At 31, editor Liz Buckley has plateaued at Paddy Cakes, a glossy baby magazine that flogs thousand-dollar strollers to entitled, hypercompetitive spawn-havers. Liz has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack for co-workers with kids, and she's tired of it. So one day, when her stress-related nausea is mistaken for morning sickness by her bosses, Liz is promoted to the mommy track. She decides to run with it and plans to use her paid time off to figure out her life; it'll be her "meternity" leave. But how long can she keep up her charade…and hide it from the guy who might just be The One?
No U.S. president is more popularly associated with nature and wildlife than Theodore Roosevelt --- prodigious hunter, tireless adventurer and ardent conservationist. We think of him as a larger-than-life original, yet Darrin Lunde has firmly situated Roosevelt’s indomitable curiosity about the natural world in the tradition of museum naturalism. Drawing on his diaries and travel journals, as well as Lunde’s own role as a leading figure in museum naturalism today, THE NATURALIST reads Roosevelt through the lens of his love for nature.
Teenaged Internet bully Ivy Lake fell off a cliff, and few people cared. After a year, the police still have no answers. With too many suspects and not enough evidence, the investigation has grown cold. At the request of Ivy's mentally challenged 18-year-old stepbrother, Tommy, Maxine Revere takes the case. But the more Max learns about Tommy and his dysfunctional family, the more she thinks she’s taken on an impossible task: this may be the one case she can’t solve.
Betty Pack was charming, beautiful and intelligent. As an agent for Britain’s MI-6 and then America’s OSS during World War II, these qualities proved crucial to her success. THE LAST GOODNIGHT is the remarkable story of this “Mata Hari from Minnesota” and the passions that ruled her tempestuous life --- a life filled with dangerous liaisons and death-defying missions vital to the Allied victory. For decades, much of Betty’s career working for MI-6 and the OSS remained classified. Through access to recently unclassified files, Howard Blum discovers the truth about the attractive blond, codenamed “Cynthia.”
In 1953, the CIA is reeling from a double agent within their midst. Someone is selling secrets to the Soviets, compromising missions around the globe. Undercover agents have been assassinated, and anti-Communist plots are being cut short in ruthlessly efficient fashion. George Mueller seems to be the perfect man to help find the mole: Yale-educated, extensive experience running missions in Eastern Europe, an operative so dedicated to his job that it left his marriage in tatters. Mueller, though, has secrets of his own, and as he digs deeper into the case, suspicion begins to fall on him as well.
Luisa “Lu” Brant is the newly elected --- and first female --- state’s attorney of Howard County, Maryland. She sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death. The case dredges up painful memories, reminding her family of the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man’s life. Lu now wonders if the events of 1980 happened as she remembers them. What details might have been withheld when she was a child? The more she learns about the case, the more questions arise.
After the events in GATHERING PREY, Lucas Davenport finds himself in a very unusual situation --- no longer employed by the Minnesota BCA. His friend the governor is just cranking up a presidential campaign, though, and he invites Lucas to come along as part of his campaign staff. “Should be fun!” Lucas says, and it kind of is --- until they find they have a shadow: an armed man intent on killing the governor…and anyone who gets in the way.
One of the most underestimated --- and challenging --- positions in the world, the First Lady of the United States must be many things: an inspiring leader with a forward-thinking agenda of her own; a savvy politician, skilled at navigating the treacherous rapids of Washington; a wife and mother operating under constant scrutiny; and an able CEO responsible for the smooth operation of countless services and special events at the White House. Former White House correspondent Kate Andersen Brower draws on a wide array of untapped, candid sources to tell the stories of the 10 remarkable women who have defined that role since 1960.
Tucker Wayne’s past and his present collide when a former army colleague comes to him for help. She’s on the run from brutal assassins hunting her and her son. To keep them safe, Tucker must discover who killed a brilliant young idealist --- a crime that leads back to the most powerful figures in the U.S. government. From the haunted ruins of a plantation in the deep South to the beachheads of a savage civil war in Trinidad, Tucker and Kane must discover the truth behind a mystery that leads back to World War II, to a true event that is even now changing the world…and will redefine what it means to be human.
It isn’t safe. That’s what Joe tells Dorrie when he ends their affair --- moments before their car skids off an icy road in a blinding snowstorm and hits a tree. Desperate to keep her life intact, Dorrie will do everything she can to protect herself. Joe’s death has left his wife in free fall as well. Trying to cope with grief is devastating enough without the constant fear that someone is watching you. Insurance investigator Maggie Devlin is suspicious of the latest claim that’s landed on her desk --- a man dying on an icy road shortly after buying a lucrative life insurance policy. As the fates of these three women become more tightly entwined, layers of lies and deception begin to peel away.
We have listed 13 of Carol’s previous 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 24th to August 7th at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of THE AMATEUR by Chris Bohjalian and CITY OF WIDOWS by Nadia Hashimi.
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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.
July's Books on Screen roundup includes the films Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Odyssey; the series premieres of "The Five Star Weekend" on Peacock, "Little House on the Prairie" on Netflix, and "Elle" on Prime Video; the season premieres of AMC's "The Walking Dead: Dead City" and Apple TV's "Silo"; the conclusion of "Cape Fear" on Apple TV and "The Listeners" on STARZ; the season finale of AMC's "The Vampire Lestat"; the continuation of "House of the Dragon" on HBO; and the DVD/Blu-ray releases of The Devil Wears Prada 2, Animal Farm and All You Need Is Kill.