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Week of August 3, 2015

New in Paperback

Week of August 3, 2015

Releases for the week of August 3rd include THE SECRET PLACE, a powerful, haunting exploration of friendship and loyalty, and a gripping addition to Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series; TERMINAL CITY, another breakneck thriller from Linda Fairstein, who this time turns her attention to one of New York's most iconic structures --- Grand Central Terminal; ORPHAN #8 by debut novelist Kim van Alkemade, the fascinating story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York City Jewish orphanage; and Tom Clavin's RECKLESS, the unlikely story of a racehorse who truly became a war hero, beloved by the Marine Corps and decorated for bravery.

The Barter by Siobhan Adcock - Psychological Thriller

August 4, 2015


Bridget has given up her career to raise her daughter, but now a terrifying presence has entered their Texas home --- and only Bridget can feel it. In 1902, motherhood spurs Rebecca to turn her back on her husband, despite her own misgivings. As author Siobhan Adcock crosscuts these two women’s stories with mounting tension, each arrives at a terrible ordeal of her own making.

Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary written by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien - Fantasy/Literary Criticism

August 4, 2015


The translation of BEOWULF by J. R. R. Tolkien was an early work, very distinctive in its mode, completed in 1926: he returned to it later to make hasty corrections, but seemed never to have considered its publication. This edition is twofold, for there exists an illuminating commentary on the text of the poem by the translator himself, in the written form of a series of lectures given at Oxford in the 1930s; and from these lectures a substantial selection has been made, to also form a commentary on the translation in this book.

Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates - Psychological Thriller

August 4, 2015


It was only ever meant to be a game played by six best friends in their first year at Oxford University --- a game of consequences, silly forfeits and childish dares. But then the game changed: The stakes grew higher and the dares more personal and humiliating, finally evolving into a vicious struggle with unpredictable and tragic results. Now, 14 years later, the remaining players must meet again for the final round. Who knows better than your best friends what would break you?

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant - Historical Fiction

August 4, 2015


Eighty-five-year-old Addie Baum tells the story of her life to her 22-year-old granddaughter, who has asked her “How did you get to be the woman you are today?” She begins in 1915, the year she found her voice and made friends who would help shape the course of her life. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, Addie recalls her adventures with compassion for the naïve girl she was and a wicked sense of humor.

Five Days Left by Julie Lawson Timmer - Fiction

August 4, 2015


The lives of two people will forever change in five days. Minutes, hours and days tick by with ominous urgency. Mara Nichols is determined to control her future after a devastating medical diagnosis, but she faces an impossible decision. Meanwhile, her online friend, Scott Coffman, is helplessly suffering the impending loss of a young foster child he loves.

Haunted: A Hannah Smith Novel by Randy Wayne White - Thriller

August 4, 2015


The house is historic, some say haunted. It is also slated to be razed and replaced by condos, unless Hannah Smith can do something about it. She’s been hired by a wealthy Palm Beach widow to prove that the house’s seller didn’t disclose everything he knew about the place when he unloaded it, including its role in a bloody Civil War skirmish, and the suicides --- or were they murders? --- of two previous owners.

Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum - Fiction

August 4, 2015


Anna Benz lives with her husband, Bruno, and their three young children in a suburb of Zürich. Though she leads a comfortable, well-appointed life, Anna is falling apart inside. Adrift and increasingly unable to connect with the emotionally unavailable Bruno or even with her own thoughts and feelings, Anna tries to rouse herself with new experiences: German language classes, Jungian analysis, and a series of sexual affairs she enters with an ease that surprises even her.

Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath by Paul Ham - History

August 4, 2015


In this harrowing history of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, Paul Ham argues against the use of nuclear weapons, drawing on extensive research and hundreds of interviews to prove that the bombings had little impact on the eventual outcome of the Pacific War. HIROSHIMA NAGASAKI presents the grizzly unadorned truth about the bombings, blurred for so long by postwar propaganda, and transforms our understanding of one of the defining events of the 20th century.

An Italian Wife by Ann Hood - Historical Fiction

August 3, 2015


AN ITALIAN WIFE begins in turn-of-the-century Italy, when 14-year-old Josephine Rimaldi is forced into an arranged marriage to a man she doesn't know or love who is about to depart for America, where she later joins him. Bound by tradition, Josephine gives birth to seven children. The last, Valentina, is conceived in passion, born in secret and given up for adoption. Josephine spends the rest of her life searching for her lost child, keeping her secret even as her other children go off to war, get married and make their own mistakes.

The Laws of Murder: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch - Historical Mystery

August 4, 2015


It’s 1876, and Charles Lenox, once London’s leading private investigator, has just given up his seat in Parliament, primed to return to his first love: detection. With high hopes, he and three colleagues start a new detective agency. But as the months pass, and he is the only detective who cannot find work, Lenox begins to question whether he can still play the game as he once did. Then comes a chance to redeem himself, though at a terrible price: a friend, a member of Scotland Yard, is shot near Regent’s Park.

Lock In by John Scalzi - Thriller

August 4, 2015


A new and highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. For most, the virus is nothing worse than the flu, but for the unlucky 1% of the population, it results in locked-in syndrome: the victim is fully awake and aware but unable to respond. Fifteen years later, integrators are able to let the locked-in borrow their bodies, when a single murder rocks this new world and everything they thought was true.

