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Week of November 4, 2019

New in Paperback

Week of November 4, 2019

Paperback releases for the week of November 4th include Jonathan Kellerman's THE WEDDING GUEST, a gripping psychological thriller in which psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis unravel a shocking crime at a raucous wedding reception; QUEENIE, debut author Candice Carty-Williams' disarmingly honest, boldly political and truly inclusive novel that will speak to anyone who has gone looking for love and found something very different in its place; THE DREAMERS by Karen Thompson Walker, a mesmerizing work of fiction in which an ordinary town is transformed by a mysterious illness that triggers perpetual sleep; BOWLAWAY, award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken's sweeping and enchanting novel about three generations of an unconventional New England family who own and operate a candlepin bowling alley; and THE MAYFLOWER, Rebecca Fraser's vivid narrative history of the Mayflower and of the Winslow family, who traveled to America in search of a new world.

The Adults by Caroline Hulse - Fiction/Humor

November 5, 2019

Claire and Matt are no longer together but decide that it would be best for their daughter, Scarlett, to have a “normal” family Christmas. They can’t agree on whose idea it was to go to the Happy Forest holiday park, or who said they should bring their new partners. But someone did, and it’s too late to pull the plug. Claire brings her new boyfriend, Patrick, a seemingly sensible, eligible from a distance Ironman in Waiting. Matt brings the new love of his life, Alex, who’s funny, smart and extremely patient. They all drink a little too much after Scarlett’s bedtime, overshare classified secrets about their pasts…and before you know it, their holiday is a powder keg that ends where this novel begins --- with a tearful, frightened call to the police.

An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen - Psychological Thriller

November 5, 2019

Looking to earn some easy cash, Jessica Farris agrees to be a test subject in a psychological study about ethics and morality. But as the study moves from the exam room to the real world, the line between what is real and what is one of Dr. Shields’ experiments blurs. Dr. Shields seems to know what Jess is thinking…and what she’s hiding. Jessica’s behavior will not only be monitored, but manipulated. Caught in a web of attraction, deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.

Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard - Memoir

November 5, 2019

AUTUMN begins with a letter Karl Ove Knausgaard writes to his unborn daughter, showing her what to expect of the world. He writes one short piece per day, describing the material and natural world with the precision and mesmerizing intensity that have become his trademark. He describes with acute sensitivity daily life with his wife and children in rural Sweden, drawing upon memories of his own childhood to give an inimitably tender perspective on the precious and unique bond between parent and child. The sun, wasps, jellyfish, eyes, lice --- the stuff of everyday life is the fodder for his art. Nothing is too small or too vast to escape his attention. Through close observation of the objects and phenomena around him, Knausgaard shows us how vast, unknowable and wondrous the world is.

The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco - Historical Mystery

November 5, 2019

It is 1887, and Alma Rosales is on the hunt for stolen opium. Trained in espionage by the Pinkerton Detective Agency --- but dismissed for bad behavior and a penchant for going undercover as a man --- Alma now works for Delphine Beaumond, the seductive mastermind of a West Coast smuggling ring. When product goes missing at their Washington Territory outpost, Alma is tasked with tracking the thief and recovering the drugs. She’s enjoying her dangerous game of shifting identities and double crosses as she fights for a promotion and an invitation back into Delphine’s bed. But it’s getting harder and harder to keep her cover stories straight and to know whom to trust.

Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken - Historical Fiction

November 5, 2019

From the day she is discovered unconscious in a New England cemetery at the turn of the 20th century, Bertha Truitt is an enigma to everyone in Salford, Massachusetts. She has no past to speak of, or at least none she is willing to reveal, and her mysterious origin scandalizes and intrigues the townspeople, as does her choice to marry and start a family with Leviticus Sprague, the doctor who revived her. But Bertha is plucky, tenacious and entrepreneurial, and the bowling alley she opens quickly becomes Salford’s most defining landmark. When Bertha dies in a freak accident, her past resurfaces in the form of a heretofore-unheard-of son, who arrives in Salford claiming he is the heir apparent to Truitt Alleys.

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams - Romantic Comedy

November 5, 2019

Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife, Thea, has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him. Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.

