May 31, 2016

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 30th and June 6th 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 Debut Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight of MARKED FOR LIFE by Emelie Schepp; 25 readers will win a copy of the book and share their comments on it. We also are spotlighting IF YOU ONLY KNEW by Kristan Higgins, which is now available in mass market paperback.

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June 7th

BUT WHAT IF WE'RE WRONG?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman (Social Science/Popular Culture)
Though no generation believes there’s nothing left to learn, every generation unconsciously assumes that what has already been defined and accepted is (probably) pretty close to how reality will be viewed in perpetuity. And then, of course, time passes, ideas shift and opinions invert. What once seemed reasonable eventually becomes absurd, replaced by modern perspectives that feel even more irrefutable and secure --- until, of course, they don’t. BUT WHAT IF WE’RE WRONG? visualizes the contemporary world as it will appear to those who will perceive it as the distant past.
Blue Rider Press * 9780399184123

THE CAVENDON LUCK by Barbara Taylor Bradford (Historical Fiction)
It is 1938 in England, and Miles and Cecily Ingham have led the family in bringing the Cavendon estate back from the brink of disaster. But now, with the arrival of World War II, Cavendon Hall will face its biggest challenge yet. It is a challenge that will push the Inghams and Swanns to protect each other and the villagers, and reveal their true capacity for survival and rebirth.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250091277

COMMANDER IN CHIEF: FDR's Battle with Churchill, 1943 by Nigel Hamilton (History)
Nigel Hamilton's MANTLE OF COMMAND, long-listed for the National Book Award, drew on years of archival research and interviews to portray FDR in a tight close-up, as he determined Allied strategy in the crucial initial phases of World War II. COMMANDER IN CHIEF reveals the astonishing sequel --- suppressed by Winston Churchill in his memoirs --- of Roosevelt's battles with Churchill to maintain that strategy. It shows FDR in top form at a crucial time in the modern history of the West.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780544279117

A DANGEROUS AGE by Kelly Killoren Bensimon (Fiction)
Four sophisticated best friends who once took New York by storm are secretly falling apart at the seams. Lucy’s marriage to a renowned artist is slowly crumbling, with an explosive secret that threatens them both. Sarah, in the middle of auditioning for an auspicious new television show, realizes that her socialite standing is in jeopardy after countless disastrous events. Billy has finally left her former life behind to become a highbrow cuisine artist. And Lotta, a knockout downtown art dealer, spends her free time guzzling cocktails in both the grittiest and most expensive clubs around town --- but now, she’s taken it a little too far.
Gallery Books * 9781501136115

DARK HORSE: An Eddy Harkness Novel by Rory Flynn (Mystery)
When a late-summer hurricane slams into Boston, Detective Eddy Harkness and his Narco-Intel crew are thrown into the eye of a very different kind of storm. Dark Horse --- an especially pure and deadly brand of heroin --- has infiltrated the gritty Lower South End. Harkness soon finds that the drug is also at the center of an audacious land grab by the city’s corrupt new mayor and his shadowy power brokers. Meanwhile, Lower South End residents displaced by the storm use an obscure bylaw to move into Eddy’s hometown, and soon enough tensions are running high along Nagog’s tree-lined streets.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780544253247

DIE OF SHAME by Mark Billingham (Mystery)
Every Monday evening, six people gather in a smart North London house to talk about shame. But when one of the group is murdered, it quickly becomes apparent that someone else in that circle is responsible. The investigation is hampered by the strict confidentiality that binds these individuals and their therapist together, which makes things difficult for Detective Inspector Nicola Tanner. What could be shameful enough to cost someone their life? And how do you find the truth when secrets, lies and denial are second nature to all of your suspects?
Atlantic Monthly Press * 9780802125255

DISHONORABLE INTENTIONS: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller)
Stone Barrington’s latest lady friend is full of surprises, but she also has some unfinished business with a temperamental man who believes Stone is an intolerable obstacle in the way of his goals. In a cat-and-mouse game that trails from sun-drenched Bel-Air to a peaceful European estate and gorgeous Santa Fe, Stone and his friend remain just one step ahead of their opponent. But their pursuer is not a man who can stand to be thwarted. Tensions are mounting and may soon reach the boiling point.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399573910

