Adult

Four modern families aboard a passenger train hurtle into the night. One hundred and seventy years earlier, their forebearers make their way in a young nation built on grand promises. Each family follows their own path, only to find that their destinies are linked inextricably, the culmination of five generations of shared history. Jonathan Evison’s SMALL WORLD is a novel that speaks to the present moment, a grand adventure that explores the American experiment in its most human and intimate aspects, a novel that asks if America has made good on those early promises.

Lyla has always believed that life is a game she is destined to win, but her husband, Graham, takes the game to dangerous levels. The wealthy couple invites self-made success stories to live in their guesthouse and then conspires to ruin their lives. After all, there is nothing worse than a bootstrapper. Demi has always felt like the odds were stacked against her. At the end of her rope, she seizes a risky opportunity to take over another person’s life and unwittingly becomes the subject of the upstairs couple’s wicked entertainment. But Demi has been struggling forever, and she’s not about to go down without a fight. In a twist that neither woman sees coming, the game quickly devolves into chaos and rockets toward an explosive conclusion.

Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, Lillian Carter's life has completely fallen apart. So when she stumbles upon an employment opportunity at the Frick mansion, she jumps at the chance. But before she knows it, she is pulled into a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels and family drama. Nearly 50 years later, mod English model Veronica Weber has her own chance to make her career within the walls of the former Frick residence, now converted into an impressive museum. But then she chances upon a series of hidden messages in the museum --- messages that will lead her on a hunt that not only could solve Veronica's financial woes, but could finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder in the infamous Frick family.

Olivia LeClair's experiment with speed dating is not going well. First there was the nasty encounter with the date from hell who tried to murder her, and now the mysterious Harlan Rancourt --- long believed dead --- sits down at her table and tells her she's the only one who can help him locate the legendary Vortex lab. This is not what Olivia had in mind when she signed up for the Four Event Success Guaranteed package offered by the dating agency. She doesn't have much choice, though, because her psychic investigation firm works for the mysterious Foundation, and Victor Arganbright, the director, is adamant that she assist Harlan. There's just one problem --- no one knows Harlan's real agenda.

War veteran Peter Ash is driving through northern Nebraska when he encounters a young pregnant woman alone on a gravel road, her car dead. Peter offers her a lift, but what begins as an act of kindness soon turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse chase across the lonely highways with the woman’s vicious ex-cop husband hot on their trail. The pregnant woman has seen something she was never meant to see…but protecting her might prove to be more than Peter can handle. In order to save the woman and himself, Peter must use everything he has learned during his time as a Marine, including his knowledge of human nature, in order to escape a ruthless killer with instincts and skills that match --- and perhaps exceed --- Peter’s own.

Helen Wilcox has one desire: to successfully launch her daughters into society. From the upper crust herself, Helen's unconventional --- if happy --- marriage has made the girls' social position precarious. Then her husband gambles the family fortunes on an elevated railroad that he claims will transform the face of the city and the way the people of New York live. But will it ruin the Wilcoxes first? As daughters Jemima and Alice navigate the rise and fall of their family, each is forced to re-examine who she is, and even who she is meant to love.

Carolina Garcia-Ramirez is a rising star in national politics, taking on the establishment with her progressive agenda. Now facing her second campaign, she finds herself not only fighting a tight primary with an old guard challenger but also contending with numerous death threats coming from hundreds of suspects. It doesn’t take long for Spenser to cross paths with an extremist group called The Minutemen, led by a wealthy Harvard grad named Bishop Graves. Although Graves is a social media sensation, pushing an agenda of white supremacy and toxic masculinity, he denies he’s behind the attacks. As the primary nears and threats become a deadly plot, it’s up to Spenser, Hawk and a surprise trusted ally to ensure the congresswoman is safe.

When a police detective is taken off life support after falling into a coma, only an autopsy reveals the murderous act that precipitated her death. She'd been working on a special task force within North London's Nigerian community, and Acting Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley is assigned to the case, which has far-reaching cultural associations that have nothing to do with life as he knows it. In his pursuit of a killer determined to remain hidden, he's assisted by Detective Sergeants Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata. They must sort through the lies and the secret lives of people whose superficial cooperation masks the damage they do to one another.

Angela Merkel has always been an outsider. A pastor’s daughter raised in Soviet-controlled East Germany, she spent her 20s working as a research chemist, entering politics only after the fall of the Berlin Wall. And yet, within 15 years, she had become chancellor of Germany and, before long, the unofficial leader of the West. In THE CHANCELLOR, acclaimed biographer Kati Marton sets out to pierce the mystery of Merkel’s unlikely ascent. With unparalleled access to the chancellor’s inner circle and a trove of records only recently come to light, she teases out the unique political genius that had been the secret to Merkel’s success.

Much of BAGGAGE chronicles my life in Hollywood and how, since I recovered from a nervous breakdown at 28, work has repeatedly whisked me away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. It is also about marriage(s): starting with the break-up of my first (to a woman) and ending with the ascension to my second (to a man) with many kissed toads in between! But in everything, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X-Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), in every bad decision or moment of sensual joy I have endeavored to show what I have learned and how I’ve become who I am today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage.