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January 5, 2016

January 5, 2016
Ringing in 2016 with New and Upcoming Releases --- and Bonus News!

Happy New Year!

In this first "On Sale This Week" newsletter of 2016, you will find books releasing the weeks of January 4th and January 11th that we think will be of interest to
Bookreporter.com readers.

This year, we are making a new addition to this newsletter: a Bonus News feature, calling out something we want to let you know about --- and do not want to wait until our Friday newsletter to share. This week, we are calling attention to two books that are my first "Bookreporter.com Bets On" titles of 2016. Going forward, we will select a book, a feature or a contest to spotlight, along with the fiction and nonfiction releases we are anticipating that you have come to expect from us in this newsletter. As always, more book news can be found in our Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletters. If you are not already signed up to receive these newsletters in your inbox every Friday, please click here and do so now.

Know a friend who you think may enjoy this newsletter? Then please forward it on to them!

Carol Fitzgerald ([email protected])

This Week's Bonus News: Two Upcoming "Bookreporter.com Bets On" Selections --- THE GUEST ROOM by Chris Bohjalian and AFTER THE CRASH by Michel Bussi
In the January 8th Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter, we will feature reviews of THE GUEST ROOM and AFTER THE CRASH, both of which are now in stores. You can read Carol's "Bookreporter.com Bets On" commentary for these two books in the January 15th Weekly Update newsletter.

THE GUEST ROOM by Chris Bohjalian (Fiction)
From the New York Times bestselling author of MIDWIVES and THE SANDCASTLE GIRLS comes the spellbinding tale of a party gone horribly wrong: two men lie dead in a suburban living room, two women are on the run from police, and a marriage is ripping apart at the seams.

-Read more about the book and an excerpt.
-Click here for the reading group guide.
-Click here for advance readers' comments.

AFTER THE CRASH by Michel Bussi (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Hailed as "a novel so extraordinary that it reminded me of reading Stieg Larsson for the very first time" (Sunday Times, UK), AFTER THE CRASH is a near-million copy bestseller in Europe --- centered on a tragic plane crash in the Alps and the mystery surrounding its only survivor, an infant girl.

-Read more about the book, an excerpt and critical praise.
-Click here for advance readers' comments.
On Sale the Week of January 4th in Hardcover

January 4th

ALIVE, ALIVE OH!: And Other Things That Matter by Diana Athill (Memoir/Essays)
Diana Athill charmed readers with her prize-winning memoir, SOMEWHERE TOWARDS THE END, which transformed her into an unexpected literary star. Now, on the eve of her 98th birthday, Athill has written a sequel every bit as unsentimental, candid and beguiling as her most beloved work. Writing from her cozy room in Highgate, London, Athill begins to reflect on the things that matter after a lifetime of remarkable experiences, and the memories that have risen to the surface and sustain her in her very old age.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393253719


January 5th

AFTER THE CRASH by Michel Bussi (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
A night flight from Istanbul bound for Paris, filled with 169 holiday travelers, plummets into the Swiss Alps. The sole survivor is a three-month-old girl who is thrown from the plane onto the snowy mountainside before fire rages through the aircraft. But two infants were on board. Is the miracle baby Lyse-Rose or Emilie? Both families step forward to claim the child --- one poor, one powerful, wealthy and dangerous.
Hachette Books * 9780316309677

BLACKOUT by David Rosenfelt (Thriller)
New Jersey state police officer Doug Brock has been after infamous criminal Nicholas Bennett for years. When Bennett kills someone close to Doug, Doug's investigation --- and his life --- starts spiraling out of control. It isn’t long before Doug is found in a hotel room, shot and in critical condition. When Doug finally awakens from his coma, he has no memory of the case, or even the last several years of his life. But the pull of what he might have discovered is too strong, and he finds himself immersed in a desperate search for truth once again, regardless of the danger.
Minotaur Books * 9781250055316

THE CINEMATIC LEGACY OF FRANK SINATRA by David Wills (Photography/Entertainment)
In THE CINEMATIC LEGACY OF FRANK SINATRA, author David Wills presents a stunning collection highlighting the work of one of Hollywood's greatest stars. Pairing more than 200 first-generation photos with reflections on Frank Sinatra from co-stars and work associates, and including contributing essays by his children, it is an unforgettable showcase of the actor's transformation from world-famous singer, to movie star, to Academy Award winner, and finally to one of the most enduring icons in cinema history.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250070807

CITY OF THORNS: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence (Current Affairs/Ethnic Studies)
Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of northern Kenya, Dadaab is a city like no other. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a first-hand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary. In CITY OF THORNS, Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the camp and to sketch the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there.
Picador * 9781250067630

THE CYCLOPS INITIATIVE: A Jim Chapel Mission by David Wellington (Thriller/Adventure)
Jim Chapel, the one-armed Special Forces soldier turned spy, is on the wrong side of the law. The person he trusts most in the world, the brilliant hacker known only as Angel, is suspected of terrorism. When his boss calls for Angel’s arrest, Chapel --- certain it’s a frame job --- has only one option: to go rogue. With the aid of old friends and his ex-lover, the search to find who framed Angel leads Chapel to a conspiracy with deep roots that shocks even this hardened veteran --- and a plan that will destroy the United States as we know it if it succeeds.
William Morrow * 9780062248831

THE FAMILY TREE: A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets, and My Search for the Truth by Karen Branan (History)
Harris County, Georgia, 1912. A white man, the beloved nephew of the county sheriff, is shot dead on the porch of a black woman. Days later, the sheriff sanctions the lynching of a black woman and three black men, all of them innocent. In trying to figure out what led to this unthinkable crime, Karen Branan --- the great-granddaughter of that sheriff --- was forced to confront her own deep-rooted beliefs surrounding race and family, a process that came to a head when she learned a shocking truth: she is related not only to the sheriff, but also to one of the four who were murdered.
Atria Books * 9781476717180

THE FIRST ORDER by Jeff Abbott (Thriller)
Two brothers. One dead, executed by extremists on a grainy video. The other forged into a top undercover agent. But now, Sam Capra has reason to believe that his brother, Danny, may be alive. His desperate search for Danny leads him into a modern heart of darkness: the Russian elite inner circle, a group of ruthless ex-KGB billionaires who owe fealty to Russia's corrupt president, Morozov. One of these men wants Morozov dead. And Danny will be the one to kill him --- on American soil.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455558414

