ALL GROWN UP by Jami Attenberg (Fiction)
Audiobook available, narrated by Mia Barron
Who is Andrea Bern? When her therapist asks the question, Andrea knows the right things to say: she’s a designer, a friend, a daughter, a sister. But it’s what she leaves unsaid --- she’s alone, a drinker, a former artist, a shrieker in bed, captain of the sinking ship that is her flesh --- that feels the most true. Everyone around her seems to have an entirely different idea of what it means to be an adult: her best friend, Indigo, is getting married; her brother and sister-in-law are having a hoped-for baby; and her friend Matthew continues to wholly devote himself to making dark paintings at the cost of being flat broke. But when Andrea’s niece finally arrives, born with a heartbreaking ailment, the Bern family is forced to reexamine what really matters. Reviewed by Dunja Bonacci.
THE ARRANGEMENT by Sarah Dunn (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Ellen Archer
Lucy and Owen have taken the plunge, trading in their crazy life in a cramped apartment for Beekman, a bucolic Hudson Valley exurb. When friends at a wine-soaked dinner party reveal they've made their marriage open, sensible Lucy balks. There's a part of her, though, that's intrigued. Why not try a short marital experiment? Six months, clear ground rules, zero questions asked. When an affair with a man in the city begins to seem more enticing than the happily-ever-after she's known for the past nine years, Lucy must decide what truly makes her happy --- "real life" or the "experiment"? Reviewed by Katherine B. Weissman.
CELINE by Peter Heller (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Kimberly Farr
Working out of her jewel box of an apartment at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, Celine has made a career of tracking down missing persons, and she has a better record at it than the FBI. But when a young woman, Gabriela, asks for her help, a world of mystery and sorrow opens up. Gabriela's father was a photographer who went missing on the border of Montana and Wyoming. He was assumed to have died from a grizzly mauling, but his body was never found. Now, as Celine and her partner head to Yellowstone National Park, investigating a trail gone cold, it becomes clear that they are being followed --- that this is a case someone desperately wants to keep closed. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
DEAD MAN SWITCH by Matthew Quirk (Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Peter Coleman
A deadly fall on a rugged stretch of California coast. A burglary gone wrong in Virginia. These incidents seem unrelated, but the victims were living undercover, their true identities closely held secrets. They are members of a classified team, the last line of defense against foreign threats. Now, someone is assassinating them, taking out family members and innocent bystanders to make the deaths seem like accidents. Captain John Hayes, a special operations legend, has left the military to settle down with his family. But when he pieces together a pattern behind the murders and discovers that his protégée Claire Rhodes, a brilliant assassin, is the prime suspect, he returns to duty to unmask the attackers. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
EXIT WEST by Mohsin Hamid (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Mohsin Hamid
In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet --- sensual, fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. They embark on a furtive love affair, and are soon cloistered in a premature intimacy by the unrest roiling their city. When it explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts, they begin to hear whispers about doors --- doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through. Reviewed by Maya Gittelman.
THE FORGOTTEN GIRLS by Owen Laukkanen (Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini
She was a forgotten girl, a runaway found murdered on the High Line train through the northern Rocky Mountains and, with little local interest, put into a dead file. But she was not alone. When Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere of the joint FBI-BCA violent crime force stumble upon the case, they discover a horror far greater than anyone expected --- a string of murders on the High Line, all of them young female drifters whom no one would notice. But someone has noticed now. Through the bleak midwinter and a frontier land of forbidding geography, Stevens and Windermere follow a frustratingly light trail of clues --- and where it ends, even they will be shocked. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS by John Freeman Gill (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by John Freeman Gill
With both his family and his city fracturing, 13-year-old Griffin Watts is recruited into his estranged father’s illicit and dangerous architectural salvage business. He is charged with stealing exuberantly expressive 19th-century architectural sculptures --- gargoyles --- right off the faces of unsung tenements and iconic skyscrapers all over town. These gargoyles, carved and cast by immigrant artisans during the city’s architectural glory days, are an endangered species in this era of sweeping urban renewal. As his father grows increasingly possessive of both Griffin’s mother and his scavenged touchstones of the lost city, Griffin must learn how to build himself into the person he wants to become and discover which parts of his life can be salvaged --- and which parts must be let go. Reviewed by Austin Manchester.
