Adult

Kate Reilly is thrown into a new social scene and a murder investigation when she arrives in Long Beach, CA, a week before the Grand Prix. Her cousin Billy is found dead, with her card in his pocket. At the same time Kate is called to investigate, she’s coaching a gorgeous actress for a celebrity race and meets Hollywood’s hottest bachelor. Her professional dreams are also coming true: she’s racing in the upcoming Grand Prix. Kate must juggle her social life as she juggles her suspects, all while staying out of a killer’s grasp.

Tai Rudolph has gladly rebooted her life in Atlanta. It’s been a year since she got together with her sexy, ex-SWAT-team lover Trey and a year since confronting a checkered list of ruffians and villains, mostly now put behind bars. One of these criminals is Jasper, Tai’s cousin and the leader of a white militia splinter group. When witnesses against Jasper start turning up dead, Tai decides that she has to take him down once and for all, even if it means confronting her past.

When Isabel meets Edward, both are at a crossroads: he wants to follow his late wife to the grave, and she is ready to give up on love. As they gather each week for the glorious dinners that Edward prepares, he shares so much more than his recipes for apple galette or the perfect martini, or even his tips for deboning poultry. Edward is teaching Isabel the luxury of slowing down and taking the time to think through everything she does, to deconstruct her own life, cutting it back to the bone and examining the guts, no matter how messy that proves to be.

In the title story of Joyce Carol Oates’ haunting collection of six “tales of terror,” a young boy becomes obsessed with his cousin’s doll after she tragically passes away from leukemia. As he grows older, he begins to collect “found dolls” from the surrounding neighborhoods and stores his treasures in the abandoned carriage house on his family's estate. But just what kind of dolls are they? Joyce Carol Oates evokes the “fascination of the abomination” that is at the core of the most profound, the most unsettling and the most memorable of dark mystery fiction.

With a birthmark covering half her face, 13-year-old Madelyn Branch is accustomed to cold and awkward greetings, and expects no less in the struggling town of Reliance. After all, her mother, Rebecca, was careful not to mention a daughter in the Matrimonial Times ad that brought them there. When Rebecca weds, Madelyn poses as her mother’s younger sister and earns a grudging berth in her new house. Deeply injured by her mother’s deceptions, Madelyn soon leaves to enter the service of Miss Rose Werner, prodigal daughter of the town’s founder. Madelyn wants to feel beautiful and loved, and she pins her hopes on William Stark, a young photographer and haunted Civil War veteran.

On May 19, 1942, a U-boat in the Gulf of Mexico stalked its prey 50 miles from New Orleans. Captained by 29-year-old Iron Cross and King's Cross recipient Erich Würdemann, the submarine set its sights on the freighter Heredia with 62 souls on board. Most were merchant seamen, but there were also a handful of civilians, including the Downs family. Fast asleep in their berths, they had no idea that two torpedoes were heading their way. When the ship exploded, chaos ensued --- and each family member had to find his or her own path to survival.

When Spark --- the rakish prodigal son --- returns unannounced to the dilapidated family home, his arrival launches an unforgettable summer on Monhegan Island. During his absence, his gentle brother and shrewd, fork-tongued father, Pastor Ragnar, have been caring for Spark’s son, Hally. A temperamental adolescent emboldened by tales of his father’s mischief, Hally is careening through an identity crisis when he stuns his family by claiming to have had a spiritual vision. Though Spark is permanently dubious, Pastor Ragnar pounces on the chance to revitalize his flagging church. Hally is shoved into the spotlight, and in the frenzy that follows, this fragile family is pushed to the brink.

Paper is one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to produce it in ever more efficient ways has supported the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce and art; it has formed the foundation of civilizations, promoting revolutions and restoring stability. By tracing paper’s evolution from antiquity to the present, with an emphasis on the contributions made in Asia and the Middle East, Mark Kurlansky challenges common assumptions about technology’s influence, affirming that paper is here to stay.

Charlotte Maynard rarely leaves her mother’s home, the sprawling Connecticut lake house that belonged to her late stepfather, Whit Whitman, and the generations of Whitmans before him. While Charlotte and her sister, Sally, grew up at “Lakeside,” their stepbrothers, Spin and Perry, were welcomed as weekend guests. Now the grown boys own the estate. When Spin brings his fiancé home for the summer, the entire family is intrigued. The beautiful and accomplished Laurel Atwood breathes new life into this often comically rarefied world. But as the wedding draws near, and flaws surface in the family’s polite veneer, an array of simmering resentments and unfortunate truths is exposed.