FLOODPATH: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles by Jon Wilkman (History)
Just before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam, a 12-story-high concrete structure just 50 miles north of Los Angeles, suddenly collapsed, releasing a devastating flood that roared 53 miles to the Pacific Ocean, destroying everything in its path. What caused this unexpected catastrophe, and why are the facts largely missing from history books? With research gathered over more than two decades, award-winning writer and filmmaker Jon Wilkman revisits the deluge that claimed nearly 500 lives.
Bloomsbury Press * 9781620409152

THE GEOGRAPHY OF GENIUS: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places, from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley by Eric Weiner (Memoir/Travel)
In THE GEOGRAPHY OF GENIUS, acclaimed travel writer Eric Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. He explores the history of places --- like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley --- to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity. And he walks the same paths as the geniuses who flourished in these settings to see if the spirit of what inspired figures like Socrates, Michelangelo and Leonardo remains.
Simon & Schuster * 9781451691658

THE GUEST ROOM by Chris Bohjalian (Fiction)
When Kristin Chapman agrees to let her husband, Richard, host his brother’s bachelor party, she expects a certain amount of debauchery. What she does not expect is this: bacchanalian drunkenness, her husband sharing a dangerously intimate moment in the guest room, and two women stabbing and killing their Russian bodyguards before driving off into the night. In the aftermath, Kristin and Richard’s life rapidly spirals into nightmare.
Doubleday * 9780385538893

THE GUN written by Fuminori Nakamura, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell (Thriller)
On a nighttime walk along a Tokyo riverbank, a young man named Nishikawa stumbles on a dead body, beside which lies a gun. From the moment Nishikawa decides to take the gun, the world around him blurs. Knowing he possesses the weapon brings an intoxicating sense of purpose to his dull university life. But soon his personal entanglements become unexpectedly complicated. Through it all, he can’t stop thinking about the gun --- and the four bullets loaded in its chamber. As he spirals into obsession, his focus is consumed by one idea: that possessing the gun is no longer enough --- he must fire it.
Soho Crime * 9781616955908

MIDNIGHT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds by Pamela Rotner Sakamoto (History)
After their father’s death, Harry, Frank and Pierce Fukuhara moved to Hiroshima, their mother’s ancestral home. Eager to go back to America, Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Harry was sent to an internment camp until a call came for Japanese translators, and he dutifully volunteered to serve his country. Back in Hiroshima, Frank and Pierce became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army. Before the Fukuharas would have to face each other in battle, the U.S. detonated the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, gravely injuring tens of thousands of civilians, including members of their family.
Harper * 9780062351937

MR. SPLITFOOT by Samantha Hunt (Gothic Horror)
Ruth and Nat are orphans, packed into a house full of abandoned children run by a religious fanatic. To entertain their siblings, they channel the dead. Decades later, Ruth’s niece, Cora, finds herself accidentally pregnant. After years of absence, Aunt Ruth appears, mute and full of intention. She is on a mysterious mission, leading Cora on an odyssey across the entire state of New York on foot. Where is Ruth taking them? Where has she been? And who --- or what --- has she hidden in the woods at the end of the road?
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780544526709

NFL CONFIDENTIAL: True Confessions from the Gutter of Football by Johnny Anonymous
(Sports/Memoir)
In NFL CONFIDENTIAL, a current pro player takes fans on a pseudonymous trip through one of the most infamous years of football --- the very long, sometimes funny, often controversial 2013-2014 season --- sharing raucous, behind-the-scenes, on-the-field and in-the-locker-room truth about life in the National Football League.
Dey Street Books * 9780062422415

ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART by Ed Tarkington (Fiction)
Eight-year-old Rocky worships his older brother, Paul. One day, in an act of vengeance against their father, Paul picks up Rocky from school and nearly abandons him in the woods. Afterward, Paul disappears. Seven years later, Rocky has a lover: the wealthy neighbors’ daughter, 10 years his senior. Unbeknownst to both of them, their affair will set in motion a course of events that rains catastrophe on both their families. After a mysterious double murder brings terror and suspicion to their small town, Rocky and his family must reckon with the past and find out how much forgiveness their hearts can hold.
Algonquin Books * 9781616203825

THE PAST by Tessa Hadley (Fiction)
In Tessa Hadley’s latest novel, three sisters, a brother and their children assemble at their country house. These three weeks may be their last time there; the upkeep is prohibitive, and they could be forced to sell this beloved house filled with memories of their shared past (their mother took them there to live when she left their father). Yet beneath the idyllic pastoral surface, hidden passions, devastating secrets and dangerous hostilities threaten to consume them.
Harper * 9780062270412

THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL by Roberto Costantini (Mystery)
Teenager Michele Balistreri has suffered a succession of personal blows that will scar him for life --- none more so than an innocent blood pact he made as a teenager. Four decades later, journalist Linda Nardi is drawn to an irresistible story assignment: covering the collapse of Colonel Gaddafi's 42-year dictatorship. It is only a matter of time before Nardi's research and Balistreri's investigative work as a police commissario bring them into contact. Together they unearth a deadly conspiracy that neither of them will ever be able to forget.
Quercus * 9781623658816

SAILOR AND FIDDLER: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author by Herman Wouk (Memoir)
In the same year he has celebrated his 100th birthday, Herman Wouk finally reflects on the life experiences that inspired his most beloved novels. Written with the wisdom of a man who has lived through two centuries and the wit of someone who began his career as a professional comedy writer, the first part of Wouk’s memoir (“Sailor”) refers to his Navy experience and writing career, the second (“Fiddler”) to what he’s learned from living a life of faith.
Simon & Schuster * 9781501128547

SHAME AND WONDER: Essays by David Searcy (Essays)
The pieces in SHAME AND WONDER are born of a vast, abiding curiosity, one that has led David Searcy into some strange and beautiful territory, where old Uncle Scrooge comic books reveal profound truths and the vastness of space becomes an expression of pure love. Whether ruminating on an old El Camino pickup truck, those magical prizes lurking in the cereal boxes of our youth, or a lurid online ad for “Sexy Girls Near Dallas,” Searcy brings his unique blend of affection and suspicion to the everyday wonders that surround and seduce us.
Random House * 9780812993943

