Adult

As a road manager and filmmaker, John Byrne Cooke helped run the Janis Joplin show --- and record it for posterity. Now, in ON THE ROAD WITH JANIS JOPLIN, Cooke reveals the never-before-told story of his years with the young woman from Port Arthur who would become the first female rock and roll superstar --- and depart the stage too soon.

This year’s Nobel laureate in literature, Patrick Modiano, wrote the three novellas in this collection as separately published works between 1988 and 1993. Each piece is a first-person narrative told by a man who, like Modiano, was born in 1945 and who reflects on his life in France in the two decades after the end of the Nazi Occupation. The stories involve a photographer with a murky past, black marketeers and a mysterious murder-suicide.

A strange plague called the ’Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget, and then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily. But now, far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, a heretofore unknown substance hailed as “ambrosia” has been discovered --- possibly a universal healer. It’s up to a brave few to descend through the lightless fathoms in hopes of unraveling the mysteries lurking at those crushing depths…and perhaps to encounter an evil blacker than anything one could possibly imagine.

Lady Montfort has been planning her annual summer costume ball for months with scrupulous care. But when her husband's degenerate nephew is found murdered, it's more than the ball that’s ruined. In fact, Lady Montfort fears that the official police enquiry is pointing towards her son as a potential suspect. Taking matters into her own hands, she enlists the help of her pragmatic housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson, to investigate the case, track down the women who vanished the night of the murder, and clear her son's name.

It's a time of change for Britain in the early 10th century. There are new raids by the Vikings from Ireland, and turmoil among the Saxons over the leadership of Mercia. A younger generation is taking over. When Æthelred, the ruler of Mercia, dies, he leaves no legitimate heir. The West Saxons want their king, but Uhtred has long supported Æthelflaed, sister to King Edward of Wessex and widow of Æethelred. Widely loved and respected, Æthelflaed has all the makings of a leader --- but can Saxon warriors ever accept a woman as their ruler? The stage is set for rivals to fight for the empty throne.

Chloe Bathurst is an unemployed Victorian actress who finds work on Charles Darwin’s estate. When she gets wind of the Great God Contest --- £10,000 to the first petitioner who can prove or disprove the existence of a Supreme Being --- she decides that Mr. Darwin’s materialist theory of speciation might just turn the trick. Before she knows it, her ambitions send her off on a wild adventure bound for the Galápagos archipelago, where she intends to demonstrate evolutionary theory to the contest judges.

In HONEYDEW, Edith Pearlman writes with warmth about the predicaments of being human. Whether the characters we encounter are a special child with pentachromatic vision, a group of displaced Somali women adjusting to life in suburban Boston, or a staid professor of Latin unsettled by a random invitation to lecture on the mystery of life and death, Pearlman knows each of them intimately and reveals them to us with unsurpassed generosity.

On the eve of what was supposed to be a triumphant “Cancerversary” with her husband, Jack, to celebrate three years of being cancer-free, Daisy suffers a devastating blow: her doctor tells her that the cancer is back, but this time it’s an aggressive stage four diagnosis. Terrified of what will happen to Jack when she’s no longer there to take care of him, Daisy resolves to find him another wife. But as the thought of her husband with another woman becomes all too real, Daisy is forced to decide what’s more important in the short amount of time she has left: her husband’s happiness, or her own.

The Wife Project is complete, and Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are happily married and living in New York. But they’re about to face a new challenge because Rosie is pregnant. Fortunately, Don’s best friend, Gene, is on hand to offer advice: he’s left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie. As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, and getting Gene and Claudia to reconcile, he almost misses the biggest problem of all: he might lose Rosie when she needs him the most.

When Riley Cowan finds her estranged husband, Jeff, dead in his palatial home, she’s sure it’s no coincidence. The police rule it a suicide, but Riley thinks someone’s out for blood. Finn Bradley, a Philly-based FBI agent and Riley’s love interest from way back when, agrees to help Riley, and the two reignite sparks they both thought were extinguished long ago. But can they discover the killer’s identity in time before he resurfaces --- and strikes again?