Adult

From the time she was young, Suleika Jaouad has kept a journal. She’s used it to mark life's biggest occasions and to weather its most ferocious storms. Journaling has buoyed her through illness, heartbreak and the deepest uncertainty. And she is not alone. For so many people, keeping a journal is an essential tool for navigating both the personal peaks and valleys and the collective challenges of modern life. In THE BOOK OF ALCHEMY, Suleika explores the art of journaling and shares everything she's learned about how this life-altering practice can help us tap into that mystical trait that exists in every human: creativity. She has gathered wisdom from 100 writers, artists and thinkers in the form of essays and writing prompts. Their insights invite us to inhabit a more inspired life.

Rosemary Woodruff Leary has been known only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest, whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and whose life on the run with Rosemary inflamed the government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accessory. She was a beatnik, a psychonaut, and a true believer who tested the limits of her mind and the expectations for women of her time. Long overlooked by those who have venerated her husband, Rosemary spent her life on the forefront of the counterculture, working with Leary on his books and speeches, sewing his clothing, and shaping the media’s narrative about LSD. Ultimately, Rosemary sacrificed everything for the safety of her fellow psychedelic pioneers and the preservation of her husband’s legacy.

After losing her job and her fiancé, and moving back from the city to live with her parents, Shell Pine needs some help. And according to the sign in the window, the florist shop in the mall does too. Shell gets the gig, and the flowers she works with are just the thing she needs to cheer up. Or maybe it’s Neve, the beautiful shop manager, who is making her days so rosy. But you have to get your hands dirty if you want your garden to grow --- and Neve’s secrets are as dark and dangerous as they come. In the back room of the flower shop, a young sentient orchid actually runs the show. He is hungry...and he has a plan for them all.

One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives. As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them --- the boy can turn his every fear into reality. And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared.

When William von Antrim decided to pursue a career as a doctor, working to help Jewish survivors recover from the horrors of World War II, he believed he was doing all in his power to help his people survive. A German refugee himself, William fled to America with his mother after she was accused of being of Jewish descent. William’s father left them with only his estate, his family name and his legacy. A legacy that proves to be William’s downfall. What begins with a shameful truth coming to light forces William to confront not only his family’s past but his own. William’s case threads together one tragic character after another as he faces the dire consequences of his relentless attempts at redemption, regardless of the steep price he must pay.

Fashion is returning to the forefront in Paris, as the somber hues of wartime are replaced by vibrant colors and ultra-feminine silhouettes, influenced by Christian Dior’s “New Look.” American expat Tabitha Knight and aspiring chef Julia Child join a friend for a private showing at an exclusive fashion atelier, Maison Lannet. The event goes well, but when Tabitha returns later that evening to search for a lost glove, she finds the lights still on --- and the couturier dead, strangled by a length of lace. The shop manager suspects that a jealous rival --- perhaps Dior himself --- committed the crime. Tabitha dismisses that idea, but when another body is found, it’s apparent that someone is targeting employees of Maison Lannet. It’s up to Tabitha to don her investigative hat and find answers before someone commits another fatal fashion faux pas.

As postwar Paris rediscovers its joie de vivre, Tabitha Knight, recently arrived from Detroit for an extended stay with her French grandfather, is on her own journey of discovery. Thanks to her neighbor and friend, Julia Child, another expat who has fallen head over heels for Paris, Tabitha is learning how to cook for her Grandpère and her Oncle Rafe. Between tutoring Americans in French, and sampling the results of Julia's studies at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, Tabitha's sojourn is thoroughly delightful. That is, until the cold December day they return to Julia's building and learn that a body has been found in the cellar. Tabitha is eager to help the investigation but is shocked when Inspector Merveille reveals that a note, in Tabitha's handwriting, was found in the dead woman's pocket.

For the first time in his life, journalist Jack Fiorello is out of work. The 65-year-old music critic is adrift; not even his wife, Molly, can lift him from his funk. Then a reader calls with a tip, and Jack is thrust into a story involving Katy Shayne, a long-dead singer-songwriter, and what very well might be her murder. Traveling across Greenwich Village and down to Nashville, Jack unravels long-forgotten facts that led to Katy's death. In doing so, he puts himself at mortal risk for the first time in his career. Is it worth the effort? All this for an unknown singer and her songs? Though beaten and battered, Jack answers with a resounding "yes."

HELLIONS is an electric story collection that blends folklore, fairy tales, Southern Gothic and horror, reveling in the collision of the familiar with the wildly surreal. In a plague-stricken medieval convent, a nun works on a forbidden mystic manuscript, pining for Christ’s love. During a long, muggy July in rural South Carolina, an adolescent girl finds unexpected power as her family obsesses over the horror film The Exorcist. On the outskirts of a Southern college town, a young woman resists the tyranny of a shape-shifting older professor as she develops her own sorceress skills. And at a feminist art colony in the North Carolina mountains, a group of mothers contends with the supernatural talents their children have picked up from a pair of mysterious orphans who live in the woods.

When Diane Schwebe, the director of a major New York museum, is awakened in the early morning by a text message from the museum’s lawyer, it is the start of a 24-hour roller-coaster ride. Diane has sacrificed many things in her life to help the fading institution stave off irrelevance and financial ruin. In this battle, she’s surrounded by her stalwart supporters. Orbiting her is a motley assortment of museum employees, each on the precipice of collapse or revelation --- among them a line cook staring down a huge opportunity he’s not sure he wants; a costume curator stuck in an inescapable rut; and the ambivalent curator of the museum’s film program, whose first day on the job might very well be his last. On this day of the museum’s annual gala, every plate that Diane has kept spinning will fall --- and by daybreak, someone will be dead.