END OF WATCH by Stephen King (Thriller)
Retired police detective Bill Hodges now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney --- the woman who delivered the blow to the head of Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, that put him on the brain injury ward. When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put their lives at risk, as well as those of Bill’s heroic young friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city.
Scribner * 9781501129742

EVERYBODY BEHAVES BADLY: The True Story Behind Hemingway's Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises by Lesley M. M. Blume (Biography)
In the summer of 1925, Ernest Hemingway and a clique of raucous companions traveled to Pamplona, Spain, for the town’s infamous running of the bulls. Then, over the next six weeks, he channeled that trip’s maelstrom of drunken brawls, sexual rivalry, midnight betrayals and midday hangovers into his groundbreaking novel, THE SUN ALSO RISES. But the full story of Hemingway’s legendary rise has remained untold until now. Lesley Blume resurrects the explosive, restless landscape of 1920s Paris and Spain, and reveals how Hemingway helped create his own legend.
Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780544276000

THE FAR EMPTY by J. Todd Scott (Thriller)
Seventeen-year-old Caleb Ross is adrift in the wake of the sudden disappearance of his mother more than a year ago, and is struggling to find his way out of the small Texas border town of Murfee. Chris Cherry is a newly minted sheriff’s deputy, a high school football hero who has reluctantly returned to his hometown. When skeletal remains are discovered in the surrounding badlands, the two are inexorably drawn together as their efforts to uncover Murfee’s darkest secrets lead them to the same terrifying suspect: Caleb’s father and Chris’ boss, the charismatic and feared Sheriff Standford “Judge” Ross.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399176340

THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN by Lisa Jewell (Psychological Suspense)
Imagine that you live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people’s houses. You’ve known your neighbors for years, and you trust them. Implicitly. You think your children are safe. But are they really? On a midsummer night, as a festive neighborhood party is taking place, preteen Pip discovers her 13-year-old sister Grace lying unconscious and bloody in a hidden corner of a lush rose garden. What really happened to her? And who is responsible?
Atria Books * 9781476792217

THE GOOD LIEUTENANT by Whitney Terrell (Fiction)
An operation led by Lieutenant Emma Fowler of the Twenty-seventh Infantry Battalion goes spectacularly wrong. Men are dead --- one, a young Iraqi, by her hand. Others were soldiers in her platoon. And the signals officer, Dixon Pulowski. Pulowski is another story entirely --- Fowler and Pulowski had been lovers since they met at Fort Riley in Kansas. From this conflagration, the novel unspools backward in time as Fowler and her platoon are guided into disaster by suspicious informants and questionable intelligence, their very mission the result of a previous snafu in which a soldier had been kidnapped by insurgents.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux * 9780374164737

GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN by Anna Noyes (Fiction/Short Stories)
Moving along the Maine Coast and beyond, the interconnected stories in GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN bring us into the sultry, mysterious inner lives of New England women and girls as they navigate the dangers and struggles of their outer worlds. Debut novelist Anna Noyes explores the ruptures and vicissitudes of growing up and growing old, and shines a light on our most uncomfortable impulses while charting the depths of our murky desires.
Grove Press * 9780802124845

GRUNT: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach (Social Science)
GRUNT tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries --- panic, exhaustion, heat, noise --- and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you’ll never see our nation’s defenders in the same way again.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393245448

HOMEGOING by Yaa Gyasi (Historical Fiction)
Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in 18th-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, Esi is imprisoned beneath her in the castle’s dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast’s booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of HOMEGOING follows Effia’s descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, while the other follows Esi and her children into America.
Knopf * 9781101947135

THE HOUSE OF SECRETS by Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg (Thriller)
Hazel Nash wakes up in a hospital and is told she's been in a car accident that killed her father and injured her brother. But she can't remember any of it, because of her own traumatic brain injury. Then a man from the FBI shows up, asking questions about her dad --- and about his connection to the corpse of a man found with an object stuffed into his chest: a priceless book that belonged to Benedict Arnold. Trying to put together the puzzle pieces of her past and present, Hazel needs to figure out who killed this man --- and how the book wound up in his chest.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455559497