The Chef by James Patterson with Max DiLallo - Thriller

November 5, 2019

In the Carnival days leading up Mardi Gras, Detective Caleb Rooney comes under investigation for a murder he is accused of committing in the line of duty --- as a Major Crimes detective for the New Orleans Police Department. Has his sideline at the Killer Chef food truck given him a taste for murder? While fighting the charges against him, Rooney makes a pair of unthinkable discoveries. His beloved city is under threat of attack. And these would-be terrorists may be local. As crowds of revelers gather, Rooney follows a fearsome trail of clues, racing from outlying districts into city center. He has no idea what --- or who --- he'll face in defense of his beloved hometown, only that innocent lives are at stake.

The Current by Tim Johnston - Thriller

November 5, 2019

In the dead of winter, state troopers pull two young women and their car from an icy river. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene --- half frozen but alive. What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community’s memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river 10 years earlier, and whose killer may still live among them. Determined to find answers, the surviving young woman soon realizes that she’s connected to the earlier unsolved case by more than just a river. The deeper she plunges into her own investigation, the closer she comes to dangerous truths, and to the violence that simmers just below the surface of her hometown.

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker - Fiction

November 5, 2019

One night in an isolated college town, a first-year student stumbles into her dorm room, falls asleep --- and doesn’t wake up. Her roommate, Mei, cannot rouse her. Neither can the paramedics, nor the perplexed doctors at the hospital. When a second girl falls asleep, and then a third, Mei finds herself thrust together with an eccentric classmate as panic takes hold of the college and spreads to the town. A young couple tries to protect their newborn baby as the once-quiet streets descend into chaos. Two sisters turn to each other for comfort as their survivalist father prepares for disaster. Those affected by the illness are displaying unusual levels of brain activity, higher than has ever been recorded before. They are dreaming heightened dreams --- but of what?

Elsey Come Home by Susan Conley - Fiction

November 5, 2019

When Elsey's husband, Lukas, hands her a brochure for a weeklong mountain retreat, she knows he is really giving her an ultimatum: Go, or we’re done. Once a successful painter, Elsey set down roots in China after falling in love with Lukas. Now, with two young daughters and unable to find a balance between her identities as artist, mother and wife, Elsey fills her days worrying, drinking and descending into boredom and unhappiness. So she agrees to go. There, she meets a group of men and women who will forever alter the way she understands herself, and help her to finally embark on a journey to address her own pain and find her way back to her marriage.

Evening in Paradise: More Stories by Lucia Berlin - Fiction/Short Stories

November 5, 2019

In 2015, Farrar, Straus and Giroux published A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN, a posthumous story collection by a relatively unknown writer, to widespread acclaim. The book’s author, Lucia Berlin, earned comparisons to Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Alice Munro and Anton Chekhov. EVENING IN PARADISE is a careful selection from Berlin’s remaining stories --- 22 gems that showcase the gritty glamour that made readers fall in love with her. From Texas to Chile, Mexico to New York City, Berlin finds beauty in the darkest places and darkness in the seemingly pristine.

Forever and a Day: A James Bond Novel by Anthony Horowitz - Thriller

November 5, 2019

FOREVER AND A DAY is the story of the birth of a legend, in the brutal underworld of the French Riviera, taking readers into the very beginning of James Bond’s illustrious career and the formation of his identity. The sea keeps its secrets. But not this time. One body. Three bullets. 007 floats in the waters of Marseille, killed by an unknown hand. It’s time for a new agent to step up. Time for a new weapon in the war against organized crime. It’s time for James Bond to earn his license to kill.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert - Romantic Comedy

November 5, 2019

After almost --- but not quite --- dying, Chloe Brown has come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life” and already has completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items? Enjoy a drunken night out. Ride a motorcycle. Go camping. Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex. Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage. And...do something bad. But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher. Redford “Red” Morgan is a handyman and an artist who Chloe spies on occasionally. But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her.

The Kinship of Secrets by Eugenia Kim - Historical Fiction

November 5, 2019

In 1948, Najin and Calvin Cho, with their young daughter Miran, travel from South Korea to the United States in search of new opportunities. Wary of the challenges they know will face them, Najin and Calvin make the difficult decision to leave their infant daughter, Inja, behind with their extended family; soon, they hope, they will return to her. But then war breaks out in Korea, and there is no end in sight to the separation. Miran grows up in prosperous American suburbia, under the shadow of the daughter left behind, as Inja grapples in her war-torn land with ties to a family she doesn’t remember. Najin and Calvin desperately seek a reunion with Inja, but are the bonds of love strong enough to reconnect their family over distance, time and war?