THE SOUND OF GRAVEL: A Memoir by Ruth Wariner (Memoir)
Ruth Wariner was the 39th of her father’s 42 children. After Ruth’s father is brutally murdered by his brother in a bid for church power, her mother remarries. In need of government assistance and supplemental income, Ruth and her siblings are carted back and forth between Mexico and the United States, where Ruth’s mother collects welfare and her stepfather works a variety of odd jobs. As she begins to doubt her family’s beliefs and question her mother’s choices, Ruth struggles to balance her fierce love for her siblings with her determination to forge a better life for herself.
Flatiron Books * 9781250077691

SPARK JOY: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (Self-Help/Inspirational)
Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo’s THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP has revolutionized homes --- and lives --- across the world. Now, Kondo presents an illustrated guide to her acclaimed KonMari Method, with step-by-step folding illustrations for everything from shirts to socks, plus drawings of perfectly organized drawers and closets. She also provides advice on frequently asked questions, such as whether to keep “necessary” items that may not bring you joy.
Ten Speed Press * 9781607749721

STORIES I TELL MYSELF: Growing Up with Hunter S. Thompson by Juan F. Thompson (Memoir)
From the outset, Hunter S. Thompson was the Wild Man of American journalism with a journalistic appetite that touched on subjects that drove his sense of justice and intrigue. He lived larger than life and pulled it up around him in a mad effort to make it as electric, anger-ridden and drug-fueled as possible. Now Juan Thompson tells the story of his father and of their getting to know each other during their 41 fraught years together. He writes of the many dark times, how far they ricocheted away from each other, and how they found their way back before it was too late.
Knopf * 9780307265357

WAR AT THE END OF THE WORLD: Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea, 1942-1945 by James P. Duffy (History)
New Guinea was a battleground far more deadly than the most fanatical of enemy troops. Japanese forces numbering some 600,000 men began landing in January 1942, determined to seize the island as a cornerstone of the Empire’s strategy to knock Australia out of the war. Allied Commander-in-Chief General Douglas MacArthur committed 340,000 Americans, as well as tens of thousands of Australian, Dutch and New Guinea troops, to retake New Guinea at all costs. What followed was a four-year campaign that involved some of the most horrific warfare in history.
NAL * 9780451418302


January 8th

FORTY THIEVES by Thomas Perry
(Thriller)
Last spring, a body was recovered from one of Los Angeles’s overwhelmed storm sewers. The victim was identified as James Ballantine, a middle-aged African-American who worked as a research scientist for a prestigious company. But two bullets to the back of the head looked like nothing if not foul play. Now, with the case turning cold, Ballantine’s former employers bring in detectives Sid and Ronnie Abel to succeed where the police have failed. Meanwhile, assassins-for-hire Ed and Nicole Hoyt’s mysterious contractors want to make sure that the facts about Ballantine’s death stay hidden.
Mysterious Press * 9780802124524
On Sale the Week of January 4th in Paperback

January 4th

MARCHING HOME: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War by Brian Matthew Jordan (History)
Following the Civil War, Union veterans --- tending rotting wounds, battling alcoholism, campaigning for paltry pensions --- tragically realized that they stood as unwelcome reminders to a new America eager to heal, forget and embrace the freewheeling bounty of the Gilded Age. Mining previously untapped archives, Civil War historian Brian Matthew Jordan uncovers anguished letters and diaries, essays by amputees, and gruesome medical reports, all deeply revealing of the American psyche.
Liveright * 9781631491467

WATERLOO: Wellington, Napoleon, and the Battle that Saved Europe by Gordon Corrigan (History)
The Duke of Wellington remarked that Waterloo was “a damned nice thing,” meaning uncertain or finely balanced. He was right. For his part, Napoleon reckoned “the English are bad troops and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast.” He was wrong, and this gripping and dramatic narrative history by veteran historian Gordon Corrigan shows just how wrong.
Pegasus * 9781605989396


January 5th

AMERICAN RECKONING: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity by Christian G. Appy (History)
How did the Vietnam War change the way we think of ourselves as a people and a nation? Christian G. Appy, author of the widely praised oral history of the Vietnam War, PATRIOTS, now examines the relationship between the war’s realities and myths, and its impact on our national identity, conscience, pride, shame, popular culture and postwar foreign policy.
Penguin Books * 9780143128342

ANGELS BURNING by Tawni O'Dell (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
When a girl is beaten to death, Chief Dove Carnahan is faced with solving the worst crime of her law enforcement career. She identifies the young lady as a daughter of the Truly family, a notoriously irascible dynasty of rednecks and petty criminals. During her investigation, the man convicted of killing Dove’s mother years earlier is released from prison. Still proclaiming his innocence, he approaches Dove with a startling accusation and a chilling threat that forces her to face the parallels between her own family’s trauma and that of the Trulys.
Gallery Books * 9781476755953

BLACK RIVER by S. M. Hulse (Western)
When Wes Carver returns to Black River, he carries two things in the cab of his truck: his wife’s ashes and a letter from the prison parole board. The convict who held him hostage during a riot 20 years ago is being considered for release. How can a man who once embodied evil ever come to good? How can he pay for such crimes with anything but his life? As Wes considers his own choices and grieves for all he’s lost, he must decide what he believes and if he can let Bobby Williams walk away.
Mariner Books * 9780544570238

BLOOD ON SNOW by Jo Nesbø (Thriller)
This is the story of Olav, an extremely talented “fixer” for one of Oslo’s most powerful crime bosses. But Olav is also an unusually complicated fixer. He has a capacity for love that is as far-reaching as is his gift for murder. He has an “innate talent for subordination,” but running through his veins is a “virus” born of the power over life and death. And while his latest job puts him at the pinnacle of his trade, it may be mutating into his greatest mistake.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard * 9780804172554

THE BURIED GIANT by Kazuo Ishiguro (Historical Fantasy/Adventure)
Kazuo Ishiguro, one of the best novelists working today, is also one of the most surprising. He has written drawing-room novels, dystopian fiction, surrealist works, and now a post-Arthurian tale of knights and ogres, of elderly villagers searching for their long-lost son, and of a she-dragon rumored to be the cause of a mist of forgetfulness that has plagued the land. As in past books, Ishiguro uses his story to meditate on memory and loss.
Vintage * 9780307455796

THE DAYLIGHT MARRIAGE by Heidi Pitlor (Fiction)
After a magical honeymoon, Hannah and Lovell settled in the suburbs to raise their two children. But over the years, their conversations have become charged with resentments and unspoken desires. Until, after one explosive argument, Hannah vanishes. As Lovell tries to piece together what happened to his wife --- and to their lives together --- readers follow Hannah through that single day when the smallest of decisions takes her to places she never intended to go.
Algonquin Books * 9781616205317