I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT YOU by Terry McMillan (Fiction)
Dr. Georgia Young's wonderful life --- great friends, family and successful career --- aren't enough to keep her from feeling stuck and restless. When she decides to make some major changes in her life, including quitting her job as an optometrist and moving house, she finds herself on a wild journey that may or may not include a second chance at love. Georgia’s bravery reminds us that it’s never too late to become the person you want to be and that taking chances, with your life and your heart, are always worthwhile.
Crown * 9781101902578

THE INEQUALITY EQUALIZER: Want It, Claim It, Own It --- and Maximize Your Career Success by Jena E. Abernathy with Kelli Christiansen (Business & Economics)
Career coach and executive search consultant Jena Abernathy shares real-world success strategies for young professionals in a no-nonsense guide that will help them balance their “junkyard dogs” and “pedigrees,” strategize their careers, and gain the confidence, skills and know-how they need to get results, make winning impressions, and build long-lasting success on their way to the C-suite. Packed with real-world anecdotes and case studies, THE INEQUALITY EQUALIZER illustrates how everyday experiences can propel --- or thwart --- the career objectives of young women entering the cutthroat world of business.
Ankerwycke * 9781634253741

INK AND BONE by Lisa Unger (Psychological/Supernatural Thriller)
Visited by people whom others can't see and haunted by prophetic dreams, Finley Montgomery has never been able to control or understand the things that happen to her. When her abilities start to become too strong for her to handle, she turns to her grandmother Eloise Montgomery, a renowned psychic. Merri Gleason is a woman at the end of her tether after a 10-month-long search for her missing daughter. With almost every hope exhausted, she resorts to hiring Jones Cooper, a detective who sometimes works with Eloise. Finley and Eloise are ultimately drawn into the investigation, which proves to have much more at stake than even the fate of a missing girl.
Touchstone * 9781501101649

THE INVENTION OF RUSSIA: From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War by Arkady Ostrovsky (History)
The end of communism and breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of euphoria around the world, but Russia today is violently anti-American and dangerously nationalistic. So how did we go from the promise of those heady days to the autocratic police state of Putin’s new Russia? THE INVENTION OF RUSSIA reaches back to the darkest days of the cold war to tell the story of the fight for the soul of a nation. Arkady Ostrovsky introduces us to the propagandists, oligarchs and fixers who have set Russia’s course since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Viking * 9780399564161

LAST NIGHT, A SUPERHERO SAVED MY LIFE edited by Liesa Mignogna (Essays)
In LAST NIGHT, A SUPERHERO SAVED MY LIFE, authors share their most hilarious and most heartwrenching experiences with their chosen defender to explain why superheroes matter, what they tell us about who we are, and what they mean for our future. Contributors include New York Times bestsellers Christopher Golden, Leigh Bardugo, Brad Meltzer, Neil Gaiman, Carrie Vaughn, Jodi Picoult and Jamie Ford, as well as award-winners and mainstays like Joe R. Lansdale, Karina Cooper and Ron Currie, Jr., among many others.
Thomas Dunne Books * 9781250043924

LILY AND THE OCTOPUS by Steven Rowley (Fiction)
When you sit down with LILY AND THE OCTOPUS, you will be taken on an unforgettable ride. The magic of this novel is in the read, and we don’t want to spoil it by giving away too many details. We can tell you that this is a story about that special someone: the one you trust, the one you can’t live without. For Ted Flask, that someone special is his aging companion Lily, who happens to be a dog. LILY AND THE OCTOPUS reminds us how it feels to love fiercely, how difficult it can be to let go, and how the fight for those we love is the greatest fight of all.
Simon & Schuster * 9781501126222

THE LYNCHING: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan by Laurence Leamer (History)
Arrested, charged and convicted of a brutal race-based killing, Henry Hays, a member of Klavern 900 of the United Klans of America, was sentenced to death --- the first time in more than half a century that the state of Alabama sentenced a white man to death for killing a black man. On behalf of the victim’s grieving mother, legendary civil rights lawyer Morris Dees filed a civil suit against the members of the local Klan unit involved and the UKA, the largest Klan organization. Charging them with conspiracy, Dees put the Klan on trial, resulting in a verdict that would level a deadly blow to its organization.
William Morrow * 9780062458346