THE HEARTS OF MEN by Nickolas Butler (Fiction)
Audiobook available, performed by Adam Verner
Camp Chippewa, 1962. Thirteen-year-old Nelson Doughty, a social outcast and an overachiever, is the Bugler, sounding the reveille proudly each morning. Yet this particular summer marks the beginning of an uncertain and tenuous friendship with a popular boy named Jonathan. Over the years, Nelson, irrevocably scarred from the Vietnam War, becomes Scoutmaster of Camp Chippewa, while Jonathan marries, divorces and turns his father’s business into a highly profitable company. And when something unthinkable happens at a camp get-together with Nelson as Scoutmaster and Jonathan’s teenage grandson and daughter-in-law as campers, the aftermath demonstrates the depths --- and the limits --- of Nelson’s selflessness and bravery. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
THE HOPE CHEST by Viola Shipman (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Andi Arndt
Ever since she was diagnosed with ALS, fiercely independent Mattie doesn’t feel like herself. Her devoted husband, Don, doesn’t want to imagine life without his wife of nearly 50 years, but Mattie isn’t likely to make it past their anniversary. But when Rose, Mattie’s new caretaker, and her young daughter, Jeri, enter the couple’s life, happiness and the possibility for new memories return. Together they form a family, and Mattie is finally able to pass on her memories from the hope chest she received from her mother. Reviewed by Carole Turner.
THE LOVING HUSBAND by Christobel Kent (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Clare Corbett
In a dilapidated farmhouse out in the vast waterlogged plains of the English Fenlands, Fran awakes groggily to her baby’s cries one February night and finds the bed empty beside her. Her husband, Nathan, is gone. Moving uneasily through the drafty rooms, searching for her husband, Fran soon makes a devastating discovery that upends her marriage and any semblance of safety. As she tries desperately to make sense of what happened to Nathan, Fran is forced to delve dangerously into the undercurrents of his claustrophobic hometown and question how well she knew him in the first place. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
LUCKY by Henry Chang (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Audiobook available, read by Feodor Chin
Chinatown gang leader “Lucky” Louie was shot outside of a Chinatown off-track betting establishment and lay in a coma for 88 days, waking on Easter Sunday. The number 88 is a double-helix, double-lucky Chinese number; religion and superstition all lean Lucky’s way. But Detective Jack Yu, Lucky’s boyhood blood brother, fears his friend’s luck is about to run out. When Lucky embarks on a complex and daring series of crimes against the Chinatown criminal underground, Jack races to stop him before his Jacket Design by Janine Agro enemies do so --- permanently. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE LUCKY ONES by Julianne Pachico (Magical Realism)
Audiobook available, read by Marisol Ramirez and Ramón de Ocampo
While her parents are away, a teenager finds herself home alone, with the household staff mysteriously gone, no phone connection, and news of an insurgency on the radio --- and then she hears a knock at the door. Her teacher, who has been kidnapped by guerrillas, recites Shakespeare in the jungle to a class of sticks, leaves and stones while his captors watch his every move. Another classmate, who has fled Colombia for the clubs of New York, is unable to forget the life she left behind without the help of the little bags of powder she carries with her. Taking place over two decades, THE LUCKY ONES presents us with a world in which perpetrators are indistinguishable from saviors, the truth is elusive, and loved ones can disappear without a trace. Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman.
MISSISSIPPI BLOOD by Greg Iles (Thriller)
Audiobook available, performed by Scott Brick
In this concluding volume to Greg Iles’ Natchez Burning trilogy, Penn Cage sees his family and his world collapsing around him. The woman he loves is gone, his principles have been irrevocably compromised, and his father, once a paragon of the community that Penn leads as mayor, is about to be tried for the murder of a former lover. Despite Penn's experience as a prosecutor in major murder trials, his father has frozen him out of the trial preparations --- preferring to risk dying in prison to revealing the truth of the crime to his son. The trial sets a terrible clock in motion, and unless Penn can pierce the veil of the past and exonerate his father, his family will be destroyed. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
NEVER LET YOU GO by Chevy Stevens (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Rachel Fulginiti and Caitlin Davies
Eleven years ago, Lindsey Nash escaped into the night with her young daughter and left an abusive relationship. Her ex-husband, Andrew, was sent to jail, and Lindsey started over with a new life. Now, Lindsey is older and wiser, with her own business and a teenage daughter who needs her more than ever. When Andrew is finally released from prison, Lindsey believes she has cut all ties and left the past behind her. But she gets the sense that someone is watching her, tracking her every move. Her new boyfriend is threatened. Her home is invaded, and her daughter is shadowed. Lindsey is convinced it’s her ex-husband, even though he claims he’s a different person. But has he really changed? Is the one who wants her dead closer to home than she thought? Reviewed by Rebecca Munro.
THE ONE-EYED MAN by Ron Currie (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Kevin Pariseau
K. is possessed of a hyper-articulate exasperation with the world, a doomed truth teller whom everyone misunderstands. After his wife Sarah dies, K. loses his metaphorical capacity, becoming so wedded to the notion of clarity that he infuriates everyone, friends and strangers alike. When he intervenes in an armed robbery, K. finds himself both an inadvertent hero and the star of a new reality television program. Together with Claire, a grocery store clerk with a sharp tongue and a yen for celebrity, he travels the country, ruffling feathers and gaining fame at the intersection of American politics and entertainment. But soon he discovers that the world will fight viciously to preserve its delusions about itself. Reviewed by Lorraine W. Shanley.