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW by Elisabeth de Mariaffi (Literary Thriller)
Rookie crime beat reporter Evie Jones is haunted by the unsolved murder of her best friend, Lianne Gagnon, who was killed in 1982, back when both girls were 11. The suspected killer, a repeat offender named Robert Cameron, was never arrested, leaving Lianne’s case cold. Now 21 and living alone for the first time, Evie is obsessively drawn to finding out what really happened to Lianne. She leans on another childhood friend, David Patton, for help --- but every clue they uncover seems to lead to an unimaginable conclusion.
Touchstone * 9781476779096

EMPIRE OF DECEPTION: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation by Dean Jobb (History/True Crime)
It was a time of unregulated madness. And nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. As Model Ts rumbled down Michigan Avenue, gang war shootings announced Al Capone’s rise to underworld domination. Bedecked partygoers thronged to the Drake Hotel’s opulent banquet rooms, corrupt politicians held court in thriving speakeasies, and the frenzy of stock market gambling was rampant. Enter a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz, who enticed hundreds of people to invest as much as $30 million in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama.
Algonquin Books * 9781616205355

THE EMPTY THRONE by Bernard Cornwell (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
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.
Harper Paperbacks * 9780062250728

EVERY DAY I FIGHT by Stuart Scott, with Larry Platt (Memoir)
Shortly before he passed away, on January 4, 2015, Stuart Scott completed work on this memoir. It was both a labor of love and a love letter to life itself. Struck by appendiceal cancer in 2007, Stuart endured countless surgeries, enervating chemotherapies, and endless shuttling from home to hospital to office and back. He continued to defy fate, pushing himself through exercises and workout routines that kept him strong. He wanted to be there for his teenage daughters, Sydni and Taelor, not simply as their dad, but as an immutable example of determination and courage.
Blue Rider Press * 9781101983171

FIRST FROST by Sarah Addison Allen (Fiction)
Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley’s Candies, though it’s costing her the everyday joys of her family. With each passing day, her half-sister, Sydney, longs more for a baby, while her daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she knows it belongs to…if only he could see it, too. When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before.
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250019851

HOUSE OF EIGHT ORCHIDS by James Thayer
(Historical Thriller)
Paperback Original
In 1912, John Wade and his brother, William --- children of the American consul --- were kidnapped off the street in Chungking, China, and raised in the house of Eunuch Chang, the city’s master criminal. Twenty-five years later, John is the eunuch’s most valuable ward, a trained assassin and swindler, and William has become a talented forger. On the brink of World War II, China is in chaos. When William betrays Eunuch Chang and escapes to central China --- a place of ferocious warlords and bandits --- John begins a desperate search to save his brother, while Eunuch Chang hunts them both.
Thomas & Mercer * 9781503948266

INSIDE THE O’BRIENS by Lisa Genova (Fiction)
A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their 20s, and respected police officer, Joe O'Brien begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s disease.
Gallery Books * 9781476717791

MAN AT THE HELM by Nina Stibbe (Fiction)
Soon after her parents' separation, nine-year-old Lizzie Vogel moves with her siblings and newly single mother to a tiny village in the English countryside, where the new neighbors are horrified by their unorthodox ways and fatherless household. Lizzie's theatrical mother only invites more gossip by spending her days drinking whiskey, popping pills and writing plays. The one way to fit in, the children decide, will be to find themselves a new man at the helm.
Back Bay Books * 9780316286701

A PLEASURE AND A CALLING by Phil Hogan (Psychological Thriller)
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.
Picador * 9781250081520

THE SECRET WISDOM OF THE EARTH by Christopher Scotton (Fiction)
The town of Medgar, Kentucky, is beset by a massive Mountaintop Removal operation that is blowing up the hills and back filling the hollows. Fourteen-year-old Kevin's grandfather and others in town attempt to rally the citizens against the “company” and its powerful owner to stop the plunder of their mountain heritage. When Kevin’s friend, Buzzy, witnesses the brutal murder of the opposition leader, a sequence is set in play that tests Buzzy and Kevin to their absolute limits in an epic struggle for survival in the Kentucky mountains.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455551910

SILENT CREED: A Ryder Creed Novel by Alex Kava (Thriller/Adventure)
Among the buildings consumed by a devastating mudslide in North Carolina was a top-secret government research facility, and Ryder Creed has been hired to find what’s left of it. Then rescuers recover the body of a scientist from the facility who was obviously dead before the landslide. The FBI sends Agent Maggie O’Dell to investigate, and she and Creed are soon caught in a web of lies, secrets and murder that may involve not only the government facility, but decades-old medical experiments that are the subject of current congressional hearings.
Putnam * 9780515155945

A SLANT OF LIGHT by Jeffrey Lent (Historical Fiction)
At the close of the Civil War, weary veteran Malcolm Hopeton returns to his home in western New York State to find his wife and hired man missing and his farm in disrepair. A double murder ensues, the repercussions of which ripple through a community with spiritual roots in the Second Great Awakening. Hopeton has gone from the horrors of war to those far worse, and arrayed around him are a host of other people struggling to make sense of his crime.
Bloomsbury USA * 9781620404980

STARS OVER SUNSET BOULEVARD by Susan Meissner (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Los Angeles, Present Day. When a hat worn by Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind ends up in Christine McAllister's vintage clothing boutique by mistake, her efforts to return it to its owner take her on a journey more enchanting than any classic movie. Los Angeles, 1938. Violet Mayfield goes to Hollywood after her dream of having a family falls apart. There, she meets enigmatic Audrey Duvall, a once-rising film star. Their adventures together among Hollywood's glitterati enthrall Violet...until each woman's deepest desires collide.
NAL * 9780451475992

THE SWEETHEART by Angelina Mirabella (Historical Fiction)
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.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476733906

THE TRAIN TO CRYSTAL CITY: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II by Jan Jarboe Russell (History)
Combining big-picture World War II history with a little-known event in American history that has long been kept quiet, THE TRAIN TO CRYSTAL CITY reveals the war-time hysteria against the Japanese and Germans in America, the secrets of FDR’s tactics to rescue high-profile POWs in Germany and Japan, and how the definition of American citizenship changed under the pressure of war.
Scribner * 9781451693676

