In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of October 16th and October 23rd that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com, where three book groups will win 12 copies of the movie tie-in edition of MUDBOUND by Hillary Jordan. The deadline for your entries is Wednesday, November 8th at noon ET.
We also are spotlighting three of our most recent reviews: ORIGIN by Dan Brown, WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and THE RULES OF MAGIC by Alice Hoffman, the latter of which we have a Q&A with the author.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News: October's "What's Your
Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest
on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.
This month's prize book is the movie tie-in edition of MUDBOUND, in which two men --- one black and one white --- forge a friendship in racially divided post-World War II Mississippi based on their shared war experiences. First published in 2008, this award-winning debut novel by Hillary Jordan will be adapted into a film, releasing on Netflix and in select theaters on November 17th. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, November 8th at noon ET.
MUDBOUND by Hillary Jordan (Historical Fiction)
In Hillary Jordan's prize-winning debut, prejudice takes many forms, both subtle and brutal.
It is 1946, and city-bred Laura McAllan is trying to raise her children on her husband's Mississippi Delta farm --- a place she finds foreign and frightening. In the midst of the family's struggles, two young men return from the war to work the land. Jamie McAllan, Laura's brother-in-law, is everything her husband is not --- charming, handsome and haunted by his memories of combat. Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm, has come home with the shine of a war hero. But no matter his bravery in defense of his country, he is still considered less than a man in the Jim Crow South. It is the unlikely friendship of these brothers-in-arms that drives this powerful novel to its inexorable conclusion.
The men and women of each family relate their versions of events, and we are drawn into their lives as they become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale. As Kingsolver says of Hillary Jordan, "Her characters walked straight out of 1940s Mississippi and into the part of my brain where sympathy and anger and love reside, leaving my heart racing. They are with me still."
- Click here for the discussion guide.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of October 16th in Hardcover
October 17th
AMERICAN WOLF: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee (Nature)
Once abundant in North America, wolves were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought them back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West. Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, who is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter and a doting mother. But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park’s stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.
Crown | 9781101902783
DEATH IN THE AIR: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City by Kate Winkler Dawson (True Crime/History)
In winter 1952, London automobiles and thousands of coal-burning hearths belched particulate matter into the air. But the smog that descended on December 5, 1952 was different; it was a type that held the city hostage for five long days. Mass transit ground to a halt, criminals roamed the streets, and 12,000 people died. That same month, there was another killer at large in London: John Reginald Christie, who murdered at least six women. In a braided narrative that draws on extensive interviews, never-before-published material and archival research, Kate Winkler Dawson recounts the intersecting stories of these two killers and their longstanding impact on modern history.
Hachette Books | 9780316506861
DEEP FREEZE: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford (Thriller)
Virgil Flowers knows the town of Trippton, Minnesota, a little too well. A few years back, he investigated the corrupt --- and, as it turned out, homicidal --- local school board, and now the town is back in view with more alarming news: A woman has been found dead, frozen in a block of ice. There’s a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of 20 years ago that has a mid-winter reunion coming up, so Virgil begins to dig into 20 years’ worth of traumas, feuds and bad blood. In the process, one thing becomes increasingly clear to him. It’s true what they say: High school is murder.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399176067
ENDURANCE: A Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly (Memoir)
The veteran of four spaceflights and the American record holder for consecutive days spent in space, Scott Kelly has experienced things very few have. Now, he takes us inside a sphere utterly hostile to human life. He describes navigating the extreme challenge of long-term spaceflight: the devastating effects on the body; the isolation from everyone he loves and the comforts of Earth; the catastrophic risks of colliding with space junk; and the still more haunting threat of being unable to help should tragedy strike at home --- an agonizing situation Kelly faced when, on a previous mission, his twin brother's wife, American Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was shot while he still had two months in space.
Knopf | 9781524731595
THE FLOATING WORLD by C. Morgan Babst (Fiction)
THE FLOATING WORLD takes readers into the heart of Hurricane Katrina with the story of the Boisdorés, whose roots stretch back nearly to the foundation of New Orleans. Though the storm is fast approaching the Louisiana coast, Cora, the family’s fragile elder daughter, refuses to leave the city, forcing her parents, Joe Boisdoré, an artist descended from a freed slave who became one of the city’s preeminent furniture makers, and his white “Uptown” wife, Dr. Tess Eshleman, to evacuate without her, setting off a chain of events that leaves their marriage in shambles and Cora catatonic --- the victim or perpetrator of some violence mysterious even to herself.
Algonquin Books | 9781616205287
INFINITE GROUND by Martin MacInnes (Mystery)
On a sweltering summer night at a restaurant in an unnamed Latin American city, a man at a family dinner gets up from the table to go to the restroom…and never comes back. A semi-retired detective takes the case, but what should be a routine investigation becomes something strange, intangible, even sinister. The corporation for which the missing man worked seems to be a front for something else; the staff describes their colleague as having suffered alarming, shifting physical symptoms; a forensic scientist examining his office uncovers evidence of curious microorganisms. As the detective relives and retraces the man’s footsteps, the trail leads him away from the city sprawl and deep into the country’s rainforest interior.
