Adult

Every year, Major League Baseball spends more than $1.5 billion on pitchers. Their import is exceeded only by their fragility. One tiny band of tissue in the elbow, the ulnar collateral ligament, is snapping at unprecedented rates, leaving current big league players vulnerable and the coming generation of baseball-playing children dreading the three scariest words in the sport: Tommy John surgery. Jeff Passan traveled the world for three years to explore in-depth the past, present and future of the arm, and how its evolution left baseball struggling to wrangle its Tommy John surgery epidemic.

A product of the complicated history of the American South, James Brown was a cultural shape-shifter who arguably had the greatest influence of any artist on American popular music. Brown was long a figure of fascination for James McBride, a noted professional musician as well as a writer. When he received a tip that promised to uncover the man behind the myth, McBride set off to follow a trail to better understand the personal, musical, and societal influences that created this immensely troubled, misunderstood and complicated soul genius.

In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke's in Holland, the first woman to be so recognized. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain --- a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she's curating an exhibit of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive.

Fresh out of college, Katherine arrives in Naples to intern at the United States Consulate. When she meets handsome, studious Salvatore one evening, she finds herself immediately enveloped by his elegant mother, Raffaella, and the rest of the Avallone family. Immersed in Neapolitan culture, traditions and cuisine, slowly and unexpectedly falling for Salvatore, and longing for Raffaella’s company and guidance, Katherine discovers how to prepare meals that sing. Part travel tale, part love letter, ONLY IN NAPLES is a sumptuous story that is a feast for the senses. 

In 1958, Greenwich Village buzzes with beatniks, jazz clubs and new ideas --- the ideal spot for three ambitious young people to meet. Cliff Nelson, the son of a successful book editor, is convinced he’s the next Kerouac, if only his father would notice. Eden Katz dreams of being an editor but is shocked when she encounters roadblocks to that ambition. And Miles Tillman, a talented black writer from Harlem, seeks to learn the truth about his father’s past, finding love in the process. Though different, they share a common goal: to succeed in the competitive and uncompromising world of book publishing. As they reach for what they want, they come to understand what they must sacrifice, conceal and betray to achieve their goals, learning they must live with the consequences of their choices. 

Written by an award-winning New York Times sportswriter, AMERICAN PHAROAH is the definitive account not only of how the ethereal colt won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, but how he changed lives. Through extensive interviews, Joe Drape explores the making of an exceptional racehorse, chronicling key events en route to history. Covering everything from the flamboyant owner's successful track record, the jockey's earlier heartbreaking losses, and the Hall of Fame trainer's intensity, Drape paints a stirring portrait of a horse for the ages and the people around him.

For generations, the Millers have lived in Miller’s Valley. Mimi Miller tells about her life with intimacy and honesty. As Mimi eavesdrops on her parents and quietly observes the people around her, she discovers more and more about the toxicity of family secrets, the dangers of gossip, the flaws of marriage, the inequalities of friendship, and the risks of passion, loyalty and love. Home, as Mimi begins to realize, can be “a place where it’s just as easy to feel lost as it is to feel content.”

Bill Beverly’s debut novel is the story of a young LA gang member named East, who is sent by his uncle along with some other teenage boys --- including East's hothead younger brother --- to kill a key witness hiding out in Wisconsin. The journey takes East out of a city he's never left and into an America that’s entirely alien to him, ultimately forcing him to grapple with his place in the world and decide what kind of man he wants to become.

In 1948, in the strange, silent aftermath of war, Anikka Lachlan has all she ever wanted --- until a random act transforms her into another postwar widow. A local poet, Roy McKinnon, experiences a different type of loss. How could his most powerful work come out of the brutal chaos of war, and why is he now struggling to regain his words and his purpose in peacetime? His childhood friend, Dr. Frank Draper, also seeks to reclaim his pre-war life but is haunted by his failure to help those who needed him most. Then one day, Ani finds a poem. She knows neither where it came from nor who its author is. An unexpected and poignant love triangle emerges, between Ani, the poem and the poet --- whoever he may be.

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday's world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939 --- and then sets its sights on France. Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power. The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women.