ANATOMY OF A SONG: The Oral History of 45 Iconic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop by Marc Myers (Music/History)
Audiobook available, read by Jonathan Yen
Every great song has a fascinating backstory. In ANATOMY OF A SONG, based on the ongoing Wall Street Journal column, writer and music historian Marc Myers brings to life five decades of music through oral histories of 45 transformative songs woven from interviews with the artists who created them. Bringing readers inside the making of a hit, the book includes the Isley Brothers' memorable song "Shout," Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love," Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" and R.E.M's "Losing My Religion." Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Keith Richards, Cyndi Lauper and many other leading artists reveal the emotions, inspirations and techniques behind their influential works. Reviewed by Jana Siciliano.
BORN A CRIME: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (Memoir/Essays)
Audiobook available, read by Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of “The Daily Show” began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott.
CHAOS: A Scarpetta Novel by Patricia Cornwell (Thriller)
Audiobook available, performed by Susan Ericksen
On an early autumn day, Elisa Vandersteel is killed while riding her bicycle along the Charles River. Dr. Kay Scarpetta decides at the scene that this is no accidental Act of God. Her investigation becomes complicated when she begins receiving a flurry of bizarre poems from an anonymous cyberbully who calls himself Tailend Charlie. When the 10th poem arrives exactly 24 hours after Elisa’s death, Scarpetta begins to suspect the harasser is involved, and sounds the alarm to her investigative partner, Pete Marino, and her husband, FBI analyst Benton Wesley. She also enlists the help of her niece, Lucy. But to Scarpetta’s surprise, tracking the slippery Tailend Charlie is nearly impossible, even for someone as brilliant as her niece. Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum.
CITY ON EDGE by Stefanie Pintoff (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Tanya Eby
The night before the Thanksgiving Day Parade, a crowd gathers on Manhattan’s Upper West Side to watch the giant balloons fill with helium and rise toward the sky. Then the festive ritual takes a terrifying turn --- a gunshot rings out, police commissioner Logan Donovan falls, and panic erupts. When the chaos clears, another crime is revealed: Donovan’s daughter, Allie, has been kidnapped. Within hours, Special Agent Eve Rossi and her handpicked team of former convicts know a lot about the kidnapper. But Eve grapples with a harrowing question: Whom should she fear more --- a vengeful man threatening innocent lives, or a charming, arrogant cop fighting to save his daughter, who may be trying to cover up his crimes? Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
CROSS THE LINE by James Patterson (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Ryan Vincent Anderson and Pete Bradbury
Shots ring out in the early morning hours in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. When the smoke clears, a prominent police official lies dead, leaving the city's police force scrambling for answers. Under pressure from the mayor, Alex Cross steps into the leadership vacuum to crack the case. But before Cross can make any headway, a brutal crime wave sweeps across the region. The deadly scenes share only one common thread --- the victims are all criminals. As Cross pursues an adversary who has appointed himself judge, jury and executioner, he must take the law back into his own hands before the city he's sworn to protect descends into utter chaos. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
FRANTUMAGLIA: A Writer's Journey written by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein (Essays)
Audiobook available, narrated by Hillary Huber
FRANTUMAGLIA invites readers into Elena Ferrante’s workshop. It offers a glimpse into the drawers of her writing desk, those drawers from which emerged her three early stand-alone novels and the four installments of My Brilliant Friend, known in English as the Neapolitan Quartet. Consisting of over 20 years of letters, essays, reflections and interviews, it is a unique depiction of an author who embodies a consummate passion for writing. Reviewed by Rebecca Kilberg.