Melville House | 9781612196855
IT DEVOURS!: A Welcome to Night Vale Novel by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (Mystery)
Nilanjana Sikdar is an outsider to the town of Night Vale. Working for Carlos, the town’s top scientist, she relies on fact and logic as her guiding principles. But all of that is put into question when Carlos gives her a special assignment investigating a mysterious rumbling in the desert wasteland outside of town. This investigation leads her to the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, and to Darryl, one of its most committed members. Caught between her beliefs in the ultimate power of science and her growing attraction to Darryl, she begins to suspect the Congregation is planning a ritual that could threaten the lives of everyone in town.
Harper Perennial | 9780062476050
KILLING SEASON by Faye Kellerman (Mystery/Thriller)
Four years ago, 15-year-old Ellen Vicksburg went missing. Her younger brother, Ben, could imagine nothing worse than never knowing what happened to her until, on the first anniversary of her death, he found her body in a shallow grave by the river’s edge. Ben, now 16, is committed to finding the monster who abducted and strangled Ellen. Police believe she was the victim of a psychopath known as the Demon. But Ben continues to pore over the evidence at the local police precinct, and he sees patterns that don’t fit, tiny threads that he adds to the clues from other similar unsolved murders. As the body count rises, a picture emerges of an adversary who is as cunning and methodical as he is twisted.
William Morrow | 9780062465931
THE LAST MRS. PARRISH by Liv Constantine (Psychological Thriller)
Amber Patterson is tired of being a nobody. She deserves more --- a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted. To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life --- the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards; if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.
Harper | 9780062667571
LEONARDO DA VINCI by Walter Isaacson (Biography)
Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. But in his own mind, he was just as much a man of science and technology.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501139154
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND MISTLETOE by Melissa de la Cruz (Fiction)
The beautiful and successful Darcy Fitzwilliam dates hedge funders and basketball stars. She has never fallen in love, never has time for anyone else’s drama, and never goes home for Christmas if she can help it. But when her mother falls ill, she comes home to Pemberley, Ohio, to spend the season with her family. Her parents throw their annual Christmas bash, where she meets Luke Bennet, the smart, sardonic slacker son of their neighbor. When Darcy and Luke fall into bed after too many eggnogs, Darcy thinks it’s just another one-night stand. But why can’t she stop thinking of Luke? Can she fall in love, or will her pride and his prejudice against big-city girls stand in their way?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250141392
PULSE: A Dick Francis Novel by Felix Francis (Thriller)
A smartly dressed man has been found unconscious at the local racecourse and is rushed to the hospital, where he subsequently dies. But who is he? Where does he come from? Doctor Chris Rankin, a specialist who treated the deceased --- and who struggles with mental health issues --- is intrigued by the nameless dead man and starts asking questions. However, someone doesn't want the questions answered and will go to any lengths to prevent it, including an attempted murder. But when no one will believe that someone tried to kill Chris, the doctor is left with no option but to discover who the nameless man was and why he died…preferably before following him into an early grave.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399574733
RIGHTEOUS: An IQ Novel by Joe Ide (Mystery)
Ten years ago, when Isaiah Quintabe was just a boy, his brother was killed by an unknown assailant. The search for the killer sent Isaiah plunging into despair and nearly destroyed his life. Even with a flourishing career and near-iconic status as a PI in his hometown, he has to begin the hunt again --- or lose his mind. A case takes him and his volatile, dubious sidekick, Dodson, to Vegas, where Chinese gangsters and a terrifying seven-foot loan shark are stalking a DJ and her screwball boyfriend. If Isaiah doesn't find the two first, they'll be murdered. Awaiting the outcome is the love of IQ's life: fail, and he'll lose her. Isaiah's quest will lead him to the mastermind behind his brother's death, Isaiah's own sinister Moriarty.
Mulholland Books | 9780316267779
A SECRET SISTERHOOD: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney (Biography)
Male literary friendships are the stuff of legend; think Byron and Shelley, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. But the world’s best-loved female authors are usually mythologized as solitary eccentrics or isolated geniuses. Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney prove this wrong, thanks to their discovery of a wealth of surprising collaborations: the friendship between Jane Austen and one of the family servants, playwright Anne Sharp; the daring feminist author Mary Taylor, who shaped the work of Charlotte Brontë; the transatlantic friendship of the seemingly aloof George Eliot and Harriet Beecher Stowe; and Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield, most often portrayed as bitter foes, but who, in fact, enjoyed a complex friendship fired by an underlying erotic charge.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544883734
SEVEN DAYS OF US by Francesca Hornak (Fiction)
It’s Christmas, and for the first time in years the entire Birch family will be under one roof. Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, Olivia, a doctor, has been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family. For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity and forced into each other’s orbits. In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive.
Berkley | 9780451488756
SMILE by Roddy Doyle (Fiction)
While at Donnelly’s for his usual pint, Victor Forde is approached by a man in shorts and a pink shirt. He seems to know Victor’s name and to remember him from secondary school. His name is Fitzpatrick. Victor dislikes him on sight, and also dislikes the memories that Fitzpatrick stirs up of five years being taught by the Christian Brothers. He prompts other memories --- of Rachel, his beautiful wife who became a celebrity, and of Victor’s own small claim to fame, as the man who would say the unsayable on the radio. But it’s the memories of school, and of one particular brother, that Victor cannot control and that eventually threaten to destroy his sanity.