Last Night: A Searchers Novel by Karen Ellis - Thriller

November 5, 2019

One of the few black kids on his Brighton Beach block, Titus "Crisp" Crespo was raised by his white mother and his Russian grandparents. Crisp has always been the odd kid out, but a fundamentally good kid, with a bright future. But one impulsive decision triggers a horrible domino effect --- an arrest, no reason not to accompany his richer, whiter friend Glynnie on a visit to her weed dealer, and a trip onto his father's old home turf where he'll face certain choices he's always strived to avoid. As Detective Lex Cole tries to unravel the clues from Crisp's night out, they both find that what you don't know about your past can still come back to haunt you.

Master of His Fate by Barbara Taylor Bradford - Historical Fiction

November 5, 2019

Victorian England is a country of sharp divides between rich and poor, but James Lionel Falconer, who spends his days working at his father’s market stall, is determined to become a merchant prince. Even as a child, he is everything a self-made man should be: handsome, ambitious, charming and brimming with self-confidence. James quickly rises through the ranks, proving himself both hardworking and trustworthy, and catching the eye of Henry Malvern, head of the most prestigious shipping company in London. But when threats against his reputation --- and his life --- begin to emerge, James will have to prove that he truly is the master of his fate.

The Mayflower: The Families, the Voyage, and the Founding of America by Rebecca Fraser - History

November 5, 2019

The voyage of the Mayflower and the founding of Plymouth Colony is one of the seminal events in world history. But the poorly equipped group of English Puritans who ventured across the Atlantic in the early autumn of 1620 had no sense they would pass into legend. They had 80 casks of butter and two dogs but no cattle for milk, meat or ploughing. They were ill-prepared for the brutal journey and the new land that few of them could comprehend. But the Mayflower story did not end with these Pilgrims’ arrival on the coast of New England or their first uncertain years as settlers. Rebecca Fraser traces two generations of one ordinary family and their extraordinary response to the challenges of life in America.

Mighty Justice: My Life in Civil Rights by Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe - Memoir

November 5, 2019

In MIGHTY JUSTICE, trailblazing African American civil rights attorney Dovey Johnson Roundtree recounts her inspiring life story that speaks movingly and urgently to our racially troubled times. From the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, to the segregated courtrooms of the nation’s capital; from the male stronghold of the army where she broke gender and color barriers to the pulpits of churches where women had waited for years for the right to minister --- in all these places, Roundtree sought justice. Dovey Roundtree passed away in 2018 at the age of 104. Though her achievements were significant and influential, she remains largely unknown to the American public. This book corrects the historical record.

Novice Dragoneer: A Dragoneer Academy Novel by E. E. Knight - Fantasy

November 5, 2019

Fourteen-year-old Ileth grew up in an orphanage, and thanks to her stutter was never thought to be destined for much beyond kitchen work and cleaning. But she has dreamed of serving with the dragons ever since a childhood meeting with a glittering silver dragon and its female dragoneer. For years she waits, and as soon as she is old enough to join, Ileth runs away to become a novice dragoneer at the ancient human-dragon fortress of the Serpentine. While most of her fellow apprentices are from rich and influential families, Ileth must fight for her place in the world. She is then sent off to the dragon-dancers after a foolish kiss with a famously named boy and given charge of a sickly old dragon with a mysterious past. But she finds that those trials were nothing when she has to take the place of a dead dragoneer and care for his imprisoned dragon in enemy lands.

Pain written by Zeruya Shalev, translated by Sondra Silverston - Fiction

November 5, 2019

Ten years after she was seriously injured in a terrorist attack, the pain comes back to torment Iris. But that is not all: Eitan, the love of her youth, also comes back into her life. Though their relationship ended many years ago, she was more deeply wounded when he left her than by the suicide bomber who blew himself up next to her. Iris' marriage is stagnant. Her two children have grown up and are almost independent; she herself has become a dedicated, successful school principal. Now, after years without passion and joy, Eitan brings them back into her life. But she must concoct all sorts of lies to conceal her affair from her family, and the lies become more and more complicated.

Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks - Fiction

November 5, 2019

American historian Hannah intends to immerse herself in World War II research in Paris, wary of paying much attention to the city where a youthful misadventure once left her dejected. But a chance encounter with Tariq, a Moroccan teenager whose visions of the City of Lights as a world of opportunity and rebirth starkly contrast with her own, disrupts her plan. Hannah agrees to take Tariq in as a lodger, forming an unexpected connection with the young man. Yet, as Tariq begins to assimilate, he realizes that the country’s dark past and current ills are far more complicated than he’d anticipated. And Hannah, diving deeper into her work on women’s lives in Nazi-occupied Paris, uncovers a shocking piece of history that threatens to dismantle her core beliefs.

The Poppy Wife: A Novel of the Great War by Caroline Scott - Historical Fiction

November 5, 2019

Survivors of the Great War are desperately trying to piece together the fragments of their broken lives. While many have been reunited with their loved ones, Edie’s husband, Francis, has not come home. Francis is presumed to have been killed in action, but Edie believes he might still be alive. Harry, Francis’ brother, was there the day Francis was wounded. He was certain it was a fatal wound, but as time passes, Harry begins questioning his memory of what happened. Could Francis merely be lost and confused somewhere? When Edie receives a mysterious photograph of him, she is more convinced than ever he might still be alive. And so she embarks on a journey in the hope of finding some trace of her husband. Is he truly gone? And if he isn’t, then why hasn’t he come home?

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams - Fiction

November 5, 2019

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy breakup from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places, including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?” --- all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.

Spring by Karl Ove Knausgaard - Fiction

November 5, 2019

You don’t know what air is, and yet you breathe. You don’t know what sleep is, yet you sleep. You don’t know what night is, yet you lie in it. You don’t know what a heart is, yet your own heart beats steadily in your chest, day and night, day and night, day and night. So begins SPRING, the recommencement of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s fantastic and spellbinding literary project of assembling a personal encyclopedia of the world addressed directly to his newly born daughter. But here Knausgaard must also tell his daughter the story of what happened during the time when her mother was pregnant, and explain why he now has to attend appointments with child services. In order to keep his daughter safe, he must tell a terrible story, one that unfolds with acute psychological suspense over the course of a single day.

Summer by Karl Ove Knausgaard - Memoir

November 5, 2019

The grand finale of Karl Ove Knausgaard's intensely personal series about the four seasons, SUMMER once again intersperses short vividly descriptive essays with emotionally raw diary entries addressed directly to Knausgaard's newborn daughter. Writing more expansively and, if it is possible, even more intimately and unguardedly than in the previous three volumes, he mines with new depth his difficult memories of his childhood and fraught relationship with his own father. Documenting his family's life in rural Sweden and reflecting on a characteristically eclectic array of subjects, he braids the various threads of the previous volumes into a moving conclusion.

Those Who Knew by Idra Novey - Fiction

November 5, 2019

On an unnamed island country 10 years after the collapse of a U.S.-supported regime, Lena suspects that the powerful senator she was involved with back in her student activist days is taking advantage of a young woman who's been introducing him at rallies. When the young woman ends up dead, Lena revisits her own fraught history with the senator and the violent incident that ended their relationship. Why didn't Lena speak up then, and will her family's support of the former regime still impact her credibility? What if her hunch about this young woman's death is wrong?

Tom Clancy Oath of Office: A Jack Ryan Novel by Marc Cameron - Thriller/Adventure

November 5, 2019

President Jack Ryan has plenty to handle at home. A deadly strain of flu is ravaging the United States as spring floods decimate the Southeast. An unethical senator wants to bring down the Ryan presidency and is willing to lean on fabricated bot-planted stories to do it. But the scariest story is the most closely guarded one. Two Russian nuclear missiles have been hijacked. The Campus gets their first break when Jack Junior connects with a rogue Russian intelligence officer in Afghanistan --- only to be abducted soon after arriving. John Clark and the rest of the Campus team race to track the missiles and rescue their colleague.

Valley Forge by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin - History

November 5, 2019

In December 1777, some 12,000 members of America’s Continental Army stagger into a small Pennsylvania encampment near British-occupied Philadelphia. Their commander in chief, George Washington, is at the lowest ebb of his military career. Yet, somehow, Washington, with a dedicated coterie of advisers, sets out to breathe new life into his military force. Against all odds, they manage to turn a bobtail army of citizen soldiers into a professional fighting force that will change the world forever. VALLEY FORGE is the story of how that metamorphosis occurred. Bestselling authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin show us how this miracle was accomplished, despite thousands of American soldiers succumbing to disease, starvation and the elements.