THE RULES DO NOT APPLY: A Memoir by Ariel Levy (Memoir)
Audiobook available, read by Ariel Levy
When 38-year-old New Yorker writer Ariel Levy left for a reporting trip to Mongolia in 2012, she was pregnant, married, financially secure and successful on her own terms. A month later, none of that was true. Levy picks you up and hurls you through the story of how she built an unconventional life and then watched it fall apart with astonishing speed. Like much of her generation, she was raised to resist traditional rules --- about work, about love, and about womanhood. Reviewed by Allison Sharp.
THE SECRETS YOU KEEP by Kate White (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, performed by Amy McFadden
Bryn Harper, an accomplished self-help author, already has plenty to deal with. She’s still recovering from a devastating car accident that has left her haunted by recurring, smoke-filled nightmares. Worse still, she can’t shake the ominous feeling that her dreams contain a warning. In the beginning, Bryn’s husband Guy couldn’t have been more supportive. But after moving into a new house together, disturbing incidents occur, and Guy grows evasive and secretive. Then a woman hired to cater their dinner party is brutally murdered. As Bryn’s world unravels --- and yet another woman in town is slain --- she must summon her old strength to find answers and protect her own life. Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
THE STRANGER IN THE WOODS: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel (Biography)
Audiobook available, read by Mark Bramhall
In 1986, a shy and intelligent 20-year-old named Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the forest. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later, when he was arrested for stealing food. Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. Based on extensive interviews with Knight himself, this is a vividly detailed account of his secluded life, as well as the challenges he has faced since returning to the world. Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott.
THE TEA GIRL OF HUMMINGBIRD LANE by Lisa See (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Ruthie Ann Miles and Kimiko Glenn
Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. When Li-yan has a baby outside of wedlock, rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket and abandons her in the nearest city. While Li-yan slowly emerges from the insularity of her village to encounter modern life, her daughter Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley’s happy home life, she wonders about her origins, and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for generations. Reviewed by Roz Shea.
VICIOUS CIRCLE: A Joe Pickett Novel by C. J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by David Chandler
The Cates family had always been a bad lot. Game warden Joe Pickett had been able to strike a fierce blow against them when the life of his daughter April had been endangered, but he’d always wondered if there’d be a day of reckoning. He’s not wondering any longer. Joe knows they’re coming after him and his family now. He has his friend Nate by his side, but will that be enough this time? All he can do is prepare...and wait for them to make the first move. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE WANDERERS by Meg Howrey (Science Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Mozhan Marno
In four years, aerospace giant Prime Space will put the first humans on Mars. Helen Kane, Yoshihiro Tanaka and Sergei Kuznetsov must prove they’re the crew for the historic voyage by spending 17 months in the most realistic simulation ever created. Constantly observed by Prime Space’s team of "Obbers," Helen, Yoshi and Sergei must appear ever in control. But as their surreal pantomime progresses, each soon realizes that the complications of inner space are no less fraught than those of outer space. The borders between what is real and unreal begin to blur, and each astronaut is forced to confront demons past and present, even as they struggle to navigate their increasingly claustrophobic quarters --- and each other. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
WHITE TEARS by Hari Kunzru (Fiction)
Audiobook available; read by Lincoln Hoppe, Danny Campbell and Dominic Hoffman
Seth is awkward and shy. Carter is the glamorous heir to one of America's great fortunes. They have one thing in common: an obsession with music. Seth is desperate to reach for the future. Carter is slipping back into the past. When Seth accidentally records an unknown singer in a park, Carter sends it out over the internet, claiming it's a long-lost 1920s blues recording by a musician called Charlie Shaw. When an old collector contacts them to say that their fake record and their fake bluesman are actually real, the two young white men, accompanied by Carter's troubled sister Leonie, spiral down into the heart of the nation's darkness, encountering a suppressed history of greed, envy, revenge and exploitation. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE WIDOW’S HOUSE by Carol Goodman (Psychological Thriller)
Audiobook available, performed by Cassandra Campbell
When Jess and Clare Martin move from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to their former college town in the Hudson River valley, they are hoping for rejuvenation --- of their marriage, their savings, and Jess' writing career. They take a caretaker's job at Riven House, a crumbling estate and the home of their old college writing professor. But there is a haunting pall that hangs over Riven House like a funeral veil. Soon, Clare begins to hear babies crying at night and see strange figures in fog at the edge of their property. Diving into the history of the area, she realizes that Riven House has a dark and anguished past. And whatever this thing is --- this menacing force that destroys the inhabitants of the estate --- it seems to be after Clare next. Reviewed by Ray Palen.