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Week of July 31, 2017

New in Paperback

Week of July 31, 2017

Paperback releases for the week of July 31st include FAITHFUL by Alice Hoffman, a soul-searching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself; DAMAGED, the fourth installment in Lisa Scottoline's legal thriller series starring Philadelphia lawyers Bennie Rosato and Mary DiNunzio; THE BOOK THAT MATTERS MOST, an enthralling novel from Ann Hood about love, loss, secrets, friendship and the healing power of literature; I’M SUPPOSED TO PROTECT YOU FROM ALL THIS by Nadja Spiegelman, a memoir of mothers and daughters --- and mothers as daughters --- traced through four generations; and INCARCERATION NATIONS, in which Baz Dreisinger goes behind bars in nine countries to investigate the current conditions in prisons worldwide.

The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood - Fiction

August 1, 2017

Ava’s 25-year marriage has fallen apart, and her two grown children are pursuing their own lives outside of the country. Ava joins a book group, not only for her love of reading but also out of sheer desperation for companionship. The group’s goal throughout the year is for each member to present the book that matters most to them. Ava rediscovers a mysterious book from her childhood --- one that helped her through the traumas of the untimely deaths of her sister and mother. Alternating with Ava’s story is that of her troubled daughter Maggie, who, living in Paris, descends into a destructive relationship with an older man. Ava’s mission to find that book and its enigmatic author takes her on a quest that unravels the secrets of her past and offers her and Maggie the chance to remake their lives.

Brave Deeds by David Abrams - Fiction

August 1, 2017

Spanning eight hours, BRAVE DEEDS follows a squad of six AWOL soldiers as they attempt to cross war-torn Baghdad on foot to attend the funeral of their leader, Staff Sergeant Rafe Morgan. As the men make their way to the funeral, they recall the most ancient of warriors yet are a microcosm of 21st-century America, and subject to the same human flaws as all of us. Drew is reliable in the field but unfaithful at home; Cheever, overweight and whining, is a friend to no one --- least of all himself; and platoon commander Dmitri “Arrow” Arogapoulos is stalwart, yet troubled with questions about his own identity and sexuality.

Brooklyn Wars: An Erica Donato Mystery by Triss Stein - Mystery

August 1, 2017

A public meeting becomes a battleground over plans to redevelop the once-proud Brooklyn Navy Yard. Local residents clamor for their own agenda in redeveloping 300 acres overlooking a sparkling downtown Manhattan, while business and real estate experts argue and city officials cower. Erica Donato witnesses the shocking murder of a power-broker that night on the Yard's condemned Admirals' Row. She uncovers the dead man's complicated history with the Yard, his road to wealth and a high-flyer lifestyle. When her daughter, Chris, visits her father's relatives for a family history project, Erica learns that the Donato clan was involved in the Navy Yard's glory days and its slow, politics-ridden death.

The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor - Fiction

August 1, 2017

1917. Two young cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, claim to have photographed fairies at the bottom of the garden. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle becomes convinced of the photographs’ authenticity, the girls become a national sensation. Frances and Elsie will hide their secret for many decades, but Frances longs for the truth to be told. One hundred years later. When Olivia Kavanagh finds an old manuscript in her late grandfather’s bookshop, she becomes fascinated by the story it tells of two young girls who mystified the world. But it is the discovery of an old photograph that leads her to realize how the fairy girls’ lives intertwine with hers, blurring her understanding of what is real and what is imagined.

Crosstalk by Connie Willis - Science Fiction/Romance

August 1, 2017

In the not-too-distant future, a simple outpatient procedure to increase empathy between romantic partners has become all the rage. And Briddey Flannigan is delighted when her boyfriend, Trent, suggests undergoing the operation prior to a marriage proposal --- to enjoy better emotional connection and a perfect relationship with complete communication and understanding. But things don’t quite work out as planned, and Briddey finds herself connected to someone else entirely --- in a way far beyond what she signed up for. As things go from bad to worse, she begins to see the dark side of too much information, and to realize that love --- and communication --- are far more complicated than she ever imagined.

Crowned and Dangerous: A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen - Historical Mystery

August 1, 2017

Nothing is simple when you’re 35th in line for the British crown, least of all marriage. But with love on their side and plans to elope, Lady Georgiana Rannoch and her beau, Darcy O’Mara, hope to bypass a few royal rules. Throwing their cares to the wind, nothing could deter them from their mission --- except the news that Georgie’s future father-in-law has just been arrested for the murder of a wealthy American. With the elopement postponed, they head for Ireland where Darcy’s father insists he’s innocent, and it’s up to Georgie and Darcy to prove it --- for better or worse.