Viking | 9780735224445
START WITHOUT ME by Joshua Max Feldman (Fiction)
Adam is a former musician and recovering alcoholic who is home for Thanksgiving for the first time in many years. He can’t shake the feeling that no matter how hard he tries, he’ll always be the one who can’t get it right. Marissa is a flight attendant whose marriage is strained by simmering tensions over race, class and ambition. Heading to her in-laws for their picture-perfect holiday family dinner, her anxiety is intensified by the knowledge she is pregnant from an impulsive one-night-stand. In an airport restaurant on Thanksgiving morning, Adam and Marissa meet. Over the course of this day, these two strangers will form an unlikely bond as they reckon with their family ties, their pasts, and the choices that will determine their way forward.
William Morrow | 9780062668721
UNCOMMON TYPE: Some Stories by Tom Hanks (Fiction/Short Stories)
A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game --- and then another and then another and then many more in a row until he winds up ESPN's newest celebrity, and he must decide if the combination of perfection and celebrity has ruined the thing he loves. An eccentric billionaire and his faithful executive assistant venture into America looking for acquisitions and discover a down-and-out motel, romance and a bit of real life. These are just some of the tales that Tom Hanks tells in this first collection of his short stories.
Knopf | 9781101946152
WHERE THE PAST BEGINS: A Writer's Memoir by Amy Tan (Memoir)
By delving into vivid memories of her traumatic childhood, confessions of self-doubt in her journals, and heartbreaking letters to and from her mother, Amy Tan gives evidence to all that made it both unlikely and inevitable that she would become a writer. She explores shocking truths uncovered by family memorabilia --- the real reason behind an IQ test she took at age six, why her parents lied about their education, mysteries surrounding her maternal grandmother --- and, for the first time publicly, writes about her complex relationship with her father, who died when she was 15.
Ecco | 9780062319296
On Sale the Week of October 16th in Paperback
October 17th
AUTUMN by Ali Smith (Fiction)
Autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Two old friends --- Daniel, a centenarian, and Elisabeth, born in 1984 --- look to both the future and the past as the United Kingdom stands divided by a historic, once-in-a-generation summer. Love is won, love is lost. Hope is hand-in-hand with hopelessness. The seasons roll round, as ever. A luminous meditation on the meaning of richness and harvest and worth, AUTUMN is the first installment of Ali Smith’s Seasonal quartet, and it casts an eye over our own time: Who are we? What are we made of?
Anchor | 9781101969946
THE BOAT ROCKER by Ha Jin (Fiction)
Chinese expatriate Feng Danlin is a fiercely principled reporter at a small news agency that produces a website read by Chinese all over the world. Danlin's explosive exposés have made him legendary among readers --- and feared by Communist officials. But his newest assignment may be his undoing: investigating his ex-wife, Yan Haili, an unscrupulous novelist who has willingly become a pawn of the Chinese government in order to realize her dreams of literary stardom. In outing Haili, Danlin is also provoking her powerful political allies, and he will need to draw on all of his journalistic cunning to come out of this investigation with his career --- and his life --- still intact.
Vintage | 9780804170376
BUTTER: A Rich History by Elaine Khosrova (Cooking/History)
From its humble agrarian origins to its present-day artisanal glory, butter has a fascinating story to tell. With tales about the ancient butter bogs of Ireland, the pleasure dairies of France, and the sacred butter sculptures of Tibet, former pastry chef Elaine Khosrova details butter’s role in history, politics, economics, nutrition, and even spirituality and art. Readers will also find the essential collection of core butter recipes, including beurre manié, croissants, pâte brisée, and the only buttercream frosting anyone will ever need, as well as practical how-tos for making various types of butter at home --- or shopping for the best.
Algonquin Books | 9781616207397
EVERY MAN A MENACE by Patrick Hoffman (Thriller)
San Francisco is about to receive the biggest delivery of MDMA to hit the West Coast in years. Raymond Gaspar, just out of prison, is sent to the city to check in on the increasingly erratic dealer expected to take care of distribution. In Miami, the man responsible for getting the drugs across the Pacific has just met the girl of his dreams --- a woman who can't seem to keep her story straight. And thousands of miles away in Bangkok, someone farther up the supply chain is about to make a phone call that will put all their lives at risk.
Grove Press | 9780802127242
HUMAN ACTS by Han Kang (Fiction)
In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed. The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho’s best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.
Hogarth | 9781101906743
LITTLE DEATHS by Emma Flint (Historical Mystery)
It's 1965 in a tight-knit working-class neighborhood in Queens, New York, and Ruth Malone --- a single mother who works long hours as a cocktail waitress --- wakes to discover her two small children, Frankie Jr. and Cindy, have gone missing. Later that day, Cindy's body is found in a derelict lot a half mile from her home, strangled. Ten days later, Frankie Jr.'s decomposing body is found. Immediately, all fingers point to Ruth. As police investigate the murders, the detritus of her life is exposed. Did Ruth violently kill her own children, is she a victim of circumstance --- or is there something more sinister at play?
Hachette Books | 9780316272483
LITTLE SECRETS by Anna Snoekstra (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
An arsonist is on the loose in Colmstock, Australia, most recently burning down the town’s courthouse and killing a young boy who was trapped inside. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for Rose Blakey. With nothing but rejections from newspapers piling up, her job pulling beers for cops at the local tavern isn’t nearly enough to cover rent. Rose needs a story --- a big one. In the weeks after the courthouse fire, precise porcelain replicas of Colmstock’s daughters begin turning up on doorsteps, terrifying parents and testing the limits of the town’s already fractured police force. Rose may have finally found her story. But as her articles gain traction and the boundaries of her investigation blur, Colmstock is seized by a seething paranoia. Soon, no one is safe from suspicion.