TRUTH OR DIE by James Patterson and Howard Roughan (Thriller)
After a serious professional stumble, attorney Trevor Mann has found happiness with his girlfriend Claire Parker, a beautiful, ambitious journalist. But when Claire's newest story leads to a violent confrontation, Trevor's newly peaceful life is shattered as he tries to find out why. Chasing Claire's leads, Trevor unearths evidence of a shocking secret that --- if it actually exists --- every government and terrorist organization around the world would do anything to possess.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455584963

WAR OF THE ENCYCLOPAEDISTS by Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite (Fiction)
At 23, best friends Mickey Montauk and Halifax Corderoy had planned to move together to Boston for graduate school, but global events have intervened. Montauk has just learned that his National Guard unit will deploy to Baghdad at the end of the summer. Meanwhile, Corderoy’s girlfriend, Mani, has just been evicted, and he must decide whether or not to abandon her when she needs him most. He turns to Montauk for help. His decision that night, and its harrowing outcome, sets in motion a year that will transform all three of them.
Scribner * 9781476775432

WORLD GONE BY by Dennis Lehane (Historical Thriller)
Ten years have passed since Joe Coughlin’s enemies killed his wife and destroyed his empire, and much has changed. The former crime kingpin works as a consigliore to the Bartolo crime family, traveling between Tampa and Cuba, his wife’s homeland. He has everything --- money, power, a beautiful mistress and anonymity. But success cannot protect him from the dark truth of his past. Ultimately, the wages of a lifetime of sin will finally be paid in full.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062351814
On Sale the Week of January 11th in Hardcover

January 11th

LET THE PEOPLE RULE: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary by Geoffrey Cowan (History/Politics)
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt came out of retirement to challenge his close friend and handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican Party nomination. To overcome the power of the incumbent, TR seized on the idea of presidential primaries, telling bosses everywhere to “Let the People Rule.” The cheers and jeers of rowdy supporters and detractors echo from Geoffrey Cowan’s pages as he explores TR’s fight-to-the-finish battle to win popular support.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393249842


January 12th

AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE: Stories by Helen Ellis (Fiction/Short Stories)
Meet the women of AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE. They wear lipstick, pearls and sunscreen, even when it's cloudy. They casserole. They pinwheel. They pump the salad spinner like it's a CPR dummy. And then they kill a party crasher, carefully stepping around the body to pull cookies out of the oven. Helen Ellis’ 12 stories take us from a haunted prewar Manhattan apartment building to the set of a rigged reality television show; from the unique initiation ritual of a book club to the getaway car of a pageant princess on the lam; from the gallery opening of a tinfoil artist to the fitting room of a legendary lingerie shop.
Doubleday * 9780385541039

AND AGAIN by Jessica Chiarella (Dystopian/Science Fiction)
Four terminally ill patients have been selected for the SUBlife pilot program, which will grant them brand-new, genetically perfect bodies that are exact copies of their former selves --- without a single imperfection. But the fresh start they’ve been given is anything but perfect. Without their old bodies, their new physical identities have been lost. As each tries to re-enter their previous lives and relationships, they are faced with the question: How much of your identity rests not just in your mind, but in your heart?
Touchstone * 9781501116100

BESIDE MYSELF by Ann Morgan (Psychological Thriller)
Six-year-old Helen and Ellie are identical twins. But Helen is smarter, more popular and their mother's favorite, while Ellie requires special instruction at school, is friendless and is punished at every turn. Until they decide to swap places for a day, and Ellie refuses to switch back. The girl who used to be Helen loses her sense of self and withdraws into a spiral of behavioral problems, delinquency and mental illness. Twenty-five years later, she receives a call that threatens to pull her back into her sister's dangerous orbit. Will she take this chance to face her past?
Bloomsbury USA * 9781632864338

THE BITTER SEASON by Tami Hoag (Psychological Thriller)
Detective Sam Kovac is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a prominent university professor and his wife, bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Detective Nikki Liska’s case --- the unsolved murder of a decorated sex crimes detective --- is less of a distraction: Twenty five years later, there is little hope of finding the killer who got away. As the trails of two crimes a quarter of a century apart twist and cross, Kovac and Liska race to find answers before a killer strikes again.
Dutton * 9780525954552

THE CROOKED HOUSE by Christobel Kent (Psychological Thriller)
Alison lives her life under the radar. She has no ties, no home, and she spends her days at a backroom publishing job. Which is how she wants it. Because Alison used to be a teenager named Esme, who was the only survivor in a brutal attack on her family. In order to escape from the horror she witnessed, she moved away from her village, changed her name and cut herself off from her past. But soon Alison realizes that that night's events have left a terrible mark on everyone in the village, and she begins to suspect they are all somehow implicated in her family's murder.
Sarah Crichton Books * 9780374131821

THE DEFENDER: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America by Ethan Michaeli (History)
Giving voice to the voiceless, the Chicago Defender condemned Jim Crow, catalyzed the Great Migration and focused the electoral power of black America. Robert S. Abbott founded The Defender in 1905, smuggled hundreds of thousands of copies into the most isolated communities in the segregated South, and was dubbed a "Modern Moses," becoming one of the first black millionaires in the process. Drawing on dozens of interviews and extensive archival research, Ethan Michaeli brings to life the reporters who braved lynch mobs and policemen’s clubs to do their jobs.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780547560694

DICTATOR by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
At the age of 48, Cicero --- the greatest orator of his time --- is in exile, separated from his wife and children, tormented by his sense of failure, his great power sacrificed on the altar of his principles. And yet, in the words of one of his most famous aphorisms, “While there is life, there is hope.” By promising to support Caesar --- his political enemy --- he is granted return to Rome, where he fights his way back to prominence. Even so, no public figure, however brilliant and cunning, is completely safeguarded against the unscrupulous ambition and corruption of others.
Knopf * 9780307957948

THE DOGS OF LITTLEFIELD by Suzanne Berne (Fiction)
Littlefield, Massachusetts, named one of the Ten Best Places to Live in America, is proud of its fine schools, girls’ soccer teams, leafy streets and charming village center. Yet no sooner has sociologist Dr. Clarice Watkins arrived to study the elements of “good quality of life” than someone begins poisoning the town’s dogs. Are the poisonings in protest to an off-leash proposal for Baldwin Park --- the subject of much town debate --- or the sign of a far deeper disorder? Certainly these types of things don’t happen in Littlefield.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476794242

