Adult

In Garland, Tennessee, two young men have just been paroled. Both were jailed for a crime that Grace planned in exacting detail. The heist went bad, but not before she was on a plane to Prague with a stolen canvas rolled in her bag. And so, in Paris, begins a cat-and-mouse waiting game as Grace’s web of deception and lies unravels --- and she becomes another young woman entirely.

It’s 1953, and 17-year-old Leonie Putzkammer is cartoonishly tall and curvaceous, destined to spend the rest of her life waiting tables and living with her widowed father in their Philadelphia row house. Until the day a legendary wrestling promoter walks into the local diner and offers her the chance of a lifetime. When Leonie becomes The Sweetheart, one of America’s most infamous female wrestlers, she attracts the fans she desires but complicates all of her relationships.

When Simon Serrailler is called in by Lafferton’s new Chief Constable, he is met by two plainclothes officers who ask him to take the principal role in a difficult, potentially dangerous undercover operation. He must leave town immediately, without telling anyone --- not even his girlfriend Rachel, who has only just moved in with him. To complete his special operation, Simon must inhabit the mind of the worst kind of criminal. This takes its toll on him and --- as the investigation unfolds --- also on the town and some of its most respected citizens.

Two strangers walk into an ice cream shop shortly before closing time. They bind up the three teenage girls who are working the counter, set fire to the shop and disappear. SEE HOW SMALL tells the stories of the survivors who must endure in the wake of atrocity. Justice remains elusive in their world, human connection tenuous. Hovering above the aftermath of their deaths are the three girls, who try to connect with and prod to life those they left behind.

When a 14-year-old girl is the alleged victim of a terrible act of racial violence, the incident shocks and galvanizes her community, exacerbating the racial tension that has been simmering in this New Jersey town for decades. In THE SACRIFICE, Joyce Carol Oates explores the uneasy fault lines in a racially troubled society. In such a tense, charged atmosphere, Oates reveals that there must always be a sacrifice --- of innocence, truth, trust and, ultimately, lives.

A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams’ destiny was foreordained. He was not only “The Greatest Traveler of His Age,” but also his country’s most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. His world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age. In THE REMARKABLE EDUCATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Phyllis Lee Levin provides the deeply researched and definitive biography of one of the most fascinating and towering early Americans.

PUBLISHING is a personal story of a writer's hunger to be published, the pursuit of that goal, and then the long haul --- for Gail Godwin, 45 years of being a published writer and all that goes with it. The book reflects on the influence of her mother's writing hopes and accomplishments, and recalls her experiences with teachers Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Coover; John Hawkins, her literary agent for five decades; John Irving and other luminaries; and her editors and publishers.

Mr. Heming is a real estate agent who has the keys to every home he's ever sold in town. He has kept them all so he can observe his neighbors, not just on the street, but also behind locked doors. His disturbing hobby soon begins to form a clear pattern, and the reasons behind it come into focus. But when the quiet routine of the village is disrupted by strange occurrences, including a dead body found in the backyard of a client's home, Mr. Heming realizes it may be only a matter of time before his secrets are found out.

OUTLINE is a novel in 10 conversations that follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing during one oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her students in storytelling exercises, meets other visiting writers for dinner and discourse, and goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her neighbor from the plane. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast --- a portrait of a woman learning to face a great loss.

Whether they're cops or conmen, savage killers or creative types, gangsters or God-fearing citizens, George Pelecanos' characters are always engaged in a fight for their lives. They fight to advance or simply to survive; they fight against odds, against enemies, even against themselves. In this, his first collection of stories, the acclaimed novelist introduces readers to a vivid and eclectic cast of combatants.