Damaged by Lisa Scottoline - Legal Thriller

August 1, 2017

Ten-year-old Patrick O'Brien is a natural target at school. Shy, dyslexic and small for his age, he tries to hide his first-grade reading level from everyone. But the real trouble begins when Patrick is accused of attacking a school aide. The aide promptly quits and sues the boy, his family and the school district. Patrick's grandfather turns to the law firm of Rosato & DiNunzio for help, and Mary DiNunzio is on the case. Soon Mary becomes Patrick's true champion and his only hope for security and justice. But there is more to the story than meets the eye, and Patrick might be more troubled than he seems.

The Dream Life of Astronauts: Stories by Patrick Ryan - Fiction/Short Stories

August 1, 2017

A would-be Miss America auditions for a shady local talent scout over vodka and Sunny D; a NASA engineer begins to wonder if the woman he’s having an affair with is slowly poisoning her husband; a Boy Scout troop leader, recovering from a stroke, tries to protect one of his scouts from being bullied by his own sons; a grandmother, sentenced to driver’s ed after a traffic accident, surprises herself by falling for her instructor. THE DREAM LIFE OF ASTRONAUTS balances heartbreak with wry humor as its characters try to make sense of the paths they find themselves on.

The Dying Game by Asa Avdic - Dystopian/Psychological Suspense

August 1, 2017

The year is 2037. The Soviet Union never fell, and much of Europe has been consolidated under the totalitarian Union of Friendship. On the tiny island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic bureaucrat with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment: to stage her own death and then to observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the six other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them. Who will take control? Who will crack under pressure? But then a storm rolls in, the power goes out, and the real game begins.

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

August 1, 2017

As Lt. Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband Roarke are driving home, a young woman suddenly stumbles out in front of their car. Daphne Strazza is rushed to the ER, but it’s too late for her husband, Dr. Anthony Strazza. A brilliant orthopedic surgeon, he now lies dead amid the wreckage of his obsessively organized town house, his three safes opened and emptied. Daphne would be a valuable witness, but the only description of the perp she can offer is repeatedly calling him “the devil.” While it emerges that Dr. Strazza was cold, controlling and widely disliked, this is one case where the evidence doesn’t point to the spouse. What does the devil look like? And where will he show up next?

Faithful by Alice Hoffman - Fiction

August 1, 2017

Shelby Richmond is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, while Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt. What happens when a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be a star in the sky? A fan of Chinese food, dogs, bookstores, and men she should stay away from, Shelby has to fight her way back to her own future. In New York City she finds a circle of lost and found souls --- including an angel who’s been watching over her ever since that fateful icy night.

The False Friend by Myla Goldberg - Fiction

August 23, 2011

Celia and Djuna were leaders of a mercurial clique of girls, but everything changed when they decided to walk home along a forbidden road. Djuna disappeared, and Celia blocked out what happened. Now a successful woman with a serious boyfriend, Celia returns home to confess the truth. But with no one willing to believe her, can Celia correct the past and save her relationship?

The Hero's Body: A Memoir by William Giraldi - Memoir

August 1, 2017

At just 47 years old, William Giraldi’s father was killed in a horrific motorcycle crash while racing on a country road. This tragedy, which forever altered the young Giraldi and devastated his family, provides the pulse for THE HERO’S BODY. In the tradition of Andre Dubus III’s TOWNIE, this is a deep-seeing investigation into two generations of men from the working-class town of Manville, New Jersey, including Giraldi’s own forays into obsessive bodybuilding as a teenager desperate to be worthy of his family’s pitiless, exacting codes of manhood.

How I Became a North Korean by Krys Lee - Fiction

August 1, 2017

Yongju is an accomplished student from one of North Korea's most prominent families. Jangmi, on the other hand, has had to fend for herself since childhood, most recently by smuggling goods across the border. Then there is Danny, a Chinese-American teenager whose quirks and precocious intelligence have long made him an outcast in his California high school. These three disparate lives converge when they flee their homes, finding themselves in a small Chinese town just across the river from North Korea. But will they find their way to the better lives they risked everything for?

The Imperial Wife by Irina Reyn - Fiction

August 1, 2017

Tanya Kagan, a rising specialist in Russian art at a top New York auction house, is trying to entice Russia's wealthy oligarchs to bid on the biggest sale of her career, The Order of Saint Catherine, while making sense of the sudden and unexplained departure of her husband. As questions arise over the provenance of the Order and auction fever kicks in, author Irina Reyn takes us into the world of Catherine the Great, the infamous 18th-century empress who may have owned the priceless artifact and who, it turns out, faced many of the same issues Tanya wrestles with in her own life.