THE DRESSMAKER'S WAR by Mary Chamberlain (Historical Fiction)
In London, 1939, Ada Vaughan is a young woman with an unusual dressmaking skill and dreams of a better life for herself. That life seems to arrive when Stanislaus, an Austrian aristocrat, sweeps Ada off her feet and brings her to Paris. When war breaks out, Stanislaus vanishes and Ada is taken prisoner by the Germans, she must do everything she can to survive: by becoming dressmaker to the Nazi wives. Abandoned and alone as war rages, the choices Ada makes will come back to haunt her years later, as the truth of her experience is twisted and distorted after the war.
Random House * 9780812997378

THE DRIFTER by Nicholas Petrie (Thriller)
Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: the buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming in nature. But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man’s widow with some home repairs. Under her dilapidated porch, he finds a Samsonite suitcase stuffed with cash and explosives. As Ash begins to investigate this unexpected discovery, he finds himself at the center of a plot that is far larger than he could have imagined.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399174568

EVEN THE DEAD: A Quirke Novel by Benjamin Black (Historical Mystery)
Quirke’s daughter, Phoebe, gets a mysterious visit from an acquaintance: the woman, who admits to being pregnant, says she fears for her life, though she won't say why. When the woman later disappears, Phoebe asks her father for help, and Quirke in turn seeks the assistance of his old friend Inspector Hackett. Before long, the two men find themselves untangling a twisted string of events that takes them deep into a shadowy world where one of the city's most powerful men uses the cover of politics and religion to make obscene profits.
Henry Holt and Co. * 9781627790666

THE EXPATRIATES by Janice Y.K. Lee (Fiction)
Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate, is adrift, undone by a terrible incident in her recent past. Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her struggle to have a child, something she believes could save her foundering marriage. Meanwhile, Margaret, once a happily married mother of three, questions her maternal identity in the wake of a shattering loss. As each woman struggles with her own demons, their lives collide in ways that have irreversible consequences for them all.
Viking * 9780525429470

FALLEN LAND by Taylor Brown (Historical Fiction)
Callum, a seasoned horse thief at 15 years old, came to America from his native Ireland as an orphan. Ava, her father and brother lost to the war, hides in her crumbling home until Callum determines to rescue her from the bands of hungry soldiers pillaging the land. Ava and Callum have only each other in the world and their remarkable horse, Reiver, who carries them through the destruction that is the South. Pursued relentlessly by a murderous slave hunter, tracking dogs and ruthless ex-partisan rangers, the couple race through a beautiful but ruined land, surviving on food they glean from abandoned farms and the occasional kindness of strangers.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250077974

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S JOURNEY: The President Forges a New Nation by T.H. Breen (History)
During his first term as president, George Washington decided that the only way to fulfill the Revolution was to take the new federal government directly to the people. He organized an extraordinary journey carrying him to all 13 states. If the nation fragmented, as it had almost done after the war, it could never become the strong, independent nation for which Washington had fought. In scores of communities, he communicated a powerful and enduring message --- that America was now a nation, not a loose collection of states. And the people responded to his invitation in ways that he never could have predicted.
Simon & Schuster * 9781451675429

THE GILDED RAZOR: A Memoir by Sam Lansky (Memoir)
By the age of 17, Sam Lansky was an all-star student with Ivy League aspirations in his final year at an elite New York City prep school. But a nasty addiction to prescription pills spiraled rapidly out of control, compounded by a string of reckless affairs with older men, leaving his bright future in jeopardy. After a terrifying overdose, he tried to straighten out. Yet as he journeyed from the glittering streets of Manhattan, to a wilderness boot camp in Utah, to a psych ward in New Orleans, he only found more opportunities to create chaos --- until finally, he began to face himself.
Gallery Books * 9781476776149

THE GIRLS SHE LEFT BEHIND: A Lizzie Snow Novel by Sarah Graves (Mystery/Thriller)
After 10 years as a captive of kidnapper Henry Gemmerle, Joan Crimmins eludes the media and spurns the family who failed to search for her. Instead, she settles in the remote Maine town of Bearkill. But when Gemmerle flees a prison clinic and a 16-year-old Bearkill girl vanishes, Aroostook County Sheriff’s deputy Lizzie Snow knows that Joan’s painful past has just become another young woman’s horrifying future.
Bantam * 9780553390438

THE GOOD GOODBYE by Carla Buckley (Psychological Suspense)
Natalie Falcone gets a phone call every mother dreads: It’s from a hospital emergency room in the town where her daughter, Arden, attends college. Arden has been in a fire, along with Natalie’s niece, Rory --- her estranged brother-in-law's daughter and Arden’s best friend. Natalie rushes to the hospital and learns that both Arden and Rory lie unconscious, and that another student has died in the blaze. The case unearths a portrait of a complex friendship, a love triangle, a fight, and a girl who was struggling more than anyone realized.
Ballantine Books * 9780553390582

HUNTERS IN THE DARK by Lawrence Osborne (Literary Thriller)
Adrift in Cambodia and eager to side-step a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher, 28-year-old Englishman Robert Grieve decides to go missing. As he crosses the border from Thailand, he tests the threshold of a new future. And on that first night, a small windfall precipitates a chain of events --- involving a bag of “jinxed” money, a suave American, a trunk full of heroin, a hustler taxi driver, and a rich doctor’s daughter --- that changes Robert’s life forever.
Hogarth * 9780553447347

I AM YOUR JUDGE written by Nele Neuhaus, translated by Steven T. Murray (Mystery)
An elderly woman has been shot and killed while walking her dog. A short while later, another murder is committed, and the modus operandi is eerily similar. Two more murders follow in short order. None of the victims had enemies, and no one knows why they were singled out. As fear of the Taunus Sniper grows among the local residents, the pressure rises on Police Detective Pia Kirchhoff. She and her partner, Oliver von Bodenstein, search for a suspect who appears to murder at will, but as the investigation progresses, the police officers uncover a human tragedy.
Minotaur Books * 9781250071682

THE LIGHTKEEPERS by Abby Geni (Mystery)
Miranda is a nature photographer who travels to the Farallon Islands, an exotic and dangerous archipelago off the coast of California, for a one-year residency capturing the landscape. Her only companions are the scientists studying there, odd and quirky refugees from the mainland living in rustic conditions. Shortly after her arrival, Miranda is assaulted by one of the inhabitants of the islands. A few days later, her assailant is found dead, perhaps the result of an accident. When more violence occurs, each member of this strange community falls under suspicion.
Counterpoint * 9781619026001

