American Josie Anderson and Parisian Arlette LaRue are thrilled to be working in the French resistance, stealing so many Nazi secrets that they become known as the Golden Doves. When they are finally arrested and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, along with their loved ones, a reclusive Nazi doctor does unspeakable things to Josie’s mother. And Arlette’s son is stolen from her, never to be seen again. A decade later, the Doves fall headlong into a dangerous dual mission: Josie is working for U.S. Army Intelligence and accepts an assignment to hunt down the infamous doctor, while a mysterious man tells Arlette he may have found her son. The Golden Doves discover a web of terrible secrets and must put themselves in grave danger to finally secure justice and protect the ones they love.
October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in the English countryside as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders. In London, rumors of a "fallen angel" cause a frenzy across the city, and a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger. A spellbinding tale told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of 19th-century London, THE GIFTS explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society, and the dark danger of ambition.
In 1846 Nantucket, Eliza Macy is struggling to conceal her financial trouble as she waits for her whaling captain husband to return from a voyage. In desperation, she turns against her progressive ideals and targets Meg Wright, a pregnant free Black woman trying to relocate her store to Main Street. Meanwhile, astronomer Maria Mitchell loves running Nantucket’s Atheneum and spending her nights observing the stars, yet she fears revealing the secret wishes of her heart. On a sweltering July night, a massive fire breaks out in town. With everything they possess now threatened, these three very different women are forced to reevaluate their priorities and decide what to save, what to let go, and what kind of life to rebuild from the ashes of the past.
Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and when hundreds of other women join her, the men running the city declare a state of emergency and hire musicians to play the Devil out of the mob. Outside the city, pregnant Lisbet lives with her husband and mother-in-law, tending the bees that are the family’s livelihood. Though Lisbet is removed from the frenzy of the dancing plague afflicting the city’s women, her own quiet life is upended by the arrival of her sister-in-law. Nethe has been away for seven years, serving a penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name. It is a secret Lisbet is determined to uncover.
After spending 20 years behind bars, Frank Muñoz, a disgraced former cop, is out on parole and focused on just one thing: revenge. For Ali Reynolds, the first Christmas without her father is riddled with grief and uncertainty. And with her husband and founding partner of High Noon Enterprises, B. Simpson, preoccupied by an upcoming New Year’s trip to London, she is ready for a break. But when Stu Ramey barges into her home with grave news about a suspicious accident on the highway to Phoenix involving B.’s car, things reach a breaking point. At the hospital, a groggy, post-op B. insists that Ali take his place at a ransomware conference in London as troubles brimming around High Noon come to light. Who would go to such lengths to cut the tech company from the picture?
Former private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan and her policeman husband, Daniel, have built quite a life for themselves in Greenwich Village. They have a good marriage, a true partnership where they value each other’s opinions in all things. So when he tells her they’re moving to a fancy home on Fifth Avenue --- and that he’s running for the sheriff of New York --- Molly is left reeling. Daniel begs Molly to trust him. But why would he run for sheriff on the Tammany ticket? A party known more for kickbacks and quid pro quo than anything else, it used to be everything Daniel despised. So what’s changed? And why didn’t he discuss it with her beforehand? Molly can’t help but wonder what Daniel has gotten himself tangled up in…and if he needs her help to get out.
What has become of Marguerite Fulmer? On an otherwise average day in upstate New York, the young woman left her family home, never to return. No note was left, no explanation --- just a messy bedroom and her sister Gigi, driven to dig through the meager clues and discover the truth behind her disappearance. As the investigation unfolds, every subtle bit of evidence becomes a potential clue. The silk Dior slip dress, left in a heap on the floor; the impression of Ferragamo boots outside in the dirt, a trail of footsteps that abruptly ends before it leaves the yard. And as Gigi trails the detectives, she finds previously unknown troubles in the life of her perfect, gorgeous, much-loved sister --- troubles that at times seem to reflect her own.
Antonia Scott, the daughter of a British diplomat and a Spanish mother, has a gifted forensic mind, whose ability to reconstruct crimes and solve baffling murders is legendary. But after a personal trauma, she's refused to continue her work or even leave her apartment. Jon Gutierrez, a police officer in Bilbao --- disgraced, suspended and about to face criminal charges --- is offered a chance to salvage his career by a secretive organization that works in the shadows to direct criminal investigations of a highly sensitive nature. All he has to do is succeed where many others have failed: Convince a recalcitrant Antonia to come out of her self-imposed retirement, protecting her and helping her investigate a new, terrifying case.
After her role in taking down a well-placed mole inside the CIA, Agent Lyndsey Duncan arrives in London fully focused on her newest Russian asset, deadly war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko. That is until her MI6 counterpart, Davis Ranford, personally calls for her help. Following a suspicious attack on Russian oligarch Mikhail Rotenberg's property in a tony part of London, Davis needs Lyndsey to cozy up to the billionaire's aristocratic British wife, Emily Rotenberg. But before Lyndsey can cover much ground with her newfound friend, the CIA unveils a perturbing connection between Mikhail and Russia's geopolitical past, one that could upend the world order and jeopardize Lyndsey's longtime allegiance to the Agency.
For decades now, Adam Gopnik has been one of our most beloved writers, a brilliantly perceptive critic of art, food, France and more. But recently, he became obsessed by a more fundamental matter: How do masters learn their miraculous skill, whether it was drawing a museum-ready nude or baking a perfect sourdough loaf? How could anyone become so good at anything? There seemed to be a fundamental mystery to mastery. Was it possible to unravel it? In THE REAL WORK --- the term magicians use for the accumulated craft that makes for a great trick --- Gopnik becomes a dedicated student of several masters of their craft. Rejecting self-help bromides and bullet points, he nevertheless shows that the top people in any field share a set of common qualities and methods.
We have listed 12 of Carol’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks that are now or soon to be in paperback. Which of these books have you read or do you plan to read? Please check all that apply.
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 July 25th to August 8th at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of FULL BLOOM by Francesca Serritella and YOU BELONG HERE by Megan Miranda.
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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.