Mira | 9780778331094
MISTER MONKEY by Francine Prose (Fiction)
“Mister Monkey” --- a screwball children’s musical about a playfully larcenous pet chimpanzee --- is the kind of family favorite that survives far past its prime. Margot, who plays the chimp’s lawyer, knows the production is dreadful and bemoans the failure of her acting career. She’s settled into the drudgery of playing a humiliating part --- until the day she receives a mysterious letter from an anonymous admirer…and later, in the middle of a performance, has a shocking encounter with Adam, the 12-year-old who plays the title role.
Harper Perennial | 9780062397843
NO MAN’S LAND by Simon Tolkien (Historical Fiction)
After the death of his mother, Adam Raine and his father head north of London to the coal mining town of Scarsdale. Tensions between the miners and their employer, Sir John Scarsdale, escalate, and finally explode with terrible consequences. Adam’s fate shifts once again, and he finds himself drawn into the opulent Scarsdale family home where he makes an enemy of Sir John’s son, Brice. However, Adam finds consolation in the company of Miriam, the local parson’s beautiful daughter with whom he falls in love. When they become engaged and Adam wins a scholarship to Oxford, he starts to feel that his life is finally coming together --- until the outbreak of World War I threatens to tear everything apart.
Anchor | 9781101974575
THE PATRIOTS by Sana Krasikov (Fiction)
When the Great Depression hits, Florence Fein leaves Brooklyn College for what appears to be a plum job in Moscow --- and the promise of love and independence. But once in Russia, she quickly becomes entangled in a country she can’t escape. Many years later, Florence’s son, Julian, will make the opposite journey, immigrating back to the United States. His work in the oil industry takes him on frequent visits to Moscow, and when he learns that Florence’s KGB file has been opened, he arranges a business trip to uncover the truth about his mother, and to convince his son, Lenny, who is trying to make his fortune in the new Russia, to return home. What he discovers is both chilling and heartbreaking: an untold story of what happened to a generation of Americans abandoned by their country.
Spiegel & Grau | 9780385524421
THE RAIN IN PORTUGAL: Poems by Billy Collins (Poetry)
THE RAIN IN PORTUGAL --- a title that admits he’s not much of a rhymer --- sheds Billy Collins’ ironic light on such subjects as travel and art, cats and dogs, loneliness and love, beauty and death. His tones range from the whimsical --- “the dogs of Minneapolis… / have no idea they’re in Minneapolis” --- to the elegiac in a reaction to the death of Seamus Heaney. A student of the everyday, here Collins contemplates a weather vane, a still life painting, the calendar, and a child lost at a beach. His imaginative fabrications have Shakespeare flying comfortably in first class and Keith Richards supporting the globe on his head.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812982688
TRUEVINE: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother’s Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South by Beth Macy (History)
George and Willie Muse were two little boys born to a sharecropper family. One day, a white man offered them a piece of candy, setting off events that would take them around the world and change their lives forever. Captured into the circus, the Muse brothers performed for royalty at Buckingham Palace and headlined over a dozen sold-out shows at New York's Madison Square Garden. But the very root of their success was in the color of their skin and in the outrageous caricatures they were forced to assume. Through hundreds of interviews and decades of research, Beth Macy explores a central and difficult question: Where were the brothers better off? On the world stage as stars, or in poverty at home?
Back Bay Books | 9780316337526
THE TUNNELS: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill by Greg Mitchell (History)
In the summer of 1962, the year after the rise of the Berlin Wall, a group of young West Germans risked prison, Stasi torture and even death to liberate friends, lovers and strangers in East Berlin by digging tunnels under the Wall. NBC and CBS funded two separate tunnels in return for the right to film the escapes, planning spectacular prime-time specials. President John F. Kennedy, however, was wary of anything that might spark a confrontation with the Soviets. So he approved unprecedented maneuvers to quash both documentaries, testing the limits of a free press in an era of escalating nuclear tensions.
Broadway Books | 9781101903872
TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: A Christmas Novel by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
Aspiring journalist Julia Padden starts a blog as a means of seeking revenge against her grouchy, arrogant, annoyingly handsome neighbor. Julia and Cain have clashed since she moved into the apartment building, but instead of fighting fire with fire, Julia has decided to kill Cain with kindness and document her success --- or lack thereof --- for all the world to see. To her surprise, her blog is an instant success, with Julia’s followers contributing their own suggestions for breaking through Cain’s cold exterior. And little by little, these small acts of kindness start to have a major effect.
Ballantine Books | 9780553391756
October 21st
THE KILLER WHO HATED SOUP: The Killer Who Series, Book 1 by Bill A. Brier (Historical Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
The Internet? Never heard of it. Smart phones? Who you kiddin’? We’re talkin’ 1956. Energetic and eager to make his mark on what Time magazine called the next great boom town, Bucky Ontario leaves his Louisiana home and hops a bus to Defiance, Oklahoma, a town not particularly averse to murders, just the embarrassment of them. While helping his friend, Kindra, search for a ring that once belonged to her dead mother, Bucky is told: “Find the baby, find the ring.”
