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Week of August 20, 2018

New in Paperback

Week of August 20, 2018

Paperback releases for the week of August 20th include A DISTANT VIEW OF EVERYTHING, the 11th installment in Alexander McCall Smith's series featuring Isabel Dalhousie, who is called upon to navigate complex social situations both at home and in her community; BEST DAY EVER, a psychological thriller from Kaira Rouda that forces us to ask ourselves just how well we know those who are closest to us; and IN THE MIDNIGHT ROOM by Laura McBride, which is about four vivid and complicated women in Las Vegas whose lives become connected by secrets, courage, tragedies and small acts of kindness.

Ararat by Christopher Golden - Supernatural Thriller

August 21, 2018

When an earthquake reveals a secret cave hidden inside Mount Ararat in Turkey, a daring, newly engaged couple are determined to be the first ones inside. The cave is actually an ancient, buried ship that many quickly come to believe is really Noah’s Ark. When a team of scholars, archaeologists and filmmakers make it inside the ark, they discover an elaborate coffin in its recesses. Inside the coffin they find an ugly, misshapen cadaver --- not the holy man they expected, but a hideous creature with horns. Shock and fear turn to horror when a massive blizzard blows in, trapping them thousands of meters up the side of a remote mountain. All they can do is pray for safety. But something wicked is listening to their prayers --- and it wants to answer.

Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda - Psychological Thriller

August 21, 2018

Paul Strom has the perfect life: a glittering career as an advertising executive, a beautiful wife, two healthy boys and a big house in a wealthy suburb. And he’s the perfect husband: breadwinner, protector, provider. That’s why he’s planned a romantic weekend for his wife, Mia, at their lake house, just the two of them. And he's promised today will be the best day ever. But as Paul and Mia drive out of the city and toward the countryside, a spike of tension begins to wedge itself between them and doubts start to arise. How much do they trust each other? And how perfect is their marriage, or any marriage, really?

A Distant View of Everything: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith - Mystery

August 21, 2018

A new baby brings an abundance of joy to Isabel Dalhousie and her husband, Jamie, but Charlie is none too keen on his newborn brother. Isabel must find a way to impress upon her older son the patience and understanding that have served as guiding principles in her own life. These are the very qualities that bring Bea Shandon, an old acquaintance of Isabel’s, to seek her help in a tricky situation. Bea introduced a wealthy female friend to a cosmetic surgeon at her most recent dinner party. Then new information comes to light about the surgeon that causes Bea to doubt his motives and the auspiciousness of the match. Isabel agrees to find out more, but as her enquiries take an unexpected turn, she starts to wonder whom exactly she should be investigating.

How to Behave in a Crowd by Camille Bordas - Fiction

August 21, 2018

Isidore Mazal is 11 years old, the youngest of six siblings living in a small French town. He doesn't quite fit in. Berenice, Aurore and Leonard are on track to have doctorates by age 24. Jeremie performs with a symphony, and Simone, older than Isidore by 18 months, expects a great career as a novelist --- she's already put Isidore to work on her biography. Isidore has never skipped a grade or written a dissertation. But he notices things the others don't and asks questions they fear to ask. So when tragedy strikes the Mazal family, Isidore is the only one to recognize how everyone is struggling with their grief, and perhaps the only one who can help them --- if he doesn't run away from home first.

In the Midnight Room by Laura McBride - Fiction

August 21, 2018

Fun-loving and rebellious, 21-year-old June Stein abandons the safe world of her New Jersey childhood for edgy 1950s Las Vegas. For the next 60 years, June will dare to live boldly. She will upend conventions, risk her heart and her life, rear a child, lose a child, love more than one man, and stand up for more than one woman. June’s story will intertwine with those of three unlikely strangers: a one-time mail-order bride from the Philippines, a high school music teacher, and a young mother from Mexico working as a hotel maid. Knit together around June’s explosive secret, they forge a future that none of them foresee.

Lights On, Rats Out: A Memoir by Cree LeFavour - Memoir

August 21, 2018

As a young college graduate a year into treatment with a psychiatrist, Cree LeFavour began to organize her days around the cruel, compulsive logic of self-harm. Her body was a canvas of cruelty; each scar a mark of pride and shame. The thrill of meeting with her psychiatrist, Dr. Adam N. Kohl --- whose relationship with Cree is at once sustaining and paralyzing --- comes to be the only bright spot in her days. LIGHTS ON, RATS OUT brings us closely into these years, recounting a fiercely bright and independent woman’s charged attachment to a mental health professional and the dangerous compulsion to keep him in her life at all costs.

The Locals by Jonathan Dee - Fiction

August 21, 2018

Mark Firth is a contractor and home restorer in Howland, Massachusetts, who feels opportunity passing his family by. After being swindled by a financial advisor, what future can Mark promise his wife and their young daughter? He finds himself envying the wealthy weekenders in his community whose houses sit empty all winter. Philip Hadi used to be one of these people. But in the nervous days after 9/11, he flees New York and hires Mark to turn his Howland home into a year-round “secure location” from which he can manage billions of dollars of other people’s money. The collision of these two men’s very different worlds --- rural vs. urban, middle class vs. wealthy --- is the engine of Jonathan Dee’s powerful novel.

LoveMurder by Saul Black - Thriller

August 21, 2018

When she’s called to the murder scene, the last thing San Francisco Homicide detective Valerie Hart is expecting is for Katherine Glass to walk back into her life. Six years earlier, revulsion and fascination had gripped the nation in equal measure, as Katherine had been convicted on six counts of Murder One. But the freshly mutilated corpse in the ground-floor apartment bears all the hallmarks of Katherine’s victims. And then there’s the note, with its chilling implications, addressed to Valerie. To stop the slaughter, Valerie must ask Katherine to help her decipher the killer’s twisted message. But that means re-entering the pitch-black labyrinth that is Katherine’s mind, and this time Valerie isn’t so sure which one of them will survive.