GOOD BEHAVIOR by Blake Crouch (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Blake Crouch and Julia Whelan
Fresh out of prison and fighting to keep afloat, Letty Dobesh returns to her old tricks burglarizing suites at a luxury hotel. While on the job, she overhears a man hiring a hit man to kill his wife. Letty may not be winning any morality awards, but even she has limits. Unable to go to the police, Letty sets out to derail the job, putting herself on a collision course with the killer that entangles the two of them in a dangerous, seductive relationship. GOOD BEHAVIOR comprises three interlinked novellas, which together form a novel-length portrait of Blake Crouch’s all-time favorite character creation. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE HANGING CLUB by Tony Parsons (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Colin Mace
A band of vigilante executioners roam the hot summer nights, abducting evil men who they judge unworthy of living and hanging them by the neck until dead. But do these rogue hangmen crave true justice --- or just blood? As the bodies pile up and violence explodes all over the sweltering city, DC Max Wolfe embarks on his most dangerous investigation yet, hunting a righteous gang of vigilante killers who many believe to be heroes. But before The Hanging Club is confronted, Max must learn some painful truths about the fragile line between good and evil, innocence and guilt, justice and retribution. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE HIGHWAY KIND: Tales of Fast Cars, Desperate Drivers, and Dark Roads edited by Patrick Millikin (Mystery/Thriller/Noir Anthology)
Audiobook available, read by Will Collyer
Like fiction, cars take us into a different world: from the tony enclaves of upper crust society to the lowliest barrio; from muscle car-driving con men to hardscrabble kids on the road during the Great Depression; from a psychotic traveling salesman to a Mexican drug lord who drives a tricked-out VW Bus. We all share the roads, and our cars link us together. Including entirely new stories from Michael Connelly, C.J. Box, George Pelecanos, Diana Gabaldon, James Sallis, Ace Atkins, Luis Alberto Urrea, Sara Gran, Ben H. Winters and Joe Lansdale, THE HIGHWAY KIND is a street-level look at modern America, as seen through one of its national obsessions. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE INFINITE by Nicholas Mainieri (Fiction)
Jonah McBee has deep roots in New Orleans, but with hardly any family left, he half-heartedly is planning to enlist in the army after high school. Luz Hidalgo, an undocumented Latina and budding track star, followed her father there after Hurricane Katrina. When Jonah and Luz fall in love, it is intense, addictive and real. But everything changes when Luz discovers that she’s pregnant. In a moment of panic, her father sends Luz back to Mexico so her grandmother can help raise the baby. Devastated, Jonah decides to take a road trip with his best friend when he doesn’t hear from her. Little does Jonah know, Luz is fighting for her life. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
LAST GIRL BEFORE FREEWAY: The Life, Loves, Losses, and Liberation of Joan Rivers by Leslie Bennetts (Biography)
Audiobook available, read by Erin Bennett
Joan Rivers was an icon and a role model to millions, a fearless pioneer who left a legacy of expanded opportunity when she died in 2014. Her life was a dramatic roller-coaster of triumphant highs and devastating lows: the suicide of her husband, her feud with Johnny Carson, her estrangement from her daughter, her many plastic surgeries, her ferocious ambition and her massive insecurities. But Rivers' career was also hugely significant in American cultural history, breaking down barriers for her gender and pushing the boundaries of truth-telling for women in public life. LAST GIRL BEFORE FREEWAY delves into the inner workings of a woman who both reflected and redefined the world around her. Reviewed by Bronwyn Miller.
THE MISTLETOE SECRET by Richard Paul Evans (Romance)
Audiobook available, read by Richard Paul Evans and Madeleine Maby
Thinking no one is reading, a blogger who calls herself LBH writes about her most personal feelings, especially her overwhelming loneliness. She goes from day to day showing a brave face to the world while inside she longs to know how it would feel if one person cared about her. Alex Bartlett cares. He’s reading her posts in Daytona Beach, Florida. Nursing his own broken heart and trust issues, he finds himself falling for this sensitive, vulnerable woman whose feelings mirror his own. He ultimately tracks down LBH, a woman who is as beautiful and kind as he imagined she would be. How can he tell her that he knows her secret? What’s holding him back? Reviewed by Carole Turner.