Black Opal Books | 9781626946897
On Sale the Week of October 23rd in Hardcover
October 24th
THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World by A. J. Baime (History)
Chosen as FDR’s fourth term Vice President for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman was the prototypical ordinary man. That is, until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR’s sudden death. During the climactic months of the Second World War, Truman had to play judge and jury, pulling America to the forefront of the global stage. THE ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT escorts readers into the situation room with Truman during this tumultuous, history-making 120 days, when the stakes were high and the challenge even higher.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544617346
ACT OF BETRAYAL: A Will Cochrane Novel by Matthew Dunn (Thriller)
Three years ago, intelligence officer Will Cochrane was brought in by a Delta Force colonel to assassinate a terrorist financier in Berlin. After the job, the commander vanished and hasn’t been heard from since. The details don’t quite add up, and one of the CIA agents who was involved has been investigating the mission. He reaches out to Will for help, but before they can connect, the CIA man is poisoned. Will is determined to uncover the truth about Berlin, even if it means putting himself in the crosshairs. Framed for multiple murders, the skilled former spy has gone deep underground to evade his enemies and the feds. But honor and loyalty to his old colleague thrust him into danger once again.
William Morrow | 9780062427229
AN AMERICAN FAMILY: A Memoir of Hope and Sacrifice by Khizr Khan (Memoir)
In fewer than 300 words, Khizr Khan electrified viewers around the world when he took the stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. And when he offered to lend Donald Trump his own much-read and dog-eared pocket Constitution, his gesture perfectly encapsulated the feelings of millions. But who was that man, standing beside his wife, extolling the promises and virtues of the U.S. Constitution? In this urgent and timeless immigrant story, we learn that Khizr Khan has been many things: a loving father, a patriot, and a fierce advocate for the rights, dignities and values enshrined in the American system.
Random House | 9780399592492
ANDREW JACKSON AND THE MIRACLE OF NEW ORLEANS: The Battle That Shaped America's Destiny by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger (History)
The War of 1812 saw America threatened on every side. Encouraged by the British, Indian tribes attacked settlers in the West, while the Royal Navy terrorized the coasts. By mid-1814, President James Madison’s generals had lost control of the war in the North, losing battles in Canada. Then British troops set the White House ablaze, and a feeling of hopelessness spread across the country. Into this dire situation stepped Major General Andrew Jackson. A native of Tennessee who had witnessed the horrors of the Revolutionary War and Indian attacks, he was glad America had finally decided to confront repeated British aggression. But he feared that President Madison’s men were overlooking the most important target of all: New Orleans.
Sentinel | 9780735213234
CHRISTMAS: A Biography by Judith Flanders (Biography/History)
Thirty years after the first recorded Christmas, the Pope was already warning that too many people were spending the day, not in worship, but in partying and eating to excess. By 1616, the playwright Ben Jonson was nostalgically remembering Christmas in the old days, certain that it had been better then. In CHRISTMAS: A Biography, bestselling author and acclaimed social historian Judith Flanders casts a sharp eye on myths, legends and history, deftly moving from the origins of the holiday in the Roman empire, through Christmas trees in central Europe, to what might be the first appearance of Santa Claus --- in Switzerland --- to draw a picture of the season as it has never been seen before.
Thomas Dunne Books | 9781250118349
DARE NOT LINGER: The Presidential Years by Nelson Mandela and Mandla Langa (Memoir)
In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first president of democratic South Africa. Five years later, he stood down. In that time, he and his government wrought the most extraordinary transformation, turning a nation riven by centuries of colonialism and apartheid into a fully functioning democracy in which all South Africa’s citizens, black and white, were equal before the law. DARE NOT LINGER is the story of Mandela’s presidency, drawing heavily on the memoir he began to write as he prepared to finish his term as president, but was unable to finish. Now the acclaimed South African writer Mandla Langa has completed the task using Mandela’s unfinished draft, detailed notes that Mandela made as events were unfolding, and a wealth of previously unseen archival material.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374134716
DYING TO LIVE: A Detective Kubu Mystery by Michael Stanley (Mystery)
A Bushman is discovered dead near the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Africa. Although the man looks old enough to have died of natural causes, the police suspect foul play, and the body is sent to Gaborone for an autopsy. Pathologist Ian MacGregor confirms the cause of death as a broken neck, but is greatly puzzled by the man’s physiology. Although he’s obviously very old, his internal organs look remarkably young. He calls in Assistant Superintendent David “Kubu” Bengu. When the Bushman’s corpse is stolen from the morgue, suddenly the case takes on a new dimension.
Minotaur Books | 9781250070906
THE FIRST DAY by Phil Harrison (Fiction)
Outside an east Belfast mission hall, pastor and family man Samuel Orr meets Anna, a young Beckett scholar. They embark on an intense, passionate affair, their connection fueled by their respective love of Christ and Beckett. When Anna falls pregnant, the affair is revealed. The repercussions are slow to emerge but inescapable, and the fallout when it finally comes is shocking, cruel and violent. Over 30 years later, their son Sam is in New York, living a steady, guarded life, his childhood and family safely abandoned. But the sins of the fathers are visited often on their children, and the past crashes into his life as violently as in his youth. He is forced to confront the fears he has kept close all these years.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328849663
THE FIRST MAJOR: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup by John Feinstein (Sports)
Coming into 2016, the Americans had lost an astounding six out of the last seven Ryder Cup matches, and tensions were running high for the showdown that took place in October 2016 in Hazeltine, Minnesota, just days after American legend Arnold Palmer had died. What resulted was one of the most raucous and heated three days in the Cup's long history. Award-winning author John Feinstein takes readers behind the scenes, providing an inside view of the dramatic stories as they unfolded.
