he then finds a woman murdered in his bathroom and realizes he has no memory of the night before, Will believes he is being framed. Suspecting that the twin boys he recently adopted are in danger as well, he discovers one of them alive and the other missing, most likely kidnapped. With local police, the FBI and even his friends pursuing him, the clever and ruthless operative must track down his adversary, save the boys and prove his innocence before it’s too late.
Still known to millions primarily as the author of “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) has been curiously absent from the mainstream American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense and psychological horror, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America more deeply than anyone. Now, biographer Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author of such classics as THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE.
When Leah’s former boss and mentor, Judy, dies in an accident and leaves Leah with her most prized possession --- a flashy red sports car --- the shock forces Leah to reevaluate her whole life. Returning to San Francisco to claim the mysterious car she blames for Judy’s death, Leah revisits past lives and loves in several sprawling days colored by sex, sorrow, and unexpected delight. Through the voice of Judy, who advises from afar, the surreal nature of grief is made hauntingly evident as Leah is lead toward a new sense of freedom.
Firefighters walk boldly into battle against the most capricious of elements. Their daughters, mothers, sisters and wives walk through the world with another kind of strength and another kind of sorrow, and no one knows that better than the women of the Keegan-O’Reilly clan. In ASHES OF FIERY WEATHER, debut novelist Kathleen Donohoe takes us from famine-era Ireland to New York City a decade after 9/11, illuminating the passionate loves and tragic losses of six generations of women in a firefighting family.
Tell us about the books you’ve finished reading with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars. During the contest period from August 8th to August 22nd at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of KISS HER GOODBYE by Lisa Gardner and THE LOST BAKER OF VIENNA by Sharon Kurtzman.
Our major goal for 2025 is to redesign Bookreporter and the rest of the sites in The Book Report Network. How can you help? We have launched a GoFundMe campaign and are asking for donations. Any level of donation that you would be comfortable with is sincerely appreciated. If you would prefer donating via check, please send to:
The Book Report, Inc.
16 Mt. Bethel Road, Suite 365
Warren, NJ 07059
Click here to read more about our plans and to donate.
Coming Soon
Curious about what books will be released in the months ahead so you can pre-order or reserve them? Then click on the months below.
August's Books on Screen roundup includes the films The Thursday Murder Club, My Oxford Year and Night Always Comes on Netflix, the Providence Falls trilogy on Hallmark, The Map That Leads to You on Prime Video, and She Rides Shotgun in theaters; the conclusion of "And Just Like That..." on HBO Max and "The Institute" on MGM+; the series premieres of "Outlander: Blood of My Blood" on STARZ and "The Terminal List: Dark Wolf" on Prime Video; the season premieres of "The Marlow Murder Club" on PBS "Masterpiece" and "My Life with the Walter Boys" on Netflix; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of The King of Kings and How to Train Your Dragon.