THE LONGEST NIGHT by Andria Williams (Historical Fiction)
In 1959, Nat Collier moves with her husband, Paul, and their two young daughters to Idaho Falls, a remote military town. An Army Specialist, Paul is stationed there to help oversee one of the country’s first nuclear reactors --- an assignment that seems full of opportunity. Then, on his rounds, Paul discovers that the reactor is compromised, placing his family and the entire community in danger. Worse, his superiors set out to cover up the problem rather than fix it. Paul can’t bring himself to tell Nat the truth, but his lies only widen a growing gulf between them.
Random House * 9780812997743

THE LOST TUDOR PRINCESS: The Life of Lady Margaret Douglas by Alison Weir (Biography)
THE LOST TUDOR PRINCESS is the first biography of Margaret Douglas, the beautiful, cunning niece of Henry VIII of England who used her sharp intelligence and covert power to influence the succession after the death of Elizabeth I. Drawing on decades of research and myriad original sources --- including many of Margaret’s surviving letters --- Alison Weir brings this captivating character out of the shadows and presents a strong, capable woman who operated effectively and fearlessly at the very highest levels of power.
Ballantine Books * 9780345521392

MY NAME IS LUCY BARTON by Elizabeth Strout (Fiction)
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, and her love for her two daughters.
Random House * 9781400067695

ORCHARD GROVE by Vincent Zandri (Thriller)
Orchard Grove is a town like any other, with quiet neighborhoods and apple groves…though Ethan, the depressed screenplay writer, and his secretive wife, Susan, would tell you differently. So would the seductive serial killer living next door. The apple trees are fertilized with evil, and the backyard fences aren’t enough to stop the manipulative mind games and dangerous lies. The lines between good and evil are blurred, and then erased, as Ethan does what it takes to survive.
Polis Books * 9781940610788

THE OTHER ME by Saskia Sarginson (Fiction)
1986, London. Klaudia is about to start high school. She's embarrassed by her German father, never knowing what he may or may not have done during the war. In 1995 Leeds, Eliza is a young woman in love --- with her life as a dance student, and with her boyfriend Cosmo. She’s living a lie, though, running away from a past of which she was always ashamed. When her mother dies and she’s called home, Eliza can no longer deny her roots, even if it will cost her everything.
Flatiron Books * 9781250089137

ROSALIE LIGHTNING: A Graphic Memoir by Tom Hart (Graphic Memoir)
ROSALIE LIGHTNING is Eisner-nominated cartoonist Tom Hart's beautiful and touching graphic memoir about the untimely death of his young daughter, Rosalie. His heartbreaking and emotional illustrations strike readers to the core, and take them along his family's journey through loss. Hart uses the graphic form to articulate his and his wife's ongoing search for meaning in the aftermath of Rosalie's death, exploring themes of grief, hopelessness, rebirth and eventually finding hope again.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250049940

SCANDALOUS BEHAVIOR: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller)
After a series of nonstop adventures, Stone Barrington is eager for some peace and quiet in a rustic British setting. But no sooner does he land in England than he’s beset by an outrageous demand from a beautiful lady, and an offer he can’t refuse. Unfortunately, Stone quickly learns that his new acquisition comes with some undesired strings attached --- namely, a deadly mystery involving the complex relationships of the local gentry, and a relentless adversary who raises the stakes with every encounter.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399174681

SUPERNOTES written by Agent Kasper and Luigi Carletti, translated by John Cullen
(Thriller)
While investigating Mafia money laundering in Phnom Penh, Agent Kasper is approached by the CIA to track down the source of the so-called supernotes --- illegal U.S. banknotes counterfeited so perfectly that they are undetectable, even by sophisticated machines --- that are flooding Southeast Asia. With patience, skill and courage, Kasper uncovers the explosive secret behind them and is badly burned by the truth. Meanwhile, back in Rome, a sharp, scrappy lawyer named Barbara Belli has been hired by Kasper’s family to work for his release.
Nan A. Talese * 9780385540070

THIS CENSUS-TAKER by China Miéville (Paranormal/Urban Fantasy)
In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries --- and fails --- to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend, enemy…or something else altogether?
Del Rey * 9781101967324

WHAT SHE LEFT by T.R. Richmond (Psychological Thriller)
On a snowy February morning, the body of 25-year-old journalist Alice Salmon washes up on a riverbank south of London. Professor Jeremy Cooke, who taught Alice, embarks on a final project --- a book documenting Alice’s life through the digital and paper trails that survive her. Bit by bit, the real Alice --- a complicated and vulnerable young woman --- springs fully formed from the pages of his book…along with a labyrinth of misunderstandings, lies and secrets that cast suspicion on everyone in her circle --- including Jeremy himself.
Simon & Schuster * 9781476773841

WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR by Paul Kalanithi (Memoir)
At the age of 36, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. WHEN BREATH BECOMES AIR chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.
Random House * 9780812988406

YOUR HEART IS A MUSCLE THE SIZE OF A FIST by Sunil Yapa (Fiction)
On a rainy, cold day in November, young Victor sets out to sell as much marijuana as possible to the throng of WTO demonstrators determined to shut down the city. With the proceeds, he plans to buy a plane ticket and leave Seattle forever, but it quickly becomes clear that the history-making 50,000 anti-globalization protestors are testing the patience of the police, and what started out as a peaceful protest is threatening to erupt into violence. Over the course of one life-altering afternoon, the fates of seven people will change forever.
Lee Boudreaux Books * 9780316386531
On Sale the Week of January 11th in Paperback


January 11th

THE ANIMALS by Christian Kiefer (Literary Thriller)
Bill Reed manages a wildlife sanctuary in rural Idaho, caring for injured animals that are unable to survive in the wild. Seemingly rid of his troubled past, Bill hopes to marry the local veterinarian and live a quiet life together, the promise of which is threatened when a childhood friend is released from prison. Suddenly forced to confront the secrets of his criminal youth, Bill battles fiercely to preserve the shelter that protects these wounded animals and to keep hidden his turbulent, even dangerous, history.
Liveright * 9781631491498