Obsession in Death by J. D. Robb - Mystery/Thriller

August 4, 2015


Eve Dallas has become the object of one person’s obsession --- someone who would kill for her. With a murderer reading meanings into her every move, handling this case will be a delicate and dangerous psychological dance. And Eve knows that underneath the worship and admiration, a terrible threat lies in wait. Because the beautiful lieutenant is not at all grateful for these bloody offerings from her “true and loyal friend.” And in time, idols always fall…

The Ogallala Road: A Story of Love, Family, and the Fight to Keep the Great Plains from Running Dry by Julene Bair - Memoir

August 4, 2015


Julene Bair has inherited part of a farming empire and fallen in love with a rancher from Kansas’s beautiful Smoky Valley. Part of her legacy is a share of the ecological harm the Bair Farm has done: each growing season her family pumps over 200 million gallons out of the Ogallala aquifer. The rapidly disappearing aquifer is the sole source of water on the vast western plains, and her family’s role in its depletion haunts her.

Orphan #8 by Kim van Alkemade - Historical Fiction

August 4, 2015


Rachel Rabinowitz is confronted with her dark past when she becomes a nurse at Manhattan’s Old Hebrews Home and her patient is none other than the elderly, cancer-stricken Dr. Mildred Solomon, who subjected her to X-ray treatments that left her disfigured as a child. Rachel becomes obsessed with making Dr. Solomon acknowledge, and pay for, her wrongdoing. But each passing hour Rachel spends with the old doctor reveals to Rachel the complexities of her own nature.

Reckless: The Racehorse Who Became a Marine Corps Hero by Tom Clavin - History

August 4, 2015


From the racetracks of Seoul to the battlegrounds of the Korean War, Reckless was a horse whose strength, tenacity and relentless spirit made her a hero amongst a regiment of U.S. Marines fighting for their lives on the front lines. Tom Clavin, the bestselling co-author of THE HEART OF EVERYTHING THAT IS, tells the unlikely story of this racehorse who was beloved by the Marine Corps and decorated for bravery.

Ruth's Journey: The Authorized Novel of Mammy from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind by Donald McCaig - Historical Fiction

August 4, 2015


On the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue, an island consumed by the flames of revolution, a senseless attack leaves only one survivor --- an infant girl. What follows is the sweeping tale of Ruth’s life as shaped by her strong-willed mistress and other larger-than-life personalities she encounters in the South. Here is a remarkable story of fortitude, heartbreak and indomitable will --- and a tale that will forever illuminate your reading of GONE WITH THE WIND.

Saving Simon: How a Rescue Donkey Taught Me the Meaning of Compassion by Jon Katz - Memoir

August 4, 2015


When Jon Katz got a call from an animal control officer about Simon, a neglected donkey who had been found on a failing farm, he wasn't expecting to take him in. But when he made the trek out to meet Simon, he couldn't help falling in love with the skinny, mangy donkey, and ended up taking him into his home. Simon listened in the fields as Jon read and discussed philosophy, forcing Jon to confront the most difficult parts of life and bringing him to a new understanding about mercy and compassion.

The Secret Place by Tana French - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

August 4, 2015


Detective Stephen Moran has been waiting for his chance to join Dublin’s Murder Squad when 16-year-old Holly Mackey arrives in his office with a photo of a popular boy whose body was found at a girls’ boarding school a year earlier. The photo had been posted at “The Secret Place,” the school’s anonymous gossip board, and the caption says “I KNOW WHO KILLED HIM.” Stephen joins with Detective Antoinette Conway to reopen the case. The private underworld of teenage girls turns out to be more mysterious and more dangerous than the detectives imagined.

Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good: The New Mitford Novel by Jan Karon - Fiction

August 4, 2015


After five hectic years of retirement from Lord’s Chapel, Father Tim Kavanagh returns with his wife, Cynthia, from a so-called pleasure trip to the land of his Irish ancestors. While glad to be at home in Mitford, something is definitely missing: a pulpit. But when he’s offered one, he decides he doesn’t want it. Maybe he’s lost his passion. His adopted son, Dooley, wrestles with his own passion --- for the beautiful and gifted Lace Turner, and his vision to become a successful country vet.

Strong Darkness: A Caitlin Strong Novel by Jon Land - Thriller

August 4, 2015


The son of Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong’s boyfriend is nearly beaten to death at Brown University. The investigation leads back to Texas and to the Chinese high-tech company awarded the contract to build the US’s 5G network. Li Zhen, the company’s founder, counts that as the greatest achievement of his career, but it hides his true motivations --- nothing less than China’s total domination of the United States.

Terminal City by Linda Fairstein - Mystery/Thriller

August 4, 2015


When the body of a young woman is found in the tower suite of the Waldorf Astoria --- one of the most prestigious hotels in Manhattan --- Assistant DA Alex Cooper and Detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace find themselves hunting for an elusive killer whose only signature is carving a carefully drawn symbol into his victims’ bodies, a symbol that bears a striking resemblance to train tracks.