Doubleday | 9780385541091
FRIENDS DIVIDED: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood (History)
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds, or been more different in temperament. They worked closely in the crucible of revolution, crafting the Declaration of Independence and leading, with Franklin, the diplomatic effort that brought France into the fight. But ultimately, their profound differences would lead to a fundamental crisis, in their friendship and in the nation writ large, as they became the figureheads of two entirely new forces, the first American political parties. It was a bitter breach, lasting through the presidential administrations of both men, and beyond. But late in life, something remarkable happened: these two men were nudged into reconciliation.
Penguin Press | 9780735224711
IN SHOCK: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope by Rana Awdish (Medicine/Memoir)
IN SHOCK is a riveting first-hand account from a young critical care physician, who in the passage of a moment is transfigured into a dying patient. This transposition, coincidentally timed at the end of her medical training, instantly lays bare the vast chasm between the conventional practice of medicine and the stark reality of the prostrate patient. This book allows the reader to transform alongside her, and watch what she discovers in our carefully cultivated yet often misguided standard of care. The author comes to understand the fatal flaws in her profession and in her own past actions as a physician. She also achieves, through unflinching presence, a crystalline vision of a new and better possibility.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250119216
MIND GAME by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
Scotland holds a treasure that Jane MacGuire has been hunting for years. But as she scours the highlands in search of it, she’s plagued by dreams of a girl in danger. Who is this girl, and what is she trying to tell Jane? And will Jane figure it out before it’s too late --- for her and the mysterious young woman? Things are further complicated when Seth Caleb comes back into Jane’s life. This time, Jane finds herself pulled unexpectedly into his world as she fights to save him. But Caleb isn’t the only person sweeping her up into startling developments. When Eve Duncan surprises Jane with news of her own, Jane comes face to face with stunning changes in the lives of those she loves most.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250075857
QUICK & DIRTY: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
When a slam-bang of a crime brings a beautiful new client into Stone Barrington’s office, little does he know his association with her will pull him into a far more serpentine mystery in the exclusive world of art. It’s a business where a rare find could make a career --- and a collection --- and mistakes in judgment are costly. And under its genteel and high-minded veneer lurks an assortment of grifters and malfeasants eager to cash in on the game. In the upscale world of New York City’s luxury penthouses and grand Hamptons estates, it will take a man of Stone Barrington’s careful discernment and well-honed instincts to get to the truth without ruffling the wrong feathers.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735217140
THE RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS by Oliver Sacks (Science)
Oliver Sacks, a scientist and a storyteller, is beloved by readers for the extraordinary neurological case histories in which he introduced and explored many now familiar disorders --- autism, Tourette's syndrome, face blindness, savant syndrome. He was also a memoirist who wrote with honesty and humor about the remarkable and strange encounters and experiences that shaped him. THE RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS is one of two books Sacks was working on up to his death, and it reveals his ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless project to understand what makes us human.
Knopf | 9780385352567
THE ROOSTER BAR by John Grisham (Legal Thriller)
Mark, Todd and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three know they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam. But maybe there's a way out. Maybe there’s a way to escape their crushing debt, expose the bank and the scam, and make a few bucks in the process.
Doubleday | 9780385541176
SISTERS FIRST: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush (Memoir)
Born into a political dynasty, Jenna and Barbara Bush grew up in the public eye. As small children, they watched their grandfather become president; just 12 years later they stood by their father's side when he took the same oath. They spent their college years watched over by Secret Service agents and became fodder for the tabloids, with teenage mistakes making national headlines. But the tabloids didn't tell the whole story. In SISTERS FIRST, Jenna and Barbara take readers on a revealing, thoughtful and deeply personal tour behind the scenes of their lives, as they share stories about their family, their unexpected adventures, their loves and losses, and the sisterly bond that means everything to them.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538711415
STRANGE WEATHER: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill (Thriller/Horror)
In STRANGE WEATHER, a collection of four chilling novels, Joe Hill deftly exposes the darkness that lies just beneath the surface of everyday life. A Silicon Valley adolescent finds himself threatened by "The Phoenician," a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories. A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump…and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud. On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails --- splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. And a mall security guard courageously stops a mass shooting, but under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it.
William Morrow | 9780062663115
TELL TALE: Stories by Jeffrey Archer (Fiction/Short Stories)
Nearly a decade after his last volume of short stories was published, Jeffrey Archer returns with TELL TALE, giving us fascinating insight into the people he has met, the stories he has come across, and the countries he has visited during the past 10 years. Find out what happens to the hapless young detective from Naples who travels to an Italian hillside town to find out "Who Killed the Mayor?" and the pretentious schoolboy in "A Road to Damascus," whose discovery of the origins of his father’s wealth changes his life in the most profound way. Revel in the stories of the 1930s woman who dares to challenge the men at her Ivy League University in "A Gentleman and a Scholar," while another young woman who thumbs a lift gets more than she bargained for in "A Wasted Hour."