I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This: A Memoir by Nadja Spiegelman - Memoir

August 1, 2017

For a long time, Nadja Spiegelman believed her mother was a fairy. More than her famous father, Maus creator Art Spiegelman, and even more than most mothers, hers --- French-born New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly --- exerted a force over reality that was both dazzling and daunting. As Nadja’s body changed, their relationship grew tense. Unwittingly, they were replaying a drama from her mother’s past, a drama Nadja sensed but had never been told. Then, after college, her mother suddenly opened up to her. Françoise recounted her turbulent adolescence caught between a volatile mother and a playboy father. The weight of the difficult stories she told her daughter shifted the balance between them.

Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World by Baz Dreisinger - Social Science/Penology

August 1, 2017

Beginning in Africa and ending in Europe, INCARCERATION NATIONS is a first-person odyssey through the prison systems of the world. Professor, journalist and founder of the Prison-to-College-Pipeline, Baz Dreisinger looks into the human stories of incarcerated men and women and those who imprison them, creating a jarring, poignant view of a world to which most are denied access, and a rethinking of one of America’s most far-reaching global exports: the modern prison complex.

Leona: The Die Is Cast by Jenny Rogneby - Hard-boiled Thriller

August 1, 2017

Naked and bloody, a seven-year-old girl walks into a bank in central Stockholm in broad daylight and gets away with millions. Leona Lindberg of Stockholm's Violent Crimes Division agrees to work on the case. With a long, distinguished history in the police force, she seems to be the perfect choice. But Leona is grappling with deep issues of her own --- a gambling addiction, a strained marriage --- that could jeopardize the investigation. As she struggles to keep the volatile pieces of her life under control, the line between right and wrong becomes increasingly unclear --- and even irrelevant.

Little Boy Lost by J. D. Trafford - Thriller

August 1, 2017

When eight-year-old Tanisha Walker offers attorney Justin Glass a jar full of change to find her missing brother, he doesn’t have the heart to turn her away. Justin had hoped to find the boy alive and well. But all that was found of Devon Walker was his brutally murdered body --- and the bodies of 12 other African American teenagers, all discarded like trash in a mass grave. Each had been reported missing. And none had been investigated. As simmering racial tensions explode into violence, Justin finds himself caught in the tide. And as he gives voice to the discontent plaguing the city’s forgotten and ignored, he vows to search for the killer who preys upon them.

Loner by Teddy Wayne - Fiction

August 1, 2017

David Federman has never felt appreciated. An academically gifted yet painfully forgettable member of his New Jersey high school class, the withdrawn, mild-mannered freshman arrives at Harvard fully expecting to be embraced by a new tribe of high-achieving peers. Initially, however, his social prospects seem unlikely to change, sentencing him to a lifetime of anonymity. Then he meets Veronica Morgan Wells and becomes instantly infatuated. Determined to win her attention and an invite into her glamorous world, he begins compromising his moral standards for this one, great shot at happiness. But both Veronica and David, it turns out, are not exactly as they seem.

Monsters: A Love Story by Liz Kay - Romantic Comedy

August 1, 2017

When Stacey Lane writes a feminist take on FRANKENSTEIN, she never imagines it will catch the eye of unbelievably sexy Hollywood star Tommy DeMarco. Tommy’s passion for her book --- and for her --- threatens to turn her life upside down, or maybe right-side up. From their first poolside meeting the two are set on a collision course as they go about making the book into a movie, making each other crazy and making love, if only in secret. 

Mrs. Saint and the Defectives by Julie Lawson Timmer - Fiction

August 1, 2017

Markie, who has suffered a humiliating and very public fall from marital, financial and professional grace, moves, along with her teenage son, Jesse, to a new town. But Markie and Jesse are unable to escape the attention of their new neighbor Mrs. Saint, who takes it upon herself --- along with her ragtag group of “defectives” --- to identify and fix the flaws in those around her. Soon, the quirky yet endearing woman recruits Markie to join her eccentric community, a world where both hidden truths and hope unite them. But when Mrs. Saint’s own secrets threaten to unravel their fragile web of healing, it’s up to Markie to mend these wounds and usher in a new era for the “defectives” --- one full of second chances and happiness.

Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness by Craig Nelson - History

August 1, 2017

The America we live in today was born, not on July 4, 1776, but on December 7, 1941, when an armada of 354 Japanese warplanes supported by aircraft carriers, destroyers and midget submarines suddenly and savagely attacked the United States, killing 2,403 men --- and forced America’s entry into World War II. PEARL HARBOR follows, moment by moment, the sailors, soldiers, pilots, diplomats, admirals, generals, emperor and president as they engineer, fight and react to this stunningly dramatic moment in world history.

