Adult

No American statesman has been as revered or as reviled as Henry Kissinger. He has also been hounded by conspiracy theorists, scouring his every “telcon” for evidence of Machiavellian malfeasance. Yet as Niall Ferguson shows in this magisterial two-volume biography, drawing not only on Kissinger’s hitherto closed private papers but also on documents from more than a hundred archives around the world, the idea of Kissinger as the ruthless arch-realist is based on a profound misunderstanding.

Jack Kemp’s role in a pivotal period in American history is at last illuminated in this first-ever biography, which also has lessons for the politics of today. Kemp was the congressional champion of supply-side economics --- the idea that lowering taxes would foster growth. Even today, almost no one advocates a return to a top income tax rate of 70 percent. Kemp didn’t just challenge the Democratic establishment. He also encouraged his fellow Republicans to be growth (not austerity) minded, open their tent to minorities and blue-collar workers, battle poverty and discrimination, and once again become "the party of Lincoln."

The fight for gay, lesbian and trans civil rights --- the years of outrageous injustice, the early battles, the heartbreaking defeats, and the victories beyond the dreams of the gay rights pioneers --- is the most important civil rights issue of the present day. Based on rigorous research and more than 150 interviews, THE GAY REVOLUTION tells this unfinished story through dramatic accounts of passionate struggles, with all the sweep, depth and intricacies only an award-winning activist, scholar and novelist like Lillian Faderman can evoke.

With Lincoln’s assassination, his “team of rivals” was left adrift. President Andrew Johnson, a former slave owner from Tennessee, was challenged by Radical Republicans led by Thaddeus Stephens and Charles Sumner, who wanted to punish the defeated South. By the 1868 election, united Republicans nominated Ulysses Grant, Lincoln's winning Union general. His attempts to reconcile Southerners with the Union and to quash the rising Ku Klux Klan were undercut by post-war greed and corruption. Reconstruction died unofficially in 1887 when Republican Rutherford Hayes joined with the Democrats in a deal that removed the last federal troops from South Carolina and Louisiana.

In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, violinist Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music --- the Incendio waltz --- and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. Back home in Boston, from the moment Julia’s bow moves across the strings, drawing the waltz’s fiery notes into the air, something strange is stirred. The music has a terrifying and inexplicable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed. Convinced that the hypnotic strains of Incendio are weaving a malevolent spell, Julia sets out to discover the man and the meaning behind the score.

The Satellite Sisters have turned their focus to one of the most important relationships in our lives --- our friends, our Satellite Sisters, the women (and men) we call when the best thing in your life happens, or the worst. With their trademark empathy, intelligence and humor, YOU'RE THE BEST is a collection of essays and writings about life, love, family, play and change. Its contributors include both the Satellite Sisters and the Next Generation (nieces, daughters, daughters-in-law), covering how friendships influence choices, relationships, careers, adventures and inevitable changes.

Bench McCarthy is a thug's thug, a hitman, an underworld jack-of-all-trades running his own mob out of Winter Hill in Somerville while simultaneously handling "wet work" for Sally Curto, a half-demented, totally obscene mob boss. After years of gangland peace, Bench and Sally suddenly find themselves clay pigeons for unknown hit crews coming at them from every direction. The motives are as murky as the hitmen themselves, but all roads seem to lead back to the State House, where corrupt pols are battling over a bill to legalize billions of dollars' worth of new casinos.

Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan, two of the FBI's most valuable agents, are preparing for their next big assignment --- their wedding --- when Colin's brother Mike alerts them that onetime friends from his military past are on Sharpe and Donovan's home turf on the Maine coast. Now private security contractors, they want to meet with Mike. One of them, an FBI agent named Kavanagh, is supposed to be on leave. What is he investigating --- or does he have his own agenda?

Restaurant owner Whitney Monroe is desperate to save her business from a hostile takeover. The inheritance of a decaying Gilded Age hotel on North Carolina’s Outer Banks may provide just the ray of hope she needs. But things at the Excelsior are more complicated than they seem. Whitney’s estranged stepfather is entrenched on the third floor, and the downstairs tenants are determined to save the historic building. Searching through years of stored family heirlooms may be Whitney’s only hope of quick cash, but will the discovery of an old necklace and a Depression-era love story change everything?

Matt Royal has agreed to defend his good friend and wife of Longboat Key’s police chief, Abby Lester, who has been charged with the murder of the unlikable and shady Nate Bannister. Matt cannot refuse Abby’s pleas for help, despite having retired from the practice of law several years earlier. Police, politicians, academics, real estate moguls and other powerful forces are tied together in a cauldron of issues that Matt must untangle to get at the truth. Can he rekindle his legal skills and outwit the prosecution pitted against him? Matt knows he must, as the life of his friend hangs in the balance.