St. Martin's Press | 9781250066923
THE USUAL SANTAS: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers foreword by Peter Lovesey (Mystery/Short Stories)
Nine mall Santas must find the imposter among them. An elderly lady seeks peace from her murderously loud neighbors at Christmastime. A young woman receives a mysterious invitation to Christmas dinner with a stranger. Sherlock Holmes' one-time nemesis, Irene Adler, finds herself in an unexpected tangle in Paris while on a routine espionage assignment. Jane Austen searches for the Dowager Duchess of Wilborough’s stolen diamonds. These and other adventures in this collection of 18 holiday stories will whisk readers away to Christmases around the globe --- from a Korean War POW camp to a Copenhagen refugee squat, from a palatial hotel in 1920s Bombay to a crumbling mansion in Havana.
Soho Crime | 9781616957759
THE WAY IT WAS: My Life with Frank Sinatra by Eliot Weisman and Jennifer Valoppi (Memoir)
Eliot Weisman worked with Frank Sinatra from 1975 up until Sinatra's death in 1998, and became one of the singer's most trusted confidantes and advisers. In THE WAY IT WAS, Weisman tells the story of the final years of the iconic entertainer from within his exclusive inner circle. The book features original photos and is filled with scintillating revelations that fans of all Sinatra stages --- from the crooner to the Duets --- will love.
Hachette Books | 9780316470087
On Sale the Week of October 23rd in Paperback
October 24th
BELLEVUE: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America’s Most Storied Hospital by David Oshinsky (Medicine/History)
Bellevue Hospital, on New York City's East Side, occupies a colorful and horrifying place in the public imagination: a den of mangled crime victims, vicious psychopaths, assorted derelicts, lunatics and exotic-disease sufferers. In its two and a half centuries of service, there was hardly an epidemic or social catastrophe --- or groundbreaking scientific advance --- that did not touch Bellevue. David Oshinsky chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and, in so doing, also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution.
Anchor | 9780307386717
THE BLACK BOOK by James Patterson and David Ellis (Thriller)
Being a cop runs in Billy Harney's family. The son of Chicago's Chief of Detectives, there's nothing Billy won't give up for the job --- including his life. Left for dead alongside his tempestuous former partner and a hard-charging assistant district attorney out for blood, Billy miraculously survives. But he remembers nothing about the events leading up to the shootout. Charged with double murder and desperate to clear his name, Billy retraces his steps to get to the bottom of what happened. When he discovers the existence of a little black book that everyone who's anyone in Chicago will stop at nothing to get their hands on, Billy suspects it contains the truth that will either set him free...or confirm his worst fears.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455542673
THE EASTERN SHORE by Ward Just (Historical Fiction)
Ned Ayres has never wanted anything but a newspaper career. His defining moment comes early, when Ned is city editor of his hometown paper. One of his beat reporters fields a tip: William Grant, the town haberdasher, married to the bank president’s daughter and the father of two children, once served six years in Joliet. The story runs, and Ned offers no resistance to his publisher’s argument that the public has a right to know. The consequences, swift and shocking, haunt him throughout a long career until eventually, as the editor of a major newspaper in post-Kennedy-era Washington, DC, Ned has reason to return to the question of privacy and its many violations.
Mariner Books | 9781328745576
FIELDS WHERE THEY LAY: A Junior Bender Mystery by Timothy Hallinan (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Junior Bender, divorced father of one and burglar extraordinaire, finds himself stuck inside the Edgerton Mall, and not just as a last-minute shopper. The murderous Russian mobster who owns the place has decided it takes a thief to catch a thief and hires Junior --- under threat --- to solve the mall’s shoplifting problem for him. But Junior’s surveillance operation doesn’t go well: as Christmas Eve approaches, two people are dead, and it’s obvious that shoplifting is the least of the mall’s problems. To prevent further deaths, possibly including his own, Junior must confront his dread of Christmas --- both present and past.
Soho Crime | 9781616958640
GUNSLINGER: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre by Jeff Pearlman (Sports/Biography)
In GUNSLINGER, Jeff Pearlman tells Brett Favre’s story for the first time, charting his unparalleled journey from a rough rural childhood and lackluster high school football career to landing the last scholarship at Southern Mississippi, to a car accident that nearly took his life, and eventually to the NFL and Green Bay, where he restored the Packers to greatness and inspired a fan base as passionate as any in the game. Yet he struggled with demons: addiction, infidelity, the loss of his father, and a fraught, painfully prolonged exit from the game he loved, a game he couldn’t bear to leave.
Mariner Books | 9781328745682
HITLER: Ascent, 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich (Biography)
Volker Ullrich's HITLER, the first in a two-volume biography, has changed the way scholars and laypeople alike understand the man who has become the personification of evil. Drawing on previously unseen papers and new scholarly research, Ullrich charts Hitler's life from his childhood through his experiences in the First World War and his subsequent rise as a far-right leader. Focusing on the personality behind the policies, Ullrich creates a vivid portrait of a man and his megalomania, political skill and horrifying worldview.