MARROW ISLAND by Alexis M. Smith (Mystery)
Twenty years ago, the May Day Quake set loose catastrophic waves along the west coast, shattering thousands of lives. At that time, Lucie Bowen’s father disappeared in an explosion at the Marrow Island oil refinery, which destroyed the island’s ecosystem. Now, Lucie's old friend, Katie, writes with strange and miraculous news. Marrow Island is no longer uninhabitable. She is part of a community, a mysterious Colony, that has conjured life again from Marrow’s soil. Lucie's journalist instincts tell her there’s more to the Colony and their charismatic leader --- a former nun with an all-consuming plan --- than its members want her to know.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780544373419

THE MAXIMUM SECURITY BOOK CLUB: Reading Literature in a Men's Prison by Mikita Brottman (Literary Criticism)
On sabbatical from teaching literature to undergraduates, and wanting to educate a different kind of student, Mikita Brottman starts a book club with a group of convicts from the Jessup Correctional Institution in Maryland. She assigns them 10 dark, challenging classics that don’t flinch from evoking the isolation of the human struggle, the pain of conflict and the cost of transgression. Although Brottman is already familiar with these works, the convicts open them up in completely new ways. Their discussions may “only” be about literature, but for the prisoners, everything is at stake.
Harper * 9780062384331

MELVILLE IN LOVE: The Secret Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby-Dick by Michael Shelden (Biography)
Herman Melville’s epic novel, MOBY-DICK, was a spectacular failure when it was published in 1851. Because he was neglected by academics for so long and made little effort to preserve his legacy, we know very little about Melville, and even less about what he called his “wicked book.” Scholars still puzzle over what drove him to invent Captain Ahab's mad pursuit of the great white whale. Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Shelden sheds light on this literary mystery to tell a story of Melville’s affair with a married woman named Sarah Morewood, whose libertine impulses encouraged and sustained his own.
Ecco * 9780062418982

MONSTERS: A Love Story by Liz Kay (Romantic Comedy)
Since her husband died eight months ago, Stacey Lane has been a certified mess --- a poet who can’t write anymore, a good mother who feels like she’s failing her kids. She’s been trying to redefine herself, to find new boundaries. Tommy DeMarco has no respect for boundaries. A surprisingly well-read A-list Hollywood star, Tommy has fallen in love with Stacey’s novel-in-verse, a feminist reimagining of FRANKENSTEIN, no less. His passion for the book, and eventually its author, will set their lives on a collision course.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9781101982471

NEVER A DULL MOMENT: 1971 -- The Year That Rock Exploded by David Hepworth (Music/History)
David Hepworth, an ardent music fan and well-regarded critic, was 21 in 1971, the same age as many of the legendary artists who arrived on the scene. Taking us on a tour of the major moments, the events and songs of this remarkable year, Hepworth shows how musicians came together to form the perfect storm of rock and roll greatness, starting a musical era that would last longer than anyone predicted. Those who joined bands to escape things that lasted found themselves in a new age, its colossal start being part of the genre's staying power.
Henry Holt and Co. * 9781627793995

NEW ENGLAND BOUND: Slavery and Colonization in Early America by Wendy Warren (History)
NEW ENGLAND BOUND reclaims the lives of so many long-forgotten enslaved Africans and Native Americans in the 17th century. Based on new evidence, Wendy Warren links the growth of the northern colonies to the Atlantic slave trade, demonstrating how New England’s economy derived its vitality from the profusion of slave-trading ships coursing through its ports. She documents how Indians were systematically sold into slavery in the West Indies and reveals how colonial families like the Winthrops were motivated not only by religious freedom but also by their slave-trading investments.
Liveright * 9780871406729

NOT DEAD ENOUGH: A Cal Claxton Oregon Mystery by Warren C. Easley (Mystery)
The first closing of the floodgates of the mammoth Dalles Dam on the Columbia River inundated the sacred falls and the Native American village at Celilo, which depended on the river’s magnificent fish. Nelson Queah --- Wasco Indian, war hero and passionate opponent of the dam --- watched helplessly as 10,000 years of tribal history and fishing tradition disappeared. That 1957 night, he vanished without a trace. Fifty years later, attorney Cal Claxton attends a commemoration of the flooding of the falls where he meets Winona Cloud, Queah’s granddaughter who has found a cache of letters at her grandmother’s home. They suggest foul play, not an accidental drowning.
Poisoned Pen Press * 9781464206139

