Adult

Five members of a billionaire’s family. In different locations. All kidnapped at the same moment. Two children taken from a private-school bus. A film producer and a movie star grabbed at a hideaway resort. A beautiful wife whisked off the streets of Beverly Hills. A patriarch wants his family back. The cash, gold, jewels and crypto are all ready. There’s only one problem: a brilliant, very stubborn FBI agent. Special Agent Nicky Gordon doesn’t want to pay the kidnappers. Not a dime. 

Published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding WE THE PEOPLE offers a wholly new history of the Constitution. Relying on the extraordinary database she has assembled at the Amendments Project, Lepore recounts centuries of attempts, to realize the promise of the Constitution. Yet nearly all those efforts have failed. Although nearly twelve thousand amendments have been introduced in Congress since 1789, and thousands more have been proposed outside its doors, only 27 have ever been ratified. Without recourse to amendment, she argues, the risk of political violence rises. So does the risk of constitutional change by presidential or judicial fiat.

The body is the most complex machine in the world, and the only one for which you cannot get a replacement part from the manufacturer. For centuries, medicine has reached for what’s available --- sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, crafting eye parts from jet canopies and breasts from petroleum by-products. Today we’re attempting to grow body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3D printers. Mary Roach explores the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings. When and how does a person decide they’d be better off with a prosthetic than their existing limb? Can a donated heart be made to beat forever? Can an intestine provide a workable substitute for a vagina?

After making his debut in 1997’s The Killing Floor, Jack Reacher has quickly become one of the most popular fictional heroes to emerge in the past half century. Now, his creator tells the stories behind the stories. These are the origin tales of all of the REACHER novels written solely by Lee Child. One by one, they expand upon each novel and place it in the context not only of the author’s life, but of the world outside the books. In addition to the essays, this collection also includes an original Reacher short story --- the first new Reacher appearance entirely written by Lee Child since 2019. Entertaining and enlightening, REACHER: THE STORIES BEHIND THE STORIES is a must-read for fans of the Jack Reacher series and a capstone to any collection of this excellent author.

In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into conventionality. Into this world of government censorship, comes a writer with an uncanny ear for Latin poetry, Christopher Marlowe. What Marlowe seizes in his opportunity for an education, and what he does with it, brings about a explosion of English literature. His success will nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare. DARK RENAISSANCE illuminates Marlowe’s times and significance of his work. Introducing us to Marlowe’s genius, Stephen Greenblatt brings understanding of the literary work to reveal the inner world of the author, bringing to life a homosexual atheist who was tormented, who refused to toe the party line, and who was murdered when he had found love.

Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife. Despite the tragic memories that haunt her, she keeps her husband happy, her household running. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu's carefully crafted life begins to unravel. When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman's constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew --- and soon, others begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?

The Hill is the kind of place everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular. Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There's no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead --- and why? As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors.

Lauryn Harper had a plan. But after a mishap at work that plan is put to the test. As punishment for her mistake she is transferred to the Ryser charity department, a branch that just so happens to be located in the hometown. Lauryn quickly comes up with a new plan: impress her boss enough that she's briskly whisked back to her big city life.However, it soon becomes clear that sticking to plans isn't that simple, especially when her ex-best friend enters the charity department demanding they help revitalize the town by bringing back the once-famous Greenstead Apple Festival. Lauryn agrees to host the festival, but soon enough Lauryn is swept away in town hijinks, and a second chance with a childhood friend that shows her why home isn't necessarily a place she has to run from.

Hannah has been running from her demons ever since she emerged from a harrowing wilderness trip without her fiancé. No one knows exactly what happened the day Ben died, and Hannah would like to keep it that way even if his ghost still haunts her with vivid waking nightmares that are ruining her life. So when her friend group gets an exclusive invitation to a restorative spiritual retreat in Joshua Tree, Hannah reluctantly agrees in search of a fresh start. Hannah soon finds healing through all the yoga, sound baths, and hot springs offered at the tech-free haven. But this peaceful journey of self-discovery quickly descends into a violent fight for self-preservation when a mysterious killer starts picking off retreat attendees in increasingly gruesome ways. 

Luke and his underground revolutionary group have been planning their biggest operation yet: kidnapping 23-year-old Adeline Woolsaw. They want to expose the Woolsaw Group, the source of Adeline’s parents’ enormous wealth, a company that runs everything from military bases and mental hospitals to commuter trains, and prisons. But the revolutionaries get a shock when they bundle Adeline into their van. She’s about to go into labor. And she may not object to being kidnapped, if it allows her and the baby to escape. It becomes apparent that this is no ordinary child. He’s capable of setting off deadly weather events. Adeline’s parents engineered the pregnancy as part of a bargain with an ancient evil. Now the Woolsaws will stop at nothing to get the infant back, so they can establish a new kingdom on Earth with their grandchild on the throne.