MOONGLOW by Michael Chabon (Fiction)
Audiobook available, performed by George Newbern
MOONGLOW unfolds as the deathbed confession of a man the narrator refers to only as “my grandfather.” It is a tale of madness, of war and adventure, of sex and marriage and desire, of existential doubt and model rocketry, of the shining aspirations and demonic underpinnings of American technological accomplishment at midcentury, and, above all, of the destructive impact --- and the creative power --- of keeping secrets and telling lies. It is a portrait of the difficult but passionate love between the narrator’s grandfather and his grandmother, an enigmatic woman broken by her experience growing up in war-torn France. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
NO MAN'S LAND by David Baldacci (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Kyf Brewer
John Puller's mother, Jackie, vanished 30 years ago from Fort Monroe, Virginia, when Puller was just a boy. Paul Rogers has been in prison for 10 years. But 20 years before that, he was at Fort Monroe. One night three decades ago, Puller's and Rogers' worlds collided with devastating results, and the truth has been buried ever since. Until now. Military investigators arrive in the hospital room of Puller's father and reveal that Puller Sr. has been accused of murdering Jackie. Aided by his brother Robert Puller, an Air Force major, and Veronica Knox, who works for a shadowy U.S. intelligence organization, Puller begins a journey that will take him into his own past, to find the truth about his mother. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
OUR REVOLUTION: A Future to Believe In by Bernie Sanders (Politics/Memoir)
Audiobook available, read by Bernie Sanders and Mark Ruffalo
In OUR REVOLUTION, Bernie Sanders shares his personal experiences from the campaign trail, recounting the details of his historic primary fight and the people who made it possible. And for the millions looking to continue the political revolution, he outlines a progressive economic, environmental, racial and social justice agenda that will create jobs, raise wages, protect the environment, and provide health care for all --- and ultimately transform our country and our world for the better. For him, the political revolution has just started. The campaign may be over, but the struggle goes on. Reviewed by Rob Bentlyewski.
SAY NO MORE: A Jane Ryland Novel by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Xe Sands
When Boston reporter Jane Ryland reports a hit and run, she soon learns she also witnessed the collapse of an alibi, and now she's under pressure to tell all to the police. She's also digging up the inside scoop for an exposé of sexual assaults on Boston's college campuses for the station's new documentary unit. But a disturbing anonymous message, SAY NO MORE, has Jane truly scared. Meanwhile, homicide detective Jake Brogan is on the hunt for the murderer of Avery Morgan, a hot-shot Hollywood screenwriter. As Jake chips his way through a code of silence as shatterproof as any street gang, he'll learn that one newcomer to the neighborhood may have a secret of her own. Reviewed by Lorraine W. Shanley.
SCRAPPY LITTLE NOBODY by Anna Kendrick (Humor/Essays)
Audiobook available, read by Anna Kendrick
Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird and “10 percent defiant.” At the ripe age of 13, she had already resolved to “keep the crazy inside my head where it belonged. Forever. But here’s the thing about crazy: It. Wants. Out.” In SCRAPPY LITTLE NOBODY, she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations. Reviewed by Sarah Jackman.
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY KILLER by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke (Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Jan Maxwell
Casey Carter was convicted of murdering her fiancé, famed philanthropist Hunter Raleigh III, 15 years ago. And Casey claims she’s innocent. Although she was charged and served out her sentence in prison, she is still living “under suspicion.” Her story attracts the attention of Laurie Moran and the “Under Suspicion” news team. It’s Casey’s last chance to finally clear her name, and Laurie pledges to exonerate her. With Alex Buckley taking a break from the show, “Under Suspicion” introduces a new on-air host named Ryan Nichols, who has no problems with steering --- and stealing --- the show, and even tries to stop Laurie from taking on Casey’s case because he’s so certain she’s guilty. Reviewed by Maggie Harding.
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