January 12th

THE 8th CIRCLE by Sarah Cain (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A year ago, Danny Ryan lost his wife and son in a car accident. He's still reeling from the tragedy when Michael Cohen, his friend and fellow journalist, drives into the pond in front of his house with a bullet through his gut. With Michael's death ruled a murder, Danny must work to get his name crossed off the list of suspects, and that means digging into Michael's last article, an exposé of the twisted side of Philadelphia politics. But powerful people are ready to kill to protect what Michael was about to uncover. If Danny isn’t careful, he'll be next.
Crooked Lane Books * 9781629534855

AQUARIUM by David Vann (Fiction)
Caitlin lives alone with her mother in subsidized housing next to an airport in Seattle. Each day, while waiting to be picked up after school, she visits the local aquarium to study the fish. Gazing at the creatures within the watery depths, she accesses a shimmering universe beyond her own. When she befriends an old man at the tanks one day, who seems as enamored of the fish as she, Caitlin cracks open a dark family secret and propels her once-blissful relationship with her mother toward a precipice of terrifying consequence.
Grove Press * 9780802124791

DEATH OF A KING: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Final Year by Tavis Smiley, with David Ritz (History)
Martin Luther King, Jr. died in one of the most shocking assassinations the world has known, but little is remembered about the life he led in his final year. New York Times bestselling author and award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley recounts the final 365 days of King's life, revealing the minister's trials and tribulations, all of which he had to rise above in order to lead and address the racism, poverty and militarism that threatened to destroy our democracy.
Back Bay Books * 9780316332774

DOCTOR DEATH: A Madeleine Karno Mystery by Lene Kaaberbøl (Historical Mystery)
When 17-year-old Cecile Montaine is found dead, her family will not permit a full post-mortem autopsy. Madeleine Karno and her pathologist father are left with a single mysterious clue: in the dead girl’s nostrils is a type of parasite normally seen only in dogs. Soon after, the priest who held vigil by the dead girl’s corpse is brutally murdered. The thread that connects these two events is a tangled one, and as the death toll mounts, Madeleine must seek knowledge in odd places.
Atria Books * 9781476731391

DOUBLE DOUBLE: A Dual Memoir of Alcoholism by Martha Grimes and Ken Grimes (Memoir)
People who suffer from alcoholism as well as their families and friends know that while it is possible to get sober, there is no one “right” way to do this. Now, award-winning mystery writer Martha Grimes and her son, Ken Grimes, offer two points of view on their struggles with alcoholism. In alternating chapters, they share their stories --- stories of drinking, recovery, relapse, friendship, travel, work, success and failure.
Scribner * 9781476724102

EARLY WARNING by Jane Smiley (Historical Fiction)
EARLY WARNING opens in 1953 with the Langdon family at a crossroads. Their stalwart patriarch, Walter, has suddenly died, leaving their five children, now adults, looking to the future. As the country moves out of post-World War II optimism through the darker landscape of the Cold War and the social and sexual revolutions of the 1960s and ’70s, and then into the unprecedented wealth (for some) of the early 1980s, the Langdon children each follow a different path in a rapidly changing world.
Anchor * 9780307744814

A GOD IN RUINS by Kate Atkinson (Historical Fiction)
Kate Atkinson's LIFE AFTER LIFE explored the possibility of infinite chances and the power of choices, following Ursula Todd as she lived through the turbulent events of the last century over and over again. A GOD IN RUINS tells the dramatic story of the 20th century through Ursula's beloved younger brother, Teddy --- would-be poet, heroic pilot, husband, father and grandfather --- as he navigates the perils and progress of a rapidly changing world.
Back Bay Books * 9780316176507

INSIDE A SILVER BOX by Walter Mosley (Speculative Fiction)
Two people brought together by a horrific act are united in a common cause by the powers of the Silver Box. They join to protect humanity from destruction by an alien race, the Laz, hell-bent on regaining control over the Silver Box, the most destructive and powerful tool in the universe. The Silver Box will stop at nothing to prevent its former master from returning to being, even if it means finishing the earth itself.
Tor Books * 9780765375223

KILLER, COME HITHER by Louis Begley (Thriller)
A horrified and incredulous Jack Dana digs into the facts surrounding the death of his uncle Harry of an apparent suicide. Aided by Harry’s most trusted associate, Kerry Black, and by his college friend Scott Prentice, who now works for the CIA, Jack discovers that Harry had pierced the secret of his most important client, Abner Brown, a right-wing multibillionaire notorious for backing extremist causes. The stakes and dangers are huge. Harry’s death now seems anything but a suicide.
Ballantine Books * 9780553392449

LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME by Alexandra Fuller (Memoir)
LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME begins with the dreadful first years of the American financial crisis when Alexandra Fuller’s delicate balance --- between American pragmatism and African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox marriage --- irrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambia, Fuller struggles to understand her younger self as she overcomes her current misfortunes. She soon realizes what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father.
Penguin Books * 9780143128427

THE LIFE I LEFT BEHIND by Colette McBeth (Mystery/Thriller)
Six years ago, Melody Pieterson was attacked and left for dead. Her neighbor and close friend, David Alden, was found guilty of the crime and imprisoned. Soon after David is released from prison, Eve Elliot is murdered in an attack almost identical to Melody’s. But as she learns more about Eve's murder, Melody starts to wonder if perhaps David hadn’t betrayed her after all...if perhaps the killer is someone else entirely, someone who’s still out there, preparing to strike again.
Minotaur Books * 9781250041234

MISSOULA: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (True Crime)
Jon Krakauer chronicles the searing experiences of several women in Missoula --- the nights when they were raped; their fear and self-doubt in the aftermath; the way they were treated by the police, prosecutors and defense attorneys; the public vilification and private anguish; their bravery in pushing forward and what it cost them. Krakauer’s dispassionate, carefully documented account of what these ladies endured cuts through the abstract ideological debate about campus rape.
Anchor * 9780804170567

WRITTEN IN FIRE: Book Three of The Brilliance Trilogy by Marcus Sakey (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Paperback Original

For 30 years, humanity struggled to cope with the brilliants, the one percent of people born with remarkable gifts. Now the White House is a smoking ruin. Madison Square Garden is an internment camp. In Wyoming, an armed militia of thousands marches toward a final, apocalyptic battle. Nick Cooper has spent his life fighting for his children and his country. Now, as the world staggers on the edge of ruin, he must risk everything he loves to face his oldest enemy --- a brilliant terrorist so driven by his ideals that he will sacrifice humanity’s future to achieve them.
Thomas & Mercer * 9781477827642


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