Poisonous by Allison Brennan - Thriller

August 1, 2017

Teenaged Internet bully Ivy Lake fell off a cliff, and few people cared. After a year, the police still have no answers. With too many suspects and not enough evidence, the investigation has grown cold. At the request of Ivy's mentally challenged 18-year-old stepbrother, Tommy, Maxine Revere takes the case. But the more Max learns about Tommy and his dysfunctional family, the more she thinks she’s taken on an impossible task: this may be the one case she can’t solve.

Pushing Up Daisies: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton - Mystery

August 1, 2017

When Agatha Raisin left behind her PR business in London, she fulfilled her dream of settling in the cozy British Cotswolds where she began a successful private detective agency. Unfortunately, Lord Bellington, a wealthy land developer, wants to turn the community garden into a housing estate. When Agatha and her friend, Sir Charles Fraith, attempt to convince Lord Bellington to abandon his plans, he scoffs: “Do you think I give a damn about those pesky villagers?” So when Agatha finds his obituary in the newspaper two weeks later, it’s no surprise that some in town are feeling celebratory.

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik - Thriller

August 1, 2017

Stifled by a soul-crushing job, devastated by the death of her beloved brother, and lonely after the end of a 15-year marriage, Winifred Allen reluctantly agrees to join her three best friends on a high-octane getaway for their annual girls’ trip. What starts out as an invigorating hiking and rafting excursion soon becomes an all-too-real nightmare. A freak accident leaves the women stranded, separating them from their raft and everything they need to survive. A fire on the mountainside lures them to a ramshackle camp that appears to be their lifeline. But as Wini and her friends grasp the true intent of their supposed saviors, long-buried secrets emerge and lifelong allegiances are put to the test.

Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks - Fiction

August 1, 2017

Russell Green has it all: a stunning wife, a lovable six-year-old daughter, a successful career and an expansive home. But underneath the shiny surface of this perfect existence, fault lines are beginning to appear...and no one is more surprised than Russ when he finds every aspect of the life he took for granted turned upside down. In a matter of months, Russ finds himself without a job or wife, caring for his young daughter while struggling to adapt to a new and baffling reality. Throwing himself into the wilderness of single parenting, Russ embarks on a journey at once terrifying and rewarding --- one that will test his abilities and his emotional resources beyond anything he ever imagined.

The Vatican Princess: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia by C. W. Gortner - Historical Fiction

August 1, 2017

Glamorous and predatory, the Borgias fascinated and terrorized 15th-century Renaissance Italy, and Lucrezia Borgia, beloved daughter of the pope, was at the center of the dynasty’s ambitions. Slandered as a heartless seductress who lured men to their doom, was she in fact the villainess of legend, or was she trapped in a familial web, forced to choose between loyalty and survival? THE VATICAN PRINCESS is the first novel to describe Lucrezia’s coming-of-age in her own voice.

War Porn by Roy Scranton - Fiction

August 1, 2017

In WAR PORN, three lives fit inside one another like nesting dolls: a restless young woman at an end-of-summer barbecue in Utah; an American soldier in occupied Baghdad; and Qasim al-Zabadi, an Iraqi math professor, who faces the US invasion of his country with fear, denial and perseverance. As the book cuts from America to Iraq and back again, as home and hell merge, we come to see America through the eyes of the occupied, even as we see Qasim become a prisoner of the occupation. Through the looking glass of WAR PORN, Roy Scranton reveals the fragile humanity that connects Americans and Iraqis, torturers and the tortured, victors and their victims.

Wars of the Roses: Bloodline by Conn Iggulden - Historical Fiction

August 1, 2017

Winter, 1461: Richard, duke of York, is dead. King Henry VI is still held prisoner. His Lancastrian queen, Margaret of Anjou, rides south with an army of victorious northerners, accompanied by painted warriors from the Scottish Highlands. With the death of York, Margaret and her army seem unstoppable. Yet in killing the father, Margaret has unleashed the sons. Edward of March, now duke of York, proclaims himself England’s rightful king. Factions form and tear apart as snow falls. Through blood and treason, through broken men and vengeful women, brother shall confront brother, king shall face king. Two men can always claim a crown --- but only one can keep it.

Watching Edie by Camilla Way - Psychological Suspense

August 1, 2017

Edie was the kind of girl who immediately caused a stir when she walked into your life. Now, at 33, she is working as a waitress, pregnant and alone. When she becomes overwhelmed by the needs of her new baby and sinks into a bleak despair, she thinks that there’s no one to turn to. But someone has been watching Edie, waiting for the chance to prove once again what a perfect friend she can be. It’s no coincidence that Heather shows up on Edie’s doorstep, just when Edie needs her the most. Edie is about to learn a new lesson: Those who have hurt us deeply --- or who we have hurt --- never let us go, not entirely.