Vintage | 9781101872055
HOMEWARD BOUND: The Life of Paul Simon by Peter Ames Carlin (Biography)
The grandchild of Jewish immigrants from Hungary, Paul Simon has not only sold more than 100 million records, won 15 Grammy Awards and been installed into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame twice, but has also animated the meaning --- and flexibility --- of personal and cultural identity in a rapidly shrinking world. He has lived one of the most vibrant lives of modern times --- a story replete with tales of Carrie Fisher, Leonard Bernstein, Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Shelley Duvall, Nelson Mandela, drugs, depression, marriage, divorce and more. Peter Ames Carlin's HOMEWARD BOUND is the first major biography of one of the most influential popular artists in American history.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250145697
INDELIBLE INK: The Trials of John Peter Zenger and the Birth of America’s Free Press by Richard Kluger (History)
When Britain began colonizing the New World, strict censorship was the iron rule and any words that disparaged the government were a punishable crime. So when a small newspaper, the New-York Weekly Journal, printed scathing articles assailing the new British governor, William Cosby, as corrupt and abusive, it was the paper’s publisher, John Peter Zenger, who took the fall. Although Zenger was merely a front man for Cosby’s true adversaries, he was jailed for the better part of a year and faced a jury in a proceeding matched in importance during the colonial period only by the Salem Witch Trials.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393354850
IRON DAWN: The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle that Changed History by Richard Snow (History)
No single sea battle has had more far-reaching consequences than the one fought in the harbor at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1862. The Confederacy, with no fleet of its own, built an iron fort containing 10 heavy guns on the hull of a captured Union frigate named the Merrimack. The North got word of the project when it was already well along, and, in desperation, commissioned an eccentric inventor named John Ericsson to build the Monitor, an entirely revolutionary iron warship. Historian Richard Snow brings to vivid life the tensions of the time, explaining how wooden and ironclad ships worked, maneuvered, battled and sank.
Scribner | 9781476794198
THE MISTLETOE MURDER: And Other Stories by P. D. James (Mystery/Short Stories)
Throughout her illustrious career as the Queen of Crime, P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas. Now, for the first time, four of the best are collected here. In “The Twelve Clues of Christmas,” Adam Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is pure Agatha Christie. In “A Very Commonplace Murder,” a respectable clerk’s secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a terrible crime. “The Boxdale Inheritance” finds Dalgliesh reinvestigating a notorious murder at the insistence of his godfather --- only to uncover the darkest of family secrets. And in the title story, a bestselling crime novelist describes the crime in which she herself was involved some 50 years ago.
Vintage | 9781101973806
NOBODY’S SON: A Memoir by Mark Slouka (Memoir)
Born in Czechoslovakia, Mark Slouka’s parents survived the Nazis only to have to escape the Communist purges after the war. Smuggled out of their own country, the newlyweds joined a tide of refugees moving from Innsbruck to Sydney to New York, dragging with them a history of blood and betrayal that their son would be born into. From World War I to the present, Slouka pieces together a remarkable story of refugees and war, displacement and denial --- admitting into evidence memories, dreams, stories, the lies we inherit, and the lies we tell --- in an attempt to reach his mother, the enigmatic figure at the center of the labyrinth.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393354751
ODESSA SEA: A Dirk Pitt Novel by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler (Thriller/Adventure)
Dirk Pitt, the director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, is on the Black Sea, helping to locate a lost Ottoman shipwreck, when he responds to an urgent Mayday from a nearby freighter. But when he and his colleague Al Giordino arrive, there is nobody there --- just dead bodies and a smell of sulfur in the air. The more the two of them search for the secret of the death ship, the deeper they descend into an extraordinary series of discoveries. Meanwhile, Pitt’s two children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, are exploring a mysterious shipwreck of their own, when they are catapulted into his orbit. The three of them are used to perilous situations --- but this time, they may have found their match.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399575532
PERFECT LITTLE WORLD by Kevin Wilson (Fiction)
When Isabelle Poole meets Dr. Preston Grind, she’s fresh out of high school, pregnant with her art teacher's baby, and totally on her own. Izzy knows she can be a good mother, but without any money or relatives to help, she’s left searching. Dr. Grind, an awkwardly charming child psychologist, has spent his life studying family, even after tragedy struck his own. Now, with the help of an eccentric billionaire, he has the chance to create a “perfect little world” --- to study what would happen when 10 children are raised collectively, without knowing who their biological parents are. He calls it The Infinite Family Project, and he wants Izzy and her son to join. This attempt at a utopian ideal starts off promising, but soon the gentle equilibrium among the families disintegrates.
Ecco | 9780062450340
THE PRINCESS DIARIST by Carrie Fisher (Memoir)
When Carrie Fisher discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved --- plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Today, her fame as an author, actress and pop-culture icon is indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a (sort-of) regular teenager. With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, THE PRINCESS DIARIST is Fisher’s intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time --- and what developed behind the scenes.
Blue Rider Press | 9780399185793
TELL THE TRUTH, SHAME THE DEVIL by Melina Marchetta (Thriller)
When Bish Ortley, a suspended cop, receives word that a bus carrying his daughter has been bombed, he rushes to be by her side. A suspect has already been singled out: a 17-year-old girl who has since disappeared from the scene. Thirteen years earlier, her grandfather set off a suicide bomb in a grocery store, a bomb her mother confessed to building. Has the girl decided to follow in their footsteps? To find her, Bish must earn the trust of her friends and family, including her infamous mother, now serving a life sentence in prison. But even as he delves into the deadly bus attack that claimed five lives, the ghosts of older crimes become impossible to ignore.
Mulholland Books | 9780316349307
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