THE SECOND GIRL by David Swinson (Mystery)
A decorated former police detective, Frank Marr retired early and now ekes a living as a private eye for a defense attorney. A long-functioning drug addict, Frank has devoted his considerable skills to hiding his usage from others. But after accidentally discovering a kidnapped teenage girl in the home of an Adams Morgan drug gang, Frank becomes a hero and is thrust into the spotlight. He reluctantly agrees to investigate the disappearance of another girl --- possibly connected to the first --- and the heightened scrutiny may bring his own secrets to light.
Mulholland Books * 9780316264174

SECURITY by Gina Wohlsdorf (Thriller)
Manderley Resort is a gleaming, new 20-story hotel on the California coast. It’s about to open its doors, and the world --- at least those with the means to afford it --- will be welcomed into a palace of opulence and unparalleled security. But someone is determined that Manderley will never open. The staff has no idea that their every move is being watched, and over the next 12 hours they will be killed off, one by one.
Algonquin Books * 9781616205621

SEX OBJECT: A Memoir by Jessica Valenti (Memoir)
Jessica Valenti has been leading the national conversation on gender and politics for over a decade. Now, in her memoir, she explores the toll that sexism takes on women’s lives, from the everyday to the existential. From subway gropings and imposter syndrome to sexual awakenings and motherhood, SEX OBJECT reveals the painful, embarrassing and sometimes illegal moments that shaped Valenti’s adolescence and young adulthood in New York City.
Dey Street Books * 9780062435088

THEY MAY NOT MEAN TO, BUT THEY DO by Cathleen Schine (Fiction)
Joy Bergman is not slipping into old age with the quiet grace that her children, Molly and Daniel, would prefer. Her marriage to their father, Aaron, has lasted through health and dementia, as well as some phenomenally lousy business decisions. The Bergman clan has always stuck together, growing as it incorporated in-laws, ex-in-laws and same-sex spouses. But families don't just grow, they grow old. Cathleen Schine's novel is an intergenerational story about searching for where you belong as your family changes with age.
Sarah Crichton Books * 9780374280130

UNTETHERED by Julie Lawson Timmer (Fiction)
Char Hawthorn is a college professor, wife and stepmother to a spirited 15-year-old daughter. But when her husband dies in a car accident, the “step” in Char’s title suddenly matters a great deal. In the eyes of the law, all rights to Allie belong to Lindy, Allie’s self-absorbed biological mother, who wants the girl to move to her home in California. While Allie begins to struggle in school and tensions mount between her and Char, Allie’s connection to young Morgan, a 10-year-old-girl she tutors, seems to keep her grounded. But then Morgan, who was adopted out of foster care, suddenly disappears, and Char is left to wonder about a possible future without Allie and what to do about Morgan.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399176272

WHAT WE BECOME by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Historical Fiction)
En route from Lisbon to Buenos Aires in 1928, Max and Mecha meet aboard a luxurious transatlantic cruise ship. A steamy affair ignites at sea and continues as the seedy decadence of Buenos Aires envelops the secret lovers. Still drawn to one another a decade later, Max and Mecha rekindle their dalliance. In the wake of a perilous mission gone awry, Mecha looks after her charming paramour until a deadly encounter with a Spanish spy forces him to flee. In 1966, Max once again runs into trouble --- and Mecha. She offers him temporary shelter from the KGB agents on his trail, but their undeniable attraction offers only a small glimmer of hope that their paths will ever cross again.
Atria Books * 9781476751986

WINTERING by Peter Geye (Fiction)
The two principal stories at play in WINTERING are bound together when the elderly, demented Harry Eide escapes his sickbed and vanishes into the forbidding, northernmost wilderness that surrounds the town of Gunflint, Minnesota --- instantly changing the Eide family, and many other lives, forever. He’d done this once before, more than 30 years earlier in 1963, fleeing a crumbling marriage and bringing along Gustav, his 18-year-old son, pitching this audacious, potentially fatal scheme as a reenactment of the ancient voyageurs’ journeys of discovery.
Knopf * 9781101946466