Adult

When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that served only to drive Sonia and Sunny apart. Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India. She fears that she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.

Meet Lance. Thirty-eight years old. Works a meaningless job. Still lives above his parents’ garage. By all accounts, a world-class loser. Save for one glaring exception: He has a million-dollar face. Lance has been mistaken 87 times for the Oscar-winning movie star James Jansen, and for the last 10 years, he’s saved his money and studied Jansen’s films, his moves, his idiosyncrasies --- even the way he speaks. Now, after an unceremonious termination from his job, Lance has decided that the time has come to go after his dream of truly becoming Jansen. From New York’s avant-garde, off-off Broadway scene to the glitter of Los Angeles, Lance embarks on a journey toward becoming James Jansen that will take him closer to the star than even he had dreamed --- and to darker lengths than he could’ve possibly imagined.

One night, bestselling author Josh Malerman --- then just an aspiring writer --- watched Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead with his fiancée and two friends. It was a gathering that could’ve gone unnoticed, another date night with a movie, but for Malerman, it became a landmark. It changed the course of his life, and it will inspire you to reflect on your own journey and to discover existing triumphs that are within you already. Describing the course of the night, Malerman reflects on his life, from his career as a musician to his stack of rough drafts, written prior to ever being published --- and on how meeting the love of his life, a fellow creative, opened him to new experiences and new ways of viewing the world they now quest through together.

Celia discovered her talent for magic on the day her beloved oldest brother, Argent, left home. Furious at him for abandoning her, she lashed out, not realizing her childish, angry words would become imbued with the power of prophecy, dooming him to a life without love. While Argent wanders the world, to seek only fame and glory instead of the love and belonging, Celia attempts to undo the curse. Yet, she cannot find the solution, until she learns the truth about the centuries-old war between her own people and the summerlings, immortal beings who hold a relentless grudge against their mortal neighbors. Now, with the aid of her unwanted middle brother, Celia may be able to both undo her eldest brother’s curse and heal the lands so long torn apart by the Summer War.

In the leafy, charming town of Chapelwick, the Bittersweet family has been a fixture on High Street for as long as anyone can remember. Their rambling black-and-white building houses all three generations of ghost-sensitive Bittersweet women and their business, Blithe Spirits. On her 27th birthday, Melody Bittersweet converts the disused back storeroom into her office and opens her own business. Right away, the freshly minted Girls’ Ghostbusting Agency takes on its first case: a grand old house that won’t sell because a trio of incumbent ghost brothers raise merry hell whenever prospective owners arrive to view it. Leo Dark, Melody’s rakish ex and business rival, is also on the case, along with the TV crew that trails him. To make matters worse, the sarcastic and skeptical (and annoyingly good-looking) local reporter Fletcher Gunn has his nose in the story as well.

Mma Ramotswe can sense the rain long before it comes. It’s been a long, dry summer, but the first downpour of the season tends to bring with it new growth. In this case, it also brings a new client, who suspects his wife of having an affair. Mma Ramotswe is on the case, and she decides to bring Charlie along. But as they look further into the matter, they begin to suspect their client may not have been entirely truthful in explaining his predicament. Meanwhile, Mr. J.L.B.’s Matekoni has struck up a new friendship with a man named Mr. Mogorosi, a prominent figure in the motor trade business. Mma Ramotswe is concerned that Mr. Mogorosi may have ulterior motives for his attentions. When the two go on a fishing trip in waters teeming with dangerous crocodiles, she begins to worry for Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s safety.

2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, “A Corona for Vivien.” Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come, people will speculate about the message of this poem. 2119: Just over 100 years in the future, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. In the water-logged south of what used to be England, Thomas Metcalfe, a lonely scholar and researcher, longs for the early 21st century as he chases the ghost of one poem, “A Corona for Vivien.” When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the elusive poem’s discovery, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a brutal crime that destroys his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.

The characters of GOOD AND EVIL find themselves at a point of no return, dazzled by the glare of impending tragedy. Vulnerable and profoundly human, they become trapped in the instant in which the uncanny has lurched into their lives. Some are transformed, some are isolated, others waver between guilt or tenderness. All of them are riven by uncertainty. Samanta Schweblin’s prose uses tension and truth to construct a literary universe in which the monsters of everyday life come so close to us that we can almost feel their breath. Her writing provokes awe and disquiet, a state of alarm that at the same time transports us to a hypnotic world as recognizable as it is strange.

Robert Langdon, esteemed professor of symbology, travels to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon --- a prominent noetic scientist with whom he has recently begun a relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing an explosive book that contains startling discoveries about the nature of human consciousness and threatens to disrupt centuries of established belief. But a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, and Katherine suddenly disappears along with her manuscript. Langdon finds himself targeted by a powerful organization and hunted by a chilling assailant sprung from Prague’s most ancient mythology. As the plot expands into London and New York, he desperately searches for Katherine…and for answers.

Sweden’s far north is growing colder; even in springtime, the town of Gasskas is buried under a relentless snow. As temperatures drop, tensions rise between a global corporation shamelessly exploiting the area's natural resources and wary locals who have scores to settle. A bomb blasts apart a crucial bridge. Soon after, a young journalist is found murdered. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander is at home in Stockholm, looking to fill the void her last lover left behind. When she discovers that fellow hacker Plague has been kidnapped and taken up north, and finds her niece, Svala, on her doorstep, she has no choice but to return to Gasskas --- with Mikael Blomkvist at her side. Blomkvist takes the helm at Gasskas' newspaper, and Lisbeth tries to locate Plague. But then Svala goes missing, and Lisbeth's worst fears come to haunt her.