We Met in December by Rosie Curtis - Romantic Comedy

November 5, 2019

Twenty-nine-year-old Jess is following her dream and moving to London. It’s December, and she’s taking a room in a crumbling, but grand, Notting Hill house-share with four virtual strangers. On her first night, Jess meets Alex, the guy sharing her floor, at a Christmas dinner hosted by her landlord. They don’t kiss, but as far as Jess is concerned, the connection is clear. She starts planning how they will knock down the wall between them to spend more time together. But when Jess returns from a two-week Christmas holiday, she finds that Alex has started dating someone else --- beautiful Emma, who lives on the floor above them. Now Jess faces a year of bumping into the man of her dreams…and the woman of his.

The Wedding Guest: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman - Psychological Thriller

November 5, 2019

Summoned to a run-down former strip joint, Dr. Alex Delaware and LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis find themselves crashing a wild "Saints and Sinners"–themed wedding reception. But they’re not the only uninvited guests. A horrified bridesmaid has discovered the body of a young woman, dressed to impress in pricey haute couture and accessorized with a grisly red slash around her neck. What’s missing is any means of identification, or a single partygoer who recognizes the victim. The baffled bride is convinced the stranger snuck in to sabotage her big day --- and the groom is sure it’s all a dreadful mistake. But Delaware and Sturgis have a hundred guests to question, and a sneaking suspicion that the motive for murder is personal.

Welcome Home: A Memoir with Selected Photographs and Letters by Lucia Berlin - Memoir

November 5, 2019

Before Lucia Berlin died, she was working on a book of previously unpublished autobiographical sketches called WELCOME HOME. The work consisted of more than 20 chapters that started in 1936 in Alaska and ended (prematurely) in 1966 in southern Mexico. In this publication of WELCOME HOME, her son Jeff Berlin is filling in the gaps with photos and letters from her eventful, romantic and tragic life. From Alaska to Argentina, Kentucky to Mexico, New York City to Chile, Berlin’s world was wide. She describes the places she lived and the people she knew with all the style, wit, heart and humor that readers fell in love with in her stories.

What Burns: Stories by Dale Peck - Fiction/Short Stories

November 5, 2019

The stories in WHAT BURNS examine the extremes of desire against a backdrop of family, class and mortality. In “Bliss,” a young man befriends the convicted felon who murdered his mother when he was only a child. In “Not Even Camping Is Like Camping Anymore,” a teenage boy fends off the advances of a five-year-old his mother babysits. And in “Dues,” a man discovers that everything he owns is borrowed from someone else --- including his time on earth. Dale Peck’s first collection of short fiction walks the tightrope between tenderness and violence that has defined his work since the publication of his debut novel, MARTIN AND JOHN, through his most recent, NIGHT SOIL.

Winter by Karl Ove Knausgaard - Memoir

November 5, 2019

In WINTER, we rejoin Karl Ove Knausgaard as he waits for the birth of his daughter. In preparation for her arrival, he takes stock of the world, seeing it as if for the first time. He writes about the moon, water, messiness, owls, birthdays --- to name just a handful of his subjects. He fills these oh-so-familiar objects and ideas with new meaning, taking nothing for granted or as given. New life is on the horizon, but the earth is also in hibernation, waiting for the warmer weather to return, and so a contradictory melancholy inflects his gaze.

Wolves of Eden by Kevin McCarthy - Historical Thriller

November 5, 2019

Dakota Territory, 1866. Following the murders of a frontier fort’s politically connected sutler and his wife in their illicit off-post brothel, Lieutenant Martin Molloy and his long-suffering orderly, Corporal Daniel Kohn, are ordered to track down the killers. Meanwhile, Irish immigrant brothers Michael and Thomas O’Driscoll have returned from the brutal front lines of the Civil War. Unable to adapt to life as migrant farm laborers in peacetime Ohio, they reenlist in the army and are shipped to Fort Phil Kearny in the heart of the Powder River Valley. Amidst the daily carnage, Thomas finds a love that will lead to a moment of violence as brutal as any they have witnessed in battle --- a moment that will change their lives forever.