Adult

It's January 2020, and Miriam is already getting a sense that the world might be ending. First, she learns that her best friend, Esther, has died. Then her faith in God --- in everything, really --- follows suit. Her job teaching Scripture at a private Christian school suddenly seems untenable, so she quits. Thankfully, the postal service is hiring. While Miriam finds comfort in her route, the mail truck can hardly outpace the memory of her lost friend and eroded faith. She finds herself composing letters to Esther that she will never deliver, reflecting on their shared childhoods and deep understanding of each other's difficult families.

Summer, 1999. Rachel Fiske is almost 18 when she arrives at her aunt and uncle’s mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her glamorous aunt is struggling to heal from an injury, and Rachel wants to help --- and escape her own troubles back home. But her aunt is oddly spacey, and her uncle is consumed with business. The only bright spot is Claudia, a recent college graduate, an aspiring artist, and the live-in babysitter for Rachel’s cousin. As summer deepens, Rachel eagerly hopes their friendship might grow into more. But when a tragic accident occurs, Rachel must make a pivotal choice. Caught between her desire to do the right thing and to protect her future, she’s the only one who knows what really happened --- and her decision has consequences far beyond what she could have predicted.

Anatol invites five of his oldest friends to his family home in the Wiltshire countryside to celebrate his 30th birthday. At his request, they play a game of his invention called Motive Method Death. The rules are simple: Everyone chooses two players at random, then writes a short story in which one kills the other. Points are awarded for making the murders feel real. Of course, it’s only natural for each friend to use what they know. But once they’ve put it in a story, each secret is out. It’s not long before the game reawakens old resentments and brings private matters into the light of day. With each fictional crime, someone new gets a very real motive. Can all six friends survive the weekend, or will truth turn out to be deadlier than fiction?

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers. Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance and a normal life after graduation. At least that’s what Alessa Li is told after she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled. But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school’s cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught: work together. If they don't, this school will eat them alive.

It’s the 1970s, and West 86th Street knows its desserts: poppyseed strudel, praline ice cream cake and New York cheesecake. But then Cato comes to town. Cato the Elder, a Roman born in 234 BCE, is credited with the earliest written recipe ever found. A recipe for…cheesecake. Suddenly, it's all anyone on West 86th Street can talk about. The Katsikases, a Greek cheesemaking family who immigrated to open a restaurant in New York, added Cato's pastry to their menu as a ploy to attract “upscale” diners. The recipe becomes a neighborhood fixation --- and the Katsikases' patriarch, Art, buys up as much of the block's real estate as he can. As the portentous pastry appears in the lives of the old-school residents Art is pricing out of their apartments, a sidewalk view of West 86th Street emerges.

More than the story of a presidency, this is an intimate study of a man whose public triumphs were shaped --- and at times overshadowed --- by the complex realities of his private life, from his legendary family to his marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy. The book draws from hundreds of interviews conducted over 25 years --- as well as candid, first-hand oral histories from the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Presidential Library, rare internal reports from the Secret Service, detailed files from the National Archives, and intelligence documents from both the CIA and the FBI. This is JFK as never before captured by history: brilliant yet fallible, revered yet human --- a figure whose legacy continues to shape America and the world.

Julia, David and Erika grew up together spending summers at their idyllic Vermont lake homes for as long as they can remember. Now adults, the three friends have amassed secrets over the years. This summer, David is eager to show off his newly renovated home and his much-younger girlfriend. He also, unwittingly, brings a nanny with a hidden agenda. When David’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes after a shouting match, Julia and Erika wonder just how well they know their lifelong friend. The lake harbors a harrowing past: two young women vanished without a trace 30 years ago. Did the lake take another? As a search is mounted, an intricate web of lies, deceits and betrayals spanning generations starts to surface, and everyone finds themselves in danger of becoming the next victim.

A novelist learns that an unflattering version of herself will appear prominently --- and soon --- in her ex-husband’s debut. For a week, her life continues largely unaffected by the news --- she cooks, runs, teaches, entertains --- but the morning after baking mac ’n’ cheese from scratch for her nephew’s sixth birthday, she wakes up changed. The contentment she’s long enjoyed is gone. In its place: nothing. A remarkably ridiculous midlife crisis ensues, featuring a talking cat and a game called Dead Body.

Mrs. Plansky is fresh off of winning a thrilling senior tennis championship with her doubles partner, Kev Dinardo, and is gearing up to celebrate with him on his yacht. That is, until the yacht is destroyed in a fire. Kev claims the fire was caused by a lightning strike, but there's one small problem --- Mrs. Plansky didn't see any lightning. Her curiosity turns to concern when Kev goes missing. Her suspicion gets the better of her and leads her to break into his house, only to find it ransacked. But Kev isn't the only person Mrs. Plansky has to worry about. A conversation with her dad reveals that not long ago, he'd introduced Kev to Jack, Mrs. Plansky's wayward tennis pro son. And now, her dad either can't remember or has no interest in divulging any details. Worse? Now Jack has gone missing, too.

Etgar Keret is the world’s most famous living Israeli writer. His work explores life’s smallest, most unremarkable interactions in ways that are profound and unusual. The characters populating his fiction live in a world of ever-advancing technology, but it is always degraded by the baseness of human passions and brutality. A character’s partner is a reality show contestant from a parallel dimension. Another finds that the asteroid they paid to have named after their wife is scheduled to collide with earth. An elderly widow convinces a popular AI program to commit suicide. These stories speak to our current moment in time: the uncertainty and fragility --- full of misunderstandings and miscommunications --- while looking for reasons and the strength to find hope.